I Cry On No One's Shoulder
by Arisa

Chapter Four: Pains in my Heart

~Fallen angels always have to fall again~

Shuuichi’s finger glazed over the sharp edge of the knife, testing its sharpness. He wiped the red sticky blood off of his finger on his blue pants. Then, his family and life accomplishments flashed before his eyes. His school projects, the weeding of his father and stepmother, climbing the cherry blossom tree in the back yard with his stepbrother…

He quickly found a blue ball-pointed pen and a yellow legal pad by the phone on the counter.

~Hate, pain, hunger, anger, leave with the beating of white wings~

With that, Shuuichi laid down the pen by the pad of paper. With his hand trembling, he picked the knife up and stared at it for a couple of seconds.

Then, he heard the front door close and Shuuichi panicked, ‘What if they find me like this!? What will they do?!’

"Shuuichi! We are home!" His father called.

~Come, fallen angel, fly again~

Shuuichi took a deep breath of air as his brother walked in the kitchen, "Hi Shuuichi! Uh… What’s wrong?" Kurama asked as he heard soft crying. "Is that a knife!?" Kurama asked alarmed.

"What is going on?" Shiori asked as she entered the scene that was unfolding.

"Shuuichi, calm down, let us help you," Kurama said as calmly as he could.

"What are you doing Shuuichi!?" Hatanaka cried.

"I am beyond help," Shuuichi stated quietly, and punctured his skin on his chest with the knife.

It was as if the world was going in slow motion through Kurama's eyes. The knife slowly entered Shuuichi’s body as blood started to seep out. Then it pierced through muscle tissue, and protruded through the heart.

~Oh, angel, come fly in the pure light of the sun and moon~

"Shuuichi!" Shiori ran forward and caught her son as he fell backwards.

Shuuichi started coughing up blood, "I love you…"

Shiori started crying as Kurama ran forward, speechless…

"Shuuichi?" Kurama's voice registered in Shuuichi's mind.

Shuuichi blinked a couple of times as the world came into focus and he heard a doctor's voice in the background, "His condition has been deteriorating slowly. I wish to keep him under close surveillance for the next couple of days. It was the pain he was going though that blacked him out." (A/N: Come on, do you think I would kill him off right there? Nah, I want to play with him some more ^_^’’’)

‘It was… A dream?’ He wondered as his eyelids slid closed again, ‘I kind of wish it was not…’

‘I am getting tired of Koenma telling me what to do and what not to do…’ Kurama complained in his mind as he monitored his stepbrother's condition in his mind. ‘Should I? It cant hurt…’ Kurama looked at the flowers that his mother had brought in for his stepbrother. He concentrated on them as he posed some of their life energy to his brother who was just barely hanging on by a weakened thread. "Shuuichi, please try to stay awake…" Kurama asked.

‘Shuuichi? He is here? Where is he?’ Shuuichi could not move his head, for it was in a neck brace, "Why does my neck hurt so much?" He asked out loud, well, as loud as he could have.

The heads of the adults in the room whipped around at the sound of Shuuichi's voice. "You are up, Shuuichi!!!" Shiori said joyously as she walked over to her sons bed side, "You blacked out on the stairs, and then you fell down them…" ‘I must be strong for him…’ She thought as she wiped her eyes with her sleeve.

"You gave us quite a scare," Hatanaka admitted, joining his wife’s side and looking down at his son with tears threatening to burst through his carefully constructed floodgates.

Kurama, come out side, Hiei's voice commanded in Kurama's head.

‘I wonder what this could be for…’ Kurama wondered as he stood up from his chair on the opposite wall of his brother's bed, and walked over to his parents. "How are you feeling?" Kurama asked Shuuichi.

"Painful, my lungs are burning and my neck is killing me."

"Is there anything we can do?" Shiori asked.

"I don’t believe there is anything you can do. I will be giving him some pain medicine in a few minutes," a nurse answered for Shuuichi as she read the doctors note that was on the blue counter.

After a few minutes, Kurama left the room on the excuse that he wanted to get some fresh air.

"Yes, Hiei?" Kurama asked out loud when he was outside.

Hiei stepped out of the shadows with a large white envelope in his left hand.

"Let me guess, this is from Koenma?" Kurama asked.

"Hn." Hiei tossed the envelope to Kurama and then left.

Kurama’s eyes glanced at the envelope, reading ‘Open in Makai for safety reasons.’ He then took a deep breath, knowing what the papers held; he did not even have to look at the first line to guess.

"You are a pretty good rock skipper," a voice said behind Kurama.

"Thanks father, I have had a lot of practice of the last few months."

"It reminds me what I used to do before the school bus came. My friends and I used to walk a few feet from the bus stop, and skip stones. Some times we had tournaments between ourselves, and the winner got a dollar or the other's spare change," Hatanaka laughed.

Kurama smiled. "Sounded like fun. Did you ever win any?"

"Actually, out of all of them, I think I won three to five. I really wasn't good at skipping stones then, and I believe I am still like that today."

Kurama found a smooth round stone and handed it to his stepfather, "Do you want to try?"

"I guess it can do no harm…" Hatanaka shrugged and took the stone. Then, with it resting in his grasp, he flung it across the water, "1, 2, 3… 5. Five skips, not bad. If you can beat that, I will give you five dollars."

"Okay then," Kurama said as he looked at the pebbles that surrounded the man made pond, and chose a round tan colored stone, "Here goes nothing…" And threw the stone across the water.

"1, 2, 3, 4… 7?!" Hatanaka commented, astounded.

Kurama laughed. "Some of my friends taught me to skip stones a different way. Do you want me to teach you?"

"No thanks, I am worried sick about your brother. Maybe some other day?"

"Sure, be glad too."

"How much longer do I have to live?" Shuuichi asked a nurse that was switching his IV bags.

The nurse's eyes grew wide; she had never, in all of her career, been asked that question from a young teenager, "I am sorry, but I do not know. The doctor would."

Shuuichi took a deep breath and closed his eyes, for the pain was almost intolerable.

Kurama sighed and leaned agents the trunk of a mighty tree. Earlier that day, he had told his mother and father that he would be leaving for the next half of the day, to get his mind off things. So, he went to Makai where he could find sanctuaries in certain parts of the land.

He turned his head to glance at the rest of papers that looked like scans of many rulebooks Koenma was forced to fallow. Each page contained information on what steps were to be followed if a demon interrupted another person’s death, which happened rarely.

He then closed his eyes and started reflecting on the certain events that made his life roller coaster more nauseating. Sadness filled his heart and mind, as he felt calming, flowing energy course through his body…

"So, Youko Kurama is back." Yomi muttered.