All For the Love of You
chapter 11
by Manille
The pain was unbearable. I didn’t know where the pain came from—it just felt like my whole body was buried under the ground, or under a tall building, or whatever, but it pained me until I couldn’t even feel my heart beating.
Slowly, yet painfully, the agony faded away, but I still couldn’t open my eyes. Muffled voices entered my ear but failed to be manipulated by my head.
The voices…they were so far away, yet so familiar. As my head cleared, I realized that one of the voices was someone’s whom I knew well—very well, like my entire life. The other was completely strange to me. I never heard it before. But as I heard more of it, it sounded familiar…strange and familiar at the same time….
"She’s innocent. Don’t hurt her—it’s me whom you want."
Something cold and sharp rested on my neck. A knife, I thought. It was moving back and forth across my skin, and add only a slight pressure to that and I’m dead.
"Please…." The voice was now pleading.
It was Toosan!
Excruciatingly, I lifted my eyelids off my eyes. The first thing I saw was orange sky, mottled by occasional purple, gray and black clouds. It was an ugly sight—and I suddenly knew that I wasn’t in our city any longer.
I turned my head towards Toosan. Kaasan was right behind him. Toosan’s eyes were wide, angry, but with a slight hint of helplessness in them.
But where was I?
I stirred, making the place where I was lying down stir as well. "Ah, your lovely daughter is awake," a voice, that of a female, boomed cruelly. Then I saw the face—a human face, a very lovely woman's. But there was something in her green eyes that scared me. "I wonder how she will scream if I continue this."
Again, the knife in my throat.
My head cleared, despite a headache. I remembered the bittersweet smell that must have made me black out—then that long road, like I was in another dimension….
"What do you want with her?! She did nothing to you—she’s an innocent child, for goodness’ sake!"
"Yes. Your innocent child."
"This is between you and me. Don’t make her pay for what I had done to you!"
What happened?
What had Toosan done to her? This…this human, whose face was very beautiful, but very menacing to look at, and her eyes were fierce, which looked like it could kill someone with one look….
And her fingers were on the knife. She wanted to kill me.
Or was she using me as bait…?
"Please, I’m the one pleading you now…please release our daughter!"
It was Kaasan. She sounded like crying. I felt my heart break, hearing my parents plead for me.
And if anything happens to them, it would be my fault for having myself kidnapped.
"Come on, Keiko. Why can't you just face it?" the woman told her sweetly, yet smiling diabolically. "You, with your huge belly and all, and your handsome Reikai tantei of a husband just can't save your lovely daughter here."
How dare her tell Kaasan that! I tried to stand up, but the knife was held closer. "Ah, look. Misako’s awake!"
"MISAKO!!!" Kaasan shouted, her voice choked back with tears. I saw Toosan hold her to keep her from running towards me.
"Please…give her back, Ashiga!"
Ashiga? So she was this nasty woman. I believe that looks can be deceiving, but never as strongly as when Ashiga looked at me, a hand on the back of my neck, her sharp nails digging into my skin. "T-Toosan," I moaned. Almost no sound escaped my throat. It got stuck in the sharp sensation inside.
"Misako-chan, don’t move! I’ll save you!"
"How do you think you’ll save your daughter, Yusuke?" Ashiga asks maniacally. "You can’t even manipulate your rei gan anymore!"
Toosan’s hands balled into fists. His body shook with resentment—I had never seen him this mad before. "I ask you again…what do you want?"
The knife drew even closer. I couldn’t back out further. The point broke the skin on my throat open. I winced and gritted my teeth together, trying not to feel the pain, but it was there, tearing me slowly, painfully.
"MISAKO!!!"
"ASHIGA!!! The hell with you!!!"
Ashiga laughed—a loud, menacing, evil laugh. "Right, Yusuke. Of course I’ll give her back…."
I sighed, feeling relief wash over me. But Toosan’s face didn’t waver. His eyes were still fierce, as if he were a lion ready to pound. He kept them on Ashiga.
"But I believe in eye for an eye, too."
Toosan expected the statement. "Of course you do, you bitch. Now what the hell is it?"
Ashiga snickered. "Genkai’s spirit wave, your youki, and every ounce of energy from the great Urameshi Yusuke, what else?"
Silence.
"Why him?!" Kaasan screamed. Tears were continually falling down her cheeks. "There are a lot of others who have powers more than Yusuke’s!"
"Of course there are, Keiko," Ashiga said sweetly, trying to match the desperation ringing in Kaasan’s voice. "But you have to know…this one’s a different case, and I’m afraid your husband wouldn’t be able to explain it to you."
Kaasan looked at Toosan questioningly, angrily, determinedly—but Toosan seemed to ignore her. He pried himself off Kaasan’s grip and stepped forward. "Okay, Ashiga. Give my daughter back and take me."
"Yusuke, what the damn is this?!" Kaasan growled.
I felt myself being thrown in the air, sideward. My body felt limp, but it suddenly moved when I found myself hurling across space. I screamed at the top of my lungs. I was flying on air—and didn’t have wings. The gravity pulled me down, down towards Toosan.
"Toosan!!!" I screamed.
"Misako!!!"
I landed on Toosan’s arms, but the sudden impact made the two of us fall on the ground. My head bumped on some rocks under the ground, and suddenly, my vision swam around me.
"Misako! Misako!" It was Toosan’s frantic cry. He shook my body. Then he cradled me in his arms, lightly slapping my cheeks. "Are you all right?"
"Misako!" Kaasan was really crying her eyes out. She held Toosan tightly. "Yusuke, let’s get out of this place before she gets you!"
"We’re in another dimension, Keiko. No one can get out of a dimension except someone like Kuwabara—at least a few years back…Misako? Misako!"
I seemed to slip away from Toosan’s arms. Why was he leaving me? But then, I heard his blare. And Kaasan’s. And Ashiga's cold-blooded laugh.
"YUSUKE!!!"
I opened my eyes. Kaasan was looking at where I was. I followed her gaze.
Toosan was inside a red translucent ball, floating away from us. His eyes were now wide with fright—yes, he was frightened.
But I was more frightened.
A cold hand seemed to clutch at my heart when I saw Toosan slipping away, his arms trying to reach out for Kaasan and me.
"YUSUKE!!!"
"KEIKO!!!" Toosan hollered back. "KEIKO…I LOVE YOU!!!"
"…YUSUKE!!!"
Kaasan staggered up. I heard Ashiga’s cruel laugh again. "Ha-ha! Keiko, see this---your sweetheart is mine!"
When a gale swept by, she and her long mane of green hair suddenly disappeared…with the ball Toosan was in. I tried to stand up, but as I straightened up, pain shot through my head like a bullet.
It was then when I saw Kaasan fall down as she ran towards my now-gone father.
I remembered the baby.
"No," I gasped. Suddenly, our surroundings faded, and in its place was a deserted lot. Yes, it was the lot behind the wall I blasted, I realized.
I ran towards Kaasan, not minding the pain in my head, on my throat. She was wincing painfully, holding her belly, grinding her teeth together, trying to bear the excruciating pain….
I felt my heart beat fast. I swallowed my fear away. "O-kaasan, what’s wrong?"
Then I saw it.
And I knew that my worst fears had come true.
Kaasan was wearing a skirt down to her knee.
And on her legs were trails of bright red blood coming from….
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