All For the Love of You
chapter 13
by Manille
A young man, about my age. He was wearing a green uniform, his black hair was slicked back, and he got this strenuous look on his face.
On the background was a girl, also about my age, holding an unconscious blue-haired girl. She had short, brown hair, her uniform was light blue with a yellow ribbon, and her face was filled with horror. People—they looked like zombies—surrounded the two.
She screamed.
The boy’s eyes suddenly brightened until it becomes all yellow-white. Light appears on his fist, his energy, his rei ki.
A flash. Brighter than anything I’d ever seen.
Then it was the boy lying facedown on the
ground, dead to the world.
"NO!!!"
Panting, sweat drops popping out of my forehead, I looked around me.
It was only a dream.
I looked at my watch. Four-forty. The sky was pitch-black. Make it four-forty in the morning. Damn. I had only been sleeping for, say fifteen minutes and I already had a bad dream.
"You’re awake."
I groaned, falling back on the grass and closing my eyes.
"I gave you only ten minutes to rest, Misako-chan."
Damn this training, I thought. It had been three days already. Three stupid, tiring days of jumping high, punching, kicking and using my rei gan. My energy was sapped from my whole being. Three days, and barely an hour’s sleep. For heaven’s sake, I was still growing!
"Come on, Misako. We have to continue this."
Shuichi-san’s voice was stern, unfeeling. He also hadn’t had a good night’s sleep for three days. Boy, I’d sure be glad when we save Toosan and this is over.
Toosan, I thought. Yes, I’m doing this for him. The thought of him, of his laughing, kind face, of his jokes and antics, of him and Kaasan, made me stand up and resume my training.
I wondered how Saikaku was doing. Hiei-san was training him on how to use the sword and all that stuff. Sure hope it wouldn’t be bloody. I silently prayed.
I threw a glance at Shuichi-san. Hn, he was making me use my rei gan over and over again. And I knew that it would be the first thing he would tell me.
"Okay, Misako. See that huge cliff? I want you to blast it."
I raised my eyes towards the tall Reikai cliff towering above the thickness of the forest. "You mean the whole of the cliff?"
"The best you can," Shuichi-san said.
I rolled my eyes and aimed at the cliff. "Hn. You’re making me suffer with this yet you couldn’t even do it," I muttered quietly.
"What did you say?"
"I was repeating what you had told me," I said. " ‘Concentrate on my fist first….’ "
I wondered if Shuichi-san had the same training as Toosan. Koenma-san had told me that Shuichi-san used plants in manipulating his ki, so I questioned myself how Shuichi-san knew about the rei gan techniques.
Anyway, I shouted "REI GAAAN!!!" at the top of my lungs as I released it. The ball of energy on my index finger took off and collided with the cliff.
A big crater was created on the side of the cliff. I’d say that the crater was about fifty meters in diameter. Hmm, not bad, compared to the one-meter crater on that wall back in Ningenkai….
Toosan had said that it "…takes time to create a rei gan as big as that." Like a matter of three days? Shuichi-san, probably Shuichi-sensei now, sure was demanding about this.
"Good work, Misako," he said to me now. "That’s your best so far."
"You think?"
"I know."
"Is that enough to kill that bitch?"
Shuichi-san leaned back when I said the word. He muttered something under his breath, like "this daughter of Yusuke is so much like him" more or less. "Eheh…more than enough," he said aloud, smiling.
"Cool!" I sat down on the grass. "So can I go back to sleep? I probably woke up Enma-sama because of that sound."
"No. We’re going now."
Shuichi-san and I looked up at the sound of the voice. Koenma led the group, followed by Saikaku, Kazuma-san, and always at the last, Hiei-san.
"Are you ready?" Koenma asked calmly.
I felt my heart pound behind my chest. This was the real test—to go there and fight Ashiga.
"Yes," I said, nodding once.
Saikaku’s clothes were torn, and wounds were obvious on his arms and face. I sucked in my breath, looking at him, my heart breaking. He was worse-looking than I was.
He walked beside me. "You feeling fine?"
"Not really," I told him honestly. I put a hand over my chest. "I feel kind of…nervous. And I haven’t had a decent sleep for days."
"Me neither," Saikaku told me. "Hiei-san was so fast that I couldn’t keep up with him. He’s a great sword-fighter. I thought I was going to die!"
I threw a glance at Hiei-san. I thought he was looking at us curiously, trying to hear what we were saying, but he looked away.
"So how are you?"
"Sleepy, but couldn’t sleep. I probably became insomniac. And…I feel kinda edgy too."
I smiled pitifully. I took his hand and entwined my fingers with his.
Shuichi-san took my shoulder and led me towards the group.
Before long, we were transported back to the Ningenkai. Koenma made some kind of an invisible dome around us, and in another second, we were in the Ningenkai.
It was a desert. I didn’t recognize the place. But it sure was hot. It was probably noontime there. I reminded myself to set my watch.
Koenma eyed each of us, as if to tell us that we were going. I wanted to ask aloud, "How the hell are we going to find Ashiga in this place?!" but something prevented me. Nah, Koenma was probably the only one who could help us find her.
"Misako?"
I turned around to Saikaku. "Misako," he finally said. "There’s…something I’ve been willing to give you since when we were in the Reikai."
I looked at him questioningly. "Give?"
Saikaku produced a small velvet bag and handed it to me. I began to peer in, but Saikaku prevented me from doing so. "No, Misako. I want you to open that when this is over."
I cocked my eyebrows, feeling what was inside the pouch. There was a piece of paper, plus a stone…maybe a gemstone. A piece of jewelry?
I smiled at Saikaku as I put the pouch in my jean pocket. "Thank you…whatever it is."
"Yeah. It was nothing."
We continued walking across the desert sand. The sun was beating down on me very badly. Saikaku walked beside me, blocking the sun from me.
He was too kind.
We didn’t say a word for minutes.
My dream bean to haunt me. The boy…he looked familiar, but in dreams, while we dream them, the people seem real, but when we wake up, they seem vague. And the girl…she looked familiar too….
Toosan and Kaasan….
Yes, the boy and the girl were they.
"Misako?"
I turned to Saikaku. "What?" I managed to say despite my dry throat. Every ounce of water in my body was beginning to evaporate as I wiped beads of sweat from my forehead.
Suddenly, unexpectedly, he took my hands and squeezed them firmly. He looked at me dead straight in the eye, his icy blue eyes, and he made me grow even hotter. I stared back at him, my mouth slightly agape.
"Misako, I…."
He couldn’t seem to say it. I nodded, urging him to continue.
"I…I love you."
I heaved my chest, not expecting to hear a sudden statement from that like Saikaku. I knew he loved me, and I loved him as well—very much—but it was all unexpected….
"I…" I started to say from the bottom of my heart. "I—"
"DOWN!!!"
A sudden whoosh of ki enveloped our group. Saikaku gathered me in his arms and pulled me down. I shut my eyes and clutched at the hot sand, as if it would give me any help.
I felt the surroundings…differ. I suddenly knew that we were in a different dimension.
Ashiga.
I looked up.
There she was, green hair and all, with tight black clothes that seemed like her second skin. Her red lips were curved upwards as she looked down on us, as if we were her slaves who were bowing down on her. Her eyes—those green, fierce eyes, even fiercer than Shuichi-san’s—were trained on…me.
"Bitch," I muttered.
"That is Ashiga?" Saikaku, who was still keeping me on the ground, asked, stupefied.
"That’s Ashiga, the damned bitch who kidnapped my father!" I shrieked, pulling myself off Saikaku’s grasp. I pointed at her, energy surging through my body.
Yes, come on. The rei gan was working.
"Ashiga, I’ll make you pay for everything you did to my family!!!"
I heard Ashiga’s high-pitched laugh of a witch. "You’re as stupid as your mother, Urameshi Misako!!!"
Another laugh.
I glared at her. Bitch. I cursed her mentally.
Yes. The power was coursing its way to my finger.
Yes, come on.
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