Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Orenji no Taiyou ❯ Closure ( Chapter 11 )

Minamino Shiori sat in a pure white waiting room. The tiled floors had specks of color, but the walls didn't. The ceiling was pure white and only broke for the big double doors leading into different rooms and wings.

 

The only color was the black and blue waiting room chairs, provided for the comfort of the families of the resident loved ones.

 

A TV in the corner provided a perverse hum, interrupting the respectful silence for those waiting for the same reason as the navy haired woman in the corner. Though turned for subtitles, it was evident that there was an electrical buzz in the room. It was something you couldn't see, or really hear. You just knew it was there.

 

A woman came in sobbing in her husbands arms. The doctor that accompanied them looked around the room before resting his eyes on the navy haired woman in the corner. She was alone.

”Minamino Shiori,” he said, plainly. He held little emotion, calling her back to retrieve her dead son's belongings. He had held the same enthusiasm when he had informed the sobbing woman of her mother's fall to Leukemia.

 

Shiori stood, holding her black pocketbook tightly in both hands daintily in front of her. The warm weather had permitted her being out in a long skirt and a short sleeve blouse.

 

A rose key-charm hung off of her pocketbook.

 

The doctor led her back, asking of her husband and why he had not been to work at the hospital for several weeks.

“We were on vacation, when we got the call. He did not return with me.” The man looked at her a little startled, knowing her husband's mannerisms. He was not one to let a woman travel alone, let alone his own wife.

”And young Suuichi?” the doctor looked ahead, through his thick-rimmed glasses.

Shiori took a moment before answering. “He…is not happy. He is staying with his father.” She was not his birth mother and thus had no legal rights over the boy; however upon learning of his step-brother's actions, he had refused to leave Shiori's side, wanting nothing to do with his father.

 

The navy-haired woman had told the young Suuichi over the phone that he could not come with her as she returned home. Shiori had not told her step-son the real reason though.

That she was as much at fault as her husband, so being with one was not much better then the other.

At least she had remorse.

 

--

It was their second day in Disney Tokyo when Shiori got the call. A predominant doctor at the local hospital, the one her husband worked at, called her husband's cell phone. Shiori had picked up her husband's phone by mistake that day, little Suuichi had his own. Her husband had taken her own. They were separating that day. Suuichi wanted to ride rides, her husband wanted to look into maybe moving there, and she had wanted to go to the shopping district.

The hospital's number flashed on the blue LCD screen in her hand. Thinking it was about her husband's resignation, Shiori picked up fully expecting to explain his reasons for wanting to move to the capital. She had not, however, been expecting what she heard.

 

The doctor addressed her formally before explaining what had happened. That Uremessi boy's recount of when he found Shuuichi at their home, a knife lodged in his chest by his own doing. How the boy quickly called the hospital, and how they had tried to help Shuuichi.

They had tried to help Shuuichi. The man was fully prepared to feed Shuuichi life blood to replenish the supply he had pushed out; however Shuuichi had been screaming and thrashing. The red headed teenager had been yelling for something to stop. He had been thrashing, kicking, punching, not allowing anyone near him, and pushing the blood out faster.

 

Shiori couldn't believe what she was hearing. Immediately she called her husband in tears, sobbing over the phone in the middle of Tokyo. Instead of condolences, however, all Shiori got was a `good riddance'.

 

She had kicked her only son out, and now, he was gone for good. Her husband had literally thrown him out the back door. And over what? A skirt and a dirty magazine?

Was it worth her only son's life?

Shiori flew home that night without a word while Suuichi was still in the park riding rollercoaster's and while her husband was still meeting with potential landlords. She had taken all of her belongings with her and left the boy's things for them, nicely neat and laid out for the duration of their stay.

She wouldn't be going back to Tokyo.

 

Taking the train from the airport and walking home from the nearest station, she met a young raven-haired boy at the door.

Yuusuke had been taking care of her house for her. He had cleaned the blood from Shuuichi's bedroom wall and had attempted to get the stain out of the carpet, but it wouldn't come.

Upon seeing him, Shiori hugged him tightly, disregarding society's formal rules. The taller boy hugged her and let her cry for a while before taking her to Shuuichi's room.

“He had cleaned it and changed cloths before I found him…He had a new haircut,” Yuusuke said off-handedly as she kneeled down in her boy's place of death.

 

On top of caring for the house, Yuusuke had also gone through Shuuichi's cell phone and called his friends. Shiori knew it must have been hard for the other. It had been hard enough for her to call her husband, somebody who hated Shuuichi, and tell him. She couldn't image calling people who loved Shuuichi.

 

Yuusuke told her the different reactions. Kuwabara had been in the hospital with a broken ankle when Shuuichi went and he ended up trying to beat Yuusuke up for his lies. Kieko and Botan had started crying. Genkai was silent before going to light an incense stick and pray. Hiei was no where to be found.

 

Some man named Yuukou had called and assumed Yuusuke was Shuuichi when he answered. He went off, asking why Shuuichi had tried to call so many times in five minutes, before apologizing for not answering. He had been on a date with his boyfriend, someone who he had met dancing in Tokyo or something like that. Yuusuke wasn't entirely sure. When Yuusuke finally got the man's attention and told him, Yuukou was silent for a moment before declaring he'd be at the funeral and hanging up very, very silently.

 

Then Yuusuke had called Shiori, which was what he had been dreading most.

 

--

 

Shiori looked down at the face of her son. The white sheet had been pulled away for a moment. It took all her will power to not cry, but she pulled it off. Shuuichi had always told her he hated to see her cry, so she wouldn't. After a few minutes she put the sheet back over him and the doctor gave him her possessions, including his dad's pocket knife.

 

Shiori turned and left; a bag of personal items on her arm and her pocketbook in her hand. She left the hospital. Plans for Shuuichi's body had already been made.

 

Shiori walked home, enjoying the cool breeze through the increasingly warmer days. It was nice that the snow had melted.

 

--

 

A week later there was a funeral at her house. Everyone attended, including a man named Yuukou and every girl and boy in Shuuichi's class. Shiori had chosen not to tell Shuuichi's secrets to those who didn't already know, thinking it what her son would have wanted.

 

Three days later the boy was buried. She chose burial instead of the customary cremation because he had always been such a beautiful boy. It was pointless to let anything other then nature ruin that.

 

Three weeks later the divorce papers came through.

 

--

 

Yuusuke was on his way to his late friend's house. He had known how close he was to Shiori; after all he had stolen the forlorn hope for her. The raven haired boy thought his friend would not want his mother to be alone, so he had taken to spending a lot of time with her.

 

On his walk, two things kept coming to mind. The first was Kieko's confession. She had come to him the night of the funeral and confessed the real reason for their break up. Yuusuke couldn't help but wonder, if she had been truthful, would Shuuichi be lying dead?

The other thing that kept invading Yuusuke's thoughts was perhaps the most peculiar thing that could happen in such a situation. None of the ferry girls had been sent to retrieve Shuuichi's soul. When Koenma was confronted, the demi-god had said that he had never had any indication that the soul left the body. However, it was certain that the human body was dead.

 

He couldn't help but wonder if Shuuichi had pulled a Youko.