Living beyond life (Kurama x OC)

Part 1

Kurama traces small circles over his mother's pale and clammy palm as she lies motionless in the hospital bed. The sound of the heart monitor seems to magnify and echo around in his brain. "Minamino-san." someone clears their throat behind him. He turns around to see the doctor motioning him to follow him.

Kurama follows his doctor out to the hallway where he retrieves himself a coffee. "Can I get you anything?" he asks politely.

"No, thank you." Kurama replies, feeling anxious.

"Would you like us to sit down somewhere?" the doctor tries next to which the young man refuses.

"No, please tell me doctor... Is my mother's condition improving? What are her chances?" he urges, wanting to get straight to the point.

Kurama looks at the man before him sternly, just about staring the slightly shorter figure down. The man pushes his glasses back up his nose as they start to slide down from the slippery perspiration gathering on his face.

"I'm very sorry young man, but there is little we can do for her right now. She does not react well to our treatment I'm afraid. All we can do is make her comfortable and hope that she has the strength left to pull herself out of this. Perhaps it would be best to prepare yourself for the worst." the doctor sympathetically replies to Kurama's urgent questions.

The doctor puts what is supposed to be a comforting hand on the teenager's shoulder. "Once again, I'm truly sorry. I wish we could do more." he states before leaving the redhead to himself in the busy hall of the city's hospital, surrounded by people, but never feeling this alone before. Never has he felt this crushed.

It was only a week ago when his mother suddenly collapsed in the garden, though it feels like it was months ago. Time never went by so slowly, since the moment he saw her face pale and sink to her knees from the other side of the kitchen window. And never before has he felt more powerless. Despite all his knowledge and strength, there is nothing he seems to be able to do.

There is no telling how soon, but too soon either way, he will have to part from the woman whom he intruded his demonic self upon. The woman who unknowingly raised him like her own and gave him all the love she could give. Even at that earlier time when he looked down upon her so cruelly, she loved him unconditionally either way. How could he ever repay her for all she did for him?

A harsh chill clawing up his spine breaks him free from his melancholy thoughts. The chill is caused by a presence on which he subconsciously tunes into whenever they are near. It is frightening and roots him to the ground every time. It makes his heart race uncomfortably and makes his pupils dilate while his hands grow clammy. And looking up, he indeed finds himself watching his worst enemy; Death.

Death doesn't come in the form of a horribly scary cloaked skeleton with a scythe though; the picture that induces fear in any mortal man. Death comes in a form more wicked; a pretty girl. With long loose braided stark white hair, bright turquoise eyes that look like a sea at a tropical beach and dressed in the whitest of kimono's, she looks perfectly innocent. Though despite the way she appears, Kurama despised her from the moment he laid eyes on her.

She was there, when they brought his mother in. He glared at her one moment before begging her with his eyes not to take away his mother, before going back to glaring when receiving no reaction. She just stood silently in the corner of the room, her eyes on his mother the whole time, waiting like a vulture for their prey to succumb.

She never did spare him a glance. She must have known he could see her there, but she chose to ignore him either way and has done so ever since. When his mother finally stabilized, she made a point of it by walking straight through him as she left. He wished he could hurt her at that moment.

It was a stupid thought and unlike him, he knows this within the reasonable part of his mind, but that part was being overridden at the time. Because of the stress at the thought of losing his mother, he doesn't feel like himself anymore. He feels like lashing out. When she's out of sight he manages to push the worst feelings and thoughts away, his feelings for her simmering down to a mild animosity, scorn and a touch of fear.

Though every time she appears to collect another soul, he is close to losing himself. Despite her disinterest at his mother at the moment, she is to him the embodiment that keeps reminding him how close his mother is to leaving this world and how powerless he is to prevent that from happening. When it comes to this...this manifestation of Death is more powerful than him and he truly hates the feeling.

His eyes widen further and a gasp escapes him when he sees her back disappear around the corner and into the corridor of the intensive care, where his mother is being kept.

He wastes no time in rushing after her, cursing himself for standing idle for so long. He has not a clue what he will do when they cross paths should she dare take his mother's soul, but he is hardly thinking at all right now, let alone making plans.

He follows her into his mother's room where she is being kept with a handful of other patients. He ignores the nurses who are silently chatting with each other at the desk and finds himself following Death's footsteps.

His chest tightens as they close in on his mother's bed where she lies sleeping peacefully. He can hear his heartbeat resonating in his ears as pressure builds within him.

His hand reaches out subconsciously, wanting to stop the girl in her tracks before she comes within two meters of the woman who he holds dear. That is when she suddenly stops in her tracks and turns her head just enough to catch him in an icy grip, effectively freezing him. He hadn't thought her acknowledgement would effect him so.

"Please." she starts in a breathy whisper, catching Kurama off guard, as the sound seems to lift some of the fog mugging his brain. "Let me do my job peacefully. Can you not see she is suffering?" she reasons, turning away from him once again.

Kurama follows her gaze towards the elderly woman lying just beyond his mother. Her breathing is labored and her face scrunched up in pain as she gazes weakly towards them both. In her eyes shines a hope, one of redemption being close by. The sight makes Kurama back off, letting his hand fall by his side as he takes a shaky step back.

As he watches Death continue her path, he retreats further to stand by his mother. As she clasps lightly onto the hand of the elderly lady, Kurama finds himself grasping onto his mother's.

The elderly lady smiles, relief clearly written on her face. The girl reaches out a hand to lay it on the woman's head in a seemingly soothing way, trailing it down to her cheek and looking down on the woman with a reassuring smile. "Everything is alright now." she whispers, making the woman smile more.

"T-thank you. Oh, t-thank you." she breathes out in her final words before letting her eyes fall closed as if drifting off in a peaceful sleep. It is only when the lady's monitors go haywire that Kurama dares to blink, as the realization sets in of what he just witnessed.

It was strangely beautiful, that moment when the lady felt she could let go of everything and trusted her soul to be taken care of by the girl besides her bed. She must have been waiting for that release for a while now and he realizes now, if he had meddled with Death, the lady had to have waited unnecessarily long. The woman would have suffered longer because of him.

He looks away, feeling ashamed as the girl passes him, cradling the soul of the elderly lady within her arms as if it were a child. She holds an accusing glare in her eyes. She has every right to condemn him should he have kept her from relieving one of long lasting pain.

He doesn't see her glare lighten as she lets her eyes flit over his mother before returning to him. With a sigh, she leaves him to his thoughts. Passing right through the nurses and doctors hurrying towards the empty shell of the elderly lady before she disappears from sight.

This was the first part of an ongoing yu yu hakusho story. Please let me know if you like it.

If you enjoy reading Kurama love stories, I suggest taking a look at my other story as well.