Summary: That's when I realized something. When I first met Ran, I assumed she would be a problem. I assumed she would ruin the peaceful life I found myself enjoying. In a way it was true. She did ruin that quiet life by bringing so much noise into the new one. I couldn't imagine settling for the peaceful quiet ever again. My mother showed me kindness and protected me not knowing who I really was. Ran chose to be by my side despite it. Kurama and OC, starts before the series, slow burn, very slow, Now Edited

Disclaimer: I don't own anything except for my OCs.

Title: The Brave Heart

'You're gonna be happy,' said life, 'but first I'll make you strong.'

Prologue: There are Monsters under Your Bed

Ran's POV

I guess when you're a child it's very easy to make a friend. You run around ask someone if they want to play, and just like that, you're best friends for the rest of the day. You often forget about friends like that. Rarely kindergarten or playground friends stick. Still, it's nice. As a kid, you like to play with other kids and everything seems too easy. No one is bothered by your clothes or how much money you have as long as you like to help them build a sandcastle or play tag. I once heard if friendship survives for more than six-year it will last forever. I hope it's true.

I was five when I first met Yusuke and Keiko. I met them in a way that I only later realize actually suited us very much. I was wearing my new shirt and my mom wouldn't let me go and play until I had promised her not to get it dirty.

I decided to avoid the sand and stuck to the swings. My mom promised she would buy me an ice cream later so I was really doing my best. As a five-year-old kid ice cream used to be a good deal for me as it would be for any five-year-old child. Apparently, fate had something else for me in mind that day.

As I was getting off the swing I heard a girl scream and right after that, I got hit with mud. In the next moment, I looked up only to find a boy with black hair on the ground pointing at me and laughing like a maniac while a little brown-haired ran up to him to hit him over the head while she was yelling at him the whole time. Now naturally as a kid, it is really hard to control your emotions. (Also at that moment the only thought on my mind was that I wouldn't get my ice cream because of him) Only later I found out that the mud also got on my face which was why he was laughing so hard.

Either way, there was a boy who was laughing and his hands were dirty. Common logic did its best and before he knew it I went at him pushing him into the ground hard. I wasn't a violent child, at least I couldn't remember later if I was often angry with other kids and beat them or bite them, but at that moment, I was very much upset with the boy who was making fun of me and caused me to lose my ice cream.

I started to wrestle with him there naturally getting even dirtier in the process. I thought I heard the brunette scream in a kid like high pitched voice.

I wasn't absolutely sure what happened afterward, but since later all three of us were eating ice cream on the bench with my mom, I guess it wasn't so bad. As it turned out Yusuke didn't throw the mug. He pushed Keiko a bit hard into the ground, and she threw the mug a little too far and hit me. Either way, it was the start of a beautiful friendship or something like that.

'Your name is weird,' said Yusuke as we were licking our ice creams and kicking our legs under the bench. I showed him my tongue, 'You're weird!' With Yusuke, it was always about childish things like that, but I guess girls really do grow faster than boys.

Ever since that day we always stopped at the playground on our way home. It was exactly in the middle between our house and my kindergarten. Keiko's parents' dinner was down the street and Yusuke could go anywhere he wanted to most of the time. I liked my new friends. I supposed that between Keiko's sweetness and Yusuke's rudeness I was the golden middle. I also liked being around them. I could tell that Yusuke could bring the fun out of Keiko, and she could turn out to be quite the prankster. It was hilarious how he could push just the right button to make you explode and want to push sand from the sandbox into his mouth while he begged for mercy. Some kids are fun like that. At first, there were others as well. Kids that played with us. You could always see us on the swings or at the sandbox jumping and screaming and playing tag. We were wild like that. A lot of kids wanted to play with us because we were so carefree we made it all seem so fun like you could have fun no matter what you were doing, and we could. Yusuke could make any game into a challenge and Kami could Keiko be competitive.

My mom would always shout at us to go home already while both Keiko and Yusuke and I begged her for a few more minutes. I kept on begging her to let me go to the same kindergarten as Keiko and Yusuke, but she always just promised next year, next year.

I was six when I noticed that kids started to change. We used to have a group of ten or more kids that would play with us. However, it felt like the group was getting smaller each time we played.

I asked one boy about it once, for the love of Kami, I can't remember his name now, but I remembered how sad he looked when he said, 'Mommy doesn't want me to play Yusuke.'

I didn't understand it. For me, Yusuke was the funniest boy I knew. He could make you laugh so hard tears were falling out of your eyes and your tummy hurt so much you couldn't breathe. I didn't know why someone wouldn't want Yusuke to play with their children. I wanted to know, but I was too afraid that if I asked my mom wouldn't want me to play with him either. Still, I did ask Keiko about it.

The little girl handed me some chalk when we were drawing waiting for Yusuke, who wasn't there yet one day.

'I know. Yumi's mom told me not to play with him too,' she told me looking very sad, 'I asked mommy about it, and she asked me if I like playing with Yusuke. I told her that he's my best friend so she said that it doesn't matter what others say. As long as I want to be friends with him, I should,' she said proudly, and I had to admit I liked the idea. When Yusuke came he made fun of us for being lame because we were only drawing which made us chase him until we got him to the ground again and made him apologize.

'So not fair! We need more boys in our group!' shouted Yusuke upset when he apologized for calling us lame. Keiko and I just laugh at him. Neither of us told him about what we knew. It was like a secret pact just between us girls.

I wasn't sure where I first saw Ken. He was probably around often, but until we were six and only the three of us again, I couldn't really remember him all that much. However, I was sure I saw him when Keiko pushed me into his sandcastle in the sandbox.

He looked up at us and called out, 'Look what you did!'

I remember thinking he didn't sound angry or annoyed just surprised.

But I couldn't really remember if I apologize or anything, but in a few days, we came earlier with my mom to the playground. Keiko and Yusuke weren't there yet though. There were plenty of other kids, but some were the ones that didn't play with Yusuke's because their parents told them not to. Maybe that was why I chose to go to that boy and not them if they didn't want to play with one of my best friends, I didn't want to play with them either.

'Can I help you build it?' I asked him as I came close to him stopping right before I would end up in the sand.

He looked up at me, and I thought he had the nicest shade of brown eyes. It wasn't something I thought often about people and their eyes, but I really did think that about his eyes. 'If you promise not to fall on this one.'

I giggled feeling a bit embarrassed but agreed. By the time Yusuke and Keiko showed up, we had a solid looking castle if I remembered correctly.

Yusuke eyed Ken suspiciously at first, and both Keiko and I were half expecting him to say something mean, when he asked, 'You build that?'

Ken looked at the castle before he looked back at Yusuke, 'Yes?'

Yusuke showed him a thumb up, 'Nice. We should make it bigger though. Like one big castle-like Arthur and the round table or a big town castle.'

For the rest of the day, we spend building what turned out to be quite a big castle complex considering we were only a group of six years old. I guess the happiest one about a boy in our little group was Yusuke although Ken seemed to be less loud than him. It was nice though to have another person. It was always the more the merrier when it came to kids.

We didn't know something was wrong. How could we? We were children after all. We lived in a bubble of our own worlds and didn't understand anything that someone didn't already explain to us.

Sometimes Yusuke would complain that Ken never wanted to play tag with us and rarely ran. He would make fun of him. He wasn't being mean, or maybe he was, but whenever Yusuke's got mean, he always regretted it just as quickly as he said the things he did. It wasn't until he got upset about something and pushed Ken causing him to fall down.

'Oi! Ken don't be a girl you need to stand your ground or you will end up like a girl!' said Yusuke as he gave him a hand to stand up.

'What's wrong with girls?!' snapped Keiko until she suddenly froze. It was then that I noticed that Ken's nose was bleeding.

'Yusuke what did you do?' I shouted at the black-haired boy accusingly. He looked scared, 'I'm sorry, I didn't mean it. I really didn't mean to.'

Ken brushed the blood a bit before he looked at it. He didn't seem alarmed. He didn't seem bothered. He looked like it was the most normal thing ever.

'Can you get my mom? I feel sick again.'

Leukemia

Since Ken's mom took him home it was up to my mom to explain the word to us. We were still kids so we didn't get it really. When Ken showed up in a couple of days we asked him about a billion questions about it. Kids can be insensitive like that. He didn't mind though. He told us everything he could and knew. Afterward, we ended up playing hide and seek. We were kids.

I hated summer because summer meant that I had to fly to see my dad or as I should have called him when we were in public, Mr. Jones. When I was a kid I didn't mind. It's amazing how much you don't get when you're a kid. People can tell you or teach you something, and you completely believe it as if it was normal for every family and for everyone. I knew the routine. The whole year except the summer I was in Japan with my mom, Yusuke, Keiko, and Ken, while during the summer I had to go to the US to live with my dad. I could call him dad when we were in the house, but I couldn't call him that when we were outside. I would play with Matilda and John, who always wore a suit. When I asked Matilda about it she explained that John was my bodyguard. I didn't know why I needed a one, but everyone always kept saying that I was safe if I just didn't call my dad 'dad' in public. I was okay with that because dad always bought me tons of new things, played with me, and let me eat as many French fries and pizza as I wanted.

It was later that I realized that it wasn't normal that no one could know who was your dad or that you had a man in black suit follow you when you went to the park with your nanny. I didn't think it was wrong, and since I thought it was like everyone lived I wasn't sad about it until I saw a newspaper once. My dad had a picture in it. I was eight so I had no idea what passing a bill, Washington senator or other words in the newspaper meant especially in English, but I understood that one sentence. Mike Jones, single, childless.

When I came back home it was just in time for Ken's birthday. We all came to his house, ate cake, played around, and then watched a horror movie while claiming we were only going to watch a Disney story I brought from the States. At one point I felt Yusuke leaned closer to me and whisper, 'Ne, Ran, don't spoil Ken's birthday. Be sad about it tomorrow.'

I was surprised since I didn't know I was sad, but I tried harder that day to look like I was having a good time. The next day I told Yusuke what happened. I didn't know why didn't I tell Keiko or Ken, but their parents always looked so happy together. No matter how much medicine did Ken have to take before he could go play with us or how many much Keiko's parents had work in the dinner, they always seemed happy.

So I told Yusuke. He didn't have happy parents like they did. He only lived with his mom, like me, and his mom more or less was never around. She didn't bother him. She didn't make cookies or dinners when we came over. She just was there and sometimes not even that…

When I told him, he kept on looking at me for a long time before he told me to go get my bike, and we pedaled to some houses three streets from his house. He stopped in front of a huge nice looking house with a dog barking at us from the front yard.

'Whose house is this?' I asked wondering if the family that surely lived there was happy.

'My father's and his family,' said Yusuke so quietly I thought I just imagined it. I looked at him for a moment before I looked back at the house.

'I always thought your dad died.'

He shook his head and went into a little bit more relaxed position on his bike, 'Nah, he lives here. He used to come when I was younger on Christmas or my birthday and sometimes if they called him to school, but not anymore.'

I nodded and looked back at the house frowning now. It wasn't a nice house anymore. Now, when I looked at it, I could see the old paint on the fence, and some missing pieces of the wall on the side of the house, 'He sounds like a baka.'

'He is,' Yusuke chuckled. I looked at him and then at the house again with a smirk on my face, 'Wanna race back home?'

He smirked as well. Sometimes, it was the easiest to be around Yusuke, 'Sure, if you're ready to lose.'

I looked around until I found the perfect rock already knowing what would I do with it, 'One second.'

His eyes widened, and he rose his hand as if trying to stop me, 'No, Ran, don't!'

Blinking I stopped with the rock in my hands ready to throw it at the not lovely at all house, 'Why not?'

He sighed, 'He once told me that I was getting in trouble just to get him to see me.'

I lowered my hand, 'Do you?'

'I used to,' he admitted and lowered his head a bit looking at the ground, 'Now, I don't care,' he shrugged his shoulder looking away, 'If he doesn't want to see me, I don't want to either.'

I nodded, both of us not believing him all that much, and threw the rock back down, he shook his head, 'I can't believe you would throw a rock at his house. I thought Keiko was the crazier one.'

I shot him a look trying to play offended he didn't trust me enough to seek revenge if someone caused him harm, 'You're my best friend, and Keiko would throw a mountain of rocks.'

We raced back home. I lost, but it was a close on (shut up, Yusuke!). I told Ken and Keiko later about my dad. It wasn't until much later that I found out that Ken and Keiko knew about Yusuke's father as well. Yusuke came to talk to him one day, and it sort of came up, but maybe Yusuke just needed to talk to someone. Keiko and he were walking from school one day when he stopped them and asked Yusuke how he was. He told him to fuck off which earned him a lecture from Keiko until he admitted who the guy was. It was about a year later when I was with Keiko waiting for Yusuke in front of the Arcade when Keiko suddenly came up to some man on the street and stepped on his foot. We had to run after that, but I didn't think I ever saw Yusuke so grateful or proud about Keiko. It was also the first time I realized that although he cared for Ken and I, he cared for Keiko a little bit differently.

Life is strange beyond anything anyone could imagine. It was unpredictable, and you never could guess what will happen next.

I was ten and came to live with my dad again for the summer. It was warm, so I spent most of the time outside with Matilda. We spent a lot of time by the pool or in the city. Life was still great, and I was still a child. I loved everything about that summer until it happened.

It was a moment really. A moment in time that changed everything. Thinking about it later I realize there was no other way around it, it had to happen one way or another. Much later my Master told me, it was my fate, and I couldn't outrun or ignore it. It just had to happen, but I would prefer it didn't happen like that.

I was sitting on the bench enjoying a bit of a wind on a hot day while Matilda was buying us ice cream. The day was very warm, and I wanted nothing more than to jump into a nice cool pool back home, but for now ice cream would do.

I heard something move in the tree right above me. It caused me to open my eyes and look up at it. I didn't know if I was expecting a cat or bird, but what I saw made scream so loud random people ran up to me like I was being kidnapped.

Matilda put her hands around her, 'What is it? Ninita, what is it? Ran?'

I couldn't stop screaming and crying. I couldn't unsee it. I didn't know what it was, but it was red and terrifying. By that time Yusuke, Ken, Keiko, and I had watched enough horrors about creatures of the night, monsters, and other things. Still, the first thing that came out of my mouth when I looked up at Matilda was, 'Yokai.'

She didn't understand Japanese, and it took me a while to calm down. A monster, a yokai, a demon, or evil spirit. Whatever it was, it was the scariest thing I ever saw, and it had a red glow over it. I sobbed all the way home.

'Alright, Ran, it's alright,' said my dad as he put me to bed brushing my hair, 'My baby girl, it's all okay. Nothing will hurt, you.'

He pressed his forehead against mine. That summer I was angry with him because I thought he didn't love me since he was keeping me a secret, but when he pressed our foreheads together, I could almost feel it. His love. That even if he couldn't show it always, he cared. I didn't look like him very much. Just the eyes, blue like the ocean, the rest was all mom and her family, but my eyes came from him.

'I'm here. I will always be here. I will always love you and protect you. No matter what,' he assured me as he slowly pulled away from my forehead.

I sobbed some more, 'You can't promise that.'

He smiled at me. Matilda said I had his smile if it was true I was very fortunate because it was a very nice smile.

'Of course, I can. I'm your dad, and I will never break the promise, Ran. I will always love you and be there for you. I'll always be here,' he pointed his index finger against my chest, where my heart was.

'You know how hearts have two parts?'

I nodded, 'Yeah, they taught us that in school.'

'Well, one part is from me and one part is from your mom. So you always have me by your side, and even if I'm not right there with you, you can always call me, Ran,' he pressed our foreheads together one more time, 'I promise I will fly to you, okay?'

I chuckled a bit and nodded against his forehead.

He smiled at me kindly and leaned away, 'I'll keep the light on for tonight, alright?'

I nodded at him. He brushed away my tears after that. I waited until he left the room before I went lower to down to the bed. I didn't know if I would have been able to go to sleep, but dad made me feel better. He did make me feel safe, and it must have helped because before I knew it, I opened my eyes once again feeling sort of sleepy and tired until my eyes caught it again.

Red like blood glow around a yokai.

His hands gripped my shoulders and pushed me against the bed. Its touch was cold as ice, and it made me want to throw up as I watched the way it opened its large mouth. I was frozen in shock just by looking at it.

It was the most disgusting thing I ever saw.

I finally managed to break free from the ice-cold grip of my fear and screamed as loud as I could.

I knew it wasn't a dream. I just knew it as I felt its hands on me and its mouth and breathe so close to my face. I wanted to puke.

It was real, and I couldn't move or do anything but scream and stare. My whole body went still as I was looking into its eyes the red glow around him terrified still screaming. It didn't seem to care, maybe it even enjoyed it, I couldn't or didn't think about any of that until later. At that moment, all I did was screamed hoping someone would hear me or something would happen.

'Ran!' I heard. Me and that thing both turned to the door. I didn't hear my dad open them, but I could see by the terror in his eyes that he could see the creature as well.

I tried to get away again, but the yokai gripped my shoulder so hard it hurt.

My dad ran toward him and before I knew it the creature was off of me. I sat up looking at it as it was standing in front of my dad. It was smaller than him, but neither was moving. The only light in the room was from my lamp on nightstand next to my bed that dad left turned on and the red glow coming from the yokai.

I was breathing so hard the noises of it sounded so loud I thought the neighbors across the street heard them as well.

I blinked when they still didn't move and sat a bit higher, 'D-daddy?' I called barely louder than a whisper.

Neither of them still moved or let out a single word. Why weren't they moving? Why wasn't my dad saying anything?

I slowly stood up my breathing calming down a bit to the point I started to hear other sounds. It was like gaps but painful. Once I was standing in my full height on the bed, my eyes widened in horror as I saw why weren't they moving.

My dad was left standing in front of the yokai letting out those pained sounds with one of the thing's hand at his chest…no, not at, but between like he ran it through which was only further confirmed as I saw the blood running down that thing's hand.

He still didn't move, but for a moment his eyes moved back to mine, 'R-run!'

'DAD!' I cried out with utter desperation.

For me, that was the moment my childhood ended. Until then, all the disappointments, or things we saw on the TV and things we learned were different than we thought were just specks of dust compared to that moment. The moment, I watched how a yokai killed my father. That was the moment my childhood truly ended. It ended with the realization that the monsters under the beds that our parents swore were just made up images of our imaginations were in fact deadly real.

Kurama's POV

'How about some apple juice, Shuichi?' asked me Minamino Shiori as we were sitting on the bench in the park enjoying a sunny day like many days before and many days afterward.

I looked up at her and shook my head, 'No, thank you.'

She smiled at me a bit and sighed but didn't press the matter. We were in the park for a while now, and I understood what she was hoping for. She hoped that I would go play with the kids today at least for a while. It was a usual drill now. She would wake up, then she would make breakfast, she would wake me up, we would eat, we would get dress, and we would visit the park. We didn't have much to do since this body just turned four and I had to wait another month before she could put me to the kindergarten. I wasn't very sure what did that mean exactly. I heard how my doctor assured my mother that many kids don't play with others until they start kindergarten so my mother was looking very much forward for me to start there.

I was living in the human world for almost six years now first as a fetus hidden in Shiori's womb and now as her only son, and I had to admit that it was a very boring place. I was fully aware of the sacrifices or precautions I would have to make and take when I came to this world, and ten years seemed like a laughable time at the time. However, what I didn't know was that humans especially human kids had a different concept of time than yokai. Very different. As a four-year-old there was very little my human mother let me do which I found incredibly annoying as I used to be an adult and was older than even her. She was a very decent and nice woman, and I understood that she was probably worried about my behavior, but it was hard to push away my past even if to keep my cover.

'Can I go play now?' I asked. I finally got used to the childish voice, I now had and was starting to talk some more. It was quite a shock to hear my own thoughts in my old voice and now use a voice so high pinches and small. It was another annoying thing about this place.

My mother nodded looking very excited about the idea. Anything to lower her suspicion. I never spent much time playing or more like I didn't enjoy playing with other kids. I was simply bored, and I could only pretend for so long. It was degrading, and if anyone from my previous life caught wind of what I was doing, I would surely die from humiliation if such death was possible for my kind.

At the end of the day, we just returned home like any other day, and Shiori asked me as usual, 'Were the kids mean, Shuichi?'

I shook my head and replied calmly, 'No, mommy.' The word still hard to say at times as it added to my irritation.

'Didn't you like them?' she asked concerned and hopeful all the same as she usually was about my trying to connect with other children my age.

I shrugged my shoulders. Something I picked up from her whenever she got lost in the questions she wasn't sure how to answer without offending someone or making someone sad.

She sighed, but smiled anyway and kissed my forehead, 'I love you no matter what, alright? You don't have to play with kids you don't want to, but you should try. You might be very surprised by how great some people are.'

Naturally, I knew she was right. In my previous life knew a variety of amazing people and yokai, but I doubted I would find another one in a pile of four-year-olds.

'I'll try tomorrow,' I lied and smiled at her, and she nodded with an always patient smile before she leaned down and kissed my nose, 'I love you, my boy.'

I smiled at her some more, 'I love you too, mommy.' It was a lie of course, but it was all part of the trick, the illusion. I had to lie to her as I had to lie to everyone. By my calculations, it would only take six maybe seven more years before I could return to my yokai self and leave her.

When she put me to bed, she would always sing softly. Oddly not Japanese songs, but American ones, I had to wonder if this was because of my human father. Shiori rarely spoke about him, and as much as she tried to hide it I caught her once or twice with wet eyes or a sad look on her face knowing she was thinking about him. I didn't know this feeling. My human father passed when I was still an infant with very poor senses. I only remembered that after a little while since I was finally born he just wasn't around anymore. The people and companions I had in my yokai life had passed a very long time ago. I had no close association for the last hundred years so I didn't really didn't know such grief. The last person, the one and only human who I supposed I formed something close to a friendship or more…well, she had been dead for over a century.

A month passed and the kindergarten changed nothing of my yokai habits although it changed quite a lot about my learning. As boring as it was they taught me a variety of things about the life in the human world that mother didn't mention before and therefore I didn't ask about them. One of the teachers, Tenshi Sensei, would always patiently explain to me any question I asked. She apparently liked me very much as she gave me a book for Christmas about plants. I would have been suspicious, but she explained that she noticed how much time I spent in our little garden at the back. Yes, this was true. Just as in our own garden behind our house, in the little garden in the kindergarten, I was slowly using my powers to grow some plants that might come useful to me in the future. Since I had to completely cut myself out of my yokai self and all my belongings I left behind many plants that were essential to my life and survival.

I managed to finish the book by the time I had to go to bed, and I asked my mom for a book about plants for Christmas as well. She looked surprised, but she promised to get me one. Since I still had about seven years in this world I might as well learn something about it and spent some time.

My mom was getting more and more worried about it. I could see it in her face as we walked pass the playgrounds and other places. She wanted me to make friends, but I still wasn't interested.

'Don't you want to play for a little bit?' asked Shiori as we were passing another playground.

'Yusuke! You jerk, just wait until I catch you!' I heard some little girl shout, and I chuckled a bit but shook my head, and we continued to walk.

Although it bothered her, she never pushed me. I wasn't very sure why, but since I wasn't very used to humans they were still a bit of a mystery to me. Whenever my mother wasn't home, I would turn on the TV. A lot of the things the people, reporters, talked about were bad. I knew mankind was corrupted, but I never would have thought it would have been that bad. Because tunnels to Makai were rare, there were very few yokai around, yet somehow humans managed to kill more humans than any yokai ever had. Humanity was something truly strange.

It was clear that humans were capable of terrible things, murder, rape, violence, and war. Pretty much anything in the name of whatever they chose to love, war, power, money, religion, or just for the sake of violence. I couldn't understand why they were called humans when they were just like us basically. Violent little monsters in their center.

With time and years, the human world became more interesting as I was slowly allowed to do more and more. As a growing boy, I was getting a little bit more independence from Shiori and the teachers. It was liberating. Also, the books I got to read were far more interesting now than before. I very much enjoyed biology in this world, but I was still counting the time I had left in this world. My powers were returning very slowly. I knew that after such a close near-death experience, I would never get my past strength fully, but with time I was sure I would have been more than a capable opponent again. Battles never interested me though. The only thing that every truly brought me much satisfaction was a good robbery. I still had about two more years before I would be able to steal something again.

The odd thing about life is that you never fully know what's coming. You can be a master strategist and yet somehow life manages to make a fool out of you.

It was a nice Saturday and Shiori and I was walking down the streets to buy everything I needed for a new school year. I could see how much she enjoyed shopping for my school necessities. The classes were very easy so there was no problem to have good grades. I could see the pride in her eyes for being an honor student every year.

It was a moment when I felt something. It wasn't much at first just a small shaking underneath my feet.

Perhaps I had become too comfortable in my new human life because when the earthquake fully hit I was shocked as the rest of the people on the street. We were just standing in front of a large glass window to a shop. It was a moment, and in my previous form it wouldn't have been a problem, but at the moment the result was far different. In a moment the window broke, and I was covered fully by Shiori's body as it felt down at us.

'Mother!' I shouted without thinking.

It was over before it started, but the window was completely gone only pieces of glass were shattered all around us on the ground. My mother was holding me tight in her embrace protecting me even though the earthquake had stopped.

'Mother,' I said again and tried to push her away to look at her as she wasn't answering. I felt the worry grew inside me, and I needed to see if she was alright. I was truly for the first time in a very long time afraid. Even more, I was afraid about someone else's well being, not my own, about the wellbeing of some human woman.

When she finally did push away to look at me the first thing she did was brushed my cheek and checked my body, 'Shuichi, are you okay? Tell me did you got hurt?!' she demanded while brushing my cheek and chest and arm while looking me up and down to make sure.

I shook my head completely stunned and confused. What did this mean? Why was she…

'Your arm!' I said looking at her arm which had a torn sleeve and was bleeding badly. She paid little mind to as she kept on checking me.

'Mother, I'm alright, but your arm,' I said very carefully putting my hand on her wrist.

She shook her head, 'I'll be okay, I'm just worried about you. Are you sure you're alright?'

I nodded again still confused by what was happening before she pulled me closer to herself. I heard her sobs and sensed as her chest flinched a bit as she started to cry, 'Oh Kami, I was so worried you would get hurt.'

I stood there letting her hug me for a moment before I hugged her back. I didn't understand what had just happened. Shiori protected me. Out of complete kindness and love she just… save my life. When she leaned away she smiled at me weakly and kissed the tip of my nose. She loved me.

On the way to the hospital, I couldn't stop looking at her as she was completely brave and obviously hurt because she was protecting me. She saved my life because she loved me. I was her son, it could have meant nothing to her. I was no real use to her now, I only caused her worries with my asocial behavior, and yet she loved me and that was all she needed to save my life.

'Mother,' I said as the doctor was pulling of sharp pieces of glass from her arms.

She bit her lip to hold back a cry and tried to smile, 'It's all right, Shuichi. It hurts, but it will make mommy better.'

I walked up to her from the place the doctor let me sit, 'Can I take you a hand?'

She chuckled a bit, 'Of course. You'll help me with the pain, right?'

As I took her hand, I felt a little bit of power returning to me. It wasn't much to do anything radical but used it to heal her a bit as well. It didn't do much, but I could tell that when the doctor pulled out another piece it hurt her way less than before.

'I think you're giving me good energy, Shuichi,' she laughed a bit, and I smiled at her. Humans could be incredibly violent and cruel, but they could also be incredibly loving and caring. At that moment holding my mother's hand, I silently vowed to her and myself that I would stay by her side in the human world for as long as she wanted me to. Perhaps this was what made humanity so amazing. Finding one pure human in a pile of corrupted ones.

'Mother,' I said softly, and she looked at me again.

'I love you,' I said, and she blinked. Perhaps she noticed it too because this time was the first time since I learned the phrase that it didn't feel like a lie.

Her smile warmed my heart a bit, 'I love you too, Shuichi.'

A.N: 06.07.2020 This chapter was edited and proof-read a bit. I hope it is a bit easier to read now.