Okay, this is an idea I got while listening to a song so I thought I should name the fic after the song and stuff. This fic is centered on Nuriko! ^_^. The purple-haired wonder! All hail Ryuu-chan! That reminds me, the K.o.t.w.a.s. still hasn't e-mailed me about my application. -_-, I'm sad. But oh well, I'm sure I'll be hearing from them any day now. Hope you enjoy this story.
Disclaimer: I don't own Fushigi Yugi or the song "Somewhere Out There" by Our Lady Peace. (It's totally about Nuriko and Hotohori! I mean come on "I miss your purple hair; I miss the way you taste." Who are they trying to fool?)
Soundtrack: I'd say that the song for this chapter is probably "My Immortal" by Evanescence but you know, the main theme always works.
Somewhere Out There
Chapter One
Once I had this dream.
I had to be about six years old when I had it. I was drifting off to sleep and dreaming about odd things happening, toys coming to life and talking to me, ya' know weird stuff like that. Then it happened. I was suddenly sitting in a garden and a little boy was crying by himself as rain poured down all around us.
I ran up to him and put my arms around him, he was so cold because of the rain. He was wearing odd clothes and his hair was all pinned up with a sort of crown on top of it. He cried into my shoulder and I patted his back, not sure why I felt the need to comfort him but thinking that if I could, everything would be all right.
"It's okay…I'm here…" I told him in a soft soothing voice. Why was he crying by himself?
"Who…?" The boy lifted his head and stared up at me. He had big amber eyes full of tears. "Who are you?"
"My name's Ryuuen. Why are you crying?" I asked curiously.
"Because…because…mother died." The boy started to cry again. "And there's no one else left…"
"No one else?" I didn't really know what he was talking about.
"No one else who will see me…the real me…" The boy threw his arms around me again. I hugged him tightly as I felt sympathy well up for him. I was so young that I didn't really understand his plight. Then I felt sunshine on my face, which was strange because it was still raining so hard. I felt like I was fading away. The boy reached out towards me in desperation but he ended up falling on his knees.
I woke up back in my room; the sun that was coming from outside my window is what woke me up. Of course, I felt bad for having to leave the boy but then I told myself it was just a dream.
I didn't think about that dream very much after that. You could say I had forgotten it completely. But everything changed when I woke up on my sixteenth birthday.
* * *
That morning I woke up with an extra spring in my step. I was sixteen. That meant a driver's license, getting to stay out later, and a car. I was as happy as can be. I could hear my mom making breakfast downstairs as my room is right above the kitchen. Probably a special birthday breakfast like super yummy omelets with mushrooms and stuff in them. That sounded good.
I put on my favorite pair of jeans and a black Saint-Saens Orchestra t-shirt. Then I grabbed my beloved black sweatshirt and tied it around my waist. Next came my hair, which goes down to my butt and is purple. My older brother Rokou always makes fun of my hair. He says it's girly but I dunno, I never really had the heart to cut it. I quickly braided it and threw the braid over my shoulder. It was so much easier for me to just braid it because then it didn't go everywhere when I was doing things. I very rarely wore my hair down.
It was time to go wake up the little monster herself. I loved my little sister Kourin to death. We look a lot alike and we're really close. So I ran into her room and went to go pounce on her while she was still in bed.
But Kourin wasn't there.
Her bed wasn't even messed up but I knew that unlike her two brothers, Kourin was very neat and always made her bed as soon as she got up. She was probably downstairs trying to sample my birthday breakfast before me. I ran down the stairs and through the living room, bursting into the kitchen.
"Good morning all!" I sang out. The only person in the kitchen was my mother. My mother was in fact cutting up vegetables and it appeared that she was indeed making my favorite, omelets. It surprised me that Kourin wasn't there. Now where could she be?
"It's the birthday boy." My mother looked up at me and smiled brightly. "Happy birthday Ryuuen."
"Morning." I looked around; no she wasn't hiding under the table. "Where's Kourin?"
"I think she's still sleeping, she hasn't come down yet." My mother shrugged a little.
"Well she wasn't in bed when I got up there…" I frowned a little.
Ah ha, I bet she's hiding. In fact any moment now I'll go around a corner and she'll pop up.
That's when the phone rang. I looked at it and my heart began to pound suddenly. I knew right at that moment that I didn't want anyone to answer the phone, that maybe if we ignored it, whatever news was waiting for us would just go away. My mother went to the phone and I was completely frozen.
"Who could be calling this early?" She asked in a cheery sort of tone as she picked up the phone. "Hello?" There was a pause as someone asked something. "This is she…what? No…she's…I'll be right there." My mom put down the phone.
She looked up at me, she's got the same rose-colored eyes that Kourin and me have, they were starting to cloud with tears. My mom is an emotional person, kind of like me, and it's easy to set her off but I felt fear choke me and I couldn't ask her what was wrong. My mother told me.
"Kourin…" I closed my eyes; I knew I didn't want to hear this. "Kourin's in the hospital…something happened."
No. No, this can't be happening. This is some sort of weird dream and when I open my eyes, I'll be back in bed still. Kourin will come running in. Everything will be fine.
My eyes opened and my mother was still standing there. She reached her arms out toward me and hugged me as tight as she could. She began to sob but she quickly pulled away and ran to get her car keys. My dad was already on his way to work, he had to drive an hour to get there. He was an architect and was always working, though he tried to be home as often as possible. My mom was grabbing her purse.
"Go get Rokou; we're going to the hospital." My mother was trying her best to look strong and I had to admire her at that moment. The fact that she could still take charge even with the news that one of her kids was in the hospital was pretty amazing to think about.
I flew up the stairs and dashed into Rokou's room. His room was a mess, even worse then mine, and he was still sleeping. I shook him awake.
"Gah, what is it Ryuuen?" Rokou asked sleepily as he sat up. I felt a lump form in my throat again, I wasn't sure I could say it.
"Kourin's in the hospital, we're going to go see her." I finally got out. Rokou was dressed in record time, pulling on his shoes before I knew it. We almost stumbled as we went down the stairs we were going so fast. Although Rokou and I are close, he cares about Kourin a lot and is pretty over-protective. Come to think of it, so am I.
The drive to the hospital seemed like it was too long. When we finally got there, we almost knocked over a nurse running into the building. My mother ran to the desk and the nurse behind it was startled.
"Yes?" She asked as she took a look at our state of upset.
"My daughter, Chou Kourin, where is she?" My mother asked, a little winded from all of the running.
"Yes, she's in critical condition up in the emergency ward. That's two floors up, room number two-oh-six." The nurse reeled off as the clacked on her computer.
We took off towards the elevators again.
"How can she be in the emergency ward? Critical condition?" Rokou looked at my mother and me for explanation. I had none to offer.
"I didn't really wait to hear I was just so worried…" My mother's grip on her purse tightened. The elevator stopped and we got off. My heart began to pound as we reached the room.
Oh please let it be some mistake, let her be okay…please…
We opened the door and there was Kourin.
At first I couldn't tell it was her. She was covered in tubes and she had an oxygen mask over her nose and mouth. There was an IV going into her arm and she was covered in bandages that you could see blood soaking through. Her eyes were closed. The heart monitor was going steady and her breathing was so loud that it filled the whole room.
"Kourin!" I rushed to her bed. She didn't open her eyes.
"Are you the family?" A male voice asked. I looked over to see a man with a clipboard and a stethoscope around his neck. He had a pen in his pocket which he immediately took out.
"Yes, I'm Chou Kimiko, Kourin's mother." My mom rushed through immediately. "What happened to my daughter?"
"Maybe we should step outside…" The doctor took a look at my brother and me. "All of you." We followed him even though I was reluctant to leave Kourin's side. What had happened to her?
"Well?" Rokou was never a patient person and right then, I didn't really blame him.
"This is all second-hand account and we've done enough tests to figure it out." The doctor took a deep breath. "Your daughter is in critical condition and I'm afraid…under the circumstances, it doesn't look very good."
"What happened to her?" My mother pressed urgently.
"She was stabbed six times and raped." The doctor confessed. "There's very little chance of her surviving; we're doing all that we can."
"No!" I shouted at him. "That's not true!" Rokou began to punch the wall next to him. "No! She'll survive, she's strong enough!"
I ran into Kourin's room only dimly hearing my mother calling out to me. I grabbed Kourin's hand and held it.
"Come on Kourin! Wake up!" I pleaded with her. "Come on you weakling, I know you can hear me! You're such a faker! Wake up! It's me…" My voice began to soften. "Its big brother…wake up…how can you try to get hurt like this on my birthday? That was stupid…wake up, please Kourin, wake up! Open your eyes…I'll spend all my birthday money on you and you can be the first to ride in my car…Kourin!"
She didn't stir though. Her chest kept rising and falling and the heart monitor kept on its steady beeping. Rokou put a hand on my shoulder and he was gripping it painfully.
"Ryuuen…" Rokou began. "Shouting at her isn't going to help." I heard my mother come back into the room behind me, crying softly. It was then I realized that I had been crying the whole time.
"I think I should tell you two what happened." My mother kept on crying as she spoke. We turned to look at her, Rokou didn't take his hand off my shoulder and I didn't let go of Kourin's hand. "This was told to them by a young man who was also injured but is recovering…This young man, he didn't have very many friends except for Kourin. She invited him to go with her last night because she wanted him to get out more…Kourin had been seeing a young man that she hadn't told us about because she thought we wouldn't approve of him. She thought he was a good guy and that everyone just gave him a bad image.
"Kourin was wrong; he and some friends picked her up right before midnight. They went and got her friend after she asked them to. They drove out to some secluded spot in a field. They took Kourin and pinned her…her friend tried to stop them but they stabbed him and they kept kicking him whenever he tried to get up. Kourin tried to fight them…she's always been a fighter…" My mother closed her eyes, her face filled with pain. "They stabbed her. And she kept trying to fight and they stabbed her again and again. And then they all raped her."
"Fucking sons of bitches!" Rokou kicked the wall next to him violently. "I'll kill every last one of them!"
My mother kept going with her story. "The young man who was her friend was left with her as the others drove off. He had been beaten badly by this time but he picked up Kourin and carried her all the way to the nearest highway where he flagged down a car and then collapsed."
"But he's okay?" I questioned angrily, my fists were clenched and I was shaking. How was that fair that he was recovering but she wasn't? How was that fair? I turned on Kourin again. "Dammit Kourin! How could you? Don't you know anything? You knew you shouldn't have snuck out! You knew! You knew!" I slid to my knees, still clutched her hand and crying. Behind me, Rokou was still hitting the wall. My mother was sobbing.
I'm not sure how long it took. Time passed very slowly. My dad had come in at one point and was holding my mother; Rokou had finally stopped hitting the wall on my father's command and was now nursing his bloody knuckles. And I…I was still holding her hand. I couldn't let go and no one asked me to.
The doctor came back in and told us that Kourin was still bleeding, she was going to die. I sat there hoping with all my might that it wasn't true, somehow there would be some sort of miracle and Kourin would pull through. I couldn't deal with her death. Not like this, not like this. I wanted to see her grow up and do everything that she had ever dreamed of. She couldn't die. She just couldn't.
My father and my mother left the room for a little while and came back, my mother still sobbing. I wondered briefly were they had gone.
"We went to see the boy…we thanked him for bringing Kourin to the hospital…we thanked him for trying to stop it…" My mother was shaking still. "I wanted to thank him…we can stay with Kourin if you two want to go see him."
I couldn't go see him. I had to stay with Kourin. I had to. Because if I left, somehow she'd stop trying to live. I shook my head. Rokou got up.
"I'd like to go see him." I looked up to see Rokou's face looking grim. "I want to thank him too. I thank him for you Ryuuen." I nodded my head before turning back to Kourin, who still looked like she was sleeping.
Later, the doctor asked if we'd like a priest. We said no. It's like the hospital was already giving up on her. She was going to live. I could tell as I stayed by her side, occasionally smoothing her purple hair that was so much like mine.
It was late at night, Rokou had come back and was sitting in his chair with his head in his hands, my mother and father had tried to get the two of us to eat something but neither of us was hungry. My mother and father didn't bother eating either.
Then the most terrible noise I had ever heard began.
It was one flat note and I didn't realize what it was until it dawned on me that the heart monitor was no longer beeping. Doctors and nurses rushed in, they pulled me away from Kourin. They tried to revive her but nothing was working. She wasn't breathing anymore, she still looked as though she had just gone to sleep and all we needed to do was wake her up but nothing was working.
Images of Kourin, laughing and smiling at me flashed into my head. And then for some odd reason, a little boy who was crying by himself. I sank to my knees as the images went flashing by.
"Ryuuen!" Kourin popped out from behind a corner. "I got you! Happy birthday!"
"No one else who will see me…the real me…" The boy threw his arms around me.
"Ryuuen!" Kourin was smiling brightly at me.
"The real me…" Tears were falling all around us and down his cheeks.
Kourin smiling at me.
The boy falling as he reached out towards me in desperation.
Suddenly it all swirled together and a fell backwards, darkness rushing in to fill the void.
The darkness didn't last very long. In fact, I thought that I had only fainted when I felt something warm rush over me, soothing me, taking away all my pain for just a single moment. Then I was somewhere that was a little chilly, I slowly opened my eyes.
Only to find a pair of beautiful amber ones staring straight back at me.
* * *
I started crying! I really did! I was so sad and I felt so bad for having to kill off Kourin like that. I have no qualms with her believe me. I mean, I know it was necessary to the plot but it felt so bad to have to kill her. I wanted to give Nuriko a hug. I hope you guys will tune in for the next chapter. Read and review.