Yuri, Astral, Dark, and Shing were once again in the room, but this time, all of Yuma's friends joined them. Cathy, Kotori, and Anna were all horrified, and the boys were trying not to cry (aside from Shark, of course).
"How did this happen?" Shark asked calmly even though inside, he was mourning.
Yuri started to explain. He didn't leave out a single detail, even when Cathy started wailing in despair and Shing started crying. They were only lucky that both Akari and Haru were out for the morning. When he was done, Shark nodded.
"So, this is because of her?" Kotori asked, pointing to Shing while she comforted Cat. She herself tried to be strong.
"I didn't want to do it!" Shing wailed into her hands. "H-he did it him-himself...!"
Kotori didn't blame her, but it still didn't quell the flame of anger that rose in her chest. Her anger was directed toward Shing, who allowed herself to become cursed in the first place, and toward Yuma, who decided to do this without telling anyone. Why would he do such a thing? Still, what was done was done. There wasn't anything anyone could do about it, and pointing blame would only make things worse.
"We need to tell his family members," Shark said despite the protests of Shing. "Then we gotta call the funeral home for the preparation." He pointed to Yuri. "Take care of everyone here while I call his sister and the funeral home. You look the most cool-headed." With that, he turned back and went down to the living room to wait.
Everyone sat in silence aside from a few sniffles. Shing looked around at all of Yuma's friends. How was she supposed to get along with them? More than likely, they blamed her for everything that happened up until this point. Was there any point to even trying to befriend them? She remembered Yuma's last wish. He wanted her to make friends, but that was easier said than done, especially with her mentality that no one would even want to be her friend.
Something shiny caught her eye. The Emperor's Key was lying on the ground, exactly where Yuma left it before he left. Shing stood up to grab it.
Astral looked up and caught the movement. He saw her trying to grab what once belonged to Yuma and immediately snatched it out of her reach. Holding it close to his heart, he glared at the girl. "This is mine."
"Is it? Was it ever yours?" Shing replied blankly.
"Of course it was. It was made for..." He trailed off. It was made for the right person to hold. Yuma was that right person, and now, he was gone. Truly gone, never to come back. He would never give him a smile and tell him that he was feeling the flow.
He would feel nothing anymore.
"I will not let you taint the one thing Yuma and I shared," the Astral Being hissed. "I will never let you touch it!"
Before they could get into another argument, everyone heard Akari running up to the room. The moment she entered, her face twisted into an expression of pure horror and despair.
"Yuma!" she called, rushing to her brother's side. "Yuma, wake up! This isn't a game!"
The others around her solemnly watched her vain attempts to wake her dead brother up. Eventually, Akari stopped trying and hugged him close, trying to fight tears. The others gathered around to comfort the young woman. Shing, however, stayed outside the tight circle, as did Astral. They both shared a glance, glared at each other, and left the room to separate rooms.
Dark watched this and face palmed. His brother usually never acted like this! He was calm and collected! The other half glared at the dead body, but he couldn't bring himself to blame the boy anymore. He was dead; therefore, he didn't need anymore acknowledgement. No matter how many times he tried to forget Yuma, though, the boy always seemed to pop back into his mind. That was probably because of Astral, who was still thinking about him and his free spirit that the Astral Being seemed to love so much.
That brought up the question of what Yuma told Shing when he died. For once, Dark sat down, deep in thought (that probably had something to do with Astral being in emotional distress, though). What had Yuma told her? While he didn't know why this was important, he just believed that this small fact was worth thinking over.
More than likely, Yuma told her to befriend everyone. That seems a lot like him. So why isn't she doing it? I mean, she loved him, right? Shouldn't she be doing everything possible to make sure his wishes are met?
He got up to confront the girl, suddenly feeling the need to cry. With a groan, Dark severed the connection between himself and Astral so he wouldn't do everything his brother did for the moment. Sure, he would join Astral later, but right now, he had something to do, and he didn't need his twin's emotional instability to hinder him.
Following the energy left by Shing, Dark made his way around the house until he arrived at the bathroom. The door was locked, but the sniffles were clear, as was the soft crying. Dark had no trouble passing through the locked door and confronted the crying girl, who was sitting on the ground with her knees up and her head in her arms.
"I need to talk to you," Dark said calmly, sounding eerily identical to his twin.
Shing jumped at the sound of who she thought was Astral, but she was secretly relieved to see it was just Dark. "Go away..." she mumbled, burying her face again. "I want to be left alone."
"What did Yuma tell you?" Dark immediately asked. He ignored her comment.
The girl flicked her tail and looked up at the Astral Being. She said nothing.
"Did he tell you to befriend his friends? Cuz if he did, that's a lot like him. Also, you're not doing right by him if you're yelling at everyone all the time."
"Just leave me alone."
"Just remember that if he said what I think he said, you're not respecting his wishes."
"What do you care about his wishes? You hated him."
"I find it hard to hate someone who's dead." With that, Dark floated through the door again only to see two men walking through the halls to Yuma's room.
Almost immediately, Astral was by Dark's side. His eyes were red from crying, but he seemed fine now. They reconnected their minds, finding comfort in each other. After a while, Shing peeked out of the bathroom only to see the men walking toward Yuma's room. It took a while for her to recognize their uniforms, but the moment she realized who they were, she started screaming.
"DON'T TAKE HIM!!" Shing shrieked, causing both Astral and Dark to cover their ears and wince.
The two men ignored her and took the body. "It's still limp?" one man asked. "That's strange."
"We'll call you about the details of the funeral later," the second man said, patting Akari on the shoulder comfortingly. "We understand that losing a family member is tough."
As they were taking the body, they heard screaming coming from down the hall. They passed by Shing, who to them was seemingly being held back by nothing. She was screaming at them not to take the body, that he belonged to her, but they payed her no mind. She was just a distressed soul, and her friends would be there to comfort her.
"Calm down!" Dark hissed at Shing. "You look like a psycho!"
"I won't let them take him!" Shing shrieked.
Astral glared at her. "Are you trying to make a fool of yourself? And stop claiming that Yuma is yours; he never belonged to anybody!"
The girl freed herself by the time the men left and glared at Astral. "He was the only one who understood me! He was the only one who cared!"
"And you did a good job of showing that you appreciated his help!"
"You wouldn't understand! He was my only friend, and he was the only one to make a difference!"
"Do not tell me that I do not understand! You were not the only one changed by him!" Astral crossed his arms with a glare. "Of course, you wouldn't think of anyone but yourself. I would expect nothing less of you!"
The two stormed off to different rooms again to cool down. Dark gave a sigh and face palmed. There was no way he would be able to break things up if every time Astral got mad, he became paralyzingly calm. He went back to the room and consulted Yuri just as everyone exited the room.
"Things might get physical next time they fight," he said, "and I won't be able to stop them."
"Neither will I," Yuri sighed. "Shing is overwhelmingly powerful. We need to help them calm down enough to be able to stay in the same room together without breaking out into a fight every time."
"I just hope Eliphas comes to pick us up in time. I want to forget any of this ever happened." Dark plopped on the hammock and felt more tears come to his eyes. With a loud and annoyed groan, he once again cut off the connection between himself and his twin. "I want Astral to forget, too. All these emotions aren't good for him. He wasn't designed for these emotions; he'll eventually have an emotional breakdown. That's why I was made with him."
"Until then, though, we need to get them on at least tolerating terms. You find Astral, and I'll get Shing. Maybe if we're there, they won't get into a fight."
"Something tells me that won't work." Even so, Dark got up and floated around the house to find Astral.