InuYasha Fan Fiction / Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Mending a broken heart ❯ Pyrrhic Victory ( Chapter 3 )

Mending a broken heart

 

Chapter 3: Pyrrhic victory

 

A/N: Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed! It means so much to me! I cannot express to you all how much I truly care that you take the time to read and review. A million thank you's to each and every one of you.

 

I hope you enjoy this chapter.

 

Happy Valentine's Day!

 

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It had been six months.

 

Six long and torturous months.

Youko had miscalculated how long it would take to exterminate the threat of the Reikai bounty hunters.

A mistake that had cost him dearly.

He feared that Kagome had taken his advice to heart, but he couldn't really blame her if she had.

He had to have been convincing for her to leave. He had to make sure that she would not try to track him down, to make him see the error of his ways.

He supposed, with utter self-loathing, that he had done just that. He had convinced her that she was lower than the dirt upon his shoe. He had never meant to hurt her so, but it had been necessary. He did not need the bounty hunters to know of her.

To know what she meant to him, and to exploit those feelings in order to get to him.

She was his Achilles heel.

His only weakness.

The bounty hunters would have used her. They would have kidnapped her and tortured her to get to him, and that was more unforgivable than temporarily breaking her heart.

Youko reasoned that even though his words had been scathing, he could piece together her heart once again. He would have never been able to forgive himself if he would have let her fall prey to those monsters.

He cringed just thinking about it.

“You think it wise,” His attention was immediately pulled from his thoughts. “It has been quite some time since you've sent foot into the village,” Youko's ears twitched. “Not to mention seen or talked to Kagome.”

Youko understood what Kuronue was getting at, but Youko needed to make things right. He needed her to understand that he had done it for her own protection.

“She has to know,” Youko wouldn't look into Kuronue's eyes. “She has to know that it was all a lie.”

With a nod, both demons jumped down from the branch they had been resting on and headed toward the hut.

He prayed to Inari that Kagome would still be available and just as forgiving as she had once been.

He hoped with all of his heart that she would understand, and he hoped that she would take him back, but he was prepared for the worst.

Before the pair had gotten within twenty feet of Kaede's home, red swirling blades deterred them.

“I knew it would only be a matter of time before you would show up.” Inuyasha snarled viciously, pinning both demons with a glare.

“We're just here to talk with Kagome.”

“You're not welcome here.” Inuyasha hissed, brandishing his sword as Youko and Kuronue came closer.

“What is your reasoning for such a statement, Inuyasha?”

“You lousy, fucking kitsune! You actually have the balls to come here and ask such a stupid question? You know what you did!” He screamed, swinging his sword wildly at the pair.

Youko jumped away but did not leave the village. He needed to see Kagome, and he would not leave until he spoke with her.

“What Kagome told you was a misunderstanding.” Youko was trying to placate the irate hanyou, but apparently, that was the wrong thing to say.

“Kagome,” Inuyasha all but bellowed, his face turning a lovely shade of purple. “Kagome didn't tell us a damn thing! “

Both Kuronue and Youko looked utterly confused. They wondered if they had heard correctly.

“What he means to say,” Miroku turned toward Youko and Kuronue with a somber look upon his face. “Kouga informed us months ago about what happened.”

Youko's demeanor became very tense upon hearing the monk's words.

He could only imagine what Kouga said after their brief encounter with one another.

It was also no secret how he felt about the futuristic miko, and Youko imagined that Kouga would have done or said anything to keep him from getting back into Kagome's good graces.

“So she refuses to see me.” He stated more than asked, his hopes dashed fearing that he had indeed crushed her fragile spirit more than he had intended.

Kuronue added, “And you're protecting her from us.”

“You got that fucking right!” Inuyasha growled. “Now get the hell out of here!”

“No,” Miroku amended as Youko's ears perked up. “We have not seen her in months.”

“Is she staying in the Eastern Lands with Kouga then?” Youko pressed, hoping the monk would be more compliant with his questions.

If she was with Kouga that would present a problem, but one that could be easily fixed, he'd just have to make Kouga see the error of his ways.

“No,” Youko frowned.

“Is she in the future then? Did she return home?” Kuronue questioned, hoping that this would be answered in the affirmative.

“Actually,” Miroku's face now took on a ghostly white appearance. “We fear that some youkai attacked her on her way back.”

Sango could not keep her emotions in check anymore. “It's all your fault!” Sango screamed, tears coming to her brown eyes.

“She loved you! She loved you so much, and all you did was turn her away. I'll never get to see my little sister again!” She attempted to throw her hiraikotsu at the kitsune but was so overcome by grief, that she could barely raise the weapon. “Naraku took Kohaku away from me, and you've taken Kagome away.”

“It's okay Sango,” Miroku soothed, rubbing her back in a calming way. “Kaede why don't you take her into the hut?”

The old woman nodded once before helping the younger woman into the confines of the hut.

“We also fear that Shippo was injured or taken as well. He went in search of Kagome before we even knew of any information pertaining to what happened.” Youko gazed at the monk incredulously.

Kagome was never supposed to get hurt, let alone possibly die.

Guilt flooded his veins.

“No, there has to be some mistake.”

He hoped that they were wrong. He silently prayed that they were all lying.

They had to be hiding her somewhere, protecting her from further harm.

“Blood is a pretty good indicator, asshole,” Inuyasha sneered.

Kuronue growled. This was no time for the hanyou to be getting mouthy with them.

“Where was it found?” Youko pressed, overlooking the comment Inuyasha had muttered.

“The well.” With a nod of thanks to Miroku, the pair vanished.

Never in their long lifetimes had they ever felt fear. The new emotion gripped their hearts and fueled them to move faster.

They needed to know the truth.

They needed to see it with their own eyes.

In a matter of seconds, they stood just feet away from the well.

It looked innocuous.

It looked just as it had the numerous times they had watched Kagome jump in or out of it.

And yet it was different.

No one from the old shard hunting group had been near it in months. In fact, no human or demon had been near it in the last five months.

With a tentative step forward, Youko placed his hand on the ground and let his spirit magic seep out.

“What do the plants say?”

A low keening escaped, before a pained look passed over Youko's features. It was a look Kuronue had never been witness too, and he doubted he would ever again.

“Kagura attacked Kagome,” Kuronue urged Youko to continue. “Kagome used the last of her miko energy to purify her, but Kagura had already inflicted dire wounds upon her person.”

“Maybe she survived. Maybe her miko powers healed her.”

Youko shook his head in the negative.

“She lost too much blood. There was no way that she would have survived, especially if she used up the last of her miko energy.”

For a long time, neither said a word, both too angry to actually articulate what they felt, Youko at himself, and Kuronue at Youko.

Finally, when there was nothing else to be said, Youko used his magic to make a beautiful arrangement of flowers around the well as his last gift to his beloved as a memorial.

“There is nothing left for me here.”

Kuronue nodded curtly.

It was true. While he had at one time been comrades and friends with the Inu-Tachi, he had no ties to them now that Kagome was gone, and he vowed to himself that he would not affirm their suspicions.

Knowing what had happened and speculating what had happened were two very different matters.

It was better if he let them think she was safe in her time away from the youkai who had shattered her heart.

Youko turned saddened eyes to the clearing and whispered, “I'm sorry,” before he turned his back on the well and the memorial fanning out around it.

He would never again set foot into the clearing because he no longer had any right to.

Kagome had died never knowing that he truly did love her.

She had died never knowing the true reasons for him turning her away, and so Youko would not disturb her memory with his presence.

After everything she had been put through, he reasoned she deserved that much.