InuYasha Fan Fiction / Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Regret and Choices ❯ Chapter 7 ( Chapter 7 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

I do not own Inuyasha or Yu Yu Hakusho fandom or characters. They belong to Rumiko Takahashi and to Toshihiro Togashi. I do not make any monies or profit from the writing of this story.
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My gratitude and thanks to my Beta Darkmousey!
Also thank you to those who took the time to review! I really love to hear your thoughts and comments...Please let me know what you thought of this chapter as well whether good or bad. Thank you.
Enjoy,
DawnFire_ice

The faint glittering of the katana went unnoticed as he placed the razor sharp tip just where his heart would be. Smirking coldly down at his victim he felt a swell of pride and fury.  Seeing no harm in revealing his feelings to one who was going to die in their next breath he leaned closer.

“You will never take what is mine, Kage. I won't allow you to have Kagome, because I love her,” he said firmly as he drove the katana in to his enemy’s heart.

The room shifted and he was standing beside the form of his miko. ^Kagome?^ She did not move as he called her name. Even though he stood beside her he could not sense her energy at all. Her midnight hair hung around her face shielding it from his view. The posture of her body was slumped forward and her arms hung limply at her sides. Broken manacles surrounded her wrists and her arms were lying in the slowly pooling crimson of her lifeblood. Hiei stared uncomprehending at her figure.

When had this happened? When could Kage have accomplished this? Up until the final moment that Hiei had thrust his sword through his heart he had been able to hear her screaming his name. She had sounded frantic and so afraid, it had spurred him to finish the battle all the more quickly. He wanted to go to her to assure her that he loved her and that she was once again safe within his arms.

But he had failed. Shock was slowly giving way to horror as his heart began to understand what his mind already knew. Kagome was dead. Hiei fell to his knees before her and tried to pull her in to his arms but his katana was in the way. Thinking he had merely forgotten to put it away he moved to do so but found that it was stuck. Frowning, he looked down at the weapon. It didn't appear to be stuck in anything so he pulled again and as it came free Kagome's body was pulled forward.

Hiei dropped the sword with a clatter as he moved to catch his beloved. Emotions swirled within him. He'd never even gotten the chance to tell her how he felt. Now she would never know that she had done something he'd believed was impossible: she'd captured his heart. She was his light and now she was gone. The coldness of reality was slowly creeping into his mind.

Her skin was still warm as he gently pushed the hair from her face and saw for the first time the tears that clung to her dark lashes and stained her perfect paling cheeks. Guilt flooded through him as he lowered his lips to hers, softly kissing her as he should have done months ago. Now it was too late. His mind silently willed her to respond, to wake up, to look at him. But her eyes were closed in eternal slumber, never to open again. The shock was slowly giving way to a feeling he'd only felt once before.  This time though there was no foe to destroy, nothing to sate his grief upon their death.     

Wrapping her again in his torn cloak and holding her close to himself he buried his face in her shoulder. “I'm so sorry,” he whispered. “I tried Kagome, I tried to save you. I was just too late.”  Vaguely he could hear footsteps approaching him and he buried his face deeper in to her shoulder.

“Hiei? What happened?” the soft voice of the avatar asked as he knelt beside his friend. His heart clenched painfully at the sight of the woman both Yoko and himself had chosen for their mate lying in a growing pool of her own blood. They had never even gotten the chance to speak with her, not really and now they never would. Kurama knew what he'd seen with his eyes but he also knew that Hiei would never grieve for his victim like he was Kagome. Something had gone horribly wrong.

Glancing around him for some answer to his question he spotted the hiyoukai's katana and inhaled the scent, blinking at what he found. Standing swiftly he moved to look closer at the weapon that was covered in Kagome's blood. He could not believe what his nose told him. Hiei would never... Glancing around the room he saw all the signs of a battle except the blood that should have been splattered, showing that Hiei had wounded if not killed Kage. Inside his head the Yoko side of him raged demanding blood for her lost life. But the calmer side of him ruled the action out; instead he waited for an explanation.

Hiei did not raise his head as he croaked out, “I killed Kage too late.” He gestured his head towards the side of the room where he recalled the corpse of the bastard lay cooling in a pool of his black blood. “He's over there.”

Kurama looked the direction of where his friend gestured and saw nothing. He shook his head negatively. “There is nothing over there,” he said softly, now suddenly understanding but not comprehending the events.

Hiei raised his head, laying Kagome gently on the stone.“You must be blind then, fool,” he snapped looking towards the wall where his victim lay.

He frowned when his eyes met nothing. No blood, no corpse, nothing marred the pristine white wall. Confused, Hiei looked around the room. Where were the blood spatters that had splashed on the wall as he fought? Something wasn't right. He looked down at Kagome in confusion, his movement causing her left breast to be bared. When Kurama gasped and turned shocked eyes to Hiei, the reality crashed through andHiei felt his world shatter. The only wound on her was a sword wound piercing her heart. Exactly as Kage had been killed during their 'battle'.

Hiei, the proud youkai that he was, fell to his hands and knees as shock and understanding and rage filled him. It had been an illusion. He had been ensnared by the very being he'd come to defeat, and now his reason for being was gone because he had once again acted the fool and tried to fight him alone. He had killed her. It was his katana stained with her blood, the very katana she'd polished for him. Hiei was completely oblivious to the sound of his tear gems striking the stone floor as he was to the footsteps of Yusuke running up to them.

Sadly Kurama reached down and lifted Kagome's limp body into his arms before nearly falling again to his knees. Laying his lips to her cheek he kissed her softly in farewell. His heart was breaking as he turned his now amber eyes on his long time friend who was also grieving the loss of Kagome. Eyes burning with rage he demanded,  “Hiei, what have you done?”

Yusuke laid a hand on Kurama's shoulder as they both watched in surprise as Hiei soundlessly sobbed. Red stones the color of blood littered the ground around him and Yusuke knelt and began to gather them. Though he knew that his friend would hardly appreciate the gesture he could not leave such rare things behind as a testament to his friends loss. After the last one was collected, Yusuke tied closed the handkerchief he'd collected them in. Surprisingly there had only been ten in all. As the tears had stopped only moments after they had started but the dry sobs wouldn't stop, Hiei was ashamed and embarrassed by his display but couldn't seem to gain control enough to stop them. Finally he stood and held out his arms silently to the kitsune who, though he felt rage still over his part in the murder of Kagome, knew that it had not been intentional. Slowly Kurama transferred the still, limp form of the girl to Hiei's arms.

Light erupted around her body as a power filled voice rang through the room . “I thank you, for setting me free.” It was a woman's voice. And it seemed to originate from the glowing sphere hovering above Kagome's chest where his sword had pierced. Hiei frowned. “I did nothing,” he growled at it. The woman laughed. “Hiding your heart brought you here Hiei,” she chastised as Hiei clutched the broken body of his beloved closer.

“Do you wish her to return to you?” the feminine voice asked, chorused by deeper male voices. Hiei, unable to find his voice nodded.  Sorrow tinged the voice as she replied, “She will return but not as she was. She cannot survive the blow you dealt her mind. Kagome had convinced herself that it all was a lie, because the shadow took on your form and confessed that you loved her. In thinking this was not true she was able to withstand all and any torment she endured. However, when you yourself said that you loved her, it shattered her mind. Truly, it was a mercy that she died, for she would have gone mad. Now though, we can restore her, but to do so she will have to forget.”

Hiei hung his head as the truth of her words filled his mind. His love had killed her. He had broken her, as he had feared from the beginning. Just not in the way he had feared. His pride torn asunder he closed his eyes, speaking, for once, his true feelings. “Let her forget about me then, but if it must be so, then take my life now... as punishment for taking hers. I won't live without her. I will die for her.”

“A noble offer Hiei…however, that is not what we wish to know. Would you live for her? Would you live every day for her sake? Draw every breath for her? Fight for her? Love her openly and without shame?”

Hiei frowned. “I do not understand,” he said sadly. What had he been doing? He did live every day for her, and for his sister. As for drawing breath for her, he owed her everything for the sin he had committed against her. He had fought and lost, but of course he would fight for her; she was his. As for loving her, he didn't know how, other than instinct, and that didn't seem to cut it. How was he supposed to openly and shamelessly give something he knew nothing about?  “I don't know how to love,” Hiei said finally.

“You will learn. Kagome doesn't know how to let someone love her. You will learn together.” The answer was spoken softly. Midoriko sighed. It was going to be a challenge to get Kagome to let him love her, especially considering the depth to which her self-worth had sunk.

“Kagome is the eternal immortal guardian of the jewel. Will you be her protector?”

Hiei frowned again at the jewel. “How can I be her protector when she won't remember me?” he demanded.

The laugh filled the air. “She will remember you, just not her time here. This experience will have never happened to her. Only you will remember, so that you never allow it to happen again. She will not recall loving you, or wanting you, but she will remember that she knows you. Beyond that you will have to earn her love. Hiei, she has been hurt before. Do not repeat his mistakes...” The voices of the jewel paused. “Will you give her what we have asked? Will you give up your fragile inhuman soul for her and take on immortality? Will you give us your vow in exchange for her life?”

“It is given. Return her to me.” There was no hesitation in his voice and there was no need to hesitate. Kagome was everything now. He knew that from the moment he'd cried. He did not think of the power he would be granted nor of the immortality. No, his thoughts were on the lifeless figure in his arms. His eyes were riveted on her face as he waited for the first breath of life to again fill her lungs.

Above her chest the jewel pulsed as it grew brighter before plunging into her body and filling it with light.  Unnoticed by his companions the light expanded until it filled the entire fortress and beyond. A terrible shriek rent the air and seemed to go on forever as Kage was purged from his tenuous hold on reality and cast back to his own dimension. Hiei and Kagome seemed to glow brightest and then the light died and Kagome stirred in his arms. Hiei watched in complete fascination as her chest rose and fell with every breath. Her body was warm in his arms and the blood that had been spilled from her body no longer covered his hands.  

Kurama and Yusuke were completely unaware of the changes that had occurred, or the conversation that Hiei had had with the jewel. When Kagome sighed in her sleep they were both shaken from their thoughts and hurled into the strange reality that, somehow, the girl lived.          

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