InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Broken Dreams ❯ The Masks We Wear ( Chapter 17 )

Broken Dreams

 

Chapter 17

 

The Masks We Wear

 

Youkai stood at the top of the hill overlooking Toga's shrine. The ofuda casting their barrier over his cave were beginning to lose their powers. He needed more. He looked over his shoulder at the girl behind him, sitting in the shade of a cherry tree, watching the children play. Kagome.

 

Youkai stared for a moment at the girl in his care. It was only a few days over a week ago that he found her crumpled form lying in some bushes, bloodied and battered. He had taken her and cared for her. He leg had healed in time, and she would have full use of it within a week. Her arms and hands were alright as they were, provided she didn't strain them. Her lower chest and stomach had various small bruises and cuts, but they would also heal. Soon she would be fine and fully healed. Then she would leave him for her mate.

 

It is what has always been planned, Youkai told himself. He took the girl in to heal her. It was that simple. But, as much as Youkai tried to deny it, there was something. Kagome had been the strangest woman he had ever met. One moment she would be stern and stubborn, only to have her eyes tear and finally, her resolve break down. Her mood swings were rather puzzling; a puzzle that Youkai had been trying to solve. But he found that whenever he came close to discovering Kagome, his own past came into play. Youkai couldn't understand it.

 

He absentmindedly reached up and ran a claw over the steel frame of his hood. His mask. Kagome wore a mask too, although it wasn't quite so noticeable. A frightened little girl lay beneath her guise of a young, independent woman. Kagome's reason for hiding herself may have been numerous, and Youkai had no idea why she had hardened herself. All he knew is that whatever had caused her to be so cold was an event of terrible turmoil. Youkai knew all too well what kind of horror may have lay behind that mask. If it was anything like what lay beneath his own…

 

-Flashback-

 

Youkai groaned in pain and slowly opened his eyes. He looked up at the wood of a hut above his head. The questions came again, just as the had before. And as before, few could be answered. He pushed the torrent away and turned his head slightly.

 

“Are you awake?” a small voice asked from his side. Youkai looked for the source and found it in a small girl holding a small bowl of water. As his eyes found her, she shrank back slightly. Youkai opened his mouth and struggled to speak.

 

“W…water,” he coughed dryly. The girl slowly nodded and began to creep towards him. Her hesitation was painfully obvious to Youkai. “What's wrong?” he asked. The girl gasped, his question catching her off-guard.

 

“I, I am sorry,” she stammered. She quickly placed the bowl of water beside Youkai's head. Youkai watched as she spun and dashed from the room as quickly as her young legs would carry her. Youkai sat up slightly and picked up the bowl of water in his hands. He raised it to his lips, and glanced down, catching sight of his reflection. The wooden bowl fell from his hands as his hands shot up to feel the gnarled flesh beneath his fingertips. Youkai's mouth fell open in a low moan as he got his first glimpse of himself.

 

- - - - - - - - - -

 

Youkai had begged his caretaker Yoshi to let him hide himself. He knew from his form he was a human-like youkai, but his face was most certainly not humane. He spent his first few days in the back of Yoshi's hut, facing the wall, refusing to show himself to anyone. When he had been presented with the hood, he immediately tied it onto his head and hadn't removed it since. It was depressing to say the least, that he was afraid of his own face. But Youkai had good reason.

 

That face was the only one he remembered. He had no clue was he had looked like before the fire. He had even started to forget what his face looked like now. But what he did remember of it, he hid. Youkai didn't know what he was supposed to look like, and honestly, didn't care. You can't change the past, no matter how much you wish you could. There was no denying it; deep down, Youkai did yearn to know what he had looked like. Where he came from. If he had a family. Hell, Youkai would give anything just to know his true name. But in three years, various travelers had come and gone from the village. Youkai had talked to all of them. No one knew him. Not that he had much to go on. He had no clues at all to who he was. It seemed that the answers he sought were destined to be forever beyond his reach.

 

“What do you want?” Toga snapped. Youkai shook his head free of his thoughts and looked down at the glaring `monk'. Toga favored him with his usual sneer. Youkai scowled inside his hood. Something about Toga had always been wrong to Youkai, although the monk's actions towards him might have helped that feeling. The monk was one of the few people Youkai didn't like. Most of the villagers had earned merely indifference from Youkai, but Toga came close to the border of hatred. Youkai only talked with the monk when he needed to, like now. Steeling himself, Youkai walked forward and entered Toga's hut under the narrow glare of the man who had banished him.