InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Reunion ❯ Chapter Twenty-five: Confessions ( Chapter 25 )

Chapter Twenty-five

A/N: Thank you for the reviews. Now, PJ, no fair guessing! You might get something right. I'm not through with Inuyasha and Yukiho yet. And it will get ugly. I don't own Inuyasha.

Lady Mariko led the way to her garden. When they arrived, she gestured for everyone to sit. "Yukiho." Mariko beckoned the woman to her. "I believe that now would be a good time to tell us the truth of your relationship with Inuyasha."

"My lady, I have not lied. I am his mate."

"NO!" exclaimed Inuyasha. "I did not perform the ritual with you!"

Yukiho bowed her head. "You had been pinned to the tree by that bitch of a miko." Yukiho raised her head. She had tears in her eyes. "I was desperate to wake you!" She bowed her head, again. "So, I performed the ritual of binding to try and wake you."

"Okay! I have had enough!" Kagome was getting very put out. "What is this 'ritual of binding'?"

"I will explain. But first, I will know how this human woman gained knowledge of a very private ritual." Sesshoumaru looked at Yukiho. "I will not say this more than once, mortal woman, I order you to tell me where you gained your knowledge of the ritual of binding."

Yukiho started to protest, to tell Sesshoumaru that how she gained the knowledge was none of his business, but something in his expression, or perhaps it would be better to say, his lack of expression, warned her that this person was no one to be trifled with. She swallowed and decided that it would be best to tell him. "I am a midwife. And many years ago, I helped with the birth of a hanyou child. I was the only midwife around who didn't have a problem with demons and humans being together. The father was human and the mother was an inu-youkai demoness. It was a difficult birth but eventually a healthy girl was brought into the world. While the mother and the daughter slept, the father celebrated with some sake. He didn't get drunk, but he did get very talkative. We talked about how he had met his mate and how he had won her heart. He talked about the joy of being a father and how he looked forward to seeing his children grow up and seeing his grandchildren and even farther. I was curious and asked him how he expected to live that long. He told me of the ritual."

"I see." Sesshoumaru pondered for a moment. "I want their names. I need to have a talk with the inu-youkai bitch about her talkative husband."

"There is no need for that, my lord."

"Don't try my patience. I want their names."

"I'm sorry, my lord. You don't understand. There is no need to talk to them because they are dead."

Sesshoumaru looked at her for a moment to determine if she was lying to him. "How did that happen?"

"A battle was fought near their home. Some of the soldiers attacked their house because of the demoness. The father attacked the soldiers to buy his mate and daughter time to escape. He died after killing several. But as his mate was running away, she ran into reinforcements for the first soldiers. They launched a flight of arrows that severely injured the daughter. It drove her mad and she attacked the soldiers. She killed them all but then she died of her wounds." Yukiho started crying. "I had made friends with them and they were murdered! And their daughter was left for dead!"

Kagome gasped. She didn't like this woman who claimed Inuyasha was her mate, but she was feeling sympathy for her. "That's awful! I'm sorry that you lost your friends!"

Yukiho spared a look of gratitude to her rival. She didn't like this woman who claimed to be Inuyasha's mate, but maybe she wasn't a bad person. "I was the one who found them and their infant daughter. Since no one would take in a hanyou child," Inuyasha stiffened, "I raised her."

"You still have not given me the name of the bitch."

"Stop calling her that!" screamed Yukiho. "She was a kind and gentle person! She wasn't a bitch!"

Sesshoumaru growled. The ignorance of humans sometimes astonished him. "She was a female inu-youkai. Therefore, she was a literal bitch. Do not try my patience with your ignorance again, woman. Answer me!"

"Her name was Kurohana!"

Sesshoumaru nodded as he heard the name, as if he were expecting that answer. "Very well, human. It occurs to me that we should hear how much of the ritual you know and how much of it you performed on Inuyasha."

"Yeah! I want to know that one, myself!" Inuyasha was angry. "What did you do to me when I was pinned to the god tree?!"

"Inuyasha?! Please don't be angry. What I did, I did for you! I was trying to wake you!"

"Yukiho." Lady Mariko's quiet voice cut through to the girl. "Tell us your story from the beginning."

Yukiho took a deep breath. She was about to begin when Daremo entered the garden, leading a still slightly dazed Miroku. He lead him to his circle of friends. Sesshoumaru looked at the monk with thinly veiled disgust. As Miroku took his seat, he looked at Sango and whispered, "What have I missed?"

"Little, as yet, Monk." The answer came from Sesshoumaru, instead of Sango. "I trust you can maintain some sense of decorum while we listen to this human woman's explanation for her actions." His voice held a dangerous edge to it.

Miroku looked at the demon lord and then sighed. He got up and moved to place Daremo between himself and Sango. When the others looked at him in puzzlement, he simply stated, "To remove temptation."

Sesshoumaru turned his gaze from the monk to Yukiho. "Very well, woman. Begin."

"When I first met Inuyasha, we were both very young, around six years of age. I thought that he was strange looking, at first. He had that long white hair and those cute ears. ~Inuyasha blushed at that remark. Kagome looked at him and smiled. "You do have cute ears." she whispered.~ I was very shy around him until the day he saved me from some bullies. He was so brave! There were three of them and they wanted me to give them the money that my mother had given me to buy food for supper with. They had me encircled when a blur of red came out of nowhere and knocked the largest one on his back. Inuyasha was on top of the boy and punched him in the face before he jumped off and landed next to me. He put out his arm to push me behind him and said, "Get behind me! I'll protect you!" He never took his eyes off my attackers. "So, you guys think you're pretty tough to pick on a girl three to one. Why don't you try that with me?" After he said that, he flexed his claws and the boys took to their heels screaming, "Demon!" and I was in love." Yukiho paused to look at Inuyasha and all could see that she wasn't exageratting. Kagome's heart ached in her chest. This girl truly loved her mate, and nothing good was going to come of this.

Sesshoumaru folded his arms over his chest. "This is all very interesting, but you have not told us of your part in the ritual of binding."

Yukiho sighed. "I'll skip ahead to when we heard rumors of an inu-youkai hanyou living in a province near here. When I heard, I knew that it had to be Inuyasha. I never believed that he had died with his mother and that someday he would come back to me. I left for the village that he was rumored to be at. But I arrived too late. I came to the village only a day after you had attacked it and had been pinned to the tree." Yukiho bowed her head and started crying. "When I had gotten to the village and had seen the destruction there, I asked about you and found out that you had caused all that had happened. That you had killed their miko, but not before she had killed you. I had come all that way to find you and you were dead! Or so I thought. Then a young girl with a bandage over one eye told the villagers that you were not dead, that her sister had only put you in a sleep spell." Yukiho took a shuddering breath. "I begged her to show you to me. This girl looked at me with her one good eye and then nodded. She led me to the tree that you were pinned to and I fell to the ground and wept. The girl said, "I didn't know that Inuyasha had had any friends other than my sister." I turned on the child, "Some friend! Why did she do this?" The girl, who until now had been stoic, began to cry. "He gave her the wound that killed her! And then he attacked the village to steal the Shikon no Tama! He had pretended to be our friend and had even pretended to love Kikyou, but in the end, he killed her!" ~A low growl began to issue from Inuyasha. Kagome laid a calming hand on his arm.~ Yukiho stopped her narrative and looked at Inuyasha. "Please, my love! I have to know! Did you kill her?"

"No, I did not!" The words came out tersely, almost barked. "She was attacked by an evil hanyou named Naraku who had taken on my shape. And I was fooled into thinking that Kikyou had broken her promise to me, so I attacked the village to steal the Shikon no Tama."

"And the other thing that she said, did you love her?"

Inuyasha looked at Kagome before he replied. "We were two lonely souls that sought out each other. I loved her and she loved me, but our love wasn't strong enough to overcome our mistrust. We were easily fooled into believing that the other would betray what trust we had in each other."

"I see." Yukiho said softly. "Didn't you think of me?"

Inuyasha took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Yukiho. You were from another time and place in my life, a place that was closed to me. I watched my grandfather die to save my life~ Lady Mariko gasped and said "No! Oh, no, no! My poor child!" ~and I had to leave everyone who meant anything to me except my mother. And then I watched her die and wasn't able to protect her. I could not come back for fear of watching other people I cared for die to protect me, so I lived like an animal for years. I had to steal food when I was younger. Later, I was able to hunt for myself and I had learned how to fight. And how to hate what I was. So, the answer is no, Yukiho, I didn't think about any of you. I didn't dare for fear that I would get the desire to return and that you would suffer for it."

Yukiho bowed her head and cried for his answer and for the pain that he had gone through. Lady Mariko rose from her seat and went to her nephew, fell to her knees and embraced him, openly weeping. Kagome had moved aside to let Lady Mariko to Inuyasha, but she moved in behind him and laid her head on his back in a comforting gesture, her own eyes brimming with tears. This scene held for a few moments and then Yukiho cleared her throat to continue her narrative. Lady Mariko disengaged from her nephew but didn't return to her previous seat. Instead she moved to sit next to Inuyasha and to hold his hand in her's. Kagome stayed behind Inuyasha's back and kept her head on his back, lending silent support. Yukiho glared at her rival but continued her narrative.

"I waited to be left alone with you and then I climbed the tree and put my arms around you. I put my head on your chest and cried .... and then I heard it! Your heart was beating! Very slowly, but it was there! I became frantic, I grabbed the arrow that had you pinned to the tree to try and pull it from you. That was a mistake. It blasted me off the tree. After I came to, I climbed up the tree again and listened to your heart again, but something was different. The heartbeat was slower! The arrow's spell was taking effect and you were losing your fight against it's influence! I had to think of something so I tried the only thing that might work. Please understand, Inuyasha! I wanted you to live so I decided that you needed the extra support of the binding. I hoped that the binding would give you the strength to overcome the arrow's spell." Yukiho looked at Sesshoumaru. "Okay, now to get to the part you wanted to know about. How much do you want me to tell, ... eh, what is your name anyway?"

Sesshoumaru cocked an eyebrow at her. "Sesshoumaru. And you may tell all that you did and why."

"Sesshoumaru?" Yukiho gulped. Visibly shaken by this revelation she continued, "Yes, my lord. I knew what I had to do. I used a knife that I carried on me for my defense to cut a gash in Inuyasha's arm and I ... I drank some of his blood." Her voice faltered for a moment as she revealed this, but she gathered herself and continued. "I cut my hand and tried to get some of my blood into Inuyasha. I wasn't sure if I was able to get any into him but I hoped that I did. The blood alone wasn't enough, though. It only acts as a beacon for the next step, the binding of souls."

"What?!" came a cry in unison. Kagome had lifted her head from Inuyasha's back at the beginning of the description of the ritual. When Yukiho came to this part, she, Sango, Miroku, and Shippou cried out.

Miroku was the first to recover his composure. "Are you saying that you bound Inuyasha's soul to your's!?"

"And my soul to his!" continued Yukiho. "That is what gives me long life. My soul draws on the lifeforce of the youkai in Inuyasha. And it can't be broken except in death."

Kagome's hands went to her mouth. "No!" she whispered. "No! No! No! NO!" Each no getting louder until the last ended in a scream. She turned from the group and ran from the garden sobbing.

"Kagome!" shouted Inuyasha, as he leapt to his feet and followed her.

Everyone else had a stricken look on their faces. Sango was openly crying for Kagome.

"You are wrong, mortal woman." stated Sesshoumaru. "There are rumors of other ways to break the binding. You had best pray that they work." This said, Sesshoumaru turned and followed his brother to see if he could salvage this situation.

A/N: I'm going to leave it there for the time being. ducks as people throw things at him And there is a lot more to come. By the way, just to satisfy anyone's curiousity, Kurohana means 'black flower'. The reason for this name will come up later.