Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ The Wreck of My Memories ❯ Chapter One ( Chapter 2 )

Disclaimer: All rights belong to Yoshihiro Togashi and Shonen Jump. No infringement intended, etc etc all that jazz. I'm poor so don't sue.

 

Rating is T for violence.

 

The Wreck of My Memories

 

Chapter One

 

 

I had been smashed upon the rocks of Fate, tossed into the wild gales like the storm that raged on the night I was thrown from the floating island of the Koorimes. I fell and fell, into the forests of the Makai, until I landed in a river…

 

“Boss! Boss!”

 

It was the glittering hiruseki in my fist that ultimately saved me from drowning. The thief who saw my tightly wrapped and Sealed body floating by noticed the glint of morning sunlight off the jewel's perfect surface and plucked me from the eddying current. His greed became my salvation… in more ways than one. He brought me to the leader of the thieves and he also tried to take my jewel. I bit him.

 

Perhaps he should have killed me then for my obstinacy or cut off my arm to take the stone from me or tossed me back into the river to meet my fate. But for reasons even I do not understand, he did none of those things. Instead he laughed and took my wrapped body from his subordinate, dangling me in front of his face.

 

His breath stank.

 

“You're a spunky one! I might just keep you!” he said.

 

I smiled, narrowing my eyes. If he thought he could take my hiruseki from me by coercion, he was gravely mistaken.

 

“Uh, Boss… maybe that isn't such a good idea. He was floating in the river and, look at him, he's covered in Seals. Maybe someone threw him away for a reason,” one of the other thieves stammered.

 

I would come to know him as Juro in later days. He was one of the ones I killed first.

 

The leader, who I would soon discover was named Itsuro, looked at me again and touched his chin thoughtfully.

 

“Hmmm, maybe so. But there's no sport in killing a helpless baby. He so small, he wouldn't even make a decent meal. Besides a kid with spunk might be good if he's fast. I say we give him to the herb witch to take care of until he's old enough to run and learn how to fight.”

 

None of the others objected to his decision and soon I was being carried deep into the forest to a place where the trees began to give way to steep hills and crevices. There, at the end of a narrow, uphill track, was a small hut in a little, sparsely wooded glade. It was to this hut that I was taken, and the door opened before the demon holding me could announce his presence.

 

A female demon stood in the entrance, her arms crossed in front of her chest. She was plain but not ugly, and her long hair was a very similar color to that of my mother's, only slightly purple in tint. She had pointed ears and deep violet eyes, and she looked at the band of thieves standing outside her door without fear or concern.

 

“What do you want Itsuro?” she demanded.

 

Her voice was cool and hard, a challenge. I smiled. This one, too, was not easily intimidated.

 

“I've brought you a present, witch,” Itsuro replied and carelessly tossed me at her.

 

I saw her eyes widen a little before she moved quickly to snatch me out of the air before I could hit the ground. She raised me to her face and looked me in the eye. I met her questioning stare with one of my own.

 

“An infant, thief? One of your get from your numerous conquests?” the witch asked, one eyebrow raised.

 

“Ren found him in the river.”

 

She sniffed me and nodded. “He's soaked and reeks of fish shit. What do you want me to do with him?”

 

“Take care of the whelp until he can run and learn to fight.”

 

“And I should do this why?”

 

I could not see the demon behind me, but I could feel his smile.

 

“Do it and I will see to it that you are never accosted in this forest by any rival gangs.”

 

“I notice that you exempt your own gang from that vow,” she responded quickly.

 

Smart one, she was. Quick thinking and intelligent. I decided that it might not be so bad to be left with her.

 

“Very well, from my own or any rival gangs. I know that you have had some troubles in the past when you have gone down into the village market.”

 

I saw her scowl and her eyes narrow. “Not recently, but then I proved last time that I am more than capable of protecting myself. I choose to live here in solitude for a reason, Itsuro. All I wish is to be left alone to find some measure of peace.”

 

“Does that mean you will not take the child?”

 

“I didn't say that.”

 

Her eyes fell down to my face again and she looked at me for a long time. I could tell that she was considering her options so I opened my eyes wide and blinked at her. Her gaze faltered and I knew I had her. She sighed and brought me close to her chest. So close that I could feel the thud of her heart through my wrappings.

 

“Very well. But bring me a boar-beast or buck, freshly killed and cleaned, once a month. Growing children need meat.”

 

“I will have the first brought to you by the end of the day,” Itsuro agreed.

 

“Good. Now leave me. I must tend this child and clean him up. He reeks.”

 

She turned to take me into the hut but then paused and looked back over her shoulder.

 

“Itsuro? Does this child have a name?” she asked.

 

I waited to hear what the demon would have to say. I was nameless to my mother's people, known only as imiko, and I wondered if this strange demon would presume to fit me with a name. A low chuckle was my answer then the thief barked mockingly.

 

“Hiei.”

 

“Hiei,” the demoness who held me repeated and I felt the arms around me tighten slightly. “Very well, Itsuro. I will take care of Hiei for you. I will expect the meat to arrive before sunset.”

 

With that, she said no more to the thieves and took me directly into her home. As soon as the door closed behind her, however, her countenance changed and I heard her give a great sigh of relief.

 

“Fools,” she whispered softly, then lifted me away from her breast to look me in the eye again. “Now then. What to do with you, little one, hmm? Bath, clothes and food. In that order, I think.” She sniffed me and I saw her nose crinkle. “Bath definitely. Yes.”

 

She brought me close again, supporting me with one arm as she moved about the hut. My sight was limited because I was once again facing her chest, but my ears told me that she was starting a fire and pouring water. When she finally set me down on a small, wooden table I was able to get a look around.

 

The hut was small, but tidy, and all manner of herbs hung from racks around the single room. There was a cooking hearth where water now heated up on a grate, a small bed pallet and a table. Two windows on opposite walls let in light and lanterns sat on shelves to illuminate the space.

 

“Well, it's been quite some time since I've cared for an infant, but I think I can manage,” the witch commented, bringing my attention back to her.

 

I raised my eyes to look at her, wondering what she intended to do with the knife in her hand, and my fist clenched the cord wrapped around my palm. She saw the movement and looked down to see the dangling stone. I knew she had seen it before when she caught me, but she hadn't paid it too much attention then. Now her lips frowned slightly and her brow furrowed.

 

“Hmmm. That looks frighteningly similar to a hiruseki, but it's the wrong color. No doubt that oaf wants me to take it from you. Well, I am not one to steal from babies and I can see that the gem is precious to you since you hold it so tightly,” she commented, looking more carefully at my wrappings. “So many Seals, little one. What power could you hold in your tiny body that warrants such Bindings? Perhaps it is best if I take some precautions, ne?”

 

She left me on the table while she moved about again and I felt the energy in the room change shortly thereafter. When she returned to my side, she rolled me to face her and looked into my eyes. I looked back, narrowing my gaze, and she cocked her head a little.

 

“You're in there aren't you, little one. You were born conscious.”

 

I did not yet have the ability to speak, but I responded by huffing a breath of air through my lips. She understood me perfectly.

 

“How very interesting. What a little mystery you are, ishka. Wrapped in heavy Seals so tightly that I doubt you can move, tossed into a river and left for dead. Yet you have a priceless stone wrapped around your fist. How very interesting indeed,” she mused.

 

She lifted her hand and I saw that she had a black stone on a cord in her palm. “This is a talisman. I have imbued it with my own youki, and depending upon what I find once I free you from your Seals, it will hopefully contain your power until such time as you can control it yourself,” she explained. “I have put up a barrier just in case breaking the Seals causes you to lose control. I also have a talisman on me to protect myself should you blast me with whatever you've got.”

 

She touched a green pendant at her throat to show me the stone, and I realized that she was speaking to me as if she knew I could understand her. She was telling me what she was going to do and preparing me for what could possibly happen once she broke my Bindings.

 

“Shall we begin then, ishka? I don't know about you, but your stench is getting on my nerves, and you really have to come out of those soaked wrappings.”

 

She was right. I reeked and the smell was offensive to even my nose. I huffed again to give her my agreement and she smiled.

 

“Very good. I'm going to cut these Bindings now and I'll be very careful so I don't cut you. All the same, it's best if you don't move until you're free,” she said, picking up the knife.

 

It wasn't as if I could move. The old women had bound me so tightly I could barely feel my body, but I wouldn't have moved anyway. I wanted to be free.

 

She took the knife and slowly sliced the wrappings. I could tell that she was being very gentle, probably because she didn't know how thickly I was wrapped. It took forever, and I was getting very impatient, but eventually I felt the bindings around me begin to loosen.

 

“Almost done,” she told me in a soothing voice as if she could tell that I was planning to fidget.

 

I froze again and waited as I felt the sharp edge of the knife come close to my skin. There was a final ripping sound then my bindings fell away and my youki immediately flared out of its own accord once it was free of the Seals. I heard the witch gasp but then she moved her hand and the burst dissipated. A moment later the talisman she had made was dropped over my head and my power settled. I looked up at her from where I lay curled on the table and saw her wipe sweat from her brow.

 

“My what a little firecracker you are, ishka, but you aren't that strong yet. You will be, though, if you're flaring like this now. Whoever Bound you obviously had very limited experience with fire youki to have needed to Bind you so tightly. But that talisman should do for now. If you need a stronger one, I'll make one if I have to. Now let's have a closer look at you, ne?”

 

She reached down and picked me up, smoothing my hair back with one hand and smiling at me.

 

“Well, you're definitely a little boy, but I already knew that. And very young too. You're cute though and I can't sense a thing wrong with you. I wonder what manner of monster would throw away a perfectly healthy baby boy like you.”

 

What monster indeed.

 

Free from my bindings, I drew my arms and legs up close to my body because I was naked and still damp from the wet wrappings. She saw me shiver and drew her cloak from around her shoulders to wrap it around me. It was soft and warm, and smelled like her.

 

“Cold, ishka?” she asked.

 

She had used that word numerous times and I was beginning to understand that it was a term of endearment because she always said it gently.

 

“There now. The water for your bath will be ready soon. Then we will get you dressed and get some food in your tummy. You must be hungry. Little ones almost always are. Let me get a soup started. That should be alright for you.”

 

She carried me around the hut wrapped in her cloak as she set about preparing the food. Now that I was out of my bindings, I could look where she was going and watch her as she performed her tasks.

 

When the water in the pot on the grate began to boil, she took a large metal basin and filled it partway with cold water. Then she poured half of the boiling water in to make a bath that was hot but not hot enough to burn me. The other half she poured into the soup mix and put it back on the grate to cook.

 

“Bath time,” she said, bringing me over to the warm basin and removing me from the cloak. “And not a moment too soon, ne?”

 

I had to agree as she put me in the bath, submerging me up to my chest. The water was just the right temperature and felt very pleasant. I stayed still and quiet, blinking at her every now and then as she washed the filth from my body. Some of it was from my fall, and the river, but not all of it. Some of it was from me.

 

I still held my hiruseki tightly in my fist and she touched it with her finger. I drew it away from her and gave a little growl. She laughed.

 

“I'm not going to take your treasure, ishka, but at the same time, you can't hold it like that forever. Let's put it around your neck, shall we?”

 

I watched her warily, but allowed her to unwrap enough of the cord from around my hand to loop the strand over my head. Once I felt the cord press against the back of my neck, I released my hold and the stone fell gently to my chest, resting right next to the black talisman that she had placed on me.

 

“There. Isn't that better now?”

 

I didn't answer but she smiled at me and continued washing my small body. When I was clean, she took me out and dried me off with a soft cloth. Then she tied a clean rag around my hips and between my legs to catch my waste and wrapped me in a blanket. Holding me with one arm, she sat down and fed me the soup she had made. The food was thick but not thick enough to choke on and she gave me as much as I would eat.

 

My belly full and my body clean, I began to feel heavy and drowsy just as all infants do once their other needs have been met. The witch who held me sensed my growing weariness and placed me against her chest, holding me close.

 

“Sleep, ishka. You're safe now. Sleep, Hiei,” she whispered, patting my back gently.

 

Feeling safe and protected for the first time in my short life, I closed my eyes and let myself fall asleep.

 

********

 

Her name was Uma and over the next few days we began to get used to each other. I grew fast, as all youkai infants do, and within four days I was able to sit up without assistance. I still could not speak, but I was able to make myself understood with gestures and pointing.

 

I suppose I made it easy for her to take care of me. I was quiet and cooperative, although she discovered my temper rather quickly. I did not cry like most babies and if my silence bothered her, she never said. Still, she was an attentive caregiver and saw to all of my needs. At some point during the first week, however, the look in her eye when she gazed at me changed, and her touch, which had always been gentle, took on a softer stroke. Her embraces became cuddles and her pats became caresses. When she carried me, she would hold me tenderly, and when I was tired she would sing and rock me to sleep. At night I slept beside her, tucked against her chest where she would wake at my slightest movement and tend me right away.

 

At first I tolerated her coddling, deciding to endure the pampering because my situation was pleasant otherwise. All my needs were met, I was fed, clothed and protected; there was nothing more that I needed or desired, and if she wanted to mother me, then I would allow it. I'm not certain when my attitude began to change, but one day I realized that I was no longer merely tolerating her behavior, but enjoying it. Her voice became soothing and her touch became a calming balm. In all my life I would never know such peaceful sleep as I experienced when she held me close, at least not until many years later.

 

Within the first week I was with her, I doubled my size and Uma took to carrying me on her back when she went foraging for herbs and food. She rarely put me down and I had begun to get used to seeing the world from behind her shoulder. In time I would come to understand that her reluctance to put me down stemmed from her fear that I would eat a seed or plant by mistake and unwittingly do myself untold damage. She was an herb witch after all, not unlike the wily kitsune I would come to know later in life, however I had never seen Uma use plants as weapons in the way Kurama did.

 

One day Uma outfitted me in a set of rough hewn traveling clothes and placed me in the pack she would hang from her shoulders. She told me that we were going down the mountain to a village with a market in order to get supplies. She intended to trade some of her herbal mixtures and remedies for food, and she brought the hide from the first kill Itsuro's gang gave her to trade for a bolt of cloth. She said I was growing so fast that she needed more fabric to make some decent clothes for me.

 

The walk to the village was long and took most of the morning, although Uma did not seem to be in any particular hurry. The day was pleasant and the air crisp and cool. To protect me from getting a chill (I truly believe that she did not know that I was impervious to cold) she had donned a traveling cloak and my head popped out of the top, right where the hood folded at the base of her neck. The carrier she had me in kept me high up on her back so I could see over her shoulder and hold on to her with my hands.

 

When we came to the market, it was crowded with all sorts of demons from the surrounding area, all doing business and going about their normal lives. Uma went to the food merchants first and offered her herbs in trade for non-perishable vegetables and in-season fruits. Many of the shoppers looked askance at me, peering over Uma's shoulder, silent and watchful, but she never answered them with an explanation. Most just stared but a few tried to touch me, and, if Uma didn't move me out of range first, I snapped at them. Even then, I preferred not to be touched by strangers.

 

It wasn't until we went to the fabric trader to look for cloth to make my clothes that someone was rude enough to question my presence. Uma had picked out a fine bolt of black material that was heavy enough to be warm but light enough to be worn all the time. She showed it to me and I nodded my approval so she began the task of haggling with the merchant to trade for her boar-beast hide. At the end of the transaction, as Uma was taking the cloth and putting it in the jute sack with the other purchases she had made, a strange demon with green skin and red eyes approached us from the side.

 

“Uma. I know it has been a while since I have seen you, but when in Hell did you have time to whelp a brat?” the newcomer asked.

 

My caregiver froze and I could feel the anger radiating off of her as she took a step away from the strange male. I gripped her shoulder tightly and narrowed my eyes.

 

“I didn't,” Uma replied tersely. “One of Itsuro's men found him in the river and Itsuro brought him to me.”

 

“Found him in the river? Uma, don't you know that picking up kids others have thrown away isn't wise? What if the whelp is dangerous?”

 

There was a moment of silence but the air around us noticeably chilled and the fabric merchant had enough sense to begin hastily packing his wares. The green-skinned demon seemed oblivious however and dared to raise a hand towards me.

 

“Oh, he is dangerous,” she hissed in a voice that barely concealed her rage. “He is very dangerous. He turns me into an overprotective mother who will kill you where you stand if you even think of touching him.”

 

Her hand came up and lighting crackled between her fingertips as she pulled up her youki and threatened him with it. The green demon finally got the message and backed away, his eyes wide. Uma waited as he hurried off and I saw that her face was set into a hard, furious scowl. Her expression, and her immediate defense of me, made me blink at her and curl my fingers even further into her shoulder. She turned her head slightly and blew at me softly to reassure me. Once the demon was out of sight, she turned on her heel and began walking towards the end of the market where we had come in, and from there she took me out of the village and back to the forest trail that would lead us home.

 

We had just entered the trees when she stopped and gazed back at the village, the scowl back on her face and her eyes hard.

 

“Dangerous. Hpmh,” she muttered angrily, then she looked at me and the hard expression faded away as she smiled.

 

I looked back at her, blinking, and my actions made her smile wider.

 

“Hiei,” she whispered, then turned her head almost completely to the side in order to kiss me on the cheek.

 

It was with that kiss, compiled with the softness of her gaze and the tenderness of her touch, that I realized the emotion that now came into her eyes whenever she looked at me was love.