Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction / InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ One for the Ages ❯ Chapter Eighteen: Fall to Pieces ( Chapter 18 )

One for the Ages

By Gan Xingba

Chapter Eighteen: Fall to Pieces

 

Yusuke could see them dying, each one of them in the same flash of light. The memory was burned into his mind, and he paid no attention to where he was walking, not realizing that he was once again walking up a familiar mountain. His eyes were transfixed on the ground in front of him, and only when he saw the strange circular emblem engraved on the tile floor did he realize where he was.

 

“Damn it. Of all the places,” he mumbled, and turned to leave.

 

“Urameshi.”

 

Abruptly, Yusuke turned at the sound of Kuwabara's voice, shocked and joyous that his friend was still alive, but what he saw only threw him into further misery. Kuwabara was indeed there, but he looked almost transparent, and was floating several feat above the ground. Kuwabara was not alive, for he was a ghost.

 

“Why didn't you help me, Urameshi?” asked Kuwabara mournfully, as if he had been the victim of a terrible betrayal.

 

“Kuwabara…I'm sorry…I was in shock…I...” Yusuke tried to explain pleadingly, once again directing his gaze to the ground at his feet.

 

“Yet somehow, Kuwabara recovered and you did not,” came Kurama's voice as the fox demon's specter floated up from the ground to join Kuwabara. “There is no valid explanation for your inaction, Yusuke.”

 

“But…I…I tried…” Yusuke continued his increasingly desperate rationalization and doing a poor job of holding back tears as he faced his dead friends. “I really did…”

 

“Hn, trying isn't good enough,” scoffed Hiei as he now appeared beside Kurama. “I was wrong about you. You're as weak and unreliable as any other human. You disgust me.”

 

With that, the three of them turned and slowly began to float away from the surviving member of their team. By now, Yusuke's face was streaked with tears, and his voice was shaky as he called out after them.

 

“Wait! Guys, I'm sorry! Please don't go!” he begged, falling to his knees as they gave way underneath him. “Kurama! Hiei! Don't leave! Come on, Kuwabara, you've got to believe me! I did everything I could, I swear!”

 

Slowly, Kuwabara stopped as the other two continued onward. He then turned around to face his longtime friend and rival, the boy who had come to be almost like a brother to him since they first had started fighting demons together. Though as he looked at Yusuke, there was still that same look of a man betrayed in his sad eyes.

 

“The great Yusuke Urameshi is supposed to be able to do anything,” he said somberly. “So why couldn't you save us, Urameshi?”

 

Kuwabara then turned his back to his former teammate, and floated onward after the specters of the two demons, leaving Yusuke kneeling on the ground. By now he was sobbing, no longer even trying to hold it back.

 

“It's all my fault…” he whispered to himself as his sobs began to slow down. “Not Kagome's, not the stupid well's, it's my fault. They're all dead because of me!”

 

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“Yusuke! Wake up!”

 

Slowly, Yusuke opened his eyes and saw the concerned face of Keiko Yukimura looking down at him. He sat up and looked around, rubbing his eyes. He was not at the temple where he had fought and defeated Naraku, he was in a modern bedroom, sitting in a comfortable bed. Keiko was standing beside his bed, but he did not recognize this as her home.

 

“You were having a nightmare,” said Keiko, trying to ease Yusuke's no doubt troubled mind. “But whatever it was, it wasn't real. You're back in Tokyo at Kagome's shrine. She didn't know where you lived, so she just brought you here.”

 

Yusuke nodded and stared down silently at the bed for a long time. At last, he looked at Keiko, her expression still one of the utmost concern.

 

“They're dead, Keiko. Kurama, Hiei, and Kuwabara…they're all dead,” he stated with a level, yet decidedly sorrowful voice.

 

“I know, Yusuke,” she replied sadly. “Kagome told Botan what happened, and then she told me. Yusuke, if I know you, then you're probably blaming yourself, but there was nothing you or anyone else could have done.”

 

“And if I know you, you're saying that because you think it will make me feel better,” he responded and began to once again stare blankly at the bedcovers. “But it's the truth. It's my fault, Keiko.”

 

“Yusuke, don't ev-”

 

“Just leave me alone.”

 

“Bu-”

 

“Just leave, Keiko. Nothing you can say is gonna' help me.”

 

Realizing that Yusuke was determined to wallow in his own misery alone, Keiko sighed and walked towards the door to the room. She looked back over her shoulder just before the door to see Yusuke gazing down at the bed like a statue, and shaking her head, she opened the door and preceded the hallway and down the stairs where Kagome and Inuyasha were waiting.

 

“How is he?” asked Kagome as Keiko sat herself down on the bottom step.

 

“Not too good. I think he could develop a serious case of survivor's guilt,” answered Keiko. “He may be like this for months.”

 

No one spoke for a few moments, for there was, in truth, nothing that required conversation. The silence was broken by the opening of the front door and the footsteps that followed as Botan walked into the room looking no more cheerful than anyone else.

 

“I'm sorry I took so long getting back,” she apologized, trying to wipe some dried tears away from her eyes. “I had to deliver the news to Shizuru, and I just couldn't leave her alone when she was crying like she was.”

 

After a few more moments of silence, Botan spoke again.

 

“Oh, by the way, I have to ask: how did Yusuke made it back to our time?” she inquired half-heartedly. “Koenma will want to know.”

 

“He fell down the well,” recalled Kagome, now realizing how strange that was. “He had a jewel shard with him when he fell, but he still shouldn't have been transported back here…”

 

“That's very strange…” the ferry girl responded, putting her hand up to her chin in thought. “Well, perhaps Koenma will be able to explain when he gets here. He said he would come here as soon as possible.”

 

“Well, I suppose it's a good thing that my family is off seeing relatives,” commented Kagome. “I'm not sure how they'd react to seeing the ruler of the Spirit World in our house.”

 

Once again, the four were left with nothing to say, and so the house remained silent as they waited for Koenma to arrive.

 

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Yusuke was not alone in feeling responsible for what happened the day before. In fact, he had a far less legitimate sense of guilt than others, namely Sango. Though there was nothing she could have done to prevent it, it had been her presence on the battlefield that had doomed Hiei, and she knew it. The realization that he had sacrificed himself to save her was a terrible thing for her to take, and she had quickly isolated herself from everyone that remained in the village that would one day be Tokyo after Inuyasha and Kagome had followed Yusuke down the well, sleeping alone under the stars outside Kaede's hut.

 

The next morning, she awoke with the rising sun, and, not feeling the slightest bit hungry, decided to go for a walk to calm herself. It was a failed attempt. She had only made it to the tree where she had last spoken to Hiei when she broke down. Fighting to try and control the streams of tears that poured from her eyes and muffle her sobs, she sat down and leaned against the tree in the same position she had done two nights ago.

 

`You were right after all, Hiei' she thought, closing her eyes in an attempt to clear her head. `Attachments do drag you down. They kill you, just like I killed you.'

 

She looked out at the small stream in front of her as it sparkled with the light of the sun as it began its ascent to the heavens. For a while, all she could feel was guilt, but as she forced herself to think about what had happened, a new thought occurred to her.

 

`But if you truly didn't believe in attachments, then you wouldn't have saved me, would you?' she realized. `You liar. You were trying to convince yourself as much as me that night. You were afraid about how you felt, so you tried to convince yourself that you felt nothing at all. You turned out just to be a big hypocrite in the end, though.'

 

As someone who understood Hiei, Sango knew exactly how significant his actions were. The number of people that Hiei would willingly sacrifice his own life for was so small it was almost nonexistent, and Sango realized that being one of those people meant that she had been far more important to Hiei than the demon would ever have admitted in life. Figuring this out only made her cry harder, however, for the things left unsaid in life always seem to cause pain in death. Eventually, though, there were no more tears for her to shed, and her weeping slowed to a halt. Mere moments after she had regained her composure, Miroku came walking over towards the tree, and when he noticed her tears, his expression turned to one of scrutinizing concern.

 

“It seems that the likes of us cannot escape such tragedy, can we?' he said as he sat himself down several feet to her left.

 

“No, we can't,” Sango replied shaking her head. “But t least now that Naraku is dead, no one else can suffer like we have.”

 

“Unfortunately, that is not the case. My Wind Tunnel is still here, so Naraku yet lives.” corrected Miroku, now watching Sango intently for her reaction to this news. “

 

“No! He's still alive?” Sango said in bewilderment, gaping at Miroku as if he had just said some inconceivable blasphemy. “How is that even possible.”

 

“Luck, and a strong will to live would be guess,” ventured Miroku as Sango wiped away the dried tears on her face, suddenly becoming more alert. “I'm afraid Yusuke may have to wait for his vengeance.”

 

“It's the vengeance of each and every one of us,” amended Sango with a sudden fire in her voice. “He has to pay for he's done.”

 

Now, Miroku, though he gave off the appearance of someone of confidence, was fraught with self doubt over many issues. Chief among these was that he was not good enough for the woman whom he held most dear. He had displayed this by his inability to tell said woman how he truly felt, outside of his usual perverted gimmicks, of course. It was only natural, then, that he would come to assume the worst of his chances should another man vie for the woman's heart. In fact, he had done just that when a young noble had stepped onto the playing field not so long ago.

 

It was because of this that Miroku could no longer look at Sango after her sudden and passionate reaction, for, to him, it confirmed the awful suspicion that had been swirling around in his mind. Everything was making sense. The way Sango had thrown herself into the line of fire for Hiei at Naraku's castle, how she had always defended him when his character was put into question, how she had been so sullen when the Spirit Detectives were about to leave forever, and now, the last piece was fitting into place.

 

When she said that Naraku had to pay, she had not meant for his hundreds of other monstrous acts, Miroku concluded that she had been thinking about one specific thing: the death of Hiei, which could only mean the worst about her feelings for the fire demon. One might think that Miroku would see his chances improving with Hiei gone, but this was not the case, for Hiei had died while saving Sango's life. Had he simply departed back to his time without showing a hint of regret, as Miroku had both hoped and expected him to do a day ago, then there was a chance, no, it was certain, that Sango's thoughts would move on from the fire demon, and Miroku would once again have a fighting chance. With this sacrificial death, however, one that revealed the unthinkable truth of how Hiei felt about the demon slayer, the fire demon would remain the sole occupant of Sango's heart. Though he had prayed that this would not be the case, Miroku could come to no other conclusion after seeing Sango's reaction just a moment ago.

 

“Well, I'm glad that your spirit still seems to be intact. That's good,” said the monk, smiling softly at Sango before he raised himself up with his staff, but as he left, he said something else quietly, though Sango could still hear it clearly. “He would have wanted you to be happy.”

 

Sango turned abruptly upon hearing these last words, her eyes wide with startled recognition. Ashamedly, she had not given much thought to whether or not Miroku had noticed the same thing that she had. Now, to the greatening of Sango's guilt, Miroku was walking away, both in body, and in soul.

 

“Miroku!” she called after him, silently pleading that he would at least stop and give them a chance to talk, but the monk walked on as if she had said nothing at all.

 

`I'm sorry, Sango,' thought the monk, using every once of willpower he had not to turn at the sound of her calling his name. `But if I'm just second place, then there's no way that you could ever truly be happy with me. So, I'm afraid it's time to put to rest this little dream of mine.'

 

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For over an hour, Inuyasha, Kagome, Keiko and Botan had tried to distract themselves while waiting for Koenma to arrive. Making conversation proved impossible, and any attempt was met with awkward silence. To no one's great surprise but everyone's disappointment, Yusuke had shown no sign of coming down from his temporary room. Not so much as a sound could be heard from the floor above. At last, a knock could be heard on the front door to the home.

 

“Be right there,” called Botan as she scurried anxiously over to the front hall, followed quickly by the other three.

 

When Botan opened the door, neither Kagome nor Inuyasha knew quite how to react. They had expected the ruler of Spirit World to look lordly, or at the very least menacing, but what they saw before them could only be described as simply odd. The body of Koenma was that of a young man, with a lean build and short brown hair. The red cape he wore with his red tunic and the steeled look in his eyes would have made him seem almost dashing, but whatever of that quality he had was utterly ruined by the strange “JR” tattoo on his forehead and the fact that he had, of all things, a pacifier in his mouth.

 

“I apologize for my tardiness, I had a mess of paperwork from…ah, but that's not important,” he began as he stepped through the open doorway, and then shifted his gaze towards the gawking Kagome and Inuyasha. “I'm assuming that you two are Kagome and Inuyasha. I'm sorry we have to meet in such terrible circumstances, but I am glad to make your acquaintance nonetheless.”

 

Inuyasha just nodded dumbly while Kagome exchanged the sentiment. No matter how the half-demon tried, he simply could not stop looking at that pacifier. With the greetings taken care of, the group moved into the kitchen where everyone save Inuyasha took a seat at the table. He sat on the counter.

 

“Koenma, sir,” began Botan respectfully. “You asked me to find out how Yusuke managed to get back to this time period. Well, apparently, he just fell through the well with a piece of the Sacred Jewel in his pocket.”

 

“Odd…” commented Koenma, stroking his chin, apparently in deep thought, and then addressed Kagome and Inuyasha. “Only you two con travel through the well in your experience, correct?”

 

“Yeah, that's right,” answered Kagome. “Yusuke shouldn't have been transported back here. It doesn't make sense.”

 

“Actually, it makes plenty of sense for Yusuke…” Koenma murmured, and then suddenly stopped as though just realizing he had said that out loud.

 

“What do you mean?” asked Inuyasha curiously, ever the suspicious one.

 

“Well, how is it that you are able to pass through the well?” Koenma put forth rather quickly, drawing a suspicious glance from Botan.

 

“I…um…uh…” fumbled Inuyasha as he racked his brain for a piece of information he clearly did not posses.

 

“Exactly my point,” continued Koenma hastily, with just a tiny bit of relief in his voice that made Botan's suspicion only more apparent. “No one knows what lets one pass through the well. It makes sense to me that Yusuke can pass through the well, which is apparently an ability that is based largely on luck, because he tends to be extremely lucky in these circumstances. A rather good trait, wouldn't you say?”

 

Kagome, Inuyasha and Keiko nodded slowly, not knowing Koenma well enough to realize that he was acting suspiciously. Botan, however, was not fooled for an instant, and she made a mental note to find out what the deity was hiding as soon as she got the chance.

 

“Well, I suppose we should get to the real reasons I've come here, aside from checking on Yusuke's well being, of course,” continued Koenma, acting as businesslike as possible. “The first thing you should know is that Yusuke will no longer be accompanying you in the feudal era. Th-”

 

“What? How come?” blurted Kagome only to quickly silence herself and flush slightly with embarrassment at having interrupted the ruler of the afterlife.

 

“I was getting to that. You didn't think that someone as important as me would do something without a reason, did you?” said Koenma with an amused smile at Kagome's embarrassment while Botan rolled her eyes at Koenma's boastfulness. “The fact is that we simply can't afford to lose Yusuke on a mission that, no offense, is merely of secondary importance to us. Yusuke is now the Human World's sole defense against the supernatural at the moment due to the deaths of his teammates.”

 

“I'm not so sure,” voiced Inuyasha, drawing everyone's stares. “They…they might not be dead.”

 

“You mean they could still be alive?” Botan asked hopefully, momentarily forgetting about Koenma's suspicious behavior.

 

“And where did you come up with this idea?” Koenma inquired, leaning forward in his seat and staring piercingly at the half-demon.

 

“Well…I've just been thinking about what happened, and it doesn't make much sense,” Inuyasha started to explain, shifting himself slightly and scratching an itch on the back of his head. “For starters, when they were blasted, I didn't smell any ash, and I've never seen anything so strong that it doesn't leave any remains.”

 

“What else did you notice, Inuyasha?” asked Kagome, sensing Inuyasha's hesitation.

 

“The ground where they had been standing on after they were hit. After the light died down, the ground was exactly the same. No crater, no burn marks, no nothin',” continued Inuyasha, his voice gradually gaining confidence. “Yeah, and when Kuwabara tried to hit the blast with his Spirit Sword, it just passed through! It was like it wasn't a normal energy blast, but somethin' different.”

 

Everyone waited as Koenma took a second to take this all in. After a few moments of silent thinking, he turned towards Kagome.

 

“Tell me, Miss Higurashi, at what point in the ceremony did Naraku take the jewel?” he questioned, his voice tense with anticipation.

 

“Towards the end,” replied the girl. “The archway had just started to sort of crackle with energy.”

 

Once again, Koenma paused to digest this information. However, this time it seemed to be taking longer than usual for him to do so. Everyone surmised that this must be a very complex matter, for he had now begun to chew intently on his pacifier and his eyes had narrowed as he stared off into space.

 

“Wait, that spell was supposed to send them back to our time, right?” chimed in Keiko, who up until now had merely observed the conversation pensively. “So, if it were interrupted before it was done, then wouldn't the jewel be sort of partially infused with the time travel spell?”

 

“I suppose that might make sense…what is it that you're thinking, Miss Yukimura?” responded Koenma, eager to see where she was going with this idea.

 

“Maybe that demon only thought that the jewel had become more powerful. Maybe that blast of energy wasn't really a deadly attack, but a blast that would send them to another time using the incomplete spell that was still infused in it,” reasoned Keiko, leaving everyone staring at her, totally dumbfounded by what she had just said. “Or does that not make sense? I'm still not totally sure about some of the things spirit energy can do…”

 

For a few awkward seconds, everyone just stared at her, and Keiko had a sinking feeling that she really had no idea what she was talking about. Fortunately, just as she thought this, Botan's face was suddenly lit up in a gleeful smile

 

“Keiko, you're a genius!” declared the ferry girl happily. “I always knew you were the smart one!”

 

“I have to agree, that theory is entirely plausible. In fact, the odds are extremely good of that being what actually happened,” concurred Koenma with a nod. “However, while it is good that Kuwabara, Kurama and Hiei may still be alive, I'm afraid that it really isn't that much better.”

 

“How isn't that better than them being dead?” snapped Inuyasha, whose usual rudeness had also returned.

 

“Well, you see, at that point in the spell, the energies involved are very unstable,” Koenma started to surmise. “Unfortunately, this means that they could have been transported to any time period you could imagine. What's more, the spell may even have been unstable enough to transport them through space as well. In other words they could be any number of places at any point in time, and finding them, I'm afraid, would be next to impossible.”

 

“So…then nothing changes…” concluded Botan miserably, the smile on her face having once again retreated.

 

“I'm afraid not, and it is for this reason that I please ask you do not tell Yusuke of this,” stated Koenma, who continued quickly before Keiko could protest. “If he finds out, then I have no doubt that he will try and find them without rest, which he will find an impossible task. He may lose his very sanity in the process, and I don't think any of us would want that.”

 

Everyone nodded slowly in agreement, and Koenma then moved on to the other reason why he had come to see them. It turned out that he had managed to work out a full pardon for Kagome and Inuyasha, although it had a provision that Inuyasha voiced grievance against. Essentially, Koenma explained that, should they ever gather all the shards of the Shikon Jewel, they could not abuse it by using it to give them power, meaning that Inuyasha could not use it to become a full demon. Eventually, Inuyasha had realized that he would get nowhere by arguing, and had grudgingly abandoned what had once been his greatest desire.

 

“Well, that settles that,” said Koenma thankfully when Inuyasha had at last stopped arguing. “Now, all that's left is to check on Yusuke.”

 

Right on cue, the sound of a door opening and shutting could be heard, and everyone rose and headed to the staircase, which Yusuke was now descending.

 

“It's good to see that you are all right Yusuke,” greeted Koenma, to which the boy merely grunted. “If you're worried I'm here to put you back on the case, you can stop. As far as Spirit World is concerned, this case is closed.”

 

“Yeah, and guess what? You can close any other stupid cases you have too, `cause I quit,” Yusuke growled, glaring at Koenma with what seemed like pure hatred.

 

“Wha-You can't quit, Yusuke!” stammered Koenma in disbelief. “You're the only Spirit Detective we have! If you quit, then there's no one left to protect the Human World!”

 

“Well that's your problem, isn't it?” barked Yusuke harshly. “Now get outa' my way.”

 

Without another word, Yusuke shoved the shocked deity out of his way, stormed through the hallway, and walked right out the front door, slamming it behind him. Koenma, whose shoulder had collided harshly with the wall, rubbed it out of instinct as he gazed off in the direction Yusuke had gone with absolute astonishment.

 

“We can't let this happen,” he said suddenly, his voice now panicked. “He can't quit...if disaster strikes, I have no one left to turn to…”

 

“If we could somehow find the others, then I'm sure he'd be back to normal,” proposed Botan assuredly. “Koenma, sir, are you sure that there is no way we can find them?”

 

“Aside from getting luckier than I care to think about, I'm afraid so, Botan,” said Koenma, shaking his head sadly. “All we can hope is that, wherever they are, they manage to live out their lives in peace.”