Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Forever ❯ Forever ( Chapter 1 )

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Disclaimer: These lovely demons are not mine. If they were, one of them wouldn't have died. The song Forever, which is where the prompt came from, is property of Papa Roach. I make no money off of these.

Hesitant, soft steps approached the bamboo thicket. There was no sound, save for the heavy breathing of one body, the soft rustle of dead leaves and twigs under his feet, and the occasional brush of the wind though silver and black hair. Darkness was all around, closing around the searching one like a thick quilt, oppressive in its closeness. The mist in the air was cool against his skin, seeping into the pristine whiteness of his clothing and feeling damp in his silver hair. But what was most prominent was the smell and taste in the air. The smell and taste of coppery blood was strong, nearly strong enough to make the battle-hardened kitsune vomit entirely. He struggled to hold it back, barely succeeding.

Each step he took brought him closer to what he sought, but he feared finding it at the same time. He didn’t want the events of the previous night to be true. He didn’t want his act of cowardice to have happened. He didn’t want the smell of blood clinging to him, not this blood. Never this blood. He had hoped the positions would be reversed, if the event did indeed have to occur for them.

Finally his hesitant but consistent steps brought him to the scene. His breath caught in his throat, choked as a sob, at the sight that lay before him. The body of the one he loved, impaled on bamboo spears, hung in front of him like a morbid rag doll, dried blood surrounding him and trickling out the corner of his mouth. Wings that once held him in the air were punctured profusely, never to bear their owner aloft ever again.

The sight of his companion suspended in the air by such grotesque means forced the kitsune to collapse to his knees. It was true. He had run away like a coward. He did indeed kneel in the blood of the one he had loved for fifty years… a blink of an eye to hiyoukai like himself.

“Ku… Kuronue?” he whispered, holding to that last shred of hope that the blood soaking the ground and into his clothing wasn’t enough lost to kill the coumori demon. The long silence, broken only by the wind rushing by, was his answer… and an answer he didn’t want.

“No!” he wailed hopelessly. “He can’t be dead! Not him! Not my bat! Please, Inari! Please, let this be just a test for us!”

He could feel the hot tears trailing down his face, burning his golden eyes and turning his vision white. He didn’t know it then, but those would be the last tears he would ever shed.

He knelt in the blood of his beloved for hours, until dawn broke. The rising of the sun saw the kitsune rise stiffly and hobble over to the coumori. He stood there for a long moment before taking a piece of grass and using it as a blade to cut him down. Before long the silver haired one held his bat in his arms, tenderly pulling the bamboo out of his body and tending his wounds as though he was still alive. His tears served to clean them, for they had not halted during the night.

“My bat… my love…” he whimpered, wiping his tears from where they had fallen on the other’s face. “Forever mine… and forever yours…” He leaned down to press a final kiss against already deathly cold lips… lips that had been cold in life but would warm to his touch would never again be scorching hot again. “Rest in peace, and please find it in your heart to forgive my shameful cowardice.”

He gathered the body against his chest, his head against his shoulder as though he was only sleeping, and walked away from the area. He would return later to exact his revenge on those who dared kill the coumori Kuronue, First Love of Yoko Kurama, known from that day as Yoko of the Black Rose of Mourning.