Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Artemis, the American Girl ❯ Black Man ( Chapter 2 )

Black Man

Sakyo stared out the window.

`Time to say good-bye.' He looked down at the locket that he'd received from Artemis when she was still a small child. `I have nothing left to give. My love as a father seems to have run low. I'm sorry, but I can't hold onto a child if I can't feel anything for her. I hope this isn't going to kill her heart.' He looked up, into the dark sky. `My sweet child, are you safe from them? Did you make it home? Why haven't you called me? Was it because I slapped you on accident? Was it because I didn't hug you good-bye on the loading docks? What is the reason you don't call?'

He sighed and laid down on the bed. He closed his eyes and ran his fingers over his scared right eye.

`I'd given up, that was why, wasn't it? I had given up hope I could change my very own flesh and blood. I can't even spare myself pain. The scar proves so. I couldn't save Hina. I couldn't save your mother.'

His memories came fresh into mind.

~@~

"Sakyo! Please! Save them! Please! Save Seiryuu! Save Suzuku! Please!"

"Hina!"

"Sakyo! Please!"

The babies cries. The cries of death.

"Hina."

Her grave stood out in the white mists of the Koorime Island. Sakyo was ready to leave. Little Seiryuu at hand, he made his way to the entrance to the island.

"Seiryuu, stay here and protect mother. She needs your help. Please?"

~@~

`I couldn't save her, so they gave me a memento of what I could never do.'

~@~

"Sakyo, you baka!"
"Ruri, you don't understand!"

"I understand well enough!" She brought the dagger down onto him. "You killed Hina!"

"I didn't! She did it on her own!"

~@~

`Blood is all I receive from protecting what I love.' Sakyo's eyes opened. `I'm sure that's all I'll get this time if I try to save you from Him. If Sensui knew what you cried, he'd probably MAKE you cry. He'd probably make you cry those Gems of Fire. Just to please himself.' Sakyo sat up on the bed. `If only I could say good-bye, just once, I'd do it. I would say my farewell and let you go. Let you leave me alone, in the dark, like I've been for the past 2,000 years. I only wanted a light to follow. And I killed the light's hope. I have nothing. I'm sorry, sweet child.'

There was a knock at the door and the door broke down.

`They found me.'

~@~

Artemis was waiting by the phone the next morning. It rang. She answered.

"Hello?"

"Artemis?"

"Hullo, father."

For a short while there was nothing being said.

"Father?"

"Nothing. Um, look, the papers are coming, they'll say were your going next. I hope that you feel more comfortable with them than you are with me. Good luck, Artemis." He hung up.

"I'll try father." She put the receiver down. "I'm just going to have to pack my things." A tear gem slipped and fell to the floor. "I'm sorry, daddy."

~@~

Sakyo stood alone. He wasn't ready to, but he had signed the paper. Artemis would receive word that she was to arrive in Chicago.

There, Ototo and Karasu were to meet her and take her away. She was now gone from his life. The shining gold locket was in his hands. His Gems of Fire littered the roof top were he stood. His hands were shacking.

`Artemis.'

He heard her soft voice whisper for him to wait for her, then they whispered the one word he never wanted to hear. "Father, please wait for me."

`Father? Why am I suddenly father? What am I doing? I still love you, sweet child. Musume, you've gone where I can't follow. I can't follow you. Not any more, musume.'

(A/N: `musume' means daughter.)

The dark night air threw it's arms around Sakyo as he listened to the whispers from the past engulf him into his bitter sweet darkness. The roof top seemed to anchor him there. Where Artemis wasn't. Where she would never be. In a heart that would never find the courage to find her. A heart of a black man that never wanted to watch his light fade.

`My hope rests with Artemis. She is my ONLY hope. Musume, why can't I cry when I hear your voice straining to not cry for me? Why can't I tell you good-bye?'

"SAKYO!"

He snapped his hand shut and turned to face Ototo. His eyes became blue. He was ready to face this oaf who was taking his light, but he couldn't face his light. Not now. Not ever.