I can only hope...

Sagashita. (Found.)
by Yui Miyamoto

 

To one side of me, I heard, "Miss? Miss?"
I opened my eyes and blinked to look up at the face in front of me. "Aren't you Lady Kaede?"
"Why, yes," the old woman answered as she took my hand to pick me up. "How did you know my name?"
I just knew...I felt it. But I was so disillusioned that I didn't even answer her but immediately sputtered out, "Someone told me he was here."
With a perturbed and confused look on her face, she asked, "Who is 'he'?"
I got up and looked around about the room and out through the window. "They told me whoever I described must be known to the high priestess Kaede."
"Who?" she repeated.
"I do not know." I looked down into my hands embarrassed. "He is the man who I saw out in the river."
At that moment, a boy with long white hair and dog ears appeared at the entrance of the little house. "Old woman, when did you say Kagome was coming back?"
My tired eyes opened wide in shock. "It's him."
Like a crazy woman, I ran to him and patted his shoulders in a frenzy. "It's you!"
"Who the hell are you?!" He pushed me away. "Stop touching me!"
"Though you answer harshly, I know you are kind," I continued to say while bowing, "There is no mistaking it. I know this voice."
"What the hell are you talking about?!"
I looked straight into his eyes. "You look like the man whom I helped out while he was unconscious."
"Bah. I-I do not know what you are talking about." He turned around.
I began to cry. "I know you do not know who I am, but I came because people said maybe the half-youkai with white hair would know and his name was Inuyasha."
I then caught his shoulder and whispered, "Can I talk with you alone?"
With a humph, he answered with a reluctant nod. "Okay."
Behind the village, we travelled deep into the forest and stopped by a river. I dipped my hands into the cold water to wash my face.
"Okay, speak up," he said impatiently.
"I did not want to embarrass you."
"Embarrass? Me? Ha."
With averted eyes, I reply, "You turned human that evening, didn't you?"
He glared at me. "What are you talking about?"
I ran and threw my arms around him. "And from that time I wanted to be with you."
When I stared into his eyes, he started to blush and become flustered. "B-but I-I d-don't kow w-w-who you're talking about."
I let him go and began really sobbing and turning away from him. "Y-you..."
In a moment of silence, I turn around and bow. "I'm sorry to have made a fool out of myself. I just thought you knew the long haired man who dressed you. He saved me years ago without knowing it."
"Until then," I turn to walk away. "I will wander until I find him. I want to thank him."
"That guy could have died for all you know." Puzzled, he asked, "But why?"
My head pointed in his direction. "Because I love him."
Raindrops slowly fell from my face and I bowed. Then, I continued on my journey. "Thank you and I'm sorry to have troubled you."
"Wait! Wait!" he called after me.
I stopped but didn't turn around. "Yes, sir?"
"Where did you meet him?"
"South. Maybe because he was also wandering." I could not control the pounding in my heart. Just talking about him made me feel this way. Maybe it was because after holding it for so long, it began to gush out like a waterfall that was kept by such a weak dam.
Half turning, I tried one last time. "Are you sure you are not him? He is a half demon you see, and then I saw a human in his place."
Inuyasha still showed no sign of remembering anything if it was he. "What happened to him?"
"There were other demons approaching me, but he was walking through at the time. Before I could get away, he fought them, never seeing me before him. All he heard were the Shikon Jewels and-"
"You know about them?"
"Yes."
"But how?"
"That is my secret. If I tell you that now, I will die." I look off and kneel by the river. "But then he said something and they were shredded by blood. Before he got a hold of himself, he fainted. I gave him water and washed his clothing. Before I left that morning, I gave him a gold bracelet of mine that would protect him from harm."
The one called Inuyasha held his arm out to mewith his sleeve rolled and said, "Is it this?"
In shock, my eyes glanced in panic from his face to the bracelet. "It is you!"
I embraced him tightly. "Oh, how far I've travelled to meet you, my Lord! It's been years. Many years!"
He didn't try to push me away this time.
"So you were the one who- but you can't be!"
"..." I folded my hands and clenched them tightly.
"But I've had this for more than 25 years!" He shook his head and then pushed me away from him. "You couldn't look this young and have given it to me! Are you a demon?!"
"Of course not. If I was, wouldn't you have already sensed it?"
"You're right." His defensive look faded a bit. "But you have a strange presence around you, woman."
"I am not a demon, but if I say why, I will die. Please forgive me."
"So that's how you've lasted this long."
"But she won't for long," a voice answered behind us.
"I'll make it easier on you, Inuyasha." We looked up towards the branches above us. "Just give her to me, half-breed."
"What do you want with her?!" he screamed.
"If I told you foolish mutt, then you'd want her too."
I immediately ran away.
"Don't go!" Inu-Yasha cried in back of me. "Stupid woman!"
"Demon of fire-breathing and camouflaging. Handsome boy with the yellow eyes! Show your true form!"
Pushing throught the woods I slipped off the cliff. I close my eyes thinking it's for the best.
Inuyasha grabbed me and jumped while grabbing my waist.
"You can't die now, woman! Not until you've only told me half a story!" He then looked at me. "Well now, how the fuck do you defeat him?! He's been bruised, hit and pulverized. I pulled his liver out, tried the claws of blood..."
With evil slits for eyes, I answered in a monotonous tone, "This time, you leave him to me."
"What?" He then looked at me. "This should be interesting."
We reached the ground and gave him smile. "Remember? I still owe you one. Grab my hands and put yours over mine."
Crossed our arms over my chest, I started to chant.
"I will use my aura and yours, so you may feel weak."
"Okay."
"Stationary?" The youkai dashed to scratch his way into me.
"Akuryutaisen!" It was caught in a mental bubble. Crystal ice shot through its body and it disappeared.
Using too much of my aura, I fainted to the ground.
"Hey, you!"

When I awoke, it was nearing sunset. Inuyasha sat there next to me. I smiled wistfully at him.
He blushed and looked away.
Just then, Lady Kaede also sat beside me and started to wipe my forehead, but Inuyasha did it instead. "You stupid woman. You over exerted yourself."
Lady Kaede pats my shoulder. "I see you've woken up. First off, what is your name?"
"Yukari."
"You have something glowing inside of you."
In nervousness, I looked at her with a pleading expression. "Please do not say it aloud. I will be greatly punished."
"I had this figured out when you first woke up yesterday." Looking sympathetically at me and running her fingers through my hair, she consoled, "Do not fear, child...but you are one special human."
But I knew that was more than sympathy. From the look in her eyes, I knew what was going to happen.
I sleepily replied, "Because I wanted to find him...Just because I had to see him again."

"What is with her? I feel the presence of the Shikon Jewel with her, but she'll not say." Inuyasha said to the old woman outside while thinking I was asleep. "Why is she so stubborn?"
"This coming from one who does the same thing?" Lady Kaede retorted half in a joke.
"Humph."
"It's so creepy when I come here at night. But no! Inuyasha told me I had to." A girl appears and walks towards them.
I stirred when I heard her voice.
"Kagome, you idiot. I told you..." Inuyasha says.
So that's Kagome?
I sit up with much difficulty and Inuyasha rushes to aid me. "You shouldn't get up so fast, woman."
After telling him my name and he still is like this...
Kagome walked in and gasped with her hands to her face. In a blunder, she confusedly said, "I thought humans couldn't use the Jewel of Four Souls."
Inuyasha looked into my face. "You had it in you and you are not in the slightest a demon?"
"Don't get next to me." I gasped for air and grabbed my heart. "Can't breathe..."
A bubble of ice shatters around me. Blood trinckles down my face. "I'm sorry to be rude, young woman."
I return to look at her sorrowfully in the eye. "But because of your remark, I am subject to a punishment worse than death."
"What's happened to you?!" Inuyasha just watched me.
I cried in panic. "Flee, Inuyasha! You must go before you..."
Defiantly, he countered, "I'm not going anywhere."
"Please." Shatter. Cough. Fire surrounded me and faded after burning in my hands. "Leave!"
"I will not leave! I am not a coward!"
"Then you leave me no choice." Holding a ward, I chanted and say, "Sayonara."
"Where did you go?!" Inuyasha screamed.
Inuyasha, still knowing he was in danger, ran in haste to find me.
Lady Kaede pulled Kagome's arm as she ran behind him. And, she shook her head.
Kagome was lost, as usual.

It began to rain and I lied in the cold cave both in fear and apprehension. "It is only a matter of time."
I cringed in even more pain. The haunting voice when I was a child began to repeat in my head, "There is a story of..."
Inuyasha entered the cave. "Yuriko..."
"Stay back." I pulled backwards. "Don't get near me! Not now Inuyasha!"
"You are not going to die. No matter who comes. You're a fool to think so." He held out his hand to me. "You're talking nonsense."
The rain poured harder and harder outside the cave.
I hesitantly take a hold of it. "Inuyasha..."
My eyes still watched him, but with much in question.
In that moment, the moon shone and Inuyasha's hair turned pure black. Again, he became the human I had once helped. The one who had saved me without even knowing it...

When the rain began to fade, we walked out of the cave.
A few steps later, I stopped in front of him.
"It is time."
"For what?" he asked while still holding my hand.
With the tears in my eyes rolling down, I slapped his hand away. "I'm so sorry."
"What?"
I fell to the ground and sprang back up.
"I'm not going to fight you!" He backed up.
I run forward as he dashed backwards. "What are you afraid of, half-breed?"
"Yukari, you've got to fight it!"
"I'm trying!" Tripping, I drop to my knees and scraped my hands and knees in the process
Grabbing my head, I scream inhumanly, "Get out of my head!"
But the youkai within me forced me to rise and again I started to attack him with every hit being more painful than the last.
"Don't you know why I've lasted this long?" I said in a menacing tone.
"You have a shikon jewel." Dodge. Dodge.
Swing. Swing. "I am a counter. It is a part of me. I am the shikon jewel's anti-"
"I'm not going to hit you!"
Jab. Punch. Kick. Dodge. Dodge. Dodge.
Able to regain conscious of my hands, I took his shoulders and shook him. "You've got to kill me while I'm like this! This jewel absorbs auras!"
"I cannot!" Shaking his head, he shouted again. "I won't do it! There must be some other way!"
"You must! It's hurting me enough to hurt you-" I began to stranggle him. "You're too soft on me, stupid half-youkai. It'll be too easy letting his pathetic human's heart hurt your own."
The mechant look reappeared and I pointed to the ground. My right hand had a crystal in it.
I thrust it as my mind screamed in its corners, "Noo!!"
My sense was still within my left hand. Struggling to overpower the evil, I built up all my strength and thrust it...
...into my heart.
"Yukari!"
With blood running down his hands and my heart, I smiled back at him.
"It's over." I whispered. "Even if our time together was short, I will treasure it."
He held me in his arms to him.
"With that bracelet I gave you...I gave you half of my power...half of my life."
He shook his head and clutched onto me even harder.. "No..."
"Inuyasha, I'll always protect you." I cupped half of his face with my hand and closed my eyes. "Always."
The counter jewel pieces in my heart fell into his hands and disintegrated into the bracelet.
Without glancing up, I wiped his tears. "Don't cry."
He who did not cry, cried for me. "Just let me ask this, how did you last so long?"
"That's too simple of a question, Inuyasha." Smiling, I answered, "I hand to survive so that I could find you. After all, the shikon jewel works on demons. I fell in love with one who's half."

When I looked up to the entrance of the Higashi shrine, there was this person with the weirdest clothing on. I couldn't see his face because of the sun shining into my eyes.
The girl named Kagome, who goes to my school, waves to that boy and says, "Oh, so you're here to pick me up, Inuyasha."
For a moment, I stop to stare at the boy who's face I couldn't see.
"Yuki?" my friend asks, "Why are you stopping?"
I shake my head. "Nothing.
Then, I got a glance of the boy...who had dog ears.
"Why are you smiling, Yuki?"
He looked down at me wistfully.
"I don't know."
In a weird moment, I waved at him and walked on.

Why'd I do that? I'm so weird...

I don't know.

I've never seen him in my whole life.

--
Author's note: Originally, I had ended this much sadder, but I didn't want to do that.
I really like this fic and I can't believe I forgot about it for the longest time. With a few touches, I think it was better than what I had written originally.
Hope you enjoyed it!