Title: Tie Me to the Future
Author
: Tsubasa Kya
Disclaimer: Free your soul. Drink bitter lemon water. But that still doesn't make you own Inuyasha or Yu Yu Hakusho.


Chapter twentynine: Guilty Conscience

-Human World-

Kurama walked down the street watching car after car as he passed them all. The day threatened rain, heaven's tears. The atmosphere was gloomy and miserable and it wore on him as well. Two weeks had gone by since Kagome had disappeared and she had occupied his every thought since then.

Guilt filled his insides and threatened to make him vomit. Her disappearance had even affected his health, because he was afraid to eat or he really might vomit. The many wounds he'd gotten from the Realm of Opposites had healed unscarred thanks to a salve he had, but nothing could heal his soul. He was worried and it was his fault she was gone. If he had been a little quicker, she wouldn't have escaped, especially wounded as she was.

He felt even guiltier as the thought of Yusuke came to mind. He had to lie to Yusuke and say he'd never met the girl, but Yusuke knew differently. Kurama knew that Yusuke realized it was a lie, and it had caused a rift in the two's friendship. Yusuke had prowled the streets night after night, searching for her endlessly. His fear of her being involved in gang activity had even gotten him to get the police involved.

Everything about her had been researched by the police, but they turned up with nothing. They would have had something more substantial about her if Hiei hadn't told Kurama about what he'd done. When Hiei had heard the police were going to search her room, he had done so first, taking all things condemning out from a jar of Jewel of Four Souls shards to the poisons and antidotes in her dresser drawers and had replaced the empty drawers with clothing. Hiei's excuse was that he owed someone a favor.

Kurama sighed and wondered why she was on his mind so much. It was probably because failure had gone alongside her. His body had frozen back in the Realm of Opposites and he couldn't move as her screams filled the silent air around them. His fear had led to her pain and suffering and he couldn't forgive himself for it. He could still hear the echoing of her scream inside his mind. When he tried to sleep he saw her suffering, lying on the ground in a pool of her blood, begging for his help.

"Hey, Minamino!" Kurama looked around for the speaker of the bubbly voice and found it to be a young girl, one of the ones in his class. He wondered why he put himself through the pain of school in the first place. It was all nonsense anyway; a bunch of giggly girls and rowdy boys trying to get into an important college that doubtless they wouldn't get into anyway no matter how hard they tried.

He watched the young girl blush as she stopped in front of him. "Yes?" He asked her politely, since it really wouldn't do if he weren't polite. No matter how melancholy his day was turning out to be even though it had only just started, he had to play the part of a feckless boy with a plan. His plan had originally been to skip school and search for Kagome, but if it seemed he would end up going to class anyway.

"Well, I was wondering if I could walk with you to school?"

He wasn't surprised at all by the request. Girls swooned over him and guys hated him for the female behavior. It was mostly the reason he did not have any friends until Hiei had come along. A thief never makes friends anyway, he had told himself. Something inside him had felt sore at the prospect of no friends though. It was the boy spirit, Shuichi, who made him feel bad.

Kurama smiled slightly and inclined his head, then turned back around and continued walking this time with his hands in his pockets. The only problem with the image was that he wasn't at all feeling like he should smile. He did not feel happy. He did not want to smile. "Thank you, Minamino..." The girl said graciously. Kurama did not reply. He couldn't trust himself to do so politely. The girl was cute, but she just came at the very wrong time.


Input: Do you (the reader & reviewer) want Kagome to,

A) Ride the ferry across the river?
B) Go around?

How I have this worked out on paper is both ways, but I'm not typing up both versions. It would take too much time.

Uh, voting ends now. Sorry to cut this short and all, but Choice B is not going to win... not after I got thirty two votes alone just through my email reviewers...all asking for Choice A. I haven't gotten a single vote for going around...