Garden of Fate

Chapter 4

So here we are. This may or may not be the last chapter. Who knows? I certainly don't. Anyway, I think I might press myself to finish it here. So read on, gentle friend, read on. And remember, nothing is as it appears...

Final Decisions

...the vision hit him with more force than any of the others. It felt as if he were actually there, not just an onlooker from the sides. And another difference; this came in two parts. The other visions had shown him one time, and no later dates. This gave him two time frames. The very implications set his head spinning...

Spirit world, but not the huge, dark halls of Koenma's palace. This place was a room in a temple, larger than the halls of the palace. Large windows let in the ethereal light of Spirit World, and small creatures of magical origin danced in the sunshine that came from nowhere and everywhere at once. Bright banners and long garlands of flowers covered the walls, and it seemed there was no corner not floating in a pool of incense from the braziers devoted to the five elements. Kuwabara stood at Yusuke's side, dressed in robes in festive colors. Yusuke was likewise dressed, as were the rest of the guests. Kurama and his kitsune wife sat close to Yukina and Hiei, who for once wore a slight smile on his face. Koenma presided, with Genkai helping in the ceremony. Yusuke's heart was ready to bus. As Keiko, dressed in a long flowing gown with exquisite embroidery, and beaming like the sun, walked in He felt that he would die right there and be happy. Today he married Keiko, having finally earned the right to say he was master of his skills, and sure of whom he really was. Koenma started the wedding as Keiko came close and held Yusuke's hand...

...years later. Yusuke's oldest son and oldest daughter were preparing for their first real mission alone. It broke his heart to send them, and Keiko had fought desperately against it, but it was part of the deal. As demons found that the Spirit Detective had children, liabilities, they would have been attacked constantly. Koenma made Yusuke a deal: train his eldest children in what was now the 'family business' and he would protect the family. So they agreed, and now he felt as if he was sending his fifteen-year-old twins to their deaths...

Yusuke stumbled back and shook his head clear of the vision. All in all, he thought, the vision was fine. Of course the pain of sending his children away would hurt, but there was happiness. He bent over and took the rose, but the pain In Keiko's eyes as their children walked into the portal to demon world hung heavy on his heart, and he wondered what would happen to them...

Back outside the garden Past spoke her words again, the intonation somehow sad this time. But this time, before Present could send Hiei into the garden Future chimed a prophesy in her child's voice. "No choice can end well. Making no choice is a choice in itself. Beware fits of temper." Her sisters turned their heads toward Future, shocked that she would give advice before someone entered the garden. Never before had this happened, and the mild warning must hold immense portent for Future to break precedence and speak out. Hiei held his head high and turned a disdainful glare on the sister. "Keep your advice to yourself, seer. I do not need your veiled advice." With that he walked into the garden, leaving the three alone with the mist.

Yusuke followed the path out of the garden and found Kurama. No words passed between them, only a look of mutual understanding that both had sacrifices to make, and both knew it would be that much harder to make them when the time came. Their feet had been set on the path and there was now no turning back. Almost as one they sat, watching the exit from the garden and almost hoping that Hiei would come out without the burdens they now carried.

Hiei wandered among the roses, fuming. In every future shown either himself or one of the people he refused to say he cared about was dead, or worse. He saw Yukina tortured in a million different ways and lived to survive those same horrors, only to wake up screaming in the nights following with the guilty nightmares. In a few he killed her himself, whether it was in pity or self-preservation. Sometimes he massacred all his friends in a fit of rage that seemed to bubble out of nowhere. Worse yet he could not vent his rage because the roses were so close that he could not even draw his sword without cutting several off at once. Then, from that anger came the solution. He slowly drew his sword and held three rose stems in his hand...

Present began to cry, seeing what Hiei did and unable to stop it. Future huddled and cried child-like tears. She could not see into his future now. All was clouded, and hidden from her sight. Past only sat and anticipated what was to come, not knowing and not seeing.

Hiei drew back the sword, knowing that he would have to slice all three at once or risk having taken a future. Quicker than the thought that made it happen, he swung the sword down, and the blade cleared the stems all at once. The garden disappeared, leaving him in the gazebo with his friends, holding all three roses. Slowly, they disappeared and became one rose, one single destiny. His companions watched with fearful eyes as he raised the rose to his face and inhaled it's delicate scent....

Yusuke played in the sun with his twins, five years old and playing a harmless game of 'catch the demon'. Keiko had long ago ruled out the Rei guns in play, so they had to settle for water guns as they hunted their father. Keiko watched from the porch, chatting idly with Kurama's kitsune wife about their mutual pregnancies. Kuwabara and Yukina were away on their honeymoon and Kurama was visiting his mother. A few feet away, nestled beneath an old cherry tree sat Hiei sleeping. Cuddled in his arms was a tiny babe, whose face closely resembled her mother's face, and already exhibited a childish control over the Jagan eye that passed itself from father to daughter. Life was good, and the pains and burdens were often brought up, but never troubled their minds for long. Fate had for once smiled on the group, an every one of them was grateful for it.