Authoress here.

Writer's block is still nagging at the wisps of my muses, but I feel like I must write away. Y'know, that whole, get back on the horse deal. See, ever since my story, Three Way Tie was deleted, I've sort of lost the drive to write. I'll get an idea, and then I'll lose my motivation once I sit down at the keyboard.

Not to be perpetually bitter, here, but I wish whoever reported my story would of thought a little more about the repercussions that could follow. I experienced quite the dampening of morale since then.

Okay, enough whining….Let's get onto chapter three!

Yujo Chronicles: The Final Chapter

Chapter Three: The Passage of Time

The gusting winds were fatal to mortals, dangerous to demons, and home to Ankara. They flung the snow on Ice World around, also lifting her long ebony hair off of the base of her neck. Her bottomless amber eyes stared out at the world below, emotionless. Her black haori whipped and writhed against her body, as did the matching loose leggings. She wore men's clothing as an outward defiance of her people, the women of Ice World abhorred men.

Ankara's behavior and dress were tolerated only because she was an orphan just returned to her home twenty-six years ago, an eye blink for an apparition. She was given free rein, allowed to do whatever she pleased- except leave Ice World.

So Ankara had stretched her privileges as far as she could; demanding a sword, men's clothes, and a position as a Guardian. She was grudgingly granted her requests by the Ice apparitions.

She stood at her post, her body in the present but her mind in the past.

Blood in the snow.

The gasps of a man in agony.

My heart…beats in terror.

The sound of the strain of twisted sinew bowstrings.

The sickening thud of arrow into flesh.

It was here, on the little shelf that provided a spiraling path downwards that Ankara lived her true life. The Ankara her fellow Ice apparitions knew was only a shield, a filter for the pain, a mask for her people.

Her true self had almost lost hope, here, on this woebegone ledge of snow-covered rock. This was where Hiei, the bandit robber, had truly saved her life.

Her eyes misted over as she reminisced. Hiei had rescued her from the cruel fate of a sacrificial dancer from Kare Suronial and had tried to return her to her place of birth. They had been pursued, and Hiei had been viciously wounded before a Guardian of Ice World had stepped in to protect Ankara.

Ankara blinked, snapping back to reality and to the harsh facts she faced daily. She was in love with a man she'd never see again. She was stuck in a rut, unable to move or go on with her life as long as she kept clinging to the emotion Hiei's memory brought to her heart. She would forever stand watch at the path, forever torn between the lingering presence of love and the constant sting of logic.

A younger woman approached her from behind. "Ankara-san?"

"Yes?" Ankara didn't look around at her approaching friend, Sekima. She came everyday with Ankara's meal.

"The winds are dangerous today. You shouldn't stand so close to the drop off." Sekima scolded, setting a silver tray down on the snowy earth by Ankara's feet.

"If I fall, I fall." Ankara's reply was distant.

Sekima sighed. She hunkered down for balance against the persistent winds, eyes trained on Ankara's feet. The oddest thing about Ankara's unusual appearance was the dark red tattoos on her heels, a defacement she performed herself, almost twenty-five years ago.

Sekima knew the story. Most Ice Apparitions did. Ankara was once a Sacrifice, chosen to dance and die for a god of her adopted people, the Suronials, who lived in the shadow of the Ice World cliffs. Her heels had been painted red, and she had been forced to dance a deadly step. If one of her red painted heels touched the ground, she would be shot by an awaiting archer.

But she had survived the dance, and was left to starve instead. Then, that terrible, fire-filled man had saved her, tapping into an unthinkable basin of compassion thought impossible to be possessed by a renegade half apparition. Sekima shook her head. No wonder Ankara had turned out the way she had. She even understood why Ankara had permanently stained her heels red. Ankara was simply remembering the kindness of the man, paying her thanks in an unerasable way.

Sekima finally voiced her thoughts. "You're waiting for that….man to return, aren't you?"

"And if I am?"

"Why?"

"Come now, Sekima-kun. You know the story as well as I do." Ankara still didn't turn around.

"But…everyone suspects you love him." Sekima said after a pause.

"What do you think?" Ankara's voice sounded flat.

"Well, with the way you constantly stand watch at the spot where he…well, I just think it's true." Sekima ended lamely.

"Then you are correct." Ankara finally turned to face Sekima, an odd smile on her face. "I stand here watching for the man who will never come, waiting for him to return the love he doesn't feel."

"But he's a man. They're evil."

"Perhaps. But he saved me when no one else would- if he's bad then my being alive is an act of evil."

"I didn't mean to infer that-"

"I know." Ankara interrupted. "Listen, Sekima-kun, I didn't ask to be kidnapped and I certainly didn't ask to be chosen as the Suronials sacrifice. I didn't plan on any of this happening, and I can't expect just to forget it. I'm not like other Ice apparitions- Cold and solitude won't help me."

Sekima sighed, rose, and started the long walk back to the village. She left the little windswept figure where she stood, watching and waiting like she had been for the past twenty-five years.

Kurama's school

"Check." The black haired boy frowned at the chessboard imperiously. Kurama sighed, rubbing his temples. He had gotten roped into playing a game with the president of the chess club, because Kurama had been lingering in the classroom in order to avoid Emiko.

"Your move." The boy said happily.

Kurama studied the board. His Queen had been taken out on the fifth play, both his knights were gone, and one his bishops was in danger. He sighed again, and moved an unnoticed pawn foreword. "Check mate."

"Huh?!" The boy hastily wiped the lenses of his glasses and peered down at the predicament. The pawn threatened his king, and it couldn't be removed without putting his king in the threat of one of Kurama's castles. If the king were to be moved backwards and out of the pawn's reach, then Kurama's bishop would claim the game. There was no available move to save his chances at winning.

"Wow, Shuichi, do you play a lot?" Another member of the chess club asked in admiration.

"Yes." Kurama glanced downwards quickly. Emiko loved chess. She once had gone so far as to name all of her pieces, and had talked to them constantly throughout the game. Kurama smiled at the memory of Emiko calling out encouragement to her king as Kurama cornered the playing piece with a strategic move. She could be so child-like in such respects; a side of her he felt was refreshing. She could be-

"Shuichi? Did you hear me?" The girl who had asked him the question frowned at him.

"I'm sorry; I drifted off for a moment." Kurama shook his head slightly. "What did you say?"

"I asked where you learned to play."

"Self-taught." Kurama answered simply. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to-"

"Get Komiko to her job?" A different girl suggested. Kurama stared at her.

"What?"

"Komiko. Don't you drive her to work and stuff?"

"Well, yes, but she wanted to walk today." Kurama said uncomfortably.

"Did you break up?"

"Did she dump you?"

"What's wrong?"

The questions came in flurries, and Kurama sat in silence as they washed over him like a painful wave. Luckily, their flow of queries stopped as the classroom door was forcibly slammed open.

"Kurama!"

The fox demon in question spun around in his chair to see Hiei standing in the door.

"Who's Kurama?" The chess president asked, but both demons ignored him.

"Hiei?"

"I'm going to go find her."

"What?! Ankara?!"

"It may be the most foolish thing I've ever done, but I suppose if I'm to stay even with Urameshi and Kuwabara I should do something stupid once and awhile." Hiei said.

"When do you leave?"

"Now."

"Then what are you doing here?" Kurama got up quickly, grabbing his shoulder bag as he rose, leaving the chess club utterly confused at the table.

"I thought I should tell someone." Hiei said uncomfortably.

"That's uncharacteristic."

"Shut up."

"You're nervous, aren't you?" Kurama regarded his friend with a small smile.

"I thought I said to shut up!" Hiei snapped as he and the fox demon burst through the double doors of the school.

"Good luck." Kurama rested a hand briefly on the dark demon's shoulder. Hiei nodded once, and then leapt into motion too quick for the human eye to follow.

Kurama watched the spot where Hiei had disappeared long after he had passed out of sight. Hiei was never so flustered, if one could call his cynical excitement a flustered reaction. So lost in his thoughts, the fox demon never sensed the subdued demon energy that approached from behind. A hand thwacked hard on the back of his neck, hitting a pressure point directly. Kurama vainly fought the blackness that threatened to overtake his vision, and crumpled into the arms of his attacker.

Authoress here.

CLIFFHANNNNNNNNNNNNGERRRRRRRRRRR!!!

And so the Authoress retires to study copious amounts of stupid homework.