Bad to Worse

[Four]

by Lori McDonald







Minamino Shuuichi, otherwise known as Kurama, was coming to the bitter conclusion that his love life was a sham.


After an unending age of chasing after Hiei and treating him almost like a porcelain doll in his fear of chasing him off, he’d learned from his drunken friends that they’d already consummated their relationship, and the only one who couldn’t remember it was Kurama himself, thanks to an encounter with some spiked punch. His FRIENDS knew, and now that they’d told him, they couldn’t stop teasing him about it. Especially after he’d hauled Hiei bodily into the woods after their giggling confession, only to return five minutes later cursing his head off, carrying a very drunk and passed out fire demon.


If only he hadn’t been drunk, he would have handled that whole episode better. If only Hiei hadn’t been drunk they would have been able to… Kurama sighed. That had been a week ago and Hiei was off doing whatever it was Makuro demanded of him, leaving his hopeful partner woefully frustrated and alone.


Ahead of him his school loomed, nice and shiny new after having been mostly rebuilt over the summer and he sighed again. At least no one realized he was the one who destroyed it. Occasionally he felt guilty for the boys who were blamed, but they were the same ones who spiked the punch and he knew they’d done a lot worse things besides. It was hard to feel too sorry for them.


Kurama headed up the steps, flicking his red hair back over his shoulder and stifling a groan as the usual gaggle of girls besotted with Minamino Shuuichi converged around him, smiling and grinning, all hopelessly in love.


Much like I am with Hiei, he thought ruefully and forced a smile on his face, making his apologies to their advances as he tried to get to his locker.


Three hours later, he was firmly ensconced in his math class, making notes in his book as the sensei explained a new type of problem to the class. Math wasn’t something he’d ever learned formally as a kitsune, but it was a necessary skill, one he’d had to pick up as he became a better thief. The rest of the class moaned that there was no use for what they were learning, but he knew better. Not that he had any real intention of going back to being a thief when he returned to the Makai, which brought up another problem. What was he going to do with the rest of his many thousand year lifespan?


Lost in thought about the possibilities facing him for a near eternity’s existence, he didn’t sense the ki of a demon approaching until it was almost on him. Then his head snapped up, his startled gaze turning towards the window as the sensei called for him to answer the newest problem he’d put on the board.


Something smashed through the window. Kurama had a glimpse of dark armour and sharp teeth and claws before he fell back, his desk and that of most of his neighbours knocked aside easily by the massive creature that tried to fill the room, snarling and growling. Students were screaming, everyone in a panic to get to the door.


Half caught under his smashed desk, Kurama shook his head to get it to stop ringing and looked towards the beast which had attacked him, cursing its timing under his breath.


Then he saw Michiko. One of his most ardent admirers, the girl was lying on her back under her desk, blood on her face and her neck at an unnatural angle. She stared towards him, wide-eyed and unmoving.


"KURAMA!" the beast roared. "WHERE IS THE DETECTIVE KURAMA?" It snorted, smoke coming out of its nostrils, and snapped at a nearby student, tearing him in half and shaking the corpse viciously. It was a huge creature, tall enough that the spines on its back pierced the ceiling and hairless as well, covered in chitenous armour. It moved on all fours, somewhat like a dog in shape, and long claws curved out of its paws. Its teeth were long and wicked, its lips permanently pulled back from them in a snarl.


Kurama moved. Pushing the desk off of himself, he concentrated and the plants which grew in pots on the windowsill erupted outwards, wrapping around the demon. It roared, heaving up against them, and Kurama jumped to his feet, running right under its nose. "Out the door!" he yelled. "Hurry!" Students scrambled to escape.


"KURAMA! DIE!" The demon lunged at him, its eyes blazing, and Kurama dove to one side, desperately trying to keep clear of its fangs. It had already torn halfway free and as the final students ran out the door, it shrugged out of the last of his trap.


Kurama dove out the door, kicking it shut behind him. Why was this happening now? What was that thing? Who was it? Trying desperately to think who he’d pissed off enough for them to send it into the Ningenkai after him, Kurama climbed to his feet. Students raced past him in a panic, the whole school seemingly trying to evacuate after the thing’s attack.


The door burst outward. Kurama ducked, then looked back up to see the demon’s head sticking through the doorway as it tried to force its wide shoulders through. Its head turned to glare at him. "YOU WILL DIE."


"That’s what they all say," Kurama murmured and reached up to his hair for a seed.


He found only hair. Blanching, he remembered. Today was the day they were taking school pictures. He wanted to look perfect, so he hadn’t laced his hair with seeds, not expecting to need them. Baka! he screamed at himself. He couldn’t face that thing in the school without weapons. He didn’t even have his rose whip to use.


Cursing his own complacency, he turned and ran, his intention to get outside the school and circle it, then lead the demon back out the hole it made in the wall and into the woods behind the ball field. Then he’d have the ammunition to fight it. Whatever it was, its power ratings were S-level.


The demon roared after his retreating form. "YOU CAN’T ESCAPE."


Kurama was just about to fling a comment at it about bad B-movie dialogue when it forced its way through the door, ripping the walls, and started down the hall after him, crawling rapidly with its spine spikes gouging right through the ceiling.


"Oh no," Kurama breathed and ran down a side corridor away from the rest of the students. A moment later, the creature came around the corner after him, actually gaining in spite of its bulk. Cursing under his breath, Kurama ran away from it, hoping that Koenma had some idea of what was happening and was calling in the troops. He didn’t think he could handle this on his own. Luckily, the demon ignored the other kids, letting them go as they saw it and fled screaming back into their classrooms. It was focused on the kitsune only.


Kurama sprinted up the stairs to the higher level, the demon only seconds behind him. Thinking about the layout of the school, he planned to run to the end of the hall, down the back steps and through the gym to the back fields. Once he reached grass, he’d have more to fight with, and hopefully no witnesses. It was a condition of his parole that he not reveal his powers to humans, but if it came to a choice between that and being eaten, he was going to fight for all he was worth.


The reincarnated kitsune ran down the hall, dodging students, and grinned at the sight of the back stairs. Then he realized something. At the bottom of them, he’d have to go through the gym.


The nice, wide, open gym.


The demon was already almost on him. Cursing, and gasping for breath now too, Kurama ran down the other passageway, deeper into the school.


Sucking lightly on his Fuukuman, Koenma sat at his desk, stamping sheet after sheet of forms which finalized deaths in the Ningenkai. It was peaceful work, and his face was content.


Then the door banged open. "Koenma!" George yelled. "We’ve got trouble!"


Koenma almost dropped his stamp. "What are you babbling about?" he snapped irritably. George handed him a note and his eyes widened as he read it. "Crap! Get me Botan! Tell her to get Yuusuke’s team over to that school now!"


The lab wall buckled in with an explosion of plaster. Yelling, Kurama flew over the students’ heads and into the far wall, bouncing to the floor with a yelp of pain. Students bolted screaming as the demon started shoving into the classroom. Spots dancing before his eyes, Kurama forced himself to his feet.


"YOU WILL DIE!" it told him again.


"You keep SAYING that!" Kurama screamed at it. Snatching one terrified student’s beaker, he threw the chemicals at the demon. It didn’t even flinch. Another panic-stricken girl had a daisy in her hair. Grabbing that, he focused his ki and it erupted out of his hands, spearing towards the creature. It didn’t have the strength that a rose would when infused with his powers, but still he lashed it at the thing’s eyes. The girl gaped at him in shock and he pushed her towards the other door.


"Get out of here," he told her.


"You, how did you-"


"Go!"


The demon chuckled, pushing a few more feet into the lab and shouldering aside work desks as it did. "YOU WILL NOT ESCAPE ME."


Kurama flipped hair out of his face defiantly. "Would you care to tell me why you’re trying to kill me?"


It’s grin widened. "REVENGE."


That was simple enough. Kurama backed towards the other door, pulling up a half fainting student as he did and shoving him behind him towards it as he did. "For what?"


"SHAGAMA."


Shagama. Kurama cursed under his breath. They’d killed Shagama in the Makai a week ago, for going on a massive killing spree no one else could stop. It should have occurred to him that he had friends. You’re slipping, Kurama, he thought.


"Would an apology be good enough?" he asked.


"NO. YOUR ENTIRE TEAM WILL DIE."


"Then why don’t we just wait for them to show up?" he asked diplomatically, then dove out the door as it lunged. The sound of breaking desks and sirens from outside sounded as he raced down the emptying halls and away from it.


"Yuusuke!"


Halfway through his second burger, Yuusuke looked up to see Botan flying towards him on her oar, her blur hair whipping behind her. He groaned. It was a beautiful day, he had a great lunch, he was skipping school… he didn’t want to have to deal with a mission.


"Can’t you see I’m busy?" he whined.


She skidded to a halt in midair in front of him. "Yuusuke," she panted. "You have to get to Miou High right now!"


Yuusuke’s brow creased. "Isn’t that Kurama’s school?"


"Yes!" she wailed. "He’s being attacked by an S-class demon!"


He jumped up. "Well, take me there! And stop for Kuwabara and Hiei, I think we’ll need them."


"Hai!"


He just hoped Kurama would be good enough to keep out of the demon’s grasp until they got there.


Small but deadly, the leaves of a small ivy plant that had been growing in a teacher’s office swirled like a cyclone around the demon’s head, their razor sharp edges lashing at its armour. Growling, it snapped at them, then lunged after their owner.


Soaked in sweat, Kurama sprinted around a corner and down a new hall, knowing he couldn’t keep this pace up for long. His legs were starting to feel like water while the demon wasn't even slowed down. It was only desperation that kept him going, and a deep desire not to die.


He reached another turn and went around it, straight into something that grabbed and held him. For an instant he panicked, fighting it, then blinked, recognizing the reassuring words that were being barked at him. Looking up, he saw men in fatigues, carrying high powered machine guns. The army? he thought blearily as the man who’d caught him passed him off to another and unslung his rifle.


"Wait," Kurama started to gasp, but he was yanked down the hallway, being evacuated like any other student while the soldiers waited to do battle.


The soldier ran with him down the stairs, telling him reassurances that Kurama didn’t listen to. He could hear gunfire behind him, and screams.


They crossed the front lobby of the school and out the front door. There were more soldiers there, facing the school, and Kurama had a confused glimpse of them as he was dragged past, along with ones of tanks, helicopters, police and more. There were humans everywhere, surrounding the school while students congregated beyond them, too confused to run and obviously thinking the soldiers made them safe. Cameras pointed at him as he was dragged towards them. Kurama gasped for breath, slowing at a stitch in his side even as he felt the life in the ground all around start to revitalize him.


The front of the school exploded outwards and the demon leaped clear, streaked with the blood of the soldiers inside. Kurama stared back at it over his shoulder with wide eyes as it roared. "KURAMA! I WANT KURAMA DEAD!"


"Open fire!" one soldier yelled.


Bullets slammed into the demon. It bellowed in fury, shaking its great head, then charged.


Kurama had a moment of perfect clarity. Those men were going to die, along with anyone else who stood between him and the demon. It was his job to keep this sort of thing from happening.


The kitsune pulled loose from the soldier who was trying to save him and turned back. The eyes of the entire city and probably the country were on him, but he ignored that as he stretched his arm towards the demon and concentrated.


Vines burst out of the ground, lashing out and wrapping around the demon, holding it fast as it roared and bucked, tightening and pulling it towards the ground. It fought back, pulling free and Kurama gritted his teeth at the energy use he was expending to hold it, not noticing the glow shining around his body as a visible sign of the ki he expended. Soldiers gaped at him in shock while others fired vainly on the creature.


"Run," he gasped at him.


The man who’d tried to get him out of there stared at him. "W-what?"


"It’s me it’s after! Run!"


The demon reared up, snapping at the vines, ripping them right out of the ground even as Kurama tried to grow more fast enough. "KURAMA! I WILL RIP YOU OUT OF THAT BODY YOU HAVE STOLEN! I WILL DEVOUR YOUR KITSUNE HEART!"


Kurama just snarled and tried harder to choke it to death.


"Oh no!" Botan gasped, staring down at the crowds of people surrounding the school, many screaming and running now. There was an open area around the front of the school and there the ground seemed to be rippling, green lashing up from it at the demonic dog that struggled to reach the small, red-headed form that faced it. The demon was slowed, but still fought madly to get through the traps that tried to catch and tear, to rend and kill. The ki in the air was massive.


"Kurama’s really cutting loose, isn’t he?" Kuwabara mumbled, shocked. "His mom’s definitely gonna find out about this."


"Get us down there!" Yuusuke yelled.


There was no place to land before the school, the ground itself taken up with Kurama’s battle for dominance. The kitsune was down on one knee now, head lowered as he poured everything he had into his plants. Botan swooped down behind the police line, as near as she could get.


"Come on!" Yuusuke bolted through the crowds while Botan yelled that she would go look for Hiei, focusing his ki while Kuwabara tried to keep up. They kicked and shoved their way through the crowds, finally getting clear and sprinting for the police line.


Someone tackled Yuusuke before he could reach it. "Stop!" he yelled. "I have to help him!"


"You’re crazy!" the cop who’d caught him snapped, yanking his arms behind him and pulling out some cuffs. Two more of them had Kuwabara. "I won’t let you commit suicide!"


"Kurama!" Yuusuke yelled. "KURAMA!"


Kurama could hear someone yelling his name. Sweat dripping into his eyes, he looked up at the demon. It was pushing its way through his plants by sheer will, its eyes dark with hate.


"YOU WILL DIE, KURAMA," it promised him.


He couldn’t beat it. Not in the body he was using, his Kitsune powers crippled by his human form. And he couldn’t run.


Kaasan, he thought. He’d never wanted her to find out what her son really was, not this way.


Kurama stood, long red hair blowing behind him and focused, letting go. His ki swirled and the long red hair began to bleed to silver, his pink uniform fading into the silk of gossamer robes. He grew almost a foot and fox ears perked up through his hair. A long tail swished against the back of his legs.


He could almost hear the silence that descended over the crowd at his transformation and the demon snarled, seeing the change in his power levels.


Kurama smiled cruelly. There was another advantage of his dropping the human form. Not only his power levels and clothes changed. His kitsune form had seeds in its hair. Reaching up almost languidly, he plucked one out and tossed it towards the demon, letting it land between its forepaws.


The ground exploded upwards. The demon shrieked, carried up fifty feet and more by the Makai plant that suddenly grew below it, its leaves opening with a high pitched wail of hunger to show the triple rows of teeth inside. Tentacles lashed around the demon with crushing strength, pulling it towards the open maw.


Kurama started laughing. "Enjoy your last seconds, demon!" he shouted.


The demon struggled, then looked downwards at the plant. Its mouth opened and Kurama blanched as fire belched out into the demon-eater. The plant shrieked, its tentacles loosening in pain, and the demon broke free. Kurama tried to dodge, but then it was on him, one paw lashing out.


The kitsune went flying, tumbling end over end to crash painfully into the gravel of the parking lot. Torn open down one side, his head spinning and his sight doubled, he forced himself by sheer instinct to roll over and look up. The demon was charging him and he focused the last attack he’d have the strength for.


The demon screamed, twisting and snapping at its sides as Kurama grew the sparse vegetation in its stomach that it had devoured along with its last victims. It was something Shuuichi wasn’t strong enough to even attempt and Kurama felt it weakening him even as the demon started whining in pain. Then his head spun more than he could bear and he gasped as he felt his ki fade.


The demon looked up, shaking its head, then snarled. Slowly, it started towards him, then lunged, jaws wide. Kurama closed his eyes.


There was a scream. Realizing it wasn’t him, Kurama somehow got his eyes to open and saw the demon rearing back, one eye gone. Through blurring vision, he saw someone between him and the monster and grinned faintly as he recognized his saviour.


Hiei.


Then he fainted, leaving the little koorime to fight the battle alone.


Hiei had never moved so fast. When Botan found him and told him what was happening, he’d been gone in less than a heartbeat, crossing the city at a speed even he’d never rivaled before. Someone was trying to kill his fox, someone who was going to die very bloodily.


He stared up at the monster, ignoring the humans behind him as less than nothing. Kurama lay unconscious behind him as well and he snarled, well aware that he didn’t dare leave his side.


The demon snarled at him. "HIEI," it snarled. "FORBIDDEN CHILD. FIRE DEMON. I SHALL DEVOUR YOU."


Hiei smiled slightly. "No."


He lunged, katana moving lightning fast, a dozen strokes in an instant. Only half landed, bouncing off armour as the demon leaped back and then lunged, trying to snap him in two. He somersaulted over its head, landing behind it, and leaped at it, sword biting into its hamstrings as it turned on Kurama.


The demon screamed, whirling back towards him, and the little koorime snarled as he led it away from his lover. They’d only been together once, and Kurama didn’t even remember it, but Hiei still considered the kitsune his. Permanently.


With a howl, the demon breathed fire at him. Hiei didn’t even bother to dodge, instead charging right through it and driving his sword into the soft tissue of the creature’s tongue.


It shrieked, lashing at him, and Hiei felt the fabric on his back part as it missed his skin by millimeters. Landing beside Kurama again, he frowned as it shook its head, pawing at its face. This was taking too long. Kurama was bleeding to death beside him and the demon was still going strong. He’d already proven his katana couldn’t pierce its armour and there just weren’t enough soft spots on it for him to take advantage of, not at its speed.


Cursing, Hiei started clawing at the wards on his right arm, breaking them off as the bandages began to smoke. The demon snarled at him, crouching to leap. "I WILL SWALLOW YOU BOTH, STARTING WITH THE FOX," it promised.


"The fox is mine!" Hiei yelled and let the bandages burn off to show the tattoo beneath. "JAO ENSATSU KOKURYHUA!"


A black dragon reared up from Hiei’s arm, the tattoo coming alive as he released the wards on it and sent it forth. Screaming in a hunger nothing could sate, it leaped across the distance between the koorime and the demon, teeth gaping wide. The demon tried to dodge, but the dragon surrounded it, biting deep, again and again, tearing it apart as it screamed and fought. It was nothing to its hunger though, helpless against its unending rage.


Hiei staggered, exhaustion hitting him hard and tried to focus his ki to pull the dragon back. It fought him, its freedom calling to it, but he knew it would burn the world if he released it and didn’t let go. Spitting, hissing and twisting around itself, it came back to him, hating him every step of the way as it rewrapped itself around his arm.


Hiei pulled the wards back up over it, reknotting the bandage. He tried to focus through his exhaustion, staggering in his weariness. Don’t pass out, he thought desperately. You can’t pass out here. Kurama needs you!


Hiei passed out.


Wide-eyed, Yuusuke watched as Hiei defeated the demon, then crumpled down beside Kurama. Kuwabara started cursing beside him as soldiers surrounded the Kitsune and the Koorime, checking them for life signs and yelling to bring equipment. Helpless, he couldn’t do more than watch as the two were loaded onto stretchers and put into a truck, armed men and medics getting in with them. The truck pulled away, surrounded by helicopters above and armed jeeps on the ground. The news was going nuts over what they just saw, as were Kurama’s former teammates.


Yuusuke struggled helplessly against his handcuffs. "We have to get them to release us," he whispered to his last remaining partner.


"Then what?" Kuwabara whispered back.


"Then we get them back."


Furious, Koenma stared at the note in his hand, sucking furiously on his fuukuman while George waited nervously.


"Shit," he said at last.


Quietly, Imadate Satoshi marched down the hallway, his uniform resplendent on him as soldiers stationed at every door snapped to attention and saluted. They were the best Japan had to offer in its soldiery, all heavily armed. Satoshi nodded to them slightly as he passed, his attention turned inward until he stepped through a guarded door into an observation booth overlooking an operating theatre. Then he looked down.


The being Minamino Shuuichi had become lay on the table below, a half dozen doctors bent over him and trying to repair the damage done to his body. He hoped they could. It was obvious to anyone that the creature wasn’t human and they had no idea if what worked for a human would be effective on him. The doctors were among the best in their field, but they didn’t even know if the anesthesia they were using was correct.


Satoshi looked at the monitors tied to what the monster had called a kitsune. A creature out of Japanese legend, he’d thought. They showed a double heartbeat in the creature’s chest, one regular, the other weak and struggling. His breathing was slow and shallow and his brainwaves were like nothing he’d ever seen. As he looked down at him, his ears twitched. The anesthesiologist holding a mask over his nose and mouth looked like he wanted to run.


One of the doctors looked up. Satoshi met his gaze and the man shrugged. He didn’t know if Minamino would survive the operation. Satoshi’s frown answered him that anything less than survival was totally unacceptable. The doctor nodded in understanding and returned to his work.


Satoshi watched for a few more minutes. Minamino had to survive. Nothing like him had ever been seen outside of legend and he was too valuable to lose. Satoshi remembered seeing him manipulate those plants against the monster trying to kill him. That kind of power had to be harnessed and controlled. He stared down at the closed eyes of the kitsune. They had to learn how he was able to do it.


Finally, he turned and left the observation room, headed down the hall to another room. In it, he dressed carefully in a full asbestos fire suit and stepped through the connecting door into a lab. Everything flammable had been removed from it, leaving only a metal table, a chair and a cage made of the strongest metal known.


Red eyes glared at him hatefully as he sat in the chair, but he didn’t bother to try anything. The fire demon, as he’d been called, had proved the truth of that by burning everyone and everything to come close to him since he’d woken up. No one was allowed near him without a fire proof suit anymore and he seemed to have given up on his pyromania for the moment.


"Your friend is still in surgery," Satoshi told him. "They don’t know if he’ll pull through."


Those eyes narrowed. "If he dies, so does everyone you ever knew."


Satoshi didn’t let the threat faze him. "They’re doing everything they can. Why don’t you tell me about yourself?"


The little creature just stared at him. He was amazingly small considering the power he had shown. Only five feet tall, with human-like arms and legs, but three eyes. Two red, one purple in the center of his forehead. He hadn’t opened it at all, but according to the doctors who’d examined him, it was there. Also according to them, there was nothing even remotely human about him other than basic shape. His body temperature was over 120°, his skeletal structure was different, even the DNA in his blood wasn’t human.


Satoshi crossed his arms. "I want to know where you came from."


He grinned at him, showing sharp canines. "Hell."


Satoshi snorted. "I don’t believe you."


The little creature just glared death at him. "I want to see Kurama."


He crossed his arms. "Maybe after you’ve answered a few questions, not before."


"Hn." The creature crossed its own arms. "I’ll rip out your spine first."


Satoshi stood. "Then you won’t ever see your Kurama again, will you?" he asked philosophically before he left.


Hiei watched the ningen leave and went back to grinding his teeth in frustration. He wanted to break out of the cage and wreak havoc until he found and rescued Kurama, but he didn’t dare to. The bars were too strong and too close together for him to get by and if he used the Jao Ensatsu Kokuryhua again, he’d only end up burning himself to death in the small room. Worse, if he did break out, any damage he did could endanger Kurama, and he didn’t even know if the Kitsune was strong enough to be moved. He might kill him trying to get him to Yukina.


It would be better to escape himself and come back for Kurama with Yukina and the others. His stomach boiled at the idea of leaving his fox behind, but he couldn’t think of anything else. Kurama needed Yukina’s healing, much as he hated the thought of taking his gentle little sister into danger. Put one loved one in danger to rescue another. Protect one while leaving the other to die… The choices tugged at his heart, blazing anger in his eyes and in frustration his shirt combusted, wreathing the fire demon’s face in flame that exactly matched his mood.


Wearily, Minamino Shiori walked beside hir husband, Hatanaka Kazuya and stepson Shuuichi to her house, her face still pale from the shock she’d received. After the officials picked her up at her work the day before, along with her husband and stepson, they’d shown them all the media footage of what happened at the school. Over and over again she saw her son standing before a monster, his hair paling to silver, his body growing and forming ears and a tail. The monster’s words echoed to her. "KURAMA! I WILL RIP YOU OUT OF THAT BODY YOU HAVE STOLEN! I WILL DEVOUR YOUR KITSUNE HEART!" Stolen, stolen…


Where was her Shuuichi? Her perfect little boy? Surely not that grinning creature who created monstrosities of plant life to attack his enemy, then crumpled to the ground. The officials had never told her if he was still alive. They just asked her about her son. His habits, his history. And took blood samples and more from her, trying to learn if the mother was as alien as the son. It seemed forever before they admitted that she was merely human and let her go.


Shuuichi, she wailed silently. Stolen. Stolen by a creature from storybooks. She wiped at her eye and her husband put his arm around her soothingly.


"Minamino-san?" she heard. Shiori looked up to see two of Shuuichi’s friends standing by her front door. "May we speak with you please?"


Shiori blinked, still in shock. "Speak? Shuuichi isn’t here."


"We know," the first one told her, his hair slicked back from his face and shiny. "We’re looking for him." He glanced at the other boy. "I think we need to explain some things to you."


Kazuya’s arm tightened around her. "What sort of things?"


The boy looked down. "Um, about Shuuichi… and Kurama."


"Anything?" Koenma barked.


George looked over and rolled his eyes. "Nothing."


"They’re not dead," Botan told him cheerfully. "No one’s taken either of them to the Reikai."


"There are worse things than death," Koenma reminded her. "Gods, nothing like this is supposed to happen! Demons aren’t supposed to be captured by ningen soldiers! Who KNOWS what’s happening to them!"


Botan shivered as all sorts of horrible thoughts ran through her mind. The Ningenkai and the Makai worlds weren’t supposed to interact. That was the whole point about having detectives running around, to prevent that. No one had expected two detectives to be the ones to blow the lid off the whole secret though. But something had to be done.


"I’ll keep looking," she whispered, clutching her oar as she walked to the door. She was a spirit of death, charged with guiding Ningenkai souls to the Reikai. Hiei was a prisoner. At some point, if he got the chance, he was going to kill someone, parole or no parole. If she found that murdered soul, then she could find Hiei, and through him, Kurama. It was just a matter of time.


"He’s a WHAT?"


Somewhat nervous in the face of the angry man, Yuusuke twined his fingers together and explained again.


"Shuuichi was originally known as Youko Kurama, a kitsune from the Makai. A fox demon. He came to this world after being shot by a hunter. He was about to die, but he escaped by separating his soul from his body. It came here and settled in the unborn baby of Minamino Shiori-san. He was then reborn as Minamino Shuuichi, but he remembers everything about when he was a kitsune and he still has most of his powers."


He took a breath and looked at the three. Shuu-chan’s eyes were huge at this news about his big brother and Hatanaka-san looked angry and betrayed. Shiori’s eyes, however, were filled with tears.


"What happened to MY baby?" she asked.


Yuusuke groaned inwardly at that, then again as Kuwabara spoke up. "He is your baby!" he snapped. "He told us the fetus didn’t have a soul yet when he went into it. He IS its soul."


Yuusuke nodded eagerly. "He considers you to be his mother," he told the now silent woman. "He’s nuts about you. He would have told you all this, but he was afraid you’d reject him. He loves you."


Kazuya gripped his wife’s shoulder and she reached up to grasp his hand. "I never knew…"


"I know he wanted to tell you," he assured her. "He really did."


Shiori looked down, tears on her face. "I believe you. Oh, my poor Shuuichi!" She buried her face in her hands.


At least she hadn’t thrown them all out. Yuusuke leaned forward. "Minamino-san? Do you know where Kurama, I mean Shuuichi, is? We’re trying to find him."


"Why?" Kazuya asked suspiciously.


"Uh, we work with him. As spirit detectives."


"As what??"


Yuusuke hid a groan and started back into the explanations.


The fox-man had turned back into a teenage boy, making the rest of the operation relatively simple.


Pleased at the results, Satoshi stood before a window looking into the ICU ward, watching the young redhead sleep surrounded by medical machinery. Half a dozen sensors were taped to his body, tubes up his nose and IVs running into his arms. His red hair fanned out as a shocking contrast to the white pillow.


No plants were in the room, nothing made of wood or anything organic. No one knew how powerful the boy was, or wanted to take any chances, unconscious though he was. Armed men stood just behind Satoshi, their gaze fixed unerringly on the boy, their job to stop him if he tried to escape. Other men guarded the ICU from outside invasion. Not as many were assigned to him as the fire demon, but still there were more than he could count with one hand. The two demons were not escaping.


He was also going to live, according to the doctors, though it would be a long time before he recovered. The demon had nearly gutted him, but at least he would live. Satisfied with that for the moment, Satoshi went to check on the progress of the fire demon, who still refused to say a word that wasn’t a threat of death.


The whole world was talking about Kurama and Hiei.


Quietly, Yuusuke and Kuwabara walked down the sidewalk away from Shuuichi’s house, now surrounded by camera crews. Their hope that the family would know where their son was taken after being dragged in by the army was dashed by the fact that none of them knew where they were taken. Hiei and Kurama could be anywhere.


"What’s going to happen to them if we find them?" Kuwabara asked suddenly.


Yuusuke shrugged. "They’ll have to return to the Makai, I guess. No way Kurama could go around here without being spotted."


"He won’t like that."


Yuusuke sighed, remembering all the fun they used to have. "I don’t like it either."


They walked by the school, still surrounded by police tape though the few remains of the demon and its victims were long gone. Students stood behind the tape, whispering about what happened. Shuuichi’s name came up a lot, along with theories on what he was. The idea that he’d been possessed by a demon instead of being one himself seemed most popular among the girls. The boys didn’t seem to know what to think.


"Where do we look now?" Kuwabara asked glumly.


Yuusuke shrugged. "I don’t know." It had been three days already, and he was running out of ideas. Talking to Shiori had been his last hope.


"Maybe we could pretend to be demons ourselves," Kuwabara suggested grandly, growing excitement shining in his eyes. "And get picked up."


Yuusuke shook his head. "We’d only get locked up too."


"Well, how about one of us pretends, and the other follows?"


Was he willing to do that? Yuusuke eyed his friend. Yes, it appeared he was, for Kurama if not for Hiei. "Let’s put that on the list of possibilities, okay? But keep thinking."


"Right," he sighed, his shoulders hunched and his hands in his pockets. "We’ll find them."


"Right," Yuusuke agreed, though he didn’t know how. "We’ll find them."


Irritated, Hiei sat in his cell and plotted his escape. He’d kept track of days, four so far, by the clock on the wall over the far door. The ningen with the demands visited him twice a day, and each time he ignored him more. Four days without news of Kurama. The ningen was expecting him to ask, he knew that much. Just as he knew that if he did ask, there would be a price for the information.


Hiei’s face tightened. He would surrender to no one, not for any reason. He wouldn’t desert Kurama, but he wouldn’t grovel for news of him either. He’d find out for himself, once he escaped.


Escaping was the hard part. For four days he’d came up with plan after plan, rejecting them all, and all that was left were two options. Unfortunately, the one he liked the least was the most likely one for getting him out of his cell. He needed to be stronger, without being so strong that he destroyed the entire complex with his fox inside, and it would give him that strength.


He shook his head. He wasn’t ready for that one, not yet. He had another plan to try as well, one that could work just as well. All he had to do was wait for one of the weaker ningen who brought his food to arrive and he could use his jagan to take over his mind. Then he could get him to let him out. The only problem was that doing so would be a direct violation of his parole. Using his jagan against a human could end up with him in a cell even smaller in the Reikai for the next thousand years.


Still, if it resulted in Kurama’s freedom, it would be worth it. And the price for that was less than that of his only other option. That of giving in entirely to his dark side.


Hiei hid a shudder at a flickered memory of green skin, multiple eyes over his entire body and an evil so strong it was like a force of its own. He hadn’t liked himself when he turned into that monster, and he especially hadn’t liked the fact that he almost didn’t change back. His evil side was more than strong enough to rip out of his cage, but it wouldn’t hesitate to rip into Kurama either. He’d go with the jagan instead.


The little fire demon sat patiently, eyes fixed on the door while he waited for his victim.


Kurama came out of a deep, thick darkness slowly, his body heavy with blackness as his muddled mind struggled to understand what happened to it.


A hand stroked his forehead. "How are you feeling?"


"…fine…" He tried to swallow. "Thirsty…"


A hand lifted him up, another holding a glass to his lips. Kurama drank, then felt himself lowered down again. "Where do you come from?" he was asked gently.


"…435 Nejireru street," he whispered. "…kaasan’s house…"


The voice was softly insistent. "And before that?"


"…the apartment downtown… it was small…."


"And before that?"


He felt so fuzzy, so tired and confused. Thinking took too much effort. "…the Makai…"


The hand cupped his cheek. "What is the Makai?"


"…demon world…"


"Of course." The hand returned to stroking his hair. "You’re a fox demon. Of course you’re from the Makai."


Kurama smiled.


"How did you get here?"


The memory came back, of the shock as the hunter hit him and of himself crawling into a bramble bush where it couldn’t follow. There had been blood everywhere and his ears had been ringing. He’d been desperate when he leaped out of himself, falling for what seemed forever before he landed inside Shiori’s unborn child.


"…i died," he murmured. "…was reborn in kaasan…"


"What about your friend? The fire demon?"


Why so many questions? Kurama was too fuzzy to care. "…gate…"


The hand stilled. "Gate? More demons could come through?"


Kurama managed a weak smile, his eyes opening briefly to see a man leaning over him that he didn’t know, another standing behind him holding a needle. They both watched him intently, but Kurama didn’t care. "…yeah…"


The man who’d spoken started cursing. "And what is supposed to keep this from happening?"


His smile widened. "…me…"


Satoshi frowned down at the unconscious redhead. He’d hoped he’d learn more, but the boy was still weak. He hadn’t been able to stand much of the truth serum they’d used. At least they’d been able to use it. The fire demon down the hall was too inhuman to even risk injecting him, but Minamino in this form was completely human


Still, what he’d learned was shocking enough. Demon realms, spirit realms, monsters who roamed without check with powers that humans couldn’t match. All held back by a thin barrier that was dotted with holes and monitored by human and demon detectives. Minamino was on such a team, and Satoshi cursed that he’d passed out before he could give him the names of his human helpers.


"Monitor his progress," he ordered the doctor. "Let me know when he’s strong enough for another session."


"Hai, Imadate-sama."


Satoshi left the room, deep in thought. There was an entire other world only inches away. He frowned as he walked. To him, that was unacceptable. To his superiors, it was unconscionable. His job was to protect Japan, and the threat of any force which could walk in and do what that monster at the school, or these two children did, made him feel sick.


Still, there was much they could learn from their two prisoners. Perhaps even a way to destroy them, once they knew how to reach the Makai itself.


His face hidden behind the mask of his asbestos suit, the ningen walked cautiously into the room Hiei’s cage was being kept in. A soldier waited warily at the door as he carried a tray of food over to the side of the cage farthest from Hiei.


Hiei didn’t look at him, his eyes closed and his head lowered.


:Hear me, Ningen.:


The man knelt to put the food down, careful to keep an eye on him.


:Obey me, Ningen.:


The man hesitated, then slid the tray under the bars and into the cage.


:You will obey me.:


He trembled.


"Are you okay?" the soldier asked.


:Tell him you’re fine.:


"I’m fine." He stood up. "No problem."


"Well, hurry up then."


:Kill him. Take his keys.:


Swallowing, the ningen turned and walked back to the soldier, his hand low at his side. The soldier turned to go back out the door, expecting him to follow, and he drove the plastic knife he’d palmed into the man’s side, right through the suit with a strength he never should have possessed. One twist to the side and the soldier crumpled, lifeless.


:Good. Unlock the cage.:


Tossing the knife aside, the ningen knelt and fished the keys to the cage out of the dead soldier’s pocket. Standing, he brought them over to the cage and unlocked the door, even as the men watching through surveillance cameras recovered from their shock and sounded the alarm.


Hiei lifted his head, his eyes closed but the jagan open and glowing.


:Perfect.:


"Koenma!" Botan screeched, almost taking George’s head off with her oar as she burst into Koenma’s office. "Koenma!"


The toddler looked up irritably from his mounds of paperwork. "What is it?"


The girl bounced up and down gleefully, her hands clasped at her breast. "We got him, we got him, we got him!"


In a blur of motion, Hiei threw himself at the human soldiers running down the hall towards him, slamming his fist into the face of one, his foot into the throat of another. They fell with a gurgle and he was past them, aching to kill, but leaving them alive instead. He’d already destroyed his parole with the jagan. Much as he hated them, killing would only get him locked away longer, and he wanted to be away from Kurama as little as possible. After this, he never wanted to be away from him again.


More soldiers were coming, but Hiei merely raced past them so fast they never saw him, following a trace of ki to his lover. Bursting through a door, he leaped in attack and rebounded painfully off the clear plastic wall which sealed off the bed from the rest of the room.


His target sneered at him. "Nice try."


Sitting in a chair beside the bed, Imadate Satoshi kept a gun pointed at Kurama’s head, his legs crossed in near relaxation, but his eyes hard. "You don’t want to do that again."


Hiei rubbed his shoulder, staring at the human and his lover. Kurama looked asleep, but Hiei knew that the fox wasn’t so deep a sleeper that he wouldn’t wake to someone holding a weapon directly at his temple.


"What did you do to him?"


The human shrugged. "It’s just a little something to help him rest. He’ll be fine in about six hours, providing you do exactly what you’re told."


Hiei stared at him. "And if I don’t?"


"Then he won’t be all right at all, will he?"


Hiei frowned, eyeing the glass wall. It completely closed off the other half of the room and had already shown how strong it was. If he attacked, he’d never get through before the human shot his lover. And if he ran - he’d never run from anything in his life.


"Hn. If you kill him, I’ll kill you."


The human smiled coldly. "Then call my bluff." He pulled the safety off his revolver. "Or surrender yourself."


The door behind him opened, soldiers pointing weapons at his back. Hating them all with every fiber of his demon heart, Hiei let them take him back to his cage.


"Oh, my God, Botan, you’re gonna get us KILLED!"


Clinging frantically to the blue-haired girl’s oar, Yuusuke tried desperately not to fall off during the wild ride, while Kuwabara hung on behind, swearing a bluestreak directly into his ear.


"We’re almost there!" she called gleefully, looping wildly through the air and seeming to double back on herself repeatedly.


"I think I’m gonna puke…"


Suddenly, the ride was over, leaving the three of them standing in a white hallway, lined with doors every ten meters. Yuusuke shuddered in sheer relief for having survived.


Kuwabara started screaming "What the hell kind of ride-"


Yuusuke clamped a hand over his mouth. "Shut up!" he hissed. "They might hear you!" Then he realized the boy he had a hand clamped over didn’t look anything like Kuwabara. "Huh?"


Botan giggled. "Koenma arranged for you both not to look like you. Just in case we get--"


Armed men appeared everywhere, aiming their weapons at them.


"--caught."


Koenma glared at the note he’d been handed. "I don’t believe this!" he shrieked. "Do I have to do everything myself??"


Satoshi stood with his arms crossed, glaring down at the three teenagers in the interrogation room before him, separated from him by a one way mirror. The girl had blue hair and an air-headed expression on her face, even as she sat with her hands in her laps and trembled. The smaller of the two boys had long blond hair, tied with a leather thong while the taller of the two was almost obese, his head shaved everywhere but the sides. They weren’t human, he was sure of that, though he hadn’t had them examined yet. The idiot with the bizarre haircut wouldn’t have been screaming at his reflection so much if he were.


"What have you DONE to me!" he screeched, staring at himself. "I look like a FREAK! I, the great Ka-"


"Shut up!" the other two yelled.


He looked indignant.


"You want them to know who you are?" the blond growled. He was sitting at the table with his head propped in his hand. "I can’t believe we were caught so soon. Shit!"


Satoshi reached forward and pressed a button for the intercom system.


"How did you get in here?" he asked.


The three started, the blond and the girl staring at the mirror, the skinhead everywhere but.


"Who’s speaking?" the blond asked.


"I’ll ask the questions." He watched them move subtly closer together. "How did you get in here?"


"Um, walked?"


"Don’t lie to me."


The skinhead glared around himself. "Where are Kurama and Hiei!" he yelled. "I demand their return, or I’ll be forced to punish you!"


Satoshi smirked. "Ah, you must be the other spiritual detectives they work with." He was gratified to see them start.


The blond bit his lip. "Uh, where did you hear that?"


"The fox demon told me all about you. All of you." Remembering what they’d been talking about, he took a chance. "You don’t quite look the way he described though. I’ll have to punish him for lying to me."


The blond’s lips moved, sounding out the word ‘punish’. "You can’t do that!" the girl screeched.


"I can and I will," he told them and deliberately turned off the intercom, not responding to their screams and pounding on the mirror as they yelled for him not to hurt their friend.


Yuusuke banged on the mirror futily, looking like he was attacking himself. "Don’t you hurt him!" he screamed. "You bastard!" Kuwabara grabbed a chair and slammed it against the mirror without effect.


"There’s got to be a way out of here."


Botan stared at them, her hand over her mouth. "He wouldn’t hurt Kurama, would he?"


"He might." Yuusuke pushed away from the mirror. "Be careful what you say. They can probably hear us." He walked over to Botan and whispered in her ear. "Can you fly us out of here?"


"Not without my oar," she whispered back.


So much for that idea. Yuusuke slumped into his seat with a curse and tried to think of something else.


Though to outsiders he looked as though he were still deep in slumber, Kurama was awake. Careful to keep his breathing slow, the kitsune peeked through his barely open lashes, around the room and through the window to the soldiers standing guard outside. He didn’t remember much, just fighting that demon and falling, but he could guess what had happened. He could even sense Hiei’s ki, meaning that they were both prisoners.


Slowly, as he lay there, he mentally checked himself out for damage. He was weak; he could feel the wound slowly healing in his side, but he wasn’t helpless. He’d have one shot at escape, providing he were quick enough.


First he had to get out of the room. Kurama looked at the guards and the door, no doubt locked, and started to convulse.


The door flew open, frightened doctors rushing in and bending over him. Kurama thrashed for all his was worth, spitting up foam as he fought against them, praying to Inari that he didn’t pull out all his stitches in the process. The guards stood outside the door, staring in the window while one talked on a cellphone.


The doctors undid the restraints. In the next instant, Kurama kicked one in the face and punched another, then rolled off the bed, changing as he did. A silver fox with five tails raced out of the room and down the hall, ahead of the stunned guards who tried to pursue. His tongue rolled out of his mouth as he ran on three legs, his torn side aching so badly that it hurt to use his right foreleg. He was still faster than the humans though.


He was also running out of room. The alarm was sounding and men racing at him from down the way he was going. Kurama ran into an open lab and under some scientist’s feet towards an airvent in the wall. Skidding up to it in Youko form, he scrabbled at the vent and ripped it out as a soldier dove for him. All the man caught was two of his tails as he scrabbled inside, followed by all of his teeth sinking into his hand. He let go with a yelp of pain and Kurama was gone.


"He’s in the air conditioning system, sir. He can go anywhere in the complex using it."


His face creased by a frown, Satoshi stood in the room looking into the one where the three intruders were being held.


"Close off the ducts," he ordered. "Corner him. Give him exactly one way out."


"To where, sir?"


He gestured at the three captives with his chin. "To them."


Maybe this hadn’t been such a good idea.


Three hours after he darted into the air conditioning system, Kurama limped painfully down the shaft, panting heavily, his paw drawn up to his body. His fur was a mess of cobwebs and dust and he sneezed repeatedly. He was tremendously thirsty too and tired. All he wanted to do was sleep, but he had to keep going. The humans were closing off the ducts out of the airshafts. If he didn’t find an open one soon, he was going to be trapped. And he wouldn’t put it past them to start pumping gas in. So much for his escape attempt; some Youko he was.


Ahead of him sounded a hysterical giggle. Kurama blinked, recognizing it, and shuffled forward until he came, finally, to an open vent. Botan he recognized immediately, but the two boys he didn’t know, until he sensed their ki and realized they were Yuusuke and Kuwabara. Kurama sagged in relief even as he realized they were prisoners too.


Pressing his nose up against the vent, he began to whine.


"Do you guys hear something?" Yuusuke asked, lifting his head from the table.


Kuwabara shrugged. "No."


"It’s a puppy!" Botan squealed, running over to the far wall. High on it was a air vent and she climbed onto a chair to reach it while the two boys stared at her. "Wait, it’s Kurama!" Giggling, she got the vent open and pulled out a five tailed silver fox, cuddling him to her bosom as she hopped down. "You’re so CUTE! I just want to hug you and snuggle you and- Ow! He BIT me!"


Yuusuke chuckled as he rescued the fox from her embrace and laid him down on the table. "Are you okay, Kurama?"


The little fox nodded, obviously too tired to change back to his human form.


"Wow," Kuwabara laughed. "You look like hell."


The fox stuck its tongue out at him.


"So now we’re all stuck in here." Yuusuke frowned as a sudden thought occurred to him. "Kurama," he whispered. "Do you think you could grow anything?" An ear flickered. "Like maybe use some of the wood in one of these chairs to make an oar?"


"The fox demon is in the room with the prisoners, sir."


"Good," Satoshi growled into his cell phone as he strode down the hall from his command room to the interrogation section. "I’ll be there in two minutes."


So the fox demon could change shape, could he? He’d have to make sure that his cage was completely secure then. He rounded a corner, heading for the stairs when he remembered something. "Damn!"


Quickly, he dragged out his cell phone again, intending to call ahead and get his men to make sure there was nothing organic in the room with that fox. Then he felt a tap on his shoulder.


"Excuse me?"


Satoshi started to turn, then something slammed into his head and he crumpled over, faintly wondering why his attacker was wearing a pacifier.


Koenma looked down at the unconscious man, holding Botan’s liberated oar, and sucked on his fuukuman thoughtfully. "That," he decided. "was fun."


With a tremendous burst of energy, Kurama released almost the last of his ki and slumped to the floor in human form as Yuusuke snatched up the oar he’d made with a crow of delight and thrust it at Botan. "Get us the hell out of here!"


"But its got splinters!" she whined.


"NOW!!"


Quickly, Botan got onto the oar, holding it steady as Yuusuke climbed on behind her. "Hurry up, Kurama! They’re coming!"


Dizzy, Kurama somehow ended up straddling the oar facing Yuusuke while the boy shrieked at him to turn around, he wasn’t that kind of guy.


Suddenly, the door burst open and Botan gave a squeak of fright, sending them straight upwards. Kuwabara grabbed hold at the last second and was carried along, screaming.


Standing in the door with Botan’s oar, Koenma waved frantically after the fleeing team. "Wait!" he yelled. "How am I supposed to rescue you if you escape first??"


The Ningenkai was not like the Makai. Unlike the demon world, that of humans had no wards or spells. Nothing to prevent a girl on an oar from flying wherever she pleased, through whatever stood in her way without touching it.


The passengers on her oar had only glimpses of the complex they passed through. A hint of a hallway, an office, or a lab, while those they passed were only aware of a sudden chill, a faint breeze, or even just a half-heard shriek of "We’re all gonna die!"


Sulking in his cage and planning the evisceration of Imadate Satoshi, Hiei heard the shrieking first. He tensed, then looked up to see the stupidest rescue party he’d ever seen.


Botan was grinning at him from atop her oar, barely holding it steady as it bucked and swayed. Behind her, Yuusuke was holding on for dear life with HIS fox in his arms, the kitsune straddling his lap and holding him close, Kurama’s expression one of somebody trying very hard not to throw up. Yuusuke’s expression seemed to hold that hope too. The idiot was dangling by both hands below the oar, kicking madly and swearing, not seeming to realize that he was halfway in and out of the cage without any seeming difficulty with anything like solid objects.


Hiei regarded the whole sorry lot of them.


"Hn," he said.


"Hurry up, Hiei," Botan urged. "We have to get out of here."


Hiei wondered where there was room.


"Grab Kuwabara’s legs! Hurry!"


"No!" the idiot yelled. "I’m barely hanging on as it is! We can come back for him!"


"No!" Kurama choked. "Hiei, please!"


Hiei sighed. Standing up, the fire demon jumped up and balanced easily on the end of the oar as Botan soared away. The fact that he was standing on one of the idiot’s hands was only a bonus next to the chance at freedom.


Botan’s oar now dented and all but broken in half from whacking it over the heads of soldiers, Koenma walked into the room holding Hiei’s cage. "Why do I even bother?" he complained and disappeared.


Exhausted by Yukina’s healing and his own depleted ki, Kurama lay on a cot in a small room at the temple, but he couldn’t sleep. Instead he stared out the window at the stars, wishing he could just go home.


He couldn’t, though, not ever again, and his eyes filled with tears at the realization that his life with Shiori was over. Almost, he wished he’d let the demon take him. At least then he’d be out of pain.


Instead, he was to rest in the temple until he was strong enough, then it was off to the Reikai. Not the Makai, the Reikai. To face Enma-Daioh and be judged for fighting for his life where humans could see. For breaking his parole. He didn’t know what would happen to him after that.


It wasn’t any comfort at all to know that Hiei would be facing punishment right beside him, for using his jagan to make one human kill another.


Kurama closed his eyes. It wasn’t fair what happened to them, but he doubted Enma-Daioh cared about fair when it came to the individual.


The moonlight that had been coming through the window vanished and Kurama reopened his eyes to see Hiei crouching on the sill. Koenma had decided to take them both to his father at the same time, but Hiei hadn’t been allowed to leave the temple grounds, something he knew had to be driving the koorime mad.


He didn’t look angry though as he hopped down beside him. "Hn. You should be asleep."


Kurama managed a smile. "I’m too tired to sleep."


Hiei’s expression showed what he thought of that kind of statement. His hand reached out, brushing red hair back from Kurama’s forehead. "Go to sleep, stupid fox."


Kurama shook his head. "I’m sorry for everything that happened, Hiei."


"Don’t." The fire demon stood. "Don’t ever be sorry for us." He bent down and pressed his lips gently against the foxes for a moment. "Ai shiteru," he whispered, then he was gone.


Kurama smiled, his eyes wet and felt a little of his worry lift away. "I love you too," he whispered back and settled down into his blankets. Moments later, he was asleep, resting up for the new day.


THE END




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