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At seven, Minamino Shuichi – once the legendary Youko Kurama of old – is concerned only with returning home. He knows that ten years in this ridiculous human body he has been forced into will be sufficient to regain his lost powers. And if he cannot yet open a portal to the Makai by his own strength, he has the utmost confidence in his ability to find a demon that can. This world means nothing to him; it is merely a convenient place to conceal himself until he is strong enough to return to the world from which he has been driven. He foresees a road home that is long and arduous, but it is only a short time until he is ready to face it.

Minamino Shuichi at ten is confused over a great many things. He resides still in his human body – though he is strong enough to take his leave now – and he begins to feel a startling connection to the woman who claims his human persona as son. This woman has saved his fragile human body – first by bearing it into the world, and then by shielding it from a careless fall – and every time he catches sight of the scars on her gentle arms, he feels a twinge of emotion that feels dangerously like love. He holds her hand as they walk down the street, and he watches her smile, wondering if the road home isn't quite as long as he first imagined.

Kurama – no longer solely Minamino Shuichi or the Youko of legends, but an odd amalgamation of the two – at sixteen has grown accustomed to life in the Ningenkai. Minamino Shiori is his mother – of that, he is certain – and he loves her with all his heart. So great is his love that he has risked everything to save her life – as she has saved his – and in so doing, he has met yet another human he thinks he can come to love: one Urameshi Yusuke. This rough, brash, perfect boy has taken him at his word, has proven himself willing to give up his own short life for a cause he does not fully understand. And as Kurama clasps his mother's pale hand once more, he remembers the Reikai's young Detective and his open, trusting brown eyes and finally accepts the truth: the road home he imagines does not – cannot – exist, because he is already home.