The [ Citadel ]

A/N: Some scenes in this fanfiction are officially true, meaning from Togashi-san himself and some are fiction made by yours truly.
"By the way, you were speaking in your sleep. This Yukina, is she a friend of yours?" -kurama
"For my gratitude, I'll give you an advice. Your humanity will be the end of you." -hiei

First Encounter, First Dispute

"Encounter"


The night air brushes through his warm body. It was a still and silent evening. Though it was warm, he felt cold inside.

He walks slowly around the park minding nothing. He was all alone in the park and he is taking the opportunity to be closest to the former place he called home. Tokyo was a nice place to live but it is far from how he is accustomed to live before he went here.

There wasn't much noise, just the crickets, the frogs in the pond and the cooing of the owl.

The owl... he remembers the owl. It often times competes with his kitsune form, on food. It is all just in his memories now. He has to learn how to let go of the past sooner or later, but he knows that it will never be possible. He has doubts that he'll be able to see that past again, but it doesn't mean that he will be able to forget it. Doubts, yes, but also have high hopes to return to the Youko he was before, free from all things. He found the owl on a branch of his favorite tree, the Sakura tree. Gazing at the owl's big round eyes, he found himself missing home.

"When will I be able to go back to my real home?" his sub-conscious mind asked. He stopped under the tree. He could remember the times when he will climb up the tree and will not go down unless his mother tells him so.

"What am I thinking? This is my home now. As long as okaasan lives, this world is my home and this is the body I possess."

A youko in a ningen form. A 14-year old boy outside and a thousand-year-old fox spirit inside.

"I can't fool myself..." He is yet to find the balance he's looking for, balance between evil and goodness, wild and tamed, youkai and ningen, Kurama... and Shuichi. But everything now is at it is. Maybe someday.

He looks up the tree, with his beautiful emerald green eyes. He took his hand out of his pocket and brushed it through his short red hair. Surprised by his own short hair, he looked at his hand and smiled. "I'll just let it grow longer and It'll be like before." He started to walk away.

After some few steps away, he felt it, a dark ki, how come he didn't notice it before. He stopped but didn't turn around. Something or someone has his eyes on him and he can feel it. "Better show yourself than hide."

~

It was a cold night for him. It has always been cold, ever since. Him, experiencing cold? No, not that. He was alone, but loneliness is his companion. Without it, he doesn't feel safe.

He leaped from tree to tree. Not really knowing where to go, where to start. That youkai! How dare him eat a koorime? He shoved the thought away not wanting to think that the koorime he ate is the same one he is looking for. If it is, he will never forgive that bastard.

Suddenly his senses have picked up something, taking him by surprise. He stops in a tree branch, gripped his katana and looked around.

"No, it can't be." He felt a ki. A youki or reiki he still doesn't know but it was somewhere near.

"A youkai in Ningenkai, maybe it's Yatsude!" he thought."is he the one I'm looking for?" he spotted him under the Sakura tree. He seems like a helpless ningen. But he's the only one there. He follows him with his stare.

"Better show yourself than hide."

It startled him, nevertheless, he appeared in front of him but still hidden in the shadows. "It's not him."  He vanished from his sight.

Kurama looked up. He was gone even before he has the chance to look at him. He frowned, it wasn't everyday that you meet a youkai as strong as himself in Ningenkai, then maybe there's trouble and he can feel it.

~

The next morning was similarly the same to the ones he has been attending for the past years of his ningen life although the weird feeling he's been experiencing these past few days is still there but somehow it was much stronger today. Well, maybe that explains the encounter last night. He headed out the room and went on his daily schedule.

The day was a little bit boring, and it was nearly dismissal. There was a teachers' meeting and the students in Kurama's class gathered in different groups, telling different stories, one is the case of many missing students lately.

Maya Kitajima, a girl from Kurama's class asked his opinion on the subject.

"Just a couple of runaways, right?" Kurama answered her.

"What? It's so boring here. It has to be something else. There must be a better place... where there are alien abductions!... or ghosts roaming around!... or a secret church... or even a portal to another dimension!" Kitajima said.

"You have no sense of reality, do you?" Kurama answered.

"Huh? How'd you tell? We don't know. We could be surrounded by outer space beings, just right now, you know."

Kurama looked at her. "Your thoughts can be useful in the future but for now, the human race is better off with what they already know." Kurama pondered.

Meanwhile, Tasaka, another classmate of Shuichi is hanging out with another boy from their class.

"This really sucks." the guy said looking at Kurama and Maya.

"Heh. Give up on Maya-chan. She likes Minamino-kun after all." Tasaka said.

"I hate that guy! Always wearing a private university school uniform."

Tasaka looked at him; can't he admit that Minamino is just more handsome than him?

"Is that all?" Tasaka asked teasingly.

"Hmp! Die you!" he said as he throws an eraser towards Kurama who has his back on them.

"The truth is, I think I'm a little bit psychic..." Maya was telling Kurama.

Kurama moved his head to the side and his hand snatched the small eraser with quick gesture. "An eraser?" Kurama asked confused.

"Wha...?" Tasaka's companion said. "Wow!" was all Tasaka could say after witnessing such fast stunt from the most intelligent pupil in class.

Later in the day, when the bell already rang, Kurama was walking in the empty corridors of their school. "Missing people, huh? It can't be as I thought, but recently I've had a bad feeling about this town."

An oozing sound broke the silence in the corridor. Surprised, Kurama looked for its source and found it.

"Kurama!" it was a vomit spirit. "I'm gonna kill you! This city... will be our territory!" It said as it oozed its way out the wall.

"What are you saying? Did you forget that they told you to stay away from this city?" Kurama asked him. But the demon kept on blabbering.

"I'll kill ya... you cannot beat me! I've got a powerful ally by my side!"

As quick as a snap of a finger, Kurama's hand seized the demon. "ha!" It was thrown outside the window, but still the vomit spirit was laughing. Staring at the broken window, Kurama tried to connect all the things that has happened and what he has been feeling about the town.

"That lesser demon was almost dead, and is very weak in power. For him to deliver a message to his opponent means that he is working for a much stronger demon."

His eyes turned hard and serious.

"I don't want to use my dark powers here if at all possible. But if he want to make this city into a human hunting ground... I have to fight. For the humans, no. But for the residing demons in this town."

"What was that? Just now? A... a ghost?" A voice behind him said, turning his mood from a serious one to that of surprise and concern.

"Wow! For me to see it so clearly... It's a shock! The very first one I've seen and it was like that..." Maya exclaimed.

"She saw it?! How? She did mention that she thought that she was psychic... her fear has been awoken. It looks as though her psychic powers have increased from being around me..."

"Y-you sure? Perhaps you're mistaken."

"Don't try to mislead me! I saw it so clearly! You are a psychic aren't you, Minamino-kun? It's just as I thought." Maya said, quite excited with her assumption.

"You were talking to it, weren't you? I'm impressed! I was sure that there was something special about you the first time I saw you! I've always loved occult and have been looking for someone with that kind of power and interest!" Maya clapped her hands obviously happy about the idea.

"That's for my first love! Dramatic, huh?" Maya blushed.

Kurama was surprised. They stared at each other for a moment then Kitajima spoke up. "I didn't notice at all that it's time to go home."

As they walked out the school grounds, Maya started a conversation. "I hadn't heard the announcement yet. They should announce it clearer, coz... I was making my heart ready..."

"I can't say it."

"Sorry." Kurama said, not knowing what else to say. "If I tell her how I really feel, it'll just put her in jeopardy."

Maya's face turned gloomy. "I see. I'll go home then."

Kurama felt it again, and this time it worried him much more. He grabbed Maya's shoulder before she could go. Maya looked at him questioningly, but he was looking for something. "Don't let go."

"When did it... it's gotten here already! What an evil aura, no just dangerous..."


To be continued..