Author's Note:
Okay, I have been looking over Nightmare of Forever and I just can't expand it. I apologize to those who desperately wanted me to write more on it, but it wasn't even meant to be more than a oneshot and as it stands it's a... twoshot(?). But this story will hopefully satisfy all that. It is written in the same style of Nightmare of Forever, which by the way is called "gothic". Enjoy all!
Disclaimer: See the "fan" before the "fiction"? Does that give you a clue? Don't own it, most likely never will. Which, now that I think about it is probably a good thing...
Rating: PG-13, mostly for leeway in writing, probably more for gore than for physical graphicness.
Pairing: Karasu/Kurama
Warnings: Obviously, this is m/m, slash, yaoi, whatever you call it. Don't like, don't read. This is written in what is called "gothic style" which is the style of ghost stories and horror and all that. This will not be a horror story but it could be seen as a ghost story if you try to see it that way. Anyway, it's dark, so if you don't like the shivers when you read... tough the style will not change.
Summery: AU after the Dark Tournament (almost an alternate ending type thing, but not really). "The nightingale takes wing, it's special song to sing, Come follow me this night, my Grave will give you Light." Kurama is receiving notes from a mysterious sender and a new student at school has him remembering a certain entrant of the Dark Tournament. But Karasu is dead right???
On the Scale of Osiris
Chapter One: The nightingale takes wing...
Koenma often found himself in difficult positions, but this one was one of the worst yet. The toddler ruler sat at his desk almost at a loss for words, watching the almost delicate looking human in front of him. Well, at least on the outside he looked human.
The human in question looked to be in his late teens, slender and tall, with an almost delicate look. Almost. Long strands of blond hair fell around his shoulders and back looking like the silken hair of a doll. The boy was dressed entirely in black leather which contrasted his almost vampiric shade of skin and hair. His eyes were darker than the black of the leather, orbs of darkness that one could easily drown in.
He watched Koenma with amusement in these eyes, as if he was already two steps ahead. Koenma didn't like that look, but there was nothing he could do about it.
"I don't know how you did it, and I probably don't want to know." Koenma said finally.
The teen smiled, a smile that many had seen right before their deaths. And it made Koenma shiver.
"Aren't you going to welcome me back, Koenma?" he said, and Koenma knew that he was being mocked.
"I would be careful what boundaries you step over." Koenma observed, "You're not a demon anymore."
"Then why have me brought before you?"
"Because you're unpredictable." came the simple answer. "Demon or not, you are still dangerous Karasu."
One of Karasu's eyebrows quirked in amusement. "You don't know that, Koenma, and that is why I'm here. You don't know if I'm harmless, or if I'm more dangerous than I was in the Dark Tournament, and it scares you. But what's worse, for you, is that you don't know if I really am a human, or... if I'm the demon I was before my death in a very good disguise."
"Then would you care to enlighten me?" Koenma asked testily, knowing that Karasu was right.
"No." Karasu smiled again. "I'll let you figure it out yourself."
Koenma frowned. Had he even for a minute thought that Karasu would work with him? Not really. But it had been nice to hope. "Then I think you'll understand if I ask you to remain somewhere where I can keep an eye on you." Or, he added in his mind, eight eyes to be exact.
Karasu smirked. "In translation, you're ordering me to remain in the general area near your pet detective so that if I step out of line you can drag me back to the hell I was in. Am I correct?"
"Perfectly."
Karasu seemed to ponder this for a few seconds and Koenma could see something snap in his eyes, a look which Koenma didn't like at all.
"All right then. I'll play your game Koenma." Karasu turned to leave the room but paused when he had opened the door. "But I hope you don't mind if I play a game of my own while I'm at it." Karasu turned back to look at Koenma once again and Koenma almost shivered under the look. Then Karasu was gone, and with him the aura of death that seemed to surround him.
Koenma sighed. Why did he have the feeling that he had just made a grave error? Then he realized what Karasu had implied and groaned. He would have to have a long discussion with Yuseke... and maybe Hiei too.
Karasu was over all, quite pleased with how his meeting with Koenma had gone. He still felt less imposing in this frail body, but he would only have to be like this for so long and that would be long enough. Yes, Karasu could stay in this form for as long as it took, but there was no time like the present after all.
Karasu walked along the streets, ignoring all of the admiring looks of the idiotic humans. Pathetic really, all of them. Only one "human" was worth his time. And that one was currently inside the school that Karasu stood in front of. Now here was a waste of time. School. Pointless. Humans didn't live long enough to prosper from this so called education. But it was something that he was going to have to deal with if he was going to do things correctly. And Karasu never did something incorrectly.
An innocent smile and a polite question later, Karasu was admitted to the office of the... what had that secretary woman called him? Dean of Students? Whatever. In the long run it didn't really matter.
The Dean was a present enough man to look at, for a middle aged human, but he was nothing spectacular in the looks or intellegence departments, something which would work to Karasu's advantage.
"What can I do for you young man?"
Karasu had to keep from flinching. Young man? He was at least twice as old as this human's grandfather. But that wasn't important right now.
"I would like to transfer to your school. Tomorrow." Karasu's silken voice spoke, laced with an invisible poison.
"Well I'm sorry, but that can't be done-" The man broke off as Karasu dropped a pile of coins on the mans desk gracefully, yet unceremoniously. Karasu watched in satisfaction as his eyes widened. Golden coins, an inch thick... and was it yet mentioned that they were pure gold?
"I believe that would more than triple the tuition." Karasu put in smoothly. "Don't worry about the grades, I can cover that."
Karasu knew that he was not being clear to the Dean as to whether he would be a perfect student or if he would bribe the teachers as well, but Karasu had spoken those words specifically for that effect.
"Welcome to our school, Mr. ?"
"Corvus*."
"-Mr. Corvus. Come with me for a moment and we'll make a transcript for you." Karasu smiled again, that charismatic smile that just seemed to belong on the face of a killer. Yes, this would be done perfectly.
Rumors had been flying around the school since lunchtime, Kurama noticed. Not that he had listened to them. But one couldn't help hearing the frantic whispers that filtered around the hallways and classrooms.
"I heard he's transferring from somewhere really far away-"
"I actually saw him! Dark black eyes-"
"Dressed in black leather too, oh my god-"
"God is right, if you mean walking sex god-"
"I heard his hair is even longer than Minamino!"
And they went on and on. Kurama was a bit annoyed at the entire thing by the time he had heard all the rumors three or four times before the end of the school day, as well as the rest of the male population of the school. Kurama had finally just started tuning the whispers out, it wasn't as if he was going to hear anything new. Making his way to his locker he hurriedly worked his way around the combination lock. Placing the books he didn't need for homework inside he almost missed the white square of paper. But when he did see it, the one line of calligraphy caught his attention.
The Nightingale takes wing...
Kurama frowned. This note was obviously incomplete as of yet and it was unlike any other notes he had gotten before. Surprisingly, Kurama was intrigued. At least whoever had sent this had creativity, unlike those other flirtatious wastes of time that he had found in this very locker before. The card was, of course, unsigned, but when Karasu turned it to the backside his blood ran cold at the small picture there. It was the form of a creature that he couldn't look at the same way anymore, not after the Dark Tournament and that fight...
It was the unmistakable figure of a crow.
to be continued
*Corvus - Latin for "raven" (would have done the Latin word for crow, but it didn't sound as good)
Here's the deal: 7-9 reviews from you all (they can be really short, I just want to see who is reading this) and I give you all the next chapter within two days from receiving the reviews!
signed,
Rio the FlowerofBlackFire
