Kurama paced in his room from white wall to white wall with his hands folded behind his back as he clutched Hiei's sword in his hand. "I'm sorry mom. I meant to tell you, but it's just so embarrassing." He gave off a fake laugh flawlessly.

"You see, when I was growing up, you remember that anime I used to watch? The one about the swordsman? Yeah? Rurouni Kenshin, yeah, that was the name." He frowned and shook his head, "Ever since I saw that I wanted to grow up to be Kenshin, I mean, I didn't want his past, but like, I wanted to cosplay as him at the conventions, and I wanted to be renowned for the most accurate cosplay around. I mean, I even started picking up on the language as best I could," he laughed again, and flipped the blade in his hand a few times with a couple flicks of his wrist, "It's just that, you know, I didn't want to tell you. It was too embarrassing.

"In my quest I met Yusuke, who helped me learn the basics of fighting, street fighting to be exact, since, you know, Kenshin is well versed in all fighting styles even if he can't participate because he's too frail, and so I had Yusuke to help me. I introduced you to him once even!" He laughed nervously again and continued pacing. "Yusuke introduced me to Kuwabara to help with my spiritual awareness. I mean, Kuwabara is a real psychic family! They can sense ghosts and stuff! It's really cool, and Kuwabara helped me work on my senses of when someone's around and see the fighting aura that Kenshin sees. Then I had to get a sword, a real reverse blade sword, and I had to know how to fight with it." Kurama sighed and sat down on his bed, "The scar was easy, same with the eye color, all I had to do after that was go to comicons all over the place. That's where I was always running off to Mom, and I'm sorry.

"Eventually, we'd just meet up to sharpen our skills, you know? Keep everyone in shape and make sure no one slacked off. The four of us would go on adventures and we started this sort of fight club with our reputation as the toughest guys in town, so we'd get competitors sometimes, like the guy named Toguro Kuwabara mentioned once, or Raizen and Mukuro. Sensui was a duzy. He was actually a serious bloke, and we had to take it away from home just to keep everyone safe, but we were fine once we got the authorities involved and he was arrested and put away for manslaughter."

Kurama sighed and looked up at the empty room, "I'm sorry I didn't tell you Ma, I-" He froze when the room wasn't as empty as he expected it to be, the door was open.

"What are you doing Shuichi? You're not a cosplayer for Kenshin, you're an ancient fox spirit who merged with my son." Shiori was chuckling and shaking her head, "You didn't honestly think that would work on me, did you? Seriously Shuichi." She shook her head.

Kurama felt like his heart was going to drop through the floor. He gasped for breath, but he didn't think he was breathing. The shock overwhelmed his system and he couldn't help the hyperventilation that followed, or nearly passing out.

"Kurama give me back my god damn sword!" Hiei pounced through the window, coming up short with his foot on the fox's homework, the other on his desk chair, staring at Shiori. "What happened?" he asked, hopping down.

"What do you mean? I just scared a very old soul. He's not used to it. He'll be alright, just give him a few minutes to get over the panic. Honestly though, I'm surprised he's still so shocked." Shiori reached down and picked up the fallen sword that had slipped some out of the sheath. She clicked it back in, and held it out to Hiei. Hiei took it tentatively and then drew the blade in a sharp second aiming to slice Shiori's arm off.

Kurama lunged throwing Shiori to the side and rolling with Hiei on the ground. The two fought with such ferocity, his desk was knocked over, and if the bookshelf hadn't been screwed into the wall, it would have fallen too. Finally, Kurama got the sword back and sheathed it going to Shiori. "Mother, are you hurt? Are you alright?" He asked frantically.

"I'm fine darling. I bumped my head a bit when you shoved me against the wall, but I'll be alright." Shiori was rubbing it gingerly, checking for a bruise.

His mouth opened but he looked more like he was going to hurl then speak.

"Shuichi, Shuichi, I'm fine." Shiori urged reaching out for her son. She straightened him back up from where he'd nearly doubled over trying to speak. "Shuichi, you can speak, I know you can, just, shut your eyes and relax, It's alright. Everything is alright."

"Mom," he whined finally, wrapping his arms around her neck and squeezing tight. "Mother, please, please, how do you know? How do you know that?" His breath was still heaving, and Shiori just hugged him back tightly.

"You told me darling. You told me years ago, when you were two. Don't you remember? We were sitting in the living room."

Hiei sat down on the desk and crossed his legs, "Well I have to hear this."

Shiori glanced over at Hiei and then giggled a little, sitting back down with Kurama in her arms.

"You didn't believe me! You didn't believe me back then! Why would you believe it now?"

Shiori dropped her head and stared at him with an incredulous face. "Honestly Shuichi, don't take me for daft. My son was telling me I was wretched scum of the universe, pet of the lowly toddler, and doomed to die alone in a cold grave after you slit my throat, stole all my worthwhile jewels, not that you had yet to see anything that looked even worth half a copper, and killed my son's body to be free as the ruler of the universe where you would reign over everything and have sacrificial treasures piled high enough to make a diamond city. You were a vain, egotistical, tyrannical imp. You know what they always say though, fight fire with water, unless it's an oil fire, and then go right for the sand. I did. I won my own war by loving you, my son, regardless of how melodramatic you are."

Kurama started hyperventilating and crying again as he buried himself against Shiori, hugging her tightly.

"You were sort of like a cat," she giggled when he jerked. She played with the tips of his hair, "willing to be pet, but only on your own terms, and in your own time. Now you're more like the fox you claim to be. You spook easy, you run to and from quick as a flash, you hold on with your teeth and you want nothing to do with a lot of people, but you're mine, and I love you because you're adorable."

"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" Kurama demanded.

"Because you spook easy!" Shiori exclaimed. "If I thought you were only going to seize up like I'd struck you with a dart, I would have told you years ago! I always thought you'd run if I brought it up, and you always denied it, so I didn't see the point. Honestly Shuichi, I just didn't want you to have to use that as an explanation. A cosplayer? If I know my son, you were Kenshin."

"Really? You've body jumped before?" Hiei asked curiously.

Kurama's jaw worked, and Shiori contained a laugh.