Hello! First story, be nice!
Disclaimer: If I owned, Koenma's ass would be mine!
"It's just one tiny demon, why couldn't someone else handle it?"
"No idea, but you know how Koenma gets when he doesn't get his way."
"Hn"
The four winced. Koenma had a really good aim for a toddler, and those playblocks of his were heavy.
Looking over at their latest target, they took in it's diminuitive size.
"It looks like a smurf," complained Kuwabara," how can we kill a smurf?"
"Yeah...a killer smurf. Maybe it'll sing us to death," grinned Yusuke.
"What's a smurf?" grunted Hiei. "And why shouldn't you kill it?"
Yusuke broke into silent giggles, Kuwabara snorted, but Kurama just sighed.
"I'll tell you when we get back, Hiei, don't worry about it."
Hiei turned ruby eyes back to the small sky-blue demon.
"Whatever."
Kurama sweatdropped. It had been three days since they had been called into Koenma's office and given the task of tracking down this demon. He hadn't said much, just the usual; dead or alive, don't let any Ningens see you, routine stuff.
Now they were sitting behind a large rocky outcrop in the Makai, spying on a smurf. And really, he thought, they were right. It was small, blue, had a large nose, huge feet, and looked much like a smurf would. If smurfs had small, red eyes...and fangs...and looked like it would enjoy nothing better than to cut out your innards and eat them. While you watched.
He shuddered. He was going to have bad dreams after this, he just knew it.
Yusuke noticed the shudder.
"What's wrong, Kurama?"
"I really wish you hadn't said that smurf thing," he whispered to Kuwabara, which promptly sent said copper-top snickering into his hand.
"Let's get this over and done with, before it hears you," called Hiei. He was obviously not happy being out of the loop, especially after that accusing glare Kurama had sent the huge idiot.
"Right," nodded Yusuke. "Positions."
They stalked around the demon, taking up their positions for the ambush. Yusuke gave the signal, and they spang.
Kurama came in from the left with his Rose-Whip, Kuwabara came from behind with his Spirit-Sword, Yusuke from the right with his Spirit-Cannon, and Hiei attacked from the front, swinging his Katana.
The demon looked up at the onslaught, and moved in a blur.
It sidestepped Yusuke's Soul bullets, ducked underneath Kuwabara and headed straight for Hiei.
Bringing his sword up, Hiei began a complicated dance of metal with the other demon's claws and teeth. Kurama could do nothing but watch, for they were moving too fast for him to intervene without fear of hitting Hiei.
Then something changed. It was so subtle, that for a moment he wasn't sure it was real, a tiny dash of red flowed in the midst of a blue-black blur.
'Funny' he thought, ' I've never seen Hiei's eyes do that before...'
His brow creased. 'Unless he's bending over, that's not...'
An almighty cracking noise shook him from his line of thought. Hiei had called upon his Ki, and it had been repelled.
The smurf had trown up a wall of rock in defence at the last second, sending Hiei and about ten tonnes of solid rock flying towards them.
"Hiei!"
Throwing a canopy of vines over their heads in an attempt to fend off the shrapnel shards, he looked around frantically for the fire-child.
"Kurama! We'll hold it off! Go!" called Yusuke, as he and Kuwabara started attacking.
Kurama ran towards where he had seen Hiei land. The small bundle of black was injured, slashed across chest and arms.
"Hiei?" he hesitantly whispered, turning his friend on his back.
"...it's faster...than...it looks," came the slightly grimaced reply.
Sighing in relief, Kurama suddenly found himself lying on top Hiei. He looked inquisitively into blood red, just before having his head pulled forward as his other two comrades flew over and landed a few feet from the two prone.
Kurama's eyes widened, pulling up and turning quickly on his heel as the small demon made it's way towards them. It said nothing, simply lifting it's claws to it's mouth and licking off the blood slowly. Kurama was the last standing, and the monster could practically smell the kill.
Chancing a glance backwards, he saw his friends. Hiei was trying to stand, but Yusuke and Kuwabara...
Pulling out his Rosewhip once more, he stood his ground.
"Fox..."
"Hiei?"
"Go, take the others, I'll hold it off."
Kurama's hand shook.
"No..."
"Go, Fox...NOW"
And with that, Hiei launched himself at the blue horror once again.
"NO!"
He watched for several seconds...Hiei was holding out, but the others...he had to get them away. Right. He managed to wake Kuwabara, between them they started to half-drag, half-carry Yusuke towards the rocks.
"AH!"
Kurama froze. Hiei was standing, knees bent, the demon's hand on his belly.
No...not on.
Kurama was running.
In.
Kuwabara was trying to call to him.
In.
Hiei slid off, almost as if in slow motion, eyes wide with disbelief.
No.
The demon took a step back, prepaing to lunge for Hiei's throat.
Faster...faster...faster.
The world began to blur, things moved slower, until everything stopped.
Please...
Intead of lunging, the demon brought up it's hand, prepairing to skewer Hiei with a pike if rock.
NO!
Then Kurama was there. Standing in front of Hiei, arms wide, and in that moment the very Makai responded to his anger. Fighting in the Dark Tournament, he had shown his true Youko powers, but this...this was different. These were his friends. How dare this pathetic excuse for a Ningen half-breed whelp challenge him and his! How dare it!
The ground bucked and buckled outwards from him like a wave, vines and plants of every sort living their lives in a second from the raw, unchecked power.
Hiei watched, eyes wide, as he finally saw Kurama. Not the Ningen, not the Youko, but Kurama, the soul whose hold on life was so strong, that it escaped from one body to another, rather than submit to death.
He felt overwhelmed with an odd sense of respect. Kurama was glowing, a white light mixed with flashes of yellow, green and red. As he looked harder, he could almost see images in the light, faces that he might recognize, but they melted before they truly formed.
An arm drew in and pointed at the target, and the light intensified, followed by a horrendous scream, then the world went black.
Blinking rapidly to adjust his eyes, he crawled over to the fox on the ground. The seeds that usually resided in Kurama's hair had sprouted, grown and died in a matter of seconds, leaving petals, twisted vines and seed pods behind. Lifting Kurama's head slowly, he shook his shoulder.
"Fox...Fox?"
"Mmngh"
Letting out a breath he didn't realize he was holding, he pointed over his shoulder.
"What did you do?"
"Huh?" Kurama tried to get his mind off of the little fluffy cloud it was on, to coherently answer Hiei. Sitting up, he looked at his surroundings with widened eyes. "Uh..."
He was in a small wood. Kurama paused for a second while his brain tried to process this. Hiei being attacked...yes, he remembered that. Him trying to protect Hiei...yeah, he remembered that too...everything after that...no.
"Were did all the trees come from...?"
Hiei was staring at him. Not glaring, or frowning, or scowling, just...staring.
"What?"
Slow blink. Hiei looked decidedly catlike as he tilted his head to one side.
"The trees came from you."
Kurama checked...no, still didn't compute.
"Uh...what about the grass?"
"And that."
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"The-"
"That too. Fox, you made everything."
Kurama gulped. "My brain isn't working very well with this...can I come back later?"
"Hn."
Smiling slightly, he got to his feet. "Stay here, I'll get the others, and check if I have a brain in my head, or if I'm just a pretty face."
"Hn."
Sweatdropping, because Hiei was staring again, Kurama went to the business of sorting out everyone's wounds.
After several hours, everyone was settled around a bonfire, asleep. Everyone not including Kurama. He walked around the grove, simply being... It felt...wierd, like being inside a mirror. Everywhere he turned, every plant, hell...even the ground...
"It feels like you."
Kurama started slightly. Hiei had snuck up on him, and was now lounging in one of the trees.
"How is this possible? I don't remember this...everything after the second I stood in front of you is a blank...is this really mine...?" Kurama huffed a frustrated breath and sat down.
"Yes."
Silence.
"I saw you."
He would have thought nothing of it, but the way Hiei said it...
"Me?"
"You. The real you."
Kurama's eyes widened at the remark. Swallowing nervously he opened his mouth.
"...I..."
I have to know...I have to know...
"What...Who..."
Deep breaths.
"Who am I? I mean...which me did you see?"
Eyebrow raised, Hiei looked inquiringly down from his perch.
"I wasn't aware there was more than one of you."
Slight smirk. "Neither was I...but then I realised it wasn't normal to have arguements with yourself over the hoards of girls that try to get me into their knickers at school."
Both eyebrows were now up, and Hiei looked intrigued.
"Youko does not appreciate Shuuichi's sense of morality."
Hiei snorted.
"I...I don't think it was really one or the other, Fox. You see yourself as two people in one body. We see you as two sides of one coin. Back there...you didn't really have a shape, or a face...you just...were."
Shrugging and settling down to sleep, Hiei left Kurama to ponder on his meaning.
Heading back to the fire, he settled down next to Yusuke, prodding him in the shoulder to get him to move over. A faint grunt and a shift was the reply, and as sleep overcame him, Kurama thought back on his friends and those who trusted him.
Maybe...maybe he wasn't really as split down the middle as he thought, if those people...his friends, could still see him as neither Youko nor Shuuichi. They never called him those names, simply Kurama.
And smiling, he fell asleep.
He could get used to being...simply Kurama
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