Kurama's First Time
This is the before story of how Hiei found Kurama. If some of my information is wrong, please tell me and I'll fix it. Thanks and R&R!
Remember that no copying thing but also that I nor no one can truly amount to Yu Yu Hakusho. So I am saying now I will not try to, but will only write to MY potential. So don't try to compare, please.
The boy stepped out of his door, into the hallway. His socks were sliding along the carpet and he felt a little dizzy since he just woke up.
He headed into the shower and pulled off his T-shirt and sweatpants.
By the time he got out of the shower, it was about seven O'clock. After the boy put his uniform on and brushed his hair, he went downstairs.
His mother stood there in the kitchen. She seemed very depressed. Before the boy ran out the door, he double took to his mother.
"Mother? Is something wrong?"
She looked up and smiled at him. "You're fifteen tomorrow." She said.
"Yes, I know." He looked down. "Time goes by quickly."
"But I don't want you being depressed!" she said and walked over to him.
"Suiichi, you are my son and I can't have the last few years with you bad. They have to be good ones. You are the most important person to me."
She hugged him and his hair hung over her arm. Stroking her hair, Suiichi hugged her back.
"I know you have diseases, mother, and you get sick." He sat her down. "That's why you're not feeling well. But mother, these things have never bothered you before and I worry it's getting worse."
"No, honey. I'm fine. Go to school." She gave him an empty smile. He felt a bit guilty, but obeyed her.
Once he got outside, he started down the street. The fall leafs were beautiful.
Orange blended nicely with his red hair. Suiichi truly was beautiful. His long hair gave him a very mystical style. But he still had many friends. A's were all he ever got in his classes. He devoted all his time to it.
"Suiichi!" yelled a female voice. He turned around and saw a very pretty girl with short blond hair. There was a red bow in it that matched her outfit.
"Hello, Ikari." He said as she stood next to him.
"So, how's your mother? I heard she's been sick."
He frowned. "Yes the doctors have been a bit worried about her."
She looked down to her suitcase and then smiled.
"Hey! You know there's a new after school program I think you might like!"
He stared at her. She was younger than he was, a few years, and she looked up to him like a big brother.
"Well, what's the program?" he asked.
"It's fighting. I heard you're strong."
"It sounds interesting. I might try it. But I also was looking forward to the soccer season."
"Oh, but that's all the way into the spring. Try something for when the fall and winter come."
"It seems like its autumn already. The trees are changing colors." He put his arms behind his head.
"Hey Minamino!" yelled a voice. He turned around and saw Yamshin. He came over and gave a high-five. "Hey, man. What's up?"
Suiichi and him laughed as Ikari blushed and tried to quicken her pace. She didn't fit in with the older kids.
He turned and saw her. "Ikari, what's the matter?"
"I think it's getting late. I have to get to class."
"Hey, if she has to get to class, don't you too?" asked Yamshin. "I wouldn't know, I mean, I don't have enough money to go to private school."
Suiichi's eyes widened and he hurried down the street.
"See you!" he yelled. Yamshin shook his head and laughed as he headed the other way.
Suiichi looked around for Ikari.
"Ika---" he was stopped somehow by a presence. He turned and looked around.
It was getting too late for him to worry, so he left it behind.
What he didn't know was there was someone, or something, watching him from above.
(If you don't know who that 'someone' is, then you really are new to YYH)
He got to school just in time. The bell rang right when he got to class. He sighed.
His schedule seemed to slip at times. He was just out of touch with everything.
The new school year, his mother being sick. It was too much.
"Suiichi, your homework?" asked the teacher. He pulled out of his neatly packed suitcase a folder. She took it and smiled. "Very good, Suiichi. You always live up to your work." She had only known him not too long and already was very satisfied with him.
He was like that, very likable.
"Suiichi, will you help me?" asked a girl. She had very long, black hair that fell over her face. She was very forward to him. He smiled and took her paper, embarrassed.
"I'll explain it too you."
He suddenly remembered Ikari and looked around class. Where was she? "Suiichi! Come on, help me!" she said and leaned closer to him.
"Sorry." She gave him a deceiving smile.
One boy smiled behind her and started making faces at Suiichi.
He didn't smile back. He was too busy trying to get her away from him.
Later that day, Suiichi was in gym. All the girls smiled at him and were trying to get his attention. He just smiled back and turned around.
I hate it when they do that. Really, they're nice girls, but it's so embarrassing.
Ikari came out and saw him. He smiled at her and she did the same back. They only had two classes together considering the grade difference.
As class began, the boys were put into groups.
Suiichi was matched up with two boys. He was standing with them, going on about something when he felt very strange. He held his head and his eyes began to shimmer.
"Hey, Minamino, are you ok?"
"His...his eyes!"
Suiichi rubbed his eyes with his knuckles.
"Take a bit to rest, man, you look sick." Said one boy. He sat down on a bench. Ikari watched from aside the yard.
They were outside in the hot sun. Maybe that was the thing bothering him.
Suddenly, the sky began turning red. Suiichi looked around and could hear voices saying 'He's different now, he looks different' and 'His hair looks strange.' 'Yes...'
He got up and looked around. Everyone in the schoolyard seemed to be gone. A hand tapped his shoulder. He spun to find a man and a boy.
The boy seemed about his age, maybe a year or two younger, mostly because of his height. He didn't wear average clothes. They were black and long, down to his ankles. The man was large and had a green shirt on. His eyes and skin were bulging. They sent a chill up his spine.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"Don't play dumb! You know perfectly well who I am!" He didn't have a boy's voice at all. It was deep.
His hair was black and spiky. Suiichi almost wanted to touch it and see if it would hurt his finger.
The man smiled. "You can't run from this forever...Kurama."
He looked at him surprised.
"Who are you, may I ask?"
"Hn. I am Hiei. You are Kurama. We have known each other for the longest time. But whom am I kidding? You don't remember."
"And I'm not telling you my name until you go back to your normal self."
Suiichi didn't respond well to this, a bit angry.
"Was it you making my head hurt?"
"No. It was Youko."
"Y...Youko?"
Hiei stood next to him closely. He stood near his face.
"Yes, Youko. You fool. You know him just as well as I do. He is you." He sniffed him. "The smell of blood isn't on you any longer."
"I do not wish for that." He said. "Please, don't come near me."
"You're scared, Kurama. That's different." the man said.
"Will you please stop looking at me like that?" he asked. "I don't know who you are and I want to go back to my class. I am feeling better."
"The humans have turned you useless. I want you to come back with us, Kurama."
"My name is not Kurama. My name is Minamino Suiichi."
"Suiichi!" called Ikari.
He turned around to see her running towards him. When he turned back, the strangers were gone.
The sky was no longer different. Everyone was back in the yard. Suiichi was very confused.
Ikari hugged him. He didn't know what was going on. Why was she hugging him?
"Oh, Suiichi! Where did you go? You disappeared!"
He noticed everyone was staring at him. He must have.
"I didn't know" He stuttered.
"Suiichi, man, what happened? You were there, then you weren't!" said one kid. "Ikari, what happened?" asked Suiichi.
"Just like he said, you disappeared!"
He smiled. "My sister."
"Suiichi, are you delusional? I'm not your sister." She felt his head, at least reached up and tried.
"But you are like a sister." He said. She hugged him again, glad he thought of her like that. "You're so cute too!" he said and picked her up in his arms, spinning her around.
Everyone stared at them laughing together. They guessed it wasn't important what had happened. The bell rang and they were all leaving. "Suiichi, you're giddy!" she said.
"I think that it may be because I feel light headed. But I'll see you later, Ikari. I have to go."
She went one way and him another.
He didn't want to worry her about anything. He knew, somehow, that it wouldn't be good what was happening. He knew...something.
It's raining and Suiichi is running through the streets to get home. He shows up at a bus stop and tries to stay dry under his suitcase. He spotted someone running along. It was Yamshin. He had something over his eye.
"Yamshin!" yelled Suiichi.
He ran over and dried himself off with his shirt.
"Suiichi!"
"What happened to your eye?" he asked.
"Some kid at my school punched me, he's really tough."
"Yamshin, you need help!"
An old woman sitting next to them tugged at Suiichi's shirt. He turned around. "The hospital is not too far away. You can take the bus when it comes." She pointed down the street. "If he's hurting badly."
"NO!" said Yamshin. "I don't want to have to pay for it!"
"You wouldn't pay." Said Suiichi. "The boy who did it to you would. Who was it?"
"I'm not telling you! I just want to get home. I hoped you would understand that!"
He was very confused why he didn't want help.
"I have to go!" he ran away down the street.
"Wait!" said Suiichi but it was no use. He was gone.
Why today? Why, out of all these days, did this have to happen to me? I knew about it somehow. I knew about this name Youko and I knew about myself, deep down inside. But, after I came here, I never wanted to go back. Now I'm living a perfect life and am having a perfect day everyday. I don't want to go back!
Suiichi lay in his bed. He awoke from his thoughts when the phone rang. He answered.
"Hello?...Azuko?...One moment...Mother!" He sat next to his window and stared out. He was becoming lost in his thoughts again until the man on the phone began talking to him again, his voice faintly heard.
"Hello? Hello? Is anyone still there?"
Suiichi's eyes widened and he realized what was going on.
"Oh, yes, sorry...I-" he felt a hand on his shoulder.
"Suiichi." It was Azuko. "Give me the phone."
"Yes..." he handed her the phone. As she took it, he rested his head on her stomach. She slowly lifted her hand and put it on his head.
She continued to talk on the phone. When she was finished, she clicked it off and kneeled in front of him.
"Suiichi, what is the matter?"
"I don't know. I feel very strange."
She felt his head underneath his soft, red bangs.
"I'm not sick." He said. "I just have different things on my mind."
"Well, I guess I shouldn't bother you if you don't want."
He grabbed her hand.
"I love you, mother."
She smiled and hugged him.
"I love you too."
It was a bit later. Suiichi was in his room, falling asleep. There was a presence, suddenly, that appeared in his mind. He slowly turned to the window. There was a sudden gush of wind and the window opened.
He got up, ran over, and tried to close it. His mind was racing. Not now. Not now.
Something black rushed past his eyes. He stopped and let the window hang open.
He turned, his hair blowing, to Hiei.
Then something else went by behind him. He turned to the man smiling and walking around him in a circle with Hiei.
"Please, I don't want to go. It's not what...I want."
"How do you know what you want?" asked Hiei, his clothing blowing in the wind along with the small strands of his hair.
"You must listen to me! I cannot go. I don't want to...go back."
The man chuckled. "So you haven't fully forgotten."
"Of course I haven't! I know that I could never forget being a criminal. I hated using this woman and now calling her my mother! I mustn't go until she doesn't need me anymore. Then, the day that that happens..."
"You mean when she's dead?!" Suiichi hesitated. "Kurama, I am you're partner, but I will not wait that long."
"It will not be long!" After he said that, his mouth hung open. How could he say such a thing?
The man laughed. "So you admit it. She is nothing to you, just someone to take care of you in your time in need. You truly are a criminal Kurama."
"No! I am not!" he swung his fist up and he blocked it. He swung again with the other hand and he blocked again. "You can't beat me, Kurama. You don't have the heart."
Suiichi stepped back on one foot and sat on his bed.
"How do you explain the strange feelings I'm getting? It's like I'm blending into the outside world where as inside I am..." he asked, hoping for a response, almost confiding in them.
"Hn. You are a Youko." Hiei sat next to him, keeping his back straight and a serious face on. "Have you ever touched a rose?"
"Hiei, I know what powers I am supposed to have. I know everything. But I just don't want to know. And I'm starting to forget."
"Here" The man reached into his back pocket. He pulled out and old pressed rose.
"Where did you get that?"
"I had it just in case you were ready to show some of your power."
Suiichi took the rose and closed his eyes. "I...I will be strong. Rose..."
"Whip." Said Hiei.
There was a short pause.
"Whip!"
Nothing happened. Suiichi swung the rose over his head as they both watched him calmly.
"ROSE WHIP!"
Suddenly, the rose spouted and became a full red. Then, the pedals closed and the stem began to expand. Suiichi...Kurama...held on to it tightly as if it would fall from his hands if he didn't.
"Please. That's too much for you? Kurama, wake up."
Kurama looked at them both, blurring.
"WAKE UP!"
Kurama woke next to his desk. Stop. He thought that this couldn't happen, but it seemed to be happening.
"Stop!" he yelled. He decided he would recall everything that happened that day.
He got up, walked to school, saw Hiei at school, dreamed about admitting he was a criminal...
This was too much. He was going to do it. He was going back to his old life...as Youko Kurama.
He headed downstairs the next morning, saw his mother, and a tear ran down his face.
"Suiichi, please eat breakfast, you know it will be good for you."
"Mother, I want to sign up for fighting after school."
"What? Fighting?" She went over to him. "But Suiichi, you've never seemed like the type to fight."
His stare was deadly. He looked at her as if he was about to attack her. He didn't know why, either.
"Honey, if that's what you want..."
He nodded and headed for the front door. Then he left.
"Suiichi, what has gotten into you?"
He walked down the street, autumn even more lovely than yesterday. Ikari noticed him. "Suiichi!"
She was so happy about what he said yesterday, she felt as if she could just run up to him and jump on his back if she wanted to.
He continued walking at a fast pace.
"Hm? Suiichi?"
Yamshin suddenly was coming up the street. He saw Suiichi, then shook his head and continued walking.
Ikari noticed. "Suiichi, please, tell me what's going on."
"Stay away from me Ikari. I'm telling you."
"Wh...what? But I thought you were my brother!"
"Ikari, I-"The wind blew and he felt a strange presence. "I can't tell you."
"I..." She shook her head and ran.
He stopped and watched her, his guilt inside building.
"YOU fight? But Suiichi, you're so gentle!"
"No. I want to fight."
"Ugh, fine, fill this out."
He leaned down to fill out the form when he noticed someone from behind. He was tall and muscular and seemed much bigger than everyone else there. "Um, Suiichi, you finished yet?"
"Who is that?" He pointed.
"Oh, that's the new coach."
The man turned around to be the same man in the green shirt. Suiichi gulped.
"Fighting coach?"
"Yes. He's new."
'If he's there then where is Hiei?' he thought to himself.
"Do you think I'd do this stupid fighting game?" Suiichi spun to Hiei. Once again, everyone around him was gone.
"You mean... I don't know what you mean."
"I MEAN that we're going to teach you to at least be a decent fighter in this form. If you're not Youko, though, you wont be that decent at all."
Suiichi gulped again and Hiei smiled.
To Be Continued
This is the before story of how Hiei found Kurama. If some of my information is wrong, please tell me and I'll fix it. Thanks and R&R!
Remember that no copying thing but also that I nor no one can truly amount to Yu Yu Hakusho. So I am saying now I will not try to, but will only write to MY potential. So don't try to compare, please.
The boy stepped out of his door, into the hallway. His socks were sliding along the carpet and he felt a little dizzy since he just woke up.
He headed into the shower and pulled off his T-shirt and sweatpants.
By the time he got out of the shower, it was about seven O'clock. After the boy put his uniform on and brushed his hair, he went downstairs.
His mother stood there in the kitchen. She seemed very depressed. Before the boy ran out the door, he double took to his mother.
"Mother? Is something wrong?"
She looked up and smiled at him. "You're fifteen tomorrow." She said.
"Yes, I know." He looked down. "Time goes by quickly."
"But I don't want you being depressed!" she said and walked over to him.
"Suiichi, you are my son and I can't have the last few years with you bad. They have to be good ones. You are the most important person to me."
She hugged him and his hair hung over her arm. Stroking her hair, Suiichi hugged her back.
"I know you have diseases, mother, and you get sick." He sat her down. "That's why you're not feeling well. But mother, these things have never bothered you before and I worry it's getting worse."
"No, honey. I'm fine. Go to school." She gave him an empty smile. He felt a bit guilty, but obeyed her.
Once he got outside, he started down the street. The fall leafs were beautiful.
Orange blended nicely with his red hair. Suiichi truly was beautiful. His long hair gave him a very mystical style. But he still had many friends. A's were all he ever got in his classes. He devoted all his time to it.
"Suiichi!" yelled a female voice. He turned around and saw a very pretty girl with short blond hair. There was a red bow in it that matched her outfit.
"Hello, Ikari." He said as she stood next to him.
"So, how's your mother? I heard she's been sick."
He frowned. "Yes the doctors have been a bit worried about her."
She looked down to her suitcase and then smiled.
"Hey! You know there's a new after school program I think you might like!"
He stared at her. She was younger than he was, a few years, and she looked up to him like a big brother.
"Well, what's the program?" he asked.
"It's fighting. I heard you're strong."
"It sounds interesting. I might try it. But I also was looking forward to the soccer season."
"Oh, but that's all the way into the spring. Try something for when the fall and winter come."
"It seems like its autumn already. The trees are changing colors." He put his arms behind his head.
"Hey Minamino!" yelled a voice. He turned around and saw Yamshin. He came over and gave a high-five. "Hey, man. What's up?"
Suiichi and him laughed as Ikari blushed and tried to quicken her pace. She didn't fit in with the older kids.
He turned and saw her. "Ikari, what's the matter?"
"I think it's getting late. I have to get to class."
"Hey, if she has to get to class, don't you too?" asked Yamshin. "I wouldn't know, I mean, I don't have enough money to go to private school."
Suiichi's eyes widened and he hurried down the street.
"See you!" he yelled. Yamshin shook his head and laughed as he headed the other way.
Suiichi looked around for Ikari.
"Ika---" he was stopped somehow by a presence. He turned and looked around.
It was getting too late for him to worry, so he left it behind.
What he didn't know was there was someone, or something, watching him from above.
(If you don't know who that 'someone' is, then you really are new to YYH)
He got to school just in time. The bell rang right when he got to class. He sighed.
His schedule seemed to slip at times. He was just out of touch with everything.
The new school year, his mother being sick. It was too much.
"Suiichi, your homework?" asked the teacher. He pulled out of his neatly packed suitcase a folder. She took it and smiled. "Very good, Suiichi. You always live up to your work." She had only known him not too long and already was very satisfied with him.
He was like that, very likable.
"Suiichi, will you help me?" asked a girl. She had very long, black hair that fell over her face. She was very forward to him. He smiled and took her paper, embarrassed.
"I'll explain it too you."
He suddenly remembered Ikari and looked around class. Where was she? "Suiichi! Come on, help me!" she said and leaned closer to him.
"Sorry." She gave him a deceiving smile.
One boy smiled behind her and started making faces at Suiichi.
He didn't smile back. He was too busy trying to get her away from him.
Later that day, Suiichi was in gym. All the girls smiled at him and were trying to get his attention. He just smiled back and turned around.
I hate it when they do that. Really, they're nice girls, but it's so embarrassing.
Ikari came out and saw him. He smiled at her and she did the same back. They only had two classes together considering the grade difference.
As class began, the boys were put into groups.
Suiichi was matched up with two boys. He was standing with them, going on about something when he felt very strange. He held his head and his eyes began to shimmer.
"Hey, Minamino, are you ok?"
"His...his eyes!"
Suiichi rubbed his eyes with his knuckles.
"Take a bit to rest, man, you look sick." Said one boy. He sat down on a bench. Ikari watched from aside the yard.
They were outside in the hot sun. Maybe that was the thing bothering him.
Suddenly, the sky began turning red. Suiichi looked around and could hear voices saying 'He's different now, he looks different' and 'His hair looks strange.' 'Yes...'
He got up and looked around. Everyone in the schoolyard seemed to be gone. A hand tapped his shoulder. He spun to find a man and a boy.
The boy seemed about his age, maybe a year or two younger, mostly because of his height. He didn't wear average clothes. They were black and long, down to his ankles. The man was large and had a green shirt on. His eyes and skin were bulging. They sent a chill up his spine.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"Don't play dumb! You know perfectly well who I am!" He didn't have a boy's voice at all. It was deep.
His hair was black and spiky. Suiichi almost wanted to touch it and see if it would hurt his finger.
The man smiled. "You can't run from this forever...Kurama."
He looked at him surprised.
"Who are you, may I ask?"
"Hn. I am Hiei. You are Kurama. We have known each other for the longest time. But whom am I kidding? You don't remember."
"And I'm not telling you my name until you go back to your normal self."
Suiichi didn't respond well to this, a bit angry.
"Was it you making my head hurt?"
"No. It was Youko."
"Y...Youko?"
Hiei stood next to him closely. He stood near his face.
"Yes, Youko. You fool. You know him just as well as I do. He is you." He sniffed him. "The smell of blood isn't on you any longer."
"I do not wish for that." He said. "Please, don't come near me."
"You're scared, Kurama. That's different." the man said.
"Will you please stop looking at me like that?" he asked. "I don't know who you are and I want to go back to my class. I am feeling better."
"The humans have turned you useless. I want you to come back with us, Kurama."
"My name is not Kurama. My name is Minamino Suiichi."
"Suiichi!" called Ikari.
He turned around to see her running towards him. When he turned back, the strangers were gone.
The sky was no longer different. Everyone was back in the yard. Suiichi was very confused.
Ikari hugged him. He didn't know what was going on. Why was she hugging him?
"Oh, Suiichi! Where did you go? You disappeared!"
He noticed everyone was staring at him. He must have.
"I didn't know" He stuttered.
"Suiichi, man, what happened? You were there, then you weren't!" said one kid. "Ikari, what happened?" asked Suiichi.
"Just like he said, you disappeared!"
He smiled. "My sister."
"Suiichi, are you delusional? I'm not your sister." She felt his head, at least reached up and tried.
"But you are like a sister." He said. She hugged him again, glad he thought of her like that. "You're so cute too!" he said and picked her up in his arms, spinning her around.
Everyone stared at them laughing together. They guessed it wasn't important what had happened. The bell rang and they were all leaving. "Suiichi, you're giddy!" she said.
"I think that it may be because I feel light headed. But I'll see you later, Ikari. I have to go."
She went one way and him another.
He didn't want to worry her about anything. He knew, somehow, that it wouldn't be good what was happening. He knew...something.
It's raining and Suiichi is running through the streets to get home. He shows up at a bus stop and tries to stay dry under his suitcase. He spotted someone running along. It was Yamshin. He had something over his eye.
"Yamshin!" yelled Suiichi.
He ran over and dried himself off with his shirt.
"Suiichi!"
"What happened to your eye?" he asked.
"Some kid at my school punched me, he's really tough."
"Yamshin, you need help!"
An old woman sitting next to them tugged at Suiichi's shirt. He turned around. "The hospital is not too far away. You can take the bus when it comes." She pointed down the street. "If he's hurting badly."
"NO!" said Yamshin. "I don't want to have to pay for it!"
"You wouldn't pay." Said Suiichi. "The boy who did it to you would. Who was it?"
"I'm not telling you! I just want to get home. I hoped you would understand that!"
He was very confused why he didn't want help.
"I have to go!" he ran away down the street.
"Wait!" said Suiichi but it was no use. He was gone.
Why today? Why, out of all these days, did this have to happen to me? I knew about it somehow. I knew about this name Youko and I knew about myself, deep down inside. But, after I came here, I never wanted to go back. Now I'm living a perfect life and am having a perfect day everyday. I don't want to go back!
Suiichi lay in his bed. He awoke from his thoughts when the phone rang. He answered.
"Hello?...Azuko?...One moment...Mother!" He sat next to his window and stared out. He was becoming lost in his thoughts again until the man on the phone began talking to him again, his voice faintly heard.
"Hello? Hello? Is anyone still there?"
Suiichi's eyes widened and he realized what was going on.
"Oh, yes, sorry...I-" he felt a hand on his shoulder.
"Suiichi." It was Azuko. "Give me the phone."
"Yes..." he handed her the phone. As she took it, he rested his head on her stomach. She slowly lifted her hand and put it on his head.
She continued to talk on the phone. When she was finished, she clicked it off and kneeled in front of him.
"Suiichi, what is the matter?"
"I don't know. I feel very strange."
She felt his head underneath his soft, red bangs.
"I'm not sick." He said. "I just have different things on my mind."
"Well, I guess I shouldn't bother you if you don't want."
He grabbed her hand.
"I love you, mother."
She smiled and hugged him.
"I love you too."
It was a bit later. Suiichi was in his room, falling asleep. There was a presence, suddenly, that appeared in his mind. He slowly turned to the window. There was a sudden gush of wind and the window opened.
He got up, ran over, and tried to close it. His mind was racing. Not now. Not now.
Something black rushed past his eyes. He stopped and let the window hang open.
He turned, his hair blowing, to Hiei.
Then something else went by behind him. He turned to the man smiling and walking around him in a circle with Hiei.
"Please, I don't want to go. It's not what...I want."
"How do you know what you want?" asked Hiei, his clothing blowing in the wind along with the small strands of his hair.
"You must listen to me! I cannot go. I don't want to...go back."
The man chuckled. "So you haven't fully forgotten."
"Of course I haven't! I know that I could never forget being a criminal. I hated using this woman and now calling her my mother! I mustn't go until she doesn't need me anymore. Then, the day that that happens..."
"You mean when she's dead?!" Suiichi hesitated. "Kurama, I am you're partner, but I will not wait that long."
"It will not be long!" After he said that, his mouth hung open. How could he say such a thing?
The man laughed. "So you admit it. She is nothing to you, just someone to take care of you in your time in need. You truly are a criminal Kurama."
"No! I am not!" he swung his fist up and he blocked it. He swung again with the other hand and he blocked again. "You can't beat me, Kurama. You don't have the heart."
Suiichi stepped back on one foot and sat on his bed.
"How do you explain the strange feelings I'm getting? It's like I'm blending into the outside world where as inside I am..." he asked, hoping for a response, almost confiding in them.
"Hn. You are a Youko." Hiei sat next to him, keeping his back straight and a serious face on. "Have you ever touched a rose?"
"Hiei, I know what powers I am supposed to have. I know everything. But I just don't want to know. And I'm starting to forget."
"Here" The man reached into his back pocket. He pulled out and old pressed rose.
"Where did you get that?"
"I had it just in case you were ready to show some of your power."
Suiichi took the rose and closed his eyes. "I...I will be strong. Rose..."
"Whip." Said Hiei.
There was a short pause.
"Whip!"
Nothing happened. Suiichi swung the rose over his head as they both watched him calmly.
"ROSE WHIP!"
Suddenly, the rose spouted and became a full red. Then, the pedals closed and the stem began to expand. Suiichi...Kurama...held on to it tightly as if it would fall from his hands if he didn't.
"Please. That's too much for you? Kurama, wake up."
Kurama looked at them both, blurring.
"WAKE UP!"
Kurama woke next to his desk. Stop. He thought that this couldn't happen, but it seemed to be happening.
"Stop!" he yelled. He decided he would recall everything that happened that day.
He got up, walked to school, saw Hiei at school, dreamed about admitting he was a criminal...
This was too much. He was going to do it. He was going back to his old life...as Youko Kurama.
He headed downstairs the next morning, saw his mother, and a tear ran down his face.
"Suiichi, please eat breakfast, you know it will be good for you."
"Mother, I want to sign up for fighting after school."
"What? Fighting?" She went over to him. "But Suiichi, you've never seemed like the type to fight."
His stare was deadly. He looked at her as if he was about to attack her. He didn't know why, either.
"Honey, if that's what you want..."
He nodded and headed for the front door. Then he left.
"Suiichi, what has gotten into you?"
He walked down the street, autumn even more lovely than yesterday. Ikari noticed him. "Suiichi!"
She was so happy about what he said yesterday, she felt as if she could just run up to him and jump on his back if she wanted to.
He continued walking at a fast pace.
"Hm? Suiichi?"
Yamshin suddenly was coming up the street. He saw Suiichi, then shook his head and continued walking.
Ikari noticed. "Suiichi, please, tell me what's going on."
"Stay away from me Ikari. I'm telling you."
"Wh...what? But I thought you were my brother!"
"Ikari, I-"The wind blew and he felt a strange presence. "I can't tell you."
"I..." She shook her head and ran.
He stopped and watched her, his guilt inside building.
"YOU fight? But Suiichi, you're so gentle!"
"No. I want to fight."
"Ugh, fine, fill this out."
He leaned down to fill out the form when he noticed someone from behind. He was tall and muscular and seemed much bigger than everyone else there. "Um, Suiichi, you finished yet?"
"Who is that?" He pointed.
"Oh, that's the new coach."
The man turned around to be the same man in the green shirt. Suiichi gulped.
"Fighting coach?"
"Yes. He's new."
'If he's there then where is Hiei?' he thought to himself.
"Do you think I'd do this stupid fighting game?" Suiichi spun to Hiei. Once again, everyone around him was gone.
"You mean... I don't know what you mean."
"I MEAN that we're going to teach you to at least be a decent fighter in this form. If you're not Youko, though, you wont be that decent at all."
Suiichi gulped again and Hiei smiled.
To Be Continued
