Disclaimer: Honey, if I owned either one of these, I wouldn't even have an account on the internet
Moonlight Reveals All
Chapter 1: First Sign of the Moon
"It feels—different, you know, having all the mewmews," Ichigo said, sighing contentedly.
"No more stalking…" Mint breathed, almost sadly.
"No more looking for marks…" Lettuce agreed.
"No more leaping to find new Mewmews…" Pudding said, happily, and added a cartwheel.
Zakuro walked in, and raised her eyebrows. "Why are you all moping around? It's summer!" thinking she was slightly irate, Ichigo looked up. Instead of anger or annoyance, there was sparkling playfulness in her eyes, and her hands were behind her back, probably hiding something…
"I thought we'd go camping," she said, pulling out five big backpacks, (1) each filled as much as possible.
"I've never known Zakuro to do this…" Ichigo whispered to Mint. Mint agreed silently, nodding her head.
"How… How did you come up with this… idea?" Lettuce asked uneasily.
Zakuro didn't smile or frown. She kept a straight face and said, "I had this booked since last year. I was supposed to have the American, Brad Pitt, some other stars, and one of my producers come along, but since I had to quit the business, I have no one to go with. I didn't waste so much money on this particular camping area to end up going alone." Even then, she didn't glare.
The expressionless eyes she wore were even worse than a glare, seeing as the star hardly ever glowered. Quickly, they all gave their consent to go. And… they were off.
"Full moon in three days, Hiei, Saturday," Kurama grinned ruefully.
"So, fox?" the fire demon asked, sitting on Kurama's windowsill without a care in the world. Kurama didn't answer. There was really nothing significant about the full moon—except that Shuuichi Minamino morphed into the ruthless and cutthroat Yoko Kurama. Kurama was neither happy nor gloomy on this day.
It is the day his soul is freed, and also the day his human existence is in most danger. It is the day his mother is most likely to find Shuuichi as the Yoko, and also the day his tension and stress is cleared. It is the day he is free to hunt and act the way he was firstly born to act, but also the day his family and friends are most in danger of becoming Yoko's next victim.
There were definitely a lot of ups and downs to becoming Yoko once a month, but the main concern and danger of turning into the fox was that his mother could find him, hate him, reject him, and could be killed by him. All her happiness could be drained away from her on that night. Or, the opposite could happen. Shiori might accept him, and then he could stop lying, protect her freely, and everything he wanted to help her with.
"Fox?" Hiei inquired. Kurama didn't respond immediately, but eventually nodded to show he had heard.
"If you want… Yusuke is going camping. Others are going too in around three days. You can go with them, and transform there. It would be easiest," Hiei muttered.
Kurama's eyes lit up with joy when he suddenly got up and rushed to the phone. "Yes, Astuko, it's me, Shuuichi. May I speak to Yusuke? Yes, I'll hold." There was then a brief pause. "Yusuke? Can I go camping with you on Saturday?"
On the other end, Yusuke was blinking out of confusion. "You want to? Okay… sure… we paid for the place by lot, and not people; I doubt the park officials will mind… if Shiori says yes."
"Thanks!" he said. Kurama whirled around, into the kitchen to find his mother already hard at work, cooking dinner.
"Okaasan?" he asked. Shiori nodded to show she was listening. "Yusuke invited me to go with him camping on Saturday. May I?" Shiori chuckled in a motherly way.
"Are you sure that young boy invited you? From what I heard, you called him up, and asked him if he wanted to go camping. But……of course you can, as long as you brush your teeth every night, okay?" she asked. Continuing, she set down a warm pot onto the table. Kurama brightened. Not only did he get to leave when he became Yoko, but now he got to eat lasagna, an Italian food his mother rarely made.
He ate quickly, thanked his mother, and went back to his room to find Hiei on his windowsill. "I smell Italian. What are you hiding, Fox?" he growled.
"Lasagna!" Kurama said, as he ducked a figurine that was thrown at him. Right after he stuck out his tongue childishly, he found the figurine had been his crystalline imitation of the goddess Inari. "NOOOOO!" he lamented, but not loud enough so that his mother would hear.
He glared at Hiei, though ineffective because Hiei always seemed immune to that stuff. /If I can't intimidate him, I know what will./ "I'm telling Yukina." Hiei's eyes narrowed.
"You wouldn't…"
"Yes I would!" Kurama shouted, racing past the fire demon in his window toward Genkai's temple.
Before the fox could get far, Hiei caught his collar. "Why are you acting like Yusuke and Kuwabara all of a sudden? The Yoko cannot possibly be this fired up," Hiei said, letting the redhead go.
Kurama rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment. "Actually, I have no idea. It's the first time in ages I will be able to completely release the Yoko, so he must be really happy…" he muttered, mostly to himself than Hiei.
Something weird was going on. Why was Yoko so happy? The silver fox was more sly and observant than hyper and reckless. Actually, hyper and reckless was nothing like him. So, why was the fox acting different?
"You three can pitch the tents, while Mint and I go to look for firewood," the purple-haired girl said authoritatively. Ichigo nodded, as Lettuce and Pudding started to set up camp.
Zakuro and Mint had been walking and gathering wood for a while, sticking to a manmade trail. "Um, Zakuro?" Mint asked tentatively, stopping in her tracks, "Well, you didn't take us with you just because you had booked this earlier. What's the ulterior motive?"
Zakuro kept walking, adjusting the wood in her arms. "I sensed something wrong in Tokyo. I don't know, like there was another mewmew. It happened about a month ago…I let myself transform into my other form, when the full moon was up. In that form, I… I felt as if there was another basking in the moonlight," she said.
Mint mouthed an 'oh!' before catching up to the other girl. How Zakuro could have sensed the energy of another mewmew was entirely past her.
Suddenly, a phone ring resounded through the forest. Zakuro flipped out a small silver cell phone, and answered it. "Moshi-moshi? Hai. Sure, but you have to bring your own tent. Okay. Ja," she said, putting it back into her back pocket.
Mint looked at Zakuro strangely before asking, "Dare—"
"Ryou and Keichiro," Zakuro answered, before Mint could finish her question.
"They're coming too?" Zakuro nodded yes to Mint's question, as they trekked their way back to the campsite.
"I can't get this tent up!"
"I can't get this tarp…"
"You guys, I've already gotten my stuff up!"
Ichigo sighed. The tent just wouldn't stay up, and Lettuce's tarp couldn't stay still. Good thing Pudding had gotten the hang of it. She could do most of the work. Okay, all of the work. Oh well, right?
Ichigo and Lettuce were sitting on a log nearby the clearing when Zakuro and Mint came through a trail, trying to keep a hold of the firewood they had gathered.
"Ryou and Keichiro are coming too, just so you three know," Mint said, putting down the wood in a part that wasn't occupied with a tent or supplies.
"WHAAAAT?" Ichigo moaned, letting her head fall. Great. Just great. Keichiro was fine, but Ryou? Always finding a way to belittle or insult her, god! Why couldn't he stay at the café? (2)
"Oh well, it'll be fine, Ichigo. You know, you should've invited Masaya, now that I think of it," Lettuce said. Ichigo sighed. Of course, that would have at least made this more tolerable! How sad, Masaya probably could've taught Ichigo how to put up the tent.
Kurama looked out the left window of the car Yusuke had 'borrowed'. "Yusuke, we are camping at Yamagachi?" he asked.
"Yeah, why?"
"Well, as far as I know, Yamagachi is pretty expensive. Reserved for millionaires and celebrities," he said, looking at the cute little manmade waterfall to the left. A sign in front of it read, 'Yamagachi Park: Wild Paradise'. After that, it had a sign that said everything great about the area, including the wonderful abundance of fish in the river, slightly tamed bears, and a hotel not even a mile away just in case 'you lose the call of the wild'.
"My mom has ties to the Yakuza, remember?" he answered, unfazed. Kurama nodded. Of course! How could he forget about the Mafia? There was a special running about them on June 13, 2005 on National Geographic. (3)
Yusuke was driving with Keiko in the passenger's seat, giving him directions. Beside Kurama sat Kuwabara, who was gazing at the lovely young Yukina leaning on his right arm. Behind Yukina, Botan was playing an electronic game Yusuke had provided for her. Koenma was curled up next to her, sleeping like a baby (4). Aw, isn't that cute? Meanwhile, Hiei was perched on top of the car, among the camping gear. He absolutely despised the thought of being 'chained,' as he had called it, to a seat inside a metal shoebox. It was like the electric chair to him, or something.
Soon, they reached the campsite. It was a quaint meadow, with other campers nearby. The Reikai Tantei got up to stretch, leaving Koenma behind to work on his beauty sleep. In almost no time, they had gotten two tents up, each able to provide shelter for four people. Using a bit of twig and wood, Hiei started a fire. Having a little fire demon is useful, eh?
"Well, we've got everything up, what's there left to do?" Botan asked.
Yusuke grinned, ear to ear. "First, we gotta wake Sleeping Beauty," he said menacingly.
"I feel sorry for Koenma," Keiko sighed, getting a towel just in case Yusuke resorted to the more classic bucket of water. Yusuke grabbed Kuwabara's arm, pulling him into the Sequoia.
Yusuke hovered over the seemingly harmless toddler, rubbing his hands together, and said, "It's time to wake up, my dear…"
1—You know, the big ones that you can see over peoples heads?
2—It rhymes!
3—Seriously, I want to watch that, but I have to go to the Philippines on the eighth. Someone check it out for me, kay?
4—Sorry, that just popped into my head.
A/N: I don't know why I named it that, I just didn't want to leave it nameless. I'm sorry, I suck at humor. I know, don't try to make me feel bad. I won't update unless someone reviews other than my three friends, no offense to my only friends on the web. Heck, this will probably be less than five chapters. Anyway, as soon as I get a review from someone other than my three friends, I'll try to update. As long as it's after June 27, I think that's when I'm coming back. Ja mata ne!
Shiruba Fokkusu
