Description: A certain misfortune changes Kurama forever.
Notes: The story is partly inspired by the movie "I, Robot" (but no robots in this fic.
The demon in the story is inspired by the red overdosed Hyde from the movie "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen"
The summary/remark I wrote outside this file doesn't have anything to do with the story. I just thought it sounded catchy with the title :P This is my first time writing this type of story
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Chapter 1: Tragedy
It's been a myth among demons that eating the soul of a woman with a pure heart grants mysterious powers. And so one demon decides to experience this himself. This particular demon's anatomy resembles that of a human, but what sets him apart is his deformed right arm that's bigger than any other part of his body. He doesn't have a name, and quite frankly, he doesn't care. What he does care about is power. And this time, he plans to become stronger by crossing the human world's border and eating a lady. Things couldn't be easier for him, as he's already found his meal. He'll lay low for now, and wait for an opportunity to strike when nobody else is looking. Otherwise, he'll cause a disturbance among humans that might alert the spirit world. His plan is to stalk the woman until she's alone.
Although the demon chose not to strike, the spirit world has already been informed of his actions. In fact, the spirit world has found it out ever since he crossed the border of both worlds. However, they were delayed in finding him. As soon as they've pinpointed the demon's location, Koenma immediately watches him on his monitor. Then, he commands Botan to tell the Yusuke and the others.
"Quickly! We don't have much time.", Koenma adds in a raised voice. Botan scrambles to the human world in her oar.
When Botan arrived at the human world, she figured she'll approach Kurama first. She sets off for his school and finds him. She spotted Kurama with a bunch of friends, and hurriedly pulls him away saying:
"It's an emergency".
A confused Kurama follows Botan, and notices that the look on her face is rather serious compared to her usual self.
"Hop on.", says Botan, summoning her oar.
Kurama almost hesitated on the idea of flying on the oar, but the look on Botan's face convinces him otherwise. As soon as Kurama grabbed the oar, Botan quickly flies it away.
"We're going too fast!", shouts Kurama.
"Tell that to me later.", Botan responds, while flying to oar to the direction of the demon.
"Is everything all right? What's this all about?", Kurama asks. Botan didn't respond, as she was focusing on flying her oar as fast as possible. They finally reached their destination. It's Kurama's house.
Before Kurama could mutter anything about his quick trip home, he senses a dark energy looming nearby. Botan's words confirmed his bad feeling.
"A demon has broken into this world. And we think he's after your mother.", she explains in a fading voice.
Kurama runs to the door and knocks, but there was no answer. He opens the door, and discovers that the demon has already attacked. It's holding an unconscious Shiori on one hand. Kurama turns a rose into a whip, but the demon conjures up his own portal to the demon world. The demon escapes thru his portal and attempts to close it, hoping that Kurama won't be able to follow him. Unfortunately for him, Botan drives both Kurama and herself to the passage using her oar. She initially planned on leaving to tell Yusuke and the others, but she had to follow the demon or else they might lose track of him. And to make things worse, the demon already has his hands on Kurama's mom.
When they reached the end of the portal, they found themselves on top of a tall hill somewhere in the demon world. The demon was getting ready to feast on Shiori's soul, with plans of testing his new powers later on Kurama. But the determined Kurama won't allow him to hurt his mom. Kurama attempted to free his mom from the demon's grip several times, but the demon insisted on this meal. He couldn't kill the demon, since he didn't want to jeopardize his mom's life. After analyzing the demon's actions, Kurama decides his mom had the best chance if he got himself some help. He moves himself towards Botan, while keeping the demon from fulfilling his task. He quickly tells Botan,
"Here's the plan: As soon as I pull on his arm, you grab mom and take her to safety. No matter what happens, you have to save her. Don't worry about me. I trust you. Please.".
Botan nods in agreement. Kurama quickly turns his sight towards the demon. It's already tearing Shiori's soul away from her body. Kurama immediately executes his part of the plan. "Go!", he shouts to Botan. As Kurama attacked, the demon pulled on his whip and punched Kurama, knocking him out and sending him falling off the cliff.
Meanwhile, Botan was flying towards Shiori, determined to save her. Then something happens that changes her life forever. It seemed to her that time slowed down almost to a halt, and she heard a familiar voice.
"My journey ends here. Please save him.".
Botan was startled a bit. She's no stranger to souls, but it's the first time that something like this happened. Then she felt time quickly catching up to its normal pace. She decided to help Kurama. Within seconds, she turned her oar to the other direction. She was able to catch Kurama from his fall. He's knocked out, but he's still breathing. The demon didn't have the same fate, as plants bloomed from within him, apparently planted by Kurama sometime during their encounter. Shiori's soul became his final meal, and one thing it did grant him is Kurama's wrath.
Later, Kurama wakes up and notices he's in the spirit world. The first thing he sees is Koenma. Kurama smiled a little.
"Guess I died after all.", says Kurama. Then his smile swiftly fades away.
"My mom...how's she doing?", asks Kurama.
"First of all, you're not dead.", answers Koenma.
"And secondly, your mom...wasn't as fortunate.", Koenma hesitantly added.
"That's impossible!", says Kurama.
"I demand an explanation!", he furiously adds. Koenma wasn't surprised that he'll get angry, so he answers anyway.
"You were supposedly gonna die. Botan decided to save you instead. She says your mom didn't want you to die there.".
However, Koenma didn't expect what Kurama said next.
"I should have known she'll just screw up.".
Koenma couldn't help but answer:
"She saved your life."
"That's not what I told her"
Then, Koenma attempted to calm Kurama by saying:
"If you feel she messed up in any way, feel free to hit me. I'm her boss, and I'll take full responsibility"
Kurama punches him in the face, and then realizes that he broke his arm from his battle before.
"You're hurt. We'll have to fix that...", says Koenma, rubbing his face where it got hit.
"No. My hand is fine. Where's Botan? We have to talk.", says Kurama, still in an angry voice.
"I was hoping your rage would end after you hit me. She's been through a long day. If you want to talk to her, you'll have to wait."
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Closing Notes: Koenma's last line convinced me to sleep now and write the next chapter in another day.