Split Chapter 2, a yu yu hakusho fanfic

Well, This is the second chapter that I have edited so far, all in one day too. I'm on a roll.

The stars will mean that the chapter is edited

Chapter 2: Caught

His feet hit the pavement as he sprinted from the house. The house that he lost himself in. His breath came in cold spurts, clouding the air in front of him. He suddenly wished he was wearing something besides red pajamas. The current clothing was not anywhere warm enough to block the midnight frost. It must have been late. Probably around two in the morning. Hair, red hair he thought in relief, swirled in the wind, obstructing his sight. It did not matter though. Why should it? He had no clue where he was going anyways.

One thought came to mind. What was wrong with him? Tears now flowed freely down his face but he did not care. Kurama had never been one to cry, least of all in public, yet here he was, crying like Koenma would if someone stole his binky. Like a baby.

No matter what, he kept running. It always helped to clear his thoughts. Just concentrate on moving your feet. No worries. Akuna Mahaha, or whatever that silly show last Tuesday said. He almost smiled at the memory. Almost. Nevertheless, his thoughts and heart rate both slowed down enough for him to stop racing like his life depended on it. The rhythm of his feet slapping the cement pulled him into a quiet stupor. There were no footsteps behind him, charging after him, voices calling for him to come back. It could have been because they were glad he was gone, that they didn't care about him, Yoko's thoughts echoed through his mind. No, he refused, they are just surprised, I am faster than Yusuke and Kuwabara, and they do not know where I am. Then why are you running, his other half probed. He had him there. Or was it himself?

Shaking his head in confusion, he continued his race toward an unknown goal.

His thoughts trailed back to the house. Yusuke had probably chased after him a minute after he left. He was equally heroic and stupid in that way. Hiei might have sat around for quite some time. Longer than Kuwabara anyways. It would not matter for the ice demon, since he was faster than a speeding bullet, even one from a spirit gun as Yusuke had found out. That time was so long ago. When they had been enemies. Now, well they were not the chummiest bunch of friends, the four of them, but they had trust in each other. Trust, Kurama thought miserably, that he had snapped in two.

Slowing to a speed walk, he walked through the streets. The city was deserted mostly, with only a few people out. Though, from the looks of it, the group he passed not a minute ago were ladies of the night. Kurama ceased moving, feet immobilizing and breath catching. There was nothing like that in his neighborhood that he knew of. He observed his surroundings. The buildings were shoddy and graffiti embellished the street signs and abandoned houses. He had just walked himself into Murder Avenue. That was what it had nicknamed himself. Any killings or body dumps happened right here.

He hurried his way out of there, not wanting any trouble. He wandered for an hour, until his legs protested. They led him to sit under a large oak tree in a park. It was not familiar. Great. Just dandy. Now he had no way of finding his way home. Cold sweat beaded his fit body, making his shirt stick uncomfortably to his chest. He shook his hair out of his eyes.

It must have been five minutes, maybe ten when something crossed the red-heads mind. He wanted a change. Ideas came to his mind, all extremely different, when he found a change he could do. Right there. It wouldn't be the end of the world. Of course, he would miss it.

He summoned up his powers and grasped a blade of grass. It instantly elongated and sharpened into a dagger. He raised the dagger to eye level. Perfect. Grasping his long bushy red hair in one hand, in one stroke, he ran the knife through his hair. It sliced through it. Now, instead of being down almost to his waist, it was now up above his chin, spiking out in the back. Kurama gulped.

That was pretty darn short for him. On the bright side, he thought as he stood up and approached a nearby trashcan, tossing the excess hair inside, I won't be confused for a girl. The teen relaxed against the solid tree trunk, huddling for warmth against the morning frost.

That felt good, doing something sporadic. Forced his focus away from his problems.

He had about one minute…forty seconds before someone would appear, most likely Yusuke since Kuwabara was slower and Hiei would not just show himself right away. He dropped the blade of grass, watching as it floated lightly to the ground, shrinking until it was normal once again.

'I wish I were never a part of Yoko. I wish he would just get out of my body.' For a second, a brief second it was, the troubled teen thought will alone had won freedom of his thoughts. But then an irritated voice spoke up.

'I am tired of your idiotic thoughts. Your friends are pathetic and so are you. I need to take charge if you want to survive!' The voice in his head sounded aggravated but Kurama ignored it. He did not need this, not now.

Thirty seconds. He tried to concentrate on what else he could change. He could switch schools, ask to go up a grade level, or maybe—

A gasp ripped from his throat as his body swiftly morphed. He stood up and clutched the nearest tree branch as pain rippled through him. He hated forced transformations. They were excruciating.

He could hear someone shouting his name. Probably Yusuke, he was dumb enough to come near. Didn't he know that he was dangerous?

"Stop!" Kurama yelled to them, still staring at the ground intently. "Go back!"

Then a voice, not his normal kind, shy voice, also rose up. "I want to be free!" Yoko, Kurama quickly found out, was not one to mess with.

"NO!"

A burning light erupted as he yelled, consuming the entire park in a green hue. The three people who were approaching jumped back in surprise as the ground began to shake violently. The Tantei cautiously took a few steps back as they watched Kurama in awe.

The light sent objects flying into the air. The trio leaped back in shock as the light approached them. Hiei landed gracefully on his feet, while Kuwabara landed on his face and Yusuke fell on top of Kuwabara.

Hiei's eyes widened slightly. "That is his spirit energy."

"No. Way." Kuwabara's response spoke the other two's minds as well. "That is impossible."

The fire demon then grabbed the other two beside him, pulling them backwards at the last moment, as the light exploded.

It was as if a bomb had been released.

The brightness blinded everyone, leaving green spots dancing in front of their eyes. When the spirit energy died away, Yusuke lifted his head up slowly and stood up. The carrot top did the same. Hiei was already at the edge of a new fifty foot radius crater. They had been lucky this happened in a park, not a neighborhood. The two humans worked their way through the rubble and came to stand next to him, mouths ajar.

Fifteen feet below them, leaning against a tree in the middle of the rubble was a certain unconscious teen. But what really shocked them was about three feet away from the boy. Yoko Kurama.

Kuwabara continued to stare in utter confusion. "What just happened?" That was when he realized the fire demon and spirit detective had left him standing by himself and were now next to the kitsune. "Hey! Wait for me!" he cried, tripping over his feet as he ran down the steep ledge of the crater.

Hiei was facing Yoko, his original scowl plastered on his face. "Well, well, well. The boy did have power didn't he?" Yoko pretended to not know the answer, eyes glinting maliciously. "Too bad it couldn't be used for great things."

"Hn." Hiei was used to these kinds of talks, he himself had given a few back in his day. Before he realized it was pointless and to ensure all attention on him, he had to just get on to the point. Obviously Yoko had not gotten the memo.

An uneasy feeling in his gut told him that this split had not happened by chance. Something else was up. Kurama had been acting strange all day, as if he was planning on telling them something, but did not know how to. It also seemed like it had more to do with Kurama than anyone else, yet Hiei had not asked. He should not care about someone else's problems. Sometimes he hated having friends like the three around him. Too much emotion.

He slammed back to earth when a cold voice hissed in his mind, 'You had better make funeral arrangements for your friend over there. His soul will most likely perish from the pain. If it doesn't kill him it will drive him insane.' Hiei heard Yoko speaking to him through telepathy.

'Why won't you die?' Hiei questioned carefully. They needed as many answers as possible. 'Who is helping you?'

Yoko's laugh echoed through his mind. 'A friend. To answer the first, I may have survived in the boy's body, but I was already a whole soul before I was so inconveniently killed. I don't need him anymore.' Boy, he was cocky.

As they were talking, Kuwabara slung Kurama over his shoulder. The unconscious boy flinched and his face tensed as pain swept over him. His red hair covered his emerald eyes, but if you could see them, you would see them watering. "Dude, you cut your hair!" Yusuke cried out to the air.

"He moved!" Kuwabara yelled right in Kurama's ear, making him groan in anguish. He set the kitsune down gently on the hard dirt. Yusuke ran over from where he was standing next to Hiei. Kneeling down next to the red head, he checked for his vitals.

Hiei snorted and turned around. "You idiots! He isn't dead." Wrong move Hiei. When the fire demon turned back around, Yoko was gone. He thought a few choice words not gently used in public. 'Stupid!' he shouted to himself. He tried using his Jagan eye but it was being interfered with. He didn't need to guess who was blocking it.

"Dang!" he muttered. He was frustrated and needed to kill something. Finding no one suitable, he mentally counted to ten. 'One…two…three…four…five…six-'

"Hiei! Are you just going to stand there? We need to take Kurama back to his house! Come on."

Hiei nodded slightly to Yusuke's call and they headed towards the direction of the Minamino residence. It was lucky that Yusuke brought his compass.

No one saw the dark figure sliding into the shadows, slumped over, and barely having enough energy to disappear. Though disappear the shadow man did. Not even Hiei could hear the man's laughter.

/Time passing/
/Time passing/

/Time passing/

'So, it was Yoko and not just normal Kurama. We were so stupid!' Yusuke mentally pinched himself. He thought back to when they were all invited over to the kitsune's house. Kurama seemed uptight, nervous about something, but the spirit detective had figured it was because the perfect student was throwing a party. Without permission.

Mind you, it was not a gigantic party, no drinking, no driving, and definitely no smoking of anything, illegal or legal.

Any of those things were sure to cause mayhem, especially with powers such as the four present. The teen smirked as he imagined them being drunk. He could see it now, spirit bullets flying around and dragons attacking the neighbors. It was definitely funny, yet it would not be looked upon with pride in the morning.

Yusuke's thoughts were interrupted as Kurama's eyes slowly opened. The fox was laying on one of the couches in the family room, and the rest of the gang was sitting around him. Well Hiei was sitting on the windowsill again, but Yusuke was sitting in a chair on the right of the couch, and Kuwabara took the other couch facing Kurama.

Kurama sat up halfway and muttered sleepily "What happened?"

Kuwabara started, "Um, well, you and Yoko split into two different people... you were unconscious... we took you home… and now you are awake."

'Hn. Kurama, your human body can not take the splitting of the soul very kindly. It is a rare event when splicing occurs. The pain will be immense and it has drove people insane.'

Kurama nodded to Hiei's mental commentary. 'I will have to be careful then.'

He grasped the water glass held out to him by Kuwabara, muttering a thank you. A quick look in the reflection told him that he was positively human, short hair and all.

Human.

"Oh no," Kurama exclaimed and sat up all the way. Human in all of its glory. That meant…something occurred to him. He reached for a seed in his hair and pulled one out, waiting for it to envelope in his spirit energy. Nothing happened. It stayed a seed, lying on his palm innocently. "This cannot be." Horror enveloped him. He concentrated on feeling his spirit energy, but there was nothing. Not one single spark. He was utterly human, as well as vulnerable.

"I am completely human."

Kuwabara's mouth hung open like a dummy. At another point in time, this would have amused Kurama, but not now. He quickly realized that he was also displaying an unmasked surprise on his face. The expression was immediately pushed away, leaving his familiar calm look.

He forced himself to come to terms with the facts.

So he was human. So what? He was before.

He considered that for a moment before changing his mind. This time he had no defense or anything. Another thing hit him. His…being felt…what was the word? Split. That was it. Like part of his soul was on vacation, stranding the other half somewhere deserted.

He never liked his thoughts that came from his past life, but recently it had been too much. Somehow his memories of the past became another whole person, like split-personality disorder.

It was something that few knew of, and fewer knew how to remedy it. There were records however, about extremely powerful demons having the power to separate another person into two different people. Good and Bad. The two opposites would either go separate ways and end up killed by the separation, or kill each other in hatred of their opposites.

Only one other person of Kurama's knew about him being Yoko, besides his friends. The same person caused Kurama to have the party in the first place.

Fugiwara Shun. The man who envied Yoko since the moment they met.

Due to a certain agreement about stolen goods, Shun and Yoko had become trading partners. There had also been Kuronue, but he was more of a friend. The only similarity between Yoko and Shun was that they both desired power. In the end however, they became friends indeed.

After Yoko died, Shun disappeared as well, unseen for years.

Until three weeks ago.

Shun was spotted somewhere in Makai, the demon world, by a spy of Koenma. He was seen talking to himself, saying the name Yoko several times.

Presumably, this was Kurama's theory, somehow his other self had communicated with Shun and came up with the plan to separate Yoko from himself. The only flaw in that was that Shun had to be close by to even be capable of such a feat.

He winced again as agony engulfed him. The floor was spinning around him and his breathing began to pick up. It was as if someone had sliced his brain in half and attached it to an electric fence.

Thinking fast, Kurama pulled out some herbs from a small bag in his pocket and crushed them together. Then he dropped them into his water. They sizzled when they hit the water's surface and dissolved. Kurama drank the whole contents and set the glass on the table. At least something still worked of his.

"What was that?" Yusuke asked. His usually greased hair was down and made him look even more like Puu, his other self, similar to a blue penguin.

The kitsune looked up and simply responded "A very strong painkiller."

"Oh."

/time passing/

In an effort to keep Kurama's thoughts on something other than his other self, the four Tantei stayed up for the rest of the morning and watched videos of fights at the Dark Tournament, courtesy of Koenma. Everyone winced as Hiei disintegrated Zeru with the dragon of darkness flame. Yusuke about died laughing when Rinku was dropping Kuwabara thousands of feet to his doom.

"URIMESHI! WHAT IS SO DANG FUNNY!"

"You… you" he gasped for air, clutching his sides, " … you…" But his laughter started up again and he was rolling on the floor, grasping his stomach.

"I think the detective has finally cracked," stated Hiei with a smirk.

"You scream…like a little girl! Just wait… until your gang…hears this!" Yusuke finally managed to utter through tears.

Kuwabara's face grew bright red "You think that is funny! All right Urimeshi! Let's fight right now. I will prove to you that the great Kazuma Kuwabara is not like a little girl!"

It took several minutes for Yusuke to cool down and the laughter finally subsided. Instead of fighting, Hiei started a name-calling fight with the great Kazuma Kuwabara.

"Baka."

"Shrimp."

"Stupid."

"Shorty."

The list went on and on until Kurama quietly exclaimed that it was Yusuke's fight against Toguro on the tape. They stopped fighting to watch him beat the crap out of Toguro then started name-calling again. Kurama just sighed and leaned back on the couch. He appreciated what they were doing, trying to have fun and cheer him up, but he could tell that everyone's thoughts were stuck on his current situation.

Yusuke's snores alerted them that he fell asleep, not wanting to see Toguro and him fight. Toguro's name just gave him the shivers. The same went for Kurama at Karasu's name. Karasu was…Kurama did not know how to describe him, it was hard to think back to the tournament without getting goose bumps at the memory. 'Creepy and in love with Kurama' was the expression Yusuke had earlier expressed. They all seemed to agree.

When it was dawn, the two punks and the fire demon said goodbye to Kurama and left to go home. Both Kuwabara and Yusuke went to go home. And Hiei, well, Hiei just went wherever they felt like.

He still, after all had to kill something.

/Time change/

Four days passed uneventfully. Kurama sat in the backyard of his house, leaning back against the tree next to his bedroom window. His flowers were starting to grow less healthy because he didn't have his spirit energy to feed him. But he still watered them, keeping them alive. A cool wind was blowing lightly, making the weather perfect. He had just taken another herbal remedy to keep the splitting pain at bay.

He had completely forgotten to tell the others about Shun. With everything else going on, it passed right on through his brain. He sighed. Kurama knew he had to tell them soon.

The kitsune did not have school for the rest of the week because of a fire that spread throughout the entire building, burning it to the ground. The fire fighters did not know the cause, but Kurama did.

He was staying after school two days after the party ended, it was Monday, because he was afraid of to go outside. He had slipped to Yukina earlier at Genkai's that Hiei was her long-lost brother. Hiei was ready to kill, waiting outside the school, katana in hand.

The fire demon grew impatient, so to get the fox out of the building, he threw five fire balls at the large building. Moments later, people came rushing out with smoke and fire billowing out behind them.

Three more minutes passed and there was no sign of Kurama. Hiei growled and his third eye began to glow purple. 'There he is,' the jaganshi thought with an evil smirk. Kurama was running as fast as he could, heading towards Yusuke's house.

"Yusuke help! Hiei is going to kill me!" cried Kurama as he reached Yusuke's street. He felt Hiei's spirit energy gaining on him and yelled even louder.

"Yusuke!"

A confused Yusuke burst out of the rugged home.

"Yo Kurama, what's up?"

"He is going to kill me." Kurama scrambled to stand next to Yusuke.

"Who is going to kill you?" asked the detective, tensing up as they felt a huge amount of spirit energy coming at them.

"Hiei."

At that moment, Hiei appeared in front of them. His arm was illuminated with a black fire.

Tattoos started to appear on Yusuke's body and Hiei's flame ceased to exist, knowing that when Yusuke turned demon, they were in trouble.

"Hn. Don't talk to me." Hiei then sped off toward Genkai's temple.

That was two days ago. Hiei still didn't forgive him for the accident, but he was back on speaking terms. The demon had been avoiding Yukina at all costs. It had been two days ago, making the day Wednesday. The next week they would be going to Yusuke's school as well as Kuwabara's, splitting the students into two different schools to alleviate some of the numbers of people in each class.

Kurama sighed and stood up. At that moment, Botan appeared on her oar, floating in midair. "Hello Botan," Kurama said kindly with a smile.

"Hello Kurama." Her voice wavered slightly and she looked frightened, avoiding his eyes.

"Is anything wrong?" He knew something was wrong. He had a sixth sense, something that did not diminish after the split.

She looked at him and gave a fake smile. "Everything is fine. Lord Koenma would like to speak to you." His face changed slightly from a look of concern to interest.

"OK. Let us go then." He grabbed onto the oar and the two disappeared into thin air, heading to Rekai.

"Koenma sir, Kurama is here." Botan sounded hurried and once Kurama entered the large room, she left quickly. The demigod looked up from the large piles of files on his desk and jumped up on the desk, fury and disappointment displayed on his chubby features.

"Kurama how could you do something like this! I let you become a spirit detective and keep you out of jail and you rob the vaults here! Not to mention three Ningenkai jewelry stores and killed four humans!"

Kurama stood motionless in front of the desk, but his face showed a hint of surprise. "Koenma I don-"

"We have tape of you at each crime! You have always been the calm and smartest not to mention nicest Tantei member. I just don't know why you have done this!"

"But is wasn-" Kurama started, taking a few steps back.

"As the ruler for now of Reikai, I have no choice but to arrest you. You will be sentenced to life in a high security Reikai prison." Koenma hit a button in the palm of his hand. Immediately, a siren started buzzing and red lights in the hallways started spinning.

Kurama took another step back in shock, when it hit him. "Yoko," he whispered. Glancing to the windows and door, he started to plan an escape route. But before he could move, he felt many beefy arms grab him at the shoulders and feet. He began to struggle and felt his body slammed into the ground. A needle slid into his shoulder and a burning liquid coursed through his body. He couldn't be pinned down, not like that, he needed to breathe! He threw the bodies off him momentarily. He was standing now, and it felt better than being pinned to the floor. His phobia of a straight-jacket effect kept him moving. It would not help though. No one could help him.

He was technically the person responsible, yet it was not HIM! He moaned as his vision swam. Kurama staggered, thrusting his hands out in an attempt to grab something to support him.

"Pl-please…it, it…wasn't…fault" he trailed off as he fell to his knees. The guards did not even have to grab him. He was going down whether he liked it or not.

This was the part that Hiei would pull out his katana and start swinging, Kuwabara crying, and Yusuke swearing. But not Kurama.

He had never been caught like this before, in a trap, set up by friends. His reaction was that of a teen in anger and despair. He felt his emotions build. And build. He had never felt this much pain before, and not just emotional but physical too.

The arms before him felt as if they were on fire. They were shaking too, energy running up and down like lightning bolts. It came as a shock to all present when raw energy shot out of them, scorching the wall across the room.

But Kurama did not even think about it. He was caught. The edges of his sight began to darken. He searched for someone, anyone to help him.

There was no one.

The last thing he saw was a sad face staring at him from across the room, candy eyes filled with tears. "I'm sorry Kurama."

"Please..." he mumbled before blacking out.