A/N: Sorry it's so short. More coming soon.
CHAPTER NINE
They didn't reach the temple until late that evening, when the sun was already setting. Shuichi didn't notice the transition back into human world any more than he had noticed when they crossed into demon world. Between the emotional drain, the long walk, and the lack of sleep, he was more exhausted than he'd known it was possible to be. But despite that, when he saw the temple looming ahead of them he realized suddenly that his family would be worried sick about him. He had been gone for several days now, after all.
After fretting about this silently for a few minutes he decided to share his worry with the group--and was astounded to have Yusuke and Kuwabara come to the rescue, providing a wealth of excuses that they swore up and down had always worked on Shiori before. Then they got into a conversation comparing the situation to ones Kurama had been part of in the past, to decide which alibi was best suited to it. Doubtful, Shuichi nonetheless repeated into the telephone Genkai provided a dubious story involving spur of the moment vacations and disconnected cell phones. To his surprise, his mother accepted the story without question, only asking when he'd be home again. He told her he would be back tomorrow.
They all slept in the temple that night, too tired to find their way back to their homes, and perhaps wanting one more night together in the face of tragedy before trying to go on with their lives. Hiei surprised Shuichi again by staying with them--and unnerved him by sleeping amongst the ceiling rafters, but Yukina saw his expression and whispered to him that Hiei was quite safe from falling, so Shuichi shrugged and dismissed it.
Shuichi was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow, and fell immediately into a long, confusing dream. It began in his room; Hiei was sitting in his windowsill and calmly discussing the perils of using the stairs, which were covered in carnivorous seed pods that would burst open and eat your legs if you stepped on them. It was safer, Hiei explained, to use the window, because the plants on the windowsill would only try to tickle you. But then the dream shifted, became more real, and Shuichi found himself crouched behind a wall with an assortment of people who looked odd but felt familiar. They were listening to two other people argue on the other side of the wall. With the logic of dreams, they were communicating with each other by writing notes on pieces of paper and holding them up for each other to see. Shuichi had a vague feeling he might be about to murder Yusuke--it felt distasteful, but he was thinking about it anyway. Then the dream shifted again and he was running--not with Yusuke, but with the person Yusuke had been arguing with. The one with black hair and blind eyes, only right now, as they ran together, he wasn't blind and Shuichi wasn't himself. He could feel the wind whipping through his tail as he ran, feel his ears flat against his skull. He and his friend were laughing; they seemed to have stolen all the carnivorous plants off the stairs of Shuichi's home. But then the friend stopped to shout something at people who were pursuing them, something taunting, and Shuichi felt a surge of anger. He turned on his friend and started to fight him, and it was terrible and Shuichi knew that something momentous was about to happen, something that he would regret for a long time, but he couldn't stop it from happening.
He woke to find it was still dark, and everyone else was sleeping peacefully. He looked around, found Shizuru to be nearest to him, and crawled over and poked her until she woke up. "Who's the blind man?"
"Hh-hu--w'the hell?" she muttered indistinctly.
"The blind man," Shuichi repeated in a whisper. "The one who keeps showing up in Kur--in my dreams."
Shizuru looked at him blankly. Shuichi sighed and gave a more detailed description, keeping going until he saw comprehension finally dawn in Shizuru's eyes. "That sounds like Yomi," she said. "But I don't know anything about him and Kurama. Ask Hiei--or Yusuke," she amended, clearly remembering the tenor of the one public conversation Hiei and Shuichi had had. "But do it in the morning. Listen, kid," she said with a yawn, "I know you've got a lot going on in your head right now, but I also know the kind of dreams you're having. They won't go away if you figure them out. So get some rest."
She had gone back to sleep almost before her last sentence was complete. Shuichi, dissatisfied with her explanation but unable to do anything about it, crawled back to his own makeshift bed and eventually fell back asleep as well. He dreamed of the red pendant he had seen briefly before, dreamed of it swinging slowly back and forth, and woke with unexplained tears on his face. He wiped them away before anyone else could see.
Hiei had disappeared overnight. Ironically, the only one who didn't take this in stride was Shuichi. Having expected Hiei to leave a long time before this, having accustomed himself gradually to the idea that Hiei was still there, he found himself disappointed that Hiei had left without saying anything about being in contact. How was Shuichi supposed to check with him about Kurama's memories, about what was safe to disclose and what wasn't? Did Hiei just expect him to keep everything he remembered to himself in case it happened to be a secret?
Not that he could blame Hiei if he didn't want to be around him. Shuichi was a living, breathing, walking reminder that Hiei would never see Kurama again.
They said their goodbyes to Genkai and Yukina at the temple, and the rest of them trooped down to the train station at the base of the mountain. No one spoke much on the long ride back to the city. Shuichi asked them all about the blind man from his dream, and Yusuke offered up a little information but proved evasive, claiming that he hadn't known enough about the relationship between Yomi and Kurama to give Shuichi a good picture of it. Shuichi subsided after that, sensing they were all trying very hard not to talk about Kurama's death and that it would be impossible for them if he persisted in discussing Kurama's memories. There was a very subdued, defeated atmosphere in their train car as they rumbled through the mountains. Their clothes still smelled of the smoke from Kurama's funeral pyre.
By the time they got back to the city, Shuichi had bee given everyone's phone numbers without asking for them, and many indistinct promises of aid sorting through his memories whenever he was ready had been made. Shuichi was ready right now, but he didn't say as much because he knew none of them were ready for it. They needed time to let go of Kurama and realize he wasn't Kurama before they could be any help to him. He wanted to give them that time. They were good people, all of them. Even Yusuke, whom Shuichi had initially been wary of, with his fierceness and impatience--he offered more than once to walk Shuichi home, and promised after Shuichi had said no to come by and check up on him in a few days. Then they said awkward goodbyes and the Kuwabaras set off in one direction, Yusuke and Keiko in another, and Shuichi in a third, alone for the first time since Kuwabara had first called to him on the street.
Or so he thought. Shuichi was unaware, as he slowly made his way home, of the black shadow that was following him swiftly and silently, staying hidden from sight and watching his every move.
