"Hey, Kurama?" Kuwabara looked up from poking at the fire he and Yusuke had done their best to build.
"Yes?" Kurama had been staring into the fire, but snapped to attention at the sound of his name.

"I've been doing a lot of research at the library on this Tomoe Gozen business..." He chewed on one of the river fish he'd managed to catch.

"You know where a library is?" Yusuke smirked.

"I'll have you know I've got a 4.0 GPA, Urameshi, so bite me." Kuwabara snapped. "Besides, Momo said she'd get me the new Megallica album if I'd do a little legwork for her." He turned back to Kurama. "But yeah. Anyway, the books I've looked at and stuff… the legend doesn't mention you all that much."

"I can't imagine it would." Kurama said quietly. "The connection between Tomoe and I was taboo. Not only was a human fraternizing with a demon, but a demon bandit, no less. If word about me had gotten well-known, it would have ended badly for her…" His face darkened. "More badly than it did, I suppose." He stared into the fire. "I kept my distance as much as I could."

"How did you end up meeting her, anyway?" Yusuke wondered.

"How do you think?" Kurama cracked a smile. "She had been assigned to protect a rare and valuable artifact. And I wanted it."

Youko dashed through the trees, the Kiku no Tomoe amulet clutched tightly in his hand. He could hear the thundering of hooves behind him as the militiamen assigned to protect the pendant rushed after him in an effort to recover the amulet and what was left of their wounded pride. This was just like all the other places he had visited. No matter how many people were sent to guard the item he desired, it was no use. They were expecting human thieves, not demonic ones. It was almost insultingly simple to him to steal the amulet. He'd taken the form of the commander of the troops, after distracting said commander with a paralytic and stowing him in a cellar somewhere, and simply told the men that he was there to relieve them of duty. After that, the pendant was his.

He suddenly heard the twang of a bowstring, and before he knew it there came a sharp pain in his shoulder. The force of the arrow was such that it pinned him to a nearby tree. He reached up to yank out the arrow, but another one pinned the opposite wrist to the tree trunk. He cried out in pain, scanning the trees for his assailant. Whoever was able to wield a bow of that power must be strong.

He was surprised, however, to see a woman stepping out of the woods and walking toward him. He was an appreciator of beauty, and she certainly was. Her hair was black as night, as were her large dark eyes. She wore the armor of a samurai, and carried a massive bow with a surprising amount of ease.

"Ah, a fox." She mused. Youko bared his teeth at her. Humans were easily scared, and she would be no different. But this woman only smiled. How infuriating.

"If you're going to kill me, get it over with." He said in a low voice. "I don't have all night."

"Neither do I." She said matter-of-factly. She looked at him for a long while, somewhat curious.

"What do you want, woman?" Youko growled.

"What is your name?" She asked. "I've never met a demon before."

"Why in Heaven's name should I tell you that?" Youko asked witheringly. "Quite a naive question. Honestly, if you're going to ask me questions all night, I'd rather you just kill me." He yanked his wrist free, hissing at the pain of it, and reached for the arrow in his shoulder. It burned him as soon as he touched it.

"That arrow has been blessed by a priestess." The woman said. "You can't remove it." She walked closer. Youko did not like this. She truly wasn't afraid. That would be her downfall. He tensed, ready to cut her down with his claws if he needed to. The rose he normally carried to make his whip was lying placidly on the other side of the clearing. And the blessed arrow was making it nearly impossible to move a single muscle. That didn't mean he was defenseless, though. He just had to think of a plan B.

"You have something I want." The woman walked over and gripped his injured wrist hard. The pain was just enough to force Youko to loosen his grip on the Kiku No Tomoe pendant. He braced himself against the tree, ready to strike. But as he did, another item fell from his pocket. Puzzled, the woman bent to pick up the ancient scroll.

"Something tells me this isn't yours, either." She held it inches from his grasp.

"Take it away and you'll be no better than a thief like me." Youko smirked. "You humans are all alike. You take whatever you please."

"I'm not the one who's just gotten captured for stealing something." The woman said flatly. She looked at the scroll for a while, then slipped it back inside his robes.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

"You're right." The woman said. "If I take the scroll, I'll be lowering myself to your level. This is all I was asked to recover, anyway." She held up the pendant. A grin lit up her face. "I'll get the scroll back next time I catch you, fox." She looked up at the sky as it began to cloud over.

"The blessing on that arrow won't last forever."

"Is it because you're too impure to wield it for long?" Youko sneered. For a moment, he thought he saw her hide a laugh.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" She tucked the pendant safely into the sleeve of her kimono. "Anyway, it should wear off soon. Hopefully you won't be caught out in this storm for too long." She held her hand out to catch a few of the first ran drops from the oncoming storm.

"You do realize I'm going to kill you, correct?" Youko growled as she turned to leave.

"You can try." She said simply. "But the fact of the matter is, I'm going to kill you first. Until next time, Fox." She waved and shouldered her bow before vanishing into the darkness. Youko stared at the spot she had last stood, gritting his teeth as an icy-cold rain began to drench him. He would find that woman. He would take back that pendant. It was no longer a matter of if he wanted it or not. This was a matter of pride.

"Needless to say, we didn't get along very well at the start." Kurama shrugged. "But something had struck me. She hadn't been afraid. This was her first time seeing a demon, but she still wasn't afraid. To someone who had a reputation for being fearsome, it was quite an insult. I had to change that."

"Did it change?"

"Not in the way I expected it to, that was for sure." Kurama said with a small smile.

This woman was driving Youko insane. She always seemed to know just how to catch him. He'd been poked full of arrows, immobilized with sutras, everything under the sun. She would catch him and taunt him, take the pendant back, then let him be. It was infuriating.

Finally, though, he had her. With his rose whip, he was able to quickly flit behind a tree The woman ran into the clearing, an arrow set in her bow. That was when Youko sprung his trap. Vines burst out of the ground, encircling her legs. The woman let out a yelp of surprise and slashed at the vines with her sword, but more kept coming. Finally, she was securely lashed to a tree… the same tree, Youko thought with pride, that she had trapped him against the first time he had tried to steal the amulet.

"Well, well. How quickly the tables turn." He couldn't help but get a little theatrical now that she was caught. She glared at him and struggled against the vines surrounding her.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." He said casually. "The more you struggle, the tighter they get. If the thorns on them break your skin, you'll be dead within hours."

The woman froze.

"You're going to kill me, aren't you." She said. Youko said nothing.

"If it's all the same to you, I'd prefer a quick death to a slow one." She narrowed her eyes at him. "If you're going to do it, get it over with. I'm sick and tired of people who are in love with the sound of their own voice."

"Have I struck a nerve, woman?" Asked Youko. He dangled the Kiku No Tomoe pendant in front of her face. "Or perhaps you're angry because I've finally won?"

The woman said nothing.

"Perhaps you'd like to finally know the name of your murderer—"

"You're Youko Kurama."

He paused.

"I might not have met demons before, but I was able to find out who you are with relative ease." She said matter-of-factly. "You've got quite the reputation."

"I am aware."

"And you don't know who I am, do you?"

"I see no need to find out." Youko countered. "You humans are merely insects."

"And yet this insect has managed to catch you nearly twenty times now."

"Only sixteen."

"You do keep track. I knew it." The woman smirked. "And you don't even want to know what my name is, Youko?"

"Not particularly." He responded. He thought for a while, then took the pendant out of his pocket. He went closer to her. For a while, the woman stared up at him, transfixed. He wasn't quite sure why. She seemed to come to, however, when she felt him tug at the neck of her kimono.

"Don't you touch me!" She said in alarm.

"I'd rather avoid it, to be honest." Youko sneered. "But this is too good to pass up." He held open the neck of her kimono and dropped the Kiku no Tomoe pendant down her shirt. She let out a yelp of surprise as the cold metal touched her skin.

"There's a storm coming." Youko said, raising his voice to be heard over the roll of thunder. "I highly suggest you figure out how to get away from these vines before it hits. I imagine you'd have to have help getting rid of them." His ears twitched as he picked up the sound of humans. Five of them. On horseback. Maybe two miles away.

"As much as I would love to stay and listen to you explain how the pendant ended up in its current position," He smirked, "I should be off."

"You're not going to steal the pendant?" The woman blinked as a raindrop hit her on the nose. "You're not going to kill me? I don't understand…"

"I'm not going to kill you until I even the score. Sixteen wins for sixteen losses." Youko said. "Mark my words. I will even the score, and then I will kill you." He felt the rain begin to fall, and went back into the trees, leaving the samurai to get soaked through. He didn't look back, but as he kept going, he couldn't help but think to himself: 'sixteen to one. I'll get even.'

"She kicked your ass even as a human? Man, that must have sucked." Yusuke laughed.

"It was something I wasn't used to, of course." Kurama said. "I was determined to get my revenge. First, I would even the score. I didn't want to kill her then and there, because then it would be sixteen losses and only two wins. I was too proud to let that go."

Six months had passed. The score was twenty to fifteen. Youko was catching up, but the woman was still holding her own.

Tomoe. He knew her name now. He had heard someone say it. Now, there were few shots fired between the two of them. If she caught his clothing or the tip of his tail, he'd drop the pendant and disappear into the night. All he needed to do was trip her up, pull her off her horse or set a trap. She was tough enough to evade most things. Still, she had more wins than he did. He was bound and determined to even the score.

He was surprised to come to Shimeji Castle and find that she wasn't there. She was more often than not on patrol. Come to think of it, there wasn't even much of a guard.

The wind changed direction, and the acrid odor of medicinal herbs and the stench of death reached him. He frowned. This was more than if one person had fallen ill and died. This was enough medicine for dozens. Shimeji Castle was in the middle of an epidemic.

"Youko?" He looked down from his perch in a tall tree and was surprised to see Tomoe looking up at him. She looked more tired than he had seen her before, and wore no armor. He could tell that there were medicinal herbs in the basket she held.

"Shouldn't you be prepared to lose our match this evening?" He frowned.

"I don't have time for that right now. Come back in a few days." Tomoe said. "There are dozens of sick people throughout the castle. Everyone who is well enough is doing what they can to take care of them. You're too proud to steal the pendant while the castle is crippled. It would be a hollow victory."

Youko said nothing.

"I'll play with you when the sickness goes away." Tomoe dismissed him. "Go steal something else." She turned and went back toward the castle.

'Play?' Youko was insulted. This was war! He was about to go after her, but people were coming. He vanished into the trees.

He came later, only to find that Tomoe Gozen was nowhere in sight. He searched the castle grounds as much as he could, but she did not appear. Finally, he disguised himself as one of the servants (the commander from before was easy enough, and he was reacquainted with his cellar). He strode into the castle and tried to pick Tomoe's scent out of the hundreds of others in this castle.

Finally, he was able to locate her. He had started to suspect she had fallen prey to the sickness that was going throughout the castle, and he was disappointed to find that he was right. Seeing her lying in her bed, looking pale and drawn, feeling the heat from her feverish skin without even touching her… it wasn't something Youko had expected to see from her. Suddenly he realized… she was human. A frail, mortal woman. He nearly flinched in surprise when she opened her eyes. She looked over at him in confusion.

"Captain Otake?" She whispered. "Why aren't you guarding the amulet?"

Youko said nothing. He was still caught off guard from seeing her so sick. He scrambled to think of a believable lie. But Tomoe smiled. It looked like it almost took too much effort.

"You're not Otake." She said. "This is the same trick you pulled the night we met, isn't it?" He looked in surprise, but cracked a small smile.

"I was afraid it would be too predictable." Youko said. "So. You took care of the sick, and in return all you received was the disease."

"Have you come to kill me, Youko?" Tomoe murmured. "This isn't very sportsmanlike of you. Downright cheating, if you ask me." She rested back against her pillow and closed her eyes again. "Well, if you're going to do it, get it over with. I'd always thought I'd die in battle, not wasting away like this. You spend too much time thinking about your death. So go ahead." Her face grew sad. "I'm dying anyway."

"You are not." Youko said sharply. "Stop being so melodramatic." He thought for a while, but soon heard footsteps coming down the hallway. He had to make this quick.

Tomoe looked up when he set a small handful of various plants down beside her bed.
"Poison?" She whispered.
"Medicine, you fool." He said quietly. "You'll be fine. I will see you when you are well again."

When a monk coming to give last rites to Tomoe Gozen stopped by a few hours later, he was shocked to find a supposedly dying woman sitting upright in bed, with her fever broken and color slowly returning to her face.

Youko had grown accustomed to the land around Shimeji castle. He had amused himself by stealing a few things here and there, but more often than not kept his eye on the grounds. Strangely enough, he no longer was interested in stealing the amulet. He didn't now why, and he didn't know why he stayed.

"Down here." He looked down and was surprised to see Tomoe looking up at him.

"She lives." He said with a smirk.

"She does." She replied. "Come down."

Youko realized she didn't have a bow with her. He let himself drop from the branch, landing a good distance away from her.

"You're unarmed." He said. "That's unusual for you."

"Be quiet and walk with me." Said Tomoe. She walked past him into the forest. Youko, confused, followed her.

"You wanted to kill me six months ago, didn't you." Tomoe said quietly.

"I still do."

"Liar." She smirked back at him. "You could have killed me already if that were true."

"I could also be lulling you into a false sense of security in order to gain your trust, then break your spirit and destroy you from the inside out." Youko said.

"That seems more like you, but I don't think that is the case." Tomoe walked closer to him.

"Then what do you think it is?" Youko asked, quirking an eyebrow. "I'm interested in hearing your foolish little theory."

"I think you're in love with me." Tomoe said simply. Youko looked at her, stunned.

"I beg your pardon?"

"You're not saying no." She said as she went to the river.

"Because you're delusional." Youko countered as he followed her. "There is no need for me to respond." He smirked. "Perhaps this is wishful thinking on your part. I think you are the one who is obsessed with me."

"And what if I am?" She said quietly. Youko paused. He was expecting Tomoe to lash out or snap back at him, but she did not. He looked back at her, and saw her standing on the edge of the river, looking at him with an unreadable expression on her face.

"You could have killed me so many times already, but you haven't." She walked closer to him. Youko didn't know if he should stay put or back away. "You could have let me die, but you didn't. You've been watching over me. You can't tell me there's not something there."

"Tomoe, I'm starting to think you're not entirely well yet." Youko said quietly. Still, his mind was racing. She was right. He could have let her die. He could have slaughtered her like he had so many others before. Why didn't he? Each time he met those dark eyes, it became infuriatingly impossible. And here she was, coming closer and closer, those eyes fixed on his, and he couldn't move away. He didn't want to.

Before he knew it, she was in his arms. Or was he in hers? It was hard to tell now.

"This is a horrible idea, I know." She was saying. "Demons and humans can never truly be…"

Youko let her talk. She tried to talk herself out of it, then convinced herself that seeing him was a sin, an abomination, a horrible flaw of character. But then she merely held him tighter.

"Tomoe." He had merely murmured it into her hair, a barely audible whisper, but she heard him.

"Yes?" She stopped her monologue to look up at him. He touched her cheek, moving to tangle his hand in her dark hair.

"Stop talking." He said, lowering his lips to hers.

Kurama was unable to sleep. He remembered the night they had first kissed. He remembered everything about Tomoe Gozen. But Tomoe Kanzaki did not.

When he had first met her, really met her, that day in the alley when they had both been children, he had wanted to tell her everything. Tell her who he was, who she was, what they were. But as he got to know the girl with the reflector on her back, he realized he had no right to tell her anything. She might have Tomoe Gozen's soul, but Tomoe Kanzaki was a completely different person. Who was he to tell her what she was like in a past life? Tomoe's life was her own to live, not for him to tell her how she should live it. And so he kept everything from her. She found out he was Youko Kurama during the Dark Tournament, but there was no recognition in her eyes. She knew nothing of her previous life, and as far as Kurama was concerned, it could stay that way. But he would remember. He would remember everything, and keep the old mistakes from happening again. But now as he thought back to it, he wondered if that was truly the best thing to do.