Chapter 12 marks the beginning of the end of the ultra-short chapters! Whootah!:
He was anxious. The island was coming into view. He wondered what was going to happen. This trip was his second time to the dark tournament, third tournament in total, and his first ever tournament without Kurama around. In the back of his mind he wondered if everything really would be alright, like Yusuke had said it would. At the same time he wondered why he found such comfort in the words of others. Such things should not matter to him! Such things were unimportant!
In an attempt to distract himself he began making predictions.
By the looks of it we'll be at the island by nightfall, and if I'm correct, Yusuke has recruited two strong demons, not as strong as Kurama but they'll have to do. Kuwabara will probably make a stupid move, underestimate his opponent, overestimate himself, and end up losing his first fight, and Yusuke will win all of his own fights, which should make up for the ones Kuwabara looses.
However, he never once expected what was really going to happen in this Dark Tournament.
--
His first guess was correct, they arrived at the island by nightfall, just in time to check into the hotel.
The second of the little demon's suspicions was correct as well. The mysterious replacements were the Shinobi Jin -Master of the Wind- and Touya -Master of Ice-. He supposed they could do no harm to the team, and that he should be more worried about the damage Kuwabara could Dothan he was about what they might do.
He wondered if it was all just a dream. Maybe he'd taken one to many hits to the head and he was just delirious. He'd wake up and Kurama would be by his side, reading a book or something. Maybe when he awoke he'd ask the kitsune what had happened and the kitsune would say he fell ill and had been in a state of delirium. But…wouldn't that mean that he'd imagined the words as well? That couldn't be right either! He was so sure he'd heard the words! They were just to real to be a dream!
Those thoughts were exactly what kept the little demon going. The fact that Kurama had returned the feelings Hiei had kept locked away, deep within the pits of his soul for too long.
He found himself closing his eyes and savoring the memories. When he actually thought about it, Kurama had been there every time the little demon needed him…so why wasn't he there for Kurama?
Guilt overcame the young boy as he collapsed onto his bed and allowed himself to burn the wall between himself and his emotions for the first time he could even remember. He felt tears leaving his eyes. They started out warm, but soon became cold, and soon after they crystallized.
Stop crying… He told himself. This is pathetic! You're pathetic! Why are you crying?!?! We're going to find Kurama! Everything will get better! The Detective gave me his word…
That bothered the little demon as well. Why the hell did he trust Urameshi's words so much? Was it because two years ago…Urameshi had trusted HIS words. All of the evidence had pointed straight at the little demon and yet Yusuke still believed he was innocent? Maybe trusting Urameshi was his own way of thanking the Detective. He didn't know. He didn't want to think about it too hard.
It slowly occurred to him that being framed and imprisoned had actually gotten to him, even if he didn't want to believe it!
The tears burned his cheeks at first, before turning to ice and crystallizing, finally rolling to the floor and creating a medley of soft clicks that told the story of his pain and misery, guilt and remorse, hope and longing, and the question that still remained:
Would he ever see his love again?
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Me: Whootah! Chapter 12 is completed! And…I think Kurama's still in the closet… Hey...Closet!
"Closet": Yes?
Me: Say the line!
"Closet": R&R please, my friends.
