AN: So this chapter is a little weird, but pretty short so bare with me. I hope you guys enjoy.


Court of Miracles


Kurama stormed out of the room, not really knowing where he should go. He had already spent a whole day in his office and he didn't feel like going in there again. He felt like he needed to talk to someone. To get all the things that were in his mind off of his chest.

He didn't feel like talking to Shizuru. As much as he liked her, she was Yusuke's friend, and the only person in the palace other than Yusuke who could tolerate Yoko. She didn't need Kurama bothering her too.

He walked through the living room and dining room to the front door. He was glad that nobody was in either room, something that he was sure would change soon. He opened the door and walked outside. The air was much cooler than he was expecting. He was about to head to greenhouse when he saw a light on the demon housing next door.

That's right, Touya had moved in. In all the turmoil of the day, Kurama had completely forgotten that the ice demon was there. He paused for a moment, deciding whether or not he should go up to visit the man.

He didn't like how distant him and Touya had become. He supposed it was inevitable, given how they broke up, but exes could be friends, right? Besides, it would be nice to talk to Touya again. He missed him.

He headed towards demon housing and opened the front door of the building. It was the same kind of construction as Raizen's palace, only more basic. This was hardly surprising however, since the building didn't exist two and a half weeks ago. The monks were able to construct an entire, multi-floor building in 15 days. The interior was fairly nice. It has a small living room in the middle, a kitchen, and a bathroom on the bottom floor, and the next few floors all had bedrooms. Kurama climbed the steps at the far end of the building, and walked to Touya's room on the top floor.

Light streamed from Touya's room and into the otherwise dark hallway. The door was open, and Kurama peaked his head around the end of the door. Obviously, Touya's time in the ningenkai had affected him, because he was listening to a stereo, lightly humming to himself as he organized his belongings. The room was scarce and basic, but that was to be expected of a ninja. That's one thing the ice demon had in common with Yusuke.

Kurama knocked lightly on the opened door. Touya turned around with slightly wide eyes and raised eyebrows.

"Kurama. I wasn't expecting you," he finished putting his last book on the shelf and walked to the door. Neither of them really seemed to know what to say, or how to greet one another. Should they shake hands? No, that was too formal. Hug? Nope, way too familiar. Apparently awkward silence was the best greeting for them, because they both stood there for about thirty seconds, looking in opposite directions.

Finally, Touya broke the silence by asking, "Would you like to come in? I still have to finish unpacking, but you're welcome to keep me company, if you would like."

"Yes, that would be nice," Kurama walked into the room, taking a moment to figure out where he should sit. There were no chairs in the room. Only Touya's bed, which lay on a tatami mat a few feet from Kurama.

"You can take a seat on the bed, if you would like. I'm sorry I don't have any other seating."

"That's fine. I wasn't expecting you to move furniture across the world." Kurama sat on Touya's bed. The bedding smelled like snow and soap. Just like Touya did. The smell invaded Kurama's mind, bringing forth hundreds of memories of being with Touya. They had been together off and on for over five years. Kurama had been the one to insist on keeping it casual. He wanted to keep Touya at a distance in the hope of keeping feelings out of the mix, but it wasn't enough. Touya had fallen in love with Kurama, and if he was honest with himself, Kurama had fallen in love with him, too.

"So how is the process of moving everyone going?" Touya asked, snapping Kurama out of his thoughts.

"About as well as you could expect. A few people are refusing to move here, and a few others we can't find," Kurama said with a sigh.

"Did Shishi finally agree to live here?"

"Yes, but only for his own protection. He has made it abundantly clear that he doesn't want anything to do with the war on Spirit World." Touya had begun unpacking his clothes, and was starting to refold them. "Do you want help with that?" Kurama asked.

"If you don't mind," Touya said with a shrug, "Just don't forget-"

"fishnet shirts still get folded like shirts," Kurama and him said in unison. It was an instruction that Kurama had heard countless times, even though he had never once gotten it wrong. Kurama looked back at Touya smiling, remembering the old joke, but Touya wasn't smiling. His eyes were pointed at the floor, and his shoulders drooped.

"I'm sorry," Kurama said, looking back down at the floor.

"It's okay, it's just," Touya paused for a moment as he handed Kurama the bag of clothing, "weird." He said finally.

"I can imagine," Kurama said, feeling like an idiot. He began folding the clothes, hoping that the task would make him feel less awkward, but it didn't succeed.

They stayed like that for a few minutes, the only sound coming from the stereo.

"I was going to move the ningenkai," Touya said finally.

Kurama was so surprised by this, it physically hurt as he felt like his stomach plummeted into the ground.

"Why?" He finally asked.

"I loved you," Touya said with a shrug. He wasn't looking at Kurama. Wasn't even facing him. He was putting his toiletries in the top drawer of the dresser. "And I thought you loved me too."

Kurama didn't know what to say to that. Admitting to Touya now that he loved him in the past seemed almost cruel. He didn't want to hurt him. He opted to stay quiet for a moment, rather than say something he might regret.

"I'm glad I didn't," Touya said a minute later, "move to the Ningenkai that is. I don't think we would have made it."

"Why not?" Kurama asked. He was one part curious and one part offended by that statement.

"I hate Yoko," Touya said simply. "And Yoko hated me. It never would have worked. I'm glad that you're with someone now who can accept that part of you."

Images of earlier that evening went through his brain. Kurama was grateful that Yusuke could put up with Yoko's shit, but he wasn't exactly happy that Yusuke was so willing to accept Yoko the way he was planning on doing it earlier.

"How is Yusuke doing?" Touya asked, and he turned to look at Kurama. There was no maliciousness in those eyes, not jealousy, just pure concern for a friend.

"He's doing better. The pregnancy is taking its toll, for sure, but Yusuke's plowing through it," Kurama said with a smile.

"Are his night terrors still bad?"

Kurama raised an eyebrow at Touya. "How did you know about his night terrors?"

"I left about a day after you went to the ningenkai. When Yusuke was staying in the greenhouse I went out to visit him and saw him use his spirit energy in his sleep." There was an ever so slight pause when Touya said the first sentence, and Kurama hung his head in defeat and embarrassment.

"You know about Yoko, don't you?"

"What do you mean?" Touya asked, pretending to play it cool but he looked up, and his eyes met Kurama's. "Yeah," he said, "I know. I'm sorry, Kurama."

"He took over," Kurama said after another moment of silence. "He took over my body without my permission and made me watch…" He didn't know why he was telling Touya this, other than the fact that he didn't know who else he could talk to about it.

Touya looked up at Kurama, and for a moment they locked eyes. It felt like it was a life time ago, the last the fox was able to look into those cool, blue eyes.

"I'm sorry," Kurama said. Standing up and walking towards Touya.

"For what?" Touya asked, as his eyes remained locked on Kurama's.

"Everything. I never should have treated you the way I did. I wish… I could take it all back…" Kurama said softly. He took Touya's hand in his, loving the feeling of his cold skin in his.

Touya yanked back his hand. Suddenly his eyes were filled with fire.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" He asked, pushing Kurama away, icing his hand and leaving a cut on Kurama's chest.

"Touya?"

"You don't get to keep doing this. You don't get to just run away whenever you want! I will not let you use me to get rid of Yusuke. I don't care what kind of shit you are working through with your fiancé, but this is not okay!"

"That's not what I'm doing!" Kurama yelled out, desperate for Touya to understand. "I love you. I'm sorry I never said it before, but it's the truth."

To Kurama's surprise, Touya laughed humorlessly. "No, Kurama. You may have loved me, but you do not love me. You don't even know me anymore, because you decided to fuck over everything we had when you decided to screw Yusuke. Even though he didn't even know who you were. You didn't cheat on me with someone else. You cheated on me using someone else. Don't you see how fucked up that is?"

"But-"

"No," Touya said, and suddenly Kurama's lips were frozen together, the cold so biting he thought his lips would burn off. "For both of our sakes," Touya said, pushing Kurama out of the door way, "I will pretend like tonight never happened, but if you pull this kind of shit again Kurama, I'll freeze your fucking dick off so you can do some thinking with your brain for once."

The door slammed in Kurama's face, and ice from around his mouth melted away.

What the hell had just happened?

'You're right,' Yoko thought at the back of his mind, 'Touya could have surprised me.'

Kurama leaned his back against the wall, and slid down it, putting his face against his knees, huddled on the floor like a child. All he could do while he was there was wonder what was so wrong with him that he could ruin two perfectly good guys this way.


Mitarai sat at his desk, desperately trying to keep his eyes open as he pored over the same monotonous information he had been going over for days. He was still trying to locate some of Yusuke's old associates. In the past, finding this kind of information had been a breeze. He would contact Jorge in Spirit World who would fax down an individual's records, and then with a few well-placed calls and couple of bribes, he would be able to find a person's exact location, daily schedule, and even what they liked to eat for lunch. His work performance was one of the few things he could take pride in, but right now, all he was doing was hitting a brick wall.

There were still two people he was looking for, Yanagisawa and Kido. Although they were brief allies during the fight with Sensui, no one had kept in touch with them much other than Yusuke. The last time anyone had heard from them, Yusuke had paid Kido's bail to get out of jail (he had been drunk and started a fight) and Yanagisawa hadn't been seen since he quit working from Kurama two years ago. Apparently Kido was supposed to be on some kind of bike tour around Japan and wasn't scheduled to be back for a few more weeks. As for Yana, he seemed to have completely disappeared.

Mitarai had called his family and spoken with his sister who said that Yana had stopped by the house about a week ago, behaving oddly. He kept talking about leaving, and how much he loved them. When they woke up the next day, he was gone, and they hadn't heard from him since. Mitarai's hunch was that Yana had some kind of knowledge about the on-goings of Spirit World and used his ability to start a new life with a new face. It's what Mitarai would have done if he was in that situation.

He wasn't happy about moving to the Makai. The only demons he's ever met were Itsuki, Kurama, Yoko and Hiei, and only one of them he could tolerate. Well, Yusuke was in that category too, but he only counted as half a point because he wasn't really a demon, and Mitarai didn't really like him a lot. Now he was going to have to live in the same world as the creatures he had come to despise.

He looked at the glass of water next to him on the desk. It seemed to be mocking him. He wished he could go back in time and never get these stupid powers. He sighed and looked away from the glass. It's not like his life was going spectacularly well before he got his powers. There was no point pretending his life would be better without them.

He stared back at his computer. There was one person he could call, but he hated the idea of doing it. He could call Amanuma, Game Master. Amanuma and him had never gotten along well, and the idea of having to ask him for help made his feel sick to his stomach. They had only kept a loose association with one another because of their history as allies in their Spirit World Clearances. But recently, rumors had been circulating that Amanuma had been able to evolve his power into hacking, being able to control the inner workings of programs with much better effect. If that was true, he could hack into the police files and figure out if there had been any reports on Kido, or, more importantly, any John Does that matched Kido's profile. There was a chance Amanuma would say no, that he wouldn't agree to put his life on the line to help them out. It would be fair to say no. But Mitarai knew there was a good shot he would. It was the same reason why Mitarai had come to work for Kurama, and the same reason Doctor had decided to help them. When the people who stopped you from destroying the world asked for your help, you didn't say no. It's only polite.

With one last, final sigh, Mitarai picked up the phone and dialed him. It rang over six times before he heard "What?" on the other end of the line. It seemed as though he had irritated Amanuma. Mitarai was surprisingly okay with this.

"Amanuma, it's Mitarai," he said, hoping that his voice sounded officious and not shaky.

"I'm sorry, who?"

Mitarai gritted his teeth in frustration. Every time. Every damn time he called him, he had to pull this crap. He could hear Amanuma trying not to laugh on the other end. Apparently, despite the fact he was in his 20's he refused to grow up.

"Amanuma, stop messing around. You know who this is."

"I'm sorry. I don't know any Mitarai. Is there perhaps some other name I would know you by?"

Mitarai wanted to yell. Wanted to cuss out that little punk for being a jerk. But he knew it wouldn't work. Instead he just hung his head low, and said, "It's Sea Man."

Laughter exploded on the other end of the phone, and it took all of Mitarai's will power not to slam it down on the receiver.

"I can't believe you still fall for that. Every time, man! You must be the most gullible person on the planet."

"There's a difference betw-"

"I mean, I can understand you falling for it once, but every time for years?"

"Amanuma I-"

"You know; I can't figure out which it is. Either you have no brain, or no spine!"

"ENOUGH!" Mitarai yelled into the phone, and the anger and power in his voice scared even him. "I'm sick of you doing this every time. You know I hate going by that name, and I don't like calling you anymore than you do, so let's just get this over with and skip the ridicule!"

"Alright, alright," Amanuma said. His voice was no longer biting with ridicule. Its seemed as though for once, Mitarai standing up for himself had worked to his benefit. "What is it you wanted? Is it about the move to the Makai, cuz I already told that damn fox I'm not going."

"Don't worry, no one's begging you to." In truth the only reason Amanuma had been invited was on the slim chance that Yama decided to go after him. Chances weren't good, however, because his association with Yusuke was almost nonexistent, and ever since Kurama killed him, Amanuma had stayed clear of the fox.

"Then why the hell did you call me at eleven at night?!"

Mitarai looked at the clock, and his eyebrows raised. Sure enough, it was five past eleven.

"Honestly, I didn't realize was so late at night. For that I apologize."

"Eh, don't worry about it. Actually, I'd be a lot more upset if you called me at eight in the morning. So what's up?"

"I need some help tracking someone down. The police aren't giving me anything, and spirit world, well, I'm sure you can imagine that they aren't very helpful these days."

"So, what, you want me to hack into the police?"

"I," Mitarai paused, this didn't feel secure enough, "I don't want to talk about this over the phone."

"Would you rather we met up in person?" Amanuma asked, incredulously.

Mitarai's hatred towards the twerp flared up again. "You know what, no. No, I do not want to meet up in person. Yes, I want you to hack into the police files. Look and see if you can find any information on Asato Kido or Mitsunari Yanagisawa. Make sure you check all files including police chiefs, as they are the ones usually influenced by spirit world. Also check for any John Does. Look for any matching Kido's appearance, and, without that, send me any files of anyone that has died under suspicious circumstances in or Mushiori City in the last week."

"You mean anyone who could have died from energy?"

"Yes."

"Alright, man, I'll get that to you as soon as I can. Just, I can only do this for you once. It's bad enough I'm using my power, if Spirit World finds out I'm helping you-"

"Don't worry, Amanuma, I understand."

"Okay, I'll call you when I get all the information I need. It shouldn't take more than a few hours."

"And Amanuma?"

"Yeah?"

"Why don't you just email me the information?"

To Mitarai's surprise, he could hear the younger man laughing on the other end of the line.

"Yeah, that sounds good to me. Good luck, Mitarai."

"You too," Mitarai said, and then hung up the phone.

No sooner had he put the phone down than it began ringing. It was Kurama. Mitarai answered it immediately, and proceeded to give his boss the update.


AN: It gets better I promise. Don't give up on me.