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ChuyaDud: I totally get that, I'm excited to start my IRA next year and it makes me feel like an old! Sometimes I think Kurama would be like Ozymandius in Watchman with a wall of TVs going at once, analyzing everything, but then I think he really doesn't care that much about other people and can't be bothered.
Gimei: Thanks!
The hosts rise and move across the set to a long couch while Yukina emerges from a side door accompanied by a middle-aged woman in an understated dress. They greet the hosts and sit in a line on the couch while the audience claps.
"Yukina-chan looks beautiful," Chouko whispers to Kuwabara.
"Yeah," he says almost dreamily, "she does."
"Yukina-san," the host Akiko says, "in a little over a year you've beomce the most respected reiki healer in Tokyo! We've spoken with many of your clients and their stories are incredible. Let's listen to a few."
The hosts stay smiling while on the screen behind them clips start to roll of various people who'd gone to Yukina for help. There's tales of everything from chronic back pain, to arthritis, to undiagnosed but crippling ailments that Yukina has healed. Throughout it all, the ice demon sits quietly and smiles sweetly. She looks even smaller than normal, seated up there on stage, but her presence is serene.
"What's your secret?" one of the men, Kurama guesses it's Tomoaki, asks.
"I mediate and practice daily," Yukina says. "I try to keep my mind peaceful and I was fortunte enough to benefit from a wonderful teacher. Master Genkai was a famous reiki master and I was able to spend some time with her before she passed. She taught me a great deal and I would not have gotten where I am today without her."
"Yukina-san has a very special gift," Ms. Chiba says and her tone sets Kurama on edge. He tries to catch Kuwabara's eye, but the other man is too intent on the stage to notice him.
"Chiba-san, you've been going to Yukina-san for almost six months, isn't that right?"
"Oh yes. I was sick all the time, I had aches and pains everywhere and no medicine could help with all of my symptoms. Then I found Yukina-san through a friend and I've been much better since."
"Do you think reiki as a practice has been overlooked in recent years and people should be more open to trying it?" Akiko asks, a bright smile on her face.
"Oh," Chiba says, "I think that there is something very special about Yukina-san. I've been to other reiki healers and none of them have her abilities. Reiki very much depends on who's doing it."
Kurama catches Chouko's eye at least but she shoots him a warning look, as if he were about to act. He frowns back at her.
"There are people out there who don't really know what they're doing," Yukina says. "They mean well but they haven't been trained by a master or they might not have the aptitude."
"Any tips on finding a good healer?"
"The best way is to ask someone else who has been," Yukina says with a bright smile. "But some of the other reiki healers I know and I are working on a directory to make it easier for people across Tokyo to find a healer near them."
"What a great resource! Now tell us more about you personally, what does a reiki healer do for fun?"
"Oh the same thing as everyone else," Yukina says. "I go to the movies and visit with friends. My boyfriend and I travel on weekends."
The things he does for his friends, Kurama thinks as the hosts all make inane replies.
"Your boyfriend is here with you today, isn't he?"
"Oh yes," Yukina says. "Kazuma-kun is right over there."
"Please come up and join us, Kazuma-kun!" The hosts call.
The audience claps and the camera swings around to face them. Chouko tilts her head so her hair falls across half her face while she claps and Kurama tries to sink in his seat slightly as he copies her. The last thing he needs is to appear on human TV as well. Kuwabara is frozen for a moment, terrified as a light shines on him.
"Come on," Akiko calls, waving, and Chouko elbows Kuwabara.
"Really, me?" he asks and everyone laughs.
Kuwabara lumbers up on stage, awkward and embarrassed and tries to perch on the end of the couch by Chiba-san. Instead, he is persuaded to squeeze onto the couch between Yukina and the hosts.
"How long have you two known each other?" one of the men asks.
"Five years!" Kuwabara's excitement and nerves seem to have overwhelmed his sense of danger and Kurama just wants to bury his hands in his face to avoid seeing whatever is coming. There's nothing he can do to stop it now.
"Wow, so you're high school sweethearts!"
"Middle school actually," Kuwabara says and takes Yukina's hand. She smiles sweetly up at him.
"Well," Yukina says, "at first I just thought Kazuma-kun was being very friendly. I didn't have much experience with boys."
The hosts all laugh and joke for a minute before things settle down again.
"Well Yukina-san, since you've come all this way to see us, would you be kind enough to do a demonstration for us? One of our assistants has terrible pain in her wrist and we were hoping you could help her."
"I'd be happy to," Yukina says and they all stand.
Kurama is waiting for something to happen but all that does happen in a young woman comes on stage from the side door. She looks excited to be there, but anxious, and she bows deeply as she's introduced. Yukina takes the woman's hands and closes her eyes. Everyone is watching intently and the room quiets.
"The nerves in your right arm are inflamed. You lean on it while typing?"
"I'm not sure," the woman replies. "I haven't really paid attention, but I do type a lot."
It's too bright on the stage for most people to see the blue glow that envelops the woman's arm as Yukina's energy flows over them both. It only takes a moment and then Yukina relases her patient and opens her eyes.
"How is it now?" the little ice demon asks.
"Wow, I feel completely better!" The woman holds up her arms, twists her wrist this way and that and wiggles her fingers. "Amazing!"
"You see now, you all see!" Ms. Chiba shouts and everyone's attention shifts to her.
"Chiba-san?" one of the hosts asks.
"It's real magic and I've seen her do more, close up cuts on his face, heal broken bones! She's a monster!"
"Chiba-san, have I done something to upset you?" Yukina asks, going towards the woman with her hands out.
"You didn't have to do anything," the woman replies almost calmly. "You just are a monster. A demon! That's how you have these powers; you're not human."
She grabs Yukina by the hair and drags her several steps down stage. Kuwabara darts after them but Chiba holds up a knife and points it at Yukina.
"Stay back!"
"Chib-san, please stop," Yukina says but her words are drowned out in the uproar.
People in the audience are screaming and one of the hosts is shouting for security. Kuwabara holds up his hands and Kurama slides from his seat. He's maybe twenty feet away, an easy if inhuman leap. He could be behind her in an instant, grab her hand, but the cameras are still rolling, still pointed at the drama unfolding and he can't move like that in front of so many witnesses.
"I'll show you all she's not human. Then you'll see. They're here among us and we need to stop them." She's half muttering to herself as she raises the knife and Kuwabara shouts and leaps forward.
Yukina cries out and blood splatters the stage.
Kuwabara's there in an instant but he can't hit a woman, not even now when she's going after Yukina with a knife. Most of the audience is frozen in their seats. The hosts seem frozen in shock too, but Kurama also knows he's seeing things faster than the humans can. He and Chouko are both moving as Kuwabara pulls Chiba-san off of Yukina, who falls to the floor. She spins on him, slashing at his face. The hot lights of the set glint off the steel and drops of Yukina's blood, now mixed with Kuwabara's.
"You're probably one of them too!" Chiba shrieks.
Kuwabara has her by the wrists but she's maddened, thrashing, trying to stab and claw at his face and neck. Security is coming into the room but they're far away and this woman means to kill.
Chouko moves like water, flowing forward before Kurama can decide on the best course of action. Using their powers now would be madness but they can't restrain this woman either. She'll break free or hurt herself trying. The woman wrenches free of Kuwabara and raises the knife again.
"Chiba-san stop!" Chouko shouts as she hops on stage.
This gets her attention for the half second it takes Chouko to close the distance between them and then Chouko punches the woman in the face, grabbing her wrist at the same instant. Kurama hears the crunch, he would swear everyone in the audience could hear it, it's deafening in the sudden silence. The woman goes over backwards, fountaining blood from a broken nose, her wrist bent slightly. When she lands Kurama thinks she might have a broken neck. Most demons' punches would have killed her instantly.
Chouko drops the knife to the floor and kicks it away. It slides off the edge of the stage, flashing red. She barely spares a glance for Kuwabara, who's staring, wide-eyed, and speckled with blood. He presses a hand to the slash down his cheek almost absentmindedly as Chouko goes to Yukina. Her heels click across the stage and Kurama's climbing the stage now too, as is security. Chouko drops to her knees and physically pries Yukina out of the ball she's curled into, dragging the younger demon's hands away from the wounds to check them. Kuwabara and Kurama reach them a second later, but Chouko elbows them back.
"You did good," she whispers to Yukina. "You held back."
"I just wanted to help her," Yukina's voice comes out as a whisper. It's flat and her eyes are wide, as if she's seeing something from long ago. Kurama's afraid that she might be. "I just want to help."
"Shh," Chouko pulls Yukina into a hug while Kuwabara is having a silent melt-down behind her. Kurama reaches out and grabs his friend's arm, hoping to keep him from exploding.
"Try not to bleed on them," Kurama says, pulling Kuwabara a step away.
Kuwabara slaps his hand back on his cut and starts cursing profusely.
"Here," Chouko shrugs her purse off her arm and opens it, all while still holding onto Yukina. She has a packet of wipes and some band-aids out in a flash. "Let me see."
Her tone makes Kurama wonder just how many children she's had, how many cuts she's treated over the centuries. He always assiduously avoided the possibility of having children. There was never time for kits or any inclination on his part. A thousand years old and he doesn't have a single descendant.
Kurama steers Kuwabara around Chouko and pushes him to sit on the floor. Kuwabara's legs go out immediately and he drops to his knees beside the girls. Yukina reaches out and they grasp hands while Chouko wipes the blood from the ice demon's face and carefully applies bandages, then does the same to her arms. Kurama stands over them, watching his friends but paying attention to everything around them. Members of security are on stage now, surrounding Chiba-san and keeping her on the floor, talking to the hosts, coming towards them slowly.
"Ok," Chouko says, shifting slightly, but still holding Yukina child-like on her lap. "Let's see you, Kuwabara-kun."
He turns without a word to offer his injured side but still holds Yukina's hand. There's something unnaturally soothing about Chouko right now and it has them all acting docile and obedient. Kurama realizes that her energy has shifted, unfolded around them protectively, and is keeping everyone else away. A gentle, but stern, barrier. Inside he feels safe, as if nothing could harm him and that's probably what's making Kuwabara so compliant and keeping him from rampaging around the set.
Members of the security team finally work up the courage to breach Chouko's aura and approach. They check on Kuwabara and Yukina as quickly as possible and then hurry back to a safe distance to confer. After a few minutes the decision is made to remove the audience and they're ushered away while those on stage are asked to remain there.
Kurama's doing his best not to imagine the ways Hiei will eviscerate him when he finds out. Maybe he has twenty-four hours. Maybe.
Yukina hasn't said much, but she's settled with her head on Chouko's shoulder and her hand in Kuwabara's. Kurama thinks Chouko might be humming, but he's afraid to get closer and find out it's true. He can't handle that right now. The other three don't seem aware that they're still in public, still in view of other people, and this sort of close contact is very odd to say the least.
Kurama keeps his attention on Chouko and Yukina to avoid having to think about Hiei. Chouko is definitely humming and Yukina has her eyes closed. Kurama wonders if she misses her mother, the woman she's a clone of. The ice demon doesn't talk about her homeland and over the last few years she's shown no interest in going back. Maybe like Hina she's just too interested in the outside world. Or maybe going home is just too painful.
Chouko holds up a hand and Kurama takes it unthinkingly.
"I'm going to reign it in," she says and gives his fingers a squeeze. "Watch Kuwabara."
Kurama nods and feels the warm, safe youki fading away as Chouko pulls her energy back in. Kuwabara shakes himself slightly, as if roused from sleep, then leaps to his feet. Before he can take a step Kurama's got him by the arm in a steel grip as the taller man looks around for something to hit.
"Kuwabara-kun, don't run off," Chouko says. "We need you here."
"I'm not going anywhere!" he says, but his hands are still clenched and he's ready to fight until he sees the form of the stunned woman on the floor a few feet away. Paramedics are arriving now and they're headed to her first.
"You really decked her!" Kuwabara exclaims as his eyes trace the blood on stage.
"Yeah, I broke her nose," Chouko says. "I figured I'd give her a little souvenir of this episode."
"You did that on purpose?" Kuwabara asks.
Chouko smiles up at him.
"Dear Kuwabara-kun, I've broken many noses through the long years."
"B-but—"
"I have more experience hitting humans than you and Kurama combined, not to undervalue your experience, Kuwabara-kun."
Of course she's right. Outside of training Kurama has almost never hit a human. And he would be worried about killing one in a single blow now that he's returned to full strength. But Chouko's had centuries to practice and learn their limits. Of course it is a bit odd for a woman who's proclaimed her hatred of fighting to have so much experience fine-tuning her strikes. It's another thing he adds to her mental notes on her, another thing to keep in mind for the future. Just in case. He runs through his other notes quickly, seeing if they add up to anything new this time.
An elephant, Kurama thinks as he watches the way Chouko keeps Yukina within reach as the paramedic checks her over. An intelligent, social animal. One with strong maternal feelings that's used to being treated with respect. Something capable of defending itself without looking for fights. 'The fox and the elephant' doesn't really have a ring to it, but it's interesting to think about.
The paramedic, having seen Chiba-san's face, insists on checking Chouko's hand. After all her assurances fail to convince him she holds it out. There isn't even a bruise and she twiddles her fingers without any pain. The blood on it is not hers. The paramedic tries to hide his shock and, shaking his head, walks away.
What do you think, is Kurama right about her being an elephant?
