Chapter 29
The first thing Kai heard once she came to was, well, nothing. Afraid to open her eyes she breathed in deeply, expecting to smell smoke, but the room she was in smelled nice, a trace of fabric softener still rising from the sheets. She was on a bed, Kai realized, she was safe, he was gone.
Kai cautiously opened her eyes to a thin crack. The room around her was dark, not unlike the room she remembered and without a warning, panic came rushing through her veins. This was an illusion, he had her trapped in another illusion. Her pulse quickened as she glanced around the small room, hearing sounds and voices not far from it, her anxiety grew at the thought of there being more than one demon near her. She felt her hands get clammy with sweat, but she couldn't move from the futon she was on, her every muscle turned to stone.
A movement in the shadows seemed to break her binds and Kai started thrashing around, still struggling to get up.
"No! No!" she screamed, finally tearing the comforter off her body. "Let me go!" she crawled back towards the wall, pulling her knees to her chest as tears streamed down her face.
"Kai!"
"No!" she cringed from the sound of the familiar voice. It was a trick, she knew it.
"Kai! Kai, it's me!"
"Don't touch me!" Kai screamed once the Amaya look-alike tried to touch her hand.
"For fuck's sake!" Amaya yelled back in frustration. "Kai, listen its me Amaya." She started again, calmer this time. Both girls had tears in their eyes and neither noticed the group of people standing awkwardly behind them. "Come on Kai, I know you recognize me." Amaya whispered, trying to stable her voice. "When you were ten you tried to rescue a cat out of a tree and fell, that's how you got that scar on your knee," crawling closer Amaya was glad that Kai didn't cringe, but peered at her with caution. "And when you were eleven, Noboru confessed to you. He was 15, but you said no because Cho had a crush on him. She moved away two weeks later."
"You're not an illusion?" Kai asked tentatively.
"You're allergic to kiwi." Amaya grinned. "Your face turns red and bloated if you eat one and you look like a tomato for a week.""It is you!" Kai cried out as she lunged herself into her friend's embrace.
Kurama coughed slightly to get their attention and when both girls turned to look at him, asked the question that was on everybody's minds. "Kai, do you remember what happened?"
"Shuuichi?" Kai blinked in confusion, only them realizing the small room was crowded with people, standing in a semi-circle around Amaya and herself."Wait, where are we?" How did I get here? What are you guys doing here?"
Amaya sent a pleading look in Shizuru's direction as she pulled Kai to her feet. "Can you stand?" she asked, wrapping her arm around her friend's waist to support her.
"Yeah…" Kai nodded, but put her hand on Amaya's shoulder as she straightened up. "Amaya, what's going on? How did I get here?"
"You have to tell us what happened first." Shizuru said as she followed the pair out of the guest room.
Rubbing her forehead Kai looked around in confusion. For the first time she noticed a young girl with blue hair and red eyes, no unlike Hiei's, and an older woman with pale pink hair. The blue haired girl smiled at her and Kai realized that neither she nor Hiei were wearing contact lenses as she thought as first.
"Oh God." She mumbled as realization seeped in. "You're demons too?" she asked, looking between the two of them.
Shizuru and Kuwabara exchanged glances and both rushed to her side when she began taking steps backwards, away from them.
"Kai it's alright…" Shizuru said as she put her hand on the younger girl's shoulder.
"You're safe here." Kuwabara assured her, trying to guide her towards the couch.
"Kai," Kurama kneeled in front of her once she was seated, "I promise to explain everything, but you have to tell us what happened first." She was looking at him with suspicion in her eyes and something else mixed in. Fear maybe? The thought hurt him.
Kai hesitated before speaking, looking up from Shuuichi's hand on her knee (why did everybody keep touching her?), the faces around her seemed unfamiliar, almost sinister. She breathed in deeply. "I remember walking home… I thought I heard someone walking behind me, I stopped and then everything went dark." She rubbed the back of her neck and glanced around once more.
Kurama's eyes were glued to her face as his thumb gently rubbed her leg in a soothing motion. He realized he had no way to predict this, but he wished he could have been there, he wished he could protect her.
"When I woke up I was in a dark room, tied to a chair." Kai continued shakily. "And there was this youkai, Yuudai, he said his name is Yuudai." Her brows creased in concentration before she met Kurama's eyes. "Wait, what happened to him?"
"He's dead." Hiei stated plainly.
Kai's mouth formed a small 'o', but in a way the lack of emotion in Hiei's voice had an appeasing effect and a sharp contrast to the worried –apprehensive looks and words of everybody else around her. Kai wasn't sure she wanted to know exactly what happened. "He said something about me being "Kurama's woman" and started talking about demons and revenge…"
Kurama completely tuned out the rest of her sentence. "Kurama's woman". He sighed, removing his hand from her leg he stood up and walked to stand next to Hiei. He heard all that he needed to hear to confirm his worst fear, she was taken because of him.
"Fox." Hiei interrupted his thoughts before they had the chance to spiral downwards. His look, as always, said "Don't be stupid", and Kurama drew strength from his friend, who seemed to be the only one left unaffected by the turn of events.
"One minute the room was on fire and the next I was drowning." Kai's voice was now shaking and she wished Shuuichi would come sit next to her and hold her hand.
"An illusionist." Yuusuke concluded.
Kai nodded in understanding. "I don't know what happened after that, only that I woke up here." She finished her tale with a shrug.
"We found you and brought you here." Hiei said after a moment of silence. Maybe he wasn't the best for the job, but someone had to explain things to the girl.
"How did you find me?"
"his minion sought us out, we followed him to the warehouse and found you." Hiei shrugged.
"But why?" Kai asked, perplexed.
"He was looking for me." Kurama finally pushed himself off the wall knowing that what he was about to say could cost him any chance of a future with her. "I am Kurama."
Genkai motioned with her head and silently the group left the room, leaving the uncharacteristically quiet Kai and the thoughtful-looking fox demon alone.
"Kai…" the words died in his throat as she refused to meet his eyes. Kurama remained planted in his spot, not daring to approach the raven-haired girl.
"He said you killed his brother." Kai whispered.
The fright in her voice was the very reason Kurama never told his family about who he really was. He had done too much, killed too many. How could he tell them he couldn't remember even half the faces, not to say names, of those who he killed, that he had no way of knowing which one of them was Yuudai's brother.
"Did you?" there was a flicker of hope, a tiny spark in her eyes that made him want to lie to her, assure her it was not true and that his hands were clean of blood. But he couldn't, he would not. He had to tell her the truth.
"I did." He nodded, dodging her gaze. "I probably did." He added after some thought.
Kai was caught in a mixture of confusion and fear, and now rage. She thought that she had this quiet man all figured out and in one night the bubble of everything she thought was true had burst.
"What do you mean, you probably did?" she lashed out. She wished she would have stayed in bed all day.
For the first time in his life, Kurama didn't have all the answers. He made a move to approach Kai, but when she flinched as the motion he remained in his place. It stung, he wanted desperately to touch her and comfort her, bet there was no other way. If there was any chance for them to get past this, she had to know the whole truth and see for herself if she could accept it.
"What did he tell you?" Kurama asked.
"That demons are ruthless killers, driven by hate and revenge." Kai cited.
"That is true, for the most part." Kurama agreed. "But not all of us, and not me, or Yuusuke, or even Hiei. Not in this life."
"In this life?"
Kurama spent almost two hours explaining to her about the Reikai Tentei and how they were formed. He told her about the barrier between the worlds and that it was their job, not officially as they no longer worked for Koenma, to find the demons with dreams of grandeur and power and get rid of them.
"Like demonic exterminators?" she asked and he had to laugh at the comparison.
"In a way, I presume."
He left out the bulk of his life in the Makai, and most of their adventures as a team, as it would take him the better part of a week to tell them all, but he was completely honest and she listened without showing signs that she was about to take off in a run. He took it as a good sign.
"So?" Can you accept me? He asked once he was done laying out his life. He didn't expect her to understand right away and crash into his arms, which she didn't, but he had to know.
"I…" Kai was at a loss for words. The mere amount of information she consumed during the last few hours was almost too much to take. "I have to think." She breathed out eventually.
This was more than he had hoped for. "I understand." He said.
For a week Kai spoke to no one. She ignored Shizuru's calls, Kuwabara's emails and her mother's pleas to talk to her, to explain what happened that made her lock herself in her room and cut off all contact with the outside world. Shuuichi, no, Kurama (she corrected herself every time, still trying to get used to the name, and said it out loud a few times to see how it rolled off her tongue) didn't try to contact her, and for that she was grateful. She even refused to see Amaya, somehow the idea of sharing theories about the demonic realm with her best friend carried no attraction to her.
But reflecting and digesting her newly found knowledge was not the only reason for her distance. The headaches and vertigos she began experiencing as of late only got worse, now turning into full blown migraines and paralyzing dizzy spells that left her, on more than one occasion, immobile for a few minutes on the same spot she landed. At first Kai tried to pass it off as a virus, or some sort of post-traumatic stress disorder, but when the lamp in her room began flickering along with her mood swings and the blow-dryer shot sparks at her touch (twice), Kai had only two options left to consider. Either she went completely bonkers and needed to be institutionalized as soon as possible, or there was something very, very wrong with her.
Kai had no idea how this demonic thing worked, but a thought had formed in the back of her mind and remained there, like a shadow that followed her every movement.
It took Amaya barely two days to seek him out. During those two days Kai refused to answer her calls or open her bedroom door. She was worried, naturally, but eventually figured that maybe Kai should be left alone with her thoughts for a short while.
There was no immediate danger to her cover, but the questions were burning in her mind. Why haven't they revealed the truth about her to Kai? She could direct those questions at Shizuru, who seemed eager to reveal the whole truth, but Amaya chose to present then to Hiei instead.
Her reasoning has been that in spite their apparent mistrust and dislike for each other, they eventually reached some form of mutual understanding. And then there was the kiss.
Surprisingly, the task turned out to be easier then she expected and she found him on a rooftop just two blocks away from her cardboard box of an apartment.
"Ah, the work of an heir never ends." She drew out coolly as she approached his figure. "I expected Mukuro-sama to keep you on a tighter leash, but here you are, roaming the Ningenkai without a care in the world."
The only form of acknowledgement she got was an irritated grunt as she leaned on the railing next to him. He wasn't much of a talker she learned, but that was fine with her. She could do the talking for them both.
"You Reikai Tentei are one lively bunch." She commented casually, stealing a glance at his profile. "Although I do have to thank you, I guess."
His face remained emotionless, but the slight shrug of his shoulders told her he was listening. She wasn't completely sure if she was thanking him for coming to the rescue or for how it appeared, convincing his friends to keep their mouths shut a task that proved to be nearly impossible for the lot of them. "I don't know what I would have done if she found out, or even worse, if something happened to her." She confessed.
"What kind of demon is she?"
His gruff voice surprised her, but she smiled internally. "Elemental, like the rest of the clan." It came out before she had a chance to think. Her eyes shot open before she cursed. "Fuck."
"Hn. I figured as much." There was no surprise that she could read on his face. "A pot and a kettle."
"Who…" Amaya though back to the night she dubbed as 'The Incident' before realization sank in. The blue haired girl, the healer. Amaya thought there was something strange in the way he looked at her, but she had been so emotional that it barely registered in her conscious mind.
"Oh." Was the clever answer she came up with. So she was right all along, they were similar in many ways.
They stood in complete silence, side by side, their shoulders almost touching, and for the first time Amaya realized that the tension she felt around him wasn't caused by alarm or intimidation, but something entirely different.
Butterflies. There were butterflies in her stomach.
On Sunday night Kai finally decided that there was only one way to determine the question of her sanity. On her way back from the grocery store with a newly bought pack of cigarettes in her back pocket, she noticed a lonely-looking vending machine. This on its own was nothing unusual as the busy Tokyo streets were littered with them, but his particular machine stood in a small alley between two apartment complexes, barely noticeable and, it seemed, out of order.
Kai approached it nervously, playing with the lighter in her hand. Pulling a cigarette out of the pack, she toyed with it for a few seconds before tucking it behind her ear. She took a deep breath and stepped closer to the machine, putting her hand on its smooth steel surface. At first nothing happened, but instead of removing her hand, Kai concentrated o it, trying to put some intention behind the gesture. A few more seconds passed uneventfully and when Kai was about to step away, relieved but somewhat frustrated, the machine suddenly came to life and with the usual clatter dispensed a cherry flavored soda.
Kai stood dumbfounded before bending down to retrieve the beverage. Putting the cigarette between her lips she lit it before opening the can with a soft hiss.
Before the last of the smoke faded and the empty can rested in a garbage bin, Kai pulled out her cell phone and dialed.
"Hey, can I come over?"
He had been surprised to see her name come up on the screen of his cell phone. For the last week it seemed as though Kai has dropped off the face of the earth, but he respected her wish and gave her time to think things over.
The morning after the left Genkai's he went straight to the flower shop to clean up his preparations for a picnic in the greenhouse. He looked at the trash bags and couldn't help but think that if they told her the whole truth…
He wasn't young, he knew it. Most demons half his age have already taken mates and started a family. He had to abandon that line of thought though, before it would lead him to some stupid decision.
But when he opened his front door to see her standing there, playing with the hem of her shirt, not thinking about it turned out to be harder than he expected. "Come in." he gestured towards the living room, stepping aside to let her pass.
Kai stopped halfway in and turned to look at him. "I want to know more…" she grabbed the sleeve of his shirt, pulling him closer. "I want to know more about you, Kurama." She breathed out his name and he thought that he had never been this happy to hear it.
Kurama couldn't help the shiver that ran down his body when she pulled his face down to level with hers and kissed her back passionately.
Took me long enough huh?
xs&os
