Buckle up, boys and girls.
(Z)
They didn't try to fight him.
Kurama wasn't sure if it was the promise to spare their lives, if they were simply too frightened, or id they realized that he was on their side, but his mother and stepfather followed him meekly, without complaint or argument or anything louder than a whimper. He did not put Shuichi down, suspecting that their cooperation had more than a little to do with his hold on the boy.
Sadly, he had little question of what he looked like to them. Tall, silver, and utterly inhuman, with golden eyes and a growl in his voice and the ability to coldly dispatch any demon, however frightful, who strayed too near.
There was nothing at all to connect him to the sweet, studious, and quiet son they had lost. He had known that when he had chosen to take on his youko form before crossing the border. They would never know it was him.
Better, he thought, for them to be frightened by his demon side than to be confronted with the many lies he had told them.
He had little trouble on his return to the breach in the border. Most of the youkai attacking the city were too preoccupied with their own mayhem to care about harassing him or the humans he carried with him, and the youkai defending the city knew who he was and had no cause to bother him. The few enemies who did venture near were dispatched quickly and with minimal effort.
The Spirit World guards at the border didn't try to stop him this time as he crossed. No one voluntarily leaving the human world needed to be stopped.
His family did hesitate, however, when they realized they had been taken to another world. Shuichi was the most lively – kicking and screaming and pulling on his tail.
Kurama dropped him without ceremony into the dirt.
"Do you want to go back there?" he demanded. Stress, worry, anger, and guilt had frayed his patience down to nothing.
"Kurama!" it was Keiko, being led into Makai by one of Raizen's old retainers. She ran toward him, and he took a step back away from his family.
"Please take them to the med tent to be checked and apologize to Yukina for me," he requested, his tone barely civil. "I am going to rejoin the battle. Please – see that they are cared for."
He was gone before there was time for anyone to respond.
(Z)
Yusuke had once lost sleep fretting over the idea that all of the great challenges in life were over. Yusuke, after all, thrived on the thrill of battle, and after he'd taken on his youkai form he had, for a short time, been convinced that there was just no one left to fight.
Now, lying spent and breathless on the hard ground of a Makai forest, covered in meaty chunks of what had once been a demon named Cupid, bleeding and sore and past the point of exhaustion, he found himself wishing, for one brief instant, that there were no greater challenges out there. He'd been fighting hordes of youkai for a week and a half. For one short moment he found himself longing for the boredom he's often faced in the human world. Anything, if only he didn't have to get up again.
The wish didn't linger long. Eventually Yusuke caught his breath. Eventually he managed to his aching body into action, to force himself to sit up, to check to see how bad his injuries really were. Eventually, after-battle adrenaline kicked in and he realized – that fight had been fucking awesome!
"Nice job with the slice and dice!" he told Hiei, rolling his shoulders and trying to work some of the stiffness out of his neck. The other youkai was also laid out on the ground recuperating after the battle.
Hiei grunted and didn't answer.
"Is this what it's going to be like?" Yusuke wondered out loud, both anticipating and dreading it. They didn't have enough strong youkai on their side. Not by far.
"Probably worse," Hiei answered darkly. His voice sounded thick and sluggish.
Yusuke threw a rock at him. "Hey. No after-battle coma – not yet. I'm not dragging your unconscious ass all the way back to camp."
Hiei laughed – a bitter, mocking sound. "I'm not going to sleep, detective," he said, oddly amused. "I'm going to hell."
"You having a religious crisis?"
Hiei laughed again. "Really, detective. Do you think Cupid dipped those arrows of his in love potion? There are enough toxins in my system to…won't be long now."
Hiei had taken an arrow in the shoulder, and a second arrow had nicked his face. Was he really saying - ?
"You're kidding…right?" Yusuke stared at him.
"What a…fucking disappointing…way to go."
Yusuke was immediately in motion, scrambling on hands and knees to his sometimes-teammate. Hiei didn't fight as Yusuke ripped at his shirt, pulling the fabric away to look at the wound on his shoulder.
His skin had gone a terrible shade of white, now appearing nearly translucent. Yusuke could see his veins through his skin, and they were dark and thick and black. The darkness had already reached his heart.
"Make up something…more exciting…to tell the fox," Hiei ordered.
"Hiei…"
"'M glad he's not here…stupid fox…would've cried…"
(Z)
Koenma, with a suspicious-looking smile, agreed to look the other way in regards to Kurama's reckless venture into the human world.
"Since you came right back and didn't use your human form, I think I can allow it just this once."
"May I continue to fight then?" there were still pockets of youkai resistance that remained in the human world. When Koenma's forces had whisked Kurama away, it had been before he'd managed to satisfy his rage.
"No, we will be sending small teams in for what's left. Besides," Koenma added, "You're Yusuke's proxy, and I want all of the leaders in camp to remain there for now to deal with the influx of humans."
Kurama nodded tightly, clamping down firmly on the urge to argue. He understood. He didn't like it, but he understood.
"Your family?" Koenma asked suddenly.
Somehow Kurama managed a smile. "A few minor injuries, but everyone is going to be fine," he answered with his usual show of cordiality. "Yukina has been kind enough to take special care of them."
"And does the fact I'm speaking with the Youko mean that you won't be greeting them as their son?"
"Shuichi Minamino is dead." Somehow, Kurama managed to say it without flinching. "There is Kurama, and there is Youko. I have no further need of a humanity I can no longer make use of."
(Z)
Somehow, Yusuke could see Hiei's soul as it tried to leave his body. He didn't know if it was because of his experience helping bring Kurama back from the dead, or a talent he hadn't known about, or just because no ferry girl had yet appeared to escort him to the Spirit World, but he could definitely see Hiei's soul as it began to break free.
Small, dark, and coiling, it hissed and crackled at him with Hiei's defiant fire as Yusuke caught it and tried to force it back into the small body.
"Damn it, Hiei, Kurama'll fucking kill me if you die!"
The soul parted and flowed around his fingers like water, sniggering darkly at his pathetic attempts. The body had too much damage – it no longer had the strength to sustain the soul, and no soul of any pride would hang around a dead vessel.
A thought occurred to him, and Yusuke wasn't sure if it was his own thought, or if it somehow came from Hiei.
If Hiei's body could be healed of the poison, then it would be strong enough to sustain the soul again – and as long as the soul stayed near the body, the damaged vessel would continue to function, trapped at the brink of death unable to completely shut down.
But…outside of Spirit World, a soul couldn't survive for more than a few hours without a healthy body to hold it. Yusuke remembered that much clearly.
Hiei's chest heaved shallowly, his body unable to finish dying with the soul so near. As long as Yusuke didn't try to push it back into the damaged body, it didn't fight his hold on it. It rested, warm and gentle, in Yusuke's hands.
Hiei's face had always appeared very young to Yusuke – particularly during the rare instances when he was asleep or unconscious. This, Yusuke reminded himself as he stared at the still form, was a man who had spent his entire life fighting for each and every step he took. He was strong, cold, and viscious.
Sometimes friend, sometimes rival, sometimes enemy, there was no denying the fact that Yusuke owed his own life several times over to the small, dark demon.
And Kurama still loved Hiei.
He thought of Yukina, who still to this day had no idea how very close she had come to the brother she sought, or how much that brother had sacrificed for her sake. He thought about Hiei, struggling all his life for survival, not content to simply give up and die.
And, almost against his will, he thought of Kurama, who still loved Hiei, no matter how strong his feelings for Yusuke. He knew how those green eyes would look, clouding over with emotion as he learned of Hiei's death. Kurama had been doing so well returning from the brink of darkness…but he would never recover from this.
And maybe he wouldn't blame Yusuke for his former lover's death, but, at the same time, Yusuke was still sure it would spell the end of their infant romance.
"Damn it, Hiei…"
The soul pulsed, warm in his hands. It laughed at him, mocked him, called him a fool and a coward.
It was already over, the soul informed him. Death had come as he had known one day it would and there was nothing either of them could do about it. The soul would die if he didn't let it go to Spirit World, and that would be truly unforgivable.
He had no choice. The soul couldn't survive without a healthy, living body to hold it. He had to let it go.
Yusuke gritted his teeth. The soul made an indignant protest as he gripped it a little too tightly.
He didn't have a choice, did he?
Somehow, that didn't sound like an adequate excuse to tell Kurama.
"Damn it, Hiei!" he snarled, and knew he was about to do something incredibly stupid.
(Z)
Tbc
(ducks flying debris)
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