Chapter 27

-Try a Little Tenderness-

As Yusuke and Kazuma had hardly broken a sweat, they proposed to go and rustle up some dinner while Mae took a shower and Kurama prepared to tend her bruises since she had depleted her own ability to heal during the fight. The adrenaline had finally gone out of her as she felt herself ghost from the threshold straight to the bathroom.

A glance in the mirror was all she meant to take but stopped to look again. Her gaze was strange to her, battle soaked and made wilder by the appearance of her recently chopped hair. She hadn't registered the blood from Wu touching her but now as she looked, she saw that it had splashed like splatter paint down the right side of her face and clothes and it was starting to crust in her hair.

She touched a trembling hand to her reflection and seemed to see an overlay of her past self, a past memory and a similar haunted nature. Mae turned away quickly and shucking off her dirty clothes, slipped into the shower, turning the water as hot as she could stand before stepping under it. She stood there, feeling the heat work through her, the blood and crust slipping from her body down the drain with her hands clasped against her nose and mouth to will away the desire to sob.

The young woman had almost lost her arm and had taken another's instead without a second thought. Pulling her hands away, she looked at her right hand flexing it for a moment before curling it back into a fist. There would be a couple of days before the next rounds and she wondered if she would be able to manage to properly form the short sword of her past. Not having the muscle memory of her past body, she wondered if perhaps the shape of her hand had been wrong.

Mae didn't begin to wash her hair until she was sure the majority of his blood had been rinsed away and she found it a much quicker task with such short hair and was able to wash the rest of her body in short order.

Upon stepping out of the shower, she dried herself briskly before realizing that she had come to the bathroom without any clothes. Her sensibility immediately ruled out the grimy mess on the floor and she wondered if she could manage to levitate her dufflebag from the room that seemed very far away in her current state when she was startled by a knock on the door.

"Mae?" It was Kurama and her heart sped up.

"Yes?" she responded still feeling her brain scatter with useless plots of how to get her clothes without being noticed.

"I brought you a change of clothes if you want to grab them. I've set them right outside the door and will be in the bedroom in ten seconds."

"O-okay," she acknowledged and not hearing from him she wondered when to start counting. Even after her hesitation, she counted to twenty in case she counted her seconds too quickly before sneaking a hand out and back into the bathroom.

She dressed in the yukata and over robe that she had so often worn at Genkai's and felt a sense of comfort and peace ease about her. She had made it through the first day in one piece. 'Well,' she thought soberly, 'not completely.' Carefully combing her fingers through the wet curls that in some places hung to her shoulders and others just below her chin, Mae wondered if she should bother evening it out.

With a shrug, she finally walked out of the bathroom, carefully scrunching at her hair with her towel to dry it. The two scavengers hadn't made it back yet and Hiei, for once, was in the room but continued his vigilance on the windowsill. She wondered for a moment if he had seen the exchange of her and Kurama to attain clothing…

"Kurama's in the bedroom," came his dark voice and she hummed in acknowledgment dropping her thoughts quickly and stepping carefully across the floor and into the room. He was laying on his bed, looking up at the ceiling but sat up quickly upon her entry. Those green eyes of his scanned her from top to feet before resting on her hair. Or perhaps her face. But surely it was her hair.

"I don't suppose you have any scissors…?" she laughed shakily trying for lightness.

He let out a soft laugh, it almost sounded like relief, before he turned to his bag and, indeed, produced some scissors.

"They're for thread mostly, for mending and such but they should work well enough."

Mae nodded and reached out for them and when he hesitated, she tilted her head with a look that brook no discussion. "I will finish what I started." He gave her the scissors and she moved to the vanity and being careful to lean so her head was positioned over the tabletop, she carefully pulled each jagged piece to the fore until they were more or less at the same length just below her jawline. Once she felt she was done, Mae looked to see that Kurama had remained seated on the edge of the bed but it wasn't a redhead that caught her eyes but a golden gaze, and she immediately straightened, setting the scissors with a small clacking sound onto the vanity.

"This you… is just a darker shade of you," he rumbled in deep velvet.

"I'm shorter too, you know," she said with a short laugh. As Yoko Kurama remained on the bed, Mae found her feet taking her closer, slowly and inexorably. Upon coming into arms reach he pulled her in quickly but gently as if intimately aware of every bruise her fight had caused. Blue blinked up at gold and when he bowed his head toward her, she squeezed her eyes shut unsure of what would happen.

She felt and heard a quiet thock as his forehead knocked into hers. A moment or two passed before she opened her eyes and blinked once and twice before looking up to their joined foreheads, Yoko's eyes were closed with a slight furrow between his silvery brows. He was breathing deeply and she almost wondered if he'd fallen asleep when his eyes fluttered open unleashing the melted gold upon her and she couldn't help but tear up from the beauty.

"I thought I was going to lose you," he murmured.

"But they chose the rules and said no death—"

"No death in the arena. But had he fulfilled his threat and ripped your arm off, do you believe he wouldn't have waited to roll you off of the platform until you were on the brink of death and we could do nothing to stop it?" She blinked and the tears spilled over, just three. It hadn't occurred to her that the rule could be carried to that point. And she knew the realization had been plain on her face because he pulled back with a heavy, long-suffering sigh. "I had hoped the actual experience would teach you… in tournaments like these, it's more often than not kill or be killed, Arianne!" he scolded and she flinched and felt it the wrong time to correct him. "No… not Arianne." She looked up at him, not sure how to feel.

Her expression must have been stricken for the fire died out immediately and he hesitantly caressed her face with a large, clawed hand before they both blinked and green replaced gold. "Not Arianne. But Mae. Just as it should be," Kurama spoke softly before dropping a kiss upon her closed eyelids before wrapping his arms about her waist and burying his head against Mae's shoulder.

As he did so, the human felt his healing energy seep into her bruised skin and she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and head, stroking his beautiful red hair and soaking in the scent of roses.

Presently, there was a rhythmic tapping on the window and looking up she saw that it had started to rain and by the depth of the darkness, it would be a good hard pour. She looked over calmly when there was a knock on the door.

"Food's here!" Yusuke cheered as he swiftly opened the door having waited maybe half a second after his knock to do so. She nodded with peaceful patience.

"We'll be out soon, just a couple bruises left," she said quietly feeling Kurama's hands about her waist tense ever so slightly. The most surprising part was the almost immediate blush that rose to Yusuke's hairline as if he had walked in on something far more intimate—he didn't even speak but simply nodded and closed the door as quietly as possible.

"Where are they?" Kurama mumbled into her shoulder.

"Hmm?"

"The bruises," he said lifting his head to look at her and speak more clearly. "Where are the bruises? I thought—" but he stopped as she shook her head slightly, smiling softly.

"They aren't physical. I think both of us have been a little bruised today… and for my part, I am sorry I didn't listen when you tried to warn me to be on my guard at all times. You were right—"

"But you were also right… Yusuke reminded me of that. There is room for mercy. Unfortunately, your merciful disposition had no place in your fight today. For that, I am sorry…"

"How many more rounds must we win to be rid of him?" she asked taking her turn to bury her face in his neck.

"Five. The fifth being the final round. I think he must be as impatient as us to end it all if he only invited this many to compete," Kurama replied before kissing her shoulder and pushing her back to look at her. "We will win, Mae. I promise," and with that he fell to his knees before her and, as gallant as any knight, plucked up her hand and kissed the back of it to seal his promise.

After the sweetness of their quiet time, Mae felt easier than she had in weeks as they sat together for dinner, even Hiei joined the little circle to partake and Mae was glad to see that he wasn't in any rush to go out scouting in the rain.

They talked of plans for minimal training over the next couple days though Mae tried, for she suspected Hiei heard, to keep it to herself that she planned to work on forming her short sword and being able to sustain it. It had come in handy and though she knew her other spirit energy powered abilities were good she felt the sword would be quicker and a surer way to win or at least stay alive.

She hoped it would be manageable without completely depleting her stores but when one was fighting for one's life it seemed the spirit energy ran out faster.

"Earth to Mae! Are you in there?" Kazuma's voice cut through her thoughts and she looked up with wide eyes at the group.

"I'm sorry… what was the question?"

"You haven't finished your food—" Kazuma pointed out.

"…but your fork has been halfway to your mouth for about 5 minutes now," Yusuke chuckled and she looked down to see her fork was indeed on its way to her mouth, a piece of some green vegetable speared on the end.

"Ha, so it is…" she said with mild embarrassment as she put the fork down on her plate and stood from the table to clear her place. "I must be more tired than I thought," Mae said loudly enough to be heard over the water she turned on as she washed her plate and put it up to dry. "I think I'll just turn in for the night." She'd already made it halfway to the bedroom before Yusuke responded.

"Alright, we'll be out for a bit to scout out a good place to train tomorrow. You sure you don't want to come?"

"No, you go on ahead," she waved without turning back around and slipped into the room, closing the door behind her with a quiet click. She stood with her back against the door, feeling out their auras until they exited the suite and were a good distance out. She let out a breath she hadn't been aware of holding and stood in the middle of the bedroom, her feet placed shoulder width apart before bringing her right arm palm down straight out ahead of her.

Mae tried to think back on her memories of being Arianne and how she wielded the short sword of spirit energy and tried comparing it to earlier that day when she half-managed to form it on her new body.

After staring at her outstretched arm for nearly ten minutes, she dropped it to her side with a growl. It had worked earlier that day but why? Surely it wasn't meant to be called upon by sheer desperation.

She shook her head, the curls bobbing about fiercely, before taking a deep breath in through her nose and out through her pursed lips. 'Think, Mae… think… like Arianne,' she thought fiercely to herself, plunging deeper into her half-recovered memory banks from her first life. She dove until she found it—the first time her reoccurring dream finished in her learning of her untimely demise.

Mae gasped as her head flung back, her eyes flashing open to look but not look at the ceiling as the teal light of her spirit energy lit up around her like sheet lightning. It lasted barely more than a breath before disappearing once more and she fell to her knees breathing as though she'd just run miles instead of standing in place. It was quite a different feeling from imbuing other objects with her energy which took the strain off of her body and relied on her mind. The words they exchanged, she as Arianne and Yoko Kurama lit her mind.

"You have grown stronger, then," he stated more than asked.

"Almost continuously," she tossed his way before unveiling her power in a wave of the deepest blue light…

The number of years she'd spent in both bodies weren't too different but the difference in physical strength…

Mae looked at her palm as she sat there on the floor before she rubbed her face in exhausted impatience. How strong had she trained her body to be as Arianne before she could glow and focus her spirit energy into being on her arm for longer than a minute, let alone as long as her dreamed memory proved to be possible. With a sigh she pulled herself from the floor and into bed without shedding her dressing robe or crawling under the covers. As she drifted to sleep, she remembered that both her cousin and mentor had spirit energy that they formed into the corporeal objects and vaguely decided to ask about it in the morning.

Woot, hope you like it! Though between last week and this week, I'm not sure anyone read the more recent chapters...

-Casidhe