Covet
Summary: Look only at me. Want only me. Be mine only. Otherwise, I'll break you. Dark!Kurama and Botan.
Warnings: crazy Kurama, strong sexual innuendos, profanities, drug use (no, not those things you get addicted to in real life. When I mean drug, I mean like, plant drugs... if that makes sense), explicit and mostly rough smut (sorry, I just like that kind of thing), kinks, blood and possible gore, kidnapping and entrapment. And because this is a dark romance fic, a lot of insanity and psychological trauma. Not to forget obsession, of course. There's gonna be a very good dose of that.
Due to the aforementioned warnings, the relationship between the two characters in this fanfic will most likely be toxic and abusive. Note that I don't condone this in real life, nor do I support any of the things mentioned above if it's happening in reality. This is only for the sake of the story. If you don't like this, please don't read.
Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho.
Chapter 9
Long, thick eyelashes snapped open as Botan woke up with a start, her blue locks matted to her cheeks as a cold, thin layer of sweat covered her face. It took her a moment to will the beating of her heart to slow down before terrifying recollections of the event that occurred before she fainted slowly flashed in her mind. It took her longer to calm herself as she stared at the tinge of blue hue illuminating the hard surface of the floor underneath her feet. She was acutely aware of her hands behind her back, her wrists tied up expertly with a rope to restrict her movements.
"Are you finally awake?" Kurama's voice, rich and smooth, resonated in her ears, slicing through the silence like knife through butter. His timbre sent a jolt of fear in her nearly composed state of mind, causing her panic to return once more.
She lifted her head just in time to catch the sound of wheels screeching against the floor as she watched Kurama stand up from his swiveling chair, the item unceremoniously bumping against the wall as he pushed himself off of it. His calm, yet menacing footsteps drummed against the floor and seemed to echo in her head, a stab of trepidation striking at the middle of her chest as his feet stopped right in front of her. She visibly flinched as the redhead bent down on one knee in front of her, lowering himself so that they were on eye-level before he reached a hand to sweep away at her strands of hair sticking to her face, tucking them promptly behind her ears.
"I missed you," he uttered sweetly as he expelled a deep yet dreamy sigh as he felt the warmth underneath her skin sap through the tips of his fingers.
She disdainfully dismissed his tender confession as she focused her gaze all around the room to study the surroundings. Drawing back from his touch, Botan seemed to push herself further into the wall as if to steer away from him- though it would only allow her so much distance from the fox before her.
"Where am I?" she asked when she noticed that she didn't recognize her current whereabouts. A crack formed in her recently discovered composure as a newfound dread settled in her skin. What was he about to do to her now?
She heard a rustling noise coming from the former thief and turned her head just in time to see him place his palms flat on his knees, pushing himself into a standing position. His scarlet tresses swayed lightly in accordance to his motions as he sauntered his way towards the 8ft windowpane in the room, his body half in the moonlight and the other half in the shadows as he crossed his arms and laid his back languidly against the wall next to the window.
He seemed to smile, the quirk on his lips sending shudders down her spine. "A house that I acquired through the hard-earned money I got as a byproduct of my services at my stepfather's company," he spoke with a warm voice he would usually adopt when he was around her, and Botan was unsure how to feel about the tone. "I moved here a day before I made the decision to hold Shouji captive. It's quite bothersome to come up with excuses for my mother, you see, when there would be constant screaming in the middle of the night. It's for the best."
The ferry girl permitted herself a brief moment to process the whole thing before she swallowed down a lump in her throat, quelling her increasing terror as she drawled out, almost as if uncertain if she should inquire, "What did you do to him? Did you kill him?"
Kurama regarded her with a strange look, his once vibrant peridots darkening into a dim forest green as any remnants of humanity was wiped out from his eyes, replaced with what she could only assume was pure, unadulterated jealousy.
"What do you presume?" he answered, instead, with another question, his voice a deadly calm as the taunt lingered painfully in the air.
"I-I wouldn't know," she murmured, biting the inside of her cheek as her words came out in a shaky stammer. She collected herself as she squashed down the fright threatening to overtake her senses in favor of endorsing a calm exterior. "But what I do know is that he didn't deserve to die."
"My, you're quite defensive of him, aren't you?" Kurama let out a low chuckle, the sound oddly sinister as it reverberated through the walls. His gaze darted towards the bed at the other corner of the room, before he swiftly directed his attention back to her, flecks of gold peeking through underneath reserved emeralds. "Why? Are you, by any chance, enamored by him?" he continued as he pushed himself off the wall and stalked towards her in a way which a predator would to its prey.
"I-" She clamped her mouth shut as Kurama once again halted his tracks right in front of her, curving his knees in a bent-down position as his eyes locked with hers as if to implore her to answer. "That's not it. I just think it's cruel to kill him just because he liked me."
There was a pause as if Kurama seemed to consider something before his response eventually came. "You're talking about him as if he's already dead." Her blue brows furrowed into a deep frown of confusion, but the fox simply extended a hand out to her to cup her left cheek in his palm. "You can be rest assured that I did no such thing. I merely," He pondered over the right word before a wicked grin crept to his face, "toyed with him for a little bit. Do you want to see him?"
Doubt began to fill her as she kept her guard up in case of the fox hollering at her when she nodded her head. "C-can I?" she mumbled, afraid of the reaction that her reply would bring about.
In contrast to the violent imagery of Kurama shouting out verbal insults at her direction that she had managed to conjure up in her head, the redhead seemed to sport an unreadable expression on his visage instead. His lips tugged down into a single line, though his irises were voided of any hint of emotion. He hoisted a finger up in the air and motioned for his vines to slither outwards from underneath his bed before they glided their way up the walls, one of them feeling for something on the cold surface before it found what it was looking for, promptly forcing part of the wall open to reveal a small, red button. The tip of the thorny vine pushed against it, sounding a small click in the air-conditioned room.
A bigger part of the wall soon opened to reveal a dark, empty space- or at least she assumed it was empty before a huge, metal object that closely resembled a bed popped out into the room, the wheels beneath the item causing a screeching sound to resonate as it moved against the floor inside the small space. She could only catch a brief of red hair before the horizontal product spun about a good 90 degrees before it arrogated a vertical position.
A blood-curdling scream almost tore out of her as what greeted her sight completely rooted her deep with horrified shock, but no sound came out as her mouth parted open to let out a silent roar of terror and the color visibly drained from her face. Any sliver of tattered composure that she might have had prior was vanquished into nothing and replaced with utter disgust.
Shouji was confined to the metal pane, blood at the edges of his lips and tears springing from the corners of his eyelids as his once fiery crimson orbs was now a lifeless shade of blood red. His mouth was terribly chapped, as if he was suffering from chronic dehydration, but he seemed to stare emptily at the wall, as if his mind was long gone. His limbs were disconnected from their sockets, his form kept tightly against the pane by the leather belts hooked around his chest and waist. There was a hint of dry blood on the metal surface mead the place where his arms and legs used to occupy, which was odd considering that he was still dismembered and should still be bleeding his life out. Botan could vividly discern the plants around him, the purple stems that seemed to push the blood into his empty sockets as if to prevent him from suffering too much blood loss. The wooden roots that were busy injecting something into his arms and legs which were floating around his body, held up once more by the dark leather belts keeping them from falling off the metal pane.
Being a messenger of Death itself, Botan had seen far worse- but no other violent image could instill such a strong sense of pity, mixed with absolute fear, inside her very being as Shouji parted his lips open to utter something out. She wasn't sure if he even knew she was there, as his gaze remained on the wall. His voice was hoarse but no words left him, almost as if he had worn out his vocal chords from incessant screaming. His expression was emotionless, the only other things that indicated that he was still alive were the slight movements of his mouth and the warm tears streaming down his pale face. There was no remnants of the feisty, hot-headed SDF member that she once knew- he was now nothing but an empty shell of himself, practically threading on the thin line between life and death.
"Is he," she bit back the choked sob that had almost erupted from her throat, "even alive?" She didn't dare to look at Kurama.
His response was immediate, blunt and straight to the point as if he had done nothing wrong. "He is. I made sure he stays alive."
Botan didn't know how he succeeded to accomplish such a gruesome task- for what it was worth, Shouji had been missing for approximately five days and though he was a strong man, no living being had the capability to not perish from immense blood loss after being separated from their limbs in such a long duration of time. Still, it was odd that he wasn't bleeding out an insane amount of blood, the revelation causing Kurama's words to gain a newfound eerie.
"How is that possible?" she finally managed to voice out after long moments. She averted her questioning gaze and pinned an inquisitive gape on the redhead- she couldn't bear looking at Shouji anymore; her heart ached too much.
But Kurama would have none of that. His mouth curled upwards into a chilling smile as he brought a finger to her chin, and in one swift motion, forcibly spun her head once more towards Shouji's direction. Botan tried to shut her eyelids close, but the redhead tapped the pad of his thumb against the skin beneath her lower lips, almost as if in a muted command not to look away. Her mouth trembled but she obliged, in fear of what he might do if she were to choose otherwise.
"Do you see the plant attached to him? The one hovering above his shoulder?" he asked her as he stretched out his free arm and pointed a finger at the maroon-shaded flower levitating over Shouji's form, its wooden roots still pumping an unknown liquid into the SDF's members' limbs. He didn't wait for an answer. "It's called the Bunkaisei. Those are its roots, the ones digging into his arms and legs. Once it finds a host, its ability is activated. It is capable of regenerating and decomposing cells. I dismembered his limbs and organized them neatly near their sockets in order to speed up his healing process. But at the same time, the Bunkaisei helps to kill and resurrect his cells simultaneously. So I can suppose you can say that he's permanently forced to relive the torment of getting his arms and legs cut off, then getting them put back together all over again."
His timbre was cruelly collected and painfully curt, almost as if he was talking about simple statistics. It made her feel as if her heart had jumped until it was mere inches from exiting her throat. "Until when?" she tried, but her voice was a low murmur, not even above a hushed whisper.
"Until the Bunkaisei is deactivated."
"And how?"
A brief, momentary pause hung in the air as Kurama's features adopted a thoughtful look, before an evil smirk slowly tugged at the edges of his lips. "Trying to help him is useless," he told her instead, as if he had caught on to her silent intentions to rescue Shouji. "You're incapable of saving him. The Bunkaisei can only be deactivated by the person who sprung it to life." He watched as a horrified expression of recognition flitted over her countenance. Kurama. He was the only one who could rid Shouji of this indefinite pain. "And it only reacts to demon energy, so whatever attempts to assist him that you might be planning to achieve, my dear, will forever be in vain."
Botan opened her mouth to sound out a savage insult, but the verbal curse failed to roll off her tongue as she took notice of the sadistic gleam of glee in Kurama's pools of emeralds from the corner of her eyes. It was almost as if he was enjoying this- whatever this was. It made her sick, made her feel like projectile vomit.
But he was merciless. He kept on going even though he was acutely aware of the fact that she didn't want to hear anything else. She was the one who kept asking him about Shouji, and he was going to make her listen to every bit of awful, wonderful information he was going to elaborate.
"Do you see that?" He gestured, this time, to the flower situated at the left side of Shouji's ribcage, its white petals containing stains of black as its purple stems slithered from beneath it and appeared to be keeping each droplet of blood from spilling out the metal pane. "It's a nonexistent species in Makai which is known as the Oshujo. Considering the fact that he's forever stuck in an endless loop between suffering and relief, there's no doubt that he would lose an undeniably immense amount of blood. The Oshujo helps to keep him alive through the means of preventing him from bleeding to death. It literally pushes the blood back into him, which is exactly why he's not splashing out spurts of blood, as you can see. The process of deactivating it is the same as the Bunkaisei, which means you can't help him with this either."
The ferry girl was overcome by suffocating despair as each seed of hope that she had managed to born within her was crushed into nothing with each syllable that left his lips.
Her voice was severely at a low notch as she whispered, "So what are you trying to say? That he can't die, but he's constantly in pain. This is torture, Kurama." She attempted to come across as furious, but the effect wore of as the realization dawned on her that the current occurrence was due to none other but herself. Her timbre was heavily laced with regret as she bit the tip of her tongue to prevent herself from crying out.
His instant reply terrified her to the core. "Which is a wonderful thing."
"Do you even hear yourself right now?" This time, she didn't bother to keep her voice from breaking at the end of her sentence. "Look at him, Kurama. This is even worse than death."
The finger that had never left the bony surface of her chin drew apart from her as Kurama pulled away, leaving in its wake only a cold, chilling feeling of ice pricking into her skin. His features grew taut, the intense wrath in his peridots evident as he seemed to glower down at her, his smirk faltering as his lips tugged down into a thin, angry line.
A growl rumbled through his chest, low and dangerous. "You said it yourself. He doesn't deserve to die."
Botan wanted to shout- wanted to yell at him to go away but the dam inside her broke, her tears finally springing free from the edges of her eyes as they trailed down her cheeks in continuous waterfalls. "Why-" she choked on a soft whimper, "would you do this? Please." Make it stop. She wanted to plead with him, but couldn't let out the words as she began to violently sob. This was too much. Even for her, this was too merciless.
His rigid features seemed to soften as he reached a hand to touch her, his fingers wiping away at her crystalline tears. "Don't cry," he murmured, gentle yet firm. "I hate to see you cry."
"If you really care about me," she tried to utter in between brutal snivels as she looked straight into Kurama's eyes, her amethyst orbs silently begging, "you'll let him go and you'll let me go."
Kurama's jaws became tight as he gritted his teeth at her. His voice came out dripping in suppressed fury as he spoke, "And then what do you propose? You leave, tell Koenma, I wind up being taken into Reikai's custody, then everything ends on a good note?" A foreboding and mocking smirk spread on his visage. "That's not the outcome I want. I'm going to have you and you may not like it right now, but I'll make you."
Botan let out a startled gasp as Kurama tugged her chin upwards before crushing his lips against hers, the minty taste of his mouth mixing with the salty flavor of her tears as he deepened the kiss, almost as if forcing her to respond. He pushed his head forward until the back of her head came in contact with the cold, hard wall, tongue darting out to poke at her upper lip but she kept her mouth tightly clamped shut. But he snaked a finger into her hair, fingers tugging in a nearly rough manner. It wasn't enough to hurt her, but it was ample enough to make her gasp out in surprise. And he took that opportunity to push his tongue into her wet cavern, exploring along the roof of her mouth and her pearly white teeth before it met with hers, imploring her to stroke against him but she kept still.
He frightened her. His touch was different than the gentle flutters of his fingers when he would tap her shoulders, a direct contrast to the warmth that would flood her whenever he would softly pat her head. The lip-lock was bruising, ruthless, and downright angry. He was like an entirely different person. Despite the fact that she should be feeling happy after being kissed by the man she had wanted for long years, Botan felt nothing but grief and remorse, the feelings overbearing as they threatened to smother her and Kurama threatened to swallow her whole.
He pulled his tongue back and she grabbed that chance to bite as hard as she could on the plump skin of his bottom lip, teeth digging hard into the flesh to draw out blood as the redhead winced and withdrew from her from the abrupt shock of pain. She watched, inhaling greedy intakes of breath, as Kurama lapped away the blood, leaving a smeared red shade on his lips. His features was blank as always as he peered intently at her.
"This isn't the Kurama I fell in love with. I don't know who you are anymore," she mumbled, acutely aware of the metallic taste of his blood that lingered on the tip of his tongue.
Surprise crossed his visage, a fracture in his composure as his eyes grew wide only for a fraction of a second before he slipped back on his mask of impenetrable calm. "There's plenty of time to get to know me better and plenty more for you to learn to love who I really am." He inched nearer towards her, ignoring the way she seemed to flinch away as he tilted his head to the side to hover his lips over the shell of her ear, his hot breath fanning and tickling her skin. "Because you're now my prisoner, and I'm entitled to keep you here for as long as I want."
His voice had dropped a few octaves lower to that of a barely audible whisper, and Botan tried to ignore the shivers that racked down her spine as he caught her earlobe between his teeth, nipping before tugging it back and letting it go. Her blood ran cold from his words.
"You can't do that. I have friends- our friends," she emphasized in order to get him to think things over, though she doubted it would work, "and ferry duties too. Do you really think Yusuke, Kuwa-chan or even Koenma, for that matter, will let you do this? Do you honestly think that they won't come looking for me?" Her voice was beginning to be filled with conviction as the logic behind her remarks soon settled into her mind.
But, of course, she was dealing with Kurama, of all people. A mastermind of calculating ways, and one with an abnormally high intellect which was far superior than anyone else. Whatever she had to offer, he was many steps ahead of her. There was nothing he couldn't think of. No holes in his plans for her to cling to- no anything.
He chuckled a low and amused chuckle, his voice seeming to spell her impending defeat as he whispered, purposely drawling out the words to crush any residue of resolve within her and to make her cave in. "No need to concern yourself over such little details. They won't even notice you're gone." He darted his tongue out to lick along the left side of her jawline, his saliva leaving a wet, sticky trail on the skin-covered bony structure. "Imagine Yanagisawa, but in plant form. Something that can copy everything about you, from your voice prints, fingerprints, extra-sensory prints, up to even your personality, abilities and memories. No one would even be able to sense a difference. The only distinction between it and Yanagisawa is that it only stops functioning when I tell it to, which means outside contact will be unable to intervene, because I'm the only one with the power of deactivating it."
Shock, trepidation, sorrow all mixed together to form a whirlwind of strangulating emotions as Botan felt her shoulders slouch down in defeat. Her once dry track of tears on her cheeks was once again covered with a warm, wet trail as she felt her eyes water and the tears fell free once more. Her heart sunk deep into her gut as she muttered, almost in despair and disbelief,
"I can't see them anymore."
Kurama pulled apart from her to regard her with a consoling look, but at this point the reassurance in his tender eyes had a negative effect on her as the expression felt taunting and left a bitter aftertaste in her mouth. She felt the warmth of his palms surround her as he cupped both of her cheeks in his hands and leaned in.
"No, I'm afraid not. Until you learn to love me," he kissed her on the forehead, "until I can be sure that you won't try to run from me," this time on the nose, "until I know you won't tell anyone," and then eventually his lips landed on hers, but the contact was brief, as he drew apart almost instantly to stare deep into her pools of saddened lavenders, "you'll be remaining here. Even if it takes centuries."
Botan wanted to curl up in a ball and cry but what came out was a weird-sounding noise that bordered between a whimper and a growl as it echoed from the back of her throat. "That's too cruel."
"I know." He smiled then, almost too happily for her taste. "But you can make it a lot easier, if you'd just open up to me a little more."
The ferry girl felt the strength of fighting her inevitable fate steadily sapping away. Exhaustion teased in the recesses of her mind as the horrifying revelation finally hit her that there was no way out of this. No chance for escape, no cracks for her to scurry into in order to avoid her current predicament. There was nothing left but to accept it. For now. She tried to reassure herself, though even she herself was unconvinced.
Was there even any reason for her to cling for the idea of hope anymore? She was grasping at straws, she knew, and there was obviously no way for her to flee. From her peripheral vision, she could see Shouji still trying to speak- though each of his efforts proved to be in vain.
Maybe- maybe for her it was hopeless, but at least for him...
"...Fine," she forced out the agreement harshly as if it took every ounce of courage she could muster. The redhead quirked a single delicate eyebrow towards her in a curious manner, and she chewed on the bottom half of her mouth before she went on, "I'll give in. But please, in exchange for giving my freedom to you, please let Shouji go. I beg of you," she pleaded, trying to keep herself from crying as she willed herself to permit Kurama full permission to chain her down and have her for as long as he wanted.
If she could at least save one soul from interminable torment, then she would willingly sacrifice herself for the sake of another.
The fox seemed to consider, as if he was pondering over the pros and cons of such a bargain.
Botan attempted to convince him as soon as she caught on to the hint of hesitation on his face. "Please. For me. I'm not trying to bluff my way out of this, I swear." She gulped down a lump in her throat as she continued, "Just please release him from the pain. I-I can't. I promise I'll give myself to you, body and soul. But let him go. I don't care if you don't want to let him live- at least let him die. Don't torture him any longer. Please." She was begging, she knew, but pride was nothing but useless trash in this web of agony that she got herself entangled into.
Kurama threw his head back to survey her for any indication of her lying to his face, and it took him a moment before he finally agreed and nodded his head once. There was no benefit for her, after all. Bluffing would only make things a lot worse- he knew she knew.
He chanted a barely audible mantra under his breath, and Botan watched, in relief, as the flowers attached to Shouji immediately wilted in response, the demon energy that acted as their supply of life force dissipating bit by bit. She observed as Shouji's eyes grew broad in intense anguish, blood spurting out his lips as his mouth parted open to let out the most violent fit of coughs she had ever had the displeasure of hearing.
But as she felt his life rapidly draining, she realized it was the first time she felt happy that another soul was encased into Death's comforting embrace.
The moment didn't last long though, as Kurama turned her head towards him to direct her attention to him once more. She didn't even manage to blink when he slammed his lips against hers, and could only sit there helplessly as she felt invisible chains coming to wrap around her ankles and wrists before hooking everywhere around her body.
She was his, until Kurama would decide otherwise.
A/N: Lol. Finally! Took me like 4 hours to type everything out. Not the best but hope you guys enjoyed it still!
P/S: I've decided to implement this because I wanted to interact with my readers. Though to be honest I was also partially inspired after I've read some of saillovelypines' stories and saw her doing this. Thought it was cool because it felt like I was having a conversation with her so I wanted to do the same for my other reviewers, lol. Sorry!
saillovelypines- Welp, lol the honor keeps going on XD. No smut in this chapter but expect tons of it in the next update! Thank you as always for the continuous support, it motivates me a lot :) You shower me with too much praise but I appreciate it. And I hope to read an update from you soon! You're an amazing writer, from what I can see from your stories.
kyolihk- Yes, sorry for the long wait. But still. I'll be honest and say that I didn't expect this story to be so well-liked. I've always thought people tend to avoid this kind of fics. But I've always wanted to play with the idea of Kurama being insane so I couldn't help myself lmao.
h114- I know, right? Crazy Kurama makes things a lot more interesting. A little bit gore though in this chapter(spoke too soon XD) but I promise there isn't going to be a lot of it. Just a bit here and there. There is going to be an abundance of hot scenes though.