Disclaimer: All characters of YuYu Hakusho are owned by their writer and company. They aren't mine (sigh!) and even if I wished on a hundred falling stars, Kurama will never be mine. This fiction was made to entertain and hopefully does not infringe on their copyright.
So long since I posted the last chapter of this one, I know. But I can't help it I am so into yaoi that its so hard to write this down….gomen gomen! Although I will finish this…dangnabit! ^^
The Reddest Rose
Day 3
"Ohayo, Hitori! How are you feeling today? All better I hope." Yukina brought in a small tray with Hitori's breakfast on it. Under the cheerful tone, Yukina was still worrying over the girl on the bed. It had been two days since the accident and Hitori hadn't spoken one word since then. All she did was stare into space with the bleakest look in her eyes. Just like she did now.
The Hitori she was seeing now was even worse than when they had first met. Although, Hitori wasn't normally a very loud girl, on the contrary, she had been quiet and reserved since they had met, she had more or less joined in the group's antics and seemed to be relaxed and comfortable with them. This Hitori seemed too alien and solitary.
"Yukina…"
Yukina almost didn't hear the soft whisper, immersed in her own thoughts.
"Yukina…"
"Oh, Hitori! Sorry, I didn't hear you." Yukina told her, bowing in her direction. She smiled. Maybe Hitori is better now. I hope so…"Now what can I do for you?"
"I was just wondering if you could round up everyone in the living room. Can you do that for me while I change clothes?"
Yukina was excited. Maybe Hitori has really recovered now. "Of course." Yukina said, glad to do anything to speed up Hitori's recovery. She had reached the door when she turned back. She was curious as to what Hitori was planning. "What for? I mean, what do I tell them if they ask what for?"
"I have to tell you guys something." Hitori's voice remained soft, devoid of emotion, and Yukina was troubled to find that Hitori's eyes had the look of someone who had no hope left. She shook herself. Surely it was just her imagination. Yukina exited from Hitori's room to call the others.
It is time. Hitori told herself.
***
"Yukina! Are you sure Hitori said living room? Its already been an hour since you called us." Botan was stirring restlessly where she was sitting.
"Hai, Botan, I distinctly heard her tell me that."
"Sure sure?" Botan insisted.
"Can it, Botan!" Kuwabara swatted her from behind. "Of course, Yukina's sure. Has she ever steered us wrong?"
Beeeee! Botan stuck her tongue out at Kuwabara. "You're just defending Yukina because you like her that much."
Kuwabara and Yukina blushed a bright red.
"O, stop teasing them, Botan!" Keiko absentmindedly admonished Botan, Her mind was still on Hitori. The past two days had worried her no end. Of everyone assembled, Yusuke and her knew Hitori the longest and Keiko thought of the girl as part of the family. To see her like this was really disturbing her. She turned to look at Yusuke. He was also wearing the same look she knew she had. Aside from the two of them, one other person had exhibited serious concern over Hitori's condition. She swiveled her head to the corner of the room where Kurama had sat down, his face covered by shadows.
"Good." Hitori walked to the center of the room, drawing everyone's gaze. "I see that everyone is here."
Keiko was startled. Hitori was wearing the clothes she had worn when she had accidentally dropped into Yusuke's apartment. The sleeveless gray one-piece pantsuit that was the exact replica of Youko's clothes when Kurama transformed. I wonder why?
"Hey, Hitori! What's with the outfit?" Yusuke echoed Keiko's thoughts.
She turned towards Keiko and Yusuke. "Before all else, I would like to thank you two. You guys accepted me without any doubts and you gave me the happiest times here." She smiled a grateful smile. "However, I need to tell the others who and what I am."
Hitori looked at Yusuke. For a brief moment, an apology flitted across Hitori's features, quickly replaced by the bleak look. "You all know me as Yusuke and Keiko's friend, Hitori, also as someone who knows how to fight, too. Most of you must have had some questions about my past" Everyone nodded at this "but you accepted me because I was their friend. I owe you this much."
She bowed her head in concentration. A red glow surrounded her, growing blindingly brighter at each passing minute. When they could see again, Keiko and Yusuke saw that Hitori had reverted to her kitsune-form. She was still essentially the same, but now, reddish-brown pointy fox ears and five lashing tails completed the look. A distinctive tattoo was on her forehead and small tattoos not unlike Yusuke had when he had been taken over by Raizen was sparingly placed on her body.
Yukina, Kuwabara, Botan and Kurama looked like they had swallowed a live fish. Koenma, on the other hand, remained suspiciously calm.
Kurama was shaken. Kitsune! Hitori is kitsune? How? A terrible thought crossed his mind.
"Nani?" Kuwabara had finally found his voice. "Hitori? You are…"
"Youkai!" Yukina completed Kuwabara's sentence.
"Kitsune!" This from Botan.
"You don't seem to be surprised, Koenma-sama." Hitori had noticed Koenma's lack of reaction.
"You noticed?" Koenma shrugged. "It must be because I knew who you were."
"Nani?" Yusuke screamed at Koenma. "You knew who Hitori was? Then why didn't you tell the others."
"I assumed you and Keiko had your reasons."
Thwack! Kuwabara and Yusuke both swatted Koenma on the head. "Idiot!" They both shouted at Koenma.
"What did you do that for?" Koenma's eyes were slitted and he was also shouting. The pacifier still in his mouth. This amused Hitori for a moment, she had never figured out how Koenma could talk without the pacifier falling out of his mouth. It must have taken quite a few practices to perfect the art of making oneself be understood, talking with a pacifier.
"Enough of that, you guys!" Yukina told the three guys. She turned towards Hitori. "Would you care to explain who you really are?" Yukina had also been a koorime youkai, an ice maiden. She knew just how vicious the youkai-kitsune tribes were. Still, this was Hitori, a friend. And she was willing to give her a chance.
Hitori's eyes retained their bleak look. She hesitated. Back in her room, she had resigned herself to this but now that it was here, she didn't want to anymore.
Koenma sensed her hesitation. "Hitori, if you would allow me. I will tell them what I know…is that alright?"
Hitori's voice seemed to be stuck in her throat. She nodded.
Koenma took that as an assent. "Alright. Before I tell you anything. I'll tell you guys how I know who Hitori is and why I didn't tell you."
"Yeah, and you'd better have a good explanation." Yusuke told him threateningly, shaking his fist in the air.
Koenma ignored Yusuke. "It was three months ago when my father, Lord Enma, summoned me. It seems that a lone kitsune warrior had used a little-known portal to the Ningenkai without anyone noticing. My father was naturally curious and alarmed at the thought. No kitsune had ever crossed into the Ningenkai in hundreds of years." Koenma inclined his head at Kurama in the shadows. "Except of course for Kurama." Kurama remained quiet in the corner. "We sent many of the Spirit World.'s guardians to find out and we came up with a name. The warrior was a Five-tailed female kitsune warrior, Hitori. The Youko-Kitsune tribe ruler's only daughter." All eyes turned to Hitori at this. "Lord Enma was alarmed at this. An ordinary kitsune would have been reason enough for my father to post a guard but a five-tailed kitsune…"
"Soshite? What's so special about a five-tailed kitsune…" Kuwabara said confused.
Even before Koenma could explain, Kurama stood up. "Assassin!" He exclaimed in a cold and deadly voice. "A five-tailed kitsune is a damned assassin." He was so angry he almost spit the words out. Everyone had turned to look at Kurama, too surprised to say anything. Kurama had never been this angry before.
Almost before anyone could blink…
Kagon-Retsuzan-Shi!
Kurama appeared behind Hitori, twisting her right arm towards her back as he placed the deadly thorns of his rose whip near her throat.
Hitori could have blocked that if she had wanted to. She had read Kurama's stance before his outburst. But she simply didn't want to. It's better this way.
"Go ahead." She said in a resigned voice. "I told you, you should have let me die the last time, then there wouldn't have been such complications…" She whispered to Kurama.
"Kurama, what are you doing?" Yusuke shouted, alarmed at how deadly intent Kurama was.
"Stop it, Kurama! Please!" This from Keiko. "Hitori hasn't done anything wrong…"
"Not yet. Are we going to wait until she does something?" Kuwabara said, feeling betrayed. An assassin…Yusuke and Keiko knew she was kitsune…
"Kuwabara-san! That isn't fair. At least allow her to explain why she's here…" Yukina knew how easy it was for humans to mistrust the youkai and how important it was to set things straight.
"Yes, Yukina is right." Koenma told the others. "At least allow Hitori to tell us why she came here in the first place."
"She has a perfectly legitimate reason to be here." Yusuke interrupted Koenma.
"Really now?" Kuwabara was sarcastic. "And what pray tell is the reason?"
BOG!
"Stupid!" Yusuke bopped Kuwabara on the head. "We told you that already! Don't you remember?"
"Oh, right!" Yukina was smiling now. "Keiko and Yusuke told us that Hitori was betrothed to Kurama!"
Kurama was startled. "That is a lie!" He said. "I'm not betrothed as a human and I wasn't betrothed when I was in the kitsune tribes. Certainly not to this one. She hadn't even been born yet when I left. You have been tricked."
"But, Hitori, told us that your family…" Keiko tried to explain but Hitori cut her off with a shake of her head.
"I am sorry, Yusuke, Keiko. Kurama is right. It is a lie. I merely said that so you wouldn't be suspicious of me."
"So what is the real reason then?" Koenma was quick to say.
Hitori smiled a desolate smile. "My mission to the Ningenkai is to kill the human Minamono Shuuchi Kurama, the one previously known as Youko." Her voice seemed hollow.
"Kill…Kurama?" Keiko was beyond stunned
"Nani?" Even Yusuke was shocked.
Kurama tightened the rose whip around Hitori's throat. His rage was barely controlled. Now he had every reason to kill Hitori. But even in his anger, a small part of him still couldn't finish it, some small part was crying out in anguish for something that could have been, something he couldn't explain. And that small part of him was what stayed his hand as Koenma asked him to stop.
"Wait, Kurama!" Koenma layed a hand on his arm. "There are things still left unresolved." Koenma had known Hitori in the short two months that everyone else (except Yusuke and Keiko) had known her. And he was puzzled. Hitori had never acted like any kitsune he had ever met. No guile or cunning masked her features and he could have sworn that Hitori had truly liked being their friend. I must get to the bottom of this. He looked Hitori straight in the eye. "If what you say is true, then why did you reveal your true self now, when your target has arrived at last. You could have waited a few more days, gotten Kurama alone and…"
Koenma is right. Maybe…maybe HItori isn't so bad…A ray of hope penetrated through Keiko's betrayed feelings…She looked hopefully at Hitori. "Tell us why, Hitori."
"Yeah," Yusuke chimed in. "Tell us why." He also wanted to find a rational explanation…
But Hitori remained silent. Why? Why? I cannot tell you that its because he is your friend and I cannot hurt you guys that way, not when you have done so much for me. I am still kitsune enough to not want to reveal that weakness. She looked down on the floor.
Kurama tightened his grip, twisting her arm. "Answer the question."
Hitori grunted in pain and her head came up. She saw how Keiko and Yusuke were still desperately clinging to the hope that she hadn't betrayed them. I don't want to hurt you guys anymore than I have to. I owe you so much, I will have to tell you…if only to put your minds at ease. "Alright! I'll tell you the truth." She looked fixedly at a blank wall. "I am a kitsune assassin, yes. But not because I wanted to be one." She slid her eyes to the corner. "You as a kitsune know how youkai maidens are treated in the kitsune tribes. A kitsune maiden's existence depends on her father's will, we had no rights at all. And what kind of an existence is that? To gain rights, I had to become a kitsune warrior and an assassin whether I wanted to be one or not." She paused, taking a deep breath.
"When I arrived on this world, it was to land in Yusuke and Keiko's apartment. The three months I spent in their company were the happiest I have known." She laughed in self-derision, almost talking to herself, now. "Funny, after all this years of killing demons, you'd think I'd have lost my conscience already. But I guess its still there." She shook herself. "Anyway, I've been so happy with the 2 of them…" She glanced again at Yusuke and Keiko with a warm smile. "that I had no inclination to finish this mission. Unfortunately, three days ago, a councilor of the tribe appeared to me and told me I had only a month left to kill Youko. It was then I realized just how much I have come to love this world and the friends I had gained here." Some warmth crept into her voice and she stole a look of gratitude towards Keiko and Yusuke. "So I had decided against killing Youko." She looked back at Kurama with a stubborn lift of her chin, as if daring him to contradict what she just said.
Kurama didn't say anything only continued to look at her. He wanted to believe that it was true, that a kitsune assassin could still have that much of a conscience. It was Koenma who eventually spoke up.
"So easily?" His left eyebrow lifted. "If I remember rightly, a kitsune assassin who has failed a mission is punished most severely…What is to be your punishment, Hitori?"
When did Koenma turn out to be a great inquisitor…Yusuke was startled at the change in Koenma. He is getting better at his work. Yusuke had been sitting there too dumbfounded by what was happening. He still believed Hitori was telling the truth but knew that the others had the right to question Hitori. They don't know her as well as I or Keiko does… So he held his peace, a difficult task for someone as talkative as he was, eventhough he had wanted to explode so many times before.
Meanwhile, Hitori avoided Koenma's gaze. "None of your business…" She muttered. No kitsune warrior had ever told anyone what was in store for himself if they failed. The failure was enough to hurt the warrior's pride…
"I beg to differ. It is my business and everyone else's for that matter…" Koenma said, gently. Kurama brought the thorns nearer her throat.
"Very well." She submitted with ill grace. "Failing this mission would mean that I would be stripped of my title as kitsune warrior, my rights taken away from me. I would then be given to a kitsune leader as a youkai maiden, a plaything." She spat out the words, so distasteful did she find the thought.
Koenma blinked. "With such odds at stake, how can we believe that you would give up your mission so easily?" He said.
Kurama had taken hold of his anger by now. Blinding rage had given out to cold fury. "Koenma is right. I find it hard to believe that a kitsune assassin would willingly give up all that for a conscience." His tone was icy.
"But it is the truth!" Hitori said vehemently.
"Forgive us, Hitori." Koenma told her in an apologetic tone. "Understand that we cannot simply accept what you say at face value."
"You might even be putting on an act, wanting us to trust you again, just so you can come up to Kurama unguarded and try to kill him later. We require proof." Kuwabara chimed in. He was still feeling just a bit betrayed by Hitori, Yusuke and Keiko.
Keiko shot him a disbelieving glance and Yusuke looked like he wanted to throw something at him but Kuwabara ignored them. By this time, Hitori's weariness was being replaced by anger of her own. Yes, she knew she was in the wrong and yes, she had deceived them. But can't they see that she was sincere. I have had enough of this. You want proof?
She sprang into action, slamming her heel down on Kurama's right foot, catching him by surprise. The pain had loosened his arms and Hitori quickly twisted out of his grasp and danced away. She stood next to where Keiko sat. Everyone had been too surprised to do anything.
"You wanted proof? There's your proof." She swept her gaze to encompass the startled Koenma and Kuwabara as well as Kurama who was rubbing his right foot to get rid of the stinging pain. "I could have just as easily have escaped from here or killed Kurama while he was behind me, not to mention all those times these past few days when I was alone with him, but I didn't, didn't I? Instead, I revealed myself to you, putting myself in jeopardy. I told you the truth of it all and if you won't believe me, I guess there's nothing I can do, is there?"
Now that the blessed numbness had worn off, she could feel tears prickling at her eyes, hurt at the thought that no one at all believed her, even after knowing her for some time. She turned away from them, intending to leave. A kitsune warrior doesn't cry.
She felt a hand on her arm.
"Stay, Hitori. I believe you." It was Keiko.
"Hey, I do too!" Yusuke stood beside Keiko with a look of trust. He turned towards the others and in his most serious voice, "Listen, you guys. Keiko and I, well, we've known Hitori the longest among all of you and I think we know her character the best. And we say that Hitori is telling the truth."
"That's easy for you to say, Yusuke. How are you so sure she isn't going to turn around and stab us all when we sleep…" Kuwabara said, indignation in his voice.
"Idiot! You've seen her fight before haven't you? Hitori lasted under my attacks. Not to brag," Yusuke rubbed a finger beneath his nose, a smug smile on his face,"but I am the strongest among us. So if she can last under my attacks, she can probably beat the tar out of most of you, especially you Kuwabara." Yusuke pointed a finger at Kuwabara, his voice held a triumphant note.
Keiko hid a smile as he saw Kuwabara's disgruntled expression.
"Yusuke does have a point." This from Koenma. "But how can we be really sure that Hitori is telling the truth?" He cast an apologetic glance at Hitori, Keiko and Yusuke. "I am sorry but I have seen kitsune before and they are a breed apart from ordinary youkai. They are cunning and devious, they would resort to deception to further their goals." He saw Yusuke's disbelieving look. "If you don't believe me, ask Yukina or Kurama, they'll know."
Yukina nodded assent, albeit reluctantly. "I hate to say it but Koenma is correct. The youko kitsune live near the borders of the Makai no Koorime and they can never be described as friendly neighbors."
Hitori flinched inside at the barbs but outwardly she maintained a calm look. "Koenma-sama and Yukina are right. My kind are cunning, devious and deceptive, it is their nature." Her tone shifted, filled with urgency. "And that's why I have never belonged, never been happy in their midst. If you want me to prove it, then give me a test and I would gladly do it."
The hall became quiet. Seconds lengthened into minutes. No one seemed to want to offer a suggestion…And just when the silence seemed to deafen…
"There is a way she can prove it…" Kurama quietly said, his eyes shadowed. What he had in mind wasn't exactly conventional or safe, at least for him, but it would settle this matter once and for all. His anger had almost gutted down by now, extinguished by Yusuke and Keiko's implicit trust in Hitori. He had always considered the two to be good judges of character. And somewhere inside him, a part of him really wanted him to believe that Yusuke and Keiko were right. "I can do a truth spell, a variation of the thought manipulation-tree I did with the Toguro Ani…"
"No!" Yusuke vehemently exclaimed, stopping Kurama's explanation. He turned to face Kurama, his eyes angry. "I can't believe you of all people would actually suggest that! In no circumstances can I allow you to make Hitori a prisoner of that thought-sucking, mind-bending plant!"
"You didn't quite hear what I said, didn't you, Yusuke?" Kurama's voice remained calm, a stark contrast to Yusuke's shout. "I said it was a variation. Less dangerous, more a melding of the caster's mind and the other than anything at all…" Kurama didn't tell Yusuke of the side effect. After all, I would be the one who will feel it, not them…He shrugged.
"Are you sure?" Suspicion laced Keiko's voice…
"Oh, let Kurama be, Keiko, Yusuke. He never jokes about things like this…" Kuwabara said. "If its safe, I say let's try it."
Nods of assent greeted Kuwabara's pronouncement.
"So, Hitori, are you up to it?" Koenma asked her.
Hitori nodded. I would do anything if it would mean getting back your trusts…
"Then come here please."
Hitori walked towards Kurama and stopped when she was a foot away.
"Alright, relax your mind and close your eyes. You'll feel a moment of disorientation as the plant releases its fog, don't mind it. After that, you won't even feel a thing."
Hitori did as she was told, although it was hard to relax.
"Janen-Ju!"
The last thing she heard was Kurama summoning the plant as she felt the seeking tendrils brush against the side of her head, she also heard the murmured comments of the others as she breathed in the mist-like fog, and then nothing. She fell into a chasm of lulling darkness…
TBC ^_~ or not TBC…that is still the question.
I am still writing this but I need comments if anyone is still interested because if not, I'm not posting the other parts ^^glomps you all