SINS OF THE PAST
or
KURAMA GETS A BIG SURPRISE!
It was a normal day in Japan. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and a group of four boys were sitting in a park talking to a young godling. We zoom in on the boys, who seem unconcerned to be in the presence of the heir to the Reikai. One of the boys, apparently the leader, is speaking...
"Oi, Koenma, what's the deal? It's supposed to be our week-long break from work! What are ya doin' calling us?" Koenma sighs.
"I know, I promised you a break, but something came up. I'm afraid I need you guys." Koenma seems really worried about something. The redhead looks up.
"Yusuke, you know he wouldn't shorten our vacation without a good reason. Besides, you and Kuwabara have both been complaining about the lack of action." The boy who had begun the conversation, Yusuke, looked somewhat embarrassed, and one of the other boys, a big carrot-top, pretended he hadn't heard. The small boy who made the fourth member of the group just grunted.
"Thank you Kurama" said the young god, "I really would have given you a break, but I don't have a choice. There's a youkai causing trouble. I'm afraid that this is going to be one of the hardest fights you guys have ever had. I can't send anyone else, because quite frankly, anyone sent is likely to die." Koenma paused, and looked around at the boys trying to judge their reaction. Yusuke looked mildly concerned, but also ready for a fight. Kuwabara, the biggest member of the team, looked convinced of his own invincibility as usual. The tiny Koorime-fire demon, Hiei, had no expression, as usual. And Kurama, the Youko-turned-human, looked worried.
"What kind of youkai? What information can you give us? I don't really want my human life over this quickly." Kurama asked in his quiet voice. The others sat forward, once more the Urameshi Team of the Reikai Tantei, rather than four boys gathering with a friend.
"That's what troubles me." Koenma replied. He looked severely worried. "There is a very good reason why I'm sending you four into an almost certain death situation. I can almost guarantee that this youkai will not kill you because of Kurama's presence."
"NANI?!!!" Shouted Yusuke. Kurama looked startled, which was understandable. Most youkai's they met tried to kill them all because of Kurama's presence. Demons didn't really like him too much, or it was a show of strength to kill the most famous thief of the makai.
"I mean it. For some reason that I don't know, this youkai will not harm anyone or anything associated with Youko Kurama. But that doesn't take away the danger, especially since she won't recognize him on Minamino Shuichi form. He'll have to remain transformed. This is what we know: The youkai is female, she has almost unlimited power, easily the equal of any S-class ever, she enjoys pain and suffering. What's really interesting, and worrying, is the fact that we have no record of her. No name, nothing. The only reason I believe she won't hurt you is that one of my informants was there during one of her killings and heard her say 'Kurama forgive me' before she killed the human. She's been going through Japan like wildfire. There's no connection to any of the murders, nothing linking any of the victims. I don't get it."
Kurama thought for a moment. The rest of the team looked a little stunned. He thought that there was something he should remember about those three words, but he couldn't figure out what. "Do we have a description? Or a picture? And..." He hesitated for a moment, then..."Is there anything linking those that aren't killed? Like, a type of person she avoids?" Koenma sighed.
"No description. My informant died before he could give me one. As to the other... now that I think about it, she's avoiding outcasts. People with mental or physical problems, even people who simply don't fit in with their peers, she won't go after them. Only people who are, if not popular, at least accepted." they digested the information.
"Where is she? We're going to have to fight." Yusuke looked straight at Koenma. "Any orders about what we do with her?"
"She's been making her way in this direction. She'll be in this area by tomorrow. And I'd like her to be captured, alive and able to talk. For some reason, she doesn't seem like a normal demon, and I don't mean just because of her abnormal amount of power. I have to get back to the Reikai. Please try and keep her from killing anyone else." The toddler stood and disappeared. Yusuke turned to his team.
"We should go home. Meet here tomorrow at noon. And don't deplete your powers until then. If she's that strong, than we have a big fight on our hands." He looked at his team, then stood up along with Kuwabara and left the park. Kurama and Hiei remained sitting. Hiei turned to him after a few moments.
"Who is she? A former lover?" The fire demon asked. Kurama frowned. He knew he should know who it was, but he didn't.
"I honestly don't know. I doubt very much it's a former lover, but I don't know who else it could be. Even if it is a lover, I don't know who it would be. Why would a demon ask my forgiveness before killing humans? It makes no sense. We'll have to wait and see."
"Hn. I hate waiting." Hiei settled with his back against a tree. Kurama stood.
"I have to go home. Are you coming tonight?" Kurama looked down at his diminutive lover. Hiei shook his head. Kurama sighed. "I'll leave the window open if you change your mind." He turned and walked away through the gathering dusk, leaving behind a small body lost in thought beneath a tree.
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"Oi!!!! Kurama!!!" Kurama smiled and waved, seeing as he approached that everyone else was already there. He had just reached the group when there was a blast of very familiar Ki from the other side of the park. He didn't know who's it was, but it was powerful. He cursed, and tried to figure out who it was that was using that kind of power. His mind drew another blank. However familiar the power was, for some reason he couldn't put a name to the person wielding it. He ran the last distance between him and the others.
"Yusuke! Whatever you do, don't hurt her! You three have to go in and fight her. I'll be somewhere around, but I'm going to have to let you guys fight for a while. I have some things I need to do with some plants and it might take a few moments. Go!!!" He shouted, and sped away towards the strangely familiar ki-signature on the other side of the park.
Yusuke led the other two towards it at a slightly calmer pace, but not much. He got the feeling that what Kurama was going to do would be the key to whatever this was. As the three entered the clearing they thought the blast had come from, the first thing they saw was the body on the ground. An immensely popular girl from Yusuke's school, her body broken and twisted in ways that it shouldn't be possible to turn a human body. But what was truly awful was the look on her face. Sorrow guilt, fear, and intense pain all combined. It looked like whatever had killed her had come close to driving her mad before she died. Yusuke winced, then looked up at the person who had apparently done this. And froze. Beside him he felt Hiei and Kuwabara stiffen as well. He stared at the girl.
She looked almost like a Youko, but not quite. She was shorter than any Youko he had ever heard of, not quite reaching 6 feet rather than the usual 7 or 8, but that wasn't the only difference. Her face was much too delicate and fine-boned, even for a Youko, which was saying something. Her ears were the usual pointed fox-ears, but her eyes- those were what truly told him she was different. Instead of the normal gold, her eyes were an intense, glowing emerald-green that rivalled Kurama's. Her hair, which was a sun-highlighted chestnut brown, fell to her knees. As she dropped in a defensive crouch, he could see that she also had a tail, that looked almost the same as Kurama's in his Youko form, except light brown and much shorter. Her features contorted as she saw Yusuke and Kuwabara, but softened as she looked at Hiei.
She stood from her crouch and bowed to Hiei, almost as if he was a medieval noble. "Forbidden Child," she said it almost like a title of respect. Yusuke stared even harder. Her voice! It was the most beautiful thing he'd ever heard. It had the seductive quality of a Youko, but underlying that was something of an entirely different world. She sounded like everything from nature, everything of beauty in the world, rolled into one. He saw Kuwabara retract his sword, and dropped his arms from their position of readiness. Hiei stepped forward.
"Who are you, and how do you know me?" he snarled. She smiled slightly. "Everyone knows of the Forbidden Child of the Koorime, who searches for his sister. Fire and Ice. How appropriate. I am," and here she paused for a moment, "Let us say that I am a type of Forbidden Child, as well. I had thought that there were four of you. Where is your lover, your human toy? Or is he to afraid to come with you? What is his name, Shuichi? Everything anyone could want? Popular and smart and beautiful and polite? I shall kill him, you know. Everyone who is like that must die." She saw the looks of surprised shock pass over Yusuke and Kuwabara's faces and laughed. The sound was like silver bells, or a running stream. "So, your teammates didn't know that you two were together? You shouldn't keep secrets from your friends. If there is such a thing as friendship. I thought so once, but I was wrong. He promised forever, and then left me. He's dead, you know. Friendship is fake. There's no such thing." She seemed to sink into herself for a moment, but they couldn't move, held in place by some external force. She turned to face the other side of the clearing. "So, your lover is here after all. Show yourself, Shuichi! Come out and try to rescue your pitiful little friends. See what I do to people like you. Oh, and don't try to raise the plants against me again. It won't work, you know." Yusuke gasped as she said this. Kurama couldn't fight with plants against her? Who WAS this girl?!
Kurama had been waiting in the bushes on the other side of the clearing. He had heard the entire exchange and something had clicked in his brain. He still didn't know who she was, but something told him, beyond any certainty, that he had once known her. He silently commanded the grass to rise up and trap her. He froze as she turned, and felt her power go through the earth, blocking his. For the first time he saw her face. Gasping, he half heard her command to come out. He wondered how he could ever have forgotten that face. Or the voice, though it was know much older, and infinitely colder. He stood and moved out to face her, seeing his teammates trapped by some kind of power. ~Wind. She trapped them in barriers of solid air.~ He distantly realized that she was also much more powerful.
"Why hello Shuichi. So nice of you to come. I still can't believe that a Forbidden Child, an outcast would love you, and believe that you love him back, but I guess he does. Now, how shall I kill you? You do know that you can't fight me? Your powers are useless." the girl smiled cruelly.
~What is she talking about? Why can't Kurama fight? And what's he doing in this form, didn't Koenma tell him to use Youko form?" Yusuke's mind ran in a spiral as he watched the scene in front of him.
"I know. But you seem to be missing something." Kurama stated calmly. The girl looked at him for a moment.
"What? I know all I need to of you, Minamino Shuichi!" She was gathering for an attack. Kurama smiled at her.
"Oh, do you?" Suddenly silver mist gathered around him. "I'm not dead, Keruri." Youko Kurama's voice came from the mist. Slowly it cleared and left behind the tall silver Youko. The girl, who Kurama had named Keruri, fell to her knees. Kurama glared down at her. "Didn't you pay any attention to anything? I am Minamino Shuichi. I took this body over when I was killed. Release them, Child." He gestured to the other, and suddenly they found themselves capable of movement. They moved forward to form a circle around the kneeling figure.
"Forgive me, Kurama-Oniisama. I..." She didn't finish the sentence. The Urameshi team started at her method of addressing Kurama. He crossed his arms, and melted back into his human form.
"Keruri Aylayne, you are under arrest by order of Enma Daioh-sama. The charges are for disturbing the balance between Makai and Ningenkai, killing humans without provocation. will you submit to our justice, the justice of the Reikai Tantei, or will we have to fight you? And you know very well that if we fight you will lose. I might not be able to do anything to you, but they can." Kurama looked down at the girl. She stood, and looked him in the eye.
"I submit. I will go willingly." Kurama nodded and gestured for them to clear an area. He took the communicator from Yusuke and called Koenma. After telling him they had the demon, and would need him to come to them right away, he cut the transmission. In a few minutes, Koenma's teenage form was jumping off Botan's oar as the ferry girl landed next to Yusuke. Koenma looked at Keruri carefully for a moment, then turned to Kurama.
"Who and what is she? She almost looks Youko, but not quite."
"Everyone take a seat. This will take a while." Kurama took Kerruri's hand and gently pushed her down into the grass. He sat beside her, with an arm around her shoulders. He looked around at the five curious faces and sighed.
"To begin with, her name is Keruri Aylayne, and you are entirely correct. She is Youko. Or, rather, she's half-Youko." Kurama closed his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them, it looked like he was seeing something in the distant past. "Three hundred years ago, I was a young Youko. I only had two tails, and while I was a good thief, I wasn't anything like I was in my later years. Well, I made a bad mistake, and managed to get waylaid by a group of bandits. I was beaten, raped, a lot of rather unpleasant things. All of a sudden, the plants all around the clearing burst into life, and started killing bandits. Only Youko can use plant magic, so I wasn't terribly afraid that I would be hurt.
"Well, as it turned out, I was right. It was a red Youko, a few hundred years older than I was. He decided I looked like I needed help, so he saved me. I never understood why. I thanked him, and went on my way. But by Makai law I now owed him a debt equal to that of saving my life. Well, about a hundred years later, I came into contact with him again. He was, as it turned out, the Youko equivalent of a Medieval Lord of some sort. Anyway, he had a sizable territory, I think later it was divided between Yomi and Mukuro, but anyway, he also had quite a number of slaves. One of these was a supposedly human woman. I'd never seen anyone so beautiful, not even another Youko, and her voice! Anyway, she was absolutely in love with him, and he with her. I was there when they discovered that she was pregnant. Well, considering the difference between Youko and Human, they had every healer they could find making sure that nothing would go wrong.
"Unfortunately, something did. The strain of bearing the kit was too much, and she died. My friend, for such he was by then, went quite mad. He became obsessed with torture and pain, and refused to have anything to do with his daughter. She reminded him of her mother to much. A week after the girl was born there was a visitor who came to see him. this visitor looked almost exactly like his wife, except male, and slightly less human. I will never forget his words." Kurama fell silent for a time.
" 'Where is the Child?' He asked. I was the one receiving him, since my friend was in no condition to do so. 'Why do you want her?' I asked, just as coldly. 'She is forbidden. She will grow to be too powerful, to strange. There will be none like her, and she will bring death and hatred.' I looked at him, trying to discover what exactly he was. 'Who are you?' I asked. 'Elandrivahlen, King of Elves. I have come for my sister's child. She must not live, she will have elven magic, Youko magic, and a human soul. My sister was half-human. Please give me the child.' I turned him away, but he made me promise that when she turned 75, the time when elven children come of age, she would be delivered to her elven kin for training. After a few years I left to wander around the Makai. I had gained six-tail status by this time, and I also earned the honour of being among the top five greatest thieves in the Makai.
"Many years later, I encountered a traveller telling stories. He was an interesting person, said he knew a tale that could bring tears to a heart of stone. I asked him what this story was, and he began to tell me about two children, who did not know each other. One was a half-Koorime, half-fire demon cross, who had been cast out, and was becoming one of the most respected fighters of the Makai, and I thought that this tale was sad, for the way he told it, the child had no friends. But what caught my attention was the story of the second Forbidden Child, half-Youko, part Elf, and part human. Living at home in a castle. Hated and feared by everyone. She could control anything in nature, as was the way with elves. Her Youko plant-powers only added to her absolute control of anything in the natural world. But her soul was human. A beautiful girl, with a wondrous voice, it was said.
"What really got me was the way he spoke of how everyone who came into contact with her despised her. She was a crossbreed. She could not find a place among the Youko, for they would not accept her. She could not go to Ningenkai, because she would stand out. She was too different. The elves wanted her dead. Truly an outcast, with no friends, and a father who hated her for her resemblance to the one he had loved. I heard his story, and I went back. On her 75th birthday. I was the one who came to her to guide her to her elven kin for judgment. " Kurama seemed to come back to the present. Everyone stared at him.
"Why didn't I know about this? I'm supposed to be informed of these things. Elves aren't part of the Makai, they're part of the Faerie World!" Koenma glared at Kurama, who looked slightly guilty.
"During the time I spent with her while I was guiding her, I came to care about Keruri as a little sister. I taught her much of what it is to be Youko. I told her about her mother. After I gave her to the elves, well, the first thing they said when we came there was to give her her elven name. Kelulyaileeniala. They told her she was to be given two months to prove that she was no danger to anything in the natural world with her strange power mix. After that, she was to be dealt with. I knew they would not give her that chance. She was different, she was Forbidden, she would die. I couldn't bear the thought, so I had a psychic put up a mental block on any memories that had to do with her. The only way to break it would be to come face-to -face with her again, and I thought she was dead." Kurama looked to the girl at his side. "Why are you still alive, anyway? And what was this little rampage in Ningenkai about?"
She looked at the ground for a moment. "I ran away. After two weeks, I ran away back to Makai. They couldn't do anything, my powers were to similar to theirs, but the tiny differences made it impossible for them to stop me. I spent time wandering around. No one accepted me, so I took to being a travelling musician with a troupe of entertainers. We played tournaments and such. They at least didn't hate me even if they didn't like me. After a while, it just got to be to much. When I heard that you were dead, I guess I went a little mad. You were the only person who ever accepted me.
"As to the rampage, It started in Makai. I finally hit the edge of my tolerance and I just started killing all the people that were accepted and liked and everything. It just sort of spread, I couldn't do anything else with the anger. I truly am sorry, I'll accept any punishment just please don't leave me again!" She looked at Kurama with tears in her eyes. Koenma looked at her.
"Keruri, do you have a human form you can switch to? I know you have a fox one, all Youko do." Keruri nodded, and frowned for a moment. They watched as her ears and tail disappeared.
"That's about it. I still don't look very human."
"Neither does Hiei. I think I like this method of punishment. Besides, your powers are to much of an unknown to put you into a prison. I'm going to sentence you to serving on the Urameshi team. You are know under Kurama's guardianship. I need to get back before Otou-sama does guys, I'll be in touch." He and Botan got on the oar and sailed away.
"Well. This has been an interesting day." Yusuke suddenly got an evil smirk on his face. "Oi, Kurama, how come you didn't tell us you two were an item?"
"NANI?!!!!" Kurama, Hiei, and Kuwabara shouted as one. Kurama took off after Yusuke, threatening bodily mayhem if he told anyone. Hiei muttered something about stupid foxes, and took to the trees. Kuwabara sank to the ground laughing at his teammates. And Keruri, accepted for the first time in her life, joined him as the sun went down and the night spread it's cloak over them all.
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Too be continued in the further adventures of the Urameshi team and their newest member!!! Thanks for reading!! Oh, and Kurama, Hiei, Yusuke, Kuwabara, Botan, and Koenma don't belong to me, please don't sue. All other characters are mine, please don't borrow without permission!! Bu-bye!!!