The Forgotten Child
Chapter 18
written by Kat Mayes
edited by Windlily
Kurama halted for a moment in front of a
cluster of apartment buildings that stood between
himself and the city park. He took a quick
assessment of his surroundings, gave a sigh, and
choose the fastest path so that he could *attempt*
to catch up with his lover. Hiei had easily out
distanced Kurama in the first few minutes of their
journey, totally ignoring the fact that while he
could seemingly jump straight up into the air to
avoid going around buildings, Kurama could not.
A slight frown marred Kurama's handsome face
as he thought about the way Hiei had treated him
when he had asked the fire demon to slow down.
Hiei had stopped just long enough to glance back
and then continued on. For the first time in
years, Hiei had given him 'the look'.
With that one simple narrowing of his cold
eyes his lover had basically told him that if he
had of been training instead of playing with
humans then maybe he would have been able to keep
up, that he wasn't going to baby him, and that if
he didn't think he could keep up then he should go
home. That 'look' was Hiei's way of saying that
Kurama was in his way.
Kurama found himself feeling slightly annoyed
at Hiei's attitude. Kurama knew that he was
closer to Hiei than any other person alive, with
the exception of Yukina. Still, he knew very
little about the quite fire demon. Over the years
he had learned to interpret Hiei's wants from his
fleeting facial expressions and body language,
using every youko trick he knew to try and
understand his lover better. Right now Kurama was
completely confused by Hiei.
Hiei never had been the type to express his
emotions. In fact, the stubborn little youki
would *still* deny that he had any of the deeper,
stronger emotions at all. That was why when Hiei
had rushed into the dojo with frantic concern and
fear showing plainly on his face everyone had
instantly stopped. Kurama had seen more emotion
out of the fire demon in the last couple of hours
than he had in the 20+ years he had known him.
Even if Hiei didn't realize it, Kurama knew
that his lover felt every emotion just as keenly
as anyone else. Kurama knew that the idea of
seeing their daughter again after all this time
scared the hell out of Hiei, even if he wasn't
admitting it to himself. Hell, it scared him to
even think he was a father of not one, but two
children.
As a Youko he had sworn to never have a child
if he could help it. They were a bother, a
nuisance that more often than not you had to kill
when they came back after being raised by their
mothers. As Shuuichi he had resigned himself to
the fact that one day he would have to marry a
human woman and have children to make Shiori
happy. Despite those ties to the Ningenkai he
knew that once his mother died he would leave his
wife and children to return to his true home.
Things had changed a bit when his mother had
found out about, and then accepted, his
relationship with Hiei. He no longer felt the
pressure of carrying on his human father's line,
therefore he stopped consciously thinking about
generating any children of his own. He was free
to enjoy all his little nieces and nephews without
being constantly reminded that he also had to have
children.
Kurama had watched the changes those tiny
hellions had made in his friends. Yuusuke became
more responsible and a little less rough around
the edges. Keiko seemed made for being the mother
of two very overactive children and was just plan
happier. Kuwabara finally had someone else other
than Yukina to fawn over and therefore settled
down a bit. Yukina didn't seem to change much,
other than when Kiseki and Koori were born she was
the holy terror. Kurama had been very aware of
the way Kuwabara's wife had watched him the first
time he was ever allowed to hold Kiseki. There
was no doubt in his mind that if anything ever
happened to one of the Kuwabara mob that Yukina
was the one they would have to deal with.
It had amazed him that through all of the
little trails those kids put their parents
through; the late nights, and the childhood rough
spots, none of his friends would trade a day of it
for a day without it. Those first few months
*had* been a little rougher on Yuusuke and
Kuwabara than their wives. Kurama had spent many
nights listening to the two of them beg to
exchange a few minutes of 'family bliss' so that
they could have their wives all to themselves
again. It had been almost comical to watch two
grown men being jealous of infant babies.
Both of them had thrown almost child like
fits trying to get their wives' attention. They
would make Keiko and Yukina choose between them
and the kids and, predictably, most of the time
they lost. Kurama couldn't understand why his
friends figured that things wouldn't change when
the children came. It was ridiculous to expect
the girls to act the same after....
For an instant that one thought was enough to
make Kurama forget that he was a first class thief
that possessed both grace and balance. Kurama's
feet had stopped cold but the rest of him still
wanted to continue forward and the end result was
a severely overbalanced youko. He recovered just
enough of his former grace to keep himself from
falling over the edge of the building he was
currently on top of. Once he regained his
composure he headed on towards the park with new
thoughts running in his head.
Was *he* jealous?
At first his mind wanted to scream, 'Of
course not, don't be ridiculous!' But hadn't that
been exactly what Kuwabara and Yuusuke had said
when they had been confronted with the same
question? It was true that he had never had to
share Hiei's attention with anyone but Yukina, and
sometime he still got a little jealous... OK a
*lot* jealous of that fact.
There was no reason why Hiei *shouldn't* act
differently. In fact, his lover had been acting
differently for nearly seventeen years now.
Kurama realized that Hiei might have been the same
emotionally closed person he had been when they
first meet if it hadn't of been for Kitsuryuu's
birth. Not that Hiei was over-pouring with
declarations of affection now, but he was much
more willing to admit that he had feelings. Their
daughter's birth had effected his lover more than
Kurama had first realized, but he was thankful
none the less.
Kurama redoubled his efforts to reach the
park. He knew that Hiei must have reached his
destination by now, but the air was mysteriously
still, as if very one was holding their breath.
He felt his lover's presence the moment after he
stepped into the ring of trees that outlined the
park. Hiei was somewhere in the trees above him,
perfectly motionless. Unnerved by Hiei's caution,
Kurama scanned the area for what was causing it,
and caught his first real look of his daughter.
About ten meters in front of him stood what
had become the center of everyone's attention over
the last few hours. Kitsuryuu was not in the same
form as the picture Kurama had seen in the scrap
book, but he could tell instantly that she was his
daughter. He was astonished by how exactly her
facial features mirrored his own youko form as he
gazed into her bright red eyes.
The only differences he could see was that
her face wasn't quite as long as his, giving it a
more feminine look, and her eyes were a bit more
slanted, making them seem like they were half
closed. Of course her coloring was different from
his... a much more dramatic a contrast than his
own silver and gold he thought. If she had of
been born in a youko village she would have been
the main attraction as soon as she lost the
chubbyness of childhood.
As she came closer he knew that something
wasn't quite right about her, but he couldn't seem
to pull his eyes away from her face. When Kurama
had looked at the photograph the children had
taken, there had been no real similarities to
himself or Hiei other than her eyes, which were
Hiei's, and her hair which was a compromise
between his red and Hiei's black. Now that she
was standing so close and he actually saw her, he
felt something stir inside him.
Earlier, when he had realized exactly who
Kitsuryuu was, he had felt little towards the
unknown girl. All his emotions had been set on
Hiei and their newborn son. All though he was
relieved that his first born child was not dead,
his emotions were mainly centered around the fact
that Hiei could finally stop blaming himself.
For the first time since Kurama found out
that he had a daughter she became real to him.
Before she had just been an idea, a piece of
information that he had to digest, an image that
had no substance. When he had overheard Hiei's
confession about Kitsuryuu's 'death' he had been
upset, not because of her death, but of the fact
that Hiei hadn't told him.
The same was true of Kyuukai, but the moment
he had found his son and Hiei in the cave the
connection between them had been almost
instantaneous. Kyuukai had been right there for
him to see and touch. His son was starting a new
life and knew no one but his fathers. Kitsuryuu,
on the other hand, was almost a grown woman that
had already made a place for herself in the world,
and that had only made it harder for him to become
attached to her.
Somehow seeing her now, so close to him that
he could almost touch her, looking back at him
with his own face, knowing that anyone that looked
at her could not mistake her for being anyone
else's daughter, made her real to him. He could
feel himself puff up with pride at how beautiful
she was, of how strong she had to be to have
survived all this time on her own.
Kurama stared at his daughter as she
approached him, taking in her single length hair
that fell to her waist in a curtain of shimmering,
ice blue. Her eyes were the exact same color as
Hiei's, but they were not alive with his internal
fire. Kitsuryuu's eyes looked more like chips of
colored ice and the look in them matched the
coldness of her face. As beautiful as her face
was, the mask of cool indifference she wore had a
wakening effect on her stunned father.
Kurama only had a moment to think about how
similar the look Kitsuryuu wore now looked like
his own youko form when he was getting ready to
kill when he saw her reach into her hair. A small
pair of hands grabbed his waist and pushed him
down.
The ice rose that Kitsuryuu threw just barely
missed his left eye as it sliced through the soft
skin at his temple and then struck the high part
of his ear. The razor sharp stem of the rose
ripped through the thin cartilage and nearly took
his entire ear with it. The frozen flower
embedded itself in the tree behind him with a
hollow thunk. Kurama was sure that if he had not
of been moved out of the way, that the rose would
have been sticking out of the middle of his
forehead right now.
"Were you just going to let her kill you,
idiot?" Hiei hissed as he tried to push his still
dazed lover off of him.
Kurama looked down at Hiei pinned beneath him
and quickly sat back on his heels. The irate fire
demon got up and gave him a reproachful look for
letting his guard down. Kurama was still too
stunned to respond properly and turned to look at
his daughter once more.
Kitsuryuu stood only three meters from them
with the same cold, hard expression on her face.
She raised her right hand, fist closed, and looked
at something behind them. Both Kurama and Hiei
realized what she was about to do and made a leap
for the branches above.
As Kitsuryuu opened her hand the rose that
had been forgotten exploded into a crisscrossing
of thick vines of pure ice. Hiei turned in mid
flight and sent a column of jet black fire down to
melt the living ice. Kurama watched amazed as
Kitsuryuu's vines skillfully avoided Hiei's attack
by twisting to the side and bypassing it. His
lover had no time to launch another wave before
the ice vines reached him. They wrapped
themselves around him and as quickly as they could
carried him off out of sight. Kurama was not so
lucky.
One set of the frozen vines reached him just
as he landed on a branch and used their agile and
limber lengths to tie him to it. Before Kurama
even had a chance to look up he sensed something
very large and deadly coming his way. Without
turning he summoned his own plants to form a
barbed short sword and cut himself from the ice
vines. He made a quick leap just as a Venus
flytrap type plant made of ice bit into the branch
he had just vacated, turning it into toothpick
sized splinters.
Kurama spared a glance at his daughter
turned opponent and once again looked into her
eyes. The emotionless look of ice was gone and in
its place was anger and frustration and just a
little bit of fear. It was obvious by Kitsuryuu's
rapid and hard hitting attacks that she knew that
he was stronger than she was. His daughter was
trying to take him out as fast as she could, but
at the same time she had been protecting Hiei.
Kurama had not missed the fact that the vines
that carried his lover off were smooth and
thornless, unlike the ones sent his way that had
ripped into his pants leg and tore his skin. It
seemed that Kitsuryuu had a favorite parent, and
he wasn't it.
Kitsuryuu raised her hands again and drew in
a very slow, shallow breath. The collar around
her throat glowed a bright white and accented her
long neck. Kurama waited patiently for her to
make a move as the light showed her twisted,
beautiful features in a harsh light, hoping he
could find a way around it to stop her. Before
she could summon any more of her ice plants
Maryoku came to her side and grabbed her arm.
Kitsuryuu turned her attention from Kurama to
look at the boy as he verbally and visually begged
her to stop. Kurama had once taken a sign
language class in school as one of his many
electives and understood what Maryoku was saying,
but not why he was signing it. He took this brief
moment to really look his daughter over from head
to toe.
She was tall, taller than Maryoku by almost a
head, and the clothes she wore were obviously not
hers. The jeans were too short, showing a lot of
skin above her ankle and too tight around her hips
and thighs. Her white T-shirt was over sized and
tended to fall over one of her shoulders when she
moved. As he looked at her Kurama knew that he
was missing something, but he just couldn't put
his finger on it.
Kitsuryuu's face soften slightly as she let
Maryoku rant and rage beside her. With one hand
she swept her long hair from her face and back
over the top of her head so that she could see the
boy better. That was when Kurama realized that it
wasn't him that was missing something... it was
Kitsuryuu. She had no ears.
Kurama quickly surveyed his daughter and
found that yes, she did not have ears nor a tail.
It should have been apparent immediately, but he
had been so stunned by her face that he hadn't
bothered to look else where. Kurama sat on his
perch stupefied at what could have possibly
happened to his daughter to cause this
disfigurement. Ears and tails just don't fall
off.
In Kurama's new state of shock he did not see
Kitsuryuu summon a large flower that resembled a
gigantic daisy on steroids. The gentle ice bloom
grabbed Maryoku from behind and used its long,
thin petals to hold him kicking and thrashing
above Kitsuryuu's head.
Maryoku's loud and colorful curses woke
Kurama from his stupor. It seemed to Kurama that
Yuusuke's son had mastered the fine Uramashi
talent of 'if a woman doesn't listen to you,
insult her'. Just as Kurama was about to launch
himself from his branch to the ground to confront
Kitsuryuu, several long, needle thin ice thorns
pierced his back from behind.
Kurama's eyes widened in surprise as he
realized that Kitsuryuu had used Maryoku's
distraction to her advantage by sending one of her
ice plants behind him while he was watching the
scene below. One thing was for certain, she was
just as sneaky and tenuous as her fathers were.
Kurama decided that he needed to end this fight as
quickly as possible, and the best way to do that
was to simply over power her.
He let his body reform itself into his youko
form as he jumped to the ground. His speed and
agility increased instantly along with his power
level. As soon as his feet hit the ground he
launched one of his sharply thorned roses at
Kitsuryuu, hoping to knock her off her guard. It
worked... a little too well.
Kurama realized too late that he had
surprised Kitsuryuu as badly as she had surprised
him. She had started walking towards him when he
had changed in mid air, and even after the rose
had been sent on its way she did not change her
course. Kitsuryuu didn't even try to stop or
dodge the flower as it sailed through the air and
entered her shoulder. The impact of the rose
staggered her, but she remained on her feet.
Kurama could only watch dumbly as his
daughter approached him, his rose resting in her
like a misplaced boutonniere as she stumbled and
dragged her way over. Kurama saw that she was
favoring her left leg and remembered what his
brother had told him about her injuries. He
noticed that her chest and throat seemed to spasm
and that the collar glowed brighter and brighter
with every step she took.
Kitsuryuu stopped when she came toe to toe
with him and finally looked up into his face. Her
eyes were wide with wonder as she reached her
hands up to trace the length of each of his furry
ears. Immediately he saw that her lips were as
blue as her hair, indicating that she had stopped
breathing for quite some time. He placed his
hands on her upper arms as her eyes started to
drift closed. Within seconds Kitsuryuu had
completely passed out.
He lowered her down and immediately felt for
a pulse at her throat. The collar threw off a
large blot of electricity when his hand came near,
singeing his fingertips and making Kitsuryuu's
unconscious body jerk. He reached for her wrist
instead and found a slow, weak rhythm.
"Kitsuryuu!"
Kurama heard Maryoku's anguished cry the
second before the sound of shattering ice echoed
through the park. Maryoku ran over to where they
were and cursed vividly when he saw the condition
Kitsuryuu was in.
"Give her to me, Kurama!" Maryoku demanded
accusingly as he forced her from his grasp.
For some odd reason Kurama couldn't get his
brain working for more than a few minutes at a
time tonight and Maryoku easily took his daughter
from him. He watched, feeling totally and
completely helpless, as Kitsuryuu's self-made
champion re-checked her pulse and then listened to
her chest. Maryoku frowned and then looked at his
watch.
"It's been too long. She should have started
breathing again by now," the boy stated to no one
in particular.
Kurama was barely aware of Yuusuke dragging
an injured Kuwabara over to them, but he knew the
instant Hiei came back. His lover's anger made
the air around them crackle with unused power.
Hiei knelt by his daughter and started to reach
for her when he saw the rose. His eyes narrowed
slightly and he looked at Kurama.
"Hiei, I didn't..."
"Later," he stated, dismissing Kurama's weak
protest.
Kurama couldn't tell if Hiei was angry or
not, but he knew that the subject was closed as
far as his lover was concerned. Maryoku cursed,
looked at his watch and felt for Kitsuryuu's pulse
again. The worry was evident on his face as he
rolled up sleeves.
"What's going on? What wrong with her?" Hiei
demanded of the boy.
"That damn collar of hers kicked in about ten
minutes ago. If she had of been left alone she
would have simply passed out and the collar would
have turned itself off. This time she fought it.
Now she's so weak that she can't even summon
enough power to breath."
Before anyone could stop him Maryoku reached
out and put his hands around Kitsuryuu's throat.
Electricity arced up his arms in bright white
bolts that singed his hair as it burned his hands.
Maryoku held his eyes tightly shut and bit his lip
to keep from screaming. Kurama wasn't quite sure
what the boy was up to until he heard Kitsuryuu
take a ragged breath.
Yuusuke tackled his son away from the girl on
the ground and held him there as he struggled.
The smell of burnt flesh was heavy in the air and
blood flowed from Maryoku's burned palms, but the
boy fought with all his worth to get back to
Kitsuryuu.
"Damn it, let me go!" he screamed at his
father.
"Let someone else do this, Maryoku!"
"Don't you think you've done enough?!"
Kurama could see that Yuusuke was stricken by
what his son had said, but he didn't loosen his
grasp. While the two of them where fighting Hiei
had pulled Kitsuryuu's head into his lap and
placed his hands against the collar. Even though
Hiei was infinitely stronger than Maryoku, he
still grimaced as the collar reacted to his
presence.
Kitsuryuu's first few breaths were forced and
labored but quickly gained strength and
regularity. Soon her skin lost its blue cast and
return to pale cream. Maryoku managed to extract
himself from his father's slacking grasp and
crawled over to Kitsuryuu and Hiei. The two of
them exchanged a look that was not easily
interpreted just before the boy ran the back of
his hand across Kitsuryuu's cheek.
"Damn, stubborn fox," Maryoku whispered with
a smile.
"They do tend to be that way, don't they?"
Hiei responded with a look to his lover.
Kurama didn't answer, there was no need to.
Hiei knew him better than anyone alive.
----------------------------------
Botan eased herself back from the shadows and
summoned her oar now that she knew that Kitsuryuu
was going to be taken care of. Koenma had sent
her after this wayward youkai after he had looked
over her case file, hoping that she could keep the
girl out of more trouble until the paper work had
been processed.
Kitsuryuu's folder had been unceremoniously
flopped on Koenma's desk after the young girl had
leveled the hospital and killed twenty humans.
Normally Koenma didn't have to involve himself
with the affairs of the living, but in this case
Kitsuryuu had broken a Reikai law and it could not
be ignored. Kitsuryuu had killed fifteen humans
whose time to die was not forth coming for quite a
long time. The penalty for this crime was death.
Instead of stamping his approval on the order
and letting it be processed normally, Koenma
became intrigued at how Kitsuryuu could have
possibly been in that situation and looked up her
history. He had found that she had been abandoned
as a newborn infant, suffered some horrible
atrocities in her short life, but had never
knowingly attacked a human. The hunters that had
tortured her when she was six were justified by
Reikai laws, plus their life time had been over.
Koenma decided that Kitsuryuu didn't really
deserved death for being a victim of bad
circumstances, so he researched and found a loop
hole so that she could escape punishment. He
found an ancient law that was never used anymore,
but still on the books. It said that 'a child
born not with parents that passes its fifthteenth
year in innocence that takes a life in innocence
is not to be blamed, but is to be taken in and
raised in the right of the law'.
Since Kitsuryuu was an orphan and had no
parents to claim her, nearly seventeen and a text
book innocent the law could be easily made to fit
her, all Koenma had to do was to take her in.
That was the paper work that Botan was waiting
for. Once that order for Kitsuryuu's adoption was
processed correctly she would be a ward of the
Reikai and Koenma's adopted daughter, and then no
one would be able to prosecute her for those
deaths.
It was really very simple and as long as no
one protested, the whole situation would be
overlooked. Koenma would allow Kitsuryuu to
choose were she wished to live (after she was
properly educated and taught the 'right of the
law' of course), and all would be forgotten.
Besides, who would possibly protest? Botan angled
her oar towards the Reikai so that she could
report on Kitsuryuu's condition.
================
end chapter 18
Chapter 18
written by Kat Mayes
edited by Windlily
Kurama halted for a moment in front of a
cluster of apartment buildings that stood between
himself and the city park. He took a quick
assessment of his surroundings, gave a sigh, and
choose the fastest path so that he could *attempt*
to catch up with his lover. Hiei had easily out
distanced Kurama in the first few minutes of their
journey, totally ignoring the fact that while he
could seemingly jump straight up into the air to
avoid going around buildings, Kurama could not.
A slight frown marred Kurama's handsome face
as he thought about the way Hiei had treated him
when he had asked the fire demon to slow down.
Hiei had stopped just long enough to glance back
and then continued on. For the first time in
years, Hiei had given him 'the look'.
With that one simple narrowing of his cold
eyes his lover had basically told him that if he
had of been training instead of playing with
humans then maybe he would have been able to keep
up, that he wasn't going to baby him, and that if
he didn't think he could keep up then he should go
home. That 'look' was Hiei's way of saying that
Kurama was in his way.
Kurama found himself feeling slightly annoyed
at Hiei's attitude. Kurama knew that he was
closer to Hiei than any other person alive, with
the exception of Yukina. Still, he knew very
little about the quite fire demon. Over the years
he had learned to interpret Hiei's wants from his
fleeting facial expressions and body language,
using every youko trick he knew to try and
understand his lover better. Right now Kurama was
completely confused by Hiei.
Hiei never had been the type to express his
emotions. In fact, the stubborn little youki
would *still* deny that he had any of the deeper,
stronger emotions at all. That was why when Hiei
had rushed into the dojo with frantic concern and
fear showing plainly on his face everyone had
instantly stopped. Kurama had seen more emotion
out of the fire demon in the last couple of hours
than he had in the 20+ years he had known him.
Even if Hiei didn't realize it, Kurama knew
that his lover felt every emotion just as keenly
as anyone else. Kurama knew that the idea of
seeing their daughter again after all this time
scared the hell out of Hiei, even if he wasn't
admitting it to himself. Hell, it scared him to
even think he was a father of not one, but two
children.
As a Youko he had sworn to never have a child
if he could help it. They were a bother, a
nuisance that more often than not you had to kill
when they came back after being raised by their
mothers. As Shuuichi he had resigned himself to
the fact that one day he would have to marry a
human woman and have children to make Shiori
happy. Despite those ties to the Ningenkai he
knew that once his mother died he would leave his
wife and children to return to his true home.
Things had changed a bit when his mother had
found out about, and then accepted, his
relationship with Hiei. He no longer felt the
pressure of carrying on his human father's line,
therefore he stopped consciously thinking about
generating any children of his own. He was free
to enjoy all his little nieces and nephews without
being constantly reminded that he also had to have
children.
Kurama had watched the changes those tiny
hellions had made in his friends. Yuusuke became
more responsible and a little less rough around
the edges. Keiko seemed made for being the mother
of two very overactive children and was just plan
happier. Kuwabara finally had someone else other
than Yukina to fawn over and therefore settled
down a bit. Yukina didn't seem to change much,
other than when Kiseki and Koori were born she was
the holy terror. Kurama had been very aware of
the way Kuwabara's wife had watched him the first
time he was ever allowed to hold Kiseki. There
was no doubt in his mind that if anything ever
happened to one of the Kuwabara mob that Yukina
was the one they would have to deal with.
It had amazed him that through all of the
little trails those kids put their parents
through; the late nights, and the childhood rough
spots, none of his friends would trade a day of it
for a day without it. Those first few months
*had* been a little rougher on Yuusuke and
Kuwabara than their wives. Kurama had spent many
nights listening to the two of them beg to
exchange a few minutes of 'family bliss' so that
they could have their wives all to themselves
again. It had been almost comical to watch two
grown men being jealous of infant babies.
Both of them had thrown almost child like
fits trying to get their wives' attention. They
would make Keiko and Yukina choose between them
and the kids and, predictably, most of the time
they lost. Kurama couldn't understand why his
friends figured that things wouldn't change when
the children came. It was ridiculous to expect
the girls to act the same after....
For an instant that one thought was enough to
make Kurama forget that he was a first class thief
that possessed both grace and balance. Kurama's
feet had stopped cold but the rest of him still
wanted to continue forward and the end result was
a severely overbalanced youko. He recovered just
enough of his former grace to keep himself from
falling over the edge of the building he was
currently on top of. Once he regained his
composure he headed on towards the park with new
thoughts running in his head.
Was *he* jealous?
At first his mind wanted to scream, 'Of
course not, don't be ridiculous!' But hadn't that
been exactly what Kuwabara and Yuusuke had said
when they had been confronted with the same
question? It was true that he had never had to
share Hiei's attention with anyone but Yukina, and
sometime he still got a little jealous... OK a
*lot* jealous of that fact.
There was no reason why Hiei *shouldn't* act
differently. In fact, his lover had been acting
differently for nearly seventeen years now.
Kurama realized that Hiei might have been the same
emotionally closed person he had been when they
first meet if it hadn't of been for Kitsuryuu's
birth. Not that Hiei was over-pouring with
declarations of affection now, but he was much
more willing to admit that he had feelings. Their
daughter's birth had effected his lover more than
Kurama had first realized, but he was thankful
none the less.
Kurama redoubled his efforts to reach the
park. He knew that Hiei must have reached his
destination by now, but the air was mysteriously
still, as if very one was holding their breath.
He felt his lover's presence the moment after he
stepped into the ring of trees that outlined the
park. Hiei was somewhere in the trees above him,
perfectly motionless. Unnerved by Hiei's caution,
Kurama scanned the area for what was causing it,
and caught his first real look of his daughter.
About ten meters in front of him stood what
had become the center of everyone's attention over
the last few hours. Kitsuryuu was not in the same
form as the picture Kurama had seen in the scrap
book, but he could tell instantly that she was his
daughter. He was astonished by how exactly her
facial features mirrored his own youko form as he
gazed into her bright red eyes.
The only differences he could see was that
her face wasn't quite as long as his, giving it a
more feminine look, and her eyes were a bit more
slanted, making them seem like they were half
closed. Of course her coloring was different from
his... a much more dramatic a contrast than his
own silver and gold he thought. If she had of
been born in a youko village she would have been
the main attraction as soon as she lost the
chubbyness of childhood.
As she came closer he knew that something
wasn't quite right about her, but he couldn't seem
to pull his eyes away from her face. When Kurama
had looked at the photograph the children had
taken, there had been no real similarities to
himself or Hiei other than her eyes, which were
Hiei's, and her hair which was a compromise
between his red and Hiei's black. Now that she
was standing so close and he actually saw her, he
felt something stir inside him.
Earlier, when he had realized exactly who
Kitsuryuu was, he had felt little towards the
unknown girl. All his emotions had been set on
Hiei and their newborn son. All though he was
relieved that his first born child was not dead,
his emotions were mainly centered around the fact
that Hiei could finally stop blaming himself.
For the first time since Kurama found out
that he had a daughter she became real to him.
Before she had just been an idea, a piece of
information that he had to digest, an image that
had no substance. When he had overheard Hiei's
confession about Kitsuryuu's 'death' he had been
upset, not because of her death, but of the fact
that Hiei hadn't told him.
The same was true of Kyuukai, but the moment
he had found his son and Hiei in the cave the
connection between them had been almost
instantaneous. Kyuukai had been right there for
him to see and touch. His son was starting a new
life and knew no one but his fathers. Kitsuryuu,
on the other hand, was almost a grown woman that
had already made a place for herself in the world,
and that had only made it harder for him to become
attached to her.
Somehow seeing her now, so close to him that
he could almost touch her, looking back at him
with his own face, knowing that anyone that looked
at her could not mistake her for being anyone
else's daughter, made her real to him. He could
feel himself puff up with pride at how beautiful
she was, of how strong she had to be to have
survived all this time on her own.
Kurama stared at his daughter as she
approached him, taking in her single length hair
that fell to her waist in a curtain of shimmering,
ice blue. Her eyes were the exact same color as
Hiei's, but they were not alive with his internal
fire. Kitsuryuu's eyes looked more like chips of
colored ice and the look in them matched the
coldness of her face. As beautiful as her face
was, the mask of cool indifference she wore had a
wakening effect on her stunned father.
Kurama only had a moment to think about how
similar the look Kitsuryuu wore now looked like
his own youko form when he was getting ready to
kill when he saw her reach into her hair. A small
pair of hands grabbed his waist and pushed him
down.
The ice rose that Kitsuryuu threw just barely
missed his left eye as it sliced through the soft
skin at his temple and then struck the high part
of his ear. The razor sharp stem of the rose
ripped through the thin cartilage and nearly took
his entire ear with it. The frozen flower
embedded itself in the tree behind him with a
hollow thunk. Kurama was sure that if he had not
of been moved out of the way, that the rose would
have been sticking out of the middle of his
forehead right now.
"Were you just going to let her kill you,
idiot?" Hiei hissed as he tried to push his still
dazed lover off of him.
Kurama looked down at Hiei pinned beneath him
and quickly sat back on his heels. The irate fire
demon got up and gave him a reproachful look for
letting his guard down. Kurama was still too
stunned to respond properly and turned to look at
his daughter once more.
Kitsuryuu stood only three meters from them
with the same cold, hard expression on her face.
She raised her right hand, fist closed, and looked
at something behind them. Both Kurama and Hiei
realized what she was about to do and made a leap
for the branches above.
As Kitsuryuu opened her hand the rose that
had been forgotten exploded into a crisscrossing
of thick vines of pure ice. Hiei turned in mid
flight and sent a column of jet black fire down to
melt the living ice. Kurama watched amazed as
Kitsuryuu's vines skillfully avoided Hiei's attack
by twisting to the side and bypassing it. His
lover had no time to launch another wave before
the ice vines reached him. They wrapped
themselves around him and as quickly as they could
carried him off out of sight. Kurama was not so
lucky.
One set of the frozen vines reached him just
as he landed on a branch and used their agile and
limber lengths to tie him to it. Before Kurama
even had a chance to look up he sensed something
very large and deadly coming his way. Without
turning he summoned his own plants to form a
barbed short sword and cut himself from the ice
vines. He made a quick leap just as a Venus
flytrap type plant made of ice bit into the branch
he had just vacated, turning it into toothpick
sized splinters.
Kurama spared a glance at his daughter
turned opponent and once again looked into her
eyes. The emotionless look of ice was gone and in
its place was anger and frustration and just a
little bit of fear. It was obvious by Kitsuryuu's
rapid and hard hitting attacks that she knew that
he was stronger than she was. His daughter was
trying to take him out as fast as she could, but
at the same time she had been protecting Hiei.
Kurama had not missed the fact that the vines
that carried his lover off were smooth and
thornless, unlike the ones sent his way that had
ripped into his pants leg and tore his skin. It
seemed that Kitsuryuu had a favorite parent, and
he wasn't it.
Kitsuryuu raised her hands again and drew in
a very slow, shallow breath. The collar around
her throat glowed a bright white and accented her
long neck. Kurama waited patiently for her to
make a move as the light showed her twisted,
beautiful features in a harsh light, hoping he
could find a way around it to stop her. Before
she could summon any more of her ice plants
Maryoku came to her side and grabbed her arm.
Kitsuryuu turned her attention from Kurama to
look at the boy as he verbally and visually begged
her to stop. Kurama had once taken a sign
language class in school as one of his many
electives and understood what Maryoku was saying,
but not why he was signing it. He took this brief
moment to really look his daughter over from head
to toe.
She was tall, taller than Maryoku by almost a
head, and the clothes she wore were obviously not
hers. The jeans were too short, showing a lot of
skin above her ankle and too tight around her hips
and thighs. Her white T-shirt was over sized and
tended to fall over one of her shoulders when she
moved. As he looked at her Kurama knew that he
was missing something, but he just couldn't put
his finger on it.
Kitsuryuu's face soften slightly as she let
Maryoku rant and rage beside her. With one hand
she swept her long hair from her face and back
over the top of her head so that she could see the
boy better. That was when Kurama realized that it
wasn't him that was missing something... it was
Kitsuryuu. She had no ears.
Kurama quickly surveyed his daughter and
found that yes, she did not have ears nor a tail.
It should have been apparent immediately, but he
had been so stunned by her face that he hadn't
bothered to look else where. Kurama sat on his
perch stupefied at what could have possibly
happened to his daughter to cause this
disfigurement. Ears and tails just don't fall
off.
In Kurama's new state of shock he did not see
Kitsuryuu summon a large flower that resembled a
gigantic daisy on steroids. The gentle ice bloom
grabbed Maryoku from behind and used its long,
thin petals to hold him kicking and thrashing
above Kitsuryuu's head.
Maryoku's loud and colorful curses woke
Kurama from his stupor. It seemed to Kurama that
Yuusuke's son had mastered the fine Uramashi
talent of 'if a woman doesn't listen to you,
insult her'. Just as Kurama was about to launch
himself from his branch to the ground to confront
Kitsuryuu, several long, needle thin ice thorns
pierced his back from behind.
Kurama's eyes widened in surprise as he
realized that Kitsuryuu had used Maryoku's
distraction to her advantage by sending one of her
ice plants behind him while he was watching the
scene below. One thing was for certain, she was
just as sneaky and tenuous as her fathers were.
Kurama decided that he needed to end this fight as
quickly as possible, and the best way to do that
was to simply over power her.
He let his body reform itself into his youko
form as he jumped to the ground. His speed and
agility increased instantly along with his power
level. As soon as his feet hit the ground he
launched one of his sharply thorned roses at
Kitsuryuu, hoping to knock her off her guard. It
worked... a little too well.
Kurama realized too late that he had
surprised Kitsuryuu as badly as she had surprised
him. She had started walking towards him when he
had changed in mid air, and even after the rose
had been sent on its way she did not change her
course. Kitsuryuu didn't even try to stop or
dodge the flower as it sailed through the air and
entered her shoulder. The impact of the rose
staggered her, but she remained on her feet.
Kurama could only watch dumbly as his
daughter approached him, his rose resting in her
like a misplaced boutonniere as she stumbled and
dragged her way over. Kurama saw that she was
favoring her left leg and remembered what his
brother had told him about her injuries. He
noticed that her chest and throat seemed to spasm
and that the collar glowed brighter and brighter
with every step she took.
Kitsuryuu stopped when she came toe to toe
with him and finally looked up into his face. Her
eyes were wide with wonder as she reached her
hands up to trace the length of each of his furry
ears. Immediately he saw that her lips were as
blue as her hair, indicating that she had stopped
breathing for quite some time. He placed his
hands on her upper arms as her eyes started to
drift closed. Within seconds Kitsuryuu had
completely passed out.
He lowered her down and immediately felt for
a pulse at her throat. The collar threw off a
large blot of electricity when his hand came near,
singeing his fingertips and making Kitsuryuu's
unconscious body jerk. He reached for her wrist
instead and found a slow, weak rhythm.
"Kitsuryuu!"
Kurama heard Maryoku's anguished cry the
second before the sound of shattering ice echoed
through the park. Maryoku ran over to where they
were and cursed vividly when he saw the condition
Kitsuryuu was in.
"Give her to me, Kurama!" Maryoku demanded
accusingly as he forced her from his grasp.
For some odd reason Kurama couldn't get his
brain working for more than a few minutes at a
time tonight and Maryoku easily took his daughter
from him. He watched, feeling totally and
completely helpless, as Kitsuryuu's self-made
champion re-checked her pulse and then listened to
her chest. Maryoku frowned and then looked at his
watch.
"It's been too long. She should have started
breathing again by now," the boy stated to no one
in particular.
Kurama was barely aware of Yuusuke dragging
an injured Kuwabara over to them, but he knew the
instant Hiei came back. His lover's anger made
the air around them crackle with unused power.
Hiei knelt by his daughter and started to reach
for her when he saw the rose. His eyes narrowed
slightly and he looked at Kurama.
"Hiei, I didn't..."
"Later," he stated, dismissing Kurama's weak
protest.
Kurama couldn't tell if Hiei was angry or
not, but he knew that the subject was closed as
far as his lover was concerned. Maryoku cursed,
looked at his watch and felt for Kitsuryuu's pulse
again. The worry was evident on his face as he
rolled up sleeves.
"What's going on? What wrong with her?" Hiei
demanded of the boy.
"That damn collar of hers kicked in about ten
minutes ago. If she had of been left alone she
would have simply passed out and the collar would
have turned itself off. This time she fought it.
Now she's so weak that she can't even summon
enough power to breath."
Before anyone could stop him Maryoku reached
out and put his hands around Kitsuryuu's throat.
Electricity arced up his arms in bright white
bolts that singed his hair as it burned his hands.
Maryoku held his eyes tightly shut and bit his lip
to keep from screaming. Kurama wasn't quite sure
what the boy was up to until he heard Kitsuryuu
take a ragged breath.
Yuusuke tackled his son away from the girl on
the ground and held him there as he struggled.
The smell of burnt flesh was heavy in the air and
blood flowed from Maryoku's burned palms, but the
boy fought with all his worth to get back to
Kitsuryuu.
"Damn it, let me go!" he screamed at his
father.
"Let someone else do this, Maryoku!"
"Don't you think you've done enough?!"
Kurama could see that Yuusuke was stricken by
what his son had said, but he didn't loosen his
grasp. While the two of them where fighting Hiei
had pulled Kitsuryuu's head into his lap and
placed his hands against the collar. Even though
Hiei was infinitely stronger than Maryoku, he
still grimaced as the collar reacted to his
presence.
Kitsuryuu's first few breaths were forced and
labored but quickly gained strength and
regularity. Soon her skin lost its blue cast and
return to pale cream. Maryoku managed to extract
himself from his father's slacking grasp and
crawled over to Kitsuryuu and Hiei. The two of
them exchanged a look that was not easily
interpreted just before the boy ran the back of
his hand across Kitsuryuu's cheek.
"Damn, stubborn fox," Maryoku whispered with
a smile.
"They do tend to be that way, don't they?"
Hiei responded with a look to his lover.
Kurama didn't answer, there was no need to.
Hiei knew him better than anyone alive.
----------------------------------
Botan eased herself back from the shadows and
summoned her oar now that she knew that Kitsuryuu
was going to be taken care of. Koenma had sent
her after this wayward youkai after he had looked
over her case file, hoping that she could keep the
girl out of more trouble until the paper work had
been processed.
Kitsuryuu's folder had been unceremoniously
flopped on Koenma's desk after the young girl had
leveled the hospital and killed twenty humans.
Normally Koenma didn't have to involve himself
with the affairs of the living, but in this case
Kitsuryuu had broken a Reikai law and it could not
be ignored. Kitsuryuu had killed fifteen humans
whose time to die was not forth coming for quite a
long time. The penalty for this crime was death.
Instead of stamping his approval on the order
and letting it be processed normally, Koenma
became intrigued at how Kitsuryuu could have
possibly been in that situation and looked up her
history. He had found that she had been abandoned
as a newborn infant, suffered some horrible
atrocities in her short life, but had never
knowingly attacked a human. The hunters that had
tortured her when she was six were justified by
Reikai laws, plus their life time had been over.
Koenma decided that Kitsuryuu didn't really
deserved death for being a victim of bad
circumstances, so he researched and found a loop
hole so that she could escape punishment. He
found an ancient law that was never used anymore,
but still on the books. It said that 'a child
born not with parents that passes its fifthteenth
year in innocence that takes a life in innocence
is not to be blamed, but is to be taken in and
raised in the right of the law'.
Since Kitsuryuu was an orphan and had no
parents to claim her, nearly seventeen and a text
book innocent the law could be easily made to fit
her, all Koenma had to do was to take her in.
That was the paper work that Botan was waiting
for. Once that order for Kitsuryuu's adoption was
processed correctly she would be a ward of the
Reikai and Koenma's adopted daughter, and then no
one would be able to prosecute her for those
deaths.
It was really very simple and as long as no
one protested, the whole situation would be
overlooked. Koenma would allow Kitsuryuu to
choose were she wished to live (after she was
properly educated and taught the 'right of the
law' of course), and all would be forgotten.
Besides, who would possibly protest? Botan angled
her oar towards the Reikai so that she could
report on Kitsuryuu's condition.
================
end chapter 18