Well, folks... I'm not entirely sure what has
happened to my editor, but I can't hold on to this
chapter any more. Now you guys will see why I
don't like to send out a chapter that doesn't have
Windlily's blessing! Part a of chapter 19 had
been edited by her but part b hasn't. I hope you
guys can still understand it!
The Forgotten Child
Chapter 19
written by Kat Mayes
edited by Windlily
Yukina smoothed the covers over Keiko's
soundly sleeping form and gave a sigh of envy.
She had a good idea what was coming their way in
the next few hours and was glad she had insisted
that Keiko let her 'put her to sleep'. She wished
that she could escape the coming chaos that
easily. Yukina shook her head at her own
selfishness and stood from the bed. It wasn't
Keiko's fault that the baby took so much out of
her. In fact, the human woman had fought to the
last moment to stay awake until her husband
returned.
Yukina knew the growing exhaustion Keiko felt
was because of the babe within her. Keiko had so
far kept the extent of her weakened condition well
hidden from her children and Yuusuke. Both she
and Keiko had talked extensively about Keiko's
pregnancy with Shuuichi before Keiko told anyone
else she was with child again. Yukina and
Shuuichi had reluctantly promised, for Yuusuke's
sake, to keep quite about the toll the baby was
taking on her. In return (and under the threat
that they would tell Yuusuke) Keiko had promised
to do everything the two of them asked of her to
keep both herself and the baby healthy.
Yukina knew that Keiko had gotten very
little, if any, sleep since the whole
Hiei/Kyuukai/Kitsuryuu thing had started and this
forced nap was sorely needed. Yukina pulled the
door closed behind her and leaned against it
momentarily. She closed her eyes and took a long
cleansing breath. There were only three things in
this world that had the power to shake the inner
calm that was a part of her Koorimei heritage.
One was knowing that Kazuma was hurt. Another was
knowing that her brother was distressed, and the
last was knowing that her children were hurt or
distressed. It was a rare occasion for all three
to happen at once.
She had just gotten off the phone with
Yuusuke, who had called to let her know who was
injured and their estimated time of arrival.
Again Yukina thanked her lucky star that Keiko was
already asleep when the phone call had come in or
she would have never convinced her friend to lay
down. With one last, deep sigh Yukina headed down
the hall and back into the chaos she had left
there.
She was half-way down the hall when she heard
Arashi and Mechiko verbally fighting in what they
considered quiet voices. Her son was insisting
that he be the one to help his father and Mechiko
was none to gently reminding him that he had no
healing powers what so ever. As Yukina came into
the living room she found Arashi and Mechiko with
their hands on each others' collars getting ready
to back up their arguments with a few well placed
punches. She also found Kiseki on the floor, legs
crossed under him and eyes tightly closed. Yukina
could feel her son focusing and storing all his
healing power so that he could help her when the
hurt came home.
Yukina knew from Yuusuke's phone call that
all of them, except for Hiei, needed some form of
medical attention. Yuusuke, Kazuma, Kurama and
Maryoku were only lightly injured and between
Kiseki and Fuyu's healing powers should be easily
taken care of, but Kitsuryuu was another story.
Yuusuke had no clue how badly the girl was hurt
and Yukina thought it was best that she take care
of Kitsuryuu herself.
Ignoring the rising hostility in the room,
Yukina walked past the fighting teens and placed a
hand on Kiseki's cheek. He opened his lovely pink
eyes and looked at her through the feathery
lavender of his bangs. She gave her son an
encouraging smile and swept one side of his
shoulder length bangs behind his ear so that she
could see his face better. Last year Kiseki had
asked her to not shorten his bangs when she cut
his hair and she had agreed, even though it drove
her quietly insane to see his hair in his face as
it was growing out. Yukina now admitted that the
new hair style had been a good choice. With
Kiseki's coloring it was hard for him to look
anything but extremely young, and this style went
a long way in making him look his age, if not
older.
Yukina watched her son try and return her
smile and saw the worry that marred his handsome
young face. That sad smile reminded her of how
important Kitsuryuu had become to these children.
Her heart ached for them, and especially for her
youngest. Her baby, that at this very moment, was
in her room dreaming nightmares after having cried
herself to sleep.
Yukina patted Kiseki's head like she had done
when he was a small child and got a roll of his
light pink eyes for her effort. Yukina hid her
smile and continued on to the kitchen, reassured
that for a brief moment she had allowed her son to
forget his worries. She had to force her smile to
stay in place as she entered the kitchen and saw
Fuyu in the exact same position she had left her
in when she had gone to check on Keiko.
Fuyu was also showing signs of stress. In
times of crisis Fuyu always tried to become the
peacemaker. Yukina had to stop a major fight
between Fuyu and her twin when Fuyu tried to get
between Mechiko and Arashi. To save her
daughter's conscious Yukina had asked the young
girl to watch Kyuukai for her.
Fuyu sat in one of the kitchen chairs a meter
away from the open oven with her hands folded
demurely in her lap as she watched the sleeping
infant in his broiler pan inside. Yukina sighed
at her daughter's woebegone expression and
followed Fuyu's line of sight. She saw that
Kyuukai hadn't moved either. Some maternal
instinct inside of Yukina cringed at the idea of a
baby being in a major kitchen appliance, but with
all the heat Kyuukai had been generating it had
been the only place they could put him so that he
wouldn't burn the house down.
She and Keiko had ruined several pairs of
oven mitts in their attempts to hold the infant.
They had started to become desperate when they
were down to the last pair of mitts. Then Mechiko
had jokingly told them to put Kyuukai in a large
roasting pan. At the time the idea didn't sound
too absurd. They had put Kyuukai in the pan and
for awhile it had worked, until the infant began
to heat up so much that the counter top under him
began to scorch. Without really thinking about it
Yukina had quickly placed her nephew in the oven
and the problem had been temporarily solved.
Yukina tried to hide the worry she felt for
her nephew as she gazed at the utterly still
infant. Kyuukai had not moved at all since he had
changed into his youko form. The only sounds he
had made the whole time his parents had been gone
was a high pitched yipe and one strangled whimper.
Yukina did not know what to do for him. She
couldn't comfort him in her arms, or touch him to
see if he was in any kind of pain. Kyuukai needed
his father, but that wasn't possible right now so
she had to try and make the best of it.
Yukina went and stood next to her daughter,
and even though the girl was seated, their heights
were nearly identical. Yukina put her hand out
and gave a gentle tug on Fuyu's neck, bringing her
daughter's head over to rest on her shoulder.
Fuyu gave a sigh and let her mother indulge
herself in comforting her. Yukina wasn't fooled
by her polite children. She knew that they all
thought (with the exception of Koori) that they
were too old to be treated like this. They only
allowed it because it comforted her also.
"Why don't you help Kiseki gather bandages
and medicine for when your father comes home.
I'll watch Kyuukai."
Fuyu gave a nod of her gently held head and
then extracted herself from her mother. Yukina
watched her leave and then sat in the chair Fuyu
had just vacated. She could hear a short exchange
between Fuyu and Arashi, but when nothing more was
said Yukina turned her attention to Kyuukai.
Yukina's nephew was still in a tight fetal
curl with his black-tipped, bushy, red tail hugged
firmly between his arms. From her position Yukina
could barely make out Kyuukai's folded ears and
short red hair. She gave a sigh of frustration
and looked around her messy kitchen.
All of their evening dishes had been washed,
but when the men had rushed out of the house with
barely a word they had been left forgotten on the
counter top. That would have been fine except
that when Mechiko had tried to pull the roasting
pan from the top self she had knocked the
carefully balanced pile onto the floor. That was
the first domino to fall.
Arashi had started to tease and Mechiko got
angry. The two of them started to fight, Keiko
got between and had started screaming at them
both, then Fuyu got between them and had started
fighting with her brother. Kiseki had come in at
that moment with a sobbing Koori in his arms
asking what he should do for her. Unable to stand
the noise or the level of traffic into her damaged
kitchen any longer, Yukina had stopped the insane
turn of events the best way she knew how. With
hardly a thought she had brought the temperature
in the room to well below comfortable levels and
within seconds they all...stopped.
Yukina had to take several deep breaths to
keep herself from yelling, and then calmly
instructed the now waiting mob. She assigned Fuyu
to watch Kyuukai and sent Mechiko and Arashi into
the living room. She gave Kiseki the mission of
putting his little sister to bed and once the kids
were taken care of Yukina had commanded Keiko to
lay down. It had taken almost a half an hour to
get Keiko to physically lay in the bed, but once
she did she instantly fell asleep. Yukina wasn't
able to rest just yet, however.
Yuusuke's phone call came almost at the exact
moment that Keiko had fallen asleep.
Unfortunately, Mechiko had been the first to the
phone and only a sharp command from her father and
a strong tug on the receiver by Yukina had
dislocated the phone from her grip. The kids had
hovered around her, waiting, as she listened to
Yuusuke's list of injured. She had squirmed under
the close scrutiny, feeling like some kind of
science specimen under a microscope.
Knowing that she would never be able to get
anything done until she told them what Yuusuke had
said, Yukina informed the children of the
situation. All of them had been silent when she
gave the news and Yukina had seen profound emotion
cloud their young faces. Each of them had been
relieved that their fathers and uncles were not
hurt badly, but they all reacted differently to
the news of Kitsuryuu's situation.
They all had seemed very concerned, but
Arashi had quickly hid his worry by lashing out at
Kitsuryuu and her involvement in his father's
injuries. Mechiko had been quick to defend their
youko friend and Fuyu had been equally fast in
trying to step in between them. Kiseki had
silently withdrawn from the group, preferring to
work out his worries on his own.
Yukina had seen another fight brewing and
sent the kids back to the living room and kitchen
respectively. Worried that the noise Arashi and
Mechiko had made had awakened Keiko, Yukina had
checked on her one more time.
It seemed to her like the events of this
evening had happened only moments ago, but by the
light coming over the horizon Yukina knew that the
night had flown by them. She took another
dejected look around her kitchen and in the corner
of the room caught a glance of the portraits the
kids had shown them in the dojo.
A smile crept across her worried and tried
face at the sheer beauty and love that had been
put into those pictures. It was obvious by the
care that was put into each painting that
Kitsuryuu thought the world of the children and
that knowledge went a long way to settle the
anxiety she had felt about the secrets the kids
had been keeping about Kitsuryuu.
A long shaft of morning light came through
the back door and illuminated the canvases. In
all of the excitement of the evening, only the
original two portraits were still uncovered. The
rest were still holding their secrets behind
thick, white clothes. Yukina felt a rare rush of
curiosity and left her post in front of the oven
and walked over to them.
She was most of the way there when she saw
something odd in the pattern of swirls on the
painting of Arashi and Fuyu. Yukina stopped where
she was and took a moment to examine the portrait
in the soft morning light. Yukina just shrugged
her shoulders and thought it was her imagination
when she didn't immediately see it again. She
averted her eyes slightly, looking at the other
painting, then suddenly saw it again. In the
array of colors on Arashi's side was a barely
discernible eye and ear of some kind of animal.
This prompted Yukina to look even closer and,
sure enough, hidden in the swirls of snowflakes on
Fuyu's side was the matching ear and eye. If she
tilted her head just right and forgot about the
two main figures, Yukina could see the entire top
of what looked like a fox's head.
Now that she could clearly see the fox head,
Yukina concentrated on the eyes and found them to
be strangely haunting, as if they were able to see
her. It wasn't frightening, but the intensity of
the painted stare gave her pause to wonder just
how protective the children's youko friend was.
Now extremely curious, she quickly pulled out
the next picture, the one of Mechiko and examined
it. It took her a few minuets, but Yukina finally
located an image of a fox in the criss-crossing
ribbons in Mechiko's hair. Her need to know if
the other portraits hid similar ghosts made Yukina
rip off the covering of the next picture.
This one was of her oldest son, Kiseki. She
completely ignored the stunning work that depicted
her son siting by a softly babbling stream and
searched for the fox. Again it was well hidden,
but she found it in the shadows of trees behind
Kiseki. This fox image was more defined than the
other two in that it actually looked like a fox
hiding in the woods, trying to go unnoticed.
The next white sheet went flying to join the
other as Yukina uncloaked Maryoku's portrait. It
was a exacting likeness of the boy and very
appropriate for his nature, but that was lost on
Yukina as she searched for the fox she knew to be
there. This one was easier to find because she
had become accustomed to how Kitsuryuu hid herself
in the paintings. In the branches above the image
of Yuusuke's son reading one of his many text
books in his neatly pressed and perfect school
uniform was a fox curled on a limb, watching.
Only one portrait remained and when Yukina
unveiled it she was very surprised. There was no
fox cleverly hidden in the background of *this*
picture, guarding from a distance. Right dead
center of this painting was her own young daughter
with her arms wrapped tightly around the kitsune's
neck from underneath. Koori was smiling that
charming, crooked smile that she had inherited
from her uncle as she pulled down on the fox and
the fox was giving a clear-cut warning to stay
away.
In all five pictures it was obvious that
Kitsuryuu was watching over the children in her
own unique way. Yukina felt herself warm to this
young lady that she had never met. This whole
evening had been the result of Kitsuryuu trying to
protect the children from the punishment they
would receive. Yukina had pride in the fact that
she could see a person's true character behind
whatever barrier they place in front of themselves
and she knew in her heart that this girl was
special.
There was still one picture left to be
uncovered, but just as Yukina was about to unwrap
it Arashi and Mechiko came crashing into the
kitchen. The two of them were wrestling on the
floor, scattering pots and pans across the room.
Mechiko's eyes held a silver glow that frightened
Yukina in its intensity. Her own son's hands were
outlined in the bright yellow that always
accompanied the power he inherited from his
father. The last portrait was completely
forgotten as Yukina rushed forward to stop the
dangerously out of control fight. However someone
else beat her to it.
The kitchen door banged open and both of the
teens instantly stopped to see who was there. The
mystery person stepped into the light shinning in
through the window and revealed itself to be
Kurama's mother. Shiori walked in to the house
with a disapproving frown on her elegantly aged
face and a huge bouquet of fragrant, white roses
in her arms. She silently handed Yukina the
flowers and approached Arashi and Mechiko as they
scrambled to their feet.
"Great-aunt Shiori!" the two of them
exclaimed in unison.
"Don't, 'Great-aunt Shiori' me, young ones.
What is the meaning of all this?" she said as she
gestured around the room.
The kids had the grace to look ashamed as
they too realized the mess they had made. Arashi
and Mechiko looked at each other and then at
Shiori and simultaneously started to talk. Even
though Yukina knew exactly what had been happening
all evening she was instantly given a headache as
she tried to follow the events the two of them
laid out. It didn't seem to affect Shiori at all
as she nodded at appropriate moments and shook her
head sadly at others.
Before the children could continue to absolve
themselves of any wrong doing Shiori raised her
hand to silence them. It always amazed Yukina how
much power this one simple, human woman had.
Without ever trying Shiori was always able to make
you feel like she was your mother and the respect
that always came with that feeling followed.
"I don't care who started what, but both of
you should know better. Instead of fighting you
should be helping Yukina," Shiori reprimand softly
as Arashi and Mechiko hung their heads.
Shiori closed the small distance between
herself and the children and placed one hand each
of their shoulders. She smiled at them when they
looked up at her. Arashi and Mechiko visibly
relaxed and grinned back, but when they tried to
move away Shiori's grip on them remained firm.
"Since you two have so much energy to burn,
how about you helping me with a few things."
It wasn't a question, but a softly veiled
command that neither of the children thought twice
about saying no to. They nodded their heads in
perfect unison and awaited their assignments.
"Shuuichi told me some of what was going on,
so I brought the food so that Yukina wouldn't
have to worry herself over cooking. Mechiko,
dear, why don't you go to the car and bring the
hot things in so we can put it in the oven to stay
warm."
"We can't," Mechiko informed her quickly.
"Why not?" Shiori asked with a puzzled look
on her face.
Mechiko hitched her thumb over her shoulder
towards the oven, "'Cause Kyuukai's in there."
Shiori blinked uncomprehendingly until she
took another look at the interior of the oven.
Yukina heard her gently spoken, 'Oh, my!', and
cringed, knowing what the human woman must think.
Shiori, however, reacted better than Yukina could
have hoped for. Kurama's mother quickly restored
her startled wits and quickly averted her eyes
away from the oven.
"Then would you please bring me the suitcase
from the trunk of the car, also?" Shiori turned to
Yukina as Mechiko trotted toward the door, on her
way to do as she had been bidden, "I take it that
my grandson takes after Hiei more than my son?"
Yukina was so completely stunned by Shiori's
easy acceptance of the situation that all she
could do was nod in response. Yukina realized
suddenly that she shouldn't be surprised by
Kurama's mother anymore. Especially after the way
the human woman had so calmly and easily accepted
not only Hiei and Kurama's relationship, but her
only son being a fox demon as well.
"I also know from my step-son that the young
lady everybody is looking for is injured and maybe
sick. Have you decided where to put her, yet?"
Yukina looked startled for a moment. She had
never thought about that! She quickly scanned the
room for something to put the beautiful flowers
she had been given into, but was stopped by
Shiori's strong, gentle hand.
"Don't worry about it, Yukina dear. I'm sure
Arashi and I can handle it. Right, son?" Shiori
asked the young boy who responded by puffing up
with pride and grinning wildly.
"I think the boys' room would probably be the
best since you must be using the extra bedroom for
Hiei and Shuuichi. Arashi, dear, why don't you
get started with cleaning the room and packing
some clothes for all of you boys. I'm sure you
boys won't mind terribly much if you have to camp
out in the dojo for a couple of nights, right?"
"No way! That'd be cool!" Arashi exclaimed
as he rushed out the door.
Shiori smiled after the boy and shook her
head in amusement, "Where do they get all that
energy?"
"It comes from their fathers, I'm sure,"
Yukina replied.
"Then we are in for a special treat when this
little one grows up," Shiori chuckled softly as
she gazed into the oven.
Mechiko came stomping into the kitchen before
Yukina had a chance to agree. The teenager had a
huge gray suitcase under one arm and the other was
occupied with three large containers of food.
Shiori quickly took the precariously balanced top
container while Mechiko put the case down.
"You didn't have to go through so much
trouble, Shiori," Yukina exclaimed, remembering
her manners as hostess.
"You think this is it?!" Mechiko exclaimed in
happy disbelief. "There are at least ten more
containers just like these out there!"
"And do bring them one at a time, Mechiko,
dear. I don't want to have to scrape it off the
floor."
Mechiko nodded her understanding and rushed
out to get more. Yukina stared in astonishment at
the about of hot food that Mechiko started to
bring in.
"How could you have possibly found the time
to fix all of these Shiori?"
"Don't you remember? We were supposed to
have a big family picnic today anyway," Shiori
reminded the perplexed Koorimei.
Understanding dawned on Yukina as she
remembered the plans they had made several weeks
ago. Shiori was going to bring all the main
dishes and Yukina the side dishes and desserts.
In fact her freezer was full of chilled yogurt
pies.
While Mechiko was bringing the food Shiori
had put away all the scatted pots and pans. Once
done with that she opened up the mysterious
suitcase. Still holding the fragrant long
stemmed, white roses, Yukina leaned over the human
woman's shoulder to get a better look. Yukina
started to laugh immediately.
It was the famous emergency kit Kurama had
made for his mother. Yukina had heard stories
about it from Shiori and Kurama's brother, but she
had assumed that they had been exaggerating about
the extent to which Kurama had gone. The case had
all the normal emergency things: flashlight, road
flares, blanket, water, and car oil, but besides
that it had: food rations, candles, rope, flare
gun, small folding tent, pillow, cooking
equipment, hunting knife and a strange foil
bundle. Kurama was certainly... protective of his
mother.
Shiori pulled the silver bundle out of the
suitcase and on Mechiko's next delivery asked her
to return it to the car. Yukina watched her shake
out the bundle and fold the large square of
metallic fabric in half. Still having no idea
what it was, Yukina followed Shiori to the oven.
The human woman pulled out the rack with Kyuukai
and his roasting pan and with the edges of the
silver cloth she picked up and wrapped her
grandson in it.
"Shiori!" Yukina exclaimed as Kurama's mother
held the infant close.
=============
end part a of chapter 19
happened to my editor, but I can't hold on to this
chapter any more. Now you guys will see why I
don't like to send out a chapter that doesn't have
Windlily's blessing! Part a of chapter 19 had
been edited by her but part b hasn't. I hope you
guys can still understand it!
The Forgotten Child
Chapter 19
written by Kat Mayes
edited by Windlily
Yukina smoothed the covers over Keiko's
soundly sleeping form and gave a sigh of envy.
She had a good idea what was coming their way in
the next few hours and was glad she had insisted
that Keiko let her 'put her to sleep'. She wished
that she could escape the coming chaos that
easily. Yukina shook her head at her own
selfishness and stood from the bed. It wasn't
Keiko's fault that the baby took so much out of
her. In fact, the human woman had fought to the
last moment to stay awake until her husband
returned.
Yukina knew the growing exhaustion Keiko felt
was because of the babe within her. Keiko had so
far kept the extent of her weakened condition well
hidden from her children and Yuusuke. Both she
and Keiko had talked extensively about Keiko's
pregnancy with Shuuichi before Keiko told anyone
else she was with child again. Yukina and
Shuuichi had reluctantly promised, for Yuusuke's
sake, to keep quite about the toll the baby was
taking on her. In return (and under the threat
that they would tell Yuusuke) Keiko had promised
to do everything the two of them asked of her to
keep both herself and the baby healthy.
Yukina knew that Keiko had gotten very
little, if any, sleep since the whole
Hiei/Kyuukai/Kitsuryuu thing had started and this
forced nap was sorely needed. Yukina pulled the
door closed behind her and leaned against it
momentarily. She closed her eyes and took a long
cleansing breath. There were only three things in
this world that had the power to shake the inner
calm that was a part of her Koorimei heritage.
One was knowing that Kazuma was hurt. Another was
knowing that her brother was distressed, and the
last was knowing that her children were hurt or
distressed. It was a rare occasion for all three
to happen at once.
She had just gotten off the phone with
Yuusuke, who had called to let her know who was
injured and their estimated time of arrival.
Again Yukina thanked her lucky star that Keiko was
already asleep when the phone call had come in or
she would have never convinced her friend to lay
down. With one last, deep sigh Yukina headed down
the hall and back into the chaos she had left
there.
She was half-way down the hall when she heard
Arashi and Mechiko verbally fighting in what they
considered quiet voices. Her son was insisting
that he be the one to help his father and Mechiko
was none to gently reminding him that he had no
healing powers what so ever. As Yukina came into
the living room she found Arashi and Mechiko with
their hands on each others' collars getting ready
to back up their arguments with a few well placed
punches. She also found Kiseki on the floor, legs
crossed under him and eyes tightly closed. Yukina
could feel her son focusing and storing all his
healing power so that he could help her when the
hurt came home.
Yukina knew from Yuusuke's phone call that
all of them, except for Hiei, needed some form of
medical attention. Yuusuke, Kazuma, Kurama and
Maryoku were only lightly injured and between
Kiseki and Fuyu's healing powers should be easily
taken care of, but Kitsuryuu was another story.
Yuusuke had no clue how badly the girl was hurt
and Yukina thought it was best that she take care
of Kitsuryuu herself.
Ignoring the rising hostility in the room,
Yukina walked past the fighting teens and placed a
hand on Kiseki's cheek. He opened his lovely pink
eyes and looked at her through the feathery
lavender of his bangs. She gave her son an
encouraging smile and swept one side of his
shoulder length bangs behind his ear so that she
could see his face better. Last year Kiseki had
asked her to not shorten his bangs when she cut
his hair and she had agreed, even though it drove
her quietly insane to see his hair in his face as
it was growing out. Yukina now admitted that the
new hair style had been a good choice. With
Kiseki's coloring it was hard for him to look
anything but extremely young, and this style went
a long way in making him look his age, if not
older.
Yukina watched her son try and return her
smile and saw the worry that marred his handsome
young face. That sad smile reminded her of how
important Kitsuryuu had become to these children.
Her heart ached for them, and especially for her
youngest. Her baby, that at this very moment, was
in her room dreaming nightmares after having cried
herself to sleep.
Yukina patted Kiseki's head like she had done
when he was a small child and got a roll of his
light pink eyes for her effort. Yukina hid her
smile and continued on to the kitchen, reassured
that for a brief moment she had allowed her son to
forget his worries. She had to force her smile to
stay in place as she entered the kitchen and saw
Fuyu in the exact same position she had left her
in when she had gone to check on Keiko.
Fuyu was also showing signs of stress. In
times of crisis Fuyu always tried to become the
peacemaker. Yukina had to stop a major fight
between Fuyu and her twin when Fuyu tried to get
between Mechiko and Arashi. To save her
daughter's conscious Yukina had asked the young
girl to watch Kyuukai for her.
Fuyu sat in one of the kitchen chairs a meter
away from the open oven with her hands folded
demurely in her lap as she watched the sleeping
infant in his broiler pan inside. Yukina sighed
at her daughter's woebegone expression and
followed Fuyu's line of sight. She saw that
Kyuukai hadn't moved either. Some maternal
instinct inside of Yukina cringed at the idea of a
baby being in a major kitchen appliance, but with
all the heat Kyuukai had been generating it had
been the only place they could put him so that he
wouldn't burn the house down.
She and Keiko had ruined several pairs of
oven mitts in their attempts to hold the infant.
They had started to become desperate when they
were down to the last pair of mitts. Then Mechiko
had jokingly told them to put Kyuukai in a large
roasting pan. At the time the idea didn't sound
too absurd. They had put Kyuukai in the pan and
for awhile it had worked, until the infant began
to heat up so much that the counter top under him
began to scorch. Without really thinking about it
Yukina had quickly placed her nephew in the oven
and the problem had been temporarily solved.
Yukina tried to hide the worry she felt for
her nephew as she gazed at the utterly still
infant. Kyuukai had not moved at all since he had
changed into his youko form. The only sounds he
had made the whole time his parents had been gone
was a high pitched yipe and one strangled whimper.
Yukina did not know what to do for him. She
couldn't comfort him in her arms, or touch him to
see if he was in any kind of pain. Kyuukai needed
his father, but that wasn't possible right now so
she had to try and make the best of it.
Yukina went and stood next to her daughter,
and even though the girl was seated, their heights
were nearly identical. Yukina put her hand out
and gave a gentle tug on Fuyu's neck, bringing her
daughter's head over to rest on her shoulder.
Fuyu gave a sigh and let her mother indulge
herself in comforting her. Yukina wasn't fooled
by her polite children. She knew that they all
thought (with the exception of Koori) that they
were too old to be treated like this. They only
allowed it because it comforted her also.
"Why don't you help Kiseki gather bandages
and medicine for when your father comes home.
I'll watch Kyuukai."
Fuyu gave a nod of her gently held head and
then extracted herself from her mother. Yukina
watched her leave and then sat in the chair Fuyu
had just vacated. She could hear a short exchange
between Fuyu and Arashi, but when nothing more was
said Yukina turned her attention to Kyuukai.
Yukina's nephew was still in a tight fetal
curl with his black-tipped, bushy, red tail hugged
firmly between his arms. From her position Yukina
could barely make out Kyuukai's folded ears and
short red hair. She gave a sigh of frustration
and looked around her messy kitchen.
All of their evening dishes had been washed,
but when the men had rushed out of the house with
barely a word they had been left forgotten on the
counter top. That would have been fine except
that when Mechiko had tried to pull the roasting
pan from the top self she had knocked the
carefully balanced pile onto the floor. That was
the first domino to fall.
Arashi had started to tease and Mechiko got
angry. The two of them started to fight, Keiko
got between and had started screaming at them
both, then Fuyu got between them and had started
fighting with her brother. Kiseki had come in at
that moment with a sobbing Koori in his arms
asking what he should do for her. Unable to stand
the noise or the level of traffic into her damaged
kitchen any longer, Yukina had stopped the insane
turn of events the best way she knew how. With
hardly a thought she had brought the temperature
in the room to well below comfortable levels and
within seconds they all...stopped.
Yukina had to take several deep breaths to
keep herself from yelling, and then calmly
instructed the now waiting mob. She assigned Fuyu
to watch Kyuukai and sent Mechiko and Arashi into
the living room. She gave Kiseki the mission of
putting his little sister to bed and once the kids
were taken care of Yukina had commanded Keiko to
lay down. It had taken almost a half an hour to
get Keiko to physically lay in the bed, but once
she did she instantly fell asleep. Yukina wasn't
able to rest just yet, however.
Yuusuke's phone call came almost at the exact
moment that Keiko had fallen asleep.
Unfortunately, Mechiko had been the first to the
phone and only a sharp command from her father and
a strong tug on the receiver by Yukina had
dislocated the phone from her grip. The kids had
hovered around her, waiting, as she listened to
Yuusuke's list of injured. She had squirmed under
the close scrutiny, feeling like some kind of
science specimen under a microscope.
Knowing that she would never be able to get
anything done until she told them what Yuusuke had
said, Yukina informed the children of the
situation. All of them had been silent when she
gave the news and Yukina had seen profound emotion
cloud their young faces. Each of them had been
relieved that their fathers and uncles were not
hurt badly, but they all reacted differently to
the news of Kitsuryuu's situation.
They all had seemed very concerned, but
Arashi had quickly hid his worry by lashing out at
Kitsuryuu and her involvement in his father's
injuries. Mechiko had been quick to defend their
youko friend and Fuyu had been equally fast in
trying to step in between them. Kiseki had
silently withdrawn from the group, preferring to
work out his worries on his own.
Yukina had seen another fight brewing and
sent the kids back to the living room and kitchen
respectively. Worried that the noise Arashi and
Mechiko had made had awakened Keiko, Yukina had
checked on her one more time.
It seemed to her like the events of this
evening had happened only moments ago, but by the
light coming over the horizon Yukina knew that the
night had flown by them. She took another
dejected look around her kitchen and in the corner
of the room caught a glance of the portraits the
kids had shown them in the dojo.
A smile crept across her worried and tried
face at the sheer beauty and love that had been
put into those pictures. It was obvious by the
care that was put into each painting that
Kitsuryuu thought the world of the children and
that knowledge went a long way to settle the
anxiety she had felt about the secrets the kids
had been keeping about Kitsuryuu.
A long shaft of morning light came through
the back door and illuminated the canvases. In
all of the excitement of the evening, only the
original two portraits were still uncovered. The
rest were still holding their secrets behind
thick, white clothes. Yukina felt a rare rush of
curiosity and left her post in front of the oven
and walked over to them.
She was most of the way there when she saw
something odd in the pattern of swirls on the
painting of Arashi and Fuyu. Yukina stopped where
she was and took a moment to examine the portrait
in the soft morning light. Yukina just shrugged
her shoulders and thought it was her imagination
when she didn't immediately see it again. She
averted her eyes slightly, looking at the other
painting, then suddenly saw it again. In the
array of colors on Arashi's side was a barely
discernible eye and ear of some kind of animal.
This prompted Yukina to look even closer and,
sure enough, hidden in the swirls of snowflakes on
Fuyu's side was the matching ear and eye. If she
tilted her head just right and forgot about the
two main figures, Yukina could see the entire top
of what looked like a fox's head.
Now that she could clearly see the fox head,
Yukina concentrated on the eyes and found them to
be strangely haunting, as if they were able to see
her. It wasn't frightening, but the intensity of
the painted stare gave her pause to wonder just
how protective the children's youko friend was.
Now extremely curious, she quickly pulled out
the next picture, the one of Mechiko and examined
it. It took her a few minuets, but Yukina finally
located an image of a fox in the criss-crossing
ribbons in Mechiko's hair. Her need to know if
the other portraits hid similar ghosts made Yukina
rip off the covering of the next picture.
This one was of her oldest son, Kiseki. She
completely ignored the stunning work that depicted
her son siting by a softly babbling stream and
searched for the fox. Again it was well hidden,
but she found it in the shadows of trees behind
Kiseki. This fox image was more defined than the
other two in that it actually looked like a fox
hiding in the woods, trying to go unnoticed.
The next white sheet went flying to join the
other as Yukina uncloaked Maryoku's portrait. It
was a exacting likeness of the boy and very
appropriate for his nature, but that was lost on
Yukina as she searched for the fox she knew to be
there. This one was easier to find because she
had become accustomed to how Kitsuryuu hid herself
in the paintings. In the branches above the image
of Yuusuke's son reading one of his many text
books in his neatly pressed and perfect school
uniform was a fox curled on a limb, watching.
Only one portrait remained and when Yukina
unveiled it she was very surprised. There was no
fox cleverly hidden in the background of *this*
picture, guarding from a distance. Right dead
center of this painting was her own young daughter
with her arms wrapped tightly around the kitsune's
neck from underneath. Koori was smiling that
charming, crooked smile that she had inherited
from her uncle as she pulled down on the fox and
the fox was giving a clear-cut warning to stay
away.
In all five pictures it was obvious that
Kitsuryuu was watching over the children in her
own unique way. Yukina felt herself warm to this
young lady that she had never met. This whole
evening had been the result of Kitsuryuu trying to
protect the children from the punishment they
would receive. Yukina had pride in the fact that
she could see a person's true character behind
whatever barrier they place in front of themselves
and she knew in her heart that this girl was
special.
There was still one picture left to be
uncovered, but just as Yukina was about to unwrap
it Arashi and Mechiko came crashing into the
kitchen. The two of them were wrestling on the
floor, scattering pots and pans across the room.
Mechiko's eyes held a silver glow that frightened
Yukina in its intensity. Her own son's hands were
outlined in the bright yellow that always
accompanied the power he inherited from his
father. The last portrait was completely
forgotten as Yukina rushed forward to stop the
dangerously out of control fight. However someone
else beat her to it.
The kitchen door banged open and both of the
teens instantly stopped to see who was there. The
mystery person stepped into the light shinning in
through the window and revealed itself to be
Kurama's mother. Shiori walked in to the house
with a disapproving frown on her elegantly aged
face and a huge bouquet of fragrant, white roses
in her arms. She silently handed Yukina the
flowers and approached Arashi and Mechiko as they
scrambled to their feet.
"Great-aunt Shiori!" the two of them
exclaimed in unison.
"Don't, 'Great-aunt Shiori' me, young ones.
What is the meaning of all this?" she said as she
gestured around the room.
The kids had the grace to look ashamed as
they too realized the mess they had made. Arashi
and Mechiko looked at each other and then at
Shiori and simultaneously started to talk. Even
though Yukina knew exactly what had been happening
all evening she was instantly given a headache as
she tried to follow the events the two of them
laid out. It didn't seem to affect Shiori at all
as she nodded at appropriate moments and shook her
head sadly at others.
Before the children could continue to absolve
themselves of any wrong doing Shiori raised her
hand to silence them. It always amazed Yukina how
much power this one simple, human woman had.
Without ever trying Shiori was always able to make
you feel like she was your mother and the respect
that always came with that feeling followed.
"I don't care who started what, but both of
you should know better. Instead of fighting you
should be helping Yukina," Shiori reprimand softly
as Arashi and Mechiko hung their heads.
Shiori closed the small distance between
herself and the children and placed one hand each
of their shoulders. She smiled at them when they
looked up at her. Arashi and Mechiko visibly
relaxed and grinned back, but when they tried to
move away Shiori's grip on them remained firm.
"Since you two have so much energy to burn,
how about you helping me with a few things."
It wasn't a question, but a softly veiled
command that neither of the children thought twice
about saying no to. They nodded their heads in
perfect unison and awaited their assignments.
"Shuuichi told me some of what was going on,
so I brought the food so that Yukina wouldn't
have to worry herself over cooking. Mechiko,
dear, why don't you go to the car and bring the
hot things in so we can put it in the oven to stay
warm."
"We can't," Mechiko informed her quickly.
"Why not?" Shiori asked with a puzzled look
on her face.
Mechiko hitched her thumb over her shoulder
towards the oven, "'Cause Kyuukai's in there."
Shiori blinked uncomprehendingly until she
took another look at the interior of the oven.
Yukina heard her gently spoken, 'Oh, my!', and
cringed, knowing what the human woman must think.
Shiori, however, reacted better than Yukina could
have hoped for. Kurama's mother quickly restored
her startled wits and quickly averted her eyes
away from the oven.
"Then would you please bring me the suitcase
from the trunk of the car, also?" Shiori turned to
Yukina as Mechiko trotted toward the door, on her
way to do as she had been bidden, "I take it that
my grandson takes after Hiei more than my son?"
Yukina was so completely stunned by Shiori's
easy acceptance of the situation that all she
could do was nod in response. Yukina realized
suddenly that she shouldn't be surprised by
Kurama's mother anymore. Especially after the way
the human woman had so calmly and easily accepted
not only Hiei and Kurama's relationship, but her
only son being a fox demon as well.
"I also know from my step-son that the young
lady everybody is looking for is injured and maybe
sick. Have you decided where to put her, yet?"
Yukina looked startled for a moment. She had
never thought about that! She quickly scanned the
room for something to put the beautiful flowers
she had been given into, but was stopped by
Shiori's strong, gentle hand.
"Don't worry about it, Yukina dear. I'm sure
Arashi and I can handle it. Right, son?" Shiori
asked the young boy who responded by puffing up
with pride and grinning wildly.
"I think the boys' room would probably be the
best since you must be using the extra bedroom for
Hiei and Shuuichi. Arashi, dear, why don't you
get started with cleaning the room and packing
some clothes for all of you boys. I'm sure you
boys won't mind terribly much if you have to camp
out in the dojo for a couple of nights, right?"
"No way! That'd be cool!" Arashi exclaimed
as he rushed out the door.
Shiori smiled after the boy and shook her
head in amusement, "Where do they get all that
energy?"
"It comes from their fathers, I'm sure,"
Yukina replied.
"Then we are in for a special treat when this
little one grows up," Shiori chuckled softly as
she gazed into the oven.
Mechiko came stomping into the kitchen before
Yukina had a chance to agree. The teenager had a
huge gray suitcase under one arm and the other was
occupied with three large containers of food.
Shiori quickly took the precariously balanced top
container while Mechiko put the case down.
"You didn't have to go through so much
trouble, Shiori," Yukina exclaimed, remembering
her manners as hostess.
"You think this is it?!" Mechiko exclaimed in
happy disbelief. "There are at least ten more
containers just like these out there!"
"And do bring them one at a time, Mechiko,
dear. I don't want to have to scrape it off the
floor."
Mechiko nodded her understanding and rushed
out to get more. Yukina stared in astonishment at
the about of hot food that Mechiko started to
bring in.
"How could you have possibly found the time
to fix all of these Shiori?"
"Don't you remember? We were supposed to
have a big family picnic today anyway," Shiori
reminded the perplexed Koorimei.
Understanding dawned on Yukina as she
remembered the plans they had made several weeks
ago. Shiori was going to bring all the main
dishes and Yukina the side dishes and desserts.
In fact her freezer was full of chilled yogurt
pies.
While Mechiko was bringing the food Shiori
had put away all the scatted pots and pans. Once
done with that she opened up the mysterious
suitcase. Still holding the fragrant long
stemmed, white roses, Yukina leaned over the human
woman's shoulder to get a better look. Yukina
started to laugh immediately.
It was the famous emergency kit Kurama had
made for his mother. Yukina had heard stories
about it from Shiori and Kurama's brother, but she
had assumed that they had been exaggerating about
the extent to which Kurama had gone. The case had
all the normal emergency things: flashlight, road
flares, blanket, water, and car oil, but besides
that it had: food rations, candles, rope, flare
gun, small folding tent, pillow, cooking
equipment, hunting knife and a strange foil
bundle. Kurama was certainly... protective of his
mother.
Shiori pulled the silver bundle out of the
suitcase and on Mechiko's next delivery asked her
to return it to the car. Yukina watched her shake
out the bundle and fold the large square of
metallic fabric in half. Still having no idea
what it was, Yukina followed Shiori to the oven.
The human woman pulled out the rack with Kyuukai
and his roasting pan and with the edges of the
silver cloth she picked up and wrapped her
grandson in it.
"Shiori!" Yukina exclaimed as Kurama's mother
held the infant close.
=============
end part a of chapter 19