Note: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho, blah blah blah....
This chapter was inspired by the Linkin Park Song: Easier To Run
~Chapter 3: Kurama's Voices~
Silence. Dead silence. No one spoke, but everyone did inch closer to Kurama's position, hoping to be filled on with what they did not know.
"Oh, where's Botan when you need her..." Yusuke muttered, glancing up at the sky, hoping to see that 'Grim Reaper' come down on her flying stick. But nothing. He turned back to Kurama.
"Whatdaya mean, a she?" Kuwabara released Yusuke quickly, and was now staring at Kurama with a dumbfounded look.
Hiei, on the other hand, was as normal looking as ever. Yet unusually silent at the moment. He had nothing to say.
"Female, Kuwabara. But something was not right..." Kurama turned, and began walking in the direction towards the forest area located nearest to the town. Everyone watched...
"Not right? Whaddaya think that means, Urameshi?" Kuwabara glanced over to Yusuke, now, for answers.
Hiei, after coming to the conclusion it was best to leave Kurama alone, and not wanting to be stuck with the ningens, had left.
"I'm not sure Kuwabara. But maybe we should found out ourselves." Yusuke took hold of Kuwabara's jacket, and began pulling him in the direction where the figure disappeared. Opposite of Kurama.
"Kurama... oh, Kurama, can't you hear me?"
No response. Just the sound of feet on grass, and the soft call of birds in the forest that the kitsune, Kurama, walked through.
"You've come this far, and not said a word. Will you continue to walk through this twilight without letting me hear your voice? Kuramai, I know you're out there...."
No sign on that pale face showed of what was going inside his head. His lips were set in an emotionless line, his stunning green eyes focused on the path ahead of him. He was trying to figure out where the voice was coming from.
"Dear dear, whatever shall I do with you? You don't listen to anybody.. but maybe if you saw..."
He froze in his tracks after pulling both his feet together. Back was placed against a tree as those lush green hues stared ahead of him. He was waiting, thinking the woman from before would reveal herself.. Instead he was given... something like a headache.
But far worse.
It was a good thing no one was around, for this was hardly anything Kurama would allow himself to be seen doing in public, or around another person, ningen or youkai.
Hands came up to clasp his head as immense pain was caught there. He blinked once, and was stunned into silence and became a statue and what he thought he saw in that, literally, blink of an eye.
As soon as those lids had closed, an image of blood being splattered across cool, clear marble can stained the usually black vision.
Eyes shuttered close once more, and stayed there, as the voice began to speak in his head. Like a narrator..but a hell of a lot more confusing.
"Sometimes I remember, the darkness of my past. Bringing back these memories, I wish I never had..."
Horrified, he watched without control as what was probably this one of this voice's memories play out before his closed eyelids.
He could just pick out the fleeting details of the rushing figure he himself had encountered early with Yusuke and the others, running through a sea of ningens, Katana glinting with every movement, seen yet hidden. He could already tell what was going to happen next, like a bad plot line.
Shocked were the faces of those, yet still blinking. Blood slowly began to seep from different areas on the body, until they fell apart all together, innards mingling with those of others, and blood seeping down the slanted ground.
Over all this bloodshed, untouched by the dead gazes of victims, stood the murderer. One hand, wrapped up in bandages it seemed, reached down to easily pick up one of the human heads. Eyes rolled from the back of the head to gaze at it's killer, before a mini tanto was launched from inside both sleeves, and popped the eyes, there on sight.
The liquids of the eyes seeped back down into the rotting flesh and bone. A grin crept onto unseen lips as the head was given a final toss, and hands placed on the hilt of a wakizashi. One glint of shimmering metal, yet the head burst into about five pieces, the brains splattering across the ground.
It was so... cruel.
"Sometimes I think of letting go, and never looking back. And never moving forward so, there'll never be a past..."
Souls untangled themselves from their demolished bodies, and each one was rippling on the wind to each empty vials on necklace, anklets, and bracelets that the black figured, the youkai, wore. She was collecting souls, but for what purpose?
Those green eyes slowly opened, and beheld that same figure standing before him. Kurama was stunned as what he saw before him, but did not let that creep into his face. Calm, collected was his appearance as always. So was his voice.
"So tell me, why did you choose to tell me this?"
"You're the only one who'd understand, Shuuichi. Or maybe I should call you by your youkai name, as I was before, Kurama."
"I'd like to know why you go on killing innocents without feeling so guilty."
"I'd prefer not to answer that." A hand drifted towards the figure's, her, sword, but stopped as soon as it was seen Kurama himself was ready for battle, even if he did not look it.
"Then, answer this, why won't you change? It seems you don't like this way of life."
"If I could change, I would. Take back the pain? I would. Retrace every wrong move I made, I would. If I could stand up and take the blame... yes, I would. I would take all the shame to the grave. BUT I CANNOT."
Instead her hand drifted upwards, and unlatched the cloak she wore. It fell to the ground, and only a moment's glance was allowed, before cloak was snatched up, and she tore off. Too fast to be seen by ningen eyes... but he knew...
"Naoko!" Kurama's eyes actually widened as a step forward was taken, hand extended. "Wait!"
"No time to play, Kurama. I've got a ningen to meet. And I do believe to know him... Kuwabara!"
~Next Chapter: Number Four, Kuwabara's Trial On Honor~
Next chapter might not be up for a while, because I'm going to work really hard on it to get it as close to the show/manga as possible.
Review, please!