Chapter Ten: Double Casket
Disclaimer: I do not own YYH or the poem about Life (Jessie B. Rittenhouse) or the lyrics to "Love Me Tender" (Elvis Presley) . All other verses/themes/ideas are of my making.
Warning: May be some sexual content, harsh language, violence, and unusual relationships. (Yaoi/Yuri/Het/etc.) YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. Flames towards this issue and plagiarism will NOT be tolerated.
Written by- AoiHyou
Posted- 10/3/03
Chapter Note: This chapter goes by incredibly quickly. I skip many things, and there are little, if any, series dialogue included. It may be a bit confusing if you have never seen the series before. If you want a summary of the episodes because you haven't seen them yet, go to under the Toguro section. ^^ I might do it more in detail in another chapter, but for now, this is all. Gomen.
Author's Note: I'm not sure if Bui was human or demon. I mean, they say that it's a demon fight, and you'd assume he was demon because he had that fighting aura, but I don't remember them ever telling us... and Kuwabara was human but participated, too. Either way, I set him as a human in this story. (Though, Inari knows why his hair is blue.)
Dedication: This chapter is an extremely late birthday present for Kyrene-san. ^^;; Gomen for the wait! Sorry it sucks... maybe the next chappie?
~*~
He sometimes dreamt of blood.
He couldn't see faces. He couldn't hear anything.
He just saw that brilliant crimson...
Splattered on the wall.
Almost as if it was just paint- bright red paint. As if some five year old had carelessly stepped on a tube of the substance, and it had been left there, the toddler already fleeing from his mistake.
And the toddler would get yelled at later.
But there was a difference.
The toddler did not pay with his life, and the paint did not stain one's mind like coffee on an alabaster carpet.
He sometimes dreamt of blood.
Sometimes,
he woke up,
laughing.
~*~
How would one describe a day in Makai?
Well, ironically enough, living in the jungle of raw greed was sort of like living the life of a human cop.
The difference was that a cop did his job to protect the good of others.
And a demon lived like a cop to protect his own life.
There would be something every day. Just little things. Little things like, getting caught in a drunk brawl, or having your treasure ransacked. They were little because you seldom died from them.
But there were also days that seemed to thirst for blood.
There was no bullshit like 'I had a bad feeling that day, I knew it was coming.'
You wouldn't know it was coming, unless you'd planned it, or someone had told you. Both of which only happened if you were a high-ranking youkai.
For a common demon, those days were just shocks. Shocks of metal, shocks of power, shocks of blood.
And they wouldn't know what hit them.
They would just be dead.
And that would be that.
For the higher ranking, life was like a constant game. A game that had few mind twists, but so many brute physical traps that one had to be at the peak of fitness, or have some form of protection, to survive a week.
Being injured was a death wish.
And you could not hide your injuries.
Demons smelled blood even if you were not bleeding, even an internal injury would be like a red flag.
A red flag that hissed 'Kill me! Kill me! Killmekillmekillmekillmekillme!' over and over until even the demon's friends would turn on it and the chant would be ringing in their ears as their fangs dripped with their friend's warm blood.
Yet that did not mean all injured demons died.
Some of the higher ranking could live through power.
And even the weak ones, or ones that had had their energy drained from whatever battle that had marred them, could live.
But living had a price.
And Bui was willing to pay that price.
~*~
He was a scantily dressed human.
But this human, with the remains of his business suit-obviously from Ningenkai-still adorned by a thread, had power.
He could feel a battle aura already seeping from him, though he obviously had no training.
He could see the other demons staring at him, the Makai honed senses queuing them all in a silent rush for blood, as his wounds throbbed internally.
His purple eyes flickered a bit as he set down the drink he'd carried out from the bar onto a barter counter.
Just as a goat youkai (or he guessed, from the ridiculous horns) was ready to ram the ningen, he stepped in.
"This is Makai, child. I see you're in a bit of a pinch."
He smiled lightly as the human stiffened. He smelled fear.
"Who...?"
"My name, is Karasu."
~*~
He could feel them staring at him.
Bloodbloodbloodbloodbloodblood...
Nobody dared come near him, yet all watched. He was the prey in the middle of lions. All waiting for the first to strike.
The man was confused.
Where was he? How had he gotten here?
And why did these... people... look so strange...?
And so hungry?
He was afraid. Not for his life, oddly, but for something more.
If he died, who would take care of his family? Who would care for his little Tamara and Sam? Who would take them out for ice cream when their mother had a headache? Who would go with them five miles out of the way to a cider mill just to get them caramel apples when they sold them at the corner store? Who would...
Who would Sakura kiss in the morning and send off to work? Who would love her like he had? Who would help his wife look after Sam and Tamara? Who...
Who?
Not yet... not yet... I can't die yet...
His eyes became panicked, like those of a cornered animal, they darted back and forth...
And a startlingly clear sound made its way into his ears.
"This is Makai, child. I see you're in a bit of a pinch."
A warm voice. A warm voice with power undercurrent it... a warm voice that smiled at him without him even turning around.
As if to confirm the thought, his body slowly turned, and his eyes caught long flowing hair, with smiling violet eyes.
"Who...?"
"My name, is Karasu." He'd barely seen those lips move. Such feminine, beautiful features...
"Oh...?" He stared blankly at this sudden speaker.
"Perhaps," it softly began, "we should go somewhere more private?"
He remembered the people around them, and shuddered anew when he saw their bloodthirsty stares.
"Anywhere," he muttered, "but here."
"Oh... really..."
There was a thoughtful, almost devilish pause, and he shivered.
"Anywhere?"
~*~
I bargained with Life for a penny,
And Life would pay no more,
However I begged at evening,
When I counted my scanty score;
For Life is just employer,
He gives you what you ask,
But once you have set the wages,
Why, you must bear the task.
~*~
He remembered what a 'bad day' used to be.
A little coffee spilled, a bitch secretary, a meeting you'd forgotten about, dropping your cell phone in the toilet, your wife claiming you were cheating, your children getting called to the office...
But that, that was fucking nothing.
His old Christian ways condemned him at the thought, but he didn't care. His mind didn't matter anymore.
In hell, all that mattered was strength.
Strength to live, strength to kill. Strength to harness death.
He'd become strong. Better.
But not the best.
He needed to be the best.
He needed to be the best...
Because he wanted to beat who he considered the best.
"Come on, Bui. We don't have all day."
He needed to beat him to get home. He was under Karasu's debt, but he had to get home to his family... he had to show them he was alive.
Yet, even as he told himself that over and over, he found himself thinking about how beautiful the raven was. How the outfit he wore seemed to cut into him as the wind blew.
"I'll catch you some day, Karasu... some day..."
And as he whispered that into the wind, quiet enough for no one to hear...
But he didn't know why he wanted to.
He didn't know why he had to be the best.
And almost daily, he wondered what he'd done
to deserve this hell.
Just as his legs started to move to follow Karasu, he remembered something from the Bible.
Adam and Eve had been vanquished from the Garden of Eden because they had eaten the forbidden fruit.
They had lived the forbidden love...
And at this thought, Bui glanced at the black haired beauty before him, thinking about his wife and children at ningenkai...
And couldn't help but think...
I'm sorry.
~*~
"I thought I could love you forever... but forever... what is forever?"
~*~
His mind clouded sometimes.
As if he were trying to look at the world through a picture negative.
His thoughts would slow, and he would see...
It wasn't always, his seer powers only kicked in when he was desperate, almost dead, or in some way subconscious.
But sometimes, sometimes they came back.
And he smiled at the latest image his past powers brought him.
"My Youko... My sweet Youko..."
Shuichi Minamino was beautiful.
And he was waiting for him...
At Ningenkai.
~*~
"Often, the punishment for living is paid because of the desire to be loved..."
~*~
"What?"
"You heard me, Bui. We're going to Ningenkai[1]."
"But why?" Bui stared at his companion. Flashes of his past jumbled in his mind as he remembered... as he remembered things which were fading more and more in his memory...
"Because, Bui... we must pay somebody a visit."
"What?"
"Someone is waiting for me..."
"But I don't---"
"Someone who has been mine for his past life..." The crow was talking more to himself than anybody.
Bui's blood ran cold at that single word- '...mine...'
"My Itoshii...[2]"
And his heart shattered.
He didn't even notice Karasu brush past him, laughing with his head thrown back, his hair wild, shrieking in an insane joy.
My Itoshii...
Youko Kurama would be his.
Trailing behind the joyous crow, Bui wondered what the 'best' really was.
Sam used to say he was the best at spelling. Tamara used to say she was the best at reading.
And, slightly disturbed, he wondered why his heart didn't yearn for them as much...
And...
He couldn't remember their faces.
~*~
Love me tender, love me sweet,
Never let me go,
You have made my life complete,
And I love you so...
~*~
They'd just crossed the portal.
The portal itself had been trouble enough, draining half of Karasu's ki. Bui's battle aura helped little, for it was more offensive, not psychic. Karasu, though, with his seer experience, had been able to erect a makeshift portal, just long enough for them to make it.
"So this," he hissed, "is Ningenkai."
Birds took flight as the portal dispersed, imploding into a flash of purple.
The people who had seen that light would probably tell you it was just a joke a teenager had played, letting off fireworks at the park.
None of them would guess that that had been a signal...
The entrance of a Forbidden Child.
But miles away, something did notice them.
Something not human, for it had no soul.
Something that smirked as it felt their power enter on its realm.
"Otouto[3], I think we have some friends to make..."
Toguro Otouto's sunglasses flashed as his Aniki[4] whispered in his ear.
"Aa."
Oblivious, Bui noted quietly to himself that the portal had looked almost identical to the whirling ball of energy he'd fallen into years ago...
The trigger to his transition into the 'hell'. The cause of his departure from his family...
What were their names?
But he found, as he gazed at the flow of midnight tresses...
That he couldn't really care.
~*~
I worked for a menial's hire,
Only to learn, dismayed,
That any wage I had asked of Life,
Life would have paid.
~*~
This couldn't be.
Karasu staggered, his eyes blinded from a previous blow. Tiny veins in his eyes had exploded from the pressure put on him, and his eyes bled, making him see through a filmy red.
He could hear Bui near him, his battle aura low and exhausted. He was still trying to protect him.
How could someone be this strong? In Ningenkai? He looked at the two -seeming to be-humans before him, his bloodied vision making them seem even more horrid.
"Give it up, weaklings. You're pathetic..."
That annoying high pitched voice... he grit his teeth, dispersing another bomb, but knowing before it hit that the smaller one would deflect it.
"Should I kill them, then, Otouto?"
"..."
Silence.
Bui had a fleeting image of himself-years ago- threatening to 'ground' someone... And he wondered who it was, he tried make the image clearer, trying to get a look at that face.
"No."
Oh, honey, it wasn't his fault. Don't ground him...
"But we will kill you... if you don't cooperate."
But Bui hadn't noticed, he was busy trying to recollect the touch of a dream woman's hand on his shoulder. He was too busy trying to remember...
Or was he trying to forget?
~*~
"I swear, Toguro, some day, I will kill you. "
They had agreed, quietly, to obey the 'Toguro kyoudai', and Bui was surprised when he heard his companion hiss those words directly at the two hated enemies.
It was a puzzle on why Karasu had even accepted their 'mercy'. The crow was a prideful character, despite his naming, and he saw no motive for him to agree...
That was, until he looked into his eyes. One look into those purple-bordering on crimson- eyes, was enough to make one understand.
He was living for something.
Toguro Otouto smirked as his brother cackled shrilly.
"We will see."
Bui wondered if they were blind, or if they'd just missed the unlocked passion in Karasu's eyes.
I will kill you.
...for him.
~*~
Love me tender, love me sweet,
Never let me go,
You have made my life complete,
And I love you so...
~*~
It had been so long till they'd reached this day.
Bui looked sideways, through his thick armor, glancing at his companion.
He still remembered that day, just weeks ago...
Toguro Otouto had offered them a job. He'd invited them to participate in the Dark Tournament-apparently a big fight between youkai.
Karasu had, of course, refused. He did not take pride in working 'under' another, even if it was just an official tournament.
But what surprised him was what had made the raven agree.
Toguro Otouto's sunglasses had gleamed, and he'd said in a dead tone,
"A certain Fox will be there, Raven."
And that had been all. Karasu had silently nodded his head, and walked off to train again.
And now, they were here. At the Tournament. Members of the Toguro team...
But his mind was still caught on something... he could have sworn... that Karasu had been smiling that day.
"Well, look what we have here..." he snapped out of his daydream as his partner's voice echoed quietly in the corridors.
A shock of crimson hair caught his site...
A certain Fox...
~*~
"Well, look what we have here..." Karasu tried to hide the glee in his tone as he caught site of his love.
The Youko stiffened, his delicate ningen shoulders shuddering.
Youko Kurama.
~*~
"Some of the greatest moments in life are never to be remembered... but the emotion behind them always is."
~*~
He didn't remember what he'd said exactly, but later, when his love was long gone and he'd promised to see him again...
He just had a feeling of deep satisfaction.
He smirked, his fingers clenching around the single strand of blood red hair he'd intertwined in his fingers.
He didn't remember how he'd gotten the strand, either. He just knew he'd touched his love... for the first time... he'd smelled his love, for the first time...
And if felt so good.
Soon, Koishii[5], soon we will be together.
And Karasu couldn't help but hope their battle would come soon.
You will look beautiful... splashed in your own blood...
And with that thought, he stalked off, having long ago forgotten about his companion.
~*~
Don't blink!
Don't blink!
It's dangerous,
Do you know what,
You could have missed?
~*~
All he knew was red.
He had no heart, yet something pulsed.
Badan... badan..[6].
He no longer felt pain, his body was numb, his spirit slipping out...
For the second time.
He looked with glassy eyes in front of him...
He was so beautiful. So utterly beautiful.
He would have smiled if he'd had the strength.
His love was sprawled in his own blood, what was supposed to be the last of his strength drained into the plant...
The very plant that was killing the crow.
He looked down, glancing at the vampire plant which was blossoming from his blood.
I was right... he wanted to whisper, you do look beautiful... splashed in your own blood...
And with that, he fell limp, his soul swishing out of the tortured body, and heading somewhere else...
Somewhere he'd been before.
Shadow...
And the only regret he had...
Was that he hadn't killed Toguro.
But Yusuke Urameshi would take care of that soon enough...
We will meet again, Itoshii... he whispered, soaring past the unconscious Youko gently.
~*~
Nobody would know, hours later that Karasu's body was not crushed beneath a pile of rubble which had once been the arena.
Nobody would know that Karasu's corpse was buried on that island, under a sakura tree...
And years later, when Bui would visit Hiei at Mukuro's castle, he would not remember anything.
He would not remember those beautiful lips, or that silky hair, of the flowing, curved body...
But sometimes, he dreamt about raven.
Sometimes, he dreamt about sakura trees.
He couldn't place faces, just flashes of black and soft pink. Black feathers and pink petals, falling into an endless pit...
He sometimes woke up crying...
And wondered why he was whispering,
"I'm sorry..."
~*~
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry... I didn't mean to love you..."
~*~
End Chapter Twelve.
Yes, I realize Bui was really pointless, but wasn't he that way in the series? O.o
Yes, Bui fell through a portal into Makai, and was injured that way. That was how Karasu found him. How else would a human have ended up in Makai?
The reason (if you noticed) I made Bui fall in love with Karasu, was because I thought the symbolism was beautiful ^^. The point that Bui was paying the price for 'living', morphed into paying the price of 'loving', and you see him forget his previous intensions quickly as he sets his sights on Karasu. Silly Bui. I wanted to show the decay of human moral into animal desire. Yes. I was bored.
Also, the thing about Bui forgetting. Humans have a natural tendency to forget things they don't want to remember. They do this subconsciously. Some people, when too deeply grieved, will develop a sort of memory block, or willing amnesia. That's what Bui had.
Key
[1]Ningenkai- Human world/realm.
[2]Itoshii- Beloved one (something like that)
[3]Otouto- Younger brother
[4]Aniki- Older brother
[5]Koishii- Pretty much the same as [2]
[6]Badan...- Sort of a Japanese boy's comic dramatic sound for heart beat. I couldn't help myself ^^;;
Contact me for more translations. Gomen if I missed any ^^;;
I would like to thank oOKeairaOo-san for beta reading this chapter. Gomennnn >.