3 Years Later
The trees surrounding him looked so familiar, they hadn't changed. Nothing had changed, really, it all looked completely the same. The tree trunks stood tall, creating a protective fence around the small camp, attempting to shield from the rest of the Makai with their thick branches and numerous leaves. Some vines had even grown from the ground, winding from tree to tree, to interlace them all together. Here and there a few flowers were scattered about, the beautiful kind that could only be seen at night, which now bloomed brilliantly in the moonlight.
It couldn't truly be called night, where they stood now. For in spite of the trees and the thick canopy, what moonlight that broke through lit up the forest floor with its ethereal light, making nothing seem real.
Not even the newly covered patch of dirt, among all the plants and wild life.
Or perhaps that was just his wishful thinking.
Kurama, unlike the forest, had changed. Three years had passed and he'd grown, his youko side asserting itself more. Now he could only suppress it particularly, creating a strange hybrid form. His hair was still red, streaked in strands of silver, with youko ears small enough to be hidden if he so choose, but no longer would they disappear. His tail had grown to match his hair, but it was silver streaked in red, acting as a counter to match his new coloring. His eyes had apparently also changed to a swirled mix of green and gold, much more lively and captivating then before, even if the expression on his face never seemed to match any more.
Oddly enough, for the last three years, and especially the last two, Kurama was finding less and less reason to smile. He didn't even dance that often any more as he'd used to, not able to really find a reason for the smoothness that was required in his steps. Instead the days blended in and out, mostly with him sitting off by himself, remembering the two he'd just recently added to the list of people he'd lost.
"Hey, kid."
Kurama didn't glance up from his resting spot on the large rock, one knee propping his chin up as he hugged it. He'd heard Kuronue approaching, but he wasn't really interested in moving. "Hey."
"You coming back tonight? It's getting pretty late. Yukina was getting worried."
Kurama's eyes moved back over the patch of earth again, which was only recently starting to grow over with plants, then nodded a bit. "Yeah, I guess I should." With those words he finally moved, standing up and stretching a bit. Scratching a bit behind one of his ears he turned toward Kuronue. "I still look as depressed as the grave, don't I?"
Kuronue cracked a small smile. "Not too bad, you're getting better. But I think it would help more if you didn't sit out here all the time. I'm sure Yomi enjoys the company, but you have a life too. He'd understand that. It has been two years."
"Yeah, I know. Maybe it's the fact that he's the only one who has a real grave to go back to, none of the others do. Because lately... I've been thinking about Hiei more."
The winged demon nodded in understanding. "He'll come back. Little kid's too damn pissy to just up and die. The Spirit World would kick him back out for being so annoying."
Kurama actually let out a soft chuckle at that. "You know, I can actually almost believe that."
"Well, you laughed, my job is done. Now come say hello to Mukuro."
"Mukuro is here?" Kurama couldn't help the speed added to his step. The last time he'd seen Mukuro was when the wagons had met up again a little after Yomi's death. Since the destruction of the villages had started by the flesh eaters, they'd met up less and less, more concerned with safety. Meetings now only occurred a couple times a year, and they were always smaller as many felt that a large group only meant making themselves a larger target. After years of being apart, though, people were starting to lose their fear. Even if village still turned up burned with no youkai in sight every now and then.
As sad as it was to admit, the caution and fear caused by the roaming group of flesh eaters was becoming common and almost being taken for granted. It was sad, but there was really nothing they could do about it. The Makai wasn't really a world made for order. And the small groups of travelers who wandered along it's paths and roads certainly weren't equipped enough to start up a youkai hunt for those responsible. Things like this, like it not, had to be taken at their own pace and dealt with in the same way. There simply was no other way to do it.
Kurama picked up his steps a bit and reached the wagon before Kuronue, immediately spotting Mukuro. Smiling bright he jumped forward and hugged the youkai woman on the unscarred side of her body. Mukuro responded with a smile and hugged him back.
"Kuronue didn't tell me you were in the area!"
"I wasn't aware you were either, but I heard there was another wagon not too far from my own, so I came to stop by. It is good to see you again. How are you doing?"
Kurama finally released her from the hug and smiled sincerely, and it was possibly the first time he'd smiled sincerely in a long time. "Pretty good, same as usual."
"Pretty good, my ass. You spend all your time moping." Kuronue said, for which he received a light punch to his shoulder. Playfully he winced, but it was ruined by the smile on his face.
"Kuronue!"
"What? You do! And of course I've noticed you baka. So..." he took Kurama by the shoulders and pushed him toward Mukuro "now she gets to cheer you up."
"Very funny Kuronue," Mukuro commented in a dry voice.
"Hey, I'm serious. I can't do a thing for him and neither can Yukina, so now it's time for the great and mighty Mukuro to take over."
Mukuro sighed and shook her head, almost seeming to give in for a second. But, a moment later, she turned and gave a small whistle. On cue Jin and Touya came out, obviously acting as some sort of bodyguards for her while she was out checking out the rumors about the wagon. Jin flashed a bright smile when he saw Kurama, while Touya's expression remained unchanged.
"Mukuro... wait a second..." Kurama tried to take a step back, eyeing Jin and his cheerful mood warily.
"Jin, Kurama's been depressed lately and needs some cheering up." A smirk grew across her own face. "Be a dear and help him, I have some things to discuss with the little nocturnal entertainer here."
Jin just grinned more and nodded his own agreement, and before Kurama could even attempt to protest again he was being swept away by the happy little redheaded and horned demon, Touya following quietly behind.
Mukuro just turned to Kuronue with a smug expression.
"You know, a comment like that might almost make me believe you're starting to respect me."
"Don't get your hopes up," she responded in good humor. Kuronue just laughed.
Back at Mukuro's tent, Kuronue sat with the scarred woman around a low table. Laid out across the table was a small pile of papers with various markings of villages and scribbled names. Rough colored lines outlaid terrain while black lines seemed to indicate roads that crisscrossed over the entire paper. Kuronue blinked a bit in the light from a hole above in the tent.
"Maps?"
Mukuro nodded.
"But we don't usually keep maps." For as long as Kuronue had been a wanderer he'd never seen a map used by any of the others around him. Part of the life style was the freedom to wander where ever and whenever they chose. Maps were viewed as an unneeded part of life, because they confined things to stationary places, locking them down and trapping them. The whole part of this life style was the freedom to wander and maps went against that freedom, because when you marked a place down you denied it the ability to move or to grow and confined it to the space indicated by a name, line and dot.
"We don't. I do. I started doing this a couple years ago because I thought there might be a use for it in the future. There's something I need you to look at. See these markings?" She moved her hand and indicated a series of red dots that created an uneven circular shape on the map. "These are the villages that were attacked this year."
Kuronue gave a small nod, noticing that the distance between the dots seemed close to the same. But that didn't mean anything, considering how rough these maps looked. He'd seen the ones that one could buy in the markets that claimed to lay out the entire Makai, and those actually had measurements on them. He doubted Mukuro had taken the time to actually use some sort of measuring method, but then again, maybe she had. There really was no way to know how accurate maps were, which was part of the reason he'd never personally used them.
"And these... were the ones attacked last year." Mukuro pulled out another sheet of paper with relatively the same markings. This time the red marks of the villages that were attacked were different, but Kuronue didn't have to look hard to see that they followed the same pattern. Kuronue frowned.
"Feeding circles."
Mukuro nodded.
All animals fed in circles, that was common knowledge. Even those that changed location according to the season always fed in a circular pattern around their 'home'. The smallest bug to the bulkiest youkai followed this pattern and to a point, even the wanders did. Most didn't like to admit it, but nearly every wanderer had a location in the Makai, if not a few, that was important to them that they would always return to every now and then. Kurama had Yomi's grave. Kuronue had his own home... even Yomi had the grave of a previous lover that he liked to circle around and visit every few years, when he'd been alive himself.
Apparently these flesh eaters were no exception.
"They appear to be circulating the same area. I know it's been three years, but I only started keeping track two years ago. And from these markings it would appear that they live in this area." She moved her fingers and indicated the center area of the map.
"You aren't suggesting that we go in there and attack them, are you?"
Mukuro sat back, frowning at the maps as she crossed her arms. "I'm not suggesting anything. I merely set out to try and find out where these attacks were coming from. Beyond that..." She stopped and stood up, pacing a bit. "You and I both know that even if we could meet up with all the other wagons and convince them, chances are we wouldn't be a match for these demons. And there is a small chance we will even be able to gather half a group."
"So we know the source, but not how to fix it." Kuronue's own mouth shifted into a low frown. "Well, it is better to nothing. If we warn people to stay out of this area they'll just move, won't they."
"Any hungry creature would. At this point the only solution seems to be to pass on the information to those who are in the area, and let them decide what to do. Anything beyond that requires much more organization then I think many of us are willing to put up with."
"A rock and a hard place. How encouraging." Kuronue leaned back forward to look over the maps again, pondering exactly what to do with this new information. With Yomi dead, Kuronue had become the so-called leader of their wagon and it was his duty to make decisions on such subjects. But for the life of him he wasn't sure what to do. He decided speaking with both Kurama and Yukina that night would probably be the best choice of action, and let them help decide. Beyond that...
"Mukuro."
Mukuro glanced back over to him, nodding for him to continue.
"Do you happen to have any news on Hiei?"
The change was slight, but even Kuronue knew her well enough to see the small amount of sadness she allowed to appear in her eyes. In three years the news of Hiei's disappearance had been passed to nearly every wagon they ran into. And yet in three years there had been little more then rumors on the young fire demon. After the first year it had dropped to a quiet subject, only mentioned in whispers and usually followed by looks of pity. It didn't bug Kuronue as much, but he knew it hurt Kurama more and more as time passed.
"Even rumors. Anything. I know he'll ask." Kuronue prompted.
"There have been a few, but no more different then those you're used to. A young short fire demon with a white hair, here, there. The only thing that you might be able to follow up on is one bit I heard. There's a demon who goes by the name of Shigure, of questionable nature."
Kuronue frowned deeply, giving Mukuro his full attention. "I've heard of him."
"There is a fairly creditable rumor that he did a transplant for a fire youkai who matches Hiei's description."
Kuronue jumped up in surprise, hitting his leg on the table edge, hard. He muttered a few choice words and rubbed his leg, wincing. Then he looked back at Mukuro. "You're serious?"
Mukuro simply nodded, a serious expression on her face.
"I am not passing that one on to Kurama, there's no way. Do you happen to know what the transplant was for?"
"No. But you and I both know he will do almost anything he can get his hands on."
"That's what I was afraid of. And don't tell me, I already know about his damn success rate." Kuronue sighed and rubbed his bruised leg again.
Shigure was well known for his weird arts of taking one part of a demon and transplanting it with another. His transplants could be for anything, ranging from piercings of any size with bone, metal or wood, to actual grafting on of wings that were supposed to work. Of course, no one really knew about that considering that a large amount of his 'customers' ended up dead within a short amount of time after the process. No one really knew if it was him killing them on purpose or if it was because his process didn't actually work.
Either way it wasn't safe. And if a demon was going to him for a transplant they were either desperate, or crazy. Sadly Kuronue didn't know the short fire demon enough to know if he fit in either of those categories.
Kuronue sighed softly. "I should probably tell Kurama."
"There is something else... for you, not for Kurama."
The winged youkai frowned at Mukuro. "I don't trust that tone. What weren't you going to tell me?"
A small coy smile crossed Mukuro's face. "There's another wagon with us and someone who's been wanting to talk to you-"
"No." Kuronue snapped the word out immediately, turning a full glare on Mukuro. "No. No. No."
"Kuronue, relax. It's been three years, you could at least talk to him."
"No. I have nothing to say to him, nothing he wants to hear. Three years isn't long enough." With those words he turned and opened the curtain-doorway on the tent. Mukuro didn't stand to stop him, which he was glad of, but her words were probably even more effective.
"Three years is a long time. Talk to him. Or one day he's going to corner you and make you answer, which will only cause you to blow up. If you don't like it, talk to him on your own terms. Don't wait for him to find you. You'll regret it."
Kuronue sighed as he stood at the door. "You know, sometimes... I hate you."
Mukuro just chuckled. "Good luck."
"I'm gonna need it."
The trees surrounding him looked so familiar, they hadn't changed. Nothing had changed, really, it all looked completely the same. The tree trunks stood tall, creating a protective fence around the small camp, attempting to shield from the rest of the Makai with their thick branches and numerous leaves. Some vines had even grown from the ground, winding from tree to tree, to interlace them all together. Here and there a few flowers were scattered about, the beautiful kind that could only be seen at night, which now bloomed brilliantly in the moonlight.
It couldn't truly be called night, where they stood now. For in spite of the trees and the thick canopy, what moonlight that broke through lit up the forest floor with its ethereal light, making nothing seem real.
Not even the newly covered patch of dirt, among all the plants and wild life.
Or perhaps that was just his wishful thinking.
Kurama, unlike the forest, had changed. Three years had passed and he'd grown, his youko side asserting itself more. Now he could only suppress it particularly, creating a strange hybrid form. His hair was still red, streaked in strands of silver, with youko ears small enough to be hidden if he so choose, but no longer would they disappear. His tail had grown to match his hair, but it was silver streaked in red, acting as a counter to match his new coloring. His eyes had apparently also changed to a swirled mix of green and gold, much more lively and captivating then before, even if the expression on his face never seemed to match any more.
Oddly enough, for the last three years, and especially the last two, Kurama was finding less and less reason to smile. He didn't even dance that often any more as he'd used to, not able to really find a reason for the smoothness that was required in his steps. Instead the days blended in and out, mostly with him sitting off by himself, remembering the two he'd just recently added to the list of people he'd lost.
"Hey, kid."
Kurama didn't glance up from his resting spot on the large rock, one knee propping his chin up as he hugged it. He'd heard Kuronue approaching, but he wasn't really interested in moving. "Hey."
"You coming back tonight? It's getting pretty late. Yukina was getting worried."
Kurama's eyes moved back over the patch of earth again, which was only recently starting to grow over with plants, then nodded a bit. "Yeah, I guess I should." With those words he finally moved, standing up and stretching a bit. Scratching a bit behind one of his ears he turned toward Kuronue. "I still look as depressed as the grave, don't I?"
Kuronue cracked a small smile. "Not too bad, you're getting better. But I think it would help more if you didn't sit out here all the time. I'm sure Yomi enjoys the company, but you have a life too. He'd understand that. It has been two years."
"Yeah, I know. Maybe it's the fact that he's the only one who has a real grave to go back to, none of the others do. Because lately... I've been thinking about Hiei more."
The winged demon nodded in understanding. "He'll come back. Little kid's too damn pissy to just up and die. The Spirit World would kick him back out for being so annoying."
Kurama actually let out a soft chuckle at that. "You know, I can actually almost believe that."
"Well, you laughed, my job is done. Now come say hello to Mukuro."
"Mukuro is here?" Kurama couldn't help the speed added to his step. The last time he'd seen Mukuro was when the wagons had met up again a little after Yomi's death. Since the destruction of the villages had started by the flesh eaters, they'd met up less and less, more concerned with safety. Meetings now only occurred a couple times a year, and they were always smaller as many felt that a large group only meant making themselves a larger target. After years of being apart, though, people were starting to lose their fear. Even if village still turned up burned with no youkai in sight every now and then.
As sad as it was to admit, the caution and fear caused by the roaming group of flesh eaters was becoming common and almost being taken for granted. It was sad, but there was really nothing they could do about it. The Makai wasn't really a world made for order. And the small groups of travelers who wandered along it's paths and roads certainly weren't equipped enough to start up a youkai hunt for those responsible. Things like this, like it not, had to be taken at their own pace and dealt with in the same way. There simply was no other way to do it.
Kurama picked up his steps a bit and reached the wagon before Kuronue, immediately spotting Mukuro. Smiling bright he jumped forward and hugged the youkai woman on the unscarred side of her body. Mukuro responded with a smile and hugged him back.
"Kuronue didn't tell me you were in the area!"
"I wasn't aware you were either, but I heard there was another wagon not too far from my own, so I came to stop by. It is good to see you again. How are you doing?"
Kurama finally released her from the hug and smiled sincerely, and it was possibly the first time he'd smiled sincerely in a long time. "Pretty good, same as usual."
"Pretty good, my ass. You spend all your time moping." Kuronue said, for which he received a light punch to his shoulder. Playfully he winced, but it was ruined by the smile on his face.
"Kuronue!"
"What? You do! And of course I've noticed you baka. So..." he took Kurama by the shoulders and pushed him toward Mukuro "now she gets to cheer you up."
"Very funny Kuronue," Mukuro commented in a dry voice.
"Hey, I'm serious. I can't do a thing for him and neither can Yukina, so now it's time for the great and mighty Mukuro to take over."
Mukuro sighed and shook her head, almost seeming to give in for a second. But, a moment later, she turned and gave a small whistle. On cue Jin and Touya came out, obviously acting as some sort of bodyguards for her while she was out checking out the rumors about the wagon. Jin flashed a bright smile when he saw Kurama, while Touya's expression remained unchanged.
"Mukuro... wait a second..." Kurama tried to take a step back, eyeing Jin and his cheerful mood warily.
"Jin, Kurama's been depressed lately and needs some cheering up." A smirk grew across her own face. "Be a dear and help him, I have some things to discuss with the little nocturnal entertainer here."
Jin just grinned more and nodded his own agreement, and before Kurama could even attempt to protest again he was being swept away by the happy little redheaded and horned demon, Touya following quietly behind.
Mukuro just turned to Kuronue with a smug expression.
"You know, a comment like that might almost make me believe you're starting to respect me."
"Don't get your hopes up," she responded in good humor. Kuronue just laughed.
Back at Mukuro's tent, Kuronue sat with the scarred woman around a low table. Laid out across the table was a small pile of papers with various markings of villages and scribbled names. Rough colored lines outlaid terrain while black lines seemed to indicate roads that crisscrossed over the entire paper. Kuronue blinked a bit in the light from a hole above in the tent.
"Maps?"
Mukuro nodded.
"But we don't usually keep maps." For as long as Kuronue had been a wanderer he'd never seen a map used by any of the others around him. Part of the life style was the freedom to wander where ever and whenever they chose. Maps were viewed as an unneeded part of life, because they confined things to stationary places, locking them down and trapping them. The whole part of this life style was the freedom to wander and maps went against that freedom, because when you marked a place down you denied it the ability to move or to grow and confined it to the space indicated by a name, line and dot.
"We don't. I do. I started doing this a couple years ago because I thought there might be a use for it in the future. There's something I need you to look at. See these markings?" She moved her hand and indicated a series of red dots that created an uneven circular shape on the map. "These are the villages that were attacked this year."
Kuronue gave a small nod, noticing that the distance between the dots seemed close to the same. But that didn't mean anything, considering how rough these maps looked. He'd seen the ones that one could buy in the markets that claimed to lay out the entire Makai, and those actually had measurements on them. He doubted Mukuro had taken the time to actually use some sort of measuring method, but then again, maybe she had. There really was no way to know how accurate maps were, which was part of the reason he'd never personally used them.
"And these... were the ones attacked last year." Mukuro pulled out another sheet of paper with relatively the same markings. This time the red marks of the villages that were attacked were different, but Kuronue didn't have to look hard to see that they followed the same pattern. Kuronue frowned.
"Feeding circles."
Mukuro nodded.
All animals fed in circles, that was common knowledge. Even those that changed location according to the season always fed in a circular pattern around their 'home'. The smallest bug to the bulkiest youkai followed this pattern and to a point, even the wanders did. Most didn't like to admit it, but nearly every wanderer had a location in the Makai, if not a few, that was important to them that they would always return to every now and then. Kurama had Yomi's grave. Kuronue had his own home... even Yomi had the grave of a previous lover that he liked to circle around and visit every few years, when he'd been alive himself.
Apparently these flesh eaters were no exception.
"They appear to be circulating the same area. I know it's been three years, but I only started keeping track two years ago. And from these markings it would appear that they live in this area." She moved her fingers and indicated the center area of the map.
"You aren't suggesting that we go in there and attack them, are you?"
Mukuro sat back, frowning at the maps as she crossed her arms. "I'm not suggesting anything. I merely set out to try and find out where these attacks were coming from. Beyond that..." She stopped and stood up, pacing a bit. "You and I both know that even if we could meet up with all the other wagons and convince them, chances are we wouldn't be a match for these demons. And there is a small chance we will even be able to gather half a group."
"So we know the source, but not how to fix it." Kuronue's own mouth shifted into a low frown. "Well, it is better to nothing. If we warn people to stay out of this area they'll just move, won't they."
"Any hungry creature would. At this point the only solution seems to be to pass on the information to those who are in the area, and let them decide what to do. Anything beyond that requires much more organization then I think many of us are willing to put up with."
"A rock and a hard place. How encouraging." Kuronue leaned back forward to look over the maps again, pondering exactly what to do with this new information. With Yomi dead, Kuronue had become the so-called leader of their wagon and it was his duty to make decisions on such subjects. But for the life of him he wasn't sure what to do. He decided speaking with both Kurama and Yukina that night would probably be the best choice of action, and let them help decide. Beyond that...
"Mukuro."
Mukuro glanced back over to him, nodding for him to continue.
"Do you happen to have any news on Hiei?"
The change was slight, but even Kuronue knew her well enough to see the small amount of sadness she allowed to appear in her eyes. In three years the news of Hiei's disappearance had been passed to nearly every wagon they ran into. And yet in three years there had been little more then rumors on the young fire demon. After the first year it had dropped to a quiet subject, only mentioned in whispers and usually followed by looks of pity. It didn't bug Kuronue as much, but he knew it hurt Kurama more and more as time passed.
"Even rumors. Anything. I know he'll ask." Kuronue prompted.
"There have been a few, but no more different then those you're used to. A young short fire demon with a white hair, here, there. The only thing that you might be able to follow up on is one bit I heard. There's a demon who goes by the name of Shigure, of questionable nature."
Kuronue frowned deeply, giving Mukuro his full attention. "I've heard of him."
"There is a fairly creditable rumor that he did a transplant for a fire youkai who matches Hiei's description."
Kuronue jumped up in surprise, hitting his leg on the table edge, hard. He muttered a few choice words and rubbed his leg, wincing. Then he looked back at Mukuro. "You're serious?"
Mukuro simply nodded, a serious expression on her face.
"I am not passing that one on to Kurama, there's no way. Do you happen to know what the transplant was for?"
"No. But you and I both know he will do almost anything he can get his hands on."
"That's what I was afraid of. And don't tell me, I already know about his damn success rate." Kuronue sighed and rubbed his bruised leg again.
Shigure was well known for his weird arts of taking one part of a demon and transplanting it with another. His transplants could be for anything, ranging from piercings of any size with bone, metal or wood, to actual grafting on of wings that were supposed to work. Of course, no one really knew about that considering that a large amount of his 'customers' ended up dead within a short amount of time after the process. No one really knew if it was him killing them on purpose or if it was because his process didn't actually work.
Either way it wasn't safe. And if a demon was going to him for a transplant they were either desperate, or crazy. Sadly Kuronue didn't know the short fire demon enough to know if he fit in either of those categories.
Kuronue sighed softly. "I should probably tell Kurama."
"There is something else... for you, not for Kurama."
The winged youkai frowned at Mukuro. "I don't trust that tone. What weren't you going to tell me?"
A small coy smile crossed Mukuro's face. "There's another wagon with us and someone who's been wanting to talk to you-"
"No." Kuronue snapped the word out immediately, turning a full glare on Mukuro. "No. No. No."
"Kuronue, relax. It's been three years, you could at least talk to him."
"No. I have nothing to say to him, nothing he wants to hear. Three years isn't long enough." With those words he turned and opened the curtain-doorway on the tent. Mukuro didn't stand to stop him, which he was glad of, but her words were probably even more effective.
"Three years is a long time. Talk to him. Or one day he's going to corner you and make you answer, which will only cause you to blow up. If you don't like it, talk to him on your own terms. Don't wait for him to find you. You'll regret it."
Kuronue sighed as he stood at the door. "You know, sometimes... I hate you."
Mukuro just chuckled. "Good luck."
"I'm gonna need it."