Me: Hiei's gone for a while so I, Wolf of the Frozen Flame, can run the show now!
Hiei: -appears out of nowhere- What did you say, baka?!?
Me: -yelps- I don't own YYH. Please review, people! (And by the way, this is not yaoi.)
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Chapter 1: Hiei
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Kurama was a fool. Too kind for his own good. Actually he was the kindest, most caring, most honorable person I have ever known. The only one who had ever bothered to befriend me, the ruthless midget half-breed three-eyed freak show.
And what did it get him?
I told him to run. To save himself. But he refused to leave my side. He refused to leave the side of his partner. Refused to leave the side of his friend.
And what did it get him?
He was injured. Practically bleeding to death. One more blow like that would easily have finished him. Still he stayed with me, fighting to the last.
And what did it get him?
-----FLASHBACK-----
"KURAMA!!!" "AAAAHHHH!!!" Kurama was down, bleeding profusely from a gaping wound in his back. The massive dagger lay bloodstained on the ground next to him. I twirled my katana, cutting off the head of the nearest demon. I rapidly hacked my way through the onslaught of demons to my wounded friend. When I reached him, I was able to create a temporary barrier around us with my Jagan.
"Are you all right, fox?" I asked, kneeling beside him. He opened his eyes and stared at me. "I think so. The wound is painful, but not life threatening, and in time it will heal. But if I suffer another wound like this..." He trailed off. After a sickening look at his wound, I made up my mind. "Kurama, when the barrier comes down, I want you to run."
He looked up at me in surprise. "What?" "Here." I grabbed his arm and pulled him up. "On your feet." I surveyed the demons still trying to break through, avoiding his gaze. Kurama was persistant. "What do you mean?" "Just do as I ask," I answered coldly.
"You want me to leave you here."
That was not a question. It was more of an accusation. I sighed. "Kurama, you and I both know what will happen if you continue fighting. I'll hold them off long enough for you to get away," I replied with no emotion in my voice.
"So you want me to leave you here," he repeated.
Even though I wasn't looking at him, I could feel those peircing green eyes boring holes right through me. "Yes, that's right. I want you to leave me here to deal with the scum." I jerked my head toward the demons outside. The sudden motion set off the pain from a cut in my neck, and a growl of discomfort escaped my throat. Kurama almost smirked. "You're not exactly in prime condition, either." "I'm better off than you are." "I wouldn't say that."
He glanced down at my bloody leg, then up again at my ripped chest, cut arms, and bruised face. I scowled. "I'll be fine. You just go. I'll follow when I get the chance."
Kurama shook his head. "Either we both stay or we both go. I'm not leaving without you." "Baka ijizuku kitsune," I muttered under my breath."I heard that," Kurama stated. I ignored him.
"I can't hold the barrier much longer. Be ready."
Kurama confidently whipped a rose out of his hair. But by the way the flower flickered, I knew that he was very weak.
Sighing, I drew my katana. "Now."
The barrier dropped.
"Rose Whip!" shouted Kurama. The whip extended, but he didn't have complete control. It slashed him down the arm. He cried out, and five demons jumped on top of him, taking advantage of his surprise.
"Kurama!"
I fought two off me and whipped my katana around in a blur of flashing metal. Three of my friend's attackers fell dead. I kicked one off him while thrusting my sword through the other. Then I pulled him up.
"Run," I whispered. "But..." "Just go!" I yelled as two demons grabbed me from behind. "GO!"
Fire blazed in the fox's eyes. "I won't let you die," he panted as bursts of flaring energy exploded from his body. "You're not strong enough! You'll kill yourself!"I shouted, but he ignored my words.
His blazing energy ripped through the field, burning everything it touched to cinders. The pink energy flames made the grass grow to ten times its normal height.The blades of grass sharpened at the tips and thrust themselves through many of the demons, including the two holding me back. A few even punctured my flesh in the disarray.
The shrieks of the dying demons filled the air for what seemed like hours. When everyone was dead, Kurama fell to the ground, shaking and panting.
"Kurama." I pulled myself up from where I had fallen and ran to his side. "Are you all right?" I asked for the second time. "I...think so," he mumbled. "Just...tired..." "We have to get out of here. The Masters are probably coming for us at this very moment. Here." I pulled him up again and let him rest on my shoulder.
Then I felt something. "Kurama..." "I feel it too." An arrow whizzed right by my ear. I quickly drew my katana and sliced through another arrow headed straight for Kurama's head.
It seemed we had been mistaken. Not all of our adversaries had been defeated. Twenty of them came charging form behind a massive boulder that had shielded them from Kurama's attack.
"I want you to go now," I said as more arrows flew toward us. "No." "Please, Kurama." "I can't leave you. I won't leave you. You're too weak to take them by yourself." I was weak, it was true, but Kurama was weaker. He wouldn't survive.
I pushed him off me, away from our attackers. "Go!"
Then they were upon us.
-----End Flashback-----
To me, Kurama had always been the wise one, the one who would think something through one hundred times before taking action. So it was shock to me that he was willing to be so blind.
He was blinded by those ridiculous ningen emotions he loved so dearly. He constantly said they were the best thing he had ever had, that they made him stronger and more powerful than ever before. I say they made him weak.
I have always thought the ningen emotions were dangerous. I told him so time after time.
But he always just sighed, shook his head, and muttered, "Someday you will understand."
I had been right, as usual. If he had been the legendary Youko he had once been, he would have only done what was in his own benefit. Everything else was secondary. But he was not the demon he used to be, and ningen emotions had clouded his vision.
What a fool he was!
-----Flashback-----
The dagger hit him square in the chest. I saw it happen.
We were down to the last two demons. All our other enemies were either dead or dying.
Then, a sword slashed deep into my back. I cried out and dropped to the ground in pain. Kurama kicked the other demon off him and spun around. Just as my attacker was about to deal the killing stroke, a burst of pink light erupted from Kurama's outstretched palm. He didn't see a dying demon fling a huge dagger right toward his heart.
The fox's energy didn't kill my adversary, but it stunned him long enough for me to recover and kill him. I whirled around. "Kurama, look out!" I yelled in warning. But I was too late.
The demon's aim was straight and true. Before Kurama even had time to blink the hilt of the knife was jutting out of his chest. He stared in shocked horror at the thing embedded in his body. "Kurama!"He looked up at me. His normally sparkling, attentive eyes dulled and grew unfocused. "Hiei..." Then he fell.
"KURAMA!!"
Our enemies all dead, I sped to his side. He was still breathing, but I knew he was almost finished. I pulled his body close to me. He looked up at me with those eyes, those piercing green eyes. "Hiei," he whispered, "Did we win?" My throat unable to make a sound, I nodded. He smiled. "Good. Now...I...can go." Then he closed his eyes for the last time, never to open them again.
-----End Flashback-----
I'll never forgive myself for making the sound the sealed Kurama's fate. I will always live with the knowledge that I could have stopped it. If I hadn't yelled, Kurama would never have turned to help me. And he never would have died.
My life was more important to him than his own. He opened himself to attack just to save me. If Kurama hadn't turned, the demon would have killed me. But then Kurama would have lived on with the guilt that he could have prevented it from happening.
But isn't my feeling the same? Do I not feel guilt? Was my friend's life more important to me than my own?
Now I realize that it was. Perhaps now is the time Kurama always talked of, when I would come to understand human emotion. But now I realize that I have understood it all along. Perhaps he did not mean my understanding emotion. Perhaps he meant my realization of the emotion within me, and the importance emotion has in life.
Now I understand that emotion is not just limited to humans. It is within everyone, no matter how hard they try to mask it or how deep it is buried.
I don't know what he meant. I suppose now I'll never know. But I do know that I will never forget my only friend.
The cunning fox.
The caring human.
Kurama.
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Japanese translation:
baka- fool
ijizuku- stubborn
kitsune- fox
youko- spirit fox (refers to Youko Kurama)