A Bond Set in Blood
Chapter One
I sliced the dagger sharply across my palm and winced slightly at the sting of pain I felt from it.
"I told you, you don't need to do this to prove yourself."
"Just shut up and cut yourself dammit," I said monotonously, tossing the dagger to him.
"You shouldn't have slit it like that. A gentle poke with the very tip is much more effective and less painful," he said, poking the dagger into the flesh upon his palm.
"I'm not afraid of pain, kitsune," I assured him, lacing my fingers with his, and concentrating on the fresh blood coming into my system.
"Are you prepared to make the oath?" Kurama questioned. "Do you know it well enough?"
"Blood for blood; life for life," I began. "My heart is your and your heart is mine. Our fates have been entangled and ensnared. We are bound- first by fate and now by blood. Speak now, o child of Inari, doest thou wish to reconsider?"
"Now why would I do that, you ditsy little wolf?" he smirked.
"If appears as if you have forgotten your lines, baka no kitsune."
"Fine if you're going to make me play by the book… 'No, no, o child of Moro, I wish not to reconsider. This is my fate- I am bound to you forever.'"
"Then it shall be so. Nothing can tear us apart. The blood that flows freely through our veins ensures this- anger, hatred, depression, love, happiness, destruction, suffering, death, life- we will not be separated. We will bear it all together."
"Speak now, o child of Moro, doest thou wish to reconsider?"
"No, no, o child of Inari, I wish not reconsider. This is my fate- I am bound to you forever."
"It's done, Alicia. You can let go now," Kurama assured me. I released his hand from my own.
"So… now we're blood-siblings," I smiled at my wound. "Even the gods now accept us as relatives."
"We're stuck together forever, wolf-girl, so you may as well get used to it," Kurama laid down, his silver hair spread across the bedroll beneath him, and chucked.
"I regret nothing, my friend," I insisted before lying down to bed myself.
Twenty years have passed since that day and yet I remember the oath so clearly. The promise remained engraved on our hearts. Our bond grew stronger and eventually grew beyond human comprehension. Dying for each other was merely the beginning of what we would do for each other. There was nothing that could separate us either. Even if I was on the opposite side of the globe he could still hear my words… even the unspoken ones… and I could hear his.
Due to his rebirth as a human, I was now the elder one of the two of us and so I sought to act like it. However, even when he was five years younger than I, he still took a very parent-like roll in my life and I was still the younger one in his mindset. It was too bad really. I had looked forward to paying back the debt and taking care of him for a change.
"Alicia!" He comes running down the street to catch up with me. I turn to greet him with a smile and a wave. He's nearly eighteen now. It's hard to believe. It felt like just yesterday when he was reborn as a human. "Alicia, how are you?"
"Greetings Kurama-chan," I say to him cheerfully before wrapping my arms around him. "I'm fine. How are you, my precious little buddy?"
"I am well," Kurama assures me with a smile and a slight chuckle. Something is off about him, however. He doesn't smell right; his motions are different from usual; there is a certain tone to his voice- he's hiding something.
"You lie, kitsune. Now spill- what's wrong?" I demand of him.
He looks at me quizzically for a few seconds and then assures me again, "Really, Alicia, I am perfectly well."
I elevate myself an inch off the ground so I can be eye-to-eye with him. Looking him in the eye sternly, I sniff. "You smell like you're nervous about something."
"We just had midterms at school," he explains.
"Kurama, my friend, you must think me stupid. I know full well that you are out for spring break right now. Now, tell me, what's wrong?"
"Well…" he obviously goes fishing around in his mind for some logical- but false- excuse.
"Listen, my friend," I say to him harshly. "I swore an oath twenty years ago today that I would protect you to the grave and then some. You had the chance to reject it then and you did no such thing. Now, you must let me do my job and tell me what's wrong."
"There's nothing for you to be worried about, Alicia, my friend. I just have some business to deal with."
"I should sure as hell be worried! 'I have some business to deal with' means 'I'm being challenged by a demon of superior skill'!"
"I admit- you've found the truth amidst my lies, or at least half the truth," Kurama smirks. "I am being threatened into returning to the Makai to meet with a demon. I have no information on the identity of this demon."
"You aren't going without me, Kurama," I declare forcefully. "I'll die before I let you go alone."
"I figured as much. Let us depart for the Makai now."