Hello fellow fanfic writers and readers! Here is another chappie! I'll get right to the story, but first the quote! It's from Alice in Wonderland! No not the Disney remake. From the book. I found it fitting. "Visit either you like: they're both mad." "But I don't want to go among mad people." "Oh, you can't help that, we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad." "How do you know I'm mad?" "You must be, or you wouldn't have come here."

"Your Kurama?! The Kurama?!" Tebiki asked at full volume.

"Please, not so loud." Kurama whispered striving to keep Tebiki's voice low.

"Are you really Kurama?" Tebiki questioned, more soft.

"Well, my name is Kurama. But I don't know if I'm the someone you're talking about."

"Are you the kitsune youkai, Kurama?" Tebiki narrowed his inquiry.

"Yes, that is I."

"What are you doing here?!" Tebiki demanded with his hands on his hips.

"Excuse me?" Kurama asked, surprised at the sudden rudeness of Tebiki.

"You told me you knew Karasu, but I never imagined that you would be Kurama! I mean it does make sense I guess. Tengu, repulsive as they are, don't chase normal people. At least they didn't chase me for a while." Tebiki explained, going off.

"So, you've heard of me? How flattering." Kurama said sarcastically.

"If you're who you say you are, why are you here? Do you know what he'd do to you if he got a hold of you?" Tebiki looked at Kurama like he was nuts.

"Oh, I can think of a few things. And all of them are more than exceptionally disturbing." Kurama shuddered at the notion.

"Then you must have come here with a death wish. Or is it that you came not of your own motivation? That's it, right?" The boy deduced.

"Something along that line." Kurama replied sadly.

"Oh. Well, in that case, I sympathize for you." Tebiki shrugged his shoulders.

"Um...thanks I suppose." Kurama knew he felt dismayed about coming here, but having a stranger pity him kinda made him feel awkward.

"I assume you've gone through a lot, even for being a demon and all. Wanna take a rest?"

"Umm..." Kurama wasn't so sure he wanted to let his guard down. He felt he could trust in the boy, but he didn't particularly like the fact of being completely vulnerable. On the other hand, he was flat out exhausted. The travel had tapped out most of his energy.

"I guess that..." Kurama stopped. Tebiki was giving Kurama a look like, 'I know what's best, so suck it up I do as I say.' And Kurama was in no mood to put up a protest.

"Rest sounds great." Kurama replied finally, smiling.

"Great. I'll keep watch." Tebiki smiled back.

Kurama lowered himself to the ground. It wasn't all that cozy, but as a thief, he had gotten use to uncomfortable places, so it would do. Kurama lids fell before he could make another thought.

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"Hey, how's Kurama doing?" Yusuke asked earnestly, from a seat next to Kurama entombed body in crystal casing.

"Yusuke, you asked me that 15 minutes ago. Things haven't changed.' Koenma replied unenthusiastically from a large chair next to where an ogre was working on an immense computer unit.

"You're obviously weary, Yusuke, might I suggest a nap? Koenma probably won't have the location of Karasu for you to go to for a while." Botan asked tranquilly putting a hand on Yusuke's shoulder.

"Are you crazy? Kurama's my good friend. There's no way I'm going to abandon him. Besides, I promised I'd be there for him." Yusuke said irritated, scooting the seat closer to the case.

"Yusuke, you're not abandoning your friend by going into another room and taking a break. And you're going to need your strength when you have to track Karasu. He could be very hard to deal with even once we find him for all we know." Botan informed in a gentle tone.

"Urameshi, Botan's right. Kurama is my friend too, but if we keep on wasting energy on staying awake, we won't have any to beat that creep, where Kurama needs us the most." Kuwabara stepped in. He too was looking weary. His hair was a mess, eyelids heavy, and his hands drooped weightily at his side.

"I guess you're right, Kuwabara." Yusuke said with a yawn. "Just a little bit of sleep."

Yusuke picked himself up slowly as he and Kuwabara made their way dragging to the door. "Don't go anywhere, kay buddy?" Yusuke turned back and said jokingly at Kurama.

Though the two boys left the room, they did not notice the two crimson eyes that shone through the darkness from above, and would remain there, even after they had left. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Kurama stirred in his sleep. He was having a nightmare. In his mind, he was falling continually through a dark abyss, to which he could not tell if it had an end.

Kurama groaned as he rolled over and over, the dream was causing great discomfort.

Finally, when he could take no more of the dark oblivion, he focused his mind to thrust his eyes open and wake up.

Maybe the darkness was better.

Kurama woke up to find a disturbing fact. Everything was gone. The trees, the sky, all of it had been sucked into a void of white emptiness.

Kurama shot up, petrified at what he was seeing. He looked around himself in alarm, eyes completely traumatized.

But luckily he found something, or someone to be exact that he was familiar with. Tebiki was lying a little further, sleeping in a ball.

"Tebiki!!" Kurama shouted loudly running over to the boy and shaking him awake violently.

"What, who let the neko out?" The boy muttered in his sleep.

"Tebiki!"

"What, who, where?" Tebiki sat up quickly rubbing at his eyes tiredly.

"Oh, Kurama, hey, I only closed my eyes for a second, I swear." Tebiki tried to explain.

"Tebiki, what happened?!" Kurama asked desperately still shaking the boy.

"Kurama, Daijoubu desu ka?" Tebiki looked at Kurama like he was acting strange.

"Where is EVERYTHING?!!" Kurama shouted, gesturing his hands around.

"Everything? There's been nothing to begin with." Tebiki answered giving him the same look.

"Nani? What about the trees, the road and the tengu? Where did they go?"

The boy just sat there with his expression the same.

"You saw them right? Please tell me you saw them!" Kurama didn't understand how the kid could not be freaked out.

"I saw nothing." The boy simply replied.

"That's not possible. This can't be real." Kurama tried to think about what could have gone wrong.

The boy stared at Kurama and a strange expression crept across his face. He softly chuckled to himself before breaking out in a hysterical fit of laughter.

Kurama was beyond freaked out at this.

'Did I dream it? No, I know what I saw. Am I going insane?!' Kurama thought anxiously throwing his hands on his head.

"Calm down. You're not going insane," the boy replied to Kurama's thought as recuperated his self-control.

"Pretty funny though what you just said though. I bet you would've laughed too if you knew why." The kid was smiling. What the fuck was wrong with him? Most people DO NOT go from gloomily to super happy. Maybe he was bi- polar? Kurama shook off his thoughts. He should keep talking.

"Why?" Kurama asked coolly. He wasn't going to show his unease.

"You said this nothingness wasn't real. I've got a question for you Kurama. Do you think that grass you caressed between your fingers was real, that sound of a babbling brook; did you think they were authentic?"

"I guess... I didn't think about it, I wasn't sure."

"Exactly. You didn't know. So in order to place some reason and stability, to keep your mind sane, you wanted to believe in most of what you perceived. A nice, secure, inviting forest, huh?" The boy said and rolled to his side

"Then you did see it!!"

"Kurama the reality is you're in someone's mind. Heeellllooo! You can't see in someone else's fucking brain." Tebiki threw his hands in the air, like it was the most apparent bit of information.

"Uhh," Kurama staggered back taking this all in. He had known he was in Karasu's mind, but to think about it literally made him sick.

Kurama felt himself drop to what seemed to be the 'floor' of the void. Once Kurama regained his composure, he thought how he could ask questions with the right words to fill in the blanks. When it came to being on familiar terms with this new setting, he was at a loss. Only Tebiki could help him out there.

"So if I made it up in my mind, how come you were able to, you know... notice the surroundings?" Kurama finally spoke.

"That wasn't your mind that did that. Do you really think your mind, no matter ningen or youkai, could alter such a great amount of space in someone else territory?"

"So then you're saying..."

"Yeah, that was Karasu that did that. Gotta say I like the forest and meadow. It has a nice feel to it." Tebiki stated in remembrance.

"Why a forest?" 'I thought for sure it was going to be something extreme, like fire and brimstone, or something along those lines.'

"You should know. He did it for you."

"Nani? For me?" 'Okay, now that scares me. Karasu have felt my presence before I got here.'

"Hai, you. Plants are your security, are they not? Karasu made it like this to allow you to have something to alleviate your mind. If he didn't you probably would've ended up going insane, like I did."

"You went insane?"

"For a bit, yeah. I'm a human; I'm not use to this sort of creepy stuff." Tebiki paused then took a deep breath, like he was going to get something off his chest. "I was all alone in a place I could not escape.

Made me understand what patients in an asylum feel like." Kurama was a taken back at this. He never thought about what it would be like for a human boy.

"A living nightmare when your own mind is your worst enemy." There as silence from the boy.

Kurama's face softened. He looked upon Tebiki with a sympathy he had not felt for an individual in a long time.

"I truly am sorry for what you have endured." Kurama bowed his head in acknowledgment.

Seeing that Kurama was feeling miserable over him, he bounced up off the floor. "Aww, it all good, just in the past!" Tebiki recovered with a smile, giving Kurama a reassuring thumb up.

"Anyway I glad I just have someone to talk to." Tebiki said on a mellower note. "Sorry about the tearjerker. Let's get back on subject." Kurama nodded his head agreeing.

"Karasu. He does know I'm here, for lack of better words." Kurama asked and stated solemnly at the same time.

"Yep."

"One question." That was a lie. Kurama still had an abundance of questions to ask. But he had to take them one step at a time.

"How do you know of my affiliation with plants?"

"Cause I've heard some of his thoughts before. Mostly 'bout you."

"Great," Kurama laughed nervously. 'Not exactly what I wanted to hear.'

"So if he made the forest and scenery to keep me sane, why did it disappear?" Kurama inquired, puzzled.

"It always does that." Tebiki replied flatly.

"Hmm?" Kurama tilted his head in curiosity.

"Ya see, well, Karasu's mind as you've may have noticed isn't the sturdiest thing." Kurama without doubt could agree with that fact.

"He also is partly mad. And after a while the images he sends here start to jumble and everything distorts. It takes a rebuilding process after a while to stabilize things again."

That information got full hold of Kurama attention. 'So Karasu has difficulty controlling everything in his own mind. But that might change soon. Koenma said his power increasing rapidly.'

"The only thing that remains constant at all times is his nucleus, the sanest portion of his mind." Tebiki added in.

"What's that?"

"Can you make out down there, that dark mass?" Tebiki pointed his finger outwards towards a distant silhouette.

"The fortress!!" Kurama remembered the site. It was a place he hoped he would never have to enter.

"Yep. It's always there. And his servants, like the tengu, are always there."

"So they are a threat to me, Karasu wasn't just creating them up to shake me up." Kurama thought on this. 'Glad to grasp the fact when I was running for my life, I was really running for my life.'

"Bingo. Still a threat." Tebiki made a disgusted face at mentioning them.

"But if they're constant, can't they just simply find us when we are in the open like this?" Kurama inquired waving his arms about at the barrenness around them.

"Nope, they can't detect us. Neither can Karasu himself. We have become part of the nothingness." Kurama must have shown some sign of confusion on his face, because Tebiki went into further explaining.

"Look, Karasu's gotta focus his mind on rejuvenation, he can't separate us from the void without making the space functional again. Get it?"

'So Karasu cannot discover me when his mind is in this state. That might prove useful in the future.' Kurama made a mental note that hopefully would give him an advantage.

"How long is his mind like this?" Kurama asked, determined to know as much as possible about this issue.

"Don't ask me. You'll find out soon enough"

Kurama looked around him. Little tuffs of jade grass tore vertically. Around him colors churned gradually, forming the scenery he had memorized.

"Does that answer your question?" Tebiki questioned with a smirk on his face. He liked understanding things the demon did not.

Kurama was relieved to find the woods returning. Karasu and Tebiki were right. Damn, he loved the forest.

Kurama lowered his head down. It felt good to smell soil. Even if it wasn't real. He'd take it instead of a white void anyday.

"Uhh, Kurama I really hate to burst your happy bubble, but we've got ourselves a problem."

Yeah. I know. Cliffy. You know compared to Kurama's problems though, a cliffy isn't all that bad. I mean the poor guy is getting way more than he expected. I know shut up. That doesn't change the fact I made a cliffy. But when you get mad think of Kurama. That guy's a real trooper, he is. Okay, well have a jolly day, or night! Or both! The choice is yours!