Chapter 3: sorry for the long wait people. my talents have been in other fields for...a ong time. but hey, here it is. I know everyone is waiting with baited breath to find out what terrible thing i did to our lovely Kurama, so here we go...
Past spoke "He has chosen" she intoned. It had the sound of terrible destiny. Future chimed in, her child's voice a strange counterpoint to Past's wieghty proclaim
"You will meet again when everyone has chosen. " She turned to Yusuke and beckoned him forward. He took a deep breath and walked into the garden, and for once the sweet smell of roses did not speak to him of happy times, and bright summer days. Somehow, faced with destiny and fate, he was no longer the confident Spirit Detective, but an awkward teenager. He edged carefully down the paths, sampling the roses as he went.
In the gazebo at the end of the rose garden, Kurama sat pondering his "choice". he inhaled the rose's scent again,hoping it would show something new. But again he experienced the same vision...
...Kurama walked slowly down the path, hand in hand with his fiancee. they were raidiantly happy, their joy glowing from them for any and all to see. Their joy was made all the more because she had already accepted Kurama's past; all of it, including Yoko. in fact, she was a kitsune herself. It was only a few days until their wedding, and at itmes like these Kurama could almost forget the sadness that always came when he thought of his mother. She would not be attending the wedding. But this was not because she was dead, oh no, it was nothing so simple as that. A week ago he had told her his past and his secret. She had learned that he had, in part, decieved her all these years. In fact, it was the story of the Forlorn Hope that even made it possible that she might talk to Kurama agian. His kitsune bride-to-be had advised he wait, told him that a mother's love would win out over any feelings of hurt or deciet. But so far there had been no word, and he was begining to wonder...
Kurama shook himself of the vision, wishing that things could go otherwise. He was joyful, yes. He had always felt that mabye he would never find a someone that would love him for more than his face, and by this was proved wrong. But the loss of his mother, not by death, which he could accept, but by choice...that was almost too much to bear. But his future had been chosen and there was no turning back. He firmly decided to focus on the lovely woman he would marry, and ignore for now the pain that would someday be caused by the truth.
Hiei waited patiently, his mind already made up. The futures in the garden might be tempting, but there was only so much it could offer. There were stories within stories in those glimpses of the future, and no one could know everything. So when it came time to make his choice...well, the choice had almost been made from before he was sent here.
Yusuke paced, experiencing much of the overwhelming-ness of the garden that Kurama did. There were a few that looked interesting, some that appealed, and a few that Yusuke jerked back from in terror. He had almost tore one of these off the bush once already, and had no wish to do so. Several times he married Keiko, in some she died in his arms. There were children or there weren't. Friends lived and died. He even saw going back to the Dark Tournament, the fifth place filled by a lithe female kitsune who seemed to be married to Kurama. But none of the called to him, as he had determined that it should. Finally, in a small, hidden corner of the garden, almost covered by weeds, he found a small, blue rose. It was the only one of it's kind he had seen so far. Yusuke eagerly bent down to smell it, and the vision hit him with more force than any of the others...