Sorry for the wait...I just couldn't think of anything to write. Anyway, enjoy.
::15::Black & White::
"There's nothing you can do to make me trust him!" Harry snapped at Yusuke and Hiei's retreating backs, remaining stubbornly in place himself.
"Right..." Yusuke paused to glance back at the wizard, "just follow us."
Harry didn't move for a few more seconds, but as Yusuke and Hiei didn't even turn back once, their forms getting smaller and smaller as they strode down the hallway, curiosity forced him to move. He had to run to catch up with the two youkai.
Yusuke shook his head as Harry came panting up beside them, glancing at Hiei out of the corner of his eye in time to see the hybrid rolling his blood red orbs.
None of the trio said a word as they walked down the hallway, two pairs of feet making loud clanking noises, whereas the ex-thief's boot-clad footsteps were silent.
Finally they came to the room where ogres of every color imaginable were running around, yelling into cell phones and balancing huge stacks of papers in their arms. They crossed the room to a door, where they entered Koenma's office.
"Sit down and watch," Hiei snapped briskly, gesturing to a wooden chair they'd dragged into the middle of Koenma's office, right in front of the yellow oval TV screen.
A large blue ogre with blonde hair suddenly entered the room, laden down with what could only be videocassettes. The one Harry knew as Koenma, in toddler form, trailed behind his lackey. He was, of course, free of the blue pacifier he always sucked on – after resurrecting Amanuma he didn't really need a useless piece of plastic to chew anymore.
The ogre somehow managed to set the cassettes down on the floor beside the TV without tipping the whole stack over. Prodding each one with his finger, the ogre's black eyes traveled over each label before carefully pulling one out of the pile, steadying the rest of the tapes with his other hand.
The VCR was located right under the TV screen. Pushing in the tape, the ogre pressed the large red Play button, set the subtitles to English (since the fights were spoken mostly in the Makai tongue and Japanese), and stepped back.
For a moment the screen flashed black as gray lines of static shot through it. It blinked several times before finally revealing a huge stadium. Thousands of multi-colored, horned, fanged and clawed creatures screamed at the top of their lungs as a very tall man with long, flowing black hair stepped onto a gray, circular stone ring in the middle of the stadium.
He looked at someone off-screen, put a finger to his head like a gun, and softly said, "Bang."
The screen panned over to focus on Kurama, his green eyes narrowed dangerously...it was obvious to Harry now that the black-haired man had been targeting him.
Suddenly the tape stopped mid-play, making Harry whip around to see who'd done it.
His emerald gaze fell on Yusuke with a black remote control in his hand.
"Thought I should explain. See, this is the last round of something called the Ankoku Bujutsukai – or, Black Martial Arts Tournament. That black-haired guy is Karasu," Yusuke explained. He pressed Play and the tape resumed.
They watched as Kurama stepped into the ring.
"And on my right, fighting for Team Toguro...KARASU!" the pink-haired announcer shouted energetically, making a wide, sweeping gesture to said youkai, "And on my left, for Team Urameshi...KURAMA! Fighters, please take your positions..."
She called for them to start, and Kurama took the first move. His hand glowed for a moment, before a pile of delicate-looking red rose petals materialized. They floated off of his palm in a helix pattern around him as his arms took specific positions within the petals as they formed a whirlwind around him.
"Petals and Thorns!"
Harry raised an eyebrow, "What does he think rose petals are going to do?"
"Shut up and watch, incompetent," Hiei snapped.
On the tape, Karasu was slowly advancing into the petals that were swirling wildly around Kurama, creating such wind his hair whipped at his pale, stoic face.
Suddenly, one of the petals sliced across Karasu's cheek, and a thin, red line appeared. Small droplets of blood slowly started to seep out, but the raven paid no mind.
"They are absolutely beautiful. But they are also weak and lacking in substance...a trait they must have inherited from you."
The screen switched to Kurama as his eyes narrowed.
Back with the real Kurama, Botan was in his hospital room, trying to convince him to stay and rest until Hiei and Kuwabara had dealt with the wave of youkai. The kitsune, however, would have none of it.
"I cannot lie idle," were his only words as he stubbornly ignored the ferry girl's protests and swung his legs over the side of the bed. His fingers felt along the edges of the opaque tape holding the IV line, which he peeled back without so much as flinching before also pulling out the needle.
Botan made a disgusted face and shuddered. She'd never really been fond of needles...
Kurama put his full weight on his long legs, which still weren't all that stable, as he adjusted his black wizard's robe (which had gotten all twisted around his body while in bed) and strode out of the room, doing his best to hide his physical instability.
Botan sighed in an irritated manner, propping her hands on her hips.
"He's supposed to be our smartest fighter and he won't even accept medical treatment!" she ranted, with an annoyed huff, and ran out of the room to catch up with the kitsune.
"Mirror of Darkness, awaken in the moonlight. Let your face show my desire, that I may invoke your power."
Kurama could hear the tape even in the hallway.
He stopped dead.
"This woman's health and happiness...is that what you ask me to grant?"
"Yes."
Ignoring the rest of the audio he could hear, Kurama shook off the memories of that night, and walked as calmly as he could down the hall, to Koenma's office.
"Oh, hey foxboy. We were just watchin' the ABC primetime lineup..." Yusuke's sarcastic comment was the first thing to greet the kitsune as he entered the Reikai prince's office.
"Hn..." without giving Kurama, or anyone else for that matter, a chance to open their mouth, Hiei spoke briskly, "I'm going back...those demons should be at the castle soon and that fool's going to need help."
He sprinted out of the room in a black blur, a blur even the well-trained eyes of Kurama and Yusuke could barely see.
Kurama glanced out the door a moment before speaking, "Yusuke...what have you shown him?"
"Uh..so far the fight with Karasu and the whole Mirror of Darkness deal..."
Kurama sighed, "Are you sure he is able to handle this?"
"If he can't, then it wouldn't matter if he trusts you or not, he'd be useless in a fight," Yusuke pointed out, in one of his rare, wiser moments.
"Hey Koenma!" Yusuke said suddenly, "Put in Kurama's first fight in the tournament. Come to think, I missed that round completely," the hanyou grinned innocently, "let's watch'em all."
George was actually the one to find and put in the tapes (under Koenma's strict supervision, of course), the poor lackey...
45 minutes later...
"I can't BELIVEVE Kuwabara lost to a KID that badly!" Yusuke was laughing so hard it hurt, doubled over in his chair, and absolutely howling.
"I...fail to see the humor..." Kurama muttered.
Harry, instead of laughing as the absurdity of it all or acting calm, was sitting there with his eyes bigger than dinner plates and his mouth hanging open. How, in all that was reality (which had been screwed with lately...), did he do that?!
"It's called spirit energy," Kurama explained, seeing the look on Harry's face "it is what fuels his power, as well as wizards'."
"So Kuwabara's a wizard...?" Harry asked, still confused.
"Not...technically. He simply uses the same type of energy that allows your wands to work, though he uses his bare hands to channel his power. That is how all of our abilities work."
"I've never seen a wizard make a sword out of thin air," Harry said.
"It takes a greater amount of spirit energy than what most wizards possess to do that," Kurama said.
"Oh..." turning back to the screen, Harry watched as Kurama and a very ugly-looking youkai stepped into the ring.
"...I have your human mother, Kurama..."
Chills ran up Harry's spine as he watched the fight. Kurama was just letting this Roto guy pound on him without fighting back! Sacrificing his pride and dignity for a woman...a human woman at that...
It was the second time Harry had seen the kitsune's undying devotion to his mother, and he was completely confused. Kurama was a demon, a powerful, ruthless thief...yet he put his life on the line, twice, so his human mother could live? It simply didn't make sense. Again, the question popped up: was Kurama good, or evil?
Or was there not such a black-and-white definition?
::End::Chapter::