Kurama's Tale

Chapter Three: Partner in Crime

Its impossible for an adventure-seeking thief such as the great Youko Kurama to stay in one place for long, even with sorrow's firm grip on his soul. It had been months and he was determined to get his life back on track, even if that track be a crooked one that he followed. But he followed it willingly, for the excitement it brought to him. He had been without Kuronue before, although it was many years ago. He was the only demon Kurama had thought worthy to help him with his delightful pastime, and the fellow youkai had found it just as exhilarating as the kitsune. He would not allow death to stop him from continuing with his life, for it never had before, and to let it consume him as such would be a bitter defeat that would certainly lead to his own demise. Death never had effected him in the past, when he had killed others, when spies that he had formed alliances to had deceased. Since then he had trusted no one but himself and the fear that brought information bubbling from the lips of his victims before he slaughtered them. Time had brought to him a youkai that he had met during one of his missions.

Kurama shrugged on a cloak to hide his luscious silver locks that made him easily identified as the infamous thief as his mind wandered to the first time he had met Kuronue and his feet wandered toward a near-by town.

Flashback

"Who are you?" Kurama asked, glaring at the youkai before him through the dark. His voice was a whisper, but even a decrease in volume did not erase the deadly threat buried under its surface.

"Who are you?" the other demon asked skeptically.

"I am Youko Kurama. Who are you and what are you doing here?"

"I am Kuronue and my business here is none of your concern," the winged demon said in a dark tone. The two faced each other in a large chamber that served as a vault to hold the owner's precious objects. The floor was cool stone beneath the soles of their shoes and the walls made of sturdy wood. The vault smelled of cold metal, the reason being that the substances were stored in the space. But the room did not glitter in the serious moonlight with that of exposed gold, and not just because moonlight was unable to force its way through the cracks in the wooden ceiling. The objects were hidden within the room in trap doors and obscured closets. The search for them would take time and, unfortunately, noise, for one would have to knock on every section of the room in search of the passages. Kurama's kinship with plants would do him no good, due to the wood being dead it would have no voice and no feeling. And it had been dead for such a long time.

"You must have been the one who killed the guards in the rear courtyard," Kurama stated. The other youkai nodded.

"And you the one who killed the guards in the front courtyard," Kuronue said. It was Kurama's turn to nod. Footsteps sounded outside the room and Kurama's ears swiveled to pick up the sound.

"Someone's coming," Kuronue whispered, his voice a breath quieter than it had been before. Kurama gave him a quizzical glance.

"Yes."

"We should get the booty and get out of here," the youkai said.

"We?" the kitsune questioned. Kuronue lifted a brow.

"Unless you'd rather us both be caught." Kurama nodded, his eyes scanning around the room.

"Fine," he said. "Let's get to work. But what makes you think that I wont take the treasure for myself and leave you here to get caught?"

"Even if you did, I'd escape, hunt you down, and kill you," Kuronue said smoothly, running his hands over a near-by wall as Kurama did the same on the other side of the room. The footsteps grew closer and the two ceased to speak as they became absorbed in their work.

The handle to the vault turned and the door creaked opened slowly. Kurama's hand came in contact with a loose splinter of wood and he tore it from its place on the wall, turning swiftly and throwing it towards the opening door.

"Oak Dagger," he whispered softly. The splinter, which originally couldn't have been longer than his thumb, elongated and transformed, its point sharpening into something long, smooth, sharp, and deadly.

There was a strangled choking sound as the newly-morphed splinter drove itself into the throat of the invading youkai with the ease of a sharpened knife. The demon slumped to the ground a moment later with a thud to the floor with hardly a squeak erupting from around the fountain of blood in his throat that soon began to quickly pool around him.

Kuronue raised a brow and glanced at the kitsune, who turned back to his work. Kuronue swiftly shut the door after dragging the body inside the vault to avoid detection.

"Your reputation does not lie. You are clearly as good as they say," Kuronue said quietly as his knuckles rapped against the wooden surface of the room and his ears strained to pick up the hollow echo in the wood.

"Yes," was Kurama's simple answer. "I am." There was silence but for the knocking. It didn't take them long to meet at the far wall where the tell-tale hollow knocking told them of their discovery. They quickly and quietly tore at the wood until they found the small door and proceeded to open it.

Vast amounts of treasures awaited their eyes. Gems and metals of the rarest sorts glistened in the dark as though glowing with their own, brilliant, light. Both of the thieves smirked at their find and proceeded to collect the items.

"In there!" the shout caught them both unaware, as did the vast explosion that shattered the wall to their right. They hastily dropped their finds and backed against the wall, where shards of wood imbedded themselves around them from the thunder. Snarling, Kurama ripped as many as he could from their place at the sight of the numerous amounts of demons that now stood in front of them. Kuronue readied himself as well as the exigency of the situation increased with the advancing youkai.

"Now we have you, Youko Kurama. Your head will be mounted on the Master's wall before dawn breaks!" shouted a burly demon with a long, reptilian tail that lashed out at the remaining half of the wall and shattering it easily. Fangs jutted from his mouth, dripping with saliva that, when it dropped to the floor, melted the stone beneath it. His claws cracked by his side in anticipation and his vermilion eyes glowed in the twilight.

"You should know better than to say such a thing if you know who I am," Kurama growled softly. He stepped forward to take on the thugs alone, readying himself for their assured attack. But a shuffle of wings behind him and a determined footstep made his ear swivel to his left as Kuronue stepped forward as well.

"What are you doing?" Kurama asked darkly, refusing to let his eyes stray from the invading youkai to glance at the demon by his side.

"If you die they will be after me next and I, even in all my strength, cannot take on two dozen youkai alone," responded the winged man.

"Suit yourself," was Kurama's gruff answer. The grimness he had faced just a moment ago lifted as he thought of the youkai by his side. He might run as soon as there was a clear passage, but he seemed to have morals and common sense. If he did such a thing half the youkai would go after him and he would hold little chance. The most feasible chance the two had of escaping with their lives was to work together until they could run into the protection of the forest that surrounded the estate.

"Charge!" cried out the commanding youkai, his shout followed by the swift advance of many various types of demons. Shooting out the transformed splinters of wood into his Oak Daggers, Kurama began to cut a path through the mass as Kuronue slashed them down with his claws. They soon became circumscribed as they made their way through the crowd, and it did not take them long to get out of the confines of the vault and into the open space outside the structure. There they were able to move more freely.

"C'mon men! Get them! Don't let them escape alive!" shouted the commander. The two continued to battle, but seemed to get nowhere. Every demon they knocked down just got back up, their chest or throat ripped open or a dagger impaled straight through their body.

"The commander. He's bringing them back to life," Kurama told Kuronue hoarsely, who's back was now to his own as they battled opposite sides.

"Throw one of your daggers at him," Kuronue said.

"It is too far. It will not reach," Kurama pointed out, as the commander was well away from their current position.

"It will. Trust me," Kuronue said as he slashed through yet another demon that faced him. Still uncertain, but willing to try, Kurama ripped out a dagger from the stomach of the demon he was currently facing before slashing through him with the same weapon. Turning in the direction of the commander, he threw the wood with all his strength. But it was clear that it would not reach as it began to descend.

"Move," Kuronue said, turning from a newly-fallen youkai to push beside Kurama. His hands glowed a fierce and bloody red, and not just from the blood that snaked along their pale surface. The charging dagger glowed as his hands did, the blood on its surface radiating power. Its decent quickly subsided and it impaled the commander in the throat as swiftly as a fleeing snake, jabbing itself in the center of the man's trachea. There was a gurgle and blood sprouted from his lips to stain his protruding fangs and slide down his chin. His eyes bulged and went glossy as his hands rose to remove it. But he fell forward before he could, his eyes rolling into the back of his head as his face hit the ground, forcing the weapon that much further into his throat to ensure his death.

The youkai that had been attacking them stopped short as their general fell forward, before falling to the ground themselves to lay in the blood that littered the ground, dead.

The two were not able to exchange a word before more shouts could be heard from the other side of the mansion. They glanced at each other quickly, nodding in acknowledgement of each other's power before escaping to the safety of the trees, in opposite directions, to let the rest of the army find their fallen comrades.

"Where were you last night?" Kurama asked. The youkai before him quivered and shook, his eyes bright with unshed tears of terror.

"I-I w-w-was h-here, Lord K-Kurama," he squeaked. The kitsune's three tails lashed out behind him in an irked expression. The spy eeped at the unspoken gesture of annoyance, cringing and shying away from the movement.

"I heard your voice last night," the kitsune said disingenuously.

"Surely y-you must h-have b-been mistaken, my Lord," the spy stuttered, unnerved by the calmness of Kurama's voice.

"Perhaps."

"But he wasn't. Unless I was as well. And you know that I am never mistaken, Hiten." The voice was familiar. Kurama's ears twitched toward its source before his head followed suit and landed on the winged demon he had met the night before.

"L-Lord K-Kuronue!"

"What are you doing here?" Kurama asked as he looked over the approaching thief.

"I have some business to tend to with Hiten. And you?" he asked.

"I do as well. For instance, why did the army know that I was in the vault, Hiten? My trail was covered perfectly. Unless," he paused, looking back to the fear-infested spy. "They were told where I would be."

"I can say much the same," Kuronue said, standing at Kurama's left. The spy took a step back and quickly came in contact with an unyielding wall, his petrified voice box unable to speak the words forming in his throat that might ensure his ability to see the dawn of the coming day.

"P-Please, my Lords, I know not what you speak of!" the spy said, flattening himself against the wall.

"Very well," Kurama said, his golden eyes looking down coldly upon the spy's sweat-soaked face.

"Then we no longer have use for you," Kuronue finished, his voice holding as much sympathy as a sheet of ice. The spy's eyes widened past what one would think possible as Kuronue unsheathed a dagger. There was a grunt of surprise and the hiss of spurting blood as the youkai brought the knife down upon the spy, lacerating his throat and chest all in one artful stroke.

"Well. It seems he gave both of us the same house to steal from, and then betrayed us by calling out the guards," Kurama said.

"I think it was more along the lines of his wanting the bounties on our heads." Kuronue flicked the blood off the soiled weapon. "Our bounties combined would be worth twice as much as what we saw in the vault last night." Kurama nodded his head.

"Perhaps the best way to protect ourselves against vermin like him is to stay together," the kitsune said suggestively, gaining a glance from the fellow thief.

"Are you suggesting a partnership?" he asked with an upraised brow.

"I am." There was a pause.

"Then I must agree," was the consensus reply.

End Flashback

Authoress' Note: so! How ja'll like that, ni? I actually got a review for last chapter too! So awesome!

Review:

Henrika: thank you, faithful reviewer! This story doesn't really have much relevance other than this is probably thoughts that have gone through Kurama's head countless times before, especially during the Dark Tournament during his fight with Karasu and being turned back into Youko.

J: thank you everyone!

REVIEWS ARE LIKE COOKIES: THEY FUEL A STARVING AUTHOR.