Disclaimer: If owned YYH do you actually think I would be writing this, no of course not. Instead I would be rolling around in my millions of dollars. Okay, okay, just to give it to you straight, Yu Yu Hakusho is neither my property nor my creation.
Chapter Two: truth and integration
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The ex-Reikai Tantei sat gathered at Kurama's house, in his living room to be precise. They had done many times here before; it was one of their meeting places where they would devise a plan for assigned mission.
Today however, was different. Today there was no mission. The missions had ended two years ago. They were gathered there to make sure Kurama was okay, for at the moment the fox Youkai was laid on the couch unconscious.
The former team seat silence, the rhythmic ticking of the clock on the mental piece was the only noise that penetrated it.
Silence.
It was very out of character notion for this group. On any other occasion Kuwabara and Hiei would be at each others necks, Yusuke would have been the loud with a sarcastic come back on hand, and Kurama….
Kurama would have been level-head one that kept Hiei and Kuwabara form tearing each other up, the one who made sure Yuusuke was thinking rationally. He was the one that held the calmness and tranquility to their accustom noise.
Kuwabara gave a quick glance at his wristwatch and sighed, while Hiei stared detached out the window.
Yuusuke attempted to occupy himself by staring at the coffee table in front of him. It was neatly arranged, a small assortment of flowers in directly in the middle of it, the week's TV-Guide was placed to the right with the TV's remote was placed on top of the guide.
Everything was right in its natural place…well almost everything.
Aggregately, Yuusuke raked his hands through his slicked back, raven hair. This lack of noise was unnerving, unbearable almost. Grabbing the TV-Guide, Yuusuke flipped wildly through its pages, crumpling some in the process.
The sound of ruffled pages cut through the silence like a hot knife in butter.
Kuwabara turned a looked him with an express that read 'what the hell are you doing'. Even Hiei turned his head to look that the source of the racket.
The ex-detective ignored their questioning stares and continued his noise-making, it was so much more pleasing that that god awful silence. His crumbling started to gain speed and with in seconds it was frantic type motion, like his life depended on it.
This was getting annoying. Leaning forward, Kuwabara snatched the TV-Guide out of Yuusuke's hands and set back on the coffee table, putting an end to the ridiculousness. Crumbling a perfectly good guide, what was wrong with him!
Following this, the awkward silence encircled them once again.
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Many times during his periods of unconscious time Kurama would talk his Youko self. During these talks the two would become to separate beings, with in his mind that is.
The redhead stood as a representative for his human side of himself, he was referred as Shuuichi. The silver haired youko self would represent the demonic side; this self was referred as Kurama. In the conscious world the two fused just called Kurama.
These conversations took place what appeared as in pitch-black room, when either of the two selves materialized, a thin stream of white, from under them, would illuminate their features.
Their talks here were at times trivial, other times they held importance. This was one of those times when communication was necessary.
"Why did that happen?" Shuuichi questioned the silver fox. "Why did I hear those calls?"
Kurama smirked inward at Shuuichi's naïve questions. It was so simple really; it was youko's doing that was caused the hallucination. It was no secret that the fox wanted out, that he wanted to total control have consciousness of the body that Shuuichi and himself inhabited.
The fox wanted his freedom back, both knew that, but for that to happen, the human body would have to die, or when near death. The Shuuichi's mental barriers need to significantly weakened or destroyed for the fox to take total control over the body.
The only problem was that this for this to happen, it could possibly take seven maybe eight decades.
Sure eight decades was perhaps only to a fourth of a demon's lifespan, but Kurama had never been the patient type.
He was never been the kind to sit by idly when things could be done. Not when treasures could be stolen, or when women could be seduced, and territories could be claimed. Those were his motivation for a plan of his escape, he had wasted far too much time already living with Shuuichi's world, under his rule, forced to live by his morals.
The time had come for him to rid himself of Shuuichi's pestering existence. Being the clever fox he was, Kurama so found a way to go around this waiting, and it was a quite simple plan too.
His plan was that by using his demonic powers, his spiritual aura, he could slowly wear down the corpus callosum never fibers and destroy most of the tissue of the cerebral cortex of Suuichi's brain. 1
By doing so, Kurama could impair the Shuuichi's abilities of thought, reasoning and perception. Weakening his mental barriers to a point where they would be completely vulnerable to a mental assault from the fox demon.
The whole wearing down of the nerves would take some time; possibly take a month or two, for the mind to reach such a weakened state, luckily for the fox, he started the process two weeks in advance.
And as for the hallucinations Shuuichi was being to experience, they were just an unavoidable side affect that caused by the wearing down process. Auditory hallucinations, along with visual hallucinations were bond to occur. There was no going around them, and besides this made process so much more fun.
The fox suddenly became aware that Shuuichi was waiting for an answer form him; he turned his intense, gold, gaze toward the redhead before saying anything he quickly sized up his human counterpart, this was almost too easy.
"You, Shuuichi, experienced those illusions because your mind and body are under an immense amount of grief and stress. In some senses this is a natural behavior human go through after they lose a loved one." Kurama lied.
With all his years of thievery he had acquired the with such precision, that on some occasions he himself having trouble weaving the true form the fabrications of his own lies.
Shuuichi started thoughtfully the sliver fox, for some reason he had the sinking felling that the fox was hiding something, but he decided against that thought and nodded in replied to the fox's answer. It did sound very reasonable, so why not trust the other being that inhabited his body?
"Now, I believe it is time when we put an end to this trivial questioning a return to world of consciousness, before your friends began to over suspect something is wrong." Kurama added.
"Right." Shuuichi said some what skeptical, something just didn't feel right. It was either that, or Shuuichi was being paranoid, and somehow the thought of the two didn't sit well with him at the moment.
There so much on his mind at that moment, like how he would face the others after that little episode he had? How could he assure them that he was fine and that everything was okay, when he, himself, had no idea what was wrong?
Shuuichi let out a defeated sigh, there was only on way find out and that was to face them and hope for the best. His friends were understanding people, they wouldn't bombard with questions, not when he was still grieving over Shori's lose. They'd give him time and space…wouldn't they?
Shuuichi gave a final glance to Kurama, who in return gave him a somewhat reassuring glance, and a focused his spirit energy so could he regained consciousness.
Unnoticed from behind Shuuichi, Kurama smirked darkly.
This is too easy. That was Kurama thought as he faded into the darkness of Shuuichi's mind.
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Yuusuke and Kuwabara watched keenly as Kurama's eyes fluttered open, he glanced around for a moment, confused as to where he was. Slowly, he pulled himself in to an upright position on the couch.
During that motion Kurama realized that he in his living room, sitting on his couch, and that Yuusuke, Kuwabara and Hiei where there but not his step-father or brother.
He looked around the room quickly, he trying to get an idea out what time it was. Judging form the shadowed loomed on the bleached walls, he assumed it was around 6:00 maybe 6:30 at night. The funeral was at 10 am, he had been out for almost seven hours.
"Hey man, welcome back." Yuusuke said placing a hand on Kurama's shoulder.
"Where is everyone?" he inquired groggily.
"Your stepfather and brother are at Shuuichi's aunt's house." Kuwabara replied.
Kurama couldn't help but fell bit hurt even though he had expected it. Ever since Shori's death his stepfather and he hadn't seen eye to eye. It was expected though, Shori had way with keeping everything together and without her all the pieces of Kurama's life were falling apart.
Yuusuke noticed Kurama's slightly hurt expression and decided to change the subject.
"So, what happened back there, at the funeral?"
Kurama's eyes widened at the question, it was the one thing he dread most at the moment.
"I don't really know." Kurama answered truthfully. He sighed and leaded back into the couch, he was in no mood for an interrogation session.
"Come on, Kurama you have to have some idea about what happened. What did you see? What did you-"
"Yuusuke, look it's getting late I know all of you have things to do, I not going to keep you from them. I mean I appreciate you guys waiting around for me and all, but I'd think it's best if you leave now." Kurama interjected.
Yuusuke opened his mouth to protest but Kuwabara grabbed his arm and shook he head. Kurama had been through enough today, and he didn't need any of them prying into his problems, yet anyways.
"Okay if that really what you want Kurama, then we'll go right, Urameshi?" Kuwabara said as he stood but to leave.
"Yeah…" Yuusuke answered unsure of Kuwabara's motive was, Kurama need their help and Kuwabara was letting Kurama push them away.
He sure as hell better know what he's doing. Yuusuke thought bitterly.
As the two humans exited out the door, Hiei who remained during the whole conversation, jumped the of the window sill to followed the boys. He stood in a mid way stride as turned to give a fleeting glance at Kurama. The fox demon sat slumped on the couch, in a fatigued manner, his eyes were closed and his right hand was rested upon his temple. It was an extremely uncharacteristic stance for the redhead.
There was no doubt about it; something was eating away at Kurama, but the answer was simple, grief. The demon-turned-human was grieving over the loss of his human "mother", it was a concept that Hiei believed he'd never understand. Why get worked up over something a trivial as a human life? Their lives were over in the blink of eye, this would teach the fox not to get attached.
His was years of solitude and loneliness had hardened Hiei's heart, but he wasn't heartless, well not completely. He just had no compassion for humans, they an inferior race opposed to the superior demonic race.
With that thought in mind he disappeared in his customary blur of black, swiftly departing from house.
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1 This is just to explain what I described earlier I pretty sure this information correct but I could be mistaken:
corpus callosum – thick bands of nerve fibers that connect the two hemispheres of the brain.
cerebral cortex – the tissue of that makes up the outer layer of the brain. The cereberal cortex functions include, thought, voluntary movement, language, reasoning and perception
Other terms used:
Auditory hallucinations – hallucinations in which one hears voices, these voices can range from the person's, friends even deceased loved ones. (note this type of hallucination was introduced in chapter one
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A/N: So what do think? The chapter was originally nine pages in Word but I decided to break it up into two chapters instead of one big one. That also means that the next chapter is done. I just want to see the public's reaction before I post the next installment.
I know it's been a very loooong time since I last updated but there's been a lot going right now, and I haven't had much time to write to please bare with me here.
Special thanks to:
Magus Black
Honeychica04
ImmortalOfGoodness
