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Playing the Game
- Tenika Dargan
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If you were to kill me now, right here,
I would still look you in the eye,
And I would burn myself into your memory
As long as you were still alive.
I would live inside of you,
I'd make you wear me like a scar,
And I would burn myself into your memory,
And run through everything you are.
- "In the Eye," Suzanne Vega
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Chapter Four: The Game Continues
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Kuronue rose to wakefulness slowly: This might have been due to the hefty blow that the Youko had dealt him, or may have simply been because, unconsciously, he didn't want to have to return to a reality in which he had just put himself in the debt of an extremely powerful, vain bastard of a demon.
As it was, he couldn't avoid waking up forever. From what he could gather without his first sight, he was still lying on his back, and was still wrapped tightly in vines. Finally, he allowed his eyes to flicker open, and the very first view he was greeted with was a beautiful one; just above him, seemingly only an arm's distance away, the vast, light-pricked makai heavens spread. Just out of the corner of his left eye, he could see the vague, velvety purple clouds of faraway solar systems that were visible in the demon world night sky. For a moment he was taken with the almost overwhelming sensation that he was insignificant, tiny, and that the sky was advancing towards him rapidly.
It took him several astonished seconds to realize that it was just an optical illusion, but it startled him nonetheless. In an attempt to sort his vertigo out (and contain that strange feeling of helplessness), he began to search the dark, brilliant skies for something he recognized, and almost immediately he had to bite his lip: Hanging directly above, as though mocking him, was the Kitsune, a constellation that came into view in the late hours of the night. He silently cursed it and began to look for others.
His luck, however, seemed to be bad that evening, and had he not still been a little too muddled to recognize that the constellations came hand in hand, he wouldn't have been so annoyed. But, as it stood, the next group of stars to come to his attention was the Hunter, named after a reikai tantei who once brought great troubles to the inhabitants of makai. An ancient legend told that when the star comprising the eye of the hunter was lit with blue light, it foretold a blood bath of a fight between the reikai and makai forces. Tonight, it shone its typical silver hue. Besides being a foreteller of war, it was simply a bad thing to notice right away.
But the next constellation to come to his eyes left him frowning in puzzlement; it was the Dragon, a body that was usually associated with change, and, more often than not, good change.
He spent almost a full minute wondering what in makai could be good about the recent developments in his life before he realized how silly he was being, looking at stars for some kind of divination, or even with any seriousness in the first place. Constellation reading was a silly practice, and even if it had any merit at all, it still needed to be done by a demon with real talent and experience. He was no candidate. Sufficiently awake now, he glanced around to get a more practical look at his situation, and promptly forgot about the stars and any strange meanings they might have had.
He was still in the field, lying just beneath the tree on the edge of the forest where he had first fallen. The moon had slid quite far in its path, and was around two hours away from setting. He was also, he noted, alone, though there was a plant growing several feet away that he didn't remember seeing earlier in the evening, probably left to watch him. He considered for a few futilely hopeful seconds that the Youko had decided to leave him after all, but his still-bound, plant-guarded state quickly crushed those thoughts.
He tried to roll onto his side, and found that even that was difficult. His wings ached dully from being bound for so long, and his fingers were almost devoid of feeling. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he was thankful that his wings had been folded during his binding, or he would have doubtlessly been in a much greater amount of pain. When his attempt at moving failed, he dropped onto his back again and glowered up at the sky once more. He considered burning the vines and escaping, but the thought of the unknown plant mere feet away kept returning to his mind; if it really had been left to guard him, he didn't feel like tempting fate.
Needless to say, his prospects looked dim. The Youko was probably the last demon in the entirety of makai that Kuronue had ever wanted to meet, and wouldn't it just be his lot to choose the same caravan as the thief. Of course. Really, his luck had never been particularly good. Kuronue sighed heavily. It didn't help that this was one of the few large-scale attacks that he had executed in all of his centuries, for precisely this reason; he didn't like taking risks, mostly because he knew his own limits, and running into a powerful demon was something he highly doubted he could come out on top of.
"Bastard Youko . . ." he spat sourly under his breath, listening half-heartedly to the faint whispering of the grass around him. It was very quiet, save for the sound of his voce and the rustling plants. "Who's given you divine right, eh? How was I supposed to know that that was your caravan? Why do you get to decide when I owe you and when I don't?!"
"Because," said the rich, smooth voice of the youko suddenly; Kuronue stiffened in horror. "I am more powerful. As a result, I can expect lower level demons to place anything I desire right into my waiting hands, wouldn't you agree?"
Kuronue tilted his eyes back immediately (he didn't dare tilt his head, that would expose his throat), and was presented with the image of Kurama upside-down, still as beautiful as ever, even when tipped on his head.
Before he could speak, Kurama continued with his line of musings, crouching down to get a better look at Kuronue. "But then, I've always liked having everything I wanted, even from those stronger than me." A roguish grin lit his face. "That would explain my current profession, hm?"
"You're a bastard," Kuronue told him bluntly.
The Youko gave a quiet, surprisingly mirthful snicker. "Charming," he murmured. "You're very nice." Kuronue bared his teeth angrily, but Kurama ignored the action. "What were you doing out so early in the evening? I was under the impression that bat demons didn't wander until after dark."
"I was hunting," said the dark youkai coldly. It was only partly a lie - first he had hunted for food, then he had hunted just to kill. "Minding my own business. You should mind yours."
Kurama didn't laugh this time. He blinked at Kuronue in obvious curiosity, ears flickering swiftly on his head as he contemplated his prey. "You're very bold," the fox said after a moment, a smirk growing on his supple lips. "Very tenacious." He was silent for another moment more, then he grinned, leaning forward again. "But, nevertheless, you belong to me now. You should know better than to hunt in dangerous territory."
Kuronue hissed quietly at him, eyes widening in surprised fury. "You can't own living things." But he knew that wasn't true; other demons exercised this right all the time. He wouldn't be at all surprised were he to find that the Youko had other weaker demons in his service.
Kurama seemed to find this comment as amusing as it really was, and his smirk was devilish in the bat demon's eyes. "Oh, I don't know about that. I suppose there is an argument to be made, that no matter what sentient being I obtain, I can never force it to acknowledge my hold on it . . ." He tilted his head to the side slightly, ears twitching in contemplation. "Perhaps that is why I normally focus on objects . . ."
Then suddenly he was frowning, as though Kuronue's words had actually given him something to think about. He seemed perplexed, and said nothing more for several moments. Kuronue couldn't imagine what it was that had caught his mind so firmly; he hadn't thought that anything would stump such a powerful demon. A first time for everything, the bat demon supposed . . .
Finally, Kurama shook his head and shrugged, waving off whatever odd thought had struck him so suddenly. "Never mind," he decided coolly, "I don't particularly care. The point is, I have caught you (here he smirked again), and I have a use for you."
Kuronue glared angrily at him. "You think I'll allow you to use me?"
Kurama smiled enigmatically. "We'll see, won't we?"
The Youko then stood and went to the plant growing close to Kuronue, which, as he had guessed, turned out to be a guard of some kind, to keep rival demons away him while he was still bound (and to keep him there were he to escape). As Kurama turned, Kuronue noticed for the first time that there were two straps slung over his left shoulder, and that they were attached to two large, bulky leather bags. Kuronue could only guess as to where they had come from, and what they were for.
Kurama quickly regressed the plant, returning it to its seed form and tucking it away in his thick white mane of hair. Finished with this, he turned back to Kuronue and moved towards him. He stopped when he stood right over his victim, and, much to the bat demon's surprise, reached down and slid his hand between Kuronue's shoulder blades, taking a firm hold of the vines there. To his further surprise (and indignance), Kurama then hoisted him easily up and slung him over his free right shoulder, where he hung, feet dangling several inches from the ground, back pressed firmly to the Youko's. The thief kept three fingers hooked through the vines, carrying him as he would carry some kind of bag or item, not as one would think he would carry a person.
Highly offended, Kuronue began to thrash all over again. "How dare you--!" he snarled, wishing desperately that he could kick his feet. He would have dearly loved to get even one chance at striking the silver youkai - he would hit him so hard that his pretty smirk would be ruined forever.
"Calm yourself," Kurama advised simply, "Our walk is a long one." He bent (oddly enough) to pick up Kuronue's scythe blade, and paused suddenly to think as he straightened: Then he finished standing, adding, "And should you so much as disturb one hair of my tail, I promise I will kill you."
So the youko struck out for wherever his destination was, strolling along at a leisurely pace, as though carrying bat demons over his shoulder was something he did on a regular basis. Kuronue, a little too numb to do anything but turn over angry thoughts, could only hang against his back and go along with the ride.
-
They did not stop walking for almost an hour. The Youko seemed to know exactly where he was going, but Kuronue, who had only been in the area for a few days, had very little idea as to the direction of their course. He knew which places to avoid (or he thought he had known, anyway), and he knew where the main roads were. That was really the extent of his knowledge, and in retrospect he found himself wishing that he hadn't wandered so far into Kurama's territory. He had thought that by staying on the road and a half-hour journey away from the heart of the Youko lands, he would be able to slip away unnoticed. Obviously, he had been proven wrong, and at great cost.
The scenery never really changed as they went, always caught somewhere between forests, grass fields, small creeks and mossy ridges and hills. The only terrain that was extremely dusty, or even comprised mostly of dirt, were the few roads that cut through this particular slice of the makai, and Kurama did not follow these. They had only just exited his lands a few moments before the hour ended, and he still appeared to know the terrain with perfect accuracy. Kuronue, unfortunately, did not.
When they started going downhill, small warning bells in the back of Kuronue's head began to go off. He couldn't recall why, but for some reason, he knew that going downhill in this general area was bad. The Youko didn't seem to be worried at all, though, so he eventually decided that he was being paranoid, and tried to calm his suspicions. Absently (to keep his mind off the current situation), he thought of how happy he was that Kurama had not left his scythe blade simply lying on the ground of the field, though he could not imagine why the Youko had collected it in the first place.
The scythe blade (as well as it's mate, which he had not brought on this particular journey) was a theft that he was very proud of. He had been trained with throwing weapons for his entire life, but these particular gems had caught his attention immediately as the weapons of another demon passing through his territory. They had been the items that prompted him to begin stealing (his necklace had been the second thing, but that was an entirely separate story). The blades had been his first choice for fighting since that day, and he would have been far angrier with the Youko had he allowed another demon to simply wander along and walk away with his property.
As though reading his mind, the Youko shifted his right shoulder subtly, effectively capturing the bat demon's attention. "Are you a thief, then?"
Kuronue blinked at the sudden words. "Yes," he said after a brief pause. After another few seconds of consideration, he added, "Half-thief, actually. Mostly I kill." He frowned. "Yet another thing that I don't understand; I'm no kind of rival for you. Why confine me like this?"
"Because I have a use for you," Kurama replied evenly. Kuronue wished that he could see his face. "I believe that I've already told you that. And I know that you're no kind of rival, you needn't point that out to me."
Kuronue hissed. "Sorry to bore you," he snapped irritably, kicking his bound legs out in annoyance and hoping (half-heartedly) that he might trip the arrogant fox.
"Apology accepted," came the pleasant reply. "Why did you come to my lands, if you knew that you wouldn't be able to rival me?"
This was a question that he didn't particularly want to answer. It wasn't that it was embarrassing, necessarily, but he didn't want to broadcast that he had been dared into coming. The desire to try and outsmart a powerful thief by hunting in his lands for several days had driven it all, of course, but he had still allowed himself to be incensed by an outside opinion, something that he knew smarter demons didn't do.
"I wanted to see if I could sneak past you," Kuronue lied, a bitter frown growing on his lips. "Draw your own opinion. I don't particularly care." He glanced around then, noticing that they were still going downhill, and feeling a small pang of apprehension. "Is this almost over?"
He could almost feel Kurama smirking. "Impatient to be let down?"
"Very."
A soft chuckle caused the Youko's back to vibrate beneath his own. "You'll be satisfied soon enough."
Another few minutes of silence passed by then, and soon Kuronue found that it was getting harder and harder not to feel nervous. The hair on the back of his neck was beginning to stand on end, and there was an odd prickling of foreboding in the pit of his belly. They were still heading downwards, but the slope was very gradual now, almost imperceptible. Kuronue couldn't brush the feeling.
Looking around, he took in the dark shadows of the tree trunks and the faint light of the moon filtering through the leaves above. These trees looked older, and the forest was oddly silent, as though very few creatures lived in this area. He wondered why he hadn't noticed the lack of noise before.
And the Youko still seemed unbothered.
"Where are we going?" Kuronue thought he sounded oddly small and quiet in the oppressive silence.
"You'll see." The answer was too enigmatic. Kuronue's worry doubled immediately.
Because of the way Kurama was carrying him, Kuronue had a very limited amount of visibility; everything that the Youko could not see facing forward, the bat demon could view perfectly, as their heads were literally back to back. This meant that he never knew what he was going to see until Kurama passed by it.
So, it was understandable that he made no protest until it was too late. Just barely visible out of the corner of his eye, the very smallest piece of a high, grassy ridge came into his sight, and his insides clamped tightly in horror. Finally, it came back to him; two days earlier, he had interrogated a weak, low-level demon for information on the area, and the demon had warned him of a chasm just outside the Youko lands, had told him that going downhill led straight to . . .
"This is--" he began to gasp. He never finished that particular sentence, as Kurama suddenly slung him to the ground; not roughly, but easily enough to knock the breath out of him. Kuronue landed on his shoulder and rolled to his front, taking a moment to regain his breath before he opened his eyes and looked ahead.
They stood on the lip of a high, grassy ridge, which dropped suddenly into a miniature canyon, the bottom of which was not so far away as to be hard to see, but still, enough of distance to be surprising. The chasm was roughly circular in shape, and spread for maybe three hundred feet from one side to the next.
And there it was, its massive red branches spreading in giant, twisting knots, like some kind of terrifying blood-red jungle of rope. On the end of each mature branch, the eyeless, rounded heads slept easily, their fang-filled mouths closed in slumber. Every now and then, a line of drool escaped from one mouth, and the thin string would drip to the floor of the chasm, where the acid biting into the dirt would fill the air with a quiet, violent hiss. The huge main trunk of the plant took up about half of the chasm, while the rest of the branches packed themselves into the remaining air space. Kuronue felt his mouth go very dry as he stared at it.
"Are you crazy?" he hissed, almost inaudibly. "This is the desu tree!"
There were, of course, more than one stand of desu trees in the makai, but this particular one was the second oldest in history - it had been growing and spreading and gathering power for hundreds of thousands of years. Demons theorized that it had not begun growing in a pit at all, but instead had started on the ground, normally, and that over the millennia, the constantly dripping saliva of the plant's heads had hollowed out the ground around it, until slowly it had sunk into the earth and created this home for itself. Sane demons did not go near it; it was powerful enough now that it drew its energy from the earth of the makai, and only fed for pleasure.
Kurama smirked easily, staring at the plant with something akin to fondness. "Yes, I know."
Kuronue could not believe it. This was insane; it was crazy; it was a move made by an absolute lunatic. "Then why are we here?!" he hissed angrily, quietly - he did not want to wake the plant up. "This is walking right to death, saying, 'here I am, come have me!'"
"Perhaps."
And suddenly Kurama crouched, reaching between Kuronue's shoulder blades a second time as he dropped his bags to the ground. He did not grow the guard plant again, no doubt because he knew that no other demons would dare to come near the area. At first Kuronue thought he was being picked up a second time, but his eyes widened it surprise when he felt Kurama severing a few of the vines over his back. As soon as some of the pressure had slipped away, he began to squirm a bit, and found that his wings had been released.
"Your wings are small," the Youko commented idly. "Have you shrunk them for convenience?"
Kuronue frowned in bewilderment, stretching the leather appendages out straight above him to return some feeling to them. "Of course," he muttered, "I never keep them full-size unless I have to fly."
"Return them."
"What?"
"Return your wings to their proper size."
Kuronue stared at the fox hard. There was a point to the request, he was certain . . . he just couldn't figure out what it was. Maybe the Youko really had gone insane.
But he complied anyway, concentrating on his wings until suddenly they began to glow faintly with a soft blue light. After a few seconds, they shifted and stretched, and finished only when each individually (when folded) was a little taller than he was. They then returned to their normal black color and were still, his left stretched along the ground, his right tucked up against his side so it wouldn't touch the thief crouching next to him.
Kurama stared at him for a few long moments, then suddenly reached out and slit the rest of the vines.
Kuronue was speechless. He lay in the mass of severed tendrils for several astonished seconds before he forced himself to sit up, wincing as he did. His wrists and ankles hurt badly, and there were already many red impressions making themselves visible all over his white skin. He sat facing the Youko and rubbed at his wrists slowly, staring at Kurama all the while.
"You're mad," he decided finally. Kurama's mouth lifted into a smirk, but he said nothing, and after a moment Kuronue looked back to the giant demon plant. "Why are we here?"
"What do you know about desu trees?"
Kuronue cocked an eyebrow at the Youko, glaring at him. "I know it's crazy as hell to show up on the doorstep of one."
The Youko's mouth twitched into a vaguely amused smile. "But what do you know about them?"
The bat demon frowned. "Not much."
"Well, then you do not know that they are one of only seven plants with the ability to resist my magic. You are aware that I am a plant master, of course, but there are . . . certain varieties with minds that are almost close to sentient, and I have no control over sentience."
Kuronue felt his frown deepening in confusion. "I don't . . ."
Kurama, however, ignored this interruption, continuing airily; "But just because their will is strong, that does not mean that they're particularly smart. They have a habit of focusing on one target, and going after only that target. I want a seed from this tree- obtaining one when it is still immature is the only way for me to control it. I have to raise it from scratch. I still need the bait, however, before I can steal the seed."
Kuronue saw where this was going all too well. His mouth slid into a thin, cold line. "And I'm the bait?"
"Precisely." Kurama looked immensely pleased.
The bat demon snorted sarcastically. "And what's in this for me?" A brief sense of morbid humor gripped his mind. "Other than death, I mean?"
Kurama stared at him for a long, painfully quiet instant. Below them, another hiss drifted from the chasm as one of the heads released a thin line of spittle. "Do you like thieving?"
The question was so sudden and quiet that Kuronue was momentarily taken aback. "What?" he asked when he was through blinking.
"Do you like being a thief?" Kurama elaborated. His expression was still unreadable.
Kuronue thought about this. At first he had opened his mouth to say yes, but suddenly he had found himself stopping to really consider it. Did he? He hadn't even really stolen much before . . .
". . . No," said the dark youkai finally. Kurama lifted his eyebrows in curiosity. "I like killing things. I've only stolen a few times in the past."
Kurama's mouth lifted into that same mischievous smirk that had lit his face for so much of the night, but this time his eyebrows were set in amusement, instead of lowered in intimidation. It was almost a smile. "Then perhaps, should you survive, I might have more things for you to kill."
Now Kuronue was totally taken aback, and staring was all he could manage for quite a while. Then his lips parted; he moved to speak, to say something-- and no words would come out. He had thought coming to this place was crazy; he had thought that the Youko's questioning and sudden release of him were crazy. But this . . .
This was an offer of partnership.
This was the last thing he had ever expected to hear from the Youko - the Youko, of all demons! "You mean . . ." His mouth was suddenly very dry as he spoke these words.
But Kurama never allowed him to finish his sentence; the words were lost forever as the Youko suddenly leaned forward, grabbing the back of his vest just between his shoulder blades and the back of his white hip cover just over his tail bone, lifting him from the ground as though he weighed nothing. "Come, Kuronue!" he cried, "We don't have all night!"
And with these words he threw the bat demon into the chasm, laughing all the while as Kuronue gasped, as the desu tree came awake, and as their first act of thievery together began to unfold.
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A/N: CLIFFHANGER!
/laughs madly even as she's stoned by angry family members/
And there's chapter four! I'm so happy. XD I have a rule, that if I manage to make it to chapter four, then I'll never abandon the story no matter how long it takes. This little fic just made it! /hugs it/ I'm very happy with this piece so far. I know that the chapter is short, but really, I think I've managed to state everything I needed to.
So review, damnit! /cackles/
To HieiWannabe: Eek, I guess chapter two didn't do quite as well as number one. O.o Again, I'll do my best to answer your questions/comments.
Flashback Theme: I'm very sorry that you were so confused about the chapter switches - I did put a note at the end of chapter one (in the A/N - it said, "Oh, and just so you don't get confused, the next chapter will be a flashback. I'll then be switching the chapters, so chapter three will pick up where this one left off, then chapter four will pick up where chapter two left off.") I should have anticipated that some people would miss it, however, and should have added a reminder at the beginning of the chapter. /bows/ I'm very sorry - I thought that the note was going to be enough.
EVERYBODY PLEASE READ THIS: I don't want any more people getting lost in my whacked-out themes (I'm sorry I made it so weird), so I'm going to try and explain this as clearly as I can. There are two themes within this story: The first is one that follows a current timeline, which will go through Kurama's time with Kuronue after they've been partners for four hundred years.
The second theme is one that runs on a flashback timeline, which will explore Kurama meeting Kuronue, and the setup/early formation of their partnership. The first theme is covered by chapters 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, etc. (i.e all odd numbered chapters), and the second by chapters 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, etc. (i.e all even numbered chapters). The reason for these two themes is simple - I want to superimpose their lives and their personalities from a time when they're younger, less experienced, and not very comfortable with one another, over a time when they are older, wiser, and have a much greater amount of respect for the other.
The entire purpose of this story is to explore exactly what a demonic relationship would be like, and I was hoping to give extra depth to the story by showing how things can change over the course of a few simple centuries. My intention was not at all to confuse people, and I'm very sorry that that was all it seemed to accomplish. /bows again/ From now on, I'll post a note at the beginning of each chapter stating whether it's a flashback or not. Unfortunately, I can't change the setup of the themes without breaking it into two different stories (one past, one present), so I'll just have to carry on in this way. I hope everything progresses a little more smoothly from here on.
Kuronue's Eyes: Thank you for the input! :) I haven't been able to find that particular piece of information anywhere! /hugs/ Eye color is very useful for character description - you've helped me out a lot with this one. :P
Kuronue Being the Thief of Chapter Two: You are right, that normally Kuronue would have been hunting at that time - but the caravan isn't going to stop and wait for him to eat, so he had to get up early and eat then to be able to attack it. Yes, this is a convenient plot twist, but . . . I needed to introduce him to Kurama-baby somehow, and that seemed the most plausible way to do it. Plus, I wrote the first four chapters before I had any real idea as to where I was going with the fic, so some of the information in those chapters is probably inaccurate to work of later ones. I tried to go through and edit it all out, but I inevitably missed a few things. It's funny, though - my sister thought the same thing, that Kuronue was Hiei. XD I wonder how many other people I got with that one?
Oh, and just so you know - that zippy speed-thing of Kuronue's is a special attack. You don't know that in this chapter, but in chapter six I go into it in more detail. Normally he's fast, but not to the point of blurring. So, it's still a special Hiei thing. :)
The Note: Oh dear . . . I didn't mean for that to be scary at all. Well, I did, but only to the staff of FFN.
I wrote it after I tried to put my first chapter into the editor-thing, and found that it had deleted about half of my formatting and information. I'm not exactly a computer savant, and it took me roughly forty-five minutes to get that first chapter prepped, and to figure out how to upload a chapter with any inkling of knowledge. I haven't posted a fic on this site for over a year, and I when I did post my first fic, the process of uploading was much easier and much more efficient. I was mad at FFN for changing something that had been so perfect, without, seemingly, a point.
I was angry about the asterisks for a different reason entirely. When I write a fic, I try to choose different symbols for my scene breaks to convey a mood - to paint a picture with the story, if you will. Not only did I lose my asterisks with these new changes that they've made, but I lost another symbol as well (I'm not sure what it's called, but it's that wiggly thing next to the number one key). I had everything specifically formatted and prepped, and it was very frustrating to find that I couldn't use either of these symbols.
I wasn't trying to scare anybody, only trying to convey my frustration over pointless changes in uploading systems. If I were to receive a flame, I wouldn't ever respond with such negativity or anger, I would try and talk with the person and figure out what they didn't like. Or, if they were just obvious bigots with nothing better to do than flame me, I would ignore them, or write them a note asking them not to read the story anymore. I wouldn't yell at them - not like that. I'm sorry that it came out as upsetting, especially since I ran it by three people before I posted it. I'm going to go back and remove it now anyway (it's served the best purpose it's going to serve, I guess - I doubt Vindictive is ever going to read the fic, and there's no one else that I really wanted to have find it), so don't worry. I doubt I'll be ranting anymore. :)
Overall: Again, thank you thank you thank you for reading - as usual, your comments were useful (thank you so much for telling me what color his eyes are, and please don't feel obligated to watch the movie just for me - I was really only being silly), and I'm happy to have such a conscientious reader. I'll try and be clearer as to distinguishing between the two themes from now on, and I hope that in turn you'll keep reading, as I value your opinion very much. :)
- TD
FANON/CANON
1) The Constellations have been pulled entirely out of my ass. No laughing. I was having writer's block, and I thought, "Ooh, stars, pretty!" and flew away with the idea.
2) It is never established whether Kuronue was a thief to begin with or not ('cause he kind of DIES in the movie, and we never learn anything else about him), so I've decided that he kind of was, kind of wasn't. I think he was sort of a Hiei-esque thief. He stole when he needed to, and killed a lot more.
3) The Desu tree stuff has ALSO been pulled entirely out of my ass. I know nothing about the desu tree - I just know that it's a wicked-ass plant that Kurama whips out of his hair at one point, and again, I thought, "Ooh, vicious plant, pretty!" and ran off with the image. Desu (as far as I know) means death - I looked it up on some Japanese-English website. No stoning me if I'm wrong.
4) "From what he could gather without his first sight." - Eyesight is Kuronue's first mode of vision; sound waves are his second. So, technically, he has two sets of eyes, if we want to get really detailed in our little brains.
5) "The scythe blade (as well as it's mate, which he had not brought on this particular journey)." - Kuronue is pictured at one point during the movie wielding two blades, so I figured what the hell, it ate up another paragraph to describe them.