Explanations
Sao: Okay! I know the last chapter sucked, but that's okay! I've gotten over that now!
Neko: Thank Kami.
Sao: Shut up, baka muse.
Neko: (threatens) I will run away again.
Sao: (gulps) ano... hehe... I'll be good. Anyhow, there's something I'd like to get cleared up a little: I know they seem to be moving awfully fast–
Saor: REALLY fast... Lessee, they've known each other for what, a week before this?
Sao: Shut up Saor. But we do have a PERFECTLY LEGITIMATE reason; they are kitsune! Heh, I'm such a cheater.
Saor: The real reason is that Sao finds it incredibly boring to write all that getting-to-know-you junk.
Sao: That too. But that's not LEGITIMATE, so HA! But really. Kitsune are known for being incredibly passionate, instinctive beings. So it makes perfect sense that they would meet, figure out that one another are powerful remnants of dying subspecies, and immediately get to this. It's in their natures.
Saor: I bet Kurama's just dying now that Youko's been let out, now, though.
Sao: (wicked grin) No, judging by his quietness, I'd guess he's perfectly okay with it.
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(About a week later)
Karuri woke one morning to the cool draft playing across her back where Youko usually was. The immediate thought that came to her mind was, where would he be? If he was talking to Yusuke and Kuwabara about that 'tournament' thing the ningen boys had mentioned when they came, then he was probably freaking them out slightly. They had been avoiding his direct, undistracted presence the entire time he'd been out.
She rolled out from underneath the covers, found her favorite over-large sweatshirt, and pulled it on over nothing but her black cotton underwear, shrouding her top half in mystery but leaving her long legs to the examination of the world. It has been mentioned already that this fact tended to not disturb her. The more people looked, the better. A satisfied smirk played its way across her face. They couldn't have her. She was taken.
So directed once more onto where in hell the silver kitsune could have gone, she trailed out of the door to wander around until she found him, vainly attempting at first to catch some trail of his scent, but all of the inhabitant's scents were overlaid everywhere, including his, and so thickly mixed that she had no chance of finding him that way.
So it came down to the ningen game of hide and seek. Only the seeker knew what she was looking for and the hidden didn't know he was being sought.
It didn't take long. She searched the upper level, and came downstairs, and walked down a hall, and caught voices from behind a door. A slow smile spread over her face. That was easy.
"So we basically gotta win this thing, appoint someone decent so Makai doesn't go into some sort of 'destroy Ningenkai' phases, and then everything's whoop-de-do." she heard Yusuke's voice.
"Yeah, but we could also just bring her in and then we've got instant–" Kuwabara was cut off.
"You will not be taking my mate into that particular area of that hellhole without my consent, her consent, and a hell of a lot better reason." Youko growled.
Nani? Were they talking about... her? Why were they talking about her? Unless it had something to do with– but no, that was what the Reikai Tentai did, was quell things in Makai, so why were they... oh. Oh.
Angry tears filled her eyes briefly at the unfairness of it all. How could THEY be the Rekai Tentai? How could Kurama? Her mate? How could he not tell her about this? Was he even planning to tell her about this?
The door flew open and Youko was immediately staring into her face as if that could divine the reason for her tears.
"Man that guy is freaky." Kuwabara could be heard muttering.
"Kitto?" he inquired softly.
"When were you planning on telling me?" she challenged, wiping the tears away angrily.
"As soon as you managed to find out, kitto." he replied. Damn him for being so sure of himself. "Because of course I had complete faith that you would figure it out sooner rather than later."
Damn him for his logic being all too sound.
"Besides that, do you really believe you have to worry about the Reikai Tentai coming after one of their own?"
"It could all be a trick. To get me."
"Pfft. Kitto, you are saving no face. You don't initialize all for a trick. You continue on this, it's going to become about as ridiculous as to ask Yusuke to hand Keiko over to a bloodthirsty lord of Makai."
"Oi! You ain't never gonna catch Keiko anywhere NEAR Makai!" Yusuke yelled.
"Point proven."
"I hate you people who have to be right all the time." Karuri said, glaring up at him hotly.
"Then I suppose I will have to deal with your rejection." he chuckled.
"You. Are. Evil."
"Indeed? I seem to remember being told this before. Hmm, where was that now, could it have been... last night? Oh, and that afternoon. And the morning before that."
She had to bite back a smile at his hilariously overdone expressions. Whoever described the feared kitsune thief of Makai as cold and expressionless obviously hadn't truly known him at all. Or it could have merely been the human influence over the years. Except for those deception skills were purely kitsune.
"Evil." she repeated, just to drive the point home, even as she matched his fanged grin.
"Those two are waaaaaaay creepy." Kuwabara grumbled.
"I am forgiven? Because if not, I can always relate Koenma's reaction when I threatened him with dismemberment if you were ever endangered by any of his other Reikai Tentai ever again."
Yusuke perked up at this.
"Hey, that I wouldn't mind either!" he exclaimed.
"Gomen, kitto's ears only." Youko smirked, tugging gently on one of the dark furry attachments. A soft thrill ran through her body, along with a sudden hint of cinnamon. She scowled playfully up at him.
"Doing that might evoke returning the favor." she threatened.
His only response was to raise an eyebrow and glance over to where Yusuke and Kuwabara were standing behind him.
"Oi, what are you looking at us that way for?" Yusuke protested.
"What were you talking about anyhow?" Karuri asked, drawing the subject away from subjects like that.
"You, incidentally, kitto. Did you know that you caused quite a stir three or four years ago when you left?" Youko inquired.
"What, is that what Reikai thinks is the reason it's all bent out of shape out there? Hmph, typical."
"How come?" Yusuke asked.
"Can we not discuss this in the middle of the hall perhaps?" Karuri suggested. They withdrew into the room the other three had been in previously.
"All right, so how's Reikai wrong about the whole mess over in Makai?" Yusuke immediately resumed his question.
"First, it had very little to do with MY disappearance, and two, it started about a year BEFORE I left. I left in order to avoid being killed and throwing it into an even worse state of disrepair."
"If it didn't start then, when did it?" Yusuke asked as the two ningen sat in chairs they had previously occupied. Youko pulled Karuri into his lap on a rounded, cushioned chair.
"It started when my father was assassinated about six months before I left. Someone's been trying to clear out the elemental kitsune for a while, though I have to admit they didn't have to try very hard. I'm the only one of Okaa-sama's kits to have survived, and Okaa-sama herself ended up dying through her own powers as well."
"I'm confused." Kuwabara confessed.
"Hasn't anyone ever told you about elemental kitsune? Okay, scratch that, I guess they really wouldn't have any reason to. Basically, when you have the powers of every single element inside of you, they clash. Fire and ice slash water don't get along, fire and plant don't get along, well duh dark and light don't get along, it's a regular war."
Yusuke and Kuwabara were now gaping openly at her, perhaps for describing the violent, painful contortions of the powers within her in such an offhand way, perhaps merely because they didn't believer her. Oh, well, if they didn't, they'd find out sooner or later.
"To get to the point, basically the 'war of the elements' type thing isn't something even a youkai body can stand up to very well. So if you don't keep it from starting, you're screwed." She beamed happily at them, pleased to have officially confused two dummies.
"So, ano, what does this have to do with the tournament thing in Makai?"
"There's a TOURNAMENT?"
"Ano, yeah, haven't we said that before? Isn't that why we're HERE!" Yusuke shouted.
"Oh... heh heh, right."
"Is a tournament bad?" Kuwabara inquired.
"Like hell it's bad! It's the most baki awesome thing that ever could have happened! Now how the hell did it manage to happen?"
"What do you mean by that? According to Koenma it's gonna be absolute chaos?"
"Yeah, Koenma's too used to regulating Ningenkai." Karuri dismissed Koenma's opinion with a nonchalant brushing-away motion with her free arm, the other being happily draped around Youko's shoulders as both of his arms went around her waist. Yusuke and Kuwabara were trying to somehow look at Karuri as she explained and yet at the same time not look at them, plural.
"So... it's not gonna be absolute chaos?"
"Oh, for regulating Ningenkai it's gonna be worse than absolute chaos. For Makai and that kind of high up position, I mean, come on, we only answer to the lord what's his name, whoever rules that section of Makai, it's waaaaay more organized than I ever thought it would manage to be in a million years. I was absolutely certain it was gonna be civil war."
"Civil war... among youkai?"
"Yeah, last one left alive after every single clan tears each other to pieces, weak and strong alike, get's the position."
"Sounds suspiciously like a tournament." Yusuke grumbled.
"Iie, in a tournament only however many people are on the team representing the clan will tear itself to pieces weak and strong alike."
"Remind me to stick to untalkative youkai like Hiei only; I don't think I can take the talkative ones." Yusuke griped.
"Yeah, yeah, get over yourself. Have I been told already who Hiei is?"
"I believe you were introduced to him at your ningen apartment." Youko drawled lazily. She stiffened slightly for a moment and he nuzzled her neck questioningly. Karuri relaxed again; it was her fault anyway for being such a ditz, not his for being there and reacting to what could be seen as an attack.
"Oh, right." she sighed, before going on. "So, if I get the idea, Koenma wants you to go in and win it? I sure hope they have the 'appoint the leader of your choice' option going, because if they don't then you have a lifetime ruling a section of Makai ahead of you."
"NANI!"
"Oh, Koenma didn't put forth this possibility?" she asked, amusement glinting in her eyes.
"NO!" Kuwabara was staring at her dumbstruck and Yusuke was close to hyperventilating.
"Oh, don't worry, it's not an option to disclude that option." she reassured them. Yusuke immediately turned on her.
"Kami damn it! Baki kitsune! I thought I'd be stuck in a pit in Makai or something for a minute there!" he raged.
"That confident, eh?"
He took a threatening step towards her, when Genkai's voice cut into their conversation.
"DIMWITS!"
Yusuke stopped in his tracks.
"Oh crap."
He and Kuwabara hurried off, leaving Karuri and Youko to themselves.
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(Two days later)
It seemed like the only thing to do to amuse oneself around here if not feeling like erotically teasing one's mate-to-be was to hang around with one another and watch Yusuke or Kuwabara get tortured by Genkai.
So, of course, that was exactly what they were doing. Youko was sitting cross-legged in the little patch of grass in the corner of the dojo, Karuri dozing peacefully in his lap.
All of a sudden there was a loud crash from outside, followed by another. It sounded suspiciously like something big being knocked aside, probably a tree.
"What the hell was that!" Yusuke exclaimed, whirling around from his "target practice"– which was basically Genkai throwing blocks of various substances at varying speeds to varied heights, and requiring Yusuke to completely destroy each one with his reigun. It was an exercise in both control and power building, as it required a lot of aura to continually fire blast after blast. Especially when it had been going on for the last hour.
"Sounds like something big." Karuri remarked, sitting up and flicking an ear towards the sound.
"Definitely youkai." Youko said, standing and pulling Karuri swiftly up beside him. "Shall we go investigate?"
"What's goin' on out there?" Kuwabara huffed, coming running in from another room, spirit sword in hand. He didn't look much less spent than Yusuke.
"Hey, that's what I'm supposed to do!" Yusuke protested.
"Aw, come on Yusuke, let us have our fun or I'll be forced to call you Yus-chan for the rest of the month." Karuri bargained. (Unfairly, I might add)
"That's no fair!" Yusuke yelled. "You're not allowed to call me Yus-chan!"
"I am if you don't stay here!" she sing-songed, then followed a curious Youko outside the dojo.
"Damn!" Yusuke cursed his luck. Genkai raised one eyebrow and hefted a brick of something that looked vaguely like ten-year-old jell-O. "Damn." Yusuke muttered again.
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"That thing is vaguely repulsive." Karuri remarked from beside him. Youko looked down at her fondly for a moment before drawing out a rose from his hair and transforming it into his rose whip.
"That is why we are getting rid of it." he commented. The 'thing' ((we will call it oni-iki for now, for lack of anything else to call it and for not having any wish to call it thing. Oh, this is utterly useless as 'thing' is the only thing that fits it. 'Thing' it is then, folks. Readers: SHUT UP and GET ON WITH IT already! Sao: Right. O.o))
The thing was definitely a youkai of some sort; the thing was, it was probably some twisted, overly powerful youkai's beast of burden. ((let's think Sesshomaru's big whonking oni thing from inuyasha)) It was big, it was vaguely grayish-brownish colored, it had five eyes, three horns, and overly long arms. It was probably about fifteen feet tall. How the hell it got through the barrier right around here will probably forever remain a mystery.
It noticed Youko and Karuri about a second after Youko drew his rose whip, abandoning the trees to dart towards them faster than its size implied it should be able to and raising one over-large arm with three-clawed hand high to strike. Youko's whip snapped around it's torso, which was left so conveniently open by this feeble minded attack.
The thing howled in rage and jerked itself away from the sharp thorns of the whip, gaining itself a very large gash along its ribcage.
"Not very smart, is it?" Youko remarked, standing idly with the whip ready in his hand. The enraged thing charged him, only to find its target on the other side of it, whip curling around its bicep this time, biting through muscle and nearly jerking the limb clean off. It bellowed, this time in pain.
It shunted away from Youko and the whip, eyes mad with pain and desperation, and turned on Karuri, who's eyes whipped instantly from an interested light blue to a bright neon yellow, widening in surprise. Her tails whipped madly in agitation and distress, as she jumped away from its enraged swipe at her.
Youko's vision was immediately tinged with red that the thing would dare to attack his mate. Immediately his whip was around the thing's neck, nearly jerking it's head off. Blood the color of brackish water burbled from its mouth as it died.
"Are you all right?" Youko inquired, stepping around the oni's corpse and transforming the whip back into a rose. Her eyes were fading slowly from neon yellow to a calmer greenish yellow, like leaves in autumn rather than a fluorescent neon ningen light.
"Hai, I'm okay. That... thing... just startled me, is all."
He blinked at her before smiling gently. "Good. It might have had to die more painfully if it had hurt you."
Karuri stretched her neck to the side to look up at him and quirk her head at the same time, giving him the opportunity to place a series of smoldering kisses along it, which he did, enjoying the sudden rush of cinnamon in her scent.
"Tell me, kitto." he murmured against her neck, holding her close as she nuzzled into his chest. "Did anybody ever see fit to teach you how to use these wondrous powers of yours?"
"Mmmm... nopes." she purred against him. He pulled her away by the shoulders just slightly to look her in the eye.
"You mean you really have all this power and you can't even use it." He said incredulously. It had to be the most ridiculous thing he'd ever heard of, take the most potentially powerful type of youkai and not teach her. Youko had felt her powers on the night when she'd come unhinged; it had to have awakened every sensitive for miles around, and made many more all over Japan uneasy. It was a tsunami of elemental youki and it was not being used. Blasphemy.
Karuri looked up at him with innocent blue-green eyes. "Most of my studies focused on getting them to make peace and not kill me rather than how to actually use them. I could probably use them in the raw form, you know, deep-freeze everything around, torch everything, fry everything, drown everything, that kind of thing. But not the way they're supposed to be used, no."
Youko sighed patiently. "Then we'll just have to teach you, won't we?"
"Uh-oh." he heard her mutter under her breath.
Oh yes. This was going to be fun.
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Sao: Okay, I kinda coulda kept going but this just seemed like the (perfect) way to end it! I mean, it's all... perfect! With plenty of creative ideas for another chapter!
Saor: So we don't get a repeat of the horrific shortness of chapter ten, hopefully.
Sao: Yeah, and hope you enjoy this one. It's a full nine-plus pages long! Go us!
Saor: What she means to say is that she hopes this makes up for it being a day late and for the horrific chapter ten incident.
Neko: Gomen about the lack of fluff. This was an actual (gasp) PLOT CHAPTER? Is it possible?
Sao: Cut the dramatics, Neko. Anyhow, we would like to thank a bunch of people for reviewing!
THANKIES TO:
Ugly Kitten: Yes, it was short, wasn't it? (cowers) but that is why it will now be referred to as, 'the horrific chapter ten incident,' and we will try very hard not to repeat it. Well, the length of the chappie anyhow. Me and my hentai mind was quite okay with the content... (whacks self multiple times for being a hentai) and no, I just changed the rating around chapter nine, so you're not completely clueless. (Saor: Yeah, that's Sao! Sao: When I catch you, you baka yami... Saor: ano, hehe, buhbye! (Runs))
sillylittlenothing: I'm glad you liked chapter ten! This makes me happy! Although it will still be referred to as the 'horrific chapter ten incident.' And as for the four day marathon event, she being kitsune as well, is very, very ready for that. (Smacks self again for hentai notions)
Princess Kandra: Written! Is here! Is not a repeat of the 'horrific chapter ten incident of extreme shortness'! lol.
Kya Jaganshi: Is glad you like!
animagrl: ano... I don't really write lemons. I just get really awfully close. Technically I should not even be writing to the degree I write, since what I write is recommended for people sixteen and up and I'm not even sixteen. Nor have I ever been kissed. Nor have I had more than one boyfriend, and just generally have never been in a relationship. I'm rambling now. I think I have more than explained myself... o.O (owwie)
TheSilverMirror:)
Rachel: hai. If you told katie, she would a) be scarred for life, b) be completely and totally in shock, and c) come and smack the living hell outta me.
and for some of you who reviewed chapter nine who I have not gotten to yet:
Kari the Shadow Goddess: MEEP! (runs and hides) ano... updated? Don't kill me! Glad you like it!
Youko's Daughter Sakaki: lol, I have a million chapsticks sitting in an old tin on my dresser and I NEVER use them... And you are not allowed to steal the mongooses! They are rabid! I will send rachel's other minions after you to retrieve them! Or I could just send Neko... which would be even scarier... (cowers from Neko's supreme muse powers which conquer all) meep...