I'll warn you right now: by now you probably have realized that Kurama's character is depressed (which is why he drinks so much- kind of like how Atsuko is in the actual show). Due to this he is also very much the pessimist. You'll get to sample some of his logic, shaped after a lifetime of ostracisation and being let down in one form or another. Some of it is simply due to the fact that he is horribly jaded, but I would like to think that some of it is also a rather correct (albeit it very blunt) outlook on certain issues. The lines are rather blurred, but maybe you'll be able to pick up on some of it.

Yu Yu Hakusho Inversed
Chapter 17
August 16, 2005

Hiei awoke to the sound of rain pounding on the roof. He sat up and glanced over at his companion. Kurama lay flat on his back, eyes shut, his mouth opened more than just slightly, his corseted chest rising and falling. The billionaire frowned: Kurama still looked paler than his normal complexion. "Wake up," he whispered, nudging him.

Kurama cracked an eye and looked around, momentarily bearing a mild resemblance to Godzilla. "You should know better than to wake sleeping sleazebags," he grumbled. "Unless one wrench to the head isn't enough for you?"

"You're pale," Hiei noted.

Kurama rolled his eyes. "Most redheads are, dolt." He sat up and stretched. "Of course, I suppose slicing a chunk out of my leg doesn't help, does it? Wonder if Daddy-O has any real food around here..." He stood up, and tucked something on a chain back into his corset.

Hiei noticed. "What's that?"

"What's what?"

"That thing on the chain."

"This?" Kurama pulled the chain out, revealing it to be a necklace, a pendant featuring a nice-sized red stone. "It's, um, it belonged to somebody I knew, a long time ago." He shrugged, and changed the subject. "Let's look into that food now, shall we?" He gestured impatiently for Hiei to hop to.

Daddy-O had by now awakened, and Hiei and Kurama descended into the main garage to bear witness to the old mechanic propositioning Keiko and Yukina in a way that apparently displeased both girls- and Yusuke and Kuwabara, from the aggravated expressions on both boys' faces. However, once he noticed the newcomers, Daddy-O abandoned the role of filthy old pervert and took up harassing them instead:

"Good gods! You didn't take him up there, up there, and-?"

"Hell no!" Kurama spat angrily. "There's still at least one or two things I hold sacred." He threw the old man a very loathsome glare. "Have you any food in this forgotten corner of Hell, or am I going to starve as usual?"

"Well why can't you go out and get something?" Daddy-O gave him a curious look. "Why'd you come back here, anyway?"

"Too much attention from that lot of incompetent morons who dare to call themselves a police force."

"And?" Toguro pressed from behind him.

Kurama turned and gave the giant an angry look. "And... this guy has this completely insane plot against me, but no big deal. You have any food or what?"

"Rats probably ate it all," answered Daddy-O. "You go pick up some, won't you? Order a pizza; wake me when it's here." The mechanic tottered back to his office, closing the door behind him.

Almost immediately, Kuwabara made a beeline for the phone. "Hey!" he exclaimed angrily. "It's dead!"

"Not surprising," Kurama replied indifferently. "Daddy-O's rather senile. Poor man, I think he might be developing Alzheimer's disease; there are times I swear he thinks this place is still as it was fifteen years ago."

"Well that's great!" Yukina huffed. "What are we supposed to eat, the rats?"

"If you can figure out how to properly prepare the little rodents, by all means, who am I to keep your stomach empty?" replied Kurama wryly.

"What was this place like fifteen years ago?" asked Toguro.

"Eh." Kurama shrugged. "Your average downtown garage, I guess. Not as filthy and infested as it is now, or empty. This place was always occupied and noisy. Back in those days Daddy-O himself wasn't so disheveled and insane- he lived in a house, not in his office, and he made a little extra renting out the loft to-."

Kurama broke off all of a sudden. "Never mind," he said. "It was just better times, that's all."

"You were around then?" asked Hiei. "How's that possible?"

The redhead afforded a small, sarcastic laugh. "Quite possible, really. I'm older than I look- rather funny, though, because I'm not the healthiest person in the world..." He trailed off, and shrugged. "Knowing my luck, assuming that's the appropriate title for it, I'll end up like poor deranged Daddy-O, on the slim chance that I live long enough."

"Let's not talk about such things," Toguro said quickly. "The Youkai is no more, maybe it's time for something new-."

"Yeah, right," Kurama interrupted. "Keep telling yourself that, Toguro." He stalked away from the both of them.

Hiei was put off by this mood swing, but Toguro appeared completely unfazed. "What'll happen to all of you, after this?" Hiei asked.

"Not quite sure," the giant answered. "I'm not too worried about myself; Bui can stick with me, if that's his wish; Yukina can go back to her homeland, if she wants. The boss, on the other hand... Well, I guess he co-founded the gang; it's pretty much been his life, I guess. Hm, I kind of blame myself- in a way, it's partly my own fault that the Youkai started to fall apart."

"Yeah, why's that?"

"When I joined, I brought my own posse with me: Ani, Bui, and Karasu. I kind of 'won' Bui and Karasu. Bui I've never really had much of a problem with; Karasu, on the other hand..."

"He wormed his way to the top."

"Yeah." Toguro sighed. "I don't know how Karasu got to Kurama, but before we all knew it Karasu was sleeping in our leader's bed, making his own rules, and bringing in his own guys. And, well, I'm sure you can piece everything together from there, right?"

"Uh-huh..."

"Anyways, I guess that Kurama figures that now that he's lost the Youkai, he's nowhere to go. I'll admit, he's a pretty pessimistic guy, but who knows? - maybe he's right." The juggernaut shrugged, began walking away...

"Wait," Hiei said. Toguro stopped. "You said that Kurama's co-founder?"

"Yeah; him and some other guy."

"Who was the other guy?"

Toguro thought a moment. "Now that you mention it, I don't know. He's dead now, though."

"Wait."

Toguro heaved an annoyed sigh. "What?"

"Why'd Kurama jump into this whole kidnapping scheme? Did Sakyo pay him or something?"

"I don't know." Toguro really wished that Jaganshi would shut up, but the billionaire's questions ate at him. He was pretty sure- no, he knew- that Kurama had once mentioned something to him about the other founder... a name... but now he couldn't remember it. And it'd never occurred to him before, but it came to his attention that Kurama had never elaborated his motives for leaguing with Sakyo either.

Kurama slipped on the wet, uneven base, cursed, but got back up and looked down. He'd climbed out one of the loft windows, up onto the roof, like he used to. The little street below was flooded from the rain, rain that even now continued to fall without relent from the dark sky above. He was by now completely soaked but didn't care. He was cold and in pain from the wounds in his leg, made worse by his own botched attempt at surgery, but these too, he ignored. Paranoia had worked its way in; all other issues were near-obsolete to him right now.

He thought that this darkness, this rain that distorted one's vision, was the perfect cover for Karasu to sneak up on him. He could envision those milk-white hands, as he'd seen them in his nightmares, emerge, disembodied, from the darkness and yank on him, like some life-sized marionette, to act on his whim. Those hands running through his hair, sliding down to wrap around his neck, press against his throat, choke the life out of him.

He shuddered. 'I wonder if that is how he plans to kill me,' he thought. Would Karasu be so reckless? Throttling him like that, it would most definitely leave a mark, unless he thought to use something like a scarf. Then again, what did it matter if he did or not? After all, who would give a shit about a cross-dressing gangster, slaughtered by an enemy? Did any of them care about the girl down the street, molested by her father? She was always an odd little girl; she was crazy; remember how she mutilated herself? And the vagabond, that man of the streets, did they care when he was gunned down in the alley that one night? Ooh, he was trash, a thief, no good, a menace to society, better off dead... None of them were sorry that he died.

And that boy, who cared when he, not even an adult, was thrown to the streets like a bag of garbage by his mother? Oh no, he liked other men, he was an ungrateful little fag, fucked up little cock-sucker, what a disgrace he was to his mother, poor woman, where'd she go wrong raising him? Who wept for that boy when he quietly died?

'They're responsible for it,' Kurama thought bitterly. 'Vermin are drawn to the rank, putrid dark, and they thrive there. The rats and snakes and roaches and worms that are the perversion of the father, the prejudices of the mother, the hypocrisy of the public. What are we, any of us, but their darker, inner reflections- a part of them that they fear, hate, lash out against; their scapegoats? Who among us is truly pure and innocent?'

He plopped down on the cold wet tin of the roof. Off in the distance he heard the cat-like shriek of a police siren. He grimaced. The police, who did they help? They assaulted and murdered, not always justly, did they not? And so had he, but if he went to them now, he'd be arrested, sentenced, and locked up or executed in some ludicrous costly ceremony for his crimes. He spat. Fuck those men and women in blue- they ought to wear yellow, the damned cowards- they wouldn't even set foot in this part of town most of the time, one practically had to shove them over the district line.

'And the only reason they're here now is to convince the public that they're on top of everything.' If the public believed that, then... stupid public. What if he decided to go ahead and kill Hiei and those children- would the police be crucified then, for neglecting their duties?

He shook his head. No, he couldn't do that. He hadn't lied when he told Hiei that he'd grown fond of him- hated, outcast child, who's inability to alienate somebody different earned him a life of wealth and power. A Cinderella story, except without the sugar-coating, the moral that... what moral? The empty-headed woman got by with a shit load of help and a man who loved her looks. What had she done, really? He laughed. 'Is this the nonsense we teach our children?' he wondered. 'Mommy, why does that man have to sleep on a bench in the park? Well sweetie, he doesn't have a job, so he doesn't have money to pay for a roof over his head. But why don't the birds and mice help him, Mommy? Well sweetie, he has to compete with the birds and mice over the food left in the garbage. But why doesn't somebody rich fall in love with him and take him to a castle? Because he's dirty and ugly and real, and people fear the truth, and we hate what we fear and don't understand... And that is why nobody loves that dirty, smelly old homeless man.

'...And that is why nobody loves that ugly girl who was molested, and nobody loves that vagabond who stole to survive, and nobody loves that little fag who shamed his mother with the truth...

'...Except that misery loves company. And the little hated cast out boy loved the ugly molested girl, and the ugly molested girl loved the little hated cast out boy. And the thieving vagabond loved that little fag, and that little fag loved the thieving vagabond... and the little cast out boy...'

Kurama felt sorry for that dirty, smelly old homeless man in his mind. The 'innocent' public didn't love him, and pretty soon the little hated cast out boy would go home to his happy ending; and the ugly molested girl and the thieving vagabond were both dead; and the little fag… was damned every which way now- it'd be unfair for him to offer his love.

'Poor dirty, smelly old homeless man,' he thought. 'Nobody loves you, and pretty soon some macho cop will shake you and say, "Get moving, you lazy bum," because the public doesn't want to see or deal with you.'

Hiei wandered upstairs in search of Kurama. He felt weird in this place unless he was in the redhead's company, strange as it was.

Then again, why was he still here? Surely he wasn't still a hostage- hadn't Kurama much more important things to worry about right now? If he left now, they, these gangsters, probably wouldn't stop him. Hell, he wasn't even supposed to be here- Yomi was probably home at Makai Estates, wondering where and how he was, or at the police station, finding out if there were any leads as the where he may be. This was just a brief disturbance, and now it was over, right? Time to go home to his company and assets and money, and forget about his psycho sister and the odd Toguro brothers and quiet Bui and corporate mogul Sakyo and malicious Karasu and that cross-dressing Kurama that he couldn't quite figure out...

Kurama wasn't in his room, but Yukina was. "What are you doing?" he asked.

The little Koorime glared at him. "I'm borrowing some of his clothes, if you must know."

"Where is-?"

"How am I supposed to know?" she growled. "He isn't in here; go look for him your own damn self, why don't you?"

Hiei narrowed his eyes. "Why are you so nasty with me?" he demanded.

"I don't like you," was the blunt reply. "Good enough reason?"

"I'm your brother; don't you know that?"

"Where is it written that brothers and sisters have to like each other?" Yukina sneered. "Yeah, I know you're my brother; I've always known you were my brother."

He blinked. "Even when they sent you to kill me?"

"Oh, what are you bitching about? You're still alive, aren't you?"

"But you still would have..."

"So? You deserve it."

"You really think that?"

Yukina didn't answer immediately. "I take it back. What you really deserve is to be carted back to the ice and snow and forced to live as we do, to go through the same hell as us. And after you've experienced all of that, then you deserve to be shot like a dog!"

"What's with this grudge? I've never done anything against you!"

"And you sure haven't done anything for us, now haven't you?"

"Well, why should I?" Hiei asked angrily. "After that sort of childhood?"

His sister sneered. "And to think: I once pitied you!" She grabbed an armful of Kurama's clothes and stormed out of the room.

Hiei glared after her, but started when he heard something behind him. Kurama had entered the room through one of the windows. He groaned. "How much of that did you hear?" he asked, wondering what the hell he'd been doing on the roof. The redhead was soaking wet.

"All of it." He sneezed. 'Was that what it was like to hear me and Karasu fight?'

"She hates me."

"Does she now?" He sneezed again.

"Well, you heard everything she said."

"True. And I didn't hear her once say, 'I hate you, Hiei,' or anything resembling that. Did I hear wrong?"

Hiei thought a moment. "No..." he said slowly. "No, you didn't."

"So how do you know that she hates you?"

"She tried killing me, didn't she?"

Kurama appeared thoughtful. "Well... Sakyo and I did order her to assassinate you- uh, that was before we decided that kidnapping would be better- but she did miss..."

"Bet that pissed her off," Hiei muttered.

"Actually, I was the one pissed off- I believe I ripped out part of her hair..."

"What's your point?"

"Well, Sakyo suggested Yukina do the job because she's never missed-"

"- Until I came along-"

"My point," Kurama said impatiently, beginning to shiver, "is that I think it's a pretty big coincidence that when somebody as skilled as Yukina misses, the target happens to be her brother."

The billionaire furrowed his brow. "She talks about how bad things are for the Koorime up there, but they sure didn't have any gunpersons when I left-." Kurama began to laugh. "What's so funny?"

The redhead shot him a sly smile. "You think she learned all of that up there?"

"She didn't?"

Kurama shook his head. "Sakyo taught her, you know, for the hell of it, and I guess she turned out to be really good at it. Kind of funny."

"Sakyo bought her, right?"

"No."

"Huh? She told me that she'd been sold-."

"She was, but not to Sakyo. To some ruthless, ugly old man named Tarukane- I never did business with him, but Sakyo did- he didn't care for the guy too much." He smiled evilly. "Sakyo destroyed him financially, and the guy turned loony. And what good is a Koorime girl to a madman in the nuthouse? Sakyo took pity on her, brought her to his home. No wonder she's so upset he's dead... I guess he was, in some small inadvertent way, some sort of savior to her..."

"She wants to blame me for her misfortune," Hiei grumbled. "I've suffered just as much, haven't I?"

"From what you've told me, probably. But she was never in a position to help you; she was just a little kid like you, right?" He didn't allow Hiei time to answer. "But now you, you're doing pretty good, aren't you? Ever given anything back to the Koorime?"

"No... I've thought about it before, several times, but..."

Kurama shrugged. "So? You and your mother were shunned due to the Koorime distrust of the outside world, right? So show them that not everybody from the outside world is out to screw them every which way."

"Not everybody from the outside world is out to screw them every which way," Hiei said defensively.

"Yeah? Really? That's the problem with some groups: they know that not all of them are bad, but when do they ever stand up over the crowds and scream so everybody can hear them that what their more wicked affiliates are doing is wrong and should be stopped? And then they have the nerve to bitch about being categorized. Christians bitch about being categorized as overly-zealous radical jerks, but when was the last time you ever saw the rational ones band together to speak out against the hateful fanatics? Arabs bitch about being stereotyped as terrorists, but when was the last time you saw the Arab nations all speak out to denounce the jihadists? You bitch about the Koorime hating you for being an 'outsider', but when have you ever made the effort to show them that not all the outsiders are out to exploit them?" Kurama crossed his arms and gazed at Hiei, almost accusingly.

Hiei blinked. "Um, what were you doing on the roof?" he asked, changing the subject.

"Nothing." He sneezed again.