Chapter Five
Where am I? Am I dead? Is this Reikai? Am I going to be judged?
Kaleh was confused. He felt well, if a little exhausted. But the last thing he remembered was that house collapsing upon him! No way could he still be alive!No, there was something else after that…Yes, a voice, like silk or cool water, speaking to him words he couldn't understand. Or could he? He wasn't sure.
Everything was so strange. He remembered well the attack of the slavers on the village of Gakyu. They were surprised by the sudden attack, and were soon outnumbered.
He remembered how the men fought to protect the inhabitants, the women and children.
He remembered seeing his comrades falling one after the other, captured or killed by the demons.
He remembered the sudden pain as the arrow struck him in the abdomen.
He remembered the cries of despair of the innocents being captured.
And he remembered the scent of fire burning to ashes his beloved home…
That voice…No he couldn't be dead. He could feel the warmth of a nearby fire, and his lungs were still pumping air. There was also something else…roses' perfume? Yes, definitely roses.
Kaleh carefully examined each part of his hurt body. When he was sure that he didn't have any broken limb, he slowly opened his eyes.
His vision was blurred, but he could distinguish a fire near him. The warmth in my dreams… He was still in the village from what he could see and smell, and it was sunset, or dawn, since the sky was bright red. Must be dawn, there's no dusk at sunset…
Then his vision focused and he realized that, even if he was still in the village as presumed, what he saw wasn't what he thought! The fire was a heating plant, better known by humans as the Phoenix bush. He had seen it once before, in Hilona's house. Then that meant!
Kaleh turned his gaze to the opposite side of the bush: the youko lay there, sleeping, his silver hair spilled over his shoulders.
He's mad to let his guard off! Thought Kaleh.
However, the youko wasn't sleeping. When Kaleh began to move, he opened his eyes and was to the side of the man in the blink of an eye.
"Don't move." he said gently.
The man, surprised, stiffened.
"You would only hurt yourself, Kurama simply said. Just stop moving and let me examine your wounds."
Too surprised to protest, Kaleh went back to his couch of…vines?
He suddenly realized that he owed his life to a demon he defied only weeks ago! In the meantime, that same demon examined him and told him with that grave voice of his:
"It looks like you're fully healed. You can move now, but – he eyed the fearful man – I think you should stay, at least to take a meal. You've been unconscious for two days, you know."
Kaleh couldn't believe his ears: the demon was actually being kind to him! He relaxed a bit thought, since the youkai got away from him.
Minutes later, he was seeping soup from a bowl, the youko doing the same on the opposite side of the Phoenix bush. Neither of them spoke for a long time, but soon the question Kaleh was burning to answer blurted out:
"Why did you help me?"
"Excuse me?" the youko left his golden eyes from his bowl.
"Why did you help me? I mean, it's not like you had to, you're a youkai!"
"Oh that! It's because I thought it was right: I couldn't simply leave you like that."
Another silence. The youko finished his bowl, while Kaleh absorbed this new piece of information, quite difficult to admit.
"What's your name?" asked the still puzzled man.
"What's yours?" asked the youko in return.
"I asked first."
"I saved you."
Kaleh was defeated. He sighed.
"Kaleh is my name."
"Mine's Kurama."
"Kurama? Not the legendary youko thief?"
"If you want to consider this side of my life…yes."
"You lie," said Kaleh stubbornly. No way could he be him.
"You already told me that once, remember?" said Kurama grinning. "And you were wrong."
Kaleh shut his mouth. The youko was right, but the fact that the legendary Youko Kurama - the one famous among humans for his cruelty - was helping him was quite improbable. He decided to test the youkai, even though a small part of his mind (which he silenced quite quickly and effectively with a mental cloth in its mental mouth) told him it wasn't such a good idea.
"You never used to help people, how come you're so changed?"
Kurama looked up, surprised by the question. His gaze shifted from amused to thoughtful, and there was an undeniable sadness in the golden orbs as they stared back at him.
"I was…human…for a lifespan," said he. Then, seeing the surprised look on Kaleh's face: "Remember when people talked about me being dead?" Kaleh nodded. "It was true in some way: my soul went to the Ningenkai and I reincarnated myself in a human male known as Shuuichi Minamino. My ningen mother taught me how to love" - and Kaleh noted definitely a great sadness in his eyes at this point – "taught me how to be human…"
"What happened to her?"
"She died…three years ago…"
The man didn't say anything, all his sympathy going to the sad being in front of him, completely forgetting that it was a youkai.
0000000000"Are you sure he took that path?" asked Yusuke.
Hiei glared at him as if he was mad.
"OK! I didn't say anything!" exclaimed the Makai lord. "But didn't you say it lead to that human village?"
"Hn."
"Then why is he heading this way?" said Kuwabara. "His lover can't possibly be in that village: I can hardly imagine that millennia aged youko with a human!"
"Don't be stupid Kazuma!" Yusuke said. "Of course it is where his lover is! Why would he go that way otherwise?"
"Hn!" growled Hiei. "I didn't see any blond-haired woman in that village. Perhaps he really had a meeting with a merchant."
"You didn't see any woman because you thought that village wasn't important enough, shrimp!" Kuwabara teased him. "You thought the necklace came from that city!"
Hiei didn't say anything and leapt forward at supernatural speed, vexed. Kuwabara yelled at him that he was a coward – and where was he thinking to go? Come back! – while Yusuke laughed at the two.
000000000
The camp wasn't as large as they expected, barely average: it was merely composed of one principal tent for the leader, a few smaller ones for the hundredth of mercenaries composing the troop, and cages for the captives. Those last were divided in three groups: the men, the women, and the children. There were numerous small youkai groups patrolling the valley, while some guarded the prisoners. A fire had been made in the center of the camp and the officers were debating around it, jugs of a doubtful alcohol in their claws.
"We should take great profit from this raid!" said one four-eyed demon.
"Yeah!" approved a smaller youkai, his dirty blue hair spilled around him as a cloak.
"How many did we capture?" asked a horned red demon, apparently the leader.
"One hundred and fifty four!" exclaimed the four-eyed demon. "I say, this is the best raid we made!"
"You forgot to take out the infants and elders!" growled a lizard-like youkai.
"Shut up Nork!" said the four-eyed demon, taking his bloodstained sword out of its sheath.
"Are you threatening me Galuk!" said Nork, also taking his sword out.
"Yeah! Fight! That will leave more for me!" exulted the blue-haired demon.
However, the fight he expected never came, for the fourth youkai squeezed his neck before he could react. The other two froze in place.
"That Floïc was an idiot after all," said the youkai with deadly calmness. "Do you wish to follow him?" he eyed the two remaining youkais.
The sound of two blades going back into their sheath was the only answer.
"Good. Now Nork, what were you saying?"
The lizard youkai choked with fear, but managed to answer:
"I was saying, Master Tyag, that without the elders and young infants we had in the lot, we only had left about one hundred…"
"Let us kill those!" exclaimed Galuk.
"They should make a proper meal," agreed Tyag.
Soon after, the three were drinking and laughing at the expected feast.
00000000000
Kurama shivered: that wasn't good at all. He had been listening to the leaders' conversation, having crept past the guards easily in his kitsune form, and he now knew that Kaleh and he didn't have much time left to save the village's inhabitants from those slavers.
Going back the way he came, he met with Kaleh in the cave they had taken position in. The man was on the small ledge in front of it, observing the numerous patrols and their paths, plundering the various ways to get past them and into the camp to free his friends. He merely gave Kurama a small acknowledging glare before going back to his watch.
"What have you found?" whispered the bearded man.
"We should act quickly," answered the youko, "they are going to kill the infants and elders in the morning."
"Blast!" hissed Kaleh. "That doesn't leave us much time! What do you propose?"
"You're good with lock picking, aren't you?"
"How did you know that?" asked Kaleh, eyes wide with surprise.
"I'm good at observing," answered the Youko, "and it was a part of my life as a thief."
"One point for you. So, what's the plan?"
"See that ravine in the east of the valley? There is a small forest out there, I shall lure them there, while you free the others and flee by the west in that small river."
"Even those youkais aren't stupid enough to fight a youko in a forest!" hissed Kaleh.
"Believe me my friend, they are stupid enough. Beside, I shall hide my true nature and powers until most of them are after me."
"If you say so. But still, there are too many of them, even for you!"
"I shall take out a few patrols before," answered Kurama. "Which ones would be best in your opinion?"
"The one which crosses the stream at the east and the two there, and there," said Kaleh, pointing at three patrols. "They never meet with any other patrol; so, none should miss them until dawn. But there are still too many of them!"
Kurama smiled, his fangs shining in the moonlight, and said with a deadly cold and amused voice that made the man shiver:
"Have you ever seen me fighting?"
Tbc…
Author's note:
Ugh, not much to say. I changed a few minor things here and there, but basically it's the same. Even after all that time I still like the original story, although I will follow some suggestions that were made by some reviewers and rewrite some of the future chapters.
Review responses:
Mizuki hikari: lol, yeah, I know. I still don't know if I'll write a sequel though, as I had planned originally by introducing that in the plot. Maybe I'll do it, but I really don't know.
ReKo-KiTsUnE:Thanks a lot. :) Hope you like this chapter too. Anyway, it probably answers your question, and if not then the next chappie should. See ya:D
Thanks to all who reviewed, or just read the story. All comments are appreciated, see you soon,
Ellenlome