This is the sequel to 'To Say Goodbye', if you haven't read that story you should before you read this one so you know what's going on.
Silent and slow, the sun crawled across the sky, shining intently down on the earth, illuminating the landscape with bright rays of light. Blue skies overhead, not a cloud in sight, and a gentle breeze flitting by—the perfect day after a week of torturously intense humid ones; Hiei smiled, wistfully gazing at the sky before checking to see where the fox cub was. Five weeks had passed since he found the fox cub and adopted him as a pet, during which Hiei slowly regained some of his demonic powers, but not all, as well as got used to the fact that Kurama was gone.
Though, of course to him, Kurama didn't seem very far away at all—every time Hiei looked at the fox cub with its intensely red fur dark auburn eyes, he was reminded of his fox and it eased him to think of the cub as Kurama. Little Ku—chan he called it, short for Kurama-chan, and he took precious care of it, never letting it wander out of his sight for more than a minute.
"Where are you, little Ku-chan?" Hiei cooed, gazing from bush to bush for the six week old fox cub, finding him lying under a blooming rosebush sleeping. Picking Ku-chan up carefully, trying not to wake him, Hiei held the cub close to him, walking to a nearby stream and lied down, placing the sleeping cub on his chest.
Six weeks, it seemed longer than that, but it had been six weeks since that day when Kurama died and Hiei escaped Karasu—he still had nightmares about it. Memories of what Karasu did to him flooded Hiei's mind, awakening him from every sleep in fright—for four weeks Hiei hadn't gotten a full night's sleep, the nightmares were too unbearably vivid.
Now, however, as sleep overwhelmed the fire-demon, he hoped that no nightmares of Karasu would disturb his rest.
Meanwhile at Harajuku station, Hinansho walked passed a bridge crowed with people hoping to drown his thoughts with the sights and sounds of a busy weekend afternoon. However, memories of Kurama's sickness and death ran rampant through his mind, wistfully saddening him as he walked through the crowd. Hinansho couldn't stand not having Kurama around, and he couldn't forgive Karai for reviving Karasu and allowing him to hurt them so much—even though Karasu was Karai's brother, Karai should've realized how dangerous that bastard could be. Karai should've realized what Karasu would do, and Hinansho couldn't forgive his ex-lover's lack of foresight.
"Hey you! Wait up!" A female voice called from the crowd of people, attracting Hinansho's attention as he turned to look at who the girl was and who she yelled for. It took him only a few seconds to realize it was him she headed for. "Who…?"
"You're Hinansho Kakusareta, right?" The girl asked stopping next to the boy, her bleach blond hair swaying slightly in a breeze, her blue eyes studying Hinansho curiously.
"Yes…and you are?"
"Akiko Kamigawa."
"A…kiko…?" Hinansho muttered, then gasping as he remembered where he heard that name before. "You! You were Shuui-chan's ex, the one who cheated on him."
"I…yes, I'm that Akiko—but I regret that now, believe me." Akiko replied, looking suddenly nervous, put off that Hinansho knew about that. "Um…how did you know…?"
"Shuui-chan told me." Hinansho replied studying Akiko suspiciously—what did she want from him? "What do you want?"
"I was wondering if you saw Shuuichi lately, I need to tell him something."
Taking a deep breath, Hinansho stared at Akiko with a sad look, fidgeting uncomfortably.
"Don't you know?" Hinansho asked uncomfortably.
"Know what? I've just got back from out of town, I've been living with my grandparents in Kyoto since Shuuichi and I broke up." Akiko answered, suddenly aware of Hinansho's uneasiness and sad stare, a bad feeling rising in her stomach. "Hinansho…what is it…?"
"Shuuichi's dead, he died six weeks ago."
"Wha…oh god no…." Akiko blanched, swaying on the spot at the news, almost falling to the ground before Hinansho caught her, supporting her on his shoulder. "I didn't know…Shuuichi…." Tears welled up in, and fell from her sky blue eyes, dripping onto Hinansho's arm, as she whimpered and shook, distraught.
"…." Speechless, Hinansho comforted Akiko until she stopped crying, bringing her to a nearby bench to sit down. After sitting in silence for a minute or two, Hinansho spoke, asking Akiko what she wanted to see Shuuichi for.
"I needed to tell him something." Akiko replied wiping her eyes with a handkerchief Hinansho handed her, her voice trembling. "I…I'm pregnant, and it's more than likely Shuuichi's the father."
"What! Oh, god…." Hinansho gasped, looking from Akiko's face to her abdomen, then back to her face, realizing that she must be only a couple of months pregnant. "How far along…?"
"Going on my third month. I came back to tell Shu-chan."
"Oh." Hinansho looked away, and then spoke after a brief silence. "Are you sure it's Shuuichi's?"
"I…um…I…it most likely is…."
"But you're not a hundred percent sure." Hinansho replied, bitterness rising through him. "So how many other men could be the father?"
"Only one other." Akiko replied, put off by Hinansho's rude abruptness.
"Then why don't you go to him? Since he was so good for you to cheat on Shuui-chan with, why don't you stay with him?" Hinansho replied cruelly, a strange bitter jealousy surging through him—if he had been a female he could be carrying Kurama's child instead of being left with nothing.
"I can't, he'd married." Akiko replied blushing and avoiding Hinansho's appalled and shocked stare.
"You…you cheated on Shuui-chan with a married man!"
"Yes."
"I don't believe this…." Hinansho abruptly stood up and walked away from Akiko, not slowing down when she called for him to stop. Desperate Akiko followed Hinansho through the crowded streets, not noticing someone in shadow studying them in the distance.
Elsewhere in the forest surrounding Genkai's by the stream where Hiei lay sleeping, Karai stood silently behind a tree, studying Hiei intently with wonder in his eye. Sleeping, Hiei looked so much like Hinansho, both had the same deep black hair and were around the same height—Karai bet that they even weighed the same. No wonder Kurama had taken to Hinansho so quickly, at first glance Hiei and Hinansho looked the same, only on closer look could one notice the differences. Hiei's face was thinner and more rigid than Hinansho's soft, round one, and Hinansho's black hair didn't stick up naturally in rigid spikes like Hiei's. Then there were their eyes—Hinansho's emerald green ones were the exact opposite of Hiei's intensely red ones, but subtracting that one obvious difference, only someone who knew both of them would be able to tell the difference. Kurama must've been ecstatic to find someone who looked so much like the fire-demon.
'Damn you brother. Why did you have to separate them when they needed each other?' Karai cursed Karasu in his thoughts, keeping silent as he saw Hiei tremble in his sleep.
Trembling immensely from the images flashing through his mind, Hiei awoke gasping and looking around wildly until he was sure it had only been a dream. Picking up the fox cub, who had awoken startled when Hiei sat up quickly, the shivering fire-demon held him close, comforting both of them.
"Ku-chan…." Hiei began, stopping when he sensed Karai's demon energy coming from behind him in the forest. Steeling himself up, Hiei turned to where Karai stood, narrowing his red eyes at the eavesdropping demon angrily. "What do you want?"
"I…um…." Karai mumbled taken aback that Hiei sensed him so quickly, all he had wanted to do was make sure nothing happened to the fire-demon since everything that happened was his fault because he had resurrected Karasu.
"Well?" Hiei growled studying Karai disdainfully—he wound never forgive Karai for resurrecting Karasu, neither would anybody else for that matter, even Hinansho refused to forgive his ex. "If you have nothing to say to me, then leave."
"Hiei, I…um…." Karai mumbled, then turned away, walking silently through the forest away from the fire-demon—he wished he could do something to help fix the problems his brother caused, but he didn't know what he could do. Karai continued walking deep in thought through the forest, wondering what else could go wrong.
Meanwhile, back at Harajuku Hinansho stopped and stared at Akiko, annoyed that the blond would continue to follow him, and wondering what she wanted him to do about her problems.
"Will you quit following me?" Hinansho growled, eyes narrowing as he studied Akiko carefully, debating the odds of the child she carried being Kurama's, wondering if Akiko had been truthful when she said there was only one other possibility. "I can't help you with your problem, and I wouldn't even if I could, so leave me alone." Hinansho seethed turning away as he whispered the word 'slut' just loud enough for Akiko to hear.
Blanching, tears welled up in Akiko's eyes, but she turned and walked away without another word, blending in with a passing crowd of people. Relieved that Akiko was gone, Hinansho sighed, gazed up and the sky briefly and began walking toward the nearest stores.
"That was very mean of you." A voice spoke behind him as he felt a hand grab his arm. Annoyed, Hinansho turned to look at who a girl he didn't know with hazel eyes and shoulder length dark red hair specked with strands of black and brown. "Calling someone that is very vulgar."
"Yeah, well if it's true it can't be helped." Hinansho muttered bitterly. "Who are you, anyway?" He asked studying the girl's appearance more thoroughly, noticing the black jeans and vest she wore both imprinted with the image of a red rose.
"That's of no consequence right now. You should go apologize to that girl right away; something might happen if you don't." The strange girl replied, stepping in front of Hinansho to stop him from leaving.
"I'll apologize to her when hell freezes over. Now get out of my way, I've got things to do." Hinansho growled, pushing pass the girl when she didn't move, not caring how rude it was, not caring when she fell to the sidewalk from his shove. However the weird girl got up quickly, jumping in front of him about five feet away, holding something in her right hand—a pendant on a string, tear shaped and dark hued. "Hey…that's my pendant! How did you…? Give it back, thief!"
"You have to catch me first, Kurounue!" The weird girl replied jumping away from Hinansho as he lunged at her furiously, not realizing what she said until moments later.
"Wha…ah! How do you know I'm Kurounue?" He gasped, stopping in mid jump to gap at the strange girl who stood just one leap out of his reach.
"You'll see it you catch me!" The strange girl giggled, dashing farther away from the boy, and then stopping to look back at him, taunting him with the pendant again.