Chapter Four: The Black Mist
As Hiei had last been spotted in the human world, Kurama returned to Japan to begin his search. It was difficult to believe, from one look at him, that this compassionate man had once been a the proud spirit fox, Youko Kurama. So much of him had changed since he had come to this world. Kurama had once been a legendary thief, but that time had passed. He was injured during one of his escapes, and needed to hide while he recovered. He chose a fetus still growing within a human mother's womb, and inhabited the body before a soul could be called for it. He had, since then, grown up as the human boy Sooichi Minamino. But what he hadn't expected was that he would grow to truly love his human life. He had changed so much, become so human, that he had once offered up his life to a mystical mirror called the Forlorn Hope, in exchange for his human mother to be cured of her deathly illness.
So much of his life had changed, and yet, so much was still the same. His human life had been interrupted by that of his spirit. He couldn't have a truly human life, because in truth, he was not truly human. While it was true that he was no longer the Youko Kurama of the past, it was also true that he was not Sooichi Minamino, not exactly. He was just...Kurama.
And right now, he was Kurama standing right outside the doorstep of the Minamino residence. It was getting late now, and Sooichi needed to check in with his mother, so that she would not worry about him while Kurama searched for Hiei. He drew in a deep breath, then let out a sigh of regret. He hated having to lie to his mother like this, but he couldn't exactly tell her that he was going out searching for a demon to go hunt another demon, could he?
He twisted the knob and pushed the door open, stepping inside quickly. He needed to make this quick, because time was short. "Mother?" he called into the quiet apartment, "Are you home?" His footsteps echoed in the hall as he walked, his eyes scanning for his mother, before he heard her response. "I'm in here, sweetie!" his mother responded, her voice full of maternal care. Her voice had come from the kitchen, and so that's where he stopped.
"Hello, mother," Kurama smiled from the door. "How is your leg?" She had finally come home from the hospital recently, but had a relapsed fall and pulled something in her leg. His mother had been dying in the hospital some time back, which had been why Kurama had tried to sacrifice himself to the Forlorn Hope. But Yusuke wouldn't let him do this. Inspired by Kurama's love for his human mother, something he hadn't expected to see from a demon, he had offered his own life to the Forlorn Hope to keep it from taking Kurama's. The mirror had been moved by this act of selflessness, and had granted Kurama's wish and healed his mother without taking any lives.
"It's doing much better, Sooichi." His mother looked at him, curling one side of her lip up in a smirk. "But thank you for asking."
That smirk sent a chill down Kurama's spine. It was uncharacteristic of his mother, and it faded quickly, almost like an accident. "Are you alright, mother?" He asked, while he raised one of his eyebrows. Something definitely seemed amiss, but he wasn't certain he had the time to focus on it right now. He needed to go find Hiei.
"I'm fine, Kurama. Don't you worry about me." The mother smiled once more. Kurama's eyes were now facing the window, and he couldn't help but notice it was dark now. Finding Hiei would be that much harder now that he couldn't see, but...no, Hiei preferred the dark anyway. Perhaps this would work to his advantage.
"I need to go out for a while, mother. I'll be back as soon as I can." Something was setting off warning bells in Kurama's head, but he was too distracted to ascertain what.
"Okay, Sooichi. You go have fun, and don't you worry your head about me."
Kurama gave his mother a peck on the cheek, and hugged her once before departing. However, once he was out the door, he stopped once more and looked back. Something had been very wrong in there, but he couldn't quite place what. His mother had acted very strangely, even said things that were unbefitting of her. And what was that smirk about? She didn't–
Wait...did she just call him Kurama? There it was, the big, red, flashing warning alarm. His mother didn't know that name. She had no idea about any of his demonic exploits. To her, he was just her beloved son, Sooichi. Kurama felt the dread growing in the pit of his stomach, and turned back to the door. Something was terribly wrong with his mother, and he was going to find out–
"Hey, Sooichi!" A shrill, feminine voice grabbed his attention, distracting him from his return. He turned his head, and standing down at the end of the complex was Kimiko Natsuyaki, a girl he knew from school. The prissy, popular girl had always turned down her nose at him for his intelligence. Sooichi was the brain at his high school, owed mainly to the fact that Kurama already knew all the material. He had been struggling to keep his intelligence from showing completely, but it was difficult to maintain, which was why he remained at the top of the class.
"Kimiko?" he called to her, with a questioning curiosity in his voice. This was very unusual to be visited by one of the girls in his school, especially one as antagonistic towards him as she was. "What are you doing here?" The night was getting stranger and stranger, as she approached him. A predatory smirk lived on her face, and a chill washed over Kurama when he recognized it as the same smirk he had seen for a second on his mother.
"I have a favor to ask of you," the girl started, but she didn't stop walking. Once she got within a couple feet, Kurama started stepping back, but the girl forced herself towards him. Her arms wrapped around his neck and her head dropped to his chest, and that same predatory smirk grew larger on her face. "You think I'm pretty, don't you, Sooichi?"
This was very strange. Kurama pushed the girl away, gripping her by the shoulders. "What are you doing, Kimiko? Why are you here?"
Kimiko curled her lip up in a pout. "You don't think I'm pretty?" She started to sniffle, and Kurama sighed. He was too busy to be dealing with this.
"Yes, I think you're very pretty. What does that have to do with anything?"
The pout vanished, replaced by the smirk. "Then you'll help me, right? I really need you to help me. You're the only one who can, without tipping off that big jerk!"
Big jerk? There were several big jerks at their high school, but somehow, he couldn't help but wonder if she meant something more than that. "What big jerk?"
Kimiko pouted again. "The big jerk that hit me this afternoon. He's not going to help me. I need you to do it, please!"
Kurama sighed. The moral side of him now ached, wanting to find the big jerk that had hit Kimiko. But...there were no marks on her. This only confused things further. "Who hit you?"
Kimiko smirked once more, and Kurama couldn't help but note how quickly she went from pouting to arrogant. "The big jerk that loves to hit people. You should know who I'm talking about, Sooichi. Or, would you prefer I call you Kurama?" There they were, the warning alarms going off once more in his head.
Kurama gripped Kimiko by the shoulders now. Something hadn't seemed right, but now, something seemed horribly wrong, just as it had with his mother. "What is going on? How do you know my name, who are you? You're not Kimiko."
Kimiko shoved Kurama hard to push him off, then laughed at him. "Fine, if you really must know. You can call me Yoshi. Yoshi Tsarakino."
This left Kurama slightly stunned. He didn't know what he expected her to say, but a man's name definitely wasn't it. "Yoshi?" He hadn't heard that particular name before, but all that told him was that this person didn't go to his school. And now he was trying to make sense of it...was Kimiko a shapeshifter? "What do you want from me?"
Kimiko's smirk never left her face. "I want you, Kurama. More specifically, my master wants you. We are the Tomorrow, and the future is ours. You are going to help us get what we need. My master wants access to the palace of Reikai and you are going to deliver that. I would do it myself, but that red-haired idiot sounds like he could identify me, and I am not getting caught in that place." The red-haired idiot was undoubtedly Kuwabara, who had a very powerful sixth sense.
"Why would I help you?" Kurama asked. If Kimiko knew who he was, then she would undoubtedly know his meanings. What made her believe that he would join this...Tomorrow?
"I never said you would," Kimiko menaced. "Not of your own volition, of course." She lunged at him, but he pulled back, out of her grip. Her right hand dropped into her jeans pocket, pulling out a small, black vial, and she made a second effort to get to him. But before she could move, a powerful blow cracked across the back of her head, and she hit the ground hard.
"How many warnings do you need before you start fighting back?" the demon questioned, having appeared seemingly out of nowhere, now standing over the unconscious body of Kimiko. Hiei, the three-eyed demon, with his headband firmly wrapped over his Jigan Eye, now bent down over Kimiko and took the vial from her hand. Kurama had no way of knowing, but Hiei had just saved his freedom. "Hmm...Black Mist vial. Potent device."
Kurama had barely even seen the blow, Hiei had moved too fast. But all the same, he was relieved to see him. His job was now complete, he had found Hiei, even if Hiei had actually been the one to find him. He didn't even ask why Hiei was here, the two were almost kindred souls. This wouldn't be the first time he had entertained Hiei's company because the demon had nothing better to do. "It's good to see you, Hiei. We have a situation on our hands, regarding a demon named Fjerin."
Hiei softly kicked Kimiko's unconscious form, to accentuate his point. "You also have a situation regarding a girl with a mysterious aura and the mass production of Black Mist."
"Black Mist?" Kurama asked. He hadn't heard of Black Mist before, and his eyes fell on the vial. "Is that some kind of weapon?"
Hiei laughed for a moment, by Kurama's lack of knowledge. He didn't think there was anything in Makai that Kurama didn't know about, but as Black Mist came from the deepest, most terrifying realms of it, it wasn't as surprising as it could be. "Black Mist is an interdimensional tool used for ferrying prey to the nastiest demons of Makai. The mist appears like fog in places on Makai, and anything living that gets caught in its grip is forced like a pin through a hole into the lowest regions, where the demons who control it are waiting to eat. Think of it like an instant means of transportation from one place to another, even between dimensions. All you need is a central location of Black Mist, and you can use pieces of it to transport things instantly back to the main location." Hiei held up the vial, gesturing with it. "If someone is mass producing these, that means anyone or anything can get from any one place to any second place." As one final example, Hiei cast the vial directly at one of the trees standing in the woods outside Kurama's home. The vial shattered immediately upon striking the tree, and Black Mist enveloped it. The Mist dissipated within seconds, but when it was gone, so was the tree. Not even a trace was left.
Kurama watched the display, and the feeling of dread returned to his stomach. If Black Mist was being mass-produced, then even the biggest, nastiest, most powerful demons of Makai could have an instant means of entering the human world. this could be the most dangerous thing the human world had faced thus far.
