Hey guys! Did ya miss me? The answer better be a yes. : P Alright I don't have much to say here except thanks to neko kitkat and Lonelyfox for their reviews of the last chapter. And thank you to all of my other beautiful reviewers! huggles readers Okay, you're sick of me so here's the latest installment of the story!
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"Yeah, yeah shorty we know. Come on Kuwabara its dragon ass-whooping time!"
Yusuke and Kuwabara sized up their opponent. The dragon was massive. It was deep violet with a black underbelly, claws, and spikes that ran over its spine. The large reptilian had eyes the color of freshly spilt blood, hence the name 'Red-Eye Valley.'
The creature sat up against a large rock wall that effectively guarded its back, and the ground was littered with bones of the dragon's previous meals.
The spirit detectives looked at one another and nodded. Yusuke sprinted to the left side of the reptilian while Kuwabara did the same to the right. As if on cue, but actually mainly due to coincidence the two attacked at precisely the same time.
"REI GUN!"
"SPIRIT SWORD!"
Yusuke aimed the ball of energy at the beast's large neck trying not to damage the head where the vital teeth were. The blast effectively carved a large gash in the dragon's neck and it let out a shriek of pain.
Kuwabara on the other hand aimed his attack at the reptilian's side and he too, succeeded. The dragon's blood ran freely from its two wounds and it was enraged.
Out of nowhere a spiked tail struck the orange-haired teen in the stomach, which in turn opened a long cut across his abdomen and sent him flying. The human hissed in pain as he hit the rock wall nearest the small fire demon.
Hiei rolled his eyes. "Try not to get yourself killed."
Kuwabara stood up and glowered at his teammate. "Shut up you shrimp!" A deep red stain was coloring his previously blue jacket, and he covered it protectively. The human took a moment to regain his bearings and charged back into the fight with renewed vigor.
Meanwhile, Yusuke seemed to be gaining the upper hand against the fell beast. Many rei blasts and punches later the dragon seemed to be at the end of its rope. It was covered it its own blood and appeared to be desperate to kill this little fly that had caused it so much pain.
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Kurama had little trouble finding the portal into the Makai. He dropped a few feet and landed in demon world. The fox looked around looking for something to help him find out where he was.
"Lookie what we found. A little human lost his way into our woods."
Kurama whirled around but saw nobody. He forced himself to remain calm and reached out his youki to find the perpetrator. Two tiger demons, dark green in coloring were in the trees surrounding him. One was directly in front of him and one was too his left.
"I would not recommend that you vex me if your lives mean anything to you."
Laughing could be heard. "He thinks that he can take us on! Maybe we should show him how things work in the Makai." The tigers leapt out of their hiding spaces and launched themselves at the redhead.
Kurama sighed again. "I can't help but say I warned you." He pulled out a seed from his hair and in a few moments all that remained of the two green demons were slices of meat that decorated the forest floor around him.
The redhead sighed and once again reached out his youki to vegetation around him, hoping that the local flora could help him locate his teammates.
A few moments later he found his answer. To the northeast, only about 5 miles away. He knew what lay there, and hoped with all of his might that his friends were not near the dragon of Red-Eye Valley. However knowing the team's luck, he figured that's where they probably were.
He sighed. How could he possibly look his friends in the eyes now? He would either have to lie to them about what they saw and hope that they didn't hear him talking during his time of unconsciousness, or tell them that he had killed them in his mind. At the moment he really didn't like either of those options, but figured he had another hour to mentally prepare himself for them.
And then he was off, sprinting in the direction that his plants had told him that the Rekai Tantei were. All the while his mind was racing with ways to confront his friends. Another problem arose in his head: What if he didn't actually trust them anymore? What if his subconscious panicked and he attacked his teammates in real life this time? What if he actually killed someone?
The fox shook his head. These what if's weren't getting him anywhere. He would just have to deal with whatever side effects of the Rasputine had on him when it happened.
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Yusuke let out an almighty battle cry and once again let out a fierce array of punches and kicks at the dragon. It was forced back a few steps before it let out a jet of fire that missed the detective by mere inches.
"Ack! We gotta beat this thing quick unless we wanna get turned into charcoal!"
"What do you think I'm trying to do Urameshi? This thing's awful tough for bein' purple!"
The two humans took cover behind a rocky outcropping to catch their breath and hopefully devise a new strategy.
"I think the best thing to do is to somehow cut off its head. We won't risk the teeth and then it'll be dead!"
"Eww, come on Urameshi, that's just disgusting. Can we not talk about cutting off heads?"
"Ya Kuwabara what do you want to talk about? Kittens? Well just to inform you; THERE'S A DRAGON OUT THERE THAT WANTS TO EAT US!"
"Would you two shut up and kill the thing before I have to get up and destroy it myself!" The fire demon was beside himself with anger, but to his despair that last outbreak of angry words had drained him. 'Those humans are fighting with each other at a time like this…that's just great; we're going to be killed.'
Surprisingly after hearing Hiei's outburst Yusuke calmed down a little. "Now, we're going to attack the neck, and try to get its head off."
Kuwabara cringed a little at the though of gushing dragon blood, but got a hold of himself and nodded.
"Alright let's go!"
The two of them leapt out from behind their hiding spot and launched a vicious assault on the dragon, aiming for its neck. The creature did not seem happy as it let jets of fire fly almost every moment, swished its tail violently through the air, and clawed its two front legs at the ground trying to slash at Yusuke and Kuwabara.
After about ten minutes of attempted decapitation Yusuke was getting a little tired. Unfortunately for him the dragon sensed this and caught the tired teen with its tail, hurling the spirit detective behind the reptilian and into the rock face.
The chocolate-eyed teen groaned and tried to sit up, but winced as he did so. 'Great, broken ribs.' As he forced himself to stand up Yusuke saw something that made him punch the wall in frustration.
"Aww, that's just great! Not only do we have to deal with a mad dragon, but a mad dragon that's PMSing about her eggs!"
Indeed, the violet creature was a mother. Her deep green eggs lay in a nest of pebbles and bones.
While Yusuke was recovering from nearly being flattened Kuwabara was not doing so well. He had managed to wound the beast a few more times with his Spirit Sword, but only hit the dragon's neck once.
"Why don't you just die you stupid thing?"
Kuwabara's ranting only served to distract him as the reptilian not only seized the opportunity, but seized the orange-haired teen up in one talon-ed claw as well.
"Lemme go you big lizard!"
But the dragon only bared its white teeth at him. Finally realizing that she had the upper hand, the fell beast turned swiftly and snatched Yusuke while he was still distracted by the discovery of the eggs.
Now with both teens in her claws the violet reptilian looked from one to the other as if deciding which one to eat first.
"Oh this is just great. I ask them to do one thing, and look how they screw up the situation." The koorime attempted to stand, leaning heavily upon the rock face but found that he no longer had the strength to even do that. Hiei fell back down to the ground unceremoniously, cursing.
"Put us down right now you big ugly thing!" Yusuke was not happy with himself for being distracted and caught by a big reptile.
The dragon seemed to have finally made up her mind and opened her jaws towards Yusuke, preparing to bite his head off.
As the fell beast was half of a foot away from the chocolate-eyed teen's face, a large array of vines came out of nowhere and firmly latched the creature's mouth shut. Even more vines appeared and roped themselves to the dragon's midsection and then attached themselves the rock wall.
The violet reptilian was so shocked that she forgot all about her prey and dropped both Yusuke and Kuwabara to the ground. As soon as they hit the ground the two scrambled out of the way, while their previous captor attempted to claw the vines off of her face and stomach.
"Where did those come from?"
A blur of red came out of nowhere, quite like the vines had and launched itself at the dragon.
"It can't be."
But it was. The form of Kurama fighting the beast with his trusted Rose Whip stood out clearly in front of the two stunned spirit detectives.
He appeared to be not trying to kill the dragon, but subdue it. He had just about finished attaching thick vines to his opponent, when the creature struck out one final time. She lashed out with her remaining foreleg and sent the redhead flying back into a pile of rubble.
"Kurama!"
The two teens rushed over to help their friend and when they got there, were relived to find that he was still alive.
Kurama was partially buried by rock but managed to get most of the rubble off of him without much trouble. The fox discovered a small cut decorated his side and he put a hand over it, protectively. He heard his name being called out and looked up to see Yusuke and Kuwabara smiling.
The chocolate-eyed teen extended his hand to the fox. "Don't worry it's gonna be okay."
The kitsune's eyes widened in shock as he was struck with major deja-vu. He froze for a moment, but then stood up quickly knocking Yusuke's hand aside.
"Get away from me!" Fear was evident in Kurama's emerald gaze as he slowly backed away from his 'tormentor.'
The spirit detective looked hurt as he remembered that his friend had thought that he had betrayed him.
"No Kurama. It's alright. I don't know what you saw, but I would never do anything to hurt you."
The fox looked disbelieving at Yusuke, and did not stop backing up. For a moment Kurama appeared to be in great inner turmoil. He then stopped moving and said in a monotone voice. "We need to get Hiei's antidote."
Yusuke and Kuwabara looked at each other confusedly, but nodded. They followed the kistune back toward the dragon and watched as he had yet another vine to secure the remaining free limb to the rock face.
Kurama's face was still passive as he leapt up, careful of his new wound, the rock wall and cut the vines that held the creature's jaws together. Almost immediately he summoned two more plants to hold the beast's mouth open.
He took a small vial from his pocket and extracted a small amount of venom from the dragon's teeth. After he judged that he had enough, the fox expertly climbed down back to the teens, who stood flabbergasted, mouths agape.
Still without any emotion to color his voice or face the fox said, "Let's go home."
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Yeppurs. The dragon is defeated but a new foe seems to have arisen; mistrust. Can the others get the fox to trust them again? It seems Hiei will be alright, now that Kurama got his antidote for him, but was the price too high? Friendships will be tried in the next chapter!
Hope you guys liked it! Please review on your way out, I might have some trouble coming up with the next chappie!
Hugs,
MM
