In the Wake of What Follows

Chapter Ten: Lukewarm

Terra's training was interrupted a few days later by Kurama's arrival. Halfway through her combination, Terra stopped suddenly when the sensation of this new energy rushed her like a rip current of roses.

"You're only now sensing him?" Hiei questioned with a sneer.

She snapped out of her reverie by his words. He gave up his position in the sequence, the pole looped in the crook of his elbow and resting against his shoulder. It was frankly rude that Hiei wasn't even sweating.

"I've never felt his energy before," she admitted.

Hiei frowned – if you can count the subtle twitch of his lips as an expression of frowning. Terra read it as such, at least. She supposed it was something to cause confusion. Terra had been around Kurama twice now, and in close proximity. It didn't make sense that she would only just now be able to feel it. What was the difference between the wedding and now?

"We'll have to spend more time on that," he said after a moment. Hiei tossed his pole to the side of the room and headed to the door. "Leave your weights on," he instructed before leaving to meet Kurama. Terra looked at the pole on the floor and decided it wasn't worth putting away. She let herself be lazy and dropped her own pole before following Hiei out.

The chill of the outside felt like a comforting blanket on her hot skin. She had been sweating hard, and as it dripped down her back, Terra squirmed. The weight on her muscles was starting to smart. Terra went to sit as they waited for Kurama to appear, but no such luck.

"You sit down and you have to do leg lifts," Hiei warned. She was halfway to slumping on the floor, but Terra stood back up immediately. "Now stand up straight."

She groaned inwardly and rolled her shoulders back, straining against the weight on her wrists. Luckily, it wasn't long before Kurama broke the eye line on the temple steps. He came with the scent of flowers, like walking through a nursery in the summer - a scent that didn't mix with the forest or the mushy half-melted snow mixed with dirt. Terra took a long inhale as Kurama came into view, but the scent of flowers wasn't in the air despite the sickly sweet scent stamped into the back of her mind. It was like the chill down her spine whenever Hiei approached. Something wholly separate from the winter chill that she was able to discern as cold.

When Kurama caught sight of her, he picked up his pace, mouth pinched and eyes wide with concern. "Terra," he reproached once closer, "you shouldn't be outside in this weather in such attire. You'll catch sick."

The cooling sensation the outside afforded her was so nice, Terra hadn't thought twice about what she was wearing. At least her arms were covered, even though the thin material of her athletic shirt wasn't designed for winter. Terra was suddenly reminded of her mother yelling at her to put her coat and sweatpants on over her dance tights and leotard before heading to the car after lessons. She never wanted to. After six hours of dance classes, nothing felt better than a cooling shock, like ice on a burn. "I'm fine," she said, swallowing the memory. Her bare legs rubbed together to find warmth as she tried not to shiver. They were only outside for a few minutes, so she wasn't worried about getting sick. Ignoring her soft protest, Kurama ushered her inside.

With the cold behind them, the three walked to the corridors to Genkai's room. She was up and wholly engaged in an old Sega game. Even though she had succumbed to Terra's nagging and stayed in bed, it was comforting to see her alert and defying her illness.

Kurama set his bags down and knelt by Genkai's side. Hiei and Terra stood by the door in silence as Kurama checked Genkai's vitals. "This is utterly pointless," Genkai grumbled. She was never pleased with being fussed over and hadn't wanted to bother Kurama with her cough.

"Believe what you will," Kurama replied as he took his stethoscope away from her back, "but I'm glad Terra called. I brought some medication with me, predicting what your condition might be. Don't treat it as a miracle remedy, however. You should continue to take it easy. Stay in bed."

Kurama gave her a stern look before standing. Genkai huffed, but didn't put up any more forceful protest. Kurama and Hiei's eyes locked for a moment before the fox nodded. Hiei walked over to Genkai's side as Kurama picked up his bags and signaled for Terra to follow. They went to one of the nearby tea rooms where Kurama pulled some cushions around a low table. When he looked up, Terra gave Kurama a pointed look, glancing out to where they came.

"Hiei wished to speak with Genkai about you, is all," Kurama supplied. "I'm sure it's just about your training."

"What exactly are they keeping from me?" Terra asked bitterly. She didn't like the need for secrecy. It wasn't the first time they had talked around her.

Kurama smiled, patient and placating. "You've gotten stronger, if only a little, since the wedding," he said, subtly changing the subject. "It's impressive how quickly you're growing."

Terra frowned. Genkai always acted like she was growing too slowly. She didn't know how to gauge herself. It was fast compared to her dance training or her general fitness, but that was before she awoke her energy.

Before Terra could navigate back to her question, Kurama pulled what looked like a briefcase from his bag. He opened it to reveal a chess set. Terra almost laughed. "You can't possibly be expecting a challenge from me," she said. He was one of the smartest people she knew. Even from what little time they had spent together, Terra clocked how fast Kurama calculated. Terra had a skill of reading people and situations, one that she had honed in college, and yet Terra always felt like a butterfly pinned down for study under Kurama's watchful gaze.

Kurama laughed as he began to set up the pieces. "Don't admit defeat before you begin," he said with a coy half-smile. She hadn't seen such a look grace the good doctor before. Predatory. It fit him eerily well. "I find conversation one has over a game such as chess to be more illuminating than when one simply talks over tea."

Terra shook her head, amused at his antics, and helped set up the rest of the board. "What's wrong with Genkai?" she asked, once the final pawn was in place.

Kurama moved his first piece, a pawn near the center forward one space. "She's just getting along in years. A simple cold takes its toll much harsher on a frail body. I wouldn't worry. She's pulled through such illnesses before." From the look on his face, Terra could tell that this time Genkai may not pull through quite as easily.

Terra moved a pawn to parallel his and frowned. She had come back to the temple because of Genkai. The woman had promised her an escape, a way to fight her depression by sheer force, and the peace to sort herself out. True, Hiei had taken over training, but if Genkai didn't make it to the end of Terra's allotted six months, Terra wasn't sure she would want to stay at all. Or that Hiei would continue in Genkai's place, if that were the case.

Something nagged at the back of Terra's memory. "How old is she?" Terra asked when Kurama's wooden piece clicked down against the tiled board.

"Nearing ninety-three," Kurama replied.

While not the oldest a person could live to, it was an impressive age. Even still, it meant that Hiei was even older. The concept was so unfathomable to Terra. He didn't look much older than herself. The way he acted was almost juvenile: moody and isolated like a petulant teenager. Although, there was something about him that carried the weight of someone who grew up too early. He was like a soldier come home from war or a child forced to take care of themselves or their family. Perhaps, despite his physical age, he hadn't fully grown yet compared to a human. What was the life of a fly to a man, after all?

She moved a pawn. "How old are you?" Terra asked, to maybe get a better sense of a demon's lifespan. Out of all of the demons she had met so far, Kurama was the only one who seemed like an old soul - wizened by years of surviving near-fatal mistakes.

"This body is thirty. But my true age?" he mused, moving his bishop. He stared at the board, eyes unseeing as if trying to decode the whole of his past. "I'm not sure. Years blur. More than a thousand, but less than two."

Terra had placed her hand on her knight before he gave the number. She almost knocked the piece over. An unfathomable length of time separated the two of them. Terra tried to think back to all the history Kurama had potentially witnessed - all the history he would still yet live to see unfold.

"Are you alright?" he questioned, a humored lilt to his voice.

She nodded, composing herself under Kurama's watchful eye. He seemed to enjoy catching her off guard like that. "That's a long time," she said, moving her hand from her knight to her bishop and moved it three paces. "I don't even know what I'm going to do with the next seventy, if I even live that long."

Kurama nodded his understanding and moved to capture one of her pawns. "I suppose it's almost easier with that much life ahead of you. I simply did as I wished, without worry that I would miss anything. The first time I had hidden out in this world, needing to lay low after a heist, I realized I didn't know how to navigate this realm. I ended up becoming an astronomer so I could read the stars. I think I spent forty years as a scholar of Oxford before returning to my home."

Terra moved a knight, not caring at that point. She was playing against a man who had once dedicated a lifetime to a science on a whim as if it were like taking a summer cooking class. As far as she knew, Kurama could have been the one to invent the game.

"Biding your time among humans must have been easy then," she said, thinking of all she knew about Kurama's peculiar case as a demon soul bonded with a human body.

"Yes, at first. Though, once I decided to stay, I found choosing what to do with this new human life a test of my nature," he told her, moving a pawn. "Once I finished school, I went to join my step-father's company, but I became restless after my adventures with Yusuke ended."

"So, you became a doctor?"

He nodded. "With my mother married and cared for, and my step-father's business not needing my skills, I found myself at a loss. I hadn't ever planned to live for myself as a human, yet here I was. I'm glad that after all, I had done in my past, I can now give back and take care of those in need."

"How magnanimous of you," she scoffed. It wasn't that she didn't find Kurama's cause as a doctor worthy, but she wasn't going to pat him on the back for deciding to take care of others at the ripe age of maybe two thousand. "Do all demons live that long?" she asked, finally selecting another pawn to move.

"It's hard to say," Kurama mused. "Even with the peace kept with the new Demon World Tournament, it has not stopped infighting or shows of dominance in the makai. I would hazard a guess that most demons are killed before they reach a millennia, if half that. The rate might go down with the lessened territory disputes, but it is too early to tell yet." He took her bishop but exposed his knight in doing so.

"How'd you make it to your age?" she asked, hoping Kurama wouldn't turn the interrogation back to her. She didn't have anything of worth to say, anyway.

"I was born a fox in the makai. Simply surviving a hundred years like that is a tricky endeavor, but it is what granted me demon form, as is the way with kitsune. I had already learned the skill of survival by that point. I tried my best never to be taken off guard again."

The second Terra took his knight, Kurama captured her rook. She had seen the ploy coming, but still thought it worth the sacrifice. "Well, someone managed to get you bad enough you took this form," she mused, studying the board for her next move.

Kurama chuckled lowly. "Indeed."

Terra moved a piece and Kurama then took it. "I told you you would win," she huffed, looking at the board again.

"Oh, you're not that bad," he assured her.

Terra didn't believe him for a second. "The problem with chess," she told him, moving another piece, "is that you're supposed to be at least two steps ahead of your partner. I can barely see two steps ahead, period. It's a game of foresight, and that's why I will always lose. I'm too stuck in the past." She bit out her words, angry at herself for not moving on quicker, for still being attached to the things she was trying to let go of.

"It's not just about predicting outcomes. Forgetting what has been done will only make you fall victim to future traps. You cannot plan if you cannot learn from your mistakes." Then he took her queen.

She looked up at him, unimpressed. "Thanks for the life advice," she muttered, before putting her attention back on the game. "It's not like I'm not capable of thinking things through," she huffed, sliding her king over a spot. "But I'm not a tactician."

The door to the tea room slid open so quickly it rattled in the frame. Hiei was done talking with Genkai, it seemed.

"You don't need to throw your weight around. That door slides open with very little effort," Terra remarked.

Hiei snarled, which was losing its effect on her. "Finish your dumb game and join me in the dojo. You've wasted enough of the day already."

"You're the one that took time to speak with Genkai," she said, unimpressed. "What did you guys talk about that was so important?"

"Why would you think I would even tell you?"

Terra rolled her eyes and shared an amused look with Kurama. "Well, I had to at least try. I'm a spy, after all," she snorted.

Hiei watched her for a moment, the scowl on his face deepening. She knew she shouldn't test him before going back to training, but his behavior regarding her was starting to drive Terra up the walls. He didn't respond to her taunts, however, and turned his gaze to Kurama.

"Find me before you go. There are things we need to discuss." Then he vanished down the hall.

Terra watched the empty doorway for a few beats. The fucker had left it wide open, too. No consideration when he was trying to puff himself up. "He must like you," Terra offered. "Hiei's pulled me away from Genkai without hesitation."

Kurama chuckled again, moving a piece on the board. "Perhaps. But Hiei is not so uncompassionate as a teacher. I believe he likes you, too. In his own way."

Terra scoffed. "What gave you that impression?" Another move.

"He would not be aiding you if he did not, on some level, believe you worthy of his time," Kurama said. They each took a few more turns at the board as Kurama talked. "I recall when Hiei and I once helped train Kuwabara for an impending tournament. Despite how much Hiei verbalizes his dislike for Kuwabara, he agreed to it with little persuasion. It wasn't only that we would be fighting for our lives. Hiei could have spent the time training himself and not worrying about supposed dead weight. Instead, he chose to help Kuwabara. Hiei even went easy on him. I was the one who had to prepare Kuwabara for the true horrors that lie in fighting demons."

Terra imagined the two of them playing a good-cop, bad-cop routine. It was surprisingly easy to picture Hiei as the one to show mercy. He cared for that one demon, the one he said was dead and had clawed him up before he arrived at the temple. He cared for Genkai and Yukina, though he was quiet about it. And, no matter how brutal the training, he was making sure she learned and wasn't just being cut down for the sake of trial by fire.

"Yeah, but hadn't they already fought side by side by that point?" she asked, trying to piece together Yusuke's non-chronological storytelling. "Hiei doesn't even trust me."

"Hiei is not so naive as he sometimes puts on. I don't believe he thinks you a spy. At least not anymore. His distrust remains only because you have not had a way to prove yourself. An unknown is always unwelcome."

Terra didn't try to pull that mess apart. It didn't matter what Hiei thought of her - as long as she could get out of this training alive.

"Come on," Terra said. "Don't leave him waiting too long. I know you've been going easy on me."

Kurama smiled at her, disarming and calculated, yet somehow more genuine than she typically received from him. "You can tell that and yet not how to improve your own game?" he mused, positioning his rook for a final trap.

"It's the difference between being knowing what to look for to understand how a person thinks and using it to manipulate them," she shot back. Both of them were skilled at reading other people and situations. Terra would argue that she was perhaps better at reading humans for the sole reason that she was human. Despite living among them for multiple lifetimes, Kurama viewed everything like a game of chess - a battle. There's a winner to his interactions, and it was always him even if he made you think otherwise. She moved her own rook haphazardly, knowing she would lose no matter what move she made.

"Checkmate," Kurama said, moving a final piece.

"You find our conversation illuminating?" she asked, standing up.

His smile settled into something kinder - perhaps the most genuine one yet. "Very. Thank you." Kurama scooped up all the discarded pieces and placed them on the board before folding it and snapping the briefcase shut.

"Good game," she said, before leaving the room.

Terra wondered, briefly, what it was Kurama got out of that conversation. She left feeling as if she learned much more than he did. At the same time, he would have only told her what he wanted her to hear. Terra wasn't trying to hide anything. She wished they stopped treating her like a puzzle they needed to find all the pieces for.

Down the hall, the dojo door was open. Hiei probably overheard most of what they talked about. Her mind supplied her with all the stories the others had told of him. Even with all of Kuwabara's complaints, they had all made an effort to tell her of Hiei's heroics and softer side. Perhaps to convince her that Hiei wasn't a threat despite the force of his energy when she came here. Perhaps because Hiei wasn't as bad as he tried to present himself. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps. All Terra could do was judge him for herself.

When Terra entered the dojo, the practice sticks had been put away.

"Sit," Hiei said, eyes tracking her like a hawk's. "You're meditating. Leave the weights on."

Terra tried to ignore the way he stared. She tried to do as Genkai taught her - slow her heartbeat and breathe and focus on the intangible force that nestled in her veins. She tried. But she couldn't shake how Hiei's eyes bore into her.

"Okay, I can't do this," Terra said. She opened her eyes and her heart leapt to her throat when the burning coals of Hiei's own eyes caught her off guard. "Stop staring at me. It feels weird." Terra was surprised how steady her voice was - how bold she had become in talking to Hiei in such a short time. More surprising - Hiei listened. He raised an eyebrow in disdain at her outburst, but after a few beats of her frantic heart, Hiei closed his eyes. Kurama had only just claimed Hiei to be sympathetic to those he deemed worth his time. She had seen that with Genkai or even Hiei's friendship with the other boys at the wedding - but she hadn't believed Kurama that he could or would show any kind of understanding to her.

His cheek twitched with annoyance and Terra snapped her eyes back shut to get to work. Although she knew Hiei was still observing her energy ebb and flow since he could sense it without the use of vision, it was much easier for Terra to relax this time. She lost herself to the meditation techniques Genkai taught her. Her energy pooled in her hands, swirling in the meat of her palms. As always, it refused to push past the physical barrier.

Terra wasn't sure how much time passed before Hiei spoke again. "What does your energy feel like?"

His voice, clear and even, nearly shook Terra out of her trance. It was difficult to form an answer without letting the energy dissipate. How could she describe the swelling of a powerful song, the sensation of staring at ocean waves in the dead of night, a vastness so heavy and hollow all at once? Her energy made her feel like she was too full at times - like she could split at the seams. She understood what Genkai and Kuwabara meant when they said it was so close to manifesting. And yet, it never felt right when she tried to push it outside of herself.

Even still, with all that, she couldn't put a name to her energy. She wondered if everyone's was so indescribable when held in their own hands. A limitless potential.

"It's difficult to describe. I can feel it, manipulate it inside myself, but it's almost like the taste of water. Not water itself, but that absence of flavor. If it weren't for the fact it's mine," she said, "I'm not sure I would sense it at all."

Hiei was not happy with that answer. His snarl was becoming an expected response to anything she had to say. He dropped it for now, though, and continued with his line of questioning. "What does my energy feel like?"

Only a week ago, Terra had told Hiei that his energy was cold and sharp. As she shifted her focus onto the demon, she could no longer feel that frozen harshness. It had been steadily declining since just before the wedding, she thought. Perhaps because she was getting used to it, but she didn't think so. Terra could feel the heat that rolled off his body as if she sat by a bonfire. Under that, his energy sat calmly. It was pressing, rather than sharp, neither cold nor hot. "Lukewarm," she told him. "Heavy, almost."

The sound Hiei made didn't seem surprised. Somehow Hiei had expected that answer, that it had changed since the last they talked of it. "What of Kurama's energy?"

Terra tried to find Kurama's energy in the temple. It had been so strong and direct when he was racing up the mountain, but now she could barely find it. "It's faint now, almost not even there," she said, "but earlier it was like… did you ever - " she started before realizing how dumb the question was. "No, of course you didn't. Dead flowers. It wasn't a real smell, but he came up the mountain with the sickly sweet scent of dead flowers. Like if you didn't dry them properly and let them get moldy in a jar."

"Why would you put flowers in a jar?" he asked - this time out of pure confusion than with any intent behind his question.

Terra thought back to all the DIY projects her college roommate would pull off of Pinterest. Hiei wouldn't get it. "Pretty?" she offered, now entirely out of her meditation. She let her vision adjust back to the room and could only shrug when Hiei looked at her. "I don't know about demons, but humans like to surround themselves with things that are pleasing to look at."

"Demons do that, too," he said before showing off his pointed eye-teeth. "Only we like looking at dead bodies rather than dead plants."

Terra blinked a few times, trying to figure out how to respond to that. Did Hiei just tell a joke? Or was he trying to intimidate her because she talked back too much? She couldn't be sure, and that was probably the most disturbing part about it.

The warning throbs of a migraine began to press at her temples. Terra had hoped that the fresh mountain air and the exercise would have lessened the frequency of her headaches, but so far they actually seemed to be worse. Genkai always cursed her out for sleeping too little, working too hard. She really shouldn't be surprised that all the exertion would make her head hurt.

"Stop resisting," Hiei snapped, the semblance of good humor completely evaporated.

"Resisting what?" she asked, rubbing her palms against her eyelids. She was getting tired of Hiei's general irritability and next to no explanations. When he stayed silent, she let her hands lower and glared. "Are you going to explain what you're accusing me of?"

He growled in frustration - an angry sound that cut off abruptly before Hiei sighed. "You really can't tell?"

"Tell what?" she snapped.

They stared each other down for a few moments. Terra's headache throbbed. It was starting to be one of the worst she'd gotten in a long time. Terra closed her eyes and took a deep breath, slowly exhaling to try and lessen the pain. If she had to train with Hiei for another few hours, she'd need as clear a head as possible.

She heard a distinct scuff of Hiei's shoe against the wood floor and knew that Hiei had likely turned away. "Can you name Genkai's energy?" he asked, voice now coming from the far side of the room. "How does it differ from mine?"

Terra opened her eyes and turned to look at him. He leaned against the wall, looking away, and clearly waiting for her to speak.

A frown pinched her lips together. Genkai's power was invisible to her senses. Even all the times Genkai had displayed the bright blue glow of her power, Terra hadn't been able to sense it other than some kinaesthetic sense of it taking up space. It wasn't like the unmistakable scent of dead flowers that wasn't actually in the air, or the cold that trailed Hiei that wasn't the winter wind. "I've never felt her energy," she admitted. Even now, as she tried to find the woman in the temple, she couldn't - not the way she could find Hiei or Kurama, even though both of their energies had calmed.

"What do you mean, never?"

Terra shook her head. "It's like it's not even there. I wouldn't be able to sense my own energy if it weren't inside of me." It startled her how true her own words rang. When he had asked her to name what her energy felt like, she couldn't because it was hardly there at all. A whisper of a feeling rather than the strong sensation that came from Hiei or Kurama.

"Utterly useless."

"Look," Terra snapped. "I don't know what you're expecting from me here. All of this is new to me, and everyone's done a pretty shit job of letting me know what to expect."

She stood, ready to storm off. Terra had never walked out on a session before, but Hiei was getting on her nerves and her head pounded like crazy. When she turned to leave, Kurama was leaning against the doorway. He'd obviously been listening in for some time.

"She's right, you know," Kurama said to Hiei. "She can't possibly improve when she doesn't know what it is she's supposed to be doing."

"It should be instinctual," Hiei countered.

Kurama set her eyes on Terra. His doctor smile was back. "Demons and humans with psychic abilities are generally able to sense two things in terms of energy: the type of energy, and a general gauge of strength. Power levels aren't exact and can be masked, but in theory, it is easy enough to class someone without having to test their strength in a fight."

Terra took in the pieces off the puzzle Kurama was giving her and failed to see how it lined up with her own jagged edges.

"You," Kurama continued, "seem only able to sense demonic energy. Even then, you cannot determine source or strength levels. Until you met Hiei, if Genkai's recollection of your first day back is anything to go by."

Terra looked back at Hiei. The way he stared at her made Terra wonder about his first impression of her. Hiei had been so cold Terra froze in her steps. She nodded to confirm Kurama's statement.

"Not sensing me as a demon, or Yusuke for that matter, can be explained by the lack of training with your energy as we both reside technically in human bodies. However, the fact that you were able to detect my energy today as something so clear and distinguished from the average demon you've come across may be a clue to the mystery of your energy."

The way Kurama said 'mystery' made Terra feel like she was a caged animal they wanted to experiment with. "I'm having a hard time making any connections," she said, crossing her arms.

"Perhaps we need more data," he told her. "Have you sensed anybody's energy besides mine and Hiei's in a way that it was distinguishable?" Kurama asked.

Terra began to shake her head but then stopped. She had moved her hand to rest over the bite mark, hidden by her clothes, that the demon in the alley had given her a few months back. It hadn't been nearly as invasive as Hiei, but it had been different. At the time, she merely thought it was an amplified version of the usual prickling sensation she got around demons. But it wasn't. It was lightning under her skin.

"There was a demon," she said, bracing herself against the memory of that day. "He had horns I could see under his glamor. He was with a few other demons, but they were normal. Lightning. His energy felt like lightning." She let her hand drop. "He had friends with him, but he was the only one I could feel."

Despite being the catalyst for her return, she hadn't told any of them about that incident. She didn't want to admit to herself that she was responsible for somebody's death - even a demon's. She felt guilty as it was knowing she didn't do enough to keep Jeremy and Conner away from the mountain. If she had listened to her gut more… if she - "And the night you found me," she said, her eyes locking with Kurama's. "I don't remember if I felt anything, but I... " she trailed off. The memory of that night was so hazy. She had been awake for such a short amount of time before they attacked. "I think I dreamed it. Before they came, I dreamed it happening."

"A premonition?" Kurama asked, clear surprise glinting in his sharp eyes.

Terra shook her head. "No. More like a warning?"

"A warning," Kurama repeated. He nodded, his hand curled at his chin. She could tell his mind raced behind his collected mask. "Yes, there might be something to that." Kurama looked past Terra to where Hiei still leaned against the far wall. "If you'd care to talk now, I believe Terra will do best to work on her own for a while."

"Fine. Go."

Terra didn't even turn to look at him. She nodded a parting to Kurama and left for her room. She needed to rest away this headache, and then she would meditate. The puzzle of her powers could wait.