In the Wake of What Follows

Chapter Twenty-Three: A Gift

The tournament was still a month away. A month before Terra would get to see the demon world. A month before she might get the chance to see Hiei again. Talk to him. They hadn't parted in the best of ways, but the longer they were apart, the more Terra missed having him as a confidant. She tried not to think of it, but it was difficult now that she was back among the others.

Kurama had directed her to Yusuke if she wanted to try and reach Koenma for answers about the Toguro transformations. She'd shown up at the Urameshi's doorstep (with fair warning from Kurama beforehand) and took advantage of their hospitality for the night. Yusuke promised he'd contact Botan to get word to the otherworldly prince, but told Terra not to hold her breath. Spirit World was notorious for keeping secrets close to their chest, he grumbled.

In the morning, Yusuke was gone and Keiko's shoulders were stiff, jaw clenched tight as she set Tomio up in his car-seat. "He's off training," she said flatly, trying to keep anger out of her voice. The night before, the three of them had laughed over dinner, but even in their loving looks Terra caught the distress in Keiko's eyes. She was worried about her husband. For good reason, too. The tournament was dangerous, and defeating Yusuke was a high prize.

"I'm sure he'll be fine," Terra said. "I don't think any of his friends would let him die." Maybe not the best tactic to placate Keiko. Terra winced at her own words.

Keiko huffed and climbed into the driver's seat. She was bringing Terra to the temple - a place Terra knew there would be a room for her until the tournament, and she figured things out from there. Terra buckled her seatbelt at waited stayed silent, unsure what else to say on the matter.

"It's not that he's entering the stupid tournament," she said, finally snapping when she had kept it in too long. "Don't get me wrong, I am very angry about that, too. He promised he wasn't going to compete again because he had no intention of ruling a bunch of demons on another dimension!"

Terra checked back on Tomio, who seemed completely unphased by his mother's outburst and was happily playing with the plushie toy in his hand. "So then, what are you upset about?" Terra asked cautiously. Somehow it didn't surprise Terra that Keiko was always hailed as the only one who could knock Yusuke down to size. She seemed capable of mustering all the power in the universe just because her husband was being an idiot.

Keiko's fingers gripped the steering wheel a little too tightly, her knuckles turning white before she forced herself to relax. Terra recognized the new pace of breathing as a meditation technique. Keiko likely had anger issues she was seeing someone about. She glanced Terra's way before setting her eyes back on the road, as if to gauge whether she could divulge this onto Terra. They had never become super close; their times spent together in the past disrupted by Terra's distracted and reserved nature. Whether this didn't matter for the topic at hand, or Keiko thought more fondly of Terra than she perhaps should, or simply because Keiko was desperate to talk about it, Keiko decided that she could trust Terra with whatever she had been holding in.

"He doesn't think I know, but he's a slob and I'm not stupid. I found the DVDs. The ones that seem blank and then you play them and it's just a dark screen, but I know there's a hidden message on them that only psychics and demons can see."

"Oh?"

Terra was trying to follow along, but this wasn't something she'd heard of before. Clearly, from how Keiko talked about it, they had been a long-standing occurrence in her life with Yusuke.

"He only gets them when Koenma is asking him to pick up his old mantle as detective."

"Oh."

There was a case. It could have something to do with the tournament itself. Or maybe he was just using that as an excuse to get out of the house and away from work while he investigated. Either way, Yusuke had taken on a job - and he was keeping that a secret.

"You should tell him that you know," Terra said, staring out the window, eyes dancing over the passing storefronts. "Secrets aren't good for a relationship, even if you don't mean to be keeping them."

Keiko was silent. It stretched long enough that Terra turned to look her way. There was a light sheen to her eyes and Terra looked away again. There was no point in staring when someone was trying not to cry. "I've been afraid," Keiko said after the silence had lasted so long her voice surprised Terra. "For so long. Not that he would die. That's something I've lived through twice now, and I can't help but believe he'll always come back from… from that. But I've been afraid ever since I first saw him fight. It was against Chuu, actually," she chuckled a bit. "I've been afraid that Yusuke wouldn't come back to me."

Terra's heart felt heavy at her words. She understood. Yusuke's love of fighting, his becoming a demon, his ties to the other realm, and his continued assistance to Koenma, all spoke of someone who shouldn't be living a typical human life.

"He always promises he'll come back," Keiko said. "But I'm always afraid."

Terra looked back at Tomio again. They had no idea what their son would grow up to be. They didn't even know if Yusuke would continue to age like Keiko or if he would freeze in time like Hiei and Yukina, almost a hundred years old and looking no more than twenty-four. They were fears she carried for a reason, fears that had built up and up and up and never seemed to subside.

"You have to tell him that," she said. Terra wasn't a relationship expert by any means, but she and Jeremy had gotten to where they were only because she was open about all of her issues. "You have to let him know that. Otherwise, that feeling is just going to get worse."

"But what if-" Keiko hiccuped. "What if he decides it is time to leave?"

Terra didn't want to be cruel. She didn't want to say her knee-jerk response of 'then he's clearly not worth your time' as if telling Keiko to move on with her life will make the woman feel any better. Terra looked back to Tomio, who even so young had his father's features, and to Keiko, whose simple beauty wasn't detracted by the tears running down her cheeks.

"I can't tell you what will happen, Keiko. But you can't keep living in fear. You can't let this take away what you already have. Living in fear of losing something is sometimes just as bad as not having it anymore."

It was the only truth Terra could give Keiko that would mean anything.

Keiko gave Terra a half-smile, a 'thank you for the effort, but that doesn't really change anything' smile. They didn't talk again until the radio host said something stupid and they were able to pick up a normal conversation.

Once at the base of the mountain, the long drive helping rid them of the weird atmosphere of secrets and crying, Keiko gave Terra that same half-smile. "Thank you," she said, "for listening. I have a hard time talking to Shizuru or Yukina about this. I appreciate it. You're a good friend."

Terra nodded and brought Keiko in for a hug. "It's sometimes easier to talk to someone who's a little bit more removed from the situation," she said. "But, I guess you can't exactly bring up demons and shit to a therapist without them wanting to put you on psychotics."

Keiko chuckled as they pulled apart. "Yeah. That's very true."

"Listen," Terra said, hefting her back over her shoulder. "You don't have to take my advice. But I meant it. Boys are stupid, and Yusuke is denser than most. He probably thinks he's protecting you and keeping you from worrying, not making you worry more. It's trite but true. Communication is key."

Keiko sighed. "I'll think about it. There's something else I need to talk to him about anyway. I can get it all out at once," she laughed a little hysterically. Keiko squared her shoulders and gave Terra a curt nod. "I'll see you before the tournament, I guess."

Terra smiled. Keiko was strong. She was sure the woman would figure everything out. "Yeah. I don't know if Kuwabara or Yukina are planning on coming, but I'll be heading out with Kurama and Yusuke on the 18th."

"Don't work yourself too hard, Terra," Keiko said as ways of parting.

"Give yourself a rest if you can, Keiko."

Despite how rarely they saw each other, Terra felt as if an understanding had cemented the two women together. They were so different, but at the same time knew better than most what it was like to feel small, weak, afraid, not just for themselves but the ones they loved.

They parted ways knowing that, if anything else, they could come to each other in the singular matter their fears. Terra never liked to admit hers, but she knew Keiko would understand them.

It was a familiar hike up to the temple, although Terra had only made it a handful of times. The old step-path seemed as much like a childhood stomping ground as the playground she used to live across the street from in Australia. It felt like a place of home. She just hoped that feeling would keep while she crashed at the temple for the next few weeks.

The mountain with the monks hadn't felt like home. They were kind, and they were encouraging, but despite it being the place where two of her ancestors hailed from, it hadn't felt like she belonged. Not like she had with Genkai or Kuwabara and Yukina, or Hiei.

Terra shook the thought from her head as she created the final steps. Kuwabara was already outside, yelling her name with as much excitement as he might have to see the frontman of Megallica. She couldn't help but laugh, any worries that the temple wouldn't still feel like a home dispelled immediately.

"Hey there, big guy," she smirked, a startled yelp escaping her lips as Kuwabara pulled her into a hug and off her feet. She shouldn't have been surprised.

"You're back! I couldn't believe it when Kurama called. No word for months, and then you're in town crashing on his couch?" He set her on her feet and took her bag without asking. "It's good to see you, Nakashima."

"You too, Kuwabara." She breathed in the mountain air, fresh and full of life. It was good to be back. "Same room?" Terra asked. "Or is one of the brats taking it."

"Nah," he smiled, clapping her shoulder. "We saved it for you this time."

Yukina served dinner with a smile to Terra, Kuwabara, and the eight rambunctious preteens Kuwabara had managed to kidnap for the summer. Kuwabara's teaching style wasn't exactly as strict as Genkai's, but his cheerful and calming aura was precisely what these little punks needed. Budding psychics, the lot of them, dealt with a lot of the same terrors Kuwabara had grown up with. It must have been harder for these kids too now that the human world was so saturated with demonkind.

Through a mouthful of fish, Kuwabara begged Terra to take up as a guest trainer for the kids. At the request, some of the boys quieted down and looked at Terra with varying levels of curiosity. The one girl among them had perked up and stared with eyes so wide Terra worried they might pop out of her skull.

"I don't know, Kuwabara. I'm not sure I'm exactly qualified."

One of the older boys snorted. "I bet you couldn't even beat up my grandma." Terra ignored the comment, ready to tell Kuwabara she'd only meant to take back her old room while waiting for the tournament. Before she could, another boy hit the first. "Dude, that's Terra. Sensei said she trained under a witch and a demon!"

Terra raised an eyebrow in question at Kuwabara. He was blushing some.

"What else did he say about me?" Terra asked the table. Yukina covered her mouth as she quieted a giggle.

"Sensei said you're the coolest non-Yukina girl ever," one said in awe somehow distilled upon him from their teacher.

Terra snorted and crossed her arms to look Kuwabara down. "Thanks for putting me right after your wife, but don't you think Shizuru will be a little upset?"

Kuwabara choked on the rice he had just shoveled into his mouth. "Don't tell my sister!"

The table was reduced to laughter. It was amazing that any of them listened to Kuwabara during training, but Terra got the sense that over the summer he had managed to gain the respect of all his new pupils.

"Aren't they all going home soon?" Terra questioned later when the kids had gone to bed and the topic of her teaching cropped up again. "Summer's over. Most schools have started up again."

"They're all dropouts," Kuwabara sighed. "I almost didn't go to high school. I wanna convince them to try again, go back, but it'll be tough."

"How are they paying for this?" It didn't make much sense that a bunch of dropouts and delinquents would have parents willing to cough up tuition to a martial arts camp.

Kuwabara shrugged. "They're not. We got a lot of applicants. More than I expected our first run. All the rich families looking to give their kids authentic experiences for a good looking college application covered more than enough to bring on these guys. They all really need it, too. I think only one or two of my paying summer students had the potential to maybe hone their energy. The ones here now…"

Terra knew what he was saying. They were like her. Powers they didn't understand. Nowhere else to turn. Desperate to learn control. She let her head fall back as she took in the sky from the courtyard. Terra wished she was on the roof, but she didn't think Kuwabara would want to chat up there.

"Yeah. Okay. I'll help."

Terra was here for a month. She could pass on at least some of what Genkai had taught her.

As relaxing as it was to be back on the mountain, back where the air felt like home and the demons in the forest too familiar to trigger her warning bells, Terra was anxious. Antsy. She wanted to move. It didn't feel like running away anymore. It was just the anticipation in her blood. She wanted what came next, whatever that was. But for now, she had to wait until the tournament, so Terra found herself wide awake at the crack of dawn and went for a run.

She followed the trail down to the beach and circled back. The kids were up by the time she came back, meditating in various positions around the front porch. They were all distracted by her return.

"Was wondering where you went," Kuwabara said. She rolled her eyes. He could probably track her energy anywhere on the property. No one had better spiritual awareness than Kuwabara. "What time did you leave this morning?"

Terra shrugged, wiping her forehead of sweat. Yukina rushed out of the temple and handed her a bottle of water that Terra took gratefully. "Not sure. Did at least ten-k, maybe more." She eyed the students, who were no longer even trying to pretend to do their work. "What do you want me teaching them anyway?"

"Breakfast first, Terra," Yukina chided gently.

"Of course," Terra smiled. Yukina had made sure she ate plenty last night, and the trend was sure to continue. She wasn't going to fight it. Besides, her appetite had been growing steadily back since her trip to Australia. "When you're done with your meditation, send them over to the main dojo. We'll do yoga."

One of the boys snorted, but Kuwabara laughed. He knew how hard that was actually going to be.

Daisuke was the first to call Terra inhuman. She laughed at the idea. "Oh, come on," she teased them, correcting Risa's stance. "If you can't even do this, how strong are you really?"

"You weren't trained by a demon and a witch," Daisuke sneered. "You are a demon and a witch."

She smirked. Training these kids was interesting. She had spent so long learning, so long trying to gain control of herself and the understand the world around her, she hadn't realized exactly how much she now knew. "I suppose all trainers seem inhuman to their pupils," she laughed. They had been holding their stances for almost an hour now. She hadn't told them yet that tomorrow they would be doing this at the same time as their meditation.

"Kuwabara-sensei seems human," Ryota murmured.

Terra shrugged and told Yasu to brace his arms better; they were starting to wobble. "Yeah, well. You haven't seen him fight," she told the class at large. "I'm sure he's going easy on you."

If a fit of protest, Hachi fell back onto his ass with a guttural cry and crossed his arms. "I'm not doing this anymore. It's stupid. You're not all that great."

"I never claimed to be," she replied.

"Then what are you doing teaching? I just wanna fight, and you're here telling me to do fucking downward dog!"

"If you want to fight," Terra warned, "you best learn patience and stamina. Kuwabara's showing you the basics of martial arts, correct?" Hachi nodded. "And he's working on your spirit energy? Controlling it, strengthening it, growing it?" Hachi nodded again. "Then I need to teach you how to channel all of that, even at your most exhausted state. You can't fight if you can't endure."

Hachi rolled his eyes.

"She's right, you know," Kuwabara said, stepping into the dojo. "If you can pick yourself back up again, even with all odds stacked against you, you can still win." All the kids had effectively given up on holding their stances once he entered. They looked tired, so maybe it was a good time to stop. "Hey, Terra, why don't we show them what you got?"

"I'm teaching, Kuwabara, not giving a dance recital."

"Oh, where's the fun in that? Hey, one of you kids blindfold her!" He seemed so giddy at the prospect Terra couldn't say no. One of the older boys checked his bandana to make sure it was opaque enough before tying around Terra's eyes. She could hear Kuwabara shuffling them about until they circled her in the center of the dojo.

"Now what?" Daisuke asked.

"This." Kuwabara tossed the blinded Terra a pole. A series of gasps made Terra smirk when she caught it without pause.

"Now what?" This time, it was Terra who asked.

She could swear she heard a wicked, devious grin in Kuwabara's words. "Now, we chuck stuff at you."

"Kuwabara!"

Her display during training had garnered Terra an awed respect. She hadn't asked any of them to join her on her morning run, but when she was up at dawn, Risa, Daisuke, Ryota, and even Hachi were waiting for her. "Good," she said. "You guys take initiative. You'll go far."

Daisuke cursed her out for being inhuman again. She had doubled back before they could catch up on the beach and passed them. In another few moments, they were again trailing behind, even after cutting that last stretch of beach. Kuwabara must have expected this. The rest of his students were doing Terra's yoga class on the porch, waiting. Good. They'll all be tired.

She waited for the ones who had followed her that morning to come up the stairs. That part alone was an impressive feat. They trickled up, collapsing to the ground as soon as they reached her, panting heavily. "Come on," she said, once the last one, Ryota, came into view. "Up. We'll get breakfast and join the rest of them for class."

They all groaned, not wanting to move. "I'm so not doing this again," Hachi mumbled.

"I thought you were a tough kid," Terra challenged. He glared and proceeded to march inside.

"Maybe I'll make them all join you tomorrow," Kuwabara said. The students who had stayed behind looked panicked.

After they got a chance to drink some water and eat the breakfast Yukina had set aside for them, they joined the others who had relocated into the dojo. "Okay guys. We're going to be doing tree pose. And this time, Kuwabara is going to make sure you're doing your meditation exercises while we hold the stance."

At least two boys wept a little at the prospect.

Terra and Yukina were spending the afternoon on the beach. She had brought a paint set and was capturing the colors of the waves beautifully. It was an impressive skill Terra hadn't realized Yukina cultivated.

Beside her, Terra did her own exercises. With all the pupils at the temple, it didn't give her the kind of space she needed to focus on what the monks had been teaching her. "You've grown so much since I last saw you," Yukina commented serenely. "That power of yours feels more in tune with your body than it had before."

"I've learned how to regulate it," she said. It was too complicated to explain beyond that. "I want to learn everything I can possibly do with my powers. If I can control this... destructive energy inside of me, control it down to a gossamer's hair precision, then maybe I can do something more than just block chi and poison chakra."

"Like what?" Yukina asked.

"Heal." She had studied enough anatomy her last stay at the temple Terra could probably pass the MCAT without much struggle. "Cleanse. Protect. I don't want this power to be only to cause harm." Terra finished the one meditation exercise Yamamoto had done with her every day of her stay at Mt. Mashu, having systematically opened and closed her chakras. She stood and wiped the sand off her pants. "I don't know what the full extent of my powers may be, but I want to learn."

"Is there any way I can help?" Yukina offered. So sincere.

Terra was reminded very suddenly of Hiei's demand to practice using her energy on him. To torture him and risk his life for the sake of growth. She shook her head to rid herself of the memory as she smiled at Yukina. "No. But I have enjoyed your company as I do my exercise."

"Of course. I'm happy to see you this time," Yukina said, going back to her painting. "Not that I didn't enjoy your presence before, but you were still healing from many things. I'm happy that you are growing happy. I'm glad that I am someone who you can enjoy the company of." Yukina smiled at Terra, a conspiratorial look in her eye. "But it's also a good excuse to get away from all the children."

Terra laughed. The group wasn't so big right now, but even they were a handful. Terra could only imagine what the summer in full swing had been like. They were good kids, though. Even the roughest of them, ones with tough lives and jaded attitudes. They were all good at heart. Kuwabara was good at fostering that in them.

"Think of it as practice," Terra joked, "if you ever have kids."

Yukina smiled softly and went about cleaning her brush as she stared out at the ocean. "You know, it's strange, isn't it, the way the world comes together. Sometimes I think I believe in fate."

"How's that?"

"Had Kazuma been born in a different time, we wouldn't have been able to have children together," she told Terra. Yukina set her brush aside and went about mixing a new color for her canvas. "The way my people work, in terms of reproduction, is much different than that of humans. We're an all-female race, and every hundred years we birth a little girl. So, you see, if Kazuma wasn't born when he was, or we didn't meet each other when we did, we wouldn't have been able to have a family in that sense. I am only just now entering my one-hundredth year of life."

Terra gapped for a moment, taking in everything Yukina had just said. She was radiant with her confession. Joyous. Terra pulled Yukina into a hug, not caring if she accidentally got some paint on her. "Yukina, that's wonderful! Congratulations, I suppose." Terra pulled back and looked Yukina up and down. "You're not pregnant yet, are you?"

Yukina shook her head, beaming at her and laughing. "No. No, not yet. During our hundredth year, it is the same as your ovulation state, I believe We don't need partners, but if we lay with a man during that time, we will not only have our girl but a boy as well."

Terra tried to make sense of a conditional asexual-sexual reproductive species and decided she didn't want to think that hard. "So, next year, you'll be having twins?"

Yukina nodded. "Next year, I will be having twins."

"You'll make a terrific mother," Terra assured her. The best. Terra was certain of it.

Yukina wiped at her eye and came back with a small pearl-like gem. "Forgive me. I don't mean to cry." It was the only tear she shed. "I debated a long time about marrying Kazuma. I love him, I do. But our relationship is complicated due to our natures. But knowing that, even should I never age as he reaches his last days of a human life, we would be able to raise our children together, our children… it is a gift I can give us both and one that will let me carry him with me even after his passing."

Terra hummed a little, a sound of understanding, that she had heard the words but had none to say in response. Asking about the marks would have been pointless. They loved each other so profoundly, Yukina had decided she would never need someone after Kuwabara, not if they had their family.

It was, in a sense, the actual immortality of living species. Their desire to reproduce, to keep themselves alive, to pass their genes onto the next generation.

Before Terra could put her thoughts into words, Yukina broke the silence. "Have you ever thought about having children?"

Terra dug the toe of her shoe into the sand and looked back up the mountain. The breeze from the ocean was starting to get chilly, although Terra was sure Yukina wouldn't notice had they been standing in Antarctica. "With Jeremy, I thought, maybe. One day. We had only just graduated college, and both of us wanted to find our footing before we made any life-altering changes like that, but I don't know. I think he would have been a good dad." Terra shrugged and looked back at Yukina. "I don't want one unless I'm with someone I want to have kids with, if that makes sense. If I managed to fall in love again, and it was with someone who didn't want kids, I wouldn't be heartbroken about it. If they did, then when the timing's right, I could see it." She shrugged. "But I'd have to fall in love first."

"I'm sure there's love out there for you still," Yukina said, placing one of her cool hands on top of Terra's forearm. "If you wish to fall in love again, all you must do is open your heart. The world is large and love is boundless. It will find you."

"If you say so," Terra said with a half-hearted laugh. She didn't know if she was ready yet. Not for love, at least. "I'm going to practice one of my dances. Fifteen minutes and we should start heading back up."

"Can we come back down tomorrow so I can finish?"

"We can come back down every day if you want," Terra said. "You deserve a vacation."

Terra couldn't sleep. Her insomnia was less frequent than before, but it still occurred. It was late, and she couldn't sleep. She eventually gave up trying and grabbed her iPod and headed to the dojo. Terra hadn't spent any nights of the roof since the start of her stay. The compulsion hadn't taken her. Perhaps because she was sleeping better. Perhaps because, despite the antsiness that woke her up and pushed her to run every morning, Terra didn't feel like she needed the endless night sky to calm her. Perhaps it was because she knew nobody would join her.

In the confines of her training space, Terra stretched and warmed up and then began to dance. She hadn't done ballet for a long time. It was freeing, in a way. Her body was more muscular than it had ever been, and the movements came easier than before. When the song in her ears came to an end, Terra put away her music and instead worked on one of the dances she learned on Mt. Mashu.

Ballet was fun, but the priestess dances were ones she had reason to keep memorized.

There was a creek of the sliding door and Terra turned to see Risa peeking in through the gap.

"Shouldn't you be in bed?" Terra asked.

Risa shook her head. "I was heading to the bathroom to get ready before our run." It must have been later than Terra realized. Risa cautiously pushed the door open further. "What are you doing?" Her eyes darted around the dojo as if she could see all the steps Terra had taken as she danced. "It looks like you cleaned the air."

Terra smiled. She couldn't see energy, a fault she had to overcome, but it seemed as if Risa could. "It's a dance, to cleanse a space of bad energy. I can teach you if you'd like."

Risa nodded vigorously, her excitement palpable.

"I'll talk to Kuwabara about scheduling. Now, come on. Get ready if you want to run with me this morning." Risa darted back down the hall, Terra trailing with less speed. She'd head to the kitchen and make herself a strong cup of tea to help keep her awake long enough to finish her run. Kuwabara would understand her taking the morning lesson off to sleep after breakfast.

Her group of followers had turned into all the students at the temple, all struggling to keep up with her as they ran the circuit she had established on her first morning here. Even without sleep she was ahead of them all, but the distance was a bit shorter than usual. Hachi and Daisuke fought for the head of the pack, and both seem bolstered in spirit, having noticed they were keeping pace better than normal. She'd let them believe it was their own improvement and not her personal condition. They deserved the confidence boost.

Over breakfast, which was now being made fresh for their return instead of before the original first class of the day, Terra let Kuwabara know she'd missed out on sleeping. It was all she needed to say. He insisted she go straight to bed. No getting sick on his watch. Not again, at least.

It still took some time for Terra to fall asleep. When she woke up, it was already dark and the temple was quiet. She cursed. That was sure to fuck up her sleeping schedule for the next few days. Her body must have needed it more than she realized, though. Almost as if she gave herself insomnia so that she could then sleep long enough to rest. It didn't seem as if she was doing half as much as when she was training under Genkai and Hiei, but the work with her energy the monks of Mt. Mashu has taught her were draining. Between that and the early morning runs, she was still pushing herself more than she probably should be.

Terra sighed. Moonlight spilled into her bedroom, and she was wide awake. She wouldn't be able to reset just by staying in bed until her regular waking hour. Terra got up and headed to the dojo. She was still wearing her workout clothes. It was only supposed to be a nap. At least she had thought to take her contacts out before crawling into bed.

Pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose, Terra thought about what she could pass the time with.

Terra opened the weapons closet and scanned its contents. Only the practice items were there. Battered wooden poles with painted ends, bamboo swords, weights and mats and punching bags. She frowned. Kuwabara must have moved the bladed items with the kids running around.

She went to grab a pole but stopped short. It nagged at her that her weapon was missing. She was sure it wasn't really. Kuwabara would know where it was. Regardless, it bothered her.

Terra checked Genkai's room first. It was undoubtedly an off-limits area, which made it a place Kuwabara might store things. The room had been tidied up, no doubt by Yukina. There was nothing in the closets there and nowhere else to fit the naginata unless there was a secret panel, but Terra doubted Kuwabara would know if there had been. She checked Yusuke and Keiko's room, but it was baby proof. Not a place to put weapons. Weapons. She nearly slapped her forehead. She headed back to her room, stopping short one door before.

Hiei's room was locked. She thought about it for less than a minute before she was crawling out the window of her bedroom and pushing open the window of the room she once stayed in over a year ago. It was clear Hiei hadn't been here since she'd left for the summer. It was too clean. But on the wall where he once housed his katanas was the naginata he had gifted her. She took it down, her energy reacting to the carved wood as if she were finding a piece of herself.

There was a knock on the door. Terra turned as it opened, Kuwabara on the other side with a tired yet amused look on his face. "I got the sense that something was up. Thought it was going to be Ryota or Yasu doing something stupid like sneaking off into the forest to fight demons or pilfer the sake. Didn't expect to see you break in here."

Terra rubbed the back of her neck with her free hand. "It was late. I didn't want to disturb you just because I got hyper fixated on something."

"He put a lot of care into that," Kuwabara said, nodding to the staff weapon in her hand. "I was surprised to learn he made it for you."

It took a moment to fully catch what Kuwabara had said. "He made this?" Terra had just assumed Hiei had bought it… or stole it. Or that Genkai had one at the temple in a vault she didn't know about. She had never asked.

"You seriously never noticed? All the markings are burnt into the wood."

Terra thumbed over one. The grooves were deep, enough so that even now, it felt like someone had whittled them. She had looked at the naginata a hundred times before, but she had only ever seen its beautiful dark brown color and not the tells of that color being from intense heat. They had been scorched into the staff of the weapon with precise intricacy. It would have taken serious effort and patience.

The gift felt heavy in her hands. Hiei had made this.

"Oh."

Kuwabara snorted. "The shrimp's a puzzle. I don't think even he knows why he does things sometimes." It was meant to be dismissive, to banish the thought that Hiei had given it to her with a purpose. Kuwabara's words had the opposite effect.

How long ago had Hiei given this to her? How much longer before that would he have needed to make it? To decide to make it? When had Hiei begun to think Terra deserved something of this magnitude? A weapon, made specifically to facilitate her energy, carefully crafted. Why had Hiei spent all that effort on her?

Why did it make her cheeks burn?

She gripped the staff of the weapon tighter and held it against her chest.

"I should get back to bed," Terra said.

"Should I tell the kids you won't be running with them?"

"Unless you want my normal bedtime to be after breakfast, that would probably be wise."

He nodded and shuffled down the hall back to his room. Terra made the trip one door over and set the naginata down across the dresser there. She touched her cheek. It was still burning.

A familiar feeling fluttered in her stomach that Terra was shocked to feel.

"Oh."

Well that wasn't good.