In the Wake of What Follows

Chapter Thirty-Two: Opportunity

Terra rubbed at her eyes, glasses askew as they were pushed up by her fingers. She had spent hours at the computer every day for the last few weeks. Kurama set a steaming cup of tea at her side and she sighed at the pleasant aroma. "Thanks," she muttered.

She'd been staying with Kurama while she's working on her certification. Better internet and phone reception, for one. But some of Terra's class work needed to be done in person.

Without any plans, Terra had found herself back at the temple. There were still a couple of students and Terra sometimes led them through meditation. They were good kids. They deserved more than what life handed to them.

Kuwabara had partially converted Genkai's room into an office. It kind of hurt to see like that, but it also made the most sense. All the books and important documents were already there. He had been working hard to gather all the necessary information for expanding his business and making it more legitimate. He'd drafted lesson plans and residency requirements and meal preparations and food and safety guidelines. It wasn't unheard of for martial arts studios to be grandfathered in by tradition or community practices that were under the table. It was how Kuwabara got away with his summer camp, and continued to house a couple of kids now. But this was ambitious.

Terra had been reviewing one of his applications to the city, a nagging thought looping in the back of her mind like a scratched record. "You know," Terra brought up after dinner one night, "with my degree, I could test for a certificate that qualifies me to work with troubled youth."

Kuwabara jerked in surprise. Suds from the sink where he was washing dishes sprayed across the room and hit Terra in the face. She glared with good humor while wiping the soap bubbles off. "Sorry," he said sheepishly. "But, you mean it?" Yasu and Ryota had gone to bed by that point and wouldn't have take well to being called troubled youth, but it was an accurate descriptor.

Terra crossed her arms, hunching into herself. She wasn't sure she'd even be good at the role, the whole idea making her self conscious. "Yeah, I guess." Terra shrugged. "I could be part of staff in a councilor position. You could apply for grants to get funding."

Faster than Terra was used to from Kuwabara, he swept her into a hug. "That would be amazing! Jeeze, Terra! You're the best! The kids love you already and this would make a HUGE difference and-"

Terra laughed and pushed Kuwabara off her. "Okay, I get it! You're getting my shirt all wet."

Kuwabara rubbed the back of his head with a vibrant blush. "Sorry."

She slapped his bicep and smirked. "You're lucky I like you."

A few weeks later, Terra was back in the city, crashing on Kurama's couch. A month of paperwork and classes, Terra was now writing a grant proposal and setting up interviews for supplementary staff.

Kurama had been helping with the search for human psychics who also had skills that could be utilized at the temple. Kuwabara wanted to be a part of everything, but it would become too much too quickly. If he was going to be the primary teacher, and Yukina the official nurse, Terra insisted they find someone else with a psychology background to be dorm master and at least one other person to help handle all the paperwork and grant applications and deal with the outside world.

Terra had already met with a territory empath who had her own troubled youth, but was now a licensed therapist, and Yana had shown interest in helping out at the temple over doing the same type of work at his current company.

Terra had high hopes for everything.

She sipped at her tea and frowned. The grant proposal was almost done, but that wasn't what felt off. Terra turned to look at Kurama. He sat on the armchair nearby, a file open in his hands.

"What is it?"

Kurama had that look on his face when he was facing a particularly difficult puzzle. It wasn't one Terra cared for. The look rarely meant anything good.

"Do you remember the case Yusuke and I had been investigating?" Kurama asked, not quite looking up from the file.

"Do I remember the reason you came to the Demon World Tournament and left me alone most days only to come back with no answers after all attempts at solving the mystery had turned up dead ends in the human realm?"

Kurama chuckled wryly. "I suppose it was foolish of me to phrase it that way."

They had been unsuccessful in discovering any new leads in demon world. There was no trafficking ring, no black market with human meat or souls or slaves they could uncover. No one there had heard anything, and Kurama promised he had been thorough in a way that made Terra not want to ask for clarification.

But, after the tournament, or even during, there had been no new cases of missing humans. At least, none supernaturally related. It had gone quiet. Yusuke's guess was that it was too cold. The grass had started to frost by that point. Now there was snow everywhere. It was a theory Kurama hadn't ruled out, but he didn't want to put much weight behind it.

"There have been new disappearances," Kurama said.

Terra sucked air between her teeth. She had been afraid of that. "How many?"

"Unclear," Kurama said, looking back at the file. "At least tweleve, though it's likely higher. The troubling point of the matter, however, is that the location of the disappearances has traveled."

"Didn't you suspect as much earlier? I thought there were eyes out across the entire providence, if not the country."

He nodded, sagely. Terra resisted rolling her eyes as his theatrics of suspense. "They didn't move across. They moved below."

"What?"

"The new disappearances happened in demon world."

Terra leaned back into the couch. "Well, that's a twist. How do you know it's connected?"

"I admit, these disappearances weren't even on our radar," he sighed, shutting the file. "Demons disappear in demon world all the time. Hiei spotted it. Came to us without even knowing of the other case."

She tried to let the name wash over her, ignore it. Hiei had a job to do. He was where he was meant to be. Where he thrived. She was happy for him. She wanted to be happy for him.

"What did he say?"

"He first noticed it when one vanished from within his own keep. Hiei knows every source of energy in that fortress. He said it felt like a shadow in the corner of his awareness, and then one of his people was gone. After an investigation, Hiei found the rest that are in this folder." Kurama held it out for Terra's examination, but she shook her head. "In truth, we don't know that it is connected. But the strangeness of both cases, and the timing being seamless from one to the other, does lead to certain conclusions."

Terra thought over the mystery, but she knew little about demon world and demons themselves, compared to Kurama. He was more likely to figure it out than she was. "Are you going back?"

"I believe so," he sighed, looking out the window. It was snowing. Christmas had come and gone already, a new year just around the corner. "You're welcome to stay here while I'm gone."

Terra shook her head. "I'll be heading back up to the temple after the party."

Yusuke and Keiko were hosting New Year's Eve at her family's restaurant. Kuwabara and Yukina were coming down, so it made sense to go back up with them.

"Are you staying that long?" Terra asked, narrowing her eyes suspiciously. "It's only a few days."

Kurama's mouth was pursed into a tight line, his shoulders stiff. "I haven't decided yet."

Terra sipped her tea, watching him. "You don't have a right to be bitter, Kurama. It's your own fault she moved on."

"I'm not bitter," Kurama said with a lofty air that did nothing to mask his true emotions from someone who knew him well enough. And Terra knew him. "And I'm not using this as an excuse to avoid seeing Shizuru no matter what story you're conjuring in that imagination of yours."

He still didn't look at her. It would be amusing if it weren't so frustrating.

"Shizuru's girlfriend is really nice."

"I agree."

"You two had been tiptoeing around each other for at least a year on my count."

"If you believe so."

"You've had plenty opportunity to just ask her out before now."

Kurama released the tension in his shoulders, perhaps too fluidly to be natural, and finally looked at her. "Terra," he said, those brilliant green eyes not asking or commanding, but still somehow telling her to drop it.

"You said it yourself, Kurama," Terra snapped lightly, fed up but still wanting to be kind. "You're living a human life now. A mortal life. You may not know if this life will be your last, but it's still a full, singular, aging life. Why do you insist on denying yourself one of the most basic things humans seek in their lives?"

"Terra," he repeated, a bit more forcefully this time.

"Is this really the thing you're afraid of?"

Kurama stood, folder in hand. "I am not afraid, Terra. No matter my feelings towards Shizuru, she is with someone else. It is not my place to interfere."

Terra wished she could shake sense into Kurama. It wouldn't work. He was too smart for his own good. He only had sense. What he couldn't wrap his mind around was the emotions. While Kurama had come to terms with the love he has for his mother and his family and his friends, he hadn't seemed to extend that same feeling towards a different type of love.

He walked off with a curt goodnight, retiring to his room for the evening.

She knew Kurama could still hear her. "You told me, ages ago, about how demons live in extremes. I think, in opposition, you've been living your human life as small as possible. But, that's wrong, Kurama. That's just another form of extremes. Human emotions are complicated and messy. They're big. Sometimes so big we can't contain them. So big that logic doesn't matter. It's not your place to sabotage Shizuru's relationship, but fuck if it is your place to let her know what you feel. She deserves that."

There was only silence from Kurama's room, but Terra expected nothing less.

Kurama didn't come to the New Year's party. Terra blamed herself for pushing him. Shizuru had been disappointed. Despite their flirtations not going anywhere, Shizuru and Kurama were friends. Good friends.

When Shizuru took a smoke break and her girlfriend shared a few puffs, Shizuru almost looked disappointed the cigarette hadn't been crushed into the snow.

They counted down New Years and Terra looked at the stars while everyone else shared a midnight kiss.

Life at the temple was a welcoming simplicity. Wake up. Train. Help with the chores. It wasn't a dream she had ever set out for, but it was one that she fit in easily. Perhaps this was what it should be. No grandstanding expectations for the future. Just, the next thing that comes your way. No need to look too far or plan out your whole life. Only, now and next and taking that as it comes.

Terra liked it here, and she liked the kids Kuwabara found, and she liked spending her days training without the pressure of performance. There was no recital, no audition, like there had been in ballet. And, fingers crossed, there remained to be no threat. It wasn't those big moments Terra wanted. It was the act itself. She could do that here, and help others at the same time.

Hagiri Hitomi was an excellent hire when they started up as a fully certified boarding program that spring. She cared deeply for all the kids, not wanting them to turn out like her brother. Terra didn't push for the whole story, but it was clear that he had also formed a territory and used it for his own gain in ways she didn't approve of.

Yana didn't stay at the temple, but had a place in the small town near the base of the mountain where he lived with Kido. They both took on responsibilities talking with parents, recruiting, dealing with the paperwork Terra never wanted to look at again. They came up often enough, and sometimes took over cooking duty from Yukina.

Kuwabara thrived with it all. It was more than he had dared to dream for, but he was so damned thankful.

And if Terra felt like something was missing from time to time, it wasn't the worst heartbreak life had given her. She would climb onto the roof and look at the stars and miss the feeling of fire at her side.

Terra was leading a room of nine middle school dropouts through a sun salutation when she felt it. Decaying roses. Kurama. Agitated or worried, Terra couldn't be sure, but he seemed to be the only demon in the area, other than the usual.

Hachi fell on his ass with his mouth wide open. "Woah, what's that?"

A few of the other kids started to feel it, and the ones that didn't were nagging for answers. Terra stood and motioned for them to be quiet. They shut their mouths pretty quick but the yoga wasn't going to start back up anytime soon.

"A friend," Terra said. "Wash up for bed early and take a free hour to relax." She nodded her head to the door. The group didn't need more encouragement to take advantage of a break and an extra long bath. They scurried out, pushing each other and some trying to use their energies to gain advantage in the race to the onsen.

Kuwabara had drained the marsh and built the walls in the autumn. Winter actually did them a favor. The snow filled up the empty pool and Kuwabara just heated it to fill it up. Now there was a proper guard railing to the cliff Terra had tried to throw herself over and a split onsen for girls and boys with changing and washing areas. With the number of students Kuwabara had had, they desperately needed more than two bathing rooms. Terra couldn't be more thankful.

Kuwabara was already outside when Terra reached the front doors. "Feels serious," he said, a heavy frown bringing his brows down. Terra could only nod.

This was the first time Kurama had been back since before the New Year. It was halfway through May. Yusuke had given them reports every once in a while, but nothing super substantial.

When Kurama finally crested the top of the stairs, he looked disheveled. There weren't any open passages on the property by design, so Kurama had to come from at least a town over to cross in from the makai. There was no accounting for how long he had been traveling before that.

Kurama came to a stop, his breath heaving. He looked from Kuwabara to Terra, giving them each a brief nod in greeting. "We found it."

"It?" Kuwabara asked.

"Can you take time away from your students? We need your help. Both of you."