Chapter 2: Crazy day for a crazy person

Kurama looked at himself in the mirror. He combed his hair and tied it in a ponytail.

'Same school, different uniform' he thought as he continued to stare at his reflection in the mirror. He was wearing a red coat on top of a white shirt. A red skirt and a pair of stockings (remember he is still a girl). With a sigh, he waled out of the room, towards the kitchen. He ate his breakfast alone considering his mother had left early for work. After cleaning the dishes he left for school. On his way he had to face odd stares an many wolf-whistles. He knew how he looked, a beautiful redhead.

Just as he reached the school grounds he felt a pair of fingers wrap around his neck. His eyes widened and his body became still as the horrible memories of the dark tournament bounced back in his mind.

The blood...The bombs...those horrible eyes... That cruel smile

His reaction was almost instant.

"KARASU. GO TO HELL YOU BASTARD!"

He screamed and punched the person, without looking at them, so hard that they hit the wall and became almost unconscious. Kurama, on the other hand, was shaking violently from head to toe, still not opening his eyes.

"Shuichi, are you okay? Who's Karasu?"

Kurama opened his eyes and that his classmate, Ayami, was looking at him with a worried expression.

"Shuichi, you okay? You're shaking" she asked again.

Kurama nodded and looked at the person he had just hit. It was the leader of the school bullies. Within a minute or two, his whole gang came to scene, only to find their leader on the verge of unconsciousness.

"Who did this to you?" One of them asked the leader

"Stay with me" Kurama heard Ayami whisper as the leader pointed at him. They all turned in their direction.

"This redhead beauty did that to you?" another one asked in surprise "Well looks like we have to teach them a lesson"

The gang approached them. Kurama felt Ayami shiver as one of them grabbed her hand and another guy grabbed him. Kurama continued to stare at them with a cold and expressionless face.

"Why don't you beautiful ones come with us and pay for what you did?" the one holding Kurama's hand spoke. Kurama saw Ayami going pale.

"No, thank you" Kurama spoke up "And it would be best for you to leave us if you don't want to end up like him" he added, his gaze returning to the leader who was glaring at him.

"Threatening me? Oh, I'm so scared" one of them said sarcastically. Ayami, who was already pale, fell on her knees. Kurama continued to stare at them

"Why don't you both show us what you can do?" Kurama glared at the one who had spoken

"You know that expression doesn't look very pretty on that pretty face" the one holding Kurama's hand spoke as he tried pinning Kurama's hand behind his back.

Big Mistake

In less than a minute the whole gang was lying on the ground.

"Waste of time" Kurama muttered as he dusted himself and helped Ayami to her feet. Then looking back at the boys on the ground he said, "Lay, another hand on us or any girl and I'll show you what I can really do"

Kurama threw his bag over his shoulder and asked Ayami to go to the classroom. Since he had arrived quite early, he decided to go to his favourite place, the oak tree, to calm himself. Ignoring the stares, he walked towards the oak tree until he heard an adult voice calling his name.

"Ms. Minamino?"

He turned around and saw his principal rushing towards him.

"Ms. Minamino, I would like you to come to my office" she ordered him with a troubled expression.

"Enter" said the principal as Kurama knocked on the door "Close the door and have a seat" she added.

Kurama did so and sat on the chair facing the principal, whose expression was still troubled.

"You wished to see me?"

"Yes, and I would like a reasonable explanation from our model student for carrying out such actions inside the school campus"

"By actions, do you mean me beating those boys?" he asked

"Yes"

"Well there is only one reason as to why I did that. There actions were not those you will consider as polite" he stated firmly

"You could have informed the teacher" she said

"I don't think that it would have been of any help. They were practically dragging us out of the school to 'use' us and I had no intention of letting that happen"

"But―"

"Please, you yourself are a female and I hope you understand how bad a girl can feel after being used"

"I know. I understand what you are trying to say. I will inquire those boys for further investigating this matter. You may go"

Kurama climbed on to his favourite branch of his favorite oak tree. He sat there for a while until

"Hiei" he called out in a low voice "Would you stop hiding?"

"Hn"

Hiei came to the branch where Kurama was sitting and stared at him.

"What is the matter? Why are you staring at me like that?" Kurama asked Hiei, looking puzzled.

"Why were you crying yesterday?" Hiei said finally. Kurama looked surprised but regained his composure.

"I wasn't crying"

"You cannot lie to me. I know you well enough not to fall for that lie"

"I wasn't crying Hiei"

"Right, hugging a pillow to stifle sobs, tears coming out of eyes and whole body shaking uncontrollably is not something you call crying?" Hiei asked

"You were watching me? That's rude"

"No, I simply came to make sure that you were feeling okay as Yusuke had asked me to ensure that"

"Oh"

Kurama looked down. He never wanted Hiei and the others to know that he had been crying, nor did he wanted them to know the reason as he wasn't sure of that himself.

"Are you going to tell me why you were crying?" Hiei asked, looking irritated.

"It's nothing. I'm sorry, I have to go. My classes will soon start" He stood on the branch

"Fox, you aren't going to―"

Before Hiei could finish, Kurama had jumped off the tree.

"Idiot" Hiei muttered and jumped after him.

As Kurama landed on the ground, he tripped and was about to fall when Hiei grabbed his wrist and pulled him to prevent him from falling.

"Why are you acting like an idiot, fox? You know you're not used to a girls body and you jumped off a tree" Hiei snapped

"Leave my hand, Hiei. I have to go" Kurama said as he tried to free his hand from Hiei's grip.

"Fine. By the way, Yusuke wants to meet you after school"

"Why?"

"I don't know that but he will be outside the school gate when the school gets over" Hiei replied.

"Okay" Kurama said and he left for his classroom.

The rest of the day was very odd. He still received those stares and one of his classmates even looked confused when he saw Kurama.

Kurama stuffed his books in his bag and hurried out of the classroom as soon as the bell rang.

"Shuichi!" he heard a male voice calling him.

He turned and saw his classmate, Shou, walking towards him.

"Yes? Do you need something?" Kurama asked

"Umm..would you like me to walk you home?" he asked

'This is SO awkward'

"No, thank you. I'll be able to go back on my own" Kurama replied

"Oh, okay" Shou said and left.

Kurama hurried towards the school gate. When he reached the ground he saw Yusuke waving at him, motioning him to hurry. Kurama smiled and ran towards him but then he heard

"Isn't that Shuichi?" he heard someone speak

"Who's that guy waving at her?"

"Wasn't she the one who had beaten those boys?"

"I never knew Shuichi was interested in guys"

'Seriously, out of all the stuff they can gossip about, they only find this nonsense interesting'

"Well, what is it, Yusuke? Why did you wanted to see me?" Kurama asked

"Oh well"

"SHUICHI CHAN!"

They looked in the direction of the voice and saw Ayami hurrying to catch up.

"Shuichi, you left your notebook" she said, handing him the notebook. She then looked at Yusuke and asked "Oh! Are you Shuichi's boyfriend?"

"What? God, no. Ku―" Kurama shot him a death glare "er―Shuichi and I are friends"

"Oh, I see. By the way, Shuichi can you come with me for a moment?"

"Sure"

They walked towards the oak tree.

"Shuichi, if you don't mind me asking... Who is this Karasu? You screamed his name in the morning when those boys tried to pick on you"

Kurama froze for a moment. Had he really spoken Karasu's name? Why didn't he remember?

"Well?" Ayami raised her eyebrows in confusion.

"Umm...He was a creepy person"

"Oh. You okay, right? If something happened and you want to share, don't hesitate. I'm all ears" she smiled.

"Thank you. Well, I better get going"

" Shuichi chan, thank you for saving me today" she said

"No, I should be apologizing for dragging you into this"

She shook her head "No it's fine"

"What took you so long?" Yusuke asked Kurama as they walked down the streets.

"Nothing. So, Why did you wanted to see me after school?"

"Now, do friends also need a reason to meet?"

"What? No, but you never came to my school to meet me"

"Oh well I heard what happened today and I was quite worried about you since you left yesterday"

Kurama tensed and stopped walking.

"Who told you?" he asked, shocked.

"Hiei"

"That moron needs to mind his own business"

"Kurama... you screamed Karasu's name at that time as I have been told by Hiei"

"So?"

"Does it still bothers you?" Yusuke asked, looking concerned. Kurama was silent.

"Everyday. I've been having nightmares ever since the dark tournament" he finally replied.

"Oh Kurama"

He walked towards Kurama and embraced him. Kurama tensed.

"Yusuke, What are you–? I am a gi―" he started, his face hot from embarrassment but was cut off by Yusuke

"That doesn't matter. For me, you are just Kurama. The friendly demon who loves his human mother to such an extent that he is prepared to endure any amount of pain for her sake. The only one who can understand Hiei completely and control his outbursts. The Kurama who strives to become noble by correcting the mistakes he did in his previous life and not the one who keeps a perfect cover. I know Kurama not the perfect Shuichi... something you want to say?"

"I.." Kurama hugged him back "I was so scared at that time" Kurama hiccoughed and tears started streaming down his eyes.

'Damn these emotions!'

"I...I thought he had returned and that I was done for. It was so scary when I fought him in the dark tournament...and when those hands wrapped around my neck I was reminded of my first encounter with him. That time... I... had seen him fight for the first time and when he just turned out of the blue and wrapped his hands around my neck, I thought he will blast off my neck from my body. And his words, they were disgusting.

"And I'm guessing you never told anyone about this"

"No, I didn't"

"Feeling any better after saying everything that was bottled up inside you?"

Kurama nodded.

"Good, now let's go to Genkai's place so that she can train you"

During their trip to Genkai's, Yusuke was telling Kurama about the different ways she in which she might train him and may get really angry for not being able to do stuff but Kurama hardly paid any attention. He was pondering over on his conversation with Ayami and he realized that girls had many secrets they didn't share with with people except those they completely trust. The image of a girl, who had red hair and violet eyes and was twice more beautiful than his female self (imagine how beautiful she is if Kurama is the one getting compliments on being one of the most beautiful girls) flashed in his mind. Come to think of it, he didn't see her in school today, not that it made much difference to the others but to think he, of all people, didn't notice her absence was absurd. She used to be very quiet, never spoke freely to anyone but him, that too only sometimes. It was as though she was saddened by something, as if something was bothering her but she never dared to speak of it. She was always lost in her own little world but still was a competition in matters of grades to Kurama. He remembered the first day he met her. He was four years old at that time and she was a bit less reserved to herself at that time.

"Hello, you're lost in thoughts" said Yusuke

"What"?..Oh"

"Come on, we gotta get there as fast as we can and I was saying Genkai.."

The rest of the words Yusuke spoke never got registered in Kurama's mind. He was once again thinking about that girl and he hoped that she, of all people, didn't have such secrets.

Author's note: Hey guys, there will be some hints in the later chapters. So make sure you read it very thoroughly. Also, English is not my first language so there might be many grammatical errors. I will try to upload the third chapter as soon as I can.