Disclaimer: I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho.
Chapter 2
Miscalculations
"But no matter how much planning you do, one tiny miscalculation, one moment of distraction, can end it all in an instant." - Jeannette Walls
Kurama
The mirror had done its purpose.
My goal to keep mother alive had succeeded and yet an unforeseen outcome that I had not account for occurred. It's been ages since I miscalculated my plans and I have yet to know whether this was good or bad. Spirit World has yet to apprehend me, although perhaps they're just biding their time. Waiting to see what I will do now that they have their mirror back.
"Shuichi," mother stirred me out of my thoughts. "What's on your mind, son?"
"Nothing, mother," I smiled and lifted the blanket to cover her shoulders. "Please rest. You need your strength."
She did not listen. Instead she lifted herself up into sitting position. She sat up, more poised than I had seen her in ages. Her skin was no longer pale and her breathing wasn't labored like it had been just an hour ago.
"Shuichi, no need to be concerned. I'm feeling better than I did before I received my diagnosis." Her gentle palm reached for my cheek. "I'm more concerned for you. You're looking awfully grave for someone who keeps smiling."
"I assure you, mother. I'm okay. I'm just happy to see you doing better."
She released a soft sigh. "I'm no fool, Shuichi." Her fingers lifted my chin gently, forcing me to look her directly in the eyes. "You've done so much for me. You've been here day in and day out taking care of me. Your words sound genuine, but you don't seem happy."
"I am happy, mother." I tried to reason.
"It doesn't reach your eyes," Shiori explained. A soft smile forming. "That's how you can tell. Your smiles don't reach your eyes." She patted my knee. "It's okay, though. You've gone through a trauma as well. It's okay if you need time to process everything that's happened. I just don't want you to feel like you have to force yourself to be a perfect son. God knows I haven't been a perfect mother to you."
"You've always done the best you could with me," I shook my head in disagreement. "You're the perfect mother for me. I'm a difficult son, especially when I was younger—"
Shiori laughed softly, delicate hand trying to cover her giggles. "You were wonderful Shuichi. Perhaps, a little fussy at times, but you were wonderful."
I traced my fingers along the scars on her arms. They've faded overtime but they will never go away. "I was a little monster to you."
"Shuichi!" her voice was raised. "Don't say that! I loved raising you. I don't regret one bit of it and I know it in my heart that you're the reason why I was able to get better today."
"Mother…"
"I want you to be happy, Shuichi," she said as she laid her head back down onto her pillow. "I want you to get a chance to enjoy your youth while you still have it."
"I've lived plenty, mother. You've given me such a full life."
Shiori shook her head, "You're too young to understand what a full life entailed. You act so grown up, and in many ways, you are very mature for your age. But there's always more to life than you think."
Her head relaxed into her pillow; exhaustion slowly took over. Her health may have recovered but she was still confined to her human needs. Mother's boyfriend, Hatanaka, had long since given up on staying awake. After the news of mother's miraculous recovery, he laid his head to rest on the couch in the corner of the room. He used his jacket to serve as a makeshift blanket, the worried creases on his forehead relaxed for the first time in months.
He was a good man.
He was a good enough man for him to be the one I planned on entrusting my mother to had I perished. He was the first man my mother had dated since my human father passed away when I was a human child. He was also the first man that has managed to make mother laugh the way that he does. Perhaps this is what mother meant by not knowing what life has to offer.
I chuckled to myself a little. Mother wants me to date and make friends. It's amazing how humans can find so much comfort at something so trivial.
It was late, most humans would be asleep by now and while the cot was nicely laid out by the nurse earlier, it didn't call out for me. Instead I made my way towards the roof of the building. I breezed past the locked doors and the active alarms and reached the same spot where the detective had saved my life. There were no traces left of what occurred earlier, just a faint scent of energy left behind by the mirror. The moon above was still looming large and despite the brightness of the city below, everything was surprisingly quiet.
A new plan needed to be formulated.
There was no telling when Spirit World will take me away to serve my time. Stealing the mirror aside, I had hundreds of years of crimes they could easily charge me on. Perhaps a deal could be made with them, exchanging the whereabouts of Hiei in exchange for freedom. Of course, that would just lead to trouble with Hiei down the line and there was no telling what he would do should he find out.
Thousands of possible scenarios flew through my head. Fighting, running, betrayal, even the thought of faking my death would be easy enough to accomplish for me. Any one of them could work, but that was the biggest issue. There were still too many possibilities and I couldn't be the first to make a move.
There are two main forces I have to contend with a rather short-tempered fire demon and Spirit World. Hiei, no doubt, will want revenge for my betrayal and Spirit World will either find a way to make use of me or they will attempt to execute me. Neither option is ideal, in my current form Hiei would be too big of an obstacle and running from Spirit World once they have their eyes on me will prove difficult. Not only that, but despite everything, I owe a debt to their new detective and I've never been one who liked owing anyone anything.
For now, I shall remain here. Bide my time until I can act.
Shuichi Minamino – the name that I've taken in this life.
He is a quiet boy who does as he's told. He gets good grades, helps his classmates if needed and is a caring boy who takes care of his mother. The female students like him and the male students – despite slight jealousy – want to befriend him. Teachers praise him for getting top marks and he isn't the type to cause trouble for others.
If the people from my previous life were to see me now, I'm sure they would laugh. Granted, I would too. Had someone told me that this was to be my future – a dutiful son studying for his next set of midterms – I wouldn't hesitate to murder them for their words. Yomi would've balked at the sight of me in my school uniform and its glorious magenta color. It isn't exactly the color of a legendary thief who once had dreams of ruling over Makai.
"Minamino-kun!" a girl – Aki Yamazaki – the class president greeted. "I'm glad to see you back at school! How is your mother doing?"
"She's doing much better now," The only me - Yoko - would've laughed at her for talking to me so personally, but Shuichi was a polite classmate and so I responded accordingly with a polite bow. "Thank you for always dropping off my assignments and for giving me your notes."
"Of course, it's my job to make sure the class is taken care of," she bowed back and went on her way towards our classroom.
I followed suit shortly after, making my way into the classroom and taking my seat towards the back. There were a number of well-wishing students who greeted me kindly, offering me their congratulations on mother's recovery. Rumors spread quickly here. The only other place that could compete with Makai's information network was no doubt a high school.
Due to my mother's hospitalization – and thieving from Spirit World – I had taken a few days off from school. In that short absence I had forgotten just how contrived humanity truly was. Relationships were shallow and fragile. Everyone wished to be seen in their best light, they desired praise and success. No one wanted to be honest with one another and it was easy enough to see past their surface level interactions with one another. People were friends with the smart students to get the answers for their assignments, females acted charming and endearing while the males used every opportunity to release their grotesque pheromones in order to attract one another. Disgusting. Not too far off compared to Makai.
There was, however, an additional layer. The atmosphere was softer, the air was easier to breath here and these people laughed with one another. It boggled my mind how at ease everyone around me was.
I hadn't anticipated being back in the school building, but I supposed if there's anything I've learned in my long lifetime it's that nothing was ever guaranteed. Calculations were supposed to be easy for me. I was good at observing and executing, outweighing pros vs. cons and planning. Planning had been my specialty all these years. Not necessarily skills or strengths because I knew better than to believe that there wasn't anyone stronger than me out there. No, I was far too smart to believe such a thing. But in terms of strength of the mind I had believed myself to be one of the best. So how had I miscalculated my plans this much?
I suppose the detective had gone unaccounted for, during the planning stages. There had been no indications of a new Spirit Detective lurking about, but perhaps the term detective had been coined too early. Yusuke Urameshi seemed to function best on adrenaline and emotion rather than using deductive reasoning, and that was my downfall. Emotions – while easy to manipulate – are difficult to predict. At least his presence had provided me with mother's recovery along with an added bonus. Although surrounding myself with teenagers could be its own form of purgatory.
The only classmate of mine who intrigued me was Kaito Yu. He was the smartest of the bunch and also the only classmate who appeared to dislike my Shuichi persona. Perhaps it was because my test scores were typically higher than his, but it seemed more complex than that. Truly, and unfortunately, he was the only mystery I had in my day to day life. It became apparent early on that he wasn't fascinated by the same aspects of life that everyone else was. He hardly interacted with the other students unless it was needed, his primary focus seemed to be his studies and glaring at me from behind his glasses at any opportunity he had.
But the biggest mystery of all happened the day I returned to school. He showed up uncharacteristically late, he looked far more exhausted than I had ever seen and upon arrival he slumped over onto his desk, breathed out a rather depressing sigh, rubbed his temples and seemed to be grumbling to himself as he attempted to fix his hair and uniform from his seat. I hadn't been the only one to notice, either. I witnessed the other students whispering to each other, sharing their theories on what could've caused Kaito to appear so unkempt.
Even I was curious.
The answer to everyone's curiosity was answered rather quickly when the teacher arrived. He began the day with his standard greetings until he made a special announcement.
"Everyone, we have a new student joining us today," he started. Soft whispers circulated the room, when a girl wearing the standard female uniform entered the room.
Her hair was rather long, falling just above her waist despite being placed into a high ponytail. Based off of her facial features and freckles it was easy to deduce that she was related to Kaito. Her fingers nervously played with the ends of her jacket sleeves; I could sense her nervousness but despite it her knees didn't buckle in fear. Rather they locked in confidence as she took a soft breath.
"Hello, my name is Hanako Yu. Pleased to meet you," she bowed gracefully. Her words seemed overtly proper and had a twinge of an accent although it was rather difficult pinpointing it to a specific area. "My cousin Kaito has told me so much about this school and I look forward to getting to know each of you individually."
Her voice was gentle and smooth. An air of quiet confidence flowed with each sound she made. Her floral scent flowed through the hair. It wasn't overpowering but rather sweet. But what caught my attention the most were her eyes. Dark brown in color but something about them seemed different somehow. They sparkled, not with excitement, but from an aura that seemed to pierce directly into me. There was a small tug on my long-forgotten heart and the only feeling left in me was something I had never felt before in my entire life.
Confusion. Complete and utter confusion.
"Hanako has been living overseas with her parents for a couple years but she's recently returned to Japan. I hope everyone shows her kindness and helps her to get her footing in place," the teacher said. His eyes peered around the classroom looking for an easy seat. His eyes landed on the empty desk beside me. "You can sit next to Minamino. Minamino-kun please raise your hand."
I lifted my hand up and watched as she walked towards me. She gingerly hung her bag on the side of her desk, pulled out a sheet of paper and a single pen. She caught me staring and gave a gentle half smile and returned her gaze to the front back towards our teacher. The only thing that pulled me away was a punitive cough that came from Kaito's throat accompanied by a warning look.
Kaito didn't scare me, but my eyes turned away regardless. Her aura seemed so familiar to me. It left me tracing over a millennium of memories only to come up empty. I visualized every demon, spirit, human and creature but couldn't find anyone or anything that seemed to match up. I glanced over, yet again, and still couldn't comprehend what this person could possibly mean for me. She appeared human, had a human cousin and even smelled human and yet her aura says otherwise.
It was becoming more and more apparent that I was losing my touch when it came to calculations and plans.
Note: First and foremost thank you so much to Damaged Forest Spirit for reviewing! I was so surprised and happy to see a comment so quickly. I also really appreciate the people who followed/favorited my story. It really helps to give me confidence on my story!
And secondly, this chapter was really hard for me to hunker down and write because Kurama is such a difficult POV to write from. Mostly because I picture his thought process to be almost the exact opposite from my own thoughts. I picture him much more calculating and apathetic compared to the jumble of thoughts that usually run through my head. I kept going back and forth from whether or not I wanted to include his perspective but I knew that including it would give me a more satisfying pay off in the end with where I want this story to go. Also, just as a small note, in terms of headcanons for Kurama I'm a believer of one body, one soul. I do however think that Kurama is very much aware of how drastic his two identities are so therefore he still refers to his separate lives as such (AKA why he refers to Yoko and Shuichi almost in the third person).
Well, that's all I have to say. Thank you again to the people who are reading! I should be able to update again soon, Kaito (another one with a challenging POV but necessary for plot purposes) and I will see you soon!
