So, final chapter is up! Changing this story to complete is gonna feel so satisfying! This chapter's a long one, over 1,300 words, so I hope you enjoy it. I have to say, to everyone who has read this far, thank you for reading and hopefully enjoyed this story. Special thanks to Neon and Musa for leaving really nice reviews that made this whole endeavor worthwhile. I was honestly not expecting this to get much of a response, and for two people to enjoy this enough to leave reviews? I'm flabbergasted but also really happy. I hope you enjoy the last chapter of the fic!
And BTW, if you have any advice on characterization, pacing, tone, wording or any other author-y stuff, please tell me. I'm still really new to this whole writing thing, have no formal training whatsoever besides essays and I appreciate any feedback that can improve the quality of the stuff I write.
Some info on the chapter here: My headcanon is that everyone has a specific and unique reiki/youki signature. These signatures will often reflect the person/demon they come from. So a woman's energy would be distinctively different from a man's. Since spirit energy is a reflection of someone's personality, not their sex, a transgender woman would have a female signature and vice versa.
And warning: This chapter contains insults towards transgender people. I would like to clarify that I BY NO MEANS support this type of bad-mouthing and prejudice in real life and would probably sock someone in the face if I heard them talking like this. That part was physically hard to write and it's only in here because it's a vital plot point.
Disclaimer: I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho.
"Tell me again, why do I have to do this?" Kurama looked skeptically at the dress Botan was holding out to him. It was sparkly red. And tight. And it had spaghetti straps. All in all, not something he would ever wear of his own free will.
"Because you're the only person on the team who can pass themselves off as a girl, that's why!" Botan chirped, looking far too enthusiastic at the prospect of getting Kurama to wear the sequined monstrosity. "It's not just looks, although you definitely make a more convincing girl than Kuwabara." Despite himself, Kurama had to hold back a chuckle at the mental image of Kuwabara wearing a dress. "You are also the only person on the team who can manipulate their youki enough to give it a feminine feel."
Kurama winced. Powerful as they were, none of the members of Team Urameshi were particularly skilled at the finer points of reiki manipulation other than Kurama. He had learned how to mimic female youki a few centuries back in order to impersonate a concubine during a palace robbery, and had never really expected anything more to come of that particular trick. But now there was a spiritually sensitive serial killer targeting female youkai running around, and Koenma wanted them gone. Seeing as his current Reikai Tantei was both human and relatively inexperienced, Koenma had called on Yusuke for help, and Yusuke in turn had called Kurama. Both demons were more than happy to get rid of the killer. Still, Kurama did wish he didn't have to be bait.
Speaking of which, Botan was shoving the dress into his hands and ducking out of the room with a quick "See me later for makeup!" Kurama shuddered. Shaking out the dress, he tried to figure out how he was supposed to put it on.
Fifteen minutes and many embarrassing failures later, Kurama walked out of the room wearing the dress. It hugged his figure more than he was comfortable with, shiny satin draping his legs. It would doubtless restrict his movement horribly if it were not for the slit up to his knee on one side. The bodice was covered in red sequins, with padding in the chest area to make his disguise more believable. His shoulders felt bare with only thin straps covering them instead of the comfortable sleeves of his gi or his school uniform. He had had to get Botan to help him with the zipper on the back, which, despite his flexibility, he had not been able to zip up. All in all, the outfit was incredibly awkward and left him feeling uncomfortably bare. How did girls tolerate this?
After Botan had dragged him off to do his makeup, an uncomfortable process that had given him even more respect for women, Kurama stepped into the thankfully fairly low heels Botan had provided. Wobbling slightly, he walked into the living room of Yusuke's house, which they had been using as an impromptu base of operations. Yusuke was there, dressed in a clean black dress shirt and jeans, hair freshly slicked back and youki suppressed to lower B-class levels. The two of them would be impersonating two humanoid, yet fairly low-class demons going out for a night on the town in an attempt to draw out the killer.
"Are you ready to do this?" Yusuke asked with a grin. He held out an elbow to Kurama, who thankfully took it, using it to subtly stabilize himself. High heels were annoyingly hard to walk in, and Kurama just knew he would have blisters by the end of the night.
"Of course I am," Kurama responded with a soft smile. "Although if we get in a fight, I am going to get rid of these shoes at the first opportunity."
"Well, at least you make a convincing woman," Yusuke said. "People mistake you for a girl all the time, now we're finally putting those looks to use."
"I don't know, you'd probably look just as feminine in the right dress, especially if you tamed the long hair you get every time you take your youkai form." Kurama retorted, smirking slightly. "If you knew how to manipulate your youki beyond suppressing it, you'd probably be wearing a dress as well."
"Hey! I'll have you know I'm very masculine!" Yusuke protested. Laughing softly, Kurama walked out the door, Yusuke hurrying to follow.
As they walked, the buildings lining the streets changed from shabby apartments to nice houses, with actual lawns and everything. The setting sun bathed everything in a warm golden glow, giving the evening a peaceful feel. They were some of the only people out, with most other people in the neighborhood inside eating supper. Kurama sighed softly, letting out a bit of his disguised youki and feeling the close-cropped lawns perk up as he passed by, carefully tamed grass growing just enough to require another trim the next day. Yusuke, noticing what he was doing, grinned at him.
"I take it you don't approve of mowed lawns?"
"Maybe I just feel like a bit of mischief," Kurama answered. "Us kitsune are known for being trickster spirits, after all."
"And how is making grass grow supposed to be mischief?" Yusuke asked.
"Think about it," Kurama responded with a sly smile. "This lawn is freshly mowed. Imagine the owner's face when they come out and realize it looks like it hasn't been cut in a week. They might complain about feeling like they just cut it yesterday. They might start to wonder if they ever cut the lawn at all. Or they might just mow it again and get it over with. You never know how they will react. That's the fun of it."
"You're evil, you know that Kurama?" Yusuke asked with a grin. "Torturing innocent humans by making their grass grow."
Kurama laughed, because it just sounded so silly when Yusuke put it like that. Yusuke laughed a little and added.
"You know, I might have to start thinking of a few pranks to pull. I never really got to do any fun pranks back in middle school, and from the way you talk about them, they actually sound pretty fun." Yusuke's grin sharpened, showing off his fangs. "Yeah, I think I'm going to enjoy this."
"Well, this should be entertaining," Kurama muttered, softly enough that even Yusuke's demonic hearing couldn't make out the words.
"What did you say?"
"Nothing."
Both of them started a little as they heard a car tear around the corner onto the street behind them, but they didn't pay it any attention until it slowed down next to them. It was a pretty fancy car, a bright red convertible that matched Kurama's dress, with silver trim that shone so brightly it was hard to look at. Four teenagers, obviously headed to a party, were riding in it, laughing and jeering, the wind ruffling the strands of hair that had come free from their hair gel. One of them leaned over the side and shouted at Kurama.
"Hey, buddy! If you're a man, why don't you f***ing dress like one! Cross-dressing freak!" Laughing nastily, they accelerated, squealing around the corner and leaving skid marks that smelled strongly of burning rubber. Yusuke and Kurama stared, slightly stunned.
"...Did that guy just call you a crossdresser?"
"...I believe he did."
"One of them must've been psychic. Is your youki disguised?"
"It was. I honestly have no idea how they knew I was a guy." Yusuke started snickering at this. Kurama just stared. Laughing seemed to be Yusuke's reaction to everything in life. Still, as usual, he was confused as to the exact reasons Yusuke was laughing.
"What are you laughing at?" he asked. This only made Yusuke's snickering escalate to full-blown laughter.
"The one time we actually want people to think you're a girl, they think you're a guy!" At Kurama's disgruntled expression, he laughed harder.
"It's like, the one time someone gets your gender right, they're still kinda wrong!"
"Well, maybe if I'm so unlucky, you would have had better luck if you were wearing a dress," Kurama snapped back.
"Hell no!" Yusuke said quickly, glancing down at Kurama's heels in terror. "I'm not wearing those torture devices!" At Yusuke's comically horrified expression, Kurama couldn't help but let a chuckle slip. Yusuke joined in, and soon they were laughing so hard they were left gasping for air, the last of the daylight casting long beams of gold and black across the streets.
So, is this a fitting conclusion? I hope it is. Kurama's a really hard guy to get in character, considering he's both caring and cold at the same time. Most fanfics tend to focus on one or the other, but his actual personality is a fascinating blend of both. I tried to stay as close to his canon character as possible, but that probably just resulted in his character being disjointed and confusing. The only reason I was able to avoid complete OOCness was because I have a similar personality (and isn't that a scary thought). As for Yusuke and the others? I tried. That's all I can say. I hope it worked out.
I know I've said this in every single author's note, but any feedback is appreciated.
I hope you enjoyed this little exercise and thanks for all the support I've gotten. I know two reviews isn't much, but it's two more than expected, so it means a lot. Thanks for everything!
-SheerBoredom131