I shot awake, breathing hard. The sights from the hospital were deeply embedded in my mind, with vivid clarity.
"Welcome back." Hiei was lounging on a window sill. Looking around a moment, and I recognized the room. We were in Kurama's overly large master bedroom, with four cots replacing the normal, king-sized bed. Kuwabara was fast asleep on one of them, while Yukina was sitting on another, and one was empty. The last one was the one I was climbing out of.
"We're being detained," Hiei explained, in a dull, bored voice. "We're not allowed to leave this room until the extra demon energy has worn off. We all got blasted with a huge amount. It might take a while."
"Extra demon energy…?" I murmured, running my hand through my hair. Come to think of it, I did feel like I was carrying quite a bit more weight around than usual.
"Yes. When we were pelted with that explosion of demon energy, it infected our bodies with a lot of excess aura. That's what caused us to pass out. You got it the worst, and Yukina the lightest, thanks to you. Kuwabara was able to duck and cover in time to escape almost all of it. However, considering he's completely human, it's had the worst effect on him. I suspect he'll be out for several more hours yet. You've been asleep for two and a half weeks, by the way." Yukina, who had been watching Hiei in amazement (probably because she had never heard him say so many words at one time), gave a little squeak of worry at the mention of Kuwabara's condition and hurried over to his bed. Hiei watched her with a look of slightly infuriated disgust. Probably at the fact that his beloved sister seemed to have feelings for the lanky human. But, he took the opportunity of her distraction to hop off the sill and saunter over to me.
"Thank you," he whispered, too quietly for Yukina to hear, "for protecting her."
"Of course," I said, giving him a little wink, "I mean, she's like my sister, too. You know, through familiar relation, sir."
Hiei smirked and walked back to the window as the door opened. Kurama pushed his way in.
"Aya! I'm glad to see you're finally awake."
"Mmmm." I replied. The excess energy seemed to be making me a bit sluggish now.
Kurama hesitated. "Actually…I need to talk to you. Can you come outside for a minute?"
I frowned. His tone made it sound like something was wrong. Anxiety crept into my dulled nerves. "I thought I was being 'quarantined' and not allowed to leave."
"You seem quite adept at absorbing other demons' aura and adapting to it. I don't think you're 'contagious' anymore. Besides, it's important." The edge on Kurama's voice scared me. He held a hand out to me. "Please?"
I swallowed nervously and took his hand. He led me out of the room and down the hall to my bedroom. He made me sit on the bed, before pacing around the room a little. His conspicuous worry was making me worry! Finally, he turned to face me.
"Do you know where the explosion came from?"
Oh, I knew. But admitting it would only make it actually seem real. As if it was the truth and there was nothing we could do about it. So I shook my head.
I think Kurama suspected that I knew anyway. But still, he was tactful enough to humor me. He cleared his throat.
"The power…Came from your brother."
I closed my eyes sadly. So it was true. My brother had been turned into a demon.
Kurama approached me and sat on the bed next to me. He took my hand gently in his. "This next part will be very difficult for you to hear."
Next? There was more? And what could be worse than finding out my baby brother, my only surviving blood relative, was a bloodthirsty monster? I waited with bated breath.
Telling me the information seemed to hurt Kurama, like he didn't want to torture me with whatever he was about to tell me. "I think…No, I know…" He paused to take a breath, then decided to spit it out all at once, causing his tact to go down a few points. "Your brother's dead. He has been, ever since the night that demon attacked your house. He was killed then."
I stared at him in incredulity. "What? No, that's not right sir. He was in a coma, remember? He was alive." I was instantly aware that I was entering the first and second phases of grief all at once: Shock and denial.
Kurama hesitated. "Well, yes, in a way. His body was - still is. But not his soul. You see, after the hospital incident, Hiei woke up only a couple of hours later. He told me that story and I did some research. I found that the demon who had attacked your family was a parasite demon. They're the types you always hear about in cases involving possession. This particular breed takes over someone's body, killing the soul to make room for theirs, and they 'live' the host's life. The aura of the host masks the aura of the parasite. The demon's soul we're dealing with was too injured to be able to wake up after it infected Tomosuke. Yukina healed it, thus releasing it."
Infected? Parasite? Host? It was awful thinking of my brother using these terms. I felt numb, but Kurama's unnecessarily detailed explanation jolted awake the pain. This couldn't be happening! No, I couldn't lose Tomosuke. Not now, not ever!
I seemed to be disconnected from my body. The next thing I knew, I was falling back onto the bed - fainting from the psychological shock. I felt Kurama's sturdy arms around my shoulders, catching me. I gave in to the darkness with no resistance.
(^^) ( ^^ ) (^^)
Ever since I had first met Kurama, Hiei, Kuwabara, and Yusuke, I had fainted more often than any normal person would in their whole life. But then again, I wasn't exactly normal anymore. Nothing was normal or right in my world. I think I had reasonable cause to blame my frequent fainting 'spells' on the fact that I still had a teenage girl's mind, even if I was in a demon's body now. That, and the fact that I seemed to be the one getting hurt most, out of all the guys. Not my fault.
I felt numb and emotionless when I awoke, but it was only the mental shock that had shut down my emotions for the time being. Thank whatever god or gods existed. If not, I am not sure how I could've dealt with the emotion agony of losing my brother at the moment. Tomosuke had been the only solid, normal thing connecting me to my old life. My soothing comfort. My shelter in the storm. The one sane person in this mad insane asylum. And now that was gone. I felt like I was drowning in darkness.
I just stared at the cup of hot jasmine tea that Kurama had brought me. Any other day, I loved jasmine tea. But now I felt like going on strike and refusing to eat or drink ever again. Unfortunately, if that as what I chose to do, I knew it wouldn't last. One of the boys would end up forcefully shoving nourishment down my throat if they had to. Sometimes being cared about wasn't too great. Made suicide and self-mutilation a lot more difficult.
"Drink," Kurama commanded gently. He pushed the cup up to my lips. At his touch, I felt waves of soothing relief wash over me, numbing the pain. I close my eyes and sipped. Was it possible, with the help of Kurama and Hiei, to recover and pull through this?
(^^) ( ^^ ) (^^)
"That damned parasite demon will want revenge. We probably will have to kill it," Hiei stated. He didn't usually take active parts in discussing missions with the others, but I guess since this affected me so personally, he felt more enraged by it. The comment itself would have seemed completely cold and ruthless if he hadn't have had his hand resting reassuringly on my shoulder. I was sipping expressionlessly from a cup. My beverage of Kurama's choice this time was iced blood.
Yusuke shot a cautionary glance at me. "How can we do that, when he's Aya's…?" Yusuke broke off, leaving us to finish the sentence in our minds.
"He's not my brother anymore," I said dryly, holding the cup an inch away from my mouth. "My Tomo was a gentle little weakling who neither had the strength or the capability to hurt a fly. The only one he ever was able to intimidate was his twin sister, Kiki - Kiyoko." I took another sip to ease my mouth that had suddenly gone dry, and the relieve the pressure behind my eyeballs, as I felt tears well up. I swallowed and kept my gaze pointed at the floor.
All four boys just stared at me. I felt the need to continue. I cleared my throat, hoping I could speak clearly and with confidence.
"There's no way around it. We'll have to destroy h-him…" My voice broke on the last word. I flushed at my failure to remain confident. The reaction I got from the boys was more silence. Simple, shocked silence. I stood, my whole body trembling.
"We need to prepare ourselves.," I said in what I prayed was an inspirational voice. With this declaration of war, my choice was made, and there was no backing out of it. I needed to show the others that I could do this, and wasn't just going to become a liability. "That spawn-from-hell monster is going to do some serious damage if we don't get to it and strike as soon as possible. Who's with me?!" My self-esteem took a serious blow as no one immediately answered. Then, suddenly, all four boys jumped up and cheered. Well, the cheering came from Yusuke and Kuwabara. Hiei leaned against the wall, his eyes closed (all three of 'em), with a satisfied smirk. But it was Kurama that caught my eye. He stared at me, with a proud, yet still dashing, smile. Confidence flowed through me, and I suddenly felt assured of our victory. I smiled back.
Sorry to everyone who wanted a happy ending for Tomosuke! Sorry sorry sorry! But yeah, Tomosuke is already dead. Basically, the demon is inhabiting his body. His souls is dead, but still trapped in his body, as well. That way, the demon can access Tomo's memories and all...It's confusing. It is possible that Aya accidentally killed Tomo when she blew up the house, but...I'd like to say that the demon killed him when he took over his body.
Sorry!