A/N: Sigh… this weather must be getting to me… no drive for writing…. I need some inspiration…
Anyone know about any inspirational/blood-pumping/good songs? NO RAP and preferably no pop. I rather listen to rock any day of the week.
Disclaimer: I do not own Yuyu Hakusho, but if you give me a song I'll give you some false hope.
The overhead fluorescent light buzzed irritatingly in the silence of the meal. Genkai, Yukina, Jun, Kurama and (surprisingly) Yurika sat at the round table, like King Author's knights, eating silently from their dishes, no one making an attempt at conversation. Hiei stood in a corner, ignoring the food and the others, though occasionally he would take a moment to send a glare Yurika's way. Unfortunately for him, she kept her back pointedly at him.
Yukina tried and failed several times to begin conversation, but was only responded to when she talked to a single person, and often it was a mono-syllable response. Finally, she sighed and began to drink her tea, the room lapsing back into its normal silence.
As if some unknown signal was given, Yurika suddenly pushed back her chair and stood. "Thank you for the meal, Genkai. And the book," she added as an afterthought, "has been extremely helpful."
Genkai gave a sharp nod, her eyes wide and alert, as if she were waiting for something to happen.
Yurika turned (presumably to go back to her room), but Hiei was there. He was not exactly blocking her way, but he finally got his chance to catch her eyes and glare at her; Kurama could not see what she did back, but she moved on.
A few minutes later, as Kurama moved to help Yukina clear the dishes, Genkai dumped her plate, cup and silverware into the sink. She stomped out of the room, leaving two confused people after her.
It's time, Kurama. Hiei's voice said. Let's go.
Ready for answers, Kurama politely excused himself to Yukina, who nodded and silently went back to doing the dishes, and strode out the door. He found both Hiei and Genkai in the foyer. Hiei nodded to him and waked out of temple. Genkai did not even look at him as she followed.
They did not walk very far into the forest when Hiei turned abruptly and said to Kurama, "Get in the tree."
"What?" Kruama asked, confused. Why in the seven hells did Hiei want him to climb into a tree?
"So you're not seen," Kurama had the distinct impression that had Hiei not had such good self-control, he would have sounded exasperated.
Kurama sighed through his nose and easily lifted himself into the tree, hiding himself among the branches of oddly golden leaves. As he settled, he heard a crackling of leaves in the distance, though he doubted either Hiei or Genkai could. Less than ten seconds later, he saw Hiei move slightly, and knew he had heard. Genkai gave no sign that she had been able to hear the sounds of someone moving in her forest, even when the person was only a few feet away (though still out of sight).
Yurika entered the clearing, slinking out of the shadows like a cat. Before he knew what he was doing, Kurama was wrinkling his nose in distaste, courtesy of Youko. He quickly shoved the fox to the back of his mind to listen to the demons and human below him.
Yurika nodded towards Genaki, "I'm not surprised you are here."
Genaki nodded, her hands still clasped behind her back, "I can't imagine that you would be."
Yurika cast her eyes down, "I'm glad neither of you brought Kurama. I don't want him to know about what I'm about to say." She looked up, her eyes not hard, but warning against telling Kurama anything.
Genkai managed a jerking nod, Hiei a mildly interested stare. Yurika was quiet for a moment, and Kurama noticed her hand trailing to a lock of hair that had escaped her ponytail, to fiddle with it for a moment. She was lightly chewing on her bottom lip. Kurama (or at least the very disgruntled Youko) realized with a jolt that this was the same look she gave him when she was thinking really hard.
Or when she had some inner turmoil.
Finally, Yurika began to speak.
"In the past, Kurama's other half and I were… really good friends," Yurika began, unsure. Hiei snorted and Yurika looked up at him angrily. "Not that kind of friend, Hiei. Anyway, I often waited for one of his hawks near a lake in my home valley; I was out alone one day waiting for him when I was attacked… by my mother."
"That is not uncommon," Genkai said with a shrug.
"I am the heir to the Isei family and its curse," Yurika stated emotionlessly.
"Ah. That is." Genkai conceded.
Yurika felt her muscle in her arm twitch slightly. "She pressed a curse on me, but I was too young and in too much pain to do anything about it. It's not an excuse and I know that; I've suffered for it over the years. All I know is that any emotion I feel too strongly, pains me deeply… it feels as if my arm has been set aflame and that the bone is rotting. That is the best way I can describe it."
"You don't need to go any farther," Genaki said quickly. Yurika looked up and was surprised to see that Genakai's eyes were filled with what one could call sympathy. Nodding slightly, Yurika went of.
"My family condemned me, fearing for their own lives. I stayed nearby, though. I was waiting for Youko to come back." Yurika felt a burning in the back of her eyes, and mentally cursed herself for her weakness. She looked away, concentrating on the purple leaves of a nearby tree. "I fell in love with him, and I was too cowardly to face the pain. But that was not the real reason, I only thought of that after the fact. I left because… I knew that it would break my heart every day to know that I would never be able to be with him, for I would not allow it; I knew he did not deserve this curse and I did not deserve him."
"Hn. You are still a coward," Hiei stated.
Before he could get any farther, Yurika smiled bitterly. "I told myself that every day of the past sixty years."
Hiei was, unsurprisingly, silent.
Yurika, her chest tightening and the pain radiating from her arm nigh unbearable, focused her eyes and said in a rush, "To break this curse, I must do something. My mother, in a brief moment of either sanity or sadistic humor, told me how to break it. But I was nearly unconscious at the time. I'm going to need help, to access my memories." She stared at Hiei. "Will you do it?"
Hiei returned her stare for a moment, and then replied slowly, "We are not enemies, and we are not friends. Do not expect me to do this kind of favor all of the time."
Yurika bowed her head, "I am in your debt." She turned her attention to Genkai. "Now that you know, I will ask you; will you guide us?"
Genkai huffed, "Well .I suppose if you ask like that I have no choice, besides what kind of trainer would I be if I didn't help someone out once and awhile?"
Yurika allowed herself a small smile, "Thank you, both of you."
Genkai was at her arm in an instant, pulling her along the path, "Let's go, just because you and the fire demon deicide to meet in the dead of night like vampires doesn't mean you don't have to go to school tomorrow."
Kurama sat in the boughs of the tree, trembling slightly. His breath came in short, but he was able to keep it unseen by Hiei as he climbed down.
"So," he said quietly.
"Hn." Hiei replied in his usual before disappearing into the night.
Utterly alone, Kurama sank to his knees, burying his face in his hands. Yurika had saved him. Stupid, self-sacrificing, divine Yurika had been slowly killing herself over the sixty years to save him the trouble.
Or maybe it had been in the beginning, that first night she had ran him of, away from her and the pain she thought she would bring him.
Little did she know that his heart had been torn to shreds in that instant as well.
A/N: Review!