Disclaimer: If I owned anyone in Yu Yu Hakusho or the other anime characters in here, I would be turning this story into the actual plotline...not a fanfic. :D Ehe...ehehehe... ;;)
Summary: Youko Kurama managed to escape his imminent death. What if his best friend accomplished the same feat? Although Kuronue probably should have checked before he jumped into a baby girl's body. What will happen when their human counterparts meet? And what's Kagome got to do with this?
Author's Notes: First and foremost, thank you for all of your reviews! I was so glad for the warm reception to this thread, considering that there's one that was published earlier with similar content by Inari's angel—check her out in my favorites. :D I would like to state here and now that I did not read her fic until a reader of mine pointed out the similarities, and I do promise that I did not lift any material from her great fic. Check her out and you'll know what I mean! XP
I was inspired, however, by Buffybot76's "Kuronue's Pendant" and Volpone's "Thief", excellent, excellent fics that I'm hoping will be updated in the near future. XD They're in my favorites too—great writers, both. XP
This chapter is a bit dragging—I'm sorry if it's such a rip-off after I made you guys wait. But I didn't think I could fit Kurama in here just yet—the next chapter will feature him though—that much I can promise! So please bear with me and give me feedback! What do you want me to include? I've actually got a setup in mind already, but suggestions are always welcome! Plus I might come back and edit this chapter after a while—flesh out some bony portions—but that depends if you like it or not. :D
Enjoy! XP
Chapter 1
The New Life
The sky was a deep, misty blue. The chill in the air was not one of early morning nor was it the chill of the dark night. It was a deeper, more mysterious chill—the kind that seeped into one's bones and past, clenching its bony fingers around one's heart. Nothing stirred. There was no breeze to rustle the grass of that grassy plain, no bird flying overhead to cut through the endless sky. Not a sound penetrated the solid silence and no movement penetrated the steady stillness of the surroundings.
She was a tall woman. Tall, and well-formed. Her arms were long and shapely—a dancer's arms. Her legs were long as well, her thighs powerful and toned. The dress, its silky white fabric now slick, clung to them, outlining the beauty of them. Her dark hair spread out over the grass, the long mass coated with the sweet liquid of life. Her skin was the color of pale gold, her full, lovely lips formed in a little moue. Arched brows slanted over deep, almond-shaped indigo eyes that resembled the murky depths of the sea when touched by light.
And in those eyes she saw death.
Death.
Impossible, insane, but there it was. It was death. Death that covered her beautiful body, as it had covered everything else in that world. It had entered her, consumed her, flown through her just as surely as life had at one point in time.
"How?" she whispered, staring down at the female. Lying in the valley between the woman's breasts was a blood red stone, its burning vermillion depths receding into inky black. The broken chain was twined in her cold fingers, clutched tightly as though it was of extreme importance. Numbly she took it in, grasping for its significance within the hazy recollections of her mind.
The question reverberated through the air, pushing against the silence as it slowly expanded and filled the surroundings.
There came no answer. The blood stone remained dull, devoid of reflection and light. Still nothing stirred. The word hung in the air for what seemed like eternity, and still no reply came. The lightless blue eyes looked up into the sky, as though staring at the question itself as it covered the sky and the air, feeling it moving in the ground beneath them.
"How?" she asked again. "How did this happen?"
You know how.
The voice inside her mind caused the surroundings to stir—like a pebble rippling the calm surface of a pond.
"It didn't happen to me!" she protested fiercely, unwilling to believe what was right before her eyes. "It happened to you!"
A soft chuckle filled her ears and her surroundings rippled again, more forcefully this time—as though the one who had dropped the pebble had picked up and dropped a much larger rock.
I am you.
"You," she hissed, "are a plague. I am a self-absorbed, egotistic, narcissistic, conceited being. I love me. Since I detest you, you are invariably someone else!"
He sighed wearily. You know, if I didn't know better, I'd be tempted to believe you. You're so stupidly stubborn sometimes that it drives me crazy.
"Humph. If anyone's mad here, it's me. If I were sane, I'd have pointedly denied your existence to myself when you first popped up."
Which is when you were about how old? A year and a half? He snickered. Oh yes, I'm certain that if you could do it all over again, you would have your very young, but oh-so-rational mind telling yourself that if you can't get Kuronue to shut up, you could very well be schizophrenic.
"Why are we here again?" she snapped, tiring of having to look at her destroyed body. "What are you playing at, twisting your memories and making me dream them?"
I'm not twisting anything. You see your body there because you and I are the same person now. As to why we are here I am as clueless as you. Do you truly believe I enjoy reliving my untimely "demise"?
"Don't even begin thinking this is my fault—I'm sexy and all, but staring at myself in this state of undress is not my cup of tea." She took one more look at the blood (amongst other things) spattered over her body and shuddered. "This is the third night in a row I've had to look at something freaky from your past, Kuronue. If you've got a theory, I suggest you let the person whose body you're sharing in on it."
I dreamed along with you, remember, my darling Kurenai? There's no need to remind me. As a matter of fact, I do have a theory, but it's a little shaky at the moment. And forget about "forcing" me into telling you—we both know there's no way you're going to be able to kick me out.
She grit her teeth. "You'd better pray things stay that way, because if I ever find a way to rid myself of you..."
---
"My, my, what a face you have this morning," her mother, Mrs. Saki Sohma, murmured with a querying smile, which she promptly concealed as she lifted her coffee cup to her lips. Her smooth brow furrowed slightly when her daughter ignored the comment and walked past her to rummage in the refrigerator. "You've had it for quite a while now," she continued, worriedly now. "Is there something you'd like to tell me, Kurenai?"
The girl straightened, pursing her lips and tightening her grip on the milk carton as she gave her mother an amused glare.
"Stop it, mother," she demanded sharply, and immediately she felt the probing fingers of her mother's mind withdraw from the barrier she had built around her own.
It might be well-known in their social circles that her mother was something of an empath—a "vibe", some preferred to call her, considering her ability to employ vibes in a psychic sense—and it was rumored that she had passed on her mental gifts to her children. This was true, though of course Kurenai and her younger brother never admitted nor denied it, treating the issue as indifferently as bored spectators. Within the Shigure and Saki Sohma's household, however, where unorthodox was the norm if not the rule, perfecting and employing one's gifts and celebrating one's eccentricities was a given.
Except when you used it to pry.
Kurenai still had some way to go in terms of perfecting her own powers—in fact the only time she'd been able to truly manipulate them outwardly was over a year ago, when Kuronue had taken over as the dominant consciousness and—
I do not want to think about that.
Somewhere in her mind, she heard a soft snicker.
Shut up, Kuronue.
Nonetheless, as inept as she was at using her psychic abilities outwardly, she was very capable of shielding her own mind from others.
Too bad the one person she wanted to block out the most was immune to her barrier.
Could you please explain to me why we're eating that for the eighth time in a row?
She settled at the table, pouring more milk over some crisp cornflakes and stuffing a large spoonful into her mouth. Cold cereal tastes good, and it's healthy.
Cold cereal is for cows.
"Kuronue?" Saki ventured, refusing to let the issue drop, making Kurenai sigh deeply. Why did she always, always have to invite him into their conversations? It wasn't like he had anything to contribute past all of Kurenai's deepest, darkest, and most well-guarded secrets.
Broodingly, she came up with one conclusion: If she ever found a way to sever their bond and toss him out of her body, she'd have to get rid of him permanently somehow. He knew too much about her to be left hanging around...
Yes, mother? Kuronue's cheerful, pleased voice rebounded from the back of Kurenai's mind, permeating the barrier she had created to communicate with Saki. Inwardly, Kurenai sighed. Whatever Kuronue was going to do at this point was his decision—they were problematic over his past, after all, not hers. But he was tied to her in some sense—body, if not in mind and soul—and what became of him would definitely affect her.
Thus, when Kuronue proceeded to blab about their nightmares with all the energetic mental communication he could come up with to make up for lack of physical expression, she held her tongue and prayed to Kami that her mother would find nothing wrong with them.
Which was unlikely, given the shrewd calculation in Saki's dark eyes.
-Preview of the Next Chapter-
He looked down into the burning depths of her deep, deep eyes and languorously slid his mouth over hers, nipping sharply at the soft, rosy flesh of her bottom lip. She gasped, opening her mouth and providing him the entry he needed. Her lashes drifted shut and she moaned deep in her throat as his mouth locked onto her own and his searing tongue drove into the slick recesses of her mouth. She pressed forward eagerly at this, heat spiraling down, down, down into nerve endings she was never truly conscious of. Now they all screamed for more—for him.
Then he was pulling back, leaving her gasping and groaning in protest. A chuckle sounded in his chest, the vibration sending sensation through her own torso, which was pressed so achingly close to his. The slightly rough texture of his tongue was soothing the sting of his soft bite on her lip and she sank helplessly into the sofa, no longer wanting to fight him.
Smugly, he looked down into the beautiful girl's flushed, defeated face and raised himself slightly off her. His eyes drifted upwards to check the time before they froze.
And locked onto dark, cornflower blue eyes that chilled the hottest of the flames in his body.
-End of Preview-
Further Author's Notes: Is there sex in the next chapter? Well, not really...remember, this fic is rated T, so I can't post it here. But you've read the preview, so if what you just saw isn't your cup of tea, let me know asap, okay? So I can adjust... XD Although my beta's already onto half of the third chapter and once she understood what was happening she was cool with the scenes that made her feel like "she was lacking ventilation". Whatever that means. :D
Also, this is where I'm going to be posting my thank-you-s. I know, I know...but I'm a creature of habit and thanking my reviewers in my fics has been my policy since...well, since. :D So everyone, I hope you don't mind if I breach policy and publicly adore my readers, okay? ;D Okay. XP
gilliane-raine: Maybe—part of the fun here is guessing the pairings. XP Thanks for the review, babe! XD I'll get to the other fics soon, I promise! ;D
JGgirl: Apparently not. :D Or so our characters think...but my evil mind can come up with a lot more ways to give them a hard time...bwahaha...:evil laugh:...
Kuronue and Kurenai: OY!
'Addict: Or not...:innocent smile:...hehe...Thank you for reviewing! ;D ;P
too lazy to log in: Thanks! XP I was inspired to write a Kuronue fic by the two authors mentioned above—the idea to make him a girl came after watching Ranma 1/2—if you want to read another of my fics where I swapped someone, check out my profile and look up Gender Bender. I'm so evil...Yusuke fans all over must hate me now. XP
ShadeSpirit: Aww...:hugs ShadeSpirit tightly:...don't cry...I promise, when I write the flashbacks later on you'll see how much fun Kuro-chan had after...and how much fun he's going to have in the coming chapters. Let me know what you think, okay? ;;) I'm glad you like it—thanks for reviewing! ;P
sukini: Yipee! XP You like me! You really like me! ;jumps around like...something that I can't mention here; Right. XP Or maybe you just like my story—either way, I'm so happy! XP Yup, you did invent the word especially for my fic, so I'm all the more flattered! ;grabs sukini; Bwahaha...now I'll never let you go! ;pause; But then you won't be able to review my story if you're strapped up in my room...;sigh;...;reluctantly lets her go;...oh well...I can always adore you and everyone else from here. XP
Oh yes, now that you mention it, everyone look HERE. You may be wondering about how freaking weird Saki is—she's a character from the anime Fruits Basket. It's very short: 26 episodes only, but what's cool is you get the plot without needing to pore through the entire length of the manga. She didn't hate Kuronue for reasons I'll explain later on—but basically it's tied to her being on a totally different sphere of reality most of the time, which is why she doesn't act as most people would. XP
Kuro's childhood will come in flashbacks—watch out for his high school life with Kurenai, it's important! XP Anyway, hope you stay tuned and let me know what you think. :D Thank you again for reviewing! ;P
nine lifes: Thanks, thanks, thanks! XP Though I think you got me wrong somewhere, honey...Kuronue didn't jump Kagome's body...or maybe I got you wrong? Slap me if I did, I'm so slow these days! Must be all the stress from college life...grrr...anyway, you'll see where Kagome comes into this in the next chapter. I hope you still like it even if it isn't what you thought it was, and if you don't anymore, please let me know what you think anyway. :D Thankshyu! ;hug;
THERE! I know, I know, I'm so long-winded! I'm trying to fix that though, so to wrap it up I just want to say thanks and I hope you'll leave me a review with your thoughts! XP Take care you guys, and much love! XP