**Standard Disclaimers Apply**
Thank you KyoHana for your kind review. I hope the rest of this story will live up to your expectations. I was indeed trying to fit in some KxH, but it's going to be difficult as you will soon see.
Also, big thanks to TheNotSoNiceLibrarian for all your previous reviews. They really meant a lot to a first time fan fic writer and kept me going when the going got tough.
After days of analysing antidotes, experimenting with different herbs, testing various cures on Makai animals, and finally testing them on himself, Kurama made a breakthrough in creating the antiviral cures he needed. While the previous versions of the elixirs made him feeble and feverish, the latest versions have not caused any negative side effects. An examination of his own blood revealed that, at the very least, the drugs have stopped the virus within him from reproducing.
Thanks to Hiei and his jagan, the fox was able to pinpoint the biological weapons research facilities that Yomi had kept hidden from him for so long. He had an inkling that it was hidden deep in the Tempest Mountains, but was never able to find its exact location until now. The violent storms that surround the remote mountain range not only disperses ki but also fills the air with storm energy, making it rather difficult to track or trace anything within it.
Once he had the location, he utilized his talents as Makai's most infamous thief to obtain samples of viruses and antidotes. He also took the liberty of perusing the research logs and notes, careful to replace them once he had the information he needed. Soon, Yomi would know of his betrayal, but until then, it wouldn't do to leave evidence of his visit behind.
Afflicting each member of his family with a different strain of virus was an ingenious move on Yomi's part, afterall, it was Kurama who taught him to diversify, never relying on a single tactic. As Kurama's second-in-command during their thieving days, Yomi was willful and rash, never taking Kurama's lectures seriously. Centuries apart have changed him, it was clear now that Yomi had finally taken his lessons to heart. No matter how many tests Kurama conducts on himself, there was no way for the youko to ascertain the effectiveness of his cures on his human family. His only choice was to feed them different drugs until he found a combination that would save them. Should the cures fail, at least he had the recipes for the temporary antidotes.
Curing his family was only the first step of his plan. Even though Kurama was no longer the ruthless demon he used to be and even though Yomi was once his comrade, this entire ordeal had been too undignified — his humiliation too great — for him to forgive. The only way for Kurama to truly heal is to administer the complete and utter destruction of Yomi. His pride could not suffer this offense to be without retribution.
Besides, he had even more to protect now than he did two years ago when he was first infected with the virus. Kurama had never expected to genuinely hit it off with the boisterous son of Raizen that Yomi dispatched him to investigate and befriend. But behind the rough exterior, Yusuke was honest, open, and easy to like. It had been eye opening to watch him grow from a street punk running a ramen stall to the head of a state who fights to protect his people in a world he doesn't quite understand.
Kurama also liked Kuwabara for his honor and naiveté, Hokushin and the demon monks for their unfaltering loyalty, Mukuro for her good humor, fierce independence, and inner strength, and Hiei — well, Hiei was a little different than the others. He was more like a prey that Kurama enjoyed toying with than anything else. Regardless, there was a vulnerability and a longing for connection beneath Hiei's facade of aloofness that Kurama wanted to both protect and understand.
With the gears of his plan mostly in place, there was not much for Kurama to do in Makai but to wait for the events to unfold. Eventually, he would have to return, but for now, his place was in Ningenkai where he could watch over his human family. Should he ever need to contact anyone in Makai, he had a web of vines that could pass messages to a select handful of strategic locations and people. To prevent his messages from getting into the wrong hands — the wedding invitation Hokushin intercepted being a prime example — Kurama preferred using unconventional methods rather than couriers, except for the time he chanced upon Hiei at the border. Hiei would be enraged if he knew this, but that was, in truth, a deliberate meeting, he needed the foul-tempered general's jagan after all. Besides, it was amusing to trick his dark hair prey into thinking he was the hunter, not the prey. He'd even made it more believable by letting the compact demo put a blade to his throat! But of course, that was definitely not nearly as amusing as watching Hiei perform mental gymnastics to convince himself that he was, in truth, not pleased to see the fox.
Shifting his thoughts from Hiei back to the present, Kurama realized there were still some loose ends he had to tie up before returning to ningenkai. First, he had to contact Raizen's old comrades. This group of unassuming but powerful demons were a wild card that all three Makai kings wanted to control. They have since come to realize that these nonviolent demons would prefer not to get involved should war break out — ok maybe not Yusuke, poor Seitei and Touou were still trying in vain to locate them. What none of them realized, however, was that these demons would gladly fight for peace. Kurama fully intended to exploit this sentiment.
He summoned a small blossom from a common Makai bindweed and carefully embedded a message on the delicate white petals before turning it back into a bud. Cloning the bud until he had a total of nine, Kurama walked to his window and began to attach each bud to the bindweed vines that clung to the castle walls. Once all the buds were secured, they slowly slithered down the vines and into the greenery below, now safely in his vine communication web. It was not the fastest way to communicate, each bud taking up to four days to get to its destination when a messenger would have taken only two, but Mukuro had afforded him the luxury of time.
One task down, Kurama now turned his attention on Yusuke. The Tourinese King is a key component of his plan, and it was important that Kurama gave him all the tools he needed to fulfill his role.
Kurama found Yusuke sitting cross legged in the castle lawn staring into space. Taking a moment to compose himself and put on his gentle Shuichi facade, Kurama quietly approached his friend. Without turning, Yusuke asked, "Shuichi?"
"Yusuke san," Kurama sat down across Yusuke in a proper seiza*, folding his legs underneath his body and resting his back on his heels. Clearly, Yusuke had taken his coaching seriously and was growing more conscious of the demon energies around him. Inwardly, Kurama cursed himself for allowing his ki signature to show. He hasn't been as careful as he should have been. "You knew it was me."
"No one else around here smell like roses." Yusuke turned to look at him, studying his face with rare intensity. "You've been hiding something from me. You're not supposed to have any ki."
Suddenly finding himself caught up in his web of lies, Shuichi made an effort to keep his body language calm and collected. Internally, he was struggling with his next course of action. Could he stand to lie to his friend any longer? Would Yusuke's honest nature allow him to accept his reasoning for the deception? And most importantly: Would coming clean dash his carefully laid plans?
"I sincerely apologize, King Yusuke," Still in a seiza, he bowed down deeply in perfect Japanese form, extending his hands palm down on the ground before him, thumbs and index fingers forming a perfect triangle, and lowering his nose into the very center, whilst keeping his neck and back completely straight. That seemed to have caught Yusuke off guard. Considering his lower class human background, it was likely that no one had ever given Yusuke such a deep respectful bow**, in fact, it was likely that no one had ever addressed Yusuke this way either.
"Hey Hey Shuichi! No need for the formalities! Get up!" Clearly uncomfortable with this show of regret, Yusuke reached forward to touch Kurama's shoulders and urged him to get up.
Receiving the permission to raise his head, Kurama settled back in a sitting position, expression still full of remorse. "King Yusuke —"
"Don't King Yusuke me!" The dark hair boy looked completely flustered.
"Yusuke san," Kurama settled for the less formal title, his eyes casted downward to avoid Yusuke's concerned gaze. "I've been untruthful."
"Whatever it is, just tell me. We'll work things out."
"I've been hiding important information from you. To start, my ki has indeed slowly returned, possibly due to the potions I've been working on. But I've been apprehensive about this energy and thus did not inform you." Kurama summoned up a blush as bright as his hair. Pausing, he searched Yusuke's face to gauge his response — good, he was buying it — before continuing on with his real confession, "More importantly, I have information about Yomi that I've failed to report. Before I disclose it, please understand that my highest priority is to protect you, and the last thing I want was for you to get hurt —"
"Cut to the chase, Shuichi!" Unquestionably, Yusuke's curiosity had been piqued. Kurama held his undivided attention now.
"Yomi is the one behind all the ningen kidnappings, they've been testing biological weapons on both—" Before Kurama could finish his sentence, Yusuke pounced on him. Falling backwards, Yusuke pinned him to the ground by straddling him and clasping Kurama's wrists tightly with his hands.
"You mean innocent people are being experimented on and you allowed it to happen?" Yusuke yelled, visibly shakened and fuming. "Why didn't you tell me?" Pinning both of the redhead's wrist above his head with one hand, Yusuke drew back his right arm, hand in a fist, ready to strike.
"There wasn't anything you could do!" Kurama confessed, a pleading expression on his face. "If you'd gotten involved, your entire country would be pulled into the conflict. More innocents would suffer!" At this, Yusuke dropped his arm and loosened his hold on his advisers wrists.
"I'll find a way to destroy the lab unnoticed. The monks can create a ki barrier that hides our energy signature, Yomi wouldn't be wiser." Yusuke stood up, feet still planted firmly on either side of the redhead's hips. Staring down at Kurama, Yusuke demanded, "Where is it?"
"Please," begged Kurama, still wearing his Shuichi facade, propping himself up with one arm and reaching for Yusuke with his free arm to grab his shirttail. "It's not the right time." Yusuke wasn't strong enough for this task yet. He would need to become more powerful and he would need help, help that Kurama was in the process of arranging.
"Where—is—it?" Yusuke enunciated the words one by one with clenched jaws, his ki aura fluctuating wildly.
"Please, Yusuke san," Kurama beseeched, knuckles white from how tightly he was clutching the angry king's shirt. "you mustn't—"
"WHERE IS IT?" Yusuke bellowed, tattooed markings slowly forming on his face and body, violent ki churning about him, right index finger pointing at the redhead with a scarlet sphere of energy slowly forming at the tip, one foot on the redhead's lower abdomen holding him down. Well, that sure escalated quickly. Kurama could not decide whether it was fortunate or unfortunate that the half-mazoku's demonic senses have finally awakened.
"Stop, Urameshi!" Kuwabara came running forward, the turbulent energy creating a forcefield that made it difficult for the tall boy to approach. He cried out again, trying to get Yusuke's attention but Kurama knew that Yusuke no longer had the presence of mind to hear.
Hokushin also appeared, likely alerted by the sudden explosion of ki in the air, but did not have much more success than Kuwabara in reaching the center of the energy vortex. He dropped to the ground, apparently aware that the fastest way to reach Yusuke in this cyclone of ki was to crawl to him. Kurama knew that Hokushin would never reach them in time. The ball of energy was now the size of a basketball. Kurama released Yusuke's shirt and raised his arms defensively in preparation for the point-blank shot, long crimson red hair whipping madly about him.
The carrot top screamed at the top of his lungs, "STOP IT, BAKA! HE'LL NEVER SURVIVE YOUR SPIRIT GUN!"
Yusuke fired.
The beam of scarlet energy burst forth from Yusuke's index finger and hit Kurama squarely in the chest.
By the time Yusuke came to his senses, he had already fired his spirit gun. He watched the crimson ball strike Shuichi with a loud roar, engulfing the frail human in an eruption of light so blinding that he had to shield his eyes. The resulting shockwave propelled him both skyward and backwards and churned up a thick cloud of grass and soil. In the background, Yusuke could hear Kuwabara cursing and Hokushin shouting for healers.
As soon as the light faded and the dust settled, Yusuke turned back to look down at where Shuichi had been. In lieu of the beautiful redhead, whose crimson hair had haloed about him on the ground in perfect contrast to the green lawn just a moment ago, the mazoku found dirt. The force of the spirit gun had created a crater the size of a tennis court. There was no trace of Shuichi, no blood, no strands of red hair, but a faint smell of roses mixed in with his own signature of citrus and ginger all around them. Yusuke tried to swallow, but found his throat dry. He had disintegrated Shuichi. He dropped onto his knees and pounded the ground, his humanity returning to him and tattooed markings slowly disappearing.
All Shuichi had wanted to do was protect him from his own recklessness. The redhead was right to withhold information from him, because clearly, he possessed no self control. He would have blown up the research center without considering the ramifications to both his country and the people who've been infected by Yomi's experiments. He would have dragged his countrymen through a war that they were ill-prepared for. He would have sacrificed hundreds of thousands of innocent demon lives for the simple reason that their king was a stubborn fool.
Shuichi knew all this. Shuichi tried to stop him. Shuichi paid for it with his life.
Banging his forehead violently on the ground, Yusuke wailed.
Author's Notes: Oh Yusuke, what have you done? I totally didn't intend on taking it this direction, but Yusuke had his own ideas and forced my hand.
Now I get to plan a royal Makai wedding! *rubs hands together* Time to get some inspiration from interesting wedding customs around the world. Any suggestions and ideas?
It's going to be a busy week at work. So the next chapter might have to wait until Thursday 10/24.
*Seiza is the japanese term for the traditional method of sitting on one's heels.
**Want to learn more about proper Japanese bowing? There's an interesting video on youtube by fujiyamafoundation that goes over all the methods of bowing in apology.