A/N: The first fic is officially done! Thank you thank you thank you for getting this far with me! BIG BIG thanks to my two constant reviewers TheNotSoNiceLibrarian and KyoHana! Thank you as well for those of you who started following along the way!
"You little prick!" Yusuke practically roared, voice echoing through the halls of his grand fortress, both hands fisting the collar of Kurama's shirt and shaking him viciously. Kurama could almost feel his brain bouncing within his skull. "All this time, you were alive and you let me believe that I killed you? Do you have any idea how messed up I was?"
"While I apologize for the hurt you felt, I refuse to apologize for being the catalyst that awakened your powers and taught you the virtue of patience. Besides, you are wholly responsible for jumping to conclusions regarding my disappearance." Kurama, in his redheaded human form, grabbed onto Yusuke's wrists to still him and for the very first time, allowed his demon fox personality to show momentarily in front of Yusuke. The inadvertent jolt at his comment spoke volumes about the Tourinese King's surprise.
Switching back to his Shuichi persona, the gentle and amiable facade he cultivated for easy navigation through the human realm, Kurama continued, "Please, you underestimate your resilience. Never did I doubted that you would overcome my alleged death and that you would rebound stronger than ever before. I had only your best intentions in mind."
Every word he spoke was true. If Yusuke was to ever succeed and prosper as King of Tourin, there were certain requirements that he had to meet. To Kurama, Yusuke was a bonsai tree that required careful pruning, wiring, and grafting to produce the desired form and proportions among elements. Perfect symmetry is undesirable, especially for a King in a warring era, it's too predictable, too straightlaced. For Yusuke, Kurama has in mind a more dynamic visual balance, with a key focus on asymmetrical shape that suggests movement. He took a quick appraising glance at Yusuke. No, this project was no where near completion, it was still too wild, too overly askewed. The wiring for the next stage of development was already in place, and Kurama simply needed to do what he already does best, wait for nature to take its course.
His only regret was that he did not get to witness the initial changes in the half-ningen king first hand, he had grown rather fond of this pet project after all. In fact, the first thing he did after he recovered from the "Crystal Betrayal", as the incident quickly came to be called - forever solidifying Kurama's ruthless reputation in Makai, was rush back to Tourin to see Yusuke and explain himself to his friend. He had gained access in his youko form, claiming to bear an important message from Gandara. Then as soon as he was in the audience of Yusuke, he revealed himself to be Shuichi, the trusted adviser. After having grieved so long for the supposed death of his friend, and worse still, seemingly by his own hands, Yusuke reacted with incredulity. That was quickly remedied by shape shifting to his human form.
"And all this time, you were Yomi's top advisor? You're the infamous Youko Kurama?" Yusuke let go of Kurama's collar and folded his arms over his chest, scanning him from head to toe, possibly wondering how the hell that slender ningen body manages to hide a seven foot tall demon within. Regardless of his ningen upbringing and his relatively recent introduction to Makai culture, the legend of the King of bandits was so well known in Makai that within weeks of arriving, Yusuke had already heard all the folklore.
"Yes Yusuke. My soul possessed this human body while it was still in its mother's womb. But believe me, I'm no longer the demon I used to be. Please also understand that it was never my intention to hurt you. Every piece of advice I had given you had been genuine and sound. I simply choose not to disclose all the information I knew." Gingerly, Kurama placed a hand on Yusuke's shoulder and turned the irate mazoku king towards him so that they were face to face. Yusuke was not one to stay angry for long. All he needed was some tender coaxing and Kurama knew exactly how to tug at his heartstrings. "Please understand. It was not under my own will that I worked for Yomi. He had my family hostage. He had me poisoned and infected."
As Kurama anticipated, Yusuke's anger morphed into fierce concern. His strong hands grabbed Kurama's forearms and squeezed. Questions and information rapidly spilled out of his mouth like machine gun fire. "What? You were infected too? Do you need the antidote? I imprisoned some of the surviving scientists. They can help you!"
Kurama shook his head and smiled gently, "Not to worry. Remember all those experiments I was conducting? I'd already created an anti-viral cure. In a few more weeks, I will be completely cured."
Relief melted Yusuke's frown and wrinkled forehead. Once again his mood changed as if he was surfing through different emotions, this time pulling Kurama into a suffocating hug and burying his head into Kurama's long red locks. "Shuichi, I'm just glad you're still alive and kicking."
"Am I still welcomed in Tourin then?" Kurama responded with a half-hearted attempt at returning the hug, arms curving only slightly without really touching the young king, and patted Yusuke lightly on the back. Despite his reputation as Makai greatest lover and quick learner, he'd never been quite comfortable with the complicated rituals of human affection.
"Of course you are!" Yusuke pulled away from his hug and true to his seemingly capricious personality, he once again changed demeanor and took on a serious and thoughtful expression. "You know you saved all of Makai, right?"
"I am not so noble. My personal vendetta against Yomi and my concerns for my family's safety just happened to coincide with the well-being of Makai." Youko Kurama was no hero, never had been, never will be. Heros are well loved and worshiped, but as recent events demonstrated, being loved and worshiped by one insufferable demon was already one too many. "Most of Makai thinks that I simply betrayed Yomi and I much prefer that misconception. It adds to my carefully crafted reputation of a ruthless and cunning bandit. It serves to keep all my dens and treasures safe, if you will."
Yusuke gave a shrug that said I-don't-get-you-demons but he did not explicitly express the thought. "Cunning is right. You puppet-mastered the shit out of all of us! How did you do it?" Just like that, the solemn switch within Yusuke was flipped off, and the spirited curiosity switch was on.
"That story is much too long for an exhausted traveler such as myself. There will be plenty of time for that. Right now, however, I have one request to make of you."
"Oh? What's that?"
"I'd like to make a new addition to your royal gardens."
Sunlight snuck in under the thick canopy of a majestic tree, the last rays of the day bathing all it touched in a warm golden glow. Soon, mother nature would put on one of its grandest shows and the sky would darken into dramatic shades of fuchsia, vermilion, and even hints of violet, cobalt and indigo. The garden hummed in life and activity. Creatures great and small scurried to take advantage of the precious residue of the day's warmth before retiring for the night. All except for one silver haired demon, who was crouching and working at a leisurely pace, humming a Japanese folk song. He was fashioning a slight mound of nutrient-rich earth around the base of the tree.
Kurama sat back on his heels and admired his handiwork. Planted in the midst of the beautifully manicured sea of roses in the royal Tourin garden was a Repenter's Tree, a parasitic plant that merges with a demon, keeping it incapacitated and in a half-life state for as long as its brain is intact. This particular tree took on the characteristics of its host, its trunk the ashen shade of sun-dried coral one finds by the seaside, its wispy branches drooping under the weight of its slender, ink black leaves that tapered to a long point, forming a spacious dome that would serve as sanctuary from the suffocating mid-day heat for centuries to come. The impressive girth of the tree's canopy reflected the age of the demon it contained. As a tree, Yomi was magnificent.
Killing Yomi was never part of the plan, his transgression deserved a punishment far harsher than a simple release from life. Instead, Kurama wanted Yomi to suffer in silence for as long as possible — capable of thought, possessing a stunted sense of hearing and of touch, but never again able to communicate, except for a soft rustle here and a scattering of leaves there. A restrained but indefinite version of sensory deprivation torture.
Scooping some sap from a small collection pan near the base of the tree, Kurama tasted the thick liquid that he would be ingesting regularly for the next month in order to forever rid himself of Yomi's poison. He wrinkled his nose at the sour and biting taste and spoke to the tree, "Nothing is ever easy with you is it, Yomi?"
One of the branches swayed faintly towards him, brushing against a hand.
Kurama sighed.
"I cannot decide if planting you among roses was a final act of kindness or an ultimate display of cruelty on my part." It was a statement and a question at the same time. As long as the Repenter's Tree lived, Yomi would be reminded day and night of his beloved, his traitor, and his incarcerator.
The tree did not respond this time.
"I suppose an answer now would be premature. Not to worry, you will have millenniums to mull that over."
Kurama patted the tree trunk, feeling the texture of the smooth wood on his sensitive palms, studying his new pet for damages caused by the relocation. Finding two tiny scratches on the roots, Kurama focused his ki on the offending blemishes and healed them. The demons who transported the huge tree will certainly get an earful for their carelessness, they'd better hope he never gets his hands on -
Catching himself in the middle of that thought, Kurama's drew his brows together in realization and then released a small chuckle. He'd always been fond of dark humor. Now that Yomi was imprisoned in a tree, he finally gained the affection and love he was never able to receive as a powerful Makai King.
After the Crystal Betrayal, Alaric was initially in an uproar. From the people's point of view, their proud queen had resorted to contemptible trickery and deceit in order to defeat Yomi. The how had overshadowed the why of the entire operation. With the help of some dissenting lords, the common people organized protest after protest around the castle grounds, ridiculing their queen with insulting chants. Many threatened to desert the country, but Mukuro seemed unfazed by the reaction. Minamino Shuichi, more famously known as Youko Kurama the cutthroat double-crosser, now considered the ultimate villain and orchestrator of the despicable incident, was adviser to King Yusuke in Tourin, thus rendering it even less desirable than Alaric. On the other hand, Gandara have been left in utter chaos due to the power vacuum created after Yomi's disposal. Bands of ambitious demons were fighting to carve out smaller territories for themselves while looting and raping their way through the Gandaran countryside. There was no where else for the common people to go.
Eventually, public opinion readjusted itself thanks to the rumors about infection diseases and mutations that began to filter back to town once the troops returned from chemical cleanup. They spoke of the unimaginable horrors they uncovered within the camps trapped in Youko Kurama's plant barriers, redirecting the focus on the why rather than the how.
Settling back in the uneasy peace before the appearance of the fox, Hiei returned to his regular routine of training by himself, training with his troops, napping in trees, and giving update reports to Mukuro. Outwardly, he didn't show any changes, but he had noticed a change in himself.
Before carting off Yomi's conspirers to the Alarican prison — Raizen's old friends had insisted on no bloodshed — everyone involved in the Crystal Betrayal gathered to debrief on the incident. What started as a round table conference quickly degenerated into an interrogation of sorts of Youko Kurama. Having expended a significant portion of his energy on imprisoning Yomi in the Sinner's Tree, the barely clothed and feverish fox — who had reverted back to his ningen form to conserve ki — could not even hold himself in a sitting position. With Mukuro being injured, the duty of holding the fox defaulted to Hiei, who settled for sitting on a bit of half intact debris and had the fox lean against his chest whilst seated on the ground. He raised his ki to warm the shivering redhead, noting that this human form was as lovely and delicate as the kitsune form was handsome and smelled just as good. The fox was too weak to form anything except the tersest statements.
Despite the brevity, Hiei still managed piece together a coherent story of an elaborate multi-phase plan that spanned all of Makai and even included players from the ningen realm. Hiei was impressed by how Kurama took advantage of his dual forms to place himself by Yusuke's side as his key advisor, his impeccable timing at every turn, his ingenious communication method, his control over the dissemination of information both false and true, his ability to gain anyone's trust despite his reputation as Makai's most infamous thief, and his talent for understanding the underlying motivation of others and using that to both control and predict each person's next move. In short, he was a puppeteer playing with mere marionettes; a chess master moving pieces on a checkered board. The fox had even orchestrated the Makai swamp mushroom incident, becoming both Hiei's would-be poisoner and savior on the first day they've ever met. But instead of anger, Hiei was surprised to feel admiration for the fox.
Not too long ago, Hiei would have scorned a creature as treacherous as Kurama. He had only respected pure physical power, believing only in speed and precision, and adamant that clever tricks would never have a place in warfare. But while the Youko was powerful in his own way — he sparred on an almost even level with Mukuro — it was his cunning and deliberate planning that effectively won the day.
Afterwards, when the group's curiosity was finally satiated, Raizen's group immediately departed, determined to melt back into the shadows where they could not be disturbed. Since staying anonymous was not an option for Mukuro and Hiei, they decided to stay in the dessert a couple more days with the ningen Kurama to allow for sufficient recuperation. Mukuro must have caught him stealing glances at the sleeping fox, because she then started to torture him with a blow-by-blow retelling of their copulation in the ceremonial yurt, describing in excruciating details the difference between the ningen body and the youkai body, the creative ways the human body used his tongue, the way the toned demon body moved, the faces each made, the sensation of having that creamy and supple skin pressed against one's body, the cries of —
Hiei couldn't endure the teasing any longer. He detested the heat that was rising to his face. He felt repugnance toward the unfamiliar arousal that stirred within him. Before the first day was over, he had volunteered to immediately escort the prisoners back to Alaric, regardless of how much he loathe such lowly tasks like this. Anything to put some distance between himself and the offending duo.
That was the last he saw of the fox.
Hiei sat in his room engrossed in the map of Gandara on his rarely used desk. It had been over half a year since the Crystal Incident — as soon as public opinion changed, the word betrayal and all its negative connotations was dropped and replaced by a more neutral word — and Youko Kurama eventually became hailed as a hero of sorts, but the fox himself had not made any public appearances. In the now frequent correspondence with Hokushin and Yusuke, Hiei had learned that the forever-vain fox actually wanted to shy away from the limelight. Most likely, the ningen-demon hybrid had retired to ningenkai.
Anarchy reigned in Gandara. Groups of power hungry demons have started claiming various regions of Gandara for themselves, indiscriminately killing other demons no matter their intentions, destroying key infrastructure and trade routes, enslaving child demons to perform as live shields, daily skirmishes between different groups leaving rotting corpses strewn about the landscape. Refugees started making a mass exodus towards both Alaric and Tourin, arriving by the thousands each day.
It was just as well that Enki once again contacted them, disgusted at the suffering he and his friends had caused inadvertently and offered to help set things right. Both Yusuke and Mukuro have accepted, feeling the strain caused by feeding and housing this large multiplying group of commoners on their countries' economies. So serious was the problem becoming that Mukuro was even contemplating placing a barrier on the border between Alaric and Gandara to curb the influx.
First step of the operation: reconnaissance. Hiei astonished even himself when he volunteered for the role. He had come to understand the importance of knowing one's enemy inside out. With his jagan, stealth, and speed at his disposal, he was clearly the most suitable candidate. How things have changed in just a few short months. Not too long ago, Hiei had scoffed pompously at Mukuro's request of investigating unusual activity on the borders, such chores were considered too lowly for him.
He had spent the morning scanning Gandara with his jagan, sensing the rolling hills, vibrant green against the bloody battlefields; the crystal clear lakes, mirrors dotting the landscape, the final resting place of many youkai that didn't manage to escape Gandara in time; the life providing rivers choked with corpses; the lush jungles, preferred sheltered for zealous power-grabbers, too ignorant to notice their own shortcomings; the blood thirsty bands of demons wiping their swords clean; the storms pummeling the Tempest Mountains, returning the remnants of Yomi's lab to the earth; a loyal and proud group of Yomi's followers and Gandarans guarding the royal castle, protecting the cultural heritage and the treasures within, but time and supplies were running scarce for them.
Here and there, he observed pockets of demons and committed their size, power levels, and locations to memory.
Once that was done, Hiei began reviewing the comprehensive map and marking X's on the points of interest. Gandara was a large territory, and the reconnaissance effort must be divided into several smaller missions. He would need help; Someone who knew the Gandaran terrain, someone powerful and fast enough that he wouldn't need to worry about his or her safety or slowing his speed to accommodate. His thought turned to the demons in the refugee camps. With tens of thousands of candidates to chose from, he would undoubtedly find someone suitable there. He turned to grab his katana when he heard a small unexpected noise.
Tap tap.
Surveying his sparsely furnished room, Hiei tried to discern where the sound came from. Not a single thing was out of place but he had clearly heard a noise.
Tap tap.
The sound was coming from the outside of the single window that adorned his room. Determinedly, he strode towards the offending noise that dare disturb his concentration and forced open the rarely used window with a loud creak. In hopped the perfect partner for his mission, smiling casually at the uncertain jaganshi, as if not a single moment had passed since he playfully poked Hiei on the forehead proclaiming that he would be "it".
"Given up on our game of tag?" A silver tail swayed casually and golden eyes gleamed with mischief.
Reconnaissance could wait, right now he had unfinished business with the fox. This time, he swore to himself that he would pin the fox down and claim his prize.
A/N: That's all folks! Thank you for sticking through til the end of my first fic! Noticed how I purposely left the story open for a possible second installment? :D
I'm now in the planning stages of my next unrelated YYH fic, The King and the Assassin, and even created cover art for it (but I can't link to it from here - link is on my profile)! Hope to see you lovely people there when it gets posted.
Thank all for reading!