Disclaimer: -Sniffle- Someone…someone came in and stole a penny from me! Now I-I only have thirteen cents! -sniffle-
Review Responses: Thank you all for reviewing! I mean...HOLY COW I had...like...nine people review. That's a lot for me! ...Plus I had like four of them explode on me...Is that normal?
Note: Well, as I promised, this chapter has action!
Note 2: (Not that the first comment was really a note, but hey, sue me.) Anyways, On a second/one and one half note, the beginning of this story mentioned snow. I'm going for the fact that there's snow in the temple grounds and forests, and farthest borders of the town, but not much downtown. At least not till it snows again. 8p I hope that makes some sense…
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Memories of the LostChapter 5
Memories Uncertain (pt II)
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"Hiei, watch out!"
The fire demon spun as Yusuke shouted out to him. His eyes landed on a flash of blue coming from the ledge of the high concrete wall beside them. The youkai did not have time to react as a solid mass collided with him.
Hiei snarling as he was tackled into the ground, hitting the asphalt with such momentum that he and his attacker were spent rolling into the middle of the street.
"Kurama, get back!" Yusuke shouted out as he ran after the two, whose momentum had now slowed. The two, however, continued to roll as they tried to shove one another away, affectively creating a tug-o-war between the tight clenched fists of the other's clothing.
Yusuke jumped as a car halted to a screeching stop, the car horn blaring as the raven-haired teen landed on the hood with the sound of metal bending under the weight.
He quickly jumped off the car even as a red Subaru was sent careening off the road as the driver tried desperately to avoid the two struggling bodies rolling one way and then the other across the lane. It made for a most interesting game of Frogger.
Syunsuke was soon forced to release Hiei's black cloak, however, as Yusuke's head-aimed foot came down hard enough to crack the black concrete. The demon jumped backwards to land in a crouch as Hiei picked himself up.
Somewhere behind them, as the traffic had abruptly came to a halt with screeching tires and blaring horns, there could be heard the shouts of disbelieving humans that would soon be tracked down for memory erase treatment. Yusuke swore somewhat vividly at all the work they had just created for themselves and Koenma (though he was more aggravated on the more the 'themselves' issue.)
Meanwhile, Kuwabara had somewhat roughly pushed the redheaded fox against the concrete wall they had been walking along. The orange haired teen hurriedly ordered him to stay away from the man in blue robes before running across the stopped traffic to join in the quickly escalating fight.
Kurama watched with somewhat widened eyes as Hiei charged the mysterious man, pulling his katana in the last second for a surprise swing at his attackers midsection. Yusuke allowed the distraction to work for his advantage as he took up his place tag-teaming the blue-robed man. He drove his elbow into the back of Syunsuke's neck as the man dodged the sword.
The fox watched in excited awe as Syunsuke recovered shockingly fast to shove Yusuke back, sending him flying into the bumper of the nearest car. Kuwabara slashed at the demon with his rei ken, the sword glittering with its fiery light.
He clumsily ducked and tripped at the same time, narrowly avoiding a high kick from Syunsuke in retaliation. Hiei jumped over the fallen Kuwabara to swing a katana wreathed in black-flame at the demon's neck.
Syunsuke took to four back handsprings as Yusuke tried to stop his second with a kick to the asphalt where the demon's hands landed. The robed demon landed safely a dozen feet away from the three tentai and a dozen feet closer to Kurama.
The fox hardly noticed the nearing danger as he watched the fight with itchy trigger fingers, if you will. Hiei, however, growled and took a high jump, vanishing to the human eye only to appear between the ten feet that separated Kurama and the oncoming threat.
Syunsuke turned to face the fire demon, smiling at the fox behind him. Kurama frowned at the blue-haired youkai, as his smile was anything but happy. It was vengeful, exceedingly enticed by the hunt, and retaining an all around open lust.
The fox suddenly didn't feel so excited about the fight.
There was something about the demon before him that made him want to growl out in frustration and anger. He simply, for some reason he could not quite grasp, wanted to shout out, "Oh, give up already! You're not getting any!"
Of course, he refrained from such an absurd thought.
"Leave him alone." That was the demand that replaced his strange shout as Hiei shifted his katana into a defensive stance. "We no longer possess the amulet, Syunsuke."
'So this is the demon with my memory,' Kurama muttered mentally, although he had already figured as much. He watched the man carefully. Indeed, as Syunsuke shifted his gaze away from the redhead, both eye and smile lost their lustful tint.
The fox's frown deepened. He knew that many pined after him, whether he meant it in a conceited way or simple truth. However, the look had an almost knowing ring of lust to it, and that along with the rather random outburst he had almost shouted lead Kurama to wonder if the demon had done more than just pining.
If the frown could get any deeper, it would create permanent lines in his face. Had Hiei withheld information from him? Could he have done something…or perhaps had something done to him?
The more that Kurama thought about it, the more and more perfectly it fit. And not unwillingly, either. If he gave it logical reasoning, the likelihood of retrieving an amulet from the demon before him without notice was…well, slim at best. However…a distraction would have created the simplicity needed to pull it off.
Would he, the nine-teen-year-old him, have done something like that for the sake of a mission? For some reason, Kurama knew that was a rhetorical question.
"Damn, I really don't think I like myself anymore!" Kurama muttered under his breath as he looked down to stare at his body. 'How the Hell could I have done that to myself? And with him! Oh, I think I'm going to be sick!'
Meanwhile, the full-force battle had continued on as Syunsuke quickly charged Hiei. As Yusuke jumped two car hoods to get back into the battle, the fire demon blocked the assault of a short sword that had seemingly come from nowhere.
As the fire demon was pushed back, Syunsuke surprised the youkai by shoving him away and off of his sword. Such a move left Hiei unprepared as the blue-robed demon spun and landed a hidden kick to the fire demon's chest. Hiei went flying back into the concrete wall not two feet from Kurama.
Yusuke, as Hiei went through the hard wall, jumped high into the air off of the hood of a dark blue Toyota. He came slamming down almost on top of the blue-robed demon to smash an energy-charged fist into Syunsuke's cheek. The demon went flying.
Landing with the impact to make several small craters as he rolled across the pavement like a rock skipping over water, Syunsuke came to a halt beside a black Tacoma. Even as the robed man opened his silvery blue eyes, they widened as a glowing orange sword came crashing down upon his head.
Kuwabara blinked as he saw the after image of Syunsuke get cut in two, only to find the body gone several milliseconds after.
The demon stood up several feet away and dusted himself of the small flecks of rubble and dirt. Kuwabara growled but Yusuke beat him to the punch (quite literally) as he charged yet again.
Syunsuke merely side-stepped, but Yusuke had, for once, thought ahead and swung around, side sweeping the demon with a wide kick as the detective spun around. Luckily for Syunsuke, and not so much for the raven-haired teen, the demon managed to catch the foot. Yusuke shouted out as he was swung, flying through the air.
Kurama, who had been helping Hiei out of the rubble and was pulling him to his feet, turned at the shout. The fire demon beside him didn't even have time to give warning as Yusuke came slamming into the redhead's lithe body.
"Kurama!" Hiei shouted out as the fox and Yusuke both were carried into the wall, creating a crater next to the hole that Hiei's crash had punctured right through the concrete.
Yusuke groaned as he and Kurama slid to the ground, both dazed and unable to breath. Even as Hiei blinked next to the raven-haired teen, he had no time to help as Syunsuke appeared behind him.
Caught unaware as he should not have been, the fire demon was sent flying backwards as Syunsuke took a grip of his wrist and flung him back. The fire demon snarled an "oof" as Kuwabara managed to soften his fall. The two went flying across the road, the orange-haired teen landing hard on his bottom before momentum carried the two rolling off in different directions.
Yusuke, who was currently trying to catch his lost breath and stop the constant whirl of the world through his vision, punched out as a grip tightened on his neck.
Syunsuke easily dodged the punch and threw the detective in a similar way to the shorter fire demon, only with different aim. Yusuke groaned heavily as he landed on his shoulder, effectively smashing the hood of a car in.
"I hope short people drive this car," he muttered as he fought to get back up, leaving the roof a good two feet closer to the ground. Shaking his head and yelling at himself for coming off weak, he fought back the dizziness that the crash into the wall had caused.
Kurama, who had had more problems with breathing than vision, gasped as his windpipe was quickly cut off by the tight grip of a sharp-nailed hand. He was easily slammed back into the crater that his and Yusuke's body had already created. With a surprisingly weak grip, he grasped onto the hand strangling him.
Syunsuke pressed three of his fingers against Kurama's left temple. The fox, however, caught on to what he was trying to do and fought desperately to stay out of contact, despite his dwindling air supply.
"No," Kurama gasped out as he released one of his hands from the arm to try and hold off the probing fingers. "You're…not getting any more…of my memories!"
Kurama threw the arm back as his senses came back to him even when his breath could not. Syunsuke, who growled at the delay of his plans tried another tactic, knowing that the other three tentai would quickly regain their ability to fight.
The fox let out a gargled shout as a knee was slammed into his stomach. He could feel his entire insides groan in protest as the kick seemed likely to slam through his back and into the concrete.
All resistance died in the moment of shock and pain, and Syunsuke quickly pressed his fingers to Kurama's temple. The fox had no more time for swallowing the pain of the kick as his mind suddenly fired off in a new protest of pain.
He screamed as his vision started to blacken from the fiery pain shooting through his head like a ping-pong ball. Panic overwhelmed his senses at the immense flood of pins and needles that insisted on racking his brain and he let go off all sane thinking. He wildly struck out in every physical manner, desperate to get free of the pain.
Yusuke rolled off the car, staggering to his feet as muscles ached in protest. Somewhere in the far corner of his mind his thoughts registered that he shouldn't have been that worn out or that tired already.
But those thoughts were buried as a scream ripped through the air. The people who had so quickly run and hid for cover when the fight began and then dared to peep out at the sudden calmness, flinched as one does when nails are raked across a chalkboard.
Yusuke shot out of his hazy world of aches and pains. Quite suddenly, he felt as he should have: a little battered, a little bruised, but otherwise fine and ready for another go of fighting.
Not bothering to take the time to even mutter, "What the hell?" Yusuke's brown eyes took in Syunsuke pressing Kurama against the ruined wall, a hand pressed to the fox's head.
"No!" Yusuke shouted out as he started towards the demon. However, Kuwabara surprisingly beat him to it as he tackled the blue-robed man. Syunsuke shouted out as the teen landed on his back, slamming punches into the top of his head as he practically rode piggyback.
Kurama gave a final scream as he tore away from the fingers. Syunsuke threw him to the side by the hand still wrapped around his throat. With a gasp, he landed on his side on the road, the back of his head connecting with a sound thud to the edge of the curb.
He went rolling a few feet to come to rest next to a randomly abonded car. Blackness consumed his vision as pain burst behind his eyes, shooting from the back of his skull.
With a very demonic snarl, Syunsuke managed to throw- slash -shake the determined teen off of him. As Yusuke swung a charged fist at him, he jumped into the sky, landing on the edge of the now-severely damaged wall. With a soft snort of disgust, he turned and disappeared off the other side in a flutter of blue robes.
Yusuke swore rather vividly as he turned back around to find Hiei now beside Kurama. The fire demon looked up, blood coating his hand. The detective's eyes widened at the crimson liquid and ran to Kurama's side.
"His head is bleeding badly. We have to get him to Genkai and Yukina," Hiei said in a surprisingly calm voice. Yusuke nodded as Kuwabara managed to walk up to them, limping some.
"Go, Hiei," Yusuke ordered and the fire demon glanced back to him as he began wrapping his white scarf around Kurama's head. "Go warn Genkai that we're coming. You're faster than us."
Hiei gave a glance down at the fox as Yusuke bent down and took the scarf from the fire demon, applying pressure as the demon had been doing. Hiei finally nodded. "If he wakes up…"
The fire demon trailed off and Yusuke only gave him a sincere, comforting look. "We'll take care of him. Go!"
Hiei gave a quick nod as he pulled away, jumping into the air before bouncing off the hood of a car for more leverage. Yusuke watched him go before he carefully hoisted Kurama into his arms. He turned to Kuwabara, who was trying not to show the limp in his leg.
"Can you walk?" the raven-haired teen asked and Kuwabara nodded, giving a brave façade, wild grin, and boasting rant, even as pain lanced up and down his leg. He quickly shoved it aside as Yusuke started to jog across the street.
"Wait, Urameshi!" Kuwabara stopped his friend as Yusuke was about to break into a run. Compelled by the pain that he felt in his leg, the knowledge of realizing that he would not be able to keep up, and the state that Kurama was in, Kuwabara decidedly motioned to a stopped car.
He walked over to it and opened the door. It was unlocked, just as he had a feeling it would be from speed of earlier abandonment. Yusuke frowned, but decided that hesitation could be deadly to the fox and climbed in the back seat, positioning Kurama on his lap so he could continue applying pressure to the wound.
"Hey!" a shout echoed from the curb and both turned to see a man standing, briefcase in hand. "That's my car!"
"Yeah, well," Yusuke shouted back, "this is an emergency! Besides, it's not like you're going to remember by tomorrow!"
With a frown, the man had no retort as he watched Kuwabara turn the ignition on.
"Hold on," Kuwabara warned as he slammed his foot onto the gas. Yusuke almost yelped as the car went speeding forward, nearly slamming into another abandoned car.
"Sheesh, Kuwabara! Did you fail Driver's Ed or something?" he asked as he tightened his grip on Kurama, pulling the fox closer to him. The car went careening around a corner in about a ninety-degree turn at somewhere close to sixty.
"Hey, I didn't hit anything, alright!"
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Yukina rushed into the room with a bowl of steaming warm water as Yusuke laid Kurama down on the low futon. Hiei quickly replaced his no longer white scarf with a cloth dampened in an herbal potion.
Kuwabara and Yusuke backed off to the side of the room as Genkai came in. Hiei continued applying pressure even as the old master stretched her hands out over the fox's limp body. Kurama began to glow in the golden light that the master's healing bathed one in.
Within seconds, Hiei released the cloth and placed it aside, the wound fully healed to leave only a light scar and blood soaked hair. Yukina stepped in to place a hot towel over his forehead. The temperature outside had quickly dropped as Yusuke and Kuwabara raced up the slippery, snow-covered steps of the temple.
Keeping the fox warm would be a necessity even past healing him. In the state of which his mind was currently, the possible susceptibility to illness might have increased.
Hiei backed off as Yukina was charged with checking for any missed injuries. Genkai stood and walked over to the three boys, the two tallest having been watching Kurama.
"You say that Syunsuke stole more of his memory?" she asked as she glanced at each boy. Yusuke nodded.
"Yeah, but Kuwabara stopped him after just a minute. I don't think he got much off the fox-boy," the raven-haired teen shortly recapped and Genkai nodded. She turned to Kuwabara.
"Come with me; you're injured," the master ordered, motioning with a nod of her head to the orange haired teen's leg. "Despite you're courage, Kuwabara, a broken leg is nothing to let go."
Kuwabara gave a sort of sheepish grin before allowing Genkai to escort him limping out of the room. Yusuke snorted, but smiled at his friend's bravery. He shook his head, however, to keep from laughing.
Hiei, who said nothing nor showed any change in his expressionless face, inwardly thanked the teen. He had swallowed pain to help Kurama, his friend, and Hiei felt compelled to express gratitude…which would never ever leave his thoughts under the punishment of death by humiliation.
Silence fell over the room as the two left, leaving only Yukina to make noise as she set to making the fox as comfortable as possible and cleaning up anything they had used to heal him.
"So when do you think he'll wake up?" the teen finally asked after his gaze had drifted back over to Kurama, causing his sober side to surface once again. Hiei shrugged.
"I don't know, but I have a feeling that it won't be too long now," Hiei replied as he watched the sleeping fox. Kurama's chest was rising evenly and he looked as if he had simply dozed off for a nap.
Yukina removed the wet cloth to soak and replace it back on his forehead. Kurama shifted slightly, but did not wake. After checking the back of his head for the third time, the ice maiden stood and stepped back with the used and extra bandages, and the bowl of herbal mixture.
She turned to Hiei and gave a light bow. "He appears to be fine. The only thing left to determine is the state of his memory."
Hiei nodded and offered a grateful smile at Yukina, who returned it with a full beam. Yusuke sighed and leaned against the wooden wall, sinking to a sitting position after several seconds.
"What happened back there?" Yusuke asked as he recalled his strange lapse of complete tiredness and lack of fighting capability. Hiei looked over to the detective, picking up on what he meant by his less-than-highly guarded surface thoughts.
"So you felt it too," Hiei gave his reply in the form of question. Yusuke nodded. The fire demon shifted, pushing his hands into the pockets of his cloak. As he thought about it, he quietly replied, "It happened when Syunsuke touches us."
Yusuke frowned. "What?"
"Think about it," Hiei explained somewhat patiently for the normally impatient fire demon. "Kuwabara was up and attacking Syunsuke before either of us could reach him, and we were both closer…"
As Hiei trailed off suggestively to allow Yusuke to figure it out on his own, the teen snapped his fingers. "But he wasn't touch by Syunsuke!"
"Exactly," Hiei continued, closing his eyes as he leaned his head back against the temple wall. "Syunsuke had touched both of us as he flung us back, you even prior to myself, when he flung you into Kurama."
"And that's when I started feeling so…tired." Hiei gave another nod as Yusuke shook his head. "But how is he doing it?"
Hiei shrugged. "I suppose it has something to do with the fact that he's a mind demon. We'll try and get Koenma to give us more information."
Yusuke nodded. As nothing more came to his head to say, he remained sitting in silence. As Yusuke gave a sigh, rubbing his elbow where he had received a rather rough cut from the pavement, Kurama stirred.
Hiei's eyes shot open and he walked over to the bed beside Kurama's head. Yusuke pulled himself up and joined the fire demon, positioning himself at the foot of the futon, more out of direct sight.
Crystal green eyes slowly flickered open, blinking several times before they managed to focus on a sole figure.
"Hi-Hiei?" Both boys in the room sighed as the fox recognized the youkai. However, the voice seemed much younger than Yusuke had ever heard it. Not to mention the tone was nothing but shock and surprise.
Hiei blinked; he knew that young voice, and was surprised that Kurama could still sound exactly as he did back then. Before he could say anything, however, the kitsune blinked at him and shifted to tilt his head against the pillows.
"What are you doing here? I thought you were going back to Makai…" Kurama sort of trailed off as his eyes took in the raven-haired detective and the rest of the room, including the bed he lay in. "Uh…where is here?"
Hiei seemed caught between relief and a groan. He decided for a sigh somewhere in between. "You're safe, Kurama. This is a temple just outside of Tokyo."
The mentally ten-year-old version of Kurama nodded, eyes slightly taking on the strangely innocent look of an older child. Hiei sat down on the edge of the bed, sitting next to the fox's chest.
"Kurama, I need to tell you som-" Hiei did not get to finish as Yukina walked into the room and smiled.
"Oh, Kurama-san, you're awake!" she said happily as she gave a cheerful smile, but kept her distance. She knew that the fox was not likely to have any idea who she was, hence the avoidance of using her normal greeting of Kurama-kun.
Kurama gave a frown and motioned to Hiei even as he sat up, keeping the covers pulled around him. The fire demon had a feeling he knew what was coming as déjà vu of the last memory loss filled his mind.
He leaned in all the same as Kurama whispered, "Hiei, is that your sister? She looks just like you!" Hiei looked down as Kurama's piercing green eyes locked with his red ones, the former smiling in their own way. "I'm glad that she was in the Ningenkai, after all. She's beautiful!"
Hiei wasn't sure how to respond. Kurama had never told him that he was happy he had found her. And now twice in only a matter of days! Before, it had always been a question as to why he wouldn't tell her the truth.
It was actually quite comforting to hear something like that from the kitsune. Hiei couldn't help but smile. "Thanks, Fox."
Kurama tilted his head curiously, as a puppy might. The kitsune gave a smile. "Fox? I didn't know you knew who I really was, Hiei. But leave it to you to figure it out. But Fox…Hmm…I like it!"
Hiei's smile grew slightly. Yusuke watched as the two just stared at each other, both with some form of smile on their face. He turned to Yukina, seeing if she felt as awkward as he did.
The ice maiden was beaming at the two. Yusuke felt a hell of a lot less comfortable. He could only pray that this was just the way Kurama acted when he was younger.
Otherwise, the tragedy that Koenma had warned him about might become much more of a reality.
"Ahem," Yusuke gave a weird cough in the back of his throat. Hiei's smile dropped automatically and he turned to the raven-haired detective.
"We should let the other's know he's awake," the teen reminded him and Hiei nodded, standing from the bed. He turned as Yusuke looked ready to leave to do so.
"Let Genkai know that he's now nine years younger."
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Chapter 5
End
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Yay! This chapter's done!
I hope the wait was worth it.
Author's Notes:
…humans that would soon be tracked down for memory erase treatment… At the end of the series, it has Hiei erasing memories of Humans that wandered over the border of the two worlds. I'm simply stating that someone in the Reikai will have the duty of rounding up these humans and fixing everything so that no one knows anything happened. A pain, yes, but then again no one planned for a demon to tackle them in the middle of a busy street.
…watched the fight with itchy trigger fingers, if you will… The line is just stating that Kurama wants to join the fight. Someone with itchy trigger fingers is dying to pull the trigger. Well, the fox is dying to join in the fight, but is holding back simply because everyone (but mainly Hiei) told him to avoid this guy.
…How the Hell could I have done that to myself? And with him! Oh, I think I'm going to be sick… I mentioned it in the first chapter. Kurama did so only to get back the amulet. He took neither pleasure nor pride in doing what he did. He did it only for the mission.
…he shouldn't have been that worn out or that tired already…This will be explained even more in the next chapter. There is a reason why they seemed so tired and sluggish. And I bet most of you can figure it out.
I'll give you a hint: It has to do something on a psychological level.
…state of which his mind… susceptibility to illness might have increased… although this is not true in this story, they are going to take no chances.
…Despite you're courage, Kuwabara, a broken leg is nothing to let go… Hey, I may not love Kuwabara, but I do believe that he is the most noble and courageous on the team. He serves his purposes, and for that I give him a huge credit when it comes to teamwork, friendship, and a mixture of courage and loyalty. I still don't love him though.
…Hiei explained somewhat patiently for the normally impatient fire demon… I'm sure that some of you have noticed that my work is filled with oxymoronic phrases like these. No, it's not because I couldn't think of any vocabulary to replace them. I happen to enjoy oxymoronically structured sentences.
End Author's Notes
Anyways, I hope this chapter had a good amount of action, and there's more talk next chapter…sorry but you gotta have it!
Please review.