Chapter 2

So many happy things had occurred in so little time. I was filled with joy in seeing Yukina and Kuwabara together. At least he can now experience what I was not able to. Of that, I am glad. On top of all this, Yukina now knew of her relation to Hiei. How remarkable.

I stood on the branch of my favourite tree, which protrudes from a hill overlooking a street. I often went there for observation of many things, even the passage of people on the street below. From there, I gazed up at the moon in reminiscence. Imagine what it would be like... If she could have lived to see this. If she could have seen that there is far more to the world, than the cruel conditions that she had lived in. I'm sure that these friends would welcome her very kindly.

My train of thought was interrupted by my detection of another presence. A presence that possessed far more spirit energy than the average human. I shifted my eyes downward at the source of the energy. I could never have been prepared for what I saw. But that's impossible. It can't be her. Below, on the outskirts of the grass that bordered the sidewalk, a girl with navy blue hair and sky blue eyes was lying down with her hands crossed behind her head, gazing up at the moon. It was Mitsuko. No petty differences in the appearance of her human form could conceal that from me. How is this possible? She had that same expression of serene solemnity that she often wore in the past. The expression I had always considered to be the most becoming of her because it expressed her soul more greatly than all others, and the more her soul is expressed, the more of her infinite beauty is emanated from her into the world for all to witness. It took me some time to recover from the sight of her.

I knew nothing of the circumstances by which she was here, so I went about meeting her cautiously, walking up to her from the sidewalk, as would any ordinary civilian.

"Hello," I said to her.

"Hello," she responded whilst still looking up at the moon.

"Enjoying the sight of the moon, are we?"

She turned to look at me.

"Yes. There has always been something so familiar about the moon. As if it holds some sort of strange secret. And every time I look at it, I feel as if someone else is there, gazing upon it in much the same manner as I. I feel almost as if the moon is a mirror sometimes, reflecting the souls of those who stare into it."

It seems that she has indeed lost her memories as a demon. She now only possesses memories of this human life, and strange sensations which she knows not how to explain.

"Its majestic visage is indeed a breathtaking thing. Excuse my rudeness, I have yet to introduce myself. I am Minamino Shuichi."

"I'm Tsukiko Mizuki."

"So you just recently moved here?"

"Yes, my parents felt it best. They were a bit tired of where we used to live. It was too boring a place for them."

"Well I hope you and your family find this place more to your liking."

"I think we will. It seems nice so far. Not to mention that I have already met a stranger kind enough to stop and chat with me," she chuckled, at which I smiled. "So do you go to the high school here?"

"Yes, I do."

"Then I suppose I'll see you there." She extended her hand. "It was nice meeting you."

"The pleasure's all mine." I gave her a handshake.

With that we went separate ways. It seems she must return home. Well, I might as well get back to staring at the moon. Tomorrow will certainly be an interesting day. Quite an odd coincidence that this would happen so soon after me telling Kuwabara about her.

The next day, she and someone else met me in the hallway.

"Hi, Shuichi."

"Hello, Mizuki."

"This is my boyfriend, Ookamimatsu. He actually persuaded his family into moving here. They don't know that the real reason he wanted to move was me," she laughed.

"Quite the interesting story." I reached over and shook his hand. "Nice to meet you."

"Same to you," he said.

"Well, we'd better not be late for class. Later, Shuichi," she said before walking away with Ookamimatsu behind her.

"See you around," he said as he waved back to me.

"Have a nice day, you two," I replied to which they both thanked me.

A boyfriend, eh? How interesting. Though I long to be with her so, I cannot interfere. It seems she has a very good and loyal partner, as he was willing to move out here just for her. And now she isn't hated by the general populace as she was in the past. She's actually happy. How beautiful it is that she can now experience such great joy. I will not come between such a thing. Her happiness is far more important than my own. Besides, I will take glee in the fact that she is happy, and her joy will feed mine. I suppose it is unimportant for her to regain her old memories. It seems that all that would do is breed sadness within her anyway. There should be no such hindrances to her delight. Oh I thank whatever forces have led to this! Whatever incidents have permitted her to enjoy this world as she does now! I thank them stupendously, whatever they be!

With those cheerful thoughts within my mind, the day passed more easily than ever before.

At the end of the day I was going to see if I could walk home with them both. When I couldn't find them, I figured that perhaps they were already on their way. That was until I noticed something strange. Her spirit energy was nowhere to be found. Not even for miles. But I knew that just moments before it had been there. Something is amiss. The only way I was able to extend my range any further was to use the Yoko form. When I did so, just on the outreaches of my vision, I detected where she was. There were only twenty-three reasonable explanations for how she could have traversed such a distance so quickly. I took preparations for every one of them, and set out for her location.

I arrived and circled the place, setting my countermeasures for various explanations. After I finished, I reverted to my normal form and entered the dark, abandoned warehouse. In the center of the room, Mitsuko was trapped within a spirit energy containment field. That narrows it down to possibilities five through thirteen. In the corner of the room, Ookamimatsu was sitting calmly. Now five, eight, ten, or thirteen.

"Shuichi, is that you?" Mitsuko cried. "What's going on! Help me!"

It seems her memories are still regressed. She was weakening quickly, due to the energy drain of her container. Within moments, she passed out.

"I was wondering whether you were going to come, Kurama," Ookamimatsu said. "I'm surprised though. I thought I had escaped your range of detection. I guess I miscalculated somewhere. It is of no matter. I-"

I interrupted him.

"How is it that you know who I am? Who are you? I know you have only taken human form. You are a demon, or, more specifically a hunter demon. Unless you would like to see me lose my temper, speak!"

He began to clap his hands.

"I congratulate your deductive skills. I could have never anticipated you figuring so much out."

I clenched my fists.

"I asked you a question."

"Okay, okay. Calm down, you crazy fox. I had no trouble figuring out who you are. When you're a fox demon hunter, something so simple as a human form cannot hide a demon fox from your perception. I've been around for a very long time, longer than you even, and I know a few things. Such as the fact that Mitsuko and you are the only remaining members of your kind. With this knowledge it was common sense to deduce that you were indeed Kurama. Of course, Mitsuko only survived because of me."

"What? How is that possible? Tell me now!"

"Of course." A sinister grin formed on his face. "Back in Makai, I was a fox demon hunter. Something that was incredibly difficult. I had always been very weak, well below even the D-class levels. Luckily I was blessed with a special ability, and a good amount of intelligence. These were the very two things I employed when capturing members of your kind. My ability has a recharge time, however. Meaning that I had to make sure to target those who were isolated from everyone else, and, through using that ability-I notice your frustration at my continuous use of "ability" rather than explaining. But I am not going to tell you, as that would be counterproductive for me. Anyways, I would then use the ability to force them into a trap (most commonly demon energy containment fields). People were willing to spend a great deal to get their hands on a captured one of your kind, especially with the reputation you guys had. It's how I renewed my inventory. Some of my most astonishing weapons in my collection were obtained from trading fox demons. But, alas there came a time when they were no longer interested. This is when I remembered that there was an extremely rare specimen among you that could possibly re-spark some interest in the trade and earn me a considerably greater amount than any of my previous captures. You guessed it. Mitsuko. You see, those powers she possessed were no mere freak of nature. They came from her mother. Long before, a male of your kind had decided that he disliked the ideals of your society so much, that he needed to leave it behind entirely. He set out trying to find belonging in the world. In his travels he came across an ice maiden and fell in love with her. Unfortunately for them, she had to return to her race. The only reason she stayed, was because of her love for the fox demon. In some accident, that occurred when two high level demons were fighting, he ended up buried by falling rocks from a destroyed mountain. When this happened, she returned to her homeland in sorrow. She had been impregnated and gave birth to a daughter. But this daughter was a fox demon, and the society of her people rejected such a thing. The daughter was banished, and dropped off of the edge of the ice maidens' land. The mother would later go below herself, in search of her daughter. She would fail, and eventually die. Two fox demons below happened upon her during one of their hunts, thought her to have perhaps been the orphaned child of someone who had died, and took her back to the village. When they made sure that no one else owned her, they took her in as their own and raised her. This daughter was indeed Mitsuko's mother. During the whole of her life, she showed no signs of any ice powers. By, all accounts, she appeared to be no more than an average fox demon, but it seems she had been carrying dormant genes which were awaiting an atavism. Those genes made a reappearance in the birth of Mitsuko. Not only were her colors strange, but she also exhibited those ice powers which the ice maidens were famous for, but control over those abilities was far less natural for her, as you already know. She also did not inherit the characteristic responsible for crystallizing tears. She possessed their trademark healing power, though, as she had accidentally used it on multiple occasions to heal some of your wounds. Neither of you noticed, as this was internal healing. She never did discover that she had this power, and made absolutely no progress in learning how to control it. And so I set my eyes upon this rare specimen. I waited long, studying how her abilities developed, waiting for the right time to nab her. The occasion never arose. Even with my ability it would have been impossible for me to retrieve her. By the time it had recharged I would have already been slaughtered by your kind." Thats right. I remember now how chauvinistic my race was. It was one of the customs I hated so much. They would often kill demons of any type other than their own on sight. "But then that day came. First they got rid of some of themselves that did not agree with the ideas of the general population. Then you got rid of the rest for me. Finally you left. Your tomb may have been nearly indestructible, but with my ability, I was able to get around it. The only complication was that she was dead. She was only of use to me while still alive. I checked a second time to be sure, but this time noticed that she still had life in her. Her life force was almost undetectable, but still there, and fading fast. I'm glad I knew a technique for just such an occasion. One that put her in a state of suspended animation. My plan was to find a way to restore her, after which I would bring her back out of her suspended state, and bring her back to life. Only just recently did I make the breakthrough that revived her. That was about a twenty-five years ago. I, of course, took measures to prevent you from sensing her. I was keeping her alive, still looking for someone who was willing to buy her, which was more difficult than I had thought it would be. And then that event happened. That day when you nearly died. Somehow, she could feel what was going on. I don't understand how she could have sensed you through the trap that she was in. But she did, and then she managed to surprise me yet again, by escaping. The only way she could have managed that, was to increase her power levels to at least lower A-class, enough to overwhelm the capacity of her container. How very interesting you two are. Your energies seem to react quite enormously to situations involving one another. When she found out that you had escaped into the human world, she did the same, and just as were you, she was born anew as a human. In her case, however, an unforeseen complication had locked all of her past memories away. How very fortunate this all was for me in the end. Because in her human form, she is much weaker, especially without her memories. Taking on an A-class demon would have been too difficult for me, which is one of the reasons I never attempted to capture you. I had suspicions but did not know for sure whether Mizuki was Mitsuko. So I assumed human form and became her boyfriend for further analysis. Just recently I became one hundred percent certain that she was indeed the one I had been looking for. And now, here we are. I am currently awaiting my client's arrival. But this is only one of the rendezvous points. Several others exist, and I have instructed my client to visit all of them until he finds the one currently in use. One of these points is located somewhere far beyond your ability to find." He was now smirking. "And through the use of that "ability" I have been speaking of, I will escape you and reach the location. There is nothing you can do to stop me," he laughed maniacally.

"How detestable... Nothing could ever pardon you for your foul deeds... Your time will soon come to an end..." I growled.

"Is that a threat?" he laughed. "You certainly believe in your words, because your energy is stirring quite nicely. You must be preparing to end my life. But alas, I shall leave you here."

At that moment his form flitted away for a fraction of a second before returning to exactly the same point. So it was the fifth possibility.

"What?" he exclaimed in confusion.

"A little overconfident in our intellect, are we?"

"What the hell is going on?"

"Well you see, I was prepared for your "ability" and your inability to use it is a simple result of that. As we now speak, a multitude of jiku spores cover every inch of the air in this see, the jiku plant grows in a very interesting section of Makai. One in which a large number of the demons inhabiting it possess space-time manipulation abilities, much like your teleportation ability. In the beginning large numbers of jiku were dying off because of the monstrous space-time distortions in the area. They died in various ways, such as being torn apart from rips in space, falling out of the universe into another plane, and so on. They eventually evolved into a species of plant that carries a peculiar trait. All of it's spores smooth out any imperfections or alterations in what space-time would naturally be (this would not eliminate gravity, as it is one of those naturally existing factors). And so when you attempted to create that hole in space through which you could slip, it was smoothed out before you even had time to use it."

"Damn you!" He charged at me, before tripping. "What the hell? Why do I feel so weak?"

"Well, you were weak to begin with, but if by that you meant weaker than normal, I'll explain. It seems you were so distracted, that you did not even glance down to notice the hiru vine, siphoning the energy out of you." As I said this, he look down, and started pulling at the snake-like vine that had attached its two endpoints to his leg. "Once it latches on, it is incredibly difficult to remove. And a hiru's source of sustenance does not have to be a living thing you know." I pointed to the spirit energy containment field which was now being dissolved by several hiru vines. Of course these hiru are entirely under my command, so they will bring no harm to Mitsuko."

"Damn it..." He passed out. I ensured that the hiru would not suck enough energy from him to kill him, but it kept him weakened to the point to where using his ability would be impossible. I then had one of my plants encase him. I'll let Koenma deal with him later. I ran over to Mitsuko.

"Wake up." I said while holding her. She opened her eyes and looked up at me. "Are you alright, Mitsuko?" Suddenly her eyes closed tightly shut and she began to shake.

"What the? All of these images. All of this..." she muttered. Damnit. In my concern I had forgotten to call her Mizuki. I must have triggered a major memory recall. Such a reawakening can be overwhelming. Damn my stupidity!

"It's okay. Don't fight them. Let them seep into you. Struggling with them will only make it harder. I realize how confusing and strange all of this must be to you, but you mustn't fight it."

She passed out again from the strain, and I took her to my place, laying her on the bed. She needs her rest. I then stood outside my house, called Botan, and briefed her on what Ookamimatsu had been up to before handing him over to her. She took him into custody and was off to Spirit World. I returned to the bedroom in concern. I hope whatever sort of recall occurred doesn't put her into shock. This is all my fault. Seconds passed as if they were hours while I sat there at the right edge of the bed, anxiously waiting for her to awake. As time progressed, her spirit energy seemed to be increasing. Her reawakening demon energy is probably prompting it to increase past its former maximum. In the end, her spirit energy reached at least upper A-class level.

An hour and a half after the sun had set her eyes blinked a few times before staying open. The moon had risen into visibility from the window behind me. A smile spread across her lips. But it was different. It wasn't the smile that I had witnessed of this human form before. It was that same smile I hadn't seen in so many years. The one Mitsuko used to wear at times. She sat up and turned toward me.

"Kurama..."

"Are you okay? Are there any problems? Anything unclear in your head? Do you feel nauseous? Any sensa-"

"Kurama," she interrupted as her smile widened. "You ask way too many questions, to which only one response is necessary. I'm quite alright, thank you, and absolutely nothing feels strange. It seems the dreams I had while asleep just now sorted out much of the confusion regarding my memories. And you don't have to fill me in about what happened after my death. You see, although I wasn't awake, I remember everything that the two of you said. It seems that dormant ability had awakened from the very moment I was trapped. Perhaps it was some form of defence mechanism. Kind of interesting to find that I'm part ice maiden." She smiled, and then saw that my expression was still one of concern. "Stop worrying so much... I can't express how great it is to see you again."

"What explanation will you have for your parents as to why you are so late?"

"I can easily think of something. You know me. Didn't I tell you to stop worrying?"

"Okay. I'll stop."

"Glad to hear it. You know? I think I know how to assume my original form." As she said this, her spirit energy was replaced with demon energy of the middle S-class level, and she became the fox demon that she had been so long ago. "Looks like I was right. What about you, Kurama?"

Well, I suppose the initial reason I had refrained from using the Yoko form, was that I feared a regression back to the more cruel personality of my past self, but through repeated use, that threat was eliminated. After that, I suppose I only refrained from using it because of the effect it had upon me. Whenever I assumed the form, it was as if that emptiness within me was amplified to an unbearable level. It's as if living in a different body, my human form, allowed me to dampen my emptiness. I suppose, it might be analogous to the way one is less burdened by sadness when he or she moves away from a house in which someone important to him or her died. In much the same way, assuming my human form, somewhat lessened my sorrows, and retaking my original form, brought them back in full. But now that the emptiness no longer exists, I shouldn't really have a problem with becoming my former self.

After thinking that through, I shifted into my Yoko form.

"I am able to do so, as well."
She hugged me.

"Amazing! This brings back so many memories." She then let go and stood back a little. "But, I think I'm going to fool around with the human form for a while. It's an interesting and novel experience. Well, I realize that I have been in that form for nearly two decades now, but that was me before even I knew I was me, so it doesn't count." She changed again.

"I see no problem with it. Whatever pleases you." I too reassumed my human anatomy.

I suppose now is as appropriate a time as ever. I pulled out the three roses, one by one, and showed each of them to her before speaking.

"I have something to say to you. I have been waiting to say it for a very long time. Now thousands of years, in fact... I love you, Mitsuko. I always have, and always will."

"I know... I've known all along... I was just waiting until you felt it was the right time to tell me... You should have known by now that I feel the same way... I love you, Kurama."

She took the roses into her right hand, and threw her arms around me. I held her as we kissed.