FCL64: CHAPTER FIFTEEN!

Kiyoshi: Just type. Ayaka and the bounty hunter and—

FCL64: AND KAIEN!

Kiyoshi: Yes… him too.

FCL64: YAY!

Kiyoshi: If you're at least slightly confused after this chapter… good.

Kurama gasped. "He didn't want it to fall into the wrong hands," he answered a question heard only by himself. He pulled the pendant from his shirt and stared at it.

Ayaka and the others stared at him. Finally, Hiei stated, "You never did tell me what that thing does."

"It has several very powerful properties," Kurama explained slowly. "In the wrong hands, it could be very deadly." He looked as though he was going to say more, but he stopped himself. "I can't tell you more. He hardly trusted me and Ayaka with that much."

Ayaka nodded darkly. "The fewer people who know what that thing can do, the better. Alone, with only one person, it rivals the power my locket has when it is connected to my brother's." Tears welled in her eyes, and Kurama gripped her hand, reminding her of his promise. She breathed in and out, calming herself. Then she continued, "And the lockets wouldn't have the same power if both lockets were present with only one person."

"Make your point," Hiei demanded.

Ayaka deliberated a moment, as if unsure how to continue. She eventually said, "My locket… it makes me capable of things I couldn't achieve on my own. Dangerous things. But when Kaien is there, and the lockets are connected, the damage they can do increases tenfold. Kuronue's pendant is capable of that on its own."

"How?" Yusuke asked her. "What exactly does your locket do?"

Ayaka's eyebrows furrowed, unsure of how to answer. Seeing her uncertainty and knowing Kurama to be the best speaker of them all, Yusuke asked, "Kurama, could you tell us?"

"No. I don't understand it myself. I never saw it. She tried to explain it once but it didn't make sense. I got the distinct impression that what she was trying to tell me and how I was interpreting her words were two completely different things." It had truly baffled Kurama when Ayaka had told him. He had mulled it over many times in the last five hundred years, and he was no closer to understanding it now than he had been the first night she had explained it.

But now Ayaka tried again. "It's a sensation that you can't truly understand until you've experienced it, but I'll try to explain. It…it's more of a feeling. It's like Kaien and I are one person, with one will. We have two physical forms, but our minds are one. Not only that but we're also connected to the entire universe. It's like being everywhere and nowhere at the same time. And it's as if the universe feels the same way about us."

"What?" Yusuke asked.

Ayaka sighed and pulled out her locket. "Maybe this will be easier." Pointing to the gems she said, "Sapphire. That is water, my element. Diamond. That is air. My brother's locket—" She stopped mid-sentence. Everyone else had tensed as well.

But Ayaka didn't freeze defensively like the rest of them; she froze from pure shock. Then she was on her feet, out Kurama's bedroom door and pounding down the stairs. Then everyone heard a relieved and joyous cry. "Oh, Kaien!"

She suddenly reappeared pulling a boy about four inches taller than herself by the hand.

Yusuke flinched back. "There's two of them!"

"This is my brother Kaien," Ayaka said, breathless with excitement.

"Yo." The boy flipped his white blonde hair away with a shake of his head, revealing pale blue eyes identical to Ayaka's. "Quite a party you've got going on. Interesting guest list; four demons and a human. Why wasn't I invited?"

"We didn't know where you were," Ayaka objected.

"Excuses, excuses." He laughed. Then nodding at the flame demon sitting in the corner, he said, "Hiei."

Hiei nodded back. "Kaien."

And somehow, those two words released nearly all of the tension in the room. "You two know each other?" Kuwabara asked.

"Yeah. Worked with him for nearly three hundred years." Kaien was totally at ease in a group of demons, two of whom he'd never met, the third of which had tried to kill him at their last encounter. But Ayaka trusted them, so he did as well.

"You worked with shorty for three centuries?" Kuwabara was genuinely bewildered. "And you survived?"

"Why not?" Kaien didn't mention the fact that he and Hiei had tried to kill each other. Then he changed the subject. "Where were you guys? No need to stop this fiesta on my account." He suddenly sat down on the floor. "So what's going on?"

"Ayaka was trying to tell us about the lockets," Kurama said, eyeing the other kitsune warily. His instincts were telling him that this was another male fox intruding on his territory. But he'd need to control those impulses if he wanted to kill the hunter. "But she was having some difficulty explaining. Maybe you could help."

"And who are you?" Kaien asked. It was evident he sensed that Kurama was a fox demon as well and knew the dangerous line he was treading by entering the house with out Kurama's direct permission.

"Kurama." No hesitation. He'd find out soon enough, if he didn't know already.

Kaien nodded his head. "Okay then. Nice form." He turned to his sister. "The lockets? Really?" When she nodded, he breathed in, his eyes widened, and he frowned. "Good luck with that. I have trouble understanding it myself. To try and put it into words… not gonna happen. And to think it'd be even more powerful there."

Ayaka nodded. Everyone else was even more confused than before. Kurama included, and he usually knew exactly what was going on. After a moment's silence, Kurama said, "Can you try? Ayaka, you were explaining the meaning of each jewel…?"

"Oh, yes." She seemed to have forgotten entirely. "Sapphire is water. Diamond is air, or wind. Kaien's stones are onyx, which is earth, and garnet, which is fire, his element."

"How exactly is this going to help us understand?" Kurama asked.

"If you have that basis, it might be easier…to describe what actually…happens…" Ayaka's speech slowed, then trailed off all together. She was looking at Kaien.

A mischievous grin had crossed his face. He opened his mouth to speak, but Ayaka didn't give him the chance. She shook her head. "No." He looked ready to say something, but she continued. "No. We can't control it well enough to risk that Kaien."

Kaien rolled his eyes. "We won't get any better at controlling it if we never practice. Besides, they'd understand for sure if we showed them."

Yusuke and Kuwabara looked interested; Kurama looked surprised at this suggestion; Hiei looked the way he always looked—that is, bored and as if he felt the whole thing was a waste of time.

Ayaka still wasn't happy with Kaien's suggestion. "They'd understand, but we might kill them in the process. We hardly understand it ourselves, Kaien. We are not going to connect the lockets. Especially not here in the middle of a human city. You know the disasters that can happen when the lockets are snapped together."

Well, there you have it. Now for reviews...

animegrlsteph: that will be coming in a few chapters. the pendant is actually pretty scary...

Foxgirl Ray: Yes, the point of that was mainly to show how close Kurama keeps the pendant and why Hiei already knew of it. Hope you liked this chapter as well. The next chapter should explain some things.