Disclaimer: I only own my OCs and the plot.

Recap: Previously on "I'll Show You What I Can Be" Tsukino's soul was stolen by the Fox's Rose. In order to reunite, Tsukino's soul with her body, Kurama had to meet The Fox's Rose. During the meeting, Kurama learned The Fox's Rose and Neichi's real identities but also that Tsukino's soul has been placed under a curse in the form of a black scarf. If Kurama did not obey Yasu's (Neichi) and Amaterasu's order, Tsukino would die. Because of this, Kurama had to obey Yasu's order and led Tsukino to the darkest part of the forest to talk to her. Tsukino could not hear him talking at all due to her lost of hearing. She ran away heartbroken shortly afterwards when she concluded that Kurama only wanted her for pleasure and battled off feelings of guilt because of his actions towards her. Will Kurama ever grow up and stop hurting the girl he loves? Stay tuned and find out in this chapter of "I'll Show You What I Can Be."

I'll Show You What I Can Be
Chapter Twenty
The Deal

Getting into Trouble

For almost two hours I lay against the tree, trying to figure out what had happened to me. Eventually, I came to notice the black scarf wrapped my neck growing tighter and a wave of disgust overcame me. Suddenly angry, I tore at the fabric with my claws wishing to be able to breathe clearly once more without that odd fabric scratching at my throat. Despite my attempts to remove the accursed scarf it only became tighter and tighter until I was panting for breath. As I sat trying to regain my strength so I could remove the horrible rag, the voice that had coaxed me into almost giving into Kurama spoke once more.

'Your fox must be looking for you. You should return to him.'

Anger quickly refuelled, I grabbed at the cloth illogically associating it with the voice and tried to remove it once more. 'Let him look then,' I thought savagely as I tried to loosen the grip on my throat. Instead of loosing though, the scarf tightened almost as if it was getting annoyed with me.

'Now now kitten. That's no way to speak to your friend. I'm only trying to help you get the pleasure you so desperately desire.'

Panic filled me when I felt the fabric start to tangle itself around my wings. "Let me go!" I verbally shouted though I didn't hear anything while I watched the fabric reach up towards the branches of the tree. For a moment, I feared that the fabric would cause me to hang myself as I had heard in old stories from bar I had worked at.

The scarf it seemed had other ideas. 'Oh I see now. You're just nervous. He's your first isn't he?' The fabric now started to wrap itself around my legs as well. 'Come on now. Let's go see your man again and this time I'll help you a bit more.'

'And how do you plan to do that?' I asked mostly to keep the scarf talking as I tried to cut it away from my throat so that I would be able to breathe freely.

'By helping you along. It looks like you'll need more than just me amplifying your emotions. Originally I was just going to amp up your emotions and slowly let off so that you could feel your actual emotions but it looks like you'll need even more than that. Don't worry though tomorrow after you've gotten some practice we can try again.' Slowly, using the branches above for support the scarf managed to drag me to my feet.

My panic continued to grow as visions appeared behind my eyes and in my mind of what this scarf had in mind. There was no doubt in my mind that Amaterasu was behind my situation somehow. Only she could be as twisted to do this sort of thing to a person, however there was no denying the fact that Kurama was making full use of the scarf's power over me though. If he appeared in the clearing right then, I wouldn't have been surprised if the scarf tied me to the ground and left me helpless.

Thankfully though, Kurama still had yet to appear, but if I wanted to get away unscratched I would have to move quickly as the scarf had wrapped itself around my legs.

Almost like a loving mother cooing to her child, the scarf whispered in my mind, 'Time to take your first step to adulthood.'

I was about to be forced to take a step when the scarf suddenly released its grip on me. Not prepared for the sudden lack of support, I fell to the ground and found myself at the feet of an annoyed looking raccoon demon with familiar looking black eyes.

Day Hundred-Fourteen

It is about noon when I arrive at what used to be Kuronue's and my original hideout. After a few moments of searching through the thorny and dark undergrowth, I finally manage to spot the opening to a small cave where Kuronue had demanded I make an entrance to the lair since I was the one digging it. From the outside, one would never have known the treasures that hide inside, because it appeared to only be a hole in the ground. After a few years of successful raids the small dugout became too small so we abandoned it and moved on to bigger and better things. Surprisingly though, years of neglect had strengthened the hideout's defences making it even difficult for me to reach the hidden opening to the lair below. The earthquakes and violent weather that often travelled Demon World had changed the shape of the opening to the cave making it smaller and with more stalagmites and stalactites ready to stab into unsuspecting demons. The plants I had planted when we originally arrived had also grown and seemed to almost welcome me as I struggled to slip into the small opening. If I was able to transform into my fox form or remember where the traps that surrounded the other opening was, I probably would have been able to enter with more ease but since I could do neither I struggled.

Eventually I made my way through a tunnel of many traps both plant like and other until the tunnel I was travelling down enlarged into one where I could walk instead of crawling. Soon after I came to a locked door and pulled out a seed, which quickly turned into a key. After a few tries to get the key to match the lock (ever time we made a new hideout we changed the 'locks'), I opened the door and found myself in a cavern with six doors on the opposite wall. Only one out of the six didn't have a lock, and I walked onto the hallway behind that door. Now that I have dodged three more traps I have come to another door, which I simply knocked on. It opens easily, and I enter into a Western apartment like area.

Off to my right are two doors; both lead to bedrooms. On my left are a kitchen area and three other doors. One of which leads to the now empty treasury, another to a washroom, and the last to a storeroom. I pause for a moment, realizing that the room I have just entered is completely clean and the kitchen obviously used on a daily bases. Now as I enter the room further I notice Hiei lounging on one of the many couches in the room. A small smile comes to my face when I see a small black bat flying around Hiei's head while making quite a racket.

Hiei turns to face me as I walk further into the room and narrows his eyes at me. "It appears that the bat will live after all. What a pity."

The small bat instantly stops making circles around Hiei's head and instead flies over to another couch where it lands and quickly turns back into Kuronue. "What happened? Where's Tsukino-chan?"

"It turns out that Tsukino-san was correct in calling The Fox's Rose Amaterasu," I reply as I sit down on the couch closest to me. "Her and Yasu freely returned Tsukino-san's soul on one condition that I have already taken care of." Not wishing to answer anymore questions I add, "And I see you have been making use of this old hideout, Kuronue."

He grins and says, "When I finally came to my senses this was the closest hideout we had left and the only one I actually still had a key too. Somehow I lost all my other ones."

"You mean you had senses to return to?" Hiei cut in.

Kuronue's eyes widened in mock shock. "How else could I tell if I'm doing a good enough job annoying you?"

Hiei is silent and Kuronue quickly turns his attention back to me. "So where is Tsukino-chan? Why didn't you bring her back here? Don't trust her?"

"It's not so much a matter of trust but a matter of safety."

"So she's safer wherever she is?"

I nod.

"Where's that? I mean if she was with us, she'd have one shortie fire demon, one awesomely skilled bat demon, and a fox demon that wouldn't let her out of his sight protecting her. Where could possibly be safer than that?"

I frown, unwilling to explain exactly what I had done with Tsukino. "She's safer if you don't know. Amaterasu needs Tsukino-san for her plan so if you don't know then you can't give her away. Now did you get the treasures?" I ask.

Kuronue nods and grabs a bag from under the couch he is sitting on before tossing the bag to me. "She had the orb so we couldn't get that, but we got everything else."

I nod as I look over the objects, careful not to touch the Jewel of Wrath. "It would be wise to return this to Spirit World now and return the other treasures once we have captured Amaterasu and obtained the Orb of Baast."

Kuronue frowns. "So it was the stalker?"

I sigh. "For a bat, you sure are deaf."

"For a fox, you sure are vague."

Sensing Hiei's impatience, I add, "Yes it was the 'stalker' and her own stalker."

Kuronue's frown deepens. "You mean Yasu is in on this?"

"Do you recall Neichi?"

He nods. "But I thought he was plant food back in the jail."

Hiei looks back and forth between Kuronue and I before asking, "Who is Neichi?"

"Neichi was a raccoon demon named Yasu in disguise as a cat demon."

Kuronue stands up and stretches before making his way to the kitchen. "I need a drink," he randomly announces, "Want one Kurama? Short-stuff?"

We both reply in the negative and within moments Kuronue is sitting back on the couch with his drink. "Shouldn't we be worried for Tsukino-chan though? After all, she did spend three months alone with the guy. He probably knows her inside and out by now. And if Kurama's 'safe spot' isn't so safe, he'd probably be the one to get her for Amaterasu, right?"

Hiei scoffs. "The girl isn't the concern of the mission, and since we have the treasures, Amaterasu is of no threat to us."

Kuronue glares at him. "Maybe not Koenma's, but I think she is Kurama's main concern. Right Kurama?" He turns to me, eyes filled with the unspoken words that I have better agree or else.

"By keeping Tsukino-san away from Amaterasu we'll be able to avoid a hostage situation so you can see Hiei, it's to our advantage to keep Tsukino-san away from Amaterasu as she will waste time looking for Tsukino-san while we ready to capture her," I reply carefully sidestepping around Kuronue's question.

Hiei rolls his eyes before pausing as if he is listening to something far off.

"You are sure that your mate is safe?"

"She isn't my mate."

"Yet," Kuronue adds.

"You don't even know who we are talking about," I snap at him.

"Amaterasu has her," Hiei concludes before Kuronue can reply to my remark.

For some reason, I feel as if I just swallowed an ice cube as a shiver of forbidding runs over my spine and I feel as if I have something painful to swallow in my throat. "Pardon?" I ask, hoping that I had heard wrong.

Hiei rolls his eyes and appears bored as he repeats himself. "Amaterasu has her and is demanding the treasures we have in exchange for the girl."

I shake my head. "That's impossible. Amaterasu isn't a telepath, how could she send you a message like that?"

Hiei winces as if he just heard someone shout in his ear. "By thinking very loudly," he said as he rubs his ear. "It's worse than being around the buffoon," he mutters as an afterthought. He winces once more before adding, "She also says we have an hour or else the mixed breed dies. Apparently we'll find her by sensing her energy when we are close."

"Kurama, are you sure that Tsukino-chan is in the safest spot possible right now?" Kuronue asks as he slowly places his drink on the table in the middle of the room. For once, his voice is almost as soft and deadly as mine once was.

Unsure of what else to do, I shake my head. "I don't know." Slowly and calmly, I shoulder the bag with the treasures and turn to the door, in no way showing the worry that is coursing through me. "But I'm going to find out."

Moments later, I arrive at the forest where I had left Tsukino in what I had thought were handle hands. Kuronue takes one look at the forest before shouting, "You left her alone in the middle of a forest in the middle of Demon World with no protection! How the hell is that a safer place than with us?"

I do not reply as I enter the forest, using my sense of smell to guide me. After five minutes of hiking through the darkness and barbed foliage, we arrive at the place where I had left Tsukino.

"The Sinning Tree!?" Kuronue shouts as soon as he sees the tree whose appearance looked like an old woman mournfully looking down into her arms where the victim would be standing. "You used the Sinning Tree on her?! Are you insane!?"

Branches detach themselves from the canopy above us and drip acid from their mouths as they hungrily move towards us only to stop when they encounter my energy. "The Sinning Tree creates more believable illusions than my dream pollen so I ordered it to create an illusion to distract Tsukino-san until we completed the mission. My Death Tree was supposed to stop the Sinning Tree from harming Tsukino-san by attacking it if it started to drain her energy and would also stop any attackers from entering the area." Looking over both my trees I try to figure out the reason for the Sinning Tree's release of Tsukino and find my answer just as Kuronue shouts:

"What in all Three World possessed you to think that would work?! We don't have any idea what the tree could have shown her! For all we know it could have made her think you raped her!"

"That was the idea."

"What!?"

"If I had intercourse with Tsukino-san, then the Kuro Shi would release her from its grasp. That was the condition that I spoke of before. As for protection," carefully I reach towards the tree and pull away a few strands of black material with silver markings, "it was working well until the Kuro Shi started to attack my Sinning Tree."

Kuronue pauses in his preparation to shout at me when I hand him the strands. Angrily, he throws them down and stomps them into the ground under his boot. "If I ever get my hands on Yasu, he's going to pay."

While Kuronue is having his hissy fit, Hiei turns to me and asks, "What the hell is the Kuro Shi?"

"It means Black Death and it is a scarf that apparently was created by a demon for her lover. But he jilted her." I pause for a moment. "Are you familiar with the saying 'Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned?'"

He shrugs.

"The Kuro Shi is often thought to be believed that woman's fury incarnated. Any woman who wears it quickly finds their live drained away as they slowly become corrupted and wishing to destroy whoever had last harmed them. Especially if the last person was a male."

Hiei smirks a bit. "Well then it won't be too hard to find the girl then. All we have to do is wait until she comes to kill you as she no doubt believes whatever your tree showed her. Unless Amaterasu actually does have her."

I sigh. "Amaterasu wouldn't make such a claim unless it was true."

Kuronue frowns. "So does that mean we're going to make copies of the treasures then?"

I shake my head. "That will take too long. We'll have to risk it and give her the treasure and then take them back."

Hiei scowls. "I would expect the detective or the oaf to say something like. I expected better from you though Kurama."

Kuronue glares at him once more. "You haven't even heard the whole plan yet. How do you know that Kurama isn't going to say, 'Short-stuff, you and Kuronue hide in the trees while I give them the treasures and at my signal attack'?"

"I'm a mind reader." Hiei gestures to me. "His mind is completely blank."

I frown. "Or maybe I'm just guarding my thoughts." I start to walk into the vegetation once more. "We don't have much time so I'll explain on the way."

The last thing I remembered before finding myself in a cave tied up to one of those cones that poke up from the floor in caves, was a pair of black eyes glaring down at me before every went black. When I woke up the owner of the black eyes was still glaring at me only she wasn't alone. Another raccoon was sitting at the entrance to the cave looking outside as if he was expecting someone to appear at any second. When the female raccoon realized that I was awake she walked over to me and quickly tied a piece of cloth around my head so that it was in my mouth making a gag. Then she turned her attention towards the raccoon at the mouth of the cave. Since neither of them was facing me, I decided to use my Wings of Steel technique to get free. Unfortunately, the second I tried to use my energy I felt as if someone had turned the volume to max on the world. My energy faded and the ropes around me remained uncut although the volume remained at max. Even the smallest water droplet dropping into a puddle behind me seemed like an explosion that seemed to echo forever in the cave.

I quickly discovered, the voices were little better especially if the speaker had Amaterasu's higher pitched voice. "I wouldn't do that. Your body can't take much more demon energy use without fatal results. If you try, we'll have to steal your soul again," said the female raccoon demon that either was very good at mimicking voices or was actually Amaterasu.

The male raccoon glanced back at me as he replied in a voice I had no problems recognizing as Neichi's, "There's no point talking to her, remember? The kid's as deaf as they make them now that her demon genes are starting to kill her. Wonder why Kurama never bothered to warn her."

The female demon shrugged. "Who knows but if he doesn't hurry with those treasures it won't matter that her genes are only just starting to kill her."

"And you are sure that he'll actually come?"

She sighed in exasperation. "Yes I'm sure so don't worry. You'll have your satisfaction soon enough."

He grinned wickedly before standing and stretching. "Best to get moving then isn't it? The fox is no doubt already looking for your aura, and we want him to be fashionable late don't we? However, what about the others?"

"I'll leave it to your judgement but Kurama has to remain alive. If you hurt him at all, I return the favour tenfold."

"Why the heck do you like that guy anyways? I mean he probably doesn't even know your name."

The female waved a hand dismissingly. "You just don't get it do you? As the King of Thieves, he needs a Queen of Thieves."

"But there isn't anything to steal nowadays. Half the demons have gone soft so they are easy to steal from. Everything worth stealing either Spirit World has or is broken. And it isn't like we can cause trouble in Human World anymore either."

She shook her head. "It's only illegal if you get caught."

"And it is very easy to get caught with so many human-loving demons around."

"But that will change very quickly just as soon as our plan is completed. Now are you sure you know what you are to do?"

The male raccoon frowned, annoyed by the topic change, but nodded, and she smiled coldly. "Good. Now if you mess up like you did in the jail, I won't hesitate to kill you. Got that? You'll get your revenge all in due time."

He shrugged and muttered, "Why is it the hot feisty ones are always bossy?" before he walked out of the cave.

The female demon paused for a moment to towards me, probably to be sure that I wasn't going anywhere, before she followed him out.

For a moment I enjoyed the slightly quieter surroundings even though water continued to drip and thunder rumbled in the distance before I tried to struggle out of the ropes that bound me. I quickly stopped through as the ropes started to tighten and squeeze the air out of me. The ropes were created from demon energy and would tighten with ever movement I made until I couldn't move anymore. Annoyed, I huffed and sat trying to think of another way to escape. One option was to wait for a rescue although honestly, I didn't like the idea of Kurama finding me bound and gagged for obvious reasons. My other option was to keep struggling until I either suffocated or managed to get free. The final option was to use my demon energy and cut myself lose. However, I had no way of knowing if my Wings of Steel would even work and after my previous attempt, I wasn't too keen on the idea of using my energy again. The raccoons had mentioned my genes slowly killing me but I had no idea what they meant by that. As far as I knew demons didn't suffer from defective genes and I had thought that mixed breeds still counted as demons. It looked like I was wrong though.

Around the time I was considering trying to struggle again I started to notice a far quieter noise coming from above me. A small sizzling noise. Curious, I looked towards the ceiling quickly noticing all the sharp stalactites hanging above my head. After taking a moment to stupidly picture the damage the hanging daggers could cause, I tried to spot the cause of the noise. Finally, I spotted a small hole in the ceiling where a small string was burning, and I caught the soft scent of black powder.

A/N: Just a few more chapters to go and this is over. I'm not sure how many to go through so it might only be one or two depending on how I write. So here is your warning that the story is coming to a close. Also random question, does tying a gag into someone's mouth like the way described above actually work? Like can you just not talk or does it just dull the noise somehow? Anyways, thanks for all the review and for reading this long. Hope to 'see' you all at the final chapter of "I'll Show You What I Can Be"!

-D101

P.S I changed chapter 1 a bit but nothing major. Just the layout of the lair and I think I messed around with chapter 19 but I can't remember what I did.