Disclaimer: All fandom-based and real-life entities, including other art and literary works mentioned in this piece do not belong to the author with the exception of original characters, plot, and subplots. The views and opinions of the characters do not necessarily reflect that of the author.
Zwischenzug
by four-eyed 0-0
Part V
"You have a grand gift for silence, Watson. It makes you quite invaluable as a companion."
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Complete Sherlock Holmes
o-o
Silence
"Chiaki," said Shizuru for the umpteenth time that morning. The elder Kuwabara took the knife from her hand and said with a cigarette between her lips, "That's it. You won't kill yourself. Out."
As Chiaki nursed her bleeding finger, dejected, Yukina ran up to her, kimono clutched by a hand in her haste. "Miss Chiaki, please let me."
Chiaki shook her head. "It's a scratch, I'll be fine. Thanks, dear."
She exited the busy kitchen and went straight to the bathroom, locking herself in it. The blood went down along the soft trickle of cold tap water, paler and almost pink as it traveled down the drain.
Blood that was crimson and alike Isamu's.
Chiaki bit her lip as she felt too much pressure on the wound that was deeper than she'd let Yukina know. She didn't wish to be healed again by the ice maiden when she could help it. Somehow, fear that she'd remain numb and addicted to the absence of physical pain and reminders of hurt kept her from seeking healing through supernatural means.
She wasn't freaking out because Yukina was a demon just like about seventy-five percent of this household. She was more anxious about the visitors bound to arrive in a few hours.
When she woke up minutes before sunrise, she swept up the front lawn, and when the lingering dirt from yesterday were all disposed of, she joined the girls in the kitchen. But she managed to spill soy sauce on the table, send the napa cabbage and tomatoes rolling on the floor, and cut her finger.
Shizuru was just right to send her away when she couldn't gain mastery of herself.
With the wound no longer bleeding, she reached for the first aid kit from the overhead shelf. A moment of applying antiseptic and dressing the wound on her left forefinger and she was out in the veranda, ridden of any other idea to pass the time.
"Good morning."
Chiaki slowly raised her eyes from inspecting her feet to scowl at the redhead. "What's good about the morning?"
Kurama sat some feet away from her. "It's a beautiful summer morning, isn't it?" he said, staring out into the garden. "I wonder why you were busy staring at your feet when there's a good view ahead."
Chiaki didn't have anything to retort when he had a point. She only shuffled her feet against the stepping stone.
"You don't have to be afraid of them," he said, turning to her. "Enki and Koenma are agreeable. Yomi and Mukuro are stiff and regal, but I trust you can conduct yourself well in front of them."
"I'm not afraid of anybody, Kurama. Not you, not the Kings," she said abruptly, against the prospect of something as preposterous as such to ring true for more than five seconds. "I'm afraid of what they're going to tell me, of the truth behind all this that they've managed to find out."
"Evil is everywhere, Professor," he said, now staring ahead in the garden that was enveloped with the sunlight that the bushes took a new form of green. "As long as there is good, evil will persist. As there can always be humans against humans, demons against demons, and humans against demons."
Understanding his drift, she took out her cigarette box and lit up one. "I get it, but sometimes it's hard not to wish otherwise. Sometimes I lay at night thinking why some idiot would want to manufacture potentially dangerous creatures who would shit the world further. It's as if the goddamn shit the world has to offer isn't enough so this little piece of codswallop just thought of spicing up things a bit."
"Without crime there would have been no need for us."
"I understand but… it baffles me how people who're supposed to be improving human life are involved in something as destructive as this fiasco," she said, waving her cigarette in the air as if to indicate a virtual sketch.
"It's so frustrating. You wake up every day to go to work and learn more about the mechanisms of life so you get something useful done or developed while some others go crazy over something. And to what end? To satiate their curiosity? To seek revenge? To be better than the rest of the humankind?"
She buried her face between her knees. She felt so weak suddenly.
"God, if I hear what I'm thinking from Koenma, I might go drinking with Chu."
Kurama didn't move. "No faculty—human or demon—was able to circumvent the high price of meddling with the balance of the three worlds, Professor. Many have tried and all of them fell down. I am no stranger to these endeavors and this alone wouldn't render my words placatory but let me try anyway: you can trust us."
She moved her head to see him through her left eye. It appeared that he'd been looking at her the whole time with a smile to his face.
"Not me or Yusuke or Kuwabara or Hiei. But us as a whole. We have our faults but we've been through more than you could imagine," he continued before turning back to the garden. "There's no denying that the past few days have been rough and almost mortifying to someone as sheltered as you are but you can trust that we would see this through."
Chiaki moved to stare again at the dark cave that was the hollow between her touching knees. "I'm not sheltered, Kurama… You don't know what I've been through."
She always had to dissent him in one way or another.
"But… thanks, anyway."
"My apologies, I didn't mean to sound presumptive."
She only grunted.
There was complete silence between the two of them, a complete quiet that was neither deafening nor alarming, only felt and… there.
Like they didn't need to say anything more.
It was the kind of quiet that Chiaki had been meaning to enjoy amidst the ruckus that was her life at the moment. A break from everything that had happened and was about to happen. The type of silence that made her not feel like sleeping but reading the latest issue of journals she'd subscribed to or some sappy romance novel by some equally sappy author.
Chiaki couldn't understand why. He was sitting there with her, breathing as she was, but it didn't feel intrusive to the peace that she so craved. Like he was trying to let her exist while he did, without anyone taking offense or needing defense.
Kurama offered the type of quiet that didn't make her feel too alone but private, nonetheless.
She didn't get it. He was as every bit grating as the man who liked to play with her in his quiet manner of trickery. He was the man who talked in his cool certainty as though he knew all of her. He was the fox who chided her for being difficult without having to yell at her.
As though he knew she needed the quiet and wanted the calm.
"Kurama," she said to her little cave.
"Yes?"
"When I thanked you I meant it," she said, too fast that her breath felt too hot on her skin.
"I'm sorry?"
She lifted her head an inch further from her cave. "I meant it. Thank you. For the other day. And the day before that. For yesterday, too, for helping me cook and for Chu. For today."
He drew a breath, a breath very silent as was the rest of him, probably trying not to smile too hard at her silliness.
"I guess you're welcome, Professor."
She hummed against her cave again.
"Well, I hope you're feeling well, Professor," he said, treading on their silence. "I'll see you later."
She didn't move; she didn't protest. He stood from his position and walked past her in his feather-light footsteps. The sliding of the door and its subsequent closing.
Tap. Tap. Tap. He walked further into the temple and away from her. Tap. Tap. Until it no longer pierced in the silence that was her own.
When she was finally left with the silence she shared with no one, Chiaki felt something in her shift. The emptiness and deafening void was abruptly too unsettling for her.
She raised her head from her cave, squinting in the brightness of the less than peaceful summer view and allowed her lips to connect with her source of nicotine.
Somehow it wasn't as soothing as it used to be.
o-o
Kurama paused in his tracks.
What was that?
He heard her perfectly the first time she uttered the words. He heard when she amended and made it more certain. But she tricked her to say it again, knowing she would elaborate. Her predictability was to such a degree that he knew she would repeat what she said like an educator through and through—elaborating to make him understand, to offer an explanation.
She didn't thrive on the meager and the unclear. She liked to see reasons and to offer them.
She thanked him because of what he did. She was grateful because he'd been nice.
He wanted her to say it her way as though it would make him feel better about himself. Because he wanted to feel good about himself, because his ego could use more feeding.
Not because he wanted to make sure she felt all right, not because he wanted to see her riled up, not because he was enjoying her company.
I'm merely trying to appear good and reliable and trustworthy.
That's it.
He was trying to win her trust for the sake of this mission. He was exerting additional effort to make her feel secure and safe. Because the team needed her cooperation and her full faith.
"Not me or Yusuke or Kuwabara or Hiei. But us as a whole."
Heh.
What nice words he'd managed to speak, knowing how she suffered from trust issues. How smooth of him to take advantage of her weakness in favor of him and his friends who were members of the sex she so blatantly despised. For being manipulative and chronic liars.
His mother wouldn't approve of this thinking.
But he couldn't have done it out of compassion, could he? He'd done it because it was part of the plan and because he wanted to feed his ego.
That was it.
Kurama blinked down at the wooden floor, the calm of the temple barely obvious from the cacophony that was his thoughts.
His thoughts that had gone naught for a moment when he'd sat in silence with her. While her face was hidden from his prying eyes, the smoke from her cigarette rising soundlessly with the crisp summer air.
It was a moment in time when he managed to drop his defenses and thought about nothing but the silence between warm, breathing bodies that offered a tinge of unassuming calm and absolute peace.
Strange as it was, it felt pleasant.
Somehow it came across as more enjoyable than their little quibbles and his attempts to get down to her weaknesses.
It filled him up without suffocating him, without being invasive.
It was a welcome feeling.
Kurama shook his head.
"Tell me you're not thinking about the human woman," said Hiei, standing a few feet from him with a scowl in his face.
He didn't even notice he was there. Kurama crossed the few feet to his room and locked himself in.
Aoshi was out of the question. He'd just gone too soft.
o-o
A door slid open. "They're here," said Shizuru.
Chiaki sprang up from reclining on the wooden floor of the veranda, clambering to stand on her feet.
"How do I look?" she asked Shizuru, reaching up to fix the bun on top of her head.
"You're going to a meeting."
"And I have to look reliable." She finished securing the bun with the hair stick and patted her cheeks rapidly. "I could've worried about this while I could and I chose to laze around."
The two of them walked into the house and Chiaki ran to her room to grab her a pen, her journal, and Yamamoto's book. The same time she got out, Kurama emerged from his.
"The living room," he said, walking up to her.
They silently ambled beside each other. Kurama opened the door for her and she was met with a diverse mix of looks from the most peculiar assembly she'd laid her eyes on.
"Professor Aoshi Chiaki," said the Reikai Prince on one end of the table. He had only seen him in one form—a toddler with a facetious pacifier on his lips. There was no toddler but there was the same blue pacifier, the same voice, and the same uncanny "Jr." marking on the forehead of this adult Koenma.
Peculiar.
Kurama's hand was on her elbow and he lightly guided her to sit next to Kuwabara who smiled to her. She readjusted her position on the cushion, bowing to the occupants of the table as Kurama sat next to her.
"Please take good care of me," she said before straightening up and taking a thorough, sweeping look at the curious persons across from them without being rude.
The huge, red demon next to Koenma's left was smiling at her with his eyes that were big and bright. Two gray horns jutted out of his forehead, his goatee and mustache the same color as his hair—grass that was in the brink of yellowing in late summer. He wore a simple white sleeveless shirt.
Next to him was someone sitting with his hands on the table, probably an avid fan of ears and horns—he had about at least six ears and horns; Chiaki wasn't able to count well. His eyes were closed in a manner that could suggest he no longer used them, that he was blind. He moved his head with immaculately straight and long jet-black hair, and Chiaki gulped at the sight of another horn at the back of his head. She briefly wondered how he slept with all that.
The last carrot-top was a female—Chiaki was quite sure of it. The better half of her face that wasn't malformed exuded the beauty of perpetual youth, her lips drawn to a soft smirk. The cyborg-like female stared at her unblinkingly with both narrow left eye and a glossy right lens, and it didn't surprise her that a chill ran down her spine from the charged looks sent her way.
"Enki," said the red demon, with a smile. "Nice to finally meet you, Professor."
Chiaki couldn't believe it. This was the king of the Makai? The two people next to him wore regal, flowing clothes and he chose to wear a tank top on a meeting.
"I am Yomi," said Seven Horns who didn't bother to turn his head to her general direction. Stuck up asshole.
The only female in the assembly aside from her and Botan—who sat near a corner acting as the secretary—inclined her head in greeting. "Call me Mukuro," she said, using the wrong pronoun. "In case you were wondering, I am the governor of the territory of Alaric while Yomi, Gandara."
She thought herself male? Chiaki felt offended for very obvious reasons. Just what is it with maleness?
"And Yusuke the territory of Toushin," said Kurama.
"Though I let Hokushin do all the work while I'm here," said the detective sitting across from the big guy.
Chiaki didn't fully understand the political dealings these people had and she wasn't sure if she got it right that the three territories made up the Makai and Enki stood in center of them all but it was the least of her worries.
"So you're all under King Enki's supremacy," she said for lack of anything else to say.
"Yes, it would appear so," said Mukuro stiffly. Had she touched a nerve?
"Anyway, since everyone's here—"
The door slid open and Hiei didn't bother apologizing for being late and rudely cutting off Koenma. He closed the door and sat next to Kurama.
The Reikai King sighed. Chiaki totally understood him. Hiei was being an A-class prick.
"As I was saying, let's begin," said Koenma after a moment's pause. "You've been called to this meeting as was seen fit in light of the situation we have at hand. Four research facilities suffered consecutive attacks in less than a month and while all were set in the Ningenkai, I wished for the Makai to be alerted as well as it involved half-demons.
"After thorough investigation of available evidence and deduction by Professor Aoshi and Kurama, we've concluded that the half-demons were indeed artificially developed—scientifically, that is. Which brings us to another concern.
"Three days ago, I received a record of names of scientists that could have been involved in this elaborate plan. All of those marked as dead have indeed passed on as scheduled, except for Yamamoto and Urawa. We looked into the manner of their deaths and while Urawa was evidently assaulted, we had no way of knowing how Yamamoto died.
"Furthermore, Botan and all other guides of souls are forbidden to speak about anything that could have been confided to them, thus hindering us from figuring out the real reason he died."
"Forgive me for interrupting," said Chiaki, stricken with the urge to speak. "If it would be any comfort to you, I don't think Yamamoto would have ever shared anything regarding his death, not even to a guide."
"I find it admirable," said Yomi, the sneer in his voice clearly heard and not merely hinted at, "that you seem to be so confident that you know this man well."
"I'd like to think I do. And I'd like to think he chose to kill himself confident that I would find the answers I sought."
Kurama whispered, "Professor, you don't mean—"
She turned to the redhead. "I mean it, Kurama. I've been thinking about it since the other night but now I'm certain," she said, turning to Koenma. "I believe that Yamamoto Koji indeed killed himself. Not because he was afraid to die soaked in blood but because he'd done something awful and wanted to protect the information that he chose to pass to me and Urawa Isamu."
Silence descended upon the assembly as they absorbed her proclamation. She turned to the folded page of her journal that contained the transcribed letter. The more she stared at it, the more convinced she became that this was supposed to detail what drove Yamamoto to take his life.
She'd doubted it only a moment prior but now, everything seemed to have fallen into place.
"King Koenma, please do continue," Chiaki said, nodding her head.
Koenma cleared his throat. Botan finished scribbling on her notepad. "For now, we'll take this as the truth," he said. "We have no way of knowing for sure as the human police force had attested to but if it's any relief to you, Professor, then yes, we'll rule it out as a suicide.
"Shall we proceed then?"
The table occupants expressed their assent.
"On the matter of the pages that were missing, we've come up with a list of all the dead scientists who must have appeared in the record. We sought the help of the human authorities and currently they are looking into the manner of their deaths and filed reports of missing cases."
He raised an open palm towards Botan who handed him a file folder, which he gave to Urameshi. "This is the list. When the NPA turns in the names we've requested, I'll make sure it reaches you, too."
"Well, then, now that human-related concerns have been dealt with, why don't we tackle the reason as to why you've called for us, Koenma?" said Mukuro, with a tone that suggested she could care less about anything else—about humans.
What a rude demon bitch.
"Ah," said Koenma, turning to Chiaki. "Professor, the book Yamamoto has left you, if you would?"
Chiaki gingerly lifted the book from her lap. Kurama turned to the book with the stained pages. "Uh, we had to transcribe a letter that he'd hidden so it's less presentable," she said as everyone else turned to the book she laid at the center of the table, its title page visible to the demon officers, "but it's still readable."
The three of them—well, two really, as Yomi just listened to Enki's awed gasps and grunting—inspected the book, Mukuro flipping it pages at a time without batting an eyelid.
When they finished the book, Mukuro slid it back to Chiaki and turned her head to look at Koenma. "You're thinking demon scientists are also involved in this, then?"
Chiaki realized she hadn't thought of this side of the story before. Perhaps she was too hung up loathing the audacity of her fellow scientific people to develop things… creatures counterproductive to human betterment.
And she never thought demons could be just as advanced as humans.
"The book speaks loads of how a human could have possibly gained so much knowledge on youkai biology," said Koenma, nodding his head. "I don't intend to downplay your capability to notice these underground activities but it's still too early into our envisioned plans to expect nothing like this could potentially happen and be missed."
Enki spoke before either Yomi or Mukuro could fire back a retort. "No offense taken, Koenma. We understand, it's not like everyone's bitten into our ways, not even after almost a decade. I'm sure Mukuro and Yomi won't argue with that," he said, throwing the two demon governors a look that was neither commanding nor genial. "Besides, there are lots of ways youkai could've been involved in this, too, aside from being perpetrators, for all we know."
Chiaki's eyebrow shot up her forehead.
Enki noticed and was waving his humongous hands in front of him, bowing his head slightly in apology. "I don't mean to offend you or your fellow scientists, Professor. I'm just saying that there are other possibilities by which our kind could have meddled with this. Youkai are a diverse group of creatures, as humans are."
As humans are. Of course.
"Which brings us to the reason why we've called you here," said Koenma, hoping to interrupt the brewing heated argument that Chiaki would gladly jump right at, as mad as she was at the foolish humans behind this hullabaloo. "We need you to send your best men to look for leads. It's certain that the Makai is a part of this plot, but we have no idea what role it plays. Right now, not even our stipulated headquarters, Todai, revealed any true signs of these dealings."
"Not even Kurama's plants caught on, then?" said Yomi, smirking.
Kurama didn't even bother rolling his eyes at the blind demon.
"Unfortunately, no, and now that our cover's been blown, we're sure they'll give us a hard time to locate their main base. All the more reason that we have to deploy our troops to every corner of the Makai and Ningenkai, see?"
Enki nodded. "Very well."
"Why are you so confident that humans are capable of developing capable creatures?" said Yomi, his head turned to Chiaki.
Chiaki wanted to break something. "I'm a researcher on tissue culture and molecular and cellular studies, sir. And I assure you, human facilities are far more than able to clone and culture anything with the right and optimal protocols," she said, her grip on her journal tightening to a worrying degree. "And if what I am able to gather from this assembly are true, then your kind are just as capable and can potentially be more than welcome to collaborate with rogue human scientists."
"For a human as successful as you are, I'd expected you to boast only of your kind," he said, smirking.
How these demons could apparently not let go of their prejudice against humans and human women was grating on her nerves.
"There's no need for us to be a set of stuck-up, self-important snobs in spite of our accomplishments, sir. Yamamoto and Urawa were stupid to let their pride disguised as curiosity eat their heads and look where they are now," she said, trying not to sound spiteful even as their names pierced something inside her like needles soaked in ice-cold water. "Gone."
And to what end? Nothing.
Yomi wasn't fazed. It took a lot to rile up this guy, huh?
"Impressive mouth," he said, turning to Koenma. "But I fail to see why you trust her every word, Koenma. How sure are you that she's not a mere pawn in their plan?"
Pawn? Of course, just because Yamamoto was able to predict her actions and send her to the right herd she was a pawn played with.
"She is no pawn, Yomi, and I deplore you for besmirching her," said Kurama, speaking for the first time, his voice steely. "You may argue that they are after Professor Aoshi, but there's no denying that we've been ridden of one potential threat when she chose to seek us."
Chiaki was thankful for the backup, but really, she could handle herself.
Yes, she was anxious just an hour ago but this bunch turned out to be no different from her senior colleagues.
"Did I hear you right, Kurama?"
"I believe I avoided ambiguity, Yomi."
"A'right," said Urameshi too loudly, stretching his hands above his head. "Why don't we have a break? I'm starving."
Their group immediately broke up and Chiaki felt an arm descend on her shoulders before she could get to the open doors where everyone else had gone through.
"Professor," said Urameshi, a stiff grin on his face. "Sorry about Yomi and Mukuro for being snooty. They're thousands of years old so it's kinda difficult to deal with their old habits."
She shook his arm off her. "I can handle myself."
"Yeah, I can see that. But you don't have to join us after lunch. We'll only bore you with the planning."
Chiaki looked at this man with the brushed up hair. "That's very nice of you. I was just thinking of passing up."
He rubbed at his nose. "Well, I can afford to be nice sometimes. Come on, I'm so hungry I can eat more than a bowl of your mazemen."
The two of them strode together. "Sorry, there's no mazemen today."
"But you can always make some, can't you?" he said, grinning widely at her.
"Of course. You can help me out next time. I could use your kitchen skills."
"That's cool."
o-o
The professor decided she was no longer needed for the planning and insisted to help with cleaning instead. This was much to his pleasure, as he no longer wanted to hear Yomi making snide remarks about her, even though she met them with her own cheek. The scallywag always had to take it out on the newcomer, especially on a human and a woman.
She instead took the file from Yusuke and was left to decipher patterns from the list. She should know; she was acquainted to many of her contemporaries.
After hours spent on coming up with a strategic plan of action, they called it a day. Yomi didn't waste a moment to single him out of the crowd and whisper words that never mattered:
"A little defensive of the wretch, aren't you, Kurama?"
He allowed himself to glare at the despicable scamp. "I'm not sure which I find more loathsome: your throwing shade on Professor Aoshi's reliability or your hinting that I have decided to make leaving my human life behind more torturous."
"You must think very badly of me if you feel that way," said Yomi, laughing darkly. "But Kurama, why don't you think of me as an old friend speaking to a softer, more easily-affected version of a previous equal?"
"There's no need to make light my situation, Yomi. I am perfectly aware of what I should and shouldn't do."
"As I am, as I am," said Yomi, nodding. He patted him on the shoulder. "It's a relief to hear this from you. I'm afraid I didn't think you could sink any lower."
Kurama's hands clenched to fists. He stopped walking.
"I'm awaiting your return to where you belong, Kurama," he said, continuing in his way without turning to Kurama over his shoulders. "I'll see you by and by."
Yomi turned the corner and disappeared, leaving Kurama alone in the hallway.
Hiei was no different from Yomi with regards to being uncouth but the latter was the type who would speak his mind all the time that it grated on his thread of patience more so.
And it bothers him that he couldn't afford to admit that they spoke partial truths. That he was afraid to admit to feeling rather contented to spend the quiet and to speak about life with the professor. That he'd like to get to know her better for reasons he'd rather not think about.
Something white and small suddenly catapulted out of thin air from the direction Yomi and the rest of the visitors had disappeared to, and upon his realizing that it was a house slipper, the professor's voice rang out throughout the temple:
"I WILL NO LONGER HEAR YOU RATTLING ON, QUESTIONING MY RELIABILITY, YOU RUDE RUG RAT!"
Kurama jogged to the source of the yelling and found the visitors standing in front of a clearly intoxicated Aoshi held by the shoulders by the equally alcohol-influenced Jin. Chu had passed out on the entryway, hugging the empty jar of sake. Shishiwakamaru, Touya, and Suzuki had all risen to their feet, ready to prevent any mishap that involved more than a drunk human throwing a slipper at a powerful demon.
"Okay, Professor," said Kuwabara, trying to placate the red-faced Aoshi. "I think you've had too much to drink. Why don't—"
Aoshi tried to shake Jin's hands off her shoulders. "Oh yes, too much to drink that allowed me to say it aloud that I am no longer taking any bullshit from this seven-horned, snarky scoundrel!"
Mukuro scoffed. Koenma almost dropped his pacifier. Enki gulped aloud.
Yomi kept his cool and walked past the professor who kept scowling at him.
"Let's go. I have more significant things to do than engaging a drunken human woman."
Aoshi sank to the floor, helplessly held at bay as the whole parade of demons and Koenma walked away and into the portals a harried Botan had set up.
Yomi spared all of them with a last blind glance before he stepped into the swirling, gray vortex and disappeared.
"Take care of her," said Koenma, his eyebrows furrowed, before he was transported himself.
Jin struggled to maintain the professor's limp form from laying down on the less hygienic floor, and Kurama ran up to them as soon as the portals and their visitors vanished as though they never were in the temple to begin with.
Several pairs of feet were heard running as he helped the wind tamer heave Aoshi to stand on her feet missing one slipper. She was extremely heavy now that she had passed out.
"Kurama, let me bring her," said Kuwabara.
"I can manage, Kuwabara, thank you."
Kurama scooped her up with some assistance from Yusuke and Kuwabara before he marched away to bring her to her room, Aoshi's head lolling from his shoulder.
"I told her to drink light," said Shizuru, coming with him.
"You honestly thought Chu would submit to light drinking?" Kurama asked, mortified that this could have happened. That the professor had let this happen.
Shizuru slid the door to her room open, setting up the futon and pillows quickly. "Even if he didn't, Chiaki had a choice," she said, patting the futon flat. "And don't get cheeky on me now, Kurama, you're not her boyfriend."
He reviewed how he'd acted just moments prior. He was certain Yomi's parting words were the cause of his less than agreeable mood.
"I didn't mean to sound like so," he said, bending down to lay the professor on the futon. She was heavily flushed from head to toe.
"Well, be careful, then," Shizuru said, adjusting Aoshi's head on the pillow. "I know you don't intend to stay so you better watch out for your actions. This girl's had a hard time and quite vulnerable as it is."
He knew that. That she lost the man who could have potentially made her his wife. That she was broken and that she hadn't completely recovered. And among all these, somehow, hearing people suggest repeatedly in so short a time that he would take advantage of her position was testing his patience.
"Tell Keiko to fetch me a basin of cold water and get out of here," said Shizuru as she opened the closet.
He wordlessly exited the room and went up to Keiko as Shizuru asked. He then decided he could use a walk in the forest under the twilit sky.
Perhaps releasing some of his energy would help him cool down and think things through more effectively.
o-o
After hours of wandering through the humid woods, Kurama found himself sitting on a rock overlooking the edge of a cliff. Moonlight enveloped the dark oblivion, and he stared unseeingly.
He didn't know what it was that made him feel unease. Whether it was his mother's persistent reminders of starting a relationship, his comrades' reminders of his decision to live his dual identity, or his feeling protective of the professor.
As he was walking aimlessly through the tangle of roots and bushes in the forest, he tried being pragmatic in his analysis.
His mother was only concerned for him as she was entitled to, without knowing of his past and his future plans. His friends were only being protective of his pride as a youkai and also of anyone who had the misfortune of being entangled with him in his complicated position. Lastly, he was merely anxious about the professor's well-being and the consequences of which on the part she played in this mission that they'd been assigned.
And that he had grown to slightly—in a very infinitesimal degree—care for her. Especially after what had transpired between the two of them not too long ago. Along with this inexplicable change of heart, he felt the need to get to know her better.
These unprecedented advances stemmed from the feeling that she had let him in on so many secrets that only the two of them could relate to: her being less than an ideal educator, Yamamoto's lair, and her history with Urawa.
He had known so many things about her that he felt more intimate with her than he ever did with the rest of the women he'd been acquainted to. Not Botan or Keiko or Yukina or Shizuru. Not even Maya.
It was with the professor that he enjoyed intellectual challenges and unpredictability. Perhaps it was because he'd never allowed himself to share more private time with any of his women friends given their separate preoccupations in the past decade and because he'd never tried to forge any form of relationship with anyone. Not even with his mother constantly asking for a change of heart.
And he couldn't afford to set everything to motion once more when his life was ramshackle as it already was. He required pauses and he'd chosen to pause this particular area for such an extended period that he didn't feel there was a need not to… anymore.
All right, he found Aoshi Chiaki's smarts interesting and inviting, he'd have to admit. He hadn't come across anyone like her before. He'd known many strong women who chose to be independent and self-reliant but she was, as he'd said to her, "a different flower."
And she was so easily flustered and volatile—spontaneous in a way that rattled him just right. But she was also emotional and susceptible, attesting to the validity of the claim that she was not exactly different from all the women he'd met before. They all required consolation and support, to feel needed and welcome; they also required a stand to live by and become—two different needs that he'd seen today if her actions and words against Yomi were to go by.
Beneath the iron exterior was a woman who was inherently good and had the perfect kind of sense expected from someone of her caliber. The fact that she questioned the motives of the architects of this disaster was evidence to her inclination to do good and be good.
The same goodness that had rubbed off on him in his prolonged stay in the Ningenkai. The same goodness that had made her more human and more interesting.
He delighted in the idea that she was just like any.
But he realized it wasn't because he wanted to strip her of all the things that made her stand out. It was because he wanted to find some semblance between her and all the friends he'd gained, some semblance that would speak of how she was just as worthy of his attention.
He wasn't able to draw up any plan to deal with his feelings when he went back to the temple. Everyone else had gone to their nightly routines, and he entered through the kitchen.
As if he needed any more reminder of his current conflict, the professor was sitting alone on one end of the table, her droopy eyes barely focused on the tea cup she was holding with both hands.
"Professor," he said after a moment's pause during which she lifted her eyes to the open door. He was surprised to see her awake.
"You," she said weakly before raising the cup to drink from it. It seemed Shizuru had done away with her button-down shirt and exchanged it for a sleeveless top.
He hovered about the doorway. "Have you eaten?"
"No," she said, shaking her head. "I can't, not after I upchucked my lunch."
That explained this unexpected rising. "You can't go back to bed with an empty stomach, then. Would you manage to wait for the miso soup?"
She stared at him with bleary eyes. "No. I wanted to go sleep since my head feels like a jackhammer's working on it but Shizuru said I finished my tea."
For someone who was suffering from hangover, she was a sensible speaker. He walked to check the pots and no supper was left for the two of them.
"I won't take long," he said to her before disappearing to the pantry. He realized he was just as hungry. He'd been running around the forest, after all.
They didn't speak to each other while he worked on the soup and she on her tea. Today he'd come to a conclusion that she was as remarkable as a conversationalist and a silent companion. They didn't have to always keep a conversation going when topics had been exhausted. They talked when they thought they needed to.
It was something Kurama could live with.
"Professor," he said, patting her gently on the arm that she'd slept on. "Professor Aoshi."
She stirred. But didn't wake.
"Professor, wake up."
She hummed something incomprehensible not even his demonic skills could catch.
"Professor, you need to eat."
She rolled her head and very slowly lifted it from her arm with a massive frown and closed eyes. Kurama placed the bowl of soup in front of her.
"I've added an infusion of herbs to help with the headache," he said as he sat next to her. "Take it and you'll feel better."
She didn't open her eyes for half a minute and just frowned on thin air. When she did, she only lifted the bowl to her lips and drank the soup, ignoring the spoon he'd offered. In no time, she was through and wiped her lips with a hand before she rose from the bench and wobbled away without saying anything more.
He watched as she opened the door with a little difficulty and ambled out without closing it.
Her footsteps faded out as her hunched, limp form did, and Kurama figured he could afford to deal with this new side to her.
He wasn't surprised when the next morning she was the first person in the kitchen, preparing a simple breakfast. When she whirled to see him enter, she said, "That infusion was effective. May I have the recipe?"
Kurama figured it was her way of saying thanks.
A/N: So there's the fluff. And politicking. And Kurama being a little more... Chiaki-concerned. More to follow.
Oh, and did you know that Zwischenzug is almost over? As in, four more chapters (at least) and perhaps an epilogue.
I'll bring you the good news when we finish this ride. Hint: there are clues left about here and there.
Thanks to everyone who reviewed last chapter and those who added this to their faves and alerts! You make me happy, as always. :)
Review response for Kal (Guest): Again, thanks for your review! I'm happy that you've enjoyed the chapter. I hope you liked the Kurama-Chiaki dynamics in this chapter as well.
See you!