Chapter Twenty-Three.
"Tamara, I have to."
"You don't have to do shit!" the demon shouted, so loud that Kurama had to move the phone away from his ear. "So you and the girl mated, that's your fault for losing control." He heard her sigh. "Come on, Kurama, a ceremony? In Demon World? What about your mother?"
"Tamara, I love her." He got no response. "I understand now. I understand what Hiei has always told me. Like how he would do anything or sacrifice even his own flesh and blood just so he could see you have the slightest smile on your face. Or how he tells me every time we speak that you were worth the hell and the Otherworld and the stress. I understand the feeling now, completely. To me, Yuzuki is worth it."
He didn't get a response at first, but he heard Tamara sniffle after a few moments. "That boy is so getting laid." Now that was something he hadn't wanted to hear. Why would she say that while crying? "We'll be down in two weeks. Send me the coordinates."
When she hung up, Kurama sweat-dropped. Tamara always was a weird one.
It had been almost a whole week since the Mating Moon had ended. Yuzuki was always busy preparing for her coronation, with Kurama watching from the other side of the room. Sometimes she would smile or laugh with Aki, but she was usually her more serious, melancholy self.
But now that he was mated with her, he could feel her. At least, what she was feeling, anyway. How she was bored of trying on the perfect color, and finding the perfect tiara design. She was hungry. And then she would look over at where Kurama would be standing. That delicious blush would cross her cheeks. He could feel her embarrassment, almost taste her physical lust. It was as if the aphrodisiac had never left her.
He looked at her, giving her a questioning look. She looked away, and soon he was picturing something that almost looked like blueberries, except that blueberries weren't fuchsia with strange orange spots.
Instead of further questioning, he silently left the room in search of the mystery fruit. Maybe he would give them a try…
"Yuzuki! You got the juice all over you!"
The female shrugged and licked her lips. "I was hungry, so when you left I had Kurama go find me something to eat."
"Ugh! Just go wash your hands or something!"
Aki could be so pushy. But Yuzuki could honestly say she was beginning to feel like herself. Like she had never left at all.
"Kurama, do you like-" she turned to see Kurama on the ground, eyes large as his face kept flushing to a darker and darker shade of red. He must have eaten the entire berry at once. It had been much too spicy for him. "Hey, someone help him while I go wash up."
The night came quickly, and with it came a private dinner party of the royal family plus Kurama. The yoko of the Mari were all discussing the coronation tomorrow.
"I do not understand why I have to wear a crown and not a headdress."
"Yuzuki," Aki retorted, "only the emperors wear a headdress on their coronation day. On yours, being an empress, you will wear a crown. If you please, after tomorrow you may wear a headdress every day."
"Aki, will you at least let her try-"
"Yuzuki will wear the tiara." The General's deep voice silenced Nobuyuki's. "That is all there is to it."
No one really argued about it after that. Kurama only listened, half-laughing while he ignored the pink fruits on his plate.
"Well, I still do not know what else I need to do."
"Look pretty, prepare a speech to say in front of the crowd. After that, you should be fine."
"And then?"
"Stop talking like a child," the General chimed.
Yuzuki rolled her eyes. "All right. Aki, brother, what is it that I should do next?"
And to think Kurama would soon officially be a family member.
Her family was quick to notice the difference in their behavior. The General had said he could "see the pain in their hearts" when they acted distant.
But Yuzuki's "pain" was on instinct. It wasn't out of love. And he supposed he deserved that, really. He had forced her to mate him.
Then again, Yuzuki hadn't been required to mark him in return. And in order to mark someone, truly leave an imprint of your being, you had to want it. So what did that say about her?
Kurama was almost asleep when he felt something wiggle from the bottom of his sheet.
Yuzuki made her way up, ears poking out from the top of the sheet. Every night she did this, hiding her face after crawling into his bed. She'd snuck into his room every night.
"Long day?"
"Hmm."
"Well," he yawned slightly, running a finger along the edge of her ear until it twitched. "Goodnight, Yuzuki."
"Goodnight, Kurama."
"Kurama, it is time."
Huh?
"Kurama, please awaken. You never sleep this heavy."
Not since before she began sharing a bed with you.
He slowly opened his emerald green eyes, enjoying the fact that he was faced with eyes the color of the sun-it was so much better than the real thing.
"Yes?" he asked, moving to rub his eyes. "What are we doing?"
"Kurama, my coronation is today."
He nodded slowly, eyes blinking to focus. "Right, coronation, sorry," he grumbled. "What do I need to do?"
Yuzuki raised an eyebrow. "You do not have to do anything. I was just waking you up so you would be there on time."
Waking him up at dawn for no reason? Sigh…
He moved his hand towards her, entwining her fingers in her long, blue-silver hair. "All right."
She blushed and stood suddenly. "Well, I suppose I will see you when the ceremony begins."
"Yes, you shall."
She didn't look nervous at all, but he could feel it.
Her eyes scanned the crowd as she walked to the usual center stage. A strange, golden chair now centered it, adorned with jewels and vines and… wrist and ankle restraints?
Her eyes met from the stage and he saw the unadulterated fear in her eyes. He felt his own panic rise in his gut, demon instincts kicked in. Why should he fell the need to protect her? And what should he protect her from?
She looked stunning. The sunlight cast no shadows upon her this day. Her robes were long and silver, trailing behind her. They wrapped around her neck and came down to cover her front before wrapping again about her hips. Her hair-to his delight-was pinned atop her head, and a small, silver tiara sat between her yoko ears.
On either side of her, her brothers stood straight. Her uncle wasn't there, as he stood by Kurama. This was "the children's job."
"People of the great Mari clan."
Her beautiful voice quieted the entire population. All hushed whispers ceased. "My given name is Yuzuki," she began, "and today is the day your new leader shall be born."
Shouts and applauses. What did she mean by "born"?
"As a leader, I promise you protection, love, and strength," she said. "But I want to be more than just a leader to you." She scanned the crowd once more. "I remember my life before I left. I remember everything I was told about the mother I never got the chance to meet."
Kurama heard murmered praises. "My mother was a great demon, who helped everyone with everything she could, no matter the circumstance. Despite her royal status, all she cared about was the happiness of her people."
Why did she feel so sad?
"I do not want to be your leader," she said loudly. "I want to be your friend, your caregiver, someone you can have true faith in." She paused. "And today I will become all of those things."
Shouts. Applause. Tears. But Kurama wanted to know why she felt so afraid… was it the chair?
"The final stage of coronation shall commence," Nobuyuki shouted. "Afterward we shall meditate during our new empress's recovery!"
"Recovery?" Kurama asked, looking to the General. "Does Yuzuki have to run a marathon or something?"
The older man placed a hand on Kurama's shoulder. "I wish you two would have waited, Yoko Kurama," he said. "I am sorry to say that you will have to witness this."
"Witness what?"
His thoughts were interrupted by Yuzuki's voice: "I would also be honored to announce that I am planning to be married." The crowd shouted again. "In a week or so Yoko Kurama and I shall celebrate our union as mates with all of the Mari clan."
Soon he was receiving pats on the back and handshakes from yokos he'd never met. He was sure Yuzuki was smirking inwardly.
"Let the Harvest commence!" Nobuyuki shouted.
"Harvest?"
"I apologize, Kurama," said the General. He looked so very nervous. "But we all have to go through it, if you are the Mari."
Kurama looked back to the stage to see Yuzuki's wrists being restrained to the chair, and her small ankles as well. He had to fight back basic instinct, as he could taste her fear.
"What are you people doing!?" he asked. "What will they do to her!?"
"She is, like all others before her, going to absorb all the powers of the past rulers."
"How!? They go to-"
"No, actually, the spirits of everyone in the Mari stays here. In eternal rest, without judgement." He still looked nervous. "Aki will one day absorb the power within me, just as Nobuyuki took his aunt's almost six hundred years ago."
He felt her panic, and he knew he'd grown claws.
"Demons don't absorb energy," he growled. "It's a foreign substance, like throwing a shark in fresh water. I know one person that does it, and it is a feat within itself. She'll die."
"The process is painful." How could he be so calm!? "But she will survive. And she will be strong."
He looked to Nobuyuki, who was pressing buttons on a remote. He had a solemn look on his face. "What does Nobuyuki even do?" he asked.
"Nobuyuki is over the Mari security," the General replied. "In addition to my sister's energy, he was surgically implanted with an entire security software in his brain. He can control it with a twitch of his eye."
So that was what was wrong with this place. The royal family was full of masochists. Their dead never went to Spirit World. They stayed in the land here. One man controlled whether or not they would be found.
But all those thoughts stopped when her eyes met his. They seemed to shout something at him that he could not understand.
And then he heard the whirring of a machine, and Aki telling her to relax.
And then he saw the tears fill her golden orbs.
He felt her hurting, and a rage built inside knowing he could do nothing.
Her head flew back as she screamed in agony. Her body writhed in the chair and he could smell her blood before it burst from the skin.
The chair itself glowed with a massive amount of youki. It flowed into her and tears tracked her face. She could barely take a breath, Kurama could tell.
"Hey, Kurama!"
Wait, what?"
"Kurama, you bastard, where are ya!?"
The redhead turned around. At the edge of the crowd, off in the distance, he could easily see Yusuke, Keiko, Kuwabara, and Shizuru. Surely Hiei, Tamara, and the kids were there, too, and they were just too short…
When Hina seemed to suddenly be floating, Kurama knew she'd climbed onto her father's shoulders. He informed the General and moved quickly, thanking the gods that there was a distraction from this horror.
"Kurama, what's going on?" Kuwabara asked. "I keep hearing that you say this is a great place… sheesh, this is terrible…"
Kurama's hand twitched as the screaming continued. "She's absorbing the energy of the previous rulers of the Mari," he told them. "I had no idea."
"Like I did when I absorbed the Spirit Orb from Genkai," Yusuke said. "But at least I didn't have a crowd."
"She's going to make it," Hiei chimed, his oldest daughter absently pulling at his hair. "If she's doing it, then that means every other ruler had to do it at some point."
"But you've done it, Hiei. You've absorbed youki."
"Yes, but it is only temporary. And Yusuke may have done it with Spirit energy, but it is still a different thing entirely. If she survives she will be on an S-class level."
For once Kurama wished that Hiei was not so blunt. "Tell the guards I said to get you into the mansion with food. I have to get back."
He quickly moved back to the General's side, looking to Yuzuki. Among the screaming was heavy sobs. Her tears fell and caused Kurama to once again become enraged.
Almost the entire day passed by before the crying and the screaming stopped. The yoko fell limp in the chair, her ceremonial tiara falling to the ground. Nobuyuki was the first to move, talking in a low voice and checking her pulse. Kurama's heart pounded.
But she lifted her head up, and her sun-colored eyes looked straight at him.
"She's fine," the General said. "Now for three days she will be in her room recovering and meditating."
When her brothers made a similar announcement, all of the yokos began to cheer and shout. The General went up onto the stage to help the crowd prepare for meditation while they picked her limp body up and out of the chair.
She was unconscious, but her eyes were open and gazing at him. The blankness in her eyes reminded him of someone who was dead…
"No, Hina, don't eat those," Kurama said, grabbing a too-familiar pink berry from the toddler's plate.
"So, after an entire day it finally ended?" Tamara asked. "That must have been awful."
"Yes, and she's expected to recover within three days," the redhead replied. "She may be strong, but I'm not sure if it's long enough due to her small frame."
"Yeah, she is little for a grown demon," said Kuwabara.
"Yeah, Kurama," Yusuke chimed, "I never would've pinned you as a guy who was attracted to kid-looking girls."
Kurama held back his glare. "Apparently her grandmother, an empress like herself, was built just like her. It's a recessive gene, nothing more."
As Yusuke and Kuwabara continued to snicker, Kurama attempted to talk about the wedding. And it was then Kurama realized he knew absolutely nothing about the Mari mating ceremonies.
"Kurama," he heard Aki say, "she's asking for you, and I need to show your friends around."
"Of course. Thank you, Aki." He looked to his friends. "You'll all get appropriate rooms and I will meet you at breakfast tomorrow."
He could barely sense her youki at all. A plate of fruit lay untouched beside her bed.
"Why aren't you eating?" he asked. "You're supposed to be recovering."
She was flushed with embarrassment. "I can barely hold it in my hand," she half-whispered. "I dropped my plate and I think it broke. Will you feed me?"
He laughed lightly and walked over to sit beside her on the bed. "Of course."
"Thanks."
He picked up another strange fruit. "Hey, Yuzuki?"
"Hmm?"
"I love you."