Chapter 27 Duet (Or, a musical composition for two performers in which the performers have equal importance to the piece)
As Kurama whizzed through the expanse of the Makai holding his beloved, a smile danced across his face.
"What is it?"
"It's been a long time since I've carried you out of danger."
"And I'm conscious this time. Even better."
Kurama laughed. "Where do I go?"
"The giant sakura tree you planted."
"Oh?" Kurama looked at Asuka, curious.
"It'll be easier to explain once we get there."
Kurama changed his direction. Within his arms, Asuka flared her ki. It seeped into his body and made him gasp. The power felt like water that carried an electrical current. His perception was altered. It was almost like he was seeing…
"I'm sharing my power with you, but only a little of it," Asuka explained. "We can't do this for very long, but right now you can see where the time distortion bubbles will form so you can avoid them."
"Will this drain you?" Kurama asked.
"Yes, but not immediately. The bigger issue is holding my power back, so I don't overwhelm you."
"I suppose it did make me pass out one time."
"My seikoki will have fewer adverse effects because it's stable, but yes, too much of my power could still do that."
Kurama dashed through the Makai. "You're so strong, my love. You amaze me."
She turned her head into his chest and nuzzled him. After days of not feeling her closeness, her warmth and power soothed him. Just like always.
"Kurama," she said weakly, "I really don't know what's waiting for me at the end of this."
"I know. But I belong by your side, wherever that takes me. I promised I would help you carry whatever burdens you have. Until the end. Till death do us part, Love. And even then, I would prefer to join you in eternal sleep and walk into the place beyond the Raekai, holding your hand."
She squeezed his neck.
"How are you feeling after correcting the time distortion bubbles?"
"Better, now that I'm surrounded by you. By the time we get to the tree, I will have my full strength back."
The haze over Kurama made his perspective shift in a fuzzed manner. He saw the near future over the current time. He blinked and saw a bubble would form in their path ahead. It was a small one, so he stepped a few meters to the side to give it a wide berth.
And they continued on, yokai and raekai together. The deeper they got into the Makai, the longer it took to make progress. Time distortion bubbles waxed and waned and even with Asuka feeding Kurama her perception, she almost had to stop a distortion. Twice.
"Set me down?" she asked when they had gone to the far side of the gigantic tree. Kurama obliged, and Asuka closed her eyes, her pupils moving back and forth underneath them. "The gates connecting the circles of the Makai move from place to place and only open at certain times. When you planted this tree, you opened a new place the gate could open. I don't know why." She opened her eyes and then moved toward a pile of rocks. "In thirty seconds, the gate will be under here."
Kurama bent down to pick up a boulder larger than Asuka that rested on the gnarly roots of the enormous tree he planted. He heaved it upward and threw it to the side.
Underneath, they found what they were looking for. The portal was an inky black that moved like a thick liquid in a container. Asuka looked at Kurama as if she were giving him one last chance. When he clasped her hand instead, she nodded, and they jumped in.
Kurama expected rock and stone above them, but his guess was incorrect. Instead, a deep purple sky stretched above them with wisps of emerald clouds that rolled across the purple. The colors reflected across Asuka's features.
"Beautiful," Kurama said.
"It is. Where we were is called Circle Zero. This is the First Circle of the Makai. The circle is mostly uninhabited, so we'll be able to make our way through here without interference. Well, besides any distortion bubbles we come across." Asuka closed her eyes. "This plane seems to have a lot of large areas covered in distortion bubbles, but not many small anomalies. The entrance to the next circle is far, though."
"Then we should hurry."
"We should, but it's less urgent than you think. The further down into the Makai you go, the slower time passes relative to the layer above. Minutes become hours, hours become days, and days become weeks."
"So, we could be in here for years, but only a few minutes will pass in the main level of the Makai?"
"Something like that," Asuka said. "There isn't a formula to find out how much time has passed in the layer above."
"Then the only way we'll know is when we come back out."
Asuka said nothing.
Kurama waited a moment and then said, "Well, shall we?"
"Yes. This way."
Kurama and Asuka ran across the great plane of the First Circle of the Makai, through golden fields and next to sparkling rivers. There were a few times Asuka had to change directions or go around sprawling distortion bubbles, but their journey was quiet. Kurama knew Asuka was continually using her powers and kept silent, to help her concentrate.
"It amazes me I have never heard of this tranquil place," Kurama said when they stopped to take a break.
"If you had, would you have left the Makai and your old life for solitude?"
Kurama smiled. "No, I would not have."
Asuka smiled back. "I thought so."
Kurama's tail whipped.
"There are some fruit trees where the next entrance is, but the food we can eat will become scarcer the further we go down."
"I can go a long time without eating in this body. What about you?"
"The same for me. Unlike my yosei form, this body doesn't need to eat."
The two journeyed onward deep into the First Circle. The light faded to twilight.
"Let's stop here for the night," Asuka said. "There won't be any distortions and the entrance to the next circle won't be active until tomorrow. We can get some rest. The rest of the journey will be a lot more difficult."
"I'll get a fire going for us."
Kurama spent a few minutes gathering firewood while Asuka made herself comfortable on a fallen tree with cherry red bark. Her dress was muddy at the bottom, but in Kurama's opinion, it made her look all the more ethereal.
Once he had started the fire with his ki, Kurama sat next to Asuka on the log. He clasped his hands. "Asuka…" Her iridescent violet eyes met his. Kurama searched their depths as he tried to coherently word everything on his mind. "I…" He stopped. It's time for us to come clean about our feelings. While we still can. "I know what happened…losing our child…was an unspeakable trauma. But when you pushed me away like that, I was sick with worry."
"I'm so sorry."
"It…hurt. That deeply hurt me, Asuka."
Asuka swallowed, and tears rimmed her eyes. "I couldn't see anything beyond my own self-loathing. I hated myself, Kurama. I couldn't accept your love. I felt like I didn't deserve your love. I deserved to be punished."
"And in doing so, you punished me as well. I wanted to comfort you and myself by being near you. But you rejected me. In my grief,I needed you."
"You seemed like you were dealing with it okay," Asuka whispered. "I thought you were just worried about me. I didn't know you were so upset about…losing the baby."
"Because I was using logic to get through the crisis? Asuka…" Kurama shook his head. "You know that's how I cope. I opened our apartment door and smelled your blood. I found you curled up in the shower with hollow eyes, surrounded by the remnants of your miscarriage. How else was I going to keep you safe and be a steady anchor for you, but to distance myself from my emotions?"
"I wasn't thinking," she choked. "I was too blinded by my grief and pain to see you clearly."
Kurama's eyes bore into Asuka's. "This is important for you to know: I felt that spark of life from our unborn child. I loved them just as much as you did. I wanted to be their father and my heart is broken." His voice faltered.
Iridescent tears streamed down Asuka's face. Kurama closed his eyes as the swell of emotions rode upward. Kurama finally surrendered himself to his grief. He clasped her delicate hand and cried.
Yokai tears were strange. His stung his eyes and cheeks, but he didn't stop. It was therapeutic to share his grief with Asuka. Finally.
"I thought it was my fault," Asuka sobbed. "I thought I had done this to our child because I used my unstable ki, even though I was trying to use it safely."
Kurama stood and pulled Asuka into his chest. He wrapped his arms tightly around her as she cried. "Oh, Asuka."
"When I got my powers back, I could see it wasn't because of that. Losing the baby had nothing to do with using my ki. It was just…my body. That body is unstable and can't sustain life. And I am anguished because of that. But now I know I didn't actively harm our child." She buried her head into his chest. "I'm so sorry I hurt you, Kurama. I'm so sorry I pushed you away."
"I'm sorry I didn't communicate my feelings, Love," he said as he ran his fingers through her hair. "I'm sorry I was being overprotective about you gaining your powers back and you felt that you had to hide things from me. That never should've happened. I was going to apologize to you the night we lost the baby. My job is to love and support you…whatever that means."
"I love you," Asuka sobbed. "I will love our baby forever and I will love the life we could've all had together."
"You are so brave and I'm terrified I'm going to lose you. I've been scared."
"Me too," Asuka said. "All I want is to stay with you, forever. Kurama…this life you've given me, I don't think I can ever thank you or express how much I love being with you."
Kurama squeezed her tighter as his emotions continued to overwhelm him. "Life isn't worth living if you're not there next to me."
Her fingers tightened on his neck, and it sparked longing. Kurama wanted to make love to her, right here, right now. But he felt uncertain that's what she wanted.
"Kurama." Her voice dripped with desperate desire.
He pulled away and searched her eyes. As he did, her hands went into his hair and traveled up to his ears. She looked as desperate as he felt.
His lips crashed onto hers and she groaned as she opened her mouth. Her tears tasted like saltwater taffy and they made him dizzy.
"Make love to me," she pleaded into his mouth. "Please. Comfort me by being inside me. I need your touch."
Her body and ki were going to rip him apart, but it didn't matter. She could burn him for all he cared. "I love you," he said as his canines scraped the side of her neck. "You mean everything to me. You are my sun and my moon. I count the seasons with your smiles. You are my light. Your soul comforts me. Your laughter sustains me. Your music inspires me. Asuka."
She was still crying iridescent tears as he pulled her dress down. And she kept crying while she took off his white robe and slid her hands along his biceps. He kissed her hard again as he wrapped all of himself around her. She moaned.
Kurama picked her up and brought her away from the fire and into the golden reeds. They were soft as he set her down on them, his body hovering just over hers.
Her glowing bronze hair lit her face, revealing an expression of desperation and arousal. Kurama flared his own ki which heightened his senses. Her power and smell, the way she breathed. All of her enticing and desirable. He noticed her breasts were fuller in this form and he massaged them, greedily.
"Hurry. Put your mark on this body." Asuka brought her leg up and hooked it around his butt, just underneath his tail.
That made him go feral. He gave into her eagerness and slid inside her. She was warmer inside than in her other body, and he growled at the feeling.
She cried out as he rubbed against her. Their ki was mixing and sparking in ways Kurama didn't comprehend, but he didn't care at the moment.
The only thing he felt was Asuka's desperation. "You…you're hot," he grunted through clenched teeth. "Your power…"
Asuka whimpered. "Don't stop. Just keep thrusting until you can't bear to hold on a second longer. I need you to be inside me for as long as possible. Please."
Kurama's head swam with euphoria. At the edge of his mind, he could sense the future. His future, which was full of ecstasy. He was simultaneously feeling his climax and the buildup to it. The way Asuka was crying out told him she felt the same.
Asuka was sharing their future over and over as they continued to make love, as she desperately hung on to their one specific moment of euphoria. Kurama knew it was because she believed this could be their last, but he couldn't reason beyond that. He could only feel what Asuka was doing to him.
After that, he couldn't say. Her mind and body had pushed him so hard, he passed out inside her.
But really, there was no place he would rather be.
Author's Note:
Not a whole lot to say about this chapter except to give you a hello and a friendly ask to shoot me a comment if you feel so inclined! I really love hearing from you and I hope you are enjoying the story. I hope to have the next chapter up real soon.
Onward, to the finish
-Arielle