Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction / InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Possessed ❯ Chapter 2 ( Chapter 2 )

Two days passed, finding the Spirit Detective team, along with a few other friends, sitting around a grassy area in the local park. A couple of blankets were spread out beneath a large oak and had various items of food set out for the gang to munch on. A cooler of drinks sat between them. Yusuke, Kuwabara and Yukina sat near one blanket, all caught up in conversation as a shadowy form peered down from the depths of the oak's thick branches. Botan, Shizuru and Keiko sat around the other, also engaged in conversation. Kurama stood leaning against the base of the oak, arms crossed over his chest, left knee bent to brace his foot against the tree trunk as if observing the two groups interactions.

Truthfully, he was not joining them on purpose; one reason being he was unsure if there would be a repeat performance of the small incident concerning Botan from two days ago. She didn't seem to be angry with him anymore, but he also wasn't taking any chances. Plus, the other girls were present, causing an even bigger problem. He didn't particularly relish the thought of having his head removed from his shoulders by an enraged Jaganshi if his hands were to "accidentally" slip anywhere near the fire demon's sister.

He was inwardly pondering what could have caused him to do something such as to publicly grope Botan, therefore not noticing the worried looks a petite brunette was sending him from her seat on the blanket. Keiko had been curious as to what was causing the kitsune's non-social attitude all day. Normally, whenever he would see her, he would greet her with a warm smile and polite "Hello," or "How are you doing today, Keiko-chan?" But not today. Today he had been very distant, isolating himself from the others. Especially the girls; her included.

She had been surprised how much his seemingly dismissal of her had hurt, and it had her wondering...

Coming to a decision, Keiko rose to her feet (she hadn't really been adding to Botan and Shizuru's conversation anyway) and made her way to the red headed kitsune's side.

"Kurama-san?" Her voice seemed to startle him as his gaze swung from where it had been idly watching a flock of bluebirds in the sky to focus on her with widened emerald eyes.

"K-Keiko-chan!" The red head exclaimed. Keiko arched an eyebrow at him as he attempted to take a step back, bumping into the tree trunk.

"Kurama-san... are you alright? You've been awfully quite today. More than usual even." Keiko continued on, taking a few more steps toward Kurama while extending a hand to him in a friendly gesture.

'Too close. Too close!' Kurama screamed mentally, as he could already feel his hand itching to latch onto the supple curve of Keiko's skirt covered behind.

"M-hmm." Kurama managed to reply, even as his right hand rose from his side, beginning a slow journey towards the brown haired girl.

Keiko smiled, mistaking the movement for an invitation to come nearer. Which she did.

Kurama's eyes closed in dread. "I'm sorry, Keiko." He muttered.

"Kurama, what are you- Aiyyeeee!"

Kurama squeezed his eyes shut and quickly withdrew his hand as soon as the compulsion left him. Keiko's hand was flying long before that and he was rocked backwards by the powerful SLAP! that she delivered.

"Kurama-san! Oh, it was an automatic reaction! I'm sure you didn't mean to-" Keiko cut herself off in mid sentence with another shriek, followed by another slap. He had groped her again!

Unknown to the main personality known to everyone as Kurama and to the other personality as Shuichi, another soul was laughing up a storm inside their body. He really hadn't expected to be found out. In fact, he didn't even know exactly what was going on. He couldn't influence the kitsune-human much besides the groping, so he was doubly surprised when a silky voice hissed at him from the depths of the combined souls. ~Who are you?~

Considering the soul was who he was, there was really only one reply to this question.

'Ah, I am but a humble monk. And might I inquire as to who you are?'

~Humble monk?~ Youko whispered and brushed his soul against the self proclaimed servant of Buddha. He growled a warning at the invader and wrapped himself completely around the new human soul to get a better sense of it. ~Humble?~ He asked again and felt a thrill of power when the "monk" tried to twist around uncomfortably. ~Indeed,~ He purred and withdrew. Miroku was unsure what to make of the feeling of amusement rolling off the other inhabitant of the body he had happened to choose.

'And this is entertaining, how?' The disembodied monk inquired of the other entity.

Slap!

"Kurama, stop it! What has gotten into you?!" The mental conversation was interrupted by the slap to the cheek Kurama had gotten. Miroku laughed lightly. It was well worth the pain…

"I can't stop, Keiko. I think there's something wrong with me," Kurama attempted, unaware of the two snickering spirits in the back of his mind. If they'd had physical forms, they would have been rolling around on the ground, laughing at the poor unaware teenager.

"I'll say," Yusuke muttered in the brief silence following. His best friend had just been groped and the kitsune could only say he couldn't stop?

Keiko backed cautiously away from the furiously blushing Kurama, eyes watching him warily in case he made another attempt to cop a feel. 'Not that it didn't feel nice... STOP IT! This is no time to be harboring crushes! This is serious, something is wrong with Kurama-san!'

Keiko berated herself mentally as she sat back down on the blanket, tucking her legs beneath her. By now, everyone was staring at Kurama. The red head could do nothing but hang his head in shame.

"I am truly sorry, Keiko." He murmured through the red curtain of hair concealing his embarrassed face. ""Please, forgive me?"

"Ah... Sure. Okay." Keiko smiled a bit tremulously, eyeing Kurama a bit warily, sympathy climbing into her eyes. There had to be something wrong with him for him to have acted like that. "I forgive you, Kurama."

Yusuke scoffed in the background, but kept his peace at a threatening glare. If she was going to forgive him, let her. It was no business of his. But if he kept groping girls, sooner or later someone was going to get angry at him. Eyeing the blushing red head who was now smiling gratefully, the Spirit Detective relented slightly. "What do you think is wrong with you?"

Looking faintly surprised that Yusuke had actually believed him, the kitsune shrugged helplessly. "I don't know. But I'm not doing this, not consciously, at least."

"So what does that mean? You telling me your subconscious is making you do this?" Yusuke asked incredulously.

"That's not what I am saying at all. What I'm saying is that there is something else... some other force propelling me...influencing me... to do this." Kurama replied.

~Uh-oh, busted...~ Youko snickered at the apprehension the spirit monk suddenly began radiating.

'Ah, not quite. He hasn't sensed my presence yet, only suspects.' Miroku responded piously, 'You are right though, I will eventually have to reveal myself if I am to receive any help in returning to my own body.'

"Have Hiei look into your mind then. Prove it." Yusuke exclaimed, immediately taking to the idea.

Kuwabara looked blank for a moment, then looked at the fire apparition. "Can you really do that? He's a demon too."

"If he allows it," Hiei stated, looking as stoic as always, though a faintly curious gleam was in his crimson eyes.

~Well?~ Youko asked the other spirit, amusement radiating from his own soul. There was a half-reluctant mental sigh before reaching out slowly, unsure if this would actually work.

'No need for your friend to do that.' Miroku said softly into the normal portion of Kurama's mind.

There was a slight change in his aura as the dominant personality yelped both mentally and physically and the fire apparition jerked his head back, having been prepared to go into his friend's mind and prove or disprove his statement.

'What-You're not Youko!' Kurama's voice held a tinge of panic with the surprise. 'Who are you?' He demanded quickly.

Attempting what had failed on Youko, Miroku tried his best innocent and pious voice. 'I am but a humble monk good sir.'

It might have worked.... however, Youko's presence dispelled that possibility with a snort accompanied by four simple words.

~Humble monk, my ass.~

'Youko? What the hell is going on?!' By now, Kurama's mental voice had taken on a definite panicked tone. 'There's someone in there with you, isn't there!'

~No Shuichi, you're just hearing things. Of course there's someone else in here!~ If Youko had eyes to roll, he would have rolled them at his counterpart's obvious statement. Youko mentally nudged the monk, a few waves of irritation making Miroku mentally wince.

'I mean you no harm, I simply, ah... Well, there was a demon you see, and I had to save Sango. So I ended up here.' Miroku felt quite proud of his explanation as Youko and Kurama tried to figure out what the heck he'd just said. Somehow things just didn't connect in their minds.

~Who's Sango?~ Youko asked curiously, closely followed by Kurama's question. 'But how did your soul get into my body? And out of yours? You do have a body, correct? Youko is almost too much to handle already.'

"Hello! Earth to fox; this is annoyance calling, could ya pick up the phone?" Yusuke's sarcasm penetrated the mental conversation and for an instant three spirits glanced up at Yusuke out of Kurama's eyes before two shuffled back to enjoy the show and leave Shuichi floundering alone as he realized that everyone was watching him.

Kurama's cheeks deepened to a shade nearly the same color of his hair as he took in his friends' expressions. Yusuke's annoyance showed on his face, accompanied with a bit of concern. Hiei's held his usual mask of indifference, but Kurama could tell by the look in the fire demon's ruby eyes that he was worried as well. Kuwabara looked on as he stood in a particularly protective stance beside Yukina, as if to ward off any groping gesture the kitsune might attempt to bestow upon the Koorime. Shizuru was standing with a baffled Botan, cigarette between her lips as she puffed on it thoughtfully. And Keiko…

Well, Keiko was staring at him expectantly, still awaiting an explanation…

"He was chatting with himselves," Hiei stated when Kurama gaped at them in confusion, his brain attempting to form a coherent reply and was offered helpful suggestions from both other personalities in his mind. The fire apparition shrugged and settled into his usual silence with mixed amounts of glares when a few stares were directed his way.

"He is right. I seem to have somehow... acquired another personality."

"Wha-? Another one? You gotta be kidding me." Yusuke stated in disbelief. The reaction was pretty much distributed between all present, excluding Hiei who had an insider's perspective.

"Sadly, no, I am not, Yusuke. There is another soul now residing within me. How it got there, I have no idea, but was attempting to sort it out so that I could give you all a reason as to why I did what I- er… did… to Keiko-san." He again cast another apologetic look in the small brunette's direction.

'She's too lovely to resist. How could you not want to reach out toward that voluptuous, firm-' Miroku felt what amounted to a mental kick and sent out waves of melodrama to his companions in retaliation. 'I, but a lowly monk, have been forced to take residence in your body when all I want to do is get back to my wonderful lady love and all you can do is batter at my already fragile mental defenses! I should give up now! Give into the all consuming darkness waiting to overwhelm me, give in-'

~That's laying it on a bit thick. If you want to go back to your so-called 'lady love' why are you groping other females? Can't say I can complain about your choice, she is very lovely...~ Youko leered mentally at Keiko and Kurama tried to ignore the two as a few images darted through the back of his mind of exactly what Youko and Miroku found nice about her.

He glanced out again at his friends and explained weakly as they raised questioning eyebrows, "Youko and this new spirit seem to get along a bit too well."

"Is that so? Well, fox boy, what the hell do you plan on doing about it? And how'd you get so lucky in the first place anyway?" Yusuke asked.

"I am not sure, Yusuke. Perhaps if I were given time to actually converse with this new spirit, I would learn some useful information?" Kurama replied pointedly.

Yusuke scowled before waving the kitsune off. "Fine, I know when to shut up. You don't have to tell me twice, I can take a hint."

"Then why aren't you?" Kurama asked wearily.

Kurama fell silent, his body tensing as from the corner of his eye, he saw Keiko approaching. Granted, she still kept a bit more than arms length distance between them, but she approached him all the same. "It's okay, Kurama-san. I'm sure we can all wait for you to get some answers." She said softly, blushing.

'Don't.' Kurama thought sharply at Miroku, just in case the monk decided to try despite the distance. There was an amused chuckle but when nothing happened Kurama smiled gratefully at Keiko. "I hope I can get some for you. This new spirit is very vague. I will do my best to make sure such things do not happen again.

Keiko blushed harder, recalling the previous incident concerning Kurama's wandering hand and her backside. "So... that wasn't you earlier?" She questioned. Kurama wasn't quite sure, but did she sound a bit... disappointed?

Kurama raised an eyebrow slightly and there was a faint whisper, from two voices, of ~She wants you.~ Kurama carefully schooled his features as he replied politely, all the while wanting to evict the other two spirits and see if he could give them both a good beating. "My hand was under the influence of Miroku, apparently a monk, despite his rather nefarious habits."

"Oh..." Keiko blinked, not sure if she should be happy that it wasn't Kurama who had done such a thing or disappointed. "W-well then, I guess I owe you an apology again. For slapping you earlier... I'm sorry."

"I assure you, I took no offense. I was shocked myself, and had no clues as to what was going on." Kurama studiously ignored the stuttering and the hesitation in her voice, as well as the voices in the back of his mind. Who had decided to torture him so? Wasn't one vicious and perverted fox enough? Now he had a peaceful monk who was just as perverted - and they were ganging up on him.

Keiko nodded, stepping back and retreating over to where Shizuru, Botan and Yukina were standing together. Kurama sighed, once again looking inwardly. 'Alright, no more introductions. I want you to begin at the beginning and tell me how the hell you wound up in my body.'