Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction / InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Mating ❯ Visits and Information ( Chapter 10 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

"The Mating"

Disclaimer: See Ch. one

AN: To any Koenma lovers out there, I apologize now. Thanks as always to Rose, the best beta-reader! Rabid squirrels! Yikes! Thanks but no thanks, I have enough problems with Rabid Plot Bunnies! By the way, if anyone knows Keiko's mother's and father's first names? Please? Drop it in a review, send an e-mail? I need help with this one.

Chapter Ten: Two visits and information

Kurama walked downstairs a few minutes later. He was once more in his human form, followed by Keiko who had gone upstairs to finish getting dressed as she had just thrown on her dress before.

Kurama looked at Hiei. "What did you find out?"

Hiei pulled out a book. "You're the first."

"I'm the first what?"

"S-class youkai to mate with a human. All the other S-class have been too obsessed with destroying the human race. Closest thing on record was Yusuke's ancestor, Raizen, and he didn't mate with the human, only had sex with her. There have been three A-class that have mated with humans, about a dozen B-class and under that, there's a separet volume." Hiei handed the book over to Kurama, who opened it.

He glanced through. The dialect was obscure enough that few in the Makai or Reikai could read it, but he could, thanks to years of rare artifacts, including books. "Can you read this, Hiei?"

Hiei nodded, "A little, anyway. That's one of the rarest Makai dialects still in use in some areas. I speak it better than I read it."

Kurama let out a short bark of laughter. "I can read it, but not speak it. Maybe we should exchange lessons sometime."

Hiei shook his head. "Just read, Fox."

Kurama quickly looked through the book, skimming for details that might help him understand what was happening to Keiko. He found the information off balance. "Did you get any information other than this?"

"No, but the Toddler will be making an appearance a little later, though." Hiei replied.

Kurama looked straight into Hiei's eyes, worried about this development. "Why? Why would this warrent Koenma's personal attention?"

Shiori picked up on her son's tone and watched more carefully. Their by-play was very intense. Keiko was looking over Kurama's shoulder, looking at the print, which, apparently, she couldn't read either. Hatanaka looked puzzled, but just took whatever information he could. Shuuichi was just excited about the whole thing, enjoying things with the child-like innocence that she treasured in him. Her son had never had that air about him and she now knew why, because he was never innocent.

"Because you are the first, Fox. He wants to know what's going on, almost as badly as you do. You have to deal with it, he has to document it."

"I hate being one of his guinea pigs, though." Kurama read for a while and then said, "I found some useful information on the three documented A-class matings, but from all apparent evidence, from B-class on up, the mate started taking on the powers of the demon that they mated with. In the case of all three A's, the mates became hanyou's with the demon side prevalent."

Shiori spoke up, "The jeweler mentioned a hanyou, too."

Hiei answered her, "Common term for half-demons. Keiko's energy is no longer strictly human. Kurama's demon blood is taking over."

Kurama looked between three pages, "B-class conversions, becoming slight demon, took a year and a half on average. A-class took a year in all three cases, give or take a month or so. Which means that we're looking at six months, between four and eight, really, for full conversion on the possibility of full youkai. This will cause some problems."

Keiko looked as if she would have liked to faint, but instead asked. "What's the practical application of this mess?"

Kurama wrapped an arm around her. "It's looking like you will become a kitsune, such as myself."

"Only without the benefit of having a human body to crawl into to walk amoung Ningen society." Hiei added. "Fortunately youkos are skilled illusionists. It means that you won't be forced to move into the Makai unless you choose to."

Kurama said, "We should be able to finish out the school year and I can at least graduate. After that we can decide what we want to do from there. Meanwhile, Hiei and I will train you on abilities as you get them. Your agility is already becoming that of a youko so we work on that first. We'll also end up asking Yusuke and you can start sparring with the three of us. Kuwabara did until he got critically injured a couple of times and was no longer informed on where or when we sparred."

"Hn, baka." Hiei agreed.

Kurama added, "On the other hand, since you won't be graduating in the same class as myself, we'll have one school year where we will have to go to different schools and that will be hard. We'll give it a trial for these remaining couple of months that we have remaining. Anything after three thirty in the afternoon will be hard on us and we'll have classes all the way up to that point, but we'll be able to see each other between classes."

Keiko nodded. Somehow the idea of turning into a kitsune didn't frighten her, not like it should. Almost all of her friends these days were youkai, including her childhood friend. "We'll see how these two months go. The big change will be when you guys go on missions. I'll have to go as well."

"I'm sure Koenma is already judging how to use you in this whole mess, too." Kurama added, he didn't want Keiko to be used, she still hadn't killed and if he had his way, she never would. He knew that was a futile wish in the Makai, but all the same, she was not a combatant. However everyone was trained in combat if in nothing else, defensive techniques.

"You will be protected, Keiko, much as my sister is." Hiei stated, "You're much the same relation now."

Keiko smiled at the tacit implication. "Thank you, Hiei." She wanted to give him a hug, but didn't know how it would be received, regardless of the hug that Shiori gave him earlier.

"No need to thank me."

Kurama smiled at Keiko. "He won't take your thanks. I don't know how many times he's saved my life, and he always turns away my thanks, too."

Keiko nodded ruefully. "I suppose you're right." She thought back to practicalities. "What am I supposed to do for school tomorrow? I don't have anything but my gym clothes, and I can't wear those all day! Other than that, I have the clothes that I wore yesterday and the small wardrobe that you purchased for me in the Makai. I need school uniforms and the rest of my school books."

Shiori gasped, "Your mother should be dropping those off in just a short while now! I forgot to tell you!"

"My mother called?" Keiko asked.

"Yes, and she told me that your father went in to have his ribcage get x-rayed. She didn't tell me what all was wrong, but they wanted to keep him overnight for observation. He claimed he fell down some stairs." Shiori summarized. "She asked if she could drop some of your school things."

Kurama smiled. "Good. The three of us could have broken in and gotten what was needed tonight, but this will make things much better."

Hatanaka raised a brow as this news broke through the haze and asked, "Broken in?"

Kurama bowed at his stepfather from where he sat, "Indeed. Best thief in the Makai, still. Hiei's profession was a little more varied, but he practiced the thieving arts as well. He only got caught when he tried to steal from Koenma."

Shuuichi's eyes got wide as he looked from his brother to Hiei, "Cool!"

Hiei gave the boy a quelling glance as he said, "Hn, the Detective caught me, but only with your help, Fox."

"Yes, and I owed him my life at the time. As you well know, I was expecting to die. By all rights, I should have died still. The Forlorn Hope always killed before."

"You knew this and you still wanted it. Once I would have called you crazy, throwing your life away for a Ningen woman." Then he looked at Shiori, still wearing the owl necklace he had given her earlier. "I now have a family because of that same Ningen woman."

Shiori was a little confused about all these allusions to artifacts and vowed to ask about it when they had a bit more time. She pushed her questions aside and smiled at the small demon. "Thank you, Hiei, for accepting my offer."

Hiei turned away, thinking to himself. Now if I can only tell my sister. Tomorrow will be the test.

They heard a knock on the door at that moment. Kurama got up to answer, with Keiko following, wondering if this was Koenma, or her mother.

Mrs. Yukimura was there, holding a suitcase. Kurama wordlessly took the suitcase, while Keiko flew past and enthusiastically embraced her mother. "Please, come in, Mrs. Yukimura." Kurama offered in his quiet voice.

Keiko's mom greatfully accepted this and entered, being pulled by her daughter into the living room. "Hello, all, I apologize profusely on behalf of my husband."

Shiori smiled in welcome. "No need. We've had years to get used to my son's peculiarities, until they were just part of his personality. Seeing it all revealed at once is a shock."

Kurama took a look around the room, Hiei had retreated once more to the window seat, holding the book. Shiori and Hatanaka were seated on the couch, Shuuichi was sitting in a chair, looking a bit bewildered by everything. That left one chair, the loveseat or the last seat on the couch. "Please sit, Mrs. Yukimura."

"Please, call me Mom." Keiko's mother told him. "From what I can tell, it'll be a fact."

"More than that, Mom." Keiko added, "By demon terms, we're already married. Mating is marriage." She purposefully showed her mother the tattoo on the side of her neck.

After she had thoroughly inspected her daughter's mark, she wordlessly turned to Kurama, raising a brow. Kurama dutifully pulled his hair back, revealing his own mark. She made the same inspection of his that she had made of her daughter's. "And this is the mating, what?"

Kurama explained, "Mating with your daughter, we both acquire marks that signify what the other is and so on and so forth. Hence why Keiko's is a silver fox bearing five tails. It's my truest form, I'm also the humanoid you saw earlier, which is my preferred form. How I got in this body, I shall not go into right now. The mark on my shoulder is not truly formed yet because Keiko is changing."

Keiko's mother took a deep breath. "Okay, so how was my daughter able to do what she did earlier?"

"We are just in the process of finding that out ourselves. It appears that I am the first demon of my strength to mate with a human. No one is able to completely tell what will happen, we can only make educated guesses. One of which is the fact that Keiko is slowly becoming what I am." Kurama stated.

From out of the blue, Hiei stated, "Koenma's here. I just saw Botan fly by." He flitted to the door, opening it before Koenma could knock.

"Oh, thank you Hiei." Koenma had appeared in teenage form. He turned to Botan, "And make sure that Yusuke doesn't skip school tomorrow!"

"Yes, sir!" Botan replied before flying off.

Hiei wordlessly guided him to the living room, placing him in the chair, as the seat on the couch had been taken by Keiko's mother sitting next to Shiori. Keiko and Kurama were on the loveseat. He went back to the window seat.

Kurama simply nodded at Koenma. "So, what warrented you coming here from the Reikai?" Kurama got straight to the point, then added, "This means you're exposing four normal humans to this situation too."

Koenma started, "Yes, well, those are details at this point. Your younger brother has the potential to be a Spirit Detective, just not as obnoxious as Yusuke which leaves three normal humans."

Koenma was briefly interrupted when Shuuichi asked, "Really? What's a Spirit Detective?"

Koenma told him, "I'll explain later. Where was I? Oh, yes. Keiko attended the Dark Tournament back when she was a normal human, not to mention looking after Puu all those times for Yusuke, until Puu's evolution, anyway. These rules were also bent in the case of all three A-class matings. The demon's in question did not have the temperment to explain these things to normal humans. Yours is a slightly special case, since you had human parents and Keiko has human parents. I saw what happened with Keiko's father earlier, by the way."

Kurama's parents watched this apparent teen, trying to guage how he fit into all this. Something was off about him.

"It was not a pretty sight." Kurama told him. "What did you make of it?"

Keiko's mother tried to pay attention to was was being said, as it seemed to have some bearing on her daughter.

"That Keiko's power is developing literally overnight." Koenma told him. "I first got news of this situation when Yusuke informed me that there was a strange smelling demonic breeze blowing late yesterday afternoon. I told him to stand by and found what was going on by watching Hiei, thank you for that one."

"Don't bother thanking me, Koenma, it's nothing more than I owe." Hiei's bitter tone returned. He didn't like being watched and he definately didn't like the toddler and it showed.

"All the same, I insist."

Hiei knew the toddler brought out the worst in him. He made a quick decision and sent a brief message. ~Fox, I'm going outside, inform me when the toddler leaves.~

Kurama nodded once. "Thank you, Hiei. I will." And Hiei flitted out of the room, depositing the book that he had held into Kurama's waiting hands. Kurama turned to Koenma, "You know how much he hates you, why did you provoke him into leaving?"

"He may be a valuable asset to the team, but he's my most reluctant tool in this system. I only put him on the team in the first place because you told me you wouldn't join unless you worked with him. I'm always half afraid that I'm going to have to send the rest of you to arrest him again one of these days." Hiei's defense came from a more surprising side for Koenma.

Shiori spoke sharply, "I'll not have you talking about my adopted son in such a fashion in my house! Hiei is nice, kind, thoughtful and for the most part, polite!" Her iron will had raised the most feared being in the Makai, Youko Kurama, she was not about to be intimidated by this strange teen.

Hiei had parked himself below the window in order to hear what was being discussed. He felt himself almost blush at Shiori's description of himself, but all the same, he felt flattered that she had come to his defense.

Koenma blinked at the authority in Kurama's mother's voice and in his surprise, reverted back to his true form, that of the toddler. "Yes, Ma'am."

Shiori shook her head at the transformation. She decided that she was definately numb. This would all sink in later, she was sure. "Now, can you be polite?" She found herself falling back into the 'mother' role, especially with this new form of his.

Koenma tried to get her to tone down her mothering, "Can you please not treat me like a child? I am nearly five hundred years old, you know."

"When you behave like you are over five, I will treat you as such." Shiori told him archly. "Kurama behaved better than you are now even when he was two!"

Koenma hated that comparison. His father sometimes tried to tell him much the same thing. "Ooooh! I hate it when people younger than myself are right!"

"Well, then, you might want to grow up!" Was Hatanaka's reply to that. "My stepson is the epitome of manners and my son is also well behaved. Hiei does not seem to be that bad either, until he's in the same room with you. Why is that?"

Koenma was on the spot and he knew it. He had never trusted Hiei and winced everytime he saw Yusuke trust Hiei with his life, if not more in some instances.

Kurama saw that Koenma wasn't going to reply. His explanation held a note of coldness, eyes taking on the golden tone once more. "It's because he doesn't trust any youkai, not even myself. He does trust me more than any other youkai in the area, though." Keiko held him for a moment and he calmed down, eyes once more taking on the emerald hue. "I willingly defend the Ningenkai, Hiei started out hating all humans. A goal of his at one time was to wipe out the Ningenkai, but no longer. Koenma never will trust him. He knows our world more, and yet less, than even Shiori does. There, friendship is rare, and valued. Trust is a virtually unknown quantity. You trust the wrong person, and you die. Simple." His eyes once more took on that clear, gold color, "And he refuses to see us as anything more than a product of our culture. I doubt he even trusts Yusuke, now that he's a demon lord, too. Even born, raised and was a Ningen for most of his life. He refuses to acknowledge that youkai can change, just as humans can."

Kurama's explanation threw all four of the normal humans in the room for a loop. They knew how much people could change. For good, or ill. Shiori had lived in the same house with her son ever since he had been born and had seen him get warmer as he grew up, at least to her. Mrs. Yukimura thought back to how much Yusuke had changed in the time that she had known him. He had started out a punk on the street with a chip on the shoulder big enough for a whole city block, but now he was a nice young man, still skipped school too often, but didn't go looking for street brawls, either. Hatanaka just shook his head. He knew that he was far from the broadest minded of people, but he was flexable enough that he had been able to accept his stepson and daughter-in-law with only mild skepticism.

Koenma squirmed. He didn't like squirming for others, he liked making them squirm for him. "We are, however, straying off the subject that brought us here, namely that of Kurama and Keiko's mating!"

Keiko's mother didn't know what to think of this teen-who-was-a-toddler, but she didn't particularly care about his attitude. "If we are going to discuss what's happening in my daughter, then I suggest we stick to the subject. How do you know anything?"

"I gather information on all youkai/ningen relations, primarily involved in keeping them apart, but there are certain cases where it's just either not an option or the situation is so delicate that we can't prevent them from working together. This happens to be a little of both." He shivered at the thought of a rampaging S-class youko. Not pretty in any of the three realms. He had no choice but to accept this situation, just as he'd had to accept Hiei's presence. "Kurama, your current assignment is to study any and all changes in your mate and to record them in that book. Even the smallest detail needs to go in there."

Kurama flipped through the book, actually reading at random some of the details written therein. "I shall not do this." Koenma looked like he was about to speak, but Kurama put his arm around Keiko. "I will not have my mate as the subject of your experiment to see how the youkai and ningen sides merge! You do not need to know half of these details that these poor A-class demons wrote down for you. I feel sorry for them. Unless she starts being a threat, which Hiei and I are on top of and working to prevent, you do not need to know what's going on in my mate's body! Is that clear?" Kurama took a deep breath, trying to calm down. He was seeing all this information about transformations of humans into demon's mates as a threat to his mate. Revealing weaknesses that no demon would tolerate being revealed.

Keiko had never seen Kurama this furious and turned his head from glaring at Koenma and held his completely golden gaze. She was also shocked to see that his hair was half silver. She pulled his head down and kissed him softly. She felt the tension ease out of him as he returned the whisper soft kiss.

Turned away from Koenma like that, Kurama took the book from between them and put it behind Keiko in the love seat. Just in case Koenma wanted it back, he wanted to keep it for a while and study the contents of the book. Something didn't ring true in it. The overall picture was sound, but the details were off. Kurama pulled back after he was compltely calmed down, "Was there anything else you needed, Koenma?"

"Kurama, I would hate to resort to blackmailing you to do this, please reconsider your answer." Koenma gave a pointed look around the place that Kurama had called home for eighteen years and his family.

Kurama knew exactly what was being threatened, banishment from the Ningenkai and his den. He stood up, transforming as he did so, to tower over the toddler intimidatingly. "I would advise you against such a course of action, lest next time you sit down, you might sit on a death tree seed, or maybe just a death plant. I shall study that book and make my determination after that. I shall give Botan my response tomorrow after school." He shook his head, trying to get the anger under control. "In the meantime, I suggest you get out before I decide to issue more than just threats."

Shiori was shocked, but agreed with her son. It was obvious that her husband agreed as well as Keiko's mother. Shuuichi looked like he was slightly disappointed in that he didn't get his question answered.

Koenma knew that was all he was going to get out of the youko at this time. "Very well. I shall leave it with you. I must get back to my paperwork." With that he got up as saw himself out the door.

Kurama sat down on the floor where he had stood, wondering what it was about Koenma that could make youkai so pissed so effortlessly. ~Hiei, he's gone now.~

Hiei flitted back in. "I see Koenma managed to piss you off royally with the threat. I heard it all, just didn't want to be here to add to the temper flying around the room."

Kurama worked on getting his temper back under control. One did not threaten a youko's family lightly. He wondered just how much Koenma understood about youko behavior. "Threatening me is one thing, I'm used to it, numb you could say. Threaten my access to my family and he will see just how I got the reputation I did in the Makai."

Hiei shivered at the tone underlying Kurama's voice. Only Hiei knew just how extensive Kurama's reputation had gone in the Makai. Koenma knew bits of it. Keiko knew a very little bit of it. Everyone else knew nothing at all. "Not a good sign, Youko."

Kurama knew that it was past time to get his temper under control with the use of that name from Hiei. His old nickname from the Makai. He held out his arms to Keiko, who immediately came into them. He was able to reign his temper in by holding her tightly to him. She cradled his head in her arms, smoothing his hair. She carefully avoided his ears as she was trying to calm him, not bring something else to life.

Keiko's mother watched this tender scene and started to understand just what it was that her daughter had fallen in love with, but he seemed to be equally smitten with her. She smiled tenderly at the two. "I've got to find some way for your father to accept this, Keiko. There's no option. I might be able to do it in a month, or maybe two."

Kurama looked up at his mother-in-law with his eyes only showing a hint of gold and his hair was red once more. "We may be forced to move to the Makai within four months. Not that I want to leave, but I've never involuntarily transformed like that before. I'm going to have to decipher the code in that book too. There's something off with the details." He turned to Hiei. "Can you build a shield around this place to keep out that peep show of Koenma's? I'll not have that peeping tom looking in here."

Hiei nodded. "I'll see that it's done, Fox. I'll also put protection on everyone's mind's whose present. I don't trust the Toddler anymore than he trusts me. It would be just like him to erase their memories."

Shiori was shocked. The kid who had visited them was that powerful? And what was this about protections? "What are you referring to?"

Hatanaka had his mouth open, but closed it when he realized that his wife had just asked his question for him.

Kurama just looked at Hiei.

Hiei rolled his eyes. "Wards are defensive barriers to keep out certain things, such as youki or reiki. Demon energy or spirit energy. In this case, aimed at keeping the Toddler out of our hair. Kurama wants to translate that book, and there seems to be some hidden messages in it that only a demon would pick up. I smell youki all over that book, which all it should have is the stink of Spirit World."

Shuuichi just asked, "What's a Spirit Detective?" Never having had his answer from Koenma he thought he'd ask his two brothers.

Kurama and Hiei looked at each other with the same thought in their eyes. This was going to be a long night. Kurama quickly explained what a Spirit Detective was and about his friend Yusuke. He then started to explain about some of the cases that the four of them got. He also found that he explained completely about Yusuke's first job and how he had been woefully unprepared for it.

"Goki had been bad enough, but he was just a grunt. He was there for the tasks that Hiei and I did not want. He was just a typical thug, really. I didn't like him, and even Hiei didn't like him, he was only using him at the time." Kurama told everyone.

"Hn, I was a different creature then, didn't even like myself." Hiei put in.

Kurama smiled gently at his friend, "Yes, but . . ." He went on. "Yusuke managed to subdue Goki. I had the Forlorn Hope, a mirror which grants the wish, but takes the wisher's life in the process. I needed it to save Mother. Yusuke intervened at the same time that I made my wish and it decided against taking our lives, but still granted the wish. I owed Mother so much at that point that I would willingly traded my life for yours." He looked up as he said that, meeting his mother's worried gaze. "That was the night you almost died. Shortly after that, he had to apprehend Hiei. Who was a whole other situation entirely. He nearly lost his life fighting Hiei and would have if I hadn't of intervened at the last moment."

Hiei glared at Kurama, "Nearly loosing your life in the process, baka."

"But paying my debt to him, never-the-less. I owed him my life at that point. Now it's gone so far beyond debts that the three of us are intertwined." Kurama smiled faintly, "Maybe between the three of us we'll be able to bring a little stability to our war-torn realm."

Shuuichi ate this talk up like the eager teenager he was. Shiori looked disturbed at how many times she never realized that her son's life was in danger and she had never known about it. Keiko's mother looked worried that her daughter would be in excessive danger. Hatanaka just looked thoughtful as if he was listening to veterans of a war reminisce about the times that their lives had been in danger. He was starting to see how they lived in danger constantly.

"Hn." Hiei replied with a nod.

Kurama shifted Keiko. "Let's move back to the love seat, my flower."

Keiko blushed at the open use of an endearment in front of their parents. The two moved back to the appropriately named furniture. "Are you two really going to put a ward around the place?"

Kurama nodded firmly. "I don't want Koenma to know what we're up to. He doesn't trust us, and we don't trust him. I've had too many enemies that used my Mother to tie me into something I don't want to do, I'm not going to have Koenma using you for the rest of eternity."

Shiori gasped at hearing this. "How cruel! To use your affections against you!"

"Cruel, yes." Hiei replied, "But very much the demon way, I'm afraid."

Kurama added, "But using mates is taking your life in your hands. There is nothing more dangerous than a mate who's separated. Threatening one's mate is not just punishable by death, but unless you're much stronger than either mate, guarentee's one's death."

Hiei just looked away. The Forbidden Children, one of a pair. Most of the Makai only thought of himself, but his sister was equally a Forbidden Child such as himself. A product of Fire and Ice and the most forbidden of all to his mother's people, two children of love between the two opposites. His parents had been mates, but hadn't been strong enough to stand up to the entire race of koorime. He could still hear his mother's voice as it faded. He'd kept those emotions locked away and had kept himself locked away for the most part. He wanted to know what was different about this group of Ningens, save for Keiko's mother, that made him feel safe with. He flitted out the door before he either bit the kitsune's head off or the dam broke holding back his emotions. Even his sister didn't affect him this strongly, why did talk of mates get to him? ~Fox, I'm going for a walk.~

~Are you feeling alright, Hiei?~ Kurama sent back, worried. He'd never heard Hiei's voice sound so sad before.

~I don't know. I'll be back before the storm breaks in an hour or so.~ Hiei could feel Kurama nod. With that Hiei left the house, not really sure where his feet would take him and took to the trees.

To be continued . . .