Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Balance ❯ If You were Ever Found ( Chapter 4 )

Disclaimer: I think it's pretty clear by now that one, I don't like conventional disclaimers, and two, if you think I'm Togashi Yoshihiro and I own Yuu Yuu Hakusho, you're clearly on something and you should get off that. For your own good and all.

shadow priestess: ^.^ Updates will be coming much more slowly once school starts, don't you worry. Yes, there is one pairing semi-relevant to the plot (irrelevant (I think) is the mandatory YuusukexKeiko). An eventual HieixKurama warning has been added to the summary.

Balance

Chapter Four: If You Were Ever Found

'You think the dead shall revive themselves?' they seemed to ask him. No, he replied, I do not, but they may as well have done so, for he was as good as dead.

They were not asking him, however, and he was not speaking in a way that could be heard.

The three men had long since left the cliff, and in its vast emptiness, he stood, looking out over the forest and the city.

He knew, already, that this was only a memory, though, and like the wall of dark nothing that had come before it, the colorful scenery and the men who had inhabited it shattered as glass. Shards of it tried to cut through him, but he would not allow them, and they lost their substance and weight before touching him.

Translucent things passed him by, unable to hurt him, and he smiled wickedly.

I win, he told them.

But the glass windows had not yet brought about their greatest weapon, and as he watched, a new picture began to form.

A small man, blue fringed black hair and a white starburst, deep crimson eyes, black cloak covering a probably muscular body, and a katana at his side.

A name flickered across the screen, and he laughed.

But no amount of memory and desire can bring you back to me, he called as he did, and the man turned to him, though he could not see.

'I am already back, don't you see?'

I see your body standing before me, yet I see no remnants of the man I once knew.

'I am lost to you?'

If you were ever found.

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"Well, I can't sense any other nests," Kuwabara said, bored.

Kurama paced around on the ground in his kitsune form, his nose pressed to the ground and tails flicking occasionally. Hiei purposefully looked away from him.

"I can smell nothing," Kurama added, transforming back into his ningen form.

Yuusuke nodded and flipped up the compact lid. He repeated the same motions as he had the first time, down to the letter, even the "Get Botan on the line, you stupid piece of crap!"

The screen buzzed with static, and Botan's face appeared.

"You know, Yuusuke, all you have to do is push that little button on the side there," she said dryly, pointing off to the side of the screen. His eyes darted left, and he nodded.

"Yeah, thanks. So please tell me you know something by now."

A noise came through the speakers, something like a ruffling sound, and they all assumed Botan was shuffling through papers. "Ah, yes, here we go," she said finally. "There's a few mid-class-"

"What's 'mid-class'?" Kuwabara interrupted nervously.

She glanced at him, surprised. "Oh, you know, various ranges of the B class, a few mid and high C-class.

"Anyway, there are a few of them clustered below ground in the middle of Kyoto."

Hiei and Kurama each raised an eyebrow, and Yuusuke groaned. "Kyoto… Aw, come on… It's never Tokyo!"

Kurama smiled comfortingly. "Don't worry. It will be someday."

Yuusuke turned a blank, dry gaze on the kitsune, eyes slit. "I don't appreciate that."

Laughing, Kurama waved his hands dismissively and grinned. Hiei rolled his eyes at their antics.

"Best be off!"

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They walked down the road together, searching.

Much unlike his days as a rambunctious youth, Yuusuke hung back behind Kuwabara, whose turn it was to lead the group and sense for holes and bugs. The carrot top in question was also showing a good deal more restraint than he may have, once, walking slowly and keeping devoted to and concentrated on the task at hand.

Kurama walked, subdued, behind them all, a vague reversion to his kitsune ways. Hiei made sure to keep pace beside him; if Kurama was truly upset with him, he wanted to do something to change that. Whenever the chance arose, he wanted to be nearby.

"I've got nothing," Kuwabara said sullenly. "Anyone else want to take a turn?"

Kurama looked up, and Hiei looked at him. Yuusuke, watching them both, thought for a moment before answering.

"Yeah, I'll go again."

Startled, Kurama smiled. Still good old selfless Yuusuke, now with a perceptiveness to match.

Kuwabara let his head drop down to his chest, half asleep as he walked. Still sweet, kind Kuwabara, holding out as long as he could.

His friends.

Strengthened by their actions, so similar and yet so different from their days as young boys fighting together, Kurama turned to look at Hiei, whose gaze had remained locked on Kurama, trusting his friend to let him know if there was something he would bump into that he hadn't noticed.

"You know we're not all the same as we were," Kurama started softly. Hiei's eyes widened almost imperceptibly and he nodded.

"I do."

Kurama sighed softly, preferring to gaze sorrowfully at the ground than to look at the youkai beside him.

"Gomen nasai, Hiei."

Taken aback, Hiei paused for a moment in his walking. Kurama was…sorry? What could the beautiful kitsune have to possibly be sorry for? To him, nonetheless?

Peering up with questioning eyes, Hiei hoped Kurama would intercept his question and answer it before it had even been asked, the way they used to do.

Finally, Kurama looked down at him, his eyes sad even as his mouth curved into a smile. "You've changed, too, you see. I did the same thing you did; I assumed you would be the same as you were. Assumed we could go right back to being best friends, able to interpret each other's thoughts, finished each other's sentences, fight by each other's side… But I suppose such a thing simply was not meant to be. And for that, gomen nasai."

Eyes wide and face childlike in appearance, Hiei stared at Kurama.

"You've…nothing to be sorry for, Kurama. I was the one who assumed, not you."

"No, you're wrong…"

"No, I'm not." Hiei shook his head. Kurama was right after all; Kurama was always right. "I assumed where I had no right to do so. You…you were right in thinking I wouldn't change. Most youkai never do. I-well, I suppose all the exposure I had to Mukuro and her officials, and her subjects, and her meetings, her lands, what have you, all that forced me to be businesslike and I… You were right." He took a deep breath and turned away. "I became too hard."

Kurama looked down at him in a cross between speculation and something akin to understanding.

"Hiei, I believe we were both wrong."

Peering up with widened eyes, Hiei tilted his head questioningly. "What would you have to be wrong about?"

"I should have known you wouldn't be the same ningen-hating youkai I used to know, the one who was not averse to giving someone a cold shoulder and then secretly peppering adoration on another in the same breath."

Hiei smiled to himself. 'Funny… He can be so eloquent and simple when saying such awkward things.'

"Hiei, gomen nasai."

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Yuusuke stretched his arms over his head, feigning tiredness to distract anyone who might happen to notice how intently he was eavesdropping on the conversation going on behind him. Kuwabara, using an near nap as his own alibi, was walking in step with the former Tantei, listening just as closely.

"What is all this, 'gomen nasai' crap?" asked the taller of the two. "They sound like a couple or something, all lusty and heartfelt."

Yuusuke cracked open one eye and shot Kuwabara a sidelong glance. "Either they are, and we've hit on something big, or they'll hear you say that and you'll spend the next few years in intensive care," he warned. Kuwabara's expression turned fearfully wary.

"Give 'em a break, eh? They were best friends, and they haven't seen each other in six years."

"Still doesn't explain the lusty part…"

Yuusuke huffed a sigh and shook his head. "Man, Kuwabara, you and your imagination… I swear, high school's fucked with your head."

"Maybe it would've done the same to you if you'd actually gone."

Turning on his companion, Yuusuke reared his fists. "Oh, yeah, wanna say that to my face, yaro?"

"I can't get much closer, kisama!" Kuwabara returned, shoving his face into Yuusuke's.

"I'll show you, shimatta-you'll be sorry you messed with me!"

"Oh, bring it on, little man!"

"Gladly, you-"

Anything more that may have been said was drowned out by the pair's scuffling, gleefully beating on each other in a way they hadn't in years. Kurama and Hiei could practically feel the bulbous drops of sweat falling down the backs of their heads as they watched, Kurama with an awkward smile and Hiei with a distasteful sniff.

"Just like old times, ne?" Kurama asked with a wistful air. Hiei smiled.

"Whatever you say, kitsune."

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"Okay! We've found no new nests in nearly three hours of searching, so I say we call it in and go back to Reikai," Yuusuke proclaimed loudly.

"It's been two hours, Yuusuke," Kurama reminded him. "Two and a quarter at most."

Yuusuke shrugged. "Like I have a watch."

The redhead smiled. 'Yes, just like old times.'

Kuwabara, meanwhile, was turning rather interesting shades of green and yellow. "Back to Reikai? With Botan?"

Yuusuke laughed, and Kurama smiled. "Yeah," Yuusuke choked out, "with Botan. Why, you got a problem with that?"

Kuwabara straightened his jacket and put a proud expression on his face. "No, not a problem. I'm fine."

"Well, just lemme know if you get carsick. Or oar-sick, if that's what she calls it."

Botan appeared out of nowhere, smiling in her usual perky way. "Come on, guys, Koenma has a breakthrough for your mission! Let's get going, shall we?"

Kurama, perking up at the news of a breakthrough, steeled himself for the undoubtedly bumpy ride and nodded.

Yuusuke, meanwhile, was sputtering at her sudden appearance. "Wha-where did you-did you just-h-how did you know we wanted to go to Reikai? Do you have me bugged or something!?"

She smiled cheekily and laughed. "No, no, silly. We were watching you on Koenma's big-screen television."

"But-so you are spying on me!"

"Uh-uh…no, we're not! It was a lucky coincidence!"

"Yeah, that you happened to be spying on me at that exact moment!"

Kurama put out his arm in a signal for them each to stand down. "We have somewhere to be, correct?"

"We're off."

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Kitsune: fox

Ningen: human

Youkai: demon

Gomen nasai: I'm sorry

Yaro: bastard

Kisama: bastard

Shimatta: dammit