Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Balance ❯ You Know it is ( Chapter 8 )

Disclaimer: one, two, three…four… All you people who say there aren't enough hours in the day, you can have some of mine.

Okay, shadow priestess, this is the deal with the last chapter: no, I didn't know it was "damare." Yes, Kurama was being semi-sarcastic at the end (remember, he "smiled wearily") which is why it said "sou ka" instead of "sou da." Thanks for mentioning that, though.

Balance

Chapter Eight: You Know it is

Clenching his eyes shut, he pressed his hands down over his ears and curled in on himself, a small fraction of man floating on nothing and letting tears flow freely from his eyes. Shards of glass swirled around him, a cyclone of glittering silver, each reflecting a picture of the man he had tried so hard to forget.

The horrible throbbing sound pulsed in his ears…

Make it go away…

The man in the glass laughed.

'Serves you right,' he seemed to repeat, a mantra, over and over, 'It's all your fault,' and once again, 'No one to blame but yourself,' and then it changed, 'You receive only as much as you give out.'

But I gave you so much! he wailed, I gave and never asked in return! Why must this fate befall me of all people!?

'You asked only everything in return,' the man in the glass screamed in a quiet voice.

I did not!

Flecks of sand and scraps of limestone dusted the air around him, snagging in his hair and turning it a dusty whitish brown. He ignored it, even as the specks clogged in his ears and snuck into his eyes.

I didn't, I didn't…

'Haughty bastard, always wanting more, more.'

It isn't true, it isn't…

'It is and you know it!'

Accusation, blame, allegation… It isn't true, all of it…none of it… It…isn't…

'Oh, but you know it is!'

The roles reversed, he himself was now quiet and saddened, the man in the glass raging and furious. Splits and cracks were formed startlingly quickly, and most of the panels had shattered.

Dust littered his hair.

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They wandered aimlessly about the fields. Hiei paused once in awhile to shine dust off of his katana and Kurama planted a pretty little flower he had harvested from a dying bud, and Yuusuke sparred with Kuwabara in the background. Their grunts and shouts must have been evident from kilometers away, Kurama thought, but he wouldn't be one to disrupt them.

"Just like old times, eh, Hiei?" he asked genially on one pass by his friend. Hiei looked up, a fleeting tint of confusion in his eye.

"Old times, you say?" Hiei retorted. "That's a good thing, do you suppose? I guess you must."

Smiling, Kurama laid a hand on Hiei's shoulder and pushed the surprised youkai to the ground. Instinctively outstretching his blade, Hiei narrowly missed the longer locks of Kurama's hair and his lower back, stopping the weapon just short. The kitsune arched his spine just before Hiei stopped his reflex.

"Slow reaction time, isn't it?" Kurama laughed, rubbing the back of his head, abashed. Hiei snorted.

"That kind of sloppiness will get you killed in Makai, you know."

Kurama lay back in the grass, arms folded behind his neck. His eyelids drooped closed, a bare sliver of emerald still visible as he looked up at the single thin, white cloud skirting across the sky. Hiei looked over at him for a moment before lying on his back, as well.

"So you really think it will come to that?"

Hiei tilted his head, though on the grass, it wasn't exactly noticeable. "Come to…?" he baited.

The redhead turned to watch Hiei's reaction. "Going back to Makai. You think it will go that far."

A soft sigh escaped the youkai, and he, too, closed his eyes. Formulating a response, he leaned his head away from his friend.

"I believe it will." He coughed a small laugh. "Though it is a bit early to tell, isn't it?"

"Not necessarily," Kurama replied, entirely business-like. "You might be surprised how many clues are overlooked because they are found 'too early.' Why, when I was spending all my time as Youko-"

"Mm-hmm," Hiei interrupted. Kurama fell silent, wisely not pressing the matter.

A stray Rei Gan nearly hit Hiei in the arm, but for his rolling away at the last moment. Kurama chuckled.

"And you are telling me about reaction time."

"All for show," the apparition yawned, nestling his head into the grass. Kurama chuckled.

"Heads up!"

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Yuusuke flipped open the compact lid for what must have been the tenth time that hour. Clicking the side button, he, for the tenth time that hour, threw the compact across the field when no image popped up, yelling at Botan, who couldn't hear him, to hurry her sorry ass up if she wanted a world left for them to save. Exaggeration seemed Yuusuke's new game, but no one felt like correcting him. The afternoon had turned lazy, and they were perfectly fine with that.

"You get it," Yuusuke mumbled, shoving Kuwabara with his heel. "I got it last time."

Kuwabara glared over his shoulder. "You're the one who threw the fuckin' thing," he mumbled back. "You get it."

"It's your compact."

"Nice try, Urameshi," Kuwabara droned, "but Botan didn't give me a new compact."

"…Sure she did."

The compact dropped into Yuusuke's lap, and he looked up, face wrinkled in confusion. Hiei, oddly enough, towered over him, one hand still outstretched as if he had just dropped something.

Something like a compact.

"Ahou," he muttered.

"Should we just go?" Kurama asked. "Seems as though we'll drive each other crazy staying here."

Yuusuke rolled over onto his stomach to shoot Kurama a skeptical gaze. "Yeah? Go where? We have no instructions, no leads, no clues, no nothing. We've got a name that probably isn't even real, that's all."

"Yes, Kurokyoui. Such a name is popular among the hybrid youkai."

"Whoa, whoa," Kuwabara said suddenly, rolling over to look at Kurama, as well. "You know something about the name? Why didn't you say something before?"

"Ano…I didn't think it important?" Kurama tried weakly. Hiei, back to his place seated beside the kitsune, glared at him.

"…Right."

Kuwabara waved a hand impatiently. "Anyway, Kurama, what do you mean, 'hybrid'?"

Glad for a distraction from the surely impending reprimand, Kurama placed his hand under his chin in a thoughtful pose. "Much as it sounds. A hybrid youkai is one who carries genes of more than one breed; for instance, Hiei, a fire and ice youkai, is a hybrid. So, playing the odds, a youkai calling himself 'Kurokyoui' is a hybrid of a sort." Shrugging, he continued. "'Kurokyoui' may very well be his real name; given to him by himself, his parents, or whoever raised him. Many hybrid youkai find it appealing in its threatening meanings, and, as you probably know by now, youkai like to sound intimidating, especially to make up for weakness."

"Though, from the sounds of it," Hiei added, "this 'Kurokyoui' character isn't weak at all. He managed to capture, intimidate, threaten, beat, and rape a number of youkai ranging from classes E all the way up to low B, maybe beyond that, we don't know."

"Though I doubt he's by himself," Yuusuke said slowly. "When we were at that last cave, I definitely sensed traces of at least two different youki signals at about class A."

"That would help him a lot, wouldn't it?" Kuwabara noted. Yuusuke nodded.

"Who's up for a melee?"

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"No, no, Kuwabara," Kurama reprimanded harshly. "Your reaction time-" Hiei snickered at the irony "-is much too slow. And I'm not even fighting particularly skillfully. Try again, and this time, listen to your senses before your head."

Hiei watched thoughtfully. Kurama telling someone to listen to his instinct before his brain was quite a change, and he wondered if the kitsune had learned something over the last six years that he had missed. Or perhaps he was simply telling Kuwabara what was best for Kuwabara. In either case, the dance Kurama put on was beautiful to watch (ano…from a fighter's point of view, of course) and he enjoyed it.

"Okay," Kuwabara said, setting his stance firmly. "I'm ready."

Kurama only shook his head. "No, you aren't. Your feet are much too steadfastly planted. You wouldn't be able to move quickly if your opponent were to attack suddenly."

"Eeto…"

The ningen tried bouncing back and forth from one foot to the other, loosening himself up. "Ano…ready."

Kurama shook his head. "Good enough. Let's go."

Retrieving a seed from his hair and snapping out his Rose Whip in one fluid motion, Kurama leapt into the air, the long vine obediently curled about him. He disappeared into the trees overhead, and Kuwabara held his sword out in a defensive posture, waiting for his opponent to reappear.

Hiei's ears naturally perked at the sounds rushing around him, in a large circle over his head. The tree's crowns rustled almost imperceptibly, and Kuwabara picked up on just over half the obvious giveaways. The youkai smirked. That was Kurama for you.

A clear-cut attack came in the form of the Rose Whip lashing out from directly in front of Kuwabara, arching around to hit him from the side. Nearly panicking, Kuwabara frantically thrust his Reiken to the side, blocking the attack. Bringing it up and over his head in a wide arc, Kuwabara threw off the target of the Rose Whip and sent it flying over his shoulder. Running forward, he pulled back the blade in an attempt to pierce Kurama in the chest.

The kitsune held out his hand and forced a sheen of power into it, stopping the blade with his palm.

"Good. Now we'll repeat this exercise fifty times; each time you miss me will be another two. I'll be coming at you from different angles, and it will be more difficult to keep track of me each time."

Sweating out of nervousness, Kuwabara nodded.

"Here we go."

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Yuusuke, meanwhile, was re-adjusting to his Rei Gan, after not having used it for three long years. Dusty as it may have been, he hadn't lost the knack entirely, and the trees surrounding him were in worse shape than they probably had ever been.

Tired, sweaty, and sore, Yuusuke pushed on for hours.

"Rei…Gan!"

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"Your lack of skill in battle is matched only by your utter incompetence," Hiei noted derisively. "You have no grace with the sword and your ki is low, not to mention your inability to complete a simple attack-defend combination. We'll try this again until you can complete it fifty times-correctly-in succession."

Undeterred by the scathing review of his performance, Kuwabara nodded, setting his sword before him. Hiei smirked.

"Ready? Go."

"Eh-no, I'm not, I-!"

"Ha!"

Hiei rushed in, the blade of his katana extended as he jabbed at Kuwabara. "Ha! Ha! You're going to have to do better than that! Ha!"

"Eeto-ya!" Kuwabara swung down at Hiei, narrowly missing his head as the youkai ducked and came up for another shot.

The two froze then, Hiei with the edge of his blade a mere centimeter from Kuwabara's face, Kuwabara holding his sword just barely off of Hiei's chest. Hiei slipped through Kuwabara's arms and brushed his cloak off.

"Decent," he allowed, "but a double loss is no one's win. Again."

"HA!"

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Youkai: demon

Rei Gan: spirit gun

Ano: uh…

Ahou: fool

Youki: demon energy

Ningen: human

Eeto: er…

Reiken: spirit sword

Note: to the best of my knowledge, YYH never mentions "hybrids," or anything like them. Hiei is not canon hybrid because canon hybrids don't exist. I just made it up because…I felt like it. Makes things easier (actually, it probably makes them more complex, but it's more interesting this way).

Note: anything written in parenthesis is not an author note. I don't insert author notes into the text. I.e., (ano…from a fighter's point of view, of course) is something Hiei was reasoning.