Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Kitsunebi ❯ Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own Yuu Yuu Hakusho nor do I make any money from this piece of fanfiction.

 

Reader Warnings: Shounen-ai (AKA Slash, M/M), lime, pairings: Kurama x Hiei, Yomi x Kurama, Yuusuke x Keiko, Kuwabara x Yukina

 

AN: Not a whole lot to say, other than time for a little angsty goodness. Enjoy, and don't forget to leave me a review afterwards!

 

Kitsunebi

Chapter 5

 

Hiei scans through the scrolls in the section on mind control, hoping to glean some sort of information from them. Most, unfortunately, were on how one could acquire the ability or how it worked. Only one scroll told of mind control through an object, but it told him little of what he did not already know. Another mentioned that told of theories of using a Jagan to undo such a spell, but without it listing the results of an actual attempt, Hiei decided against trying it. What if he did more harm than good? At some point late in the evening, the fire youkai started pacing the room, wracking his brain for ideas. He barely noticed the presence of an additional member in the room until he nearly ran into a figure in a blue tunic. “What are you doing here? If I wanted your help in the matter, I would have consulted you.”

 

“Just concerned for a friend, Hiei,” Koenma calmly replies. “I saw what happened down there today. Quite a mess it made on our end too. Kurama's sudden burst of youki demolished several villages, including Gandara. We finished dealing with the deaths just now.”

 

If Hiei was surprised at the amount of power the youko truly wielded, nothing in his expression betrayed it. “Hn. As you can see, the fox is sleeping it off.”

 

Koenma's glance at the table told him why the fire youkai was not sleeping tonight. “I'll have Botan bring you some scrolls in the morning. The Reikai has a more complete library available than Genkai's collection. And if you need Genkai, have Yuusuke contact us. I'm sure we can get her to give you a hand.”

 

Hiei grunts in reply. So that's what the junior god came to tell him. Sighing for now, and figuring he could get a few hours of sleep until dawn, Hiei waves Koenma off as to dismiss him before sitting down on the wooden floor in his customary position next to the sleeping silver fox. Unsure whether Yomi would send enemies to pursue them, Hiei falls into a light sleep, ready to attack any unwanted guests at a moment's notice.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

The next day, Hiei awakens to a sharp cry of pain. Springing up from his position, katana at the ready, he blinks for a few moments to find that Kurama had been awake and was biting Botan's hand. Blood was dripping past the silvered muzzle to the floor. No doubt she had tried to pet him after dropping off the scrolls Koenma had offered.

 

“Hiei, what's wrong with Kurama? Why'd he bite me?” Botan asks, wincing in pain.

 

“Instinct,” Hiei replies before bending over to pry Kurama's jaws from the ferry girl's hand. Seeing her puzzled and pained look, he clarifies. “Right now, given the way I'd broken the mind control spell Yomi had put on him, he probably has no idea who we are or where he is. It would not be wise to approach him right now.”

 

Botan could see a flicker of emotion flash through his ruby eyes when the fire youkai mentioned the spell. `Guilt? That's new.' After a few more moments, and many angry threats on Hiei's part, Botan's hand was finally pulled free. “I had no idea he could bite that hard,” she comments, healing her hand.

 

“Be glad there weren't any plants in this room. Be grateful that Kurama's not in a humanoid form.”

 

The ferry girl laughs nervously as she recalls the various plants the kitsune had used to do his bidding in the past. “I'll . . . keep that in mind.”

 

Hiei, though, was paying her no attention as he dove into the scrolls. While many were on spells, one scroll on items of mind control in particular caught his attention. Scanning the description it presented, it just might have what he needed to bring Kurama back to normal. Skimming through the parts that presented no new information, the fire youkai made a mental note of two major points. First, the victim must be asleep in order for this to work, and second, the one doing the fixing had to be extremely skilled and careful, as one wrong step could lead to the victim being eternally unresponsive. He also made note of the fact that the amnesia was not actually amnesia, but a side effect of the spell suppressing certain memories at the caster's wishes. `So that's why he didn't me or Yuusuke when we met him in Gandara.' Hiei clenches his fist. `When I'm through here, Yomi's going to wish he never kept my fox captive in the first place!' He stops himself at his sudden possessiveness, but, chalking it up to fatigue, continues scanning the scroll.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Yuusuke wakes up later that day to find Hiei still in Genkai's library, almost buried by the sheer volume of scrolls surrounding him. “Find anything?”

 

“Yes. But to be safe, I want to talk to Genkai,” Hiei answers, not bothering to look up. He mutters something under his breath as he reads what Yuusuke assumed to be a particularly interesting section.

 

“How's Kurama?”

 

“Awake.” Walking towards Hiei's right at the table, Yuusuke was met with a surprising sight. Kurama was curled up on the table, to Hiei's left, while Hiei was absentmindedly petting the fox.

 

“Uhhh, didn't Botan get bitten for trying to do that this morning?”

 

“I brought him a rabbit. He seemed to appreciate that well enough.”

 

“Have you tried talking to him yet?”

 

“No. Don't think he even knows he's sentient.” A confused silence settles in as Hiei continues reading.

 

“Well, if you're not going to explain, let me call up Koenma and see if he'd be willing to do us a favor,” Yuusuke says, shrugging as he pulls out the compact.

 

“Yuusuke! Did something happen?” came Botan's concerned voice over the compact,

 

“No, actually, Hiei wants to talk to the old hag about Kurama. Think pacifier breath can hook us up?”

 

“You really ought to give them both more respect,” Botan nags, “but I'll talk to Koenma and see what he can do.”

 

A click echoes through the room as Yuusuke closes the compact. Next to Hiei, Kurama stirs, waking up and stretching each of his limbs and tails. Sensing Yuusuke, he drops into a defensive position, growling as he prepares to pounce on the much larger Spirit Detective.

 

What happened next will forever be one of Yuusuke's fondest memories of the pair, even given the circumstances. Yuusuke, hoping to establish himself as a friend to the now decidedly animalistic kitsune, smiles and reaches over to let the fox sniff his hand. However, what the Spirit Detective did not know was that by smiling and showing his teeth, he had effectively bared his teeth and was now reaching out to attack. So Kurama did what he did best, he pounces the Mazoku, hell bent on killing his attacker before it dealt him any harm. What the silver fox had not accounted for, though, was Hiei's greater speed and peripheral vision. The fox had barely leapt over the scroll Hiei was reading before Hiei's left hand had reached over and grabbed the surprised fox out of the air by the nape of his neck. All without even so much as a glance upward to track the kitsune.

 

Looking up from his scroll to glare at the silver fox, he says, “No, Kurama, Yuusuke's not lunch. I already gave you lunch. You'll get another rabbit for dinner.” Kurama's response was to flatten his cute fox ears against his skull and hiss in protest and humiliation. Hiei barely flinches. “Don't hiss at me, fox. You brought this one on yourself.”

 

Yuusuke, to his credit, had tried really hard to not laugh, but the hiss pushed him over the edge as he bursts out laughing at Hiei scowling at an equally annoyed Kurama. The anxiety that had been building up inside of the Mazoku melts away as the library is filled with the sound of Yuusuke's amusement.

 

At that very moment, the door between the library and the courtyard opens. Puu sticks his head in, but the facial expression was not the Spirit Beast's normal happy cheerful one. “And just what is so funny, dimwit?”

 

It took another five minutes before Yuusuke could stop laughing long enough to explain what had happened, and a few more after as Genkai had to agree that, despite the circumstances, it was quite funny. Kurama, on the other hand, must have figured out what was happening, as he indignantly sat there, tails fanned out behind him with what could only be described as a vulpine scowl on his little fox face.

 

“Now, then, what did you want to talk about?”

 

At this Yuusuke turned serious. “That,” he starts, jerking his thumb at Kurama, “is the problem. Ever since we bailed him out of Yomi's filthy hands, he's been in this form. If he didn't have all those tails, I'd say he was a normal fox.”

 

“Ah, yes, so, tell me, just what did that rescue entail?” Hiei opted to keep it short, but gave Genkai a full description of the pendant. “Hmmm,” Genkai starts, deep in thought. “Your Jagan might be enough to fix it Hiei. But you'll have to be careful. All of Kurama's memories are suppressed right now, by my guess, and since you took the liberty of breaking it like that, we have no means to ease him back into sentience.”

 

Hiei sighs, looking down at his hands. A decade. That was how long he had had the Jagan implant. Sure, he talked big and acted like he was its master, but, now that it truly matters, was he? Had he, in the process of mastering the Kokuryuuha, mastered the full powers of the Jagan?

 

Genkai's voice broke through Hiei's thoughts, “When does he sleep? It's easiest to enter a mind while its owner is sleeping.”

 

“After dinner,” Hiei slowly says, looking at the silver fox. He was nearly hyperventilating from the pressure he was putting on himself. Kurama pokes his nuzzle over to Hiei's hands, as though to comfort the fire youkai, and to give him a vote of confidence.

 

“Then that's when we'll start. Have the dimwit here contact me when you do. I know what to look for if something goes wrong. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to make arrangements with Koenma.”

 

With that, Puu's face returned to its normal cheerful self. As Yuusuke walks over to the Spirit Beast, he caught a look of uncertainty on Hiei's face. “It'll be alright, Hiei. We'll get Kurama back to normal.”

 

“Hn,” came the usual reply. But Yuusuke did not miss that it had none of the usual confidence behind it.

 

To be continued . . .

 

AN: I hope Hiei and Kurama weren't too OOC in this chapter. And as I said before, review! I love reading what you guys think.