Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Lost and Found ❯ The Truth Hurts ( Chapter 18 )

Chapter 18: The Truth Hurts

Shuichi woke to very familiar surroundings. She looked around to find herself on a futon with a bowl and pitcher in a corner. Getting up she looked herself over. She wasn't hurt and she was clean and freshly dressed in a white robe. One of the girls must have taken care of her. Probably Tina. As she took her bearings the rice papered slid open to reveal three figures.

"Mama!" yelled Rahne and she ran to her mother. Rahne wore clothes similar to Youko Kurama and had her sword that Hiei gave her strapped to her hip.

"Rahne, you're okay!" Shuichi embraced her daughter and stared curiously at the sword. "Who gave you that sword?"

"Hiei-sama, he's teaching me! Says I'm a fast learner! Want to see?"

"You certainly are, and you can show me later," she said and embraced Shinta and Shinken.

"Mom," squealed Shinken and nearly strangled Shuichi.

"I'm glad to see you too, Shinken."

Shuichi looked up at Shinta who was looking at her with a confused expression. Why was he confused puzzled her.

"I'm glad to see you again, Shinta," she said holding out her hand. "I see you followed my instructions."

He stepped around her outstretched hand and embraced her. "I've missed you too, mother."

Shuichi was surprised but she embraced him too. Soon Rahne was showing them the practice swipes Hiei showed her and Shinken demonstrated the punches Genkai taught her. Shuichi complimented them on it. They were happy to be together again. Unfortunately the reunion was cut short when Hiei walked in. He had a serious expression on his face and looked like he wanted to have immediate answers, which he did.

"I have some questions for you. I hope you remember me."

"Yes," she said standing straight and proud, hoping her feet aren't trembling under the robe.

"You lied to me, in the forest. You didn't give me the answer and I hate being given the wrong answer."

"I gave you the answer then and I'll you the same now. I don't know him."

"You're lying again. I hate lies."

"Children, leave. I need to talk to him alone." The three nodded and left the room. Shuichi looked at Hiei and crossed her arms defiantly.

"What is it you wish to ask?"

"When you set the children free, you told Shinta to head east, why?"

Shuichi shrugged. "I had bad dealings in the west."

"What puzzled me more is that you told Shinta to come to me, by name. I never told you my name."

"I-I," she started but she didn't know what to say.

"And this," said Hiei thrusting Rahne's hiruiseki stone at her. He had time to examine it and instantly knew what it was. "This is a tear gem, a Forbidden one. Only the Forbidden Children create these and I'm the only one!"

"But-I . . ."

"Who are you really? A youko with no clan, ran away from her mate, angered the Koorime, and made friends with ningens. Who are you?"

"I'm the one you're looking for!" she yelled out before she could stop herself. "I'm Kurama!"

Hiei looked shocked at her and dropped the gem.

"You-You're-Kurama?"

"What were you expecting? The Wicked witch of the West? And I left that name. That is no longer my life."

"Why did you leave?"

"You told me to leave!"

"I-I didn't mean it like that!"

"Could have fooled me."

"Why are you a girl?"

"I had to, to have Rahne."

"You adopted a kit to set me off trail?"

"I didn't adopt Rahne! She *is* my daughter! I bore her, gave birth, and raised her in that Koorime hell hole! I'm the one who stayed behind while she escaped. She's my daughter!"

"Who's the father?"

Shuichi fell to the floor and cried. Now she was scared then she had ever been in her life. She'd just told the love of her life everything that happened and now gotten Hiei mad.

"Who was the father?!"

"I can't tell you!"

Hiei stared angrily at Shuichi as she cried on the floor. Kurama, his Kurama, had gotten pregnant. Genkai said that it was a theoretically possible but how?

"How? How can you have a baby?"

"Ninety-nine percent of the youko populations are male. We have to reproduce somehow. But unlike females we reproduce every few hundred years but if we don't take the La semilla del Combio, the Seed of Change, then we lose the baby."

"Then who's the father?!"

Shuichi shook her head as Rahne ran in, drown by the shouting of her mother.

"Leave Mama alone!" she yelled and drew her sword. She wrapped the small blade in black flame as she stood protectively in front of her mother.

"Rahne, no!" Shuichi grabbed her daughter and placed her on her lap, trying to calm the toddler down. Hiei stared shocked at the small girl and studied her. The red eyes, oval shaped face, the black fire. Rahne was his daughter!

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I was going to but you told me to leave so I did. I wanted to go back and tell Kaasan but I got lost, I couldn't find my way back."

"Shiori-Shiori's dead. She died four months ago."

"What?"

"Shiori died. I was with her. But she didn't stop looking for you. She wanted nothing else."

Her Kaasan dead. And she wasn't there. Was that why she had that could feeling in her heart that day? Because Shiori died. Shuichi couldn't stand it anymore. She grabbed Rahne and ran out. Hiei tried to stop her.

"Kurama! Kurama stop!"

"Let me go!" And she punched him, making him fall to the floor and a trickle of blood ran down his chin. Shuichi stood stunned at what she did and ran.

"Kurama! Wait!"

"Shinta, Shinken, we're leaving," she yelled at the two siblings and they and Tina followed her to the Makai. Hiei tried to follow her.

"Kurama!"

"Jaganshi, wait," said Genkai. "Leave her alone. She needs to think."

Hiei hung his head as the old shihan walked away.

"That was Kurama?" asked Yusuke and Hiei nodded his head. Everyone else had been talking in the courtyard when Hiei and Shuichi ran out. "Why did she leave?"

"She needed to think."

"Why did she not want to stay," asked Yukina.

"I don't know."

"Hiei," said Kuwabara, "I may not be very smart but I'm not dumb. We know why you wanted to look for him so much. You love Kurama. We can see it."

"How?"

"No one's that determined to find just a friend," said Yusuke.

"You guys okay with it," he asked looking at his friends.

"We are fine with it," said Keiko. "And Genkai's right. Let her think. She's had a traumatic experience and had been through a lot. Don't overdo it."

Hiei nodded as his friends joined Genkai in the dojo and hung his head. A tear gem, Rahne's tear gem, lay near his foot and he picked it up. He will leave her alone, but that doesn't mean he can't watch her. Clutching the gem tight he ran toward the Makai portal.

************

There! The reason why Kurama calls herself Shuichi! Did you get it? If you don't here's a recap: Kurama didn't want to remember her life as a Reikai Tantei so she changed her name, hoping to forget, but sometimes your past catches up with you, right?