Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Quoth The Rayvin ❯ Karasu no Namida ( Chapter 5 )

Much I marveled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly,
Though its answer little meaning- little relevancy bore,
For we cannot help but agreeing that no living human being
Ever yet was blessed with seeing bird above his chamber door,
Bird or beast upon the sculpted but above his chamber door,
With such a name as "Nevermore".

 

But the Raven, sitting lonely on that placid bust spoke only
That one word, as if his soul he did outpour.
Nothing farther then he uttered; not one feather then he fluttered-
Till I scarcely more than muttered: "Other friends have flown before-
On the morrow he will leave as my hopes have flown before."
Then the bird said, "Nevermore."

 

)()()()()()()()(Rayvin's Past)()()()()()()()(

 

The love between mother and child is a strange and wonderful thing. She can look at the tiny being that had caused her so much pain, so much heartache, and those unpleasant memories will scatter like sakura blossoms to the wind and all that will be left is pure and absolute love.

 

Such was Rayvin's case.

 

The second her tiny son was placed in her arms, her heart swelled with such care and adoration that it almost hurt. Almost. Kuronue, who had by some miracle had made it to her side in time for the birth, felt the same. She could see it when she passed the infant to him, despite his protests, and he handled the tiny bundle like glass, indeed, like a jewel more precious to him than anything he had ever stolen. Rayvin may have giggled from the sheer contrariness of it had she not been nervous of wounding his delicate male ego. She was fairly certain that this was the only one of his children that he'd seen. Oh, she was in no doubt that there had been others. Rayvin was centuries younger than he was, there had to have been. And it didn't bother her. Much.

 

If only Niichan was there. Then she could be truly happy.

 

"What will you name him?" he suddenly asked, startling her. They hadn't spoken much since he came. Hell, they had barely even spoken on the night the child was conceived; both had been certain that that would be the last time they saw each other, and hadn't wanted to marr it in any way. But before that, the first few times they had been together, they had talked into the night, right up until the sun rose and she fell asleep in his arms.

 

"The honor rests with the father." That was the way it was, always had been, and always will be with the karasu youkai.

 

"I wouldn't be much of a father. You will be the one to say his name." True, Kuronue wouldn't be around much, but it was the way things were.

 

"Why not decide on one together, then, if you're going to press the subject?" He nodded and sat down on the edge of the bed. They tossed names back and forth for a while until Rayvin noticed something. Looking from the child's shock of black hair to his indigo eyes, she saw a replica of Kuronue. A shadow.

 

"Kage..." she whispered.

 

"Hm?"

 

"What about Kage?" He looked down at the baby in a way that seemed to ask "What do you think?' The latter stared back and cooed. "I like that. Kage." Then, in that moment, Rayvin finally said the words that had tugged at her heart ever since he had first taken her from the brothel where she had lived and rescued her from the life she hadn't wanted from the start.

 

"Aishiteru, Kuronue-san." She looked away and fidgeted, afraid of his answer. "I- I know it probably doesn't mean much-"

 

"I love you, too, Rayvin," he surprised himself with his words. Gently he placed the baby in the cradle and whispered, "Gods help us both...but I love you." And she wished with all her heart that he meant it as she lunged at him and held him close.

 

Little Kage's existence was a happy one, as happy as a youkai child's could be. Mama was always by his side, and Tousan came as often as he could, often bringing him a treat of some kind. Both showered love on the small boy.

 

But disaster struck them when Kage was four years old. The child had accidentally trod on a snake basking in the sun, not recognizing it as a demon. It had stung the little youkai, and its poison was coursing through his veins, making him violently ill. Rayvin stayed up with him for a week trying to ease his suffering, but in the end...

 

It was raining torrents outside as she tended to the convulsing child. The little hut was kept dark, and there was no noise but the sound of his whimpering. Her only comfort was that Kuronue would be back soon- he would know what to do for Kage.

 

A loud knocking at the door started her out of the daze she had been in. 'Kuronue...' But it was not him. Three silent, black-clothed youkai wordlessly handed her a broken scythe. One of Kuronue's scythes. It couldn't mean...she looked up at them with pleading eyes and somberly nodded their heads.

Kuronue was dead.

 

Her voice seemed caught in her chest as she thanked the youkai. She couldn't break down now. She had a sick child to attend to. But as she turned to his bed, she noticed- the whimpering...and the shaking...the harsh breathing...all had stopped. She darted toward him and held him by his shoulders, lifting him off the bed in an attempt to disprove her worst fears.

 

"No! Kage! Kage-chan, wake up, please wake up!" No avail. No matter how much she yelled or shook the tiny boy, she knew he wasn't coming back. In one devastating blow her mate and child had been taken from her.

Rayvin's scream pierced the dense gray fog outside.

 

The pearly white essence floated behind her as she sat, almost comatose, at her son's grave. Her face was streaked with mud and tears, and it took him an instant to guess who she was, even through the macabre mask. 'Why is mama crying?' it thought, silver eyes shining with wonder as it finally identified something from its hazy memory.

 

"Mama!" it cried, rushing to her, but the woman, who had heard the otherworldly bell-like sound, spun around, and her face became one filled with wonder.

 

"Mama, Mama!"

 

"My son!" she sobbed in the same chiming sound the young ghost had, like it was a second tongue to her, or one she had always known and never used.

 

With the realization that this was a way to hold onto those she had lost, Rayvin's life as a necromancer-for-hire began.

 

)()()()()()()()(Even Further Back)()()()()()()()(

 

"Niichan, please don't go." A tiny Rayvin tugged imploringly on the back of her brother's coat.

 

"Rayvin, I have to." He looked back at the sobbing child with soft eyes.

 

"But- but he was big, and scary, and the other one was creepy. I don't want you to go!"

 

"I have no choice."

 

"Then I'm going with you!" She held onto his coattail with a child-like defiance.

 

"No! It's too dangerous."

 

"If it's too dangerous for me, then it's too dangerous for you." He sighed and got rid of her the only way he knew how.

 

"KYAHHHHH! GET THAT THING AWAY FROM ME!"

 

He continued. The bomb would follow her until it exploded, giving out smoke instead of flames. It wouldn't hurt her, and by now she knew that, so she let in go off and resumed following her Niichan, this time discreetly. However, she fell so far behind that by the time she got there, he was already beaten.

 

"NIICHAN!" She slid down the hill that separated her Niichan from herself.

 

"No, Rayvin!" He turned and reached out a hand, trying to warn her of the danger.

 

"What's this?" a sadistic voice asked, not really looking for an answer. The young karasu youkai instinctively backed up as far as she could at the sight of him. He resembled a spider as he clutched the bigger man's back, a sickly pale spider with long, stringy gray hair. "A little rat. May I, Brother?" He looked at his perch with an imploring look that made Rayvin sick to her stomach. His brother nodded.

 

"Niichan!" she cried out fearfully. "NII!" The smaller of the two men flicked his wrist forward. His fingers stretched like rubber and shot toward the frightened girl, but her brother managed to crawl to his feet and move in front of her, taking the full brunt of the attack. She watched, horrified, as the ghastly appendages exited through his back, blood spurting onto her face. She thought he was dead as he slumped to the ground, until-

 

"Leave my imouto alone. Kill me instead."

 

"Nii-"

 

"Urusai, Rayvin," he commanded harshly

 

The taller of the two walked over and picked her Niichan up by his collar, despite Rayvin's protests, and put him down on his feet. "I have a better idea. Come with us, and we'll set you free when we die. We'll leave the runt alone." He looked directly at the round-eyed petite youkai as

 

"I have no choice." He bowed his head and crossed his wrists together in front of him. The spider-man leapt from his brother's back to Niisan's wrists, morphing himself into a pair of handcuffs.

 

"NIICHAN!" Rayvin ran after him, but the other youkai, who she would later discover was the younger of the Tuguro Brothers, caught her across the chest with his arm, knocking the wind out of her as she flew against the rocky hill behind her.

 

"No! RAYVIN!"

 

"Kar...Kara...KARASU!" Her tiny hand reached out pitifully towards him.

 

)()()()()()(A Few Weeks Prior to Quoth The Rayvin)()()()()()(

 

She searched through the rubble of the stadium, searching for the body she knew had to be there. She had been told about his death; indeed, the kind of person the Tuguro Brothers' treatment had warped him into had caused it. He had advanced upon and threatened the kitsune, saying that he liked to destroy those he loved. What would that have meant to Rayvin if she had set him free like she intended? Would he have killed her as well? She was firmly convinced that it was the Brothers' fault that her beloved Niichan had turned into such a sadist. As for his loving the kitsune...he had always been like that. Bi, anyway. It didn't matter to Rayvin how many women or men he brought to their small home on the outskirts of town, as long as they were good to her brother.

 

There. A lock of golden hair showed through the cracks in the rocks. Had Karasu become that powerful since he left her? He must have pushed himself so hard...did it have anything to do with a desire to return home to her? No one could answer that question anymore. Even Karasu's only possible friend was dead and buried in the ruins, and it was likely that he and Bui had never even spoken to each other.

 

"Niichan?" The word had not dared escaped her lips since his kidnapping, but it did now with the flood of tears that ran down her cheeks. He wasn't moving. "Karasu..."

 

Again, a piece of her heart died into ashes as another part of her life was taken away.

 

---

 

Kurama watched as tears slipped from the sleeping woman's eyes and slide down her cheeks. Her breath came out in shudders and she looked tiny and vulnerable as she lay under the blankets.

 

Indigo eyes slowly opened as she turned to look at him. "Who are you?"

 

"Minamino Shuuichi."

 

---

 

REVISION NOTES:

 

Again, not a real revision note, but I have some strange desire to tell everyone what a moronic idiot ChaosMage is.

 

I went on a cruise a couple weeks ago. Okay, about a month ago, really, but my mind's still somewhere in Mexico.

 

Unfortunately, so are my CDs.

 

When we got off the ship for the last time, we were all sitting in the lounge waiting for our color to be called so we could go home. I was listening to my CD player, and when we were called I got up, picked up my carry-on bag, and left.

 

My CD case was on that chair. I remember which one too- the chair on the far left of the Chopin Lounge, second away from the entrance of Inspiration Boulevard.

 

Someone please tell me what a DUMBASS I am. Right now. Please?

 

So all my CDs except for the one I was listening to at the time (2nd FLCL soundtrack) are gone. L'arc~en~Ciel- GONE. Ayumi Hamasaki- GONE. Rush- GONE. Guns-n'-Roses (this one also happened to be the last gift my bastard of a brother gave me before he took off and never came back)- GONE!!!

So now I'm on Amazon looking for the cheapest ways to replace these CDs, and looking at some new ones I might get when I finally get a job. Malice Mizer sounds good. And so does Gackt (I'm extremely open-minded when it comes to music. I think the word for that is 'eclectic', but I'm not sure...). And not only that, Gackt's pretty. Very pretty. Unbelievably pretty. I'm going to shut up now before I turn into a screaming fangirl ::shudder::.

 

JA!
ChaosMage