Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Quoth The Rayvin ❯ Meri Kurisumasu Kurama ( Chapter 9 )

"Be that our sign of parting, bird or fiend!" I shrieked, upstarting--
"Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore!
Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul has spoken!
Leave my loneliness unbroken!--quit the bust above my door!
Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!"
Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."

And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming
And the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadows on the floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted--nevermore!

I'm falling

Slowly drifting

Into black oblivion

Head over heels

And I

Can't

Stop

A few moments seemed to stretch into hours after the echo of the second gunshot died. Kurama slowly opened his eyes, thinking that Rayvin must have missed him in hesitation or fear. The last thing he expected was the sight his verdant gaze met.

D'Vertola had been shot clear through his head. The slip of paper laid on the ground a few inches away from his body, soaked in blood. This Kurama did not mourn. That was saved for the bleeding figure crawling towards the kitsune, shaking hand clutching a small silver key. He ran over to her, allowing her to unlock the cuffs before holding her in a tight embrace. "Rayvin…Rayvin, doushite? Doushite?" How could she have done this to herself? How…how could she have left him?

She took his head between her hands and whispered a few words before raising her head to kiss him one last time. A dark purple mist swirled around them, growing thicker by the second, swirling in a dance to music only it seemed to know. Suddenly Kurama could hear bells around him, hundreds of them. The knowledge of the art of necromancy Rayvin had gathered became his. He could hear the dead just as she could, and manipulate them just as well if he so desired. Ghosts swirled around him, and two voices became clear enough for him to discern them from the rest of the sounds, joyous yells of freedom. 'Yusuke-kun…Kuwabara-kun!' He finally understood. Rayvin had made him a necromancer so that he could resurrect his friends.

The clock in the town struck once, twice, twelve times. With her last breath, Rayvin murmured, "Meri Kurisumasu, Kur…ama…" That was all. The woman Kurama cradled in his arms was dead; dead from the gunshot wound she had given herself.

Abruptly, the mist circling around them centered on Rayvin. In an instant, it was no longer Rayvin in his embrace, but a little boy, barely more than four or five years old, with a shock of jet black hair hanging over piercing indigo eyes. He wore nothing but a tattered black stole, and was obviously terrified by his sudden appearance.

"K-Kurama-san?" The redhead nodded. "W-what happened to Kaasan?"

"Do you mean Rayvin?" Kurama asked gently. There was no point in frightening the boy any further than he already was.

"Hai. She's dead now, isn't she?" Tears welled in the little boy's eyes at this thought. "She brought me back..."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I'm Kage. I died a long time ago. I think Kaasan brought me back," he explained between sobs.

"So you are Kuronue's son," Kurama said with a soft smile, wiping some of the tears away. "Your otousan and I were good friends once."

"What about my imouto?"

"Nani?"

"My baby sister," he stated, pointing to the wooden crate. "She was just born last week." Kurama stood up, cradling Kage in one arm and walking slowly towards the box.

There was an infant nestled in a multitude of blankets, sleeping peacfully until Kurama reached out to touch her. She opened her eyes and looked at Kage, who smiled brightly and said, "Ohayo gozaimasu, Imoutochan." Though the boy seemed so happy-go-lucky and carefree, inside he was crying for his mother, who he had not been apart from for almost one hundred years, but he wasn't about to let his sister know. "This is your tousan, Kurama. Don't worry, Kaasan thinks he's nice." He said this as if he were simply intoducing one stranger to another, not a father to his daughter. Her wide-eyed gaze shifted from Kage to Kurama, and she cooed softly. "Kaasan named her Kurohane, but she doesn't have any wings." Neither did Kage for that matter. Rayvin had done something to ensure that her son looked completely human, though what and for how long Kurama couldn't say.

"Kon'nichiwa, musume-chan." He put Kage down for a moment and placed his heavy jacket over the boy's shivering body. Kurama then lifted Kage onto his shoulders with strict instructions to hold on no matter what happened. He then bent down and picked up Kurohane, wrapping the blankets around her tightly.

There was no point in going out the door with Yukio and Robyn out there, anxiously waiting for D'Vertola's call, so Kurama strode over to the stone wall. Shifting the baby to one arm, he pulled a seed from his hair and placed it in a crack. He concentrated his ki on it, and stepped back as the wall shook and split as the seed sprouted into a plant and grew larger by a second. In a minute, there was a hole wide enough for him to go through. He threw another seed behind him, which landed by the door that Robyn and Yukio were trying to force their way through. It exploded into a mass of thick ivy, which would hold the door shut and give him ample time to run.

They were about halfway home when the two caught up with Kurama and the children. Yukio had a gun and would have surely shot the shokubutsushi had not the weeds in the road grown immensely, engulfing him and his wife. Their muffled cries could be heard as Kurama glared at them cooly, and turned to start running again. A dark shadow appeared out of nowhere and stood in front of him. "Hiei!"

"Give me one of them," he said, indicating the children. "It will be easier for you to run." After a moment's contemplation, Kurama handed him Kurohane. If they were attacked again, he could at least tell Kage to get to safety while the teen fought of the threat; the baby would be completely defenseless in a situation such as that.

"Imoutochan!" Kage cried as Hiei left with Kurohane.

"It's all right Kage, Hiei won't hurt her," Kurama consoled him.

As the house came into view, Kage asked him, "Did you do that?"

"Did I do what?"

"That thing with the weeds right before Hiei-san showed up." Thinking back, Kurama realized he hadn't. "D'ya think Kurohane-imouto did it?"

"It is a possibility." Some youkai had such strong emotion that their powers could be ignited by fear, even those as young as Kurohane.

"I knew it!" cried the boy as they went to the door of Kurama's house. The car was gone, and Kurama assumed that Shiori had gone out to look for him. "Kaasan said she'd be powerful, 'cause you're her otousan!"

He put Kage down and took his hand, guiding him to Kurama's room. Hiei was sitting at his desk, humming softly to Kurohane, which he abruptly stopped when his friend walked in. "Hiei, could you please watch the two of them while I go get some things?" Hiei nodded shortly, and Kage clambered onto his lap, much to the hi youkai's surprise.

Kurama walked in and out of his room and the attic with a bassinet, pieces of a toddler bed, toys, and old clothes that had belonged to him when he was young. After about an hour and a half, Kurama's room was rearranged to accommodate the new furniture, and Kage and Kurohane were sleeping peacefully. Kurama and Hiei were in the living room waiting for Shiori's inevitable return.

"Hiei, may I ask a favor of you?" The Koorime looked at him skeptically, but nodded. "You realize that if I intend to stay in the human realm with my okaasan it is imperative that I finish my schooling." Another nod. "I cannot watch both of the children-"

"You want to keep them?" Hiei asked, mildly surprised.

"She entrusted them to me." There were no questions as to who 'she' was. Hiei had seen enough of the necromancer in both children that he had taken an accurate guess. "I can't give them up." He sighed. "Would you mind terribly watching over them while I'm at school. And, if at all possible, could you train them both when they're old enough?"

Hiei hesitated. Him? Watch children? A toddler and an infant? And yet…it wasn't as if he hated children. In all actuality, their innocent naïveté reminded him of his futago, Yukina. But just as he refused to sully his sister, he also had no desire to ruin Kage and Kurohane. He opened his mouth to say so but was interrupted by the sounds of Shiori coming through the door. Kurama tensed as his mother let out a cry of relief and hugged her son.

Shiori was prepared to bombard him with questions until she saw his sorrow-stricken eyes. "Shuuichi, what's wrong?"

"Kaasan," he paused, readying himself for what he was about to tell her. "Kaasan, do you remember Rayvin?"

"Hai, I do."

"I…She…I got her pregnant." Shiori only stared in shocked silence. "But…Kaasan, she wasn't human." His mother opened her mouth until Kurama said softly, "Please don't say anything until I am finished. She was a karasu youkai, and they carry their children for three months. The baby- Kurohane- is up in my room." He took a deep breath and gave his mother an abridged version of what he had witnessed the night before. "She's dead. She committed suicide.

"There's more." Hiei inhaled sharply. He wouldn't!

He did. He told Shiori everything, the entire tale from start to finish. He told her of his death, and how he had taken refuge in her womb, taking away the body reserved for her true child (which was supposed to be a daughter, explaining Kurama's feminine appearance). "I'm sorry, Okaasan."

"Kurama-san?"

Shiori looked up from her thoughts, and saw a pale, dark haired boy standing at the doorway. Her son got up and went to him, and the little boy held his arms up, silently asking to be held and comforted, to which Kurama complied. "Kurama-san, can I call you Tousan?"

"Hai, Kage-chan," Kurama whispered softly.

"I know you're not my real otousan, but she said you'd take care of me like one."

"Who?"

"K-Kaasan," he sobbed, then couldn't stop. He cried heavily against Kurama's shoulder, occasionally calling out for his mother, while the teen rocked him back and forth. Shiori, a generous woman who could never ignore her maternal instincts, went into the kitchen to get the plate of Christmas cookies she had made. By the time she went out, Kurama was sitting in his previous place on the couch with Kage in his lap, and Hiei had gone upstairs in response to Kurohane's wailing. Had anyone seen him and lived to tell the tale, it would have been found that the Koorime had a weakness for small children even he did not know about.

She laid the cookies on the table, and Kage tentatively took one and bit into it. "Shuuichi…may I see…" She didn't finish her sentence, but Kurama knew what she meant anyway. She wanted to see Youko Kurama, wanted to see who her son had been nearly seventeen years ago.

Shiori watched in wonder as silver snaked through her son's crimson hair, his green eyes became flooded with an almost luminescent gold, his skin paled into alabaster, and his entire physique changed, while fox ears appeared on top of his head, along with a silvery-white tail. Kage, who was still on Kurama's lap, bore this all as if it were nothing, too engrossed in this glorious new Nigenkai food.

"Okaasan…"the being said. Would Shiori reject him? Cast him out of her home? What he didn't know was that Kage's innocent question of, "Kurama-san, can I call you Tousan?…I know you're not my real otousan, but she said you'd take care of me like one," had stuck a chord in Shiori's heart. She had carried Kurama inside her through a terribly difficult present, raised him and loved him for fifteen years…did that not make her his mother? The relief Kurama felt when he saw her smile the same way she had when he was nine and she had saved him at the expense of her own well-being cannot be described in this author's words.

"You are my son, no matter who you are. You are my son."

---

"Rayvin, you have been sentenced to an eternity in the service of Reikai." The stamp came down, sealing her fate, a fate she had chosen over Purgatory itself.

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Just an epilogue now. I'm almost done.

Haru, the (fan)girl who helps me run my site, gave me a new nickname. K-chan. You know how the 'Ch' in 'Chaos' sounds like 'K'. That's where she got it. I actually kind of like it. Feel free to call me K-chan if you'd like.