Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Shattered Gates ❯ Water Training, Soggy Fire-demons and Peace-offerings ( Chapter 15 )
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
By: Vitaralastla 
Anime/Manga: Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Action / Romance / Occult | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 06.10.2005 | Updated On: 09.27.2005 | Pages: 5 | Words: 9.1K | Visits: 145 | Status: Completed
Anime/Manga: Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Action / Romance / Occult | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 06.10.2005 | Updated On: 09.27.2005 | Pages: 5 | Words: 9.1K | Visits: 145 | Status: Completed
CHAP 14
The next day began as any other, Karyuu rising with the dawn to take her place at the east wall to watch the sun rise, only to find Hiei standing there with his back to her, still and unmoving as the early morning breeze tugging gently at the black cloak he always wore. The elfin Servant paused for a moment and then came forward, noticing that the demon turned his head just a little to the side when she was about four feet from where he stood, undoubtedly alerted to her presence more by her scent than by any sound or flicker of energy. She leapt up onto the wall beside him and looked out over the gradually lightening forest for a moment.
"Kurama said he spoke with you yesterday about Urameshi."
It wasn't really a question.
Karyuu nodded, not turning to look at him.
"Yes, he did."
"Did you answer his questions?"
'So Kurama didn't tell him...'
"As best as I'm allowed," she replied as honestly as she could.
"Hn."
Thankfully, the fire-demon seemed satisfied with her response and let the matter lie.
'Hopefully Kuwabara will do the same,' she thought silently.
An uncomfortable silence descended between them that stretched on for several minutes before, surprisingly, Hiei broke it by abruptly changing the subject.
"I finished it."
She turned to look at him, confused.
"Pardon?"
Ruby eyes turned to look at her, face expressionless as ever.
"I finished it."
Karyuu blinked once before understanding touched her.
'Ahh... Lord of the Rings...'
"So, what did you think?"
"It was... interesting..."
"A good kind of interesting, or an 'I'd rather burn it than read it again' kind of interesting?"
He looked away and reaching into a fold of his cloak, he retrieved the novel she was so fond of and handed it to her without looking at her.
"Good."
She nodded with a smile.
"I'm glad you liked it," Karyuu murmured, taking the book in her hands, absently noting that it still had traces of sakura-blossoms lingering on the paper. "Any questions on English you want me to answer?"
"No," he seemed to pause as if considering something. "It won't be necessary to continue lessons in the Ningen languages... I've been able to read... Japanese for a long time."
Karyuu turned fully to look at him, and could have sworn she saw a slight quirk of a smile touch his lips before it disappeared again.
"You mean you've been able to read Japanese all this time?" She asked incredulously.
"Yes."
"And Kurama and the others don't know?"
Another quirk touched his lips.
"No."
"Are you planning to tell them any time soon?"
"What business is it of theirs?"
The elfin woman stared at him silently for a moment and then laughed.
"You're evil, you know that right?"
Ruby eyes turned to look at her and he actually smiled a little at that before returning his gaze toward the rising sun.
The two remained silent until the sun had begun sending golden spears of light through the branches of the ancient pines surrounding the Temple, and Karyuu gave a quiet sigh.
"So, ready to begin training again?" She asked quietly.
"Hn."
"'Hn' yes, or 'Hn', no?"
He raised an eyebrow at her and she continued to look at him expectantly.
"You know what I mean, Servant."
She chuckled and turned away from the sun, and leapt down to the garden and began moving toward the kitchen, her mind reaching out to touch those of their sleeping team-mates even as Hiei followed close behind.
"Good morning, guys!" The elfin woman called gently within the silence of her sleeping friends minds. "Time to get up..."
The Servant of Gaia was answered with the usual incoherent grumbles that she had eventually come to translate as 'Yah, yah... I'm comn'...'
"We'll be training today, so you might as well change into your suits now."
"Kay..." Yusuke replied sleepily.
Karyuu smiled a little as she separated the link.
Yusuke, though technically awake, was likely to arrive at the breakfast table wearing a parka with his swim-trunks set firmly on his head...
The image of her leader, dopey-eyed with sleep in such a get-up drifted into her mind and she chuckled quietly, shaking her head a little.
Hiei raised an eyebrow at her, but decided against asking.
He was learning, as the others were that the opal-eyed Servant had an odd sense of humor sometimes, one akin to that of the Kitsune, and it was often less of a headache to just let it pass than to question her on the source of her amusement when she chuckled like that.
"Are you going to be eating breakfast with us today?"
"What are you eating?"
"The usual stuff."
Hiei grimaced and shook his head.
The 'usual stuff' consisted of cold cereal, tea and occasionally a piece of toast or some Ningen fruit Hiei had declined trying... hardly an appetizing meal to the fire-demon.
"Hn, no."
Karyuu smiled a little, not really surprised.
"Alright... See you in half an hour," she said and continued onward across the courtyard, allowing Hiei to move to his customary perch in the old tree next to the red arch where he would most likely nap until she and the others emerged for the day's training.
"Hn."
Hiei watched her go for a moment and then moved on his way.
Absently he wondered why his elfin team-mate asked him every morning if he would join them for breakfast.
'She knows I'll refuse, and yet she persists in asking me to join her and the others... I wonder why...'
*****
An hour later, the Urameshi Team had gathered once again at the stream that flowed gently through the ancient forest surrounding the Temple, and Karyuu had selected Kuwabara to be first in an attempt to master the more basic ability of raising himself up onto the surface of the water.
As the others looked on, Kuwabara moved out until he stood up to his waist in the steady flow of the stream, frowning at his feet, or rather the slimy weeds surrounding them that squirmed unpleasantly against his bare legs in the current. His blue eyes raised as Karyuu laughed at the look of distaste on his face and they widened as he realized that she was also submerged only to her waist, floating above the river bottom as if she were standing on some invisible rock below the surface.
She smiled up at him.
"Suidai is my Element, remember?"
He scowled down at the weeds and squirmed a little, trying to shift so that they didn't wiggle so unpleasantly... and failed, only succeeding in nearly loosing his balance on the smooth, round rocks that lined the riverbed.
"Can we move somewhere else?" The big warrior asked plaintively. "The weeds are kinda' gross'n me out..."
"Sure, but they grow all over the riverbed... Wouldn't do any good."
"Could ya' do something about them then?" He asked hopefully. "Tear 'em up or somethin'?"
"I could, but I won't," she said with a grin. "They aren't hurting you and if you master the Element, you won't have to stand in them."
Kuwabara pouted a little, but nodded, smiling ruefully.
"Alright..."
"Okay... concentrate and focus the energy you gather under and around you, supported evenly and then, just pull yourself upward..."
A tight frown of concentration touched Kuwabara's face and the elfin Servant felt him cautiously begin to gather the required energy, large hands spread out flat on the very surface of the water, almost as if he were trying to physically push himself upward.
"Easy now..." She coaxed, watching him carefully with her opaline eyes. "Don't loose your grip..."
Suidai... the Water Element, had a habit of sort of bursting rather violently when beginners were first learning to master it, and she was tense and ready to counter whatever might happen when the orange-haired giant attempted to raise himself to stand on the rippling surface of the water.
Yusuke, Kurama and Hiei all stood on the bank of the river, watching their team-mate's struggles with varying degrees of interest, all shirtless and in their respective swim-wear as they waited for their turns...
"Damn! It keeps wiggling around!" Kuwabara grumbled irritably, his pale face a little flushed from exertion as he struggled with the element surrounding him. "I can't get a grip on it..."
"You don't 'get a grip' on water, dummy!" Yusuke called from his place lounging against a tree. "It's liquid!"
Unfortunately, the Spirit Detective's less than helpful statement had an unforeseen effect, and as Kuwabara's irritation spiked, so too did his efforts to draw himself upward out of the water... Along with just about everything else...
With a Startled cry, both he and Karyuu were blown upward by a jet of water so powerful that even Kuwabara, who weighed about two-hundred pounds, flew over fifty feet into the air, flailing and yelling as he rose, where his elfin team-mate tumbled head over heels not far from him, though she remained oddly silent, her arms folded across her chest wearing an expression of weary irritability.
Yusuke, Kurama and Hiei stared incredulously as the two soared upward and paused into the air for half a beat before beginning their decent, their mouths hanging open a little, not even seeming to notice the river-water and the occasional river-weed raining down around them.
"Ooohhh, shit..." Yusuke said quietly as his friends began to fall, Kuwabara shrieking a little as he began his descent, long legs flailing as he tried to right himself in mid air.
Kurama shifted uneasily as Karyuu, (who was thrown higher because of her slight weight) also began her descent, though she seemed to gain some control over her tumbling, now simply free-falling without the comical flailing of arms and legs exhibited by his shrieking team-mate. But before the three were able to launch themselves into an impromptu rescue, Karyuu's arms and legs snapped outward and with a sudden surge of Gaia's Energy, she halted in mid air, her hair whipping around her head in a wind they couldn't feel, her face quite calm, but rather irritated.
She hung there in the air for half a beat before her right hand snapped out toward Kuwabara, who looked as if he was going to crack his skull open on some of the larger rocks sticking out of the riverbed that was slowly beginning to fill again, halting the orange-haired young man in mid-fall, one long leg sticking up as if she had caught him by the ankle.
Kuwabara gave a Startled squawk and stopped flailing his arms to look up at her, blue eyes wide.
There was a brief pause where, she gave him a strained smile and shook her head before flipping him over so that he was the right way up and lowered him a few more feet till she dropped him on the coarse sand of the river-bank, where landed solidly on his feet. Having returned to terra-firma unharmed, the tall warrior turned to look up at her as she lowered herself down gracefully near-by, buffeting them lightly with a gentle puff of wind before it disappeared, allowing her blackened silver hair to fall about her shoulders in a wind-tousled mass that shone a little in the light of the sun.
"Are you two alright?" Kurama asked.
They glanced at one another and nodded.
"That was great!" Yusuke said, grinning broadly at them.
Karyuu sighed, obviously not agreeing with the brown-eyed Spirit Detective and glared irritably up at the Kuwabara who was looking down at her with an expression half-way between thankful and apprehensive.
"Do you know what you did wrong?" He nodded silently, his expression sheepish and she sighed again. "Then I don't have to say it?"
He shook his head vigorously as Yusuke chuckled to himself.
"Okay then..."
Karyuu pulled her fingers through her wind-whipped hair and winced slightly as they were caught in a sizeable knot and swore under her breath in a language they didn't understand, (though it sounded a great deal like German), and resignedly pulled her hair back into a very traumatized looking ponytail at the nape of her neck.
It was then that a flopping, gasping noise caught her attention.
With a slight frown and a little twitch of her ears, she turned her head and saw Hiei standing by the rapidly re-filling river's edge, his hands in his pockets, ruby eyes fixed on a small silver trout that had been beached by the explosion Kuwabara had caused, watching expressionlessly as it flopped, gasping on the shore. She watched as he glanced at the river, (which had mostly filled with water again), and with the toe of his boot, flicked the fish back into the life-giving water with a soft 'sploosh'.
A slight smile touched her lips and she turned away before he could catch her watching and returned her attention to the others.
Yusuke ambled forward and clapped his tall friend on the shoulder with a grin.
"You should've seen the look on your face!" He chuckled, ignoring the scowl the taller man aimed at him. "And what was with all that screaming?"
"Can-it, Urameshi!"
"Whoa, no need to get nasty," the Spirit Detective said, holding up his hands defensively, though his roguish smile never wavered. "I sure lots of guys scream like little girls when they're surprised..."
He ducked just in time to avoid Kuwabara's heavy fist impacting with the top of his skull.
"I said can-it, Urameshi!" The tall warrior snapped. "I got startled... It threw me off, that's all -"
"Yah, fifty-feet into the air!" Yusuke crowed, laughing hard as Kuwabara's face darkened in embarrassment.
Things may have deteriorated into an hour-long argument, but very suddenly, Karyuu caught Yusuke's attention by simply looking at him, the feel of her opaline eyes boring into him catching his attention quickly. He turned his head to look at her quizzically and drew back a fraction as she came closer, stalking around him until his back was toward one of the deeper sides of the stream.
The next day began as any other, Karyuu rising with the dawn to take her place at the east wall to watch the sun rise, only to find Hiei standing there with his back to her, still and unmoving as the early morning breeze tugging gently at the black cloak he always wore. The elfin Servant paused for a moment and then came forward, noticing that the demon turned his head just a little to the side when she was about four feet from where he stood, undoubtedly alerted to her presence more by her scent than by any sound or flicker of energy. She leapt up onto the wall beside him and looked out over the gradually lightening forest for a moment.
"Kurama said he spoke with you yesterday about Urameshi."
It wasn't really a question.
Karyuu nodded, not turning to look at him.
"Yes, he did."
"Did you answer his questions?"
'So Kurama didn't tell him...'
"As best as I'm allowed," she replied as honestly as she could.
"Hn."
Thankfully, the fire-demon seemed satisfied with her response and let the matter lie.
'Hopefully Kuwabara will do the same,' she thought silently.
An uncomfortable silence descended between them that stretched on for several minutes before, surprisingly, Hiei broke it by abruptly changing the subject.
"I finished it."
She turned to look at him, confused.
"Pardon?"
Ruby eyes turned to look at her, face expressionless as ever.
"I finished it."
Karyuu blinked once before understanding touched her.
'Ahh... Lord of the Rings...'
"So, what did you think?"
"It was... interesting..."
"A good kind of interesting, or an 'I'd rather burn it than read it again' kind of interesting?"
He looked away and reaching into a fold of his cloak, he retrieved the novel she was so fond of and handed it to her without looking at her.
"Good."
She nodded with a smile.
"I'm glad you liked it," Karyuu murmured, taking the book in her hands, absently noting that it still had traces of sakura-blossoms lingering on the paper. "Any questions on English you want me to answer?"
"No," he seemed to pause as if considering something. "It won't be necessary to continue lessons in the Ningen languages... I've been able to read... Japanese for a long time."
Karyuu turned fully to look at him, and could have sworn she saw a slight quirk of a smile touch his lips before it disappeared again.
"You mean you've been able to read Japanese all this time?" She asked incredulously.
"Yes."
"And Kurama and the others don't know?"
Another quirk touched his lips.
"No."
"Are you planning to tell them any time soon?"
"What business is it of theirs?"
The elfin woman stared at him silently for a moment and then laughed.
"You're evil, you know that right?"
Ruby eyes turned to look at her and he actually smiled a little at that before returning his gaze toward the rising sun.
The two remained silent until the sun had begun sending golden spears of light through the branches of the ancient pines surrounding the Temple, and Karyuu gave a quiet sigh.
"So, ready to begin training again?" She asked quietly.
"Hn."
"'Hn' yes, or 'Hn', no?"
He raised an eyebrow at her and she continued to look at him expectantly.
"You know what I mean, Servant."
She chuckled and turned away from the sun, and leapt down to the garden and began moving toward the kitchen, her mind reaching out to touch those of their sleeping team-mates even as Hiei followed close behind.
"Good morning, guys!" The elfin woman called gently within the silence of her sleeping friends minds. "Time to get up..."
The Servant of Gaia was answered with the usual incoherent grumbles that she had eventually come to translate as 'Yah, yah... I'm comn'...'
"We'll be training today, so you might as well change into your suits now."
"Kay..." Yusuke replied sleepily.
Karyuu smiled a little as she separated the link.
Yusuke, though technically awake, was likely to arrive at the breakfast table wearing a parka with his swim-trunks set firmly on his head...
The image of her leader, dopey-eyed with sleep in such a get-up drifted into her mind and she chuckled quietly, shaking her head a little.
Hiei raised an eyebrow at her, but decided against asking.
He was learning, as the others were that the opal-eyed Servant had an odd sense of humor sometimes, one akin to that of the Kitsune, and it was often less of a headache to just let it pass than to question her on the source of her amusement when she chuckled like that.
"Are you going to be eating breakfast with us today?"
"What are you eating?"
"The usual stuff."
Hiei grimaced and shook his head.
The 'usual stuff' consisted of cold cereal, tea and occasionally a piece of toast or some Ningen fruit Hiei had declined trying... hardly an appetizing meal to the fire-demon.
"Hn, no."
Karyuu smiled a little, not really surprised.
"Alright... See you in half an hour," she said and continued onward across the courtyard, allowing Hiei to move to his customary perch in the old tree next to the red arch where he would most likely nap until she and the others emerged for the day's training.
"Hn."
Hiei watched her go for a moment and then moved on his way.
Absently he wondered why his elfin team-mate asked him every morning if he would join them for breakfast.
'She knows I'll refuse, and yet she persists in asking me to join her and the others... I wonder why...'
*****
An hour later, the Urameshi Team had gathered once again at the stream that flowed gently through the ancient forest surrounding the Temple, and Karyuu had selected Kuwabara to be first in an attempt to master the more basic ability of raising himself up onto the surface of the water.
As the others looked on, Kuwabara moved out until he stood up to his waist in the steady flow of the stream, frowning at his feet, or rather the slimy weeds surrounding them that squirmed unpleasantly against his bare legs in the current. His blue eyes raised as Karyuu laughed at the look of distaste on his face and they widened as he realized that she was also submerged only to her waist, floating above the river bottom as if she were standing on some invisible rock below the surface.
She smiled up at him.
"Suidai is my Element, remember?"
He scowled down at the weeds and squirmed a little, trying to shift so that they didn't wiggle so unpleasantly... and failed, only succeeding in nearly loosing his balance on the smooth, round rocks that lined the riverbed.
"Can we move somewhere else?" The big warrior asked plaintively. "The weeds are kinda' gross'n me out..."
"Sure, but they grow all over the riverbed... Wouldn't do any good."
"Could ya' do something about them then?" He asked hopefully. "Tear 'em up or somethin'?"
"I could, but I won't," she said with a grin. "They aren't hurting you and if you master the Element, you won't have to stand in them."
Kuwabara pouted a little, but nodded, smiling ruefully.
"Alright..."
"Okay... concentrate and focus the energy you gather under and around you, supported evenly and then, just pull yourself upward..."
A tight frown of concentration touched Kuwabara's face and the elfin Servant felt him cautiously begin to gather the required energy, large hands spread out flat on the very surface of the water, almost as if he were trying to physically push himself upward.
"Easy now..." She coaxed, watching him carefully with her opaline eyes. "Don't loose your grip..."
Suidai... the Water Element, had a habit of sort of bursting rather violently when beginners were first learning to master it, and she was tense and ready to counter whatever might happen when the orange-haired giant attempted to raise himself to stand on the rippling surface of the water.
Yusuke, Kurama and Hiei all stood on the bank of the river, watching their team-mate's struggles with varying degrees of interest, all shirtless and in their respective swim-wear as they waited for their turns...
"Damn! It keeps wiggling around!" Kuwabara grumbled irritably, his pale face a little flushed from exertion as he struggled with the element surrounding him. "I can't get a grip on it..."
"You don't 'get a grip' on water, dummy!" Yusuke called from his place lounging against a tree. "It's liquid!"
Unfortunately, the Spirit Detective's less than helpful statement had an unforeseen effect, and as Kuwabara's irritation spiked, so too did his efforts to draw himself upward out of the water... Along with just about everything else...
With a Startled cry, both he and Karyuu were blown upward by a jet of water so powerful that even Kuwabara, who weighed about two-hundred pounds, flew over fifty feet into the air, flailing and yelling as he rose, where his elfin team-mate tumbled head over heels not far from him, though she remained oddly silent, her arms folded across her chest wearing an expression of weary irritability.
Yusuke, Kurama and Hiei stared incredulously as the two soared upward and paused into the air for half a beat before beginning their decent, their mouths hanging open a little, not even seeming to notice the river-water and the occasional river-weed raining down around them.
"Ooohhh, shit..." Yusuke said quietly as his friends began to fall, Kuwabara shrieking a little as he began his descent, long legs flailing as he tried to right himself in mid air.
Kurama shifted uneasily as Karyuu, (who was thrown higher because of her slight weight) also began her descent, though she seemed to gain some control over her tumbling, now simply free-falling without the comical flailing of arms and legs exhibited by his shrieking team-mate. But before the three were able to launch themselves into an impromptu rescue, Karyuu's arms and legs snapped outward and with a sudden surge of Gaia's Energy, she halted in mid air, her hair whipping around her head in a wind they couldn't feel, her face quite calm, but rather irritated.
She hung there in the air for half a beat before her right hand snapped out toward Kuwabara, who looked as if he was going to crack his skull open on some of the larger rocks sticking out of the riverbed that was slowly beginning to fill again, halting the orange-haired young man in mid-fall, one long leg sticking up as if she had caught him by the ankle.
Kuwabara gave a Startled squawk and stopped flailing his arms to look up at her, blue eyes wide.
There was a brief pause where, she gave him a strained smile and shook her head before flipping him over so that he was the right way up and lowered him a few more feet till she dropped him on the coarse sand of the river-bank, where landed solidly on his feet. Having returned to terra-firma unharmed, the tall warrior turned to look up at her as she lowered herself down gracefully near-by, buffeting them lightly with a gentle puff of wind before it disappeared, allowing her blackened silver hair to fall about her shoulders in a wind-tousled mass that shone a little in the light of the sun.
"Are you two alright?" Kurama asked.
They glanced at one another and nodded.
"That was great!" Yusuke said, grinning broadly at them.
Karyuu sighed, obviously not agreeing with the brown-eyed Spirit Detective and glared irritably up at the Kuwabara who was looking down at her with an expression half-way between thankful and apprehensive.
"Do you know what you did wrong?" He nodded silently, his expression sheepish and she sighed again. "Then I don't have to say it?"
He shook his head vigorously as Yusuke chuckled to himself.
"Okay then..."
Karyuu pulled her fingers through her wind-whipped hair and winced slightly as they were caught in a sizeable knot and swore under her breath in a language they didn't understand, (though it sounded a great deal like German), and resignedly pulled her hair back into a very traumatized looking ponytail at the nape of her neck.
It was then that a flopping, gasping noise caught her attention.
With a slight frown and a little twitch of her ears, she turned her head and saw Hiei standing by the rapidly re-filling river's edge, his hands in his pockets, ruby eyes fixed on a small silver trout that had been beached by the explosion Kuwabara had caused, watching expressionlessly as it flopped, gasping on the shore. She watched as he glanced at the river, (which had mostly filled with water again), and with the toe of his boot, flicked the fish back into the life-giving water with a soft 'sploosh'.
A slight smile touched her lips and she turned away before he could catch her watching and returned her attention to the others.
Yusuke ambled forward and clapped his tall friend on the shoulder with a grin.
"You should've seen the look on your face!" He chuckled, ignoring the scowl the taller man aimed at him. "And what was with all that screaming?"
"Can-it, Urameshi!"
"Whoa, no need to get nasty," the Spirit Detective said, holding up his hands defensively, though his roguish smile never wavered. "I sure lots of guys scream like little girls when they're surprised..."
He ducked just in time to avoid Kuwabara's heavy fist impacting with the top of his skull.
"I said can-it, Urameshi!" The tall warrior snapped. "I got startled... It threw me off, that's all -"
"Yah, fifty-feet into the air!" Yusuke crowed, laughing hard as Kuwabara's face darkened in embarrassment.
Things may have deteriorated into an hour-long argument, but very suddenly, Karyuu caught Yusuke's attention by simply looking at him, the feel of her opaline eyes boring into him catching his attention quickly. He turned his head to look at her quizzically and drew back a fraction as she came closer, stalking around him until his back was toward one of the deeper sides of the stream.
"You think that's funny, do you?" she asked with a mocking glare, thoroughly enjoying the cocky Human's nervousness.
He leaned back as she came closer, his brown eyes wide.
Her voice was ominously quiet, and the fact that she had drawn so close to him was making him more than a little uneasy. If she decided to belt him one, he doubted he'd be able to block it fast enough at such a close range...
Hell, who was he kidding?
If Karyuu decided to belt him one, he was screwed, whether she was this close or fifty feet away!
"Hmm?"
"I... uh... Well... um... Yah, it was kinda'... funny..."
"Do you think you can do better?"
"Uh..."
She smiled suddenly, her eyes growing suddenly bright with mischief.
"Aww, don't look so nervous, Yusuke! We all know making fun is just your way of being friendly, so I'm just going to..."
He leaned back as she came closer, his brown eyes wide.
Her voice was ominously quiet, and the fact that she had drawn so close to him was making him more than a little uneasy. If she decided to belt him one, he doubted he'd be able to block it fast enough at such a close range...
Hell, who was he kidding?
If Karyuu decided to belt him one, he was screwed, whether she was this close or fifty feet away!
"Hmm?"
"I... uh... Well... um... Yah, it was kinda'... funny..."
"Do you think you can do better?"
"Uh..."
She smiled suddenly, her eyes growing suddenly bright with mischief.
"Aww, don't look so nervous, Yusuke! We all know making fun is just your way of being friendly, so I'm just going to..."
"T-to what?" he stammered.
She was so close he could see the individual hues of colour in her opaline eyes as they shifted and changed in the light as she looked up at him.
She was so close he could see the individual hues of colour in her opaline eyes as they shifted and changed in the light as she looked up at him.
"Do this."
She poked a finger into his chest, and the already unbalanced young man flailed, then keeled over backwards, landing just as awkwardly as she and Kuwabara had flown through the air and with a curse and a resounding splash, Yusuke disappeared under the surface of the now fully-filled and flowing river.
When he re-surfaced, she gave him a female replica of his own cocky grin.
"Gotcha," she said smugly.
She poked a finger into his chest, and the already unbalanced young man flailed, then keeled over backwards, landing just as awkwardly as she and Kuwabara had flown through the air and with a curse and a resounding splash, Yusuke disappeared under the surface of the now fully-filled and flowing river.
When he re-surfaced, she gave him a female replica of his own cocky grin.
"Gotcha," she said smugly.
"You little..." he growled, sputtering in the cold water, his dark hair hanging in his eyes.
"Aw, did I scare you?" she said slyly with a giggle. "Poor baby..."
A low growl was the only warning before he leaped forward and Karyuu stumbled back out of reach with a surprised giggle, but unfortunately for her, Kuwabara's solid form halted her from getting away, and before she was able to shift, the Spirit Detective was on her again, and scooping her up, he tossed her unceremoniously out into the middle of the river.
"How do you like it?" He called smugly, hands on his hips as the others looked on, not certain whether they should be amused or worried.
But Yusuke's victory was short-lived, as just as Karyuu touched the water... she stopped.
Karyuu was lying on top of the water as if it were as solid as the ground he and the others were standing on.
Half a beat of stunned silence passed before she grinned at him and he scowled, fists slipping from his hips as his shoulders slumped in defeat.
"Damn it! That's cheating!" He roared indignantly, prompting a few laughs from his team-mates behind him.
A merry laugh was the only reply he got from Karyuu before she sank beneath the surface and then shot forward, re-surfacing in the shallow portion near the bank, smiling at him, delicate ears twitching just a little.
"Come on, Boss-Man, it's your turn." He pouted for a moment, and then resignedly waded in after her, and took up Kuwabara's old position, standing up to his waist in the water as she floated effortlessly before him, not able to help feeling that he'd been cheated somehow during the course of that little exchange...
"Damn it..."
"How do you like it?" He called smugly, hands on his hips as the others looked on, not certain whether they should be amused or worried.
But Yusuke's victory was short-lived, as just as Karyuu touched the water... she stopped.
Karyuu was lying on top of the water as if it were as solid as the ground he and the others were standing on.
Half a beat of stunned silence passed before she grinned at him and he scowled, fists slipping from his hips as his shoulders slumped in defeat.
"Damn it! That's cheating!" He roared indignantly, prompting a few laughs from his team-mates behind him.
A merry laugh was the only reply he got from Karyuu before she sank beneath the surface and then shot forward, re-surfacing in the shallow portion near the bank, smiling at him, delicate ears twitching just a little.
"Come on, Boss-Man, it's your turn." He pouted for a moment, and then resignedly waded in after her, and took up Kuwabara's old position, standing up to his waist in the water as she floated effortlessly before him, not able to help feeling that he'd been cheated somehow during the course of that little exchange...
"Damn it..."
*****
Much of the rest of that day's training session went that way; long periods of strenuous effort punctuated by brief bursts of playful horse-play that lightened the mood dramatically.
Hiei was the last of the group to make an attempt at gaining some control over the shifting Water Element and had done surprisingly well until a sudden wavering of control ended up with him tipping over on one side, much like a tree tipping over in the forest, resulting in Hiei dousing himself in the water, soaking the fire-demon from head to toe in cold, river water.
Karyuu couldn't help a smile, inordinately charmed when the usually upright hair wilted under the weight of the water, satisfying her private curiosity of whether or not his flame-like spikes would remain upright or not when wet.
Unable to help herself she chuckled at the sight of the proud Jaganeshi looking like a sour, very wet kitten, a few stray strands of the frosty starburst at his brow drooping forward over his eyes making even the death-glare he was aiming at her loose a great deal of its effectiveness under the circumstances.
Much of the rest of that day's training session went that way; long periods of strenuous effort punctuated by brief bursts of playful horse-play that lightened the mood dramatically.
Hiei was the last of the group to make an attempt at gaining some control over the shifting Water Element and had done surprisingly well until a sudden wavering of control ended up with him tipping over on one side, much like a tree tipping over in the forest, resulting in Hiei dousing himself in the water, soaking the fire-demon from head to toe in cold, river water.
Karyuu couldn't help a smile, inordinately charmed when the usually upright hair wilted under the weight of the water, satisfying her private curiosity of whether or not his flame-like spikes would remain upright or not when wet.
Unable to help herself she chuckled at the sight of the proud Jaganeshi looking like a sour, very wet kitten, a few stray strands of the frosty starburst at his brow drooping forward over his eyes making even the death-glare he was aiming at her loose a great deal of its effectiveness under the circumstances.
"Karyuu," Hiei warned, glaring at her with a completely serious expression. "If you say I look 'cute', 'adorable', or 'like a kitten'... I will hit you... repeatedly..."
He had recognized that look of surprised amusement in her eyes... Kurama and the others had said something like that to him once, before doubling over in helpless gales of laughter, and he had not been amused. He crossed his arms over his chest and turned his back on the opal-eyed Servant as her smile broadened into a grin, only to be met with similar expressions on the faces of his team-mates, who were just barely able to hold in their own, typical laughter at his expense...
Hiei scowled darkly and immediately began to stride forward out of the water and onto the bank, devoutly ignoring the little bursts of sparratic sniggering that escaped Yusuke's lips as he tried very valiantly not to laugh at the Jaganeshi... more so because he liked his ribs in one piece rather than to spare his friend the embarrassment.
It wasn't that Hiei looked especially funny with his hair down... in fact, the over-all effect was actually rather flattering in Karyuu's opinion... It was the look of sour, irritable sulkyness that he was wearing that gave birth to their amusement.
But all attempts at restraining their laughter, (self-preservational or sympathetic), were thrown abruptly out the door as they watched him push his hair back from his face, and dried it with a burst of his own Energy... which made his hair immediately stand on end in its usual configuration with a faintly audible 'whoof' that would have been perfectly suited to a cartoon...
The rest of the Urameshi Team exploded into helpless gales of side-splitting laugher and Hiei's face, already set in a scowl, darkened even further as he glared at them all with angry ruby eyes.
"Hn, bakas..."
Unfortunately, this prompted another burst of laughter, this one harder than the last, and the fire-demon quickly put on his shirt, cloak, boots, headband and sword before disappearing from view, riding himself effectively of their good-natured laughter.
Karyuu was the first to regain herself and she waded out of the water, wiping a silver tear from the corner of her eye.
"I hope he isn't too angry with us..." she said after a moment, her expression flickering back and forth between a smile and a small, sympathetic frown.
"Heh... he'll get over it," Yusuke said with a giggle from his place on the ground, having fallen over with the force of his laughter. "Hiei thinks we're all idiots anyway, so he'll calm down pretty quick... heh, heh, heh..."
Kurama chuckled and shook his head.
"Well, I suppose that puts an end to our training today," he said finally, reaching for his towel as he watched Kuwabara haul Yusuke to his feet with a helping hand.
Karyuu looked up to the late afternoon sky and smiled a little.
"Yah, I guess so..."
She glanced at the others, who were already beginning to climb into their clothes and quickly made a connection with the fox-demon, careful to block the others out.
"I'm going to have a talk with Kuwabara," she said within the silence of his mind, and was met with a barely perceptible nod.
"That's a good idea... You should be careful though. Kuwabara's position as a part of our little Team is very dear to him, and any suggestion that he may need additional help may wound his pride..."
"Don't worry, I've got it covered," she assured him before she broke the link and turned to speak to him aloud.
"You guys had better go ahead back to the Temple," she said casually as she pulled on a loose T-shirt over her now dry bathing suit. "I wanted to check something."
The Kitsune nodded and slung his towel over his shoulder.
"Alright, Karyuu."
Yusuke and he moved to leave, but paused as Kuwabara said, "You sure you wanna' stay out here by yourself, Karyuu?" He asked uneasily. "With those Servant guys and Bone-Devil things out there, I mean?"
She paused and looked up at him innocently, fully aware that no such threat was anywhere near their vicinity.
"I guess I'll be alright... you can stay if you want, but I'll only be a minute..."
He shrugged and leaned against a tree, his towel over one shoulder, arms folded over his broad chest.
"I'll stick around."
Yusuke shrugged and began moving back toward the temple, waving a hand over his shoulder at them as Kurama moved to follow.
"Alright, see you guys back home..."
Karyuu waved in return and pretended to busy herself with something in her jacket, allowing Yusuke and Kurama to move out of ear-shot before she straightened again.
"So... what did you wanna' check?" Kuwabara asked as she turned to look at him.
"You," she said calmly, bending to sit cross-legged on a fallen log on which Yusuke had been lounging after his turn was over. "Come and sit..."
He hesitated, and then dropped down beside her, long legs stretched out before him, his honest face a little confused.
"Why do you want to check on me?" He asked, shifting a little where he sat. "I'm doin' alright, aren't I? Well... except for the little explosion thing this morning, right?"
Karyuu looked at him for a moment and then sighed.
"I'm not going to lie to you, Kuwabara," she said finally. "You're good, but you're falling behind, you know that already."
The orange-haired warrior flinched and looked away.
"It's not like I'm goofing off..." he said a trifle defensively.
"I know," she said quickly, reaching out to put a hand on his arm. "I can feel it when you're trying to practice on your own when you think no one will notice."
He blinked and then felt his cheeks flush a little in embarrassment.
'Oh, yah... I forgot,' he thought silently. 'She can hear that... Man, I'm dumb...'
"Don't look so embarrassed," she chided gently. "Practicing is a hell of a lot better than sitting on your butt waiting for help, or giving up entirely."
Kuwabara smiled a little and looked away, his honest face still worried.
"I've got to ask you something, Kuwabara, and I want you to answer me honestly," she said after a moment of silence, her serious tone making the troubled young man look over at her almost hesitantly, as if afraid of what she would ask of him. "Do you think you can handle this? Do you think you can keep up with the others?"
As expected, he replied immediately, sapphire eyes wide and earnest.
"Yah, of course I can!"
Karyuu nodded and looked away, opaline eyes directed out over the surface of the river and suddenly, Kuwabara was struck with how very old she looked... not Genkai, old, but... wise, like someone who'd seen more and done more than he could in his whole lifetime.
"That was very prompt, Kuwabara," she murmured. "And so, it isn't a real answer..."
He opened his mouth to protest, but she cut him off, still looking out over the river, her expression grim and very serious.
"I want you to answer me again, and this time, think about Yukina... Think about Yusuke and everyone else in your Realm, all depending on you to hold up your end of the Team... Think about billions of defenseless lives relying on your strength to save them from an army of hellish creatures bent on the complete destruction of them and everything else you know exists. Think about that for a minute, and then think about what would happen if you let your ego, or even your genuine desire to help your friends and family make you say you could handle that responsibility when in truth, you couldn't. Think about it for a minute, and then answer me... Listen to your gut-feelings if that will help, but think and then answer me truthfully... This is important, Kuwabara."
The orange-haired warrior stared at her for a minute and then looked thoughtfully at the ground between his knees, drawing up his legs so that he could lean his broad forearms on them, thinking hard.
He'd never thought of it like that before...
Sure, he was strong and everything, but in the Team, he was definitely the weakest guy there, and he knew it, even if neither he or the others ever really said so.
But he wanted to be there beside them... He didn't want to be left behind while they went off as heroes to save the Realms...
It wasn't just ego, it was his desire to help, to protect his friends and family against evil, as corny as it sounded... Being a Spirit Detective was the best thing that ever happened to him... in a way, it had fulfilled his child-hood dream of being a super-hero...
But Karyuu was right.
If he really couldn't do this, then he'd be putting Yusuke, Shizuru and his beloved Yukina in more danger than he would if he simply stayed out of the way...
'There's no room for screwing up here, Kazuma,' he thought silently, a deep frown creasing his honest face. 'Karyuu's right, this is important... So can you handle it?'
He took a deep breath and closed his eyes turning his mind inward, searching his 'gut-feelings' for the answer to Karyuu's question, pushing aside the fears and insecurities that screamed at him to say no, and the ego and desire to help that screamed at him to say yes and focused on what his instincts were telling him.
Unknown to him, Karyuu's opaline eyes had shifted to look at him, and were watching him intently, pointed ears giving a slight twitch as she felt his Spirit Energy rise just a fraction, gathering inward as he looked hard within himself for an answer, and as he opened his eyes again, she smiled just a little and returned her attention to the water.
"Yah..." he said quietly and then more strongly. "Yah, I think I can..."
The Servant turned her head fully to look at him as he straightened to look at her, determined sapphire eyes meeting clear, piercing opal.
They stared at each other for a moment and then she smiled at him.
"Good," she murmured. "Good..." And then she laughed, surprising him with that bright, merry sound that seemed so suddenly out of place after such a grim discussion. "Good! Now, will you make me a promise Big-Guy?"
He blinked at her.
"Sure..."
"Promise you'll ask for help if you need it. That's what I'm here for."
He laughed and rubbed a callused hand at the back of his head.
"Yah, sure... um, Karyuu?"
"Yes?"
"Can you help me with this Water stuff?" He asked lamely. "I don't get it..."
"No problem," she said as she got to her feet. "We can start tutoring after dinner."
"Sure, that'd be great," he said quickly, relieved that his friend wasn't at all annoyed with having to spend extra time to help him struggle along.
She grinned and gave him a brief, one-armed hug before she got to her feet and picked up her bag, slinging it over her shoulder and the two began making their way through the gently darkening forest at an easy walk, following the sun back to the Temple.
*****
Yukina, who had spent the day alone at the Temple, had made the five team-mates a hot meal using one of Karyuu's cook-books she had discovered lying in a drawer, and had tried her hand at making some kind of spicy stew-like substance called 'chili'...
Karyuu had laughed and congratulated the taller woman on her success, though Yusuke and the others were skeptical... until they tasted it, and soon Yukina was receiving praise from all sides, the attention making the shy demoness flush a delicate pink.
Dinner passed relatively peacefully, with Yusuke providing a detailed account of the day's events, making a special point of giving a full account of Kuwabara's little explosion, the subsequent tumble through the air and the ensuing chaos, prompting soft laughter from the gentle demoness, who listened to the story with wide red eyes.
The only down-point to the meal was the fact that Hiei, had completely and utterly refused to join them for dinner, even going so far as to ignore them when they attempted to speak to him through the link he shared with his team-mates. Yukina didn't seem to notice her brother-in-hiding's absence, but Karyuu was aware of it, and couldn't help feeling a little guilty sitting there, knowing that the fire-demon was perched outside in his tree all alone because they'd embarrassed the hell out of him earlier that day...
And so, after Kuwabara had gone out to take his watch and Yusuke, Kurama and Yukina had moved to the living-room to play cards, watch TV. and generally relax, Karyuu had snuck away to the kitchen and after riffling around in the fridge, she produced something she was fairly certain the out-cast Jaganeshi would like...
*****
She made her way out to the courtyard, food in hand and walked on silent feet across the cobbled stone until she stood beneath the old tree near the great red arch at the head of the long flight of the stairs that descended into the dark forest.
"Hiei?"
There was no answer, but she could hear his heartbeat and his breathing clearly as she looked up into the shadowed bows, meeting a pair of familiar glowing ruby eyes that winked closed as he shut his eyes and ignored her again, the fire-demon's black-shrouded form clearly visible in the clear moonlight above.
She looked up at him for a moment and then smiled a little.
"Peace-offering?" She asked in a hopeful tone.
Hiei opened an eye and then closed it again, shifting a little in his tree.
"Hn."
A slight smile quirked at the corner of Karyuu's mouth as the proud fire-demon continued to sulk in his tree, wearing an expression she could only describe as 'pouty'.
"I hear you like ice-cream... sweet-snow, I think you call it..." She said in a wheedling tone, holding up the bowl so that he could see the contents.
"Hn, who told you that?" He asked without opening his eyes, though her sensitive hearing caught the faint sound of a brief, exploratory sniff.
"I have very pointy ears... I hear many things..."
The mystical tone in her voice made him open an eye again to look down at her, one fine eyebrow raised before his gaze drifted almost of it's own will back to the bowl of chocolate sweet-snow in her hands...
"Hn."
He made a motion with his bandaged hand as if to say "Gimme" and Karyuu leapt lightly up into the air, landing on the branch he was seated on just at his feet, and dropping to a crouch, she extended the bowl to him along with the spoon and he accepted it almost grudgingly.
As he lifted the spoon to his lips, he noted absently that Karyuu's landing on the branch had made no detectable disturbance at all, her balance almost freakishly perfect as she crouched there at his feet, looking at him with shining opaline eyes.
"Sorry about laughing like that earlier," she said after a moment, and he looked up at her, raising one fine eyebrow at her as he paused. "It was the expression on your face that really made it funny..."
He stared at her blankly for a moment and then returned his attention to the bowl of ice-cream.
"Hn."
In Hiei-speak, that one-syllable said, "That's alright", "Thanks for the ice-cream," and "You can leave now," all at once, and deciding against pushing her irritable team-mate any farther she got to her feet.
"See you in the morning," she said with a smile and without another word, she just stepped off the branch, dropping to the cobblestone below and moved back to the Temple, not seeing the fire-demon pause in his consumption of his 'sweet-snow' to watch her leave, his expression curious.
*****
Training resumed as normal over the next week, and Hiei with the others, returned to the stream they had spent weeks training in, focusing all of their attention on the struggle of training with the Water Element, each of them able to continue on at a good pace, Karyuu tutoring on the side allowing Kuwabara to keep up with the rest of them.
Everything seemed to be going fine, until one day when Kurama and the others were gathered once again around the deep stream that coursed through the ancient forest surrounding the Temple they all had come to see as a kind of home away from home for everyone in their little group...
Kurama stood on the sandy riverbank, both hands outstretched, fingers splayed as he focused his attention on parting the gently flowing waters of the stream, his face set in a determined frown. The other members of the Urameshi Team waited attentively, watching the red-haired demon's struggles, partially out of genuine interest, and partially out of a desire not to be abruptly tossed into the water as Kuwabara had several days ago when he had nodded-off while Karyuu was giving them instructions on gathering and manipulating Water Elemental Energy. Several minutes passed, and soon the water's surface began to ripple and shift a little as the Kitsune began to grasp the edges of the technique he would need to part the water all the way down to the round stones below.
"Okay, Kurama," Karyuu said from several feet away. "Focus and draw in a little more energy, and then press downward to the bottom. Just concentrate on making a little part in the water and then gradually widen it... That's it..."
Emerald orbs focused on the deepening part in the surface of the water, no more than a few inches deep and perhaps an inch wide, a fine sheen of sweat standing out on his pale skin as he struggled to do as he was told, acutely aware of four sets of eyes watching his every move.
He continued to draw in as much Energy as he could, (which wasn't very much), and focused all of his will toward the exact spot in which he had managed to form that slight part in the cool liquid flowing lazily before him, teeth set as he tried shifting the way he was gathering the Energy just slightly in an effort to get more.
'I can't seem to get enough of the Energy I need...' Kurama thought silently to himself, gritting his teeth as he shifted again, trying to achieve the task he'd been set. 'If only I could -'
But the crimson-haired Kitsune wasn't able to finish that thought as a rush of Elemental Energy suddenly coursed forward, nearly overwhelming him. Startled and unprepared, he did the only thing he could do, and raised his hands upward quickly even as he staggered backward, expelling the Energy upward even as he tried to pull himself away from it. And then Karyuu was there, and with a quick flick of her wrist, he felt the flow cease entirely and his knees gave out beneath him, dropping him onto the sandy shore with a grunt even as the distant roll of thunder in the distance.
Kurama lay there in the sand for a moment, just staring up at the sky in a dazed kind of way for what was probably a few seconds before Yusuke and Kuwabara's faces intruded on his view.
"You okay, man?"
He blinked and then nodded, pushing himself into a sitting position with a grunt.
"What happened?"
"We're not sure..." Yusuke said, leaning on his knees before he looked up at Karyuu, who stood several feet away, arms folded across her chest as she frowned up at the sky.
"What happened, Karyuu?" Kurama asked. "I couldn't have released that much energy without doing something...."
"You did do something," she said flatly, lowering her gaze back to earth, the frown still in place. "... to the weather, specifically."
A brief pause passed before the Kitsune reluctantly asked, "What did I do?"
"You broke it." She said in a flat, deeply annoyed tone.
"What?"
He had recognized that look of surprised amusement in her eyes... Kurama and the others had said something like that to him once, before doubling over in helpless gales of laughter, and he had not been amused. He crossed his arms over his chest and turned his back on the opal-eyed Servant as her smile broadened into a grin, only to be met with similar expressions on the faces of his team-mates, who were just barely able to hold in their own, typical laughter at his expense...
Hiei scowled darkly and immediately began to stride forward out of the water and onto the bank, devoutly ignoring the little bursts of sparratic sniggering that escaped Yusuke's lips as he tried very valiantly not to laugh at the Jaganeshi... more so because he liked his ribs in one piece rather than to spare his friend the embarrassment.
It wasn't that Hiei looked especially funny with his hair down... in fact, the over-all effect was actually rather flattering in Karyuu's opinion... It was the look of sour, irritable sulkyness that he was wearing that gave birth to their amusement.
But all attempts at restraining their laughter, (self-preservational or sympathetic), were thrown abruptly out the door as they watched him push his hair back from his face, and dried it with a burst of his own Energy... which made his hair immediately stand on end in its usual configuration with a faintly audible 'whoof' that would have been perfectly suited to a cartoon...
The rest of the Urameshi Team exploded into helpless gales of side-splitting laugher and Hiei's face, already set in a scowl, darkened even further as he glared at them all with angry ruby eyes.
"Hn, bakas..."
Unfortunately, this prompted another burst of laughter, this one harder than the last, and the fire-demon quickly put on his shirt, cloak, boots, headband and sword before disappearing from view, riding himself effectively of their good-natured laughter.
Karyuu was the first to regain herself and she waded out of the water, wiping a silver tear from the corner of her eye.
"I hope he isn't too angry with us..." she said after a moment, her expression flickering back and forth between a smile and a small, sympathetic frown.
"Heh... he'll get over it," Yusuke said with a giggle from his place on the ground, having fallen over with the force of his laughter. "Hiei thinks we're all idiots anyway, so he'll calm down pretty quick... heh, heh, heh..."
Kurama chuckled and shook his head.
"Well, I suppose that puts an end to our training today," he said finally, reaching for his towel as he watched Kuwabara haul Yusuke to his feet with a helping hand.
Karyuu looked up to the late afternoon sky and smiled a little.
"Yah, I guess so..."
She glanced at the others, who were already beginning to climb into their clothes and quickly made a connection with the fox-demon, careful to block the others out.
"I'm going to have a talk with Kuwabara," she said within the silence of his mind, and was met with a barely perceptible nod.
"That's a good idea... You should be careful though. Kuwabara's position as a part of our little Team is very dear to him, and any suggestion that he may need additional help may wound his pride..."
"Don't worry, I've got it covered," she assured him before she broke the link and turned to speak to him aloud.
"You guys had better go ahead back to the Temple," she said casually as she pulled on a loose T-shirt over her now dry bathing suit. "I wanted to check something."
The Kitsune nodded and slung his towel over his shoulder.
"Alright, Karyuu."
Yusuke and he moved to leave, but paused as Kuwabara said, "You sure you wanna' stay out here by yourself, Karyuu?" He asked uneasily. "With those Servant guys and Bone-Devil things out there, I mean?"
She paused and looked up at him innocently, fully aware that no such threat was anywhere near their vicinity.
"I guess I'll be alright... you can stay if you want, but I'll only be a minute..."
He shrugged and leaned against a tree, his towel over one shoulder, arms folded over his broad chest.
"I'll stick around."
Yusuke shrugged and began moving back toward the temple, waving a hand over his shoulder at them as Kurama moved to follow.
"Alright, see you guys back home..."
Karyuu waved in return and pretended to busy herself with something in her jacket, allowing Yusuke and Kurama to move out of ear-shot before she straightened again.
"So... what did you wanna' check?" Kuwabara asked as she turned to look at him.
"You," she said calmly, bending to sit cross-legged on a fallen log on which Yusuke had been lounging after his turn was over. "Come and sit..."
He hesitated, and then dropped down beside her, long legs stretched out before him, his honest face a little confused.
"Why do you want to check on me?" He asked, shifting a little where he sat. "I'm doin' alright, aren't I? Well... except for the little explosion thing this morning, right?"
Karyuu looked at him for a moment and then sighed.
"I'm not going to lie to you, Kuwabara," she said finally. "You're good, but you're falling behind, you know that already."
The orange-haired warrior flinched and looked away.
"It's not like I'm goofing off..." he said a trifle defensively.
"I know," she said quickly, reaching out to put a hand on his arm. "I can feel it when you're trying to practice on your own when you think no one will notice."
He blinked and then felt his cheeks flush a little in embarrassment.
'Oh, yah... I forgot,' he thought silently. 'She can hear that... Man, I'm dumb...'
"Don't look so embarrassed," she chided gently. "Practicing is a hell of a lot better than sitting on your butt waiting for help, or giving up entirely."
Kuwabara smiled a little and looked away, his honest face still worried.
"I've got to ask you something, Kuwabara, and I want you to answer me honestly," she said after a moment of silence, her serious tone making the troubled young man look over at her almost hesitantly, as if afraid of what she would ask of him. "Do you think you can handle this? Do you think you can keep up with the others?"
As expected, he replied immediately, sapphire eyes wide and earnest.
"Yah, of course I can!"
Karyuu nodded and looked away, opaline eyes directed out over the surface of the river and suddenly, Kuwabara was struck with how very old she looked... not Genkai, old, but... wise, like someone who'd seen more and done more than he could in his whole lifetime.
"That was very prompt, Kuwabara," she murmured. "And so, it isn't a real answer..."
He opened his mouth to protest, but she cut him off, still looking out over the river, her expression grim and very serious.
"I want you to answer me again, and this time, think about Yukina... Think about Yusuke and everyone else in your Realm, all depending on you to hold up your end of the Team... Think about billions of defenseless lives relying on your strength to save them from an army of hellish creatures bent on the complete destruction of them and everything else you know exists. Think about that for a minute, and then think about what would happen if you let your ego, or even your genuine desire to help your friends and family make you say you could handle that responsibility when in truth, you couldn't. Think about it for a minute, and then answer me... Listen to your gut-feelings if that will help, but think and then answer me truthfully... This is important, Kuwabara."
The orange-haired warrior stared at her for a minute and then looked thoughtfully at the ground between his knees, drawing up his legs so that he could lean his broad forearms on them, thinking hard.
He'd never thought of it like that before...
Sure, he was strong and everything, but in the Team, he was definitely the weakest guy there, and he knew it, even if neither he or the others ever really said so.
But he wanted to be there beside them... He didn't want to be left behind while they went off as heroes to save the Realms...
It wasn't just ego, it was his desire to help, to protect his friends and family against evil, as corny as it sounded... Being a Spirit Detective was the best thing that ever happened to him... in a way, it had fulfilled his child-hood dream of being a super-hero...
But Karyuu was right.
If he really couldn't do this, then he'd be putting Yusuke, Shizuru and his beloved Yukina in more danger than he would if he simply stayed out of the way...
'There's no room for screwing up here, Kazuma,' he thought silently, a deep frown creasing his honest face. 'Karyuu's right, this is important... So can you handle it?'
He took a deep breath and closed his eyes turning his mind inward, searching his 'gut-feelings' for the answer to Karyuu's question, pushing aside the fears and insecurities that screamed at him to say no, and the ego and desire to help that screamed at him to say yes and focused on what his instincts were telling him.
Unknown to him, Karyuu's opaline eyes had shifted to look at him, and were watching him intently, pointed ears giving a slight twitch as she felt his Spirit Energy rise just a fraction, gathering inward as he looked hard within himself for an answer, and as he opened his eyes again, she smiled just a little and returned her attention to the water.
"Yah..." he said quietly and then more strongly. "Yah, I think I can..."
The Servant turned her head fully to look at him as he straightened to look at her, determined sapphire eyes meeting clear, piercing opal.
They stared at each other for a moment and then she smiled at him.
"Good," she murmured. "Good..." And then she laughed, surprising him with that bright, merry sound that seemed so suddenly out of place after such a grim discussion. "Good! Now, will you make me a promise Big-Guy?"
He blinked at her.
"Sure..."
"Promise you'll ask for help if you need it. That's what I'm here for."
He laughed and rubbed a callused hand at the back of his head.
"Yah, sure... um, Karyuu?"
"Yes?"
"Can you help me with this Water stuff?" He asked lamely. "I don't get it..."
"No problem," she said as she got to her feet. "We can start tutoring after dinner."
"Sure, that'd be great," he said quickly, relieved that his friend wasn't at all annoyed with having to spend extra time to help him struggle along.
She grinned and gave him a brief, one-armed hug before she got to her feet and picked up her bag, slinging it over her shoulder and the two began making their way through the gently darkening forest at an easy walk, following the sun back to the Temple.
*****
Yukina, who had spent the day alone at the Temple, had made the five team-mates a hot meal using one of Karyuu's cook-books she had discovered lying in a drawer, and had tried her hand at making some kind of spicy stew-like substance called 'chili'...
Karyuu had laughed and congratulated the taller woman on her success, though Yusuke and the others were skeptical... until they tasted it, and soon Yukina was receiving praise from all sides, the attention making the shy demoness flush a delicate pink.
Dinner passed relatively peacefully, with Yusuke providing a detailed account of the day's events, making a special point of giving a full account of Kuwabara's little explosion, the subsequent tumble through the air and the ensuing chaos, prompting soft laughter from the gentle demoness, who listened to the story with wide red eyes.
The only down-point to the meal was the fact that Hiei, had completely and utterly refused to join them for dinner, even going so far as to ignore them when they attempted to speak to him through the link he shared with his team-mates. Yukina didn't seem to notice her brother-in-hiding's absence, but Karyuu was aware of it, and couldn't help feeling a little guilty sitting there, knowing that the fire-demon was perched outside in his tree all alone because they'd embarrassed the hell out of him earlier that day...
And so, after Kuwabara had gone out to take his watch and Yusuke, Kurama and Yukina had moved to the living-room to play cards, watch TV. and generally relax, Karyuu had snuck away to the kitchen and after riffling around in the fridge, she produced something she was fairly certain the out-cast Jaganeshi would like...
*****
She made her way out to the courtyard, food in hand and walked on silent feet across the cobbled stone until she stood beneath the old tree near the great red arch at the head of the long flight of the stairs that descended into the dark forest.
"Hiei?"
There was no answer, but she could hear his heartbeat and his breathing clearly as she looked up into the shadowed bows, meeting a pair of familiar glowing ruby eyes that winked closed as he shut his eyes and ignored her again, the fire-demon's black-shrouded form clearly visible in the clear moonlight above.
She looked up at him for a moment and then smiled a little.
"Peace-offering?" She asked in a hopeful tone.
Hiei opened an eye and then closed it again, shifting a little in his tree.
"Hn."
A slight smile quirked at the corner of Karyuu's mouth as the proud fire-demon continued to sulk in his tree, wearing an expression she could only describe as 'pouty'.
"I hear you like ice-cream... sweet-snow, I think you call it..." She said in a wheedling tone, holding up the bowl so that he could see the contents.
"Hn, who told you that?" He asked without opening his eyes, though her sensitive hearing caught the faint sound of a brief, exploratory sniff.
"I have very pointy ears... I hear many things..."
The mystical tone in her voice made him open an eye again to look down at her, one fine eyebrow raised before his gaze drifted almost of it's own will back to the bowl of chocolate sweet-snow in her hands...
"Hn."
He made a motion with his bandaged hand as if to say "Gimme" and Karyuu leapt lightly up into the air, landing on the branch he was seated on just at his feet, and dropping to a crouch, she extended the bowl to him along with the spoon and he accepted it almost grudgingly.
As he lifted the spoon to his lips, he noted absently that Karyuu's landing on the branch had made no detectable disturbance at all, her balance almost freakishly perfect as she crouched there at his feet, looking at him with shining opaline eyes.
"Sorry about laughing like that earlier," she said after a moment, and he looked up at her, raising one fine eyebrow at her as he paused. "It was the expression on your face that really made it funny..."
He stared at her blankly for a moment and then returned his attention to the bowl of ice-cream.
"Hn."
In Hiei-speak, that one-syllable said, "That's alright", "Thanks for the ice-cream," and "You can leave now," all at once, and deciding against pushing her irritable team-mate any farther she got to her feet.
"See you in the morning," she said with a smile and without another word, she just stepped off the branch, dropping to the cobblestone below and moved back to the Temple, not seeing the fire-demon pause in his consumption of his 'sweet-snow' to watch her leave, his expression curious.
*****
Training resumed as normal over the next week, and Hiei with the others, returned to the stream they had spent weeks training in, focusing all of their attention on the struggle of training with the Water Element, each of them able to continue on at a good pace, Karyuu tutoring on the side allowing Kuwabara to keep up with the rest of them.
Everything seemed to be going fine, until one day when Kurama and the others were gathered once again around the deep stream that coursed through the ancient forest surrounding the Temple they all had come to see as a kind of home away from home for everyone in their little group...
Kurama stood on the sandy riverbank, both hands outstretched, fingers splayed as he focused his attention on parting the gently flowing waters of the stream, his face set in a determined frown. The other members of the Urameshi Team waited attentively, watching the red-haired demon's struggles, partially out of genuine interest, and partially out of a desire not to be abruptly tossed into the water as Kuwabara had several days ago when he had nodded-off while Karyuu was giving them instructions on gathering and manipulating Water Elemental Energy. Several minutes passed, and soon the water's surface began to ripple and shift a little as the Kitsune began to grasp the edges of the technique he would need to part the water all the way down to the round stones below.
"Okay, Kurama," Karyuu said from several feet away. "Focus and draw in a little more energy, and then press downward to the bottom. Just concentrate on making a little part in the water and then gradually widen it... That's it..."
Emerald orbs focused on the deepening part in the surface of the water, no more than a few inches deep and perhaps an inch wide, a fine sheen of sweat standing out on his pale skin as he struggled to do as he was told, acutely aware of four sets of eyes watching his every move.
He continued to draw in as much Energy as he could, (which wasn't very much), and focused all of his will toward the exact spot in which he had managed to form that slight part in the cool liquid flowing lazily before him, teeth set as he tried shifting the way he was gathering the Energy just slightly in an effort to get more.
'I can't seem to get enough of the Energy I need...' Kurama thought silently to himself, gritting his teeth as he shifted again, trying to achieve the task he'd been set. 'If only I could -'
But the crimson-haired Kitsune wasn't able to finish that thought as a rush of Elemental Energy suddenly coursed forward, nearly overwhelming him. Startled and unprepared, he did the only thing he could do, and raised his hands upward quickly even as he staggered backward, expelling the Energy upward even as he tried to pull himself away from it. And then Karyuu was there, and with a quick flick of her wrist, he felt the flow cease entirely and his knees gave out beneath him, dropping him onto the sandy shore with a grunt even as the distant roll of thunder in the distance.
Kurama lay there in the sand for a moment, just staring up at the sky in a dazed kind of way for what was probably a few seconds before Yusuke and Kuwabara's faces intruded on his view.
"You okay, man?"
He blinked and then nodded, pushing himself into a sitting position with a grunt.
"What happened?"
"We're not sure..." Yusuke said, leaning on his knees before he looked up at Karyuu, who stood several feet away, arms folded across her chest as she frowned up at the sky.
"What happened, Karyuu?" Kurama asked. "I couldn't have released that much energy without doing something...."
"You did do something," she said flatly, lowering her gaze back to earth, the frown still in place. "... to the weather, specifically."
A brief pause passed before the Kitsune reluctantly asked, "What did I do?"
"You broke it." She said in a flat, deeply annoyed tone.
"What?"
"You broke it."
"Yes, you said that, but -"
"You've disrupted the weather pattern," she said irritably. "You-broke-it."
"Yes, you said that, but -"
"You've disrupted the weather pattern," she said irritably. "You-broke-it."
As if to bolster her words, the sky above began to darken at an amazing pace, thick, black clouds rolling over the tree-tops, the over-all effect being rather intimidating, since they seemed to be coming up from behind the scowling elfin Servant, who's expression hadn't changed in the slightest.
"Aww, man... we're dead," Kuwabara groaned, looking up at the low dark clouds that were rolling across the sky, bringing with them the low rumble of thunder. "It's gonna' be an ice-age..."
Karyuu rolled her eyes skyward, her irritation making her temper rather short.
"Stop that, Kuwabara. It's not going to be an ice-age... That little burst of Energy is only enough to screw up Japan. I can fix it, don't worry..." She said shortly, one ear giving a slight twitch and her eyes closed a little as she sighed deeply. "You'd better get out of the way."
Before they could say anything, there was a sudden popping noise that caught their attention, followed by another, and another, getting closer and closer to their position, and very suddenly, the cause of the noise made itself apparent, as a ball of ice about half an inch in diameter fell from the sky and shattered over Yusuke's head.
"Ow! Ow! Fucking OW!" Yusuke roared, shielding his head, even as another ball of ice shattered on the ground near-by.
Startled, the others darted out of the way as the little balls continued to arrive in increasing frequency, Kurama rolling to his feet just in time to dodge a fist-sized ball that exploded over the ground where he had been sitting seconds before.
"Damn it, Karyuu! Cut it out!" Yusuke yelled, as a few smaller balls bounced off of his back and shoulders.
The little projectiles weren't doing any serious damage, but they still hurt like hell...
"I'm not doing anything," she rorted petulantly, and it was only then that they realized that she herself was completely unharmed by the falling ice, the little balls seeming to avoid her completely. "This kind of thing happens when the weather is broken..."
"Well, if you're not doing it, what the hell is it?"
"It's called hail, Yusuke," she replied calmly. "It's the kind of thing you get in climates like this just before tornadoes arrive..."
The Spirit Detective stilled along with the others in his dance of ice-evasion for a moment to stare at her incredulously, receiving a solid crack on the first knuckle of his right hand for his lack of attention.
"Did you say tornadoes? As in the Wicked Witch of the West-squashing, spinny column of death, tornadoes?"
"It was the Wicked Witch of the East, actually," she corrected absently, breaking off as a watermelon-sized hunk of ice shattered not two feet from where she stood, narrowly missing Hiei, who had blurred out of the way just in time to avoid being brained.
The opal-eyed woman looked at the offending piece of ice for a moment, sighed and then waved a hand at the four, shielding them with the same force that was protecting her from the ice, providing them a sanctuary seemingly by force of will alone. Hesitantly, they lowered their hands and looked at her apprehensively, Kurama the most noticeable of them.
"You four had better go back to the Temple... It'll take me a few hours to clean this up."
"I'm terribly sorry, Karyuu," Kurama said hesitantly as opal eyes raised to meet emerald. "I didn't realize..."
"It caught you by surprise, I know," she said with a small smile that told him instantly that he'd already been forgiven. "Suidai does that sometimes when it decides to be helpful... comes in sudden rushes, I mean, and if you aren't prepared for it..." She looked meaningfully at the ice scattered over the ground and laughed, running her fingers through her hair. "Anyway, you'd better go... Yukina is probably a little worried. I'll stay here and fix it..."
The four looked at the virtual gauntlet of falling ice-projectiles, the rough terrain and the two or three miles they had to go to get back to the safety of the Temple, the invisible barrier that shielded them from it, and shared a slightly sheepish look before turning to Karyuu hopefully.
"The barrier will go with you, don't worry," she said with a playful smile. "I won't let you guys get brained."
They laughed a little and hesitantly, Yusuke began to move away, and just when it seemed he would pass beyond the reach of the barrier, the ice pattering down on the ground before him ceased to strike the ground and he looked up, grinning.
"This is cool, Karyuu... invisible umbrellas..."
"Yes, well, don't go and split up, or I won't be able to keep all of you protected at once," the elfin woman cautioned as Kuwabara came to stand beside his friend.
They waved and began to move forward, but paused again as Kurama hesitated, Hiei at his side as the two demons regarded the smaller woman.
She seemed to understand their thoughts however and waved them off.
"Go on, guys, there isn't anything to you can do."
Hiei gave a brief nod and turned away and began to move away and after a moment of hesitation, Kurama moved to join him and the four team-mates continued toward the Temple and the shelter it offered, leaving Karyuu to deal with the problem of 'repairing' the damage Kurama had accidentally done.
"I should have warned them ahead of time..." she murmured to herself, taking a seat on the shore of the river with a sigh as she began to gently shift and manipulate the disputed energy around her, opaline eyes closing slowly. "This must be why my Master went to bed early every night..."
*****
Hours later, the hail, thunderstorms, heat-waves and general meteorological chaos that had been spurred by Kurama's mishap finally abated, ending in a heavy rain-shower that lasted for quite some time, though it never reached flooding preparations.
Keiko had called to ask whether they were having the same kind of trouble where they were, and it had taken both Kurama and Yusuke's reassurances that everything would be back to normal shortly, and that Karyuu was guaranteed to fix it.
"I wonder if Karyuu-donno will be alright out there," Yukina said worriedly as she set down a tray of tea on a low table. "The weather is rather nasty..."
"Hn. The Servant will be fine," Hiei said without looking at her, ruby eyes directed out the window, watching water stream down the glass. "I seriously doubt rain will be a problem..."
Then, as if to agree with him, there was a familiar flicker of energy and the five friends turned, as Yusuke pulled open the sliding screen door that lead to the covered walkway that ran just outside the door, revealing the gloom of the side-garden and the rain pouring down in thick sheets.
And there standing with her back to them in the pouring rain, was Karyuu.
For a moment, Yusuke and the others thought that she would be soaked in the torrential downpour, but on further inspection they discovered that she was perfectly dry, the rain stopping half a centimeter above her skin, running off as if striking an invisible glass barrier, her form blurring and distorting a little as rivulets ran down her shield.
She turned and smiled at them, waving her hand before coming forward, across the courtyard, and they noticed that even her boots seemed unaffected by the water.
"Greetings," the opal-eyed Servant said with a smile as she stepped into the shelter of the covered walkway and pulled off her boots, setting them by the door before she stepped inside. "Enjoying the weather?"
"Keh, yah, it's all over the news," Yusuke said, stepping aside and closing the door behind her, lowering his voice a little to speak in her ear. "Kurama's not happy though... guess he feels bad or something..."
Karyuu raised an eyebrow at him and then turned to look at Kurama, who was sitting on one side of the couch, looking rather ashamed of himself as he stared into nowhere with a thoughtful frown on his face.
The Kitsune prided himself on his ability to control himself, his abilities and the course of a battle and this failure, even one so small (when compared to what could have happened if he hadn't reacted the way he did) made him rather annoyed with himself.
The elfin woman strode over to where he sat and plopped down on the couch beside him, the slight jolt bringing the thoughtful Kitsune out of his reverie.
He looked up at her and smiled a little in greeting, emerald eyes widening noticeably as she surprised him, leaning forward to touch her forehead lightly against his before pulling away, that brief contact filling the startled demon with a strange feeling of warmth and affection from the opal-eyed Servant that was as sudden as it was confusing.
He was blushing faintly, and looking at her with a certain degree of embarrassment as the others blinked at him...
"Why... did you do that?" He asked faintly, finding it oddly difficult to keep his voice level and steady all of a sudden.
Karyuu's ears twitched a little in confusion and then she took in the faint blush and the looks of confusion on the faces of the others and kicked herself mentally.
'Of course they wouldn't understand that...'
"Sorry," she said with a smile. "Culture-clash... That was a Servant... custom... thing... It's kind of like a mix between a hug and a... sisterly kiss on the cheek... It's not a... romantic kind of thing, just a gesture between close friends, siblings, that kind of thing..."
The Kitsune blinked at her for a moment and then nodded slowly as understanding touched him, the embarrassed tension in the room lifting with her explanation almost instantly.
"Oh... alright..."
For one strange moment, he thought she might...
"I won't do it anymore if it bothers you..."
He shrugged and waved a hand, pushing himself into a more upright position on the couch.
"Not at all... I was just... taken by surprise for a moment."
She smiled up at him, a little embarrassed herself that the automatic gesture had caused so much embarrassment for her friend...
After all, Humans didn't do that, and she herself hadn't done it in several hundred years; it had just been instinct, a gesture made between Servants... between team-mates.
"Anyway... Just don't look so depressed," she said with a smile. "I did much worse than just a little weather disruption when I was training, believe me."
"Oh, yah?" Kuwabara asked, eager to know what the elfin woman had done, the knowledge that she too had made mistakes during the course of her training a comforting thought. "What'd you do?"
She chortled a little, shaking her head.
"I really screwed up... took my Master weeks to repair the damage..."
"Come on, Karyuu!" Yusuke urged with a grin, flopping unceremoniously onto the couch beside her. "Come clean!"
"I... um... sort of did the same thing... but I aimed it out over the ocean we were using for practice and..." She made a face. "I made a tsunami... about a hundred feet high... wiped out a huge section of coastline... no one was killed, but it made an awful mess... My Master was furious... made me meditate in sub-arctic temperatures for three months before he'd forgiven me..."
There was a brief moment of silence closely followed by raucous laughter and Karyuu's ears twitched a little in embarrassment, cheeks going a little red.
"Hn, it seems even Servants can make mistakes," Hiei murmured in an almost amused tone. "That's good to know."
Karyuu put a hand to the back of her head and laughed awkwardly, Yusuke slapping his knee as he howled.
'It's been a long time since you had team-mates, isn't it, Karyuu?' An amused part of her mind chortled as she and the others settled down to weather out the storm together, accepting a cup of nice warm tea from the smiling Yukina.
** Author's comment ** For anybody that doesn't know, a tsunami is a tidal-wave... yah...
"Aww, man... we're dead," Kuwabara groaned, looking up at the low dark clouds that were rolling across the sky, bringing with them the low rumble of thunder. "It's gonna' be an ice-age..."
Karyuu rolled her eyes skyward, her irritation making her temper rather short.
"Stop that, Kuwabara. It's not going to be an ice-age... That little burst of Energy is only enough to screw up Japan. I can fix it, don't worry..." She said shortly, one ear giving a slight twitch and her eyes closed a little as she sighed deeply. "You'd better get out of the way."
Before they could say anything, there was a sudden popping noise that caught their attention, followed by another, and another, getting closer and closer to their position, and very suddenly, the cause of the noise made itself apparent, as a ball of ice about half an inch in diameter fell from the sky and shattered over Yusuke's head.
"Ow! Ow! Fucking OW!" Yusuke roared, shielding his head, even as another ball of ice shattered on the ground near-by.
Startled, the others darted out of the way as the little balls continued to arrive in increasing frequency, Kurama rolling to his feet just in time to dodge a fist-sized ball that exploded over the ground where he had been sitting seconds before.
"Damn it, Karyuu! Cut it out!" Yusuke yelled, as a few smaller balls bounced off of his back and shoulders.
The little projectiles weren't doing any serious damage, but they still hurt like hell...
"I'm not doing anything," she rorted petulantly, and it was only then that they realized that she herself was completely unharmed by the falling ice, the little balls seeming to avoid her completely. "This kind of thing happens when the weather is broken..."
"Well, if you're not doing it, what the hell is it?"
"It's called hail, Yusuke," she replied calmly. "It's the kind of thing you get in climates like this just before tornadoes arrive..."
The Spirit Detective stilled along with the others in his dance of ice-evasion for a moment to stare at her incredulously, receiving a solid crack on the first knuckle of his right hand for his lack of attention.
"Did you say tornadoes? As in the Wicked Witch of the West-squashing, spinny column of death, tornadoes?"
"It was the Wicked Witch of the East, actually," she corrected absently, breaking off as a watermelon-sized hunk of ice shattered not two feet from where she stood, narrowly missing Hiei, who had blurred out of the way just in time to avoid being brained.
The opal-eyed woman looked at the offending piece of ice for a moment, sighed and then waved a hand at the four, shielding them with the same force that was protecting her from the ice, providing them a sanctuary seemingly by force of will alone. Hesitantly, they lowered their hands and looked at her apprehensively, Kurama the most noticeable of them.
"You four had better go back to the Temple... It'll take me a few hours to clean this up."
"I'm terribly sorry, Karyuu," Kurama said hesitantly as opal eyes raised to meet emerald. "I didn't realize..."
"It caught you by surprise, I know," she said with a small smile that told him instantly that he'd already been forgiven. "Suidai does that sometimes when it decides to be helpful... comes in sudden rushes, I mean, and if you aren't prepared for it..." She looked meaningfully at the ice scattered over the ground and laughed, running her fingers through her hair. "Anyway, you'd better go... Yukina is probably a little worried. I'll stay here and fix it..."
The four looked at the virtual gauntlet of falling ice-projectiles, the rough terrain and the two or three miles they had to go to get back to the safety of the Temple, the invisible barrier that shielded them from it, and shared a slightly sheepish look before turning to Karyuu hopefully.
"The barrier will go with you, don't worry," she said with a playful smile. "I won't let you guys get brained."
They laughed a little and hesitantly, Yusuke began to move away, and just when it seemed he would pass beyond the reach of the barrier, the ice pattering down on the ground before him ceased to strike the ground and he looked up, grinning.
"This is cool, Karyuu... invisible umbrellas..."
"Yes, well, don't go and split up, or I won't be able to keep all of you protected at once," the elfin woman cautioned as Kuwabara came to stand beside his friend.
They waved and began to move forward, but paused again as Kurama hesitated, Hiei at his side as the two demons regarded the smaller woman.
She seemed to understand their thoughts however and waved them off.
"Go on, guys, there isn't anything to you can do."
Hiei gave a brief nod and turned away and began to move away and after a moment of hesitation, Kurama moved to join him and the four team-mates continued toward the Temple and the shelter it offered, leaving Karyuu to deal with the problem of 'repairing' the damage Kurama had accidentally done.
"I should have warned them ahead of time..." she murmured to herself, taking a seat on the shore of the river with a sigh as she began to gently shift and manipulate the disputed energy around her, opaline eyes closing slowly. "This must be why my Master went to bed early every night..."
*****
Hours later, the hail, thunderstorms, heat-waves and general meteorological chaos that had been spurred by Kurama's mishap finally abated, ending in a heavy rain-shower that lasted for quite some time, though it never reached flooding preparations.
Keiko had called to ask whether they were having the same kind of trouble where they were, and it had taken both Kurama and Yusuke's reassurances that everything would be back to normal shortly, and that Karyuu was guaranteed to fix it.
"I wonder if Karyuu-donno will be alright out there," Yukina said worriedly as she set down a tray of tea on a low table. "The weather is rather nasty..."
"Hn. The Servant will be fine," Hiei said without looking at her, ruby eyes directed out the window, watching water stream down the glass. "I seriously doubt rain will be a problem..."
Then, as if to agree with him, there was a familiar flicker of energy and the five friends turned, as Yusuke pulled open the sliding screen door that lead to the covered walkway that ran just outside the door, revealing the gloom of the side-garden and the rain pouring down in thick sheets.
And there standing with her back to them in the pouring rain, was Karyuu.
For a moment, Yusuke and the others thought that she would be soaked in the torrential downpour, but on further inspection they discovered that she was perfectly dry, the rain stopping half a centimeter above her skin, running off as if striking an invisible glass barrier, her form blurring and distorting a little as rivulets ran down her shield.
She turned and smiled at them, waving her hand before coming forward, across the courtyard, and they noticed that even her boots seemed unaffected by the water.
"Greetings," the opal-eyed Servant said with a smile as she stepped into the shelter of the covered walkway and pulled off her boots, setting them by the door before she stepped inside. "Enjoying the weather?"
"Keh, yah, it's all over the news," Yusuke said, stepping aside and closing the door behind her, lowering his voice a little to speak in her ear. "Kurama's not happy though... guess he feels bad or something..."
Karyuu raised an eyebrow at him and then turned to look at Kurama, who was sitting on one side of the couch, looking rather ashamed of himself as he stared into nowhere with a thoughtful frown on his face.
The Kitsune prided himself on his ability to control himself, his abilities and the course of a battle and this failure, even one so small (when compared to what could have happened if he hadn't reacted the way he did) made him rather annoyed with himself.
The elfin woman strode over to where he sat and plopped down on the couch beside him, the slight jolt bringing the thoughtful Kitsune out of his reverie.
He looked up at her and smiled a little in greeting, emerald eyes widening noticeably as she surprised him, leaning forward to touch her forehead lightly against his before pulling away, that brief contact filling the startled demon with a strange feeling of warmth and affection from the opal-eyed Servant that was as sudden as it was confusing.
He was blushing faintly, and looking at her with a certain degree of embarrassment as the others blinked at him...
"Why... did you do that?" He asked faintly, finding it oddly difficult to keep his voice level and steady all of a sudden.
Karyuu's ears twitched a little in confusion and then she took in the faint blush and the looks of confusion on the faces of the others and kicked herself mentally.
'Of course they wouldn't understand that...'
"Sorry," she said with a smile. "Culture-clash... That was a Servant... custom... thing... It's kind of like a mix between a hug and a... sisterly kiss on the cheek... It's not a... romantic kind of thing, just a gesture between close friends, siblings, that kind of thing..."
The Kitsune blinked at her for a moment and then nodded slowly as understanding touched him, the embarrassed tension in the room lifting with her explanation almost instantly.
"Oh... alright..."
For one strange moment, he thought she might...
"I won't do it anymore if it bothers you..."
He shrugged and waved a hand, pushing himself into a more upright position on the couch.
"Not at all... I was just... taken by surprise for a moment."
She smiled up at him, a little embarrassed herself that the automatic gesture had caused so much embarrassment for her friend...
After all, Humans didn't do that, and she herself hadn't done it in several hundred years; it had just been instinct, a gesture made between Servants... between team-mates.
"Anyway... Just don't look so depressed," she said with a smile. "I did much worse than just a little weather disruption when I was training, believe me."
"Oh, yah?" Kuwabara asked, eager to know what the elfin woman had done, the knowledge that she too had made mistakes during the course of her training a comforting thought. "What'd you do?"
She chortled a little, shaking her head.
"I really screwed up... took my Master weeks to repair the damage..."
"Come on, Karyuu!" Yusuke urged with a grin, flopping unceremoniously onto the couch beside her. "Come clean!"
"I... um... sort of did the same thing... but I aimed it out over the ocean we were using for practice and..." She made a face. "I made a tsunami... about a hundred feet high... wiped out a huge section of coastline... no one was killed, but it made an awful mess... My Master was furious... made me meditate in sub-arctic temperatures for three months before he'd forgiven me..."
There was a brief moment of silence closely followed by raucous laughter and Karyuu's ears twitched a little in embarrassment, cheeks going a little red.
"Hn, it seems even Servants can make mistakes," Hiei murmured in an almost amused tone. "That's good to know."
Karyuu put a hand to the back of her head and laughed awkwardly, Yusuke slapping his knee as he howled.
'It's been a long time since you had team-mates, isn't it, Karyuu?' An amused part of her mind chortled as she and the others settled down to weather out the storm together, accepting a cup of nice warm tea from the smiling Yukina.
** Author's comment ** For anybody that doesn't know, a tsunami is a tidal-wave... yah...