Sunday, April 11, 2004

   Past Collides with Present: Chapter 8
Chapter 8: Trouble

Kurama stared up at the entrance to the fortress. He knew several stealthier ways to get in, having once broken in to steal the weapons, but he knew that the front doors would be the most direct way to get to his mother. After standing at the bottom of the stairs for a few minutes, he started up.

The double doors opened before he could reach them. Kurama stopped and studied what little of the inside he could see from his position. No one was near the doors, which meant that they had been rigged to open on their own, yet he could both sense and smell two demons within the fortress's entrance hall. One was the demon who had kidnapped his mother the first time, and the other.

A chill ran down Kurama's spine as he recognized the other demon. /Oh, crap,/ he thought. Then several, more colorful curses formed in his head as he forced himself to continue up the steps and through the door. /I thought I could bluff my way through this, but he'll recognize me for sure. Oh, hell, I'm in trouble./

"Welcome to my humble home, Kurama," Puso said as the doors swung shut. "Of course, you've been here before, but I doubt you took the time to come through the entrance hall."

Kurama ignored him completely, instead looking around for his mother. He spotted her against the wall to the left, and the sight of her face horrified him. "Oh, Mom," he breathed, starting toward her. She flinched. "Mom?" he repeated uncertainly, stopping.

Someone chuckled behind him, and he turned around to see the one demon he had hoped to never see again, the one who had nearly killed him over fifteen years ago. "You can't blame her for acting this way," Kage said. "After all, it's only natural to fear the great thief Youko Kurama. I've been entertaining her with some of your exploits while we were waiting on you."

Kurama clenched his fists at his sides. "I'm sorry, but you've made a mistake," he gritted out. "My name is Shuichi Minamino, and I've merely come to take an innocent woman home."

Kage gave a sharp caw that was his version of a loud laugh. "Give it up, Kurama. She knows the truth now, and there's no denying it. You're a demon. After all, if you weren't, how could you get to Makai, the world of demons?"

Kurama glowered at him. "Maybe I had help."

"And maybe you didn't. You know that if you didn't come alone, this ningen would be dead by now. Or didn't you read the note I left for you?"

/I did, you filthy bastard./ Kurama felt the demon inside him emerging and tried to hold it back. Transforming now was not what he needed to do. He just needed to find a way to get his mother out of there, and his own life be damned!

So he stood there with his poker face on while Kage walked toward his mother. "You know what a youko's favorite meal is, don't you?" he whispered, walking just past Kurama and stopping. Kurama resisted the urge to turn around and slash him to bits with his rose whip.

"Shut up," Shiori growled. She had long ago gotten fed up with these two and their horrible stories. She couldn't believe most of it anyway. Not where her son was concerned.

"Human flesh." Kage was wearing a demented grin.

"That can't be true," Kurama said, turning around and drawing the attention of everyone in the room. "Foxes are carnivores, but they limit their diet to small animals, such as chickens. Why would a spirit fox be any different?"

Kage frowned, but continued, undaunted. "He's a thief," he told Shiori. "Is that natural to a fox?"

"Yes," Kurama answered. "A fox must be cunning and sly in order to get food. After all, there so many stories about a fox stealing chickens from the farmer's chicken coop. Do you think he stole using his good looks?"

Kage's frowned deepened. /Dammit, this won't work if he keeps refuting what I say using simple logic, he thought. I guess I'll have to resort to something a little more dirty./

"He was merely using you, ningen," he said.

Kurama poker face broke as sudden surprise and fear coursed through him.

"He wanted to get his strength back, that was all," Kage continued. "He was going to leave you soon. Maybe he would have killed you, too. That would have been just like him," he concluded, looking over his shoulder and grinning in satisfaction at Kurama's murderous expression.

"If that were true, then why am I here?" Kurama said through clenched teeth. Gold spots burst in his irises. /Don't change don't change please by all that is holy and all that isn't don't change,/ Kurama recited to himself. It was all he could do not to launch himself at Kage. He knew that if he attacked now, the doppelganger, who had been watching the exchange with amusement, would have a clear shot at killing Shiori. He didn't care now that she knew his secret; he just wanted her back in Ningenkai, where it was safe.

Meanwhile, Shiori had been watching her son with interest through the whole exchange, wondering if she could even call him her son anymore. At first she hadn't believed Headhunter's story, but as time had worn on, she had begun to make little connections in her mind. The way he had acted when he was just a small child. So arrogant. Disobedient. Like she was the child. That had changed after the accident from which she got the scars on her arms. But there were still times when he seemed so much more mature. And he was so smart. Smarter than anyone she knew. As if he had been born with the knowledge. His strange absences lately. He'd be gone for days at a time and wouldn't tell her where. And finally, the demon who had helped her the last time. He'd reminded her so strongly of Shuichi. He'd been bothered when she said he seemed familiar. She could tell, although he didn't say it. He knew the way to her home, although she never told him. And Shuichi had been gone the entire time the demon was with her. All these had added up in Shiori's mind and told her a truth that she didn't want to know.

/He's not my son at all. He's a monster./

In the mean time, Kage and Kurama were locked in a staredown. Kurama was ready and willing to attack, but he knew that to do so meant his mother's death. Kage knew this, too, and stood easily, relaxed, smirking.

"What do you want from me?" Kurama finally ground out.

Kage's face took on a very serious expression. "Your life."

"But not before you get something for me," Puso interrupted. "I want my bow and arrows back."

Kurama looked at him disbelievingly. /All this for a silly weapon?/

"Since I can't have back the brother you killed," Puso concluded with a snarl.

Kurama tensed, looking at Shiori, but she wasn't looking back. She was studying the floor with intense curiosity. "Fine," he growled. "But mark this well--" Here he switched to demon language. "--if she's dead when I get back, your lives are forfeit." Then he turned and stormed to the doors. Kicking them open, he started outside, then stopped, looking curiously at the steps below him. Something that looked like a cloud was sitting there as if inviting him to hop on.

"I brought that along just for you," Kage said from behind him. "Your old home is a very long way from here, isn't it? You'll get there faster by using that."

Kurama thought it through for a minute, then jumped on. Puso and Kage seemed to have some kind of arrangement, and he knew they wouldn't try to kill him by using a cheap trick like this. They wanted kill him with their own hands, no tricks, no chances of survival.

The cloud thingy didn't move at first, but after a couple of minutes Kurama figured out how to make it move using his energy, and soon he was high in the air and speeding toward the north.

* * *

Hiei and company watched as Kurama flew off into the wild blue yonder. /He's going to his old den,/ Hiei thought. The Jagan, which he had uncovered, glowed as he mentally walked through the events that happened inside the fortress.

"Hey-why-aren't-we-going-inside-now," Jin demanded. He was itching for a fight.

"Baka," Hiei answered. "The demons who are holding Shiori hostage have told Kurama to come alone. If we go barging in now, they'll kill the woman."

"How do you know all this?" Touya asked suspiciously.

"Hn," was Hiei's reply to that. "We have to wait for now," he continued, jumping onto a rather large branch of the nearest tree. "When it becomes clear that Kurama can no longer handle the situation on his own, then we'll move in. For now, make yourselves comfortable."

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