| Matters of the Soul Part 1 By Keiko |
| Kurama coughed lightly. It now even hurt his body to just sit down He picked up his hot tea and took a cautious sip. His skin prickled slightly, and he gave an involuntary shudder. How interesting, he mused, to be able to feel my physical body wasting away... Today marked the fifty-first anniversary of the first Makai tournament. The tradition had held and even as he sat in Genkai's temple residence, the Makai tournament was being held for the seven-teenth time. Yusuke was competing in it, though just for fun. No one from the old gang was in their prime anymore, except for the youkai members, of course. Yusuke had only grayed in appearance. Keiko had died a few years ago due to natural causes, but Yusuke had gone personally to Reikai to retrieve her soul. Now they lived together in a remote region of Makai. Kuwabara aged as humans did, but with the added advantage of strong reiki, he was guaranteed at least another twenty years with Yukina. Hiei was still in his prime as a fire demon barely two hundred years old. Minamino Shuichi was now in his late sixties, taking care of the lands that Genkai'd left all of them, along with Shizuru. It wasn't so bad, really. Kuwabara and Yukina spend prolonged vacations there, and occasionally Koenma would take a breather and drop by with Botan. Hiei was there so often he could call it home. Sometimes, Yusuke even took Keiko to visit. The gang had never really split apart during the fifty years. Kurama sighed wearily and got up slowly from the table. Time for bed, he thought, can't stay up too late with how this body is holding up. The body of the sweet-tempered Shuichi could only last so long under the constant strain of youki placed upon it. Yet at the same time, he felt no decrease in his youki. Soon, he thought, I will shed this human shell and regain my true form. Then I can take my place in Makai again. As usual, he felt a thrill of anticipation running through the youkai blood in him. The human side just felt tired. He made his way to his room and lay down on his bed.Kuwabara and Yukina were currently in residence at the temple and they had their rooms on the other side of the courtyard. Shizuru was on a vacation, enjoying her last few good years while she still could. Hiei had been missing for quite a while, not even a word from him. Ah well, I can surprise him in Makai when the time comes, Kurama thought. Something rustled outside the window. Kurama quickly sat up, senses alert. Vertigo overcame him, and then a sudden pang in his chest. When he recovered, he was staring down at his body still lying on the bed. Blinking in surprise, he examined his youko body, and turned to regard his human body. It was rather surreal, looking at the shell he'd occupied for so long from his original body. Snorting in contempt at the weaknesses of humans, he went about collecting items from his room that he wanted to take with him to Makai. He'd forgotten about the sound he'd heard from outside, and when another sound came from the window, he whirled around in alarm. Perched on the windowsill was Hiei, regarding him in amusement. Kurama relaxed slightly and put away the Makai plant seed that had lay dormant in his hands. Then he noticed the bandage around Hiei's forehead was gone, exposing his third eye, shining malevolently in the dark. His highly honed youkai senses were screaming hell at him, but everything about Hiei's easy stance said he was no threat. "You'd better tone down your ki. Every youkai for miles around could smell you once you left the cover of your human body." "Well, there goes my surprise." Kurama drawled, piercing Hiei with a cool gaze. It suddenly shocked him how quickly he slid back into his former personality. It also shocked him how utterly furious he was at Hiei. Hiei merely shook his head, smirking. "I already knew. Your human ki was already weak, but lately it became so scarce as to be totally invisible." Kurama chose to ignore the barely veiled barb. Hiei always seemed to feel obligated to challenge Kurama in his youko body, as much as he trusted him in battle. It was youkai instinct, and who was to say the feeling wasn't mutual? Two strong youkai so close to one another were bound to clash. That's why he'd always preferred to stay in the form of the mellow Shuichi around everyone. It lessened the ill-hidden tension that seemed to fill the air whenever Youko Kurama and Hiei were within ten feet of each other. Even when they had training sessions together, Kurama would stay in human form. He always reserved his transformation for the battlefields, where he could and had to fight someone other than Hiei. "Where have you been the past few days?" his tail twitched in annoyance. He didn't like how Hiei always came and went, never saying when he was coming back next. "You've never been gone for more than fortnight, at the most." This time, his traitorous tail swished noticeably from side to side, despite his attempts to swat it into stillness. Hiei smiled his customary smile, a mixture of cultured disdain (picked up from Kurama), boredom, and a trace of sleepiness. "Before I tell you that, maybe you'd like to know who I found lurking outside your window?" Kurama raised a silvery eyebrow, ears flicking back and forth, betraying curiosity despite the look of boredom he plastered on his face. Hiei knew him too well not to read these signs, and the fact that he was probably laughing hard on the inside merely infuriated him further. Hopping off the sill into the room, he poked his head outside again, "Well? Are you coming in?" To Kurama's surprise, Botan shyly floated into the room on her oar. "Hello, Kurama." "Botan. What are you doing here?" Kurama asked. "Well," Botan shifted on her oar, "You were due to die today, right? So Koenma sent me here..." "I'm a youkai. The Reikai holds no jurisdiction over me." Kurama informed her, rather coldly. He didn't like the odd feeling he was getting. The fact that Botan would be here was too strange. "True..." Botan was looking distinctly uncomfortable. "We would leave you alone, since it was your soul that occupied this human shell for the last years, but... well... your name was in the Book of the Dead... and as you know... the Book of the Dead is only for human souls... so... I came to sort things out." Kurama was silent for a moment. It didn't make sense. "But I'm not human." He finally commented, softly. Botan looked like she was about to die with mortification. Her gaze flitted around the room, landing on everything except Kurama. Finally, she looked past him. Her brow furrowed in distress. "We know. But... well... something weird has happened... and we thought we might know the reason for it." Botan took a deep breath and looked back at the youko. "Kurama, when you took over this body in the womb, did it already have a soul?" |
| Disclaimers: I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho and am kinda glad I don't. If I owned it, it probably wouldn't be as a good series as Yoshihiro Togashi-sensei made it. |
| Keiko's rants: Am I intriguing you yet? ^_^ Back On to part 2 Main K & K |