The Promise
Part 28: The Beginning of the End
"Explain yourself!" Kurama snapped after some minutes of walking, glaring
daggers to his companion. "What the hell is all this? Why I'm here? Why does it
feel different? Why do I feel different!?"
"Calm down my friend, or it will give you…" He began, but was rudely
interrupted.
"Don't you dare call me that, you bastard! You better have a very good
explanation or…!"
"Or what!?" Senju yelled back, pushing the other and making him fall.
The golden orbs shone dangerously and the forest reacted, but before he even
thought about attacking, the vampire knelt by his side and hugged him,
whispering softly but clearly in the furred ear. "I promised, didn't I?"
"Promised…?" The youko inquired, his rage far from over, but at least the forest
didn't seem to be raging any more. "What do you mean by that?"
"You don't remember, do you?" I do… I seems like yesterday to me, when I told
you I'd get him back to you for good. But at the same time it has been such a
long time ago."
"What are you talking about…?" asked a now very apprehensive youko. His eyes
opened wide, a shadow of a memory breaking out of his mind.
"Yes, I know your memories of that time are sort of blurred, but they are there…
remember? After I found you covered in blood… just after the slaughter you
caused in your way out of their territory." The ethereal eyes took a dark said
kind of red color. "Don't you recognize this place? The woods? The almost
unresponsive nature?"
Realization shone in the golden orbs. "But… no way, I destroyed this damned
place; I brought it down to its roots and turned it into a… hostile
environment…" The hold he had on the other's arm tightened. "Explain yourself."
Kurama demanded in an iced voice.
"Do I need to? Haven't you realized yet? Take a wild guess."
"We are… in the past." The youko breathed he last word as if it were forbidden.
"Right and wrong. It's not the past… or at least, no more."
"No more? What do you mean with 'no more'!?" The tone of his voice was anxious.
"What have you done!?"
"I promised I'd give you a new change in life, that I'd give him back to you. We
are in the present because, after all this years, I found a way to destroy the
time line and avoid ramification."
Kurama's eyes couldn't be any wider and the youko had unconsciously stopped
breathing, his mind running at speed light, trying to figure out that to think,
or at least, what to say.
"Destroyed it?" Was the only coherent thought that came to his mind.
"Destroyed, banished. The only traces of its existence are in our minds, yours
and mine." The vampire sat on the soil, looking casually at the still stunned
demon for some more minutes. "Breath, you're turning blue."
"No way… that's not possible…"
"Yeah, well, they told me so, but you know that I love to prove people wrong."
silence. "Oh my, I've left you speechless. After all this time! You know, it
makes it worth the effort."
"It's real?" whispered the youko, hiding his face behind his long silver mane.
"What about Hiei? Yuusuke, Kuwabara, Yomi, all the others…? I…"
"Can do nothing about it now, I assure you. Some of them don't exist, yet, but
some of them do, like Yomi. You won't see your mother, or Yuusuke, till over a
thousand years in the future, and now you have the time to decide what to do…
I'm sorry to tell you that what I did is not reversible, all possible time lines
were destroyed up to this point; but I'm not sorry I did it, I told you I would.
I promised."
Kurama didn't move, he just kept his eyes closed and covered by his bangs, his
legs didn't support him anymore, they felt like jelly; he had to sit down.
The rustle of Senju's robes let him know that the vampire had sat in front of
him, very near, almost touching. And he felt that pull that always had compelled
him toward the other creature, pull that, at some point, made him raise his head
and open his eyes and look directly to those eyes that were oh so beautiful it
hurt.
"I hate you." The demon said in a sigh, a tired, confused one. "I love you."
"I know. I hate and love you too." The vampire cupped the demon's face in his
hands tenderly and started caressing the soft skin with his cold fingers and
kissed the rosy lips adoringly. "And now that we have set that clear, why don't
you tell me what do you plan to do now?"
--------------------------------------------------
He had been waiting for the youko for over two hours, and he was beginning to
get worried. It had been strange… Kurama had been so strange. Something in the
back of his mind had told him, as soon as they had arrived to that strange
forest, that it may had not been a good idea to go there after all; but the
youko had been so excited about it that he hadn't had the heart to tell him so…
And then, they had done their good share of risky things. Very risky things,
after all. But somehow, he couldn't put a finger in what was different this
time.
Kuronue looked to the darkness of the forest ahead of him, where Kurama had
disappeared with the strange creature that resembled of a human, but not because
of the way he looked, lots of demons had humanoid form; but because, in some
bizarre way, he felt slightly human. And he didn't like humans, they didn't even
taste nice. But he knew that some demons liked them, like Raisen.
It was the first time he had seen him, even though he had felt him around every
now and then, and Kuronue knew that the creature had been around a lot more
times that the ones he let himself be felt. Of one thing he was sure, that
creature was powerful, and he made the winged demon nervous, like the first time
he had felt him, so many years ago and it felt like yesterday. He would never
admit it to anyone, though.
That was it! He wasn't going to stay there doing nothing any longer! He was
going to look for the youko… but before he could do something, he heard some
voices that became silent before he could hear anything of what they were
saying.
Some minutes later a solitary figure made its appearance through the bushes.
-------------------------------------------
"We are leaving." said Kurama, walking straight ahead, not even looking at him.
"Leaving? What do you mean with leaving?" demanded Kuronue grabbing his arm.
What was he doing, he had no idea… he wanted to leave, he had since they entered
the forest, and he would have been more than a little pleased to leave, but now
he was more concerned about his friend's sudden change in attitude. "Answer me,
damn it!" Kuronue growled when the youko tried to free himself from the strong
grab.
"It's a trap, we must leave."
"A trap? How do you…?
"We are leaving." interrupted the other demon. "And that's final." Kurama made a
sudden movement and grabbed the other's arm, but the winged demon reacted and
pushed him aside.
"And that's final? Who do you think you are? I don't follow your orders, and
unless you give me an explanation I'm staying right were I am!"
But the silver youko didn't seem to be listening to him; he almost jumped when
Kurama reached out for him, but instead of doing anything that Kuronue thought
he would do, like dragging him out of there by force, the youko took his pendant
and pulled it off. It was so sudden that the winged demon didn't even have time
to react properly.
"Hey! Give it back!" yelled Kuronue, now really angry.
"No." Answered Kurama coldly, but before the youko could say anything else he
was shoved brusquely against the rough trunk of a tree.
"What the hell is wrong with you!?" growled the winged demon, shaking the youko
as he wanted to shove some sense into him.
"It's a trap, damn it…" whispered the other demon forcefully, but making no
attempt to escape the rough treatment. "Can't you feel it? I felt it too, but I
didn't pay attention, I didn't want to, I was being stupid, all right!?" There
was silence for some seconds, but before Kuronue could say or do anything, the
other continued. "And it's… and if something happens to you it's going to be my
fault."
The black haired demon didn't know what to do or think of it all. He opened his
mouth but finding nothing to say he closed it again. The golden orbs, previously
covered by long silver bangs, rose to meet his blue ones.
"And this," the youko seemed to have recovered his voice as he showed Kuronue
the pendant in his hand. "means nothing." Kurama shoved the other demon
backwards. "It is nothing and you don't need it."
"What are you talking about, of course I need it!" The winged demon tried to
take the pendant back, but the youko was faster. "Give it back, it's mine!"
"I gave it to you, I'm taking it away now." His voice level rose along with the
angry feeling that was forming in his chest, he just wanted to make it
disappear, but the desperation that filled the blue orbs surprised him and made
him stop.
He was such an idiot. Asked or not he had been given a new chance to change
things and he was screwing things up… again. The youko took a deep breath,
relaxed his body and tried to relax his mind, too.
"Why is it so important to you, Blue Eyes?" It's just a thing, something made of
my energy by mistake…"
"You don't understand! You wouldn't understand…" Kuronue lowered his eyes, a
frustrated and pained expression marking his fair features.
"It's my energy, not me, damn it! But you are right," scowled Kurama, pushing
him aside. "Sometimes I don't understand you, but I try, I damn well do!"
There was a long moment of silence and it seemed that neither of them cared.
"Are you going to give it back to me?"
"No."
The winged demon gave a frustrated growl but didn't move, thought his mind was
running a hundred per second. He was waken out of this stupor when he felt a
hand touching his shoulder lightly.
"You know that I care, don't you?" the youko's voice whispered in his pointy
ear. "This thing means nothing but maybe a memory, I don't need it and I hope
neither do you to know that I love you." Long fingers began combing his long jet
black hair softly. "Because you do know that I love you, don't you?"
Kuronue blinked a few times and tried to answer, but he couldn't find anything
appropriate to say for the life of his.
"You didn't? Well, now you know…"
"I thought it was you who didn't know." He interrupted, the words leaving his
mouth before he could think them, which meant they were honest. True.
These words surprised the youko but he recovered. "Maybe I knew, but I didn't
know that I knew, or maybe I knew but tried not to think too much about it. I
should have asked you, you know?" his tone lighter now, almost amused.
"Sometimes you seemed to know more about me that myself."
"I wish I did…"
He felt Kurama's energy rising and he turned around quickly, only to see his
pendant disappearing in the youko's hand, and looked at it longingly, but a
strange and not at all bad feeling was beginning to form in the pit of his
stomach.
"Are you two done?" A voice interrupted them from the shadows. "We should get
moving, that interesting disintegrating act was felt all around the forest." The
vampire looked at both of them.
"Damn, we must leave at once, it won't take them long to find our position."
The silver haired demon took the other demon's hand and pulled him up, jumping
from tree to tree, followed closely by the vampire.
"… but our things! And what the hell is he doing following us?"
"Our things are not important." answered Kurama, speeding up.
"And I'll be around for a while, so get used to it."
"Oh, really? You've been with us from time to time already, why don't you go
back to the shadows…" growled the winged demon, still letting himself be led.
"Well, I just though that after all these years it was about time to make the
proper presentations, not just glaring at each other in silence…"
"Oh, yeah? Well…"
"Stop, you two. You can do it later, preferably after explaining to me what do
you mean by 'proper presentation' and 'back to the shadows'.
-------------------------------------
About 1500 years later…
"Have you found him?" asked the silver haired demon as soon as his dark haired
companion arrived.
"Yes, I set a bait for him, shouldn't take him long to get him were we want
him." The other grunted. "I still have no idea what is this recent interest of
yours with humans. This world stinks…"
"What? Too much for your delicate nose?" teased the youko. "Now, where is him?"
"The stupid human is with a dimensional demon, somewhere between this world and
demons world. But I know where is the gate they used to get there. Powerful, for
a human, but still as useless I bet." complained the dark haired demon as he
gave the coordinates.
"Oh, come on, don't tell me you've got grumpy one in your old age." another
glare. "Oh, stop doing that and let's get going, we need to find a way for them
to meet."
"I won't do a thing unless you explain me, I'm really tired of you making things
and not telling me, of your explanations that don't make any sense at all."
"I have no idea what are you talking about."
"You don't? Well, let me refresh your memory, you must be getting senile." The
youko was about to claim but he kept talking. "Like when you felt the need to
wonder all by your own in Gandara and who you retuned with a couple of years
later? This dark haired prat with a cocky attitude. What was his name? Yomi,
isn't it? But how could I have forgotten if now he owns Gandara, and ¼ of the
demon world. And let's not forget when you dragged me near the koorime's lands,
claiming that you were very interested in their tears and we left with a make
koorime baby, directly to Mukuro's territory, where you let yourself be captured
and handed the baby over to her." Kuronue put his hands on his hips and inclined
them to a side, a position Kurama knew just too well. "I swear, you can do the
most bizarre things and I have no objection, I'm like that too; but every once
in a while you have this completely absurd, weird ideas that I can't find nor
feet nor head even if I try!"
The silver haired demon looked at him amusingly, and was about to open his
mouth, but the other didn't let him.
"You shut up and listen!" The winged demon pointed his finger out at the youko.
"And this sudden interest in human world… a little over a decade and a half ago
you asked me to find this mirror that was useless because it only works in human
world, all because you felt like doing a good deed and wanted to give a soul to
a human's unborn baby and to get rid of the illness that consumed her and the
father that was also very near dead himself. And why? Because you felt the
sudden urge to become a charitable soul and help a random human!?!?"
"Hum… no, actually, that's not the case. You see…"
"And then you tell me we have to make this human, a former reikai tantei, kill
this other human, who also happened to be a reikai tantei and you also don't
want that any of them know we have anything to do with it; which would be easy
if it wasn't for the little detail that things are never this simple with you,
specially when you are in one of these moods. It happens that this guy you want
killed happens to be not just the best friend of Hiei's sister's fiancée, but
that's all? No, it's not, it also happens that you found out, by Koenma of all
people, that this Yuusuke is the possible demon son of Raizen, who first need to
be killed 'again' in order to reborn as a demon."
"Well…"
"I'm sure you have a very witty and logical explanation about it all, always;
but you see, I'm not interested in hearing them, the more logic your motives
are, the less sense they do to me!" The winged demon crossed his arms over his
chest and turned around, giving the youko his back.
"Kuronue…" Began Kurama, but thought it better and began spreading kisses all
over his millennia lover's neck and pointy ears.
"Don't tell me I'm throwing a fit… because I already know I am." growled the
dark haired demon, but a lot more calmly than before, enjoying the treatment. He
would never get tired of those lips.
"Look, this will sound kind of weird, but I think that somehow it would be a
good idea to meet this Yuusuke guy. I bet it will be fun."
"You bet," said a voice behind them. "I'm sure. Hiei's already having some fun
with him."
"What!?" The youko turned around with a worried expression. "Senju, tell me Hiei
hasn't killed him."
"He hasn't… yet. If I were you I'd hurry. If I go and tell him to stop he'll
just finish him faster." Senju brushed away with long fingers the hair that was
falling over his eyes. "I have the slight impression he doesn't like me."
"What ever gave you the idea? Could it be when he tried to fry you with his
kokuryuha to see if you really couldn't die?" Kuronue turned around to face the
dark haired vampire with the ethereal eyes, as beautiful as the day they had
finally put eyes into each other.
"Oh, well, what can I say, I like him as much as he likes me, but if I try to
fry him to prove he's mortal Kurama would be none too happy with me."
"Too true. But I don't know what the big deal is; one less person to sleep with
could be easily replaced."
"I like the way you think, Black Moon." Laughed the vampire, his eyes turning
the same color's as the demon's.
"I don't know why I let you call me that." growled Kuronue unconvincingly.
"Because you like me." said Senju jumping on him suddenly and pinning him down.
"I'm adorable."
"Adorable my ass."
"Oh, yes, it is. Don't you think so, Kurama…?" both turned their heads around,
but there was no youko.
"It seems he went after Hiei."
"Should we go after him?"
"Hum… nah, he can take care of him."
"I don't know how Kurama stands him…"
"Me neither… but you have to admit he is a bit like you."
"He is nothing like me." growled the winged demon, this time very convincingly.
"All right, all right, whatever you say." smiled the vampire. "This is a very
interesting position, don't you think?" He leaned down until his lips were a
breath away from the demon's.
"Very." Kuronue smiled back.
FIN.