Chapter 7
There must be some way out of here
Said the joker to the thief
There's so much confusion
I just can't get no relief...
--Bob Dylan, "All Along the Watchtower"
Yusuke found Kuwabara sitting in his room, scowling to himself. "Hey,
Kuwabara," he said. "Where've you been?"
"Around," Kuwabara said shortly.
"What's up?"
"Nothing."
Yusuke shrugged. <Okay, fine, be that way,> he thought, frowning. He
laced his fingers behind his head and strolled off toward the kitchen. He
seemed to get stuck with the cooking an awful lot, but Kuwabara didn't look as
though he was likely to help tonight, Hiei had flatly refused, and Kurama was
so tired that Yusuke didn't trust him not to burn water. So it was his turn
again. Besides, he really was better at cooking than Kuwabara anyway. He
grinned and walked into the kitchen.
Dinner was even more subdued than usual. Kurama was too tired to make
conversation, although food seemed to give him a little energy. Hiei never
spoke much anyway, and Kuwabara was unusually silent. Yusuke saw him watching
Kurama, and decided that he was just worried and upset because he couldn't do
anything about the situation. He just hadn't gone and destroyed any trees
because of it, at least none that Yusuke knew of.
After dinner none of them seemed interested in conversation. They
drifted apart, each going in a different direction. Yusuke avoided the room he
shared with Kurama, because he knew Kurama was in there. Instead he sat in the
kitchen, staring out the window at the setting sun, watching the sky slowly
darken to a deep indigo. It was the same as every other sunset he'd seen here.
It was as if one sunset had been videotaped and was being projected onto the
sky night after night. There weren't even any clouds to turn pink or gold.
It was, all in all, a very boring sunset.
But he didn't have anything else to do, so he watched it anyway.
When it was fully dark, the only light in the kitchen coming from the
stars, Yusuke got up and felt his way to the light switch, turning it on. He
turned around and saw Kuwabara standing in the doorway with a grim expression
on his face.
"What--" Yusuke started, when suddenly his head exploded with images,
feelings, sensations not his own. He clutched at his head in pain, then dropped
to the floor unconscious as he was overwhelmed by the flood of psychic energy.
Kuwabara left him where he fell and walked down the hall.
Kurama was curled up in his blankets again. During the day it wasn't
so bad, but at night cold air seemed to seep through his body and into his
bones, where warmth couldn't reach. Hiei was sitting ten feet away, unaffected
by the cold. He hadn't even put his cloak back on.
"Are you going to stay up all night again?" Hiei demanded.
"I don't know if I can," Kurama replied.
"You should have slept during the day," Hiei said. Then he shrugged.
"It's only early evening. You could sleep for a while now; I'm not going yet."
Kurama thought it over. "Okay," he said. "But wake me up before you
leave - don't just let me sleep." When Hiei nodded, Kurama lay down, curled
into a ball to try and keep _some_ warmth in his body. He closed his eyes, but
opened them again immediately as he heard a noise.
Kuwabara opened the door and walked in the room.
Hiei looked at Kuwabara. "What do _you_ want?" he asked acidly.
Kuwabara suddenly manifested his Rei sword and swung it in an arc of
blindingly bright power. Hiei jerked back, out of the way of the whirling blade
, but Kuwabara brought a second sword down that Hiei hadn't seen. The energy-
blade caught him across the back of his neck and smashed him flat against the
floor. He didn't move.
Kuwabara turned to Kurama.
"Kuwabara - what are you _doing_?!" Kurama gasped, stumbling to his
feet. He reached for some last reserve of energy, _anything_, but he had
nothing left. He was almost too weak to stand, let alone defend himself.
Kuwabara stepped forward, his Rei sword held up in front of him. Kurama backed
up, trying to shield his eyes from the light. "_Yusuke_!" Kurama yelled in
desperation. "Yusuke, _help_--"
Kuwabara's fist crashed into the side of his head, and he fell. His
head cracked against the floor, and fireworks of pain exploded and then
vanished into darkness.
Kuwabara prodded Hiei with his foot to make sure that he was
unconscious. When there was no response to the touch, Kuwabara nodded and went
back to Kurama, lifting his friend into his arms. Kurama's head dangled limply,
his hair trailing down almost to Kuwabara's knees. Kuwabara carefully stepped
over Hiei and carried Kurama out of the house.
He walked for hours through the forest, moving in a relatively
straight line away from the house. The forest never changed around him, just
remained the same endless stretch of trees, ferns, and the stream that Kuwabara
was following. There wasn't any particular reason for following the stream,
except he had some vague idea that it was a better idea to stay near the water.
The moonlight reflected off the stream's surface in constantly changing
patterns of silver light. His head was aching and his arms were tired from
carrying Kurama's dead weight. He stopped at a point next to the stream where
the bank was broad and clear, allowing enough space for himself and Kurama. He
put Kurama down first, then sat down with his back against a tree and heaved a
huge sigh.
He looked at Kurama. His hair spilled across the ground, silvered by
moonlight and almost touching the water. He was sprawled on the ground like an
abandoned doll. Just as Kuwabara was thinking that he might never wake up, he
stirred. His eyelids flickered, then opened.
Kurama blinked dazedly at the tree branches laced across the moon.
<Where...?> Then he realized where he was and remembered what had happened.
Quickly he tried to sit up, but Kuwabara pushed him back down. Kurama stared up
at Kuwabara, a dark shape towering over him. "Why did you bring me here?"Kurama
asked.
Kuwabara manifested his Rei sword, the light flaring up and spreading
a yellow glow around him. "I'm going to end this - right now," he said, raising
it, ready to plunge it into Kurama's body. Kurama instinctively flinched,
raising his arms in a futile effort to protect himself.
Kuwabara lowered the sword. "I didn't think you wanted to die."
Kurama glared at him. "Then _why_ are we out here?"
Kuwabara crouched next to him and pointed a finger at him, still using
the sword as a light source. The light glared up onto Kuwabara's face, giving
it a demonic cast. "I know about the shadows," he said. "We're going to find
where they come from and destroy them."
"And how do you plan to do that?" Kurama retorted. "You don't even know
where to look. This is stupid, Kuwabara! How long do you think it'll be before
I fall asleep again and attack you?"
"You won't," Kuwabara replied with complete certainty. "You might fall
asleep, but you won't attack me."
"How do you know?" Kurama asked.
Kuwabara grabbed his wrist. "This is how." He placed Kurama's hand
against his chest, and Kurama got a sudden flash of double vision - what looked
like a black mass coiled around Kuwabara's heart. He suddenly understood that
Kuwabara was using his psychic talents to show him what he saw. Kurama looked
down at his own chest, and saw another shadow like it around his own heart -
but his was larger, spreading almost up to his neck and down to his waist.
Kurama snatched his hand away, and the vision faded. "You can see it
inside yourself?"
Kuwabara unexpectedly grinned. "Yeah." He didn't look entirely sane.
"It's made me stronger, too. My mind - I can do things with this crazy psychic
power that I never could before." His grin widened. "I kind of like it."
Kurama stared at him. "Kuwabara - this is insane. We'll never find
where the shadows come from."
"You're wrong!" Kuwabara said. "I already know where they are."
"You what?"
"You don't get it, do you? It's in my head, but I'm in _its_ head too.
I know what it knows. And I know where to go!"
He stood up and pulled on Kurama's arm. "Come on! You're coming with
me!"
"Stop!" Kurama yanked his arm free. "Kuwabara, if you wanted to do this
, why didn't you bring Hiei and Yusuke? Why did you attack them? We can't do
this on our own!"
"No," Kuwabara said stubbornly, shaking his head. "They can't do it. It
has to be us."
"Why?" Kurama demanded.
Kuwabara's slightly crazed expression softened. "Because...we're
already infected and they're not. I don't want them to die too. Neither do you."
Kurama stared at him for a long moment, then sighed. "All right. But I
can't come with you."
Kuwabara looked stubborn again. Kurama hastily continued, "Listen to
me! I'm no good to you. I'm too weak to help you fight. I'm a liability. Just
leave me here."
Kuwabara stared at him, then shook his head. "No. You have to come with
me."
He reached down and dragged Kurama upright by an arm. Kurama twisted
free and backed up a few steps. "Leave me alone!" The crazed look in Kuwabara's
eyes frightened him. Kuwabara stepped forward menacingly, and Kurama touched
the nearest tree, reaching out to make the tree bend to his will.
"Do I have to hit you over the head again?" Kuwabara demanded.
"Don't make me hurt you," Kurama said, making the tree branches bend
to point at Kuwabara. He trembled with the effort.
"You can't," Kuwabara said confidently, and stepped closer. The tree
branches snapped back into place as Kurama's hold on them slipped away. "The
shadows can sense each other. It won't let you hurt me."
Kurama backed away as Kuwabara advanced. He turned to run, but Kuwabara
changed his sword into a long pole and snapped it forward. It cracked against
Kurama's head and he collapsed into the soft carpet of redwood needles.
Kuwabara stood over him and said disgustedly, "Now I have to carry you
again."
<No, please...>
It was Kurama's last thought before he blacked out.
* * *
The back of Hiei's head and neck was throbbing as if someone was
pounding him with a hammer. A hammer sharpened to a needle-point. He groaned
and opened his eyes reluctantly. Sunlight streamed into the room through the
window. Hiei remembered that it had been early evening when Kuwabara had
attacked him. <Damn! How long was I out?> he wondered.
He propped himself up on his uninjured arm, then managed to push
himself up to his knees. But he'd moved too fast, and a wave of dizziness hit
him. He balanced himself against the wall and concentrated on breathing evenly
as he almost blacked out again.
When the vertigo passed, Hiei slowly got to his feet. His eyes seemed
to take too long to adjust to the sunlight, making him squint painfully until
he could see again. Finally his vision cleared, and he walked unsteadily to the
door and moved into the hall. He could see Yusuke lying on the floor of the
kitchen through the open door. He walked slowly into the kitchen and sank to
his knees again, reaching out to shake Yusuke's shoulder. "Yusuke - Yusuke,
wake up."
Yusuke didn't move. Hiei looked closer, and was startled to see a trail
of dried blood that had trickled down Yusuke's face from his ear.
"Yusuke!"
Yusuke groaned and tried to push himself up, but only succeeded in
rolling onto his side. Red streaks of blood, like tear-tracks, ran down his
face from his eyes.
"Yusuke!" Hiei said insistently. Yusuke opened his eyes and blinked,
then focused on Hiei.
"Ohh, my head," he complained. He started to get up. "You look like
hell."
Hiei ignored the comment. "What the hell happened to you?"
"Don't know." Yusuke rubbed at his face, and was surprised to see blood
on his hand. "Hang on." He went into the bathroom, stared at his face in the
mirror, then ran the water in the sink and splashed his face, scrubbing the
blood away.
Hiei leaned against the doorframe, watching him. "Where do you suppose
Kuwabara has gone?"
"Who knows?" Yusuke said bitterly. "Now he's possessed, too. Great."
"He must have gone into the forest," Hiei said. "He wouldn't have
stayed here."
Yusuke finished washing the blood from his face. "Now what do we do?"
he asked. "We'll never find him in there--"
Hiei gave him a look. "I can follow his trail," he said. "But I'm not
going to."
"What?" Yusuke demanded. "What are you talking about? We've got to go
after him!"
Hiei shook his head sharply, and instantly regretted it. He clenched
his teeth and waited for another wave of dizziness to pass. "Look at us,
Yusuke. You're not much steadier on your feet than I am. If we went after them
now we wouldn't have a chance."
Yusuke snarled quietly. "We have to just sit around here and wait?"
"When we've recovered, we'll go after them." Hiei turned and went back
to Kurama's room, moving at his usual flickering speed, but he tripped over the
doorframe and fell flat on his face inside the room. His headache promptly
returned full force. Lying on the floor, too nauseous to move, Hiei angrily
went through every curse he knew.
"Come on," Kuwabara said. "Only a little farther."
He was walking clumsily over the uneven ground, supporting Kurama by
holding an arm over his shoulders. Kurama had tried to pull away once, then
gave up. He stumbled along beside Kuwabara, rubbing his aching head. He had
given up on trying to talk Kuwabara out of his crazy scheme of destroying the
shadows' lair, because Kuwabara just wouldn't listen.
He looked up at the sky, and decided that it was late morning. "Have
you been dragging me along all night?"
"Naw. I fell asleep for a few hours. You're too heavy to carry all
night." Kuwabara skirted a particularly large fern and grinned. "And you didn't
attack me. I told you, didn't I?"
Kurama felt less pleased about that than Kuwabara probably expected,
but he didn't say anything. Instead he walked along silently, wondering where
they were. Could he find his way back to the house by himself, if he had to? He
remembered that Kuwabara had been following the stream, but apparently he'd
left it some time before Kurama awoke. He sighed and winced as his head
throbbed in time with his pulse. <Maybe I should have just cooperated with him
when I had the chance...>
Then he lifted his head as Kuwabara stopped short. "We found it," he
said, his voice filled with awe.
Kurama stared. They were standing at the raised edge of a redwood
circle, one that still had remnants around its edges of what must have been the
original tree. The size of the hollow within the circle was enormous; so huge
that Kurama almost couldn't imagine a living tree of that size. Fifty people
couldn't have encircled the trunk with their arms. The smaller trees that were
all that was left of the old one made a loose ring around the hollow, a couple
of them damaged to decaying stumps.
The circle was filled with a seething mass of shadows.
They trailed all over the insides of the trees, stretching in long
black strings between the branches and the trunks, forming webs of dark gooey
matter that somehow didn't fall apart. On the floor of the hollow was a single
dark pool that looked as if it was made of thousands of them, all joined
together into one being.
Kurama stood absolutely still, speechless. Kuwabara let go of his arm
and walked toward the edge of the dark pool as Kurama stood paralyzed. He
turned back. "Stay there," he said, as if Kurama could move. Then he stepped
forward into the liquid darkness.
"Kuwabara--!"
The shadows weren't even knee-deep. Kuwabara waded a few steps further,
then stopped. He was grinning like a maniac. "I _get_ it!" he said.
Suddenly the shadows all fell from the trees, splashing into the pool
and absorbing into it. The pool swirled and seethed, almost knocking Kuwabara
off his feet. He turned back toward the edge of the circle, not too late to
catch sight of a wave rising up behind him. He tried to wade back, but his feet
were stuck and couldn't move.
He saw the wave roll up, crest - and stretch, reaching not for him but
for Kurama, standing on the shore. "Get out of here!" he yelled. "Kurama,
_RUN_!"
Kurama whirled, but before he could take a step the ice in his chest
suddenly turned into a raging furnace of pain. He crashed to the ground, curled
around the pain, trembling. He couldn't breathe, couldn't even scream in agony.
The fire in his chest was suddenly met by freezing cold as the tendril of
joined shadows wrapped around him. The shock was too much, and he blacked out
again.
Kuwabara watched, horrified, as the tentacle grabbed Kurama. <Oh God,
what have I done? This wasn't supposed to happen-->
He manifested his Rei sword and slashed it at the tentacle, hoping to
make it fall apart so Kurama could get loose. Instead, the sword vanished,
sputtering out as it hit the black surface. The shadows had absorbed the energy
instantly. Kuwabara felt a wave of weakness wash over him at the sudden loss of
power, and he staggered.
The tentacle sucked itself back into the pool, impossibly fast.
Kuwabara caught sight of Kurama's face - white with shock, unconscious. Then
the tentacle vanished completely underneath the surface, and Kurama's red hair
was all that was left, the only thing visible, drifting on the surface. Then
even that sank and disappeared.
"_Kurama_!" Kuwabara yelled, just before the shadows yanked him under
too.