Chapter 8
I'm your truth, telling lies
I'm your reason, alibis
I'm inside, open your eyes
I'm you...
--Metallica, "Sad But True"
Kurama opened his eyes and found himself looking down at the pool of
slithering shadows. He was at least twenty feet above them. Confused, he
twisted his head, and discovered that he was tied to the trunk of one of the
redwoods on the edge of the circle by a complicated network of vines.
Except that there weren't any vines in this forest. And even if there
had been, the shadows wouldn't have been able to tie them together. His heart
sank as he realized that the shadow must have taken control of him again while
he was unconscious. His chest still ached distantly, reminding him of the pain
the shadow had used to prevent him from escaping. It had felt similar to
Yusuke's Rei gun - the damned thing had remembered what that felt like and used
it again.
He looked across the circle at Kuwabara, tied the same way he was. He
tried to make the vines unknot themselves, but his power twisted and wouldn't
answer to his control. The shadows had thought of everything.
"Hey!" Kuwabara yelled, startled as he found himself looking down at
the shadows. He struggled briefly before figuring out that he wasn't going to
get loose. He looked at the vines, then back at Kurama. "You tied them, can't
you _un_tie them?"
"You think I haven't tried?" Kurama retorted. He glared at Kuwabara.
"What did you find out that made them want to keep us here?"
"Everything," Kuwabara said.
"Oh. No wonder."
The shadows roiled beneath them, and the motion made Kurama feel
faintly sick to his stomach. Or maybe it was the feeling of having nothing but
empty air beneath his feet. He closed his eyes and leaned his head back against
the bark of the tree.
"Um..."
Kurama opened his eyes. "What is it, Kuwabara?"
"I, uh...I'm sorry." Kuwabara looked ashamed of himself. "I shouldn't
have gotten you mixed up in this."
Kurama shrugged, as much as he could with his arms pinioned. "You
weren't thinking clearly. That's not really surprising, I haven't been either.
But I have to admit, I wish you hadn't attacked Yusuke and Hiei..."
"Well...yeah. I wish to hell they'd get here."
Hiei knelt on the ground, examining some kind of tracks that Yusuke
couldn't even see. "Kuwabara must have stopped carrying Kurama. They're both
walking here, but too close together, too unevenly..." Hiei paused. "Kurama was
leaning on him." He stood up. "I think we're getting close."
Yusuke looked around nervously. He didn't like being so deep in the
forest. The only sound besides the ones they made was the birdsong, drifting
from tree branches where the birds probably didn't even exist. "Can we find our
way back?"
"You can't," Hiei replied. "But I can. This way." He started off
through the trees again, following the trail Kurama and Kuwabara had left. At
least that made him move slowly enough that Yusuke could easily keep up with
him, although the way Hiei's head must still have been ringing from the blow
Kuwabara had given him it was unlikely that he would want to move very fast.
He'd only allowed himself a few hours to rest before insisting that they get
moving. At least Kuwabara and Kurama had slept, for a while - Hiei had found
evidence of that earlier. They hadn't spent the entire night on the move.
Yusuke noticed a faint blue glow from Hiei's forehead, behind the
headband. Hiei's visible eyes narrowed. "We're definitely getting close."
Yusuke accepted the statement without argument and tried to prepare
himself mentally for what he thought he would see; but when they reached the
redwood circle, he found that the preparation wasn't good enough.
There was an entire pool of shadows shifting and swirling in the
hollow of the redwood circle. Twenty feet above them, Kuwabara and Kurama were
both tied to the trunks of trees by vines wound around the trunks and lowest
branches. Kurama's head snapped around to look at them. "Yusuke! Hiei!"
<Vines?>
<Uh-oh...>
That meant that the shadow had control over Kurama's body, or at least
his power, even though he was _awake_...
<Damn!>
Kuwabara looked grateful for Yusuke's sudden appearance, but Kurama
looked worried. Yusuke stepped to the edge of the pool, wondering if he could
distract the shadows long enough for Hiei to cut Kurama and Kuwabara free. But
if he did that, they'd just fall into the pool of shadows...
Before he could think of another idea, Kurama and Kuwabara stiffened.
Kurama clenched his teeth and hissed what sounded like a curse, his eyes
tightly shut. Kuwabara looked surprised.
Then the vines unwound themselves and lashed out at Hiei and Yusuke.
Hiei blurred out of the way, reappearing on a tree branch. Yusuke flung himself
to the side, rolling on the ground. He looked up, and saw Kurama and Kuwabara
land lightly on the edge of the circle, next to the pool. A rose appeared in
Kurama's hand, then shifted and stretched into the Rose Whip. Kuwabara
manifested his Rei sword.
"Yusuke!" Kurama cried, and Yusuke saw that although his face was set,
his eyes were wild and pleading. He knew instantly what was going on. One
shadow Kurama could repress, but all of them together could overpower him and
take control...
What was it like, to know what your body was doing but have no control
over it?
<Shit!>
Yusuke flung himself out of the way again as the Rose Whip slashed at
him. Then Kuwabara ran at him, sword upraised, and Yusuke dodged the energy
blade. As if fighting one of them wasn't bad enough, now he had to fight two of
his friends, and he knew that he couldn't use his Rei gun on them. Not unless
he wanted to kill them, and he knew there had to be some other way than that.
There _had_ to be!
But as Kuwabara charged at him again, sword raised and yelling in
protest of his body's actions, it didn't look as if he was going to have time
to find it...
Hiei kept flickering, dodging the whip easily. The shadows seemed to
have decided to send Kuwabara after Yusuke, and Kurama after him. <How
thoughtful of them,> he thought sourly.
He knew the whip wasn't all he had to worry about. In this forest,
Kurama would have a huge amount of weapons to use against him. He was careful
not to get too close to any of the trees, or any plant for that matter, but
that also meant he couldn't find any cover. And he didn't want to strike back
at Kurama, either...
"Hiei!" Kurama cried, and he looked back. Kurama's face was impassive,
unusually so, but his eyes were desperate. He knew what was Kurama was going to
say.
"There's got to be another way!" he yelled back.
"No!" Kurama denied even the possibility. "You have to do it now!"
The whip just barely missed Hiei, and then he only just evaded a
phalanx of spikes that stabbed out from a tree trunk, trying to impale him. He
landed on his wounded arm, gasped in pain, then immediately flung himself
forward into a run as the whip lashed out at him again.
The shadows roiled in their pool, and Hiei got the distinct feeling
that they were amused by the fighting. He wondered how Kurama could possibly
have so much energy. The shadow had drained him, and after Yusuke had hit him
with the Rei gun he had been as weak as a kitten...
<The shadows. They're feeding him energy. But that means they want
Yusuke and I to die, they don't want to possess us... I wonder why...?>
"Hiei!" Kurama cried in anguish. "Please, kill me!"
"I can't!" Hiei cried, slicing with his sword at the whip and missing
entirely. The whip came back and wrapped around his ankle, yanking his feet out
from under him. He hit the ground and the ferns tried to cut him to pieces. He
sliced the end off the whip, then flickered to a tree branch. He'd escaped the
ferns with only minor scratches, but the wound on his arm had reopened from the
stress of the fight. Blood was beginning to soak through the bandages. He
pressed his right hand against it, holding his sword in his left.
"Hiei," Kurama pleaded, and his voice was heartbreaking. "Hiei,
_please_."
<Dammit...> Hiei looked down at Kurama. <I can't do this to him. I
can't make him suffer any more...>
He lunged from the tree branch, sword held in both hands in front of
him. Before the shadows could make Kurama's body move out of the way, Hiei
slammed the sword into his heart.
Time stretched and slowed. Kurama fell backwards, sliding free of the
sword. Hiei stood staring, the sword loose in his grip as it dripped blood onto
the forest floor. Kurama trembled and gasped, then opened his eyes and looked
up at Hiei. "Thank you," he whispered.
Hiei stood frozen.
Kurama's eyes closed, and his body stilled completely.
<No...>
Hiei fell to his knees beside the body of his best friend, uncaring
whether the shadows attacked him or not.
"_Kurama_!"
Kuwabara stared as Hiei plunged his sword into Kurama's chest. <Oh my
God, he did it. The bastard did it - >
Rage flooded through him, and he used it, directed it at the shadows
both inside him and out. With a furious howl, he attacked the shadows mentally,
ripping their control away from his body. As they reeled, he snatched his body
back and turned to Yusuke.
Yusuke pointed behind Kuwabara. "Look!"
He turned. The shadows in their pool were writhing and boiling. The
entire pool of darkness was trying to get out of the circle as one huge wave.
Hiei looked up, spotted the shadows stretching toward him, and tried
to drag Kurama's body out of reach. But he was too small, Kurama was too heavy,
and the shadows were too fast -
Kuwabara ran forward. "Urameshi!" he yelled over his shoulder. "_Fry_
those bastards!"
Yusuke aimed his finger at the redwood circle, his face hard and set
with fury. Kuwabara got to Hiei, lifted Kurama's body over his shoulders, and
sprinted away from the redwood circle. Hiei flickered into view ahead of him.
Behind him he heard Yusuke give voice to his rage and hatred as a flare of
hard, blue-white light burst from his finger and hit the pool of shadows.
Kuwabara looked back. The blue light expanded like a solid bubble,
shadows stretching across its surface, burning and dissolving where they
touched. Kuwabara tried to run faster, aware that Yusuke was following, not
looking back at the carnage his Rei power was causing. The bubble of light
collapsed, leaving a few scattered pools of darkness inside the redwood circle.
Most of the shadows had been completely vaporized; and the rest weren't moving.
Kuwabara kept running until he was too exhausted to go another step,
trying to leave the redwood circle and what had happened there far, far behind
him.
Kuwabara put Kurama's body down on the ground next to the stream. "I
can't believe you did it," he said to Hiei.
Hiei looked away, cleaning the blood from his sword with a mechanical,
absent motion. He didn't reply.
Yusuke leaned against a tree, hanging his head. "I'm beginning to
think none of us are ever going to get home."
Kuwabara couldn't think of a reply, especially not an optimistic one.
He stared at Kurama's body, miserably. <This is my fault. What was I thinking,
bringing him with me?> He rested his chin on his palm, berating himself.
Then he noticed something. He frowned, then leaned closer to Kurama,
staring. Suddenly he yelled, "He's still alive!"
"What?" Yusuke demanded, getting up. Hiei beat him there, resting his
head on Kurama's chest, heedless of the red and black stain on Kurama's shirt.
He remained still for a long moment, listening. Then he lifted his head again,
his eyes wide.
"He's breathing," he said. "His heart's still beating. How - I didn't
miss, I know I didn't!" Suddenly a thought struck him, and he took the edges of
the hole his sword had made in Kurama's shirt and ripped the hole wider.
The only thing visible to mark Hiei's attack was a faint red mark on
the skin of Kurama's chest. There was no wound.
Hiei looked up. "The shadow healed him," he said. "I didn't kill it."
"Wait - does this mean you _did_ kill him, but the shadow's still
there?" Yusuke demanded. Hiei paled and tore off his headband, looking at
Kurama with his Jagan. Kuwabara tried to focus his psychic powers on Kurama
too, trying to see if there was anything left of his spirit. It was hard to
focus, and he wasn't seeing anything but the shadow. Then he got an idea, and
reached out to Hiei, touching his hand and his mind. Hiei stiffened, then
allowed Kuwabara's second sight to help his third eye look.
Together, they caught sight of a glimmer of green light. Looking
harder, Kuwabara saw that Kurama was still there, but his consciousness was
hiding deep inside the recesses of his mind. Kuwabara retreated reluctantly.
Kurama would wake up when he was ready, but until then there wasn't much they
could do.
"Well?" Yusuke demanded as Hiei snatched his hand away from Kuwabara's
as if it was something vile. "Is he still alive?"
"Yeah," Kuwabara said, rubbing his head. It was starting to ache
again. "He's still there."
Yusuke breathed a sigh of relief.
"But this means the shadows can't be killed," Hiei said. "Except by
you."
Yusuke looked at Kurama. "You mean _I_ have to kill him?"
"I tried," Hiei pointed out. "It didn't work. If things keep going on
this way, you may not have a choice."
* * *
Blue mist and black lightning swirled and crackled all around him.
Clouds of white energy exploded into wreaths of twisting fire. Kurama's body
shrank and shifted, altering its shape to that of a four-tailed kitsune. He
sniffed the wind, listened to the whispering of trees and earth. He looked
around him, but saw only a shattered ruin that had once been a huge arena.
<Here again...>
Kurama stood on all fours in the center of the torn fighting circle,
his ears pricked. The arena had the feel of a place long abandoned, which it
was. He wondered why he was there. The Ankoku Bujutsukai was long over and done
with, the arena destroyed. He sniffed again, and smelled old blood.
Old...and not so old.
He heard a sound and whirled, growling. His fur stood on end like a
cat's. His instincts told him that whoever was there, it was someone he didn't
want to see.
He was right. He snarled and backed up a few steps as Karasu stepped
up onto the platform.
"Hello, Kurama. Do me the courtesy of resuming your human form, at
least. It's terribly difficult to have an intelligent conversation with a fox."
Kurama hesitated, then decided that remaining in his present form
wouldn't help him if it came to a fight. He stretched his body into its human
shape and shook back his hair. "What do you want?" he demanded. "You're dead."
Karasu shrugged. "Not if I'm not really me."
"What?"
Karasu smiled. "Would you rather talk to yourself? I can arrange
that." His form blurred and ran like water, then reappeared as the exact
duplicate of Kurama that had been in his previous dream. "Or your friend?" He
shifted shape again, until it was Yusuke who stood in front of Kurama, finger
pointed at him.
Now Kurama understood. "You - you're the shadow!"
"If you want to call me that, yes."
"Why Karasu?"
The shadow assumed Karasu's shape again. "Your memories of him are the
sort that made me think he'd be the perfect symbol for how you think of me.
Angry, and more than a little revolted?" He smiled. "I know why, too."
Kurama glared at him. "What do you want?"
Karasu smiled again. "Just to talk," he said sweetly.
"Is that why you're trying to kill me?"
"I saved your life," Karasu pointed out.
"I didn't want you to."
"I couldn't very well let you die. I need you."
"I know." Kurama made no effort to keep his hatred out of his voice.
"Oh, come now. Everything has to eat. You don't blame a bird for
eating insects. Why should you blame me for doing what I need to survive?"
"Because you don't need to invade my mind as well. You _like_ it."
"True," Karasu said. He stepped forward, and Kurama stepped back to
keep the same amount of space between them. "I've never done this before, you
see. I've never tried appearing in someone's mind before. Without you, I would
have only animal intelligence, at best. But with your mind..." Karasu laughed.
"I never knew what it was like to think in abstractions before. I think I'll
keep you when you're gone."
"What - what do you mean?"
"We usually move on to a new body, once the current one is exhausted,"
Karasu said. "But I like you so much I don't think I'll leave."
"Like hell!" Kurama lost his temper. "Rose Whip!" The rose in his hand
grew and writhed into the thorn-covered whip.
He slashed with the Rose Whip, and Karasu leaped easily out of the
way. He laughed again. "Don't tell me you've forgotten your fight with him so
soon? You won't defeat me that way!"
He appeared briefly next to Kurama, and Kurama swung again and missed.
Karasu kept appearing and then vanishing, as fast as Hiei. Kurama felt a touch
on his hair and twisted, trying to catch Karasu with the whip. Instead Karasu
grabbed his hair and yanked, hard. Kurama gasped in pain, then went rigid in
shock as Karasu kissed him.
Kurama writhed and tore himself free, scrambling away. Karasu still
held strands of red hair in his fist, evidence of the violence with which
Kurama had tried to escape. Kurama wiped his mouth with the back of his hand,
then spat, his face twisted with revulsion.
Karasu laughed. "Oh, I see why Karasu was so attracted to you."
"Get the hell out of my mind!" Kurama screamed, and blasted Karasu
with his hatred. Karasu dissolved into white light, laughing.
<You can't get rid of me that easily, Kurama...>
Kurama fell to his knees, breathing heavily. Whatever this dream-place
was, it felt real. The back of his scalp hurt where he had ripped his hair out
escaping from Karasu's grip, and he felt as exhausted as if he'd just fought a
real, physical battle. Maybe he had.
He got up and shifted back to his fox form, running through a hole in
the wall and out into the woods surrounding the arena. He kept running through
the trees until he reached the ocean, standing on a rock and watching the waves.
He shifted back to his human form then and sat with his back against a
tree, staring at the waves crashing against the rocks. Gradually his anger
faded and calm returned to him, and he went over the experience more
objectively.
He'd done exactly what the shadow wanted. It was too damn clever - it
had _known_ he would react that way to Karasu, especially if it acted just like
he had in life. Or even took it further. Kurama wiped his mouth again,
disgusted.
It wanted Kurama thinking irrationally, so he couldn't figure out a
way to get rid of it. It wanted to keep his body forever, or so it said. It
might have been lying.
<Damn.> It had been so much easier when the shadow hadn't exhibited
any signs of intelligence. And it was borrowing it from him, worse yet...
<Wait. Did it _want_ me to hit it like that?> When he thought about
it, it occurred to him that he'd essentially hit the shadow with emotional
energy. Energy... <Damn! I made it more powerful!> Kurama hit the ground with
his fist, then pulled up his knees and rested his head on his folded arms. He
couldn't afford to be such an idiot again. If he ever met the shadow in another
dream, he'd have to find some other way to win.
Yusuke was worried. "Is he ever going to wake up?"
Hiei looked at him. "He nearly died, remember? He'll wake up when he's
ready."
"But he will be okay?"
Hiei just looked at him - then he stood up abruptly and left the room,
still without saying a word.
Yusuke sat next to Kurama's sleeping form, staring after Hiei.
Kurama looked out at the ocean. Whatever this place really was -
dream, maybe - it felt very peaceful. He'd gotten so caught up in the struggle
to survive that he hadn't had time to just sit and think. The tide ebbed as the
sun set behind him, the eastern sky that he was facing turning into a haze of
violet. He wondered if as much time was passing in the real world, or if time
was purely subjective here.
At least the shadow was leaving him alone. As far as he could tell,
the island was deserted, which was fine with him. He didn't want company. He
was content to sit underneath the tree and look out over the ocean, watching
the stars appear. And for once he wasn't cold.
"Kurama," Kuwabara said, sitting next to his friend. "You probably
can't hear me, but I just wanted to say I'm sorry. Yeah, I know I said it
before, but I didn't think things would turn out this way. Hell, I didn't think
at all. Hiei's right, I really am an idiot," He muttered, almost to himself.
Then he continued, "Just come back - don't give up yet. Don't hide in there
forever. We'll find a way out of this."
There was no sign that Kurama heard. Kuwabara sighed in disappointment
and rested his chin on his hand. <Come on, what did you expect?> he asked
himself. <He can't even hear you.>
Kurama frowned. He almost thought he could hear voices, calling to him
from across the sea...He shook his head. It was only his imagination.
It was almost dawn, and he still hadn't moved. The night had seemed to
go by quickly, but he'd spent the entire time thinking. He hadn't even been
uncomfortable, sitting like a statue underneath the tree. The sky was
lightening out across the ocean, announcing the impending dawn. Kurama wondered
whether to stay where he was. It was so peaceful here, and he didn't feel cold
or tired...
No, he couldn't stay. He knew that. The voices whispered to him across
the water, calling him back. And even if he ignored them, he felt in his own
heart that he couldn't stay here forever. He stood up and walked out onto the
rock that jutted out into the ocean. Waves crashed against it beneath his feet,
spraying salt water onto his face.The wind blew his hair back, filled with the
sharp tang of the ocean.
As the sun peeped above the ocean's rim, spilling blinding light across
the water, Kurama closed his eyes and reached out to the horizon, vanishing
into the sun's white light.
White.
Everything was white.
Kurama slowly realized that he was looking at the ceiling. He turned
his head, and saw Hiei leaning against the opposite wall in the morning
sunlight, fast asleep. He looked exhausted and vulnerable - an occurrence so
rare that Kurama didn't want to wake him.
He tried to sit up, and fell back with a stifled cry of pain. Hiei
snapped awake, and appeared next to Kurama instantly. "You idiot, I nearly
killed you," Hiei said. "Don't try to move."
Kurama smiled at him weakly. "I should be dead," he said.
"I know."
Kurama sighed. "The shadow saved me."
Hiei didn't seem surprised that Kurama had figured it out. "I can't
kill the thing," he said.
"Then Yusuke will have to do it," Kurama replied.
"Not yet," Hiei insisted. "The shadow might not be dead, but it _is_
weak. You've got some extra time."
Kurama nodded, but didn't say that he felt the extra time wasn't very
long.