http://clampfix.fanworks.net/guests/kurama07.txt </head><body><pre> Kurama 1/2 -chapter 7- by Kristin Huntsman <NANI?!> Kurama mentally demanded. His face remained serious, through an effort of sheer willpower. <My father engaged me when I was a kid?!> His eyes flickered past Tsukiko-san, to his daughter. She sat silently, her eyes meeting his. She had cat's eyes, a changing gold color that he'd only seen in a tiger's eye stone before. Her eyes offset by her long brown hair looked kind of nice. "But I already have a fiancee," Kurama murmured softly. "How long has this secondary engagement been?" Tsukiko-san asked. Kurama took his eyes from Mieiko and met her father squarely in the eye. "Somewhat less than a month," he admitted. "The engagement to Mieiko has been in effect for most of your lives," Tsukiko-san replied. "_It_ was invoked by your late father. Surely you would not dishonor his wishes?" Kurama heard a sharp intake of breath behind him, and turned around to see Hairspray standing in the door to the kitchen, her knuckles white as she gripped the tray she was holding tensely. <Damn it, I did _not_ need another complication!> Kurama thought, standing up in one smooth motion. He took the tray from Hairspray and guided her back to the table, taking his place next to her as they both sat back down. Taking control of the situation, he started to place the breakfasts in front of Mieiko and her father. "I do not remember my father," he lied. It was a minor lie; he did, but if he'd been a normal human, he wouldn't have. "I do not know if he would have made such an engagement for me or not. However, as you are obviously an old friend of his and my mother's, I must accept that he did so. However, I have another engagement that is entirely as legal and binding to me. I find myself in somewhat of an awkward position, because, you see, I do not know your daughter at all, and am just beginning to know Hairspray. I certainly have no intention of marrying anyone for at least two years, until I'm out of high school." "You don't know your fiancee?" Ryoto asked, grabbing ahold of the opening Kurama had left in his statement. "How can that be?" Kurama considered how to present Hairspray's case. "I study martial arts," he began. "A month ago, my sensei took her students and their families to China on a training expedition. We stayed in Hairspray's village, the Village of the Amazons, for a few nights. According to a local custom of challenge, if a woman of the village is defeated in combat by an outsider, he is automatically considered her husband. I was unaware that the law extended to mental challenges, and ended up becoming her fiancee when I beat her at a game." Ryoto's eyes lit up. "Then the engagement is invalid!" he said, almost gleefully. "It was not mutual." "Neither was this engagement mutual," Kurama pointed out. "Did you bother to ask Mieiko-san and I if we wanted to get married?" "Shuuichi!" his mother scolded him. "You were children! How could they ask you?" <I haven't been a child for several centuries,> Kurama thought rebelliously. "I apologize," he said nonetheless, looking at her. "However, as this is the second engagement that has come into my hands in the space of a month, I feel I have a right to be a little upset, especially since no one's bothered to tell me for the past sixteen years that I have a fiancee." "You're not the only one," Mieiko murmured. Kurama looked at her in surprise. "What?" he asked. "Neither of my parents bothered to tell me, either," Mieko replied, with a slightly defiant look at her father. "I just come home from school one day, and out of the blue, _he_ says 'You're engaged. Get packed, we're going on a trip to meet your fiancee.' Just that, nothing else." "So why weren't either of us told?" Kurama asked, looking first at his mother, then at Ryoto. "Keiichi's death was so sudden..." Shiori said softly. "I guess he was intending to tell me, he just never got the chance...." "I wasn't exactly thinking of it at the funeral, Shiori-san," Ryoto said apologetically. "I guess I just assumed that Keiichi had told you. As for why I never told you," he added, turning to his daughter. "When did I get the chance? You never paid attention when I was trying to tell you anything important! You were always involved with your painting and sketching and writing!" "Just because you can't appreciate anything creative--!" Mieiko shot back angrily. "Hold it!" Kurama broke in. "Can we discuss this like civilized people? I, for one, would like to know why you're bringing Mieiko here in the middle of the school year, while we're still both too young to get married." "She's getting uncontrollable," Tsukiko replied, glaring at Mieiko. "She's never been very good at listening to other people, and her mother and I were hoping that putting her in a new situation would help her calm down. Minamino-san," he said, appealing to Shiori, "Kyoko and I have come upon unexpected times. A great-uncle of Kyoko's in America has died and left his estate to her. We must travel there to take care of affairs. His will leaves everything to her upon the condition that she lives in America for one year. Mieiko does not speak English well at all, and we were hoping to leave her in Japan to finish her education, if at all possible. If you will take our daughter in for a year, as a friend of the family, we should be so grateful! All of her expenses will be paid, of course!" "Well..." Shiori said, considering. She looked at her son. "Shuuichi?" "The extra room can easily be converted to a bedroom, Kaasan," he replied, refusing to make the decision. "It's your house; the choice is yours." "You want her to stay?!" Hairspray inadvertantly blurted out in Chinese. This was too much. She wouldn't stand for it. "She needs a home, Hairspray," Shuuichi replied in her native language. "Would you deny her the hospitality of ours?" "She's going to try to make you marry her," Hairspray stated flatly. "I have the first claim on you, and I will NOT permit that!" "Her claim is as valid as yours," Shuuichi replied. "But that's neither here nor there." Hairspray looked beseechingly at him, to no effect. He was determined to be fair to this other woman. "I can't change your mind?" she asked. He shook his head. "It's not my decision." "That's a lie!" she retorted angrily, "and you know it! If you said that you didn't want her here, your mother wouldn't let her stay!" "You would have me be unfair to her because of events that were beyond both of our abilities to control?" he asked. "If I was like that, then I would have just objected to marrying you, and you'd still be in the Village of the Amazons. I don't play that way." Hairspray felt a mental curse coming on and blocked it. The mention of her village brought back a painful reminder. She shook her head sadly. "Do as you wish," she said quietly, looking away. "If you marry her, then I will return to my village, where I will be put to death for not marrying you." Shuuichi was quiet for a moment, then said softly, "I have no intention of marrying anyone for quite a while, Hairspray. Do not make the mistake of thinking me so foolish as to disregard the customs of your village if and when I make a choice." Hairspray looked up quickly, startled, but Shuuichi had already taken his eyes from her and was looking back at the rest of the table. "Shuuichi?" his mother asked. "Daijoubu, Kaasan," he assured her. "Well, then, welcome to our family, Mieiko!" Shiori said, turning to the girl. "I hope you'll like it here with us!" Hiei rolled his eyes at Kurama. "Like it's my fault?" Kurama asked him. "Don't blame me for Mieiko! _That_ was none of my doing!" "You certainly seem to be attracting enough lovers these days," Hiei observed with an evenness that was surely killing him. "Are you doing so deliberately?" "And who's THAT?" Koenma asked, appearing suddenly behind them. Hiei looked hatefully at Koenma, who had managed to successfully catch both of them off-guard, muttered something most definitely NOT complementary, and vanished. Kurama smiled, and turned to Koenma. "Who's who?" he asked evenly. "And what are you doing in the Ningenkai? In _human_ clothes?" Koenma shrugged. "The paperwork's caught up, so I'm taking the day off. As for who, _she's_ who!" He pointed at someone, and Kurama followed his gesture. "Mieiko?" he asked, surprised. "The girl with the beautiful brown hair?" Koenma asked. Kurama nodded, and launched into his brief summary, knowing Koenma would harrass it out of him sooner or later anyway. "Tsukiko Mieiko, age sixteen. Currently staying with my family for a year while her parents take care of an unexpected estate in America. She's interested in painting, sketching, and writing. I don't know anything more, except that our fathers apparently engaged us when we were children." "_WHAT_?!" Koenma yelped. Kurama smiled. "Take it easy, Koenma. I've just barely met her. You have a fighting chance, if you're interested in her." "Do you collect fiancees?" Koenma asked. "Is this a hobby, or just incredible luck?" "Good luck or bad?" Kurama retorted. "Go introduce yourself. She might like you." "Wish me luck!" Koenma called, striding over to where Mieiko was sitting underneath a tree, a sketchbook in her lap and a pencil in her hand. Kurama chuckled and nimbly climbed the tree he was under. He easily found a secure perch to rest in, where he was shaded from the heat of the day and cool, the leaves and branches of the tree catching a gentle breeze. From his perch, he watched with interest as Koenma tried to get a date. <I've only been watching him all day... something's going on now. What?> Hiei closed his eyes and opened his Jagan, looking at Kurama from afar. Even from his perch in a tree a quarter mile from Kurama's house, he could see what was happening inside Kurama's mind. <Incredible...> he thought of what he saw. He'd known that Kurama was a five-tailed youko, but it hadn't really registered that he had to have five minds as well. Hiei had only ever seen two; the one who he had always known as Shuuichi, and the one who had appeared to fight in his youko body at the Ankoku Bujutsukai. But now.... Hiei had a view of four silvery youkos, one red-headed human, and... and a shapeless cloud of shimmering green energy. The Kurama who was the fifth tail frowned. "What do you mean?" he asked the one who was the first tail. "That spring you fell into appears to have given us a power-up," the youko replied. "And an unexpected development." "What--?" Kurama asked, but was cut off by the second tail. "Because _you_ were an idiot and fucked up, _we_ are developing a semi-sixth tail, _Shuuichi_," he said hatefully. "A _female_ sixth mind." "Nani!?" Shuuichi-Kurama yelped. "_Female_?!" "It was Nannichuan," the third tail and most intellectual tail explained. "'Spring of the Drowned Girl.' So naturally the mind that develops from it, though not an actual sixth tail, would be female. _And_ developed from you," he added, glancing at the red-haired human. "You mean...." "All those female instincts that you've been getting recently are because she's been developing within your mind," the fourth tail chimed in, looking amused. "This is _wonderful_," the second tail muttered. "A female mind! And seeing what's been happening to you recently, she'll go around acting like it, too!" The first tail gave the second tail a look, then spoke again. "It's irrelevant now. She's almost fully developed and ready to take her place among us." "So she's not an actual sixth tail?" Shuuichi asked. "What is she, then?" "She's you," the third tail replied. "Your twin, as much as she can be. When you touch that--" He indicated the glowing green cloud. "--then you'll split into two, one male, one female. You'll have the exact same memories, the exact same personalities, you'll just be male and female versions of each other." "I'll still be me?" the fifth tail asked. "Yes." The third tail nodded. "Both of you," the fourth tail agreed, smirking. "So who gets control of the body, then?" the fifth tail asked. "When our body is male, female, human...?" The first tail frowned. "I'm unsure... but it's established that you are best able to control our human body, and the rest of us are best able to control the youko form...." "By logical extension, then, she should have the best control over the female body," the fourth tail added in. "Except sometimes I've been entirely unaffected by being in that body," Shuuichi added in, also frowning. "Which might mean it doesn't make any difference, as long as the form is human... she might be able to hold control of a male form, too." The second tail spat and cursed. Shuuichi-Kurama decided to ignore him, and asked the first tail, "So all I have to do is touch that cloud?" "It's the raw energy that that spring gave us," came the reply. "The energy that will split her off from you. Her energy. Yes, that's all you need to do." "Well...." Kurama considered. "Oh hell. I should just get this over with." He reached his hand out to the cloud. "Welcome to the world, little sister," he murmured, closing his eyes as he touched it. <!> Hiei watched as Kurama's hand touched the surface of the cloud, and he stepped forward, seeming to be drawn in by some nameless force. Soon Kurama stood entirely within the cloud, his eyes still closed. The translucent green mists thickened, swirling about him, humming with power. White lightning crackled across the surface of the cloud, completely obscuring Kurama, even to the sight of Hiei's Jagan. Hiei gripped the branch he rested on unknowingly, waiting tensely to see what would happen to his friend. The mist suddenly paused in its changing currents, the bolts of electric current growing slower, then disappearing entirely. It paled to translucence again, then eddied away entirely. Exposing the two figures that had it had hidden in its embrace. Both were pale, lines of exhaustion and pain evident on their faces. Obviously, being split into two people had drained Shuuichi-Kurama's resources. Both Kurama-kun and Kurama-chan wavered for a second, then fell, collapsing into two unconcious piles on the floor-surface of their mind. <I don't believe it...> Hiei thought, watching for a few more seconds before his Jagan closed and his eyes opened again. He tied his headband back over his third eye and leaned back against the trunk, thinking. So it hadn't all just been Kurama teasing him, the undercurrent of sexual play that had emerged between them. There really was a female side to Kurama, one who might like him.... <Don't be a moron,> Hiei thought angrily to himself. <Like you? Love you? Get real. You're a forbidden child, remember? Disaster follows in your footsteps? No one can or will ever love you. Especially... especially not someone like _her_! She's _him_, remember? And he's the one who said he'd only friends with you.> <Friends... and nothing more.> <She's so beautiful....> <And Kurama's the only one who's never hated me... or been afraid.> Hiei had a dark streak a mile wide, and hidden in its center was something he'd never shown to anyone, and never intend to. His rejection and abandonment by the Koorime had scarred him irreparably, in mind if not in body. He had grown up hating himself, and had never believed he was worth anything. And now, plummeting into a violent fit of depression, Hiei had never felt less like having to wake up every morning. He had never known that his desire for love was so great, and never known that it could hurt him so much. But there was at least one good thing about rock-bottom: when you hit it, you couldn't go any further down. When you knew in your soul that no one cared, you couldn't be betrayed. You couldn't be hurt any more, because you were beyond the pain. Hiei ran his hand along the sheath of his sword. It would be so easy, he quietly thought. Just take the sword out and kill yourself. That's what you want, isn't it? An end to all the hurt, all the pain? To get to a place where no one will ever be able to get to you again? <All you have to do is hurt yourself. Lose yourself in the physical pain. Forget about the mental. Let yourself have some peace,> he cruelly taunted himself. He hated himself. He was weak. He deserved it. <But no... you don't deserve that. You don't deserve to forget. You don't deserve anything, except dreams that you can never fulfill. Love....> Absolutely miserable, Hiei wrapped himself up in his cloak and closed his eyes tightly, trying to get some sleep. In dreams, at least, he could escape himself. If he ever let himself cry, he would have cried himself to sleep now. "Mmm...." Kurama opened his eyes reluctantly and winced. Instantly the lights dimmed. He slowly sat up and looked around. Three youkos were sitting nearby, dealing a new round of a card game. Standing up, he walked over to them and sat down in the space that they made for him. "Where's the first tail?" he asked as the fourth tail dealt him in. "Gardening with Shiori," the second tail replied shortly. He seemed intent on his cards. "You were out all night." "And _she_'s with him?" Kurama asked, frowning at his cards. It seemed like he always got stuck with a bad hand when the fourth tail dealt. He looked up and the fourth tail smiled sweetly at him. "She appeared, then vanished into you," the third tail replied. "She's still part of you." "What?!" Kurama gasped in shock. The fourth tail took the opportunity to look at his cards. "She's still part of you," the third tail repeated. "You didn't achieve total separation. Perhaps you weren't meant to." The fifth tail set his cards down (facedown, with a warning look at the fourth tail) and turned to the third tail. "_What_?!" they demanded. The third and fourth tails laughed as the two redheads turned and stared at each other in shock. The second tail shot the lot of them a look of disgust and returned to his cards. "Anata wa...!" the two said in the same second. They looked together at the snickering tails. "Let's go somewhere where we can talk," Kurama-chan murmured. "My thought exactly." The two Kuramas stood and left together, willing themselves to a separate part of the mind, one where, by tradition, no one but he... _they_... went. "I suppose I'll have to find my own place, now," Kurama-chan said mournfully, looking around the place that they'd created over the years. It currently, and most often, resembled a temple. The redheaded girl perched on a boulder in the gardens. She crossed her ankles and started gently swinging her legs back and forth. "I don't feel any different than I did before," Kurama-kun said softly. Kurama-chan looked at him in slight surprise. "Why would you? _I_ don't feel any different, and I'm the one who's changed." "Nandayo?" he asked the girl before him. "We're the same until the springs, right?" she asked him. "Well, think of all the stuff we've done since then - wearing that dress, running when Hairspray tried to seduce us, passing Hiei off as our boyfriend--" She paused and blushed slightly. "Doing a strip-tease for Hiei. How do you feel about all that?" Kurama considered. He shook his head. "Like even though I remember it, it was someone else doing that." "Youko retroactive memories," Kurama pronounced. "It wasn't you doing all that stuff - it was me." "Well, if you're another tail, I should have all your memories," Kurama said, considering. "You're right. I would never have run from Hairspray," he decided. "Niichan!" his double said, outraged. "Neechan!" He mocked her tone. She blinked. "You're 'older brother' and I'm 'older sister'?" she asked. Kurama shrugged. "Why not? We're the same person, aren't we? Just with different genders now, right? Therefore, how can one of us be older than the other?" Kurama-chan gave a slight laugh. "Well, if that's how you want it, I'm not objecting." Kurama-kun paused and frowned slightly. "There are some things we're going to have to decide, you know," he said. "Like who gets control of the body when," Kurama-chan replied, nodding. "And how we deal with romances." "You like Hiei," Kurama stated quietly. Kurama-chan paused for a second. "Yes, I do," she answered quietly. "But he's only a friend to you. How do we deal with that?" "I don't know," Kurama replied. Now it was Kurama-chan's turn to frown. "How long will this curse last?" she asked. "Until the human body dies and we revert to being a youko permanently? Or forever? And if it vanishes, then what happens to me? Do I die, or do I become part of you again?" Kurama's eyes widened slightly. He hadn't thought about that. "I don't know," he replied quietly. "I wish I did." "Me too." ********* Explanations first, then credits. About Kurama's multiple minds... blame Maria for this concept. She told me about how in her universe, each tail that a youko gets is another mind, as well... power-up creates another mind, which in turn has the potential of solving a problem in a new way that previous tails haven't thought of, so is in itself a power-up. The Kurama we all know and love is the fifth tail, who was born right around the same time as Kurama became human in the first place. Therefore, the fifth tail is human. Both of them. The five (six) minds exist in a mental plane most of the time, which is as physical to them as the physical world that we all exist in. This is not a dream, this is like having a conversation with four of your friends. And I want comments on Hiei's depression! I ain't doin' this for my health, ya know! (as Sandy and Sionna well know, I'm doing it for the extra hours it means I get to spend with certain youkai :)~~~~~~) Okay, I have to thank Sandy for putting up with my talk requests from my boyfriend's account (yet another function that Compuserve does not have), and especially for helping me to edit this chapter. As she wants to know if I'm going to write the scene where Koenma asks Mieiko out, I'll answer: yes. But not now. I want to get more done on _Urameshi's Wedding_ and _The Wizard of Reikai_, THEN I'll come back and type up "Mieiko's Chapter." <eg> And since I now am a Gainfully Employed Person, and am in school a lot, I'm going to slow down the fan-fic pace for a bit, okay? I also have to thank Maria for telling me about her alternate YYH reality, and her beliefs about youkos, which I have shamelessly stolen and made fact in _Kurama 1/2_, because it'll make it so much more FUN! Yes, Kurama-chan has her own romantic agenda, and it does NOT involve either Mieiko or Hairspray.... So, leaving you with that thought, until the next chapter, ja ne! </pre><p><a href="./">Back</a></p><p><a href=http://www.dreamhost.com/donate.cgi?id=216><img border=0 alt="Donate towards our web hosting bill!" src=https://secure.newdream.net/donate1.gif></a></p></body></html>