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Kurama noted the aborted movement with interest. She was fighting a nervous habit. In light of his suspicions about the artifact she had purchased the, he couldn't help but recall how Kuronue used to fidget with his pendant. He was distracted from those musings by her frank and honest statement. "I'm sorry to hear that." He said, and was somewhat surprised to find he really was. "You seem nice enough. I'm certain you could make friends here easily." He smiled, he wasn't going to offer to be her friend, though the urge was there. His life was too complicated for normal human friends.
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Akira resisted another urge to grab the pendant, aborting the movement just seconds before clutching the fabric of her shirt. She kept her eyes averted from Shuichi, staring only at the desk in front of her. "Yes, I could probably, but I never bother to." She said honestly. "With my father's job as a business man, we move around a lot. I haven't had any friends since I was ten." She said and once again forced herself to forget the pendant, but somehow she felt like she was fighting the instinct to breathe.
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Kurama caught the barely aborted movement, confirming that she was most likely wearing the artifact but not able to confirm whether it was Kuronue's pendant. He looked away from her. "I was like that once, though I've lived in this area my entire life. I didn't have any real friends until a couple of years ago. I thought it wasn't worth the effort." He wasn't sure why he telling her these things, but he really wanted to help her for some reason. "Now I realize that it was much harder being alone." He stopped talking as the teacher stood up and began taking attendance. He hoped Akira would take his words to heart and try to make some friends. No one should be so isolated.
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Akira felt a slight trembling in her body, not noticeable on the outside, only she knew it was there. It was too hard to keep away from the pendant, and after the teacher called her name and she confirmed her presence, she grabbed the silver chain around her neck and pulled the pendant out. It fell immediately into her hands and she felt instantly more secure as she took a deep breath. She didn't realize it at first, but she was lightly rocking back and forth in her seat, and she stopped as soon as she noticed.
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Kurama's eyes narrowed as he spotted the pendant when she finally slipped it free of her blouse. There was no doubting it now. It was Kuronue's pendant, Kurama would know it anywhere. He began plotting ways to get it away from her but he wasn't in any hurry, she was obviously really attached to it and thus unlikely to lose it. He would have plenty of time to plan the theft. He smiled slightly, turning his head so that it would appear that something out the window had caused the expression. 'Just like old times.' He thought with amusement. Deciding not to worry about it yet, he turned his attention to plotting strategy to use in his upcoming spar with Hiei. He wanted to have some knew tricks up his sleeve. It was always a challenge to compensate for Hiei's formidable speed when they fought. Even if the fire demon wasn't using the jagan it was still sure to be a very taxing battle but Kurama was more inventive and versatile which helped to make them rather evenly matched. Kurama kept only a tiny portion of his attention on the teacher in case he happened to be called upon.
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Finally it was the end of the day and without any warning Akira made her way through the halls and out the main door. Some of the girls from Shuichi's fan club were apparently angry as they tried to swarm her, but she avoided them with a simple movement. As soon as she was far enough away, she ran, keeping one hand held onto the pendant, but she felt really weird. If she took her hand away for even a second she began to get fidgety and she'd have to grab it again. She stopped running when she realized she wasn't in the city anymore, so she had to look around and take in everything. She was surrounded by nature, apparently she got herself lost in the woods on the outskirts of the city. She sighed as she began walking, only hoping that she could find her way.
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Kurama left the classroom with unusual haste. He ducked into an alley just a few blocks from the school and took to the roof to lose his fanclub.
Hiei met him there and fell in step with him as the fox made his way rapidly home. Once they arrived at the house, Hiei darted up to the window rather than allowing Shiori to know he was there. They would have to wait until his mother fell asleep to go have their sparring match but Kurama didn't mind much. It would give him a chance to work on his strategies a bit more. Dinner was a quick affair, with the redhead pleading massive amounts of homework in order to explain his hurry to reach his room. Said homework was quickly dispatched and he spent a couple of hours cuddled up to the fire demon on his bed before his mother said her goodnight through the door. "Good night, Kaasan. Sleep well." Kurama called back, hoping she wouldn't actually try to come into the room. He didn't usually keep his door locked, so for it to be so now might cause her to be suspicious. He was relieved to hear her move down the hall to her own room. He gave her a few minutes to fall asleep before grinning almost ferally down at the demon in his arms. "Let's go." Red eyes blinked up at him in amusement. "Hn. Race you." With that the warm body was gone from the fox's arms and from the room in the same moment. Hiei smirked at Kurama's indignant huff. The fox knew he didn't stand much chance in a fair race. However, he never said the fox had to play fair, nor did he expect it from the tricky youko. He dodged a root that rose up to trip him, only to be snared by the trailing kudzu the the fox kept carefully in check lest it take over his garden. By the time Hiei had worked his way free, resisting the urge to burn the plant to ashes because he knew it would piss the redhead off and that wasn't part of the game, Kurama had passed him and hopped lightly over the fence. The redhead laughed. Hiei was in a playful mood which could be quite rare. It would make for a very interesting evening, no doubt about it. The two demons alternated in their lead in the haphazard race: Hiei using his superior speed and the Kurama using every plant they passed to try and trip the fire demon up. By the time they reached the woods around Genkai's temple they were both Having a great deal of fun and once they were far enough from the road, the sparring match commenced without any pause in the action. |
Akira had been walking for hours through the dense trees and had only succeeded in getting herself more lost. She was clinging to the pendant, the only thing that was keeping her calm. The sun had already fallen and it was darker than she ever thought it would be. She'd never find her way home in this. Taking a deep breath she hopped over a fallen log and then paused as she looked up at the tree nearby. There was a good chance she could find her way if she could climb up into the treetops. She thought about it for a little while and hopped back onto the log, climbing nimbly up onto the high branch. From there she jumped and grabbed onto the branch of another tree that was higher up. How she was going to get down was a mystery at the moment, but she would figure it out. It was strange though, how easily she had climbed up, like she'd already known how even though she had never climbed trees before.
She looked out over the horizon and could finally see how far she'd wandered from civilization. She huffed a sigh of frustration as she jumped down and landed on the lower tree branch, gradually making her way back to the ground. She had noticed that there was some kind of temple nearby, but she was only looking to find her way home. Finally her feet hit the ground and Akira slowly began the trek towards the city. It would take a while, but she didn't care about that, so long as she didn't get herself lost again. She thought she heard something and she sidestepped behind the nearest tree, trying to peek around to see what had made the noise. |
Hiei moved fast enough that he appeared to teleport around the redhead, wielding a bamboo stick in place of his katana. He had gotten in a few minor hits but the redhead had managed to avoid being caught by anything that might count as a killing blow. Hiei was invigorated by the fight but Kurama seemed distracted and Hiei wanted his full attention. "Come on, Fox. You can do better than this."
Kurama was distracted and really not fighting at his best. No matter how much he was enjoying the fight, his mind kept wandering back to Kuronue's pendant. He blinked and just barely dodged an attack by throwing himself backwards and doing several graceful flips in the air before landing lightly on his feet. He owed Hiei a better fight than this, perhaps he needed to push himself a little harder. "I'll make you a deal, Hiei." He called out with a grin. Green eyes flashed to gold and his hair cascaded silver down his back as he transitioned smoothly into his Youko form. "I'll get serious if you do." He said teasingly, his tail swishing behind him with a mind of it's own. Hiei smirked, "Have it your way." He tossed the stick away and pulled out his sword. "You can explain the results to your mother." He said and launched himself at the fox in earnest. Kurama laughed and called forth a massive bark wall from a nearby tree to block the fire demon's way. Of course Hiei was going to make wood chips out of that in short order so the fox started planning other attacks. His mind was now thoroughly on the fight. With Hiei using real steel it wouldn't do to get distracted. He knew Hiei wouldn't kill him but accidents could happen when one was careless. |
Akira barely managed to stifle a gasp as she watched the strange fight, and the sudden transformation of Shuichi into a silver haired fox. She hid behind the tree and calmed herself, trying to remain quiet as she snuck away from the area. She had to look back to make sure they hadn't noticed her, and that she wasn't being followed. Once she felt she was far enough away, she ran for it, keeping her voice quiet as she ran through the woods. She tripped once on her way out of the line of trees, but she was back to the city. She didn't stop running until she was home, dusting the leaves and dirt from her shoulders and her hair. The butler looked displeased with her appearance but she ignored him as she ran up the stairs to her room and locked the door. "What was that?" She asked herself silently as she wandered over to her bed and let herself fall back onto the mattress.
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Hiei and Kurama didn't stop fighting until they both collapsed in an exhausted, panting heap at the foot of a tree.
Kurama leaned his silver head back and took a few deep breaths to steady his breathing. "A tie?" He asked lightly. "As usual." The fire demon replied, resting his arms behind his head and leaning back against the massive old oak. Kurama's superior Youko sense of smell suddenly caught a whiff of something vaguely familiar....no, not something. Someone. He sat up and narrowed his eyes. It wasn't one of the tanteis and almost no one else came to the forest around the temple now that Genkai had passed away. Yukina still lived there but no human outside of their small group ever visited her and the scent rang in his head as being human. Who was it? Hiei sat up and watched the fox demon curiously. "What is it?" Kurama stood and tracked the scent to a nearby tree. Someone was standing there not long before. Why did it smell so familiar? Yet he couldn't quite place it...he shook his head and red hair replaced silver as he let his Youko aspect slip away. He sniffed again with the duller senses he had in his human form but the scent was too old and not well known enough for him to place it in that form either. Perhaps it was merely someone he had met in passing, but then why were they spying. Then again they may have passed through earlier than he estimated and he might be worrying over nothing. "Just my nose playing tricks on me, I think." He told the fire demon after a long pause. There was no reason to worry about it, the person was long gone and he didn't want to ruin the nice night with pointless worrying. "Hn." Hiei had never known Kurama's nose to be mistaken but he trusted the fox's judgment enough that he wasn't going to press the issue. The fire demon stood and retrieved his cloak from the ground where he had discarded it during the fight. He shook the dirt off and swirled the black cloth back around his shoulders, slipping his arms into the sleeves in a fluid motion that looked easy from long years of practice. "Shall we go home?" Kurama asked as he finished gathering the seeds that he felt were salvageable from their battleground. Hiei nodded and the two headed back to the redhead's house for much needed showers and sleep. |
She wasn't sure when she'd drifted to sleep, but it must have been hours ago, though this dream was strangely real. It didn't bare the dream-like quality most of her dreams usually possessed. She was running through thick trees, following someone ahead of her, everything was from that perspective. She wasn't seeing herself as if from an out-of-body experience, which only made the dream feel more real. There was a clearing up ahead, she could tell from the light and the gradual decrease in trees. There was a figure ahead, dressed in white with silver hair, ears and a tail. As soon as the figure turned around she saw the same face she'd seen earlier that night.
Akira jumped awake, eyes wide and she was dripping sweat, her hand desperately clutching the pendant which was surprisingly still around her neck. That she hadn't choked on it during the night was a miracle in itself. "What in the world is going on?" She asked softly as she wiped the sweat from her forehead. She could see the sun was already out, and it was yet another day for school. Once again, she felt like skipping, but knew that she wouldn't regardless, so she got up and went into her private bathroom. Once she was dressed and ready, she took the pendant off and placed it in her pocket. It would be easier to reach for it there than having to reach up to her chest, and if she wanted to look at it that would be much easier as well. She walked downstairs and her parents motioned her to join them in the dining room for breakfast. "I guess I can't avoid breakfast all the time." She muttered to herself lightly. |
Kurama rose and dressed for school, following much the same routine as he had the previous morning. Hiei once again vanished out the window after a flicker of a kiss, as was becoming his habit. Kurama cursed his human bodies hormones and wondered if the smaller demon had any idea what that sort of teasing did to him. He shook his head to clear it. "Probably." He said wryly to his empty room. He hastily ate his breakfast alone, his mother having left early for some reason that he couldn't recall at the moment. He made his way to school deep in thoughts about Hiei. He had begun to seriously consider telling his mother about his relationship with the cranky young man. She was beginning to push him into dating, because she didn't want to see him alone. 'Me being in a gay relationship, would she accept that?' He wondered idly. Kurama knew his mother liked Hiei well enough. She even tried to mother him sometimes, much to the fire demon's confusion, but she most likely hadn't considered him as a mate for her son. 'For Reikai's sake, she thinks he's some sort of homeless orphan.' Kurama almost laughed out loud. 'Well, okay. That is technically true, I guess.' He was pulled from his musings as his fanclub converged on him at the door of the school. 'Kuso.' He cursed inwardly, he had been so preoccupied he hadn't even given the annoying group a single thought. "Good morning." He greeted them politely, fortifying himself for the barrage of questions they were no doubt planning to ask him. He had been seen talking to Akira the day before and he could tell the jealous girls were fishing for information. He finally managed to extract himself from their clutches, having assured them in a round about way that he wasn't the slightest bit interested in dating the new girl...or any of them though his human facade wouldn't allow him to tell them what he really thought of them. He finally settled into his seat and sighed lightly in relief.
Hiei watched from the roof of the building across the street with his jagan as Kurama was pestered by the stupid human girls that thought they had a chance with the redhead. He was amused by some of the questions they asked and appalled by others, but the fox deflected most of the questions with the ease of a politician and gave them very little information in the end. Once the redhead was settled, Hiei pondered the thoughts he had picked up from Kurama while the fox was walking to school. The fire demon wasn't sure how he felt about making their relationship public to the human woman, but if it made Kurama's already complicated double life easier....Hiei would be willing to go along with it. He decided he would wait for the fox to bring it up regardless. He was not one to pressure others to give up their secrets. He still hadn't even told Yukina he was her brother. |
When Akira finally got into school, she too was accosted by the fan club, but she refused to answer them as she moved on. Her right hand stayed in her pocket, holding onto the pendant as she slipped into class avoiding the girls who were not from her class. Shuichi's fan club was huge, looked like almost all the girls in school were crazy about him. Well, except for herself, she could care less, she still felt like she was unable to make friends with anyone. Although, she kind of wanted a chance to talk to Shuichi, find out what happened last night. She took her seat, giving him a small smile but then turning her attention to the front of class immediately, trying not to give any indication that she had seen anything the night before.
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Kurama was surprised when Akira smiled at him. She had seemed so distant the day before. He smiled back and then turned his attention to pulling out his books and homework for the first class. Something was nagging at his senses and it took him a moment to figure out what it was. His eyes widened and he turned his head to look at Akira more closely, breathing deeply to be certain of his conclusions. The girl's scent was the same one from the night before. Did she follow them to Genkai's forest? 'Impossible for a normal human.' He thought to himself curiously. There was no way she could have kept up with them and the scent hadn't trailed them. 'Maybe she was only walking in the woods.' He thought hopefully, but then a dreadful possibility struck him. 'Did she see?' He had changed forms not far from the tree where he had caught her scent. Did she know his secret? If she had, she was certainly being calm about it. He would have expected most humans to confront him immediately.
Hiei tracked Kurama's growing concern. 'What is it, Fox?' He asked telepathically. He usually only tracked the redhead's emotions, occasionally catching individual thoughts when they pertained to him. Kurama blinked at Hiei's mental call and realized he was still staring at Akira. He hurriedly shifted his gaze away from her, hoping she hadn't noticed. 'I may have a problem.' He sent back, before letting Hiei see his jumbled worries about the girl sitting beside him. 'What will you do?' The fire demon asked in genuine concern. 'Nothing yet. She may not have been there when we were. I'll wait and see what she does.' Kurama glanced out the window and it only took him a moment to spot Hiei standing on the roof of the building across the street. He smiled, Hiei was always watching over him, whether he needed it or not. |
Akira was certain that she give no indication that she knew anything about the previous night. She was careful to pay attention in class, but she just barely caught him staring at her, but she didn't turn her head to look. She had just barely noticed it from the corner of her eyes, but she focused on paying attention to the current class lesson. Something kept nagging in the back of her mind though, the dream with him in it. She wanted to understand it, but she didn't want to confront Shuichi about it, afraid of what she would find out. She wanted to go somewhere else after school rather than go home, and this time she wasn't going to get herself lost. That she was determined about, but for now, she seemed normal even if she kept fidgeting with the pendant in her pocket.
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Kurama was relieved when the school day ended. He had expected some sort of confrontation with Akira but none seemed forthcoming. Maybe she truly hadn't seen anything. However, he couldn't help but feel it would be a mistake to relax just yet. He slipped away as soon as the bell rang and joined Hiei on his rooftop. From that position he could watch his classmates leaving the school grounds. "I want to know where she goes. If she is more than she seems, we need to know about it."
Hiei nodded. It did seem highly unlikely that the same human girl would be involved in two demon encounters in the span of two days. Hiei wasn't a strong believer in coincidence. To ensure that they wouldn't be spotted, he unshielded the jagan and subtly shifted the humans attention away from their conspicuous position on the edge of the roof. It wouldn't do to have their target catch sight of them. |
The fan girls tried to get a hold of her again, but Akira managed to avoid them completely, though she wasn't sure how she did it. She took a deep breath as she walked off the school grounds and down a nearby street. Akira wasn't really sure where she was going, but she didn't really care where she ended up. She pulled the pendant out from her pocket and looked at it for a moment before grabbing the chain and spinning the necklace in circles. She was doing it mostly subconsciously, not really paying attention. It felt normal though, like a nervous habit that made her feel better when she did it. Eventually she found her way to a park and she looked around before sitting down on a nearby bench, still spinning the pendant by the chain.
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Kurama followed Akira with ease. She seemed to be wandering aimlessly. He froze up when he saw her start spinning the pendant. The habit was so unmistakeably Kuronue's that the fox was beginning to wonder if the chimera's spirit was somehow possessing his classmate. The thought caused a fierce pain in his heart. He had already been forced to destroy one Kuronue imposter and the experience had nearly broken his heart. He wasn't sure what he would do if he was forced to lose his old partner a third time.
Hiei had to nudge the redhead to get him moving again. Finally they reached the park and watched from the branches of a tree as the strange girl sat down on a bench, still spinning her new necklace. Kurama watched for a few moments before coming to a decision. His curiosity might have been getting the better of him but he felt that he needed to talk to Akira again. There were too many unanswered questions surrounding his mysterious new classmate. "Stay here. I don't want to spook her." He told Hiei, before dropping down the backside of the tree. He skirted a bit wide and began to walk down the path towards the girl, seemingly aimless in his wandering. He made a show of looking surprised to see her and waved. "Hello again. Fancy meeting you here." He smiled cheerfully. "May I sit down." |
She was a bit surprised herself to see him come walking over and she stopped spinning the pendant. At it's last spin she caught the pendant directly in her hand with ease, as if she'd been practicing the movement. It was a shock to her and she looked at her hand as if confused. "Umm, I suppose you could sit down. It's not like I own the bench." She said softly as she held the pendant in her hand, but not puting it away. Perhaps she would get a chance to talk to him about last night, even though she was still uncertain she wanted to know.
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Kurama smiled and nodded his thanks before sitting down. "That's a lovely pendant you have." He said politely, but he didn't press to see it more closely. She seemed very protective of the stone and he didn't want to drive her away. "So how are you doing? I didn't speak to you this morning because I was afraid some of my more zealous admirers would get the wrong impression." He smiled in a self-deprecating manner. "I'm honestly not certain what they see in me but they can be quite possessive." He gave a short light laugh at the idea that he could belong to any of those brainless children. He was hoping to set her at ease and appear as nonthreatening as possible. If she had seen him fighting with Hiei, he figured the damage control could go a long way towards gaining her trust.
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Akira watched him closely without appearing to really be looking at him and she nodded lightly at the comment. "I bought it a couple of days ago." It was all she was going to say, she didn't know anything about the pendant but she felt she needed it. She took a deep breath and decided she might as well say something. "Why don't you stop pretending?" She asked and she stood up, moving away from the bench a little. "You know what, I don't really want to know the answer. I just want to pretend I didn't get lost in the woods last night. That I didn't... see that." She added softly as she held the pendant tightly in her hand. "I don't want to know, but I also don't want you to pretend like everything is fine and normal." She was afraid to look at him as her hands began trembling softly.
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Kurama sighed and pressed a hand to his forehead. "I was really hoping you hadn't seen anything." He said slowly, not bothering to deny it. "I promise I won't harm you." He gestured for her to sit back down. "Please allow me to explain. Perhaps it would set your mind at ease?" He firmly told Hiei to stay back for now. He wasn't going to let her walk away but he didn't want her to feel trapped either. "What did you see?"
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Akira took a moment to calm her nerves before she walked back over and sat on the bench. She felt she could at least trust him a little, which was strange knowing what she had seen the night before. "I can't really be sure of what I saw, it was dark, but I saw you... change. Even after I ran home..." She paused, the image in her dream reappearing. "I saw you in a dream last night. What are you?" She asked, her voice too calm despite the feelings she was having. Her left hand lightly clutched the fabric of her skirt. She turned her head to look at him, confusion the most prominent emotion in her eyes.
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Kurama was surprised she was taking it so well. Either she was very cool headed or she was in shock. He decided either way it worked in his favor because it gave him time to explain a bit to her before she went around telling the world his darkest secrets. "I was once what humans call a kitsune." He said truthfully, having decided the word demon should be avoided for the time being. "I was mortally wounded by a hunter. I fled my old body and my soul took refuge in the unborn child of a human woman. Over time I grew to love my human mother and, by the time my powers had recovered suffiently to allow me to resume my previous existence, I found I could not leave her." He smiled and gestured at himself. "So here I still am. I very rarely take that other form, this one is more comfortable to me now." He wondered if she would ask about Hiei. Had she been so distracted by his transformation that she could have missed the dark cloaked man?
OOC: I hope she asked. lol. Hiei is waiting to make his entrance. lol. |
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