Meanwhile, at the Minamino house, Shuichi lay on his bed, gazing up at the ceiling. A strong breeze blew in from the window, tugging on his hair and turning the pages of the calendar on his desk. The red head didn't stir, even after a gust blew his homework off the desk onto the floor. Emerald eyes glassy, he continued staring into space, mind somewhere else.
Now he knew. He knew why Youko Kurama had been a calculating manipulative thief and master strategist, why he caused nightmares, no romantic legends, like many of the kitsune in human mythology.
Kurama knew he had certain skills within him, talents that gave even seasoned mercenaries a reason to pause before challenging him. To kill. Destroy on instinct, leaving nothing behind. Yet, it was more, deeper. The ability to take the knowledge of weaknesses or strengths and completely break his opponent. When his life hung in the balance, Kurama knew how to bury everything, could even take a naive classmate's soul or lead a child to destruction, all through cold, hard facts. For Kurama, these actions could be as simple as breathing.
All demons understood the rules of the natural world, survival of the fittest. Hiei's code weighed in with his sheer power. Kurama, on the other hand, had warned many, beginning with the soul eater up to Kuwabara, of his brutality ahead of time for a reason.
Anger or fear deepened the depths of his existing cold logic, which governed all of his battles.
There were no exceptions.
Even when Karasu had plotted his painful demise, and Kurama had felt burning hatred, he had looked for a way to defeat the demon's speed using his existing repertoire. He had experimented with the potion to assure himself of victory. His tenacity of analysis had been the key, not any emotions. A careless slip of the tongue wouldn't spell a fiery doom as it had with Hiei when his pride had been threatened. His will to protect others and live did not rival Kuwabara's, and like Hiei, he could not be called a solider of good, as Yuusuke was, even now reborn as a demon. After living with his human family and coming to respect Yuusuke's and his companions, he did feel compassion and recognized evil; however, in the end, his distance and ability to take people apart kept him alive. It was a cold fact and a brutal truth.
And he now knew why it had always been so, for as long as he could remember.
Something had happened long ago, setting Youko's emotions loose, to the point where the fine line between honor and slaughter, survival and cruelty, had been lost. The result had been what Kurama had witnessed in that memory, a ruthless bloodbath, where Youko destroyed all and everything against him because he could. Realizing the price of emotional power in himself too late.
Futhermore, Kurama now knew where the secret lay, within the only memory his fox self had broken up, would have withheld, if Kurama's curiosity hadn't retrieved it a second time. Beyond that wall of youki and spirit energy.
Kurama's eyes closed, and as the hold on his demon energy slackened, the green life around him stretched upwards. A long green fern caressed his face, yet the mind of the fox had gone... reaching for a memory long hidden.
. . . . . . . . .
