[FFML] [fic][yyh][rewrite] Shonen Chapter 23: Revolution (Part 3)

[gabriel_gabdiel at yahoo.com]

"When one is blinded by that which he seeks, it is hard for him to see
the lines in between."

(Unknown)


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Shonen
A Yuyu Hakusho fic
By Chester Castañeda
chester.castaneda at gmail.com
http://www.fanfiction.net/~abdiel 
http://abdiel.florestica.com/
http://chester-fanfics.livejournal.com/

Will Asuka Matsui be reborn as Minamino Shuichi? Not if _he_ can help
it.

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Chapter 23: Revolution (Part 3)
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Twenty-five minutes before Kurama's death scene...

Hiei already knew what Koenma was trying desperately to tell him; what
he couldn't wrap his head around was the idea that Kurama would subject
himself to Munashii's machinations under his own free will. Aside from
that, the jaganshi knew enough of the methods to Kurama's madness to
stop the redhead from fulfilling his nebulous and contradicting gambit. 

In a capricious world where the person with the strongest willpower
would triumph, only one wish could possibly prevail in a given
situation. There was more than one way to skin a cat, and Hiei had found
an appropriate loophole to counteract the redhead's overwhelming
determination. 

Basically, by feeding the seeds of doubt into Kurama's heart, Hiei
should be able to free his comrade from Munashii's Lotus Eater World and
help him reclaim his sanity, breaking down his resolve and showing him
the ridiculousness of his beliefs. 

Little did Hiei know that Kurama's resolve was far deeper, meaningful,
and persistent than he gave him credit for. So, at the apex of the their
jump towards the egress, the half-youko dislodged himself from the
smaller youkai's grip with a firm and resolute push. It took Hiei a few
seconds to realize what Kurama had just done. Glaring daggers of shock, 
bafflement, and furiousness at the redhead, he currently had no words at
the tip of his tongue that he hadn't said before. 

"What the hell are you trying to do? Have you completely lost your
mind?!" Hiei screamed anyway, reiterating his earliest sentiments over
Kurama's death scene. "Wake up already! You don't care about the life of
some stillborn you've never met! You probably didn't even know she
existed until years later, when Munashii finally appeared! Rebirth this,
Asuka that; it's enough to make me vomit! I know beneath your vapid
human exterior and delusions of martyrdom, you're still in there,
Kurama; stop this nonsense and listen to reason!" 

"How many times do I have to tell you, Hiei? I don't need saving. Taka-
kun didn't force me to do anything I didn't want to do. Leave me be,"
Kurama sternly reprimanded Hiei as he descended back from whence he
came, the flood from the waters of the River Styx receding as he fell.
Hiei followed suit, streaking across the pit like a black-clad bullet as
he attempted to grab Kurama before he hit the furious whirlpool below.

Their descent soon became a battle of wills. If Kurama had a martyr-like
bent to recklessly sacrifice his life as he saw fit, Hiei was in turn a
mulishly stubborn demon that simply didn't know when to give up. For the
both of them, no price was too great to pay for success, up to and
including their own lives. They'd do whatever they had to do and never
surrender. Ever. Under any circumstances. No matter what. 

Whatever other characteristics they might have, their persistence always
stood out. They'd never consider that they might be better off by
letting go. Giving up just wasn't in their nature, which was probably
the reason why they made such great partners with the likes of Yusuke
"Willpower Incarnate" Urameshi and Kazuma "Perseverance Personified"
Kuwabara.

In any case, Kurama made the first move, imposing his formidable resolve
with two simple words: "Hydra Bamboo."

Hiei saw the forest of sharpened, demonic bamboo spears grow and jut out
all around him, making him instinctively backpedal to the nearest wall
in order to avoid getting skewered like a pig or die like that hideous
Meikai Lord that pretended to be Kuronue once upon a time. 

Speaking of which, the allegedly real Kuronue himself was brought back
to the surface of the bottomless pool care of one of the endlessly
stretching bamboo, his eyes fluttering and his mouth sputtering as he
came to. 

Subsequently, the will o' the wisp flames just above the roiling waters
of the cavern gathered around Kurama like a shroud of sparkling reiki
that soon helped create a physical manifestation of the redhead's own 
immovable resolve--in particular, that of a young, scrawny, bright-red,
green-eyed Fire Fox Spirit with a lone bushy tail and a halo of green
light surrounding it, whose youthful appearance and smaller stature was
in direct contrast to the imposing, centuries-old Silver Fox whom Kurama
forced to fade away not once, but twice over.

Meanwhile, in the corner of Hiei's eye, something in the depths of the
small swamp breathed deeply, and a strange phantom hovered between the
bamboo before disappearing into Kurama's holy light. Two out of three of
the jaganshi's eyes widened as the dark figure finally took shape,
coalescing seamlessly with Kurama's Fire-Fox-shaped determination. It
was a feminine shape...

The fetal-positioned form of a red-haired, teenage girl flared with a
supernatural jade light. She shone like a star, and burned like a
supernova. She, Hiei presumed, was Kurama's personal Holy Grail. The
Kusanagi Sword, the Yata Mirror, and the Magatama Orb of Yasaka were
nothing compared to this one human life drowned by the strong waves of
fate, predestination, and serendipity. 

She was Asuka Matsui; a normal, unassuming peasant girl who had the
tragic misfortune of being involved with two people who had the ability
to defy and change destiny itself.

Once Kurama's direct manifestation of Asuka's ghost was complete, he
gently landed feet-first on a nest of bamboo leaves and twigs, squeezing
his arm and leaning back wistfully against the largest pole from which
all the hidden spring's bamboo grew from.

Kurama's head felt tight and hollow with pain, and his already fuzzy
thoughts were near incoherent after all the effort he exerted in
extracting Asuka Matsui's--no, _Asuka's_ shattered soul from the depths
of his own broken spirit, but one thought managed to penetrate the haze:
he needed one last death strike filled with the driving force of purest
resolve to fulfill his female counterpart's rebirth. Nothing less than
that would satisfy the accidental bad karma Asuka suffered in the hands
of her childhood friend, Yoshitaka.

'We're almost there, Taka-kun. One more push, and Asuka-san will be home
free,' Kurama thought as he slumped down to the floor of the raft-like
Hydra Bamboo Islet, his growing exhaustion getting the better of him at
long last. The need of one, true death strike was the reason why Hiei
had to be there during Kurama's final moments--the fire demon's
immovable will should be enough to prompt Kuronue to unleash his own
irresistible strength of mind, because nothing less than that could ever
overcome the jaganshi's spirit. 

...Not that Kurama foresaw Botan helping Hiei access Kuronue's pocket
dimension through her Kiss of Death; to precisely predict such random
circumstances was beyond his ken. Instead, he instinctively knew deep in
his heart that Hiei was going make himself a significant factor to his
death scene, whether the half-youko wanted to or not. If that was the
case, then why not use the fire demon's enthusiasm to his advantage?

Desperately, Hiei reached for Kurama's fallen form, passing through the
etherealness of Asuka's ghost like it were a phantom formed by mist, but
he was soon stopped by the double-helix chains of Kuronue's ever-
evolving chain-blade, the reinforced bonds arresting his movement in an 
eye blink.

"You had me worried for a second there, Kurama," Kuronue admitted to his
kneeling and tired 'prisoner' as he un-clung his clothes from the bamboo
staff that saved his second chance at life a few moments ago. "You hurt
my feelings. I thought that you trusted that stubborn let clueless
outcast midget more than you did little old me, who understands the
intricacies of your complex plan. In any case, thanks for the vote of
confidence--I'll make sure to live up to your expectations this time
around."

His eyes closed, Kurama gave the Raven a wan smile. "Give him hell,
Kuronue; heaven and Hell."

"Your will shall be done, old friend," Kuronue confirmed as he pricked
his thumb on the sharp end of his blade then pressed it against the
jewel encrusted on the center of his pendant, making the ruby shine
brighter and redder than ever before. From there, the supposed power of
'emotion' buried deep within the precious artifact was finally released
to the fore.

All the feelings of guilt, sadness, betrayal, fear, and loss swirling
inside the centuries-old trinket transformed into a crimson maelstrom
that gave the Dark Raven access to limitless power--power to bring
together what the Reikai Hunter and the Silver Fox tore asunder. The
power to change destiny... or, in this case, to restore it.

"Kurama, you ASSHOLE!" Hiei screamed in rage as he struggled against his
bonds. The links, however, were stronger than his resolve, tied tightly
and firmly around his compact body, barely leaving him enough room to
breathe. His efforts only left him gasping and exhausted, and not a
single inch closer to freeing himself. 

Not to be deterred, he twisted and craned his neck, trying to slip out
of his tight predicament like some sort of spiky-haired snake... but he
soon found to his dismay that no matter how he strained, he couldn't
contort his body enough to escape his bonds.

Once Kuronue completely regained his composure, he told the struggling
Hiei, "You're actually quite wrong about Karasu and me, jaganshi. I'm
the original. It's that psychotic Crow character who's the Kuronue-
wannabe. I've existed long before that demon was but mere hell spawn
making little demon firecrackers for his own sick amusement. As such,
let me show you how real I really am." 

With one tug, all the 'air' inside Hiei's body instantaneously escaped
from his figurative lungs, making him gasp in agony. And, while it was
true that ghosts had no need of things such as food, oxygen, and regular
excretion of toxins and bodily waste products, it was actually the
destiny-changing energy contained within Kuronue's chains that was
forcing the fire demon to expel precious, live-giving youki out of his
astral form, suffocating him in the process. 

As Hiei struggled uselessly, a bit of rationality began to seep through 
the painful haze in his head. Slowly, the grim reality of his situation 
penetrated his mind, and his pain dissolved away under an onslaught of
achingly familiar fury. He, like the rest of his inner circle of Spirit
Detective cohorts including Kurama, didn't like the idea of being forced
into anything, whether it was through tragic fate or the manipulations
of others. They all worked best when their backs were against the wall
and the inevitable was about to take place.

So--disregarding the fact that it was Munashii's void instead of actual
psychic ability that forced Hiei's spirit out of his body during their
intense bout--the jaganshi risked it all anyway and let his evil eye
half-open, releasing red flames from his hands that allowed him to melt
his bonds and continue his attack against Kuronue anew.

"As I expected, you're too reckless. Still, you're a lot more dangerous
than I thought. If there's anybody who can defy all reason and go beyond
the impossible through immovable resolve, then it's you, jaganshi. You
and Kurama make quite the pair, what with your matching streaks of
stubbornness and all," Kuronue evaluated half-jokingly as his eyes
deftly followed Hiei's flickering movements, blocking Hiei's Rengoku-
Shou punches from time to time with his indefinite supply of metal links
and curved blades. 

'...And what the hell do you mean by that?' Hiei brooded sourly as he
did several calculated somersault feints to confuse Kuronue, but none
of them worked as intended; Kurama's latest puppet wasn't even fazed. It
was like the damn Munashii replacement was able to read his movements and 
intentions or something. Hiei sneered: He was no closer to the half-
youko than when he first unceremoniously appeared, and Kuronue knew it.

Hiei knew that it was time to unload the big guns. "Jaou-Ensatsu-KEN!"
There was a shower of hellfire and sparks as whirling blades fought
against flames of darkness, but Hiei had learned his lesson from their
earlier exchange and didn't give Kuronue the angle and leverage he
needed to do a point-blank entanglement with his never-ending supply of 
ammunition.

The Black Raven was unbelievably quick with redirecting his scythes,
however; Hiei struck innumerable times with his flaming sword in rapid 
succession, hoping to draw Kuronue off-guard, and the other demon
brushed them aside just as quickly. Hiei had to leap away to avoid
exposing himself to a host of revolving blades that cut through bamboo,
water, and rock alike.

Kuronue countered with an attack of his own, trying to prevent Hiei
from regaining his footing, but the fire demon was light on his feet,
and unbalancing him was all but impossible. Hiei tried to use that to
his advantage, luring the black-clad fighter in with a fake opening, but
as usual, Kuronue didn't bite.

"Like I was saying to Kurama here, the only way he could die a momentous
suicide is to get struck with a blow fueled by the purest and strongest
resolve. What's interesting is that you yourself have the capability of
giving him his meaningful death, jaganshi. It's just too bad for you
that Kurama chose me to become his executioner, and I have no intention 
of relinquishing such an honor," Kuronue conversationally engaged Hiei
as he calmly avoided a feint-turned-strike-at-the-last-second attack,
the burning blade harmlessly brushing through his hair like a toothless
comb, not so much as singing a single strand.

"Honor? Don't make me laugh. Didn't you just say there's no honor among
thieves? Have you become as insane as Kurama had after hearing some
bedtime story told to you in a pretentious manner? There's not much
honor in your delusions, is there? It's obvious that the both of you
are being used by the shadow man; more importantly, you're spewing out
nonsense. Get out of my way," Hiei gravely riposted as he batted an
oncoming strike and rapidly hurtled himself towards his true quarry, the 
genuflecting Kurama. 

...Except the image of him effortlessly hitting the scythe blinked into 
the scythe snaking out of his blade's way and stabbing him on the chest,
as though his eyes were deceiving him. 'What the hell just happened...?' 

Hiei tried again, heedlessly plucking out the blade stuck in his sternum
and attempting to block another flying scythe and keep it from hitting
him on the head, but the same anomaly happened, with the crescent blade
unerringly homing in on his half-open jagan, which seriously impeded his
ability to release demon energy. 

As a result, the black fire of his Jaou-En-Satsu-Ken was immediately
snuffed out as his regular eyes' vision started to blur. But he would
not stand down. Using his blinding speed, he managed to escape Kuronue's
wrath altogether by instantly teleporting from behind and backstabbing
him.

In a blink of his bloodshot and blinded third eye, Hiei suddenly found
himself on the receiving end of a baker's dozen scalpel-shaped throwing
blades, which literally turned him into a youkai pincushion or sorts.

"Is there something wrong, jaganshi?" came Kuronue's mocking drawl as he
painfully pulled the circular sickles out Hiei's body, drawing a literal
bucket-full of ghostly blood. "Sorry to say, but I've already played
this fight in my head a million times, from every angle. I know every
move you'll make and how to counter it. I defy all probability; no
matter how fast you are or how many techniques you have, I'll still know
how to kill you. You've already lost, you just don't know it yet."

It was a bit beyond Hiei's comprehension, but because of his own
determination and Kurama's blessing, Kuronue had managed to gain the
ability to manipulate destiny by making his scythe cover all
possibilities of attack at once and having these "alternate universes" 
superimposed upon each other, thus enabling him to manipulate the
fight's cloud of potential to his favor. 

Of course, although Kuronue could fight using the best-of-all-possible-
worlds manner, Hiei's quickness and resolve made it mandatory for him to
select all sorts of alternatives and display the multiverses acting as
one universe, lest the fire demon overcame his absolute prediction of
events and toppled his ability to manipulate probability. 

The fact that he hadn't quite killed or even slowed the jaganshi down
ad been bothering him for quite sometime, actually; but it was just a
matter of time anyway. He'd make Kurama proud of him soon enough.

"Don't brag prematurely. I can count on one hand the number of people
that lived through a battle with me, and those who did are far beyond
your level of power. That's five out of hundreds, even thousands. Munashii
himself died after dueling with me. Don't you think that it may not be a
bright idea to fight me after all?" Hiei proudly countered, despite the
fact that his injuries were quickly taking their toll on his very soul. 

Kurama wanted to cry out to Hiei to stop fighting, to give up delaying
the inevitable, and to return to reality before he suffered a fate that
was literally worse than death. The wounds of the soul were far more
difficult to heal than the wounds of the body; the fire demon could risk
ending up just like Asuka Matsui at this rate, his spirit broken and in
limbo for all of eternity. 

"That's enough, Hiei. You've served your purpose. Kuronue is now strong
enough to give me the death that could restore Asuka-san's fate to its
rightful flow." Hiei didn't respond. Kurama reiterated, "I beg you. So
far in my quest, no one involved with it got seriously hurt. There had
been some close calls, but I don't want you to become this mission's
first collateral damage."

"Maybe I deserve to get seriously hurt? Dying was never a concern of
mine, kitsune," Hiei spat back as he abruptly went on the offensive,
but Kuronue's conclusive calculations neutralized the fire demon's
"surprise" attacks before they even happened. 

"Then don't concern yourself with my death either," Kurama retorted 
breathlessly, adding, "Destiny is unstoppable. Everyone has to give
in... So give up--let life win."

Sardonically smirking, Hiei recited, "May those that accept their fate
be granted happiness; may those who defy it be granted glory."
 
"Pretty words, jaganshi. But you still can't win," Kuronue chimed in as
he systemically ripped apart the flittering Hiei with a inundation of
scythes that traveled in all lengths and directions.

In contrast to Hiei's awkward attempts to switch things up, there was
never a single instant between when Kuronue was on attack and when he
was on defense. Even the best fighters in the Demon World had a brief
moment when they switched from defense to offense that they were
vulnerable; it was one of the disadvantages of fighting from a defensive
style. Yet because of his absolute prediction, quantum-powered scythe,
and probability manipulation, Kuronue's form and style were absolutely 
perfect. 

With a tone reminiscent of the Reikai Hunter himself, Kuronue declared,
"Give up. You've failed once, you've failed twice, and you'll fail again
and again. Just lie down and die. You're weak. You're scared. Give up
now. Give up and let Kurama be."

"I..." Hiei shook off his ghost's mounting damage, crossed blades with
Kuronue, drove him back, and countered with a knee aimed at the Raven's
midsection while their blades were still locked. 

Kuronue tried to use this to his advantage but came up short for the
first time, as Hiei countered his offensive, and suddenly was completely 
balanced as well. In response, Kuronue drove in and locked Hiei's sword
with his own hemispherical blades. "Give up, damn you." 

"I don't know how."

A look of naked surprise painted Kuronue's face as he twirled his blades
to meet Hiei's attack. His defense melted into offense almost instantly,
but Hiei knew that he had an opening for a brief moment, and how to take 
advantage of it. 

Though the long gash on the blackbird demon's thigh was nothing compared
to the injuries Hiei received, this was still the first significant
strike that the jaganshi had landed. Kuronue's solid defense was finally
breaking down for the first time. 

In addition to the burst of Hiei's heroic resolve that enabled him to
further surpass his speed limits to new heights, he realized too that
Kuronue was never quite able to kill him even with his nigh-omnipotent
gifts of foresight and exploitation of possibilities. 

In normal circumstances, Hiei was simply too fast and too furious for
Kuronue to keep up with--in other words, it was Kuronue's natural
limitations that kept him from using his unnatural powers to finish off
Hiei completely.

Kuronue expected Hiei to press his advantage, which he did, but the Dark
Raven came forward to meet him halfway, hoping to catch him before he
was ready for the strike. He did, but Hiei still blocked Kuronue's
attack with his sword's long handle and pushed his flabbergasted
opponent aside.

Finally regaining a bit of his well-earned arrogance in the face of the
utter despair he felt from fighting the rejuvenated Kuronue and never,
even once, landing a clean hit, Hiei mentioned to Kurama, "Hey fox. Do
you remember what I said before, after you killed the fake Kuronue?
There is no one who doesn't have scars in his heart. If there were
someone like that, then he would be a shallow bastard."

Kurama raised an eyebrow at that. "Oh, is that what you said? My memory
must be failing me then, because I remembered it differently. In fact,
I even told roughly the same quote to Kuronue when he himself was still
uncertain about my death scene." The half-youko also wanted to add that
Hiei's confession was one of the few times he'd ever heard him talk so
openly and candidly about anything, but something stopped him. A
premonition of a painful rebuttal, perhaps?

Insulted that Hiei could afford to calmly converse with Kurama in the 
middle of their battle, Kuronue repeated the multidirectional assault
he'd accomplished beforehand, filling the whole watery pit with his
multi-world-occupying sickles until they became a miniature version of
the downpour of steel that completely destroyed the garden above them
earlier on. 

"Well, I don't believe you're a shallow bastard. Don't sell your youko
self short. He, as well as you, felt immense pain when Kuronue died.
Cruel a bastard as he is, he also had scars in his heart."

Without even looking, Hiei reactivated his Jaou-Ensatsu-Ken and Rengoku-
Shou concurrently, disintegrating the nearest of the unlimited deluge of
metal links and scythes with frenzied strikes that served as his
protective umbrella against oblivion. 

In a matter of seconds, Hiei had parried at least a hundred attacks; he
lost track after the first sixty or so. The blades and blaze were
striking each other so quickly and so often that it sounded like a
machinegun had been blasting holes on a long piece of sheet metal. That
was on fire.

"You never needed to possess the reincarnated body of the shadow man's
woman to develop feelings of compassion and caring for others. It's been
inside you all along. Don't be such a martyr to think that you owe your
feelings to that woman alone! Even a demon can feel something as insipid
as love," Hiei passionately reasoned, sparing a disdainful glance at
Asuka's floating ghost.

When Kuronue broke off the attack because Hiei was starting to adapt to
its rhythm, he had already scored two small cuts, and was clearly
surprised that he hadn't done more. A small slit in the cloth over
Hiei's left forearm bore a slight but spreading red stain, and another
one on his right leg was less serious but nonetheless more than just a
shaving cut.

Still, without missing a beat, Hiei continued, "I don't want to say it,
but I feel that I have to say it. There's nothing I hate more than
seeing people who take their lives for granted."

Kurama smiled sadly at Hiei. "Then that means I'm the type of person you
probably hate the most, right?"

"So was it all a lie? Were you merely lying through your teeth back
then, Kurama?" Hiei demanded, walking directly in front of Kurama and
outright ignoring Kuronue's presence.

Kurama's brows furrowed. "I don't understand. What was a lie?"

"Was it a lie what you told me and the stupid human back in the Cave of
Entrance to the Makai Realm? You said, 'No matter whom, I hate missing
any one of the four of us.' Were you lying back then?"

Kurama hesitated for quite a bit before answering, "No. Of course not."

"Then why do this? Why kill yourself? No matter whom, you hate missing
_any one_ of the four of us, right? Remember, you're a part of that
four. Therefore, you shouldn't be doing this. Can you really stand
committing suicide and going back on your word, Kurama?"

Kurama reacted as if he'd just been slapped. He raised a shaky hand to
his cheek as his face went red. He did not have an answer for any of
Hiei's accusations.

"It's not that you won't die, but you can't die. I don't want you to
die."

"Are you quite done, you silly lovebirds? Because ready or not, here I
come!" Sick and tired of being neglected by both his opponent and his
ex-partner-in-crime, Kuronue resentfully struck Hiei with crescent
blades of indignation--his current attacks weren't as numerous or
visually impressive as the flood of metal, but they were certainly far
more effective, landing deeper cuts and slashes that put Hiei on the
verge of having his spirit broken in half. Immediately though, Kurama's
so-called savior went back for more.

Neither Hiei nor Kuronue were stupid enough to allow the other to get a
direct angle on the other--they were both extremely agile and changed
directions without warning every other heartbeat. They never lined
themselves up so they were both coming directly at each other. 

Out of at least twenty tries for each of them, they only met each others'
steel once. Their feet wildly churned up sprays of water, bits of leaves
and plant fiber, and loads of dirt from the cavernous well, and their
changes in direction dug huge marks on the rocky crags and bamboo
islets, but their weapons touched nearly nothing. 

But the whole act was just Hiei tricking the frustrated Kuronue to fall
for one of his feints at long last. He'd been buying himself some time
to recover his strength, and the precious minutes he'd gained paid him
dividends. His stinging and sore jagan eventually managed to fully open
and let loose the full potential of his demonic soul's might after the
trauma it suffered early on.

The effect on Hiei was instantaneous as he felt the surge of energy flow
into him. His eyes opened wide and he jerked at the sudden influx of
power traveling through his body. His own choleric power filled the air
about him--the colors and the surging energy, the sharp, burning smell,
and the tingling feeling all over his spirit as strange forces shaped
him, remolding him into what he always should have been--a rambunctious
demon warrior prodigy with limitless potential and the battle experience
of five hundred years.

"Go ahead and try to defy probability with this, Karasu... Jaou-En-
Satsu-KOKURYUHA!" Not only did Hiei intentionally call Kuronue the wrong
name just to piss him off, but he also summoned the one technique
that served as his all-purpose equalizer in every battlefield, whether
it was the Demon World Tournament or the Logic-and-Physics-Defying
Reality of the Dream World. 

Kuronue tried to outrun and outgun the living and breathing embodiment
of pure Demon World fire in the form of a Chinese Dragon, hitting it
with each and every last incarnation of his multiple curved blades until
he'd finally reproduced the complete version of his sky-shattering steel
storm, dropping his surging scalpels from the portal rent from above
them like a million-and-one chained anchors.

The Black Dragon Wave passed through the multitude of chain-scythes like
they weren't there at all, not so much as burning but sublimating them
upon contact. It was a lot like experiencing the spectacle of the fully
realized destructive capabilities of two Class-S Warlords, only ten
times worse and twenty times more efficient. It was moments like these
that Kurama felt the stark difference between humans and demons in terms
of sheer power; there really was no comparison.

Kuronue slipped off one of the cave's moister rocks and, with a scream
of terror and despair, fell smack dab into the flaming maw of the Black
Dragon Spirit Technique, turning into ash and dust a millisecond later.
That should have been the end of that, but to Hiei's dismay, Kuronue's
kusarigama weren't the only things that branched off into the complex,
forked roads of potential and possibility.

Right before Hiei and Kurama's eyes, Kuronue's body split off into
hundreds, even thousands, of reflections of his own. And, unlike with
the boy of reflection's case, these weren't mere versions of Kuronue's
distant past or imminent future. 

Rather, these were all clones of the Kuronue of the present who were all
real and made a variety of actions and decisions... some minutely
different, while others radically out-of-the-box... just to stay alive. 

The storytelling of Schrodinger's Ravens and murder of Schrodinger's
Crows soon became a visual demonstration of the "Survival of the
Fittest" concept, with a vast majority of the phantoms burning in Hiei's
dark fire.

On the other hand, to the jaganshi's chagrin, there was always one or
two of the Black Ravens who managed to consistently pick the correct
path or make the right decision and avoided the Black Dragon Wave's
inimitable fury altogether. 

Worst of all, the surviving batch of Kuronues found ways to keep on
attacking Hiei even as the Kokuryuha razed and vaporized everything in
its path like the compact upsurge of energy that it was. In the end, the
concept of Munashii's ability to be nowhere and everywhere at the same
time was brought to the fore, making the task of finishing off Kuronue
all but impossible.

"Who's the Karasu now, Hiei? More importantly, who's your daddy?"
several dozen Kuronues derided in chorus as they performed an assortment
of techniques that exponentially made the reach and numbers of their
scalpel-scythes innumerable and immeasurable given the growing amount of
limitless possibilities they occupied, attacking every single point in
time and space simultaneously. 

Instead of the usual flood of chains and blades, the myriad of Kuronues
and chain-scythes transformed into a growing, immovable whitewall that
filled the spring to the brimming with cold, metallic death. It soon
became hard to distinguish were the Kuronues ended and the steel blades
began.

Irresponsibly, Hiei played into Kuronue's game of escalation and raised
the stakes, assaulting the Raven's spreading whitewall with eight more
of his formidable Darkness Flame Dragons and turning it into a battle
between irresistible forces and immovable objects. Like dominoes, like
a Yin-Yang symbol, like a clash between black and white, fire and ice,
stark contrasts, complete opposites, and opposing ideologies, Kuronue's
gleaming light struggled against Hiei's depthless darkness, both
spectrums promising death and downfall in no uncertain terms.

At first, the roaring ebony flames seemed to be winning against the
critical mass of white, with Hiei mindlessly blasting through every last
superimposed multiverse and eliminating all possibilities of Kuronue
surviving his ultimate technique. Nevertheless, it wasn't meant to be,
and even as his penultimate dark dragon was about to immolate the one
surviving Kuronue, Hiei felt his chest tighten and constrict. The
blackbird demon had accomplished the impossible; he'd pushed the willful
Hiei beyond his limits.

The jaganshi writhed in obvious torture, casting the Kokuryuha and the
rest of his youki-draining techniques aside as he felt his soul's
insides ostensibly atrophy and wither despite the fact that ghosts
didn't have insides to speak of in the first place. Thusly, the Black
Dragon Spirit retreated like darkness at the crack of dawn a mere second
before it could even make Kuronue sweat.

Hiei continued howling as his energy hemorrhaged all over the place, his
ghostly body trembling and twitching as though it were having a seizure.
Because he'd forced his injured self to give up his life force all at
once, his soul was now on the verge of breaking apart, just like in the
tragic cases of Yoshitaka Tetsuma and Asuka Matsui.

"HIEI!" Kurama concernedly cried.

The point of Munashii's sacrifice during the first day of winter became
immediately obvious; the power of his Mugen Gan and the power-sapping
ability of his incomparable void helped his proxy, Kuronue, win against
Hiei in the war of attrition by making him fight a handicapped battle
from the very start. 

As was par for the course, a voice inside the forbidden child's mind
announced in deadpan, 'Your time is up, koorime. Let destiny take its
course.'

"You're mine, koorime! DIE!" Kuronue screamed with the same amount of
shallow spite and venom Hiei used to call him 'Karasu' as he dived
straight for the weakened jaganshi's inert form, his sickle raised high
up his head and ready to strike.

Hiei fought against the excruciating agony with all the inner strength
he could muster as he finally discerned the charging Black Raven headed
towards him.

The fire youkai shut his eyes and willed his astral body to move, but
his efforts were for naught. His energy was beyond drained and burned
out at that point. "Dammit, no. KURAMA!"

Before Kuronue could split off into his multiverse selves and tear Hiei
limb from limb, a lone sprig of Hydra Bamboo tore the necklace off of
his pendant, making his ruby-encrusted treasure almost fall into the
murky depths of the spring below. It took a split second for Kuronue to
realize what had happened, but he was still able to divide himself up
into a dozen or so reflections in order to save his pendant before it
was lost to him forever. 

As typical of his instinctive and sentimental nature, each and every
last one of Kuronue's clones went after their sacred treasure and, for a
couple of moments, their minds became one, strangely sharing the same
feelings of determination and stubbornness despite the circumstances of
their existence. A bright kaleidoscope of reminiscence flooded their
harmonized psyche; a veritable torrent of memories from their shared
lifetimes with Youko Kurama. 

There were several rumors behind the reason why Kuronue was so fond of
his ruby pendant, some of it intertwined with the theory that Youko
Kurama had something to do with it. There were demons who postulated
that it was a family heirloom, while others said it was a hypnotizing
tool, and at least one Makai historian alleged that it was formed by the
merging of parts of Youko Kurama and Kuronue's souls. 

The reality that it was merely Kuronue's first ever "catch" that the
youko let him keep might seem a bit benign and bland compared to the
other more interesting stories, but this simple truth held a special
place in the Dark Raven's heart. 

Soon enough, one of the myriad of Kuronues was able to catch the trinket
before it fell into the pool, saving their--_his_ beloved memento that
signified his undying loyalty and devotion to Kurama and his cause,
however insane or whimsical it might be. They collectively sighed in
relief.

Alas, they never even had a chance to escape as Kurama hit them with an
entire forest of Hydra Bamboo spears just as they were about to turn and
finish the hapless Hiei off. Kurama intentionally made the Kuronues
pursue the pendant in order to skewer them en masse without a single
possibility for survival. Why? Because Kurama didn't want Hiei to become
a shattered soul like himself and Shuichi Minamino, which forced him to 
sacrifice one of his most loyal and dearest of friends.

About a couple of Kuronues died immediately upon impact of the horribly
ironic and trite death trap. Others gurgled incoherently before meeting
their demise. At least one, the Kuronue who caught the pendant, hollered
with a coarse and bitter tone filled with confusion, betrayal, and
righteous indignation, "No. NO! Why, Kurama? WHY? I—I wanted to be the
one who filled your dark soul... with LIIIIIGGHHTTT!" before succumbing
to the inexorable. 

Kurama had finally made his decision between Heaven and Hell, and with
it came his quest's first ever collateral damage. It didn't quite sit
well with him at all.

Meanwhile, Hiei himself fought off the silken darkness that draped
itself over the edges of his blurry vision. He had a close call there;
it was a good thing he'd closed off his ki-flow before his battered
ghost literally became the next shadow man to haunt the three worlds.
The kitsune's change of heart and betrayal of the Tetsuma ersatz
probably helped as well.

The jaganshi's eyes burned with the single-minded passion to complete
his retribution against Munashii by having him fail to get the "Minamino
Shuichi" whom he so desperately wanted. Hiei had already killed the damn
freak of nature, so rescuing Kurama was merely the final nail to the
coffin Munashii should've stayed in the first place. It was too bad Hiei's
spirit, in turn, equally burned in agony and anguish. He winced as he
slowly got up. Each and every movement took the breath out of him in his
utter pain and suffering.

"K-Kurama..." Hiei started, but then gasped. He was having a hard time
breathing.

"Hiei," Kurama beckoned, nearly whispered.

Hiei's knees buckled, the pressure of even his own ghostly weight too
much for his weakened state to support. The half-breed cursed his
apparent moment of  weakness, then looked up just as Kurama did the
same.

Hiei and Kurama's eyes locked, and an unsaid conversation took place
between them. The jaganshi was no mind reader, and Kurama wasn't exactly
sharing any worded thoughts, but the acquiescence and acceptance in
those grass-green eyes were unmistakable. 

The koorime-born youkai made his own choice right then and there: He was
going to save Kurama's soul even if it was the last damn thing he'd ever
do.

Just as Hiei was about a yard away from Kurama, the last Kuronue to die
snapped his eyes wide open and tightly gripped the pendant in his closed
fist. "Y-You dare betray me? ME? How dare you! I'LL KILL YOU BOTH!" he
cried as he picked up his scythe with his other hand and chopped the
protruding bamboo stalks off of his body, extricating himself from the
death trap and flying straight between Hiei and Kurama.

Hiei nearly fell again as he tried to defend himself, much to his
frustration. He had to face facts: He was about as much a threat to
Kuronue now as that floating hologram of Asuka Matsui was, given his
condition. That was the truth... and he hated every minute of knowing
it. 

But that didn't even slow him an iota as he unsheathed his blade, leaped
up, and let gravity do the rest of his work for him as he stabbed his
 sword forward. 

What happened next was something Hiei could probably never understand
even after a whole millennium of deliberation. Just as his sword
miraculously ran Kuronue through, Kurama moved forward and wrapped his
arms around his the Raven, feeling the tip of Hiei's blade plunge into
him as well. Smiling in ecstasy, the redhead muttered, "At last. The
one, true death strike."

Hiei dropped to the ground, a dazed stare etched on his appalled
features. Just when he thought the worst of it was through, Kuronue
started to speak.

"How was that, Kurama? Was my performance convincing?" Kuronue either
choked or laughed afterwards, the warbling sound he made caused by the
gurgle of blood in his throat. "Looks like everything more or less moved 
according to your plan. Sure, there were a couple of hitches here and
there, but you've once again proved that you're a strategist beyond
compare. Bravo, old friend." 

Kurama embraced his ex-partner tight, his head resting on the Raven's
shoulder. "I apologize for making you go through this, Kuronue. Because
of my capriciousness, I've forced you to do all sorts of horrible
things."

Even when he was at the point where he shouldn't be able to speak,
Kuronue mustered the will to respond, "I hope to see you in hell, even 
if I have to drag you out of limbo just for you to get there." With the
last of his strength, he took out Hiei's sword with his free hand and
fell into the bottomless pool of the River Styx's waters, his grip on
his pendant never loosening.

Hiei trembled as he stared at Kurama in disbelief. "Fox... you...!"

Kurama chuckled lightly, rasping, "You've gotten what you wished for in
the end... Eh, Hiei? You got your death match at long last."

"You fool! I was trying to save you!" Hiei protested, but Kurama merely
giggled at the jaganshi's stumbling words. "If you think this is over,
then you're living in a bloody dream world!

Kurama looked up at Hiei with unseeing eyes. "You know what? I wouldn't
have it any other way. Dreams save us. Dreams lift us up and transform
us. Let this one dream of mine become reality, then. I welcome it." 

"You're such an idiot! How can you do this to that woman you call
'kaasan'? To your family, whom you were willing to abandon your Makai
life for? To all those friends and comrades in that school of yours? To
Yusuke, Kuwabara, Botan, Koenma, and every single damn person whose
lives you've touched? Most of all, how can you do this to _me_?" Hiei
raged in frustration over Kurama's inability to see the imbecility and
needlessness of his death. 

Kurama smilingly shook his head. "You're being silly. Hasn't it occurred
to you that my actions are actually those of a dying man? Saying good-
bye to loved ones, tying loose ends in both of my lifetimes, making sure
that life goes on without me in the form of a newborn child; did those
simple facts escape your notice, koorime?"

Automatically, Hiei corrected, "Don't call me koorime. You know better."

"I'm sorry." Hiei didn't quite know which sin Kurama was apologizing
for, because within the context of what had happened so far, "sorry" was
quite the loaded word.


***


So the little prince tamed the fox. And when the hour of his departure
drew near...

"Ah," said the fox, "I shall cry."

"It is your own fault," said the little prince. "I never wished you any
sort of harm; but you wanted me to tame you..."

"Yes, that is so," said the fox.

"But now you are going to cry!" said the little prince.

"Yes, that is so," said the fox.

"Then it has done you no good at all!"

"It has done me good," said the fox, "because of the color of the wheat
fields." And then he added:

"Go and look again at the roses. You will understand now that yours is
unique in all the world. Then come back to say goodbye to me, and I will
make you a present of a secret."

The little prince went away, to look again at the roses.

"You are not at all like my rose," he said. "As yet you are nothing. No
one has tamed you, and you have tamed no one. You are like my fox when I
first knew him. He was only a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes.
But I have made him my friend, and now he is unique in all the world."

And the roses were very much embarrassed.

"You are beautiful, but you are empty," he went on. "One could not die
for you. To be sure, an ordinary passerby would think that my rose
looked just like you--the rose that belongs to me.

"But in herself alone she is more important than all the hundreds of
you other roses: because it is she that I have watered; because it is
she that I have put under the glass globe; because it is she that I
have sheltered behind the screen; because it is for her that I have
killed the caterpillars (except the two or three that we saved to
become butterflies); because it is she that I have listened to, when
she grumbled, or boasted, or even sometimes when she said nothing.
Because she is my rose.


***


At the very end of the Kurama's convoluted death scene...

A pregnant pause passed between the two demons. Swallowing back his
tears and blood, Kurama ventured, "Have you figured out the meaning of
my death scene? Why I chose to pattern it after a chapter of some
'bedtime story', as you put it?"

"Goddamn it, Kurama! Who the hell cares? We better get you back to the
surface; maybe Koenma or that blue-haired ditz has something to treat
your wounds," Hiei shouted in a rare display of panic and worry, but
Kurama wasn't really even listening to him at that point.

"Asuka-san tamed me, Hiei. Living her life has tamed me. You say that I
had compassion long before I occupied Minamino Shuichi's body? Perhaps.
But the Youko Kurama of the past could never have been manipulated by
his opponents using his own mercy against him. No, that feeling was
alien to him. This girl inside my heart has showed me another side of
life that I should have never known, and for that I owe her far more
than my life. She is my rose. She was just some other human girl among
millions of human girls, but she tamed me, and now she is unique to me
in all the world. 

"I've lived far too long now, and have done everything there is for me
to do. To continue on living at my age is unnatural. Death is
unavoidable, and I'm sick and tired of running away from it. You're
young, Hiei; you still have your life ahead of you, and so will Asuka-
san. People like me and Kuronue are relics of the past. Life goes on.
I've spent the past sixteen years trying to find a worthy cause to
justify my second chance at life, and I think I've finally found it."

After hearing Kurama's lengthy diatribe, Hiei quietly muttered, "So did
you plan this all along as well?" 

"...Yes." His glassy eyes downtrodden, the wheezing Kurama requested, "I
know it's selfish of me to ask, but if you don't mind, can you finish
what you've started?"

Hiei grit his teeth, unaware of the single piece of black pearl that
fell on his cheek. With a combination of indignation and franticness
he'd never pegged himself to possess, he cried, "Damn you! How dare you
turn me into your puppet!"

"Hiei, please..." 

Hiei growled as feelings of frustration, sorrow, anguish, and regret
contorted his face. He then looked at the half-youko's ecstatic face in
complete disgust.

"...Kurama, you sick bastard."

With that, Hiei cut Kurama's head, bathing in a rain of the red-haired
spirit's blood and ectoplasm. From there, he screamed in anguish as the
demon-made cavern around him collapsed upon itself. With a sound like
the ringing of a hundred bells of glass, the whole world burst apart
into a million tiny little motes of stardust. 

The bleakness of space better allowed the stardust to hang in the air
around it, and fill it with a soft radiance that made sunlight feel like
a cheap imitation. The void let out a breath of childlike wonder at the 
sight, bright and wispy dots of light drifting all around it like
ethereal snow.

Just like with Kurama's childhood friend, Maya Kitajima, the ghost of
Asuka Matsui straightened her body from its cramped posture and opened
her green eyes, breathing her first breath in centuries. She then
stopped levitating altogether, falling into the dearth of existence like
a marionette whose strings had been cut.

'Until next time, old friend,' Hiei dully said as he and the rest of the
illusory world around him vanished into perpetuity.

Kurama's death scene was finally complete.


***


To be Concluded...

Next: Epilogue.

Lengthy author's notes time, yo. 

In regards to the wavefunction and quantum physics thing, just
search the web for "Super Mario and the Many-World Interpretation
of Quantum Physics". Interesting article, though I obviously made
a couple of literary liberties in applying that theory in this
story's context.

In regards to the ending of this chapter, let's just say it's
inspired by one particular 'Gateway' anime: MagicKnight Rayearth.
How so? Here's a clue--the season ender of the first season. Oh
CLAMP... I won't mind your penchant for bishonen and the hordes of
fangirls as long as you keep on writing good, character-driven
stories.

Note that I put in the title _Shonen_ not _Shonen-Ai_. Shonen-Ai 
(male-male relationship) and yaoi are just not my cup of tea. This 
is dedicated to Chimamire Kitsune for giving me the inspiration to 
write this fic. Wherever you are, this is for you.

Disclaimer: Yuyu Hakusho is the rightful property of Yoshihiro
Togashi, Shueisha, Fuji TV and St. Pierrot. This fic therefore
also belongs to Yoshihiro Togashi, Shueisha, Fuji TV and St.
Pierrot. Credit for the excerpts goes to the English-translated
"Le Peti't Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. 

Tandaan ninyo ang pangalan na ito,
Abdiel


***


Shonen Outtakes, Take Two...

His non-implanted eyes narrowed, Hiei thumbed at Kuronue's direction and
impertinently asked Kurama, "On that note, who really gives a damn about
Kuronue anyway? He's a hastily introduced character who barely has a
back story, is shallower than a puddle, died a very stupid death, wears
a funny hat, can be beaten by Munashii in a personality contest, and is
connected to your quest through the most tenuous of means! You really
want that sort of guy to act as your executioner? How low can you go,
fox? Let me remind you that this is the man whom you convinced to kill
you after you told him a bedtime story. A _bedtime story_."

Even from afar, one could almost hear the tightening of Kuronue's head
veins and muscle sinews. 'K-K-Karasu-wannabe? Shallower than a puddle?
Funny hat? DIED A STUPID DEATH? Why that little...!'

Kurama couldn't help but feel a large drop of chagrined sweat form at
the back of his head, in spite of the fact that his head full of thick,
red hair acted as a natural barrier between his sweat pores and the open
air. "Hiei..."



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