The Book of Kurama

Chapter 2 Reunion and Separation

"Why must you go? After everything we went through to rescue you?" Youko pleaded, holding onto Niba's hands tightly as they stood within the forests of Demon World, their only light being that of the luminescent moon.

"Please Youko... Try to understand... I'd like nothing more than to be with you forever, but my father is a cruel and jealous man! He'll hunt you and me down to the end of Spirit World if he has to! Nothing will ever stop his rampage... You and all of your men will be killed, and I'll end up locked in chains the rest of my life... Please Youko. Let me go alone. You know as well as I that I can handle myself."

"But I want to go with you Niba!" Youko begged, his heart breaking under the raccoon demoness's words, his hands tightening around hers. "I'll leave behind my troops and then we'll be able to live together out on our own!"

"No Youko..." Niba warned, pulling her hands away from the silver-haired fox, stepping back away from him. "Your men will know exactly where to find you within a day, and if they discover that I was with you, it'll be mutiny for sure... So I have to go now, I'm leaving my past behind and looking towards the future. We won't be apart forever Youko... Trust me..." Niba spoke her final farewell to Youko Kurama before turning away from him and reluctantly running away from him, into the wilderness to hide.

The demon fox did not pursue her further. He had already been anchored down by the heavy feelings of grief and a broken heart...

***

Over a thousand years later, the two separated lovers have finally reconvened again, sitting alone together on a metal bench just out side of the high school, watching the sun go down, catching up on one another, only now, inside the human bodies of Shuichi Minamino and Kisa Agume.

"So it seems we both had the same idea, to hide out in Human World inside human bodies... Where nobody would ever find us..." Kisa concluded, glancing over to Kurama's handsome human form. "So why did you take on human form?" she asked, curious as to how this very scenario came to be.

"I grew arrogant after my team of bandits finally split apart." Kurama confessed. "I went off in search of new treasures, reverting into my fox form for more of a challenge. I stole from everywhere, Demon World, Human World, Spirit Realm... I amassed quite a fortune before I was critically injured by one of King Yama's men after stealing from within the King's vault. In order to avoid inevitable capture, I transferred my soul into the body of an unborn infant. So now here I am, eighteen years later, still in Human World because I grew too attached to my Human Mother..."

"Don't sound so ashamed Shuichi. I too have grown to love my human parents..." Niba confessed, "I had avoided my father's grasp for so many years out on my own until eventually, he had me cornered... I too, fled my soul to Human World, evidently around the same time you did, taking over a photographer's first and only child from within his wife. I was apprehensive at first, but after being shown the true, proper love of a parent, I knew I could never go back to being a demon..." tears of joy began to form in the corner of Kisa's icy-blue eyes, recalling just how loved she was by her human family in contrast to her demon father.

"Niba..." Kurama spoke her name as he began to feel his heart sink at the sight of Kisa crying.

"No Shuichi... It's Kisa now... I've leaft Niba behind, in the past where she belongs..."

"...That's currently what I am trying to do with Youko...' Kurama confessed to her, trying to be of some sort of comfort to her.

"So I guess that would mean everything that was between us was all from when we were just demons, right...?" Kisa asked, turning her face away from him. She had feared that the conversation would've come to this point. The point where it would all end...

"..." Kurama thought long and hard about the answer to the question, arranging every word of his response carefully, leaving a long, awkward silence between the two young adults. "... I suppose so, yet at the same time Kisa..." Kurma turned to her, trying to get a glimpse of her face, despite it being turned away from him. "... I... Shuichi... My human self... I feel... gravitated towards you... As if Youko may have died inside me, but his feelings for Niba have transferred into me... and towards you..."

Kisa sat silent for a while, still not looking in Kurama's direction, contemplating her thoughts. She sat silent for so long, Kurama was beginning to mistake her lack of response with disinterest. That is, until Kisa turned around in her seat, expanding her arms outward, embracing the red-haired boy in her arms as she tried to hold back tears.

They both sat alone in continuous silence again after that... Both humans resting their chins upon one another's shoulders as they enjoyed the feeling of one another's embrace. Little did they know that someone was watching, spiteful at what he was seeing from atop the school facility. "Disgusting..." the observer groans as he slips away from the edge of the building, readying himself to launch his sinister plan...

Shortly after the eavesdropping demon scurried away, Kisa seperate herself from Shuichi's embrace. "I should probably get going... I promised my parents I wouldn't stay after too late..." she informed him as she stop up from the bench and began to gather her bags.

"Kisa...?" Kurama started as she started to leave "... Will I see you again tomorrow?"

The girl smiled at him as the sun set on the horizon behind her. "... Definitely... You can see me anytime you want to from now on. With my demon father now gone, there's nothing to keep us apart..."

Neither of them knew that Kisa's words of farewell were actually untrue. The only one who could know such a thing had already left just a few moments ago...