Special Episode Ninety: Days Without You

Kurama was gone.

Faced with the woman before him—her smile gentle, her gaze clear, her whole being wrapped in a maternal warmth that could make even the hardest heart soften—Yusuke pressed his lips together again and again, but in the end he could not bring himself to tell such a truth so calmly.

So all he could do was avert his eyes in some embarrassment and, as they had agreed beforehand, lie that Kurama had urgent matters to attend to and would be traveling with the rest of them; since there was still other preparation to be done, he had not been able to come back in person to offer his greetings, and so had asked Yusuke to pass along the message.

After the lie left his mouth, Yusuke stood beneath Shiori’s tranquil gaze with a heart full of unease.

He had the feeling that she had seen through him somehow, yet until he was politely shown to the door, the gentle mother so deeply cherished by his dearest friend had not spoken a single word of suspicion.

That only made the remorse and guilt in Yusuke’s heart grow heavier.

“Damn it!”

He slammed a fist hard into the iron railing by the roadside. Even though such force could no longer hurt Yusuke in the slightest and would only leave the railing ruined, at that moment he had no desire at all to restrain his emotions.

If only, at that time, he had been more careful…

No matter how much Yomi, Hiei, and the others tried to comfort Yusuke and tell him this was not his fault, the image of Kurama leaping forward to shove him aside, only to be swallowed by the black hole himself, had struck him so hard that ever since Kurama vanished into it, the moment Yusuke had even the slightest idle pause, that scene would inevitably begin replaying in his mind.

After too many times, every detail began to harden there in memory.

For instance, the last blossom of that gentle, easy smile at the corner of his friend’s mouth; for instance, in the instant before he was swept away by the black hole, that familiar emerald gaze flashing with a trace of unfamiliar relief that instinctively put him on edge...

As if he had finally been returning to where he belonged.

But damn it, Kurama belonged here.

Whether in the Human World or the Demon World, whether as Shuichi Minamino or as the fox demon Kurama—no, was he not all of those at once?

If this was not his home, then where on earth could it be?

Though Yusuke had always vaguely felt that Kurama stood somewhat apart from the world, carrying about him a strange, faint distance that seemed unable to fully blend into anything around him, never had that feeling come so violently and clearly as in the moment Kurama was dragged into the black hole.

“Perhaps...”

Perhaps what?

Yusuke did not whisper any further, and he forced himself to stop indulging in wild speculation.

“Forget it. I’d better go find King Yama.”

He could only hope the Spirit World would bring some good news.

The black-haired youth who still looked scarcely older than a boy was tall and long-limbed. With a few strides he was already gone, disappearing around the street corner.

And not far behind him, in the late summer of August, great masses of roses still in full bloom shook loose petal after petal in the breeze, as if... foretelling the arrival of something.

***

Hiei stepped out of the training grounds in a foul temper, a low pressure clinging to him that he could not quite shake.

Behind him, the vast space had fallen utterly silent. All the demons in the training grounds—whether they had been fighting, whether they had come over out of boredom to watch for amusement, or whether they were preparing to find an opponent of their own and go down to spar—had all carefully held their breath, terrified that some misstep might draw the wrath of that ferocious god of death, and then...

The demons’ sympathetic gazes silently swept toward Hiei’s recent opponent.

The poor demon lay on the ground groaning miserably, half dead. Whatever his original demonic form had been, it certainly was not this now.

“Ha. Who doesn’t know Lord Hiei has been in a bad mood lately? And you still had to go and throw yourself at him when he came to the training grounds, asking for a beating...”

A three-eyed demon who seemed to hold some standing among the others felt Hiei’s aura receding. Only after deciding it was safe enough did he step forward, crouch down, and poke the unlucky demon, who was breathing in spurts and gasps.

“Hey, get some people to carry him out. Don’t let Lady Suke see this.”

If Lord Hiei was in a bad mood, then the mood of Lady Suke—the ruler of their demon faction—might not be any better.

After all, word was that something had happened to that one. Though that person was famously close with Lord Hiei and only on ordinary terms with Lady Suke, who in the world didn’t know the relationship between Lady Suke and Lord Hiei? When one of them had trouble on his mind, the other could hardly stay untouched.

Though they were demons, some emotions in them ran even deeper than among humans.

Perhaps because once such feelings were given, they would never be lightly taken back.

The three-eyed demon sighed, watching a few lesser demons shout to one another as they hauled the injured fool away. Then he turned, only to find the whole training ground staring at him with blazing, reverent eyes as if begging for instruction...

A mere minor commander of the battle unit, not even remotely in the same class as the direct seventy-seven fighters under Suke, the three-eyed demon was startled, then felt a mixture of pride and helplessness.

“Lately... just keep your heads down and live quietly as demons,” he could only say at last, in a dry voice.

Hiei had no idea what had happened in the training hall after he left.

He only felt irritated. Very irritated.

Since the first time he had seen Yukina, yet been unable to reveal himself to her because of the restrictions imposed by the surgery that had altered his evil eye, he had never felt this restless before.

“Kurama...”

He could not help but utter the name in a low voice.

And that act seemed to flip some invisible switch, for the many faces of his friend in memory surged toward him like a breached tide.

Smiling, stern, gentle, cold, cunning, stubborn enough to stand alone to the very end, yet unable to keep from showing a relieved smile the moment he saw Hiei and Yusuke and the others arrive by his side...

Would he never see him again?

At that thought, Hiei could not help looking somewhat dazed.

Yusuke had been the one to shock him most, the one to make him understand the meaning of the word “friend,” but within this team that had remained unchanged from beginning to end, the person who had made Hiei feel most at ease was Kurama.

It was as if, so long as that figure existed, no matter how great the difficulty they faced, there would always be a way to overcome it. Kurama’s mind, like Yusuke’s strength, was an indispensable part of their path to victory.

But now they had lost one of them forever.

All signs pointed to Kurama no longer being in this world. His presence could not be detected by Spirit World instruments, and the demons of the Demon World, famed for their skill in tracking and searching, all one after another said they could not sense Kurama’s existence.

This left everyone who had tried to find him utterly dejected.

Most of all Yusuke and Yomi.

The former because Kurama had been swallowed by that unknown black hole while pushing him out of the way; the latter because of his own carelessness.

“Since I’d already sensed something was off about that ruin but couldn’t keep my guard up the whole time, that was my responsibility. More than that... you had already withdrawn from the Demon World, yet you came back at my request to investigate with us...”

As Kurama’s former and present dearest friend, the handsome demon who stood among the three great rulers of the Demon World wore nothing but unhidden sorrow and self-reproach when he said this.

Yet Hiei did not care about the other man’s feelings, nor did he resent him simply because Yomi had organized the ruin investigation.

This was no one’s fault.

It was just... that person was no longer there.

Who could he blame?

The black-haired demon lowered his head in silence, not resisting the rare, tender embrace of the female demon who had come to him at some point.

“Don’t worry, Hiei,” she said in her hoarse voice as gently as she could.

“Believe he’ll be all right. After all, this is Kurama we’re talking about...”

Yes. It was Kurama.

His... their strategist, the fox demon Kurama.

“Ah.”

He gave a faint reply, his expression as still as a deep, unmoving well.

You’ll come back, won’t you, Kurama?

***

The scenery of the Demon World was always the same.

Yomi had looked at it for who knew how many years before. After that... even if he could no longer see it, he had never felt there was much to regret.

So standing motionless by the window was merely a habitual gesture. In truth, at this very moment, the man leaning there was not admiring the view but lost in thought.

Kurama.

That name had accompanied him through countless days and nights. Once, whenever he thought of it, he would hate it to the bone, wishing he could tear the other man apart and devour him whole, flesh and bone alike. Yomi had once thought that after they had buried the hatchet, this name would no longer dominate his mind as it once had.

Yet now it again filled his entire sea of thought.

How truly... maddeningly his bane.

Yomi could not help a faint, wry smile.

The tangled fate between him and Kurama had long since become impossible to unravel. Fortunately, time—long time—had become the finest of remedies, slowly calming him through these years of blindness, teaching him reason and reflection, and little by little... letting go of his hatred.

When they met again, he was indeed calm and at peace, treating the other only as an old friend he had not seen in many days... or perhaps as an old friend whose remaining use had not yet been fully exhausted.

Yomi’s ambition had never truly died, even after he learned to wrap himself in a gentle, composed exterior.

But perhaps heaven had ordained Kurama to be the tribulation he could never cross, for time and again, every plan he made would fail because of him.

Until at last he truly felt helpless. Whether one called it despair or sudden enlightenment, in any case he had entirely put aside his ambition and wandered the Demon World with his son in tow. Even so, Yomi had always felt that the bond between him and Kurama could never be described with so simple a word.

Later, when Shura grew tired of traveling, they returned to their former residence. Though Yomi had intended to give up power, the truth was that beyond ambition he had once been a ruler in his own right, and responsibility was never something he lacked. Taking Shura out to wander had been a way to clear his mind, but now that he had returned, his duties as leader naturally had to be taken up again.

Yomi had no great objection to that. Yet not long after reclaiming his power, he discovered the ruins of a demon race within the bounds of his territory.

From there everything proceeded naturally. With the uneasy foreboding that had long lingered in his heart, the usually cautious and rational man contacted Kurama and Yusuke, asking them to accompany him to investigate the ruins.

In the end, it was indeed confirmed that the ruins had long been abandoned and would never again stir any trouble in the Demon World. But the price was Kurama’s eternal departure.

Yomi could not put into words how many scenes from the past flashed through his mind in that instant when Kurama’s figure was swallowed by the black hole, nor how many unspeakably complicated emotions tangled and crossed within him. He only knew that with Yusuke’s cry of “Kurama!!!” — frantic yet laced with despair — his heart had nearly stopped for a moment.

“Kurama...”

You schemed to blind me, to leave me gravely wounded and unable to realize my ambition.

I made use of your reborn abilities and the friendship between you and those others, hoping to use all of you to dominate the entire Demon World.

You gained human emotions and tenderness, and you felt guilt toward me.

I was influenced by your self-transformation and finally understood what I should pursue.

We both know all of that, yet we never say it aloud.

I thought there would still be many chances.

When I felt the time was right, I would pull you down to sit with me; perhaps we could talk through the night by lamplight, perhaps we could drink and speak all night long, laying bare every grievance of the past and at last coming to true understanding and release.

I thought... that someday would always come.

But now...

The palm of his hand, clenched tight, had already begun to show a faint crimson stain, yet Yomi was wholly unaware of it.

“Kurama...”

Did you think the bond between us would end like this?

Who gave you permission!

I will find you.

I will always find you.

And then...

A slow curve touched his lips. The six ears of his altered form could not hide the sheer beauty of his original face. Turning around, the black-haired demon strode out of the room.

Behind him, the sky of the Demon World remained, as ever, dark and chaotic.

In the days without the fox demon Kurama.