Kamusta! :)

Here's part 11 of my sis' fanfic!
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Eleven.

	There were forks and forks in the maze the pair had trapped themselves in.
But all it took were three left turns, three right turns, until the end;
they were faithful.  Kurama had apparently remembered properly, for the pair
encountered no more trouble from the inhabitants of the wood.  All they had
left to fear was what they would find at the end of the winding road.
	Presently there wafted a strong trace of youki from dead ahead of them.
Kurama did not even need to glance at Hiei to see that he, too, sensed it.
It was an evil scent, pungent and lasting.  It was what Kurama had been
dreading all along: the dead-end.
	"Yakoru," Kurama murmured.
	"Sanjiyan," Hiei growled.
	There was a flash of darkness.

	Kurama remembered this particular youkai.  Alone, he had tangled with it
before.  It was his most fearsome attacker, the relic of an ancient
nightmare.  He had not ever killed it, and had never gone back for it, lost
as it was at the furthest corner of his memories as a thief.
	He, we should say – He.  The evil had a name: Yakoru.  But after such a
long time the name should have ceased to mean "fear".  Why, then, did
Kurama’s hands start shaking?  And why the bleeding of the wound just
bandaged and starting to heal?  But all these symptoms were not a part of
the metamorphosed youko.  It was as if his new body alone would not
acknowledge the length of time that had past.
	"When we met," Kurama slowly pronounced, "he would have killed me."
	But the Yakoru that Kurama knew had let a young fox-thief from long ago
escape, half-dead and stumbling, from his deadliest maze.  The feared and
revered sanjiyan Yakoru had trapped Kurama in his nine-tailed fox-form,
knowing him for what he truly was, and had placed him, along with several
other captive "entertainers", inside a gigantic labyrinth, which entitled
the strongest and most cunning survivors only to recovered freedom.  It had
been said that no one escaped Yakoru’s mazes of death with all his wits and
limbs intact.  Kurama, as far as everyone knew, had been the only one to
disprove that common fact.
	Kurama remembered the stench of death (stronger as it has always been for
the soulless youkai than for humans), the thrill of the chase, and the
fervor for freedom burning through his veins as he ran.  For the first time
he truly feared for his life, when as a younger spirit he had thought it was
worth spending to the hilt, and was just meant to be stolen, like everything
else – but more, he feared for his freedom.  If he did not escape, he was
doomed to become Yakoru’s slave, an "entertainment", the fool of fools, forever.
	He remembered when, at the very end of the maze, Yakoru himself stepped
down from the spectators’ seats to face him…
	"Kurama!"  Hiei’s voice was somewhere distant.
	Even Hiei’s third eye must have been blinded.  He and his comrade were
surrounded with Yakoru’s unique darkness.
	"What is this?" Hiei shouted again, "Show yourself…!"
	Hiei’s lesser senses were not as sharp as Kurama’s.  Kurama knew by the
prickling on his skin where mass occupied space, where blades fell and
shadows disintegrated.  He could "see" something huge standing very still,
facing him.
	After all, it was only darkness…
	"Youko Kurama," Kurama heard the sanjiyan intone gravely.
	Somewhere far away, he also heard the familiar crackling of the Ensatsu Ken.
	"You do remember me," said Yakoru.  "What have you told of me to your friend?"
	Kurama knew he would regret answering.  He had said nothing to Hiei, and
lying about it was useless.
	"What have you forgotten?"  The outline in the darkness grew brighter and
brighter as Kurama peered.  He could only hope it did the same for Hiei.
"You stumbled at my feet.  You were almost dead.  Do you know why our battle
– if you could call it a battle – lasted for barely a minute?"
	Not even the Ensatsu Ken’s light got far in the dense shroud.  Kurama heard
Hiei’s urgent footsteps coming near, drawing away.  But he could not find
the voice with which to announce his location.
	"I let you live, and leave me," Yakoru said levelly.  "All that beautiful
killing was beginning to bore."
	I fought you, Kurama thought furiously, as with trembling fingers he
brought out the rose whip.  You cannot frighten me.  I can do it again.
	He twisted the whip around the outline in the shadows.  The fleet shadow
disappeared.  The whip tightened against empty air.
	Suddenly there was a pounding in Kurama’s ears.  It grew louder and louder,
until finally he could hear nothing else.  His right shoulder throbbed, but
it was numb, and Kurama could barely realize how damp the bandages around it
felt.
	Hiei, he thought desperately.  Hiei!
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BFN!
:***LYN***:
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|Ma. Aileen Arcega|Surfing from Bulacan, Philippines!|lyn@tridel.com.ph |
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|      	    Akin si Kurama/Minamino Shuichi of Yu Yu Hakusho!           |
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