You lie on the ground, nursing your bloody calf. I’d hate to imagine what state I’d be in had I taken the full blast you think to yourself and involuntarily shudder at the thought.
Your eyes are then averted to a full-on duel between Kurama and Karasu. You see that Kurama has what appears to be a sword of vines and thorns wrapped around his arm, batting away at the various explosives Karasu is sending at him. Just as Kurama gets in front of Karasu, he swings forward, missing Karasu by inches as he leaps away, cutting only a few strands of his black hair.
“Your feeble attempts of causing harm do not amuse me Kurama. I know you can try harder. I want to feel the ache in every portion of my body, the longing to fight to the last breath and kill you at your full potential, the climax of our relationship, leaving me to thrive in the loss of something I had desired.”
“You’re a sick and twisted man Karasu, I will not allow your mind games to penetrate my thoughts!” Kurama says as his sword instantly splits into several dozen roses, all shooting for Karasu. Karasu merely holds out his hand and the flowers explode upon impact with an energy barrier he had surrounded himself with.
“Well if I can’t toy with your mind, can I pull on a few of your heart strings?” Karasu asks, and as he turns to look at you, the air above you becomes thickened with his energy, and you roll out of the way just as the spot you had been laying in is engulfed in flames. You crawl a little farther to escape the heat, but as you try to stand up again on your good leg an explosion right where you put your foot down causes you to fall to your knees.
You hear Karasu laughing softly to himself before saying, “My sweet little kitten, that precious nose of yours can’t sniff out where my energy is anymore, not with all the smoke from the fire mixing with the air.” You hear his footsteps coming towards you and you keep your head down, too afraid to look up.
“Karasu you stay away from her!” Kurama shouts, and pulls out his signature rose whip, the burst of energy he just had allowing him to wrap the end of the whip around Karasu’s right arm, stopping his pace.
“If you don’t mind, I need that arm,” Karasu says as he nonchalantly yanks his arm out of the whip’s grip, snapping it into several pieces while slicing his arm quite a bit. Karasu then fully turns around to face Kurama and says, “Come here fox.”
Kurama maintains his ground, but you dare to look up and notice that he is trying to shift a little bit, but his feet aren’t moving at all. “I cannot take another step,” he says.
“To right you won’t Kurama. Latched onto your feet are my Mad Bombs, you may remember them from the Tournament. I’ve reconfigured them to stay underground and dormant until you try to lift your foot, which will cause them to detonate.”
You let out a small cry of despair as Kurama remains firmly planted to the stone floor while Karasu approaches you. You try to pull yourself away from him just using your hands but are promptly stopped when an explosion occurs just several inches from your face, causing you to turn your body away and directly face Karasu. He leans down to your level, and whispers in your ear, “I’m sorry I have to do this, you have such a perfect body for a human girl.” causing you to whimper. He then grasps a large chuck of your hair with his blood-soaked right hand and yanks you upward, forcing you to stand fully on both of your injured legs.
“Please, please just put me down,” you whisper, tears beginning to silently fall down your face. He twists your hair and forces you to turn in front of him, so Kurama can see you, but allows you to sit on your knees. He then cups his left hand right in front of your chest, and you can feel a vicious heat coming from it.
“Tell me, Kurama, how much do you care for this young girl? She’s just a stranger to you after all, or is she? She’s certainly not the woman you pine for, just a shell with another soul occupying it.”
“Let go of her Karasu.” Kurama says, his voice shaking with anger and fear.
“Oh but if I were to let her go, I would have to part with this lovely, golden blonde hair,” Karasu retorts, and you feel his bloody fingers running through it, sending shivers down your spine. “It’s not human hair of course, it’s better, but the point I’m trying to make is,” he pauses to walk around you, blocking Kurama from your view, “I’m also a blonde. My sweet little kitten, would you mind removing my mask?”
On the sideline the others have been watching helplessly. “Dammit why is Kurama just standing there?! Sure his feet are latched to the ground by explosives but that doesn’t mean he shouldn’t get her away from him, he’ll kill her!” Yusuke shouts.
“You know detective you really can be as idiotic as Kuwabara when it comes to your deductive skills.” Hiei muses. “Neither Kurama nor Shana is going to die if Tatsujin has anything to say about it. Karasu, as well as the other demon haunts we have faced, are merely tools to the feline, used to weaken us of strength and spirit, especially those two out there.”
“But why would he go to such lengths? Couldn’t he just have found someone other than this Takara girl and call it a day?” Kuwabara asks.
“Hn, you obviously have no knowledge of demon mating, supposed master of love.”
Everyone snickers for a moment since Hiei called Kuwabara his self-proclaimed title, but Hiei ignores it and continues.
“As Kurama explained earlier, when Youko took Takara as his mate he was taking Tatsujin’s claim. Once a male has made his claim no other demon is allowed to touch her, let alone claim her as his own. I suppose Tatsujin hadn’t marked Takara before Youko infiltrated their settlement, leaving her as fair game for the demon fox.”
“So Kurama is a thief, we all know that, but the point is he’s determined to leave all of that in the past,” Yusuke says as he punches one of his fists into his other hand. “Dammit it’s just not fair!”
“Relax detective, I already told you neither of them are going to die. Not yet anyway. If Kurama keeps this up, Tatsujin will surely kill him effortlessly, and enslave Shana for more experimentation to perfect her demon qualities.”
“Koenma should have that guy sent to the worst place possible in Spirit World, he shouldn’t be tampering with innocent human girls like that!” Kuwabara says. “Hey wait a minute, what on Earth does Shana think she’s doing??!!! DON’T DO IT!!!!” Kuwabara shouts at you, causing you to draw your hand back slightly, that mere moments ago had been inching towards Karasu’s mask.
“Don’t be shy little one,” Karasu says, bringing his face closer to yours and keeping a firm grip on your hair with the explosive still close to your chest. But just as you reach out again, you hear an explosion from Kurama’s direction. He tried to run.
