When Duo's Family Comes Visiting...
"So" Duo began, "How did you two come here? I thought the barrier was closed. And how did you find me?"
Kurama patted Duo's head. "The barrier is closed. Botan invited us to the palace, and the barrier was opened just for the two of us. Yuusuke stayed behind to take care of things while we were on leave."
"As for how we found you" Hiei added, "Botan was too busy with the baby to notice Kurama stealing your files."
Duo paled. "My... my file?"
Kurama nodded, then gestured towards the other pilots "Yours... and your friends' as well."
"Duo..." Heero began, but was interrupted by Duo's squeak: "BABY?"
Kurama nodded again, then smiled. "Botan gave birth a couple of weeks back, Shi-chan. You have a brother."
"A... a... brother?" Duo turned to his friends, a huge grin on his face. "Did you guys hear this? A brother!" He jumped up and down. "A brother!" Duo hugged a surprised Quatre and a wide-eyed Trowa, but when he reached Heero the reaction was quite unexpected. "OOOOWWWW!!! HEE~RO! Not the braid!"
Before Duo could finish the sentence, Heero found himself, again, at the wrong end of Hiei's sword. This time, however, there was a thin trail of blood running down his neck.
Prussian blue eyes locked with dark red ones, and Hiei snarled "Touch my son again and you die, human." And he meant business.
Heero let go of Duo's hair, and immediately Hiei was back at his place beside Kurama. Duo took one look at Heero's bleeding neck and dashed to the bathroom, in search of some gauze. Heero took it with a grunt and started cleaning the blood, while Quatre stammered "H-how did you do it? I... I only saw a shadow."
Hiei shrugged "I'm fast." while Kurama narrowed his eyes at Quatre "You saw... his shadow?"
Quatre nodded, and put a hand on his chest. "And I felt... something funny."
Kurama turned to Hiei. "He sensed your slight raise in ki. He's an empath, and the same level as Shizuru was." Hiei nodded. "Hn. He even sounds like her. And that one" he pointed at Trowa "sounds like you."
Kurama smiled at Trowa. "Is that so? I don't believe I've heard you yet, my friend."
Trowa shrugged. "It's his opinion."
"Hey, not only Hiei's. You two really-- hey Heero, where you going? Something wrong?"
Heero turned from the doorway and gave the group a murderous glare. "I'm going out. I'll get back when you end this pathetic act."
"What do you mean, 'pathetic act'? Look, just because my fathers came to see me you don't have to--"
Heero clenched his fists. "Stop lying, Duo. You have no parents. You grew up on the streets of L2. You lived in a Catholic orphanage for some months and when it got destroyed you went back to the streets, until you were caught hiding in Doctor G's spaceship. And you don't have any brothers."
Duo paled and took a few steps back "You... you... how do you know all this?"
Heero snorted and turned. "I hacked into G's mainframe and read your records." Before Heero could leave the room, Duo's voice reached his ears in a sad whisper: "I'm not lying. I just didn't tell you all the truth."
When Heero turned to glare at Duo again, he was slightly surprised by the sadness in his eyes. Duo sighed. "I thought no one would ever believe me if I told the truth... or if anyone did, they'd be too scared to let me come near." He slumped at Kurama's feet and put his chin on his father's knee.
"Try me."
Duo looked up and blinked in surprise when he saw Heero back on his chair, arms crossed over his chest. At Kurama's nod, he turned to Wufei.
"It's a long story. Wufei, you're the scholar. What do you know about Japanese ancient beliefs regarding the dead souls?"
Wufei looked surprised for a moment, then thoughtful. "They believed when a person died, his soul went to the Spirit World, where it would be judged by Enma-Daioh at the Gates of Judgement. The soul would then go to its destiny, fulfill its sentence then be allowed to reincarnate."
"Right. What about demons? Do you know anything about them?"
"In the beginning, demons were allowed to roam freely among humans, but after some time they became scarce, then disappeared altogether. Maxwell, what to you intend to accomplish with this topic?"
Duo shook his head. "Don't ask anything guys, just listen to me. Your homework is right Wufei, that's exactly what they believed. There were three 'dimensions' or 'worlds': the Ningenkai or Human World, where humans lived, the Reikai or Spirit World, where the gods lived and souls went after death, and the Makai or Demon world, where the demons and monsters, called youkai, lived. For a while, youkai and humans could go from one world to the other freely, but after some time the gods thought the youkai became too dangerous to humans, and decided to build a barrier to keep the youkai inside their own world. Sometime or another something would happen and the barrier would fall, but for centuries it stayed up. That's why youkai weren't seen in Human World anymore.
"Almost nobody remembers these stories anymore, and in a way it's a good thing. In the past, when people believed in it, many did stupid things in order to summon or control a so-called demon, and it often brought up lots of trouble. At least now people don't bother trying."
"Fascinating lecture, Maxwell. Now what is your point?"
"My point, Wufei, is that what you learned as an ancient culture's belief is in fact as real as the seven of us sitting together in this room, talking to each other."
The pilots exchanged glances, then turned to Duo.
"Duo." Heero glared, "Cut the crap and stop joking around."
Duo glared right back. "Do I look like I'm joking? Am I laughing?" He bowed his head. "Damn, I told you guys you wouldn't believe me."
Kurama stood up. "I know it's very hard to believe in the supernatural these days. Perhaps I should give you a proof." With that, Kurama opened his coat, revealing his white clothes. Shrugging it off he then removed his hat, and turned to put it on the sofa, revealing to the stunned pilots his furry ears and showing a glimpse of his silver tail.
"I am a youko, a fox spirit." At Heero's suspicious look, Kurama added, "No, it's not an illusion. I can guarantee my ears and tail are real. But if still you don't believe me..." Four pair of eyes widened as the tall man was surrounded by a thin mist and disappeared, only to be replaced by a multi-tailed silver fox; which collapsed bonelessly on Duo's lap when the latter started scratching behind its ears.
Quatre rubbed his chest again. "Kurama-san... is that you?" The fox nodded and trotted over, sitting in front of Quatre and fixing him with a golden stare. "What is this sensation?"
Duo chuckled. "You're feeling his ki, Quatre. Go ahead, pet him a little. He doesn't bite - at least not in front of an audience."
Kurama glared at Duo, then let Quatre touch him. Trowa hesitantly reached out and marveled at the fur's softness. Heero didn't react at all, and Wufei seemed intrigued by Kurama's tails. When the fox turned back and returned to Duo's lap the Chinese boy managed to get a good view of them, and gasped. "You have nine tails! How old are you?"
Duo looked at him, surprised. "Hey, how do you know about the tails?"
Wufei shrugged. "Ancient myths and legends were one of my favorite study subjects, and many stories about kitsunes mentioned about the importance of their tails."
Kurama's voice made them realize he turned to human form and was sitting cross-legged on the floor, just besides Duo. "You're right, I have nine tails. But I believe it's a bit rude asking a youkai's age after his 1000th anniversary, so I'll just tell you I'm older than you have previously estimated."
Wufei bowed his head and muttered a strangled "sorry" while Heero narrowed his eyes at Hiei. "So I suppose you're a demon as well." A curt nod. "What animal do you turn into?"
Hiei smirked. "Is a dragon good enough for you?"
Both Kurama and Duo said "Hiei!" at the same time, and Hiei just shrugged. "He asked." Duo turned to Heero: "He doesn't turn into animals, he's a fire youkai." To emphasize Duo's point, a small fire erupted from Hiei's outstretched hand.
Quatre whispered to himself, "I've never felt anything like that before..." Then, turning to Duo, "I've never felt anything like this from you, Duo. Why?"
Duo shrugged. "You're only feeling their youki because they aren't masking them. As for me... you can't feel something that doesn't exist."
"You mean you're human? You don't have any powers?"
"That's not it. Youkai have a kind of power known as youki - demon power. Humans instead have a kind of power of their own, called reiki or spirit power. All humans have reiki, but only a few develop it well enough to be consciously used. Many martial arts teach you how to develop and use your ki," a nod from Wufei "but even then, not strongly enough. A human's reiki can be even more powerful than a demon's youki."
"Then why have I never felt it before?"
"Because it's the first time you feel a youki, Quatre. And you've probably been feeling small amounts of reiki ever since you were born, so you might unconsciously be used to it. It would take an extremely huge reiki to make you feel uncomfortable... and that's something we don't have around here."
Trowa thought for a moment. "So you're saying you're not a... youkai." Duo shook his head. "And you don't have great powers. What are you?"
Duo grinned. "Right now I'm a 15 year old wanted terrorist, a Gundam pi-- ouch!!! What was that for?"
Hiei released his braid. "Baka. Since you've started, tell them all the truth."
Duo pouted. "You're just like Heero. No matter where I go, there's always a grumpy-- itai!" He snatched his braid back.
Hiei glared. "Finish this. And you'd better add in how and why you've been missing for almost twenty years."
Quatre's eyes widened. "Twenty years!? Duo... how is this possible?"
"Well... I told you I was older than you think..."
Heero narrowed his eyes. "How much older?"
Duo scratched his head and smiled sheepishly. "Err... some years? Decades?"
"Shi-chan..."
"Ok, ok! I got it!" A deep sigh. "I'll be 475 in two months."
Silence.
End Part 4
Author's notes:
Sorry, I couldn't resist the lame joke on Youko Kurama and Trowa... or Shizuru and Quatre. Please don't hit me!