Only You

by Misty

Chapter 10

They all laughed heartily.

“Really,” Naomi said, barely able to speak, because of laughing so much. “I did put a fireball in Kurama’s chair before. You should have seen his face when he jumped up and down, yelling, ‘Hot! Hot!’ ”

“I certainly cannot imagine Kurama the ever-so-calm youko doing that,” Kuwabara said. “And what did he do to you after?”

“He set one of his blood-sucking plants on me. I was able to escape, though!”

They laughed again, until finally, they paused to catch their breaths.

“You guys had a weird relationship, ne?” Keiko said.

“Yeah,” Botan said. “I thought you had some sort of romance or something! It turns out that you were former rivals…”

“Romance?!” Naomi said incredulously. “That’s ridiculous.” Or Is it? she thought, her face growing hot.

“I know!” Shizuru said. “Why don’t you tell us about your former group, Naomi? I’m curious as to why your group broke up…”

“Yeah!” Botan said. “Come on, Naomi-chan, tell us!”

“—if you don’t mind, Naomi-san,” Yukina added.

“But…” Naomi’s smile was replaced by frown. “I don’t really like talking about it…but I guess it’s okay, if you really want to…” Memories came back to her, all painful and sad.

“It’s all right if you don’t want to…” Keiko said kindly.

“It’s okay. I’ll tell you.”

 Yukina, Kuwabara, Shizuru, Botan, and Keiko all turned expectant eyes to her.

She sighed, and began to speak.

“I was part of a group of thieves. We were quite notorious in the Ma Kai.  There were seven in our group—me, Daremi, Mishina, Genei, Satsuma, Niwa and Hizashi.”

“It all began one day, when Kurama and I were just going back to my group’s meeting place…”

We were walking towards the meeting place of my group, a small castle we-er, we took from its owner. Hehe. We were thieves, after all.

Anyway, we were walking towards that place, and Kurama and I were talking.

“Don’t be too complacent,” Kurama declared. “I will get the next treasure we try to steal.”

“Ha,” I countered, clutching a small pouch filled with priceless gems and jewels. “I got that treasure chest the last time we saw each other.” I smirked.

At least I don’t have to share the treasures I steal with a group,” Kurama said. “That’s one advantage of going solo.”

“I do have to admit, you’re right,”I said, and  sighed. “I’m thinking of breaking away from our group. Mishina’s really annoying me. Who does she think she is, anyway, the boss of our group? She keeps on telling us what to do.”

“Why don’t you kill her?” Kurama said. “I had Yomi assassinated when he displeased me.”

“Oh, sheesh, Kurama,” I  scowled at him.. “What a ridiculous idea—“

“I don’t think it’s such a ridiculous idea,” a voice barged in right then. We turned around, wondering who spoke.

“Daremi,” I said, frowning. “What are you doing here?”

Daremi pulled me away. “Come on, there’s something I need to tell you,” he urged.

“Okay, okay,” I said, rather annoyed at him, wondering what the heck was the fuss was all about. I turned to Kurama, an apologetic smile on my face.  “I have to go. Business.”

“Sure. Ja.” Kurama said, and he walked away.

Daremi lead me to a small clearing beside our castle, and checked if anyone was listening.

“What is it?” I asked the green-haired youkai beside me. Oh, yeah, I forgot to say, Daremi  looks just  like a normal human, except  that he has two horns growing out of his head.

Anyway, Daremi turned to me, and whispered, “I followed Mishina around today. She was just so suspicious lately. You’ve noticed, haven’t you?”

I  nodded, thinking about the past days.

“Well, she was talking to some youkais today and ordered them to attack the castle tomorrow…while she’s ‘on leave’. They were attack us early in the day, to surprise us.”

“Does she really think she can kill us that way?” I raised an eyebrow. “Killing those youkais would be a cinch.”

“No, I’m not yet finished.” Daremi replied. “They were just supposed to be a distraction, while one of them would plant a bomb in the castle. Then they would leave the castle, and after one minute  – boom! The castle would explode, killing all of us.”

“I see.” This time I  frowned, thinking. “She really is cunning. But we have to outsmart her then.

Daremi nodded. “Let’s wait until the others get back.” he suggested, and went inside our castle.

“Why did you say Mishina was acting suspiciously, Naomi-san?” Keiko asked.

“Oh, there were many instances that we all could have been killed when Mishina was gone,” Naomi replied. “You know, attacks, ambushes, etc. But we all managed to live through those.”

“Was Mishina your leader or something?” Kuwabara asked.

“No, of course not!” Naomi said indignantly. “We had no real leader, because we were all equally powerful.”

They stopped in front of a white-colored house in the middle of the street. Naomi brightened. "Hey, this is my house.”

She got her keys from her pocket, and started to open the door, when it opened by itself.

“What--” Naomi uttered, startled, and stopped after realizing it was her sister, Michiko, who opened the door.

“Seiko-chan?” Michiko said, and smiled. “At last you’re here. I saw you through the window.”

“Oh, hi,” Naomi said, grinning. “Just got back from your date?”

“Yes.” Michiko glanced at Shizuru and the others. “Are they your friends?”

“Uh, hai.” Naomi nodded. “'Neechan, meet my friends, Kuwabara Shizuru and her brother Kazuma, Yukina, Urameshi Keiko, and Botan. Guys, meet my sister, Michiko.”

Pleasantries were exchanged, and soon, Michiko let them all in.

“Be a little quiet, though, mom and dad are asleep,” Michiko instructed them.

“Yes, 'neechan,” Naomi replied. “We’ll behave.”

“By the way, Seiko,” Michiko pulled her aside. “Kazuma-san is the only guy with you. Is he your boyfriend?”

Naomi burst out laughing. “No, no, of course not!!!! He’s in love with Yukina-chan. Besides, I don’t have any boyfriend at all.”

“Really? What about Minamino Shuuichi?” Michiko teasingly countered.

“No, of course not,” Naomi said, laughing, although she sounded a bit nervous. “Please. We’re just friends, that’s all.”

Michiko raised an eyebrow. “Anyway, good night.”

“ ‘Night.”

Naomi lead the others into her room, and they sat down on her bed.

“This is such a nice room!” Botan gushed.

Kuwabara frowned. “Don’t you have any food here, Seiko-san?”

Naomi laughed. “Um…” she reached down under her bed, and grabbed a bag of potato chips. “Here you go. I always keep a few bags of potato chips, so I could munch on it if I can’t sleep.”

Kuwabara brightened, and so did everyone else.

Having settled down, the girls, and Kuwabara, asked Naomi to continue her narrative.

We held a meeting in our palace, afterwards, to discuss about what Daremi just told us.

“Are you sure about this?” Niwa, a female youkai with bat-like wings, asked Daremi.

“Yes, Niwa, really sure, I’ve said that for about a million times!” Daremi said.

I cleared my throat, finally hitting on a plan. “Excuse me, would everybody please listen?”

I paused, and looked at my rather reluctant audience . Everyone in my group was in there, with the exception of Mishina, of course: Daremi, Hizashi, Niwa, Satsuma and Genei.  Daremi had just told them what Mishina was planning, and, as expected,  everyone was surprised and angry, and started to quarrel among themselves.

“I suggest we get out of the castle—discreetly, of course,” I said. “We should go into positions hidden from view. Then when those youkais come, we kill them. They won’t even know what hit them.”

“I get your point,” Hizashi, a brown-haired youkai who looks like your average human, said.  “Then when Mishina comes back to us, just as she usually does when her plan backfires, we’ll have our revenge!”

“So, do all of you think it could work?”

“Hmph.”, Satsuma, a large, reptile-like demon with three pairs of ears said. “All I can say is, I’ve just had about enough of this group.”

“What do you mean by that, Satsuma?” Genei spoke up. The oni-like demon gazed warily at Satsuma.

“That’s it! I’m leaving this group!” Satsuma said angrily. “We were once notorious, but now… look at this! Our group is falling apart! Even though I want to kill Mishina myself, I could still die trying to do that. So I’d leave you guys to do the dirty work.” And with that, he left.

“Don’t be a coward, Satsuma!” I started to follow him, my temper rising. “After all—“

Genei stopped me. “Maybe I can convince him,” he said before going out of the door too.

“Don’t worry about that guy, Naomi,” Hizashi said confidently. “We’re better off without him.”

“We’re still going with your plan!” Daremi said, smiling.

Niwa stood silent.  I saw her glance suspiciously at Daremi,  but she  nodded, nevertheless.

“Count me in too.” It was Genei. He went inside the door, and gave us a contrite look. “I wasn’t able to convince Satsuma. I’m sorry.”

“It’s all right.” I said, though still somewhat miffed that Satsuma left  us. I looked at everyone, and nodded. Together, we would stop Mishina once and for all.

Naomi paused, blushing.

“So…then what happened?” Botan asked curiously.

“After that…” Naomi continued, her face growing redder. “Uh, the night before the attack, I couldn’t sleep, and so I went out to the forest. I saw Kurama there, and he asked me if we could have a little contest, uh,  to see who steals this certain treasure first. I declined, and he went on his way.”

“Are you sure that was all he said to you?” Shizuru said, a teasing note in her voice. “Tell the truth, Naomi-chan.”

“That’s all, really!” Naomi replied, trying to keep herself from blushing further. She remembered that night clearly, as if it happened yesterday. She didn’t exactly lie to them, though, but she omitted a few details of what happened that night…

Hiei nodded, his jagan wide open and glowing. “Yes, they’re in Naomi’s house, and they’re safe. And she’s telling them about Mishina.” He continued running, and Kurama followed.

“Um…” Hiei paused awhile, before continuing. “About you coming to see her and challenging her to a contest. And she refused.”

“That’s all she said?” Kurama replied, somewhat amused. When Hiei nodded.

Kurama smiled, thinking about that night. Naomi probably didn’t want to tell them everything about that evening, so she left out a few details.

What happened that night… Kurama thought, smiling to himself. Is something I will never forget…

Naomi just couldn’t sleep. She knew she should get some rest, for tomorrow, Mishina’s men would attack them. They had everything planned out already, and she was pretty confident that everything would work out well.

Yet what was it that bothered her? Scowling, she stood up, and went outside, into the forest.

 It was pitch-black outside. She leaned on a tree trunk, trying to gather her thoughts. Why was it, even when she was confident that they would win, that she felt as if everything would go wrong tomorrow? She meditated on this, and as she did so, she only noticed, too late, that someone charged at her with a sword.

She dodged it, a split second too late, and her attacker sliced through the flesh of her left arm.

With a cry of pain, she hurled a fireball at her assailant. He managed to dodge it, but due to the light of the fireball, she managed to discern his features.

“KURAMA?!” Naomi shouted, enraged. “WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT FOR?!  KISAMA!!!!!!!”

“Hey, I *always* do that to you, and this is the first time you were hit by my sword,,” Kurama countered, sharply. “I never meant to hurt you. You should have been more alert.”

“Kuso,” Naomi cursed. “I already have a lot of things on my mind! And I don’t want to go worrying about a rival and—ouch!” She raised her arm, and winced.

Kurama took her hand into his, and examined her wound. Naomi pulled her hand defiantly away, but Kurama held it fast. He threw a seed into the ground, and instantly, a large plant grew out of it.

“Here…this should make it heal fast.” He gathered one of the large leaves, and tied it around her wounded arm.

Naomi frowned, but said nothing.

“Look, I’m sorry I wounded you,” Kurama said, and Naomi was surprised at the sincerity in his tone. “I thought you would have dodged me, as you always do, so I attacked. I didn’t mean to do this, really.”

“It’s okay.” Naomi said softly. “Thanks for treating my wound.” She smiled. “I never thought I would ever hear you say ‘sorry’ in such a sincere manner, you know.”

“And I never thought I would ever hear you say ‘thanks’ in such a sincere manner, too,” Kurama retorted.

“So…what did you want to tell me, anyway?” Naomi asked, curiously.

“I wanted to challenge you,again,” Kurama said. “There’s this castle—owned by the youkai Yume, and he owns this certain weapon. We can see who steals it first.”

Naomi shook her head. “Gomen ne, Kurama.” She proceeded to tell him about Mishina.

“Oh…I see,” Kurama said, nodding. “Told you, you should have killed Mishina even before.”

“Ch,” Naomi muttered. “Okay, okay, you’re right.” She suddenly started, having realized, that all this time, Kurama still had not let go of her hand.

“Uh…Kurama…” she said, embarrassed, looking at her hand. Kurama let go of it, looking startled, too.

An awkward silence soon followed, both looking at anywhere but each other.

“Um…maybe you should go now,” Naomi said, breaking the silence.

“H-hai,” Kurama agreed, and looked up at her.

The minute their eyes met, Kurama took a step closer to her. “Naomi…that wasn’t everything I wanted to tell you…”

Naomi took a step forward, too, and soon, her face was only inches away from his.

“I wanted to ask you…if you would want to be my partner, after this…” he said softly.

“Partners in stealing?”

“No. Something more than that.”

Their lips soon met in a passionate kiss, both oblivious to their surroundings. The only that mattered to them that they were both there, at that time, at that place…never caring what would happen next.

“NAOMI!!!!!!!!!”

Kurama and Naomi jumped away from his each other, a little guiltily. Naomi reddened perceptibly, and Kurama himself looked uncomfortable.

Naomi looked up, and frowned at Genei. “What is it now?!”

If Genei had seen their kiss, he gave no sign of that. “Niwa—Niwa was attacked!!!”

“What?!” Naomi exclaimed. “I’ll be right there, then.”

Genei nodded, and hurried back to their palace.

Naomi turned to Kurama, wistfully. “I have to be going…”

“Me too.” Kurama said, but made no move to leave. Naomi, too, didn’t move from her spot.

“Uh, good luck.” Naomi said, awkwardly. “And…about what you asked me awhile ago. I would like that. To be your partner, I mean.”

Kurama smiled, and nodded. He took a step forward.  Naomi stepped forward, and reached out for him…

“NAOMI?!” Genei’s insistent voice called out. “Where are you?”

The magic was broken. “Uh…see you, Kurama,” Naomi said, returning to her usual demeanor.

“Ja, Naomi.”

Naomi went on her way, and looked back at him, wondering why she had that really weird feeling that she wouldn’t see him again.

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