Red Rose in the Darkness

Welcome to my newest fic. Feel free to check out any of my other ones.

Oh yes, and about this one. This was inspired by two things: The Black Jewels Trilogy by Anne
Bishop, and a Rurouni Kenshin fanfic called Blood Dawn by Ravyn. I highly suggest you read it.
This was posted with permission, so don’t sue me for it. Other than that, beware of some of the
gore I may put I here.

“...” is speech, ‘...’ is thoughts, and italics are usually dreams.

YYH does not belong to me.

Red Rose in the Darkness

chapter one

            “Give up, Kurama! You’re dead and you know it!”

            “You and that bitch of yours!”

            He ran from the voices in agony, clutching the long, deep gash in his right arm. His
many wounds gushed blood, staining his silver hair crimson. He ran towards where he knew his
mate waited in fear. Too late, a pain-filled, inhuman scream tore through the forest, a cry that
seemed to wrench his heart from where it beat. Blinded by despair, rage, and blood loss, his
breath came in shorter and shorter bursts. He never saw the branch in his path. It tripped him,
allowing his hunters that crucial second to catch up. It was truly over.

            The blade of a bloody sword plunged into his back, coming out of his stomach. He
clutched at it, gasping, feeling his innards spilling out upon the ground, running through his
fingers even as he tried to push them back in. He was truly dying, and he realized it just a
moment before another blade passed over the skin of his back, shearing off a flap of flesh.

            The pain, he knew would soon end, but that was nothing compared to the pain he felt at
leaving his mate. Only a mere moment before his spirit left his body, he saw his mate standing
wide-eyed in the clearing in front of him. He could see himself reflected in those eyes of hers, all
bloody and gory, and even more pain pierced his soul, just as his body was torn to bits. The last
word that left his lips was the name of his mate.

            Minamino Shuuichi sat bolt upright in bed, gasping. He slowly lifted his hands up from
where they were clenched on the sheets and held his head in them.

            ‘It’s that same dream again . . . ’

            For as long as he could remember, he had dreams like this, always featuring him . . . or
someone who was known by his nickname with an inhuman appearance. The dreams weren’t
always this horrific, though. In fact, this was the first time he had this particular one about dying.
Sometimes, he was running just for the sheer joy of it, occasionally with another person. He never
got a good look at them, only an impression of leathery wings or flowing silver hair.

            And once – he always blushed when thinking of this – he was making love to someone. To
his relief, or mortification, all he could remember after waking up was an image of tangled silver
hair and creamy, pale skin and a feeling of intense pleasure.

            He looked at his bedside clock and sighed in resignation. It was five-twenty-one in the
morning, only a bit more than half an hour until he usually woke up. There was no pint in going
back to sleep, so he got up and quickly dressed.

            Making a pot of coffee and eating last night’s leftover rice, he checked to see if anyone
left a voice mail on his cellphone. This was a precaution he always took, since his job required for
him to be on call at any given moment.

            The only message was from the girl who had stalked him since college who had somehow
gotten his number. Come to think of it, there were others, ever since junior high. He deleted it
right away.

            With so much time still left, he decided to leave early and take the long way to work.
Putting on his jacket, he started off, thinking about his dreams yet again.

            ‘Every single time, I/he is called Kurama . . . like I sometimes am . . . Ever since Hiei first
called me that for a reason I have yet to learn, it seems the name has stuck.’ Stepping over a crack
in the sidewalk, he continued. ‘So that may be the explanation behind the name, but it does not
explain the silver hair. Not to mention the fox ears and tail. And the hunters . . . there was always
a deep well of hatred when they appear. There was an almost overwhelming sense of loss and hot
rage following the scream. Perhaps the screamer and the . . . the lover are one and the same . . . I
cannot just put it all down to coincidence.’

            Kurama found that he had arrived and snapped out of his train of thought. To his surprise,
the rest of his team was already there. He raised his eyebrows questioningly while hanging up his
jacket. Yusuke gestured at the desk.

            Daiohmoru Koenma, their boss and head of the organization headquartered here in Tokyo,
sighed tiredly and ran a hand through his brown hair. “As you all probably felt, there was a sudden
manifestation of a great amount of ki last night and into this morning.”

            Kuwabara, the most ki-sensitive one of them all, nodded. “Definitely. There was no way
to miss it. But, what I don’t get is, why was it there, how it disappeared so quickly, and why it felt
a bit like a vampire. None we’ve met so far had so much ki.”

            “Yeah, that’s what I’d like to now too,” Yusuke grumbled.

            Koenma sighed agin. “You are aware that our organization, the Reikai Tantei, was formed
to fight vampires.”

            “We know that already. Keep going.”

            “But there are two kinds of vampire, the lower-leveled ones we usually face, and the ones
with much more power, known as demon-vampires.”

            “And the difference would be?”

            “I’d tell you if you’d stop interrupting me, Yusuke! Demon-vampires often have hi ki
levels and can be born or made. If they are made, the human who is to be transformed is killed in
a ritual, then brought back with yet another one that is known only to the most powerful of the
demon-vampires. All this must be done with he consent of the human, though. Ordinary vampires
are not brought back to life, but are simply spirits housed in dead flesh. Demon-vampires rarely
drink blood. When they do, it is to claim a mate or change another. Ordinary vampires must drink
blood to keep up their semblance of life. The ki you all felt was most likely from a demon-vampire
of great strength.”

            Kurama made no comment. He hadn’t felt the burst of ki, only its lingering residues after
he woke up.

            The shortest member of the team, Hiei, snorted. “Don’t tell me you forghat hat I’m a
demon-vampire. Baka ningen.”

            “Shut up, shrimp!” Kuwabara yelled.

            “Actually, I am one myself,” Koenma informed them.

            “WHAT?! You never told us that!” Kuwabara exclaimed, jumping out of his seat.

            “You lump. Couldn’t you sense his ki?”

            Kurama stepped in before another fight could break out between Hiei and Kuwabara. “So,
I can assume our mission is to find the demon-vampire whose ki matches what we felt?”

            Koenma sighed yet again. He knew this was the best team he had, but he still wasn’t sure
if they were the right ones for this job. They were a motley group, special powers and hi ki or not,
after all.

            First, there was Urameshi Yusuke, who, at first, carried guns around for self-defense.
After a bit of special training, he was able to fire his ki from his fingers just like one.

            Kuwabara Kazuma seldom used his first name and preferred it that way. He was trained to
focus his ki into a sword.

            Minamino Shuuichi, known as Kurama within the organization, was quiet and polite, but
merciless in a fight. Genkai, the psychic who worked with the Reikai Tantei, had yet to find a way
for him to use his ki, so he always carried a barbed whip with him, hidden inside his jacket. It was
a real pity, Koenma thought, he didn’t remember anything from a time when he was an entirely
different person.

            Lastly, there was Jaganshi Hiei, from the clan of demon-vampires associated with fire. He
was short, anti-social, always dressed in black, and carried a katana underneath his coat. He was a
master swordsman who also used his ki to attack, either in the form of a dragon or a ball of
energy. It was odd though – most short people with big eyes looked innocent. Somehow, Hiei
managed to look scary, which sometimes led Koenma to agree with Kuwabara calling him an ‘evil
little shrimp.’

            “Well? Is it?” Yusuke demanded loudly.

            “Only half. I’ll assume you have heard of the Toguro brothers. They’re trying to get their
hands on some key vampires and humans who possess much power. Their goal is to bring
vampires to power and to eventually wipe out all humans. Your mission is to find and protect
those people they are looking for.”

            “Oh, great . . . When do we start this one, right away?”

            “Actually, no. You’ll tomorrow so you can let Keiko, your mother, and Shizuru know.
And Genkai thinks she may have found a way for Kurama to use his ki.”

            “Then I’ll assume I’m to go to her place right now?” Kurama asked.

> ~ <...> ~ <...> ~ <...> ~ <...> ~ <

            She waited fearfully in their den, waiting for her mate to come back. She had a bad
feeling about this day . . . some sort of premonition. Suddenly, a line of pain crossed her upper
right arm. Quickly checking, she saw that there was nothing there. Her heart rate spiked in fear.
He was in danger!

            She ran outside, searching for his scent, but found nothing. Nothing, until the snarling
face of her hunter reared up in front of her.

            “Time for you to die, Kitsunehime!”

            “Get out of my way!” She snarled back, shoving him onto a sharp outcrop of rock. But
the gruesome sight that met her eyes almost stopped her heart. Her mate was being brutally
slaughtered.

㼠160;          “NO!” She felt her whole world go faint when the hunters pulled his head up by his
bloodstained hair. His eyes were still open, but were lifeless, empty pools of gold. He was dead.

            The hunter, seeing where her dilated silver eyes were looking in horror, smirked and,
taking out a short sword, began to saw her mate’s head off. Slowly, inch by inch, she could hear
the bone scrape and splinter . And, all the while, the others were readying their swords for her
own neck. She never noticed them, unable to take her eyes off the severed head of the one she
loved, and the pool of his own blood congealing beneath the body. She began to scream, but was
cut off by the bite of cold steel cutting into the base of her neck.

            “Don’t worry, princess. We’ll give the famed beauty a quick, clean death. After all, we
wouldn’t want our trophy to have contorted features, would we?”

            Far from Tokyo, in Hong Kong, Kobayashi Tomiko woke to cold, clammy hands over her
mouth, stifling a scream. Her friend and partner, Daiohmoru Shicho burst into the room. It was
then that she realized it was her own hands that covered her mouth.

            “Kitsunehime! You alright?! What happened?!”

            Tomiko, called Kitsunehime by those within the Reikai Tantei, slowly lowered her hands
and took a deep, shuddering breath. “It’s nothing, just one of those dreams again.”

            Shicho nodded and came back in with a cup of cappuccino for her. “This is the first time
you’ve woken up this horrified before, though.”

            Kitsunehime sipped at the cappuccino, trying to calm her racing heart. “It was horrible . . .
”

            “What was it this time?”

            “A man with bloody silver hair was killed and decapitated slowly, while my own head was
being sawed off . . . ” She winced and brushed her long, deep red hair out of her eyes.

            Shicho shivered. “That’s horrible . . . ”

            “Yes . . . ” She shuddered and touched the back of her neck where the touch of a sword
seemed so real.

            “Cousin Koenma just called. We have a new mission.”

            “What is it this time?”

            “I don’t know, he said he’s sending it by fax . . . Ah, there it is.” Shicho quickly grabbed
the sheet off the fax machine. “He says the Toguro brothers are trying to get their hands on some
vampires and humans with a lot of power in order to take over the world and all. He wants us to
find thes ies in Hong Kong before they do while we’re here, and then return home as soon as
we’re done.”

            Kitsunehime grabbed the second sheet that came through. “Not too bad . . . we only have
three targets. Li Meiling, Li Syaoran, and Kinomoto Sakura.”

            “Any other information?”

            Li Meiling and Li Syaoran are cousins, and are from a family famous for their great ki and
ability to use it. Kinomoto Sakura is visiting them from Tomoeda, and, although she comes from a
perfectly normal family, her ki is also very powerful. She is Master of the cards that Clow Reed
created hundreds of years ago and is accompanied by one of the Guardians, Keroberos. All three
are in elementary school. Here are the pictures.”

            Shicho made a sound of surprise at the last two sentences. “Only in elementary school?!
And already the Master of the Clow Cards?!” She took a look at the pictures. “A cute little girl,
isn’t she?”

            “Koenma did say as soon as possible, so I’ll get dressed and we can get started. I’ll
assume that third sheet contains their addresses.” Kitsunehime went into the bathroom and came
out in a pale blue wraparound shirt and loose black pants, ready to start tracking people down.

> ~ <...> ~<...> ~ <...> ~ <...> t;

            ‘This is a time where I absolutely resent my looks . . . ’ Kurama thought as a mob of girls
started to chase him. Looking around for an escape, he quickly ducked into a nearby coffee shop
where Koenma and his girlfriend Botan happened to be talking.

            “Hmm? What happened to you, Kurama?”

            “A mob of girls . . . ” he answered, taking a deep breath. “Help . . . ”

            Koenma laughed. “Poor guy, this happens a lot, doesn’t it? I’ll drive you to your
apartment.”

            “Thanks . . . ”

            Getting into the car, Botan commented, “You look tired . . . is it just from running, or is
part of it due to Genkai?”

            “You’re ki level seems to have dropped quite a bit too,” Koenma added.

            “Actually, all of it’s from Genkai.”

            “So I’ll assume her idea worked?”

  
#160#160;        “Yes. Oh, and I neglected to tell you earlier, but I may be a bit late tomorrow. I need to
visit my mother’s grave . . . Watch out!” A group of about ten or so vampires leapt out of an
alleyway just as Kurama said this. Koenma cursed and spun the steering wheel frantically and
hitting the brakes, narrowly missing a lamppost. All three got out and dived into yet another
alleyway, one that was narrow enough for them to have an advantage.

            Botan was wielding an oar while Koenma scanned the area frantically for a weapon.
Kurama thrust his coiled whip at him.

            “Kurama!”

            “Take it!”

            “Then what are you going to fight with?! They’re almost on us! Watch out!”

            Koenma and Botan watched, horrified as the vampires, with decaying, peeling flesh,
swamped over Kurama, wielding various sharp implements.

            “No! Kurama!”

            “Rose Whip!”

            Koenma blinked. Vampire bodies were flying through the air, cut into unrecognizable bits.
Shocked, he stood immobile until the severed tongue of one of them hit him in the eye.

            “Koenma! Are you all right?! Koenma!” Botan shook him frantically.

            Peeling the bloody vampire tongue off his face Koenma nodded shakily. “Yes . . . Are
t any any more left?”

            “No, Kurama took care of them all. How did you do that?”

            Breathing heavily, Kurama leaned against the alley wall, holding a long, green, thorny
whip. “This is what Genkai came up with. With my ki, I make an ordinary rose grow into this,
where the thorns can slice through almost any substance, including solid rock.” he closed his eyes
for a brief moment, then opened them as the whip shrunk, becoming a rose again. “I can do this
with any plant, but roses seem to work best for me.” Still breathing a bit heavier than normal, he
pushed off the wall and walked back to the car. “What do we do with the bodies?”

        㺼&60;  Koenma started the engine, still scrubbing his eye. “I guess we just leave them there and
get away fast.”

            A couple streets and wild turns later, Koenma stopped the car and the dizzy occupants
sighed in relief. Kurama got out and thanked him for the ride, then entered the building. He sighed
in resignation as his fifty year old neighbor made eyes at him. ‘What a long day . . . ’

            Once in his apartment, didn’t even bother to eat, but quickly stripped down to his boxers
and fell into bed, exhausted. This night, he had no dreams.

> ~ <...> ~ <...> ~ <...> ~ <...> ~ <

            “Shicho, I found Li Meiling, but I’m having a bit of trouble with vampires,” Kitsunehime
spoke ly ily into her cellphone.

            “Where are you?”

            “On Tai Wong Street East, right across from Southorn Playground in Wanchai!” She
ended the call and turned her full attention on protng tng the little girl behind her.

            “Hand over the girl and you won’t get hurt,” the leader, one with a bruised neck, rasped.

            “And if I don’t?” Kitsunehime challenged, taking out a metal-studded whip. “Stay behind
me, alright?” she whispered to the girl, who nodded.

            One of the other vampires whistled. “Nice figure there! Hey, boss, can we have her after
you’re done?”

            “Save some of that delicious-looking blood for me . . . ” Suddenly, the vampire’s head
was lying on the adjacent sidewalk, severed completely from the body.

            “I sst yst you keep your fantasies to yourself. I have every intention of coming out of this
alive, with Miss Li.” She calmly stated. “Which one of you has another opinion?”

            “You BITCH!” the leader snarled. “Get her!”

            Kitsunehime gracefully deflected the first attack with her whip, and kicked the next
vampire upside the head. The one after that got treated to a whip around the neck, the metal barbs
digging in and tearing out chunks of dead flesh. Kitsunehime realized, too late, that the whip was
dug in too tight, and frantically tried to pull it free as the next vampire approached with a partner.

            “Not so fast.” Charging down the street, Shicho’s long, low black ponytail flowed behind,
and two kodachi’s held in front. While Kitsunehime concentrated on keeping the vampires away
from herself and Meiling, Shicho lured them away and sliced them into barely recognizable chunks
of dead meat.

         &#  “Whew . . . ” Shicho sighed as she wiped a speck of blood off her face. “You alright?”

            Coiling the whip up, Kitsunehime replied, “Yes. But, backed against a wall is not the best
place to use a whip. How did you get here so fast?”

            “I was just down by the Hopewell Centre.”

            “Oh.” She turned around and knelt down to address the girl. “What about you? Are you
alright?”

            “Yeah . . . But, why did they attack in the first place?”

            “Is it alright if I call you Meiling?” She nodded. “You know all about vampires, right?”
She nodded again. “Well, a lot of them are after you, your cousin, and your friend because of all
the ki you have.”

            “Kitsunehime, it’s getting re lat late. Maybe we should bring Meiling with us back to the
hotel and look for the others tomorrow,” Shicho said, indicating the darkness and the lit
streetlights.

            “No! You’re Kitsunehime, right?” Meiling asked. “If the vampires are after Syaoran and
Sakura, we have to warn them now!”

            “She’s right, Shicho. Oh . . . sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. Yes, I am Kitsunehime,
but to most people I’m Tomiko. This is my partner, Shicho. Shicho, this is Li Meiling.”

            “You’re always so polite,” Shicho commented to her partner. “Meiling, can you take us to
where Syaoran and Sakura are?”<

            Meiling nodded, and led them through Sorn Prn Playground to Lockhart Road, into a
building, and up to the seventh floor, apartment C.

            “Meiling! What happened to you?” the girl called Sakura exclaimed.

            Syaoran noticed Kitsunehime and Shicho in the hall first. “Who are you and what do you
want?”

            “Don’t worry, they’re friends! But, there are vampires after us because of our ki!”

            “What?!” Syaoran’s mother burst in from the kitchen. “Vampires aft after you?!”

           spanspan>Shicho looked around the hallway and saw that other residents were looking out their
doors in puzzlement. “Shh, not out here! Everyone can hear!”

            Mrs. Li beckoned them in and demanded in a harsh whisper, “Tell me everything you
know.”

            Kitsunehime sighed. “First of all, we’re from the Reikai Tantei over in Tokyo. I’m
Kitsunehime, known to most other people as Kobayashi Tomiko. This is my partner, Daiohmoru
Shicho. Yes, vampires are after Meiling, Syaoran, and Sakura because of the great ki they
possess. The Toguro brothers want to use such ki to take over the world and slowly wipe out
humankind.”

            “Then what are we supposed to do about it?” Mrs. Li demanded. “They’re obviously not
safe like this!”

            “We ask that you come with us to Japan. The Reikai Tantei can protect them, and you,
along with the others,” Shicho interjected. “Please.”

            “Yes, please,” Kitsunehime added.

            A little yellow teddy-bear-looking thing floated out from behind Sakura. “You know,
they’re right. We should go with them. Then we’ll also have to call Yue, of course . . . ”

            “Kero!” Sakura exclaimed.

      㼠160;    “It’s alright, they would have sensed me anyways. They’re not exactly normal humans,
especially not the redhead.”

            “What do you mean? I’m just a human with a lot of ki . . . ” Kiehimehime inquired,
puzzled.

            “You have a lot of ki, true, but there’s something . . . different in your aura.” Kero peered
closer. “It’s very hard to identify . . . ”

            “Fine. If the Guradian Keroberos recommends it, we will go. Children, please pack up,”
Mrs. Li said a bit irately. “When are we leaving?”

            Shicho turned to her partner. “Can you get your hands on plane tickets this quickly?”

            “Probably, but I’m not sure if the flights are safe. It’s better if we get a private jet . . . what
about your friend in Nagasaki? What’s his name, Marron?”

            Shicho flushed. “Oh . . . yeah . . . I’ll go call him now.”

            ‘So, he’s not “just a friend” then,’ Kitsunehime thought slyly with a slight smile. Well then,
tell us all when you’ve got it arranged. Mrs. Li, if you’ll excuse me, I need to call the boss.”

            She quickly selected Koenma’s number from the phonebook on her cellphone.

            “What?!” came the very irate voice on the other side. “It’s almost midnight, you idiot!
Who is this?!”

            “Oh my, Koenma. You sound more disgruntled than usual, did I interrupt something?”

            “ . . . Kitsunehime.”

            “Yes.”

            “Well, what is it? You better have a good reason for calling this late!”

            “We found Li Meiling, Li Syaoran, and Kinomoto Sakura. And we’ll be coming back as
soon as Shicho’s ‘friend’ can fly us over, along with Mrs. Li.”

            “Already?!”

            “Koenma, sir, is your hearing going bad?”

    &#       “NO!”

            “Well then, that’s settled. We’ll see you when we get back.” She hung up. “Shicho?”

            “He told us to meet him near the check-in counters at Chek Lap Kok Airport at three in
the morning.” she mumbled.

            “Three?!” Syaoran exclaimed, dragging out a suitcase. “We won’t get any sleep!”

            “Sorry, I can’t help it. It’s Marron’s fault,” Shicho muttered.

            Kitsunehime covered a smile with her hand. “That’s in three hours, so we should get going
in a bit over an hour, so we can catch the Airport Express. Shicho, would you like to go back to
the hotel for our stuff, or do you want me to?”

         
#160#160; “You can,” she grumbled.

            “Fine then, I should be back in forty-five minutes to an hour.”

Congratulations if you’ve read this far. I would’ve thought a lot of you would click right out of
this because of the gruesome Kurama killing part in the beginning.

Oh yes, and about the character Kitsunehime, you can explain her two different ways, either she is
me, or I just created a character with my pen name.

*Note* All places mentioned are real, and I have been to all of them (except for Tokyo and
Nagasaki) so I should know.

And one more thing. Please do NOT flame. If you do not like it, do not continue to read. Other
than that, please review.