[FFML] [fic][yyh] Shonen Chapter 23: Revolution (Part 3)

[Abdiel]

Chiho Sasae, at first glance, was an average Japanese schoolgirl: thing
was, she never thought of herself that way. Then again, her bravura 
notwithstanding, she could hardly be called a 'scholastic overachiever'.
She never had an exceptional academic record; an understatement to end
all understatements. The only reason she was able to enter the elite and
prestigious Meiou High School was because her father was the Principal
of the aforesaid institution. The fact that she was the president of the
Fashion Club added further credence to the argument that she was never
meant to be a thinker... or as she would put it, a 'nerd'.

Despite all that, she was still one of the most influential students in
the intellectually-based academe; the Ice Queen of Meiou High. Why was
that? Well, certainly the fact that nepotism was alive and well helped a
lot in her procuring a top spot in the social food chain, but even
without paternal help, she was still a force to be reckoned with... for
what she lacked in book smarts, she more than made up in street smarts
and sheer ruthlessness.

Chiho also never thought of herself as a very good person. She had
learned at an early age that there was little point in looking for the
best in her fellow man--in her experience, there was never much to be
found. It was much easier and more fun to poke around a bit and drag out
all the dark and ugly secrets that people wanted to hide. Everybody had 
something that a girl could use against them, if she was willing to look
hard enough.

Secrets garnered Chiho influence and quite a bit of cash during her
years in high school: nobody could hope to cheat on a test or vandalize
a locker without having to pay for her silence on the matter. Some of
the things she had found out about had been carefully squirreled away
and saved for later use, just in case any of her classmates became
important when they grew up. Indeed, the Ice Queen had a future in
politics or the tabloids, if she ever chose to tread either of those
paths. It was her ruthless scheming that earned her an impressive circle
of influence and high social standing in Meiou Academy.

Enter Ayame, Midori, and Shuichi; the veritable anomalies in Chiho's
dog-eat-dog worldview. These people stuck out like sore thumbs in her
version of reality; they were kind, gentle, and giving to people without
expecting anything in return. To be precise, they were kind, gentle and
giving to _her_ without expecting anything in return. Her subsequent
attempts to rummage through these... people's closets for any hidden
skeletons proved futile and pointless. After all, she didn't need to
uncover some sort of dark secret to have them act nice around her, so
why bother?
 
These strange folks and their peculiar ways rattled Chiho's mind beyond
anything or anybody she had ever encountered. Being able to borrow
school notes from Midori without being forced to do any favors for her
even way back in Junior High; having unlimited access to Ayame's clothes
without so much as a complaint from the long-banged girl; getting
friendly smiles, greetings, and compliments from Shuichi every morning
even though she had never done anything to deserve it; these
inconsistencies drove the Ice Queen mad. 

The mere fact of their existence was fundamental proof that there was
something terribly wrong with Chiho's personal beliefs, and it _gnawed_
at her to her very core; because of that truth, she was forced to
question her initial assessment of the human race. It didn't happen
overnight, though; it was a gradual process that slowly developed over
time. Quick comprehension of the strange occurrences, she had
considered, required that difficult outlying statistical information be
left out of the equation before a properly solid view could be achieved.
That meant that she had to go on hard and prove evidence of things
beyond mere science and logic.

To her horror, Chiho eventually came face-to-face with all her various 
shortcomings and deficiencies. The phenomenon called 'friendship'... or
as she would say, 'giving a damn about somebody other than yourself'...
tended to do that to the bitter and forlorn.

Ayame, Midori, and Shuichi's combined affability and goodness made Chiho
realize that deep down inside, she was just a sad and lonely young woman
who was trying to manipulate people because she was afraid that nobody
would be her friend unless she forced them to. That for all of those
years, she had just been projecting her own self-hatred onto the people
around her; assuming that they were all as bad as she thought that she
was. Chiho Sasae had been forced to see all of the pain she had brought
onto the people around her, and she had not even had the luxury of
pretending that they had done anything to deserve it. This epiphany of
hers had been the single worst moment of her entire life, but at the
same time it was also the best moment; from then on, she had _real_
friends to lean on: real friends that would never betray and desert her.
Or so she thought.

By that time, she had regained her trust in humanity, and as such
started to act in concordance to that. The problem with being Chiho
Sasae quickly became that she had no friends outside of the three who
convinced her to become a better person. Her old self had not felt the
need for friends, and her new self had far too much bad press to hope
she might make any more. Everybody thought that she was a liar: who
would believe her if she said that she wasn't lying? She had so little 
credibility left that nobody would believe her even if she _did_ say
that she was lying! It'd be a liar's paradox, that.

But then, something happened. In the middle of her arduous journey
towards enlightenment and self-discovery, she was betrayed, which
prompted her to revert to her old ways in order to seek revenge on the
one who betrayed her. Indeed, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.


________________________________________________________________________


Shonen
A Yuyu Hakusho fic
By Chester Castañeda
chester.castaneda at gmail.com
gabriel_gabdiel at yahoo.com
http://www.fanfiction.net/~abdiel 
http://abdiel.florestica.com/
http://chester-fanfics.livejournal.com/

The End of the Wizard of Oz Arc.

________________________________________________________________________

Chapter 23: Revolution (Part 3)
________________________________________________________________________



"Man, this place isn't just a fangirl's paradise; it's a pretty boy's
nightmare. Even though they're bishonen, they shouldn't be treated as
eye candy. That's what girls are for!" Kuwabara, still feeling a bit
winded from Balinese's aborted attempt at his life, awkwardly shifted
from his crouching position, got an eyeful of the boxers-wearing
Yusuke, then guffawed at the half-demon.

"Come to think of it, I see you've already started blending in with the
crowd, Urameshi," the Scarecrow heckled. "All you need are some wings
and a girly figure, and soon you too can act as furniture for Kurama's
psycho-classmate."

Yusuke nonchalantly shrugged. "The topless thing is kind of creepy at
first, but I guess it's mostly harmless. Hell, just how many times have
I lost _my_ shirt in a fight for no apparent reason? Far be it for me to
point any fingers at these poor, enslaved boy toys. Besides, y'know what
they say: 'When in Rome...'"

After a slight pause, Kuwabara thoughtfully scratched his head then
peculiarly surmised, "Gee, you're right. I never thought of it that way.
I guess I might as well take my shirt off too."

"DON'T YOU DARE DO SUCH A VILE AND DISGUSTING THING IN THIS HOLY PLACE!"
Ayame screeched, infuriated beyond words. 

"'Disgusting'? You don't know what you're talking about," Kuwabara
scoffed as he took off his ratty robe, revealing his bruised but brawny
body and heart-patterned boxers. "I'm a muscular hunk of one hundred
percent man beef, yeah!" In the background, Yusuke mumbled something to
himself and shook his head upon seeing his companion's choice of
underwear.

"Um, Minamino-kun, what are you doing?" Ayame concernedly asked after
she caught Kurama fiddling with the buttons of his crimson uniform.
"You're not doing what I think you're doing, are you?"

"I wouldn't know since I haven't read your mind; incidentally though, I
agree with Kuwabara-kun. This is Chiho-san's fantasy, and I feel that I
must adapt accordingly to it." 

"Woohoo! Yeah! Go, Kurama! Show that uppity witch what she's missing!"
Kuwabara yelled encouragingly at the half-demon fox, earning a glare of
contempt from one very irritated Ayame. 

"Will you stop fooling around and help Minamino-kun out?!" Ayame
snapped at Kuwabara.

"You mean you want us to help him take his top off?" Kuwabara asked
offhandedly, scratching his cheek in sassiness.

"Stop being such a smartass! I--" At that very moment, Ayame chanced
upon seeing Kurama undo the last of his uniform's buttons, finally
exposing his alabaster smooth pectorals and abdominals, as well as the 
effeminate curves of his waist; he had a lean, almost gazelle-like
build, no doubt. Throughout the whole thing, she didn't think his
body so much as quivered. His astoundingly toned, incredibly lithe,
noticeably shirtless body.

"Hey, were you saying something, missy? Hello? Hell-ooo..." Kuwabara the
Scarecrow waved his hand in front of the awestruck, dumbstruck face of
Ayame the lioness/cat-girl to no avail; the girl of dreams was simply
too mesmerized beyond words at the spectacle before her. "Mi-Mi-Mina-
Minami-Mi-Mi..." she blubbered unintelligibly.

"Sheesh. Honestly. What's so great about Kurama's girly figure anyway?"
the surrogate Scarecrow grumbled aloud.

Ayame felt like fainting. Kuwabara felt like rolling his eyes. Yusuke
felt like sneezing, because he'd been topless for so long that he
was starting to get a cold.

"W-What are you doing, Minamino-sama?" Chiho exclaimed, incensed and
enthralled at the same time. "Put your uniform back on immediately! I
command it!"

"No, Chiho-san," Kurama said soberly. "I can't do that."

"Why the heck not? It's a very simple task to do! Besides that, this
thing you're doing is scandalous! Outrageous!" Chiho all but screamed,
despite the fact that she was still sitting on Hirou Eye's back while
making use of Weichu Fang as her personal bootlicker. 

"She's a real class act, she is," Yusuke commented, unimpressed, while
Kuwabara grit his teeth in exasperation. 

"If that's the case, then let me be scandalous, Chiho-san." Kurama
looked pointedly at the silent array of adolescent boys surrounding the
so-called Ice Queen of Meiou High. "I have come here today humbled, to
become one of your menservants; to become one of your Seraphs, even." 

"Y-You can't be serious, Minamino-kun!" Ayame finally managed to sputter
half-hysterically. "Do you know what you're asking? What you're saying?
You're basically telling Chiho-san to make you her LOVE SLAVE!" In her
heart of hearts, the girl of dreams was begging the high heavens that
Kurama didn't actually _want_ to become Chiho's love slave.

"He didn't say he was going to be her love slave," Yusuke pointed out,
for all the good it did in appeasing Ayame's panic-driven train of
thought.

"Way to go, Kurama! That's about the manliest thing I've ever seen you
do! How could I've ever doubted you!" Kuwabara enthusiastically hooted,
nodding sagely. Yusuke, on the other hand, merely shrugged and sighed.
"Are you sure about this, Kurama? Weren't you supposed--?"

"They're right, you know," Chiho admitted, shocking most everyone
present, especially Ayame; she was expecting an opposite remark. "This
is hardly becoming of a man of your stature, Minamino-sama."

Kurama approached Chiho unabashedly, ignoring the intense stares of
confusion, elatedness, and melancholy directed upon him by his
traveling companions.

As the Ice Queen stood up, Titan and Deux flanked her from either side
while Hirou took up the rear, unfurling their wings as a sort of
warning gesture for the half-youko to back off. Fang, meanwhile, spat
on the ground and stood aside Kurama's path, his arms outstretched
towards the Wondrous Witch in a mocking manner.

"That's a strange thing for you to say, considering the fact that you've
sent out various armies of wild beasts to kill us," Kurama boldly said.
"I'm being honest with my feelings here, and I merely wish that you be
honest with yours as well."

"Come to think of it... Yeah, that Chiho chick really is acting a bit
weird for a female despot," Kuwabara reckoned as he scratched his black,
wide-brimmed hat--the only part of his garish costume he left on--in 
contemplation. "Why welcome us here in her palace after nearly trying to
kill us in the first place? Is this some sort of trap?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Chiho casually countered
without missing a beat. "You were merely seeing the natural dangers
found within the Land of Oz, nothing more. In fact, I've actually sent
my Seraphs to rescue you from further harm."

"Your Seraphs nearly killed all of us!" Yusuke bellowed. "I would say
that dropping me into a ravine full of sharp rocks is considered more
than just an attempt to end my life!" From behind Chiho, Hirou's mask
of indifference almost cracked; a strange layer of emotion seemed to
stir inside the Seraphic Leader, lying somewhere beneath his features
but not affecting the muscles of his skin.

"But you're still alive, aren't you? All of you. If I really wanted to
kill you, then the Seraphs would have already done so," Chiho reasoned.
"What you're saying makes no sense. Why would I want to kill you people?
What would drive me to commit such a heinous act? What would be my
motivation?"

"I agree with what you've said. I know that you didn't wish us true
harm. You're just an average girl, a normal person with no psychotic 
tendencies," Kurama elucidated without a trace of sarcasm in his voice. 
"Nonetheless, it's not unusual for a normal person to fantasize about
killing somebody he hates. Or, at the very least, hurting him; ergo,
this dream."

"Just what are you trying to say, Minamino-sama?" Chiho queried, her
eyes looking at almost every direction except Kurama's. 

"Ayame and the others merely got in the way of your personal fantasy:
this world where you're the supreme ruler and these handsome angels are
your most loyal of servants. And you were right; you never did try to
kill us or give us any obstacle that was far from our capabilities to
handle. You just wanted for us to suffer, me particularly. Yes, it was
me all along whom you've hated the most." 

Chiho held her ground as Kurama approached her. She didn't even so much
as flinch when he lifted his hand and reached for her face, though it
was only to take her chin and raise her head so she couldn't avoid his
eyes. And those very eyes weren't blazing with anger, but were merely
pensive as they gazed down upon her.

"Let go of her, or I'll kill you," Hirou ominously asserted as he
flapped his powerful wings and hovered above the two Meiou High School
students. Just before he could swoop down and forcefully extricate
Kurama away from the Ice Queen, Yusuke had already leaped for the
Seraphic Leader, taking him down to the ground with a lethal cross-body
attack. From there, all hell broke loose.

"It's about time I got payback from what you did to me earlier,
Commander Robot!" Yusuke growled, rearing back to prepare a punch that,
for all intents and purposes, could stop the world. "This isn't the
first time I've fought against an emotionless monster, and like him I'll
kick your ass too."

"Then show me," Hirou goaded, his voice bleak and grim. From there, no
more words were necessary. With swift and powerful punches amidst mutual
pain and agony, Hirou Eye and Yusuke Urameshi struck their respective
blows with all their might.

Yusuke's fist simultaneously connected with Hirou's, resulting in a
shockwave that reverberated all over the Witch's Castle. Finally, under
the recurring assault, the ground exploded, sending dozens of rocks and
hundreds of rock-strewn shards toward the luckless combatants.

The Tin Woodman and the Arch-Seraph fell on the cratered marble floor in
a boneless heap, knocking each other out cold. Indeed, the fight was a
classic case of the irresistible force meeting the immovable object.

Concomitantly, Kuwabara took it upon himself to face Deux Mallow, the
Seraph who had captured him with the help of Ishobus and Ishobima. Even
though he had no weapons readily at hand, he still gamely stepped
forward and blocked the American Seraph's path.

"I am the God of Death, and anyone stupid enough to get near me dies,"
Deux declared with a rather inapt wink and smirk as he playfully saluted
his adversary. "That means you, stupid!"

With that said, the God of Death's mischievous features turned sinister
as his leathery wings suddenly swerved toward Kuwabara, slicing through
the marble floor like razor-sharp death-scythes.

"'God of death', eh? What's that, a male version of Botan?" Kuwabara
quipped before jumping out of harm's way. As the teenager grabbed hold
of his frayed hat to keep it from falling, he shook his head; the way
Deux Mallow carried himself kind of reminded him of a certain 'Wind-
Master' for some strange reason.
 
"Yeah? Well, whoever 'Botan' is, 'God of Death' still sounds way better
than 'Mass-Murdering Hero'," Deux retorted.

"Uh, right. Whatever you say." Kuwabara openly yawned at the cap-wearing
Magnum Wing member as he dodged another attack. "So are we going to swap
one-liners all day or are we going to fight?"

"Way ahead of you, boss." With an astounding burst of speed, Deux flung
himself at the startled Kuwabara in a blink of an eye. The Scarecrow's 
subsequent attempts to defend himself were easily overcome by the agile,
bat-winged Seraph as he mercilessly dealt him blow after painful blow.

"Do you have anything else to say, funnyman?" Deux taunted heedlessly as
he pressed on his advantage. Every split second that followed, the
Seraph struck, and Kuwabara couldn't even catch sight of his attacks. It
started off as little nicks and scratches; soon, these grew into deeper
lesions and lacerations. "Coz here's a one-liner for you; if you want to
stay alive, then don't make me angry."

Kuwabara bit his lip to keep the looming darkness at bay, his whole body
racked with unbearable agony. "This is nothing. I've fought and survived
against Randou, Byakko, the Toguro brothers, Sensui, Yakumo, Chuuku, and
even Urameshi himself. Compared to them, you're a complete sissy! Let me 
demonstrate."

Leaping over Deux's head, the flame-haired young man wrapped his arms
around the batboy's waist and used his weight to send his opponent
flipping into the ground head-first. The resulting impact caused a
volatile explosion that rocked the whole room. A veritable sandstorm
of dust engulfed the pair as an ensuing shower of dirt and debris hit
them both in full force.

Amidst all the chaos, Titan Bloom went about arming himself with a wide
array of throwing knives hidden beneath the thick feathers of his
cerulean wings; one for each knuckle. He afterwards strode straight for
Kurama and Chiho with unremitting determination. 

Ayame, in an act of either supreme courage or sheer stupidity, decided
to stand in Titan's way, her arms and legs spread-eagled as if she were
hanging on Saint Andrew's cross.

"I-I'm not quite sure why I'm doing this, but for good or for ill, I
still believe in S-S-Shu-chan's judgment," she stuttered, her lower lip
trembling after the tremendous effort it took for her to say her chosen
pet name for Kurama. "If he wants to make this dream his own, then so
be it; I'll help him do just that."

"Death is a gift given at birth," the now heavily-armed Titan began,
juggling the blades in his knuckles for effect; they attractively
flashed in the late afternoon light as Ayame swallowed noiselessly. "Are
you prepared to open your present now?"

Before Ayame could even answer, Titan had already thrown all of his
lethal weapons at her. By magic, by trick of the light, or by optical
illusion, the ten flying daggers multiplied into the hundreds, turning
into an upsurge of screeching metal while screaming bloody murder at the 
defenseless young girl.  

Just then, the usually composed and peaceful Wren Tranquir cartwheeled
into the scene, brandished two overly large scimitars from behind him,
and pirouetted into a whirling dervish of feathers and metal as he
blocked, parried, and deflected each and every last knife out of
Ayame's path.

The side-burned girl's knees involuntary buckled underneath her as she
held back a sob of relief. She worriedly glanced back and forth at the
two fierce warriors before her. Looking at them now, she could not
believe that this was the same Titan Bloom who claimed that he was once
a clown, and the same Wren Tranquir who blamed everything on himself so
much that, if given the chance, he'd claim responsibility for the lack
of air in space.

"What are you doing, Wren?" Titan calmly asked as he perplexedly raised
an eyebrow at his fellow Magnum Wing Elite. "Are you, for some inane
reason, playacting as Balinese's proxy? Well don't, because we have no
need for another chivalry-obsessed lunatic."

"Nothing so complicated; I'm merely here to protect the Witch's friend."
Wren motioned for Ayame to get up, and once the girl wordlessly
complied, he valiantly pointed his twin arched swords at Titan's
direction. "For the Witch's sake, I will not let you harm one hair on
this girl's head."

"Be reasonable. The Witch's 'friend' is keeping me from saving the Witch
from the red-haired one," Titan impatiently retorted as he brandished a
fresh batch of throwing knives from the ether beneath his feathered
cloak. "Get your priorities straight. If you're here to protect the
Witch's friend, then I'm here to protect the Witch's best interests."
 
"There's no point in debating about that now. This is one argument where
I would never agree with you. Simply put, if you even lay one hand on
Ayame, I will attack you," Wren avowed, punctuating his statement by
crossing his scimitars together, to which Titan snorted.

"I'm so disappointed in you, Wren. I expected better from you." With no
further ceremony, the cerulean-winged Seraph proceeded to attack with a 
soundless fury that would have put a mute wolverine to shame, targeting
Wren's dove wings, throat and eyes with his inexhaustible supply of
daggers.  

Wren swung his sword and nicked Titan on the face just as he warded off
several knives with his other blade. The spiky-haired birdman barely
seemed to acknowledge the injury, but he was thrown off for a moment.

Wren pressed his attack, only to jerk back in pain when Titan lashed out
and injured his marble-white shoulder. The blond angel leapt up and flew
away, moving like a blur and trying to find an opening in his opponent's
guard.
 
As Ayame backpedaled from the intense fight between the pair of Seraph
Elite, she accidentally bumped into a cross-looking Weichu Fang. Caught
in his sweltering headlight glare, she froze and stared at him in doe-
eyed terror. 'Oh no. Not again.'

Fang grunted at Ayame in irritation. To him, the Witch's so-called
friend was a weak, noisy, and feebleminded girl who was incapable of
even the most elementary feats of cognition or thought. 'Birds of a
feather and all that.'  

Nevertheless, in a condescending tone, he reassured the girl: "Consider
yourself lucky, wench. I don't fight bleeding hearts or women; I'm just
here to enjoy the show. Now get out of my face before I change my mind."

Seeing that all five of the great Magnum Wings were currently
'preoccupied', the rest of the Legion of Seraphs started to congregate
at the center of bedlam in order to protect their Ice Queen. But in the
middle of their march, they saw something that stopped them dead in
their tracks; an unexpected and bizarre spectacle. 

Unperturbed by the latest turn of events, the usually reserved and
soft-spoken Kurama took hold of Chiho's hand and genuflected in front of
her, kneeling in apparent veneration. "I appreciate all that you've done
for me: forming the Legion in honor of me, calling my name with 'sama'
attached to it, and all but putting me on a pedestal. But I know you too
well, Chiho-san."

Chiho laughed nervously and looked away from Kurama's piercing gaze.
"What do mean by that, Minamino-sama? I have no idea what you're talking
about." 

"You can't hide the truth from me. Though you didn't want to kill me,
you still wanted to do something far worse than that. You wanted to hurt
me, and you want to continue on hurting me," Kurama patently declared.
"It's because all this time, you've hated me with all your heart."

Had he not been preoccupied at the moment, Kuwabara would have (after
falling face first on the ground in bewilderment) quipped, "Well, duh!" 
Likewise, had Yusuke been awake, he would have retorted in kind, "What
the hell was your first clue?" 

But as for Ayame--the only person other than Kurama and Midori who knew
Chiho personally--she let out a gasp of incredulity. "T-That's crazy,
Minamino-kun! Chiho doesn't hate you! In fact, I've heard that she..."
she started, but the Ice Queen silenced her with a wave of her royal
finger. 

Kurama continued his discourse undeterred. "As the daughter of the
Principal of Meiou High School, you were always under pressure to live
up to the high expectations of your father and all the people around
you. Classmates, teachers, and even your entire family envisioned great
things from you; success was a given, and failure was never an option.
You were always the leader, and you were always supposed to set an
example to all the other students... Isn't that right, Sasae Chiho-san?"

Almost immediately, Chiho's placid and bubbly demeanor turned sour. The
Ice Queen's sharp eyes regarded the half-youko with impatient disdain,
as if they were challenging him to continue.

"The Sasae Family is a family of winners. You were raised to believe
that you can always get whatever it is your heart desires if you want it
bad enough, but that doesn't necessarily make you a spoiled brat; you
work hard, almost to the point of obsession, to earn your keep." Kurama
let go of Chiho's hand and looked straight into her cold, irate eyes.
"But even after all your hard work, I still dumped you, didn't I?"

Ayame froze in place after hearing Kurama's impassioned assertion, the
hairs on the back of her neck standing on end. She had only heard rumors
about Minamino's rejection of Chiho, or even about Chiho's romantic
feelings for Minamino, since Chiho herself never talked to her about it.
On that note, she recalled hearing about a related incident last
summer... during the Legion of Minamino's annual summer picnic... where
Chiho actually slapped Midori Ohya for bringing up the so-called
'rejection' rumor. "So the rumors were true after all," she gasped.

Chiho reacted most curiously to Kurama's words, her pale face shifting
to variegating shades of red; from embarrassed pink, to fuming scarlet,
to indignant burgundy. "Is that what you think this is all about? Give
me a break."

"It's interesting to see how you deal with frustrations, Chiho-san,"
Kurama observed.

"I'm furious, not frustrated," she scoffed hotly, feeling a bit bothered
by the fact that her words came out a bit too rushed. "There's a
difference."

"You're upset," he stressed, "because I turned you down."

"Don't flatter yourself," she snorted. "What you made me feel was next
to nothing and forgotten already."

"Again, you tell me untruths. Shall I prove it?"

"If I hadn't seen you act like a jerk with my own eyes, then I would
never have believed it! What has gotten into you, Minamino-kun?" The
Witch stamped her feet once and loomed over the crouching Kurama, her
lips pressed together so tightly they could have been mistaken for
sinews from a piece of thread. "Go ahead! Do your worst. You'll get
nothing out of me."  

Soon enough, before either Kurama or Chiho even noticed, everybody's
attention was focused on the two of them.

Though they were still in the middle of their wrestling match, their
limbs hopelessly entangled, Kuwabara and Deux stopped in mid-grapple and 
eavesdropped attentively on the heated proceedings. Titan and Wren also
followed suit, sheathing their respective weapons and turning towards
the two classmates. Meanwhile, Yusuke and Hirou were already conscious
by then, awakened by the stirring declarations and outright denials.

Almost uncharacteristically, Kurama stood up and brusquely held Chiho by
the shoulder, which made a couple of nearby Seraphs tense up and inch
towards him portentously. Chiho tried to step back from the kitsune, but
his grip merely tightened. "If you want proof, then it's been in front
of you all this time. It's the Legion; the Legion that you dedicated to
me is proof beyond reasonable doubt that you were bitter about my
rejection of you."

Fidgeting for about a quarter of a second before altogether letting out
a warbling cross between a laugh and a snort, Chiho quibbled, "That's
the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard in my life. If anything, the
Legion is all the proof _I_ need to show everyone that you're
completely wrong about me." 

The Witch exhaled the breath she didn't realize she was holding, licked
her lips, and gazed down on the marble floor in contemplation. "I was
able to get over your rejection enough to form an entire fan club
dedicated to you. How can somebody who allegedly hates you do that?"

The Legion: There was a reason behind the kitschy name--it wasn't just a 
throwaway moniker of some sort. The fan club literally was a legion;
groups within a group where everyone unified into one collective body,
an inexorable horde of Shuichi Minamino admirers. 

There were the cross-dressers--people who liked the way Minamino carried
himself in his uniform, looking both chic and cool at the same time--who
took Minamino worship to 'a whole new level' by dressing up like him.
Then there was the freshmen group, composed of not only the first years,
but several junior high students that weren't even in Meiou High yet.
Then there were the sophomores and the seniors, the Fashion Club which
was Chiho's original club before it was inevitably 'absorbed' by the
Legion, the Music Club that desperately wanted to jumpstart Minamino's
'career' as a rock star, the "Boy's Love" Club that wanted Minamino to
finally 'come out of the closet' and some such (Chiho personally liked
that group) and even a Paranormal Club which kept on insisting that
Minamino was actually a youko taking residence in the body of a human,
of all the nonsense. Minamino's appeal apparently catered to even the
lowest common denominator, it seemed. 

It was tough work, but somehow Chiho Sasae had organized everything and
everyone within the Legion, making them a formidable force to be
reckoned with indeed. There were times when Chiho wondered if the Legion 
was even bigger than Minamino himself; bigger than the very reason for 
the fan club's existence. 

Kurama coughed once to coax the Wondrous Witch out of her brief reverie.
Once he was sure he had her complete attention, he maintained, "The
Legion is not an indication that you've forgiven or forgotten. The
opposite is instead true. The Legion is a manifestation of everything
you hate and loathe the most, which is me. You, Sasae Chiho, a girl who
got everything she wanted up until that point, wanted revenge. But you
wanted to conduct your vengeance in your own unique way, so you became
passive-aggressive about it."

"Oh-ho. So now I was being 'passive-aggressive', huh? Do you even
realize just how pretentious that sounds?" Unfazed, the Witch whisked
her left hand into a pointing gesture, as if she were holding a whip, in
challenge of Kurama's contentions. "You don't know a thing about me."

"Maybe. But then again, perhaps I know you more than you know yourself."
Kurama's grass-green eyes were clear and cloudless, his gaze dead level.
"True, you've handled your anger towards me in a very constructive
fashion, but the manner by which you expressed it doesn't hide the fact
that it's there. Your actions during that time weren't that of a girl
who was merely idolizing a fellow student; it was more of a girl who had
just been dumped. Your over-the-top 'worship' of me is your personal
little in-joke to which I was the butt of. You became a girl of
opposites when it came to me; every smile, every wink, every appellation
of 'sama' to my name concealed a gleeful, almost childish hatred that
you thought only you knew of."

Murmurs of either assent or disagreement started to fill the enclosed
spaces of the Wizard's Workshop as the Winged Seraphs debated amongst
themselves in hushed tones. In the sidelines, Ayame blearily rubbed her
cheek and pursed her lips in thought just as the battle-weary Tin
Woodman and Scarecrow joined her. "Y'know, Minamino-kun has a point.
Chiho-san, for as long as I've known her, has always operated this way;
she really is that passive-aggressive."

The girl of dreams helplessly shrugged. "I'm no better a psychologist
than Minamino-kun is, but the Legion of Minamino-sama is definitely a
good sign of just how passive-aggressive Chiho-san really is. They've...
well, actually, _we've_...  been a thorn in Minamino-kun's side ever
since our fan club's inception. To think, the Legion was so obsessed
with Minamino-kun that a good portion of us actually chased down one of
our own members, a cross-dressing Minamino look-alike, during the annual
summer picnic! I'm not quite sure how that came about 'coz I wasn't
there myself, but I'm guessing the scorching summer heat had something
to do with it."

Unnoticed by the young girl, Yusuke, Kuwabara, and the eponymous
Minamino suppressed a collective shudder after remembering their
infamous encounter with the aforesaid Legion many months ago.

"It's not just her, though. All girls are like her on some level or
another. Just why is that? For once, girls should be frank and say what
they mean," the half-naked Scarecrow groused.

"Of course you'd say that. You wouldn't know subtleness if it bit you in
the butt!" Ayame rejoined. 

"Ah, but if it did bite me in the butt, then it wouldn't be subtleness,
now would it?" Kuwabara 'riposted' smugly.

At that point, Ayame looked as if Kuwabara had just punched her in the
face and then told her that he loved her. After what seemed to be a
silent eternity, she eventually conceded, "I'm sorry... I'm so sorry
that you're such an idiot."

"Isn't it also true that you view the Legion as something that's even
beyond myself? Like Ayame-san said, the Legion has been a thorn in my
side from the very start, and you took advantage of that very thorn to 
reestablish yourself as the so-called 'Ice Queen' of Meiou High," Kurama
informed the Witch matter-of-factly.

The look in Chiho's wide, hazel eyes spoke volumes.

"Huh? 'Reestablish' what? Just what in the blue hell is Kurama talking
about, Ayame-san?" Yusuke queried Ayame, who merely tilted her head at
the half-demon and gave her red-haired classmate an odd, almost
disturbed gaze.

"So let me get this straight; by 'Ice Queen', you mean that this psycho-
groupie was some sort of socialite royalty back in your school? Like the
most popular girl or something?" Kuwabara postulated rhetorically as he
raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Surely you jest."

Speaking mostly in regards to the brimming emotion behind the Witch's
candid eyes, Kurama acknowledged Chiho's unsaid suspicions. "No, I
haven't forgotten that, once upon a time, you were a manipulative,
sadistic, backstabbing user who liked to set others up in awkward
situations for kicks and spite, lacking of any moral compunctions
whatsoever even for family, with an unparalleled and voracious appetite
for popularity and influence."

"How dare you! I have half the mind to slap you right now!" the Ice
Queen squealed with rage, but the kitsune spirit didn't even so much as
flinch.

"For the telling the truth? Then go ahead and slap me," Kurama dared,
which left the Witch fuming.

Unbeknownst even to herself, Ayame unthinkingly nodded in concurrence to
Kurama's claims. The Chiho she knew from three years back would have
given even Masami, the Legion's ambitious Vice-President and Midori
Ohya's personal tormentor, a run for her money.

Kurama pointed an accusatory finger at the Witch in parody of her
favorite gesture. "But then you changed your evil ways, Chiho-san; and
with that change came inevitable difficulties and hardships. Nobody was
willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. The only people you could
turn to during that time of great need were Ayame-san, Midori-san, and
myself; me especially."

Chiho had had enough; her patience was finally spent. "If you have a
point, then get to it quickly."

"You, Sasae Chiho, a girl who just recently turned a new leaf and was
doing her very best to gain back the trust of everyone around her, felt
betrayed by the very person who prompted your change in the first place.
So you went back to your old ways and formed the Legion to get your
revenge on me and scare all your detractors and enemies into submission.
You were hitting two birds with a hail of stones in the guise of a fan
club, and you couldn't have been happier."

"Please. Do you now think yourself as some sort of Sigmund Freud or
Morita Shoma? Stop trying to pose as a shrink," the Witch derided as
Kurama's hurtful words made her visibly bristle. "Like I said, you don't
know a thing about me... and, apparently, I didn't know you as well as I
thought." 

Chiho's eyebrows creased together in either barely-contained vehemence
or abject woe. "Whatever happened to the kind, caring, and compassionate 
Minamino Shuichi? This Minamino before me is...." Before she could stop
herself, her mouth bitterly blurted out, "This is not the Minamino I
fell in love with."

"The Minamino you had in your mind was and is just a mere illusion. The
Minamino that the Legion so highly admired was nothing more than a lie."
Kurama had a peculiar, almost miserable look on his face as he said the
words; for some strange reason, it felt depressing for him to admit that
he wasn't really Shuichi Minamino. "If anything, this false Minamino
served as a litmus test to reveal to you and to everyone else your true
self."

The Witch gave Kurama one of the coldest, most intense stares he had
ever experienced. "So what are you trying to say? That I used this
alleged hate of mine to further my own agenda? That I exploited and
victimized you and many others by forming the Legion? That I'm a
naturally bad person? Is that what you're insinuating, Minamino?"

"Nothing of the sort; the existence of the Legion merely proved that the
great Ice Queen of Meiou High was nothing more than an angry and
brokenhearted girl who wanted to get even with the guy who dumped her."

"That's so mean, Minamino-kun! How could you--?" Ayame began, but was
cut short by the rapid gunshot crack of Chiho's right hand coming into
contact with Kurama's left cheek.

The stiff and crisp slap crackled on the redhead's face. "Shut up! SHUT
UP! What you're saying is utter nonsense! Lies! And you still have no
proof to back any of it up." And yet, for someone who supposedly wasn't
an angry and brokenhearted girl, Chiho frothed at Kurama with absolute 
lividness.

"I'm sorry, but I don't agree. With all due respect, you have to speak
from the heart and act on your true feelings." The fox spirit gingerly
rubbed the stinging handprint on his cheek. From there, the coldness
of his eyes and voice gradually thawed in lieu of recent events. "I have
no intention of hurting you, Chiho-san, but what needs to be said has to
be said. Believe it or not, it pains me to say all these things as much
as it pains you to hear it. But... circumstances have forced me to clear
the air once and for all. It's about time we had closure." 

Chiho looked at Kurama with a blank, pokerfaced stare as she cradled her
hands underneath her bosom. She opened her mouth as if she was just
about to say something, but thought the better of it at the last minute.

'I understand now; Shu-chan is acting cruel to be kind.' Ayame blinked
back the sympathetic moistness in her eyes. 'The pain of having your
heart hollowed out by hurtful words, and the pain of having to hurt a
girl you refuse to recognize as your enemy; for both of them, this war
of words is much more painful than both of Urameshi-kun's fights with
Hirou-san combined.'

"You've kept on asking me for proof, and you kept waving off all my
reasons as lies. But let me ask you this: Can you prove my contentions 
otherwise?" Kurama rationalized, almost challenged.

Finally, after a lengthy, pregnant pause, the Witch swallowed her pride
and whispered, "No," then was amazed to hear Kurama confess, "I could
not prove it either. Not conclusively, in any case. But we'll never know
the truth until we ask."

"Ask?" Chiho parroted inquisitively.

"As in ask ourselves whatever it is we want to know about each other;
good, relevant questions that'll help us understand one another better."
The half-youko smiled wanly at the kowtowed Ice Queen. "I offer no
simple answers, but I can at least give you truthful ones."

Chiho mulled over Kurama's offer for some time. Subvocalized some,
considered it some more; agonized just short of writing depressing
poetry. Then, with a bat of her eyelids and a sigh, she humored him.
"Okay then. Here's my burning question: Just why exactly did you dump
me, Minamino-kun?"

Bracing himself, Kurama shut his bespectacled eyes for a second, turned
towards Chiho and softly breathed out, "Because you fell in love with a
false Minamino Shuichi. Such infatuation for a nonexistent person is
ultimately an exercise in futility."

Chiho shook her head in disbelief. "As always, you're still playing the
role of the selfless, do-gooder martyr. Even up until now your 'paragon
of virtue' gimmick doesn't fail to boggle my mind."

Kurama chuckled lightly at the Witch's remark. "That's an interesting
way of putting it."

After all was said and done, Chiho threw her head back and began to
cackle. It was a wild, screeching laugh that stretched on for much
longer than should have been possible without needing breath. "Well
played, Minamino-sama. Well played. It's true. It's all true. I hated
you for dumping me, and I used the Legion against you, the poor saps.
But tell me, what of it? Where does this 'revelation' leave us now? What
more can you possibly add at this point?"

"Something that I should have told you a long time ago." Kurama knelt
down in front of Chiho for a second time, took hold of the trembling
right hand she used to slap him with, and kissed it softly with his
half-parted lips. "I'm sorry."

Chiho did a chirruping double take as her mouth went agape; she berated
herself for acting so predictable, but how else was she supposed to
react? There was Minamino, kneeling in front of her and holding her hand
as if he were about to propose to her, and he might as well have done
just that, judging by her reaction. "W-W-What?"

"I wish I could have said it before, but the opportunity never presented
itself, what with the Legion's antics and... some very personal things
that were happening in my life at the time. Also, I wish I can somehow
do something to relieve this burning hatred you have of me. If only--"

Chiho put her finger on Kurama's lips to hush him. "Enough's enough. I
already slapped the taste out of your mouth before I even realized it,
Minamino-sama; you had that coming for a _long_ time, and I wanted to do
that to you for, like, forever."

The Witch impishly winked. "But it didn't feel as good as hearing you
apologize to me, though. And how can I possibly stay angry at the one
guy who accepts me the way I really am, even though I just happen to be
a 'manipulative, sadistic, backstabbing user who likes to set others up
in awkward situations for kicks and spite'? Indeed, Minamino-sama is
the only one for me." Kurama's smile became a bit strained at that
point.

To Chiho Sasae, Minamino was always the man. People had seldom heard her
mention him under any other name than 'Minamino-sama'. In fact, she only
ever did so in this unrealistic, pseudo-dream sequence. In her eyes, and
even with all her supposed bitterness and hatred, he would forevermore
eclipse and predominate the whole of his sex. 

Minamino had everything she could ever hope for in a boy--no, a young
man: good looks, a charming personality, not overly brusque nor so
delicate and frail, sensitive and mysterious. He had a demeanor that his
fellow 'men' could never see but was readily apparent to the average
teenage girl; he was the epitome of cool.

Now, whether or not Minamino possessed all these qualities was debatable
at best. Perhaps facts were embellished, and the 'perfect young man'
traits that he did possess could have been magnified to unbelievable
proportions by his myriad of admirers. Maybe she did fall in love with a
false Minamino. But as far as she was concerned, hands down, unrequited
love or not, Shuichi Minamino was the perfect guy. 

Chiho flicked the tip of Kurama's nose with the finger she used to
silence him. "Besides, your debt has already been paid with interest;
the simple fact that the nefarious Legion still exists is proof of
that," the Witch laughed out loud at her own joke, and Kurama had enough
good humor to laugh along with her. "I've already had my revenge, so I
see no reason to stay angry at you. Besides, it's such a silly thing to
keep inside my chest for so long."

"I'm glad to hear it. Oh, before I forget, it's now my turn to ask you a
question," Kurama grinningly informed. "So, Chiho-san, will you now keep
your promise from a couple of years back to change yourself for the
better? Or will you simply return to your, for lack of a better term,
'evil ways'?"

Chiho thought for all of three seconds before replying, "Of course I'm
going to go back to my evil ways; being a do-gooder sucks."

Amidst Kurama's hearty giggles, Ayame incredulously cried out, "CHIHO-
CHAN! Have you lost your mind?" as her eyes flitted back and forth at
her so-called friends in utter bemusement. "You promised to me, Midori-
chan, and Minamino-kun that you'd be a good girl from now on! And stop
laughing, Minamino-kun! This isn't funny!" As if on cue, the redhead
chuckled even harder.

"'Lost my mind'?" reiterated Chiho with a puzzled look. "Oh, I see. You
mean that people ought to keep their promises. Very true: most right and
proper, I'm sure, and I'm very glad you've been taught to do that."

The Ice Queen smirked, a flicker of her old cheekiness returning. "But
of course you must understand that rules of this sort, however excellent
they may be for little children, servants, women, and even people in
general, can't possibly be expected to apply to the elite, the beautiful
people, and the great thinkers."

The Witch bowed her head in lamentation of her fate. "No, people like me
and Minamino-kun, who possess great wisdom, are freed from common rules
just as we are from common pleasures. Ours, Aya-chan, is a high and
lonely destiny."

Ayame balked at the sheer audacity of Chiho's sermon before whining in a
high-pitched and shrilly voice, "S-So you lied?" 

"Well, of course I did. What did you expect?" Chiho harrumphed as she
wagged her finger and shook her head at Ayame condescendingly. "What's
so great about the truth anyway? The truth hurts people--try lying for a
change. It's the currency of the world."

"Let Chiho-san be, Ayame-san. She's only being true to herself," Kurama
cooed to the dumbstruck young woman once he recovered from his laughing
fit. 

"You people are sick," Kuwabara chastised the pair as Yusuke casually 
whistled. Meanwhile, a palpable buzz hummed in the air as the Seraphs
murmured to themselves in agreement with the Scarecrow's assertion.

Kurama rhythmically moved his hands up and down in front of the
Scarecrow and the Tin Woodsman as a sort of calming gesture. "It took
her long enough to figure things out. If this just happens to be her
truth, then so be it."

"Oh, listen to yourself! Her 'truth' is that it's okay to lie!" Kuwabara
and Ayame irately chorused, to their mutual surprise and chagrin; this
might possibly be the first and last time they agreed about something.

"But it really is okay to lie! Besides, I'm sick and tired of trying to
convince everyone that I'm not lying; let them figure things out for
themselves, for once." Chiho shrugged. "Also, since this is a dream,
everything you see before you isn't real anyway; the Seraphs, the
Weldard Brothers, the Howaidu Kurosu, the Magnum Wings, and even the
'Wondrous Witch' are all but mere fancy. Heck, the Emerald City isn't
even really green."

Ayame blinked. "The Emerald City isn't really green? But everything
we've seen so far is green. Even the lemonade's green! And if it weren't
for these darn wraparound glasses, we would've been blinded by the
city's... sheer greenness!"

"The Emerald City is no greener than any other city," replied Chiho;
"but when you wear green spectacles, of course everything you see looks
green to you. If you read the book carefully--and not one of those
condensed Wizard of Oz children's books, mind you--you'd know that
making everyone wear green eyeglasses was just one of the Wizard's many
tricks. Also, the Ozites have worn glasses so long that most of them
think it really is an Emerald City. Just who am I to break tradition?"

Yusuke's eyebrows furrowed as he fumbled with his spectacles, appearing
as if he had just noticed them for the first time since he put them on.
With a mighty tug, he broke the lock, pulled the glasses off of his face
and, for the first time, saw the Wizard's Workshop with just his own
eyes. "Son of a gun! She's right. That's quite a sneaky trick you got
there."

"Well, I for one think you've been a bad girl, Chiho-san," said Ayame as
she made a clucking sound with her tongue; "a very bad girl."

"Oh no, my dear; though I'm not really that much of a good girl in the
first place, that's nothing compared to how bad I am at being a witch,"
Chiho willed herself to admit while sheepishly gnawing the tip of her
thumbnail. "I guess I'm just as 'wondrous' a witch as Oz was as
'wonderful' a wizard, huh?"

"'Witch' isn't the word I had in mind, but it rhymes with that," Yusuke
quipped as he crossed his arms together.

"Aw, gee whiz! So does that mean you can't give me any brains?" asked
the Scarecrow mockingly before stretching his arms out and hobbling like
a stereotypical zombie. "Braaaaiiins..."

"'You don't need them. You are learning something every day. A baby has
brains, but it doesn't know much. Experience is the only thing that
brings knowledge, and the longer you are on earth, the more experience
you are sure to get,'" Kurama quoted, word for word from the Wonderful
Wizard of Oz, to Kuwabara. "Seriously though, I'm glad that you've
been accepted in Meiou High. Good for you, Kuwabara-kun."

An inaudible mental click snapped inside Kurama's head as he pounded
his fist into his open palm. "I understand this dream's symbolism now.
It's not about politics, outdated propaganda pieces, or the proper
parity of gold and silver: this dream we're sharing is Shigeru-kun's 
interpretation of how I see the people around me. This indeed is the
poltergeist phenomenon in action."

Everyone, including the surrounding Seraphs, just stared at Kurama,
dumbstruck beyond words. For a second, they all thought Kurama had gone
berserk and was babbling something about horror movies. "Poltergeist?
Shigeru who?" Nobody knew exactly who aired these questions, but that
was the general sentiment of everyone present.

"Shigeru-kun! Amano Shigeru is Minamino-kun's most loyal admirer!" 
realized Ayame. "What about Shinko-chan? Didn't we already have this
conversation in the middle of the yellow brick road?" 

Kurama nodded to Ayame, then expounded his ideas further, seemingly
thinking aloud. "I'm talking about the symbolism found in Shigeru-kun
and Chiho-san's shared dream: Yusuke, like the Tin Woodman, is also
dehumanized--a half-demon who's struggling to balance his demon self and
his human self; Kuwabara-kun, like the Scarecrow, is slowly discovering
that his intelligence truly has no limits," Ayame raised an eyebrow at
that statement.

"Then there's you, Ayame-san, who for a long time hadn't the courage to
make your dreams your own, just like the lion; and Chiho-san, who, by
not being true to herself, has become a charlatan and a fraud in her own
unique way that's not so different from the Humbug Wizard of Oz."

"Gee, thanks. I always wanted to be called a charlatan and a fraud by
the boy of my dreams," Chiho drolly expressed her 'gratitude' to the
redheaded specter. "Whether you're acting like a do-gooder or a jerk,
you still don't fail to confuse and bewilder me."

Kazuma Kuwabara paused for about a second before waving his arms in
wild arcs and rapidly shaking his head in disbelief. "Wait a minute.
Hold the udon. So this whole dream, this whole world of Oz, was nothing
more than a deranged fantasy from two of your most obsessed groupies?"
he exclaimed in outrage.

"Pretty much," the Tin Woodman hanyou answered for Kurama as the demon
fox rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. 

The Scarecrow heaved an exasperated sigh. "Dammit, Kurama, your fans are 
completely fucked up!" 

But no one, not one of those present inside the workshop behind the
Witch's Throne Room, reacted more violently to Kurama's announcement
than Weichu Fang. The Chinese Seraph jerked his head back as if he were
electrocuted; there was something swift and savage in the movement.

"A-A dream? So you mean to tell me that _everything_ I know as real is
just part of some crazy, deranged dream from the bowels of this Wicked
Witch's twisted mind?" Fang practically frothed in the mouth as he
pointed a reproachful finger at the apathetic and unimpressed Ice Queen.
"All that suffering, hardship, and humiliation I endured was for
_nothing_?"

"In general, this dream is mostly Chiho-san's, but it's currently housed
in Amano Shigeru's subconscious," Kurama corrected, "so technically,
it's Shigeru-kun who's dreaming Chiho-san's..."

"ENOUGH! Shut up! I have had ENOUGH! Who cares who dreamed this stupid
dream? And why the hell should I even believe you in the first place? I 
certainly am _not_ some insignificant figment of her or anybody else's
imagination! None of us Seraphs are!" Fang's voice had risen shrill,
nearly hysterical; it was also stern and sad, and somehow vindictive. 

Also, he had spoken as if from a deep, grudgingly silent, long-
bewildered sorrow. The Seraphs heard the words exploding in silence.
They wanted to turn away and not see the face of their comrade. But they
could neither move nor look away; Fang's reddened, condemning eyes held
them, each and every one of them, where they were. They all seemed
rooted on the spot.

"Oh, get a grip, Fang-chan. You should be flattered by the fact that a
gorgeous vision of a girl dreamed you and the rest of your fellow
dreamboats up," Chiho flippantly rationalized as she put a hand on her
hips and idly fanned her face with her other hand. "I mean, really,
worshipping me as your own personal goddess and savior is about as good
as it'll ever get for any of you, honey."

"No. NO. NO! You may have created me, but you will never enslave me!
This cannot be my DESTINY!" Fang snarled dangerously as he unfurled his
falcon wings, brought forth his lethal, dragon-fanged trident, and
prepared to attack. 

Without further ceremony and before anyone could even react, Fang
charged headlong and whirled on the Ice Queen in uncontrollable rage; he
hauled the wretched girl up by the front of her dress, threw her high up
in the air, flew right after her and impaled the barbed tips of his
weapon into her falling body.

He spread his wings as they fell backwards, straining against the
momentum they'd accumulated in their descent. For a moment, it felt like
his wings would snap under the stress, but he flapped them with all his
might, roaring with the effort. He conquered their inertia, and he went
flying just as he let the Ice Queen's limp body flop down on the marble
floor and slide through a pool of her own blood, his trident's long
handle protruding just above her chest.

Suddenly, Ayame's eyes went wide with horror at the sight of what lay
before them. "Oh no. Oh God, please," she croaked, her throat
constricting. "CHIHO-CHAN!"

Kurama was the first person to get to Chiho's fallen form; Yusuke and
Kuwabara hastily followed suit. In the meantime, the blood quickly
drained from Ayame's paling face as she suffered from the effects of
shellshock.

After landing, Weichu Fang gasped for a moment in disorientation then
exuberantly declared, "I did it. I can't believe that I did it, but I
did it! I killed the Wicked Witch! Everyone...!"

Imagine Fang's surprise when the silence of a nearly empty room greeted
him in return. There was a terrible hush as the peculiar scene unfolded
before the baffled Chinese boy with infinite slowness. "Huh? What
happened? Where is everyone?" his voice echoed inside the empty, yawning
halls of the Wizard's Workshop.

He looked up and saw scattered squalls of colorful feathers raining down
on him. He looked down and saw puddles of leather garments strewn all
over the floor. Hitherto, there had not been a single Seraph in sight;
it was as if everyone just vanished into thin air. "Just what the hell's
going on here?"

A tiny flicker of hope flashed inside the roiling depths of Fang's
uncertainty after he caught sight of his fellow Magnum Wings shambling
towards him. They were crawling on all fours for some strange reason.
"My brothers! What are you doing down there? Stand up! This is the time
to celebrate. The oppressive regime of the Wicked Witch has come to an
end, all thanks to me."

"You fool. You've damned us all," rasped Hirou Eye as he flinched in
soundless agony. Now Fang was really worried; a flinch from his
commanding officer was the rough equivalent of a hysterical, maddening
banshee wail from a normal person who was burning to death. Apparently,
the Magnum Wings were wrought with so much pain that they've lost the
ability to stand on their own power.

"I'm sorry to say, Fang, but Kurama is right. We really are just
figments of the Witch's imagination. You know the saying, 'The dreamer
may die, but the dream is eternal'? It's actually the other way around;
the dream cannot exist without the dreamer. Ergo, we Seraphs, and the
rest of this unfortunate world, cannot exist without the Witch,"
elucidated Wren Tranquir as the feathers of his pristine dove wings
withered and fell like the autumnal leaves of a tree.

"You've had a lousy life, Fang. But I'd bet that you'd give anything 
to live another second. I know I would," Deux Mallow gibed before
doubling over and coughing up a wad of coagulated blood; his whole body
faded into nothingness shortly thereafter, leaving only his clothes and
his ridiculous black cap behind.

Realization struck Weichu Fang hard as he felt his own existence start
to ebb away, the very fabric of his being ripped apart by its seams. "My
God, what have I done?" were his last words before he expired
altogether.

"This is such an embarrassing way to die," Titan Bloom lamented before
his imaginary body and soul also evaporated in the blink of an eye. 

The Wizard's Workshop fell silent: it was an unnerving calm usually
felt within the depths of undisturbed crypts or before the unremitting
wrath of an incoming storm. Then it happened. The Throne Room exploded
with the fury of the second pillar of light. The walls around the
castle blinked out of existence in an instant; in another moment, the
Wizard's Workshop and the Throne Room itself became dust. Still the
light spread. It filled the palace; it spread beyond. The streets of the
Emerald City became luminous rivers.

With a howl of frustrated vehemence, the city shook, crumbled, and 
groaned, unable to tolerate the deadly light. Before long, the Emerald
City, the Kingdoms of the North, South, East, and West, and the entire
Land of Oz burst into inconsequence. Soon, a dark, empty space, the 
effervescent second pillar of light, the four wanderers, and the injured
Ice Queen were the only ones that remained in the fractured dream.

Chiho stirred, unaware of what had happened to the complex world she
birthed out from her flight of fancy. She then heard voices.

"Wake up, Chiho-san! WAKE UP! Oh Inari, please...." It was Minamino's
voice. The hazy image in front of her was definitely him; he with the
shiny, rose-red hair that looked like crimson embers to her blurry eyes.
She subsequently heard other voices: strained and anxious ones.

"Kurama! Don't panic, man. Just don't... panic."

"Oh, God. I may not like her, but even she doesn't deserve _this_."

Then she heard crying. It was a quiet and hushed sob from the first
true friend she ever had, one of the few people who could still trust
her even after she admitted that she would rather lie than tell the
truth when given the chance. Ayame... her dear, sweet Ayame... was
crying. She was crying for her sake.

Chiho's eyes fluttered open as she struggled against the white-hot
spears of pain impaling her chest, immobilizing her with abject agony.
Once her vision cleared, she took one good look herself and her blood-
drenched clothes and muttered, "Well, this sucks."

Kurama worked himself to a storm as he struggled to regain his mental
and emotional footing. "Hold on, Chiho-san! Everything will be all
right. This is just a dream, and you're not really dying, so--"

"...So you better go," the Witch quietly stated, shuddering slightly.
"It's about time you left this place, Minamino-sama."

"What? No! I can't leave you..."

"Didn't you just say that this is all a dream?" she snapped, though it
came out more like a wispy, defeated sigh. "I'll be fine. We've resolved 
everything that needed to be resolved between the two of us, and I'm sure
that you still have a long journey ahead of you." 

"Stop being so ridiculous! I...!"

She pressed a finger to his lips. "Trust me. I know what I'm doing."

He looked at her and searched her eyes. Slowly he nodded in agreement,
and she let her finger slide away from his lips. On impulse, he caught
the tip of her finger between his lips for a second, and then let it go.
They both blushed at the act of inadvertent intimacy.

Kurama subsequently gasped as he saw something... a stray memory of
sorts... flash before his weary eyes.


***


A memory from what seemed to be an eternity ago...

Kurama stared at the ceiling of his room. As a youkai, he had his own
sort of third eye for sensing trouble. But that was usually reserved for
sneak attacks or for recognizing the ki of his enemies during battle.
His sense of premonition in this situation was completely different. A
sense that humans were more familiar with: that feeling of dread when 
something bad was about to happen. Through this feeling came a jargon of
semi-coherent thought.

'What if that thing suddenly goes after Yusuke, or Kuwabara? The odds
are certainly against them, with him having beaten Hiei... How is Hiei
faring anyway? I hope he survives. What if this _thing_ goes after me? I
think I can handle it; but what about kaasan...?' 

Kurama froze at the last thought. There was a noise coming from his
mother's room; something akin to metal clanking on the floor. He
instinctively ran for his mother, fearing the worst. He heaved a sigh of
relief once he got there. She was just doing some needlework when her
toolkit accidentally fell. She looked a bit startled though, and was now
looking at Kurama with worry in her eyes.

"Shuichi... Is there something wrong?" his mother asked. 

Kurama let out a slight laugh. "No... Nothing's wrong, kaasan. I was
just surprised by the noise. What are you doing?"

'Shuichi's' mother brightened up with his last statement. "I've decided
to take up needlework as a hobby, son... I'm a little rough at it,
though. I haven't done this since I was a child." She let out a delicate
laugh, to which Kurama could not help but laugh with as well. It had
always reminded him of tinkling bells ever since he first heard it as a
child. 

To this an animated discussion on needlework followed. Actually, it 
was more like Kurama listening and Shiori making detailed accounts about 
the wonderful world of needle and thread. This kind of situation may 
bore to death any other boy his age, but Kurama had high regard and 
respect for his mother and whatever she did. 

After their brief conversation ended, Kurama left Shiori with her new
hobby. He mouthed the words, "Sayonara, kaasan. Ai shiteiru," in the
doorway of his mother's room, to which he got the silent reply of "Good
night, Shuichi. I love you too."

In the outer hallway of the Minamino residence, Kurama swore to himself,
'I won't let any monster touch my kaasan. Not even one hair.'


***


To be Continued...


Next: The place where Kurama wants to go the most.

I am painfully aware that Japanese people will never, _ever_ do
the stuff that Chiho and Kurama did in this fic. Though there are
at least five ways to say, "My true feelings," in Japanese,
Japanese people are far too indirect to ever actually tell you
their true feelings. So yeah, the little exchange between Chiho
and Kurama is culturally and blatantly out of (Japanese)
character.

...And what's my excuse for this gaping maw of a plot hole? I have
two. This is a fanfic, and they (Kurama and Chiho) did what they
did in the context of the Dream World... so there! :P

Send all C&C, flames, death threats, etc. to me at either
gabriel_gabdiel at yahoo.com or chester.castaneda at gmail.com;
whichever suits your fancy.

Note that I put in the title _Shonen_ not _Shonen-Ai_. Shonen-Ai 
(male-male relationship) and yaoi are just not my cup of tea. This 
is dedicated to Chimamire Kitsune for giving me the inspiration to 
write this fic... Wherever you are, this is for you.

Disclaimer: Yuyu Hakusho is the rightful property of Yoshihiro
Togashi, Shueisha, Fuji TV, and St. Pierrot. The Wonderful Wizard
of Oz was written by L. Frank Baum and is currently the property
of the public domain. All the other series not directly addressed
in this disclaimer was featured in parody/tribute, whichever of
the two you prefer. Don't sue me please, I'm very poor.
 
Hindi niyo naiintindihan itong pangungusap na ito,
Abdiel

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