Yu Yu Hakusho: The After Years

Episode 36: Scarlett's Dreams

"Ana," he repeated. I think he actually looked a little relieved that my name was a lot shorter than he originally had thought. "Ana," he said, grasping my hand with a firmness I had not anticipated.

"Yowch!" I cried as his thumbs hit one of the fresh gashes, "What are you doing? That hurts!" But after a few seconds, it didn't hurt anymore. Actually, my hand started to feel better than ever before as a warm glow overtook it. The light was coming from his hands. Was he healing me?

It was after he had healed my hand and flashed me a mischievous little smirk that I looked into his golden eyes and felt in my child's heart something that must have been the beginning stirrings of love.

Kurama
Kurama's fox form was not his favorite. It was a shape he rarely chose to take, and never in front of other people. His diminutive stature and running about on four legs was somewhat demeaning, but nothing was better for tracking scents. And after several month's of living together, he had become quite familiar with Ana's.

He had already had some knowledge about the interconnecting tunnels underneath the arena. After all, they had known this operation was more than a tournament from the beginning. It was similar to the tunnels underneath the karaoke place, but on a much larger scale. There were so many rooms that it would have easily taken him months to track her down without the use of his canine senses.

He found a door and sniffed underneath, where there was a slight gap. She was in there, alright. He pawed at the door curiously. There was no knob, and it appeared to be the sort of door that dropped straight down from the ceiling like a science fiction movie. That meant the black pad to the right of him had to be some sort of access pad. He sat back on his haunches and considered the door. A lock would have been easier to pick, and he imagined that he simply could have forced the door up using brute strength, but an alarm likely would have sounded. He slipped back into his two-legged form and examined the access pad. It was the sort that required a code, and was a smooth glass touch screen surface. It was likely a four-number code.

He leaned close to the touch screen and exhaled softly. As his breath fogged over the glass of the screen, the fingerprints of the last person who used it became more apparent. He could now see what the numbers of the passcode were, and only needed to guess the sequence. It would probably give him two or three tries to guess the correct sequence, so he would need a little luck.

He guessed the correct sequence on the second try. He smirked a little, I suppose they do say luck is a skill in its own way, after all, he thought. As the door slid open and he saw Ana, his Ana, the pit of his stomach dropped.

They had her suspended in four-point restraints. A breathing mask covered her face and an IV drip was attached to one of her arms. She must have been heavily sedated. The fact that they suspended her like this when the same restraint and sedation could have easily been applied on a cot stoked Kurama's anger even more. It was a design meant for discomfort and display. Likely, they had kept her alive because they had an intention of selling her.

Kurama examines the IV bag and fume tank they had connected her to. Depending on what drug they had used, it could be dangerous to disconnect her quickly. He deduced that the IV bag was a simple saline solution meant to keep her hydrated, so the main drug must have been whatever gas she was inhaling. Unlikely to cause harm if he removed it.

He shut off the valve to the gas tank, and removed the mask, carefully sniffing it's contents. A sickly sweet smell. "Dreamweed," he said aloud. While not terribly toxic on its own, the withdrawal symptoms were said to be awful. It was originally a parasitic plant from Makai meant to coax its host with sweet dreams and punish them with nightmares if they left. It was terribly addictive. He looked at Ana sadly. She would have to endure the symptoms for the better part of a day, maybe longer.

"I'll make sure whoever did this to you will pay for it," Kurama whispered softly in her ear. He felt a warm spark in his fingertips as he tucked her long hair behind her ear.

Ana's eyes flitted open, but they were hazy and unfocused. Still, she was coming around. Kurama gently undid the restraints and rested her weight against him. She was the strongest woman he had ever known, but just then she felt so light in his arms.

She stirred gently against him, her eyes showing a little more light. Her fingers found his hair, and brushed through the silver strands. Funny, he hadn't realized he had taken his Youko form. Her hand wound up the nape of his neck, caressing the back of his head and leaving a delicious trail of heat wherever she touched him. Caught in a moment of surprise, Kurama was pulled down against her as he pressed his lips against hers. He felt a stirring of desire deep in his belly as he forced himself away. She's still dreaming, he reminded himself, she doesn't know what she's doing.

Ana looked at him with a drunken smile on her lips as she looked in to his eyes and sleepily said, "Kwahn...I've missed you...just so much..."

Just who the hell was Kwahn?

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Thanks, as always for reading. I hope you all are happy that Kurama got a little more "screen time" this time around :)

Any guesses as to what anime I will be connecting this story to? Another, even larger hint is to come next week.