This is promising to be a rather lengthy saga-type fic. You have been warned.

Dreams are written in italics.

Disclaimer: I got a fox plushie for my birthday last week! He's cute and furry!

Balance

Prologue

The sky was a dark color.

Murky—no, it was not. It was clear and crystalline, but not murky, no. That was never a word that could be used to describe the sky.

Glass—but glass was never black. Dark, maybe, but black was an impossibility reached only by the absence of light, and light always shines through glass.

Black, then—but no, the sky was not black. It was not, could not be defined by a color or a name. It simply was.

Maybe it was simply what it seemed…

Maybe it was a dream.

Yes, that was what it was.

It was a dream.

It was not real. It was not murky, or glass, or black, or any other given name. It simply was, and it was whatever it wanted or needed to be, because it was only a dream.

Yes, only a dream.

But dreams could not be defined by "only," because dreams were not simply things. They brought depth, contemplation, new visions to things long since forgotten. That was what this dream brought him—new ways to see that which had already passed.

The sky was dark.

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Kurama stretched, draping his arms over the back of the park bench where he sat. School had been particularly boring today, and the breeze felt pleasant on his skin in the wide open air. His hair ruffled behind him, teasing his neck.

"Kurama!"

Sitting up immediately, Kurama instinctively looked around for the source of the voice. Yuusuke was walking towards him, hands casually stuffed in his pockets and a jovial smile on his face. Kurama relaxed and smiled back.

"Hai, konnichiwa, Yuusuke. What are you doing here?"

The raven-haired tantei walked up to the bench where Kurama sat and plopped down beside him. He folded his hands behind his neck and rested his head in them, looking up through the trees at the sky.

"Lookin' for you."

Kurama looked at him skeptically, one eyebrow raised and his mouth twisted in a most unnatural manner. Yuusuke laughed.

"No, really. Keiko says I'm gonna fail out of high school if I keep not doing my homework…"

'Well, it's no wonder, with that terrible grammar.'

"…and I have this big project due next week in Physics…"

'Oh, no you don't…'

"…and I was wondering if you would do it for me."

"Tonda."

Yuusuke huffed, leaning even further back. Kurama thought, with a small, private laugh, that he would fall over the back of the bench in a pose like that. And his expression wasn't exactly stoic, either.

"I guess I didn't think you would."

"Mm…"

They lounged for quite some time, Kurama reading, Yuusuke sleeping on-and-off or looking up at the sky and finding clouds that looked like the silhouettes of "guys whose asses he'd totally wiped the floor with."

Kurama finished the book he had been going over and picked up another.

"Oi, Urameshi! Eeto—konnichiwa, Kurama."

Kurama looked up, and Yuusuke flipped their visitor off.

"Hello, Kuwabara," Kurama answered more cordially. "Dochirahe?"

"Oh," he said, distracting himself from punching Yuusuke in his prone position. "Okagesamade. Dochirahe?"

"Okagesamade. What did you come here for? Hopefully, you aren't like Yuusuke, coming to ask me to complete your Physics project for you, correct?" he stressed subtly, giving a little half-smile.

"Ano…actually, I was coming here for that, but you know what? Never mind."

Kurama smiled, self-satisfied.

"Wonderful."

Standing, he packed away his books and the last of his homework (pitifully easy, it was; he had finished it all in a mere two and one-half hours). "I must be going. Ja ne."

"Ja, Kurama."

"Sayonara."

Smiling to himself, Kurama walked down the narrow streets to his home, eagerly awaiting a free evening to do whatever he pleased. Moments later, he started suddenly, and looked to his left shoulder. He saw something quite peculiar there.

A small Makai bug was perched, casually nibbling away at the fabric of his uniform. Instinctively snatching it down, he crushed it and sprinkled the remainders on the ground. They dissipated as they fell.

'That's strange…'

Assuming it a descendent of a surviving lingerer from the long span of time that the hole to Makai and the peripheral field had been opened, Kurama took out his key and unlocked the door to his new (private!) apartment. He slipped off his shoes and set them on the rug by the door.

Kurama snatched a bottle of water before heading for the back of the apartment to relax. Maybe Hiei would stop by, if he was lucky; he enjoyed talking to the little youkai, who would likely have something useful or interesting to say about the bugs. They hadn't spoken in years, but if this sighting sprouted into an infestation, which would no doubt lead to something much worse, Hiei would know well beforehand that it was coming. Maybe he would worry for his former ally's safety.

Or so he hoped.

Kurama walked back to his room.

"Oh! Hiei!"

The little youkai was sitting on Kurama's bed, examining something in his hand. He didn't even look up when Kurama walked in, but only tilted his head, continuing to observe whatever the object was he held.

"What are you doing here?" Kurama asked kindly, sitting beside his friend and trying to look over his shoulder at the object.

Hiei closed his fist. "Have you noticed anything odd lately? Involving Reikai or Makai?"

Kurama nodded slowly, surprised at Hiei's sharp astuteness and tone. "Now that you mention it, a Makai insect was sitting on my shoulder on my way home. I didn't think much of it, though."

"Hmm." Hiei looked warily at the floor. "Maybe you should have…"

Kurama waited silently for the remainder of the statement he was sure was still to come. Surely enough, he was well rewarded for his patience.

"This was a Makai bug," Hiei explained, holding up his clenched fist. "A large one, larger than most others of its species. I found it crawling out of the cracks between two flats of pavement; I think it may have come from a nest, in which case that nest will need to be closed."

Kurama lay back on the bed, head supported by his hands as he stared at the ceiling. "You think so?"

"I think someone may have found a way to cut through the peripheral field again."

'Iie…'

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"Freeze, Kuwabara," Yuusuke ordered suddenly, throwing aside the textbook he had been trying to read.

The carrot-top heeded his warning, but his eyes darted left and right as he tried to see what had spurred it. They landed on a small critter scrambling up his shirt sleeve, and he wondered how he hadn't felt it before.

Lighting-quick, Yuusuke reached out and snatched it, then sat back to look it over, held in his iron grip. Kuwabara leaned in to look, as well.

"Too big to be an insect," Kuwabara said seriously. Yuusuke nodded.

"He looks kind of like that guy I caught coming out of Sakamoto's ear before I officially took this job," Yuusuke said, equally serious. "I'd guess D-class."

"Hey, that's weird…"

"Yeah…"

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Konnichiwa: good day

Tonda: absolutely not

Eeto: errr...

Dochirahe: how are you?

Okagesamade: (I'm fine) thank you

Ja ne: see you later

Ja: see ya

Sayonara: goodbye

Iie: no