Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho, and I do not claim any right to.

Well, this is a stupid, stupid, stupid little piece of work. I had to get it out of the way before I could work on my other stories, this one was just begging to be written, no matter how stupid it may be. It's a one shot, of course... Written mostly in Kurama's point of view (POV). It's sort of stupid and random, hey, what can I say? I got bored then inspired. Bad combination, ne? Well, enjoy it!

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LIES: JUST KURAMA

Kurama's POV

I sighed and pulled a binder out from my bag. I opened the binder and pulled out my language arts assignment. I frowned as a read over what we were supposed to do.

Prompt: Write a one-half-page paper minimum ( written ) on what you see when you look in the mirror. What do you see in store for you in your future? For tomorrow? For one hour from now? What do you think about yourself? Would you change anything from any point in your life to change some aspect you dislike about yourself?

( Note: This will not be read in class, don't be afraid to write. )

I groaned.

What was I supposed to write for this? Oh, yes, Shuuichi Minamino is the ever-perfect son and student... However, what, how, could I write about my life? I certainly couldn't tell everyone "Oh, well, I am a thousand year-old demon named Youko Kurama. I killed people for fun. I had sex for fun. I stole pretty things for fun. The end."

For one, that wouldn't cover the 'one-half-page paper minimum' instruction set, and two, there goes the whole world I've got for me in the Ningenkai. There is no possible way I could tell anyone my secret. There are quite a few ways people could go about this.

As a first option, they could just laugh and brush it off as a joke;

"Oh, Minamino, you're simply hilarious! Won't you tell me another silly joke? Certainly you're full of them!"

"Oh... yes. My... cousin made it up. Silly, isn't it?"

This is probably the best way it could possibly go out of all three scenarios I've got set into my mind.

A joke...

That's not a bad way for people to think of it, but I don't think the youko side of me would like his existence being thought of as a joke. Youko Kurama would seriously despise being a new type of joke for highschool children in Japan... wouldn't you too, though? I guess it's more serious when you really are a one-thousand-year-old kitsune demon.

Secondly, they could send me to an asylum for the... mental;

"Minamino, demons simply don't exist..."

"Oh, but they do. I should know, I was one. Still am, too."

"Minamino, please, be serious now. Demons do not exist!"

"Yes, they do. In the Makai."

"Minamino Shuuichi... are you feeling okay?"

"Yes... fine."

"Are you sure?"

"Hai... why?"

And then there I'd go. Whisked away, oh so cruelly, to my new home. White cushioned walls, white straight jacket, white sheets on the bed, white lights in the lamps. Sounds inviting doesn't it? I'm being sarcastic, I hope you know. I could always break out, I've learned about asylums, so I know that the security would be a piece of cake for me to slip by...

I could move in with Yuusuke, or, more likely, just go back to the Makai. I'm sure Yomi would have uses for me, and after all the times I've sheltered Hiei, he'd give me somewhere to stay, albeit temporarily. I'd force him if he'd disagree. Youko Kurama can be very... persuasive.

And then, thirdly, they could take me seriously;

"... Come again?"

"I know you heard me."

"I know... I know I heard you. Are you serious, Minamino?"

"Yes, I am."

"How... I'm simply stunned."

"Well..."

"I've just got to tell Ayume-chan! And then Sakura-chan! And all the others... They'll never believe this! Can you show them, prove it, I mean.? Yes? Wonderful! Oh my gosh... wait till the school paper gets whiff of this... damn, Shuuichi! Human society will be changed forever!"

Wonderful isn't it? Changing the human society forever... the way I'd be doing makes the whole thing sound... depressing, for me anyway.

While this seems the least likely to happen, that's what makes it all the more worse. I'd hate for the society of humans to learn something far beyond their time. I doubt they could comprehend it correctly anyway... in the end they'd think of it as a joke, unless they too were somewhat... odd, and had the crazy mind to believe me.

Now, back to my homework. I hate homework, deeply.

When I look in the mirror, I have to say, I see lies. There's no one who's never lied before, it's just part of a human's nature to do so. However, I bet no one has said more lies than I. I've built my life on lies, which I can now say, wasn't the best decision, but the one that made most sense at the time. I can't explain why to you, unfortunately...

I took one second to reread what I had written, then immediately tore it up. 'I can't explain why to you, unfortunately...' is much to obvious. It would only lead to questions from the school counselor, no doubt. I'm not trying to look... atypical, you know? I want to blend in as normally as everyone else in the crowd. I have to say, and this I answer wholly and truthfully, that this is a rather complicated task.

For one, having flaming red hair and green eyes are... abnormal in Japan. Here the hair mostly is brown or black, dark colored, and the eyes are dark tinted also. I already stick out, and sometimes my other more... animalistic features only attract attention. These, however, are only noticed if you pay close, almost acute, attention to me. Such as my teeth, some of them are rather pointed, and my heartbeat never was the same rate as a humans was supposed to be.

The doctors could never explain to my mother while these things were 'wrong' with me, and other things too, such as my overly-excelled hearing and smelling abilities (and things they didn't know about, sensing, intellect, oh woe the stupidity of the average human)... The idiotic ningen doctors passed them off as 'special gifts, that I will most likely out grow.'

Yeah, right. They wouldn't know I haven't outgrown it, however, because I've never been to any kind of doctor or so since then. I guess they'll by now have realized that my immune system is also one of the best. They never did see little cuts and scraps 'vanish', as Shiori said, in only a few hours. It's simple things like this that make me stand out, and I know Shiori knows I'm 'special', she just doesn't know to the full extent.

But, really now, I'm nothing special...

Okay. I'm kidding myself, I'll admit. Youko Kurama was... very special. You'll never meet or hear about another like him, while even though others might come close. He's the only King of Thieves, the only Master of Seduction, the only Most Cunning of Them All, and also the only one to escape the inevitable.

Death.

I picked up my pen once again, preceding to complete, or at least trying to complete, the homework task.

I'm certainly not your every-day-normal-student... but I'm not that special, really. Good grades aren't all there is in a person. Maybe, if you payed closer attention, looking into the mirror most intently, you'd see someone behind the mask of everyday use. When I look in the mirror, I see the face of a Minamino-born child, but there's more to me than that too. In my future, I see...

I see... I see... what do I see, anyway? Wait a minute...

Damn. I said I wanted to stay low-profiled. This was not the way to go about it. I mean, really, 'I'm certainly not your every-day-normal-student' makes me sound conceited. Which, yes, is the truth... but the humans don't need to know that, do they? No, they don't.

I sighed for the umpteenth time that evening. Was there really a way to go about this without completely spouting out more lies after lies? Could I not overcome my cocoon of false truths to, just for a simple paper, say something the true Minamino Shuuichi - Kurama - Youko would feel or state? Wasn't there a way to go about this without being confronted by the questions sure to come if I produced a paper from the above possible beginning paragraphs for this assignment?

I, once again, sighed and lay my head harshly on the hard wood of the desk in my room. It would seem that doing the above would not be possible. It simply wasn't fair! While all of these other people, my 'peers', can say what they want, their truest feelings, I couldn't for fear of being found out and blowing the cover of the whole world of Makai! How can I possibly keep this secret, a whole world a secret, for Inari's sake? I'm only one person...

Then there's Yuusuke, Kuwabara... all those people I now suddenly remember. I scowl slightly, well, at least they don't have to write this paper!

I suddenly realize it's a good thing I got an assignment like this first... what would Yuusuke or Kuwabara have done in my situation? I bet they would have called me and asked what to write, surely they wouldn't say their future is destined to be blowing the heads off of demons threatening to destroy the human race... would they? They can't be that stupid, no matter what Hiei says.

I sigh. While there surely was a way to go about this task without fulling lying, I wasn't in the mood to figure it out. I would just have to write another lie. I let my head rise to stare at the paper, tapping the pen lightly on the desk. I should be used to it by now, I realized, but I wasn't. I smirked. Oh, the irony.

Youko would have lied gleefully, but this combination of Youko and Shuuichi is slightly more hesitant than that.

Another lie... at least in their eyes it can be the truth. Now they can be content with that...

I start to write once again, hoping that this will be the final product.

When I look in the mirror I see Minamino Shuuichi. There's nothing special about him, he's just like you and everyone else in the class. He might stand out, with the fiery hair and emerald eyes, but that doesn't mean he's any better. As for my future, I've still yet to finally figure it out... maybe we're not supposed to know, though. Maybe it's a surprise. Maybe you don't know it until you finally make the choice that gets you there. I don't want to rush to get there. For me in tomorrow...

Kurama couldn't help but to smile, even if it was small, he knew this paper would be a good one. Even though it was a lie, he was only writing the exact opposite, or mostly so, of what he was really like. The ningens wouldn't have to know that, but Kurama would. If he thought about it in the inverse way of what he had written, to him then it wouldn't be a lie.

He didn't see Minamino Shuuichi when he looked in the mirror. He saw Kurama, sometimes Youko.

There was a lot special about him. He was a demon, after all.

He would always stand out, however. Youko's reputation made sure of this.

He was better. He knew it too. He wasn't being conceited, either. Youko made sure of this also.

His future might be clouded, but he had an idea of where it would go and lead.

Tomorrow... well, he didn't know what tomorrow would bring. Did anyone truly? Things can always change at the last minute.

As he finally ended his paper, he took a moment to sign his 'name'. He thought of it as more of an alias now, but all the same...

Written By: Minamino Shuuichi.

Kurama would never be Minamino Shuuichi, not truly, wholly, completely. He was always be just Kurama. A combined Shuuichi and Youko.

So, Minamino Shuuichi was just another fake truth.

The humans didn't need to know this, however.

Minamino Shuuichi, and all his life, was a lie.

The truth? Kurama.

Just... Kurama.

End

Well, there's that. I hope you enjoyed it... if that's possible! See, I don't think of Kurama as Shuuichi or Youko, just as Kurama, a combination of both, you know? Of course, I let go of this belief when Kurama transforms into Youko, but, yeah. I don't care if what I'm saying is true or not, it's how it works in my mind. Well, review, please, as you've probably already read this, if you're reading this end note. Thank you!