The Greatest Theft of Youko Kurama

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There is a saying that not everyone has a father, but it is nigh impossible for someone to exist without a mother. Perhaps it is not just a saying, but a fact of life. Everyone, you and me, was born into this world because their respective mothers carried them for nine months and then gave birth to them, introduced them to the world.

But this "fact" was conceptualized by humans. If it is applicable to demons like me, I am not sure. Yes, me, I am Minamino Shuuichi in this world. I am a model student, a loving son, the perfect human being as others would say. It is a terrible irony that the perfect human is, in fact, a demon. Behind the human flesh of Minamino Shuuichi lies the legendary demon thief, Youko Kurama.

If this hypothesis is true, then, does someone as cruel and heartless as Youko Kurama have a mother? The woman who carried me in her womb, the woman who brought me to this world, the woman who left me to fend for my own even before I was ready, the woman who never dared to grace her existence in my life, does she exist? You are probably thinking that this woman was irresponsible, negligent and, in general, a 'bad' mother. Whether you are wrong or right, only God can tell. But you must put in mind that we lived in the demon world where emotions served as weaknesses.

But, I wonder, if she didn't left me, would I have turned out like this?

And then, I think about my human mother. She has made many sacrifices to protect me from the cruelness of the world. She was not aware that she was raising a demon. If she was, would she have loved me as she had loved 'Shuuichi'?

I may be more compassionate and forgiving now, but that is only because I want to honor my human mother by showing others the human side of Youko Kurama that Minamino Shiori has unearthed.

I have lived almost a millennium without a mother. But after knowing a mother's love for the past 16 years, I don't think that I will be able to live without it ever again. Maybe it was the reason why I was so reluctant to face death. I stole countless treasures and yet I was insatiable. I was always looking for something. Or someone.

The time when my human mother was in death's clutches was the hardest I ever had to go through. I was fighting an invisible enemy. One whom I defeated a long time ago was back with a vengeance. But I managed to outsmart Death for the second time. The Forlorn Hope was my last chance. A wish at the cost of a life, my life. Imagine! Death must have been laughing at the irony of it all. Youko Kurama, one who was so keen to escape death, was offering himself willingly, all for the sake of one human life.

It was the least I could do to repay her kindness. Another chance at life, another chance to have a son, the son that I took away from her, I want to give it all. When she saved me from impaling myself from the broken dishes all those years ago, I realized that I finally found what I had been unconsciously searching for all those years in the demon world.

When I think of her, the doubts about my demon mother disappear. It is impractical and idealistic to search for someone who ceased to exist the moment I lived my life alone. Minamino Shiori is, for all it's worth, the one I consider my true mother.

And I hope that someday, she will consider Youko Kurama, not Minamino Shuuichi, as her son.

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