A Forest on Fire (KuramaxOc)

Ch: 11 Choices Made

(QUICK ANNOUNCEMENT! For Memorial day weekend, I've decided to upload three chapters this weekend, Partially because I feel these three should be released as a set. I'll be uploading this one first, and uploading the two following chapters on Saturday as usual! Thank you for reading!! Comments are always welcome and appreciated!!)

Yumi sighed as she opened the front door to the apartment, and threw her bags down inside.

"I'm home Mako!" She called out, her voice tired, and somewhat disappointed. It was Sunday evening now. The competition was over. Rando had been caught, she had helped heal Kuwabara, Uremeshi was Genkai's new reluctant student, and she had left Kenji with a swift farewell at the train station.

Mako was in the kitchen, working on tonight's dinner as he greeted her.
"Welcome back! How'd it go?"
In truth, he already knew. Genkai had called him the moment the kids had left the temple in order to give him time to prepare for what she would tell him.

He had flown into a rage when he found out about what that demon had done to his little Yumi, and even more so to learn from Maru what the human boy had said! As she walked into the apartment, he counted his blessings that the boy hadn't walked her home. He didn't trust himself not to throttle the little fool.

Yumiko let out another long sigh as she walked over to the island bar, reverting to her true form as she did so. She dropped down onto one of the stools there, and spoke.

"Well, Friday went really well at least! We all had a blast, and I think Maru might even consider Kenji an acquaintance now. He seemed to really accept us! I even showed him my true form..." Her voice shifted several times as she spoke; changing from light-hearted and airy, to soft and slightly pained.

"It felt like something from a dream, but then Saturday... everything just... went wrong.." She put her hands in her head, and shook it slightly, sounding about as exhausted as she felt.

Mako held up his hand to pause her, sliding a bowl of bibimbap, a Korean dish she had grown quite fond of, in front of her.

"Tell me about the tournament first, we can talk about the boy after." As he spoke, his ear twitched, and his eyes narrowed slightly, but he said nothing more as he waited for her to take a bite.

"Mmmmm" she hummed in delight after the first bite, her eyes perking up a bit, as she went on.

"Well it was about as expected. A ton of people showed up, including the detective, and his friend... and Rando..." she had gulped before saying his name, shuddering slightly before taking another bite.

Mako swallowed back a growl, and waited patiently for her to continue.

"Genkai allowed Kenji to compete, and he did fairly well, but he dropped out after the forest." She took another bite, her body shivering as she tried not to laugh around the food. "Oh you should have seen it Mako! He teamed up with Uremeshi during the forest challenge, and they beat the crap out of Baldoc!! Suni had to go and heal him since she's the only one he's nice to still, but he's definitely missing a few teeth now! Kenji even punched him!! He broke his hand for it though.."

Mako had laughed at the thought of Baldoc's beaten face, but the laugh died as he watched her excited expression change to one of sorrow.

"He seemed... so brave... and so accepting... Then everything went wrong..."

She took a few more bites, trying to put everything together one more time in her mind. Mako waited a few moments, before prompting her.

"Tell me what happened, kiddo..."