A Forest on Fire (KuramaxOc)

Ch 41: The Cabin

Kurama and Yumiko met up with the others at the station. Yusuke had gone ahead last night with the intention to speak with Master Genkai alone before the others got there. Maru, Hiei, and Kuwabara were already waiting by the gates.

"Hey, miss Yumi. Feeling any better this morning?" Kazuma asked, trying to keep the cheery attitude he usually held, though it was still quite subdued.

Yumiko glanced at him with dull, drained eyes, and he winced.

"Guess not."

"Do we have a plan?" Kurama asked, breaking the silence as they stepped onto the train. Hiei nodded in response, taking a seat in an empty booth next to the one the others chose. Yumi and Kazuma both slid into the booth on opposing sides, Kurama sitting next to Yumi, and Maru sitting next to the ginger boy.

"I'll take the boy to Genkai's to train first. You two should train with Maru. Being plant wielders, you need a way to deal with a fire-demon other than throwing an exploding plant at them." Hiei spoke with his usual arrogance.

Maru nodded, leaning forward slightly as he spoke.

"Genkai has requested we keep to the beach for our training session. In her words, she-"

"Doesn't want you setting the whole damn forest ablaze again?" Yumiko cut in, the beginnings of a mischief laced smile on her lips, and all four males glanced her way. Kurama's shoulders relaxed slightly. He placed a hand on her leg just about the knee, and gave it a gentle, approving squeeze. It was the first non-forced words to leave the girl since the invitation had been delivered.

Maru noted the significance as well, and allowed himself a somewhat exaggerated huff.

"It was only the garden, and half at that... If you recall, it wasn't entirely my fault." There was a gleam to his eye, and across the aisle, a nosy telepath snorted, covering his mouth to try and hide the choked laugh threatening to burst free. Kurama gave them both a quizzical look, then froze as a heartwarming sound tickled his ears.

Yumiko released a quiet giggle, looking the portrait of innocent.

"How was I supposed to know you were allergic to strawberries? I just wanted to give my friend a present!"

Noting the looks from Kurama and Kazuma, she sighed, shoulders loosening a bit, and held up her hands. "I gave him a strawberry when he first came to the temple, and turns out they raise his temperature to a point where the ground he's walking on catches fire. He burned away half of Genkai's garden before we figured out that it was the strawberries I kept feeding him that was causing it! Genkai threw him into the lake, and made me spend the entire week regrowing each plant by hand."

Maru shuddered as she finished, and added. "Not a pleasant way to learn to swim."

Kazuma snorted at that, and even Kurama cracked a smile at the image of the goat-demon flailing in the water.

Bit by bit the tension eased as the train made its way to the mountain station. The five teens made a silent promise as they neared the temple, though no one spoke it. These next two months could be their last. They would give everything they had to training, but they would not forget how to smile in the process.

_______

Yumiko leapt to the side as a fireball crashed into the sand beside her. She screeched as her tail-tip singed, then healed immediately within the grid of echinacea plants that Kurama kept supplied with energy during her training with Maru. The goat-demon was relentless as he attacked her again and again, getting her body used to the heat of the flames, and how to avoid the more serious of injuries.