Time Tells All

"Hiei, you sure this is the guy? Not too sure princess here could be a famous thief." The tall one said in a mocking tone as he looked down at Shuichi, who was rather calm to be facing such strange people.

"This is him." Hiei, the one dressed in all black spare his white scarf, replied.

"You've got to be kidding me." The tall one laughed apparently finding all this to be a joke. "I heard ghost stories about Youko and he ain't it. Your gonna have to come outta that skin for me to believe you're him."

Shuichi mearly smirked, raising his hand to his hair he lept into the air at an inhuman height. He had pulled out a whip cutting several trees effortlessly and upon landing on the ground the whip was turned into a simple, but beautiful rose.

"Ya know Kurama, I was just kidding about you not being Youko and the whole princess bit. You're alright in my book." The tall man said nervously.

Sayuri saw the whole ordeal and couldn't believe her eyes. She was surprised the gasp that left her lips as she watched her older brother cut down the trees had not gotten her caught. Her body trembled, she was unsure of what to think about this situation. She took a shaky step from the tree she stood behind and heard the twig her foot landed on snap. Quickly she turned to run back home but was stopped when the tip of a blade was pressed against her neck.

"You shouldn't be here human." Hiei, the one in black, said as he put more pressure on her neck causing her to step back, but not before a small cut was made. The man in front of her was not much taller than herself, maybe just an inch higher not counting the inches his hair gave him, yet he had the most menacing look in his eyes that struck fear into the red head.

Her fight or flight instincts kicked in then and the only thing she could think of was to run. So she did only to be stopped by the man again. He refrained from using his sword this time and grabbed her arm. He brought her to the clearing despite her struggles to free her arm. She caught a glimpse of Shuichi's face, his shocked, but disappointed look made her feel sick to her stomach before she turned and slapped the man holding her. It didn't accomplish much, but give him a better whiff of her scent.

"Was that supposed to hurt? You're part demon, you should be able to do more damage than that." He said pushing her away from him roughly. She fell to the ground, but ingored any pain as confusion set in.

"Part demon? What are you talking about? I'm human as is my brother. Why don't you just leave us alone."

"Hn... No wonder, you don't even know what you or your brother are." Hiei said sounding disgusted with her.

"Hiei." Shuichi said as if he was warning the shorter man.

"You can't act like you haven't noticed Kurama." Hiei responded

"What do you mean?" Sayuri asked completely confused about what was happening.

"Your brother here isn't human. He's a demon, a fox demon to be exact." Hiei explained.

"A notorious fox thief at that. He was rumored to be dead." The taller man added.

"But instead he was hiding out here in the Ningenkai." Hiei comtinued. "You smell similair to him, part human, but also you have demon blood in you. So what type of demon are you girl?" He questioned.

Sayuri looked at the two men that just informed her of what her brother's 'true' identity was. Her mind was swimming, what they told her didn't make sense to her, but when she saw the look of guilt on Shuichi's face she knew they weren't lying. Still she didn't want to believe it.

She didn't answer Hiei's question, instead she quickly rose to her feet and bolted away from the three men. She didn't stop to see if she was being chased, she just ran. Her pace slowed when she broke the tree line and she began walking down the familiar sidewalk leading to her home.

Her whole body shook as tears began to fall down her face. She didn't make it all the way home before her legs gave out on her and she collapsed to the ground. She scooted to where she had her back against the fence that lined the sidewalk and pulled her knees to her chest resting her head on top of them as she cried. She didn't want to believe anything she was told, but the look Shuichi had mad it hard to say otherwise. None of it made sense to her and just ended up giving her a headache.

A hand was placed on her shoulder suddenly, and though the touch was gentle, Sayuri still jumped away from the person. She looked up to see an apologetic Shuichi staring at her. No matter how much she wanted to yell at him to explain what just happened back in the woods, she just didn't have the energy to. Instead she used what energy she had to push herself towards him wrapping her arms around his waist and burying her face into his shoulder. He stiffened at first, shocked at her reaction, but quickly relaxed as he wrapped his arms tightly around his younger sister as she cried into his shirt.

"I'm sorry Sayuri." He murmured as be ran his fingers through her hair trying his best to calm her down.

Eventually her sobs subsided and she turned her face away from his shoulder, other than that she remained where she was in her brother's comforting hug with him still messing with her hair.

"Were you ever going to tell me?" She asked barely above a whisper.

"You believe what they said?" He questioned.

"I saw you cut down full grown trees effortlessly, and that short guy was impossibly fast, besides the look on your face was confirmation enough." she explained

"You do find the supernatural and things of that sort interesting, so I guess it makes sense that you would find some interest in what they said and look for any clues on if it were true." Shuichi said with amusement in his voice.

"So it is true?"

"Yes." Shuichi confirmed with a sigh.

"So were you ever planning on telling me?" Sayuri questioned again.

"No, I had no intentions of letting you know." He confessed in a low voice

"Why? According to that short friend of yours, I'm apparently part demon as are you. So why did you not let me know or at least plan to?" She asked her voice beginning to rise as she leaned away from him.

"Here is not the place to discuss this. Let's go home and I'll explain everything to you." Shuichi said leaving no room to argue, not that Sayuri would have. He was right, anyone could overhear what they were saying, the sidewalk wasn't an ideal place to discuss this subject.

"I don't feel like moving." She complained lightly looking up at her brother with a pout, not acting her age in the slightest. He chuckled and shook his head at his younger sister.

"Then I guess it's a good thing you have me as an older brother. Most brothers would probably leave you here until you felt like coming in." He said as he picked her up with ease and began carrying her home. In response Sayuri wrapped her arms around her brother's neck, hugging him the best she could.

"I know, I have the best brother." She said happy for the short change in topic even if she knew that they would return to the discussion that had upset her earlier.