My blue rose: In Japan all the grades are a year ahead age wise than their American counterparts (e.g. 7th graders are 13, 11th graders are 16 etc.) Jr. High & High school are three years long. Jr. High starts in 7th grade; High school starts in 10th grade. Compulsorily education ends at junior high and you have to take hard examinations to get into a good high school.

In the manga and the anime when we first meet Shuuichi he was 13 and in his first year of Jr. High school and it was then that he was controlled by the parasite youkai. Kurama was 17 and in his third year of high school at this time (when we first meet him he is 15 and in his first year of high school).

This fic takes place three years after on the manga timeline so the year is 1997 (hence the Nintendo references) and Yusuke, Kuwabara and Keiko are 18. Shuuichi is 15 and in his first year of high school. Kurama is 20 and working for his stepfathers company (in the manga at the end, Yusuke asks Kurama why he didn't go to collage and he said that his stepfather has him pretty interested in his company.)

Prologue: My Big Brother

Many little brothers say that they're afraid of their older brothers, but only because they think that he might beat them up or not let them read their porn. My brother is different. I'm truly afraid of him, in the I-think-he-might-kill-me sense of the word. There is something about him, something not right.

I will never forget that year. I was in my first year of junior high school. Thirteen years old and stupid. My father had just married a woman named Shiori. I liked her a lot. You see, my own mother had abandoned my father and me when I was a small child. She had run off to America, my father told me, and at the time I disliked grown-up women.

But Shiori changed that. She was, and still is, kind, loving and accepting of me as her second son. I was so excited, too, that I would have an older brother. My father talked nonstop about how brilliant Shuichi is and from what I saw of him, I thought he was the coolest person ever.

Then everything changed. I was possessed by something, something that shouldn't exist. A youkai. A creature of myth and legend. That day and the weeks that followed I got a glimpse into my brother's secret life. His real life.

I will never forget that year the way he spoke to that thing possessing my body. It was unlike anything I had ever heard from him before or since. He's always so calm and gentle, but never callous and cruel. The things they talked about were weird too, about places and beings that shouldn't exist. About a past my 20-year-old brother should not have.

Youkai. I've never believed they existed, but the memories of that thing are still here. I'm not sure what exactly I believe anymore, I might be crazy or remembering an elaborate dream. Ever since that day, I've been watching him. After three years I've worked up the courage and have started tailing him as much as I can.

Trying to see if there's anything suspicious that he does, trying to see the glimpse of the brother I saw when he was threatening the thing inside me. I haven't caught him doing anything unusual yet, but that has not eased my doubts. It only seems to have deepened them and intensify my search for the truth.

Even after weeks of following and spying on him, I don't have anything on him. All I know is that my brother has another life and that he…

Is not completely human.