Part 1:
Consequences
WARNINGS: Death, Spoilers, Strong Language, Suicide, Violence
PAIRINGS: Hiei/Kurama/Hiei, Yukina/Kuwabara/Yukina, Keiko/Yuusuke/Keiko, Botan/Koenma/Botan, Koenma/Yuusuke, eventual Yuusuke/Kurama/Yuusuke
A link posted on my profile page connects to a list of definitions for any Japanese terms I use in this story, as well as any obscure English words. A second link takes you to the list of chapter theme songs. I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho, insert other disclaimers here, et cetera, ad infinitum.
Note: Yes, Hiei acts weird in the first few chapters. No, this is not me being half-assed. Yes, this is plot-related.
Final note: ALL PAIRINGS ARE SUBTEXT ONLY; while they exist, they are most definitely not the focus of the story, and may never be touched on even indirectly. Just be aware that they're in the background, and might be affecting the actions of the characters.
-THIS VERSION OF THE FIC HAS BEEN DISCONTINUED; SEE REWRITE (POSTED SEPARATELY). THIS POSTING REMAINS FOR REFERENCE AND BY REQUEST.-
Yuusuke woke.
It was two a.m., or thereabouts, and something didn't feel right. He swung his legs over the edge of the bed, trying to make his sleep-fuzzed brain pinpoint the source of the feeling, and let his eyes adjust to the dimness of his room.
The open window behind him showed a waning moon and a smattering of unusually bright stars, and insects thrummed invisibly in the grass below. It was cool without being chill; he was quite comfortable after the initial shock of exposure. His keen hearing detected no other sounds beyond those of the insects and his own breathing. He listened again to make sure.
Almost as a reflex, he checked for his friends' youki. Yukina's was readily found - but other than that, he felt no other.
Hiei's ki, which had been present earlier in the night, was gone.
After a moment of alarm, Yuusuke relaxed. He's probably gone back to Makai. I thought he might. Though why that should wake me up at this ungodly hour, I have no idea.
Yawning hugely and ignoring his lingering unease, Yuusuke crawled back into the nest of his bedcovers and dropped off to sleep.
But that sleep didn't last long.
With the first dimming of the stars came a loud pounding on Yuusuke's front door, nearly at the same time. The spirit detective tumbled from his bed, swearing, and attempted to disentangle his legs from the blanket. "K'so! What time is it?"
"Urameshi!" bellowed Kuwabara's voice from outside the apartment. "Urameshi! Let me in! Something's wrong!"
The tone of that shout caught Yuusuke's attention; hurriedly extricating himself, he rushed in his pajamas to the door, fumbling the latch open and flinging the door wide. Kuwabara (also still in his pajamas) nearly punched him, not realising that there was nothing to knock on anymore, and Yuusuke ducked swiftly to avoid the unintended blow.
"What is it, Kuwabara? Tell me already!"
"I got a bad feeling, Urameshi!" the carrot-top shouted, apparently oblivious to the fact that Yuusuke could hear him perfectly well. "Really bad! It woke me up about an hour ago, and then Koenma just appeared in my bedroom and told me to get you!"
"Wait a minute - Koenma sent you? This must be really bad!"
"We're supposed to meet at my house! Come on!"
Without further talk, the two of them dashed out of the apartment and down the street, leaving the door ajar, and keeping their feet with effort in the darkness before dawn.
Koenma and Botan were already waiting with Yukina when the two boys arrived, panting from exertion and moaning about blistered feet; they wasted no time in conveying the message that whatever was going on, it was serious indeed. Yukina looked frightened; Kuwabara gathered her up in a comforting hug.
"All right, what's going on?" Yuusuke demanded. "This had better be good!"
"It's not good, Yuusuke," Koenma replied, his face grave. "In fact, it's very bad."
"Well what is it?" the boy cried in frustration. "You dragged us out of our beds in the middle of the night -"
"Hiei is dead."
x . o . x . o . x . o . x
It was morning before Yuusuke staggered through the still-open door of his apartment. He felt nothing but numbness; had felt nothing for hours. A sick feeling had settled in his gut and was refusing to be dislodged, and his coordination had deserted him, leaving him to stumble over objects and into furniture on the way back to his room. His mother's uproarious snores cut through the thin walls like a jackhammer, and he gave a purely physical wince at the raucous noise.
Koenma's words rolled unceasingly through his head: multitudinous ramifications, myriad courses of action that they might take, a hundred and more things that they must now do. With Hiei gone, the Reikai Tantei were at half strength at best, and the fire demon had been supposed to play a key role in their next assignment.
So said Koenma.
But behind that perpetual drone, Botan's voice rang limpid and unforgettable, repeating over and over again the words that had thrown Yuusuke into his dazed shock.
I'm afraid, Yuusuke, that Hiei took his own life . . .
His knees banged painfully against the edge of his bed; he didn't recall reaching it. He flopped down on the soft, inviting mattress, blessing his Western-style bed, while at the same time knowing that sleep would be hard-won and excruciating, if it came at all.
Another of my friends gone. It hasn't even been three weeks since we lost Kurama. I guess Hiei just couldn't take it . . . Kisama! Why now? Why in Ningenkai? And why didn't I see it coming?
It was that last that haunted him. He'd known that Kurama had been Hiei's closest friend - the only one the Jaganshi would even reluctantly call by the term. He'd known that, and he'd known how little Hiei thought of himself, and he still hadn't even guessed at how deep the pain of losing Kurama had truly run. Somehow he'd thought the Jaganshi would pull through as stoically as he had always seemed to weather agony.
Now it seemed preternaturally clear, and Yuusuke cursed himself a thousand times over for a fool.
A thump sounded from the other room, and the snoring broke off with an odd hiccup. In a moment rustling and unsteady footsteps followed, and he heard his mother enter the kitchen, mumbling sleepily to herself as she sought out sustenance.
Or booze. Ah, gods, I hate my life. I hate it. And I feel like all of this is my fault.
He surrendered the notion of sleep, and rose wearily to get dressed for the day.
If he'd been a touch more sensitive, or perhaps if he had been paying better attention, he would have felt the briefest flash of a familiar youki before it flitted back into nonexistence.
x . o . x . o . x . o . x
Hiei perched motionless on a chair in Koenma's office, unblinking as a statue and calm as a glacier. The infant sat behind his desk and did his best to imitate the youkai's own patented glower while he shuffled through various papers on the hopelessly cluttered surface. Botan was not present this time, being busy helping Yuusuke prepare for the next mission, and her absence left a hole in the air that all but absorbed sound.
"That," Koenma began, "was a very irresponsible thing to do, Hiei." He paused, perhaps waiting for his words to have an impact, but the Jaganshi didn't so much as bat an eyelash. A tiny anger vein began to pulse on the ruler's temple. "The Reikai Tantei can't function without you at present, and my hands are all but tied. Because of the nature of your death, Reikai law forbids me from giving you a second chance."
Still he elicited no response; but he thought he saw the ghost of a smirk touch Hiei's lips.
The miniature hands slammed down on the desk in pure frustration. "Dammit, Hiei, what sort of effect did you think a thing like this was going to have? Or did you even think that far ahead?"
For the first time, Hiei spoke, his words as crisply succinct as ever. "You are a fool, Koenma. Your Reikai Tantei has no need of me, and you doubtless have replacement candidates in mind. I am unwanted, unwelcome, and useless."
"No, you're not! You were never any of those things! Every person you knew back on Ningenkai is mourning you right now!"
Hiei let out a short, barking, humorless laugh. "Then they are fools as well."
"What does it take to get you to understand?" Koenma was coming close to bruising his fists on the desktop. "Your selfishness is going to get them killed!"
"I don't care."
Something in that statement stopped Koenma cold; something unspoken, and unimaginably painful. Until that moment, in all the cases he had ever reviewed, he had never encountered anything quite like it before.
"You - you can't mean that!" he stammered, fully aware that Hiei had never meant anything as surely. The baby ruler was panicked now - his only hope had lain in convincing the fire demon to return to life, and rules be damned. Now, knowing that he could not succeed, he had no contingency left to him. "All three worlds depend on you! I'm willing to break every rule in the book to give you your life back, because we need you alive!"
Hiei looked bored, though more pain flashed in his expression. "I'm tired of being lied to, infant. Send me to oblivion for all I care, but if you try to force me to return to life, I will kill you in an instant." His strange red eyes burned into Koenma's own.
"Kurama would have gone back."
Koenma knew in a second that it was the worst thing that could ever have passed his lips. Hiei recoiled as if he'd been stabbed, those eyes overflowing with hurt, guilt and worse - but an instant later it was all driven out by an unholy rage that spilled glittering from the irises to set alight his entire face. A strong smoky tang invaded the air as Hiei snarled, "You will never again speak his name, Koenma! You are beneath him, and you sent him off to die! And it was for love of fools like you that he went willingly to his death!"
He had risen from his chair in a flash of movement to grab a shocked Koenma by the scruff of the neck, and smoke formed a smoldering haze around him. What he said next, Koenma would never forget.
"No one, not even I, is more evil than you."
The toddler hung absolutely motionless in the air, certain that Hiei could silence him before he could even cry out. His emergency button was just that much within reach, but he didn't even consider going for it. He could do nothing but wait, and hope.
He wasn't sure which surprised him more: that Hiei set him down, or the fact that he was almost gentle about it.
Koenma hit the button without looking at it, never breaking eye contact with the Jaganshi. As a small army of oni burst in to surround the unresisting youkai, he collected himself enough to speak. "You may be right about that, Hiei, but you're wrong about one thing."
"And what's that?" inquired Hiei in a conversational tone that rattled Koenma more than his previous rage.
"Kurama isn't dead."
And that's where, at this point in my writing process, I ran out of ideas.