Disclaimer: What? I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho? Are you sure? I have this paper here...oh, I guess it doesn't count if it's written in crayon. Ah well. I wasn't going to make any money off of this anyway. Don't own! Don't sue!
Author's Note: *hides from flames in advance* This is a little alternate universe fic that burbled out of me some time back. I have since edited it into something almost unrecognizable from the rough draft and I think it is better for it. I realize some side characters may be a bit out of character but I needed some villains. ^_^' Note the M rating is there for adult themes and violence.
What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Very Cranky
Chapter One: Departures and Meetings
"Insolent girl! I took you in, gave you power and this is how you repay me!?"
The young general watched her employer rant impassively. "You knew this was a temporary business arrangement, Mukuro. I'm leaving."
"How dare you!" The older demoness fumed, then a wicked gleam lit her one visible eye. "Fine, go! You will regret it very soon." Mukuro told the smaller demoness menacingly.
"Keh." and with that the girl was gone.
Mukuro seethed and called for a messenger. She had an associate who owed her a favor and she was ready to collect. "We'll just see if a few years as a pathetic human can teach that brat to appreciate power." She muttered to the empty room.
Hiei didn't like leaving her position in Mukuro's employ. She had worked hard to earn the rank of general and she had lost a valuable ally in leaving so suddenly. However she had personal business that had to be taken care. Her sister was missing. Hiei used the jagan to keep tabs on the gentle Koorime, but now she couldn't find her. It was as if Yukina had evaporated into nothing. The dark haired fire demoness was determined to locate her twin.
Days had passed since she had abandoned her post to search for her sister and still she found no sign of her. The young demoness was so focused on searching for Yukina's familiar mental signature, she didn't notice the demon sneaking up on her until it was far too late. The cloaked and hooded creature activated a small device and Hiei's body was wracked with pain.
"What the...!" She fell to her knees as agony tore through her wiry frame. As she slumped to the ground, teetering on the brink of unconsciousness, the hooded figure leaned down beside her. All the while the wicked little device continued to wreak havoc on the helpless half Koorime. She couldn't breathe and blackness was eating away at her vision, threatening to engulf her.
"Mukuro said to tell you goodbye." She heard a laughing voice say, before the blackness claimed her completely.
The next time Hiei opened her eyes, she was very confused. She had thought Mukuro had hired someone to kill her but it didn't take long for her to realize it was much worse than that. Her vision was blurry and she blinked to try and clear it, with minimal success. Someone was holding her by the foot, upside down and below her dangling form was some sort of foul smelling container. She tried to struggle free but her limbs had no strength and she could barely get them to respond to her commands to move. She let out a stream of curse words and was shocked into silence when what came out instead was an infantile cry of fury.
"Damn, brat. I was hoping you were stillborn like the others." A tired voice came from behind the dangling fire demoness. Hiei found herself rapidly turned around and flipped right side up to come face to face with a dirty, sweating human woman. "Guess I'll have to keep you after all. Welcome to the world kid. Try not to cause mommy any trouble, okay?"
'Mommy?' Hiei blinked as she began to grasp what was going on. She didn't know how Mukuro had managed it, but somehow the older demoness had trapped her soul in a human infant.
As Hiei's eyes began to focus a bit better, she realized she must have just been born and the human holding her was indeed her new mother. They were in an alley and the woman was rummaging through the piles of garbage with the tiny baby tucked carelessly under one arm.
"Ah ha! This'll work until I can get you home." The woman (Hiei refused to think of her as anything more than that) wrapped a couple of sheets of newspaper around the now shivering infant and exited the alley.
Mukuro no doubt would have been pleased to see Hiei's new life off to such a fine start.
"Alright, kid. Mommy has to work now so you be real quiet, okay. Wouldn't want the customers to know I've got a brat in here. Some of 'em are weird about doing it in front of kids." The woman laid the wide eyed infant on a flattened pillow in her dresser drawer.
'Don't shut it, don't shut it, No!' Hiei, now two weeks old, screamed in panic and fury as the drawer was slid shut, trapping her in pitch darkness with barely room to move.
"Quiet, squirt! I'll get you out in a couple of hours." A thump followed as the woman kicked the drawer for emphasis.
Hiei fell silent instantly as the dust filtered down on her small face from the impact. It was the same every night. Logically, Hiei knew there was nothing to be afraid of in the drawer, but panic still clutched her heart and made her squeeze her tiny eyes shut every time the woman shut her in. Hiei hated to be contained, hated to be restrained in any way actually. She didn't even particularly care for rooms with closed doors and windows.
The first few times the woman had shut her in, she had tried to calm herself by listening to the activity outside her confined space, but that proved too disgusting. Her new mother was prostitute and a drug addict. The strung out woman had apparently been working when she went into labor, which was how Hiei had come to be delivered in an alley. Since then, the woman had worked from home, though she sometimes left to collect new customers. Hiei remained in her drawer, silently panicking and unable to move for fear of making noise and earning further negative attention from her mother. The woman had already shaken her violently once and Hiei wasn't keen on repeating the experience.
Two months passed, Hiei was now big enough that her mother had to take the pillow out for her to fit in the drawer. On the plus side, it gave the claustrophobic demoness more room to move; but on the negative side, every move she made thumped against the wooden bottom of the drawer.
Hiei froze as she heard her mother enter the one room apartment. She heard a low voice talking. 'Customer.' She thought, forcing herself to lie perfectly still. The last time she moved around, the customer had declared the place had rats and left without paying. Her mother had been angry and left her in the drawer all day, kicking the rickety dresser periodically in frustration.
Hiei frowned as the noises outside her drawer began to sound more violent. Something wasn't right. Her mother was telling the man to stop but he wasn't stopping. Hiei heard the sound of flesh striking flesh and her mother cursed and cried. The sound repeated a few more times and then it was just the sound of the man doing what he came to do and her mother whimpering in pain. Hiei didn't like the woman but at that moment she would have liked to have a fraction of her old power back, just to ensure that man never raped another woman ever again.
The mingled cries of pain and pleasure died down to quiet sobbing from the woman, then the begging started.
"No! Please, you don't have to do this. I won't go to the cops, I swear!" The woman pleaded tearfully. "Please, don-"
Her voice fell silent with a gurgle that Hiei recognized with a sick feeling in her stomach. 'Slit throat.' Still she stayed frozen, not daring to risk drawing the man's attention to her little prison. Eventually, she heard him leave and she was alone, in her dark cramped drawer, in a room with only her human mother's cooling corpse for company.
She didn't know how long she waited there in the dark but she guessed it was about two or three days before the landlady knocked on the door, demanding rent money. Half starved, filthy, and terrified nearly out of her mind with claustrophobia, Hiei had just enough capacity for reason left to be grateful that her human mother had spent all her money on drugs. If the rent hadn't been behind it would likely have taken far longer for anyone to notice the murder. She tried to cry out as she heard the landlady open the door, but the tiny noise that came out was drowned out by the woman's horrified scream.
It was only when the police were going over the scene a couple of hours later, that one of the officers happened to open the drawer Hiei was trapped in. She blinked as the sudden assault of light hit her eyes.
The officer looked completely dumbfounded by his discovery. "Uh...hey, I found something!" He called out after staring at the tiny squirming infant for a few seconds in shock.
Several other police officers crowded around the drawer. Hiei managed a small cry of frustration, too weak from hunger and dehydration to do more. 'Why aren't they doing something? The least they could do would be to put me out of my misery.'
One of the officers carefully lifted her out of the drawer. "It's okay little one." He said gently. Hiei was immediately suspicious. "We'll find some food for you and get you into some dry clothes right away."
Hiei wasn't certain if she believed him. No kindness was without a price. However she soon decided she was simply too tired to care what they were going to do with her. As long as she wasn't in that drawer anymore it didn't really matter. She hadn't slept much since the murder, and the policeman's arms were comfortable and warm. The demoness, turned infant, was soon fast asleep and didn't even fully wake when she was changed and fed.
She was still out when she was handed over to her new caregivers a few hours later, only waking briefly when someone put her down and covered her with a blanket. She noted she was in a crib, in a room with several other occupied cribs. The bars bothered her but after so long in her cramped drawer, the small bed felt spacious enough to allow her to go back to sleep.
The sisters of St. Jude's Orphanage were dutiful to their many charges. Each child was cleaned, fed, dressed, and taught all the skills that the nuns deemed important. The religious organization would not turn any child away, so whenever the local police came across an orphan they handed them off to the nuns. Such was the case with Hiei. Since her mother had never named her, the sisters gave her the name Leiko Kiji, literally meaning 'arrogant foundling,' because even as a tiny infant she seemed to disdain their help and attention.
Hiei hated the place immediately; the huge building with too many small rooms, crammed with too many human brats, and windows that were almost all painted shut. Not to mention the sisters with their solemn faces and their expectations of proper behavior. The place made her skin crawl. Hiei couldn't wait to get out but she knew better than to try to go off alone in the human world. An infant on her own would be nearly helpless, even once she regained some mobility. She would have to give it some time. Maybe she would be able to break Mukuro's curse if she just found a way to deal with it for a few years.
By the time she was six months old, she had enough mastery over her new body to start walking. By the time she had her first birthday, not that anyone celebrated it, she could speak in full sentences if she bothered. Since Hiei wasn't the talkative sort, her advanced linguistic ability went almost unnoticed.
Hiei was almost two when they started locking her in her room at night. They claimed it was for her own good. She kept sneaking out to sleep on the lawn and the nuns said she would get sick. Hiei didn't believe them, but the lock worked to keep her contained for a few months, until she got a hold of one of Sister Agnes' hairpins and brushed up on some of her old skills. By age three she already had a bad reputation for being unmanageable. Most of the nuns wouldn't have anything to do with her anymore. Hiei's care was left to the only human who had managed to earn the small girl's grudging respect, Sister Kodachi. The somewhat elderly nun didn't bat an eye at Leiko-chan's behavior and she was the only one who ever even tried to show the emotionally scarred child any affection.
Hiei retained some of the physical qualities of her demonic form. She had a theory that the jagan had helped to mitigate some of the affects of the curse. She was small for her age and far stronger than an average human child. Her hair was a mass of unruly blackness; except for around her forehead where white streaks intermingled with the inky strands, forming a star burst pattern. As she grew, she had to keep it cropped fairly short to keep it from meeting in a point above her head. Her eyes were the most strikingly inhuman thing about her; one eye was a pale ice blue, while the other was the same blood red it had been in her previous form.
Overall, she wasn't displeased with her human form. It could have been much worse, however her odd looks made her seem like an easy target for ridicule. At four she got into her first serious fight. An eight year old boy made the mistake of teasing her about her eyes. Hiei broke his arm, and got her very first spankings because of it. Without giving it a second thought, she decided it was well worth it. From then on, most of the other orphans avoided her and Hiei rather preferred it that way.
"Kuso, Mukuro. I swear I'll get revenge for this someday." the little girl snarled quietly as she was picking the lock on her door.
"Better not let the sisters catch you talking like that, Leiko-chan." the other occupant of the room warned.
"Don't call me that!" The six year old advanced on her nine year old bunk mate.
The older girl blanched and backed away from the smaller child nervously, "Sorry, I forgot. Kiji-san."
"Hn." Hiei smirked as she went back to working on the lock. At least she hadn't lost all her menace.
She caught a glimpse of her reflection in the mirror on the back of the door and scowled. The pale yellow uniform that the nuns made her wear, made her want to throw up. She strongly wished she could just call forth a fireball and incinerate the offensively cheerful garment. However, her control over fire was nearly non-existent. She could stick her hand into flames without being burned but she couldn't speak to the fire and bend it to her will the way she once could. Likewise she couldn't use her jagan but sometimes she could almost feel it trying to open, so she knew it was somehow still there.
She felt the lock finally tumble into place under her careful ministrations and she smiled. The sisters had long ago started searching her for lock picks before they put her to bed but she always managed to secret something away even if it wasn't always the easiest tool for the job.
'Just you wait, Mukuro, I'll get you some day.' Hiei thought to herself as she stepped cautiously out into the hallway. There was a nice tree in the back yard, with wide branches, thick foliage, and a crook that she had often used for resting during the day. It was just perfect for a small frame to nestle in and Hiei invariably ended up there when she was successful in escaping her caretaker's watchful gaze to sleep out under the stars.
This time her escape was cut short as strong arms caught her arms and held her fast. "Picked the lock again, ne Leiko-chan?" He captor asked rhetorically.
Hiei just glared at Sister Kodachi silently.
"Why do you do this? I told you last time that I'd have to turn you in if this continued." The middle aged nun frowned at her impassive young charge. "Do you know what that means?" She asked curiously.
Hiei nodded sharply, no remorse on her pixie-like features. No one was allowed out of their rooms after nine o'clock. She broke the rules and now there would be consequences. She didn't much care, spankings were nothing compared to the discipline she'd gotten from the bandits who had raised her in Makai, and at least it would keep her from being returned to her room immediately.
It never even occurred to the demoness-turned-human to simply tell the older woman she was claustrophobic. It was a weakness and weakness was not tolerated in Makai, not even from children. She had no reason to believe that Ningenkai was any different.
"Leiko-chan! Get back down here this instant!" The terrified nun shrieked up at her ten year old charge.
Hiei stood on the ridge of the roof of the three story orphanage and glared down at Sister Kodachi with her arms crossed across her chest. "Go away! I told you, I won't do it!" She snarled.
"Leiko, get down here right now before sister Agnes sees you up there! You know she's been looking for an excuse to send you away! Do you really want to give her the satisfaction?!" The nun fervently prayed for forgiveness for that bit of gossip about one of her fellow nuns, but it had the desired effect.
A small frown crossed the dark haired child's face. She knew that Sister Agnes didn't like her. She had once heard the woman call her devil spawn, 'If only she knew how close that was to the truth.' The elderly nun had threatened more than once to have Hiei locked away in a mental institution due to her bouts of violence and her generally anti-social behavior, and she wasn't the only one to have mentioned that possibility when they thought Hiei was out of earshot. Only Sister Kodachi ever tried to defend her, but eventually that wouldn't make a difference, especially if Hiei gave the others enough ammunition to force the decision. The thought of locked doors and barred windows was enough to make the cursed fire demoness sigh and give in gracelessly.
"Hn." Hiei scowled and walked calmly to the edge of the roof. "Fine. I'll go to school." With that she stepped off her high perch.
"Leiko-chan!" Sister Kodachi rushed forward, her heart in her throat as she searched the ground for her young charge.
"What?" Hiei walked up beside the frightened woman.
The nun sighed in relief and patted the child on the head. "I thought I told you before to take the slow way down from there, Leiko-chan." She caught the sulking girl by the arm and began gently steering her back into the building. "Now, come on. You need to get into your school clothes."
"I hate them, they're stupid." Hiei grumbled sourly.
"I don't care if you like them, you will wear them and you will be on your absolute best behavior at your new school. This is the third one this year and if you get expelled again I'm not sure what the academic committee is going to do with you."
"Hn."
"Minamino-san, could you please come to my desk for a moment?"
"Hai, Sensei." the red haired boy stood and approached the teacher curiously.
"Minamino-san, a new student is joining our class today. I would like you to take her under your wing and show her around." Takedo-sensei explained quietly, smiling at his best student. "I think you'll be a good influence on her."
"Certainly, Sensei." The red haired demon in disguise agreed amiably, inwardly amused at the idea that he could be a good influence on anyone. "It will be my pleasure."
"Thank you, Minamino-san. That will be all."
Kurama bowed politely before returning to his seat. He could tell the young teacher was nervous about this new student and he idly wondered why. What could be so bad about a ten year old girl?
"Minamino-kun, are you in trouble?" A shy voice interrupted his musings.
Kurama turned his head to face the speaker, searching his mind for the girl's name. Maya, he remembered after a few moments. "No. There will be a new student joining the class and Takedo-sensei requested that I show her around." He explained with a perfect blend of aloofness and politeness in his tone. He knew that several of the girls in the school had crushes on him and he didn't want to encourage them. Thus, he had perfected a detached, untouchable facade.
He was studying the ill concealed look of jealousy that flashed across Maya's face, "Wh..." His hand shot up to catch a projectile that was aimed at his head. "What? An eraser?" He blinked at the harmless school supply. Obviously someone was jealous of his conversation with Maya. She was a very popular girl, and pretty enough in an ordinary way. He shrugged off the irrelevant assault and stuck the eraser in his desk as the teacher began to speak.
"Class. We have a new classmate. Leiko Kiji." She gestured and a diminutive girl entered the room with obvious reluctance.
Kurama eyed the girl curiously. She was no taller than his shoulder, barely three and a half feet. Her black hair formed a wild, dark halo around her pale face, shockingly contrasted by the stark white star burst over her forehead. Somehow he just knew that was a natural development and he wondered if she was born that way or if some sort of trauma had scarred her scalp. The bright blue school uniform she wore looked completely unnatural and her pixie-like features were frozen in an almost challenging frown.
However beyond all those things, her eyes caught and held his attention. The pale blue would have been striking enough in her otherwise Asian features, but the startlingly crimson eye that glared out of the other socket was not an eye color that humans could be born with. His suspicions about his new classmate were only heightened by something he caught flashing through those eyes. Something that spoke to the redhead's own demonic nature in a way no human's eyes ever had. Leiko's eyes held pain, fury, and knowledge that could not be gained in a normal human lifetime.
The fox demon watched her surreptitious as she stalked to the seat that the teacher indicated. He wondered why he couldn't feel any youki from her. How was she hiding it so completely? Leiko's desk was next to the window and as soon as she was seated, she studiously began to ignore the teacher, staring out through the glass with a bored look that clearly spoke of a longing to escape.
As Leiko watched the world outside, Kurama watched her. He was plotting the best way to get her away from his human classmates so he could confront her about her intentions in coming to the human world. More specifically, her intentions in entering his territory. In the past couple of years, as his powers had returned, most demons had learned to give his neighborhood a wide berth if they didn't want to meet a messy end. The thought amused Kurama in spite of the seriousness of the situation and he smiled slightly.
Maya seethed. 'How dare she come in and try to take Shuuichi-kun from me, just when he was beginning to notice me!' She fumed silently. 'Well, I'll show her...'
"Okay, class. Time for lunch. Kiji-san, Minamino-san will show you around."
Kurama stood and picked up the bento his mother had packed for him. The he faced the girl with a smile. "Hajimemashite, Kiji-san. I am Shuuichi Minamino." He bowed politely.
"Hn." Hiei stood and studied Shuuichi coolly. "Fine, show me something." She said after few tense moments, managing to sound both bored and frustrated.
"Hai. Follow me." Kurama didn't bat an eye at the girl's rudeness. It merely reinforced his belief that Leiko Kiji was a demon in disguise. He needed to get her away from his classmates so he could confront her.
Kurama led Leiko out past the game fields and into a stand of trees, out of sight of the students who were eating lunch outside. Then he turned and faced the girl calmly, all pretense of humanity falling away. "Who are you?" He asked coldly.
"Why do you care?" Hiei snapped defensively. She had become suspicious when he led her away from the others, but she had followed him anyway out of curiosity and boredom. "Did Mukuro send you? That would be just like her, tired of her little game so she sends someone to kill me." She spat viciously. "I warn you, I won't die easily."
"Die?" Kurama was genuinely confused. Then another of the girl's questions registered. "Hang on, did you say Mukuro?"
"Hn." Hiei snorted, as if this red haired assassin didn't know...or did he?
"As in the leader of a third of the Makai?" Kurama asked with slightly wide eyes.
"Yes." Hiei answered warily, still trying to figure out what sort of trap this boy was setting.
Kurama's eyes widened further and he gaped at the unimposing figure before him. "You angered Mukuro...How? What did you do?" He asked curiously.
"None of your business." Hiei snapped and crossed her arms.
"So you are hiding from Mukuro as a human." Kurama reasoned.
The dark haired girl was enraged. She began to advance on the redhead threateningly. "Are you calling me a coward?" She almost hissed. "I am not hiding from anyone! She put me here!" She snarled.
Before the angry, cursed demoness could reach the thoughtful looking redhead, a tree root rose up and tripped her. She didn't fall but the stumble was enough to make her stop her advance. She eyed the root as it settled back into the earth.
"Who are you?" She asked slowly, beginning to believe she might have been mistaken in her assumption that the redhead's presence had anything to do with her.
"My name in Makai was Kurama." The taller boy executed a graceful bow. "And you?"
"Hiei." She said flatly. "Kurama? Youko Kurama? You...are the legendary thief?" She asked in mild disbelief.
"You've heard of me." Kurama smiled. "It is good to know my reputation survives in my absence."
Hiei snorted in a decidedly unladylike way. "I heard you were dead." She corrected sourly.
Kurama ignored the comment as he dug through his memories. "Hiei..." His eyes lit up in recognition. "You are...were, Mukuro's youngest general?" Kurama gaped. This...mere wisp of a girl was once one of the most feared demons in all of Makai?
Hiei seemed to read what he was thinking and pulled herself up to her full height, all three foot seven inches, and glared at the redhead. "Yes, I was. If you weren't sent to kill me, why do you care?"
"I was just making certain you wouldn't be a danger to my human classmates." Kurama shrugged. "We should head back. Lunch is almost over."
They made it back to their seats just in time. Neither noticed Maya's rage filled glare as they entered the room together. Their absence during lunch had been noted and Maya began to plan how to get her new rival out of the way.
Kurama stood and began to gather his things. "Leiko-chan. May I walk you home?" He called out to Hiei, who had started towards the door.
The girl scowled at the name but waited for him to join her before she started walking again. Neither paid much attention to the figure following after them until they were a few blocks from the school.
"Turn into the next alley and stop." Kurama whispered without looking back. "We have a pursuer."
"Hn." Hiei nodded once and wished for any sort of weapon. Being unarmed left her feeling helpless, a feeling she loathed with every fiber of her being.
With an ease born of long practice, Kurama faded back into shadows as soon as they were out of view of their follower. If it was the person he suspected it was, Hiei shouldn't need his help.
He slowed her pace but continued walking. She heard someone closing in from behind her. At the last second, she stepped to the side and her attacker rushed past.
Maya turned back to face Hiei, fury in her eyes.
"What do you want?" Hiei asked flatly.
"Stay away from him. Minamino-kun is mine." The jealous human ordered the smaller girl coldly.
Hiei felt her temper flare. "Nobody tells me what to do." She growled.
Kurama watched from his hidden position. He had the feeling that Hiei would be furious if he interfered against such a weak opponent. He kept himself carefully concealed.
"Well, I just did." Maya hissed.
"Ku-Shuuichi-kun doesn't belong to anyone." Hiei shot back, catching the name just in time. She could feel her blood running hotly and a headache was beginning to throb between her eyes. It was something that had been happening more and more frequently in the past months, especially when she was angry.
"I love him! He's MINE!" Maya shrieked and lunged at Hiei.
Hiei's head chose that moment to subject her to a particularly sharp pain and she was distracted enough that she couldn't dodge the wild attack completely. She was shoved from the side and she stumbled, crashing into a wall and cracking her head on the corner of a trash bin as she fell. The headache was instantly heightened to a blinding pain and Hiei's vision was clouded with blood. Then everything mercifully faded away and she knew nothing more for some time.
Kurama forcefully checked his anger as he hurried out of his concealment. Maya was a stupid, jealous child, an offense that wasn't worth killing her over.
Said child jumped guiltily as she spotted him. "Minamino-san..." She choked out. "I thought you'd gone."
Kurama ignored her and quickly checked on Hiei. He sighed in relief, at least she was alive. He cradled her head against his shoulder and caught her legs under her knees. Once he was certain of his grip, he stood slowly, trying not to jostle her head. He turned to face Maya, green eyes flashing with wrath.
"Go home." He commanded harshly. "Go and pray that she recovers. But first look at what you've done and remember this the next time you start to let petty jealousy rule your actions."
Maya did look and the image, the blood streaming down Leiko Kiji's pale face and staining her blue uniform almost black as she lay unconscious, would forever be burned into her mind. She turned and wretched helplessly in the dirty alley. Sickened by what she had allowed herself to become.
Kurama left her there.
Hiei awoke slowly. Someone was setting off artillery in her skull and the pain was enough to keep her from going back to sleep, despite her lingering weariness. She forced her eyes open, squinting as the dim light from a desk lamp on the other side of the room only made the headache worse. A moment later the light was mercifully shut off and Hiei realized that she wasn't alone. As her eyes began to focus, she also noticed that she wasn't in her familiar sleeping quarters at the orphanage. Her eyes widened and she struggled to sit up.
'Where am I?' She thought in a panic.
Before she could get more than a few inches off the pillows, she was firmly but gently pushed back down. Her head spun from even that slight motion and a slightly familiar face swam into view, leaning over her own. It took her a moment to match a name to the face. "Kurama." She relaxed very slightly and the redhead removed his hands from her shoulders.
"You're in my room. I didn't know where else to take you." He explained with a small smile. "You shouldn't move too much just yet. You have a nasty head wound."
Hiei was in no condition to argue, her earlier attempt to rise had left her feeling nauseous and caused the pounding in her head to overwhelm most of her coherent thoughts. She held still, but kept her eyes on her host as he moved away from her to retrieve something from his desk, which was as impeccably neat as the rest of the room Hiei could see. He walked back over to her carrying a cup.
"Are you in pain?" He asked solicitously. "Drink this." He offered her the small cup of odd smelling liquid.
"What is it?" Hiei asked warily.
"It will ease the pain and help you sleep." Kurama explained quietly.
"I don't want to sleep." the prone girl's voice rose slightly and the redhead hastily placed a hand over her mouth.
"Please, it's late and my mother is sleeping. She doesn't know you're here. I don't want to involve her in this." He pleaded, then stifled a yelp as the trapped girl bit him, just hard enough to break the skin. He pulled his wounded hand away with a pained smile and eyed the crescent shaped mark ruefully. "Sorry. I admit, I deserved that." He held out the cup again with his other hand. "Drink, please."
"Hn." Hiei stubbornly glared at the kitsune.
"You still don't trust me? If I wanted you dead, I would have done it in the alley and not bothered to carry you all the way back here." He frowned.
"There are worse things than death." The dark haired demoness said cryptically.
"I promise you, no harm will come to you at my hand, Hiei. Now drink. You have to sleep so you can heal."
Hiei finally gave in reluctantly and took the cup from him with hands that shook slightly. He helped her sit up just enough to get the foul tasting beverage down without choking on it and then settled her back onto the pillows as gently as he could. Almost immediately, the fire demoness felt herself getting drowsy.
"Sleep well, Hiei-san. You will be alright in the morning." Kurama told her right before she drifted beyond hearing.
The redhead grabbed a spare blanket from his closet and stretched out on the floor beside the bed to get some sleep himself.
"Shuu-kun." Green eyes shot open at his mother's soft call. "Time to get up, son."
"Hai, Kaasan." He called back as he stood and stretched. He was grateful that his mother no longer entered his room to wake him. That would have been quite awkward. He turned to look at his bed and the girl residing in it and was slightly shocked to find her looking back. The herbs he had given her should have kept her out longer than that. "You're awake. Feel any better this morning?" He asked cheerfully.
"I'm fine. I won't bother you any more." She slowly raised herself to a sitting position, preparing to get out of the bed.
Kurama sat down beside her to prevent her from leaving. "No bother." He said, reaching for the bandages wound around her head. "Let me check the poultice."
Hiei sat still and allowed him to remove the bandages, other than feeling a little light headed she felt almost back to normal.
The redhead's face became suddenly confused. "Hmm, that's strange..." He mumbled.
"What?" Hiei asked, frowning.
"The poultice I put on this should have healed it by now. It shouldn't have even left a scar...but something is still there."
Hiei blinked at Kurama as a hopeful thought occurred to her. She closed her eyes and slowly opened them again, all three of them.
"A jagan?" Kurama stared. He had never seen one in person, finding it was generally best to avoid telepaths when one was in his line of work. "How?"
"I haven't been able to open it since I was cursed. The injury must have unsealed it." Hiei felt as if she had been blind for years and had suddenly regained her sight. She could feel the reiki and youki of those around her. She could feel her own powers, tightly bound inside her by the curse. With the jagan, it was the work of a moment to unlock them.
Kurama flinched back as her long suppressed youki flared briefly before she brought it back under control.
The dark haired girl held up her hand and reached for the fire that resided inside her. She called to it and for the first time in over ten years it answered her summons. A small orange fireball hovered over her open palm, crackling merrily as it fed off of her youki. Hiei stared at the flames with what could almost be seen as affection.
"What will you do now?" The fox demon asked curiously.
The flames sputtered out of existence and the bi-colored eyes met his green ones. There was life in those eyes that had been sorely lacking the day before. "Train." She stated simply.
"And then?"
"None of your business." Hiei said firmly. "I appreciate your help. I'll remember you, Kurama. Sayonara." She was gone before the red head could even blink, her speed and agility amplified by her youki.
Kurama sat lost in thought until his mother knocked on his door again. For the first time in his human existence, Shuuichi Minamino was late to school.
Maya kept her gaze averted guiltily towards her desk as Kurama took his seat.
"Students. Kiji-san has been reported missing. She never made it home from school yesterday." Takedo-sensei announced gravely. "If any of you know where she may have gone, please see me after class."
Maya glanced over at Shuuichi. His face was impassive.
At lunchtime, Maya approached the redhead warily. "Minamino-san. Kiji-san...is she...where is she?" She managed to stammer out, not meeting his cold green eyes.
"Gone."
"Gone where?" The human girl asked desperately.
"Honestly, I have no idea." A lie, he could think of a few likely places. "It seems she got the impression she wasn't welcome here." He said with false politeness. "Excuse me, the company is ruining my appetite." He rose and took his bento outside, wondering where Hiei had gone and whether he would ever see the petite demoness again.
That was the last time Maya tried to speak to him.
To be continued...
Author's Note: So what do you think? I have more written but still need to massively edit it. I plan on taking this all the way through the series eventually and possibly beyond. For the next chapter, you should look forward to Kurama and Hiei's reunion, the theft of the Reikai treasures, and the aftermath of that disaster. Please review and let me know if Hiei still feels like Hiei the way I'm writing her. Thank you for reading.
