A/N: This is my first finished and published fic, ever. I hope everyone likes it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Any and all feedback is welcome. I want to know if I should make a whole story about these two or not.
Memory Lane
She had never spent so much time here before, outside in the open air. The sun felt warm against her skin, it was comforting. The young girl had left the temple in the early morning before anyone was awake and wandered into the surrounding forest. She had made her way through the sea of green by the time the sun was just about to peek from behind the horizon line.
She saw an open area that turned into a hill with a single large tree atop of it, she mad this her destination. A chilly breeze ruffled her lavender summer dress as she made it to the top of the hill. She looked to the horizon and saw the bursts of color begin. Pinks, yellows, oranges, and purples swarmed into the sky laying a painted path for the sun to tread over.
Now it was almost noon. The tree's foliage making a pattern of soft green above her. The small holes in the protective covering permitted warm rays to caress her pale skin. Her eyes closed and face upturned, she smiled a small almost unseen smile. Nothing more then a slight upturn of the corners of her moth. Her legs were neatly folded with her ankles to the right of her body as she rested against the rough bark of the tree. She was tucked between two large roots that cradled her small form.
She herd footfalls in the distance behind her, slowly making their way up the hill at a steady pace. They finally stopped to her left a few feet away from her position. She felt the presence, but no eyes were on her. A warm breeze passed by them, her own scent rising and twirling in the wind with the scent of her company. When the leaves ceased to rustle, the visitor spoke. "Onna," he had yet to use her name in the time they had known each other. "I know," she replied, her voice was music. Soft and cool like silk, but warm like summer rain, and sweet like honey.
He continued to stand, watching the scenery. The hill dipped down into a small field full of blooming wild flowers. She wasn't looking at it, she still sat with her eyes closed, her head back against the tree. They had known each other for years now, including the rest of their comrades who weren't currently present. She had met them by chance, she had been just another mission. Her mind wandered into the memory.
She sat in a dank room underground. It smelled of mold and damp concrete, and blood, her blood. She had been captured and sold into slavery by demons. She was somewhere in Makai, underground, bleeding from a number of wounds that refused to heal for months now. She had no memory of home, nor any hope to return to it. Not that it was much of a home to begin with.
She had no family, no friends. She was an outcast by her worlds standards, by everyone who looked at her. Her silver hair was greasy and stuck to her scalp and face from a head wound that was still leaking crimson. Her bangs were past her eyes. How long had she been here? Weeks? Months? She couldn't tell, time ran together like a day with no movement from the sun. She felt as if she was stuck on the dark side of the moon, where there was no calculation of time, or anything for that matter.
The human adult body holds ten pints of blood. But she felt like she had bled all ten pints, and then some in such a short time. She felt everything slip from her, she had no control, no certainty. It wasn't uncommon for anyone to feel this way at some point in life. Her current circumstance didn't change that factor. It was all about how she saw things.
From the time when she was just a child, to now, she had been completely different. Her mind working in ways no one would understand. Her parents dragged her from specialists, to doctors, priests, scholars, scientists, anyone, everyone. No one understood her, they merely studied her and labeled her. They called her Schizoid, Paranoid, Schizotypal, Avoidant, and Obsessive-Compulsive. Each being known as a personality disorder. They saw her as an invalid, the doctors and her parents. She knew that they weren't looking for her now that she was gone, they never would.
The door creaked open, and another being was here with her. To any other person he would be considered handsome, someone desirable. She only saw scum, another evil soul in-cased in a pretty shell. She didn't even find him pretty. He stood over her, then rested a hand on her head, before she knew it his nails were digging into her hair and scalp, and she was ripped up from the floor by her silver locks. She cried out as he pulled her to eye level. One eye was closed tight while the other was open and staring into his face.
She spat at him. He tortured her every day, some days the games went on for more then that. But who knew, she had all the time in the wold down here in her hole. He whipped her across the face with the back of his hand. Then she was tossed against the brick wall. Her back connected with the rough surface and she cried out before slumping to the floor. Her violet eyes stared out at him through her dirty hair, emotionless. She may cry out, and she may be defiant, but she was empty. Not once did an emotion slip to the surface, and it tore him apart.
Her apathy drove him to madness. He got off from his prey's pain, and she wouldn't let him have it. She would be nothing more then what she was always assumed to be. A doll. More torture ensued, until she was knocked unconscious. The next time she awoke, she was being held at knife point with her feet above the floor. She thought she was in a mansion. The floor was tile and the room was cool, decorated in dark grays and blues.
Her gray spaghetti-strap dress was covered in blood, old and new, and mingled with it was dirt from the stone underground room. She could hear a group yell at the man who had her mid-air. She made eye contact with each of them. The brunette, the red-heads, and the one with eyes of a dragon. She made no vocal contact with them, no look of pleading, she just stared. Then there were words exchanged, and there was screaming from the man holding her. Before she knew it, she hit the wall again.
She was so tired of this, of being tossed around like nothing. Of being treated like a doll. She wasn't a doll. Her mind wasn't fragile, nor was her body. Before she knew what was happening, she was on her feet and swaying dangerously. She dragged her broken body one foot at a time away from him, before stumbling half way across the room. The power he possessed was being sent at her, to destroy her. But it never connected. She had been gently lifted, cradled against someone's chest. She had been saved, and in more ways then one.
She slowly opened her eyes, scarlet met violet, "Hiei," she said. There was no answer, he turned his head back out to the field of flowers, and she looked out into the ocean of color as well. Her silver bangs hung just over her eyes, and the body of her thick hair was tied high with a lacy black ribbon. A new memory surfaced.
She was back in the Makai with the four who had saved her. It had been a year since the day she was freed from her 'master', and she had learned a great deal of things since then. She was still her usual self, speaking without speaking and going through rituals to help her thought process. But what she had found was much like acceptance. They never questioned her mental capability except for the one time when she had been stuck in the hospital, recovering from being in-slaved for three years.
This was her fourth mission with the Spirit Detectives, and to everyone's surprise, she was powerful. What they believed to be Schizotypal Personality Disorder was actually her spirit awareness, as it turns out she was no ordinary human. She wasn't even completely sure that she was human at all. She never felt human, or felt anything toward humans. She slipped through her thoughts as they trudged on. Beside her strong spiritual senses, she had a strong spiritual energy that she could manifest outside of her body, she could make an array of deadly weapons, but she never used them. She only made and used shields and barriers.
The four boys stopped walking when they reached a desert territory. She blinked into the distance and saw a large castle-type structure. They were in Yusuke's home land. They continued onward and forward until they met up with a monk.
"Hey there Hokishin, how're things?" The Mazoku boy asked with a crooked smile that only fit him. "Everything is well as can be expected, my lord." Hokishin replied with a tired look. "I thought I told you to stop calling me that?" The brunette continued.
Not much time later and they were told all of the details of the current plague that was over them. It had seemed that some sort of illness was spreading through the people. Only a few casualties had arisen thus far. It was a slow killer that tortured the victims before dragging out their death. Was this why it was vital they arrived in a rush? Or was there more to it?
"Rei," she turned her head to the fox, "do you think you're ready to start?" She nodded, following him and the dragon wielder out of the room and to the small village area where the monks lived. When they reached the first home she was greeted with the sight of a young middle-aged looking monk who was squirming on a floor mat, panting and sweating in pain. She knelled beside him and held up her hands. Her petite hands and slim fingers began to glow a soft but bright white, then she placed one hand over the mans forehead and one over the center of his chest. The man ceased his movement and his breath evened out, he would be fine within a day or two.
This continued to every ill person and those that weren't sick were checked to be safe. And by the end of the day Rei was exhausted, though she never showed it. The next few days she spent time with the people, speaking with them, listening to them. And on the fourth day of their visit, they left how they arrived. Rei now being officially added into the territory's system as an ally. It had been a successful mission.
It had been a year since that day, and many missions had came and went, and so did her 'defects'. While with the people around her she was healing, she no longer went through rituals to help her mind function, or hide away from people. She was still quiet, and sometimes almost shy, but she wasn't close to being as paranoid as she had been. But then again, she was still going through changes. Hiei was sitting on the branch above her head now, his back against the trunk and legs crossed in front of him with his arms behind his head. His jagan glowed softly behind the ward tied around his forehead. Rei knew he was watching her memories with her, she could feel him there, in her mind. She felt herself being pulled into another memory as she closed her eyes once more.
Her chest heaved as she stood in a wide stance across from Genkai. She stumbled forward slightly, but caught herself. Her lungs ached and her throat burned, she swore she tasted blood at the back of her throat. "What, are you giving up? Are you going to pass out on me now? I guess what they said about you was true, you are an inv-" the sentence was never finished. Rei had been staring down her mentor during her vocal moment. Her eyes had begun to show emotion not long ago, and now she was being trained by more then meditation. She was learning hand to hand combat. She wouldn't let anyone talk about her in this way, and thinking about it drove her over the edge. Rei had dashed at lightning speed to the right and slid under Genkai's radar. She threw a right hook that sent the old woman skidding back across the clearing, her fist still held mid air, her stance solid and her eyes smoldering.
Genkai smirked and gently touched her already bruising cheek, a small trickle of blood passed her lips and she spit the rest into the dirt before wiping her mouth. "Good work." Rei's eyes had widened considerably when she looked to where her teacher was now pointing. Her fist glowed a bright white. She surmised that when contact was made with enough pressure, it made a small burst of power. "If you had actually thought about it and tried, I bet you could have taken my head off." The glow around her fist died down and she let her hand drop to her side, her eyes full of wonder and amazement, and fear. Was she truly capable of such destruction?
At that moment she felt someone sling their arm around her and another presence come up to her and wrap their arm around her waist. Kazuma gave her a goofy grin and patted her shoulder with his hand that happened to already be there. Yusuke just gave her a slight squeeze from around her waist. "That was amazing, I hardly ever landed a hit on Grandma when I was first starting out. Nice one!" He laughed happily after that announcement and then two more people surrounded her by the front. "I agree, that was quiet a shot." Kurama added, a small smile gracing his lips. Hiei just smirked before turning around and walking off with, "We will spar soon, Onna. Learn some control first." And with that he disappeared back into the temple.
She stood this whole while looking back and forth at them as they spoke, then watching Hiei leave. When he had left her view, she smiled. And it was a real smile, which caused the rest of the boys around her to laugh. Those were the days when she barely spoke, the days where actions spoke louder then words.
Rei looked up above her where the fire demon had chosen to rest. Her eyes glittered in the sunlight that broke through the leaves. They had come a far way from when they met. Back then he didn't even recognize her presence, and she was usually in his way. But one day she had done something no one else had, and he had slowly warmed up to her since.
They were all at the temple resting and just enjoying the day. Yukina was serving everyone tea when the earth shook around them. The floor boards rumbled and one of the cups slipped from the platter and broke on the floor. The young girl with red eyes looked around, "What's happening?" She asked, but everyone was already on their feet and out the door. Rei had stayed behind, "Please stay inside, Yu-chan," She said as she stood and walked the same directions the others had ran off in. She stood in the doorway that led to the courtyard. The four were surrounded and fighting off a never-ending mass of demons that seemed to come from no where, but flowed around them like water.
Rei felt a warm tingle in her fists and up her arms as she leaped off of the front porch into the crowd. Her fist slammed into one and there was a flash of white along with a loud boom similar to a clap of thunder. She hand landed swiftly into a crouch while it rained bits of different corpses around her. She stood in a single fluid motion, her arms still ablaze with energy. The crowd quickly reformed around her. She gazed around her and slipped into an open stance, from her bare feet to above her knees now flooded with energy. She began to kick and punch in a graceful dance of death for those that opposed her. And she was slowly tiering. She knew by the shouts of Kazuma and Yusuke, they were feeling the same way. She blew through a few more bodies and caught a glimpse of Hiei to her left, a demon lurking behind him in a tree. The demon had a remarkably sharp looking dagger that glinted in the sunlight. Before she knew that she even told her body to move, she was running. The demon leaped, and so did she.
Hiei obliterated the demons in front of him just as a body smacked into his and arms curled around his torso. He felt fingers grip his shirt, and he stood stock still as he stared surprised and wide eyed ahead of him before throwing his head to the side to look over his shoulder. "Onna what do you thi-..." Her head had been resting against his shoulder, and she looked up with worry on her face, "Oh, Hiei, are you alright?" Rei asked in her silky smooth tone that she always used. "Baka, of course I am," he growled out, irritated that she was clinging to him for nothing, mid-battle none-the-less.
Then, she smiled one of those precious smiles that she had shown only once before when Yukina had been tending to her wounds. Even that upturn of the lips was nothing in comparison to the expression she wore now. He just stared at her. "I'm glad." She said, she sounded...happy. Then he felt it, a wetness slowing seeping through his shirt and against his back. He pulled away from her and she stood there a moment before crumpling forward and landing on her hands and knees. She coughed and blood splattered the ground. He saw the handle of a weapon sticking from her back, she had been skewered to save him.
Rei moved her legs from her right side of her body to straight out in front of her. Her aching muscles felt instantly better in the new position. She stretched her arms over her head then let her hands fall into her lap once more. They had been sitting outside together for a few hours now, a rare feat. Hiei was usually around Yukina to keep an eye on her, or they were all out fighting some new evil that could over-take the three worlds. This time his mind swept her into a memory, one that wasn't as far along in time.
It had been two years since they had met, since she had been freed, and since she had saved him. She found herself as close to the fire demon as Kurama was. Their bond however was completely different then what Hiei shared with his best friend. He had a respect for the girl that was unique. She had barely known him, barely spoke to him, and she still rushed into danger for him. He could never completely wrap his mind around it. Many times he sat and tried to think of plausible excuses explaining her actions, but nothing seemed to fit.
The girl was an enigma, completely unreadable and unpredictable. But all at once she was readable and predictable, too. Her eyes reminded him of stained glass, not only in appearance, but how she seemed to view the world around her. She saw everything clearly with an un-fazed mind. She took things as they came and accepted them without worrying about unknown factors or rumors. Maybe that's why she saved him, because she just saw him as another person, not a monster or a forbidden child.
They were spending time alone around the temple, he had brought it up through a mental link they had going for conversation. She had took in his story like a sponge and mulled over it in her mind for a short while. He had even thought she was afraid to speak to him, but from the feelings he was receiving from the connection, he couldn't even begin to convince himself that. 'Why would this be important?' She directed the thought at him, looking up at him from the boulder she lounged on. He sat above her on a small carved out cliff that was a few feet above her own perch. He wasn't sure how to answer her, 'It's just fair warning.' She stared at him awhile before pulling him deeper into her mind. She showed him the intricacies, the horrible thoughts and memories, even the echoing voices she harbored as a child. He was a little less then shocked. Her problems were greater than being haunted by ghouls and demons. 'And why does this matter?' he asked, sounding almost bored, but not being anywhere close to it. 'Just fair warning,' she answered with laughter tinting her thought. He snorted openly and looked away, and this time she did laugh in the open.
Rei stood and stretched again. Her new position had done nothing to help her sore back. She brushed the dust from her dress and walked forward to the edge of the hill. She watched as the flowers swayed in the wind, her company moving to stand by her side.
It had been another night without sleep. It hadn't even been a full night and she knew still that she wouldn't fall asleep. Some old habits died hard, she guessed. She slipped on her shoes and left the temple where she permanently lived. Yukina and Genkai were sleeping, and she assumed Hiei, who was also staying, was asleep as well. She wandered through the neighboring forest, she looked up to see the moon, and she followed it. She continued going straight until she found herself up a hill that was home to a large tree with thick branches. She walked past it and into the field below. It was in full bloom. There were fireflies dancing about her, creating a soft glow that mingled with the moonlight. The moon was full, and hung high above her head. Yet, she felt as though she could reach up on her tippy-toes and grasp it in her hands.
She did something she never before did in her life, she spread her arms wide and closed her eyes as she twirled under the moon. Her mid-back length hair flew about her as she spun. She stopped and swayed slightly, a soft giggle passing her lips. She simply stood there, her arms spread wide and her face up-turned toward her source of light. She glowed softly, almost as if the light was coming from her, herself.
A lone black shadow watched from the edge of the hill. Her closest friend had begun to develop a soft spot for the girl, what those feelings truly meant, he was unsure. Then all at once she turned to him, her hands clasped behind her back. She had a smile tugging at her lips and her eyes sparkled. His hands were tucked in his pockets, and he wore no jacket. The air was warm and there was no need for it. He stood and watched her with a relaxed expression as she made her way halfway up the hill then stopped to face the opposite way. She sat down and laid back in the soft grass, her hair fanned out behind her in a blanket of silver. Her hands were lax and on the ground at her sides, her legs spread slightly.
She was wearing a royal blue summer dress with spaghetti straps and matching flats. She had no ribbon in her hair and no cardigan to hide her shoulders like she did during the winter months. He walked forward a few steps and sat down beside her on her right. After a few moments of staring out into the field, he finally laid back into the grass with his arms behind his head, his right leg bent at the knee and his left leg straight. After a few moments of silence she spoke. The conversation was not unwelcome.
"It's odd almost, coming from such confusion and back to an atmosphere like this. It's a world beyond reality, in a way." He remained quiet as she went on. "Not once have I experienced a serene environment, and if I had before I wouldn't know it. Not even my mind held such a place for quiet thoughts," Hiei nodded, and she saw it from the corner of her eye. "I don't mind it so much now." She added after a moment. "Why not?" he asked. "Well," she began, "if I had such a place, of quiet serenity, or somewhere so relaxing such as this, I wouldn't enjoy it or cherish it as much. I doubt I would even be the same person if I had such a place." She turned her head toward him and smiled softly. "Hn, you make no sense, Onna," he grumbled. Rei turned on her side, her head propped up on her right hand with her elbow in the grass, her left arm laid against her left side that was facing the sky. "You think so?" She asked, amusement dancing in her violet eyes. "Hn," he grunted and smirked. She laughed at this, it was a soft musical sound unlike the shrill cackling any other woman made. He got to his feet and she followed suit and brushed any dirt from her dress.
She took one last look at the moon, her hands clasped behind her back. The fire apparition had already taken a few steps up the hill and was once again at the edge. He turned back half way and stared up at the moon as well. He came back to reality when he found her at his side, and her small hand grasping his. He looked at their hands before looking at her face, she wasn't smiling, but her eyes and her peaceful expression told him otherwise. He tightened his own grip on her and without giving it any other thought, they left the clearing in silence, their hands still connected.
Rei took Hiei's hand in hers, and he looked into her face. She smiled softly at him, and he looked away as they both turned their backs to the field and began walking toward the temple. "Onna," he began. "Hm?" She hummed gently. "You're so predictable," he added. "I know," she answered, "but so are you." She looked at him with glittering eyes full of amusement. "Hn," he grunted and smirked, and she laughed.
A/N: Well, that's the end! Let me know if you think I should write a full-on story about these two. Granted, it could be completely different or connected to this story-line. Thanks again for reading, and please review!