I do not own the rights to Yu Yu Hakusho, and therefore will not make a profit off this fanfiction. Please support the official anime and manga!
The Devil's Trill is the theme song to this fic. I listened to it over, and over, letting it influence the scenes as I wrote.
Warning! This fic is a horror, and might be too disturbing for some.
Yusuke came crashing through Genkai's temple doors startling the young ice maiden that happened to be nearby, "Old lady!" Yusuke shouted before he spotted the blue haired girl, "Yukina! It's an emergency, where's Genkai?!"
Behind Yusuke came Kurama carrying Hiei, "This is indeed a grave matter," He shook his head.
"W-what's wrong? Genkai is out!" The girl ran to the fire demon held in Kurama's arms. The boy was sweating bullets, his limbs shaking, "Bring him this way," She ordered running down a hall. She opened the sliding door to a guestroom, quickly lighting a lamp as Kurama lay Hiei down. Yukina placed both her hands on the sides of the boy's face and attempted to heal him. She squeezed her eyes shut, concentrating with all her might.
"Can you heal him?" Yusuke crouched down next to her, "I don't know what happened. He was acting weird all day, and then he collapsed on us."
Yukina's hands began to shake, beads of sweat moistening her brow. She sat back gasping, "It's not working!" She cried in exasperation.
Kurama lightly touched the side of Hiei's face, "He's getting too warm," He said as he quickly removed his hand.
"Like a fever?" Yusuke asked, reaching forward to touch Hiei as well. He jerked his hand away, "Damn!" He waved his hand, blowing on his fingertips, "It's like a fresh pan from the oven!"
"Naturally," Kurama smiled halfhearted, "he's a fire demon after-all. You should have learned by now he must concentrate to keep his fires down. I imagine it was the first technique he ever had to learn. Learning to keep it down at all times, even whilst he sleeps."
"Sounds tough." Yusuke rubbed his chin as he imagined how difficult that must be. "Wait. What are you saying..? Are you saying Hiei's control is slipping?"
Kurama inspected his hand. A blister was forming where he had touched Hiei's face. He turned his attention to Yukina, who was looking at her own hands. Her hands were undamaged, but worry filled her delicate features. He looked back to Yusuke, "Yusuke… we're going to need everyone's help. Contact everyone you can and alert them to the situation. He very well may be losing control."
"Right, I'll tell them Hiei's sick for ya." Yusuke stood but stopped suddenly, noticing Yukina frantically begin tugging at Hiei's clothes, "Yukina… that might be considered inappropriate."
"Demon's don't get sick," She responded.
"They don't?" Yusuke turned to Kurama who nodded in confirmation, "Then how do you explain this?" He waved his hand at their ailed friend.
"We don't get sick!" She insisted, managing to pull the boy out of his jacket. She began inspecting his body, turning his arms over, rolling him to inspect his back, she looked everywhere.
When she began parting his hair to look at his scalp Yusuke crouched down next to her, "Come on, Yukina. Don't keep me in the dark! What are you looking for? Try thinking out loud like Kurama."
"Demons don't get sick," She tried again, "so something must be making him this way. A demon parasite could do it. Poison maybe? It can't be possession. Nothing can possess a Jaganshi."
Kurama pulled her hands away, "Wait. Could it perhaps be the dragon?"
The three were silent for a moment. Then all three carefully began pulling away his wrappings, Yusuke using Hiei's discarded jacket to protect his hands like oven mitts. Yukina was the only one that could touch his skin without burning, making her hands as cold as the artic. But she winced every now and then, a horrible feeling of hot needles piercing her icy flesh.
They pulled the wrappings away revealing the dragon. Although he no longer laid still, his tail twitching irritably, the dragon was clearly not the cause. Yusuke sat back with an angry groan, "What else could it be?"
Yukina looked to her hands once more, her palms now whitened from the heat of his flesh and her internal ice, combined with her healing. She closed her palms, and shook her head angrily. She cared little if her palms scarred. She looked to Hiei and was startled to find his lids were half open, his pupils wandering the room, but not truly seeing, "Hiei?" She gasped.
Hiei groaned, mumbling incoherent words, his eyes sweeping the room desperately seeking. His eyes landed on Yukina, and for a moment he tried to speak. He lifted his arm weakly, fingers out stretched toward her. She grasped his hand and leaned closer, "… away…" He managed to moan before his eyes rolled upward, his jaw becoming slack as a sorrowful sigh left him.
"Away wh-" Yusuke was suddenly cut off by the sound of Yukina's screaming.
"Dark. Dark. It's dark…" Hiei opened and closed his eyes. He looked about in the pitch black looking for something. Anything. "Where are you fools?" Hiei shouted angrily. Hadn't his friends been with him just moments before? Were they too lost in this dark? He felt something brush past his arm, forcing him back with a start. He felt around desperately trying to find something to hold onto, his mind a frantic mess.
"What's wrong with me?" He shouted suddenly, gripping the hilt of his sword and pulling it free from the scabbard. He knew something was horribly wrong with him. Something about him was off, he could feel it. "What's wrong with me?" He shouted again, his voice reverberating off of unseen walls.
"How pathetic, Hiei."
He knew that voice. It belonged to that irksome girl that was always helping them, "Where are you?" He spun around.
Her arms wrapped around him, her lips coming sickeningly close to his ear, "Here."
She was surprisingly strong. He fought her off, her arms releasing him willingly as she laughed at him. He turned towards her finding he was now in a dank, dark, stone room. He took two steps back, growling at her angrily as she folded her arms with a corrupted smirk on her once serene features, "Botan!" He snapped.
"Botan," She began to laugh, "when have you ever said my name?"
"It's her name. Who the hell are you?" He stepped into a fighting stance, snarling at her when all she gave him for an answer was a cock of her head and a dark laugh. "You're not Botan!" He insisted.
She flipped her ponytail, running her hand down the side of her neck, "Fine then. I'm not." She started walking toward him, "But I can be anyone you want. Anything you want, Hiei."
"Get away from me!" He took several steps back, until he could go no further.
"What's the matter?" She pouted, but her eyes betrayed her amusement, "It's not like you to panic, Hiei."
He couldn't stop the fear that was rising. The hair on the back of his neck stood on end as she neared. Something about her wasn't right. The thing before him wasn't anything he had ever encountered before, yet was so familiar. "Shut up!" He cried. He brought his sword above his head, and brought it down as hard as he could, slicing through her shoulder down between her breasts. He gasped and took a step back.
"Hiei…" Tears spilled over her bottom lids suddenly, her lower lip trembling as a trickle of blood left the corner of her mouth. She stumbled toward him, her arms outstretched, "Hiei…" She repeated, her breath ragged, "… Why?"
As she fell forward he caught her, "Botan!"
She cried out in pain, her pink kimono sodden with her blood. She wrapped her arms around him weakly, "Help me, please," she wept.
Unable to think he allowed her to wrap herself more tightly around him until he was suffocating, "Stop," He gasped.
"Hiei," She continued to weep as she pulled herself even closer. Her hot breath was against his neck sending chills down his spine as he attempted to pull himself free, but found that he could not, "Hiei," She whispered as her lips brushed passed his chin and hovered above his own. They stared into each other's eyes for a moment. Her pink eyes still weepy and pleading, he stilled whilst looking into them. But they suddenly hardened as a wicked grin spread over her corrupt face, "let's have a kiss." She said in a sultry tone.
Before he could do anything, her face smashed against his own, colliding the back of his head with the stone wall. He opened his mouth to cry out, and his mouth filled with a bile substance. Her lips worked as if kissing him passionately, as he gagged and choked on her blood. It kept coming like a faucet, never ending. He began to panic when he found he was unable to breathe, her blood filling his nasal passages and spilling out his nose. He managed to catch hold of her ponytail, and yanked her face from his in one pull. Freed from her disgusting attack, he tried to free his arms as he gasped for air.
"Oh, give it up!" She laughed in his blood covered face.
Hiei felt his already twisting insides clench tightly, and before he even knew he was going to do it, hurled the contents of his stomach all over her.
If there was one thing to be grateful for, it was that she suddenly dropped him with a screech. He dropped to his knees, doubling over and continued to heave forth the blood she had forced him to choke down. Tendrils of vomit hung from his panting mouth, his eyes tearing over as he moaned pitifully.
"Hilarious!" She mocked.
He looked towards her, still panting for air. She sat on her oar, laughing at him. Her wound had vanished, and her kimono was now pristine. "Come upstairs. I have something for you."
She flew up a long staircase, her mocking grin still plastered on her face.
Hiei wiped his mouth on the back of his arm, growling angrily, "What is this?!" He shouted in anger. He retrieved his blade, and ran up the steps without thinking of possible consequence. As he ran up, and up, he felt the air become frigid. He came to a dead halt when he entered a little girl's room.
He peered around him. Something was familiar. The azure colored walls were so soft, yet created a sense of foreboding in his being.
"Welcome."
He spun around suddenly as Botan entered the room behind him. "How?" He demanded, "You left ahead of me!"
"Quiet," She brought a finger to her lips. She lifted the bundle she held in her arms closer to her chest lovingly, "You'll wake her."
Hiei felt a sense of dread. He stepped back from her as she walked passed him, seating herself at a children's bed. She stared into the child's sleeping face momentarily before smiling coyly at him, "You always wondered what it was like. Living in this realm of cold, in loving arms. You were always just a little jealous of her, weren't you?"
He took another step back, "Who are you?" Unable to mask the fear in his tone.
"She was able to live a life surrounded by those who accepted her," She looked back into the sleeping babies face, "free from ridicule, torment, and hunger. She lived here happily," She leaned closer to the child, "didn't you, little one?"
"Put her down!" Hiei warned.
"Yes… I'll do just that." She stood and dropped the ice child onto the bed, startling the infant awake. Its little fists came up as it howled in protest.
"Get the fuck away from her!" Hiei yelled, running forward. He slammed against an unseen wall, crumpling to the ground suddenly. He stood again and shoved forwards, the unseen barrier unmoving. He pounded his fists as the evil clone of Botan lifted a pillow, stopping to smile at him. "You fucking bitch! Get away from her!"
"Part of you hated her, didn't you?" She grinned.
He froze. He shook all over, shaking his head vehemently, "Never! I never did!"
Botan sighed heavily before smiling brightly once more, "Oh Hiei… you liar." She turned back to the screaming infant and smashed the pillow into her face.
"Stop!" Hiei pounded the barrier harder, "Stop it, stop it!" His voice cracked as he pleaded. He felt the need to vomit rising again as he watched the babies little arms flail helplessly, its feet kicking free the blanket it had once been so lovingly wrapped in.
"The truth, Hiei!" Botan laughed, "Say the truth!"
Her little limbs faltered, the tiny palms reaching for help. Her little hands grasped Botan's wrist, then falling limply at her sides.
"Yukina!" Hiei bellowed. He suddenly turned, finding a door to his left. He ran through a cold living area, coming to a stop when he came face to face with a grisly scene. From the rafters hung an ice maiden's body, limp with its eyes bulging.
"Mama!"
Hiei's skin crawled when he took notice of the child in the play pen, its arms outstretched for the dead body that hung from the ceiling.
"Mama! Mama!" The child wept.
Hiei ceased to breath. The body turned slowly his way to face him fully, her arms full of festering gashes. As he took a step back a hand violently shoved him forward.
"It's all your fault!" Botan laughed.
Hiei turned towards her, "No!" He tried to shout, but all he managed was a horse whisper.
"She died because of you. If you had never been born, she would still be alive." Botan walked closer toward him. The child in the playpen had seemingly vanished, replaced by the dead Yukina in Botan's arms. Eyes stuck in an eternal death stare, blood spilled from her nose staining Botan's kimono sleeve. But she took no notice, or didn't care. "Had you never been born emiko, she would still be here. And she," She indicated the dead toddler, "would have never suffered." Her body was mere inches from him now, "And you…" She leaned in close and lightly kissed his lips, "are more than aware of the fact."
Please review!
What's the cause of the nightmares? What happened to Yukina? Stay tuned for more! The chapter was GOING to be longer, and end with the cause revealed. But! Ending where it did sounded perfect to me!
NOTE: If you have a suggestion for a creepy movie, music, or anything that you think would help enhance this story, feel free to share!