A Glint in the Snow
By: Abby Ebon
Leaves of many colors blew gently in the mid autumn breeze. Above were the branches of a proud tree- no human would have noticed Hiei a mere shadow in the branch's above and below him. The temple near by was home of the famous martial artist Genkai. He wouldn't call it home but it was close enough to one that he stayed relatively close to it.
"Hiei?" His crimson eyes glanced to the ground seeing the red hairedKurama he tilted his head curiously the former kitsune thief rarely came to get him when he 'escaped' for lack of entertainment- usually Genkai sent the Idiot, or even Urameshi.
"Yukina has returned we thought you might want to see her." Hiei easily jumped down from the tree and walked quietly beside Kurama- who seemed determined to make Hiei speak with a small frown of annoyance he did so.
"Where is Urameshi?"
"He's gone alone to Ma-Kai on Koenma's orders- he should be back shortly." Kurama answered softly glancing in Hiei's direction for his reaction he merely nodded his head curtly. Kurama took that as a sign for him to continue.
"Kuwabara is at school." Hiei gave the ground a small smirk imagining the Idiot's disappointment when he found out he'd missed Yukina.
"How is she?" Hiei asked, Kurama knowing whom Hiei was thinking of smiled a little.
"Yukina is doing fine- as you can ask her yourself." Hiei made no comment on Kurama's words and the rest of the journey was in silence, which didn't bother either of them. They reached the temple steps and Yukina met them at the top of them.
"Hiei." Yukina greeted with a smile for her brother. The Koorime had somehow found out by herself that Hiei was her brother, sensing he wasn't welcome Kurama left Hiei's side to find Genkai.
"What's wrong Yukina?" Hiei asked in an unidentifiable tone.
"I- I have something to tell you Hiei. Something that I should have told you when I found you." Hiei narrowed his eyes briefly suspicious of an ambush-or attack. The feeling fled him as soon as he had thought it. Yukina motioned him to follow her further inside the temple. Yukina stopped in a room that Genkai had told him was sound proof. Yukina closed the door behind him avoiding his eyes which only served to agitate him.
"The others told me never to tell you this- but you have every right to know, perhaps even more right then I do." Yukina looked pained for a moment then continued.
"You know of the prophecy but what you don't know is this that after you were banished Mother met an outsider." Yukina shifted looking down at her hands remembering things no human memory could have.
"He left her after a year, he was very –strange. I only saw him five times in the year that he stayed." Yukina chanced to look up but Hiei's mask of indifference was still firmly in place he nodded for her to continue.
"Mother gave birth and shortly after that he left- he had stolen the child, and no one ever saw if it were boy or girl." Yukina remembered painfully her mother's cries though she had cried no tears after the baby had been born.
"No one ever did find the child. However a Seer in our village has recently had a vision of the child. A boy- she warns." Yukina brushed back her blue hair Hiei's gave had shifted from indifferent to wary.
"Hiei- he is our half brother. He is a key player in the future, as our Seer says. We know where he is now. But no full demon can go there." Yukina warned stilled and silenced by her brothers absent gaze. Hiei's expression became more distant the more he listened only his eyes betrayed his feelings.
"Why do you tell me this?" He thought he knew her reasons but wanted her to confirm it after all he understood what Yukina was saying but why now? What gave her the nerve- or even the right, to plead their case to him? He had been cruelly banished before he could walk- now they sent his sister to him only to ask for one of his teammates to go after a half bother he didn't even know. Who was most likely a half demon like Urameshi?
"I would like you to help me convince your friends to retrieve our brother." Yukina stated red eyes like yet so unlike his own silently begging- he only sneered. The idiocy -to ask him to through his team no less, to find a half brother who might not even want to come here. Did they honestly know exactly were he was- even vaguely?
"This is ridicules. Not even a name! Yet you want Yuusuke and the Idiot to find him?"
Yukina took a shuddering breath feeling her brother's anger and resentment of this unknown half brother that her demon kin were looking for.
"He is in Kaz-Kai; if he chooses not to go we will ask your friends to take four of his precious ones. If he is a demon he will do anything to get them back. The Seer only heard the word Hero- or something similar." Hiei noticeably stiffened at the name Kaz-Kai. No full demon had ever come from of Kaz-Kai alive and sane. Hiei got up and swiftly left the room. Hiei knew some thought him deadly- and he was, some even thought him cruel but he only was to his enemies. Hiei couldn't –no wouldn't send his friends to a possible death. What was worse was that he would have to stay behind- Kurama would likely have to as well -that left only Urameshi and the Idiot.
Urameshi could handle himself well enough- but the Idiot? Well he would go because Yukina asked him to- but he might not come back. Urameshi would go if the Idiot went. It really bugged him- that the Idiot was infatuated with his sister. Not only was it annoying and completely one sided- but it either distracted the Idiot- or made him infuriatingly smarter and that often led unseen to dangers.
Hiei found himself wondering again at his unknown half brother. What would he be like? Would he have found a mate by now? What did he do in Kaz-Kai? What did he do for a living? Did he have kids? Did he even have precious people? And sense most demon's thought Kaz-Kai's time passed differently from Ma-Kai how old was he?
For all they knew this 'Hero' could be older then him- or still a child. He was so deep in thought he didn't notice when he ran into someone- which nearly caused them both to crash to the floor. He regained his balance almost immediately but the other would have fallen if he hadn't reacted on pure instinct and caught the other person.
"Thanks Hiei." Urameshi's amused voice sounded softly in his ear- Hiei rolled his eyes and let Urameshi go. The young man laughed but once he caught sight of Hiei's expression quieted frowning a little- Hiei knew that Urameshi knew something was up, Hiei knew he had to distract him.
"Already back from your mission?" Hiei questioned hoping he would go into a long winded exaggeration of the battles and what he had seen it often proved both amusing and seemed to get Urameshi off topic quickly. Stubborn as Yuusuke was he wasn't a fool and only shrugged grinning falsely.
" Yap- low leveled demons hardly worth any energy at all." Urameshi still exaggerated needlessly. Hiei snorted in disbelief Koenma rarely asked Urameshi go on 'easy' missions- he never had. Still it was better now sense Urameshi was a demon lord and could choose to ignore Koenma but Urameshi rarely did so often getting himself into scrapes he and Kurama had to dig him out of- sometimes literally.
"So what's bugging you so much you try to change the subject?" Urameshi could show he was clever once in a while- why did it have to be now? Urameshi asked with a tilted head and smirk sometimes he felt that Urameshi knew him too well then he often felt the urge to murder the teen so he mostly ignored him.
"My sister." Hiei answered in a near demonic snarl. Urameshi of course classically looked confused for only a minute. As he didn't have a hearing problem Urameshi was probably predictably why that was a problem.
"Yukina's here?" Hiei nodded -so Kuruma hadn't gotten to Urameshi first to inform him that Yukina was here. Yuusuke gave Hiei a puzzled look running his hand through his black hair.
"Well Kuwabara will be thrilled- but I don't know why you're so upset over this. I would have thought yesterday that you would be at least happy to see her." Urameshi continued seeing that all Hiei done in response was shrug a bit- it was then that he decided to tell Urameshi everything, watching him trying to pretend to figure it out was almost painful at times.
"Yukina has told me that I have a half-brother in Kaz-Kai, and that her people want you and Kuwabara to retrieve him." Urameshi sighed again stretching a bit then leaning the tiniest bit on the wall causing Hiei to wonder if everything had gone as smoothly as Urameshi painted it out to be.
"Urameshi. No demon has ever come out of Kaz-Kai. No one knows what's going on in there and no one really cares. If you go in there might be a good chance you won't come out." Hiei warned red eyes narrowed Urameshi only sighed and started to walk Hiei not wanting to be left behind and have to retrieve Yuusuke later followed him.
"You think it's stupid of us to even go in there without you and Kurama there." Finished Urameshi glancing at him, Hiei only nodded. It was important that at least one of them knew the dangers they were running strait into. If indeed as he suspected Yukina would be successful enough to manage to convince Kuwabara to go into Kaz-Kai- as if his thoughts followed Hiei's own Urameshi's lips quirked into his half smile- smirk.
"It's nice of you to worry, but we can do a quite a few things without the help of demons." Urameshi stated managing to annoy Hiei enough that the normally stoic demon huffed in agitation. Urameshi wasn't taking this seriously enough in Hiei's opinion- but Urameshi's next words startled him.
"Hiei …Thanks for the warning. I'll try to convince Kuwabara not to go, but you know how he is with Yukina." Urameshi murmured quietly even with his hearing Hiei barely heard but he nodded knowing Urameshi was watching him in the corner of his eye again. Hiei was privately hoping that Urameshi would indeed knock some sense into the Idiot- if not he hoped they would come back alive with- or without, his half brother. Urameshi grinned down at him a mischievous glint in his eyes.
"So do you know his name?" Urameshi asked Hiei shock his head wary of Urameshi's sudden curiosity. "Is he taller then you?" Hiei shrugged an answer silently communicating that he didn't know and wasn't answering anymore questions.
"The Seer only heard 'Hero'." Hiei answered softly watching as Urameshi snickered. The two rounded the corner sharply and nearly crashed into Kurama but this time both had stopped on time.
"Genkai wanted to talk to Yuusuke about going into Kaz-Kai." Kurama told them obviously he had been made into 'messenger boy' for today and he was likely annoyed at that though he didn't show it. Urameshi only grinned and waved at Hiei as if in explanation. Kurama arched an eyebrow looking between Hiei and Urameshi.
"No need to explain. Hiei's told me about it." Kurama tilted his head to the side, an odd smile that Hiei didn't really like the sight of was on his lips.
"I see." Whither Kurama thought Yuusuke knew about Kaz-Kai from Hiei or not, Kurama led them to Genkai. Yukina all too soon it seemed stood next to her- Kuwabara beside him. To the right wall was a tall object draped over was a silver-gold cloth.
"Good to see you found them Kurama- now as Yukina explained to us, and Hiei probably did with Yuusuke." Genkai started pausing to look between Hiei and Yuusuke a little doubtfully Hiei surprisingly was the one who nodded- confirming her words.
"Kuwabara and Urameshi have to go into Kaz-Kai- on both Yukina's request and now Koenma's as well." Genkai told the two the mention of Koenma didn't seem to face a surprised expression out of Yuusuke so she turned to her former student and his friend- sometimes rival.
"Listen up you two- when I was younger I went to Kaz-Kai, the technology there is highly advanced and more specialized then you can imagine. There is believed to be an ancient and powerful barrier around it- which kills all full demons in a matter of seconds. We believe Yukina's half brother to be only half demon- which explains why he isn't dead- Urameshi you can probably go though. That is where our information ends." Genkai finished folding her arms disliking sending them anywhere without all the information she had- but Koenma had told her to keep her peace and she would only because he held blackmail above her head. Despite her wary thoughts Urameshi as usual looked both determined and excited while Kuwabara just tried to look brave for Yukina. Kurama placed a hand lightly on Urameshi's shoulder.
"Good luck." Urameshi nodded giving the three a grin despite the possibility of death.
"I'll be back- don't worry, not even Death can keep me away." Kurama shook his head amused by Yuusuke's reply despite the grim possibility that Yuusuke's demon genes would trigger the barrier. Despite even Hiei's vigorous training he found himself worried about his teammates- no friends, who had somehow wormed their way past his supposedly impenetrable walls.
"Keep your guard up Kid." Genkai spoke to Yuusuke in a lowly- rough tone of voice- Hiei found himself surprised that Genkai was letting Kuwabara and Urameshi go alone- to Genkai's advice Urameshi only nodded with a smirked.
"Yo! Grandma, you going to open up that portal now?" Yuusuke teased Genkai only nodded and without a word pulled off the covering that had been over the object and placed her hand onto its surface and spoke some words that were too quite to catch, even for Hiei's sharp hearing. The mirror shifted and seemed to pull at anything tangible in the room. Urameshi seemed to shake off his feeling and grinning wickedly pushed Kuwabara through the mirror portal- he turned and waved, Genkai throw something at him- he caught it.
"Use it to get back!" Genkai shouted, Urameshi nodded and followed Kuwabara into the mirror. Its surface stilled and shuddered then shattered into a million pieces. Kurama turned worried eyes to Genkai.
"How will they get back?" He questioned slightly alarmed. Genkai smiled sadly.
"Not through the mirror, it only takes people through and once it does it shatters and reforms itself after a hundred years. There is only one left now that can transport people into Kaz-Kai." Hiei's crimson eyes narrowed.
"But how will they get back?" He hissed angered- Genkai sighed the cat was out of the bag- as Yuusuke or Kuwabara would say.
"Truthfully Hiei- I don't really know, I had to die to get back. Koenma assures me that when the time comes the two crystals I gave Yuusuke will guide both them- and whom ever else they take, back safely." Her eyes turned sorrowful and she sighed, it was so unlike the normal Genkai that Hiei nearly-mind you nearly, felt sorry for her.
(Revamped: Feb. 5, 2006)