Disclaimer: Kenshin does not own the Yuu Yuu Hakusho characters (they are the property of Togashi Yoshihiro et al), and does not make any money from said characters. Don't sue.
What Kenshin does own, however, are all the original characters presented in this work. Any attempt to "borrow" these characters will be met with the katana, or worse.
The events in Idiot Beloved take place shortly after the Dark Tournament; it sequel Firebird Sweet directly follows that timeline, and this particular fic occurs a couple of years later. It's strongly recommended that you read IB and FS first.
Title: Death by Hiei C1: Broken Chopsticks
Author: JaganshiKenshin
Genre: Action/Adventure, Humor
Rating: T
Summary: After a grueling year of rehab, and then some, Hiei makes a trip to Rome and returns with a surprise---and Kurama reacts with burning curiosity.
A/N: Again, I find myself drawn to using Kurama as a first-person viewpoint character. This first chapter has been newly refurbished---the entire story has been roughed out, and only awaits a chapter-by-chapter polish before I start updating. See my accompanying sketches on LJ, and as always, thanks for reading and please review! ^^
"You don't even feel it yet, do you?"
Death by Hiei (C1: Broken Chopsticks)
by
Kenshin
I counted only three strokes of the katana before the demon fell. And they were leisurely strokes at that.
Hiei looked down at the body, then at me. It was evident from his melancholy expression that his heart hadn't been in it; he incinerated the oni almost as an afterthought.
The unfortunate victim was a garden-variety oni, about seven feet tall, its green hide tastefully clad in a tiger-skin toga. His is the type you will find working as a scribe for Koenma-sama or as a thug for any powerful demon overlord.
Hiei wiped the bloodied sword on the grass. "Is this normal?"
I shrugged, knowing Hiei did not speak of his own lack of enthusiasm for a fight; this oni was the fourth low-level demon who had attacked him this week.
And it was only Wednesday.
A glorious day to be deep in the park, however, where there was a heavy cover of trees, and little foot traffic.
And it was unusually warm for mid-October. Leaves blazed in a carnival of fire-colors, and the air thrummed with the exciting scents of autumn: ripening chestnuts, chrysanthemum unfurled, the faint and bitter tang of burning youkai.
Smacking the katana back in its saya, Hiei sighed wearily. Then he turned, striding in the direction of the streets. "I'm hungry," he said. "Sushi's on me."
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The Red Lantern is a nice, unpretentious little eatery, much like the Yukimura diner, only closer to the park. It lies on the street directly facing the park's southwestern border, where the paving stones are dotted with specimen trees and young people displaying their finery.
But once we were seated, with platters of fresh seafood set before us, I discovered that Hiei was faster with his chopsticks than he had been with his sword. He easily beat me to the last piece of tekka maki. However, he took pity on me and, waving our waitress over, requested that she bring us another platter.
I surmised this meant that Hiei wasn't hurting for cash, even though he and Shay-san had assumed the financial burden of a house. Neither had been working much of late, either, and there was the matter of that recent trip to Rome, about which Hiei had said very, very little---if nothing can count for little.
After his return, Hiei had told me only that he'd been given a sword. I wondered if he'd been given a retainer as well. "I wonder whether there's a been a break in the barrier between worlds again." That would be a grave matter, so soon after the other rift had been re-woven.
"Don't think so. According to Yuusuke, Koenma hasn't said anything. Besides, if the demon plane was leaking into the human world again, I would start acting unpleasant."
I smiled sweetly. "And that would be different from the way you always are in what particular way?"
The waitress returned, setting down the new platter of food before Hiei could even threaten to dismember me.
Never was there such a timely arrival. The platter gleamed with an abundance of tekka maki, Black Ninja rolls, octopus balls, and neatly butterflied pieces of salmon sashimi, all decorated with pink pickled ginger and green blobs of wasabi.
After half a Ninja roll, Hiei pushed the platter across the table. "Go ahead. I'm done."
As I dug gratefully into the food, Hiei took a cell phone from his pocket and clicked it open, and spoke into it. "Get me the moron."
"Get him yourself." To my surprise, the device answered Hiei. It has a rough, unpleasant male voice.
Hiei responded with a word I would not repeat in mixed company. Pressing another button, he punched in a string of numbers, and waited.
Never having been exposed to a phone that talked back, my curiosity was piqued. "What is that?"
He frowned. "Why do they insist on giving these stupid things male personalities?"
"What stupid things?"
"Don't they know I get along better with women?" He straightened. "Shizuru? Send the moron to the phone."
I stifled a laugh. "Is this you, getting along better with women?"
He cut me a sidewise glare. Hiei is as abrupt as an American, but I cannot chalk it up entirely to Shay-san's influence. After all, he started out that way.
"Hey, Moron." Hiei spoke into the phone. "Have you been on the receiving end of any demon attacks lately?" He listened, punctuating the silence with an occasional grunt. At last he hung up, glanced at me, but said nothing.
He was going to make me ask. "Well?"
"The moron's run into four demons this week."
"And?"
"And they take one look at him and say, 'Oh, it's only you.'" Lifting his chopsticks, Hiei stuck them absently in his mouth. "Then they flee before he has a chance to take them on."
"Looking for someone other than Kuwabara-kun?"
"Obviously." He scowled, gnawing the chopsticks.
"Be careful you don't break one of those," I admonished.
"Why?"
I heard a distinct crack. A chopstick fell from Hiei's mouth, neatly bisected.
"It's bad luck if you do."
"Keh! I make my own luck." Nevertheless he took the other chopstick from his mouth and gingerly laid it on the table.
An uncomfortable silence settled in until I changed the subject. "A new phone and a new sword," I mused. "It would be interesting to see it in action."
He snorted. "You just did."
"I wasn't referring to the phone."
"Hiei-sama!" A childlike voice piped the greeting, interrupting my train of thought. A jaki had popped up on the back of Hiei's chair.
I recognized it, of course, as the jaki that Shay-san favored. About the size of a chipmunk, with its plush gray fur, prehensile tail, and human-looking face, it was hard to mistake for any other. It was also distinguished by its broken nose, and that, combined with its thatch of rufous hair, gave it the comical appearance of an A/V geek desperately trying to appear trendy. I suppose women might think it 'cute.'
Hiei rolled his eyes. "What did I tell you about entering human establishments? In my pocket, this instant."
With a shrill squeak of apology, it ducked inside Hiei's black mantle. As jaki go, it wasn't the worst; Shay-san had bribed it with candy when it was Old Dragon's spy, and in return, it risked its life to get them information that may very well have saved the lives of the twins.
It had trailed Hiei ever since, looking for handouts. They---or rather, Shay-san---had even given it a name, which I refused to acknowledge.
Pointing the un-broken chopstick at my plate, Hiei asked, "You done with that? Good. Have them wrap up the leftovers and meet me back in the park."
Rising, jaki still in pocket, Hiei threw money on the table, then shot from the restaurant without a backward glance.
As I said. Almost as abrupt as an American.
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Hiei fed the jaki our leftovers while we sheltered beneath a venerable, gold-spangled maple in the park. I watched with a mixture of fascination and revulsion as the little creature gobbled tako yaki, spraying greasy bits of batter and octopus meat everywhere.
"More." Bouncing up and down, it held out its tiny hands.
"No more, little brother," Hiei informed it, not unkindly. Nevertheless it hovered at our feet, hopeful for further handouts.
"Well? Did it tell you anything, other than the fact that it wants more food?" I thought that dignifying the jaki with a gender was a bit much, let alone calling it 'little brother,' but kept my own council on that particular point.
Hiei's raised eyebrow was all the answer I needed. "Wonder if the park is a focal point, though. The moron said he met those demons here, too."
The park? A southerly breeze stirred my hair. I lifted my head to gaze at a soaring pine tree without really seeing it.
At any given moment in the human world, there can be large numbers of youkai circulating. Not all are dangerous to people. Hordes of jaki live among them, virtually undetected, and most of those can do little more than mischief.
For the past few days, however, the rising number of large demons eager to impale themselves upon Hiei's sword might not be mere coincidence. If a break in the barrier, too small for Koenma to bother with, had its locus here....?
Creatures like jaki are so small and possess such a low degree of spiritual power that they can get through the barrier between worlds at any time. Something the size of a one-eye, or those winged monsters Hiei calls 'tourons,' while low in power rating, are physically much larger, but equally capable of strolling through the border without detection. Enough of those types, however, forming a gang intent on doing harm---
A good Spellcaster could find out a great deal more about the situation than an impatient fire demon who killed first, and asked questions later.
"What about catching one alive," I ventured, "then having Shay-san interrogate it?"
"When I keep promising her she gets to stay home and be a Mommy?" Hiei almost shuddered, but not quite. "Besides, she's still jet-lagged from the trip to Rome."
"Perhaps that trip itself has something to do with the appearance of those demons."
Hiei shrugged. "How? Unless they want to know who's my travel agent."
"In any case, we'll need better information than one of these walking stomachs can supply." The jaki still circled our feet, as persistent as a Hare Krishna at an airport.
Hiei folded his arms and gave me a sour look. "Face it, Kurama. I suck at debriefing."
"True." I agreed, perhaps more enthusiastically than was prudent. "You can't debrief a dead suspect."
"Which means you're right about catching one alive. And you're better at that than I am."
This could have been an attempt to deflect me from what Hiei knew I was getting to---the sword---or it could have been a genuine compliment, or any of a dozen other things. Sometimes with Hiei it's hard to tell; he is by turns blunt and impatient, then twistier and more canny than a thousand-years-dragon.
However.
I was still curious about Hiei's gift from Rome. "What does it look like---this new Roman sword?"
"You can't steal it, so bug off."
"Among the many things I love about you, the chiefest is your sense of tact."
I never saw it coming; in less than an eyeblink Hiei shot out both arms and gave me a healthy thump to the chest that sent me flying.
The ground slammed into my back, and caught between home soil and Hiei, I had the breath knocked from me.
Pushing Hiei away with difficulty, I sprang to my feet, ready for anything, and Hiei was just as quick to face me. "Was it something I said, or have you developed a sudden yearning to try out for linebacker on the New York Giants?"
In response, Hiei lashed out with one foot, cutting both my legs out from under me.
Then he was on me again, pressing me flat.
Simultaneous with that, I felt the flash of a faint demonic aura, and heard the unmistakeable whang of a bullet's trajectory.
The slug thumped into the grass near my head.
We both rolled away and my hand came up wet with blood and I glared up at the towering pine to see a human-figured demon, secreted halfway up the tree.
I had a glimpse of his light gray skin, his brush-cut green hair, backward-pointing ears, and fingers tipped with black claws. The demon leered at us in malevolent glee, but that was not his sole weapon. He was also pointing a gun at us, holding it at arm's length, parallel to the ground in a pose he must have seen on a television show.
Hiei sprang, katana drawn. The demon attacker whisked away through trees, laughing. I sensed the near-imperceptible bunching of Hiei's muscles that signalled takeoff.
"Hiei, wait." I stopped him, placing my unbloodied hand on his left arm.
He spun to face me. "Arrogant bastard," he muttered.
I raised an eyebrow. "Me or the gunman?"
"One-handed grip. Waving that thing around like a toy."
"That was no toy." I showed him my red-saturated palm.
"Damn." He smacked the katana back in its saya. "Thought I got you out of the line of fire just in time."
"You did."
"What, then? Cut yourself on a tree root?"
Hiei was refusing to understand what had just occurred. Or perhaps refusing to acknowledge.
"Not me." I turned him around, examined his back. It wasn't easy to see, not against the black of his mantle, but---
I turned him again so he was facing me. "There's no exit wound," I explained. "It's still in you."
Hiei thrust out his jaw. "What's still in me?"
"You don't even feel it yet, do you?"
"Feel what?"
"The bullet. Can you stand?"
"Don't be stupid," Hiei grumbled. And he promptly toppled forward, leaving me to grab at his unconscious form so he wouldn't break his neck on the way down.
I hate when that happens.
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(Yet anotherA/N: With this chapter newly-refurbished, I'll do my best to update with Chapter Two as soon as possible. C1 featured a nice illo of Hiei and Kurama, so I might post the drawing again to my LiveJournal for those who like illustrations.
Your reviews are my reward. Thanks.)
(To be continued: What sort of damage has Hiei taken this time? And who's behind the attack?)
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