Chapter 1: The Wicked Angel
Author Notes:
Greetings! How are you doing? This is a story I thought of awhile back, and I've finally gotten around to writing and editing it. I am always open to suggestions and criticism, because that's how writers improve! I always try to have impeccable grammar and spelling, but I am human, and I'm prone to making mistakes. So if you see one, just point it out and I'll go right in and edit it, but I'll try to limit my mistakes. I do have a distinct writing style that I use most often, and I'll almost always write in 3rd person omniscient, which is a point of view. It enables the readers to be all-knowing gods, knowing all of the thoughts, actions, and emotions of all of the characters. I find this style the easiest.
I very rarely go into first person, but if requested I may attempt it for a small portion of a story, simply because I am not very talented with it. This story takes place in the Yu Yu Hakusho world, and all of the characters that appear in the show keep their personalities and appearances, and I do my best to keep them in character in my writings. This particular story will take place after the Dark Tournament Ark, but before the Chapter Black Ark, actually, in my story, Sensui was never born, and the ark never happened. I invite you to read my story, and enjoy it to the greatest extent possible.
-Nat
Disclaimer: I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho
The wicked Angel
I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.
~Michelangelo
It was about a week after the Urameshi team dominated the dark tournament, and Hiei was already bored. Not terribly bored, where one does extreme things to alleviate it, and ends up creating a situation that is decidedly not boring, things have simply been uneventful, and Hiei found that he had too much time on his hands. He continued to train every day, as was his custom, but he now only trained enough to maintain his skills, he lost his interest in improving. He needed a challenge, a reason to improve, and he found himself without one, and his progress has hit an impasse. This wasn't terribly alarming, throughout his life there were periods where he trained more than others, and he hasn't completely abandoned his training, within a decade he would reach upper S-class, and, knowing Yuskue and Kuwabara, they will create a compromising situation, and he will be forced to train very hard, very soon.
Besides, didn't he deserve a break? After the stress of saving the team's behind every battle, watching his team members struck down into the dirt, mastering the dragon of the darkness flame, and simply putting up with the fools Koenma assigned him too, he should get several months to recuperate. Unfortunately, demons didn't follow a schedule as to when they attack the human world, and are unlikely to in the near future. If another demon is hell-bent on taking over the human world, he'll have to respect their goal and take them out. He certainly couldn't leave the demons to the fools and Kurama. Yuskue and Kuwabara will make rash and audacious decisions, and Kurama won't attack until he has completely mapped out the opponents strategy, an annoying habit if you are half-killed in the process.
That's where he comes in. He doesn't make rash decisions that aren't justified, and that lead the entire group into danger, nor does he wait for the opponent to attack him first. He gets in and gets out. He knows himself well. The faster he can finish a battle, the higher his chance of success. Every minute that passes decreases his chances of winning exponentially, unlike Kurama, that was part of the reason they fought so well together.
He was currently leaning against the trunk of a tree on the outskirts of the city, watching the humans going about their everyday lives. They weren't fighting, killing, or doing anything remotely interesting. They just walked past each other and continued on with their mundane daily lives. Hiei couldn't believe he had resorted to people-watching to ease his boredom, relying on humans for anything was a sign of weakness. Yet being up in the branches, leaning against the trunk of the tree, he didn't feel inclined to move, he was strangely comfortable in his current position.
Being comfortable felt unusual to him, in demon world letting your guard down could be disastrous, let alone fatal. Entire clans could be destroyed because of a lazy guard. Yet in the human world, there weren't any humans more powerful than him, and all demons powerful enough to matter couldn't get through the barrier, so he was left with little enemies. Of course, there were always the crazy ones wanting to take over the human world, but the whole group was aggregated when those types of situations arrived. There were no reasons not to relax, it just simply didn't feel natural.
He grew up feeling tense and he never let his guard down, that was the primary reason he was still alive, or so he liked to think. Relying on friends was a weakness after all, and he would never admit how much he depended on them. Too much, in his mind. They were probably the only reason he was alive, and they would have a good laugh about that if they found out. Kurama most likely already knew about his weakness, and hasn't shared it yet, much to his confusion. Even trapped inside of a human body, Kurama was still a demon, and demons love to exploit weaknesses, especially a strategist like Kurama. Perhaps Kurama wanted to keep him guessing, or unbalanced, unsure if his secret was out, or maybe he just never had the time.
Perhaps he was weaker than he thought, if he has to depend on others so much. Despite his appearance, he never could have taken the Toguro brothers, he could barely take on Bui. Was he the weakest on the team? Well, he certainly could never compete with Kurama, his mind was greater than his, and if the fox got his physical strength higher than now, combined with his strategy and intellect, Hiei could never defeat him. But what about the humans? Yuskue was special, certainly, but he had no excuse. Yuskue was stronger than him, and he wasn't training to improve? The branches felt less comfortable now. But Kuwabara? He could make his spirit sword, had very high spiritual awareness, and was always ready to help out a friend. Kuwabara may not be physically, or mentally stronger than him, but his compassion made him very valuable to the team, more than him anyway.
Well, he was no longer in an alliance with the humans anyway, so it doesn't make a difference. He helped a lot during the tournament. Well, he used the 'dragon of the darkness flame' way earlier than he wanted to, and became gravely injured and crippled. How many fights did he actually fight in? 4? He won all of his fights, but that hardly mattered in the grand scheme of things. Now he was weak, and training probably wouldn't help the problem, everyone else would become stronger as well, he would always be the weakest. Well, he would rather be the weakest of the strongest than the strongest of the weakest. He should train, it always clears his mind. The sun was at its peak in the sky now, if he was going to do something, he ought to do it before it gets dark.
Hiei stood, and looked at the slumbering city. The humans had stopped walking along the sidewalks now, except for a few stragglers that slept in this morning, who were sprinting across the roads. Pathetic humans. What was he doing now? What was his plan? He didn't have the answer to these, and flopped right back down against the tree trunk.
"Yo! Hiei!"
Hiei looked down at the call of his name. At the base of the tree stood Yuskue, Kuwabara, Botan and Kurama. They all had an expectant look on their faces, they wanted something from him. Great. He was just about to figure out his life plan and the fools come. He was going to make Koenma pay. He would have to get out of the habit of threatening others if he couldn't carry out the threat. He'll worry about it later. He jumped down from the tree, and landed in front of them.
"What?" He asked, he wasn't in the mood to deal with the idiots, especially idiots that he recently found out were stronger than him. Kurama looked at him curiously, while Yuskue and Kuwabara looked unaffected by his icy tone.
"Well you're in a good mood today, Hiei." Kuwabara commented dryly.
"Koenma called." Yuskue informed him. "He wants us to take out a couple of gangs in demon world. He said you know the streets pretty well."
"And," Botan added. "Your Jagan eye would be a big help in finding the gangs."
They were all valid points, and Hiei knew that. He grew up as an orphan on some of the worst streets in the demon world, and gained a reputation on all of them as someone you don't want to mess with. But the whole gang had also gained a similar reputation by winning the dark tournament, rendering the point useless. No one would mess with the spirit detective, Yoko Kurama, and the spiritually powered human all in one go if they had half a brain, and half a brain tends to come with the 'become more powerful' package, so the whole team really shouldn't have any troubles. Kuwabara and Kurama were also very spiritually aware, and they would be able to find the gangs without his help. They had no argument as to why he should accompany them. Of course, he wasn't going to explain his entire thought process to them, and decided on a shorter, more eloquent answer.
"No." He said. Kurama simply raised an eyebrow at his answer, he was trying to decipher what Hiei was thinking with the little given to him. Botan looked frustrated, and the humans looked annoyed.
"Please, Hiei?" Botan asked, she was ready to go into bribing mode. Koenma told Botan what to say in case Hiei was being his usual self, and she was ready to pull out the big guns. The group couldn't defeat the gangs without Hiei.
'Hiei looks stressed,' Kurama noted. 'Perhaps not stressed, confused, maybe? Annoyed? No, not annoyed. Well, it was definitely a negative emotion. But what could have caused it? He was not sporting the usual smirk or glare, he looked, defeated? Unconfident. Yes, that was it. Unconfident. What a strange emotion for Hiei to have. He hasn't seen a moment where Hiei wasn't cocky and confident. What on earth could have caused such a big personality change? Did he know something he didn't? Well, this was a delicate situation. He couldn't suddenly blurt out that Hiei was feeling unconfident, but he couldn't let the situation pass without saying something. Hiei was his best friend after all. But how to phrase it…?'
"I wouldn't be as much help as you believe." Hiei stated. He turned to leave, but felt Kurama's hand on his shoulder, preventing his escape.
"You look troubled, Hiei." Kurama said, and all eyes were on Hiei as the group tried to see what Kurama could. He looked normal to everyone else.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Kurama asked.
"Hn." Hiei answered, as he flitted away.
"Something is on his mind." Kurama said. "Perhaps he knows something about this mission that we do not. Botan, what were you going to say to Hiei to persuade him to join us?"
"Well," Botan started, preparing her speech. "We know that Hiei's father was in one of the gangs before he died. There would probably be information and clues that the gangs possess."
"I see. Is it possible that Hiei already knew this?"
"Not unless he broke into spirit world's information vaults. No one other than Koenma should have known about it. " Botan finished.
"If we were talking about you, Kurama, I would understand if you knew information about this sort of thing, and had somehow guessed which gang we were talking about." Yuskue said.
"But Hiei? No offence to him, but he isn't as smart as you Kurama."
"Quite the contrary, Yuskue. Hiei is far more intelligent than he appears. He does implement a lot of strategy into his battles, even if he moves too fast for you to see him do it."
"Hiei? Strategy?" Kuwabara asked. "Are you sure? Doesn't he just rush in and try to kill his opponent with his sword?"
"Well, yes." Kurama admitted. "You are slightly downplaying his strategy, but Hiei knows that the faster he can finish his battles, the more likely that he will win. If he drags them out, he will likely lose."
"That's not much of a strategy, Kurama." Kuwabara said.
"Oh? Well than would you be kind enough to share your strategy, Kuwabara?
"Hehe, well I just uh…" Yuskue started laughing.
"Shut it Urameshi! I'd like to see your strategy!"
"I punch 'em, and get lucky! I usually figure something out."
"That doesn't really count as a strategy, Urameshi."
"It so does!"
Yuskue and Kuwabara started to wrestle on the ground, and Kurama found that he missed Hiei in situations like this. Hiei would make a snide comment regarding the situation, Kurama could laugh without feeling guilty, and they bonded that way. He really felt uncomfortable saying something to stop the boys from tackling each other, but thankfully, Botan beat him to it.
"You immature brats! You are supposed to be representing the spirit world and Lord Koenma!" Botan shouted.
Kurama chuckled, and started to walk in the direction Hiei had run off to. He was having emotional issues, and as his friend, it was his responsibility to care for him in any way he could. Hiei had saved his life on numerous occasions, and deserved it. He could faintly pick up his demon energy, about 10 miles away. A small jog, considering how big the city was, Hiei could have gone much farther. Kurama smiled faintly, and started to jog.
"How many lives have I taken over the course of my life?" Hiei wondered aloud as he rested in a new tree he found in the city park. 'Probably too many', his mind answered. If he wasn't helping the team in any way, he should make his life useful for some other purpose. Should he take up healing? 'No', his mind answered forcefully. He was right, becoming the useless healer that heals minor injuries and cries half of the battle is going down a level. A couple less levels than he originally thought, but it was below him nevertheless. Then again, learning a bit of healing couldn't possibly hurt anything other than his pride, and maybe he was starting to think on the right track. He should learn some other skills that don't pertain to fighting.
He should also work on his spiritual awareness. That would help in battles and in the field. Or cartography, that would be useful as well. When you get right down to it, there were a lot of skills to master in one's lifetime. His swordsmanship needed some work as well. Becoming more precise at cutting things would help too. How could he practice all of these things? Kurama said it was rude to practice cutting techniques on other people's property unless it was helpful. He looked at some resident housing near the park that had no cars in the driveways. He would find a way to be helpful, both to humans and his team.