This is the second chapter people. The third chapter is halfway done and I'm deleting the previous second one to post this. Hope you don't mind the late update….
The thing I found about myself in the last couple of months is that I get lost in reading so much fanfiction that I don't have time to write at all. Hopefully that will be fixed because my holidays are done and school already started. So updates will be a bit regular.
Chapter 2
Soon Yukina was stepping into the room saying, "Look whose finally awake guys! Hiei-san, please come in and you should come in too, guys."
They could only guess the last statement was meant for his companions.
So they all waited with bated breath for the few seconds it took Hiei to step in to the room. The second all their eyes landed on Hiei and his companions though, their eyes widened and their jaws hit the ground and Genkai's smirk only grew bigger.
Because the Hiei that was standing before was not the Hiei they knew at all. He was now standing at nearly Kuwabara's height, making him taller than both Kurama and Yusuke. What was also shocking was that the hair that actually made Hiei look a couple of inches taller was now hanging flat and close to waist length with a long white fore-lock hanging over his left shoulder. He was surprised that anyone could change so drastically in a span of six to seven months.
But there were things that hadn't changed too. Like the coldness in his gaze or his predominant obsession with black, Kurama noted with slight amusement.
Hiei's growth spurt wasn't as surprising though now that he thought about. Yukina had grown too. She now stood at a good height of nearly five foot seven. He could, however tell that he was the only one who made the connection between Yukina's and Hiei's overlapping growth spurts at the moment other than Genkai as she had time to think about it. So he had been the first to snap out of his shock and stood up to greet him.
"Hello Hiei. It's been awhile old friend," he said going to him. The others slowly seemed to get out of their stupor now as they too stood warily trying to get their mouths to speak.
And Yusuke with his ever big mouth yelled, "Man Hiei. You grew. This isn't fair, man. I am now officially the shortest on the te-".
He stopped abruptly however as one of Hiei's companions gave out a low growl. The growl was a warning to stay back and Yusuke although startled at the growl backed away slowly. Hiei simply looked down to the side. He then went onto survey each and every single person present in the room and walked past all of them to open the window. The temperature in the room dropped as Hiei let the cool air inside. Kurama noticed Keiko shiver slightly and out of the corner of his eye watched Yusuke pull her close to him. Kurama turned his attention to the companions once again.
The one he'd met before greeted him in what would be a cat variation of a smirk. Kurama then took the opportunity to really look at Hiei's other companion. As soon as Genkai told them about Hiei's companion his thoughts went to speculate a fully grown adult demon who probably requested protection. What he'd never thought of was that the demon could have been a child, a child who looked especially miffed at the present moment.
The child looked to be around 8 years old but he as a demon knew not to speculate on the age of a demon- a child especially. She had blood red hair and tiny freckles on her child like face and eyes the color of the sky. It was to this small demon child all their attention turned to. Kuwabara was about to say something when Yukina nudged him to keep quiet and he acquiesced. Their attention shifted back to Hiei when turned around and beckoned the child to him with a finger.
"She's so cute," he heard Keiko whisper to Yukina who was standing next to her.
He stood in front her, towering over her and stared into her deep blue eyes- which seemed a bit too large for her small face- intently for a few seconds. There seemed to be no emotion in his eyes as they looked into hers. The same could not be said for the child though, Kurama thought bemused. The child's face showed all the irritation and frustration a human child's would when brought into an unfamiliar place. She glared at him but his eyes only turned stern as they encountered her glare. Almost like a parent or a guardian.
Kuwabara pointed to the cat- being the cat lover he was- as the others were watching the silent stand-off. The cat was now watching them with a bemused expression as she stared back and forth between to two of them as if watching them converse verbally. He realized a second later that, that was probably true as he eyed the expression. The cat met Kurama's eye for a second indicating that he was correct in assuming.
Her soothing voice sounded in his mind, it's almost over now.
The next words from Hiei confirmed the message she's sent him telepathically.
"Two hours, maybe three at the most and that's final," he said with finality to his voice they were all well acquainted to. He shook his head when she opened her mouth to protest. A low growl started rumbling in the child's throat before Hiei's own warning glare stopped her.
The child's face hardened at that and she met his face with a defiant stare before she climbed out the window and disappeared from everyone's view.
"Hie-"
"Rara," he said, interrupting whatever Yusuke was about to say. Hiei was now standing at the window, watching the path the child took to disappear. The cat now stood up and lunged gracefully onto his shoulders and licked his face. Hiei's face scrunched up in disgust and cat released a pleased sound at the sight. He glanced at the cat's eyes and then the cat too followed the child moving with inhuman speeds.
"Now wasn't that interesting?" Yusuke said breaking the silence, walking forward to place a hand on Hiei's shoulder only for Hiei to move away to the other side of the room. "I never realised that you of all people would get yourself a brat."
"And we didn't get to introduce ourselves either," Keiko said, "the child was way too cute."
"I'm pretty sure Hiei's told the child all about us Keiko, they didn't seem to be too surprised to see us all," Yukina assured her.
"Lose the cloak and sit down. You need to eat as much as you can for your body to heal," Genkai said rather demanded.
Hiei kept quiet as he removed the grey cloak that was covering him and tossed it to the other side of the room. The sight that greeted them elicited a collective gasp from all them.
Genkai had told them all that Hiei had been injured. But there wasn't a sign of heavy injury on his body. Of course there were cuts and scrapes here and there but there were no serious injuries on his tall frame.
"Go get him some food Yukina, this guy needs his food right now," Genkai said breaking them all out of the trance. Yukina hurried off to do the task while Hiei took his seat at the table and joined his fingers placing his elbows on the table.
The others too took their seats at the table and watched. Kurama noticed that Kuwabara was unusually silent and the thought sent alarm bells ringing in his head but before he could think about that Yukina entered the room and fixed a plate for Hiei.
"Here you go, Hiei-san," she said giving him a warm smile.
Hiei grunted his thanks and began eating quickly and quietly.
"So, who is the Kid?" Yusuke said breaking the awkward silence once more.
"A stray I picked up in the Demon World," was Hiei's short answer.
"Is that all she is? 'cause to me it looked like you'd taken her for your own," Yusuke retorted.
Hiei paused for a second and Kurama noticed some emotion enter Hiei's eyes before it disappeared. He resumed eating and did not answer Yusuke.
"Um..,,,,, how old is she, Hiei?"Keiko asked quietly.
Hiei paused once again, but gave an answer to the question. "Twelve."
"Really? She's twelve?! That girl didn't look older than six!" Yusuke broke in and Keiko nodded.
"Oh! You haven't asked the most important question, Keiko. We still don't know the child's name, although we know the name of that feline," Yukina said softly entering the conversation without being too overbearing.
They noticed that Hiei wasn't paying attention to the conversation however, but he answered nonetheless. "Yukari."
He was looking at the wall straight ahead, his eyes narrowed. He put his chop sticks back in the bowl and his arm went to his sword which was leaning on the side of the table.
He paused however, when they all felt the cat's unique energy flare. He made a pleased 'hn' and settled back to eating.
"It's seems they've found themselves in unwanted company. They seemed to have handled that situation well enough," Kurama mentioned quietly.
They expected Hiei to answer with a very characteristic 'hn' but were surprised when he gave them all a full answer.
"Rara can take care of any demons below the S-class level," he said quietly. "It's going to be a problem if we are pursued by someone stronger."
"The cat's that strong?!" they all yelled together, the last part of Hiei's answer getting lost in their shock.
He gave a smirk and went back to eating.
"Hey Kuwabara, don't you have something to say? You are awfully quiet today," Yusuke said, giving his best friend a smirk, "It's uncharacteristic of you to not shout at once-upon-a-time-shorty here."
Kuwabara merely shook his head and looked away, not meeting any of their eyes.
"So how did you and RaRa-san meet, Hiei? I would've loved to be a fly on the wall during that meeting."
Now that statement had Hiei's head spinning. His eyes widened almost comically for a second but a second later the cherry red eyes glinting.
"Damn you, Kurama. You know, don't you? Not one word or I'll kill you," Hiei muttered glancing away as if embarrassed by Kurama's knowledge of….. well something.
"Oh please, Hiei, you shouldn't threaten someone so half-heartedly. What would our Demon World friends think? Hmmmm.. On a more serious note, Genkai told us you were gravely injured. But you don't look that injured to me," Kurama said quietly. "More importantly your energy seems to have taken a sharp nosedive as well. If I had to hazard a guess your energy is somewhere between upper B class to a lower A. What happened?"
The atmosphere in the room grew serious again. Everyone tensed when Hiei looked up from the bowl because the look he had on his face would usually send many S-class demons screaming for cover.
Hiei remained quiet for a moment and merely looked down at his bowl of rice. He brought a hand up to his face and pushed his bangs out of his eyes, looking suddenly looked tired before covering it up very quickly.
"I'll tell you what's going on only once, so just listen carefully."
They watched as Hiei carefully seemed to choose his next words. That in itself was surprising because the fire demon always spoke his mind and didn't care about subtleties.
"Growth spurt."
Was the only response Hiei gave before he closed his eyes.
Growth spurt? Yusuke thought.
Kurama's eyes however lit with the realization of what might have happened in the Demon World a few months ago.
"That was you. The energy?"
Kurama's statement broke the contemplative silence that took hold of the room after Hiei's words.
He watched as Hiei stared for a second and nodded once curtly before standing up from his place at the table.
"Hiei, then who wa-"
"Rara."
"The injuries?"
"Stray," was Hiei's answer. He strapped his sword back in its place and turned to the window.
"I see and the quick healing?" Kurama questioned trying to quickly think of anything else he needed before Hiei left.
"Latent ability. I'm heading out. If the kid gets here before I do, just tell her I'll be back soon and….. anyone who makes the brat cry in my absence will get their throats slit by that damned feline."
Hiei then disappeared through the window before the others could recover from his sudden departure.
"Will anybody tell me what just happened right now? Where did the Shorty go and what the hell was that conversation about anyway?"
Kurama sighed and looked at Yusuke's impatience.
"I'll explain if you calm down, Yusuke."
Calming down didn't happen soon though. Twenty minutes after Hiei left, all of them sat down in the living room once again. Kurama and Genkai seemed lost in thought and it took all of Yusuke's patience to not snap at them again.
Kurama then opened his mouth to tell them what that conversation actually meant.
Demons had very unique and complicated growth spurts unlike humans. There was no fixed rate at which they grew during that time and the rate at which they did grow, would depend on their energy levels. The stronger the energy of a demon the faster he or she would grow. But during this process of growing, all of the demon's energy is used for that sole purpose and is not regenerated until the demon is fully grown.
And the example Kurama gave was of his own growth spurt which happened a long time ago. Kurama had been an A class demon as a child and after the growth spurt his energy dropped to that of a C-class. So what they also learnt was that the stronger the demon was the lower his energy would drop-which was one of the main reasons why many upper class demons didn't survive past a certain age and why S-class were so rare among children. This was common to all the demons in the Demon World.
However there were things that changed for different kinds of demons. The interesting thing here was that fire demons of Hiei's kind often generated huge amounts of energy during that time which would usually make them extremely volatile and drive them to insanity. Kurama then went on to tell them about how Hiei's clan entered into a contract with the Kuro Neko clan of demon cats. These cats were known for their unique psychic abilities able to enter anyone's mind with ease and subdue them. In the distant past one of those cats were apparently saved by a fire demon. From that moment onwards these two demon tribes entered a contract to help subdue the fire demon when he starts to go mad with his energy raging outwards and the cats also promised companionship in the pure sense as pets.
"Okay…that kinda explains the whole energy drain and all but the injuries?" Kuwabara asked for the first time.
"It appears to me that the child was a slave in one of the slave trade organizations in the Demon World."
Kurama's statement had an unexpected effect on everyone in the room. Yukina's face softened and suddenly looked tired as if this reminded her of her own time in captivity at Tarukane's. Keiko's eyes filled up with tears that soon rolled down her face. Yusuke's held a contemplative look on it while Kuwabara looked a little disgusted with the thought of someone owning someone especially when said someone were kids.
"Still how can that explain the injuries?" Yusuke asked looking as if he were trying to seriously understand what was going on.
"There are demons who are hired to protect or should I say capture when a slave escapes. That's probably how Hiei's got the injuries; keeping the demons from capturing her again," Yukina answered.
"Seriously this is one crazy situation Hiei's gotten himself into," Genkai muttered not meeting any of their eyes as if she were hiding something. As if there was more to this situation than they knew about. This had Kurama's alarm bells ringing.
"What I don't understand is why Hiei's energy hasn't restored itself completely?"
"The Jagon's restricting him from regaining his energy completely," said a voice from the door way. It was the cat Rara who was standing with the child at the door that opened into the outer hallway.
The child immediately started looking around and sniffed for a second.
"Where's Hiei-sama?" the child asked, her small voice drawing the attention of everyone in the room. "He's not here."
"He left," Yusuke said bluntly. Kurama and Kuwabara flinched at those blunt words while the girls looked completely scandalized.
Those words had an unexpected result in the visitors too, as the cat snarled at Yusuke. "He left? B-but Rara, he told me he wouldn't go," the child, Yukari, wailed as she glanced at the cat. She looked like she was about to cry which had everyone panicking.
Her big blue eyes watered as she stared horrified in Rara's direction. She stared right back at the child looking helpless. She slowly made her way to the child and nuzzled her face into the girl's lap offering her comfort like a cat would. The girl lifted the cat into her hands and buried her face in her fur and let out pitiful whimper. 'He hates me,' she muttered over and over again.
"Yusuke! Look what you've done," Keiko screeched promptly before hitting him, "Yukari-chan, look at me. Hiei said he'd be back. Rara-san why don't show her? You've seen Hiei go wherever he has gone. right? So you know where he is, tell her. Please tell her to stop crying, Rara-san. Now, Yuka-chan, stop crying please."
"The human girl is right, Yuka-chan. The Brat's gone to do something necessary for our survival here. Come here, let me show you," Rara said. The cat promptly placed her paw to Yukari's forehead. "See, he's just taking care of things that are essential to us."
That caught everyone's attention again. A collective thought ran across everyone's mind.
What was Hiei doing?
Rara tilted her head to the side as she looked at the others almost as if she'd heard the previous thought that ran across everyone's mind.
"I don't think Hiei'd appreciate it if I tell you. Now why don't you and Hiei chat, and decide, hmm, Yuka-chan? Before that though why don't you introduce to these people?"
The child was nodding her head, closing her eyes, with an almost pleased grin.
"I'm Yukari. Please call me Yuka," the child murmured before perching on the window sill. She turned her head away from the rest of them and looked out into the forest. It had stopped raining about two hours ago yet the air was still cold outside and the sky still looked as dark as it had that morning.
The cat gave a sigh of relief before she muttered shaking her head, "You should all just be grateful Hiei doesn't poke around people's head in general like I do or he would've killed you all already. Seriously you all have such low survival instincts."
The cat slowly sauntered its way to the rest of them and gracefully threw herself onto Kuwabara's lap. Kazuma Kuwabara was a cat-lover and seeing this divinely beautiful cat perched in his lap he couldn't help but start petting her fur and scratch behind her ears. The cat purred quietly, delighted at the attention.
"You know Kuwabara-san if it wasn't for the contract between my tribe and the Brat's I'd choose you over the brat any day," she said quietly resting her head down further into his lap.
Kuwabara smiled at that.
Ya hear that Punk, I'm better than you are at taking care of your pet
"Sorry to disturb you Rara-san, but what did you mean when you said the Jagon was restricting Hiei's energy?" Kurama asked continuing the conversation from before.
"I meant exactly that. It's not letting him regain his energy completely and no, I don't know why." She answered lifting her head to look at the red head as she answered.
"You look way too intelligent, you know, for a cat," Yusuke said looking with his left eye closed, at the cat as he leant back on the tatami floor on an elbow.
"Ohhh, now I understand what the Brat meant, when he said there were far bigger idiots than him," the cat said primly lying back down like the Queen she was and practically demanding the Human to pet her which he did.
Genkai and Kuwabara snorted as the girls started cracking up and they only stopped when Yusuke said, "Wait Hiei really admitted to that? About him being an idiot."
"You tell me, Lord of Tourin, would Hiei agree to it?" she asked rhetorically not really expecting an answer.
"I'd guess not."
All the while, Yusuke noticed the child chatting Hiei's ear off mentally and he even observed a few pouts and growls here and there. He, however, knew he was not the only one to observe the child. He noticed Kurama staring at her with a weird calculating look on his face. His emerald eyes were contemplative, as if he were looking back trying to remember something long forgotten. He knew Kurama would figure it out eventually and he also knew that he would most likely confront Hiei about it. Because judging by the look on the Fox's face he knew whatever Kurama was trying to remember couldn't be all that good. But he also knew that if this cute child posed no immediate danger to the others girls there, then he would do anything to protect that innocent smile she had on her face accentuating those dimples. It was almost as if she were the very personification of her name, Yukari, meaning Affinity. It was almost as if the child was unconsciously pulling those around to protect her. After that he started contemplating how his life had been for the past nine year and half.
Life had been rather boring to Yusuke these days. He would go to the Demon World, come back after a few months and spend time with Keiko and the big lug. His life had been so easy for the past few days that he was slowly getting relaxed and getting used to the comfort. This getting comfortable business had a rather suspicious beginning. It all began with his bank account receiving money anonymously, large sums of money too. Yusuke didn't like the idea of getting money like that at all. It was against everything he went for. What if someone tried to blackmail him into doing something for them because he used that money in his bank account? So he forgot all about the money and went on with his life as usual.
He found out the truth of that money at Genkai's place from Kurama who mentioned the money he'd received and already used and that Kuwabara also mentioned receiving money. The truth was that Koenma was the person flooding all their bank accounts with money for all the help Spirit Detective work they'd done all those years ago. They only received the money after their supposedly eighteenth birthdays so that they would be adults and use the money they'd received appropriately. Needless to say Koenma had quite an earful from an irritated Yusuke. He'd also started taking Keiko out on dates. Their relationship was progressing quite well and they were thinking of moving into a new apartment they'd scouted. Keiko being the reasonable one in the relationship kept him from splurging all the money he suddenly had protecting his investments. Keiko was one scary woman when crossed, not that he wouldn't try to piss her off as often as he could. His girlfriend looked extremely sexy when mad at him.
Judging by the way Keiko kept staring at the child sitting on the window sill, Yusuke knew she wanted a child of her own and yet she couldn't have one until she was finished with college. He could definitely see Keiko with their child and that thought made him warm inside.
He shook himself off of these thoughts and noticed that the others had moved on with the conversation and were discussing the new movie. Now that was a pretty harmless subject unlike the thoughts he'd been having. What Yusuke did not notice as of that moment was that all the while he'd been staring at the child and contemplating things, he never noticed how Kurama, Genkai and a certain four legged animal watched him almost with similar somber expressions.
"Hiei-sama's coming," the child said suddenly making the conversations halt around her. Though the child sounded excited saying that, she suddenly looked pissed off.
"Now, now Yuka-chan, don't piss him off anymore than you have to. You already saw what he's been doing and he's already pissed off as it is," Rara said sagely, jumping out Kuwabara's la and coming to sit with her.
"It serves him right Rara-san. He scared me, he told me he wouldn't leave and yet he did. I am pissed off right now," Yuka-chan said with her mouth forming a cute little frown.
"Language, sweety. You don't want him to hear you talk like that. Let's go!"
"Um, where are you going again?" Kuwabara asked, looking confused. "You just came over and I doubt Hiei would want you two ladies out in the woods."
"The Brat was right. Humans are bigger idiots!" Rara said as she and 'Yuka-chan' although the child paused at the door.
"Don't worry, Kuwabara-san, Hiei-sama wants us to meet him at the beach," Yuka-chan said giving him a bright grin.
"Um… wait why?"
Kuwabara's question met a rather serious answer from the cat. "We need to make some false trails in the area and disappear from our pursuers' view. We'll come back before dawn."
With that they both once again disappeared out the door to Hiei if they were telling the truth.
"Genkai…." Kurama started looking desperate.
"Don't."
The conversation was over before it even started. Kurama needless to say was more than a bit irritated. The child wasn't what Hiei was projecting her to be. She was a lot more than that but….how? No, no, the better question would be where Kurama'd felt like this before. It was undoubtedly a long time ago because the past memories of Youko were getting hazy because of his continual refusal to use Youko form for the past year and half.
There were two things that were bothering Kurama were:
The child's heritage. The heritage was something that bothered him so much that he couldn't get his mind to focus on other aspects of this strange situation
Genkai. She obviously knew what the child's heritage and yet she wasn't answering him or worse she wasn't even entertaining his questions.
The conversation around him raged to high levels as Yusuke and Kuwabara got into yet another one of their pointless brawls. He noticed Genkai walking away and the aura around her told everyone to back off and let her be. So he let her go instead and soon he too slipped away from the room without anyone taking notice and found himself in a place that would almost always give him solace. A place where no one would interrupt him: the garden. He let a small amount his energy to seep into the ground watched. He almost smiled at the way everything around him came alive. 'Almost' being the key word in that statement. He sat down under a tree and watched hoping the tranquil nature around him would give him the chance to get to the bottom of this strange situation which came in the form of a blue-eyed child with blood-red hair with unknown origins or rather forgotten heritage so to speak.
He spent the next few hours trying to get his thoughts around, trying to organize all the facts he'd gained up to that point which were next to nothing. If only Genkai would talk…. But nonetheless he would remember if their lives depended on it. For one second he thought that their lives would depend on this fact because his instinct told him that child was no ordinary one. Hiei at present was running around laying false trails all over the Human World. Now that in and of itself would tell anyone how strange it sounded. Hiei rarely bothered with subtleties outside of a stealth assignment, but they never even had them these days. Hiei rarely bothered with anything but this child…. anyone could see how protective Hiei was getting once they knew where to look and which buttons to push….
Kurama clearly knew it was Hiei's power-or the lack thereof-was and should be one of the main reasons why Hiei was making such a huge effort in concealing the presence of him and his companions which was, in itself, very strange as Hiei never kept any companions around other than their group. Hiei's lack of power was also strange since his energy should have stabilized by now.
He sighed as he took a look around the garden. The garden was filled with plants in the traditional hill-and-pond garden. He decided that the garden needed a bit of blue color and took a couple of hydrangea seeds from his hair and filled it with a little bit of his energy and planted it into the soil near the pond. He then took a garden hose and watered the area. Soon the plant emerged from the ground as a little leaf and then continued grow bigger and bigger until it was a few feet tall, flowers blooming.
It was now sometime after sunset and Kurama knew he had to head back inside. He knew Yukina would soon be coming to tell him dinner was ready. But to his surprise it was Yusuke who came to the garden.
"Nice flowers there Fox-boy," he said as a way of greeting.
Kurama stayed quiet knowing Yusuke would get irritated and soon reveal his cards to him. he wasn't disappointed because five minutes into the silence Yusuke swore.
"Listen Kurama, don't think I didn't notice the way you and the Hag were watching me before. I sense something fishy going on and you're the only one who would answer because grandma isn't."
"I see. What would you like to know, Yusuke?" Kurama asked as he turned sideways so that only half of his face was visible to Yusuke.
"Is there any danger from either of those companions Hiei's brought?"
"Directly, no. Indirectly they might."
"Explain," he demanded, folding his hands across his chest, his legs apart and his eyes burning. Kurama narrowed his eyes but answered
"Directly they won't try to harm us, not that they are incapable. They won't because they seem to have a healthy respect for Hiei," A snort, "But the people pursuing them might. The child seems like any other child of the Demon World but there is something different about her. But that doesn't mean she's dangerous to us just that she might bring that danger in the form of other people pursuing her. And yes Yusuke they are pursuing her as we speak. And I know that because Hiei wouldn't be taking such extreme precautions for a simple threat on the child's life."
"So the child is not a danger then?" Yusuke seemed to be thinking through the whole conversation. "Oh man! I thought the child was some kind of monster who would eat Keiko! And then I would have been forced to kill the kid and then Hiei would have killed me!"
He sat down on the ground cross legged and laughed out loud.
Kurama wasn't expecting that sort of reaction though, maybe a bit more subdued but not the extremely relieved reaction he'd gotten from the once Spirit Detective. Something about the Detective's answer peeked Kurama's interest.
"I thought the child was some kind of monster who would eat Keiko! And then I would have been forced to kill the kid and then Hiei would have killed me!"
"And then I would have been forced to kill the kid and then Hiei would have killed me!"
"and then Hiei would have killed me!"
"the child was some kind of a monster"
"Hiei would have killed me…." "the child was some kind of a monster"
Certainly this couldn't be right, Kurama thought. The child, Kurama felt his eyes widening at the realization of what she was. He stiffened, no, no, no this couldn't be happening.
His realization and the subsequent reaction went completely unnoticed by Yusuke as the detective stood up, dusted his pants and walked in telling him to get his ass inside so they could have dinner and that he was starving.
Kurama was horrified. The child shouldn't be allowed to live. His long suppressed demon instincts kicked in as his now-softer human instincts struggled against his demon ones. He walked into the house, ate dinner mechanically and could almost feel Genkai's eyes boring into his head every now and then. But he refused to meet her gaze or anyone else's for that matter. Because one look and his control would shatter and he would kill the child the second she headed into the temple. He stood up and left long before the others finished their dinner; the food feeling like cardboard in his mouth. He felt the concerned looks the others gave but had no intention of paying any mind to it not when his control was in such precarious state. All he could do now was to sit quietly, rest and meditate. The meditation would calm his instincts down and he could once again be able to think.
He never knew how he reached the room but a few minutes later he was sitting on the futon with his eyes closed.
Screams, feminine screams, pierced the air surrounding them. A small silver Yoko sat hunched behind the trees, his eyes wide, ears flattened to his skull trembling every time another scream pierced through the air. Blasts of energy from both Spirit and Demon attacked another one of the latter's kind, killing them all off.
A small petite woman- a Yoko- sat next to the hunched child, her arms holding him tightly to her chest, her head buried in over his head crying silent tears at all the violence that was being dealt to her fellow demon kind, her sisters-in-arms; friends.
"Haha, why are they killing those women? Why, Haha?" a small child-like voice sounded quietly.
"Spirit World and several males in the Demon World think it is required to kill them. In truth they don't deserve to die, they deserve to live just like the rest of us, child. But it is okay if they die, at least then they won't have to live in this cruel, cruel world," the woman answered, looking over the child's head at a particularly loud scream.
Kurama gasped as his mind resurfaced again. He couldn't think straight, his thoughts still in the state of inner turmoil. A glance at the clock told him that it was about two in the morning. He never knew when his thoughts disappeared to be replaced by the tranquility of meditative trance which in turn disappeared into past memories, painful past memories or should he think traumatic instead. He didn't know what to do. Was he supposed to kill her or let her live. He didn't know. He was sure that there was more of that conversation he had with his Yoko mother hunched at the tree, traumatized by the screams of those women. He didn't remember the rest; no couldn't. It was all truly frustrating.
What am I supposed to do? He thought holding his head in his hands. Another hour passed. He knew everyone in the Temple to be in deep sleep. He carefully stood up and moved over to the window to stare at the trees outside. The scent in the wind told him it would rain once again in the morning.
He felt a shock go through he felt Hiei's energy coming closer to the Temple. All the previous turmoil return as his demonic instincts flared inside once again. This time though he couldn't stop them. He completely masked his energy, a skill developed from being considered the Greatest Thief to have ever walked the Demon World. He watched as Hiei came in through the front door this time carrying his target in his arms holding what would be considered as two travel bags. A small insignificant part of his mind noted that the clothes they wore were different from the ones they'd worn that morning and that the bag Hiei now carried had to be filled with clothes for both Hiei and the child.
Kurama crept along the wall quietly as Hiei slid the door, an impressive feat considering the child in his arms, and went in, the cat strolling quietly next to the fire demon. He crept to the door and watched the normally sullen demon carefully place the child on the futon. He calculated Hiei's lack of power and the cat's supposed power and decided that turning into Yoko would be the best choice. He also thought that that current positioning of all of them was the best possible course he could've asked for in a given situation. In the position Hiei was- his back to the door, his arms occupied with trying to keep detangle child from his person- the kill would be quick and efficient. He would knock Hiei out-and it would be easy as anyone with eyes could see how exhausted he was- and kill the child next second.
He took a bated breath and released quietly and acted.
Whew there you the second chapter revised. I know it's a cliffhanger and I'm not sorry at all! :P
Anyway review and tell me how this is, criticism is accepted!
