Part 2: Don't Stop Me Now

Tonight, I'm gonna have myself a real good time

I feel ali-i-i-ive, and the world, it's turning inside out, yeah!

I'm floating around in ecstasy, so

Don't stop me now.

Don't stop me,

'Cause I'm having a good time, having a good time!

Hiei had always preferred high perches. He refused to think it was his koorime heritage, them and their high, cold plane, looking down upon the earth they at which they snubbed their noses, thinking their isolation righteous. As far as he was concerned, he was hiyoukai through and through—save for the part of him that claimed Yukina as his sister.

Hiei had learned from a young age that he who was highest had the greatest advantage in a fight, in survival. Even when he lived with the bandits, who trained him and claimed him as their own, he never felt truly safe unless he was high up in one of the trees surrounding their camp. When he moved on to live in Mukuro's castle, he claimed the watchtower as his own. And when the barrier between the two worlds was dissolved, he took up migrating from skyscraper to skyscraper. Not that he'd call any of them home. His "homes" were many, and secret, though he would occasionally rest at the homes of his few allies. But it was the skyscrapers he ventured to in order to clear his mind, when he wasn't in the mood to fight or train, or spy upon the mostly mediocre lives of those around him in order to glean details he could use later to his advantage. He allowed himself a moment to be still, to look upon the human world that was once closed to youkai, and just…drift in thought.

This world had changed since his youth, when he had to plan for just the right moment to sneak across the barrier, see the world that they were restricted from entering, merely because the gods saw fit to treat them as children to be put in time out. It had changed since the day the barrier had finally collapsed.

He remembered cities so crowded with people and built up with metal and concrete that he would have to walk for hours, or scale a skyscraper such as this, just to see a glimpse of green, either beyond the city or tamed within it. The humans saw the diminishing forests and ever-increasing clouds of smog as consequences of progress.

He snorted.

Like progressively killing off more of the land and more of the population until the entire world realized something was wrong.

And then the barrier came down and the miko were born. Centuries later and the cities, once gray and drab and devouring the landscape, were tall buildings – still gray and drab – jutting out of the treeline, some for living quarters, some for work—But the most impressive were the shrines, not tall, not all of them anyways, but all of them broad, with white stairs and red gates to mark them, the surrounding trees warded with slips of paper and bells that rustled and jingled in the wind. While the grounds were cement, they housed some of the only structures still built with wood.

Not even the wealthy—well, the honest among them—lived in houses of wood. The miko were powerful and, while no miko was the head of any government, they—and the Anchor in particular—held a certain amount of respect, for they held the ultimate power over those remaining inhabitants of the earth, even the youkai, who they picked over and ensnared to guard them, with full cooperation—and, often, aid—from the Youkai Council.

There were many, he knew, that would say Hiei was too harsh in his judgement of the miko. It wasn't that Hiei wasn't appreciative of the fact that he wasn't forced to live in a barren, polluted wasteland as would have been the case had the miko not come into existence. And it wasn't that he had any desire to free those youkai who had been enchanted by the miko—if they were too weak to prevent it, or so frail of mind or full of idealism, he wouldn't waste his time with them.

But he resented the fact that the Youkai Council approved of the actions of the Human Council and their miko, to take youkai and subjugate them, regardless of any excuses they gave.

Freedom—the chance to get away, stay away from the barren land Makai had become—came at a high price for many youkai every generation.

Sure, there were those that seemed content enough with their situation, but for every one of those, he knew there were just as many who were not given the choice, who were given up for the greater good. His sister had been among them, taken from the new island the Koorime had claimed in Ningenkai, just after she reached the age of majority, by a houshi who had simply liked the look, the feel of her.

Who had forced himself upon her.

He was gone now, though, and nothing would ever link back to him, and Yukina would always wonder why the houshi simply left one night and gave himself to the Mother, but never let it bother her. She was rebuilding her life now, with an elderly miko who still had plenty of kick left in her and a need, from time to time, for a guiding hand. Yukina was happy now, and even happier, Hiei begrudgingly accepted, when Genkai's red-headed apprentice stopped by. Between those two, she was safe from the most recent searches.

It was the reason that he had taken up a new perch—a new city—in Tokyo, rather than Mushiyori, where he had been before. It was past time for the Heir to pick her youkai, and the woman was far too fussy. She reminded him too much of those abusive miko and houshi he had observed before. She had her pick of youkai—she already had the best at her side: Sesshoumaru, son of Inu no Taisho, easily one of the most powerful youkai alive—and yet still her predecessor paraded youkai in front of her to choose. The net, catch and release, had been circling wider and wider, and so Hiei, obviously having a great deal more intelligence than most of the youkai taken to the Sun and Moon Shrine, the seat of spiritual power, had decided to take cover close by, where they were unlikely to search. Though, going by the sound of the creaking door behind him, that may have been too much of an assumption.

The intruder was not one he normally would have minded. In fact, he often sought out Kurama's company during and following the decade they had been forced to work for Koenma after they had been caught with items from Reikai's vault. As Youko Kurama, he was a youkai to be respected. As a human…hybrid…whatever, he was interesting enough, and at least intelligent enough to prove his worth in planning and battle.

He was also the only case he knew of a youkai and houshi who were housed within the same body. Youko had fled, in soul form, from a botched job, and landed in the body of a young human—who had happened to be a houshi. Kurama called it destiny. Hiei could not think so favorably of being bound. They agreed to disagree, but lately that had not been the case.

"How did you find me?" He asked, wanting to get it over with.

"After all these years, Hiei, do you really need to ask?"

Hiei turned his eyes to Kurama, who had his eyebrow raised and a small smile on his lips, though his eyes didn't share the emotion. Not a social call then. "What is it now, Fox?"

"There isn't much time left."

"So?"

"You know what could happen."

"How could I possibly forget?" His voice dripped with sarcasm. Before Kurama could speak again, he asked, "And why do you keep pushing me, of all youkai, forward?"

"Because," Kurama sighed, leaning against the rooftop's stairway wall, "there really aren't that many of us left, and what's the harm in trying. You never know…"

Hiei snorted. "You really want to try to settle the precious Heir with a bastard youkai like me?"

Kurama ran his hand through his hair—in a rare show of frustration, not as a precursor to an attack, as was often the case. "You're really not nearly so bad as you make yourself out to be, Hiei. And neither is she. You know the rumor. Sesshoumaru was willing to put off his own mating to buy her a few months. That says something about her that he would even consider doing that."

"She's the Heir, Kurama. She could have—has had—her pick of youkai, and each one more powerful than the last, and each one put aside by the next as they lost their usefulness."

"She wants to find her bondmate, Hiei, that perfect union of souls," he said, hand over heart, "that makes both stronger and fills them with such ecstasy, such happiness of being…The air about the Shrine is tense now, and perhaps she now finds the idea foolish, but I could never begrudge that wish."

Kurama paused, as if waiting to see if his short, impassioned speech would sway Hiei.

"My decision stands."

Kurama sighed, running his hand through his hair. "You are my friend, Hiei, so I won't force you, but I do ask that you consider it. You may not be her bondmate, but you may be. Consider it. If not for me, for her, for the world, then for Yukina. Please."

Hiei was alone again, with his own thoughts, and Kurama's pleas.