"This is as far as I can take you," Kurama stopped at the edge of his territory, "the Forest of Giant Trees is just ahead, you'll notice the change of scenery. Hiei is up there."
The girls walked passed him, thanked him for his kindess, and kept moving forward. He was right, the scenery did change. There was hardly any underbrush and the trees were suddenly hundeds and thousands of feet tall, reaching into the clouds. "Forest of Giants," Sapphire said, "I think I get it."
"Yeah it's almost like it's in the name or something," Amethyst replied sarcastically.
"Don't walk any furher," a voice said.
The sisters looked around but didn't see anyone. "Who said that?" Sapphire asked.
"It doesn't matter," the voice replied, "you should turn back now. Humans aren't allowed here."
"Up there!" Amethyst pointed at a tall branch in a tree and saw a young man sitting on a brach with black and white spikey hair wearing an all black overcoat and a white collar. "Are you Hiei, guardian of the Forest of Giants?"
He answered, "Call me whatever you want, I'm not letting you in my forest."
Amethyst demanded, "How are you goingt to stop us? You're all the way up there, we could just walk in and-" she stopped when she saw Hiei standing directly in front of her.
"How did you-" Sapphire asked.
"I'm not human like the likes of you two," Hiei answered, "you might as well turn back."
Amethyst said, "You're really short. I thought demons were supposed to be giant and ugly." She looked into Hiei's cute crimson eyes.
"Don't say it," Hiei said.
"You're kind of cute," Sapphire replied, "in an adorable kind of way."
Hiei drew his sword at her throat and said, "I hate humans, why don't I just kill you right now?" He pinner her against a tree.
"Wait!" Sapphire cried, "Why don't you like humans?"
He explained, "Before I came to here this forest was trashed and demons aren't the ones that did it." He stared her down as he pushed the sword closer to her neck.
Amethyst pleaded, "But that was years ago! Don't kill her! We didn't trash your forest!"
Sapphire asked, "Would Yukina want you to act like this?"
"How did you-?" Hiei lowered his sword and said, "I don't know what you're talking about. Don't move." He aimed his sword at her again.
Amethyst said, "But the legend is true, isn't it?"
Hiei answered, "No, it isn't. Someone made that whole story up decades ago. It's completely false, I assure you."
Sapphire asked, "What's under your headband?"
"Don't touch me," he jumped back up into another tree, making him stand about 10 feet above the girls.
"You use a third eye to watch after your twin sister, don't you," Sapphire said, "I'd be upset if I couldn't see my twin sister," she stopped and looked at Amethyst, "Listen, we want to get to the cavern ahead and get a sapphire stone. Our grandfather came here decades ago to make a necklace but Amethyst here broke it."
Amethyst said, "Oh come on that was an accident."
"Hn," Hiei replied, "That's not my problem."
Sapphire aske, "Do you miss Yukina?"
"Stop saying her name!" he glared at them from above.
Amethyst asked, "Why? I thought you didn't have a twin sister named Yukina."
Hiei jumped back down and said, "I'll let you through, but only because you're irritating me." He turned around and started walking through the forest.
Amethyst said, "Alright! Hey, are you guys identical?"
"Amethyst," Sapphire said, "they're boy-girl twins, how would they be identical?"
"Oh right, I forgot about that," she replied, "so what's it like being a mixed demon? We're told that's not very common but that Yusuke guy we met was human once, right?"
Hiei asked, "Do you ever shut up?"
Sapphire said to her sister, "Don't bother him, he's being nice to us."
Together they walked through the looming trees to a large cave. Hiei stopped at the opening and pointed inside. "Sapphire is in there," he said coldly, then jumped back into the trees, leaving them alone.
After finding the right amount of sapphire easily in the cavern, the girls started walking back. Hiei was still standing at the end of the cave. "You're still here?" Sapphire asked.
"You're still in my forest aren't you," he replied, "it took you long enough. Let's go." He stopped when several tall demons walked through.
"Hiei, what are humans doing in the Forest of Giants?" one of them asked, easily over 15 feet tall.
Amethyst said, "Hey, I thought it was just called 'Forest of Giants' because of the trees." She hid behind her sister.
Hiei replied to the demons, "They're just greedy human bastards, looking for gems in this cave like others before them. Since when do you care?"
"You little brat," one said, "humans aren't allowed here. I could smell their stench from a mile away. Get out of the forest!" They prepared the weapons. Sapphire pulled Amethyst back into the cave.
"Run!" she shouted.
Hiei jumped up and sliced them all down within seconds. He looked back into the cave and saw Sapphire protecting her sister. "You can come out now," Hiei said, "They're all dead."
"Wow," Amethyst replied as she walked out, "how come they attacked us? I thought you were the guardian of the forest?"
"It's changed hands a lot over the centuries," he explained, "these were some of the old guardians. They don't approve of humans. Now hurry up or I'll just return home and leave you here." He started walking back through the forest. The girls walked around all of the spilled blood and dead bodies.
Sapphire said, "Wait! We're right behind you."
Once Amethyst caught up to Hiei she said, "So, demons don't like humans."
"Humans don't like demons either, right?" he asked, "You said so yourself, demons are supposed to be large and ugly."
"Actually she said that," Amethyst said.
"I did not!" Sapphire shouted.
Hiei replied, "I can tell you two apart, simple children. Lying isn't going to help you. Would you hurry up? Humans walk so slow."