It seemed to go on forever. They just kept walking and walking and walking with no end in sight.. Hiei was getting very irritated and even more bored. Kiren was off in her own little world; eyes glued to the little red string of demon energy that they were following.
Hiei noticed Kiren slowing down until she stopped completely. Hiei glared at Kiren, "Don't tell me you're tired already?"
Kiren returned his glare, "Hell no. I just figured you might want a warning."
He raised his eyebrow, "Warning of what exactly?"
Kiren sighed, "I'm shocked you haven't noticed them yet."
Hiei crossed his arms getting impatient, "Noticed what human?"
She narrowed her eyes at him, "I'll let that one pass for now. Anyway, since you haven't notice yet, I shall enlighten you. There are multiple traps from here going onward so you might wanna follow close behind me."
He looked away from her, "I think I'll be quite fine on my own. I don't need help from anyone."
She put her hand to her temple and started rubbing where a headache was forming.
"Fine, have it your way then. If you get caught in something, don't come crying to me." She took a step forward and then she was gone.
Hiei glared in the direction she went and followed, trying to catch up to her. In his hurry to catch up with Kiren, he stepped on a patch of sand that made a clicking sound. Once he let his foot up off of it, he heard booms of in the distance getting closer to him.
He cursed and increased his speed to the max that he could go; avoiding the traps that he could see. He set a few more off in the process but he just kept going. He finally got to where he could see Kiren in the distance.
Kiren heard the explosions coming from behind her and turned to see what the commotion was. She saw Hiei running towards her with fire and booming coming from behind him. She crossed her arms and waited for Hiei to reach her.
Just before Hiei reached her, he missed a hole in the ground and fell in. As he fell in, bars went over the top of the hole, locking Hiei in. Kiren walked over and looked down to see Hiei trying everything to get out of the hole.
She smiled, "You having issues there shorty?"
"What do you think?" he shouted at her. "What kind of a trap is this anyway?"
Kiren kneeled down, "A tricky one that doesn't allow it's prey to use any type of energy to get out. The only way out is for someone on the outside to deactivate it. I just might know how to do that." She gave a wry smile.
He narrowed his eyes, "So why aren't you doing anything?"
She made it look like she was thinking hard about her answer. Then she gave an evil smirk at him, "Gee, I believe there was someone who said that he didn't anyone's help. Now, where could I have heard that one from?"
He turned his head away from her, not saying a word.
"Awwww, is someone giving me the cold shoulder? Well, I guess you don't need my help then. I'll just go take care of that demon by myself. Maybe by then you'll be out of here on your own."
She started walking away; she went at a slow pace waiting to her Hiei protest her leaving and to demand that she let him out.
She made it about ten steps before she had a telepath in her head, 'You leave me down here, I will kill you when I get out of here.'
She turned around and went back to his little prison. "I thought you couldn't kill 'humans'. You really wanna risk incarceration just to kill lil' old me?"
He sighed, "You have a point there, just help me get out of here."
She stared at him for about a minute. Hiei was getting very irritated, "What are you doing girl? Get me out now!"
She sat down cross-legged, "That's no way to ask for help. Guess you really don't need it huh?"
He glared at her, "What do you want me to say?!"
"A please might be nice. Then I could tell everyone that you actually asked for help and even said please. Yuske will get a kick out of it for sure." She started giggling to herself.
"You. Wouldn't. Dare."
She smirked, "Try me. Maybe if you say it nice enough, I won't tell anyone about it."
Hiei cursed for a little bit under his breath. He couldn't believe he was stooping this low. "Fine, could you pleasehelp me out of here?"
She got a bright smile on her face, "Now that's more like it."
She moved to kneeling on her knees to dispel the trap that was on it. Hiei was tapping his foot, getting very impatient. But just before she undid the trap, she did a front flip to the other side of hole barely missing a big axe aiming for her neck.
She looked at her attacker. He looked like an extremely oversized wolf that seriously needed to be groomed and given a bib for all the drool coming out of his mouth.
Kiren shivered at the sight, "Well, I guess we don't have to go looking for you now."
The demon hung his axe on his shoulder, "Who dare trespasses into the territory of Hiko the wolf?"
Kiren stood up and wiped off the sand from herself, "Someone who wants to break a barrier."
Hiei started walking in a circle, "Kiren! What do you think you're doing? Let me out of here and I'll deal with him!"
She sighed, "Sorry but I kinda need to concentrate to undo that trap and Hiko here ain't gonna let me do that. So you'll just to be patient and trust me to handle this."
Hiko laughed, "You think a mere human can take care of me?"
Kiren gave Hiko an evil smirk, "Don't think I'm just some mere human you rotten filth. You are no match for me."
Hiko growled and charged at Kiren, swinging his axe back and forth in front of him. Kiren looked like she was just standing there but Hiko wasn't landing a hit. Each time he missed, he got more and more frustrated.
Kiren started getting bored and pulled a little piece of metal from pocket. Hiei had been watching and now looked at her curiously, "What in the world is small piece of metal going to do?"
Kiren bent down, completely ignoring Hiko, "Just watch and learn small fry."
Hiei growled as Kiren closed her eyes, focusing her spirit energy on the metal. In almost a second, a steel sword was in the metal's place. She sliced it in the air in an X shape. Hiko laughed at her, like she was striking air. His laugh was cut short as he split apart and blood gushed everywhere.
Kiren swung the sword down to wipe the blood off of it. She then knelt back down to Hiei, focusing a little energy into her hands. She placed them on opposite sides of the hole, making the top of it glow with a bright light.
The light was so bright that Hiei had to look away and cover his eyes. When he could see again, the bars were gone, "What did you do?"
She smiled, "That's a secret." She winked at him and started walking back the way that they had come before. Hiei jumps from his hole and was walking side by side with Kiren.
"Aren't you worried about the traps?"
She raised an eyebrow at him, "There aren't any traps anymore. For once, you blew up most of them, and the rest disappeared when Hiko died. Now, what do you really want to ask me?"
He looked the other way, stuffing his hands in his pockets, "How did you do that sword thing?"
Kiren's turn to look away, "Family secret that can't be told to anyone."
Hiei rolled eyes, "Is that all you can do?"
She gave a big smile, "That's barely a little of what I can do."
"What else can you do?"
She started running ahead of him, "I'm not telling!"
He shook his head and ran after her.
*The rest of the gang*
Kurama was leaning up against a tree, watching the other two snore away. He smiled, "Those two never where ones to wait were they?"
He himself had contemplated taking a quick nap, but he was too worried about Hiei and Kiren. He hated not knowing what was going on. Just as he was readjusting himself, he noticed that the barrier disappeared.
He quickly woke up Yuske and Kuwabara, "Hey you two, the barrier is down. Come on, let's go."
They lazily got up, rubbing the sleep out of their eyes. When they finally got into a standing position, Kurama was already running ahead of them.
The two scrambled after him yelling at him to wait up for them. Kurama didn't want to wait. He had to find Hiei and Kiren. He had to know if anything had gone wrong. He honed in on Hiei and Kiren's scents and booked it in that direction.
After a while of running, Kurama seen blown up traps and his worry was growing worse. That was until he almost toppled over Kiren who had stopped when she had seen Kurama running their way.
"Hey there Kurama! Where's the two bakas?"
He smiled, "They're on their way. I went ahead of them to see how you two were doing."
She smiled, "We're perfectly fine, see?"
She did a little circle dance to show everything was completely fine. Kurama sighed a sigh of relief. "So, how'd it go?"
Hiei scoffed and walked passed Kurama, "Obviously it went well; you guys got to come this way didn't you?"
Kurama looked after him for a moment and then turned to Kiren with a raised eyebrow, "Do I dare ask what happened?"
She shrugged her shoulders, "It was a quick, easy win. Nothing else to it."
She walked the direction that Hiei walked off to, Kurama watching her tiny retreating figure. As the two were walking away, Yuske and Kuwabara had finally caught up.
Yuske looked at the other two then directed his attention to Kurama, "What's up with those two?"
He shrugged his shoulders, "Who knows, let's just continue with them. I'm sure there's a hideout somewhere out here. I've notice multiple demon energies around here now that the barrier is down."
Kuwabara nodded his head, "Yeah, and there's a couple that I don't like the feel of."
Yuske patted him on the back, "Aww come on Kuwabara, it's not we haven't handled some pretty difficult situations before. Let's go kick some ass!"
Yuske drug Kuwabara towards Hiei and Kiren with Kurama covering up the rear. Yuske caught up to the two shorties and put his arm around Kiren's shoulder.
"So, Kiren, what did you two do while you were alone?"
Kiren glared at him, grabbed is hand and flipped him in front of her onto his stomach with his arm pinned behind his back.
Her voice got real low and demonic, "You EVER mention anything like that ever again and you can say goodbye to a few limbs of yours. I'm not some play girl that jumps on any guy the first time that I meet them. And I don't think I'm exactly Hiei's type. Or anyone is his type for that matter. So, save the jokes for you stupid friend and the girly red head, got it?"
She got a muffled nod in response. She let go and continued walking. The other three stood in awe at Kiren as Yuske got up and rubbed his shoulder.
He shook his head, "Remind me to never get on her bad side."
Kurama laughed, "Yes that does seem to be the smart thing to do would it?"
Everyone nodded but Hiei; he was still watching Kiren. 'Well, that seems to be an intriguing side to her.' He thought to himself.
She stopped once she had gotten a ways away, 'I hate Yuske. Yes, Hiei is very good looking, but I'm pretty sure he won't be getting interested in any girl ever.'
She turned around and crossed her arms, waiting for the others to catch up. Once they had, they continued onward. Yuske kept scratching his head, getting very uncomfortable with the silence.
"So, how much longer do you think we're gonna have to go til we start seeing something?"
Kiren stopped, making everyone else stop. "I would say we're getting a welcome party at the moment."
In front of them was a large band of ugly demons in every shape and size possible.
Yuske cracked his knuckles and got a big grin on his face, "Looks like I can finally get some action in."
Everyone but Kiren drew their weapons and ran forward, destroying the demons that they encountered.
Kiren took out a zippo lighter, opening and closing it while watching the fights going on. She watched each of their fighting styles, memorizing what their abilities were.
One of the demons strayed from the group and was heading straight for Kiren. She flipped the lighter open and lit it. She waited til it got close to her and then she blew at the flame. A humungous fire ball emitted from the lighter and engulfed the demon, burning him to a crisp.
As the others approached her, being done with their parts, there was nothing left but ashes. Yuske looked back and forth between the pile of ashes and Kiren.
He opened his mouth to say something but Kiren cut him off, "Don't ask, I ain't telling. Let's get going, the hideout isn't too far off from here."
She started walking as Kurama studied her back. "She definitely is an odd one. We had better stay on our toes while we're around her."
Yuske nodded, "Yeah, she got some bite to her. I just wish she wasn't so secretive."
Kurama sighed, "That seems to come with the territory. We'll just have to deal with it and hope that maybe someday we'll get the whole story."
Hiei started walking ahead, "Don't count on it. I don't think she's much of the opening up type. Let's just continue and see what she's made of."
Kurama smiled, "Yes, let's see what she's made of."
They continued walking for what seemed like hours before they came upon a creepy looking castle.
Yuske hung his head, "Why does it always have to be a creepy castle like thing for all these demons to hang out in?"
Kiren looked over at him, "What does it matter where they are? We just need to get in there, do our business, and get the hell outta here."
Kurama raised an eyebrow, "Why so in a hurry to leave?"
She fidgeted for a moment, "There's something here that's really giving me the creeps. My entire body is telling me not to go in here. So let's go now before I back out and don't go in."
Kurama looked at her for a moment, "Alright, let's go in and say hello."
Everyone nodded and went inside. Unbeknownst to them, there was someone watching them from somewhere in the castle.
He smiled, "Well well well, seems like we have a lost stray in our castle. Hanko, get everything ready."
Hanko nodded, "Yes m'lord Shoske, I shall make sure that everything is in place for our guests." Hanko exited the room, leaving his lord to watch the team alone.
Shoske gave an evil laugh, "Yes, this should provide with some lovely entertainment. It's been so dead around here lately, I need something to lighten the mood around here."
I am so sorry that this took me a bit to get out, work has been extremely busy and I haven't had time to write anything. Made me so mad lol I need a new job lol Anyway, I hope that this chapter is ok. We got to see a little bit of what Kiren can do, but I'm saving the rest for later :) Anyway hope you guys liked the chapter and I can't wait to see if I get any reviews!
