Claimer: Chichiro is mine, as well as the storyline, and any other original characters.

Disclaimer: Hiei, Kurama, Yusuke, Kuwabara, Koenma, Genkai, and any other YuYu Hakusho characters used are not mine. Kagura isn't either, though she's from Inuyasha.

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Chapter 7—The Past

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When the glow from her hand faded, Chichiro withdrew her palm from its place close to Kurama's back and finished tying the bandage around him. "Better?" she asked.

"Much." Kurama looked back to her with a smile. "I didn't know you had healing powers."

Chichiro grinned sheepishly. "I don't think they're quite developed enough to be called 'powers'. More like…amateur attempts that sometimes help."

Kurama snickered. "Come, now, you aren't giving yourself enough credit. My back hardly hurts at all."

"And that, children," Chichiro said to an invisible audience as she gently punched his arm without any true force, "is what we call flattery, and it's looked down upon because people often want something afterward that the one they're flattering was beforehand unwilling to give."

Kurama laughed at that, and apologized with humor in his voice as he reached over for his shirt, which he gingerly slid around his arms and buttoned in front of him when he was satisfied that it was loose enough around his back. "You know," the fox commented, "Hiei's going to kill me if I pull something like that again."

Chichiro decided to play clueless. "Pull what?"

"If I'm that useless in our next battle."

The fox demoness behind him shoved him down sideways onto the bed, then stepped over him and grumbled, "Don't be stupid."

Blinking, Kurama said, "I was joking."

"Hn," was Chichiro humorously Hiei-like response, and she said, "I have a lot of pent-up energy, so I'm going to go amuse myself by slamming Hiei's face into a rock or something." She gave him a cheery, out-of-place grin and said, "Toodles!"

Before she left, Kurama quoted, "'Toodles'?"

Seeming semi-flustered, Chichiro asked, "Did I use that wrong? I'm not entirely sure what it means, but Botan said it a week or two back and it seemed like a fun word…"

Again, Kurama laughed. "No, that was correct. No worries."

Chichiro smiled at him again, uncertain of what to say, and then she simply waved and disappeared from the doorway.

Kurama stared after her for a long while, then sighed once and looked for his bag, feeling around on top of his mattress for an uncomfortable lump. When his hand rested on one, he reached beneath his bed and snagged hold of his bag, dragging it forth and fishing through it. He only had one book left, but he decided to read it now and sacrifice his last resource to chase away boredom all the same. The rounds of the tournament should begin to go quicker soon, now that the number of teams was dwindling, and he wouldn't have much use to read soon anyway.

--

As soon as Chichiro arrived in the normal sparring-ground, a clearing near the brook in the woods, she was greeted by Hiei's sword. "Not right now," she muttered to Hiei, blocking with her quickly-summoned light and wind sword.

"Did I ask you if you wanted to?" Hiei replied, not letting up on his attacks. His sword aimed for her still-healing wounded shoulder, and it slashed the burn injury open.

Chichiro cried out, setting her right hand over the new gash. "You jerk!" She again summoned her sword, this time in her dominant right hand; she had only used her left before because she really wasn't in the mood to spar despite what she'd said to Kurama and had been lazy. At least she hadn't been in the mood then—now he'd pissed her off. Her shoulder still hurt rather badly even without the new sword wound, and Hiei's sword had made her wince when it made contact with it. Something had flickered in his eyes when it had, but it couldn't be called concern; rather, maybe he had thought it would be in bad taste if he attacked her shoulder again when it was already her disadvantage.

Their skirmish was short-lived. Chichiro, although angry at Hiei's move, didn't seem to have much vigor for fighting. Hiei hadn't felt like respecting her wishes, but without enthusiasm on her end it was boring and he wasn't getting any true training experience sparring her. They both pulled up a few minutes into it and decided to leave it for later without ever saying a word to one another.

The fire demon, having no interest in Chichiro besides using her as a moving punching bag, began to leave, but he stopped all the same when the fox demoness said, "Hiei." She was surprised he actually halted where he stood, but she didn't waste his patience and asked, "Do you consider us friends?"

Hiei glanced back at her, snorting. "What kind of question is that?"

"Well?"

"Of course not," he responded immediately, lacking any hesitation to even consider the question.

Chichiro smirked. "Good. I didn't want you to get the wrong idea from this. The sparring, I mean."

"It seems like you're the one getting the wrong idea if you even considered the thought before asking me," Hiei muttered back flatly, glaring at her briefly before he again turned to walk away.

Chichiro growled to herself but didn't say anything, and when the fire demon was gone she pivoted where she stood and headed for the brook. When her feet were only a few inches away from the water, she crouched down and dipped her right hand into it, raising it cupped to splash a bit of the moisture onto her shoulder. It stung, but she didn't flinch this time as she had when Hiei had initially attacked. A second splash wet her arm to get rid of the trail of blood running down it, and she scrubbed vigorously for a moment to relieve her skin of a small amount of dried blood around her elbow.

Settling back onto the ground, her eyes lifted to the sky. 'Do you consider us friends?' What a stupid question. Of course Hiei of all people wouldn't even think of friendship between them, let alone actually consider her his friend. Hell, he barely considered her an ally, she figured.

Quietly, she began to sing the song that she knew that Hiei had recognized when it passed through her mind a few days back. She had felt his presence within her mind, but ignored it, as she knew he would be unable to delve deep into her memories or anything of true importance, even with how powerful his jagan was. "Honto ni sukidata anata ya inai

Hajimete no koi todomatta.

Konya wa yume ni egao no mama de dete konaide yo ne."

From behind her, she heard someone comment, "I didn't know that you knew Japanese."

Chichiro looked behind her and welcomed Kurama with a smile. "Hey, there."

They had been speaking English and Demon since Chichiro arrived, as Koenma had informed both Hiei and Kurama that Chichiro wasn't too familiar with Japanese. Hiei hadn't complained, as Demon was the main language he used anyway (He still used Japanese quite a bit around Chichiro, just because her confusion amused him and he enjoyed seeing her flounder attempting to comprehend what he'd said.), but Kurama hadn't used that tongue actively for several years and he generally used English.

"I'm not following you, I swear," Kurama assured her, as if she'd accused him. "I didn't know you'd be here. I had thought you were sparring with Hiei elsewhere."

"Nah. I got sick of him too quick." Chichiro grinned, then jested, "And I'm glad you cleared that up. I was beginning to think I had my own fox-boy stalker."

Kurama chuckled, then asked rhetorically, "How is it that I always seem to earn that nickname?"

"Fox-boy, or stalker?"

Kurama laughed, wondering if Chichiro's question had been serious. "Fox-boy. I honestly can't recall ever being called 'stalker' before now."

The fox demoness's smile wasn't reaching her eyes, but one slid across her lips all the same. "I should hope so."

"Something's wrong," Kurama noticed, hoping she didn't mind him pointing it out.

Chichiro looked sideways and away from him again, and said, "No, I'm just annoyed with Hiei."

"And this is new?"

"Hn, just this kind of annoyance is. He's so…God-damned anti-social."

Kurama raised his eyebrows. "And how is that new?"

Chichiro just shrugged. Finally heading backward in the conversation to answer what he'd said before, she said, "I know a little Japanese. Basics. And I know the translation of the song I was just singing. I've known that one since I was a kid."

"You're quite a good singer."

Chichiro grinned gratefully at him, but seemed uncomfortable at the praise. "I guess." She stood, then. "Alright!" she said, as if she were about to give him a lecture. "We have to find something to do!"

Kurama blinked at her, then asked, "And what do you suggest?"

Chichiro dropped her arm from the mockingly heroic pose she'd struck, then said in a clueless manner, "Well, if I knew what we should do, I wouldn't have said we should find something."

"…Ah. Right." Sometimes Kurama had to wonder about Chichiro. Half the time she was hyper as ever and happy like she didn't have a care in the world, and then the other half of the time her personality split between quiet, sad or angry. Her emotions were all over the place, and she was just as hard to understand as Hiei, though for a much different reason. And she certainly wasn't so…dark and mysterious, Kurama supposed was the best way to describe Hiei, and he snickered at the thought.

"No laughing!" Chichiro cried suddenly, and if it hadn't been for the amusement in her eyes, Kurama would have thought she wasn't joking. "This is a serious matter! The evil mastermind of boredom must be eliminated, and its only weakness is when its adversaries have something to occupy themselves with!"

"I apologize," Kurama responded, saluting her and feeling goofy, though not minding the sense. "What is the plan?"

"Follow me!" she called loudly, motioning with her arm as she stalked off toward the stadium, then began to sing in what seemed to be a faking singing voice, as it didn't sound nearly as pretty as it had when she'd sang before, "Ohhhh, we're off to kill the boredom, the horrible boredom of—" She cut off when she could find no suitable word with only a single syllable, then opted to just finish with what the tune suggested and said, "—Oz!"

Kurama shook his head in wonder, pondering when she'd seen the Wizard of Oz, but followed her all the same on her completely pointless quest.

--

"Honto ni sukidata anata ya inai

Hajimete no koi todomatta.

Konya wa yume ni egao no mama de dete konaide yo ne

Saikouno serifu kuchi ni desugite

Komatteta anata

Saigo no serifu kuchi ni shitasugu kadou nanoni kuchi zuke

Kuchibiru ni dake."

The song had no inspiration or emotional meaning to her, at least not yet. She had not lost her love, as the first few lines suggested: 'You aren't here, the one I really love; Tonight in my dreams, a smiling you doesn't appear; My first love met a dead end.' All the same, Chichiro felt tears in her eyes and on her cheeks, and causing a hardly-noticed uncomfortable feeling on her chin and the crook of her nose as the tears lingered on her skin. Of course, this was for a very different reason, which she knew to be two bodies strewn on the ground outside the door of the room she was currently in, their throats slit and their dead eyes wide.

She was huddled in a corner, pressed against the wall, her legs pulled to her chest. She felt no fear despite her own impending death hanging above her like a puff of fog, and really, also despite her tears and the trembling of her body, she didn't feel much of anything. Though not dead like her parents, her own eyes stared blankly ahead like theirs, focused on the floor. And the black boots of the one who had taken the lives of her family. She hadn't bothered looking to his face previously, but now she looked up into the young face of a red-eyed boy, a demon like herself and not too much older than herself. Perhaps fifty or one-hundred years older; she was already just over one-hundred herself, but her body made her seem to be fifteen at most.

Chichiro could tell immediately by this boy's stature—which was surprisingly short—his sword, his piercing crimson eyes, his strange black hair and white starburst within it, and his entrancing tear gem that hung in plain view around his neck that he was the assassin she'd heard so much of lately about demon world. His reputation had been sparked a few months before and had since begun to grow around suspicions, rumors, gossip and fairy-tale nightmares to spook younger demons such as herself with. Still, she had long since realized that she would die, and did not fear his killing stroke and did not fear him as said before. That didn't change the fact that she had to force herself to speak, and when she did, she only asked a fairly out-of-place question: "What's your name?"

His sword twitched, though she supposed it was only because his hand had first. The assassin seemed surprised at the question. "What?"

"What's your name?" she repeated, not changing her tone at all.

"That isn't important."

"Consider it my last wish, if you have any decency or feel any obligation to carry it out," Chichiro suggested. When he said nothing and did not move to kill her, she implored, "I just want to know your name."

The boy looked to almost size her up as he decided whether or not to answer her request. Finally, "…Hiei."

She smiled at that, though it did not reach her eyes. "Well, I've heard a lot about you, Hiei, just never your name. You have a fearsome reputation."

Apparently impatient with her speaking, he growled, "Silence."

She obeyed, and looked to his sword as he raised it. He did not grip it with his other hand, though, and his right arm did not move besides bringing the sword vertical.

Curious, she went against what he'd said and asked, "What is it? You've killed my family. Surely you can kill me."

She knew immediately why he hadn't moved to kill her simply by the expression within his eyes. There was no fun or enjoyment to be had killing someone who was willing to die without fighting. He relished murder, which she supposed was why he had become an assassin, but only when the quarry ran or fought back against him. She also knew then that she was not to die that day.

"Hn. You aren't worth my time." Turning, she saw movement that hinted that he had leapt toward the window, but his form was gone in a black flicker, and she could not tell where he had gone.

She stared at the place where his feet had stood blankly for several minutes without moving. And then she crumbled sideways onto the ground, curling her arms around herself and allowing herself to sob.

Several hundred years later, and looking only ten years older, Chichiro opened her eyes and cuffed away the hint of a tear welling in her left eye, giving a heavy sigh.

Kurama passed her room and called in as he walked by without slowing, "The next round is starting. You should come to the ring."'

She looked to the now-empty doorway for some time before she finally stood. She caught sight of Hiei as he also walked by her doorway, though predictably he ignored her entirely, and she felt hate swirl within her again. You've changed since then, she noticed without hatred and without optimism. Not really for better or for worse. But you're different, now.

Then she heard Koenma's semi-muffled call from down the hallway, "Chichiro, come on! The round is going to start whether you're here or not!"

She stood, pushing Hiei out of her mind, and then she wearily headed for the doorway and down to her next fight.