Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Yu Yu Hakusho characters. I merely have a few rights to my OC Tora, a few other minor OCs and this story!
Chapter 07 – Almost Part III
Written by: Amber M
Don't die yet…
But if you do…
You just weren't up for the task…
Botan didn't like the change of location. Not to mention her vision was completely hazy and there was a horrible stench of burnt skin on the air. From what she could tell, she was in a cave, just able to make out the dank surfaces by the light of a bonfire. There were two others in the place, standing up on the other side of the fire and conversing over something.
"So, where'd that little brat go?" said a familiar voice Botan recognized as that koyoote youkai's who she'd met before.
The other was Usotsuki's. "He's tailing Kurama, I believe. He should be still or else he would've come back."
"Maybe he's dead."
"I doubt it. He may be a fledgling but he's not senseless."
The koyoote sighed. "…Hm… Did you check that girl for your key?"
"My key?"
"Yes, Shuuki said that this girl was in possession of it."
Usotsuki gasped, recoiling from the koyoote.
"Don't worry. It seems that Kurama already disclosed her name to his group."
"Oh… Doesn't it bother you that one of our elite members is already dead? These four only arrived a day ago, right?"
"It was due to his own stupidity. I'm glad Kyuushuu's dead."
"…"
"Anyway... just fetch your key from that girl."
Botan flinched. She wriggled about, finding that her hands were tied behind her back just like her feet. Oh, no… Oh, no he's coming… I can't let him have this…
As the panther demon's blurry figure neared, stepping in Botan's vicinity, she quickly spun on her back and kicked her legs forth as hard as she could. Usotsuki wailed, hot embers and ash splashing into the air. He had just fallen back on the bonfire.
"You moron!" the koyoote shouted and went to pull the roasting panther out of the fire.
With her vision impaired, Botan still looked for a means to untie herself. As far as she could tell, there was only one way to get the ropes off her legs…
She gulped a lump in her throat and then inched over closer to a flaming log that had fallen out of the fire place. This is going to hurt… she thought, dropping her legs closer to the fire. She squeaked as the rope lit aflame, the fire quickly disintegrating the rope to dust. After that, she rolled from side to side to put out the remaining flames. All the while, the koyoote was still too occupied with the screaming panther to notice the grim reaper's escape in progress.
Ouch, ouch, ouch! Parts of her jeans had dissipated and left her skin to scorch a bit. Luckily, she got the fire out in a few seconds and then bolted up to her feet. She bounced against the wall a few times as she rounded the bonfire and struggling youkais. The opening to the cave was easily discernable amidst all the gloom much to the grim reaper's relief.
Just as she reached the opening and thought that her nightmare would soon be over, her feet just dropped beneath her like cinder blocks. She had stepped right off a steep mountain side apparently. The blue haired girl screamed, saying silent prayers as the wind whistled harshly past her. She squeezed her eyes shut. This was it… What a way to go… Huh?
"Oof!" she grunted. Her body had just hit something and it wasn't the jagged surface of Makai…
"Are you okay, Botan?"
"Kurama!" she breathed, able to see some flecks of his red hair in all the haziness.
"It's okay now… We should go get you healed… Ah!"
Next thing, they were both tumbling down the mountainside. Botan still couldn't quite tell what was going on as the blurs swirled and swirled before her. She let out a yelp when her side impacted a jagged rock on the seemingly endless descent. Now, she was really hurting. Every time that wounded part on her side scraped against the mountain side, it felt nearly as bad as if someone were mercilessly kicking her.
The grim reaper hardly noticed when she came to a rude stop in some bushes at the foot of the mountain. She coughed a little, feeling an ugly metallic taste in her mouth that was sure to be blood. While her mind reeled from all the pain she'd just been issued in what seemed like seconds, she subconsciously began calling out for Kurama.
"K-Kurama… Kurama?" she croaked.
Worry struck her. What had happened to him? What if he was hurt even more badly than she? What if he was…
"Kurama…"
"AHAHAHAHA! You asinine creature… You're going to die if you keep this up!" cackled the floating black phantom.
Hiei gritted his teeth and shot up after the airborne thing again only to miss for the hundredth time. It was driving the jaganshi crazy. While he was fiddling with this stupid creature, all of the others could be dead…
What's wrong…? Is the big mean, youkai too much for you…?
"He's not a normal youkai," Hiei hissed to the voice in his head.
Isn't it…? Maybe you should take a closer look…
Without a second thought, the fire demon tore off his headband and opened his third eye.
"Ooooh… We're getting serious now, are we?" the phantom-like youkai mocked, drifting side to side like a pendulum swing.
Hiei smiled deviously. "Hn… So, that's it…"
"What? Do you think you know the secrets of the universe now?"
"I know something about you!" he shouted while launching from the ground again. As he neared, he darted to the side, repeating the maneuver until he rendered the phantom prone. The opportunity opened finally when the creature was turned the wrong direction. "Too bad," Hiei muttered with a grin and struck the phantom across the back.
A scourging red mark appeared, igniting another across it to form an "X" in a chain reaction. Various designs lit up all over the creature until the robes burst to pieces, revealing the true demonic form behind them.
It certainly was a youkai but not a male demon as the voice had indicated. A taller, neon green haired yasha stood before him hunched over like a praying mantis. She was wearing a colorful ninja outfit with those red markings all over her skin.
She laughed—in a much higher pitched girly voice. "Well, you've taken me out of my cocoon. Color me impressed. No one has ever done that in the longest time!"
Actually, she was more like a feminine joker.
"Well, those Jagan eyes really are powerful aren't they? I got rid of mine though…" Hiei arched a brow at the yasha's comment. "Yes, that's right mister. I actually didn't want it!"
Hiei narrowed his eyes. There was a familiar scent on the woman, something terribly familiar to…
"Do you want to know why?"
"N—"
"Because of that wretched sister of mine! You know her… Iginaku Tora?" Hiei couldn't help but let his jaw go slightly agape. This… oddball youkai was actually related to Tora? "Yes, yes… Can't you see the resemblance? Ha! Obviously, I got all the looks though huh? And the brains too, huh? Anyway, back to my story—"
"Where's Tora?"
"Hey! Mister rude pants! I was talking here!"
"And I really don't care about your stories. Just tell me where Tora is right now."
The yasha blinked her yellow eyes (the only physical characteristic that appeared similar to Tora) and then threw her head up and laughed. "Ohoho… You slay me, mister! You really do… Teeheehee…"
Hiei growled, his grip tightening around the hilt of his sword. Killing this idiotic screwball wasn't going to bother anyone… There was no way that Tora would mind either.
"Ahaha—hahaha! Hm… Do you hear? Oh, listen!" the yasha said eagerly and cupped a hand behind her ear. "Ouch… those collars really hurt, you know? Actually they're supposed to kill by sundown… Do you hear my sister's agonizing screams? It almost hurts to listen… almost."
"Enough of this," Hiei announced murderously and flitted forth to the yasha with his katana ready to strike.
"VENOM!" the yasha shouted crazily. Her forearms turned green and some glassy substance dripped down them like icicles. "Now, here comes the FUN part!"
Hiei's katana clashed with the yasha's new blade arms numerous times as they bounced back and forth through the marshes. The jaganshi's natural footing found the parts of the soggy ground where he wouldn't be sucked into the goop with ease. This didn't give him the upper hand though for the yasha was able to do the same thing, a twisted grin on her tattooed face the whole time.
She was actually as unusual a combatant as her appearance. She stabbed at the fire demon just like the insect she seemed to mimic, poking down at him from a high raised wrist stance. It was utterly annoying how she projected this childish, playful mien—an insult to the jaganshi.
Things weren't exactly looking good for the fire demon. And when he really started thinking about it, what the heck were these demons doing on the A-class level of Makai when they were handling Hiei with arguably matched prowess?
"Haha! Not bad, not bad, mister!" the yasha chirped, ducking from a long horizontal chop and then attempting to retaliate with a forward lance.
Hiei drew in a quick breath as he bent his back inward to evade the attack. He quickly whirled around, hacking away at the woman with malice.
"Ay!" she squeaked and put up her blade arms to block the flurry of slashes. Showers of sparks emitted from the impacts until Hiei threw a final guard breaking blow. This one hit right on target, making the yasha stagger off her footing and into the soggy marsh grounds. "Oh, man… Lookit this! You've ruined my… Oh," she said with owl eyes, staring at the pointed blade that had appeared in front of her face.
The greenish blades on her arms melted away, the yasha slowly bringing her yellow eyes to the jaganshi's face above her.
"Now, where is Tora?"
"What a damned mess… Did you find the blue-haired girl, yet?"
"No, but I found Kurama," replied an early teen looking youkai.
"Well, where is he?"
"Um… I-I couldn't carry him back…"
"Why not?"
"Er…"
"Because he would've been killed by me," said Hiei, side stepping from behind the kid. His dangerous crimson eyes looked up to the koyoote across the clearing, his glinting katana held to the nape of the young youkai.
The koyoote growled quietly, contempt in his thunder cloud eyes. "Unbelievable…" he murmured to himself and then said, "I suppose you're here for… her." The youkai stepped aside to reveal Tora on the ground, looking like she was falling asleep.
"Maybe."
"You are… I did have my questions for this disgrace but obviously I wasn't expecting you… I just don't understand it…" he muttered irritably and turned to pick up Tora by an arm.
She stood on her feet limply and was pushed over next to the fire demon.
"There."
Hiei narrowed his eyes and shoved his foot against the kid youkai's back, sending him over to the koyoote. After a last scowl for the koyoote, he slung Tora over his shoulder and departed the area.
As he bound through the dead, darkening forest, he kept dashing his eyes from side to side, watching out for more interference by that band of youkais. That seemed a little too easy… he thought to himself. The red glowing collar was no longer around the fureasei's neck so the Ten of Makai had probably disabled it. But could they reactivate it any time?
Tora groaned a bit, coming out of her lethargic condition.
The fire demon came upon the area around the pools below the falls. This was where he had left Kurama… The red head was no where in sight now though… Probably went to look for the spirit girl. He inspected the area once more and then carefully set down the yasha, sitting down next to her. His gaze stayed on the forest he'd just come from.
He then flinched when a presence was detected behind him…
He jerked his head in the direction, his muscles relaxing again when he saw the red head land on the low platform with Botan in his arms. Both of them looked really messy, bloodied, dirtied, torn… burnt.
"Hello Hiei…" Kurama said tiredly and casually paced around the pool, finding a spot on the other side where he followed suit of Hiei—setting Botan down and sitting by her side.
The jaganshi took a breath and readjusted the headband around his eye. Hn… I wonder how many more of these amusing trials I can look forward to…
Kurama sighed, wincing at the twinges in his ribs brought on by the merely taking deep breaths. He started rinsing his hands off in the cool water of the pools and then busied himself with healing Botan's burns.
The spirit girl opened her heavy eyelids, tears welling up in them when she saw Kurama clear as day. His emerald eyes glanced up from his work, catching Botan's and then smiling. "Botan…" he acknowledged quietly and then returned to the healing.
"So, you have a sister," Hiei muttered as Tora rubbed her eyes of sleep.
"Huh?" she mumbled dazedly, resting a hand on her aching forehead.
Hiei sniffed. "She's a half sister, huh?"
"Do you know her name?"
"No… So, you'd best not say it."
Tora grumbled and rose up on her elbows. "Alright, alright… I admit that was foolish of me… Amazing how a plain word can land a demon in a mess of trouble, isn't it?"
"That coyote might've killed you."
"You wonder why he didn't?"
"Do you feel any more pain?"
The fureasei raised a brow, looking to the motionless fire demon. "Do you care?"
"I almost lost y…" Hiei began, letting the statement dissolve as Tora became quickly alerted. He shook his head slightly and muttered, "Nothing."
"You almost lost… nothing? Okay then…" the fureasei said with an odd expression and sat up. That wasn't a very good idea though either. Her head felt cumbersome and decided to fall against the fire demon's shoulder. She felt completely numb, too drained to care and Hiei actually made a nice pillow.
The jaganshi's eyes were wide, still staring at the forest before him. Carefully, he turned his head to see that the yasha was sleeping already. Seeing as he wasn't bursting into flames at her touch, he cocked a secret half-smile and relaxed again.
AN: (yawn) Oooof… I'm so tired… I actually spent a considerable amount of time with this chapter! Anywho, that's the last part of the three part… er… part… Not the end of the entire story though! The Ten of Makai aren't done, not by a long shot! And there's still much more romance to bloom! Eh… that sounded corny, heheh… As for the chapter, a few of the transitions seemed a bit rushed so I might go back and fix those… Okay…
As always, PLEASE REVIEW! Reviews are so cool. I like reviews! Nice reviews or constructive criticism please! Thank you, thank you, thank you! I'll update asap after… 6 reviews! I know, I know! I increased it but it's only by one, not much, heh…
Hiei: Where are the cookies?
Wolf: Hm? Cookies? Aw… have you become a cookie monster?
Hiei: (bares teeth)
Wolf: Eh… I really need to learn how to keep my mouth shut…
Hiei: That can be arranged.
Wolf: Ulp…