Chapter 8
Botan reached spirit world a few minutes later. She walked into Koenma's office still holding the black rose, she didn't know what it meant and she hoped Koenma did. When she reached his desk, Koenma looked up, he immediately noticed the rose.
"Where did you get that?" he asked sounding confused and concerned.
Baton placed the rose on Koenma's desk and explained everything. Starting from what Hiei and Yusuke had told her about their fight with the shape shifting demon, Matsura, all the way up to Suichi finding out about demons and spirit world. Koenma listened intently with a stern look on his face. When Botan was finished explaining he sighed.
"So he knows before he was ready to find out, I was afraid of this," said Koenma.
"Yes, I know. You went through so much trouble to make sure he found out on his own when he was ready to fight again, Hiei told us."
Koenma looked up at Botan, "As for the black rose. It's a calling card for a particularly unique demon." Koenma paused thinking a bit before continuing, "His name is Azriel, spirit world has never had to deal with him, but I've heard that he can be quite eccentric."
"Eccentric," repeated Botan sounding extremely confused.
"It's had to explain, he's not an ordinary demon. It's said that he looks for a person or multiple persons that he thinks are worthy of his affection, and becomes incorporated in their lives until they fall in love with him, then he just disappears," explained Koenma sounding a bit unsure if anything he was saying was actually true.
Yusuke caught up with Suichi and walked beside him in silence. After a while Suichi stopped and glared at Yusuke.
"Why are you following me?" he asked angrily.
Yusuke only smiled, "Remember, there are demons after you. I'm just here to make sure you don't get killed."
Suichi snorted, "There are no such things as demons." He walked away trying to leave Yusuke behind, but Yusuke just started following him again. Suichi looked at Yusuke, then broke into a run, trying to get away from him. Yusuke just chased after him. After about three miles of running, Suichi stopped only find that Yusuke was still right next to him.
"Why won't you leave me alone?" asked Suichi breathing hard.
"I told you," replied Yusuke who hadn't even broken a sweat.
"And I told you that there were no such things as demons," snapped Suichi.
"Oh, but there are. You, my dear friend, are a demon, and so is Hiei," stated Yusuke not caring that they were supposed to keep this a secret. It was already on the table, he might as well explain what the hell was going on.
"Your crazy."
"Am I? You didn't seem to think so before, and don't take your frustration and anger at Hiei out on me," said Yusuke sounding serious.
Suichi didn't respond, at first, "I don't understand what's going on. Even if I say I believe you and admit there are such things as demons, that doesn't seem to make this situation any less confusing."
"I know it doesn't, and I don't know the whole story, so I can't tell you as much as Hiei could. He knows more then I do about what's going on, but for some reason he's convinced that you need to find out on your own," said Yusuke huffing a frustrated sigh, "I supposed the only thing I can tell you will just make everything more confusing."
Suichi nodded, he was starting to understand. Apparently things in his life were a lot more complicated then he had thought.
"Dammnit, Kurama."
"What did you just call me?"
"…"
"Who's Kurama?"
"Just someone I used to know…"
"Yusuke, who's Kurama?" asked Suichi, he hadn't really gotten a sufficient answer from Hiei and was wondering if Yusuke had a better answer.
Yusuke hesitated a bit before saying, "You."
Hiei walked into his apartment, shutting the door behind him, he didn't bother to turn on any lights. He didn't want to see anything anyway. He walked over to his couch and fell face forward onto it. He had screwed up his own plan, Suichi knew too much before he was actually ready to take it. For one fleeting second Hiei considered trying to suppress Suichi's memory again, but there was really no point. There were two, maybe three, demons after him.
Hiei sighed into the couch, he couldn't deny it anymore. Karasu was alive, the signs were so clear now. He had somehow survived his fight with Kurama and had come back for the fox spirit. Hiei had never told anyone the real reason why Kurama had frozen up during the battle, the real reason why he had been so forceful to get Kurama's memory and his demon side suppressed. Hiei had known ever since the end of the Dark Tournament that Kurama was haunted by the memory of Karasu. It was only a few months before the fight with that demon that Kurama had told Hiei about the dreams and the voice.
At first Hiei didn't believe him, but one night it all changed.
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Hiei moved from tree to tree at a quick pace as thunder and lighting stuck the air. The storm was steadily worsening, and Hiei was heading towards Kurama's house seeking shelter from the rain.
A few moments later he was outside of Kurama's window, which was always slightly open for him. He stood on the tree branch near the half opened window, when he heard something. It sounded like Kurama was talking to himself, which was weird, because he didn't normally do that type of thing. Hiei reached out to open the window, when he heard something that made his heart stop.
"Now, now, my dear kitsune. Don't struggle or I might have to damage your body slightly and I don't wish to do so," the voice belonged to someone that Hiei had been sure was dead and the world was better for it.
Hiei shook his head hoping he was just hearing things and opened the window. He entered Kurama's darkroom silently, so he didn't alert the occupants just incase he wasn't imagining Karasu's voice. Hiei looked over at Kurama's bed and saw something that made his stomach clench.
Kurama was lying on his back, shirt off, and on top of him, straddling Kurama's hips and holding him down, was Karasu looking quite solid and not at all dead. Hiei's eyes narrowed, as he felt rage surge through him like a fire. In less then a second Hiei had gotten Karasu off of Kurama and held his sword against Karasu's throat.
Kurama sat up, breathing heavily and looking scared yet relived that Hiei had showed up when he did. Karasu looked angry, his once blue eyes started to turn red. Hiei responded by pushing his blade harder into Karasu's neck. Suddenly his blade when straight through Karasu's neck, but it didn't cut him. Karasu had gone transparent, he got up going through Hiei and stood behind him smirking. Hiei turned glaring at Karasu as he stood.
"Oh, don't look so angry, fire brat. You didn't honestly think I wasn't a ghost, just a memory," taunted Karasu amusement evident in his voice, "I thought that you'd never believe Kurama and I would have him to myself every night."
Hiei slammed his sword home, since it would have so effect against a ghost, "Get the hell out, Karasu, or so help me I will torture you until you beg for death."
"Empty threats, fire brat," spat Karasu sounding rather annoyed.
"Not so empty as you might think," stated Hiei sounding calm, despite the fact he was fighting a huge urge just to tear Karasu limb from limb.
Karasu smirked, "We'll see, we will see. I'll be back, don't think for a second that you can protect him from me, Hiei, I have ways to get to him where you can't defend him no matter what." With that he faded away.
The room was completely silent for a long while as Kurama and Hiei stayed in their respective spots just listening to the storm raging outside. Eventually Kurama broke the silence, but his voice was barely above a whisper when he spoke.
"Thank you, Hiei. If you hadn't showed up…I…I don't know what might have happened." Kurama looked over at his friend trying to see the expression of his face, but Hiei was not facing him. If he was Kurama would have seen an expression that would have startled and confused him. The expression that was on Hiei's face at the moment was concern, concern for the one person he felt more then friendship towards.
Hiei was thinking about what could have happened if he had not come to Kurama's house, he had been tempted to wait out storm to prove that he could. Yusuke had taken notice to the fact that Hiei always stayed at Kurama's when ever it rained, and had made jokes about it during their last mission from Spirit World, so Hiei was going to prove to the young Spirit Detective that he could survive a bit of rain. He had almost just stayed in the forest all night…
"Hiei?" came Kurama's tentative voice. Kurama was worried about Hiei, wondering what the fire demon was thinking about.
Hiei turned to face Kurama his face completely free of emotion, "Are you alright?"
Kurama sighed, glad that Hiei was back to normal again, "Yes, I'm a bit shaken, but alright. He didn't hurt me."
"Good," said Hiei as he walked over to the window he had entered through.
"Your not leaving are you?" asked Kurama sounding slightly disappointed.
Hiei glance back at the Spirit Fox, before shutting the window completely and sitting under it between Kurama's desk and the wall, facing Kurama's bed. Kurama sat watching Hiei for a few moments, he seemed puzzled about Hiei's behavior.
"Hn, go to sleep, fox," said Hiei closing his eyes. He heard Kurama sigh and lay back down, it was only a few moments before Hiei's heard Kurama's breathing even out, showing that he had fallen asleep. Hiei smiled slightly thinking, 'Don't worry, I'll stand guard. I won't let anyone hurt you, I promise.'
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Hiei rolled onto his back thinking about his unsaid promise to Kurama. He was at this point pretty sure he had failed at keeping his promise. He stared up at the ceiling, thinking about the events after that night. Karasu was right, after that night Kurama started to have frequent nightmares and would wake up with scratches across his chest or on his arms. He would never tell anyone about them, but Hiei had been keeping a close watch on him ever since that night.
Then they had gotten that mission, which Karasu used to his advantage and made Kurama freeze during battle. The human doctors had been basically right when they said that everything was in Kurama's head, because Karasu was in his head causing his sickness. Hiei had hoped that Yoko pick up his metal defenses and help out Suichi, but it didn't seem to be working that way. Yoko remained defiant since Karasu didn't scare him the way he did Kurama. So Hiei was left with one choice, he went to Koenma and got him to erase everyone's memories and suppress Yoko, which had angered the Spirit Fox greatly. Hiei wasn't necessarily lying when he had told Botan and Yusuke that Suichi couldn't handle all of Yoko's pent up power.
Hiei sighed again and sat up, "I should go find him, explain everything. That way he can at least be on his guard, and know what to expect." Hiei got up and walked to the door of his apartment and opened it, to find Suichi, who was about to knock, and Yusuke, who was standing behind him.
They all stood there in shocked silence for a bit before Hiei stepped back to let Suichi and Yusuke in. This time Hiei did turn on the lights as he passed the set of switches on the wall. He followed Suichi and Yusuke into his living room, where he had just been before thinking about everything that had happed to lead up to this point. Suichi sat down on the couch and Yusuke sat on the floor, leaning on the couch, Hiei, however, remained standing.
"You came back, " was the only thing that Hiei could think of saying to break the awkward silence. He was still stunned to find Suichi and Yusuke standing outside his door when he had just decided to look for them.
"I did," said Suichi slowly avoiding looking at Hiei, he felt guilty for some reason, like he was being ungrateful for something that Hiei had done for him but he didn't know what that was, "I'm sorry that I reacted like that. I was being a coward, just running away from my problems, I seem to be doing that a lot lately. But it all seemed so complicated, it still is complicated. I feel weak…and…lost." Suichi finished slowly sounding unsure of what he was saying was even the truth.
Hiei shook his head, "You don't need to be sorry. I understand, what it's like to find everything out at once and have people who aren't willing to explain everything that happened, because they're to afraid to or don't know themselves. It can be very frustrating, and I would have done the exact same thing as you if I was put in your situation." Hiei ran his hand through his hair focusing on the window across from him.
Suichi looked up at Hiei, that wasn't what he had expected. He had expected Hiei to be angry or annoyed, but Hiei was being understanding. It was weird, Suichi had only known Hiei for maybe a few weeks now, and he new that they way Hiei was acting was not in his character.
"Hiei, how long have I really know you?" asked Suichi suddenly.
Hiei was taken aback by the sudden question and the sharpness of Suichi's voice, but he knew what he meant. Hiei thought for a moment counting the months, years, "Five or six years." Hiei looked at Suichi as saw his shocked expression, "I know…it's difficult to…"
"No you don't know," Suichi cut him off looking upset, "What could have possessed you to erase six years of my past from my memory? Why would you do something like that?"
"If you knew the circumstances you would understand," said Hiei hoping that Suichi wouldn't just run off again.
"Oh, I would, would I. Okay, then explain. What happened? I want you to tell me everything," stated Suichi sounding completely serious and making sure that Hiei knew that he was not going to leave until he got an explanation, a good one.
Hiei took a deep breath and started to explain.
