We had lost the city. Of course, that didn't matter anymore. Due to politics, Koenma demanded that Botan kept Keiko safe. Though I'm sure Botan would have wanted Keiko to be safe as well, it definitely sounded a lot worse to hear Koenma (whoever that is) tell Botan that she needed to be kept safe so Yusuke would continue to follow orders.
Now we were running through Keiko's school, Botan practically dragging Keiko along as I followed, walloping anyone that got too close. I had accidentally slammed my door brace too hard over some man that was about to stab Keiko with scissors. The screws snapped, breaking the metal pole. Our only weapon was Botan's bat, and I wasn't sure how much more it could take
It really didn't help that Shuichi had been calling me for nearly thirty minutes. Even Hiei had shouted my name trying to get my attention. Growling, I finally pulled the crystal from under my shirt.
"This better be important!" I yelled, slamming my bat into another man's face. One eye was focused on the Human World while my other eye allowed me to see what Shuichi was seeing. In turn, Shuichi could see what I was seeing as well. "Make it fast! As you can see, I'm a bit busy!"
"The Makai are after Keiko already?!" Shuichi asked alarmed at the speed.
"We can handle it, but I don't know how many are going to die from it'" I answered, slamming the bat into a woman this time. "We need a door brace, by the way. I broke it."
"Focus, Pippa," Shuichi scolded. "How long can you hold them off?"
"That's a great question that I don't want to know the answer to," I replied smartly as I jumped over the girl's, slamming my foot into an ambusher's face. "I've got this side of reality covered, Shuichi. I just don't want to...you know..."
My fear kicked into over drive as we came to a sudden dead end. "Shuichi, I need both eyes."
As soon as I regained my sight, my bat slammed through three people, definitely breaking something in all of them.
"Pippa, you can't take all of them on," Keiko cried out.
"Botan, break the window! We're going to jump!" I ordered.
"We're three floors up! We won't survive the fall!" Keiko argued.
"Did I stutter? I know what I'm doing!"
I continued slamming my bat into people that got too close, waiting for the glass to shatter. It would be close, but I was certain I would be able to pull it off.
The moment the glass broke, I spun around, rushing at Keiko, grabbing her by her waist and jumping out the window as the ivy on my wrist shot to the metal gate on the roof of the ceiling. Keiko must have grabbed Botan, or I hoped she had. The infected had rushed after us, falling out the window to their possible deaths as we hung just a foot over the window.
With ease, I managed to lower us to where all of us could climb back into the school. We were safe for the moment. After taking a deep breath, I looked at the two girls who were trying to catch their breaths. "Is there a way to barricade this hall?"
"We can try," Keiko said as Botan hugged me.
"You're absolutely brilliant!" Botan cheered.
"We can celebrate later," I told her as I ran down the hall. "Shuichi? What's taking so long?!"
"We have monsters preventing us from getting to Yusuke. They have more cultivated humans than we believed," Shuichi told me.
"Fantastic," I sighed as I quickly stole a chair from a classroom and threw it down the stairs, taking out three infected. "I don't know how much time we've got." I gave a shaky sigh, "I-I don't know if I'll make it."
"Don't do anything reckless," Shuichi said desperately. "You need to save your strength."
"I'm doing the best I can with what I've got," I said as I managed to kick one of the infected down the stairs and shut the doors. I managed to slide the baseball bat between the handles, temporarily barring it closed.
Panting, I fell to the ground, sitting on the floor and watching the doors get banged against. Finally, a chance to catch our breaths. Botan and Keiko were both breathing heavy as well, Keiko pale from fright.
"Pippa, look out!" Keiko and Botan screamed.
I raised my arm, taking the full force of a broomstick getting slammed onto my arm. I did my best to ignore the pain as my arm broke under the force. Since the broomstick broke as well, I was hoping the break would be clean.
With a pained huff, I managed to get to my feet and get to Keiko before scissors could injure her. The heavy blow sent the scissors into my shoulder, forcing me to the ground. I was completely defenseless. With my right arm broken and my left being held down by scissors, I knew things had become desperate.
Before I had even registered what happened, I realized I was pinned against a window, hiding from the infected. I nearly jumped when I heard poles banging against a locker, the infected cursing at laughing at Keiko.
I watched as Keiko and Botan attacked, but it did not go according to plan. When I finally managed to get to Keiko's side, she was cradling Botan who had been hit and fell unconscious. I managed to kick Keiko to the wall, guarding her as the infected drew closer.
All I had to do was focus.
Ten...
Imagine the sky. Turn it silver and paint it with blood. Watch as ashes rain from the skies, covering the land like a blizzard.
Nine...
Imagine the trees. There are no trees, except a few that had been singed black and were rotting away.
Eight...
Imagine the land. What land? Perhaps beneath the bones of old, there was a swamp of some sort.
Seven...
Imagine the wind. There was no wind in this barren wasteland I was creating. In fact, it was eerie, even by my standards how still this place was.
Six...
Imagine the temperature. It was uncomfortably hot. Not unbearable, but just hot enough to make you wish for the breeze that would never come.
Five...
Imagine the creatures. There are none. Nothing could survive here.
Four...
Imagine the smell. There's fire in the air, though it can't be seen. The gut retching smell of burning hair and boiling flesh mixed with stale blood controlled the stagnant air. The only refreshing smell there was the scent of the molded bog beneath the bones.
Three...
Imagine who's there. All of these people that want to kill Keiko. Light shades with similar shapes to the people that surrounded us began to appear and slowly grow darker as they began to form.
Two...
Create the world.
One...
Put them in it.
Ze...
Before all the people managed to fall victim to my attack, they fell unconscious. It didn't take long for me to join them.
I woke up feeling sore and bruised. What surprised me was the lack of cast on my broken arm and the fact I could move my left arm. Also, I was home, not in the hospital. I was certain I should have been in the hospital.
I nearly jumped out the window when my door was practically kicked open, Keiko rushing in to hug me. Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Shuichi were there as well, all standing in the doorway until Botan pushed by to hug me as well.
"How are the heroes?" I asked with a smile, rolling my shoulder a bit to make sure it was still functioning.
"Better now," Yusuke said with a relieved smile. "You had us worried. Keiko and Botan told us how you helped them. I owe you one."
I gave a smile as I shook my head, "Theres nothing to thank me for. I'm a friend, and that's just what I do."
"Yes, tearing apart a junior high school does seem like something you would do," Shuichi teased, earning a glare from me.
"So, no one died, right?" I asked, remembering the people that fell out the window and that probably almost died from when I hit them with a baseball bat.
"Most of them ended up in the hospital, but no one died," Botan said with a wink. "Next time, let's not throw anyone out the window."
"I would never do such a thing," I frowned at the accusation. "They ran out that window on their own accord."
"Or throwing chairs." Keiko just had to bring up other things.
After a few more minutes, they left, leaving Shuichi with me. His kind hearted smile had disappeared with a worried frown. I couldn't look at him. He knew what was going to happen if I had managed to finish creating that pocket dimension.
"Are you hungry?" Shuichi asked.
I looked up at him, surprised to see him smiling. "No twenty questions?"
"No, you deserve to rest. Come, let's get something to eat. Hiei's getting impatient."
I managed to stifle a groan when I saw the small demon standing in the hall. He was living with us now. I followed my brother to the kitchen, roughly sitting down at the table and habitually pulling my crystal ball to me. It was immediately taken from me, a hard look coming from Shuichi as he placed it where I couldn't reach.
"You almost died," he explained. "Had you finished that last attack, you would have. It seems everyone had to tap into their Life Energy to survive." He sighed when he noticed how that flew right over my head, "You don't have all of your Spirit Energy back, and you shouldn't play with the crystal ball until you do."
After a few moments, Shuichi dropped a bowl of rice in front of me, smiling as he sat by me with his own bowl of rice, though his was topped with chicken of some kind. "I'm treating it like I would when you accidentally teleport us places. Let's get your body stable before you eat something heavy."
I sighed as I poked at it, "That's no fun. Anyway, tell me about the castle. I didn't get to see what happened after you fought the cat in the lava room."
"Kuwabara had a hard time taking on Byakko," Shuichi admitted. "After our encounter with Byakko, we managed to find the path we had taken before in the dream. That, of course, led us to Seiryu, who Hiei took care of. Of course, Yusuke took on Suzaki, and barely made it out alive. Kuwabara gave him some of his own energy and it nearly killed them both. Much like in the dream, he had a screen showing what was happening here. You made a lot of mistakes, but you survived, and that's what matters."
"Barely," Hiei commented, giving me a look. "If you're going to be a part of this life, you need to learn how to fight."
I was ready to argue, but I knew he was right. Even with my memory erased, I would need to know how to fight. Ignorance isn't bliss.
"Would you like to teach her, Hiei?" Shuichi suggested.
Hiei smirked, his red eyes glittering with mischief. It made me frown. Not only did I have to live with the demon that almost killed my brother, but now I had to fight him? There was no way.
"He will be benefitting from the training as well," Shuichi continued, smiling at the awkward position I had been put in. "Your abilities will strengthen his Jagan Eye."
"Isn't that the opposite of benefitting?" I asked, earning a glare from Hiei. "We don't want him to get stronger so he can kill the entire human race, right?"
I frowned at his smile. "Hiei and I have clean records in Spirit World, but Hiei is on parole, so to speak. They will not hesitate to arrest him."
My attention moved to Hiei. I didn't like him and his arrogant sass, but I didn't want him arrested again. There wasn't a right word for it, but he almost seemed like a caged animal that was waiting patiently to be freed.
"Hiei, what's so bad about the human race?" I asked curiously.
"You're a weak, pathetic species with no real purpose. Nothing good can come from a human. In a kill or be killed scenario, every human in existence would die by the hands of a demon. If you can't fight, you can't survive."
His rant continued, and I continued to listen. It almost sounded personal, like a human had done something to him. It wasn't my place to ask, so I kept my questions to myself until he finished.
"I see," I said when he finished.
There was nothing stranger than his expression. He was shocked. Maybe Shuichi had had a few too many arguments with him over the matter, but I wasn't ready for that much of a Battle. My mind was starting to shut down on its own.
After a couple of seconds the odd haze was gone, and I was focusing again on Hiei who was staring back at me. I don't know what reminded me, but I immediately got up to look for Shuichi.
"Hey, Eiko had her kid," I said as I walked into his room.
Shuichi looked at me for a moment, assessing my words carefully, "What happened?"
"Mr. Kokki is taking the kids somewhere. She asked me to rescue them."
He sat in quiet thoughtfulness, looking at the ceiling for a moment, "When you're better, see if you can find the children. He looked at me when I swallowed, "And be ready for the worst. With Kisuki involved, anything is possible."
I nodded, frowning at the terrible possibilities that waited for me to find. Hopefully, they weren't suffering. Did his wife know? Was she even alive? Questions for another time. I looked over my shoulder to the junk room, "So, is Hiei sleeping in the junk room?"
"Yes, actually. Mother agreed to my suggestion of a guest bedroom."
"What about his clothes? We can't just sneak all of that into the wash." My hair stood on the back of my neck under his sheepish, begging smile. "What did you do?"
He rubbed the back of his neck, unable to look at me, though he still smiled. "You have always wanted to have your goth phase, right?"
My jaw dropped, "Shuichi, please tell me you didn't."
He raised his hands, with an awkward laugh, "I haven't. I was going to let you pick everything."
With a huff, I walked out of his room, stepping by Hiei and going to my room. After dramatically closing the door, I fell onto my bed and screamed into my pillow. This was not my day.
I turned my head when the door opened, revealing Hiei standing with his arms crossed over his chest, giving me a suspicious, but curious look. I sat up, rubbing the back of my head with a yawn, "What's up?"
"Your ability, that attack. What does it do?"
"I have to create a world, like a pocket dimension, and I can pull people in, whoever I want. Then, I can destroy it and anything in it. But, I can get killed in it, as well."
He narrowed his eyes, "Another thing I hate about humans. You're so willing to throw your life away at any cause for anyone. It's idiotic."
I gave him a smile, "That really depends on the person, Hiei. We have police, firemen, military whose job is to lay down their lives to protect others. Then, you have the selfless people, who truly want to save someone else. Then you have those that just want to die, and if they do it while saving someone, that's okay."
"I guess you think you did a selfless act trying to die while saving that human?"
I shrugged, "Who's to say? I wouldn't die to save my mother, but I easily gave it up to save Shuichi. I was probably just trying to save myself. There was only so much more I could take."
I was surprised when he closed the door, leaving me to ponder his words. In all honesty, I hadn't given it much thought. What was I doing? In the end, I was just trying to save myself. It felt like I had done more, though. My selfish act didn't feel so selfish. Maybe I was ready to give up my life for Keiko's safety.
The door opened again, Shuichi peeking in, "Are you ready for supper?"
"I can be," I replied as I rolled out of bed and stumbled out the door.
It was still Shuichi, Hiei, and me. Mother had yet to return home. I wasn't allowed to play with my crystal ball, but that didn't stop a conversation about it from coming up.
"Pippa, how badly do you want to save the children?" Shuichi asked curiously.
"It's on my to-do list, but it's not a priority. Why?"
"You may need to find Mr. Kokki's house so you can find his dreams. You may be able to find your answer there."
I looked from Shuichi to Hiei then Shuichi, "That means..."
He gave a solemn nod, "Are you willing to do that?"
I ran my fingers through my hair, trying to not panic over the thought of being alone in that man's office.
For the children.
They weren't my children, so why should I care?
Because they don't deserve to be defiled.
I didn't realize I was crying until Shuichi wiped a tear away, "Well?"
"I'll need birth control," I said, cursing myself for agreeing. I couldn't turn back. I needed to stick with this.
"Very well," Shuichi sighed. "It will be like last time. I hope you remember what that felt like."
"Which part? When I freely gave myself to Hiei?" I asked as my face turned crimson.
Kurama chuckled at the silent demon's annoyed blush. "Yes, but I will have the cure readily available after you say everything."
"Why can't I get the cure first then tell everything?" I asked.
"The ren'ai weed makes you desperate. You'll be more willing to answer as honestly as possible and more accurately. It's unfortunate, but that is what will have to happen."
Hiei sighed, "Just make sure you make enough. The last thing we need is little demon hybrids running around."
"Wait, what?" I asked quickly as Hiei stood and left the table.
"Mixing a birth control agent with ren'ai weed, then having sex with a demon is guaranteed pregnancy. The best way to describe it is Hiei is reaching puberty."
"And since I'll be under the effects of the ren'ai weed, he'll be more likely to..."
Shuichi nodded' trying to hide a smile, "But, I have something for Hiei to take to keep him from doing anything."
"This isn't funny, Shuichi," I growled.
He chuckled, "It is a little funny."
I glared but didn't push it anymore. My eyes moved to my brother who had become somber as well, his emerald gaze sad as he looked me over. "You don't have to do this, Pippa."
I ran my fingers through my hair, "I know. I don't know why I'm even doing it."
He smiled softly, "That's human nature, to protect the weak, especially children. I believe the trait is stronger in women."
"Maternal instinct," I sighed as I grabbed the crystal ball and pulled it to me. "Do you think it will be worth it? Will they even be alive when I look for them?"
"You're the fortune teller," Shuichi said with a smile. "You tell me."
My eyes went to the crystal ball. I don't know what I expected to see, but it wasn't what I saw. There was a giant mansion in the middle of the forest. I could figure anything else out. No markings, no sense of direction. It was just a mansion, and there was something very dark inside. It seemed even Shuichi could feel how sinister the place was.
"What is it?"
"A mansion in the middle of a forest. I can't get any closer as I am."
"You won't be getting any closer. We can feel their presence now. That may be where they are." Shuichi sighed.
"It's hard to tell since something is deliberately keeping me away. I should be able to go in a dream, though," I mumbled. When I saw Shuichi's look I cleared my throats and added, "With you and Hiei coming with me."
He sighed as he shook his head, "We'll go in two days. That will give us time to prepare and watch should any changes come."
"What type of changes?" I asked.
"Assume the children are there. Should the children be moved, the vision will change. Until then, we need to plan our next steps."
