'His brother? This was Shachi's brother?' Kurama's breathing was slowing and his body was stiffening in the cold. He was feeling sluggish as his body was slowing down. 'Well isn't that wonderful news,' he thought. The drugs were still burning his body despite him literally freezing and now Yas was bending over him and placing his hands around his neck. Slowly every so slowly, he could feel the hands tighten around his neck. He could no longer see; his vision had gone a few moments ago with lack of oxygen. Soon he would black out. He reached up and grabbed one of Yas' arms trying to cut a main artery with his claw. It was then that he suddenly felt the small youki of lot spike and the small boy tackled the general.
"Get off Lord Kurama!" Lot yelled out as he bit hard into the generals arm.
The general grabbed him by the shoulder screaming as he threw him colliding with Kurama. "You damned brat! Don't interfere. This is revenge and if you get in my way I'll kill you too!"
He started walking back over towards Lot and Kurama now and Kurama could feel the boy shaking almost as much as him, but he wasn't sure if it was out of fear or the cold. Suddenly Lot bent down and whispered "please my Lord, use this and my youki, please." A seed. There was a seed in his hand, oh the clever boy.
Giving the boys hand the smallest of squeezes for assurance he waited.
"You're done now you pompous theif." Yas smacked Lot out of the way, "I'll deal with you next. Can't have any witnesses" he placed his hands back on Kurama's neck and leaned his face in close feeling Kurama's breathing getting shallower.
It was then, as Yas leaned down close enough Kurama commanded the seed to sprout with the youki that Lot had put into the seed. It wasn't much or done well but it was enough. It sprouted. It grew straight as an arrow right through Yas' heart and then curved back twisting through his brain.
Lot smiled in relief but with Yas' last breath he was determined to take kurama with him. The giant demon fell on top of Kurama and Yas smiled as Kurama stopped struggling. And Yas was gone. There was no way the boy could move him.
Kurama was having trouble breathing and the demon was like a giant boulder of ice and was freezing him. The boy rushed over and was pushing as hard as he could and crying.
Suddenly he heard the door crash against the wall and the weight on his chest was gone. Kurama blacked out after feeling the weight being removed, whatever came next he would deal with when this substance was out of his body.
Hiei had burst into the room breaking the door down and immediately punching Yas off of Kurama.
Yomi rushed over to and listened for his heart. He was freezing. Quickly he wrapped Kurama tightly in his outer robe, rubbing his arms and trying to shake him back awake. His breathing was very shallow but he could feel it in the cold air. As he bent his head closer to listen to Kurama's heart he was roughly pushed to the side and completely away as Hiei was now holding Kurama after having punched the already dead Yas to a pulp and burning his body. Hiei dashed out of the freezing room with Kurama, "To the left!" Yomi shouted out so Hiei would have somewhere to put Kurama with access to the youki.
Yomi turned to the boy whose heart was racing and picked him up. There was blood in the room that was not Kurama's and not the generals. "Come with me. I'll get you treated and you can tell us what is happening"
Hiei turned into a room that his fox probably would have enjoyed under any other circumstance. His breathing was shallow and he was cold. He quickly released his youki heating up the room like a tropical rainforest. Kurama was beginning to come around and moaned in Hiei's arms as he laid the fox on the bed. "Kurama. Can you hear me?"
Kurama struggled to come back out of the darkness. His lungs hurt and his body was still on fire and frozen. His head throbbed and he felt dizzy. His whole body throbbed, if he moved he felt like he was cracking. Now he could smell Hiei and it felt like his Youki. There were hands on him and he pushed them away, "No!" he tired yelling but came out as a whisper. "Enough of your tricks." He whimpered.
Yomi had walked into the room bringing a few more blankets and some water as well as some disinfectant and the boy lot. Kurama looked to have a nasty cut along his jaw; it looked painful. As Kurama spoke Yomi could feel the hate filled gaze turn on him from Hiei.
"The medicine the doctor gave him is still making him see things" Lot mumbled from in Yomi's arms.
Hieis head whipped around to the boy. "What do you know." He tried to be gentle with the young boy as it seemed like he had been helping Kurama when he found them with the Jagan.
He stuttered with the two lords attention now on him "The doctor gave Lord Kurama medicine that didn't make him better. When I informed the doctor of my Lords worsening condition he yelled at me that's what it is supposed to do." Lot looked sad.
Yomi cut in, "the doctor was captured and brought in a short while ago for,... interigation." He didn't want to scare the boy into silence with some of the more colorful vocabulary he felt like using, "Something wasn't right, I brought the doctor in to treat some minor cuts and clean Kurama up."
Lot piped up proudly, "I did that!" Yomi sat Lot on the couch and wrapped a blanket around the boy and took several over to Kurama as Hiei wrapped him carefully.
Yomi continued, "when I came back in from addressing the issue of the guards who brought Kurama in with the cuts and scraps, he had developed a fever and it has gotten worse progressivly" he leaned down next to the boy and said softly "what else did you see?"
"Well, the doctor recieved a big envelop of money before we came here." He paused and Hiei gave him and assured look and a 'go on' head tilt. "and when my Lord Yomi went to give my Lord Kurama the fever medicine from the nice doctor it seemed to mix funny and his heart rate picked up more."
"And then what child?" Hiei urged and Yomi sent a glare his way warning not to scare their best information source.
"What happened when I left the guard with you? " Yomi asked.
"Then that nasty guard came in being rude and disrespectful. Once my Lord Yomi left he said it was finally time and he was going to get his revenge"
Hiei nodded, "We need to get everything out of his system. Thank you child." If Kurama were awake he would have been very proud of both Yomi and Hiei for being so good with the boy. Hiei decided that he didn't mind kids too much if they were like this one. He turned his attention back to Kurama.
Kurama was shivering still and his lips were blue. Hiei brushed his fingers along Kurama's face eliciting a defensive grow. No doubt had Kurama been able to, plants would be swarming everyone at the moment. Whatever was in Kurama's system was messing with his reality of who was who and what.
"Go now Yomi. Get me a carriage and fast demons to pull it. We dont know who else was in on this plot and you seem not to know whom of your people you can trust. If it is not ready in five minutes so help me." He flared his youki. Yomi set what he was carrying down and turned to leave as Mukuro walked in.
"No need. Our guards are bringing your carriage around now. We came prepared unlike some people." She huffed at Yomi and shoed him out of the room.
Lot shrunk back into the corner of the room, he had seen all the lords of the kingdoms, except one, in a matter of hours.
Hiei turned back towards Kurama, "Kurama koi, this isn't a trick, it really is me. I'm here with you, everything is okay." He leaned down and embraced Kurama who struggled against him and moaned loudly into his ear. It was then that Hiei noticed the fox's still shallow breathing and growled.
"Just leave or kill me already creature! I only want Hiei!" Kurama pushed as hard as he could. Angry that Yomi or Yas or whoever this was would go so far as to replicate Hiei's heat and scent.
Hiei frowned and opened their mental link closing his eyes, 'Kurama! Listen to me! I am here. This is your mate. I am holding you in my arms. This isn't a trick. You are safe now.' Hiei went deeper into their link as Kurama didn't respond. 'Fox?' he called. 'Kurama where are you?'
'Here,' a soft voice spoke, 'I'm right here' and there sat Kurama in a small nest of plants shivering and covered in frost.
Hiei brought his Youki into the small nest, 'You're safe now Kurama, you are really in my arms. Let me take care of you.' He tried to give Kurama some of his youki but it was blocked and he raised an eyebrow.
'There is a ward in the room.' Kurama said before he moved over allowing Hiei access to him.
Hiei opened his eyes and looked down at Kurama with mixed emotions, happy that he had calmed down slightly, worried that the cold had permeated so far into the fox's sanctum, and angry at Yomi for having wards that effect Kurama in his castle or believing that their mating wasn't good enough for Kurama. He reached his arm out focusing his heat on where Kurama had shown him on the wall. Kurama's Youki spiked then and the plants reacted trying to spear mukuro and Lot.
Mukuro grabbed the boy at the last second and kept him near her as she blasted the plants away from then. Lot bowed and mumbled in shock, "thank you my Lord Mukuro"
At least the plants were not attacking Hiei, he leaned down "Koi, I need you to calm your youki before we leave to go back home. You are frightening that child that was with you and will attract too many low level demons if we leave like this."
With access to his youki now, the natural poisons in his body from the plant toxins began killing off the substance that the doctor had given him. He felt his mind clearing but God it was cold. "Kurama?" Hiei asked him as the plants in the room started to snake their way over to their master.
He groaned as he slowly rolled over and deeper into the blankets snuggling in closer to Hiei, "I'm fine. Just turn the heat up. My hair is frozen." He joked slightly to relieve some of Hiei's tension.
A brief smile before he slowly began sending heat into Kurama's body. He didn't want to over do it. "You are not fine. We're going to go home." He looked over to Mukuro who left the room to go check on the carriage and Yomi walked back in.
"I see you have awakened." He sat across from them.
Kurama mumbled something unintelligible at first that sounded like cursing then poked his head out of the blanket. "Before you decide to host a 'simple kidnapping' make sure you don't have any mutiny in your damn ranks." Kurama was furious. "And as your hier and top advisor you are suppose to trust my judgement you damn goat." He could feel Hiei smirking as he continued to warm up. His head still throbbed and he wanted to puke but at least that he could deal with.
Yomi lowered his head. "I can say nothing. It indeed was my fault for trusting the doctor and not realizing that the general held a grudge."
Kurama ignored him, "I'll be taking some leave for a while until you sort through his mutiny and you are to personally preform a complete personnel review while I am gone since you can always tell when someone is lying." He said with sarcasm. "And when I get back I will be reevaluating everyone that you did not kill to make double sure of the ranks seeing as you missed the first ones."
Yomi nodded and scoffed, "I am not your subordinate in the thieving business anymore Kurama. You can't just order me to do something, I may agree with what you say but" Kurama growled and Yomi sighed waving a hand off. "Fine, I was going to do it anyway."
"As for the matter of you questioning my matting, you are many a century too late to decide if you approve or not, it was done prior to you making me your heir so you have no say in it no matter how much of a public affair it is now in regards to the 3 kingdoms." Kurama closed his eyes and sighed he was going to have a mess to clean up in all three worlds. In Reiki he would have to make sure Hiei and himself weren't seen as a threat and hunted, in Makai he would have to take care of the politics of the merging and integration of two kingdoms, and then in the ningekai he would have to try and finish his college and explain his demon status now. Who knows if the college would still except him. Do colleges accept demons as students?
Kurama looked over towards Lot as all these thoughts ran through his head. "Is someone not going to treat Lot?" He sighed again and sat up swatting Hiei's hands away, "I'm fine, it's wearing off with my youki working now. We're in the Makai there are so many plants feeding me right now." Kurama silenced Hiei before he could say anything with a small kiss. And Hiei knew not to mess with an angry fox. "Child, Lot, come here and sit next to me."
Lot looked from one Lord to the next. Not yet moving. "You heard your Lord," Yomi said and he could suddenly feel a vine around his ankle and shut up.
"I am going to look after your injuries," he smiled sweetly patting the spot on the other side of him.
Lot still didn't move, "oh my Lord Kurama, it's all right. These are nothing. please do not trouble yourself. "
Kurama shook his head. "It is no trouble. Please come over here. You helped me quite a bit back there. I insist." Lot walked over and bowed in front of him and Kurama laughed and picked the child up sitting him down next to him. "You do not need to be so formal. You are a child and I owe you my life." He said as he pulled a small seed out of Hiei's hair.
Hiei clapped his hand on the back of his head. "When did you put those there?! Keep them in your own hair!" He said annoyed.
Kurama was feeling much better now and it seemed all of his youki had recovered from the incident at the tournament and was incinerating the poison. He smiled at Hiei's reaction. He had wondered how long he could get away with keeping seeds in Hiei's hair. "I keep them there because everyone thinks to take mine when they are disarming me." He glared at Yomi. "However you are always there and no one thinks to look there for my weapons."
The small seed grew into a leaf that oozed. And he rubbed it on the cuts and bruises gently and the young boy winced. Hiei grinned toothy. "It hurts now but give it 5 minutes." Lot nodded.
It was then that hiei noticed the cut on Kurama chin was healing over, and it was none too clean. "Hey, give me some of that" he said after already taking the leaf from Kurama.
"What are you doing Hiei? Give it back I was almost done.
"Just a second ok? Now hold still." He held Kuramas neck lightly and tilted his chin up to expose the cut before lathering the ooze on the cut. Kurama winced ever so slightly. "Baby. You do this to me all the time."
Kurama snatched the leaf back and was finishing up Lot's injuries. "Yes, well i didn't complain now did I?" He rubbed the last cut on Lot's cheek and smiled. "There we go. All done."
It was then that Muruko walked back in. "Time to go, carriage is around the side." She smirked seeing yomi look like a beaten child sitting in the chair. Kurama must have given him a tongue lashing.
Hiei stood up wanting to leave as soon as possible. "Perfect, we're leaving now" He offered his hand to Kurama who stood up slowly, his stomach still protesting slightly.
Mukuro walked out the door to the waiting carriage. Hiei began to walk to but didn't get far as Kurama held his hand but did not move. 'Kurama?' He looked back.
Kurama was looking at Lot. 'Hiei, he can't stay here. He was used as a pawn '
Hiei looked at the small demon child. He wasnt exceptionally strong. He was clever enough to help Kurama and he did owe him for saving his mate. 'What would you have me do? ' Kurama just smiled at Hiei before turning back to Lot and holding out his hand.
"Lot, would you like to accompany us? "
