Hiei of the Thousand Eyes

Chapter Ten: Revelations

Hiei couldn't look at Chihiro the same way now that he knew her secret. It was neither good nor bad, but fundamentally changed. Hiei had even dismissed her early instead of training because he couldn't wrap his head around all the information that quickly.

"This doesn't leave this room," Chihiro had insisted. "You can't tell anyone."

Hiei had scoffed. "Who am I to tell?"

It was enough to satisfy her, if barely. She showed the same wild fear in her eye as she had speaking with her father, something more wretched and desperate than when she faced demons in the makai, not even know what they were. Chihiro took a deep, shaky breath and turned her head. She cursed under her breath when her third eye caught him in the side of her vision. She couldn't look away even when she tried.

"He said he had my kid."

"Your what?" Hiei physically recoiled from the comment. He thought she was still young for a human. Certainly, younger than the oaf or Kurama's wife. And he had seen the way she looked at Hiko and Kazuyo. It wasn't the look of a mother.

She hunched further onto herself as if trying to hide behind her own crossed arms. "I was fifteen. So, he would be seven now."

Older than Kurama's brat, even.

"Kaisei helped me detox, and then after I gave birth I made Kaisei bring it to a hospital, claiming he found it. If they did a DNA test, Kaisei wouldn't be marked as the father and it would go into the foster system without any paper trail leading back to me. Because I couldn't – " her breath hitched and Hiei realized Chihiro was crying. Hiei had only seen the girl tear up due to excessive pain, and even then, she hadn't cried. "I couldn't let that kid near my father. I didn't want him ever to be able to come looking and find out what his mother – who I am."

"Why didn't you simply get rid of it, if you weren't going to raise it yourself?" Hiei asked, knowing what it was like to be tossed aside, growing up among strangers. He wasn't sure which cursed fate would be worse for the child.

Chihiro whipped her head around and stared, wide eyed, at him. Her lip trembled. "I was going to," she admitted, her hardened shell shattering. "I don't even know who the father is. I wanted it gone but I couldn't. And I was so afraid I had already fucked it up with all the drugs in my system. And I still had it. I still. I still had him."

Chihiro wiped at her face and rolled her shoulders back, building back up her walls of anger as she tried to look away again. "I got pregnant, I got my father arrested so I could have the chance to run, and I had to seek refuge with another gang. Only a few of them even knew about it. I hid away while I was showing. He still found out. But my father didn't know it was a boy. He just said, I have your child. He didn't know. No one knew. Only me and Kaisei." She eyed him with a frown. "And now you."

She wiped at her face again and took a steadying breath. The rain outside was starting to die down. Hiei didn't know what to say.

When she was still human, and no barrier around her memories, Hiei had skimmed enough to learn where she lived. He'd seen perhaps two years worth of her life, disjointed and mundane. It was enough to show that her life wasn't eventful or what she wanted, but he hadn't expected anything so pivotal to have been lurking deeper in her past.

"You're a mother," he said, at a loss for anything else.

"No," she insisted. "I just had a kid."

Hiei tried to remember his life at a mere fifteen. He supposed that was around the time the bandits he had been raised by shunned him from their holding. He was a wild thing, unfit for caring for others and brimming with bloodlust. The women of his kind had children once every hundred years. A human life cycle was much shorter, of course. Hiei tried to think of Kuwabara having a child around the time Hiei first joined Mukuro in the makai. It was a horrifying thought. He had to admit that – as short the years were compared to Hiei's full life span – Kuwabara had grown up enough that being a father wasn't a hardship. Begrudgingly, the proof showed the buffoon was actually quite good at it.

But for a woman, a girl, to carry the weight of an unborn child that young?

"Go," he told her. "You won't be able to concentrate on anything in your current state."

Before Chihiro could respond, Hiei sped away, this new revelation clouding his mind.

Now that the sun was rising, he still wasn't sure his stance on the matter. He supposed he didn't need one. Still, the fact that this bullheaded human – not human, he reminded himself – had her own kin… A son, whom she abandoned. It made something deep inside him twist darkly.

He'd spent the night sitting on the roof, staring out over the swamp. He watched the lost shimmers of souls from an age-old battlefield while he battled the memories of his own childhood. Being abandoned by his people was something Hiei had come to terms with fully during his fight against Mukuro in the first Makai Tournament. His own mother hadn't been the one to toss him off the cliff's edge, however.

Hiei was hard and callous, he did not like most people and hated even more. Yet, when he had demanded the Jagan implant from Shigure, the story he had to share was of how vile he found the behavior of the koorime. Then, when he found them again seeking to destroy them, their cold hearts had shown Hiei that they were already as good as dead. Even for a demon, there was no life without the capability of love.

The worst of human kind had once been a simple tape held in his fingers. Meanwhile, despite her heritage, Yukina was one of the most pure beings he'd ever known. While demons were far superior in strength, it was always an ungentle reminder that both races were capable of good and bad.

As the orange glow of daybreak crested over the mountain's forest, Hiei had settled his confusion.

"Are you going to come in for breakfast, or shall I have Kazuma bring a plate up for you?" Yukina's soft voice called out from below. He had heard her bustling around for the last hour or so, but her voice still shook him from his reverie.

Hiei leapt to the porch steps and trotted silently past his sister. He paused only to look at the small thing harnessed to Yukina's chest. Hiko, the boy. He looked into the babe's eyes for a moment and then continued on his way. "I'll eat later." The night had been long and without sleep. He would need a few hours rest before resuming training with his charge.

Keiji signed off on another document, handing it to his assistant so crisply that the paper made a whipping noise as it sliced through the air. Ryuoku was still rambling his case on the video monitor. The small time mob boss was a failure of an experiment. First he breaks the jewel that would grant him powers, then one of his henchmen steals the energy inside, and then he lost the Eye of Solomon all together.

What a waste of the inheritance his youngest brother had left him.

"It's his daughter," Ryuoku continued, "so he wants in."

"Do you know why I sold you that artifact, Ryuoku?" Keiji asked, not looking up from his business papers. He continued before the fool could speak up. "You're a pawn. A pawn with influence among the streets. A pawn that came with many more pawns." Keiji set his pen down and weaved his fingers together before finally giving Ryuoku his full attention. "If your mistake brings me a whole second clan of yakuza, then by all means."

Keiji found that yakuza liked to think they were the smartest in the room. The most powerful, even knowing they answered to others. Ryuoku and this Naya of the Blue Fins were both small time bosses, compared to Keiji's own seat. Even when told straight to their face that they were nothing but pawns, they had a resilience, a pride that made then even easier to manipulate. It was humorous to watch Ryuoku's face contort with suppressed rage. He knew he had messed up, he knew he needed help, and yet here he was, offended that he was being looked down upon.

"Now, in regards to this Naya Chihiro," Keiji contemplated all the information Ryuoku had given him. A stray agent had gained the power of the Eye. They had pinpointed her location to a mountain temple that Keiji knew was under protection. It would be a death sentence to chase her there. But this was not a race. Keiji had inherited more than his brother's money and collection of cursed and magicked artifacts. More than anyone, perhaps even more than Sakyo, Keiji knew how to play the long game. "This is what we're going to do."

At four years old, Ittoku was a spritely boy. While he was shy around strangers, Ittoku was still curious and adventurous, full of life and love and laughter. Kurama remembered the children he had been told to play with. They were mysterious creatures back then, ones Kurama hadn't been interested in trying to understand. Now he was so filled with thousands of emotions watching as his son dragged him into a roaring game of cops and robbers. Pride. Joy. Amazement. Wonder.

Being a father had changed Kurama. More than anything else, any choice he made, any battle he fought, and love he'd given, it was having Ittoku in his life that made Kurama whole again. Something settled in him as he watched his son live so freely. As Ittoku ducked around their small back yard, Kurama wondered what it said that of all children it was his son that played make-believe as a thief evading capture.

There came a ring of their doorbell and Kurama scooped his son up, declaring the boy his prisoner and his only penance was a thousand hours of tickling! Ittoku screeched with a fearful delight and tried to wriggle away. Kurama let him go after sniffing out who was at the door. A few moments later Shizuru led Keiko into the backyard and Ittoku's rambunctiousness settled into something quieter, although he was still hyped up from playing.

Keiko placed one hand delicately over her chest. "Oh, he's grown so much." She smiled at Ittoku sweetly, giving the boy a small wave, which Ittoku shyly returned. "Sorry to intrude," Keiko said, smiling at Kurama.

"Not at all," he gave her a light hug. "I hadn't realized you were back from your honeymoon."

Kekio's smile tightened as she scratched her cheek in a nervous habit. "Ah, yes. Just got back. I," she took in a deep breath, her doe like brown eyes straining against her deep emotions. "I haven't heard back from Yusuke. I know he saw the tape. I had hoped he would call."

It was clear to both Kurama and Shizuru that Keiko was still carrying her guilt of leaving Yusuke behind. She had wanted, for so long, to get the chance to talk to him. To explain herself in person so they could, perhaps, reconcile as they grew their separate ways.

"I'm afraid Yusuke didn't stay in the ningenkai for any length of time after seeing the video," Kurama told her. "He's out training for the next tournament. He told me he is taking it seriously this go around, but I believe he's using the training as an outlet for his emotions."

Keiko's lips thinned, and she nodded curtly.

"Come on," Shizuru said, leading Keiko back inside. "Let's get you some tea and you can tell me all about your honeymoon."

"I'll join you in a bit," he told them, turning his attention back on Ittoku. Kurama was able to still keep an ear on the conversation as he tried to tire the boy out before calling for bath time.

Keiko and her new husband were going to pack up her old apartment and move in together in Tokyo. It was a bit of a trek from Mushiyori, but not impossibly so. Sousuke was good for her, and Kurama was happy to hear the love in her voice despite the guilt and worry about Yusuke clouding her. In their own ways, they would always love each other, but at least one of them was truly moving on.

Yusuke stumbled out of the waterfall and breathed in the musty night air. The stench of decay was so powerful in the makai, he'd forgotten what his home town smelled like. There was something about the air here that made him feel stronger, like the bloodlust of other demons could be carried by the wind and expanded in his lungs. Never before had he given over so completely to his demon side. But, really, what was holding him back anymore?

The distant thought of Keiko stung the corners of his mind and he pushed it away. She was his childhood friend, his first love, and she would be nothing more. He'd lost his chance when his heart stopped for good, when he'd been too weak to defeat Sensui on his own.

The waterfall created a rippling reflection, distorted and disconnected. He could hardly recognize himself anymore. His hair hadn't grown out like a god dammed chia pet, but the markings of the mazoku didn't seem like cereal-box prize temporary tattoos anymore. They didn't seem like tattoos at all.

The first time Yusuke had seen the strange markings on his skin, they were like a foreign entity had crept its way into his body. Someone had painted him from the inside. The more he used his demonic powers, the more he accepted that this is who he was, the less Yusuke could distinguish between it and other. He trailed his fingers along one of the marks that twisted around his forearm. It would have looked like a tan or a birth mark, if it weren't for how crisp the edges were.

There was no going back now. Whether he liked it or not, Yusuke was a demon. While some demons were happy to find a new life for themselves among the humans of the ningenkai, Yusuke couldn't make a home in a world where everyone he knew would age while he remained the same. He was going to learn what it meant to be a demon, since he no longer had a home with his childhood sweetheart who had grown up without him.

Yusuke called for Hokushin. He was ready to spar.

A/N: PLEASE READ, IMPORTANT READER INFORMATION

Firstly, I adjusted the timeline a little bit. I knew something was wrong and I finally figured out where I miscalculated, so if you go back some of the ages etc have been changed.

Lately I have found myself very unhappy with my writing of this story. I've been trying to push out chapters because I have so many thoughts and ideas but every time I look at what I have written it feels sloppy and rushed and disingenuous. I decided to publish this chapter regardless because I wanted to share the story, despite my dissatisfaction with the writing.

I'm not abandoning this work, but I am putting it on the back burner for a bit. To help inspire me and get me back into the writing mindset, I've decided to rework my old Hiei fanfiction In the Wake of What Follows.

This rewrite will included some new content and a better ending because I've always been upset with how I half-assed and gave up on it. You can follow the republishing of it on my AO3 account {same username}. Once it's done, I'll replace the chapters on FFN for you all.

Once I'm done rewriting In the Wake of What Follows I'm going to rework the current chapters of Hiei of the Thousand Eyes so that I can feel happy about what I'm giving you before continuing the story. I hope you all understand. This isn't something I had ever done before. I normally just try to keep writing and crank it out even when I'm frustrated, but I need to do this for me so I don't end up hating what I'm writing before I even got halfway into it.

Thank you for your patience with me and for your viewership of my fiction.

~A