thought, flashback, or dream
emphasized word
/telepathy/
"speaking"
Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or it's characters.
Chapter 10
It rose from the ground like hands of the dead emerging from a grave. Gnarled trunks, twice the height of a telephone pole and and slightly thicker, grew up at a steady rate that, if connected, would be the five points of a star.
Mia walked out into the very center and placed a hand on the ground. A control panel, very high-tech looking, shot up and she began pushing buttons. A sixth pole came out from under her feet and lifted her up. Thin, twisting boards began to move from one pole to another, never truly floating. A board would sink and disappear into a pole one time but then reappear on the other side another. The girl moved her way to the ground again and walked up to the stunned group.
"Well...nice to see you finished it," Edeth commented.
"This," Mia stated, pointing to the machine behind her, "Has no name. I never bothered and I find it stupid to name something I have no intention of selling. It and I will help you train for fighting Changelings."
"And how are we gonna do that?" Yuskue questioned, crossing his arms.
"You'll try to catch me on it."
"But it's completely unpredictable." He gave her a sly look. "Except to you probably."
"Actually, no. I originally used it to train myself, so I programmed it to be random to the highest degree. The idea is not to trust something to be there until you're sure it's stable."
"I don't see how catching you on it will help."
"I'm not as fast as Hiei, but I'm close enough and people have a hard time seeing my method for some reason. You all may be different but I doubt it."
Yuskue sighed, realizing he wasn't going to get out of this. "So what are the rules?"
"Catch me within twenty minutes with any weapons or attack method you'd like without falling."
"Why shouldn't we fall?"
In a silent reply, Mia placed a hand against her creation once more and large metal spikes formed under it with a hissing clang.
"You had to ask," Kuwabara grumbled next to him.
"And Edeth, no phasing. As soon as word gets around that you're a Changeling, they'll be carrying potions to keep you from doing so." Her comrade nodded. "We'll go by plain speed; slowest to fastest. I won't move more than five miles faster than your top speed if you're slower than me."
"What happens when we all finally catch you within the limit?"
She gave a 'hm' that almost had a mischievous undertone. "Kuwabara, you're up first."
The human grumbled under Yuskue's beaming smile.
Mia quickly ascended into the tangle and waited for him to lumber in her thoughts for once written obviously on her features. This is gonna be a long day. It faded quickly into blank concentration as she jumped off the rod she was standing on. It had sunk into one of the main poles. "Come, Kuwabara, you must have some sense of balance."
Said human glared up at her with the 'go-to-hell' look and tried to jump up a step, but missed and fell on his stomach even farther down than he was before. "This is impossible."
"This course or my hope that you have some form of talent? Since I'm moving easily, I think it's the latter."
Kuwabara gave out a bellow in a mixture of rage and determination. With an odd show of sheer will he began moving from one place to another.
"She's very good at manipulating people, isn't she?" asked Kurama looking from the struggling man to the Changeling out of the corner of his eye. "That was a very clean blow to Kuwabara's pride."
"When she wants to," replied Edeth, following suit unlike the others around them (save Hiei who was sitting in a tree a bit away with a happy yet evil looking expression that said he would like very much for Kuwabara to fall) who stared openly at their conversation. "But I haven't seen her be so blunt about it since King Enma put her in charge of rearranging Spirit Wold's Library. That's when I found out how evil she can really be."
"What did she do?" Yuskue asked like a kid in a candy shop spying a new treat.
"Threw an ogre out a glass window and laughed like there was no tomorrow when she saw the expressions of the others. It's the only time I've ever heard her laugh, but even then it was... painful."
"You've never got her to laugh."
Edeth looked slightly ashamed. "No, I got a chuckle out of her once, but... I almost didn't catch it. Mia doesn't like getting attached to people."
"That's kind of obvious," muttered the hanyou.
He shrugged. "It takes a whole new light when she says in to you verbally I suppose."
Yuskue stared wide-eyed at him, opening and closing his mouth several times before turning back to the entertainment he had been ignoring.
Mia moved away easily, but at least Kuwabara could now move about. Unfortunately, she was as unpredictable as she had claimed. One minute she would jump to a disappearing plank several feet below her while another time she would use the one directly above her to swing and jump only a bit farther behind her, just out of Kuwabara's reach.
Twenty minutes passed and the human had yet to catch her. With out warning, the blades beneath them sunk back into the ground along with the boards that held them. While Mia landed easily on her feet, Kuwabara's scream was suddenly muffled by his force-fed meal of grass. With a dejected look, he walked back to the group picking grass out from his bleeding mouth.
Placing a hand against it once more she called, "Kerr, you're up." The rods shot out again.
The result was similar for him, though he landed awkwardly on his feet from the top.
Edeth faired a bit better, predicting her moves but he was often wrong and headed in the opposite direction several times. He eventually got so caught up in his chase that he missed his footing and fell. Luckily he only suffered a few large cuts on his legs that he quickly set to healing when his turn was up.
Kurama had little if no trouble keeping balance. He came very close at hitting her with his Rose Whip that when he pulled it back, a few strands of black material was on his thorns. But he too failed. The fox's landing, however, was a perfect ten.
"Alright!" Yuskue exclaimed, "Here I go to whop the Fourth in Command!"
"Hm," Mia stated in a moment of brilliance and reset the 'Trap' -the name given to the female's contraption by those in the watching peanut gallery- with out another word.
Yuskue started off well and gained speed, his coordination becoming close to Kurama's. He nearly had her when she kicked him square in the chest causing him to fall. Unfortunately, they were only twelve minutes in and he was headed straight for a large cluster of shiny objects.
Something grabbed his wrist.
"This doesn't count as 'catching' me," Mia grumbled, pulling him up after Yuskue had returned her grip.
"What are you doing? The enemy wouldn't catch me?"
"On the contrary, that demon seemed very intent on catching you in his mouth."
The hanyou looked down and saw large fanged jaws and a pink mouth looking up at him. "What the f-" And then it sprung at him. Mia placed a hand against a pole and the blades disappeared. No longer a surprise for the rest of team, they sprung forward and assisted against the basilisk creature. The one that had tried to devour Yuskue easily evaded them and swatted Hiei out of the air like a fly. It was all very embarrassing, especially when several more grew from the ground to join their supposed leader (he was a good five feet longer and his crest was close to being blindingly brilliant).
The fight that ensued was once again, shamefully, evenly matched. Eventually, Hiei found and opening and took it, killing one of the beasts quickly through the eye and strengthened the hope of survival. But he paid a large price. His entire left leg was covered in acid that he had to scrape off with his new sword. Luckily it didn't have the same effect on it as it did him, for his entire leg was beginning to rot away. The koorime didn't even feel himself cutting away the flesh after a while.
Two more snakes and a burnt hand later, Mia shouted out, "Enough!" from the position she had taken behind the snakes. "Leave now! I have no want to destroy the residence of the island."
"You killed my kin," the largest whispered, smog leaking from its mouth from the effort. "I smell it upon you."
"My apologies, it was my duty to keep his dinner alive." Ah, she is capable of politics.. I wonder if they can read her eyes though. She means none of it, Hiei thought.
"Then I will take your life in turn!" it hissed and dived at her only to get a mouth of black smoke. With nothing there to slow down his movement, his nose became embedded into one of the poles.
Off the top came the real Mia, and sunk a dagger into the precise center of it's forehead, ripping the gem that had been embedded in it with a sudden, bloody movement.
The great beast trashed once and the gave out. "Leave now," she repeated. The basilisk around her bobbed their heads slightly before dragging the bodies away.
"Animal souls don't hold records," she explained as she passed them, wiping the blade on her cloak. "No way for Koenma to know I killed them." Suddenly she changed the topic, "That's it. Let's stop for tonight and heal those burns."
The group headed for the tree thicket and Kerr immediately went to healing Yuskue's burnt digits. When he turned to the more seriously wounded Hiei, the koorime just backed away.
"I need to heal it properly," pleaded the Thirian.
"No reason to," he grumbled limping backward.
"We're going to heal it, Jagan bearer," commented Mia flatly.
The demon, not liking being told what to do, instantly rejected her firm standing, "Give me a good reason why, onna."
"I can give you three."
"Hn."
The strange youth walked up to him and quite calmly slammed her heel into decaying foot. Needless to say it took everything Hiei was not to scream.
Loudly, that is.
"One," she murmured.
Hiei drew his katana from his side and she easily kicked it out of his hand and caught it in her hand.
"Two."
Yuskue broke free of Kerr -who had been holding him back up until this point- and ran at Mia with a war cry.
She jumped into a black-flip, kicked the detective squarely between the shoulder blades on her way down causing the hanyou to stumble and use the smaller male fighter as a cushion against his fall, and still managed to land gracefully on her feet.
"Three."
Hiei pushed Yuskue off and plunged at her.
Roots sprang up from the ground and pinned the fire demon to a tree in a sitting position.
"I suggest you all do the same and listen. I am not pleased with the fact that I have to waist energy on such trivial matters."
They all did so without complaint except for Hiei, who once again was outside of the box. Poor Hiei.
"It is essential that you all heal after battles. That is the main reason why Kerr is here. There are other reasons as well. One; It makes you an easy target. Two; You become reckless and predictable. Three; Whether you all like it or not, or even accepted it for that matter, is that you all share a very close bond. When one of you is taken advantage of, it has become natural instinct among you all to help them, thus putting others in danger as well.
"You will be healed because you are cared for. Period." The trees released Hiei as she stalked away. "I'll watch tonight."
"So says the woman who doesn't tell us she's going to pass out from blood loss. Hypocrite."
"My, Yuskue, Keiko must be having a positive effect on your brain! I've never heard such a large word come out of your mouth!" Kurama exclaimed with a an undertone of laughter that was hard to miss.
The detective just flopped down Indian style and glared, irritated.
"I...don't think that's true," Edeth replied to Yuskue's last statement.
Kerr nodded meekly. "I think she accepts the fact that you all find her creepy and don't share that bond."
"Does... she want it?"
"...I don't know Yuskue, I don't know," he replied. "Then again, what else is new?"
"What do ya think, shrimp?" the orange haired human asked.
"Hn."
"You say 'hn' to my, but you'll have a a full length fight with the chick on a regular basis!"
"She is impossibly annoying while your insults are often to over used or too foolish for me to come back with a logical reply."
Defeated, Kuwabara grumbled and laid on the ground. He was soon asleep, as were the others.
But inside Hiei there was a him and himself. His mind quickly rejected the idea of forgiveness and he fell asleep in a sour mood soaked with the hopeful thoughts of revenge.
The koorime had forgotten the proverb 'Never let the sun go down on your anger!' And though he had done it many times before, he didn't realize how bad it would come back and bite him. But even buns of steel can be broken.
Hiei felt his feet placed against something soft and with a single glance around he decided that he would much rather return to his absurd dream about giant, rabid cobras with bunny ears being rode by Mia and Kurama in cowboy outfits as they chased around Yuskue and Kuwabara who had both grown antlers and wolf tails. He and Kerr were passing popcorn in their Colosseum seats while Edeth lay dead -via a spear through his heart- in a clown get up, sprawled against the ivory steps. It was all very amusing to him. Except for Botan and Koenma making out behind them. That was just creepy, not funny.
Standing before him was a blood soaked woman with wry white hair, pale features, and gray eyes. The stench of the crimson liquid was nearly overpowering. He soon remembered the identical gauntly person from his odd dream the night before.
"Lathenia!" came a girls happy cry as a young youth ran through Hiei's form to get to the woman. When 'Lathenia' turned and looked at the girl with calculating eyes, he assumed the worst only to be proven wrong. The young child hugged the woman and gave out a small giggle when Lathenia petted her on the head, oblivious to the blood she was getting in the poor girls hair. "What is it, Ariana?"
"I wanted to make sure you were okay. You normally wait for the team before killing something."
"They are trainees, not a team. Now go back to camp," she stated icily only to have the girl smile warmly and do as she was told. Without hesitation, Lathenia pulled out a dagger and slammed it into the head of a shielded demon behind her. The death she put him through was clean and silent, causing a lump of envy grow within the fire demon.
But when she picked up the man's body with a large, scaly brown hand that was easily over twice the size it should have beam, it shocked him so bad it forced him out of his dream.
Panting, Hiei laid back against his chosen trunk and didn't slip back into his dreams for another hour and a half.
Hiei watched them bicker. Unlike the last dream, this one was completely implausible. There was no way it was happening, or ever did.
Lathenia was hissing threats at Michelle who had spread her limbs wide before a tree that was a mystery in itself. Despite the fact that a girl fight was about to commence, the tree drew his total attention. It was ancient according to the rough bark and deep veins but it was strangely small for these signs. The leaves seemed to have died at some point but were now growing new with brown centers and green tips. Knots in the trunk, marks where the limbs had been broken off, and large gashes across the remaining bows suggested it's near death had been brutal.
"No!" Michelle begged, tears coming to her eyes as she spread her arms even farther for to trees defense.
"Move," Lathenia stated loudly, yet tonelessly, yet her twisted face revealed the strange woman's rage.
"You nearly killed it last time!"
"That was the point." She drew a pair of katanas.
"They all worked so hard," the beautiful woman begged again.
"Good. Tear it all down at one." Lathenia charged only to be repelled by one of her opponent's shields. "Move!" she screamed.
"No," Michelle practically sobbed.
It went on and on, neither getting anywhere, allowing Hiei to try to decide why the tree was so despised and yet loved. In an attempt to understand what was going on he looked around.
The sky was an awesome shade of purple and the flowers grew around him became denser as they approached the tree. Scanning the horizon, he noticed something odd.
A young girl -barely five in appearance- stared at the two from under her cropped, light brown hair with a mixture of sadness and confusion in her dark brown eyes. Her childlike innocence shone through everything about her from her calm, pale, sitting frame to the picked flowers in her hand that were beginning to wilt.
Much to Hiei's dismay, he suddenly found himself in front of the small human. With a steady hand and a heart warming smile, she pulled the only living flower and offered it silently up to fire demon.
But it was no normal flower. It had white petals that appeared as though someone had painted the tips black with delicate lines. It had the palest green stem. The plant was very attractive except for the tightly clustered thorns on it's length. Even as the child smiled, Hiei could see the thorns dig into her hand, spilling red blood down her arm and staining her green dress crimson.
For some reason, Hiei found himself completely disturbed. Taking a step back he felt the darkness surround him like a great fan.
A child's voice entered the black of his mind. It was female and very young, to the point that the slur hadn't quite left it's tongue. Why won't you play with me just cuz I'm different? Why would that not be normal? Why can't we be different? Why can't we just stay like this forever? Why are some left behind? Why must we go alone on our 'path of life'?
A more mature voice echoed. Why do things happen the way they do?
He sat up again, just in time to see the sun was rising and no one but Edeth was up. With a final look around, he decided that the best way to get the disturbing dreams out of his mind was to go find Mia and beat her to a bloody pulp.
Yep, that sounded fun, so that's what he went off to do.
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Hey, hey, guess what? The story DEVELOPS in the next chapter. Finally. No, I'm not kidding. It's gonna be called 'Crimson and Ash."