Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, etc., of Inuyasha or Yu Yu Hakusho. This story is for entertainment purposes only, and not for profit.
SHARDS OF DESTINY
Summary: Naraku has crossed over to the modern era, and our heroes must band together to try and stop him. But what troubles arise as old relationships are torn apart by new, and the dark spider sits spinning new webs of deceit?
A/N: Squirrels go peep. That's all I can think of, after watching Lanipator's YYH Abridged series. =) Thank you for your reviews, they always get me excited. (Fate)
Chapter Thirteen
"Hey." Quiet, lest he wake the sleeping slayer in his arms, Yusuke reached out a long leg and poked Hiei with a toe. The short demon stirred, red eyes blinking blearily. "Wake up, Sleeping Beauty."
Hiei abruptly sat up, eyeballs popping open all over his body. Oy, that was creepy. But at least he was finally awake. The short demon looked at him, a slight widening of his red eyes the only reaction to the Mazoku's emergence. He gave his own changed body a disinterested glance, then stared around them.
"Where are we?" Hiei croaked. Like a bullfrog, which he rather resembled at the moment, with his green skin and googly-eyes.
"No idea." Yusuke shrugged, shifting the girl in his arms to a more comfortable position.
Using the wall, Hiei swayed to his feet with a grunt. If he sported half the headache Yusuke'd had upon waking, he was in a world of hurt.
"The others?" he demanded.
"No idea."
The short demon stared at him. "Hn. You don't seem to know much, do you, Detective."
"Nope." Yusuke grinned, cheered by having someone else up. "Just it ain't as cold in here as it is out there." He nodded toward the black maw of the cave's entrance.
"It always astounded me just how you've managed to survive."
"So. What did you do, exactly? With your Dragon? It's missing." Yusuke pointed to the shorter demon's empty wrist, no bracelet in sight.
"I summoned, and it came." Hiei glanced at the wall curving behind them and touched it briefly. His jyaki flared, greenly glowing from his third eye and hand. A darker haze surrounded it, all purple-black where his palm rested flat against the wall. "Hn."
A surge in warmth, almost imperceptible where his wide shoulders rested against the wall. Rubbing the smooth-rough surface, like a lizard's skin, Yusuke grinned. "The Dragon?"
"There's hope for you yet, Detective."
"Will you quit calling me that?" Yusuke scowled.
Hiei glanced down at the slayer. "Her species cannot survive long in the Netherworld."
"The Nether...?" Putting two and two together, Yusuke made three and a half. What he came up with, he didn't like. "Frack. Really? What are we, trapped here for eternity?"
Hiei just stared at him.
Looked that way.
ooOOOoo
"What can eat a soul?" Koenma murmured, one finger drawing across the dusty spines on the shelf before him.
"But Koenma, sir!" Jorge swayed, trying to keep his load balanced as the toddler prince selected another book and added it to the teetering stack in his arms. "You don't think - you can't think...that Botan's soul got eaten!"
"Well, what am I to think, Jorge?" the prince demanded testily. "If Botan simply died, her spirit would've crossed the River Styx. Instead, she's disappeared, and I have no idea where or why. I cannot leave any stone unturned, even those I'd rather not contemplate."
Yanking free a rather hefty volume entitled "The Egyptian Book of the Dead," Koenma made a face. "I always hated Budge. So tedious." He added it to the ogre's stack. "There. That should hold me a while." He started down the giant ladder, when Ayame appeared.
"Prince Koenma, sir."
The Spirit Prince glared between rungs. "What is it, Ayame? Now is not a good time."
"I'm sorry, sir, but it's quite urgent."
Prince Koenma regarded the somber spirit guide for a moment, then sighed. "Very well. Just give me a moment to climb down."
Gathering his dignity, he staggered between steps too widely-spaced for fat little toddler legs. Scowling, he finally reached the ground. He hated being found at such a disadvantage, especially in front of the elegant Ayame.
Once there, he placed his arms behind his back and indicated Ayame should accompany him from the Great Library to his office. Jorge stumbled after them, side-stepping to keep up with his precarious burden. Ignoring the oaf, Koenma waved impatiently for the slim girl at his side to start.
"Sir, we have just received word from the Kazune Shrine."
"The Kazune...?"
"The shrine in Tokyo, where Hinageshi was studying."
"Hina...?"
"Geshi, sir. She is the young spirit apprentice who proved so vital in the Yakumo affair."
Prince Koenma still couldn't place her, but nodded thoughtfully.
He didn't fool either of them. Jorge rolled his eyes as Ayame tactfully said, "You remember, sir, she was the one who provided valuable intel to the Urameshi team on Yakumo and his Netherworld allies. She helped save Spirit World from the swollen River Styx..."
"Ah. Yes." Koenma coughed.
"You still don't remember, sir, do you?" Jorge demanded in disgust.
Koenma waved his hand, clearly disgruntled at being caught out. "That is neither here nor there, is it, ogre? Besides...what are you still doing here? Shouldn't those books already be in my office?"
Jorge stiffened, trying to salute and unable to with his arms loaded down. "Oh, yes, sir, sorry sir, right away sir!"
Edging past them, the ogre took off as quickly as his wobbly legs and swaying stack allowed.
Tugging at his robe, Prince Koenma worked his binky to the other side of his mouth. "Now. Ayame. What is this news you have? What's wrong with Hana-hooey, or whatever her name is?"
"Hinageshi, sir," Ayame calmly supplied. "And she's gone missing, sir."
"Missing?" Koenma's brow wrinkled.
"Yes, sir. She failed to return to the shrine yesterday. They waited twenty-four hours before sending word, just in case. She is rather forgetful, sir, and easily distracted. She's young, only a hundred or so, and still in training. But when they finally went looking, they could not find any trace of her. The trail had already gone cold. Hinageshi has completely disappeared."
ooOOOoo
"So." Kuwabara, now clad in part of Inuyasha's fire-rat robe, sat down beside the strange girl. "You're really the kitty cat?"
She stared at him. She was strangely like, and yet unlike, the little nekomata. Her skin was pale, her hair a short, creamy cap upon her head. Her features were sharp, her eyes big and red. The black cross tattooed on her forehead matched the kitty cat's. And if that wasn't enough, she sported tails. Two of them, lightly lashing behind her.
At least she was dressed. Well, somewhat, as they both had to make do with Inuyasha's jacket. The hanyou refused to give up his pants, though Kuwabara would have liked something more to work with then two sleeves cobbled together to make an uncomfortable loin-cloth.
The kitty-girl was a tiny thing. Only a few inches taller than his Yukina. Kuwabara felt big and bulky next to her slenderness. Black tattoos circled her arms, mimicking the way her paws were marked, and her nails were sharp. Like claws.
She was certainly more demon-like than his sweet Yukina. But then, Yukina was a snow-maiden, while this girl was...
"What are you, exactly?" he blurted out.
She only looked at him, her brow wrinkling. Cute. Like a kitten. Still not as cute as his beloved Yukina. But then, no one could compare to his pinky-string princess.
"What's it look like?" Inuyasha emerged, grouchy, his giant sword propped on his bare shoulder. His kimono was gone, and now he was as bare-chested as Kuwabara. "She's a frickin' cat demon, idiot."
Kirara mewed. Inuyasha rolled his eyes. "Feh. Whatever."
"Wait a minute." Kuwabara stared at the hanyou. "You can understand her?"
"Of course." Inuyasha shrugged, looking away.
"Yeah, I guess it makes sense. You're a puppy-dog, after all, and she's a kitty-cat." Ignoring Inuyasha's glare, Kuwabara frowned. "Wait a minute. I thought puppy dogs hated kitty cats."
"I don't hate cats!" Inuyasha protested, then reconsidered. "Well, not all cats."
Kirara made a noise.
"Panther demons are not cats."
Kirara made a rude noise.
"Feh. Whatever." Inuyasha deliberately turned his back. "So, are you guys gonna just sit there or are we gonna go and try to find the others?"
ooOOOoo
She wandered in strange dreams, full of elfin fire and icy darkness, reaching inside her. She didn't know if she should run from it, or run towards it. There was something terrible in the dark. Some memory she couldn't quite place, although it ever hovered at the edge of her consciousness. Something she didn't want to think about, actually, as if to acknowledge it meant...
A face hovered before her, an innocent face lit up with tremulous hope - and then it cracked, splintering into a thousand shards as the hopeful brown eyes darkened into regret, then chilled into insensibility.
*Kohaku!* she called, reaching out, but the harder she ran, the more quickly he withdrew. It felt endless, the running, the chase. Her legs slowed, her outstretched hand falling as she stumbled to a stop. The empty darkness pressed in around her. There was loss in it, and she was lost within it. She felt so cold, so very, very cold, as if ice had entered her soul. And she didn't know if she could live any longer, not without him. Her brother, Kohaku.
She knew then. Knew the truth. Kohaku was gone, gone beyond recall. She collapsed, the tears streaming down her face as harsh sobs racked her body in utter defeat. How could she go on without him? Why should she? What was there, now, to go on for? Despair engulfed her, an endless sea of despair.
Perhaps it was the despair that called its attention. Her soul did not wander alone in the dark. Eyes - ghostly, white, molten with inner fire - swam before her. She was suddenly wrapped in ice, the cold penetrating her very center so that she shivered uncontrollably, her teeth chattering - though how they could in this place of no sound, no actual physical being, she could not know. The cold was a knife-stab to her heart, so cold it burned...and with the burning, came sudden warmth, as if the immense presence became aware of her discomfort.
She dwelt there for a time, a time that seemed to stretch forever, years long and lost, and yet compressed into a simultaneous moment, as if the presence saw all and remembered nothing. As if it was simply, incredibly, just being, in the moment and for all time. There was no understanding it, no logic she could apply with her simple human understanding, it just was, and is, and will be.
And yet it was aware. And its regard was both scary and comforting. Its presence was emotion, as if it could relate to her on that level, if no other. She knew it was her limitation, and not the being's. And as it sheltered and comforted, it drew her out, sent her on, carried up on rushing wings until she -
Blinked open dry eyes. It was dark, a Stygian darkness she could not penetrate. And cold. Her body ached, her breasts heavy, nipples pebbled and hurting in the chill. Her hair, tangled free of its normal ponytail, tickled her arms and back. She felt hyper-sensitive, too aware -
And frightened. She was naked. But not alone.
She jumped up and away, her body sliding into a defensive crouch even as she tried hard to blink the darkness back, try to see anything in the utter blackness of this place.
"Sango?" She knew that voice, although it was richer, deeper, than she remembered. "Sango, it's me. Yusuke. Hey, I know this is all kind of crazy, but it's okay. Okay?"
"Hn."
She turned, trying to follow that sound, and pressed her back firmly against the wall in case they should both try and attack. And stiffened at the feel of dry, leathery skin instead of rough stone. The wall warmed, and Sango suddenly knew the presence was still there, with her, inside the dark.
"What," she had to stop and clear her throat, "is going on?"
"Uh...you wanna take that one, three eyes?"
Three eyes? She counted a lot more than three as a blob morphed out of the darkness, eyeballs swiveling towards her. They seemed to intensify as she stared at it, yellow below, two bleeding between a lavender one above. What was he, a giant ball of eyeballs?
"No."
"Nice," the other demon said dryly. "Real helpful, Hiei."
Hiei? Sango blinked as the eyeball blob snapped, "Do I look like Google, Detective?"
"Kinda googly, actually," Yusuke shot back. "Or more like the Hulk with an acute case of jaundice."
Jaundice? Could he mean all the yellow eyes covering the creature - Hiei, Sango hastily corrected herself. No wonder he disguised himself, if this was his true form.
"Your amusement grows tedious." There was a dangerous bite to his words.
"Hey, now, three eyes. Don't get your panties in a twist. Not that you have any on. Panties, I mean. Or pants, for that matter."
Sango wasn't sure if it was for Yusuke or her, as the demon flicked eyes her way, before turning abruptly. The eyes stared at her from the back as well, she could only tell because the main three - the two red, and the lavender between them - had disappeared.
"The ice you tread is thinning, Detective - " the demon began, the ground shaking with his anger. But no - wait - it wasn't Hiei's anger, for even as Sango thought that, the leathery wall at her back flinched. A surge of confused pain and hot anger echoed inside her mind with something else. Something she only sensed when Kagome used her miko powers to purify a Jewel shard, or an attacking demon...
Kagome! But if the miko was here, somewhere in the darkness, then that meant the others -
The wall bucked, trying to shake off the purifying energy hurting it. Sango turned, palms going flat against the wall, hoping to read something, anything in it. But her spiritual awareness was too slight, her gift limited to Sight alone. Her fingers curled, trying to hang on as the ground swayed.
A muffled boom, like a distant lightning strike, and the air sucked out of the chamber. Pebbles rattled, sand hissing as dust rose, making her cough. A distant thud, and then another as the ground shook. Sango couldn't keep her feet, but fell to her knees, hands sliding down the wall which continued to shudder.
"Sango!" Yusuke was suddenly there, arm curling around her shoulders. "What the hell did you just do, three eyes?"
"What I did - " The heat of his gaze was scorching. He alone stood unshaken as the cave convulsed around them, the wall twitching in reaction. A roar, and some far off scream, suddenly silenced by the distant thunder of falling rocks.
"This ain't safe - " Yusuke yanked Sango out from under a tumbling boulder that smashed upon impact.
"The Dragon - " Hiei growled, another roar shaking the ground. Sango's legs were swept out from under her as Yusuke swung her into his arms. His powerful shoulders hunched protectively over her as he scooted back to the dubious safety of the wall. Rocks cascaded around them as the very wall itself seemed to pull from its moorings. Yusuke let out a grunt, shielding Sango, as a rock bounced off his shoulder. Purple flame ignited around Hiei's fist, incinerating another rock that came too close.
"We'll be crushed at this rate!" Yusuke shouted over her head.
"Mmph!" Sango was suddenly pressed into Yusuke, squeezed between the two demons as Hiei shoved them both back against the wall. His arms were braced on either side of them, hands flat-palmed against it. Green fire sprang from his splayed fingers, and the wall roared.
The wall roared -
Sango cried out as the roar continued inside her head. She couldn't breathe, couldn't seem to get air as the two demons crushed her between them, much as the earth had once crushed her with its weight. Buried alive -
No! She thrust all of her will into that single defiance, and the wall seemed to writhe beneath her. The others' shouts were but muffled whispers.
"Hiei! What's happening?"
"Grab hold, Detective, if you want a ride out."
"But the others - "
"Hn."
Others? What others? Memory stirred - Kagome and Inuyasha, Miroku with Shippou on his shoulder, Botan and Kurama and Kuwabara. And Kirara. Kirara! Was she here, too, lost inside the deep dark?
*Kirara!* her heart cried, despairing, and the immense being answered that distraught summons. Sango shuddered as something filled her, the presence expanding until she couldn't contain it anymore. Arms loosened, even as they strove to hold on.
"What the hell? Sango!"
Out! she thought, mindless with terror, eyes burning even as her mouth opened on a silent scream. I want out! Out of the darkness, the choking dust, the earth burying her forever unheard.
"Hiei!"
Claws grasped, tightening around her. Held her to him even as her eyes burned and she bucked, writhing with the wall which wasn't a wall, but a being of fire, as she was on fire, her very life-force quivering as she poured all her will into that one desire.
OUT!
"Hang on, Detective." An oath, a curse, arms gripping her on either side, holding her flat to the wildly twisting beast beneath even as it roared again. Her mouth opened in response, her own scream soundless.
"Shit! Sango!"
She bowed, her back arching up in mimicry as the being pulled out of its protective bed, gathering those within it up and out. And all was fire and pain and satisfaction, as it felt those others gasping and grasping on, sweeping them before it as wings unfolded, stretched, swept back in that first strong beat. A second sweep of wings, her hands opening and closing as her arms were held still to the dragon's body, and it swept them all up and up and out -
The ceiling seemed to split above them, worlds dividing as the darkened flame that first saved them, then protected them, now carried them out. It eventually leveled out, then went spiraling down and down until it finally came to rest. As it loosened its protective coils, they tumbled to the ground, gasping and crying and cursing in amazement.
"Kagome!" Sango heard Inuyasha, as if in a dream, and the miko's confusion. Excited barking from a strange fox cub, rusty-orange in color, and a shout from the beefy redhead in a red loincloth.
"Urameshi! What happened to your hair?"
"Kirara?" Miroku asked, surprised, staring at a white girl, another next to him.
Sango shuddered, her will spent as she slid boneless over the side of the curving scales. Coughing weakly, she bent over and retched, although nothing came up. Wiping her mouth on the back of her hand, her eyes rose -
And locked on two orbs, ghostly white and flaming before her. The being lowered its massive head, the ghostly flames flickering along its muzzle cold as ice, then warm as fire, then dying as it touched her forehead, then her heart, between her breasts, before drawing back. She held her hand up, fingers open in wonder at the cold-hot breath, the ghostly flames that did not burn. Those eyes did, staring into hers.
And then it shrank, losing substance as it coiled over her fingers and around her wrist, twining about her arm until it circled like a stylized bracelet, ghostly purple flames sinking into her skin.
Hiei stared at her, incredulous. "You stole my dragon."