Chapter 14
Christmas was only days away. White powdery snow blanketed much of Tokyo. Children off from school took the opportunity to frolic about even as their parents shoveled snow from their drives. Snowplows drove by on a regular basis to keep the slush that could cause traffic accidents off the roadways. Gaudy colored lights and lawn ornaments decorated the fronts of houses in honor of the up coming holiday, which was odd considering that most people in Japan were either Buddhist or practiced the old Shinto ways.
Minamino Shuichi had opted to stay indoors and help his mother Shiori prepare for Christmas. The smell of baking sweets wafted through the drafty house like a fine perfume. A Christmas program played on in the living room that held only a quarter of their attention. Heat from the oven helped to ward off the winter chill that crept in through the aging windows and compensate for the derelict heater. Shuichi sat contentedly at the counter stirring a bowl of ingredients as Shiori pulled out the baking sweets from the oven before they burned.
A frantic knocking at the front door caused the almost perfect assembly line they had going grind to a sudden halt. With a slight frown Shiroi bustled over and answered the door, pausing momentarily along the way by the hallway mirror to make sure that the spell that made her hair appear dark and eyes brown was firmly in place. Standing on the welcome mat was an older woman that lived down the street with her husband and daughter. Her inky black hair was falling out of its usual neat bun and clothes were rumpled. A frantic look shone in her black eyes.
"Have you seen Maya?"
"No, I haven't. Is everything ok?" The woman groaned.
"I can't find her! She was supposed to be home hours ago!"
"We'll help you look for her."
"Arigatou! Arigatou!"
After donning their coats, Shuichi and Shiroi hit the icy streets. Other neighbors joined in the search. The police were alerted. It didn't take long for a sizeable search party to form and spread out. Shuichi searched the odd alleyways that dotted the neighborhood. All there was to be found was icy trash bins and dumpsters. He started to head back when a peculiar moldy sent hiding amongst the rotten smell of the alley tickled his nose. Stopping he scanned the alley a little harder. There by a rusting dumpster overflowing with garbage was what could only be described as a slimy blob of goo the color of mold. Only problem was that mold usually died in such cold weather. He narrowed his eyes.
"Was my warning not enough, slime oni? Or are you just foolish?" Kurama asked in an icy voice. A distorted snarling face appeared in the slime.
When Kurama had returned home from Hogwarts for the holidays he found the oni lurking a little to close to home for his comfort. All it took was a display of his powers and a few choice words to send the oni running. Even though it was relatively weak it was still more than a match for normal humans.
"Big words for such a small yoko. You think your so superior because you eluded death itself. But you've gone soft Kurama. And that will be your downfall." Kurama raised an eyebrow.
"That so? And will it be you standing gloatingly over my carcass?"
"I've a master now! A very powerful and cunning master! He's out to claim this city as his own and once your out of the way, we'll be feasting like a lords upon ningen flesh! Perhaps that woman you're so fond of will be first!"
Kurama bit back a growl. His face darkened with anger. Quicker than most eyes could see he shot a seed at the oni. The oni, however, was even quicker and jumped down a nearby storm drain. Letting out a deep calming breath he watched it flee. It seemed that the meditation techniques he'd been experimenting with was helping to reign in his rampant emotions that caused his yoki to fluctuate. With a little more fine tuning and good old practice his yoki should be right under his thumb.
"Shuichi-kun?"
Jumping slightly he whirled around to see a girl about his age with inky black hair and black eyes in a oversized purple jacket. She was staring at him oddly.
"Maya! Where've you been? Half the neighborhood is looking for you!"
"What was that thing you were talking to Shuichi-kun?" Shuichi blinked.
"What thing? There's nothing here." Maya gave him a hard look.
"Yeah there was! It was all slimy and you were talking to it!"
This wasn't good. It was one thing for a wizard to know about him but an ordinary girl? It could go so bad on so many levels.
'I really should work on expanding my senses.'
"Look, we should really head back. Your mother is worried about you."
"But-!"
A sudden malevolent aura had him instinctively guard the vulnerable girl. She seemed to sense that something was wrong and stayed still and silent like a frightened animal. At the far end of the alley a black clad figure rushed at him. Kurama barely had time to extract seed and transform it into a grass blade to defend himself. A cold steel blade clashed against his own green one. Smoldering ruby red eyes glared at him. He recognized him from a book he looked through not too long ago.
It was Hiei.
"So plants are your motif!" he growled out in a rough raspy voice. Kurama risked a glance to see Maya standing there dumbfounded. Thinking fast he ran away from her with Hiei close on his heels. Stopping in a nearby park they continued their battle. They traded blows. The ring of blade against blade sounded as surely as church bells. It was a good thing that no one visited the park in the middle of winter. Not only would it have been an odd sight for an ordinary ningen to behold but the two combatants ranged all over. Vicious kicks and dirty strikes were thrown out to catch the other off guard. Time seemed to stop. Both concentrated on the other. But soon exhaustion had set in. They broke apart, each keeping a weary eye on each other.
"You're good." Hiei said once he caught his breath. "Too good for Eight-Hands. Why do you serve him?"
"You're kidding! Eight-Hands is here?!" Hiei looked like someone slapped him.
"You didn't know?"
Eight-Hands was an eight handed oni who's power grew the more he ate the flesh of either ningern or yokai. He was a well-known deviant.
"No. This is were I live. I serve no one." A fanged grin broke out across Hiei's face.
"Well this is me looking stupid." Suddenly he fainted. Without much thought Kurama rushed over. A stain darker than the trench coat he wore was spreading out on his chest. Kurama touched it. His hand came away red. Carefully he picked him up and ran back home. Luckily no one was about or he would've had some explaining and more than a little lying to do. He set Hiei on his bed in his room and dug through his nightstand for his salves.
Growing and manipulating plants was one thing but summoning even a small portion of one from the Makai was a different story. Summoning in general was difficult. Kurama was once able to summon entire carnivorous plants to take care of his foes for him with little effort. But that was a seemingly long time ago. While he experimented with the limits of his powers in his current state he found that he could summon that parts of yokai plants he used in his salves and poisons though it did tire him out after a while.
Stripping off the coat, white scarf, and shirt off Hiei he gingerly tended to the long yet shallow slash running across his lean muscled chest. Once the wounds were properly wrapped he turned to go.
"Yukina…" Kurama stopped and stared at the sleeping yokai. That broad chest moved up and down with each breath. His face was deceivingly innocent. With him spread on the bed like that he was almost cute. Shaking his head at the thought he went back out to talk to Maya.
xXx
Hiei slowly woke up. Kurama closed the book he was reading at his desk and gave him his full attention. It took a moment for everything to snap into place in his mind before that defensive glare was back in place.
"I healed you with a plant from the Makai. I hope you don't mind. You've only been out for about two hours." Hiei merely grunted as he put his clothes back on. "Did you know that you talk in your sleep?"
Hiei growled.
"Who's Yukina?"
"I should kill you for knowing so much!" he snapped.
"And what would that achieve? That surgery to implant that jagan into your forehead must've been unbearably painful. And to loose what power you had before…she must be important to you."
"I don't have time for this!" Hiei stalked over to the window. Sliding it open he placed a hand on the sill.
"Going so soon?"
"Why would you care?"
"Eight-Hands is too powerful for either of us to handle alone in our current state. You need help."
"And what'll you get out of it?"
"I believe he's taken a girl who lives just down the street from me. As much as I'm concerned about her welfare, I'm more concerned about how more powerful he'll become if he eats her. With her sixth sense as developed as it is…well surely you could imagine the consequences." Hiei snorted.
"I see what they say about the King of Thieves is true after all."
"I could say the same about you jaganshi Hiei."
xXx
It didn't take long to find the abandoned warehouse that Eight-Hands had taken shelter in with Hiei's jagan. At one point it was a factory that made dolls. Plastic body parts littered the gloomy rooms and hallways. Light from the setting sun painted blood on them. All that could be heard was their breathing and footsteps. Without warning a towering green yokai with eight hands leapt out at them.
"A jaganshi and a yoko. Hai, you two will make a fine snack."
Clawed hands batted at them. With blades of grass and steel they hacked back at them. Eight-Hands laughed.
"This is all two easy! Surely you two can do better than this!"
With a single look at each other, Hiei and Kurama seemed to communicate. As easy and as natural it was to breath they began to coordinate their attacks. A few cuts adorned the hands but little else.
"Ha! You two are no better together then you were apart."
Hiei slipped behind Kurama as he attacked the hands again. A black shape flew over him. Eight-Hands easily caught it. It was a doll. Before he could react he was cut in thirds.
"Have you ever eaten a korime?"
"Where's Maya?" Eight-Hands coughed up blood.
"The girl still lives. And if I had eaten something so fine as a korime it would be you who was cut to pieces." He rasped. With a final shudder he was still and silent.
"Another dead-end!" Hiei growled out. Kurama looked inside the room Eight-Hands had jumped out of. There on the floor and unconscious was Maya. Digging into his pockets he pulled out a certain seed. With a little yoki it bloomed into a flower. He blew the pollen into Maya's nose.
"Dream Pollen?" Hiei asked from the doorway.
"It's for the best."
"As you say." he snorted
Gently Kurama scooped her into his arms and carried her home.
xXx
That night as he dressed for bed there was a knock at his window. Curiously he went over and opened it. Hiei was perched on the branch of a dormant sakura tree. Hiei jumped in and settled on the bed without even taking his shoes off.
"Don't you use doors?" Kurama asked
"The window was more convenient." Hiei replied blandly.
"Take your shoes off."
"No."
"Why are you here?"
"Because I feel like it." Kurama was becoming annoyed and judging from Hiei's smug look he knew it too.
"How long will you be staying?"
"As long as I want."
"Will you be doing this often?"
"Perhaps." he said with a mischievous fanged grin. Kurama sighed.
xXx
Omake
Kurama was cleaning up his room when Hiei came in through the window. After the first two days of having Hiei knocking on the glass he simply left it open.
"Why do you do this?" Hiei asked as he once again sat on Kurama's bed with his shoes on. Kurama just raised an eyebrow. "Live with this woman like a ningen?"
"Why are you searching for this mysterious Yukina?" Hiei growled. No matter how often Kurama asked, Hiei absolutely refused to tell him about Yukina but Kurama had a few ideas.
"What does that have to do with it?"
"Perhaps its for the same reason."
Hiei was silent as Kurama continued to tidy up. Those smoldering red eyes glared thoughtfully at him. Kurama knew Hiei watched the house, his scent was akin to burning firewood and he didn't even bother to suppress his yoki. With Shiori walking around in a short sleeved shirt as she did various chores he could've easily seen the scars on her arms and Kurama's reaction to seeing them every time. He was waiting for some kind of scathing remark that the fiery jaganshi tended to say. Like how he was nothing more than a pet or how pathetic he was. But what he heard next threw him for a loop.
"Why are you growing out your hair?" Kurama blinked a few times.
"I just don't have the time to cut it. Besides, once it's long enough I can hide my seeds in it." Hiei scrunched up his nose.
"You're crazy."
"Like a kitsune." Kurama said with a foxy grin.
"You'll look like a female."
"And you look like a sweet innocent little angel when you sleep. And the things you say in your sleep…"
Hiei growled. Kurama chuckled.
Translations:
Yokai- demon
Oni- ogre
Yoko- fox demon
Yoki- demon energy
Kun- a respectful prefix.
Makai- demon world
Ningen- human
Jagan- a third eye that grants the user psychic abilities.
Jaganshi- one who has a jagan.
Kitsune- an ordinary fox.
Hai- yes
Arigatou- thank you.
Korime- ice maiden.
AN: Sorry for the late update. I came down with a nasty bug. Hope the long chapter makes up for it. And just so you don't get confused Hiei doesn't quite understand what Kurama means in the Omake so he just stays quiet. Review!