She hadn't wanted to like him…
Its work done the tree began reverting, leathery bark slipping like velvet over her skin and back into the seed closed tightly in her palm. Even once it was gone she remained motionless for a long moment, ignoring the still sizzling puddle of remains, before returning to seed to its normal hiding place. She flipped her hair a bit, unintentionally, as her hand dropped back to her side and she started across the stone floor with surprisingly steady steps, relying on her feet and sense of smell more than her blurry sight to lead her. They moved out of the way as she neared them, letting her pass between them without a word. She hit her knees hard, not bothering to try slowing her descent, not really feeling the pain of the bone hitting solid rock.
"Do you think we should tell her?" Kuwabara whispered, watching her deflate slightly as she heaved a long nearly soundless sigh. Her hands came up in a futile effort to wipe away the tears that were still rolling down her face.
"Tell her what?" He didn't ask because he'd forgotten the last time. Hiei knew exactly what unspoken event Kuwabara was referencing, but he also knew that the phenomenon that had saved Yusuke was unspeakably rare, and there were many reasons that it might not affect his son.
"What do you mean what…That there's a chance…?"
"Kuwabara… stop." Kurama ordered gently, his eyes glued on the girl rather than the men he was speaking to. "We know what you mean. There are too many factors… it would only get her hopes up and crush her even more if it didn't happen…"
"What do you mean? It worked for Urameshi right? And that's his kid isn't it?"
"Yes he is, but there's no guarantee that Kazuki inherited that particular gene, or that he had enough power to trigger the change. There's too much we don't know." They kept their voices low, whispered so quietly they could barely hear each other to keep her from overhearing by unspoken agreement. It hardly mattered. Sayuri wasn't listening anyway.
She hadn't wanted to like him, it had just happened that way. She wasn't even entirely sure of when; couldn't remember when they'd started skipping class together, calling each other every night. When had they even exchanged numbers? When had Kazuki become important enough that she would jump through a portal to bring him out? When had she become important enough to him that he would sacrifice himself for her like that? When exactly had it become him saving her? She tried to sort back through her memories, a blur of shared milkshakes and stolen afternoons, of mornings on the roof and evening phone calls, of rigging old arcade games so they could play Goblin City for free…
"It would be kindest not to tell her…" Kurama added, taking his eyes away from his daughter for only a second, "In case it doesn't happen." He finished before making his way toward her. There was silence for a moment as he hovered over her, letting her linger in her reverie for several seconds before dropping to one knee beside her. "Sayuri…?"
She blinked in response to her name, and without bothering to try wiping away the wetness on her cheeks she turned toward the questioning and somehow comforting voice. The warm pad of a thumb brushed across the fragile skin beneath one of her eyes, brushing away the moisture gathered there and the cold with it. Blinking and maintaining her stranglehold on a sob that wanted nothing more than to break her Sayuri hesitated before actually bringing her eyes up to his. "I'm okay…" She choked out after a second.
Smiling bitterly he brushed a few strands of still silver hair back from her gold eyes, "No you aren't." It was the permission she wouldn't grant herself. She fell against him as the first sobs shook her frame and a burst of energy stronger than the one that had triggered her transformation exploded from her rocking them all. Catching her easily Kurama wrapped his arms securely around her, rested his head gently against the top of hers, careful of the ears still present there. "But you will be." He told her softly, wishing there was something, anything he could do to make it better. Wishing there was some way to spare her this. She only continued to sob brokenly into his chest.
"It isn't fair." Kuwabara murmured, averting his eyes so he wouldn't have to watch her cry. Squeezing his own eyelids shut to avoid joining her, "They shouldn't have to pay for it just because we couldn't kill Toguro…" Beside him Hiei scoffed quietly, but refused to speak, determined to avoid being pulled into the emotional display, "Kurama can be mad all he wants I'm gonna tell her. She shouldn't have to just sit there and suffer…"
She recoiled sharply just as the first step echoed off the cavernous walls, yanking back from her father she turned sharply toward the advancing man. Only to jump again as flecks of hot sticky blood splattered across her face.
"Kuwabara…!" Her father was on his feet before she'd even had a notion to move. Staggering upright a suddenly dry eyed Sayuri stared at the slightly slumped man standing in front of her, one hand pressed to his chest where more syrupy red was pouring out from between his fingers. Transfixed she took an unsteady step forward just as a shorter, darker figure fell into her path. Her confused eyes widened into circles again as her other uncle collapsed as well, his shoulders dropping out of the way to reveal a short pale demon smirking at her through where his back had been.
"No…" It came out on her breath as she ripped her eyes away from the two bodies to the demon licking his fingertips several feet away. "Not again…"
"It's alright Sayuri. He didn't actually hit anything vital." Climbing back to his feet from where he'd been kneeling between his two now unconscious friends Kurama spared her a glance, just long enough to see the murder return to her eyes. "They're hurt, but that is all."
"Then get them out of here." She marched passed him slowly, ignoring the resumed high laughter that echoed quietly around her. Sensing the coming argument she continued before he could refuse, "They're still in danger here. I can't carry them, you can."
"Be that as it may, I am not leaving you here alone with him..."
"Father…"
"…for long…" He finished, glancing at her, "I'll take Kuwabara and Hiei out of the room, but them I'm coming back. Promise me that you will be very careful until then."
"Don't worry." She whispered.
"Sayuri, I'm serious. He's far more dangerous than you know." Watching from the corner of his eye he saw her nod once as she continued moving forward, her hands coming up in front of her, crossed at the wrist, "Be careful." He ordered again not too gently, as he gathered Hiei's form over one shoulder and caught a hold of Kuwabara's collar to drag them out of danger.
The last thing he saw before the thick coils of white smoke spilled out around her was Toguro charging forward, and Sayuri smirking.
He was nearly to the doorway when the clang of metal against metal jarred him and he considered dropping them and running back to her as it reverberated through his bones. Practically holding his breath Kurama yanked his heavy burden around the last corner and into the darkened hallway.
She closed her eyes as the thick moist vapors caressed her skin, knowing that her sight would be no help in this situation. The demon's scent, which had been masked by the human body he'd invaded previously, was readily apparent to her sensitive nose now. It took her a moment to distinguish the original footsteps from the echoes ringing back to her from multiple angles. Combined with the scent that stuck out against the familiar smell of the smoke it was all she needed to dodge the first strike, moving silently through the banks. Her foot collided with something hard, nearly sending her face first to the floor as she dodged. Another familiar, faint scent wafted up to her with the scrape of metal on stone. The sound hadn't just startled her, but had revealed her whereabouts as well. Reaching down Sayuri felt quickly along the sharp edge of the blade before her fingers curled around the hilt of the dropped sword.
"Found you…!"The footsteps thundered loudly behind her, surprising her with how quickly the source had located her. Spinning on one knee she reacted to a whistle of air overhead, and holding the katana sideways above her head listened to the screech of steel stopping steel. The force of the strike bent her arms a bit before she stopped its progress toward the top of her head. Opening her eyes a little she chanced a glance upward, stared at the sharp edge that glinted in the filtered light above her, the figure attached to it nothing more than a dark shadow in the fluffy whiteness the world had become. He was laughing again. "Did you really believe that would work?" There was a taunting quality to his voice and the weight of whatever was pushing against her increased, "They must all be so disappointed. They spent so much time on you and you can't even kill one demon. You really should be ashamed. If you were a real demon you wouldn't have to hide behind cheap tricks and idiots willing to sacrifice themselves for…"
She exploded from the ground, throwing the heavy blade up and away from her before quickly lashing out with her own; striking a leg she watched the figure fall backward and followed, driving the tip of her own blade into the body, stopping only once she felt the resistance of stone and then only to drag it down through the body. Spinning away, she closed her eyes again.
"I thought you already knew that cutting my body apart doesn't hurt me. Whatever damages you do I can just heal again."
"And I thought you would have realized that you've already lost one body. You shouldn't take me lightly…" The scent was converging on her again. Gauging its proximity and direction Sayuri backed up quickly to keep distance between them and cried out as razor sharp metal dug into the back of her shoulder.
X
"Sayuri…!" He dropped them in response to the shriek of pain, however brief it might have been and was headed back toward the fog even as the sting of blood burned his nose and turned his stomach.
X
"I'm fine…" She'd moved out of the way quickly enough to avoid any real damage being done. He'd drawn blood, but hadn't crippled her. Landing on her knees after a miraculous tumbling maneuver she was certain she'd never be able to repeat Sayuri fell silent as she pushed herself back up to her feet, straining her usable senses to find her assailant's whereabouts. Two sets of footsteps were coming closer to her.
"Not for long young lady." The voice came from her left, where the scent was laced with blood, but…
"And when I've finished with you, I'll be sure to leave your mangled corpse with your father's…" It came from the right, a little further away, and she would have thought it was trick if it weren't for the scent. Two identical smells, two living sources. Her eyes opened wide to see two shapes coming toward her in the banks of fog…
X
"Kurama…" The voice was weak and drew his attention to the large person he'd been dragging backward, and had thought was unconscious.
"You should save your strength Kuwabara…" He murmured, renewing his efforts to pull them from the room.
"No…! You have to get in there and help her… can't you see? There's not just… He's… separated."
X
"Then I'll hunt down and kill every person you've ever known…" Dodging the blow from the left she had no choice but to use her borrowed katana to block the one from the right. Using the brief recoil that was caused by deflecting the blow she turned, aiming a kick at the first attacker that sent him flying back from her. Spinning back to the second fighter she lashed out with her left fist, knocking him back as well, and heard the approaching footsteps a second too late.
Golden eyes flashed open in the darkness as another shadow loomed above her, a thick blade glinting wickedly in the diminishing haze. Dodging to the side of the first blade she was forced to roll to avoid a second identical one and then a third that came slashing at her out of the smoke. Gasping for breath now she came up to her feet, turning as another came at her. "So I've lost one body, now I can make as many as I like. How does three to one sound to you?" It took both hands to hold it off and she ducked the next a fraction too late, leaving a thin slice in the side of one of her ears that stung and bled a shocking amount in the second following it's making. Still struggling against the first blade, and recovering from the second the third went unnoticed until a whisper of air fanned against the back of her neck and she had only a second to curse her foolishness for letting him get behind her before…
X
The sharp snap of breaking metal echoed through the room. Stopping short Kurama stared as the dispersing smoke screen finally faded away.
She was covered in blood, her hair stained red by it so that it took him a moment to realize she hadn't transformed back. But she was still standing fully upright, surrounded by thee versions of a small grey haired demon, each with one arm shaped into a large deadly blade, and they all stared at the dome of spiraling blue lighting-like energy that had formed around the girl.
At least until the flash of red light from the side of the room blinded them.