She stared into the mirror.

She was suppose to be getting ready to leave for the meeting with Takeo, dressing in the manner they were use to seeing her.

Pretending as always that she was not walking into a den of hyenas waiting for those moments of weakness from her that would be the sign they could turn on her.

She should see it...shouldn't she?

See what Shinya and Kanako had said was inside of her.

See what the Dragon had done to her.


"It is an unfortunate aspect of becoming the Phoenix Soul." Shinya said from the seat they had offered him and Kanako on the couch.

The rest of them had arranged themselves around her, Hiei the closest and still the most tense of the group.

It might have amused her if in a way she didn't feel grateful that he was there, acting in his own way as a shield against what was being said.

Outwardly of course she didn't let them see it, the tremor inside of her that would not go away.

"Humans are not suppose to be able to support demonic energies for long." Kurama stated firmly.

They had to start somewhere and as luck would have it Kurama had already decided on the topic foremost in her thoughts.

"Nor are they suppose to live through direct contact with a Dragon of Spirit World." Shinya countered with a small smile, "In truth it is very rare for a Dragon to deem it necessary to even attempt to shore up the soul it has damaged. For whatever its reason this Dragon did."

"How?" Hiei demanded tightly.

She sighed internally, not that Hiei needed more reasons to feel responsible for what was happening.

"It would have chosen the nearest soul, cast aside what it did not need and then replaced itself with those parts as it left her." Kanako answered, gesturing towards her, "In the same way it kept itself from overwhelming her soul, it segregated what it left behind so her soul would not instantly reject it. The Dragons are in their own way as close to gods as any creäture can be. They cannot create life on their own but they can...improvise with it. She lived because the Dragon wanted it to be so."

The nearest soul...

She felt her eyes widen slightly.

She hadn't been conscious exactly during those moments, everything had been chaotic inside of her making it impossible to concentrate on any one thing.

She searched her memories trying desperately to recall exactly what had happened.

There was a point she had simply not been there, taken by the reaper that had misinterpreted what was happening to her.

She did not want to know.

She wanted to ignore it.

She asked anyway, "Is there any way to tell...who?"

She felt Hiei's eyes on her but her attention was solely on Shinya.

"The exact demon?" Shinya clarified then shook his head, "I'm afraid even Koenma could not tell you who it was. What the Dragon did not use was ferried to Spirit World, it was simply not intact. It can no more destroy a soul then it can create one. That is an ability not even you truly possess. There would be recognizable abilities that you might find yourself subjected to..."

"Energies..." She whispered, hating the hollow sound to her voice, "Sometimes I see everything like its made out of energies."

The dream came rushing back to her, the face she had seen.

She wanted Shinya to say it was impossible, that there was no way the Dragon would have used that soul.

"When this happens," Shinya pressed carefully, "are you aware of what the energies are that you see?"

She nodded her head.

Don't say it...

"Have you looked into the reaper?" Shinya asked, shifting forward in his seat, "Have you seen her aspects clearly?"

"What..?" Botan began disturbed.

He was going to say it, confirm what she feared.

Would that be the point?

Would that be when Hiei would turn away from her?

That face that she had seen so clearly in the dream loomed in her mind.

"Its him isn't it?!" She demanded suddenly impatient with the horrifying process, "That damn Dragon used Tsuneo!"

Her face gazing back at her, only her eyes had been replaced with the multifaceted orbs of Tsuneo's.

Hiei had gone still.

The bad type of still that she hated because she had yet to interpret it as anything but him being overwhelmed by something.

Hiei overwhelmed could mean any number of things, any number of reactions.

He was completely unpredictable in that state.

"Those from whom even Fate's reflected energies cannot hide." Kurama murmured, moving closer to her on the other side of the chair.

"It is an interpretation of how we see." Kanako confirmed, nodding, "If Tsuneo was still near then yes the Dragon most likely used him. No other demon race can see those aspects of reapers."

She looked up at Kurama for answers.

Kurama was much safer, gazing down at her with something akin to concern swimming in his golden eyes.

"Botan appears just as any individual without strong energies would to us. Even Hiei's Jagan cannot perceive her energies." Kurama explained gently, "From what they are saying it is not Tsuneo himself Shizuru, only characteristics of his demonic soul and energies."

Was it better or worse coming from Youko instead of the more familiar features of Kurama?

Maybe worse since Youko's countenance still held that habitual superiority of most demons, that arrogance that made the compassion in his voice feel not quite sincere.

"Because that makes it allll better..." She whispered harshly.

Tsuneo was inside her.

The demon that had sent Nariaki.

The demon that had kidnapped and tormented her with illusions for days until she had lost track of what was real and what he was putting into her head.

The demon that wanted Hiei dead.

She held onto it, the tight ball of disgust boiling inside of her.


She should see it...him hiding inside of her.

"Hey, you aren't that hot." Narumi teased, startling her out of her reverie.

She closed her eyes momentarily, gathering herself.

She couldn't be distracted right now, not even by the growing seed of undirected loathing.

"Here, I got this for you awhile ago." Narumi prompted.

She opened her eyes to find a slim box being offered.

She took it, pointedly ignoring the fact that her hands were shaking then smiled as she looked at the contents.

"Gotta dress up and you could use a new tie." Narumi explained leaning over to check herself in the mirror.

Big meetings meant better than normal dress and as much as she didn't mind skirts she never went to a yakuza meeting in anything other than pants.

It was in its own way armor, the long-sleeved shirt, the vest, and the silk tie that went around her throat.

Except her hands were shaking.

"Freak out much," Narumi huffed at her taking over the knotting, "don't see why you're letting it get to you. You already decided its lights out in the end. All that other stuff is just details on how to get there."

It helped that Narumi was trying so hard to distract her, it made it easier to concentrate on someone else than to remain trapped within her own thoughts.

Narumi was dressed up as well, her clothing of better quality and her hair spiked with as much product as Yusuke used to bullet proof his.

Takeo would comment on her choice of dress, the yakuza leader was not a fan of the rocker look that Narumi took such pains to perfect.

"Never could figure out how you pull off that look better than guys do." Narumi commented stepping back, "You wearing a jacket or..."

"General rules apply," She answered the unfinished question, "I'm not going in without a piece."

"A piece?" Botan inquired from the bathroom doorway.

"A gun," Narumi clarified as she passed the reaper on her way out, "I'll grab you a shoulder thing. Hurry up we gotta get going."

"Shizuru this..." Botan began worriedly.

She sighed in frustration as she looked herself over one last time then left the bathroom as well, heading for the door.

"You can hate me doing this but you know what? Oh damn well." She said as they reached the doorway of the main room, "I have to do this. There isn't a choice. Whatever Takeo has planned it isn't going to include killing me, not tonight anyway."

"You really think that?" Botan asked concerned.

"You don't bloody your own house." She replied as Narumi exited her room, "It's one of his rules."

Hiei snorted in contempt from his perch on the single chair.

"This is ill-advised." Shinya asserted, "Without the proper warding if your life ends..."


"I will do my best to explain this but it is sometimes difficult to convey." Shinya informed the room at large, "The pulses are in a manner of speaking three extraordinary events at once. First it is a signal that the energies inside of Shizuru are converging, becoming one."

"So she's going to be like me?" Yusuke asked frowning, "That didn't happen when I died."

"You may be able to produce and control both types of energies, Lord Yusuke, but they do not exist inside of you as one cohesive force, as a constant state of being. You naturally produce human spiritual energies. When you access your demonic energies it is produced more from your outward form. In this way you remain...a natural aspect, the energies exist in two separate spaces." Kanako explained slowly.

"He means it is not about your energies." Kurama offered to Yusuke who was scowling in even more confusion, "What he truly means is your body only has one soul. Shizuru holding two distinctly different types is unnatural and the pulse is a result of them becoming one."

"Oh.." Yusuke muttered, "Why didn't he just say that?"

"Because he isn't use to talking to the logically challenged." Hiei commented, annoyance coloring his voice.

"And the other two events?" Kurama pressed, with his arms folded.

She was grateful for that too.

For Kurama taking over the questions that needed answers.

She was still trying to manage the first shock, unable to think much past the fact that Tsuneo had been inside of her all this time.

"Enough ties have been severed to her past to create the necessary concentration of Fate's attention to her...current situation. It may help to think of the first two pulses as the rumblings of a volcano before it erupts. Nature has a tendency to do such things." Shinya replied evenly, "There are always signs before true destruction. That is the third event, Nature itself rejecting her creation."

"Is that why the Dragon reacted?" Kurama asked gaining a glare from Hiei who he smirked at, "I am not so logically challenged."

"Yes...these pulses create a type of sound, for lack of a better term. A call resonates from the pulse, the correct pulse will bring the Dragons from their place in Spirit World to this plane." Kanako responded, his eyes narrowing, "The final pulse is in fact two distinctly different pulses. The first calls the Dragons to assist in the freeing of souls from mortal bodies, the second and truly final burns away what defines those individual souls leaving behind only what was initially created."

"Ah...from the ashes of her death rises new life...the Phoenix Soul, how appropriately horrifying a name." Kurama reasoned with a modicum of disgust.

"When I killed Ven I cut one of my last ties." She muttered, shifting uncomfortably, "Does that mean I only have two left?"

Wasn't that sad in a way?

Somehow she only had two ties left to account for a lifetime of moving through other people's lives.

"Two very distinct ties," Shinya answered drawing her eyes back to him, "ones you will be drawn to sever with your own hands."

"You sayin' she didn't cut all the others?" Kazuma asked, speaking for the first time since they had sat down to discuss everything.

"No one, not even a Witness, is capable of that." Shinya denied, waving a hand, "Sometimes they are not even aware the ties exist, connections they would have never considered important to begin with."

She shoved herself from the chair, suddenly overcome with agitated energy.

"Sis?" Kazuma ventured uncertainly as she snatched up her pack from the coffee table.

She only glanced at him, busying herself with the act of lighting the cigarette.

She didn't know if she wanted to laugh, cry, throw things.

Didn't they get what Shinya had just said?

A hit list had been put together from her life, those people had been hunted down and killed just because of association with her.

Because I cared about them in some way...

And there were still two more left.

Two more ties that she was going to be directly responsible for severing.

And they could be anyone...

"How do we stop me?" She demanded spinning to the two on the couch, "I mean right now. Can you stop me from killing those two people?"

Shinya and Kanako looked at one another then back at her.

"No, these ties you will be pulled to undo regardless of our actions. We can only...redirect the pulses themselves." Shinya finally answered with compassion in his tone.

"And how do you accomplish that?" Hiei questioned suspiciously.

She looked at him questioningly, there was a hard edge to Hiei's voice that she didn't understand.

As if he already knew what their response would be.

"A variation of the wards we wear to remain hidden though the process is much more permanent then you see clearly." Shinya answered gesturing to Kanako to stand, "Show them."

Kanako rose to his feet then proceeded to remove the bandages from one of his arms.

Beneath the seemingly benign cloth were what she assumed to be words set into a spiral pattern that began in the middle of his upper arm and coiled around to disappear under his shirt near his shoulder.

There were other markings beneath those along his arm without any real pattern that she could figure out.

"Fate marks those that interfere with its design." Shinya explained somberly, "Aside from the spiral which we place ourselves what you see is the evidence of those Witnesses Kanako has saved."

She found herself stepping towards the demon, her eyes centering on every black mark individually.

"You wish to place wards into her skin?!" Hiei demanded incredulous.

"You have a tattoo," She reminded him annoyed, "What's the big deal if it'll stop..."

"You have no concept of what they're saying!" Hiei hissed cutting her off.

"Hiei," Kurama said sharply, gaining Hiei's attention but only for a moment.

"Wards set into her skin means she will never be able to remove them." Hiei growled, pointing at Kanako's arm, "Those ward him against Spirit World!"

A small sound escaped Botan, soft and full of shock.

"And that means?" She prompted the reaper.

"Reapers won't attend him." Botan answered, her large pink eyes focused on Kanako, "If he dies he'll experience all of it, every layer of death before he can be collected. Why would you put yourself through that?"

"A necessary evil," Kanako responded lightly, "in order to save those I can, not just the Witnesses but their victims as well. The wards also warp my demonic energies so I can do so. What we will place on Shizuru will have a...similar affect. She will be hidden from Spirit World, her energies will warp to turn on themselves instead of being unleashed on the world at large."

"But I thought she was...you know already hiding from Koenma." Kuwabara said glancing at Kurama.

"In a manner of speaking," Kurama agreed, "I assume this additional warding is necessary to warp her energies, a back up to what she is naturally producing. I also assume that her second pulse will be much stronger then the first. If she allows it isn't she in danger of being consumed if those energies remain inside her?"

Hiei snorted, "If it doesn't eat her internally it could serve as an imperfect prison, her soul might rip itself apart. There is no warding that exists to hold human spiritual energy."

Was that why he seemed so incensed by the idea?

She had never thought about it, Hiei's expertise in wards and their effects.

Had he already reasoned this out, that it would require wards that he saw as impossible to set? Ones he felt would end her life?

Why would he keep that to himself?

"If she were any other being then yes that would be a concern, Lord Hiei." Shinya agreed, "But she is the Phoenix Soul, made to continue the unnatural creation of a soul that should not exist."

Bad.

Very, very bad choice of words when dealing with someone who had been rejected by his own people using similar terms.

Possibly the worst ones to toss out with so little thought near Hiei of all people especially in association with her.

All of them knew it and all of them reacted in some manner.

Another thing to be grateful for, Yusuke was impressively fast when he put his mind to it.

She was absolutely sure Hiei would have killed Shinya right then if Yusuke had not made it in time to deflect his sword.

Kurama was only a second later, cutting off the enraged fire demon's line of sight of his intended target with his body.

For a moment even she was holding her breath, waiting for Hiei to attempt to move around them or go through them.

"Hiei..." She called out when she finally found her voice again.

Hiei ignored her, his body locked in the stance he had taken as he glared at Yusuke and Kurama.

"Shouldn't be talking like that about her." Kazuma said into the heavy silence, his own voice deep with anger, "That's...just not cool."

"Be that as it may it is not the best of plans to kill the only possible source of halting the progress of what is occurring." Kurama replied speaking directly to Hiei, "Poor choice of wording or not."

"Come on Hiei, yea this sucks but you can't go around killing people cause they say things wrong." Yusuke asserted frowning.

Hiei straightened, returning his sword to his side, "You may not be able to."

Hiei stalked passed her and disappeared through the backdoor.

Her first impulse was to follow him, find out why he had attacked Shinya.

There was more behind all that anger he had just displayed.

She even stepped towards the door to find out just what was bugging him so badly but halted at the sound of Narumi's voice.

"We have to get ready to go, Shizuru."


"Go ahead, it's not going to change my mind." She encouraged Shinya to finish what he had been saying.

"Without the wards if your life ends the process will still have consequences. The resulting release of energies will kill many, and since we are so close to the portal it will affect the Demon World as well." Shinya continued, standing, "It would be best to allow us to place them first before putting yourself in danger."

"How long would it take?" She asked shrugging on the shoulder holster Narumi handed her and then the jacket.

"Hours," Kanako answered from his seat, "the wards themselves must be freshly created. This process is not a pleasant one."

Yes, it was very like armor, the clothing she wore,the weapon she took from Narumi.

Not hours before that information might have felt overwhelming, instead it only made her pause momentarily to consider her options.

There was simply no way around her going to Takeo's, any delay on her part could be seen as insulting.

They just did not want to understand, that was the problem with her being at the center of all this.

If any of them had said it was impossible to avoid they would be taken for their word.

"You're going to ward me, did it ever occur to you that there's an after?" She asked the demon quietly, "I have a life you know, outside of all this. Things I have to take care of, people that depend on me. I'm not leaving them with my mess to clean up just because you walk in and say "end of the world". It isn't you know...the end...not for everyone else."

"You are that certain we will be successful in containing you." Shinya replied humbly, "How..."

"This isn't the darkest," She interrupted him, understanding suddenly why she had felt so let down when Yusuke had introduced them as the answer to their problems, "and you aren't the light. Whatever is going to happen, the worst of it isn't here yet. So yea I know you'll contain me, that you'll get that chance to try...I just don't know if it'll matter."

She ignored the weight of their stares, that slight disconnection inherent in her when it was not just her speaking the words that flowed from her mouth.

Shinya's expression relaxed, "I see. If that is the truth of it then I understand."

"Guess you should get going on that prep work then. We'll take care of it when I get back." She suggested placing the gun in its place at her side, "The rest of you stay inside, with both of us gone there's always a chance someone will think its a good time to make a move."

"Like who?" Yusuke asked derisively.

"It's like talking to a wall or whatever is worse. At least with a wall in the right place there's a damn echo." Narumi snorted in annoyance, "Be my guest and go running around. When a bullet goes through that thick skull of yours try not to make a mess."

She couldn't help the smirk that lifted the corner of her mouth.

Hiei had at least returned which was a good sign she hoped.

Maybe when she got back they could talk before the wards were placed.

"Just be careful," She told all of them, tucking her hands in her pockets.

"You too." Kazuma insisted.

She nodded absently as she turned away from the group to leave the house.


"Lord Hiei?"

His lip curled in agitation.

He did not want to speak with anyone, least of all Shinya.

"I understand your animosity towards us." Shinya offered from beneath the tree he occupied.

Did he?

Why then was he foolish enough to seek him out, alone when not an hour ago he had wanted his blood?

He could still taste the strength of that impulse, still desired to end the demon's life.

The answers Shinya possessed were just as destructive as doing nothing at all. He had preferred to do nothing, to allow it to take its course.

"It may seem to you as if we are uncaring but I assure you that is not the case." Shinya continued into the silence he saw no reason to break, "I have been dedicated to the concept of circumventing Fate's plan for a very long time. There have been many times I cursed the idea of it, despised the necessity of it's actions but in time you will learn it does serve its purpose. Just as I have had to..."

"I care nothing of your life." He snapped hoping it would chase the demon away.

He was not in the mood to wax poetic about the concept of Fate.

Nor for discussing the reasons for it to so readily destroy.

He wanted silence, the calming touch of night air.

He wanted Shizuru to not accept death as the only means to the end.

For her not to gaze at him as if she already foresaw his future without her.

To not have that sense that she was already beyond his grasp, already a memory that might fade with time.

"May I ask you a question, Lord Hiei?" Shinya ventured, moving closer to his position.

He glanced down in annoyance, "If it will make you leave then ask."

"Why did you not use the full strength of the Dragon against Lord Mukuro?"

His brow furrowed slightly though he controlled any other outward sign that he was surprised by the question.

"What makes you think I didn't?" He returned, curious despite himself.

Shinya chuckled, "Tsuneo was obsessed with the Dragons, Lord Hiei but he was not the only one well aware of their true nature and power. You are also not the only Master of the Darkness Technique that I have had association with. I was there during the Dark Tournament, felt the confines you defined for the Dragon. It was much weaker during your bout with Lord Mukuro, which is...an impossibility. As your strength grows so does the essence of the Dragon as it relaxes more fully with its chosen vessel. It can only be weaker through very strict control of its form. A demon cannot simply...rip it apart no matter how strong they are."

He shifted to look down at Shinya, searching the demon's face for a moment.

That knowledge was something he had hidden even from Mukuro which was no small task.

What could he say to such a confident statement.

That he had not used the Dragon's full power should have been a given, though granted he did not use it as a casual weapon.

It took more than what Mukuro had put him through to inspire the use of it or else he would have just unleashed it on Shigure and been done with that tiring process.

The one saving grace was that Mukuro for all her years knew nothing about the technique.

She had never seen it displayed.

She had not attended the Dark Tournament either, only had heard through her sources of it and him.

For as much as she had claimed to know about him she had failed in that area to realize exactly what he had done.

It had been a calculated compromise.

With the creation of the Demon Tournament the title of "heir" had become obsolete.

Mukuro was no longer a king, the title of Lord had not been bestowed upon her through Enki at that time.

She had been only Mukuro, a very experienced demon who had the strength and knowledge to teach him.

If nothing else she had the potential to assist him in becoming more powerful which was something he was very interested in.

What held him back was one flaw.

She was trapped by her past, imprisoned by things that had stopped defining her centuries prior. Her insistence that he know her intimately had exposed that truth to him in lurid detail.

It altered his perceptions of her, lowered his respect for her.

He could not see himself being taught by someone whose attention remained so fixated in that manner.

He did not want to return to the Human World, to the useless quality of it.

He would remain in Demon World.

Being under Mukuro's tutelage had seemed much easier than going off in search of another.

For whatever reason he had wanted to give Mukuro the chance, the opportunity to become a demon he could remain with since there were no other opportunity to be had at that moment.

He had a natural aversion to being trapped.

That in some ways Mukuro's inability to turn from her past reminded him of Yukina imprisonment was a comparison he could not avoid though he had tried to.

A calculated compromise.

That was all it had been.

If she ever found out he was certain Mukuro would attempt to kill him.

If she ever realized that for all their talk on that battlefield of using their full strength against each other it had been only that, talk and nothing else.

A means of distraction because if she had been at the Dark Tournament she would have known the Dragon's release was not the expression of his full strength.

She would have turned the Dragon as Bui had done, altered its attentions to his destruction instead of manhandling it as he had known she would.

Mukuro was much too arrogant not to do as she had, not to think she alone could physically tear apart the essence of a creäture from Spirit World.

To face him at his full strength would have meant absorbing the Dragon's energies into his own body, wresting its power from it too infuse himself with it.

Only then would she have faced him as they had talked about.

But his intention had only been to distract her for that critical moment he needed.

For him to break the manacle she would not remove on her own, to free her from that child still cowering in her darkened corner praying for salvation.

It had taken every ounce of strength he possessed, thrown him into the deepest hibernation he had ever entered but he had accomplished restraining the Dragon's form.

He stared down at Shinya as these thoughts went through his mind, "I saw no need."

Why would he be inclined to tell this stranger any of those things?

Why give the false impression that it had anything to do with any compassion he may have felt towards the ex-king at the time?

He had a feeling Kurama suspected as much, the knowing smile the red-head had been wearing when he woke had spoken volumes.

Shinya nodded his head as if he had revealed something, "I thought as much. The Dragon is a strange creäture, Lord Hiei. Just as Shizuru appears to be but they do both possess the same qualities in many ways. They are creatures of habit, prone to giving into pressures that are familiar since they are subjected to Fate moving them."

His eyes narrowed, "Why tell me this?"

"As I said to her we are not destroyers." Shinya replied gazing up at him, "What binds our hands in this is quite, distressingly simple. If she does not want to live, she will not live."

He sat forward, "Your friend thinks little of her life."

"Kanako feels that a Witness should serve their purpose. It is one thing when they are frightened, to come across one so strong, so adamant about the lives of others is unique. I feel a Witness should not be asked to carry the weight Fate burdens them with." Shinya explained folding his arms, "But I also believe that is why our sect has flourished. In some way Fate acknowledges this and allows us to work against it to assist in maintaining the Balance."

"Get to your point, Shinya." He snapped impatiently.

"We can save her...with your assistance. It may not be in the manner you desire, there are consequences for what I am proposing. Ones you may not be willing to suffer considering your association with her." Shinya responded quietly.

He launched himself down from the tree to stand in front of Shinya, "Do not offer me false..."

"We have successfully kept another soul like her's alive." Shinya interrupted him, "It is the cost that you may not find appealing."

"Why speak to me and not the others?" He demanded suspiciously.

"They do not have what is needed, the ability to channel the Dragon's energies as you do. In order to save her life it will be necessary for you to do so, for you to be a part of warding her body to accept the soul she will eventually be left with." Shinya explained, his brow furrowing with what he assumed was concern, "They also do not have the influence you do upon her."

He felt himself withdraw, that pulling away that was a natural reaction to anything that held that foreboding quality to it.

He was instantly disgusted with the concept of him having a hand in imprisoning anyone, that it would be Shizuru only added to it.

To mar her flesh with wards, to purposefully be a part of it at all.

"The cost?" He prompted knowing it would be high.

"The process itself is painful, excruciatingly so," Shinya answered carefully, "in many ways we would be creating a blank canvas, a soul Fate does not hold so tightly. Her memories, her energies, all that she is will be changed or erased."

"She would never agree to that." He stated, holding Shinya's attention with his own gaze, "You know that."

"Neither would they," Shinya countered, gesturing towards Narumi's dwelling where the others were, "not in the manner they believe. Their influence is much too close. Love can have the exact opposite effect one wants, especially in consideration for someone who's only purpose appears to be the well-being of others."

"What else?" He asked quietly, "There is more to your cost."

"She would in essence become a demon, one that is not safe to remain in this world." Shinya replied truthfully, "She would have to return with us to the Demon World. At least for long enough for her wards to prove sufficient and for her energies to become...what they will. That is provided she survives the process, the will to live is essential."

"The last time the Dragon touched her..." He began heatedly.

"It requires a creäture of Fate to change the fate of another." Shinya interrupted gently.

Again he found himself thinking of killing Shinya.

Of striking down this medium of verbalized damnation, to see his blood on the ground as if that would change any of what they had been speaking of.

She would lose everything she held important if he agreed to this.

She would never coöperate with this exchange, her life or loss of it would seem paltry to her in the face of that reality.

She would rather die than be a threat.

She would rather die then live without any of them.

"If her wards proved insufficient?" He questioned, tensely.

Was he truly considering this?

She was not the only one who would be losing everything.

"She would have to remain with our sect so that we could monitor them and replace them as needed." Shinya replied, shifting closer, "We occupy a lower level of Demon World. It is much safer for her to live out her life there then to risk this world. We are speaking of an event much like they feared when Lord Yusuke's demonic ancestry became an actuality."

He could only stare at Shinya.

She would become an exile as well in that event.

He could not think clearly, could not pull himself from the chaotic storm of hate-filled hope that churned inside of him.

How could anyone be asked to make these choices?

He would never be able to convince her to fight for a life empty of those she knew and loved.

He did not want to do so, everything inside of him surged against the concept with such straining intensity it made his eyes narrow in reaction to it.

"I know this is a difficult decision, Lord Hiei." Shinya said understandingly, "The first of the wards do not require your involvement. I leave it to you to decide what you will do."

Then he was alone again, the shadows of the night creeping much closer then they had seemed to be earlier.

He found himself reaching back, using the tree to guide himself to sit on the ground as he stared unseeing up at the quarter moon above.

She would never agree to it.

She would live.

She could potentially forget everything, including him.

She would live.

She would detest him for it.

She would live.

He would be alone again.

But she would live...


Soooooo tell me what ya think :) Since there's A LOT of explanation in this chap if I confuse anyone please feel free to ask. There's always a chance I just wasn't as clear as I thought I was lol. All reviews are greatly appreciated XD!