A/N: Happy New Year, guys! Massive chapter for you guys uploaded at midnight (where I am anyways). Busy/exam season is coming up, but I'll try really hard to keep going consistently for you guys. Lots of love!

Upload Date: 1/1/13

Next Upload Date: In about a week


Chiryo

Chapter 55

It felt like she was floating in a very deep pool. The surroundings were comfortable, but there was a large pressure on her head, almost as if she was about to explode. Snippets of words and sentences appeared in her mind, like tiny drops of water.

"- been a while –"

"- Almost two weeks –"

"- won't die, will she?"

"- don't know –"

The world spun like a whirlwind, seemingly tossing her from side to side. It felt like every bone in her body was cracking all at the same time. Pale, blue sparks that looked cold to the touch, but felt warm and comforting danced before her eyes, swirling around her body, repairing damage that feeble purple sparks tried to fix, but couldn't touch.

"- Brooch secure –"

"- dropped by. Uehara Sr. –"

"- can only wait now. There's –"

Something cold touched her skin. It was wet, against her forehead, a shock, but something soothing at the same time.


Riko opened her eyes.

Above her was a white ceiling embedded with fluorescent lights, dimmed to create an evening-like feel.

Okay… it doesn't look like I'm dead. She carefully pushed herself to a sitting position. Though with Koenma, it's always hard to tell. Something fell from her forehead. Riko looked down and then picked up a wet towel that had previously been on her forehead. …Interesting. So old school. She looked around the room, shifting her position and then paused.

At the edge of the head, her head on the blankets, was Yukina. She was asleep, her breathing deep and heavy.

Hm… Riko blinked at the girl and then smiled. Stayed with me. Good healer. Carefully, Riko lifted the blankets enough to let herself out and then dragged the blanket out from under Yukina. She placed the blanket over Yukina and then padded, bare-footed, over to the door.

Quietly, she turned the knob and pushed the door open. Riko poked her head outside and looked around. There was no one around, and the lights, like the ones inside, were dimmed to almost darkness. Same place as last time. And Must be night, Riko thought as she closed the door and walked back in.

She sighed and leaned against the door, looking up at the lights. What should she do? The best thing would probably be to rest, but she wasn't tired in the slightest. She could literally feel her spirit energy bubbling inside her. It had been completely restored, and any damage that might have been done to her system had now been undone. She was perfectly fine.

And unfortunately, very antsy.

Still as quietly as she could, Riko crept to her bedside table. There were flowers and a cup of tea that smelled like Earl Gray. Kurama, probably. What a classy, little demon. She grinned, ran her fingers through the flowers and then turned away from them, heading instead towards the window.

It was locked.

Riko stared at the lock for a moment, then rolled her eyes, and quietly unlocked it, pushing the window open to allow tendrils of cold, night air into the room. She breathed for a moment and then secured the window at an open position and looked out.

"Well," Riko murmured to herself as she looked out at the empty streets. "Apparently, Spirit World does sleep."

She sighed and lowered her head onto her arms, giving up on the hope of finding entertainment. She would just stand here for a few minutes, and then she would go back to bed and try to sleep some more…


.


"Riko?!"

Startled, Riko jerked awake and looked around, confused.

"Riko, what are you doing on the floor? Why aren't you in bed?"

Hands grabbed her and gently helped her to a standing position. Riko turned her head to stare at the newcomer and then smiled. "Oh. Hi. Botan. What's up."

"'What's up'?" Botan asked, somewhere between amused, exasperated and worried. "Riko, you should be resting!"

Lazily, Riko waved her off and walked back over to her bed, crawling in. As she did, she noted that Yukina was awake, and Koenma was also in the room, in toddler form, looking over everything with a decided judging quality. "I feel fine," She said in reply to Botan's words. "Hi, Yukina. Thank you for healing me – I assumed it was you." Yukina nodded. "Oh good. And hey, Koenma. What's up." She pulled the covers over her and looked at her company. "So, where is everyone? How did everything turn out?"

Koenma held up a hand. "Please hold for a minute." He looked at the blue-haired demoness. "Will you check her?"

Rolling her eyes, Riko held out her arm to Yukina. "I'm fine, Koenma. I think I should know. I am a healer, after all."

"True," Koenma admitted, "But according to Jirou, that spell you were under was pretty severe."

Riko blinked and leaned forward. "Jirou. Is he okay? Somebody tell me what happened."

"Wait," Koenma commanded. He looked at Yukina. "How is she?"

"Fine," Riko said dryly.

Yukina smiled. "She is fine," She affirmed. "Her spirit energy levels are normal, her heart rate is a little high, but nothing to worry about. Her temperature has returned to 98.6, and all flesh injuries are now completely healed." She looked at Riko and smiled. "It's a full recovery."

"Thanks," Riko said, smiling back. She looked back at Koenma. "So. Tell me what happened. Did we get the Sakar Brooch?"

Glaring, Koenma folded his arms. "That is classified information."

"Which," Riko concluded, "Means we did. Awesome." She grinned, blinking innocently at her boss. "Oh come on, Koenma, don't you trust me?" She waggled her eyebrows and then shook her head. "I won't do anything. For now." She smirked. "Anyways. How was the fighting? The guys had to have fought at least the finals without both me and Hiei right? Are they okay?"

"They did alright," Botan said. "The semifinals and finals were held back to back, and what do you know, Ferai's team is fighting ours in the finals."

"Of course," Riko said, with no change in expression.

Smiling slightly, Botan continued, "Her people pressed to only allow each member to fight once, and unfortunately, even though Yusuke won the first fight, Kuwabara lost the second, so it would have been a default win for them. But luckily, Kurama managed to delay long enough that Hiei got there. He took on Zeru of Ferai's team and beat him pretty soundly."

Hm… "Did he use the Dragon of the Darkness Flame?" Riko asked.

Botan nodded. "Yes, he did."

"Good. So it worked."

Koenma looked sharply at Riko. "What worked?"

Riko grinned. "His arm. My favorite part. Okay." She looked at Yukina and Botan in turn. "You guys know what a living wound is, right?"

Yukina nodded, and Botan explained to the others, "It's a wound that no matter how much you heal it, regenerates itself. It's almost impossible to get rid of."

"Unless the wound is confined to an area – say, an arm – and you cut that area off."

Koenma's eyebrows shut up. "Excuse me? The last time I saw Hiei's arm, it was most definitely still attached to his body."

Still grinning, Riko leaned forward and whispered, "I regrew it." She waggled her eyebrows at Yukina and Botan. "I cut off his arm, and then regrew it. It went perfectly. I even managed to add a bit of Dragon Flame into the new tissue, like a vaccine. Now Hiei has near perfect control of the dragon and a brand new arm." She leaned back complacently. "How awesome am I?"

There was no answer to the question, though Koenma glared at his employee.

Finally, Riko rolled her eyes. "Fine. Let's get back to the main topic. Um… next question. How's Jirou? And Ferai? I'm not sure, but I'm fairly certain that when we left, she was still alive."

Grimly, Koenma nodded. "She is still alive. We have her in prison right now, and she's about to be moved to the Twisted Prison."

"Oh really," Riko said. "Great. Brings up wonderful memories." She shook her head. "That's pretty fast though. I would have thought that your bureaucratic little state would have taken at least a couple weeks."

Koenma and Botan exchanged looks. "Riko," Botan said. "You've out for almost three weeks now."

Very, very slowly, Riko's eyes widened. "…Excuse me? Three weeks? Wow. Wow, that is… wow. I think that might be a personal record." She shook her head, taking a deep breath and then letting it out slowly. "Okay. Um… and Jirou?"

"It's a much happier story for Jirou," Botan said, with a smile. "He and his father made up. His father now trusts him, and he is the heir to the Uehara fortune."

"Hm… that must be a lot of money…" Riko muttered.

Botan laughed. "What, are you interested in him?"

Riko smiled. "Hey. Rich guys always have their appeal. Just think of how much treasure I could get with all that money."

"Don't joke, Riko," Koenma snapped. "Now, I want a debriefing from you. What happened in there?"

Nodding, Riko folded her blankets back absently and then began. "So, I walked into the break room after my fight. I was planning on meditating – yes, I still meditate, Koenma." Koenma raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. "But anyways, I was tranquilized. I have no clue how, and I woke up in a steel box. Yuuna came to me, told me what she was planning – which was to kill me, in case you didn't already figure that out – and so I decided to try to call for help in the hopes that Hiei would hear me." She paused and looked around. "Which reminds me. Do you know where he is?

"Uh… no. We haven't been able to get in contact with him since we returned," Botan said.

"Of course not," Riko muttered. "Anyways, I presume that Hiei did hear something, but I don't really know, cause Yuuna electrocuted me, and I fainted. Next thing I know, I'm in another room – a bedroom – on a bed surrounded by black lace curtains. Valeina Ferai came in, told me she was Yuuna's mother and told me that it was important to her pride or something like that to kill me." Riko shrugged. "She didn't think that Yuuna was going about it fast enough, so she killed Yuuna and cast a spell on me to suck away my spirit energy. It was contained in the curtains so I couldn't get out, but luckily, Hiei showed up, kicked ass, and rescued me."

Koenma nodded slowly. "Very well. That's all for now. Get some more, Riko, and then you can return home for a while. Botan, let's go. We have work to do."

With a sigh, Botan stood up. "Alright, Koenma, but I'm not doing the paperwork." She smiled down at Riko. "I'll come visit later." She leaned in for a brief hug. "It's nice to see you awake again."

"Nice to be awake," Riko replied. She waved as the two left and then glanced at Yukina. "What about you? Do you need to go?"

Yukina hesitated.

"I'm fine, you know," Riko said. "I know my body really well. I'm fine." She tilted her head to get a better look at Yukina's face and then smiled, making the expression as gentle as she could. "But… I know how you're feeling. Healers always like to check up on their patients. I know. It's kinda killing me that Hiei isn't here right now. But really, if you're… if you wanna leave, if you have to leave, you can." She waited for a moment. "Or is it something else?"

"It's not just that I want to keep an eye on you," Yukina admitted. "I… I'm trying to find my brother, and I'm not sure where to look next." She shook her head sadly. "I don't know where to go."

Surprised, Riko leaned forward, propping her elbows on the bed and her head on her fists. "Brother? You have a brother, Yukina?"

Nodding, Yukina explained, "We were separated at birth. My clan – the Koorime – we live all our lives separate from males. But my mother… she didn't obey the rule. She conceived my brother and I. I was kept, but my brother… he was thrown out."

Riko's eyes widened. "Oh… I… I'm sorry," She said, unusually awkward. "Uh… um… do you have any clues as to where he might be?" She asked, trying to ignore the thought that the most likely scenario would be that Yukina's brother was dead.

Shaking her head, Yukina reached under her kimono and pulled out a necklace – a perfect sphere on a thin thread. "All I know is that he has a necklace similar to this one. We Koorime – our tears crystalize, and when we give birth, we produce a crystal unlike any other." She looked at it sadly. "He has the other one. If I can find it, I can find him." She sighed. "I just… I don't know what to do anymore. I've looked all over, but… he just doesn't seem to be around."

Riko shook her head, completely unsure of what to say, how to comfort the ice demoness before her.

Before she could think of something, Yukina spoke again. "And yet… there are times when I feel his presence, but even then, I can never find him."

Silence fell.

Oh dear. What the hell have I gotten myself into. Riko bit her lip, trying desperately to think of something. Oh come on. I've broken into dozens of safes, but I can't think of a comforting sentence?! Mentally, Riko grimaced, but outwardly, she smiled, genuine if a bit awkward. "Listen, Yukina… I'm… I'm not good at this reassuring people thing, but…" Riko sighed. "I think that it's going to be fine. Whether you find him or not. If you do, then that's great. But even if you, you'll know that you've tried, and I'm sure that he would be grateful for that." She paused again and then shook her head. "And listen. I'm… pretty good at finding things. I mean, my past resume is pretty limited to treasure, but… I'll try. To find him, I mean. Your brother?"

It was slow, but gradually, a smile spread across Yukina's face. "Thank you," She murmured. "Thank you very much. I know it's going to be fine. I'm surrounded by such wonderful, kind people."

Riko smiled back – still with a touch of awkwardness.

Yukina sniffed and wiped a tear from her eye. It solidified, and Yukina caught it carefully. She stood up. "Thank you. Again. I feel better. I'm going to keep looking." She looked down at the tear and then offered it to Riko. "For you. As thanks for cheering me up."

Touched in spite of herself, Riko took the gem. "Thank you."

With one more smile, Yukina walked towards the door, opened it softly and then left. The door shut behind her without a single sound.

Riko let out a deep breath and looked down at the crystal in her hand. It was bright and pure. She'd heard of the Koorime's tears before. They were extremely valuable on the black market. Just one could buy a livelihood. A Koorime… looking for her brother. That is not going to end well.

Leaning back, Riko closed her eyes and sighed again. No time to get depressed. Opening her eyes again, Riko slipped out of her bed and crossed over to the window again.

This time, there were many people outside, bustling from building to building as they each attempted to complete their tasks. Riko watched them pass for a moment and then started to get up and head back towards her bed. She paused and then frowned. Riko returned to the window and leaned out, squinting.

Several hundred meters from her room, there was a very large tree. It looked out of place among the almost urban feel of the rest of the environment, and what looked even more out of place was the person sitting on a branch of the tree, arms folded, katana by his side.

Very slowly, Riko grinned. "Hiei," She called softly. The figure didn't stir. "Hiei," She called again, a little louder. "I want to check out your arm. You know. Just so it doesn't rot off."

The figure in the tree disappeared. Riko blinked, surprised. She hadn't actually expected her call to work. Huh, interesting.

The door to the room slammed open, and Riko turned to see Hiei's katana in her face. She put her hands up, trying not to smile.

"Hi," She whispered. "How are you, Hiei?"

"What were you saying? About my arm?" Hiei asked, voice dangerously low.

Still smiling, Riko smiled. "I was kidding. I just wanted to check it out. Lemme see it." She held out her hand, and when Hiei didn't respond, she shrugged. "Okay, if you're gonna be like that… I wasn't completely kidding. It's always important to check up on a healing, especially one that was so complicated. Lemme see your arm, Hiei."

There was a very long hesitation period, but finally, Hiei extended his right arm. Riko pocketed Yukina's tear, took the arm and folded up the sleeve. She ran her fingers along the skin and sent several purple sparks tracing into Hiei's skin, checking the connections. Carefully, she twisted Hiei's arm from side to side and then bent each finger, measuring the movements.

Finally, she let go and smiled. "It's beautiful." She looked into Hiei's eyes and grinned. "Your arm is a work of art."

She expected a scowl, but instead, Hiei was staring at her pocket. "What was that?" He asked, voice very, very soft.

Surprised by the tone, Riko reached into the pocket and showed Hiei the gem. "It's a tear. A Koorime's tear. They solidify into gems."

"I know," Hiei snapped. "Where did you get it?"

"Uh…" Riko said, still confused. "Um… Yukina gave it to me. She… she was upset, because she's trying to find her brother, and she doesn't know where else to look, and she was kinda crying – not really, and I cheered her up and promised that I would help her find him, so she decided to give that to me." Riko stared at Hiei. "What's the matter?"

Hiei's eyes flicked upwards and met hers. His expression twisted, changed. "Nothing," He snapped. "If I were you, I would take back that promise. She's not going to find her brother."

"…What?" Riko asked. "How do you know that?" She tilted her head to the side. "Do you know her brother?" Her eyes widened. "Is he dead? If he's dead, you should tell her." Hiei didn't respond. "If you won't, I will." Hiei still didn't answer. Riko stared at him, completely confused by this change in character. "You… did you kill him? Is that why you act so weirdly around Yukina? I noticed when I first saw you guys, but I assumed you'd just had a relationship."

A shiver went through Hiei, and he shook his head violently as if trying to clear a disturbing thought from it. "Don't be ridiculous," He snapped, turning to leave.

Riko watched as he headed towards the door. Okay… so if it's not a relationship… then he has something to do with her brother. Either he killed her brother, knows her brother… Riko frowned. Or… maybe… is her brother. She grimaced. Well. Only one way to find out. Let's test the waters.

"Are you her brother?"

Instantly, Hiei was in front of her again, his katana in her face, the tip literally half a centimeter from her nose. Riko closed her eyes instinctively.

Okay… I think I got it. That's the one. And then, Oh good, she really wasn't his lover.

With her eyes still closed, Riko commented dryly, "Didn't know you had any siblings. Very cute. Why don't you tell her? She's… pretty sad about not being able to find you."

"She's better off not knowing," was the stoic answer. "And if you tell her -"

"I'll be sashimi in less time than a lightning strike, I'm sure. And shouldn't you leave it up to her to decide?"

"She's too innocent to decide. And she should stay that way. Her brother is a ruthless killer and thief. She's happier not knowing."

Eyes still closed, Riko whistled softly. "Ruthless, huh? You think a lot of yourself. And I don't know. You're on the good side now."

"Because I'm being punished," Hiei retorted.

Shrugging, Riko replied, "I started out that way, too." She paused, thought about it and then shrugged again. "Kinda anyways. I changed. You can."

"Even if I do, that doesn't erase my past crimes."

"Nothing erases the past," Riko said matter-of-factly. "But you know, that really doesn't matter. Only the present and the future matter. And right now, you are making her future and present very miserable by deciding for her."

"She'll forget eventually."

Cautiously, Riko let her eyes flutter open. "I would, if I were her. But you know, Yukina isn't anything like me. She's a very, very nice girl. And loyal. Exceptionally loyal. She's sweet, and she believes. She trusts. She told me, someone that she barely knows, about her brother. Can you imagine who else she's told? Who else has fallen for that precious, little face and promised to help her? Every single one of those promises gives her a little more hope. She's not going to let go. Not until she finds you. And when she does, you will be the same person that you are right now. Except it's going to be years later. Years that neither of you are going to get back."

They stared at each other for a long moment, but finally, Hiei withdrew his sword. "I've had enough of you talk. This is my decision. If you tell her, I will slice your throat."

Rolling her head back, Riko winced as it cracked and then repositioned herself. "Will you really?" She asked, half-mockingly. "After all, I did give you back your right arm. Is that how you repay someone?" She let the words hang for a moment and then shrugged. "Don't worry. I have no intention of telling her. It's… your business. But if I were you, I'd tell her. And if I were her…" She shrugged again and then met Hiei's eyes once more. "I'd be glad to have a brother like you."

The pause that followed was even longer than the one that had come before.

Hiei broke it. "Just keep your mouth shut," He snapped. He turned and walked away, clearing the door and slamming it shut.

As soon as the noise stopped echoing, Riko allowed herself to drop to the floor. She covered her face, breathing deeply and then lowered her hands to look at Yukina's tear. "Well," She murmured to herself. "That was more than a bit terrifying." She let out a sigh, replaced the tear in her pocket and stood up.

Once standing, she paused and touched the backs of her hands to her cheeks. They were burning. Huh. I don't normally burn up from fear. Hiei's face flashed before her eyes, as it had been just before he had left, angry and disturbed. She frowned. Another flash – Hiei's face right before she had fainted in Valeina' compound. What – Another – Hiei breaking into the room where she'd been hidden.

What…

Almost her first thought upon finding out that Hiei and Yukina were brother and sister, not lovers – "Oh good."

"Oh dear…" Riko muttered to herself. "Oh dear, dear, dear."

She let out a breath and then threw herself onto the bed. Something like a monster groan erupted from her.

"Oh damn. I like him!"

End of Chapter 55


...^ - ^ I actually have nothing to say, but I like having that line at the end of my chapters because it looks better to me.