Cue the beginning to part 5 of this fic… This is the part where everything comes together – good and bad.

Recap: Keiko bravely fought off the SDF for as long as she could, Shuichi begged Hiei not to rush into anything upon his return to demon world and unfortunately the SDF had found the tear in the Kakai Barrier before Hiei arrived there, leading to a stand-off between Hiei and three members of the SDF. Hiei managed to pass them and return to demon world, but not before (finally) telling Botan that he loves her, and when he arrived back in his own world, he found the situation there to be incredibly bleak.


Chapter 46: Denizens of Demon World

Hiei drew out his sword and slashed at the tangle of shrubbery around him. A gust of wind whistled past him, blasting him with the scents of stale blood and rotting flesh. A rumble of thunder sounded in the distance and then all was unnaturally silent once more. Hiei started forwards, cutting himself a path as he walked, his eyes flicking between his task of cutting back the plants blocking his route and the desolate scene ahead of him. The perimeter walls around Mukuro's fortress had been reduced to rubble, and there were various body parts of various demons impaled on some of the remaining metal struts that had formed the base of the walls. The fortress itself had suffered varying amounts of damage, the main tower being the only part that was still in tact: and Hiei knew that was because the entire building has been designed so that the central tower could be isolated from the remainder of the building in an emergency, and it had been built of impenetrable materials and was protected by Mukuro's own demon energy.

It looked as though something had ravaged the entire fortress during Hiei's absence. He could only guess at what: Yusuke's men, Kurama's demon plants or simply refugees and defectors of the war taking advantage of the unprotected fortress to raid it for food and supplies. Whatever it was, it had either long gone or else taken control of the central tower and completely overthrown Mukuro. Hiei doubted that anyone was more powerful than Mukuro in demon world – Raizen had once been the strongest in demon world, and Yomi was a worthy adversary, but Hiei was sure that Mukuro was the most powerful demon alive – and so it was doubtful that she had been deposed of. Doubtful, but not impossible, in the dystopia of his life, he thought miserably.

As he reached the yard, Hiei started to recognise some of the fallen demons around him: some of them were amongst Mukuro's top soldiers, but most of them were the trainees she had been rigorously working with to try to prepare them for frontline activity in the war. He wondered then how deeply the damage to the fortress ran – if it went into the underground section, the healing chambers would all be destroyed too. It was arguable if that even mattered though. Hiei had been thinking that the tanks would be needed for any demons returning wounded from the conflict, but if the entire kingdom had been vanquished, it would not matter whether or not the central headquarters had the facilities to heal the wounded.

Hiei stopped at the door to the tower, recognising that it was sealed shut and entering would not be a simple or even a safe thing to do. He looked up the length of the tower and saw no evident signs of life, but apparently someone had sensed or seen his approach, because as he lowered his eyes to the door again it opened. It could be a trap, he thought, but he decided to take the chance anyway and he stepped inside, tensing when the door promptly banged shut behind him.

"Hiei," a familiar voice greeted him.

He turned his head and saw one of Mukuro's elite soldiers bolting the door.

"I don't know where the hell you've been this last month," he said. "But I hope you had fun. Mukuro's waiting for you in her office… She's been there since the day you left."

Hiei nodded and walked on, moving towards the stairwell that led up to Mukuro's office. As he went he wondered why Mukuro had not done more to protect her own home or why she had not joined the fighting long ago – but he supposed that she had some political reason for that, probably something about how leaders should not be seen to be slaughtering the working class of an opposing kingdom. He actually thought that the exact answer might be lurking somewhere in the murky depths of his own mind, an interpretation of it existing there that was not his own, rather the result of those strangely political thoughts that sometimes occurred to him lately. He tried to ignore it as best he could and pressed on, scaling the stairs at a pace that would make him growl impatiently to witness in someone else. He supposed that he was "dragging his heels" – almost literally – out of reluctance. He was still hoping that he would not have to go through with Mukuro's plan, but he knew that she would immediately dispatch him to complete it, and that meant that he only had the sparse few minutes it would take him to reach her office to formulate an alternate plan.

Shuichi always had a plan. He always knew how to weasel his way out of a bad situation. But he had not offered up any ideas to Hiei, instead simply begging him not to kill Kurama. That could only mean that Shuichi had no plan, Hiei decided, and if that was the case, then there was probably no plan to be had. He wondered if Botan or Kuwabara would have been able to think of a better way of handling the problem: Kuwabara was always against needless killing and Botan had certainly proven herself to be cunning and more than able to think on her feet in a dire situation.

Hiei wondered how that other reality had turned out – the reality that had doubtlessly now been born from the moment he had to choose between running away with Botan and facing the fate he now did.

Hiei paused outside the door to Mukuro's office and drew in a deep breath, holding it in for several seconds before gently sighing it out again and pushing open the door without knocking – not that he ever did knock before entering his boss's office. Inside he found Mukuro hunched over her desk, another map filled with miniature figures laid out before her. Her eyes looked at Hiei as he entered, but otherwise she did not acknowledge his intrusion.

"I'm back," he said, feeling the need to initiate conversation somehow.

"So I see," she quietly replied. "Things didn't work out with your ferry girl wife then?"

Hiei paused, his immediate reaction to her question being that she must have known that she had sent him back to the paradise reality before she had asked such a question, and if she had known he was there, was that because she had deliberately sent him there? Did she, despite her previous claims to the contrary, actually know how to control where she sent him with her Dividing Realities attack? Could she send him back to paradise again with just one attempt?

Did it really matter any more?

"No," he said. "I fucked it up."

Mukuro slowly sat up straight, clearly trying not to look surprised and yet failing miserably.

"In both realities," Hiei added. "In the good reality and in this one."

"Oh," she said. "I thought you might… Oh…"

She placed her hands on the desk and pushed herself to her feet. She looked quite pathetic, Hiei thought to himself: she had clearly lost weight and she looked like she had been sat poring over strategy maps for days without stopping to wash, change her clothes or even to eat.

"I'm sorry Hiei."

Hiei tilted his head, unable to hide his confusion. He had been expecting her to yell at him or to throw him through a wall, not apologise and sound quite genuine about it.

"You know that I've always taken an active interest in human world and spirit world cultures," she continued. "The humans quite like proverbs, and one of their strange little sayings springs to mind when I look at you now: "it's better to have loved and lost than to never love at all". But for some of us that's not always the case, is it Hiei? I think for a heart like yours, a mind like yours, it would have been easier if you'd never known of your wife and son than to have them and to lose them."

"You said that to me already," Hiei pointed out.

Mukuro frowned at him and Hiei himself had to stop and think exactly when she had said those words to him. Had it been in another reality?

"Right," Mukuro eventually said. "I just wanted to share that with you. I understand your fear and hatred of rejection by someone you love, and obviously I was wrong about your feelings for that girl, obviously you actually did fall in love with her… Though I still don't really understand why…"

"I never understood or experienced true happiness before I let her into my life," Hiei replied. "And I think I know now why that is: my happiness depends entirely on hers."

Mukuro's face again betrayed her surprise and again she tried, unsuccessfully, to hide it.

"That's very deep," she sighed. "She must have been something very special to reach your heart."

Hiei did not bother answering her. In another life – another reality – this would have been the perfect opening to drive home the point to Mukuro that Botan was important to him. This would have been his chance to do the one thing that other Hiei had failed at: to stand up to Mukuro and prove to her that Botan was not the thoughtless and worthless spirit world reject that she thought she was rather than to rely on Botan doing something clever to win Mukuro's approval. But the time for talking had ended long ago, and Hiei really just wanted to face his fate as quickly as possible.

"Yusuke and Kurama are still the driving force behind the fighting," Mukuro said carefully after a prolonged silence had passed between them. "And I still believe that the plan I presented to you before I sent you to another reality is the only way to get some control over the madness that has swept across this world."

Hiei nodded.

"I never wanted to have to do this," she added. "This was always my last resort. I don't even have much of a kingdom left to rebuild, but I won't forget my duties to what and who remains. Hiei, I…"

Mukuro slowly crossed the room towards Hiei and put her hands on his shoulders.

"I thought that we had a great future here," she said carefully. "I knew that I would never have children myself, and I was always glad to take you as my heir. I… I'll miss you."

She moved her real hand to the top of his head, gently rubbing his hair between her fingers.

"I wish there was another way," she said. "But I'm all out of good ideas."

"Hn, me too," Hiei replied, smiling wryly.

He thought that Mukuro was going to say something else, but instead she sighed and then pulled him into an awkward hug. He did not return her gesture – because he felt that she did not actually want him to – instead letting her hold onto him as long as she needed to. He felt slightly better about carrying out her plan knowing that she was so upset by it, because the egotistical part of him had thought that she was a cold-hearted bitch who just wanted him dead because he was getting too close to being her biggest rival in strength, and he had always thought that their relationship was a little deeper than that.

"I can't come with you," she said, releasing him a little abruptly. "I need to stay here and protect the… Tower…"

"Fine," Hiei said. "Tell me where I need to be."

"I've arranged an escort to take you there," Mukuro replied.

"I don't need an "escort"," he snorted.

"Just go with them, Hiei. They'll take you as close as they can, after that you're on your own."

"Fine."

Mukuro walked over to a window at one side of the room and Hiei followed her, peering out of it to see a slightly worn old border patrol vehicle waiting in the back yard of the fortress.

"Was it the utopia?" Mukuro asked as they looked down at the awaiting transport. "I figured out that there was a utopia and a dystopia, during my experiments with the Dividing Realities. The reality you liked so much, was it the utopia of your life?"

"You said it wasn't, but it was close," Hiei replied. "You also said that his was the dystopia of my life."

Hiei turned to Mukuro who said no more and kept her face blank – but her lack of response was all the response he needed to confirm that even she knew they were in a pretty pathetic reality.

"I don't understand why it wasn't the utopia," he said. "Apart from that one small thing about Yukina's regret, everything else there was perfect."

"Do you wish that you could have seen the utopia?" Mukuro asked.

"Do you know how to send me to the actual utopia?" he asked.

"Would you come back if I did?"

Hiei smiled, finding her response amusing despite how inappropriate that was.

"There's another human saying that springs to mind in this moment," Mukuro said.

Hiei hoped that she would not bother enlightening him which human saying she was thinking about, but he could tell by the look on her face that he would not be so fortunate.

"We're up shit creek without a paddle," she said.

"Hn, that's stupid," he immediately replied.

"Stupid but apt," she said.

"There's a spirit world saying that applies here: life is like a river, flowing in one direction, and we sail it as best we can, but, no matter what we do, we can't ever change the direction it takes us in."

"…I like the human one better. It's more succinct."

"Agreed."

Hiei turned from the window and started across Mukuro's office. She followed him to the door and they both stopped there, avoiding looking directly at each other through several seconds of silence.

"I learned a lot during my time working with you," Hiei eventually said. "I appreciate the opportunities you afforded me to improve myself. In other realities, I appreciated them a lot sooner and did more with them."

"Better late than never," Mukuro replied.

"That's another human turn of phrase," Hiei pointed out as he opened the door to leave.

"It was ours before they adopted it," she said.

Hiei stepped outside into the hallway beyond.

"There's something I have to do before I leave," he said. "Don't think I'm running away, because I'm not. I'm ready for this."

"Okay," she said.

"Goodbye, Mukuro."

"…Hiei…"

Hiei bowed politely to Mukuro and then turned from her, walking away without looking back. He did have something very important that he wanted to do before he travelled out to complete his mission, and it was not something he wanted Mukuro to know about, especially after seeing how upset she was that she had to let him go. He knew that she would never understand, either – she had often told him that she could not understand the closeness of his bond with Yusuke and Kurama.

He was willing to do as she had asked – to lure Yusuke and Kurama out and to confront them and stall them where they were – but he was not prepared to fight them.

And so Hiei took himself to a secluded room in the tower and carefully wound sealing talismans around his right arm and taped two over his jagan eye to lock in his most powerful weapons. He placed his sword down on a table and left the room again, trying to block out the discomfort of having his third eye and right arm contained so.


The journey across demon world was a quiet one. Quiet because there were no signs of life on the route they took and quiet because neither of the two demons who accompanied Hiei on the journey said anything. He suspected that they were silent because they understood his predicament and lacked the intelligence to say anything of substance, so rather than risk incurring his wrath at such a time they pretended to be preoccupied with the controls of the vehicle. And Hiei knew that they were pretending to be checking the instruments and controls, because both of them looked shocked when an alarm started sounding and the vehicle broke down barely halfway to its destination. When they were unable to immediately fix the problem Hiei left the vehicle on the pretence of needing to empty his bladder, but secretly just looking for an excuse to get outside and forget about what was happening for a few precious minutes.

The vehicle had broken down by the border between Mukuro's and Yomi's territories, just outside of Gandara.

Hiei paced about for several minutes, enjoying the silence until the two idiots accompanying him leapt out of the vehicle and began banging at panels along the side of it, yelling frantic curses at each other when smoke started to seep out from the engine compartment. Hiei went back inside the vehicle – because taking his chances inside a smoking vehicle was infinitely preferable to remaining outside with two bickering fools – and sat down by a console at the back. There was a crackling, buzzing noise coming from something above his head, and a glance upwards showed a red light illuminated on an in-built radio. Hiei had never really cared for sitting around listening to a radio before, but out of boredom and a need for a distraction from his own darker thoughts, he reached a hand up and turned the dial on the front of the radio, tuning it more accurately to the signal it was broadcasting.

"–twenty-two and more rain," a vaguely familiar voice came through the radio. "It's been a long time since there was rain around here, but it's almost the season for it, so remember your umbrellas, folks."

It was that idiot fox girl. The one who had miscalled so many of Team Urameshi's battles during the Dark Tournament.

"And again, in case you've been living under a rock, or if you're just in denial, the leader of this fine region died last week," she continued.

Hiei sat up straight and glared at the radio. Mukuro had not mentioned anyone dying – why the hell not?

"Our good ruler, Lord Yomi, was killed when he joined the fighting on the frontline. He stepped out to help our brave soldiers to push the conflict out of our territory and back over the border to Mukuro's territory, but chaos ensued when he was murdered by an unseen assailant shortly after he successfully drove the fighting out of Gandara."

Hiei sat back again. Obviously the chaotic aftermath of Yomi himself falling in battle was what had caused the damage to Mukuro's fortress. Mukuro had probably been subdued because seeing a demon as powerful as Yomi fall had probably been something of a shock to her – if Yomi could fall like that, so could any one of the other powerful demons commanding the armies in this war: Mukuro, Yusuke and Kurama included.

And if Yomi's death had not been enough to cause confusion and an end to – or even just a pause in – the war, would killing Yusuke and Kurama as Mukuro had planned really be the difference maker she had thought it would?

"Supplies in Gandara are still low following the destruction of several warehouses and a farm during the big push," the woman on the radio added. "Food is especially limited, with no fresh food supplies left at all in this region… We're surviving off of cans of gelatine…."

She was crying. She was trying to hide it, but occasionally her voice wavered and she sniffled softly, the microphone she was talking into picking up the sound and amplifying it through the broadcast.

"Water supplies are low all around demon world following the contamination of the River Mizuni," she said, clearly trying to sound calm about this news. "Relief workers recommend only using what you need – keep bathing to a minimum and be sure to reserve plenty of water for drinking. With the upcoming rain forecast, maybe you could… Collect it in a cup and drink it and remember what it feels like to not be constantly walking around with an aching thirst and a throbbing headache…"

Hiei switched the radio off. He wanted a distraction, but he did not want it in the form of listening to a pathetic fool moaning about the hardships of her worthless life. That was hardly unbiased reporting, he thought. Was it not her job to report the news honestly? To tell the facts and not to embellish them with tales of woe from her own life? If she was really so miserable, why was she even still there? She certainly took her job very seriously, to stay in that arena, with minimal food and water supplies and the risk of being slaughtered at any moment, solely to continue hearing her own voice on the radio every day. Then again, she was a loud-mouthed idiot who had insisted on putting herself in danger at every tournament she had announced, and all presumably because she loved to hear own voice broadcasting out around all of demon world.

Hiei suddenly found himself experiencing a vividly clear memory of the day he had taken Monzan to the arena in Gandara, and how the boy had adored that stupid fox girl, and she had even humoured him into thinking that his singing was being broadcast on the emergency broadcast network, on every television and radio in demon world.

It was an interesting thought.

Hiei grunted involuntarily as one of his travelling companions returned, dropping a metal gear twice the size of his head onto the desk at Hiei's side. With greasy hands he picked up the microphone from the communicator and dialled in a number, his call shortly answered by Mukuro's voice.

"We've had a slight technical problem, Lord Mukuro," he said. "It's probably gonna take us about two hours to fix this."

"Is Hiei still with you?" she asked.

"Yeah, he's here."

"Tell him not to run on ahead. Tell him to wait until you've fixed it and make sure you take him to the agreed point. Call me when you get there."

"Yes, Sir."

The demon terminated the link and nodded at Hiei.

"You do realise that Mukuro is a woman?" Hiei asked him sarcastically.

"Yeah, but it's more respectful to call her "Lord" or "Sir"," the demon replied. "Those are more important titles than "Lady" or "Ma'am"."

Hiei did not have the energy to point out that what the idiot had just said would get him killed if he ever said it in front of Mukuro, and so he chose to ignore it.

"We're stuck here for two hours now?" he asked instead.

"Pretty much," the demon replied.

Hiei moved his eyes to the inert radio, a strange sensation passing over him. He felt as though something was draining from his head, and he started to think that it must be his common sense and logic when he found himself standing up and starting towards the door.

"Where are you going?" the demon called after him.

"That's not your concern," Hiei replied without looking back. "If I'm not back by the time you've finished repairing this pile of shit, turn it around and go back to Mukuro."

"…Why? What are you going to do?"

"Something I know I'm probably going to regret. But since it's the sort of decision I wouldn't usually make, I'm going to do it, since it's unlikelihood means it may well be a good decision."

"…What?"

Hiei stepped out of the vehicle, drew in a deep breath and then took off sprinting at his top speed, crossing the border into Yomi's territory – the first time he had done so in over ten years in his own reality – and aiming himself towards the arena that fox girl was reading the news from. He knew that if he slowed his pace for even a fraction of a second that he would surely change his mind, turn back and continue onwards as he would have done if the transport carrier had not broken down.

Was it a stroke of good luck that it had broken down?

Hiei had experienced the worst possible idea of his life. It was a terrible idea, one sure to have disastrous consequences, one that would probably kill Yusuke and Kurama from shock – not to mention what it was going to do to poor Mukuro – and it was an idea that Hiei had not really thought through yet. He was about to enact it in a matter of seconds, and he had not thought it out beyond the notion that, inside the Gandara arena, he had access to the emergency broadcast channel that could reach every television and radio around demon world. Live.

Hiei burst through the doors into the arena, hurrying out onto the open floor and looking about himself for the fox girl and her broadcasting desk. Several surveys of the entire arena did not uncover her, but he did see her desk mounted amongst the stands and he hurriedly leapt over the railings to approach it. The speakers mounted around the arena had silenced only an instant before he had stepped out onto the arena floor, so he knew that she had to be somewhere nearby, and he needed to find her if he was going to successfully pull off his plan.

Not that it was really a plan, since he had not actually done any thinking about it, it was more of an irrational idea, thought up in the heat of the moment – the sort of thing that Shuichi would probably have admonished him for even contemplating, and now here he was about to action it.

Hiei stopped by the broadcasting desk, looking down blankly at the girl cowered under it, her arms over her head, one dirt-ingrained hand still clutching her microphone with the sort of stubborn tenacity only she could possess over something so trivial.

"Hey, woman," Hiei said.

She lifted her chin slightly and green catlike eyes looked up at him warily.

"H-Hiei?" she asked.

Her face was almost as grubby as her hands – presumably because she had not washed in some time in an effort to conserve the clean water she had at her disposal for drinking.

"Tell me your name, woman," Hiei said to her. "I'm going to make the effort to remember it."

Her eyebrows flickered and the corners of her mouth twitched, and a slightly indignant look passed over her eyes.

"You're a jerk, Hiei," she said, letting her hands slide from her head. "I'm on television every day, how can you possibly not know my name?"

She crawled out from under the desk and stood up, brushing off the excess dust from her clothing before eying him over suspiciously.

"You look very clean and presentable," she said.

Her eyes moved to the talismans on his forehead and she squinted at them, her eyes flicking about as she read the details on them.

"What-what are you doing to yourself?" she asked.

"Never mind about that," he replied.

She had not bothered to tell him her name yet, but he thought that maybe he could remember it. Was it Johto? No, that was the name of that island where all those strange monsters lived. Kaito? No, that was someone else – though Hiei could not remember who. Kiba? No, that was the name of that strange boy who liked to look at the moon all the time. Kokou? That sounded familiar, maybe that was it.

"Listen Kokou, I need you to do something for me," he said.

"Kokou is Enki's widow, you ass," she flatly replied.

"Toto?"

"…Well at least you're taking my mind off of the food shortage around here…"

"Bobo?"

"It's Koto, you prick!"

Hiei sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Idiot!" he snapped at her. "Why didn't you just say that before?"

"Because you should already know my name!" she growled back.

"…I need you to do something for me, it's very important."

"Why should I?"

"I will kill you if you don't."

"…Quickly or slowly?"

"Which would you prefer?"

"…I'm not sure."

"Then both."

Koto pulled a face at Hiei.

"How is that possible?" she asked.

"Never mind, just stop asking stupid questions and start making yourself useful!" Hiei barked impatiently. "I need to send out a message. Give me a microphone and get a camera."

"…A microphone and a camera? Just tell me what the message is, and I'll announce it in the next news report."

"This isn't headline news, it's… More important than that."

"Nothing is more important than headline news, that's why it's called "headline" news."

"Don't get smart with me woman, just get the camera and the microphone, I have to send out a message."

"Fine."

Koto sighed and pretended to look bored, but still managed to vault over the railings with catlike agility, taking herself down to the arena floor. From there she disappeared through a door to the same under-seating area Hiei had visited in the paradise reality to steal the recording of Hitoshi's famous speech – which was actually quite ironic, he mused. She emerged a few seconds later with a camera cradled in her arms and looking both amused and displeased as she carried it up to her desk.

"This had better be important, Hiei," she warned him as she rejoined him.

"It is, so make sure that you broadcast it over the emergency broadcast channel," he replied.

Koto sighed quietly and muttered something indecipherable as she began plugging in various cables to a console mounted on the desk.

"And don't fake it!" Hiei added. "Don't just pretend to broadcast me. I know that you can project the recording onto that big screen and make it look like your broadcasting it on the emergency channel, so don't bother trying that trick on me like you did to my son!"

Koto stopped moving, and stayed frozen on the spot for so long, Hiei began to wonder if she had become enchanted somehow. Then she blinked, started to breathe again, and turned her head to look directly at him.

"You have a son?" she asked, her top lip curling in disgust.

Hiei did not answer her, because the honest answer was not one that he wanted to give.

"Wow…" Koto said, shaking her head. "I can't believe you actually managed to find a woman stupid enough to let you put a little bit of yourself inside of her…"

Hiei growled and turned from her, waiting as patiently as he could for her to finish her task; and as she snorted in amusement he realised that what she had just said to him was more than a little ambiguous.

"Hey!" he snapped, rounding on her again. "What do you mean "a little bit of yourself"? Do you mean my seed or my penis?"

"Have you ever spoken into a microphone before?" she asked sweetly, holding up her microphone.

"…I don't like you…" he growled at her in a low voice.

"Try not to draw out any "S" sounds and no hard "P" sounds, got it?" she asked.

Hiei had not understood a single word she had just said, but he was too angry to find the patience to question her, so instead he snatched the microphone from her hand.

"Just get on with it, woman!" he warned her.

"Okay then," she said, picking up the camera and pointing it towards Hiei.

He glanced to his side and saw himself appearing on the enormous screen at the other side of the arena, and in that moment, he realised that he should have taken some time to think before acting out his idea – even if he had just thought past convincing the fox to broadcast him he might not feel so terribly ridiculous and mildly panicked as he did now. Koto turned the camera around to face herself and she produced another microphone from a pocket, smiling as best she could into the camera.

"Hello demon world, this is Koto, broadcasting live with a very important emergency announcement," she said.

The flashing red lights on the camera and broadcast desk told Hiei that it was too late to change his mind – or even too late to even make up his mind about what he was about to do.

"And here to deliver that announcement to all you good people is Mukuro's favourite little guy, Hiei!"

Hiei glared at Koto, preparing himself to berate her for referring to him in such a ridiculous way, making him sound like he was Mukuro's pet as opposed to her second-in-command and heir to her kingdom: but as she turned the camera on him and he once more saw himself on the big screen – this time an image that was being broadcast live all over demon world – he straightened out his frown and took a deep breath, struggling for the words to say.

And when he failed to think of anything better, he reverted to using the tired and pastiche opening line echoing around his head from another famous speech once delivered from that very arena in another reality.

"Denizens of demon world," he said, before pausing to swallow back bile as he considered how clichéd he sounded. "Today, just as we have been doing every other day for the past three years, we are dying for a world where discord and misunderstanding are rife. We are at war, and it is a dirty, brutal and difficult war, without honour and without cause. As inhabitants of this realm, we live to die in battle, but the battles we seek are ones of honour and purpose. Look around you now: do you see any honour or purpose in those who have fallen in this conflict, left to waste and wither where they took their last breath? Denizens of demon world I ask of you: why must we take this ignoble road?"

Hiei paused, his mind still worryingly blank. The words had left his mouth and he had forgotten them as quickly as they had occurred to him: and beyond the camera he could see Koto was peering past the camera itself to look directly at him, her eyes wide. Was she horrified at what he had just said?

Slowly she started to smile, and raised one hand, forming her fingers into the peace sign.

And seeing that gesture gave Hiei's brain the kick-start it needed to continue his address.

"We are a great race, but the infirmities of our race are such that force too often precedes reason," he said. "There is an obvious attraction to the path of least resistance for any soul – demon or otherwise – and the waste of war has become the easy option for us, and been wrongly prioritised over the importance of the works of peace. Look at the headlines: warehouses demolished, rivers poisoned and farms desecrated. This is the breakdown of society, this is not the advancement of any faction or an increase in power, it's a loss of identity and pride in ourselves. The confused nature of this ongoing conflict cannot mask the fact that we are doing far more than killing our enemies, we are killing ourselves. I am not here today to propose that everyone withdraw, either openly or under the misguided belief that an agreement has been reached between our rulers, I am here today to ask for something far more guileless. Today I ask for just two things. Firstly, I ask for two hours, starting as soon as I finish talking. I ask every individual who can hear my voice to stop what you are doing for two hours. Call it an armistice if you will, but know that it is only temporary. Secondly, I ask for a private meeting with General Urameshi and General Kurama to discuss ending this conflict and finding a way forward without any more pointless slaughtering. I am in the arena in Gandara, as this broadcast shows, and, as you can no doubt see, I am unarmed. You have my word that I am here alone and that I do not intend to fight, and I ask that you both meet me here during this two hour period of temporary peace."

Hiei paused, moving his eyes from the lens of the camera to Koto, who was frantically mouthing something out to him. He squinted slightly and leaned to one side to get a better view of her mouth, and clearly saw her silently form the words "are you out of your mind?"

"Yusuke, Kurama, I await your response," he finished.

Koto pushed a button on the camera and the large screen at the other side of the arena faded to darkness and the speakers buzzed a little before softly droning into silence.

"Are you crazy?" Koto yelped, putting the camera down on the desk.

"Probably," Hiei honestly replied. "I did just act on the advice of a crazy man…"

Koto flicked a switch on her desk and the speakers around the arena whined into life again, the sound of static filling the air. She began flicking multiple switches and turning several dials until a light began flashing over one toggle-switch by the top corner of the desk.

"This is probably for you," she said, before flicking the switch and lifting a microphone to her mouth. "You've reached the hostess who always rocks the house, this is Koto–"

"Get me Hiei!" a voice cut her off.

"Told you it would be for you," Koto said in a low voice, slapping the microphone against Hiei's chest.

She released the microphone and Hiei hurriedly caught it as it started to slide down his shirtfront.

"Hiei?" the voice shouted out from a speaker in the desk.

"Mukuro," Hiei answered.

"Hiei, what the hell did you just do?" Mukuro demanded. "I thought we had an agreement: you were to go to the valley, set the trap and wait for my signal! You do realise that you just broadcasted yourself over every television and radio all around the world? Every demon in this realm heard every word you just said, so I hope you meant it! I'm trying to get things under control here, you're little rebellion might have ruined all of that!"

"…Sometimes you have to take the chance when you get it to stand up and make your opinion heard," Hiei replied, memories of Yukina's stand in the ice village filling his mind and bringing a smile of pride to his face. "Sometimes we all feel the same way about something, and someone has to put it into words before it's too late. There's a way forward from here, you just have to trust me."

"Hiei, you are a f–"

Hiei flicked the switch Koto had flicked to connect him to Mukuro's call, relieved to find that doing so terminated the link once more. He placed the microphone down on the desk and looked around for Koto to tell her not to take any heed of Mukuro's response, but the girl was nowhere to be found. It was unlikely that she could have fled the arena so quickly, and after tilting his head back to look up into the heights of the seating area, he eventually spotted her running frantically through the seats. He wondered what had gotten into her, but as he lowered his head again he felt a distinct change in the air around him and he faintly heard footsteps walking across the arena floor.

Hiei was no longer the only S class demon in the arena.


Next Chapter: As Hiei is in Yomi's territory, unsurprisingly, Kurama is the first to respond to his call – but he does not arrive alone. Things seems tense for some time but Hiei thinks that his newfound skills of diplomacy might have calmed his old ally – but just as he becomes complacent, Yusuke and Puu arrive and all is thrown into chaos again. Chapter 47 – Reality Check