Chapter 7

Damsels and Dragons

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho.

Ami barely slept. She spent the night in a whirl of anxiety. By the time the morning sunlight filtered through the window she felt so exhausted it was as if she had not slept at all. Never before had Ami woken up with so much dread knotting in her stomach. Sitting up she picked up her bracelet from her bedside table and twirled it around her fingers before slipping it on her wrist. She yawned and scrubbed the sleep boogies out of her eyes and dragged her feet across the room, shoving on her slippers as she went. A tenseness pulled at her muscles and made her feel achy all over.

She went to peek into her Gran's room to see that she was still sleeping. A small smile flitted across Ami's face. At least her Grandma was getting her much deserved rest. But a rebellious urge to wake her up to pester her for more answers welled up in her gut, but she squashed it quickly. It would have to wait.

Ami stepped downstairs, her legs carrying her on autopilot toward the kitchen. There was a tiny fear hovering in the back of her mind that she would walk into the kitchen and find a demon waiting for her. She shook her head as if to shake her thoughts away and walked over the threshold into the kitchen. Going over to the fridge, she hesitated again, her hand paused mid-air above the fridge handle. That demon had stood in this exact spot. He had stood here and stolen her food. It was absurd to think about.

How had her life been so different only a day ago? Yesterday morning she had no idea that demons existed. They had been figures from myth and storybooks. Then one had appeared in her house and had probably even tasted her cooking. She hoped the ramen noodles had gotten soggy before he ate them. It would serve him right.

Deciding she wasn't hungry after all, Ami searched for her messenger bag around the living room. Maybe sketching would take her mind off her worries until Gran could give her more information. At the very least it would pass the time before she lost her mind from anxiety. Seeing the handle of her bag sticking out from behind the couch, she grabbed it and headed outside.

Not wanting to ruin her slippers, she sat down on the porch, leaning tiredly on the banister. She started to rummage through her bag for her charcoal pencils. But as she held the pencil in her hand it reminded her of the sound of the intruder's voice. She recalled how his voice had sounded like the hush of charcoal moving across paper and shivered. Ami threw the charcoal pencil back in her bag and decided to use a regular mechanical pencil instead.

She had sat on this porch and drawn the scenery around the house so many times over the years. There was a comfort in drawing the familiar lines of the trees and plants in the front yard. There were beautiful blue morning glories in bloom this morning. But Ami's eyes settled on a handsome maple tree as she started sketching the trunk. Drawing tree leaves took forever but the repetition was exactly the mind-numbing activity she was looking for. Ami did not want to think. As she tuned out her troubles she did not see the pair of sharp red eyes watching her close by.

Hiei was feeling better than he had in weeks. He had gotten a decent meal and plenty of salted meat to last him a while. He had been irritated at his own carelessness at first. He should not have been caught stealing by a measly human, but it had ended up being an unexpected benefit. After leaving the house he had traveled out of human eyesight but kept his Jagan turned onto Hamada's thoughts to monitor the fallout. And as she spoke with her grandmother he had heard everything the girl heard during that conversation as well. A demon-slaying family who was on the Akuma's tribe hit list? Interesting.

Finally, he had the real information to report on to Spirit World. Surely this would be enough to earn him his promised greater freedom, and his sword back too. The one set back was that he was not due to meet with Aneko until the end of the week. He huffed and resigned himself to waiting it out. He watched from a tree as the girl was dawdling on her porch scribbling in her book again. He would have thought meeting him would have given her some sense of urgency, but it seemed not.

Hiei did not care that the Hamada's knew of his presence. As far as he was concerned it did not make a difference now that he had the intel he needed anyway. He wondered what the girl was thinking and debated reading her mind. Since he had basically completed his mission, he would no longer be using the Jagan on Koenma's orders, so why not? He activated the eye and peered down at the top of the human's head.

A sneer crossed his lips as his minds-eye was filled with thoughts of maple leaves. Her mind was entirely focused on the object of her art. Her concentration was intense and allowed no room for other thoughts. Hiei had to hold in the scoff as he withdrew from her mind. She knew that a demon had prowled into her territory just last night and she was leaving herself open to attack. He could walk right up to her now and he doubts she would notice with how absorbed she was into her drawing. Being that unaware of her surroundings would lead to a quick death in the Makai.

Almost as fate could hear Hiei's thoughts, that was the moment he felt a presence in the forest. He shifted the attention of his Jagan from Hamada to the woods behind him. There. A demon energy signature. The one he had detected yesterday. It was closer to the house than they had been before. Hiei frowned. The demon energy still felt weak, but there was something else. The energy felt...supressed. Not a good sign.

He had dismissed the energy signature as it had seemed like a minor demon, but if it were using something to suppress its energy this could turn ugly. He knew some powerful demons used devices and techniques to hide their presence when sneaking into the Ningenkai. Now that he knew the Hamada's were a demon slayer family in hiding from the Akuma tribe he was warier. He knew the Akuma's reputation as a merciless fire tribe.

As he was now, with no weapon, and being weaker from the surgery from getting his Jagan eye implanted, he did not know if he could take a powerful Akuma demon alone. But he might not have a choice. He thought wistfully of Kurama and having a partner to fight with, but pushed the thought down. Kurama had betrayed him. Hiei growled. He could not afford to rely on anyone but himself. He felt a rush of annoyance at Spirit World, once again, for putting him in this position, to begin with.

Hiei considered his options. Confront an unknown enemy alone with no weapon. Step back and watch what happens and if the approaching demon kills the Hamada's just look away and whistle until it was over. Or he could warn the Hamadas, hope they believed him, and got them to leave for safety. The last option seemed like too much trouble and what did he care if these humans were murdered? But Koenma would care, and Koenma was holding his freedom hostage. If these humans died he likely would get thrown back into prison indefinitely.

Hiei caught himself reaching for where his sword would have been and his hand grasped at the empty air. He was getting ahead of himself. The demon might not even be an enemy. He would wait to see what happened for now and see what happened. He did not have to wait long. The energy signature was approaching faster, speeding toward the house. The closer it got the clearer the energy was to read. Fire demon. There was no doubt now. A demon from the Akuma tribe was here.

With only a moment of indecision, he leapt down from the tree and landed a mere ten feet in front of the girl. She did not even look up from her drawing. It was not until she heard him heave an impatient sigh that her head popped up from her concentration on the paper. He couldn't help the slight smirk as she gasped and let out a ridiculous sounding squeak. But he didn't have the time to revel in her discomfort.

"A demon is coming. If you don't want to burn to death, you and the old woman need to leave now." his pronouncement was met with shocked silence. Hamada's mouth was hanging open like a dumb fish. They did not have time for this.

"Did you hear me, stupid human? You are going to die if you don't leave immediately."

Her mouth began to move as if she were trying to speak but no sound was coming out. She was too scared to respond. Useless. Hiei jumped from the ground onto the roof and moved toward the old woman's bedroom window. Maybe she would have better sense than the girl.

"Wait!" he heard Hamada yell from below, but he ignored her. That is until he sensed a projectile coming at him from behind. He twisted around and caught the rock before it made contact. The girl had thrown a rock at him. "If your gonna kill me just do it! Leave my Grandma alone!" she yelled up at him her voice shaking.

"Tch. I can't be bothered to kill you or the old woman. But the demon rapidly approaching will. So do as I say and leave while you can."

"How do I know you are not trying to trick me, thief? Maybe you want the house empty so you can steal some more." she raised a haughty eyebrow at him. Brave words for a clearly terrified human.

"If I wanted to I would have killed you already. I am not interested in stealing your human contraptions, regardless, stop wasting time and get into your moving metal death trap and get out of here."

"Moving metal death trap? You mean the car?" she snorted in somewhat delirious amusement, "and you called me stupid." she retorted.

Hiei was tempted to snap the human's neck to be done with it, but before he could seriously consider it the other demon was already there. He got a brief visual on him. The demon was dressed in human clothes and had piercing yellow eyes. Hiei recognized the tattoo around the man's neck. It looked like a green dragon circling his neck. The Akuma was famous for using the power of spirit dragons that appeared as tattoos on their skin.

Hiei blinked and the girl was gone. He did a double-take and scanned the area, but he did not have to look long before he heard her scream. He rushed through the trees following them. She was screaming so much he did not even need to use his Jagan and simply let her voice lead him forward.

The yellow-eyed demon was fast, but not faster than Hiei. He got ahead of the demon and cut him off. He got into a fighting stance and glared. The demon was holding Hamada over his shoulder like a sack of flour. She was kicking and scratching at him like a wild animal.

"I'll only say this once. Get out of my way." grumbled the yellow-eyed demon.

"I don't take orders." Hiei rushed the man and threw a punch straight to his jaw. As the demon reeled from the blow Hiei snatched the girl from his grip and tossed her into a nearby bush. She yelped as she hit the brambles. He pivoted and flew into another attack, but his enemy had already got his bearings back. Hiei's kick was blocked and he was pushed back.

"Who are you? Why are you interfering with Akuma business? Continue to put your nose where it does not belong and Chief Jiro will have your head." the man barked out. However, Hiei was not interested in conversation and activated his Jagan eye as he moved into his next attack.

This time he aimed for the gut hoping to wind his opponent. The demon was fairly strong but not as powerful as Hiei had worried he might be. He could win this, but he could not give the enemy an inch. This time his hit landed and the demon doubled over. But as the demon fell he swung backswing at Hiei's head.

Hiei saw it coming and tumbled sideways, but could not avoid the blow. He ate dirt as he met the ground and could feel the headache coming on already. In the moment he took to get up, the Akuma demon had already made his way to the bush the girl was stuck in and was reaching for her arm. Her eyes were wide with fear, but she laughably put up her tiny fists as if to fight back. Hiei moved at top speed to block the man from reaching Hamada and smashed his palm into the demon's wrist. The sound of cracking bone echoed through the clearing. Hiei could not keep the vicious grin from his face at the feel of breaking bone under his hand.

He noticed that the hand attached to the wrist he was currently breaking was holding something. The demon had pulled the girl's talisman bracelet from her wrist ad it had snapped in two. Hiei froze in shock as he felt a wave of energy pulse from Hamada's body. It was not the force of the energy that surprised him, but its nature. It was demon energy. This made no sense.

But Hiei spent too long off his guard and the yellow-eyed demon took advantage of it. He began letting out his own demonic energy, gushing out from him in a sickly green hue. It moved like smoke around him and began to take shape. The smoke formed a scald body and a furious face armed with lines of fangs. A great green dragon made of smoke wrapped around the forest trees and raised its ugly head like a snake waiting to strike. Acid dripped from its maws and hissed as it touched the withering grass.

Hiei knew his only chance was to move faster than the dragon. He would not give his opponent time to think. This would have been easier with a weapon, but his choices were limited. He used his third eye to go into his Jagan form. His skin turned green and he felt multiple eyes opening on his body. Then he ran headfirst at his enemy.

The Jagan form boosted his speed and strength and he could only hope it would be enough. The dragon's jaws snapped down on the air where Hiei had just been standing and the bubbling liquid that dripped from its mouth burned the ground it landed on. The air was sizzling. Hiei's green appearance blended in with the smoky green of the dragon's body and he used to camouflage his movement.

The Akuma demon was furrowing his brows squinting through the smoke to see him. The dragon seemed to have no mind of its own simply waiting in place for an order from its master. Good. This was Hiei's chance. He would try to end it in one last strike. He pulled back his fist and concentrated energy into his arm.

Yellow eyes narrowed as the man felt the build-up of energy, but Hiei left no time to counter the punch that he threw at the dragon wielder's head. He threw every ounce of strength he had into it and the man went down hard. Landing on a jutting rock with a resounding thud. His head was dangling at an angle and his neck was clearly broken. Hiei felt smug at the quick victory for a half-second before he felt a searing pain spread across his back. He grunted and fell to his knees.

The dragon had taken a moment longer to disappear after its master fell. It only needed a moment to spit a glob of it's acid in Hiei's direction. The dragon let out a garbled roar as the smoke of its body started to dissipate. Spitting more acid as it thrashed about on the forest floor. Until it let out a final whine and stopped moving.

Hiei was kneeling on the ground with his forehead touching the dirt beneath him. He was sweating and trying hard to even out his ragged breaths. He was lucky he had resistance to burning as a half fire demon or the acid might have killed him. The Jagan protected him as well, but he could tell the wound was still severe. He tried to move but the pain on his back screamed at him with every tiny movement.

He saw a movement from the corner of his eye and turned to see Hamada walking toward him. Hiei hackles raised. He did not want anyone near him in his current state. He took restraint for him not to outright growl at her to make her go away.

She hesitated but continued to go forward. She was still letting of waves of demonic energy which was confusing and he did not trust it. Had she been hiding a secret power? How could he have not noticed before? The pain was scrambling his thinking. The energy had appeared when her bracelet was broken had it been suppressing her energy? But why would a child from a demon-slaying family have demon energy?

"I-uh, can I help you up?" Hamada said in a voice so timid it was almost a whisper.

"Tch. No." Hiei rasped through the burning sensation that was eating through his skin.

The girl frowned, "Look, I don't know you, but it is clear that you helped me just now. So let me pay you back. You need to get under running water to wash that acid off before it gets worse."

Hiei attempted to stand again but started to wobble. Hamada was at his side before he crashed back down. She wrapped an arm around his shoulders, above the wound, and he was able to shift some of his weight onto her. Hiei grimaced. He hated this, but there was nothing else he could do. Together they began a hobbled walk back toward the house.