Chapter 48 – Total Recall
Yusuke ignored Kurama's attempts to talk him down, and he continued marching through the house, kicking open doors with increasing ferocity.
"This won't achieve anything, Yusuke!" Kurama warned him.
Yusuke kicked open a door to another room, where he found Kaisei and Fubuki talking with their mother.
"Everything okay?" Kaisei asked, eying Yusuke over.
"We're missing a few bodies," Yusuke replied. "Including someone who's been acting suspicious right from day one of this dumb mission!"
"Mission?" Fubuki echoed.
"Whatever!" Yusuke snapped. "Have any of you seen Hiei, Botan, Akira or Yukina lately?"
Fubuki turned more fully towards him.
"I'm not surprised that Hiei's gone AWOL, but Botan, Akira and even Yukina?" she asked.
"Yukina?" Kaisei repeated.
"Perhaps it's not so surprising," Kuroko said. "Akira has always seemed unpredictable to me."
"She's a kid," Yusuke said.
"Yes, but Koenma told me that she killed her own mother the first time she unleashed her power as the Sacred Darkness," Kurama said.
Yusuke turned to him and he nodded solemnly.
"So the Dark Force is keeping it in the family, huh?" Yusuke asked. "He's chosen Hiei, Hiei's sister, Hiei's ex-girlfriend and Hiei's daughter."
"They're all blood relatives," Kaisei pointed out. "Wasn't there something in the riddle about "bonds of blood"?"
"And about the naïve and inexperienced," Kurama added. "Which covers Yukina, Akira and, to a lesser extent, even Botan."
"I can't believe this…" Yusuke muttered. "This has got to be a mistake… I'm going after them!"
"That is unadvisable, Yusuke!" Kurama insisted, hurrying after Yusuke as he started down the hall.
"Yusuke, wait!"
Yusuke paused, looking back over his shoulder as Fubuki leapt out of the room and into hall beside Kurama.
"Akira's just a kid and she's had a really raw deal in all of this," she said. "And Botan and Yukina are definitely innocent. I'm coming with you."
"Me too," Kaisei added, joining his sister in the hallway. "Can't let my little sister get all the glory now, can I?"
Fubuki smiled and nodded at him and then they both jogged over to join Yusuke.
"What about you, fox boy?" Yusuke asked Kurama. "Are you coming too?"
Kurama paused before appearing to deflate slightly.
"Let me arrange for cover here," he said. "Kuwabara will want to come with us and I think we should bring Touya too."
Yusuke nodded.
"We'll meet you outside," he said.
As Kurama started off Yusuke turned his attention to the Sato siblings.
"I don't know how this is gonna go down," he warned them. "But I've thought for a long time now that this was gonna end up with me fighting Hiei. I want you guys to make sure you get the girls free from him and away to safety. There's no way they're guilty in any of this, but Hiei will probably have convinced them that they are."
"I've never liked Hiei," Fubuki said.
"He's always been so sneaky," Kaisei added.
Yusuke started on and together the trio left the temple and moved out onto the lawn, where they were shortly joined by Kurama, Touya and a distraught-looking Kuwabara.
"Do we know which way they went?" Touya asked Yusuke.
"No, but I've got someone who can always find Yukina," Yusuke replied.
Puu stepped forward and brayed cheerfully at the same moment that Kuwabara stepped forward and held up his pinky finger.
"I've got two someones who can always find Yukina," Yusuke corrected himself. "Puu, let's go boy."
Yusuke and his team jumped onto Puu's back – which was a slightly crowded and awkward place with six large, grown bodies aboard – and Puu, after struggling slightly, took off. Kuwabara called out directions as they flew, but Puu was already ahead of his words, following that odd instinct that always helped him find his favoured caretaker. Other than the sound of Kuwabara's random outbursts of unnecessary directions, the wind rushing by and the rhythmic beating of Puu's wings however, there was a silence amongst the group. Yusuke was almost glad of the silence though, as he was having conflicting feelings about what they might find when Puu reached their destination. He was angry that four members of his team had vanished without explanation, but he was also worried that they may have been taken from the group rather than left by choice: and he was very worried that Hiei had been the one to take the other three.
Yusuke could remember with almost painful accuracy the day he had arrived at the arena to sign up for the sixth Demon World Tournament and Hiei had met him there, at the scene of the devastation, and acted like it was something he was pleased about. Of every one of his friends and allies, Yusuke knew that Hiei was the one most likely to be tempted by something like the Dark Force. Hiei did have a great sense of honour, but his sense of loyalty had always been a slightly shaky issue. He had – as Kuwabara had always been quick to point out – let the team down on a few key occasions. He had of course just as often arrived in the nick of time to save the day, but Yusuke felt that something had changed recently about Hiei, and recent changes in someone was something he knew he ought to be suspicious of.
And it was hard to believe that Hiei could be loyal to anyone or anything after witnessing first-hand how awkward and practically non-existent his relationship with his own daughter was.
Yusuke had tried to stay impartial, tried to remain objective, but, as Puu flew on and on, he could not help but find himself increasingly siding with Kuwabara. Hiei had killed Rinku without hesitation or remorse and he had been the driving force behind why the team had left behind or lost its other members. The only thing Hiei consistently did was pursue power, and, after having witnessed how incredibly powerful the Dark Force had made others it had taken control of, it was perhaps not so ridiculous to think that Hiei had succumbed to the enemy. The only mystery remaining was why he had dragged Botan, Yukina and Akira along with him: after all, Yusuke had thought that Botan and Akira were immune to the being taken control of or consumed by the Dark Force, so it did not seem as though they would be of any use or interest to Hiei. And as for why he had taken Yukina, Yusuke could not even begin to speculate.
Or perhaps, Yusuke thought suddenly, Hiei had taken innocents to cause pain to those left behind. Taking Yukina had caused an extreme emotional reaction in Kuwabara, and that was exactly what the Dark Force did. And, by taking the only two members of the team they knew they could trust to not be taken over, Hiei had undermined the security of the group. It was exactly the sort of behaviour Yusuke had come to expect from the Dark Force, and he reluctantly found himself coming to the conclusion that Hiei was lost to them. He wondered then if Hiei was controlled or consumed: redeemable or damned. He hoped Hiei did not do anything bad to the girls: and that thought only furthered his belief that Hiei was under the influence of the Dark Force. Back in Demon World, Hiei had claimed that he was ready to kill anyone – even Yusuke – in order to end the Dark Age, but he had drawn the line at killing or injuring his twin sister. The Dark Force had also mentioned something about people who suppressed their emotions being of interest to it, and so it made perfect sense that it would take Hiei and make him torture his own sister in order to feed off the pain and misery it would cause Hiei. Hiei – the real Hiei – would never be able to forgive himself.
Hiei would be better off dead.
Yusuke sighed. He had known he would end up having to fight Hiei at some point, but he had hoped he would be proven wrong. Apparently however, he was going to have to not only fight Hiei, but also to kill him. It was what Hiei would want. He would not want to live on after doing something so heinous, and Yusuke was sure that, if he had been given the choice to die at anyone's hand, Hiei would choose Yusuke for the task.
But that did not make any of it any easier.
Hiei stopped abruptly, and Yukina stopped at his left side. Botan stopped by his right side and, beyond her, Akira took another step forwards, but, Hiei noticed amusedly, Botan grabbed a handful of her clothing and yanked her back, pushing her around so that she was hidden behind Botan – like she needed protecting. The four of them had been walking for some time, in silence, up a barren mountainside. None of them had discussed where they were going, but they had all instinctively gone the same direction, as though thinking from one common mind. A wind had picked up, and stray crispy brown leaves were drifting across their path as proof that the season was starting to change. Despite the silence, stillness and isolation however, Hiei had not sensed the approach of anyone else until it was already too late. He could not even see any evidence of which direction they had approached from, yet suddenly he found himself facing a group standing a few yards further uphill, all of whom seemed to have almost been expecting his arrival.
"What do you want with us?" Hiei asked.
Shogo smiled and tilted his head to one side. He appeared to be the leader of the group, which implied to Hiei that he was still the only being fully consumed by the Dark Force. He had an SDF officer, Jin and a handful of humans and demons with him, but surprisingly Jin was the only one present who was likely to be of any threat in a battle situation.
"I knew you would come back to me eventually," Shogo replied. "All four of you. I knew you would come to me."
"We didn't come to you, you just ambushed us!" Botan retorted indignantly.
"You don't need to pretend any more, my child," Shogo answered her.
"Don't call me that!" Botan snapped.
"You are as much a part of me as I am of you, and as such, we were always destined to be reunited like this," Shogo continued.
"We didn't come here looking for you," Akira said.
"Stay back!" Botan yelled at her, pushing Akira behind herself again.
"You should stay back too," Hiei warned Shogo. "Because despite what you might think, we are not your allies."
Shogo smiled.
"I have waited so long for this moment," he said through a sigh. "For this glorious age where both I and all four of my children have mortal form once more. I've ached for it."
"We're not on your side!" Botan insisted.
"Let's see if we can't commence the final step in stage four of this Dark Age, shall we?" Shogo said. "You all seem prepared to fight, and that's good. Keep that hunger alive, you're going to need it for this next part, where you will play a key role in freeing me from my prison completely and allowing me to initiate stage five."
"There really is a stage five?" Yukina asked faintly.
"Yes that's right my child," Shogo said to her. "And just to prove to you how close we are to entering stage five, I am going to ask you to demonstrate which side you are loyal too."
"Not yours," Hiei growled.
"Really?" Shogo asked. "If you're sure about that, then show me."
Shogo snapped his fingers and one of his demon slaves stepped forward. It was a nondescript troll-like creature with large fangs and a pronounced under-bite, and, Hiei noted bitterly, it was only a mid-D-class in terms of power.
"If you wish to join me, come over here and join me and fight my enemies for me," Shogo said. "If, however, you think you can defy me, go ahead and kill this creature."
"Gladly!" Hiei said, throwing aside his cloak and whipping out his sword.
"I'm not going to kill that creature," Botan said.
Hiei shot her a confused look.
"I'm going to kill you!" she finished, pointing at Shogo.
To Hiei's amazement, Botan charged towards Shoto, holding out her hands at her sides. And, as abruptly as she had launched herself towards him, she stopped again, a few feet short of him. She glanced back and forth between both of her hands in a state of obvious panic.
"You didn't really think you could turn one of my own children against me, did you?" Shogo asked her smugly.
"I can!" Yukina declared, stepping forwards.
She struggled a little to summon the Winter Wolves, but eventually had all four of them at her heels, and shortly thereafter the Winter Guardian joined them too.
"Go ahead and try," Shogo goaded her.
"Stop him!" she said sternly, pointing over at Shogo.
A horrible, awkward, quiet moment passed as neither the Winter Guardian, nor any of the Winter Wolves, moved to obey Yukina's order.
"I'm impressed," Shogo commented. "That you would go to the effort of calling your servants here ready to assist the forces of Darkness."
Yukina looked back over her shoulder, her panic evident.
"Why won't you attack?" she asked the Winter Guardian.
"I cannot perform an order that is not absolute," he replied.
"What do you mean?" Yukina asked.
"I can only do what Master wishes me to do."
Yukina looked confused but Hiei thought that he understood: the day before, the Winter Guardian had attacked Saito not because Yukina had ordered him to but because she had desired it completely, and, so attuned to her desires was the beast, he had acted upon that desire. This time she was merely issuing a command, but clearly she did not really want what she was asking for.
"What about you, Hiei?" Shogo asked, leaning past Botan to look over at Hiei. "Do you want to attempt to pretend that you can stand up to me?"
"Don't mock me," Hiei warned him.
"And you girl, don't you want to try me?" he asked, leaning the other way to look over at Akira.
"Leave her out of this!" Botan snapped at him.
"Why, because she "can't control it"?" Shogo asked in a mocking tone.
"Yes, that's exactly why!" Botan replied.
"Let's dispel that myth right here and now, shall we?" Shogo said.
The others all hesitated as Shogo turned to Jin.
"Kill the ferry girl," he said.
Hiei was almost sure that he had misheard, but, in a blast of wind that took Hiei, Yukina, Akira and the Winter Wolves off their feet, Jin pounced on Botan. Hiei quickly got up again but he was blind-sided by the SDF officer. As he fought his way out from under the rabid lummox, he saw Yukina knocked down by a bat demon and the Winter Guardian remaining still, its four assistants standing ahead of it showing no sign of interest in what was happening before them. As he got to his feet Hiei turned to see if Akira intended to make herself useful or not: but he could not find any trace of her. He paused to look about for her, neither locating her visually nor by sensing any trace of her energy: but in searching for her aura, Hiei found something else.
He looked up to see Yusuke's fluffy blue spirit beast descending, bringing with it six others. Kuwabara leapt down and rushed to Yukina's aid, Kurama and Touya fought Jin back from Botan and Yusuke floored the SDF officer by Hiei. Kaisei and Fubuki both approached their father as though they had no awareness of what he had become: but they at least had the sense to stop before getting within arm's length of him. They began a conversation but, apparently keenly aware of what any such conversation would surely mean, Yusuke hurried over and shoved both of the Sato siblings away from Shogo.
"Your fight's with me!" he declared, standing directly in front of Shogo. "Show your real face and fight me!"
Shogo smiled sympathetically.
"This is my true face," he said.
"No it's not!" Yusuke argued.
"But I have many faces," Shogo continued. "And a few very special faces that belong to my most precious allies. How about you take a look at one of my favourites?"
"…What are you muttering on about now?" Yusuke snapped. "Talk sense for once, you sneaky bastard!"
Shogo smiled and Hiei immediately knew why: the oppressive presence of an Ancient had just arrived. With the Winter Guardian already accounted for, the Dragon of the Darkness Flame mostly under Hiei's command and Botan on the ground wrestling with one of the Dark Force's demon puppets, that only left one explanation for what had arrived. In a blur of motion, a woman with long silver-hair and an ill-fitting ninja outfit appeared at Yusuke's side, facing Shogo.
"My most loyal servant," Shogo purred. "Break apart those that oppose me in only the way that you can."
"Don't listen to him, Akira!" Yusuke shouted at the woman at his side.
She had her back to Hiei, so he could not see her face to know how she was reacting to anything Shogo or Yusuke had said, but Hiei found himself strangely anchored to the spot. There was something especially oppressive and overwhelming about the presence of the Sacred Darkness that was making him sweat and making his entire body feel heavy and useless: and actually looking at the back of her head made those feelings more intense.
But, just as Hiei thought he could not feel any worse or that the situation could not worsen, something happened that appeared to shock everyone present except the Dark Force: Akira, in her new form, crouched down and then launched herself into the air, hurling herself towards a conflict that was happening overhead. And, when two demons fell free of the melee, Hiei's worst fear was realised: Akira had her hands around Touya's throat.
Botan shouted at her to stop, but Akira ignored her – and everyone else – and dropped to the ground, keeping hold of Touya. Yusuke and Kuwabara leapt in to stop her, but, to Hiei's surprise, when Botan reached them, it was Kuwabara she attacked, pushing him back. Kurama tried to run over but the four Winter Wolves moved into his path, snarling at him and driving him back. A glance at Shogo showed him still smiling smugly, and Hiei shortly found that he was the only one present not actively choosing which side he was on as Akira tried to strangle the life out of Touya.
But still he found himself unable to move and overcome by a sinking feeling that was growing in intensity: it was similar to the feeling he got when he saw something with his Jagan eye and realised that he would not be fast enough to reach it in time to stop something bad from happening.
Before long, Kuwabara was trying to stop Botan from fighting him, Kurama was surrounded by the Winter Wolves, Yukina was warning Kaisei and Fubuki to keep back and Yusuke finally managed to tear Akira from Touya.
"Don't do this!" Yusuke said as he dragged Akira back from Touya. "You don't have to do what someone else tries to make you do!"
Akira went still for a moment and Yusuke, foolishly, trustingly, let down his guard. She swung around and punched him in the face, sending him staggering back. The blow had not been especially hard, but Yusuke had not been trying to block it or defend himself in any way. As he stumbled, Akira turned to face Hiei for the first time since taking on her new form.
Her eyes were the same as his.
"Are you really just going to stand there and do nothing?" she called over to him.
Yusuke charged awkwardly at her, but she ducked and dodged out of range and he staggered past her.
"And what about you?" Akira added, glaring up at the Winter Guardian. "Make yourself useful!"
She glowered at the giant wolf for a moment before once more looking over at Hiei.
Her eyes were the same as his.
"Well?" she pressed. "Have you decided whose side you're on yet?"
It was the Sacred Darkness talking, not Akira.
But it made no difference.
There was no choice to be made.
It was an obligation Hiei was bound by.
As Yusuke tried to pounce on Akira from behind, Hiei leapt forward and did what he had to do.
And it seemed Yusuke was unsurprised that Hiei had attacked him, as the look on his face was almost one of wryly amused acceptance.
During the first Demon World Tournament, Hiei's affair with Botan had been unexpected but welcome and enjoyable. At first it had merely been a means to satiate a carnal desire, a "distraction" from the tournament itself, just like Yusuke had suggested it ought to be. But it became addictive and strange. A part of Hiei had not wanted it to end, and so he had known that it had to. He could not actually give her what she wanted or needed and he was sure to betray her in some manner in the future, and so, for her sake as well as his own, when his role in the Demon World Tournament came to an end, so did their affair. He never told Botan as much – partly because he did not want to see her get upset and partly because he feared she might manage to convince him not to end it. She could be quite persuasive, and as a large part of him did not want it to end, he knew that he could be convinced otherwise.
And so he ignored her.
Hiei ignored Botan when she tried to visit him in Demon World, over and over, and eventually, after one especially emotional attempt a few months after the tournament, she finally gave up trying. A part of him temporarily felt vaguely disappointed that she had stopped trying to reach him, but a larger part of him – the logical part of him – focused on the fact that it was for the best, and he moved on with his life and tried to forget all about what had happened between them.
But then the second Demon World Tournament arrived – and sooner than seemed reasonable – and Botan duly arrived in Demon World with Koenma and the idiot ogre, and the ferry girl tried again to reach Hiei. He determined not to see her and did all he could to avoid her, but she somehow managed to sneak her way into the locker room of the arena and corner him.
"We absolutely need to talk!" she wailed.
She looked emotional and a little wild.
"We have nothing to discuss," he answered her.
"You need to listen to me!" she firmly replied. "Because I have something vitally important to tell you!"
Hiei acquiesced and stood silently waiting for her to continue. As he stood there, in a room full of half-naked demons all casting Botan odd looks, he watched Botan's demeanour soften into that sappy way she had looked at him during their affair. He started to fear what she might say next, but her expression changed further still into one of disappointed misery.
"Hiei, I'm in love with you," she said.
Which was exactly what he had suspected she might say, but he had been hoping she would not.
"I thought that what happened between us during the last tournament was very special," she continued. "I was expressing my love for you then. And I thought that you felt the same way about me. Hiei, I just need to know before I can continue, how do you really feel about me?"
He could hardly have told her the truth, and so, to protect her as well as himself, he lied.
"You bore me," he said. "I have no more use for you."
The truth was, it really bothered him to see her looking as sad as she did right then, and, had she so much as started to open her arms, he would have gladly sunk into her embrace.
"But…"
She looked about herself as though she expected to find something.
"This conversation is over," he told her.
That brought her attention back to him and she started to look panicky.
"But Hiei, it's just the two of us here," she tried. "You don't have to put on your tough guy front, you can just let go and be yourself!"
Hiei was furious.
"I do not employ a façade to present myself to anyone," he said. "And I don't care what you, or anyone else thinks about me."
He was angry because he was almost sure, from her words, that she knew he put on a façade around most people and that he never wanted anyone to think of him as weak. And he was confused – and his confusion had turned to anger, as it so often did – about both how he really felt and why Botan was the one to understand it even better than he did.
"I just need to know," she said carefully. "Because there are bigger things going on and I don't want you to feel bound by obligation to me. I need to know how you feel just about me, not considering any other possible factors. Just for my own peace of mind, I need to know. I love you. And I don't know if that will ever change, and I would like us to be a family."
Hiei had done – in his own opinion at least – a fantastic job of containing himself as Botan stood before him, on the verge of a tearful breakdown, telling him things he had spent a good amount of time and effort denying and suppressing ever since their brief affair: but the moment she used the word "family", she had overstepped the line. The concept of "family" had always been a sketchy, ill-defined idea for Hiei, one conflicted between the closure he had never gotten from his mother who had passed away before he could ask her all the questions that had burned inside of him and the peaceful joy he got from watching Yukina live a simple, happy life in the living world spreading her gentle kindness around everyone she met.
"I need you to understand something, so I am going to say it to you very carefully and very clearly," he said, keeping his voice steady but firm. "I cannot be a part of any kind of "family". The only family I have is my sister, and that is the way it will always remain. I have no interest in taking a wife and the very idea of me fathering a child is both disgusting and unacceptable to me. That will never change. It doesn't matter how you feel – or even how I feel – about anything else. I am not capable of being what you seem to want me to be. If you have feelings for me because you think I am the sort who wants to be a husband to you or a father to children, then you are wasting your time and I advise you to redirect your efforts elsewhere."
She had started to cry, but it was a strange thing to witness: she was standing perfectly still, barely breathing and barely even blinking, but tears were infrequently sliding from the corners of her eyes as she stared back at him.
"How do you know until you try?" she asked quietly.
"I know myself very well," he replied.
"I thought I knew myself very well too," she said, her voice still soft and faint. "But sometimes something really big happens, and you think you can't deal with it, or you think you're not the right sort of person to fulfil the role that fate places upon you, but sometimes when it actually happens, you discover a side of yourself that you never really knew existed, and sometimes it actually really does all come naturally – they all say it does, and you think it doesn't – but then it does."
"Don't waste your time projecting your own wishes onto me," Hiei warned her. "You think you have feelings for me, but what you're pining for is what you think I am, not what I really am."
"Like parataxic distortion?"
Hiei did not want to actually admit that he did not know what "parataxic distortion" was, but he had later learned that it was exactly what he had been accusing Botan of: when someone fell in love with how they imagined a specific person to be rather than how they actually were.
"It would be best if you stayed away from me from now on," he said instead. "And if you can't control yourself, maybe you shouldn't keep coming to Demon World."
Botan frowned.
"Are you banning me from Demon World?" she asked.
"I don't have the authority to do that, but I am advising you that you should not ever come back here," he replied. "Not if you can't control yourself."
Hiei flinched slightly as he made his last remark, mostly because he knew that he was the one lacking self-control, but he was hoping that he could successfully push Botan away. If he never had to see her again, there was a good chance he could make himself forget all about her.
"I came here to watch you in the tournament," she said solemnly. "I've always enjoyed watching you in tournaments. I was looking forward to this one. And I was hoping I could attend future tournaments to watch you with–"
"No."
"But you didn't let me finish–"
"There's no need. It's best that you go. And don't come back. Ever."
"If I don't come to the Demon World Tournaments, when will I ever see you? You almost never come to the living world now."
"You shouldn't come back to Demon World and in return, I won't go to the living world again."
"…But then we'll never see each other ever again."
"That's the point."
"Oh, I see."
Botan wiped a hand at each of her cheeks in turn, clearing away the tracks of her tears, before snivelling slightly.
"Well, now that I know how you feel, there is something else I must discuss with you," she said. "I just needed to know how you felt first, because I didn't want you to think that I was using what I have to tell you to make you feel something you don't. And I want you to know that what I have to tell you doesn't have to change anything between you and me, but it's very important that you know about this, because some time has passed already, and it's very wrong that you don't know and that you're not involved in whatever way you feel is best."
"I thought I has already made myself clear," Hiei said. "I do not want to be involved or around anything to do with you or any of your concepts of "love". Go away and stay away. Do you understand that?"
"You're not unfeeling–"
"Yes I am. You just don't think I am because you don't know me as well as you think you do."
Botan nodded, her bottom lip quivered, and Hiei took her silence as an excuse to escape. As he left, he heard her sobbing, and looked back to see her burying her face into one of the long sleeves of the extravagant kimono she had been wearing. Again he pushed his thoughts aside, and he tried to forget.
And, after several years, he almost had.
It was another eight years after the second Demon World Tournament before Hiei saw Botan again. He had been vaguely close to what he could only assume was disappointed when she had not appeared with Koenma for the third Demon World Tournament and he had even observed her absence at the fourth with a little negativity: but he had quickly dismissed such thoughts by reminding himself that, should she ever confront him again, it would probably be to try to get romantic with him again because she was still "in love" with him.
Or maybe it would not, maybe she would have moved on and would not really care for him so much, and that bothered him more.
And so, when Hiei stopped partway through a patrol one random day in early summer time and found that the disturbance happening over the site of the Dark Force's prison was being caused by Botan and a companion fighting a pair of dragon fish, he was surprised and annoyed. Annoyed at her for coming to Demon World, annoyed at her for choosing such a ridiculous location to cause a disturbance and annoyed at himself for caring. His frustration grew as he started towards her and realised that whoever was with her was wielding the darkness flame, something only an emiko ought to be able to do. It was like Botan had gone out and found a replacement for him – which, in hindsight, sounded like such a ridiculous, illogical thought – and he lost control of his better judgement. When Botan flew up high, Hiei decided to show her how a real emiko would deal with pests like dragon fish and he stopped, unwrapped his arm, and released the Dragon of the Darkness Flame, all the while hoping to take out the little pest accompanying Botan in the process.
But that was not what happened.
As the dragon neared its target, Botan dived down towards it at an alarming, impressive speed, shortly disappearing from Hiei's line of sight. He momentarily thought that he had caught her in the dragon's path, but his attention quickly shifted when he felt an almighty surge of energy – one so great it created a blast of air that reached all the way along High Road to where he stood, ruffling his hair and clothing as it washed over him. And then the dragon stopped. Looking down the road, Hiei saw a glow of something at the dragon's head and he paused. Something else was on the road, something that held the same dark, intense, oppressive presence as the Dragon of the Darkness Flame: something that could only be another one of the Ancients. Whatever it was, it had stopped the dragon in its path. Something powerful enough to stop the dragon and something that felt so powerful and so dark at such a location could only really be one thing: it was the Dark Force.
Hiei felt a sharp, shallow pain on his forearm and he looked down to see a nick in his skin, a red, bloody line forming over a gash he had inexplicably suffered. As he watched his arm, two more such marks appeared, as if from nowhere, each one stinging. Then he felt a sickening pulling, as though something had taken hold of every bone in his arm and started to pull it from his shoulder. He turned his attention back to the road ahead, a growing glow of yellow energy appearing as he did so. As he watched the Dragon of the Darkness Flame being dragged up into the air, Hiei tried to decide if it was better or worse that what had stopped him was not the Dark Force, but rather the Sacred Darkness. He staggered helplessly forward a few steps before finding his footing again – mostly only because the force pulling the dragon up into the air had stopped – and then, to his horror, he realised that he had completely lost control of the Dragon of the Darkness Flame. He could feel its anger, its hatred, its bitterness, as it was overwhelmed by another of its own kind and hurled down through the very substance of High Road itself.
The dragon crashed into something that crackled up the length of its body until it reached Hiei's arm, where it made short work of pulling Hiei's arm from him, his very flesh and bone disintegrating in a painful, angry explosion of a very strange kind of energy. The dragon continued moving along the road, but it had left Hiei's body entirely, and, as he fell to his knees, weakened from the exertion of summoning the dragon and the violence of the wound he had suffered, he saw the yellow glare of sacred energy drive the Dragon of the Darkness Flame deep underground. Only once every trace of black had faded did the Sacred Darkness let up her attack, then landing on the road and looking over at something. She held up her hand before starting to slowly, mockingly, saunter towards Hiei.
Hiei's attention only wavered from her long enough to notice that she had been signalling to Botan, who was on all fours at the side of the road, staring at her agape. The Sacred Darkness continued along the road, wild silver hair billowing out behind her, her powerful body inexplicably dressed in a kimono that was too short and barely closed over her chest and hips. One of her feet was bare, the other was covered with a silly little sock, but she walked over rubble without hesitation. As she got closer, she cast a glance to one side, where Hiei could sense a faint, insignificant, pocket of spirit energy approaching: and she, like he had, clearly dismissed it, as she did not break stride.
When she finally stopped, a short way ahead of him, Hiei, against his own better wishes, fell forwards, no longer able to hold himself up even on his knees. In an attempt to retain some of his dignity, he propped himself up on his elbow, sneering at the bloody stump where his other arm ought to be before looking up through heavy eyelids at the woman standing ahead of him.
Her eyes were the same as his.
He had not noticed it before as she had been too far away.
It was quite strange.
"Get up and fight me," she said.
"Why did you come here now?" he asked her.
After all the time and effort he had wasted trying to summon the Sacred Darkness, he had to know why she had decided to appear at such a random time to finally face him in a confrontation he had long desired: and was, after what had just occurred, incapable of rising to the challenge of.
"Never mind about that," she said. "Get up and fight me. That's what you want, isn't it?"
It was what he wanted, and even though he knew he was moments away from losing consciousness and that she was immensely more powerful than he was, his mind began trying to devise ways that he could fight her then and there. He was sure that he could manage something, but, as though to dispel that thought from his mind, she powered up, a ball of energy blasting out around her and narrowly missing injuring him. As she settled down again, Hiei noticed those pathetic soldiers from Spirit World flapping about behind her.
"I know you want to fight me," she continued. "And I know you didn't want to use that dragon to do so. So now that I've fixed that problem for you, get up and fight me."
"Hn, you're an evil bitch," Hiei growled at her.
She was just toying with him.
"Of course I am," she confidently replied.
He looked up at her arrogantly smug face.
Her eyes were the same as his.
Hiei blinked heavily, his eyes taking a moment to refocus: and when they did, he saw something he really did not like. Two of the Spirit World idiots had caught Botan between them. She was thrashing about demanding to be let go, but her attempts were, of course, in vain.
"What are you doing?" a yellow-haired female officer asked the two holding Botan.
"She's not under arrest," a little bald-headed SDF officer added. "You can let her go."
"I'm doing what none of you apparently can," one of the two holding Botan replied. "Hey you!"
The Sacred Darkness sighed at the sound of the SDF officer shouting – he was looking right at the back of her head and so was apparently trying to get her attention – and she rolled her eyes, Hiei noticed.
Her eyes that were the same as his.
"You're under arrest, by order of King Enma!" the SDF leader shouted.
The Sacred Darkness smirked.
"It's so funny that they think they can stop me," she said to Hiei. "It's almost as funny as you thinking you can defeat me."
The SDF soldier who had shouted at her bared his teeth and formed his free hand into a strange position.
"I can stop you," he snarled.
Hiei looked past the Sacred Darkness, his curiosity piqued. In a slow and deliberate motion, the angry SDF officer moved his hand until two fingers were pointing at Botan's chest, and in the instant that she gave him a fearful look, Hiei started to realise what was really happening: and he despised himself for being unable to stop any of it. A hard beam of light punched through Botan's chest, emanating from the SDF officer's fingers, and the fearful look on her face turned into that shocked look of desperation Hiei had seen too many times on the face of someone dealt a mortal blow. She gave a stuttering gasp before straining out what Hiei was sure sounded like "pumpkin" before she slumped in their hold. Hiei's attention was then draw back to the Sacred Darkness, who had taken on a strangely horrified look the moment Botan had been hit.
And then a series of things happened that were even more horrifying than losing the Dragon of the Darkness Flame, coming face-to-face with the Sacred Darkness and seeing one of the SDF kill Botan.
The Sacred Darkness staggered around on the spot and started to run away, though she seemed to be moving in slow motion. As she ran, the two SDF soldiers holding Botan released her and stepped away, letting her fall limply to the ground, where she landed facing away from Hiei. The Sacred Darkness did not break pace or change direction, aiming herself straight at Botan, and, as she ran, she changed. She visibly shrank, in height and build, her kimono soon lowering from just below her knees to trail along the ground by her feet, and her long, glittering silver hair warmed into a pastel lilac colour: that same weird, pastel lilac hair colour that only occurred when one parent had black hair and the other blue. When she reached Botan's side she tripped awkwardly over her loose clothing when she changed direction and began moving around Botan's feet. She brought herself around so that she was facing Botan – and therefore also facing Hiei – and there she lowered to her knees, her face suddenly that of a child. Her arrogant, sharp features had softened at the edges and her demeanour was one stricken with woe: between her colouring, her slight features and her miserable demeanour, she almost looked like an ice maiden. In fact, there had only been one thing that had made her unlike an ice maiden.
Her eyes were the same as Hiei's.
One of the SDF officers had edged closer to her as she knelt by Botan, those eyes, so like his own, flitting over the fallen ferry girl.
"This is your fault, you monster!" the soldier yelled at her.
"No!" she cried.
Hiei could feel himself slipping out of consciousness, but what he heard next triggered something inside of him that kept him awake for just a few moments longer.
"Mom? Mom, get up."
The little girl put a hand on Botan's shoulder and gently shook her.
"Mom? Mom, come on! Get up, mom!"
She was starting to look frantic, and her voice was starting to crack.
"Mom? Mommy?"
When her voice reached a panicked, heart-broken squeal and her shaking hand gripped desperately into the fabric of Botan's kimono, Hiei's entire world fell apart.
She was his child.
By then, it had been almost eleven years since his affair with Botan during the first Demon World Tournament, and the girl looked to be just the right age to have been conceived at that time. She had inherited a shocking amount of features from her ice maiden ancestors, but there were a few visual, tell-tale signs that confirmed her relation to Hiei: that unusual colour her hair was, the slightly upturned tip on her nose, her slightly pronounced over-bite and her high cheekbones. And her eyes were the same as his: in colour, in shape, in setting. And if her appearance and apparent age were not proof enough, she had fought the dragon fish with both spirit energy (clearly inherited from Botan) and demon energy in the form of the darkness flame, something no female should be able to wield, as it was a form of energy supposedly unique to an emiko: but apparently it could be passed on from an emiko to a child, regardless of gender. And, how ironically, Hiei thought, after his trials of attempting to channel the Sacred Darkness had ended with his learning that the Ancient would only lend its powers to a female, it had chosen to lend its powers to his daughter.
The realisation then that the Sacred Darkness had surfaced and redirected the Dragon of the Darkness Flame into the road towards the Dark Force's burial place made Hiei wonder if dark times lay ahead: and it became hard to focus on what bothered him the most. Between the potential consequences of what had just happened, his loss of both the Dragon of the Darkness Flame and his arm, Botan's death and the discovery that he was a father, he was unsure where to place his focus. But, as though to help him decide, one of the SDF officers who had been holding Botan (though not the one who had killed her) clamped his hands around the little girl's neck. She, by that point, was hysterical, torn between denying her mother's death and begging for it not to be true, and so she barely noticed what was happening to her. Hiei managed to push himself up just slightly, pausing again when the soldier removed his hands and revealed that he had attached one of those disgusting contraptions Spirit World used on its demon prisoners to prevent them from using their demon energy. Then another SDF officer (the one who had killed Botan) stepped forward and punched the little girl in the back of the head.
The look on her face was haunting.
She lost consciousness almost instantly, falling over her mother. Hiei tried to crawl forwards on his stomach using his one remaining arm to pull himself, but he could not stop the SDF from carrying off Botan and hauling off his daughter, holding her only by her arm as though she was not even a living creature deserving of enough respect to be carried properly.
As they flew off, Hiei finally collapsed, the silhouette of Botan draped lifelessly in one soldier's arms and their little girl hanging by one arm burned into the back of his eyes.
The cruel thing about the sleep Hiei fell into after dispelling the Dragon of the Darkness Flame was that it was never a restful, peaceful one, and the slumber he endured that day on High Road was no different. As he slept, unable to awake, he was forced to relive everything: every horrid moment replayed in painful detail, his own mind almost mocking him as he realised, through reflection, that he had stupidly sent out the Dragon of the Darkness Flame in an attempt to kill his own child. He agonised over why he had not known about the girl before then: had Botan told him and he had not processed it properly? She had come to see him so many times after the end of the first Demon World Tournament and he had ignored her and been so dismissive of her because he had believed that she was only looking for him to attach herself to him romantically: but she had said something about them being a "family" before, had she indirectly told him they had a child together and he had ignored her? Where had the child even been all her life? Had Botan been raising her in Spirit World?
Hiei awoke with a start. Most of the day had passed and High Road was eerily quiet and devoid of life: but even before he had fully opened his eyes Hiei could feel Yukina's presence at his side. He lifted himself up, sitting back onto his heels, looking about the devastation around him, feeling both nervous about what it might all mean and inescapably impressed that it had all been caused by him and his own daughter. He turned to Yukina then, finding her watching him almost critically: and again he found himself looking into eyes that were remarkably similar to his own.
"I'm glad you're awake, Hiei," she said. "You have to go to Spirit World and get Akira back. Botan is… Botan's dead, Hiei. And Spirit World have taken Akira away, and I think they're going to blame her for it, but what happened wasn't her fault. You're her father Hiei, you have to go and get her back. You have to go to Spirit World and tell King Enma that Akira is innocent, and you have to get her out of there."
Hiei had feared that, when they attached a prison issue collar onto her, that the SDF intended to blame his daughter for what had happened.
"I didn't know her name was Akira," he said aloud as the realisation occurred to him that Yukina had just spoken her name. "Why is she named Akira?"
He had never heard the name before and he was curious as to how she had come by it: presumably Botan had given her the name, but he wondered why she had chosen that particular name.
"Because Akira means child of light, which is what Botan thought she was when she was born," Yukina explained. "Because she was always so happy as a baby, it seemed like she literally glowed… Of course maybe that was because of the energy she possessed, though back then it wasn't obvious… But Kira is also a name that means shadow and darkness, and I think Botan chose that as a reference to you, because she always saw you so much in Akira."
Hiei nodded.
"She can channel the Sacred Darkness," he said.
He needed to say it out loud. Partly because he was still struggling to believe it and partly because it felt like a sort of small victory: he had worked so hard to channel the Sacred Darkness, and as he had failed to do so himself, it seemed a fitting and satisfactory conclusion to his efforts that his daughter should be the one to possess that power.
"I don't think she meant to," Yukina said.
Hiei was a little confused by her reply.
"Is that the first time she's done that?" Hiei asked.
He wondered then if maybe she had done it before: maybe she had been doing it for years, he had no way of knowing, after all.
"As far as I know, yes," Yukina replied.
Hiei nodded again. His other concern was that she had spontaneously been possessed by the Sacred Darkness who had seen the situation and decided to intervene: and that was a dangerous thought. But his mind could not focus on that matter for long, despite how important he knew it was, and instead he again found himself wondering where Akira had been all her life.
"Have you seen much of her?" he asked Yukina.
"Have I seen much of Akira?" Yukina asked.
Hiei nodded.
"Yes, of course," Yukina replied. "She is my niece, after all. She is family – we are blood relatives. Family is very important to me."
Hiei nodded again. He still wondered when and how Yukina had learned that he was her brother, but he felt a little better knowing that Yukina had at least been a part of Akira's life. Yukina, however, seemed angry all of a sudden.
"And it's very lucky that Akira has spent so much time with me," she said, her voice suddenly harsh and bitter. "Because she was able to be around Kazuma, who has been very supportive and caring towards her. She loves him and he adores her. He might as well be her father, because he's the only father figure she's ever known."
Hiei was on his feet in an instant, and, to his surprise, Yukina was at his side almost instantly. His head was consumed then by the sickening thought that Kuwabara had been a substitute father to his child – did that mean Botan had been raising her in the living world? And was that any better or worse than raising her in Spirit World with Koenma and the SDF?
"She was so excited about coming to see you today," Yukina said. "All she's ever wanted was to meet you. She just wanted to meet you Hiei! She didn't want to fight you, she just wanted to meet her father!"
At the realisation that Botan and Akira had come to Demon World specifically to see him, Hiei immediately knew what he had to do.
"I'm going to fix this," he told Yukina.
"You are obliged to fix this!" she cried. "This disaster is of your making! Take Puu and go to Spirit World immediately!"
"No."
"What?"
"I need to go to Mukuro."
"No you don't! You need to go to Spirit World and save your daughter before King Enma does something terrible to her! Botan always protected her, but I know many in Spirit World dislike and distrust Akira, especially since she showed her ability to use demon energy: they will never trust her now!"
"Yes, they won't accept the Sacred Darkness into their world. Look at how they ousted Sensui."
"Wh-what?"
"That's what the Sacred Darkness is: mastery of all three energies. Akira can use spirit energy, demon energy and sacred energy. That was how she was able to overcome the Dragon of the Darkness Flame, and that's why she can channel the Sacred Darkness. The Sacred Darkness was the only one to master all three energies, but now… Now Akira can too."
Hiei had a feeling that what had just happened might trigger an early Dark Age, and if it did, two things were certain: Spirit World would conveniently blame Akira and someone like Akira, who could channel the power of the Sacred Darkness, was too valuable an ally to be left in the hands of the idiots who ran Spirit World. She needed to come to Demon World immediately, and the only way Hiei could negotiate her freedom after her apparent arrest would be through Mukuro. Mukuro would not mess about: when she heard the facts, she would go directly to King Enma and she alone had the influence to force the king's hand and grant Akira's release. While Mukuro did that, Hiei could find out if anything could be done for Botan, and if so, he would have her brought to Demon World too – he had noticed how quickly most of the SDF had wanted to condemn her alongside her daughter – and then, once he had gotten past the initial confusion between the three of them, he could start training Akira how to deal with what she really was.
"So you will go to Spirit World now and take Akira into your care," Yukina said. "You're her father, they can't refuse to let you take her from there."
"I need to go to Mukuro," Hiei insisted.
He understood that Yukina probably thought he should go to Spirit World in pursuit of Akira but he knew himself well enough to know that he would lose control and end up in Spirit World prison himself: it was better that he sent Mukuro, as this was not a matter he could afford to get wrong. Things were already bad, he could not let them get any worse: he owed it to his daughter to get it right, to get her freedom and to direct her properly.
And that was all that mattered.
It was a choice he was bound by obligation to make.
It was really as simple as that.
"I knew you'd turn on me," Yusuke spat bitterly as he got to his feet.
Hiei glanced at Yusuke before looking beyond him at the smiling face of Shogo Sato.
"Oh Hiei," Shogo said as their eyes met. "You've finally become interesting to me."
Hiei remained impassive.
"Now my son, go and do what I foretold you would," Shogo added.
Hiei shifted his attention back to Yusuke.
"How long have you been on the other side?" Yusuke asked him.
Hiei looked around himself. Akira, still in that form she took when channelling the Sacred Darkness, was still trying to kill Touya, and Kuwabara, Kurama, Kaisei, Fubuki and even Koenma were trying to stop her, as Botan and Yukina fought them all off.
"I knew you'd do this," Yusuke continued. "Right from that first day we met outside the arena and you said it was all about making choices. You chose this, didn't you?"
Hiei met Yusuke's eyes.
"Yes I did choose this," he smoothly replied. "Are you surprised? Family is important to me. This was the natural choice for me."
Yusuke looked back over his shoulder at Shogo.
"What are you waiting for, my child?" Shogo called over to Hiei. "Go ahead and kill them. Kill them all."
Yusuke snapped back around to face Hiei, and a moment later, the two of them were once more locked in combat.
Next Chapter: Hiei continues remembering all the stuff he had forgotten, including all the aftermath of the High Road incident and his developing feelings for and understanding of Akira. Back in the present day the battle continues: and when it ends, Hiei, Botan, Yukina and Akira find themselves facing an even bigger challenge. Chapter 49 – Mother