That dream again. Being born to the to ice maidens, their fear of him at just a newborn. His mother's friend throwing him off the floating island. His first happy memory was his decision to seek out his revenge against that man hating women...
"Yo," Hiei heard a voice call out to him in the middle of is fall in his dream. He jumped awake from his roost in Lord Mukuro's fighting pit far below the castle. The lord covered his face in wrappings and charms, so much so that only one eye was visible. Six months done here, fighting for survival, all while under the watchful eye of Lord Mukuro. "You still sleeping or what?" Hiei flicked his eyes open, but did not rose from his sitting position. One hand held his sword, and the other supported his head to sleep his raised knees. Lord Mukuro kept approaching him. "I gotta admit, I really didn't think you get this strong in six months. You're something else, man." Lord Mukuro did not seem perturbed by the dead strewn around them. The demons he had sicked on Hiei to prove his strength. "There's no point in lumping you with the other goons. I think it's time you tried out to be my heir. Whatta ya say?" Hiei studied him, unsure how truthful the liltful way he spoke was. His voice sounded unnaturally deep as well.
"I say the stronger I get, the further away I seem to get from you," he answered. "You're a fucking monster. What kind of demon are you? What's your true form?" Hiei had racked him mind for months trying to figure out the answer to that question.
"Don't worry about me, man," Lord Mukuro answered. He seemed more amused by Hiei's insult more than anything else. "It's gonna be like 'Hiei... I am your father' when the mask comes off." Hiei clicked his teeth. He already knew this elusive lord was not his father. The mad elf Ichiro had already been proven that was him. Lord Mukuro kept going, "though I guess it is about time I showed what I look like, at least."
"Hmm..." Hiei hummed under his breath.
"All right, I'm gonna bring back the weakest guy in my guard. You beat him, and I'll show you my face and give you a chance at becoming my heir." Six months and all he spoke of was 'a chance, a chance, a chance.' It had been way too long to be teased and tested and pestered for 'a chance.' "My little 'inner circle' isn't like the main army. There are always seventy-seven members, all hand-picked by me. The number doesn't mean anything, by the way. i just think it's cool. The guy I'm gonna bring back is part of that circle. I'd say you and he are about on the same level."
This Lord Mukuro was such like a wind bag. Worse than the king. "Talking with you drives me nuts, you know that? I don't need any special chance."
Lord Mukuro continued his infuriating rambling, "don't be so sure, it's pretty convenient. You make the cut, and you've got some of the most capable demons around on your side. Their help would, say make finding what you're yearning for pretty easy..." Hiei stared at him in shock. "Gimme about five minutes."
Hiei watched Lord Mukuro saunter away like he owned the place. 'That bastard gives me the creeps,' he thought to himself. 'He was acting like he already knows...'
Hiei waited over five minutes, yet that gristly lord still had not shown his masked face again. Hiei felt his frustration threatening to get the better of him. He rose up, drew his sword, and took his aggression out on the nearest statue. The movement forced the tear gem necklace Yukina gave him to flounce out of his shirt, much to his annoyance. He recalled his promise to Yukina to look for her brother up in the North while he was here. Little did she know her search was fruitless. He had told her so himself. She should just think him dead and be done with it.
"We're back," Lord Mukuro called as he reentered the underground fighting pit.
Hiei turned to face the two of them, taking the second needed to tuck the tear gem back under his shirt. "You..." he breathed, seeing the osteopath. The man who had no only implanted his Jagan Eye all those years ago, but also the one who trained him how to use a sword.
Hiei looked at the osteopath, asking, "the demon surgeon, Shigure. When did you join up with Mukuro?"
The osteopath met his gaze. "Around the same time I put that Jagan in your forehead," he answered.
"You know each other?" Lord Mukuro asked in an amused voice.
The osteopath answered, "as a doctor knows his patient, nothing more. I did teach him a bit about swordplay as well...but I see he's developed his own style now." Hiei stood up straighter, readying himself for anything in the moment. "I'm impressed... you can't even tell I operated on you. The procedure is closer to a 'rebirth' rather than a simple augmentation. Thusly, your power dropped roughly to the same level as when you were an infant. I remember it well... your strength dropped from A-level to D-level. And yet, just a few years later, you've grown even stronger than before your surgery. I am truly impressed."
As the osteopath rambled down memory lane, he stepped forward. His large, circular sword blade resting comfortably around his shoulders. He was ready for a fight, so Hiei had to be as well. He threw off his head band, revealing his Jagan Eye to sight. He also reached in and untucked Yukina's tear gem from around his neck. "Oh yea. I guess at some point I hit the same level you're at."
The osteopath's eyes went straight for the tear gem. Hiei remembered this old ploy he used back in the day. Reveal the gem to tempt a demon to fight him because they would desire to snatch the shiny thing away from him. He gave a small smirk seeing it worked on the osteopath as well.
The osteopath spoke, "I see you found the tear gem you were searching for."
Hiei brought his hand up to the gem. "This isn't mine."
The osteopath looked intrigued. "Oh ho... then it must be your sister's," he commented. "So either way you found one of your two targets."
"This is intriguing. Explain," Lord Mukuro commanded.
The osteopath was more than happy to. "Hiei commissioned me to implant the Jagan in his forehead in order to aid his search. He sought two things- his mother's momento, the tear gem, and his sister's home, Hyouga. I decide whether to accept patients or not based on what, if anything, I can rob their world of. In other words, I take a part of their life rather than money. Hiei's was no different. As payment, I required that if he ever found his sister, he could never reveal himself to be her brother." That got a laugh out of Lord Mukuro. "If you defeat me, I'll give you a full refund."
The foolish osteopath had yet to still realize the cost had been no cost at all. "I told you before the surgery I never had any intention of telling her who I really am," Hiei declared. His mind had not changed over the years.
The osteopath still did not believe him, "people change their minds all the time."
Lord Mukuro drew attention back to himself. "Okay, boys, that's enough reminiscing. This is a fight, and your lives are on the line. There's nothing better than a life-or-death battle, no matter what style the combatants use. The moment the match is decided and the two journey's end, is like the flash of a thousand fireworks. Begin!"
Hiei stood ready and alert. His hand stayed trained on his sword, holding it up at the ready in his right hand. He rested his left hand at the top of the blade. The osteopath drew his large, circular blade: the will-o'-the wisp circle stone sword.
Hiei watched, thinking to himself, 'the longer this goes, the worse it'll get for me...' The two of them clashed together, fighting each other. He could not help his mind wandering calmly. 'Until now, I've always fought to live.' His mind flitted over all the fights he had had in his life; as a youth with the bandits, as an undefeated pit fighter, all those demon animals alongside Nishi and the others. 'I'd do whatever it took to win... because I had a purpose, but not anymore. It doesn't matter when I die... only how I go out.' Facing death was an oddly calming. Going out with only the regret that he might never see Nishi again...
He felt Mukuro's gaze never leave them in their fight that lasted just a hair longer than his realization. Sacrificing his left arm by allowing the circular blade to push his own sword through his forearm did the trick to distract the osteopath. Once distracted, it left him wide open. Hiei launched himself over the circular blade to go for the osteopath's head. He missed, annoyed with himself, but kept focused. He jumped back, opening himself up long enough for the circular blade to bite deeply into his torso.
"I win," the osteopath declared far too soon.
Another opening. Hiei took the chance, slicing off the top half of his head with the remaining blade of his own sword.
"Brilliant," was the last word the osteopath said.
"Not bad," Hiei disagreed. '... not bad? THe old me never would've said that... when did I change?' His mind flashed over Nishi. She would be showing by now. 'When... did... I?'
"Hiei," he heard Lord Mukuro's voice call out to him in a sincere tone. "That was an amazing display... you've earned a reward." The lord held out something in his hand. Hiei felt his vision fading, making it impossible to see what he was being shown. "Your tear gem. The treasure you've spent most of your life searching for. To me, it's never been anything but a tribute from some territory I control."
Hiei felt himself growing colder, but only this time it did affect him. Such a weird sensation to feel bothered by the cold. "Feh... I don't need it anymore... it stinks like your guts..." He closed his eyes, accepting the fact that death was closing in on him and there was nothing he could do to stop it. If it was any conciliation, he knew he made it farther than the others who tried to become Lord Mukuro's heir.
Before death came though, he saw his life flash before his eyes. Childhood with the bandits, picking fights with the demons he taunted with his tear gem, loosing his tear gem, enduring getting the Jagan Eye and its aftermath, getting caught shamefully as a bandit leading to him being driven into debt to become a pit fighter, the fake lord buying him out of his debt, the dumb ass fake lord killing himself in his drunken stupidity, fleeing South, meeting Nishi, training her, being taken by the procurer, Nishi's failed rescue, the king's men's rescue, being in the castle, destroying the cape, falling for Nishi, fighting the demon animals, giving into Nishi, marrying her, and then her gloomy goodbye when she left Alaric castle with the others.
After that, he felt a surge of life, feeling Lord Mukuro enter his mind with her full telepathic force.