The color was everywhere, staining all it touched in its likeness.
It dripped from deep gashes upon pale skin, soaking into ebony locks that had spread upon the grassy forest floor. The dull, fire-colored eyes seemed transfixed to the sky as the color continued to stain her skin. The color stained her slightly parted lips, yet no breath passed them.
The grass was cool to the touch of the splayed slender fingers, and yet not once did they twitch. Yet the color streamed over the frail digits, staining them in its likeness.
It's so cold…so…cold…I can't…
…breathe…
The green beneath was becoming dyed the most dark, most horrific, most deeply…
Red.
Yusuke inhaled sharply though his teeth as he awoke in the middle of the night, sweat beading his flesh, shooting upright in his bed. Keiko was asleep beside him, oblivious to the fact that Yusuke had awoken.
With a barely audible groan, Yusuke scrubbed a hand over his sweat-slicked face, shutting his eyes. All he could see in the darkness beneath his lids was Hikari's torn body and yet, he heard her voice. It was faint, soft, the echo reverberating to his bones. He could see her dark hair strewn among the green of the forest, her eyes wide open, and blood staining her body, her hair, the grass. Ice shredded through his veins at the sight that he opened his eyes, pushed himself from the bed, and went to the kitchen.
His body jolted when he was aware of another presence in the living room, but relaxed when it was familiar blonde tresses. Gia sat on the couch, her violet eyes gazing out the window, her teeth furrowed into her lower lip. Her focus snapped when her gaze flickered to Yusuke.
"You still up?" Yusuke asked, scratching at the back of his head, strands of his black hair falling into his eyes. Gia nodded, her arms folded in front of her chest and let out a breath. "I couldn't sleep," she muttered. "Every time I close my eyes, I see her. I can hear her."
The former spirit detective blinked. "You too?"
She sighed heavily. "Yusuke, one of my best friends was killed. One of your friends is dead. I would be worried of neither of you were seeing her in your sleep either."
Yusuke sighed before walking over to her, knocking her feet off of the sofa before taking a seat. "Look Gia, I know that Kari was yours and Zeri's best friend. She was our friend too. The fact that she was killed like that…it should never have happened," he said.
"Never have happened?" Gia's voice rose an octave, her violet eyes flaring violently as she got to her feet. "Never have happened?! Kari should have never been attacked by demons and encountered you guys in the first place!" she exploded and Yusuke could see glimmers of tears in her eyes. "If that stray demon hadn't attacked her, you and the others wouldn't have had to save her and she would still be alive, with Zeri and me, and…and…!" With a strangled scream, Gia looked around furiously, her fingers flexing, before violently seizing a lamp and throwing it with all her might against the wall where the base shattered into pieces from the force.
"Gia!" Yusuke shot to his feet, grabbing her by the wrists, while Gia struggled to free herself from his grip with violent, angry shrieks. Rapid footfall came their way and Keiko rushed in, her eyes wide with concern, as she clutched the sash of her robe. "Yusuke! Gia! What's going on?" she asked.
"Stay out of this, Keiko!" snapped Gia as she fought against her tears as she continued to fight to free herself from Yusuke's grip. Yusuke gritted his teeth as he tried to subdue Gia in her outburst. "Gia! Dammit, stop!"
Gia continued to thrash and Yusuke knew that if he applied any more force, he would end up breaking her wrists. With a growl, he seized her by the shoulders, forcing her to face him. "Gia!" Yusuke roared and he heard a high-pitched gasp escape her. "Kari wasn't just your friend! Do you think that we just thought it was tragedy that one of our friends was taken from us and would ignore it? Do you think that Kari didn't mean anything to any of us?!"
Gia was frozen as she stared at Yusuke, her chest heaving from the struggle. Then, as if something broke inside of her, the tears she fought to hold back began to fall steadily, streaking over her cheeks, as sobs escaped her between labored breaths. Her legs buckled and she crashed to her knees, an agonized wail ripping from her throat as she clung to Yusuke for anchor. Keiko tentatively walked over, her feet barely making a sound on the floor, as she slowly knelt behind Gia, wrapping her arms around her and resting her forehead onto her shoulder. Gia sobbed violently, her fingers digging into Yusuke's forearms as he knelt.
"Some son…of a bitch…t-took her from u-us, Yusuke…" The sobs escalated as Gia shut her eyes, the tears falling furiously down her cheeks. "K-Kari…she…s-she needed us…a-and we…"
"Don't," whispered Keiko, shaking her head. "Don't Gia…"
Yusuke knew what Gia was getting at and, tragically, she was right. Even though Hikari had distanced herself from the people who loved her best, they hadn't attempted to at least know where she lived in order to check in every now and again. They would have known if Hikari felt that she was in danger and offered her a place to crash until the feeling went away. It broke their hearts to know that deep within them that maybe, just maybe, they would have had a chance to save her.
Kurama—
I don't know what this feeling is. It's like I'm being watched, followed. I would walk home or to work and that feeling intensifies. It gets worse every single time. But then, I've never been this aware before.
Kurama, I've always wondered this and I don't know if you, the most intelligent person I've ever been acquainted with, have ever wondered this as well. Have you ever been afraid of something only you could see?
Kurama sat at his desk, Hikari's very last letter in his hand as he reread it. It was the shortest one she had written and he had wondered why it had been so short. She hadn't even signed off as she normally had. It surprised him that he had never thought of that as concerning.
Yet the last sentence still made no sense to him. Fearing something only he could see? Kurama only knew fear if his human mother was in danger and would strike the threat down accordingly. He didn't experience fear at what he couldn't see when he fought Karasu at the Dark Tournament years ago. So what, exactly, had Hikari meant by posing this question?
With a sigh, Kurama set the paper down, his palm resting atop it. Youko stirred within him then, that belligerent nature brewing in his core. Even while his body was Shuichi, Kurama felt as if Youko was…entitled, in a sense. There was no demonic instinct, no lust to claim Hikari; it was simply the fact that in spite of her prior behavior, she chose him to be her confidante.
His teeth furrowed into his lower lip as his eyes slid closed at the thought. It seemed like only yesterday where Hikari was with everyone, playing peacemaker between Yusuke and Kuwabara on occasion, staying silent in the presence of Hiei, and conversing about nothing with him. The girl had been smiling, content. What changed?
Opening his eyes, Kurama glanced at the envelope, at Hikari's address written in her strange calligraphy before exhaling a breath.
If they were ever to get to the bottom of this, they would have to start where at where she lived.
The yellow tape appeared to gag the door to the apartment. Yusuke's eyes narrowed at the thought of the yellow clashing with the dark blue behind it.
Kurama, Kuwabara, and Hiei had accompanied him when Kurama had brought an envelope with Hikari's address in the corner. It seemed too soon for Zeri and Gia to accompany them. Yusuke didn't want to ask why Hikari had been writing to Kurama, especially when she didn't seem to live that far away from the group. However, the four of them seemed to want answers for the myriad of questions that hung unspoken between them all. They unanimously agreed to go to Hikari's apartment in the evening, when people weren't straggling outside with questions about the ransacked apartment.
Yusuke reached forward, between the tapes, and turned the knob. The door wasn't locked and it opened with a soft creak, revealing a darkening entryway with some scattered debris littered on the floor. He went in first, maneuvering through the tapes carefully in hopes to not ripping it and rousing suspicion of the police. Kuwabara lumbering in behind him, followed by Kurama, then Hiei flitted in. Their footsteps were light though the floor creaked as they made their way in the apartment, spreading out to find some kind of clue, some kind of answer.
Claw marks tore into the walls, the wallpaper shredded beyond comprehension. Wooden shelves were toppled, scattering an array of books and binders about the floor. Furniture was shredded, thrown over, the signs of struggles so glaringly obvious that it turned Yusuke's stomach just to even look at the mess.
"Yusuke." Kurama's voice was oddly emotionless and Yusuke turned to see the redhead picking up a small, wooden box that was on the floor. When he approached, Kurama kept the box's lid opened and pulled out a small slip of paper. There were words written on the tiny slip in Hikari's familiar calligraphy, but her handwriting looked off. It seemed as though she had just scribbled in a fit of inspiration—or madness. Kurama read the words on the paper carefully, but Yusuke was aware of the wavering timbre in his voice.
"Eyes.
Voices.
The spectre hangs over us, waiting and waiting,
To steal. To break. To kill."
"Spectre?" Kuwabara asked, his lips turned down. Hiei folded his arms over his chest, his eyes closing. "The stupid woman sounded completely insane," he commented. "What in the hell was this gibberish she wrote?"
"Could she…just be researching or something?" Yusuke asked but Kurama shook his head before turning the paper to his friends, the words facing out. Beneath Hikari's scribble was a sketch of what seemed to be the Western equivalent of a grim reaper, a skull hidden beneath a hood, yet the hands were clawed like most demons. Kurama removed another slip of paper from the wooden box that contained only one line:
"I can see the flames of hell swallowing us all, and the shadow stands over the screaming masses."
A loud, squelching noise jolted the four males as the sound faded. Kuwabara was the first to break the tense silence. "Do you guys feel that?"
"I smell…blood," muttered Yusuke right as the squelching rang out into the empty apartment again, only much more slowly. Deliberate.
Hiei moved then, his expression icy, as he inhaled. Yusuke was right; the scent of began to permeate the air and while the fire apparition was far used to carnage in the demon plane to be bothered by it, this scent bothered him. Kurama drew in a sharp breath, feeling Youko becoming agitated within him. The scent was becoming heavier in the air and it was agitating them all in different ways: Kuwabara's sixth sense was spiking; Yusuke was grinding his teeth; Hiei's fingers curled into his palm; Kurama could feel a rising belligerence. The four moved as the noise became louder and louder before Yusuke chanced a glance to the window that was streaming in the last of daylight.
His face paled. "Shit!"
The face looking back at him from within the glass, silver bloodstains upon the face and neck. The eyes were the only pools of darkness upon the face, claw marks into the neck and cheeks. Yusuke recognized that face before it faded.
"Urameshi?" Kuwabara called him back. "What the hell is wrong with you?"
Yusuke opened his mouth before something shattered to the floor and the four turned their attention to the sound only to freeze for the barest of heartbeats.
A small, square, wooden frame with shards splintering around it was at the feet of a pale body, a soul. Yet it wasn't just any soul.
The soul was that of a young woman with lifeless hair that fell to her waist. The body was translucent all around, the skin shredded like meat, stained with silver at her legs, torso, neck, face. The darkest points of the seemingly pure spirit were her eyes: the deepest pools of black that began to drip a dark silver down her ripped cheeks. Even with the entirety of her body mangled beyond recognition, they were aware of whom this spirit was.
"Kari?" Yusuke asked, his voice colored in disbelief. The spirit tilted its head, the silver that continued to rain from her black eyes dripping into air and vanishing before even making contact with the debris-strewn floor. The scent of blood was overpowering and Yusuke could tell that the scent was coming from the soul in front of him and his friends.
"Why are you here?" Her lips didn't move, yet Hikari's voice echoed throughout the room, her expression unchanging, and her appearance still horrific from her death. "Why did you come? Why are in this place?"
"We had to know why you died," Kurama answered her, the emerald of his eyes flecked with gold.
"Why did you have to know? What liberation is there for you?" Hikari tilted her head in the opposite direction, the only discernible movement. A strange feeling enveloped the four males, twisting their insides, a cold seeping inside of them.
"Why are you here?" she asked again, her voice echoing off the walls. Her arms moved this time, the hands pressing onto the wall behind her as her head lolled sickeningly. "Why?"
"Kari…?" Kuwabara made his attempt to communicate with the girl and her pitch pools fixed on him, her body frozen. "It's us. Your friends. Remember?" he asked.
The spirit was silent, the head rolling again before she stopped again. "Yusuke…Kuwabara…Hiei…Kurama…" she crooned questioningly, her expression no longer grim. For a flicker of a heartbeat, the mangled face cleared to show the fair skin and ember eyes they remembered when she was alive. "Guys, what are you doing here?! You have to leave!"
"We can't do that, Hikari," said Kurama, reaching a hand out slightly to her, palm turned upward. "We want to know who killed you. Who took you from us and why?"
"I can't…I can't tell you! I shouldn't even be here and neither should any of you!" Hikari gasped, her eyes widening and the faintest scent of fear tinged the scent of blood. "I can't protect any of you if you go digging up things that ought to stay buried!"
"What things?" demanded Yusuke suddenly, stepping forward. "Why do you think you have to protect us?"
"I can't, Yusuke…I can't!"
"Dammit, Kari, tell us! Who killed you?!"
"No, no, no!" Hikari moaned and the room seemed to quake. Her head began to roll on her neck again. "You have to leave, you have to go! If it catches you in its gaze, it'll hunt you down!"
"What is it?" Hiei asked abruptly. He had listened while the other three tried to get the woman to tell them who killed her, yet she just unveiled a vital piece: it was some being, an it that seemed to be shadowing her afterlife. If Hikari revealed what this being was, Hiei sensed that maybe, just maybe, it may give them the answers that they sought. When the spirit let out another moan, her head twisting, Hiei hissed, his crimson orbs narrowed dangerously. "Woman, focus, what is this it?"
The fair skin and ember eyes faded into the pallor, mangled skin, black eyes, and silver bloodstains. But now Hiei could see it from where he stood—and was sure the three with him could as well from the intakes of breaths. The lips weren't moving because they were sewn shut and another unearthly moan filled the air. Her eyes were fixed on the space behind them and Kuwabara shuddered.
"Guys, something else is here," he said shakily. Yusuke turned around to see nothing but when he turned back around, he saw Hikari's spirit flit away and when Kuwabara exhaled, the second presence had to have faded.
Hiei was the first to speak. "What in the hell was that?"
"Hikari's soul hasn't gone to the Reikai. She is still lingering here," replied Kurama, his expression solemn. When Hikari's soul had shown vestiges of her former self broke through the prison of her outward appearance, she hadn't answered who had taken her life and why; yet when Hiei asked what was the it she had meant, she was unable to say.
Or, rather, she couldn't. The moment she mentioned it, the clarity of her soul was back to its tainted state.
"I can't protect any of you if you go digging up things that ought to stay buried!" Why was she trying so hard to protect them, and from what?
"We should get out of here," Kuwabara muttered. "There's a creepy vibe in this place." He glanced around.
"I agree," replied Yusuke, feeling a shudder race up his spine. "Let's get out of here." He turned to head out of the door, sensing his friends following behind him.
When the night had fallen, Hiei had moved of his own volition to the forest behind Hikari's apartment. Something had bothered him, given him more of a questions than answers.
"If it catches you in its gaze, it'll hunt you down!" The girl couldn't even say if it was any class of demon. Once the moment she receded into that tainted form, her lips sewn shut, he could sense an external force for those supernatural stitching, something far more powerful.
From within his cloak, Hiei withdrew a slightly torn photograph. The human girl, surrounded by the two other humans she knew well, was beaming up at him. It was a moment frozen in time when the girl was alive and had seemed more herself than in her last moments of life. Holding onto a bit of something so sentimental was unlike him, save any instances of his sister. But this human girl, she was important to the humans he had become so acquainted with as well as his former partner-in-crime.
"I shouldn't even be here, neither should any of you!" Her words rang through his mind as he walked through the forest, scenting her blood. He was familiar with her blood; yes, he knew all to well…
"Ah…?" Hikari barely flinched when Hiei's blade pressed against the flesh of her neck. He gritted his teeth in irritation. This girl was the ire of his existence, with her solid, fiery eyes calmer than any storm in the Ningenkai or Makai. It annoyed him, infuriated him, that such a human was unnerved by his strength.
"Hiei…" The girl whispered his name and Hiei only obliged in pressing the blade harder against her skin, breaking the flesh. A thin drop of blood began to rust on the silver of his sword. Her eyes remained fixated on him. "You're…trembling."
His hand did tremble, only slightly, yet it was perceptible to the girl. Hiei could not kill a human, yet he never lusted for someone's blood so much so than this mere child. When he lowered his sword from the girl's throat, he still didn't sense fear in her. He couldn't smell the fear on her. She dared to raise her hand, her fingers close to his face and his hand snapped to grip her wrist. "I'll break your tiny little bones, human. Do not touch me," he snarled.
A flicker of hurt passed within her eyes, but a gentle smile graced her lips. It was soft, yet…sad.
Was this insignificant girl…pitying him?
When he released her, her hand dropped. "If that's what you wish, Hiei."
Stupid female, thought Hiei as he reached the clearing where the scent of Hikari's blood was strongest. Farther in his field of vision, he could see the dark red of dried blood that stained the grassy floor.
This was where she died. This was where the girl experienced her last moments, her last breath. In his twisted mind, he wondered when her throat was slit; whether she screamed before she was left unable to; whether she fought back, knowing she'd lose hopelessly. What had possessed her to flee this far, he didn't understand. Hiei walked forward, closer to the dark bloodstains that were Hikari's last mark of her physical life. He inhaled, the scent of blood stinging him. It was the same scent that Hikari's spirit had when she had become visible to them and it further agitated him just as much as it had in her apartment. When they all had parted ways, Kurama took the girl's wooden box with him in order to figure out if any of her mindless writings were linked to what she had told them—or couldn't tell them. Being the spirit she was, Hiei couldn't even reach the girl's mind through telepathy if he had wanted to.
Hikari's face in the photograph seemed to be taunting him then the more he looked at those fiery eyes and that oddly gentle smile. It was strange to be in the place where she was killed and to have even a sliver of her purity in such a tainted place.
Another scent hit him then, the scent of rotting flesh. Rotting demon flesh. Hiei moved slowly, barely making a sound, as the scent became stronger and he ventured deeper into the forest. Just beyond a small brush lay three corpses of large demons, their eyes bloody holes. Their blood mixed together in a noxious way that tainted the air with its too-strong, metallic smell. Their heads were blown wide open, their torso ripped open like if they were nothing but raw meat, their insides shredded into jelly.
Hikari's blood was on their claws, their fangs, overpowered by the smell of demon blood. Her killers.
As much as it pleased Hiei to see the corpse of her killers, it irritated him as their deaths were too…less than their crime. Yet…the fear that mixed with Hikari's scent wasn't in regards to these demons who lay in this brush. It was for something much more, something that terrified her and had a hold over her in her afterlife.
"You should have contacted me straightaway!" Botan snapped, her hands on her hips as her eyes flashed angrily at Yusuke and Kuwabara. Gia, Zeri, and Keiko weren't at the house when they returned and Yusuke presumed that they had gone to take their minds off of things. At least Yusuke didn't have three others yelling at him.
"What did you want me to say, Botan? Hey, uh, you freaking missed a ghost?" he asked sarcastically, with a shrug of his shoulders.
Botan stomped her foot. "I've been looking for her soul ever since she died! She hadn't come to the Reikai on her own and Koenma was concerned!" she snapped. "The fact that you went to her apartment and saw her without even thinking of contacting either of us-"
"She didn't exactly stay and ask us if we wanted tea!" Kuwabara told the guide. "Kari's soul is in a bad way, Botan, a really bad way! The stuff we found at her place could give us a clue on why she died!"
"Why she died shouldn't even be a concern!" Botan's eyes shimmered with unshed tears. "She was our friend, I know, but she was taken from us! And even now she won't let us help her in her grave!"
"Aren't you the freaking guide to the Reikai?!" Kuwabara demanded, agitation tensing his body. "Ain't it your job to make sure she gets to Reikai safely?"
"I've been unable to find her spirit since she died. She hasn't come to us either. I wish I could say that we've gotten close, but we haven't!" cried Botan, her bangs in her eyes, her tears falling.
A tense voice broke the silence that hung after Botan's words. "What?"
They turned. Keiko, Gia, and Zeri had returned and Gia was the one who had spoken, her hands in shaking fists, her violet eyes burning with anger. "What the hell do you mean you haven't found her spirit?" she hissed.
"Gia," Yusuke began but Gia snapped. "Shut up! I'm talking to her!" She stabbed her index finger in the direction of Botan. Her eyes were narrowed furiously. "You can't find Kari's spirit?! What the fuck are you doing, sitting on your ass?!"
"It's not that, Gia, it's not that at all!" Botan cried, her hands twisting together. "I just…"
"Just what?" growled Gia, advancing toward Botan. "Just what!"
"Gia, please," pleaded Zeri, her eyes widening in shock.
"Gia…" whispered Keiko, attempting to calm the upset Gia by reaching for her. In her anger, Gia turned on Keiko, reaching to shove her away before a hand grasped her wrist tightly. Angry violet eyes clashed with calm emerald.
"Kurama," Zeri gasped, surprised at the redhead's sudden appearance at the door. Gia gritted her teeth, trying to wrench herself free from the male's grip. "Let me go, fox!" she snarled.
"I will do so, only when you calm yourself. Do you wish to sully Hikari's memory with violence?" asked Kurama softly, keeping his gaze on Gia. Gia's eyes narrowed, yet Kurama could hear her heart beating rapidly. When she clicked her tongue in submission, Kurama released Gia's wrist. "What the hell do you want?" she muttered.
"I came to have a word with Yusuke and Kuwabara." Kurama's green eyes flickered to Yusuke and Kuwabara, who nodded. "We're going to need a minute," said Yusuke quickly, hoping to stave off any questions or explanations.
No such luck. Zeri was the one who spoke this time. "Why can't you say it in front of us?" she asked, her eyes mournful and her teeth furrowing into her lower lip. "If it's about Kari…we…we have a right to know."
The three males exchanged glances before Yusuke sighed heavily.
"Fine. You want to be in the loop? Then park it and prepare for a long talk."