Yusuke stabbed his fingers through his dark hair as his brown eyes were on Gia and Zeri. Both girls were sitting on the couch with grim expressions on their faces, eyes resolute in their decision to hear what needed to be said, Botan standing near the arm of the couch with Keiko.
Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Kurama exchanged glances before Kurama spoke first. "In order to find out why Hikari was murdered, we went to her apartment," he said.
Gia raised her hand up, her expression darkening just a bit. "How did you know where she lived if she hasn't told anyone of us where she…" she trailed off. After letting out a breath, Kurama answered, "I had been in contact with her the past few months."
"And you haven't told us this!" snapped Gia, her body tensed for a fight before Zeri grabbed her arm to steady her.
"Look, we can all rail about this some other time," interjected Yusuke, folding his arms over his chest in irritation. "Fact is, when we got to Kari's place, it was completely trashed. Her stuff was ripped, thrown, laid out. It was obvious she fought back. Or tried to."
"Then we saw her ghost," added Kuwabara, visibly suppressing a shudder at the thought. "Her ghost is in a real bad way. Like all covered in ghost blood and her eyes were really dark."
Botan seemed to jerk at Kuwabara's words, her eyes wide as saucers. "Her ghost was covered in blood?"
"Is that supposed to mean something?" asked Yusuke dully, looking at the guide with confusion. Botan's expression turned grim as she looked at the former spirit detective. It was the only time since the dark tournament since he had seen that kind of expression on Botan's face.
"By the sound of it, her ghost has been tainted. If that's the case, then…" Botan trailed off, chewing her lower lip.
"Then…?" Zeri prompted softly, her eyes on Botan.
"I can't take her into spirit world if someone else has a grip on her soul," said Botan, closing her eyes. "Especially when she can't be found."
"It may be deeper than that," murmured Kurama, his bangs in his eyes. "When we were at Hikari's apartment, I've found some things she had written. We are unsure whether it was stemmed from sanity or not…"
"Hikari wasn't crazy!" snapped Gia suddenly, glaring at the fox as Zeri had a grip on her wrist. Her violet eyes were blazing with fury as her windswept bangs fell over her right eye. "Hikari was saner than any of us! Don't talk about her like that!"
"I wasn't insulting Hikari," Kurama told her gently, his emerald eyes solemn. "I would be the last to do so. I am merely stating that we do not know her state of mind when she parted from us and up until she died."
Breathing heavily, Gia sat back against the soft couch, her eyes still alight with anger. Zeri looked to the redhead, her dark eyes unfathomable. "Kurama," she murmured. "What did Kari write, exactly? I mean, you guys all remember Kari had a leather notebook she would always write in?"
The mention of the famous notebook brought simultaneous smiles to the group. It was true, Hikari was always writing in it and tying it with a rough, thin rope with a silver key attached at the end. The smiles faded slightly when Yusuke asked, "Did she ever show anyone what she wrote?"
Zeri and Gia shook their heads. "She never showed us," Gia mumbled, interlocking her fingers against her lap. "She guarded that notebook like her life depended on it. She never left it alone with anybody and would kill anyone with her eyes who tried to read it."
"Wait a second," Kuwabara said slowly, apprehension growing in his dark eyes. "We never saw that notebook at Kari's place. Everything was thrown all over the place, but we would have seen that notebook; we all know what it looks like."
"You think the demons that killed her have stolen it?" asked Botan with caution in her tone. Keiko looked the guide. "If Kari wouldn't tell us what was wrong, she probably wrote it down, didn't she?" she asked.
"I haven't seen her notebook while we were there," Kurama murmured, his tone low and thoughtful.
"It's because Kari's too smart to pull something so amateur," Gia said suddenly, her eyes gleaming with comprehension. "If that journal hid anything that anyone would have looked for—which I think is impossible—Kari would have hidden it somewhere that wasn't where she lived."
"You really believe that?" asked Yusuke skeptically, raising his eyebrow just slightly at Gia. The blonde girl nodded. "I really do believe that. If we piece together what we know about her up until she died, we know our girl. She would leave us clues, but she wouldn't leave anything in easy view of someone she wants to hide it from," she told the former spirit detective with conviction in her voice.
"Something I've been wondering," breathed Zeri. "Kari had this photo of the three of us. Did you guys find it…at her place?"
Kurama, who had noticed Hiei take something from the messy wooden table after Hikari's ghost had vanished. It was a slip, slightly torn in the corners, and Kurama had a feeling that was the photograph Zeri spoke of. "Perhaps…it is in Hiei's possession."
"Where is Hiei?" asked Botan.
"After we split, he said he was going back to the Makai," answered Kuwabara gruffly. "That bastard hasn't changed a bit since the barrier came down. Still cold as ever, especially when we talk about Kari."
"It may be because out of us all, Kari felt like…closer to Hiei," said Kurama softly, remembering how the fire demon seemed to be less than hostile in Hikari's presence. As intuitive as the fox was, as curious as the others were, no one truly knew what the relationship between Hikari and Hiei was when they were truly alone.
Hiei had returned to the Makai after discovering the bodies of the demons that had killed Hikari. Inside the Forest of Fools, Hiei sat on a high branch, looking at the photograph of Hikari, Zeri, and Gia held so tightly in his hand. His crimson orbs were trained of Hikari's face. What was it about this foolish girl's death that agitated him so? While Hiei loathed humans, loathed how weak the species were and yet had a slight higher threshold of tolerance for them, and this girl's death continued to haunt his mind because he knew her. Gritting his teeth together, the photograph burst into flames and Hiei released it, watching as it curled to ash and the girl's face was no longer a physical reminder. Or so he thought.
"Do you want to forget me, Hiei? When I bared my soul to you…?" Her voice echoed within his mind, soft, wounded. It startled him. It infuriated him.
"Begone, girl. You are dead," he muttered to himself before flitting back to Mukuro's moving fortress. Hiei did not need the memory of the girl to stay with him, did not want to hear her voice. Yet, just like when they met, she was annoyingly attached to his side and he could see her ember eyes watching him. He walked within the moving fortress, not even bothering to alert Mukuro of his return. The female demon was strong enough as it was that she could easily sense his Youki without exerting any type of effort.
"Hiei…"
He stopped. Hikari's voice was louder this time, echoing through the hall. His eyes narrowed dangerously as his hand itched to grab a hold of his katana. A movement caught his eye and he unsheathed his blade and spun around, nearly impaling Shigure. The older demon looked at Hiei curiously. "What is going on with you?" he asked. "Is there a reason you are so agitated?"
"…No," Hiei muttered, sheathing his katana. None of the other demons, except Mukuro, understood his ties to the Ningenkai had been because of Yusuke. Shigure would have never understood why a mere human seemed to be everywhere he looked.
"Mukuro has been looking for you," said Shigure, crossing his arms. "She wants a word with you on why it took you so long to return back to the Makai…"
Hiei turned to give the demon a bored look before his eyes widened. Behind Shigure was that tainted spirit of Hikari Tsukiyomi. He could see her even more clearly than ever, the ragged stitching upon her lips more pronounced as the pitch black pools of what would have been ember eyes fixed on them. There was Reiki exuding from her now, more potent than ever, the silver stains darkening as she continued to bleed...bleed...
"You're getting distracted, Hiei." Shigure, the demon whom implanted the Jagan on Hiei, voiced the thought he was aware the osteopath had. It was one irritating notion that he was getting Shigure's unwanted opinion; it was far another matter when he caught a glimpse of a dead human girl in the Makai, inside Mukuro's compound. He wanted no ties to the Nigenkai and yet the one glaring knot he had been unable to unravel had followed him to his home. The spectre of that goddamned girl continued to look at him-and a glimmer caught his attention. A thin, ghostly tear fell from her left eye before she disappeared from his sight. No ghostly words, no agitating scent of blood. Merely a shadow and vapor that appeared within his line of sight before vanishing to wherever she had come, but Hiei knew better as he turned away from Shigure to find Mukuro. The girl's afterlife wasn't her own anymore, yet he couldn't put his finger on why nor did he want to. Yes, he wanted to forget in spite of the fact that the girl did bare her soul to him.
"Here." Hikari held out the thin, black, bound book in her hand out to Hiei and the fire demon narrowed his eyes at the girl. "What the hell is this?" he asked bitingly, glaring into the eyes that so resembled flames.
Hikari gave him the barest ghost of a smile like she would always give him before gently shoving the book into his hand. "Just read it, okay?" she asked in a slightly exasperated way, yet Hiei could sense that the girl wasn't at all irate with him. And that irritated him.
"Why would I want to read this? Why should I even bother listening to you?" he growled and Hikari sighed, sitting on the ground, her ebony hair loose around her shoulders as she looked at him. "Hiei," she murmured softly. "I'm not at all good at explaining my feelings. You can get your answer if you read that book. It is the physical representation of my soul."
"Hn." Hiei flitted up to a high branch, leaning against the trunk of the tree. Hikari didn't attempt to climb like she usually would have done, content to let him be. What sickened Hiei was that he was actually curious about this "physical representation" of these irritating girl. He unbound the book, looking at the ivory-colored pages and the calligraphy that decorated them into a small group of sentences that made no sense to him and only served to unveil how complicated Hikari truly was.
Hikari clutched the book tightly to her chest, her expression like stone, yet Kurama had caught the scent of her tears. The fox approached her, concern brewing within him and when he was within her vicinity, he spoke softly. "Hikari?"
The girl looked back at him, her eyes glistening with tears. It was startling to see a girl with eyes like fire look as if her gaze was to be extinguished. "Kurama," she murmured just as softly, yet she didn't raise her hand to her eyes. It was if she was fighting to keep her tears inside, drowning the fire that she had in her gaze.
"What is it, Hikari?" he asked, resting a hand onto her shoulder. Her grip on the notebook she would often carry with her tightened as she pressed it further into her chest as if she were trying to absorb it.
"I thought baring my soul would be easier, Kurama," she whispered, closing her eyes. "I truly did."
"What do you mean?"
She shook her head, moving away from him and back toward the temple.
"My soul is better on paper."
"That was how I remembered her describing that moment." Kurama had his eyes closed as he explained the last time he ever saw the notebook. "I knew she had gone to see Hiei. To be perfectly frank, I'm sure we all knew…"
"Hiei had made her cry," Gia recalled with an edge to her voice as she rested her cheek against her palm. "I was so pissed and wanted to ice him, but Kari begged me not to."
"Was there something between them?" asked Keiko softly, looking at her hands.
"Kurama, you know Hiei best." Zeri addressed the fox, gently biting onto her lower lip. "Did he…I mean, when he and Kari would part ways, did he ever say anything to you?"
"If there is one thing I know quite well about Hiei, it is that he is not the most talkative about his innermost thoughts," said Kurama with a shake of his head. Yusuke glanced at him with a raised brow and Kurama felt as if Yusuke could sense the lie, in spite of his Mazoku blood. Kurama had remembered the agitation Hiei felt when Hikari had left his side and had confronted the fire demon about it...
Kurama watched as Hiei glowered at the distance from his perch on the high branch. The fox sighed as he felt waves upon waves of agitation emanating from the demon. "Hiei. Are you aggravated because Hikari isn't by your side as she normally is?" he ventured. Hiei's crimson gaze snapped to the emerald orbs of the redhead, anger burning brightly within the usually dispassionate eyes.
"It has nothing to do with stupid girl!" he hissed through his fangs.
"Hiei," Kurama sighed heavily, as though dealing with an impudent child, "why did Hikari leave your side in tears?"
Something flickered in Hiei's eyes and Kurama had a suspicion on what went through the fire demon's mind. "You are behaving like a mated demon whenever she leaves your side, yet you cannot stand to be around her when she is in your presence. Tell me, why is that?"
"Hn." Hiei turned away, folding his arms over his chest. "Believe what you will, Kurama. But do not misunderstand; I care nothing for that human."
The redhead fox felt something within his core that there was a strange gift shared between Hikari, Gia, and Zeri, something that he was acutely aware of even now, in the same vicinity as Gia and Zeri. The girls seem to exude a force that soothed demonic instinct inside of them that seemed more potent when they were particularly close to any demon or one with demonic instincts. Kurama had certainly noticed, when his friends did not right away, that Hikari was potent in soothing most of Hiei's demonic instincts whenever they reared up and lusted for blood. He had chalked it to believing that the girl was close to Hiei, in spite of the latter denying the bond fiercely.
Yusuke let out an irritated noise, rubbing the back of his head. "Sooner or later, we're gonna have to track Hikari's ghost down. That's the only way we'll get her to the Reikai right?" he asked, looking at Botan. The normally bubbly guide nodded her head. "Yes," she murmured.
"How can we track her?" asked Zeri, her eyes widening slightly.
Kuwabara opened his mouth to respond, but Kurama interjected. "It's too dangerous for you two. You should leave tracking Hikari's soul to us," he said.
"But…" Zeri breathed shakily but Gia stood up, her violet eyes narrowed at the fox. "It's not up to you to tell us we can't help you track Kari. She's not just your friend, you know!" she snapped, planting her hands on her hips. "If you're going to track Kari's ghost down, we want in!"
"You realize this will be dangerous?" asked Botan, her eyes shining with worry. "What if her ghost attacks you? With what you three explained, she should have attacked you if she had been particularly violent."
"Kari wouldn't hurt any of us!" Zeri cried angrily, standing up also. "Gia's right, we're going to help you guys track Kari's ghost!"
"You two aren't gonna give that up, will you?" asked Kuwabara with a groan. Gia and Zeri exchanged a look before looking to the three males.
"We're helping. Kari's important to us," Gia said firmly. "And that's all there is to it."
A lamp fell over and shattered, jolting everyone present. Yusuke, Kuwabara and Kurama sensed a strong amount of reiki on the lamp and a familiar tang of blood coated the air. "She's here," Kuwabara muttered right as the lights flickered and a soft voice whispered through the air like the wind. "So here you are…"
Keiko let out a scream which jumpstarted Yusuke's protective instincts.
The aforementioned ghost was against the wall, swaying, as she dragged her fingers against the walls. Her head was twisted to the left side, her long dark hair falling into her face. "I have been looking for you…to give you a message…" Her voice was echoing eerily around them, sinking into their pores like knives.
"K-Kari…?" Gia whispered shakily, moving toward the bloodied apparition. Kurama seized the girl by her shoulder. "Do not get close. Something is wrong."
A high, cold laugh rang out, in a distorted voice as the spirit faded into nothing. It sent visible rippled throughout the rooms. "I've found what the little pest longs to hide from me…" hissed the voice. It spoke only once more, stabbing ice into the hearts of Yusuke, Kuwabara, Kurama, Botan, Keiko, Gia, and Zeri. "Now she will be punished…"
When the voice faded, a thud broke the silence. Zeri had collapsed onto her knees, holding onto Gia for anchor, her eyes wide and vacant. "How can this be…?" she whispered.
"Zeri?" Kurama knelt to the girl's level, placing a hand on her shoulder to bring her back to focus. "Zeri, what's the matter?"
"Hikari." Zeri met his gaze. "Hikari's suffering. I can hear her screaming."
"How?" asked Kuwabara, shock filtered in his expression.
"I don't know…" she gasped, closing her eyes and leaning more into Gia. "But we have to find her ghost. We have to find her or else…"
When Zeri's voice died off, an echoing scream resonated into the air, cracking with pain and agony that stopped their hearts and chilled their blood cold.