Sorry for the delay, you tots. I actually have been busy with two jobs out here in the world, so I'll try to dish out updates whenever I can. The chapter is shorter than I'd like, but I aim to make the next chappie longer.
"So demons are real."
Yusuke had found the girl they saved wandering around the city, but she wasn't alone. Two other girls were with her and when he approached, she introduced her friends as Gia and Zeri once she recognized one of her saviors. They all agreed to go to one of the small cafes nearby to talk about demons and Hikari being able to see them and once Yusuke got to talking, Hikari's initial reaction was a stone face and those four words.
Yusuke nodded, somewhat unnerved at the fact that the girl they rescued was so matter-of-fact in her reaction. There was no "You're pulling my leg" or "You're an utter nutcase, please stay far away from me". The friend sitting on Hikari's lefthand side—Gia—pushed her bangs from her eyes before a wry smile curled her lip. "You look like Kari just scared the crap out of you—Urameshi, was it?" she said dryly. "Trust me, there's lots of weird crap in the world. Demons are a new one on Zeri and I, though."
Hikari had drummed her fingers against the table, silent, as her ember eyes lighted with something Yusuke couldn't place his finger on. It wasn't curiosity; it wasn't dread.
What in the hell was that look?
"Urameshi, you're looking lost in thought and that's saying something." Gia's voice broke through Yusuke's reminiscence of when he first spoke to Gia and Zeri when he found the three girls walking through town. Yusuke plastered an automatic grin to his face. "Not looking lost. Just glad we found you before something bad could happen," he said. Even when the words escaped him, a chill raced down in spine.
Hikari was killed because they couldn't find her. She had isolated herself from them and even though they hadn't known about the curse inflicted unto her family, they felt that crushing guilt. Their friend needed help and they weren't there when they should have been. When Gia's eyes dimmed, Yusuke knew that she knew what he meant. If what stole Hikari's soul from her peace and wanted to make a play for the rest of them, being alone was making them a perfect target.
Gia couldn't bear to mention to Yusuke that she heard that mirthless voice that in her head and felt the cold grasp of death reaching for her heart. She had almost lost and if it wasn't for the memory of meeting Hikari, she would have. Then Yusuke and Kuwabara would have been too late to save her. She looked away from Yusuke's stare and walked ahead. She and Zeri were alive and if the entity that took Hikari's soul took them, then their friends would next. It was something that shook Gia inside.
"You two should hurry back. Zeri could be awake by now," Kuwabara commented, looking toward Yusuke and Gia. "I gotta head home."
"See ya then," replied Yusuke with a broad grin and Kuwabara disappeared into the night en route home. Turning to Gia, Yusuke asked, "Let's get going. Zeri's waiting."
"Speak for yourself, your woman's waiting," teased Gia with a grin. With a matching grin of his own, Yusuke reached to ruffle Gia's hair. "Yeah, yeah," he replied.
They proceeded to head to Yusuke's apartment and as soon as Yusuke unlocked the door, Gia zoomed past him. Keiko sat next to Zeri, whose complexion had gotten paler, shadows under eyes. Her dark eyes had brightened slightly when Gia was immediately at her side.
"How're you feeling, Zeri?" asked Gia, pushing Zeri's limp hair from her face. Zeri offered a weak smile. "Doing better. After resting, Keiko gave me some tea," she answered before tilting her head. "Where did you go? You weren't here when I woke up."
"Well, Kurama and I went to Kari's place, had a disagreement and I walked away," Gia told her diplomatically as if it were something she does every single day of the week. Yusuke let out an obnoxiously loud huff of breath. "Right, and worrying the hell out of the rest of us."
"Sorry, sorry," grinned Gia, waving a hand dismissively at Yusuke. Keiko shook her head with a laugh. "At least you're okay, Gia. After Hikari, we worry that…" she trailed off, aware that they were heading into the unstable surfaces of Hikari's murder and that it truly hasn't been resolved.
Zeri continued, attempting to keep her voice strong—Yusuke could hear it. "What did you and Kurama find, Gia?" she asked.
"Time to catch you up to speed, Sleeping Beauty." Yusuke folded his arms over his chest. "Kurama came to tell us what you two found," he told Gia before looking at Zeri. "Kari's had a sister who was murdered by demons when she was ten. That sister's been haunting her, but Kari never told us. Also, Kari's parents are alive, but insane. I pitched the idea of finding her folks, but Kurama thinks that's a bad idea."
"Why?" Zeri's voice became harder than anyone had ever heard it. Her brows were drawn, lips set in a tight line. "Why would he be opposed to that?"
"Because they could be dangerous or something," said Yusuke, huffing a breath again. "They won't be lucid."
"And if they are when we go see them?" challenged Zeri, trying to stand up in her indignation but Gia kept her still, concern written on her face. "We can't just give up even with a lead as minute as this!"
"Zeri, think about what you're saying," Keiko murmured, her eyes shining with sympathy. "Even if we manage to find her parents, what more would we be able to do?"
"I don't care!" Zeri's voice broke through the calm, her expression twisted with a determination, managing to break from Gia's aid to stand up. "Kari needs our help! She needs us and we're just sitting here on our ass while she's suffering!"
Silence met Zeri's outburst before Yusuke grinned at her. "That a girl, Zeri. We'll get this done, no sweat!" he told her, giving her a thumbs-up right as a familiar aura appeared outside of the window. Judging by the sudden surprise in Gia and Zeri's face, they felt it right as the window slid open.
"Hiei!" Yusuke blinked as the demon climbed into the apartment. Hiei merely grunted, crossing his arms. "You won't be able to find the girl's parents by whatever method you're planning, Yusuke," he muttered.
"Are you saying you found them?" asked Gia, her voice painted with aggression as she approached the fire demon.
"Hn." Hiei crossed his arms and averted his eyes, not wanting to even grace Gia's impertinence with an answer. Despite how close his friends were to those females, he wasn't feeling the urge to divulge the fact that he had used his Jagan to try and find Hikari's mentally unstable ancestors. He never liked to clarify his activities for his own reasons, yet his mind felt muddled—as though he couldn't even keep his reasons as his own if they centered entirely around helping Yusuke and the others to get Hikari's soul to the Reikai.
"Hiei." Zeri's soft voice broke through his thoughts and Hiei was stunned to find that the usually mild girl mere feet from him, her dark eyes lacking the warmth and serenity that she usually held. Her face was pale and sunken, reminiscent of Hiei's own sleepless nights of being haunted by Hikari. She must have guessed at the truth within his mind, a trait annoyingly inherited from Kurama by the years of interaction, because she spoke softly. "Hikari is haunting you too, isn't she, Hiei? You can hear her screaming in your head and you can't make it stop no matter how much you want to."
His mental anguish was summed up in a mere few words, Hiei ground his teeth. He wanted to stop hearing Hikari calling for him over and over again; he wanted to not see the image of her torn body burned into his retinas; he wanted to know why he was able to see the spectre that haunted Hikari's soul. Even then while recalling his vision, he can recall how Hikari's soul was stoic, yet emotion flickered in her eyes. It was though she longed to tell him something, anything, but the spectre being there had stitched her mouth shut—
Comprehension hit him so blatantly, he would have been happily welcomed to receive a smack to the face for it. "A message," he muttered. Zeri's eyes flickered with something unfathomable. "Message…that's it," she whispered.
"What's going on?" Yusuke asked, looking between the two, his eyes narrowed with confusion. Hiei and Zeri both appeared haggard, as though plagued by inner turmoil that twisted inside of them and was slowly breaking them bit by bit. Yusuke knew Hikari was the reason for Zeri's deteriorating condition, but he couldn't place why Hiei—cool, calm, collected Hiei—would appear just as haggard as Zeri. The comprehension shared between them couldn't have been tied to Hikari.
"Kari. She's been trying to reach us, to tell us something," whispered Zeri as she raised a shaking hand to her temple. Her face paled as her voice rose, hysteria tingeing the tone. "A message, a cry for help. Yusuke, she's been trying to reach us and we're not any closer to finding her!"
"Calm down!" Gia grabbed Zeri's shoulders, her own eyes hard with emotion. "Zeri, don't go getting all excited, you're still too weak-"
"No!" Zeri screeched in her hysteria, squirming free from Gia's grip to glare at Hiei with fierceness the demon had never before seen. "Hiei, you know what I'm saying, don't you? I can tell you're seeing her too. Hikari's trying to reach us for help and we're just sitting here while she's suffering. Doesn't that just make you angry?!"
It honestly made Hiei want to rend flesh of demons in the Makai, but he wasn't going to say that to Zeri when she was obviously losing her mind. However, he wasn't going to admit that he thought he was losing his mind as well.
"Look, we just gotta find Hikari's parents." Yusuke stepped between the two, resting his hand on Zeri's shoulder. "The sooner we can get more information about this Tsukiyomi curse that's messed up her family, the sooner we can kick the ass of whatever is keeping her away from Reikai."
At Yusuke's reasoning, Zeri slowly relaxed, her chest heaving from her panting as her eyes slowly slid close. Gia placed her hand on Zeri's other shoulder gently, to not startle her. "C'mon. You need to rest a little longer before we go on our road trip," she murmured, guiding Zeri to the guest room and disappearing from sight. Yusuke turned his gaze to Hiei, a frown on his face. "Look, Hiei, we're all hurting from Hikari's murder. You're the only one who's so tightlipped about it. We've been through a lot of crap, can't you at least trust me with what's on your mind?" he asked.
Hiei glared at the former detective before exhaling an irritated breath. "It's none of your concern, detective. I just happen to know exactly what Zeri was muttering about in her fit of insanity."
"Look, Hiei, Gia and Zeri took Hikari's death the hardest. They want this resolved just as much as we do and it doesn't help if we all aren't on the up and up with each other."
"Like the girl was with us before she was tragically murdered?"
The jab, though fact, didn't diminish the hurt that transcended it. The group was always tightknit and never kept things from one another, but Hikari had kept secrets of her own. It was though they were in the middle of a game and she changed all the rules before leaving them to figure out what to do next. Silence hung between the males, heavier than a sigh. It ruffled Yusuke's feathers that his friend couldn't even talk about what bothered him. What annoyed Hiei most was that at the very moment Yusuke began to speak to him from the girls' earshot was that he could sense Hikari even now. The girl's presence was annoyingly etched into his very skin and he would give anything to remove it.
"Dude, you okay?" asked Yusuke suddenly, his brows drawn over his eyes. "You look like you had to swallow a lemon. Or worse, walk an old lady across the street."
Shaking his head, Hiei proceeded to step back to the window before a crippling pain overcame him, his knees crashing to the floor. Breath was knocked out of him, his lungs tightening painfully as though the room suddenly lacked air. He was aware of Yusuke at his side, his ears buzzing with a sharp, feminine screech that seared his mind. When he raised his eyes to the window, he could see Hikari in front of him—only something was different. Wrong.
She wasn't the ripped, broken spectre that had haunted them. Her skin was as pale and soft as when she was alive. Her dark hair was loose down to her waist. Yet her eyes—those eyes weren't amber.
The entirety of her eyes were completely black.