D45: Eh, Broken Rose isn't all that bad….it's the links that I'll give that will be rated R. But I dun wanna go against your parent's wishes, so just ignore me, hehe.

A/N: This chappie…is rather boring, in my opinion. But whichever.

Kodoku

Chapter 3

By Akuryou

"I'm all out of faith, this is how I feel. I'm

cold and I'm ashamed, bound and broken

on the floor.

You're a little late; I'm already torn…

--Torn; Natalie Imbruglia

~*~

No. It couldn't be possible. He couldn't be alive. He couldn't.

Could he?

Inari, how many times I have allowed myself to hope that he was still alive, that somehow he had survived the fall. I can still see the look in his wide emerald eyes just before he disappeared over the side. He knew that he hadn't been able to save Yukina.

But now. I desperately want to believe that he is alive, that my only true friend in the three worlds still breathes. Yet, if he is, then he is in such pain my own anguish is a mere pinprick in comparison. All these long four years, he has been in pain…

Damn Koenma. I swear, from the bottom of my heart, that I will kill you some day, princeling, for withholding this information. Four years! My only friend, in agony for four damn years!

I wonder what he is thinking. What he dreamt of, these past four years. Does he remember my sister, and her quiet laugh? Or our battles and trials that we went through together? Or are his dreams haunted by the same horrific moment as my own?

I sincerely hope they are not.

~*~

Hiei stared at Koenma with wide eyes.

"What did you say?" he whispered.

Koenma sighed, averting his gaze. "Kurama isn't dead, Hiei. He was caught by a winged youkai, and taken back to its castle. They've been doing…terrible things to him. But he's alive."

Hiei's ruby orbs shut tightly, his fists clenching and unclenching. Then they snapped open, hate and helpless fury burning within them. Koenma flinched from the mere intensity.

"I'm going to kill you!" the fire demon roared, lunging forward. "He's been alive all this time, and you never told me? Damn you! Damn you!"

Yusuke and Kuwabara, who had stepped forward to intercept their enraged friend, exchanged a look of mingling compassion and sorrow. Hiei wasn't really fighting them, his struggles already lessening. A small sob tore its way from the fire demon's throat as Yusuke and Kuwabara eased him to the ground gently.

"All this time," he whispered. "Kurama's been alive…all this time…"

Hiei buried his head in his hands, shoulders shaking. A few tears rolled down his cheeks to drop to the ground as gems, unnoticed.

The fire demon looked up abruptly, eyes glistening. He glared at the Rei Kai prince.

"Where is he?"

Curt, angry, simple. Koenma sighed.

"Mochidzuki Caverns."

Hieie nodded sharply and got to his feet, wiping his eyes. He began walking into the forest.

"Follow me."

They swiftly came to a sheltered clearing, s small, quiet house shrouded by trees in the center. Nearby the sound of running water could be heard.

Hiei disappeared into the house briefly before coming back out with his katana. He eyes them dangerously.


"Wait. And don't break anything."

With that, the fire demon shot off into the woods. Kuwabara gasped suddenly.

"Inari!" the tantei exclaimed. "His power is strong—he had been shielding his ki before, but right when he left…" Kuwabara shook his head in amazement.

Yusuke cast a perplexed look in the direction Hiei had gone. "You really think that we should have let him go like that?" he asked. "Not that I begrudge him going after Kurama, of course, but the Mochidzuki Caverns are two days from here, and Zujou Mountain is another two from there. We're pressed for time."

Koenma shook his head. "I think you underestimate Hiei's determination to see Kurama again. He'll be there by nightfall."

Yusuke gaped and was about to reply when he heard another of Kuwabara's startled exclamations, this time from within Hiei's house. He growled and headed into the small abode.

The inside of Hiei's house was just like it's inhabitant—sparse, utilitarian and dark. Yusuke's heart wrenched at the two tabled that could be seen through an open doorway—pictures of Yukina and Kurama, surrounded by candles, rested on them.

Yusuke turned to see Kuwabara gaping at a collection of knee-high jars, filled with what looked to be dark marbles.

"Kuwabara, what..?"

"Tear gems, Urameshi," Kuwabara breathed. "Those are Hiei's tear gems. And a lot of them."

Yusuke's eyes widened as he realized just how much pain Hiei had been in for the past four years. A surge of sympathy for the fire demon welled up in him.

"Inari…"

Yusuke turned at Koenma's small sigh of anguish to see the prince sink into an elaborately detailed chair, burying his head in his hands.


"I should have told him," Koenma said, his voice muffled. "I should have told all of you. Look at how much pain he's been in. And I…I could have prevented it…"

"You only wanted to make sure we didn't get killed ourselves," Koenma," the tantei said, sitting in a chair across from the prince. "But yeah, you should have told us."

Koenma sighed again and looked up, his eyes haunted.

"But now, all we can do is wait. It's up to Hiei now."

~*~Owari~*~