*Anemone's room...this is the second to last chapter, and we're still going on with the party (I'm going out with a bang)! Kurama's managed to lose Hiei in the crowd, and Hiei's gotten himself deep in conversation about Katana techniques with Kenshin...music="cosmic castaway" by Electrasy...Goku's dancing with ChiChi, Inuyasha dancing with Kagome, Sanosuke dancing with Megumi, Vash dancing with Meryl, Bulma attempting to get Vegeta to dance, and Kuwabara dancing with Yukina*
Bulma: come ON, Vegeta!! *pulls with all her limited strength at his arm, Vegeta not budging in the slightest at her supreme weakness*
Vegeta: no!
Bulma: if you don't I'm gonna kill you!
Vegeta: Saiyans don't dance!! *meanwhile, Goku dances by swinging ChiChi*
Goku: WEE!
ChiChi: *laughing* G-Goku!! HAHA!
Bulma: *raised eyebrow at Vegeta*
Vegeta: *glare* Kakorat doesn't count.
Mirai Trunks: c'mon, Dad...it'll make Mom happy!
Vegeta: *growl*
Mirai Trunks: er...I'm gonna go find Gohan...*mingles*
Bulma: *smug smirk* you know what it took to make him?
Vegeta: *smirk*
Bulma: NEVER AGAIN IF YOU DON'T DANCE!
Vegeta: GAH?! *gets dragged out into the dancefloor while looking traumatized*
Anemone: I seriously didn't need to hear that...*shiver*
Kurama: ...agreed...*shudder*
Hiei: *walking by talking to Kenshin, Kurama dives behind Anemone* ...I always held the hilt firmer than that...does that really work?
Kenshin: it works for me, that it does. But perhaps this is a matter of 'to each their own'...
Hiei: hn...maybe...*they walk off towards punch bowl...the one thing Goku did NOT consume...entirely...*
Kurama: *heavy relieved sigh*
Anemone: Fox you're getting too uptight for this party...loosen up a bit!
Kurama: but he's going to kill me if he catches me!
Anemone: he's having a nice little conversation with Kenshin-
Kurama: -about SWORDS!
Anemone: *long pause*...how do you know it's connected to you? Huh? Huh?!
Kurama: *rolls eyes*
Yusuke: nice party, Mones...I'm actually faking having a sensation relevant to fun!
Keiko: *slap*
Yusuke: OW! Wadid I do?!
Keiko: you're a jerk!
Kurama: indeed, Yusuke, don't be rude.
Anemone: yeah I didn't HAVE to invite you, See-Through.
Yusuke: *long pause as he thinks this over very hard* ...what the hell kind of nickname is that?!
Kurama: *snicker, whispers to Yusuke* she was making fun of your once being a ghost, along with it being a pun against the fact that your character lacks in complexity.
Yusuke: *blank look, walks away angrily mumbling* Stupid Author and her confusingly deep nicknames...
Anemone: wow...he's beyond stupid...*no offense to Yusuke fans...don't flame me!!!*
Kurama: tell me about it.
Anneliese: well I'm really having fun, Mones!! All my fav guys are here!!
Ellen: yeah this party ROCKS!
Anemone: good to hear SOMEONE is having a good time...*sniffle*
Kurama: what's wrong?
Anemone: Yusuke broke my spirit!! *whimper*
Keiko: *growl, runs after Yusuke, slaps him upside the head again*
Yusuke: OW! Dammit what did I do?!
Ellen: well we'll just hafta fix that now won't we? Red!
Kurama/Kenshin: yes?
Ellen: I was talking to Kurama...
Kenshin: oh...sorry. *turns back to conversation with Hiei*
Anneliese: Kurama go yell at Yusuke.
Kurama: why me?!
Anneliese: because!
Kurama: *tired annoyed sigh, goes to join Keiko in scolding Yusuke*
*Meanwhile, Hiei and Kenshin have gotten Mirai Trunks in on the sword conversation...Mirai Trunks and Kenshin both oblivious that it's for tips on how to kill a certain humanoid fox...Kurama walks back over to Anemone after putting his bit into Keiko's lecture against Yusuke's rudeness*
Mirai Trunks: you don't give them time to fight back if you can help it...then you blast them to oblivion.
Hiei: *evil smirk* really? Do tell...
Kurama: *gulp, ducks behind Anemone*
Anemone: maybe if you bought him an ice cream...
Kurama: what good would that do?!
Anemone: well, a few chapters ago you promised him one and never delivered.
Kurama: oh yes...
Anemone: I suggest you get at it before Hiei gets Inuyasha's tips too.
Kurama: right...*about to go, when Roshi attempts pervertedness (it's a word lol I think) at Anemone*
Roshi: wanna dance? *looks REALLY perverted*
Anemone: *reaches for bat, can't find it*
Roshi: looking for THIS? *holds up her bat* haha! Kudos to me! The slick old man!!
Anemone: *looks really freaked out as he steps towards her*
Kurama: you dirty old man...*kinda pissed at this point with having to get rid of Roshi probably three times already...drags Roshi away from Anemone, out the door, onto Anemone's balcony...and drops Roshi over it's edge* IF YOU LIVE THROUGH THAT, TURTLE-HERMIT, THEN BEHAVE YOURSELF FOR THE REMAINDER OF THIS PARTY, DAMMIT!!
Roshi: *having hit the ground, twitching in pain* o-okay........need.......medic.....
Ellen: *pointing and laughing at Roshi, having joined Kurama on the balcony* HAHAHAHA! YOU DUMBASS!!
Anneliese: *laughing* that stupid pervert...
Goku: *pauses in dancing* Master Roshi...?
Krillin: *really annoyed at Roshi's pervertedness* He's fine, Goku...
Goku: er...well, okay...if you say so...*starts dancing again*
Kurama: Mones I got your bat back.
Anemone: thanks Fox!! *takes bat, turns to readers* well, enough of this...the party'll still be here when you get back...go ahead with the next chapter!
Kurama: chapter 35, enjoy.
Chapter 35: Escape
Kurama trembled violently in his state of unconsciousness...the teenager fought within himself against the pain of tearing arteries and snapping veins...he was slowly drowning on the inside in his own escaping blood.
"AH!!" the kitsune snarled in agony. Botan slowly lay him against the stone floor, fear apparent in her vivid raspberry eyes.
"What arrow?!" she asked frantically as she brushed his bushy scarlet locks aside from his tormented and twisted expression. "What is happening to him?!"
Hiei blurred against air to the fox's side, though a stab of pain plagued his stomach halfway through the rush...the Koorime collapsed, grasping his stomach firmly as he skid against the smoothly jagged stone.
"Hiei!" Yusuke and the others attempted a rush in his direction...but Hiei was too stubborn, and refused to give in...he dragged himself up, and sprinted yet again for Kurama.
"Hiei!" Hinegeshi gasped. "You're going to hurt yourself even more!"
"I don't give a damn!" he snarled back, the bruises and tears at his stomach throbbing deep within him as he collapsed to Kurama's side. "I'll be fine!"
Hinegeshi grunted angrily inwardly, but rushed for Kurama as did her companions.
"Where is that damned thing?!" Hiei growled to himself as he examined Kurama's left wrist with care...he then leaned over the fox's trembling form for Kurama's right wrist...and shock stung his narrow ruby glare wide.
Kurama's wrist was swollen, and tainted with a poisonous green tint. His veins punctured against the flesh of his forearm, tainted in emerald.
"My God!" Hiei whispered at the sight. Botan drew a sharp gasp.
"What's happening to him?! Tell me!" the deity grasped Hiei's shoulders firmly and shook...the Koorime ignored her, and tore away from her grip, examining the Kitsune's wrist with care and fear.
"His skin's layering over the arrow! I can't even see it!" Hiei roared in his hybrid emotion of fear and anger. "DAMN!!"
"What?!" Yusuke fell to his knees by the quivering Kurama. The Detective tore the red-head's wrist from Hiei's hold and examined it himself. "Ah SHIT!"
"Kurama!" Keiko whimpered as the fox trembled against himself.
"How the hell are we supposed to get it out now?!" Kuwabara growled...Hiei glared stabbing ruby daggers for the punk's direction.
"Shut up! All of you! I can't concentrate..." the flame demon set his eyes back for Kurama's arm, the veins darkening in their poisonous shade.
"AH!" Kurama snarled a tormented wince, sweat beading at his tense, redened brow and trickling slyly down his veined temple.
"Will somebody, PLEASE, tell me, what's going ON!!!!" Botan roared ferociously, gripping her ivory fist into Yusuke's collar. "What's wrong with him?!"
"Lay off!" Yusuke growled, tearing her grip from his shirt.
"TELL ME, DAMMIT!!" the bluette barked right in the stunned Detective's face.
"Just tell her, Yusuke!" Keiko growled.
"FINE!" Yusuke countered viciously. "He injected this whacked out arrow thing into his system which is supposed to like, magically make his skin like harder or something like that and he had like this limited time to get it out and he didn't in time!"
"SHUT UP!" Hiei snarled. "Your grammer is BEYOND painful to listen to! I can't even concentrate!"
"What are you gonna do anyway, Shorty?! Why the hell do you need to concentrate?!" Kuwabara growled.
"Precision, you fool, now SILENCE!" Hiei barked, choking the cavern of sound. The Koorime slowly cast his nimble glare back for Kurama's wrist...and slowly drew his glossy Katana from it's sheath at his side.
"Hiei!" Yukina yelped as he leveled his blade right at the fox's hand.
The blade was smooth against Kurama's thin, purpled wrist, a bulge puncturing into the skin from underneath in the bloodstream...the once-exposed arrow tail, now burrowed under a layer of tainted, rotting flesh. Hiei was just about to slit into the flesh...
"Not so fast..." a rasped tone cooed against the contagious silence leaking throughout the cavern. The group whipped around to face...the guard, from the very beginning of their mission in the blasted Mount Shiverku.
Corrosive purple eyes and paled skin, the symbol of 'hatred' across his chest and several wounds seeping of his blood...that blasted guard had survived Kurama's Rose Whip!
"Don't stupid demons know when to die?!" Kuwabara growled.
"You don't know my power, you insolent fool! Why do you think I would front the defenses?!"
"So Grapko wouldn't have to deal with your annoyingness?" Yusuke countered smugly.
"Oh, cute, human...very cute...but you didn't know that I can overwhelm you with my power!"
"Yeah you did a great job with the overwhelming before..." the Detective smirked.
"Oh yeah?! With the mere sacrifice of my life, you will all perish!"
Hiei was growing steadily angrier. He couldn't concentrate without supreme silence...one word badly timed could throw his aim off completely and kill the fox.
"You brave enough to make that sacrifice, buddy?" Kuwabara smirked deviously.
"Yes."
The group gaped as the demon threw himself to the floor, writhing in pain...he was leaking of his energy, and the rock was sponging every fragment of it up. "Goodbye!!" was the last word he rasped before perishing right there.
"The hell?!" Hiei grunted. "Oh shit RUN!!!"
Violent vibrations shook against the mountain, sputters of rock slicing off from the cavern ceiling. A pillar shot straight for Keiko the brunette stunned beyond movement...until Yusuke dove at her from Kurama's side and the two skid against the floor...dust and splinters shot from the pillar's impact to the floor, as did many others.
"Let's get outta here!!" Kuwabara scooped Yukina up in his arms and ran with every fiber of his being for the corridor leading out of Grapko's cavern. Yusuke threw Keiko over his back, the girl hugging firmly about his neck as he sprinted in sync with Kuwabara.
Botan firmed her arms in midair, and a lick of energy stung at her sprawled ivory hands as wood materialized in the shape of her trademark oar.
Hinegeshi was about to do likewise...when a huge slice of stone came barreling down for her head. Hiei blurred against the air and strung his firm hold around her body, an arm at her shoulders and an arm at the bends of her knees, sprinting in a broad circle around the tattering cavern as the girl in his arms formed a long wooden oar. She swiped it in the air, Hiei kicking off against the ground and landing to the oar in a sit, instantly releasing the red-headed deity in his clutch so she may steer. The two whipped around back for Botan and Kurama, flying by with a speed to rival Hiei...the flame Koorime reached to the ground and clutched to Kurama's shirt, dragging the unconscious fox into the air with him and Hinegeshi.
Stone and dust choked the shaking room, the vibrations merciless and violent. Botan shot off into the air as well, coming in tune with her co-worker's steering. Hiei then lay the unconscious Kurama to Botan's oar, his torso slung over so his arms and legs dangled, the bluette instantly stringing her slender arms over him in her clutch to the rower.
The two ferry girls whipped in vicious turns and flips through the air in narrow attempts of avoidance...that demon was stronger than anticipated! He had the power to completely destroy Mount Shiverku!
Rocks and dust collasped from the ceilings and walls of the open caverns and the narrow passageways. Hinegeshi and Botan's steering almost instantly caught them up to Yusuke and Kuwabara, the boys running with every fragment their energy could muster.
"GAH!" Kuwabara roared as a huge, jagged chunk of stone descended straight for him and his beloved mint-haired Yukina. He leapt into the air, collapsing and skidding to a halt on his lower back, just barely out of the rock's range. The continuous vibrations of the guard's dying attack shook the caverns violently, Kuwabara struggling against himself to stand.
The impact affected each of the team members...Yusuke was thrown into the air with Keiko gripping firmly about his back. The Detective collapsed to the ground, his knees buckling, but kicking off into a sprint yet again.
The dust of that huge stone's impact to the stone blinded Hinegeshi, the girl's oar losing control and whipping in mad directions. Hiei laced his arms about her stomach in an attempt to steady the oar's route, but he two was slightly plagued as dust swarmed the air. Neither could see...when a rock stabbed through the air and crushed for the end of her oar.
The impact shot both Flame Koorime and Deity backwards in a flinging swing. Hiei bound himself against her, and, pressing a kick to yet another falling stone, kicked off for the floor, stepping nimbly to the ground and sprinting off with Hinegeshi snug in his arms as she formed yet another oar.
Botan whipped through the air, her steering steadier and more experienced than Hinegeshi's. She avoided the rocks and dust with nimbly sharp turns, her route jagged with snakes around the rocks and dust.
Yusuke and Kuwabara's footing was comprimised constantly as the vicious shaking of the ground vibrated their sprints. Yukina whimpered in her boyfriend's hold, Keiko burrying her face against Yusuke's neck.
Kurama quivered violently as pain struck to his arm again. Sweat ripped in soft, gel beads from his temple with each sharp turn the bluette jerked her oar.
"Come on, people!!" Hinegeshi shouted over her shoulder.
"Shove it! You're not running!" Yusuke gasped through his untimed sprint.
Rocks and dust continuously collapsed over them, sputtering violently from the slits in the shaking mountain. Perpetual near deaths, dagger stone breaking loose from the ceiling and stabbing straight for the retreating Urimeshi team.
Kuwabara dove in jerked jumps from side to side as slim rock slit the dust-choked air straight for him.
Yusuke sprinted straight through, not stopping and only speeding up come near impacts with rocks.
Hinegeshi fronted the escape with Hiei sharing her oar, the injured Koorime holding to her firmly.
Botan whipped around through the caverns in the rear. Her movements were violently jerked from left to right. Kurama struggled against himself in pain, his face tense as he lay strung over Botan's oar.
They sped straight through Ryooki's cavern...and Hiei was the only one to notice the fox-wolf was no longer there. 'Where'd he go...?'
They rushed across the battlefield of Hitorihamet's last fight, and of Kruntag's, and of Syaaka's.
Suddenly, just as the light of the outer world was blinking in view, a horrific amount of rock slit from the vibrating mountain's ceiling. It sputtered loose, Hinegeshi, Yusuke, and Kuwabara instantly speeding up to the limits of their strengths. Botan, however, whipped to a halt, unable to beat the collapsing amount. The stone crushed to the floor, layering over itself, dust spraying all over. The impact of stone to stone racked even the air, shaking Botan and Kurama from her slender oar, the two falling to the ground.
"KITSUNE!" Hiei growled, his eyes iced wide. Behind a fresh wall of stone, locked into the vibrating Mount Shiverku, were a trapped pair of teenagers...a frantic bluette and an unconscious, slowly dying humanoid.
"HELP!!" Botan shouted loudly through the stone, pressing herself against the wall. "HELP US, PLEASE!!"
Kurama was quivering in his pain, the veins of his right forearm widening and staining with eerily deep emeralds and midnight blues. Sweat beaded at his temples, streaking his face and patting his hair against his tense countenance.
Botan, though pained from her impact to the ground after being flung from her oar, managed to wince through it and pound the side of her fist against the wall cutting both herself and the fox off from the outer Demon World.
"We have to go back!" Hiei thread his arms around Hinegeshi's front and tore her route for the side, jerking them backwards. Yusuke's chocolate eyes managed to glimpse the change in his companion's flight, and threw his glare behind...Kurama and Botan's weren't anywhere in sight.
"Kurama!! Botan!!" Yusuke skid to a halt just as his feet were to carry both him and Keiko into the light of the outer world.
"What?!" Kuwabara halted at his rival's yells. "Where are they?!"
"Behind the wall!" Hiei's gruff bark echoed into the air.
"WHAT?!!" Kuwabara blinked in shock. "They can't be!!"
"Well they are!!" Yusuke growled, setting Keiko to the ground and sprinting back...they were now beyond the danger of collapsing rock, but Botan and Kurama were still trapped in that overwhelming threat.
Hiei leapt from Hinegeshi's oar to the ground, landing nimbly despite his raw, open wound. He sprinted straight for the wall, punching against the dense rock with his jagged fist. "DAMN! No good! It's too thick!"
"Hiei?!" he heard a muffled choke of a hopeful yell.
"Botan! Are you and Kitsune alright?!"
The deity held Kurama in her lap, stroking sweaty locks of scarlet from his temple. "He's getting worse!!"
"You have to pierce the skin of his right wrist and tear out the arrow tail!"
"What?!" she gaped. "I, I can't do that!! What if I miss?!"
"We can't risk that, Hiei...!" Yusuke countered in his frustration.
"Oh DAMMIT!" Hiei snarled. "What the hell are we supposed to do?!"
Botan held the tense, pained Kitsune in her lap, cradling his head and massaging his chest. His expression was tainted with utter pain, sheer agony. Rocks perpetually collapsed and bashed densely to the ground, dust sputtering on impact and stinging at her terrified eyes. With each dagger spike of stone she yelped and pinned both herself and the unconscious Kurama tighter against the fourth-mile wide wall separating them from their worried companions.
"I can't get through this!" Hiei growled in his anger. "It's too damn thick!"
"I don't have any more bullets..." Yusuke grunted.
"...and I let out all my energy..." Kuwabara whispered in shame.
"H...Hiei...w...what's going, to, to happen to, Botan and K...Kurama...?" Yukina asked timidly, utter fear staining her innocent eyes.
Hiei growled in his frustration. "Damn!! I wish I knew!! I, I have no idea...!"
"AH!" Botan yelped as yet another stabbing spike of rock pierced against the dust-hazed air straight for her and her one companion. Kurama writhed in pain, lost within himself under the intensity of the agony poisoning his forearm. Deeper became the shades of emerald and midnight tainting his veins, wider grew the arteries as poison metal pumped through them, slowly spreading to plague his entire system.
Gashes stung into their flesh as splinters of stone grazed by. Cracks formed on her skin and red streaked into her clothes. Dust sprinkled and burned at her open wounds, but she didn't care...she simply cradled tighter against the humanoid in her lap.
The vibrations shook them violently, Botan nearly collapsing on top of him. But she resisted binding herself firmly against the wall. And that's when a huge, dagger rock broke from just above the two, and tore through the hazy dust right for Botan and Kurama. The deity yelped in her fear, leaning over the boy unconscious in her lap and awaiting their death in total horror.
"AHH!!!"
"BOTAN!" Yusuke breathed hard, ramming the side of his fist against the jagged wall.
Suddenly, claws dug into her collar, slinging her over a shoulder. Botan gaped in shock, unable to fathom the passing occurance. Kurama, too, was dragged from the floor, and the body veiled from her sharp vision sprinted viciously away, just as the stone burrowed against the floor of the pair's former position. Splinters and jags of rock shot from the crumbling impact, dust spraying loose and hazing around the slit stone.
Botan blinked in confusion...and could only make out the sight of...flowing red hair. The girl whipped her sights around, her raspberry gaze wide in bafflement. Atop the crown of their rescuer's head...were a flicking pair of scarlet fox ears. 'What?!' she thought in confusion.
Her eyes cast for downward, and grazed over the sight of the unconscious Kurama tucked under this stranger's opposite arm. The girl was locked in confusion. 'Who is this?! It's not Grapko...this guy has red ears...'
The stranger carried the two with a speed to rival Hiei's. He sprinted gracefully and smoothly through the vibrating mountain, his paced steps having yet to be rocked and displaced by the quivering Mount Shiverku.
Faster and faster, harder and narrower grew his sprint...he was a marvel. His speed was perfectly timed and deadly silent as he rushed through the bowels of the Kyorgin Caves in search for another exit. Rocks and dust collapsed and blew in their direction, but he was never slowed.
Suddenly, he kicked firmly and recklessly against a spot of stone, the rock splitting loose come impact with his foot. Light sprayed instantly through the puncture in the wall, stinging viciously at Botan's wide eyes. She pinched them shut as the stranger leapt through the hole, dragging both the deity and the humanoid fox-wolf along with him. The stranger's step pressed against the ground as he skid to a stop. Dirt clouded about his ankles from the rush, but he jerked violently for the side, setting Botan down with care and instantly turning his attention solely for Kurama.
"The hell-?!" Hiei pricked in a sense...and bolted from the scene.
"Hiei!" the others called after him in confusion, kicking off after him.
The Flame Koorime skid to a halt at the rounded turn of the mountain's base...and his ruby glare widened. There stood Botan, looking on in utter worry as the nameless rescuer gently lay Kurama to the ground.
'It...it can't be...' Hiei's thoughts stuttered against his attempt to think clearly.
The group rounded the corner in sync to Hiei's rush...and they too were stunned at the sight that met their eyes.
"...Ryooki..." Hiei breathed slowly.
Kurama's fox-wolf brother ignored the group, studying Kurama's condition. Strung about his back were his signature arrows, each deadly in their sharpness. "Brother..." Ryooki attempted to coax the fox awake with his voice. "...Yoko...it's me...Ryooki..."
Through Kurama's gaping lips, slivered the voice of Yoko Kurama. "Ryooki...I'm, I'm about to die...you must help me! Us! Suichi...Suichi can't stand the...the pain!"
"It's okay, Yoko..." Ryooki smiled gently. "...just lie still..." Yoko then fell unconscious in sync with his human counterpart Suichi-Kurama.
The conscious of the siblings then graced the air with his arm in preparation to draw an arrow from his sling. The arrow he selected was smooth, the head sharp and slick. Ryooki slowly grasped to Kurama's swollen, tainted wrist. Silence choked the entire group present.
With a jerk faster than Hiei's sprint, Ryooki had slit into his brother's wrist...blood slipped free from the fresh gash. Ryooki then, very slowly and with the most supreme of care, slipped his claws gently into the slit of skin. Botan winced and jerked away as blood curdled under Ryooki's claws. The bulge trapped under Kurama's flesh was tampered with, and ripped from the fox's system. Instantly the tensness of the humanoid's face loosened, silver liquid leaking loose from the slit in the boy's wrist. His puncturing, sharp veins eased back to normal and faded of their deadly colors, Kurama's swollen wrist soon
"Is that-?" Hiei began in coarse question.
"It is. The metallic arrow substance." Ryooki answered bluntly, examining Kurama intently. "Oh...oh no...!" the demon breathed faintly, his left ear flicking against his head and his narrow emerald eyes widening just slightly.
"What?" Hiei growled lowly. "What's wrong...?!"
"He's giving in!" Ryooki whirled around to face his brother's friends, each gaping in fear and shock.
"What do you mean 'giving in'?!" Yusuke breathed coarse gasps in his stunned terror.
"I mean he doesn't see the means to keep on going! He's blinded by the pain and can't shake through it!" Ryooki growled violently in the human's direction.
"No! Kurama can't die!" Botan exclaimed, bowing to the humanoid's side. "Kurama! Wake up!" She shook hard against him, but he remained motionless.
"He has to be coaxed back to reality...he must be reminded why his life is worthwhile..." Ryooki stroked his slick mane back with his clawed hands. Kurama was falling within himself, deeper and deeper towards his demise...blindness has racked his senses from reality, from knowing his worth...from remembering.
"...Reminded why his life is worthwhile..." Botan breathed to herself in an echoing coo. She then cast stern eyes downward to the boy lying in against the ground, dying from the inside out.
With one last breath, she dove at him, forcing her lips against his in a gentle, smooth kiss. Kurama's eyes flashed wide, stinging emerald glazed brilliantly in faceted shock. Botan tore away, eyeing him with worry sagging her pretty raspberry eyes. The fox-wolf was still lying on the ground his stunned eyes gazing up at the beautiful deity leaning over him.
"Well that worked..." Yusuke whispered faintly to the group.
Keiko rolled her eyes, Yukina stiffled a delicate giggle, and Hinegeshi smiled tiredly.
Kuwabara massaged his temples, the stress having given him a migraine.
And Hiei collapsed to an Indian style sit, exhaust weighing him down without mercy.
Kurama breathed slowly, eyeing Botan with slight confusion. "B...Botan...?"
"Kurama..." she sighed softly, a happy, bubbly smile pricking at her ivory face. "You're okay!!"
"Y-yes, well..." he coughed awkwardly...still lying on his back...with Botan still leaning onto his chest. After a brief pause, when she had realized, both their faces twinged in mad blushes, Botan scrambling up, and Kurama hitching himself to an Indian style sit. The two cast their eyes away from the other, redness burning at the slope of his nose and pink singeing at her cheeks.
"We'll go..." Kuwabara smirked, slowly leading Yukina away. In reluctance his companions followed, Hiei retreating last. The Flame Koorime cast a monotonous expression in Kurama's immediate direction...Kurama smiled calmly at his best friend, Hiei in turn grunting a smirk and rounding the corner after the others.
Kurama slowly scanned his emerald glare after his departing brother. "Ryooki..." he breathed in solace.
The demon halted, but didn't grace Kurama with his face. "Hm?"
"Thank you."
A brief pause laced between the brothers, before Ryooki cracked his neck against his shoulder and started off again for the shadows beyond Mount Shiverku.
%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%
"Are you alright?" a lovely young demonness approached Ryooki with care and tenderness in her fragile eyes as her figure pealed from the shadows.
The hybrid smiled kindly, and nodded. "Yes...I'm fine mother."
"Where do we go, Ryooki?" Jiaanti sighed in her confusion.
"Beyond...away..." the boy shrugged calmly. "Doesn't matter...this place is in our past...and it's collapsing on the inside, so journey on we must."
The two walked off, setting out for what lay beyond that blasted mountain of which they've both spent far too much of their lives.
%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%
"Erm...Botan..." Kurama bit his lower lip in an attempt to formulate tangible words after Ryooki had disappeared into the shadows.
"...er...yes, Kurama?" the deity gulped slightly, parching her speech.
"That, um...that, kiss..." he struggled against himself with his words.
Her heart jumped. "...yes...?"
"Uh...why, em...why did you, did you do it...?" Kurama's eyes boldly ventured for the girl directly to his side...though a singeing blush still plagued the slope of his nose.
"Well...um...I, uh...oh boy..." she sighed in defeat, wincing and scratching the side of her head. "...maybe we should talk about something else..."
"...indeed..."
"Erm...Kurama," she bit into her lower lip as she flashed her innocent candy eyes in his direction.
"Yes?" he asked with a twinge of hope in his voice.
"...have...have you...have you ever...liked, someone...but, but didn't realize it...until you've been through...a, a lot with, them?" the deity chose her words with strained care, fear of rejection in her eyes.
A pause as the words tainted his mind... "Yes." he answered flatly, though it sounded like a coarse whisper. "...and with the sheerest of honesty, Botan..."
The bluette's lungs seemed to shrivel and refuse her of air and her heart seemed to pause as she waited for his coming words.
"...I must say..." he gulped in awkwardness.
She couldn't breath. 'come ON, darn it!! Tell me!'
"...I...I..."
At this point she was boiling over with utter anticipation, as was he...and both grunted in their frustration of the situation "I LOVE YOU!!"
Botan and Kurama drew back, gaping at the other. "You...you love me?" Kurama blinked with a shadow of a smile to claim his lips.
"YOU love ME?!" Botan piped in utter joy.
"Yes!" he beamed.
"Me two!" she laughed. Botan threw herself around his neck, Kurama instantly threading his stern arms around her back. The two pressed their lips together, each smiling in sheer happiness.
Hiei smirked at the sight. He was hidden in the trees, the twisted masses of branches and leaves hiding him from even Kurama's keen eyes...though either way the Kitsune was too busy to notice him. 'It's about time,' Hiei smirked calmly. '...way to go, Kitsune.'
%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%
Anemone: YAY! Second to last chappie!! WOOHOO!!
Kurama: that was so sweet, Mones!
Botan: yeah! *hugs and kisses Kurama...after a minute Kurama pulls away looking VERY smug*
Hiei: oh Kur-A-MA...
Kurama: *suddenly looks a little scared* erm...yes, Hiei? *ducks slightly behind Anemone*
Wolfwood: you're still not gonna kill him now, are you?!
Hiei: no.
Everyone: 0_0 nani?!
Hiei: I decided that if Kitsune gets me the biggest damned ice cream sundae ever known to humanity...! *brief pause*...then I'll forgive him.
Kurama: YES!! I'm not going to die!!
Anemone: what changed your mind, Flames?
Hiei: Anneliese made me sit through a lecture.
Anemone and Kurama: ahh...
Anemone: okay, people!! Since this is my second to last chapter, and the next one isn't going to continue the party, we've gotta have a nice little ending...
Goku: what is it, Mones?
Anemone: everybody! At the end of the song *song="we didn't start the fire" by Billy Joel* ...everyone...will kiss...someone else! Choose your makeout partner now!!
Everyone: *shrugs, finds a partner...Goku + ChiChi, Miroku + Sango, Krillin + 18, Inuyasha + Kagome, Vegeta + Bulma, Gohan + Videl, Vash + Meryl, Wolfwood + Millie, Shippo + Rin, Kenshin + Kaoru, Sanosuke + Megumi, Yusuke + Keiko, Kuwabara + Yukina, Sesshoumaru + Hinegeshi, Knives + Ellen, Hiei + Anneliese, Kurama + Botan, Mirai Trunks + Anemone...Piccolo and Roshi are partnerless, Piccolo doesn't really care, Roshi is depressed...readers with whoever you brought as your date!!*
Anemone: song's almost over! Yay!!
Mirai Trunks: *slight chuckle, smirk* yay.
Anemone: *almost blacks out*
Anneliese: oh my God I can't believe I'm gonna kiss you!
Hiei: me neither...
Ellen: hey Mones! Are we allowed Frenchers? *Knives sweatdrops slightly*
Anemone: sure!!
Knives and Hiei: WHAT?!
Miroku and Goku: YAY!!
Anemone: *turns to Mirai Trunks* wanna...?
Mirai Trunks: *shrug* okay.
Anemone: YAY! *almost blacks out again*
Anneliese: HURRY UP WITH THE DAMNED SONG, ALREADY!! I WANNA FRENCH HIEI!!
Everyone: *sweatdrop, steps back slightly...Hiei tries but is held back*
*song ends...Goku kisses ChiChi really sweetly...Vegeta kisses Bulma reluctantly, but it gets kinda intense...Gohan and Videl kiss innocently...Vash and Meryl french...Wolfwood and Millie french sweetly...Shippo kisses Rin on the cheek...Kenshin and Kaoru french...Miroku and Sango french really deeply...Krillin and 18 peck short and sweet...Sanosuke and Megumi french...Yusuke and Keiko kiss reluctantly, but get into frenching...Inuyasha kisses Kagome deeply...Kuwabara kisses Yukina romantically...Sesshoumaru just kinda lets Hinegeshi peck him on the cheek...Ellen frenches Knives, at first against his will, but he gets into it...Kurama and Botan kiss passionately...Hiei and Anneliese do a frencher...readers do their own thing...Mirai Trunks and Anemone start making out*
Everyone: *parts from their partner...waiting for Anemone to say something...look over, and find her still making out with Mirai Trunks*
Kurama: er...Mones...?
*Still making out*
Hiei: ...Mones...?
*Still making out*
Hiei: she really doesn't want to let this go, does she...?
*Still making out*
Kurama: apparently she doesn't...
Hiei: *heavy annoyed sigh* very well...she'll no doubt demand I say my line...*turns to readers* go review.
Kurama: farewell, readers!
Knives: go away.
Sesshoumaru: whatever...
Kenshin: have a nice evening!
Ellen and Anneliese: BYE!!
Goku: see-ya!!
Gohan: hope you had fun!!
Anemone: *finally parts from her partner* huh, what...?
Vash: peace out!
Kagome: goodbye!
Botan: later!
Piccolo: hn.
Wolfwood: may God be with you!
18: are they gone yet?
Yukina: I hope you all had a nice time! My regards!
Anemone: ...wait they're leaving?!
Vegeta: go away, humans!
Anemone: no ignore them come back, readers!!
Mirai Trunks: wanna go make-out?
Anemone: *instantly forgets readers* SURE!!
Hiei: finally...you can go now, readers...
Kurama: goodbye!
Bulma: come ON, Vegeta!! *pulls with all her limited strength at his arm, Vegeta not budging in the slightest at her supreme weakness*
Vegeta: no!
Bulma: if you don't I'm gonna kill you!
Vegeta: Saiyans don't dance!! *meanwhile, Goku dances by swinging ChiChi*
Goku: WEE!
ChiChi: *laughing* G-Goku!! HAHA!
Bulma: *raised eyebrow at Vegeta*
Vegeta: *glare* Kakorat doesn't count.
Mirai Trunks: c'mon, Dad...it'll make Mom happy!
Vegeta: *growl*
Mirai Trunks: er...I'm gonna go find Gohan...*mingles*
Bulma: *smug smirk* you know what it took to make him?
Vegeta: *smirk*
Bulma: NEVER AGAIN IF YOU DON'T DANCE!
Vegeta: GAH?! *gets dragged out into the dancefloor while looking traumatized*
Anemone: I seriously didn't need to hear that...*shiver*
Kurama: ...agreed...*shudder*
Hiei: *walking by talking to Kenshin, Kurama dives behind Anemone* ...I always held the hilt firmer than that...does that really work?
Kenshin: it works for me, that it does. But perhaps this is a matter of 'to each their own'...
Hiei: hn...maybe...*they walk off towards punch bowl...the one thing Goku did NOT consume...entirely...*
Kurama: *heavy relieved sigh*
Anemone: Fox you're getting too uptight for this party...loosen up a bit!
Kurama: but he's going to kill me if he catches me!
Anemone: he's having a nice little conversation with Kenshin-
Kurama: -about SWORDS!
Anemone: *long pause*...how do you know it's connected to you? Huh? Huh?!
Kurama: *rolls eyes*
Yusuke: nice party, Mones...I'm actually faking having a sensation relevant to fun!
Keiko: *slap*
Yusuke: OW! Wadid I do?!
Keiko: you're a jerk!
Kurama: indeed, Yusuke, don't be rude.
Anemone: yeah I didn't HAVE to invite you, See-Through.
Yusuke: *long pause as he thinks this over very hard* ...what the hell kind of nickname is that?!
Kurama: *snicker, whispers to Yusuke* she was making fun of your once being a ghost, along with it being a pun against the fact that your character lacks in complexity.
Yusuke: *blank look, walks away angrily mumbling* Stupid Author and her confusingly deep nicknames...
Anemone: wow...he's beyond stupid...*no offense to Yusuke fans...don't flame me!!!*
Kurama: tell me about it.
Anneliese: well I'm really having fun, Mones!! All my fav guys are here!!
Ellen: yeah this party ROCKS!
Anemone: good to hear SOMEONE is having a good time...*sniffle*
Kurama: what's wrong?
Anemone: Yusuke broke my spirit!! *whimper*
Keiko: *growl, runs after Yusuke, slaps him upside the head again*
Yusuke: OW! Dammit what did I do?!
Ellen: well we'll just hafta fix that now won't we? Red!
Kurama/Kenshin: yes?
Ellen: I was talking to Kurama...
Kenshin: oh...sorry. *turns back to conversation with Hiei*
Anneliese: Kurama go yell at Yusuke.
Kurama: why me?!
Anneliese: because!
Kurama: *tired annoyed sigh, goes to join Keiko in scolding Yusuke*
*Meanwhile, Hiei and Kenshin have gotten Mirai Trunks in on the sword conversation...Mirai Trunks and Kenshin both oblivious that it's for tips on how to kill a certain humanoid fox...Kurama walks back over to Anemone after putting his bit into Keiko's lecture against Yusuke's rudeness*
Mirai Trunks: you don't give them time to fight back if you can help it...then you blast them to oblivion.
Hiei: *evil smirk* really? Do tell...
Kurama: *gulp, ducks behind Anemone*
Anemone: maybe if you bought him an ice cream...
Kurama: what good would that do?!
Anemone: well, a few chapters ago you promised him one and never delivered.
Kurama: oh yes...
Anemone: I suggest you get at it before Hiei gets Inuyasha's tips too.
Kurama: right...*about to go, when Roshi attempts pervertedness (it's a word lol I think) at Anemone*
Roshi: wanna dance? *looks REALLY perverted*
Anemone: *reaches for bat, can't find it*
Roshi: looking for THIS? *holds up her bat* haha! Kudos to me! The slick old man!!
Anemone: *looks really freaked out as he steps towards her*
Kurama: you dirty old man...*kinda pissed at this point with having to get rid of Roshi probably three times already...drags Roshi away from Anemone, out the door, onto Anemone's balcony...and drops Roshi over it's edge* IF YOU LIVE THROUGH THAT, TURTLE-HERMIT, THEN BEHAVE YOURSELF FOR THE REMAINDER OF THIS PARTY, DAMMIT!!
Roshi: *having hit the ground, twitching in pain* o-okay........need.......medic.....
Ellen: *pointing and laughing at Roshi, having joined Kurama on the balcony* HAHAHAHA! YOU DUMBASS!!
Anneliese: *laughing* that stupid pervert...
Goku: *pauses in dancing* Master Roshi...?
Krillin: *really annoyed at Roshi's pervertedness* He's fine, Goku...
Goku: er...well, okay...if you say so...*starts dancing again*
Kurama: Mones I got your bat back.
Anemone: thanks Fox!! *takes bat, turns to readers* well, enough of this...the party'll still be here when you get back...go ahead with the next chapter!
Kurama: chapter 35, enjoy.
Chapter 35: Escape
Kurama trembled violently in his state of unconsciousness...the teenager fought within himself against the pain of tearing arteries and snapping veins...he was slowly drowning on the inside in his own escaping blood.
"AH!!" the kitsune snarled in agony. Botan slowly lay him against the stone floor, fear apparent in her vivid raspberry eyes.
"What arrow?!" she asked frantically as she brushed his bushy scarlet locks aside from his tormented and twisted expression. "What is happening to him?!"
Hiei blurred against air to the fox's side, though a stab of pain plagued his stomach halfway through the rush...the Koorime collapsed, grasping his stomach firmly as he skid against the smoothly jagged stone.
"Hiei!" Yusuke and the others attempted a rush in his direction...but Hiei was too stubborn, and refused to give in...he dragged himself up, and sprinted yet again for Kurama.
"Hiei!" Hinegeshi gasped. "You're going to hurt yourself even more!"
"I don't give a damn!" he snarled back, the bruises and tears at his stomach throbbing deep within him as he collapsed to Kurama's side. "I'll be fine!"
Hinegeshi grunted angrily inwardly, but rushed for Kurama as did her companions.
"Where is that damned thing?!" Hiei growled to himself as he examined Kurama's left wrist with care...he then leaned over the fox's trembling form for Kurama's right wrist...and shock stung his narrow ruby glare wide.
Kurama's wrist was swollen, and tainted with a poisonous green tint. His veins punctured against the flesh of his forearm, tainted in emerald.
"My God!" Hiei whispered at the sight. Botan drew a sharp gasp.
"What's happening to him?! Tell me!" the deity grasped Hiei's shoulders firmly and shook...the Koorime ignored her, and tore away from her grip, examining the Kitsune's wrist with care and fear.
"His skin's layering over the arrow! I can't even see it!" Hiei roared in his hybrid emotion of fear and anger. "DAMN!!"
"What?!" Yusuke fell to his knees by the quivering Kurama. The Detective tore the red-head's wrist from Hiei's hold and examined it himself. "Ah SHIT!"
"Kurama!" Keiko whimpered as the fox trembled against himself.
"How the hell are we supposed to get it out now?!" Kuwabara growled...Hiei glared stabbing ruby daggers for the punk's direction.
"Shut up! All of you! I can't concentrate..." the flame demon set his eyes back for Kurama's arm, the veins darkening in their poisonous shade.
"AH!" Kurama snarled a tormented wince, sweat beading at his tense, redened brow and trickling slyly down his veined temple.
"Will somebody, PLEASE, tell me, what's going ON!!!!" Botan roared ferociously, gripping her ivory fist into Yusuke's collar. "What's wrong with him?!"
"Lay off!" Yusuke growled, tearing her grip from his shirt.
"TELL ME, DAMMIT!!" the bluette barked right in the stunned Detective's face.
"Just tell her, Yusuke!" Keiko growled.
"FINE!" Yusuke countered viciously. "He injected this whacked out arrow thing into his system which is supposed to like, magically make his skin like harder or something like that and he had like this limited time to get it out and he didn't in time!"
"SHUT UP!" Hiei snarled. "Your grammer is BEYOND painful to listen to! I can't even concentrate!"
"What are you gonna do anyway, Shorty?! Why the hell do you need to concentrate?!" Kuwabara growled.
"Precision, you fool, now SILENCE!" Hiei barked, choking the cavern of sound. The Koorime slowly cast his nimble glare back for Kurama's wrist...and slowly drew his glossy Katana from it's sheath at his side.
"Hiei!" Yukina yelped as he leveled his blade right at the fox's hand.
The blade was smooth against Kurama's thin, purpled wrist, a bulge puncturing into the skin from underneath in the bloodstream...the once-exposed arrow tail, now burrowed under a layer of tainted, rotting flesh. Hiei was just about to slit into the flesh...
"Not so fast..." a rasped tone cooed against the contagious silence leaking throughout the cavern. The group whipped around to face...the guard, from the very beginning of their mission in the blasted Mount Shiverku.
Corrosive purple eyes and paled skin, the symbol of 'hatred' across his chest and several wounds seeping of his blood...that blasted guard had survived Kurama's Rose Whip!
"Don't stupid demons know when to die?!" Kuwabara growled.
"You don't know my power, you insolent fool! Why do you think I would front the defenses?!"
"So Grapko wouldn't have to deal with your annoyingness?" Yusuke countered smugly.
"Oh, cute, human...very cute...but you didn't know that I can overwhelm you with my power!"
"Yeah you did a great job with the overwhelming before..." the Detective smirked.
"Oh yeah?! With the mere sacrifice of my life, you will all perish!"
Hiei was growing steadily angrier. He couldn't concentrate without supreme silence...one word badly timed could throw his aim off completely and kill the fox.
"You brave enough to make that sacrifice, buddy?" Kuwabara smirked deviously.
"Yes."
The group gaped as the demon threw himself to the floor, writhing in pain...he was leaking of his energy, and the rock was sponging every fragment of it up. "Goodbye!!" was the last word he rasped before perishing right there.
"The hell?!" Hiei grunted. "Oh shit RUN!!!"
Violent vibrations shook against the mountain, sputters of rock slicing off from the cavern ceiling. A pillar shot straight for Keiko the brunette stunned beyond movement...until Yusuke dove at her from Kurama's side and the two skid against the floor...dust and splinters shot from the pillar's impact to the floor, as did many others.
"Let's get outta here!!" Kuwabara scooped Yukina up in his arms and ran with every fiber of his being for the corridor leading out of Grapko's cavern. Yusuke threw Keiko over his back, the girl hugging firmly about his neck as he sprinted in sync with Kuwabara.
Botan firmed her arms in midair, and a lick of energy stung at her sprawled ivory hands as wood materialized in the shape of her trademark oar.
Hinegeshi was about to do likewise...when a huge slice of stone came barreling down for her head. Hiei blurred against the air and strung his firm hold around her body, an arm at her shoulders and an arm at the bends of her knees, sprinting in a broad circle around the tattering cavern as the girl in his arms formed a long wooden oar. She swiped it in the air, Hiei kicking off against the ground and landing to the oar in a sit, instantly releasing the red-headed deity in his clutch so she may steer. The two whipped around back for Botan and Kurama, flying by with a speed to rival Hiei...the flame Koorime reached to the ground and clutched to Kurama's shirt, dragging the unconscious fox into the air with him and Hinegeshi.
Stone and dust choked the shaking room, the vibrations merciless and violent. Botan shot off into the air as well, coming in tune with her co-worker's steering. Hiei then lay the unconscious Kurama to Botan's oar, his torso slung over so his arms and legs dangled, the bluette instantly stringing her slender arms over him in her clutch to the rower.
The two ferry girls whipped in vicious turns and flips through the air in narrow attempts of avoidance...that demon was stronger than anticipated! He had the power to completely destroy Mount Shiverku!
Rocks and dust collasped from the ceilings and walls of the open caverns and the narrow passageways. Hinegeshi and Botan's steering almost instantly caught them up to Yusuke and Kuwabara, the boys running with every fragment their energy could muster.
"GAH!" Kuwabara roared as a huge, jagged chunk of stone descended straight for him and his beloved mint-haired Yukina. He leapt into the air, collapsing and skidding to a halt on his lower back, just barely out of the rock's range. The continuous vibrations of the guard's dying attack shook the caverns violently, Kuwabara struggling against himself to stand.
The impact affected each of the team members...Yusuke was thrown into the air with Keiko gripping firmly about his back. The Detective collapsed to the ground, his knees buckling, but kicking off into a sprint yet again.
The dust of that huge stone's impact to the stone blinded Hinegeshi, the girl's oar losing control and whipping in mad directions. Hiei laced his arms about her stomach in an attempt to steady the oar's route, but he two was slightly plagued as dust swarmed the air. Neither could see...when a rock stabbed through the air and crushed for the end of her oar.
The impact shot both Flame Koorime and Deity backwards in a flinging swing. Hiei bound himself against her, and, pressing a kick to yet another falling stone, kicked off for the floor, stepping nimbly to the ground and sprinting off with Hinegeshi snug in his arms as she formed yet another oar.
Botan whipped through the air, her steering steadier and more experienced than Hinegeshi's. She avoided the rocks and dust with nimbly sharp turns, her route jagged with snakes around the rocks and dust.
Yusuke and Kuwabara's footing was comprimised constantly as the vicious shaking of the ground vibrated their sprints. Yukina whimpered in her boyfriend's hold, Keiko burrying her face against Yusuke's neck.
Kurama quivered violently as pain struck to his arm again. Sweat ripped in soft, gel beads from his temple with each sharp turn the bluette jerked her oar.
"Come on, people!!" Hinegeshi shouted over her shoulder.
"Shove it! You're not running!" Yusuke gasped through his untimed sprint.
Rocks and dust continuously collapsed over them, sputtering violently from the slits in the shaking mountain. Perpetual near deaths, dagger stone breaking loose from the ceiling and stabbing straight for the retreating Urimeshi team.
Kuwabara dove in jerked jumps from side to side as slim rock slit the dust-choked air straight for him.
Yusuke sprinted straight through, not stopping and only speeding up come near impacts with rocks.
Hinegeshi fronted the escape with Hiei sharing her oar, the injured Koorime holding to her firmly.
Botan whipped around through the caverns in the rear. Her movements were violently jerked from left to right. Kurama struggled against himself in pain, his face tense as he lay strung over Botan's oar.
They sped straight through Ryooki's cavern...and Hiei was the only one to notice the fox-wolf was no longer there. 'Where'd he go...?'
They rushed across the battlefield of Hitorihamet's last fight, and of Kruntag's, and of Syaaka's.
Suddenly, just as the light of the outer world was blinking in view, a horrific amount of rock slit from the vibrating mountain's ceiling. It sputtered loose, Hinegeshi, Yusuke, and Kuwabara instantly speeding up to the limits of their strengths. Botan, however, whipped to a halt, unable to beat the collapsing amount. The stone crushed to the floor, layering over itself, dust spraying all over. The impact of stone to stone racked even the air, shaking Botan and Kurama from her slender oar, the two falling to the ground.
"KITSUNE!" Hiei growled, his eyes iced wide. Behind a fresh wall of stone, locked into the vibrating Mount Shiverku, were a trapped pair of teenagers...a frantic bluette and an unconscious, slowly dying humanoid.
"HELP!!" Botan shouted loudly through the stone, pressing herself against the wall. "HELP US, PLEASE!!"
Kurama was quivering in his pain, the veins of his right forearm widening and staining with eerily deep emeralds and midnight blues. Sweat beaded at his temples, streaking his face and patting his hair against his tense countenance.
Botan, though pained from her impact to the ground after being flung from her oar, managed to wince through it and pound the side of her fist against the wall cutting both herself and the fox off from the outer Demon World.
"We have to go back!" Hiei thread his arms around Hinegeshi's front and tore her route for the side, jerking them backwards. Yusuke's chocolate eyes managed to glimpse the change in his companion's flight, and threw his glare behind...Kurama and Botan's weren't anywhere in sight.
"Kurama!! Botan!!" Yusuke skid to a halt just as his feet were to carry both him and Keiko into the light of the outer world.
"What?!" Kuwabara halted at his rival's yells. "Where are they?!"
"Behind the wall!" Hiei's gruff bark echoed into the air.
"WHAT?!!" Kuwabara blinked in shock. "They can't be!!"
"Well they are!!" Yusuke growled, setting Keiko to the ground and sprinting back...they were now beyond the danger of collapsing rock, but Botan and Kurama were still trapped in that overwhelming threat.
Hiei leapt from Hinegeshi's oar to the ground, landing nimbly despite his raw, open wound. He sprinted straight for the wall, punching against the dense rock with his jagged fist. "DAMN! No good! It's too thick!"
"Hiei?!" he heard a muffled choke of a hopeful yell.
"Botan! Are you and Kitsune alright?!"
The deity held Kurama in her lap, stroking sweaty locks of scarlet from his temple. "He's getting worse!!"
"You have to pierce the skin of his right wrist and tear out the arrow tail!"
"What?!" she gaped. "I, I can't do that!! What if I miss?!"
"We can't risk that, Hiei...!" Yusuke countered in his frustration.
"Oh DAMMIT!" Hiei snarled. "What the hell are we supposed to do?!"
Botan held the tense, pained Kitsune in her lap, cradling his head and massaging his chest. His expression was tainted with utter pain, sheer agony. Rocks perpetually collapsed and bashed densely to the ground, dust sputtering on impact and stinging at her terrified eyes. With each dagger spike of stone she yelped and pinned both herself and the unconscious Kurama tighter against the fourth-mile wide wall separating them from their worried companions.
"I can't get through this!" Hiei growled in his anger. "It's too damn thick!"
"I don't have any more bullets..." Yusuke grunted.
"...and I let out all my energy..." Kuwabara whispered in shame.
"H...Hiei...w...what's going, to, to happen to, Botan and K...Kurama...?" Yukina asked timidly, utter fear staining her innocent eyes.
Hiei growled in his frustration. "Damn!! I wish I knew!! I, I have no idea...!"
"AH!" Botan yelped as yet another stabbing spike of rock pierced against the dust-hazed air straight for her and her one companion. Kurama writhed in pain, lost within himself under the intensity of the agony poisoning his forearm. Deeper became the shades of emerald and midnight tainting his veins, wider grew the arteries as poison metal pumped through them, slowly spreading to plague his entire system.
Gashes stung into their flesh as splinters of stone grazed by. Cracks formed on her skin and red streaked into her clothes. Dust sprinkled and burned at her open wounds, but she didn't care...she simply cradled tighter against the humanoid in her lap.
The vibrations shook them violently, Botan nearly collapsing on top of him. But she resisted binding herself firmly against the wall. And that's when a huge, dagger rock broke from just above the two, and tore through the hazy dust right for Botan and Kurama. The deity yelped in her fear, leaning over the boy unconscious in her lap and awaiting their death in total horror.
"AHH!!!"
"BOTAN!" Yusuke breathed hard, ramming the side of his fist against the jagged wall.
Suddenly, claws dug into her collar, slinging her over a shoulder. Botan gaped in shock, unable to fathom the passing occurance. Kurama, too, was dragged from the floor, and the body veiled from her sharp vision sprinted viciously away, just as the stone burrowed against the floor of the pair's former position. Splinters and jags of rock shot from the crumbling impact, dust spraying loose and hazing around the slit stone.
Botan blinked in confusion...and could only make out the sight of...flowing red hair. The girl whipped her sights around, her raspberry gaze wide in bafflement. Atop the crown of their rescuer's head...were a flicking pair of scarlet fox ears. 'What?!' she thought in confusion.
Her eyes cast for downward, and grazed over the sight of the unconscious Kurama tucked under this stranger's opposite arm. The girl was locked in confusion. 'Who is this?! It's not Grapko...this guy has red ears...'
The stranger carried the two with a speed to rival Hiei's. He sprinted gracefully and smoothly through the vibrating mountain, his paced steps having yet to be rocked and displaced by the quivering Mount Shiverku.
Faster and faster, harder and narrower grew his sprint...he was a marvel. His speed was perfectly timed and deadly silent as he rushed through the bowels of the Kyorgin Caves in search for another exit. Rocks and dust collapsed and blew in their direction, but he was never slowed.
Suddenly, he kicked firmly and recklessly against a spot of stone, the rock splitting loose come impact with his foot. Light sprayed instantly through the puncture in the wall, stinging viciously at Botan's wide eyes. She pinched them shut as the stranger leapt through the hole, dragging both the deity and the humanoid fox-wolf along with him. The stranger's step pressed against the ground as he skid to a stop. Dirt clouded about his ankles from the rush, but he jerked violently for the side, setting Botan down with care and instantly turning his attention solely for Kurama.
"The hell-?!" Hiei pricked in a sense...and bolted from the scene.
"Hiei!" the others called after him in confusion, kicking off after him.
The Flame Koorime skid to a halt at the rounded turn of the mountain's base...and his ruby glare widened. There stood Botan, looking on in utter worry as the nameless rescuer gently lay Kurama to the ground.
'It...it can't be...' Hiei's thoughts stuttered against his attempt to think clearly.
The group rounded the corner in sync to Hiei's rush...and they too were stunned at the sight that met their eyes.
"...Ryooki..." Hiei breathed slowly.
Kurama's fox-wolf brother ignored the group, studying Kurama's condition. Strung about his back were his signature arrows, each deadly in their sharpness. "Brother..." Ryooki attempted to coax the fox awake with his voice. "...Yoko...it's me...Ryooki..."
Through Kurama's gaping lips, slivered the voice of Yoko Kurama. "Ryooki...I'm, I'm about to die...you must help me! Us! Suichi...Suichi can't stand the...the pain!"
"It's okay, Yoko..." Ryooki smiled gently. "...just lie still..." Yoko then fell unconscious in sync with his human counterpart Suichi-Kurama.
The conscious of the siblings then graced the air with his arm in preparation to draw an arrow from his sling. The arrow he selected was smooth, the head sharp and slick. Ryooki slowly grasped to Kurama's swollen, tainted wrist. Silence choked the entire group present.
With a jerk faster than Hiei's sprint, Ryooki had slit into his brother's wrist...blood slipped free from the fresh gash. Ryooki then, very slowly and with the most supreme of care, slipped his claws gently into the slit of skin. Botan winced and jerked away as blood curdled under Ryooki's claws. The bulge trapped under Kurama's flesh was tampered with, and ripped from the fox's system. Instantly the tensness of the humanoid's face loosened, silver liquid leaking loose from the slit in the boy's wrist. His puncturing, sharp veins eased back to normal and faded of their deadly colors, Kurama's swollen wrist soon
"Is that-?" Hiei began in coarse question.
"It is. The metallic arrow substance." Ryooki answered bluntly, examining Kurama intently. "Oh...oh no...!" the demon breathed faintly, his left ear flicking against his head and his narrow emerald eyes widening just slightly.
"What?" Hiei growled lowly. "What's wrong...?!"
"He's giving in!" Ryooki whirled around to face his brother's friends, each gaping in fear and shock.
"What do you mean 'giving in'?!" Yusuke breathed coarse gasps in his stunned terror.
"I mean he doesn't see the means to keep on going! He's blinded by the pain and can't shake through it!" Ryooki growled violently in the human's direction.
"No! Kurama can't die!" Botan exclaimed, bowing to the humanoid's side. "Kurama! Wake up!" She shook hard against him, but he remained motionless.
"He has to be coaxed back to reality...he must be reminded why his life is worthwhile..." Ryooki stroked his slick mane back with his clawed hands. Kurama was falling within himself, deeper and deeper towards his demise...blindness has racked his senses from reality, from knowing his worth...from remembering.
"...Reminded why his life is worthwhile..." Botan breathed to herself in an echoing coo. She then cast stern eyes downward to the boy lying in against the ground, dying from the inside out.
With one last breath, she dove at him, forcing her lips against his in a gentle, smooth kiss. Kurama's eyes flashed wide, stinging emerald glazed brilliantly in faceted shock. Botan tore away, eyeing him with worry sagging her pretty raspberry eyes. The fox-wolf was still lying on the ground his stunned eyes gazing up at the beautiful deity leaning over him.
"Well that worked..." Yusuke whispered faintly to the group.
Keiko rolled her eyes, Yukina stiffled a delicate giggle, and Hinegeshi smiled tiredly.
Kuwabara massaged his temples, the stress having given him a migraine.
And Hiei collapsed to an Indian style sit, exhaust weighing him down without mercy.
Kurama breathed slowly, eyeing Botan with slight confusion. "B...Botan...?"
"Kurama..." she sighed softly, a happy, bubbly smile pricking at her ivory face. "You're okay!!"
"Y-yes, well..." he coughed awkwardly...still lying on his back...with Botan still leaning onto his chest. After a brief pause, when she had realized, both their faces twinged in mad blushes, Botan scrambling up, and Kurama hitching himself to an Indian style sit. The two cast their eyes away from the other, redness burning at the slope of his nose and pink singeing at her cheeks.
"We'll go..." Kuwabara smirked, slowly leading Yukina away. In reluctance his companions followed, Hiei retreating last. The Flame Koorime cast a monotonous expression in Kurama's immediate direction...Kurama smiled calmly at his best friend, Hiei in turn grunting a smirk and rounding the corner after the others.
Kurama slowly scanned his emerald glare after his departing brother. "Ryooki..." he breathed in solace.
The demon halted, but didn't grace Kurama with his face. "Hm?"
"Thank you."
A brief pause laced between the brothers, before Ryooki cracked his neck against his shoulder and started off again for the shadows beyond Mount Shiverku.
%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%
"Are you alright?" a lovely young demonness approached Ryooki with care and tenderness in her fragile eyes as her figure pealed from the shadows.
The hybrid smiled kindly, and nodded. "Yes...I'm fine mother."
"Where do we go, Ryooki?" Jiaanti sighed in her confusion.
"Beyond...away..." the boy shrugged calmly. "Doesn't matter...this place is in our past...and it's collapsing on the inside, so journey on we must."
The two walked off, setting out for what lay beyond that blasted mountain of which they've both spent far too much of their lives.
%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%
"Erm...Botan..." Kurama bit his lower lip in an attempt to formulate tangible words after Ryooki had disappeared into the shadows.
"...er...yes, Kurama?" the deity gulped slightly, parching her speech.
"That, um...that, kiss..." he struggled against himself with his words.
Her heart jumped. "...yes...?"
"Uh...why, em...why did you, did you do it...?" Kurama's eyes boldly ventured for the girl directly to his side...though a singeing blush still plagued the slope of his nose.
"Well...um...I, uh...oh boy..." she sighed in defeat, wincing and scratching the side of her head. "...maybe we should talk about something else..."
"...indeed..."
"Erm...Kurama," she bit into her lower lip as she flashed her innocent candy eyes in his direction.
"Yes?" he asked with a twinge of hope in his voice.
"...have...have you...have you ever...liked, someone...but, but didn't realize it...until you've been through...a, a lot with, them?" the deity chose her words with strained care, fear of rejection in her eyes.
A pause as the words tainted his mind... "Yes." he answered flatly, though it sounded like a coarse whisper. "...and with the sheerest of honesty, Botan..."
The bluette's lungs seemed to shrivel and refuse her of air and her heart seemed to pause as she waited for his coming words.
"...I must say..." he gulped in awkwardness.
She couldn't breath. 'come ON, darn it!! Tell me!'
"...I...I..."
At this point she was boiling over with utter anticipation, as was he...and both grunted in their frustration of the situation "I LOVE YOU!!"
Botan and Kurama drew back, gaping at the other. "You...you love me?" Kurama blinked with a shadow of a smile to claim his lips.
"YOU love ME?!" Botan piped in utter joy.
"Yes!" he beamed.
"Me two!" she laughed. Botan threw herself around his neck, Kurama instantly threading his stern arms around her back. The two pressed their lips together, each smiling in sheer happiness.
Hiei smirked at the sight. He was hidden in the trees, the twisted masses of branches and leaves hiding him from even Kurama's keen eyes...though either way the Kitsune was too busy to notice him. 'It's about time,' Hiei smirked calmly. '...way to go, Kitsune.'
%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%
Anemone: YAY! Second to last chappie!! WOOHOO!!
Kurama: that was so sweet, Mones!
Botan: yeah! *hugs and kisses Kurama...after a minute Kurama pulls away looking VERY smug*
Hiei: oh Kur-A-MA...
Kurama: *suddenly looks a little scared* erm...yes, Hiei? *ducks slightly behind Anemone*
Wolfwood: you're still not gonna kill him now, are you?!
Hiei: no.
Everyone: 0_0 nani?!
Hiei: I decided that if Kitsune gets me the biggest damned ice cream sundae ever known to humanity...! *brief pause*...then I'll forgive him.
Kurama: YES!! I'm not going to die!!
Anemone: what changed your mind, Flames?
Hiei: Anneliese made me sit through a lecture.
Anemone and Kurama: ahh...
Anemone: okay, people!! Since this is my second to last chapter, and the next one isn't going to continue the party, we've gotta have a nice little ending...
Goku: what is it, Mones?
Anemone: everybody! At the end of the song *song="we didn't start the fire" by Billy Joel* ...everyone...will kiss...someone else! Choose your makeout partner now!!
Everyone: *shrugs, finds a partner...Goku + ChiChi, Miroku + Sango, Krillin + 18, Inuyasha + Kagome, Vegeta + Bulma, Gohan + Videl, Vash + Meryl, Wolfwood + Millie, Shippo + Rin, Kenshin + Kaoru, Sanosuke + Megumi, Yusuke + Keiko, Kuwabara + Yukina, Sesshoumaru + Hinegeshi, Knives + Ellen, Hiei + Anneliese, Kurama + Botan, Mirai Trunks + Anemone...Piccolo and Roshi are partnerless, Piccolo doesn't really care, Roshi is depressed...readers with whoever you brought as your date!!*
Anemone: song's almost over! Yay!!
Mirai Trunks: *slight chuckle, smirk* yay.
Anemone: *almost blacks out*
Anneliese: oh my God I can't believe I'm gonna kiss you!
Hiei: me neither...
Ellen: hey Mones! Are we allowed Frenchers? *Knives sweatdrops slightly*
Anemone: sure!!
Knives and Hiei: WHAT?!
Miroku and Goku: YAY!!
Anemone: *turns to Mirai Trunks* wanna...?
Mirai Trunks: *shrug* okay.
Anemone: YAY! *almost blacks out again*
Anneliese: HURRY UP WITH THE DAMNED SONG, ALREADY!! I WANNA FRENCH HIEI!!
Everyone: *sweatdrop, steps back slightly...Hiei tries but is held back*
*song ends...Goku kisses ChiChi really sweetly...Vegeta kisses Bulma reluctantly, but it gets kinda intense...Gohan and Videl kiss innocently...Vash and Meryl french...Wolfwood and Millie french sweetly...Shippo kisses Rin on the cheek...Kenshin and Kaoru french...Miroku and Sango french really deeply...Krillin and 18 peck short and sweet...Sanosuke and Megumi french...Yusuke and Keiko kiss reluctantly, but get into frenching...Inuyasha kisses Kagome deeply...Kuwabara kisses Yukina romantically...Sesshoumaru just kinda lets Hinegeshi peck him on the cheek...Ellen frenches Knives, at first against his will, but he gets into it...Kurama and Botan kiss passionately...Hiei and Anneliese do a frencher...readers do their own thing...Mirai Trunks and Anemone start making out*
Everyone: *parts from their partner...waiting for Anemone to say something...look over, and find her still making out with Mirai Trunks*
Kurama: er...Mones...?
*Still making out*
Hiei: ...Mones...?
*Still making out*
Hiei: she really doesn't want to let this go, does she...?
*Still making out*
Kurama: apparently she doesn't...
Hiei: *heavy annoyed sigh* very well...she'll no doubt demand I say my line...*turns to readers* go review.
Kurama: farewell, readers!
Knives: go away.
Sesshoumaru: whatever...
Kenshin: have a nice evening!
Ellen and Anneliese: BYE!!
Goku: see-ya!!
Gohan: hope you had fun!!
Anemone: *finally parts from her partner* huh, what...?
Vash: peace out!
Kagome: goodbye!
Botan: later!
Piccolo: hn.
Wolfwood: may God be with you!
18: are they gone yet?
Yukina: I hope you all had a nice time! My regards!
Anemone: ...wait they're leaving?!
Vegeta: go away, humans!
Anemone: no ignore them come back, readers!!
Mirai Trunks: wanna go make-out?
Anemone: *instantly forgets readers* SURE!!
Hiei: finally...you can go now, readers...
Kurama: goodbye!