Disclaimer: I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho or any of its characters.
Hiei regarded the derelict tomb opening with mild interest. It had been fairly common for some of the more powerful demons to develop quite a following during their long lives. When they did finally die off, very elaborate tombs were often constructed to house their bones. Wards, traps, and guards were the usual par for the course.
With an annoyed sigh he turned to Yusuke. "Let's get on with this." Trust the stupid fox to lose himself in a dank, dark tomb. Well, Hiei thought with a wry smile to himself, I do prefer the dark.
The entrance to the tomb was wholly unremarkable. Hiei probably would not looked at it twice if Botan had not pointed it out to them before flying off agian. It looked like a large square trapdoor in the middle of a thickly wooded area of the Makai. A demon symbol Hiei did not quite recognize was painted in red on the wooden door.
Yusuke leaned over the door and with a grunt yanked the leather handle to it open unceremoniously. The square door pulled completely off. Rolling his eyes, Hiei said, "In the future, caution would be nice. Traps, remember?"
"I didn't pull that hard," Yusuke said scratching his neck in confusion. When he looked at the hinges still attached to the door's frame more closely, he noticed that they had been unscrewed not ripped off.
Hiei knelt to look at the frame on the ground. "It was booby-trapped," he said noting the two wires connecting the hinges to a small mechanical looking box. Clever, most demons would look for traps using spirit or demon energy but ignore the possibility of the more mundane traps. "Kurama did this."
"Ok," Yusuke said cheerfully. "If Kurama's disabled all the traps, this'll be a breeze."
"Hn," Hiei snorted. He knew he was no where near as experienced as Kurama when it came to this sort of thing and he doubted he would be able to find and avoid mechanical traps. They would just have to hope the former thief had done that for them.
Yusuke quickly dropped the broken door he was still holding and jumped down into the shadows below. Hiei flitted down next to him. The stood in the middle of an earth tunnel with the occasional torch sconce along the dirt walls. There were no torches however. Yusuke held up his hand and his forefinger began to glow with spirit energy. The tunnel flickered eerily in blue light.
Yusuke looked from side to side. From where they were standing, the tunnel led off in two directions. "Which way?" asked the spirited detective. Hiei did not answer but started walking. "How do you know?" Yusuke was not surprised by the lack of a verbal answer from the small demon.
"That's how," Hiei said, pointing to a small root growing lengthwise along the corner of the floor and wall. Looking at it closer though, Yusuke saw that it was actually a vine and not a root. "Kurama used that to keep himself from getting lost."
Hiei paused suddenly with his eyes closed. As Yusuke watched him, Hiei's headband glowed slightly. The demon frowned and opened his eyes. "Either this tomb is ridiculously deep, or Kurama is being shielded some how." Or he got himself killed, he thought but did not say aloud.
"Let's go," Yusuke said. The two moved steadily from that point on, occasionally having to stop to deal with wards, but otherwise the going was fairly easy. It was a good thing they had Kurama's vine to follow since the tunnels formed a veritable labyrinth.
After nearly an hour of walking, they arrived outside a huge underground hall. Yusuke whistled with an impressed look on his face. Several torches along the walls lit the room. In the middle of the hall, a stone casket sat with its cover stone pushed off. Kurama was no where to be seen.
"Now what?" Yusuke said with a hint of annoyance.
"We keep our eyes open," Hiei stated simply. "We have yet to run into any guards, remember?"
They moved deeper into the hall. Hiei felt the other presence before he actually heard it, but he allowed it to charge his seemingly vulnerable back. He dodged with ease and landed on the far end of the casket. Turning around, he saw that what had charged him was in fact a huge demon.
It was probably three times taller than Hiei with two large horns between his stupid looking eyes. The beast growled a low rumble in his throat as he turned to where Hiei now stood. Yusuke, on the other side of the hall, stepped back to allow Hiei to take the attacker on his own.
Hiei smiled to himself and drew his katana slowly. The large demon guard cocked his head to one side at the motion and threw himself into another charge. Hiei leapt straight in the air and landed easily on the demon's back as he charged. With a graceful swipe of his sword, Hiei stabbed the demon through the back of his thick neck.
The demon roared and shook himself violently. Hiei was thrown from his perch and he landed in a crouch a few yards away. With another roar, the brute turned to Hiei again. When the third charge came, Hiei was unprepared. That was a deathblow, he thought angrily as he tumbled awkwardly out of the way. The demon was tough, but it seemed as though his only attack plan was trying to smash him.
When the demon turned again to where Hiei now stood waiting for him, Hiei raised his sword for another attack. Suddenly several thick vines burst from the dirt floor beneath the monster and wrapped themselves around the demon's thick arms and neck.
With a gurgling cry, the monster was pulled down into a now gaping hole in the floor. Hiei lowered his sword as he felt the familiar youki of Kurama radiating from beneath them. Yusuke approached the hole and looked down with his hands on his knees.
In the shadows below, the spirit detective could barely make out the Kurama's softly smiling face. "Hey," he said happily and reached his arm down to give the redheaded young man a hand up. Kurama took his arm and was rather ungracefully yanked up through the opening.
Kurama looked from Yusuke to Hiei with bewildered amusement. The fox demon stood with his weight on his right leg. His left pant leg was covered in blood and dirt. Hiei walked up to Kurama with an intense glare.
"Damn it, Kurama!" he growled. "That was my fight, and you had no reason to interfere!"
Yusuke had to swallow a laugh as he watched the shorter demon glaring up at a rather amused Kurama. The fox demon gave Hiei a crooked smile and said, "They are hardy fellows, aren't they? I thought I'd save you the trouble trying to hack the brute to pieces." Kurama paused a moment. "Uh, why are you two here?"
"Koenma sent us to dig you out of this hole," Yusuke explained. "Are you hurt?"
"Nothing to speak of," Kurama said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "I'm impressed you two made it down here without triggering any of the traps."
"What's the problem?" Yusuke said cheerfully. "We only had to get past the wards which were pretty easy to sense once you got close."
Kurama's face fell suddenly. "You didn't avoid the gate triggers?"
"The what?" Hiei said still glaring at his friend.
"Ugh," Kurama groaned. "There were lines, wires, across the tunnels, smaller than spider web. Some of them were very difficult to spot. If you broke any of them, big stone gates lowered and we're trapped in here."
Hiei flitted across the room to the tunnel they had entered through almost faster than Yusuke could follow and returned as quickly. Hiei frowned, "He's right."
Kurama sighed. "The top of this ceiling is not too far from the surface; we should be able to tunnel through fairly easily."
"Tunneling isn't my style," Yusuke said as he raised his hand and pointed toward the ceiling.
Kurama lurched forward. "No! Yusuke!" The spirit detective hesitated. "You'll bring the entire ceiling down on our heads. If you give me an hour or so, I can use my plants to tunnel out without caving in this tomb."
Yusuke lowered his hand as he mumbled something about his way being more fun. "Hn," Hiei snorted. He did not look forward another hour here with these two. His red eyes and glanced up at Kurama's face. His skin looked drawn and gray. What happened down here? he thought silently.
A/N: Wow! Long chapter! And it took me long enough. I know right now the story isn't very personal (not an easy job when dealing with Hiei :-\ ), but it's getting there. Still kind of setting up the scene. Hopefully, the next chapter won't take me as long, but I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you. Sorry.