*a/n: people!! After this oh-so wonderful chapter and seeing as you will have absolutely NOTHING to do, go check out "Hiei, Putt-Putt, and Everyone Else" by flameology...it's a good story, very funny...and don't forget to review it! The author's LOVE reviews!...lol okay now back to my story lol...*

*Anemone's room...the whole band business is taking a break for a few weeks, and it's just Anemone, Kurama and Hiei...Kurama's reading 'Lord of the Rings the Two Towers', Hiei's eating Anemone out of house and home, and Anemone's sitting at the computer trying to think of what to write*

Anemone: dammit Hiei! That's my last bag of Lindt Dark Chocolate Truffles!! *whimper*

Hiei: *swallow* you're gonna have Kuwabaka die, right?

Anemone: *rolls eyes* for the third time!!...

Hiei: but...but!!

Kurama: *heavy sigh* come now, Hiei...that would be cruel and immoral.

Hiei: whatwhat? *pause*

Kurama: *pause, rolls eyes* never mind...just stop bugging Mones...

Hiei: *growl* but she MUST kill off that waste of humanoid flesh!

Anemone: ...why...?

Hiei: cuzIhatehim!! *long pause*

Kurama: erm...but, Hiei...if Kuwabara was to die, would that not cause depression for sweet Yukina? *smirk*

Hiei: *reeeeally long pause, glare* shut up...

Anemone: lol...how about this, Flames-

Hiei: -*really excited* yeah?!

Anemone: ...I'll consider it.

Kurama: WHAT?!

Hiei: YES!! MUAHAHA!!

Kurama: Mones you CAN'T!

Hiei: yes she can...she's the author, she can do as she likes!

Anemone: *turns to readers* I won't say if Kuwabara will pull through or not-

Hiei: -bwahahaha!!- *Kurama sweatdrop*

Anemone: -but I WILL say that it requires your attention to find out...go into the reading and you'll see what I shall do.

Hiei: *evil laughter, finishes off her last bag of Lindt Dark Chocolate Truffles*

Anemone: GAH?! NOO!! MY CANDY!! *growl, lunges at Hiei, who half-chokes during mid-swallow as she pins him to the ground in fury* THAT'S MY FAVORITE CANDY, YOU IDIOT!

Kurama: *annoyed sigh, sweatdrop, turns to readers with an attempt at a smile* chapter 6, enjoy...

Hiei: *choking*

Chapter 6: Memories

"Kuwabara?" Yusuke piped through the abandoned corridor's of Southern Koenma's palace. The hallways wound intricately with twists and turns of brilliant craftsmanship, but lacked in any and all lighting, these parts having been officially deserted by the Spiritual Lord and being completely shut down of any whatsoever business.

"Why do you suppose the chance that even that moron would wander into the bowels of an abandoned sector?" Hiei grunted half-calmly, scanning his corrosive eyes in all directions as he and the Detective searched lazily for the lost red-head.

"Dunno..." Yusuke shrugged slowly. "...but with Kurama looking in the eastern part, Botan and Ai in the north, and cuz we were already in the west when we found out bout Grapko, this was the only other place to bother looking..."

"...hn...he truly would lose even the thinnest sliver of respect I've managed to muster up for him in all these years as my accursed brother-in-law if he actually DID wander into the old corridors of the palace..." Hiei growled lowly, walking in sync with the slow Detective and casting his dagger glare in various directions as he attempted to feel out Kuwabara's ki.

Suddenly, a pricked sense stung against his temple as realization overtook him.

"Hm?" Yusuke inquired faintly, taking note of Hiei's shifted character. "What is it?"

"Four corpses...half a mile ahead following this passageway..." Hiei calculated slowly, bafflement tainting his eyes.

"But...corpses?! As in...dead, bodies?!" Yusuke eyed the Dragon strangely. "...you can only sense corpses if they're..."

"...demonic." Hiei finished flatly, casting an odd glance to his partner.

"Kuwa ain't demonic..." Yusuke locked narrowed chocolate against narrower ruby. "...and there are four..."

"...which could only mean..."

A pause. The two stared sternly for the other...before bolting straight off, sprinting for the immediate direction.

"Dammit, Kuwabara! Getting himself in a fight down here all alone!!" Yusuke growled. "I cannot BELIEVE he'd come down here!"

"There you go...eighteen years of me just barely gaining slight respect for him being my sister's mate, and he goes and blow it...hn..." Hiei grunted, sprinting in humanoid speed.

"...and you're not gaining speed because...?" Yusuke inquired slowly in confusion, baffled at why the Dragon had yet to blur in a run.

"Simply because, human...if the Baka got himself into a fight in the abandoned sector...I can't very well leave you alone now, can I?" Hiei smirked faintly, his dagger eyes violent slits.

"Hmpf..." Yusuke countered in irritation. Suddenly, the Dragon's deep Jagon swelled in a deep wave of a sense, Hiei gaping in shock and blurring in his speed.

"Hiei?!" Yusuke called after his companion in a start, and, growling in frustration, sped after him.

'I can feel his ki slipping...' Hiei thought coarsely, racing for the signal he had managed to grasp. '...the idiot's dying!'

%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%

Pain struck instantaneously to the fallen Kuwabara's tender chest. He gripped hard to the blunt agony pulsing through his veins as his heart dimmed of motion, his knuckles gripping white in tightness.

Sweat rolled smooth over the contours of his face, his breaths low and chaffing. His mouth gaped as stifling agony spread throughout his entire circulatory system. His blood flow was gradually ceasing of any and all movement, his heart slowing to an excruciating stop.

"...no...!" he whispered brashly to himself, his forced tone deep and vibrating violently in the core of his drying throat. "...I...I can't...can't die...I can't...I......can't......"

His chest shifted slowly. Up, second, second, second...down, second, second, second...his breaths were forced timed, his heart slowly losing his overall value...as was his entirety.

There the former punk lay, engulfed in his overall pain. Suddenly, visions struck over his subconscious...thousands upon thousands of memories long-past and nearly forgotten...

The day he first rumbled against Yusuke Urimeshi...his trials during his rival's supposed death...meeting Botan, and shallowly falling head-over-heals...Genkai's tournament...Maze Castle, and dealing with Hiei and Kurama for the first time...Yukina...

A pause as his first memory of her spread smooth over his mind's eye. "Yukina..." he breathed coarsely. Her delicate little face, her soft little smile, her wide blood eyes...her icy-scented mint hair, bushy and spiked...she was so beautiful...daily waking up beside her he had yet to realize she really was his...after so long...after marriage and a son...he still couldn't believe his unnatural luck.

Instantly his thoughts clicked to that of his son...Kane...at birth the narrowest onyx eyes any demi-demon could possibly hold...infancy of breeding the immediate temperature to zero kelvin...toddler years training as a martial artist and mirroring his father's techniques...a childhood of icy attacks and games, nearly numbing Kazuma's muscles beyond use by accidental play...a lifetime of happiness...his family...his wife and son.

Memories of outer matters flooded his subconscious...Kurama...the tactician worthy of immediate and everlasting respect for his brilliance and experienced maneuvers...Yusuke...the rival never quite beaten, but always a close friend worth time and effort to keep in line...Botan...the bubbly ferry girl always slivering a smile to one's face merely with her presence...Ryuuhayai...his smug niece, the mental carbon copy of her intolerable father, but far more loveable...Hiei...the annoying midget who always kept a honed tongue to spit playfully taunting remarks in anyone's immediate direction...oh God how Kuwabara loved them all so much!

Pain, such pain indescribable tainting his chest...the blood flow was slowing, clogging in his flattening veins...sweat broke loose in gel-like beads with each jerk of his head, redness singeing to his ears and nose as he struggled with himself...consciousness was hardly tangible, lessening itself from the former punk's reach with every plagued breath.

His blurring onyx glare was glossing over of clarity, his other senses dimming numb in sync with his dying vision. His gasps jerked his chest up and down, shifting him mercilessly. Chaffing dryness clogged his esophagus at every strained attempt to breath.

"This...this can't be...this can't be the end...not yet...not...yet..."

His onyx eyes simply pressed shut, and he fell into darkness...he no longer felt pain, he no longer struggled to breath...his heart had given out...it was merely a matter of time before the blood flow stopped completely, seconds tops...

"Baka!" Hiei roared, skidding to a rough stop by his brother-in-law. He instantly clasped a firm hold to the red-head's shoulders, and propped him up. "Wake up!"

Kuwabara's head rolled lazily on his neck with every jerk Hiei shifted him in, the former punk still on the cusp of death. "Wake up, right now!!"

"Hiei...?!" a confused voice rang in deep echos throughout the deserted hallways.

"Detective!! Get in here!" the Dragon growled, shaking his brother-in-law firmly.

"What the-?! HOLY SHIT!!!" Yusuke jumped instantly the second his form broke into the scene and his chocolate leer locked to the sight of the bubbly demonic corpses lining the walls.

"That's not what's important!" Hiei roared in annoyance.

"Kuwabara!!" the Detective sprinted for his best friend's side, threading a sturdy arm under the red-head's back. "Holy shit what the hell happened to him?!"

"He's undergoing a heart attack..." Hiei grunted in a low, serious tone racked in monotonous flavor.

"WHAT?!"

"Detective! Keep your terrified fury at a minimum and look over the idiot...I must go and retrieve either of the Kitsunes..." Hiei kicked himself to a firm stand, blurring instantaneously from the scene.

*a/n: either of the Kitsunes means, obviously, either Ai or Kurama, whichever one is closer...Ai is practically a doctor like Kurama, for future reference in this story lol*

"-but wait!-" Yusuke managed to call after the Dragon before being abandoned with his best friend in a dark, blood-hazed corridor in the abandoned sector of Koenma's maze-like castle.

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Emerald scanned nimbly over the contours of the palace corridors, interested eyes engulfing themselves firmly in attention. Kurama stalked calmly through the sleepy Eastern Sector of Koenma's palace, the corridors dark and set for the night, the work force having retreated for home by this time...it was much unlike the Southern Sector, which held no significance to Koenma by this point in time and hadn't for centuries...yet this Eastern Sector was still eerie come the fall of night.

"Hm?" the fox slowly threw his naturally narrow glare over his sharp shoulder, and met a panting, grave-looking Hiei. "...Hiei?"

"Kitsune! We found the idiot...!" the Dragon rasped steadily, his sprint having just covered a good ninety-seven miles of twisted, intricate corridors.

"You found Kuwabara?" the red-head slowly whirled around to completely face his partner, but found a twinge of fear to plague Hiei's corrosive ruby glare. "...Hiei...?"

"We need a doctor!" Hiei breathed coarsely, Kurama pricking in a start.

%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%

Hiei: YOU DIDN'T KILL HIM?! UGH!! *in a rage, completely slices through her teddy bear with his drawn Katana*

Anemone: AHH!! Mr. Paddle-footies!! NOO!!!! *starts crying*

Kurama: there, there Mones! It'll be alright! *throws a REALLY intimidating glare at Hiei* Now look what you did, Hiei!

Hiei: hn! Serves her right...she didn't kill what I hated, so I in turn killed what she loved...

Anemone: *still crying*

Hiei: my GOD you wimp it was a poorly constructed assembly of fur swatches and polyester stuffing...!

Kurama: it obviously held some significance to Mones *hands her some tissues, rubs her back*

Hiei: jeez what is with you Mr. Sensitive?! She denied me a valued treasure! Why can I not do the very same to her?!

Anemone: *blows nose* because you dumbass it doesn't freakin' work that way!! I do mean stuff to you and you're supposed to freakin' think it's CUTE!!!

Hiei: *REALLY long pause* ...hn.

Anemone: UGH! *lunges at him, wrestles with him on the floor*

Kurama: *sweatdrop, smiles awkwardly at the readers* erm...they do this a lot-

Anemone: *pinning his face to the ground* SAY UNCLE, MIDGET!

Hiei: *muffled* NEGPHER!!! * 'never' *

Kurama: *sweatdrop* erm...right, please-

Anemone: -DON'T SAY IT! *casts a REALLY evil glare at Hiei* make HIM say it!

Hiei: *face still pinned to the floor* SPHUT UPF!! * 'shut up' *

Kurama: Mones...? Mones you're scaring the readers away...

Hiei: *face still pinned to the floor* THPEY SPVOULDTH VE PH*CKINGV TERRIPHIEDF!!! * 'they should be f*cking terrified' *

Anemone: aren't they always?! SAY THE LINE!

Hiei: *face STILL pinned...* NO!

Anemone: DO IT!!

Kurama: Mones it was a teddy bear! Please calm down!

Hiei: *finally manages to rip his face from the floor, jerks to readers* Go review or this madwoman will hunt you down and slaughter you all!!

Kurama: *slaps face*

Anemone: *smiles sweetly and waves at the readers, pinning Hiei's face to the floor again* Latr!

Hiei: *groan* notf phorf mev.... * 'not for me' *