*Anemone's room...Anemone's reading Anneliese and Ellen's fanfiction, Kurama's out running a brief errand, and Hiei's trying to figure out her phone*
Anemone: LOL! Funny stuff! They've got a great story going here! *tries to keep reading, but hears her phone clicking on and off as it had been for twenty minutes...on and off...on and off-* HIEI!
Hiei: what Onna?!
Anemone: stop tampering with my phone!
Hiei: hn...I'll do as I like, human...*removes it from it's cradle, drops it back in place while studying it very carefully...keeps removing from cradle and dropping it back in place*
Anemone: what are you trying to do?! Break it?!
Hiei: hardly...*repeats*
Anemone: UGH! Then what are you doing?!
Hiei: impatience will kill you.
Anemone: huh? I thought it was curiosity that killed people...
Hiei: insolent human! I meant if you continue to behave impatiently, I will kill you! Shut up and continue on your merry little ningen way! *turns back to the phone*
Anemone: it's MY phone! What are you trying to do?!
Hiei: HN! If you MUST know, I suppose the only way to shut you up is to explain...
Anemone: then get with the shutting me up, Hiei...
Hiei: hn...human technology is fascinating in it's simplicity...I'm trying to decipher it's use. *phone rings, Hiei yelps and throws a ki blast at it*
Anemone: HIEI!!!!
Hiei: *glares at smoking debris* hn...*wanders over to her bed...sees a black ball on her shelf* hn? *picks it up and examines it*
Anemone: DON'T YOU DARE BREAK MY MAGIC 8 BALL!
Hiei: hn...? How does it work? Explain!
Anemone: *glare* you ask it a question and shake it for a couple seconds then read the answer, okay?! Now be a good little fire Koorime and behave yourself!!
Hiei: *evil glare, sits on her bed and examines the 8 ball...blink...shakes it* When is Kitsune coming back with my ice cream?
8 Ball: "all signs point to yes."
Hiei: *blink, glare* that made no sense...ONNA!
Anemone: WHAT!
Hiei: *glares at it* this didn't give me a good answer...
Anemone: *rolls eyes* ask something else then, I don't know...*turns back to her reading*
Hiei: hn...*shakes ball* Where is Kitsune?
8 Ball: *lands on a corner*
Hiei: hn? *shakes again*
8 Ball: *lands on another corner*
Hiei: *growl* Onna!!
Anemone: WHAT HIEI?!
Hiei: It's not even giving me words!
Anemone: shake harder and shut up!
Hiei: *glare* hn...*shakes it again* Where the hell is my ice cream?!
8 Ball: "most likely."
Hiei: UGH!! *draws Katana*
Anemone: HEY! NO!! Don't even THINK about it, Flames!!
Hiei: *really narrow glare, replaces his Katana to it's sheath* why does this filthy human artifact dislike me, Onna...?
Anemone: have you been asking it yes/no questions...?
Hiei: ...?
Anemone: ...questions answered with a 'yes' or 'no'...
Hiei: hn...does that matter?
Anemone: ...yes...
Hiei: *blink*......oh...
Anemone: Hiei just ask it something about love, I dunno...
Hiei: love?! Petty human emotions?! PAH!
Anemone: Hiei shut up!
Hiei: hn...*examines ball, shakes it again* is Anneliese my one true love?
Anemone: ?!?! *collapses anime style off her chair, and her head bashes against the edge of her mattress...which shakes the ball even more*
8 Ball: *would have said 'yes definitely', but Anemone's anime collapse shook it* "my sources say no."
Hiei: *really evil glare at the answer, thinking that's the original answer* hn...
Anemone: *now fully interested, bounces onto the bed* what did it say?! Huh?! Huh?! *grabs his collar* WELL?!
Hiei: *glare* it said 'no', Onna...
Anemone: aww...*snaps fingers*...and you and Anneliese were REALLY cute together...
Hiei: *blush, glare* ...hn...
Anemone: hey! Just for the sake of asking...ask it if Hinegeshi is your true love!
Hiei: ?!
Anemone: DO IT!
Hiei: *pause, glare, shakes 8 Ball* is...Hinegeshi...my one true love...? *suddenly, Kurama bursts into the room running like hell, beyond frantic...is halfway through the room, slips on a magazine, falls, and just before hitting the ground bangs his head against the edge of the mattress, shaking the Magic 8 Ball...and Anemone and Hiei*
Anemone: AH! *slips off the edge of the bed and lands on top of Kurama*
Kurama: bmfh!!
8 Ball: *was supposed to say 'very doubtful'* ..."it is certain."
Hiei: GAH?!
Anemone: *moans, rubs head* oww...FOX! What the hell was-?!
Kurama: *cups her mouth before she can finish* SHH! They'll hear you!!
Anemone: ...?
Kurama: *meekly point to her window* take a look, Mones...
Anemone: *blink, slowly heads towards her window...leans out...* OH MY GOD!
*HUUUGE fangirl mob outside, waiting impatiently for any sign of Kurama*
Random Fangirl: where'd he go?!
Another Random Fangirl: I don't see him anywhere!!
Yet Another: SUICHI-KUN!!!
Rest of Mob: SUUUUIIIIIIICHIIIIIIII!!!!
Hiei: *glares at Kurama as the girls continue to wail* seriously Kitsune, is this your ONLY sanctuary when you get chased by those damned mobs?!
Anemone: UGH! *covers ears* how the hell did you NOT lose them?!
Kurama: it isn't MY fault they chase me!
Anemone and Hiei: YES IT IS!
Anemone: *pricks, turns to look outside again*
Hiei: hn?
Kurama: what is it, Mones?
Anemone: Anneliese and Ellen...
Hiei: WHAT?! *pissed off, thinks they were chasing Kurama like the rest of the mob...gets dangerously jealous of Kurama...*
Kurama: that's odd...I don't remember seeing them as I ran...
Anemone: um...they're NOT a part of the mob, guys...
Hiei: hn...? *he and Kurama head towards the window and look out...Ellen's got a paint ball gun and is firing at people less than a foot away from her, dodging punches from those very people...Anneliese managed to push her way to the front and is throwing water balloons at the fangirls*
Anneliese: THIS IS PRIVATE PROPERTY!
Ellen: *runs by screaming as fifty of her pissed off victims chase her* AHHHHH!!! *randomly fires her paint ball gun at everyone behind her*
Kurama, Hiei, and Anemone: *sweatdrop*
Kurama and Anemone: *slowly turn to look at Hiei...after a minute he side-glances them, then growls, blurs, reappears with a confused Anneliese and Ellen*
Anneliese: huh?
Ellen: YAY!!! SAFETY!!!
Anemone: *sigh* okay this skit is WAY too long...
Kurama: indeed...and for such a long introduction I barely had any lines.
Anemone: trust me Fox...it's better this way...
Kurama: *sigh*...chapter 8, enjoy.
Hiei: *prick, pissed off glare* KITSUNE! WHERE'S MY ICE CREAM?!
Kurama: *looks a little scared* go! Quickly!
Chapter 8: Survival
"HIEI!" Yusuke growled into the surrounding blackness of the abandoned hallway. He snarled in irritation, and threw a narrowed glare of frustration and worry to the dying red-head just before him.
"C'mon, Kuwa! You can fight this!" the Detective reassured softly, his age finally creasing to his face. His dread and fear had matured him twice over.
Kuwabara was sprawled to the floor, pinching his chest with white-knuckle tightness. His breaths were coarse and rough, pain singeing to his heart with every passing second.
"Kuwabara! You can't die!" Yusuke breathed heavily. "You...you still...you still hafta kick my ass, remember?! Kuwabara!!"
But the red-head struggled all the more. He roared grunts of pain, and a shot of ruby choked from his gaping lips, snaking down his chin.
"Kuwabara!!" Yusuke shook firmly to his friend's shoulders, ramming him against the floor in several beats of fear. "No!! No wake up!!"
Sweat beaded to his temple, his eyes pinched tensely and his expression taut in his agony. His heart was slowing...beat...beat......beat.........beat............
"Kuwabara!" a faint call echoed against the various walls of the abandoned sector. Yusuke instantly jerked to the familiar tone, and his relieved glare caught hold to the sight of a sprinting Kurama and a black smudge in the air.
"Kurama! Hiei!" the Detective hollered viciously over his shoulder, throwing an intense glare in their direction. "Help him!"
Hiei jerked to a stop in his sprint, and gazed worriedly to his dying brother-in-law.
Kurama skid to a graceful halt from his dash, instantly sliding to one knee as he overlooked Kuwabara's condition. Right away his eyes flashed wide in shock, and he dove into work. He first pressed two fingers to Kuwabara's jawbone, and pricked in frustration. "He nearly lacks in a pulse!"
Instantly he tore his fingers from the dimming pulse signal, and stroked his sprawled hand through his mane, retracting an odd looking plant with a strange odor.
"Ah dude!!" Yusuke gasped, clasping to his nose in a firm pinch. "That's wicked rancid, fox!"
"It's the only plant of your realm that, if properly maneuvered, can double the speed of blood-flow..." Kurama husked half-fiercely, nimbly tearing to the fibers of the odorous branch. His fingers worked diligently and gracefully, swift and agile. His expression was tense in sincerity as he worked, ripping snags of branch fibers free and planting them beside him for later use. The exterior was completely useless, and the milky, mint-green center was poisonous...only the soft, flaky second layer could be of use to the red-head's condition, and only if it was untouched by the center's milky component. It had to be separated very delicately, but with a decent speed with Kuwabara's state...Kurama was the only capable person to handle that race with time and death.
"Kitsune..." Hiei growled steadily, sensing Kuwabara's dimming Spirit Energy.
"...I'm hurrying, Hiei...!" the fox countered with strained patience as he tore through the branch and carefully jerked loose the needed snags.
Yusuke kept a hand to his friend's jawbone, breathing heavily as Kuwabara's pulse slowed all the more.
"C'mon, fox!" the Detective growled in impatience and obvious worry, Kurama not bothering to waste precious time to throw a deadly glare for his teammate's direction.
Stinging agony pierced to Kuwabara's tainted heart, his strained muscle, literally deteriorated after a lifetime of inhuman accomplishments. He could hardly breath without completely welling his lungs capacity, and further adding plight to his dying heart.
Finally Kurama had managed to rip free the necessary amount of branch fibers, scooping them to his slender hands and rubbing them roughly in his palms, kneading it to a loose, light powder. "Yusuke open his lips..." he ordered sternly, the Detective following that precise command without a blink of hesitation, tearing Kuwabara's lips and tight teeth grit apart. Kurama dusted the powder into the gape, instantly whipping to yet another act.
The fox steadied his hands over Kuwabara's jerking chest, smoothly planting forced presses into the human's chest. He'd press down, Kuwabara grunting subconsciously.
"What is he doing?!" Yusuke eyed Hiei in haste and worry.
"He's trying to pump the heart back into rhythm..." Hiei growled.
"...but...didn't he say the plant would do that...?"
"No, Detective..." Hiei sighed in annoyance. "...if Kurama was to allow merely the plant to take affect, not only would the reaction occur too late, but even if it did occur in time the sudden racing speed of his blood flow would literally tear his swollen, bruising heart apart..."
"...and hitting his heart with help HOW?!" Yusuke gaped.
"Kurama is easing the pulse back into sync...by starting the blood-flow off gently, the fool's heart has a much greater chance of taking the strain..."
"...either way his survival is questionable..."
Flame Koorime and Detective pricked to the voice behind them...and saw a distraught, worried Botan, and a calmer, yet equally scared Ai, the red-head having been the one to comment on Kuwabara's condition.
"...Kazuma..." she whispered faintly, tears threatening to streak her ivory face as she, in sync with her father, knew the exceedingly narrow chances...
"...Ai..." Yusuke slowly kicked to a stand, and wrapped his arms around her. "...it's okay, Foxy, he'll be fine..."
"Oh, Kuwabara...!" Botan whimpered in her fear, easing beside her busy husband. Kurama was calmed slightly by her presence, but his diligent work wasn't dimmed in the least. He continued to pump pressure against Kuwabara's chest and to examine the afflicted man's pulse...which was now jagged and lacked in steadiness and repetition.
"...damn!..." he cursed huskily, pressing firm jerks against Kuwabara's swelling chest and trying in near vanity to force the beats into alignment and symmetry. His tail *lol didya guys already forget he had one now?* flicked violently against his thigh, obviously expressing his frustration.
Ai smoothly eased from the Detective's hug, and kneeled opposite Kurama. Her cool hands stroked over Kazuma's temple, wiping burning sweat from his tensed brow.
"Kazuma...please wake up..." she cooed softly, her mere touch easing his tensed expression slightly.
Suddenly, Kuwabara's onyx glare flashed wide, and a roar of pain escaped his gaping mouth. Botan yelped, Kurama drawing back slightly and guarding the bluette. Ai pricked slightly, jerking her hand to her collarbone and blinking slightly at the red-head's action. Yusuke yelped, Hiei grunted. Kuwabara fell unconscious, the strain on his heart beyond tolerable, even for him. His stubbornness abandoned him this day, his life's training having completely torn his heart apart. Now he was left with a bruising, strained muscle, barely keeping up a normal pulse pattern.
"KUWABARA!!" Yusuke gasped in horror, his friend's pulse in tact, but on the cusp of life and death.
%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%
"KISHO STOP FREAKIN' SMELLING MY HAIR YOU PERVERT!!" Ryuuhayai roared angrily after he had managed to take several deep whiffs.
Knowing she meant business, he backed off sheepishly, trying to hide a meek grin and an obvious blush. "Sorry, Hayai...it's kind of hard to ignore when my nose is right THERE...and with my sense of smell-"
"I don't give a damn!" she hissed. "Back off or you'll taste the concrete of Tokyo's streets!"
"Yes'm!" he cowered spinelessly, drawing back and gulping slightly.
"Hn...!" she grunted in anger, throwing her corrosive glare for the far right, a blush creeping over the milky slope of her little nose.
"So Ryuu..." he asked meekly, trying to break her ironically cold exterior *ironic cuz she's a flame demon*. "...how's life?"
"Shut up and steer..." she hissed over her shoulder...before pricking to attention. A swell of a sense stung to her young Jagon as she and the Reaper loomed over the city, far to the west of Tokyo. "...Father...?!"
"Hn?" Kisho blinked. "What?"
"Kisho! Head for Kane's house...!" she ordered briskly, eyeing the immediate direction with concern.
"What?! What about Hine-"
"-DO IT!" she roared, gripping firmly to the oar and whipping it's steering for the west against the boat man's will, Kisho allowing escape a yelp of confusion at the sharp, speedy turn.
%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~% *a half hour after Kurama found Kuwabara*
"Oh Kazuma...!" Yukina whimpered delicately, tears breaking loose from her long lashes and clicking as pearls to the floor. There in the next room lay her husband to a mat, Kuwabara just barely teetering on the scale between life and death. "K-Kaz-zuma-a!!!"
Kurama had a gentle hand laid to the mint-haired apparition's shoulder, deep in his own concern as he tried to comfort her.
Beside the unconscious red-head sat a distraught Kane, his onyx glare narrowed and set nimbly to Kazuma. "...father..." he breathed softly.
Near the entire Urimeshi Team, both Senior and Junior, were out in the vast garden, late evening, and beyond worried for the Kuwabara's. Gakilei leaned against a post, casting worried glares for Kane's silhouette through the thin slide-doors of his dojo home. Yukio grasped reassuringly to his twin's shoulder, and he two eyed his best friend with concern.
Ai and Hiei were silent, calm, but not all that positive as they sat weighed in worry...they were to the far end of the garden, cut off from their companions in sincerity and thought.
Botan and Yusuke waited patiently for Kurama to ease from Yukina's company, back to where he could give a full report on Kuwabara's condition.
"DAMN...!!" Yusuke growled. "...I knew Kuwabara wasn't all that healthy lately...why did he take those demons on his OWN!" he rammed the side of his white-knuckled fist against the wall, denting into it in his inner frustration.
Gakilei buried her face in her hand, sighing slowly as annoyance was forced from her system.
"Typical Kuwabaka, Detective," Hiei growled lowly. Each of his companions threw a dirty glare in his direction.
"Hiei that was perfectly insensitive and I shall NOT stand for it!" Botan grunted friskily, before the flame Koorime's narrow glare stifled her to mere growls of irritation. Just then, the calm Kurama slid the veranda door aside, and stepped out calmly...he almost looked ten years older.
"Kurama...!" Botan embraced him slowly, binding him in a gentle hug...he reluctantly returned it, unable to compute Kuwabara's near-death experience.
"I don't understand...he always seemed on the peak of health..." he breathed quietly into her hair, the bluette drawing back and blinking those large pink eyes in that remarkably adorable way.
"Kurama...?" she piped softly.
"...where is Kisho? And Ryuuhayai, and Keiko? Hinegeshi?" he clicked sternly from his worry of Kuwabara to his worry of the missing family members. He solemnly eyed for Gakilei and Yukio, patiently awaiting an answer from the Urimeshi's.
"...Kisho and Ryuu took off, and Gakilei and I were about to head home to protect Mom...but Kane sensed Kazuma's tattered presence, and we came straight here." Yukio shrugged in embarrassment, ashamed of having left Keiko alone and being unaware of his friends' whereabouts.
"...I see..." Kurama sighed slowly.
"You WHAT?!" Yusuke roared to his son and daughter, the twins instantly pricking to attention and fear. "You mean to tell me that after you ran into Ryooki and he told you to go home and protect your mother from those demons you DIDN'T?!"
"Detective..." Hiei grunted sternly, his corrosive eyes shut half-calmly. "...they just said they were heading home, but when realization overcame them of the fool's predicament, they decided to investigate..." a breath of a forced smirk crossed his concerned face. "...it's in their blood, after all, as Detectives..."
"That's not the point!" Yusuke roared, turning to face his children yet again. "Demons did THAT to Kuwabara!! And he is a skilled fighter!! Imagine what they could do to your MOTHER!"
"Detective," Hiei wrinkled his nose. "You are being an idiot again."
Yusuke growled fiercely, about to lunge in attack at the flame Koorime, until a bash of flesh smacked him upside the head.
"-WHA?!" he blinked in pain and shock...there stood his Keiko, annoyed and ready to deck him again.
"Oh Yusuke shut up!" she hissed. "...I could hear you down the street yelling at Gakilei and Yukio..."
"HOW DID YOU KNOW TO COME HERE?!" Yusuke gaped.
"Me, silly!" another voice piped tauntingly...this time from directly above. All eyes cast instantly upwards, let corrosive ruby ones.
"Hinegeshi," Hiei smirked before finally eyeing his wife, hovering aloft her oar.
She changed semi-dramatically. Her ruby mane was streaked with a lock of black and just barely brushed her shoulders. She still possessed her little frame, and delicately ivory-light skin, but her crystalline eyes had narrowed slightly with humanoid aging. *Koenma did the same thing to her as he did to Hiei...now they both look like adults and not teens*
"How did you know of Kuwabaka's situation?" Hiei smirked morbidly.
"Now Darling that isn't very nice," Hinegeshi practically pouted in disappointment towards his immense insensitivity. Hiei pricked slightly, then half-glared in embarrassment * as in –_–'* .
"Indeed," both Kurama and Ai smirked in unison for the already irritated flame Koorime. Hiei grunted fiercely to the Senior Minamino red-head, and ignored the other.
Keiko sighed heavily, approaching Botan slowly...Hinegeshi followed as she descended for the solid ground below. "How is she?" Keiko asked lightly, the three examining Yukina's softly weeping form through the veranda's Japanese door.
"She's been crying since Kurama told her..." Botan answered with her head bowed solemnly.
"How's he?" Hinegeshi piped in hope.
"Not great..." Kurama sighed faintly, remembering his patient's condition all too clearly.
"...poor Yukina..." Keiko and Hinegeshi breathed in unison.
"...poor Kuwabara..." Yusuke sighed.
"...poor Kane..." Gakilei, Yukio, and Ai murmured in pity and sadness.
"...but...in all seriousness..." Kurama asked the two newcomers gently. "...how did the two of you know to come here? And how did you make it through all of southern Tokyo to reach Kuwabara's home?"
"We flew, Kurama," Hinegeshi chuckled slightly.
"...there are demons after our families, Mother..." a distinctively morbid voice pricked into hearing...Ryuuhayai leapt from the scythe's edge and pinned to a graceful landing in the dead center of the spread gathering...Kisho soon followed, whipping his scythe smoothly through the thin night air and allowing the energy to slip back to his nimble fingertips.
"OH MY GOD!" Kisho instantly yelped in shock, stumbling in his footing. "D-D-DAD! WHAT THE-?!"
A pause of bafflement, before Kurama realized...this was the first time Kisho had ever laid eyes...on Kurama's silver tail.
"Erm...you like it?" Kurama asked meekly, chuckling awkwardly to himself.
"How did you-?!"
"-Kisho, later...!" Ryuuhayai growled, turning in all seriousness to face her mother yet again. "It isn't safe to fly around here, Mother...there are demons in every corner, awaiting our vulnerability."
"...and you knew this...how...?!" Gakilei eyed the she-dragon in awed confusion.
"Father." Ryuuhayai smirked in sync to the calm Hiei...near the entire group was terrified at how identical they looked with that smirk...
"I told her all telepathically as she and Kitsune Junior flew here." he explained through the genetic smirk, both Urimeshi teams nodding as they stomached the situation.
"Keiko! Will you PLEASE answer me HOW you and Hinegeshi knew to come here?!"
"Oh pipe down Detective..." a lazy scent of damp stone filled the lungs of each Urimeshi team member...a scent not a one of them possessed. A broad figure extended from the bowels of a night's shadow, a ruby mane lacing to the shifting breezes. "I was with them...I had told them to group here in all manners of safety."
Every person to witness him, let Hinegeshi and Keiko, who had been escorted by him, pricked...Ryooki.
%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%
*Anemone's room...the mob is still there, and Kurama is scared out of his mind...this mob is WAAAY bigger than usual...Hiei's glaring at Kurama for not having ice cream, and he's also shifting back to glare at the magic 8 ball...Anneliese, Ellen, and Anemone are plotting a means of ridding Anemone's yard of Suichi-Kun lovers*
Ellen: *at the window, steadying her paint ball gun in aim* ...one...two...three!! *fires*
Random Fangirl: ow...!
Ellen: MUAHAHAHAHA!!
Anneliese: Ellen! Stop that and help plan to get those girl's off the-*suddenly, THOUSANDS of screams ring through...instantly Anneliese, Anemone, Ellen, and Kurama whip to look towards Hiei...and find him missing.*
Anemone: oh shit-
Hiei: MUAHAHAHA!! *heard from outside on the roof...is throwing mini darkness flame dragons at the mob* THAT'S WHAT YOU BITCHES GET FOR DEPRIVING ME OF MY ICE CREAM!!! MUAHAHAHA!!
Anneliese: ...wow...
Ellen: COOL!
Anemone: *slaps face* WHY did you throw his ice cream at them when you ran, Fox?! Now he's gonna be arrested again...
Kurama: ...
Hiei: MUAHAHAHA!
Anneliese and Anemone: *slow side-glance to Kurama*
Kurama: *looking out the window ignoring them* ...no.
Anneliese and Anemone: -but he's!-
Kurama: -no.-
Anneliese and Anemone: -gonna kill!-
Kurama: -no.-
Hiei: *seriously gonna kill them* MUAHAHA!
Ellen: *aims paint ball gun as Anneliese, Anemone, and Kurama continue to argue* ...one...two...three! *fires at Hiei, the green paint ball hitting in right between the shoulder blades and sending making him slip off the edge of the roof...by now all the fangirls had run away*
Anemone, Anneliese, and Kurama: ...O_O'
Ellen: haha!! Score!!
Hiei: *growl-moan, heard from fifty feet down* ...oooOOOW! Damn!!
All: *leans out window*
Kurama: ...I...think...he's alright...
Anneliese and Anemone: *annoyed glare*
Ellen: *strokes paint ball gun* I love you...
Anneliese, Anemone, and Kurama: –_–'
Anemone: y-eeeeah...anyway, erm...another chapter, done...
Hiei: *voice in distance* ...where the hell am I?!
Anemone: Fox, tell 'em to review.
Kurama: please review, readers.
Anemone: later!
Anemone: LOL! Funny stuff! They've got a great story going here! *tries to keep reading, but hears her phone clicking on and off as it had been for twenty minutes...on and off...on and off-* HIEI!
Hiei: what Onna?!
Anemone: stop tampering with my phone!
Hiei: hn...I'll do as I like, human...*removes it from it's cradle, drops it back in place while studying it very carefully...keeps removing from cradle and dropping it back in place*
Anemone: what are you trying to do?! Break it?!
Hiei: hardly...*repeats*
Anemone: UGH! Then what are you doing?!
Hiei: impatience will kill you.
Anemone: huh? I thought it was curiosity that killed people...
Hiei: insolent human! I meant if you continue to behave impatiently, I will kill you! Shut up and continue on your merry little ningen way! *turns back to the phone*
Anemone: it's MY phone! What are you trying to do?!
Hiei: HN! If you MUST know, I suppose the only way to shut you up is to explain...
Anemone: then get with the shutting me up, Hiei...
Hiei: hn...human technology is fascinating in it's simplicity...I'm trying to decipher it's use. *phone rings, Hiei yelps and throws a ki blast at it*
Anemone: HIEI!!!!
Hiei: *glares at smoking debris* hn...*wanders over to her bed...sees a black ball on her shelf* hn? *picks it up and examines it*
Anemone: DON'T YOU DARE BREAK MY MAGIC 8 BALL!
Hiei: hn...? How does it work? Explain!
Anemone: *glare* you ask it a question and shake it for a couple seconds then read the answer, okay?! Now be a good little fire Koorime and behave yourself!!
Hiei: *evil glare, sits on her bed and examines the 8 ball...blink...shakes it* When is Kitsune coming back with my ice cream?
8 Ball: "all signs point to yes."
Hiei: *blink, glare* that made no sense...ONNA!
Anemone: WHAT!
Hiei: *glares at it* this didn't give me a good answer...
Anemone: *rolls eyes* ask something else then, I don't know...*turns back to her reading*
Hiei: hn...*shakes ball* Where is Kitsune?
8 Ball: *lands on a corner*
Hiei: hn? *shakes again*
8 Ball: *lands on another corner*
Hiei: *growl* Onna!!
Anemone: WHAT HIEI?!
Hiei: It's not even giving me words!
Anemone: shake harder and shut up!
Hiei: *glare* hn...*shakes it again* Where the hell is my ice cream?!
8 Ball: "most likely."
Hiei: UGH!! *draws Katana*
Anemone: HEY! NO!! Don't even THINK about it, Flames!!
Hiei: *really narrow glare, replaces his Katana to it's sheath* why does this filthy human artifact dislike me, Onna...?
Anemone: have you been asking it yes/no questions...?
Hiei: ...?
Anemone: ...questions answered with a 'yes' or 'no'...
Hiei: hn...does that matter?
Anemone: ...yes...
Hiei: *blink*......oh...
Anemone: Hiei just ask it something about love, I dunno...
Hiei: love?! Petty human emotions?! PAH!
Anemone: Hiei shut up!
Hiei: hn...*examines ball, shakes it again* is Anneliese my one true love?
Anemone: ?!?! *collapses anime style off her chair, and her head bashes against the edge of her mattress...which shakes the ball even more*
8 Ball: *would have said 'yes definitely', but Anemone's anime collapse shook it* "my sources say no."
Hiei: *really evil glare at the answer, thinking that's the original answer* hn...
Anemone: *now fully interested, bounces onto the bed* what did it say?! Huh?! Huh?! *grabs his collar* WELL?!
Hiei: *glare* it said 'no', Onna...
Anemone: aww...*snaps fingers*...and you and Anneliese were REALLY cute together...
Hiei: *blush, glare* ...hn...
Anemone: hey! Just for the sake of asking...ask it if Hinegeshi is your true love!
Hiei: ?!
Anemone: DO IT!
Hiei: *pause, glare, shakes 8 Ball* is...Hinegeshi...my one true love...? *suddenly, Kurama bursts into the room running like hell, beyond frantic...is halfway through the room, slips on a magazine, falls, and just before hitting the ground bangs his head against the edge of the mattress, shaking the Magic 8 Ball...and Anemone and Hiei*
Anemone: AH! *slips off the edge of the bed and lands on top of Kurama*
Kurama: bmfh!!
8 Ball: *was supposed to say 'very doubtful'* ..."it is certain."
Hiei: GAH?!
Anemone: *moans, rubs head* oww...FOX! What the hell was-?!
Kurama: *cups her mouth before she can finish* SHH! They'll hear you!!
Anemone: ...?
Kurama: *meekly point to her window* take a look, Mones...
Anemone: *blink, slowly heads towards her window...leans out...* OH MY GOD!
*HUUUGE fangirl mob outside, waiting impatiently for any sign of Kurama*
Random Fangirl: where'd he go?!
Another Random Fangirl: I don't see him anywhere!!
Yet Another: SUICHI-KUN!!!
Rest of Mob: SUUUUIIIIIIICHIIIIIIII!!!!
Hiei: *glares at Kurama as the girls continue to wail* seriously Kitsune, is this your ONLY sanctuary when you get chased by those damned mobs?!
Anemone: UGH! *covers ears* how the hell did you NOT lose them?!
Kurama: it isn't MY fault they chase me!
Anemone and Hiei: YES IT IS!
Anemone: *pricks, turns to look outside again*
Hiei: hn?
Kurama: what is it, Mones?
Anemone: Anneliese and Ellen...
Hiei: WHAT?! *pissed off, thinks they were chasing Kurama like the rest of the mob...gets dangerously jealous of Kurama...*
Kurama: that's odd...I don't remember seeing them as I ran...
Anemone: um...they're NOT a part of the mob, guys...
Hiei: hn...? *he and Kurama head towards the window and look out...Ellen's got a paint ball gun and is firing at people less than a foot away from her, dodging punches from those very people...Anneliese managed to push her way to the front and is throwing water balloons at the fangirls*
Anneliese: THIS IS PRIVATE PROPERTY!
Ellen: *runs by screaming as fifty of her pissed off victims chase her* AHHHHH!!! *randomly fires her paint ball gun at everyone behind her*
Kurama, Hiei, and Anemone: *sweatdrop*
Kurama and Anemone: *slowly turn to look at Hiei...after a minute he side-glances them, then growls, blurs, reappears with a confused Anneliese and Ellen*
Anneliese: huh?
Ellen: YAY!!! SAFETY!!!
Anemone: *sigh* okay this skit is WAY too long...
Kurama: indeed...and for such a long introduction I barely had any lines.
Anemone: trust me Fox...it's better this way...
Kurama: *sigh*...chapter 8, enjoy.
Hiei: *prick, pissed off glare* KITSUNE! WHERE'S MY ICE CREAM?!
Kurama: *looks a little scared* go! Quickly!
Chapter 8: Survival
"HIEI!" Yusuke growled into the surrounding blackness of the abandoned hallway. He snarled in irritation, and threw a narrowed glare of frustration and worry to the dying red-head just before him.
"C'mon, Kuwa! You can fight this!" the Detective reassured softly, his age finally creasing to his face. His dread and fear had matured him twice over.
Kuwabara was sprawled to the floor, pinching his chest with white-knuckle tightness. His breaths were coarse and rough, pain singeing to his heart with every passing second.
"Kuwabara! You can't die!" Yusuke breathed heavily. "You...you still...you still hafta kick my ass, remember?! Kuwabara!!"
But the red-head struggled all the more. He roared grunts of pain, and a shot of ruby choked from his gaping lips, snaking down his chin.
"Kuwabara!!" Yusuke shook firmly to his friend's shoulders, ramming him against the floor in several beats of fear. "No!! No wake up!!"
Sweat beaded to his temple, his eyes pinched tensely and his expression taut in his agony. His heart was slowing...beat...beat......beat.........beat............
"Kuwabara!" a faint call echoed against the various walls of the abandoned sector. Yusuke instantly jerked to the familiar tone, and his relieved glare caught hold to the sight of a sprinting Kurama and a black smudge in the air.
"Kurama! Hiei!" the Detective hollered viciously over his shoulder, throwing an intense glare in their direction. "Help him!"
Hiei jerked to a stop in his sprint, and gazed worriedly to his dying brother-in-law.
Kurama skid to a graceful halt from his dash, instantly sliding to one knee as he overlooked Kuwabara's condition. Right away his eyes flashed wide in shock, and he dove into work. He first pressed two fingers to Kuwabara's jawbone, and pricked in frustration. "He nearly lacks in a pulse!"
Instantly he tore his fingers from the dimming pulse signal, and stroked his sprawled hand through his mane, retracting an odd looking plant with a strange odor.
"Ah dude!!" Yusuke gasped, clasping to his nose in a firm pinch. "That's wicked rancid, fox!"
"It's the only plant of your realm that, if properly maneuvered, can double the speed of blood-flow..." Kurama husked half-fiercely, nimbly tearing to the fibers of the odorous branch. His fingers worked diligently and gracefully, swift and agile. His expression was tense in sincerity as he worked, ripping snags of branch fibers free and planting them beside him for later use. The exterior was completely useless, and the milky, mint-green center was poisonous...only the soft, flaky second layer could be of use to the red-head's condition, and only if it was untouched by the center's milky component. It had to be separated very delicately, but with a decent speed with Kuwabara's state...Kurama was the only capable person to handle that race with time and death.
"Kitsune..." Hiei growled steadily, sensing Kuwabara's dimming Spirit Energy.
"...I'm hurrying, Hiei...!" the fox countered with strained patience as he tore through the branch and carefully jerked loose the needed snags.
Yusuke kept a hand to his friend's jawbone, breathing heavily as Kuwabara's pulse slowed all the more.
"C'mon, fox!" the Detective growled in impatience and obvious worry, Kurama not bothering to waste precious time to throw a deadly glare for his teammate's direction.
Stinging agony pierced to Kuwabara's tainted heart, his strained muscle, literally deteriorated after a lifetime of inhuman accomplishments. He could hardly breath without completely welling his lungs capacity, and further adding plight to his dying heart.
Finally Kurama had managed to rip free the necessary amount of branch fibers, scooping them to his slender hands and rubbing them roughly in his palms, kneading it to a loose, light powder. "Yusuke open his lips..." he ordered sternly, the Detective following that precise command without a blink of hesitation, tearing Kuwabara's lips and tight teeth grit apart. Kurama dusted the powder into the gape, instantly whipping to yet another act.
The fox steadied his hands over Kuwabara's jerking chest, smoothly planting forced presses into the human's chest. He'd press down, Kuwabara grunting subconsciously.
"What is he doing?!" Yusuke eyed Hiei in haste and worry.
"He's trying to pump the heart back into rhythm..." Hiei growled.
"...but...didn't he say the plant would do that...?"
"No, Detective..." Hiei sighed in annoyance. "...if Kurama was to allow merely the plant to take affect, not only would the reaction occur too late, but even if it did occur in time the sudden racing speed of his blood flow would literally tear his swollen, bruising heart apart..."
"...and hitting his heart with help HOW?!" Yusuke gaped.
"Kurama is easing the pulse back into sync...by starting the blood-flow off gently, the fool's heart has a much greater chance of taking the strain..."
"...either way his survival is questionable..."
Flame Koorime and Detective pricked to the voice behind them...and saw a distraught, worried Botan, and a calmer, yet equally scared Ai, the red-head having been the one to comment on Kuwabara's condition.
"...Kazuma..." she whispered faintly, tears threatening to streak her ivory face as she, in sync with her father, knew the exceedingly narrow chances...
"...Ai..." Yusuke slowly kicked to a stand, and wrapped his arms around her. "...it's okay, Foxy, he'll be fine..."
"Oh, Kuwabara...!" Botan whimpered in her fear, easing beside her busy husband. Kurama was calmed slightly by her presence, but his diligent work wasn't dimmed in the least. He continued to pump pressure against Kuwabara's chest and to examine the afflicted man's pulse...which was now jagged and lacked in steadiness and repetition.
"...damn!..." he cursed huskily, pressing firm jerks against Kuwabara's swelling chest and trying in near vanity to force the beats into alignment and symmetry. His tail *lol didya guys already forget he had one now?* flicked violently against his thigh, obviously expressing his frustration.
Ai smoothly eased from the Detective's hug, and kneeled opposite Kurama. Her cool hands stroked over Kazuma's temple, wiping burning sweat from his tensed brow.
"Kazuma...please wake up..." she cooed softly, her mere touch easing his tensed expression slightly.
Suddenly, Kuwabara's onyx glare flashed wide, and a roar of pain escaped his gaping mouth. Botan yelped, Kurama drawing back slightly and guarding the bluette. Ai pricked slightly, jerking her hand to her collarbone and blinking slightly at the red-head's action. Yusuke yelped, Hiei grunted. Kuwabara fell unconscious, the strain on his heart beyond tolerable, even for him. His stubbornness abandoned him this day, his life's training having completely torn his heart apart. Now he was left with a bruising, strained muscle, barely keeping up a normal pulse pattern.
"KUWABARA!!" Yusuke gasped in horror, his friend's pulse in tact, but on the cusp of life and death.
%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%
"KISHO STOP FREAKIN' SMELLING MY HAIR YOU PERVERT!!" Ryuuhayai roared angrily after he had managed to take several deep whiffs.
Knowing she meant business, he backed off sheepishly, trying to hide a meek grin and an obvious blush. "Sorry, Hayai...it's kind of hard to ignore when my nose is right THERE...and with my sense of smell-"
"I don't give a damn!" she hissed. "Back off or you'll taste the concrete of Tokyo's streets!"
"Yes'm!" he cowered spinelessly, drawing back and gulping slightly.
"Hn...!" she grunted in anger, throwing her corrosive glare for the far right, a blush creeping over the milky slope of her little nose.
"So Ryuu..." he asked meekly, trying to break her ironically cold exterior *ironic cuz she's a flame demon*. "...how's life?"
"Shut up and steer..." she hissed over her shoulder...before pricking to attention. A swell of a sense stung to her young Jagon as she and the Reaper loomed over the city, far to the west of Tokyo. "...Father...?!"
"Hn?" Kisho blinked. "What?"
"Kisho! Head for Kane's house...!" she ordered briskly, eyeing the immediate direction with concern.
"What?! What about Hine-"
"-DO IT!" she roared, gripping firmly to the oar and whipping it's steering for the west against the boat man's will, Kisho allowing escape a yelp of confusion at the sharp, speedy turn.
%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~% *a half hour after Kurama found Kuwabara*
"Oh Kazuma...!" Yukina whimpered delicately, tears breaking loose from her long lashes and clicking as pearls to the floor. There in the next room lay her husband to a mat, Kuwabara just barely teetering on the scale between life and death. "K-Kaz-zuma-a!!!"
Kurama had a gentle hand laid to the mint-haired apparition's shoulder, deep in his own concern as he tried to comfort her.
Beside the unconscious red-head sat a distraught Kane, his onyx glare narrowed and set nimbly to Kazuma. "...father..." he breathed softly.
Near the entire Urimeshi Team, both Senior and Junior, were out in the vast garden, late evening, and beyond worried for the Kuwabara's. Gakilei leaned against a post, casting worried glares for Kane's silhouette through the thin slide-doors of his dojo home. Yukio grasped reassuringly to his twin's shoulder, and he two eyed his best friend with concern.
Ai and Hiei were silent, calm, but not all that positive as they sat weighed in worry...they were to the far end of the garden, cut off from their companions in sincerity and thought.
Botan and Yusuke waited patiently for Kurama to ease from Yukina's company, back to where he could give a full report on Kuwabara's condition.
"DAMN...!!" Yusuke growled. "...I knew Kuwabara wasn't all that healthy lately...why did he take those demons on his OWN!" he rammed the side of his white-knuckled fist against the wall, denting into it in his inner frustration.
Gakilei buried her face in her hand, sighing slowly as annoyance was forced from her system.
"Typical Kuwabaka, Detective," Hiei growled lowly. Each of his companions threw a dirty glare in his direction.
"Hiei that was perfectly insensitive and I shall NOT stand for it!" Botan grunted friskily, before the flame Koorime's narrow glare stifled her to mere growls of irritation. Just then, the calm Kurama slid the veranda door aside, and stepped out calmly...he almost looked ten years older.
"Kurama...!" Botan embraced him slowly, binding him in a gentle hug...he reluctantly returned it, unable to compute Kuwabara's near-death experience.
"I don't understand...he always seemed on the peak of health..." he breathed quietly into her hair, the bluette drawing back and blinking those large pink eyes in that remarkably adorable way.
"Kurama...?" she piped softly.
"...where is Kisho? And Ryuuhayai, and Keiko? Hinegeshi?" he clicked sternly from his worry of Kuwabara to his worry of the missing family members. He solemnly eyed for Gakilei and Yukio, patiently awaiting an answer from the Urimeshi's.
"...Kisho and Ryuu took off, and Gakilei and I were about to head home to protect Mom...but Kane sensed Kazuma's tattered presence, and we came straight here." Yukio shrugged in embarrassment, ashamed of having left Keiko alone and being unaware of his friends' whereabouts.
"...I see..." Kurama sighed slowly.
"You WHAT?!" Yusuke roared to his son and daughter, the twins instantly pricking to attention and fear. "You mean to tell me that after you ran into Ryooki and he told you to go home and protect your mother from those demons you DIDN'T?!"
"Detective..." Hiei grunted sternly, his corrosive eyes shut half-calmly. "...they just said they were heading home, but when realization overcame them of the fool's predicament, they decided to investigate..." a breath of a forced smirk crossed his concerned face. "...it's in their blood, after all, as Detectives..."
"That's not the point!" Yusuke roared, turning to face his children yet again. "Demons did THAT to Kuwabara!! And he is a skilled fighter!! Imagine what they could do to your MOTHER!"
"Detective," Hiei wrinkled his nose. "You are being an idiot again."
Yusuke growled fiercely, about to lunge in attack at the flame Koorime, until a bash of flesh smacked him upside the head.
"-WHA?!" he blinked in pain and shock...there stood his Keiko, annoyed and ready to deck him again.
"Oh Yusuke shut up!" she hissed. "...I could hear you down the street yelling at Gakilei and Yukio..."
"HOW DID YOU KNOW TO COME HERE?!" Yusuke gaped.
"Me, silly!" another voice piped tauntingly...this time from directly above. All eyes cast instantly upwards, let corrosive ruby ones.
"Hinegeshi," Hiei smirked before finally eyeing his wife, hovering aloft her oar.
She changed semi-dramatically. Her ruby mane was streaked with a lock of black and just barely brushed her shoulders. She still possessed her little frame, and delicately ivory-light skin, but her crystalline eyes had narrowed slightly with humanoid aging. *Koenma did the same thing to her as he did to Hiei...now they both look like adults and not teens*
"How did you know of Kuwabaka's situation?" Hiei smirked morbidly.
"Now Darling that isn't very nice," Hinegeshi practically pouted in disappointment towards his immense insensitivity. Hiei pricked slightly, then half-glared in embarrassment * as in –_–'* .
"Indeed," both Kurama and Ai smirked in unison for the already irritated flame Koorime. Hiei grunted fiercely to the Senior Minamino red-head, and ignored the other.
Keiko sighed heavily, approaching Botan slowly...Hinegeshi followed as she descended for the solid ground below. "How is she?" Keiko asked lightly, the three examining Yukina's softly weeping form through the veranda's Japanese door.
"She's been crying since Kurama told her..." Botan answered with her head bowed solemnly.
"How's he?" Hinegeshi piped in hope.
"Not great..." Kurama sighed faintly, remembering his patient's condition all too clearly.
"...poor Yukina..." Keiko and Hinegeshi breathed in unison.
"...poor Kuwabara..." Yusuke sighed.
"...poor Kane..." Gakilei, Yukio, and Ai murmured in pity and sadness.
"...but...in all seriousness..." Kurama asked the two newcomers gently. "...how did the two of you know to come here? And how did you make it through all of southern Tokyo to reach Kuwabara's home?"
"We flew, Kurama," Hinegeshi chuckled slightly.
"...there are demons after our families, Mother..." a distinctively morbid voice pricked into hearing...Ryuuhayai leapt from the scythe's edge and pinned to a graceful landing in the dead center of the spread gathering...Kisho soon followed, whipping his scythe smoothly through the thin night air and allowing the energy to slip back to his nimble fingertips.
"OH MY GOD!" Kisho instantly yelped in shock, stumbling in his footing. "D-D-DAD! WHAT THE-?!"
A pause of bafflement, before Kurama realized...this was the first time Kisho had ever laid eyes...on Kurama's silver tail.
"Erm...you like it?" Kurama asked meekly, chuckling awkwardly to himself.
"How did you-?!"
"-Kisho, later...!" Ryuuhayai growled, turning in all seriousness to face her mother yet again. "It isn't safe to fly around here, Mother...there are demons in every corner, awaiting our vulnerability."
"...and you knew this...how...?!" Gakilei eyed the she-dragon in awed confusion.
"Father." Ryuuhayai smirked in sync to the calm Hiei...near the entire group was terrified at how identical they looked with that smirk...
"I told her all telepathically as she and Kitsune Junior flew here." he explained through the genetic smirk, both Urimeshi teams nodding as they stomached the situation.
"Keiko! Will you PLEASE answer me HOW you and Hinegeshi knew to come here?!"
"Oh pipe down Detective..." a lazy scent of damp stone filled the lungs of each Urimeshi team member...a scent not a one of them possessed. A broad figure extended from the bowels of a night's shadow, a ruby mane lacing to the shifting breezes. "I was with them...I had told them to group here in all manners of safety."
Every person to witness him, let Hinegeshi and Keiko, who had been escorted by him, pricked...Ryooki.
%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%
*Anemone's room...the mob is still there, and Kurama is scared out of his mind...this mob is WAAAY bigger than usual...Hiei's glaring at Kurama for not having ice cream, and he's also shifting back to glare at the magic 8 ball...Anneliese, Ellen, and Anemone are plotting a means of ridding Anemone's yard of Suichi-Kun lovers*
Ellen: *at the window, steadying her paint ball gun in aim* ...one...two...three!! *fires*
Random Fangirl: ow...!
Ellen: MUAHAHAHAHA!!
Anneliese: Ellen! Stop that and help plan to get those girl's off the-*suddenly, THOUSANDS of screams ring through...instantly Anneliese, Anemone, Ellen, and Kurama whip to look towards Hiei...and find him missing.*
Anemone: oh shit-
Hiei: MUAHAHAHA!! *heard from outside on the roof...is throwing mini darkness flame dragons at the mob* THAT'S WHAT YOU BITCHES GET FOR DEPRIVING ME OF MY ICE CREAM!!! MUAHAHAHA!!
Anneliese: ...wow...
Ellen: COOL!
Anemone: *slaps face* WHY did you throw his ice cream at them when you ran, Fox?! Now he's gonna be arrested again...
Kurama: ...
Hiei: MUAHAHAHA!
Anneliese and Anemone: *slow side-glance to Kurama*
Kurama: *looking out the window ignoring them* ...no.
Anneliese and Anemone: -but he's!-
Kurama: -no.-
Anneliese and Anemone: -gonna kill!-
Kurama: -no.-
Hiei: *seriously gonna kill them* MUAHAHA!
Ellen: *aims paint ball gun as Anneliese, Anemone, and Kurama continue to argue* ...one...two...three! *fires at Hiei, the green paint ball hitting in right between the shoulder blades and sending making him slip off the edge of the roof...by now all the fangirls had run away*
Anemone, Anneliese, and Kurama: ...O_O'
Ellen: haha!! Score!!
Hiei: *growl-moan, heard from fifty feet down* ...oooOOOW! Damn!!
All: *leans out window*
Kurama: ...I...think...he's alright...
Anneliese and Anemone: *annoyed glare*
Ellen: *strokes paint ball gun* I love you...
Anneliese, Anemone, and Kurama: –_–'
Anemone: y-eeeeah...anyway, erm...another chapter, done...
Hiei: *voice in distance* ...where the hell am I?!
Anemone: Fox, tell 'em to review.
Kurama: please review, readers.
Anemone: later!