Ch. 4 - Third Time's the Charm
A mere two days later, Hiei and Kurama found a quiet street near the girl's house. Still clamping down on their power, they gazed towards the girl's empty house with blank, shuttered eyes. The deck was with her. The book was with her. The Sun Guardian was with her. The Moon Guardian, though...
A faint sense of silvery-misty power approached, and they slipped into a bus shelter. The Moon Guardian passed high overhead, invisible as the new moon against the bright sky.
Kurama sighed. "Two days... we can't stay and elude him for much longer." He left unsaid that suppressing their power enough to hide from the Guardians in a human town was starting to get painful, at least for him. Hiei showed no sign of discomfort, but he had added an extra layer of warding cloths to his Jagan and Kokuryuuha tattoo this morning.
"I don't have that much leave left from Mukuro," Hiei said flatly. "The girl will be an adult next time I have more."
And if Kurama stole the Cards without Hiei, after the fire demon had invited him in the first place, Hiei would kill him. If the Guardians didn't do it first.
"An adult Master is an unnecessary risk," Kurama mused. "We have three hours before she gets out of school. Think that's enough time to pick a good ambush site?"
"I have some places in mind."
----
"Where's she going? That isn't the way home."
Hiei shook his head, a curt gesture of 'no idea'. The two thieves, lounging on a balcony with their magic as tightly hidden as possible, watched as the girl turned down the wrong street. From here, an apartment building near the top of the church hill, they didn't have the best view... but they had good eyesight, and only a close inspection would reveal that they weren't perfectly normal humans enjoying the pleasant day. The angel would notice them trailing the girl, or on any rooftop in the city, but not here.
Unless they did something completely stupid, like jump down to the street, which they just might have to do if they lost track of the girl.
The sense of mist-silver trailed the girl; that would be helpful. Kurama glanced at Hiei; the little demon's eyes were tracking the angel better than Kurama's own, despite the fact that they were both suppressing their power. Kurama let his gaze travel over the part of town the girl was headed to. There was nothing there she could possibly be going to, was there? The bakery, the greengrocer, the fish market, all the little shops were in the other direction. Her father's college wasn't within walking distance, and she'd passed the bus stop already. Her little set of class friends lived scattered in other areas of town. So where...?
"Tsukimine Shrine," Kurama murmured. There were light protections against evil there, and... "The scrying pool."
Hiei stiffened. "If I block that, I'd have to use the Jagan. I'll be broadcasting our location over five kilometers or more."
"What?" That didn't make sense.
"Watching is mostly passive," Hiei explained. "Like a telescope. Blocking is active. I may as well try to hide us by blinding the girl with a searchlight." As if they didn't have enough pressure. Hiei continued, "The angel's circled... he's moving on. Must trust the temple wards to compensate." Finally! One bit of luck in this whole mess.
"Let's go," Kurama said.
They leapt from the balcony and ran down the streets to the Tsukimine Shrine. A second's pause outside the shrine, for Kurama to make a sketchy invocation to affirm his humanity, and he pulled Hiei past the wards without tripping any alarms. They walked openly through the paved temple grounds proper, into the forested parts behind the buildings, without meeting anyone. Hiei took to the trees once there was enough cover, and Kurama walked more slowly towards the scrying pool, shoes silent against the path.
He found the girl on the platform where one watched the pool. Her long-haired friend and the Sun Guardian remained off of it, the Guardian hovering watchfully. Kurama slipped behind a large tree before he could be spotted.
"... know if this will work during the day," the girl was saying nervously.
"Sure it will," the Sun Guardian said. Kurama bit his lip with some amusement. The Guardian had an Osaka accent. "Ya gotta just wait a bit longer."
"If you're sur--" the girl tensed, a hand going to her throat.
"Sakura-chan?" her long-haired friend asked.
"I feel something..."
Kurama slapped his seed onto the grass. Too late-- NOW! He freed his power and shoved it into the seed. Fireproof vines exploded from the ground. They shot five feet into the air and twisted, catching the three targets -- the long-haired girl, Sakura, and the Sun Guardian. They encased the toy's half-grown wings, stopping the transformation, and coiled around limbs and heads, muffling shrieks and yanking Sakura's hand away from her collar.
Hiei leapt from his perch in the tree, hand outstretched for the purse.
Something in Sakura's hand flashed into bright light, magic bursting outwards into an intricate spellcasting circle around the child. A baton appeared, growing from the light in her outstretched hand.
But by this time, Hiei was already almost to the purse of Cards. The wand pulsed with energy, and suddenly Hiei was frozen in mid-air, matter streaming from him in ribbons of violet-black, coalescing at the tip of the girl's baton.
The undiluted shock on the smaller demon's face as he began to fade from sight was enough to make Kurama break cover. "Hiei--!" he yelled, one hand outstretched, the other pulling a rose from his hair. But the light was touching him as well, and silver was streaming from his body.
How humiliating... he thought, just before darkness swallowed him up.
----
The streams of glowing mist that had been Hiei and Kurama flattened and shrank, pressing themselves into thin rectangles of colorful light. They pulsed once -- just once -- and the light snapped off, revealing five new Cards.
The Thief.
The Mask.
The Swift.
The Sight.
And The Destroy.
Author's Note:
I came up with this story after finding far too many fics where popular characters never make any real mistakes. They only mess up through inexperience (mostly with relationships), or by underestimating a ridiculously strong opponent and getting their butts rightfully kicked. I wanted to write a story where they really, honestly screw up for a change... just like anybody else can. Therefore, I did.
So... are they dead? Are they alive? Can they be restored? Quite honestly, I don't know. There is a sequel, but it's only a vague collection of images and two-and-a-half short chapters of the CCS people being very, very confused. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for it if I were you -- it doesn't promise to coalesce into anything more for a very, very long time.