The Welder of BlackFire:
Thorn's New Life-The Legend Lives
Chapter Eighteen: In from the Storm
"Hiei. Back so soon from your mission?" Kurama asked as he glanced up and saw the black-cloaked youkai in the tree branches outside his window.
"I went to let Koenma know that I found her," Hiei replied, looking through the leaves of the tree with his usual blank face.
"And you told him?"
"Yes."
"And what did he have to say about it?" the boy asked curiously.
"Not a lot. Just to keep her in my sights until I could capture her. He seems to think that once he finds out if she stole this power, she'll run."
"You don't?"
"No," Hiei replied simply, his tone confident.
"Is there a reason why you think that she wont run?" Kurama questioned.
"Yes. She's looking for a challenge and she knows that we are basically the most powerful she could ever find. She's looking for challenges to make her better. She thrives on her strength like it was air. She will not run," Hiei concluded.
"Do you think she stole the power?" the kitsune asked, raising his eyebrow in question.
"I don't know. There's not enough information on her to prove that she's ever done anything wrong," was his reply. Hiei gave a slight shrug. "For all we know, she's a total innocent that is wrongly accused. Sometimes, the way she acts, you could swear that she's never harmed another or done a wrong in her life. But there are those other times when she is so ruthless you would swear with your life she had the power to destroy the world without a blink, and not care. You can't get a clear reading of who she is. She has too many faces."
"It seems you have studied her extensively," Kurama said in his quiet voice, watching for the fire youkai's reaction to the accusing statement. Hiei nodded slightly, but his face did not betray what he was thinking as Kurama had hoped.
"Yes."
"And have you found a weakness in her?"
"That's the problem. She has many weaknesses, but she always makes up for them with a quick plan that you can't seem to fight against. She shows you her weakness almost openly. Her speed is a weakness, but with this 'magic' she has, she can disappear, which means it must be some kind of transparency, making her able to walk through walls and the likes. But I haven't found any other flaw in her that would help us. Everything she does is planned and well thought out. You've seen her fight. You would probably know more about her fighting style than me, but I have seen that she only uses a limited amount of energy. Almost as if she'd rather fight hand-to-hand than with her spirit energy." He shrugged slightly again. "But you already knew that. All I seem to be able to tell you is what you already know."
"Hm. Yes, I suppose so."
"I should be going. I need to make sure I don't loose her energy signal. It would take too long to find her again," Hiei said, using his right hand to stand up on the tree branch, making him realize for the first time that if she had struck his right arm, he would not be able to hold his katana. He snorted at the thought that she let him go still able to fight with just a minor healing.
'She's too soft,' he muttered to silently himself.
"Hm. Yes. Good luck to you, Hiei," Kurama said. Hiei nodded before ffitting (such a cool sound) away, the kitsune watching his retreat with a thoughtful expression.
*
Hiei watched a young woman from the shadows of a thickly branched maple tree. She laughed openly in what looked to be a dinning room with a large picture window in which Hiei looked, but the laughs rang hallow to his ears. She smiled, but they were pitying smiles, mocking the humans that surrounded her with a scorn that was evident to the demon. Her eyes were mysteriously bright, but reflected an unseen smirk, their bottoms hinting they knew an untold story. A story that only she knew, a story she kept with a proud rise to her chin. She knew something unknown to those around her. Unknown to the worlds she had traveled in. Unknown to the all-knowing and powerful. A secret that she wasn't about to tell.
Hiei looked down at the card in his hand. The silvery outline of the sword was bright and shinning, its edges brushed with the faintest of blue.
'Her magic worked. I didn't even need to ask how to use it. It pointed right to her. Hm, she's really asking for trouble with these kind of gadgets. It almost makes you wonder-' Hiei began to think, but shook his head and returned to look in the large window. The people that surrounded Thorn laughed gaily, unaware of the power that sat next to them in a cloud of superior separation. She sat in her wooden, polished, chair, sitting back with her arms crossed, her eyes suddenly gaining a far-away, phlegmatic, look. She suddenly looked up, the corners of her lips twitching with the slightest of movement as she looked out the large window in front of her.
Hiei froze as her eyes seemed to stare through the tree, into the mountain behind him. But something caught her attention and she turned her head with a painstakingly false smile.
Hiei let out a quick breath. He watched as Thorn got up and turned her back to the window to open a cupboard in the kitchen behind her. He bolted to another tree, and onto the roof, until jumping a grand fifty feet across a quiet country road to the trees on the other side of the house. By then, the girl had returned to her seat at the table, talking with the people around her. Hiei sighed and watched through a small window in the kitchen at the swaying brown locks.
'That was close. I wonder if she really saw me. No. My camouflage was perfect. She probably felt like she was being watched. Its been three days. I'm just a little on edge that she hasn't found me out yet,' Hiei thought, still watching her intently.
Finally, after another hour, four people exited the house, and Hiei was forced to leap to another tree as Thorn walked onto the porch, waving an over-blithe hand toward the retreating two cars. Just as a precautionary, he thought to himself as he watched the girl return to the house.
The night fell gently upon the rolling countryside, taking the tips of the trees and darkening, as well as lengthening them into severe, craggy points of shadow, the sun blowing their tops onto others, making them longer with time as the sun retreated. Gullies and dips in the mountains turned to murky pools of abyss, their soft edges mingling with the jagged tips of a small group of pine trees, as well as the bulbous tops of maples and other trees. The sun disappeared behind the horizontal boundary in the distance fluidly, melting like bloody pool of sickly, feverish, red light behind its wall. Low clouds, pregnant with rain, sauntered into the cozy little valley, pushing out the normal, brushing strokes of the sun's reflecting emulsions rudely.
Hiei looked up at the clouds from a large elm tree across the road, shifting his position under a thick cluster of branches and his cloak in preparation for the coming rain.
"Make sure you close the windows before it rains!" came a deep, yet strangely familiar feminine voice, only pitched higher than the musical chime that the fire youkai associated it with. Hiei looked up to see a fairly tall woman on the porch, purse in hand, shouting back into the house while scratching through the bag, looking for something.
"Don't worry about it," came a exasperated voice from inside. Thorn's voice.
"Okay. I'll talk to you tomorrow, honey." The woman turned away, finding the keys she had been looking for, and walked toward a large car. She got in and turned it on, making the engine rumble and spit before grumbling steadily. She pulled out of the driveway and sped down the street.
Hiei, curious, jumped from tree to tree until he was again facing the back of the house, looking into the large window. Thorn walked away from the screen door, which, he noticed, she left unlocked. She then proceeded toward a sliding glass door that lay in the dining room, to Hiei's right, connected to a porch. She unlocked the door and stepped outside a moment, picking up a large yellow cat from under a picnic set and bringing it inside. She did not lock that screen as well, leaving the glass door open.
'She must feel very secure if she leaves all the doors in her house unlocked,' Hiei thought, watching curiously as she held the cat in her arms, stroking it quietly, her hands just as gentle on the soft fur as they were when she had bandaged his wound. Hiei shook his head of the thought, watching as she put the cat down and continued to her right, walking down a set of stairs. He moved to a closer tree, the maple he had been in before, looking down on a door below him that, no doubt, led to a room connecting to her own. But the shades were drawn on both the door and the two other windows he had access to. Another window to the right of the door was protected with blue curtains making the room barely visible through the misty shield. Another window, to the right of that one, was also enclosed by shades that closed out the light.
Suddenly, the door he had formerly been observing opened and Thorn stood there, dressed in her usual black leather. Her dog came up to her and greeted her feverishly with an exuberant display of tail-wagging and whines. She crouched down and gave the dog a few pats before it ran off to the far corner of its pen. She straightened and looked up toward the ever-darkening sky and threatening clouds.
"Its going to storm tonight," she said out loud. "A bad night to sleep in the trees, Hiei. Three nights sleeping in trees. I would hardly think that would be comfortable. And the rain will be harsh. No tree around here can keep you dry. I've left my doors unlocked, Hiei, so that you could take my unnatural hospitality and come in from the rain. This door will remain unlocked as well. There's a futon here on my left. You may use it if you please." Silence burned around them as Hiei stared at her dumbly for a moment.
'I should have known I couldn't keep myself hidden from her. Her psychic abilities are too powerful,' the youkai thought, shaking his shock away with a cold shrugging motion. He wondered if he should reveal himself or stay hidden. 'She might just be bluffing. No, she knows I am here. There is no use in hiding anymore.' He leaped down from his perch, landing easily on the porch's wooden railing, his balance as perfect as ever. Her dog ran up to him, yet remained a safe distance away, watching him uneasily, seeming to feel the power coming from him.
"How long have you known I was here?" he asked. She looked at him.
"Since you got here. I take it my map worked fine?" she asked, shrugging away the question smoothly.
"Yes."
"Good," she said, nodding and looking up to the ever-darkening sky. Thunder bellowed over them, thick clouds swarming in from the north as well as the south, their heat and coolness mingling together to form one large cloud, which roared mighty waves of thunder, as well as flickers of smiling lightening. "The storm is moving in quickly. Wont you come inside?" Hiei glanced at a bolt of lightening from the corner of his vermilion eyes. He didn't say anything.
"C'mon then. Better get inside before it starts to rain," she said, turning and motioning him inside with a wave of her hand. Her mood had changed from that afternoon. She was no longer in her false, happy mood, but her true, calm, quiet and amused mood. The mood that was the real Thorn.
Hiei didn't move a moment. Thorn turned around and looked at him from the doorway when he did not follow, giving him a questioning glance.
"Why are you doing this? I don't understand why you are being so kind to someone you know will eventually cause you harm," Hiei said curiously, but his voice was blank, holding its usual darkness in the undertones.
"Because I'll never get any better without challenges, and the last thing I need is to have to search another after you get burnt to a crisp because you were sitting in a tree during a lightening storm, watching me and got struck down by lightening. That just wouldn't due. It is very hard to find someone like you, Hiei, who fights the way you do. Not holding back, but trying your hardest to bring out the full potential in the one you are fighting. Not to mention, Koenma would probably get very upset and sic Yusuke on me. Then I would get angry. You might have noticed that our personalities don't exactly mix very well. And Kurama, well, sometimes he's just too kind for his own good. Now Youko I might find an interesting challenge, but not like you, Hiei, not like you," she concluded, giving a small shake of her head. Hiei gave her a weary look. "Now," she said, continuing before Hiei could say anything. "Are you coming inside? Its starting to sprinkle."
*
Hiei watched her from the corner of the room, sitting on the edge of the futon she had offered him. She was banging lightly on this square plate, staring at a box that sat on top of a wooden desk. The glare from the screen reflected off thinly rimmed glasses.
'Why would she wear glasses? She can change her eyes at any time to suit her vision's needs,' Hiei thought to himself.
"Because I do not like wasting my energy like that. I'd rather just wear these," she replied to his thoughts, still typing on the box Kurama had called a computer. "Although I am impressed, your guarding skills have improved since the last time I hacked into your mind." Hiei growled slightly and glared at her.
"I don't like it when you do that," he said with a snap.
"No one ever does," she said with a smirk.
"Then you should stop."
"I can't, its too amusing." They turned silent. Hiei didn't feel like arguing. He was too tired.
"You should have gotten more sleep last night," Thorn said suddenly. Thunder rolled over the house, making it tremble with the force. "You're tired."
"I'm fine," Hiei growled, crossing his arms and looking out the newly-opened shade on the door beside him. Lightening licked the sky, followed by the predictable thunder. He looked around the room. Across from the futon was a TV, which sat on a tall wooden stand with doors beneath it. It was a metallic blue and under its shelf sat a long, black box, and under that another black box, but much squarer. A cassette stuck out of its mouth like a mocking tongue. They were precariously clean, but one could tell that they had not been touched for entertainment purposes in months. The time flashed on its surface in bright orange numbers. 10:32.
Next to the center was the desk at which Thorn sat, tapping on the keyboard religiously, her back straight against the straight-backed chair and her ankles crossed beneath it. Her eyes were expressionless, blank pits of void that stared into a white screen, and the wall in front of her was just as bland and undecipherable. A creamy white with dark green boarder securing the perimeter of the small sitting room, stopping above her. Beside her right was a thick curtain of, what looked like, plastic willow branches dividing the room in half. But they were dark blue and instead of leaves, they held stars and moon crescents along their length. Behind them, Hiei could barely make out dark navy walls, silver painting the trim. On the wall to her right was a silver stenciling of some creature rearing up regally, icy blue eyes glaring at him from behind the wall of beads from above a bed. He looked at it harder. Yes. It was. A dragon. Hiei's eyes widened. The Black Blaze?
"Why a dragon?" Hiei asked, turning his attention to the girl typing not ten feet from the image. Thorn did not turn toward him, nor glance at him, as she continued to type, showing no sign at all that his question was unexpected.
"It is my trainer's crest," she said quietly. "My trainer said I would be the next dragon of destruction and so passed it to me. The year my twin-, I mean, the year I was born was the year of the dragon and it is said that the year of your birth helps determine the strength of your spirit energy, as well as its abilities. You know that dragon's are powerful, your most powerful attack is a dragon, and is undefeatable, even by you, its welder." Lightening flickered, illuminating the room with its derring-do light, followed doggly by its partner, which barked a deep echo. "He told me all about the Black Blaze. He said I would be just as powerful, and just as famous. He said he would teach me everything he ever knew about the power of the dragon and that I would weld that power." Lightening and thunder warred in the sky, both illuminating the house and making it quake. Hiei watched her expression, which did not change. Rain began to patter on the window, streaking its glass mournfully as it was dragged downward, clawing at the smooth surface in a desperate attempt to stay where it had landed. They reflected the gnarled fingers of lightening as they tried desperately to grasp the earth in sickly contortion through the drop's refractors.
Thorn turned off the computer's monitor and got up from her seat. "You take your coffee black, don't you? If you insist upon staying up all night once again then I'll fix you a cup," she said, pushing in her chair and making her away past the futon, into the hallway that lay to Hiei's right. He remained silent. She walked away, and he could hear her turn on the coffee maker in the kitchen and the opening of cupboards after a few moments.
Hiei stood up and walked to the other side of the room. He stood a moment before the wall of plastic, contemplating entering. After a hesitating second, he lifted a hand, pushing away the curtain and stepping into the dark room. He turned to his left, facing the bright stencil on the wall. Lightening ripped through the dark house, giving the bright, ice-tinged, chasms life, and shadowing the silver scales and giving the silver claws a threatening gleam, like the points of knives as their deadly tips. From its mighty jaws thundered an enraged roar, its breath hot with fire that never breached its lips nor heated its glinting fangs. It looked down on him menacingly, its shape seemed to dance in the fluttering of light, its tail a coiling, snake-like whip that lashed at the air with anger behind muscled haunches. Hiei's eyes widened and his jaw dropped just slightly. He could have sworn life had come to the painting. He stepped forward, putting his hand on the creature. It was....warm. True, it was becoming slightly warm in the room since the storm had began, but-....no. Such thoughts were foolish. Hiei shook his head and took back his hand. It was a painting once again, the life gone from its proud eyes that looked down upon him. Its serpentine body was unmoving, forever frozen in its roil pose on the sky-shaded background. Hiei backed away, giving the dragon another long glance before turning away and walking back to resume his position on the futon.
"Do you like it?" Thorn asked, startling him out of a semi-daze. She stood in the doorway of the room, her hands grasping a steaming mug.
"Like what?" he asked dumbly.
"I painted it myself. My tw- I mean, I seem to have a talent with a pencil and brush. He-My family says I give life to the lifeless with my hand. They say such artistry is rare. They say it is appealing to the eye and it inspires emotions they cannot place. Hn. How easy it is to please human feelings," Thorn said with a small laugh. Hiei picked up the cup she had placed on a small table in front of him as she had spoken. She stared blankly at the picture he had examined, her bright eyes gaining, once again, that stare that looked as if it went right through the thing that it viewed. Lightening brightened her face as she sat on the wooden arm of the futon, her arms holding onto the sides of the wood, her legs crossed. It glittered in the endless canons of her almost demonic green eyes. Hiei stared over his cup at the girl. There was an evil glint in their depths, a light, yet a shadowed darkness as well that the bolt of electricity revealed to the youkai. The flash ended, and Thorn's eyes returned to their normal brightness that, even in the dark, was vibrant.
Hiei sipped from the cup of steaming coffee. Thorn plopped down on the cushion of the futon, using the armrest and the back of the futon corner as a wall, resting her back against them, pulling her legs up and wrapping her arms around the leather pants, resting her chin on her knees. She looked out the door's large window, watching the flickering of lightening lit up the dreary sky, and listening to the rumbles of thunder. Hiei watched, but the light did not reflect the look in her eyes again. The look of a...a hitokiri. A man-slayer? (Can you tell I just bought two Samuri X movies? The Movie and Trust and Betrayal. Trust and Betrayal is great! Kenshin is so kawaii as Battousai!))
'This girl, a merciless killer? No. I'm imagining things,' Hiei thought, taking a sip from his cup. His eyes began to droop, even though the caffeine was slowly seeping into his blood stream.
"Why do you speak as if you are not one of them?" Hiei asked, trying to stay awake, although curiosity did plague his mind and was the parentage of the thought.
"What are you talking about?" Thorn asked, not looking away from the window. Her face was blank, but her voice held in it the faintest traces of a snap.
"You talk about humans as if you're not one. Why is that?"
"I don't know what you're talking about, Hiei. I am human," she said. "I am one of them. My blood and theirs is the same." The rain was falling harder now, spitting against the glass viciously, running somber streaks down the pane. Hiei watched as well, grateful he was not out in it. It looked cold and unforgiving as it tinked against the glass. Frightening and awe-inspiring all the same. At times the wind made tree branches crash and snap, billowing leaf-litter into the air and swirling it in fierce gusts before dropping it to the ground. But for the most part the wind was silent, a neutral figure in the war in the sky, helping one side only when it pleased it.
"Aren't you going to sleep?" Hiei asked after a long silence. Thorn's gaze did not waver from its spot.
"No. I'd rather watch the storm. Its much more interesting. Its a war, don't you see? Between the warm and the cold. They have finally clashed to settle their differences, and one side will blow away and the victor will stay to weep over this valley in its victory. Its strange. How war can so often bring about a better life than before. Yet, in the same train of thought, it can make it just as brutal as before, worse, if possible. Changing the unbearably hot to cool or worsening the heat to prove its strength. War is a constant reminder of our own lives, I think. We are always enslaved to its power. Battling one part of ourselves with another. Never really knowing which will prevail in the end. But humans, they-we, don't battle like that. We battle with our neighbors when our problems plague us. We are disgusting. Too weak to control their emotions. Its sickening." Thorn wasn't talking to Hiei anymore, the youkai could see. Her voice was darker than the room in which they sat, growling as boldly as the thunder that tore through the being of the house. Her eyes were icy blue once again, silver flames flickering in the dark depths of the irises, watching the branches of lightening. Hiei was taken back a moment, surprised at her tone and expression. He decided not to press the subject anymore. It seemed, to put it lightly, enrage her.
Hiei turned away, watching the storm raging outside and the rain pour down on the other side of the protective door.
"Weren't you supposed to close the windows when it rained?" he asked, uncharacteristically uneasy in the boiling silence. She seemed to fume in its mist, her cold eyes burning the air to heated life.
"The house needs the rain and the fresh air to cleanse its walls. There is too much negative energy breathing in it," Thorn said, her voice loosing its former bite and softening. Her features seemed to soften as well, as if the thought made her laugh in the deepest part of the sinister side of her soul.
"Where is the negative energy coming from?" Hiei asked.
"Me," she said, the smallest of smirks rushing to her lips. Hiei gave her a weary look. With the setting of the sun seemed to come another part of the girl. She changed, a more shadowed image of herself took the place of the almost constantly amused one. Hiei watched her as the night drew on, tugging at his mind, bidding him to sleep. He had himself as uncomfortable as possible, watching Thorn resolutely. She did not move the entire night, the brightness of her jade eyes sparking at every lightening bolt, every shadow on her face making her look all the more sinister and almost evil in a sense.
'This girl I could believe stole the power. Yes, she could. But not the Thorn I find in the day. She is two people. She is two rain clouds,' Hiei thought, his ears guarding against a horrendous wave of thunder. 'But she says she is the wind. Indifferent. Which makes her three people. Hn. A confusing person.'
Thorn stayed frozen throughout the night, just as she had done the night before they had battled. But she had enjoyed that night by the look on her face. And enjoyed it with relish, a smile on her face. But tonight, the storm invoked some demonic spirit within her. She sat curled up in the corner, her closest toe not less then five feet from Hiei, yet she felt miles away from all reality. Miles from her body. Yet she seemed closer than ever, her energy, which was cleverly hidden, burned in the room, heat radiating from its unseen power. The electricity in the air only added to the feeling of closeness. But as dawn approached and the storm moved on, coolness crept into the room, the confinement of the heat dispersing in an orderly fashion.
Hiei blinked and looked up as dawn lightened the clouds just slightly. His dark carmine eyes stared straight ahead of him. He was the only one on the futon. Thorn was gone. Hiei looked around quickly, but not frantically. His hand began to inch toward his sword. Something was...different. He looked into the girl's room. The bed lay untouched, as did everything else. But-wait! There, on the chair. Her sword. It was humming slightly, and he felt like it was speaking to him.
"What's the matter? BlackFire putting the great Hiei on edge?" came a cheerful, yet somber voice. Hiei jerked his head around to see Thorn with a cup of coffee in her hand. She placed it in front of him. "I'm sure if I offered you food you'd refuse it, so if you get hungry there's a couple of health bars in the cupboard under the futon," she said, straightening.
"You eat? Now that's surprising." He picked up the coffee cup, and noticed she had already taken the other away.
"I am, after all, only human, Hiei. And humans consume a lot of food to survive," she said, taking BlackFire from his hammock that lay slung around the chair's top and placing him on her back.
"Where are you going?" he asked, sipping the warm liquid. A sound came from her. A… giggle? What was up with this strange girl? Last night she looked like a hitokiri and now she seemed almost childish.
"Out. I have one more day of vacation from school before I return, and I plan to enjoy it," she said, turning around. Hiei glared at her from under his white bangs. He finished off his drink quickly.
'She must be going somewhere. I'll have to follow her,' Hiei thought.
"Thanks for, ah, everything," Hiei said uncertainly, standing.
"Its fine." Hiei nodded as she walked toward her dark room, turning and opening the door. He glanced back once, uneasy about something he could not place. He shrugged it off with a low growl, turning away from the swaying frame of the girl and her hissing sword and exiting the house. He closed the door behind him, looking around him with his Jagan eye. Nothing. The girl's dog peeked out of its large house, looking at him with floppy brown ears perched. He glanced at it and jumped into a near-by tree, receiving a small bark at his retreat.
*
Hiei over-looked a large pond from the branch of a far-reaching tree. He looked around. He could have sworn he saw her enter near this patch of water. His eyes were confused as he looked farther over the branch, seeing a bubble rise from the water. Suddenly, the youkai got the strangest feeling. Not of being watched or followed or being in danger. A feeling of being... tricked. Too late, he realized, turning his head just enough to see the mischievous glint in Thorn's outrageously laughing eyes and a smile on her face, as her hands pushed him hard in the chest, upsetting his balance. Caught unaware, Hiei tried to regain his balance, yet failed, succeeding only in grabbing the girl's wrist, pulling her down with him, as he plunged down the twenty feet into the clear water. Thorn gave a short, thrilled laugh before they both came crashing into the pond, water muffling the rest of her outburst. Hiei saw, for the first time, a real, full-fledged smile on her face and heard, again, for the first time, a genuine laugh spill from her lips as they fell. Water sloshed around them sourly at being disturbed from its quiet stillness. Hiei released Thorn's wrist as he swam to the surface. He coughed a few moments, treading water as he did so and shaking the water from his face and hair, which drooped lazily and unhappily over his face. He glared at the girl in front of him, who was also treading water about five feet away, and laughing gaily.
"What the hell was that for?" Hiei spat. Thorn softened her laugh, which echoed through the surrounding trees.
"Oh...you know. Part of my training. Oh geez, Hiei. You should have...seen the look....on your face! You looked...so surprised. And so pissed," her words tremored with her deep laugh.
"I am pissed, wench. Now get your ass over here so I can kill you," Hiei growled, lunging forward, anger heated in his eyes. Thorn just laughed, swimming through the water easily to avoid his bursts of slow speed.
"You're quick on land, and in trees, Hiei. But without footholds, you're just as slow in the water as I was on land," Thorn said with a large smile, floating through the water with the grace of a seal, enjoying watching the fire youkai curse and snarl into the water as he struggled to catch her.
"What makes you so damn fast?" he asked, resting in the middle of the pool, panting slightly after a more moments of futile chase.
"Ha. I've been taught in the elements of every breed of dragon. Water, Air, Fire, Earth. All in all, I'm at home in every environment. I might not be fast on land, but that's only because human legs are weak. But their arms are fairly strong and so the water is an element I find appealing." She chuckled, waiting for his next attack she knew would come, watching him with amusement as he struggled to hold his temper in check.
"Yeah? Well I'll kill you all the same for what you've done, bitch," Hiei spat, lunging forward once again, rage in his expression. Thorn ducked under water, appearing a moment later behind him after swimming under him. She laughed once again, her musical voice floating in the treetops that moaned in a humid wind, moisture dripping from their leaves and needles like sweat. Hiei jerked around. Her eyes closed in the jovial laugh and Hiei took that moment to make a desperate lunge forward. Although she heard the splashing, Thorn was so caught up in her outburst that she did not have time to dodge away before controlling her lungs. He pushed her under the water, her silky hair floating around his arms. In his rage he held her for a long moment, unaware that any time at all had passed. Finally, he looked down. There she was, looking up and still smiling at him, his hands on her shoulders as he held her under the water. He was using all of his weight to keep her under the water, so when she, well, disappeared, he fell face-first into the water, making a grand splash upon the shore. He felt himself being pulled downward and he frantically clawed at the water, looking and reaching for something to grasp, even though he knew there was nothing. He kicked, but came in contact with only the thickness of the water, even though it was his ankles that were held. Suddenly, he was thrown upward, out of the water and into the air with a silvery sparkle of water droplets. He landed on a grassy shore, gasping for breath and choking as he rested on his hands and knees. With an exhausted groan he fell onto his shoulder, his eyes drooping. His cloak was sodden wet, a dead weight on his chest as he flipped onto his back. He coughed up another mouthful of water before bolting upright and looking around. The pool was empty, only a ripple on its surface.
"Damn, I lost her," he cursed, striking the ground with his right fist and coughing again.
"Oh, Hiei, sometimes you are so easily fooled its funny," came Thorn's voice to his right. He looked over. She sat against the rough bark of a tree trunk, her arms and legs crossed and her expression back to its normal amusing smirk.
"What the hell was that all about?" he hissed. "Don't give me that bull about it being training either. Its a stupid excuse."
"Well then I have nothing to tell you. I just wanted to know if it would work, really. You're just upset because I got the upper hand by myself and you didn't let me." She stared straight ahead, unblinking. Hiei grumbled. He stood up, wringing the water out of his cloak, which felt like lead on his body. He shook his head roughly, sending water flying in every direction as his hair slowly began to straighten back into its normal position. He took out his sword sheath and pulled his weapon from it. He flipped over the sheath, expelling water onto the already soaked earth before replacing the sword. Finally, he looked over at Thorn. She wasn't looking at him directly, but she was watching every move he made as she looked over at the peaceful water. Her long hair was bleached such a dark brown from the water it looked jet black, even though sunlight filtered warmly down through the trees and highlighted it a deep and yawning gold. Her leather skirt and top had water running freely down their surfaces; waterproof. Water also ran down her tawny skin, soft and caressing. The two strands of hair that framed her face held firmly to her face like dark, gold-shinning scars.
"So are you still going to kill me? Even though I did teach you something that will prove useful toward improvement within yourself?" she asked, her voice curious.
"What the hell are you talking about?" he seethed.
"I just told you your ultimate weakness, that's what I'm talking about," she replied.
"Hn. One weakness. Its not enough to get me killed. Just as long as I avoid it. And I can swim just fine."
"Avoid it? You can't avoid water, Hiei. It covers three fourths of this planet. If you don't get that problem fixed, it just might kill you. Because you only need one weakness to get your throat slit."
"Shut-up," he said darkly.
"Suit yourself. But you know I'm right," Thorn said with a shrug. She stood up, jerking her head slightly, making water fall freely and drip down her long locks. She turned and looked at him. His hair was slowly drying, making it stand on edge once again but for the tips, which drooped in a sour frown. But his eyes were heated, angry at himself mostly. Showing the enemy a weakness meant sure death in the demon world. What did it mean here? Would she push it to her own advantage? Try to kill him like she could have so easily done today? He growled to himself, curses running over and over in his mind harshly.
"You should work on those skills before we fight again. Because we both know that we will, whether or not its Koenma that arranges the match, or us. But if Koenma demands it first, then I wont hold back. I'll use the dirtiest tricks in the book if they suit me. Then, well, lets just say that if... when that happens, you might get caught in a corner without speed in the water." She turned away, walking back toward her house. It was then he noticed that BlackFire was with her, glowing and humming happily. He cursed again and leaped into the trees.
'I must get stronger in the water. But how? There is no one to teach me and I have no idea about it. I can swim, yes, but not like she can. With ease. Damn the water!' he cursed in his mind. 'And to think I never knew just makes it worse!'
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Authoress' Note: Here ya go! A nice, loooong chapter to make up for all the late chapters! ^_^ I'm really sorry about all these issues with it. I've been having some personal issues that I've been dealing with.
Keiko: poor J-chan's been having 'issues'
J: -sigh- yeah. Which is why all the guy's aren't here. I've kicked them out because they were teasing me and making me depressed.
Shizuru: -smoking a cig- yeah, we've all got issues.
Yukina: poor J-chan…
J: alright, enough of this depressing crap. You're reviews really do pull me out of this slump! They're wonderful! As usual, I've been trying to get this chapter out since Thurs. with no such luck! Grrr..
Atzuko: -drunk- alright! Let's look at reviews! -chipper-like-
J:err.. Can someone take away her booze? She's scaring me…
Shizuru: -takes beer- -drinks it herself- yummy.
J: err… yeah. Whatever. Anyway, let's do reviews.
SilverKnight7: thanks! Yeah, my fighting scenes don't suck too bad. ^_^
Miyako14: thanks! Wow, it seems everyone liked my fighting scene. Well then, you'll REALLY like the ones that come later! ^_^ -hint- -hint-
Atwood(): OH! Thank you so much! It's always marked it wrong on spell check, but had no correction. I'd go back and edit, but then I'd have to do nearly EVERY chapter. But thank you so much! Now I have it for future chapters! Thanks again.
J: alright! That's all everyone! Thank you so much! I didn't think anyone would like my fighting scenes. I try to use the anime as help with them and use lots of detail. I hate it when people only write about two blows apiece and suddenly you know who's going to win. It's no fun. ^_^. Anyway, thanks again. I'll post the next chapter very soon to make up for all the lateness.
The purple button is your friend, push it and marvel in its wonders!
^_^