Catse: Here's chaptah numbah eighteen! Yay! Two more and the story is done! Oh well, I guess I better get to work then! Enjoy!
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Disclaimer: I would love to own YYH, but I don't. Oh well....
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Shadow and Hiei were again evenly matched, but this time in speed, and wounds.
Although Hiei had many wounds over his body, Shadow had the large one and the few, so both were splattering blood about at the usual rate.
The only real difference...Hiei was weaker because he had less blood at the moment.
But other than that, both fought with a rage that could not be beaten.
As Hiei fought, he began to develop an idea.
This sword was especially made for Flame Dancing, but the sword Shadow was using didn't.
Plus, he had noticed a few rice paper lamps lit around the room, giving the lighting required to allow sight.
If he could figure out how to coat the blade in oil...yeah...it might work.
But then, where would he get the oil.
As if on cue, he began to feel tiny drops of a cold liquid-like substance splash down on him as he swung his blade.
When he glanced at his sword, he came to find that it was coated in oil just as he wanted it to be.
Apparently, when the handle was squeezed a certain way, it caused the blade to excrete oil, for the fire.
Hiei snickered.
Yeah...everything was going just right...
He blocked another hit and laughed in Shadow's face, causing the cat to become curious. After all, curiosity killed the cat, and this was no different a situation.
"What's so funny?" Shadow hissed, putting pressure on the blade.
"You can't use a flaming sword can you?" Hiei snickered, applying the same pressure back.
"What!? Of course I can!"
"Then you would have a sword made for it." Hiei replied, glaring at him, a smile on his face.
Shadow's only reply was to growl and increase pressure.
It was as Hiei thought.
Shadow had no idea how to use a flaming sword.
Well then, maybe Hiei could.
He used flames many times before, and burns never bothered him.
Although, to a cat, they probably did.
He jumped up and out of the way of the thrust Shadow used, and leapt up to a ledge next to the rice-paper lamp.
"What the...? Are you crazy! You can't use a flaming sword! It's far too dangerous for you!"
Hiei smiled.
"I live dangerously." He replied, thrusting his blade into the lamp.
Instantly, the flame's devoured the blade, taking it's striking shape as it's own.
Bits of fire dripped off as the oil let go of the metal, and Hiei began to snicker uncontrollably.
"Now let's see what a flaming sword can do."
He jumped down and attacked Shadow head on, striking the blade with a powerful force.
Shadow had a good pressure, unfortunately for him though, his blade couldn't sustain the heavy pressure of a sword that was growing in temperature.
Now it was it's turn to break in half.
Hiei smiled.
Of course, the cat demon refused to loose so easily.
He flipped backwards gingerly and snatched up the second sword, using it to block Hiei's attacks.
Hiei began to laugh when that one too, snapped in half.
It seemed as if the usual metal couldn't take the strength and heat of his blade.
The blade of his sword was so well crafted, with a metal that increased the heat of the flames the more the sword swung.
So Hiei was capable of using a flaming sword like this.
He liked that idea.
It was funny though.
If both he and Shadow could use the Sword Dancing technique, then why was it only him and not Shadow that could use the flames?
Then again, he also had a strange feeling to him, as if a spirit had taken over his body and was using it to their own purpose.
Wait!
That's it!
Hiei had to look at the Kanji on the side of the sword on last time.
'Protector of the Protector'
It made sense!
Suta's mother had known that he was going to have to fight with her brother, so she had placed a spirit energy in the blade, for him to use.
He wouldn't have been surprised if it was her spirit inhabiting his body right now, allowing him to use the sword in full flame.
He was the protecter of Suta, and she was the protecter of the two races of being.
He was the protecter of the protecter!
Well then, he was going to live up to the name and do what he was meant to.
Shadow was trapped now.
He slunk against the farthest wall, glaring at the sword as Hiei pressed it up to his pale neck in triumph.
So the winner was declared.
Hiei had won.
Shadow smirked though, and Hiei had to wonder what it was the intelligent cat was up to.
"So you know how to use a Flaming Sword...good for you. But you're already too late. You've only ten minutes now, and there's no way you can get from here and to the barrier in time."
"I'll find a way." Hiei replied, pressing the blade closer.
"Oh well...I guess you have no chance. You see, the glass bottle, with the air, has a certain pressure. Should anything attack the outside, the glass with fly at her and kill her, and then you won't be able to save her or the barrier."
"Why are you doing this anyway? Really hate women?" Yusuke asked as he and Kuwabara stepped in behind Hiei.
"What are you doing here?" Hiei replied.
"What...did you forget? We came with you genius." His punk-like friend replied, hands in pockets. Hiei returned his question with a glare. "We came over here to see if we can kick his ass before you kill him. I still want a piece of him."
"Yeah, I want to show him what's it like to get a real beating!" Kuwabara added, rolling up one of his sleeves.
"Whatever. Just do it quickly." Hiei replied, stepping back, his sword still up.
He'd let them have their fun, but then he would kill him.
There was no dispute about that.
"You want to know why I'm destroying the barrier? I have no care for life! There's nothing left for me! So why should I have to go alone eh? I'm going to take both worlds with me!"
Yusuke stepped up, smirking as he cracked his knuckles.
"Well...I'm sorry but selfish demons don't seem to be the high point of the evening, so if you'll sit still I'll bash your brains in." Yusuke replied sarcastically.
To say the least, Yusuke and Kuwabara gave Shadow such a beating, as to make him feel like a slab of hamburger meat. His skin was beginning to bloat in some spots, where he had been hit too hard for his body to take.
"Okay Hiei. You can finish him off. Me and Kuwabara are done kicking ass." Yusuke added as he walked away, smiling.
"Gladly." Hiei brought the sword down on the fallen demon, and slit his throat, leaving him to die slowly on the floor as the koorime walked away as well.
"You'll never get to her in time. It's all over for you." Shadow laughed one last time, before collapsing limply on the floor.
"And I thought you were a smart feline." Hiei replied, striding away in confidence.
It was now that all the cuts and gashes hurt all at once and he had to sit down to regain his composure over the pain.
By then though, Kurama had already come up with a way to get Suta out.
"We've about five minutes left now, but his should only take a few seconds."
He told them as he slowly pecked at the glass, trying to create a small hole.
"Allow me." Yusuke added, pressing Kurama out of the way.
With his fingers up in the image of a gun, Yusuke concentrated his power into one blast, centered on a low part of the glass bottle.
"Shot Gun!" he shouted, sending a thin beam of blue light through the glass.
It cut a clean hold inside, allowing the air from the outside to flow in slowly.
The glass did splatter and float around the room, but it couldn't cause much damage on Suta's part for it's small size, so she was still safe.
"Thank you Yusuke." Kurama replied, dropping a small seed into the giant bottle.
Instantly, as it landed, it began to grow, and expanded as several vines around the inside.
"Whoa, that's a mean looking rose bush." Yusuke joked, his face pressed up to the glass.
"You shouldn't do that. You'll have your face cut up from the glass." Kurama warned.
Instantly, Yusuke snapped back from the glass, rubbing his nose as if he was glad that it was still there.
Suta looked shocked when she saw the vines around her, but as the plants gently lifted her up into what looked like a rose bud, she began to understand what was happening, and allowed them to do so.
The plant wrapped her up in the bud, and then, off of an instant warning to: "Take cover!" the bottle expanded, and blew up.
Bits of glass flew everywhere, landing everywhere that it could, and finally, after a moment of waiting, they were allowed to stand up with out danger.
The area had been torn up by the glass, but Kurama's plant stood unharmed in the middle of the room.
The Yoko stepped up to the plant, and pressed a hand on the bud, in which opened up to allow him to pull Suta out.
The inside of the plant was velvety and red, like a rose, and Suta gladly climbed out, not liking the fact that she had had to be put in a small space like that.
Then, as if it's job was done, it compressed back into it's seed form, in which Kurama replaced it in his pocket.
"There all done." He added, holding Suta in his arms.
Her instant reaction was to try to get out of his grasp, so as to check on Hiei.
In response, Kurama carried her to him, and scraped some glass away from the area so he could set her down with out worry of her getting cut.
"Oh Hiei! What did he do to you?" she cried, looking his wounds over.
He had several alright, but they didn't seem that bad to him.
That, and she was getting her hands soaked in his blood.
Hiei checked her for any cuts, and then hugged her back, glad that she was alright, but even he knew time was short.
And he let her know it.
"You need to touch the barrier before time runs out." he replied, standing up painfully.
"Yes, and we have very little." Agreed Kurama, looking at his watch.
"How long do we have?" Kuwabara asked, stepping up to the group.
"Not long. Three minutes. Come on, we have to go!"
"Wait!" Suta shouted, causing them to stop.
"What?" Yusuke replied, looking agitated.
"I can get us there."
"What do you mean?" inquired Kurama.
"While I was in the palace, I began to experience a few...things. It's how I got to the alley when my throat was slit, and how I got to my house before he kidnapped me."
She pointed to her uncle, and Hiei figured she had no idea who he was or what relation he was.
But he'd have to tell her later.
"I think my mother was a demon. Because in the past week, my senses have strengthened at an alarming rate...and...when really depressed, I can open a portal."
"Then do it! We have to get there now!" Yusuke shouted, agitated.
"Right." She closed her eyes and concentrated, and in an instant, a red portal opened up right next to her, large enough for their group.
"Come on!" She replied, pressing them through. But she didn't have much strength, so Hiei had to pick her up and carry her.
If not for him, she would have fainted again.
The other's offered to carry her, but Hiei insisted that he would.
After all, if it hadn't been for him, she would have never been caught and brought here.
He only hoped...that they still had enough time to fix everything.
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Catse: Oh! Another cliffie! Oh well, chapter nineteen is up next, so please be patient. And thanx for reading, everyone! Please review! Ja Ne!