Element Panther: Nope, sorry. I have the whole thing worked out and it's not changing. Besides , those two being alike is the whole point as to why they're not going to get together. It'd be like asking your sibling to go on a date with you.

Winter's Rose, Chapter Eight

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"Geez, Kurama, what the hell was that for??" Yusuke snarls when the fox-ningen finally gets off his friend and starts stalking off.

"For once I will agree with Hiei's original assessment of you." Kurama's voice is very low, and very dangerous. "You are a fool. Do you even realize how close you just came to killing Aislin?"

"What?" The black-haired human stares at his friend, who is now vibrating with suppressed fury, the fox-ningen's ears nearly pointed, mane of hair bushed out. Kuwabara is just looking at the two of them in confusion.

"Use your head for once, Yusuke!" Kurama snaps. "Obviously you noticed she kept her coat on, but did you even bother to guess why? As an ice apparition, these kinds of temperatures are on the edge of being uncomfortable, but she is not just an ice apparition!"

"So wouldn't that mean that this wouldn't bother her?" is the meek, confused reply. Kurama keeps himself from smacking the male upside the head with great effort, and contents himself with a bone-chilling snarl.

"I suppose we should have told you this from the start to prevent just such a thing," he finally admits, choking his anger back and letting his hair smooth itself out again, starting to pace around in a small circle as he talks to help vent further. "Due to the rather substantial mix of her bloodlines, Aislin's inner body temperature and the way she feels atmosphere is reversed. Her body temperature is normally somewhere around forty to thirty degrees Fahrenheit or lower, and drops when she is ill. Cold to us is hot to her, and what we feel as hot is cold. In short, Yusuke, by removing her jacket you exposed her to near freezing temperatures."

Yusuke and Kuwabara both blanch and look towards the doorway that Hiei had taken Aislin through several minutes before, just as Koenma and a group of fidgety ogres come through it.

"Crap," Yusuke mutters in resignation. This time, Kurama actually agrees with him.

=====================================================

During the time that I was unconscious, I Dreamed. The Void-crafted dreamscape consisted of a flat, featureless plain blanketed in snow, with no sun or moon, but lit brightly all the same. I stood ankle deep in the powder, and felt absolutely nothing. Not heat, or cold, or any emotion of any kind. It was…peaceful.

Unfortunately like most dreams before it, it didn't stay peaceful. A memory walked up from out of nothing and stood only a few feet away, smiling just like he used to, hair blowing in a breeze I couldn't feel. "You're not paying attention again, koishii," he told me gently, those words he used to say all the time when I was with him. "You've got your guard up too tight and you can't see the forest for the trees. Pay attention, or you're going to miss out."

"Nothing new," I replied flatly. "I've missed out on a lot of things since you've been gone. Why did you have to leave me?"

That smile that I loved so much just grew a little bigger before he replied, "Because I had no choice. You think I'd really have left you if I had a say in the matter?"

"It would have been like you."

"Not for this. Not for us. And I'm not going to be gone much longer. I promise. Just look sharp, or I'm going to go right past and you'll never realize it." And with that careless wave, he started to vanish back into the air, the last thing to disappear his warm, loving smile. And after he was gone the pain hit. The loneliness, the feelings of betrayal, and the knowledge that even in a dream, he still lied. I could feel, then. The warmth of snow under my bare feet, and the tears streaming down my face.

"Yoko…"

=====================================================

Ping. Ping. Ping, ping, ping, ping. Hiei looks over at the slender figure lying on the ice a few feet away and blinks in shock as tears slide from between long pale lashes and change into midnight-blue and black gems that chime musically as they bounce away. The concerned fire apparition has brought them to one of their old hiding places; a small cave nearly one-hundred fifty miles away from Koenma's palace, or where the palace would be if this was the Reikai instead of the Makai. Half of it had been fitted for the survival of one such as himself, the other gleams with a thick layer of ice for her, all of it set up centuries ago.

In all the time that he has known her, he has never once actually seen her cry for sorrow--joy and laughter, yes, and the frustration that borders on rage, and once for shared pain--but never from her own sorrow. But now her tear-gems roll off the low slab that serves Aislin as a bed, bouncing almost into Hiei's reluctant reach. When one happens to bounce against his foot, he delicately picks it up and scowls unhappily at it. From the rare tears he's shed himself over his long, long life, he knows these colors as near-suicidal sorrow and pain. And she has shed so many.

The pings slow, and then stop, just before aquamarine eyes open and blink in confusion at the sight of a frozen roof above her. Then memory comes visibly flooding back and she sits up to look around for him. "Hiei-san?"

"Over here, Aislin." He keeps himself perfectly still as she reorients to her surroundings and to her body again. She'd gone into the Void for a brief time, and he knows it always takes a few moments to reattach soul to body.

"Hiei. Is this where I think it is?"

"If you think it's our old emergency camp, yes."

"Oh. Good." Shaking her head, she starts to swing her legs over the slab's edge, and snatches her hand away when a couple of her tear-gems slide against it. "Che!"

"Calm down. You were Dreaming." She gives him a startled look that dissolves into weariness and she shrugs as she replies.

"It won't have been the first time. I almost always go there these days." He gazes at her with heightened respect as she buries her face in her hands and rubs, smearing away some flesh-colored substance and revealing a greeny-blue demon mark right where a Jagan would be.

"Your dreams have become the Void…?"

"Yes, and I want it to stop," she mumbles into her hands. "I'm tired of going there, all it brings is pain." Gesturing her over, he gives her a reassuring smile and jerks his head as emphasis. Surrendering, she quickly passes through his area into the circle of his arms and the welcome heat of his aura, settling into his lap with the wariness of a feral cat. "It's a good thing living heat doesn't feel like everything else," she mumbles, beginning once more to drowse.

"You know, Kikan-chan, you have always been stubborn," Hiei comments mildly as he begins to rub her shoulders, concentrating on getting overly tense muscles to unknot under his skilled fingers.

"So've you," she counters with no heat, allowing him that contact and slowly letting the phantom pain and the stress melt away. "Guess that's why we call each other 'mirror', isn't it? We're very alike."

"Yes, except you didn't get thrown from the Island because you were male and of fire."

"No, I got thrown off because I was a mutt and a bastard-child and I kept getting into fights and breaking rules." A small sigh as a particularly stubborn knot is smoothed away. "In terms of our culture, you've missed out on nothing, Kikan-kun."

"I just missed out on family."

"I keep telling you that Yukina could care less about what you are. She just cares about who you are. She's pretty wise that way."

"Hn."

A faint hint of a smile. "Was that a 'you're-right-but-I'm-too-stubborn-to-admit-it hn' or a 'I'm-not-even-going-to-dignify-that-with-an-answer hn'?"

"Hn," he repeats, this time looking and sounding more exasperated and amused despite himself. "Neither."

"Well then, tell me and I'll leave you alone about it." The amusement disappears, and his eyes turn solemn.

"I can't tell you. And I can't tell her. There are reasons, but I can't tell you those, either." He gives her shoulder a friendly pat and stands, hauling her up with him and handing her a pure white, heavy wool-plush cloak that had been on his far side. "We'd better get going. If we want to keep this place a secret emergency base, it would be a good idea to keep the child-ruler from finding it."

"Weapons?"

"Got mine. You make yours, remember?"

"Not just katanas, baka. We might as well grab a couple of our specials while we're here."

"And clean up the tear-gems," he prods her gently, and is rewarded with a scowl.

"And clean up the tear-gems."

A minute or two later, the two step out into early winter sunshine, small clumps of snow huddled in the shadows of the massive trees around them, and the two small beings decked out in thieves' finery.

Instead of brilliant white hair streaked in wine, a black-haired, blue-eyed woman stands with daggers tucked in each boot, daggers on her belt, and daggers strapped to her wrists beneath the all-concealing white cloak. Her clothing is blue tight-fitting pants tucked into heavy grey boots, her shirt is sleeveless and charcoal grey, and a green silk scarf is tied as a headband around her forehead. Her companion is a young man only slightly shorter than she, with his hair hidden under a brightly-colored headscarf and wide purple eyes slant upwards in a cynical expression. His clothes are simple and of local style: a warm long-sleeved light wool shirt colored green, belted close to his body over durable brown loose pants tucked into sturdy boots. He carries his daggers the same way as she, but a well-used katana is tied to his belt with a bit of bright red silk.

Both have gold hoops in each ear and several necklaces around their throats, and actually smile at the showing they make. "Been a while since we wore this stuff, eh, Yan?" the woman questions airily. She is given a chuckle and a nod in return.

"Long while, Yin. Let's get to the village and see how many of our agents are still there."

"Let's. I'm getting hungry, and that's not a common occurrence!" Laughing softly, the two blink from normal sight, leaving nothing behind to mark their presence but two faint pairs of footprints just outside the cave. A few moments later, a soft breeze blows a few old leaves across them and they vanish as silently as their makers.

====

(This isn't the first time we've had to run, Kikan and I. Seems like most of our lives have been spent in running. He and I met long before we decided to partner up, in the forests one day while we were still children, and we parted ways for the last time in a tavern much like the one I am sitting in now. No one would recognize the little hell-cat I was back then for me now…I would hope.)

"What are you writing?" Aislin looks up as Hiei slides himself into the corner table's empty seat across from her, royal purple eyes curious as he glances at the leather-bound sheaf of papers under her pen.

"A journal of sorts. As you can see, I've written quite a bit in it." Lowering her voice, she adds a question. "Any sign?"

"No. They haven't gotten this far. And I doubt they're used to me smiling. Or dancing," he adds wickedly, making his table-mate laugh while she puts away her journal and accepts the stein he holds out.

"You are a fine dancer, Yin. I'd forgotten that. Seems like I've forgotten a lot of things." Hiei looks over at her in concern at the sudden sadness he hears in the simple words, to find her staring once again out into space. He waves a hand in front of her nose to bring her back, and she returns to the present with a jolt and an automatic grab for his wrist.

"Stop thinking so hard. You-know-who's probably got a few telepaths looking for us, and we don't want to attract any more attention than we have to." Nodding in agreement, she concentrates instead on the contents of her mug, eyebrows rising in surprise at the first taste.

"Hey, this isn't half bad."

"Why do you think I picked here? Our informants are mostly undiscovered, and the booze is good. Drink up, it's probably the last decent wine we'll have for a while." Following his own advice, Hiei takes a long swallow from his own mug and savors it all the way down. As if that was a signal, another apparition appears beside the table with a chair and a hopeful expression.

"'Scuse me, but do you mind if I sit here? Other tables are pretty crowded." A lie, since there are plenty of tables with open seats, but the right phrase to keep his head.

"Go ahead," Aislin tells him cheerfully. "More the merrier, eh, Yin?"

"Right, Yan." With a relieved sigh the stranger sets his chair down and slides into it with boneless grace. As soon as he does, Aislin offers him her mug and he takes a quick sip before handing it back and settling in with a hardback book in his clawed hands.

"'Bout time you two showed up," he hisses under his breath while slowly scanning the page before him. "Brat's been tryin' real hard to root us out. He's got Chime, Bell, and Rin-rin." Turns the page.

"Any others?" Hiei whispers from the corner of his mouth.

"Eyein' Note, Rhyme, Melody and Rhythm, but the rest of us are clean. Where've you been?"

"Layin' low, stupid," Aislin retorts quietly, but with plenty of heat from behind the mouth of her stein. "We'd all be swingin' if us two were caught."

"Couple centuries is a bit long to lay low, Clapper."

"Zip it. And the name's Yan, now." And so the discreet conversation goes, information being given and a new deal struck, sealed with a couple of flawless tear-sized jewels that shine a deep blue in the lamplight. When he leaves, a slender little vixen takes his place with nary a word, brilliant yellow-gold eyes daring them to refuse her.

"You're at my table, you two. But since you were so nice to buy me a mug of wine, I'll let it pass." Sullenly Hiei hands her his mug and she takes a satisfied swallow before putting her feet up and, to every appearance, falling asleep. Shooting her annoyed glances the two converse in normal tones to cover the whispers the blue-haired vixen gives them now and again. When she 'wakes up' she leaves with a small pouch of tear gems tucked into her boot when Hiei shoved her feet off the table, and several key bits of news lighter.

Paying for their drinks with a worn silver coin, the two rise and leave, a few subtle gestures telling the three remaining agents to meet them outside. One by one they slip into an empty alleyway to huddle in the shelter of a deep alcove, to quickly trade news and new orders before splitting up again that much the wiser and richer.

Hiei and Aislin wander around the market area for a bit longer, listening and learning some of the local stories and buying a couple more baubles to finish off their costumes before strolling back to the small but comfortable inn and the single room they've rented for the night. They take turns washing up before sliding into the comfy and large bed together, falling asleep before the moon had finished rising in a crystal-clear sky.

====

"Wake up, you two! You're under arrest by orders of Koenma-sama!" The small room is flooded with light at the flip of a switch by a uniformed apparition, making the two sleepers flounder awake and blink in the painful glare.

"By the love of all that's holy, what are you babbling about?" Aislin demands sleepily in a new voice that still sounds real, raven hair tousled and messy from slumber and the rude awakening, blankets pulled up to cover herself. "It's barely three in the morning."

"You are charged with grand theft, breaking and entering, second and third degree murder, conspiracy, and resisting arrest," the ogre informs them curtly as several more ogres in uniform pour into the room and surround the bed. Hiei has buried his head under the pillow and pulled the blankets back over his nude body, muttering something uncomplimentary about ogres in general.

"You're an idiot," is the irritated reply to that, as Aislin follows her companion's example and attempts to go back to sleep. The two are abruptly uncovered and hauled to their feet, handed blankets, and are hustled out of the room at double-time. Which the two ignore, shuffling lethargically in front of the rear-guards, practically leaning against each other to keep from falling over. Or back asleep.

Koenma stands in the lobby with the three remaining members of Team Urameshi, looking utterly furious and rather tired himself, but mostly pissed off as the two are presented to him by the lead ogre. All of them blink in confusion at the sight of a black-haired young woman and a crimson-haired young man, both of which look too sleepy, confused and annoyed to care that they stand in front of royalty in nothing but bedding.

"Hey, Yin," Aislin mumbles to her companion, "who's the baby? And where are his parents?" And she promptly restrains herself from laughing at the child-ruler's face.

"I am King Koenma, as you should very well know, Aislin," the small male finally grits out, and is rewarded for his self-control with disbelieving sniggers from both of them.

"Hey, Yan, the ruler of Spirit World's a toddler," Hiei snickers in a voice very much unlike his own but sounding utterly unfeigned.

"Wonder how many nannies he's got to change his royal diapy-wipey," Aislin laughs back while Koenma just keeps getting redder and redder and Yusuke and Kuwabara roar with laughter.

"Koenma, come on, it ain't them," Yusuke manages after a moment. "I mean, these two don't sound or act like them at all--hell, they don't even look like them! We've seen dozens of apparitions their heights walking around today; what makes you so sure this is them?" Hiei self-consciously runs a hand through his tousled but still very flat crimson-colored hair as though it is a habitual gesture, which it is anything but when his hair spikes up on it own normally.

"And she's standin' right here in a perfectly warm lobby and not even shiverin'," Kuwabara adds, yawning tiredly. "Didn't Kurama tell us that Aislin would feel cold?" And she would be, if she wasn't staying warm with the help of Hiei and a careful manipulation of his rei.

"Perfectly warm to you, maybe, but you aren't the one standing in nothing but a blanket," Hiei mutters while trying to hitch his covering up to the point where he virtually stands in a cocoon. "We could've at least gotten our shirts on."

Kurama steps forward and lightly smells the air around them, frowning in concentration as he uses his nose to separate their scents. "These two do not smell like Aislin or Hiei, Koenma-san. They smell like cat and water apparitions and wine, nothing else. There is no hint of dye or our friends' kis, nor of any chemical besides the ones you use to clean jewelry. And Hiei, to my knowledge, has never had a piercing, even in his ears."

"One last check," Koenma tells all of them sternly, and beckons for someone in the back to step forward. The two don't even bat an eye when Koenma's strongest telepath, the female wind-apparition named Shikyo, steps forward. They've been using screens of perfectly innocuous thoughts of two childhood friends wandering around aimlessly in search of interesting things to do and see, that are so complex that the memories include bits and pieces of their make-believe childhoods, fuzzy as memories that long ago often are.

"Nothing of interest, Koenma-sama. They are Yin and Yan, named themselves after they left home, and are nothing more than they seem. You might want to remember the boy, though--from what I have seen he is a promising swordsman, or will be if he survives another decade or two."

"And her?"

"A fair hand at painting and jewelry, but the palace artisans have had more time to develop their skills. Neither hold even the potential of power Aislin and Hiei possess." The woman blinks at the sight of the two small apparitions braced against each other, both already fast asleep again and that contact the only thing keeping the blankets in place. Sighing, Koenma gestures to the ogres and walks out, followed by the boys and most of his subordinates.

Two ogres carefully pick the two up, making sure to keep them decently covered, and carry them back into their room to set them on the bed before leaving. The ice and fire apparitions wait for nearly ten minutes before opening their eyes and resettling themselves, grinning all the while at the great trick they've played on everyone before once again falling back into sleep, the room heated by Hiei's subdued rei.

===

Next morning Hiei awakens to find the bed beside him empty, and the windowsill looking out over the quiet village occupied. Aislin sits there in perfect Hiei-style, a robe drawn close around her, staring blankly out at the lovely view with eyes empty as a deep lake. Hiei frowns in concern; this is the second time she's withdrawn into her thoughts like this, and if she keeps it up they'll be caught. In front of her on the sill sits her journal, filled with her small, neat handwriting and memories. He startles when she speaks quietly into his mind without any inflection whatsoever.

/I'm going back./

"What?" Hiei scrambles off the bed and manages to get all the way to her side without tripping on his concealing blanket or falling over from general morning discoordination. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm tired of running, Hiei. I'm going to go home, write the ending into my journal, stash it away for someone smart to find, and then let Koenma catch me and do whatever." Perfectly calm eyes focus onto his dismayed face--a hint of amusement colors them a lighter green for a breath. "Nearly a thousand years is a pretty good run for anyone, don't you think? About time for it to come to an end."

"What brought this on?" Hiei demands, real fear beginning to bite his spine and turning it to ice.

"Memories," she replies with total peace. "Memories from a decade or two ago, and a promise someone made to me that got broken. Don't worry so much, Kikan, I'm not going back for another day or two. Koenma's watching my lair, I'll bet, and I want to finish what I started." Her fingers reach out to gently shut the simple book, lingering a moment over the front page embossed with a white rose sprouting from a pair of jewels before picking the whole thing up and putting it away into her pocket-space. "So," she says with a bit more warmth, turning to face him as her eyes regain signs of life, "what should we do for breakfast?"

====

"'Scuse me," Hiei speaks politely to the woman tending the front desk of the inn, his newly-ginger hair shining wetly from a mid-morning shower, "have you seen my friend? Girl 'bout my height, black hair?"

"Oh, aye," the fluffy-haired dog-demon says enthusiastically, "she went out yonder to the pond fer a bit o' skatin'."

"Skating?" Now Hiei is curious. He didn't know his friend knew how to skate.

Judging by the silent crowd gathered around the pond when he gets there, she knows how to skate very well indeed. The surface of the pond glitters in the pale sunlight, no doubt helped a bit by Aislin's affinity to ice into something strong enough to bear her small weight, except where the sere remains of cattails and reeds poke up near the edges. And when he catches sight of the person dancing on the ice, he stops dead in his tracks, pressed against other spectators to keep off the slick surface of the pond.

Someone he's never seen before glides across the frozen surface, someone very pale and very much iridescent in the light that seems to follow her as she spins and jumps to music only she can hear. Gauzy fabric covers her torso and flutters against bare arms, lithe legs and the tiny feet strapped into a pair of figure skater blades. Translucent hair flows like a heavier silk down her back and swings out to the sides when she turns, wrapping her in a cocoon for a breath in time.

Eyelids adorned with long lashes stay mostly closed but blink open now and again to reveal eyes as blue as a husky's, rimmed in cerulean with a cat's slit pupils. Most stunning of all are the pair of shimmering dragonfly wings flashing open now and again. Hiei can't deny her the peace he can see cloaking her, but they need to move on soon or Koenma will find them again with better resources. He doesn't feel like seeing the inside of a Reikai jail again anytime soon. So with great reluctance he whistles softly at her as she passes and she slows and skates back to stand in front of him.

"Hi, Yin," she says meekly, and he shakes his head in amused exasperation.

"You can't resist showing off now again, can you, Yan? Come on, we've got a lot of ground to cover today and not a lot of time to do it in." He offers her his hand and she accepts it, hopping onto solid ground and out of her low-cut skates at the same time--not that he can understand how, but he figures it must be along the same principle for the sleeves of his usual black cloak.

"I just had to do something like that," she sighs as they walk, the wings disappearing, her hair and eyes darkening, and her clothes molding into that sleeveless gray shirt and midnight blue pants. Her skates transmute into her boots and she takes a moment to hop awkwardly along while pulling them onto her feet. "I can't explain why."

"What was that form you had, just a second ago?" he asks in curiosity as they walk into the inn and towards their room. "I've never seen it before."

"It's a form I don't wear very often, that's why. It's my…well, it's my faerie form."

"Your what?"

"Keep your voice down, baka. Don't need to wake up the nocturnals. I'm part faerie, and so are you. It's why we're so short--although I think you'd have figured that out by now."

"That explains the full moons," he mutters to himself, scratching the back of his neck. Aislin gives him a faint smile and a nod just as they walk through their door.

"Sure does, doesn't it?" The second the door closes, her mood once again shifts for the darker. "Hiei, I'm sorry, I can't do this anymore. I thought I could, but I can't."

"Do what?" he asks her, startled.

She waves a hand in an expansive gesture at everything in general. "This. Life. Everything." Her tone is once more toneless, though she does put some emphasis in her words. "I can't do this anymore. Back at Koenma's, that was an act, me trying to make life resemble what it did when we were kids. It was fun, I'll admit, but it isn't enough." Her cloak is in her hands and around her shoulders before he realizes it, as though time simply stops for a breath. "I have to go, Hiei. Now. I'm sorry." And before he even has time to protest, she's gone, leaving nothing but the scent of winter winds behind her.

He tries to mindspeak her, but simply ends up slamming into an unbreakable glass wall and has to turn back. Growling now with growing fear, his power begins to dance along his skin, burning away the illusion of flat orange hair and leaving his head fur to spike as it is supposed to, the fire apparition sending his thoughts on a razor-sharp thread to a certain red-haired fox.

/KU-RA-MA! Your ice-fox is going to do something stupid again!/

/Hiei?? What are you--/

/Shut it, fox! Aislin just ran out on me after giving me some bullshit about not being able to take life anymore! I don't know where she's gone, but we need to find her, fast!/

Real fear colors the ningen-fox's next thoughts. /Did she mention anything before that?/

It takes a frantic second before Hiei recalls their conversation this morning. / She told me she was going to finish her journal, stash it somewhere, and let Koenma catch her again./

/Did she say where?/

/What does that have to--/

/Damn it to hell, Hiei, did she say where??/

/She said home, I think!/ The fire apparition is startled when relief tinges the fear.

/I know where she's going, then. Meet me by the portal and I'll lead you./

/And Koenma?/ Hiei can't resist the verbal jab.

/Hang Koenma,/ the red-haired boy snaps. /If it's a choice between him and her, I choose her every time./

===

Hiei meets with his friend just as the lithe teen leaps through and closes it with a bang, panting from exertion. "Damn, Yusuke's gotten almost as fast as you, Hiei."

"Nevermind that, where did she go?" Hiei demands. "I've already checked the place Koenma gave her and her old apartment, and she isn't there."

"Of course not," Kurama says as if it's obvious while they take off running again. "Those aren't home. What is the one thing you know about homes from all your years as a thief, Hiei?"

The reply is thoughtful. "There's only one home. Everywhere else is a lair."

"And what is the one place she spent the longest time at?" Those emerald eyes glitter at him expectantly as realization dawns on the kajihenge's pixie-ish face.

"Yoko's Lair."

===

Five hours later, a muscled and scarred lightning-wolf demon perks up from guard duty at the main door at the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps. That's about all he has time to register as two slender forms breeze past him, the only colors visible a blood-crimson and black.

"Hey, Ikazuchi!" the taller of the two blurs calls as they run down the corridor. "Nice to see you haven't wrecked the place while I was gone!" And they streak round the corner while the odd sentence percolates through the demon's brain.

"…while he was…?" Bing! The penny drops. The Thief-king's head whips around and he stares incredulously down the way the two went. "YOKO??"

Heads are jerked up from tasks all over the caves that are in earshot of their leader's shout, like hounds who have just heard a hunting call they never thought to hear again. "Yoko?" some murmur to the others. "Yoko's back?" others ask in startlement. Hiei looks over at his friend while they sprint down busy corridors and ones that are nearly deserted, everyone too startled at the idea of their old leader returning from the dead to challenge two people who are in an obvious rush.

"Popular, aren't you?"

"Just keep running, Hiei," Kurama grits out, saving the rest of his breath for running. His new body really hasn't worked up the stamina that his old one had and it's been strained by the five-hour marathon that they've already run. Neither of them can stop in time when ice suddenly looms ahead of them, blocking their path; they both impact hard, bouncing off and falling to the floor with the air knocked out of them. Hands grab them by their shoulders and heft them back onto their feet, whacking their backs to reopen stunned air passages and steadying them as the world stops spinning.

Kurama blinks open dazed emerald eyes to find Ikazuchi with his face directly in front of his, the demon's butter-yellow eyes narrowed as he examines the intruders to his lair. "You," he commands, poking Kurama in the chest, "what did you say?"

"I said," the boy gasps--more from the impact than the poke, really--and straightens to stare at the much bigger demon, "'Hey, Ikazuchi! Nice to see you haven't wrecked the place while I was gone.' Or have those wolf ears stopped working?"

"That's what I thought you said," the new Thief-King says grimly, before grinning and sweeping the boy up in a rib-cracking hug. "Damn, Yoko! Scare me half to death why doncha! I 'bout near had a heart attack when you blew past! Who's this little bit of shadow with you?" he asks, setting Kurama back down on his feet and eyeing an indignant Hiei.

The fire apparition brushes off the helping hands and shoves his hands into his cloak pockets. "Hiei."

Eyebrows go up. "The Hiei Jaganshi?"

"Yes, that's him," sighs Kurama. "Look, Ikazuchi, we're in a rush. Has Aislin come here at all?"

"What, you haven't guessed by the ice? She came walking in nearly three hours ago, told everyone to just leave her alone, and that she was going to your two's old quarters. That," a gesture indicates the ice, "popped up about ten minutes later. No idea what she's done, but hey, she's S-class to our B-class and down. I'm the highest rank at A-class, but I can't go against her when she's in one of her moods, yanno?"

"I know." Kurama turns to the ice and reaches a hand out to feel the frozen, slick surface. "She's bonded it with the preservation spell like she used to do with her sculptures," he says finally in a worried voice. "I can't break it as I am now or in my old shape." He bangs his fists several times against the unyielding surface in a vain attempt to break it somehow, and with pained cries two apparitions grab him and pull him away, exclaiming over the raw skin oozing blood on his hands.

With an anxious sigh liberally dosed with aggravation and exasperation, Hiei shoos them all several feet back with one of his glares and sits down, pulling the bandanna away from his forehead. "What the--holy shit!" Ikazuchi yips as the smaller apparition's Jagan eye is revealed and slides to examine him. "You really are the Jagan!"

"Shut it and don't touch me," Hiei snaps, settling into the lotus position and taking a deep breath. "I'm going to try the Void."

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