Disclaimer: Hiten and the world of Inuyasha are creations of Rumiko Takahashi.

AN: In trying to move the plot along, I could really use the aid of some
input. Please read and review!

Chapter Two: Demon Pact

Hiten felt like it had only been unconscious a matter of seconds when a searing pain lashed out from his shoulder. The oblivion that Hiten had come to rest in was ripped away, leaving him in the confusion of startled wakefulness. His hand instinctively grasped for the source of his agony, latching his iron grip around a narrow wrist. Half arisen from the bed he found himself in, it took a few moments for his eyes to come into focus.
The wrist he had nearly crushed in his powerful grip belonged to a young boy, physically appearing four maybe five years younger than himself. His fair hair contrasted with his dark auburn eyes. The distinctive look of a fox demon drew the boy's elegant form into a hash beauty.
"I didn't mean you any harm. If you don't mind, can you can release my wrist and I will finish binding your shoulder." The boy tipped his head back in a condescending flick, the short, coin-bright hair catching to sunlight which shone in though the window. Narrowing his eyes, Hiten racked his memory for a reason this boy would help him. His previous encounters with fox demons did not merit any favors, to say the least.
Tentatively uncurling his fingers, Hiten relinquished his death grip on the fox demon's wrist. Scrutinizing the demon before him, Hiten noted countless power threads upon his body, their iridescent glow barely noticeable in the bright room, the intricate wavings for an undeterminable purpose. His angular ears, bore small silver rings at their base and a cuff near the top on his left side. The unusual garb he worse consisted of a white button up shirt and black pants. If this demon proved to be his enemy, Hiten would know all there was to gather about him.
Biting back a suffering cry, Hiten took also noted how little this fox boy cared for the agony his bandaging was inflicting. Averting his eyes, Hiten took in the empty, white room he had awakened in. The bed which he lay upon had been placed in the center of the room, its corners skewed, almost diagonally with the corners of the room. A door adjacent the window was the only means of entrance or exit without being able to fly. Stifling another gasp, Hiten fixed his eyes back on the kitsune.
"Who are you?" The underlying agitation broke into Hiten's voice.
"My name is Haruki." the fox started as he tied off the bandaging on Hiten's shoulder. "I am lady Midori's servant," The arrogant tone dropped off, his eyes darkening as he turned away from Hiten. The harmonic vibrations of a shield rang though the air as Haruki stepped away from the bed. Propping himself up on his elbows, Hiten felt the chilled room air hit his bare chest.
Finding himself stripped of his armor and shirt, Hiten shifted uneasily from the blankets. His bare feet hitting the floor affirmed that he was clothed only in his navy pants.
"I wouldn't recommend trying to leave the bed." Haruki turned back towards him as he reached for the door knob. "There is a spell barrier in place that would do some rather devastating damage to you, in your weakened state." The brazen tone of his voice emphasizing the last bit of his statement as he closed the door. Hiten was left alone where he sat at the edge of the bed. Raising his angled eyebrow, Hiten reached out with an inquisitive prod. Energy flared and shot up his arm as he came in contact with the barrier.
Cursing under his breath, Hiten pulled his arm back against his chest. His fingers arched like claws, the numbness and cramping lasting a few moments before his arm returned to normal. Flexing his hand, he confirmed that in his current condition he would not be forcing his way though. The crimson orbs of his eyes flared with rage. Who would dare hold him prisoner like a bird in a cage?
Turning his head toward the window, his anger all but vanished as his attention was diverted to the buildings he saw. Like the trunks of huge glass trees barren of leaves or branches, they made a dense forest beyond. He had never seen anything of the sort in all of his long years of existence. Unable to see past more than half a dozen of these great structures, he was unable to determine how far this jungle stretched. Tiny slivers of the evening sun shone in though the glass pane of the window.
Vexed, he turned his attention back to the barrier. His innate senses told him that the barrier radiated up though the floor, as faint characters inscribed on the floor circled the bed, the barrier following its contours. Growing irritated with his inability to find any means of escape, Hiten threw himself back down on the bed. Folding his hands behind his head, he winced. The throbbing pain of his wounded shoulder reverberated with his sudden movement.
His mind ran back to who had wounded him: the hanyou who had stolen everything. Shutting his eyes, Hiten tried to clear his mind. He tried to force away the inevitable guilt that nagged at him, but tears welled despite his best efforts.
When they, Manten and himself, had killed the fox demon for his Shikon shard they had not been able to foresee any outcome close to what had really taken place. In hindsight Hiten regretted not running the little fox pup though. Although death now held something more endeared to him. Yes, his parents had died and he had mourned their loss, but he had not been alone. Though they had always been close, it was then that he and his brother became interdependent.
Swallowing hard, Hiten felt his stomach turn at the memory of tasting of his brother's blood. Although he had done it to get revenge it still did not sit well with him. His mind had not been completely his own, his sorrow had not been the only motive that had driven him to devouring a part of his brother.
The door knob turned, the sound disrupting Hiten's train of thought. Quickly getting rid of any evidence that he had wept, Hiten sat up to see Haruki enter carrying a steaming down of rice.
"I warned you not to mess with the barrier." Haruki traced invisible lines in the air before proceeding. The section of the barrier that had reacted to Hiten glowed an angry red before fading back to its translucent form. Shoving the bowl of rice into Hiten's hands, Haruki turned to leave.
"Why am I being kept here?" Hiten's stomach turned in a sickened twist as his nose took in the aroma of the food. His eyes fixed on Haruki's back. The recent thoughts of what he had taken into his stomach overwhelmed the ache of hunger.
"Lady Midori wishes it," Haruki said, turning back to face the thunder demon. Hiten could read the pity on his face. "She has a use for you, although she has not said exactly what it is." For a few tense moments Haruki stood, eyes locked with Hiten's before he left without another word.

The growing feeling of foreboding ate at him. Carefully putting the untouched bowl of rice on the ground, Hiten felt as though he was being watched. "Its not wise to allow your body to starve," a feminine voice scolded him.
"You are Midori, I presume," Hiten sat up, casually folding his arms across his chest. "I would know what you want from me, women." Directing his attention to a figure that stood in the far corner of the room, he cursed his muddled senses. She had come in without his noticing.
"Is that any way to address the person who saved your life?" Pulling her hood from her head, the woman allowed her long, dark, straight hair to cascade over her shoulders. Her eyes, as dark as her hair, observed him unrelentingly, seeming to both pull him apart and look straight through him. Although he was sure she was human, there was a somewhat of a demonic age behind her eyes. "I have a favor to ask." her rust-colored lips pursed together before turning up in a narrow smile.
"I am confined like a caged beast and you ask a favor of me?" Hiten quipped, his eyes flashing a warning as the corners of his lips drew up into a snarl. His fangs gnashed together as his fury rose unchecked. The human laughed, holding her hand up.
"I never said you had a choice in the matter." Her hand quickly turned like a pen with which she scrawled a symbol in the air. The color drained from Hiten's face. His wounds burned as though salt were rubbed into them by clawed fingers. A hand plunged itself though his open wound, ripping and tearing though his flesh. Gasping for air, Hiten sank onto his knees, having fallen forward from his seat on the bed. Pressing his hand into the now blood soaked bandages, Hiten became aware of a second person in the room, now standing above him.
Forcing his body to move, Hiten looked upon the demon which stood over him. Blood dripped from the hands of the fox boy. His auburn eyes glazed over as if in a trance as he drew his hand back to strike.
"I require your soul, so to speak," Midori said, stepping to the edge of the barrier. "I would actually only use it like a tuning fork. Although the process would sever the bridge between your physical body and astral body... you were dead for all intents and purposes when I brought you here anyway." The corners of the her lips curled further into a calculated smile.
The threads of energy gave off a harmonic ring, growing louder as the moment dragged on. The blow which was readied to kill him remind frozen, muscles taut and strained by the pause.
Unable to strike at Midori herself, Hiten directed his attention to the fox boy who remained well within his reach. Bringing his weight up in a smooth, practiced movement, Hiten drove his fist under the fox demon's ribs. The pop of cracking ribs and rush of air filled the silence. The room was quiet. Although the air had been forced from his lungs, Haruki remained like a doll, expressionless, his body hunched over Hiten's arm, and his eyes staring blankly.
Standing to his full height, Hiten stood over Haruki, noting that the boy only came up to his shoulder. He opened up his fisted hand to hold the demon boy up. Knitting her dark brows and pressing her thin lips together, Midori became enraged that he had retaliated in such a manner.
Fuming with anger, Midori turned away, her robe flung out like a bird's wings. The harmonics of the power which coursed though Haruki fell into disharmonious jumbles as his stung muscles gave out. His body went limp, a wisp of a spirit flowing from a charm on Midori's necklace into the demon's body. "Do not think this a victory, Haruki is expendable. Although I would have expected more of you than to strike him down while his body was vacant of a spirit." Midori vanished, air rushing into where she had stood.
Hiten looked down at the fox boy whom he held. Labored breath made the small boy's frame quake. He had more questions than answers and this demon seemed to be the only one in a position to tell him. Tossing the boy on the bed with a cold hearted flick of his wrist, Hiten scooped up the cooled bowl of rice, finding his stomach more apt to accepting the food. Although he had never been fond of human food, his desire to rip the wench apart made his taste less discerning.
His will would not bend to that of a human no matter their power. His pride would not be swallowed, which left him with the thought of escape. Although he would not simply flee, he would kill the arrogant woman first. Gazing out the window, he found the bright day had turned to a fading dusk. This place he'd been taken was not his familiar world, in which he could simply take up his former part. He had only been able to pick out countless humans with his senses--with the exception of Haruki.
Replacing the now emptied bowl on the floor, Hiten proceeded to peel away what remained of the now-shredded bandages. The slice of the sword wound had been torn open and the tissue inflamed. Giving a quick glance of the bloodied cloth he held crumpled in his hand, Hiten thought over the barrier. It denied his exit, although did not bar the fox. Throwing the bandages, he watched as the cloth sailed though the barrier without any added resistance and collided with the far wall.
Haruki stirred from his place on the bed, half rolled as though to get away from Hiten. With demon-speed, Hiten grabbed the fox's upper arm before he was able to get off the bed and though the barrier.
"Trying to get away?" Hiten sneered as his fingers dung into the boy's arm.
"Why would I need to get away from a half-dead thunder demon?" The fox disappeared in a swirl of fire, his arm slipping free of Hiten's grip. The fire faded to reveal Haruki in a half crouched position outside of the barrier. The still-wet blood smeared across his face as the fox wiped the back of his hand against his cheek. The air grew thick as the demons glared at each other, each unwilling to back down as the contest drew on.
"Those are bold words from a human's lap dog," Hiten snapped. Taken aback, Haruki curled his lips into a snarl. Putting on his trademark smirk, Hiten continued to prod the nerve. "Seems as though she has you running on a short leash, doing her dirty work for her." The fox's body grew taut, his muscles tense with barely restrained anger. Flicking his braid with his forefinger, Hiten let the long plait fall behind his back with a swoosh.
"I have no free will, what can I do when my body is not my own to command?" the fox shot back. Hiten quirked his angled eye brow in questioning manner. The dimming light of the sun cast tall shadows in the room. The fox's auburn eyes lost their flare as he seemed to lose himself in thought.
"How is it that a demon would serve a human?" Hiten reexamined the bizarre moments which conspired between himself, fox and the human in his mind's eye.
"She is not a miko," Haruki avoided Hiten's gaze, preferring to look out the window. "The powers which she can tap are far more limited. I know that there must be compatibly harmonies in the energy she taps." In a half hearted gesture, the fox demon ran his idle hand though his short hair. "The similarities are a product of inborn and environmental causes," the boy trailed off, as if consulting himself. Hiten remained silent, watching the young fox demon squirm under his gaze.
Tipping his head back in a breathless laugh, Haruki wrapped one of his arms around his mid-section. "Your punch is no less than I would expect from a demon she invested so much energy to retrieve." Changing the subject, the demon boy turned his back to other.
"For what purpose then do you serve the wench?" Hiten's body was ridged, the thought of being forced into servitude to a human made his blood run hot.
"The lady is one hundred and eight years of age." Haruki drew his forefinger and thumb together, rubbing the quickly drying blood between them. "I am the third demon that has sustained her life force and youth." The cinnamon coloring of the fox's eyes darkened with a deeply felt grudge. "Because of that, I would rather offer you a means of escape than help her." the young demon said suggesting a possible common gain.
Hiten, drawing his brows together, took in his companion's form. This juvenile pup of a fox demon struck him as a complex spirit to figure out. To confide in a demon he had just met, this fox must either be desperate for an ally, or a using a ploy to win his trust and later betray it.
"You should be very careful who you tell such things to, whelp. It seems to me, my problems would be solved if I simply killed you." Hiten smiled, his fangs glinting in the last of the sunlight. "I would not have to listen to your lamenting nor would I have to deal with that arrogant human child that seems to have forgotten her place. Humans will always remain underfoot, in the dirt, as long as there are demons to take their rightful place above them." The unspoken acknowledgment of a similar goal between the demons promised a tiny bit of hope to the fox boy and a sense of camaraderie that had been long since lost to him.
Hiten lay back on the bed, the slit pupils of his eyes widening in compensation for the falling darkness. A twinge of sorrow and guilt over the slaughter of both the fox demons and the murder of his brother cross- hatched as he lay in quiet thought.

To be continued...

AN: I have tried very hard to avoid putting Hiten OOC, I don't know if I succeeded or not... Thanks again for reading!