MnS: I'm back!! ^_^!!
Kurama: Megami no Shi doesn't own Yu-yu Hakusho
KnH: Kurama's POV now!!
MNs: ^_^ Yep!! Here I go!!
Chapter 5:
//
"Listen to me as closely as you can you two. I'm trusting you against my better instincts only because I have no other choice. Take care of the Tuguro brothers. If I wake up and we've lost, I swear I'll…kill…you…all…" as I finished my sentence, my world went black as the exhaustion took over me. I could have fled the arena and found a tree to sleep in, I suppose, but if nothing else, I'm vaguely certain that Kurama would make sure nothing potentially dangerous happened to my body……
//
"You've gotta hand it to him. When Hiei's feeling serious about something, he really lets you know." I barely heard Yusuke say anything at all as I looked down at the now sleeping fire demon. Why had he trusted us enough to fall asleep in out presence? He could very well have gone into the forest, cloaked his yoki, and not said another word. But instead, he chose to stay here…
"With this technique mastered, his power is overwhelming indeed; we'll have to stay on his good side." I said with a slight smile. The unpredictable fire demon was now at ten-fold his normal maximum power level, and that was frightening in itself. I could tell that Kuwabara agreed with that, because he was pretty well ready to bolt when Hiei had turned this way and jumped out of the ring.
"Hell, he didn't say how long he'd hibernate. Maybe we'll all be dead when he wakes up and it won't be an issue." Yusuke said, looking to Hiei, who was propped up on a rock and snoring soundly. I knew that he had to be pretty well 'under the blanket', because Hiei never snored; this was a little known fact. He was a light sleeper, and light sleepers do not snore. He really was exhausted. I did something that I don't usually do next; I tuned out the other's conversations, focusing on sitting still and the heavy sleeper across from me. Again, he had given me energy; not much, but enough to make me coherent and able to support my own weight. Again, I didn't know why, and again, I was more than a little perturbed about this development. He hadn't answered my question before, and I hadn't had time to ask him when I found him the other night. Which reminds me, I was going to ask him if he had been in the room in the morning after I had gotten in the shower; I wasn't paying much attention to what was going on (hot water is a wonderful thing) and I thought I felt a flare of his ki there, though when I looked, the doorway was empty, if not slightly more ajar than I thought I had left it……so many thoughts running rampant in my mind, giving me a slight headache. Bringing my hand up to my temple, I realized that Yusuke was saying something to me about going to the locker room and trying to decide who should be the one to touch Hiei, because what if they were fried as one of his uncanny 'reflexes'? At this I had to smile as I stood; I was actually feeling strangely good because of that very nice, warm energy that was now surging through my veins.
"You three can go get some fresh air if you like; I'll take Hiei to the locker room." I said, bending down without a second thought and hoisting the fire demon onto my back, again using too much strength; he was still lighter than I was used to him being. Turning to the door, Yusuke asked me if I was sure.
"Yes; It'll be no trouble. I'll just lay him down in the locker room, and read a book." I said with a smile, half turning towards Yusuke. He nodded, slightly surprised, and let me go on my way. Walking through the doorway, there were a few low class demons in my way who looked as if they might start trouble, but I let my yoki flare with the extra energy that Hiei had given me, which warned most of them off. One particularly unintelligent one came up to me and stopped my journey. Looking up, I saw that it was a yokai with dark green and wrinkled skin and three yellowish horns on his head. He was about a foot taller than I was if I stood on my toes, and currently he was looking at me in an unsettlingly sly way.
"You're Kurama, from the tournament, right? Why don't you drop shorty and come spend some time with me?" was what he said when he realized he had my attention. Rolling my eyes, I side-stepped him, not wasting my time telling him off; Hiei's body temperature was decreasing ever so slightly, and I didn't like that. An arm appeared in front of me, halting my progress and further irritating me as the demon said,
"I'm only going to ask once more nicely; put dragon-boy down and join me, or suffer the consequences. It's your choice." I was steaming under the collar, and then I realized something; there were about five other demons in this hallway, and they were all in this section, surrounding Hiei and I. I almost growled in the back of my throat, but that was too Hiei-esc for me, so, I opted for saying,
"Did you not see my battle with Karasu? If you don't want to end up like him, I suggest you let me pass immediately." My rose whip appeared as if to further my warning, snaking from my hair because my arms were supporting Hiei. It didn't seem to bother the one standing in front of me, as he didn't move; he either didn't see the weapon, or else, didn't think it was as sharp as demonstrated frequently throughout the tournament. If the latter was the truth, then I was here to make a believer out of him. Lashing out with it easily, I took his head from his shoulders; he wasn't even worth the time to see if he intended to fight with me or not. Two more of the ones from the shadows came at me from behind, and my whip took them out much the same way. Three small seeds of my own design flashed from a hand, and the last three were gone with a small flash of red light as their hearts exploded. Continuing on my way, I stumbled slightly; that had taken a bit more yoki than I had meant to expend.
Making it to the locker room without any more resistance other than my own fatigue, I laid Hiei on one of the beds gently and frowned slightly; his temperature had dropped again, probably in some unconscious attempt to conserve yoki. Summoning up the flame that I still had, and had grown stronger because of the small donation I had been given after my match, I gave the energy back to it's creator, smiling slightly as the warmth from the energy brought the normal bit of trivial color back to the youkai's flesh. Making sure that the door was locked - we didn't need any more interference from any rogue demons who were cross with our progress, and Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Koenma had keys - I sat on the bed next to Hiei's, letting my eyes slip closed as I leaned against the wall…
Blinking awake, I looked at the clock. Three hours have passed? Already? I thought as I looked over to the bed where I had laid the sleeping fire demon. Yep, he was still there, sleeping soundly as ever. Looking around the room, I realized that no one had been in here since I had arrived with Hiei; there were no traces of any other spirit energy or yoki present in the room, and their hadn't been for a long time. Retrieving the first aid kit that I had put in here before the matches, I mentally reprimanded myself for falling asleep before I had tended to the sleeping hi oni's wounds.
Stretching as I sat down on my knees next to Hiei's prone form, I opened the small blue tin box and removed the roll of cotton bandages from it, proceeding to close it after that. Finding a seed that had extremely potent healing properties, I decided that it might have been a good thing that I had slept for a while; I had recovered enough energy to manipulate my plants, which I demonstrated to no one in particular as the seed was tossed out the window and made to grow with a slight boost of ki, turning it into a large green leafy Makai plant. Vines slithering into the room through the open window, it sat still as I patted one of its leaves gently; it was a very agreeable creature. Apologizing to it a few times, I proceeded to take one of its leaves, though it didn't really complain; like I said, it was a very agreeable plant.
It turned back into a seed shortly after, and came back through the window in a reverse throw. Turning back to Hiei, I drained some of the milky liquid that was in the leaf that I held and then, set the green appendage down, rubbing the liquid on my palms and then, rubbing it into the angry looking burns on Hiei's arm. I was quite glad that he wasn't awake, because this nectar, although potent in healing, was not the most pleasant feeling thing to put on an open wound; it stung something terrible when exposed to raw flesh.
Finishing with that, I smiled to myself as I watched the afflictions disappear slowly from view; perhaps Hiei would wake up sooner now because he didn't have to use his energies to heal his arm. One could only hope. Shifting my position and turning around, I leaned my head against his bed, not wanting to get my book out, but not daring to leave him alone to go and do something else; he apparently couldn't defend himself, and I wasn't about to leave him unprotected [1]………
Another two hours later, Koenma, Yusuke, and Kuwabara came into the locker room by way of unlocking the door, and were just hanging out here. Soon after, Shizuru, Keiko, and Botan came in, and Shizuru spoke with her brother, though I didn't much pay attention to everything that was going on; I was watching Hiei for any signs of stirring. Soon after Shizuru stopped yelling at Kuwabara, and Kuwabara noticed Yukina, there was a jolt in the ground, as if a small earth tremor. Kuwabara and Yusuke ran out, and didn't come back after a while, and Yukina, Botan, Koenma, and Shizuru went to go find him. Now it was about , and I pulled out a book, deciding I had to do something to keep my mind off of my friend's condition. However, anon, Koenma returned and told me that the noise was the younger Toguro brother, and he was carrying the ring from the other stadium, rather than having the tournament committee fly in a plane to carry it to the stadium. I nodded vaguely, pleading exhaustion, not really wanting to speak with anyone in particular, except the one who was sleeping a few feet from me. Turning back to my book, I didn't get that far as I noticed that Hiei was stirring. Ruby eyes blinked open, and his head turned, landing on me. Smiling, I said,
"Ah, you're finally awake?" He sat up in a slightly disjointed fashion, and slightly winced, the first words out of his mouth demanding information, which was exactly as I suspected it would be.
"Where am I? How long have I been out?" Not surprising that he asked that first, seeing as how he had dropped in the stadium, and was now in the locker room.
"We're in the locker room, and you've been hibernating for a little over six hours." I chose the terminology that he had in the ring, not deciding what else you could really call it besides sleeping, which might have made him a bit angry. He turned and sat off the edge of the "bed" he was on as I said this, and exclaimed.
"Six hours? well who won the tournament!?" Smiling at this little display of shock, I answered quite calmly,
"I'm afraid I can't answer that one. Nothing's changed since you were last up. Yusuke and Kuwabara got bored and went for a walk." I recalled this bit of information that Koenma had supplied me with a little while ago. Hiei stood, and, baling a fist, he shouted,
"You're not making sense!" Opting to clarify rather than have the fire demon destroy half of the locker room with his mounting ki, I said,
"It's taken time to organize since you leveled half the stadium. I hear they were going to fly in a carrier plane from the mainland to transport the ring from the old stadium. But, Toguro carried it on his back, so we can begin shortly." From the look on his face, Hiei hadn't followed more than half of what I said to him.
"What?" He was confused, and I could tell that he was most definitely half asleep, as his eyes had an almost undetectable sheen of glaze coating the red iris, which told any beholder who cared to look that closely that Hiei had just woken up. Before I could say anything else though, Koto's voice sounded from the PA system,
"I've just received the official word. The ring is now in place, and we'll be ready to start in thirty minutes. Please make your way to the seats in an orderly fashion. And Juri, if you can hear this, get over here!" Turning to Hiei, who was looking at the loudspeaker, I stood and said,
"Shall we go Hiei?" He looked at me for a curious second, and then nodded the affirmative, saying,
"Yeah." Exiting the locker room, I had forgotten Koenma was there until I saw him standing behind me. I let Hiei go in front of me, and Koenma let me go ahead of him. Making it to the arena, I was ready to watch the next fight progress……
TBC……
MnS: I have to buy the next DVD to find out what happens, and to do that, I have to save $26.… @_@ I'll never be able to…
Kurama: Don't you have an allowance?
MnS: Yeah, but ¾ of it goes to X-mas presents savings, and then I'm only left with $5 a week. It might be a while before I update again. It'll probably be a Hiei POV, though I might do a Kurama……depends on which fits it better…
KnH: R'n'R, and maybe it will inspire Megami no Shi to save her money for another YYH episode… ^_^!
Footnotes:
1 - A little bit over-protective are we Kurama? ^_^