Sorry for not updating...but! I finally have a real plot for this story! -tosses up random confetti and blows noisemakers- YAY! So I hope you enjoy!
Chapter Nine, Shot Down
They were still a day's travel from the Palace.
Hiei snorted lightly, wrapping the smooth white bandanna around his closed Jagan. His calloused fingers worked smoothly behind him, quickly tying the soft fabric into what only could be described as his own take on a quick-release knot.
His boots crunched the dry, rocky ground as he drew his knees up to his chest, leaning his back against the thick tree behind him. His blazing crimson eyes traveled lazily around the makeshift campsite, pausing for a moment to rest on each of his traveling companions.
Youko Kurama was out cold, in the same position as Hiei, leaning up against the trunk of a tree right across from the demon hybrid. His head rested on his chest, his long, shining silver tresses falling elegantly over his face and chest. A fire crackled and sputtered flaming sparks in the middle of their small clearing, casting ever-moving shadows over the kitsune's partially hidden face.
Then there was Kuronue, proving his bat demon blood, sleeping in a large tree, riddled with long, thick leaf-covered branches. He was almost invisible under the cover of the dish-shaped leaves, only his leathery black wings stood out enough to distinguish him from the dark foliage. Yusuke was right below the bat demon, using his folded arms as a makeshift pillow. Hiei snickered as a strand of the fake deep blue hair fell into his eyes, and he fought to bat it away with small groans, still asleep.
So...he, Hiei, was the only one currently awake. It was his turn on watch, being as Kuronue had taken the last shift.
He snorted impatiently, glaring at the black, starless sky. Even the moon was hidden tonight...
It would be Youko's turn in about an hour. Hiei closed his crimson eyes...not in sleep...a translucent, icy blue glow gathered in an oval around the center of the white bandanna.
His eyes suddenly shot open without warning. Nothing...he'd seen nothing around their camp. Not even the normal low-class animalistic demons that naturally lived in these parts of the Makai, who were even too simple-minded to have any real murderous intentions.... they ate, they lived, they bred, they slept, they died. Just like ningenkai's animals, only more vicious and deadly. Some had the potential to grow into higher-class demons, though.
His calloused hand wrapped possessively around the shining silver blade at his side...usually when nothing was happening, something was about to blow up in their faces...
But nothing happened. An hour later, Hiei prodded Youko awake with the tip of his sword, earning himself an icy glare from those hard amber eyes.
"Hn. It's your turn," Hiei said dully.
Youko snorted, "I gathered that."
Sweeping the fallen silver tresses out of his pale face, Youko Kurama stretched out his long legs in front of him and shifted against the rough bark of the tree. It scraped uncomfortably at his back, which was almost bare due to the simple clothing he always wore.
He sighed, bored, and folded his arms in front of his chest, his amber eyes focused on the dancing, crackling flames as his silver ears twitched and churned at any and every little noise...there was disturbingly little activity...anywhere. The wind rustled the trees, sometimes sweeping across the ground to upset small rocks and twigs, creating small, crackling, snapping and clicking noises...but nothing else. No small demonic birds shifting in their nests, not even the little Haneaka, tiny hummingbird-like birds that liked to suck the blood off the tips of the Black Arrows, which they had an odd immunity to.
(Haneaka – bloody wing)
He didn't like it. His animalistic instincts were telling him something was wrong, very wrong. In three hundred years in the Makai, Youko Kurama had never been in such ringing silence. A feeling of foreboding hung over the area, as if daring them to come any closer to the Palace...
Well, he never was one to turn down a challenge.
Sighing, the fox glanced up at Hiei; now dead asleep in the tree he'd been sitting under during his watch, his sword wedged in between two branches for quick access.
His ears swiveled as a piercing cry shot through the ringing, dead silence of the night...
A hawk! In the dead of night, no less.
Youko stiffened, his amber eyes scanning the pitch-black sky and trees, thick with leaves and branches...he heard a rustle of wings somewhere, as the hawk must've taken off.
He sniffed the air, and his eyes slanted.
"A hawk from the human world..." he mused quietly to himself, "What could such a creature be doing in the Makai...?"
It was too suspicious. A ningen hawk suddenly shrieking out of nowhere, after a long, ringing silence...and still there were no other creatures around. How the hawk even survived the Makai was a mystery.
Suddenly, his sharp vision caught a white patch in the black sky. He snorted lightly, casually reaching into his long silver locks and removing a blood red rose.
He got to his feet, paused to take aim, and with a perfectly executed crack of the rose, now a long, green whip, another shriek was heard as the thorns sliced into the thick feathers of the hawk. Youko jerked the bird to the ground and bent down to examine it.
It was dead, that much was certain. So much blood stained its sleek, smooth feathers it was near impossible to tell what color it used to be. Its head was half-decapitated, it's dark eyes clouded over with death. The large wings hung at odd angles off the breastbone...overall, it was not only dead, but the thorns had mutilated the animal.
"Ah...now what's this?" Youko smirked as his eyes fell on a glaringly white roll attached to the bird's leg. He carefully slipped it out of its bindings and unraveled it.
Out of the forest. Sanmyaku Aka. Silver kitsune, bat demon, Mukuro's lover, and unknown. Powerful, take precautions.
Youko stared at the minute writing, small to save space on the tiny piece of paper. He flipped it over to make sure nothing was written on the back before studying the handwriting.
"So it's you then?" he muttered softly, "I thought as much."
He rolled up the paper and stuffed it into the white sash tied tightly around his waist. If he thought correctly, they had a spy on their hands, and if they could catch him, his information would be indispensable.
Interesting that he did not refer to me by name...he obviously does not want to reveal his previous affiliation with me to his new master...
Kicking the mutilated corpse of the hawk aside so it wouldn't start to fester and stink in their campsite, Youko took to pacing around the small camp.
"Kurama."
Youko stopped his pacing and turned to look at Kuronue. He jumped down from his tree, landing lightly and silently on the rocky mountainous terra.
"What was all that screeching? It sounded like some sort of bird."
Youko nodded, "I caught a ningenkai hawk relaying messages. Look at this," he reached into his sash and pulled out the small piece of paper.
Kuronue's violet eyes widened slightly as he read the message. "So we're being followed?" he snorted, "So much for our infiltration."
"Yes. There is a zero percent chance now we will be able to get close to the demon behind all this."
"So...we go in the old-fashioned way?"
Youko smirked, "Precisely."
"How did he hide his energy, though?" Kuronue asked.
"Koenma told us the demon organizing this army has the ability to mask his aura completely. Therefore, he must have taught the technique to this underling of his," the fox held up the paper to emphasize his words.
"He must have stayed downwind to hide his scent," Kuronue said, Youko nodded in agreement, "These guys are clever..."
"KOENMA SIR!"
"WHAT?!" the reikai prince shrieked at the ogre running into his office.
"Botan has just delivered her report of the human world," the ogre slapped the paper onto Koenma's yellow desk, "and it says Kuwabara has detected some weird things going on."
Koenma nodded curtly and started scanning the paper, his brown eyes jumping up and down with the letters.
"Dark clouds only he can see...foreboding presence...strange energy signals..." Koenma muttered aloud.
"So what is it, sir?" the ogre asked cautiously.
"It means, ogre, that this demon's army is getting stronger. Yusuke better hurry up before he attacks the ningenkai! The human world can't stand up to this sort of power, not even if a world alliance was formed!"
"So is it hopeless, sir?"
"OF COURSE IT'S NOT HOPELESS, YOU IDIOT! NOT AS LONG AS YUSUKE, KURAMA AND KURONUE GET TO THE PALACE AND KILL THIS DEMON OFF!"
"Great...so new plan?" Yusuke asked bitterly. He glared up at the steel gray sky, and wished a certain fox had let him sleep in awhile. He was even too pissed off to comment about the message referring to Hiei as "Mukuro's lover".
"Not yet. Not until we know more, which may prove difficult, being as our infiltration plan has been shot down," Kurama said.
"What about catching more of their messenger birds?" Yusuke asked.
"That may be possible, if the demon at the Palace sends another one."
"Kurama..." Kuronue smirked, his violet orbs meeting the cold amber ones of his partner. The fox nodded silently, as if they were each thinking the same thing...and Yusuke was left completely confused.
"What the heck's going on?"
"Simple!" Kuronue said, "We capture the one bird the demon from the Palace sends, and copy the handwriting off the note Kurama has to send one back to him."
"It's an easy case of forgery," Kurama said calmly, "And we may be able to catch the spy...no doubt he's around here somewhere."
"Couldn't he hear us then?" Yusuke asked.
Kuronue shook his head, "If they were close enough to hear us, we'd know where they were."
"Wait..." Yusuke pointed his finger at the bloodstained ground where the hawk had crashed to earth, "you killed off their hawk. How's the Palace going to send a message back?"
"They're not stupid," Kuronue said flatly, "They'd have several hawks ready. It's only logical human ones like that would die easily, so we probably didn't even raise suspicion."
"It's decided, then," Kurama said matter-of-factly, "We hunt for the spy while waiting for the return hawk."
And if that spy was who Kurama thought it was...all the better.
End Chapter