Kurama: Why not, Yume-chan?
Yume: Because I'm just an asshole. (Sings the asshole song by Denis Leary) I'm just a regular Joe, with a regular job. I'm your average white suburbanized slob. I like football and porno and books about war. I got an average house, with a nice hardwood floor. My wife, my job, my kids and my car. My feet on the table, and a Cuban cigar.
Hiei: (sings along) BUT SOMETIMES THAT JUST AIN'T ENOUGH TO KEEP A MAN LIKE ME INTERESTED!
Yume: Oh no!
Kuwabara: (plugs his ears)
Yume: (Kicks him) No way!
Hiei: Uh-Uh! No I gotta go out and have fun, at someone else's expense.
Yume: Yeah yeah! Yeah Yeah!
Hiei&Yume: Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!
Yume: I drive really slow in the ultra-fast lane, while people behind me are going insane!
Hiei: I'm an asshole!
Yume: He's an asshole!
Hiei: (twitch) I'm an asshole!
Yume: He's an asshole!
Hiei: I use public toilets, and I piss on the seat! I walk around in the summertime sayin' "How about this heat?"
Yume: And sometimes I park in the handicapped spaces, while handicapped people make handicapped faces! I'm an asshole!
Yusuke: (Joins in) She's an asshole!
Hiei: I'm an asshole!
Yume: He's an asshole!
Yusuke: You know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna get me a 1967 eldorado convertible. HOT PINK! With all leather cow interior and blue baby seal eyes for headlights.
Yume: Yeah!
Yusuke: And I'm gonna drive around in that baby, going 195 miles per hour, getting 1 mile per gallon suckin' down quarter pounder cheeseburgers from McDonalds in those non-biodegradable Styrofoam containers. And once I'm done sucking down those greaseball burgers I'm gonna toss the Styrofoam container right out the side and wipe my mouth with the American flag and there ain't a goddamned thing anyone can do about it. You know why? Because we got the bombs, that's why. Two words: Nuclear fuckin' weapons. Okay!? Russia, China, Germany. They can have all the democracy they want. They can have a democracy cake walk right through the middle of Tiennenamin square and it won't make a lickin' difference, you know why? Because we got the bombs that's why.
Hiei: John Waynes not dead, he's frozen! And as soon as we find a cure for cancer we'll thaw him out with a nuke. You ever taken a cold shower? Well, multiply that by a thousand times and that's how pissed off the nukes gonna be. I'm gonna get a nuke, and thaw out John Wayne and he's gonna come out and he's gonna say-
Kurama: You know you really are an asshole!?
Yume: --; Why don't you just shut up and sing the song pal?
Kurama: I'm an asshole?
Hiei: He's an asshole!
Yusuke: I'm an asshole!
Yume: He's an asshole.
Kuwabara: He's a fuckin' asshole!
All YYH cast: A-S-S-H-O-L-E EVERYBODY! A-S-S-H-O-L-E!
Yusuke, Hiei, &Yume: WOOF! WOOF WOOF! WOOF WOOF! WOOF WOOF! ARF! ARF ARF! ARF! ARF!
Yume: I'm an asshole... and I'm proud of it.
Kurama: No. I'm doing the bloody disclaimer. Yume Uotani does not own any of the Yu Yu Hakusho characters that had originally appeared in the series. Which, I must admit... was brilliantly done by the writer. And the director chose a great cast. I mean, I was simply perfect for the role of Kurama.
Yume: Shut up, Kurama. You were perfect for the role because you ARE Kurama.
Hiei: Exactly what I was thinking...
Hinoki sat in her hotel room. She had moved out of the room Botan and Genkai. She sat on her bed with her legs crossed buckled tightly to her chest by her interlocked arms.
Her head was bowed low into the cavity between her chest and her legs. She contemplated why she had loved Hiei so much.
Why did she love Hiei. His intellectual speech and brilliant fighting performances? Perhaps it was because he reined over darkness like it was his servant. Hinoki loved the darkness equally, and she would do just about anything to stay in it, enveloped within it's elusive grasp. Hiei wasn't only the ruler of darkness, he WAS the darkness.
Not only that, but Hiei was brilliant with the written word and spoke of it like it's true ruler. Hinoki loved the written word, and loved the spoken word just as much.
Even his lips proved to be enticing.
Hiei's voice was soft when he whispered and it lulled her when he breathed. Just thinking about him gave her goosebumps.
A knock on her door stirred her from her daydreams.
"Who is it?" She called in a less than interested tone.
"Who do you think it is?" Said a cocky voice.
It was Yusuke's voice and it sounded urgent. Hinoki rushed to the door and opened it.
"Ah, Yusuke. To what do I owe this pleasure?" Hinoki said half-heartedly.
"I'll get down to the point. Hiei's sick and he needs help. We think it's a bad flu from his fight with that ice demon earlier. The ice got into his blood and we don't know what else to do." Yusuke said hurriedly.
A thousand possible illnesses rushed into Hinoki's mind. She didn't bother grabbing a coat, she only rushed to the demon hospital with Yusuke.
"What are his symptoms?" Hinoki asked.
"He has a fever, his skin is pale, he's sweaty, and he's unconscious." Yusuke said.
"Blood poisoning..." Hinoki muttered under her breath.
She remembered when Hiei was hurt and his blood had began to freeze in that wicked demon's battle.
Yusuke looked at her, he obviously knew what she was thinking.
He tried to cheer her up with a story of how Hiei had to be dragged out of an icecream parlor because he was going to make Yusuke broke with all the vanilla icecream he continued to order. He kept calling it "sweet snow."
It made Hinoki laugh. She could just picture Hiei needing to be dragged out of an icecream shop by Yusuke and Kurama.
When they had finally gotten there, a doctor allowed both of them inside.
"What is wrong with him?" Yusuke asked.
"Blood poisoning." Hinoki and the doctor said in unison.
The doctor looked at her with enthused interest.
"How do you know that?" The doctor asked.
"Someone in my family died from it." Hinoki said simply, trailing off to Hiei's bedside.
"Yes, but in a demon's case that is rare. It is so rare for his demon species that we don't have a medication for it." The doctor explained.
Hinoki took off the blankets and looked at the wound on his chest where it had been infected.
"We need to reopen the wound. I can purify the blood, but he will be weak for a few days." Hinoki explained to them.
"But you will surely catch any diseases he has by doing that!" The doctor objected.
Hinoki lashed out at him, "Everyone says the Neon Demon is special, like we are some kind of miracle from another world! So why don't I put that to the test!? If I am to die, then may it be by saving his life."
The doctor nodded and made an incision on the dried blood. He then removed the scabs and allowed the blood to flow.
Hinoki place her lips to Hiei's wound and began to lick the blood from it. Strangely, her fangs protruded and her cat-like face appeared. It was strange to see her demonic appearance appear without the sign of battle like it normally had.
She licked the wound clean like an animal would to a wound.
"Now wrap him up and pray. I want you to take extra care of him or I will personally come to this hospital and rip all of your tongues out and use them as tree fertilizer." Hinoki threatened.
The doctor laughed nervously, unsure if she was serious or joking.
Hinoki pulled up a chair and sat by his bedside.
"Hinoki, surely you aren't hoping to stay here until he wakes up?" Kurama asked.
It was a stupid question. Of course she was.
Hinoki only folded her arms on the side of the bed and rested the side of her head on them so that she was staring at Hiei's face. Searching for a sign of consciousness.
"Don't sweat it, Kurama. We don't have a fight for two more days. Then we're up against that Team Koyotua." Yusuke said.
As the others left Hinoki sat there with her head lying gently on the side of it. She couldn't bring herself to tell them what was really coursing through Hiei's veins. It wasn't just blood poisoning, it was a curse set up by Shoken himself. Hinoki sensed it the first time the ice entered his blood.
In that demon energy that was pulsing from that ice was a curse taught to the demon by Shoken. Hinoki noticed this by reading Shoken's lips when he was speaking up in the stands.
Two days later, Hinoki had to leave Hiei in the Hospital. She had a fight with her father's team today. There was no way she was going to miss this. The long awaited day she would slay her father for abandoning her mother and leaving her for dead.
She dressed in her room in the most uninviting outfit she had, which happened to be the outfit Hiei had given her(Not saying much about her wardrobe, am I).
She grabbed her black bladed katana, and whatever else she may need.
When Yusuke, Kuwabara, Jin, and Kurama had arrived Hinoki was already there.
"Hinoki looks rather ready to face her kin." Jin said enthusiastically.
"I guess wanting to fight her father has made her this way." Yusuke said.
"Hey, Hinoki! How ya doin'? You ready to start the next round?" Kuwabara asked.
Hinoki turned to them. Her expression was placid and dull. Void of any and all emotion. Her eyes were cold and dead. Jin shivered.
"Urameshi, you sure this is how she is supposed to be?" Jin asked with concern.
"She probably pulled an all nighter at the hospital." Yusuke whispered back.
"Is Jin our replacement for Hiei?" Hinoki asked blankly.
"Yeah." Yusuke answered.
"More like Jin is Hinoki's replacement." Yusuke whispered in Kurama's ear.
Kurama snickered.
Both of them were astounded when a glimpse of silvery-black glistened before their eyes and the next thing the new, they had cuts across the chest of their shirts.
Hinoki had done this without so much as a flinch.
Yusuke and Kurama blinked astoundedly.
"I needn't hear such theatrics from you. Now of all times." Hinoki snapped before turning to go in.
"Hinoki's demonic aura has increased since that little escapade with Hiei. I'd say she ranks just above the top of B class." Kurama said just above a whisper.
"Yeah, and Shoken is what? An A class?" Kuwabara asked.
"I believe so. We could defeat this team with ease. You are S class, Yusuke. I am A class, and Jin ranks in around the B class." Kurama said.
"What about me?" Kuwabara asked.
Kurama looked to Kuwabara, blinked, and rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly while laughing nervously.
"Hey! You just don't want to tell me, do you!" Kuwabara exclaimed.
"Can you please bridle that idiocy of yours, Kuwabara?" Hinoki said smoothly.
"Oh yeah. She's a Hiei." Yusuke said, crossing his arms as he and the others followed her into the arena.
Once they had arrived inside the arena, they were greeted by Juri. "You had better get out there, Team Captain. You need to decide the terms of the fight." She said.
"Don't get your tail in a knot, I'm going you incompetant." Hinoki snapped.
"Yep. No doubt. That's a Hiei attitude." Yusuke muttered.
Hinoki walked up onto the arena and was met by the man she had assumed to be her father.
"Well... father... it has been a while." Hinoki snarled. Her inner anger brought out the cat-like image.
Her father only smiled, "Hinoki. How long I have waited for this day to come. You are the shining image of your mother."
"And I would have known that myself if you had not abandoned her. You are not my father. No one in the Neon Demon clan could commit such an insidious act upon his own family. It is time that Spirit World determined your fate in the afterlife, Hethan. The battle will be a free-for-all. This is not negotiable, so get used to it." Hinoki spat, her voice shaking with hatred.
With that Hinoki turned and left him dumbstruck.
"A free-for-all!" Juri had declared.
"You heard that folks! A free-for-all! Each team will be fighting for their own selves. And the ones left standing will be the victorious team."
Yusuke, Jin, Kurama and Kuwabara filed into the arena prepared for battle.
"Ready!? Begin!" Juri declared.
Hinoki weaved through everyone to find her father.
He was obviously preferring fire attacks, but he may try a different stunt.
Hinoki used the wind to her advantage, like Jin had taught her. Next she formed ice in her hand like she had seen Touya do before, even though he had never taught her personally.
She blew it in her father's direction like a sniper. His attention was on Yusuke at the moment, it was the perfect opportunity.
Her father had fallen with pain as the shards blew through him like a thousand daggers.
"Does it hurt, father? I hope so. That is the pain I have felt for almost fifteen years!" Hinoki shouted with pleasure.
Her father cringed and looked at her as blood formed at the sides of his mouth. Slowly it oozed from the corners and dripped onto the arena.
"You have improved a great deal, Hinoki. But I am not the one to fight you." Her father lectured.
"The hell you aren't!" Hinoki shouted angrily, the black bladed katana melting from it's glove form.
She ran with Hiei's speed to her father and prepared to strike, but her father used a fire technique. She was engulfed in it and should have burned to death.
Hinoki cringed as the blazes from her father enveloped her. But instead of being in pain, she was just enjoying it's warmth.
Something within her made her sure that she was to survive the flames.
She felt a warmth that she never had before and the memory of her cleaning Hiei's blood came to mind. His blood must have been reproduced into her veins. Her body must have copied the part of the DNA it needed to survive other things that her ordinary body could not.
Hiei could survive fire with ease, while Hinoki could not. It was in her blood now, and now a piece of Hiei was with her.
A tear fell from her eye and she gave a silent thank you to Hiei.
When the blaze stopped abruptly, Hinoki's father was surprised she was still alive.
Hinoki poised her blade, "Now father, you die."
Hiei slept soundly in the hospital bed. He did not hear the unwanted visitor come through the door.
He grabbed the chair that Hinoki had sat in not long ago and began to speak to Hiei in a menacing voice. "You have proven to be more trouble than you are worth, Hiei the Swordsman. And now you will lay here for awhile. You may prove to be a wonderful muse to my dear Hinoki-chan."
It was Shoken's voice. It caused a jump in the heart monitor.
"Ah, good Hiei. You recognize my voice. That silly girl thought she could help heal you, but once a curse has been placed, it is only breakable by the one who recieved it. You decide how to break it, Hiei." Shoken chuckled.
He got up and walked out with a hysterical laughter. It echoed out through the halls and ringed in Hiei's subconsciousness even after he had gone.
Note: I don't know if this was too short for you all. I really tried to make it longer. I'll get right on the next chappie, but you have to do your job and update your reviews. Plus, get others to read this, okay? I would like to know that I am not insignificant if you don't mind. Thank you!