Kitsune Kit: Not quite. Aislin's not Hiei's lover, more like his twin. If you read Winter's Rose it clarifies a whole lot. But it's supposed to be confusing, especially for Hiei. Just read and see. n.n
Spring's Fire, Chapter 2
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"Hey, Piers-san," Kurama calls as the brown-haired girl enters the classroom the next morning, "what happened? Did you not sleep well?" The girl grimaces and rotates a sore shoulder before shaking her head in a negative.
"Nah, I just spent five hours wandering around town hopelessly lost and then got up at five for training. It's kinda stupid; here it is barely eight o' clock and I'm already bushed. Wake me up when the teacher comes in?"
With a self-mocking smile she takes her seat near the front and pillows her head on her folded arms, dropping into a light doze. Kurama is about to warn her that one of her new fanboys is sneaking up on her right with--of all things--a pair of scissors in his hand to remove a lock of her hair when her fist snaps out, catching the boy hard in the solar plexus. Raising her head sleepily at the sound of the scissors being dropped, she twists around to blink at Kurama. "Teacher here already?"
"Oog," groans the unfortunate fanboy, who thereby gains Kohaku's attention and her ire when she notices the scissors lying less than a foot away on the floor.
"And just what," she asks sweetly, "were you planning on doing with those?"
"Some cosmetic surgery to your hair, I'd imagine," Aislin comments, walking in with her arms full of textbooks. "Some silly fanboy-ritual they've come up with."
"That's what I thought," Kohaku replies calmly before punching the boy in the face and resuming her nap. Aislin gives her an approving look before walking over to her sweetheart and kissing him heartily.
"Good morning, koishii. Everything okay with you?"
"Just fine, aisuhana," Kurama replies happily while the koorime starts passing out the textbooks. He looks over at Kohaku when the teacher walks in and decides to play it safe, writing a few words on a piece of paper before crumpling it and tossing right on top of the new girl's head.
Instantly that head is jerked upright and swivels around in a reflex to check for danger, seeing only the teacher and an innocuous wad of paper on her desk. Smoothing it out, Kohaku has to chuckle at the message: teacher's here, cat. She gives him a thumbs-up before turning her attention to the teacher as he begins homeroom.
Later, in study hall, Kurama finds that he and Aislin share yet another class with the unusual human girl; though by this point she's looking somewhat more awake and has claimed a Net plug-in for her laptop. Curious, he wanders over with his arms filled with yet more books, glancing over her shoulder.
"What're you doing?" To his surprise, she pulls small black blobs from her ears, blinking at him as though waking from a trance.
"Eh?"
"What are you doing?" he repeats patiently, realizing that she had been listening to music with earpieces easily hidden by her loose hair.
"Oh. I'm chatting with some of my friends back in the states. If you wanna drop in, this's the address and the code to enter is 'kisama'." Smiling at her humor and her open invitation, he claims a computer by the large bay windows and goes online, finding the chatroom and entering with little effort. He scrolls up to the top to catch up on the conversation as the message 'rubyrose has entered the chatroom' pops up. He finds they've been talking about anime for the most part, with a few random topics that aren't of much interest to him, and scrolls back down to the bottom to catch up again.
Aussieboy: Oy, who invited the flower?
Lonewolf: That's Shuichi, I think. And I did. Got a problem with that, Craig? º Lonewolf growls º
Aussieboy: Naw, sheila, he's cool if you gave 'im the go-ahead. Welcome to the Pocky Club, rubyrose.
Rubyrose: thanks. Nice to meet everyone.
Crystalspire: Oh, this ain't everyone. This is just about a third of us. Big club. Hey, Lonewolf, you doin' okay out there in Anime Central?
Lonewolf: Aroo. T.T
Amberleaf: that bad, eh?
Lonewolf: It's boring! Damn fanboys keep chasing me and I got lost again!
Celticknot: Beat your record? º grin º
Lonewolf: yeah, actually. New record, five hours. I almost slept in a tree again. Catnapped before some guy found me.
Hawkflyer: And did our pretty little wolf find a new packmate?
Lonewolf: Shut it, Luke, before I bite your head off.
Hawkflyer: Ah, but you're clear across an ocean. That's an impossibility.
Lonewolf: T.T
Celticknot: º smacks Hawkflyer º Baka! Remind her why doncha!
Hawkflyer: Aw, geez, sorry, Candy-chan. I keep forgetting...
Lonewolf: ... º thinking º
Amberleaf: All right, Candy, what are you thinking?
Lonewolf: º looks innocent º I don't know what you're talking about.
Amberleaf: I don't have to see you to know those wheels are turning in that spacey head of yours. What are you up to?
Lonewolf: Nothing whatsoever. Why are you so suspicious all the time, Amy?
Celticknot: Cause we know you, Candy. You're plotting.
Rubyrose: º sweatdrop º I think I'll leave you all to settle this amongst yourselves...
Rubyrose has left the chatroom.
Kurama raises an eyebrow as he signs off, amazed that someone who is usually so quiet in class is so voluble on a computer screen, aware that he has just seen a side that most of the people here have not had the privilege of witnessing.
Kohaku rolls her eyes with a smile as she types rapidly, fingers flying over the keyboard.
Lonewolf: Thanks for the intervention, guys. I didn't think he'd actually take the invitation.
Amberleaf: No sweat, Candy-chan. So, give us the scoop! The guy who rescued you! Was he
cute? Was he sweet? Dish girl, details!
Lonewolf: Guy-crazy as always, aren't you Amy?
Amberleaf: You bet! Boys are the spice of life!
Aussieboy: Then why won't you go out with me, Amy?
Amberleaf: Let me rephrase; cute, straight boys are the spice of life!
Aussieboy: T.T
Celticknot: Aw, look, you made him wilt.
Aussieboy: Oh, sweet maiden! Thy cruel words have smote my heart and thus I die! º swoons at Amberleaf's feet º
General teasing remarks.
Celticknot: So? What about the guy?
Lonewolf: persistent bastards. º punches approaching fanboy º Fine, I'll dish. He was unfairly cute, if a little elevationally challenged.
Hawkflyer: Short?
Lonewolf: Kinda. But he had this really cool hair that spiked up all on its own! And eyes the color of drying blood.
Hawkflyer: He sounds tasty. Is he available?
Lonewolf: Nah, he gave off the 'taken' vibe. Besides, you're an ocean away, so you don't get the bishie boy Mr. Straight-as-a-Bagel.
Hawkflyer: T.T
Aussieboy: You girls are so cruel to us.
Celticknot: You're supposed to be dead, Craig.
Crystalspire: Or fainted or something. Go swoon again while we girl-talk. º makes shooing motions º
Lonewolf: How did we get so many boys that love boys, anyway?
Hawkflyer: One word, babe; bishies. Oh-so-tasty bishies. And you're in bishie-central, you lucky wolf.
Lonewolf: Bishies are highly overrated, it pains me to admit. I'd give all the bishies--including Shuichi--just to be back at our lunch-table yakking about boys and what to wear at the next rave. If I so much as mention raves here I get the weirdest looks. T.T I'm going into sparkle-withdrawal!
Amberleaf: we feel your pain, my sistah!
Lonewolf: Bite me.
Amberleaf: Sorry, that's Ally's job. She's got the lovely teeth for it, not me. So, about the bishie-hero. What was he like?
Lonewolf: let me put it this way--if I were so stupid as to call him bishie to his face I'd lose my head and several body parts.
Celticknot: Oooh, a badass bishie! My favorite kind! Tell me he wore black! º sparkly eyes º
Lonewolf: ¬.¬! Uh, duh. Bad-asses have to wear black, it's a requirement. He was athletic, too. I tried flipping him while asleep and he didn't budge an inch, and he dropped out of a thirty-foot tree without so much as a bounce!
Celticknot: o.O He didn't budge when you flipped him??
Amberleaf: Whoa.
Lonewolf: Oh, bell just rang. Gotta outrun the fanboys again. Chat at ten tonight?
Aussieboy: You bet, beautiful!
Hawkflyer: I'll be there with my cat-ears on! Kiss kiss!
Celticknot: Ciao, sugar-wolf!
Lonewolf: Ciao, my people!
Chatroom is empty.
----
Kurama heaves a sigh as Kohaku rapidly packs away her things and races for the library's exit as the bell rings, several fanboys already following her with adoring expressions. He's had enough. He's calling in a favor. /Hiei?/
/What, fox?/ Thankfully, his other beloved does not sound annoyed, only curious. Taking a deep breath, Kurama takes the plunge.
/I need a favor for a friend./
Curiosity. /Oh? Who?/
/A new student at my school has the unfortunate luck of having a large number of very enthusiastic fanboys who are getting overly persistent. Would you please intervene before they snap her temper? We have enough injuries around here with Aislin making trouble./
/I suppose. What's she look like?/
/Dark brown hair, cat-colored eyes, and she's wearing--/
/Boys' uniform?/
/You see her?/
/Not yet. I met her last night when the idiot got lost for apparently five hours. I thought the uniform was familiar. Fanboys, hm? I'll see what I can do. You owe me, my fox./
Amusement. /I'm sure I can think of some suitable reward./
/Lecherous fox./
/You have yet to really complain, ryu-ko./ With the feeling of sugar-coated lemons, Hiei breaks the mental connection and leaves Kurama feeling anticipation for what the kajihenge would think up.
----
It doesn't take long for Hiei to locate the fleeing Kohaku. For once, she's actually on the right path but she's zigzagging furiously to try to shake her pursuers. This would be so much nicer a route if I wasn't getting chased! he hears her wail mentally, thanks to his Jagan eye and her next-to-nonexistent shields. Frowning as he picks up numerous chases from her up-most layer of thoughts, he decides that the fox was right in asking him to handle this.
A demon girl would have exploded by this point, and the fact that she seems to have inflicted no serious hurts doesn't chime with what he's seen of her. Not good. An unusual girl trying to act normal has a very difficult time indeed, and getting pursued like some hart in the old-time royal woods of mortal kings does not make it any easier. High time someone intervened.
He waits barely long enough for her to turn a corner before dropping down onto the empty-but-for-fanboys street, radiating anger and holding his katana ready by his side. The fanboys as one come to a screeching halt with identical looks of disbelieving terror. Hiei exploits that terror to the fullest.
"You annoy me," he says in a voice of ice, lifting his katana to point at the closest boy. "I suggest you stop chasing my ward once and for all if you do not want to die." Positively screaming in fear the fanboys turn and run, figurative tails between their legs and yipping like whipped dogs.
Hiei simply smirks, sheaths his katana, and jumps into the closest tree just as a wary Kohaku comes back around the corner, fully expecting her pursuers to be lying in wait for her. Seeing only an empty street, she blinks, blinks again...and sighs in utter relief, resuming her trip home at an easy walk.
"Thank the gods," she murmurs as she walks, bookbag slung over one shoulder. "I thought I was going to have to get lost again. Thank you, whoever."
You're very welcome, Hiei thinks to himself, pleased at the results of his work. With a smile, he flits off for 'home', thoughts filled with all the interesting things Kurama might think up.
----
His reward, however, is not what he expected. A small fist thumps squarely down on his head and ninety pounds of furious koorime rams into him, knocking him flat on his back and pinning him there. Half-dazed, Hiei looks up into the darkening turquoise eyes of Aislin.
"You IDIOT!" she snarls at him, making his ears ring. "Do you have any idea how much danger you've put that girl in??"
"What are you talking about, snowflake?" he grumbles, shoving her off and wobbling to his feet. He winces when he gingerly touches the rapidly-growing lump on his skull and glares at her.
"The girl! What's-her-name...Kohaku! You declared her your ward, Hiei! Now every enemy of yours is going to be after her in order to use her as bait, bakayarou!"
"Kuso," Hiei whispers, stunned as the implications of his careless actions sink in. Aislin is right. By declaring her his ward, he has claimed Kohaku as under his protection. And left her open to every kidnapping attempt and murder effort that can be made to lure him into every kind of trap imaginable.
Instantly he flits off again in search of the girl in order to keep her safe while Aislin and Kurama head for Koenma's to explain the situation and to set up some kind of watch system.
----
When Hiei settles into the branches of a large tree in Kohaku's backyard a few minutes later, what he sees startles him and gives him a small measure of hope. Training equipment--from logs and bricks to pegs imbedded in the ground--is spread throughout the surprisingly large area, all of it fenced in and screened from prying neighbors. A taste of the reiki within the house gives him another jolt, for one of them is vaguely familiar as well as fairly powerful, but he can't place where's he's tasted it before.
His attention is diverted when the backdoor bangs open and Kohaku bounds out into the open air, followed by a boy several years her junior and the wolf-like dog Baka. Both humans are dressed in tanktops and sweatpants with bare feet, and Hiei nearly swallows his tongue at the sight Kohaku now presents.
The figure hidden by the somewhat-bulky boys' winter uniform is sleek and muscular, small-chested but broad-hipped with a waist he's almost certain he could circle with his hands and have room to spare.
Kohaku laughs as she and the boy start stretching, she finishing her exercises much faster than he and coaching him in ways to improve his attempts at the limbering motions. Baka has taken a post by the back porch, watching his masters with woeful eyes as they do things he cannot. The boy joins him as Kohaku takes her position by the edges of the flat-topped stakes sunk into the ground. Hiei looks closer and notices the boy bringing a boom box from beneath the porch and turning it on before looking towards the girl.
"Ready, Koryu! Give me 'Dan Dariram'!" Smiling, the boy presses play and Hiei's jaw drops. With the opening notes of the techno song Kohaku leaps into the air and performs a roundhouse kick before landing neatly on top of the first stake.
With her eyes closed.
As the pulsing music wraps around the silent hidden watcher and makes his muscles beg to move in rhythm, the brown-haired girl flows through katas in time to the song's beat, mixing in regular dance moves while she moves. All with her eyes shut. She finishes with a flourished flip-kick that whistles as it slices the air, arms up as though she is a gymnast who has just dismounted from the acrobatics mat as the song ends.
Koryu applauds enthusiastically as his sister walks over to him, panting from the exertion but glowing with pleasure at having performed a flawless run. She sits down beside the brown-haired boy with a grin. "Okay, little bro. Think you can do your routine all the way through today?"
The boy looks sheepish and reluctant, scratching the back of his head before replying, "I dunno, sis. You're a hard act to follow."
"It's not about competition, Koryu," Kohaku laughs, ruffling the boy's much shorter hair. "It's about doing the best you can! Now come on, what song do you want?" The boy rises to his feet and trots over to the stakes, body taut with nerves and excitement.
"Um, 'Tactics'!" he decides at last, eyeing the pegs with apprehension. The girl hits the fast-forward button twice before pressing 'play'. The Rurouni Kenshin ending song throbs from the speakers and he bounds with a much simpler high-kick onto the stakes, moving with careful precision through each kata during the slower song.
He finishes with the same flourish as she did however, arms raised above his head as though inviting applause. Which the older girl happily gives as he walks back over to her, beaming. "I did it, Kohaku! I really did it!"
"You really did!" she agrees, and ruffles his hair again affectionately. "Great job, Koryu! Wanna know what you win?"
"What?" the boy asks with excitement, face falling when she announces, "A sparring match with me!" Hiei chuckles quietly to himself despite an effort to hold it in, Baka looking alertly up towards his hiding place with a rising growl. Both human youngsters instantly are on guard and in defensive postures, staring at the tree with startled eyes. Hiei simply sits there and wraps his reiki firmly underneath shields to prevent either of them sensing him and waits.
After a few minutes and nothing happens, Koryu begins to relax and starts to turn towards the still-growling dog. "Defense!" Kohaku snaps, not budging an inch.
"But Kohaku--!"
"No buts! You know the rules. Stay here, keep Baka close. I'm going to check it out." And she grabs a bo staff from a rack leaning against the porch without looking away from the tree, edging closer with the staff raised in guard position. Hiei is beginning to reconsider the choice of staying put, and tenses to leap away when she reaches the bottom of the tree and warily looks up.
And doesn't react.
Hiei allows himself to breathe again when she relaxes, looking confused and shaking her head as she walks back to her brother. "Guess it was nothing. Baka, are you growling at squirrels again?" The dog's ears droop and the eyes turn soulful in a clear message of 'I'm sure there was someone over there!'
"Well, there isn't anyone now," she tells the canine firmly. "But we'd better take you for a walk; it's almost dinner time. Koryu, we can spar when we get back, okay?"
"I'd really rather not spar at all," the boy sighs as the three disappear into the house. Hiei doesn't even jump when a slender figure drops from a higher branch to the one beside him, her white hair gleaming in the twilight.
"Being part illusions demon comes in handy sometimes," Aislin murmurs to him as they both watch the house. "What's with all the equipment?"
Hiei swallows twice, trying to get the image of the human girl's performance out of his head so that he can respond. "They dance on it, snowflake," he whispers hoarsely. "And if that girl can't hold her own in an unfair fight, I will be very surprised. The boy, too."
"What do you mean, 'dance', porcupine head?" Aislin mutters, face blank, and he gestures for her to drop her uppermost shield. She does so with a shrug and he pours the two performances into her mind. One low whistle is all Aislin allows herself, eyes wide with new respect. "So why hasn't she pounded any of those fanboys of hers yet? I mean, she's punched a couple, but nothing like that."
"Hn," he agrees quietly. "So what did Koenma say?"
"We're all on watch until further notice, and he's got a portable view-cam on her at almost all times. Bathroom, bedroom, and locker-room excluded, naturally. I have to get back; Koenma's expecting me to do some reports. I'll come and relieve you in about two hours."
"Hai," he replies absently as she leaves. A few seconds later he hears the front door open and close, two voices talking happily into the relative silence of the low-traffic street. Hiei melts into the growing shadows and follows a safe distance behind as the siblings walk Baka on a long leash.
Kohaku's activities on the walk bemuse him. Every now and then--seemingly at random and with no apparent awareness that she does so--she reaches out and brushes her hand against some permanent landmark, such as signposts and tree trunks.
When he checks for reiki, he is startled to find the merest smudge of her energy on every single thing that she's touched. If she were a demon, he's say she was marking territory...he reels as memory chooses that second to slam a sledgehammer behind his eyes.
A very beautiful woman with hip-length, straight hair the glossy black of a raven's wing stands before him, amber eyes fierce as she defiantly scratches the trunk of a tree next to her with her claws. The grooves glow to his 'sight' with smears of reiki. "This is my territory, Hiei Jaganshi," she informs him coldly. "Every thing that I have touched will alert me to your presence and any other I have not given recent permission to. You are not allowed in this place, now or ever."
Of course! How could he have forgotten Mei? That aggravating wolf demon had defied him for three centuries when he'd been trying to consolidate his powers--she'd denied him access to her territory while preventing him from crossing freely between two of his. And wolf demons rely on marking territory in order to keep from getting lost. "Just wait a few months though, if we stick around that long. I'll know this city back to front and I'll be able to walk it blindfolded." Suddenly Hiei feels much relieved, and he flits off, not noticing how Baka's eyes follow his departure in the half-light.
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koishii: beloved
aisuhana: ice-flower and Kurama's nickname for Aislin
koorime: ice maiden
ryu-ko/kun: little dragon, nickname for Hiei
bakayarou: idiot
kuso: damn
hai: yes, sure