Spring's Fire, Chapter Four
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Kohaku bounds out of bed the next morning with a new resolve firm in her mind. Walking over to her closet, she pulls out her purple-sparkly feather-scrunchy and a bottle of glitter from a box marked 'Rave' in the back on the floor. After she takes a shower and cleans her teeth, she spritzes a faint mist of her favorite wildflower perfume over her high ponytail (scrunchy in place) and tosses up a handful of glitter. Letting it stick to her lightly-damp strands, she then applies a faint dusting of iridescent glitter to her cheeks and some dark purple eyeliner in kohl-like fashion. A final glance at her mirror brings satisfaction of her work and she bounds downstairs, taking the steps three at a time like she used to back home.
Her father raises an eyebrow at her appearance and sighs. "The clean look didn't last, I see."
"Me and some friends went to a kosher-rave club last night. I have techno in my blood and glitter everywhere!!"
"And paint-stains permanently on your new jeans," her mother adds sarcastically from the stove, cooking eggs. "I hope you know I'm not going to bother trying to clean them."
"Bleach, mom, bleach. Enough soakings in it will make them even cooler under blacklight." Kohaku is practically bouncing in place with enthusiasm, and her mother sighs, giving up.
"At least you're your cheerful self again instead of moping around the neighborhood. Got your bookbag?"
"Right here!" She holds it up, the unfortunate item also having gone through a transformation, now covered in glitter-glue and gel-pen. Mei sighs again and shakes her head, handing her daughter a bento and an egg sandwiched between two pieces of toast.
"I'd give you a kiss, but I don't need glitter-lips again. Off to school with you, and try not to kill the fanboys."
"How'd you know about those??" her daughter demands, frozen in place halfway to the door. Her mother raises an elegant eyebrow in a wry expression.
"You think fanboys are a new invention? We just called them stalkers in the old days. Now scat or you'll be late." Her brother trudges down the stairs barely awake but dressed neatly in his uniform. She hands him a bento and breakfast, pushing him after his sister. "And take your brother with you!"
Laughing, Kohaku catches her brother's free hand (the sandwich already having disappeared down his throat) and pulls him after her. "Come on, Koryu! Time for another fun-filled day of learning and incomprehensible teachers!"
"Damn perky glitter-Goth techno-high filled mornings," her brother grumbles as he is hauled out the door. Baka looks up from his nap beneath the kitchen table with a whuff of amusement as the door closes.
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"Ooh, Shuichi, grounded?" The red-haired boy gives her a long-suffering, noble look and she chuckles. "How long for?"
"A week," he sighs. "There goes my perfect-idol image right out the window. Goodbye, and good riddance."
A laugh as she plops herself down in the desk in front of his, sunlight glinting off her decorations to shatter itself, sending tiny little dots of light into the room. "That's what you get for staying out 'til the wee hours and coming home covered in paint," she says, pretending to scold him. "My mom's used to it, so she's just going to chuck my rave clothes into the washer with some bleach just like she used to back home."
"I like the look, Kohaku," Aislin tells her approvingly as she slides into her seat beside her lover, arms once more full of books. "Very eye-catching."
"My little brother calls it glitter-Goth," Kohaku laughs, tossing her head to make the glitter sparkle. "What was that place we went to last night? It was fantastic."
"It's a club called the Childe Demon, the local hangout for people like us," Kurama informs her, a smile lurking underneath his woeful mask. "The bouncer you met is named Ranma, but everyone just calls him Brawn. No alcohol, no drugs, and only certain kinds of people are allowed in. Brawn's got a good nose for them, so you'll meet him most nights if you go."
Just then, a couple members of Kohaku's much-cowed fanclub slink in, spot her, and totally forget Hiei's warning. They drift her way and she greets them with a smile, which encourages them closer with hopeful obsession-smiles growing on their faces. Pens, pads of paper, even cameras begin to appear, and still she just sits there with that perfectly calm smile. Then they get in range.
When the teacher walks in, he is forced to step over the mangled remains of three boys just to get to his desk and he aims a weary glare in Aislin's direction. One of the pretzels coughs and groans. "Moors-san, what have I told you about beating up fanboys in class?"
"Not her, Hibiki-sensei," one of the other students pipes up, pointing to a satisfied-looking Kohaku examining her sparkly-purple nail polish for chips. "It was Piers-san."
"Piers-san, what do you have to say for yourself?" the teacher sighs, and Kohaku sits up and appears to think a moment.
"Ummmm, they had it coming?" she ventures brightly, making the class dissolve into laughter. Even the teacher snorts a moment before restoring order with a piercing whistle, coughing to suppress his own mirth.
"A-hem. Be that as it may, in the future refrain from beating up fan-club members in the classrooms. This being your first offense, I won't give you detention. Oh, and Piers-san? It's about time."
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"You sure about this, Tenchi? Messing with the Jaganshi's ward and all? It'll be like signing our own death warrants."
"When I want to you think, idiot, I'll let you know. You just have to get me what I want, and I'll take care of the rest."
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"Aisuhana?" The koorime's face appears on Kurama's com-pact screen with a curious smile.
"What is it, Kurama?"
"I can't find Hiei anywhere. Do you know where he might be?"
"At the moment? He's curled up in a ball in my study with a head that's close to exploding. Poor tiny brain that he has, he can't seem to remember that having two people to be in love with isn't such a big problem. Perhaps you can talk to him, Yoko. He's not listening to me anymore."
The fox-ningen sighs. "I would, but I have the slight problem of being grounded. Mother would have a fit, and I would have to tell her everything."
"Dearheart, dearheart, haven't you learned anything about me by now?" Her shoulder moves which means she's made a gesture offscreen, and suddenly Kurama has a copy sitting on the bed besidehim with a wicked smile. "Illusion-demon blood is a handy, handy thing."
"Clever little ice-fox," Kurama chuckles, before rising to his feet and going to the door. "Mother?" he calls down the hallway. "I'm going to take a nap before dinner, is that all right?"
"Fine, dear," his mother calls back. Satisfied, he watches as his illusory copy stretches out on his bed and to all appearances, drops into a deep sleep. Chuckling, he opens his window, leaps into the tree standing just beyond it, and slips away to Spirit World.
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"Hiei-kun?" The fire apparition flinches at the sound of the warm, concerned voice breaking into his thoughts. He peers up through his bangs to find a worried Kurama standing in the doorway of Aislin's study, one hand braced against the frame and the other dangling by his side. "Are you all right?"
"No," Hiei mumbles, burying his face in his knees once again. "I'm so confused." He can feel Aislin's presence nearby, but since this is the lair granted to her by Koenma he has no grounds for complaint.
The red-haired boy settles on the floor beside his beloved kajihenge, and carefully wraps an arm around the smaller male's shoulder, experience having taught him that Hiei is by no means nearly as tactile as his beloved Aislin. When Hiei does not reject his touch Kurama leans against him, wrapping the black-haired male in the fox-human's scent. Involuntarily Hiei relaxes against his beloved, the familiar scent comforting him and drawing away the stress. "Hiei, you can talk to me, you know that. Please tell me what's wrong? I've been watching you tear yourself up inside for nearly a week."
With a world-weary sigh, Hiei gives in. "It's...Kohaku. I...I might be..."
"You might be falling in love with her, is that it, Hiei?" He tilts Hiei's chin back towards him when the other male looks away, ashamed. "I am not upset with you, my dragon. We do not choose who our hearts love."
Hiei buries his face in Kurama's shirt, trembling with the force of his emotions. "But Kurama, I still love you, too. It feels like I'm being ripped in half right down the middle."
"Ah, me, I recall having the same problem with you and Aislin once upon a time," Kurama reminds him gently, "and we worked it out without hurting any of us. I am certain your ward will not object to sharing your affections."
"And how would you know that, fox?" Hiei snaps.
"You haven't told her, so she cannot object to anything, now can she?" Hiei wilts.
"No."
"Hiei, I love you. Seeing you and Aislin being happy is my greatest joy. If that means that one day you choose someone else, then so be it."
"But what about you, my ruby fox?"
"It would hurt, yes, but I would rather you be happy. You can even take me into the Void, and my Truth would remain the same. Love isn't always about joy and laughter, it's about pain and sorrow, too. But it's sorrow that you don't have to share alone. Why don't we start by getting you to actually talk to your new charge?"
Another heavy sigh. "All right, Kurama." Aislin pokes her snowy head around the door, eyes hopeful.
"Is it safe for me to come into my study without having to face a grumpy dragon?"
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Leap. Leap. Kick, spinning backfist. Leg sweep, open-palm solar plexus strike. Broken nose, box the ears, punch-punch-kick block! Backflip, side twist-flip, block-block-dodge! Why do I hear clapping? Kohaku stops in the middle of her routine to find three very tall strangers applauding at the edge of her backyard. Instantly she is on guard, daggers hidden beneath her crop-top's long sleeves dropping into her hands hilt first. "Can I help you gentlemen with something?" she asks them cautiously, edging towards the house one peg at a time on unerring feet.
"Funny you should ask that, sweetheart," the most-neatest groomed of the three--not that that's saying much--tells her with a disquieting smirk. "As a matter of fact, you can."
"O-oh really?" she squeaks, stopping when she finds that one of the three strangers has moved to block her escape route towards the house. "Would you just excuse me for a second?" She leaps straight up just as the third stranger lunges for her, whistling shrilly as she grabs onto a tree branch about twenty feet above her. Furious barking erupts from within the house and Baka bursts out the back door, snapping and snarling at the intruders who are suddenly sprouting horns and claws and really long teeth.
"Sic 'em, Baka!" Kohaku commands, dropping out of the tree and lashing out at the nearest intruder with one of her kunai. The thing screeches and lashes out in return, scoring the flesh of her bicep and making her yelp in pain. "Ow! You prick! That freakin' hurt!"
"Sstupid!" the leader hisses, wrangling away from Baka and smacking his ally upside the head. "We do not harm her! Boss wants her unharmed!"
"Well then that just makes it a whole lot harder for you!" Kohaku shouts, kicking him hard in the head and sending him flying into the punching-post with a sickening crack. "'Cause I ain't goin' without a fuckin' fight! So kiss off, ya bastards!!" She is doing surprisingly well against the intruders, though right now Kohaku is glad that her parents have taken Koryu to a soccer game for tryouts. She'd never be able to fight properly if she had to worry about her brother trying to fight and getting himself hurt. These...these things would doubtless have no compunctions about harming her little brother even if they don't seem to want to really hurt her. That's all right. A wicked grin blooms across her face as she 'dances', the three minions falling back under the combined assault of girl and dog, kunai and teeth and claws.
That is, until steel bands pin her arms to her sides and clap a foul-smelling cloth against her mouth and nose. Squirming, kicking and fighting to get free, the person behind her simply squishes her against him tighter and leans over to whisper in her ear, "A word of advice, little wildcat. When fighting, put something solid against your back."
Aw, crap, Kohaku manages to berate herself as the drug in the cloth does its work and sends her spiraling into the arms of oblivion. Before she is dragged completely under she hears snapping bones and a high-pitched yelp. She hopes to every deity she knows that they don't belong to Baka.
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She awakes without knowing how long she has been unconscious or any idea of where she is. A bleary look around reveals the interior of an ubiquitous warehouse, piles of crates stacked here and there and the vaulting roof supported by heavy beams. She happens to be chained, by what she can guess, to the central one with lengths of chain capable of holding a freakin' semi. The humongous headache pounding across her temples is not helping to sweeten her mood, either.
"Yah, sure," she grumbles as she tugs at her wrists, knowing the effort is futile but feeling that she must make it anyway, "I'm just gonna snap these right in half and toddle off home."
"That is what we were suspecting." The cultured voice is the same as the one that had told her to put her back against something solid next time she fought, and she twists around as best she can to see him.
"Well, you're an idiot, then. One frickin' human girl is not going to be able to break these no matter how much she trains."
"Ah," the man breathes, stepping into a watery beam of light and revealing himself. "But you see, I have known pure blooded humans who were perfectly capable of breaking those with less effort than breathing. So I prefer to err on the side of caution." Kohaku takes this opportunity to observe her captor, and has to smile. A more well-groomed, handsomer tiger-headed male she'd never met. "And why are you smiling, child?"
"It must suck to work with low-brows like that lot."
His amused laughter rumbles from the deep chest and seems to echo from the gaped jaws. "Such humor for a captive! It is no wonder the Jaganshi has chosen you for his ward."
"Who's the Jaganshi?"
"You are not aware?" The tiger-man seems surprised, his round ears flattening against his skull to flash the white-on-black markings. "He's been making a habit of that, it would seem. No matter. After he comes to rescue you, he will die."
"Sonuva--" Kohaku strains against the chains just to feel something besides a growing anger. "You mean you're using me as fucking bait??"
"Of course. Once a demon declares themselves as a defender of a ward, then they must fight for that person until the day the ward is strong enough to fight for themselves. It is a part of who we are, and we cannot fight ourselves. You, little ningen girl, are the Jaganshi's ward, declared by himself not a week ago. Hence, if you are in danger, he must come and rescue you."
A faint canine growl, the sound of a wolf pushed past its tolerance, trickles from between her clenched teeth. Kohaku is very proud of her growl--she's been working on it since she was six. Now the sound is filled with angry warning as she pulls against the chains even harder--and hears the metal begin to stress. "I...am...not...bait..." she growls, emboldened by her progress with her shackles. Rising up on her knees she hauls hard against the chains and is rewarded with the screaming of strained metal.
Arms shove her back against the pillar and hold her struggling form there as a vial is produced and a needle is filled with the vial's contents. She howls as the shining tube is slid into the large vein tracing the edge of her forearm, rattling the windows clear across the room before collapsing as the drug goes into near-instant effect.
"For the time being, little wildcat, you are. And that drug will keep you incapable--shit!" he yowls, adroitly sidestepping as her stomach rebels and she vomits all over a very unfortunate minion who happens to be right in front of her. "I didn't expect the drug to trigger side effects so quickly!"
The lower-class demon that received Kohaku's regurgitated lunch quickly moves away when her stomach rebels a second time. And a third, nothing but bile. The fourth has blood. The tiger gestures and the chains fall away, Kohaku unable to support herself on her drugged muscles as the chemical burns away in her blood and she slowly flops facedown on the floor.
The tiger demon--for that is what he must surely be--grabs the anointed minion and hauls him off his scaly feet. "You told me she was full-blooded mortal, Sneechu!" The demon's face is shoved at the spasming Kohaku with a vicious yank. "Does this look like a full-blood's reaction to you??"
"Graaa-gurgle," the demon chokes out with the tiger-demon's claws wrapped around his throat. Blood is beginning to leak from Kohaku's nostrils and her breath whistles from constricting lungs. The last thing she sees through graying eyes is the upper skylight shattering from the force of a black lightning-ball plummeting through it.
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Hiei's gaze is frightened and frightening as he stands in the middle of the broken glass, eyes only for the girl measuring her length on the floor, blood pouring from her mouth in almost rhythmic bursts. Ever so slowly he turns to look at the tiger demon standing defensively by his charge, head held high in uncertain defiance. "Upon my word of honor, Jaganshi, I did not mean for this to happen. She was to be immobilized temporarily, nothing more."
"Your honor does not exist, Tenchi Torasaka." Hiei's mouth twists up in sadistic glee as the bared Eye upon his forehead closes and seals over. "But thanks to your threatening of my charge, I get a moment to remember what my real power tastes like. Goodbye, Torasaka. See you in Hell." Violet-black flames erupt around the slender black-clad body and lick the ceiling, reaching out for the terrified minions and the proud tiger standing defiantly by the fallen girl. All of them turn to ash within a breath.
The danger still exists to his charge, however, and his power does not fade. Gathering the limp girl in his arms, Hiei sets him mind for his destination and pulls, vanishing in a swirl of ash.
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Across the city, two heads jerk up in unison as a dangerously powerful reiki slams over them, staggering the taller of the two but leaving the smaller unaffected. Turquoise eyes are wide in shock and worry, the delicate nose raised in the invisible wind blowing towards them. "What is that?" Kurama asks shakily, steadying himself against a tree.
"That," Aislin tells him quietly, coming up beside him, "is Hiei. At full power, unrestrained by the Jagan. And if Hiei is unsealed, then Kohaku is in mortal danger. I suggest we get your emergency kit, beloved. I have the feeling we are going to need it." Placing one pale hand on the red-head's shoulder, the koorime gestures with the other and the two vanish in a puff of honey-scented smoke.
Aislin's prediction is well founded, for no sooner then they appear in Kurama's room with a rush of displaced air when Hiei materializes with a slightly louder 'thud' that is muffled by the heavy carpet. The two apparitions stare in fright at the pale body cradled effortlessly in their third's arms, blood a crimson curtain down the ashen chin and throat. "What happened?" Kurama demands, going to his closet and pressing a hand to the back wall. A faint pattern of a vine, twisted into an endless knot, glows a moment in a rich green before the fox-human is taking out a large leather-covered box that seems to made mostly into small drawers.
"They gave her something to paralyze her," is the brusque reply as Hiei gently sets the unconscious Kohaku on the taller boy's bed, a gentle hand brushing her hair away from her face. "I'm guessing it was demonsbane mixed with a sedative."
Demonsbane is a taboo plant in the Makai, every single sprout of it ripped up the second it is discovered, for even in minuscule doses it is fatal to anything with youkai blood. Kurama's face is grim as he holds a hand out flat above her lungs and concentrates, reading her ki, her life energy, and whatever happens to be in her system at the moment.
"Demonsbane," he confirms a moment later, "mixed with a high concentration of morphine. How large a dose did they give her, Hiei?"
"What has that--"
"I need to know to mix the antidote. Too little and it won't help. Too much and it'll kill her just as surely as the poison will." Deathly afraid for his charge and annoyed at the trouble it takes for an antidote, Hiei tilts his head to the side and tries to remember the syringe lying abandoned on the floor.
"I think they gave her three milliliters," he replies after a moment's hesitation.
"Then we have fifteen minutes of grace," Kurama says in a soft, reassuring voice as he begins pulling unmarked vials and powders from various drawers. "The solution was three drops demonsbane per milliliter. It takes a full-blood youkai ten minutes to die from nine drops of demonsbane; a half-blood gives us twice that long but I don't feel like cutting it that close." He holds up a freshly-unwrapped syringe filled with a softly-glowing liquid and taps it to clear any air-bubbles. Swabbing a patch of skin above the original injection site Kurama carefully inserts the needle, makes certain he's got the vein, and pushes the syringe's plunger home. The bruise-colored tint to her skin trailing up and down Kohaku's arm darkens for a moment to a livid hue then recedes at a quickening pace until it is concentrated around the two injections sites, before stopping. Kurama frowns and passes his hand over Kohaku's torso one more time, face falling into lines of confusion and worry.
"She's stopped fighting the poison," is the grim declaration. Instantly he is shouldered aside by Hiei, who spares a glance only for the white-haired girl standing beside him. She gives him the nod, and his Jagan reopens to blaze with bright violet light.
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"Okay, note to self, be extremely wary of strange males holding any kind of medical paraphernalia," Hiei arrives in Kohaku's mindscape in time to hear someone off to his left state with annoyance. Opening his projection's eyes Hiei finds himself standing on the edge of a rocky, silvery-sanded beach with a temperate forest filling the land behind him. Following the source of the voice, he finds a child-sized female standing on the sand and staring at a series of moving images hung in the sky above the highest tideline.
With a start Hiei sees himself in no few of the images, mostly scowling or with a neutral mask on like he almost always does. Putting on another of his patented scowls he stalks up to the girl and confronts her. "What the hell do you think you are doing?" he demands icily, and the girl blinks.
"Oh, hello, Hiei. I'm reviewing my memories and making notes for my next life to follow. I am dead, aren't I?"
"No," he grits, "you are not." The young girl is honestly surprised. Before his eyes she stretches into the age and form he is familiar with, cracking her knuckles with a cheerful gaze for something behind him.
"In that case," she says as mountain-climbing gear appears on various locales of her body, her billowy oversized shirt molding into a long-sleeved form-fitting shirt and heavy canvas pants that hug her legs without impeding movement, "I'd better get healing, shouldn't I?"
Hiei turns to find that a high mountain has sprouted from the forest and bares slate-gray cliffs to the open sky. "That is your manifestation of your healing process??"
"Fun, isn't it?" she chirps, the landscape blurring around them until they both stand at the base of the mountain. "Feel like joining in?" Hiei easily hears the tone of playful challenge beneath the casual invitation, and his blood begins to heat with no little excitement.
"I may not be here for the whole thing. Aislin might yank me back." He holds up his wrist and pulls back the sleeve, revealing a platinum band that pulses with Hiei's heartbeat. Kohaku shrugs and leads the way up a new path leading to the base of the mountain, striding at an effortless pace that devours the distance in rapid chunks.
"Well, come as far as you can, then. It'll be nice to have company, after all." They reach the base of the massive spurt of shale and granite, Hiei tilting his head back to try and spot the summit and unsuccessful because of the pale clouds ringing the peaks a few miles up.
"So, why this?"
"I love rock-climbing," she replies simply, finishing up a few simple stretches and setting her hands and feet into their first holds. Hiei can simply leap the rock faces with far more agility than any mountain goat, but Kohaku goes by hand- and foot-holds and tests each one before trusting her weight to it.
In the distance, Hiei hears with his physical ears twin sighs of relief, one a baritone and the other a sweet alto. "Her immune system's kicking in," he hears Kurama say gladly, "Whatever Hiei's doing, it's working." The kajihenge breathes his own sigh of relief before stretching a hand out to help Kohaku over a rough spot.
"Explain again why I can't simply carry you up," Hiei requests as they climb, the girl only allowing the occasional moment of help for the rare times she gets stuck.
"If you carry me up I wouldn't really be healing," she explains patiently, keeping her eyes on her chosen vertical route. "It'll be a temporary measure at best, and I'd end up just getting sick again. This way, the work is the healing and I'll be staying healed."
Halfway to the summit Hiei begins to feel a tugging on the platinum band around his wrist, but he only sends a mental shaft of reassurance to Aislin and goes back to helping Kohaku climb. They've reached a particularly difficult spot, a cliff jutting out that is made mostly of treacherous shale rather than granite and they both need all the concentration they have to keep Kohaku climbing. When they reach the plateau beyond it the tugging abruptly turns into an insistent pull that nearly yanks Hiei sideways.
Kohaku, busy drinking from a large water bottle that had appeared in her hand, eyes him with one chocolate eyebrow raised almost to her hairline. "What was that?"
"Aislin," Hiei mutters, broadcasting annoyance and a feeling of 'I'm BUSY' through the link. The yanking pauses a moment before resuming even more strongly than before, and Hiei turns to Kohaku with a scowl.
"Politely worded demand for your full presence?" she guesses, watching Hiei tilt with every pull, and her companion nods. She shrugs and puts her bottle away back in thin air. "Ah, well. My shields are crap anyway, I'd assume, so just pop back when you can. I'll try not to fall while you're gone."
"Better not," Hiei mutters, and then Kohaku surprises him, darting forward and planting a chaste kiss on his cheek.
"That's a 'just in case'," she chuckles as she heads up the next section.Hiei stands stock still, not even the bracelet affecting his balance, and turns bright, bright red before allowing Aislin to haul him back.
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bento: lunch box
sensei: teacher (also applies to doctors)
Tenchi Torasaka: roughly translates to 'key of tiger mountain'