Now that the tantei and the wizards are interacting more, here's a dialogue key:
"English"
"Japanese"
"Makai tongue"
The inhabitants of Reikai speak in such a way that anyone can understand them, so their speech will be in normal " ".
::13::The Emerald Elixir::
Yusuke's mouth moved soundlessly as he tried to speak, but current events had his mind reeling faster than a windmill during a hurricane. First, one of his best friends is poisoned, and now he's told a wave of demons was coming in seven hours?! Whoever came up with 'when it rains, it pours' must have been looking into Yusuke's life.
"Seven...SEVEN HOURS?" he managed to shout.
"Hn. Yes, detective, and you need to get your emotions under control. What did Kurama drink?"
"I dunno...I don't even know what he drank during the Ankoku Butjutsukai."
Hiei snorted in annoyance and jumped down from the window sill, landing with a slight thump as the hard, flat heels of his black boots collided with the yellow stone floor. Roughly snatching the goblet from Kurama's desk, he lifted the cup and let a drop of the black liquid fall onto his lips. Licking them clean, his crimson eyes narrowed at the taste.
"What is it?" Yusuke asked cautiously.
"Absinthe was mixed in with the potion," Hiei said flatly, switching to English.
"Absinthe?!" obviously Hermione knew something Yusuke didn't, because he had a blank look on his face whereas she looked horrifed, "That stuff is horrible!"
"Well what the hell is it?!" Yusuke snapped, impatience and anger obvious in his tone.
"Liquor. 94 alcohol, mixed with wormwood and sugar," Hermione said matter-of-factly.
"94?! That's almost pure!"
"Yes, and wormwood is a strong hallucagenic. It reacted negatively with the age-regressing potion and created a more lethal poison," Hiei said, carelessly tossing the goblet in the general direction of Kurama's desk. It landed with a loud clatter and bounced off, only to land on the floor behind the kitsune's chair. The small portion slowly began seeping out, staining the yellow stone floor a sickly grayish wheat color.
"How the hell do we cure him then?!" Yusuke snarled.
"We can't," Hermione spoke up again, earning everyone's attention.
Those two words plunged like daggers into both Yusuke and Hiei's hearts. So did this mean Kurama would die? Hiei's eyes suddenly iced over into a hell-freezing glare as he looked at Hermione, locking his blood stone eyes with her brown ones.
"What does that mean?" he said slowly, his deep voice low and deadly.
Hermione bit her lip, currently Hiei had frightened the living daylights out of her. He looked ready to slice her open with a single glance...
Even so, she forced herself to speak, "H-he has to r-ride it out..."
"How deadly is this stuff?" Yusuke asked, his voice unusually high as he fought to keep it from cracking.
"I don't know...alcohol doesn't usually mix well with potions, though, we've only used small amounts of wine in advanced potions," she said, "and Absinthe is a really strong drink. He might get hallucinations and vomiting."
"Sounds nice," Yusuke spat.
"It's good if he does," Hiei pointed out, "it means the posion is coming out of his system. But he needs more energy, I can feel his draining..."
"Fine," Yusuke laid Kurama so he was flat on the floor, and carefully placed his hands on the kitsune's chest. Closing his dark brown eyes, bright, icy blue and white energy started to pool around his palms and fingers. Kurama's chest then started to glow as his body slowly started absorbing the needed energy, but this was draining Yusuke. He fought to concentrate and keep consciousness as his energy flowed out of him, but it was too much.
"Hiei...take over..." were the last things he managed to slur out before he collapsed, falling over Kurama as his body let out.
"Hn. Looks familiar," Hiei muttered, recalling the time Kuwabara did the same thing for Yusuke. The Jaganshi dragged Yusuke off of Kurama, lying the detective beside the fox flat on his back. His crimson eyes widened briefly as the emeralds Kurama could call eyes were slowly, painstakingly opened, only to be clouded over with shock from the incredible pain in his gut.
The kitsune rolled over onto his stomach, his eyes fixated on the golden stone floor. His expression had evened over with disturbing suddeness, to be replaced with a dark, calculating look that didn't even suit his youkai amber gaze.
Hiei's eyes narrowed suspiciously. The Absinthe was obviously powerful, to dilute Kurama's mind like that. It better not leave any permanent damage, or that potions teacher was way past dead. He snorted in disgust and bent down beside the kitsune. Hiei snapped his calloused fingers sharply in front of Kurama's fine face, but got no response. His eyes didn't even flicker to acknowledge the noise and the presence of another person right next to him.
He had no idea what Kurama was seeing...
The kitsune was surrounded by swirling black and grey masses - or, he thought he was. All his eyes could see and fathom was the dark abyss of black and gray that mixed with each other in pinwheel patterns, boggling the eyes if you looked at it for too long. There was no sound, and the silence rung in his ears like a huge bell as it often does.
What scared him wasn't the endless, swirling dull colors, it was the feeling in the pit of his stomach. An overwhelming desire to hurt something - something, or someone, but he had to lash out! His slender fingers curled against the stone floor (invisible to him) into fists, his short nails digging painfully into his palms. But the alcohol had numbed his senses, and he felt none of the small, half-moon cuts forming in his hand.
As small crimson droplets of blood slowly oozed out of the cuts, running along the callouses in his hand until gravity finally took over and they dripped to the ground, he attempted to stand up, but his legs buckled and brought him to his knees, heavy as lead and about as strong as jell-o.
His head snapped to the window as a whooshing sound rushed through his ears. It was just a night wind, but suddenly a low, deadly snarl rose in his throat as his body went rigid, eyeing the office window with a dangerous flicker in his emerald gaze. Hiei had a sudden urge to step backward and get away from the sadistic kitsune, but he forced himself to ingore his instincts. His crimson eyes narrowed as the smell of blood invaded his senses, and it wasn't his own hand wound reopening. Kurama had pierced his own skin...
"Kurama needs medical attention, this posion is going to leave irreversible damage if we let him ride it out," he said briskly, "You, get me the compact on his desk."
The last statement was directed towards Harry, who acted without question and tossed the compact to the Jaganshi, who easily caught it between two fingers. Flipping it open, he spoke rapidly in the Makai tongue to the screen, where someone must be listening on the other line. He spoke the quickest in his native language, and the spirits were able to understand anything in any language.
"You three are coming to the spirit world," Hiei stated bluntly as he snapped the communicator closed, stuffing it in a pocket of his cloak.
"What?" Harry double-blinked, looking confused, "Don't only dead people go there...?"
Hiei snorted, "Fool. Just shut up and cooperate."
The Jaganshi turned his attention back to Kurama, whose snarling hadn't ceased. "Hn...you were better off unconscious," without hesitation, he curled his pale, calloused fingers into a fist and delivered a heavy blow to the fox's head.
At first, Kurama just wavered on the spot, his pupils crossing in and out of focus as his body fought to keep consciousness. Even in this altered state, the instinct to survive was strong, and the alcoholic content of the poison just helped to numb any pain. However, his weakened body couldn't handle such a blow as the blood rushed to his head and he fell to the stone floor, unmoving except for the ragged, labored rising and falling of his chest.
"Anyone of any use is unconscious," Hiei muttered bitterly, ignoring the three teenagers in the room completely and pacing slowly under the window, glancing up every few seconds and scowling as if waiting for someone who was late.
"Uh..." Hermione was the first to venture speaking since Hiei had spoken into the communicator, her curiosity had gotten the best of her and she wanted to know what was going on, "who are you waiting for?"
"The grim reaper," Hiei stated tonelessly, barely sparing the young woman a glance.
"Is Professor Minamino dead?!"
Hiei rolled his eyes, "It'll take more than that to bring him down. No, he will be fine if the damn ferry girl gets here..." he almost growled that last statement, as if hoping said girl would get the gist and appear.
Completely confused, Hermione decided to shut up and wait until things were explained. After all, the three of them - Harry, Ron and herself - were in the middle of this. Surely they would be informed of the situation...
"Oh dear, I hope I got here on time!" a high-pitched femme's voice suddenly rang from the window, causing everyone's attention to avert to her. She was floating on a boat oar, dressed in a light pink kimono. Her hair was blue, pulled back into a high ponytail, and her eyes seemed to be perfectly coordinated with her tresses - a purplish-pink, they showed every emotion she was feeling, right now fear shone through.
"I hope you brought reinforcements," Hiei pivoted smoothly on his heel to face the window and thus, the blue-haired girl.
"Don't worry, I can get you all to spirit world. Now, let's see, I hope I remember how to do this..."
A strained look of total concentration suddenly took over her features. She was gripping her oar, and her smooth hands were emitting a bright yellow glow that suddenly engulfed the entire thing. Slowly, it expanded, the golden energy taking on the form of a rowboat attached to the flat paddle end of the oar.
"Come on, you three!" Botan motioned for Harry, Ron and Hermione to get into the boat as she expertly twisted around and backed about a foot of the rowboat through the window, into the room, so they could hop in. They did so, watching anxiously as Hiei, apparently with little effort, heaved the unconscious forms of both Yusuke and Kurama onto his shoulders. Since they were a good deal taller than he was, half of their body dragged on the stone floor, but their long black robes shielded their skin from scraping so Hiei ignored it. Harry reached out to help pull them in, and the two were laid on the bottom of the boat while Hiei and the three young wizards sat on the wooden boards that served as benches.
"To the spirit world!" Botan delcared, punching one hand in the open air and giggling, "Hold on, boys, and make sure Kurama and Yusuke don't fall out!"
Her orders were faithfully carried out as the boat suddenly lurched forward at a slow speed, but after a few seconds it was probably going as fast as a car on the highway.
"Can't people see us?" Ron asked, leaning over the side of the boat to see all of London stretched out under them. Street lamps looked more like ants on fire as they zoomed along, Hiei looking bored, but the wizards absolutely delighted to fly so comfortably. Thestrals and Hippogriffs were on the bottom of all their lists, but Harry still found himself preferring a broom, and wondering what it would be like to fly an oar like Botan, solo.
"Nope, normal humans can't see us. Oh! By the way, my name's Botan, grim reaper and pilot of the River Styx! We're going to be flying at a 90-degree angle soon, so hang onto the boys and the boat!" Botan shouted back at them from her slender wooden perch, her blue hair wildly whipping at her face.
Suddenly, a small, swirling purple and black hole appeared in the sky, and Botan was headed right for it! Everyone fought to keep a hold on both Yusuke, Kurama and the boat so they themselves wouldn't go tumbling down to the Earth thousands of feet below as the boat suddenly tipped upwards, almost at a perfect 90-degree angle...and then, the ningenkai diappeared...
They were surrounded by pure pitch blackness for no more than a few short seconds before leveling out and revealing a beautiful new world. The ground below was a beautiful golden color, completely flat with a sparkling blue river twisting through the land. The whole environment had a settling sense of peace for everyone, especially when Botan slowed to a more leisurely pace and started acting the tour guide, pointing out the River Styx and other interesting places they flew over.
Finally, a huge Chinese-style pagoda, which must be hundreds of floors tall, loomed in the distance. Puffy white clouds drifted lazily in front of it, adding to the pure shock of how huge it was.
"Koenma's palace," Botan explained, "we're here."
::End::
Sorry it took so long to update! Enjoy this chapter, and please excuse any mistakes, really, I'm still using Wordpad and don't have too much time to proofread, but I do the best I can! Plus FF takes forever to load...and it's just annoying...it's taking all my patience right now to not whack the computer into tiny little bits for being so slow...