Ra! Here's the rest of the super-chapter-that-wasn't.
in case you really haven't figured it out, it's still not mine.
::the sound of death::
"Don't fucking touch him!" Kurama snarled. "You do and I'll shred the skin from your bones! I wasn't hated and feared for longer than you've been alive for my abilities to sit around in a cage and make small talk!"
"Not like he cares, I'm sure," Ramandai replied sweetly. "I mean, look at him. He's got all the freedom in the world, and he's not moving..."
"You bloody liar!"
Hiei dropped his sword involuntarily as Kurama took another shot at the barrier and came back with more blood spraying from his hands and arms and a pained scream that only stopped because it broke. Stop it, he tried saying. Stop it...stop screaming...I can't stand you screaming like that...did I drop my sword because I can't move? Oh hell... "Let me talk," he said abruptly.
"You are talking," replied Ramandai.
"Not to him," Hiei shot back.
"Why do you want to?" Ramandai demanded. "Why do you care about him? Look at this," he ordered, shoving Hiei towards the pile of decaying corpses. "Do you want to know how I got them to linger around, decaying, just for you? Do you want to know the exact details of that rumoured ritual that made me one of you? Do you want to know how I sought to find you? Do you want to know how I tried to destroy that youko?"
"Let me talk," Hiei replied.
Ramandai backhanded him across the face. "Answer me."
To say that Hiei was completely outraged would be a shocking understatement. "Let me talk." For instance, to note that you obviously have no idea how many pieces you'd be in if I could move.
"Answer me!"
"I don't want to know how they died. I don't want to know about that ritual, because I'm more of a fire demon than you will ever be, you cheap imposter. I don't care how hard you looked for me, and you can go ahead and tell me how you tried to break Kurama, because you'll probably just piss him off more and give him a better chance of breaking out," Hiei said angrily. "And while we're at it, why don't you give me back the use of my body? You hit me. You will die."
"You..." Ramandai's face contorted with anger, just before he hit Hiei hard enough in the solar plexus to send him sprawling backwards into the pile of dead fire demons. "I search for you for over fifteen years, and this is how you reward me?"
"I didn't ask you to search for me," Hiei said reasonably. The reasonable tone was, in and of itself, a warning signal.
"You did! Just by existing, you did!"
"You're crazy!" Kurama yelled from across the room. "They make houses for people like you!"
"Quoting the man who killed your mother, are you?" Ramandai asked with a smile. "You know, I told him to tell her that you'd ordered it. I wonder if he carried it out."
For his daily amazing feat, Kurama went even paler than his down-three-pints-of-blood shade. "I'm going to get out and I'm going to kill you," he whispered.
"But until then, you're staying in there, and we're staying out here," Ramandai retorted. "Grant me something before I kill you," he snarled, his claw-hands fastening around Hiei's neck. "I'll take your body...and then I'll destroy it. I'll invade your mind and break it from the inside. You've captured my mind from the inside out for years on end, and now you deny it?" He smiled. "It will give me great pleasure to destroy the both of us together now. When you are destroyed, everything I have become will go with you. But until then...I suppose I should give you some of your physical facilities back," he mused. "You can't hurt me now."
Hiei tried to suck in air, but between Ramandai's hold on his throat and the demon's perch on his chest, he couldn't manage it. "Can't...breathe..."
Apparently the little gnome in his brain had decided that the key to survival was to lie about and state the obvious.
"That way, you won't be as mouthy as you have been lately," Ramandai snarled. "I like you quiet. Now hold still." He grinned toothily at Hiei. "At least I get you first, last, and forever...unless that one took you first." Pause. "I gather from his screams that he has not. First, last, and forever until eternity..." Ramandai reiterated.
Hiei vaguely wondered where the gnome in his head that made itself useful during crises had gone. Vaguely wondered why Kurama was screaming like that. Vaguely wondered if that was blood beading on his face. Vaguely wondered what Ramandai was doing to him...
...so this is why Kurama...
Funny, how he couldn't even finish sentences when he was thinking.
"Oh no you don't," Ramandai hissed. "You don't get to die on me just yet."
Hiei breathed.
What...what the hell is he doing to me now...?
He's not...not...
This is not happening.
About then, Hiei realized Ramandai was only letting him breathe freely so that he could scream. Possibly it had something to do with Ramandai's comment confirming the matter. It also might have been because Ramandai had decided that biting him in several rather sensitive areas to see if and how he would react was fun.
"You're mine," Ramandai said, and kissed him.
There was another shriek and splash of blood from the cage across the room when Ramandai bit his mouth.
This can't be happening to me...I'm better than this...I've got to be...
I've got to be the best...
Hiei wasn't sure whether he was screaming in frustration, rage, horror, or...fear? It didn't matter. As soon as Ramandai had gone from kissing him to licking his way down his neck...
No. It matters. Not fear. Never fear.
Except he just couldn't stop.
Kurama clung to the bars, completely oblivious to the seals eating at flesh and muscle.
Haven't felt like this since she died...
Never want to feel like this again...
I'll kill him...
"I'll kill you," he breathed, choking on the words. "I'll kill you..."
The second Hiei screamed, Kurama snapped. Nothing in the world could make him scream like that...
Every seal on Kurama shredded out of sheer anger, every plant in the room sprouted into horrific life, and a mismatched collection of leaves and small icky things began swirling around him. "They're not petals, but I can manipulate them all the same," he dragged out, his eyes fixed on the decaying pile of demons in the corner. "I'll kill you!"
First his cage shattered, sliced to pieces. Ramandai leapt away, whirling around in confused horror as the surrounding cages were ripped apart and the captives set loose, starting slowly outward from Kurama.
"I'm going to take my time," Kurama said softly, standing up fully for the first time since he'd been captured. He stretched briefly, his eyes fixed on Hiei. "I'm going to savor this, Ramandai..."
Hiei by then had stopped yelling and was taking advantage of his newly regained but still somewhat limited ability to move. He also was keeping up a furious mental litany to accompany his scrabbling determinedly through the noxious pile for his sword. Somewhere here, somewhere on, you bloody piece of metal! Where the hell are you? I refuse to be rescued, dammit. I'm going to kill something! His fingers closed around metal that slit his skin open on contact. Ah. Now for killing things. Many, many things. Kiiiiill thiiiiings...
Apparently Hiei's sanity had been left somewhere at the bottom of the pile of deceased fire demons. This was probably the safest place for it.
"Kurama." Hiei shot to his feet and out of the pile of dead demons with a flourish that effectively hid his still-limited movement. "Save it for him. I'll take the rest. Oh, and you could've told me that all it took to get us out was me screaming. I'd have done it a lot earlier. Undignified as it is, it's better than being drooled over in a muddy cage."
Kurama looked thoughtful. "We'll have to consider that the next time we get ourselves caught by some pathetic idiot with a fixation on you."
"If there is ever a next time, I will kill you horribly," Hiei retorted.
Kurama deliberately caught Ramandai's eyes, then looked at Hiei and mouthed something that made Hiei look rather embarrassed and Ramandai's eyes turn murderous.
"I think I'm actually going to kill you horribly right now," Hiei said thoughtfully.
"You see?" Ramandai said triumphantly to Kurama. He stormed forwards, feet squishing in the muck underfoot and claw-hands flailing. "You see? All along – " He was neatly cut off by Kurama's whirlwind army of small flying objects all pelting themselves at him, followed by Kurama himself.
Hiei watched this tussle for a long moment, then whirled around to face the oncoming mass of demons. "What, you think I'm that stupid?" he demanded of the universe, then grabbed the handle of his sword and started automatically counting cuts. Twenty-nine mind-controlled demons, and one, twothreefour, five, six, seven, eight, nine...
Ramandai stared at the blur of sliced-up demons rapturously as they all crumbled to the ground. "Beautiful," he said simply.
"How many cuts?" Kurama asked without looking up.
"Thirteen," Hiei replied. "Asshole over there won't let me move."
"You have fun?"
"Hn. You?"
"He's said 'tis but a flesh wound' about five times in the last minute. It's really starting to annoy me," Kurama reported. "So, Ramandai, tell me. How much do you hate me? Because, you know, it would really suck for me to loathe your existence and have you not really give a damn about me."
"You have no way of comprehending how great my hatred is for you," Ramandai hissed. "You stole what is rightfully mine."
Kurama looked innocent. "Well, I am a thief."
"Why couldn't I break you?" Ramandai demanded. "Why wouldn't you break?"
Kurama shot a sidelong glance at Hiei. "That's very odd."
"What?"
"That you can't answer that question, I mean," Kurama said reasonably. "If you're that obsessed...I'd think you'd understand."
"Oh, gods, will you shut up and start killing him?" Hiei demanded before things got awkward for him. "You keep this up and I'm going to take him out myself before I go insane from boredom."
"Hm," Kurama said thoughtfully. A whirl of motion and red hair later, Ramandai found himself impaled on one of the shattered cages behind him. "That any better? I think his spleen just died a horrible death."
"Much," said Hiei, realizing that Kurama really wasn't talking to him. Hiei then stabbed a bit at a nearby dismembered leg in order to force back the shame building up behind his eyes. Luckily for his self-esteem and abandoned sanity, the party no longer seemed to be about people fighting over him, and had returned to Kurama wanting horribly bloody revenge.
Easing himself off of the metal bits, Ramandai wobbled back to his feet. "That was cute," he said. "But it's not going to kill me."
Kurama looked at him thoughtfully. "Oh, hey, are you trying to stop my breathing again? Because I have to tell you that it kind of tickles. That, and I think this is part of your small intestine that I've got here."
"Why isn't it working?" Ramandai demanded, clutching the holes through his torso. "Why won't you die?"
Kurama examined his nails. "Probably something to do with the fact that the angrier I get, the stronger I get. Don't you know anything? Oh, and are you having fun trying to overpower me? Ow!" he added as Ramandai slashed fire at him. "There's some fight. However..." Kurama fell silent for a moment, then smiled brilliantly. "Now that I've got those seals off me, I've got this lovely fireproofing spell that comes in handy from time to time. I really do wish you had let me use it while I was in that blasted cage. Ah...yes, it works," he commented, watching Ramandai's fire explode harmlessly a few inches in front of his face. "Are you finished being stupid yet?"
"Not quite," Ramandai said desperately.
Kurama's eyes narrowed, then whipped around. Then he's got to be doing something to Hiei...?
Hiei looked positively murderous, but also was beginning to turn faintly blue.
"I'm your opponent," Kurama snarled. "Come at me."
"I'm taking him with me," Ramandai continued desperately. "I have conducted extensive tests on both sides of his heritage. I must tell you that fire demons especially seem to require oxygen, probably for the obvious reasons. Your pathetic little stabs at me won't destroy me before he dies."
Kurama looked up through his dark fringe of hair. "So much for you dying slowly," he breathed, and threw himself at Ramandai.
"The castle's cleared of everyone who could have told us where to go," Aven Vincent observed. "I told you to leave me someone," he said reproachfully to Yusuke.
"Hey, hey, I got someone," Kuwabara announced, dragging up a small bat demon. "Lookit."
Aven Vincent snatched the bat demon. "Tell me where Kurama and Hiei are before I pull your wings clean off and keep them for my collection!"
"Hiei killed my mate," the demon spat. "Go and kill them as well."
"Where?"
"Trap door's to your left," the demon retorted. "Happy hunting."
"Oh, we're not here for them," Yusuke said. "We're here for idiot demons like you."
Aven Vincent tossed the bat aside with a shrug, ignoring Yusuke's small tussle with the hapless demon. "Trap door...here!" He scrambled to haul the stone up. "God, it's heavy," he muttered.
"Here," Kuwabara offered, grabbing the edges of the stone and pulling. "Yarr!"
"Does that help you?" Aven Vincent inquired. "The 'yarr', I mean."
Kuwabara tossed the stone block aside and gestured at the nasty-smelling dark hole. "Who's going to go first?"
An ear-piercing scream split the air, followed by a couple more of its ilk. That same person began shouting hoarsely, but was silenced by a terrible rending noise and a pained gurgle.
"That better not have been either one of them," Yusuke said what they were all thinking.
"You're first," Aven Vincent announced, making to shove Kuwabara down the hole.
(same time, different place)
Ramandai struggled wildly as Kurama tore bodily into his chest and stomach.
Hiei blinked as blood sprayed him in the face. This is strange. I didn't know Kurama could make little dancing lights. He distantly registered Ramandai's screams, but found that all of his senses were starting to go the way of his vision...
Kurama glanced over at Hiei, then hooked his fingers into Ramandai's eyes and wrenched. "Take it off."
"Only if I die!" Ramandai screeched hoarsely, back arching with pain.
"You're dead already," Kurama said raggedly, shoving Ramandai down. "Your internal organs are laid bare and I have one hand practically in your brain. I can destroy any one of them and kill you now."
Ramandai began to laugh, creating a disturbing motion in his bloodied torso. "He's mine...he's mine...he'll die with me! You won't kill me because you don't know if I've done it by my own power or with a spell that only I can take off."
Kurama stared at him blankly, though Ramandai was in no condition to appreciate the gaze. "You'll never know and we'll both die togethaaaaglk..." His voice faded into a gurgle as Kurama decisively bit out his throat, free hand sliding to the demon's heart.
Hiei nearly choked as his lungs involuntarily drew breath. "That...can't have tasted good."
Kurama glanced up, blood streaking from his mouth. Spitting a rather gnarly-looking lump of tissue onto the ground, he asked softly, "So you can breathe?"
"Hn," Hiei confirmed. "Good show."
Kurama swayed to his feet, then ran one now-skeletal hand through his hair mechanically. "On a completely vanity-related note, I must look awful. In case you've never tried it, biting out throats is a nasty process."
"He's dead?" Hiei asked, dropping the mildly amused act.
Kurama nodded. "I ripped his air pipe out with my teeth and crushed his heart in my hands..." His eyes were triumphant and dazed at the same time. "He'll never touch either of us again..."
"A hundred fire demons," Hiei said softly. "How stupid this all was."
"Ramandai wasn't very smart," Kurama replied. "You know, I think I'm going to fall over or something equally undignified."
I'm afraid of you, because you hold me up when I need you...and I'm afraid you'll let me fall when I need you most, because you won't know...I'm afraid of you, sometimes, just a little, justnow
"You stopped resisting my Jagan," Hiei said softly, taking two steps forward.
"The seals came off," Kurama said dully. "They helped."
"..." Hiei wordlessly reached out and touched Kurama's thoroughly bloodied face. "If you fall down, I swear I'm going to laugh at you."
Kurama grabbed Hiei and held him tightly enough that each could feel the other's heart racing.
"You're hugging me back," Kurama observed.
"...hn."
"You haven't stabbed me in the ribs."
"..."
"The world just ended."
"Yes," Hiei agreed. "But we're still here."
"Yes...yes, we are," Kurama said.
Hiei glanced over at the pile of decaying demons. "I need to do something that doesn't involve getting my ribs cracked. Hold this," he added when Kurama started to let him go, and handed over his sword. He kept his other hand on Kurama's mutilated one.
"Some people would say you had a humanitarian streak," Kurama pointed out as Hiei lifted his free hand and gestured at the pile of demons.
"I'm not kind," Hiei replied. "I'm just who I am." The hundred demons caught fire and began to burn away. "If no one else is there and someone has to be..."
"I know," Kurama said quietly.
There was a brief moment where the only noise was Kurama's rattling breath and the fire crackling as it devoured its own kind.
This moment was promptly broken by Kuwabara. "Hiei! Kurama!"
"Weren't you supposed to be following us?" Hiei asked acidly as Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Aven Vincent all skidded into view. "You're late."
"Ramandai's dead," Kurama said softly. "We can go."
"Was it brutal?" Aven Vincent asked.
Kurama and Hiei both looked at him. "What do you think?" Hiei asked, pointing at Kurama's gore-covered countenance.
"...I see."
"You're supposed to be thinking," Kuwabara pointed out. "Come on, you two. We're getting out of here before the castle caves in on us."
"Walking," Kurama mused. "Hmm. I'm not sure I can pull that off."
"Don't you have a transport box?" Hiei demanded of Aven Vincent. "Use it."
Aven Vincent produced a small cube. "Yessir." He tossed the cube into the air and the castle vanished from around them, to be replaced with Koenma's office.
"Here they are, Koenma-sama!" Aven Vincent chirped with a salute. "Sorry about the lack of warning before using the transport box, but it's something of an emergency, so I thought you wouldn't mind."
"Oh my," Botan said from behind the desk.
"Ew," Koenma added usefully, hopping down behind the desk as well and out of sight.
Kurama sank to the ground wordlessly as blood splashed across the pristine floor. Hiei went with him and more or less held him up, gently turning Kurama's tattered hands over and looking for major damage in the first good light the pair had seen in several hours. This wasn't a difficult search, but as Hiei's vision still included lots of dancing lights getting in the way, it took a few seconds to register. "I think he could use some sort of healing," he observed. "This, I think, is the worst injury between the two of us."
Kurama's head was resting on Hiei's shoulder. "I've had worse."
"Your hands are...are...I'm seeing all the bones!" Yusuke squeaked, hiding behind Kuwabara, who had ducked behind Aven Vincent. "Fix it!"
Kurama's eyes fluttered shut. "You're all so loud..."
Hiei blinked. The room didn't seem loud at all. It seemed like it was going away, actually...
"Hmm. They both just passed out and are bleeding all over the floor. Maybe we should do something," Aven Vincent reported.
He glanced around.
"Oh, for God's sake, are you all that afraid of what his hands look like?"
Botan poked her head over the desk. "I was afraid of Hiei," she said staunchly.
Aven Vincent sighed. "Good for you. Help me get them to a room where they can recover, will you? And hey, you've got super healing powers, so why don't you fix them?"
"Only if you carry Hiei."
"Fine, fine," Aven Vincent grumbled, picking up the fire demon and grabbing his sword out of Kurama's hand. "It works out for the best, since you have your oar to help you transport the other one."
"I don't usually use it for...oh, fine." Botan nodded, swallowed, and began loading Kurama onto her oar. I know it's probably not that bad, but I really hope this isn't a premonition of what's to come, carting him around on the oar like this.
Knock on wood.
Aaaand there you are. We'll see how many more chapters are after this. Less than three, I'd say. I rather deviated from my outline lately, but the plot hasn't changed. Much. Really.
Kooriya Yui: Oh good. Glad you're laughing.
KuramasKitsuneGirl: Well, they get some measure of revenge each. Really.
Niana Kuonji: Having Hiei owe you a favour could be really useful. Hmm.
Fire of the Angel: Um...thank...you?
Mika Samu: Well, Hiei'll be cranky about not getting a piece of Ramandai, but Kurama would be downright homicidal. And last I checked, Kurama was the one prone to going off on deranged all-or-nothing missions. Eheh.
Sailor Comet: Eheh. Heh. Heh. ::flees::
kikira-san: I'm sorry! The timing just worked out badly! I swear!
Kuranga108: I would've thought it would be fairly...normal, the fear, being as Kurama's taking a hell of a risk by going after Hiei. One false move, and...well, Bad Things. Eheh. And Sharp Pointy Things too.
Kerei Kitsune: Thanks!
Lachwen: Sorry I took so long.
Liviania: ::pokes self-destructed pile of ashes:: Erm...that's not permanent, is it...?
Dane Soar: I associate cursing with pain, mostly because the more pain I'm in, the more I swear. And the crankier I get. Et cetera. Eheh.
Henrika: Hiei gets kind of left out of the fun. We'll obviously hear more from him on this small matter. Meep.
Bluespark: Thanks! Sorry about the cliffhanger. I swear, it was all supposed to be one chapter, and then it kept going!
SweetMisery: What was?
Nanashi: The power of MARSHMALLOWY DOOM!
MENace tenCHI: I won't stop, I promise.
acern: Thanks!
nya! please review some more.
