YAY!!! This friggin chapter is finally up! I was having major computer trouble. I'm sorry. Okey dokey then, this story should be wrapping up soon. I'm so glad everyone who's reviewed has liked it! Well here's lucky thirteen!
Chap 13- So Be It
The rest of the week was almost a blur to Natsuki. Her wounds were beginning to heal, and everything was going back to normal. Natsuki's memories had also brought back many fighting techniques. She had become a much better fighter. She still liked to go out and train with Hiei, for other reasons. Mostly, she could take on anything! That was exactly the skill she was going to need.
It was the middle of January now. It was cold and bitter, with a lot of snow. Natsuki liked the snow, but too much snow depressed her. Must be the fire demon in her. Hiei didn't like the snow either. He would walk around mumbling under his breath about how much he hated it. At nights, Natsuki, Hiei, Shadowflame, and Kurama would all start a fire in the small fireplace in the house. Genkai would join them, bringing tea and small cakes.
Hiei did not like to cuddle. Natsuki did. This presented a problem. Hiei would always sigh and look exasperated whenever Natsuki would snuggle up next to him, putting her head underneath his chin. Shadowflame would usually laugh and point while Kurama just smiled. After Natsuki had fallen asleep and everyone had left the room, he would quietly put his arm around her.
It was the morning of January 25. Hiei snoozed lazily on the couch in the living room. Natsuki was snuggled up beneath the covers on her bed, all warm and cozy. Kurama slept with his arm over Shadowflame who was cuddled up beside him, Yoko screaming for some action in the back of Shuichi's head. It was peaceful, the way a winter morning should be.
Outside, off in the distance, a small army of demons were marching towards the place where the four slept. A small red light deep in the leather of Natsuki's arm band flashed on and off. Natsuki's eyes fluttered open. She crawled out of her warm covers and made her way to the kitchen. She began to fix some tea for everyone when they woke up. She put the large kettle on the stove so the water would begin to boil. She turned around to look at Hiei on the couch. He slept on. Gods he's hot. Natsuki said to herself, and continued to make the tea.
The pot began to whistle after a minute; a low humming noise filled the room, waking Hiei. He grumbled and rolled over. Natsuki walked over to him.
"Sorry I woke you up." She said, rubbing his back.
"Yeah whatever," Hiei said in a muffled voice. Natsuki smiled and went to sip her tea.
"Do you want some tea, Hiei?" she asked, pulling down another cup from the cupboard. He made a little mumbling noise. "Right, one cup-o-tea coming up." Natsuki said cheerfully.
It was too early in the morning for Natsuki to be so cheerful. Hiei was annoyed, yet he couldn't hate her. Damn her and her likable ness. Hiei thought to himself. He reluctantly rose to go drink his tea with Natsuki.
About ten minutes later, Kurama appeared from the hall. Natsuki fixed him some tea and went ahead and poured Shadowflame some as well.
"Did you have a good night sleep?" he asked, talking to anyone who felt like answering. Natsuki smiled and nodded, then went back to her tea. Hiei just shrugged. Shadowflame appeared.
"Good morning." She yawned. Natsuki pointed to her tea on the counter. She took it and lazily sat down at the table. She sipped it very loudly. Everyone looked up at her when she was done.
"What?" She asked somewhat air headedly. Kurama laughed softly. Hiei rubbed his temples and groaned. Natsuki looked over at him. He looked really sick.
"What's wrong Hiei?" she asked still sipping her tea. He shrugged and got up from the table.
"Just a headache." He said walking into the hall, turning into Natsuki's bedroom.
No, it definitely wasn't just a headache. He had felt the exact same way the night that creature had attacked Natsuki. Something bad was going to happen, and it was going to happen today. Natsuki quietly glided into the room, sitting down beside Hiei. Her large red eyes sparkled in the light of the sun coming up. She put her arm around Hiei and kissed his neck lightly. Hiei twitched when she did this, but didn't do anything to stop her.
"What's wrong Hiei." She asked again, this time her tone sounding as if she demanded and answer. Hiei sighed.
"I don't know. Something's going to happen." He turned to look at her. "Something bad." He said. His tone worried Natsuki. He looked truly worried.
"Natsuki," he said softly. Natsuki jumped. Hiei had never really said her name before, at least not in that manner. "Tell me, who sent you to kill me." He asked, still looking at the floor.
"His…his name was Sh-Shigure." Natsuki said, stuttering a little. "That's all I knew him by." She finished, not looking at Hiei.
Hiei closed his eyes. This was not a good thing. Shigure would have surely known if Natsuki had not fulfilled his orders.
"Have you ever tried to remove that arm band of yours?" he asked, his tone returning to normal. Now that Natsuki thought about it, she never really had bothered to take it off.
"No, why?" Natsuki asked curiously.
"Try to take it off." Hiei said, still not looking at her. Natsuki ran her fingers across the top edge of the leather band and attempted to pull it off. It wouldn't budge.
"I-it won't come off!" Natsuki said, yanking harder. A huge bang from the front door shook the house. Kurama and Shadowflame both got to their feet.
"What the f…" Shadowflame was interrupted by another loud bang. Some one was trying to break in!
"It's a tracking device! It's imbedded in your skin!" Hiei yelled as he rose to his feet. "Quick….BANG….there isn't much time!" He grabbed Natsuki and yanked her up off the bed. Hiei ran into the other room and grabbed his katana. Natsuki ran out into the front room.
"Get your weapons!" she yelled at Kurama and Shadowflame. Another bang. Kurama pulled a rose out of his hair and took a nice swig of the left over past life potion. Natsuki decided not to question this as she materialized two swords out of thin air. Shadowflame did the same (wolf demon perk). Hiei joined them at Natsuki's side. BANG! The door flew open. At least fifty demons began flooding into the guest house. As Natsuki began to slice deep gashes into as many demons as possible, all she could think of at the moment was how this reminded her of that human movie that had just come to Japan. Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of something. When all the ork things were attacking. She heard Shadowflame scream beside her causing her to whirl around to see if she was hurt. It turned out she was just screaming because she was having fun.
Kurama's rose had turned into a long thorny whip and he had turned into the stunning Yoko Kurama. He was making his way outside, slashing (literally) through his opponents, his eyes glowing with malice. Hiei had killed so many that he was just swinging his sword around lazily, taking out the demons without any effort involved. Natsuki was starting to have fun. She hadn't been able to fight like this in a long time! Stab-right slice-back flip-stab-double slice, it was all becoming a game. They all began to make their way outside, so the blood wouldn't get everywhere inside the house. As they all stepped outside, they realized something. There were thousands more demons all lined up outside, grinning and looking stupid. A bunch of D class demons. Simple.
They began to demolish their victims, handfuls at a time. Finally Natsuki materialized a bomb and blew up a nice portion of the demons. Shadowflame thought this was very funny and began to laugh. This caught her off guard and one of the demons sliced into her cheek.
"Ow! That was STUPID!" she said materializing a spear and stabbing it into several demons at once.
"There are too many!" Kurama yelled over all the stupid yells of the demons. Hiei nodded. He began to unwrap the bandage on his arm. Natsuki saw this and grabbed Shadowflame's arm. She dragged her back out of the way. Kurama jumped back just as Hiei began to summon the dark flame.
"Dragon of the Darkness Flame!" he yelled. The tattoo on his arm sprang to life and wiping out all the remaining demons.
The only things left of the demons were the corpses that were not killed by the dragon. Natsuki smiled. That was cooler than she remembered.
"Y-you can d-do that thingy!" Shadowflame stated stupidly. Hiei just looked at her. Natsuki began to walk over to him; but then, off in the distance, she saw something. More demons were coming. His wasn't good. Natsuki was tiring as was Shadowflame. Kurama could take them all, but that would be hard.
"Great. Now what?" Hiei asked annoyed. Natsuki had no clue how many more there were going to be.
"WHAT DO YOU WANT!?" she screamed at the demons, who were quickly approaching.
"We want you." A voice from the side of the guest house, off in the forest made everyone turn and look. The hooded creature stood there, smirking. All you could see was his fanged mouth and his eyes. They were glowing.
"You want me?" Natsuki asked the creature. It nodded.
"To save your friends, you and Shadowflame must come back to the demon word and face your punishment." Hiei approached it drawing his sword.
"I killed you…" he said viciously. The creature laughed. Natsuki grabbed Hiei's shoulder.
"Like I said, you missed." Hiei growled. Natsuki tightened her grip on his shoulder.
"And what if we don't?" she asked.
"Those demons, they are C class. After you kill them, the next wave will be B class. And then A then eventually S." he said S with a hissing sound. "You would all be killed." Hiei stepped back, still maintaining that malicious glare. Natsuki was caught in a deadlock. She loved Hiei, with all her heart. She would rather see him live and she go, than him die and her stay. She looked at him. He was still glaring at the creature. Oh Hiei, I've never loved anyone as much as I've loved you.
Natsuki kissed Hiei's cheek slowly, lingering in the moment. He froze. She put her arms around his neck and buried her head into his shoulder.
"No, Natsuki…." He said. Natsuki had silent tears rolling down her face now.
"I will see you again. I….I promise" She whispered into his ear. Hiei's arms felt numb. He lifted his hand to run it through her hair.
As soon as Shadowflame realized what was going on, she ran over to Yoko and wrapped her arms tightly around his neck. Yoko was not looking happy. The creature laughed. Natsuki let go of Hiei, wishing she didn't have to, and slowly made her way over to the creature. Shadowflame let go of Yoko, crying slightly. She walked over and stood beside Natsuki, beginning to cry into her shoulder. Natsuki had no expression on her face, neither did Hiei.
Natsuki raised her hand to her mouth and blew a kiss. In a whirlwind of black smoke they were gone. The demon army vanished. It was just Yoko Kurama and Hiei standing out in front of a guest house in the woods. Yoko dropped his head, his ears drooping. He slowly walked inside. Hiei stood there, not moving for at least thirty minutes, starring at where Natsuki had last been.
Finally he dropped to his knees. His eyes were wide trying to think over what had just happened. Natsuki…she had been there, she had kissed him, and she had loved him. Now, Natsuki was nothing more than a memory. A forgotten memory.
Time is a fickle and stupid thing.
You can never go back, you can only go forward.
Forward into the bleak and dreary future,
For which you know not what awaits you.
If you try to stay put, trying not to have a future.
Then you will have no past,
And nothing to remember.
Laugh it up while you can, love when the chance comes,
And when you have to say good bye,
Do not cry,
For memories are never truly forgotten.
This chapter is kind of sad. I'm sorry if you are sad now. Okay, for the freeform poem, the credit goes to me! YAY! I thought it was appropriate. Actually I just made it up right now. He he! Chapter 14 may not come for a while. Like I said, I've been having computer trouble. My other story is called Eternity Moment if you want something to read in the mean time. It's R tho, so if ya get all mad cause it uses the 'f' word, don't come flaming me!! Chap 14 coming ASAP!!
