Prisoner of War
Part Three: Rebuke
Daily threats can force a person to become a great actor. And Calai must have become one, for she managed to keep a façade of calm detachment up even then. An onlooker would have seen a pillar of strength.
Calai's mind, however, was in chaos mode.
And Hiei knew it.
"You want me to talk," Calai said coldly. "That won't happen."
The yokai gave no response—either he hadn't heard her statement, or he had expected it and didn't care. The latter is far more likely.
"Just go ahead and kill me," she said. "That's what she's going to do anyways, isn't it? Even if I tell you all I know, she'll have me killed. Right?"
"Maybe," Hiei replied. "That's not my decision."
"I'll die before I talk."
"And we'll catch another one of you and get the information from them. You can't win this. One person can't stop genocide."
"But they can slow it down."
Hiei raised an eyebrow, and an all but imperceptible smirk tugged at his lips. This girl was just more proof that humans were naïve and foolhardy. Just another assurance that Mukuro was right to destroy them. The yokai placed a hand on the human girl's shoulder, turning her to face him and repositioning his blade above her heart.
He could've killed her then. And he probably would have, were it not for a small change.
"Calai? Calai are you still out there?"
Releasing the faintest gasp, Calai's head snapped to the barred window that Amrie was standing behind, waiting to be released. Warily, she turned her melted silver eyes back to her yokai captor.
"Calai, there's no one around; I checked. It's safe."
The cell was quite spacious, as it had once been the home fifty some humans; the door was far enough away that what was said outside the window would not reach the door. Amrie hadn't heard the exchange between Calai and Hiei.
Silence pervaded momentarily while both the yokai and the human attempted to decide what to do.
Hiei leaned towards his captive and whispered, "Don't move."
Blade still dangerously close to Calai's vital organ, Hiei focused on the barred window, melting the metal bars with his ki. The child, too anxious to see the sky again to notice how odd it was that the bars melted away with Calai out of sight, climbed out of her cell and onto the soft dirt of the outside. It was only after her "escape" that Amrie saw Mukuro's second in command.
Faster than Calai could see, the yokai's blade was pressed against the child's neck.
"I suppose you know what I'm going to say," he said, face stoic and voice steady.
Calai nodded. "If I don't tell you where to find my partners, you'll kill her. That's a cheap stunt to pull; I would've thought it beneath one as 'honorable' as you're said to be."
She almost thought that she saw a flash of anger in the yokai's eyes, but Calai decided that she must have imagined it, for the compassionless expression on his face seemed more or less unchanged.
"I've been ordered to recapture you and get you to talk," Hiei said. "Whatever is required for that…"
"Calai…," the child's eyes were tearful and her body was shaking with fear.
Calai had promised her allies that she would never reveal their whereabouts or any other information that might be asked of her. She never broke a promise; honor was very important to her.
But not this important.
"Momma," the child whispered, closing her eyes so as not to see death.
Calai sighed in defeat. "You'll have to let her go first."
Hiei narrowed his eyes, keeping the blade on the child.
"I won't talk until she's safe."
The yokai open his mouth to respond, but abruptly closed it and took a few steps away from the little girl, sheathing his sword.
Before she could reach the child to tell her to go, a burning golden light brushed past Calai, knocking her to the ground.
She didn't see what happened, but a dark feeling in the pit of her stomach told her what had occurred. Filled with dread, Calai lifted her face from the ground, viewing the scene.
A scorch mark made an ashy trail on the ground leading to where Amrie had been standing. The scent of burnt flesh reached Calai's nose and her dread turned to nausea. Pieces of skeleton covered in bits of the burnt skin decorated the spot where Amrie had been standing moments before.
"God," Calai said, her eyes brimming with tears. "God, no. Not her, not again." Calai turned to Hiei, her eyes full of tears and anger. But he wasn't looking at her.
The yokai's eyes were focused on a point somewhere in the woods surrounding the cells. "Was that fully necessary?" he questioned the shadows coolly.
"Perhaps not," Mukuro's voice answered. The human slid her gaze to the direction that Hiei had been looking in to see the demoness approaching her ally. She threw a deadly glare in Calai's direction before addressing Hiei again. "But what does it matter. After all, it was just another human. We would've had to kill her anything, especially if she was going to turn out anything like her parents."
Mukuro leaned over to meet Calai's eyes. "How do you feel now, hm? That whole family is dead because you decided to give me the silent treatment. I imagine that's got to be unpleasant. If you care. You know, if you hadn't run off, that little girl might still be alive. What do you say about that?"
The demoness pulled Calai roughly to her feet, still watching her and awaiting an answer.
"Damn you," Calai hissed venomously. "Damn you back to whatever hell you came from."
"Such a sweet compliment from you," Mukuro smiled, shoving Calai towards Hiei. "Lock her back up. Maybe Miss Calai will feel like cooperating tomorrow." Mukuro vanished; Hiei took hold of Calai's arm, wordlessly leading her around to the gates of the dungeon.
Despite how she tried to hold them in, tears burned Calai's face, making tracks down her cheeks.
"It's my fault," she whispered to herself more in anger than regret.
Hiei wrenched open the door to a cell smaller than the one that Calai and Amrie had been staying in before and shoved Calai inside. Even as he was closing the heavy wood and metal door, he felt cold silver eyes boring into him.
She stumbled to the door and stood watching the yokai between the bars on the door as he left the dungeon. Oh, if he knew how much she hated him right now….
When Hiei had left and there remained no one to be seen, Calai slid the grill on her cell door shut and made her way to a corner on the far end of the cell, where she curled up and let everything that she had felt over that day wash back over her as she drifted into an uneasy and restless sleep.
End Part Three
