Fighting Back 2
Chapter 7: The Proclamation of the 'King'
The figure threw off its hood. "No surprise... your skills have improved much, Hiei."
The pyro kept a stern gaze on the woman standing in front of him.
"Yes, they have... but if you're here for a test run, I can't accept. I'm on a mission at the moment."
"Another chore of Koenma's?"
"Please... I dropped that toddler's requests the second my probation was lifted two years ago."
"I see... so, have you considered my offer?"
"I have."
"Well? What do you say to being a general in my demon army?"
Hiei closed his eyes, turning away from her. "You should've figured out from my personality that I don't like to take orders from others. I've had enough requests from that pathetic excuse for a prince, and I'd like to keep living as I am, thank you."
Mukuro's gaze hardened.
"Is that so? The great Jaganshi wishes to waste away his life, then? You can become even more renowned than you are now, Hiei... IF you join me."
She held out her hand. "What do you say, General?"
Hiei glared back at her.
"I say keep your idealism. I prefer this life that I have now."
"A life of solitude? Whiling away the hours doing nothing?"
"Absolutely not, you really DON'T know me, it seems... no, I have something that requires my constant attention."
"Is that so?"
"Yes. I apologize if that's bothersome to you, but when you asked me before and I accepted... I didn't have this responsibility at the time."
"And you've now put that as a higher priority?"
"I have."
"Oh... May I satisfy my intense curiosity of just what it is that would make the Forbidden Child turn down an opportunity for fame and power?"
"If you must... she's right down there." Hiei pointed down the cliff to the tree where Tori lay sleeping.
Mukuro came up next to him.
"A human?" Her tone darkened. "You turn my offer down over a pathetic human? So, you've really grown soft, haven't you? I'd never believe it if I hadn't seen it... a demon caring for a human, so much that he would give up all else important to him..."
"I hated to admit it to myself before, but that's what it is when you fall in love. The concept of this 'love' was and still is foreign to me... but I've got something to protect, something that needs constant monitoring, especially her. If I turn my back for a second, she'll get herself into some kind of trouble. Unfortunately for me, she's very good at it."
Mukuro was silent, her gaze fixed on the tree below.
"Love..." She scoffed. "A demon loving a human..."
"It happens all the time," said Hiei, "this isn't any different."
"It's not normal for a demon to show such care, except for the kitsunes."
"I cared about you," said Hiei. Mukuro became quiet, her good eye fixed on the demon in front of her.
"What?"
"I pitied you at first, and that, in time, grew to care and respect. I respected you for your power and courage, and I cared for you because you and I share a similar background; nothing but pain. If you can't acknowledge this from me, then maybe I should just withdraw those feelings and cut off contact with you altogether; display some of that nature that you believe demons to possess."
Mukuro looked away, back to Tori.
"So she really means that much to you?"
"Yes, Tori is odd in many ways... yet events that have occurred in her life were mentally damaging instead of physically, like ours. She's teetering on the brink of insanity as we speak, so as I've said she needs to be watched all the time. Anything traumatic enough will send her over the edge."
Hiei's eyes closed.
"I still don't fully understand it, Hiei," said Mukuro, walking towards the other edge of the clearing, looking up at the moon. "Why does anyone care about anyone else? There's too much violence in this world of today; one's own well being always comes before others."
Down below, Tori's eyes opened. She didn't know why, but something inside her mind had bumped her into consciousness; she suspected her ligress, though the energy with which she'd been woken wasn't her own. Her eyes were attracted to the moon gleaming off the cliffs above... and two silhouettes standing on one of them. Glancing around, she saw Hiei was nowhere in sight. She clambered down from the tree branch to investigate further, creeping up the path quietly.
She heard the faint hum of voices, but she couldn't distinguish anything. She continued up the path, watching for rocks or pebbles that would give away her position. She turned and started climbing up the rock face when the path ran out.
She soon reached the top, peeking her eyes over to see who it was.
Hiei was standing next to a woman she didn't recognize, and they appeared to be in deep conversation.
Tori could only catch snatches of conversation from her position behind them.
"I... think the world is... you have to... love... is you... I care about you..."
Tori froze; what did she just hear?
The woman turned to face Hiei, and now Tori could hear her. "I care about you, too, Hiei... " Tori couldn't help but see a glint in the woman's eyes as they glanced in her direction, and she gulped. Had she been seen? "In fact, Hiei... I love you, too..."
Tori gasped as the woman quickly pulled Hiei into a kiss, and time froze.
She could feel her hands loosening from shock, her entire body went slack for that one moment... but that was enough to send her reeling into open space.
Tori flew through the air, her mind frozen; her senses numbed entirely, her world sinking into blackness. The last she could feel was the power of the ligress taking advantage of her collapsed mental state and springing forth, taking control of her...
Hiei heard the rocks scraping and jumped back, throwing Mukuro off himself and wiping his mouth frantically. "What are you doing? I TOLD you I had someone!" he yelled. Mukuro was silent, staring at the cliff where Tori had been.
Hiei soon realized her attention was not on him, and he turned to see nothing. He ran to the cliff face and looked down, his heart stopping as he watched Tori's body crash onto the path below.
"TORI!" he screamed, leaping down towards her, completely forgetting about Mukuro.
He landed on the path next to her and noticed she was crouching on the path, slightly trembling as she tried to recover from the fall.
"You idiot! Why did you follow me? You should've known you were going to fall... ARE YOU LISTENING?"
He reached a hand out towards her shoulder to grab it, missing as she leapt backwards, her eyes flashing up towards him, pure gold. Hiei pulled his hand back, a confused look on his face.
"...Tori?"
What he got in response was a loud, jaguar-like roar that echoed through the mountain cliffs as Tori's body began to transform.
Her arms and legs became muscular and covered with thick, white, black-striped fur, her fangs elongated greatly as her mouth and nose formed a snout. Her ears moved to the top of her head and became small and catlike. A white and black tail sprouted from her rear, and Hiei was soon looking into the deadly eyes of none other than the ligress in full form.
She let out another loud roar of victory at her freedom from her prison and turned, bounding down the path towards the camp.
"No..." Hiei said. Mukuro appeared beside him.
" I thought you said she was human," she said. Hiei glared at her.
"Only until she goes insane."
He raced off after the quickly-retreating cat as she came closer to the camp.
Kurama awoke to the loud roar and looked up in alarm to see the ligress hurdling towards them at a deathly fast pace. Instinctively, he grabbed Kagome and leaped up into the tree where Tori was supposed to be; but neither she nor Hiei were up there.
Yusuke and Kuwabara awoke with the usual "What the hell is that?" Seeing the ligress, they joined Kurama up in the tree. Inuyasha was up there with them in an instant, holding a half-asleep Shippo by the collar of his shirt.
They watched the ligress tear through, her head waving about wildly in her desire to be free. She leaped over a row of bushes and disappeared into the forest.
Kurama jumped down as Hiei skidded to a stop, panting.
"Care to explain?"
"Mukuro..." growled Hiei. Kurama's eyes widened.
"Mukuro? What's she doing here? This isn't her part of the Makai!" He looked up to see the figure still up on the path.
"She set something up," said Hiei, "She made it look as though I was cheating on Tori, and naturally, Tori happened to be there at the time. Isn't my life great?"
He glared back at the figure.
"Hiei, why would Mukuro do something like that?"
"I don't know if she meant to or not, fox, the problem is... she did it. And now Tori's snapped and the ligress has taken control."
"Do you know where she'd head?"
"My guess would normally be back to our treehouse... IF Tori was the one pulling the strings. No one can predict the movements of a wild animal."
Kagome jumped down next to Kurama. "So, we can't catch her?"
"Of course we can catch her," snapped Hiei, "I just don't know what we'd do after that. Tori's mind might be lost forever, and trying to handle a creature like that..."
"Shouldn't be too much of a problem," said Inuyasha, dropping down next to Hiei.
"Yeah, just knock her senseless. Tori usually takes control after that," piped up Yusuke, sitting on a branch just above their heads.
"It's not that simple this time," sighed Kurama, "This situation is very delicate; our usual tactics will only worsen it."
"Then what do we do?" asked Kuwabara.
"That's what we're trying to figure out."
"Hiei... you don't suppose you could work with her mind if we held the ligress down, do you?"
"I might, but my Jagan might overpower her senses if I'm in too long."
Kurama nodded. "Well, better that than having all of her brain cells killed from the stress of the ligress's rampage. It's our best shot."
"Right."
They turned down the new path, following after the crazed animal.
Meanwhile-
"Yes, Mukuro produced exactly the results I was hoping for; I woke the girl at precisely the right moment," purred the woman's voice gleefully.
"The ligress is in control now, what do we do?"
"With any luck, she'll kill some of them off."
"I don't think she's quite powerful enough to do that. Let's boost the stakes a bit, shall we? If the Forbidden Child cannot reclaim his mate, she comes with us and we turn her into our personal slave."
"And what use will that do?"
"A ligress is a handy thing to have around, my priestess, especially if it's very dear to a majority of the group we are opposed to at the moment."
"Fine, fine, send the message."
With the ligress-
'What's this feeling?' thought Tori as the ligress lumbered on, 'It's like... I can't move, but I am... but not how I want to... someone else is moving for me... I can't feel anything, either. And I keep getting those images of Hiei and that woman...'
The ligress slowed as they entered a glade with a spring. She stopped to drink. 'Who was that woman? Why didn't I know about her before? Was Hiei cheating on me?' She gasped mentally. 'If he was... what am I gonna do? I'm mated to him for life, right? That means I can't ever go with someone else...' She sighed as she noticed black thorny vines growing around her inside her mind. 'That means I might as well remain a ligress forever... not like Hiei will care...'
The ligress raised its head and sniffed, racing off through the brush once more. 'Well, I might as well not be here at all... maybe I should just disappear... make Ligress's and Hiei's lives better. Neither of them need me...' She started to fade. 'I wonder what it'll be like in complete darkness... if no one else is there, then I can be free, right? I'll be free to do what I want, and Hiei can't do anything about it.'
The ligress broke into a grassy field. 'Maybe I'll be happier gone...'
CHAPTER TITLE PREVIEW: Mind Maze
