WOTW 14

Sorry. I'm late, I know. Here's your chapter.

Correction: last chapter is 13.

Quick note: ("ay" equals long "a" sound) "a.s.a.p." (or A.S.A.P.) is pronounced using the letter names (ay-es-ay-pee), as most of us know. However (at least for my purposes), "asap" (without the periods), is pronounced like a word: "AY-sap" (like NATO is pronounced "NAY-to"). I've heard is said both ways, but I'm not sure if there's any difference in the spelling. In any case, there is now.

Purplehairedwonder: never mind, it turned out, but thanks for your input. Sorry I was late.

14. Jail Break

"I just wish he'd move."

"Who?"

"Cell one."

"Oh, him. They say that's Mukuro Hiei. I wouldn't know though. No one's too talkative about cell one, but no one's supposed to go in there but him."

"If that's Hiei, shouldn't they have tighter security on him?"

"They're moving him today."

"I don't think we should be talking about him like this. He can hear us."

Both guards looked over to the smallish demon sitting in the cell. He simply glared back at them with ruby eyes.

"You know, you could at least blink." the first guard spat at him. The glare only hardened. Both guards shivered. Hiei slowly blinked and turned his back to them.

"Whoever he is, that's cold."

"And creepy." the first guard put in.

The door opened and in walked none other than Koenma himself. Behind him were two important-looking, upper-level guards that made the other two look like rotweiler (sp?) pups.

"If you'll excuse us gentlemen." Koenma requested politely. The two guards had no mind to protest. "You too, please." he addressed his own guards. They gave him puzzled looks. "I'll be fine. He wouldn't hurt me. Please wait for me outside." The guards followed their lessers out the door.

"Good evening, Hiei." Koenma approached said demon once his guards had left. Hiei didn't even twitch. "No doubt, thanks to a few big-mouths, you've heard. You're being moved today." Still no response. "I'm sorry, but I wasn't able to keep you under my jurisdiction." Cold silence. "Will you at least glare at me?"

"Pretty confident, aren't you?"

"What do you mean?"

"What makes you so sure I won't hurt you? No doubt you've kept security low intentionally. Hoping I wouldn't hate you as much, ne? I could easily get out of this bird cage and kill you. You betrayed not only me, but all of us. Not only are you not our ally, but you've become our enemy. Why wouldn't I kill you?"

"Because it's beneath you. Not worth your effort right now. You're biding your time hoping you can do something from the inside. As you've noticed, I am keeping security low. Killing me wouldn't suit you."

"But you can't help me now. So I can kill you."

"And I thank you kindly for not already doing so. You can't stay here though. You have to leave. Whatever you were planning, you can't do it now. I don't know what they're actually going to do with you."

"They're moving me to higher security."

"You and I both seriously doubt that."

"Hn."

"I don't want you here. I never wanted you here. I've been trusting you to figure something out. I know you can leave and you have to do it asap. Things are getting much shadier here. I've never known this level of corruption. Kurama's disappearance disturbs me greatly."

There was a short pause.

"Is he dead?" Hiei asked bluntly.

"No. That couldn't get by me."

"Hn."

"…"

"…"

"I'm sure you can find him."

"Hn?"

"Like I said, I'm trusting you to come up with something. Do you understand?"

Hiei nodded again.

"Alright, this might be our last chance. From what I know, they'll take you out the back way. They want to keep this quiet. Can't imagine why." he added sarcastically. "From there they'll…"

The door burst open.

"Koenma-sama, there's…"

But what there was, he never said, for the guard's head seemed to separate itself from his body at that moment, As I hope you don't know from personal experience, such a thing makes it difficult to speak. +my little, extremely morbid, Lemony Snickets moment+

There was a singing and a black steal scythe inches from Koenma's head, startling the spirit lord into falling gracelessly on his ass.

A dark-clad figure at the door caught the weapon and flipped it around, holding it at ease(1). From behind him stepped the one person neither of them had expected to see. Silver hair in a pony-tai like his partner's, white clothes hanging loosely from his body, fluffy white ears and like tail in their respective places, Youko Kurama pushed past the figure in the door.

"A bit over-kill, don't you think, Kuro?"

"No."

"What are you doing here, Fox?" Hiei barked, ignoring the stranger in the door.

"What's it look like?" Kurama retorted, stooping down to pick the lock.

"I'm not playing questions. (2) What happened to you? You scared the shit outta me."

"Aw. I'm so glad you care."

"Answer the question."

"Later. It's a long story."

"You like that phrase, don't you?"

"It's a good stalling technique, Kuronue."

"Kuronue?" Two voices that time.

"Like I said: Long story. I'm surprised you don't know Koenma."

Click

"There."

"Good. Get going."

Three heads turned to Koenma.

"What?" He got up. " You shouldn't, Hiei. I told you…"

"Alright, whatever. Let's go."

"What now?" Kuronue questioned Hiei, watching Kurama slink off to the side and pull out a seed.

"Long story, later." Hiei answered.

"I wish people would stop telling me that."

"Now you know what I was thinking." Kurama admired his handiwork. Everyone looked at the wall Kurama was marveling at. Kuronue chuckled, Hiei hned: both at different aspects of the joke.

"OK." Kurama announced, "We can go now."

"Wait." Hiei said 'wait'? "Koenma, are you with us or not?"

Koenma nodded slowly. "Now go."

The outlaws darted out of the room.

"What the hell?" they heard from down the hall. They couldn't have left sooner. Hiei's 'escort' was coming for him now.

/Beautiful./ Koenma thought. He waited for a bit, then took off after them. "Halt!" He shouted after the fugitives. "Stop them!" He took aim and fired off a rei-gun shot. It was close enough to be convincing, but a clear miss.

The thieves and the assassin bowled over the party and kept running. As they neared the hall Kuronue turned around to see the party still detangling itself. Koenma had "tripped" and joined the dog-pile the fugitives had created. The leader of the escort was the first on his feet. He stared lividly at Kuronue as he picked his way through the mass that was the escort.

Kuronue smiled mockingly and thumbed his nose at the official while hovering backwards. Suddenly, he slammed, backward, into a wall as the hall made a T intersection. The head took his chance and fired his rei-gun at the stunned Kuronue.

Kurama grabbed the Bat's arm and pulled him out of the way just in time. There was a hole in the wall where Kuronue's head had been half a second ago.

"Victor, quit screwing around!" Kurama chastised as they resumed their flight following Hiei.

"That was him." Kuronue argued. They turned a corner and he stopped, pawing around his person for something "extra special" for the ass-whole who'd sent him to kill his best friend.

"Forget it! We got what we came here for. Let's GO!" Kurama doubled back, took hold of his partner's ear, and pulled him down the hall.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow…"

la di da di da… border+

"Was this here when you left?" the head of the escort, Reginald, asked, motioning to the wall.

"No, sir." Koenma lied, eyeing the vines, "He must have rigged it." What did Kurama mean by those words? Whatever it was, Reginald understood it; and it pissed the officer off to no end. Koenma read the words written in vines on the wall to himself again:

Better get a bigger gun,

I'm not dead yet.

OK, that's it+

these notes were not here earlier. Sorry 'bout that. I don't think this is the first time either.

1) at ease—like the military or band version of 'at ease'. It's still there and ready to go but it's like he called off the weapon. He isn't threatening to attack. The weapon is not 'at the ready.' It's not the 'at ease' like he's just lounging there.

2) playing questions—questions is a game in which one answers a question with another question. Literally, it's game. Someone asks, then the next person must respond with another question and so on. Example: A: what are you doing? B: what does it look like I'm doing? A: who are you to ask me that? B: why do you want to know?… and so on. Nothing is accomplished and, chances are, no question will actually be answered. If you're playing, it's fun, but if it's not really a game it's very annoying.

While I'm fixing things, there was a section where they were talking about kurama's disappearance. It might not have made a lot of sense b/c the computer was randomly erasing and putting things in. I think it had something to do with the series of ellipses. Whatever, it should be fixed now.

Sorry for not updating when I was supposed to. Limited computer time. I'll get back on this.

Lieba sie von Doomschneider.

6-20-05

6-21-05