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Chapter Eleven...Kitsune

He heard voices. He didn't know where they were coming from, but they seemed so far away. And so familiar. He slowly realized they were trying to tell him to wake up, but isn't he already? His eyes sting, there's something sticky covering his face, and he had an enormous headache. How could one sleep like this?

Something moved in his head; he wanted to scream, but something else was stopping him.

He saw things flashing by faster than he could even run. Colors, and places and... memories... and... people... They struck him the most. Such an array, they were. Sad, happy, angry, apathetic, beautiful, grotesque...

The trees rustled, as though disturbed. Kuwabara suddenly stops moving, causing Yusuke to hit him over the head, "Baka! Why' you stop!... Kuwabara?" he asked after seeing his partner look so lost, "Hey, man, what's going on?"

"Yukina-san..."

"What? What about her?"

"She's... scared... I can feel it...," he is quiet for a long time, then charges off in a seemingly random direction. Yusuke reluctantly follows.

"Kazuma-saaaan!"

"He'll be fine, right Mukuro?" Yukina sked. Her voice had become more and more desperate and anxious. Mukuro didn't answer right away; she didn't know what to say. Hiei had lost so much blood, too much. Most woukd be dead by now, but Hiei..., "Mukuro? What's that?"

Mukuro mentally slapped herself for not seeing what Yukina was talking about before. There was an odd ki radiating from Hiei's forehead, "A plant... A carnivorous plant... It's going to bloom soon...," Mukuro said. Yukina took in breath.

"...Plant, Mukuro? But doesn't...?"

Mukuro paused more a moment, then faced the trees, which were still angry and agitated, "Who's there? Who's the man who hit Hiei with this seed?" the trees suddenly stopped moving, as though a hurricane had come and passed. Silence covered all...

"Who?" echoed a voice from nearby. Mukuro stood up, motioning for Yukina to stay down.

"Who are you?"

"Who am I, she asks," the voice echoes again. The woman starts to get angry noticably.

"Don't mess with me..."

"Not messing, am I. No, madam. Certainly not," the voice was laughing. Mukuro hissed, and charged at the voice, slicing a bush clean away. Something fly up, and falls back down, half-way between Yukina and where Mukuro now stood. It made a small chinking noise as it made contact with the ground, and shattered.

"Another doll, but a different kind. The man who was here before left when the trees stopped moving...," Mukuro declares. Yukina nods in acknowledgment, but here eyes go wide when they both hear Hiei make a pained noise. Yukina looks back down to him, and is horrified.

Hiei's eyes are open, somehow, but blank. The crimson was not layered in different shade as it always was, but rather a plain, single color. Blood of the same color started to come out of his lips once more, and his body started shaking violently, "No... Hiei-san..."

"YUKINA-SAAAAAAN!"

Mukuro looks up to see "that orange-haired human" and the hanyou running towards them. Yukina seemed not to have heard the ningen's cry. She was fixated on Hiei's face.

"Mukuro, what's go-?" Yusuke started, but seeing Yukina, he stopped. Kuwabara rushed to her, "Yukina-san! Yukina! Say something! Anything! Come on!" Kuwabara turned her face towards his, but her eyes were blank like Hiei's, "Yu...kina...?"

"Mukuro! What's happening!" Yusuke finally asks. Mukuro just shakes her head, "Mukuro!"

Kurama sensed it. He could feel it shivering through the trees. Something was wrong, horribly wrong, "What the hell's going on? Why can't I find anyone?" he growled to himself. Even with his powers restored, he couldn't sense a thing. Just this... unsettling... feeling...

His eyes twitched as he heard something behind him. He whipped around, and almost fell over. There was nothing, but... For a second... he could have sworn he saw... blood. And a battered Hiei to go along with it, "...Hiei...," the unsettled feeling got worse.

"...fox..."

It was just a whisper, but it left a terrible ringing in his inner ear. Kurama looks around desperatly, trying to find where it came from.

"Fox..."

This time it was louder. Kurama fell to him knees, covering his ears. That voice was going to split his head open! Split... his head... open...

"It hurts!"

The fox's golden eyes opened, in both pain and realization. The image he had seen just now. The battered and bloody Hiei. The blood was coming from his forehead, from his jagan...! There was something... in it...

"...No...," he whispers to himself. He slowly lifts his hands away from his ears, and stands up at the same pace, "If the jagan... If it's destroyed... Hiei's going to...," he walks backward a few steps, listening to the grass, asking it where to go, then changes into his fox form; his weakest, but fastest form. (It was a unique form because even though it was weak, he could only change into it from his youko form) He takes off running in the directions the wildlife told him, "Hiei will... die...!"

As he ran, he remembered a similar image... When Hiei had first gotten the jagan. The slumped body on it's knees, shivering hands covering it's forehead in a vain attempt to stop the bleeding, the wide and horrified and painful eyes staring straight back at him...

Sure, many youkai had reasons to get one, but the way to get it was far to painful. Most die during the implanting itself. There was only one known surgeon who knew who to do it, because of it's unpopularness. His name was Shigure, a man who mastered the boomarang-sword and had a well-known fettish for peircings. Hiei had met this man, fought him, and lost. The price of losing a battle to Shigure was getting a jagan. And you didn't schedule an appointment, or anthing like that; that left too much of a chance for the loser to run before then. No, Shigure did it right then and there, he had all of the equipment with him all the time since youkai like to fight his so much. He guessed they just like the threat that loomed over their battle.

Hiei's situation wasn't like that. Shigure had taught Hiei what he knows of swordsmanship. Neither Yusuke or Kurama could figure out who those two met, but that didn't really matter. Shigure had challenged Hiei to a match after the training was complete, and was very dissappointed to win. No one ever saw him after that.

He left right after he "preformed" on Hiei. Kurama had witnessed the whole thing. It caused him nightmares still to this day. The surgery itself wasn't the worst part, either. It was the aftermath.

The slumped body on it's knees, shivering hands covering it's forehead in a vain attempt to stop the bleeding, the wide and horrified and painful eyes staring straight back at him...

"It hurts!"

I know, Hiei! Kurama vowed to himself as he ran on to make sure Hiei feels no more pain... ever! No matter what Hiei did to him, no youkai or ningen diserves that pain twice!

Kuwabara was shaking as Yukina seemed to feel a minescule portion of Hiei's pain. She, too, was in a frozen state. But why? WHY? Yukina had no special ties to Hiei! Unless... he was doing this to her on purpose!

"Mukuro!" he heard Yusuke's voice far away. He was too focused on his beloved to really hear anything.

"What?"

"Is this because of their relationship?" Rela...tionship? What relationship?

"Yes, I suppose... Twins sometimes react to eachother in this manner...," T...twins...? What...?

"They're...," Kuwabara started. Yusuke hit himself for brining it up, "Twins...? Hiei is... Yukina's brother?"

"Yes," Mukuro answered simply. Soon after she told the boys to bring the other two out of the forest. Kuwabara was still in shock, but he somehow managed to be able to carry Yukina.

"Why'd we come out here, specifically, Mukuro?" the hanyou asked after setting Hiei down. Mukuro smirked and looked to the side. Both Yusuke and Kuwabara look to see a silver fox running towards them.

"K-KURAMA!" Yusuke yelles, astounded. The fox makes it to them, and drops something near the hanyou's feet, "Plants...?"

"Medicine," Mukuro answered. Yusuke picked up the leaves and went to work right away. (He had learned about medicinal plants from Kurama)

It was quite funny, what Yusuke was witnessing. He had to control his laughter, as not to awake the sleeping people (?) on the bed. After they had managed to stop Hiei's bleeding and bandaged the jagan, Yukina had come back to her senses (and hasn't stopped apologizing yet), and Kurama passed out from exhaustion in his fox form, they group carried the hiyoukai and the kitsune back to the complex. The youkai dolls seemed to have stopped attacking... for now. And they were taking advantage of the quiet for the time being.

The thing Yusuke was laughing at was Hiei and Kurama. Kurama was still in fox-from, and still sleeping, and Hiei was still unconcious. Hiei had bandages around his forehead. He also had an arm around the sleeping lump of fur next to him, were as Kurama was resting his head on the hiyoukai's chest.

"Kukuku...," Yusuke laughed, "It's just so kawaii..."

NOTACLIFFY

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