Disclaimer: I don't own the YYH characters, but I do reserve the rights to Takashi Ashitare. She's my little mystic.

Of Mystics and Youkai

Chapter 10

Fire and Ice – part one

Ashitare approaches her friends' territory with a feeling of dread. She hadn't seen them in almost two weeks and her last message sphere was not returned. She had supplies to tryfive different remedies, assuming Kurama could produce certain necessary plants. She let Kurama's plant verify her presence and proceeded to the tree dwelling just over the next ridge. As she approached, she saw Kurama walking towards her, looking tired. She offered a smile.

"Hello Kurama." The youko embraces her with a warm hug. But when Ashitare tries to pull away, he won't let go. She can feel the shaking taking over his body. "Kurama?"

"He's gone."

"What!"

"He said he wasn't going to wait around and feel helpless so he left." Kurama pulls back suddenly, tears streaming down his cheeks, with a look of incredulity on his face. "Can you believe he actually drugged me with my own plants!"

Ashitare looks up at her friend and gives him a sheepish smile. "Yes?"

The kitsune snorts and a crooked smile plays across his face, "Me too."

Kurama sinks down to the ground, playing with a piece of grass. Ashitare sits down next to him and puts her arm around his waist, resting her head on his shoulder.

"When?"

"Two days ago."

"Where?"

He shrugged his shoulders, "Don't know. Said something about Shigure's lab. But that was destroyed ages ago."

"Why didn't you follow?"

"Damn flame head dosed me up so much I slept for a whole day. It still took me until this afternoon to completely clear my head. I couldn't find a trace of him so I waited here for you since your last message said you'd be here today."

"Here I am."

"Right on time."

"What do you want to do?"

"Ring his neck."

"Before that."

"Kick his ass."

"Before that."

Heavy sigh of resignation. "Go ask Mukuro if she's seen him."

"That's a start. Let's go."

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Fire and Ice – part two

Ashitare never wanted to do that again. And when she got her hands on Hiei, she was going to make him pay for this. She was racing away from Mukuro's castle with Kurama trapped in her taraa. Gods know what kind of damage he's doing in there! She didn't expect the meeting to go smoothly, but she didn't think she was going to have to come between two battlingdemons either. Ashitare is moving as quickly as possible. She isn't sure how much longer she can keep her energy up. She is putting on a good show in case anybody, mainly Mukuro, is watching.

She can't believe how quickly things got out of hand. One minute she and Kurama are sitting across from Mukuro, and the next, Kurama and Mukuro are tearing the place apart trying to kill each other. The relationship between Kurama and Mukuro is tense at best. And the conversation proved that. Neither one of them wanting to say anything the other could use to their advantage, but trying to find out information at the same time. Childish demons! So Ashitare had taken over the conversation. But Mukuro insisted on taking jabs at Kurama. The prideful youko lost it when Mukuro had said, point blank, that if Kurama couldn't keep his fire demon satisfied he should send him to her.

The next few moments were a blur as plants and energy blasts filled the air. Ashitare was knocked back into a corner by a ricocheting energy blast. She looked out at the mayhem from the safety of the corner to assess the situation. She knew talking them down was out of the question. She was still trying to figure out what to do when Mukuro gained an advantage over Kurama with a solid blow to his head. She aimed and fired on the dazed youko. Ashitare sprinted into action and blocked the blast with her soulsword.

"My fight is not with you mystic. Move out of the way!"

"No! We came here for answers only! Please stand down!"

Mukuro's only answer was laughter. Ashitare found herself the new target of the crazed demon ruler. Ashitare was so occupied with Mukuro she didn't notice Kurama in the shadows. He had positioned himself behind Mukuro and launched himself at her back, razor sharp claws extended and ready. Ashitare saw the blur of silverand quickly launched herself at Mukuro from the other side, hoping the woman would easily dodge her offensive, thus avoiding Kurama's as well. She wanted no one's blood spilled here. Her fake worked. Mukuro dodged the attack and Kurama's kitsune reflexes allowed him to avoid the incoming Ashitare. Kurama shot her a deadly look and returned his attention to Mukuro.

Ashitare tried repeatedly to stop the two demons from fighting by blocking attacks from both demons meant for the other. She even had to return attacks just to defend herself. Her frustration at the whole situation reached its breaking point when she was almost beheaded by Mukuro in a blind rage as she attacked Kurama's plants. She let the soulsword disappear. She started gathering her energy. A strong wind whipped shattered pieces of furniture around the room. Kurama and Mukuro momentarily stopped their struggle to observe the mystic, glowing blue, then white with energy.

"This will end now!"

Ashitare let the energy spread out from her, encompassing all, until it filled the room. Then she let it explode. She didn't wait for the smoke to clear. She sensed Kurama immediately. She quickly moved to his side, confident he was ok, she put him in her taraa. Then she dashed to where Mukuro was standing, shakily, and hit her with a Soul Binder cast. She knew the powerful ruler would break the cast, but not until she and Kurama were at a safe distance. She faced Mukuro with glinting eyes, her voice low and menacing.

"We only came here for answers. Hiei is badly wounded and we need to find him before it's too late. I don't give a shit that you and Kurama hate each other. But if you have delayed me…..if I do not reach Hiei in time, I promise you, I will kill you. I don't care who you are."

And with that, Ashitare jumped out the window and started for the woods. She was now far enough out of Mukuro's territory she jumped up into a tree and sat down, exhausted. She momentarily debates letting Kurama out now, or getting some rest first. She opts for now to get the yelling over with. She unties the taraa from around her wrist and lays it on the branch. She lifts it up to reveal a seething fox demon.

"Go ahead. Yell all you want. Just let me rest awhile."

Kurama looks over at Ashitare, murder in his eyes. But when he sees his friend leaning against the trunk, breathing heavy, cuts on her face, her ki signature low, his anger vanishes. He would have to deal with Mukuro later. He ties the taraa around her wrist then pulls her into his arms, cradling her like a child. He brushes away the hair in her face and kisses her forehead.

"I'm sorry. What can I do?"

"Promise me I'll never have to do that again."

"I promise."

"Good. Now let me rest. You bitches wore me out."

Kurama chuckles and watches the mystic fall into a deep, healing sleep.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Ashitare is looking out over a great expanse of white. Snow? In the distance she sees the dead floating world of the Koorime. A twinkling light catches her eye. She sprints down the slope and lightly skips over the snow, barely leaving an indentation as she runs. As she approaches the source of the twinkling light, she can feel the cold penetrate her clothes, then her skin, until finally her skin is covered in a thin layer of frost. She can barely feel her body when she reaches the source of the light. It's a tear gem, suspended on a chain. Hiei? Hiei! She frantically looks for the fire demon but sees no trace of life or even mounds in the snow to indicate a buried body. She tries reaching out to sense him. Something catches in the back of her mind and she looks down at her feet. There, barely visible to the naked eye, is a small spot of black on the snow. She reaches down to pick it up, but it appears to be attached to something under the snow. No. No. No! Ashitare begins to frantically dig.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Ashitare's mumbling wakes Kurama. He gently nudges her to try and wake her up. It was time they get going anyway.

"Ashi? Ashi, wake up."

"Hiei!"

Ashitare's eyes fly open and she's gasping for air. Kurama jumps back to another branch.

"Were you having a nightmare?"

Ashitare turns wide eyes to Kurama. She is trying to get her breathing under control. She can still feel the cold stinging her body. "I know where Hiei is."

"How?"

"Vision."

She springs down to the ground and starts running. Kurama jumps down and chases after her.

"Ashi! What happened? What did you see?"

"Hiei. Below Koorime city. He's buried in snow Kurama. He's dying."

Ashitare picks up speed and dashes ahead of Kurama. The stunned youko keeps pace, the whole time his stomach turning in knots. She must be wrong. I'd know if Hiei were…Then Kurama remembers she said he is dying. Not, he's dead. His mind is racing with all sorts of terrible possibilities when Ashitare grabs his arm and yanks him out of stride.

"We'll never make it this way. How's your energy?"

"100. Why?"

"I'm going to try a transport there. I'll probably need some of your energy to transport us out."

Kurama nods and wraps his arms around the mystic. She begins to collect energy, Kurama can feel her body heating up with the power required for the cast. Kurama sees a flash of blue light and the next thing he sees is a sheet of white snow. The cold wind rips the breath right out of them. Ashitare pushes away from Kurama and starts looking around to get her bearings. She sees the Koorime city in the sky. And it's close. She races towards the giant floating rock, her senses reaching out for Hiei and her eyes scanning for the tell tale twinkling light.

"There!"

Ashitare makes a dog-leg right towards the glint she sees out of the corner of her eye. As soon as Kurama notices the light he runs past Ashitare towards it. He stops and sees the tear gem necklace lying in the snow. As he picks it up, his senses are assaulted with a violent wave of cold and ice. He reels back from shock and Ashitare is there to catch him. She steadies Kurama then drops to her knees in the snow and begins digging furiously.

"Here! Quickly!"

Kurama is immediately by her side, shoving aside armfuls of snow. It doesn't take them long to uncover Hiei enough to pull him out. His skin feels cold and lifeless, his eyes are frozen shut. Kurama holds him to his body and the cold from Hiei becomes painful against his skin.

"Ashi! Do something! Get us to Genkai's!"

"I'm not sure I can cross worlds. Maybe if we--"

Kurama looks up at her, the pain too much for her to look at. She lowers her eyes to Hiei. Hiei…. Ashitare looks back into Kurama's eyes, determined to get them to Genkai's. She wraps her arms around Kurama and begins gathering energy. She won't be able to make it alone. She needs more energy. As if reading her mind Kurama yells above the howling winds.

"Take it! Just get us there!"

Ashitare reaches into Kurama and starts siphoning his energy for the cast. Kurama's eyes are getting heavy from the loss of ki. He holds tight to Hiei as everything goes black.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Fire and Ice – part three

Ashitare watches as the bright blue light gives way to darkness. She blinks her eyes a few times to clear her vision. She sees…trees? The temple! They were in Genkai's courtyard, and it was nighttime. Ashitare lets go of Kurama and starts staggering for the door, yelling for Genkai.

Genkai finds Ashitare on her knees, halfway up the stairs. In the distance she sees Kurama and what was probably Hiei, nestled in his arms. She reaches down to help Ashitare.

"Are you all right? What happened?"

"I'm fine. Help Hiei. Found him frozen in the snow below Koorime city."

Genkai goes over to help Hiei but is unable to get Kurama to let go. His limbs are tense, frozen and wrapped protectively around his frozen fire demon.

"I need your help!"

Ashitare manages to stagger back to the frozen lovers. She places her hands on Kurama and slowly builds up a small amount of energy to thaw his limbs. She starts talking out loud to him.

"Kurama. It's ok. You need to let go of Hiei. Let go so we can heal him. Please, Kurama, you must let go…"

Genkai finally unhinges Kurama's arms and lifts Hiei out. Ashitare looks at Genkai for instructions. "Leave him. I need you." Ashitare obediently follows the woman into the temple although she has no idea how she is able to move. She really can't feel her body. Maybe that's a good thing right now. "Call Yukina. Her number is next to the phone."

"Phone?"

"You've never used a phone, have you?" Ashitare shakes her head numbly. "Then go get blankets from the closet. Then go boil three large pots of water." When Ashitare returns from her duties, she finds Kurama, looking distraught, kneeling at Hiei's head. Ashitare goes over and strokes Kurama's hair. It was still very cold. Genkai's voice snaps Ashitare out of her daze. "Ok you two. How much energy ya got left?"

"Whatever you need."

Ashitare silently nods in agreement with the kitsune.

"Who has more ki right now? Kurama? Ok, place your hands on his chest and use your energy to slowly, very slowly, generate heat into his body. You, bring the pots of water here, I'm going to fetch some towels."

When Ashitare returns, Genkai has placed a thick blanket on Hiei. Then she and Genkai soak the towels and place them on top of the blanket, then put another blanket on top of the towels.

"I can feel the heat coming through. But Genkai…What about his….what about the…heart?"

Kurama barely chokes out the last word. Ashitare's heart ached for him. She turns to look at Genkai who doesn't look like she has good news. "Right now, we have to thaw his body. If his Koorime genes kicked in as he was being frozen, his heart should have gone into some sort of stasis. When he's thawed out, his heart will start right up. If not…"

Genkai looks away from the pained youko's face. Ashitare puts her hands on Kurama's shoulders. "It will start up."

"Alright fox. Take a rest. I'll keep him warm for awhile."

Kurama slowly removes his hands from Hiei and sinks back onto his haunches. Ashitare wraps her arms around him, trying to offer some sort of comfort. She starts looking around the room, trying to distract her eyes from the scene in front of her. She sees Hiei's clothes, thrown about the room in their rush to strip him of the frozen garments. She lets go of Kurama and walks over to pick up his shirt, neatly folding the ragged thing. A small smile plays across her lips as she remembers the last time Kurama tried to get Hiei to wear something other than black. It hadn't been pretty. Entertaining, yes. But not pretty. She bends down to pick up his pants and a small bag falls to the floor. She reaches for the bag and opens it, pulling out a small piece of crystal. It isn't like anything she's ever seen. It was blue gray in color, with tiny bits of silvery specks strewn throughout.

"Kurama, do you recognize this?"

Kurama reached up and caught the piece thrown at him. He turned it over in his hand a few times frowning, then shrugged his shoulders and looked at Ashitare, "No. Never seen anything like it."

"Hiei has a bag of them."

"Let me see that." Ashitare brings a piece over for the woman to examine. Genkai frowns, and then her eyes suddenly go wide. "It can't be. How did he do it?

Kurama's ears perked up as he turned to face Genkai, "What do you know?"

"Those are pieces of the floating city. The Koorime city is built on a bed of Azurite. It is thought to be indestructible. Many enemies have tried to destroy the foundation, but no one has ever succeeded. I've never even heard of someone being able to knick it. Somehow, it seems our Forbidden Child has managed the feat. The questions remain, why and how."

Ashitare stared at the piece in her hand, trying to study its Majik properties, "I've never heard of Azurite crystal."

"It's not a crystal. It's some sort of water derivative. A creation of one of the ancients."

"Water? How could water be turned into something so strong?"

"Nobody knows. The Koorime guarded their secrets well as you know. Compound that with the fact that you can barely scratch it, and you can see the dilemma."

Ashitare turns her attention back to the piece of water. Water? The thought keeps circling in her head until something Genkai said comes slamming into her thoughts. Compound. Compound? Why is she haunted by that word? She keeps wracking her brain and can't think of anything. She decides to try a different approach. She sits down and closes her eyes, still holding the Azurite. She clears her mind of all thought, and lets her subconscious find the answer she is looking for.

The first thing she notices is the smell of dank air. She looks around, but can't see anything. Then she hears Yusuke's voice. Don't I get a reward or something? The sentence repeats in her mind over and over. But what did it have to do with the words 'water' and 'compound'? Don't I get a reward?

"The scroll!"

Genkai and Kurama jump as Ashitare springs to her feet, yelling about a scroll. Before she can answer any of their inquiries, she disappears into her taraa. Moments later she reappears with a scroll, unraveling it as she walks over to the table.

"Yusuke found this scroll when we were searching the catacombs. It referenced fire and non-healing wounds and mentioned something about a water compound. Here! One of the required ingredients is a water compound containing salt, no, not salt. Containing…yeah, containing salt of the Makai."

"Salt of the Makai?"

Ashitare shrugged. She turns her attention back to the scroll. The spell seemed simple enough if they could get the ingredients.

"I sense Yukina here. May be she can shed some light on the subject."

And with those words the petite Koorime entered the room, her face streaked with tears and worry. She goes to Hiei's side and feels his skin. It feels cool, but not frozen. She looks at Genkai for answers, but it's Ashitare who speaks.

"We found him buried in the snow below the floating city. We brought him back here and have been trying to thaw him out."

Yukina looked at Kurama, her brow furrowed, her voice a little accusing, "What was he doing there? Kurama?"

"He drugged me then took off. We think he went to retrieve this."

Yukina stared at the piece of blue/grey crystal handed to her. As she turned it over in her hand, her eyes went wide and she looked up to Ashitare. "Is this what I think it is?"

"Azurite. We think he went to get it to perform a reversal spell. I have a scroll that mentions something about a water compound containing 'salt of the Makai'. Is that Azurite?"

"I'm not sure. I thought Azurite was indestructible."

Kurama smirked at the Koorime princess. "Hiei would just see that as a challenge, you know that."

Everybody smiled at the thought. It was true. Tell Hiei he couldn't do something, and he would prove you wrong, or die trying.

"What should I do?" Ashitare looked around at everyone in the room.

"We have to try."

"I'm with the fox."

"I trust you."

Ashitare flew out the door to prepare the spell. It didn't take her long to find most of the ingredients and return to the room. When she entered, she found Kurama and Yukina in tears. "Oh no. Please--"

"His heart started a few moments ago. Looks like the hothead is gonna make it."

Ashitare smiles and feels tears welling up in her eyes. She wipes them away and goes to work preparing the spell.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Hiei felt cold. So cold. He couldn't get his body to generate any heat. Was he finally going to die? Like this? Alone? Not even honorably in battle? And what about Kurama? The thought of his lover's warm body banished all thoughts of pain and sadness. His mind drifted to thoughts of his fox, as his heart slowly began to stop. Kurama….

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

There was only darkness and cold. Was this one of the seven levels of hell? The cold, empty feeling of Nothingness? He tried to feel anything. But there was nothing. Can you sleep in Nothingness? Hiei struggled to create anything. Pain, a noise, move his body. Nothing. Just cold and darkness.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kurama…Hiei's thoughts were consumed with his kitsune. He couldn't recall the feeling of his skin, but he remembered it being one of the most wonderful feelings. It was smooth, soft and smelled of roses and spice. Hiei thought of wrapping his limbs around the lithe body, and raising his ki to keep them warm. They never needed a fire. Hiei was hot enough for both of them. But the fire that once burned within him was now extinguished. He'd never be able to hold Kurama again or feel the warmth of their bodies pressed together. He would miss the warmth. The heat…the sight of dancing flames. Warm…he could…feel…warmth? Was he imagining it? Had he finally reached his breaking point? No. He could feel heat. Where was it coming from? He was still in total darkness. The heat seemed to surround him. As the heat built in strength, he felt….tingling. An all over tingling that quickly turned into pain. The heat was still building, the pain becoming more acute. What was happening? Another form of punishment?

Hiei thought the heat would consume him when he felt something else. A pounding. A pounding in his chest. His body! He could feel and move his body. He had no place to go that he could see, but he had his body back. Now what?

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Ashitare knelt at Hiei's head. Genkai and Yukina had declared Hiei stable enough to endure the spell. She prepared the paste required for the spell and Yukina and Kurama had applied it to all the burns on his body. She begins the incantation in a low whisper, clutching a piece of Azurite.

Ashitare had been chanting for over an hour. Kurama can see the sweat pouring down her forehead. She is beginning to tire. Kurama turns his attention back to Hiei. Please come back to me. Kurama reaches over to caress his cheek when Yukina grabs his wrist.

"You mustn't interfere with the spell."

Ashitare places her hands on Hiei's head. The blue glow around her envelopes Hiei's body. Her voice rises in pitch and cadence. The glow turns red and then quickly vanishes. Ashitare lets her hands drop to her knees. She feels weak, dizzy. She looks up at Genkai who is saying something to her, but Ashitare can't make out the words. She just wants to sleep. She feels a hand on her shoulder as she closes her eyes.

To be continued….