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The Story So Far: Karasu has a sister and she's finally tracked down Kurama and Mika while Hiei seems to have gone 'terminator' on Shizuru's little gang. Back at Yuusuke's Jin has blown in and is about to tell all the ugly details of what the heck is going on.
Infection
"Jin! Quit talking so fast! Jin! JIN! You moron. STOP TALKING AND TAKE A BREATH DAMN IT!"
The red-head didn't stop talking, however, in fact despite the unhealthy blue pallor of his skin the wind demon kept right on chattering. By this point both Keiko and Yuusuke had become mildly concerned. Even an A class demon would find it difficult to go without air for over two minutes and Jin had indeed gone without air for nearly four. Not that his urgency helped in anyway, seeing how neither Yuusuke, Keiko, Veil or (the now non-hysterical) Botan could make out a single word he spewing form his mouth.
Minna, the small demon girl with wings sat cross-legged on Botan's lap, grinning happily up at Jin, oblivious to the many dangerous looking demons around her. Veil for instance, had begun to bristle, the usually soft spikes of red hair along the nape of his neck rising like an aggravated wolf. Yuusuke eyed his General uneasily. While the dragon-demon usually kept his cool, the reptilian blood in his veins made him volatile at times. Jin's talking looked to be approaching his last nerve. Keiko became increasingly concerned as their eccentric friend continued on his oxygen deprivation and Botan simply stared at the ninja. At this point she felt certain that Jin wasn't even speaking a real language anymore. Finally there was really no other choice.
Slap!
Veil stopped bristling and stared in fascination, while Yuusuke cringed in sympathy. Jin however, took residence upon the floor, right cheek glowing warmly from the impact of Keiko's hand with his face. He blinked for a long moment, large blue eyes blank as gears turned and cranked to figure out just what terrible, painful object made contact with the side of his head. Keiko stood over the wind elf, face serene, arm poised in the home-run-slap follow through.
She opened her wide, almond brown eyes and looked down at him.
"Breathe. Think. Speak," she annunciated.
The magic words seemed to yank Jin's imagination down from whatever cloud it had retreated to and he rubbed the back of his head ruefully. "Ehh…Sorry bout tha'. Guess I jus' lost me head fer a shake there. "
Jin opened his mouth wide and took a loud, long breath and exhaled heavily, entire body moving with the endeavor. He sat there a moment before going on.
"Karasu is back."
Thus, the bomb-shell dropped. Everyone simultaneously assumed the bug-eyed expression of one who has just been kicked in the gut. After a ten second delay Yuusuke instantly went off like a time bomb and a mushroom cloud of profanity detonated across the room. Minna's eyes grew big and shiny with admiration and she leaned eagerly forward to hear more of the terrible name-calling/oath swearing etc. Botan, with all the air of a mother, placed her hands over Minna's ears and glared at the ranting Toushin Emperor.
"Yuusuke! Honestly! There are children in this room," she scolded hotly, all trace of the terrified and sobbing ferry-girl erased by the old, spunky, Grim Reaper they knew and loved. Keiko solved the problem magnificently. Crossing the room in four swift strides she smacked Yuusuke up the side of the head and stopped his swearing against the brick wall of her palm. Both Jin and Veil flinched in pity while Minna laughed hysterically.
Having reduced her husband to moaning and clutching his head, Keiko turned her cool caramel gaze back to Jin who leapt into the air to assume the lotus position and turn upside down. Veil's lip curled back from his fangs and he snorted rudely before turning away from the over-active Wind Master. Keiko ignored the General and dropped her arms at her side, studying the wind demon's sullen expression. His bright orbs, usually alive with life looked dully back at her from beneath lidded eyes.
"Jin…Are you sure?" she asked slowly, almost fearfully.
The red head nodded explosion of wild red hair dancing as he did. "Aye. Swear on me mum's poor soul. Th' bastard's back. He attacked me an' Minna and then he went huntin' after Touya. By th' toime I got there e' was gone, bu' Toy told me he'd fought wid th' monster he had. Told me tha' Karasu's cooked up some kind o' nasty bug to infect all'a th' Makai."
Here Jin paused and fiddled with the tight, fighter tape around his wrists and forearms. As he did, the youthful demon kept his eyes down – up, since he floated upside down – cast. Keiko recognized the shonobi's pause as an attempt to compose himself, her sharp hearing picking up the sound of a hard swallow and the tell-tale rise and fall of the ninja's Adam's Apple. Yuusuke (no longer whimpering in pain) grew sober, his fighter instincts telling him what Jin had yet to say. Botan hugged Minna closer and looked around the room, feeling lost. Veil similarly looked away and the two chanced to glance at one another, both looking equally uncomfortable.
Jin sighed and righted himself, breathing deep and closing his eyes. Yuusuke stepped closer to him and placed a hand carefully on the wind demon's shoulder. The red-head cast his sad look upon his friend and nodded wearily. Sighing he went on, looking for all-the-world like he would start screaming at any given moment.
"He got Touya." Jin said softly. "Th' sickness is passed through th' blood an Karasu cut 'im up somethin' horrible."
"But…I would feel it if a soul that powerful passed on. Touya hasn't died," Botan said somewhat tentatively. "He's still alive. That's good right?"
Jin shook his head. "It's not a killin' sickness, lass, it's a loony-larker's fever. Makes yu' see, say and do crazy things. Loike…umm…when doggies and other critters foam at th' mouth and go bonkers and be bitin' people in th' ass."
"Rabies?" Veil filled in flatly.
"Aye. That's it," Jin nodded. "All they wanna do is be infectin' other people. It's loike they're losin' all their marbles – POOM! – marbles flying every which way an' everyone's madder'n a cat wid its tail tied up!"
Everyone stared at the eccentric wind elf a moment before resuming conversation, all lost on just exactly what the demon had just said. Something about the disease being like rabies. Yuusuke scratched his head, looking dark and puzzled at once.
"So…these guys are running around, foaming at the mouth and clawing people up?" he said doubtfully. "Not real hard to spot. A quarantine shouldn't be too hard."
"Don't be daft, Urameshi! Course they're not actually foamin' at th' mouth!" Jin snapped, looking disgusted with his friend. "Touya managed to tell meh what all th' signs are bein' before…anyway. I know they dun foam."
"So what are the symptoms?" Veil asked, tonelessly as before. The dragon-demon grew impatient quite swiftly so answering quickly proved wise on Jin's part. The Wind Master turned his gaze to the ceiling and began counting them off finger-by-finger.
"Coughing, fever, hallucinations – mostly gobbledygook 'bout ravens, purple eyes, an' weird poetry an' junk. The raven stuff is th' real give away, so yu gotta bewatchin' that – then they go mad an' start killin' and infectin' people," he finished sadly. "Touya told meh t' kill 'im afore I left, but I promised I'd be findin' a cure."
Yuusuke cast Veil a subtle glance, hoping the draconic youkai recognized the similarities between this disease and the one they'd dealt with among their own troops. But, to the Toushin's horror, his non-socially skilled General had assumed his most heartless 'why should I give a freaking French-fry?' expression and opened his mouth, cueing something horrible to come up from the depths of that acid-laced maw.
"That was stupid," Veil spat callously and Yusuke flinched, twitching visibly.
Jin's head snapped around and his near-luminous eyes flared with a momentary fury uncharacteristic of his personality. Uncharacteristic and dangerous. Keiko sucked a breath through her teeth at the expression but before anyone could stop him Veil stomped on through the emotional mine-field Jin's slight tweak of the eyes gave him away as.
"If you really respected your ally, you would have done as he asked," the dragon demon went on, tripping several bomb-wires as he did and detonating something horrendous in the Wind Master's expression. "Now he'll be infecting hell knows how many others."
What happened next, the horrible and destructive thing Yuusuke had foreseen arriving in Veil's face, surprised no one (not even Veil himself). Jin's fist, wreathed in a spiral of wind and tornado, smashed into Veil's right cheek and rocketed the dark-skinned youkai through the air like a rag doll. The air roared and his flight crashed to stop against a thick marble pillar that buckled and shattered under the impact. The air resounded with the crack of body on stone and the entire column gave way to smashed down upon the ground.
"SHUT TH' HELL UP YU' SLIMY BASTARD! YU' DIDN' KNOW TOUYA AN' YU GOT NO RIGHT T' SAY ANYTHIN'!" Jin screamed. Keiko yelped and clamped hands over sensitive ears as Yuusuke grabbed her and Botan in an attempt to keep them anchored to the floor.
Jin's warped voice clashed with the sound of shrieking winds and roaring air currents. Outside the clouds of the dark Makai atmosphere whipped into a thin red haze and tempest wind erupted into life. Trees ripped up by the roots and launched themselves into the air, sucked up into the awning maw of a birthing cyclone. Border-troops all about Yuusuke's terrortory gaped in horror and fascination at the phenomenon of Makai weather and animal demons fled into the underground. Back in the room, Jin's body clenched taunt with anger, every cord of muscle in his frame rigid, hair fluttering frantically in the storm of air around him. A strange, translucent energy boiled behind his eyes, colorless like mists of deadly poison in a twister.
"SO SHUT UP" he blurted in conclusion.
Jin gasped sharply and suddenly the wind stopped and he dropped to the floor with a thud. Keiko and Botan (hair sticking up at odd angles) stared at the wind demon with round eyes, clutching each other as of he would lunge at them and eat them both whole. Yusuke (hair equally fizzed) gaped at the giant pile of rubble where Veil had stood a few seconds ago.
"YAAAAAY! You killed him!" Minna cheered on her adopted guardian and began to dance exuberantly in Botan's arms.
"He did no such thing and don't you think that was a shade on the over-reaction side?" coughed a toneless, growling voice.
The rubble shifted and Yuusuke's General tossed aside a block of stone like one moves a feather mattress, casually knocking it off his shoulder and standing up. Dusty, ruffled and somewhat irritable (normal) he seemed otherwise unharmed and the non combatants all breathed a collective sigh of relief. The dragon demon shook out his wings with a snap of leathery membrane and folded them once more while dusting his tunic meticulously. He glared in the red-head's general direction.
Shocked silence followed in which Botan's mouth opened and closed much like a fish and Minna began to poke at Veil's ribs, irritating the dragon-demon until Keiko rescued the child from a soon-to-be nasty fate.
Jin coughed mildly into the dust filled atmosphere, breaking the taboo on sound.
"Whoops," he articulated flatly. No sympathy toward the General he'd just nailed through a stone pillar.
"Whoops? You just put a damn hole in my house!" Yuusuke said, finally finding his tongue.
"Th' jerk had it comin," Jin replied churlishly and dared the most venomous look any living creature had ever seen out of the wind demon. Usually happy-go-lucky eyes glittered dark and dangerous from his anger-lined face. His cobalt eyes darted back toward Veil who seemed unaware that he'd not only done something offensive but received punishment for it as well. Instead he'd resumed his usual bad posture and stood off to the side, hands fidgeting restlessly with the many glittering blades about his waist.
-Slouching, as per-typical, against the next undamaged pillar.
"Jin, what's wrong with you?" Yuusuke snapped. He grabbed his friend by the shoulder and regarded him with a somber expression not that often graced the Emperor's youthful features. "Veil can be an asshole, I know that. You all know that. We all know that. Why are you letting him get to you? You know you did the right thing. None of us hold that against you, Jin."
"Aye!" snapped the wind demon, obviously having not forgiven anything or come to regret his choice in blasting another living being thought a rock column. He folded his arms in a 'don't you dare talk to me' fashion and spun around, back turned to the other occupancy of the room who all stared in shock. "I did what I came t' do. I'm through. Thought cha might be wantin' to know since Touya's good as dead, thanks t'…"
Jin stopped his next words as if realizing a line to dangerous to cross and shook himself.
"I'll be thinkin' somewhere else," he finished and bounded into the air. A breath of wind later he'd gone, leaving a stunned Yuusuke behind in a haze of confusion and empathy toward his comrade. Empathy…but no solution. Touya no longer fell under the safety of a comrade. He'd contracted the disease, a deadly one that Yuusuke had come to suspect as the very same plague that beleaguered his own troops and those of Yomi.
Yuusuke shot Veil a dark look. "Nice going, Mr. Sensitivity."
The dragon demon ignored the jibe and looked up sharply, golden yellow eyes pinning Botan suddenly with his intensity. She stiffened nervously under his scrutiny and giggled slightly. Minna wriggled out of Keiko's arm and skipped over to tug on the ferry-girl's gown, anxious to be picked up. The bluette obliged, happy for a distraction, but the ebon-skinned demon went on to capture her attentions.
"Botan. Why are you here? Koenma sent no word of your arrival," he growled, straight to the point.
The Grim Reaper looked flustered a moment by Veil's cobra's like stare and Yuusuke shoved the slighter demon with a gruff 'Stop it, you're scaring her.' He leered and looked away, having done his part to stir the pot and leave the ruling parties, Yuusuke and Keiko, to sort out the rest. Botan bounced Minna a bit higher on her hip, biting her lower lip in sudden apprehension.
"He…told me he'd sent you word…Did the courier get to you?" she inquired slowly. Heads shook in reply and the ferry-girl paled. "Then Enma knows where I am and he must have spoken to Koenma by now. Oh no."
Keiko hugged her friend gently. "I'm sure Koenma will be fine. He's a big boy. You, however, look ready to faint. What's going on?"
She looked up at them, eyes shining a wet, raspberry color. "Koenma told me his father was planning something. Something big. He'd been hunting Kurama for sometime now and suddenly this disease pops up – and I've heard the gossip – appears in all the high population, free-rule, demon zones. You don't hear it because of all the fighting around your land, Yuusuke, but the Makai's been sinking into chaos out there."
Keiko breathed slowly and softly. "You think…he's infected the Makai?"
"Genocide," remarked Veil from the shadows he'd found to stand in. "From what the Wind Master told us it seems that Karasu is the original host for the sickness. He's been spreading like a virus all around us, through us, even. Infecting our own troops and amassing an army. Kumuro's attacks on us might not be coincidence. I suspect his kingdom had become a bio-hazard, breeding ground or he's in league with Enma."
"And he's infecting us," Yuusuke said darkly. "Biological warfare. And we were laughing about it."
"There recently…was a soul unaccounted for in the records, but the paperwork was handed directly to Enma himself. I never touched the detail report," Botan said, as if pieces haunting her these last years now fell into place. "He must have brought Karasu back! Enma was plotting all those years ago. Even before he knew Yuusuke was a Toushin, Enma brought Karasu back, not a mage!"
"When it rains it pours," groaned Yuusuke and he fell into a nearby chair to think this one out.
Just as suddenly as he dropped his head in his hands a messenger sprite dashed through the doors, banging them open with wild-eyes abandon. Everyone stared as the slender youkai caught his breath before going on.
"Y-Yomi. We've lost contact with Yomi and Kumuro's troops had thripples assaults on the western flanks! We're under attack" He panted a moment, then bowed to the stunned Toushin.
"My lord."
Ch-CHING!
The motion came and went so quickly neither Alaster or Shizuru saw it, only heard the grinding, grating screech of metal against metal. Wind exploded from the point of impact like a miniature nuclear shockwave it blasted out and smashed its windy mass against the two spectators. Alaster spun, throwing his arms up to shield himself as ribbons of blue and silver hair whipped his face, forcing his shoulder into the brunt of the explosion. Shizuru, on the other hand, had no troublesome tresses of appropriate length to trouble her and remained still, tawny eyes fixed upon the tableau before her.
Hiei's signature katana, brilliant and glittering with undimmed light like an arched silver of moonlight, cut a swathe of startling light through the shadow. The Jaganshi himself hung, superimposed mid-air, the energy of his own attack holding him momentarily aloft as his opponent similarly fought to remain in the same speed range. The aforementioned opponent stood, feet planted apart in an iron foundation as the entire length of his lissome body vibrated with the sheer power grinding against his own weapon.
Feral crimson eyes, slanted and cat-like in Hiei's thin features, flickered along the serrated edge of the newly manifested blade. The metal, it if could be called metal, gleamed a dull gray-black against the polish perfection of Hiei's prize weapon. Cloud's fingerless black gloves gripped the hilt of the weapon tightly, the feather-like edges of the sword like a trembling horizon across his face, Hiei's own blade turning the interlocked weapons into a deadly metal X.
Cloud's soft blond bangs flipped erratically across his forehead, threatening to fall into his face as he bared delicate fangs in a grimace of both strain and sudden ire. Locked in a momentary stand-still he and Hiei seemed like lightening embodied, ready to erupt and zag off in any given direction, poised to loose something primal.
"A step in the right direction, but not enough, dark angel!" Hiei hissed.
Shiiiing!
A metallic crescendo as Hiei's blade ran down the edge of the other blade like a mallet over a xylophone and zinged of the end, sending both blades spinning away from each other as their owners bounced back from the initial attack. Moving in synchronous rhythm, both the combatants fell to the ground in a crouch and flickered as they dashed out of human perception. All the while Shizuru and Alaster screamed at the two fighters; Shizuru at Hiei, demanding he stop, Alaster at Cloud, pleading with him to see reason. To the mortal eyes the battle consisted of several sudden metallic flashes, sporadic eruptions of cobblestones and the occasional breath of unexplained wind. The two non-combatants seemed to yell at empty air.
To Shizuru and Alaster however, the battle looked like a scene shot through fast-forward and occasionally into still shots as the two hyper-speed demons danced around one another, blades raised, lissome and fluid like liquid lightening they attacked. Parries spat sparks for an instant before the two sprang apart again. Guerrilla tactics of hit and run triple times what it should naturally be. Hiei leapt high, slashed vertically in a stabbing slice so powerful it parted the air with an audible whine.
Cloud saw it coming though and with a move so agile it looked unreal he fell on the ground and somehow swung his entire body around balanced on one arm so that the blade sank into the stone alongside his wrist while his boot crashed into Hiei's chest. The blow pounded into the Jaganshi's chest with enough power to make the very air shake and launched the diminutive combatant across the street and through a brick wall.
A breath, a moment of silence came in the beat of a heart and from the rubble a familiar spiky-haired head lifted and a vicious smile.
Too fast to follow Hiei snapped out of view and reappeared suddenly, practically sitting on Cloud's chest. The dark angel's crimson eyes flew wide and the other demon's similarly hued gaze slitted dangerously. Predatorily. Black and red energy exploded from Hiei's bandaged fingers and in a terrifying snapshot, engulfed the shadowkai in a roiling cloud of fire and ravaging energy. The air rippled, vibrations shuddering through the floor like a miniature earthquake.
Dust choked the air and Shizuru, blinded and shocked, thrust a hand forward in a small wash of telekinetic power, clearing out the air in a single gesture. The haze of dust split like the Red Sea before Moses and blew up and out of the street, unveiling the result of the terrifying – however short – battle. Alaster made an astonished sound behind her and Shizuru glared at him, silencing the young youkai whose ears flipped back flat against his head.
Shizuru turned back to the charred crater eaten out of the cobblestone and dashed out to the focal point of impact. Laying, smoking slowly, fringes of his jacket smoldering Cloud sprawled death-still in the bottom of the indentation, back against the rubble, limbs laying at odd angles. His slender arms, the sleeves burned clear off, had somehow fallen one across his still chest, the other over his head. The tattered jacket splayed beneath his frame like burned blood and between his ash-stained fingers…a single charred feather balanced precariously in his limp hold.
Shizuru skidded to stop at the edge of the crater and stared down at his inert figure, with a strange churning feeling in the pit of her stomach.
Hiei crouched like some dark raptor atop a strangely placed gargoyle along side the road. A slithering of black stripping caught the attention of the two. The headband about his forehead had come undone, whether intentionally or by flaw the black ribbon slid like gravity drawn smoke to the coil on the stone. Hiei lifted a calloused and bandaged right arm to finger the multiple loops of leather about his neck, as if in thought. His twin ruby orbs were closed, but a glitter of lavender light from the centre of his forehead glowed ominously as his demonic third eye slit open and yawned wide.
"Not bad, dark angel. But you'll have to step it up a notch if you want to play war-game with me," Hiei said, voice rough and feral.
"Hiei!" Shizuru shouted. The Jaganshi opened his real eyes and regarded her with boredom. "What's your damage? You just killed one of my godsdamned teammates! What the ,"
"Oh shuttup, Shizuru! The dark angel is just fine," Hiei spat, cutting her off.
"He's not even breathing!" Shizuru bit back.
"He will in a moment. Just give his survival reflexes a second to kick in. If he couldn't handle that, then I wouldn't have allowed him to live."
Shizuru made an aggravated noise and turned her twitching gaze back on Cloud's very corpse-like body. Hiei waited patiently, expectantly. Alaster, looking shaken indeed, trotted around the perimeter of the monstrous pot-hole and joined them. Cloud still hadn't moved from his death pose and Alaster arched a brow at Shizuru and Hiei, who seemed more or less unconcerned.
"I suppose you know why we're here," Shizuru said, eyeing Hiei's luminous third eye.
The Jaganshi smirked. "Of course I do. You need to find a cure for this disease and for that you need Kurama and to get Kurama you think you need me. That's the gist isn't it?"
"We don't need you?" Shizuru said, arching a brow.
"Of course you do, but not to find Kurama. The fox will be arriving in the Makai shortly I'm sure. But it's not a cure we need, it's a vaccine," Hiei replied. Battle on pause, the fire-demon seemed to have lost all interest in his violent and blood-thirsty personification, abandoning it in favor of his former drab and to the point social relations.
He glanced at Shizuru.
"We need someone to kill Karasu," he explained grimly. "Since that was your original plan anyhow, that's where you and your little bunch come in."
"The disease will be alleviated?" Alaster asked sharply.
Hiei stared at the youko a long moment as if seeing something else altogether. "Yoko will take care of it, as will Yuusuke and the others. But your role in this is simply this: Kill Karasu. Nothing else. He is the original host, that much is known on our side. However, things have become more complicated since yesterday. Enma's caught wind of your activity. I can't tell you how."
"Touya," Alaster said with a slight edge of aggravation Thinking back to their last encounter the shinobi certainly erased himself from his Christmas list this year. Demonic disease or not the fact Touya even had a personality like that suppressed within him was disturbing. "Only make sense, he's only out to make mischief and stir trouble now that he's infected. Far as I'm concerned, he's a wild on both sides."
"Possibly, the ice demon might have some resistance yet in him. Shinobi meditation is a powerful thing I've heard."
"You seemed well informed of all this for a wanted murderer on the run," Shizuru said crossly. That fact Hiei even pretended to know more about the ninja bugged the living day-lights out of her. Standing with her knife out, ready to kill Touya had shaken her and hearing that he might actually have had a spark of himself left inside didn't make her feel like Pal of the Year.
In response, Hiei shot her a glare to strip flesh from eye-lids, then after a pause he spoke, slowly and carefully. "You look for trouble. You shoot for scars…brutal, nasty, a hard-ass and a war-bitch. Tell me Shizuru…did it hurt more to hear Cloud hadn't killed Karasu like he promised or that your brother was killed because of it?"
An ugly, heavy beat of silence.
"Stop this, both of you!" Alaster snarled, baring canine fangs at the two. "We have no time for petty disagreements. Hiei, you said things were more complicated. How?"
"As you know, I trained for a time under Mukuro and aided her in the ruling of her territory," began Hiei.
He hopped off the top of the gargoyle and sheathed the katana he hadn't bothered to put away before. Shizuru and Alaster looked at one another with stares of interest, if not trepidation, of the Jaganshi's words. Despite years apart from the team Urameshi they still remained confident in the fire-demon's loyalty to their side or at least to his former teammates enough to aid them in their quest. The taciturn demon flicked his wrist and the weightless length of his headband swam up through the air into his hand. After the display of minor telekinesis, he wrapped it swiftly about his forehead in a practiced gesture.
"In her court, she required that I train with her three most skilled accomplices," he said while knotting the cloth behind his neck. "Her personal assassins, though she never called them so. Shield, Blade and Marionette. She told me once I could defeat each one of them she would give me rule of half her kingdom…and eventually take the burden from her completely."
Alaster started. "You were her heir?"
Hiei looked irate at the interruption. "Yes. It matters little now that I have been exiled. Does it not?"
Alaster had the grace to look apologetic and Hiei cleared his throat and went on.
"Mukuro was assassinated by Enma. Therefore, I'm guilty and to be put to death because no jury in all Spirit World will see me innocent." The venom in Hiei's words hit deeply with his audience, all of whom had just heard a bombshell of an allegation. But the fire-demon as usual, didn't bother to let them absorb the information and continued. "The throne was claimed my Kumuro, a puppet and a pawn set by Enma so that the King of Spirit world would have control of her kingdom and most importantly…her army."
"There's more than one Emperor of the Makai and Mukuro isn't even considered the most powerful of the Emperors," came Shizuru's rebuttal. "Why take her kingdom for its army if it can be defeated?"
"It's never been about strength. It's about infection," Hiei explained, exotic ruby orbs lit with grim humor. "Mukuro's army was the only one set directly between the kingdoms belonging to Yomi and Yuusuke; perfectly positioned to expose the other two territories while the original host spreads it to the rest of the Makai. Karasu infects them and then influences them."
"Sounds familiar…" Shizuru muttered.
"Hey! Cloud's waking up!" Alaster announced suddenly, drawing the attentions of the two back to the fallen immortal.
Sure enough, not fifteen seconds later Cloud jerked violently, spasmed and flung himself up off the pavement with a sucking gasp, jack-knifing into a sitting position. His eyes flung about frantically in search of an unseen aggressor – or the seen aggressor sitting on the gargoyle a couple yards off with sword and spiky hair – his entire body convulsing in jittery waves. He spotted Shizuru seated calmly at the edge of the crater, Hiei behind her and shivered anyway. Then he went into yet another spasm and clutched his…shoulders? The shadowkai hugged himself tightly as quivery shudders ran up and down his frame.
Dark light, like a mist of ebony seemed to boil and bubble from the back of his shoulders. He gasped and clutched his arms in a white-knuckled hold, face contorted, as if fighting to hold back something struggling to claw free of his skin. Power washed over then in a wave so thick, Alaster could actually smell it.
Shizuru, too fast to follow whipped her hand back to the hilt of her weapon. Alaster spotted her motion and thinking her intent to kill, shouted for her to stop. Instead the girl yanked a slip of white paper from the back of her belt and holding tightly between two glowing fingers, filled the parchment with energy then let it fly. It blazed a trail of white light from her finger-tips to her target, while it struck Cloud squarely in the chest, knocking him on his back again.
The darkness burst into nothing, dissipating into thin air as Cloud groaned and rolled to his hands and knees, back to the others. His hand trailed to his chest, fingers playing over the charmed ward she'd stuck to the front of his body. It stopped his energy before he'd lost control.
Shizuru laughed in harsh disbelief.
"You stupid hell-spawned prick," she spat in an acidic tone. Cloud, shivering like a child in a snow-storm, glared up at her, but she went on, kicking a rock down into the pit with him as she did. "You worthless, gutless moron. You're holding your powers in aren't you? You're trying to stop your powers from manifesting so you can stay in control."
The immortal shoved himself to his feet and glared up at her. "I'm in control."
Hiei rolled his eyes. "Those guns may take care of weak demons, but I can dodge your bullets and without your darkness techniques you're simply not fast enough to compete with me. You're holding back your powers for some personal issue I really don't care about. Point is, if you keep doing it, you will die."
"Apparently, we're under attack," Shizuru drawled lazily. "Hiei was explaining while you were sawing logs down there."
Cloud for a moment seemed preoccupied with hiking out of the crater he stood in but then he slitted dangerous red eyes at her. Alaster caught a whiff of something strange, an almost musky scent and wrinkled his nose. He noticed the back of Cloud's jacket seemed to ripple as if blown by some nonexistent wind.
"Umm…yes. What do you know about the ones coming after us?" he asked Hiei.
The Jaganshi bared fangs in that violent and treacherous grin. "Mukuro's three assassins. They were deployed last night to hunt you down. Karasu caught wind of what Touya told you and now they think they can get the drop on you," Hiei replied with an amused kind of look in his eyes. "That's why I attacked you. I had to see if you were strong enough to defeat the assassins…and if what you just gave was your best then you're all dead."
"Comforting Hiei," spat Shizuru.
"Don't worry I have more strength," Cloud said, folding his naked arms across his chest. His gaze flickered momentarily as if he regretting admitting that. "So these assassins…what can they do?"
Hiei, following Cloud, folded his arms across his chest. "Shield and Blade are fraternal twins, trained by elite shinobi since they were born. However, there was simply too much to learn and train into a single individual and the ninjas decided to make them the ultimate fighting team. Shield specializes in defensive technique and energies. Blade in offensive and battle strategy. Marionette…"
The Jaganshi paused.
"I have yet to face Marionette. The only thing I can tell you is he wasn't trained; he was build by as a protector."
Alaster blinked. "Built?"
"Muroku wasn't always as strong as she is now and as an escaped slave powerful demons were always hunting her," he said hopping from the shoulders of the gargoyle. "Marionette is a guardian. Made from a type of living machinery but an order is his will and if Enma is controlling Marionette and has him protecting the host…"
"Then I'll just have to break the guardian," Cloud said suddenly.
Cloud lifted his arm and casually flipped it outward. On cue, a swath of ebony tendrils poured from his back, washed up across his shoulders and coiled down his limbs. Alaster, startled, leapt back from the shadowkai as the inky shapes fluttered and weaved about his upper back like extensions of his body. As his power fluctuated that strange mixture of musk and metallic aroma. Hiei's dark eyes flickered with interest as he eyed the dark angel.
Shizuru sucked a breath. A strange ripping sound like the tear of Velcro and cloth filled the air and twin arcs of black feathers burst from the immortal's shoulder blades. The dim lights of the streets faded into a deeper darkness than even that already present and in the shadows two crimson eyes lit like softly luminous gate of Hades. A presence, like a breath of death whispered down the empty lane and the heavy black angels wings newly formed, flexed and spread out in a quick rustle of feathers.
The blonde planted his hands on his hips in a most uninterested manner as he cast his gaze about his speechless company. He looked to Hiei.
"The shadows have been fighting to get out for sometime now," he growled. "Is that good enough?"
Hiei made a noise akin to 'alrighty then' and turned his back to the three. "That should help, but all of you will have to pitch in if you want to survive Muroku's Three. Head for Yuusuke'a territory. There is a battle amassing there. Shield, Blade and Marionette will most likely try to stop you on the way there. So watch yourselves."
Shizuru watched the Jaganshi's back a moment. "You won't come with us? I thought…of all people you would…"
"It's pointless. It will not bring her back and vengeance…" He stopped, thinking. "I've already had mine. I only ask that you give the Toushin my regards and tell the damned fox to stop robbing Enma. It's growing old."
"Umm…before you go," Shizuru called. The darkly clad fighter turned a somber look on her, impatient. "Can I ask you whatever happened to that Akira faerie? Did you take over her Guild?"
A long silence…then Hiei grinned that strange brutal grin to chill blood in arteries.
"No. I started one of my own and she works under me now. Get lost, Shizuru."
Then he was gone, just like a flicker of shadow and a candle flame he vanished and left them standing alone on that dark street. Cloud cast Shizuru a long, monstrous stare, his glowing eyes like rubies of crystallized blood and fire. Alaster's tail fluffed in nervous reaction to the vicinity of such a creature and the demon-huntress ran her fingers along the hilt of her long blade. She knew they had little time left to waste; they had to get to Yuusuke's kingdom before everything came down around them.
She ran her fingers through her haphazard locks and moved back the way they'd come. She paused only to glare at Cloud who hadn't stopped staring at her for the last couple minutes, his garnet eyes wide and freakish in the dark. In them she felt the thoughts flashing and leaping out at her from the depth of his mind, running behind his eyes. For an instant she thought about blocking his mental feedback, but then decided to listen in.
He stared, she listened, she heard:
Are you happy, Shizuru? I'm the monster you see me as in flesh. Are you happy now?
"Put your damn shades on, angel-boy. I don't want those eyes on me." Her voice came out harsh and bitter. "C'mon guys, we have a long way to go."
Out the back way…
Author's Note: Just wanted to add a little note here. This fic is a continuation of another fic called NIGHTMARES OLD OATHS. This is not the continuation of Ice Dreams of Fire. Someone got those a bit mixed up. None of that now. I haven't even started a sequel to Ice Dreams yet so hang on. Until then I hope you enjoyed this chapter. It had a couple moments I liked, but over all I think my last chapter was far better. Hope you had a good read anyway. Later!