Staring silently at the twilight sky, Karasu flicked strands of his coal black hair out of his face, his stony eyes glinting with intrigue. Just a moment ago he'd sensed Kurama's energy skyrocket, but now it was barely noticeable—interesting.
"I'm sure you sensed it, my pet." Karasu spoke softly, turning to gaze at the fire demon lying as still as a rock on the floor of the dimly lit room. "Your fox is weak--Too weak to live long. Heh." Karasu stepped toward Hiei, noticing the soft tremble of Hiei's lips, the shiver of the fire-demon's body, bare and illuminated in the moonlight from the window.
'Kurama, no….' Hiei whispered in his head, desperately wishing that he had mistaken that aura signal, but Karasu sensed it as well, Kurama was dying. Right when he needed him the most, Kurama wasn't here with Hiei—but it was only because the fox couldn't get to him, Hiei realized, but that thought only distressed him more. Kurama was deathly ill and Hiei could do nothing about it. The fire-demon's thoughts cried out to Kurama, while his body remained numb, ravaged by Karasu's torture.
"Are you listening? I said your fox is dying, and it's all because of you. You failed to stop him from becoming that human Hinansho's lover." Karasu whispered, kneeling down next to Hiei, running his nails along the fire-demon's bare back covered in sweat and blood—Karasu loved digging his nails and teeth into his victims' flesh the resulting quiver of pain and fear enticed his lust. Feeling Hiei's limp body, Karasu stood up, bored with his pet—he preferred torturing those who struggled; those who lost the will to fight he detested.
"Only three days, I thought you of all people would last longer—I must've been mistaken." Karasu sneered, his face pointed toward the open window, though he noticed Hiei's flinch out of the corner of his eye. Karasu grinned, knowing how to get the fire-demon fired up. "Only around two weeks ago I had a C-class demon who lasted a week with me, he went out fighting to the last breath." Karasu laughed noticing how Hiei shuddered in anger and wounded pride, though the fire-demon stood lying on the floor. "I wonder how long you fox would last with me now, couldn't be more than two hours with how weak he is."
"You bastard! You wouldn't be able to last half an hour with the fox—his Youko side would be just as cruel as…." Hiei shouted, growling out his anguish, standing on his feet until he realized his error—he had fallen into Karasu's trap, again.
"Hah hah, I knew there was fight left in you. Now let's put that energy to good use." Karasu jumped to Hiei's side in one bound, grabbing the fire-demon before he could resume lying still on the floor. The sadist demon's hands explored every inch of the fire-demon's body, for the twentieth time this day, enjoying the trembling shin as Hiei struggled to control his mounting fear, knowing what was coming and what he had to endure.
It was as Karasu prepared to enter Hiei when the energy signal caught their attention—Kurama's aura had diminished again, this time to a level lower than the weakest human.
"No, Kurama!" Hiei shouted, recklessly pushing Karasu away from him, oblivious to the other demon's angered and bewildered expression. Rushing to the window, Hiei struggled to make his body mover—Karasu desperately held his control over the fire-demon's body through his mark on Hiei's shoulder. "No, let me go!" Hiei roared, ripping at the mark on his shoulder with his nails, desperate to get away from Karasu and to his fox. "Kurama needs me! Let me go or I'll kill you!" Blood spilled from Hiei's shoulder as his nails punctured his flesh—then he used his fire-demon powers to burn his flesh, hoping that he could get rid of the mark that way.
"Stop that." Karasu finally found his voice, the shock of seeing the fire-demon so enraged had dumbfounded him for a moment, but he rushed up to Hiei once he realized what was happening. "NO! Stop that! Stop!"
Hiei roared, flames engulfing his entire right arm—the mark burned and torn off of his shoulder. Karasu's control over Hiei's body diminished completely—the mark was destroyed and so was the spell. Hiei was free.
"Yes. I'm…." Hiei grinned then gasped, shock, fear, and sickened horror striking him—Kurama's aura was gone—not a trace remained. "No…NO!" Numbness spread throughout the fire-demon's body, encasing him in silent despair—Kurama was dead—dead! "No…I'm too late…no…." Hiei fell to his knees, his demon heart devastated and broken, tears falling silently down his cheeks and onto the floor, mingling with the blood already on the floor from Hiei's torn up arm.
Silent gasps for breath were the fire-demon's sobs, tears, mingled with sweat and blood, cascaded out of his red eyes—heartbreaking blank eyes of devastation and despair. No longer would he see or hear his fox again, never again would he have the chance to say to Kurama what he needed to say but hadn't the courage to.
"Fox…no…." Hiei muttered, shuddering at the thought of never being able to experience Kurama's gently soft caress or the feel of a sweet touch of tender lips on his flesh again. "Kurama!" Hiei shouted, utter despair in his tone until his voice broke, his throat sore from the overextending of his vocal cords. His voice broken, gone, Hiei stared at the floor distraught and numb.
"Heh, looks like the fox is a dead bitch now." Karasu sneered, chuckling as he watched Hiei despair, enjoying the pain and anguish in the fire-demon's eyes.
"…." Hiei silently snarled, no sound escaping his lips except a raspy, muffled cry, glaring at Karasu with hatred worse than the deepest hell, shining in his fiery red, cold eyes. Lunging at the laughing Karasu, Hiei sent a fiery set of black flames—his Dragon of the Darkness Flame attack—at the sadistic demon who had kept him away when his fox needed him the most.
Karasu barely dodged that attack but failed to dodge Hiei's next strike—the fire-demon lunged at Karasu, ramming his fist into the bastard's neck, shattering the spinal cord, the shards poking through Karasu's jugular. Blood splattered onto the floor and Hiei from Karasu's shredded neck, the sadist demon's life fading rapidly with each gush of blood.
Covered in Karasu's blood, Hiei stood there until Karasu's aura faded completely, silent in anger, delighting in every moment of torture Karasu went through until death consumed the bastard.
Meanwhile, at the city hospital where Kurama's body lay, a blanket of silent mourning saturated the air—tears were in everyone's eyes and sobs in their throats. Kurama was dead, that strange illness of the curse wrenched his life from him, taking him away from his loved ones.
Shiori sat by the bed, tears streaming down her face, her hand still holding her son's, trembling.
"Shuuichi…." She sobbed, cheeks wet with tears, throat sore from crying—her son, her first born son was dead. "No…." Shiori covered her face with her hands, not wanting to believe it was Shuuichi, refusing to move her hands even when her husband, Shuuichi's stepfather, came to comfort her, holding her in his arms.
In the corner of the room, Karai held Hinansho to his chest, trying to comfort the distraught boy, but Hinansho seemed to not notice anyone in the room, his attention focused on his thoughts.
"No…Shuui-chan…." Hinansho cried in his head, despair whelming throughout every inch of his body. Memories of the week he'd been Kurama's boyfriend flashed through his thoughts—and then memories of a different time pushed their way to the forefront of his mind—memories of a time before he became the human boy Hinansho. Lost in memories only he could view, Hinansho whimpered, tears falling from his eyes as a teardrop-shaped pendant on a string fell from his hands. More tears streamed down his face staring at that dark hued pendant shining red in the light—if only he had shone Kurama that pendant, then the fox-demon would've known who he truly was.
"Hinansho…." Karai began, holding the boy closer to him, but was cut off by Hinansho's harsh whisper.
"Karai…I want you to revive me back into my real body, so I can tract down and kill the son of a bitch who did this to Kurama."
"That won't be necessary."
"Why not?"
"Because Karasu's already dead." Karai replied staring ahead of him at the doorway, studying the figure in the doorway.
"What…who?" Hinansho turned to look where Karai was staring at.
There in the doorway, spiky black hair, red colored eyes glinting with fire, stood Hiei, wearing his torn, black cape and pants, hiding his bruises and cuts under the cloth.
Hiei glared intently at the two huddled in the corner, and unreadable expression on his face, but his attention lingered on them only a moment before turning to the lifeless Kurama lying on the hospital bed. Seeing his fox lying so peaceful looking on the bed, Hiei trembled, stepping to the unoccupied side of the bed touching Kurama's right hand with his left—the heat was already fading from the fox-demon's body. Trembling, the fire-demon fell to his knees, his mouth moving to form words, but no sound escaped Hiei's throat, and, though he was filled with sadness, no more tears fell from his eyes. His sadness was such that he was beyond tears, beyond any expression of the melancholy eating away at his demonic heart.