Fugitive of Darkness
Chapter 4: Round Two and the Second Team
by Rain Darkwood
Disclaimer: I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho.
Yusuke was the first to wake up that morning, or so he thought. He glanced blearily around the room, observing the various places his friends had found to sleep in. Kurama must have fallen asleep shortly after Yusuke, as he got a good spot on the comfortable sofa. Kayko had fallen asleep next to Yusuke, and he felt a pang of happiness at her loyalty to him. Kuwabara was harder to spot; he had somehow managed to get into the closet, and during the course of the night several garments had fallen on top of him. Botan had apparently stayed the night, and had fallen asleep still sitting at the table.
Look at that, I woke up before Botan! Yusuke thought. Maybe I should stand over her and surprise HER for once...
Before he could do anything of the sort however, he spotted Hiei. Hiei was sitting upright under the window, his head resting on his arms, which were folded over his knees. Yusuke watched him for a moment, wondering just how vigilant Hiei could possibly be. It was an odd sight to see the consummate hunter asleep. Yusuke began to reach out an wave his hand in front of Hiei. But before he could, a voice spoke softly.
"What are you looking at?" Hiei wasn't asleep after all. His head rose, and Yusuke thought for a split second that he could detect the smallest ghost of a smile on Hiei's face.
"Just wondering if you were actually asleep. But then again I suppose you don't sleep, do you?"
"Don't be a fool, Yusuke. Of course I sleep. Nobody has ever seen the act performed, however." Hiei was in his usual cryptic mood.
Yusuke thought about responding to this, but instead simply stood up and made his way into the kitchen.
In his absence, Hiei looked around the room in observance of it's occupants. Within seconds, Yusuke's voice called out urgently.
"Hiei! You'd better get in here and look at this!" At the sound of his loud voice, Kuwabara snorted loudly and awoke, struggling helplessly in the cocoon of clothes that had wrapped around him as he tossed and turned in the night. Hiei ignored the fool and rushed into the kitchen.
On the counter, spelled humorously in cheerios, was the phrase "Sarayashiki Junior High Parking Lot - Noon". Hiei grunted.
"Noon..."
Yusuke chuckled quietly. "Well, it's like a spaghetti western, isn't it? They're lucky it's a Saturday... Nobody will be there."
Hiei turned away and replied monotonously. "Or perhaps they wouldn't care either way."
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Noon came quickly, it seemed. Hiei was secretly grateful to find that all of them would accompany him to the parking lot. He did not feel they would be so necessary, he simply found himself feeling surprisingly gratified. As they walked down the street, Yusuke seemed to become overflowing with anticipation.
"I can't wait to meet up with them again... I don't know who you want, but I've got Kazunori. That little punk bugs me."
Hiei replied in his usual, monotone voice. "Hopefully you aren't foolish enough to think they'll be waiting for us there. Don't go looking behind you, but they've been following us ever since we left the house."
Kuwabara, naturally, looked behind him. "I don't see 'em..."
"I didn't mean they were walking. They are professional stalkers... they'll be in the trees or on the rooftops, always a step ahead of our eyes. No matter how fast you look from place to place, they'll move faster."
Kuwabara did not reply, but instead looked lost in thought.
As they entered the parking lot of Sarayashiki Junior High, The two hunters appeared, seemingly out of thin air, several meters ahead of them. The parking lot was completely empty, except for one car, which was relatively close to where Koji and Kazunori stood. Before Yusuke could speak, Hiei stepped forward and pushed Yusuke back gently.
"You don't need to help, at least not yet."
Koji spoke up immediately. "How honorable! Coming all the way down here and then refusing the help of your friends! What was it all for then, Hiei?"
Hiei stayed silent for a moment. "I cannot allow you to take the artifact back to Damian. If I should fail to defend myself against your attack, I must at least pass it on to the Spirit Detective."
Yusuke spoke. "If you should fail to defend yourself, I'll already be all over these guys before you hit the ground! Nevermind any artifacts!"
Koji laughed quietly, but Kazunori remained emotionless, staring at Yusuke. Koji replied. "Your decision is honorable, possessor of the Jagan. Oh yes," he added, as looks of surprise dawned on the faces of Kurama and Yusuke. "You cannot imagine my skill at watching prey. I know more about Hiei than Hiei knows about himself." He paced back and forth, thinking. "...Fine. If you'll defend yourself alone, only one of us shall attack you. After all, had we known you'd do this we wouldn't have both needed to come." He started to roll up his sleeves, but Kazunori held out a hand, gesturing for him to stop.
Kazunori stepped forward. "I will face you," He said simply, adjusting a few small switches on his gun arm. It was a fitting match. Both were notoriously silent and short-tempered, and both seemed to speak constantly in one tone. In was a battle match made in heaven.
Hiei's hand slowly moved to the handle of his katana, and he stood in position to attack. At the same time, Kazunori's gun arm stood nearly aimed, and he stared at Hiei. Within a blink of an eye, both disappeared, dashing with blinding speed toward one another. As Hiei slashed his sword relentlessly, Kazunori blocked every blow, somehow finding time to aim bursts of gunfire at Hiei.
Yusuke noticed immediately that the bullets, which were missing Hiei as he dodged, were not tearing holes in the brick walls or the ground. Koji seemed to read his mind. "Spirit Bullets. Like barely smaller versions of your spirit gun bullets, each contains a small amount of Kazunori's immense spirit energy. They fire so rapidly that being hit with only one, though devastating enough, is impossible. Your friend is very lucky to be able to dodge so many - but he will likely not last long."
This was shocking news. Yusuke turned back to the fight, watching closely. Kazunori seemed to be driving Hiei back, as Hiei was devoting himself entirely to dodging the bullets or blocking them with his sword. Kazunori remained grim looking, his facial expression unchanged. "You cannot last forever," He said calmly, now walking toward Hiei as he fired away. Hiei was straining himelf, it was obvious. Finally, with a groan of frustration-turned-pain, Hiei miscalculated a dodge and was struck with a bullet. He recoiled in pain, as another stream of bullets collided with his chest.
Yusuke jumped in shock. "Hiei!"
Hiei fell to the ground as Kazunori stopped firing, his body smoking slightly. He struggled to get up, and Kazunori laughed; a cold, derisive sound. But as yusuke watched, Hiei's writhing form disappeared. Kazunori saw this with only a split second to react. He held up his gun arm defensively, just as Hiei's katana smashed into it, and Hiei fell full force against him. Kazunori had no time to reverse the onslaught, struggling to block every slashing blow from Hiei's sword. Kazunori finally gave a heaving block with his gun arm, blocking Hiei's blow but failing to see the next one. Hiei slashed at his midsection too fast for Kazunori to see, and a bloody gash was left across his stomach. Hiei stopped his onslaught and stood, watching for Kazunori's reaction. Kazunori stood frozen, his mouth still closed tightly as he looked at his own bleeding stomach. He looked up at Hiei with an expression of pure loathing.
Yusuke couldn't believe it. Before he could cheer out for Hiei, however, a peculiar, crackling sound filled the air. Kazunori was lifted above the ground, still clutching his stomach in pain. Yusuke looked toward Koji, and saw quickly what had happened. Koji was raising his hand carelessly, apparently levitating Kazunori. As Yusuke watched, Kazunori's wound slowly shrunk, and then disappeared. he was as good as new again.
Hiei looked completely taken aback as Kazunori landed smartly on the asphalt again. Kazunori examined his healed midsection, and then looked back up at Hiei. The old expressionless look was back again.
"You've been lucky for today. To heal completely, I'll need another day. We shall have to finish this tomorrow... if necessary." He turned his back on Hiei and walked back to where Koji stood waiting. Hiei remained where he stood, watching. Koji spoke up as Kazunori joined him.
"The teachers that work at this school, they are regarded as authority figures who govern the children of the community, is that correct?"
Yusuke was confused. "Yeah, I guess so. Why?"
Koji smiled. "You'd better get home quickly then, before one of you is blamed for what happened to that teacher's vehicle."
Yusuke looked over at the only car in the parking lot, which was next to Kazunori and appeared to be fine. "What?"
As he said this, Kazunori reared back with his gun arm and struck the car. Instantly, the entire back end of the car was crushed into a flattened pancake of metal, pushed with force against the ground, and then bouncing back up again with a screech of twisted metal. Koji and Kazunori disappeared.
Yusuke jumped. "Go!"
They all turned fast and ran from the parking lot, Yusuke at the lead and laughing uncontrollably; of the entire group, only he knew what teacher owned that car. In the distance of the parking lot behind them, Mr. Iwamoto's voice cried out, "MY CAR!"
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Kazunori nursed his wounds on the rooftop, strapping gauze carefully around the wound on his chest, which remained, but was no longer serious. Koji, meanwhile, answered the messenger as it beeped.
"Hello, Damian."
"So is it done, Koji?"
"I'm afraid we've come to a bit of a problem. It is not yet complete." Damian seethed on the other end.
"You... this... betrayal... you've failed... no choice... I'll...!"
"Sir, perhaps you should sit down."
"I AM SITTING!" Koji winced.
"Perhaps you do not understand the difficulty of the mission, Damian, sir. Hiei is not easy to capture."
"You did it once, and now you can't do it again?"
"There is a small difference when the prey is aware it is being stalked, sir. Hiei is very cautious normally, now his cautiousness has doubled."
"WELL, IVE HAD IT WITH YOUR EXCUSES! I'M SENDING IN RUBY AND DOYLE, AND THEY'LL BE STALKING YOU TOO! GOODBYE, YOU WORTHLESS TOOL!"
With that, the messenger clicked and the transmission ended. Koji blinked and put it away.
Although Kazunori had surely been listening, he asked anyway. "Who was it?"
"The pizza guy, he can't find our place."
"Smartass. So Damian's had it, huh? Doesn't matter, I never really considere dus employees of him anyway... He's a bit posessive, and we're more like contactors, wouldn't you agree?"
"Quite. Well, I suppose we'd better keep an eye out for ourselves. No point continuing our hunt for the youkai."
"Well, this situation has become more than a little strange, has it not? Here we came to this ugly place to hunt prey, and now we are forced to remain here defensively, becoming prey ourselves."
"I don't think it is so bad."
Kazunori laughed. "The situation?"
"No, the place. Earth is not so bad. It is... complex, to say the least. Just what I mean by that, I don't know." Kazunori was silent, but Koji knew that he was watching him. They did not speak again for several minutes. Finally Kazunori spoke quietly.
"It isn't so bad. Perhaps there are just too many rules, however."
End of Chapter 4 - Read and Review!