I would throw out my usual commentary, but I'm shot for time and really need to get going, so here's the chapter, there's a few interesting twists in there, let me know what you think, won't you? Later.
Hiei tossed and turned in his bed. The person on the other side of the wall was crying again. He groaned- before the crying it had been arguing and door-slamming. To whom the voices belonged, he didn't know, but he was quite sure the name 'Suichi' came up at least once.
Perhaps he would ask the Yoko if there was another hostage in the house. The past few days he'd noticed a change in the gangster's conduct: he was behaving nicer. He brought Hiei a sandwich from a restaurant, let him take a shower, disregarded the open-door bathroom policy imposed upon the billionaire, and even gave him back his pants. Hiei was still locked up in his room, tethered to his bed, but all things considered he didn't feel half-bad.
The crying next door began to die down, and soon he couldn't hear it at all. Hiei managed to doze off for a while, when a commotion in the hall snapped him from his partial slumber. 'What the-?' He widened his eyes when he heard a girl yell. 'Damn it, not again.'
But no other screams, no agonized cries, no shrieks of death, followed the first. He furrowed his brow. What was going on?
For several hours more he lay in darkness, border lining the realms of conscious and sleep. Then the door opened and a short figure entered. "Hello," a woman said.
Hiei snapped wide awake; he knew that voice. "Well," he said softly. "We meet again. You're not going to shoot me, are you?"
"Only if Sakyo or Kurama tell me to," she replied. "Is it always this dark in here?" She walked to a window and tore down the blankets nailed over it. "That's better!" she exclaimed, while Hiei squinted repeatedly. It was sunrise, and this window received a direct glare from the morning sun. He shifted, craning his neck in an effort to soother his eyes, glowering at the woman. Suddenly he noticed her appearance- the short stature, fair skin, her hair-color, her eyes…
She caught him staring at her intently. "What?" she demanded.
"Nothing," he said quietly. "Except…you're a Koorime."
"And you're a genius," she countered sarcastically.
"You're a little far from home, aren't you?"
"What, just because I'm a Koorime means I have to spend my life in the middle of nowhere, in the cold, working in the Hiruseki business. We're not all your dogs, Mr. Jaganshi."
Hiei remained passive. "I know what life's like up there, you know."
"Do you now?" she sneered. "It was all a big fairy-tale for you, but when you left you changed nothing for the rest of us!"
"What?"
"Conditions are all the same as they were before!" she snarled. "It's still the same, isolated hell it always was- no one comes in; no one comes out. People are born, live, and die in there; there's no escape!"
He listened patiently. "Is the population problem still the same?"
"Yes! There are so many girls now, some are even being sold off-" she broke off, clenching her fists angrily.
"Is that how you ended up here?" Hiei asked.
"Partially. This is why when Sakyo asked me to, I gladly accepted the task of assassinating you."
"But you missed," he mused, ducking as she pelted a balled-up blanket at him.
"Now, now, my dear," Sakyo said, standing in the doorway. "No damaging him too much, yet."
She threw Hiei a murderous look, and then stalked out of the room. "So, she's your goon, not the Yoko's?"
"Of course. She's far more refined than most of Kurama's Youkai."
"Why are you here? I'm not signing anything."
"You will," Sakyo said casually. "Once we have your partner."
"That's what you said last time. What, some old blind guy's too much for you?" Sakyo's arrogant expression disappeared, replaced with a steely glare. "Uh-huh." Hiei smirked. "That's what I thought." He wasn't too worried about his business partner; Yomi could take care of himself well enough. "Why are you here, then, if it's not for my signature?"
"Just because I'm here is has to be about you? Aren't you conceited? I'm here because the ones who witnessed your abduction have in turn been abducted themselves."
Hiei remembered the disruption from earlier. "Where are they now?"
"I don't know; Kurama hasn't shown me yet."
"So impatient." Hiei recognized the Yoko's voice. "I'm right about to, Sakyo. If you'll follow me?"
"Good day, Mr. Jaganshi." Sakyo waited for Kurama to lock the door.
"Remind me to install a deadbolt on this," he muttered. "If she managed to pick it…"
"Your home is beginning to fall apart," Sakyo pointed out. "Perhaps you should make some renovations?"
"No; it's fine as it is. Follow me." Kurama led the other man down into the cellar. This time there were three chairs accommodating three bound and gagged persons: two boys and a girl. "May I present to you our witnesses?"
Sakyo blinked. "You're sure? That one looks like one of yours." He pointed to the girl. Kurama smiled, partially amused.
"I assure you, I'm quite positive."
One of the boys, the tall one with curly, carrot-colored hair, said something, muffled by his gag. "What was that?" Sakyo asked.
"I don't know." Kurama loosened the boy's gag. "Care to repeat that?"
The carrot-top barely gave Kurama time to complete his sentence. "Hey Urameshi, isn't this the whore who threw herself at you in the police station? Ow!"Kurama had punched him in the face. "What the!"
"Mind your tongue!" the redhead snarled.
"Ow, damn it. Keiko, she hits harder than you."
The girl, presumably Keiko, muttered something in reply; it sounded malicious. "May I?"
"Knock yourself out, Sakyo." The businessman removed Keiko's gag.
"Kuwabara, you moron," she growled at her companion. "He's not a girl."
"What!" Kuwabara exclaimed. He examined Kurama carefully. "Are you sure?"
The conversation quickly annoyed Kurama. "Shall I prove it to you?" he asked frostily, hand migrating to the zipper of his skirt.
"No!" Kuwabara practically screamed. "Uh, no. I believe you. Please don't rape me."
Kurama raised his eyebrows, chortling. "Your friend's right; you are a moron."
"Hey! I-"
"Shut up." He leaned against the wall, watching the three new hostages. "I'll tell you this: if you're quiet and do exactly as told, you might- just might- have a chance of getting out of this with your life. If not, well…" Kurama shrugged, the expression upon his face sinister.
"Oh, puh-leaze," Kuwabara said. "You're probably just another Youkai-wannabe like Keiko here- you wouldn't have a chance if you went up against a real criminal like the Yoko or someone- why are you laughing?"
The redhead held a hand over his mouth, shaking his head. "You children really have no idea what you've gotten into. I am the Youkai; I am the Yoko."
The three blinked, and then Kuwabara began to laugh. "No, you can't be the Yoko." Kurama gave him a look, mutely daring him to continue. "I mean, come on, the Yoko's like a legend, a criminal mastermind. Everyone's scared of the Yoko. But you, you're…" he trailed off.
"A what? I'm a what?" Kuwabara didn't say anything. "Finish what you began," he growled. "I'm a what?"
"Well, come on; you wear girl's clothes, for crying out loud."
Both Sakyo and Kurama began to laugh. "Oh, my dear little imbecile, you really must learn not to judge others by their appearances. Believe me, I am the Yoko- or do I need to show you?" He carelessly slipped a knife out of his boot, flipped it open, and ran a finger over the serrated edge. "Well then," he continued. "Which of you shall I demonstrate on first?" Kuwabara paled slightly.
"What does the Yoko want with three kids?" Keiko asked, completely unaffected by the presence of the blade.
He rolled his eyes and heaved an annoyed sigh. "Sakyo," he said as he lit up a cigarette. "I don't know why we were so worried; I doubt the cops managed to extract any incriminating information from these apes."
"Hey! Who're you calling an ape?" Kuwabara demanded.
"You, ape," Kurama replied coolly, blowing cigarette smoke in his face.
"Why should I be scared of you? You gonna try to give me lung cancer or something?"
"I don't think they're taking this seriously, Kurama," Sakyo said.
"No, really?"
"So, uhm, when do we get out to of here?" Kuwabara asked.
"Oh my gods," Kurama groaned. "Were you dropped on your head?" He turned and began to walk away.
"Hey, you didn't answer-"
"Listen to me," Kurama interrupted. "With what you've already witnessed, and now that you've seen us, I believe that the possibility of you returning to your homes is doubtful."
"What!" Kurama didn't answer him. He and Sakyo scaled the stairs, leaving the three kids alone to digest what just transpired.
"Well," Keiko muttered. "This sucks. I'm stuck in a basement- with you two- and it smells in here. Think maybe there's a dead body somewhere in here?"
"Keiko," Yusuke said, having worked his gag loose with some effort. "That guy-"
"Or whatever the hell it was," Kuwabara muttered.
"-just said that we won't be leaving here, and you're complaining about how it smells? Do you really think he'll just keep us down here forever? Remember what they say? Nobody meets the Yoko and lives to talk about it."
"Come on, Urameshi, just because that tranny claims to be the Yoko doesn't mean that it's true," argued Kuwabara.
"Yeah?" Yusuke said in a strangely quiet voice. "Then what the hell's that?"
"Oh wow," the carrot-top snickered. "Hey Keiko, Urameshi actually swore, kind of." No one replied. "Keiko?" He looked over. The brunette was staring in the same direction as Yusuke, an odd look on her face. Kuwabara furrowed his brow and followed their gaze…
In the corner, under a stack of boards, lay a half-exposed woman. Or, more accurately, pieces of her- covered in dried, caked blood, buzzing with breeding insects. The expression on the woman's face was one of twisted pain, of utter terror, or pure agony.
"Hm, do you think they've realized exactly what situation they're now in?" Sakyo asked as they heard a loud shriek rise up from the basements.
"Took them long enough," Kurama scoffed. "How are the attempts on Mr. Jaganshi's partner going?"
Sakyo donned a sour expression. "Don't ask."
Suddenly someone upstairs yelled, attracting their attention. "What the-?" Karasu came down the stairs at a swift pace. "What's going on?" he demanded. Karasu merely shoved him aside and went out the front door. "Son of a bitch," Kurama growled.
"What was that about?" Sakyo inquired.
"I don't know." Kurama ran upstairs, and growled upon discovering the door to Hiei's room wide open. 'It'd better not be that Koorime again,' he thought angrily, making a note to procure that deadbolt as soon as possible. He stepped inside the room, and then stared, utterly enraged.
Hiei sat cross-legged on the bed- cool and collected as ever- his clothing torn and hanging off his frame. "Your lover, or whatever Karasu is to you, really needs to learn to keep his hands to himself," he told the Yoko, blood dripping from his teeth.