Chapter 19: Alliance
The sounds of death rented through the air. The scent of earth, blood and decay suffocated the area in a noxious blanket. Darkness, death and earth, those were the only things that surrounded her when she awoke. Botan sat up from the moist, black earth; remnants of debris still clinging to her blue hair. She wiped the remaining sleep from her plum hued eyes and looked around her. "Where the hell am I?" she asked out loud. Nothing was familiar and nothing in her memory could give her a valid excuse as to why she was here. The only thing that she could remember was a boomerang engulfed in red flames coming towards her, and then darkness.
She got up a little shakily. She knew that Yusuke and the others would be somewhere near. She had to find them. Weakly, she pushed through the vine covered jungle, trying to find anything that was familiar. It didn't take her long; the sounds of battle cried through the air as she entered into a familiar setting; her previous whereabouts before her date with the fiery boomerang from hell. There, in the middle of the clearing were Kurama and Yusuke dooking it out with a huge mountain of a man, who she could only assume was Gedon. She looked around the area to take sight of a certain fire demon, but she could not find him, 'that's strange,' she thought. Suddenly a voice boomed through the air, "BOTAN! GET DOWN!"
:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:- about ten minutes earlier-:-:-:-:-:-:-
The huge man leapt from off of the boulder and crashed into the ground. He stood tall, towering over both Yusuke and Kurama and rolled his giant shoulders back, relieving them of tension, "So," he said in the midst of his massage, "which one of you kids wants ta go first?"
Kurama inched a little closer to Yusuke, "It will be prudent if we take him together; we don't know exactly how powerful he is yet and since he is a master of earth, he practically has us surrounded. Be on guard at all times."
"Well yeah Kurama, this isn't exactly recess," Yusuke said. He walked slowly towards Gedon, "Evening, Mr. Dragon, the name's Yusuke and the red head over there is Kurama; though I'm sure you've already heard of us."
"Yeah, so,"
"Well, I always thought that it's a nice thing to tell a dead man walking his executioners' name before he's six feet under; know what I'm saying?"
Gedon chuckled slightly, "Hmph, in that case, the name's Gedon, but I'm sure that you's all already knew that didn't ya?"
Yusuke nodded his head a fraction and then looked into Gedon's golden orbs, "Well, now that that's settled," without warning Yusuke launched himself towards Gedon, "I'd like to introduce you to my fist!" Yusuke slammed his fist into Gedon's solar plexus. The move did not have the desired affect he thought it would; instead of crushing the dragon keeper's abdomen as planned, Yusuke, instead, had his fist crushed by his own attack. He jumped back immediately cradling his now swollen hand, "Dammit!" he cursed softly.
"Geez, I guess that you all weren't informed by your superiors that dragons of the Earth and metallic dragons have the hardest scales in all four worlds. Nothing can crack through them. And with that little bit of knowledge, I can assume that your hand must sting like hell,"
Kurama, who had been analyzing the situation reached into his hair and pulled out a seed. He transferred his energy into the seed and sprouted his trusty rose whip. Swiftly, he sprinted towards Gedon, who had caught sight of him while he materialized his rose whip, and raised his weapon to attack. Suddenly, Gedon threw back his hand and formed a fist. A golden aura surrounded his body. Just as Kurama came abreast of him, he slammed his fist down towards him, intending to crush the kitsune's skull; however, he was met with nothing but air. Kurama had disappeared just before Gedon's fist made contact.
In a move quicker than lightening, Kurama lashed his rose whip from behind Gedon towards the dragon of the earth's neck. Without pause, he yanked downward on the whip, immobilizing the massive warrior.
"Yusuke! Now!" Kurama called out, giving his comrade his cue to unleash a barrage of attacks on their foe. In a flash, Yusuke leapt up from his defeated position on the ground and lunged towards Gedon; his fists glowing in anticipation and with repressed reiki.
"Alright asshole! It's time for round two!" Without delay, Yusuke jumped onto the restrained Gedon's chest, which caused the dragon keeper to topple down to the earth. While on top of the subdued Gedon, Yusuke smashed his fists continually into his solar plexus causing no small amount of blood to gush from his mouth. The area of Gedon's torso that Yusuke had been tirelessly beating was becoming bruised and bloody, making the surface softer for Yusuke's fists to pummel.
With his punching fest running to a close, Yusuke pulled his right fist back into his waist and began building up his reiki, "it's time we finished this," he said as the helpless Gedon watched the blinding blue light form around Yusuke's fist. In a matter of moments the said fist descended downward to Gedon's already mutilated torso, "SHOT GUN!" Yusuke yelled as his empowered fist crashed into the bloody surface which was once Gedon's beautifully sculpted abdomen.
The energy of the shotgun coursed through Gedon's chest and upper body causing even more mutilation than Yusuke's previous attack.
When Yusuke's energy dissipated, he jumped away from Gedon's defeated corpse. He was joined, shortly, by Kurama. The kitsune had un-grown his rose whip back into its original form, the rose, and held it casually in his right hand. Kurama stopped his pursuit towards Yusuke and twirled the rose leisurely between his fingers, "You know Yusuke, you could have made your point by simply shooting him in the mouth with your spirit gun. I had no idea that you could be so brutal," he said mischievously.
Yusuke snickered light heartedly, "yeah yeah, brutal my ass, that jerk off had it coming," Yusuke's eyes rose in thought, then, a devilish smile crept across his features, "no pun intended,"
Kurama merely shook his head at his friend's antics he couldn't help the tiniest of smirks to sprout out from that comment, "Only you, Yusuke, would think of such innuendo at a time like this." Kurama looked down at the young spirit detective's hands and noticed the poor shape they were in. They were swollen and bloody and definitely needed some type of medical attention.
As if noticing his friend's unspoken concern, Yusuke lifted his broken fists towards the kitsune, "Yo, Kurama, can you do something about this?"
"Gladly," he said as he proceeded in the healing process. It took less than thirty seconds for Yusuke's battered fists to be fully restored to their original healthy selves.
Upon the completion of the healing process, Yusuke tested his hands by opening and closing his fists until he was content with the results, "well, aren't you just a freakin' hospital on legs." He balled up his fists in anticipation, "Now that that's done, let's go find shorty and kick some more dragon ass!"
The two were about to walk off when, all of a sudden the ground beneath them began to tremble, "Well that's not a happy sound," said Yusuke. They began to look around the area, trying to figure out the source of the quaking.
They didn't have to wait long.
In a blast of rock and rubble, the earth beneath them blew up into the air causing the duo to be blasted upward, about twenty feet in the air, "What the HELL was that!" Yusuke yelled over the loud rumbling that filled the air.
The two landed on the ground unscathed, but, surprised at the vision that lay before them. It was Gedon, well in a manner of speaking, it was he. It was more like the earth had taken on the silhouette of his body. He had truly become one with the earth.
The clay formation of their opponent began to walk slowly towards them. With each step taken by the earthen warrior, his body's semblance to dirt and rubble began to fade and take on the appearance of actual skin.
Once his body had taken its original form he ceased his pursuit and stood about three meters away from Yusuke and Kurama. "Nice attack kid, but you need to do a lot more to even scratch me," Gedon said.
"But how?" Kurama asked, "You were defeated,"
Gedon chuckled sinisterly, "I'm one with the earth, red. It replenishes and heals me when I am hurt. So you see, when Urameshi over there pounded me into the dirt he was only helping me out; putting me back into my element so that it could heal me, ya dig?"
"It can't be," Kurama said silently.
"What the hell are you two talking about? Why the hell isn't he dead Kurama!" yelled Yusuke impatiently.
Kurama stole a glance towards Yusuke before returning his gaze back to Gedon, "The earth Yusuke; it heals him, as long as he is in contact with the earth we cannot defeat him. He is truly impervious."
"WHAT!"
"That's right kid, in order to destroy me, you have to destroy the whole fuckin' planet, because as long as there's a earth, I'm freakin invincible." Gedon flexed the muscles in his chest and his arms and came down into a wide straddling stance, "RRRAAARGH! SHOWER OF DESTRUCTION!" Gedon roared as his entire body began emanating and pouring out vast amounts of golden ryuuki. The sheer force of his energy blew both Yusuke and Kurama back about two feet.
"Damn, what's he doing," Yusuke said to himself.
The earth began trembling violently as huge chunks of rock and boulders began to separate themselves from the earth and gather around Gedon's body. The aura of ryuuki he was emitting began to condense into a smaller space at the base of his torso. "GO!" As if the boulders and rock could understand the command that was sounded, the rubble surrounding the dragon suddenly reshaped into extremely sharp shards very capable of impaling Kurama and Yusuke. Without warning the rock daggers charged viciously at the two tentei.
With incalculable speed the two began to dodge the first wave of attack. Kurama narrowly dodged one shard just as another swerved and came around to skewer him from behind. "Kurama watch you back!" Yusuke yelled in caution to his friend before the shard had the chance to end his life. Yusuke didn't have to worry, Kurama had already sensed the oncoming dagger and a split second before the shard could impale the beloved kitsune, he vanished – or more like he moved so quickly that it seemed as though he disappeared – and reappeared on top of the lethal shard. Using the force of his weight, he shifted the direction of the shard towards an extremely large and deadly shard on route towards Yusuke. With his hands full with deflecting the dozens of other shards commanded to take his life, Yusuke was not aware of the one shard that was the most dangerous at the moment.
Kurama had to warn him, just in case he could not reach him in time, "Yusuke, get down!" Without even looking back, the spirit detective dove downward; throughout the many battles fought side by side with Kurama, Yusuke knew when it was wise to heed the kitsune's warnings, and now, just like any other time, was as good a time as any.
With Yusuke out of the way, Kurama increased his youki and directed it into the shard, augmenting the speed of the rock dagger. In less than a second Kurama jumped off of the shard and sent in flying into the mass of its siblings surrounding and preparing to attack Yusuke. The resulting force of the energy charged shard caused a huge explosion and for all of the other shards in the vicinity to be destroyed along with cluster surrounding Yusuke.
The shear force of the explosion caused Yusuke to fly back some feet away from the energy. 'Damn Kurama, and you say I'm brutal,' he thought to himself, rubbing the back of his head where he collided with the ground. He got up and walked to where Kurama was standing. He was in a face off with Gedon; neither one of them removed their gaze from the other.
"Pretty clever, red. But trust me, there's more where that came from,"
"Really, then I shall have to become more creative in my strategies for dodging rocks," Kurama said mockingly.
Gedon assumed his previous position before he attacked them with the shower of destruction. He began building up his ryuuki once more, "Not this time pal!" Yusuke screamed as he charged his energy into his fists and hauled ass towards Gedon ready for round three of his punch fest. Before he could reach him however, a slab of rock akin to a wall rose from the ground blocking his attack from Gedon. It didn't stop Yusuke however; his fist slammed and eradicated the slab in front of him, when that one was destroyed he found himself bombarded with another wall. With every wall he destroyed he was faced with another in its place. It was the never ending story of freaking rocks.
After destroying his tenth wall of rock, Yusuke phased behind the towering Gedon and delivered a side thrusting kick into the small of his back. The blow sent the dragon of the earth crashing into his own rock shield. With the dragon still airborne, Yusuke charged his reiki into his right index finger, "Rei Gun!" he yelled as the giant blue blast crashed into Gedon and seemed to incinerate him. Once the blast disappeared, his ashes fell to the earth. "Hmph, not so cocky when you're burnt to a cinder."
"Yusuke, Look out!" Kurama yelled. It was too late, a barrage of miniature meteors collided into Yusuke at all angles. With everyone he blocked or destroyed about fifty replaced them.
Gedon, the earthen version of him, reappeared from the ground; and from his body made of clay, long worm-like shards began to grow from him and attack Kurama (think elder toguro). Seemingly unperturbed, the fox elegantly dodged the attack and leapt some distance away. When he landed, his energy surrounded his body to for a thick white aura around him. As the worm-like shards reconvened to advance on him, all of the trees surrounding him bent down towards him to block the impending attack.
The sharp earthen vines from Gedon began hack away at the barks of the trees protecting Kurama. "If you think that this can keep me from you then you're de-," Gedon ceased to talk as he heard something approaching them. Kurama also heard it and sensed exactly who it was.
Botan.
If Gedon found her, he would no doubt use her as a hostage.
The blue haired ferry girl pushed her way through the vine covered forest; moving blindly towards the sounds of battle that cried through the air. Upon passing through the last wall of greenery, Botan found what she was looking for, her companions fighting for their lives against the onslaught of the dragon keeper Gedon.
"BOTAN! GET DOWN!" the familiar voice of Kurama yelled, however he was no where to be found. She turned her voice towards the direction which it was sounded; however, her view was bombarded by a ripped, bronzed abdomen. Botan looked up a couple of feet into the steely eyes of the obstruction, Gedon.
Without hesitation, Botan turned and tried to run away. However, the kimono clad girl was subdued by two massive hands came down at the sides of her arms and clasped tightly on them. Botan let out a terrified shriek. As if trying to silence her, he clamped down even harder on the helpless grim reaper (A/N: How can the grim reaper be helpless? That phrase is almost absurd). By now, Kurama's protective shield of trees had moved away and the continuous onslaught of rocks and boulders attacking Yusuke had died down when Gedon had taken his hostage. The two confronted Gedon and readied themselves for battle.
Gedon stood tall raising the confined Botan up so that her head was at the same level as his own. "Well aren't you one hot piece of ass," he said gruffly, and then proceeded to licking the side of her face in a slow suggestive manner.
"No!" she screamed out in revulsion.
The move garnered a very potent glare from both Yusuke and Kurama. Kurama let out a low growl from deep within his throat, "Gedon. Let the girl go, she means nothing to you,"
Gedon looked up from nuzzling Botan's neck and grinned wickedly at Kurama, "Yes, but she does seem to mean something to you," upon saying that, Gedon showed Kurama and Yusuke his protruding fangs as if suggesting what he intended to do - Mark her, not as a mate but as a slave. Dragons mate only once in their lifetime but were inclined to take one or two prostitutes, both male and female, if they desired.
"Son of a Bitch!" yelled Yusuke.
"You will not!" said Kurama.
Both of the warriors charged towards the dragon of the earth, energy, both demon and spirit alike flared at astronomical amounts.
A black shadow flashed before the enraged Yusuke and Kurama. The two stopped in their tracks as blood splattered before them and onto Botan. The girl shrieked as she fell to the ground covered in dragon blood, along with Gedon's severed head. The decapitated warrior fell to the ground and a pool of crimson began to surround him. Upon landing, Botan looked down at her now ruined kimono in revulsion, "eew," she said to herself.
Yusuke and Kurama ran up to Botan helping her up, "Botan, are you injured?" Kurama asked in a concerned tone.
"Yes, I'm fine. But how did-," she looked behind Kurama and Yusuke at a certain fire demon looking lazily at her, cradling his blood soaked katana. "Hiei," she said gently, "You're going to have to stop rescuing me like this, people might start to think we're in love,"
Hiei visibly shuddered at THAT thought. "Not even in you idiotic fantasies could you even conceive or handle being with a man like me; nor would I in a drunken, disease infested, state would ever think of you in such a disgusting manner."
Botan sniffed the air in disdain, folded her arms and turned away, "Your loss, my vertically challenged friend,"
Kurama chuckled slightly and Yusuke closed his eyes, "Damn Hiei, you certainly have a way with the ladies," he mumbled while rubbing the back of his neck.
"Hn," he stated while slashing his sword through the air, ridding the shiny steel blade of its bloody coat.
"Botan, you fly back to spirit world, I have a feeling that this fight isn't over yet,"
Hiei looked towards Yusuke, confused. However, he didn't have to ask the spirit detective what he meant, the Jaganshi sensed the resurrecting energy of Gedon begin to manifest again.
Botan materialized her oar and soared away into the heavens, leaving the three tentei to deal with their very own Lazarus.
"I take it, that you've been through this routine a number of times, correct?" Hiei asked watching the earthen warrior rematerialize to his former self.
"Dude, we've been fighting this asshole since you disappeared with the red head," Yusuke looked around the area and scratched his head, "speaking of which, where is that little wench?"
"Hn, it's best to not ask questions which you are not prepared to receive the answers for," Hiei said darkly, "You will see what I mean momentarily,"
The two simply shrugged off the bad feeling they were getting and returned their attention to Gedon.
The dragon returned to his fleshy tissue self and laughed heartily, "How many times must I warn you fools, you cannot kill me like that. I'm invincible."
A dark fit of humorless laughter rose from the depths of Hiei's chest, "Is that so. I apologize then. I only wanted a matching set."
Everyone looked towards Hiei, wondering what in the hell he was talking about. They did not have to ponder the vagaries of his words for long. The fire demon reached into his cloak and pulled out the severed head of Kirra. Her eyes were cast upward, frozen in the final position of the last moments of her life. The moment where she looked up into the attack of her executioner. Hiei.
Gedon's face was one of pure terror as he looked into the face of his mate. The semblance of life cast across her features was fast becoming a mere shadow of the life she once possessed. "Little fire," he whispered sadly.
Hiei threw her head towards the crumbling warrior, "Your bitch," he said menacingly.
Yusuke and Kurama looked aghast at the work of the Jaganshi. Well, Yusuke now had an inkling of what the bad feeling he felt earlier was about. And judging by the strange energy being released by Gedon, his bad feeling was well warranted.
Hiei folded his arms across his chest and closed his eyes. "Yes, the little wench thought that she was a match for me. However, she was sadly mistaken."
:-:-:- Flashback: Hiei vs. Kirra -:-:-:-
The blaze of red flames that flared around Hiei died down completely. The vertically challenged warrior looked around taking in his surroundings. Red, hot molten rock surrounded the steaming hot platform he stood on. Molten lava flowed everywhere except for the platform he was standing on.
"A volcano," he said to himself.
"Yonaha- Dake, a beautiful site to behold, ne?" A feminine voice called out to Hiei's senses, automatically causing him to turn his head towards it. The copper haired, red dragon was standing in the magma ahead of him. Her golden eyes fully illuminated, were blazing like two golden embers, "It's a tad romantic, don't you agree Hiei-san?"
Hiei's only response was to unsheathe his katana and position himself in a defensive stance.
"What's wrong Hiei, do you not like the surroundings as well." She looked at him, her eyes filling with lust as she took in the muscled body of the poised warrior before her. His fiery gaze focused on her with a powerful intensity that would have sent other fighters running for their mothers. However, those crimson orbs and the dangerous passion they promised only served to arouse her. She smirked in satisfaction as she took in the rest of his rock hard body, "I must admit, you are one of the most intensely sexual men I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. I have never had a man handle me the way that you-," Hiei vanished from her sight without a trace.
Without warning, the red dragon keeper felt hot steel pressed against her jugular. Her racing pulse caused her throat to bob up and down, making the blade of his katana slice gently into her flesh like a hot knife through butter. Tiny trickles of blood ran down the column of her neck.
She felt the heat of his breath puff against her neck as he spoke to her, "tell me, Dragon," he said placing distasteful emphasis of the word dragon, "Do you find pleasure in the fact that you are about to meet your maker?"
Before she could question him, she felt the blade of his sword lift, momentarily, from her neck and then excruciating pain as he slashed the heated blade back downward into her neck severing her head from her body in a bloody gush.
As her head fell to the ground the eyes moved upward looking into the face of her executioner.
"May flights of devils wing you to your rest," Hiei said as his blood red eyes glowed in satisfaction.
:-:-:-:-End Flashback-:-:-:-:-
Hiei's eyes glazed over in pleasure at the memory of Kirra's death, "It was really quite pathetic how quickly she died. She truly had no earthly clue that she was flirting with death," he said sinisterly, smirking at the true meaning behind his words.
Gedon looked up at the cocky visage of Hiei and his eyes began to darken ominously. The golden irises as well as the whites of his eyes began to turn black. A dark and evil energy began to seep from his body forming a black aura to surround him. His body heaved up and down with the labor of his breaths and the earth beneath him began to tremble as if in fear.
"Dammit Hiei, did you really have to do that," said Yusuke, suddenly feeling regret over the Jaganshi's revelation of Kirra's death.
"Truly Hiei, I do not believe that this was the wisest thing you have done in your lifetime," said Kurama, also becoming concerned over the situation.
Suddenly, a loud animalistic roar ripped from Gedon's body as he grew large in size. His bronzed frame stretched; the skin tightening until it could hold no more; tearing, slitting and destroying itself. The meat of his exposed flesh had shown pink as it too began to grow; pulsating with extreme amounts of energy. "QUAKE OF DESTRUCTION!" he screamed as he fell to his knees and brought both of his fists together, slamming them into the ground, causing it to crack beneath his fists.
The trio waited in anticipation for his attack. A full thirty, uneventful seconds passed without any indication of attack. The three were about to relax when out of the blue the ground beneath them began to crumble and fall into what seemed to be the depths of hell.
"Holy Shit!" Yusuke said as he, along with his two other demon companions ran to avoid being sucked into hell. Huge explosions of molten lava and magma came to the surface, destroying everything in its path, including Gedon, who seemed to fall into the hell-like cavern below.
As Yusuke, Hiei and Kurama ran to find some type of safety from the never ending attack. The three were ahead of the falling earth when they were bombarded by the same dreaded wall of rock which had impeded them from venturing even further into the woods.
"What do we do now?"
"We don't have time to think Kurama; if you didn't know the whole fucking world is falling into hell!" With that, Yusuke pointed his index finger towards the wall and shot, "Rei gun!" the huge blast of blue energy made contact with the wall, decimating it completely.
The three fighters continued to run for what seemed like forever until a huge explosion of lava blasted upwards in front of them, totally destroying the earth before them. From the explosion emerged a now completely deformed Gedon. All of his skin had completely melted away due to the lava, and his body seemed to be undergoing a drastic metamorphosis. The flesh and pink muscle jerked and bubbled and began to grow at an astronomical rate. In a deafening roar is entire body was consumed in blackish gold energy which grew brighter and brighter until…BOOM!
The entire night sky had glowed with his energy in the biggest explosion ever witnessed by man.
'Oh yeah that one is definitely going to be on the six o' clock news,' Yusuke thought cynically to himself.
When the light and energy from the explosion died down, the tentei looked up into the firmament and gasped in wonder, and horror at the sight before them. Gedon had truly become the dragon. All semblance of his humanoid body was gone, the only thing that remained was a hundred story dragon about ten thousand feet in length hovering over them in the night sky. His scales were a deep brown color with golden flecks running through the tips of them. His head, which held his luminous golden orbs along with two monstrous black horns, was now fringed in long black hair trailing all the way down to his tail. He was truly a sight to behold.
"Die," was what the dragon hissed to them as he once again was surrounded in a golden aura, blazing the night sky.
The earth around the trio had all but disintegrated, leaving no where to run or hide. They were completely surrounded by lava, not to mention the huge god-like dragon hovering over them. Without warning, a wall of lava towered over them, circling around the small bit of land left around them, waiting for the command to falter and crash down upon them melting them into nothingness.
"Well this is a fucked up way to die," said Yusuke, sweating profusely from the heat and noxious gases that surrounded him due to the lava. Kurama was in the same condition as he was, and Hiei, being a fire demon, was showed no signs of physical discomfort, though he to could sense that the end was near.
Suddenly, the walls of the lava barrier began to fall, this was the end. It would be over soon. The tentei fell to their knees and closed their eyes, bracing themselves for the end.
Arctic winds. Frozen, artic winds caressed their senses, not the scalding hot flames of the lava. This was not at all the end they were expecting. Cautiously, the group looked upward only to find that the wall of lava had been frozen solid. Kurama expelled a breath, as the realization of how close to death he had come dawned on him. He looked up into the sky and to his utter shock; the frame of Gedon went through another transformation. He was frozen solid hovering in the air, supported by an invisible force. "Look!" Kurama shouted as he pointed up into the air. Three pairs of eyes turned upward to the sky, and widened in unrestrained shock.
"But who?" Yusuke whispered the question that was on everyone's mind.
"Twice is the number that you have died since I have returned, Yoko," a steely feminine voice sounded behind them. Everyone whipped their heads around at the familiar and cold voice.
There she was, the white dragon keeper, Shihiko, standing proud, dressed in the all white Reikai prisoner uniform. Her hair, a shimmering white waterfall, spilled down her shoulders, unrestrained by any bondage. "Ice, his only weakness, was the only thing your team was lacking," she said as she turned those icy, blush and gold, more gold than blush, eyes towards Yusuke.
"How in the hell did you get out of prison?" Yusuke asked a bit peeved.
"Yusuke!" Kurama scolded softly.
Her cold eyes, becoming even colder, due to Yusuke's ungrateful attitude, pulsated with muted gold light; though her impassive features were set in stone and unwavering.
"This is the debt I must pay for trying to destroy the world. A debt, I am sure, both you Kurama and Hiei, are familiar with." She stretched her hand outward, in front of her, and a small white flame kindled to life there. The flames disappeared and then reappeared, in no time at all, upon the frozen figure of Gedon.
'What are you doing? If you've just defeated him, why are you defrosting him?" asked Yusuke.
"I am not defrosting him. I am making sure he never returns to this realm," suddenly Gedon's corpse flashed a bright white and then, with a sound akin to the clapping of thunder, he disappeared without a trace.
Yusuke, Hiei and Kurama looked at her handiwork appreciatively, but tried not to show it. "So what, now you're some overly powerful dragon god or something," Yusuke said sarcastically.
A tiny evil smirk spread across her face, "No more than you or the other members of your little team are, you and I have about the same power level. Although my experience makes me a hell of a lot better than you," she said mockingly.
"Hn," Hiei said off in the distance.
"So, how is it that you've come to be here Shihiko? What is your arrangement with Koenma?" Asked Kurama.
Her gaze shifted back towards his emerald orbs. She really didn't want to recall her meeting with the Reikai prince in the bowels of Spirit world prison. But her desires were unwarranted as the pungent memory wafted through her brain once again.
:-:-:-:-Flashback-:-:-:-:-
"Lady Shihiko," he said quietly. She turned her head slowly to the side, barely acknowledging him.
"The toddler prince; what can I do for you?" she said silently, almost sadly.
Koenma walked towards the force field and waved his hand in front of the invisible expanse. The act dissolved the energy field causing the white dragon keeper to stare at the prince in confusion.
"I have a proposition for you…" Koenma said. She looked into the depths of his eyes to see what his motives were, to see whether or not he was sincere.
He was…
She nodded her head slightly to tell him that he could proceed.
"I am sure you realize what I am about to ask of you, but, it is my duty to offer you this opportunity formally,"
Koenma visibly flinched at her unwavering gaze, "You want me to work for you, correct?" she said in an even tone, devoid of any emotions.
"That's correct. You will be released from prison and allowed to live in Japan until your sentence has ended." He stood at the borderline between the cell and the outside. It was all up to her now, her choice of freedom, or as close to it as she could get, or solitary confinement for all eternity. She knew that no other offers would come after this. This was the best and only chance she could get for a new life…
For now…
Slowly, she stood up, a smooth, graceful movement, the trademark of the feminine character, and walked towards Koenma. Her eyes focused solely on his hazel orbs, refusing to relinquish them from her grasp. When she came abreast of him her eyes broke contact and she continued to walk down the Reikai prison hall, "Sure," she said in a light hearted manner.
Koenma released the pent up breath that was lodged in his throat throughout their silent exchange. Then he turned and looked towards her, "Shihiko wait!"
The girl turned, facing him sideways.
"How did you know that my first offer was a hoax?"
The girl tilted her head slightly to the side, an innocent expression planted on her face, "Simply put…it is an easy thing to distinguish what is true or false, what is sincere and what is bullshit when one has had a lifetime of studying its nature,"
:-:-:-:-End Flashback-:-:-:-:-
Shihiko tried to dispel the memory of her release. Although she was free, she was not completely rid of the shackles of her past. Namely Kurama. While she had rid herself of one aspect of her past, another, more powerful issue and aspect emerged. And it seemed as though she would be stuck with this issue for a VERY long time.
"So, why did pacifier breath let you off the hook?" Yusuke asked, breaking her train of thought. Her eyes searched out the two demons of the group.
"Like you, I am sentenced to work for spirit world; this is the price that I must pay for my 'freedom'" suddenly white flames enclosed her body, then she disappeared.
"Ch, what an asshole," Hiei muttered under his breath.
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End
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Shit that was a long chapter. Just about 6,000 words. I couldn't divide this chapter, I hate dividing chapters, it sucks.
Well I have a few changes to make.
The sensui saga has not occurred yet. I have watched all of the YYH DVDs up to bandits and kings and have therefore decided to have it happen after the Rain saga.
This change means that Hiei, as I mentioned in an earlier chapter, is not an A class demon, but a middle B class demon.
Final message. This is not a change but something that I am simply bringing to light. This is only a slight romance fic, meaning that…well that's something that I can't say. But, this fic is going somewhere that is most definitely not obvious.
There will be other hookups. There will be a slight Hiei x oc romance and a Botan x oc romance.
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Review responses:
Sweet kiss of Chaos: Thank you very much. I am so happy that you like my fic. Please continue to read and review my story.
Aquaticmage: thank you for enjoying my story. Please read and review again.
Katana: My fav. Fan! Thank you! Yes it is very hard to write fight scenes and this chapter was by far the hardest to write. I hope you liked it and that it was suspenseful enough for you and the other readers. Thanks for reviewing, please review again!
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Thank you all again. The next chapter begins the dark saga!
Till next time!