Silverwing013: Yeah, we do, but it's loving mocking, really.
Hiei: Hn.
But yes, once a thief, always a thief, and Aislin isn't about to let the church get bulldozed without a fight of some sort.
Seeyu: Lookie! Another new reviewer! I like you people! —enjoys watching Hiei exercise self-restraint, then laughs when Kohaku glomps him on the other side—
Kohaku: MY bishie! Grrr!
—snicker— Sorry about the long wait, my regulars can tell you that I normally don't take so long to post new chapters. —long-suffering sigh— I blame the DSL we're using; cable was never so pissy.
KuramaIsFine: No, but I'm considering it. I have this spiffy nude of Aislin that shows off all of the markings she'd have if she stayed in fox-Oracle form all the time, but no access to a scanner, anyroad. I'm trying to draw our resident bad-ass and Kohaku in band finery, too, but they aren't cooperating either. I wish Shiku would hurry up and get off vacation.
Hieinokoishi: Hey, another first-time reviewer! Spiffy! n,n And thanks for the sugar—
Aislin: Wheeee!
—we'll enjoy it as it deserves to be enjoyed. As quickly as possible for maximum sugar-rush. I'll try to get more chapters up sooner, but it's hard when you're stuck relying on library computers for access to Isn't Hiei a kick when he's showing his humorous side?
Hiei: I don't have a sense of humor!
Aislin: How can you say that with a straight face, Mr. I-helped-dye-the-entire-Reikai-Palace-pink?
Hiei: Practice. And that was more payback than anything else.
Yusuke: Yeah, you keep telling yourself that, Hiei.
CrimsonSnowflake: You're welcome, and I was just giving my opinion. The name is cool. And as for the fae, well, it varies. Sidhe are very tall, phuka/pooka are either horse-sized or goat-sized, depending on the type, fauns are fairly short, and I think you can guess how small the pixies and fairies are. Just pick up a good faerie book and it'll tell you about more kinds.
LiliacSnow: —blinks— another new reviewer? Squee! That makes the third one for one chappie alone! New record for me, woot! Welcome, and thank you!
Kitsune Kit: Squee! —glomps— I missed you! You haven't reviewed in ages! Welcome back! n,.,n-♥ All we need now are Jerry Unipeg and Suiyou to complete my original set of loyal reviewers all the way back from Fox's Mischief! I'm glad you liked SF, and yes, I have managed a half decent Xover of Ranma and YYH. Go, me.
Starling: Gobe!
Okay, someone has been playing too much Animal Crossing. I can't believe they took down your poor story! It must feel so unloved by the admins. I vote you put it back up just to annoy them.
Kohaku: MY bishie! —but looks tempted—
Darknesspirals: Well, I did mention he has a fae form way back when in Winter's Rose. It's not his stripped-of-all-seals-etc. form, but it certainly is different and looks much better than all that green skin. Sneaky kajihenge has still managed to keep his true form hidden, though, drat the man.
Hiei: —smug— Hn.
Peeka-chan: Heh, it's okay. It gave me a chance to poke at an anime more mangled than Cardcaptors, DB, and One Piece combined.
Fate's Child: Eh? Really? Damn, must've been tired to miss those. Point 'em out and I'll fix 'em, and thanks for the sharp eyes!
Aisilin Kheldarson: —snicker— Everyone likes your faerie form, Hiei.
Hiei: HN! Doesn't mean I'll be showing it off again.
Hieinokioshi: (Again n,.,n) Yes, trust me, she got the thing. —Aislin is currently attempting to convince Hiei and Kohaku to help her dye the Palace bright neon green— I think Kurama went and hid in his garden or something. Congrats on your screen name, and yes, Season Tale #4 is supposed to focus on Luke and Craig. Unfortunately, they aren't being very cooperative.
Hiei: And that is the last time I show anyone that form, damn it!
Kohaku: T.T
Hiei: —sigh— Okay. Maybe you, if you don't bug me about it.
Koahku: Whee! —glomps him again—
DevilDucky1304: Welcome! Wow, Hiei, if I'd known showing off your faerie form was all it took to get so many reviewers to respond, I'd have done it ages ago.
Hiei: HN!
Okay, everyone! I have good news! Since you've helped me reach a new record of twelve reviews (four of them new faces!) for one chapter, today has a bonus! An extra chappie! —throws confetti while Starling and Drox spin noisemakers— Enjoy!
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"Gambit-sensei," pipes one young leopard youkai from one Level up a few days later, while the fox-wolf pounds knowledge and fighting skill into their heads and bodies, "why are the Avalons so special? I don't think I've ever heard Aislin-sama, Yoko-sama, or Boss talk about anyone like they do those foxes." Far enough away to be out of hearing but still in view, Aislin and Hiei have begun hand-to-hand combat training 'those foxes' at a speed only they are capable of. Most of the 'class' can barely even see flickers of motion.
"You wanna know?" gruffs the old demon, jerking his head for his pupils to follow, "Then come on and I'll show you."
He leads this newest lot, barely here five years (a few weeks, by human terms) out of the immediate vicinity of the Lair, down paths long overgrown, to a place where bramble-thickets have run riot over the swampy landscape. It's nearly thirty miles from the caves these thieves call home, and a good hour since they left. No one knows why they're here, other than a lesson to be learned.
Gambit stands at the edge of the thicket for several long moments, gaze lost to memory as the tangles are replaced by tilled ground filled by growing vegetables: there stood the corn, there stood the bean-runners, there the lettuce, and so on. Lonely land is repopulated by ghosts out of Death's realm: a tall renard stands there in his patched salt-and-pepper fur, overseeing the weeding of strawberries over to the left, a silvery vixen standing not too far off, her mouth moving in silent conversation with one of the workers.
"Now don't you tell those kits about this place," he orders his pupils in his usual rough manner. "Th' bosses figure they'll find this place on their own one o' these days, and they'll tell 'em themselves then. 'Til then, you keep your traps shut; got it?"
"Aye, sir!" choruses from all throats.
"Good. Now clean out your lugs and listen, you dopes. This here was the Avalon farmstead, 'bout four hunnert years gone. Good family, proud, stubborn, not afraid to get their hands dirty; them and 'bout three other families came here to work and grow in peace." A faint smile at the thought of the horse-folk, the shadow-folk, and the tiger-kin that had worked alongside the foxes. "That spitfire Jai, he was one o' the best people I ever knew, on par with the pups who've led and lead us. Always willin' to lend a hand even when he didn't have one to spare no matter who asked 'im. He an' his mate Willowthorn were the leaders in this place, their little slice of Shangri La. That's what they called it."
"Gambit! Come see the orchard! Our apples are coming in beautifully, the first basket's just been picked!" A slender arm waves from beneath the fruit-laden branches of one tree, sunlight dappling pale skin with abstract shapes.
"Now, we at th' Lair protected the people here, 'cause they were the kind Aislin-sama takes a shine to when she meets 'em, and they made this place thrive through pure hard work." A dozen small bodies tumble through the rows of his memory, their small voices piping excitedly to see him and the people who had always come with him. "An' 'bout hunnert thirty years past, there were younglings here growin' along with the rest of the crops."
Several of the trainees shift, sensing where this story is going and not liking it in the least. But Gambit doesn't see them; his eyes are for the past and all that had been.
"Then one night when the youngest bunch had just turned twenty, the Dragon's Tear was stolen from our vaults. An' like fools, the whole lot o' us, save a skeleton crew to keep an eye on the rest o' the swag, went boilin' after the bastard who swiped it."
He can still remember that night as clear as crystal, though sometimes he wishes that Time would hurry and let it be buried under her softening dust.
Anger. Rage. Shouts and warcries, the scent of blood spilled. The flash of the Dragon's Tear underneath the moonlight. It had been dark under the trees but he'd run as fast as his feet would go, confident in his knowledge of the surrounding area.
The robber had been running, too, but nowhere near as fast as a pissed Aislin-sama could go, and she'd caught up with the stupid shadow-apparition at the edge of the Forest, waiting for her crew to gather. But somehow he'd already passed the stone onto an accomplice, and her wait had been in vain.
So she'd tortured the fool, making him spill every last one of the secrets he held about the robbery and who had taken the stone when he'd passed it, sending her fastest people out to hunt that doomed soul. And then the dying male had laughed when red fireworks turned the purple sky as crimson as day, suggesting that she get to the Avalon Farm in time to say her good-byes.
His head had gone rolling, Aislin-sama running as fast as she could in a desperate dash for the innocents she had watched over, knowing already it would be too late. Gambit had stayed long enough to hear the severed head breathe 'spiders' before going still, and then he too had gone running.
"Turns out the Tear had been a diversion, the shadow-youkai who'd taken it and the rest of his gang paid by spider demons to get us away from the Lair and here. He spilled his guts in more ways'n one in the end, but it was still too late. We returned to find everyone slaughtered, even the younglings."
Small bodies scattered in front of the small storage shed that had held farming tools, larger bodies silent testimony of the efforts made to protect those pitiful sparks of hope. The spiders laughing, laughing, laughing as they wrecked the house and the land around it…
"Those of us who were smart split an' left those damned spiders to Aislin-sama's cold mercy and the green rage of Yoko-sama and all the rest of the kitsune," Gambit tells his crew in a quiet voice. "For a year the spiders fought; turned this place into a foul cesspit, bred an' killed an' ate an' bred. We buried th' dead innocents in our own graveyard, an' in th' end we killed every last spider o' that cursed tribe. We mourned th' families lost, mourned 'em hard 'cause they were th' first real good that had come t' us in a long while. But 'cause we were so grievin', we didn't notice that th' two youngest o' Jai an' Willowthorn's brood weren't counted in th' dead. We figgered th' spiders ate 'em or somethin' and just wept harder."
"I'm O'sidian an' she's my sister Iv'ry," a defiant voice told him from close to the ground. Two small kits stood there with courage and strength stiffening their spines and making their eyes glow. "We heard good stuff 'bout you guys. We wanna be t'eives like you."
"When those two came waltzin' into the Lair one fall evenin' it was like a real miracle an' we vowed one an' all that since they did come back, they weren't gonna get put into a situation like that e'er again. They didn't remember a thing about that night; so we didn't remind 'em. We just trained 'em an' prayed that Fate would keep her paws offa 'em. Fat lot a good that prayin' did."
"Dunno, Gambit-sensei," the leopard who'd gotten them started on this lesson says in a doubtful voice. "Seems to me it worked just fine; they're back now, right?"
Approval replaces the melancholy in the old cinnamon eyes. "Well, lookie here. Finally usin' your brain, eh, Swiftpad? See if'n you can't put those new smarts o' yours to good use and try an' beat the rest o' us home." As the leopard groans and begins to run over all the possible routes in his head, a rough voice murmurs into his ear, pitched just so in order for him to be the sole receiver, "Thanks."
Gambit reflects on the piece of the story he'd left out on his trip back to the Lair—the other reason that the protection of the Thieves had been given to the farm—having decided a long time ago that it was none of his business to tell it. But that catastrophic night, Yoko-sama hadn't just lost valued friends. He'd lost a brother, an adopted sister, and nieces and nephews. Between that night until just before this Solstice, and not counting the time the twins had trained here, the Silver Thief had lived as the very last member of the Avalons.
————
Dawn comes clear and early, sky paling from night's dark purple to the familiar bloody hue, the wildlife in the Forest rousing with the sun to greet it as always. Up to greet it as well are the Avalon twins, restless after their dreams of the Void and the Truths they've been watching in their vision pool.
Kohaku, sitting in Hiei's favorite tree at Genkai's temple and wearing one of his shirts, nose buried in the long sleeve on one arm with a sad look on her face. From her reddened eyes it's obvious she's been crying, and the dark circles are silent testament to a sleepless night.
Kuwabara, bearing the brunt of his friends' absences and taking on the dregs growing cocky in the continued truancy. Several bandages wrap his arms and chest, visible when sharp claws tear at his shirt to add more wounds.
Faces they barely remember from what seems another lifetime ago. Faces like theirs, scents like theirs, voices that sang gentle songs of love and comfort and played children's games with them. Shadows weeding strawberries, tigers mending buildings, horses that chatted as they dragged plows through rocky soil.
A dragon that spun itself out into shimmering mist and dissipated, leaving behind a feeling of intense loss.
Kumiko, Zephyr's mother, with a rueful half-smile on her face while she binds up her scratched arm on her bed, fuda scattered across the coverlet according to potency, type, and whether it is offensive or defensive. Half-grown Kizi-chan curled up napping in the woman's lap, her orange tabby sides rising and falling.
The approach of a familiar presence breaks them out of their reverie to discover that Yoko is standing just a few feet away with his familiar grin. "Well, my cubs, today's the day we take our punishment's like youkai," he chuckles. "Go get into your human clothes and get ready to face the music; we're heading back to Ningenkai."
"To get the jewel there?" Ivory questions eagerly, rising to her feet and a flick to send her braid down her back. Her brother also rises and they begin walking down the incline of the small mountain protecting the Lair, still watching Yoko expectantly.
"Aye, and no," comes the reply, Yoko staring up into the warming sky. "We're going to get the Sunstone if we can, but it's not at the top of our list at the moment. People need to see us; our human parents need to see us and Hiei and I need to report in to Koenma before he sends the entire Reikai Defense Force after us. And despite the fact that it will likely remain a simple task, all of us but Hiei have homework to catch up on."
The groan that greets this statement is the one voiced by school-going students everywhere when things like 'homework' are mentioned. Obsidian tilts his head as a thought occurs to him. "What about Aislin-sama?"
"Aisuhana will be meeting us in Ningenkai," assures the Silver Thief as they enter the main cavern, "but she has some business to attend to first. Getting the Blood-star Ruby, for starters, as well as a few errands she'd been putting off."
"But why didn't she take us with her?" asks Obsidian, sounding hurt.
Yoko's ears flatten to the sides. "Ah, let's see if I remember her aright," he sighs. "'Because I'm the only one she won't be eating'."
———
The relative silence of nature weighs on the branches of the ancient trees that a slender woman walks through, her snowy coloration standing out against the deep browns, greens, purples and reds that are the normal vegetative colors for this part of Demon World. The growing day is quite warm; Aislin has bundled up in defense, wearing her favorite heavy wool coat and pants as well as cotton leggings and turtleneck shirt.
She manages to work up enough 'heat' to keep herself from shivering, but it's still hard for her to keep her body temperature from rising. Most of that discomfort is ignored, however, as she looks upon trees that haven't filled her sight in centuries. And the thought of what lies ahead quickens her footsteps.
There. Burbling and rushing down a rocky face is what used to be her favorite meditation stream, still tumbling over an outcropping onto the flat slate below and swirling into a pool deeper than she is tall. And all of it fed from the glaciers north of here on this level of Makai.
With a happy sigh Aislin quickly strips down to nothing, relishing the icy water that brings sensation back to numbed toes after placing a shield over her garments to protect them from would-be robbers. It is with a content feeling of reminiscence that the mixed-blood takes her once-common place directly beneath the hardest part of the waterfall, letting that water pound her head and shoulders while she basks in the delicious 'heat'.
After a few moments she assumes the Lotus; feet resting atop her knees, hands resting palm up on her ankles, her fingers loosely curled as she lets herself fall into a meditative trance.
"All others are prey to me, Whiteout, and shall remain so until the day I die." Turquoise eyes snap open at that intruding memory, the apparition shaking her head to dislodge it and again attempting to trance.
"I'll make an exception for you for now, but don't push your luck. No matter how powerful you are, if you wear out your welcome I'll eat you like the rest."
"Damn it, Threnody," mutters Aislin in annoyance, "I know I'm not supposed to come here often, but you could at least let me get some meditation done. I hardly get a chance to these days."
"Oi!" calls a perfectly solid voice from where she left her clothes, "oi, miss!" Rather irritated now, Aislin looks over to find a youkai of indeterminate species standing on the bank, his green face puckered in worry. "You'll catch your death of cold if you stay in there, miss! That's damn near ice water, that is!"
"I know."
Her calm, lucid response seems to startle him, or maybe it's the fact that the droplets reflecting off Aislin's head are drifting away as snowflakes that makes him take a step backwards. He stares at this vision of beauty sitting quite comfortably under freezing water with snowflakes scattering around her, turquoise eyes piercing the mist and his own personal masks.
"I'm trying to meditate, youngling, do be so kind and leave me to it."
"Ah, right. Sorry, ma'am."
Aislin sighs in irritation as she tries for the third time to meditate, this time memory sucking her into itself too fast for her to snap out of it, making her relieve the day that she'd effectively lost this place.
Cheery singing brightened the air, the source a small female splashing in the deeper part of the pool and sending snowflakes scattering around her to melt back into sparkling droplets. No more than four centuries old, Aislin gamboled in the water in one of her rare occasions of play, relaxing after a hard day's thieving and banditry. Hiei was off on one of his own errands so she'd taken the opportunity to bathe in peace in the spring warmth.
The melody pouring from her throat was a song just written but spreading like wildfire thanks to the recent fame of an upstart bandit calling himself the Silver Thief, and was as beautiful as her siren blood could make it. "Red roses, red roses, sweet petals and thorns. Your rich scent will beckon, but your weapons shall warn: 'Beauty is skin deep, beware still we say. For pretty is painful if not held the right way.' "
"Such a pretty little songbird," crooned a peculiar voice from the edge of the pool. Aislin had turned and froze, staring at the creature sitting on a dry rock with a frighteningly calm smile on her triangular face. "She looks so tasty, I think I'll eat her."
With a squeak, Aislin had called upon a newly-discovered ability; she'd dissolved into a cloud of snowflakes and had attempted to flee. But the swift falls had shoved her fragmented form beneath the pool's surface and back together, resulting in her coming up spluttering.
"Nice try, little songbird," the female had said in that crooning tone, apparently trying to use the golden, oval eyes to fascinate Aislin into immobility. Instead, the ice-born apparition had scrambled from the water on the side opposite of the intruder and had just started yelling at the slightly-startled intruder.
"All right you can quit dragging it out! If you're gonna eat me, then eat me, but don't treat me like a dreg! I know you're stronger than me, you're probably faster than me, and you can take this territory any time you want! But I'll be damned if I let you toy with me like I'm completely worthless!"
"Strong words for a little bird like you," said the female with a straight face. "What makes you think you're worth something?"
"I'm the Whiteout and Aisu. I've robbed some of the most powerful demons in Makai blind and a lot of humans. I partner with the Jaganshi and I've held this territory as mine for a century. I survived the fall from the Island of Koorime and I've gotten stronger than that clan dares to fear. And I can get stronger."
Five male youkai had burst into the clearing that contained the tiny waterfall and pool, weapons bared and gleaming. "There she is!" shouted one, pointing in the direction of the annoyed predator. "It's Threnody!"
"Do you mind?" both females had snapped at them, "We're conducting business!"
The flat-faced female had turned back to her quarry. "Very well, little bird, prove to me you're worth something. Kill these hunters and I'll let you live."
"With pleasure," Aislin had growled, advancing steadily on the new intruders on her turf, that familiar gesture of hers stretching her ice-blade in her hands. The other hunters had done their best to defend themselves, and they'd even gotten in a few good hits on their attacker, but they'd all fallen to the deadly length of ice that had flashed in the sunlight.
The koorime had crouched once again on her rock under the waterfall, letting herself 'warm up' in the frigid waters while licking at a deep slice along one arm. She continued to eye the stranger called Threnody, gazing sideways through blood-flecked lashes as the clawed hands had applauded.
"Very nice, little koorime," approved the female. "Perhaps you're worth allowing to survive, after all. It'd be more interesting that way. How about I make you a deal?"
"What kind of deal?" Suspicion blazed in narrowed turquoise eyes.
"You give me this territory and I allow you 'visiting rights' and become your ally for six centuries. If, after that time, you become strong enough to defeat me in a battle, I'll relinquish my hold on this place and return it to you. However, you are obliged to come to me at the end of our contract, not I to you."
"And you'll eat me then if I'm not strong enough."
"All others are prey to me, Whiteout, and shall remain so until the day I die. I'll make an exception for you for now, but don't push your luck. No matter how powerful you are, if you wear out your welcome I'll eat you like the rest."
Aislin unfolds herself from her Lotus and leaps effortlessly to the bank, drying herself and once more donning her heavy layers, damning the luck that would have her coming here in the middle of summer when Threnody would be strongest. No help for it, though, and with better luck that damned female wouldn't have bothered gaining much strength in the last half-millennia or so.
Hah. That's wishful thinking.
With a heavy sigh, the koorime steps clear of the misty drops flung by the waterfall and drops her shielding. Then unerringly turns her footsteps west and resumes walking.
—
Another ten minutes' travel brings her to a perfectly round clearing that she and Hiei had used as a sparring ring once upon a time; the thick trunks still bear scars from those sometimes-violent matches. Memory reminds her that there is a cave system just beyond it, but Aislin's eyes are for the glinting, silvery wires stretched across the space.
"A summoning circle? Threnody, that's a little dramatic, isn't it?" groans the snow-colored female as she studies the pattern laid out. The threads stretch out across the front of clearing's entrance, all vanishing beyond the far trees—presumably to the cave's opening.
Experimentally, one finger is stretched out, a retractable claw plucking the wire closest to her. A single delicate note reverberates along the string, comprehension lighting almond-shaped eyes. "A musical one, at that. Very dramatic, Threnody. Very dramatic indeed." A series of pops accompany her cracking of knuckles. "Let's see if I can't puzzle this out."
And the koorime drops into the lightest of trances, sending out her senses along those shining lengths, tasting, touching, listening. Ever so slowly the puzzle comes together, and without even opening her eyes Aislin reaches out to caress the web, drawing out a deceptively simple melody that hangs in the still air.
From past the clearing, that familiar voice croons the words set to the music shivering across the strings.
"Who plays the tune I taught to none,
Upon the threads I've laid?
To call me fair from my own lair
On this sweet summer's day?"
"Theatrical as ever, Daughter of the Serpent King, but you know very well who's come knocking at your door," Aislin snaps, ceasing her playing. "I tired of your Game the day you sprung it, and I've come to end it. Get out here, if you want to see if I'm still the edible little bird you remember."
"You certainly have the mouth you had back then," sighs the sweet contralto, as the threads vanish and a massive form moves beyond the trees. "And poor timing. You're a decade late."
Annoyed eyes are the only readable thing in Aislin's entire body when the naga slithers through the gap in the trunks beyond the clearing, her jeweled coils taking up the entire circle and spilling back the way she'd come, the humanoid torso still sitting as daintily upon the muscled length as six hundred years ago. The alien face with its flat beauty smiles with a lipless mouth, baring the back-folding fangs structured like any mortal cobra's. Such is how this child of Ouroboros comes to rest before the ice maiden in the sunlight. "So, little bird, have you gotten stronger?"
"That's a very stupid question to ask, and as to why I'm late, a lot of things can happen in a decade."
"Poor excuse, Whiteout."
"Threnody, I have reigned alongside my life-mate as Queen of Thieves to his King, lost him to Koenma's hunters, killed his murderer, surrendered to the despair of my mate's loss, worked for the toddler for fifteen years, came close to suiciding, found my mate reincarnated, worked for the toddler some more, sparred with his detective—Raizen's offspring—and nearly lost both soul-sib and friend at the Dark Tournament. Now I face losing the two cubs I have called my soul-children for the rest of eternity and it all hangs on a collection of myth-shrouded stones. All that in the last decade and a half. It's enough to keep even the Sleeping Ones occupied and I understand why your ancestor would rather chase his tail instead of dealing with the worlds."
"Did you even bother to take a breath during most of that?" Threnody inquires in mild amusement, a scaled eyeridge lifting in place of an eyebrow. "My goodness, that whole speech would give a language student fits."
"Don't toy with me, naga, my patience is already worn thin." Aislin's voice is tight, betraying her discomfort at being so close to someone who could (probably) swallow her whole.
"So you display." The massive tail-tip flickers in the distance, sending ripples up the thick hide. "So how strong have you become, little bird, that is the question I want answered."
"I couldn't give a damn about how strong I am compared to you, Threnody," comes the ready reply, bit off in chilled tones, "since I never actually agreed to your idiotic, pointless Game in the first place. I'm here for one thing, and one thing only: the ruby I left behind here."
Somehow, Threnody contrives to look innocent. "You mean the Blood-star Ruby?"
"I figured you'd know what it was. Give it to me, Threnody, and you can keep this territory and your Game."
One clawed hand gestures to the break in the trees where the remainder of her bulk disappears through. "Go and get it, little bird, I shan't stop you. It's right where you left it all those years ago."
Without a word the mixed-blood begins to stride by, but her footsteps halt when she comes face to flank with one thick coil. A smirk crosses coral lips and she launches herself skyway, taking clearing and coils in a single bound and landing easily beside the cave entrance, vanishing into the depths with the trailing end of Threnody's tail to keep her company.
When the ice-fox emerges back into the sunlight with a massive blood-red stone beneath her arm, a blur of black and copper greets her. She counters with her katana, slashing crosswise at the blur, making Threnody shriek and rear back, clutching at her bloody face.
"I warned you, Threnody, that my patience is thin," Aislin tells her as though for all the world discussing the weather, "You should have heeded that warning."
The descendant of the World-Circling Serpent manages a raspy laugh unlike her usual dulcet tones. "You're different, Whiteout. You're not shivering in your boots anymore."
"Yeah, well," Aislin answers when she lands back on the other side of the clearing and walks away, "things change when you're trying to protect the ones you love."
——
Yusuke gives his companions a strange look when all three sneeze at the same time—and oddly enough, in almost the same tone, shaking their heads to clear the tickle away. "You guys do that often?"
"Boss-sama must've been talking about us," mutters Obsidian in his resumed guise of Haru, violet eyes blinking away reaction-tears as he rubs his nose. The gang is walking down the street towards Zephyr's human home, the silver vixen also in her human form and gazing around her with ruby eyes.
"Yusuke, did everything feel strange to you when you came back after your time in the Makai?" she inquires softly, barely audible over the sounds of traffic.
The youkai-descended young man blinks at her before looking skyward and scratching the back of his head. "Come t' think of it, yeah, I guess it did. I mean, this place just seems so much smaller after you spend more than a little time in the other place. Took me some gettin' used to once I got back."
Obsidian turns to Kurama, who has once more assumed the body he'd been born in here, the one of living, jewel-like colors. "Hey, Yo…Minamino-san, where's Hiei? He didn't leave with us."
Emerald eyes glow with inner mischief as the older male swallows a laugh. "He said he had some things to do before giving up his freedom and resuming Koenma's leash," he replies in a light tone. Though if I were to consider the kinds of 'things' he'd bother to take care of here, I'd have to think it's something unrelated to business. Giving his beloved a greeting she'll not forget is something that comes to mind… But the human-bodied fox pushes that train of thought aside, since it leads to another, more-traveled path unsuited to public areas and the rating of this fanfic.
The Spirit Detective breaks off when they pass the route that leads to his own home, claiming that he'd better get his ass back so he can get the scoldings from his mother and Keiko that undoubtedly await him over with. But his quick footsteps give the lie to his reluctant words, letting the trio of kitsune know that he's probably looking forward to the kiss Keiko will likely have for him after she chews him out.
Kurama's mind fills with the sensation of polite knocking and the peculiar feeling of being indoors during a blizzard, a sure sign that his ow beloved has something to say to him. Lowering his outermost mental shield, the crimson fox gently calls, /Yes, koi/
/Catch, my heart-thief./ And a ruby half the size of his head drops into outstretched hands, quickly vanished into his pocket-space before some clueless ningen can spot it and wonder how he'd gotten it.
/Are you alright, koi/ Kurama asks, sensing emotional exhaustion and a curious kind of elation in the telepathic link being held by his life-mate.
/I just faced down one of my nightmares, love, but I'm fine. A little shaken, but fine. I'll see you soon but I need to stop by the Palace first to reassure the toddle that I'm not pillaging and marauding like he probably thinks I am./ The familiar comfort of a mental kiss being blown at him and the link snaps, broken off by Aislin with the replacement of her shields. Kurama follows her example, giving his young pupils a cheerful smile.
"Well, that's four down, one to go. Let's get Zephyr home before her mother decides to stack more punishment atop what she's already getting, shall we?"
——
"Hello, Koenma."
"Gyaah!" The toddler busy stamping the usual stacks of paperwork leaps out of his chair and onto his head on the floor, dropping his stamp in the process and scattering papers every which way. Quiet laughter greets him as he picks himself back up and climbs back into his chair to gaze dumbfounded at the slender female sitting on nothing in front of his desk. "A-A-Aislin?"
"In the flesh," chuckles his guest, flicking her snowy braid back over her shoulder. "Oh, come now, Koenma, surely you didn't think I simply ditched my sentence and went back to my old life, did you? I still have two-hundred eighty-two years left on parole and plenty of spooking you to do."
"But you were—Hiei was—I thought—"
"Hiei," interrupts the ice-fox, "will likely be along fairly soon with his report on how his hunt for Avalon went. I am here to let you know that he behaved himself while in Makai and did not indulge in criminal activity while out of reach of your regular informants."
"Did he catch him?" Koenma asks eagerly, face falling when his visitor just shakes her head.
"Not yet, I'm afraid, and he's managed to collect two more jewels while we were looking for him." She calls on her Illusions-youkai blood, conjuring images as she speaks. "One is the Eternity Lily and the other is the Blood-star Ruby, so his count includes those and the Dragon's Tear and the Agate Eye."
"Aislin, you and Yoko stole that one."
"Koenma, I don't even know where the silly thing was hidden, so how could I steal it? You must be overworking again."
"You left your damned calling card on the Vault floor, woman!"
"Did I?" Aislin does a much better job than Threnody did at looking innocent. "You know, it's a very well known image these days, are you certain someone wasn't just copycatting us?" She discards that 'notion' while Koenma turns red in the face. "No, no, no one should have been able to break into the Vault in the first place, not with my security designs in place. So really, Koenma, you must be overworking again and imagining things."
"I hate you so much, you know that."
She laughs again, a silvery sound that never fails to make heads turn on the street. "You're just so much fun to antagonize, Koenma, you really are. It doesn't matter who stole it, the Avalon has it. And I doubt you're getting it back for a while."
"He needs to be put back into prison, Aislin. I have no doubt you know that particular legend about the Dragon Gems and he seems set on testing it."
Turquoise eyes roll at the dramatic tones the toddler-prince seems to be intent on using. "Nonsense, Koenma, the boy doesn't even know about that legend and I made sure he wouldn't. I can assure you that he's not going to try that."
"I don't believe you."
"Don't believe me or do, I don't care. Now, before this whole mess started you said you had a task that would specifically require someone of my skills, strength, and mentality. Are you still assigning me this task of yours or has someone else already gotten it?"
Koenma settles back in his chair sucking on his pacifier. "It's still yours if you choose to accept it. There is no one else in my employ capable of handling this mission with the level of secrecy needed."
"I will admit you've caught my interest. Do continue…"
Over an hour later the koorime woman emerges from Koenma's office, mulling over her new mission. No wonder he'd needed her; she's very likely the only one who could do it, period. Walking in her own thoughts, she passes by startled ogres and ferry-girls that yelp and go the other way when they spot her. She doesn't notice, busy running numbers behind her eyes in calculation.
She'd be cutting it close. If she doesn't finish fast enough…A violent shake of the snowy head dispels that unpleasant thought. That won't happen. She refuses to let it. Determination quickens her steps and she's nearly running—for a normal human—down the corridor when BAM!
"Ouch!"
"Eh? Botan-chan?"
The bubbly ferry-girl blinks at the figure almost glowing beneath the fluorescent lights of the hallway, standing in a relaxed pose with one hand outstretched. "Aislin-san! Oh, my! I'm sorry I wasn't looking where I was going!" The taller girl accepts the proffered hand and is pulled to her feet, bowing once she's upright. "What's it been, almost a month?"
"Almost," agrees the youkai, a kernel of an idea forming. "Say, Botan-chan, are you doing anything at the moment?"
"Eh? Um, no, I don't have anyone that I'm scheduled to pick up. Why?"
"I need a ride."
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