Author's Note: Hi everyone! I am so happy! One of my fav authors, Dragonflyr, posted 'Eyewash', the sequel to '9 Months', which is one of my fav stories! Yay! And I just finished reading 'The Ink Dark Moon,' which is a collection of love poems from Ono no Komachi and Izumi Shikibu. I totally recommend you get it. It rocks! The poems are from the Heian Era and are really sweet and sad. Ok, get this. Every year, my school does a Christmas pageant. Lame, I know. This year I get to be an angel, and my boyfriend is a wise man. Hah! There is nothing wise about him! Can you believe it? Allrighty, let's get on with the story!
This chapter is dedicated to my best friends Julia, Erica, Ashlee, Mary Kate, and my BF Tyler. Love you all!
Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho.
It was pitch black and extremely humid. Hiei had only been walking for a few minutes before he had to shed his cloak. He didn't know where he was going; in fact, he was still pondering what the owl priest had said.
You will discover who you care for the most…who you would sacrifice yourself for…
Hiei snorted derisively. He already knew the answer to that question—Yukina. Still, he couldn't help but wonder what was going to happen. Hn. And all of this trouble because that stupid Ryokun didn't have the intelligence to watch where she was running.
After a couple more minutes of traveling through the mysterious cave, Hiei grew frustrated. What the hellfire was he doing? I know what I'm doing, he thought contemptuously, I'm walking through a baka cave because some baka owl priests want to see what's in my heart. Hn.
In anger, the fire demon kicked the cave wall, ignoring the pain in his foot. Torches abruptly flared to life, illuminating the cave tunnel in a surreal light. The tunnel that Hiei was in stretched almost to the end of the fire demon's vision before turning violently. He studied his surroundings for a moment longer before stalking down the tunnel.
Just as he reached the corner, the torches began to sputter. One by one, they flickered out, once again plunging the cave/tunnel into darkness. Hiei huffed impatiently, dropping his hand to his katana.
Suddenly, a figure appeared just around the corner, as if he or she had walked into the half-light. Hiei studied the person intently. It was female and dressed in a traditional kimono. Her aqua hair was bound in a high ponytail. Hiei caught his breath sharply.
"K-kasaan?"
The world around him came slowly into focus, the edges of his vision tinged with red. Kurama tried to sit up, falling back with a groan when he couldn't. Everything hurt. With a grimace of pain, the fox turned his head. The BloodRacer that had fallen with him was dead, impaled on a rocky spear that jutted from the ravine floor. High above, Kurama could hear the other cat demons growling.
"I don't know how this happened," Kurama said to himself through gritted teeth, "but Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Hiei are so going to pay for-"
Yusuke! Hiei! Kuwabara! Inari, he remembered!
Tears of relief sprang to Kurama's eyes. It felt so good to have his memory back, he couldn't describe it. He laid back down, reveling in the feeling of just remembering. He had been ambushed in the forest near Hiroku Mountain. Well, that would explain how Matsuji had been able to give him amnesia, probably with a serum or something to that effect. And his friends…
He remembered that all too well. But from what he had picked up from Ren and Matsuji's conversation, Hiei had paired up with K'Ray and was even now looking for him. The very thought filled him with joy. So his friends hadn't abandoned him! Maybe there was some hope, after all.
But first, he had to try and get out of the ravine. He shifted slightly, grimacing as he realized that quite a few bones had been broken in the fall. Luckily, none of his internal organs had been damaged. Fate had blessed him this day.
With what little spirit energy he had left, the fox grew a small herbal plant that would speed the healing process. He forced himself to use his hand and pick a few of the berries that grew on the plant's limbs. After choking down the bitter fruit, he settled back as the expected drowsiness stole over him.
He was soon fast asleep, unaware that he would be very rudely awakened.
"K-kasaan?"
Hiei's mother didn't speak. She gazed at him sadly, imploringly. Slowly, almost hesitantly, she reached out to her son, her skin softly glowing as if lit by starlight.
Despite himself, Hiei took a step back. "But you're dead!" he said harshly. "You killed yourself after I was thrown off the cliff!"
Tears in her eyes, Hiei's mother shook her head. "No, my son," she whispered softly, her voice like sakura petals falling on snow, "I did not. I am so sorry for not finding you before now."
"Stop lying!" Hiei demanded. "You're dead. This is some stupid trick by those priests."
The tears slid down the ice woman's cheeks. "I'm sorry," she said again. She turned and ran down the tunnel, her footsteps echoing in the darkness.
"Kasaan, wait!" Hiei shouted. He had no idea what was going on, and was firmly convinced that this was some hoax. But to see his mother, even if it was just an illusion, after so many years…
The fire demon chased after her, using his acute senses to find his way along the inky tunnel. He ran for a long time, the sound of his mother running just in front of him.
Suddenly, he burst into a gargantuan cavern, washed with moonlight. Well, it looked like moonlight. There were no openings to the outside sky.
In front of him was his mother, standing at the edge of a yawning fissure that opened up next to the wall, its dark depths looking like the gateway to the underworld itself. Hiei started violently; two people he would have never thought to see there was standing next to the forlorn ice woman.
One was someone he had watched over for most of his life, but who didn't know the face of her protector. Yukina looked at him sadly, motioning to their mother.
"Don't you love her, Hiei? Don't you love me?" she asked. Hiei's eyes widened. He was now convinced that all this was real, no matter how strange it had turned out as.
"You know?"
"Yes…my brother." Yukina smiled, her innocent face radiating joy. "At last I have found you. We're together again, a family. All three of us."
Hiei turned from her to the final person there. He stared incredulously at her, unsure of what to say.
"How did you get down here?" he finally demanded.
K'Ray cocked her head at him, a beautiful gleam in her violet eyes. "I don't know," she said, shrugging. "One minute I was standing next to those bird men and the next I was right here, watching this touching reunion. I'm happy for you, really. It's wonderful that you've found the missing pieces in your life."
Hiei's lips twitched in a smile. He nodded his head in thanks.
"But what now?" he asked.
"I think we-"
K'Ray never finished her sentence. Three spiked tentacles came whipping up from the fissure's depths, each one wrapping around one of the women standing at the gap's edge. Hiei's mother screamed as she fell, desperately trying to freeze the thing, but to no avail. Yukina grabbed at a chink in the rock, holding on for dear life. K'Ray stabbed her dagger into the dirt, the rose she had tucked into her hair so long before falling into the hellish opening's depths.
What do I do? Hiei thought frantically. I can only save one of them. Only one…
His mother, his sister, his traveling companion. One of them, but who?
K'Ray formed a mental link with Hiei.
Save one of your family, you idiot!
Hiei thought it over furiously. Who was the most important?
K'Ray fell a little farther in even as Yukina slipped beyond the edge, her hand the only thing visible. Hiei's mother struggled, but she couldn't break free.
This had all transpired in the span of five seconds. Hiei dove toward the women, katana drawn. He had decided on who he was going to save—he was going to save Yukina. Faster than the blink of an eye, he dove for the woman he cared about the most, just as all three disappeared into the darkness. He dove for the woman he loved, for the woman he would sacrifice everything, even his life for. He grabbed at the hand of the most important person to him.
He grabbed onto K'Ray.
Kurama was jolted into awareness by a sharp pain in his side. Opening his eyes blearily, he looked up at the tall, lean figure that had kicked him.
"Well well, it seems the clever fox has been caught once again." Matsuji looked over at Ren, who was standing next to him. "Good job, Ren."
"Why do you keep running away?" she asked Kurama, a pouting look on her face. "I'm beginning to think you don't like me."
Kurama glared at her. "I'm glad you finally figured it out," he snarled. He snapped his gaze back to Matsuji. "What do you want, Matsuji?"
"Oh, you've gotten your memory back, have you?" Matsuji commented. He smiled at Kurama's confused look. "If you still had amnesia, you wouldn't have known who I was."
Kurama cursed himself silently for his slip up. "What are you going to do now?" he demanded. He fought down the panic that was growing inside him. He couldn't move, and his worst enemy was standing right in front of him. Matsuji couldn't get a better opening for slaughter.
"What am I going to do?" Matsuji mused. He looked up to the sky as if deep in thought. "First of all, I am going to remove your memory. All of it."
Kurama shuddered in fear. "What?" he asked harshly.
"You heard me. I can no longer let you remember anything, not even your precious K'Ray. You will have complete amnesia, and I can promise you that this time, it'll be permanent." The demon kicked at the BloodRacer's carcass in amusement, as if the bloody sight made him happy.
"But why?"
"For fun, I suppose. Hiei and K'Ray are getting even closer to my hideout with every hour that passes. Imagine their faces when they see that you serve me simply because you can't remember who you are."
"And why would I serve you?"
"So many questions!" Matsuji chided mockingly. "You will serve me because I will promise you your memory if you do as I say. And I will say…to take your friend's souls."
"No!" Kurama snapped. Matsuji took two soul gems from his pocket, an onyx one for Hiei and an opal for K'Ray. "I won't kill them!"
"Yes, you will," Matsuji retorted. Kurama could see that he was getting tired of the banter. "You will because you will be so desperate to get your memory back, even a shred of it, you will do whatever I say."
The demon took a syringe from his pocket, grinning as he plunged it into Kurama's arm. "If it's any comfort, you won't know who you're killing."
Kurama screamed in anguish as darkness took him once again.
To Be Continued…Author's Note: How'd you like it? Hiei loves K'Ray, Hiei loves K'Ray…I am so sorry, Julia! I know it pained you to read that. I hope you had fun with this chapter, because I sure did! Hehehe, that was great…though I feel really bad for Kurama. Come on, losing his memory twice? That has to suck. All righty, please review! It would mean so much! Thanks, and until next time, ja ne!