Rise of the Dark Angel
DG32173
Here's chapter 2. I hope people enjoy. Don't ask me when Hiei will admit his feelings, because I don't know though I've already planned the next few chapters in my head. Oh, and Youko and Koronue will make their appearance this chapter. You will understand the name of the chapter if you read the whole chapter. Well, on to the story after a disclaimer.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own YYH, so quit asking.
NOTE
(Author notes)
"Singing" (minus when in memories)
'Telepathy' (minus when in memories)
Memories POV change Scene change Scene change in memories'Thinking'
"Talking"
REVIEW REPLIES
Slancaster113: (sorry I missed you in chapter 1!) I'm glad you like the difference. Hiei and Shadow became friends quickly because of how young they were when they met. They were a lot more trusting then, and their trust in each other grew over the years.
Pyrassoul: I'm glad you like it, and I hope you continue to enjoy the upcoming twists in the plot.
HieiFan666: yes, it is so cute! Him telling her? Well, look up at the top of the fic … I don't know when he'll tell her. I'm also considering a one-shot as a side thought of this story … but I don't know. Well, I hope you like the update!
Chapter 2
Leaving Only a Note
Last time
Then I realize something. I'm falling in love with my best friend.
This time
Shadow finishes picking out some of the books from the bookcase. She puts the books in one of their sacks, and then yawns. Hiei smirks. "Tired?" he asks.
She smiles at him. "Just a bit," she says. He rolls his eyes and makes room for her on the bed, like he's done every night for the past fifteen years. She smiles and lies down beside him. He wraps an arm around her waist so that she doesn't get cold during the night and they go to sleep like that. While asleep, Shadow moves closer to Hiei subconsciously as he hugs her tighter.
Next morning
Hiei wakes up to someone poking him and giggling slightly. He grabs the hand as it's about to poke him again and opens his eyes to glare slightly at Shadow. She just smiles at him. "Can you remove your hand from my waist so that I can get up?" she asks.
He smirks. "And why do you want to get up?" he asks, releasing her hand but not letting go of her waist.
She puts the finger she had been poking him with to her chin. "Hm. Good question," she says. "I guess there's no logical answer other than I want to get up."
He smiles. "Not good enough," he says. She pouts and turns on the puppy-dog eyes. He growls. "Fine," he says, being unable to resist such a cute look. (I warned you about OOC-ness, so don't yell at me that he's not in character! And he's only like this around Shadow and, soon, Youko and Koronue!) He releases her waist to allow her to stand. He looks out the window near the bed and notes that it's not quite sunrise yet. Which means it's only a little after five.
She pulls out some bread and dried meat they had "borrowed" a couple days ago and they eat silently. They leave the dojo as the sun starts to rise around six. They have a lot of distance to cover and not much time to do so in. They are heading for a small city composed almost entirely of thieves and a few traders. The city is about a seventy or so miles north of them and they want to get there by noon. To do so, they have to move quickly and take as few breaks as possible.
Five hours later
It's a little after eleven and Hiei and Shadow are within a mile of the thief city, Evander. Shadow is moving quickly over the ground of the large forest that surrounds Evander on all sides while Hiei as leaping from tree to tree. They had estimated they'd be there by noon, but they will be there at least thirty minutes earlier than planned.
Soon, they are out of the forest and heading for the south gate. A thief watches them as they approach. "Password?" the thief growls. To get into Evander, or any thief city for that matter, through one of the two gates, you have to know a secret password that changes frequently and is known only to thieves.
Hiei says the password, which I am forbidden to tell you, and the thief allows them to pass. Shadow and Hiei can now relax. The only ones who can trust a thief are other thieves. Which is why they had created about a hundred or so hidden cities in which to sell "borrowed" property and barter for food and drinks.
Hiei and Shadow move around and sell some of the jewelry that Shadow had filched yesterday for some money and trade some more of the jewelry for plenty of food that should last for weeks without spoiling.
Shadow also trades a large ruby for two more large packs that they could strap onto their shoulders. These packs are magical packs that had been created by some witch or wizard. The packs can hold several hundred pounds more than they look like they can and weigh only about ten to twenty pounds to the carrier. Like I said, magical packs.
Hiei and Shadow quickly exchange their belongings from their old packs to the new packs. They then sell the old packs for a few dollars in demon money. The trading and selling had taken several hours, during which they had taken breaks for lunch and dinner, and now sunset is closing in. Hiei and Shadow decide that they should head for the small inn to get a decent room for the night.
When they get there, though, they find that the last room had been given to a tall fox thief (anyone have a guess? Oh, come on! It's so easy! Trust me, you'll hit yourself if you don't guess it right!). Shadow decides to speak with the fox thief, since there are two beds in the room he was given and he's not sharing the room with anyone. After a few moments, she motions for Hiei to come over.
"Hiei, this is Youko Kurama (like I said, easy!). Youko, this is Hiei Jaganshi," she says, introducing the two. They nod at each other and Shadow tells Hiei that Youko had agreed to let them have the second bed in his room.
One hour later
Shadow, Hiei, and Youko had become fast friends. Shadow and Hiei are currently trying to convince Youko to come with them. Finally, Shadow decides to use the puppy-dog pleading-eyes. "Fine, fine! I'll come!" Youko says, unable to resist her cute face when she uses the puppy-dog eyes.
Shadow and Hiei grin slightly at the fox thief, who smiles back. The three-some get to know each other better over the next two hours and then decide to go to bed. Shadow is the first to fall asleep while Hiei and Youko talk softly so as not to wake the sleeping shadow vixen (ironic how she chose the nickname Shadow and is part shadow fox, no?). But they soon fall asleep as well.
The three had decided to share the larger of the beds instead of split up and use two. So now Shadow as sleeping with her head against Hiei's chest while she is facing him. The fire demon has an arm around her waist and resting his hand on a bit of skin visible on her back. Youko is lying on the other side of Shadow, so that his chest is against the small girl's back and his arm is hanging loosely around both of the smaller demons.
Five years later
In the five years since Hiei and Shadow had met Youko, the three had met up with a bat demon named Koronue and had him join them so now that they are a foursome thieving group. Shadow had just celebrated her thirtieth birthday. Hiei is going to be thirty-five soon, and Youko and Koronue are both about forty. But none of the four look a day over twenty at the latest. Shadow still looks to be only eighteen, which does have its advantages.
The foursome had taken over a small, deserted dojo a little over three years ago, about two months after Koronue had joined up with them. Strangely enough, the dojo has a small library with several forgotten books. The dojo is hidden in a forest about fifty miles north of the thief city of Nagoya (no, not the Nagoya in Japan!), the northernmost of the thief cities. Located in the hills at the base of the Northern Mona Mountains, very few of the demon police venture out this far. And those who do are easily dealt with. There are several mediocre sized cities within a ten mile radius of the dojo, so there are plenty of places and people to "borrow" from.
Currently, it's about two hours after dinner and Shadow is in the library finishing up a book that she hasn't read yet. Youko and Koronue are practicing in the training room across the hall, so she can hear them battling each other rather easily. She doesn't have any idea where Hiei is, though.
Her pointed ears perk when she hears someone's soft steps enter the library. She can still hear Youko and Koronue battling across the hall, so she suspects that it's Hiei. True to her suspicions, the slightly taller fire demon slouches in the chair across from her with a sigh. "You okay, Hiei?" she asks, not looking up from her book. She doesn't have to, she heard his sigh and knows he only sighs when something's troubling him or he has a lot on his mind.
"I'm fine," he says softly, noticing that she's nearing the end of her book. "Good book, I assume, seeing as you haven't read it before today and you're already near the end."
"Yes, it is good," Shadow says, finishing up the last paragraph. She closes the book and looks at him with a mock pout. "But the way it left off was very cruel. It's the first of a series, and now I have to look for the second book to find out what happens next."
He rolls his eyes at her. "You are very strange, you know that?" he says.
"Yes, you've told me many times, Hiei. As have Youko and Koronue," she says, smiling at him. He can't help but to smile back. Shadow's smiles are very infectious, causing everyone she smiles at to smile back at her.
"So I recall," he says. He watches as she stands up and puts the book back in its place and pull out another one. When they first appropriated the dojo as theirs, Shadow had forced the three guys to help her straighten up the library and alphabetize all the books by author's name, then titles and series by that author.
That task alone took the four of them two entire days and a half of a third day to complete. None of them had realized just how many books Shadow had managed to acquire. Combining those with the ones left scattered around the dojo had filled up about half of the rather large library. Well, large when compared to the rest of the rooms in the dojo. The library is the largest room in the dojo, a good three times larger than the kitchen, dining room, and living room combined.
Hiei's eyes follow Shadow's movements as she moves back to the chair she had formerly been sitting in. She sits down smoothly and opens the new book. After a few moments, she scowls. "Now what's your problem?" he asks, noting the scowl.
"The second book picks up two months after the first one left off! Now I'll never know what happened!" she grumbles. "I really hate it when writers do stuff like that in series!"
Hiei rolls his eyes. That's Shadow for you. Always wanting to know what happens in a series of books in order and not skipping days from where the previous left off, much less weeks or months. She glares at the book in her lap angrily, but continues to read the book, muttering profanities at it under her breath every so often. "The book can't hear you, Shadow, so stop cursing at it," he says, getting up.
"Okay, okay, but that is so not right!" she says. Hiei shakes his head at her and leaves the room. He finds Youko and Koronue just coming out of the training room, covered in small scrapes and bruises, but otherwise alright.
Youko peeks in the library at Shadow and notices the look she's giving the book she's reading. "What's her problem?" he asks Hiei.
"She read the first book of a series and is now mad because the second one picks up two months after the first left off," Hiei says calmly, as if it is a regular occurrence. Which, basically, it is. Youko and Koronue roll their eyes and the three guys decide to head off to their separate rooms. Hiei and Shadow still share a bed, since there are only three bedrooms. Of course, they don't mind, as they've been doing it for about twenty years now anyways.
With Shadow
Shadow finishes up the book she's reading around midnight and puts it back in its place. She'll read the third book some other time. But she's not very tired at the moment and decides to take a walk in the gardens that Youko had nurtured behind the dojo. She walks calmly down the paths lined with beautiful plants. She makes her way to a special area Youko had made especially for her.
It's almost like a small grotto in the back of the gardens, furthest from the dojo. In it are some of her favorite flowers, which, surprisingly, are the same as Youko's: roses. The roses are in every color a rose comes in, from white to red to black and every other color in between. There's also a small swing, just large enough for two people, with a cherry wood seat and back that is suspended from an ancient oak tree by beautiful rose vines that, surprisingly, don't have thorns. The tree is situated behind her Grotto, which the guys had named Shadow's Grotto, on the very edge of the forest around the dojo. The guys never bother her when she's here unless it's an emergency or she asks them to come to her.
She sits on the swing, and leans against the back. She looks through the leaves of the old oak tree at the stars. She smiles slightly and closes her eyes. Only to snap them back open when she hears a horse coming through the forest towards her. She stands up and moves out of the Grotto and around the tall hedges that surround it. She watches silently as a white horse comes up. The horse's rider is dressed in fine fabric of silver and gold colors. A Royal Messenger. Dammit. She's been found after twenty years. "May I help you?" she asks the rider.
"Shadow Silversong?" the messenger asks.
"Yes," she says suspiciously.
"The King and Queen have ordered for your return, Princess Lunetta Avian," the messenger says.
"I'm afraid you are mistaken. There is no one here by that name, sir, and certainly no princesses," she says, holding back the anger she feels. She can't believe it. They had found her. Damn, damn, damn!
"No, I am not. They have found you," he responds. "And if you do not return of your own free will, then the King and Queen will send a branch of the Royal Army to bring you back by force."
She glares at him. "Tell them I'm coming. I will need a horse to return to the palace, though," she says coldly.
"That has been arranged. There is a horse waiting for you in Lilieth. Talk to the innkeeper and he'll give it to you," the messenger says.
"Fine," she says, still cold and angry. She plucks a seed from her ebony hair and holds it threateningly, her ice-colored eyes flashing darkly in the moonlight. "Now leave, or I shall set a death tree on you and take your horse for myself."
The messenger nods, visibly paling. He quickly turns his horse around and leaves the way he had come. She sighs. Dammit, now she has to return. At least Lilieth is only a mile and a half away.
She heads inside and finds a sheet of paper and her favorite writing feather. Grabbing a small container of ink, she writes quickly, but neatly, a note to Hiei, Youko, and Koronue. Hiei will understand better than the other two, as he had been the one to help her become free of the title. She sighs and leaves the dojo, nothing but the note on the dresser beside Hiei's sleeping form telling of her departure.
The note reads
Hiei, Youko, and Koronue,
Some stuff from before I became a thief that has come up again. I have to get this settled and work some other stuff out before I can return. I really wish that I didn't have to leave you with a note. I wish I didn't have to leave at all, but if I had stayed, some things would be happening soon that will cause several questions to come up that I can't truthfully answer at the moment. Please forgive me for the sudden departure, and I'll return as soon as I am able to. I swear this on the thief's code! No matter what, I'll always be your friend. I will miss all of you very dearly and will think of you often while I'm away. Maybe, when I return, I can tell you everything. But until then, don't forget me and I promise I will never forget any of you!
Much love, Shadow
At the end of the note, she draws a very small crescent moon blocked slightly with a dark cloud. If one doesn't know what it is, then they will think it's merely a spot of spilled ink. Hiei will definitely know what that symbol means, because he's the one who came up with it as a code between the two of them.
Well, that's it for chapter 2. Very interesting how it ended. I think that this will turn into quite an adventure. Though the story will follow Shadow about ninety-percent of the time, I will try to show what is going on with Hiei and the other two. I know next chapter will show their reactions to the note, but I'm not sure when they will reappear after that. I know they will reappear near the middle of the fic, but that will be a long ways from now, so please, please, please forgive me for making you all wait!