Evasion of Normalcy
Disclaimer: If I owned it then there would be an American name on it!
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Chapter Two
Gaurdian Tenshi
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A sky-haired onna surveyed the gory scene below her, sighing as she watched the ningen crowd whisper amongst themselves. The onna's pink eyes glanced at the mangled body the coroners were extracting from the rusted dumpster only briefly, and she wouldn't look back down until the black clad man had been placed in an equally dark body bag.
The only witness to the crime that the police had was being questioned, and when asked to confirm that the victim was one of the men she saw the previous night, she shuddered and barely whispered that he had saved her. She was asked to describe her attacker, but the police merely labled her as 'traumatized by her ordeal' when she began to tell them of a tall, green-skinned monster with crimson eyes.
Botan scanned the throngs of ningens for a slightly transparent figure, only to glance back at the crime scene after finding no such person. The police were now extracting three katanas from the green and rust-red dumpster, placing them in a bag labled 'evidence'.
Searching around her for traces of ki, Botan found two seperate sources of the same ki. One was being dragged around the Makai, but the other half, was lounging calmly in a nearby park.
Botan turned her oar toward the spirit within the park's direction, but merely glided to her destination. Her target was Jaganshi Hiei, a hi koorime that had been tortured and murdered by his father, Jaganshi Xian.
Hiei had previously been on probation, a probation restricted to the confines of Ningenkai, and was strictly prohibited against becoming involved in any act of violence. Now that Hiei had fought with Xian to protect a ningen onna, however, Reikai law states that he is to be shoved into Reikai Prison for all of eternity.
No matter how much Botan had begged for Hiei to be sent to either Hell or Heaven, there was nothing that Lord Koenma could do about it. He had explained that only his father, King Enma, could change the law, and doing so could prove catastophic. Demons and ningens alike, in the result of a change in the law, within the Reikai Prison would be ripped out of limbo, and become souls again that would roam the three worlds until they were either grabbed by a minion of Enma to be dragged to Hell, or picked up by a tenshi of Kami-sama to be carted off to Heaven. With ningens and demons dying every day, a massive breakout of souls would cause calamity, the wrong souls would get taken to Hell and vice versa.
Botan slowly approached the mori, pitying Hiei for his cruel fate. The mere idea of the Reikai Prison made Botan shudder, but walking within it's unfathomable depths, that was enough to make her feel faint.
Hiei had never led a favorable lifestyle. Soon after he was born, his Jagan had been removed, which is a painful process, and was then flung form the floating Isle of the Koorime by a good friend of his mother's, an onyx tear gem tucked into the blanket he had been wrapped in. It was a miracle that he survived the fall. He laid on the floor of the Makai, crying out in hunger, until a group of demon bandits found and took him in.
While he traveled with the bandits, he was given the meagerest of meals, and was beaten when he failed or hesitated to do what the older demons ordered. Eventually, at the young age of five, the bandits took notice of Hiei's strange passion for slaughter and theivery. One year later, the leader of the bandits grew wary of Hiei's strength, and lust for power. In an attempt to prevent his possible overthrow, he ordered for Hiei's immediate execution.
As the demons moved to attack the boy, the Dragon of the Darkness Flame consumed them all, placing it's permanent mark on Hiei's right arm. The dark violet tattoo of the very creature that had protected him caused Hiei to strive for power even more determinedly than before, leading to very elaborate, and bloody, acts of theivery. As he grew older, his Dragon of the Darkness Flame had grown in power as well.
Hiei's notorious criminal acts quickly earned him a reputation as a fearless, and ruthless assasin. Many corrupt demon Lords over territories in the Makai hired him to steal rare artifacts of power from the palace of Reikai, making Hiei a very rich, and revered demon. So rich that he managed to purchase a Jagan, and find someone capable, and trustworthy enough to have it embedded in his forhead.
Hiei's reign of power came to an abrupt halt when he ran into a kato onna on his way out of the palace. He had pulled one of his katanas out threateningly, but the onna had a demon whistle hidden in the folds of her kimono. She quickly pulled it out, blasting out a long, and very high pitched note, causing Hiei to clutch his head in pain, and collapse to the floor, unconcious.
Botan was that kato onna that knocked Hiei into his unconcious state. Had she told anyone besides Lord Koenma, they would have laughed themselves into a stupor. Like a kato onna could capture the mighty, and elusive Jaganshi Hiei? She did, though, and Hiei was placed in front of Koenma, the prince of Hell.
Instead of being thrown into Reikai Prison for all of the artifacts he stole, Hiei was allowed probation, provided he gave Koenma all of the artifacts that he had kept for himself, and told who his employers were. Hiei didn't care what happened to his previous employers, and had no need for most of the artifacts he possesed, so he had complied. Only to be brutally murdered by Jaganshi Xian a month into his probation.
Botan has been, in a way, Hiei's gaurdian tenshi, watching over him from birth. She had prevented his capture within Reikai, also preventing him from harming any onis or kato onnas by masking his ki from the employees of Reikai. Up to the point that he drew a katana on her, he had eluded capture unknowing of Botan's help.
She had helped the powerful demon in secret, not even Lord Koenma knew. While Hiei's father had his Jagan removed, Botan had been there in spirit form to soothe his pain. When he was thrown from the floating Isle of the Koorime, the pink-eyed deity had caught him, he immediately ceased his crying, then placing him near a group of bandits that were few in numbers, making them eager for a new member.
After he had been beaten and starved by his adoptive "caretakers", Hiei would fall asleep, and Botan would come in the night to heal his wounds and leave a small meal for him when he awakened. Once the leader of the bandits ordered his execution, Botan evoked a power lying dormant in an ancient artifact,
granting Hiei the awesome power of the Dragon of the Darkness Flame.
When Hiei began searching for a Jagan, Botan took his very own Jagan from the vault of artifacts in Reikai, sold it to him, and performed the operation to have it placed back in his forehead. The operation proved less painful than when his Jagan had been removed, because the Jagan had originally come from his forhead, but it was the first time Botan had ever heard Hiei cry out in pain.
When she found out about Hiei's death, Botan felt that she was at fault. Botan had to place all of her energy and concentration into masquerading as a demon mistress to get close to Hiei's former employers during the whole month that Hiei was on probation, so she could not mask his ki from Jaganshi Xian.
'Then again...If I hadn't turned him into Lord Koenma-sama in the first place, I would have been able to continue protecting Hiei...Now, though, Hiei is going to go to Reikai Prison...And it's all my fault...' Botan thought as the tree Hiei was laying in came into view. When she got nearer, a gasp escaped her lips, making him crack open an eye. Hiei was almost invisible, he was so transparent.
Botan recalled sensing two forms of his ki, 'Oh, Kami-sama, his soul has been ripped in half! And I'm to blame for it...' she thought sorrowfully. Before she could sink into her pit of self-loating, however, Hiei spoke quietly "Hn.You're the kato onna that turned me in to pacifier breath. Here to take me to Hell?"
She almost burst into tears at his question, but held it in to mumble out, "No...Gomen nasai, Hiei...Since you broke the terms of your probation, you'll...You'll be thrown into Reikai Prison for eternity...and because you are only a half soul you cannot recieve judgement from Lord Enma..." His crimson eyes widened slightly as he sat up on the branch. He glanced at Botan, "Hn. What will happen to the other half of my soul?"
The sky-haired kato onna stared hard at the ground, blaming herself inside her mind, "We will try to retrieve it, but it may not be possible. The Reikon Settouzai Katana was created to execute and condemn..." Hiei glared at the sky for moments longer, then looked at Botan, "Well, how are you going to take me to prison?"
Botan looked at her oar and whispered, "We're going to fly..." Hiei merely nodded, placing himself on the oar behind Botan. He circled an arm around her waist, and held onto the oar with the other.
"Ready?" asked Botan, glad that Hiei couldn't see the red tinge that had spread across her cheeks at his touch. "Hn." was all Hiei said, pulling, much to the kato onna's discomfort, her waist closer to his body when they took off for Reikai, Hiei silently cursing the oar all the way there.
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Japanese Dictionary:
domo arigatou - thank you very much
tenshi - angel
onna - woman
ningen - human
katana - Japanese style sword
ki - spirit energy
Makai - the demon world
hi koorime - fire/ice demon
Ningenkai - the human world
Reikai - the spirit world
Kami-sama - God
mori - forest
Jagan - evil eye
kato - ferry
kimono - traditional Japanese style of clothing, worn by both sexes
oni - ogre
gomen nasai - I'm very sorry
Reikon Settouzai Katana - Soul Stealing Sword
Again I apologise to Hiei fans, but his being shipped off to limbo for eternity has to be there to fit the storyline I came up with during math class (which is probably why I passed that subject with a flying F). Also, I probably didn't get alot of Hiei's past right, but I heard about it somewhere and it went something like that (without Botan, though...). Anyway, in the next chapter we meet Lord Youko Kurama, and his mate Yukina! Review please, hope you enjoyed chapter two!