Chapter 2: Hitei Forest, the Cave and the Found Fox
The three stepped out of the portal into a dense forest. The humidity was the first thing to hit the two humans, as they both immediately caught their breaths and started sweating.
Kuwabara wiped his forehead. "Man, is this like a rain forest or something?"
Hiei didn't even bother to answer, he was busy looking around trying to get a sense of which way Kurama had went and what could have attacked Miles so quickly upon his arrival here. Yusuke also ignored the question as he too looked, at least tried to look, all he could see was low foliage and trees so tall, they could rival a city skyscraper, in height and width.
"What's the name of this forest again?" He asked, still trying to get a sense of the place, but moving his head towards Hiei.
"It's called the Mori no Hitei." Hiei replied, uncovering his jagan and moving about twenty feet ahead into a small patch of bushes.
"Forest of Denial…great." Yusuke said under his breath, starting to follow along with Kuwabara.
When they caught up to the fire demon, they noticed he was looking at something on the ground. Each looking over a shoulder, their eyes went wide. Kuwabara immediately turned his head, looking a pale green as he walked a bit away to study a leaf on a nearby tree. Yusuke just stared like it was a train wreck and couldn't seem to turn his eyes away. What they had come upon was a lot of blood and what had to be Miles, what was left of him anyways.
Hiei bent down, looking closer and seeing if there was evidence as to what happened. Yusuke turned his head away when he saw Hiei taking his fingers and moving things around. "Can you tell what happened?" He asked, looking at the body then up to the forest.
"He was attacked." Hiei stated, wiping his hand on some nearby leaves and what little fabric was clean.
"No shit Sherlock." Yusuke voiced back with a look of "duh" on his face.
Hiei ignored the remark. "He was attacked by something with claws and fangs. The claws ripped his chest opened and there appears to be fang marks along the neck and shoulder."
Kuwabara turned around to stare at Hiei. "Are there vampires in this forest?" He asked.
Hiei growled. "No, you baka…vampires live a thousand miles to the west."
Before the two could start arguing, Yusuke jumped in. "Could Kurama have attacked him as Youko? Not knowing Miles was a good guy."
Hiei was actually taken off guard by that question and had to think of what would make Yusuke say something like that. He finally said. "I don't think so…NO…I know so. The answer is NO! He might when he was full Youko, thinking Miles was trespassing on his territory. But not now, Kurama has not been back to this area in over twenty years, at least his ningen years, who knows how long before that. He would know to assume that this might not be his territory anymore."
Chocolate eyes saw the hurt in the red ones. "Sorry." Yusuke said. "Just thinking and trying to figure out what might have happened." He said the words calmly after seeing the fire demon getting upset.
"Which way now?" Kuwabara asked, still trying not to look at the body and wondering if Kurama was alright after seeing this.
"Let me think for a minute." Hiei said walking over to a small clearing, not even big enough to park a car, and sitting down Indian style. He closed his two eyes, but left his third eye, a jagan, glowing. The other two watched in complete silence, the only sounds coming from birds and insects, several minutes past before he jumped up, saying. "I'm picking up traces of him…it's coming from this way." The black haired started walking off in a direction, not even waiting for the others to follow. Assuming they had caught up, he continued to talk. "His rei is really low, too low. He is to the point of only having life energy." His voice was growing with more concern and the others could tell this was not sounding good. The fire demon threw the thoughts that were coming to his mind like a freight train to the back track and knew that his questions were not going to be answered if the fox died. 'Damn you fox, if we had our mental connection, I could sense you better and find you faster.'
As they continued their trek, they could see where someone or something had made a path through the trees and underbrush. "We're about three quarters of a mile now from the portal, wonder how much further he went." The raven haired boy wondered aloud.
He didn't have to wait long for his answer as Hiei replied with fear in his voice. "I smell blood." With his jagan still uncovered, he stared at the ground and saw drops of a wet, dark liquid. Walking ahead, he noticed that the liquid continued and was in quarter size droplets ever few feet. Bending down and touching some with his fingers, he smelled it and his eyes widened in fear. "This is blood and it contains Kurama's youki."
"Let's go!" Yusuke yelled and they took off, getting faster until they came to a cave in a clearing another quarter of a mile from where the blood started, seeing more and more blood as they got closer to the cave. The cave was completely covered in foliage, so much so that you could see nothing inside but darkness.
"He's in there?" Yusuke asked, looking to Hiei before stepping up to the opening, trying to see in.
"Yes." It took all his strength to keep his emotions from spilling out at the thought that Kurama was laying in there injured, worst yet dead.
"Come on." The raven haired said, climbing through the foliage first and didn't even get a few feet in when he screamed. "Kurama!" And was out of sight.
Kuwabara didn't like the sound of Yusuke's voice and ran in next. Hiei snapped out of his thoughts and quickly followed.
Kuwabara slipped on something and almost fell as he made his way in. It got dark, but then there was a soft glowing light just about twenty feet in. His stomach again churned and he had to blink several times to get use to the light and what he was seeing. The light was coming in from a hole in the ceiling of the cave shining on the ground, bathed in that light, was Kurama.
At first all he could see was a yellow piece of cloth, most of it covered in something dark, then a patch of dull red hair. Kurama was laying on his stomach, head almost face down so you could only see his left eye and cheek, his right arm was underneath him and his left was up towards the side of his face. Yusuke was at his left side on his knees trying to get the red head to say something.
"MOVE!" Hiei growled, dashing around the orange haired and making his way to the right side "Kurama can you hear us? We're here; everything is going to be alright." He started rambling.
Looking up at Yusuke, who got the meaning, they carefully turned Kurama over, rolling him to the left. Kuwabara ran to the front of the cave and the sound of retching could be heard. The raven haired wanted to join him, but fought back the urge, he had to help Hiei. Kurama's right side was torn to the muscle and bloody, there were claw marks all down the right side of his chest and hip area, along with fang marks in his neck. His clothing had been shredded, leaving scratches on most of his upper torso, his right arm was broken and the shoulder appeared to be dislocated. What really made the raven haired sick to his stomach was the face. There was a big clawed gash on the right temple causing the eye to swell shut and there were claw marks, on the lid and cheek. The tantei could never imagine this face, the one he always thought was beautiful and perfect, could ever look this way.
Hiei had been thinking the same thing as he ripped the cleanest part of Kurama's outfit to clean up the blood around the wounds. "He must have used all of his rei energy to stop the bleeding." He noted.
Kuwabara finally made his way back in. "Sorry about that, what can I do?" He asked in way of an apology, though he was not looking forward to wiping up the blood of one of his best friends.
"Go and get two long sticks, not much longer than Kurama and also get some strong vines." Hiei said, knowing how Kuwabara was around blood, but mostly knowing he wanted to help.
"What do you have in mind?" Yusuke asked, looking up at him.
"We are not far from one of Mukuro's castles, she has a way of healing him and we can not wait till nightfall for the portal. He doesn't have that much time and this will be faster." Hiei said, looking up at Yusuke.
"Isn't she one of the former three kings of Makai, the one with the mechanical half for a body, or something like that?" Kuwabara asked.
"How do you know about her?" Hiei asked, going back to tearing fabric and cleaning the wounds as best he could.
Kuwabara shrugged. "Kurama came back many times to fill me in on what was happening with you guys, unlike some people." He looked to Yusuke as he continued. "At least he cared enough to keep me in the loop." He'd stated it with hurt in his voice.
"We can talk about that later, go and get the things Hiei needs…now." Yusuke said in frustration, getting mad.
"Right." And with that he was gone.
By the time Kuwabara made it back with two long, cleaned branches and some vines hanging off his shoulders. Yusuke and Hiei had Kurama cleaned and ready to go as best they could.
Hiei grabbed the sticks and laid them on the ground before taking the vines and looping them between the two sticks in a weaving pattern. Once that was done, he took off his cloak and laid it on top. What he ended up with was a make shift gurney. Going back over to Kurama, he looked at Yusuke, who again knew what he wanted. They both bent down to pick up the fox as carefully as they could. Kuwabara even came over and as the two held the chest and legs, he held the head as they hurried over to place the red head on the gurney. Small coughing sounds could be heard as they settled the fox and tried to make him comfortable. They watched as Kurama struggled for a moment then heard a strong "NO" as his left hand started going to his hair.
"Hey!" Yusuke exclaimed. "What are you doing…we're the good guys…you don't even have the strength to do that anyways." He said softly, taking the hand and placing it back down to the side. Kurama's good eye opened and he could see it was trying to focus. It landed on Hiei.
Before Kurama could even try and talk, Hiei leaned in, getting closer to the pale face so he could be seen better and whispering. "We are going to Mukuro's, you need to save as much energy as you can, it will take several hours to get there. I'm going to give you some of my energy to help you rest."
The red head started shaking his head 'no' as best as he could, but to no avail. Hiei had already placed his hands near the red head's chest and a soft yellow glow formed. After a minute, the one green eye closed and he was asleep, breathing calmly.
The fire demon staggered back, almost falling, but then he was upright as if nothing had happened. "Are you alright?" He heard and turned to see Yusuke with a look of concern in his eyes.
"Yes." The fire demon said. "I gave him enough to calm him and to stop the rest of the bleeding. I can't give him more or I'll pass out and then you will have to carry both of us." He stated.
Kuwabara cocked his head, saying. "Well…we would of just thrown you next to Kurama. I don't think he would of mind." He didn't wait for a remark as he bent down to pick up the end of the gurney next to Kurama's head.
"Hn." Hiei replied, getting ready to pick up the other end when Yusuke cut him off.
"You just gave out half of your energy." He stated. "And besides we need you to clear a path and show us the way." He informed, while lifting his end, adjusting his hands to get comfortable.
"This way then." The short figure said and led the way out of the cave. Glad to know they could not see the rose color coming to his cheeks at Kuwabara's remark.
End Chapter 2