Water and Fire
Summary: There are only four elementals that walk the three worlds. Fire, Water, Earth and Wind. United, they could rule the world. When the YYH gang finds the elemental of Water, they must keep her hidden, so that a horribly powerful prophecy does not become a reality. But what will the other elementals do when they find out that she is being kept from them? Will she and a certain fire apparition become closer than they should be? Read to find out. RATED T FOR LANGUAGE!
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Previously:
When Kiya's eyes re-opened, she was kneeling in a shallow puddle of water.
Kiya scrambled back away from the water. She had never meant to kill anyone! She just wanted answers. In her rage, she had killed Brian.
Now she was no better than him.
She was a murderer
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Chapter 21: Oh So Lonely:
By the time Kurma, Yusuke and Kuwabara found Kiya, she was sitting in the corner of the alley, her small legs to her chest, her bracelet adorned arms clutching her quivering torso. Her wide silver eyes were dull and glued to the puddle of water in front of her.
"Kiya!" Yusuke rushed to her and kneeled down to her eye level, touching her arm slightly. This got her attention and her eyes quickly darted to Yusuke's, startling him.
Meanwhile, Kurama and Kuwabara stood back, observing the puddle of water and pile of clothes mere inches in front of Kiya. Kuwabara's eyes widened and he let out a loud, "What the hell happened?"
"It seems Kiya lost control of herself…" Kurama's green eyes met Kiya's and he felt immediate sympathy. Koenma had already told them that Brian had killed Rob, and no doubt it was he who was now the puddle of water and clothes in front of them. Kuwabara must have just figured this out because his eyes widened dramatically and he stepped slowly away from Kiya, his eyes darting from the young elemental to the water now running through the cracks in the ground underneath them.
Kiya nodded faintly in agreement to Kurama's statement, chewing on her bottom lip. Blinking, Kiya struggled to her feet, using the wall behind her for support. Yusuke made a move to help her, but Kiya held up her hand in a kind of 'I'm ok,' way. Yusuke backed off and Kiya walked slowly away from the wall. She took one more nervous glance at the now water-free but still wet ground before walking to the end of the alley, then stopped.
Without looking back, Kiya let out an emotionless, "Coming?"
The three shared a confused glance before following the blue- haired girl out of the alley, across the street and into the forest.
Kiya's eyes were no longer dull, instead they were now un-blinking. The reality of everything that had happened in the last 24 hours was slowly sinking in. She had learned, lost and done so much in that small amount of time that it not only shocked her, but also rendered her slightly insane. First, Hiei left her, then she found out that Brian was the cold-hearted bastard who killed her uncle, then she killed him. I mean, what Brian did was ….horrible beyond words…..and he probably did deserve to die, but the thought that she had killed him made her want to vomit. Kiya had never before been a weak person, inside and out- years of being alone had made sure of that, but now, she felt totally and utterly helpless, and she didn't like it. Not one bit. She hated feeling like she needed something she couldn't get.
And right now, she really needed a hug. The thought almost surprised Kiya, she had never been the hugging type, but now she felt herself craving the embrace of the strong arms of her favorite fire youkai.
The fire youkai who had left her.
The group walked in silence in the direction of Genkai's temple, all their attention on the blue haired girl who walked ahead of them.
All was peaceful until Kuwabara and Kurama both stopped dead in their tracks.
"Something's coming.." said Kuwabara. Kiya stopped walking to look back at the two of them.
"You sensed that too?" asked Kurama.
Kuwabara nearly nodded before yelping when a spear came flying toward him. If he hadn't flinched, moving his head slightly to the side, that spear would've hit him straight in the forehead instead of plunging into the tree trunk behind him. Kiya quickly spun to see where the spear had come from.
Four large youkai walked calmly out from behind the trees. The thing Kiya immediately noticed about them was that they all looked the same. The same paper white skin, the same black eyes, and the same black robes that flew to the ground around their massive forms. Kiya immediately stepped back and got into her fighting stance, ready to kick some ass. This was the last thing she needed right now.
Yusuke, Kuwabara and Kurama came to Kiya's side and one of the four youkai in front of them spoke.
"My, my. Look what we have here, boys. Some of Koenma's lackeys and a little girl- no doubt they're going to try and get rid of us….."
"It seems that little girl is more than what you thought, Monoku. I sense elemental blood running through that little body of her,." said a second youkai, with the same deep voice as the first one.
"How the hell did you get in Ningenkai?" demanded Yusuke.
"Our master generously provided us with a portal. I'm only telling you this because you don't have that much longer to live, so this information won't prove to be too useful in the long run."
"Who's your master?" Yusuke asked again.
The leader youkai, as Kiya guessed, began to laugh- a deep and raspy chuckle, and the others soon followed his example. As soon as he stopped, so did the rest.
"You think I'd tell you? HA! Even if you are about to die, I still am not going to grace you with the knowledge of who sent us here."
Kiya was losing her patience. She could care less who sent them here. All she knew is that she was going to be the one to send them back. But, because of….recent events, she wanted to be able to do that without killing anyone or anything.
"Okay, I'll give you one chance and one chance only to leave peacefully. Go back to where you came from and I won't be forced to kill any of you." She unconsciously cringed at the word, 'kill'. Her offer was unusually generous considering she was in one of the worst moods of her life.
…wait, strike that. This could easily be considered the worst mood of her life.
The four identical youkai just looked at Kiya humorously. Obviously, they weren't going to answer.
Kiya's guess was proved correct when all of them reached one arm over their shoulder to grip very large black swords. They brought them back in front of them and they all took the same fighting stance.
Kiya groaned. She immediately retrieved her sais' out of her back sheaths and took her own fighting stance. If she had to fight them, she was going to get it done quickly.
Kiya felt a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Kiya, why don't you just rest right now? We can take care of this." It was Kurama.
"No." Kiya could hear the sympathy and worry in his voice. She didn't need it- she was not a child. She could take care of herself. Before she had time to say more, the four youkai's leapt forward, swinging their swords. The leader went after Kiya and right when his sword came crashing above her head, she dropped to the ground, rolled to the side, then sent a very strong kick to the back of the youkai's knees. It wasn't enough to make him fall, but he did stumble a bit.
"Spirit gun!"
"Spirit sword!"
"Rose whip!" Kiya heard all of her friends' cries and smirked to herself. These youkai didn't have a chance. They seemed to be only B class.
The leader youkai soon regained his composure and raised his sword again. Before he could even move, Kiya had floated up behind him and had his neck in a death lock. She lowered her head to whisper dangerously in his ear while he clawed uselessly at her arm.
"I am not in the mood today to deal with your coyness. Now, either you tell me who the hell," she tightened her grip on his neck, "gave you that portal, or I'll kill you here and now." Kiya wasn't sure if she was lying. The last thing she wanted to do right now was kill another person, whether he was a youkai or not. All she wanted to do was go back to Genkai's temple and go visit the hot springs- but she also wanted answers, and she wasn't leaving here without them.
She was very stubborn.
The youkai kept quiet and continued struggling and Kiya finally noticed the fight going on between her friends and the other three youkai. Kurama's youkai was already on the ground in a bloody heap and now he was helping a limping Kuwabara defeat his opposing youkai. Yusuke was holding up very nicely, using his maneuvering to doge all of the attacks being thrown at him. Kiya's attentions were returned to the youkai in her arms when he started making noises that sounded like muffled talking. She loosened her grip ever so slightly on his throat so that he could talk but not get away.
The youkai inhaled deeply then said, "My…..master said to…..give you….a message……" The youkai dug weakly into his front pocket and raised the slightly tanned folded parchment in front of him. As soon as Kiya snatched the paper out of his hand, the youkai fell to the floor in an unconscious heap. Kiya- too interested in the paper in her hands to care about the youkai at her feet, carefully unfolded the piece of paper.
Her eyes began to widen as she read the message.
What flies on an oar and has blue hair?
A friend of yours, maybe?
Why were those youkai so easy to finish off?
Could they have been a distraction?
Perhaps.
What will happen if you don't soon come to us?
One by one your friends will die until all you have are the three of us.
What is the significance of the number 24?
It's the number of hours you have until she's dead.
Who?
That returns us to our first question.
What flies on an oar and has blue hair?
Kiya let the paper drop from her hands. Her three friends, who were now piling up and tying their unconscious foes, looked questionably at Kiya. Before she could even tell them what had happened, Yusuke's communicator mirror began beeping.
Yusuke opened it and couldn't even get a word in before the teenage Koenma on the other line began yelling. "YUSUKE, GET HERE IMMEDIATELY! BOTAN'S BEEN ATTACKED!-" A portal appeared and Kiya, summoning what will she had left, weakly walked through the portal, not even looking back to make sure the others were following.
The first thing she noticed when she stepped through the portal into Koenma's office, was the fact that she smelled no blood- which was what she was expecting. Her eyes immediately shot to Koenma, Genkai and Yukina. All of whom were standing by the couch in Koenma's office, looking down at the apparently unconscious Botan.
"Oh my god …Botan." Kiya whispered weakly before rushing to the couch and crouching by her side. A quick sweep over Botan told Kiya that she was in no way wounded on the outside- and that confused Kiya. She was about to ask what had happened, but Genkai told her first. "It's an internal injury. She consumed poison and it's attacking her lungs right now. I'd say she has less than a day to live." Genkai's usually calm voice cracked slightly and Kiya's jaw immediately fell open.
"What do you mean consumed? You mean she ate something poisonous?"
"Either that or she was injected with it." Cam Koenma's weak reply.
"Botan!" Came the worried gasps from behind Kiya as Yusuke, Kurama and Kuwabara soon rushed up beside. "Koenma what happened?" Yusuke bent down next to Kiya to lay a gentle hand on Botan's feverish cheek.
"I walked into my office and saw her lying on the ground, unconscious. I had Yukina and Genkai come here as well as you four so that –" his words broke off as Kiya began shake.
"Yukina….c-cant you heal h-her?" It pained everyone in the room to hear someone as strong willed as Kiya's voice crack.
"I'm afraid I can't, Kiya-chan. The poison is too far within her system for my healing powers to find."
"Well then freeze her and stop the poison from spreading any further or something! We can't let her die!" Kiya stood up abruptly, her small hands fisting at her sides.
"Kiya-" Kurama said softly, trying to calm the elemental down.
"DON'T KIYA ME! THIS IS ALL MY FAULT AND I DON'T WANT TO SEE HER DIE!"
The entire room stayed silent. They had no arguing statement to prove that this wasn't Kiya's fault, and that silence hurt Kiya more than anything.
It really was her fault.
Kiya took one more look at the unconscious Botan on the couch, before demanding a portal back to the temple. Koenma summoned one quickly and Kiya walked through it, making sure no one could see her glazed eyes.
Once in the temple, Kiya immediately cried out a loud and ear shattering yell, then slumped to the floor, her shoulders heaving.
"Not much of a battle roar, if I do say so myself."
Kiya immediately looked up at the source of the voice, her eyed full of hatred.
Jasaro. But not only Jasaro, there were two other people with him. Kiya immediately recognized them as the other two elementals from her dreams and horrible visions. She got to her feet, her shoulders still shaking and glared at the three figures standing in the living room. The woman in the middle of the group, looking to be about 30 had dark green hair to her shoulders and deep brown eyes. She was dressed in a very elegant yet simple green gown covered by the red cloak that they all wore. The man to the right of the woman who- Kiya guessed was 19- had long silver hair to the middle of his back, pulled back into a pony tail except for two long strands in his face. His eyes were a deadly grey and his grey suit was covered by the red cloak.
The last one- the one Kiya hated the most was Jasaro. His red hair was again spiked except for two front pieces of hair that hung limply in his face. He was wearing black jeans with a red button up shirt on- the top buttons undone and of course, the red cloak.
"What the hell are you doing here?"
"Aw, what's the matter, can't we just come visit our favorite Water elemental?" Jasaro smirked evilly.
"What did you do to Botan?"
"My, my Kiya aren't you quick to judge." Came the woman's forceful voice. "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Terra, I am the elemental of Earth."
"And I am Aerosako. Elemental of Air."
"You didn't answer my question..." Kiya's aura began to flare. She was not in the mood for jokes or stalling.
"Oh, right. As I said, you are too quick to judge my dear. We did not do anything to your dear Grim Reaper."
"But you had something to do with it. I know you did."
"We can not lie; we did have something to do with it." Came Aerokasu's sly answer.
"Tell me there's an antidote."
"If we said that there was an antidote, we'd be lying. And as I already told you, we can't lie."
Kiya suddenly felt weak, and she slumped against the wall behind her.
"Too bad the Jaganshi left you, huh sugar? I told you not to get attached." Jasaro stepped towards Kiya.
"SHUT UP! SHUT UP SHUT UP! Just leave me alone……I didn't want this……any of it." Kiya shrieked, then her voice lowered to a weak whisper. Her tears threatened to fall, but she held them back. She would not give the other elementals the joy of seeing how much they've made her suffer.
"Kiya!" Kiya looked up to see Yusuke, Kuwabara and Kurama all standing in front of her, their eyes narrowed at the elementals.
"I can see that we are no longer welcome here. See you later, sugar!" Came Jasaro's voice as the three of them suddenly disappeared in a swirl of white energy.
"Bastards!" mumbled Yusuke before they all turned back to Kiya, their eyes full of worry.
"They did it……..there's no antidote……..Botan's going to d………die."
"We know, Koenma told us that right after you left. He's getting the top doctors in Rekai to look at her. There's still some hope that she'll be okay, though." Yusuke pulled Kiya to her feet and embraced her in a tight brotherly-hug. He left out the fact that the odds of Botan surviving were about 5 in 1,000.
Kiya just stayed limp in his arms. "Keiko just got out of the hospital…..and now Botan's going to die……..Why you guys? Why?"
"Why what, Kiya?" Yusuke hugged her tighter while the other two just stood back and watched. Kurama was fighting an inner battle to go to Kiya and hold her tight until everything was okay- and the fact that Youko was immensely worried about Kiya only made that desire stronger, but he was able to hold himself back- for Hiei's sake.
"Why are you guys still helping me, even though you could be hurt? Why is my life so miserable just because of what I am? Why cant I just…….die?" Finally, Kiya allowed only one of her tears to fall, and it slid down her pale skin, landing on Yusuke's shoulder.
"Don't say that Kiya. Kami, please don't say that. We've stayed with you because we are your friends and we'd never abandon you."
Then why is Hiei not here? That single question over-rid all the others. Why was Hiei not with her? In her up-most time of need, Hiei had abandoned her. She didn't even know where he was.
----------------------LATER THAT NIGHT-------------------
Kiya was in her elemental state now, and she traced the lines on one of her arms with her fingers. She sat on her bed, her knees tucked beneath her and she wore a plain black night shirt. Her long blue and silver hair fell in a pool around her as she chanted an old song Rob had taught her when she was just a little girl. (1)
Sighing, Kiya got off of her bed and walked slowly to her bathroom, her night shirt swaying lightly against her thighs. Once she reached her bathroom, she slowly shut the door behind her and locked it. For a moment, the only thing Kiya did was stare at her reflection and if she was feeling like her normal self, she would've cringed at the way she looked. Her skin was paler than normal and no longer had its usual lively glow. Her hair was frazzled and tangled- thanks to an entire day of not giving a damn about her poor blue hair. Her eyes were bloodshot from tears that had welled up in them, but were never allowed to fall.
Kiya finally looked away from her reflection long enough to open up the medicine cabinet and pull out the one thing that had been on her mind all evening. The tool of her freedom. The object of her demise.
A small silver razor that shone slightly in the light of the bathroom.
Breathing deeply, Kiya sat on top of the toilet seat, bringing her legs up Indian-style beneath her- not once taking her eyes off of the object in her shaking hands.
Should she do it? Could she do it? Kiya raised her wrist and looked from it, to the razor, then back to her wrist again.
It would make everything better, right? The elementals will not be able to dominate the three worlds. My friends will be safe…..sure, they'd miss me, but they would also get over it, and get on with their lives. Right?
Not Hiei.
If Hiei cared so much, he would be here right now, wouldn't he?
He just needed some time to think.
Yeah, well so do I, but you don't see me running off.
Believe what you want to. I give up.
Kiya sighed again, and returned her focus to the razor. It was simple enough, just one straight razor, small- yes, but sharp enough to do the job. She slowly lowered to razor to her wrist, shuddering at the coldness she felt when the blade met her skin.
She inhaled deeply and then………….
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CLIFFHANGER!
Just kidding! I figured that since I probably won't get another chapter up for a while, I'll make this one extra long.
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…………then her eyes widened slightly at what she was just about to do and she quickly hurled the blade across the small bathroom, as far away from her as possible.
What was she thinking! Suicide would not be the answer to her problems! It would just make everyone think that she was weak! Suicide is the easy way out- the way for people to just leave everything on one cowardly note. No matter how bad things got, Kiya would not forever be known as the elemental that was too weak to allow herself to live. (2)
Trembling at the thought of what she was just about to do, Kiya hastily left her bathroom.
Suddenly, Kiya just realized how much she wanted to live- she had no clue why, but she did. She wanted to be able to see Hiei at least one more time before----before the elementals took her. Kiya knew it was going to happen, she knew that nothing she could do (besides killing herself) would change that.
The thought of Hiei kept her from killing herself.
Go to the hot springs. It'll make you feel better.
Okay.
Not really feeling like arguing with herself, Kiya grabbed her large black trench coat from her closet and wrapped it around her figure before walking to her window, opening it, and flying out of it. She closed the window behind her before flying off quickly through the darkness in the direction of the hot springs.
As she neared the familiar stream, Kiya could feel almost like a magnetic pull in the pit of her stomach, guiding her in the direction of the water.
Huh, that's odd. Kiya guessed that in her elemental form, she must be drawn to her element so much so, that she could feel it.
When she finally spotted the wonderful springs, she wasted no time in lowering herself to the ground, stripping her coat and her t-shirt, leaving her in her black undergarments. (undies and a bra). She hung her clothes on a branch then stepped into the soothingly warm water.
From the contact with her element- while in her elemental form, Kiya was in- to put it plainly- overwhelming paradise. Absolute heaven. Kiya watched in awe as ripples started to form in the water- but not the normal ripples that flowed outwards from the person to the edge of the water, these ripples were starting at the edge of the water, and flowing to meet Kiya's ankles, as if the water wanted to be as close to her as possible. As if it welcomed her. Kiya walked deeper into the water until it was waist high, all the while staring at the ripples as they encircled her. When they reached her body, they didn't bounce back off, they just stopped, and Kiya thought it was the most amazing thing in the world.
Testing out the water's response to her while in this form, Kiya raised on silver and blue lined hand, palm down over the water and felt her eyes widen when she saw the water literally rise in a small mound, getting taller until it finally reached her hand. Gasping at the tingle the water sent through her hand, she yanked it from the mound and watched as it fell back into the water. The water had acted on its own, without her having to manipulate it!
Kiya stopped thinking about the water when her senses picked up a familiar presence around her. Obviously, in this form, her senses were more in tune.
She gasped when she remembered who that aura belonged to.
"Hiei?" She said, her voice it's normal volume, but tinted slightly with uncertainty. She looked around her, spinning slowly to look in and past the trees for any sign of the Jaganshi. "Hiei?" She said it a little louder this time. Why wasn't he answering her? She was sure it was Hiei.
--------------------OTHER POV-----------------------
And there she was, in her other form, walking slowly into the springs, her long blue hair falling to her hips.
He cursed and kicked himself for ever leaving her. When trying to probe her mind, he was met with a wave of raw emotions. Depression, loneliness, anger, frustration, but most of all, the sense of being abandoned.
He knew how she felt towards him now and he wanted nothing more that to return to her before she hated him, but he couldn't right now. Not when he was a mess of emotions. He hated this, feeling helpless and responsible for this girl's pain- which was new to him because he had never felt this level before. Sure, he had been concerned for other people before, but that was different. They were nothing more than family to him. This was Kiya.
Just the night before, she had declared her love for him, and he left her. For the love of Kami, he left her.
"Hiei?"
Her voice made his head immediately pop up. He saw Kiya spinning around slowly, her eyes straining to see -what he knew was himself- among the dense trees and foliage that made up the forest. He wanted so badly to go to her. To give in to his demonly desires and just go to her, his future mate, his claim. But, he held himself back. Being away for just the little time that he had, he had figured out why he felt the way he did around Kiya.
He felt the same way for her that she did for him. The feeling was mutual. He loved her.
But, what he needed more time for, was accepting that and allowing himself to give in to what he once thought of as 'useless ningen emotions'.
"Hiei!" She said it louder this time and he clenched his fists at his side. With one more look at Kiya, he disappeared once more, flitting away into the night.
------------BACK TO KIYA-------------
As soon as that familiar aura had awoken her senses, it left. Kiya felt her shoulders slump in defeat.
How could she have ever thought it was him? She was foolish- Hiei may never come back, then what would she do?
She would have no reason to stay. Sure, her friends were here, but by being around them, she only brought danger and pain. The only reason she was still at this temple was in the hopes of Hiei coming back. It was selfish, really. Staying here- keeping her friends in danger- only to wait for someone who had abandoned her.
Kiya waited until her transformation stage was over to get out of the water (which took about another 2 hours)- mainly because when she was in that state, her elemental side refused to leave the water. Glancing down at her now- back -to -normal arms, Kiya walked to the tree where she placed her clothes and grabbed her t-shirt- pulling it over her head. Her trench coat soon followed and she flew above the treetops back to the temple.
When she reached her window, she opened it, flew through it, then closed it behind her. Carelessly, she let her coat drop off of her shoulders to the floor as she stared out the window into the darkness.
She had made up her mind. If Hiei was not back within the week, Kiya was gone.
She would go to the elementals- so her friends would be safe.
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(1): I would put the song on here, but it's in Italian and I don't want fan fiction thinking that it's misspelled English and take my story off the net- again.
(2): Okay, before everyone starts flaming me for not having enough sympathy for people who commit suicide, let me tell you all one thing. My friend committed suicide a while ago- so keep the flames to yourself.
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-Kendra a.k.a. Blazin' Blondie
Keep on Truckin'!
