SailorStar9: Wow, and another chapter goes up. This is Chapter 45 and Hiei's past is revealed. Read and review.
Disclaimers: YYH, Magic Knight Rayearth and Sailor Moon aren't mine.
Chapter Summary: After years of searching, Hiei finally returns to his homeland. Hiei clearly remembers the traumatic banishing he was forced to endure. But despite his many losses, one thing was never far from his mind…complete and utter revenge! But to complete his mission Hiei must first survive an encounter with yet another demon from his past.
Chapter 45: Haunted by the Past
We see Hiei walking a snowy landscape; a moment later the image shifts into a group of koorime talking around the fire.
"Hina had twins." said one of them.
"One is a boy." replied a younger woman named Rui.
"It's a Forbidden Child." announced the Elder.
Hina shed teargems as she begged, "My son! Please give me back my son!"
"The Forbidden Child must be banished." the Elder replied coldly.
At the edge of an ice cliff, Rui held a bundle wrapped in ward straps.
"Rui, have no mercy." the Elder commanded her.
"Rui, don't do it!" yelled Hina. Two other koorime held her back so she would not
interfere.
Rui dropped the bundle, which disappeared in the mist.
Inside a dark cave, Hiei woke up. "The same dream again." he wondered.
In Raizen's lands, Yusuke trained with Hokushin and three others. Yusuke insisted that they should attack him with all their strength and power.
"If you don't give me your best, what's the point of the practice?" he asked as he stared at the tower where Raizen rested. "I won't give up until the old man tells me the truth."
"Such a stubborn kid." Hokushin sighed.
In an insect-shaped fortress, Mukuro asked for a report on Hiei's situation. Kiren replied that Hiei had been fighting in the underground for half a year already, and that he might have been killed by the 500 youkais that had been sent there by Mukuro's orders.
"Kiren, how long have you been my second-in-command?" asked Mukuro.
"About 250 years." He replied.
"Hn. You should have sent 1000 youkais instead of only 500." she snorted
"Why are you so interested in that boy? He's just an ordinary youkai." Kiren questioned.
Mukuro did not answer.
In the underground, Hiei unleashed the Kokuryuuha, which massacred most of the attacking demons. There were mutilated bodies lying everywhere.
The few remaining youkais, knowing the Kokuryuuha's weakness, waited until Hiei
collapsed in exhaustion to charge once more. But even worn out from controlling the Black Dragon, Hiei still managed to use his formidable speed to kill all the youkais with his katana.
However, sleep eventually won over him, and another dream took him back in time.
Rui held the warded bundle close to her chest while the koorime, standing around the fire, discussed. A female voice said, "The koorime live in a remote country, avoiding the contact with other countries.:
"Hina had twins." commented an old koorime.
"One is a boy." replied Rui.
The koorime were shocked at the news. "What! A boy!"
"It's a Forbidden Child." announced the Elder.
"Hina kept a secret love affair with a man while the country fell apart for a hundred years."
"What a sick, dirty woman!"
The bodiless voice returned to explain, "The koorime live long lives. During the period the Glacier falls apart, they give birth without anyone's help. The child is part of the mother's body. As long as the koorime don't mate with men, all children will be female."
One of the koorime complained to the Elder, "As soon as she came back to the Glacier, the twins were born. What do you think of that?"
Inside the warded bundle, baby Hiei was attentive to the discussion around him. We heard adult Hiei's voice remembering, "Even as a newborn, I could see and hear. I had enough strength to attack the old women sputtering in my ear."
The scene changed to show Hina on her knees, begging to the Great Elder. "My son! Please give me back my son!"
"Hina, you have disobeyed the laws of our country." replied the Elder. "In the past, a
Forbidden Child brought the koorime many misfortunes. The girl belongs here, but the boy is impure, he can bring only disgrace."
"Then I'll leave the Glacier and raise my son far away from here." Hina cried in despair. "But please give him back to me!"
But the Elder was adamant. "No! The Forbidden Child must be banished."
Now we were taken to the edge of the Glacier, where Rui held baby Hiei over the abyss. The Elder watched, a few steps behind. Two other koorime held a crying Hina back.
"There's a serious reason why the koorime live under such rigorous laws in the Glacier." explained the bodiless voice. "If one keeps a secret love affair with a man of another tribe, she'll have a male child, usually evil and cruel. The Koorime who gives birth to a boy — with no exceptions — must die, so she won't influence the others."
"Rui, I know of your close friendship with Hina." remarked the Elder. "But show no pity. You know that many koorime died because of a Forbidden Child. Have no mercy."
Rui gave Hiei a hiruiseki attached to a necklace. "Please, come back alive." she whispered at the baby. "And the first thing I want you to do when you return is kill me. That's the only way I can make up for Hina's death."
"What are you waiting for, Rui?" shouted the Elder. "Have no mercy!"
Rui dropped Hiei in the abyss.
"Don't do it!" Hina cried out.
Again we hear adult Hiei's voice. "I was strong enough to survive. And I cherished this goal I had since I was born: to kill all the koorime."
Hiei woke up. "The same dream again."
A door opened and Mukuro came in. "Ah, finally awake. The attack of hundreds of youkais was not enough to bring you down. Why don't you join me? Your powers have grown to the highest levels in only six months. You are a formidable warrior."
"The stronger I become, the less I care, idiot." retorted Hiei. "What kind of youkai are you? What does your face look like?"
"Would you like to see it?" asked Mukuro. "Very well, I'll bring you a warrior as strong as you are. I will show you my body if you manage to defeat him."
"So all I have to do is win?" Hiei questioned
"Correct. Besides my subordinates, I have 77 rigorously selected generals that are the closest to me. There's no reason why there should be 77; I just happen to like that number. I'll bring you one of them. If you defeat him, I'm willing to show you my body and name you my general." Mukuro offered
"I want absolutely nothing." Hiei snapped. "I don't need titles."
"Oh, don't say that. It'll only benefit you. It'll make it easier to receive favors from others so you can find what you've been looking for." Mukuro pointed out.
Hiei's eyes widened in surprise.
Mukuro left, promising to return in five minutes.
Annoyed, Hiei vented his anger on a large statue of a hooded woman, cutting it in half with his katana. The gleam of the hiruiseki hanging from his neck summoned yet another memory.
The Tokubetsu Bouetai were opening the tunnel so Yusuke could go to Makai. A little away from where their friends stood and waited, Yukina and Hiei were having a private conversation.
"Please, take this with you." said Yukina, handing Hiei a necklace with a hiruiseki.
"Do you really intend to go to Makai? Then take it with you, it's a memento from my mother. When a Koorime has a baby, she cries a tear that turns into a gem, which is granted to the child. Mother shed two hiruiseki. One was granted to me, and the other to my brother."
Yukina revealed that she kept Tarukane from taking that hiruiseki from her by swallowing it and hiding it in her stomach.
"Why are you giving it to me?" asked Hiei.
"Rui secretly told me that my brother was protected by an energy of fire, a sort of spell that involved him, guarding his body." Yukina replied
"Rui?" Hiei frowned.
"Yes, she was Mother's friend." Yukina supplied.
Hiei recognized the woman as the one who dropped him in the abyss.
Yukina inadvertently addressed Hiei by a Japanese word that means 'my older brother'. At Hiei's surprise, she instantly apologized for her 'mistake'.
"I'm sorry... I think my brother must be just like you." She gave him her hiruiseki. "If you find my brother, please give him this, and tell him I'm going to stay here."
Hiei examined the hiruiseki. "He was thrown in the abyss. He probably didn't survive the fall."
Yukina smiled confidently. "I think he did." She added that Rui once told her that her brother, even as a baby, seemed to understand everything people said around him. Rui was sure that he would come back to seek vengeance.
"And I believe it." replied Yukina. "I'd rather die than live forever with... with a cold heart... and in the Glacier."
"Hn. And is that why you left your country?" asked Hiei. "So it was all a lie when you said that you were allowed to leave the Glacier to look for your brother? Have more confidence, girl. If you want to destroy yourself, do it on your own. Don't count on the help of a brother that might very well be dead by now."
Yukina's eyes widened sadly, as if she was going to cry. Hiei looked away with another "Hn."
"You're right. You're absolutely right." Yukina smiled joyfully. "My brother would have told me the same thing."
"She's beginning to suspect." Icy told the shorter demon when Hiei sat beside Kurama a while later.
"Hn." Hiei replied.
"Have you told her?" the ice fox asked.
Hiei was silent for a while, knowing that she was referring to Hotaru and he answered, "Yes. She didn't take it very well."
"Understandably." Icy noted.
The memory was gone before the upper half of the statue falls on the ground.
"My hiruiseki is protected by my ki." Hiei mused. "Then why can't my Jagan find it?
Maybe someone is hiding it inside their stomach too?"
Mukuro came back, along with one of the generals.
Hiei recognized him. "You are Shigure, the Makai surgeon. When did you decide to join Mukuro?"
"Right after your surgery." answered Shigure.
"So you know each other?" asked Mukuro.
"Doctor/patient relations." replied Shigure. "Also, I taught him some of my art as a swordsman, and he perfected that art without any tutoring."
Shigure admitted his surprise at sensing Hiei's current ki level, since the surgery to implant the Jagan depleted the energy of the patient. Then he noticed Hiei's necklace. "So you have found the hiruiseki you were looking for."
"This isn't mine!" Hiei snapped defensively, tucking the necklace under his tank top.
"Ah, so it's your sister's. Either way, you have found one of the things you were searching."
"Tell me this mysterious story." Mukuro commanded.
"Hiei had the Jagan implanted so he could look for two things." Shigure revealed. "One was the Glacier where his sister lived. The other was the hiruiseki conceived for him by his mother. I only agreed to perform the surgery after a deep examination of his life. My remuneration was the promise that he would never reveal his identity to his sister." He pointed his circular sword to Hiei. "If you manage to defeat me now, I will give you back the remuneration."
"I told you before the surgery that I will never tell her who I am." Hiei insisted.
"Ah, but a heart can change…"
"Enough with the memories!" shouted Mukuro. "Let's settle this. It will be a combat to death."
Hiei unsheathed his katana as Shigure prepared to strike.
"Begin!" Mukuro commanded.
SailorStar9: Wow, Hiei's past sure is dark. Read and review anyway.
