warnings: None


Lucky Child

Chapter 42:

"Lost Child"


The day I met Kurama, I found him underwhelming.

Hiei, however, rocked me to my core.

He stood no taller than five feet, crowned by an impressive shock of blue-black hair that could probably poke my eye out of Hiei got too close. Its deep navy color remained dark until light persuaded sapphire highlights into view. The odd white streaks in his hair were just that: odd. Streaky, grey, like he was actually a lot older than his height suggested. Or (more plausibly) like he'd gone to a salon and requested the weirdest dye-job on the planet, then had stuck a fork into a toaster and let it pick his spiky hairstyle.

His face, however, struck me far more than his height or hair.

The eyes dominated his features, of course. Small chin, delicate jaw, rounded cheeks, all topped by scarlet eyes so large they might actually have come out of an episode of the anime. They possessed a luminous quality that reminded me—strongly, inexplicably—of the reflector on the back of my bicycle at home. His eyes caught the light and reflected it in a glowing flash the same way those red reflectors winked bright even in the dark, eerie and inhuman in its color's bold intensity.

There was absolutely no mistaking this person for a human, that's for sure. No cosplay contacts could ever hope to replicate the coruscant quality of those eyes.

I probably would've found him intimidating if he didn't look like a goddamn child.

Despite knowing he could kill me with his pinky, and despite knowing that he hid six-pack abs under the folds of his ratty black cloak, it was hard to look at someone that short with eyes that big and not see a child staring back at you. A homicidal preteen carrying a sword, sure, but a homicidal preteen nonetheless. Even his cloak, with a trailing hem and a gaping hole on the left shoulder seam, contributed to the impression of a dirty orphan boy, a wild child raised in the woods without manners or the concept of personal maintenance. In fact, a smudge of dirt adorned one cheek just below the blaze of his watching eyes.

Although he stared mostly at me, it did not escape my notice that every so often he scanned the crowd behind me, or looked askance at the humans walking by. He wasn't nervous (it would take a powering-up Toguro to make Hiei nervous), but he was certainly wary. Probably not accustomed to being out in the open in Human World, if I had to guess—which was good, because that's what I'd been hoping for. The mud caked on his boots told stories of nights spent in parks, baths taken in bayous, catnaps stolen in the shadows of remote trees.

I knew very well I should be afraid of him.

I knew it, but it was hard not to want to scrub the dirt from his cheek with my thumb and tell him to take a bath. He'd been my favorite character in my past life, next to Kuwabara. Putting aside that knee-jerk fondness was going to be tough.

"A demon, you say?" Hiei said, button nose thrust high into the air. "Why?"

A shrug. "I have my reasons."

"Ha!" His nose rose even higher, light glancing off his reflective gaze. "For a human, you're ambitious."

"My, my," I observed. With precise, purposeful movements I packed my book into my schoolbag. "Do mine ears deceive me, or was that a compliment?"

"Not remotely," Hiei sneered (oh Jesus, seriously, he stared at me like an emo kid who'd just learned I wasn't a My Chemical Romance fan, words dripping with wry derision and acidic humor). "It's no surprise you recognize the superiority of the demonic race. Too bad for you this Sword would turn a mere mortal like you into nothing more than chattel, a pitiful lackey who follows orders with no will of its own." His grin had teeth—sharp ones. Boy literally had pointed eyeteeth, it turns out. "Not what you had in mind, I imagine."

"Not remotely," I said, quoting both his words and his sneering tone. "But I'm pretty willful."

"Not nearly willful enough to resist the thrall of the Shadow Sword," Hiei said. His hand drifted to his side, to the bulbous hilt of the Kōma no Ken. Spiked and knobby, it looked like it had been made of the carapace of a gigantic insect. Gross. Hiei said of the Sword, "It would overrun your weak human consciousness in seconds."

Hiei laughed, a harsh bark of scorn I suspected he'd practiced in a mirror. For real, though—the boy was hitting all the points from the Evil Villain Handbook, right down to the maniacal laugh. I ignored him, though, filing away his words for further study.

So the Sword, barring error on Hiei's part, would turn me into a mere lackey, not a demon of any power or substance…just as I'd remembered it would from my memories of the anime. As such, I wasn't too disappointed to receive this news. Ah, well. It had been worth a shot, even if that shot had been very long indeed. I wasn't too keen on becoming a demon. Not averse to it, necessarily, but it would be hard to explain a third eye to my mother. It was nice to get a concrete answer as to whether or not gaining powers from the Sword was even possible. The Sword couldn't give me powers unless I wanted to give up my free will—and like I said, I'm pretty willful. That's a no-go.

Oh, well, Keiko. You'll get powers another way. But we'll assess the possibilities another time, when a homicidal preteen wasn't holding a sword in your face.

And who knows? Maybe he'd still cut you with it, anyway, and maybe he'd be wrong about becoming a brainless thrall.

We'd see soon enough, I figured.

"You're surprisingly talkative, you know," I said, covering my rumination with snark. "If you want to be an effective evil overlord, try working on your menacing silences instead."

Hiei's jaw snapped shut with an audible click of his sharp teeth. A mere human giving him lip instead of cowering in fear? No way had he prepped for that. I was the lowly, helpless damsel in distress so far as he was concerned.

Good. My whole plan hinged on throwing him for various loops, starting with calling him out in full view of the public. I glanced the clock above the courtyard. Only a few minutes more until the next phase…

"Well," I said. I rose to my feet and brushed down the fabric of my skirt. "I guess this is the part where you kidnap me." Sliding my eyes toward Hiei, I adopted a sly grin. "Isn't that right?"

Hiei grit his teeth, lips pulling back to reveal those needle canines. His hand on the Sword tightened. He wasn't lunging for me, and his eyes still danced over the crowd around us, so…

"Except," I said, "I don't think even you would try to kidnap me in such a public place." It was my turn to look down my nose at him (not that it was hard considering the height difference). "The minute you start a panic, Spirit World will fall on this place like a bomb. They'd find you in minutes." It was my turn to smirk. "You'd much rather keep a low profile, since you're on the run from Spirit World and all your friends have been defeated."

Seemed my logic struck a chord. Hiei ducked his chin, glaring from under the fringes of his hair. "Did the Detective tell you that?" he snarled.

Oh. Interesting. No mention of Kurama—just the Spirit Detective, whom he had to know I knew. He was only kidnapping me to get to Yusuke, after all. Did he not know I'd been involved in events last night, regarding Kurama and the Mirror? Did he not know about my connection to Kurama?

Interesting.

I could use this.

"Maybe, maybe not," I hedged. Pretending to have been struck by a brilliant idea, I lifted one eager finger into the air. "Oh! Tell you what. I'll let you kidnap me without a fuss," (at this Hiei looked very surprised indeed), "but only if you let me go give an excuse to my parents so they don't worry about where I've gone. Then you can do whatever you want."

"They'll worry when you never come home again," Hiei spat.

I hummed, rocking back and forth on my heels with a cheery bounce. "Mmm—nah! I don't think so."

Hiei's lip jutted into a manner suspiciously resembling a pout (seriously, talk about baby-face). "What do you mean?" he asked.

"I mean I'll come home again, one way or another."

"Your confidence is sorely misplaced if you think that bumbling Detective can save you from someone of my strength."

"Perhaps." I tipped him a very merry wink. "But perhaps I know something you don't."

For only a moment, Hiei looked stunned by my declaration. Soon his eyes narrowed; he squared his feet beneath his hips as if he intended to fight me there and then.

"Don't act like you have any advantage here," Hiei said, words flung like poisoned knives. "You learned my name from the Detective. You must have anticipated I'd use you as bait to get to him. That's why you were saying my name inside your head." He tried his evil laugh on me once more, but once more I remained unmoved. "You surprised me, but it won't happen again."

"It won't, will it?" I mused. Snorting (and taking a surreptitious glance at the clock), I said, "Shows what you know."

"What do you mean?" Hiei asked. When I didn't answer, merely smiled at him with nonchalant cheer, he gnashed his teeth. He took one sharp step in my direction; I backed up on reflex, thighs bumping the bench. He said, "Why are you so confident, damn you?"

Before I could reply, the next train arrived—and with it came the salarymen.

Sarayashiki wasn't all that far from Tokyo, when you got right down to it. Just an hour by train, and in Japan, that wasn't a bad commute at all. Hundreds of businessmen commuted from our sleepy hamlet to the big city each and every day, and they all came home on the exact same train at the height of rush hour. I heard the train's brakes squeal inside the station and smirked, watching as behind Hiei's unknowing back a multitude of men in suits poured from the station doors. Hiei heard their feet, though, and turned just as their number crested our spot in the courtyard, breaching us with a tsunami of ties and shiny shoes and briefcases and stomachs hungry after a long day's work.

And you know what those stomachs were hungry for?

Some of my dad's famous ramen, that's what.

I'd done enough customer tracking for the business to know the source of our most consistent clientele. I knew where the dinner rush came from. I'd known since I helped my parents discern here to best place billboards when I was a kid.

In fact…

"Confident?" I repeated. "Yeah. I suppose I am." I pointed above the train station. "And that's why."

Hiei spun, hand on his sword, clearly expecting an attack—from Yusuke, maybe?—to come flying at his exposed back.

Above the station, lit by a floodlight, sat a brightly colored billboard adorned with pictures of steaming ramen. Hiei stared at it without understanding, fist clenching and unclenching at his side.

Yukimura Ramen, the billboard proclaimed. Delicious and nutritious. Find us on Block 32!

While the fire demon's back was turned, I turned and walked away, letting the rushing crowd sweep me up and carry me through the square. Took Hiei a minute to notice I'd gone. When he finally did, I heard his voice from some distance behind me—and he sounded pissed.

"Wait," he snarled at my retreating back. Anger vibrated in his voice like shifting tectonic plates. "Get back here. I'm not done with you."

With nary a backward glance, I said, "Then come with me, Hiei."

There was no way to know if he'd do as I asked. I couldn't hear his feet above the smack and pound of all the salarymen. Eyes forward, Keiko. I walked from the square and down the street in the middle of a mob of suited office workers, confident that the crowd around me remained too thick to allow Hiei to strike.

I'd timed it perfectly, escaping amidst the press of hungry salarymen.

I was safe…for now.

Many of the men on the street that night were regulars at the restaurant. I had a whole spate of escorts to walk me home this evening. Some even greeted me as I followed them over the sidewalks and through the town, asking if I was on my way home to help serve on the restaurant floor.

"Maybe," I told one of them, "but I have a friend with me tonight, so maybe not."

At that, I tossed another cheerful glance over my shoulder.

Just as I'd hoped, a thoroughly disgruntled Hiei followed at the edge of the gaggle of salarymen, glaring as though to burn me to ash with his blazing eyes. I couldn't help but grin at the sight. His glower intensified.

I didn't need a Jagan eye to read his mind just then. His face said it all.

Hiei didn't follow me into the restaurant itself, of course. I stood in the doorway and smiled at him, where he waited in the street with hands shoved violently into his pockets. "Not coming in?" I asked in a sprightly tone. Hiei's brows lifted, then knit together.

"Into your hovel?" he retorted.

How very like him, to insult the restaurant on principle. With a shrug I told him, "Suit yourself. My 'hovel' is lovely, for the record." I pointed in the appropriate direction. "There's an alley around back that's probably more to your taste. Wait a minute and I'll get you something to eat."

Hiei recoiled as though I'd tried to strike him, hand once more on his Sword—but there were far too many people about for him to use it. He said, "You'll what?"

"I'll get you food," I said, enunciating each word with care. Hiei stared at me as if I'd turned into a goat before his very eyes. "What? I'm hungry, and it wouldn't be polite to eat in front of you, would it?"

Unaccustomed to the concept of social niceties, Hiei looked appropriately stunned. Despite the threat he posed, a giggle bubbled in my chest. I stifled it but was unable to fight my growing smile. Man, he was too precious for words—a lost little wild boy trying to become the emperor of Neverland.

His expression darkened at the sight of my smile. A manic gleam lit his eyes from the inside, sending cherry sparks into the night.

Or maybe he was an Evil Overlord, after all.

Focus, Keiko.

Hiei, for all his appeal as a favorite anime character, does not mean you well.

I slipped indoors amid the flow of customers, ducking around the edges of the restaurant toward the kitchen. Mom and Dad greeted me as I pushed past the noren concealing the kitchen from the restaurant floor. I skipped over to give them both a quick kiss on the cheek but was careful not to disturb their cooking. They worked like a well-oiled machine, moving in tandem to assemble the elements of their delicious homemade ramen, flying between the huge vat of broth that had been steeping since the night before and the spheres of coiled noodles on the side workbench.

"You hungry?" Dad asked as he layered noodles into a huge bowl.

"I can fix you a study snack!" Mom said, pouring broth over the noodles.

"Oh, don't worry—it's the dinner rush. I can make my own food Mind if I get some study grub for me and a friend?"

"Oh course honey," said Mom, hands flying as she fried pork cutlets for katsudon.

"Do good work!" Dad added as he sliced uzumaki fish cakes.

"I always do," I said—and then I left Mom and Dad to it. They fell back into their cooking rhythm with gusto, content to let me do homework (and maybe consort with demons) on my own. Neither noticed when I left. I stood in the doorway with a tray of food for a solid minute, watching as they laughed and chattered about incoming orders and their current inventory.

My parents didn't need to work at this point. They could easily leave the cooking to the other chefs they'd hired, just relax on the income from their new second location…but they loved what they did. Cooking, once a necessary job, now brought them joy.

Their food tasted better than ever, in my not-so-humble opinion.

Hopefully Hiei agreed.

He wasn't in the alley, but I suspected he remained close by. I set the tray of food on an empty produce crate and pulled up two others to serve as seats. Once I settled in, I cracked a pair of chopsticks.

"Hiei?" I said. "Food's gonna get cold."

He appeared in a rush of displaced air and a flash of incandescent eyes. I didn't look at him. I thanked my parents for the food with a hearty "Itadakimasu!" before wrangling a ribbon of noodles with my chopsticks.

Hiei did not sit down. He eyed the ramen with an overstated grimace, as if I had tucked into a bowl of worms. Sighing, I lowered the bite and nudged the crate opposite mine with a toe.

"Pull up a chair," I said. "C'mon. It tastes good, I promise."

"I should cut you now," Hiei shot back.

"You could," I said, nodding, "but you'd be missing out on a nice dinner." I gestured at the empty crate. "Sit. Eat. You can't perform a kidnapping on an empty stomach, can you?"

Hiei didn't move. Eyes blazed like banked coals in the alley's thin gloom. Once more, I sighed. I picked up my spoon and dipped it into his bowl, taking a large swig of broth.

"Not poisoned," I said, smacking, "but very tasty. You should have some."

Still, Hiei did not move. I shrugged.

"Suit yourself," I said.

I dug into my bowl of ramen. Hiei watched me eat five bites of noodles; I counted each one, nervous under his watchful gaze. Hiei was a wildcard. I'd been half-sure he'd cut me with the Sword the moment I walked through the alley door and was alone with him for the first time, but perhaps the promise of food had stayed his hand…or the curious nature of my behavior had inspired him to delay his plan just a little longer.

That had been my plan, after all: to make him see me.

Hiei barely thought of me as a sentient being, after all. Humans were barely worth a second look, let alone human treatment. Making him curious forced him to look at me, to see me as a living entity instead of the talking object he'd been intending to steal from Yusuke. Tonight I hoped to capitalize on my personhood so he'd treat me a little less like an inanimate tool…and maybe not cut me with that Sword at all. Just kidnap me and knock me unconscious. The effect would be the same, right?

I didn't want to be a demon—and definitely not the kind the Sword would turn me into. Given the way I'd influenced Kurama's life, I couldn't take the risk of getting cut by that Sword. Perhaps it was wrong of me to doubt Yusuke's ability to save me, but my life mattered more than trust. Avoiding getting cut was my top priority.

The fact that I didn't yet have a third eye boded well for me, so far.

Hiei moved so slowly, I only noticed he'd come close when I found him looming over the food. I looked up with noodles streaming from my mouth to find him standing next to his crate-chair, eyes still locked on me. He maintained that gaze as he lowered himself to the crate, hand extending in increments toward his food. Tan fingers curled tight around his spoon, which he lifted and dunked neatly into the ramen.

"Wait," I said as he lifted the spoon to his face. He lowered it so hard, broth sloshed back into his bowl. Tone gentle, I chided, "You have to say 'thanks' first."

Hiei bared his teeth. "Do not tell me what to do, human wench."

It was almost endearing, the way he insulted me with words I'd seen him utter in myriad fanfics. Emphasis on the word almost. "OK, OK," I grumbled. I lowered my eyes and kept eating. "Keep your shirt on, man."

Hiei complied with my demand despite his anime-tendency to rip off his clothes at the merest hint of conflict. I tried not to look at him as he ate, catching occasional glimpses of his suntanned hands fumbling with the chopsticks, as if he hadn't eaten with them in some time. The level of food in his bowl diminished clear to nothing before I'd eaten even half my food—but perhaps that wasn't really so impressive considering my nerves. My stomach roiled far too much to stomach an entire bowl of rich, hearty ramen.

"Wow," I remarked when he lifted the bowl and swigged down the last dregs of broth. "You must have liked it."

Hiei set down the bowl. "It was…edible," he admitted, grudging despite the meager compliment.

"Such a ringing endorsement," I deadpanned. "You should write restaurant reviews."

I expected him to snap a harsh retort. His response of silent staring, therefore, felt both surprising and uncomfortable. I kept cool under his gaze, chopsticks in hand, stirring my ramen with idle swirls of lazy wrist. The demon looked disgruntled, tension winding tight behind his scarlet eyes, building and building like steam under the lid of a pot.

"Why aren't you afraid of me?" Hiei muttered.

I nearly dropped my chopsticks at the random—not to mention preposterous—question. "Uh. Who says I'm not?"

"You offered me a meal." The demon glowered as though I'd said something infinitely stupid. "Why?"

I didn't reply right away. Agitating the noodles in my bowl, I said, "It's not that I wasn't afraid of you. It's more like it's harder to fear someone once you've broken bread with them. Broken noodles?" I shook my head. "Anyway. I was hungry. It would have been rude not to invite you to eat, too." At that I lifted my eyes to his, grin as conspiratorial as my wink. "Rude, even if you are planning on kidnapping me later."

That was the wrong thing to say, apparently. In a motion too fast for my eyes to follow, Hiei bolted to his feet, standing behind his crate-chair and glaring as though I were a bug that had crawled too close to his muddy boot. In spite of myself, I shrank beneath that look, breath catching like a shattered plate in my neck. What were the chances I could pepper-spray Hiei in the face if he came after me? He'd surely counter my aikido moves, but maybe he didn't know how to avoid the pepper-spray attached to my keyring…

"How did you know that was my plan?" Hiei snapped, oblivious to my scheming.

"I know a lot of things." I shrugged. "More than you know."

"I'm no fool," Hiei countered. "I know you're hiding something. It's all over your ugly human face. Even if you did learn my name from the Detective, that doesn't explain how you knew I was coming for you." His foot knocked aside his crate, clearing part of the space between us; I flinched at the clatter of wood on pavement. "Tell me how you know these things. Now."

Somehow my hands didn't shake as I stacked up our plates and silverware. "Honestly," I said in a shockingly steady voice, "I'm just surprised you haven't bullied your way into my head yet and seen for yourself."

A grunt of surprise accompanied Hiei's vicious snarl. "How do you—?!" One hand lurched up, touching the bandana covering the Jagan. Through clenched teeth he told me, "It doesn't work like that, you fool."

"Wait—it doesn't? But you read my mind earlier, didn't you?" Curiosity flooded me, chasing away the fear like a cat scaring a mouse. I leaned toward him, staring at his forehead in confused wonder. "Do you not know how to use it very well yet?"

I didn't ask that to mock him, or to insinuate he wasn't skilled. For a moment I just forgot to be afraid, wondering at the differences in canon and trying to suss out Hiei's abilities at this early stage in the plot. How long had it been since he acquired the Jagan? How well could he use it, and what applications did it possess beyond what the anime described?

Too bad Hiei doesn't take kindly to anything that might even remotely wound his pride. Perhaps my question, voiced with innocent interest, irritated him more than any outright mockery. His foot lashed out a second time, sending the final crate between us toppling on its side. My half full bowl of ramen sloshed onto the pavement with a splash and flop of uneaten noodles.

"Do not insult me, you pathetic human idiot," Hiei said, voice rising into a snarling bellow. "You think you know me? You think you know anything?" He tugged the white bandage from his forehead and let it flutter to my feet. "I'll show you just what the Jagan is capable of, and if its might consumes you—so be it!"

It happened too quickly to be properly terrified.

The alley's cloying darkness did not allow me to glimpse Jagan directly. Hiei's eyes smoldered magma hot as an amethyst flash pierced the shadows above his forehead, and then the light cut a sharp path into my eye, and then through it, deep into the fabric of my consciousness—like an awl piercing a bolt of cloth and ripping, tearing through the threads until they tangled around my ability to even think. I cried out, clutching at the twisting stab threatening to rend my consciousness in half, but it was no use. The pain burrowed deep into my temples, drowning out my own thoughts with rising terror and light and pain and—

Music.

Music blares from the speakers of my car, bright synthetic pop keeping me awake on the long drive home. I sing along and try not to glance at the bouquet of white flowers bound with blue ribbon sitting in the passenger seat.

I'd caught the bouquet at Denise's wedding.

Tom will laugh when I tell him, I think. Tom will laugh and kiss me and say well, of course you caught it. Because we just talked about the future last night, and marriage, and how neither of us wants kids, and how we're perfect together, and how the future looks so bright when viewed side by loving side. The bouquet is too perfect, too perfectly timed to be anything but a sign from fate.

A car with its brights on roars up the highway behind me. I adjust the rearview mirror. My face reflects back at me for just a moment. I see blue eyes, champagne-colored glasses, and loose brown curls falling against my red dress, cheeks flushed pink from a night of dancing. The moon reflects in the mirror, too, full to bursting next to my flushed face. Denise had gotten married on the night of the supermoon, and I'd caught the bouquet she'd thrown.

I thought of calling Tom, to tell him.

The impact came before I could pick up the phone.

My spine undulates; my head snaps atop my neck. Soprano screech of metal on metal drowns out even my blasting music. A quick flash of dashboard illumination, sparks on the pavement lighting up my hands, and the world turns over and over again. I catch the barest glimpse of my terrified face in the rearview mirror again, features pale and glowing like that bloated moon—

Next comes darkness.

Then a blinding light.

A velvet couch, black and plush, cushions my body like a cloud. Blinking in the light of the warm lamp on the table to my left, I stare straight ahead. The pale grey wall in front of me is bare, except for three words painted in cheerful yellow letters.

Everything is fine, they say.

"Ah. Good. You're here."

I look to my left. There is a door. It is open. Standing in it is a little boy. He wears a red kimono, and his hair is pink. Who would let a child dye their hair that color? Eyes the same color as the ribbon in Denise's bouquet twinkle like living oceans.

"Hello," says the little boy. "My name is Hiruko." He gestures behind him, through the door. "Everything is fine. Now won't you come with me?"

I look at him, wondering.

I get up, because everything is fine, and walk toward the boy named Hiruko.

And then the purple light came back, and Hiruko's face disintegrated into smoke.

I felt ground beneath me again. Cold, hard asphalt pressed into my cheek. I sat up, clutching at the ache still burrowing between my temples. I didn't think of Hiei just then. He was not nearly as important as the images he'd somehow, somehow lured from the depths of my head.

What the hell had I just seen?

"Who—what are you?"

I glanced up. Hiei stood over me, one hand clenched around the hilt of the Sword. I hadn't seen his eyes go so wide yet; he looked more like a kid than ever, if not one that could kill me in a blink.

"Your guess is as good as mine," I eventually rasped, when the silence threatened to break.

Hiei didn't like the evasive answer. He stepped close, torn bit of cloak brushing across my knee. "What was that?" he asked. "That face—that wasn't your face."

Little did he know I'd worn more than one face in my lifetimes. Trying not to let on that I was freaking out inside, I brushed my shaking hands over my hair. "Again. Your guess is as good as…"

My throat caught on itself, sputtering, words trickling to a stop.

If that vision had been a memory, where had it come from? Because I most certainly didn't remember meeting Hiruko after I died.

Was I…was I missing memories?

What had Hiruko done to me?

"I see." Hiei made a harrumphing sound in his throat, oblivious (or perhaps uncaring) that I teetered on the verge of falling apart. "You're not keeping secrets. You're as lost as I am. You have no idea what that memory meant." His smirk was as wide as it was malicious. "You're no lucky child at all. You're a lost child."

Dumbstruck, I stared at him, because had Hiei just made a pun? I didn't know how to handle the idea of Hiei making a pun, even if it was just a simple play on words.

"Kei-ko"—lucky child.

"Mei-go"—lost child.

They sounded a lot alike, probably shared characters depending on how you wrote them…but Hiei had started a pun war with the wrong damn girl.

"Well, that makes us a fitting pair, then," I said, voice still coming in a rasp. "A Meigo called out by an Imiko—a lost child called out by a forbidden one."

That was the wrong damn pun to use just then, let me tell ya.

Next thing I knew, Hiei drew the Shadow Sword and rested the tip of its blade against the hollow of my throat. Feet on either side of my legs, he glared at me with eyes on absolute fire, their color glaring like blood in the alley's gloom.

"How do you know of that name?!" Now his voice rose to a full bellow, face contorting into a mask that stripped all remnants of youth from his feral features. Sword millimeters from my chest, he demanded, "Tell me. Tell me, or I'll—"

Call it blind fury, call it stupidity, call it what you will—but I didn't give a shit that he'd threatened my life. I reached up and pinched the edge of the Sword between two fingers, wincing as its cold surface burned into my fingertips. I didn't let the pain deter me. Nervous energy from the shock of seeing Hiruko's face in my invaded brain surged, buoying me to the shore of recklessness.

"You'll nothing," I said. "I'm not scared of you. As much as you hates humans, killing a defenseless little girl isn't your style." I batted the Sword aside and rose to my feet, not bothering to look at him. "Or are you completely without honor?"

Even my addled brain knew this was a gamble considering Hiei's early-canon predilection for violence—and it was not a gamble I should've taken. I'd just begun to think I was home free when Hiei blurred from view like a vanishing phantom. I gasped; he reappeared beside me, fist slamming so hard into the wall that a puff of dust flared up, stinging my eyes and rushing gritty into my nose.

For a moment I had the presence of mind to wonder if I'd overplayed my hand. If, finally, Hiei would just cut me and get it over with.

There was something very appealing about unconsciousness, just then. Perhaps Hiruko would show up. Perhaps sleep was preferable to waking, and would afford me the answers I sought.

Too bad Hiei isn't one for giving people what they want.

"I watched you," he said, voice crackling like leaves under lightning. "I sensed nothing but mundane human conceit from you, and yet you know things you should not. You know me, when you should not." He stepped toward me; where his fist had been, a crater dented the wall of my parents' restaurant. Hiei walked into my personal space, face an inch from mine, but I did not dare to move when he snarled, "You speak in riddles. I detest you."

Like the fanfics had always posited, Hiei ran hotter than a human. I could feel the heat of him on my face like I'd walked too close to an open flame, eyebrows threatening to sear right off my skin…but that heat hurt far worse than his words. It's embarrassing how much being told he hated me stung. It stung so badly I sort of forgot how to talk, a fact that surprised even me. Luckily Hiei only searched my face for a moment before making a harsh tch sound between his teeth.

"This is a joke," he spat. The Sword, still unsheathed, bobbed in his hand when he clenched his fist. "This Sword is a joke. Perhaps I should give it back, or toss it in the ocean." His head inclined, sneer triumphant and spiteful. "Yes. I have underestimated myself. I need no Spirit World garbage to aid me. My own power is more than enough to raze this entire world to the ground." He held out the sword as though it had begun to stink. "Yes. I will lose this Sword, duck the operatives of Spirit World, and I will leave this city with its teeming human filth—"

"Wait!" The word bolted from my mouth like a runner at the sound of a starting gun; I reached for Hiei as if to anchor him in place, only barely catching myself before I touched his ratty cloak. Tucking my hands behind my back, I tried to demure by saying, "They'll come after you. You—you can't just run off, can you?"

Hiei stared, dispassionate—and then his lips spread in that maniacal, feral grin of his.

"Interesting," he said. "So you want me to stay?" He stepped close again. "What are you playing at? What is Spirit World planning?"

As heat washed over my face again, I realized it felt hotter than before—but not because of Hiei's fiery energy. My own face had heated with an embarrassed blush. Hiei had tricked me. This world-domination-hungry, edge-lord brat had tricked me! That evil grin said it all. He suspected I knew something, so he'd baited me with the thought of him leaving and got me to admit he needed to stay, that there were plans in place I knew of despite my lowly human status. Threat of him leaving, of not allying with Yusuke, sent a shotgun blast of ice into my gut.

Of all the changes I could cause to canon, driving Hiei out of the picture had never even entered my mind.

Now he'd threatened to leave. Maybe he didn't mean it. Maybe it had only been a bluff to get me to talk. Maybe he still wanted the three treasures and wasn't going to leave at all. Still—could I take the chance? But just what could I tell him to get him to stay? I couldn't tell him that he was destined to become Yusuke's ally. Hiei would just laugh and leave, never to be seen again. Maybe I could tell him that he should join Yusuke to find his sister? No, that wasn't right. Yusuke's fight with Hiei helped Hiei overcome some of his prejudice toward humans. They needed to fight, not just team up.

"I want you to fight Yusuke," I said. The lump of nerves in my neck resisted being swallowed. "The Detective. I want you to fight him."

Whatever Hiei had expected me to say, it wasn't that. His brows shot up at once. "You want me to fight him? Why?" A cruel laugh made the hairs on my arms stand up. "He can't beat a demon with my power. No pathetic human can."

"Well—that's sort of the point." Hiei's laughter dried up. "I want Yusuke to get stronger, and fighting you will do just that."

"He fights me, he dies," Hiei shot back.

"Maybe," I said. I tried to wink. "But then again…maybe not."

His face hardened at once. "I don't believe you. You're a poor liar." Damn Hiei and those sharp eyes of his. He glowered in the face of my deception, not buying it for a minute. "There's another reason. I know you know more than you let on. Tell me why I should fight him or I will leave this sorry excuse for a human city within the hour."

Oh my god—what the heck was I supposed to say? Hiei and I stared at one another, his eyes on fire, mine likely colored with poorly-disguised terror. When I didn't reply right away—because what carrot could I dangle that he'd ever want to bite?—he growled at me. Like, he growled. The feral wild-boy in him came out in full force, a bloodthirsty animal frustrated at its stubborn prey.

"More silence. More lies." He turned his back on me, cloak fluttering around his calves. "I'm going. You can tell the Detective—"

My heart lurched into my mouth.

So did seven words.

"If you fight him, you'll find her," I said.

Hiei stopped walking.

"Her, who?" he asked. He didn't bother turning around.

My breathing hitched. "You…you know exactly who I mean," I said, even though it was a bad idea. Even though it was too early. Even though it gave away far too much too soon. But it was the only thing my wild brain could concoct on short notice, the only bargaining chip the uncaring, unfeeling Hiei might allow to make him feel.

Such was the hope. Such was the hopeless, doubtful hope beating frantic in my chest.

Hiei still did not turn to face me. "Her, who?" he repeated in a voice like wind off a wildfire.

My eyes closed of their own accord. Pressure in my temples pounded in time with my galloping heart.

"Don't make me say it," I murmured into the darkness behind my lids. "Please, don't—"

I felt the heat of him before the flesh-searing hand closed around my throat. Next came the rush of air and the feeling of flying, and then a firework of nauseating pain exploded in my skull. The hand clamped down, crushing my windpipe, neck and scalp scraping against cold brick as he pushed me inch by inch up the wall. My hands closed around his wrist, fingers desperately trying to push him away because I can't fucking breathe, dammit! My flailing feet did no good. I managed to kick something, but Hiei did not move. Tears streamed from my bulging eyes and into my choking mouth; I could see only the stars above the alley, watching with cold, unfeeling light.

"You will say it if I have to ram this sword down your wretched throat and pry it from your lungs myself," Hiei snarled. Use his iron arm as leverage, I did a pull-up and tried to crane my face to see him. His eyes cut a swath of fire through the dark. "Do not toy with me you pitiful, revolting girl. You have toyed with me more than enough this evening. Tell me who you mean or I will crush your throat in my hand."

He meant it, too, and he tightened his forge-fire fingers to prove it. Amazing how hands smaller than mine could so completely cut off my airway. Something ground against something it wasn't supposed to touch in the column of my neck, but I couldn't draw enough breath to scream. Spittle leaked from the corner of my mouth; I fear my tongue lolled like a dog, likely purpling as black spots clouded my vision of Hiei's eyes. Wet clicking noises ticked like a clock inside my throat.

"Humans are so fragile," Hiei said, simpering with faux pity. "Pathetic." His fingers loosened enough or me to take a sip of cool, delicious air. "My patience wears as thin as your fading breath, girl! Tell me!"

"Y-your sister!" I choked out. "You'll find your sister!"

For a second I feared I'd damned myself to a second death, because Hiei's fingers stayed firm. Then, slowly, his fingers slackened a little further; I gulped air that time, still hanging onto his wrist with my hands so the weight of my suspended body didn't snap my neck.

"Th-that's why you got the Jagan—s-so you can find h-her?" Every word struggled like a battle despite his loosening hand, throat screaming with pain, eyes still swimming, black spots still dancing. "If you fuh-fight Y-Yusuke, you'll find her." Still, he did not let me go. Desperate, I tightened my grip on him and did my best to meet his eyes, to show him the sincerity in my own (and I was feeling quite sincere right then, I assure you). I told him, "Not n-now. You won't find her now. But, eventually—"

Hiei let me go without ceremony. I landed on my boneless knees, shock of impact sending lances of arthritic pain into my hips. Immediately I clutched my throat, coughing and gasping, wiping the spittle and tears off my face with my sleeve.

"Does the Detective know where she is?" Hiei asked—calmer now, though I knew not why.

"No," I managed to grate out. "And neither do I." Hopefully he could read the honesty in my face, though I didn't dare to look at him just then. Between ragged breaths I said, "All I know is that if you fight Yusuke Urameshi, a chain of events will lead you to your sister. Eventually." I swept out a hand, as if pushing something over. "Dominoes. It's all dominoes, falling in a line."

Hiei considered this. Asked, "When?"

"I don't know. But it will happen." Incapable of smiling, I settled on a pained grimace. "Fate has its plan. You'll see."

Hiei watched me struggle to my feet, not bothering to offer help. I leaned against the wall and tried to breathe away the agony still sitting in my neck.

Maybe I should've let him kidnap me. Not put up a fight at all. Why had I even decided to fight him? Oh, right. My damnable pride, loathe to play the role of damsel in distress. Loathe to admit it though I was, I knew the notion of not accidentally becoming a demon thrall was just an excuse to validate my petty pride. This night just kept getting worse. I should've just let him—

"Fate."

I opened my eyes. Hiei regarded me from beneath his lowered brows, gaze hooded and inscrutable. He'd put the bandana back over the Jagan at some point, but I couldn't tell you when.

"You have an ear for Fate, or some power like it. A seer, perhaps," Hiei said. "Demons have killed for such a power, to know their own futures before they live them." He stepped toward me once more, teeth showing behind curled lips. "Humans are weak. Powerless. You should be grateful for what little power you've been given." Frustration colored his tone blood red. "Why is the power of Fate not enough for you? Why did you want to become a demon?"

Why, indeed. Memories of my long-ago conversation with Genkai gave me momentary pause. She'd asked a similar questions when I asked for psychic powers: Why did I want them, and why did I think I deserved them? The answer was twofold. Nothing in this lifetime could ever be simple.

"I just wanted to know if I could…get stronger, I guess." I shrugged. "You're not the only one with a code."

His lips pursed (it looked for all the world like a pout, not that I'd ever tell him). "Explain," he demanded.

"There's…something I need to protect." Maybe Hiei would understand that, given his relationship with his long lost sister. "To do it, I have to get stronger."

"And that something is?" Hiei asked.

This time, I managed a small, rueful smile. Hiei frowned.

"That something is my pride," I said. And my friends, but he wouldn't be impressed by that, so I kept the twofold truth to myself.

Hiei didn't say anything for a moment. Eventually his tossed his head with a bark of mocking laughter. "Ha! What a revolting human has to be even remotely proud of boggles the mind."

I pinned him with a dry glare. "That's racist. You're human-racist. A demon supremacist." When he didn't deny it, looking smug as a cat picking its teeth with canary bones, I shook my head and sighed. It sounded more like a shriek in my abused throat, though. "All right. I think we've danced the night away long enough. Time to get to business." I presented him with my upturned hands. "I'm your hostage, right? That was your plan earlier, at least." I eyed the sword (he'd sheathed it at some point, sneaky). "So are you going to cut me with the Sword, still? Or just conk me over the head and hope I don't get brain damage?"

"I haven't decided." He smirked, gesturing at the weapon at his side. "To cut you, or not to cut you. Giving you what you want isn't exactly in my nature, after all."

The laugh came bright, peppered with stinging pain. I'd only just thought that sentiment a few minutes prior. Was Hiei somehow reading my mind again? Too funny.

"True," I said. "You're not very giving."

"No," he said, "I'm not."

I felt like a cowboy staring down a rival on the main street of a boomtown. Hiei's hand drifted inch by inch toward his Sword. Mine drifted inch by inch toward my keyring, where my pepper-spray dangled on a metal hook. He'd dodge it, of course, but it was the only thing at my disposal that could possibly surprise him (plus it was an eye irritant, and he had more eyes than normal, so in theory pepper spray was his worst enemy). Licking my chapped lips, I met his eyes and tried my best to look unimpressed. You don't intimidate me, Hiei. And I had the open mouth of the alley at my back, so I could make a run for it—not that I'd get far if I tried.

Especially not with Botan in the way.

Like a cheerful bomb going off in the tense silence, I heard her call my name.

Hiei's eyes popped wide open. Mine did, too, as the call of my name repeated. Feet slapped the pavement at my back; hands touched my shoulder, pulling my wooden body around to face her.

"Keiko! Thank goodness I found you!" Botan said. Magenta eyes, muddy brown in the alley's poor light, peered worried and frantic into mine. "You need to get inside right now! Yusuke found an imp, a little demon spy that most assuredly works for Hiei—and it was stalking his mother! We think Hiei is about to strike, perhaps attack Yusuke's family and friends to draw him out, and that means you!"

"Botan," I said.

"There's no time to argue!" Botan hooked her arm through mine, tugging me toward the restaurant door. "You need to—oh." Her feet stilled; her arm around mine tightened, eyes the size of plates, horror creeping over her features in foul waves. "Oh. Oh!"

She'd spotted Hiei, of course. He'd blended into the dark in his black cloak, cherry red eyes pinpoints of feral light in the gloom.

Botan thought she'd gotten to me in the nick of time, but now she faced a shadowed nightmare.

When Hiei took a step toward us, light dripped along the edge of the Sword like water.

Without thinking, I put myself between Botan and Hiei. Sher tried to protest, brave and caring Botan telling me to get away from him, get behind her instead, as if she could somehow protect me from that Sword, but I could barely even hear her. This was my destiny to face, not hers.

Not hers.

Botan wasn't even supposed to be here.

"Don't hurt her, Hiei," I said, voice shaking uncontrolled. "Please. Please don't hurt her."

He paused.

He said, "Don't tell me what to do, Meigo."

Hiei disappeared. A wind stripped by, sudden and hot enough to force my eyes closed. When I opened them again, I was still standing—not in pain, not bleeding, not unconscious. I slapped my hands over my chest and legs, searching for a cut, staring wild-eyed into the dark where Hiei had been just a moment prior.

Behind me, I heard a thud.

I turned as in a dream.

Botan lay on the ground, hair fanning like spilled paint across the pavement.

From beneath her bangs a single, thin cut leaked bright red blood.

"It's just like you said," came Hiei's voice, from everywhere and nowhere all at once. "I'm not one for giving people what they want." Red flashed in the corner of my vision. "And two hostages are infinitely better than one."

A weight smashed into my skull.

Darkness enveloped me like the folds of Hiei's threadbare cloak.


NOTES

Early-canon Hiei is trouble. Having to balance his Maniacal Evil Edgelord side with the honorable demon that he becomes later is sort of the worst? Writing his character progression will be a trial. And Hiei now has an idea that Keiko isn't a normal human, though of course he doesn't know exactly what's going on, so that's fun. Also, Hiei's Jagan powers are not very consistent in the anime/manga. The scope of his mind-reading abilities doesn't feel fully explored, but in this moment, I think he's still new to the Jagan and hasn't gotten full grasp of its abilities. More on that later.

Originally there was going to be this big action chase scene instead of her using words/wit to knock him off his game, but there's no way she could ever outrun him unless he let her, and he wouldn't do that, so here we are. A whole chapter of Hiei being dramatic. LOL.

The flashback scene references a man named Tom. He and I were dating when I started this story. We're still dating now. Been holding off on describing our relationship because…well, it's not in the past. It's my present. But I'm going to be bringing him into it more often, I think, for reasons you'll see later.

Speaking of which: Anybody watch "The Good Place"? ;P There was an homage in this chapter.

We had some AMAZING art drawn for Lucky Child this past week, because y'all are far too good to me. ThatArtistWithAPen drew an absolutely stunning image of Hiruko puppeteering NQK, and I'll be posting images of NQK, Hiruko, and Cleo all looking like absolute DREAMS drawn by the glorious 431101134 very soon. They are fabulous artists and I love them. SO MUCH LOVE.

Y'all came out in force last week, and I'm grateful for every last one of you. I mean seriously. This project started with no indication it would ever appeal to anyone in this goshdarn fandom, and here we are anyway. I love all y'all to bits: Yume, 431101134, general zargon, Freaky Shannon-igans, Lady Rini, Just 2 Dream of You, InTheArmsofaTheif, AkaMizu-chan, Kaiya Azure, zenocanaan, Tsuki-Lolita, CrystalVixen93, TerrorTwinEpicness, DarkDust27, Im Not Itachi, Bergholt Stuttley Johnson, MyHeartBeating-MWMI, MetroNeko, Almecestris, Yakiitori, Linguistic Chaos, Sesshomarus'Luvr, Chi-chan, Redpanda923, tatewaki2000, Selias, Schattenlos, LiLy Resh, Melissa Fairy, rezgurnk, wennifer-lynn, Yuriko-Rurinia, Corralinne, rya-fire1, CaelynM, Yunrii, DiCuoreAllison, Marian, ChaosTheVoid, FireDancerNix, syzygy zacker, La Femma Absurde, MemeLord5000, Wavywavy, Vyxen Hexgrim, sousie, WaYaADisi1, Nanouchy, AnimePleasegood, Mayacompany, rikku92, ahyeon, MyMidnightShadow, Reclun, dontblink, cocobyrd87, Wishless Dandylion, Badwolf11, Ghiro, akagami hime chan, and two guests!