Warnings: A bit of gore later on.
NOTE: FFnet is being BUGGY AS HELL and I can't access my reviews page to thank everyone as normal? I can get in to upload a doc, and I'm going to try to post. Will thank everyone by name as always just as soon as I can see my reviews again.
Wondering very sincerely if anyone will even see this update...
Lucky Child
Chapter 64:
"The Great Hiei-Keiko Road Trip of 1990, Part 1"
One beat passed, and then another. Hiei watched me with eyes narrowed, gauging my reaction like a tiger assessing the awareness of its prey. Before I could reply—before I could even wrap my brain around what he'd said and implied, let alone ponder the reasons why he wanted me to come with him—he cursed under his breath.
"Don't overthink it," Hiei snapped. "I can see you overthinking it, but it's really very simple." He drew himself up to his full height and leveled one finger at my confused nose. "You're coming with me because I think you'll be useful to me, and that's all."
"…really?" I said.
His nose turned up. "Yes."
"Useful how?"
Hiei looked at me like asking that question had proved, once and for all, just how big of an idiot I was. "You know the future, Meigo, or at least you're privy to it," he said. "I know better than to use you to look too far ahead, but for my sister, I will make an exception."
Handy explanation, sure, but something about it didn't sit right. I shook my head. "Much though I'd love to take a road trip with you, Hiei, from my perspective it seems I could only slow you down."
"Maybe. Maybe not," Hiei said, dismissing me with only a few words. He took a step in my direction, efficient and quick. "But you're coming with me anyway."
I eyed him up and down. "And I assume I have no choice in the matter."
"None whatsoever."
"Well." I shifted from foot to foot, unnerved by the intensity of his scarlet gaze. "Um."
Bringing me along was a terrible idea, of course. Terrible. Horrible. Totally illogical. Maybe illegal, even, depending on Japan's kidnapping laws. Denial and refusal built on my tongue, bubbling like foam on a stormy sea—but then Hiei's fists clenched at his sides, muscles twitching in his tight jaw. His eyes combed my face, searching for answers to questions I hadn't yet been asked, urgency evident in his set shoulders and tense stance.
The protests fizzled on my tongue.
Hiei was obviously not telling me the real reason he wanted me along. He wasn't the type to bring along a liability without good reason, and the reason he'd given was too flimsy to hold up under scrutiny. The tension in him, too, alluded to troubles unspoken. Maybe he was nervous about meeting Yukina? But Hiei wasn't the type to bring emotional support with him, either, unless he'd finally come to trust me in ways even he couldn't articulate (and if that was the case: d'aaaw! How cute!).
Or did Hiei's reasons for bringing me along even matter, in the end?
I'd lamented not getting to go on this mission. Hadn't I just been telling Kagome that I wanted to see Yukina and Kuwabara interact? Wasn't Hiei's demand, in that case, exactly what I'd been asking for? If I didn't take this chance I'd have to wait for the Dark Tournament to see Yukina and Kuwabara together—and sure, I'd be a fool to send myself into the demonic lion's den (to borrow Shizuru's phrasing) and insert myself into the Rescue Yukina arc, but…wouldn't I be just as big of a fool for saying yes as I'd be for saying no?
Well. If I was going to be a fool either way, I might as well be a fool with more information under her belt. And I could only get that information if I went with Hiei, so…
"Aw, to hell with it," I grumbled. "May the Great Hiei-Keiko Road Trip of 1990 commence."
Hiei's wide eyes went wider still. "You mean—?"
"I mean I'm in. You don't have to force me." Before Hiei could recover enough to gloat, I stepped around him and headed for my desk. "Let me just call Kurama and—"
One burning-hot hand closed around my wrist when I reached for the phone. "No," Hiei said, vehement—but he didn't say anything more. He just stared, grabbing me, as if trying to knock the idea of making a phone call from my head with the force of his eyes alone.
I looked at his hand on my wrist, then at his face, and then at his hand again. "Excuse you?"
"Leave the fox out of this." His sharp teeth bared themselves. "He'd only get in my way."
I debated arguing but decided to fight the call-Kurama-fight later. Hiei would have to let me out of sight eventually, and when he did I'd find a phone and make the call regardless. With a shrug I told him, "Fine. Then let me go so I can back a bag."
One thin brow arched. "A bag?"
"Yeah. You know. Clothes, toiletries, supplies…" When Hiei did not release me, I added, "And food?"
Food was the magic word. He let go of my wrist and turned on his heel, arms crossing over his chest. I rubbed my wrist (damn, his skin burned) and headed for my bedroom door.
"Fine," Hiei said, nose aloft. "Pack this bag of yours."
"I will." I stopped with my hand on the doorknob. "Oh, by the way—how long will we be gone?"
Hiei's nose wrinkled; behind the fringe of his bangs and the white of his bandana, I spotted the faintest of purple glows. For a second he just stood there, staring into space, but then he shook himself and looked back at me.
"It will take a night to get to her," he said. "We will reach her by morning and be back tomorrow night."
"OK, good. I won't miss school." It was Saturday afternoon, early since we only had a half day on Saturday. My Sunday schedule lay wide open, ripe for an adventure with Hiei in the mountains. "Be right back."
I found my mother downstairs attending to the afternoon rush, barking orders at the kitchen staff as they cooked and arranged food on plates. "Hey Mom?" I said as I edged my way toward her through the chaos.
She ducked under one of the chef's arms, carrying a tray of chopped vegetables. "Yeah, honey?"
A nook between an oven and a prep area gave me a spot to stand out of harm's way. "Can I go camping with Kuwabara and Yusuke tonight?" I said as Mom scraped her veggies into a pot of boiling soup stock. "Shizuru is chaperoning. We'll be back tomorrow night."
Mom barely paid me any heed, too busy to realize I told her lies. "That sounds nice, sweetie," she said, cleaver flying. "So long as Shizuru goes with you, I think it's a great—" She did a double-take to her left and yelled, "Masaru, look alive! Those onions aren't going to fry themselves!" A final glance at me, accompanied by a rather hurried smile. "Sorry, honey, but I have to run!"
It was probably a good thing she was distracted, because it prevented her from asking more questions, which allowed me to tell no more lies. Sighing with relief, I waited for a chef carrying half a roasted chicken to pass before ducking out of the kitchen and heading back upstairs.
Two years prior, my parents had taken Yusuke and me on a camping trip just outside the city. Dad had gone a little nuts purchasing tents, sleeping bags, firestarters, survival gear—but the restaurants had been doing great, and for the first time in a while my mother hadn't balked at the idea of spending money on a vacation. While it was too bad we hadn't had the time to repeat our camping trip in the years since, I took comfort in the fact that the camping gear in our hall closet was practically brand new as I stuffed a hiking backpack full of supplies. A trip back downstairs to the pantry and I'd acquired all the food Hiei and I would need to survive the weekend…plus a little something extra, a treat for Hiei if he didn't make too much of an ass of himself on our trip. But only time would tell me if he deserved it or not.
Hiei scowled when I came back into the bedroom; he hadn't moved, standing exactly where I'd left him. "About time."
"You can't rush perfection." Walking to my closet, I shoved clothing into the bag's remaining space and pulled my hiking boots from a top shelf. Hefting my backpack for emphasis, I said, "And one doesn't just leave town without supplies."
He eyed the bag with undisguised distaste. "Do you really need all of that?"
"You want to eat, don't you?" He looked cowed; I laughed. "Thought so. Now what comes next?"
His brow burrowed. "What do you mean?"
"I mean the place they're holding your sister is in the next prefecture, I hear." I put a hand on my hip and cocked my head, teasing. "You planning on walking, or what?"
It had been a joke, but Hiei didn't take it that way. He just smirked and tossed his head. "I'll run," he said.
I rolled my eyes, I-told-you-so in action. "This is the part where I point out that I will most definitely slow you down."
His smug sneer vanished. "Fine," Hiei spat. "Then what do you suggest we do?"
"Let me call the train station. I'm sure they have something." Once again I headed for my desk and the phone upon it. "Or a bus, maybe. But you'll have to track and see where Yusuke and Kuwabara went, and then I'll have to see what bus routes will take us—"
Hiei flickered, appearing between me and the phone in a whoosh of displaced air. I stumbled back with an 'eep' of surprise as he said, "No. No train, no bus. I'd rather carve out an eye than ride in a rattling human deathtrap."
I stowed that nugget of information ("Hiei is scared of human transportation") away for later use. "Well, if you won't take a train or a bus, and if I can't run with you, then what're we gonna do?" I said. Frustration bred sarcasm. "You volunteering to carry me, Hiei? Huh?"
But to my horror, Hiei didn't scoff and dismiss the notion outright. Instead he stood there for a minute, staring at me—and then his eyes firmed, resolution gelling like set concrete, and he started forward with hands outstretched.
I backpedaled and shook my head like a wet dog. "Wait, wait, it was a joke!"
But Hiei kept coming. "Just hold still and I'll—"
He reached for my legs with one hand for my shoulders with another; like a waking nightmare, the image of Hiei carrying me in dreaded "bridal style" flashed through my horrified head.
"Hiei, no!" I shrieked, clutching at my shoulders like he'd walked in on me in the shower. "You are not going to carry me all bridey-like like some goddamn Mary Sue!"
Hiei froze, hands still outstretched. "Some goddamn what?" he repeated.
"Never mind. But you are not carrying me like that. Nor will I allow myself to be thrown over a goddamn shoulder like, like—like a sack of potatoes!" And then it was my turn to walk at him with arms reaching, and it was his turn to backpedal in outright alarm. "Here's an idea! I'll ride piggyback!"
Hiei's eyes bugged out of his face. "Like hell you will!"
"Oh c'mon, Hiei." I grinned and quoted him, marching ever forward. "Just hold still and I'll—"
"No. No, Meigo." Hiei shook his head like a wet dog, our roles totally reversed as he scrambled away from me, darting around the room in flashes of black while I pursued. "It will look ridiculous. I'm not doing that!"
"Oh, so now you care about dignity!" I said. Hiei took up residence in a top corner of my room, perched there with hands and feet braced on the wall like Spiderman. Glaring, I put hands on hips and said, "Tell you what. I'll let you steal ten bowls without nagging you even once if you let me ride piggy back."
Hiei growled at me. "Not for all the bowls in the world, Meigo."
I put a hand to my chin. Thrust a finger in the air. "Twenty bowls!"
"No!" Hiei snarled.
"Thirty bowls!"
"No fucking bowls at all, Meigo!"
"Forty—"
"Do not make me set you on fire!"
"Fine, fine jeez, no piggyback rides," I said, grumbling, and Hiei let himself fall to the floor (though he did that superhero-landing bit, panther-like in his grace, just to add insult to injury). I paced in a few quick circles and threaded my hands in my hair. "OK. So we're at an impasse. You won't carry me, I can't run, whatever. How do you propose we solve this?" I shot a glance at my phone, wistful. "Kurama might have an idea. If you just let me call him—"
Hiei flashed out of sight and reappeared next to my desk, phone's connection cable pinched between forefinger and thumb. I blinked, not sure what he was doing—and then black smoke drifted from between his fingers as a sizzling noise filled the air.
"You are entirely too talkative," he said, and the cord melted in his molten grip.
I gaped, unable top form words. The scent of melted plastic and charred metal filled the air as I lifted my finger and pointed at him.
"Hiei—did you just cut my phone line?!" I squawked.
Hiei's nose thrust upward. "I regret nothing."
I gaped. My backpack slid from my shoulder and hit the floor with a thud. I sputtered, tried to talk, stalled, and fell silent. Hiei stared back at me with more of his smug superiority, and when he stepped toward me yet again with arms outstretched, I released a yodel of impotent rage.
"Oh, that is it, Hiei!" I screeched, hands flapping. "You can't carry me like a romance novel heroine, you won't let me ride piggyback, you won't take a train or a bus, so—" I waved my hands harder, faster, another wordless cry of frustration as I thought of the most ridiculous option imaginable. "So what do you wanna do, Hiei? Gag me and shove me in a sack?!"
This was just more desperate sarcasm falling out of my mouth, of course, but rather than piss Hiei off as I thought it might, his eyes merely narrowed. "You keep making jokes."
Through clenched teeth I replied, "Humor is how I keep from screaming."
"You keep making jokes," he continued, "that are actually good ideas."
I froze solid.
Hiei stepped toward me.
"Hiei—Hiei, no!" I stumbled backward over my own feet until I collided with my bedroom door, one hand raised to ward him off. "Hiei. No. No," I said, heart hammering at the sight of his determined expression and the steady pace with which he approached, methodical and measured like a stalking beast. "It was a joke, not a suggestion! And you've got that look in your eye—"
He tugged off his bandana. The Jagan cracked open with a spark of purple. I gulped.
"—you've got that look in all three of your eyes and I don't think I like it very much, and—"
He blurred from view. Reappeared in front of me, but I could only make out the flare of his violet Jagan through the spread of his fingers, his hand closing over my face with a burst of heat and the scent of metal and char. The purple of the Jagan flared outward, coating the world, drowning out all other color before fading into the deep black of unconsciousness—and with that, I slept.
Hiei had been right.
When it came to going with him to rescue Yukina, I truly had no choice…and that bastard had made sure of it.
I came to lying on something soft, but with hard bits beneath it poking into my back and arms like fingers of accusatory skeletons. Light streamed onto my face; I blinked and sat up, shielding my eyes with my arm. The air tasted funny in my mouth, cooler and cleaner, almost, not nearly as humid as it had tasted in the heart of the city.
"About time you woke up."
I cracked and eye. Hiei stood over me with hands in pockets, chin tucked into the scarf wound around his neck. Behind him lay a backdrop of…trees? Tall trees, greenery swaying as a chilly wind breezed brushed my cheeks. I blinked, eyes adjusting, and lowered my hands to the ground.
My fingers brushed soft cotton.
"What—?" I looked down and beheld a field of periwinkle dotted with yellow flowers. My eyes popped wide, sting of the sunlight forgotten. "Oh my god, is this my comforter?"
Hiei shrugged, because it was indeed my comforter beneath me, a pale purple puddle of soft bedding spread across the soft earth below, and those had to be sticks and twigs poking into my ass, right? Birds chirped in the trees, song merry and totally oblivious to the indignation rising hot and hard inside my chest.
"You did it," I said. "You really did it." Once again I pointed right at Hiei's face. "J'accuse! You psychically gagged me and shoved me in a sack!"
"It got you to shut up, didn't it?" Hiei observed. "We're here, and you weren't even awake for the journey. You have no room to complain."
It was all I could do to sputter at him like an engine with too little fuel. "Don't I, though?" A glance at myself, at my socked feet, athletic shorts, and soft sweater—totally inappropriate for a hike through the mountains. "You didn't even give me time to change clothes!"
Hiei took a single smart step to the right, revealing my backpack sitting on the forest floor alongside my hiking boots. Well, he earned some points by bringing all of that along, but it remained to be seen if he'd earn the treat I'd packed for him (and this little incident definitely counted against his deserving quota, that's for sure). Glaring, I scrambled across my comforter (feeling dampness against my knees as the fabric pressed into the muddy ground, and oh my god my mother would freak out if this thing stained!) to grab my bag and boots. Hiei watched as I pulled out some of the clothes I packed, and when I slipped on my boots and rose to my feet, his eyes straight-up narrowed.
"What are you doing?" he said.
I made a shooing motion at him. "Turn around and don't turn back around until I say so. I need to put on pants."
Hiei huffed, but he turned his back; I tiptoed away from him in my unlaced, half-on boots behind the nearest tree for added privacy. I exchanged my sweater for a plaid button-up and my athletic shorts for a pair of thick leggings, over which I wore denim shorts that just barely covered a certain accessory I strapped to my thigh (I wondered, vaguely, if Hiei would notice, and resolved to watch his reaction when I saw him after changing clothes). Very "Lumberjack Chic." I shivered when I stripped off my top and felt the chill air of the mountains on my skin. That's where we had to be, right? The mountains, near Tarukane's mansion? Coniferous trees stood tall in all directions, the ground rising in a gentle slope to…to the north, judging by the position of the sun, which lay more than a few ticks westward of its high noon position (though it was admittedly hard to tell through the canopy of leaves above). So it was late afternoon, then. Probably just an hour or two before nightfall, if I had to guess. Good thing I'd brought a heavy jacket. It would doubtless get cold after dark.
Another wind blew through the trees. The birds quieted for the briefest of moments before resuming their song. Aside from their cries, the forest was quiet.
We were very, very far from home, weren't we?
Nerves kicked up a flurry of butterflies in my gut, but I told myself it was no use worrying about distance just then. I was here, and there was no going back. After I laced up my boots and put away my shed clothes, I rounded the tree and headed for Hiei, buckling the straps of my backpack across my chest after I stuffed my comforter inside it. "How far are we from Yusuke?" I asked.
"Not far." Hiei turned and looked me up and down, surveying my new clothes (and if he spotted my little accessory, he didn't mention it). "But they won't be able to sense us."
"Or hear us?"
"Depends on how loudly you complain." His head cocked before I could retort, a dog lifting an ear at a sudden noise. "They're on the move. Follow me."
And so we walked.
Well, we hiked—or even more specifically, I hiked, and Hiei scared the ever-loving crap out of me. We walked for about half an hour, Hiei nimbly leaping from boulder to tree branch while I toiled along on the ground, making good headway but doubtless not keeping up the pace Hiei would maintain if he travelled on his own. More than once he looked over his shoulder and growled at me to hurry up; I merely returned the demand with a glare, or a muttered insult, until finally Hiei growled under his breath and flitted out of sight in a flash of black.
I stopped short, breath snagging in my throat like a hem on a thorn. The quiet forest seemed all at once too loud. Every rustle of leaf, every chirp of bird, it echoed like gunshots in my ears as I strained my hearing for the sound of footsteps.
But I heard nothing—and then anxiety started talking.
Had…had Hiei left me?
No. No way. No way would he leave me. He hadn't liked my speed, sure, but he wouldn't have abandoned me just because he was frustrated…right?
The memory of his scarlet eyes telling me to hurry up, though, wouldn't leave my head. Hiei was ruthless. Leaving me behind was totally within his power, wasn't it? But he'd wanted me to come along. He'd been the one to force the issue. It didn't make sense for him to just leave me behind without provocation.
Unless I was wrong.
Unless I was wildly miscalculating.
Unless Hiei really had abandoned me and I was all alone in these mountains and oh god oh god oh god where the hell was I, even, and how would I get home, and—
"Hiei?" I ventured, hardly daring to speak his name. "Hiei, are you…are you there?"
He appeared at once before me. I flinched. Hiei scoffed.
"I'm scouting ahead," he said. "Just keep walking."
"But Hiei—"
And he was gone again.
Well, at least I'd determined he hadn't actually abandoned me to the wolves. That was something. Maybe Hiei cared about me, after all.
We kept walking, and the next time Hiei pulled his little disappearing act I didn't panic. I just walked, concentrating on not tumbling over the mossy rocks and fallen branches strewn across the forest floor. Eventually he came back and pointed off into the trees, guiding me in a new direction until his next reappearance. We leap-frogged around like that for quite a while. Sometimes I'd find him waiting for me a little farther ahead, standing under a tree or crouched on a branch in wait. As soon as he'd see me he'd point, command me to walk, and then disappear again. This continued for at least an hour, routine only changing when I found him stand in the center of a small clearing.
He didn't flit away when I found him in the meadow. He stood in its center, staring off into the distance between the trees without moving. The hem of his dark cloak caught the wind and swirled, revealing a pop of its bright red lining. It looked like blood against the pale green grass and the white flowers dotting it. Somehow Hiei hadn't disturbed the grass around him; I carved a trail through it when I walked to meet him, leaving crushed flowers and broken grass in my wake.
"What's up?" I said.
His eyes flicked toward me, locking on my face—and then he looked away again. "Stay here," he said, and he bent his knees and was gone. Leapt straight up and out of the meadow, if I had to guess.
"Showoff," I muttered.
Hiei didn't reappear to lob a retaliatory insult. I sighed and unbuckled my backpack, letting it drop to the ground with a bump. I sat next to it and rummaged inside until I found a candy bar, upon which I munched as I let my weary feet rest. Keiko was fit, possessing a natural (not to mention conditioned) athleticism my previous body had lacked, but even her runner's legs weren't used to carrying the weight of heavy hiking boots. I lay on my back in the meadow and propped my feet up on my backpack, gazing at the cloud strewn sky and savoring the taste of chocolate-coated wafer. I tried to pick out the identities of specific nearby birds by their songs alone, but it had been a long time since my past-life father took me birding…not that he'd taught me the calls of Japanese birds. Even so, the calls of starlings and sparrows weren't too different. Perhaps that was a warbler I heard somewhere to the south, trilling up and down the musical scale as it tried to summon a mate—
A branch crunched somewhere to the east, and a footstep dragged through the meadow grass.
"About time you came back." I sat up and crushed the candy bar wrapped into a ball, shoving it into my back pocket as I twisted around. "I keep thinking you're going to just leave, and—oh."
I froze solid.
"Oh," I said. "You're not Hiei."
"No," the stranger agreed. "I'm not."
Taller than Hiei by a mile, the well-built man with broad shoulders and thighs like tree trunks wore a neat black suit and a black tie, brown hair combed back and away over his head like Yusuke's—only he had waves in his light brown hair, skin pale and white, blue eyes peeking over the top of his dark sunglasses. This gaijin in a suit in the middle of a forest seemed human enough at first glance, if not totally out of place.
I wasn't fooled for a second.
The anime had made it clear that Tarukane's goons would look human at the outset.
The strange man and I stared at each other, neither speaking. I rose slowly to my feet, fearing any sharp move might set him off, but he didn't come near me. He stood at the edge of the meadow with hands in his pockets, looking me over like he didn't quite know what to make of the girl that had appeared in his forest. If I didn't know any better, I'd say he just looked curious. Not at all threatening. I didn't trust him in the slightest.
"Are you lost?" he asked, voice pleasant and concerned.
"Uh…no." I pointed at my boots, pasting on a chipper grin while I wondered where the hell Hiei had gone. "Just doing some hiking."
At that he gave me a chiding smile. "This is private property, you know."
If I was good at anything, it was pretending to be a sweet, innocent schoolgirl. My hands flew to my lips, which I'd arranged into an astonished O shape. "Oh, gosh, it is?" I said, feigning total surprise. "Mister, I'm so sorry! My map didn't say I wasn't allowed here!" Rapping my knuckles against my forehead, I tried to look sheepish, a kid caught sneaking an extra cookie from the jar. "I can be so silly sometimes. My mom's always telling me I need to be more careful."
"Is she, now?" the man said, and he laughed, too—but those blue eyes of his didn't crinkle at the corners, unblinking above the tint of his glasses.
"Yup!" I chirped. I reached for my backpack. "So sorry, again, and next time I promise to be more careful. I'll just head back the way I came and leave, so—"
The man stepped forward. He didn't move fast, nor did he move sharply, but even so the motion froze my reaching hand in place. "Where are you going so fast, young lady?" he said. His smile widened, showing teeth. "It's not often we get a pretty thing like you in these woods."
I couldn't move. His smile showed teeth—a whole lot of teeth. Perhaps more teeth than I'd ever seen crammed into a single smile before, curved and white and crowded.
"In fact…we rarely ever get visitors all the way out here." Yup, I was no dentist, but there were definitely too many teeth in his mouth—and did mine eyes deceive me, or was that a flicker of livid neon green in his blue eye? He took another step toward me and said, "But today's proven to be the exception to the norm. You're not the only one trespassing, but I get the feeling you know that already, don't you?"
My foot slid back, reflexively. He stepped forward, pursuing.
"Trespassers?" I stammered, taking another step. "Sorry, but I don't know anything about—"
His lips stretched further, smile inhuman and deranged. More teeth, more teeth, how the hell did he have even more fucking teeth?—and then the skin at the corners of his mouth tore backward, crevices opening up from lip to ear.
"Don't lie to me, girl," he said—and his head exploded.
Well, "erupted" might be the better word. From his ruined skin burst a new face, climbing up and out of the mouth of the strange man like an alien crawling from the belly of its screaming host. Whatever lay inside his fake human skin expanded outward, shredding his carapace into meaty ribbons that pattered onto the meadow grass in a dark red rain. In pure defiance of conventional physics the gargantuan demon blossomed from the remains of its human disguise, enormous and purple and hulking and horrible, seven feet tall and covered in gleaming scales. He had two arms and two legs, just like a human (except the arms not scraped the ground with their crooked claws) but that's where the similarities to humanity both ended and began. His oblong head nearly split in half when he talked, mouth bisecting his skull nearly into halves above the elongated barrel of his chest. Four lime green eyes blinked at me from just above the creature's top lip; above them flared three nostrils, arrange in a triangle around the spiral of a golden horn.
I'd met demons before—but they were demons like Hiei and Kurama, limbs and eyes and features arranged properly and in conventional amounts (aside from Hiei's third eye, of course). Despite the animes I'd watched and the fantasy novels I'd read, all the weird mangas and sci-fi movies, nothing had prepared me to see a sight like this one.
This—this was a demon.
But while I was most assuredly impressed by his countenance, my knees did not shake. My hands did not quiver. Instead a calm came over me, chill budding behind my breastbone as my senses sharpened, narrowed, and focused.
Hideki had trained me well in the way of the warrior, and this demon—terrifying though he was—was no match for my sensei's tutelage.
"Yes," the demon said, mistaking my stillness for something else entirely—which suited me just fine. "That's it. Freeze with fear, little human wench." His voice had deepened like a pit opening beneath my feet, words resonating like a hive of angry bees. "I think you're well aware you shouldn't be here." He dropped onto all fours, weight shifting onto his back legs. "And that means I can't let you leave!"
My body, trained by Hideki-sensei to read opponents and react before my mind could make decisions, recognized the shift in the demon's weight for what it was: preparation for a lunge in my direction. My body also recognized that I couldn't outrun this thing given the length of its limbs and the huge muscles rippling over hard bone—and to my satisfaction, my body processed this information and reacted almost of its own accord. Before the creature even finished speaking I reached down, tugged up the hem of my shorts, and grabbed the weapon strapped to my thigh. The demon, strong though it most definitely was, wasn't expecting a supposedly-terrified little human to fight back, and I counted on that as I took aim and threw.
The thing didn't even have time to dodge. The throwing knife sliced through the air and embedded itself into the thing's chest—but I didn't stay to watch it bleed.
Instead, I turned tail and ran.
Two weeks before I fought the demon in the forest near Tarukane's mansion, Hideki called for the end of the day's lesson. Ezakiya and Kagome (plus a few more students we'd recently collected) rolled off the sparring mat and traded bows. I watched from my corner, kneeling atop a rolling chair with a collection of knives at my side on a small table. A wooden practice dummy across the warehouse bristled with a dozen shards of metal, a veritable pincushion after what I'd done to it that evening.
"Yukimura," Hideki said.
I pushed with my good foot, spinning atop my chair to face him. Hideki stood behind me, the others over his shoulder cleaning up to go home. I caught Kagome's eye and mouthed at her to wait for me; she nodded, mopping sweat from her brow with her sleeve. Hideki cleared his throat. I looked back at him with a sheepish grin, but he didn't smile back. In fact, he remained utterly impassive, ponytail of grey hair snaking in a river over his shoulder.
"I have something for you," he said.
"Oh, a present?" I made grabby-hands. "Gimme."
Hideki-sensei snorted, but he didn't call me a child like I expected. From under his arm he pulled a bit of rolled-up cloth, which I eagerly unfurled atop the knife table. My eyes bugged from their sockets as I surveyed a set of polished silver knives, handles wrapped with tape, blades honed to a wicked edge. They were beautiful and deadly, but they didn't catch my attention nearly as much as the vehicle in which they'd been delivered.
"Is this a thigh holster?" I said, lifting it up for inspection. The knives sat in little sleeves of fabric secured at the top by elastic straps; the contraption could cling to the thigh thanks to a set of adjustable nylon belts and plastic buckles, durable and quiet. "This is so cool!"
I started to try it on, of course, but Hideki held up a hand. "Don't wear it in public. Knives like these aren't legal, strictly speaking."
"Aw, you mean I can't wear this under my school uniform? Because it would totally match my shoes."
Hideki managed to smile at the joke, but the humor faded fast. "I talked to Shogo," he said.
My brow lifted. "Oh?"
"He says you're regularly associating with demons. That you've befriended more than one of them."
Judging by his sour expression, Hideki did not approve. I steeled myself for a lecture when I admitted, "Yeah. He's right."
But a lecture didn't come. "Are you sure that's wise?" Hideki merely asked.
"These demons are on a bit of a leash, if it helps," I offered, but he did not appear placated. I held up the holster and knives with a smile. "You'd feel better knowing I've got these on me when I see the demons, huh?"
He considered me a moment before relenting, "Maybe you should wear them with your school uniform."
"See?" I beamed. "Told you it was a great idea."
Hideki, ever vigilant, remained unconvinced. "Just be careful."
"I will."
"And practice your throwing techniques at home, too."
"Yes, sensei."
"Don't get into any fights you can't win. There is no shame in running if you are outclassed.
"Yes, sensei."
"And make sure the demons know what you're capable of."
"Yes, sensei."
"But don't let them know too much, either," he said. "Let them underestimate you."
My forehead furrowed in confusion. "Wait. So do I show them what I can do, or keep it a secret?"
Hideki paused, considering…and then he gave a resolute nod.
"Both," he said. "Do both."
I sensed he was joking, even if his face remained utterly devoid of humor. The barest glimmer of mischief was the only thing that gave him away. Sighing, I said, "Remind me to get you a copy of the Art of War. You've got the whole 'confound your enemies' thing down to a science."
"Yes, I do," he said—but he sobered when he looked at the weapons in my hands. "Be careful, Yukimura. I get the feeling you're going to need these, and sooner than you might think."
"Maybe I will," I said—and then I remembered something. Before he could finish turning away, I said, "Oh, Hideki-sensei?"
My teacher looked at me over his shoulder with a frown. "Yes?"
"You, uh…you wouldn't mind me bringing one of these demon friends of mine to a lesson sometime, would you?"
Hideki's eyes narrowed—but the heated conversation that followed is a topic for another day.
Hideki was fond of telling his students not to be heroes. If you don't feel you can handle a situation, and if you don't think you have at least a 75% chance of winning a fight, it's not a fight you should even enter. He told us that as often as we could stand hearing it, and while I'd rolled my eyes at him more than once for impersonating a broken record, I felt nothing but gratitude for his repetition as I pelted pell-mell away from the roaring demon and into the surrounding trees.
That was a fight I could not win no matter how many knives I threw.
My knife would only slow him down a moment, I knew, which meant time was of the essence. Luckily the forest, densely packed and thick, wouldn't allow the bulky demon to follow easily. Trees whipped by, branches catching my face and scarping my skin raw, roots threatening to trip me at every step. Soon I heard the pound of the demon's feet against the earth, felt the rumble of its gait through the soles of my feet, but I didn't let myself panic. I couldn't let myself panic. "You panic, you die," as Hideki-sensei so often said. I zigzagged through the forest as quickly as I could, trying to ignore the sounds of wood cracking and splintering at my back, a tree falling somewhere behind me with a crash. This thing would tear the entire forest apart in search of me, and I knew I couldn't run forever. Hell, I couldn't even run for a little while. The longer I ran, the more time I gave it to catch up. The longer I ran, the more tired I'd be come, and the less I'd be able to fight back. Adrenaline only lasted so long.
Running was not the answer. It was a stopgap measure at best. So what else could I do?
If you can't fight, and you can't run, the last thing you can do is hide—or pull a dirty trick.
Putting on a burst of speed, I zagged around a pile of boulders and saw exactly what I needed: a tree with low-hanging branches, thick and dense and perfect. I didn't run right at it, though. Instead I ran past it by about a hundred feet, then doubled back and retraced my steps to my hiding place. Throw the asshole off the scent, provided scent was something he could track. I clambered up the pile of rocks and used them to lever myself into the tree with a quick pull-up into the lowest branches, maybe eight or ten feet off the ground. Then I climbed higher and higher, wedging myself against the trunk of the fir as needles tangled in my hair and scored my exposed hands, regulating my breathing the way Hideki had shown me until my panting evened out into long, slow breaths. I could barely see the ground from my spot in the tree, but not too far off I heard the demon crashing and thrashing through the brush. Not too far off now, getting closer, getting closer—
Hiei—where the fucking hell are you?!
I couldn't scream that thought aloud, of course, but in those few moments of stillness in the tree I definitely took the time to mentally shout at the absent fire demon. Shout at and berate. Castigate. Verbally tear-a-new-one. Glaring up at the sky, trying my best to keep panic at bay and maintain my quiet breathing, I called Hiei every insult under the sun and then some, Japanese and English and even my limited Spanish coming into play as I cursed him out.
The fun ended when the crashing drew so close I could feel it in the body of the tree, and then a flash of purple scale appeared below be through the trees. My hand crept over my mouth to stifle a cry of fear, but the creature paused for only a moment before growling and lumbering away, feet pounding like a drum on the forest floor. My plan, it seemed, had worked, and with the smallest of sighs I let myself relax.
I should've known better than to celebrate so soon.
No sooner had the demon passed me by did it double back, the thud of its feet pausing and then thundering once again in my direction. I clapped my hand back over my mouth and curled up tight, trying to remain small and hidden on my perch. Scales flashed below amidst the trees, the demon pacing back and forth below like a crocodile waiting to be fed.
"Little human thinks she can hide, eh?" he rumbled. "Too bad I can smell her fear!"
I don't know if he punched the tree or what, but I couldn't suppress the screech that rocketed from my mouth when the tree shook, bucking under my legs like a bronco trying to unseat a novice rider. It shook again, and then again, the demon howling with laughter as he attacked the tree, and then the entire thing listed to the side with a sickening crunch and horrifying jerk. I scrambled for the end of my bough with another screech as the whole tree began to topple like a ship caught in a gale, spying another nearby fir and leaping for it just as my tree fell out from underneath me. I barely managed to catch to those branches, barely managed to close my eyes in time to keep from being blinded by needles, but with squirrely determination I scrambled into that neighboring tree and clung to its trunk with both arms and both legs.
This tree, unfortunately, didn't have nearly the same density as my former hiding spot. The demon stood below me, leering upward with a wide, frenzied grin. A magenta tongue lolled from his mouth and dripped saliva onto the forest floor.
I reached into my holster and threw another knife.
This time he was ready for me. Clawed hands flew up, batting the knife away with a single swipe of enormous paw. I followed that knife with another, though, too fast for him to track; it hit his chest but glanced off, tweaking the end of the first knife I'd thrown, still sat buried to the hilt in his pectoral muscle. The demon grunted as the knife moved in his skin, leer turning into a glare.
"I will catch you if I have to raze this entire forest, bitch!" he snarled.
I opened my mouth to tell him to fuck off—but there, behind him, came a flicker of deepest black.
"Heh." I shut my eyes, not at all interested in witnessing the upcoming carnage. "Keep dreaming, pal."
I don't know what Hiei did to that demon to make it scream so loudly. I didn't dare open my eyes to find out. I simply clung to the trunk, face pressed tight to fragrant bark, and breathed shallow sips of air through my nose as the demon gibbered and screamed and moaned, meaty tearing and thudding noises accompanying the screams like percussion. The stench of filth and copper drifted up to me at one point, followed by the smell of burning meat. I switched to breathing through my mouth and tried my best not to throw up on myself.
"The girl," Hiei said during a lull in the demon's screams. "The one Tarukane tortures. Is she still at the mansion in the woods?"
Voice labored, the demon replied, "So that's why you're here."
"Answer the question. Or do you want more?"
The demon screamed again, that burning meat smell growing even stronger. "Just kill me," the demon gurgled through what I suspected was a mouthful of blood. "Just kill me, and—"
"As you wish," said Hiei.
I shouldn't have done it. I shouldn't have have peeked between my fingers at the bloodbath below, at the demon's scattered organs and smoldering body…but peek I did, because I'm the worst. I saw just enough of the demon's soon-to-be-corpse (it's a wonder it was still talking, really) and the violet flare of Hiei's Jagan before slamming my eyes shut again. The demon's four eyes had rolled backward in its head, body convulsing as Hiei used his Jagan to…I don't even know what.
All I knew was that the demon was done for.
The demon stopped gibbering soon enough, death rattling in its throat before silence reigned. Some of the burning smell faded, too. "It's over, Meigo," Hiei said. A patting noise (perhaps hands dusting themselves on the front of a black cloak) cut the dreadful silence. "You can come down now."
"I—I don't think I can," I said—both because I didn't want to open my eyes and because this tree didn't have a lot of branches below the one I occupied. At least, I didn't think it did, and one surreptitious peek through squinted lids revealed my hunch to be correct. No footholds. Yeesh.
I heard Hiei sigh even from a distance. A moment later the branch beneath me dipped, and then one hot hand landed on my shoulder and yanked. My hands tore free of the tree trunk, wind-milling twice before I pitched backward into space. I didn't even have time to scream, let alone process the fact that Hiei had literally pushed me out of a tree, before two strong arms locked around my body and halted my freefall through the empty air. I gasped and jolted, eyes popping open, to find that Hiei had caught me just before I hit the ground.
He'd caught me with one arm around my back and another beneath my knees.
Bridal style.
Just what I'd wanted to avoid.
"Gee," I said. "My hero."
The sarcasm popped out on the coattails of hysteria; I shoved at Hiei's hands and stumbled when he put me down (and none too gently at that). I took two shaking steps away from him before looking up—and oh, shit, I'd been heading right for the mangled demon. Its smoking corpse lay ahead of me, but I whirled around and put my back to it before I could internalize the gory details. For a minute all I could do was stare at Hiei, at his bored expression and the hands shoved casually into his pockets.
And then I saw the blood on his face.
It was red, but not the red of human blood. This demon had the blood of a Texas Aggie, a maroon thick and gloppy with stars knew what. This has not been a clean kill on Hiei's part. Far from it. My hand twitched toward my handkerchief, my instinct being to wipe the blood away, but I made my hand go still.
Words tumbled out of my mouth of their own accord.
"See, Hiei?" I said, tone high and reedy. "I told you I'd be a liability!"
But he only shrugged. "You served your purpose just fine."
"My purpo—oh, hell no." I understood the implication at once, brain firing on all panicked cylinders, filling my head with anger hot and searing. "Hiei, did you just use me as bait?!"
He just shrugged again. "He was suppressing his energy. I had to see what we're up against. Testing him was the best way."
I just stood there.
Hiei…he wasn't denying it.
In fact, he was admitting it—he was admitting he'd used me as bait, put my life in danger for a test, risked my wellbeing just so he could get a read on our opponents. And he didn't even have the decency to pretend that wasn't what he'd been doing to someone I thought he considered a friend.
He had no shame at all, did he?
I thought about calling him out on it, of course.
But I didn't.
I turned away from him (though not toward the dead demon) and walked off into the trees.
Hiei dogged my steps. "Where are you going?" he said as he trailed behind my heels.
"To get my bag."
"Wrong way." He adjusted his course. "Follow me."
He had the decency not to lead me by the dead demon's eviscerated remains, thank my lucky stars. He just took me back to the meadow, where I collected my dropped backpack and once again strapped it to my shoulders. Hiei watched in silence, brow furrowing deeper and deeper as I fussed with the straps and checked the laces of my boots. They'd come a bit loose; I tightened them and straightened up, looking at Hiei with dead eyes.
"Where to next?" I said.
"Spit it out, Meigo." He spared no time for subtlety. "No use hiding it. What's wrong?"
My voice held steady when I very evenly, very quietly replied, "I could've been killed."
He tossed his head. "But you weren't."
"But I could have been," I said, not allowing my calm to break. "You could have warned me."
"And given away the game to the demon?" he said with a sneer. "I think not. In fact—"
"You could have warned me, Hiei."
I didn't yell. I didn't raise my voice. I kept deadly calm, staring right at him without flinching. I don't think Hiei expected that from me. His mouth worked around empty air before he scoffed, rolling his eyes with all the derision he could muster.
"So I didn't hold your hand like a child. So what?" he said. "I needed to know what we're up against and I made a judgement call. If you're angry—"
"I'm not angry."
He blinked. "You're not?"
"No."
I leaned close, closer and closer until we came nose to nose. Hiei jerked back, unnerved, searching my face with confused eyes.
"I'm not angry," I told him. "I'm disappointed in you."
Hiei didn't move. Behind him the sun had begun to set. The golden light caught the blue in his hair and made it glow like a backlit sapphire. His jaw clenched, scarlet eyes blinking at me once, twice, three times. Our gazes held for what felt like an hour. Eventually, though, I pulled away, and I hefted my backpack just a little higher.
"Where to next, Hiei?" I murmured.
Hiei didn't move—and then, eyes downcast, he walked off without a word into the darkening forest.
NOTES:
Keiko 100% just used Mom Voice on Hiei. How he'll take it remains to be seen.
And OMG, FFnet's been glitching all day! Here's hoping this update goes through…
I talked about it on my Tumblr, but I've decided to do Camp NaNoWriMo in April to finish an original novel. Thus, I won't be updating in April, but there are a few more weekends this month during which you'll get new chapters. HOWEVER, I'd like to finish the Rescue Yukina arc before I go on break, so I might post in April in the event that the next two chapters don't wrap things up. But we shall see how the next two chapters go.
As per usual, this went longer than I thought it would and scenes I thought would make it into this chapter will be used next week, instead. Stay tuned for more Hiei! It's all Hiei, all the time this arc.
After the week I had, it was so damn nice to hear from all of you. You truly made my day with your comments and totally lifted me up when I felt indescribably low. I can't thank the following people enough for their support and encouragement: (TO BE FILLED IN SINCE FFNET WON'T LET ME SEE MY REIVIEWS)
