Chapter 7: A tough decision for power, part I

'Hiei, wake up,' Phire tried to wake Hiei up. He had fainted again, and Phire took him into the tree base that she was in from before.

'Huh? What happened to Kurama?' he asked, a hint of a low growl able to be heard.

'He left,' Phire told him straight out. She took her sword out, and it gleamed without any light. Hiei just looked at it.

'Phire,' he started asking, 'I thought your sword had'- Phire then had fire surround the sword, and blood dripped from the sword.

'Yes Hiei, my sword does have blood on it,' Phire told him. 'Only the ones who may acknowledge true darkness and forget the ruthless lies of light will have permission to see the true fate.'

'True fate?' Hiei thought to himself, confused. He looked at her strangely, and then looked at the sword. If blood surrounded it, does that mean something? Hiei started getting an idea of what was going on.

'Yes Hiei, true fate,' Phire told him as she read his mind. He wasn't very surprised that she read his mind, knowing that she had telepathy.

'Are you trying to say that'- Phire knew that he understood only half, so she put 2 fingers on his mouth to stop him from continuing.

'You will understand later, Hiei; right now, only time can tell,' Phire interrupted. He merely looked at her with glaring eyes, but then the sword looked like a magnificent sword, as if the strongest warrior of times just got a new sword.

'Huh?' Hiei gasped a little. 'Where is the blood?' he asked, demanding an answer. She just looked at him and said no more.

'Well then, come Hiei, let's train,' she told him. 'Unless of course, you still need rest,' she added in. Hiei glared at her and got up.

'Of course I'll train; I've always been ready, you know,' Hiei answered. Phire looked at him.

'I expected such an answer,' she muttered. Hiei didn't hear her, but walked outside, sword in his hand. She looked outside and it was already the next day.

'Hmph, I wonder what she was talking about before,' Hiei thought to himself, acknowledging the beautiful flora and fauna. Also, he picked up the scent of a very sacred place, and started walking towards it. The more he went towards it, the chillier it seemed to get.

'Br, since when did it get cold?' he thought. The trees were normal and it looked like springtime, but it was colder. As he kept walking, he noticed that the leaves of the shining trees that had the gorgeous radiance of the sun started to get deeper green and were even more eloquent enough to draw in the attention of an adolescent. Hiei was even more confused, and then realized that if this were assumingly a sacred area, then there are certain forces acting on the trees and the environment.

It was 20 minutes later that he started shivering to death and the radiance of the sun increased; but it seemed to be decreasing the temperature instead of increasing it. Hiei looked beyond a few trees, and noticed a few drops of water from somewhere. As he approached, the weather's mild conditions dramatically increased and the heat was now piercing shivering cold. Hiei could see his breath as he breathed, and despite him being a fire demon, his power was an ant to a giant.

He finally reached a waterfall, and it shined with the crystal clear cerulean of pure water. Hiei couldn't take the Pluto-like temperature and when he tried to scream, his voice was too low to be heard even by Kurama through telepathy.

'H-h-h-h-e-l-p m-m-m-m-e-e-e!' he mourned to himself, shivering. Ironically, no icicles were forming on him and he was sweating. He thought that me may have caught a fever, but homeostasis denied that fact. He felt a deep warm wave go into his body right in the next second, and sighed in relief. As he turned around to see who it was, he gasped.

'Hiei, are your fire powers really that weak?' Phire asked, bringing him closer to her to keep him warm. She had her sword summon fire waves that surrounded the two of them.

'How did you?'- Phire rubbed his hair and made him back to normal, interrupting his question and thought.

'I'll explain everything; funny enough, you were supposed to come here tomorrow, but I guess an early start isn't bad,' she told him. He just looked at her in bedazzled and wanted an explanation.

'Well?' he asked, rubbing his head against her for more warmth. He never realized that the power of Phire would really help right now. She put his arm around his neck and started explaining the whole predicament that Hiei was in.

'I understand now; so this is the most sacred place on Earth as the Holy Spirit entered this place?' Hiei asked to make sure he understood.

'Yes; also, the effects you were feeling were from the "curse" that the Holy Spirit put on this place,' Phire explained. 'The waterfall only gets the attention of the ones who desire power, as those are the ones that are usually loners, but not always,' Phire added in. Hiei widened his eyes a little.

'So that's why I was freezing to death even though I was actually normal and sweating,' Hiei said after analyzing the information in his head. Phire nodded and then went into the waterfall. Steam came out of the water as she was hot at the moment, and it didn't seem to affect her whatsoever. She went under the most tense point of the waterfall, and she just stood there, eyes closed, still, not moving even one millimeter. Hiei just watched her in puzzlement.

After 5 minutes, Hiei was getting impatient and took one step into the waterfall and jumped back. It was colder than the coldest thing that was ever imaginable.

'Gah!' he shrieked at the top of his lungs. He could not understand how Phire was able to go under with ease.

'Freaking monkey, I want to be that type of strong! A heck lot of endurance and much more dedication to power!' Hiei thought to himself in his mind. Just then, as Phire opened one eye, which was bloody red, Hiei felt a shock of fear in whole entire body. As he just stared into her eye, he felt a sword piercing through his jagan.

'AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!' Hiei yelled, holding his head and trying to take in the pain. As he fell asleep, Phire went over to him as thought to herself a little.

'Hmph, I was right; by using the negative energy, I can use illusory moves to defeat the enemy,' she thought as she carried him back to the tree base.

'Power…power…power…that is what made…her strong… I want to be strong… just like that… just need… power… screw the limits… I'll go beyond for strength… and finally I can defeat my rival…Phire, help me get to that goal… tomodachi.'