AN: Alright, I admit it. I SUCK ASS. But more later when you've done reading Chapter Six.
The palm at the end of the mind,
Beyond the last thought, rises
In the bronze décor
A gold-feathered bird
Sings in the palm, without human meaning,
Without human feeling, a foreign song.
You know then that it is not the reason
That makes us happy or unhappy.
The bird sings. Its feathers shine.
The palm stands on the edge of space.
The wind moves slowly in the branches.
The birds fire-fangled feathers dangle down.
—"Of Mere Being," Wallace Stevens
So she had a heartbeat. He shouldn't have known this according to the collective knowledge of the temple inhabitants. She was humming, light and fast, like those little birds always hanging about those strange birdfeeders of Yukina's. Hiei remove his fingers from her neck. The others thought he couldn't touch her. Technically, he couldn't. Eris' temperature was going down.
"Oh!" Ducky appeared, one hand on the half open door, and under a tray of foodstuffs. "Joining us for breakfast?"
A bounce of red hair and the door was fully opened to reveal a softly grinning fox. "To what do we owe the honor, Hiei?"
"Funny." Hiei found the joke less than humorous.
"Wait for meeee! Ack!" A loud thump and a curse was heard. "Damnit it, Yusuke!"
"Sorry, it was too easy—" Conk. "Ow, fuck! Keiko, come on!"
Such is our morning routine…Hiei saw no reason to leave, as he'd already been caught lurking in sight, and the residents were loathe letting him get away so easily. Plus, there was food. Fair enough incentive for him. Stubbornly, he took the space in 'his' window, ignoring the chatter of the others, and sliding glances at the 'awake' Eris in her corner between taking snatches of salted rice.
"It's a bit…cooler in here," Kurama voiced nonchalantly enough, but stared pointedly at the fire demon blocking the light in the window. "Don't you think so? Hiei? I'm sure you've noticed."
Hiei slowly pushed a chop stick-stabbed teriyaki beef square into his mouth, eyes regarding the redhead coolly. "It might be."
That garnered a reaction from the others. Several interested faces went back and forth between the fox and koorime, who had returned effortlessly back to their respective meals without notice.
Alex and Yusuke were the first to speak out. "What the hell was that about?" they looked at one another. "Jinx!"
Ducky and Keiko rolled their eyes. Yukina watched the two battle out their jinx war with keen amusement.
A throb of pain in Ducky's upper arm; he scowled at Alex and rubbed the offended appendage. "Forget it! Your fault you lost, and don't hit me!"
Alex growled with her mouth firmly shut, glaring at him and Yusuke. Ducky continued to ignore her until she settled with crossing her arms like a huffy child and pouted. Yusuke gloated, making the frowny lines on the girl's face deepen in a scowl.
Like the fates had decided the morning was too tame, an orange head with wide and slightly disbelieving eyes peeped into the room. Chatter died, heads turned to look back, food halfway to their mouths.
Yusuke raised a dark eyebrow. "Uh…hey Kuwabara…?"
"So it's true!" His eyes narrowed, skirting from face to face, and hovering on Eris with hesitation. Maybe she was able to burn his eyes out…couldn't be too careful! The demon girl certainly felt powerful enough to do it! Kuwabara shrank back until only his eyes were visible. "I didn't believe what Keiko when she told me at school. I-is it safe?"
"Nope." Ducky sipped some tea, cup cradled in both hands like he'd seen Genkai do, and eyes willing the brown liquid to cool. "She's a radioactive biohazard. Run while you're still free of contamination."
"Who the heck are you?" Kuwabara abandoned his fear (or more like forgot he was scared of something) and stepped into the room, hands fisted on the hips of his tall frame.
"Duckington Bunnell," he set the cup down, smacking his lips. That vegetable and beef stuff looked delicious… "You may call me Ducky."
Alex hit his arm, pointing to herself.
"And this," Ducky leveled her with an icy look. "Is my supposed friend." Alex flopped over in exasperation.
Yusuke laughed, moving forward to poke her with his foot. "Face it, girl, we like the silence. You're going to be like that for a looong time." Alex made a rude gesture towards him. He only smirked more. "Remember, I win if you talk!"
"So, these are the two you were yapping about?" Kuwabara addressed Keiko hesitantly, and inched in a little further.
"Hello, Kuwabara," Yukina smiled, brushing past him with another tray of food, instantly putting all his fears away in favor of his infatuation. "These are our new friends! They're Eris-chan's best friends from her home. You've missed so much while you were gone!"
Suddenly the big lug was sidling up against her, the ice demon's small hand dwarfed even further between his paws. "It's that damn school and their tests. I'll give it all up to be here with you more, just say the word, Yukina my love!"
"Whoa…"
"HEY you talked!" Yusuke pointed a gleefully accusing finger at Alex, who was quite affronted at the injustice of the world, and pointed to an amused Ducky.
"Yeah, that was me. Sorry."
"Anyway," Keiko dragged the conversation to more practical means (with great difficulty over Alex's loud gestures). "Has anyone seen Genkai-sama?"
"Yeah, where is the old bat?" Yusuke wondered out loud of the prestigious master. "Haven't seen her since the ritual banging on my door at 2 AM."
"Strange, she's usually the first to morning tea," Yukina rubbed her chin with one finger, successfully driving Kuwabara nuts from the overload of cuteness.
"Oh!" A thought kicked him in the head, momentarily distracting the wooing of Yukina mission. Hiei rolled his eyes.
"Don't strain yourself. I don't intend to be the one forced to pick the bits of your exploded skull from the rafters, assuming they're not as thick as assumed and can get up that high."
"Get off of me!" Kuwabara glared at Hiei's brand of an innocent grin. "There's some weird guy packing some unusual energy around the grounds. Yu guys know anything about it?"
They all looked at the orange-haired teen in surprise.
"…What?"
"I didn't think you knew what the word 'unusual' meant," Yusuke scratched his head in wonder.
"You know what? Screw you, Urameshi!"
"Seriously though," Ducky nibbled on the end of a chopstick. "You think that's where the old lady went?"
Hiei shifted in the window. "Koenma's here."
"Oh, don't get up on my account," the well-known voice of the prince floated into the room from outside. They could hear the pondering grin in his words, all but Hiei who had the view of him standing stiffly by the south side of the koi pond.
Yusuke was disturbed. "I didn't sense him until now. Usually you can tell a mile off at least…what's he hiding for?"
"Interesting," both Ducky and Hiei said at the same time. Another round of stares.
"I was just being prepared for a dramatic silence," the blonde grinned sheepishly.
Hiei scrutinized the prince, noticing the subtle shifting. "He's nervous about something. Possibly hiding whatever is making him anxious."
Alex sat quiet, seemingly staring at her indisposed cousin a few feet away. Blinking with a raised eyebrow, she patted Ducky on the shoulder and motioned over with her head towards Eris.
"Ducky's knitted brows raised a few notches. "Oh wow. You thought of that?"
Alex hit him.
"Thought of what?" Kuwabara asked gruffly, not terribly amused by the whole ordeal. It all felt wrong, having the tendrils of his energy muffled. Koenma was just a dimly lit pulse in the back of his psyche.
"Alex says it's Eris, y'know, blocking everything. At least in theory," he added after a poke to his ribs. Alex nodded, and then jumped up with a gasp and furious laughter.
"AHAHA! You said my name!" She pointed at him with a triumphant manic grin. Ducky hit his forehead with the heel of his palm.
"I think Alex-chan may be right," Yukina worried her lower lip with her small fingers. "I wonder why that it?"
"Usually it's a protection measure." Kurama did not like this set up. What was Koenma up to? "Some demons I've encountered were able to scramble their energy output, much like suppressing it to fool your enemies into underestimating you. I believe she might be protecting us from something with a barrier…"
Wordlessly, the four fighter in the room made their exists, each going to stand warily in front of their boss outside. The koi pond bubbled and rippled happily behind the prince.
"Guys," Koenma smiled around the pacifier. "What's with the offensive?"
Yusuke crossed his arms, and as he shifted slightly with the motion of putting the weight on his right foot. Inexplicably, he jumped, startled, and blinked a few times. With puzzlement and nothing short of astonished anger, Yusuke turned fiery brown eyes on Koenma. "What the hell!"
It clicked in Kurama's head. "The edge of Eris' barrier…" The tall redhead moved forward to stand in front and off to the side of Yusuke's foot. Two red eyebrows met over steely green eyes. "No wonder you couldn't pass through."
"What are you guys talking about?" Kuwabara asked, as uneasy as the distrustful Hiei at his side who gripped the hilt of his starved sword.
"Come out!" Yusuke yelled in a growl.
In a sweep of stainless white robes and shining hair, an enemy thought to be defeated stepped into view, seemingly from nowhere. His skin gave off a disconcerting sheen of reflected light from the high sun. Unabashed by his past disgrace, Kenmei gave a neutral nod in the direction of the furious fighters. "I mean no harm with my presence," the handsome chameleon cloaked his body language perfectly. Even the twitch of his iridescent tail looked to be caused by a curious fly instead of anything internal.
"What is the meaning of this?" Kurama glared at Koenma in that way, in that voice. There would be one bloodthirsty Youko there in a minute, standing over a fallen demon across the way, if answers were not had.
"I asked him to come." Koenma was obviously strained under the hostility.
"That doesn't exactly put us at ease, you know," Yusuke did not back down from his 'this is shit about to hit the fan' stance. "It's not a well kept secret you're not above letting criminals run loose for your bidding…no offense Hiei and Kurama."
They both would have smirked, maybe shared a joke if the situation wasn't so disturbing.
The prince put his hands up in defense. "Hey! Give me a break, it's in everyone's best interest! I could totally ignore the whole thing since it means less than keeping the peace between worlds, but I figured I'd better fix this before it blew up. A team of sulky detectives is useless."
"Well, now don't we feel loved," Yusuke scoffed in dislike.
"Nice to know you're not thinking of yourself, Koenma," Kuwabara grumbled, not at all playing.
"What's the deal?" Ducky's head poked above the windowsill, brown eyes shifting from one to the other, stopping on Kenmei. "Whoa! Helloooo nurse! Who's that?"
"Get away from the window and shut up," Hiei shot over his shoulder, keeping his eyes alternating between the chameleon and Koenma. He didn't trust this state of affairs as far as he could understand it.
"Really now!" Koenma was no longer lightly amused. His men were really threatening him! "If you lunkheads would calm down and let someone else talk—"
"We tried that earlier, remember?" Yusuke had no intention of backing down. "You're pretty good at shooting yourself in the foot."
"I'm afraid Yusuke's right," Kurama stood in that earthy, unmoving way that could split a stampede down the middle. Alex thought it was a shame no one had a camera as she peeked out the window; all that beautiful hair blowing around that pretty and calmly storming face. Eris totally would have died, and Alex felt a little jealous.
"It isn't right that you should insult our intelligence and skills by self-serving manipulation," Kurama continued.
Koenma narrowed his eyes over his pacifier. "I don't appreciate being threatened, especially when I'm helping that girlfriend of yours. Maybe I'll let you deal with The Burning on your own, then."
"Not so much a good idea."
The confusion was piqued as the short figure of Genkai ambled over, hands clasped behind her back and looking quite amused. …Or as amused as Genkai could look.
"You might want to stop fucking with each other and stop this mind game bullshit." The old woman turned her head suddenly, as if listening to someone speaking to her. Genkai smirked. "Thanks. When you get to be my age, stupidity seems to bleed away. At least in some people."
The four fighters looked at one another without moving their heads. "Who's she talking to?" Yusuke asked the burning question, in a sort of awed voice. "She's finally lost it." Finding a replacement was going to be a bitch.
The other, more spiritually tuned boys felt there was more than air on either side of he psychic master. Dubiously, they kept their guard up. Just in case.
Genkai looked at them all. "Idiots." She rolled her pink eyes. "Back to your duties then, otherwise the paranoid factor will have them running around for hours tearing up my temple again."
"All right, master Genkai?" Koenma asked, and sighed with relief when she nodded consent to something. "Heidi, Will, if you please…"
Kenmei had a really uncomfortable look on his face. There was a nervous twitch about him, almost a crazy mien. He kept looking out from the corners of his slated eyes to either side.
"What the hell is going on?" Kuwabara stomped his foot like a frustrated schoolgirl, really not liking the waves he was picking up. "Why are there two spirits acting like bodyguards around that scum?"
"Because they are bodyguards, for the moment at least," Koenma sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "It would be rather unfortunate for you four to kill him, really. There's nothing to worry about, Heidi and Will are keeping him in line as well."
"Will…?" Shocked as he was, Kurama did not expect the rough hand of his best friend to grab him by the hair and yank sideways. The kitsune had no choice but to move that way with a muffled yelp of surprise and annoyed pain. "Something's coming this way," Hiei growled, feet planted and stance ready to slice through the in coming force.
"NO!" Kenmei yelled, eyes went wide and he struggled desperately against the other forces holding him in place. It was to no avail. The spirits could do nothing on earth of their own will, and Koenma was slow in the head to tell them to let the demon go.
Sure enough, another being was bounding towards the group at a blurring high-speed, black mop of hair flying, and was definitely not showing any sign of slowing down.
Neither was Hiei showing any signs of letting the thing get to them without a scratch. The beast howled, an eerie echoing sound, and grinned before leaping. Hiei raised his sword.
"NO! That's my son!" Kenmei cried, horror making his face flush red.
"Hiei stop!" Kurama grabbed the shorter demon's wrist—and was promptly knocked on his back. Not by Hiei as expected, but the—human boy?
"Brother!" Green eyes looked into familiar, smiling duplicated grey ones.
"…Hello Shinsa."
Shinsa giggled, backing off the kitsune to sit on his haunches and grin, oblivious to all the confusion and tension. Kurama sat up slowly, gingerly rubbing the back of his head.
"What's that thing doing here?" Hiei asked, almost pouting as he sheathed his sword with a noisy click.
"Helping sister!" Shinsa smiled, scratching behind an ear with a foot. "Mother says sister is hibernating, whatever that means, and needs our help when she wakes up."
"I see your speech has improved." Kurama had to smile. The kid was too cute, really, and looked almost exactly like a copy of Eris. Some of her oddities had obviously transferred over as well, which made for an interesting scientific analysis the human part of Kurama really wanted to conduct. Alas.
Shinsa helped the redhead to his feet, and Kurama was surprised to notice that the boy had grown quite a bit since their last encounter. The wolfboy had definitely picked up Eris' ability to read looks, and stretched his arms over his head.
"Shinsa's like a weed! That's what father says."
"A really talkative weed," Kuwabara muttered. Shinsa ignored him and walked fearlessly up to Hiei. He sniffed him! Every person held their breath.
"Hmm…" Shinsa looked to be concentrating. Hiei looked like he had no idea what to do; he was stuck between the choice of pushing the kid away or lopping his head off.
"You smell like sister." Shinsa concluded bluntly and walked away to stand by his father (who shakily patted the boys hair and kissed his cheeks, much to Shinsa's dismay and embarrassment).
"That was…new." Yusuke blinked at Hiei, and then snorted, biting his lip to keep from laughing. The demon shot him a glare.
"Not. A. Word."
"Shiiiiiiiinsa!" A woman's call came faintly from the direction said boy had come from. "Shinsa! Darn it, where is that blasted boy…?"
"Shina!" Kenmei called to his wife, relieved to know she was fine without his son to aid her, and angry that he'd left her in the first place and endangered them both.
"Kenmei, darling, is that you?"
"Shinsa, go help your mother," he said sternly, giving a look to all present that said if they moved to hurt either of them he would not hesitate to take back his promise of not spilling a little blood himself. The chameleon might have been a scientist over a fighter, but instincts always won out in the end for a demon.
"What're you looking it?" Yusuke sneered, crossing his arms in a huff. "I died saving a little kid once, y'know."
"And came back with less brains than you left," Genkai whacked him in the leg with a stick she'd been using as a cane as she passed. "If you numbskulls are finished out here…"
Yusuke glowered as he watched her go back inside. Something was still off color…Genkai was distracted. She surely would have gone for his head otherwise.
He looked to Koenma and Kenmei. "What's the deal, pacifier breath?"
"The deal, as you say my dear boy," the firm voice of the old woman Shina came from behind the group; Shinsa lead her by the hand to her husband. "Is that girl you've got inside that temple is not an ordinary girl—"
"Che. Duh, we knew that already," Kuwabara wasn't too fond of the old lady either. "She's a friggen demon. No offense, Hiei and Kurama."
"Nor is she an ordinary demon," Shina frowned. "Take care not to interrupt me, young man, my slaps are firmer than master Genkai's."
That earned a round of winces from Yusuke and Kuwabara. Hiei smirked a little. Anything that meant pain to Kuwabara was alright in his book.
"Eris, if you have not guessed by now, is a phoenix demon, a very rare type of demon even among the spirit breeds," she looked to Kurama who's eyes had lit up in a realization. "Yes, Kurama. I'm surprised at you for not spotting the problem sooner. A notorious learner, a spirit fox, such as yourself should have known better."
"Mother says sister is hibernating, whatever that means, and needs our help when she wakes up…"
Shinsa's words rang in Kurama's head. "I've been a fool…" The fox covered his mouth, thinking deeply.
"Grr…ENOUGH WITH THE SECRETS!" Yusuke, never the patient type, yelled. "Someone explain what the fuck is giving Kurama the 'oh shit' face!"
"Spirit demons go through a period of sleep during their adolescence," Kurama rattled off, distracted as other parts of his brain were busy elsewhere. "They sleep through puberty and awake almost full grown."
"Dang, wish I could have done that," Kuwabara scratched his head in a miffed way; demons had it so much easier. "Growing pains suck."
"Exactly," Shina smirked. "Demons are violent when growing into themselves. Spirit demons, however, are in such small numbers they were forced to evolve into a biological pattern that kept them from killing each other off during these years."
"How do you know so much about demons, human?" Hiei sniffed.
Shina gave him a withering look. "I married one."
"Someone remind me what this 'problem' crap is?" Yusuke wasn't happy with the half-assed answer.
"She's going to blow away half the temple when she wakes up. Possibly set the rest on fire, given that she's a fire elemental apparition…" Kurama was feeling slightly light headed. "Who knows what after that. We should have brought her to demon world. She could get into the city and kill people…"
"Come on, it can't be that bad," Kuwabara brushed off the severity of the situation. "What did you do when you woke up, Kurama? Grow some trees?"
Kurama laughed, though it wasn't one in humor. "Ha! Nothing quite so tame…"
"The population of that region never was the same," Koenma said innocently. "I believe there's a few flesh eating plants still growing, along with a very green, very dangerous forest."
Hiei looked surprised, and gawked a bit at Kurama. "I've heard rumors…it stretches over several miles…"
"Oook, so we do have a problem," Yusuke rubbed the back of his neck. Damnit, couldn't they ever get a nice, quiet, break?
"Not as big as it may seem," Shina said easily. "Phoenixes are different than kitsunes, after all. They can be tamed quite easily if one knows how to go about it."
"Lemme guess. That's your job."
Shina beamed at the short-tempered leader. "Precisely. I have excellent experience with phoenixes, and the fact we're both female makes me the perfect candidate."
"My family and I owe it to her," Kenmei said.
"Damn right you do," Yusuke left them all standing there to take a walk, arms folded behind his head as he looked at the sunny sky. "I'll leave it up to you guys to keep an eye on things."
"Figures he would up and leave," Koenma crossed his arms, frowning after the boy's back.
The tensions of the house were by no means getting any better. Exposure was to blame for making it at least tolerable; that's what they told themselves of course. Kenmei's presence grated on Kurama's nerves so much his jaw was beginning to hurt from grinding his teeth. The humans at the residence were quiet; their demon counterparts were already jumpy enough. Keiko wisely opted to take Puu and go back home at the end of the day, her usual scorning of Yusuke dulled to a concerned talk in the gardens and a goodnight peck. That, at least, had pulled Yusuke's spirit up a little.
After a spat during dinner, Ducky sat sulking in the kitchen, gorging himself on ice cream and pretending not to be concerned with the strange behavior surrounding the temple. Hiei, to everyone's relief, had escaped to the trees on an unnecessary ground check. As long as it had the temperamental fire demon away from starting any more fights, no one said anything against it.
The other American human was making use of the gardens as means of escape from the awkward silence. At least here there was more space to be able to tolerate it instead of being confined between four walls of a small room. Forget about the halls and corridors! Who knew who would pick that time to peek a head out?
"This fucking sucks…" Alex scuffed her foot through the grass, kicking a palm-sized stone into the ever-bubbling koi pond. A fern dipped in a breeze, a large frond patting her auburn head as if in sympathy. The girl grinned minutely at the passing thought; it just sucked to be in such a beautiful place with the most interesting sorts of people and not be able to enjoy it. The initial circumstances were bad enough…but those other demons or whatever were here to help, right? Hell, she was all for letting bygones be bygones if it meant having her little cousin back!
Why couldn't they just grin and bear the niceties, the selfish bastards?
"GaaaaAAHHH!" Alex yelled in frustration, gripping the hair at either side of her head and letting out another just for good measure. Everyone was acting so crazy!
"My thoughts exactly."
The poor girl nearly tripped over her feet she was so startled. "What the—Jesus, don't do that!"
It was the Prince character from earlier, supposedly the one to blame for most of the mess. Eyes slightly narrowed, she tried to ignore her first instinct as to how good-looking he was, and crossed her arms.
"Ahh, you'll be about the tenth person to take that look with me today," Koenma grinned a bit around the light blue pacifier, inviting himself to take a seat on the dilapidated, two person stone bench an arm's length away from the shallow pool. "Alex Juliard, I presume?"
"Precisely." Point for the short version, Alex's eyebrow twitched up. The took a leisurely moment, Alex sizing the tall, teen-appearing man, and he merely making himself comfortable enough in her presence for the inevitable slew of words (between good and bad, he'd guess bad).
"Are you really a prince?" And there it was, though the question was unexpected and in a highly unusual questionnaire tone. Not quite a statement, the girl's voice rose just the slightest at the end. Grudging curiosity he supposed.
"Yes."
"Of what?"
Koenma unintentionally fixed her with a sticking stare. "Souls," he answered bluntly. "Or the passage thereof when you get right down to it."
Alex's head slipped to the side with a curious, and ah yes, interested, look. This was going to be an out of the ordinary chat, he could tell already. Well, better than dirty looks and scathing remarks of beatings and/or revenge from parties all around.
"Like…God?"
Koenma laughed, short and surprised. "Of course not! Call me a demigod if you must."
Giving a comfortable little grin, Alex uncrossed her arms, putting her hands instead on her hips in a take on all stance. "All right then. So what's with all the 'One True God' stuffs?"
Oh this was certainly becoming intriguing. "Do you believe in God?"
"Yes."
"Well then," Koenma smiled. "Shouldn't you be happy with that?"
Alex grazed her upper lip with her lower teeth, looking to the swaying, flowering branches in thought. "Mmm, I don't think He'd mind me seeking an answer or two from an obvious knowledgeable source," she cocked her head and grinned. "I'm human, and you're this supernatural being to me, this whole place is. I should be frothing at the mouth, huddled in a corner and thinking myself insane."
Dropping to the ground a few paces in front of the prince, Alex leaned back on her arms and looked up at him with an open expression. "So, Mr. Demigod," she crossed her ankles as an afterthought. "What's up?"
"Hmm, since I'm feeling loose around the tongue lately, and you've given me my first compliment in quite a few hours…" Koenma mused a second longer. "I will say that the whole worship thing doesn't do it for me. I could care less about a bunch of hymns being thrown at me half heartedly when I've got a job to do."
"In other words, you're the whipped dog in the corner."
"I'll pretend you said that with more elegance."
Surprisingly, the conversation went on pleasantly and comfortably enough. At one point Ducky stalked out of the kitchen, sucking on a spoon, and sat with his back against Alex's. Koenma raised a brow, but the girl waved it off and mouthed 'He's pouting.' And so they continued to talk, not quite idly, although random topics did spring up inevitably.
"I don't believe the whole thing about luck." Alex said, jumping off her previous topic. Behind her, Ducky nodded his agreement.
"We've certainly haven't had any. Elf most of all."
Alex's mouth turned down at the corners. "Yeah…she's a good kid though. I can't figure out how she manages to smile every day."
There was obviously something he was missing from this conversation, Koenma thought to himself. He'd skimmed through the girl's file a few times, and frustratingly couldn't call up anything now that was of use.
Though he didn't have to beat up his brain for long.
"What's the matter?" Alex asked, puzzled. Koenma had stood up suddenly and was looking towards the temple.
"…Uh oh."
Kurama was already banging on the door, a coldly frantic look in his eyes. The surrounding air was thick, heavy; even if it weren't for the heat, sheets of sweat began rolling down the faces of those who had gathered in front of Eris' door.
They hadn't expected this so soon…Alex was rethinking her statement on luck. But where was the old woman?
A shared look to Hiei and the door was longer an issue. It lay in splinters, some with acid green thorns buried deep into the wood. Bright orange flames glinted off the drawn blade of Hiei's sword. Angry looking white eyes glared at them from the midst of the fire. The fire itself seemed to part, unfurling wings massive in their breadth.
"Well that's…not something you see everyday." Koenma's mouth was agape. It was a terrifying sight.
"Shit…!" Hiei covered his ears, grimacing angrily. "What the hell is that noise?"
"What are you talking about?" Alex demanded, huddling against Ducky who was frozen to the spot, eyes wide and scared. And then it could be heard—high, almost faint, and much like the whine of a muted TV just turned on in a silent room. There was a general deep wince among the present demons. Alex and Ducky were merely annoyed, until the bizarrely enraged phoenix really let it loose.
"Stand away!" Shine pushed through the crowd around the devastated door, elbowing them back with curious strength.
"Wasn't planning on waltzing with her!" Yusuke snapped at her, hands over his ears, and let her choose her doom.
"Are you crazy?" Kuwabara grabbed the elder woman by the arm. "You'll be fried worse than rice!"
"Mother!" Shinsa whimpered, arms around his father's waist. Kenmei looked onto the whole fiasco grimly, pearly fingers combing through Shinsa's fine black hair.
"Not to worry, my darlings," she smiled, landing a kiss on each of their cheeks. "This is where I come in."
As the woman approached, Eris' high whining became louder, developing into a massively loud cry. It would have sounded beautiful at a lower decibel, and didn't bring to mind an image of a head exploding.
"You're quite the loud one, young lady," Shina wasn't daunted, smiling even. Eris was not happy; her wings beat the air, sending the debris and ash around the room and making the fire grow ferociously larger. A large piece of the door caught Alex in the face, or at least would have if Koenma had not grabbed her about the waist and yanked her back.
"Uh…thanks…" the girl said, leaning on him in a daze. My cousin just tried to kill me!
"Not a problem." The prince was frowning as he watched Shine interact with Eris. "that's one angry demon…"
Eris stood tall and fierce, wings raised at threatening angles with tongues of fire dripping around her. The entire floor was charred black, an intense smell of burning wood and, oddly, a spicy scent of something else. It drew on Kurama, who recognized it as the girl's own unique smell. Anxiously, he stood back with Hiei, Yusuke, and Kuwabara at a ready stance, not quite sure what they would do, but ready to do it nonetheless.
All of a sudden the tension of the room came to a head. Ducky was sure he'd never seen such pandemonium in his life, and had a hard time convincing himself he'd actually survived it afterwards. There was what he would have described simply as an explosion...with Shina and Eris as the eye of the storm.
For and old, supposedly sick woman, Shine looked to be full of energy and strength uncommon even for a youthful human.
Oh but it was awful…like watching the breaking of a horse, only quicker. And as soon as everything had begun, it stopped, leaving everyone wondering just what the hell had happened. Whatever it was had tired them both exhausted to ear passing out. Kenmei and Kurama rushed forward, Kurama just in time to catch the doused demon in his arms.
"Shina, love, what on earth was that?" The chameleon asked his wife, bringing her into the safety of his own arms and wrapping the end of his tail protectively around her waist.
The woman coughed, wiping streaks of soot from her face and gave a raspy laugh with glittering eyes. "The poor dear is hungry is all."
"WHAT!" was the general reaction, not surprisingly.
"All that screaming and explosion crap, and you almost getting yourself killed all because she's hungry?" Ducky's eyes were nearly falling out of his head.
Shina leaned against her husband and gave a satisfied, yet tired, sigh. "That's about the gist of it, yes."
"Someone explain to me why I'm still surprised at the level of insanity here." Kuwabara rubbed the sides of his head.
Yukina came running towards the room, her little feet dirty and slapping against the wood floor. "What's—oh my goodness! Koenma, how could you!"
Koenma was openly puzzled. "Sorry, I missed the part where I was an evil bastard again."
"You woke her up," Shina explained. "By no fault of your own, really. Phoenixes are deeply attracted to sources of extreme power, thereby revealing why they live in flocks. Still, she wasn't quite ready, but there's nothing for it." She looked curiously at Yukina. "Though I do wonder how you knew to blame Mr. Koenma."
Yukina flushed a little (reducing Kuwabara to a fawning puddle on the floor). "Genkai-sama gave me a book a few months ago on strange demon types. Koorimes are isolated, and I wanted to know more about the rest of demon world."
Eris lifted her head up from Kurama's arm and opened the grey-blue eyes he'd missed so much. "Kurama?" her voice was scratchy from disuse (not to mention screaming), and very very groggy.
"Ladies, gentlemen, demons…" Yusuke said with a grin. "We have an Eris."
"Why am I naked?" Yes, her wings were no longer aflame, technically (but the magnificent red-oranges, and golds played with your head in the changing light), and the body of a little girl was no more. Which was…extremely obvious by the lack of clothing.
"Er…"
There was a quick shuffling of feet as the men turned around and made small talk, looking at the ceiling all the while.
"Ducky! Turn around!" Alex hit his arm. He gave her an incredulous look.
"Why? What do I care if she's naked? I'd be worrying about her lover boy over there."
"Ugh. You are such a perv, Ducky…" Eris scrunched up her sleepy face and rubbed her eyes, not so much concerned about her current state of undress. Yet. Not enough oxygen to the brain for that, or so they assumed by the enormous yawn.
"How the heck did you two get here?" she asked blearily, blinking. "The hell's going on?"
Breathing was suddenly hard as two sets of arms were around her neck, excited jabbering making her ears ring.
"AAAAH you remember!"Ducky squealed, jumping up and down and doing his best to suffocate her as Kurama and Alex laughed.
"You bitch!" Alex threatened, tweaking the other girl's ear rather hard, and almost in tears though they were happy. "You ever leave us again and do something so stupid again, I will tell your mother!"
"Wouldja stop?" Eris said, exasperated. "I'm naked here! Little weird!"
"NO WAY!" they shouted, going on and on about how they'd missed her, squeezing the girl to near death.
"Alright, no need to kill her again," Kurama wasn't exactly doing his best to beat the off of her. "We might not get her back this time."
"What are you talking about?" Eris' head was starting to hurt, not to mention it felt like she'd gained sixty pounds on her back. "Damnit, would someone get me some clothes!"
She continued to grumble, feeling irritated, and there was this gnawing hunger in her gut like she hadn't eaten in forever. There was also an unexplained restlessness in this new body, making her twitchy. Kurama was the only one free of her mood, being that he was shielding her from total view as best he could and not be a perv about it.
"Do you remember anything at all?" he asked. Eris sighed, chewing on the inside of her lip, and watched with a hint of amusement as Yukina shuffled and shoved the crowd out of the room. Ducky and Alex smirked and volunteered to keep the less virtuous ones out and away from peeping in the door.
"Not much. I remember ripping a few chunks out of that maniac. Oh, and him shooting me." Eris thanked Yukina for bringing her a yukata, and leaned on Kurama as the koorime helped her dress ( no sense on being embarrassed, but the faint color in the redhead's cheeks made him awful cute). "He was aiming for you—where the hell did these come from?"
"What?" Kurama was surprised, but not as much as Eris was by her sudden discovery of big bright wings popping out of her back while struggling with her yukata. "I…hadn't known that."
Eris nodded solemnly, bewildered eyes not taken off the extra appendages, and frowned, as he had to rip the back out of the robe to fit them. "There's bits and pieces before that. My head is a bigger jigsaw puzzle than I think right now, am I right?" She ran her fingers over the glossy feathers, marveling at the peculiar colors, and winced as she tried moving the wings. "I should be freaking out more about these things, but I can't manage the appropriate level of uber surprise. I think I've had these for awhile…"
Kurama nodded, becoming bold, and put his hand on the skin between them. The muscles were tight. "Yes. You haven't been… here completely in a sense."
"They're heavy. And hurt like hell."
"To be expected." Shine whirled back into the room, a tray piled with food in her hands, and an amiable smile on her face. She grinned even more and laughed when Eris seized the tray from her and plopped down to eat on the dirty floor. "My, you certainly burned a lot of energy. Literally."
And you seem to have recovered quickly, Kurama thought, a corner of his mouth twitching as Shina took the tray back from a protesting Eris and lead her into a better, non-destroyed room.
Eris tilted her head, eyeing Shina closely, and talking between unfaltering stuffs of rice and chicken into her mouth. "I remember you. The lady in the glass box with the phoenix farm, right?"
The old woman stiffened slightly, but nodded her head in affirmation. "Yes, that's right."
"Well I gues that explains why you're here," Eris waved a hand over her shoulder in a motion to her wings that were currently splayed out over the floor.
"You'll get used to them. When chicks graduate from the isolatory pubic stage, it takes time for the new fledglings' muscles to regain their strength."
Eris snorted, finding the talk way weird, especially since it was about her. I really must have missed a lot.
"Whatever you say," she realized the chicken bone she was gnawing on wasn't exactly normal behavior—or was it? "Can I…? I mean, I'm not like a dog, am I? Will I choke to death or something?"
"Go ahead," Shina's eyes glittered with amusement. "The marrow will do you good."
The she-demon crunched down on the bone and snapped it in half like it was a twig. "What happened to that shiny guy? Pearly skin, long hair, cool tail, real pretty?"
"Kenmei, my husband. He's here as well, under the…protection of the fine gentlemen here, and a few other spectral guests."
Eris smiled at Kurama, which truthfully unnerved him. However not as much as hers words, "Kenmei! That's it. I like him. He's nice. Have you talked with him, Kurama? I thought you would like him too."
Taken aback, the kitsune had no idea what to think. "Eris, he's the one who—"
"Shina." Genkai's gravelly tone broke him off. The shorter old master stood in the doorway, hands clasped as usual behind her back. "Join me for an evening tea." There wasn't room for argument, as was the woman's way. She was gone after a quick look to Kurama and Eris.
"Well, I suppose I have an appointment to keep with Master Genkai." Shina got to her feet with creaky bones. "I'll teach you some exorcises to strengthen your back tomorrow, Eris-chan."
The girl nodded and pushed the empty tray away, still hungry, but tired as well. "I have the feeling you're going to kick my ass."
Shina laughed melodically, saying her goodnights to everyone as she exited.
A soon as the woman left, Kurama turned abruptly to Eris who was busy burrowing under the covers of the sleeping mat that Yukina had so graciously prepared for her. "Eris—"
"Kurama," she yawned, and groaned as she painfully rolled off her back and onto her stomach, trying to get the blankets over her troublesome wings with little success. "Don't worry so much." Eris settled for the stupid things being the blanket for her top half. Might as well put them to use if they were going to give her so much other trouble.
The room was quiet, the last rays of the sun dying. A sharp smell of scorched wood and spicy cinnamon permeated the air; her new scent. Her demon scent. As beautiful and otherworldly as she appeared now, Kurama wished more than anything he had never upset her life.
"You look terrible with that frown on your face." Her voice was even changed, oiled and sultry. He tried to smile, but couldn't quite manage it.
Eris kicked the blanket off, wobbly legs taking her to stand in front of him. "You get a line," her finger traced it along his brow, displacing hair as fiery as her wings. "Right here."
"You shouldn't drag your wings on the floor," he remarked, catching her hand in his. "The droopy look doesn't suit you."
"The hell with my wings," Eris scowled, watching their hands twine. "I know you're worried. Truth is…as soon as I wake up tomorrow, the full force of this thing is going to hit me and I'll be a worthless pile of human—well, demon shit. Oooh God…." Eris moaned piteously, face scrunched as her head fell onto his shoulder. "I'm a friggen demon!"
"A most wondrous demon, if it makes you feel any better," Kurama gave a small, crooked smile, running his fingers over and through her hair. "Unique, and the only one worth all the trouble that's been caused."
That didn't help her despair all that much. "Kurama, I'm sacred…" That tore his heart right out, and yet it was difficult to embrace her the way he wanted too (besides the things coming out of her back thing).
"What am I going to do? I can't go home like this…" A terrifying thought ran through her mind, making her cling tighter. "Can I ever go home?"
"Yes," Kurama reassured her quietly, the skin of his lips ghosting over her temple and forehead. "We're working on a solution, I promise. I brought you into this, I will find a way to get you out."
"Is that what you think?" Eris raised her head, looking at him with wide eyes that positively glowed in the dark. "That it's your fault? Kurama, no!" Her fingers fisted into the front of his shirt, and then in her alarm moved to either side of his pretty face, bringing him in. "I knew what I was getting in to, to some extent at least. You forget, I know all of you. Every detail of your lives, and what you've been through. All of it before you even knew my name."
He sighed, still not convinced; it wasn't logical. This whole mess was one big cloud of confusion with Eris in the middle. Goddess of Discord, indeed. She could set off another Trojan war if she wanted to, he believed.
"Yes but—" Kurama was hardly able to get a word in edgewise tonight, although he couldn't say he didn't enjoy her methods. Her lips on his effectively shut him up, putting his mind into a whirlwind better than any mind game a foe could throw at him.
"Please trust me?" she whispered, and he could feel her breath.
"I wasn't there for you the first time," Kurama thumbed her cheek, and the look in his eyes inspired a lump in her throat. "I can't stand by and be idle."
Eris opened her mouth to protest, but this time it was he who cut her off. "But if it jeopardizes you, I will not interfere until you call me."
In the dark he saw her smile, felt it under his fingers. "I'm glad we're here," she said.
AN: Yeah I am an asshole. I am a horrible person. I totally did not see a six month block, but y'know that's just how those things work I guess. Fuckers blind side ya. Anyway, I'M SORRY! No excuses because those will just take up more time between me posting the actual chapter. But summary: lotsa crap happened, nothing bad, fairly good, Neffy's going to college next year, and needs to write for money. WOO.
So I'll see you in Chapter Seven! And thanks to all the lovelies who kept reviewing and re-reading the stories. You rock like none other.
