Chapter 6: Not that easy…
As they arrived at the outer boarders of Yomi's territory, Kurama had a sense of déjà vu as he remembered sitting at the very spot they were standing at now. They were standing at the boulder were he'd sat and talked to his okasan for the first time after forwarding the home phone to a cell phone here in the Makai. Lightning still flashed and thunder still rumbled in a never ending ballot, though it hardly ever rained.
Hiei kept an 'eye' on his lover and wanted nothing more than to get this mission over with. The red head was keeping up a good front and though Kurama hadn't told him much of what had happened during those years with Yomi, he knew they had not been good and knew the fox would rather be anywhere but here.
Since they had first arrived at the drop off location, Kurama had kept his mental walls up and it was having a draining effect on him. Hiei admitted he was wrong when he tried to read the red head's mind, just assuming the red head would let him in. But when he felt the strong defenses, he backed off and hoping the red head realized that he would not read his mind without his consent, lowered his defenses. Otherwise the fox was going to be mentally drained before they even saw any action.
Yusuke looked around and took in the view from this side of the territories. When he had come and called out his welcome to the former Lord almost three years ago, he had been on the other side of the land.
"Okay, let's think of a plan." He said, placing his hands on his hips and looking to the other two.
"What plan would you like detective?" Hiei asked, folding his arms.
"You have more than one?" Yusuke's gapped, eyebrows going up.
"Yusuke." Kurama said, coming out of his trance. "I believe Hiei wants to know if you want to use plan A, which is going in the front door, or plan B, which is going in the back door."
"You guys just crack me up, you know that." Yusuke said sarcastically. "Let's just go with plan A, okay? I want to get this over with and get home. Fox boy, I think you should lead from here. I don't remember much of this place." He said, holding his arms out in a gesture for the red head to take the lead.
"Naturally." Kurama muttered.
"What was that?" Yusuke asked as the red head walked past.
Kurama ignored the question and headed in a direction he knew by heart. Sometimes he cursed his photographic memory.
They came to the clearing where Kurama had been ambushed and had met Yomi for the first time in a thousand years.
Hiei's jagan picked up the residue of blood, death and Kurama's aura, though all of it was faint and old. He looked again to the fox and saw that he was again in some sort of trance, as if reliving something.
'The fox has been here before.' He thought. 'And from what I can sense, he had a scrimmage of sorts.'
Yusuke walked over to a tree that had been splintered at its base. At first he thought the tree had been hit by the never ending lightning, but then he saw a dark sticky substance, along with what looked like bone fragments and just knew it was the remains of some demon. He shivered at the thought of its death.
"Well, looks like someone had a little scrimmage here." He said.
"Yes, it would seem so." Was all Hiei said, not telling the detective what he'd figured out.
"Hey Kurama…how much further till there's a chance of being seen? I know if Yomi was here, he would have known we were here by now." Yusuke asked, wanting to keep the element of surprise for as long as possible, even though he had planned to go in the front door. He considered himself dumb, not stupid.
After hearing no response and seeing the fox looking at a spot on the ground, Yusuke walked over and snapped his fingers, saying. "Woohoo…fox-boy…you in there …hello?"
'I had to make sure it was you.' Kurama heard in the back of his mind, remembering that first encounter with his former partner. He snapped out of his trip down memory lane when he heard fingers snapping in his face.
"Not too much further." Kurama replied. Though he had not heard Yusuke speak, he assumed the detective wanted to know about their location and/or how much longer, his statement covered both topics, more or less.
"Are you sure you're going to be alright?" Yusuke asked in concern. "You seem to be a thousand miles away. If you can't handle this then go back. Me and Hiei can handle it." He wasn't trying to be mean, just wanted the fox to snap out of it.
'A thousand miles.' Kurama's mind said over and over again. 'Or a thousand years.' He really thought.
"Yusuke…let me have a moment." Hiei said, looking to the raven haired.
Yusuke's eyebrow went up at the softness of the fire demon's voice. He gave a slight nod before walking up an embankment that overlooked the buildings in the distance.
Hiei walked up to the fox and waited, knowing the red head was going to say something first and he wasn't disappointed.
"I am fine Hiei and you need me to lead you through the palace, so I will not go back." Kurama made the obvious statements.
"Did I say anything?" Hiei said with an annoyed huff.
"No, but you have the same thoughts as Yusuke. You think I can not handle this." Kurama said firmly.
"All I wanted to say was…'drop' your defenses, you are mentally draining yourself and you will be weak when you are needed the most. You know I will not try to read your mind unless asked." Hiei said.
"You did not ask earlier." Kurama pointed out.
"I'm sorry." Hiei said softly, never liking the words and would only ever say them to a hand full of people, okay make that a half of a hand full. "I wanted to see if you would let me in without me having to ask, but your walls were up so I backed off. I will not try again unless you let me."
"Can we close the connection?" Kurama asked.
"Why…" Hiei's mouth fell opened, stunned. "NO." He shook his head adamantly. "We can't close it now. You would have terrible headaches, even if I were to close it properly."
"I have dealt with the headaches before." Kurama reminded. "I am sure they will not be as bad." He lowered his head, remembering the year of 'withdraw symptoms from hell'.
"All I'm going to say is NO, so deal with it." Hiei firmly told him. "Now lower your defenses and let's get this mission over with." To end the discussion, he looked to see where Yusuke was and noticed the raven haired was looking away. Quickly moving in front of the fox, he placed a kiss on the pale lips. "Please." He whispered after placing the kiss. He never said that word much either and again would only say it to a few people.
Kurama smiled, rarely seeing this kind of behavior from the fire demon and could not help but give in, but his mouth said something else. "I will try." He whispered back next to the black haired's ear.
"Guys!" Yusuke hollered. "We've got a welcoming committee."
The two ran up the embankment to see for themselves and saw several hundred demons of various species running towards their location.
Their first encounter was on and it was a guarantee that it would not be their last.
They turned to run, but as they did, they saw demons coming out of the wood works. They had apparently been surrounded, when it had actually happened, they would never know.
"I think someone's been expecting us." Yusuke said, getting into a defensive stance.
"It would seem so." Kurama said as he withdrew a rose from his hair.
"So much for going in the front door." Yusuke added, as the first of the demons started attacking.
"I prefer this method anyways." Hiei said, drawing his sword and immediately attacking, slicing heads and limbs.
They just kept coming and it was wearing the three out. After what seemed like hours, they found themselves back to back completely surrounded by the demons, with no end in sight.
The three stood panting in various stages of injuries. Hiei was the best looking one, even though he had lost his cloak, he was only sporting small cuts on his arms and chest. Kurama was a little worse. He had numerous cuts on his arms and chest causing his shirt to hang in rags. He was also starting to realize he could not control the vegetation in the area and wondering what had been done. Yusuke was the worse, sporting many cuts and bruises. Even with his Mazaku powers coming through, he was wearing down fast with the entourage of demons attacking.
"Now what?" Yusuke gasped, continuing to take deep breaths.
Before he got an answer, the crowd parted like water and a demon from some sort of cat species made her way towards them.
They studied her as she walked towards them. She was tall, lean and dark complected. She walked with a sway in her hips, causing the flowing see-through skirt to show parts of her legs in the gaps that appeared. She was wearing a bra made of silver that left little to the imagination of her beauty. Her hair looked like a dark rich fur slicked back and even though it was in a pony tail, it still went half way down her back. They noticed furry ears that twitched ever so slightly on either side of a crown made of various jewels and gold.
"Welcome." She said, stopping in front of them. "I have been expecting you."
Her voice was a rich deep alto, almost intoxicating if listened to long enough. Her eyes were exactly like a cat's, pupils and all, they were a rich yellow color.
"Well thank you for the welcoming committee, Taiga, but couldn't we have talked over cookies and say a saucer of milk instead?" Yusuke asked, relaxing his stance some.
"You must be Yusuke Urameshi…it is a pleasure to finally meet one of the men who defeated the great Yomi." She said, looking him over.
"Great…another Yomi groupie." Yusuke muttered.
"Take them to the dungeon. I will talk to them later." She commanded.
"And what makes you think we will go peacefully?" Hiei asked.
"Yeah…I think I'm up for another round. So let's go lady…I have things to do to yeah know." Yusuke said with cockiness.
They heard a lot of clicking noises and before they could even blink, all the demons were holding automatic weapons.
"You think that will stop me." Hiei sneered, his hands tightening on his sword.
"No, not you Hiei, but what if…." She didn't finish as a shot rang out and Yusuke fell to his knees, blood appearing on his upper right thigh.
"You bitch!" Hiei growled as he turned to see Yusuke staring at the ground.
Seeing the blood oozing out, the raven haired started mumbling. "I've been shot…me…I never thought…"
Kurama was at the raven haired's side in a heartbeat. "Lay down Yusuke." He ordered while trying to help the boy lay on his back, but the raven haired wouldn't budge.
"I'm fine." Yusuke insisted, trying to push the red head away and stand up.
When the red head finally pushed enough, Yusuke collapsed back, but he was getting even more adamant in his attempts to push the fox away. "I'm fine." He yelled.
The red head started pulling various seeds from his hair and sat to work. Ignoring the protests, he began growing the plants and pulling off leaves, rolling them in a tube.
"Place these under your tongue." Kurama instructed. "They will help with the shock and pain." He informed, helping to place the leaves in the boy's mouth. "Yusuke I need to get the bullet out." He also informed.
The raven haired's breathing was now labored, though he had started to calm. Kurama didn't think he was going into shock per say, but the raven haired was starting to sweat, most likely from fear. He did finally manage a nod to show he understood.
Hiei watched as Kurama grew another vine and place it over the hole. The red head then commanded the vine to go into the opening, where it started digging around in the wound. Hiei moved to hold Yusuke as he let out a muffled cry and tried to sit up.
"Relax…it's almost done." Hiei try to reassure the raven haired.
The vine came out holding what was left of the bullet and Kurama immediately tossed it to the side. He then pulled out more seeds and squeezed the juices into the wound before placing a large leaf on the sight and bandaging it with a piece of his shirt.
"You should be fine." He stated. "The wound should not get infected, for I was able to treat it quickly." He said as he helped Yusuke sit back up.
"Thanks Kurama." Yusuke said, taking more of the leaves that were handed to him.
"Take one as often as you like. They are not addicting and will not cause side effects like drowsiness or nausea." Kurama informed.
"You should sell this stuff…you'd be rich." Yusuke muttered.
"That was very entertaining…Youko." Taiga said with a purr at the end, clearing amused at what she'd just witnessed and realizing that this plant controller was none other than the great thief. Yomi had told her he had changed appearances, but he couldn't tell her exactly what he looked like.
Kurama turned to stare at her, his eyes flashing gold. "Yes…very entertaining indeed." She muttered, but said out loud. "Take them!"
Two went to stand, deciding to not go down without a fight. They didn't even get to throw a punch as they felt pain in their heads and the world went black.
End Chapter 6
