A/N: Hello once again, FanFiction Enthusiasts!
Onwards to our chapter!
Symbols Guide:
* : Written by CM; She writes for Akari and Hiei
3 : Written by Star (supposed to be the 'heart' symbol, but FF doesn't like the 'less-than' sign, so it's a 3 instead); She writes for Toriko/Shikiyoku and Youko/Kurama
~!**!~ : A universal transition between scenes or characters, sometimes used to indicate a passage of time, but most often used to transition between major scenes that are happening. As the story progresses, this will evolve into mainly separating the (usually two) scenes happening between authors/characters.
As a general rule, anything in italics is thoughts.
Unless it's used in a sentence like this, which merely indicates emphasis.
[Anything written in italics inside square brackets is Youko speaking to Shuichi/Kurama inside their mind and is private conversation, unable to be picked up by telepathy.]{Anything written in italics inside curly brackets is inner dialogue by Shuichi/Kurama to Youko, and is also private conversation, unable to be picked up by telepathy.}
"Quotations are usually reserved specifically for telepathic dialogue being transmitted from one being to another, but sometimes this can also mean a character isn't being careful about what they're thinking and anyone with telepathy in the nearby vicinity can listen in without taking any effort."
The only exception to that last rule is for the Shiba Inu dog, Nabu. All of his "spoken" dialogue will be in italics and quotations, but is communicated through body language or dog-like noises, so unless a character is able to translate those they are unlikely to pick up on what he is saying any more than the average person might understand his general moods like aggression (bared teeth, ears back) or excitement (wagging tail).
Previously on Yu Yu Hakusho!
Youko and Akari continue exchanging banter,
and after a time he leads her to a meadow.
As darkness falls around them, the moon beginning to rise,
the flowers of the meadow begin to open up and glow around them.
Akari is speechless for a moment and Youko quietly begins weaving a crown from the flowers,
placing it upon her head and beginning to make a necklace.
~!**!~
Hiei continues to speak with Shikiyoku, finding that he is able to remind her of certain things,
trigger responses from her when setting their conversation up to repeat previous ones.
He passes her the note she gave him when she returned his cloak and sword,
and as she nears slumber it appears that the veil of her disease is lifted and she remembers everything.
Momentarily she struggles against sleep to tell him she needs a Consort,
but she quickly falls into nightmares as she had before.
Hiei extends the Jagan into her mind to blanket her with darkness
in order to let her sleep undisturbed.
Shikiyoku wakes up and seems to remember at least the previous day...
She could still feel the disease coursing through her, still had a fever that had not gone away with the coming of night, and as she had thought, her hunger had magnified after sleeping.
She'd never been forced to feed twice in one day.
Seems the sickness was moving faster now.
With a concentrated effort, she crawled backwards out of the bed on all fours, getting her feet onto the floor and walking evenly over to where Hiei still sat, thrusting the note out to him but not looking at him.
"You...should probably keep this. I'm likely to forget where I put it." 3
Hiei eyed Shikiyoku as she moved, his keen gaze taking in her gooseflesh here and there, the sweat that just lightly glistened in the darkened room, and the wobble of her muscles every once in a while. He noted that while she seemed to feel… weak, it seemed, she still knew who he was despite her earlier dream terrors. So, when she was standing over him, eyes turned away and hand reached out to him, he turned his eyes carefully down to the note she extended to him.
However, he didn't accept it.
He merely sat there, ignoring the offer as if he saw it as nothing more than just a sheet of paper.
And he still made no motion to move, to leave. Only watched her with a steady gaze.
~!**!~
Akari felt her lips twitch even more, tilting upwards in a soft smile as she continued to watch the fox demon as he worked on his personal project, which she found was not a surprising one once the circle of glowing buds was placed atop her head. For the second time this night, she realized that she would have normally made a joke here, but found nothing came to mind.
She opened her mouth to make as if to say something, but still nothing came to mind and she ended up slowly clamping her lips together, that same small smile on her lips as she lowered her head to inspect her flower crown from under her lashes.
And for the first time in months, she found she not only enjoyed where she was, but who was with her.
And that thought had her smile widening and her eyes peering up again to continue watching the kitsune. *
Youko continued to let the silence between them remain, the only sound being a soft rustling as he meticulously wove the other flowers in his lap together. As with the crown, he manipulated the energy within the flowers to better fuse them together, while at the same time encouraging larger blossoms, growing the petals just big enough for there to be a noticeable difference.
This chain of flowers ended up longer than the first and, still refusing to even so much as whisper for fear of breaking the spell the meadow seemed to have woven about them, Youko only picked up the living necklace and held it out towards Akari, quietly asking her permission to place the creation on her person.
~!**!~
She made a sound of impatience and glanced with a huff from her nose in Hiei's direction when he did not immediately relinquish the note she offered from her grasp.
She knew she would forget where it was put should she maintain ownership of it, but perhaps it was too forward of her to think that he would wish to keep it.
Perhaps it meant nothing to him.
Then why had he kept it in the first place?
Whatever.
She dropped the arm that held the note to her side, giving him an unreadable look, and then pivoted away, starting to move towards the door, but couldn't quite bring herself to crumple the thing up even as her hand twitched as if to do so, this one little bit of proof that she had known this demon, this 'Hiei,' that he wasn't lying about her transformation, the only thing connecting her to all the things she couldn't recall.
What did it matter? She would likely forget about the note's existence anyway.
With only a beat of hesitation at the door to the room, she flicked her wrist back and let go as if she didn't care, tossing the note aside where it fluttered towards the ground near the bed behind her and she immediately continued passing through the doorway into the hall without giving the note a second look or consideration.
She hardly noticed how quickly her breath came as she kept going down the hall and stairs, unable to distinguish anymore as to whether it was from the effort of movement or from the hunger that felt as if it ate away at her insides.
How ironic, she thought, that only by feeding did she feel strong enough to feed.
She stopped once she got several steps away from the stairs, nearly forgetting where she was, how she had gotten there, and what she had meant to do by getting up.
Tired of running. Couldn't remember why she had been running in the first place. And had no idea if she had been running from or to something. Had she escaped it? Had she found it yet?
A hand went up to her forehead and she rubbed it down her face, feeling as if for the first time the numerous scars there and trying to ignore the discomfort of her hunger.
Oh right.
Food. 3
Hiei's focuzed gaze never left Shikiyoku's form as she first huffed, then left after unceremoniously tossing the note she'd been trying to hand him over her shoulder. Without crumpling it or tearing it, he noted.
Only when she was out of his direct eyesight did he move, finally stretching and leaning away from the wall to gauge his surroundings, searching for any sign that perhaps Maneshi had been with the female. And, as he'd suspected, there was no such sign to be seen, smelled, or anything of the sort.
He pushed himself to stand, silently turning and following after the female, leaving the note where it had fallen, despite his inner desire to snatch it up and stuff it in his pocket. He meandered to the top of the stairs, and simply took to looking down on the female whose feet he could just see.
Why was she stalling on… whatever she was going to do? Feed, likely, as it seems she has taken to doing. That was, honestly, the only way he could describe it, as it had been for Yusuke and, apparently, Jin. Energy-stealing simply wasn't… enough.
Without knowing he was going to do so, Hiei's mouth moved and his voice floated down the stairs with a question. "You said you were in need of a Consort. Why?"
~!**!~
Akari watched the meticulous work Youko wove into his new project, the way his hands moved and the way she could feel his energy fluctuating here and there to create larger blooms or, assumedly, weave the flowers together. And, really, it was something she found interesting to watch, because unlike other times when Kurama had done similar things, she was able to witness. Not asleep, or not in the middle of a fight.
It was funny how the male seemed able to take something so beautiful such as a flower and turn it into one's cause of death. Sort of...
She made a small sound of amusement as the word poetic came to mind, definitely not what she'd call it. And only after did she realize Youko was offering the necklace to her, and she quickly recovered and leaned forward, head ducked slightly to allow him to place it around her neck.
And again, she found it funny that such a decoration could likely be a weapon if he so desired. *
Once he placed the chain around her neck, Youko admired his handiwork, and how the soft light glowed against her skin, and then dipped his head slightly to her and murmured, "Queen among the Moon Flowers."
For once, his eyes held nothing of the wry or mocking expression most associated with the fox as he lifted his head and finally smiled, "May your reign be as everlasting as your beauty."
~!**!~
What was she doing, again?
Hiei's voice drifted towards her ears and they twitched just the slightest bit in catching his question.
"I-" Her gaze shifted anxiously around the room, "I do not remember how to-" No, wait, that wasn't right. Was it? "I have forgotten-" She stopped herself there, as it was the simple truth, though she blinked as the words lingered, waiting for addition from her that she did not know with what to follow.
She made a quiet noise of frustration as her hand went up to her face once more, a pang of something resonating across her skull whose meaning she could not place. 3
Hiei frowned slightly now, having expected just a bit more of an answer than that. Oh well, what did he care anyway? It wasn't his job to watch after her anymore anyway. So he stuffed his hands into the pocket of his cloak- the very cloak that still smelled very faintly of how she used to smell- and moved down the stairs one by one almost lazily.
"I suppose it's in your best interest to remember," he said in an even tone, almost a bored one as he set foot on the last stair. "Otherwise, why would it strike you as important in the first place?"
Then he turned and headed for the front door, passing by her without glancing at her.
~!**!~
Akari's head lifted when she felt the flowers settle around her neck, seeming to line the thin scarf she wore as if they were made with it. She inspected them for only a brief moment before looking to Youko again, a brow raising as his words reminded her of something Juun had said once, though it wasn't as… nice as Youko was being.
After all, she hadn't been very nice to the male either.
So his completely contradictory words had her raising a brow and her lips twitching upwards. And she almost said the words that sprang to her tongue, almost told him that a queen needed a king.
Stupid.
It was likely what he wanted to hear anyway, and she was not giving him that.
So she settled for merely meeting his gaze with that same soft smile on her lips, same relaxed posture that said she'd rather be here anyday than elsewhere. *
[Well. Now that she's been properly put off her guard, I do believe it's your turn.]
{What? Youko, what are you- Wait-}
"Stop!" Kurama jolted into awareness in the middle of the field of flowers, immediately turning pink when he realized his words rang out in an echo over the hill.
{I will kill you.}
[I look forward to it, Red.]
It had taken but an instant for the silver-haired kitsune to switch places with his counterpart, and Kurama flung a string of curse words silently at the fox to which Youko responded with only laughter.
Kurama heaved out a sigh and shook his head, "Sorry about that."
~!**!~
She growled, mind as pitch black and empty as her eyes had become, a burning sensation at the base of her neck and spiking across her scalp starting to spread to cover the rest of her.
His smell as he passed had become too much, his core pumping precious energy through his body that made her nostrils flare, and she reached out to snatch a hold of his arm in a vise-like grip, stepping up to him with her fangs bared in a snarl as tendrils of energy began to snake up from her throat and past her lips. 3
Hiei hadn't pulled away from the grip that suddenly grabbed at him, but he did turn to face the person, his eyes narrowed slits and irises burning similarly to the flames he had almost instinctively released from the sudden attack.
And the gaze he met was… unsettling. It was a dark, colorless void of… nothing but what could only be described as anger. He'd noticed earlier the color of her eyes, but now he noticed the definitive lack of color, and it made his energy spark only slightly before pulling towards himself in preparation, his eyes shifting to the energy he could both feel and now see moving.
"I can assure you, you will not live if you go through with that attempt." His words were spoken both aloud and within her mind, more than a small warning coating his words. "I am no measly low-level, as you've been consuming."
And within the next beat, he let the image of his own fire energy tearing through forestry on the ninth level, the Jagan enabling him to give her the view as if she were standing behind him during one of his rampages.
~!**!~
Akari had let her eyelids slide shut for just a moment, and in that moment she was startled, giving a small start when a familiar, rather loud voice shouted a single word into the silence and effectively shattered it, even startling a few creatures nearby that scurried away to their respective hiding places.
When her eyes were focused on the redhead, whose entire being was now enclosed in the wonderful light of the flowers and moon, she gave a small laugh at his apology, though she only heard the first word. The color thrown onto him reminded her vaguely of the blacklights in a gaming center Yusuke had taken her to, and briefly she was a bit… distracted by the thought.
What had that game been called again? Laser Tag?
She dismissed the thought an instant later and waved her hand in front of her face dismissively. "I'd yell too if I was dumped on a random situation." At least, that's how it seems it happened. Her eyes turned away from his hair and clothing and took to noting the way the light bounced in his eyes, turning them from their normal emerald color to a lighter shade of… something wonderful. She promptly turned her eyes to look about their surroundings, as if something had grabbed her attention. "Good to see you again. It's been a while.." *
Kurama had a little...trouble shaking the abruptness of Youko's whim, one of the many ways the fox had taken to exercising his strength over his avatar, but behind Kurama's typically serene façade it was nigh impossible to tell how truly irate the words he threw at Youko were.
For Akari, he only smiled, and at looking upon her felt...at least marginally better, his ire sliding away to be shoved down Youko's throat later.
[I butter her up for you and this is how you thank me? With silence for her and a tirade of explicits for me? How, please explain, does that make any sense?]
"It has." Kurama replied easily, ignoring Youko for now, "But I imagine we have both been kept quite busy."
He shifted around and stretched his legs out in front of him, leaning back on his hands to take in not only the blooming moon flowers around them, but also Akari herself, bathed in their light.
~!**!~
It was not his words that brought her up short, for she was past their comprehension, and neither was it his pictures, for her mind was too far gone to understand what he attempted to show the dark miasma of nothingness which her thoughts had become...
Instead, as she did not hesitate to draw herself up almost against him, it was something else entirely.
A smell.
And not the one of his energy, which filled her with single-minded purpose: to consume.
Her lips drew slightly over her teeth as her mouth closed a little, and for the briefest of instances she winced, dropping his arm as if he had in fact burned her, the tiniest bit of green coloring her eyes before it became lost once more in the abyss of her hunger.
But she looked at him with an understanding she had not had before, even as she retreated a step or two, hunched as if he'd struck her.
And then she was gone, tearing herself an opening into the place between the layers and pulling it closed after her and dashing off, the quickness of her steps ripping from her nostrils the faintest recognition of what she had once known to be cloves and cinnamon.
Her entire existence tunneled into seeking out the nearest source of energy, demonic energy, and not that of the one she intended to leave unscathed behind. 3
The continued advancement in the steps of the woman had Hiei preparing for a counter, if there was one, and even preparing to blur through the layers if he had to. Several other routes had mapped themselves out for him in his mind, but it seemed that they were not necessary.
Shikiyoku's pause had even Hiei pausing, his narrowed eyes glaring down threateningly at the female that stood up against him now. Once, she'd done this with a different purpose, to back him into a corner and… well, he wasn't sure about that either. Likely for her own entertainment at the time.
But now, there was no banter, no underlying amusement.
And he noticed the change in her eyes, no matter how brief it had been, before she stepped away and simply disappeared from his eyesight.
It took a while after that for him to actually relax, his muscles staying taut for a few minutes before suddenly releasing their tension. Andinstea of chasing her as he had been doing for a while, he simply stayed where he was, basking in the silence of the room and the emptiness of the house.
~!**!~
A small hum of affirmation resonated behind Akari's lips in response to Kurama's words, the sound never leaving her mouth in a word or anything else. She shifted slightly, moving her legs closer to her body and crossing them tighter underneath herself, taking to placing a single elbow on her knee and her chin in her hand. She took in a deep breath of her surroundings, her eyelids sliding shut as the scent of the flowers around her tickled her nose, accompanied with the scent of Kurama's rosy scent as well.
And for once, the silence wasn't one of tension, as had become the norma for her. Her silence was not one that meant she was picking and choosing words, rifling through commands to give others and tip-toeing around annoyances.
She was comfortable. Relaxed.
Happy. *
Kurama contented himself with gazing up at the dark sky, able to make out the stars scattered across the heavens above them.
He, for one, certainly had nothing on his side of things particularly interesting to share. He had opted out of attending college, instead having his stepfather hire him, and the mundane ins and outs of everyday human life would certainly hold no appeal to someone of whom he and Youko had heard rumors about her line of work.
[Well, maybe I should have stayed out there. I could have impressed her with tales of my-]
{Youko?}
[Mm?]
{Shut up.}
~!**!~
He did not follow.
He would not see then, the dark shadow he did not chase slipping into existence nearly halfway around the world in the middle of a rough and rowdy demon bar, one of countless that had popped up on the first layer, meant to be a safe haven for their kind.
He would not have to watch as a drunk demon made a pass at her that she allowed, the lowlighting of the establishment swathing her and her presence in enough darkness that the poor demon did not know what he was in for when she flitted between bodies with the demon behind her giving chase until he had her backed into a corner, leaning over her as he slid his hands to her hips.
The demon only knew something was wrong when she touched him. The rough skin of the hands which she locked upon either side of his cheeks were meant to draw his mouth close enough that when she opened her own, the tendrils of energy Hiei had seen, but which those of this layer could not so much as sense, snaked out and down his throat.
If he struggled, she did not see nor did she care as she began murmuring the words to the spell that led to more of her energy released off her body to weave around the room.
The demon in her grasp slid to the floor when she released him, and all around the bar others began collapsing in a similar manner.
There was one demon sitting at the bar however, who merely waved a hand at the advancing sinews as if brushing away an annoying fly, taking another drink from his mug and frowning, lifting the same hand to bat at the energy which was not deterred.
This time, the energy appeared to make a little lunge and wrap itself about his wrist as he lowered it back down.
He regarded it with a raised eyebrow when his hand rested on the counter.
There was something very...familiar about it.
He let his eyes scan the rest of the establishment, now not only feeling but also seeing the bodies as they dropped to the floor, and spying the dark figure that appeared to be drawing the energy from their bodies and absorbing it.
He had known only one vampire-demon in his time, but to have another emerge from whatever pit they were spawned in now, at a time when the world was the most vulnerable-
Wait, shouldn't this one be stuck on whatever layer they-
Wow, whoever that is has the energy capacity of-
The dark-haired fire demon stumbled to his feet, mug in hand, and started staggering over to the figure, shaking off the energy around his wrist.
This power...it could be her, but it was twisted, a darkened shadow of what it had once been.
Her face was lost in the corner, her black eyes giving off no glint in the light as she raised them to consider the demon coming towards her, stepping over and sometimes tripping on the bodies of the fallen.
Here is one that would surely keep her satisfied for at least a week.
She slunk forward.
"There'sh no ush trying to be shneaky about it." Uryo waved his mug around before remembering it was in his hand and stopping to take a drink.
Behind him, her energy had finished with the rest of the room and now turned like eager attack-dogs to begin ribboning their way for the last demon standing.
Uryo's eyes softened as he looked at her, saw her and what she had become. He smiled.
"Sh'o, you felt like it had come to that, huh? And what did your Champion have to shay about it...hic?" Uryo frowned, "I guessh he'sh not your Champion anymore now ish he."
She was almost up to him now, surrounding him with her power as she stalked towards him.
"What did Renai call it? A Conshort?" Uryo looked down at her tiny frame as she approached, "You got one of doesh yet? I guessh not by the looksh of thingsh."
When she came to a stop looking up at him, Uryo dropped down to a squat, effectively bringing himself to her level so that he could peer into her eyes.
She opened her mouth slightly and he watched as tendrils of energy emerged from within and began moving towards his face as she closed the last bit of distance between them.
He shifted his weight a little, a bit of hair coming loose from the ponytail he still wore it in, but he did not look away from her, noting appreciatively the scars on her face, able somewhere in the back of his mind to analyze the type of strike, the direction, the weapon used...she had seen much since they last saw one another. She was staring directly into his crimson eyes, and he found that he did not want to look away. Let her read his soul. See what she thought of anything she found there.
She flinched as if startled by the black hair that swung down to the side of his face, her mouth starting to close as her eyes widened and recognition dawned inside her darkened mind.
That smell...
And she was gone, pulling the layers over herself like so many blankets and disappearing into them, leaving Uryo behind, still squatting and staring at the place she had just been.
Uryo felt a slight warmth come upon the inside of his arm and as he twisted it to look, he caught the last of what had been shafts of yellow light disappearing and leaving behind a symbol that left him staring at it for a long while.
It was, quite simply, a heart. 3
~!**!~
Akari sat still for a while, eyes closed and nose drinking in the scent around her, ears listening to every little sound in the area. The quiet was so welcoming, so calm and so blissful. Despite this, though, her mind ended up wandering, distracted by earlier thoughts of Juun, the complete idiot who was currently running loose on the fourth layer, likely at section E and-
She took in another deep breath of the night air. Nothing I can't fix later.
"The answer, in case you're wondering," Akari suddenly spoke, words muffled from the pressure her hand had on her cheek, "is no." It had been the most random of thought, but really, it was something that had cropped up with her thoughts of what others called work. The marks on her skin was often the first thing a demon saw, and while in the past she had been afraid of that, now she realized it gave her a sort of… power over the other. She wasn't challenged very often, wasn't rebutted by a demon with the desire to be in charge. It wasn't something she understood really, but it was an advantage, and well…
She used her energy enough to traverse from the layers to the portal dimensions that she didn't think that, should a challenger arise, she'd be able to do anything more than what she'd threatened Youko with earlier: dropping them in their shadow.
And that took more energy than traversing herself through the dimensions, and even more so to keep one there.
She'd learned that the hard way. Trial and error, right? *
Lost in an argument with Youko, it definitely took longer than it should have for Kurama to both hear and understand what Akari had said.
"Is that so?" He finally quipped, "Well, I'm glad to hear you've finally reached a decision. Any final thoughts you wish to share on the matter?"
~!**!~
She shivered, but she didn't know why.
The bustle of the city around her did nothing for how alone she felt, but it was not the first time that denizens of the First Layer hardly gave her more than a glance as she walked along, hands clasped to her arms across her chest.
She coughed, stopping in place and having a human bump shoulders with her, giving little more than a murmured apology.
It was almost as if they couldn't see her. Well, they could. After that first bump, no others did so. But they could not see her scars for certain, their minds too preoccupied, too caught up in other matters, and frankly too weak to give her much notice.
And so it was with the same amount of indifference that they passed the collapsed form on the one side of the walkway, their minds placing a rock or a shoe where there was in fact a living being unable to stand back up.
There was one who could see her, but at first, with her bundles in her arms, she almost passed the body by.
Struck with a compassion that was as much her as any other portion of her personality, the teal-haired Koorime gave a little gasp and hurried over, setting her groceries and packages to the side before coming to her knees, her crimson eyes growing wide when she realized how many marks were upon this demon, but her eyes softening when she just as quickly came to find that the scars were all old.
Warm. Fever. Chills.
She wasn't versed very well in the diseases that could ravage a demon, her healing usually restricted to wounds, but the gentle girl did put a hand to the over-hot cheek that trembled at her touch, her hand beginning to glow.
"Can you tell me your name?" Yukina wanted to know, seeing this demon's eyes flickering behind not-quite-closed lids. "Or where you come from?"
The demon under her healing shifted, eyes coming more open to stare blearily up at her.
All this demon saw were large, crimson eyes, eyes she had seen twice already this day.
Chills shivered down the demon's skin as she felt the hunger starting to come back. With her lips parted in a pant, little tendrils of energy started creeping out her mouth without her notice.
Yukina leaned further down, expecting the demon to speak through the parted lips and hoping to catch a word.
Her hair fell over her shoulder and the demon's mouth snapped shut, eyes squeezing closed in an effort to resist.
That smell...
Would she be unable to escape it today?
She heaved herself up, startling Yukina who scooted back to give her room.
"You are far from home, Ice Maiden." She spoke through chattering teeth, swallowing more energy that threatened to fulfill her need whether she meant it to or not.
Yukina's eyes crinkled a little at the edges with her smile as she looked into the darkened green gaze of the demon before her and shook her head a little, "I am home." 3
~!**!~
Hazel eyes were revealed as eyelids slid open lazily, the light reflecting in them glinting as Akari turned to look at Kurama. She'd delved into thoughts as soon as she'd been finished speaking, and even actually forgotten she'd spoken up until he'd asked for any comments.
At which point, she had to think back and recall what she'd said.
Oh, right.
She shrugged at him nonchalantly, giving a lopsided smile of mischief as she sat up straight again, hands tugging at the scarf that had begun to make the back of her neck itch. "You're a pain in multiple ways, but thanks." she said as her hand unwound the scarf from around her neck and pulled it away from her shoulders, letting it drop into her lap before going to scratch at the itch the fabric had left behind. "Though, that's all I can come up with." *
Kurama let out a light chuckle, but moved his gaze from Akari back to the sky.
[You saw it, right?]
{Saw what?}
[...there's no point in trying to fool me, Red.]
Youko had easily seen through Kurama's eyes the numbered tattoo near Akari's neck.
{And what does it matter?}
[You aren't going to say anything about it?]
{She has spoken volumes without mentioning it simply by allowing me to see it, and quite possibly by revealing it to others, and you wish me to comment on it?}
[...]
[You're not as thick as I like to think, Red.]
{I'll ignore the insulting portion of that compliment.}
[Do that.]
~!**!~
"But more importantly," Yukina stood up and started to help the other demon rise, "Where is your home?"
The demon stood up, but froze in place as Yukina began to put one of the other's weak arm over her strong shoulders.
"I- It- You should stay away from me." The demon pulled back from the contact as if burned.
"Is it contagious?" Yukina asked mildly.
"Do you need some help, ma'am?" A human paused and gestured to the bags which had been set aside.
"Yes, please!" Yukina replied warmly and the human started to gather her things.
"Very." The demon interjected, wishing for nothing more than to be left alone, "By contact alone you could-"
"You're not a very good liar." Yukina informed the demon, once again gently-this time more firmly-pulling one of the other's arms over her shoulders to help support the weakened limbs.
The demon had not the strength to complain other than to make unintelligible noises of protest which Yukina very calmly ignored.
Deciding that Keiko would not mind the extra company, Yukina continued along the way she had been going, the human falling in step beside her and striking up a conversation that kept the Koorime's attention averted as the demon's eyes beside her began to darken.
Trying to fight it off, the demon desperately took a smell of the air, hoping to catch some more of that scent which she knew had earlier prevented other, stronger demons from being fed upon, but this time there were no familiar spices filling up her nose, only energy, and demonic energy at that.
The demon stumbled and drew Yukina's attention away from the pleasant human next to her, stopping as the demon bent over as if in pain.
"What's wrong?" She asked hurriedly, suddenly aware of some mist or another that was coming out the demon's mouth. Was this part of the affliction?
No! No, please! Go away!
Without the demon able to walk beside her, Yukina stopped and let the demon down to lean up against a building, bending over her and looking strangely at the mist which she did not notice breathing in herself until her body stiffened and her eyes lost focus, a panic instantly settling over Yukina's mind when she found her body would not respond to anything she told it to do.
Please...please...no...someone... Behind the black pools of hunger, the demon struggled against the energy that had started to enter her body, and instead of sucking it all away at once like she might have if she had not fed mere hours ago, she attempted to shove it away, to keep it out, only slowing the process to a crawl and finding no way to stop it. 3
Hiei stood in the kitchen of the house he'd stayed in, spoon in one hand and tub of sweet snow in the other, something he'd stumbled upon mere minutes ago and simply delved into. It wasn't as.. yummy as the Strawberry one he'd loved, but it… would suffice, he supposed. It was better than nothing, when he had actually felt a craving for something like this.
It was awfully plain. Probably what he imagined the Strawberry sweet snow to be like without the strawberries. Perhaps that was exactly what this was. He wasn't sure, but he slid the spoon in his mouth again anyway and leaned back against the counter, eyes not focusing on anything in particular and mind not really thinking about anything specific.
Not at first, anyway.
Sometime during his fourth spoonful, his mind turned to his sister, though at first he didn't really understand why. He'd kept tabs on here here and there, even been caught by her once or twice, but otherwise he'd been… preoccupied. So why was she sneaking into his thoughts now?
Perhaps I'll check in.
He had time. Loads of it, now that he knew for sure who was behind the energy stealings. Now that he'd also found Shikiyoku, it didn't matter what he did. He could find Shikiyoku anytime he wished.
Again, Yukina came to mind, and this time with a sort of warning in the back of his mind.
He pause, spoon just touching his bottom lip as the Jagan slid open and began the routine search for the energies around the layer.
And when he found her energy, he also found a small spark, as if she were reaching out to him, begging or his attention.
Without further ado, without further inspection, he slid the open tub into the freezer, dropped the spoon on the counter, and moved through the house and down the street at a speed much too great for a human to catch. Not even a breeze.
He arrived to the scene, Yukina crouching in front of a darkened figure he knew well now, and his Jagan invaded the mind of Shikiyoku, his hands grabbing for her and pulling her from the ground.
"You will cease." His words were forceful, the Jagan avidly shoving his energy in front of Yukina's and into Shikiyoku's mind, without his consent throwing random images of the Shikiyoku he once knew into her mind's eye, one after another after another. "You are this person. You are Shikiyoku."
~!**!~
There had been words after the sentence she'd said about Kurama that she hadn't been willing to say aloud. You're a pain in multiple ways, but thanks… Thanks for being the pain in my side that pushed me onward. Thanks for being there when it was too much. You don't know it yet, but you were there.
She could have gone on and on with those thoughts, but instead she simply let them trail off into a calm nothingness, her eyes training on the redhead and her lopsided grin lessening to a soft smile. She opened her mouth to repeat two words that had often been silently given to the fox and not actually said aloud, but her voice… just wouldn't do her bidding.
Her hand fell to her lap to toy with the scarf, eyes following the motion to look at the blue cloth that had gone with the white shirt she'd chosen for the day.
"You know, I often nitpicked at you," she grumbled, her voice finally coming to fruition and forming words. "I knew it was a childish thing to do.." She let her words trail away, fingers toying with the ends of the scarf in her lap out of habit. "Thank you, for being patient with me." she finally voiced, though it… wasn't anything near what she had prepared herself to say over the past few months.
But, it would suffice, for now. *
[Do you hear that, Red? She never murmured such sweet nothings to me.]
{My ears are in good working order as you well know, silver-tail.}
Leaving it at that, Kurama slowly lowered himself down to the ground as Akari finished, putting his arms behind his head to prop himself up from the soft bed of flowers.
"Well," Kurama began, "I can't let you off easy and say you weren't trying at times."
His lips did not so much as twitch, and he intentionally started to close his eyes as he felt that there, if nowhere else, is where one would see the glint of a tease.
~!**!~
Yukina suddenly came back into herself with a gasp as if for air, and not seeing the demon before her, whipped her head around to find that it was in fact Hiei who had intervened.
The intensity of his gaze had Yukina remaining quiet, though she desperately wanted to intercede on behalf of this broken demon she had only just met, but she did stand up, eyes trained on the pair quietly, searching for any change in either.
The darkness of the other demon's mind erupted into flashing images put upon the sick demon by an outside force, and she too made a gulp for air when parted from Yukina, the spell that had been pulling the Koorime's energy from her body interrupted.
Her eyes, which had shut sometime while she fought against feeding, flew open, greener than they had been upon first seeing Hiei, but still dull and woven with darkness.
His crimson eyes pierced through her, appearing even in this heated moment so much like the others of the day that she was struck dumb underneath both his gaze and the shining remembrances of what he claimed was her former self.
It took another moment for her to gather herself under his constant pummeling of her thoughts, and when she did so, she jerked her hands from his as soon as she was aware of his touch, lowering her head as if ashamed as she crossed her arms underneath her chest to hide her fingers beneath them.
First that Ice Maiden, now him. Such contact felt strange and foreign to her, contact initiated by another of their own volition.
She shuddered.
She did not raise her head to look over at Yukina, who had by this time taken a step closer, compassion still in her eyes for the other, but she in return took another step away, letting her head shake back and forth once.
"You- I said stay away." She said hurriedly, hoping to dissuade the girl from coming closer. "You should listen next time." 3
Hiei followed Shikiyoku's step backward with his own step towards her, a little longer than hers and bringing himself closer to her, red eyes still searching her face for the eyes he'd seen a minute ago, though his mind was completely consumed with the images that the Jagan continued to filter through their telepathic connection.
"She wouldn't have to stay away if you controlled yourself." He spoke in a low tone, voice meant only for her to hear as his Jagan suddenly decided that there was a single image he needed to focus on, a single image that he'd ignored three times already and passed along to another.
And suddenly he felt as if he was reliving it. Bright lights lit up the tiled floors, reflecting around the room and bouncing from the various types of jewelry the women wore, the decorations on the men's suits flashing occasionally with each turn they made with their partners.
The sounds in the room were that of heels clicking on the tiled floor, of dresses swishing against skin and other outfits, of music floating through the room and of quiet chatter between dancers.
And the warmth Hiei felt was not of his own, but of another's hand within his, of another being very close to him. And he too was moving in circles, moving in steps that he hadn't learned before this day, before he'd been forced to pluck them from from the very mind of the person he was looking down on again.
Except instead of in the darkened streets of the First Layer, they were in a ballroom, and Shikiyoku wore jewelry that glittered even more than the jewelry of any other in the room.
At least, that's how it felt to him.
And he was wearing the most ridiculous outfit that had a cloak that swished with his movements, brushing his ankles and making a small sound to fill the silence between himself and the female who moved with him.
And he'd never thought he would have missed this.
~!**!~
AKari huffed at Kurama, eyes quickly shifting from the scarf in her hands to give a glare to the redhead. I was trying to be nice, you jackass. What, you want a kiss on the cheek and sparkling eyes and a heartfelt "thank you, prince charming!"?
Her thoughts stayed stuck there and she gave a small sigh. "You're infuriating," she stated, tone betraying nothing of the thoughts she had and instead staying calm and even. Maybe I should…
Forget it.
She couldn't be mad. Why? Because she still, despite the irritation he seemed to provoke here and there, was Kurama, meaning that while he taunted and made attempts at getting a rise from her, he was still… there when needed, whether the person receiving his kindness knew it or not.
Stupid fox.
She felt her gaze turn soft again as she stared at the male, whose feet were extended towards her. His eyes were closed, though she could just imagine the color behind the lids. The very color that had gleamed at her in amusement, glared at her in irritation, and even flashed at her when he'd had enough.
Prince Charming, my ass.
She sighed to herself and shifted her weight until she was crawling on her hands and knees, moving until she was beside the male and lowering herself about a foot away from him, laying on her back and her eyes on the sky.
"You're so much better than Juun." she remarked with a smile of mischief to the stars overhead. *
"Juun?" Kurama murmured good-naturedly, opening his eyes again to look at the stars, though they were still mischievously regarding the heavens above, "I would ask if I am supposed to be jealous, but you did just say I am 'so much better than' him."
[Cheeky.]
{You're one to talk.}
[I thought you were ignoring me?]
{I am.}
~!**!~
Memories started to stir at Hiei's words.
She had been able to control it.
There hadn't been anything to control.
This hunger.
It was new. It came with this...this sickness that fogged her mind, that plunged her into darkness where no light could penetrate and were she could become lost as if-
When she opened her eyes, it was to bright lights of hanging chandeliers high above her head, moments later music filling in the silence, and even though she knew for a fact she was standing, nearly broken, on a sidewalk with a fire demon who had gotten much too close for her comfort, she was instead here, doing something strange with her feet as if she had been born with the ability instead of unable to even recall the word.
She could feel the fabric hugging her skin, the skirts as they rustled around her legs, and suddenly she found she was very much not alone, for there were other bodies, all around her, doing the same thing as she. And for that matter, she realized, she was in the arms-even closer than he stood to her on the sidewalk-of this demon who had so bluntly called her 'lover' within minutes of meeting her for what she thought to be the first time outside of her dreams.
"What...what is this?" Her wonderment could no longer be contained, even as her eyes came to rest from the demons around her to the demon holding her, guiding her smoothly across the tiled floor. 3
Hiei's red eyes stayed trained on the female in his grasp, his entire being aware of their extremely close proximity as if he were in the moment for the very first time. Everything was just as he remembered it, but for once there wasn't the dread he'd felt, the duty and the drive to get away plaguing his mind. Now, there was no danger.
"This is where we were a year ago. Dancing." He didn't admit that he hadn't known at the time, because if it worked right, she'd remember that part. "The Ninth Level's Queen Rae had us escorted, and we were forced here, escorted by her own army from the Niiro Kaga."
He gave her a small spin that he hadn't remembered giving her before pulling her back, .his next words calm and matter-of-fact. "I hate ballrooms."
~!**!~
"Mmmm, well," Akari began with a small hum and the widening of her smile. "He does have his strong points. His stubbornness, his drive, his motivation." She paused, letting her eyelids slide closed. The only problem is that he's driven, motivated, and stubborn when it is in his best interest to be as such. Which… This game was no fun.
"Let's just say that he's lucky Youko decided to accept my request, because he'd be dead tomorrow if you two hadn't shown up." She rolled to her side, propping her elbow on the grass and cheek in the palm of her hand. "So, you know how my past few months have been. Tell me about yours. Youko was boring on that subject." *
[Sounds a lot like someone else we know.]
{I cannot disagree with that sentiment.}
Kurama shifted his head over that he might look at her when she moved, "Was he?" He replied evasively, "Well, I cannot imagine my comings and goings will be more interesting than his." He smiled at her, "I have been living a mostly human life myself, much to my counterpart's chagrin."
[Now that isn't exactly true.]
~!**!~
Her eyes, accustomed to hiding all her thoughts behind their dull curtains, for once betrayed her, revealing within them that same sense of wonderment that had overcome her and driven her to speak.
The room twirled gently around her before she found herself back in his frame, mind continuing to spin even though she had stopped.
"Did I hate...ballrooms?" 3
Hiei gave a small raise of his brows. "Not that I knew of." he replied calmly. "There were certain aspects of this you hated, such as Rae. However, I believe you enjoyed this part of it all." He thought back, remembering her words of politics and the parts she'd said she enjoyed. He'd understood, and quite frankly, cared for none of it.
Not the way she did.
"It was made more for you than someone like myself."
~!**!~
"You're being…." Akari puffed her cheeks at Kurama, unable to come up with a word for it. It was right there, the word she wanted. So she skipped it and went on. "How's your mother and her husband? You're working now, so tell me about your job." She stopped there, deciding to give him a chance to answer at least one of those questions.
"Plus, your mundane life, as you put it, is more interesting than hunting down shiny objects. Remember, I'm a demon with not much knowledge of the mundane." *
[Hey!]
Kurama smiled and turned his own body to face her, propping his head up with his hand as he sat his torso off the ground a bit.
"Well. Which thrilling activity would you care to hear about first? Filing papers? Making copies? Using a stapler?" He said them with such fervent excitement that inside his mind, Youko had gotten over his initial bruised ego to laugh whole-heartedly at the turn the conversation had taken.
[Trust me, pup. These things are nothing you're going to want to know about.]
~!**!~
She shook her head.
"That cannot be true. Or else this would not have been as easy as you make it seem." Her eyes flickered to the demons around them who paid them little attention, for they blended in among them as if they belonged, "One cannot so simply adapt to a challenge they were not, in some capacity, 'meant for.'" 3
"I have my resources," Hiei replied easily, "I have had no experience in this before or since." He turned her again, his eyes turning up to the chandeliers over their heads. The lights refracted from the crystals and were almost too bright for his eyes, so he turned down to her again.
"I imagine if we hadn't been tossed here, you would have enjoyed yourself."
~!**!~
Akari felt a wide smile color her features at Kurama's sudden shift, her eyes sparkling with amusement. She thought for a moment before her smile widened. "What about the signatures?" She made a small sound before she raised a curious brow. "What kind of work is it? Paperwork, I mean. What kind of business is it?" *
"It's the most enthralling kind of business," Kurama went on, pausing a little for dramatic effect, "Because the paperwork...is about paperwork."
Youko howled with laughter.
"My step-father runs a supply office." Kurama further specified, "Only the most exciting work to keep the fox preoccupied."
~!**!~
She frowned for a moment, as if struck by something incorrect in his words.
"That's...that's strange." She looked up at him pointedly, face neutral, "Because...because I think she enjoyed it anyway." Her gaze dropped, "Because...she was with you." 3
Hiei felt his brow raise higher on his forehead, almost hiding under the hair that occasionally blocked his view of the surroundings above him. He needed to get it trimmed, he realized, but it was a brief thought. After the brief distraction he realized she meant that she herself had enjoyed this.
She's remembering on her own.
"You mean you were with me." he corrected, pulling back a bit before he decided one last turn was in order, the visage fading as she spun and being replaced with the actual surroundings where they'd been standing.
And as if he'd turned her again, he pulled her towards himself as if they were still within the ballroom, aside from the next steps that would normally be required.
~!**!~
Akari's brows raised high into her bangs, hiding for a moment before they furrowed, drawing lines of confusion. "Paperwork… about paperwork?" That made no sense to her. Why would one have to sign papers about signing papers?
Chain of command, perhaps?
I guess it would make sense. *
Kurama gently reached over and took Akari's chin in his hand, shifting her face back and forth a little as if to further examine her expression.
"You're remarkably adorable when you don't understand what's going on."
~!**!~
Her eyes had squeezed shut at his words, her eyebrows coming together tightly over her nose.
"It's...very hard to think of it that way, but..." After a moment longer of resistance, she gave in, "Yes. ...I...enjoyed it...anyway."
Upon admitting it, she felt the tightness across her forehead slink away and she opened her eyes, finding that she no longer stood shivering by herself, instead feeling how warm the fire demon was because...well because they were rather close.
She stiffened, eyes riddled with confusion as she sat there, unable to even make enough sense of the moment to pull away as she desperately wished to.
She did, however, release a noise that mirrored her expression from her nose, a huff of air with no other sound behind it.
Without the lights and the bright room around her, the gestured seemed odd. Out of place.
"What is the meaning of-...why do you do this?" The terseness in her voice aptly communicated how uncomfortable she felt. 3
Hiei stared down at Shikiyoku calmly, despite her confused stare and question. He contemplated her question and the various ways to answer before he felt his brows settle into place and his expression turn to a calm, albeit a bit of an amused one.
"What does this mean, woman?" He moved his arms just a bit, to gesture to the closeness of their beings.
~!**!~
Akari pursed her lips at Kurama, blinking only once when he had grabbed hold of her chin and not resisting when he turned her head this way and that. Her arm kept her propped up, half of her torso lifted from the ground as her elbow dug into the grass and soil. And at his words, she gave a small smile and met his gaze.
"Same to you," she said teasingly with a grin, poking fun at his obvious knowledge of everything going on. "Quite adorable." *
He let go with a small smile, his hand lowering to the space between them, "You must remind me to look in the mirror the next time I appear to be confused. It happens so rarely afterall, I myself have forgotten the feeling, much less what I look like."
[Lies. All lies. You're a terrible liar.]
{What I wouldn't give to land one solid punch on that self-righteous face of yours.}
[Wouldn't that be a little strange? A bit like punishing yourself or something?]
{You're going to haunt me forever, aren't you.}
[To the very end of your days.]
~!**!~
She huffed again, aggravated that he had only answered her question by asking her the same thing, in so many words, and she took to glaring at him as he had not yet let her go.
Her teeth clenched together and her answer came back snipped, "I don't know." Otherwise, why would she bother asking? She continued with just as much heat to her response, "It is many things..." She blinked, ire melting with words she found bubbling up from somewhere, "...for me." Another blink, and then one of her eyes shut as if a headache had just sprung up behind it, the rest of her face pulling together. 3
Hiei felt the satisfaction begin to rise, but did not allow it to show in his eyes nor his features as he stared down at Shikiyoku, who flinched after a minute. His expression shifted to a neutral one as he waited, expectant eyes looking down onto her and not even blinking as she stayed quiet for a moment.
If she continued, then he will have achieved more than he'd thought he would. If she didn't, then…. He'd find something else. He could always show her, if he needed to.
~!**!~
"Maybe I'll take to carrying a camera, just in case." Akari leaned closer to him, amused eyes never breaking from his stare. "After all, a picture does last longer, and I'd rather enjoy seeing you befuddled for once, sir know-it-all."
Her lips pressed together for a moment as she eyed him, a sudden urge keeping her within the space she'd leaned into. She eyed him carefully before giving a smile rather similar to one Youko had flashed earlier and leaning away, rolling again onto her back and closing her eyes. *
[Oo, she is good.]
Kurama almost released an imperceptible sigh.
[You know, I think I could come to like her myself, Red. She's a fast learner.]
{You're absolutely unbearable.}
[It's why you love me.]
"So, if this is your first holiday, you haven't really had a chance to enjoy the changes the merge has brought about, have you?"
~!**!~
She fought against...something, and whether she was fighting to get in or struggling to get out, she could not tell, but her other eye slid shut and she sat there for a moment, taking the time to actually relax, to release the hindrances of the sickness that constantly badgered her person.
They were still there, but she...accepted them for the moment, moved beyond them and found-
A memory.
It was incomplete. Broken and playing through her mind as only bits and disjointed pieces of recorded events.
My touch is...my fondness...my affection.
Who had said such strange things?
She felt her heart sinking strangely, her stomach rising up to meet it.
...cannot be anything other than these things...for I cannot kill another.
As if defeated, she felt herself sag.
She was no longer this person, these faded memories. How could she be? She could not count how many lives had at this point been taken for she could not even remember their faces or how it had happened.
Her touch...was not these things.
Her touch was used for-
She slowly started attempting to extricate herself from this fire demon before her, and she felt very...lost. 3
Hiei kept his hold on Shikiyoku, not allowing her to escape from him just yet, though he was not rough about it. He simply kept her there, calm eyes pointed down to her in curiosity. "The only thing that's changed is that you now can fight. That does not mean you are no longer capable of those gestures. It's why you cut the bond; I was your fighter."
He paused, head tilting only a bit. Odd how that sounded, going along with something someone else had said about him being the fighter and her the lover.
What had that demon's name been again?
It wasn't important at the moment.
"You are still Shikiyoku. Just… a little different." People change. He hadn't ever believed in that before he'd met the detective, but… "Changes happen. If you deny those changes, you deny yourself."
~!**!~
"M-mm." Akari hummed out a negatory, as she often did with Nabu. She took in a deep breath of the night air and stretched her torso just a bit, earning a nice pop from her shoulder and the feeling of the tension in her muscles being flexed until it dissipated. She could almost fall asleep, if she were even remotely tired.
Perhaps it was because she usually wasn't home until late.
Nabu can wait. Or entertain himself. It doesn't matter.
"Why? What's on your mind?" *
"It would...take much too long now, but there are many wonderful things the union has done to the world, if you pause and look around." His eyes lifted to look beyond her, over the sea of glowing flowers, "And if not for Youko, I myself would be much too busy to see them, but-" He raised and lowered one shoulder in a shrug, "We have an advantage, after all, that few other denizens of this new world do."3
Thanks for reading! Bless your face. If you sneezed during this chapter, bless you. Peace off! -Star