A/N: Hello once again, Audience.
So, I know I said I wasn't going to keep the trend of long chapters going, but I really did not want to break this next portion up in any way, so you got all of it. If I drop back down to 10k words or so next week, don't be surprised since that's my typical goal.
The following is a note from the previous chapter that still applies to this chapter:
"In other news, I don't have a note on it in the symbols guide below since I don't think it's come up so far, and if it has the occasions are few and far between, but there is a portion in this chapter where Mukuro is conversing with the Artificial Intelligence of the Mobile Fortress itself, to put it simply. The AI's dialogue is unique in that it is in italics, but has a hyphen at the end of it. Similar to how we have used a tilde in the past after italics to indicate the All-Fire "speaking," the AI doesn't so much speak in words exactly, and it's only because of Mukuro's close ties to it that she is able to translate the resulting code of information the AI feeds her into a sort of sentience that no one else would likely be able to understand."
Ciao for now!~
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 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.
(Words in italics and within parenthesis is dialogue between Hiei and Shikiyoku via the bond between them after Hiei becomes Shikiyoku's Consort. As soon as the 'thought' occurs, it can pass between them, and does not actually have to be formed into exact words-feelings and sensations can pass through as well-in order to be picked up and the meaning translated immediately by the other. For the sake of the coherence by the reader, words and sentences are used as normal. It cannot 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).
The Nabu Exception also applies to anyone when they are in an animal form, if the dialogue is in italics and quotations, unless stated otherwise.
Previously on Yu Yu Hakusho!
After a rejuvenating waterfall-shower,
Akari returns to camp to find
that the two demons she had retrieved
were dead on the ground,
and her friend Manami is missing.
Tracking after the girl,
when Akari catches up to her,
it is to find that Manami has changed,
become a Crusnik.
Astonished at first,
aware that she could easily fall
to Manami's cursed hand,
the thought that brings her
to defending herself
is that of Kurama's mother,
and her attempts to protect
this human woman that Kurama loved.
And so Manami is killed,
by Akari's hand.
Akari returns to Yomi,
to tell him the others
could not withstand an attack by a Crusnik.
Meanwhile, deep within Yomi's compound,
Kurama works alone in a laboratory,
appearing to have created a living gauntlet
from plant life that is moving on its own
at the table upon which he has it sitting.
Akari has traveled to his laboratory,
ducking inside,
and is prompted by Kurama to speak,
him telling her that no others would hear
anything said within the room
as the door shuts behind her.
She apologizes to him for her actions,
which she admits to now knowing
came with consequences for him.
He replies that she has nothing to apologize for,
and that everyone makes sacrifices.
As she leaves the room,
she tells him she missed him,
and he informs her that her energy
would be better spent missing someone else.
Replying that she has been made aware
of where her energy is best spent,
and then leaving the room,
she does not hear Kurama chuckling at her,
internally questioning who exactly it is she lost.
He quickly finishes his work with the gauntlet,
turning it into an entire soldier,
and after striking at it,
having it turn and attack.
Akari is out of the compound
nonstop since her encounter with Kurama,
herself having hardened with time,
and unable to see much of anything any longer,
save for the destructive path she sets for herself.
Later, Akari sits in for tea with Mother,
admitting to the other that she has no plans,
as currently moving them will cause more problems.
Akari has arranged for the brother
of one of the demons Manami killed
to come and provide a sort of restorative
so that Mother can continue protecting that
of the pack which is within her care.
~!**!~
Shikiyoku and Hiei continue laying together talking,
in the meantime Shikiyoku confirming
what she thought of the Jagan and it
having absorbed her energy that had been
within Hiei.
Weeks later and Iketeru and Rikei have come up with
a sort of 'capacitor' for Shikiyoku to wear
while she attempts to dance the formulas
that as supposed to rid her of the active Crusnik
within her pain-form's energy.
They have sense trained the incorrect steps out of her,
via a necklace programmed with them,
that jolts her nervous system before she
can complete such a step.
Before they can get her into the usual room,
Rikei informs Shikiyoku that she is to report to Mukuro,
post-haste.
Arriving in the Shackle Room,
Shikiyoku does not know what to do with herself
before a being whom she can feel nothing from.
Mukuro orders her to come closer and sit,
after a moment suddenly asking
what she was doing,
clarifying that she refers to the moment
not too long ago
where Hiei was tickling Shikiyoku in that very room.
All but frightened into confused silence,
when Shikiyoku does not answer,
Mukuro presses her if she and Gouka were
'having fun,' to which Shiki
manages to squeak out a 'yes.'
Mukuro seems disappointed,
claiming she does not know what that means.
Shikiyoku attempts to explain
that Hiei was helping her,
cheering her up when she was sad.
Shikiyoku takes the opportunity
to apologize if their antics bothered Mukuro,
and Mukuro brusquely dismisses
Shikiyoku, informing her it should not happen again.
Meanwhile, Hiei has been dealing with
an over-active Jagan
broadcasting the most obnoxious messages,
and nearly getting Hiei himself into trouble.
After her encounter with Mukuro,
Shikiyoku returns to the lab
only to remove all the devices upon her person,
much to the dismay of Rikei.
Iketeru helps her and then tells her to go rest.
Upon returning to their rooms,
the Jagan attempts to converse with Shikiyoku
in a covert manner,
as if Hiei is not there.
What follows is a conversation
where the Jagan attempts to convince Shiki
that she and Hiei should be doing more kissing.
Hiei eventually asks Shikiyoku to make it stop,
quickly retracting his request
when he realizes how exactly she would do so:
by fulfilling the Jagan's request and kissing him.
Eventually Hiei realizes Shikiyoku is back early,
and Shikiyoku tells him of her encounter with Mukuro.
Upon reflection, Hiei feels as if he identifies
with Mukuro on some level,
and that if it were not for Shikiyoku,
that he might have ended up much like the would-be king:
unaware of concepts like 'fun' and 'companionship.'
As the two of them start to fall back onto the bed,
Hiei asserts that Mukuro 'doesn't have someone like' Shikiyoku,
and Shikiyoku replies Mukuro doesn't have anyone at all.
Rikei shook his head, hands moving over the screen in front of him as he searched it for information.
"I'm not picking up any signs of life from her. If she's actually got any energy left, the systems aren't fine-tuned enough to read them."
Iketeru nodded, working at his own station and seeing there that Rikei spoke the truth.
They couldn't be for sure she wasn't flatline-dead.
Five minutes ago, the Kuraku had dropped to the ground, covered in scars and surrounded by more dead bodies than Iketeru cared to count. Rikei had acted fast, dropping himself into the room to retrieve her lifeless body and bring it back to the lab, removing the shackles around her wrists and ankles that had aided her in releasing her energy as Iketeru took off the band around her neck.
Each manacle had been dropped carelessly to the floor as the pair worked quickly to move her across the room and strip her of her clothing, immediately beginning the complicated process of attaching the wiring to her body that was directly connected to the cylindrical tube in which she now floated, hair fanned out behind her in the viscous liquid meant to aid the healing process.
Iketeru stood on the other side of that cylindrical tube, attempting to override the bottom line of code that prevented them from using the system to its full potential.
"We could really use your help." Rikei muttered through clenched teeth as he fingers flew across the keys.
Iketeru knew he spoke to Mukuro, and had likely already attempted to contact her through the machinery around him, but there was no telling how far she might be ingrained in the Fortress' systems at that exact moment, and if she had heard Rikei's plea at all.
Still unable to alter the core of the system, Iketeru spared a moment to glance up and over at the unmoving body of the Kuraku, of the numerous scars covering her bare skin and the dark circles under her closed eyes, lending itself to the severity of her gaunt face and the wicked, poorly healed gash that trailed down over her eye.
"Got it!" Rikei exclaimed, pulling Iketeru back to his workstation to see the system unlocking before his eyes. "With a little help."
It was rare for the purple-haired demon to have a smile on his face, but as he pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose, he was most certainly grinning at the console.
"Thank you, Mama." He went on without pause in his fingers.
"You're welcome."
Iketeru glanced up as if he might catch sight of the speakers from which the dry voice of Mukuro herself rang out into the lab.
"I don't break code for just anyone, you know."
"Yes, m'lord." Rikei immediately shifted to a more proper term of address, his grin falling away.
Iketeru was just as certain Rikei did not mean for Mukuro to hear that as he was that Mukuro was definitely not Rikei's biological mother. She must have been ingrained deeply into the Fortress indeed if Rikei's slip did not result in a poor reaction on her part.
"The Fortress is telling me if she is alive, which even it cannot confirm, it's only just barely."
"I can't fine-tune the system enough to be able to tell."
"And why did you not do so beforehand?"
"We honestly did not think it would be an issue." Iketeru replied.
"Mm." Mukuro's response sounded noncommittal. "Time is of the essence and I can do nothing more from here."
Rikei nodded and Iketeru would have bet money Mukuro could see it. "My thanks for your assistance, m'lord."
He got no response back, though he did not initially think anything of it.
Iketeru's fingers paused and he slowly turned his head towards Rikei on the other side of the tube.
"You don't think…"
Rikei raised an eyebrow, but waited for Iketeru to continue.
"...she isn't…"
"What?"
"She's not coming down here, is she?"
Rikei blinked as his other movements stopped and he realized the implications of what Iketeru suggested, as well as Mukuro's phrasing.
I can do nothing more from here.
Rikei finally returned Iketeru's stare and they both uttered a single word at the same time.
"Shit." 3
~!**!~
"This number here indicates how many layer-walkers we have in our midst, while this number indicates how many Yomi is said to have picked up. Statistically, we are at a disadvantage on that front, and we will have a harder time transporting troops then Yomi's party will. So, I advise that we…"
"You'd think this would be more fun, planning to kill."
Hiei ignored the Jagan, who spoke only to him on the matter of this little meeting that he had been forced to attend. His eyes watched the demon at the front of the long table, who waved a little pointed baton-like thing at a screen that periodically changed pages to show some other statistic or another.
He wanted to do nothing more then get up from his chair and leave.
"...Now, if Yomi were to place his troops like so," a map appeared projected onto the board to the side, marked with different symbols for different teams, "then we can assume that his strongest allies will be here," the spokesdemon pointed to the center of the map that Hiei could only guess at the location of, "to keep our strongest allies- that being the Kuraku and Gouka, from reaching the center."
Hiei had to hold back a scoff. You assume there's an actual battle plan without considering the wild cards.
"Now, we all know Youko Kurama is in the midst, but aren't positive of his role yet. Satchi is still second in command for Yomi, so we will assume that that is who will be the point."
Hiei's lips gave a twitch downward.
You're a fool.
"Meaning he will likely be at Yomi's side for the main battle, to-"
"You're all dunderheads if you believe that load of crock."
Hiei's expression quickly became one of ire as every demon's head in the room turned to stare at him, having heard the broadcasted message that the Jagan had issued.
"We all know Yomi wouldn't share; he's a big, possessive child when it comes to his playthings."
The eye seemed to take a look at everyone in the room after falling silent, and said nothing more.
Leaving Hiei to clean up the mess.
"Only a fool would believe Youko and Yomi to be actual allies. You assume Yomi wants Youko in the centerfolds, to do away with Raizen or Yusuke. Perhaps you should consider his own motives before concocting half-witted schemes." The fire demon shifted in his chair and sat back, arms crossing over his chest. "Wipe the board, and omit your naive assumptions." *
~!**!~
"Step aside."
Rikei and Iketeru were well-away of the monitors once Mukuro made it clear by her approach that she would be interacting with the systems near the tube where Shikiyoku still floated in limbo.
Peeling back the sleeve of her right arm and rolling it up past her elbow, Mukuro quickly extended connectors from her own cybernetics and attached them directly to one of the consoles within a few seconds so that she could interface with the system on a more intimate level.
The A.I. of the Fortress immediately began feeding her numbers and her good eye appeared to be staring at nothing as the data scrolled over the heads-up display of her other eye.
The effect was rather disconcerting to the other two scientists in the room, who could only stand well out of the way and hope Mukuro didn't destroy the lab in a fit of rage.
Suddenly Mukuro blinked and the other demons flinched as they sensed that infamous ire building.
"What are you doing, fool?" Mukuro whipped her head in Iketeru's direction, "Staring? You have better things to do. Help me." She ordered him to the other console with a wave of her free hand, which moved down to begin intermittently tapping at the screen in front of her and running along input devices underneath another panel on her arm.
"And you ought to know better than anyone what needs to be done, boy."
Rikei managed not to flinch as she gave him a pointed glance, instead pushing his glasses further up his nose and moving forward.
"Yes, m'lord." Rikei walked up to the front of the cylindrical tube and pressed his foot into a pressure plate on the floor, starting to work at the small screen that arose from the ground to waist-level.
No further words were exchanged, as Mukuro was able to convey to the other two instructions for them to follow via their workplaces.
~!**!~
Mukuro heaved a sigh, the first noise that had sounded in the room since Rikei had done as she asked several hours earlier.
The A.I. she was still connected to provided her with the exact number and she raised an eyebrow, glancing around to see that both scientists had collapsed into nearby stools, dead asleep at their laboratory tables.
Mukuro huffed at their laziness as she began extracting and retracting the pieces of herself from the console in front of her.
She supposed she could not blame them, given the sort of day they had and how late-or early?-it had gotten.
Fools.
Removing the last of the current connections, Mukuro took two steps to a different monitor in the room and attached with utmost efficiency several other cybernetics from her arm to link herself with this one.
Meeting Room A, self.-
Still?
…
She almost gave a wry chuckle at the idea of Gouka having to endure her talkative generals.
Almost.
Direct connect me.
Done.-
Mukuro let her thoughts feed directly into the speakers of the meeting room, not particularly caring to wait for a pause in the conversation in which she had no direct interest.
"Gouka. Report to the Kuraku's labs. Now. And if one of you generals so much as makes a noise of protest, I will kill you myself."
Removing herself from this second console, Mukuro made her way first to Iketeru and then Rikei, placing a hand on their shoulders to wake them, then dismissing them from the room.
Finally alone, Mukuro stopped with arms crossed in front of the liquid-filled chamber in which the Kuraka floated, the viscous solvent inside giving off a soft, green glow that illuminated Mukuro's skin in the otherwise dimly lit lab.
Mukuro glanced at the monitors, the wiring attached in various places to the Kuraku's unclothed body and the mask over the lower portion of her face only giving faint readings of lung movement and energy in the core, but they were there.
She looked back at Shikiyoku.
The rest would only take time. 3
~!**!~
Hours.
Very long, very boring hours of nothing but strategic talk of movements of troops and possible scenarios and-
Tch.
Aside from the occasional denial of a theory or correction in assumptions, Hiei had said little to nothing all day and most of the night, and more often than not his mind wandered away to better things. Things better suited for his time, instead of wasting it here.
In the meeting room.
Mentally snoozing.
"How boring is this?"
You've repeated that four times this hour.
"To emphasize my point, obviously."
Funny how the Jagan was the only reason he was awake at this hour.
"Gouka will be the one to intercept-"
"You're even more of a fool if you believe I will be taking the center with Mukuro. this battle is between the kings, and I am not foolish enough to interrupt."
"I was merely suggesting you take on the Mazoku boy-"
"You believe Raizen will risk the boy to someone closely allied with a Crusnik?"
Silence ensued as demons glanced at one another, each wearing their own frown. This was close to the fifteenth time Hiei had shot down whatever half-baked scheme had been produced.
No one was happy with remaining in the room, but something had to come of the day before any of them could even consider leaving to-
A familiar voice rang loud into the meeting room, silencing any mumbles in an instant and commanding silence without using the words to do so. it had Hiei's eyes drawing upwards, as if searching for speakers or wires or something that would have transmitted the command.
But he was just as quickly dismissing the curiosity and replacing it with something else entirely, because Mukuro summoning him to Shikiyoku's lab was not a good sign.
Ever.
So he wasted no time in pushing himself from the chair, not even pushing it to the table before he let himself be swept up into the layers, his cloak whipping around his ankles as he descended the floors down to the labs, only stopping when he was for sure inside the doors.
And he was not happy with the dim green light in the room, or the large tank that stood in the center. *
Still standing but a foot or so away from the tank, Mukuro did not have to look up to feel the instant Hiei stood from his chair in the meeting room. And she did not have to look away to know that he appeared in the room moments later.
For a moment she said nothing, arms still crossed over one another as she stared with slightly tilted head into the glowing device in front of her.
"She has...so many scars. More than I realized. Or would have guessed at." 3
Hiei stood several feet behind Mukuro, his arms at his sides and his eyes on the woman floating in the liquid-filled tank. He watched her hair for a moment before his eyes took stock of the rest of her, searching for cause of her being inside.
The bond hadn't warned him of danger, aside from when she had switched. It hadn't told him that she was in any form of danger that might lead to where he was now.
So, what caused it?
The lab rats.
When Mukuro spoke, the fire demon's red eyes slid to the king, but did not stay long before returning to Shikiyoku. He didn't reply, unsure of what to say on the matter, considering his distaste of the cause for such scars, and the memories surrounding them. *
Mukuro let her eyes continue to analyze each scar she considered, her cybernetics feeding her biological information while her own mind fed her weaponry or attack-type used, along with angle and amount of force.
"Has she seen much battle?" 3
Would he have considered it battle?
"More so than before," came his calm reply, his eyes turning and staying on the Demon of Rage at this point. Her curiosity had him curious, but nothing like his need to know what had happened. "what caused this?" The question was not demanding, nor was it harsh. In fact, had one not been listening to the conversation, it likely would've sounded like a rather bland topic, and not something of a demon's brush with death. *
Than before?
…
What was before?
"My promise to her has been fulfilled." Mukuro replied simply to his question, taking a couple of steps and seeing at least two dozen more scars she could not catch sight of from the front.
"She is not a fighter." It wasn't a question. "Is that why she has so many?" 3
Promise?
Hiei thought over Mukuro's response, finding the only conclusion he came to was that… Shikiyoku had been cured.
The fire demon's eyes very quickly darted back up to Shiki, searching her again for any signs that might point towards what he'd come to the conclusion of. And the longer he looked, he realized he could see a few minor changes.
Such as the color of her skin; it was still an off color, but it didn't appear… dehydrated. In fact, her skin looked quite healthy, minus the scars. She still had the sharp angles in her facial features, but really, Hiei didn't see it as something to actually worry over.
In fact, looking at her, he didn't feel the need to switch her back. There was no underlying panic that she may grow ill, or attack someone nearby for their energy and likely lose herself. For the most part, she appeared normal.
Which is why it took a moment for Hiei to register Mukuro's question, but he answered as soon as his mind had caught up.
"No." Hiei shifted his weight from one foot to another, eyes closing. "Shikiyoku is a fighter, but in her own way." *
"Her own way obviously does not entail avoiding injury." Mukuro noted, taking a couple more steps and pausing as she stared up at the Kuraku's back.
Here, underneath countless other, newer scars, were three straight, nearly white marks that almost blended in with the rest of her skin.
Animal.
Some kind of...large cat?
"You should consider instructing her in the art of dodging attacks." 3
Hiei almost made a sound of disapproval. She surpassed me long ago.
"She's capable of defending herself; she's come a long way since then." He nodded a little in Shikiyoku's direction, indicating the scars that Mukuro so keenly noted and analyzed.
And if he were honest, she was the one doing the teaching. *
Mukuro felt her eyebrow raise in consideration of Hiei's implications.
"Do you mean to say these scars were inflicted all at the same time?" 3
"Most of them, yes."
He wasn't sure what had him talking so calmly, or what had the Demon of Rage so curious, but Hiei couldn't quite find it within himself to deny the King of her curiosity- which could very likely lead to his own death as well.
Shiki wouldn't be happy if that happened. *
"Mm."
The noise was noncommittal, only indicating that she had heard him.
She continued circling around the tank, feeling herself wanting to know more about these scars.
Obviously they were not inflicted at the exact same time, and there were even days, weeks, or hours between different ones, but when taking into consideration that perhaps they had been inflicted by the same individual, Mukuro began seeing a sort of convoluted pattern. A very deliberate manner in which the scars she would classify as 'related,' that is done by the same individual, were inflicted upon the Kuraku.
Coming back around to the front of the tank where she had been standing when Hiei entered the room, the shackles around her ankles only clinked once against a portion of the large metallic tubing attached to the bottom of the tank, the rest of her movements absolutely silent. The chain-links of the ones at her wrists rustled against the fabric of her clothing as she crossed her arms again, other questions coming to her mind about Gouka and the Kuraku, but none of them making it out of her mouth.
As she stared, her eyes came to rest on a scar that stood out above the rest, a newer one, several decades younger than even the youngest of the others.
The main part of that scar was a shape Mukuro recognized from somewhere, called a 'heart,' and one side of it had torn straight over the Kuraku's lips, the other half curving around the outside of her mouth and meeting together at the point on her chin. Around that center piece of deeply etched, craggy disfigurement, other similarly formed swirls swept downwards to the left of it, stretching over the line of her jaw and just extending down her neck.
Huffing out an indescribable breath of air, the turn her thoughts were taking beginning to make that old, familiar emotion stir deep within her and Mukuro turned unceremoniously away from the tank and made her way for the door, only pausing for a moment with her hand on the knob.
"...don't let anyone but you put her in shackles again."
She opened the door and stepped out into the hallway.
They do not suit her. 3
Hiei's eyes followed Mukuro when the King rounded the tank and began making her way towards him, the sound of metal chains grazing one another echoing into the near-silence of the room being the only indication of Mukuro's movements. when she passed, however, his red eyes turned to Shiki, watching her very slight movement that the liquid inside the tank created.
He'd begun to move towards the tank when Mukuro spoke, making him pause mid-stride.
At first, he did not fully understand the implications.
However, when the door clicked closed behind Mukuro, his eyes just so happened to find the metal bracelets that appeared to have been thrown to the ground.
He did nothing more then kick them out of the way as he closed the distance between himself and the tank, his hands finding the pockets of his cloak and his eyes turning up to look at Shiki's face.
(...foolish woman.) *
(...)
(!)
Hiei?
Hiei!?
She couldn't swallow, she didn't even know if she was breathing. Her body felt like dead weight and refused to respond and she didn't think her core was beating.
She couldn't hear anything anymore, but she couldn't tell them to not fill the tank up because she might drown. And it felt like there was something in her ears. In her lungs. And she couldn't cough or reach up and get it out.
She remembered collapsing on the ground just as her world started to whiteout around her, but she couldn't call out to the scientists to pick her up, though Rikei had done so anyway.
Hiei!
She knew she had heard him. Or felt him. From across the bond.
Was he nearby?
She tried reaching out to their connection, but after the first wave of panic, nothing seemed to get through. And it was important this time. Screw this form and its limitations.
…
But it refused to work. 3
Hiei stood in front of the tank for a long time, doing nothing but watching the way Shikiyoku's hair moved in the water, or the way her body seemed to occasionally move with the pulsating reverberations inside the tank that pumped liquid from someplace or another.
Mukuro's questioning had brought up some questions of his own, all about the Demon of Rage herself. But he brushed them away, deciding he didn't much care to know, and he moved through the lab to grab a stool, and parked himself quite comfortably against one of the lab tables, eyes fixated on Shikiyoku.
(I'm not going anywhere.) *
(...)
But you're here?
Why can't I see you? Why can't I open my eyes?!
She felt another push of that same terrified feeling as before, but it didn't quite reach the bond.
...Am I dead?
Can't be dead. You can still hear him right?
It didn't make the panic lessen. She couldn't tell how much time had passed, and neither of the scientists who had handled her, stripping off her clothes and sticking wires to her body, had said much of anything.
...what happened? 3
After several hours of simple staring, Hiei's lids began to fall over his eyes, too heavy to keep open much longer. He wasn't sure what time of day or night it was, but really, it didn't matter to him.
The Jagan took immediate focus on Shikiyoku the moment Hiei's own two eyes had failed to do so, and continued to watch over her and feed the fire demon information as time wore on.
He did not sleep. He merely let the Jagan do the work for him. *
~!**!~
It took several days for even a single blip to increase on the monitors, though Mukuro made sure to personally check in on the suspended Kuraku each day.
Through her inquiries more deeply into the methods Rikei and Iketeru employed to cure the Kuraku, Mukuro discovered it had been necessary to strip the Kuraku completely of her energy, in both forms, to the point of accessing her life energy, which all three of those involved believed to be shared between both forms.
They did not believe that every single one of the nanite-like Crusnik had been expelled, but they were certain their methods had completely banished the ones that were 'active' and causing her sickness.
However, Shikiyoku's last burst of energy had caused a short in the mechanics of the shackles she had been wearing, and a great deal of her life energy had been sucked out of her system all at once, though she overloaded the technology and the shackles immediately shut down before taking any more.
Knowing this, Mukuro did not find herself surprised at how slowly the recovery was progressing. As far as she understood it, once life energy was gone, it did not come back. And having that much ripped away in a huge chunk likely caused the Kuraku's body a shock like it had never experienced before.
Mukuro felt neutral towards the knowledge that half of whatever existence the Kuraku had remaining had disappeared into nothingness, wasted and effectively cutting her life in half.
After all, what was time to a demon?
She dismissed the nagging feeling that the Kuraku was much older than she appeared, likely decades or centuries older than Mukuro herself.
Unless he asked, it was not information Mukuro was going to tell Gouka.
It took two weeks before Mukuro felt comfortable with the notion that the Kuraku could exist outside of the tank, and an entire month since putting her in there before Mukuro declared her intentions to drain the tank and let Shikiyoku finish regaining her strength on her own.
Only allowing Gouka to be present when she began the process, Mukuro carefully let the viscous fluid drain out the bottom so that Shikiyoku slowly lowered down with it, and she did not raise the tube itself until the Kuraku had emptied her lungs of the liquid, having collapsed to her knees and torn off the breathing mask as soon as she felt the metal underneath her.
Heaving her first huge breath of oxygen on her own, Shikiyoku reached up and began trying to clear her eyes, intermittently pulling wires she could get a grip on off of her skin, as Mukuro raised the tube up so that Shikiyoku might feel the air of the Fortress once more. 3
As much as he trusted Mukuro with keeping Shikiyoku alive, Hiei had refused to leave the lab that she had been contained to, staying inside and keeping eyes on the tube for as long as he could, only leaving when absolutely necessary. He'd only had to go to a single meeting more, and after that, a lot of his duties pertained to the troops, which usually lasted a few hours at most.
And each moment he was not kept away by duties, Hiei was inside the lab, staying awake late into the night and waking early in the morning in hopes of noting change in something or another.
In his mind, he'd been pretty patient.
So when Mukuro announced that she wished to let Shikiyoku continue the healing process on her own, Hiei had been more than eager to watch the liquid drain from the tube.
And he'd been more than willing to step up onto the platform the very second there'd been enough space for him to get to Shiki, his hands carefully removing wires here and there while she coughed and removed a few herself.
He methodically removed one wire after another, making sure not to miss a single one until each little one was gone from her skin, at which point he passed his cloak over her body and proceeded to wipe some of the goo-like substance from her face. *
Shikiyoku had long ago lost any sense of time as she free floated in that strange gel, but she did not remember sleeping, only eternal darkness and complete silence until she no longer remembered anything else, that there had been anything else.
So the shifting of the gel around her jolted her into the awareness that she hadn't always been like this, that there were other things outside of her head.
Though there had been plenty of things inside her head as well.
She could not tell which direction she moved, but as she started to-unbenounced to her-lower to the bottom of the tank, the hallucinations and visions she had seen behind her eyelids flitted away as her sense of touch began to be stimulated once more, driving back the endless nightmares from which she had been unable to escape, uncertain anymore which were her memories relived and which were not memories at all, but conjurings of her own sensory deprived mind.
As the weight of the gel left her skin and slipped out the opened grate beneath her feet, Shikiyoku sank down with it, knees collapsing underneath her as she could not hold herself up and her body shivered and heaved as she began coughing up what of the gel had seeped into her lungs, trying desperately to catch hold of what she felt as giant, sticky bugs with long slippery tails clinging to her skin as well as attempting to clear her eyes of the layer of gel that remained there.
When the tank around her started to lift, she nearly fell over in her rush to not lean against it, her neck barely able to hold her head up on its own as she slouched her bottom onto the ground and hunched over, hair hanging, slick with the gel, on either side of her face and latching onto her skin in a sensation that made Shikiyoku shiver again.
As the tank depressurized and lifted, Shikiyoku was bombarded with scents and sounds, her senses more sensitive being deprived for so long.
And even then she knew much of it was muted by the remaining heavy liquid in her ears and nose.
She immediately recognized the smell of the lab, but stronger than that was scent that at first came into her nostrils as a nothingness, but as the tank lifted further and a light breeze swept around her, she began to be able to pick out subtleties of the nothingness for which she had no names.
All at once, she was overtaken by an strongly wafting smell of cinnamon, laced intimately with a softer cloves sort of scent, and she began flinching as the bugs were ripped from her skin and blessedly removed.
She tried to say his name, but ended up coughing again, reaching up to try and clear her eyes once more, but only getting an arm half-way before it fell useless next to her.
When what she realized was cloth sank over her shoulders, Shikiyoku was then overloaded with the smoothness of it, even where it stuck to her because of the strange liquid.
Despite the fact that her eyes were closed, she could sense changes in the light and was warned of Hiei's touch before he started wiping away at the stuff around her eyes better than she had been able to.
Every little sound and feeling and smell were swarming her head as if they were all new, overwhelming her to the point that even if she could bring herself to her feet, she would have stayed frozen in place, being bombarded by all her senses feeding her information in overdrive when they had so long been locked away.
In spite of this, she could not feel much, and knew that her psyche had likely been saved from utter insanity due to the resilience of her current form. Already she craved more of Hiei's touch even as he cleared her face, having been cut off from it for so long, and she was fully aware the desire was muted heavily, staunched by the necessary emotionlessness of her pain side. Had she been able to lift a hand, she would have sought out his arm, his face, his shoulders, to comfort herself with the feeling of him beneath her touch and instead forced to be satisfied with his fingers only intermittently brushing against her skin.
Mukuro watched silently as Gouka attended to the Kuraku, noting the gentle way he covered her and helped her clean up as best their situation allowed.
She would need much bathing before she would truly be cleansed.
"As you have vastly more important things which you should attend to, you are hereby relieved of your duties to all others but me, Gouka. And I will try to make due without you for the rest of the day."
After the pronouncement, Mukuro turned and made for the door, pausing briefly before opening it, her eyes staring at the knob.
"I must apologize to you, Kuraku."
Her voice was low, but the name caught Shikiyoku's attention in spite of the remaining gel covering her ears.
Mukuro raised her head, still facing the door.
The power you might have obtained in half your lifetime is lost to you forever and that was not my intention when I offered my services.
Shikiyoku flinched at the invasion of her mind by Mukuro, who implanted the thought there with little effort in piercing Shikiyoku's natural mental defenses and almost as if it were one of Shikiyoku's own thoughts. There was only a very slight difference between the two, and had Mukuro not addressed her aloud first, Shikiyoku was not sure if she would have known another put the sentence inside her head.
Mukuro placed her hand on the knob and turned.
"But you are cured."
Opening the door, she left silently and let it close behind her. 3
Hiei all but ignored Mukuro's presence while in the midst of carefully wiping away gloops of the green-tinted liquid from Shikiyoku's face and neck, his eyes watching Shiki and gauging her reaction to his every little touch. He wiped, and wiped, and wiped some more, knowing that sooner or later, he'd have to get her to a bath or shower.
That thought had him pausing and sitting back just a little, ears tuning into the conversation again and realizing he'd been relieved of any and all duties that did not relate directly to Mukuro herself. Rather glad to hear it, the fire demon looked up from Shikiyoku for a moment to watch the Demon of Rage take her exit. And for the first time, he tried to actually focus on her being, to find something substantial that might tell him how to locate her later should something come up.
All he ended up with was the slightest moment of something in the air that could have been a brief telepathic connection of some sort. Maybe.
He wasn't really sure.
Odd.
The very second she was gone, however, Hiei was turned back to Shikiyoku, eyeing her and the amount of goo that still clung to her hair and body. Several thoughts occurred to him at once, one of them being that he could feel the very slightest emotion filtering through Shikiyoku's end of the bond, but the one he acted on was to slowly scoop his arms under her.
(Let's clean you up a little.)
And he knew the perfect place to go where no one would interrupt. *
Sometime while Hiei had knelt before her, Shikiyoku's fingers had found the edge of his cloak that he had thrown over her shoulders, and though it was only the barest of movements, those fingers had taken to twitching where they grasped at the fabric, her mind still overwhelmed with the silky-smoothness of it wherever it touched her.
I'm cured.
The thought struck her just as she felt herself being shifted around, and in the next moment any thoughts were scattered by the sensation of lifting, the air brushing lightly over her skin as she was picked up, and that feeling too being quickly cut to the side and replaced by muscles of the arms underneath her, the chest and torso where she was being cradled, and the scent of her Consort which wafted strongly over her as he picked her up.
She shivered, letting herself lean against him and feeling small and aware of her weakness in spite of the healing properties that had sustained her within the tank.
Shikiyoku did not however feel vulnerable for the first time in a very long time, no longer free-floating and lost in half-mad hallucinations and anxieties, but instead held closely to one she remembered breaking the flow of her timelessness, and one she knew, especially at that moment, had her best interest in mind. 3
(I never got to show this to you.)
Hiei wrapped the layers around himself and Shikiyoku, moving slowly through the different floors of the fortress, his eyes occasionally turning down to Shiki to see how she felt about moving around so much considering her utter lack of movement for months. And as he moved, he made a point to very slowly allow his skin to gradually become hotter, only increasing the temperature when he knew her body could take it and thus preparing her for the water she would be entering into soon.
(Your lab monkeys engineered it, actually. Had we had more time to spend, I would have shown you a long time ago.)
He traversed three floors before taking to walking along a single corridor of the fortress, his eyes forward now to find the doors of the room he searched for, but feet never touching a specific layer. He knew it wasn't too far, and although it was along one of the busier halls, it was completely and utterly barred to anyone but himself and any he chose to bring inside, ie, Shiki.
(There are bathing rooms all around the fortress that are meant to get rid of any and all muscle pains, dirt and grime, and assist with minor healing after particularly dangerous training sessions. None of them were fire-demon friendly, so Mukuro had the monkeys build one. It's similar to the bath house we visited, and yet not.)
Hiei made easy work of grabbing hold of the handle and turning the silver doorknob, using that same hand to push the wide door open to the darkened room, the only light coming from the calm torches near the edges of the room. He crossed the marble flooring to the lone large, hot-tub lookalike object that was built into the floor, the water inside calmly roiling with the heat that had steam floating above its surface and just below the low-hanging basket of herbs and things meant for the bath.
Only when he came to a stop at the side of the water did he allow the pair to touch onto the Eighth layer, the scent of the room a mild warmth that even he couldn't describe. A tranquil scent that was meant for healing, he knew, but seemed to have no source whatsoever.
(It's self-efficient in removing anything that may cling to the body, and does well in relaxing the muscles at the same time.)
His red eyes turned down to Shikiyoku now, gauging the heat of his own skin against hers and comparing it to that of the roiling water nearby. He considered her for a moment, but did not put her in the water just yet, giving her enough time to gather herself and her surroundings. *
Though she found she could not respond to Hiei in kind, Shikiyoku let herself be immersed in the sensation of his inner voice floating across that shared space in their minds, taking her thoughts away from the "too-much" feeling of everything little thing she encountered from the strange slickness of the gooey liquid that still clung to her skin to the most minute of scents that snuck past the smell of her Consort.
Her eyes remained tightly shut and she had not opened them since she collapsed from her energy-loss. She was not sure if she could even remember how to open them.
When the air around her had changed from the staleness of the inbetween and the heating warmth of Hiei's efforts, Shikiyoku only felt as if his presence now extended all the way into the room around her.
It...feels like...you...
A comforting feeling in the midst of all the discomfort.
In all the time she had been curled up in his arms, Shikiyoku only just now realized she still held her head free of him, and as she felt his pause, she let her neck relax just enough so that she might meet the side of his face with her forehead. 3
Hiei stared at Shikiyoku for a moment, silent and thoughtful as he considered the way she had been moving- or the lack of it- and the way she hadn't really been able to hold herself up when the liquid had been drained from the tank.
His eyes moved to the water, thinking of how deep it was.
A second later, his decision was made.
(It's going to be a little warm.)
The fire demon stepped out of his shoes, using one foot to remove the shoe from the other, and he used that moment to gather his energy up and surround Shikiyoku with it, creating a little pocket of warm air around her, and thus around himself as well. He tested the little energy field around them with a small flux of his energy, found it suitable, and then slowly lowered himself to a crouch, then to sitting on the edge of the water.
Simply out of precaution, ensuring that this worked as it had the previous attempts, Hiei tested the water with his hand, finding its temperature oddly lowered, almost cold to him.
Which told him that the specified area he'd been meaning to effect with this new little trick was the exact temperature he'd needed it to be. So, he wasted no time in lowering himself, and thereby Shiki, into the water that seemed to be boiling all around them. He did not care that his clothes were soaked in mere seconds, nor did he care that the water slowly took the cloak from Shikiyoku's shoulders and sunk it to the floor of the warm bath.
All he cared about in that instant was slowly wading through the water until Shikiyoku was submerged enough that the bath began its usual cleaning processes of both his and her exposed skin.
(It has done very well in calming this angry fire demon on some occasions.) Which reminded him… (Also, I dislike meetings.) *
It truly was only her Consort's presence that did not allow Shikiyoku to jolt in place as the water began rushing over her skin, her mind becoming overloaded again for the first few seconds and still managing to pull her under if she so much as lost concentration for a moment.
When the cloak slipped away from her, another shiver ran down her spine and she could not hold on to the edge which she grasped, the material slick and quickly heavy and therefore easily escaping her.
With her arms still curled against her chest, Shikiyoku curled up smaller, actually frowning as the water found the crevices some of the more deeply imbedded scars of her skin.
She had always hated that feeling and now it demanded her attention tenfold.
Each time Hiei reached through the bond to speak with her, it would pull her away from her senses to concentrate on that warmth of his deep within her that represented where they were connected.
She felt her amusement at his last statement wash over their connection somewhat, and as it did so, she let one of her arms uncurl, her fingertips brushing over his water-agitated shirt until her hand came to rest over a marking she wished to see, but could not open her eyes to view.
And so she let it glow, feeling the energy unfurl outwards, aware of each curve as the black lines lit up along his skin, down his arm and torso and leg, and all the way up to his face, where she would have planted a kiss in the midst of it if she could have gathered the strength to do so. 3
Hiei kept his eyes on Shikiyoku and the water that boiled around her, noting the little swirls that turned green with the goo that had previously been slick against her skin. He even felt the water working its way between the places where his arms held her up, washing away the offensive liquid there as well and leaving a fresh, clean feeling behind.
His momentary distraction was completely banished the second he felt even the smallest amount of change in the side of the bond that had been silent for quite some time, entailing a very minute amount of amusement that he knew had to be much greater than what he felt for it to make it across the otherwise silent bond they shared.
And then the warmth he felt next did not pertain to the waters around him, nor his own energy that wafted on the air around the pair. It ran along his skin in specific places, warming the swirls that he hadn't seen glow in what felt like an eternity. He was able to watch the yellow glow spread along his skin, disappearing underneath the shirt that now clung to his chest and down his left leg. He even had to blink when the glow encircled the perimeter of his eye, creating an odd sensation of light that made it hard to see out of that eye.
He'd almost forgotten what it felt like.
So, happy of the reaction the fire demon had been rewarded, he kept talking.
(I sat in a stupid chair that hardly moved for almost twenty hours, and the fools didn't even come up with anything worth my time inside that cramped little room. I was never suited for such dull tasks.)
He thought of the two meetings he had attended, his lips turning down a little in distaste. (No more of those, thankfully.)
He paused, eyes falling down to peer at Shikiyoku's face again, taking in her tightly closed eyes and the drying mess that still covered her face and hair.
He didn't like it, and he knew she wouldn't like it, but it had to be done.
(We have to go under now; get the stuff from your face and hair.) *
Allowing her mind to be filled with the image of the patterns his markings etched over his skin, all other sensations that demanded her attention seemed to fade away, save for his inner voice that continued speaking to her, comforting her though he may not have been speaking words of comfort.
I...missed...you.
When he mentioned getting her face clean, she did nothing to deny it, though she did shift in his arms a little, testing the resilience of her limbs and how much strength they had in them.
She knew he would not particularly enjoy submerging himself, and that's what in the end led to her attempting to shift out of his hold, knowing the weightlessness of the water would assist her lack of mobility, or rather her lack of confidence in how mobile she might be. 3
Hiei raised a slight brow at the shifting woman in his arms, watching her move a little in an attempt to get away from him. it wasn't like he didn't know why- or couldn't guess in any case- but the thought had him momentarily amused at her.
Because she was considering his feelings on the matter above her own. Wasn't that his job at the moment?
Hn.
(I don't mind it. The water here does not have the usual components to it.)
The fire demon adjusted his hold on the woman only slightly before slowly sinking further into the water, allowing them both enough time to take a breath before they were both submerged.
And yes, he did open his eyes to watch her expression.
(It won't take long.) *
Given the warnings, Shikiyoku felt no need to protest or resist him, knowing in the steadiness of their bond and in the way he held her that she had little else to even consider save for the safety those things represented.
That didn't mean her eyebrow did not quirk as they went under.
As she felt the water course through her hair and over her face, there were so many things she wanted to express to him that would not traverse between their bond in the most frustrating of fashions.
She kept her hand at his core, though, having to content herself in being able to control one aspect of her contact with him. 3
Hiei did not miss the fact that the glow from his swirling Consort markings remained bright even under the water, nor did he miss the tensing of the body in his arms- as little as they were able to tense in that moment.
It had him searching for something to say, something to distract her with as he had been doing since she'd been let out of the tank.
And would you know it, the Jagan screamed through his mind many possibilities that could be explored, causing him to give the very slightest of flinches with his brows.
Somehow, he found his eyes drawn to the tear gems that floated a little above Shikiyoku's skin, their glow still calm and quaint as ever. They served as a momentary distraction from what he was supposed to be doing, and yet somehow the image of the glowing stones seemed to traverse the bond without his direct notice. *
Shikiyoku let herself be immersed in the image Hiei's mind provided.
"They can also be a promise…" She remembered saying when he handed them over to her.
She didn't think he understood romantically what the tears could represent, though she doubted that he knew what 'romantic' was at all, but she had still worn them faithfully as he asked, keeping watch over these, his most prized possessions, until the day in which he could safely wear them again.
...for...you.
The hand over his core tightened a little, grasping at the fabric.
(...thank...you…) 3
Hiei's eyes shifted away from the small glowing stones that were tethered to Shikiyoku and to the hand that had tightened around his shirt, assessing the glow that emanated from underneath the fabric at her touch. Somewhere into this whole thing surrounding his status as her Consort, the fire demon had begun to associate the glow with one similar to the glow of the gems, soft and quaint and calming. Relaxing. Welcoming, as if feeling that warmth told him that he was home.
Odd how he hadn't realized it until the two lights had been mingling in the water.
(Anything for you.)
Red orbs slid over to assess the water around Shikiyoku and her hair, searching for any leftover traces of the goo that had been drying there minutes ago. He eyed every single strand of her hair, and then every inch of her skin to find that the water had done its job sufficiently and removed any offending contents to her person. And, not wanting to waste anymore time under the surface, he shifted his hold a little on the woman in his arms.
(Going up.)
After giving her a moment to register the word, he slowly let the water carry the both of them upwards and into breathable air, and if he were honest, he rather disliked the feeling of the water running down over his eyes.
Other then that, all was well on his end. *
Shikiyoku's grasp did not lessen, even as he moved the two of them again, and neither did the glow of the swirls around his skin.
For her, the patterns of energy lit the corners of her mind, driving back all the darkness that had accumulated there since she had once more been separated from him. The darkness was still there, slinking along the outskirts, waiting for the time when it could slink back in, but with this hybrid demon nearby, with her finally able to rest in his arms, that darkness was held at bay.
As Shikiyoku took a breath of the moisture-heavy air, she could feel everything within her mind relax further, as even within her other form portions of her experience began slowly filtering between the bond she sensed somewhere near her soul, revealing to Hiei what she had been forced to live through while within the healing tank. How only his greeting each day when he would sit with her would keep her sanity intact, how she had been aware of each second with decreasing clarity than the last, how she had at the last forgotten all scents, all sights, all sounds. And just how very dark such an existence could be. 3
When Hiei's head broke the surface of the water he drew in a steady breath, his eyes staying closed as the droplets continued to run down his face and over his eyelids. And during those moments where his eyes were closed and the water ran along his face, he began to register things that the bond had begun to feed to him. A darkness that was not his own, and not one he would wish upon much of anyone.
Moments flashed behind his lids where he heard his own voice- is that what he sounded like?- speaking into that darkness in greeting, sometimes random chit chat that seemed pointless. And yet that pointless banter seemed to give leeway to a distraction from the darkness, even if just a moment until that darkness flooded in all over again.
For a moment, he himself thought that he'd been sucked into a tube of goo and left there to float among nothingness, where everything was forgotten except that nothingness.
To say it was disconcerting was quite the understatement.
But those moments passed, and Hiei was able to open his eyes again and look around the dimly lit room, realizing that what he'd seen wasn't his experience in the least- which he'd known from the beginning- but what Shikiyoku had had to live through for weeks.
It had what the Jagan kept telling him about her not liking certain sensations being much more clear in his mind.
His eyes turned down to her face, staring for only a moment before deciding they were done here, and that she needed to be dried off and lay where she could relax properly.
With this conscious decision, the water moved a little and shifted around a formation that began at the floor of the pool and made its way up to the edge, providing stairs that he usually ignored around this time, but found very convenient in this moment.
(Can you open your eyes? You don't have to yet, if you don't want to.)
He shifted between the layers, making very quick work of flashing from one floor to the next, dropping them into the center of their room before Shikiyoku could even have time to register the question, and likely before she even had time to register the change in the atmosphere.
Simultaneously, he allowed his own body temperature to slowly rise, so as to raise her own body temperature along with his and eventually dry them both off. *
As with the first time the bond between Shikiyoku and Hiei, not all of her emotions faded away, nor did the memories disappear, they simply became more manageable, passing a portion of their weight to her companion.
...divide grief…
The phrase briefly passed through Shikiyoku's mind.
When she felt Hiei ask her about opening her eyes, she shifted for a moment in his arms, eyes tightening just a little, but she was suddenly struck with the feeling of the water no longer around her and shivered again involuntarily.
Having acclimated to his scent, she quickly realized they were no longer in the hazy room when the air cleared and she faintly sensed that he had returned them to their shared room.
(...it's...bright.)
Her eyes tightened again and she turned and buried her face in his collarbone as if to emphasize her statement. 3
Hiei took a look around the room, where the light overhead was still on. It was a warm, kind of dull light, but not as dull as the lighting in the room he'd just left. Understandable. And yet he knew she had to open them at some point. He just wasn't sure if he wanted to coax her into it, or let her do it on her own.
His luck she'd rather live blind.
And he'd seen her go several days without her sight; she'd done just fine.
Is there anything you're not adaptable to?
He glanced around the room one last time before deciding that laying her on the bed was the best option, and he calmly walked through the room and to the other to find there to be less lighting here then the next room.
He moved to the side of the bed and considered it for a moment, thinking over his options. It was hard to think with a humming Jagan in his head, however.
(How do you feel about lying under the covers?)
He was suddenly curious of the humming in his head, and was promptly answered by the third eye" "We like it when she makes us sparkle!" The humming resumed, and Hiei returned to ignoring the creature. *
Once Shikiyoku knew Hiei had stopped moving again, she no longer felt what seemed like a giant rush of air wafting over her skin, she tightened her arms around his neck ever-so-slightly, shifting her forehead up to his neck and giving him a nod there.
(...darker.)
Better.
As long as you'll be there. 3
When she shifted, Hiei's eyes momentarily slid closed, appreciating the feel of her head on his shoulder and her forehead nudging his neck and just touching his jawline. He'd forgotten what it had felt like, and only just realized it.
After a moment, he recovered and used a hand to pull back the blankets on the bed, and in that same motion shifted to sit on the mattress, Shiki still in his arms. He shifted about little by little until they lay on the mattress facing one another, and he was able to use one hand to pull the covers up and over their heads.
(Better?) *
By the time Hiei had stopped moving again, the fingers Shikiyoku had holding onto his shirt had relaxed, though her palm still pressed up against his core, feeling safer with her mind lit by the yellow swirls.
A wash of affirmation in regards to his question permeated their bond, a distinctive amount of tension releasing from her shoulders once the two of them were surrounded by a sort of darkness.
Within this darkness there was peace, unlike the unforgiving darkness of the tank, and after a moment Shiki found herself wanting to look at her savior and actually see the soft glow she could feel creating soft curves and gentle swirls inside her head.
Her eyes tightened again. 3
Hiei felt the muscles of the woman against him relax immensely, and even though he briefly considered moving closer, he decided that moving now would be rather pointless, as he already had an arm around her and her head was already close as it could be to his chest.
The Jagan chattered about wanting to "see her pretty eyes" in the background.
(Shiki. It's okay to open your eyes. You'll be glad you did later.) *
For the first time since escaping the healing tank, Shikiyoku briefly considered the fact that she was naked, and even then the thought only danced once across her mind as she felt Hiei act as though he were going to scoot closer to her. She was already nearly pressed up against him, her still-damp hair sticking to her cheeks and shoulders and back.
She leaned her forehead up against Hiei, fingers still surrounding his core shifting slightly, aware of the soft glow underneath his shirt, the tattoos over his arm and face bringing just enough light not to be an imposition on her sensitive, unopened eyes.
After a moment longer, the corners of her lids squeezed and she took a ragged breath into her nose, finally opening her eyes and able to make out the wrinkles in Hiei's shirt that originated from her hand partially curled around the fabric nearby.
She blinked and let them close again. 3
Hiei felt a small amount of confliction in the lack of response he earned from her, unable to see most of her face as he was. Part of him assumed she simply didn't want to, but the Jagan seemed to think she was simply being cautious.
Which was all well and good.
Except that he, like the Jagan, really wanted to see the green of her eyes again.
Which is what had him pulling his arm from over her and easily snaking it between the two of them, his hand finding her chin and giving a gentle little nudge upwards.
(The Jagan is insisting to see your eyes.) *
Shikiyoku almost jumped in her skin when Hiei tilted her chin towards his face, the touch alien, feeling just as foreign as had his arm being over her.
That, if anything, is what kept her eyes from opening for a few seconds longer, her mind unable to process his sentence as his soft contact with her skin overloaded her senses at first.
When she finally understood what he said to her, the amusement that flitted over her mind upon realizing she was still naked and neither of them appeared to care returned as she wondered if the Jagan was simply Hiei's excuse.
That thought lightened the natural severeness of her expression as the edges of her lips flattened out like she might smile, not resisting Hiei's hand at her chin, but keeping her eyes closed.
(...is that so?) 3
Hiei let go of Shikiyoku's chin after a moment and let his arm find the place it had draped over her before. He stilled again instantly, his eyes remaining on her face now that he could see it, all the while the Jagan insisting in his head to kiss her.
Over and over again.
It was getting easier to tune out, though.
(indeed.) *
In the calm, motionless near-darkness, Shikiyoku became aware of her own breathing, of how strange it felt for her lungs to be expanding and contracting on their own after so long of having the liquid she had coughed up earlier doing it for her.
(Well...if it's...just...the Jagan...)
Shikiyoku let her forehead shift forward until she had her nose tucked up underneath Hiei's chin, her lips twitching as if they wished to smile, but couldn't quite figure out how. 3
Hiei would've pressed a little further, were it not for the way Shikiyoku shifted and made a point to rest her head near his shoulder, her nose touching the underside of his chin as she usually had done when they'd end up here after long days of working apart.
If it weren't for that sole contact alone, he likely would've tried to coax it from her for hours.
Instead, he felt a sense of calm come over him and his own eyes slid closed.
(Are you comfortable?) Because I am. *
Am I...comfortable?
Shikiyoku shifted around slightly, constantly aware in the back of her mind of how the sheets felt against her skin, and how her hair still clung to her shoulders. Even the fabric beneath her hand and Hiei's warm skin where her nose touched him.
Each new breath brought another wave of his scent into her awareness, though that at least was more muted than before.
For the most part, the patterns of his marking were a blessed distraction from all the other things that would have demanded her entire attention, but was she comfortable?
...
Even she was not, and she did not think she was, she could not be sure how exactly she might reach such a state.
Speaking through the bond was still difficult, though she could hear his every meaning clearly, and instead she raised and lowered her free shoulder in a half-hearted shrug.
It is through no fault of your own, flame-boy. 3
Hiei, to be honest, had expected no less. In fact, he had expected worse, just wasn't completely sure how to figure out which sensation bothered her more than the other. It wasn't like he could feel it with her; that sounded much like a disaster zone.
He was aware of every muscle spasm in her body, of every little twitch she gave and every shift she made. He was aware of every breath she took and of every little change in their bond- as few as there were at the moment.
(We will stay here as long as you please.) *
Taking another breath in, Shikiyoku pulled away, feeling not only the warmth of Hiei's presence deep within her mind, resonating within their bond, but also the natural warmth his closeness, and their enclosed space, provided.
I could...stay here forever.
In their own private bubble of existence, with just the glow of Hiei's markings lighting what little space there was between them, piercing through Shikiyoku's closed lids in a comforting sort of way. 3
There was no resistance from the fire demon when Shikiyoku pulled away, because he knew that at some point or another she would need her space to recoop. And he was willing to give her that at any moment, should she ask it of him.
I missed you. *
With the ghost of a smile trying to dance over her lips, but the movement foreign to her state, Shikiyoku tipped her head up until she could sense that her countenance looked towards Hiei's, finding beneath all the other distractions of discomfort a certain satisfaction in no longer being able to sense his energy in a way that called out she feed upon him, her closest ally and...friend.
My Consort.
(Silly.) Isn't it?
That the first thing I wish to see...
As if her hand might slip from resting over his core, Shikiyoku pressed it more firmly against it, unable to recall if before she had been able to light his markings when in this form.
(...is you.)
Releasing the slightest breath of protest, Shikiyoku blinked and then opened her eyes, cringing a little at even the soft glow that Hiei's tattoos for a moment, able to make out each line of his face, even the individual hairs hanging over his forehead, where the Jagan was hidden beneath its usual warding cloth.
The red of his eyes gleamed at her in the warm light, the curl of her mark extending up his face to come to rest near the outer edge of it. 3
He knew there had to be words in between "silly" and "is you", because there was simply no way she meant to say those three words together as a sentence. However, Hiei couldn't quite think of what might lie in the middle of those two separate thoughts, which left him a bit curious when her hand pressed more firmly against his chest and she tilted her head up to his as if to look him in the eye.
He hadn't thought she would open her eyes so soon, though he found himself rather glad she did when he began staring into their dim green hues. They were brighter than before, but not quite as bright as they were supposed to be. Not that he was surprised, she was in her 'pain form', as it had been called. It simply wasn't as pronounced as before.
And for as long as she stared, he stared back at her, taking in the gleam of the dim lighting against her eyes and the way the glow lit her face in certain places more than others.
And for the first time in a long time, even the Jagan was silent. *
Shikiyoku blinked slowly at Hiei, that same understood smile on her lips, though they did not truly curve upwards.
(You...are...a rather singular...individual...flame-boy). 3
(If there were many others like me, you'd be uninterested by now.)
The fire demon blinked only once, and it seemed to add to his expression of curiosity.
Because he still couldn't quite figure out what she was thinking- without the use of the Jagan, anyway. *
(True…)
Her lips twitched.
It was difficult to speak with him like this, so for the moment she opened her mouth.
"I doubt any of them would have been crazy enough to stick around this long, though." The words came out barely audible, and while the hoarseness of her form was apparent in her voice, the lack of usage made the words sound more gravelly than a normal whisper even to her ears. 3
(Crazy?)
He wasn't sure what to say first about such a word. He wasn't crazy- he was perfectly sane. He could assess a situation and get himself in or out faster then most demons ever would be able to accomplish.
Also, to call him crazy would be like calling her crazy because he would have to be crazy to deal with the crazy.
Which she wasn't.
(Hn.) *
"There's no use denying it, flame-boy." Shikiyoku insisted, lips still twitching with unspoken laughter. "My company surely cannot be sufficient payment for your services, so you must be crazy to continue providing them." 3
Hiei's brow raised only slightly in the dim lighting under the covers, his red eyes observing her for a moment before he repeated his most recent sound, which was followed by a silence for a small moment.
A moment that he gave to the Jagan, who said "She's purdy."
Which led to a small twitch of Hiei's lips at the corners.
(If I wanted pay, I would have made that clear by now.) *
Very briefly, Shikiyoku's eyes flickered up towards the middle of Hiei's forehead, concealed by the strip of cloth under which the Jagan resided.
Still sick, are you?
The thought of it continuing to plague Hiei because of being imbued with her energy amused her.
The glance lasted no longer than it took for her gaze to raise and lower, as she found solace in returning Hiei's steady gaze as it seemed as though the rest of the world faded away from her awareness while he looked at her.
As her eyes lowered, she responded, "I have known of a few mercenaries who decide what their loyalty is worth after a job is finished." 3
Hiei's brow raised further. (I did not think there was an end to the Consort's "job".)
"She has no faith in us."
Indeed.
"What a shame. So many kisses she could be missing out on."
(hn.) *
Had she been in her normal state, she might have commented on the Jagan's original pronouncement of her being 'pretty.' As it was, she ignored it, finding it difficult to believe that such scars which marred her appearance as thoroughly as hers lended themselves in any way, shape, or form to being considered attractive.
Especially when she knew how she looked without them.
"Only death would part us." Shikiyoku allowed, a puff of amused air escaping her lips when she felt the warmth of the Jagan continuing to project itself into the air. Her dark-green eyes took on an impish gleam. "But if you ever decide for yourself what your undying loyalty is worth, I would be happy to provide whatever is within my power to fulfill." 3
(Duly noted.) Hiei responded calmly, ignoring whatever comment the Jagan had reserved just for him. He continued to stare at her for a while, noting the way the shimmering light from his markings lit her face in different ways.
It was rather intriguing to watch.
"I like it when you make us sparkle." *
She might have laughed if she could think of how to do it, immediate images of possibilities starting to float through her mind.
The only plausible one, the one that seemed most likely and thus stuck in her head the longest, was a situation in which Hiei approached her and asked for a kiss. Or two, maybe.
Picturing such a scenario would have likely made her blush right then and there under normal circumstances, but detached emotionally as she was, the thoughts instead only peppered her senses with slight amusement.
She raised an eyebrow as she glanced up at the hidden Jagan once more.
"Is that so? What else is it that you like, Evil Eye?" 3
There was a definitive feeling of amusement that filtered from the third eye, and Hiei could feel that it sifted through several answers within a single millisecond, and seemed unable to start with any one singular thing that it enjoyed over the other. And it being as aware as it was, the eye did not take to simply bombarding her with images of things it enjoyed, as it so desired to do. Instead, it merely made a sound of consternation before settling with one option.
"The kisses are a nice touch."
Hiei's eyelids slid closed for a moment, using that instant to mentally sigh at the thing that had been implanted into his forehead before he opened his eyes to watch the light dance on Shikiyoku's face again.
(You should hear it in meetings.) *
Amusingly enough, the impression Shikiyoku received from the Jagan did in fact specify that it was her kisses that were a 'nice touch,' dispelling the response her mind immediately responded, which had something to do with Hiei kissing others in her absence.
The thought was immediately followed with how nice it would in fact be to kiss him in that moment, having been gone for so long, but for the moment she contented herself with the assurance granted her by his closeness and his arms around her as she blinked up at him before letting her eyes slide closed again.
I am...cured.
"I imagine it has done you a great service in keeping you sane all this time." 3
"Dude, she wants to kiss you."
Hiei ignored the message from the third eye, who managed to keep said words between it and himself in some miraculous manner. He wasn't sure if he was grateful for it, or simply annoyed by the unnecessary commentary.
Or perhaps he actually enjoyed it now?
He wasn't actually sure.
(The others in the meeting didn't think it so amusing.) *
A puff of air escaped Shikiyoku's lips, laced with the thoughts accompanying a scene in which the Jagan was making certain pronouncements during 'important' planning meetings.
"All the more reason to thank it, I suppose. I'm sure it was simply keeping them on their toes." 3
Thanks for reading! Bless your face. If you sneezed during this chapter, bless you. Peace off!