A/N: Hello once again, Audience.
I know this is, like, right in the middle of some pretty intense stuff happening in the fanfic, but there won't be any summary of the last chapter simply because I nearly forgot to post at all today and I wanted to get this chapter out but I'm in the middle of several things at the moment.
A thousand pardons.
[Update 4/10/2017] Summary has been added!
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!
As the fighting below him continues,
Yusuke quickly finds himself surrounded
by many of his former allies,
who have taken the opportunity
to show their continued alliance with him
by seeking him out where he stands with Raizen on the cliff.
Jin. Chu. Touya. Shishiwakamaru.
Followed by a different sort of portal opening,
and through it stepping Kazuma Kuwabara
as well as other denizens from the now-defunct Spirit World
and others too: Shizuru Kuwabara, Genkai, Botan,
Yukina, Koenma, and lastly,
Keiko herself.
Uryo is also with them,
and explains that the fight is no longer
simply a fight between three kings,
but a fight between the land of the living
and the realm of the dead.
While removing the Ruler, Samhain,
is the surest way to stop the fight,
Kuwabara has come to use his Jigen Tō
and attempt to seal up the rift,
as he has done with many other rifts,
many other times before.
As an agreement is reached,
to clear the path for Kuwabara,
so that he might get close enough to seal it up,
a lullaby Koenma's mother used to sing to him
when he was very small
begins to haunt the former King of Spirit World
and a plan starts to form within the young denizen's mind.
Meanwhile, as Akari fights her own intense battles,
Shikiyoku herself follows after Mukuro,
leaping from the side of the Mobile Fortress
with intentions of evening the odds,
fully aware that she can no longer kill
now that the Crusnik are no longer active within her.
When she hits the ground,
she shifts forms just as she is attacked
and begins dancing towards the rift,
painfully ensnaring any enemies who come near
as the tendrils of power around her writhe with her movements.
Hiei soon joins her,
knocking out those she ensnares,
as any who are killed are simply recalled by Samhain
and rejoin the ranks of the enemy.
On the other side of the battlefield,
an unseen enemy watches
safe within the Veil
and under Samhain's protection.
It is Lady Kearia herself,
Mate-Consort to King Renai,
the one true ruler of the Nine Layers.
After her children died
in the botched ritual to unite the three worlds,
she sought a means of restoring their lives,
and through her attempts
partnered with Samhain
his promises of her twins' return
ensuring her loyalty.
In the midst of the battle,
she sees Kuwabara wielding the Jigen Tō,
and banishing the un- and redead back to their realm.
Impatient to have her children returned,
Lady Kearia concocts a scheme involving her minion,
a demon Akari once called Foko,
in which Kuwabara would be copied,
the dimensional sword used by Foko
to open a rift through which she could bring back her children.
Separating Kuwabara from his friends,
Lady Kearia incapacitates the red-head with relative ease,
the undead making quick work of him,
as her own minion steps out from inbetween the layers
and sets to copying Kuwabara.
At the last,
the two groups, Shikiyoku's and Yusuke's,
all form up together and Koenma himself
steps through the rift to face down Samhain.
Shikiyoku stops any others that attempt to go through the rift,
knowing that they could be obliterated
as soon as they entered
by the strength of Samhain's aura alone,
which is the embodiment of death itself.
This includes Mukuro,
who is deep in a rage when she rushes passed,
and though Shikiyoku attempts to stop her via pain,
as Mukuro begins to easily shuck off
those tendrils that grasp at her,
Shikiyoku asks Hiei to kiss her.
Growing impatient,
Yusuke and Raizen team up
firing a spirit gun to end all spirit guns into the rift,
the two of them together appearing to have managed
to kill death itself,
leaving Koenma within the Realm staring at an empty throne
which begins to turn to ash and dissipate
as he hears a voice echoing, calling to him...
Son of Enma, without a cornerstone upon which to rest, the Veil will crumble and the dead will rule over their living brethren.
Claim your rightful place as Guardian of Purgatory, as the Gateway from the First Circle of the Afterlife to the next.
There is no need to worry, Son of Enma. We are preparing a Champion for you, a Guardian of the Gateway between life and death, a new Keeper of the River Styx.
Though her eyes were open, Shikiyoku saw nothing but swirls of power through the darkness that enveloped her gaze, swirls that sometimes were strands and most of which were attempting to pump the Demon of Rage with enough pain to pull her out from her frenzy.
She could still feel however, and was very much aware of the moment in which Hiei's lips touched her own.
Her eyes closed and the change swept across her body, her mind blinking out of existence in the moment it took for her to awaken once more, and the strands of energy which had appeared to wilt and wink in and out, were suddenly filled to the brim once more.
This time, however, the spirits she had captured were no longer writhing about in pain, but simply floated down until they were only a few inches from the ground, calm and waiting.
Mukuro felt the second Shikiyoku's power waned and she took that second and shot forward, only to have the energy encircling her core return full force, but this time filling her with a different sort of pain, a pain that she did not recognize. And perhaps it was not pain at all.
~!**!~
"Well." Raizen took his hand from Yusuke's shoulder, peering up at the rift before them, which had grown dark and into which they could no longer see. "That...certainly did something alright."
"I can't believe you two dimwits."
Yusuke didn't even have to look down to know who the owner of that raspy voice could be.
"Don't you think anything through?"
"We talked it over, and we thought this would be the easiest thing to do." Raizen replied loftily.
Genkai eyed him incredulously, "You 'talked it over,' huh?"
Raizen only looked down at her.
"I suppose the dimwit son can't be expected to be any more intelligent than the dimwit father."
"Actually, Genkai, it seems as if the two have done us a great favor." Koenma said, appearing to step out from the rift and appear in front of them. "Samhain is dead."
"And the Veil?"
"Still in place."
Genkai nodded, "You will be missed."
Yusuke blinked, not understanding at first as Koenma stepped passed him.
"My time here is short." As Samhain's voice before him, Koenma's words suddenly echoed over the three territories, "But all those who wish to come with me will be welcome, and I would welcome your company."
Moving forward, those members of Spirit World who were formerly under his rule, came to accompany him into the rift, and Koenma looked upon them kindly as they gathered closer. Each of them could feel that the powers they had while in Spirit World were gone. No longer were they Special Defense Force or Grim Reapers, but simply males and females without a home.
All the others who had been waiting on top of the cliff for the fighting to cease-which it had the moment Samhain had been killed-were now amongst those that had fought to get Koenma to the rift, and as Koenma scanned their numbers, seeing those whom he knew coming forward, he spotted one teal-haired woman who hung back, and while she gave him a small smile when their eyes met, he knew she would not join him this time.
~!**!~
Wha- Where am I?
Kuwabara could not feel his body, had no notion of who he was or where he might be.
Kazuma Kuwabara.
Was that him? Who was speaking?
This world needs a champion. A guardian of the gateway.
You shall be that guardian, you shall become the new keeper of the river of life and death.
The world will know you as The Grim Reaper, but you will be its defender, the Guardian of Life.
Your noble actions have set you apart, and so we grant to you this gift of life, of rebirth.
Do you accept?
~!**!~
Lady Kearia's smile grew more wicked as she felt the imposter's progress deepen, and she thought little of the fact that though the body of the redhaired human lay dead at her feet, she did not see his spirit come back through the rift over the three territories.
However, the moment the body began to glow with a light she could give no other adjective besides "holy," she knew something was going wrong.
"Slave? Slave, stop this at once."
"I-I cannot." He stammered, eyes closed. "Something else is happening, but if I stop the ritual now, I will have made no copy for myself. And I will die."
She considered him expendable by no means and growled, unwilling to lose him or the power she coveted from the body before her.
"Do you know what is happening?"
"It...it is...some sort of time-shift. But it is centralized. To this body."
His eyes flew open, staring at nothing, "Something is bringing him back from the dead."
~!**!~
Koenma bid farewell to Yusuke and Botan and all the others who were staying behind, and he led the way into the rift, those who wished to join him following after.
Those demons who had been under Samhain's power, and still alive, had already started waking up with control over their own bodies. And those spirits who were still drifting about the area were being drawn in towards the opening.
Just as the last of those who belonged in the Realm of the Dead passed through the opening, the rift snapped shut, leaving behind only for a moment an afterimage of where it had been before disappearing completely.
Yusuke blinked as he realized that the battle had finally come to an end, and he was just beginning to wonder if the three Kings were still going to fight over the Ninth Layer when he heard Yukina's voice suddenly chime in from somewhere behind him with, "Has anyone seen Kazuma?"
~!**!~
The imitator knew there was no severing the bond between himself and this human without dire consequences, and while the victim from which he copied powers did not have to be dead in order for him to actually complete the ritual, he somehow felt helpless, caught between two opposing forces as he felt whatever power that was bringing the human back to life beginning to seep into the ritual over which he found he no longer had control.
He felt the time-shift ability slowly begin to copy over into his body, but as more and more of it kept coming, he realized that this power was no ordinary power, and as his eyes began blazing with a blindingly golden light, he could only vaguely make out that his lady was speaking to him as a sudden roaring sound began rushing through his ears and his head snapped back as his mouth came open, that same golden light pouring from his throat and he felt something within the body he was connected to snap off into his soul just as he blacked out.
Lady Kearia had started to bend over the imposter until he had thrown his head back, and the overwhelming energy that poured from his eyes and mouth had forced her to throw up an arm or be blinded.
Without sight, she could only hear the explosion erupt into the air around her and feel it throw her backwards away from the two at her feet before she felt this tug around her middle almost pull her back towards them, and then she felt no more as her mind shut down all at once. 3
Akari had, at some point, actually turned her eyes onto Koenma as he spoke, having made her way to the chasm in the layer and only stopping movement when she realized who she had been staring at so expectantly. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she had registered the sounds around her as people slowing, stopping in their fighting and turning to see what was going on- even her own body had paused she knew by instinct, no longer having any enemy to face- and she realized that she could easily make an attempt to return again.
But no sooner did the thought occur to her than a bright light enveloped the entire area that was the cornerstone of the three territories, a roaring sound booming against her ears and echoing in the distance. The shockwave that pulsed through the air forced her spiritual self to return to her body, and for the first time in a long time, she felt a completeness that said her body and soul were whole again.
The next moment she realized that her feet no longer touched the ground, and that even as she seemed to soar through the air from the force of the explosion, her eyes closing instinctively, she felt an odd tug at her core before everything went black, her brain unable to keep her aware for whatever event happened next. *
~!**!~ ~!**!~
When Shikiyoku awoke, the first thing she truly took note of was how blue the sky above her appeared, her eyes squinting a little at the brightness of what was likely a noon-day sun.
These two facts alone-sun and sky color-placed her on the First Layer, blinking up once or twice and feeling a disorientation she associated with not knowing how much time had passed since the bright, sensory-overloading light and blast of pure energy had knocked her off her feet during the last of the fighting on the Eighth Layer.
How did I end up here?
Sitting up, Shikiyoku's uncomfortableness with the entire situation was not unfounded, as she recalled a time not long enough in the past where she would go days without memories, only to wake up in a different place than she had lost herself and find that she was hungry.
Luckily, this time she was not infected with the disease that had once driven her forward, but that made the time lapse feel slightly stranger as she had nothing to blame for it.
The unusually still nothingness she had grown accustomed to feeling while watching the battle on the Eighth Layer was still there, and while she knew she could sink herself into it if she so chose, for the moment she only felt a sort of calm. One that for reasons she could not explain was quickly retreating from her psyche.
Finally rising to her feet, and feeling thankful that it appeared she had been unconscious in the woods instead of an urban area, Shikiyoku looked around her and took note of the trees and underbrush and the rays of light that were shining onto the forest floor, but did not at first understand why she looked about herself, nor why a growing sense of worry that started in the pit of her stomach began to rise to her core when she found herself alone.
In a final burst of panic that manifested inside a portion of her mind where she had once felt her Consort's constant presence, Shikiyoku's outburst was silent and rang echoingly through that formerly comforting portion of her existence.
(Hiei!?)
Whipping around and dashing forward in a random direction, she continued calling out into an emptiness that drove her further into her wild frenzy.
(Hiei! HIEI!)
Momentarily regaining a little sensibility, she began using a circular pattern outwards from where she awoke until she had covered the entire wood and found herself standing at a sandy ocean bank with the waves lapping gently onto the shore.
Her breath had not slowed though she stood there staring into the distance without knowing how long she did so.
Blinking, she reached inwards again to that same silence and finally closed her eyes, trying to better understand a connection she had never before questioned.
The connection was still there, and Shikiyoku had to take that as an encouragement or go mad. She wasn't receiving anything from it, not even the usual background presence behind it that she had up until this point taken for granted.
Perhaps that means he isn't close enough.
She let out a quiet curse at herself for not having drilled Renai about the Consort bond when she had the chance.
Thinking she ought to remedy that and ask how she might locate her Consort by the connection, Shikiyoku reflexively sought to draw herself inbetween the layers, and only after a few seconds realized she still stood staring at the ocean.
Confused, Shikiyoku took stock of herself, squared her shoulders and this time tried to seek the folds of New Human World, the dimensional layers that had superimposed on top of one another when Demon World had joined with Human World.
Still nothing.
Shikiyoku didn't know how long she stood there at the water's edge, blinking and at an utter loss of explanation for so many things that had happened, were happening.
She started to remember a few of the events from before the explosion.
Samhain was killed, the invasion of the dead stopped, and Koenma disappeared into the hitherto unknown Realm of the Dead, Purgatory, First Circle of the Afterlife, apparently as the new Guardian, a role Samhain abused for an undisclosed amount of time.
And the inbetween was simply the weakened Veil. Likely displaced, improperly joined because of the botch ritual meant to combine the three worlds.
With a new Guardian, access to the Veil had likely been sealed, as she doubted Koenma would want things any way save for the way they were meant to be. And in this case that meant a definite separation between the living and the dead.
As she squinted again, she realized the sun had started to set at some point, though whether because it had taken her so long to scour the woods or because she had stood there for that long she could not say, and Shikiyoku shook herself and turned away from the shoreline, gathering herself mentally and taking note of her location, dashing off and heading for her home.
Perhaps there she might find some answers. 3
The moment Koenma had disappeared, a flash of light had blinded Hiei just before the world went dark. And the world remained dark, where the fire demon felt as if he might be resting, but he knew of no dreams that passed by him in this time. Or maybe the bright light had been the dream? Maybe all of it had been a dream?
He didn't know. He could only float along in the darkness and the silence that had consumed him until his mind would allow him to wake again.
When he did begin to come to awareness, there was no indication of how long Hiei's eyes had been closed, or how long he had lay there in the dirt that he could smell and feel beneath him. It was a struggle to peel his eyelids open and blink blearily at the sky above, only actually seeing an angry red hue all around himself.
The next thing he was aware of was a stiffness in his bones and a soreness in his muscles that said he had landed here, not simply laid here for rest after a long day of running.
What would he have been running for anyway?
He blinked his vision clear so that he may stare at the angry red skies above, finding the silence around him to be off-putting.
(Shiki.)
The name flashed across the forefront of his brain in much the same way that the lightning ahead lit up the sky, and immediately Hiei sat upright, searching inward for the bond that he only just realized was dead silent.
It gave him flashbacks to the last time they'd been separated.
(Shikiyoku?)
Silence met him even still as his eyes scanned the area, searching for any sign of the woman he already knew to be nowhere near him. Again, he searched for the bond that should have lead him to her, and again he found it silent.
There, but silent.
Too much distance.
Well than, he'd have to close that distance.
Hiei stood and took a look around himself to find that he recognized this area of the Ninth Layer, it being the place where Hiei had become Shikiyoku's Consort. He paid the area no mind however, and made to wrap himself up in the layers.
He took off at his utmost speed, willing the layers to coil around him and move him to the next layer up.
….Except it didn't work.
He tried again, his feet slowing to a standstill all over again so that he could analyze the anomaly, and found that again the layers paid him not mind. In fact, it was a sif there were no layers.
Meaning he wouldn't be seeing Shikiyoku. He couldn't get to her immediately.
…
There was the spot in the mountains that they had used to get to and from this layer the first time they'd come together.
A spark flew in Hiei's eyes as he looked up in thought, gaging which direction to go before he spun and began sprinting to the far side of the Ninth.
~!**!~
Akari's brain came to awareness, and the very first thing she was aware of was that she no longer felt anything of her pack. There was no constant pulling at her core, no constant ringing of her head or ears. There was no unending desire to run to the fourth layer and gather her pack. There was no overwhelming depression at the knowledge that she could not help her ill packmates. There was no crushing knowledge that she'd have to kill them in order to end their misery.
It was as if she had no pack at all.
One would have thought she would be relieved at that realization. However, it only seemed to crush her further, giving her the conclusion that Samhain had killed them all and that she was the only one left living.
The only one to survive.
Why her? Why not the demons who had suffered for so long? Why not the demons who deserved to live on?
Her core skipped a beat, and an unbidden sound slipped past her lips, almost inaudible even to her.
With her pack gone, what else was there for her to fight for?
A sound nearby alerted Akari of another being nearby, and a second later her brain registered a demonic energy. One after the other, her senses began to awaken and feed her knowledge of her surroundings, such as the sound of footsteps on the soil nearby, of the feeling of grass and dirt below her skin, the pain of wounds that had closed themselves up, but not fully healed yet. She became aware of the breeze brushing over her skin, of the sound of leaves being moved by that same wind somewhere nearby. Last, she was aware of the smell of the earth, of the cool breeze that indicated springtime, of the metallic smell of blood. Her own blood, and perhaps another's.
When she finally allowed her eyes to open, she could see partly cloudy skies, the sun shining somewhere to her right and the birds overhead flying by at varying speeds and directions. A moment later, she realized she could see strands of lightly-hued hair rustling on the air at the edges of her vision, shiny and soft looking in the light of the sun. She turned her head in that direction to see a demon crouched over her, his face angled and sharp, his eyes lighter than the hues of his hair, ears, and tail. His outfit dark, but the color unknown.
…
In fact, she couldn't recognize any colors that weren't on the black, grey, and white spectrum of hues.
…
And another moment of staring had Akari realizing that this demon smelled familiar, of ferns and flowers and soil. Of grass and pine. He smelled of a scent that used to be comforting to her.
She turned her head away, hearing the demon's voice but not listening to his words.
"Don't touch me." Her voice was raspy , weak and breathy, having been unused in weeks. And despite this hushed demand, she could still feel hands touching her arm and her collarbone. Hands with long and slender fingers that prodded and poked before brushing some odd substance over her skin.
After another moment of being prodded, Akari jerked her arm away and rolled over, her lips emitting a sound that was somewhere between a groan and a wheeze as pain rocketed through her system.
"Don't… Touch…. Me." She repeated, a growl accompanying her demand this time.
"Ohh, don't do that! I wasn't done!"
Akari ignored the demon and pushed herself to her hands and knees, grunting a little more at the effort before she rocked back to sit on her knees. She took a deep breath before making an attempt to push herself to her feet.
"Uh- Uh- ...It's getting worse! Why isn't it helping?"
Akari heard the fox, realizing this was not Youko Kurama as she had originally assumed, but she did not give him the satisfaction of looking back at him. "I don't need your help."
"Says the one who I just saved," came the haughty reply from the other as Akari stood upright. "You'd be dead by now if I hadn't been here."
Definitely not Youko.
Akari continued to ignore the fox demon, taking one step, and then another, until she was setting off at a good pace in the opposite direction. She didn't know where she was going, but she didn't want to stay here.
"So that's how you thank someone who heals you and kills your attacker?" When the fox was given no reply, he could be heard scoffing and mumbling under his breath. *
~!**!~
There had only been a blinding sort of light, an influx of energy that exploded outwards all at once and had finally launched him off of his feet, which nothing else up to that point had been able to do.
He remembered that much as his eyes slowly opened of their own accord, blinking once warily in the midst of an afternoon sun before closing once more.
A humming sound registered in his brain, coming from somewhere outside of himself, and he felt his eyebrows twitch questioningly as more and more awareness filtered into his mind.
Soft grass beneath his back, his hair spread out underneath his head. Arms, legs, laying flat against the ground. A foreign sort of warmth originating from another source that was somehow rejuvenating his body, which also felt foreign to him.
Noises he somehow associated with a garden, smells to accompany it, including that of the very air around him, which seemed more pure than any single breath he had taken in his entire life.
Snatching of the song floated over his ears atop his head, which twitched like his eyebrows had, seeking out the source of the music.
When strength returned to his eyes, he opened them again, this time seeing a woman leaning over him. A human...but something more than just a human.
She couldn't possibly have been more than eighteen, and as his eyes focused more fully upon her face, he found himself enamored by her, unable to look away. Long, shiny, ebony hair framed her face and fell down around her shoulders in thick waves. Her skin almost glowed, beckoning one to test its smoothness.
The face that started to clear had high, aristocratic cheekbones, and fine, delicate features. Her cheeks had a rosy tinge, and that same color was the shade of her lips.
But it was when he finally took note of her eyes that he found himself hardly able to breathe. They were the most unusual shade of blue, and shone as if lit from within, shifting from light and dark and back again, revealing that while she may have had the petite form of a girl, there was within them a store of wealth and knowledge that only one who had lived for years without end might hold.
He desperately wished for her to look into his face, as she kept doing something elsewhere along his body. And he just as desperately wished he could move, could even do something so simplistic as speak.
She was so very...captivating.
As she leaned back from him, taking a final pass at his form with her eyes, he noticed she was also so very pregnant, her solid purple kimono having the tell-tale bulge about her middle as she rested her small hand atop it.
And then that moment came, the one he had been wanting, needing.
She looked at him.
Actually looked at him. Looked into his eyes.
And she smiled, her lips parting for words he found himself holding his breath to hear.
"Beloved?"
A voice called from somewhere he couldn't see, and the woman's eyes lit up more than before as she looked away from him in the direction from where the distinctively male voice had come.
"I am here." She replied calmly with that beautiful smile, making no move to rise from where she had knelt next to him.
It was not so much the literal shadow that fell over him that caused him to tear his eyes away from this gorgeous being at his side, but the shadow of the aura that approached and quickly extended a hand to what he now knew to be the mate of this 'Beloved.'
She allowed the newcomer to help her to her feet, and he let his eyes sweep the face of the one who had approached, taking note of the markings at either cheek that he somehow knew meant the towering presence above him was a Daiyoukai. A Great Demon.
The appearance of the mate did not particularly matter, though he recognized an inu, a dog demon, when he smelled one.
"I do not know."
He allowed himself to be drawn back to the face of the woman, realizing he had missed a portion of the conversation that passed between them and also knowing that strength enough had been returned to him that he might slowly sit up, which he did, reaching up to rub at his forehead with a hand that he all at once felt he did not recognize.
Looking at first one hand, then the other, turning them this way and that and noting the size and the length and sharpness of his claw-like nails, he could not place these hands as his own.
"-will escort you."
He blinked, hearing the end of whatever the low, rumbling voice of the Daiyoukai had told him, and then heard a smaller creature holding a strange, two-headed staff dash up beside the other two.
"Yes, m'lord." The imp bowed, "I'll take care of it right away, m'lord."
The woman and her mate began to move away and he found himself unable to stop watching her as she left.
"-get up and follow me."
Blinking again, and finding even his greyish-white, sleeveless yukata and cloth shoes seemed no more familiar than his hands or the length of his legs, he slowly found his footing and rose up from the ground.
~!**!~
A week later and Shikiyoku stood at the entrance to the tunnel that would take her down to the Second Layer.
Or was it Level again?
So many things had changed.
Shikiyoku's home on the First Layer-Level-stood just as she had left it that day she and Hiei went with Mukuro's messenger to head to the Eighth Layer, though with quite a bit more dust than she remembered it having.
Hiei was not there.
Neither had she found him, or even any trace of him, on any of the rest of the First Layer-sigh-Level. She had found information, which while perhaps not as comforting as finding her Consort would have been, was proving useful in any case.
While no one appeared to know exactly what was the cause, there were other demons besides her who had been displaced by the explosion on the Eighth Layer, though none of them appeared willing to return to that layer and discover what had happened regardless of what "demon-king" they had been following.
They all appreciated their new freedom in one fashion or another, and they also all shared the same predicament as Shikiyoku:
They could no longer traverse between the layers.
Further news led to her discovery that the old passageways that had led between the levels in Demon World had suddenly come back into existence as if to make up for the lack of layer-travel and the return to 'levels.'
Heaving a huge breath, Shikiyoku stepped forward into the gloom, prepared to discover for herself whether the rumors were true.
If these tunnels worked again, she could tear apart each layer one by one until she found him, knowing that if he had not been tossed to the First with her, he had to be searching for her as well.
Surely they would catch one another's trail and eventually cross paths.
Surely. 3
Hiei ran through the trees at breakneck speed, hardly even so much as stirring the dust he tread on as he seemed to glide through the air and around trees and any other obstacle in his way. Instincts lead him away from the dangers that riddled the Ninth Layer, having run this layer enough with Shikiyoku to remember what areas to avoid and what areas were safest. He made no sound along his path, and kept to the same trajectory for pretty much the whole way across the layer.
He didn't even stop in any of the cities until he reached the one closest to his desired destination, where he only stopped because his stomach demanded it of him, and his body screamed for rest after the long days and nights of doing nothing more than sprinting. He tread through the city calmly, carrying himself as if he belonged there and had been there longer than any other denizen.
People moved from his path, some eyeing the markings that were visible on his face, others not caring enough to notice. So when he walked into the first pub he noticed had rooms available, he didn't seem to notice the demons that watched him pass by, or the blatant staring of a few demonesses staring after him. He merely spoke to the person he needed to in order to find a bed for the next few days, paid it off, and sauntered his way up the stairs and through the halls.
Had he thought of it, Hiei might have gone to the Niiro instead. But as he stepped into the room that had been designated as his, he decided it wouldn't matter anyway because he wouldn't be on the layer long enough for it to matter.
The second his head hit a pillow, his eyes closed and his body welcomed the much needed rest.
~!**!~
Akari walked just as fast as her tired legs allowed her to go- which wasn't that fast at all- in hopes of getting away from the demon whom had been crouching over her. However, she hadn't been able to get far before he caught up to her and even passed to walk ahead of her a ways before cutting her off entirely, expression severe but nothing like the demon she had originally thought he had been.
It just so happened to be at the exact time that he stepped towards her that her legs gave out, her knees buckling and bringing her to the ground with a thud. Slightly frustrated, Akari shifted her weight until she sat on her rear, realizing she wouldn't be able to get up again.
"Told you." The fox demon crouched in front of her again, his hands holding a substance that looked just as disgusting as it smelled. She turned her nose up at it, disgust evident on her features.
That didn't seem to stop him from trying to spread it over her collarbone again, to which Akari batted away. The reaction of the other almost made Akari feel amused, his expression turning to one of exasperation and his ears turning back. His lips pressed together, making him look almost childish.
Neither of them made a sound for a while, staring at each other, Akari with a blank stare and the other with an irate glare.
She was the one to break the silence. "What layer am I on?"
The other blinked, confusion alighting his countenance. "What?"
"What layer am I on?"
He gave no answer, and Akari didn't repeat the question a third time. The silence stretched on, a staring contest still under way.
Akari broke the silence again. "Where am I?"
"The southeastern district."
Makes no sense. Southeastern district of what?
"You don't smell like you're from this area."
You think?
"More like the Western area. Where the other packs are."
"I can't feel my pack."
"You've gone too far, probably." The fox demon shrugged, seemingly unconcerned by the event. "You don't look Western though." He tilted his head at her. "Maybe Northern?"
She wasn't sure if that was a compliment or an insult. Also, nothing he'd said thus far made any kind of sense to her.
"Hey, don't turn those ears back at me! It's a fact." He leaned away to get a better look at her, lips pursing some more and his head turning. "Perhaps you're a mix of both packs. Halfblood? Part of some union? No, that's too unlikely…."
Akari raised a brow. What ears?
The fox demon seemed to have come to his own conclusion, giving a nod of his head. "I can take you to your pack, if you want. You seem lost, and I'm heading that way anyway." He extended a hand to her, offering to help her up. When Akari didn't take the offer, he made a sound. "You need to lighten up. Not everyone is like you. We don't all have something else up our sleeves."
When her eyes narrowed, the other only smirked.
"I can leave you here."
The threat had Akari sighing and reluctantly reaching out to take the hand of the other, who helped her to her feet and turned to lead the way. "I'm Moriko, by the way."
"Akari."
"Well, lighten up and have some fun, Akari. It's gonna be a long trip, and I'm only taking you halfway!" *
~!**!~
"-don't actually see many silver-tails any longer. Granted, you are the rarest of your kind, I suppose. Don't know what you're doing this far West, though."
As the tiny imp led the way through the gardens, he only listened with half an ear cocked in the demon's direction, mildly taking note of the fortress to his left and the walls to his right.
"-Moon Festival that you should be getting to? I can imagine they're missing you sorely. I was almost for certain that Lord In-err-Shippo was allowing the use of the Whispering Forest this time around. Has he changed that without our notification? I could see him thinking he could parcel out the Western Lands for such things without our permission."
In the next few steps, he found the imp had led him out of the gardens and into a larger, more open and flat area, through a set of gates and down another path that appeared to lead to the main entrance of the fortress.
"I suppose I should give him more credit than that. We have kept good ties with him since my lord's brother fell and he has been regent. And besides, ever since the Eastern Lands fell into turmoil what with Earth awakening and all, it honestly would not surprise me if he had made a decision to move the location closer to our boundaries simply to attempt to allow the Festival a chance at escaping the ferocity."
He did not know what lands this imp spoke of, momentarily considering the explosion he could recall and wondering how far it had blasted him for not even locations to have familiar names any longer.
"You know," the imp didn't seem to notice that he had been rambling the entire walk, nor did he consider that no one might be listening, "Some say it was my lord's brother's death that brought about the shift. It had been so long that it will be millenia I think before the South can fully recover from the Fire that burned its lands so completely. I can fully admit to being a little jealous of the North. All they have to worry about is their ice melting and becoming floods should Water ever awaken. You know, it's the strangest thing that our lands have not been ravaged by the Wind in so very long. Some say now that we have the Great Lady walking on our soil, her very presence soothes the Elements themselves, and that the combination of the lord's death and her departure made the shift happen as violently as it did."
It appeared to be the first time that the imp so much as sent a brief glance in his direction. The imp recognized, however, a glazed look when he saw one, and his brow crinkled with question, blinking at the one he escorted towards the entrance before turning his attention away.
"You're not from around here, are you?"
"I do not believe so." He didn't recognize the sound of his own voice either, and it sent it eyebrows low over his face.
The imp let out a huffing sort of sound, "Doesn't believe so-"
The words trailed off as the imp grumbled to himself.
~!**!~
Three levels later and only the Kami know how long and Shikiyoku had found no trace of her Consort.
All of the joy she had felt "fighting" next to him on the Eighth Layer seemed like an almost-forgotten memory, and the grim set of her lips had not so much as twitched for weeks.
She had not paused to look in a mirror, had not even so much as stopped near a reflective surface, and yet she could feel how drawn her face had become and how deep the circles under her eyes likely were as she went days without sleep, usually only collapsing to the ground when her legs could no longer hold her up.
While she could not recall them upon waking, she knew that her sleep was haunted with nightmares, ones centered around Hiei, around being torn from him like they had been torn apart on the Ninth Level all those years ago. And such sleep was hardly restorative. She tended to pull herself away from those dreams prematurely and back into the waking world so that she could start her searching once more.
As she traveled, she realized just how completely the demonic race had been thrown into chaos in the time she had been confined to the Mobile Fortress. She heard more and more about demons who were growing ill and being tossed into the Eighth Level on the assumption that they would soon turn and begin consuming the energy of the very ones trying to help them.
The explosion on the Eighth Layer-now level of course-apparently rendered the entire level inhospitable, reducing the land to little more than half-burnt patches of grass and a few trees. It appeared that collectively the entire demonic race had decided trapping Infected there was the best solution since attempting to kill one tended to result in several deaths.
There was much fear in the air, for no one knew how the sickness transferred or even what it was, only that it seemed as if the Infected, as everyone seemed to have taken to calling the feral demons whose only thought appeared to be 'eating' all the demonic energy in sight, could not be cured once they fell ill.
Groups of mercs traveled around and collected the sick for a fee, tossing them into the Eighth Level with the others never to be heard from again. The charge was higher if the demon had already turned and needed to be restrained, and usually the groups who did so had several Hunters amongst them, demons who had taken to specializing in the tracking and capture of Infected.
While there had been no word from the Ninth Level-likely because any native attempting to travel higher would find themselves dead within moments of their arrival on the Eight-there were rumors of Infected with huge bounties on their heads whose feeding patterns Shikiyoku recognized as mirroring her own, but with her thoughts fully bent on finding Hiei, she thought little of the rumors about the Infected, regardless of whether she might have been perfectly suited to be a Hunter because of her past or not.
These demons were smarter than the average Infected, and usually no one recognized them or knew where they came from. IF they could be caught and tranquilized, toted as deep as possible into the Eighth and dumped there, they usually would not be seen again, but at least two or three Infected had found their way out again and become infamous among the Hunter circles, as well as the general populous. The technology and spell types that had come into being as a result of restraining the Infected had not evolved enough yet to truly kill one without high casualties, and so these stronger, smarter Infected remained a very real threat as they did not appear to be slowing down anytime soon.
Whether because she moved too fast to be scented by the Infected, or whether instinctively she knew from experience where they might be waiting for unknowing passersby, Shikiyoku found her encounters with such demons to be at a minimum, and even when she felt the presence of one nearby, she reacted quickly enough to skirt its senses and keep moving.
Reaching the next pocket of civilization, Shikiyoku slowed her high-speed pace, as always unsure if she would be able to sense a blip from her bond that might indicate she grew closer if she tore passed the place, and momentarily felt her core leap up into her throat as she felt before she heard the roaring inferno of a massive amount of fire energy being wielded in a concentrated area.
(Hiei?!)
Thinking if he were enraged he might not be able to hear her, Shikiyoku quickly turned her dashing feet in the direction of the outburst, only slowing down when she reached a sparse semi-circle of people in whose center a fire demon Shikiyoku immediately knew was not Hiei appeared to be throwing a fit.
And while he yelled something Shikiyoku at first took no notice of, his fit took physical manifestation as the flames that whipped and swirled around him.
"She just said she wanted a break!" One of the female demons Shikiyoku passed as she walked through the small crowd called out.
"No, she DIDN'T. She just LEFT." At each emphasized word, a wave of flames buffeted back the demons in the front who looked a if they were trying to get closer to the fire demon in the middle of the inferno. "She didn't tell me ANYTHING."
Shikiyoku had shouldered her way resolutely through the gathered demons, few of which actually took notice of her when there was a blazing vortex roaring in front of them.
The demons attempting to get closer to the eye of the storm all seemed wary of actually entering the violent circle of flames, but only one of them managed a hurried, "Hey, what are you doing?!" when Shikiyoku made no move to stop her forward direction, stepping without pause into the hurricane of fire.
Almost immediately the edges of her clothing caught on fire as she continued forward, appearing annoyed at the disturbance if anything as a few stray hairs crinkled to ashes and the fabric at her shoulder began burning.
She didn't appear to be looking at the fire demon, though she approached him from the side and he apparently had not noticed her yet, but she walked directly for him and when she was only a few steps away he finally became aware of her and turned to face her, his eyes bright with the red energy of his fiery power, just about to wield it against her when she stopped for a brief second and slapped him across the face, staring at him as she did so.
The demon appeared more surprised at her than anything as the rest of Shikiyoku's sleeve burned away while she stood there.
He blinked at her, stunned.
"You're being ridiculous." She told him tartly, "If she loves you, she'll come back."
The flames around him began to wane as she turned and continued walking in the direction she had been headed.
"Stupid hothead." She muttered as she continued on her way.
For a few seconds, the fire demon stared after her, his energy continuing to dissipate into thin air until he registered what she had said and the rest of his energy snapped back into his body abruptly and he stalked after her.
"WHAT did you just CALL me?!" He yelled at her as he moved to catch up, leaving a rather confused crowd of demons behind him.
Without missing a step, Shikiyoku absently patted out the flame at her shoulder and the one that had started at the bottom edge of her shirt at her waist, reaching up and pressing a lit hair between her fingers to put it out.
"I called you a stupid hothead." Shikiyoku repeated as she patted at her hip calmly, continuing to put out the flames.
Making a noise of frustration as he caught up to her, he waved his hand and the fires on her person went out all at once, "Say it to my FACE!"
Without stopping, forcing the fire demon to walk alongside her if he wished to speak with her, Shikiyoku glanced over at the blueish-white haired demon whose glaring red eyes surely would have smoldered her into ash if they could. Without the fire roiling about him, she could make out his features.
His hair reminded her of the most intense and heated flames that sparked a warm white-blue when achieved.
"You're a stupid hothead." Shikiyoku said once more as she continued walking, looking forward at her path after giving him the brief glance and starting to pick up her pace until she was running again, mind bent on finding her Consort.
"Hey! HEY! GET BACK HERE!" The fire demon started to speed up to chase her, "I WASN'T DONE TALKIN' TO YOU YET." 3
Hiei had spent a whole day and a half of sleeping, though whether or not one would say it was restful sleep was really dependent upon who was asked. To Hiei, it had been pointless, as his dreams had consisted of the last time he and Shikiyoku had been separated. It seemed to strengthen his need to get to the mountain, to pass through what had been a portal-like traveling device the last time he and Shiki had been sent here.
So he'd set out very early into the morning, taking what little breakfast he'd acquired with him on the rest of the run. It took him a good while to get to the mountain district, and even longer still to remember where exactly the portal would be located. He scoured every inch of every mountainside, searching for the pathway to the Eighth.
It took him much longer than it should have. Weeks, actually, until he found the opening that seemed to blend in with the shadows of the mountains. He pushed his way up the mountainside and towards the portal, all the while thinking that Shikiyoku could very well be on the other side.
Disappointment was not a strong enough word when he realized he couldn't get through. He tried, over and over again, dozens of times from dozens of angles, only to be spit back out to the base of the mountains again. He tried carving his way through it with the dragon, punching his way through it with his fire, and even simply running through it with his fastest speed available.
Nothing worked.
Each passing attempt flared his anger higher, causing flames to ignite what little foliage there was at the altitude he was in. And with each destructive punch to the portal, another chunk of the mountain slid from its surface.
Before long, Hiei himself was the very epicenter of the inferno, yelling and cursing at the emptiness of the bond, at the lack of entrance to the portal, at the distance he couldn't feel between himself and Shikiyoku. Days passed where the fire demon simply continued destroying the area around said portal, until all that was left was a small platform on which the opening to the Eighth sat.
And even after that he continued to destroy the area until he no longer had the demonic power to do so, leaving everything within sight of the mountains- including said structures- were blackened and dead, ash and smoke.
Had he had the physical prowess remaining to do so, Hiei would have leveled the mountains as well. His body, however, forced him to the ground, where all he could do was glare at the portal from where he lay. And only by pure and complete exhaustion did sleep overcome him.
Even then, his sleep was not conducive to rest.
~!**!~
There had been complete and utter silence for hours now, Akari following behind the fox demon and completely centered within her own thoughts to even so much as notice if the other even uttered a word in her direction. She searched her being for any link to her pack, finding herself growing more and more angry that there was no such link there, and at the same time relieved. They were no longer suffering, she knew.
But that also meant she had been the only one of them spared.
The thought had her reaching a hand up to scratch at her head, her fingers accidentally jamming into one of the ears atop her head and causing a small sound of pain to rumble in her chest.
She still didn't know how she'd ended up with her ears and tail back. Or her colorless vision. Nor did she know how her body was free of scars, free of marring. It was almost as if the last fifteen years had never happened.
Physically, anyway.
It was disconcerting.
"-look for a campsite?"
Akari blinked, realizing she'd only caught parts of whatever Moriko had been saying. Her eyes lifted from where she'd been staring at her claws to see the other had stopped just on the edges of a clearing, where she could hear the sound of a waterfall in the distance.
He understood that she hadn't been listening. "How does this look for a campsite? Just for tonight."
Akari shrugged. It didn't matter to her. She didn't know these lands like he did.
"Okay! I'll go get the food, you get the firewood!" The fox demon disappeared before she could even reply, leaving her alone with the near-silence of the land.
She considered sitting, getting some peaceful rest while the chatterbox was gone, but quickly decided she would prefer a warm fire later to a nice nap now. so she turned and began looking about herself, picking up sticks and branches as she saw them. *
~!**!~
He asked the imp which direction the Moon Festival was, thanked the tiny demon for the assistance, and took to walking with no great speed generally towards the area the imp indicated, being told as he turned from the fortress that the walk would likely take days as he was currently in the middle of the Western Lands.
The air felt as though it cleared his head, and the ground beneath his feet pulsed comfortingly with plant life. There was this kind of peacefulness to the land, and with it a strange sensation of 'young,' as if it had not seen more than a million years of life.
Acclimating to his body took him no time at all, as he realized it did actually feel familiar on some level or another, and vague remembrances started to filter into his mind as memories began floating across his awareness.
~!**!~
Ever since she slapped him, the fire demon had hounded Shikiyoku's every step, though after the first couple of days he stopped yelling at her and only followed her from a distance.
At that point, she had insisted his presence behind her was distracting and if he wished to run with her he should do so or leave.
And so they ran together, though they ran silently, Shikiyoku continuing her search for Hiei and neither questioning nor wondering as to why this stray fire demon had decided to join her.
They easily avoided any Infected along their way, and the fire demon did not so much as complain at their schedule, which Shikiyoku had settled into rising early before the day and travelling late into the night.
Perhaps he thought if he complained, or even so much as said a word, she would dismiss him.
Perhaps he was right. 3
Months had passed, and Hiei had moved from city to city, visiting each and every one of them one after another. He visited shops, pubs, merc guilds, any place where he might be able to gather some information on the portal and how to use it to escape this god forsaken Level.
It had only taken talking to one or two demons before he found out that the layers no longer existed, and that the worlds had been separated againand returned to being "Levels". And it had taken only a day or so longer to realize that some of the denizens on this level had been thrown around by the explosion as well, and many were in the same boat as he: stuck on this Level. The only difference was that no one else seemed to mind being there.
Then again, no one else seemed to have someone to return to either.
It was absolutely infuriating, however, to speak to demons who had lived in this level for decades, some for centuries, and for none of them to be able to tell him how he may be able to get out. How he might be able to traverse the levels again and return to Shiki. In fact, most of them said much of the same thing:
"If she loves you, she will find you."
Every. Single. Time.
It was almost as if every demon here had the exact same thought capacity. A hive mentality, dare he say.
And it was just.
So.
Damn.
Infuriating.
Before long, the fire demon was being talked about, a being of which everyone was warned of.
He was no longer the 'cursed child' or ;the marked one'.
He was the one who was referred to as 'the walking flame'.
He no longer had control of his fire, which burned around him at all times, day and night. the flames only extinguished when he no longer had the energy to supply them, and the moment he regained even enough to create a spark they would return.
Word was passed that buildings were being destroyed, burned to the ground and left still smoldering when he moved to the next person or city. Soon, demons began ignoring him, acting as if he didn't exist, which only seemed to make matters worse as the first town went into flames mere hours later.
Soon after, people began murmuring, saying things like, "even the dragon was bearable."
And yet Hiei didn't care. As long as he received vague answers and cold shoulders, he would continue setting things ablaze.
And he would only stop when he reached Shikiyoku again.
~!**!~
The sun had set about an hour ago, and by some luck or another, Akari had managed to get a fire started while Moriko remained gone. Hunting, she assumed, but she didn't really care as to whether he returned or not. She'd just assume the trek Westward herself, now that she knew which direction was which and had a vague idea of where she was.
Even though where she had ended up was not something known to her.
She leaned back against the tree she had taken residence under, taking in deep breaths to assess the very clean air that she breathed in. It was odd, how this place seemed nothing like the place she had been before.
It was almost as if she were in a different world altogether.
And she didn't quite think that it was such a bad thing.
Twigs breaking in half was what brought Akari from her half-slumbering state, her eyes coming open and staring at the place where she could hear footfall. While she had been expecting Moriko, she hadn't really expected him to return as an actual fox. So when he stepped into view, towering over the area at at least half the height of the tallest trees, she merely looked up at him.
He carried various forms of prey in his mouth, all dead and smelling of different kinds of meat and game that she'd never seen before, or even ever heard of. Her brows furrowed; what kind layer was this?
"If you're hungry, you have to fight me for it!"
The large fox bowed in a stance that she recognized immediately, his tail lashing in the air happily as his glowing eyes watched her, gleaming. She didn't so much as move, however.
"The victor gets to choose which they want first!"
Silence hung on the air between them, the only sounds in the area being of the crackling fire and the swishing of the large tail in the air. And when Akari didn't immediately get up to play, Moriko's fox form writhed a little, shuffling closer and his ears flicking back, lips parting in a very odd-looking smile-like gesture.
"You know you wanna!"
Akari pushed herself to stand, eyeing the large mass of sleek fur warily. Moriko shuffled a little more, kicking up large amount of dirt in his excitement.
His disappointment was palpable however, when she turned away and began moving in the direction of the waterfall she could still hear.
"You're no fun!"
She only ignored him as she moved away. *
Thanks for reading! Bless your face. If you sneezed during this chapter, bless you. Peace off!