A/N: Hello once again, Audience.
So, some of you may have noticed in the last chapter that this story has made a slight turn into the realm of cross-fic, lulz.
THE FOLLOWING IS A BIT OF DRABBLE AS TO SOME BACKSTORY IN REGARDS TO THE PAST IN WHICH SOME CHARACTERS NOW FIND THEMSELVES. There will be some interesting information, but feel free to disregard as needed. Anything that absolutely needs to be explained will be done so within the confines of the fanfic itself, this will just add more depth to what is currently going on.
I have had the idea that the worlds of InuYasha and Yu Yu Hakusho are actually intertwined in mind for many years, ever since randomly reading a cross-fic here on FF, actually. The notion intrigues me, so much so that I have basically made InuYasha's "Feudal Japan"-like setting into what amounts to Sekaiju in this YYH fanfic, that past being a time early on in the creation of Earth when the land was actually one (instead of Spirit/Human/Demon World), and the living and the dead intermingle, with characters like Kouga, and Sesshoumaru, and Inuyasha being the lords of the North, West, and East portions of the land respectively.
My version of the world and Kagome's story is borrowed partially from "Black Widow Miko" by madmiko (it's an extremely graphic fic that I wouldn't necessarily recommend, though to be fair for something that ends up having really explicit scenes, the actual storyline, original characters and canon cross-fic character portrayals are just so amazing), up to the point where Kagome, having since been blessed by the Kami and is what is called a Celestial Maiden, has had one child via Inuyasha, but InuYasha has died at this point in time where CM and I's characters have been transported, with Shippo now the Lord of the East and Sesshoumaru, reconciled previously with InuYasha, having taken her and her son into his house, and subsequently taking Kagome as his bride and her now in the midst of carrying his child.
In other news, the previous chapter should be updated with a recap.
I seriously almost forgot to post today though. Had a super busy weekend.
In more related news, I had forgotten that originally CM and I had found pictures online of what we imagined some of the characters to look like, though I am fairly certain I can't link them here simply because of how ff dot net works. Ideally, I could create like an imgur specifically for characters from this fanfiction, but heaven knows I barely remember to post weekly chapters, so while the idea is nice, it isn't likely to happen.
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!
Hiei's kiss changes Shikiyoku's form
and her energy stills those formerly writhing under her power,
including Mukuro who had previously ignored it,
and who has never felt such energy in her life.
Samhain has been killed,
by a combined effort of Koenma's actions
and Raizen and Yusuke's deed,
but a new ruler is needed.
Koenma accepts that rule,
inviting those displaced by the loss of Spirit World
to join him, if they will.
Among those that remain behind is Botan.
Meanwhile,
as Lady Kearia and her minion
attempt to copy Kuwabara's powers,
so that she might retrieve her twins from the Realm of the Dead,
divine intervention sets into motion
the revival of Kuwabara,
who had died at the hands of the undead.
As Koenma disappears into the Realm,
to reestablish the Veil between the living and the dead,
Lady Kearia's minion loses control
and is unable to prevent himself from copying
not only Kuwabara's powers,
but the divine time-shift, centralized to Kuwabara's body.
The strength of those divine powers proves too much,
and the entire area is enveloped in a white light...
Unable to account for the passage of time,
Shikiyoku wakes up after the explosion on the First Layer,
quickly becoming aware that she is without Hiei,
and that she is no longer able to move between the layers of the world.
She heads for her former home in the hope of answers.
As for Hiei,
he awakens on the ground of the Ninth Layer,
discovering similarly to Shikiyoku that he cannot access the layers.
He heads for the place where he and Shiki passed into the level
via a portal what seems like ages ago.
Akari wakes up in unfamiliar surroundings,
finding her sight limited to the grey spectrum of color,
and realizing there had been a kitsune tending her,
though not Youko Kurama as she had at first assumed.
Elsewhere,
an unnamed Daiyoukai discovers his mate
healing a kitsune who no longer remembers his own name,
and they set him off in the direction of what they assume are his people,
instructing an imp with a strange two-headed staff to escort him
to the edge of their lands.
Time has passed and Shikiyoku stands at a portal,
one that used to separate the First and Second Levels from one another.
Human World appears to have assimilated with the First Level of Demon World,
and Shikiyoku ventures into the portal to the Second Level,
moving farther downwards into New Human World in search of Hiei.
Hiei travels to the other end of the Ninth Level,
searching for the portal,
passing through cities,
and only stopping long enough to rest.
The kitsune tells Akari he will take her halfway,
though halfway to where Akari is unsure.
The imp leads the other kitsune towards the Moon Festival,
but to the kitsune, those words mean little,
like most of the other words the imp uses.
Shikiyoku has for her part scoured three levels
with no sign of Hiei in any of them.
Haunted by nightmares of their separation
and of Hiei's fate,
Shikiyoku sleeps little and travels as quickly as she dares,
learning along the way of the changes that have swept New Human World.
The occupation of Hunter has arisen,
a job which centers around the Infected,
demons that consume the energy of other demons,
an affliction Shikiyoku knows all too well,
and it is said that while Hunters are so far
unable to kill Infected
they are instead tossing them onto the Eighth Level,
which has since the explosion grown more and more inhospitable.
As Shikiyoku continues her trek through the Fourth Level,
she comes across a fiery energy signature,
exploding in a temper tantrum she momentarily associates with Hiei,
until she grows closer and feels no response within her bond.
Instead, she finds it's an unrelated fire demon
throwing a fit about a girl that left him,
and Shikiyoku walks through his inferno to slap him,
startling him out of his rage
as she tells him "If she loves you, she'll come back."
and then calling him a hothead.
Angered by the name calling,
he chases after her,
insisting she say it to his face,
which she does more than once,
but does not stop,
leaving him to chase after her yelling that he wasn't done.
Hiei has found that the portal will not work for him,
his rage at being kept from Shikiyoku
leading him to vast amounts of destruction
of the mountainside in which he knows the portal lays
only stopping when exhaustion collapses him to the ground.
As Akari continues travelling with her kitsune,
the imp leaves his to his own devices,
directing him towards the pending Moon Festival,
which the imp says he will find others of his kind in celebration.
While Hiei in his anger
has since become known to the Ninth Levelers as
The Walking Flame,
Shikiyoku finds herself being hounded
by the fire demon she slapped,
eventually insisting he either run with her,
or leave.
He chooses to join her...
Kasai paced back and forth where Shikiyoku had left him, his hands clasped together behind his back and the grass under his feet just starting to not bother rising again as he continued to path along the same line.
Every so often he would pause, look over his right shoulder in the direction Shikiyoku disappeared, and then go back to staring down at the ground.
Two hours ago his temper started to simmer and he periodically clenched and unclenched his teeth as tufts of grass near his shoes would occasionally burst into flame when he passed by. In moments like that he stopped his pacing to stare at the little fire before reflexively drawing the energy out of and extinguishing it and moving beyond it once more.
If she loves you, she'll come back.
It wasn't the first time since he started following the rather human-looking female that her voice had echoed in his mind, repeating a sentence that stuck with him in spite of himself.
After a second, he realized he had stopped his pacing and was staring off into the distance through the trees, but he didn't start up immediately, instead glancing over his shoulder in the direction she disappeared.
Stay here. I'll be back.
No explanation, not that he asked for one.
He wasn't sure why he had yet to ask why she seemed to track after something which such dogged determination.
He wasn't even sure why he had followed after her in the first place.
Sometime in his musings his feet moved again of their own accord, up and back the trail he hours before staked out for himself.
At first it had been to demand some sort of apology for the name calling, but something about her solemness to the exclusion of all else drew him to her and after the irritation of the name calling had long since dissipated, still he followed.
If she loves you, she'll come back.
In the front of his mind, the part that he would admit to himself, he wasn't sure exactly what the phrase was supposed to mean.
And yet here he was, waiting again.
He hated waiting.
And why was he doing it anyway?
He knew nothing about this creature who let him trail along after her like a puppy for hundreds of miles before demanding him to either catch up or shove off.
Well, next to nothing. She was looking for something, that much he could figure from the pattern she wove across each level before passing on to the next.
They hardly spoke more than five words to one another in the span of several weeks though.
The five words to fill the quota this time had been his instructions.
Which were quickly becoming more and more difficult to follow.
At his next turn to march back across his invisible line, an entire bush to his right erupted into flames and his face drew inwards to a tightened expression, brows dipping severely together as his eyes squeezed shut, rows of teeth grinding into one another.
She's not coming back.
An eyebrow twitched and a patch of grass at his feet ignited, two or three others nearby bursting into the same fiery red and orange as the bush.
They never come back.
Then why don't you go after her?
She said to stay here.
"But I don't WANT to stay HERE!"
The air around him ignited into flames and he felt as if his chest would burst outwards from his body as all of his pent up irritation and anger exploded around him, becoming visible in the air.
"Stop being ridiculous, hothead."
His entire body in flames, Kasai checked himself and glanced through the fire to see that Shikiyoku had reappeared, breathing heavily and leaning into the trunk of a tree as if it were the only thing holding her up.
Immediately the heat of the air disappeared as the flames extinguished all at once and Kasai was moving across the little clearing towards her.
There was dirt on her face and a weary sort of look in her green eyes that Kasai found out of place on someone who looked like they could be skipping to school in uniform the next morning.
She had not stopped to change out of the semi-burnt clothing from her initial encounter with him, and he could see a couple of bleeding scratches on her bare shoulder where she no longer had a sleeve.
Pushing herself away from the tree as he got closer, he noted that she gingerly held one hand around her other elbow as if the arm had been injured, but she waved him away as he approached, though he didn't exactly know what his plan had been in any case.
Without the tree holding her weight, Shikiyoku wavered in place as if she might fall over and Kasai took the last step towards her, reaching out and catching hold of her good arm to steady her.
Kasai felt Shikiyoku jerk her arm out of his grasp as if he had burnt her.
"I-" She shifted her weight, grabbing ahold of her injured arm again. "I'm fine."
Instead of questioning exactly how 'fine' she could be in such a state, Kasai looked down at his palm to make sure he hadn't forgotten to put out the flames there before he touched her, frowning at it when it became clear that he had.
Being distracted, he didn't realize she had begun to move, sidestepping him and moving back the way he came.
Looking up and not seeing her, he spun around to watch her limping away and started after her without saying a word.
She lead him to a stream he vaguely recalled passing over as they ran, and at first she simply squatted down and began using the water to clean her skin.
Kasai stood a few feet away, watching her meticulously wash the dirt away for a few moments before moving closer and sitting on the ground a couple of feet to her left, still watching as he bent his knees up and rested his elbows atop them.
"What happened?"
Shikiyoku sat all the way down before answering, crossing her legs and rubbing at the dirt on her hand with some water.
"I allowed myself to be captured, thinking I might get the information I seek."
Given that the demon with her so rarely asked questions, Shikiyoku somehow felt that she owed him an answer.
Kasai could tell by the way in which she made the statement that she did not get whatever it was she thought these demons might have.
"You may not have gained anything, but at least you lost nothing because of it." Kasai finally replied.
Shikiyoku glanced at the fire demon out of the corner of her eye, slowly starting to stand back up.
"I wouldn't say I lost nothing." She replied simply, bending over to brush what she could of the dirt from her stained pants.
Kasai blinked, suddenly taken aback by the movement of her hair as it fell over her ears when she bent at the waist.
Instead of hanging down towards the ground, it rustled at her temple and Shikiyoku reached up to tuck it behind her ear.
What she could of it anyway.
She may have escaped with her life, but it cost her most of her hair. Where it had once fallen in long semi-straight ringlets down her spine to her waist, now it barely covered her ears, a sloppy cut, jagged and uneven across the back of her neck that indicated the unintentional nature of the haircut.
Rising from the ground himself, Kasai had to admit that he didn't really remember what her hair looked like before, though he was certain it wasn't this short and it was more even than this. Probably. He couldn't rightly say he knew.
"We won't go too much farther today." Shikiyoku said, not seeing Kasai nod as she turned and started trotting off in the direction they came from, breaking into a run soon after. 3
The only reason the Central Tribe was still in one piece as Hiei walked away from it was because he knew that Shikiyoku would not have been happy to return for a visit and find the encampment had been lost. And the only reason Shubou had been left standing was because of his affiliation with Shiki before this point.
Had it been anyone else telling him that he was completely out of luck and destined to wait for several years, that being would have been slaughtered in moments. At least, that's what he told himself.
As the fire demon left those encampments, trees burned and soil smoldered, the very air itself igniting into a fire that burned white in the skies. A white-hot blaze that followed Hiei for weeks, fueling his anger even further and pushing him through little towns he had already visited, destroying more than he had the first time around.
And as he crossed the Ninth for the third time, entering the only city he had purposely avoided, that fire finally burnt out, disappearing in a puff of smoke that hovered in the air very briefly before floating away.
Each step seemed to grow calmer, quieter in his trek through this particular city, where for the first time in a very long time, no one seemed to notice his presence, nor care that he was there if he was noticed.
Even when he sauntered into the Niiro Kaga, not a single pair of eyes lifted from what they were doing to catch a glimpse at the newcomer. Not a single demon in the joint other than the bartender seemed to even remotely care that the door had opened, that a new set of footsteps added to the cacophony of sound inside the pub.
He was just another passerby, another wanderer stopping for a drink.
~!**!~
Akari let her sense of hearing guide her to the source of the water she could hear falling over some ridge or another, her feet making little to no noise on the soft grass below. Her eyes took careful stock of the area around her, taking note of the different shades around her and differentiating between actual shadows and creatures that scurried by.
When the trees broke and gave way to the small pond, she found herself taken aback by the amount of fireflies that populated the area, buzzing around on the air and twinkling their little lights. There were places where the trees overhead broke and allowed what little moonlight there was this night to shine down on the rippling water, lighting the waterfall on the far end of the pond and small spots here and there. She could hear the fish swimming calmly below the surface, and the cicadas in the trees overhead. Those sounds added with the crickets and the waterfall, and Akari felt every last bit of tension simply melt away from her neck and shoulders.
After one last sweeping glance around the area, the dog demon began to peel away her clothes, pulling her shirt over her head first and draping it on the tree nearest her, and continuing with the rest of her clothing.
She waded into the waiter until she stood in one of the pockets of moonlight, crouching so that the water covered her chin and allowed her long hair to flow with the very slight ripples from the waterfall.
Ripples that grew a little larger as she stood there.
Also, there was this sound behind her that she could only attribute to something swaying in the water behind her, something she turned to investigate out of mild curiosity.
She only blinked at the tail that stopped moving, the ripples slowing and eventually stopping, creating a calm water surface.
Is that.. mine?
With the thought came the confusion; there was no way she had a tail. It had been severed a long time ago, turned into a prize for a human somewhere on the planet.
There was an odd feeling of the skin atop her head stretching a little, and the things she heard seeming to change just a little. The crickets were louder, as were the fireflies. She reached up to touch the top of her head, her fingers finding fur-covered ears that lay flatter against her head at the discovery.
She stood upright and turned in place, her eyes finding the very fluffy tail that seemed to glide in the water behind her as she turned. Simultaneously, her eyes caught the moonlight on her skin, making it seem to radiate an odd hue. It was.. shiny…
Unmarked.
Scarless.
All movement stopped with that realization, something in the back of her mind clicking at the discoveries that she had already made, but not comprehended. For a few seconds, she stood there, silent and unmoving.
And the next moment, she was literally jumping from the water in joy, her hands playing with the tail and ears she could now feel, her eyes searching for scars that had marked her for a good portion of her life.
And the amount of sound she made was sure to wake up every creature within the twenty mile radius. *
~!**!~
Just as Kasai sensed himself starting to wake up, he made some low noise or another that he couldn't rightly identify-in reality a protest at the brightness of the air around him-and then suddenly shot to his feet with a rush of adrenaline, core pumping wildly as he realized it was much too late in the morning and she had likely run off without him during the night and-
As he glanced to his right where he remembered her collapsing the night before, the initial onslaught of Kasai's fears of being left behind were silenced, as she still lay there on her side, facing him where he stood several feet away.
His next emotions were ones of irritation as his temper flared. They usually left by now. They never slept in this late. Hours had already been wasted.
Why didn't you wake me up?
Why have we not left yet?
"Woman…" All of the things he wanted to yell at her, demand of her, died away in his throat as a dawn light made a little shimmer across her cheek catch his attention.
"Why are you…" Crying?
Kasai reached up and rubbed at his eyes, blinking them clear and glancing down at her again to see that it had not been a trick of still-sleepy vision.
There were little rivulets of tears almost streaming down her face.
She was crying in her sleep.
Funny. Kasai thought. How I never noticed before.
It was easy to see why.
She didn't so much as stir, didn't give out a sob or make a single noise.
She just lay there, obviously asleep, and crying.
Kasai didn't realize he had slowly lowered himself back to the ground, but he shifted his legs out from under himself and bent his knees, resting his elbows over them and awkwardly staring at her as the water continued to fall from her closed eyes.
Eventually she began to stir and Kasai quickly backed himself up against the trunk of the tree he slept near, resting his head up against it and closing his eyes almost all the way shut, though he peeked out from underneath his eyelashes at her as she began to shift, her eyes just sliding open and staring forward at nothing for a few moments.
Unaware the fire demon watched her, Shikiyoku sat up, not so much as sniffing as she wiped at her eyes, her expression melancholy and her eyes still appearing to be faraway in those private waking moments.
If it wasn't clear to him before, Kasai felt a sudden flash of insight that it was not what she looked for, but whom. And that whomever it was so stirred her sensibilities while her guard was down-that is, only in her sleep-that only then did she cry, and probably dream of whoever she sought.
Up to this moment, he had always perceived her as a solid pillar of emotionlessness, able to walk through flames and slap a demon throwing a temper-tantrum without so much as letting it slow her down.
He thought of how she had flinched away from his touch a few days back and how he had initially thought he burned her.
When was the last time she'd had physical contact with anyone?
Besides slapping him across the face of course. That sort of thing was completely different.
But he had never seen a mate-mark on her person, thinking back to the one time they had stopped to bathe near a waterfall and how unconcerned she was about stripping and wading into the water with him nearby and watching.
Of course he watched. He may have minded his own business and stripped as well, but that didn't mean he hadn't looked at her. He was a demon of flesh and blood as much as the next. Perhaps more so, given a fire demon's natural tendency to be moved more rapidly to passion, and be consumed by it, than most.
Kasai lifted his head from the tree and opened his eyes, breathing out a sigh that he didn't take direct notice of doing.
Shikiyoku had by this time cleaned her face of any trace of tears, though she had made no move to rise.
"Is he your mate?" Kasai broke the silence between them. "The one we are looking for?"
She took so long to respond that at first Kasai thought he had spoken too quietly, but she answered with a low, "No."
For some reason that made his heart not quite so heavy.
"I'm sorry." Sorry that we haven't found him? Was that what he was sorry about?
Was he actually sorry?
Shikiyoku started to get up, "For what? Sorry that I don't have a mate? Strange thing to be sorry about."
Her expression gave nothing away of what she was thinking and she left Kasai staring after her for a moment without giving him a chance to answer as she disappeared in the direction they had been heading earlier that morning before he scrambled to his feet and started after her.
~!**!~
A typical, noisy work day at the Niiro Kaga for the owner, proprietor, and bartender who was only known as 'Kafu' to his patrons had the apparition with the multiple Vectors-ten to be exact; eight invisible and two that hung in a ghostly sort of way on either side and just above his head, appearing to come from somewhere behind him-working at a furious pace. He and his waitress had their many hands full both in filling orders and delivering them, but Kafu took a certain sort of comfort while standing behind his bar in the overload of business, and never appeared anything but his usual calm, collected self.
As always, he was never too busy to make passing glances at the doorway when a newcomer entered or a drunken fool left, aware of every single presence and knowing most if not all of them by name, but unlike anyone else he had seen that day, the black, spiked-up hair with white-star accent son of a certain fire demon entering his establishment made his eyebrows rise higher on his forehead briefly before returning to their usual neutral.
Hiei. Jaganshi. "The Walking Flame."
Kafu had long ago guessed at the identity of the monstrosity that was making rounds of the Ninth Level and leaving destruction in his wake. While most knew of Hiei's hybrid blood-supposedly making the fits of rage more pronounced-and at least in this, the capital city, still called him "Cursed Child," or his most recently bestowed honor "Gouka," the other nickname was rising in popularity, giving that he was usually seen encased in fire.
The last time Kafu had seen the hybrid apparition was at the fall of Taka, when the very first of the portals between the Realm of the Dead and New Human World opened. Since then it seemed, if the swirling, black, tattooed markings upon his face were any indication, Hiei had taken his place at Shikiyoku's side as her Consort-Rightfully so-and it wasn't too difficult for the bartender to guess at why Gouka-Hell Fire seems more appropriate than ever-kept throwing temper-tantrums across the whole of the Ninth Level, given that the two of them did not walk in together.
Get in a bit of a tiff did we? And what did you do to upset her, I wonder?
The exchanges between Renai and his mate were always most...interesting. Kafu could only image what transpired between Shikiyoku and Hiei.
Oh, and of course the denizens of the Ninth Level knew of the loss of the layers, the opening of the old passageways, and about how every Uplander had apparently decided of one accord to toss any "infected" demon onto the Eighth Level, inhospitable after the explosion that rocked the entirety of New Human World from First Level to last.
The fact of the matter was that citizens of the Ninth Level didn't particularly care about the business of Uplanders. They'd always considered themselves almost a separate world since the beginning anyway, as little that happened above them tended to have any effect on them or the land.
Plus, the band of lur'mog that had been raised by the now-extinct Northern Tribe destroyed any demon of the Ninth Level that dared to become Infected. Granted, with the Northern Tribe practically wiped out, there were only rare occasions that any Infected were sighted, and even then they were only remnants of that once mighty tribe, now scattered to the four corners of the Ninth Level, and quickly removed from the land of the living.
Hence why everything here, at the bottom of the world, was business as usual to any outsider that knew of the turmoil of the rest of New Human World. Any Infected who stayed on the Ninth Level weren't alive long enough to spread their disease, and those trapped in the Eighth Level were incapable of coming any further.
…
Ah.
That seemed to be the last piece of the puzzle. Gouka tearing across the Ninth Level in unrestrained fits of rage because the explosion had thrown him down here and her not...and he couldn't leave. Only those born in the Ninth Level had free passage elsewhere.
So, what brings you here, oh most venerated of demons? 3
Hiei crossed from one end of the pub to the other, quietly taking the only stool left at the bar and occupying it with his oddly-quiet presence. His eyes scoured the wall behind the bar, looking at the many bottles of drink that sat on the edges of the shelves as if he might order something.
He briefly considered it too.
Instead, he turned to the bartender on the far end of the bar and meticulously trained his telepathy onto the man, though only to request that a room upstairs be claimed as his for the night and the simplest form of food available to him.
These days, he only ate when the thought crossed his mind, his stomach no longer telling him when he'd gone too long or when he had neglected himself for any given amount of time.
And along with the request for food and a place to sleep, Hiei added the very inquiry he'd asked of every other demon he'd talked to on this Level, despite already having a guess at the exact answer he would be given:
How do I get out of this Level?
~!**!~
Akari spun and spun in circles around the area that she had been standing, sending water flying in all directions and fish swimming away just as fast as their sleek little bodies would let them. Birds took to the skies, away from what had stirred them from their slumber and adding to the sound that was Akari's surprise and joy.
She laughed and shouted and splashed water all around, only settling when she could no longer breathe properly, and only stilling in place when regaining breath was near impossible.
As she huffed, the area now silent aside from the insects still buzzing near her, she reached out as if to touch one of the lightning insects, watching it with a very small smile on her face that had been missing from her expression for far too long.
But she just couldn't help it. She'd gone years wishing to see this part of her again, wishing to feel the fur of her ears and tail once more, of feeling her ears twitch with each passing sound and of her tail swishing back and forth with her emotions.
She had gone years wishing the scars would disappear, until-
Akari blinked, her expression quickly changing to the very one she'd been wearing for the past several months as her eyes turned down to the smooth skin that was her exposed stomach, where she could still imagine the scars there.
Until he came along.
And perhaps she had been grateful for it, even happy that that certain redhead had taught her how to let go and be happy, to smile and laugh and not be trapped in her own mind.
And perhaps on some level or another, she had begun to miss it. Had missed it.
But every time she thought of him, she remembered her own hand forcing its way into her best friend's chest, and the thought of that man's mother having been what had caused her reaction that day.
Because if Manami had killed Akari, then Yomi would have decided to manipulate Kurama's mother again. And at the time, Akari had been the most accessible of pawns.
And now that she'd been reminded of it, she couldn't seem to… let it go. She was.. stuck again, just as she had been then. Unable to move past it.
She'd lost her best friend, then a few pack members, and then her whole pack.
Akari sank low into the water, until it nearly covered her nose, her eyes closing when bubbles formed to stifle the sounds she made below the surface. She had nothing.
At least, back "home", she had nothing.
Here, she could have anything.
Anything she wanted.
Akari's eyes came open again, staring ahead blankly, never seeing the shadow that moved out of her line of sight.
After a moment of silence, she dipped her head below the water and ran a hand through her flowing tresses, ensuring that every strand was soaked through before she resurfaced.
And the sound that met her ears when she broke the water was loud and positively terrifying.
Every muscle tensed as Akari lept from the water and turned, making a mad dash away from whatever hellish creature had decided to screech into the otherwise silent night, her legs carrying her so fast that everything seemed a blur. She passed many trees and ran under fallen logs, the sound of two sets of feet pounding on the grass and soil making the hairs on the back of her neck raise as she streamlined away from the area she had taken refuge in.
She only stopped when she came to a fallen tree that was too tall for her to scale, and she began digging beneath it, dirt and bugs flying through the air behind her until she could just make out a hole…. underneath…. the log...
Where furry, fluffy paws had been digging.
Akari stopped all movements, and realized that the paws stopped too, claws dug into the dark soil and almost prepared to fling more away from her body.
Or, under her body, actually.
Again, she looked over her shoulder to assess the situation, and found that the reason the tree had been so much larger than her was because she had actually changed. She no longer walked on two legs, but four fuzzy ones. Four fluffy, dark-hued legs.
She moved to stand upright on all fours, dropping her nose towards the ground to see that she had thick, wavy fur coating the rest of her body as well.
And it struck her that she also had her dog form.
A form that had once let her run free and wherever the wind would take her.
A form that she had missed the most over the years.
An ear twitched and she glanced back over herself again, realizing that she was much taller than she actually remembered being in this form. She realized that even if she'd been in her more humanoid form, she would not have been able to hurdle the fallen trees, because even in this form, she couldn't do so.
Her shoulders could almost hit the lower branches of the trees.
Branches that Akari hadn't even had to duck under moments before.
Branches that she now could reach out and tear from the trees, and one she decided to take with her on her way back to Moriko. *
~!**!~
"I'm going to sit watch." Kasai sat down with his back against a nearby tree once Shikiyoku collapsed onto the forest floor.
Again? She thought, only shrugging and answering, "Suit yourself."
As she closed her eyes, shifting slightly off of a pebble beneath her, Shikiyoku barely had the energy to even consider telling him she wouldn't pick a place to drop if she didn't think it was safe, but while the thought crossed her mind, she slipped beyond the waking world almost immediately after getting comfortable and didn't get the chance.
Usually the fire demon would topple to the ground exhausted after spending a day chasing after her, only managing to make it a few feet away from where she fell, but ever since waking up and seeing her crying the week before, he made himself settle in and tell her he was going to sit up for watch for a while.
He knew perfectly well that she had an uncanny knack for avoiding any Infected, their rest stops included, and his watch had nothing to do with actions normally associated with the word.
...
She cried in her sleep.
Every night. Without fail.
He didn't even think she was aware of it and he wondered briefly how long she had been doing it.
Before I joined her?
He didn't know how long she had been searching before he followed her. Did she cry then too?
Kasai had no idea such a petite humanoid demon harbored any such emotions as sadness within her tiny body. She was always so stoic and silent during the day, never saying more than was necessary, only using as many words as were required to get the point across and not a single word more. Those brief moments of melancholy that she had upon waking the week before were the first emotions he had actually seen her with. Even in her sleep, her crying face had not budged from the eternal neutral he had been accustomed to. He had never seen her laugh or smile.
...and he found himself with this inexplicable notion that he wanted to see her do those things.
Some inner clock pulled him from his thoughts and Kasai looked over his shoulder at Shikiyoku, seeing that she settled on her side facing him as she always did and that the tears had just started to trickle down her nose and cheek.
While she may not have made a sound, Kasai let out an unhappy breath, his eyebrows raising in concern as he quietly scooted closer to her and began gently wiping away her tears as she slept.
~!**!~
Kafu felt the nudge at the edge of his mind, but it wasn't until he opened the section in which telepathic conversation might occur that he realized it was Hiei who sought a silent audience.
He sent the hybrid an acknowledgement of the request, both room-an image of exactly which room was sent back to Hiei-and food, coming over almost immediately with a plate in hand that consisted of little more than a small loaf of some sort of bread with slices of cooked, juicy meat beside it.
"And to drink?" Kafu wiped his hands on the towel hanging over the pocket of his apron. 3
Hiei looked up at the bartender who stood in front of him now, seeming to take no direct notice that said man gave no reply to the fire demon's question. And at this point, he really didn't expect to hear anything that he hadn't already heard before.
He had simply been hoping that this one demon might know something more than the others he had encountered. At least he hadn't repeated the exact same words that he'd been hearing for the past year. That would have chafed him in all the wrong places.
Then again, Hiei respected this individual too much.
"This will do," came the fire demon's response. He tore at the meat with his fingers, gingerly placing it in his mouth and allowing it to sit on his tongue for a moment. "It's good."
There was a pause.
"Thanks."
~!**!~
About halfway back to the little campsite that Moriko had chosen, Akari dropped the stick and simply meandered her way back in the general direction of the fox demon, her ears turning this way and that as new sounds accosted them. Her earlier excitement had died away, her energy feeling drained and her body feeling tired.
Too tired to shift forms.
Plus, she'd left her clothes by the pond.
All the more reason to stay in this body.
As she neared the little camping spot, she slowed even more, her paws making just as little noise as her two feet had earlier. So when she stepped into the light of the fire that still blazed, Moriko's head lifted from where it rested on his paws, having remained in his animalistic form to eat.
And it was clear he saved some for her, despite her lack of interest in it before.
"You stirred the Tsuchigumo, I heard."
Akari gave a little snort through her nostrils. "Your point?"
"Were you scared?"
"Not particularly."
"Liar. You changed forms to get away, huh?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about." *
~!**!~
"You're quite welcome."
The noise of the bar around them lended itself to allowing spoken conversations between two individuals to be relatively private, though Kafu refrained from pointing this out, only busying himself with work behind the bar as he was adept at doing, remaining in front of Hiei as the other ate.
After a few seconds of silence between them, Kafu opened his mouth again.
"I'm sorry to say that you'll get nothing you likely have not already heard from me. We do not know why it is, but only those born within the Ninth Level may pass through the reopened passageway to the Eighth. It has always been this way." 3
"Hn."
Hiei was not surprised in the least by what Kafu had to say, and he had chose not to say anything more to the bartender, who easily could find other patrons to tend to aside from this singular fire demon. He ate in silence, and when he was done, he slid the plate towards the edge of the bar on Kafu's side, and then swiveled from his stool and sauntered to his designated sleeping quarters for the night.
Several months went like this, where Hiei would come into the bar for a snack and sleep, having decided that since he was here, he might as well give his business to the bartender he knew most. And likely the only bartender who didn't seem to mind his presence in the least.
On one such night, Hiei had decided to have a drink. A single drink, mind you, but a drink nonetheless. And it turned out that it helped him fall asleep faster, and helped him feel as if he actually rested on some occasions.
And sometimes, he'd forget that he dreamt of Shiki, of being unable to get back to her, of his mark disappearing with the bond, as had happened the very first time.
But most nights, he didn't forget.
Most nights, he would wake from his slumber and spend the rest of the night staring at the ceiling, no longer having the energy to become angry or frantic, no longer having enough energy to turn things into a blaze.
After a few good months of those nights, where he realized he couldn't sleep, he'd go down to the bar and be one of the first to order a drink. After that, it had become quite customary for Hiei to start the day with a drink, leave the bar, only to return and end the day with a drink.
As for what happened in between, well, it didn't really matter. It was never important enough to remember, never important enough to note in his memories for later. It was never anything worth telling anyone about later, should he ever get out of this god-forsaken level.
Time became a blur, where Hiei could no longer keep track of the days, the weeks, the months. And soon enough, the amount of sleep that Hiei got was equivalent to a very small nap, and only as productive as closing his eyes for that short amount of time.
There were times, however, where he did actually fall into a sleep for the night. Tonight just so happened to be one of those nights.
He dreamt of Shikiyoku, of the last he saw of her. His dream consisted of the last interaction they had, where he kissed her to change her back, only to be blasted away from her. He dreamt of her coming back, of her greeting him with that kiss that he hadn't taken that day in the fortress where he'd wished she'd kissed him.
And he dreamt of her kissing someone else. A faceless being, who ran with her, who wore the swirls he himself wore now.
Perhaps that was what woke him from his restless sleep, his back against the wall and his eyes staring blankly ahead, not seeing anything about him. For several hours- maybe several days, he wasn't sure- he sat like that, staring ahead but seeing nothing at all.
A brief thought crossed his mind about how he sat, how his neck protested sitting still for so long, how his shoulders ached to be stretched. So he shifted, slowly lowering himself onto the bed, until he only stared at the ceiling in the same manner as he'd been staring at the wall.
Except this hurt too.
He shifted some more.
It still hurt. In fact, it felt as if there were marbles underneath him, and no matter how he moved, they moved with him. The bore into his skin, dug into his bones.
He almost decided he didn't care.
But it bothered him just enough to make him roll over and off of the bed, turning to see who the hell had snuck in and put marbles in the mattre-
Red eyes blinked once at the cream-colored marble-like gems that settled where they clunked into one another, shining in even the near-darkness of the room. There were several of them, all gathered together where the indention of this mattress sunk into the box springs.
He reached out and picked one of the little balls up, rolling it between his forefinger and thumb, only to realize that it was indeed a gem, and one he recognized.
It was strikingly similar to the ones Yukina had shed when she'd been kept by that human.
He blinked only once at them before he decided to gather each one of them up, eight in counting, and slide them into his pocket, keeping one in his hand as he turned to leave the room.
And for the first time in who knows how long, he didn't stop for a drink first. *
~!**!~
If Kafu had wanted to, he could have kept track of the days since Hiei's arrival, could have been counting them.
Surprisingly enough for a demon living a life that might have seem monotonous to most, each day was strikingly different from the next for Kafu, though to outsiders it appeared as if he did the same thing day in and day out.
Today there had actually been a brawl. Over what, Kafu didn't care to recall. Something about an invitation to a masquerade, or more likely over whom one might or might not be inviting.
While as a general rule, Kafu's presence itself was reason enough to avoid fighting inside the establishment, the apparition had sensed this one coming from a mile away. Too many drinks, too much talk, one insult too many...it all equaled a few fists flying before Kafu separated them, throwing them out.
"I'm headed home for the night."
Kafu gave his waitress a single nod as she passed up the last of her trays to one of his hands, which took it and stacked it against the top of the wall with the others.
"Oop, 'scuze us."
Kafu glanced up at his waitress being bumped into by two new entrants to the Niiro. A pair he had not seen in a long time.
"And you accepted?"
They appeared to be in the midst of a previously started conversation.
The white-haired one with light-blue tattoos visible on his bare arms shrugged with a wry grin.
"What else was I supposed to do?"
"...hic.. How about not ashcept?"
The two scooted bar stools out for themselves and slid into them, the dark-haired demon on Kafu's left smelling heavily of alcohol already.
"Uryo. Horu."
"Kafffu!"
Kafu blinked with the slightest cringe as if Uryo had just spit all over his face. Horu laughed.
"It'sh been...too long."
"Indeed." Kafu already had tankards in front of them and they were being filled, he aimed his next statement towards Horu, "Find yourself with an invitation to the masquerade?"
Horu nodded as he lifted his mug in an accepting sort of toast, speaking as he pulled it to his lips, "And I haven't the faintest idea why." The last word echoed into the container as he took a deep draft of it.
"I could take a guessh...hic."
Horu lifted an eyebrow as the drink came back down to the bar in front of him, his expression one that told Kafu he had likely already heard what was coming next.
"You got mine by mishtake!" Uryo grinned widely. 3
It took several days to get what he wanted from the city, and then from the Niiro to the place where Hiei wished to be. After that, it took several hours of wandering through the trees before anything began to even remotely look recognizable. He moved along a specific path, relying purely on his memories to get him there and the hope that the little fire would decide that he was worthy enough to see the true fire again.
He wandered, almost thinking he was lost, until he felt a rise in temperature and saw a fine mist along the ground. And the closer he got to the source of the heat, the more mist there was.
Finally, after a good while, Hiei was able to see the little ball of fire that floated in the air, flames licking into the air and disappearing all over again. And so he approached just as calmly as he was able, hands finding the pockets of his cloak and fingers toying with the little gems and the pieces of metal there.
He came to a stop in front of the True Fire, but said nothing to it, only staring at its flames. *
Time has no meaning.
Life and death as well, to one who has always been, are nigh incomprehensible. Understood, yes, as the memories within it contained such moments as coming into existence and release one final breath, but for itself there could not be these things.
For it, perhaps only minutes passed since the last time child-of-self appeared, or perhaps it had been a thousand lifetimes. It had certainly lived a thousand lifetimes.
So, when it sensed this one drawing near, it grew curious.
It remembered the last time it saw child-of-self.
It also remembered the last time it saw she-of-pain.
They had not been together for a long time. She had visited without him. And then with him, and then now child-of-self was here without her.
Its dance did not pause as Hiei entered, though it certainly kept its attention trained upon him while he approached, twirling and spinning, but all the while watching.
It could sense the flames within him.
The flames roared a greeting to it, a conversation occurring on a level that no one other than the two talking would hear. These were still the flames of the child-of-self, yes, the same ones the fire approved of all the time ago, but these were older now. Stronger.
But their color now was disturbed, their dance slower and more reticent in ways that child-of-self could not yet know.
Could not yet understand.
Even if knows reason.
It kept dancing even when Hiei stopped in front of it, knowing that the wind which had once made child-of-self's fire dance within him was far away. The flames within him told it so. Perhaps it could help remind him how to dance. It was good at dancing. Did so all the time.
Tongues of flame began extended outwards, little streams like ribbons curling around the true fire where it sat giggling in the middle of the black trees of the clearing, the mist below it starting to stir as the heat above stepped in place with a flourish. 3
Hiei stood before the little flame, red eyes watching each little piece of fire that detached from the core and danced in the air beside or above it, finding them rather calming to watch, entertaining even. The warmth radiated about him in an enveloping sort of way, having a rather calming affect on the demon who had seeked out this little creature for reasons he suddenly couldn't quite remember anymore.
Perhaps it had been for this reason alone: to feel the fire that had called him 'Child-of-Self'. It was a reassuring thing, something that the fire demon could rely on to be here should he have need of it.
And maybe the reason wasn't quite as important as it had seemed at the time. And to ask a non-traveling being if it knew how to leave this level seemed redundant, but it was not beneath him to ask anyway.
"I don't suppose you have any memories of how to leave this level within those souls of yours." *
Leave?
Level?
The fire kept dancing, trying to encourage the flames within child-of-self as they half-heartedly shuffled their proverbial feet.
Hm.
With she-who-is-your-wind.~
Another few whirling steps as this time it reached out with a tendril of flame towards Hiei, hoping to perhaps stir him in some way.
Cannot dance alone. Forgets steps.~
Must be reminded!~
For a moment, the fire paused, solemn, as if looking up and just over Hiei's shoulder before returning its attention to him.
The tongues of flame along itself rippled once.
Should it tell him? That she is on her way? That she travels with self-protection?
Your wind will return, child-of-self.~ 3
Hiei's eyes stayed trained on the little ball of fire that continued to swirl and dance in the air in front of him. He remained silent, even after the little flame had stopped talking, his mind going over what it had said to him.
My… wind?
For a moment, Hiei remembered running the layers with Shikiyoku, his feet moving in a dance-like rhythm with hers, though he'd stumbled here and there for a while. And he also remembered dancing with her in Rae's palace.
Wind makes the fire dance.
He'd known that his whole life, had known that fire demons often worked well with those who could control the wind. In fact, he'd met a few who'd told him exactly that.
The fire demon's eyelids slid closed, and the faintest twitch of his lip hinted at a ghost of a smirk.
"I'll keep waiting then, I suppose."
~!**!~
Akari had slept hard, and it had mostly been a dreamless sleep for the first time in what felt like centuries. And when she woke, she didn't feel tired, sore, or anything really. The only thing she did feel was the sun beating down on her fur, warming her whole body to the point where it was almost uncomfortable.
Almost.
She stretched the length of her body just as far as she could, a little groan reverberating in her chest at an almost growl. Her claws dug into the dirt, pulling up some grass when she fluidly stood on all four, her eyes opening to see a fox crouched in front of her, chin on his paws and eyes glistening at her, tail swishing.
"You slept for three days."
Akari let out a huff of air through her nostrils.
"Also, you run in your sleep."
One of her ears turned, registering the sound of a dying fire behind her before it came forward again, the end flopping forward. She remained silent, slowly blinking once at the other and realizing that he still seemed to think she would want to 'play'.
"The trip to the North is going to take several days. How do you feel about running?"
"You're kidding, right?" Her head turned to the side a little. "I haven't run in this form in years."
Moriko's tail lashed in the air once and his lips spread to show his canines. "Then I guess you'll have some fun doing this. Keep up if you can!" The large fox body fluidly spun, large paws digging into the grass and launching the demon off towards the North, dirt flying behind him as he disappeared from her view.
Akari gave a huff and took off after him, stumbling only once before regaining her feet and following the trail of the demon's scent. *
~!**!~
All five of the previous levels had proved completely fruitless in Shikiyoku's endeavours, but she and Kasai began her patterned route around the Sixth Level just as she had started it for all the others.
During the day she ran as far as she was capable, and when she dropped to the ground in the early hours of the morning, before he slept, Kasai would watch over her and dry her tears as best he could.
This pattern continued in the weeks that followed as they made their way across one of the largest levels, but the farther into the layer they got, the worse her dreams seemed to get to the fire demon who had gotten the hang of their ebb and flow until one night she actually let out a sob and Kasai jerked back as Shikiyoku broke down before him, finally moving in her sleep onto her back and letting out another soft cry as the tears came more heavily than he had seen them.
Scooting closer, Kasai began murmuring low reassurances and at first simply leaned over her to wipe away her tears, but he soon found himself lying next to her on his side, head propped up in his hand with his elbow on the ground as he reached over with his left to periodically sweep a gentle finger up either wet cheek and catch the tears.
With another similar sob that wracked across her shoulders, Kasai's eyes widened when she suddenly faced him again, clutching at his shirt as he froze in place, having whipped his hand free of her just before she turned.
To Shikiyoku, she only moved towards the warmth she had this entire journey been seeking, finding that her dreams were suddenly filled with the faint scent of cinnamon and charcoal and perhaps he smelled like that, she couldn't rightly remember.
The smallest sigh parted her lips and left Kasai wondering what exactly the phrase 'He, eh?' meant to her.
~!**!~
The fire before Hiei giggled, shivers of flame releasing tiny tongues off the top of it that quickly disappeared in the air.
It had seen the spark within him shimmer brighter, as if blinking and shaking itself more awake before gazing up in wonder at the tear-drop shaped flame suspended in the darkened clearing.
Little fire one day become big inferno, WHOOSH!~
The dancing dialogue of the fire came out almost in a rush as if all at once, and at the last it did indeed 'whoosh' forward in a heated blast of happiness that caressed over Hiei completely before disappearing just as quickly as it spun and twirled with a grin. 3
Hiei blinked once at the fire before the slightest of smirks came to his lips, though it disappeared after a moment of resting there, replaced with a rather calm expression. Genuine, this time.
And as he turned away from the True Fire, he gave a little wave over his shoulder in farewell, choosing not to say anything more. It had made its point, and he had gotten what he'd come for.
From that day on, Hiei would wake early in the morning to have the first drink of the day, and leave the bar, just as he had been doing before visiting the little fire. Afterwards, he would walk the streets, searching for something, anything to do to keep himself occupied while he waited- waiting was never really his thing. It drove him mad, really, to have no control over the situation, to not be able to get to where he wanted- no, needed to be whenever he so desired.
And at the end of every night, he would return to the bar, have another drink, pay his tab, and then go to bed.
But as time wore on, he began spending more time inside the bar before he would disappear, only to return to drink some more before he paid what he owed and disappeared to his room.
There, when he did sleep, he would dream of her, of seeing her again and holding her. And when he would wake, there would be new little gems around him that he would pocket before he left again.
And for weeks, this was his routine. Except ever so slowly, he began to spend more and more time with the bartender than the day previous.
~!**!~
Akari followed after the demon who had taken off, yipping into the air in an almost triumphant manner as he created distance between himself and her. She kept her gaze steady on Moriko's tail, watching the way it swayed this way and that, indicating which way he would turn long before his paws made the decision to do so.
And she continued to follow suit, for several long hours. Occasionally he would bark something back to her, usually a taunt about being behind or a joke about being slow and sloppy in her steps, but she never responded, not even a puff of derision when he'd irritated her.
But as the sun began to set again, the former silence that had grown was broken by another comment from the other.
"No wonder you got separated from your pack! You can't even keep up with a fox demon!"
And out of pure instinct, Akari took that challenge. Her stride lengthened and her head ducked lower to the ground, her claws digging into the dirt and grass and propelling her farther, faster, until she surpassed Moriko altogether, not even looking in his direction.
"What, can't keep up, fox?" She called as she continued to leave him behind. "I thought you had more speed than that."
Moriko could be heard giving out a soft sound of embarrassment, just before his own claws dug deeper into the dirt. And yet, no matter how much he dug, he couldn't seem to close the distance.
"It's no wonder you run on your own, Moriko. You can't even keep up with the likes of me!" And as she ducked under another tree to create some more distance, she couldn't quite fight the twitch in her features, the satisfaction of proving the other wrong.
And the satisfaction of being in control for once was unmistakeable. *
~!**!~
Kasai spoke of nothing that happened the previous night as they continued their travels the next day, escaping Shikiyoku's clutches when her dreams seemed to have faded away and catching a few hours of sleep himself before they kept going.
As with all the other levels, they occasionally moved through populated areas and Shikiyoku would seek out information in such places while Kasai would wait for her outside the doors of the buildings she would disappear into.
Hours later, when the nighttime of the level had deepened to its darkest, Shikiyoku dropped to the ground once more, though as Kasai slowed behind her, he wondered why she stopped so early.
"Gathering information wears me out." Shikiyoku mumbled into her arm as she turned over onto her back.
Kasai raised an eyebrow at her.
You're not a telepath, are you?
…
Good.
Kasai settled down nearby, back against a tree as was his habit, and looked out around the small clearing she had chosen for her rest.
"You don't have to do that, you know." Shikiyoku murmured, opening and closing one eye briefly.
"Go to sleep."
She made some half-hearted grumble at him, but was too tired from her interrogations to submit formal protest.
Kasai swept his eyes over the area until his mind tugged at him and he glanced down at Shikiyoku, seeing her eyes moving rapidly underneath the lids and after another few seconds muttering something he could not make out as her eyebrows drew low over her face.
Watching a moment longer, he finally caught sight of the tears as they began to fall and she sobbed in her sleep.
Letting out a quiet noise of unhappiness, Kasai turned and crawled closer to her, moving a strand of hair away from where it caught in her mouth and reaching up with that same hand to wipe at the falling tears.
He went ahead and lay down next to her, clearing more of her shortened hair away from the damp corners of her eyes.
Sensing that familiar warmth again, Shikiyoku rolled towards it, leaving Kasai frozen in place as she buried her head in his chest.
"...Hi-ei..."
Shifting only a little more, she let out a sigh Kasai could only describe as content, and immediately settled as if her nightmares had passed, one of her hands coming to rest directly over his core.
Taking in what he could of her smoothed, undisturbed features, Kasai resigned himself to giving her a few hours of dreamless sleep, only to find that he slipped into a light slumber as well.
As with the previous night, Kasai woke himself before he guessed Shikiyoku might arise, and carefully moved a few feet from her, and managed another hour of sleep before he felt her stir next to him.
Letting his eyes open-he had fallen asleep facing her-Kasai made no secret to the fact that he watched her as she sat up.
How different her face seemed upon waking this time. Her stoicism was replaced with calm, and instead of reserved, he felt a sort of peace wash over her that released some hidden tension at her shoulders that he had never noticed her carrying until she no longer had it.
Sitting up himself, Kasai waited as he always did for her to make the first move, finding that her expression looked much lighter this morning than he had ever seen it.
With that same air of calm, Shikiyoku turned to look at Kasai, gave him the slightest nod, and then stood up, dusting herself off before they started their day's journey. 3
Thanks for reading! Bless your face. If you sneezed during this chapter, bless you. Peace off!