Warnings: erm… Kurama's planning something O.o

The Welder of BlackFire:

The Legend Lives Part II-Rose's Renaissance

Chapter Five: Kurama's Plan

"So what are we going to do now, Kurama?" Hiei asked. The two walked down the long halls, having arrived back in the Spirit World to tell Koenma of what they had learned. He could feel thoughts churning within the kitsune's mind, working rhythmically and intensely.

"I have a plan," the boy said, his voice still thoughtful as to the idea, but firm. "We were too forward in our offering and she easily guarded against our intrusion. Perhaps we should be a bit more encouraging, or perhaps make her realize she still has the Black Blaze's power." Hiei glanced over at him wearily after he completed his explanation. He would rather not see that power again. But he was curious as to his partner's plans.

"What are you suggesting? That we take her by force?" the fire youkai asked. The kitsune nodded shallowly.

"Yes. And I think I know the perfect way to go about it," he said.

"Just as long as I don't have to go back to that baka ningen school," Hiei grunted. Kurama smirked slightly.

"We don't have to," he said, paused, then continued as he excepted a withering glare of reproach. "But perhaps we should." The demon beside him growled, turning smoldering eyes forward.

"I'm not going back," Hiei said. There was another pause, this one longer, with more thought and caution to its breath. Kurama's voice was softer than it was before when it whisked from his throat.

"You don't like it, do you, Hiei?" This was met with a snort.

"No. Those stupid female ningens are worse than Kuwabaka," he said bitterly, twisting the name of the boy they often held missions with who, to put it lightly, could be a bit slow in understanding things. They were both constantly at each other's throats.

"That's not what I meant." Their footsteps pattered softly on the floor.

"I don't like a lot of things, including prying foxes," Hiei growled in a deadly soft voice. He knew what Kurama had meant. No, he didn't like seeing the girl as Rose instead of Thorn. But it didn't matter what he thought about it, that didn't mean it would change.

They stepped up to the door that led into Koenma's office and the kitsune opened it quietly. The young ruler sat at his desk, as usual, rifling through an assortment of papers frantically. He did not hear them come in and so they stood, unnoticed, until Kurama cleared his throat. Koenma looked up, surprised. He looked more worn that he had before, his brown eyes dull and tired as he stopped his shuffling and looked at them.

"Did you find her?" he asked hopefully, his voice pinched with stress. Kurama nodded and explained what had occurred that day, making sure to point out that Thorn's memory was entirely lost to the girl, as well as her insistence that she held no power. Koenma nodded and sighed heavily.

"Might I suggest something?" Kurama asked when there was a slight silence. The prince gave a half-hearted wave to signal him on, his eyes scanning over the wrinkled parchment on his desk as he searched for something, seemingly giving up on the idea of bringing the girl to their side. "There is a chance that she will refuse to come with us, even with constant persistence and prompting. Actually, I think that the more we press her gently, the harder it will become to convince her to help us because she will become immune to our insistance," the red-haired boy explained. Koenma looked up at him skeptically. "I suggest that we, instead, persuade her by more forceful means? At least until she realizes everything we've said is the truth or she comes to discover that she still has her power, that is, if she still does, of course." Koenma thought on this a moment, sucking steadily on his pacifier, before nodding in agreement.

"Yes, perhaps that would be the best way. I'll tell Botan to go as a peace keeper when you go, and I'll send Yusuke along too," the toddler said. Kurama nodded.

"Hn. Why do we need her anyway? Kurama and I could defeat this creature if we really wanted to," Hiei said with a scowl. Koenma shook his head.

"No, I'm not questioning your abilities, but, I fear, this demon is far more powerful than anything I've ever come across. With the exception of the Black Blaze." He paused and began to search for something under the sewage of papers that mauled his desk. Finding it, he picked up the remote to his large television screen and turned it on. "Watch this and you'll see why I'm concerned," he said. Kurama and Hiei turned to face the screen as it lit up to reveal a large island that looked to be quite peaceful, no doubt located in the Demon World. It was lush and green with tall, ancient trees.

Suddenly, the ground began to quake and the water began to shatter violently against the sides of the cliffs that clung to the edge of the island like broken blue waves of crystal. The island quickly tore in two, as if ripped by two unseen, powerful hands, its ragged center crack large and gapping like a hungry mouth, before water gushed through the ever-growing breaking point, filling the void with swirls of enraged water. The shaking intensified greatly and the island crumbled steadily, large slivers of itself plummeting down into the water, causing giant splashes that reached the top of the cliffs of the island, which was hastily descending into the water.

Finally, only one small, naked peak of rock remained, on which stood a tall figure, dressing in a long, nearly black, dark green cloak. Their hair was long and just a shade or two lighter than their cloak, floating past their shoulders in thick locks, held only in place by a black band placed just past the base of their neck, although they still fought furiously as the water continued to bellow around the figure, causing wind to whip through their tresses. The three listened as a deranged chuckle began to rumble over the sloshing of the water. It grew steadily until it was a full fledged, crazed laugh that tumbled from their throat heartily.

"Look here Koenma! I have spent but a small fraction of my strength and this island crumbled beneath my hand! Soon I will rule all the worlds, and even your precious team of detectives will not be able to stop me!" they cried to the soft gray sky. Their laugh echoed off the water as the screen suddenly cut out, leaving in the wake of the gurgling laughter a hissing gray screen. Koenma sighed and turned off the set, placing his head in his hands and closing his eyes, deep in thought. The three were silent for a moment. Now they knew, and that's why he thought they would need her help. If this creature was as powerful as they said, they would need every strength that they could acquire.

"Hm. I see," Kurama said simply. The young ruler nodded to his desk more than to the fire-haired boy.

"Yes. Now, I need you to return to the human world and keep an eye on Rose," he said, looking up at them from his slumping distress. Hiei grunted as he and Kurama turned to look at him and the prince gave him an indifferent look of fatigue.

"Count me out. I'm not going back," the youkai said, glaring at a book that lay on the closest edge of the desk. Koenma's expression hardened and glared at him.

"If you didn't return, she might get suspicious about what we might try, so you're staying," he said firmly. Hiei growled at the book, his eyes narrowing.

"Yes, you have a point," Kurama said, glaring at Hiei from the corner of his eye. Hiei quieted his disgruntled noise and merely glared hate daggers at the placid opuscule on the wooden surface.

"Glad you understand. Now, I have work to do," Koenma said, turning back to his books. It reminded Hiei of the time the prince had been trying to find information on Thorn and the Black Blaze the way documents were scattered about, struggling to remain neat, tidy piles, yet failing miserably and falling into unsalvageable heaps. Kurama nodded and turned away. Hiei followed hesitantly, growling under his breath. He did not like the turn things were taking.

Rose sat impassively in her seat. She didn't see them, but she could feel one of the two boys behind her looking at her. But she ignored it, staring instead at the board in the front of the room. The teacher drawled on about how the Regents test would cover everything they knew about Global History. She tuned her out easily. She hadn't been surprised when the two boys had returned two days before the current one. But, she thought thankfully, it was Friday, and she could avoid them for the entire weekend. She sighed and propped her elbow on the table, resting her cheek on the flat of her knuckles. They hadn't spoken to her since Monday, although they had tried. Each time she would find some crafty way to avoid them, and she congratulated herself on the raw cunning she had used.

She glanced at the clock. It was nearly time for the bell. The teacher continued to drone. She could still feel their eyes on her back. It must be Hiei. She had caught him watching her a few times before. When she would look at him his expression would darken and he'd turn away. Kurama would normally notice and glance at her, then she would glare in greeting with a slight snort before turning away. But she really didn't mind the gentle holes in her back as much as she would have thought. She must have been strong allies with them. She had felt very comfortable talking with them on Monday, which was strange. She had no memories, no matter how hard she tried to think. But she had been approached by someone after recovering from her 'sickness'. They said that they had been a spy for the girl and that they were a demon. She had laughed at her at first and turned away, thinking that, not only had she gone insane, but she had taken on insane new friends as well! But, eventually, with slight persistence, she had begun to believe her, although she was still skeptical about the irrational ideas. She didn't look to be much older than eighteen, although she said that she was very old. She never elaborated on who she was or where she came from. But she did tell the girl of her travels for the several months that she had been 'sick'. The demoness had told her that she had gone to Japan often and asked about a powerful team of Spirit detectives that she had helped in some big fight afterward, after she explained what a Spirit detective was and about the Spirit and demon world, of course. After the fight she had helped them once again before excepting an offer of training, only to break the deal not long after. The demoness didn't really heard much after that, but did get the picture that the team had a new mission, to hunt some girl with a sword. That had been all before she had returned and then reappeared as Rose. The demon had said that she had not asked for information since and so had done little spying. She was told that when 'Rose' lost her memory to help her in every way possible. It seemed that the demoness held a great respect for her. So, although she had lost her memories, she still knew, if vaguely, what had occurred in the time from which she could not remember. So they must have been the ones she had asked for information about. Apparently, according to the spy, they were her only real 'allies', or people she had sought out. Rose continued to ponder what the demoness, who had merely given her the name Jazz in which to call her by, saying it was neither her demon, nor the human name she had gained, had told her.

The bell rang.

Hiei growled under his breath. Damn that bell to the deepest pit of hell. He wanted to kill whoever had created the dull blare. Slowly and painfully. He and Kurama stood up and left the room. Next they had a study hall with the girl, who had had gym on Monday, yet did not today. Humans with their complicated schedules. They walked down the halls to their last class, which was held in the cafeteria due to the large amount of students. They walked into the cafeteria from the lesser-used entrance and were unnoticed. They looked around. Teachers handed out passes at the other entrance, crowded by students that were leaving to go to other classes. Hiei glanced around quickly.

"Look," he grunted, nodding toward the corner to their far right, toward a round table located in a cozy corner of the large room. Kurama looked to see Rose sitting at the table, a thoughtful look on her face. Kurama nodded.

"Let's go," the kitsune said, walking toward the table. Rose noticed and looked up as they stopped and stood in front of her table. She glared at them, her expression hardening. Persistent, weren't they?

"Mind if we sit here?" Kurama asked. She nodded toward the chairs, bidding them to take a seat. They did, Hiei on her left, facing her, with Kurama beside him on her right, facing her as well with their backs to the rest of the room. She gave them a hard look before settling back into her chair, watching them. The second bell rang and students began to settle into their respective seats, getting out books and binders while talking to their friends. The study hall teacher had long since filled out all the passes and yelled for silence when Rose finally spoke.

"I'm surprised you came back. It was foolish of you," she said, running her right hand through her dark hair, making her shoulder-length bangs fall to frame her face before she pushed them behind her ears. Hiei grunted and Kurama spoke.

"You know why we came back," he said softly.

"Hn, it was still foolish. You know my answer, it will not change," she said, crossing her arms. The back of the cafeteria was actually in front of the school and so the whole length held windows. Rose turned her head to look out the window and did not turned to look at, nor speak to them again. Kurama glanced at Hiei, who saw the move and opened his mind up for questions.

Yusuke's here? Hiei asked through his telepathy.

Yes. Tonight, after school. We'll have to hold her so she misses the bus, the fox said. Hiei nodded slightly. It would be a long block. And it was. Between the loud laughter and talking of kids, books fell and boomed shut, pencils tapped and paper ripped. Teachers would yell for silence, but it was incredibly short-lived and soon the volume would increase once again. The three at the table in the corner were silent, neither talking nor working. Silence engulfed their corner hungrily, diffusing through the air to muffle the other sounds about them. It made the period pass slowly, especially for Hiei, who growled mentally every time a paper was torn from a notebook in a long and grating voice. What an annoying sound! The bell was better than that horrible grinding! But soon, although not soon enough for the fire youkai, the buses could be seen lining up outside the windows. The announcements came on, not that one could hear them over the noise of students pushing in chairs and talking. Kurama glanced at Hiei as Rose stood up and Hiei nodded slightly. They had studied her every day. She would go to her locker, put away some books and perhaps take a notebook out before heading towards her bus.

They were all dismissed and Rose melted with the crowd of students as Hiei and Kurama followed. She took her time putting her things away as the two demons stood on the opposite wall, directly behind her, waiting for their chance to spring their plan into action.

Finally, the girl closed her locker and turned around, walking away.

"Rose!" Kurama called softly. She paused and then stopped as if contemplating ignoring him. She turned around to face him as the two approached slowly, stalling for time. She scowled in inpatients. No what did he want? She glared at him subtly as she paused and shifted her bag on her back. She noticed the curious glances the people around her gave with an ignorant eye. Everyone knew about her, and knew that Kurama and Hiei had been informed of who she was. Of the monster she had become. They were probably very curious as to why they were approaching her. Should they have been any other new student in their situation, they would have avoided her at all costs if they were smart, or be greeted with a corrupt tongue and glare to boot. No, these two were out for her. But it was almost nice that these two weren't afraid of her.

"Rose, could you remind me what the assignment was for English please?" Kurama asked, stopping in front of her and drawing out the sentence suspiciously. Her eyes narrowed uncertainly.

"There was none," she said.

"Oh," he said stupidly. "Was there any for History, perhaps?" She glanced behind her, glaring at a passing student, who quickened his pace and shot by them.

"Study for the test next class," she said, tapping her foot, making sure her got the point that she found his questions annoying.

"And what will that test be on again?" he asked innocently. Rose growled under her breath and glared at him darkly. He was being very annoying, Hiei thought, noticing her irked expression.

"Chapter thirteen," she said with a snap.

"Hm, I see," Kurama said, nodding.

"Is that all?" she asked, exasperated. Kurama nodded.

"Yes, I suppose so," he said, thinking quickly. He could hear the buses begin to pull away. Rose seemed to hear this as well, her eyes darting about impatiently.

"Good, now I've gotta go," she said, turning and walking quickly down towards the nearest set of doors. Hiei smirked.

"Well that worked out perfectly," he said as he heard the girl curse as her bus went by, pounding shortly on the glass. His friend nodded.

"Yes, now let's go find Yusuke," he said.

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Authoress' Note: bwahahahaha! update! I'm going to set a rhythm again. Like, updates every Thursday nights or something. Like it used to be. . I just need to get the motivation to stop reading online comics about video games I've never heard of and start editing these things! anyway, REVIEWS THAT ROCK MY SOCKS!

Reviews:

baka-chibi-puffs:

Lol! Thanks! one more than last chapter! W00t! :P Cheese cake its like… yum. And the update! -shoves update down your throat- thankies!

Ryuu:
Thanks so much for reading! I'm not into lots of OC fics either. And if one notices, they're not as popular, mostly because they're repetitive. The Spirit Detectives must find this girl to help them do something and she comes with them happily and they defeat the power and the OC and one of the bishies from the anime live happily-ever-after. -rolls eyes- I HATE that. So I'm trying to get away from it. I mean, sure, some of the OC's that I've created have some of the same beliefs as me, but they're not EXACTLY like the author. Mostly I thought of these Charries because someone told me I had DID [better known as MPD]. And I thought it would be a great idea for a fanfic, getting away from the repetiveness of everything. They have to be weak, if not physically then mentally. Anyway, enough of that rant.

Thanks, I'm trying to keep everyone in character, and I'm hoping its working, so yer comment is encouraging, thanks! I'm just trying to think of what he would do if it was Yukina or something like that. How he would react.

:P hope you like MY rant. Here's the update! Thanks .

baka-chibi-puffs:
w00t! Double the reviews! Have a cookie!

Yes, vv poor Hiei. Torturing the poor guy is just… really fun. lol. Its okay. SAVING YOUR SANITY!

Ensatsu-Kokoryu-Ha:

Yeah, I didn't really think of how Rose felt either until I started my side story to show her agony throughout it all. Then its like, wow. Its powerful. And I'm going to hafta give another spoiler, but Rose goes through a lot of pain after getting BB. I mean a LOT. But yeah. Its like she woke up in her bed one morning, but while she slept someone came into her home and robbed it of everything she held dear.

O.o that's a good question, does she really have the power? Is she hiding it from them? What reason would she have to do that? :P don't worry, all questions are answered later, of course. and I'm not saying anything about how they're going to go about getting her to see everything their way. That's next chapter!

LOVE THE LONG REVIEWS! Its like… YES! The longer the better! Thanks!