Warnings: nothing serious.
The Wielder of BlackFire:
The Legend Lives Part II-Rose's Renaissance
Chapter Nineteen: Jazz
The trio walked down a dark and dismal street. Rose walked ahead of the two youkai, their eyes keen and alert, even in the faint moonlight. There were no streetlights to light their way, but what was that to demonic eyesight? Very little. Rose seemed to know her way by heart and didn't need streetlights to show her the way.
They approached an old, abandon warehouse. The moon retreated behind a misty cloud, deepening shadows to yawning black pools of abyss. Boards had fallen in around it, giving it a look of being withered and in ill health. It sagged in a depressed frown. In its youth it have been a proud building painted a greenish hue, but the sands of time had worn away all the finish, revealing insect-infested wood.
"Stay out here." Rose stopped, turning to glare a warning at them.
The two nodded, moving to lean against the frail building, facing the road. Rose turned and walked down the dank and dirty alley that ran along the side of the building. Mice skittered out from in front of her, hiding under old, rotting planking. She stopped halfway down the long building.
"Jazz," she grunted, more of a statement than the questioning greeting one would think it was supposed to be.
"I'm here," came a soft voice, muffled by the thin planking between them. The person was clearly inside the building, not that it mattered. So many boards were missing or decayed that there was very little separating them.
"Do you have any information on the password that unlocks my other personality?" Rose asked, her voice business-like.
"I do not." There was a pause as Rose began to collect her thoughts for another question.
"You have brought others."
"I have," Rose replied evenly, warily.
"I do not know who holds the passwords you speak of," the femine voice said, switching abruptly back to the subject at hand, as though sensing Rose's caution. There was silence as Rose continued to collect her thoughts. A mouse scuttled across the dark alley with a quiet-searing 'eep'.
"I want to know about Midori-Nami the Wave Master. Have I already acquired this information?" the girl asked.
"You have," Jazz said. Her voice was curious, but gave no other hint as to her personality.
"Which one?"
"Black twenty-seven," was the reply. Again there was silence.
"And my guests?"
"General or specific?"
"Both." The hidden demoness seemed to think a moment.
"Large, green, four," came the mysterious voice. Rose nodded to herself.
"Good."
"Is that all?" the voice asked quizzically, without spite or inpatients, its tone placid.
"It is. Contact me if you find anything else about either," Rose said. There was an invisible nod and a 'hmm' of understanding. Rose turned and walked from the alley, her boots making just the faintest of pats on the cement. Hiei and Kurama looked up expectantly.
"Let's get out of here," she said gruffly, walking past them. They followed her back to her home without speaking. Kruama remained in a cloud of thoughtful silence all the way there. He received a glance from Hiei and returned it. Yes, he had heard every word. But it had been in some kind of code, and he didn't understand it. Her guests? She must have been referring to them, of course. That demon, she was only lower class. Just a minor league. But apparently a good spy, or Thorn would not have chosen her to carry such a burden.
When they returned to the girl's house, they entered through the back door. She stood just past the doorway, looking around her room almost critically. The two demons stood behind her as she sighed and strutted forward.
She walked into the furthest corner of the room, which was hidden from the boy's view by a half-wall and the plastic beads. Kurama and Hiei stepped into the room, closing the door behind them as they curiously viewed her antics.
She returned to their vision as she stopped in front of her bookcase, which lay just within their view, imbedded in the wall. In her left hand she held a tall staff that came just above her head. Its handle was made of smooth-sanded wood that looked to be red cherry, but shone with a sheen that was not natural. Its head was made of some golden metal alloy shaped into a scythe-like crescent with a four-pointed star connecting the crescent, which one could call a gibbous moon, joining its tips, its edges protruding like a dagger, sharpened and ready to gouge anything its owner bid it to.
The girl studied the case in front of her before removing two notebooks. One was a normal, black, one-subject while the other was a thick three subject notebook. The larger one was green. She turned and placed both of them in her bag, setting the staff beside it. Her mouth was set in a grim line and her eyes were unreadable.
She turned around and seemed to hesitate. After a second or two she straightened her shoulders and strode forward, pushing the beads aside carelessly, stopping in front of the intricate painting on her wall. She stared at it a moment, examining its regal pose, and the fire that raged in its icy eyes.
An image flashed before Hiei's eyes and the room lit up with a bolt of lightening.
/Flashback/
Hiei stood up and walked to the other side of the room. He stood a moment before the wall of plastic, contemplating entering. After a hesitating second, he lifted a hand, pushing away the curtain and stepping into the dark room. He turned to his left, facing the bright stencil on the wall. Lightening ripped through the dark house, giving the bright, ice-tinged, chasms life, and shadowing the silver scales and giving the silver claws a threatening gleam, like the points of knives as their tips. From its mighty jaws thundered an enraged roar, its breath hot with fire that never breached its lips nor heated its glinting fangs. It looked down on him menacingly, its shape seemed to dance in the fluttering of light, its tail a deadly whip that lashed at the air with anger behind muscled haunches. Hiei's eyes widened and his jaw dropped just slightly. He could have sworn life had come to the painting. He stepped forward, putting his hand on the creature. It was...warm. True, it was becoming slightly warm in the room since the storm had began, but-...no. Such thoughts were foolish. Hiei shook his head and took back his hand. It was a painting once again, the life gone from its proud eyes that looked down upon him. Its serpentine body was unmoving, forever frozen in its roil pose on the sky-shaded background. Hiei backed away, giving the dragon another long glance before turning away and resuming his position on the futon.
/End Flashback/
Hiei blinked. The room was again bathed in the light of the dusky moon. He was back in the present.
Rose sighed and closed her eyes, lifting her hand and running it over the painting, starting from the threatening jaws and making their way over it's breast and abdomen. Memories jolted Hiei's mind once again.
/Flashback/
She was facing the painting. But somehow it looked different. The sun could not cast that reddish glow. What was it? Hiei strained his eyes harder to see into the darkness and Thorn approached it. The dragon, its claws were...red. Like they had been freshly painted. But the way the girl was acting, she hadn't done it. She looked up at it from not two feet away. Hiei stood up and walked over as well, standing next to her without a sound. His eyes widened and he took a quick breath. It was not paint that stained the claws of the creature. It was blood. Fresh blood. It dripped down the wall slowly, reluctant to leave the silver. Thorn's hand reached up, but, it seemed, she could not touch what she wished to. Slowly, her arm rose higher, as did her head, until she was a good three inches taller than the youkai that stood beside her. Hiei was amazed, shocked really, but refrained from saying anything. The girl seemed to be in a very pissed-off daze. Her fingers brushed against the creature's jaws, which hung open in a frozen scream of anguish. She retreated them and her height returned to its normal standard. She brought her fingers in front of her, rubbing them together thoughtfully. Blood stuck to their tips.
/End Flashback/
Thorn had stared at the bright, sticky substance on her fingers, her bright green eyes questioning. The Black Blaze had killed Rose's closest companion, her horse, thus angering both Rose and Thorn, the latter of which later took her rage out on Kuwabara.
Back in the present, Rose seemed to find what she had been searching for. She opened her eyes and looked to where her hands lay, together on the wall, right next to the newly-added pendent that encased the serpent's neck, covering its left breast. Using both hands, she dug her fingernails into the wall, seemingly trying to claw a hole in the structure. Suddenly, a small portion of the wall fell away in a neat little scale-shaped piece. She hesitated a moment before plunging her hand into the inky shadows. Kurama and Hiei heard the silky sound of chain sliding over chain and immediately knew what was stored in the hiding place. Their suspicions were confirmed when Rose pulled a black necklace from the wall's bowels. The medallion was black and circular, the image portrayed on the wall carved from black iron in painstaking detail. The eyes of the medallion were blank, pearly white chips of void, not holding the bright, sapphire hue that it once had.
Rose studied the pendent, shifting it in the wane light. She shook off her thoughts and placed it in her pocket.
She slung the duffle bag over her shoulder and picked up the staff.
"Let's not waste anymore time," she said quietly.
………………………………...
A/N: its been a horribly long time! Sorry! I started a new fan fiction -whimper- so I got distracted! its all Sasuke and Naruto's fault!Sorry!
Reviews:
Miyako14: its nice to see you back! And no, I haven't seen the hole series, only up to episode 104 or something like that. Its horrible that they had to end it. Apparently there was an argument over which way the series should go, so it just ended. Its soo sad. thank you so much!
Ensatsu-Kokoryo-Ha:
-nod- that's true about Yusuke, he learns about people through his fists rather than his brain :P but we still love him. Lol, here's Jazz. Rose and Thorn's past may be coming up in the future, don't worry! Here you go! Thank you!
The Password:
See former chapters!