A Losing Battle Chapter Two, a yu yu hakusho fanfic

A Losing Battle

AU What if Hiei hadn't been thrown off of the Isle of the Koorime? What if Yuusuke had been taken in by Raizen before he died the first time? What if Kurama had never been shot by those hunters?

Chapter Two

Three Years Later

It was strange to suddenly think of her. She had been dead for three years.

They had used Hiei's ice sculpture as Hyoumu's tombstone as per the new queen's orders. Thinking of Hyoumu as his former queen hadn't been as hard as he had thought, but for him to refer to his own mother as the Ice Queen was a strange task. After Hyoumu's death, the council had elected his mother as their new queen. He saw her so very little.

He found it very odd that examining the enchantment placed upon him was making Hiei remember her. Hiei had been sitting there for close to an hour, sitting in the dark, and looking over the enchantment. There were no marks on his body to show for it, only in his mind. The enchantment had been placed so that a certain part of his power was inaccessible. Perhaps, looking at it made had made him recall how Yukiyake examined it for faults when Hyoumu's chambers erupted in flames.

In two more years, the council would have decided on the course of action concerning his threatening powers. He wondered why this unknown power of his was so dangerous. Did he have hidden reserves of untold strength, and did they fear that je would turn against them? However, he seriously doubted that for some reason.

So, Hiei was still sitting there, looking at this ward inside of his mind when there came a knock on his door. He sat up with a frown, "Who's there?"

"Hiei-kun, your training of the Weapon of the Bashira House begins."

Shimo! "Shimo-sensei? Now? Tonight?"

"What better time than in the dark of night, and when no one knows what we are doing?" She said, slipping into his small chambers. She frowned slightly, "Hiei-kun, why are you still awake?"

"I couldn't sleep. I was thinking."

She sat on the edge of my bed, "Thinking about what, Hiei-kun?"

"Hyoumu."

"You miss her, don't you?" She said with a sad smile. Hiei nodded, crawled to where she was sitting, and curled up against her side. Shimo cooed into his hair, "It's all right."

"They still haven't found anything about the killer." It was true. No clues whatsoever had been found. Whoever it was had been an expert. An expert killer. An expert murderer …

She only nodded, and rubbed the back of his neck, causing a soothing sensation to go through him, "Come now. We must train you before dawn is here."

He unwrapped himself from her, and followed his liege lady out to the courtyard.

She murmured softly to him in the dark, "One must mix their power with that of ice, and form an ice blade in their hands to make the Hyou Jin, correct?"

This was common knowledge to all Koorime, so he nodded, "Yes, Shimo-sensei."

"I am teaching you how to make the Koori Ken because you are now strong enough to make it. When making the Koori Ken, you must do the first step of making the Hyou Jin." Shimo did so, and he watched and felt as ice joined with her energy to create a blade. This was an unfinished Hyou Jin though since she hadn't separated herself from the blade yet. "After that, however, you must give the blade a pulse."

"A pulse?"

"Send your energy through it like it is an extension of you. Let it beat along with your heart. If you don't, the blade will disappear before you have a chance to use it."

Hiei could feel it then, the pulse of Shimo's energy and that of the Koori Ken. The blade was she, and she was the blade! He had only seen the Koori Ken made once before, and that had had been during a battle, about two years ago. A large group of the Bashira Guard had made the Koori Ken.

Beginning to form the blade slowly, Hiei tried to remember how they had done it. Form the blade, pulsate my energy along with the blade … Feel the pulse …

He sliced experimentally at a wooden practice blade when he was done, the wooden sword freezing instantly, and he watched the two frozen pieces clatter to the floor.

The gasp behind him made him lose control of the Koori Ken, and it disappeared.

"Hiei-kun, no one has ever created a Koori Ken on their first try."

It had been more natural than the Hyou Jin. The Hyou Jin had not a part of him, thus, it had been a strange and ungainly weapon, making most of his training for the past several years rather difficult.

The Bashira House Guard had gone below to get rid of a group of thieves in the area. It had been Hiei's first battle, and he had killed for the first time. He could not let that bother him then, however because he had a job to do. He had to serve the House of Bashira and his people.

Yes, thinking back, he believed that he had made the Koori Ken then as well. They had ambushed he and his division, and the boy had acted on instinct. Strangely enough though, he remembered trying to pull power from behind the enchantment. That had seemed just as natural as taking energy from his unprotected ice power. It felt normal and natural to have a sword that was a part of him, and that pulsed along with his energy.

No one had commented on it that day though. The sword had been gone before anyone had noticed.

Shimo sent Hiei to be a part of the Bashira Personal Guard soon after. Yukiyake was the Captain of Shimo's Personal Guard and as such Yukiyake should have taken over his training. Yet Shimo wanted to continue training him. Yukiyake had questioned putting him in the Personal Guard, but after looking through Hiei's records, she had consented hesitantly.

Hiei was on his way to see Yukionna with Yukina in tow. He saw Yukina more often than his mother, but he saw Yukionna more often than Yukina.

Yukionna gasped overdramatically, grinning, "Yukina-hime! What a pleasure to meet you!"

Yukina giggled, "You know me, Obaasan."

"Yes, but I've never met Yukina-hime. I never see you anymore, Yukina-chan," then she began to cough.

"Are you all right, Yukionna-baasan?" Hiei asked.

"I'm just a little warm. Been so for a week or so." She winked at the two, "I know that I don't look it, children, but I'm old."

Yukina giggled again, but I frowned slightly, "Yukionna-baasan …"

"Hmm? Go on, Hiei-kun. What is it?"

"How old are you?"

Looking through us, like she always did when she was thinking, Yukionna started to smile, and tapped their noses, "Older than you."

Hiei thought about that for a moment, "Are you going to die soon?" He had heard that really, really, really old demon's answers became strange and cryptic the older that they became.

"Maybe. That's the thing about Death. You never know when he'll pop up." She chuckled, pinching Hiei's nose, "Like most men."

He rubbed the abused nose, and mumbles, "Can't you plan a meeting with Death?"

"Hiei-kun," she scolded him, "that is the coward's way. I would never plan to meet with him."

"You're just going to wait to die? Don't you want to know when you're going, at least?"

She looked the twins both up and down, and then, finally, she nodded to herself, "You two keep this in mind: true courage is not winning the war; it is fighting in the losing battle."

She died a couple days later. Yukiyake wouldn't let Hiei go to her wake however, because he had to train. He did not blame her for making him miss the wake for he knew that he had a duty to the Bashira House.

Yukionna would have understood.

One Year Later

Hiei was a part of Shimo's entourage to the palace for a meeting that evening, and he and Yukiyake had been assigned as the two guards that would ride in the carriage with her. Shimo had been staring out the window the whole time.

Hiei stared at his feet. They still couldn't touch the ground. Shimo had said that he would probably never be terribly tall, but he would be taller than if he had survived the fall to the ground at his birth and lived. Deprived of the essential nutrients to become taller, she had said that Hiei probably wouldn't have been able feed himself properly enough to be of any serious height. However, since he had been fed well his entire life, she thought that he would become taller.

He was still short even though her mentioning of growth spurts had cheered him up. Though she had made no sense whatsoever. Shimo had told him that certain things happened to a woman's body when she turned into a teenager. When Hiei had asked her what would happen to him, Shimo had gotten quiet, and her face had become blank. She didn't know. She had dealt with women's changing bodies all her life, and she had never come across a man's changing body. Shimo presumed that Hiei's voice would get much deeper than it was now, and he would become taller than most of them, but other than that she was clueless.

When they arrived at the palace, Shimo gave Hiei a note, "Give this to the Captain of the Royal Guards. Her name is Riku. It is urgent that you give this to her as soon as possible. After that, you are free to train with the others."

As he went in search of Riku, Shimo went to the council meeting.

The only problem with this task was that Hiei had no idea who Riku was or what she looked like. For all he knew, she had been one of the Koorime with his mother as he passed by. The Ice Queen couldn't even spare her son a glance, but he held back the grief that this caused. She had many duties than Hiei had to perform, and was too busy and important. His mother probably hadn't even seen the boy.

Starting to ask servants, they all pointed Hiei in a vague direction to the woman until he finally reached a door that said, 'Riku, Captain of the Royal Guards', and he knocked hesitantly on the door.

Someone from inside barked, "Enter."

He cracked the door open to peek inside, "Eh … Captain Riku, Shimo-sama wanted me to give you this."

Riku looked at the note in his hand. She stood up from her desk, and took the note before opening it, and smirking, "Foolish woman."

There was something strange about the energy in the room – something almost familiar – like something that he hadn't felt in a very long time. Hiei could feel his ward stir slightly as if whatever was inside was stretching. Pinpointing the strange feeling, he eyed a piece of wax on her desk. There was a strange light floating just above it that was yellow on the outside, orange farther in, and blue in the center. It seemed to be emitting an odd gray trail up into the air.

"Captain Riku," he asked, "what's that?"

Riku paled, "Nothing, boy." She folded the piece of paper, putting it in her pocket while she blew out the strange light with her breath, and then asked me, "Are you free right now?"

"Yeah. Shimo-sama said I could train with the other guards."

"Well, will you train with me instead?"

Hiei brightened, and his hands clamped into fists, "Really? I'd love to!"

She smirked again, "This way."

As Shimo walked out of the council room, she said to one of her guards as calmly as she was able, "Let us find Hiei."

The whole meeting had been frustrating! Hiei should have found Riku in time for the woman to come to the council, and reveal Hisame's plot. Shimo had all of the proof in that note. Riku should have come running. She had been one of Shimo's Guards before she had asked to be transferred to the Royal Guards – Riku had been a friend. Unless, Riku is working for Hisame, now, the thought made her footsteps quicken.

When they reached the courtyard, she and her Personal Guards met with a wall of Koorime. They made a rough circle around what was going on in the courtyard. Shimo could hear the clang of two Hyou Jin, and she looked around for Hiei. She forced her way through the wall of Koorime when she didn't spot him right away, and hoped that he wasn't doing what she thought he was.

The Guards separated for Shimo and her Guards when they realized who they were, and her lips tightened in irritation when she saw that the people fighting in the courtyard were Riku and Hiei. Riku was more experienced than Hiei; he probably would have been defeated long ago if not for his natural speed. However, Riku was the one taking the brunt of the battle, and Hiei looked fresh. To Shimo, it seemed that not even a fold of his clothing was out of place. They were both using Hyou Jin, and it did not look as if blood had been shed, yet.

Finally, Riku said, "Hiei-kun, let's not fight with the boring Hyou Jin any longer. Let us show these fine Koorime the Koori Ken."

Hiei's eyes narrowed, and Shimo could almost see the wheels in his head turning. Just what was she up to? The Hyou Jin in his hands disappeared though, and the Koori Ken replaced it. Riku did the same. The two combatants faced off for a moment, and then Riku attacked. Hiei disappeared before she could reach him however, and reappeared behind her, slashing at her back. He had always seemed so much more at ease when using the Koori Ken. Apparently, Riku had been unaware of Hiei's adeptness with the weapon – Shimo knew that he could have been mistaken for a master swordsman.

She also knew that Riku was not one of the best swordswomen around. She could have been counted as an average.

Riku somehow dodged that attack, and their blades locked when she swung at him again. They stood staring at each other, pushing on their blades. Riku, since she was the stronger, was slowly pushing Hiei back, who slid back easily. Suddenly there was a strong flash of youki from Hiei, and I could see the waves of freezing air around his blade leap about Riku, and freeze her in a solid block of ice. Hiei leveled his sword at Riku's neck as he waited for her to break free, as all Koorime could do.

When Riku broke free a moment later, Hiei said, "You're dead."

"You did very well, Hiei-kun," Shimo said on their way out the door.

Suddenly, there was an abrupt pain in Hiei's back, and he could dimly hear Shimo cry out his name. Someone was straightening his body onto his stomach so that his injured back wouldn't get any further agitated.

Shimo's soft voice above him was worried, "Don't worry; it's only a flesh wound. The arrow just grazed you. A couple stitches, and you'll be fine."

Then why does it hurt so much? Hiei then realized that Shimo was cradling his head in her bosom, and he nestled in deeper, trying to forget the pain lashing through him.

"Hiei-chan!" Mom?

There was a thud, as if a body had hit the ground, and Shimo didn't move, but she cried out, "Hina-sama!"

"Mom?" The Koorime around the two were then hurrying toward where Hiei had heard the body drop. Hiei tried to turn to see what was going on, but all he could see of the body was an arrow sticking out of a purple silk kimono. He tried to place where he had seen the design and cut before, and his eyes shifted drowsily to the head of mint green hair before his blood ran cold. Hadn't she been wearing …!?

"Mom! Mom! Mom!" He struggled to break free of Shimo, but her arms were wrapped too tightly around him, and Hiei soon stopped struggling, "Mom …"

"She's dead." Someone murmured.

It's a lie. Right? Mom's fine. A couple of stitches, and she'll be fine. That's all I need. Why isn't Mom the same?

"Hiei, please talk to me. I know it hurts. I know how you feel. You need to let it all out."

By now, his wound had healed. Shimo had refused to let anyone but herself treat to Hiei's wounds, and, for two weeks, only she had attended to the young boy. Shimo was rubbing his back in a gesture of comfort. Yukina had been appointed the title of High Seat of the Mannenyuki House. The council hadn't chosen a new queen yet, but according to Shimo it seemed as if they were indecisive between Yukina and Hisame.

Shimo wanted to make sure that Hisame didn't win for some reason. She was leaving for another council meeting in an hour because they were going to select the new Ice Queen that day.

So, his mother was dead. All he had left was Yukina and …

"Shimo …" his voice cracked since he couldn't remember the last time that he had spoken.

"Yes … Hiei?"

"Promise me that you won't go away."

She smiled sadly, "I'll keep that promise. I'll never leave you forever … but only if you do me the same courtesy."

Hiei made a poor effort to smile, recalling how his mother had used to be so busy, "Congratulations, Queen Shimo."

She did not look entirely pleased with her situation, but, upon seeing Hiei's hesitant smile, her face brightened considerably. Then she looked him up and down, "It is almost time, Hiei."

"What do you mean? Time for what?"

"Almost time for you to make a major decision."

That was another way for her to say that she wasn't going to answer him. As she sat on her new bed, Hiei asked her, "Why aren't you happy? Don't you want to be the Ice Queen?"

"When I was a little girl, I had always dreamed of being the Ice Queen, but I was forced into growing up too soon," she shook her head slightly before smiling. "I had to fight to be recognized as what I was, a High Seat of a House. I could no longer dream about being a queen. In truth, I don't think I ever wanted to really be the Ice Queen, Hiei. I have other plans, and this new position will just cause more problems."

Hiei knew that Shimo was a brilliant tactician, so he believed that she would find something good about her new position that she hadn't seen at first. He wanted to know what she was planning, but Hiei also knew that he would be ignored or worse.

Shimo inspected him again, tapping her lip with her finger, "You will need to begin another sort of training. Training that will be very useful for me."

His thin brow creased in confusion, "What kind of training?"

"Yukiyake is going to take up your training from now on since I will be …" she twisted her mouth in disgust, "preoccupied. She will train you to become my new spymaster. People will suspect things about Yukiyake soon. I want to use that to my advantage for a while. If they think that Yukiyake is my spymaster then they won't suspect you. At least, not as much, and sometimes, that's good enough"

She's trusting me to be her spymaster? "Shimo …?"

"You'd be perfect for the job. You have a small build, a sharp mind, and deadly precision with a sword." She smiled, "Hiei-san, I want you to be my spymaster in place of Yukiyake. Do you accept?"

Hiei bowed low even as his heart began to pound, "I accept, Queen Shimo."

"Remember, Hiei-san, we will need all kinds of strengths to use against our enemy. I will tell you everything in the morning, if my schedule permits it. If not, then visit Yukiyake, and tell her that you have accepted my invitation. She will know what you mean."

One Year Later

On his tenth birthday, Hiei was summoned before the council once more. According to Shimo, the council would tell Hiei what was under the mysterious ward in his mind. He had to decide what to do about it.

Koorimizu of the Hyouzan House stood, and addressed him, a slight tremor to her voice, "You - Hiei adopted into the Ruling House, Bashira, from the Mannenyuki House - have been summoned here to learn of your origins, and of the power you possess inside you."

Keeping his eyes straight, he practiced his blank face while watching Koorimizu. Every now and again, he felt himself twitch, but didn't allow himself to look at anyone else – should he do so, he didn't know how he would react if his eyes landed on Hisame.

Hisame of the Sekisetsu House had killed his mother. Not by her own hands to be sure, but by her own doing. No one else knew who had killed the late queen yet. Shimo suspected that Hisame's work had undone Hyoumu as well.

Shimo had been dropping hints for the past half year about strengths and powers to use against her. The strengths and powers that Hiei suspected might be covered by the enchantment. Yukiyake had been training the boy hard. She thought that he was coming along very well, and that – with some more training and effort – Hiei could easily become the new spymaster in a couple months.

"As you very well know, your mother, the late Ice Queen of the Mannenyuki House, made contact with a male demon, and reproduced with him almost eleven years ago. You and the High Seat Yukina of the Mannenyuki House were the result." Frowning slightly when he saw Koorimizu swallow hard, he shifted uneasily, abruptly aware of dark, hard stares that he couldn't see, "What you don't know is that your sire is a fire demon."

Attempting to formulate thoughts after this statement, Hiei slowly started to piece the words that he had hear into something more understandable, for what he had heard couldn't have made less sense. I'm a fire demon? Then the enchantment was ripped away.

Hiei had opened his mouth to scream at the pain, yet stopped short, panting from the immensity of the power revealed there – the scorching, burning, smoldering heat of the flames of his mind.

As he fell to my knees, he warbled out, "I … I want to … this … this is …"

"So, you're leaving." Shimo said as she closed the door behind her. "I thought you weren't going to leave me, Hiei-san."

He looked up at her, and tilted his head to the side in his bewilderment, "For now, Shimo-sama. It's just for a little bit." Hiei bit his tongue after seeing the sorrow on her face, and realized that it was a terrible lie. It would be much longer than 'a little bit.'

She knelt to the floor, and held her arms out. He dashed away from his satchel, and dove inside of her surprisingly warm arms, "Hiei, I will miss you. I'm missing you already. Come back safe."

"My queen, I will come back. I'll miss you too." Hiei kissed her cheek, and pulled away, abruptly aware of the hiruiseki falling from her eyes.

She picked them up, and placed them into his hands, "These are yours. To do with as you wish."

"I can't sell those, Shimo!" He said, trying to put them back into her hands, but he stopped short when Shimo's hand was holding something out to him. It was a necklace with a soft pink hiruiseki pendant – the same color of her hair and the hiruiseki in his hand.

"This is my daughter's hiruiseki. Shinsetsu's hiruiseki. I want you to have it."

"I …" he looked up at her, almost about to tell her to keep it. Yet, the love in her eyes made his free hand wrap around the pendant, and he swallowed nothing before he put it on. "Thank you, Shimo. This means a lot to me because … I know that it means a lot to you."

She kissed his forehead then, and cradled him gently before she left the room, saying as she exited, "I love you, Hiei."

… Hurray, the lameness is over! Meh, sometimes you just can't help some of the slightly cheddar cheesey parts of stories … XP

Hah! Now it's time to get into more fights!