The Shotgun Approach
Chapter 12: A Bitter Pill to Swallow
A/N: This is the first Hiei POV chapter!
. . .
Mid March—2004
I tapped a pen against a pad of paper I never bothered to write on. These meetings drew on endlessly. Petty squabbles and blathering fools running their mouths about things they have no right to. The lives they live are sheltered. They have no first hand knowledge on demonic kind or our ways.
While the changes Yusuke painstakingly enacted often left a rather foul taste in my mouth...I still supported those wishes. Supported him.
He was my king second.
My comrade—and friend—first.
The thought put an even deeper grimace on my face and I grew tired of the debate running circles around the group of humans.
"Enough," I said, all authority and cold resentment. "The bombings are not reason enough to ban all demon kind from your city. It will make no difference."
"And how do you know, Jaganshi? Perhaps you are more involved with this terrorist group than you would like us to believe."
The cold look I cast Sarayashiki's governor made him break out in a cold sweat. The other officials fell silent, realizing I was already on edge and their constant bitching was only pushing me closer to falling off it.
I'd spent copious amounts of time with these useless wastes of space, because for some unfathomable (as well as moronic) reason, Yusuke chose me to handle these affairs. Kurama was a better choice, but he already ran his step father's company and though he could have juggled it, Yusuke decided to cut him some slack.
So the laborious chore fell to me.
This was the fourth meeting about the terrorist attacks I was forced to endure. The others had not gone any better.
"What would you have us do then, Jaganshi?" asked the only female official present. Fukumoto, I believed her name was. "We must protect our citizens."
"And so far no plan of action has been offered by your king," added the governor.
The way they always spat the word incited my anger unlike any other. As if Yusuke's title was some sort of joke. He held more power than all the idiots present in this room combined.
"My king has been doing his best to contain the damage and relocate the victims. He's provided ample financial assistance to help with rebuilding. But we cannot make a proper move without your permission, governor."
He huffed out a breath and all but stuck his nose up in the air. The pompous piece of shit.
"And if I were to give you permission to do as you please you demons would run rampant. It would be utter destruction."
"As opposed to the total devastation that currently wracks all of Sarayashiki? Your fears are unfounded and pathetic," I snapped. "Make a decision today or don't, it is your people that will suffer for it."
The middle aged man sighed and though he still held onto his anger, he waved a hand at me, suddenly weary. "Do as you see fit then. But be assured...if matters worsen...I will have you all thrown in prison."
I snorted and snatched up the unused notepad. As if this imbecile could imprison even the lowest level of demon, let alone ones of our caliber.
I spoke not a word to any of them, even when certain members attempted to draw me into conversation. Corrupt. All of them. And spending any second longer with these debased wastes of space would sever my last vestiges of control.
Too much socialization.
This was all Yusuke's fault.
And I fully planned on bemoaning this to him over a pint at our usual bar, but another irritation must come first.
I flew across the city, knowing I was cutting it close. If I was late again I would be scolded. And listening to that one more time would make my ears bleed.
I arrived at the class's location two minutes before it was meant to start.
It was snowing heavily out and I allowed a burst of heat to dry my clothing before settling at my desk. My...classmates...thought I was peculiar. I spoke to them sparingly, only when necessary. But I was still somewhat of a fascination. The first demon they'd had in their class, according to them.
I despised every minute of this useless crap.
For the first month they'd gone over things I'd already learned in the field. My experience showed and now the other class members often came to me with questions and advice, as opposed to the professor that was teaching the EMT course.
I would like to flay Etternia open for forcing me into this.
But she'd held true to her word. Anytime I showed up to work I was promptly shut out of the building. Even the other team members betrayed me.
Why be so loyal to someone like her?
Most of the class was hands on training instead of book learning, which I was grateful for. It was also a relief this would be the final one. No more rushing to get here on time, no more juggling my other duties to accommodate this foolishness.
Truly, if it wasn't for Yukina's meddling I would not have done it at all.
But I never was able to say no to her. Not really.
"Now, don't forget that your test is tomorrow! There will be a written exam as well as a practical portion. I hope you have all prepared accordingly!"
There was a mumbled consensus around the room as the students packed up to leave. A few of them asked if I would like to join their last minute study sessions, in which I snidely declined. I fled as soon as I was able, taking a deep breath of the vile human world air as soon as I stepped out the door.
However, my relief was short lived.
I heard an obnoxious crunch somewhere off to my right and spun to find Etternia resting against the building. She was eating an apple, her placid, emotionless face making me grind my teeth. More often than not she was expressionless. She slapped a fake smile and openness on her face daily, but it never reached her eyes.
Everything about her reeked of deceit.
"What do you want?"
She took another bite of her apple and took her sweet time chewing it before replying. "I knew today was your last class and wondered if you'd take me up on my offer of a study partner."
Two months and she still persisted. The class started mid January and continued on for eight weeks. At least twice a week she asked if I needed assistance. It was a purposeful blow to my pride. I would never accept help from her.
"Just as every other time, my answer is no." I walked by her, hands shoved into my pants' pockets and rolled my eyes when she chose to follow me.
She got under my skin. It was difficult to admit, but the truth nonetheless.
"The test is tomorrow isn't it?"
Her voice was accented, one I was never privy to hear before, and always had this lilt of curiosity. She seemed to speak as if from a different world, one far removed even from the Makai. It was deep, for a woman's, and admittedly pleasant to hear. But the rest of her drove me beyond reason.
"Hn," I grunted.
"I am only trying to offer my help—"
With an abrupt jerk of my arm, I stopped her in her tracks, a glare set on my face when I turned to eye her over my shoulder. "I do not need or want help from the likes of you. Go crawl back into whatever hole you came out of."
"Ouch, that stings..."
And even that irritated me. The way her tone seemed to give away nothing. I could not tell if she was being sarcastic or if she actually meant it, not that I would care either way. But it was always like this. She left me with far more questions than answers. A constant, grating, mind numbing irritation.
And the fact she'd grown so close to Yusuke...
I wanted to throttle her. And him for being such a blind, lovesick fool. It was worse than Kuwabara.
Yusuke rid himself of one tether only to get roped into another. He was king over the three major territories in demon world, but he still acted like that rash child I'd met all those years ago.
I rounded on her, my anger reaching levels that forced the snow to melt at my feet. She did not take a step back or show any fear. She was not at all worried about her well-being even knowing that I could eviscerate her in a matter of moments. She only smiled, that same fake smile she plastered on her face every day, chipped tooth and all.
"So, my place then?"
I was loathed to agree. But I found myself in her apartment sometime later, when a certain part in the textbook decidedly stumped me.
I told myself it was because Etternia was the only demon Paramedic and healer in the city. Probably in all the surrounding cities too. Her knowledge would help in the long run, when it came to demonic biology, as it could be different from a species to species basis. The textbooks and classes merely covered humans. I would need to covet what I could learn from her, as aggravating as it was.
I ignored that it was hard to look away as her hair fell across her face when she leaned over the book, reading out a passage and explaining it in terms I could understand. It came out slow, addled by the drugs and the soft light that spilled across the kitchen table. The smell of fresh coffee and the drying herbs she kept hanging on her walls were meant to be a comfort. I concentrated on my breathing, listening...watching.
The unused notepad was put to use, finally, her scribbled lettering filling the margins, diagrams being drawn in available spaces, sketches of demonic anatomy and human alike. She held respectful skills...even if I could not respect her as the demoness that she was.
A drug addict...
It left a bitter taste in my mouth.
. . .
"Congratulations, my friend." Kurama tipped his drink towards me, offering a smile and calling over the bartender to order me another shot.
"You are just happy because you won the bet," I said, tipping back the shot glass the second after it was set on the table. The burn was pleasant. Kurama's taste in liquor was impeccable, as always.
"Well," he said, a mischievous twinkle in his eye, "it was a rather large sum of money at stake."
"Bastards," I said.
They'd bet on when I would drop out of the class. The times varied from a single day (Kuwabara) to a month. But Kurama was the only one who'd bet I would stick it out for its entirety.
He stood, moving to place a hand on my shoulder. "I am proud of you, Hiei."
I snarled at him and wrenched my shoulder away. "Sentimental fool."
He chuckled and then left me to my devices. I scanned the room, seeing who had and hadn't turned out for my "graduation" party. If I'd known this was what they were planning I would have never come.
My eyes were drawn across the room, where I could see her there talking amicably to Shou Warner. The slip of a boy was drinking something that would surely put him on his ass...and as for Etternia...
I didn't look away fast enough.
She caught my gaze and smiled, bidding farewell to Shou and making her way towards me. She stopped at my booth and dug around in her leather satchel for a moment, producing a rather flat box wrapped in brown paper.
"Here, for you," she held the package out to me and I was sorely tempted to burn it to a crisp.
When I hesitated to take it she shook it in my face and then tossed it onto the table, her own face turned sour. She slipped into the seat opposite me and waited.
I ignored her at first. The box too.
She ordered a drink in this time and sat as if she had not a care in the world. Knowing she wouldn't leave me alone until I opened the damned thing, I sighed and tore the paper.
Beneath was a lidded box, nothing remarkable. What lied within the box was the true prize. And it was with only a little annoyance that I decided then and there to accept the gift.
I pulled the brand new stethoscope from it's felt holding and wrapped it around the back of my neck. It was black, with a red chest piece. Fitting.
"You like it then?" she asked.
"Hn," I grunted, not willing to admit that I did in fact appreciate her rather thoughtful gift.
She finished her drink and rose, leaving some money on the table to pay for it. "Congratulations," she said.
I watched her leave, slipping through the bar's door like a specter. My gaze was not the only one that followed her departure, for Yusuke was also eyeing the door. His aura was conflicted and for the hundredth time I wondered what occurred between the two of them back on Christmas Day.
Not wishing to dwell on it too long, my thoughts turned to more immediate matters.
Because even though I knew I now had my choice of places to work...I would end up falling back in amongst these people—Etternia's crew. Which would essentially make her my boss.
The thought made me clench my fists against the table, but I could see no alternative. I wanted to work with them. I'd grown to understand them...and I was able to work beside them with only small amounts of irritation. They were not a useless lot, in fact they were all rather brilliant in their own rights.
Damn Etternia for doing this to me.
And damn Yusuke for ever meeting her.
"You just going to sit over here and sulk all night? This is supposed to be a celebration."
Speak or think of the devil and they will appear. Usually with some other imbecile in tow.
Yusuke plopped down beside me, forcing me to inch closer to the wall and trapping me in the booth. Kuwabara took up Etternia's vacated seat, cheeks rosy and eyes a little too bright. Drunk already, the lummox.
"Never thought I'd see the day," Kuwabara slurred, "fuckin' Hiei, actually helpin' people." He broke out into raucous laughter, as if it was the most hilarious thing he'd ever heard.
Yusuke wrapped an arm around my shoulders, pulling me into his side so he could whisper conspiratorially into my ear, "He bet you'd only make it a single day in the class so I've been mixing some of Chu's extra strong stuff into each of his drinks."
No wonder he was so drunk.
"It will be your problem later," I said.
"Oi, whatta ya jerks mumblin' about over there?"
I shrugged Yusuke off, though he remained a degree closer than I would have preferred, and smirked at Kuwabara. "We are discussing what sort of punishment you should suffer for doubting me."
Red hair tumbled over the back of our booth, Kurama having come to join the fun. "I say we draw on his face when he's passed out drunk, a fitting punishment considering he's done it to all of us a time or two."
"That's too mild, think bigger fox boy."
"Oh, come on, you guys aren't serious!"
My smirk grew and I leaned back in my seat so I could turn to Kurama with a vicious glint in my eye. He grinned back, his wicked thoughts aligning with mine as if we were in sync. "Kuwabara pays the bar tab," we said in unison.
"Now you two are thinking," said Yusuke, as he waved the bartender over for another round of drinks.
Kuwabara groaned, "That's cruel. You guys drink like fishes."
"It's fish," Kurama corrected as he slid in beside the oaf.
"And your blatant disregard for my abilities was uncalled for," I said.
"Tch, just didn't take ya for a school guy..." he mumbled, pouting into his beer.
We made sure to wrack the tab up just enough to cause him a miniature heart attack at the end of the night.
The alcohol made everything fuzzy and that was a good sign I'd drank a little too much. It was also probably the reason I found myself following Yusuke as he made his way towards Etternia's home on foot.
I told myself it was just my duty as one of his Hands. That I needed to protect him.
A falsehood most extreme. Yusuke was far too strong to need protecting from anyone. But I continued to lie to myself anyway.
I kept a careful watch with the Jagan from the adjacent building, far enough that I would not be easily noticed, but close enough that I could see the warm glow spilling from the sliding glass doors of her balcony.
I saw when Yusuke arrived at her door and Etternia did not immediately let him in. She leaned against the wood, pressing her hands to it, her forehead. She took several deep breaths and held them before she opened the door. I would say she was nervous, but that was not quite right. Her interactions with Yusuke as of late were strained. I think this was the first time in several weeks he'd shown up at her apartment.
They spent a few tense minutes speaking, Etternia never allowing him inside, and then she was shutting the door again.
Yusuke exited the building a few minutes later, aura in chaos.
And Etternia...
It was with only a little shock that I found her standing on her balcony's railing, as if she'd merely appeared there. She held an arm out...and a raven flew down from the sky, the size of which was certainly not natural to the human realm, and landed on her outstretched arm.
A moment later her gaze split the night and froze me to my perch. How long had she known I was here? What was a Makai raven doing in a place like this? A pet? A messenger?
I was sober in an instant and the second her gaze moved back to the raven I fled.
What the hell was this feeling?
It was oppressive...a premonition of things to come.
Even more reason for me to find a way to read her goddamn mind.
. . .
April—2004
Two weeks later and I was thrown into work as if I'd never left.
It was a relief to have my hands dirty again, even if the circumstances were less than ideal.
We were in the midst of a house fire, waiting for the firemen to come out with any survivors. It was meant to be a family of five, but so far only three were pulled from the flames.
Twice I'd attempted to put them out faster, Etternia beseeching the humans to allow us to interfere, but a herd of policemen blocked us. Normally I would not mind causing a stir, but I could lose my certification as quickly as I'd gained it if I made too much trouble.
Humans and their pathetic ways of life would always be a conundrum to me. They would rather watch their people die than allow demons to aid them.
A screaming woman was next to be rescued from the home. At first I did not understand what she was trying to convey with her hysterical cries, her soot covered face streaked with tears and voice ravaged from the smoke. But Etternia heard before I did.
Next thing I knew she was dashing between a break in the officers' ranks. Two of them made a grab for her, one missed and the other was met with a frozen hand for his efforts.
I ran after her, a blur undetectable to the regular human's eye.
The flames did not touch either of us, though the threat of the home collapsing was real and imminent.
I found her standing in a room in the furthest reaches of the house. She clutched a bundle of cloth in her arms and something in her eyes...it left me curious and confused.
What was she holding?
"We must leave this place!" I hollered over the raging fire.
She did not budge. What was so important about some blankets? Had the drugs finally fried her brain?
"Etternia!" I snapped.
Her lip trembled and her aura bit into me, swirling the fire upwards and away from the both of us. Next thing I knew everything in the room was crystalline—frozen even without the presence of water. And her emotions were imbued within every inch of it.
"What is wrong with you?"
The cries of a babe reached my ears, unheard over the fire, but with the lack of the crackling flames it became clear. The bundle in her arms was a child.
"A baby. That woman was screaming for her child," she said.
Her gaze was trained on the babe and it held such stunning admiration that I thought for a moment that she meant to steal away with it.
"Give the child here, Etternia."
She acted as if she did not hear me at first, running her fingertips across the screaming babes face as if in a trance. But after a time, without any further prompting from me, she passed the bundle over. This was only my second time holding a child of any age, it was an uncomfortable, unsettling feeling. But I picked my way out of the wreckage of the home and found the hysterical mother sitting in the back of one of the ambulances.
She leapt towards me, desperate for her child, and I was all too glad to hand it over.
In the same breath, loud crackling and snapping signified Etternia's powerful ice freezing the home behind me. The fire that once raged so fiercely was ended in the span of a few heart beats.
Her youki was nothing to sneer at, even if her habits were.
However, I did not understand the sudden surge of emotion, the backbone behind her aura lifting and giving her the ability to freeze such a large space without available water. It was...unusual for her.
She came stumbling from the frozen building, eyes hardened to earthly stone.
I stepped forward, as if to meet her, to ask her what this sudden change in behavior was about. But it was Shou that made a mad dash towards her.
She collapsed and Eric Lawson was next to rush to her side.
I was the third and last.
"What's wrong with her," I demanded.
It was Shou that answered, "Sometimes, when Ettie uses her powers this way, without any natural elements to aid her, she faints."
"Pathetic," I said.
And then I was plucking her from the ground and out of Shou's arms. I brought her towards one of the ambulances and clambered inside, placing her on an empty stretcher. I fed her my own youki the entire time, a not so surprising match to her own.
I was fire and ice after all.
I kept a hand resting against her wrist, watching the rest of the ambulances take off with their patients, the firemen packing up—they were no longer needed. The police filtered about, speaking to bystanders and some of the other EMTs.
It didn't take long for her to wake.
When she did, she made not a sound, just let her eyes slip open gently. She stared up at the ambulance's ceiling...and cried.
And though the tears were silent...
They still cut through me, to some place deep that I did not want to acknowledge.
"You have a child." It was not a question, but a statement of fact.
Her tears froze to her face.
And I decided that no more words were needed. Further questioning could wait.
So I averted my eyes, watched as the crowds left and the remaining first responders wondered what to do about the home encased in such thick layers of ice...
And just let her cry her fill.
A child.
A child she had long since lost.
Etternia was no longer just a drug addict to me, I realized, but a damn good Paramedic, a capable strategist...and now a mother that had lost her purpose.
Suddenly her addiction was not so hard to swallow.
Although, it was a bitter pill going down.
. . .
A/N: So, how was this for the first Hiei POV? I'm trying to show character development that would have occurred after so many years since the series ended. I feel like Hiei wouldn't be completely the same little asshole he was back in the day. I hope you all enjoyed this! And that the POV change wasn't confusing as hell this time xD
And a sudden revelation about Ettie! It's nice to get that one off my chest, phew.