The Shotgun Approach
Chapter 22: 2 Days, 7 Hours, 39 Minutes
A/N: This is a YUSUKE POV chapter.
Sorry its taken me so damn long to update. Depression/stress/work/life at its finest.
Edit: So, I went back in and cleaned this shit show up. My OCD couldn't leave it with so many mistakes xD
. . .
Two days ago I returned from demon world.
Two days, seven hours, and thirty-nine minutes to be exact.
In those two days, seven hours, and...well, you got the picture—four things happened. Not all at once, but one shitty thing after another, in succession.
One: Hiei was missing, presumed dead (or at least, he better be fucking dead, considering he left me to deal with all this shit on my own).
Two: The largest scale bombing so far went off in Sarayashiki's biggest shopping district. I'm talking utter annihilation of most of the buildings. Hundreds of people dead. Maybe thousands.
Three: Everything Yomi told me during my trip to demon world was true.
Four...
Four: Ettie wasn't the person I always thought she was.
Yomi made it a point to warn me. I chose not to listen. What could he possibly know? He employed her for years, sure, I'll give him that. But he wasn't close to her, not really. He just...knew things. From years of spying on her, no doubt.
Then he offered me a bargain, which I shot down quicker than I could shoot off my spirit gun. Even if that offer was looking better and better by the second right now. I couldn't do Ettie dirty like that...I just couldn't give Yomi what he wanted.
A free pass into Ettie's world. Into her home.
No. That wasn't how I rolled.
If he wanted to invade her lands he would need to find someone else to take him there. It sure as hell wouldn't be me.
A lick of fire burned the flesh black on my left shoulder, my ruined t-shirt sleeve smoldering. I winced, ignored it, and barreled on ahead.
Needed to catch her. Couldn't let her get away.
Couldn't leave things like this.
A blur flew past me—black—so quick it was hard to see.
Next thing I knew I was being knocked out of he way when a metal support beam came crashing down from the ceiling.
We were in a clothing store. Or at least...I thought that's what it was anyway. Kinda hard to tell when all the shit here was so damn flammable. They should invest in fireproof fibers—preferably the same kind Hiei used for his custom made battle gear.
After years of burning most of his clothing he finally found a better alternative.
Didn't stop him from ripping them to shreds on his own though. Guy sure liked to fight naked.
I rubbed the back of my skull, feeling a lump there. I was on the ground now and with a groan, I managed to struggle into a sitting position. Damn it! At this rate I was gonna lose her!
"Thanks," I said in a hurry, jumping to my feet.
He said nothing, though I admitted to myself that I was a tiny bit relieved he wasn't actually dead.
I thought for sure after our argument (brawl) in Gandara he would have told me to go fuck myself the second he saw me. Wouldn't deny I still wanted to punch his face in; stubborn asshole always wanting to do shit his way.
Not this time.
Not when she was involved.
I needed to hear it from her own mouth. That she betrayed me.
Leaving the burning store behind, I burst out the back door, pushing through a herd of screaming people all running in a panic. A big part of me wanted to stay and help, to direct them to somewhere safe, but there was no time.
If I didn't catch who was behind this now—today—I may never have another chance.
Hiei was running beside me now, his movements as fluid as water, slipping between the rows upon rows of people easily. He kept my pace, as he always did when running with someone slower than him. Then again, I'd suspected for years that Hiei could only run at his top speed for minutes at a time, but even that was enough to take him clear across the city in a matter of seconds.
"Where are Kurama and Kuwabara?" he asked, trying to fake indifference about their safety and failing.
"Helping somewhere."
"...Safe?"
"Yeah, you'd know if they weren't. They can handle themselves."
He grunted. In agreement or disbelief, I couldn't tell.
Sometimes Hiei was easy to read, but others it was like staring into the grooves of a brick wall and hoping they would split open and start talking.
"Yomi warned you this would happen," he said.
"Yomi doesn't know shit. Besides—"
Never got to finish what I was going to say. Probably didn't matter right now, anyway.
I jumped back, narrowly avoiding a huge sword aimed for my neck. Three men stepped out of an alley—giants, demons by the mark of their energy, all carrying deadly looking weapons—the chaotic rush of people split and flooded around them as if they were rocks in a river.
Hiei and I pushed our way out, leading the men away, trying to protect as many people as we could. Enough of them died today...no need to add to the body count.
I dodged again, feeling the blade swing towards my legs, jumping up and out of reach. The sword lodged itself into the stone siding of an electronics store, chunks of rock crumbling away when the pack's leader wrenched it back out.
"Who the hell are you?" I asked.
The blonde at the front of the pack only smiled. A grin that was entirely teeth.
He swung at me again, the loud noise of clanging metal exploding through me. Hiei jumped in between us, his own sword drawn and pushing back against his opponent's, the blades grinding.
"Go," he said from between clenched teeth. "If you do not reach her now, you never will."
I didn't insult him by refusing to leave. Three guys—all lower A classes in power—would be a cake walk for Hiei, even if they all came at him together.
I squeezed his shoulder in passing, a wry smile twisting my lips when he shrugged it off, and then powered my way through the pack. I made sure to pop one of them hard in the nose as I passed, feeling something break. With a grin, I disappeared back into the crowd, cutting across the street and into another alley.
The end of it was blocked with a high wall of ice. Ice that seeped demonic energy and created a frost across the asphalt.
Ettie.
Smashing my way through it took more power than expected. Tough shit, her ice. Near unbreakable. But not quite.
Using my demon energy, I was able to create a human sized hole, but it didn't break as normal ice would. It shattered into small pieces as sharp as razors and managed to slice me open with many small superficial cuts. But I brushed them off, barely feeling when they slit open the palms of my hands, and rushed on ahead.
I forced my legs to move faster, to run longer, and the alley ended, ramming me head first into another massive group of distraught people. I started to yell, screaming at them to leave the area and get as far from the blast zone as they could—that first responders were waiting for them. I don't know if they heard me, or if they listened. But I had to try.
Two days ago my visit to demon world was prompted by not only Ettie and her family, but because I was sick. Had been sick of awhile.
Which, even though I was still part human, was apparently not normal.
Kurama noticed first and forced me through some tests. He said the results were concerning but he couldn't tell what was the cause of it. And I didn't think it was all that serious. I was just tired; felt kind of weak and out of it. Figured it was just stress or age finally catching up to me. I mean, I was almost thirty. That was old for someone in my line of work, wasn't it?
Kurama suggested I make a trip to see Mukuro. Considering I needed to go to demon world to see what Hokushin managed to dig up about Ettie's father, I agreed. Didn't mean I had to like it, however.
So first I paid a visit to the monks, avoiding going to see the person I knew could help me. I assisted in my kingly duties for once, much to Hokushin's never ending shock, and helped some of the surrounding towns on the outskirts of the main city of Tourin. He didn't have any real information for me concerning Ettie, but did direct me towards someone who did. Why I didn't just go there in the first place was beyond me. Would have saved me the hassle.
Eventually Hokushin noticed I wasn't well. He noticed and bitched me out like he was my mother and sent me on my way with a swift kick to my ass.
Bastard.
Wanting to avoid the inevitable, but knowing it would just be more work doing it that way, I made a stop in Alaric. Mukuro had all this fancy medical shit and I also kind of hoped I would find Hiei there too. He ran off somewhere shortly after Ettie went missing and the little asshole hadn't been in contact.
No such luck there. Hiei wasn't in Alaric.
But Mukuro did run some tests on me—for a price.
Permissions to have the unification tournament on her own turf. My eyes rolled into the back of my head with that one. Whatever. We announced the location last for a reason, otherwise demons would be camping out there for weeks. If she thought having the tournament on her own lands would give her an edge, I would allow it. Small price to pay and all that jazz.
The results of her tests weren't pretty...but they were fixable.
She'd found what she called a 'biological agent.' Dangerous if gone unchecked. It drained the power of higher level demons and psychics, but didn't affect regular humans or demons C class or lower.
And...she'd seen it once before. During the war of the three territories.
Yomi used this. And it was made by someone working beneath him, according to Mukuro's intelligence. One of his healers who also specialized in all sorts of herbs and potions. It was created from a strange plant not native to any area within the three main territories, nor any surrounding neutral zones.
Mukuro, always thinking like a scientist beneath a fighter's garb, managed to collect samples from her fallen soldiers and create an antidote.
Well, lucky fucking me, right?
Wrong.
This only opened a huge can of worms I wanted squat to do with.
I was healthy now, immune to the agent that was released with every new bombing, but it wasn't thanks to Mukuro.
All Mukuro did was give me something to boost the effects of an antidote I'd already been given, but was taking too long to work—a weaker version, diluted and mixed with something else...mixed in a cup of tea, hiding behind other herbs.
An antidote Ettie gave me weeks ago.
Because she knew. All along...she fucking knew. And chose to do nothing.
What good was it, to only help me?
The agent only survived for a few minutes in open air after an explosion, but all it needed to continue to thrive was to touch bare skin. Only certain types of demons went unaffected by it—ones like Hiei who could burn it off due to high temperatures or kill it with extreme cold. Ones whose skins were hard like rock or scaly and abrasive. And ones who had been exposed to the agent before...and been given an antidote which created an immunity.
It wasn't deadly. Not by itself.
But that didn't mean it wasn't fucking dangerous.
Leaching power, weakening the masses so they were defenseless. The bombs were just a distraction from the bigger picture and I was too much of an idiot to see it.
Blinded by her.
When I finally went to speak with Yomi, to hear all he knew about Ettie, I found Hiei there. His motives were the same as mine, but unlike me, Hiei wanted to give Yomi what he wanted. He thought it was the lesser evil to dealing with the Ettie situation, but I really thought he just wanted to see the world she came from with his own eyes.
The other world. The Third Layer, as Yomi called it.
Koenma described demon world once as many layers stacked on top of each other...the deeper you went the scarier shit you'd find. At the time, I was sure he was talking out of his ass. He even admitted that Spirit World didn't have a lot of intel on the top layer, let alone the ones beneath, so what did he know about it? Jack shit, that's what.
Now, hearing it from Yomi, who spent years conducting research after meeting Ettie...I wasn't so sure.
Could she really be from some deeper part of Demon World? And if that were true...wouldn't she look...I don't know...different?
Maybe the face Ettie wore daily...wasn't even close to her true face. Maybe...just maybe...she was what they said she was.
It changed nothing for me.
So when I refused Yomi's help and his bargain, it started an argument with Hiei that turned into an all out brawl right there in Yomi's office.
I don't think we'll be welcomed back there anytime soon.
Afterwards, Hiei left, pissed I wouldn't take his side. I didn't blame him. He thought I was betraying my friends—my family—for someone I barely knew.
But that's where he was wrong—I truly believed I saw real sides of Ettie. Sides she never showed anyone else.
And Hiei'd seen them too. Different sides from the ones she showed me, sides that made him feel for her too. He wasn't so hardhearted to ignore all that, even when he tried real hard to pretend he was.
Back in the present, I skidded to a halt, my sneakers kicking up dust clouds. I was nearing the thick of it, the center of the blast. Trying to track Ettie's energy signature, I took precious seconds to scan the hazy air and just breathe. I was always shit at it. Hokushin often complained that it was a waste of my abilities not to utilize all of them, but energy seeking was one of my less used skills. I never had a lack of enemies, never needed to waste the time hunting them down.
They came to me.
The thought of Ettie becoming an enemy made my guts twist and before I could second guess my decision, I shot to the right, headed further into the blast zone.
She'd be in the middle of it. I was sure of it.
I didn't turn away from the bodies lying in the streets—humans and demons alike, all bleeding the same shade of red. I ingrained their faces into my brain, wanted to make sure I remembered them. Someday, I would avenge their deaths—all of them.
No one this deep in the blast zone survived.
The buildings that weren't razed to the ground burned bright, pillars of fire stretching high into the sky. It would take days to put this out and I made a mental note to call on all the people I knew who could use elemental powers. Mitarai...Touya...that friend of Raizen's, Tetsuzan, who uses Earth. Couple of Koenma's SDF buds. Jin and Souketsu might be useful too, to contain it or dump water from overhead.
Lucky for us, the agent in the air would be dead by then, except for the people who came in contact with it. The agent would eat at them until they had no power left—the making of empty shells.
Kurama and I tried to warn the mayor a day after my return. It was like trying to talk sense into one of those clothing dummies you saw in store windows. He didn't care. Even had the balls to tell us it served us right for thinking we deserved to live among the people of his great city full of bigoted assholes.
Even Kurama wasn't able to convince him. I couldn't remember the last time I saw his face twist into a mask of such pure cold rage.
I was tempted to let him kill the douchebag, and he might of, considering how angry he was. But it wouldn't get us anywhere other than a prison cell with a cot and three hots. And lets face it, prison food sure as hell wasn't fine dining. And Kurama might be mistaken for a girl...and we all know how that would turn out—with some idiot getting his dick lopped off.
It would have made me feel a hell of a lot better if I could have at least knocked a few of his teeth out, maybe rip off that obvious toupee the mayor wasn't fooling anyone with it. Damn politics.
Why was being an adult so fucking hard? Don't even get me started on ruling an entire country full of demons with homicidal tendencies and a taste for human flesh. Just being a grown up was fucking exhausting to begin with...I just had to go and win some stupid tournament too. Who cares if it was my idea.
And then there was being in love with your enemy, completely ignoring it, and not listening to a single word your much smarter friends told you...
Yeah. That just made you a moron.
Maybe my head was full of rocks, just like Grandma always said.
I caught a flash of light out of the corner of my eye, blinding and green. My only warning.
I dodged to the left, diving headfirst through a broken shop window and ducking out of sight. This wasn't just your run of the mill terrorist attack. This was flat out war.
With a spirit gun already primed on the tip of my finger, the energy shrieking, casting a bright glow across the carnage inside the shop, I took a deep breath. Leaping across the expanse between the window and opposite wall, all cheesy action movie style, I let off the blast and grinned when it connected, obliterating the ugly motherfucker who almost took my head off.
Peaking around the edge of the window, another spirit gun at the ready, I searched for more enemies and was greeted by none. I was sure there was more...
Shaking it off for now, I dissipated my energy and vaulted over the windowsill and back out into the street. I didn't make it far before I found the rest of his buddies.
Hiding around the next corner, between what remained of a ten story garage and a car dealership, were five wannabe badasses. Two uniformed police officers who were not at all interested in helping me out. And the other three a set of brutish looking demons—brothers, considering they all shared the same ugly looking mug. Every last one a pain in my ass.
One of the officers waved a pistol in my face. "Get on your knees, hands behind your back."
I grinned, hands at my hips, not moving an inch. "Bet you say that to all the girls, don't ya?"
He cocked the gun and my grin only grew, eyes turning hard. "Go ahead asshole, I dare you."
His finger squeezed the trigger, the sound of the gun going off loud even with the backdrop of utter chaos. But the bullet veered off to the left, grazing my cheek, before embedding into one of the cars across the street.
The officer was on the ground now, blood streaming from his nose and gun cut in two. Unconscious. Hiei standing over him looking smugger than ever.
"What are you doing wasting time on these small fries?" he said, pivoting to deck one of the others in the face, a sickening crack signifying Hiei broke his jaw.
I headbutted a third hard enough to knock him out, and roundhouse kicked a fourth in the side of of the head before he could avenge his pal.
"They didn't give me much of a choice, now did they."
I could practically hear the eye roll on Hiei's tongue when he replied: "That is why you cut them down without mercy. Have I taught you nothing?"
Hiei kneed the last man standing in the gut, grabbing his face in both hands and pulling him down with a sharp jerk to repeat the motion to his face, breaking his nose. With a gush of blood, the man stumbled back, disoriented. Hiei used the chance to sweep his legs out from under him and pointed his sword at his throat.
"Stay down if you know what's good for you."
The man—human by all accounts—held his hands up in surrender, scuttling back on his ass as far from Hiei as he could get. But the fire demon just stalked after him, all menace and soot covered rage, his sword never wavering.
"I can't kill you, you disgraceful waste of oxygen, but I can make it so you'll be permanently disfigured." Hiei tapped the tip of his sword against the man's junk and I swear to god the dude looked like he was gonna shit himself on the spot.
"W-what do you want?"
"The demon Etternia. Where is she?"
The man's mouth twitched, his lower lip trembling. When Hiei expertly flicked off the button at the top of his fly he whimpered. It was all I could do to contain the laugh. "Okay! Okay!" he cried out. "She's w-with the Aesir...h-headed to, uh, you know the place. T-that fountain! The fountain in the middle!"
"Stop with your sniveling, you fool. Which fountain?"
"The big one...in the square. That was the meeting place, you can't miss it!"
I placed a hand on Hiei's shoulder, surprised when he didn't immediately shrug it off. "I know what he's talking about. We're close. If we keep heading in deeper we'll reach it in no time."
With that, Hiei spun his sword around, firm grasp on the hilt, and used the butt of it to crack the guy in the forehead, knocking him out cold. No warning. No hesitation. Fuckin' brutal.
He crouched, flipping the man's wrist over to get a better look at it. A moment later, Hiei sneered, shaking his head at what he saw. He dropped the man's arm with disgust.
"They all have the same symbol branded to them."
"Same as the ones from before?"
"Hn. Same as the one in the book, too."
"Ettie left out that part of the translation, according to Kurama."
"Does that shock you?"
I kept my mouth shut, not wanting to admit I was wrong and he was right. Part of me still believed there was a better explanation. What reason could Ettie possibly have to ruin my life?
Besides the obvious ones, anyway.
Hiei stood, his gaze distant and trained in the direction of the square in the center of the shopping district. I always thought his ability to read minds was kind of creepy, useful, but creepy. Now, I wished I had the ability for myself.
"Do you really think...she's working for them now?"
And maybe that was a stupid question. Because of course he did. He always thought she would betray us, from day one. Maybe what I thought was wrong, that he really did feel nothing for her or he was just trying to play her game as well she did, so he could learn what he could and use it to his advantage. It was definitely a move Hiei would make.
And it seemed a lot more likely than him being in love. I was the only idiot here that managed to fall for the enemy—hook, line, and sinker.
But I couldn't forget the night of her overdose...or the look on his face, the way his fingers curled against the rain soaked window. How he used up all his energy just to draw her away from the hands of death.
Hiei loved her.
And I respected that about him far more than his suspicious assumptions he held for her.
Genkai once told me that love was the most powerful emotion—it out classed anger and hatred and wrath and even friendship. To love someone, meant giving up an integral part of one's self, and handing it over to the person you chose to tear it out for.
I could only imagine what was going through Hiei's head right now...knowing all that.
"Why don't you ask her yourself?" he said, his voice harsh enough to knock me back into the here and now.
"Yeah," I murmured. "Lets go."
I knew this confrontation needed to happen. I hadn't seen Ettie in weeks. Not since the incident at Shou's. I wouldn't lie and say I wasn't nervous. My energy zinged across my skin and lit up my markings, in discord with my emotions, red and blue and just as frustrated as I felt.
No matter how hard I wanted to believe Ettie couldn't do something like this, all signs pointed to otherwise.
I didn't understand. Why? Why now? She didn't use violence, she wasn't a killer. She saved people. Did the drugs rot her brain?
"Do you want her to get away, detective?"
Hiei's question made me realize I was still standing in that same spot, as if my feet were rooted to the ground. He sounded neither accusing or angry...just...hollow. His voice held this strange...quietness to it, a quality I'd yet to hear from him. It gave me the willies.
And then there was his stare. No longer trained in the distance, but instead boring into me, eyes the color of fresh blood and giving away nothing. It was both hard to look at and hard to look away, even though the eye contact was making me uncomfortable.
"What if I don't like what I see?" I murmured.
Hiei said nothing, his face stayed blank, a careful coldness that spoke volumes when it shouldn't.
I rubbed at the back of my neck, feeling the sweat and dirt and blood smear across my skin. "Yeah, yeah. I know what you're thinking—stop being a bitch, Yusuke. Am I right?"
But Hiei was not in the mood for jokes. "I want to see...what she has become with my own eyes," he said.
Taking a deep breath, I shook out my limbs, cracking my knuckles and neck. When I nodded, stealing myself to face...whatever we were about to find, we raced off together.
I was glad...Hiei would be with me.
I hoped he felt the same.
And no, I wasn't about to read into that.
Reading into it meant thinking about the kiss from weeks ago. And thinking about the kiss from weeks ago was not appropriate right now.
And it didn't mean anything anyway, goddamn it. Who cared.
But maybe it was better than thinking about Ettie...and the realization that she wasn't the person I thought she was. The fact that I should have looked a little deeper, pushed her a little harder to show me what really lied beneath that mask she wore everyday.
Yeah. Thinking about some meaningless kiss was sure as hell better than the alternative. Because I knew she was an actress and a liar.
Deep down in Ettie's core was a demon, no matter how human a face she wore.
And still...I loved her.
A year later. Months spent with her.
Two days, seven hours, and thirty-nine minutes ruined all of that.
But it still didn't change how I felt.
I was in love with my worst enemy yet and I should have felt guilty or angry or...something other than this—this sickening emptiness making my stomach feel hollow and my head foggy.
There was an even bigger part of me that wanted to trust her—like she had some big plan she wasn't letting any of us in on. Something so important that if she even breathed a word of it, it could ruin everything.
Hiei and I moved through the streets, quick and silent, cutting through buildings when our path was blocked by crumbling walls or enemies. Anyone we did happen to encounter was taken care of with no mercy...but mostly...it was just the dead. Us...and the countless bodies.
Was this what war was like?
Was this how it was in Demon World before my time?
Seeing it right up close and personal, really put that in perspective.
The fact it was my home—the place I grew up—being torn down and ruined...that just pissed me off. A rage so strong I wondered how I was managing to keep it together.
By the time we neared the square, the sound of screams and panic were long gone. What we were left with was crackling flames, the soft sound of falling ash...and an eerie underlying quiet.
The closer we drew, the more the quiet receded, only to be replaced with Kuwabara's hysterical yelling and the shrieking of what could only be one of Kurama's deadlier plants.
I caught snippets of whatever Kuwabara was carrying on about—things like, "get that sword away from me!" And, "how high are you right now?!" But the best one by far was, "Kurama, get your fucking plant away from the fire because if it spits at me one more time..."
I falsely assumed what we were about to walk into would give me a good laugh. I would see Kuwabara and Kurama and Ettie fighting together to take down the fuckface who was calling himself the Aesir. Kuwabara's ass would be smoking from one of Kurama's plants...and they would be close to winning...and I would come in and finish the job, steal the glory, and gloat like the bastard I was.
I was wrong. On almost all accounts.
Kuwabara did have some obvious burn holes in his clothing from Kurama's fireball spitting plant. But Ettie wasn't fighting with them...and they weren't nearly close to winning.
Kurama's plant of choice reared its ugly head towards us, sensing how close we drew to it. Hiei threw out an arm, stopping me in my tracks and I knew to obey him at least this once or be annihilated by this goddamn thing.
Like a lot of Kurama's more dangerous species, it was massive, it's roots spread across the ground bulging, the size of sewer pipes. It had multiple mouths, not gaping but pursed, prepared to hock a flaming loogie across the square. They were bulbous, like balloons, red and green and dark purple. I didn't know if I should even call them a flower. Bud? Bulb? I didn't fuckin' know.
Either way, it was ugly as sin.
I'd seen this one before. It made some kind of highly flammable resin and if fire was nearby it would feed off it and spit endless fireballs. It was one he often used when teamed up with Hiei.
Besides Kurama, his plant, and Kuwabara, there were only two other people still conscious—a man with long blond hair, half his head shaved, the same coloring as Ettie. A large dark tattoo of a raven wrapped around the side of his head and face. He held a wicked looking sword, runes carved front to back along the flat of it. Runes I recognized from the book we stole off one of our hostages. The same book Ettie chose to only partly translate.
Beside the blonde man, there was a slew of unconscious—many of them most likely dead—people. Some looked like civilians...but most of them bore the same outfits and armor of the soldiers running around the ruined stores.
And...next to the decimated fountain spewing water like a geyser, was Ettie.
"She's there," I breathed. Stunned. But not because I thought she wouldn't be.
She wasn't dressed the same. Her clothes weren't modern...or even from this country. They weren't even like the clothing I'd seen in demon world.
It was like she stepped out of a fantasy novel and into the real world.
They made her look like a brutal queen waiting to command her armies. Like a warrior come to life from the stories she painted of her past.
Her pale blonde hair was loose, blowing in the wind that screamed across the square. She wore a leather chest plate, leather bracers on her arms and legs, and over all of it was a bright silver chain mail vest. Beneath her armor was a cloth of deep blue, tight to her skin, a belt around her waist kept the chain mail close. Twin daggers were sheathed at her thigh, a sword sheathed on the opposite leg, the hilt simple but polished to a shine so bright it reflected the red of the flames surrounding the square.
She was all sharp edges, like an ice so cold it hurt. The epitome of savage winters. That was how Ettie now stood.
She was not the woman I'd grown to love...but the demon who came before her. Etternia.
Her eyes found me, more green than brown now, and I couldn't help the sharp breath I sucked in at the sight of them. The air filled my lungs only to be loosed in an appreciative whistle.
"Well, fuck me..." She was literally drop dead gorgeous.
Something about a chick in armor really just got my engines going, ya know?
"Kurama, Kuwabara, you guys okay?" I called, drawing the entire square's attention straight to me.
They both called out some kind of affirmative, but I could see even from this distance that Kurama was slowly bleeding out from another wound to his gut...and Kuwabara looked like he got into a fight with a chainsaw and lost.
"How about you two tap out. I'll take it from here," I said.
And I was fully prepared to face this head on. To bring her home or end it here and now. But a sudden wave of pure power washed over us all. Power that was old, an ancientness unlike even Raizen's.
I'd never felt anything like it.
A chocked noise left my throat and I couldn't move my feet even as I begged them to, over and over, inside my head. Just move, damn it! Do something other than stand there and watch my friends get their asses handed to them! Move, Yusuke!
Hiei blurred past me, reacting on what I knew was pure survivalist's instinct, his sword drawn and aimed to kill.
But Ettie was twice as fast and an infinitely better swordsman than Hiei was.
She drew the blade at her waist quick as lightning, sliding it across his in this beautifully fluid motion, sparks lighting up her face. She batted aside his attack with so little effort that it left me speechless, and countered before he could recover from the shock. She knocked his sword straight from his hand and I watched as it skidded across the ruined ground, out of reach.
Hiei, his eyes darting after his blade, never saw the blow she aimed for his face. She hit him with a fist hardened by a layer of stone, sending him flying back and through a cement wall of one of the lesser ruined buildings.
In that same moment, the man beside her disappeared. He reappeared at Kurama's feet, coming up from a black hole in the ground, and it was all Kurama could do to just dodge the blow aimed for his chest. One that would have killed him.
Kuwabara tried to protect him, but the blonde grabbed his sword arm, snapping the bone in two. I could see the white sticking out from here, the blood that soaked straight to his elbow, dripping to the ground in a steady river of red. Kuwbara screamed, falling to his knees, the man standing over him with a grin so cruel and twisted that it made me sick.
My stomach dropped to my feet.
I realized now, far too late, that Ettie hid a lot more than just her past. That power that permeated the air, that stole my breath and was able to throw Hiei of all fucking people through a building, that made me sweat and shiver...
Shit. I hadn't felt something like that since my final match against Toguro. That type of anxiety and uncertainty.
And that scared the fuck outta me.
A limiter. She wore some kind of limiter all this time. Just like Genkai's spirit shackles.
Koenma would never have let something this powerful step into the human realm.
Made me wonder how the fuck two of them managed to slip past his sensors. Even with the barrier gone, it should have been impossible.
How had she hidden that amount of power for so goddamn long? It didn't make any sense!
Kurama commanded his plant to spit another fireball, the flames exploding against the ground and hindering my vision. Ettie came walking through them, casting them aside with the power of her wind, the fire a moving, living backdrop that made me stare at her and think she looked something like a god.
And maybe she was. With power like that.
I needed to end this. Now.
I heard Hiei's call before I saw him, blurring past me again to engage Ettie. It was enough of a distraction that I was able to rush over to Kuwabara while Kurama continued to fight the other bastard. I wrapped the big lug's arm around my shoulders and hefted him up.
"Come on," I said through gritted teeth. "Need to get you outta the way..."
"Urameshi, just leave me. Help—help Hiei. It's just a broken arm."
"Yeah, broken arm, some broken ribs, your entire body looks like its been put through a meat grinder so just shut the hell up and let me help you."
"No," Kuwabara struggled against me, shoving me away. I looked at him like he was nuts. "You don't understand...Ettie...you gotta help Hiei..."
His eye glazed over, his face going blank.
I caught him just before he would have fallen face first into the ground.
"You idiot," I mumbled. "Should have just listened..."
I dragged him as far away as I dared, propping him up behind a fallen chunk of wall. I tore off my shirt, using it to bind his arm and try to slow the bleeding. He didn't have a lot of energy left. How long were they here fighting those two before Hiei and I showed up?
A scream that was distinctly Kurama's filled me with dread and I whispered a hurried, "Don't die on me," to Kuwabara even though he couldn't hear me, before rushing back to help the others.
I arrived just in time to see Kurama's plant shrivel up and die, releasing a hideous shriek of its own as it fell.
My eyes searched wildly for my friend, finding him on his knees, his hands wrapped around the blonde's blade, blood pouring down both his arms. The runes on the sword pulsed, flooding to a dull black, and I knew without a doubt that he was about to deal Kurama a death's blow.
I didn't stop to think it through, I just aimed and shot off a blast of energy so bright it blinded even me.
The rune sword cut straight through it, dissipating my energy like the man just cut through a water balloon instead of my strongest attack. In hindsight, it was probably a good thing, because I would have taken Kurama's arms along with the man who was trying to kill him.
His attention now directed at me, it gave Kurama time to get away. But the idiot, just as pigheaded as the rest of us when he was cornered, attacked the man at his back. The blonde spun, kicking Kurama hard in the stomach, sending him flying.
He didn't get up after.
It took every ounce of willpower I had not to rush to his side to make sure he wasn't dead.
"You're gonna pay for hurting my friends," I said to the man. But he just smiled that same wicked smile, not saying a word as he stalked towards me, brandishing his sword.
And now that I'd gotten a closer look at him...he looked eerily familiar...
Before he could get any closer, I loosed another spirit gun blast, watching with wide eyes when he batted it away with the flat of his sword like he was swinging at a baseball. He dodged the third one I shot at him and I primed a fourth, but by then he'd drawn far too close.
Fine. I was better in a brawl anyway.
Dodging the first swing of his sword, I aimed a punch at his stomach. He blocked it, countering again with his blade. It sliced across my arm and I went spinning away, gripping at the bleeding cut.
Angry now, I ran towards him with fangs bared, red energy engulfing my fists.
Only to be stopped in my tracks by a giant, jutting wall of ice. It stemmed from the fountain, the entire thing frozen solid now, the water giving Ettie the ability to create something so massive.
It spanned the entire square, cutting me off from my enemy, and caging us in away from the flames that still raged outside it.
I spun around, eyes blazing, searching.
Ettie sat on what remained of the fountain's edge, her unblemished sword laying across her lap, the runes glowing a soft opalescent white.
Her energy twirled around her, just like the wind she used, a painfully beautiful contrast to the carnage on either side of her. This wasn't the first time I'd seen her energy, she used it every time she healed, an element all its own. The only time it changed color is when she used someone else's energy to boost her power.
Normally...it was the same color as Hiei's—gold.
Today, it was purely Ettie's.
Hiei wasn't far, but he did look exhausted. Blood dribbled down his chin, his lips curled into a fierce snarl, his teeth coated in red. His arms and legs were weighted down with thick, heavy stone. He didn't look too injured, at least, not from where I stood. He wasn't as bad off as Kurama or Kuwabara at any rate, but he wasn't winning either.
The swift crackling of Ettie's ice thickening made me jump and I directed my attention back towards her. She commanded all of it now, I would have to worry about my friends after.
She stood and I fell into a stance, casting aside all my feelings and letting myself fall onto my battle instincts alone. I couldn't let her manipulate me, not again, not when my friend's lives were at stake. Even if I still couldn't wrap my head around the fact that it was Ettie—fucking Ettie—that was behind all this.
Gentle, kind, perpetually covered in pencil stains—Ettie.
Ettie raised her arm, her hand pointed towards the sky. A sphere of water gathered there, tendrils branching off and breaking into spears made of ice. She dropped her arm, slicing through the air in a swift motion, and they were sent flying towards Hiei.
A scream got caught in the back of my throat, my entire body lurching forward like I could stop them.
But they never struck him.
Instead, they embedded themselves into the ground, creating a cage around him. More a statement than something meant to hold him for long. Even from here I could see as they began to melt, almost instantaneous thanks to how hot Hiei burned.
I turned back towards Ettie, stiffening when she began to stalk towards me, her sword held in a loose grip at her side.
She did a good job of looking both lethal and harmless.
Not sure how that made any sense.
"Why, Ettie?" I pleaded as she drew closer. "Why are you doing this? This isn't like you!"
Her face never wavered from that same impassive stare, not even when she stopped in front of me and looked me right in the eye. Couldn't she see the betrayal there? The pain she was putting me through?
Didn't she care?
"And what do you know of me?" she asked. "Besides what I've told you and needed you to believe."
An incredulous bark of laughter left my mouth and I rubbed a palm down my dirty face. "Don't even," I said. "Don't play those mind games with me. Don't act like we don't know each other."
She held up her sword, the tip poking me right above my old human heart. "Do you say that because of the love you cling to so desperately? You saw what you wanted to. You are still seeing through rose colored glasses, looking at me like I am the woman you made up in your head."
My throat constricted and I swallowed hard passed it. No. I wouldn't let her do this.
"I didn't make up anything. You know I didn't," I said. "Don't try to twist things, I'm too stupid to fall for it."
Her eyes closed for a second and she sighed, dropping her pretenses. "Come with me, Yusuke. If you do...no more harm will come to anyone in Sarayashiki, I swear it."
"And why the hell should I do that? How can I trust you, after all this?" I said, waving my arm in a great arc for emphasis. "You hurt the people I care about. You helped some maniac kill hundreds of people of today..."
"No," she shook her head. "No, I held no part in this."
"Then explain to me why the fuck you're here!"
She dropped her blade to the ground and it hit with a clatter, leaving a pin-prick in the center of my chest. The tiniest line of blood ran from it and I dragged my fingers through it, spreading it across my pecs like war paint.
When I looked back up at her, Ettie had her hands up in surrender.
"I need you, Yusuke," she said. "I promise to explain everything, but you must come with me."
I shook my head. "I don't believe you. Not anymore."
She reached out a hand, her palm resting over the wound she created. I didn't back away. I wasn't afraid of her, even now. My shock had worn off. Yeah, she was powerful, a hidden fucking badass, but I was too pissed at her to give a shit anymore.
"You're a liar, Ettie. You've been lying straight to my face since the moment I met you," I growled.
"Yes," she breathed. "But I was given little choice."
"Why?" I asked again, ashamed at the way my voice cracked. "You could have told me...I could have helped you. We all could have."
She hesitated, her eyes flickered with an emotion that was not there before and a small bit of hope bloomed in my chest.
"That man..." she said. "His name is Einarr, he is the one calling himself The Aesir and..."
She trailed off, ducking her head so she wouldn't have to look me in the eye.
"And, what?" I demanded.
Taking a breath she raised her head. Her gaze was so piercing I almost wished she hadn't. "He is my younger brother, Yusuke."
All the air left my lungs in one great whoosh, like I'd just been punched in the gut.
"Your what...?"
A sound on the other side of the wall drew away her gaze. When it returned it held a new urgency. "I never planned to betray you, Yusuke. I didn't want it to come to that. But I did use you as bait to lure out the Aesir...so I could use him to find my son."
"This is what this is all about? Your fucking son?"
Her face scrunched up as if in pain. "He's alive. He's alive and Einarr knows where he is. Do you understand?"
"I understand your letting hundreds of people die for someone who doesn't even know who the hell you are."
"That isn't—"
"Isn't what? True? Is he forcing you to stay with him? Is he holding your son hostage?"
"No," she shook her head. "I came to him willingly."
The sound behind the wall resounded again, a great banging, like someone was trying to break through it inch by inch.
"You...tried to warn me," I said. I realized that now. The distance she put between us, her reluctance to accept my feelings. Her flat out telling me I would be better off staying away from her.
Fuck, how could I have been so blind?
And I dragged everyone else down with me.
"You drew out who I needed, I will always be in your debt for that. But they want you, Yusuke. They want me to give you to them...in exchange for information on my son."
A derisive laugh left my mouth, directed at both myself and her. "Your son's a grown ass man. If he wanted to find you, he would have by now. You tryin' to tell me some kid of yours is a weakling that couldn't defend himself for all these years? Gimme a break."
Something flashed across her face, turning it ugly. Anger maybe. Sadness. Or maybe it was just the realization that I was right. Either way, it made me smirk at her. Would have done Hiei proud. "You know I'm right."
The noise of the wall finally shattering and breaking apart drew our attention. Einarr stepped through the hole, his fist smoking, and face twisted into a look so displeased I feared for Ettie's safety. His angry gaze was directed only at her, pissed she'd contained him for as long as she had.
I would never know if Hiei sensed it as well, that killing intent the blonde man had, but his shouted "hey!" couldn't have been better timed if he tried.
The ice cage was long gone, a puddle of water on the ground that was quickly evaporating. The stone around Hiei's hands and legs was molten like lava and he was standing, spitting angry, red eyes locked on Einarr like he wanted to burn him alive and piss on his ashes.
"It seems our time is up," Ettie said, turning from me to walk back towards her brother.
"Wait!" I shouted, reaching out for her but realizing how stupid that was and letting my hand drop. "If I were to come with you...what would happen?"
She didn't turn to look at me, just cocked her head to show she was listening. "You would be killed for your crown," she replied.
"Then why not just kill me here, why go through all this trouble?"
She did turn towards me then, her eyes hard as marble. "Because this is war, Yusuke. And all the pieces must make their moves in order for their side to win."
"But that...that doesn't make any sense—!"
A blast of heat, a piece of molten stone flew over my shoulder aimed straight for Ettie's face, a black clad body following close behind it.
Ettie dodged the rock once used as a shackle but didn't compensate for Hiei or the punch he was about to connect. Right before he struck her, her hand came up and ran through the blood on his chin, coating her fingers.
The sound of his flesh smashing into her jaw was a noise I would never forget, he put so much power in the blow.
She went skidding back, still on her feet, her face already bruising.
Hiei made to go after her again, his face so menacing I was almost scared to go near him, but I wrapped my arms around him in a tight hold, risking death for Ettie's sake. "I know your pissed!" I shouted in his ear. "So am I! But killing her isn't going to solve anything!"
"Stop letting your heart rule you and start using that useless lump on your shoulders, you imbecile!" Hiei snarled in reply, struggling in my arms, his hands burning my wrists where he grabbed them and tried to pull them apart.
It must have been pure adrenaline that gave me enough strength to hold him back. It was the only explanation.
"You can let him go," Ettie said, moving to stand beside Einarr. "He won't be able to hurt me now."
Her brother chuckled, watching the proceedings like I would watch a wrestling match.
Ettie thrust out the hand coated in Hiei's blood, her arm parallel to the ground, and let the blood drip off her loosely held fingers. I watched, transfixed, as it formed into a watery sphere.
"What the hell..?" I mumbled. Even Hiei stopped his struggling so he could watch. Probably just as fucking confused as I was.
"Did you know that the body is made up of sixty percent water? The organs can't function without it," she said, her fingers moving in a slow wave, making the sphere of blood move and ripple. "Do you know what happens when that water is taken away?"
"You'd die," I said, as if it were obvious.
"Yes. A painful death, where the body becomes dry and brittle as sand."
Hiei growled, grown still in my arms, I let him go. He stepped away from me, still eyeing that sphere of his blood, wary.
"You understand, don't you, Hiei?" Ettie sounded almost regretful and that was when it clicked.
Ettie had power over water. The body was made up of water. Ettie was using Hiei's own blood against him, literally, by using the same concept as the time she'd slit her own wrists to build an ice wall.
"I was wrong about you," Hiei said. "You are a demon through and through. Ruthless and cunning."
"I am only doing what is necessary," she said.
"For your son?" Hiei asked.
Ettie cast a surreptitious glance towards Einarr before repeating, "For my son."
Her brother said something to her that sounded like gibberish to me but she answered in the same tongue. They snapped at each other back and forth for a second, before Einarr sliced his hand through the air and silenced her.
She stepped out of his way so he could stride towards Hiei and I.
Hiei stood a little straighter, forgetting about Ettie holding his blood hostage for minute in face of a new threat.
I let my energy seep out as a warning, the red of a demon gun collecting on my finger.
But Einarr only laughed. "Put that away unless you want to turn out like your companions."
We both hesitated, surprised he knew our language. "You understand us?" I asked.
Einarr cocked his head, staring at me like I was some sort of insect he'd like to squash. "Do you think I could have created a group such as The New Dawn if I could not? Japanese is just one of the many languages I speak. Just like The New Dawn is just one of many pawns."
"Your little terrorist group doesn't scare me."
This piece of shit thought he could come into my city and talk all this big talk, like he was so much better than me. He thought he was going to get away with hurting all these people—my people. So many countless deaths because of this man—Ettie's little brother.
What a goddamn joke.
Einarr drew his sword and pointed it at me, that crazed smile once again in place. "Perhaps it doesn't. But allow me to show you something that will..."
He raised his sword, the runes turning black, and...
Ettie slapped the damn thing straight from his hands, where it clattered to the ground and froze solid.
Einarr stared at her, slack jawed. "How dare you—"
"Be silent, Einarr. This is not the time or place to challenge the king," she said.
The look he gave her could have disemboweled a man. But he shrugged, stooping to pick up his frosted over sword. With a blast of heat that ignited the runes again, the blade was back to normal. He sheathed it and clicked his tongue in displeasure.
"Big sister knows best," he hissed mockingly. "Another time, your majesty."
He bowed, laughter lighting up his face, and I thought about how much I wanted to kill him just then. To permanently wipe that smug look off his face.
We could hear shouting in the distance now, the sound of the SDF finally making their appearance. Even after Koenma took over Spirit World, they were still a bunch of useless idiots.
Their timing couldn't have been worse.
Einarr stepped away, a darkness threading around him, thick and cloying. It clung to his skin like it was seeping from his pores, before it began to pool at his feet. A black hole formed and Einarr sunk into it, so slow at first, and then faster as he waved with a grin. "I will be seeing you very soon...King Yusuke."
And then he was gone, leaving the hole behind him. An escape route for Ettie, no doubt.
Ettie remained behind, collecting her forgotten sword and sheathing it. She lingered there, her hand resting on the hilt, and watched us with the eyes of a warrior accepting the long battle she was about to face.
Because if Ettie wanted a war...she knew damn well we would bring her one.
"Forgive me," she breathed, her voice breaking. "But this is something I must do."
"You used us, betrayed us," Hiei snarled.
"Yes," she said. "I used you all as a means to an end. I won't lie anymore. But you must understand...that I am doing this because of my love for my son. For my love for Artair. I fight for them. I seek forgiveness where there is none, and perhaps it is a fool's errand, but it is one I must attempt all the same."
I could hear my name being called—some idiot from the Spirit Defense Force, searching for us in the destruction.
But my eyes were only for Ettie in that moment. Everything blurred, became fuzzy at the edges. She was going to leave. And nothing I could say would stop her, I could feel it down to my bones.
She made her choice.
She backed away, towards the hole Einarr left. "Years ago, when I became a healer," she said, "I made a vow to never use violence except in two cases—to protect the things I cared about...and to avenge those I lost."
"You're being a fool, Etternia," Hiei snapped. "And I hope you rot for your mistakes."
My vision tunneled until all I could see was her, only Hiei's heat beside me keeping me grounded.
It was painful to watch, Ettie backing away from us like we were her most hated enemy, and when she placed one foot into Einarr's portal I couldn't help it when I said, "I'm gonna bring you home, Ettie. I'll put an end to all of this. Count on it."
Ettie didn't say a word, but as she took her final step backwards, I saw a tear leak from her eye and freeze to her face. A moment later she was gone, Einarr's hole closing behind her.
"You understand what this means, don't you?" Hiei asked. When I didn't respond, he continued anyway. "Etternia is now our enemy...an enemy of the king and all three worlds alike."
. . .
A few days later I sat by Kuwabara's bedside, where Shizuru forced him to stay until she deemed he was well enough to leave. If she had it her way, that time would be never.
Hiei sat in his windowsill and Kurama was in the chair at his desk, more haggard looking than I'd ever seen him.
It was so silent you could hear a pin drop.
Kuwabara, never one to be quiet for long, was the first to speak. "We have to go after her," he said. "We should try to reason with her. Ettie isn't like this!"
"And what do we know of her, you fool!" Hiei snapped, casting a heated gaze Kuwabara's way. "She hid everything. Made us believe we knew her when really it was all just a game to gain our trust. Once our usefulness ran out she showed her true colors."
"You don't honestly think that?" Kuwabara said. "You spent more time with her than any of us!"
Hiei's eyes turned cold and he completely disregarded what Kuwabara said. "We will pursue her. But as an enemy of the king."
"Hiei..." Kurama sighed.
"It is our duty as the king's hands! If you do not like it, go back home where you can live the rest of your miserable existence in peace!"
"Listen you asshole—!"
"Enough!" Kurama shouted. "Now is not the time for petty arguments! Hiei is right Kazuma, Etternia is now our enemy, no matter our feelings on it. She is a true danger to the human and demon realms, perhaps even the spirit world as well."
"Shut up," I mumbled, my face in my hands.
I was so sick of this. Sick of the arguing. Of them pretending like she wasn't a huge part of our lives for the past fucking year.
Everyone here spent time with her.
Everyone here respected and liked her in one way or another.
This talk of enemies...it was making me sick.
"What did you say, Urameshi?"
I shot up from my chair. "I said, shut up! All your heads are so far up your asses I'm surprised you're even able to flap your jaws so damn much!"
"Yusuke, this is an important discussion...we have to make a decision—"
I looked Kurama straight in the eye and shut him the fuck up. "I won't hurt her. I can't."
Kurama and Kuwabara cast each other a look that instantly pissed me off. But it was Hiei that made me fly off the handle.
"Don't be a fool, Yusuke."
I rounded on him, face wild. "Look who's talking, you're just as much in love with her as I am!"
A dead silence fell over the room at my words. But I wouldn't take them back or apologize for spilling his little secret. They were true. I was in love with Ettie, so was Hiei, whether he wanted to admit it to himself or anyone else, it didn't matter.
I wasn't all that surprised when Hiei decked me, the taste of blood in my mouth so familiar it was almost comforting.
No one stopped him when he left the room, his hands shoved into the pockets of his pants. And I knew I shouldn't take this shit out on him, because he was hurting too. Could see it in the line of his shoulders as he walked away, just a slight bow to them, as if he were slowly curling in on himself.
Anger was always his best defense. And he would use it to the bitter end.
Maybe it was time for me to take a page out of Hiei's handbook.
Because two days...seven hours...and thirty-nine minutes...
Was enough to rip what remained of my human heart straight from my chest.
. . .
A/N: This chapter turned out so much longer than I wanted it to. I rewrote it three times and every time it got longer. Sorry not sorry. I have a love/hate relationship going on with this one though, honestly. This is the end of an arc...and also the first part of The Shotgun Approach. The next chapters will be in Ettie's POV and will feature a significant time jump. Thanks for reading and supporting this story, even through all my sporadic updating! You guys are the best!