The Shotgun Approach
Chapter 28: A Day in the Life
A/N: This is a Hiei POV chapter!
. . .
May 15th, 2005—
"You've been so silent, is something on your mind?"
This wasn't the first time she'd asked and most likely would not be the last. Yet, I still sat, chopsticks flicking at bits of rice left in my bowl and kept my tongue tightly glued to the roof of my mouth.
When she asked me to come for breakfast, I did not think I would be sitting through an interrogation as well.
A cup of tea was placed in front of me, taking up space my near-empty bowl just occupied. The scent of herbs and flora was soothing, but nothing could truly calm the rage festering in my mind. It was constant, a near impossible force. Even the maidens on the ice isle did not invoke such massive anger from me—their betrayal seemed to pale in comparison to this one.
"Hiei...?"
I looked up, trying to shake off the thoughts before they began at least for her sake. "Thank you for the meal," I said.
Yukina sunk into the seat across from me, her own steaming cup of tea clutched tight between her palms. She still lived in the Kuwabara household. In fact, she was due to be married to the older Kuwabara—Shizuru—sometime next year. The ceremony would be held in the Makai, as Japan did not recognize same-sex marriages according to the two women. Both have rallied and argued with officials to try and change it, but their petty reasoning appears to stem from their religion. All of it was foolish to me, marriage and the like.
Why not just pick the person you wished to waste your life on and stick with them. What would a pointless piece of paper prove?
Either way, the idea of it made my sister happy and I would keep my opinions to myself.
And if she must marry a Kuwabara, at least it was the more sensible of the two.
Yukina, looking at me with soft, pitying eyes, looked as if she were about to ask a question I wasn't willing to cough up an answer for—when her phone rang.
I hid a sigh of relief when she got up to answer it and quickly moved to wash my bowl and chopsticks. The sooner I left the better. Dodging her questions was never easy and after years of practice, she knew exactly how to whittle me down until I told her something even if it wasn't what she wanted to hear.
Just as I was about to make my escape out of her living room window, she came running back into the room waving hysterically at me. "Hiei, wait!"
I paused just long enough for her to breathlessly tell me about the phone call before I jumped from the window. I ran as fast as my feet would carry me, far faster than any human eye could see and most demons would be hard pressed to at this point as well.
The call came to Yukina's simply because it was the last place they thought to check. I figured I should plug in and power up that foolish bit of technology Yusuke insisted I carry around, but I used it so little I often forgot about its existence. I could hear Kurama now, "Haven't I told you to keep your cell phone charged? What if there is an emergency?" Like some paranoid mother hen.
Smashing it never got me out of being forced to carry it either. I tried that more than once already. A new one always miraculously reappeared.
The last time Yukina was the one that begged me to keep it and I haven't been able to discard it since.
My running took me straight to the mayor's offices. I wasn't dressed for a meeting with any of the city officials, but they'd told Yukina it was an emergency so I didn't care much about my appearance. The stuck up humans could lick the soles of my boots for all I cared.
Upon entering the building I was greeted by a troupe of police officers, all dressed in swat gear with big guns in their hands—preparing for a war they couldn't win. I strolled past them, side-eyeing them as I walked by and their gazes followed me. Let them point their weapons at me... they would be cut to pieces before one of them managed to get a finger on their trigger.
When none of them chose to stop me, I marched into the mayor's office without a backward glance. I didn't fear humans—guns or no guns—they wouldn't be a match for even a low-class demon, let alone someone such as Yusuke or me.
As expected the mayor sat behind his desk in a chair that smelt of plastic and not the leather it pretended to be, his fingers steepled and face pinched. An ugly man, inside and out. There wasn't a single thing I respected about him. He used his power to bully and live in luxury and so long as his life wasn't inconvenienced he could not care less about the people of this city.
He was nothing like Yusuke.
"What was so urgent you requested my immediate presence?" I tried to keep the hostility out of my tone. I failed. But trying was the important part, or so Yukina liked to say.
"I received a rather strange letter this morning. The sender merely called himself Yomi."
This made me gnash my teeth together, lest I released a long-suffering sigh. This would be the third letter in the past month. The one for its original recipient seemed to have disappeared once it was placed in her hands.
"It's no business of mine. The letter is junk. Shred it and be done with it."
I turned heel to leave, clearly annoyed. Of all things for the lord of Gandara to do, send a letter to the damned mayor, as if the giant shit stain of a man would do anything about it.
"Mr. Jaganshi, I ask that you sit and listen to what the letter has to say."
The mayor's polite tone made my eyes roll towards the ceiling before I turned and swung myself into the first available chair. "Go on then."
He glared at me, but shook the letter open with a flourish and placed a small pair of spectacles over his eyes. Clearing his throat, he read, "To whom it may concern, I am writing you today as one of the leaders of the once great demonic realm—" here the mayor pauses to release a harrumph of annoyed disbelief— "to ask for your utmost cooperation in a grave matter. Living among you is a demon woman who is a well-established healer, she is also the criminal behind the recent destruction of your city. Today, I am inquiring to her whereabouts as well as the hope that you will send a favorable reply. The woman, Etternia, also has crimes to answer for in my country of Gandara. Perhaps a deal may be in order?"
The rest of the letter consisted of several points of contact for the mayor to send his reply to and a long-winded signature by Lord Yomi himself.
I was careful to keep my face blank, raising an eyebrow to convey what I hoped was obvious confusion. "What does this have to do with me?"
"It has everything to do with you," he snarled. "Find this woman immediately and do what you monsters do best—kill her. If she's the one behind the bombings she should answer for her crimes. I certainly won't be handing her over to some...demon lord to harbor her. Punishment my big toe!"
"I don't take orders from the mayor," I snapped. "I answer to no one but the king. You'd do best to remember that."
He spat some furious words as I left my seat and ultimately his office, letting him have his tantrum without giving the smarmy bastard the attention he wanted so badly.
He didn't know who Etternia was. Didn't know our involvement with her. That was good enough. We would just need to make sure it stayed that way.
On my way out, I noticed the group of armed guards was gone and felt my apprehension grow. Who were they...and why were they here of all places? What did the mayor need with a swat team? It was concerning...but not my most pressing matter at hand.
It was short work, crossing the city to the old apartment complex Etternia considered home. I climbed up the side of the building, jumping from each balcony until I landed on the right one, pushing her sliding door open without a single hesitation. I thought I would be the one to surprise her.
Instead, I was grabbed by a pair of rough hands and manhandled into her room. "You shouldn't be here," she barked. "You need to get to Yusuke. Now!"
Her pupils were wide and blown, eyes glassy and unfocused. She was clearly high. Perhaps even crazed, by the looks of her.
She wore very little clothing, a pair of undergarments and a shirt with no sleeves. The start of another tattoo could be seen on her shoulder, traveling down towards her forearm, half finished. The pictures were stunning—clearly her own art—and if I could see the entire thing I was sure it would tell a story.
"Hiei!"
Her voice shook me out my stunned silence. "What are you raving about, woman?"
"Yusuke," she snapped, "he's in trouble."
"Are you sure you aren't just hallucinating?"
"For goddess sake," she mumbled. "Here—" She placed a hand to my forehead and after a moment I was force-fed several images. They were taken from the mind of one of her birds, the birds I thought she stopped using weeks ago.
Her dishonesty would have to wait.
"Damn it," I swore, fleeing the way I came.
I knew that bastard was up to something. I just didn't think he would take it this far.
The scene I came upon was as I expected—a brawl between Yusuke and several swat team members. The rest lay in various states of disorientation on the ground, their guns twisted, broken and useless.
"Yusuke," I called, exasperated, but he ignored me, continuing to beat up the idiot policemen until he knocked out each one.
This wasn't going to look good for him.
"That bastard!" Yusuke yelled, wiping the blood off his knuckles across one of the officer's pants. "Can't believe he tried to fucking arrest me!"
If it wouldn't cause a slew of problems it would be laughable. As it stands, Yusuke would be lucky not to be put on their most wanted list after taking out so many of their best men.
"Detective," I strode up to him, failing to keep the irritation out of my voice. Kurama would be better suited for this. "You realize they aren't going to like this."
"No shit," he said. "Figured they'd throw me a fucking party."
The caw of a raven had us both looking towards the sky. I gripped the hilt of my blade, thinking twice before I just decided to slice it down. Let it return to her. Let her see Yusuke was fully capable of caring for himself.
Except I knew if she were here...she would have asked me why I ran to him so fast if that were true.
Yusuke brushed the dust off his clothing and slapped a hand down onto my shoulder, igniting my body's natural instinct to shove him away. I tramped it down, trying to enjoy the short-lived contact for as long as possible without ruining it.
"Why are you here man?"
"Etternia told me," I said, jerking my head towards the still circling raven.
Yusuke looked up again too, a hand going to his chin. "How's she still using them without her powers anyway?"
"The birds have gifts of their own. Telepathy doesn't require energy."
"Huh," he murmured, shrugging. "Wish she'd leave me the hell alone."
"I've tried."
"I know," he said, letting his hand fall away. "Well, wanna come in for a beer?"
I nodded, stepping over the fallen bodies of policemen and following Yusuke indoors. We sat in an amicable silence for a while and I made sure to bring up a menacing barrier around his apartment building. The mayor's men, human as they were, could still feel the heat of it even from a distance. None dared try again.
The day grew late and the sky dark, but still I sat in his living room, a pleasant warmth in my stomach from the alcohol. When he suggested I stay the night I didn't say no.
What I didn't expect was to find myself trapped in his bed the next morning, the king curled around me like I was some overgrown pillow for his resting pleasure. His hair, loose and ungelled, tickled my nose and I tried to stretch away from it without moving too far.
How did this happen? When did this happen?
We were clothed, so no sex, much to my disappointment, but how the hell did he lure me into his bed?
"Hiei...?" his tired rumble startled me and I stiffened. "I miss her."
My jaw clenched and I brought a hand up to his back, left it to hover, and then dropped it back to the bed.
"Yes...I know."
. . .
"Are you two finally an item?"
Her words were curious but not bitter. They were also the last thing I wanted to deal with so early in the morning.
"Didn't I tell you to stay away from him?"
She was leaning outside his apartment door, as always. If it wasn't the birds it was her and it was taking most of my willpower not to pick a fight.
Yusuke missed her. Yusuke wanted her. Yusuke would be sad if she died. It all pissed me off. All of it. Her face even invoked such a rage I wished I could rip it off and burn it to ash. The council should have let me kill her.
"I'm not here for him, actually," she said.
"I have no interest in speaking with you."
I left her without a backward glance. She could rot in hell.
. . .
Kuwabara held up two different napkins and swung around to ask my opinion on them. I stared at him with blank eyes and an unimpressed face.
"Come on dude, do you think I want to be here? I feel the same as you."
The wedding was a year away. Yet, Yukina felt the need to begin the planning now, which meant she required the assistance of her wedding party. Said wedding party consisted of me, Kuwabara, the idiot ferry girl Botan, and Yusuke's once fiancee Keiko—who would be flying to Japan to attend.
Somehow, we were the ones that got roped into picking the linens. Because napkins were immensely imperative to get married, apparently.
"This is the most pointless thing I have ever done," I growled as I snatched both napkins out of Kuwabara's hands and tossed them back down. "Here," I shoved another into his hands, "this matches their chosen colors better."
I could tell he wanted to laugh and did an admirable job of only releasing a small snort, before turning around and adding said single napkin to the basket he was carrying. They would order the color and style and be done with it. But that still left tablecloths, glassware, silverware...
The list went on.
"I can't wait to get married," Kuwabara said wistfully, running his fingers down a particularly handsome looking display suit.
I snorted derisively and pushed past him. "If anyone's smart they'll let you die alone with six hundred cats."
. . .
"Six hundred is a bit of a stretch," Yusuke smirked over his beer bottle, "five hundred is more reasonable."
"Shut the hell up, Urameshi, or I'm gonna shove that bottle up your ass."
"Now, now Kuwabara, being a lover of animals is nothing to be ashamed of," Kurama said, a smile of his own giving away his obvious amusement.
"It is if it means I'll die alone!"
Yusuke, about to retort something that would surely get the buffoon riled up, stopped dead. His eyes glued to the door made me turn around to look myself and I sighed; weary.
"She just won't give up," Kuwabara mumbled. "It's making me feel awkward."
"Try having her following your every move day in and day out, then tell me you feel fucking awkward."
"I'll take care of it," I said.
Yusuke eyed me for a moment and I thought he planned to stop me, but after a second he just nodded, resigned. "Yeah, you've handled her better than I could."
The look in his eyes was what steeled my resolve. Sad. Heartbroken. All things I'd seen in his gaze before, but not to this extent. Not for so long and not so destructively. Etternia brought the best out in all of us...and then ripped it away. She made Yusuke—made me—trust her. She made me want to become better, to work harder and she evoked the same in Yusuke, which was why her betrayal could never be forgiven.
She was one of us...
Until she wasn't.
I'd never hated someone more.
Against my better judgment, I'd allowed her in. Told her things. Allowed her to use me as a confidant—as a friend.
She used all of us.
I chugged the rest of my drink, slamming the empty glass back on the table and rising up to stare her down. She raised an eyebrow from across the room—a challenge.
I jerked my head towards the door, telling her without words she best follow. I was done messing around. Yusuke didn't want her to die...didn't mean I couldn't put her within an inch of that point, so long as the inch remained.
Stalking outside, the Elementa woman hot on my heels, I lured her to a quieter area—a park not far from our usual bar. It was deserted this time of night, save for the stray drunk or homeless man that took up residence on the benches. At this point, the witnesses didn't matter. Let the world see her humiliation—she deserved far worse.
"You will never be forgiven for your sins, Etternia. If you leave now—move out of the country—I'll let you walk away unscathed. But that will be the last of my mercy should you decide to stay."
She nodded once, humming her agreement. "That is kind of you," she said, "but I will have to refuse your offer."
I clenched my teeth, my lips turning up into a dark grin, fangs bared. "So be it."
She was given little time to react and even with the lack of her powers, she was fast. But not quite fast enough.
My first strike landed in her solar plexus. She coughed and sputtered, but didn't double over like I was hoping for. I put twice as much force behind my second strike. She blocked it with a forearm, returning my blow with a haymaker of her own.
Ducking out of the way, my knee met her stomach...and this garnered me the reaction I was hoping for. She doubled over, clutching her gut, before jumping back to put some distance between us. When I came at her again, I watched with a vicious smile when she tried to use her energy to stop me...and failed. She screamed in agony, falling to her knees.
I took her distraction and used it, smashing my fist into her face, breaking her nose. Blood spurt across my knuckles and she was sent flying across the grass, crashing through one of the empty benches and shattering it in half.
She coughed up blood, staining the ground red, as she struggled back to her feet.
"Do you see now, Etternia?" I growled as I stalked up to her. "You're nothing without your energy. A useless, pathetic waste of air. Why don't you overdose already?" I mocked, laughing.
When she looked up at me, the glow of her eyes so ancient and harrowing, I was stopped dead. My breath caught in my throat and my laughter puttered out with a choked sound. What was that look? Where had it come from?
Those eyes...they were...
Frightening.
A true fear I hadn't felt in years swelled in my chest. It stayed my feet and suddenly I wasn't so sure who the true victor would be anymore.
Etternia straightened, her stance proud and stalwart. Short as she was, she packed on lean muscle in every available inch of her body. It showed in the way she stood, in the bulk of her arms as she held out her fists, ready to fight once more. The body of a warrior.
She was thirty plus years my senior. And it had shown the day she chose to leave with her brother.
I would never forget the hit that sent me flying through four cement walls, and would have gone farther if I hadn't somehow managed to stop myself. The ache of broken ribs was still in the back of my mind, the feeling of my breath being torn from me so violently it took my vision. It was something I would never forget. Not even Mukuro ever landed a hit so goddamn brutal.
"Have you changed your mind?" she said, spitting another glob of blood at my feet. "Come, Hiei. Show me how much you truly hate me."
Anger took over. I would not be afraid of her. Refused to allow her to hold any sort of power over me.
Every hit I landed grew increasingly more violent. But Etternia took them all in stride, countering when she was able, landing hits of her own that left me with several fractured bones and busted skin. She fought like a brute, only blocking when I swung at her particularly hard, but otherwise letting me treat her like a punching bag.
A break in my attention gave her enough advantage to dive in and grab me by the shoulders of my shirt. She tossed me, slamming me back down on my back and briefly knocking the wind from my lungs. Thinking she would swing around and pin me, I flickered from the ground before my breath even returned.
She expected that.
I was hit in the back of the head, my jump abruptly canceled, I stumbled forward and nearly fell face first into the dirt.
The brawl didn't end there.
In fact, it didn't end until I had Etternia under me. I sat on her back, my thumb pressed into her brand...and listened to her scream in agony. A dirty trick, but an advantage nonetheless.
She passed out eventually, the pain taking her senses, and I left her there in the park.
If she knew what was good for her, she would leave Japan and never return.
. . .
July 2005
Shou was sitting beside me in the ambulance flapping his asinine mouth about something or another, certainly nothing I cared about when Etternia's name popped up. It always seemed to with him.
"Have you seen her lately?" he asked.
"No," I snapped. "Stop asking."
I hadn't seen Etternia since the day I fought her in the park.
The next day I returned to the sight of blood still drying on the grass, but no woman. When she left and to where I didn't know. Didn't care.
Or so I told myself.
I couldn't stop thinking about that light in her eyes—the danger I felt. Even now, two months later.
Two years ago, when I met Etternia, I never in my wildest imagination would think it could turn out like this. Yusuke told me much the same, the sting of her betrayal never truly fading, just deepening into something else entirely.
"Do you think she ran away again?" Shou asked, his voice so melancholy it made me sick.
"Focus on the road, stop thinking about things that do not matter."
"How can you say that? You were closer to her than the rest of us. I figured you two would end up...together...someday—why are you looking at me like that?"
The stare I gave him made him pale and he turned back to the windshield with wide eyes, his mouth clamped shut. "Sorry," he murmured.
"Hn," I grunted, rolling my eyes at his weak apology.
Shou drove us down the street of a little cul-de-sac, heading for a house call that came over the scanner not long ago. It was a human housing district, which was why I chose to take along Shou. I never did handle humans well, my care heavy handed and with little sympathy, I was best chosen to work on demon patients.
We pulled up to the house, parking as close as possible, before hopping out to grab our gear from the back.
"What was the call for again?" Shou asked.
"Heart attack," I replied.
"Not something you normally like to take," he pointed out.
No. It wasn't. But today was slow and boring and it left me with too much time to think. And thinking always inevitably turned back to Etternia. I was so sick of thinking about Etternia I wished I could physically cut her from my brain.
And oh, how I'd tried. Tried with the Jagan. With meditation and psychic intervention. I'd tried to drink her away. To fight until my mind should have blissfully gone blank, but she was always there. Someway, somehow she always remained. None of it worked.
Why?
What was so goddamned special about her?
Lost in thought, I never noticed when Shou entered the house before me, the door left ajar.
The blaring noise of a gunshot made me flicker into cover. When I turned around to look for Shou he was on the ground...hand clutching his shoulder as he dragged himself across the cement walkway leading towards the house.
Taking a chance, I sped from my cover and grabbed him, quickly ducking back behind the ambulance.
"What the fuck is going on?" I growled.
"Ah! My fucking shoulder!" Shou moaned. "It fucking hurts!"
"Stop cursing, it doesn't sound right coming out of your mouth," I snapped, pushing him forward so I could look at his back.
The bullet went clean through. If I had time I could stitch him up now and give him an aspirin to shut him the fuck up.
"I've never been shot before!" he hollered. "It hurts!"
"No shit," I said. "Bite it back, be a man."
Shou glared at me, the words extra hurtful in his case, but I didn't care. It worked because his anger made him stop whining.
"I'm guessing this is not really a call about a heart attack," I said.
"No, it's a setup. For you."
"For me, huh?"
The fucking mayor.
Fine.
Two could play that game.
. . .
A/N: I tried really hard to convey Hiei's feelings on the situation as best I could. He isn't into feelings, ya see, so even admitting certain things to himself is nearly impossible. Next chapter will be a continuation of his POV, which I think is a first for this fic. Normally I keep the boys' POVs to one chapter each time.