Author's Note:
Hey guys, sorry for the late update, but I hope chapter 2 here makes up for it. Also, I got my first review, yay! Thank you for that and it's awesome to know that you're waiting to see how this turns out (I'm not dntirely sure yet, tbh). But I'm sure we can figure this out together.
Now, on with the story.
Chapter 2
Hot. Hot, it's so hot. It burns… please make it stop. Make it stop! MAKE IT STOP!
It felt as though tongues of fire were licking up and down her body. It's painful to lay still, but it's even more painful to move. Her head feels like cracking. Every breath was torture. And the pain was constant, that blinding pain engulfing her body.
She would rather sleep. A while ago she was asleep. There had been no pain. But she's much too terrified to fall asleep. All she dreams of was the white intruder and his menacing, golden eyes, the enjoyment he seemed to have while watching her writhe in pain, desperately gasping for air. The amusement in his eyes as he starts to see fear in her own.
Mukuro was once one of the Three Kings of the Makai. No one would even dare speak to her, let alone look at her with mockery. It pains her to think of the shame and fear that washed over her when defeat and death seemed inevitable. She felt like being dragged back, forced to relive the life that she once had when she was a slave.
She feels consciousness slowly creeping up on her as the pain intensified. No, please, let me sleep. Let me rest and sleep and never wake. It hurts too much when she's awake.
But still she could feel herself gaining more and more consciousness. She could faintly hear a voice speaking in the background but could not make out the words. There was too much ringing in her ears for them to cooperate. She was certain, however, that there was just one voice talking.
Her concentration on the voice was broken when she felt a cold hand brush against her temple, stroking all the way down to her chin, only to come back up and cup her cheek. The tenderness of the contact made her flinch and shudder, causing pain to shoot up her spine.
Panic started to well up in her chest as she felt a thumb slowly caressing under her eye, tracing the lash line. When the hand left her cheek, she tried desperately to crack her eyes open.
At first it was bright, so bright that the world seemed like a blank, white space. After slowly and painfully blinking a few times, things around her slowly started to come into focus. She was somewhere dark and smelled damp, so perhaps a cave somewhere. There was something soft underneath her so that she didn't lie on the cold, hard ground. What it was exactly, Mukuro could not say for sure.
She could now see a fuzzy image of a man kneeling beside her dipping a piece of cloth into a basin. This, presumably, was the same man to whom the voice belongs to. As the image became clearer, she could see that the man had long, curly jet black hair which cascaded down his back in ripples and a pair of crimson eyes. He was fair, handsome and well-built, but his attire is somewhat reminiscent of what ningens used to wear a few hundred years ago. He was wringing out a piece of cloth before turning his attention back to his patient.
He smiled down at her when he realized his ward was now awake. He was saying something as he gently placed the cloth over her forehead, but Mukuro didn't quite catch the whole message.
"Oh… awake… Good thing… bad shape… safe now."
Everything went black as Mukuro gave into the blinding pain that suddenly shot through her body.
The Reikai Tantei stepped out of the portal, quickly surveying the area. The smell of death hung thickly in the Makai air like a strong, suffocating musk.
"Phew, is it just me or does this place get stinkier every time I get here?" Kuwabara blurted out while making a scowl and covering his nose.
Hiei ignored him and flashed to the top of the highest tree around. Closing his eyes to focus, his Jagan frantically searched far and wide for any trace of his mate. The overwhelming death and despair in the atmosphere did very little to dissuade the man in his search. Pushing past the negativity attacking his senses, Hiei continued to look for any trace the air may have of Mukuro's whereabouts.
"There is no doubt that a great massacre has indeed befallen Makai. That is what has made its foul-smelling air this much fouler," Kurama stated, not necessarily as an answer to Kuwabara's remark. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I must transform myself into Youko." With that, he turned slightly and closed his eyes. His energy fluctuated as his features slowly changed into the silver-haired fox. The crimson hair of the human Shuichi slowly faded into the silvery locks of Youko. His human ears receded into his head as fox ears of the same silver sprouted atop his head, a similarly colored, bushy fox tail also sprang forth before swishing side to side, as if stretching out the kinks, his green eyes brightened into a luminous yellow gold and his pupils dilated slightly to take the forest in more detail.
Yusuke walked over to the tree that Hiei was in, shouting up to his friend, "Hey, Hiei! Find Mukuro yet?"
Hiei's eyes flew open. He secured the seal back over his Jagan before jumping back down to the ground. He turned to his friends and spoke, "I think I have found her, or at least where she's been."
The rest of the group nodded and followed him through the eerie woods. As they ran, Kuwabara looked around, taking in his surroundings better. Tall, bone white trees lined up on the side of the path they were on. Slender tendrils of the branches reached out and up towards the sky. They creaked and groaned as the wind blew by, bringing the dead limbs back to life. The sky was overcast, as it normally is in the Makai. Crimson and scarlet hues tinted the heavy clouds above, as if all the blood spilt on the land seeped into them, forever tainting them red. Despite all this, there was no doubt in his mind that there was something simply enchanting about the albino woods.
After some time running, they finally reach a clearing.
Youko placed two fingers on a dark spot on a fallen trunk. It came back slick and sticky. He sniffed at the substance, but quickly drew back with a scowl. Blood! Kurama rubbed his fingers to his thumb to better feel the consistency. "Judging by the fallen trees and splattered blood, there was definitely a battle that occurred here. Also, by the consistency of the blood, I'd say that we had just barely missed it, too." He then started sniffing and sampling the air around the clearing.
"Damn it! Where are you, Mukuro?" Hiei hissed under his breath, exasperated.
Yusuke stepped closer to him, reassuring him. "We'll find her, don't worry. She's still alive, I know it."
Frustrated, Hiei was about to rip off the Jagan's seal again when Kurama spoke. "I smell three different scents from this place. One of them belonged to Mukuro, obviously. The other two I am unfamiliar with…" He trailed off, returning to sniffing at the air.
There were two? But Yomi clearly said "the intruder", not "intruders!" What does this mean? Yusuke could not figure out what was going on. How did this attack on Makai happen and, more importantly, why?
Kuwabara was also visibly getting more and more uncomfortable. He didn't know much about the Makai, only what the demons had let him in on. But he did know that that other guy back in Reikai named Yomi was supposed to be very powerful, one of the most powerful beings of this realm, to be exact. Hiei's mate Mukuro was also one of them. But to have one dead and the other one missing, possibly dead as well, it was unsettling to think how powerful this new enemy must be.
Kurama spoke again, but this time with a confused expression. "I have found which direction Mukuro's scent goes, but there are two things that bother me: one, is that one of the unidentified scents just vanished. There is no trail." His friends looked just about as puzzled as he is at the statement. Youko continued, "The other thing that concerns me is that when Mukuro headed in that direction," He raised a single, elegant finger to indicate the direction, "she was not alone. I do not know what this means but-"
Suddenly, Youko's posture stiffened. His ears stood tall atop his head, his tails stopped swaying, his muscles tensed up, setting his jaw, and a low growl started to rise from deep within his chest.
"What's wrong, Kurama?" Yusuke asked, "What do you sense?"
"I smell him, the one who took Mukuro." Youko flexed his claws, as if ready to pounce. "And he's coming towards us."
Author's Note:
L'gasp! Who are these mysteeious characters that Youko smell? How are they related to Mukuro's case? Find out in the next chapter!