Disclaimer: Kenshin does not own the Yuu Yuu Hakusho characters (they are the property of Togashi Yoshihiro et al), and does not make any money from said characters. Don't sue.
What Kenshin does own, however, are all the original characters portrayed in this work. Any attempt to "borrow" these characters will be met with the katana, or worse.
The events in Idiot Beloved take place shortly after the Dark Tournament; it sequel Firebird Sweet directly follows that timeline, and this particular sidefic occurs a bit later on.
Title: Death by Hiei C4: Stool Pigeon
Author: JaganshiKenshin
Genre: Action/Adventure, Humor
Rating: T
Summary: A little birdie tells them.
A/N: I'm a little slow with updates just now, but see my accompanying sketches on LJ. As always, thanks for reading and please review! ^^
"Look out behind you!"
Death by Hiei (C4: Stool Pigeon)
by
Kenshin
Much to my surprise, Shay-san was right about the jaki she had named Squirrel.
One day after Dr. Smith assured Hiei there were no broken bones and no other bullets lodged in him (and had complimented me on a job well done), the little gray creature came to us with information.
The twins safely in cram school, we sat in the yard, the jaki perched on the picnic table, the center of our attention.
While it gobbled a handful of peanuts, scattering shells everywhere, I waited impatiently. At last it told us.
It had not met with the mystery enemy himself, but had spoken to another jaki who was a confederate of the enemy.
Though the stool pigeon did not know his superior's name, or would not reveal it, the enemy wanted to battle Hiei, and had named a time and place: the park, tomorrow, noon.
Hiei countered with Arizona, next year, Easter, as exquisite an insult as I have ever heard him render.
While Shay-san nearly swooned with pride over its accomplishments, her little pet jaki scuttled off to relay this information, then returned with an equally outlandish offer.
The negotiations went back and forth thus for some time. But before Michael and Cecilia returned home, it was settled: the following week, in the land around Genkai's temple. The other jaki would lead us to the actual meeting place.
I disliked the fact that I had been unable to capture the gray-skinned demon and bring him to Shay-san for interrogation. I disliked even more that we still did not know who the enemy was, though I had my suspicions.
"Someone big," the pet jaki said, sitting inside a nearly empty can of red bean paste, licking the stuff from its fingers. "That one who will lead you said, really strong. Scary aura."
"Well." Hiei upended the jaki from the can, whereupon it sneezed, then sat on the picnic table vigorously grooming itself like a cat. "That narrows things down."
I managed a smile. "At least we know it's not 'The Beautiful Suzuki.'"
The day of the battle dawned gray and cold when I arrived at their house. Shay-san called for a cab, and, speaking English so we could freely converse, we rode to Genkai's.
Hiei sat silent in the middle. "I get why Hiei's letting me come along," I mused, "but why you?"
My sister-become spoke across Hiei as though he wasn't there. "So I can help you field-dress the corpse."
A little gallows humor always leavens the mood.
I had on a thick flannel shirt and quilted vest over a pair of jeans, while Shay-san wore camouflage slacks and a short battle jacket. If you looked hard enough you could see her holster printing a bit against the jacket, but only if you were really observant.
As for me, I had my hair loaded.
But Hiei was unarmed, as far as I could tell, clad only in a sleeveless black shirt and loose black trousers. He wasn't even wearing his usual katana. And where was Tenchi no Hi?
The day before, Hiei had taken me aside to hand me a pair of what looked like old-fashioned driving goggles: clumsy, primitive, with thick red lenses. "What's this for?"
In reply he shoved a pair of ear plugs at me. "I'm counting on you to get my woman out of there once I call my attack."
Today, Hiei seemed to be in a world of his own. He sat gazing at the passing scenery, and I sensed in him not an ounce of eagerness or bloodlust, but rather weariness and resignation.
The cab dropped us at the main road, and we walked to a grassy stretch at the edge of the forest to await our guide.
The sky formed a thick ceiling of unrelieved dimness, under which Genkai's temple lay to the south; the forest north. As I studied our surroundings, I believed that I had correctly surmised the identity of our enemy. I hoped I was wrong.
Genkai had informed us beforehand that she wanted nothing to do with this fight, but had graciously added that she would call the meat wagon to haul our carcasses away.
A flicker of movement caught my attention. Materializing upon a branch before us, the stool pigeon--a red-hued jaki, looking much like a miniature oni---made its appearance. "Through the trees," it said, in a gravelled voice quite out of place for such a small body. Then it capered off ahead of us.
Shrugging, we followed onto a path so narrow it would not allow us to walk abreast. As we scraped our way through heavy undergrowth, our passage caused the tang of pine needles to mingle with the smell of leaf mould. Every now and then the creature halted on a branch to make sure we kept pace.
Hiei had admitted to some stiffness in his sword arm. Translated into 'Normal,' that meant his arm hurt. A lot.
He had nonetheless insisted on taking the point, and I put Shay-san in front of me, so I could keep an eye on them both. Hiei did indeed move like a man feeling pain.
And we were in need of our guide. At several points, the path diverged to either side, but the jaki showed us the way along the ever-narrowing path.
Even on a sunlit day, little illumination would penetrate this part of the trail. I was glad of my heavy garb. With the rising dark of the trees came a chill, a portent of the early onset of winter.
Darkness lay on my heart as well. Perhaps it was the oppressive atmosphere of the trees that made me wonder whether we were on a death march.
I was not alone in this perception. Shayla Kidd hurried along, head down, hands thrust in pockets, as someone wary of doom but wanting to get it over with quickly.
After some 30 minutes vigorous hiking, the jaki stopped on a branch high in a gold-leafed maple, and peered down at us.
It licked its lips nervously, darting glances all about. "This is as far as I go." It jerked its head at the path before us. "Clearing's just a few paces that way." Then it turned and dashed back, as if all Hell was on its tail.
This did not serve to leaven the mood.
The path narrowed further, but neither diverged nor gave out. We found our way easily enough to the end of the trail, then paused for an assessment.
Genkai's territory covers a vast area, with all sorts of terrain: mountains and swampland, field and forest. Just before us, a large clearing in the trees, easily the size of a baseball diamond, formed a sort of natural amphitheater.
With a sandy pit at its center, the area looked as though the trees had either been bulldozed away for a building site, or blown away, whether by comet or other artifice we could not tell.
Reluctantly leaving the concealment of trees, we approached the clearing. Hiei stopped, jerked his head to the left. At the narrow end of the 'diamond' lay a nearby boulder jutting some fifteen feet in height and of roughly conical shape. Not quite flat-topped, it came to a gray-brown blunted point, but on the side that faced the forest, the boulder featured a sort of ledge just five feet from its pointed top.
It would provide us with some cover. I nodded.
While Hiei marched forward into the arena, his footsteps crackling on the sand, I helped Shay-san negotiate the boulder. She is only an inch or two shorter than Hiei, but weighs practically nothing compared to his muscular solidity.
Crouched on the boulder's platform, facing the arena, we had a good view of the trees rearing all round, almost as if they were sentinels---or stadium seating for spectators.
Stadium seating. The Dark Tournament, too, had stadium seating.
Hiei reached the middle of the arena and stopped, whereupon I felt a gust---not of wind, but aura.
"That---that---" Shay-san nudged my arm. "What is it?"
Baring my teeth in distaste, I said, "He's coming."
She shivered. "I don't like this one bit."
On the far side of the arena, the trees also shivered, as though in pain, then parted. I saw Hiei's challenger emerge from their shelter and caught my breath. I had been correct.
The challenger strode forward a few feet and stopped, as if to allow us to admire him.
He had discarded his fantastical, heavy armor for a flotilla of paper sutras, their ragged edges fluttering in the movement of his ki. So that was how he was able to conceal his presence until now! But this close, there was no mistaking that particular fighting aura---an aura so powerful it could lift him up from the ground as though he were riding on air.
Such audacity---making camp so close to Genkai's temple. I turned, about to explain who the newcomer was. But Shay-san surprised me.
"Bui," she whispered.
"I forget. You watched the Dark Tournament tapes."
"Has he been in the human world all this time?" she wondered. "Or did someone open a hole in the barrier?"
I wondered the same thing.
We looked upon a demon of human aspect, like the gunman in the park---but there, all resemblance ended. Hiei could probably have dismantled the gunman in his sleep. Bui was no thug, but a true powerhouse, capable of felling any but the strongest demons.
Bui peeled away some of the sutras wrapping his head, revealing saturnine features, with that odd, almost heraldic scar on his brow. The heavy build, barely concealed by the sutras, the ragged white hair waving back from the broad forehead, and that blue-hot ki that was even now struggling to burst free of the wards, all combined to catapult me back, if only in spirit, to the Dark Tournament.
Bui---the only survivor of Team Toguro. Able to manifest from his own aura a deadly enormous ax, the blade of which dwarfed Hiei himself, Bui yet fell to Hiei, who barely managed the win.
Bui and Hiei regarded one another from a distance of 30 yards. Both fighters had changed since the Dark Tournament.
At the tournament, Hiei had reveled in his power, issuing a gleeful challenge to Bui, who had matched Hiei measure for measure---but for the sheer, awe-inspiring might of the Black Dragon Wave.
I could sense none of that awe-inspiring might emanating from Hiei now. Was he simply masking it, or had he none to spare?
And following his defeat at Hiei's hands, Bui had begged for death. Hiei had refused. Perhaps back then, Hiei had felt the first minute seeds of mercy stirring in his heart, and had sought to trample them with this cavalier dismissal: "If you want to die," he'd told Bui, "do it on your own."
Now, Hiei seemed tired, reluctant, far from the man who had destroyed half the Dark Tournament stadium.
As for Bui---
Shay-san spoke in a whisper. "He's not letting Hiei walk away unscathed."
"Bui," Hiei said, and in true amphitheater fashion, his voice carried, almost as though he spoke into our very ears. "Can't you find anything better to do?"
"It's not as though you had other plans for something worthwhile." Bui's voice was a deep rumble, yet his delivery was cultured, even his insults bestowed in the politest of terms. As he peeled away the paper sutras covering his arms and legs and torso, his aura flared. I flung up an arm to shield myself, while Shay-san gave a little cough, as if something unpleasant was stuck in her throat.
About Bui was the oppressive sense of thunder, the odor of flint, signaling the coming storm. "This is bad," I whispered. "Bui's grown even more powerful since the Tournament."
Bui held on to the last sutra for a moment, then opened his fingers to release it. The wind sent it flying past Hiei.
"And now you are here," Bui said, "and now we can finish."
Hiei shook his head. "We settled this years ago."
"Settled? It was never settled." Bui flexed his large hands into fists and bared his teeth in a grimace of scorn. "Not to my satisfaction. There's no committee now, no referee to interfere, nothing but the two of us, head-to-head, in a battle to the death."
"But I don't care to waste time and energy on that."
"Perhaps I can make you care." Bui lifted his head. He stared straight at us, the gaze from his narrow eyes boring through rock. I now realized any attempt to conceal myself or Shay-san would prove fruitless. "Do you think I can't tell who's making a pitiful attempt to hide up there?"
Hiei lifted his lip. "She could take you without even trying. Why should I?"
Bui's battle aura flared around him like a small sun, lifting him half a foot from the ground; Hiei's aura remained low, static, dampened. "I believe I sense a touch of disrespect in your answer," warned Bui.
"That's just the way I am," countered Hiei "You're the last man standing from Team Toguro. Isn't that achievement enough? Let it go."
Even as Hiei spoke, I knew Bui would not 'let it go.' "You were right," I whispered to my companion. Death by cop.
Sometimes, the achievement of the last man standing is worse than falling in battle; survivor's guilt is a bitter pill for a warrior to choke down.
Shay-san got out her goggles, placed them on her head. "What are they for anyway?" I pressed her.
"Just in case you don't want to be blinded."
"Good point." The goggles went up on my head as well, the earplugs in a pocket, but I did not yet employ either.
"Uh-oh," announced Shay-san. "We've got company."
I flicked my gaze away from Hiei and Bui, then got to my feet---putting myself between her and the newcomer.
It was the gunman.
With her stronger sixth sense, Shay-san had detected him moments before I did. As before, the gray-skinned demon had a one-handed bead on us. "I see him." He was easy to recognize, even apart from the gray skin: the brush-cut green hair, the back-slanting ears, the smug grin as he thought to hide himself in a pine tree some 20 feet away. "At twelve o'clock, in the fifth branch of that---"
"I see Hiei's popular today." Shayla Kidd had her own gun trained on the demon, in a two-handed grip. "Is there any way, from this distance, you can get me that gun?"
A flick of the Rose Whip, and before the youkai could even react, I deposited his gun in her hand. "You mean this one?"
"Thanks." She looked it over, gave her own version of the Hiei snort. "Saturday night special." Voice dripping scorn, she shoved the gun into her belt. "I can't question him from here."
I had the Thrashvine out and around the gunman as the word 'question' emerged. The astounded demon landed in front of us, stuttering in shock.
"I don't like you," I told him. "You remind me of Roto."
"No time for old home week." Holstering her own gun, Shayla Kidd snarled, "The demon in front of me! You will answer my questions at once!"
He gave a cry of dismay, tried to twist his head away from the trained command of the Spellcaster. It did no good; he would have had to stop his ears to stop her powers.
"Why did you shoot Hiei? Who do you work for? And who broke the barrier between worlds?"
He looked as though he didn't know what hit him. "I work for Master Bui, but as far as I know, no barrier was broken."
"So," I mused, "Bui remained in the human world ever since the tournament?"
She repeated my question; the demon nodded. "He said it would amuse him to fight here, on Genkai's land."
"Satisfy my curiosity." Shay-san's voice was a silver needle meant for the demon alone. "In the park, when you fired your gun. Whom did you intend to hit---Hiei or Kurama?"
The minion's face was sullen.
"Did Bui send you to shoot Hiei? Tell me!"
"No!" replied the demon. "Bui only said to---just to scare him, get his attention. But if Master wanted to fight Hiei, then if I clipped him, it would give Bui the advantage!"
"Trigger-happy into the bargain." She shook her head in disgust. "What are Bui's other plans?"
Down below, in the sandy arena, Hiei and Bui faced one another. They could have been statues---if not for that ferocious ki emanating from Bui.
"T-to battle Hiei! That's all I know!" The demon's gray skin glistened with sweat. "I swear it!
Shayla Kidd turned toward me, her wide gray eyes almost transparent. Reading what was in them, I think at that moment we became of one mind.
"Let me go." The gunman squeezed his eyes shut. "Please! Let me stand with my master."
I tightened the Thrashvine. "I'd much rather turn you into toothpaste." Then I lowered my voice to a near-whisper. "I should do it---in exchange for this one putting a bullet into my dearest friend."
She slanted me a look. "I don't believe he's even worth the tiny amount of aura it would cost you."
I sighed. "Women." Retracting the Thrashvine, I released the gray-skinned demon. He scrambled down from the boulder.
Hiei paid him no more heed than he would a rat. Neither did Bui. I studied him for a moment.
"When someone is beaten but not killed," I whispered, "One of two things can happen."
"Such as?" Shay-san kept an eye on the combatants as well.
"Hiei---when Yuusuke defeated him in that warehouse, Hiei learned humility. It tempered him, made him a better person, even a stronger fighter in the end."
"And the second thing?"
"The loser can nurse bitterness, feed on darkness."
"Like Bui," she agreed. We understood one another in more than just the matter of releasing Bui's errant minion.
Down in the arena, Bui clenched his fists, drew his head back, then fired up his ki, levitating a couple of feet from the ground. And still I sensed no bloodlust, no power, emanating from Hiei.
"Hiei is---" I began.
"Exhausted," she whispered. "I can sense it from here."
"Go home, Bui," Hiei sighed. "You're a strong fighter; return to the demon plane and build yourself an empire or collect an army or whatever it is your kind does to pass the time. Go home." Turning his back on Bui, Hiei headed for the boulder.
"I have a bad feeling about this," hissed Shay-san.
Bui did not look like he was about to thumb a ride to Makai. His lips drew back from his teeth in rage. His battle aura flared. He lifted one hand.
In his hand materialized the giant ax, its wicked heft gleaming with a dull, deadly luster. He cocked his massive arm to throw the ax, then let fly.
Before I could open my own mouth, Shay-san popped up and shouted a warning: "Hiei! Behind you!"
-30-
(To be continued: Can a weakened, exhausted Hiei avoid Bui's attack?)