From The Dead, Arisen Again
Chapter Four
It was two days since Hiei had been revived. He was already out in the training room, hacking away at the practice dummy. This wood and straw dummy had been bewitched alive, and depending on how much energy was put in it, it would be a more dangerous opponent. Kikiro observed Hiei's training often. Sitting in an overstuffed chair, watching his captive fight the dummy with withheld interest. Saya would often be seen bringing in stuff for them to drink and eat. She would repair the dummy, renew the spells, and clean off the many weapons that Kikiro had stored there.
Hiei watched Saya a lot, wondering why she was here. It was normal for the higher level demons to command lower class demons into servitude, so he wasn't interested in this. He was pretty sure she was very strong, just didn't show it. She kept it locked away, hidden deep inside herself so not to give Kikiro a reason to kill her. But why did she hold on to life like she did? Why was she so skittish all the time? She was smart, Hiei found that out first. But with her smarts, she could escape from Kikiro and never look back. There had to be some collateral the Kikiro was keeping. Some form of blackmail, treachery. That had to be it.
Hiei sliced and diced the dummy Saya had repaired five times in two days. It lay in pieces of the floor, wooden fingers still twitching with leftover energy. As if on cue, Saya slipped into the room, padded silently over to the pieces of the dummy, gathered the larger bit in her arms and walked to her own worktable. She fitted the large pieces together, roughly mapping out the shape of the body. Hiei walked over to where she stood.
"Make it a little more challenging, that was too easy." He said. He walked away, never looking back. Instead of going out the door, he sat leaning against the wall, unwrapping his Dragon arm. He occasionally watched Saya working, fitting the pieces together, her whole body and the pieces on the table glowing a pale blue-ish color. The little pieces still on the floor rose up and floated over to her when she reached out and hand, never taking her eyes of the dummy in front of her.
She couldn't see the dummy of course, she was blind. Her hands floated over everything, feeling all the parts, her fingers deftly working. She obviously had a long time to practice.
Finally the dummy was repaired. Now it had to be infused with energy. Saya lifted the dummy off the table with her energy and stood it up in front of her. She held up one hand and closed her eyes. The glow around her faded and pulsed through her arm to the dummy. It started jiggling and shaking. It's arms and legs flailed out, going faster and faster until…… it stopped. The dummy hung there, limp, the blue glow pulsating around it like a heartbeat. Saya let her hand down, the glow dissapeared and dummy stood sagging on the floor. The small girl bowed once in Hiei's direction then vanished through a servants door in the wall.
Hiei smirked, watching her go. She had put a considerable amount of energy and skill into this dummy. It would be interesting to fight it now. He picked up his katana, hand floating ready over the hilt in a draw position. He slid his right foot forward, his left back, leaning into his right shoulder in a swordsman's position. Then he said the magic word.
"Come."
The dummy flew at him, picking up a double-bladed lance and twirling it around it's head. Hiei parried with the dummy for a few seconds then jumped and flipped over it's head, sword ready the slice down its back. The dummy ducked and pitched forward, rolling once before leaping into a twist/flip and launching itself back at Hiei. The fire apparition nearly laughed. Saya had definitely put her heart and soul into this dummy, it was a worthy opponent, for a piece of wood and straw, that is.
Saya watched Hiei through the inch the door was opened. He was so wrapped up in this exercise he didn't notice she was there, 'watching' him with a hopeful look on her face. With a slight smile, she closed the door again and padded away into the dank hallway.
Kikiro strided silently through the door to the training area and watched Hiei fight the dummy. He had a look of gloating on his face, a withheld triumph only he knew about. His green eyes moved with Hiei greedily, watching his captured minion blossom in this new life. Kikiro knew that someday his memories would come back, but by then, he would have what he wanted, and Hiei would really be dead.
Kikiro cleared his throat, announcing his arrival.
"Stop," Hiei said. The dummy froze, then floated back to it's place on the wall and went limp. He sheathed his sword and walked over to Kikiro, looking directly into his eyes.
Kirkiro withheld a grimace of distaste at the fire apparition's audacity, but smirked instead. "It is time for a new mission."
Hiei lifted his eyebrows.
"Kill Yusuke Urameshi."