"Say that one more time and slower this time," Yusuke said with more furrowed brows than what should be physically possible. Not many feet from him The Baby Ruler was giving him though competition.
Every muscle in Hiei's face twitched dangerously.
" 'She is unable to transform back' ."
"And she confirmed of this herself?" Koenma slid slowly back down in his king-size chair, his face old of worried frowns. Finally moving onwards in the conversation –after too many repetitions of the same sentence than the fire demon had cared to count-, Hiei's patience found new, unknown strength and his face eased down a tiny tad.
"No."
"N-no?" Had Koenma had glasses he would have been refitting them furiously. Instead he half fell off the chair. "Then how-?"
"I am unable to come in contact with her," Hiei cut him short and dumb.
"You might have to elaborate that a little again, Hiei," Kurama broke in for the sake of the three others in the room, currently the one with the most poise of them all, still standing on both feet and no strands of hair out of place.
Though now they were back were they had started.
Hiei pulled in a deep breath. "She was ambushed by five upper level demons. I had to come pull her out of it or she would have been killed," he growled annoyed. "However, you all saw how she reacted the first time she had to fight demons."
Even though Kuwabara's glance-exchange with Yusuke told they did not fully comprehend what he was getting at, the small fire demon did not feel like "elaborating" it any further one more time.
"Well," Koenma said slowly. He had pulled in a deep breath and his face almost looked a tiny bit smoother.
"If I may come with a suggestion," Kurama offered. "For now, what I think would be the best is to leave her be like this." He lifted a hand to halt the several objections rising. "If not even Hiei is able to reach her, then the rest of us have no chance of it what so ever, regardless of how hard we try."
This time there was no objections. Yusuke kicked an imaginary stone across the floor.
"I am certain she will be able to recover with a few days to calm down." The redhead smiled, giving the atmosphere a gentle lift with his soft voice. "And when she does, we will help her."
"I guess," Yusuke sighed. He rubbed the back of his head and came with a small growl. "It's just so frustrating not being able to do anything!" he exclaimed in lack of no other outlet, and he jammed his hands in the green pockets of his uniform, grunting a short: "I'm going home."
Koenma jerked, as if pulled out of deep thoughts. He fumbled a split second and a portal popped open the next. Yusuke walked through without a second glance back. Slightly hesitating Kuwabara hurried after –though he stopped halfway through the shimmering surface. "She- she will be okay, right?"
Kurama smiled. "Of course." Kuwabara gave the sword a last worried glance before following Yusuke.
"Well then, Fai should be left here and- Hiei? Where are you going?"
The fire demon in question held a steady course toward the portal. He didn't look at the baby ruler –or the other demon present in the room for that matter. "You always spend too much time worrying and pondering about situations. I don't have more time to waste here."
And he was gone through the shimmering circle.
"You know, if you wanted to keep her, I am sure Koenma would not have stopped you if you had asked."
"What are you doing here?"
Kurama chuckled. He was leaning against a tree; arms crossed and watched the afternoon sun spread crystals across the snow. The chuckle died away. His gaze wandered further to the sky.
"The result of the blood samples should have been presented for her parents by now," he remarked to the sky. "They appeared to have cross checked the blood samples from the 'crime scene' quite a few times," he added with a glance up. "Especially after a few they could not quite place." The black silhouette he just barely could get a glimpse of showed no signs of listening.
The fox' green eyes returned to looking straight forward, no visible feelings crossing his face as he continued his rapport:
"Currently, Koenma is trying to find a solution to the problem, but so long as the police has a sample of her blood saying she was there and obviously severely hurt, there is not much which can be done."
"Hn."
Kurama had to settle with that probably being the best reply he would get out of Hiei for the rest of the day. He breathed slowly in the cold winter air, standing there by the tree saying nothing more. There was no need for anything more, and nothing more could be done now anyhow. So he eased down, growing a small branch next to him to sit on. Cupping a handful of snow in his hands he formed a tiny snow man. He grew it two black berries for eyes and a tiny twig for a mouth. It stared blankly up at him when he was finished.
By then its bottom was melting in his hands.
"Hiei! Kurama!" The fox's head snapped up. He looked up and from behind a cloud Botan came in a breath taking dive toward them.
Black. It had been black behind me. Now it's black all around. Not cold, not warm. Not anything. Not thick running red, no screams, no feelings.
Safe.
No need to think, no need to feel. Nothing. Had wanted to stay though. For a while had stood on the borderline. Behind black. In front think running red. Black behind calling. Calling sweetly. Soothingly. Quietly.
But someone had held on. Urged to keep going, said everything would be all right. Didn't want to leave that person. Wavered.
So unsure.
Thick running red ran down. Dripped, a screaming witnessed. Screaming without sound so loudly. So loudly it hurt. Had let go. Darkness all around now.
So safe.
Nothing. Though nothingness doesn't exist here.
"What's wrong?" Kurama had risen the moment he caught sight of her and now she skidded to a halt in front of him.
"A grim reaper in training has gone missing." She took a moment to catch her breath.
"We were already worried when she and her tutor did not return, but just now the tutor came back and told us they had been ambushed. She has already tried getting the trainee back, but it was impossible for her. And she is in a real bad shape as well. Makes us fear the worst for her student."
Somewhere along 'they did not return' Kurama had climbed onto her oar. And at 'came back and' he had managed to get Hiei to follow his example by staring at him with reproachful eyes until he with an "hn", a grunt and a groan had followed.
"How come we are not using a portal?" Kurama asked into Botan's ear to be heard over the wind roaring about their heads.
"Koenma is currently trying to locate her. For now he has only managed to find the area, but when he pin-points her whereabouts he will send us one."
That happened ten minutes later. So ten minutes and seven seconds later Kurama and Hiei stood next to Yusuke and Kuwabara in-between some trees surrounding a surprisingly sweet looking cabin.
"What kind of kidnapper demons use cabins in our day and age?" Yusuke muttered.
"The kind that enjoys forest walks?" Kuwabara suggested.
"The kind that sets obvious traps," Kurama corrected him.
"So what are we gonna do? Just walk right in, or-?"
"Yes." Hiei answered and cut off any possible suggestions for plan-making Kuwabara could have made, and walked straight up to the little building of wood and windows. Kurama got up with a sigh, a smile and followed the smaller across the open grass area to the cabin. Yusuke and Kuwabara ran after and caught up to them just as Hiei opened the door and strolled in without knocking or looking around.
There was an abrupt sound of someone standing up and Yusuke poked his head in the door.
"Hello," he greeted with a grin to whoever was there. It was a girl. A girl with long, purple hair. And using normal sense, also most likely the one they were supposed to retrieve –besides, grim reapers seemed to have a particular love for drastic hair colours-. "We've come to rescue you."
She pulled in a sharp breathed gasp. "It's a trap, you should hurry ou-"
"We know," Hiei said annoyed from one of the windows. She blinked perplex, her eyes rich brown.
"You… knew? And yet you came in here?" she looked from one of here rescuers to the other. "Are you stupid?"
Yusuke's shoulder dropped a little. "Hey, we're here to rescue you, so cut the mean remarks, would you?"
"I heard the spirit detective and his crew was the strongest in spirit world, and never failed. But there must have been quite a couple of lies added in there," the girl mumbled.
"Now listen, any idiot demon that hides out in this kind of obvious cabin is bound to be easy to take out, so why don't you shut it and just enjoy the ride?" Yusuke leaned against the doorway. From beside him Kuwabara leaned closer and whispered: "Hiei must have known that from the start. Now I get why he walked in so quickly."
"We don't know anything before we've seen 'em," Yusuke mumbled back and entered the room. Kuwabara was left in the doorway bewildered.
"What? I don't get it."
Kurama smiled at him, following Yusuke inside. "Even if they may be easy to defeat I'd rather we got out of here as fast as possible. If we don't have to fight them, then that saves us time."
"Agreed. C'mon missy, we're leaving." Yusuke grabbed the young grim reaper's wrist and pulled her with him outside. That's about as far as their peaceful rescuing got.
"And where do you think you're going?"
Eight feet high, four hundred and forty-five pounds, and hands as dinner plates. It was nothing but a rough guess, but still made Yusuke whistle with surprised approval. "About time you appeared. Got any buddies lurking around?"
"Talking about us?" Five more, about just the same size, take and give some feet, appeared from in-between the trees. And with them, a yellow and sparkling network of energy threads formed a bowl formed lid on the small grass opening around the cabin.
"Well, that certainly puts it all in a slightly different light," Yusuke admitted. The demons grinned at them.
"You aren't getting out of this alive, I can promise you that. Not even your little portals can get you through that," the first one said.
"I said 'different light', not 'impossible'," Yusuke kindly reminded him. "We'll just have to cross our fingers and hope this thing disappears once you're all killed. If not, then we're in trouble."
This of course made the demons mad. And that of course was Yusuke's plan. Not long after, all four of the rescuers were thrown into heated battle.
"You should get back into the cabin," Kurama said, holding one arm out to shield the young grim reaper. She turned to do as he said, though stopped by the door. She wanted to stay and watch. Kurama flicked his tongue noticing this. The young ones never learned unless it was something they experienced for themselves. Oh well, for now he couldn't force her.
Not far from her stood a sword leaned up against the wall, unnoticed by her as she eagerly followed every step of her four rescuers.
That included a lot of jumping, running, growling, scratching, clawing, punching, kicking, energy blasting, shooting and slashing on their account.
She sat down. Even if she had heard they were the best there was in spirit world, they sure were taking their time. So rumours really were just rumours. She pouted her bottom lip in disapproval. She had to tell her tutor her starry opinion of the spirit detective and his tag team was a tad off.
"Why doesn't he just blow their heads off? And I'm hurt. I need to get to the hospital as soon as possible too." Inspecting her bruises and cuts she winced slightly.
Kurama just barely dodged the barrier as he was thrown backwards.
"I want to go home," she muttered, hugging her knees.
He got up. With a soundless snarl the demon's left foot flew off and up in the air. Yusuke blasted his head off from behind. "They are slow and not very powerful," he spat blood. "But their skin is tough as iron and they're heavy." He dodged a demon and saw Kuwabara jump with a roar up on its back. The sword dug deep into his back as Hiei simultaneously buried a fist enhanced with energy into its stomach. A green mass spurted from its mouth. It lost balance on its residing right foot and hit the ground with a sound loud as thunder. Its three other limbs were spread about the battle field. That only went to emphasize what Yusuke had said. The detective in question kicked a cut-off foot across the ground.
"Never thought I'd live to see the day Kuwabara and Hiei cooperated."
"Hiei is without a sword, it can't be helped," Kurama replied.
Yusuke eyed the remaining three demons, one of which was already missing half an arm. Meaning; it hung, cut halfway through, from its shoulder. Useless; it was as good as a missing arm -and also Kuwabara's try all the way back in the beginning of the fight on penetrating the demon's tough skin.
"Come and get it, tough guys."
All the while the young grim reaper had begun drawing small figures on the ground. Though she had heard what they said and she looked around curiously. She was pretty sure she could recall the little demon carrying a sword by his side when they had entered. Maybe it had broken during the fight? Then she saw it, standing there clean and unused against the wall. Not able to recall whether it had been standing there earlier or not, she scooted curiously over, took it and drew the sword out of its hilt. So shiny.
"Hey!" she yelled over at the fighting bunch. "Why don't you use this?" she waved the sword at the little, red eyed one. His eyes widened. Giving the demon he was fighting a knock-out energy blast -which only shove it backwards-, he spun around and sped off toward her. But another demon had also taken interest in what she had said. One of the enemy demons. And not wanting their opponents to gain any unnecessary weapons, he too ran toward her. And Hiei being held back by another demon for a split second the bad demon got there first. Yusuke's head snapped in her direction.
"Watch out!"
With a terrified scream the young grim reaper lifted the sword to protect herself. The demon's claws rushed down toward her with a roar.
A flash of demon energy and the towering creature was hurled backwards. A moment of confusion, a brief halt in the fighting. She slowly opened eyes she had not noticed closing. In front of the young grim reaper stood Hiei with both arms lifted. One hand smoking after the energy bomb, the other dripping of blood. Seemingly, even he with his speed had not escaped wounds.
He turned, snatched the sword out of the girl's hands and sheathed it again without a word. "Th-" He sent her a dark glare cutting her off. Then he placed the sword back against the wall and headed back in the direction of the fight and what were now only two remaining demons.
As they now, halfway through, had started to get a hang of it, the next two demons -in comparison to the other three- were a lot easier to deal with. By the death of the first of the two however, the barrier around them dissolved.
"Guess we now know who was responsible for the caging," Yusuke had noted. "It was pretty good work, too bad he's too dead to hear the compliment." And afterwards they turned towards the other. With no allies left the last had fled.
They chased it down without difficulty.
"Looks like you got nowhere to run anymore. Give it up and come with us peacefully; we need you for questioning," Yusuke said with a sigh. This rescuing was dragging on for longer than preferred and certain demons never knew when to quit. On the other hand he wanted to know what they had tried to obtain by kidnapping a grim reaper in training. And he knew he was not alone about this. And then there was also the possibility this demon knew something about the ones that had attacked Fai. Probably not much of a possibility, but every possibility counts.
The demon took a quick glance down.
"Hey, don't be stupid. We're not gonna kill you," Kuwabara took a few steps toward the demon. The very next second it had grabbed him by the wrist and he was-
flung over a cliff.
"KUWABARA!"
In the blink of an eye things happened very quickly. Yusuke was by the cliff edge, Kurama had grabbed his shoulder. A few, small rocks fell from the edge. Yusuke stared down, securely held back by the fox demon who in turn watched him carefully; in case he would have to strap the detective down to keep him from going on a suicide, fatal rescue. However:
"Oh," was all the spirit detective said. "He'll be fine."
Once returned to the spirit world they reported back to Koenma, Yusuke giving him a few remarks on not being so useless after all somewhere along the way, and with a hopeless sigh the baby ruler shooed them toward the sickroom to get some tender tending.
"Any later and we would have to pick you up with a vacuum cleaner," Yusuke said from the white bench he was sitting on, getting stitched together a little, even though his demon energy would take care of most of the healing.
"Yeah," Kuwabara replied with a shudder. "He can actually be a little helpful with those portals sometimes."
"You could be too, if you did not act so stupid all the time," Hiei noted.
"What? Hey, I helped kill those demons too-"
"And yet you were foolish enough to let your guard down and get close to the last one alive. How you have been able to stay alive all this time even I do not understand."
A quarrel of words and insults followed and Kurama smiled an excuse on their behalf at the young grim reaper.
"Please ignore them; they tend to do that quite often. That aside," he looked more closely at her. For a trained eye it would have been possible to detect the very slight change in his smile. "I have to say you were able to stay surprisingly calm during our fight. Not many are able to do so. Especially not in one as-" he paused "-limb-loosing as that one ended up being."
She shrugged. "Grim reapers are not supposed to fight. It's not what we do and not our field of expertise. Therefore I had no intentions of getting involved and saw no reason to freak out over it. If you had gotten killed, Koenma would just have found another way to save me."
"That so." Yusuke had followed their brief conversation. "Good thing we won then, so her highness wouldn't have to wait even longer for someone else to show up and save her."
"Yusuke, that is no way to approach a lady."
"Okay, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. And I'm happy you're alive and -hey, could you kids keep it the hell down?"
"Even so," the young grim reaper watched as Yusuke took part in the verbal fight. A little away from them and noise two healers were taking a closer look at Hiei's arm. "From what I have heard about him, I honestly didn't expect Hiei to save me like that-"
"And you should not be mistaken," Kurama replied before she got the chance to finish properly. "It was not you he was defending by allowing his arm to be torn up like that."
She stared at him. Far back in the educated, levelled eyes there was a brief tug of… something. "Then… " she didn't finish.
Kurama smiled at the confused girl. "Don't think too much about it. We were there to save you and we did. And I am sure Hiei's arm will be all right again after they have tended to it. But I suppose it best if you did not touch that sword again."
"Would you like a cup of tea?"
"Sure Kurama. I guess you won't be serving anything stronger anyway."
"Yusuke, you are still under age. Really."
"Not even your scoffs can cure him, Kurama. He is beyond help."
"You sure you're the right person to say that, Kuwabara?"
"Hey, I'm-"
"Kurama."
"What is it? Would you like a cup too, Hiei?″
In the dark, a sword casually leaned in the lap and up along the shoulder could not be spotted by movie-engulfed eyes. Different faces of awe, excitement, light scare and impatience surrounded him in all directions. Even the detective had a grinning expression pulled across his face, and the goof next to him- not even worth mentioning.
Kurama, at the end of their four-man row uptake of seats, sat with his arms crossed, a mildly amused look on his face. But at the very least, he appeared more collected than the other tens on tens of idiotic people in this room. A lot more.
Hiei was not sure anymore how he had managed to end up here. Though he knew it had contained tee drinking at Kurama's place and a foolish proposal from Kuwabara upon catching a glimpse of a news paper. However, in the end the most foolish one must have been himself, for thinking this would help.
A loud sound, at once accompanied by dozens of surprised or frightened cries. Hiei did not bat an eyelid but his nose wrinkled with distaste. Not to the scene displayed right then, mind, but to all the humans around him.
The sword remained indifferent.
What a waste of time. The little fire demon had forgotten the title of the movie already. Not that it mattered anyhow. It was filled with horses and swordfights, everything put in an old-fashioned setting, from a time humans of today were not even born to remember. And it was all circled around main character humans believed to be heroic.
He shifted impatiently in the soft seat; the extra granting him height slid slightly off the edge. Humans had such useless, annoying inventions. He had to push himself up the black plastic armrests to push the red extra seat back in.
When it felt somewhat safe again, and not on the verge of sending him toppling over to the dirty floor he sat back down to continue cursing at himself for actually being here.
Regardless, it was different from what he had first imagined, he would give it that. And even though he frequently was about to fall off, it was a painful truth he had to admit to that he would not have been able to see anything without the extra seat –regardless the annoying embarrassment it had cost him.
However, in the end, being there did not grant him the desired effect after all.