I Can't Repair Bone
"Stop moving, damn it!" Hiei growled, pushing Darkfire back down.
"Stop touching me!" she fired back, right arm still useless.
"I'm trying to put your arm back in place! I'll sit on you if I have to!"
She tired to punch him again, but Kurama grabbed her fist. Her eyes blazed on him.
He smiled best he could. "Just let him. Then we'll leave you be."
Her muscles relaxed once more and she lay still. Hiei sighed. Without further hesitation, he jerked her arm strangely to one side and then pushed it back in place with a fierce pop.
Then the two demons backed down.
"There, now you can run rampant again," Hiei huffed.
Darkfire did not move. Her eyes were once more lifeless.
The fox's jaw tightened. His saddened orbs looked over at the small demon.
Hiei's brows knitted. "That was your defense, wasn't it? That's what kept him from breaking you, wasn't it? All your dead emotions revive at once to give you the energy to fight back. The greatest and most dangerous defense a human could have."
"Whatever made me human is dead. I am merely a short-lived icicle," Darkfire said. It seemed a defensive remark, but it did not sound like one.
No emotion was placed behind it.
Kurama went to touch her hand, but stopped, remembering last time.
Noticing the recall, Hiei decided he was not so nice. He grabbed Darkfire's arm in a vice grip. Immediately, she reacted to him. She attempted to tear her limb from him, but to no avail. Her leg came up and connected with the side of his head. With an angry yell, he flipped her, pinning one arm beneath her and the other behind her back.
Darkfire managed to hook her leg around his neck.
When he tried to pull away, she tightened and brought the other up in a tight lock.
"Hiei!" Kurama yelled, standing.
It had all happened so fast.
"Damn it, she doesn't think! She's too spasmodic!" Hiei hissed.
"Darkfire, let him go," the fox said gently. She was curled in an awkward position; he almost wondered if it hurt. She does not feel.
Her eyes were wide and ablaze. An inferno of emotion burned new and fresh.
Hiei tried very little to escape. He was thinking.
"What is it, Hiei?"
"Five years of her hands being bound, of course she's learned to use other means of attack and defense. But such quick reflexes—I never expected. I can't read her at all. And her strength is surprising. Without feeling, I'd have to break her legs to free myself. It's fascinating."
He winced as her knee under his neck pushed harder on his Adam's apple.
"Is she thinking now?" Kurama asked.
"She's repeating."
"I don't understand."
"Whatever is said, she repeats in her mind until there's something new to repeat."
Kurama once more looked into her eyes. They were moving in deliberate patterns. Much of her sight, he could tell, was peripheral.
"Hiei," he said, "she's calculating." Slowly, he brought his eyes up.
"What?"
"Are you sure she's not thinking?"
It was too late.
Shifting just enough, Darkfire pulled her left arm from under her and elbowed Hiei in the face. Then her fingers caught Kurama's exposed cheek. She locked with his eyes as he fell away.
In anger, Hiei rammed his fist through Darkfire's shoulder.
Her shoulder joint cracked and splintered and gave way.
She screamed.
"Darkfire!" Kurama gasped.
She screamed.
Her body went limp and she unfolded.
Hiei pulled away, pulling larger bone fragments from his bloody fist.
The girl's eyes faded back to darkness.
Kurama held her wound; she did not fight back. "Hiei, why?"
"I don't know."
"Hiei!"
"I don't know! Suddenly, she was an enemy!"
His slender fingers pushed into the gash, gauging what all was wrong. The bones were beyond his skill to repair. "Destroyed. Hiei, you destroyed her arm. I can't—"
"You can. And you will."
"It's beyond my ability! You know that!"
"Will you be the one to cut her arm off then?"
"Hiei—!"
"Kurama! She's gone her whole life intact! Try!"
The fox removed his fingers and stared into the mess. "I can't repair bone."
Hiei wiped his hand on the blanket. "So, replace it."
Taking in a deep breath, Kurama pulled a variety of seeds from his hair. He picked one and pushed it into her shoulder. It germinated and spread to the bones still mostly intact, forming a rather odd-looking shoulder. Then he inserted another seed, which sprouted into thin green veins to replace the damaged ones. He held his lightly glowing hand over the wound, re-growing her skin.
"She may reject it," he said finally, sitting back and sighing.
"She won't." Hiei allowed his fist to relax, color returning to his knuckles.
"Bastard," Darkfire murmured. She blinked.
His red eyes flashed down to her.
"Touch me again and I'll kill you."
"You wish."
"I promise." Her dull eyes brightened for a split second with malice.
Emotion.