Please read Disclaimer in Chapter One.
The events in Idiot Beloved take place shortly after the Dark Tournament; Firebird Sweet directly follows that timeline. I strongly suggest you read those fics in order, THEN take a look at the sidefics!
Title: Peace, Love, Hiei C4: Once Upon A Hiei
Author: JaganshiKenshin
Genre: Action/Adventure, Humor
Rating: T
Summary: His powers muted, Kurama battles on.
A/N: Kitajima Maya, Kurama's classmate, was introduced in the YYH manga Volume 7 extra, Two Shots, the story of Kurama's first meeting with Hiei. As always, thanks for reading this, and I appreciate your reviews! Character sketches up on my LiveJournal.
Cold-blooded murder, Team Rokuyukai-style
Peace, Love, Hiei (C4: Once Upon A Hiei)
by
Kenshin
"Maya! Run!"
A late afternoon in October, with the weather nearly as warm as June. I had been walking home from middle school in the company of my classmate Kitajima Maya, when I sensed Hiei's bloodlust. Perhaps it was only that which saved me: Hiei was fast, and formidable, and flew at us like a bat out of hell.
His crimson eyes alight with rage, Hiei struck, mistakenly believing (as I later learned) that I was in league with the demon Yatsude, whom he suspected of kidnaping his sister, Yukina.
Snatching Maya from the path of Hiei's sword, I put her safely down and faced him in battle, hoping to draw him away from the helpless girl...
An afternoon in October, almost as warm as June. The past, sepia-tinted, washing over me in a syrupy veil...
Maya. Hiei.
Someone screamed.
Imaimashii's grating laughter rang in my ears, a counterpoint to the hollow boom of my own heart. I shook off my deadly lassitude and fought back in earnest, grappling with the tentacle that was choking me. Beneath my squeezing fingers it felt not slimy, but dry, leathery, reptilian, snakish; I could at least get a grip on it. I struggled to free my neck, but it was about as effective as trying to saw through a steel cable with a marshmallow, and my strength was fading fast from lack of oxygen.
Seated on his packing crate like the last of the pashas, Imaimashii gave a sneer of triumph. The tentacle imprisoning my ankles let go to wrap my ribcage, crushing out the rest of my breath, threatening to crack my bones.
My vision blurred, dimmed. Sparks danced at the edges of my sight. Once more, I thought of Maya.
Kitajima Maya!
I slid to my knees. "Run," I choked out.
Perhaps Miss Chakra reminded me of my old schoolmate--the same degree of innocence and enthusiasm as Maya. Maya, who had revealed to me her burgeoning sixth sense, whose capture by Yatsude caused me to join forces with Hiei to set her free.
And perhaps Imaimashii was not as formidable as Yatsude. Perhaps I was stronger now than I had been at 14--but the demon in front of me had effectively suppressed my powers.
Miss Chakra screamed again. Imaimashii snarled, "Shut up!"
Thinking about Maya? Life flashing before my eyes? Can't die like this, can't leave Miss Chakra to the mercies of this monster--
My thoughts were scattered by a rush of air. The thump of a surprisingly heavy body landing in front of me: Hiei, katana at the ready. The beautiful ringing sound of sword against flesh. The equally beautiful sound of Imaimashii hollering in pain.
The tentacle at my throat quivered, then fell. The other tentacles dropped me like a hot potato.
Bleeding and gasping and coughing, I rolled away from the demon. Imajin's brother was bleeding, too, in pale ichorous gouts from the severed tentacle.
The girl wailed.
Imaimashii sat as though stunned, one bloodied stump of a tentacle protruding from that grotesque mouth like an afterthought, the other two disappearing as he reeled them in.
Hiei stood between me and the hippie-monster, pale blood dripping from the tip of his sword. "Couldn't sleep." He slanted me an amused, almost insolent look. "Your ki was making an awful racket. Hope you don't mind me crashing the party."
Glad to see you, Hiei, I thought. "It's not my party," I rasped, "but I'm sure there's room for another celebrant."
"Uncool, dude," whined Imaimashii, retracting the severed stump too. Now all he had was that bizarre mouth to show. "Uncool." He eyed Hiei nervously; Hiei's power, unlike mine, is not plant-based. And even without his particular powers, Hiei is an expert swordsman.
As if reading my mind, Hiei inquired, "Who's up for tako yaki?"
With a bellow of outrage, Imaimashii spewed his tentacles again, hammering Hiei with a one-two strike.
"The only substitute for good manners is fast reflexes." Hiei easily dodged the blows, shoving me further out of the way. I sprawled near the girl who sprawled in her armchair. She gave a startled squeak, whether I had accidentally hurt her, or the sight of Hiei fending off Imaimashii's armament was more than she could bear. In either case, she was shaking so much that the chair rattled.
Clearly uneasy, Imaimashii paused in his attacks.
"Why no Rose Whip?" Hiei wanted to know.
My voice was recovering. "Tell you later," I advised, still from the floor. I could see Imaimashii's red-on-red eyeballs rotating in their sockets as he assessed Hiei's battle-readiness. "There are two of us now, and he's re-thinking things. He doesn't like those kinds of odds, unless one of us is a girl."
"I'm not a girl." Hiei shrugged. "Are you a girl?"
I disdained a reply. "I'm a g-g-g--" Miss Chakra began.
And then Imaimashii disgorged his tentacles, flicking them around the room like lightning, seeking Hiei, smashing and gouging at ceiling and walls, causing a shower of plaster and lath to sift down. Hiei was just that one shade faster.
Imaimashii struck at every corner of the room and then some. Hiei's katana answered like silver flame.
Far too many of Imaimashii's blows came far too close to the girl, helpless in her sagging armchair--
Without my plant arsenal, the best I could do was shield her with my body, while trying not to inhale too deeply.
And then the front door opened, and someone else was in the house with us.
"Do please excuse my tardiness." At the sound of Shay-san's voice, I craned my neck, to see her framed in the archway of the living room. Clad in gray sweat pants, she also wore an oversized hooded top that made her look small and frail. Yet her face in the dim light told another story, and her eyes held that glint of gold they reflected only when she meant business.
Born with an ability to persuade others with her voice, Shayla Kidd had studied hard to develop that skill, until our Spellcaster, while no martial artist, plays a small but well-defined role in our battles.
"Imaimashii." I nodded toward the hippie-coated demon. "His brother fought in the Dark Tournament." That was all the background she needed.
Hiei and the demon were in the full heat of battle, bouncing off the walls at speeds almost too fast for my eyes to follow.
"Thanks," she said, and I could sense the whiplash edge to her voice even before she unleashed it.
"Freeze!" she snarled.
Hiei dropped to the floor in a perfect three-point landing. Both the demon's lamprey mouth and his human-looking one gaped in shock, one tentacle limp like a power cable, the teeth of another buried in the ceiling. And I was stuck, equally unable to move, shielding the equally-frozen Miss Chakra.
"Crap," muttered Hiei. "This is no fun at all."
Amen, I thought, still trying not to breathe too deeply of Miss Chakra's personality.
"Fine." With one word, she rescinded her Command. "You may move now. Have at it."
I shifted, still unwilling to leave Miss Chakra open to further attack. "Why not just keep Imaimashii from moving at all?" I wondered.
"Hiei's more than a little miffed because I wouldn't let him kill any hippies before now," Shay-san replied, adding, with a trace of scorn, "Besides, how much do you think he would enjoy dismantling a helpless foe?"
Imaimashii un-stuck his tentacle from the ceiling and slashed at Hiei. "I take back what I said about you never letting me have any fun." Hiei beamed. "Can we agree that this constitutes a clear and present danger?"
Shay-san folded her arms. "Knock yourself out."
Snarling, Imaimashii tumbled from the packing crate an eyeblink before Hiei smashed it to bits. He then shot to his feet, turned tail, and ran--not unlike his brother Imajin.
"Your opponent is me," said Hiei, "not the back door."
Imaimashii froze, just as if Shay-san herself had issued a Command. "Hey, man." His shoulders hunched in defeat, the hippie-demon lowered his head, then slowly turned, raising his hands in a universal gesture of surrender. "You dudes got me outnumbered."
I let out a sigh of relief, concurrent with Hiei's sigh of regret, then rose, wincing at the pain in my wounded arm. Hiei and I went to check the girl.
From his spot near the pass-through, Imaimashii watched, both hands clamped atop his head. Shay-san edged further into the living room. And from the musty old armchair, Miss Chakra stared and did nothing else.
Standing shoulder to shoulder, Hiei and I regarded her. "I don't think much of your girlfriend," said Hiei.
"She's not my girlfriend," I sighed.
Hiei jerked his head at Imaimashii. "His?" The hippie demon manufactured a conciliatory grin. I shrugged. "He was just using her."
Hiei rolled his eyes. "What a surprise."
"It was to her."
Imaimashii's grin widened into a leer.
"I really don't like his face," Hiei complained. "Can't you tie him up with a Thrashvine?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"Go on. Rub it in."
"No, seriously." Leaning on his katana, Hiei gave me an astounded look. "You can't secure him?"
"If I could, do you think you would have found me tied like a pork roast?"
"I don't know. I thought maybe you were playing with your food again."
"I believe I'll not dignify that with a response."
"She got any sixth sense?" Hiei flicked a glance at Miss Chakra, who was still busy goggling at nothing. "Doesn't look like she's got much sense of any sort."
"I think she lacks the ability to detect youki."
Hiei folded his arms. "Brilliant deduction."
"Well, she doesn't know what I am." I allowed a half-smile to crimp my lips. "And she doesn't know what you are either."
Hiei lifted an eyebrow that said Oh? "And that would be..?"
In a way, I had been waiting for this since the afternoon. With a mixture of genuine affection and exasperation, I told Hiei what he was, as he had told me earlier, steeping my description in all four strata of insult: ancestry, character, intelligence, and virility, while adding an extra layer involving temperament.
I heard Shay-san gasp in sheer disbelief at my audacity, while the sight of Hiei, temporarily silenced in shock, was reward enough.
When Hiei finally racheted his jaw back into place, his voice held notes of challenge and admiration both. "Say that to me again," he demanded.
And while we were caught up in our little game, Imaimashii spun, leapt, and attacked.
Using the stump as a club, he bowled me over, trying simultaneously with the other two tentacles to tear the sword from Hiei's grip while stabbing at Shay-san and Miss Chakra.
This time, it was Shay-san who screamed.
Hiei moved, too fast for my eyes to follow. To his credit, Imaimashii put up one last stand, concentrating his attacks on Hiei, but Hiei's sword was more than equal to the task of two tentacles plus a stump.
All we saw was a flicker of light. The demon could do nothing to stop it. For a moment he stood frozen in shock.
Then he fell to pieces. Literally. The hunks hit the floor with a wet, sticky thok.
"Finally." Hiei's eyes gleamed in wicked mirth. "I get to kill a hippie."
"And you weren't even properly introduced," I said.
"You've killed one, you've killed 'em all." Sheathing his sword, Hiei sauntered over and hauled me to my feet.
Maybe Hiei really didn't precipitate that attack by pretending to ignore the demon. But paperwork concerning a live perpetrator is so much more tedious than on a dead one.
Together we peered at the girl.
Miss Chakra was shivering in the chair, her cornflower-blue eyes staring behind their glasses. Her pale skin felt clammy, and her teeth clacked together like castanets. "Shock," I summarized, glancing around the debris for a blanket to warm her, but there was nothing clean enough to use. "I don't think she was injured. She should be all right in a bit."
Hiei nodded. "But there's the troublesome fact that she saw the battle. Maybe you ought to use that Dreamflower pollen on her," he suggested. "After you stop your own bleeding."
"Who's bleeding?" I scoffed. The scratch on my face was nothing. It was true, I related to them, that while scalp wounds bleed freely, they are usually not serious.
Shuddering, Shay-san added, "Your sliced-open arm, though, that's another story."
However, with Imaimashii dead and my powers returning, my wounds were soon tended. We once again gave our attention to the girl. This time, I hoped, there would be no further interruptions.
Even though my diminutive sister-become had only a few years on Miss Chakra, she slid into the Mommy role with ease, smoothing back the girl's tangled hair. "It's okay, Sweetie," she murmured. "You're safe now."
Miss Chakra came 'to' then, her eyes rolling wildly around. She clutched at Shay-san's arms. "T-tentacles," she chattered, "S-swords."
"All gone," Shay-san reassured her.
"W-what--just happened?" Miss Chakra gaped at each of us in turn. "Am I hallucinating? D-did he give me drugs? Those things that came shooting out of his head--"
"No, Sweetie." Shay-san glanced at me; I nodded, for her Spellcasting could handle Miss Chakra's memories as well as I could with Dreamflower pollen. "Miss Rainbow Chakra Freedom," she crooned, "Listen to me."
"M-my real name's Emily."
"You were having a dream, Emily," Shay-san continued. "A bad dream. In fact that bastard Imaimashii was lying to you about the environment. He actually manufactures rat poison and puts it in lollipops. Go back to sleep now."
Miss Chakra sighed and closed her eyes, convinced by the Spellcaster that she was indeed asleep and dreaming. Judging by the blissful look on her face, the dream included mountains of ambrosia.
Speaking of food--
I gazed unhappily at the chunks of Imaimashii. He had gone to pieces, true, but that still made quite a pile to wrangle. "Friends help you move." I turned to Hiei and Shay-san. "Good friends help you move bodies."
"You are so behind the times," admonished Hiei. Standing over the dead demon, he summoned his fire and, as casually as though he were starring in a backyard cookout, hosed down the remains with a sheet of gold flame. Shay-san joined us to watch the pyrotechnics.
The demon gave off a thick, yellowish smoke that smelled of old gym socks. In a couple of minutes, there was nothing left of him but a pile of flaky ochre ash.
The girl slept on. "Hiei--" Shay-san turned to him with shimmering eyes, hands clasped together, her voice quavering with fervent emotion. "Can I keep her?"
When she got that way, Shay-san was hard to resist--but Hiei had no trouble doing so.
"No." He was adamant. "You can't adopt a smelly hippie."
"You never let me have any fun!" She turned to me, all sullen indignation. "He never lets me have any fun."
"In this case," I said, "I happen to agree with Hiei. You can't simply go around stealing little girls--especially ones whose family is by now probably frantic to hear from her," I concluded, throwing grammatical structure out the window.
"Leave me to sulk in peace," muttered Shay-san.
"She really does need to return to her family in the States," I added gently. "I'm sure they're worried sick."
That got to her as Hiei's insults would not. "Oh, all right. So now she believes she had a bad dream, and that the hippie makes poison lollipops. But what do we tell her about this?" Shay-san indicated the state of the living room.
Hiei snorted. "Will she even notice?"
I gave him a withering glance. "Were you born this way or do you have to practice?"
"You hurt my one remaining feeling," he sniffed.
"Poor kid." Our Spellcaster knelt at Miss Chakra's feet again, taking off her own jacket to settle it around the girl's shoulders. "She's okay, though. Apart from the smell."
"Can't you do something about that?" I begged. "Anything?"
"What do you take me for?" Rising, Shay-san dusted off her shirt. "Both of you, get back."
We scuttled to obey.
"Poor little useful idiot in front of me," Commanded Shay-san, "that low-life Imaimashii also went on a bender, tore up the living room, then ran out on you and stuck you with the rent. In the morning, you will phone your Mom and Dad and have them wire you plane fare home."
Shay-san glanced up at me. I raised my eyebrows, and she turned back to the girl. "In the meantime, why don't you go take a nice, long, relaxing, hot, and extremely soapy bath?"
"What a good idea," I said.
"At my house," Shay-san concluded.
"Nuts," muttered Hiei.
0-0-0-0-0
After staying with Hiei and Shay-san for a couple of days, getting to meet the twins, and eating real food again, poor Miss Rainbow Chakra Freedom (AKA Emily Jane Johansen), went back to her grateful family, presumably to continue making the world safe for the lost and unkempt. Or perhaps any lingering effects of Imaimashii's power over her would wear off in the haven of her true home.
Hiei and Shay-san erected a concrete barrier similar to those fronting the other homes in the neighborhood. Good fences make good neighbors.
The house across the street soon rented out to a young family of four. Every now and then, their kids come over to play with Michael and CeeCee. I always give the little girl a bouquet of flowers to take back to her mother.
They bathe, all of them.
-30-
(This concludes Peace, Love, Hiei. Tako yaki, for those interested, is made from octopus. Please stay tuned for more fics, whether it's the continuation of Death By Hiei, Operation Rosary, or something completely different.)