Oh. My. GOD. I have a HUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE apology to give to you, my lovely readers, for forgetting to update for so long ._. I only have a good excuse for the last three weeks when I was busy with exams and such (you know how it is q.q). Buuuuuuuuut I haven't abandoned the story, fret not! So without any further ranting, enjoy lovelies~ :D
P.S. All YuYu Hakusho characters belong to Yoshihiro Togashi~ :)
11. Illusion Forest
Turning toward the entrance, Kurama felt his expression settling into an awed shade almost against his will.
"Hiei...?"
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"What do you know? Kurama..." the short youkai replied. "So they caught you too, in the end."
"Not quite..." Koenma replied. "Hiei... you've been arrested for quite serious crimes, haven't you? Kurama needs someone who's been to Hell and I know you have."
Briefly Kurama caught a glimpse of fear in the fire-youkai's eyes. Though they had only worked together once, he still found it unsettling to see Hiei fearing something.
"If that's why you brought me here, you can just take me back to the cell." Hiei huffed.
"I'll grant you freedom if you help Kurama with this."
"Isn't that generous of you? But I'll have no part in going back there."
Reaching into one of the piles of papers on his desk, Koenma retrieved a folder and sifted through it.
"You used to work with Kurama, didn't you? You could be put to death for that, as Kurama has been marked for death by my father. What do you say? If you do this, I'll lift the death penalty from both of you."
Apparently turning completely serious, Hiei lightly narrowed his eyes.
"What are you playing at, Koenma?"
"Your swordsmanship is unequaled, as is Kurama's intellect. I'd hate to see such traits going to waste... that's all."
Thinking it over for a few moments, the fire-youkai finally smirked.
"Very well... I'll do it."
"Then you'd better leave before the ogres alert any guards."
"He's right." Kurama agreed. "We've already lingered here too long."
With the two youkai leaving the room, Koenma collapsed back into his chair and heaved a sigh.
"Koenma-sama... are you sure that was a wise decision?" Jorge asked.
"Not at all... I can only hope it won't turn against me."
Upon arriving back to the Makai, Hiei who had been silent all the way there, now finally spoke.
"Why do you want to go there?"
"This might sound amusing to you, knowing your personality..." Kurama chuckled. "I'm going there to get a woman back."
Indeed Hiei silently stared at him for a moment before seemingly finding his voice again.
"Have you lost your mind?"
"Apparently I have... but I'm not changing my decision."
When Hiei fell silent, the fox-youkai averted his gaze toward his short friend.
"You went there while looking for your sister, didn't you?"
"Yes... but this woman isn't your sister, is she?"
"She isn't... she's my lover."
"This had better be worth it." Hiei growled.
Later that night they had finally made it back to Kurama's camp.
"What is this?" Hiei smirked, glancing around. "I thought you said you're not a thief anymore."
"I'm not..." Kurama replied while leading the fire-youkai toward his tent. "My men just didn't want to leave me."
"Interesting."
Upon approaching the fire nearest to his tent, Kurama's gaze fell onto Nari who stood to greet them.
"I'm relieved to see you're back."
"I had no plans on getting arrested. Nari... you remember Hiei, don't you?"
Nodding in greeting to the short youkai, Nari offered a slight smile.
"How could I forget such a fiery temper?" he chuckled.
"You're still with Kurama?" Hiei asked.
"And I hope to aid him until I die."
Once the three of them were seated around the fire, Nari finally discarded all humor.
"So? What did Koenma say?"
"Hiei will lead us there. I won't take a large group with me; you and Hiei should be enough."
"That's for the best." Hiei agreed. "We don't want to draw any unneeded attention."
"Are you sure just the three of us will be enough?" Nari pondered.
"I'm not planning to fight that youkai." Kurama replied, staring into the flames. "I stole her from her room once, I can do it again."
"So who's this youkai that has her?" Hiei asked.
"Her father said his name is Daichi..." Nari answered. "To be honest I never heard of him, which likely means he never came to the Makai before."
"It's him? This woman had better be worth it..." the fire-youkai snarled.
Finally tearing his golden gaze from the fire, Kurama looked to his friend.
"You met him?"
"Yeah... he's one of the strongest lords of Hell. Not only that, he's a sick bastard too. I heard talk of him while I was there... at first glance he's kind and polite and even eager to help, which is a rare thing in those lands. But they say he has a sadistic side to him as well."
Setting his crimson gaze onto Kurama, he lightly narrowed his eyes.
"You should know the risk that we won't find her in the same state in which you left her. I won't sugarcoat this; it might even be a wasted journey."
"I'm aware of all the possibilities, Hiei. But as long as the chance exists that she's alive, I have to go. When I left her with her parents I promised that I'd come for her, even if it's the last thing I ever do. And I intend to keep my word."
"So what do you plan to do when you get her back? He'll likely come after her, even if only to kill you and erase his shame."
"You seem pretty confident in the success of this mission... it's not like you, Hiei." Kurama chuckled.
"With you there, I'm assured that we can get in and out of any place. That's all there is to it. If I were going without you, I'd probably be a lot more anxious."
"So how long will it take us to get there?" Nari finally asked.
"From our current location, I'd say about three days until we get to the entrance... if we don't run into any trouble on the way."
Kurama's brow briefly twitched when the fire-youkai glanced to him.
"Most of the hunters that were after me either gave up or are dead." he retorted.
"The Reikai's Tokubetsu Bōeitai is still after you. Even an A-class youkai like you wouldn't come off unscathed against them."
"They haven't been seen in the Makai for some months now."
"Let's hope we don't meet them on the way there."
Fortunately it seemed as though Hiei's worries had been in vain; true, the fire-youkai had led his companions as stealthily as possible, but even when they had crossed open plains there had been no interruptions to their journey. When daylight had started fading on the third day, Hiei had pointed to the horizon where it looked as though the entire land was on fire.
"That's our destination. From here it'll only take a few more hours before we reach the boundaries of Hell."
It was late in the night when they finally arrived in a desolate place. There were many barren wastelands in the Makai, but none so devoid of life as the one they were now traversing. Soon enough the ground ended and the three found themselves on what looked like the edge of a cliff, the height of which was almost impossible to measure. Beneath them an open plain stretched as far as the eye could see, riddled with what seemed to be rivers of lava. The air was nearly impossible to breathe as dry and hot as it was. Far to the horizon the silhouette of a forest could be made out, stretching sideways indefinitely. Turning to Kurama, Hiei fixed his gaze upon the fox-youkai.
"I'll ask you one last time... is this woman really worth it?"
"Asking me that question is a waste of your breath, Hiei, as you already know the answer. I knew you to be more selfish with words."
"Tch... don't blame me if you die down there."
Slightly smiling at his friend's amused tone, Kurama now took to following Hiei once more as the fire-youkai led them toward the narrow pathway which descended onto the plains. Upon setting foot onto the plains below, even the fox-youkai was compelled to admit to himself that he had never been in a worse place than that. Having always been in tune with nature, he could fully feel the death and desolation around him. What they had first believed to be sand, soon proved to be soil which was so scorched and dry that it crumbled beneath their steps. When the slithering path took them close to one of the lava rivers, Kurama's ear twitched as his gaze settled onto what seemed to be...
"...Humans?" he muttered.
"Just ignore them..." Hiei replied, not even casting the tormented souls a glance. "If you get too close, they'll grab you and drag you into the lava."
"So this is one way to torture sinners, eh?"
"From what I heard this is where they send human souls... youkai have a different Hell reserved."
"Sounds fair."
Briefly smiling at Kurama's ironic reply, Hiei now pointed toward the horizon.
"We'll get to that forest by dawn. That's where the hard part starts..."
Indeed by the time the cloudy sky was becoming lighter in color, the trio found themselves before the edge of the forest.
"This really is a terrible place..." Kurama muttered.
To someone like him, who had grown up loving plants, it wasn't easy to see an entire forest of dead trees, apparently devoid of any other kind of vegetation. Of course, the trees still had leaves but Kurama could easily tell they were dead.
"Don't be fooled by how it looks... this forest is far from dead." Hiei replied. "Now pay attention... once we're inside, you won't touch anything. If you touch even one leaf the entire forest will attack us."
"What does that mean?" Nari asked.
"This forest feeds on living energy. We touch anything and we'll never make it out again. It's called the Forest of Illusions... steel your minds, so you don't go chasing whatever it shows you."
"It will try to lure us away from the path, is that right?" Kurama pondered.
"Yeah... whatever we see in there, don't use any youki. The trees will sense it and wake up."
"So they'll sense our youki if we use it and they'll sense it if we touch them."
"That's right... it'll take one day to cross the forest. We should be on the other side by dawn."
Throughout the day the group was fortunate enough to not encounter anything in their way. However, once daylight had started fading Hiei called for a break and asked Nari to hand him the rope they had brought along.
"This is exactly why I told you to bring this." he said, whilst handing a part of it to Kurama. "Tie it around your waist... this way if one of us tries to leave the path the others can stop him."
Once the three of them were linked by the thick cord, the fire-youkai pointed ahead.
"The pathway narrows somewhat for the next three hundred feet. We'll have to be extra careful crossing that part. Once darkness falls, that's when the illusions will start appearing."
Indeed, it wasn't too late into the night when Kurama suddenly felt a cold shiver rolling down his spine. Perking his ears he cautiously glanced around as far as he could see in the light provided by their improvised torches. His body stopped almost against his will when he suddenly caught a glimpse of Nozomi amidst the greenery which seemed to become more and more lush the more they advanced. When Hiei was forced to stop as well, he averted his ruby eyes to the fox-youkai.
"Whatever you just saw, it's not real." he warned.
"Aniki?"
"Tch... it's starting..." he growled.
Ignoring the illusion of Yukina calling him, he reached out to grasp Kurama's yukata.
"We need to move." he said when the fox-youkai turned his gaze downward.
When the other two finally started walking again, Kurama exhaled a slightly shaky breath.
"To think it can make illusions so accurate..."
"It reads your mind and shows you what you want to see most."
"And what does it show you?" Nari asked.
"...It doesn't matter. It's not real."
Throughout the following hours the trio walked in silence, doing their best to ignore the illusions that the forest was constantly throwing at them. It was only a couple of hours before dawn that the illusions suddenly vanished, Hiei himself stopping this time.
"What is it?" Nari asked tensely.
"They're gone..." Hiei muttered. "Why?"
"It's almost dawn." Kurama pointed out.
"Last time they didn't go away until I left the forest."
At those words Kurama again felt that cold shiver crossing his spine.
"Want to play?"
When his two companions turned to look at him, Hiei narrowed his eyes whilst the eerie voice of what seemed to be a child still lingered in the air.
"Tch... it's trying to get all of us at once."
"Want to play?"
"Whatever it is, it's getting closer." Kurama frowned, his ear twitching.
Standing back to back, the group now tensely awaited to see just what was approaching them. It was unwise to keep moving when they were apparently being hunted by someone or something.
"There." Kurama suddenly pointed out.
In utter bewilderment all three of them watched the footprints approaching them from the direction they had come by, despite the lack of a visible body. When the footprints stopped just a few steps away, the eerie voice enveloped them again.
"Don't you want to play with me?"
When none of them answered, the winds picked up tearing off a few leaves from the nearby trees.
"Then I'll play with you..." the voice retorted, this time on a wholly different tonality much similar to a hoarse growl.
"Don't let those leaves touch you! Run!" Hiei called out.
With the body-less voice now cackling in their ears, Kurama and Nari followed the fire-youkai toward the exit. Even when light began creeping along the sky, the forest still seemed determined to get them.
"There's the exit!"
Hiei's words felt like music to Kurama's ears, his eyes welcoming the sight of a large gap between the trees and the barren wasteland beyond. And just as he was relishing in the fact that they were nearly out, his ear twitched when something brushed past his cheek. His eyes darted to the side where one of the leaves was just settling onto his shoulder. Within moments it seemed as though all the trees had come alive... the trunks cracked as they stretched over the pathway, aiming to outright impale the three on the thick branches.
"Damn it..." Hiei hissed, unsheathing his sword and slicing off a branch that had been trying to cut his path.
Picking up their pace, the trio now desperately dashed for the exit while fending off the trees which were trying to trip them or somehow throw them off the pathway. At long last, after what seemed like a never ending road, they found themselves out into the open plains, only stopping to rest a few good yards from the forest edge, as the trees were still stretching toward them in a now failed attempt to feed off the three.
"We'll have to find another way back." Hiei pointed out whilst untying the rope around his waist. "I doubt we'll be able to pass through here again."
"We'll figure something out on the way back." Kurama agreed.
For the following hour the three chose to rest; the constant tension in the forest hadn't been easy on their bodies by any means. It was at some point, when Kurama and Hiei were discussing the next part of their journey, that Nari noticed something approaching them at quite a high speed across the plains.
"What's that?"