A/N: /sigh. See the next chapters A/N for the reason behind my depression.

O/C10: Using the forest to help, Misaki rids her lands of a group of beasts that intruded, saving Hiei in the process. Another entity attacks him while he is weakened and Misaki protects him from it, taking the blow for him…

Hiei slowly returned to consciousness, feeling the soft grass against his chest. He remained on his stomach for a moment, eyes closed. The last thing he could remember was at least three broken ribs and excruciating pain. But it was gone.

He tried to get up, but something was lying on top of him.

What had happened? He suddenly recalled someone standing over him as he fell, the beasts being led away. He vaguely remembered standing to get his katana, cleaning it, sheathing it. Everything was black after that.

Hiei pushed himself up onto his hands and knees and whatever had been on his back slipped off onto the ground next to him. He looked over and was astonished to see the lifeless form of Misaki beside him. Well, at least her back.

She was face-down and he could see something soaking into her shirt. Blood. It was blood. He moved closer. Her shirt had been torn into what looked vaguely like a huge X, ranging all the way across her back. Underneath where the material was torn, her flesh had also been sliced into an X shape.

Hiei wanted to turn her over to see if she was still breathing but as he touched her shoulder, she sat up, shaking her head though still looking dizzy.

"Hn," Hiei began to stand.

Misaki rose tenderly, backing away from Hiei, her eyes not seeming to register his presence. She turned and stumbled into the forest, tripping and almost falling, leaning heavily on a tree before moving on.

Again she had saved his life. He did not think that in his previous condition that he would have survived with an attack like that scoring his back. He picked up his discarded cloak, clothed himself in it and followed her.

She moved slowly, stopping often to rest where she stood, but always moving forward. The blood dripping from her back left a blaring red trail on the grass.

Hiei shadowed her after donning his outer cloak, unsure of where the staggering Misaki was headed, but prepared to do something at any moment in exchange for her deed, even if he did not know what.

There was a spring up ahead, a hot spring, Hiei assumed, considering the fair amount of steam that rose from the water's surface.

He took a deep breath of the moist air and wondered why he was no longer injured.

There were no coherent thoughts in Misaki's mind, her whole being bent on making it to the water. Her breath was short and painful. She did not allow herself to collapse, to stop, knowing that there was a good possibility she would never rise.

A shock of pain surrounded her torso coupled with a wave of dizziness to her head and she clutched an arm to her side.

Making it up to her waist in the water, Misaki relaxed and her body fell forward, the water embracing and pulling her down into its depths.

Hiei watched from the nearby shoreline for a moment. With the Jagan's urging, it sensed that most of her brain activity stopped, he put his katana on top of a large nearby rock and moved closer to the edge of the water. A life for a life.

He dove in.

...

Kurama walked down the hall for a while. The doors lining either side all appeared similar to him but as he moved further down, he noticed a door with writing on it.

"A library?" He seemed impressed, easing open the entrance and stepping inside.

Low lights turned on, revealing rows and rows of books. Aisles of books. The entire room was filled with books, medium sized room though it was.

On a table near the door were unrolled scrolls, tablets and a few open books.

"Just the way Mistress left it." Zumi sighed, "She isn't the tidiest of people."

Kurama smiled as he perused up and down the collection. The smell of books was a familiar and comforting scent, but at the moment he wished to explore more of the house.

He left and began walking down the hall again.

"So what could be considered among the idiosyncrasies Misaki has?" Kurama felt that he might learn more about Misaki from this Zumi person than he could get Misaki to tell him face-to-face.

"She's an awful hoarder for one thing, Master Kurama."

Kurama imagined that Zumi rolled his eyes while saying it.

"A hoarder?" Kurama asked, hoping for more elaboration.

"Like a dragon. With a hoard. She takes everything and stows it away. I can protest all I want but she always counters with 'Zumi, I might need it later!'" He did a decent, though overdramatic, imitation of her voice, "I ought to get rid of the things she's forgotten about, or at least the stuff she hasn't used in the last millennia or so. But, then again, I suppose she'll never really run out of room if she keeps storing it all here."

"Never run out of room? Just how much room is there?"

"Enough." Zumi snorted.

"If she's a dragon with a hoard, then I would assume she has a pile of jewels hidden away she sleeps on." Kurama smiled.

Zumi chuckled, "Piles of jewels, yes. Sleeps on, no. She doesn't have a dragon's hard scales otherwise I'm sure she would try."

"Where would this hoard be?"

"Two doors down on your right."

Kurama's pace picked up a little.

Zumi was not lying when he said a 'pile' but a more accurate word would have 'mound'.

Immediately entranced at the state of the shiny mound reaching high towards the ceiling, Kurama reverently entered the room.

"Don't take anything. Don't try it at least. She would have your hide." Zumi warned.

Cautiously, Kurama picked up a golden goblet encrusted with various precious jewels and stared at his reflection in it.

"Um…Master Kurama? Master Kurama?" Zumi attempted to get the youkai's attention but met with no success.

Kurama's eyes were fixed on the goblet, all movement within his body seeming to have come to a halt.

"…You wouldn't happen to be related to Yoko Kurama the kitsune, would you? Oh dear. You just had to pick up that particular goblet, didn't you? Well I guess you won't be going anywhere for a while."

...

Misaki's muscles twitched as she sank down to the bottom of the pool. The water brought the open skin of the wound together as it healed her, but it was unable to prevent the long scars spanning as an X across her back that came as a result.

The warm spring was not deep but Misaki's loss of blood left her weak and the oddity of this water was that one sank pleasantly within it until reaching the stone bottom. Misaki slowly shut her eyes, holding no hope or strength within herself to push off and swim for the surface.

Her breath came out in small bubbles from her nose and the corners of her mouth.

"You had better not die, foolish woman."

The voice within her head caused her to stir.

"Hiei?" He must have…followed her?

Eyes opening in slits, she saw a dark shape come closer, grabbing her waist and pulling her back to the surface.

Hiei took her to the shallows, bringing her far enough out of the water that she would not drown when he dropped her.

Misaki still felt the water around her, but she could breath and the ground was firm beneath her.

She sat up, facing the waterfall and blinking with disorientation. Strands of hair were watered down in front her face and she flipped them behind her shoulder with one hand.

"Hn. Watch it."

Misaki looked behind her to see Hiei perched on a good-sized rock, one leg stretched out over it almost touching the water and the other leg bent closer to his body, his katana resting against it and one arm on his knee.

She had accidentally sprayed him with droplets of water when she removed her hair from in front of her face.

Steam that wasn't coming from the spring rose off of him, his clothes, skin and hair quickly drying.

Misaki remained amazed as always that his hair stood straight up despite the water.

She faced the waterfall again and intentionally this time, Misaki flipped more of her hair behind her shoulder just to spite him.

Misaki had to dry off the old-fashioned way, though since she still hadn't moved from where she sat in the water, only her upper-half was actually getting dry.

A splash of water droplets fell on her head and she looked up, frowning at the clear sky, realizing only after a moment what had happened.

She turned and glared at Hiei who returned her gaze expressionlessly. However, fresh steam rose from his boot nearest to the water.

The hot spring had repaired not only the large slices in her back, but some smaller ones she accumulated from her training with Coahtu. As an added bonus, she found that her shirt had been mended as well.

Uncomfortably, Misaki felt as if Hiei's eyes were boring into her and she stood up.

No wait. That feeling wasn't coming from him. There was something else that had intruded on the lands.

"Must be because I've come back." She thought ruefully. "Great 'welcome home' present."

Without the presence of any wind, the leaves of the trees began rustling as though a hard gust blew through them.

The whip, still rotating about her right arm, began throbbing awkwardly like a second pulse that tried to compete with her own.

Curious, Misaki held her arm up to her face, splaying her fingers out and shifting her arm this way and that.

The trees rustled harder.

"Okay, alright." Misaki mumbled. "I'm going."

Hiei had been watching her with semi-awareness while she sat almost perfectly still in the water, making sure she wasn't going to fall in again. He had trouble believing she was any sort of fighter. She oftentimes had her guard completely down, as was the case while he watched her, and as with the previous thought, he was still occasionally able to hear what she was thinking. Hiei frowned. He always had his guard up. He always had the Jagan prepared for the possibility that there was a telepath nearby. He…realized that she was gone.

...

Zumi couldn't believe he'd let the infamous kitsune into Misaki's treasure hoard. And of all the items the youkai could have picked up, he had to choose the Goblet of Entrancement. It was just Zumi's luck. He wasn't able to do anything, so he would have to wait until the Mistress came back.

Knowing that Kurama wouldn't be going anywhere, Zumi looked in on the room where the two humans lie sleeping.

He watched them with interest, having heard of humans but never seen one up this close and in the house nonetheless. Under different circumstances, they would not have set foot within Misaki's house.

Kuwabara stirred and sat up sleepily.

"Hey!...Urameshi! It wasn't just a dream!" Kuwabara whacked the motionless pile of bedding nearby.

"Nnn." Yusuke protested, sinking deeper under the blankets.

"Urameshi, wake up! We're in…wait…where are we? Is this Misaki's house? I can't remember!" Kuwabara looked frantically around the room, not seeing Kurama, Misaki or Hiei anywhere. "Oh no! What if they've got us! What if we've been kidnapped?"

"Kuwabara, do you ever shut up?" Yusuke's muffled voice asked from under his covers.

"The Great Kuwabara does not get kidnapped!"

"Uh, excuse me." Zumi thought this was a good time to interrupt before things went any further.

"Where are you? Show yourself!" Kuwabara jumped up, ready for a fight, "You can't kill us!"

"Shut up! I'm trying to sleep here!"

Kuwabara's stomach growled loudly in the midst of his heroic pose and as if in response, so did Yusuke's.

"Would you like something to eat?" Zumi asked.

"Well at least they're going to be humane about it." Yusuke sat up immediately. "No starvation for me, thanks." His stomach gurgled again. "I could eat a horse at this point." He rubbed his mid-section.

"I could eat ten horses!" Kuwabara challenged.

"If you say so." Zumi's voice sounded like it would have been accompanied by a shrug.

Eleven horses appeared in the room and both Kuwabara and Yusuke were surprised.

"Hey, what is this?" Yusuke demanded, "I'd like some real, cooked food, please."

"But you said you could eat a horse. And he said he could eat ten." Zumi frowned, confused.

The pair of humans just gaped at the stamping horses.

"Okay. Fine. Here."

The horses disappeared, only to be replaced by actual food

"That's what I'm talkin' about!" Yusuke launched himself towards the meal.

Zumi watched with mild interested as the two wolfed down the breakfast.

-lotsm