A/N: Onward to the Overview!
O/C15: The gang walks through a city, reaching a forest on the other side. Hiei realizes that Misaki knows who his sister is and since he can't threaten her telepathically, he plans on threatening her the first chance he gets…
Misaki kept her word and as soon as they were in the forest, she allowed Yukina to begin passing out the food.
"What did you bring, Yukina?" Misaki asked curiously, leaning against a nearby tree.
"Well, I found bread in the cabinets and so I thought last night that it would be a good idea to pack us some."
"And you remembered eating it before and wanted to have some more." A ghost of a smile twitched on Misaki's lips.
The maiden blushed a little as she handed out the food. "I hope everyone likes what I got them." She said quickly.
Yusuke accepted the small loaf she gave him, scrutinizing it.
"Why's everybody's a different color?" Kuwabara demanded, comparing his with Yusuke's next to him.
His and Yusuke's were something akin to 'wheat' and 'white' respectively, Yukina's was an odd shade of blue, Kurama's a deep amber color, Hiei's was pink and Misaki moved closer to pick out something she had heard Kuwabara call 'white bread' when he was in her house.
"Because no one has the same tastes." Misaki said, taking a bite. "Oh, just try it Hiei, it isn't going to bite your head off."
Despite the fact that Yukina had handed it to him, he still held it at arm's length. Kurama elbowed him and he pulled it closer to his face, inspecting it as though it were poisoned.
Yukina was quietly starting her second piece already, "It's fire bread, Hiei."
"What kind do you have, Yukina?" Kurama asked kindly.
"Ice. Ice bread." She nibbled on it.
"Ice bread?" Hiei scoffed.
"Ice Maiden equals ice bread. Try yours Hiei. I bet you can't look me in the eyes and tell me it's disgusting." Misaki took another bite of the foreign tasting white bread, feeling as though it had no nutritious value whatsoever but unable to stop herself from munching.
Feeling challenged, Hiei tore off a piece and stuck it in his mouth, defiantly glaring at her. He dropped his gaze after a moment, tearing off another piece.
"And what kind do I have?" Kurama asked the girl.
"Ambrosia." Was the response.
"So what did we get?" Kuwabara wanted to know.
"Um." She looked sheepish, "I can't remember."
"Well it's good anyway!" Yusuke replied.
The group fell silent, each one eating their bread. Eventually it was all gone.
The trees were close enough together that each of them had their backs against one.
Yusuke leaned into his, sighing contentedly and closing his eyes, about to snore.
"Don't even go there." Misaki stood up, brushing off the stray pieces from her pants and cringing as she overextended her bad arm. "We're not sleeping yet. Does it look like nighttime to you? Get up. We have much too far to travel for you to take a nap for your lazy butt."
Yusuke stood reluctantly as Misaki started off into the trees.
"What should we do with the basket?" Kuwabara looked around for it.
"What basket?" Misaki turned back. "I don't see any basket."
They all knew that Yukina had been carrying a basket but it was no where to be seen.
"Probably some forest creature carried it off," Misaki said flippantly, continuing onward.
"Was a pretty large forest creature if so," Yusuke mumbled as everyone followed.
...
The forest grew denser as they traveled inward, all small talk ceasing as they concentrating on plowing through the trees and underbrush.
Misaki led Kuwabara, Yusuke and Yukina on the ground while Hiei and Kurama informed them of easy paths to take from their vantage points as they traversed the trees.
Eventually Kurama joined those on the forest floor as the branches thickened, interweaving together. Soon after that, Kuwabara carried Yukina on his back as the girl could not traverse the ground on her own.
Even Hiei came down from the trees, finding that he was unable to dodge his way through the twisted branches up above.
The going was slower then with no directions from higher up. Hiei and Kurama led the way, the two slashing through the harshest of obstacles with sword and whip, clearing the way only ever-so-slightly so that the others could pass through.
Hiei noticed that Kurama's rose whip was white now, and glowed slightly in the gloom.
Behind them, Misaki would occasionally request that they change direction, heading more to the right or left.
Suddenly the pair in front of her stopped and Misaki almost ran into them.
They both stood defensively, noses in the air.
"There's a fire ahead." Kurama's eyes shifted around the only partially lit forest, hoping to catch a glimpse of the blaze.
Misaki sniffed the air, but smelled nothing out of the ordinary. "What's it smell like?"
"Like a fire, stupid woman." Hiei retorted.
"That is not what I meant, Hiei." She scoffed, resisting an urge to smack him, "I meant, does it smell odd in any way?"
Kurama and Hiei closed their eyes, analyzing the scent further.
"It's pure." Hiei decided.
"Not quite like a true fire." Kurama nodded.
"It's more like true fire than you know. Head for the smell. If you speak truth-"
"If there's a fire, wouldn't we want to get away from it?" Yusuke pointed out.
"Yeah! Like downwind!" Kuwabara agreed.
"If you enjoy-"
"You don't go downwind, Kuwabara." Misaki interrupted Hiei before the fire youkai could get any further. "If the wind is behind the fire, it'll be carried downwind. Now get moving unless you'd like to sleep this close to one another tonight."
They all looked at each other. They hardly had room to stand, much less sleep.
As they struggled forward once more, the sky above them steadily became more visible, revealing that the sun had set, the moon beginning to rise in the sky.
Misaki turned back to make sure they hadn't lost anybody, running into Hiei when he suddenly stopped again.
He gave her an irritated look over his shoulder, scanning the clearing that had just opened up in front of him and Kurama.
Misaki nudged him forward and aside to let everyone pass by and he shot her the same aggravated look.
"It's fine. This place was made for us to sleep in. Coahtu incinerated the trees herself, see that bit of ash over there?"
The little ash she spoke of was lifted away in the air from a breeze as Hiei caught a glance of it.
"You are too trusting." He said reproachfully.
"Smell the air, Hiei, it is clean of any stench of youkai." Kurama was still sniffing the wind.
"Present company excluded of course." Misaki said primly, brushing past Hiei into the clearing. No, she couldn't actually smell them, human as she was, but the opportunity at an affront was too good to pass up.
"I think she just insulted us." Hiei narrowed his eyes at her back.
"Speak for yourself, Hiei. Technically, I'm a spirit fox." Kurama glided after Misaki, the others close behind him.
"I thought we'd never get out of that!" Yusuke stretched as he walked into clearing.
It was only perhaps ten meters in diameter but it was certainly a welcoming space.
Kuwabara put Yukina down as soon as they were free.
The stars were winking at them overhead and Yukina blinked sleepily, laying on the ground practically in the center of the circle.
Misaki collapsed near her, body crying out for rest, arm throbbing. Yusuke and Kuwabara dropped close to them, promptly falling asleep.
Knowing Coahtu stood watch, Misaki allowed herself to drift off into slumber, though she didn't have much of a choice in the matter.
...
Despite her body's need for the sleep, Misaki slept lightly, almost aware of the night noises around her.
She awoke after only a few hours of sleep, feeling that Yukina had curled up back to back with her. Misaki was thankful that the night was warm, for they did not have blankets.
She sat up and rubbed her eyes, trying not to disturb the Koorime.
Yusuke, Kuwabara and Kurama all lay near by, she saw, but Hiei sat cross-legged at the edge of the clearing with his back against a tree.
His katana was across his lap, his arms folded over his chest above it and the silversih-white star-shaped strip of his hair glinted faintly as the moonlight hit it.
Misaki stood, carefully stepping over the sleeping bodies to him.
"There isn't any need for you to keep watch, Hiei." Misaki said quietly.
Hiei raised his head, seeing Misaki crouched in front of his face.
"We're being watched over."
"Hn."
Misaki shrugged, knowing he would do as he wished, and she started to rise.
Hiei grabbed her arm quickly, pulling her close so that he could whisper in her ear.
"If you breathe a word to my sister about me, you will be dead as soon as the words leave your mouth, if not before." His quiet words were fierce, the threat he would have communicated telepathically clearly evident in his tone.
Misaki almost swore in his face.
He had inadvertently gripped her new arm, and his grip wasn't by any means a kind one.
Biting her tongue to keep from screaming, she took his wrist in her other hand, wrenching his grasp free.
The only reason she was able to actually get loose was because Hiei had been surprised. He had realized that he just grabbed an arm that should not have been there. His eyes widened as he let her go.
"If I had any deranged desire to tell anyone about this information, they would have already known it by now." She hissed through teeth that were clamped shut in pain, her arm cradled against her chest. "As it is, I do not care whether she knows or not and I don't plan to reveal your secret." Extremely put out, she went on, "As for your inane excuse that you don't want her knowing she is associated with someone like you, you should just accept the fact that you simply don't want to tell her because you're afraid that she might reject you. That you've somehow failed her." She snapped the words at him, her temper already as inflamed as her arm felt.
Misaki found Hiei's katana biting into the flesh of her throat, indenting the skin but not quite breaking through.
Hiei's arms shook with rage as he held off his blow, his self-control on the verge of exploding.
"Kill me if it will make you feel better. It will not change what is true." If he did decide to kill her, at least her arm wouldn't be hurting anymore.
"You are around her too much. You will slip." He finally said, his voice obviously straining with the wrath he felt.
"I would slip less easily than Yusuke or the vessel. They have only held this part of the secret for a short while. I know the secret in its entirety and I have known it since before you were born, forbidden child."
Their eyes were locked, battling viciously.
So she knew.
"If you'll excuse me, I'd like to go off into the forest a ways so I can writhe in pain alone, thank you." Misaki stepped back from his blade, moving into the trees with her arm still clutched close to her body.
When she had gone a ways into the forest, she allowed herself small groan of pain, dropping to her knees and pulling her arm tightly against her stomach.
"Let me see it." Coahtu appeared in front of her, fire-hair waving steadily down her back.
Misaki didn't get a choice. Coahtu forced her to her feet by grabbing her good arm and yanking her up.
She pushed the loose sleeve back to inspect the new arm, moving it in different directions to examine it.
Misaki didn't even feel Coahtu's hands check the limb, so gentle was her touch, and so naturally she looked to see if Coahtu was even doing anything.
She found her face pushed roughly in the other direction.
"The only reason you aren't in horrible pain right now is because you still have not seen it."
Even to Coahtu's hands, the arm felt as though it was on fire. There was a hand print where someone had taken a tight hold of the upper part of the arm. It stood out white against the red-tender skin.
Coahtu inspected the seam where the new arm met with Misaki's actual shoulder. The scar from the searing was there, but it was still clean.
Satisfied, Coahtu relinquished her grip, the sleeve falling back into place as Misaki's arm dropped to her side.
"The whole arm and part of your shoulder." Coahtu shook her head.
"Thanks for reminding me." Misaki's words were dry. "And my thanks for accompanying us. And keeping watch."
"Your fiery friend seems to think it is his job."
"Did you know he's your son?" Misaki looked thoughtfully beyond Coahtu into the trees.
"Excuse me?"
"Nothing. Forget it." Misaki smiled and shook her head.
"I will, thank you."
Coahtu turned to leave, but stopped in mid-stride, remembering something.
"I was able to contact Koenma."
"So, he's still alive."
"Yes. Most of those in the agency are. I only stole a moment of his time during the communication as things were rather hectic."
Misaki nodded.
"There was something different about him though."
"Oh?" Misaki hoped he hadn't been injured.
"He was missing his pacifier and was extremely upset."
"Really." Misaki's expression became sly, her mouth turning up in a smile.
"It seems as though someone stole it sometime Friday. He hadn't even noticed until one of his ogres asked him where it was."
"Interesting."
"I have my personal suspicions about who stole it."
Misaki didn't answer, but the look on her face confirmed what Coahtu assumed.
"I suppose if I ask you how you did it, you won't tell me."
"Of course I won't."
"You couldn't have gotten into the agency, you were in the Ningenkai." Coahtu scrutinized Misaki's face for some sort of truth.
"It's a personal revenge for something he thought he got away with. He can thank Kuwabara as the source of the idea."
"You disgust me. You enjoy tormenting him. Why take something so simple as a pacifier?"
"Not just a 'simple pacifier'. That thing has enough power to contain an S class youkai should the need ever arise."
Coahtu's eyebrows raised in amazement.
"It's a Mafukin." Misaki explained, "A heavy defensive spell. He's been storing his spirit energy in it for centuries now. 'For darker times' he always says."
"And what if he needs this defense before he finds it?" Coahtu demanded.
Misaki shrugged.
"You are a fool, Ansatsusha." Coahtu's eyes narrowed.
"And you are a coward. I would rather be the fool. Where is your sense of adventure?"
"You carry no sense of self-preservation." Coahtu spat.
"Of course not. It's not as if I'm going to see the Oracle about that sort of thing." Misaki's words were cynical.
"I grow tired of your company." Coahtu turned away again.
"What? You mean you won't join us?" Misaki asked in mock surprise.
"I prefer the view from a distance. Your struggles amuse me." She said as she left.
"That's why you made the clearing for us." Misaki scoffed softly so that Coahtu couldn't hear.
When the fire-haired woman was out of sight, Misaki picked her way back to the clearing, stepping carefully back over the sleeping bodies and laying down where she had been before, quickly falling asleep and not stirring the rest of the night.
-lotsm