A/N: w00t. Chapter 20. Enjoy.
O/C19: Still in the cave, the gang is confronted with three rings of light, Hiei, Yukina and Kurama each entering one, the others waiting for them to return. Hiei is faced with a monstrous beast, Kurama a deadly flower and Yukina a strange bird…
Hiei's back slammed into the wall behind him, his body pinned against it by the enormous hand of the beast. He struggled, his hand losing grip on the katana he clutched. It slipped out of his grasp and clattered the long distance to the ground.
The fight had been going in Hiei's favor: the monster's face was horribly disfigured from the countless cuts Hiei carved.
High, low, trample. High, low, trample. This was all the beast knew.
It did change things up a little when it swung both high and low at the same time, steadily growing in speed the more Hiei attacked.
Hiei could merely jump from fist to fist when this happened, running up the arm as before, slashing at the face until the monster shook him off, and repeat.
He hadn't expected the third arm that came out of its chest as he jumped from one hand to the other, catching him in mid-air and crushing him into the wall. He felt at least one rib snap with the blow.
It let him go and he dropped like a stone, head still reeling from the impact with the wall. He didn't get very far.
Sharp claws shot out of the monster's fingertips and pierced his shoulders, stabbing into the wall behind him and holding him up. He cried out in surprise at the attack, having expected to hit the ground.
The claws were thick and his muscles tore easily underneath them.
…
Kurama quickly transformed white whip into white rose, holding it under his nose as the purple smell the flower gave off began to affect him again.
His mind cleared up as before, the scent possibly his favorite smell second only to the person whose smell was identical to it…
…
Yukina looked away, shutting her eyes tight and clamping her hands over her ears.
The woman was being torn apart by her bird, her beautiful bird, now a monstrous size, and Yukina couldn't watch.
The screaming finally ceasing, Yukina turned back around. A leg was hanging out of her bird's mouth which was open slightly in a disturbing sort of smile. A fine row of diamond-sharp teeth lined the beak and Yukina's stomach churned at the sight of blood flowing down its neck.
The bird sucked in the leg like a piece of spaghetti, its reddened tongue snaking out to lick its blood-stained chops.
The pure, iridescent color of the bird had been tainted by its meal, its body now ruby, beady eyes onyx.
Yukina trembled when the bird glanced her way, its terrible beauty something one was not able to enjoy.
The beast sensed her fear, taking a light hop forward, considering her under first one eyes, then the other.
Yukina retreated as it came closer, the pair continuing advancement and recoil until the Ice Maiden found herself with no more room to back up.
The bird craned its long neck down to her level, looking at her with one eye.
"G-go away." Yukina's voice was tremulous.
Its head lifted and it cried out, the sound like the unavenged death of a thousand men, shrieking from purgatory. Its eyes smoldered as it look at her again.
"Leave me alone!" Yukina buried her face in her hands again as the bird's head rapidly sank downwards to snatch her up.
Fear and confusion whipped up the snow storm that came with no warning, the room suddenly a blur of emotional blizzard, winds screeching and snow piling up within seconds.
The bird shrieked again as it spread its wings out, setting on fire and burning the air around it.
A heavy fog fell over the room as a result, making it even more impossible to see.
…
Using all that remained of his strength, Hiei managed to lift his feet up and brace them at the webbing between the beasts fingers. He reached up in the midst of a pain that was beginning to subside as adrenaline kicked in and grabbed onto the two claws that held him, pushing with his feet. Once. Twice. He took a deep breath, gathered himself, and shoved as hard as he was able, knuckles of his hands white with his grasp.
The claws came free, blood splattering onto Hiei, and the beast yowled in pain, drawing away from the fire youkai.
As he fell, Hiei took as careful aim as he could and flung a claw into one of the monster's eyes, dropping the second claw by accident as his muscles could do no more.
His aim was true, in spite of his torn shoulders and broken ribs which his body's natural morphine masked for the moment.
Hiei landed on the ground, rolling to absorb as best he could what might have been a deadly impact.
He stood, wavering a little, concentrating on pulling energy into his right arm.
…
Kurama gracefully dodged the flower as other tentacles reached out for him to try and steal its prey back. He waited, analyzing every inch of the lethal flower, searching for the best way to end it before he struck.
…
Yukina crouched in a corner, hands around her knees. Snow was piled all around her, yet she remained untouched, unaffected by the cold. The storm raged on.
…
"Dragon of the Darkness Flame!"
…
"Rose Whip Lash!"
…
The storm subsided with Yukina's emotions. Somehow she was on top of it, the snowflakes building up under her and raising her to the top.
She was close to the ceiling, able to see many reflections and distortions of herself in the icy mirrors.
The snow began sinking, began melting away from the bottom up.
Yukina stood in alarm, afraid of what might be happening.
She was lowered back down to the ground until about a meter of snow covered the ground.
But in the middle of the room was a deeper depression where all of the snow was melted away in the shape of a huge bird. But the bird was not there.
Cautiously, Yukina made her way to the hole and leaned over it, spotting a glimpse of something sparkling at the bottom. She got closer.
It was the bird. Blood-red in color, small enough to carry in two hands, and immobile. Wings stretched out behind it with its mouth open in a fierce cry, legs and claws extended as if swooping down to snatch something off the ground, the small statuette's onyx eyes gleamed.
A bright green circle of light formed around it.
…
Hiei dropped to his knees, arms hanging uselessly by his sides. The shoulders of his black over-cloak had gaping holes in them from where the claws pierced his skin.
With difficulty, he stood and made his way to his sword, which had dropped with the point embedded in the ground. The claw he had dropped lay near it.
He stumbled, strength spent, and fought to keep his eyes open, making it to his sword and pulling a hand up to grasp the hilt.
A violet circle of light formed around him as his eyes closed.
…
The flower lay in sections around the clearing and Kurama returned the white rose back into his hair.
The pulsations of light that emitted from the rose were no longer steady there at the last, as if some inner heart beat was perhaps faltering.
Warily, Kurama watched as the pieces of flower glowed, shrinking and forming together again.
When the glowing stopped, there in its place lay the figure of a flower, settled in the grass.
A circle of orange light surrounded it.
…
Misaki stood up as the circles changed from red, yellow and blue to purple, orange and green.
"Ew. Purple." Yusuke grinned, going to stand in front of the orange one.
"Yah big baby." Kuwabara taunted.
"I don't see you volunteering to go in it." Yusuke replied.
Kuwabara stood in front of the green one.
"Oh, just drop it, will you?" Misaki sighed, taking her place in front of the purple circle.
"How was it?" Misaki heard Yusuke ask.
She glanced over to see Kurama and Yukina had each returned, stepping out of their respective circles,….and was nearly knocked over as something slumped into her.
Misaki found herself catching Hiei in her arms before he collapsed to the floor, slowly lowering the both of them down until his shoulders and head rested in her lap.
A pool of blood had gathered around his sword and a shiny figurine of some sort lit up by the violet light.
"Hiei?" Misaki feared shaking him awake and simply moved some hair back that had fallen over the Jagan. This Eye was not under its usual bandana and stared unblinking at her.
Unnerved by its harsh watchfulness, her hands extended to remove Hiei's cloak, the source of what she took to be all of the blood and dirt. There were nasty gashes in each of his shoulders.
Hiei grabbed one of her wrists and Misaki bit her lip so hard that blood came from it. Of course he would grab the wrist that was sore; this seemed to be Misaki's luck of late.
His eyes flew open but he didn't seem to be registering much.
"Hiei," Her words were short, "This needs to come off so you don't get an infection." She began prying his fingers away.
The effort it took to move his arm that fast, coupled with the fact that he shouldn't have been able to do so with the condition his shoulders were in, made his grasp weak for which Misaki was thankful. Had he been at full strength, she wouldn't have been able to make him let go.
She put his arm down carefully, holding her now burning wrist close to her body and his eyes fluttered closed.
By this time the others had seen and ran over.
"Yukina." Misaki said, peeling off his cloak as quickly as she could with one hand.
The girl sank down next to Hiei without Misaki having to say another word.
"Hold his arms down." She said, "He shouldn't be moving them and he'll want too."
Kurama grabbed one and Yusuke the other, Misaki placing Hiei's head carefully on the ground and then scooting herself back to make room for them.
"Ribs are broken on both sides." Misaki said as she stood up, knowing what the tell-tale bruises on his sides meant.
"And his legs have been weakened." Yukina added, "He must have fallen a long distance."
"Can you help him?" Yusuke wanted to know.
Yukina situated herself as close as she could and put her hands on his chest, "It will take a while. He's badly injured." Her hands began glowing.
"Are these what we were supposed to bring back?" Kurama held up one hand, the other still pinning Hiei's arm to the ground.
Misaki saw the sapphire flower he held lithely in his fingers and she glanced over at the other circles. A wicked, yellow-jasper claw lay near Hiei and in Yukina's circle was a ruby bird.
The statuettes slowly rose into the air, hovering above their heads before moving to float together above the circles.
"I would take that as a yes." Misaki nodded, "We should go." She said to Yusuke and Kuwabara, "By the time we get back perhaps Yukina will be done."
Yukina nodded that Yusuke could let go of Hiei and she put one of her knees over the fire youkai's arm.
"Be careful." Kurama said they stepped into the circles.
"Hey, it's me." Yusuke said as they disappeared into the realms beyond the light.
"That's what I'm afraid of." Kurama sighed, smiling a little.
…
The scene around Yusuke shifted until he was standing alone in the cave, the others gone. A path was now open and so he walked forward, seeing no other way to proceed.
…
Kuwabara found himself in the midst of a festival, standing in the middle of a main walkway, the vendors to either side of him appearing more like carnival vendors than the cheery festival type.
He ambled along the walkway, trying his hand a few of the games but losing every time of course.
He realized that the games were rigged when the ball he threw smashed into the bottom-most bottle and bounced off.
Disgusted, the red-haired young man thrust his hands in his pockets and began walking again.
"No morals. No honor at all." He mumbled.
…
The cave disappeared for Misaki. Everything disappeared for Misaki. She stood in darkness, unable to even see her hand in front of her face.
Way ahead of her, a small pool of light with no obvious source shone faintly and so she walked towards it.
…
Yusuke stumbled over something just as the cave around him opened up into a larger area.
Cursing the dim light, he picked up whatever it was and almost flung it at the wall.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you."
Yusuke paused, arm poised for a good throw, "You wouldn't, huh? Well you're not me!" He pulled back a little farther and started to swing his arm forward.
"That isn't very smart."
"I'm not known for being smart." Yusuke retorted.
"That is your ticket out of here, however. The statuette you were sent to retrieve."
Yusuke peered ay the object in his hand but couldn't quite make out what it was.
"I really sort of have an attachment to it too so I'd prefer if you didn't squash it against the wall."
…
"You sir! You look to be a fine gentleman!" One of the vendors motioned to Kuwabara.
"Me?" Kuwabara looked around, not enjoying the expression on the seller's face.
"I have a deal for you!" The squatty mad led Kuwabara to a tent, shoving him inside.
…
"Stop."
Misaki's feet were rooted to the ground, the pool of light no closer than it had been when she started out.
"Your lack of ability physically shall be tested mentally."
Misaki groaned. She knew the whole riddle episode wasn't over, she just knew it.
"Answer correctly or pay with your life."
"Same 'ole, same 'ole." Misaki sighed.
"The part of the bird, not in the sky, swims in the sea and yet remains dry."
Misaki and Eldred had once gone through a riddle phase and this was among the ones they asked one another.
"The shadow."
Misaki felt the floor beneath her move and the light was closer.
"What makes more noise dead than alive?"
Again, this was a familiar one.
"Leaves."
She moved along the floor again.
"What fills up a room, but take up no space?"
Surprised and pleased Misaki was that all of the riddles were ones she had heard before. "Air."
The light was obviously quite near.
"How can an average sized human put a bottle in the center of a room and crawl into it?"
Misaki opened her mouth but she hadn't heard this one before.
"He changes size." Misaki shrugged.
"Incorrect."
"Great."
She collapsed to the floor, her vision giving out and the pool of light disappearing.
-lotsm