Authors Note: Sorry for the long wait – the extremely long – wait. It's been a couple of years since I've even looked at this but as a favor to a couple of people who've written to me asking to finish it, I was surprised to find out that people were still invested in this story! Thanks to everyone messaging me throughout the years and I hope to get this up and running and finished. Please stay along for the ride and enjoy! :D
Blue Light
Chapter Thirteen
The castle lay behind them in a burning frenzy of unnatural purple flames licking the sky. Shizuru had gotten all the girls safely out of the castle with the exception of Botan. Here's hoping Botan was able to find Yusuke before the attack as Shizuru also hoped all the boys would come back in one piece.
The girls had run as far as they could go with Shizuru leading the way. Fumes from the castle were following right behind them like they had a mind of their own. It was the Kiyoshi the phoenix who rose from seemingly nowhere to save them. Using his large wings Kiyoshi swept the smoke back with extreme fury whilst he beckoned the girls to run faster with each loud caw.
"God… damn it!" Shizuru let out in exasperation before falling on her back onto the ground.
"Are you two alright?" Shizuru asked Yukina and Keiko. She could barely make them out under the moon, the only light they had to use.
"Better now that I can breathe," Keiko gasped slightly. She was heaving heavily for the freshness
Yukina could do nothing but nod. She was on all fours so Shizuru – who also had gotten some of that smog in her system – rolled over to pat the young girl on the back.
"It feels so thick in throat," Yukina gagged a little before finally getting her breath back to normal. She gave Shizuru a tired smile, "Thank you."
Shizuru let out a sigh, "Just give me even breaths and we'll call it even."
"I can't believe it," Keiko spoke up while crawling towards her friends. "I thought we would be safe here."
"Me, too," Shizuru gritted her teeth.
Nothing ever fazed her in a way where she would ever feel so frustrated – never as much as she felt now. Within the two weeks since the spirits rained from the sky there hadn't been time to recuperate.
And within these two weeks they have yet to be on the offensive. They had been attacked twice without warning on their ground. This castle was to be the headquarters of their operation; as the safe home; as the last stand against Kinda.
Shizuru's anger soon faded into different thoughts when her eyes caught something in the sky. Behind the moon was the faint sliver of the Earth's form and then it hit her –
"We need to find everyone – now!" Shizuru yelled, jumping groggily to her feet.
Yukina and Keiko exchanged confused looks but they immediately followed Shizuru's lead once more.
"Hiei… Hiei, wake up."
"Shit…" Hiei forced his eyes open and immediately locked onto Kurama's face. "How long was I out?"
"I don't know," Kurama pressed a hand to his own head. "I only just regained consciousness a few moments before I found you." He pointed towards the horizon, "And it seems we've been dealt a big blow today."
"I can hardly breathe," Hiei gripped at his chest with both his hands. He was glad to be lying down so at least he could manage the weight he felt inside his lungs.
"The smoke was definitely a type of Bane Crystal," Kurama coughed.
Hiei lifted his head high enough to catch sight of the other red head struggling from the darkness where the moonlight couldn't penetrate.
"Kuwabara," Kurama said from where he lay. "Are you alright?"
"Besides the black stuff oozing out my ears," Kuwabara said over a series of his own coughs, "I'm better than this guy."
Hiei gave Kuwabara another look and realized Koenma draped over Kuwabara's shoulder. Koenma was in his adult form, unconscious but still emitting hoards of energy. His clothes looked as if they had been on fire at one point because large pieces were missing in the form of scorched gaps.
"I would have never found him if he wasn't like this," Kuwabara gently laid out the young prince before falling to the ground himself. "He looks like shit," he added before coughing loudly, "Must have been in one hell of a battle."
"I can't remember a damn thing," Hiei scowled into the darkness. He didn't need ask to know that the rest couldn't piece anything together either. Their silence spoke enough to answer.
"Has anyone seen Touya?" Kuwabara looked around, "Wasn't he with us?"
A sudden burst of inhalation spurted out from Koenma and he shot upright with both hands grasping at his chest.
Hiei was already up on his feet when Koenma quickly became overturned with rage. "Obna ko ena! Solei ofea kcumba! Solei ofea kcumba!" It was strange, his words; but not unfamiliar. At best, Hiei could guess it was a language older than Latin. He only recognized Solei as a form of Soleil – a word that meant sun.
"What the hell are you saying?" Kuwabara let out in a pant. "Speak normal Japanese, damn it!"
"I believe the translation is 'let it begin. The sun will rise again. The sun will rise again.'" The wise Kurama never ceased to surprise Hiei. Knowledge was a great part of how Kurama worked, a thing Hiei appreciated about his comrade. Knowing enough a little bit about everything helped in times when you're faced with the unknown because one of those little bits shows up eventually.
"An incantation," Kurama answered Kuwabara.
"The end of one, yes" sighed Koenma after he calmed himself. He looked at the other three, "I believe I was in the middle of one before I woke up here."
Koenma coughed, "I can barely breathe."
"Bane crystals," Kurama repeated for Koenma.
Koenma gagged slightly, "Explains why I feel like I've got rocks in my chest." He turned to his comrades, "We need to regroup. And fast."
Hiei was the first up and for good reason. He wanted to find his sister above all else, "I will find them," he said.
Kurama nodded, "I will join you in the search and go north. They would not have gone far. We will reconvene here in 20."
"I just don't understand what happened," Kuwabara burst out before anyone moved. His eyes searched for answers in the other's faces, "Why is it that we don't remember anything?"
"The incantation," Koenma shook his head and in a quiet voice said, "I meant to finish it but I was attacked by Marie right at the last minute."
Kurama looked at Koenma, "It's good that the incantation did not finish. The outcome may have not garnered the results you were looking for."
"How did the incantation affect our memories?" Kuwabara asked, "It would be one thing if I forgot a little bit of it but I can't remember almost all of it."
Koenma turned away from the group, "It is supposed to alter time but it must have backfired and spread to everyone in the castle."
"Alter time?" Hiei's attention heightened. That was dark magic if anyone knew anything about such things and Hiei knew the dark too well. "That's over the line for you, Koenma. Even forbidden by decrees you've made throughout the spirit world…"
Koenma didn't say anything.
Kuwabara stepped forward uneasily; his hands outstretched as if reaching for words but slumped to his sides. "Dark magic… Koenma, that's crazy! You are a prince!"
"Let's just say the line I had was a limit," Koenma looked back over his shoulder before adding, "and I was pushed." He turned back around and started to walk, "20 we meet back here. " He walked away with his friends staring after him.
The hooded woman had been watching them since she had seen them escape the castle an hour ago. They had escaped the flames and also the dark incantation that followed soon after. The unnatural Marie had been dragged out by a few Koori's and Lilia's by bird-creatures that had bark for feathers. The hooded-woman had been trying to get through the castle's defenses but had not been able to until now. She was going to keep going on to find the person she'd been seeking until she spotted someone so familiar that she couldn't help but follow them.
"Botan! Are you alright?" The young man's voice pierced through the darkness of the night and Botan was relieved to hear it near. He was oddly familiar, too; dark hair and deep brown eyes.
"Yes, yes but I would feel better if I could see you." The young girl, Botan, coughed, "My throat feels ragged." It was the girl who seemed familiar.
The hooded-woman watched the young man's arms stretched out before him and grasping in the dark. "Here…" He said before Botan arms found his. Instantly, her arms encircled his body by pulling him close with her head resting against his chest.
"Yusuke," Botan's said breathlessly, "Where are we?" Her breathing became so rapid with each second, possibly tonight was the night seeing how weak the girl looking under the moonlight.
"Outside," Yusuke answered in her hear where his face was pressed against, holding on her tightly. "I'm glad I got us out of there before the flames trapped us in there."
"I…" Botan winced just as her legs gave way.
"Botan!" Yusuke caught the wilting girl, "I'll find us help, don't worry!"
"No! No," Botan exclaimed, her eyes widening. She grasped at her chest with a hand clawing at her chest to-to-to… Yes! That was it, to take it out!
"Yusuke," Botan agonized, "I need it out! I need it out!"
Yusuke laid out his friend onto the ground before shouting out "Spirit Wave!" Faster than a second, the wave illuminates his entire body until the darkness fell to the light. The woman outside their circle of light could finally see Botan gasping in huge gulps with her hands prying at where her heart lay.
This was not what she was expecting and not whom she was seeking; in her slumber, time had changed. When she opened her eyes, the absence of her light was instant. What stopped her now was the familiarity that this Botan invoked.
So maybe, just maybe, Botan held it.
"I need it out, Yusuke…" It looked so unbearable. Botan suddenly grabbed Yusuke's right hand and pressed his palm to her heart. This time, her voice took on franticness "take it out!"
The hooded-woman's presence had to be known, "You must take it out" she spoke out. The two youths were startled by the voice. When she stepped from out of the darkness into their circle of light, hostility met her from the Yusuke-boy holding Botan.
Yusuke shouted, his free hand shot forward and aimed for their new companion like a gun. "Who the hell are you –" Yusuke began but the woman held up her hand.
"She'll know what I say is right" she told him, nodding to Botan. The hooded-woman knew she was right. The only way for Botan to live was if Yusuke did just that. The woman also knew that maybe the reason that she hadn't realized the light was in this Botan because it was hidden. She need to be absolutely sure.
"How the hell am I supposed to do that? I don't even know what she's talking about," Yusuke shouted at the woman.
"She is telling you to take out her heart," the hooded-woman said straight out.
"Fuck – you," Yusuke growled.
The woman looked from Botan to Yusuke, "She'll die in pain. Better to end it now."
"I can save her," Yusuke's voice boomed so loudly that the hooded-woman felt a strange pang of fear. It could have been fear but human emotions were so foreign to her.
Botan's face calmed even as she heaved between her words, "Shoot me." She looked into Yusuke's eyes and said it again, this time with definiteness. "Shoot me."
Yusuke's face contorted, shouting "Are you insane?"
"It's better than you carving into my chest, isn't it?" Botan pained a gasp, "This feels right."
She looked like she was trying hard to control her breathing so the woman kneeled by them.
Yusuke jerked Botan away from the strange lady but Botan shushed him to acquiescence. "No, she's okay."
"Botan, you're not feeling good." Yusuke's voice was at a slight panic. "I'd kill you, don't you understand! I'd kill you!"
As strange these human feeling were, the hooded-woman could tell how much Yusuke cared about that blue-haired girl. She decided his rants directed at her were probably out of his own fear of losing her.
The woman watched Botan's eyes move towards her with a knowing smile. She turned her eyes back to Yusuke, "I'm hoping I'm wrong about this –"
Yusuke spurted out fiercely "Because you would die!"
Botan shook her head, closing her eyes and then opening them, "Oh God, no; it's because the result is worse than death."
Yusuke made a fist in clasping her hands roughly at her chest. "For me," His eyes kept Botan's but there was no denying the teary glaze in his own, "Losing you is worse than death."
"Please don't say that, don't say that." Botan cried softly, tears no streaming down her face.
"And why shouldn't I?" He said this so slowly and so caringly, opening his fist to bring it to the right of Botan's face, cupping it and running his thumb over her cheekbone. The hooded-woman felt like it this moment was far too personal that she wanted to look away. Fascination won over, though, so her eyes glued to every movement they made.
Botan vehemently shook her head to shake off his hand; instead, she eventually let her face fall into his palm. "Please, please don't," Botan's tears had no stop but Yusuke continued to stroke her face. She tried to talk again, "It's means that everything I had thought up to this point since that day when we were caught in the woods, in the rain…"
Yusuke's voice was so soft but the hooded-woman could hear him, "You can say it out loud."
Botan's eyes were so wide and fearful that it reminded of the children the hooded-woman used to watch from her throne back home. Children who were fearful of being caught when they had just done something wrong and they would have that same wide-eyed look.
As much as she wanted to watch more, she knew they were running out of time. "I'm sorry, children, but it's time."
"No!" Yusuke threw an angry look at the woman than back at Botan. "I'm not doing it."
"Please," Botan had paled so much within the minute that the hooded-woman feared she lost too much. "You have to," Botan added.
"No… No, no, no, no," Yusuke's voice gave out when Botan pulled his hand from her face and placed at her chest. His brown eyes never left Botan's as she pulled his fingers into shooting position.
"We'll do it together and you'll see." Botan gave Yusuke a soft smile, "I'll be seeing you, again, soon."
Yusuke leaned her face close to Botan's, "Promise me."
Botan chest heaved upward, "I promise." It started from their hands quickly engulfing them in a light stronger than the spirit had been; a light strong enough to brighten up the darkness for miles. Yusuke placed his forehead to Botan's just as they both bent the top of his thumb down and whispered softly together, "Spirit Gun…"
And the light overcame the darkness into a blur of blinding white radiance.
The hooded-woman had finally found it, after all this time searching.
Her heart…
The Blue Light…
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Island Sweetheart