"Start All Over"
By ss10009
Disclaimer:
YuYu Hakusho does not belong to the author of this story. Those rights go to Yoshihiro Togashi. This fanfiction is created for purposes not associated with profit. Meaning that, if you paid to read this story, well, you're a damn fool.
Warnings/Triggers: This chapter has some cissexism in it. There are several casual equations between gender and sex organs here. Although, canonically, the Koorime must be pretty cissexist themselves if see a penis on a baby, assume cisgender man, and then proceed with infanticide. Makes me wonder how they deal with transmen…
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CHAPTER 6 - All Parts for a Whole
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Two out of three wasn't bad, Yusuke thought. You could pass an exam if you got two out of three questions right. Yeah, so technically it was a 'D.' But technically Yusuke didn't give a damn about academics the way that Kurama or Keiko did. At school, two out of three worked just fine.
But right now, he needed all of the three other key players. Kuwabara, Kurama, and Hiei. But he had no idea as to where Hiei was. He'd asked Kurama, before he left, but Kurama had said, in a roundabout sort of way, that he didn't know. He'd gone about it in a roundabout way, Yusuke surmised, because Youko Kurama wasn't the type of guy who liked to admit that he didn't know things.
If he thought about it logically, the differences in this world seemed to be derived from hypothetical questions. One different decision or choice could change your entire life, apparently. The hunter never got Kurama, so he was still kicking it in his demon form. And he wasn't Spirit Detective, so Kuwabara got the job. Toguro never made his wish, so he ended up in domesticity with Genkai. And he was their adopted son because Atsuko had fucked things up too much here. So logically, if Kuwabara and Kurama didn't know who he was, Hiei was probably some type of criminal and was flying under the radar. The only problem with that, of course, was that Demon World itself seemed to be comprised nearly entirely of criminals of some sort. Most of whom were "flying under the radar."
Shit.
He couldn't just wander all of Demon World in search of Hiei. Even if it were possible to go on a full-fledged man hunt, Hiei was pretty damn good at not being found. He wasn't the Flying Shadow for nothin'. Yusuke paused, leaning his back against a tree. Was he going to fail? Was he going to be stuck here forever? He'd be damned if he ever called Toguro 'Dad.' And Genkai wasn't 'Mom;' she was 'Grandma.' None of his friends knew him, and there was a flamboyant madman on the loose. This was not how he pictured the rest of his life going. Maybe he could find Warudo on his own, kill him (although that apparently wasn't "defeating him"), and repeat this entire experience in another universe. Maybe there he'd have a closer connection to Hiei. Maybe, in the next universe, Hiei and Kurama would have met up, become comrades, and were busy stealing tons of Spirit World shit. They'd done that before, right? That would make them much easier to find.
Whatever he did plan on doing, taking a break wasn't helping. Besides, he was barely far away enough from Kurama to not have to worry about some of these trees eating him. He was going to have to keep going and just make things up along the—.
Yusuke's attention sharpened as his focus shifted to his right. He'd heard a scream, high pitched and feminine. It couldn't have been more than a half mile off. Yusuke had been in Demon World long enough to know that playing the hero was next to pointless. Sure, you can solve the immediate problem at hand. Congratulations. But the potential victim will almost always wind up being an actual victim in no time. Weaker demons tend to have poor lifespans. And just because you've saved one person doesn't mean that you won't turn around and have fifty more to save. It was hard to get anything done if you spent all day saving people.
But Yusuke had spent over a year being employed as an unpaid hero. And some habits die hard. Or maybe he was just looking for a distraction, something to make him forget the fact that he had no idea what he was going to do next. But the former reason sounded a lot more selfless.
Yusuke's choice was cemented as he heard another scream. It was shorter this time. He was at the scene in less than a few seconds. There were two male demons, presumably (sometimes with demons it was hard to tell). They were both of the burly stock, with arms thicker than their own waists. Their entire bodies were covered in hair (or was it fur when it was that thick?), and Yusuke grimaced when he realized that, unless the hair was hiding them, they didn't have eyes.
"Hey, assholes," Yusuke shouted. Since they couldn't see him, they were going to have to work off of the audio.
One of them turned, though the other didn't bother looking (looking?) in Yusuke's direction. He was holding a body-shaped object: the girl who'd just screamed.
Whoever it was that was facing Yusuke said, in a booming voice, "She's ours! Get your own."
"Oh, yeah? 'Cause I'm pretty sure she doesn't agree with that," Yusuke said, pointing to the girl.
"Mind your own business!" He was at the end of his rope, whoever he was, and he flew at Yusuke with a nimbleness that belied his stockiness. But Yusuke could tell he wasn't going to be a problem. He drew back his fist, slowly gathering spirit energy into it... The demon lay flat on his back, body steaming, shortly after Yusuke threw his wind up.
If the dead demon's friend had possessed any eyes, they would've been wide open in shock. He backed away quickly, trying to retreat with the girl in his arms. His efforts were in vain, though, and his body fell not too far away from his friend's.
Yusuke examined the bodies briefly, satisfied that they were dead. "Hey," Yusuke called, looking over his shoulder for the girl. "You al...right?" His voice broke off as he took a look at the girl, who was now unconscious.
"No fucking way this is a coincidence," Yusuke said. He reiterated the statement again as he looked at an unconscious Yukina. The stock price for Yusuke's Amazing Luck was officially through the roof.
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Yukina wasn't visibly injured; she'd probably been rendered unconscious from a blow to the head. Yusuke was not a doctor, his biology grade had been proof of that, but she still had a pulse, and she felt kind of warm. Yusuke honestly didn't know if that was good or not. Should an ice demon be warm at all? Other than that, there weren't any obvious looking wounds. She would wake up on her own time—probably. Yusuke set her down on a comfortable looking spot of grass in front of a tree, and began to keep an attentive watch. He wouldn't have let anything happen to Yukina back in his own world, but Yusuke was pretty damn sure that, in this world, Yukina would know something about Hiei. And if he ever wanted to get back home, he was going to need Hiei.
Not too much later, Yukina awoke with a start, bolting upright into a sitting position. "Where am I? Who are you?" she asked, her voice sounded panicked, which was a reasonable tone considering her near kidnapping experience.
"I'm Ura— To—," Yusuke couldn't bring himself to say his surname was 'Toguro' again. "I'm Yusuke. I'm not trying to hurt you or anything. I rescued you from those guys back there."
Her breath was still labored, and her heart was probably still racing, but she looked grateful. "T-thank you," she said quietly. "I didn't know I was being followed until it was much too late. If you hadn't been there..."
"Hey, it was no problem," Yusuke said, already thinking about the best transition between this statement and asking of Hiei's whereabouts. He eventually said screw good transitions and plunged right into his most important question. It wasn't like he was good at having patience anyway. "But could I ask you something?"
Yukina nodded. "Of course," she said. She appeared much calmer now.
"Do you have a brother?"
Yukina's face looked, if he was naming his expressions properly, horrified. Fuck. Maybe Hiei didn't even exist in this universe, and Warudo was chuckling away right now. Koorime weren't supposed to have any male relatives, after all. He'd probably just offended her.
"'Cause... You know... You were walking all alone, and, a brother is the type of guy who makes sure nothing bad happens to you. Say, getting kidnapped," Yusuke said quickly, trying to back pedal on the broken down bicycle that was his life in this universe.
"I'm sorry!" Yukina said, her eyes widening. "My face must've looked... I do have a brother, actually. He would've protected me if he were here. But... Well, he's not. He's still in my homeland."
"By any chance, is his name Hiei?" Yusuke asked.
He was never going to stop surprising her, he figured. Her eyes got rounder again. "Yes! Yes, that is his name. You know him?"
"Kind of," Yusuke said slowly. "To be honest, I've been looking for him."
She must've gotten used to him by now. She just blinked. "Looking for Hiei?"
Yusuke nodded. "Yeah," he paused. "Say, do you think you could do me a favor?"
"You rescued me," Yukina said plainly. "Anything, of course."
"Mind taking me to see him?"
Yukina went very still, cueing a massive amount of mental swearing on Yusuke's part. With an expression like that, Hiei was probably still in the Ice Lands somehow. How was he supposed to go back to the Ice Lands with her, huh? They kind of had a No Penis rule in effect. Yukina looked away from him and swallowed. "I'm from a place where men are not allowed. Although my brother lives there, he does so in secret. It's forbidden, and contact is dangerous. But... But you saved me, so if you truly want to speak to my brother, I would feel terrible if I didn't allow you to do so. Perhaps the elders would make an exception."
From what Yusuke knew about the Ice Land elders, mostly that they threw a baby over a cliff, he was pretty damn sure they weren't going to make any exceptions. But fuck them. He just needed to talk to Hiei. And he'd be taking Hiei with him, so the land would be free of its Y-chromosomes once more. They shouldn't have too much of a problem with that, right?
"To be honest," Yukina continued, her voice growing quieter, "I've been thinking about ways to allow my family to leave for quite a while now. I want nothing more than for the three of us to be able to live in happiness! I don't want to have to lie about my brother anymore... Telling you, just now, that I had a brother felt... It felt very good."
Yusuke was silent for a few moments. "You want someplace for your family to go, huh? Have you ever thought about Human World?"
"Human World?" Yukina asked. "I... No, not really. I hear its more peaceful and beautiful, but... I could never imagine fitting in there as a demon."
"Being a demon in Human World isn't as bad as you think," Yusuke said. "Um... From what I've heard. I could help your family get there, if you wanted."
Yukina's eyes widened again. "You've already done so much for me! I'm afraid that I couldn't accept any more from you, Yusuke."
"Don't worry about it. Seriously."
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The farther along he and Yukina wandered, the more snow there was to obscure his vision. He saw the blue of Yukina's kimono vaguely in a sea of white. "Are you alright, Yusuke?" Yukina asked. "I know there's a lot of snow, but I promise that we're very close."
"Fine," Yusuke said quickly, trying not to let his teeth chatter. The only protection he had from the elements was his red jacket. He pictured the remainder of this trip being very unpleasant. And it wasn't like the end would be heaven. Trudging through snow was only going to lead to being in the Ice Lands.
Yukina stopped, though Yusuke couldn't tell until he'd almost run into her. He looked around, finally settling his gaze on the sky. The snow was still going, so it wasn't long before he was blinking snow drops out of his eyes.
"We're very close," Yukina said, "but from here on out it will be much more difficult for you to follow me. Please take my hand."
Yusuke obliged and grabbed hold of Yukina's hand, which was small and, unlike his own, warm. Intense snow obscured his vision altogether, and he couldn't make sense of his location at all. No wonder Hiei had needed a Jagan to get here. Within seconds, the only thing he could register anymore was the sogginess plaguing the hem of his jeans and the presence of Yukina's hand. He couldn't even pick up signs of her energy any longer. The barrier around the Ice Lands was strong, definitely.
There was no way of telling how long it had been since they'd begun walking or since he'd lost his sight (Yusuke wasn't the type to wear a watch), but eventually the snow began to dissipate. The first thing Yusuke saw was the red ribbon in Yukina's hair. From there, his vision continued to better itself. He released her hand a few moments later.
"Is this it?" Yusuke asked.
"We are at the very edge of the Ice Lands," Yukina said. She turned around to face him. "Before we continue any further, there are a few things you should know. Or, I suppose, one thing... My people do not know that my brother exists here. They believe that they killed him long ago for the crime of being a male ice demon." Yukina's tone on the word 'crime' was the first time Yusuke had ever heard her have some modicum of sarcasm. Yusuke wasn't sure if this was a personality break from his dimension or not. His universe's Yukina was sweet, but she'd never discussed anything heinous with him before. "Fortunately, their plan was foiled, and my brother is still alive and well. But he's in hiding. Please do not mention him to anyone you meet. If anyone knew he were alive they would try to kill him again. But my brother is very, very strong. I've left the Ice Lands before to get him things for training, swords and wards against…" Yukina paused before she could finish saying what the wards were against. Yusuke assumed that Yukina and Hiei's lineage, being half fire demon, was something of a sore, or at least not often talked about, subject for her. "I will never forgive my people for what they have done to him. And he will never forget it, of course. If he should decide to take his revenge on them, I... I don't know if I would try to interfere."
It obviously pained Yukina to say this. Despite their capacity for murdering her only brother, she still disliked the idea of allowing the ice maidens to die. Yusuke didn't press on the subject.
Yukina and Yusuke continued to walk for several paces until the snow had stopped falling altogether. They were standing atop a mixture of ice and hard packed snow that coated the ground for who knew how many feet up. There was foliage, Yusuke noted, although it too was covered in white. The dwellings were small and blue in tint, much like the color of Yukina's kimono. The only impressive structure that Yusuke could see was a tall, wide cliff that stretched into the sky and briefly disappeared in a cloud until it formed a narrow tip. Yusuke gritted his teeth. Clearly, it was the designated Baby Tossing cliff. He hadn't been in the Ice Lands for ten minutes, and he already hated his stay here.
Yusuke let the scenery fade into the background as he took in another aspect of the Ice Lands: its people. Unlike Yukina, they were statuesque and, although their faces didn't spell out malice, they certainly didn't have the same gentle look that Yukina had. Yusuke watched as, one by one, the eyes of the ice maidens caught sight of him and widened in fear.
The women around them walked more hurriedly, and they turned their faces away as they whispered to each other. It didn't surprise Yusuke that they lived here in isolation. From what he could tell, the Koorime could best be described as "meek." But he didn't understand how they could've thrown an infant over a cliff, apart from the obvious moral bankruptcy of the act itself, it seemed to be too active a role for them to play. Yusuke supposed that throwing defenseless Hiei over a cliff would've required a lot less nerve than fighting off adult Hiei. Also, they were much more likely to escape the first situation with their lives intact.
Either way, Yusuke hated them for it. He understood that, without being faced with challenges or terrible situations, none of his friends would be the way they are today. If he'd had better parents—not the Genkai and Toguro variety, mind you—he probably wouldn't have been out running the streets, and he'd have gone through the normal grind of life with ignorant happiness and no further knowledge of his demon ancestry. But he preferred the Yusuke he was now. Similarly, Hiei wouldn't be the same without having had a piece of shit for a childhood. And he liked Hiei. Sometimes he'd even go so far as to say he understood him. But at the end of the day, throwing a newborn off a cliff was a dick move.
"Yukina," someone said. The voice was cutting and jagged, and Yusuke could tell it belonged to an older woman before he turned around.
The woman in question was indeed old, as well as short and stout. She had gray hair and a staunch sort of determination about her that made Yusuke decide she must be the leader here. Her eyes cut between Yukina and over to Yusuke. She was the first one to look him dead in the eye since his arrival.
"Exactly what is going on here?" she said.
The bustle of the villagers began to slow. The woman's presence must've made them feel more confident, and their curiosity was finally winning out.
"I'm sorry, Lady Miyuki," Yukina said. Her voice was sweet, as usual, and Yusuke doubted anyone's ability to not accept one of her apologies. "But this man has saved my life."
Miyuki did not turn back to look at Yusuke, despite the reference to him. "You would not have a life that needed saving if you had not left. There was no reason for you to go, Yukina. You'll be trouble just as your mother was if you continue this." Miyuki's tone softened. It was brief, but it was sincere enough to let Yusuke know that this twisted old woman, who had probably ordered Hiei's death, had some semblance of a heart, frozen over as it may be. "You can be so much better, Yukina."
"No need to blame, Yukina," Yusuke said. He could practically feel Yukina tense up next to him. Him speaking probably wasn't going to gain them any points, but he couldn't hold off on it much longer. "It was no trouble at all on my part."
The woman's blunt choice to ignore him let him know, definitely, that Miyuki didn't have a single issue with whether or not Yusuke had undergone any trials in his rescue of Yukina.
"What exactly do you intend to do now that you have brought a visitor back here, Yukina? You cannot allow him to stay. And for bringing him back here, Yukina, it would take a great deal of compassion and blindness on my part to allow you to continue to stay. You've developed such a propensity for taking leave of the Ice Lands."
"I'm sorry, Miyuki... But I owe him a favor, and I could not go back on my word."
"What favor, Yukina? You haven't promised to lie with him, have you?"
Yukina choked. "N-no, ma'am. I would never promise such things. It's just that he needed to speak to my mother."
"Hina?" Miyuki asked, as though Yukina had several mothers from which to choose.
"Hiei," Yusuke corrected before he could stop himself, but he broke off his sentence at an unexpected pain in his foot. He looked downwards and saw Yukina's right foot several inches too far to the right. Had she just...?
"Yes," Yukina continued, and her voice was just as sweet as ever. If anything, her plight had become more and more sympathetic. "I know you don't like to talk about it, but we have a family connection."
So this Yukina can lie, Yusuke observed. I guess growing up with Hiei would make anyone less angelic…
Miyuki was looking more upset though. She was obviously biting her teeth together as the jaw bones on either side of her face began to protrude slightly.
"You should've brought your mother down to meet with him then. You know better than to think things can happen the other way around."
"You said that if she left again," Yukina said as she bit her lip, "she wouldn't be allowed back. You feared for her virtue."
"Then that means your reunion would have to come at a high price," Miyuki said.
"Miyuki, please. He's saved my life, and I've returned home. I don't intend to leave again. Could you just give us a few hours?"
The crowd was still there, Yusuke noted. And they were waiting. They were watching and waiting to find out what Miyuki would say. There must have been two sides at work here. Obviously, Miyuki, along with most everyone here, probably, had a soft spot for Yukina. That was a plus on the side of letting Yusuke stay. But the biggest taboo in the Ice Lands was allowing the entry of men. That was definitely going against his favor right now.
Yusuke's strength would tip the scale, though. If Hiei was around here somewhere, Yusuke was going to find him and damned be the consequences. He had enough power on him to rival either of the former lords of Demon World, and he wasn't going to let a shriveled up ice woman stand in the way of his mission.
The old woman began to walk away. That must've been the answer they were looking for.
"We won't have long," Yukina said, as Miyuki's back grew smaller and smaller. The villagers looked frightened again, and began to scurry along their way.
Yukina led him along for a while until they reached a hut on the far edges of the circling town that must've belonged to her and Hina and Hiei. Yukina entered first and motioned for Yusuke to wait behind her.
"Mother," Yusuke heard Yukina say, "I have a guest. A very special guest."
She had quite conveniently forgotten to mention that he was male. Maybe she was making pelvic thrusting motions to indicate his gender or something. This Yukina could've been crass like that for all he knew.
Yukina returned to the doorway and beckoned towards him.
When Yusuke entered, Hina's face did not indicate that she was surprised. Her features remained passive, and she looked neither curious nor frightened. It was funny that Yukina never mentioned that Yusuke had saved her life; it would have made a good introduction for why Yusuke, Yusuke of the Y chromosome, was stopping by.
Yusuke took a moment to observe his new surroundings. Their home was small, simple, and let in a few rays of sunlight from a window that overlooked a bed. Their home also only had one room apparently. Yusuke guessed that the bed Hina was standing in front of was hers and that the other bed, which was against the wall of the door he'd used to enter, was Yukina's. There was a small pile of shimmering jewels at the foot of Hina's bed: tear gems.
"He was very kind to me while I was away," Yukina said, and her eyes darted back towards Yusuke. For an ice maiden, they were quite fiery. Don't say anything, they said. Perhaps Yukina didn't want her mother to know how unsuccessful she'd been upon leaving the Ice Land. "And he asked a favor of me. It was quite simple, so I could not help but comply."
"Is the favor to meet me? To see the Ice Lands?" Hina asked, in a politely clipped tone that said 'I know that's not why he's here; get to the point—now.'
"I wanted to meet someone, yeah," Yusuke said, and he could practically hear Yukina clucking in disapproval of interrupting her, but he continued anyway. Maneuvering around in the Ice Lands involved way too much talking. Probably because it was run by women. "But I'm afraid I was trying to meet up with Hiei."
Hina's tone changed immediately, no longer polite or clipped but cold and piercing. "I don't know how you know my son," Hina, said, "but you must keep this secret to yourself. Everyone here, besides Yukina and me, believes that I killed my son long ago."
"That you killed your son?" Yusuke asked confusedly.
Hina paused. "I'm sure you've noticed that men are not accepted here in Koorime society. It was decided thousands of years ago that men brought pain and anguish to life and that they would not be allowed to live here, in the Ice Lands. They were right to an extent. There has never been war, murder, or rape in the Ice Lands."
"But by separating ourselves from those things that hurt us," Yukina said quietly, "we also separate ourselves from the things that bring us happiness. You can't know joy without pain, so we have peace but no passions."
"Yukina," Hina said, just as quietly. And Yusuke could tell that he was intruding on an old argument that cropped up a lot.
Yukina was silent, and Hina continued. "I believed as Yukina did, and I left the Ice Lands. I returned, eventually, and gave birth to twins: Yukina and Hiei. But men were forbidden here, and the elders would not allow me to keep my son. I knew better than bargaining with the elders, and so I consented quickly to their wishes. They wanted me to drop my own child over the side of the cliff of the Ice Lands.
"They assigned my best friend to do the job for me, but I consulted with her before Hiei was born. I would be the one to drop Hiei, after I gave birth, but she would bring him back to the Ice Lands."
"Bring him back to the Ice Lands?"
"Yes. There is a protrusion on the face of the mountain that ascends into the Ice World. We were able to sustain our energy to build a trap of ice there to catch Hiei's fall, and we retrieved him a few hours later. We kept him hidden here away from all of the others, for decades now."
"Look, I don't mean to cause trouble," Yusuke said. Had he ever said that before?
"Then leave," Hina said quietly. "No good can come to any of us by you prolonging your stay here. Your presence here is disruptive and will only cause more scrutiny to fall upon Yukina and myself. If we're being watched even more closely than usual, things will be dangerous for Hiei."
"I didn't say I could do that either. Just...Look, I need to speak with Hiei. It's a matter of life or death."
"Are you dying?" Hina asked hesitantly.
"Kind of. It's not really a personal death so much as all of Human World," Yusuke said. His eyes didn't leave Hina's, but Hina's eyes darted towards her lap. She began to play with her hands, twisting them over each other, before she spoke next.
"And how exactly can Hiei be of help to your cause? How did you know of his existence in the first place?"
Shit. That was a good question, the sort of question that a concerned mother would want answers to before she let a mysterious stranger speak with the son she'd nearly lost. "Spirit World," Yusuke said quickly. "Their intelligence is unmatched," he said. Bullshit. Bullshit. Bullshit. "And we, they, think that Hiei has great potential to help."
"Help doing what?"
Yusuke swore again. The only concerned parents he knew were the Yukimura's, and they were Keiko's mom and dad, not his. No matter how much they treated him like the son they never had, he never had to answer to them about anything remotely connected to the demons and apparitions. It was nice having a drunkard for a mother sometimes; she never asked any questions.
"Taking on a demon named Warudo. Heard of him? He's kind of in the process of taking over the world. Worlds. Probably all of them—even Meikai if he's feeling up for it."
"I wouldn't let Hiei involve himself in something that does not concern him. No matter how demons or humans or any other beings war, the Ice Lands remains safe and impenetrable through all of it. That's why living here is perfect."
"Don't be so foolish, Mother!" Yukina said. And she looked, if Yusuke was accurate in describing the expression on Yukina, livid. "I know that this place is your homeland, but we both know it's terrible. There's nothing we can do for it. Together, we can be together in Human World. Hiei will be free. We'll all be so happy. Why can't you understand?"
"Yukina, I—"
But Yukina was crying frustrated tears. Yusuke heard the sound of each tear hitting the floor.
"She doesn't understand," Hina said quietly.
"She understands fine," Yusuke said squarely. Yukina wasn't his sister or his girlfriend but he'd be damned if he just sat there and watched her continue to cry.
"The Ice Lands are not the real world," Hina said. "It's so much safer here. She'd barely been gone for a day before she was injured outside of our land. That's how you were kind to her, is it not? You saved her from some terrible fate, I know it." Yusuke's face was probably all the confirmation she needed. "I want the best for my family. I want Hiei's freedom. I want her happiness. But they can't be free or happy if they're dead."
She looked away, and Yusuke remembered the pile of tear gems next to her own bed.
"That's Demon World," Yusuke said. "I would take you to Human World. It's different there. There's nothing there to endanger your safety." Yusuke bit back images of the Black Black Club, the 'B' class demons who could freely traverse it, and everything he'd learned on the days when he'd stayed awake in history class. "The Human World means having happiness and freedom," Yusuke lied.
Hina's eyes swept between Yukina and Yusuke for several moments before she sighed deeply. "I won't tell you where he is," Hina said. "But I will have Yukina lead you there."
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Yusuke was fairly certain that Yukina was leading him around in circles, at the silent request of her mother, to keep Yusuke from figuring out exactly where they kept Hiei. Kept Hiei, like a highly dangerous pet or something.
Yukina approached a grove and paused briefly. "Hiei," she said softly. It wasn't a call; Yukina already knew he was there, just as Yusuke knew from the way he could feel Hiei's ki pulsating.
He was silent. Yukina opened her mouth to speak up again when there was a flash to Yusuke's right, the side where Yukina wasn't standing. Yusuke dodged the blade of Hiei's sword with speed he certainly had not had the first time he faced Hiei. Yusuke could see each of Hiei's movements clearly as opposed to a series of after images and flashes of light. This Hiei was better than the 'D' class demon he'd fought in an abandoned warehouse years ago. But not by much. This Hiei spoke a lot less than the Hiei he'd first met though.
"Hiei, stop!" Yukina cried out. "This man is a friend. He saved my life!"
Hiei pulled back his offense, sword still drawn, and stared at Yusuke as though his eyes (only two, this Hiei had no Jagan) would cut him in half just the same as his sword.
"Why is he here?" Hiei asked. His eyes were locked on Yusuke, never moving away once, as he moved to Yusuke's left—likely in effort to create a block between Yusuke and Yukina.
"He knew about you," Yukina said. "And he wanted to talk to you. He has an offer he'd like to make you."
"I'm not interested," Hiei said flatly.
Yukina bit her lip. "Hiei, please hear him out. I think you'll like what he has to say."
Hiei wavered—briefly. There was a beat before he said again, "Not interested."
"How 'bout you go back to Hina, Yukina," Yusuke suggested quietly. "Hiei and I are the only guys up here, so I think we might wanna talk this one out man-to-man."
Hiei's hand tightened around the hilt of his sword. "Go, Yukina," he said.
"You won't..." Yukina said, and she trailed off. You won't hurt him, will you? Had that been what she was about to say? Yukina must have sensed it just as well as Hiei did, Yusuke was stronger. The conversation he'd bought himself with Hiei likely only came from fear that Yusuke would overpower him and kill both him and Yukina. This way, Hiei must've thought that he'd bought his sister some time in case Yusuke tried to strike Yukina down. It was nice to see that this Hiei cared about Yukina just as much as his dimension's Hiei did.
But his care was misplaced; if Yusuke could help it, there wasn't going to be a fight. Yusuke wasn't looking to kill Hiei, and this Hiei definitely couldn't kill Yusuke. But this Yukina didn't know that, and she retreated uncertainly, as though she feared she had made a horrible mistake but could see no way to rectify it.
"I'm only here to talk, not to hurt anyone, and not to test your strength," Yusuke said as Yukina left their range.
"What are you here to talk about?" Hiei asked. These were the first words he'd directed at Yusuke, and they were as sharp as his eyes and the edge of his blade.
"Human World. Know anything about it?"
"It's where humans live."
"Ask a dumb question," Yusuke said under his breath before trying again. "What about Warudo? He's a demon. Ring any bells?"
Hiei didn't answer. He looked bored and annoyed, like Yusuke was wasting all of the precious time he spent alone by himself on a floating mountain of ice where only three people knew he existed.
"OK. So Warudo is a demon who's amassed an army, and he's knocking on the door to Human World really politely before he says 'screw it' and just busts down the whole damn thing. And then once he's there, he's going to go for the whole world domination thing, and before you know it, Human World will be gone. At least, for all the humans. They'll probably all die once demons overrun it."
Hiei thought about that for a moment. "I fail to see the problem."
"Thought you might say that," Yusuke said.
"I also don't believe you mentioned an offer," Hiei said. "If you haven't got anything of worth to say, I suggest you leave."
"Of course I've got an offer. According to Spirit World intelligence," Yusuke said, reminding himself not to laugh at the combination of 'Spirit World' and 'intelligence,' "you'd be critical in securing a win in the fight against Warudo. So you understand that we'd be willing to make this a sweet deal on your side. I mean, you've been up here for decades by now, by yourself, training. Warudo would be a great opportunity to test your own strength."
"Yes," Hiei said scathingly. "I'll run off and test my own strength and die in the name of Spirit World."
"You think you're not strong enough to take on a couple of demons?"
"'Amassing an army' and assembling a few followers are two scenarios. I'm no coward, but I'm no fool."
"So you're not even a little curious? About life... Life out there?" If this Hiei had no Jagan Eye then he had no way of locating the Ice Lands on his own. He must've lived in this same small stretch of secluded land for some indiscernible amount of time. "You ever plan on leaving this place?"
"Of course I plan on leaving," Hiei said bitingly. "And when I'll do, I'll leave a trail of Koorime blood behind me."
"No offense, but Koorime aren't exactly the strongest fighters. I'm pretty sure you could do that now, if you wanted."
"As if I don't want to. Everything that you see here is more complicated than it appears. If strength were the only required condition I could've left here within a year of my birth and carved out a place for myself in Demon World." Hiei spoke quickly with his mouth twisted into a grimace and his eyes narrowed and angry.
Yusuke was quiet for a moment, but he could nearly feel Hiei seething across from him. Yusuke wasn't sure if Hiei was angry at him, for prying where he didn't belong, or if he was angry at himself—for revealing so much.
"I was hoping you'd agree to help."
"I don't know why you expected me to give a damn about Human World, if your Spirit World intelligence is so robust."
"I was hoping you'd agree to help because I've already promised Yukina that, if we can defeat Warudo and reclaim Human World, she and your mom can live there if they want."
Hiei laughed humorlessly. "Again, if Spirit World is so intelligent, why do you think I have any desire to live amongst humans? They're just one foolish herd."
"You might not have any desire to live there," Yusuke said, "but Yukina sure does. She'd be safer there. And happier there. And you might not be able to be open about everything, but overall it's a hell of a lot less taboo for you to be there than it is for you to be up here."
Hiei was silent.
"But none of that will be true if Warudo gets his hands on it," Yusuke finished. "He and his followers will have destroyed everything about it. They'll make it like Demon World. And you can't just grab Hina and Yukina and make a new home in Demon World, can you? Because it isn't safe for Koorime, is it? Being up here so long has made them and their tear gems more valuable, I bet. And no matter how strong you are, protecting them in a place as violent as Demon World would always be difficult.
"And you said it yourself. You're no coward, but you're no fool. You know the risks for if you fail."
And Hiei couldn't just leave either. This Hiei had grown up with his family. Leaving would mean entering into Demon World and infiltrating it deeply enough so that his sister and mother wouldn't feel tempted to visit. A visit from Hina would mean her permanent exile. And, as Yusuke had seen earlier, a visit from Yukina would likely result in no visit at all because there was such a high chance of her being abducted.
This Hiei was unwilling to say goodbye to his family.
This Hiei also remained silent, and Yusuke couldn't tell how far along he was in the decision-making process. Yusuke looked into the distance. He hated this place, and he'd only been here for a few hours. Was Hiei honestly having to think about whether or not he wanted to leave it?
"If you don't like it," Yusuke said softly, "you could go back to Demon World, someplace else. You can check on Yukina and your mother whenever you want to, you know."
The edge on Hiei's voice receded, and his new, cooler tone reminded Yusuke of Hina's tone earlier. "If that's true, then I can come back here later. And I can kill everyone."
"Sure," Yusuke said pleasantly. It was common courtesy to remain pleasant even around those planning genocide.
Hiei hesitated for a moment before his grip on the hilt of his sword tightened again. "If you go back on your word, I promise on the head of Enma himself that the first person I kill will be you."
Yusuke couldn't help but grin. "Whatever you say."
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Notes:
1 – Plot Holes
I kept forgetting my vision for this chapter. Like, at first I wrote Yukina one way. Then I wrote her another way and totally forgot about the first way. Then I had Hiei in one place, but I moved him somewhere else, and I forgot about the first place (again). Then Yukina explained all of this in one place, but then Yusuke didn't know the stuff she explained two paragraphs later. Then Hina was dead, but suddenly I gave her lines and... Wow. I almost created a vortex worth of plot holes by the time I'd reached like...the tenth paragraph. I thiiink I caught most of them though.
2 – Time between updates
I don't know what to say about this other than "I AM REALLY, REALLY SORRY!" So many thanks to everyone who is still reading this story and sees this chapter despite the amount of time since the last chapter I posted. At this point in time, there are three more chapters left to go before this story is over. And two of those chapters have next to nothing written for them. And then the one that has a lot written for it…is the last chapter. Typical. But I feel comfortable saying I will see you sooner next time than I saw you this time.
3 – Ice Net Baby Catcher Thing
My brain couldn't logic. I don't know how safe it is to catch a baby in a trap made of hard ice, but I'm guessing it's better than like…letting them fall into the savage land of Demon World.
4 – Yusuke's Koorime Knowledge
I don't think Yusuke should know anywhere near this much about Hiei's background in canon. But he does here. Because I'm tired, and I don't actually have an explanation to give as for why. I'm posting this now, so I feel triumphant, and I am not going to let little things like logic slow me down.