Salvation

Chapter 7: Hiei

I laughed the first time I heard about him.

They talked about him like he was a big deal.

It wasn't like he was the biggest bastard around, and believe me, I told them, I'd seen some pretty big bastards.

Nah, it wasn't his power that impressed me at all. Everyone knew I wasn't fazed.

But truthfully, I was.

I was because he was another version of me.

A little kid, running around killing before he even understood the concept. A kid so full of hatred that only the death of those around him would make him feel anything close to pleasure.

That kid was pretty popular, and I understood why, because he was quickly headed down the same path that I had. He would be my next big enemy, competing for the title of king with everyone else and their grandmother, I was pretty sure, except he would actually get somewhere.

But I was wrong.

When I thought that things were going to get somewhere interesting, he vanished completely.

I had stopped thinking about him by the time Kirin gave me the gem, and then it took me a while to even make the connection.

I recalled being told the stories of how he had flaunted a gem that was by no ordinary coincidence so similar to the one I now possessed.

I wasn't done with him yet. I had something of his, something important to him, and I knew it was because it was nearly a trademark in his tales.

People like he and I, we did not keep things unless they were important to us.

He was connected to me now, and we would find each other one day.

-.-.-

I don't know what I expected to find when I looked at it. I guess I thought somehow I'd figure out what kind of person he was—well, other than the obvious—or maybe why it was important to him.

I was no closer to knowing him, but the attachment I began to understand.

It wasn't the beauty that drew a person in. It was the way it wrapped up your consciousness with the fog of a pair of loving arms you hadn't really known before. It spoke to you; it promised you that there were better things in the pile of shit you had been wading through all your life. It told you that even in sorrow, there would be something happy for you beyond the horizon, because love existed.

If it had been a person, I never would have believed it, but for some reason the tiny, fragile thing captured my heart and my trust in a way that nothing else had.

Now that I owned it, it was obvious to me why he would want it back.

It gave him a reason not to become what I was.

And it gave me a reason to ask myself why I was still this way.

-.-.-

When I sent the message, I wondered if that would be enough to lure him to me—most anyone wouldn't deny the opportunity to be at the side of a powerful leader.

Well, perhaps if they knew me, but I doubted that Hiei did.

I had heard about where he was, because in the Makai, and especially for someone who needed to know everything like me, rumors spread fast. He had been here in our world recently, but had gone back to the human world.

I also heard that Raizen's offspring and another powerful demon, rumored to be Youko Kurama, were here, too.

I figured the race was on, and I'd take what was mine.

-.-.-

I'll admit that I was a little surprised when he finally showed up, but I guess I shouldn't have been.

Maybe it wasn't exactly surprise. Maybe it was more like anticipation. I'd been thinking about the guy more than I wanted to admit to myself, and so I was probably a little annoyed on top of that.

For the first time, I was going to meet him face-to-face, and I felt a little disarmed.

That annoyed me, too.

I was going to speak first, but he stopped me.

"Why did I have to fight so many of your men on the way through the forest?"

"Because I didn't tell those guys you were coming," I answered dully.

"Why the hell not?" he snapped.

"I'm sure you'll figure it out, but that's really not important. Since you're here, I'm assuming you're joining me, and that means you're going to start training right now."

He narrowed his eyes at me. "Good. I was under the impression you were going to try to distract me with more meaningless prattle."

Neither of us was very nice.

I led him down to the dungeon, where he'd already have fodder to kill from whatever previous "training" session had gone on down there, and I told Kirin to prepare five hundred A-class demons to battle or die in the coming months.

He would be strong—strong as I knew he could be.

I would give him no choice.

-.-.-

"You still sleeping or what?"

The carnage was pretty impressive, though it smelled terrible. He was probably used to the smell, though, having been down there for so long.

I found myself stepping over bloody limbs and sinew and organs—the works.

He cracked an eye at me.

"I gotta admit, I really didn't think you'd get this strong in six months. You're something else."

A bit of blood dropped off his arm and splattered on the floor.

"There's no point in lumping you in with the other A-class goons. I think it's time you tried out for my personal guard. What do you say?"

He blinked at me.

"I say the stronger I get, the further away I seem to get from you. You're a fucking monster," he told me. "What kind of demon are you? What's your true form?"

I thought about how right he probably was.

"Don't worry about me. It's not gonna be like 'Hiei, I am your father' when the mask comes off." No, I thought, it would be very, very different. "Though I guess it is about time I showed you what I look like, at least."

He seemed to consider this, but I didn't give him the time.

"All right, I'm gonna bring back the weakest guy in my guard. You beat him, and I'll show you my face and give you his spot in the ranks."

It was when he didn't seem interested that I threw out the bait, and he clamped onto it.

I'd learn him yet.

-.-.-

When they clashed, I found myself holding my breath.

I could tell already that something had changed in him—something that stopped him from fighting all-out, even though he had gone this long.

Like he had no choice but to be respectful even if it cost him his life.

A million things went through my mind, like why he was here and why he was going to throw it all away, but I didn't have any good answers.

I only knew that, when the moment was over, they had both chosen to die.

But I wasn't going to let that happen.

-.-.-

He had refused it when I first tried to give it to him, but it looked right there, laying on his chest next to the other.

It felt strange seeing it where it belonged, and it felt even more strange knowing that I had willingly given it up.

But it didn't matter. I knew him—with his consciousness seeping into mine, so open and so familiar.

I gave him what there was of me, and we faced each other with everything exposed, as if it was what we had both intended all along. Like we knew we were doing what we should have been.

Like for the first time, something so stupid made so much sense.

Author's Note: Gallons of apologies for the wait everyone! I've been insanely busy with schoolwork and wasn't struck with inspiration for this until, well, now. I hope the content makes up for that!