On the Path We Never Knew

Sitsumi...

How... interesting.

How sad.

The way our lives have been toyed with, being plucked and prodded and abused. We are just pieces on the board, all of us in fact. She has all of her pawns carefully placed as she waits for Her perfect chance to strike. My brother Her white knight, and I Her snow white queen, but you... the black knight, my dark knight, will you do what must be done? Will you be able to kill me, Hiei? Will you be able to set things right?

I didn't mean to hurt you, Hiei. We weren't supposed to meet. We weren't supposed to become so close... or at least, I wasn't supposed to become so close to you. I swear it was merely a coincidence me finding you. I had no idea who you were. I had no idea where you came from. I just knew you needed my help, and I wanted to help you. When you came for me in that horrible cage, that's when I realized just who I was dealing with. That's when I realized what a terrible situation I had put you in. I'm so sorry, Hiei. You weren't supposed to be there. You weren't supposed to know. I didn't mean for that loneliness in your eyes to come back.

And now, because there is no other way to end the war, there is no other way to protect you, it's the only way to keep everyone safe... I promise, Hiei, that everything will be alright. I promise that I won't hurt you anymore. I don't want to see you lonely again, Hiei. The feeling is just unbearable, and I know how much it hurts, how such a wound festers. So long I have had to live, and so long did I have to go on alone, but at the very least, I had Milkshakes with me... but you... you had no one. No one cared for you, Hiei. There was no one who wanted you. I was the fortunate one.

As I've said before, Hiei, in order to keep you out of harm's way, in order to keep you safe, I will have to die, but by no other hand than yours..

Hiei...

How convenient. There was a bridge made of glacial ice that stretched across the Cerulean Trench, how aptly named. The snow and ice was so pure that its shadows were never grey, only blue. It almost seemed as if the glacier made it's own light, the color was so rich and vibrantly glowing in the snow storm. Breathtaking was definitely a word to describe it, but it could never describe the sight justly. I looked below myself, the sheet of ice looking so clear, and I swear I could see water rushing beneath it, a certain greenish blue that was too far away to touch.

Though I stood there, reveling in its beauty, this environment was truly a miserable place. The freezing wind was more than we could bare. Its claws and teeth ripped and teared at our flesh, pulling at our hair, clutching at our clothes. The falling snow felt like tiny slivers of glass shredding the surface of our skin. It was blinding. The floating island of the Koorime was never this cold. Here, I felt my body start to shut down.

I looked over to the others. Jade pulled out several coats for each of us. "This is a little invention of mine. No matter how cold it gets, it's able to maintain a comfortable 74 degrees. It should help with our core body temperatures." Yusuke grabbed at one and hurridly put it on. He looked as if he was having a seizure by how much he was shivering. He gave a satisfied "ahhhh" as he settled into his new green garb. Kurama was shaking as well. Jade handed him the red jacket. He too stopped his shaking, pulling up the hood over his head. Emmie already had her bright yellow jacket on, complete with bright yellow mittens, goggles and galoshes.

"You look like a rubber duck." I said. "How exactly are we supposed to sneak in now?"

"HA! She's practically a yellow highlighter." Yusuke cackled.

She put her hand in my face. " Quiet, germs! Yellow makes me sexy!"

Jade snorted. She too had a jacket, it was a much darker green than Yusuke's. She walked over and handed me a jacket as well. It was black. I took it and wrapped it around me. I could instantly feel warmth. The rest of my body however, was not so fortunate. I quickly dug my hands into my pockets.

"Alright, the tread is gonna be long and arduous. Stay in sight of each other and do not stop. The Trench is 100 meters wide and the ice could crack at any moment, so stay on guard." Jade had to talk over the howling wind. "If we hurry we'll reach the first island by nightfall!"

"This isn't night?!" Yusuke asked.

"HA! If you think this is dark you haven't seen anything yet, slick." Emmie yelled. "Try to keep up!" She turned and darted forward and we followed.

We trudged along, the wind becoming fiercer and fiercer the closer we got to the island, though we couldn't see that well five feet in front of us. Jade eventually said we were nearly there, but none of us could see anything. It almost looked the way the television did when there was no signal, and it practically made the same sound. We continued on, not letting ourselves to fall behind. The little was actually useful, to be honest. Her sickly bright yellow contrasted well with the snow. There wasn't a way to lose sight of that.

I looked down for a glance and saw that everyone's footprints in the snow were covered as soon as they were made. Not a bit of evidence was left of us walking through here. I'm not sure if that was for the better or worse.

"Just a little further! We're nearly there!" I heard Jade call out. I'm not sure how she knew where we were, but I had no choice but to trust her. It was better than being left to fend for ourselves. I don't think the detective even knew how to read a traffic light let alone a map.

All of a sudden the snow stopped and the air was still. I looked above us to find the roof of a cave covered in solid ice. The color was a glowing teal. I could see white flowers blooming all around us, their vines weaving themselves through the thick ice like veins.

"Snow lillies." Kurama said to himself as he took a closer look. "They're so rare."

"Can't stop now." Jade put a hand on Kurama's arm. "We've still got a while to go before we can rest. Not to mention we wouldn't want to be here when the faeries get here."

"Fairies? They got fairies?!" Yusuke was astounded by the very idea.

"They're not REAL fairies, like the kind you see on TV. I mean they do glow like fireflies and have wings of the prettiest iridescent blue, but these things are more like piranhas with wings. One swarm can strip an elephant to it's bones in ten minutes. They're vicious. Luckily they only come out at night." Emmie said, continuing to walk further into the cave.

"It's still morning?" Yusuke asked again. I too couldn't believe just how dark the North could get. It had felt like we were walking in the middle f the night this whole time, but Emmie quickly reminded us that "we haven't seen anything yet."

The walk through the dark cave was proving far more pleasant than the blizzard. It also felt as if it was getting hotter. I could see the further we went, the thinner the ice would get. There were parts where we could even see rock. Jade was giving us a history lesson as we kept going. Apparently the Northern Islands are a chain of active volcanoes.

"Like Hawaii." Kurama was carefuly listening to every word she said.

"Yeah, just like that. Except this is no tropical paradise. Now there's an ocean of lava beneath us, which is hard to believe seeing how cold this shit hole is, but for the Islanders, it's been a God send. They can actually pumped the lava using special tubes throughout their cities. It's sort of their form of electricity. It heats their homes, their food and water, it powers their lights. It's quite fascinating actually." Jade recounted everything she knew, trying to keep us entertained with conversation.

"How do you know all this stuff?" Yusuke asked, nearly slipping on a puddle of ice.

"I've been here before remember? Way before this war began. I've learned so much about their culture. Hey! Did you know that for one of their festivals, the men will dress as white wolves and the women will dress themselves as gorgeous blue raptors in order to give thanks to two of Arare's children?"

"How does a wolf and a dinosaur have anything to do with that lizard?" Yusuke asked.

"No not a velociraptor you idiot. She means a bird." Emmie punched Yusuke in the arm.

I don't know how much more I can take of this.

TBC...