It wasn't until after Hiei's match had finished that he'd found out what happened during Suteki's. He had went against one of Yusuke's acquaintances and returned beaten and bloody but victorious. When he entered the room his group had claimed, he found it empty. Annoyance filled his bones as he went in search of them, feeling for their presence.
Soon enough he found them back at the hotel, all but Kurama and Suteki. The atmosphere in the room was grim. The women had tears streaming down their faces and the men were running their hands through their hair with tense jaws.
"Hiei…" Yukina saw him first, rising from her seat and gracefully crossing the room to him. She seemed drained, and didn't offer to heal his cuts and bruises like she normally would. His eyebrow rose in questioning, and in answer her maroon eyes drifted to the women's' bedroom.
"Where's is Kurama? At his fight I assume?" He glanced toward the door that held the answer to why everyone was upset, but decided to ignore it for now.
"Y-yeah… He left a bit ago… Had to…" Yusuke finally looked up but his eyes seemed hollow, not truly seeing anything.
"And the girl? She's still fighting as well? How do you expect such a useless thing to find her way back alone?" He noticed the air quiver, and tears sprung fresh on the cheeks of the women. The sound of sniffling, quieted sobbing, and the tinkling of tear gems hitting the floor. A growl built in his chest before he could stop it. "Has everyone in here gone so stupid that they can't give an answer?"
"She's… She's in there…" Yukina pushed the words past her tears, eyes finding the door again.
Hiei's gaze sharpened and he stormed over, violently pushing through the door. His stomach felt like it was run through a shredder when he saw the form laying on the futon closest to the door.
The whole left side of her body was bruised. Her lips split in several places, and blood matted her hair from a deep gash that ran from the middle of her forehead to behind her ear. Her chest didn't seem to move, and her eyelids didn't twitch with the dreams that should have filled her sleep. When he tried to slide into the normal place he occupied in her mind, he found nothing. Not that she was cutting him off, but that her consciousness wasn't there at all.
For a moment he felt as if his legs couldn't support him anymore. For a moment he felt as if he was going to shed a tear. For a moment he felt as if he would lay next to the body before him and wither away.
But he was Hiei. When Yusuke crossed the threshold of the room and looked at him, he saw nothing but the normal, cold mask that always painted his face.
"They were both disqualified for being out of the ring. She never even had a chance… He was high S class. We should have checked him out before she went out there… Forced her to back out…" Yusuke's eyebrows knit together as he watched the unmoving body.
"She knew what she was getting into. I told her." Hiei turned and left the room, refusing to stay any longer.
"What!?" The raven haired youth bellowed, grabbing Hiei's shoulder and whipping him around. "You knew about this guy and didn't tell anyone!?"
"Yusuke…" Yukina spoke up, but Hiei held up a hand to stop her.
"It was her choice to fight. The idiot couldn't…" Yusuke's fist connected with Hiei's already bruised cheek before he could finish his sentence.
"She's dead because of you! You could have stopped this but you didn't!" Rage bubbled in Yusuke's eyes and his voice battered Hiei's ears.
"Get out…" Kuwabara stood from his chair in the corner.
For a moment Hiei wanted to yell. How dare they tell him to leave? They weren't in charge of him. Then he saw the dirty, calloused feet through the door in front of him. He didn't have any reason to be here anymore. Without a word he flitted out the window.
"You two were too harsh…" Yukina glared through her tears towards the two, pushing past Yusuke to start cleaning Suteki's body.
"Not like he cares anyway…" Yusuke seethed, plopping back down on the couch and holding his face in his hands.
Yukina kneeled carefully next to the young woman, pulling the bowl of water and towel she'd brought in earlier closer. Slowly she rubbed away the dirt that marred her face and neck. Then she began running a wet brush through her hair, trying to be gentle whenever she came across a knot. Tears seemed to flow nonstop, littering beautiful jewels that scattered across the floor, especially when it seemed her skin still held a healthy temperature. Yukina wondered how she would hide the bruises for the wake. Sighing, she moved on to Suteki's feet, scrubbing them with a vigor the woman would have never allowed if she had been alive. When she began cleaning the dirt away from under the fingernails of her left hand, something happened. It was so subtle that at first, Yukina didn't even notice it. But the second time her pinky twitched, Yukina screamed.
"What?! What's wrong!?" Kuwabara burst through the door, followed closely by Yusuke and the others.
"She… she moved… Or I thought she did. It must have been my imagination…" Yukina covered her eyes with her hand and shook her head.
"Why don't you take a break? We'll finish later." Kuwabara took her elbow and led her away.
Botan stayed behind, watching her hand, praying it would move. She hadn't seen her soul around yet, so there was still hope. After a full minute of no response, she resigned back to the living area.
All he knew is that he wanted the man dead. Seeing Suteki's body and then being chased away from it as if he was a stray trying to steal someone else's kill made his blood boil. Her name ran through his mind, pulsing through his veins and weighing him down uncomfortably. As he sat as high as he possibly could in the tallest tree he could find, he closed his eyes and imagined how glorious it would be when he found the man responsible for the name that wouldn't leave him alone. He imagined seeing his blood spill would be even sweeter than her previous master's. But first he must clear his mind. Something that used to be as simple as blinking seemed to be almost too difficult to even attempt. His eyebrows knit together as he sat, trying to scour every trace of the golden-eyed girl from his thoughts.
It seemed every time he got close to an accomplishing his goal, her name would whisper back in through the cracks.
It felt like nothing. It wasn't pain or joy or sadness or anger or anything else. It wasn't soft or hard or smooth or rough. It didn't move, but it wasn't still.
It felt like everything. It was wind and rain and sun and snow. It was mud and dust and blades of grass and bark. It was people and animals and demons and insects. It lived and it died, as simply as one breathed in and out.
I was dead, of that much I was fairly certain. I could feel the sky above my head and the soil beneath my bare feet, but I knew neither were there. Part of me felt like crying, but I wasn't sure how to form the tears.
Why was I sad? Did something sad happen? I felt something similar to fire pull at my chest, and it confused me.
Had I always been dead? I couldn't remember anything else.
A face. Was it mine? It was only a glimmer, but I was sure I saw a face. Had it actually been a face?
Suteki.
That was my name, wasn't it? The sound that people made to refer to me. How did I know that was true though?
There was the face again. Who was it? Red eyes. They felt familiar, but I was becoming comfortable. The need to question lessened.
Suteki.
Leave me alone. I want the silent noise and nothing else.
It lulled me deeper, and I forgot something important. The red eyes didn't seem so familiar anymore.
Come closer… The voice trilled and fluttered in the distance, but it was just out of reach. I tried to follow it, but something held me in place.
Suteki.
Part of me screamed in response, embracing the name and familiarity that weighted it. Another part just wanted to melt back, join the haze of everything around me. Which would I choose? The first felt like it led down a painful path. Just the thought of it tasted of blood and grime. The second felt comfortable, like laying on a decent futon.
Then something snapped.
Suteki.
My body started pulling itself together, and air forced itself into my lungs with uncomfortable force. With each hitched breath pain would radiate.
Suteki.
A beating started up in my chest, thumping at awkward intervals. My name called out with each thud against my ribs.
Suteki.
The separate voice, the one that felt like the collective sigh of everything and nothing, thrashed about. It didn't seem angry, just in a state of discontent. Similar to the way a child would throw a tantrum because of having one of its least favorite toys put in the trash. It isn't because the child loves the toy. It is because it was theirs, and they felt they had a right to it no matter how little they played with it.
Suteki.
The pain that before only radiated, felt like it was ripping through me. The soft glow and still motion around my consciousness started to focus, and the light became almost intolerable. For a moment I regretted the decision I had made solely on a whim, a slight curiosity, and wanted to disperse back into the sort of middle ground that had encompassed me.
Okay... So I'm sorry. That's all I can really say. I'm sorry that it took so long to post this. I'm sorry if it doesn't meet your expectations. I've had a lot going on, and I was really wasn't sure about where I was going with this chapter. But in the end, I really like some of the wording I did in it (most of the end part has been in my head forever, but I didn't have a story to put it in), so I kept it all. I've started on the next chapter, but I'm not gonna make any promises for when it's going to be out. Also, I've got A LOT of half-baked stories (some that are OLD). I was thinking about posting some of them. Seeing if I can rework them into oneshots then putting them out for the world to see. If this is something you think you'd be interested in, let me know!