"I know you've talked to him."
"So have you."
"Did he tell you where he was going?"
"No."
"Me either…"
The two older boys followed along behind Yusuke, whispering to each other. They didn't say anything about it, but they could tell the Spirit Detective was on the verge of giving up.
"It's just not like him," Kuwabara went on, "It's been, what? Like three days now?"
"Four." Kurama corrected.
"Whatever," Kuwabara shrugged, never taking his eyes off Yusuke.
Why were they still looking? Maybe Hiei wasn't coming back…
"Think we should tell him?" Kuwabara asked.
"Might as well," Kurama said.
"You wanna go first?"
"Are you kidding? He'll kill me. Good luck though!"
Kuwabara sighed and stopped on the sidewalk.
"Urameshi!" he called to the boy in front of them.
Yusuke stopped and turned around. He raised an eyebrow at the two. There was something up with them. And he didn't like the way it felt.
"I gotta tell ya something…" Kuwabara started.
"You still have it…" Hiei lowered the sword and stared at the old woman. He'd had no idea. Shigure had said she'd survived the rejection, but Hiei had thought that to do so she must have given up the Jagan and its power.
"Yes," Kimina smiled sadly, the wrinkles seeming to disperse and reveal a much younger woman's face. The glow faded from her third eye.
"But Shigure said both Jagan and user are destroyed…" Hiei took a hesitant step toward her.
"Normally, yes," Kimina nodded her agreement, "But to avoid being obliterated, one must overcome the Jagan. Not destroy it."
"You have to tell me how," Hiei said.
"I cannot." Kimina turned away.
"Why?" Hiei shouted into the dust and darkness. She didn't even flinch.
"Child, this is not the life you want," Kimina looked at him again, and again he saw a woman of many fewer years gazing out of the hazel eyes. "You are better to accept death…"
"You don't understand!" Hiei yelled at the seemingly ancient demon, "They won't accept it! I have to go back to-!"
Kimina watched dispassionately as Hiei's Jagan exhibited its power over him. The sword clattered to the floor and the younger demon dropped to his hands and knees. The soft blue glow was replaced by an intense shine, the only light in the shadowed room. While the pain lasted no longer than usual, it was stronger than it had ever been.
Kimina made no move to help Hiei, and said nothing to him. When he could speak again, he pleaded with her.
"Please…" his voice was the barest of whispers, "Please tell me how you survived this..."
Kimina was now faced with the greatest choice of her life.
She chose.
"I'm not a great fan of fairy tales," Kimina told him, "So if you'll permit me, I'll make this easier on us both."
Hiei wasn't entirely sure what she meant, but he nodded anyway.
Kimina closed her eyes, and her Jagan began to glow its faint blue. Hiei was engulfed in images from her own memories…
A beautiful young girl with dark hair and piercing hazel eyes stood outside a very familiar looking workshop. Her face was determined, even after Shigure dismissed her as a child.
It took Hiei a minute to realize he was looking at Kimina years ago. He was struck by how much she resembled him the day he met Shigure.
The overlay of memories had no sound. He watched as the girl and Shigure spoke without words. As frustrating as this should have been, Hiei was in awe of the power it took to perform this connection at all.
Kimina's abilities were considerably stronger than his own.
Whatever Kimina had said must have convinced Shigure because he nodded and led her into his operating room. When the needles touched her skin –
Hiei turned away from her soundless screams.
"What did you say?" Kimina asked, "When they pierced your skin?"
"Nothing." Hiei said firmly, "Nothing at all."
Kimina allowed him his self-delusion. She projected a new memory in his mind.
The same young girl, barely a year older, stood in the same sinister workshop. Shigure delivered his cryptic words. Kimina stared at him.
And left.
"You didn't believe him," Hiei deduced.
"He told me there were others," Kimina explained, "But he could not prove it. Supposedly, they were all dead."
Multiple memories came and went now, and Hiei had trouble working out their meaning.
Kimina climbing the mountains.
Kimina finding the abandoned shack.
Kimina curled tightly in a corner, in pain.
Hiei was hit with the revelation that the images he was seeing were not the product of decades but days. By the end of a month, what had been a teenaged girl was now a withered old woman. And she was still fighting.
The last memory…
Kimina surrounded by a white light. Brighter, brighter –
Until the image was blocked out.
"I was thirteen when the Jagan made its final attempt to take me," Kimina told him, "It has been only ten years since then."
Hiei stared openly. Though she appeared to have been living for centuries, Kimina was truly only twenty-three years old.
"This is what the battle did to me," she continued, "I have no explanation for why you have stayed the same."
Hiei did. It was his speed. He was already years older than he appeared.
'You move fast enough,' Hiei remembered Wokou joking when he was young, 'Time's gonna have trouble keepin' up with ya.'
But he decided not to tell Kimina this.
Hiei told Kimina about his friends in the Human World. He had no doubt she could, and probably did, see all of it from within him. But her Jagan never glowed.
"I still don't understand how you beat it, though," Hiei admitted.
"The Jagan has a power all its own," Kimina explained, "Yours must simply be stronger in the end."
