"Prepare to meet your doom.... Black Knights." Koray said confidentially after getting everyone's attention with the slaughter of Hengist.
"Who the hell are you?!" Came a voice from the crowd of Black Knights.
"I am Koray, one of the four Generals."
Many voices from across the room stated out loud what the others must have been thinking:
"One of the Generals?! But how did you get in so easily?"
"How does Katana know about our systems?"
"Who cares about that crap?!" Came a loud voice from the back of a room. "If he's a General, it would certainly please our Lord if we killed him. After all, he's pretty much walked into a death trap.... Now let's get him!"
At that moment, nearly everyone in the room drew weapons and those closest charged at Koray.
"Hiei," Koray whispered. "Sneak around them and do as I instructed."
"Alright." Hiei replied as he cautiously merged with the crowd of Black Knights that was waiting for their turn to attack.
Many spears and swords were thrust in Koray's direction. He smoothly dodged every attack, then jumped up and kicked a table at a group of Black Knights who, like dominos, fell onto those behind them. More attackers came from behind, but Koray could sense their movements and dodged every blow. He then jumped onto a table, and bent down while bringing his right arm to his left hip, where his sword was holstered. In one strong movement, timed perfectly with his attackers, Koray drew his sword and cut off the tips of all the weapons coming at him in the process. His opponents stood there in shocked silence for a moment before Koray slew the ones who had just attacked him. The other Black Knights simply stared at Koray's stunning movements, and watched the blood of their comrades fall on his face in such a way that one would think it the work of a master artist.
"So, who's next?" Koray said with a faint smile on his face. The Black Knights could tell he was enjoying this, and that filled them with fear. It was also clear that he was far stronger than anyone there, and so no one responded to him at all.
Meanwhile, Hiei made it to the back of the room, unnoticed, where the bar counter was. There was no one there, and Hiei assumed that whoever had been serving drinks before had gone to fight Koray. Hiei looked around and found many glasses and bottles of alcohol beverages, but no paperwork. He looked closer and noticed that the back of the cupboard was a hidden space, and sure enough there were the documents. He considered reading some of them, but decided against it. It wouldn't do him any good to waste time like that. Hiei wasn't sure how many cupboards hid these documents, so he simply set fire to the entire bar area.
"Hey, brat! What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Came a voice from behind him. Hiei spun around to see four armed men charging towards him, ready to attack. He anticipated their movements and dodged assaults from all four of them. Hiei then jumped up and kicked one of them hard in the face, using his incredible speed to catch him off guard, and the Black Knight went flying. Two more of them came forward, and swung their swords at Hiei, but he slipped past the assault, and punched one of them hard, sending him flying. It seems his father's training really improved his hand-to-hand combat.
The remaining two came at Hiei yet again. But this time Hiei drew his new sword, and in one swift movement he cut off his opponents' hands. They took a few steps back and screamed in agony. As they fell to the floor in pain, the other two Hiei knocked down got to their feet and readied themselves for another attack. But before they could do anything an older man, who seemed to be panicking, ran up to them, grabbed their arms, and started to scream:
"Leave! We must leave now, or we'll all die! Hurry, get out of here before he notices!"
His comrades questioned what he was talking about.
"It's that man! T-the one Lord Athanasius is after.... He's come back to kill us all! Hurry and get out of here!" The panicked man screamed.
Now this was interesting, Hiei thought to himself as the two confused Black Knights picked up their wounded comrades and left. The crazy man went to follow, but Hiei grabbed him, and shoved him against the wall.
"Oh, no! You.... you.... Please don't hurt me!" The man said in fear.
"Fine, I won't do a thing to you. So long as you tell me what you're so afraid of." Hiei said firmly.
The man just whimpered.
"Answer!" Hiei yelled angrily.
"It's him!" The man yelled, pointing past Hiei who turned to see who it was. The man was pointing at Koray, who was in the middle of a huge slaughter. "A fire demon.... With black hair and a scarred body.... He was always our Lord's favorite.... And he was so terrifying.... I only met him once, but you don't forget someone like him!"
"What are you saying? That he's a member of the Black Knights?!"
"I....don't know...."
"How the hell can you not know?!" Hiei yelled with fury.
"He just left!" The panicking man replied quickly. "N-no one knows what happened.... no one saw him for a long, long time. Our Lord sent men to his home to find out what was going on, b-but none of them returned! The next time anyone heard about him, he'd become a General.... I-I've never seen our Lord so angry before...."
Hiei just stared. It would seem that Koenma was right after all.... Koray was a member of the Black Knights. But the last piece of information weighed heavily on Hiei's mind. He left them. But why.... and how? Judging from what he'd heard, Hiei couldn't imagine they were the kind of organization that just let people go. They must have sent assassins after him.... but how could he hide that from the other Generals?
Hiei's thoughts were interrupted when the man he was questioning screamed at something that was behind Hiei. The fire demon turned around to see soldiers dressed in a uniform for the Island of Wind approaching them quickly.
"Good job, Master Hiei, you got one!" They said as they grabbed the frightened man and killed him. Hiei found it frustrating that his source had just been permanently erased, but at least he got some decent information.
"Hiei," Came the voice of his father. "I'm glad to see you're alright."
"Yeah, they didn't pay me much mind." Hiei replied.
"I should think not, considering I killed off the majority of them before taking down the shield." Koray laughed.
Hiei was mentally kicking himself. He hadn't even noticed the shield get taken down, or when his father's army arrived. At this point, he really should be more assertive....
For the next couple hours, Hiei and Kurama stood off to the side. They watched as Koray and his men cleaned up the mess of the checkpoint and searched the place carefully for anything useful. The only noteworthy things they found were a large stash of weapons and the burnt paperwork. Interestingly enough, Koray told his men that the burnt bar was just an accident and that it must have caught flame while he was fighting. Hiei didn't speak up. He didn't see any point in revealing his father's lie. Besides, he planned to confront Koray about what was told as soon as they were alone.