A/N: Things get a bit rough in this chapter (hey, it's demon world, demons are a bit rough by nature).
Chapter 15 – Birthright
Yukina sat up, stretching her arms above her head. All around her the cat demons were packing bags: she knew that they were leaving the living world that day, but she had not expected them to leave so early in the morning. When six of the cat demons started to walk around the back of the hotel Yukina scrambled to her feet, feeling suddenly wide-awake. She stumbled around a little before locating Yasashi, who she quickly hurried towards.
"Well, well, if isn't the little snowflake that just won't melt," Tora muttered as Yukina stopped in front of Yasashi.
"Why don't you go on ahead with the others, Miss Cheerful?" Yasashi said, rubbing her fist against Tora's head.
"Fine," Tora grumbled, hoisting up her own bag and shepherding the remaining cat demons on ahead of herself.
"We're leaving already?" Yukina asked Yasashi.
"We must," Yasashi replied. "Are you ready to go? You know you don't have to. If you have any doubts, now is the time to tell me, because once you enter demon world, once you are seen with us, there will be no going back for you."
Yukina nodded, bunching her fists beneath her chin.
"I'm absolutely sure," she said. "You've always done so much for me, this is the least I can do for you!"
"Yukina, I chose to play bodyguard to you when you were travelling to and from the living world," Yasashi told her, gently placing a hand on the ice maiden's shoulder. "It was always my decision and if I could do it all again, even knowing what I do now, I wouldn't have chosen otherwise. Though you should know my reasons weren't entirely altruistic: part of the reason I helped you in demon world was because I was always attracted to your cause. I knew only too well what it was like to be a woman who was hunted and was only safe amongst other women, and so an ice maiden on a special journey appealed to me."
"It's not just what you did for me in your demon life, Yasashi," Yukina replied. "You did so much for me in your spirit life too."
"I had no idea who I was or what sort of relationship we had when I was a spirit," Yasashi reminded her.
"But the fact that you didn't know who I was or about our friendship in demon world just makes the things you did for me in your spirit life all the more meaningful. It's a funny thing when you're weak… When you're not quite unconscious… First you lose mobility, lose control of your arms and legs… Your head gets too heavy to hold up… Your vision blurs and fails… But your hearing is always the last thing to fade, and often not at all."
"Yes, I understand that only too well. When I was dying in spirit world that's exactly the experience I had. My body was shutting down, everything was failing me, but my hearing never did: I heard every word spoken in my presence."
"Me too! And that's why I know you are a true and loyal friend, even when you don't know who I am!"
Yasashi removed her hand from Yukina's shoulder and tilted her head.
"Wh-what are you talking about, Yukina?" she asked.
"Koenma ordered you not to heal me after my operation," Yukina replied. "But you defied him and helped me anyway. You risked his wrath because your concern for my wellbeing was greater than your own sense of self-preservation! Just like how you pushed me through that portal and faced Iruka and his men alone!"
Yasashi looked down at the hand she had removed from Yukina's shoulder.
"You must know why Koenma didn't want me to touch you," she said quietly. "With a jagan eye, there was a risk that you would see through the disguise, that you would recognise me as Yasashi. My understanding of how Koenma put me into that body is that there was only two ways to break the spell and using a jagan eye alone ought not to have been sufficient: but you might have noticed the core of my demon energy still trapped inside of me and you might have recognised it. Koenma didn't want anyone to know the truth, because if they did, he knew the information would end up in the wrong hands and I would be taken back to demon world."
"But you didn't know that was why he was ordering you not to help me," Yukina pointed out. "You just thought he was punishing me because I had done something he didn't agree with. You knew that defying him could have had severe consequences for you, but you persevered! You were unafraid to risk everything for me and now I am unafraid to return that favour!"
Yasashi moved her eyes to Yukina's and smiled warmly.
"Then let's go," she said.
"Are the others waiting for us at the beach?" Yukina asked as they started to walk around the hotel.
"The rest of the rebels are on the beach and the others – Yusuke, Kuwabara and Kurama – will join us in demon world," Yasashi replied.
"What about Keiko and Shizuru?"
"If they want to come along I'm sure they will too! We're going ahead though, because we have a spy we have to rendezvous with."
"A spy?"
"Yes. One of the loyalists is in fact a double-agent: Chita's mother, Oyama, came to me not long after the rebellion began and she gave me Chita to take with me. She knew a cat demon as strong as Chita would be ear-marked as a bride for one of Jagasame's foot soldiers and so we made a deal with her: we would take Chita and raise and train her to be strong and free and in return, Oyama would meet with us occasionally and give us inside information on the loyalists. It's a strategy that has saved many lives in the past, avoided many bloody showdowns and has worked very successfully for over fifty years."
"Oyama must be very brave to risk so much."
"Yes she is. But we are also very careful when we meet with her. Perhaps that's something you could help us with? Would you like to go with Tora to meet Oyama?"
Yasashi and Yukina stopped on the beach and Yukina heard Tora let out a growl of annoyance.
"We usually only send one contact to meet with her, but it would probably be wise to send two in light of the fact that Iruka has no doubt spent these last few days sending every bounty hunter in demon world out to look for us," Yasashi continued. "You just have to keep hidden, meet with her, get the information and then come back to the rest of us."
"I can do that," Yukina said.
"Great!" Yasashi said with a big grin. "Hop on a leaf, the portal is just ahead in the water there. Tora and I will join you all shortly."
Yukina nodded and leapt onto one of the two floating leaves the other rebels were all already aboard. As the leaves began to drift away from the island, Yasashi pulled Tora around so that they both had their backs turned to the water.
"Meeting with Oyama is a dangerous task," Tora said sternly. "Has living in spirit world made you as pathetic as living in the human world has with Kurama? I go to meet with her because I'm strong and I go alone so that I don't draw attention to myself!"
"Isn't it obvious why I'm sending her with you?" Yasashi replied. "I expect you to take her back to a safe portal to the living world and shove her through it. She won't return alone once she's through: she'll probably go back to the Kuwabara house in the first instance and you already know what we did there last night."
"Right," Tora said with a grin. "Once she goes there, she won't be bothering us any more."
Keiko watched Shizuru tug at the straps of the feedbag covering Puu's beak. He let out a muffled moan of complaint but Shizuru was unsympathetic.
"Listen big blue, this might be uncomfortable, but it's way better than the alternative," she told him, her own voice muffled by the dust mask she was wearing.
She then leapt up onto Puu's back at Keiko's side and Puu stood up and then took to the air.
"Take us to Ping Island, Puu," Keiko shouted.
She felt that she had to shout to be heard over her dust mask. She still had no idea why she, Shizuru and even Puu needed to cover their airways with talisman-laden masks, but she had learned long ago that Shizuru had an uncanny knack for predicting future perils and so she had chosen not to question the matter any further. Instead, she simply sat back on Puu's luxuriously soft plumage and watched the city race by beneath them.
Puu usually flew high in the air to avoid being seen, but as it was so early in the day there was not such a great need for him to do so, something he seemed to instinctively be aware of as he was flying at a height that allowed him to clear tall buildings but still allowed Keiko a reasonably detailed view of the streets below.
"Oh my goodness, Shizuru!" she gasped as Puu swept over the Kuwabara household. "I didn't know you had such beautiful flowers in your back garden!"
"Damn it, I was hoping I was wrong!" Shizuru cursed.
Keiko frowned, Shizuru's angered frown and darkened eyes seeming inappropriate.
"What are you talking about?" Keiko asked.
"Let's put it like this: those flowers weren't in my garden yesterday afternoon when I packed my bags to go to the hotel," Shizuru replied.
"What?" Keiko echoed,
"In case it isn't obvious what that means, take a look at your own back garden."
Keiko peered over Puu's shoulder, gasping again as she got an aerial view of her own house, the back garden a carpet of pink and cream flowers. In the time it took her to contemplate how such an invasion of flora could have occurred, Puu took them over Kurama's house, where she saw a repeat of the exact same pattern: the back garden was awash with almost too beautiful pink and cream flowers.
"What are those things?" she asked, turning to Shizuru. "They must be demon plants, right? But how did they get there? And why are they only growing in my garden, your garden and Kurama's garden?"
"Isn't it obvious?" Shizuru asked.
"Well, if the team hadn't just spent the last three days making friends with the cat demons, I'd say this was their latest attack against us."
Keiko's face dropped – a gesture she was sure Shizuru probably did not really see due to the mask covering almost the entire lower half of her face – when Shizuru's eyebrows twisted in a way they usually only did when she was giving her brother an admonishing look for uttering something ridiculous.
"Oh no!" Keiko said. "This was the work of the cat demons? But why? We've been helping them! Why would they do this? And what do those flowers do? Shouldn't we go back? My parents are in my house! And what about your dad and Kurama's family?"
"As I understand it, the raspberry sundae has an immobilising effect," Shizuru replied. "At worst, they'll all be asleep until we can find a spiritually powered lawn mower to get rid of those damn flowers. Until then, we have to stay clear and we have to keep these masks on. I knew Yasashi was planning something like this: I could tell by the way she was behaving yesterday. She's done it with our best interests at heart, but I'm not letting her go into this without us. She planted those flowers because she knew you, me and Kurama would all go home for the night. She planned to keep us sleeping while she went back to demon world without us. The only question we gotta figure out the answer to now is what did she do to stop Yusuke, my brother and Yukina from following her?"
Keiko slowly shook her head, but Shizuru's eyes lost none of their determination.
"Sorry princess, I didn't wanna say anything last night because I really, really hoped I was wrong," Shizuru added.
"I don't understand why Yasashi doesn't want us to help!" Keiko replied. "Is it because she thinks we're weak?"
"No, it's not that," Shizuru replied. "She just doesn't want any more deaths on her conscience. The rebels are obliged to fight with her, but we aren't."
"It's kinda funny that she cares so much about our safety," Keiko mused. "Is it because we work for spirit world and she feels she knows us because of the time she spent in spirit world?"
"Something like that…"
Keiko nodded and turned her attention back to the view ahead, finding that they were passing over water, the familiar outline of Ping Island rapidly coming into sight. She was unsure if she was surprised or not when the island – which had previously always looked predominantly green on approach from Sarayashiki Harbour – was suddenly a glorious display of pink and cream.
"She planted the flowers here too!" she said. "Yusuke, Kuwabara and Yukina must be down there!"
"Then we have no choice," Shizuru said. "Puu, take us to demon world!"
"What?" Keiko yelped. "A-aren't we going to help them?"
"Do you know a way to disarm a demon plant?" Shizuru asked.
Keiko shook her head.
"Do you know a way to wake up someone who's under the spell of a demon plant?"
"We could take them away from the flowers?"
"Do you know how long they would take to wake up just by doing that?"
Keiko shook her head.
"Then we can't afford to take that gamble: we're going in."
"I'm not sure that's wise–"
Keiko's speech broke into a yelp of alarm as a roaring crack of thunder almost deafened her and a flash of lightning temporarily blinded her. As she tried to blink away the imprint of glaring light she noticed that the air reeked of rotting flesh, blood and bile, and the feeling she had learned to detect that alerted her to the approach of the bat demons Kuroko had used to train her was suddenly in over-drive as she could feel too many energies to count or categorise.
And when her vision finally cleared, Keiko saw that Puu was flying through a red sky with deep, inky blue clouds. She turned to Shizuru, finding her looking pale and sweaty, but her eyes shining with a determination Keiko was sure she had never seen before.
So this, she thought to herself, was the beginning of their adventure in demon world.
Yukina dropped down at Tora's side and the two pressed their backs against the hollow in the rocks that lined the road, both holding their breaths and holding still as the patrol vehicle slowly rumbled past. As the large white bug-like vehicle passed by, Yukina could not help but wonder if Hiei was on board: working the border patrol was his job in demon world after all. She turned her head as the vehicle continued on the road, which arced around, affording them a view of the vehicle even from their concealed location. She could not contain the gasp that left her as she saw just how large the patrol vehicle actually was, her shock so great that she was able to entirely ignore the glower Tora shot her for making a noise. When Yukina spotted a demon with an enormous nose onboard the vehicle who appeared to be looking directly at her as he sniffed at the air she gasped again and she did not hesitate to follow Tora as the cat demon dived off the rocks and into the thick of a nearby bed of rushes. She then copied Tora, crawling on her belly through the plants, trying to ignore the squelching of her elbows and knees in the marshy ground.
When they finally got clear of the rushes they hesitated and Yukina waited for Tora to check with her jagan eye before both stood up. Tora cocked a half-smirk as she ran her eyes over Yukina. Yukina looked down at herself.
"I don't look any muddier than you do," she concluded, lifting her head to look at Tora again.
Tora looked down at herself and mewed in disgust.
"We're almost there," she said. "We're meeting Oyama at the edge of Hashibami Orchard. I took us here by the shortest route, but we won't be going back the same way – just in case we were followed – rather we'll take the longer way around."
Yukina nodded her understanding of Tora's plans, only vaguely curious as to why the cat demon smiled when she mentioned taking a different route back.
They continued on in silence, the orchard soon coming into sight: it was located on a jutting plateau of landscape with steep, cliff-like drops either side of the trees. Tora was obviously familiar with the location however as she effortlessly found a footpath up the cliff, which she scaled with unrelentingly brisk strides that Yukina struggled to keep pace with. At the summit Yukina was a little out of breath and sweating, but she feigned nonchalance when Tora threw a condescending look over her shoulder at her. They moved just inside the shelter of the trees but still close enough to the edge that they were afforded a dizzying view of the landscape far below them. They continued that way until they were halfway along the ridge, whereupon Tora turned sharply left and dashed into the thick of the trees. Yukina had to sprint to catch up to her, reaching her as she stopped in a small clearing.
Tora let out a small, stuttering, strangled noise of despair and Yukina looked up at her to see why: she found the cat demon unharmed but her mouth was slightly open and her pupils were contracted and staring at something ahead of and above her. Yukina followed the direction she was staring and found herself making the same noise as Tora had as she caught sight of what had disturbed her so.
At one side of the clearing a crude crucifix had been erected, and a badly wounded cat demon looking a lot like Chita was hanging from it, her lifeless eyes staring directly at Tora.
"Bastards!" Tora said breathily.
She edged closer to her fallen comrade, looking about the clearing as though she expected to find something nearby.
"Who did this?" Yukina asked when she eventually found her voice again.
"Who do you think?" Tora spat. "The cross is made of bamboo: this is Iruka's handiwork!"
"But – how did he know that Oyama was a spy?" Yukina asked.
"I don't know," Tora said. "But this is bad; this is really, really bad! Without Oyama, we have no way of knowing what the loyalists are planning or where they are. And look at what they did to her!"
Yukina forced herself to look up at the rebel spy, wincing as she saw the bloody wounds covering various parts of her body.
"This isn't just them taking out our spy, this is them sending us a message," Tora said. "This is what they'll do to any of us that they capture: and that includes you snowflake if you stay with us!"
Yukina gasped, quivering involuntarily as she once more ran her eyes over Chita's mother.
"You think this is a game, don't you?" Tora spat, turning on Yukina. "I know you do! Everybody does! It's because Yasashi is so light-hearted: nobody understands how terrible our dilemma is because they just see our leader enjoying her life and they think it's easy for us! Well it's not!"
"I never said that it was!" Yukina yelped. "Please, I know it's not easy for you!"
"You can't even begin to imagine what it's like!" Tora snarled. "This will happen to at least one more of us before this war ends."
Tora turned to face Chita's mother again.
"This is how it is when you make a stand against Jagasame," she declared, holding her hands up towards the crucifix. "Accept a life as their subjugated slave or die a slow, painful and undignified death!"
"Too bad you seem to prefer the latter."
Tora froze – which, Yukina thought, was the worst reaction she could have had – at the sound of the rough voice addressing her; and an instant later something whistled through the air and Tora's body jerked, blood spurting upwards from one side of her. Yukina looked down to see that a length of bamboo had been impaled clean through Tora's right leg thigh and into the ground behind her, effectively holding her in place. Yukina could not help but notice that it was Tora's good leg that had been attacked, her free leg being the one that was still not fully healed from the effects of the sinning tree.
Once her initial shock had passed, Yukina took a step forwards to help Tora, but she stopped again as a shadow slid out of the trees behind Chita's mother, soon taking the form of a very familiar male cat demon.
"Well this is convenient," Iruka said with a smile. "My betrothed has come to me and she's brought me a little wedding present: a jewel factory…"
Iruka gave Yukina a hard glare before turning his attention back to Tora, who was trying to remove the bamboo from her leg with shaking hands.
"It was very kind of Yasashi to give us three days to prepare for your arrival," Iruka told her. "It allowed us sufficient time to weed out the informant we knew was amongst our ranks."
He flicked a thumb at the deceased cat demon at his side.
"Too bad you lack imagination, Tora," he continued. "You always met her in the same place and you always came alone, so setting this trap was too easy. This time I see you did bring a friend, but it's not like that pathetic little creature is any challenge. There's two of you, but that's alright, I have two hands."
Tora snorted out a bitter laugh.
"Not any more you don't, or did you forget?" she said, her voice strained. "Yasashi took one of your arms the last time we met!"
"That's right, she did," Iruka agreed. "But the fortunate thing about living in Mukuro's territory is that the best bio-mechanic in demon world lives here."
Tora frowned at his words but she did not have to wonder at his meaning for long as he threw open the cloak he was wearing, revealing that he had acquired a mechanical arm in place of the one he had lost.
"It takes one day for the operation, one day for the arm to become functional and one more day to master its use," he said. "You must remind me to thank Yasashi for giving me those three days when I see her next: which should be quite soon."
"Yeah, when she comes to kill you," Tora growled back.
"I find it hilarious that Yasashi even thinks she can launch an attack against the loyalists," Iruka casually replied. "We have increased our number – because the women of our tribe who stayed loyal understand that their role is as mothers to future soldiers – and your number has depleted pitifully: there are only eight of you left."
"Ten," Tora said. "There are ten of us!"
"Oh I'm sorry, I wasn't aware that you were counting the little children. Those are Kujira's children, aren't they? I remember the day Kujira realised his daughters were powerful, the day he had their names added to the roster of worthy women: it was the same day his wife slaughtered him, took the children and fled to join your pathetic group."
"The only way you – or any of the other loyalists – will ever get their hands on those children is over my dead body!"
"That could be arranged: be careful what you wish for. But I don't think I need to kill you. I think we can come to some sort of arrangement. How about you accept your fate and take your rightful place as my wife? If you do that, I'll agree to make sure those little girls aren't hurt when they are captured."
"How about I just kill you right here and now?"
"I'd like to see you try."
"Oh don't worry, I intend to. I'd sooner die trying to kill you than become your wife!"
"You dying isn't really an option, Tora."
Iruka began to slowly walk around Tora and Yukina took a wary step back, keeping her eyes on him carefully as he moved.
"You really only have two options left," he continued. "Either you peacefully accept your fate or I take you by force."
"Ha!" Tora sneered, her hands finally finding the strength to create a small crack in the bamboo holding her in place. "The hinterlands are miles from here. Even with your super new mechanical arm you couldn't carry me all that way without me tearing you apart!"
Iruka started to laugh. At first, it was just a quiet chuckling, a deep, chesty sound, but it shortly became a crescendo of maniacal laughter that made Yukina clench her fists and tense instinctively.
"You misunderstand, you silly little girl," he eventually said as he once more stopped in front of Tora. "When I said "take you by force", I wasn't referring to my dragging you back to the hinterlands."
Tora turned a distinct shade paler and her fingers loosened their grip on the bamboo spear.
"How useful will you be to the rebellion with two badly wounded legs and carrying my child?"
Yukina cried out as panic overtook common sense and she launched herself at Iruka. He swatted her aside with his new arm, sending her flying through the air until her back collided with a tree and she slid to the ground; but she was on her feet as soon as she reached the ground and running at him again as quickly.
"Well this is cute," he said, catching her by the throat and lifting her from the ground.
Yukina's hands grabbed at his wrist as metal fingers clamped into her neck and her breathing became strained and wheezing.
"I always thought the women of the ice village were incapable of feeling any sort of emotion," Iruka said as he watched her struggle against his grasp. "But it almost looks like you care, it almost looks like you understand the concept of loyalty. It almost looks like you want to help this pathetic wretch."
"Tora's not a pathetic wretch!" Yukina said, her voice higher in pitch and strained. "She's a cat demon, just like you, and she has just as much right to live in the hinterlands as you do! It's her home and if you won't share if peacefully, you bring war upon yourself and your own followers!"
"Ooh, tough words for a tiny little E Class demon whose life currently, literally, rests in my hand…" Iruka growled, tightening his hold as he uttered his last word.
Yukina coughed out, closed her eyes and swung her legs about as desperation began to set in, the lack of oxygen beginning to make her head buzz. When her legs and arms began to feel weak, she found herself reminded of the conversation she had shared with Yasashi earlier that morning on Ping Island about losing consciousness; and it all seemed sickeningly ironic. She opened her eyes and found her vision was starting to become hazy, but she could still see enough to see that Tora was trying desperately to power up: though apparently she had been suffering in silence from the effects of the venom of the sinning tree as she was doing little more than making herself sweat and hyperventilate.
"Damn it Iruka, let her go!" Tora shouted out, her voice still clear to Yukina, who again remembered how Yasashi had agreed with her that the sense of hearing was always the thing to fade when the body started to fail.
"Don't look so worried, sweetheart," Iruka said, turning his head towards Tora. "I'm not gonna kill her, she's too valuable alive. I'll take her back to the hinterlands and we can use her to generate more money, which will allow us to offer even higher bounties for Yasashi's head."
"You won't get away with this!" Yukina said, her voice barely audible despite her putting all her effort into speaking.
"Actually, I will," Iruka replied. "We loyalists out-number and out-class you all. And, over the last thirty years, we've perfected the art of torture: we now have a much higher success rate when it comes to breaking and converting rebels than we did before. I'll have no difficulty getting tears out of you. In fact, I think I could probably get some out of you right now."
Iruka grabbed his real hand onto a nearby tree and Yukina renewed her efforts to escape his hold as branches began grabbing at her: but her attempts were in vain as she shortly found her arms and legs held in place. Iruka released her throat and she gladly allowed herself to recover the air her body had lost, watching in weakened horror as Iruka swung his mechanical hand at Tora, ripping the shoulder from her vest.
"Let's see how much you're worth, Tora," he said with a dark grin. "Let's see how many tears she cries when she watches me claim you."
He leaned over Tora and Yukina closed her eyes and took a deep breath and fought with all she had: she tried to free herself and, despite her bandana still being in place, she opened her jagan eye, hoping that she might be able to once more access the more powerful form she had accidentally transformed into the day before. When all her attempts failed, Yukina became filled with self-loathing as she realised that Iruka was going to get exactly what he wanted because she could feel tears threatening.
Hey, snowflake.
Yukina paused, the sound of Tora's voice clear in her mind. At first she was unsure why she had heard it, but then she realised that her efforts had at least achieved something: she had opened a telepathic link between her mind and Tora's.
Lucky you figured out how to use your jagan, because I don't have the strength to use mine right now.
Yukina drew in a shuddering breath.
I've been storing up what little energy I do have left. I have just enough for one worthwhile attack.
Yukina concentrated harder and sent a reply back to Tora.
Use it to disable Iruka!
No. I'm going to use it to free you. You won't have long once you're free, you must flee. Go directly back to Yasashi and tell her what happened here. Tell her our spy is gone. Tell her to get away from here.
Yukina opened her eyes sharply and saw Tora looking up at her with sad eyes. She quickly shook her head but Tora simply nodded, lifting one hand to her chest and clenching it into a fist. Yukina tried to tell her to stop, tried to tell her to conserve her energy to heal herself and to save herself, but in her panic she had closed the link between them and her efforts were in vain: an instant later, Tora punched a fist over Iruka's shoulder, a blast of energy leaving her hand and colliding with the tree holding Yukina. As Iruka mocked Tora for her poor aim – apparently assuming that she had been trying to punch his face – Yukina dropped to the ground, landing silently and undetected behind Iruka.
Yukina looked up at Iruka – who was as tall as Kuwabara and at least as broad in the shoulders – her mind blank as she watched the back of his head. He lifted Tora's free leg in one hand and reached the other hand towards her midsection and Yukina suddenly felt the same rush of power she had felt the day before.
Before the blankness had faded from her mind, Yukina found herself airborne, a blue glow illuminating her suddenly green right arm and forming a point an instant before it collided with Iruka's back. He stumbled forwards and for a brief moment Yukina found herself attached to his back, the moment only ending when he roared out in pain and swung around, throwing her from himself with the momentum of his action. She fell and rolled over, standing up to see that she had formed a blade of ice over her hand that was crackling with the blue energy of her ice powers and also a red energy she had never witnessed before. Turning her attention back to Iruka she could see that she had stabbed right through him from the centre of his back to the front of his chest just inches below his heart.
He met her eyes, spitting out a mouthful of blood and then baring his teeth at her.
"I'll make you pay for that," he growled.
"Run away!" Tora cried. "Get out of here! Don't let him catch you! You can't fight him, he's too strong! Go! You have to tell Yasashi about Oyama!"
Yukina shook her head and raised her arm, still encased in the blade of ice.
"Didn't think I'd ever meet anyone more reckless than Tora," Iruka said.
"Being reckless is a family trait," Yukina replied.
Iruka frowned but Yukina did not hesitate to find out why. She started towards him and, as though the new form her body had taken somehow made him move in slow motion, she saw the cat demon aiming a fist at her head and she was able to duck out of his range and swipe her bladed arm across his gut. He doubled-over to try to avoid her attack but she still managed to inflict a glancing blow that tore clothing and skin; but in the moment after her attack she failed to detect Iruka's mechanical fist above her head, only registering it an instant before it collided hard with the small of her back and sent her crashing into the ground face-first. As soon as her body had completely landed she felt Iruka clawing at the hair at the back of her head and he lifted her up by it. She winced against the pain, trying to put her arms out to help support her weight but then quickly realising that she was in danger as she saw him drawing back his metal hand and aiming it at her face.
Yukina froze when an apple smacked off the side of Iruka's head, his face at first looking as confused as she felt. Although Yukina remained totally perplexed, Iruka quickly became enraged, turning his head towards the direction the apple had emerged from.
"Hey puss in boots, why don't you pick on someone your own size?"
Yukina smiled in spite of her predicament.
"Who the hell are you?" Iruka snarled.
"I could tell you something really cliché like "I'm your worst nightmare", but I'll just let my fists answer you."
Iruka released Yukina and she quickly caught herself on her arms, pushing herself up onto all fours to watch as Shizuru walked into the clearing, her eyes fixed onto Iruka.
"You're a human!" he spat at her.
She smiled, reaffirming her grip on her brass knuckles. Iruka lifted an arm as though to attack her but shortly cried out and fell forwards as something mercilessly smacked into back of his left thigh. As he fell Shizuru swung her fist at his face, her blow taking him from his feet in blaze of white light. As he fell, Yukina saw Keiko standing behind him, her kendo stick still hanging in the air at the point where it had hit him.
"Ladies," Shizuru said, nodding at Yukina and then Tora. "Hope you don't mind if we crash this party."
A/N: "Hashibami" means hazel(nuts) and it is also the name of a company that makes handbags that predominantly feature leopard print designs. Why the latter definition is relevant should be obvious, as for the former, it is my nod to the place where Winston and Julia go to escape the watchful eye of Big Brother (in the shade of hazel bushes) in the novel 1984.
Oyama(neko) means Lynx and it's (almost) an anagram of yo mama…
Kujira means whale, because, y'know, Life Aquatic references and all…
And I'm just going to go ahead and say there was a major piece of foreshadowing at the start of this chapter during the conversation between Yukina and Yasashi – more particularly, there is what will soon be an obvious discrepancy in Yasashi's speech that opens with "you must know why"… This is me setting up something that happens much later with Hiei – who is, thanks to a new twist in the tale, now one of the most prominent characters in the last two parts of this story.