The cell was quiet, save for the occasional sniffle of a child.
Locked deep within the confines of the Ice Castle upon the rock, the remaining koorime villagers huddled together for warmth and support. The group in total was ten, eight of whom were women just entering their prime. The other two consisted of a weary elder, and a small child who sucked her thumb and sat on the lap of the oldest woman. Her pudgy fingers toyed with the elders long graying hair.
One of the women was pressed flat against the bars of her prison, attempting to get a slim view of the world beyond her cell. She looked left and right, her tattered kimono trailing across the floor as she chewed her dirty fingernails in a fretting manner.
"I don't see any sign of the elders anywhere... where have they gone off to?" The koorime muttered, looking left and right past the bars, "They must be in hiding, waiting for us to try and make a slip. Then they'll devour us too!"
The child in the elders lap began to whimper, her large blue eyes watering with fear. The elder gently tucked a dark blue curl behind the child's ear and kept her arms steadfast around the child's body. Wrapped in the elder's kimono, the child was warm and safe.
"Be at ease child..." The elder murmured, "We are safe so long as we remain in here."
"I don't think so, Rui. I wonder if the elders would agree with you." The koorime at the bars turned around, scratching her nose with her chewed nails, "They sure didn't seem impressed by the fight for the well! How long do you think we can hold this sanctuary against such strong women... once they attack it's over. Or do you not recall the fire?"
At this, the other koorime murmured in agreement and nodded their heads. A few even shivered, still troubled by the dark memories of their recent pasts. The elder remained stoic to their fear, keeping her focus on the child as she petted the babe's hair.
When Shikei started sacrificing children, half the village went to save the wee ones. And what happened? The elders were there waiting for them... with fire. And what did they do to the ones who rebelled? Eh?" The koorime paused, raising her eyebrows. The cell had gone silent now, as all the woman looked to their fellow villager with fearful eyes. The child was stiff now, remembering the heat and the screams.
" A pyre... as high as the sky..." The koorime whispered in a sinister voice, "You get what that means? If we get attacked... then we'll-"
"Ataka!" The elder snarled.
The koorime named Ataka froze mid sentence, seeming to come to her senses. The child, overwhelmed with fear, burst into noisy tears. The elder comforted the child at once, wrapping her arms tighter around the little girl to comfort her. Ataka seemed utterly depressed at having caused the child to cry, and slumped her shoulders in distress.
"Look...Rui..." Ataka mumbled apologetically, "All I'm trying to say is that rebelling is too dangerous. So surely there has to be another way to escape?"
The elder named Rui continued to consol the child, giving no answers to the nervous Ataka. Another koorime who sat slightly apart from the rest of the huddle looked up. She had a sallow face and seemed rather cynical in appearance.
"This wall can only be penetrated by flame of a very...distinct... kind." The koorime with the sallow face spoke up, gesturing to the bars which were coated with a thick shimmering layer of dark ice. "I doubt we will find it to our aid."
The child in Rui's lap continued to cry, a little girl lost in a world of grown women.
"Don't cry, little Itora." Rui murmured, kissing the child's head in a motherly manner, "... Hiei will come to destroy the evils of this land. I am certain of it."
All the faces of the koorime turned to look at Rui, confused and unsure of her words. Ataka, at the bars, even muttered a soft "What?"
An older koorime with hair beginning to turn white looked up at Rui from the floor.
"Rui, we have been over this a million times-" The older woman began, but Rui cut her off with a hard voice.
"Hiei will come to destroy them. I am certain of it." Rui snapped angrily.
A sudden pacing of feet, dark voices-
They were coming.
As if by the turn of a light-switch, the atmosphere in the cell changed. Ataka bolted away from the cell bars, petrified, and flung herself into the group of her fellow villagers. The koorime were panicking, pressing themselves flat against the bars, and the little Itora was breathing with hysterical hiccups!
"Against the wall! Quickly!" Rui demanded, thrusting Itora into the arms of Ataka. She lead her fellow people with the strength and wisdom of a true leader, "Remember, we know nothing!" Rui hissed to the koorime. They nodded, terrified, and turned their faces into the wall to hide their gaze from the oncoming elders... the dark ones who had destroyed their own village.
"And what of your Hiei?" The older koorime growled, her face into the wall even as she glared at Rui, "Will he come to save us now?"
"I never said anything about him coming to save us." Rui snapped, glaring right back, "Only that he will destroy them."
"Well now would be a nice time for him to show up!" the sallow faced koorime hissed, panicking as she pressed herself flat against the wall. Rui would have said something to her, but even as she formed the words the shadows of the elders loomed against the wall. There was a loud creaking noise as iron scraped against iron, and the bars of their cell were shifted apart.
A decrepit woman of purest white slowly stalked into their cell, her eyes cold and black like that of a shark.
Silence fell.
"Ah... my faithful daughters." The dark koorime murmured, her black eyes looking back and forth to each remaining villager. Yet even as she attempted to catch their eyes, the women looked away. They were frightened of her now, their respect for her leadership long since gone. Displeased by their cowering, the elder sneered. "Have your moods not improved?"
No one spoke. No one looked at her.
Their faces flat against the wall, each koorime looked to their fellow villagers. In their eyes, a million questions could be seen and shared: 'Will I live through this?' 'Is this the end?' 'Why did this happen to us?' 'Did we deserve this?' 'Who will save us now?'
"... Still so cruel to your dearest elder?" The old woman growled, "You hurt my fragile heart."
Silence rang in the cell. Rui remained the only one not turned away from the elder. Instead of showing fear, she sat with boredom upon the only bench and waited patiently for the bizarre interrogation to end.
"Rui. I have need to speak to you of a most peculiar matter. Won't you come?" The elder growled.
Rui looked up, catching the black eyed gaze, and with stern resignation rose up from her seat. At her movement, the sallow faced koorime suddenly turned from sarcastic to sympathetic. She turned away from the wall and grabbed Rui tight by the arm!
"No, Rui! Not you too! She'll kill you!" The woman cried out, begging for Rui not to go. "If you die, what will become of the rest of us?! We need you!"
"Hush, Susumo." Rui cut the sallow faced koorime off, touching her sunken in cheeks with a gentle caress. "She will not be my demise. That honor is Hiei's alone."
Rui pulled out of Susumo's shaking grip, striding forward to walk straight past the elder and out into the free air. The elder immediately shifted back the bars of the cell, closing off the prison again, and the koorime inside began to wail and scream at Rui's retreating back.
"Your cries are useless." The elder sneered, turning her back on the villagers she had once lead, "Your sins will be repented for."
"Don't do this Shikei!" A random koorime shouted from inside, banging her hands on the bars of her cell door attempting to get the elders attention, "Try from some shred of sanity, I beg of you! Remember your heart or you will destroy your entire race-!"
The elder turned back around, her black gaze falling upon the koorime. As if lifted by an invisible giant, the koorime was flung hard from the door and crashed into the opposite wall leaving a trail of blood behind. She fell to the floor, motionless.
Rui looked back around, horrified, her face giving away her emotions as she looked to the fallen villager. Rui licked her dry lips, nervous, praying that the girl would rise up.
But the girl did nothing, and Rui bowed her head in grief.
"The youth say such foolish things." Shikei sneered, "Shall we, Rui?" Shikei gestured to the icy darkened halls of the once bright castle, as if this was to be a pleasant walk and not a torturous ritual.
Rui looked away from the fallen koorime.
"As you wish, elder." Was her cold response.
They walked the frozen halls, side by side though hardly enjoying one another's presence. Rui cast a look to the decrepit paintings that had once shown koorime from ages past. Now they were covered with black ice practically indistinguishable.
"You are a broad minded koorime, Rui. You always have been the smartest. That's why I enjoy your company. I feel as if you understand the complex workings of my leadership... perhaps you know the true beauty of it. You are a born leader." Shikei began, her white skirts swishing back and forth on the icy floor.
"Thank you, elder." Rui muttered, though there was no praise in her tone.
"Still, Rui..." Shikei added, "There was a time in your youth when you trouble me, and your mother, gravely."
Rui said nothing to this, her eyes ahead as she scanned the blackened hallway for signs of life. There had once been five elders in all, four if you did not count Shikei. They had barricaded themselves in the castle long ago, rarely to be seen in the village. Yet now, as Rui looked about, she could not see any signs of life besides Shikei. Where were the other elders now?
"You were charmed by a very cunning snake." Shikei sighed dramatically, her heavy jowls quivering. "We all were. It is natural to feel ashamed of this weakness, but you must put it behind you and strengthen yourself against future attacks. After all, we've already lost so many of our kind to the troubles of these past months."
Rui paused, her feet coming to a halt at Shikei's words.
The past few months had been nothing short of hell.
It had all started one night when Rui had been awoken by a clap of ungodly thunder that had practically shaken her whole house. When she'd gone outside to investigate, Rui had found a great wave of smoke coming up from the graves of the forgotten which lay at the northern border of the castle. At the root of the smoke and noise, she'd found Hina's grave... split in twain as if by a mighty hammer. The clay had been dripping in blood.
It was as if the land rebelled against the dark magic that had occurred that night. Crops started failing, animals started leaving. The well dried up, and the koorime began to starve. Desperate for help, they turned to their elders... only to find their elders had abandoned them for the castle. Rui had attempted to find reason in the madness, urging villagers to eat the roots of edible plants which were still flourishing. She'd packed snow into the well, letting it melt to create a sordid water source. Her tactics had worked momentarily, but were brought to a shattering halt when one day the elders re appeared... furious.
They'd taken the well by force, slaying any villagers that attempted to try and get water. Desperate and dying, the koorime had turned from a civilized society to a broken colony fueled by common hatred for their situation.
Then things had really gone to hell.
The elders began an assault upon the village, claiming that the villagers had damned themselves and were sinners. The children had been taken, and sacrificed at the sordid alter of Hina's desecrated grave. It was as if the elders were attempting to feed something by sacrificing blood to the pit. Rui had been powerless to save the children. The mothers of the sacrificed babes went wild with rage and grief, forming an onslaught and attacking the elders with force. But the elders had been waiting for them with fire... and had burned the attackers in a pyre right atop where the well had once been.
People had retreated, terrified of being next. The village had disbanded into tiny groups consisting of close families. The elders had left the village, somehow pleased by their pyre, and a terrible swelling silence had fallen upon the village.
Rui's group had been captured a week ago.
She did not know what had become of the other tiny groups. Perhaps they had died too.
Perhaps their tiny group was all that was let of the koorime race.
"You blame me for the deaths of the others..." Shikei muttered, her expression turning darker still, "This is only another sign of your little weakness." In a gesture that both unnerved and angered Rui, Shikei took a lock of Rui's gray hair and tucked it gently behind her ear, as if in a motherly fashion. Rui would have struck Shikei down if only she possessed the nerve... but Hina had always been the one with the courage. "...Yes... I know that part of you very well. Because it is my daughter." Shikei growled the title, "My Hina."
Rui looked away at the name, slightly stunned by it.
"Yes, I know you loved her." Shikei sneered the word 'love' as if it were something laughable, "Yet she did an evil and wicked thing... and we must try to remember that she was tainted by a man. Marked by sin-"
"What is it that you wished to speak with me about." Rui snapped, cutting Shikei off before the wicked koorime could go on any further. Instead of being irritated, Shikei seemed delighted by the change of subject.
"Ah, of course. Forgive me dear I was thinking of times past. Being one hundred thousand years old does have its downfalls." Shikei gave a tinkling laugh that sent chills up Rui's spine, "There has been a disturbance in the village."
Rui let out an exasperated sigh.
"A group of travelers have come down from the mountains... two women, and four men."
"Men?!" Rui gasped the word, her mood changing from exasperated to shocked in an instant. There were men in the village?! But how?! The only probably cause was that someone had discovered the passage from demon world, an idea that both petrified and elated her. If there were men in the village, Shikei would no doubt want to hunt them down instead of the scattered villagers...
Then again... who were these men.
And would they be the end of them instead of Shikei?
"Oh yes." Shikei agreed, nodding most gravely, "Four of them."
Rui looked away, unnerved.
"I sent a blizzard after them. I believe it has cleared the problem. Still... part of me is worried. You see, I took necessary steps long ago to ensure that this sort of problem would never occur. So why is it present now?" Shikei's tone was turning sarcastic, but Rui was not in the mood.
"Shikei, do not keep me in a fog." Rui grumbled. "I do not know nor understand your problems."
"Oh I think you do, Rui. I think you do." Shikei snapped, her sarcasm suddenly gone.
Now there was only anger, dark and cold.
Rui was taken aback, and looked up to find that Shikei was glaring at her with such fury that it made her take an automatic step backwards to gain ground.
"You're making quite a study of me!" Rui shivered involuntarily.
"Someone ought to." Shikei growled.
For a moment, a heavy silence lay between them.
"The Imiko is among the men." Shikei finally explained.
Rui almost fell to the ground, her body reeling in shock as Shikei's words processed in her brain.
Hiei.
Here.
Hiei.
Coming.
So Hiei had taken the passageway back to Hyouga, but why? And who else was in his company? Had he come to seek the vengeance promised to him at birth? Had he brought with him a band of warriors so strong that even Shikei's black magic could not stop them? Rui's heart beat with newfound joy, and she clutched her chest in sudden pain.
"Your face betrays you!" Shikei snarled, pointing a condemning finger at Rui's lined forehead, "Your heart desired this!"
"You know nothing of my heart!" Rui slapped Shikei's finger away, stumbling backward as she kept a firm hand on her chest.
"I know everything!" Shikei continued on, her voice taking on a rant like quality as she became more and more incensed! " I know that it loved my daughter, like a soulmate. I know that when I forced you to throw that brat over the edge you gave him a key to survive! You instilled some magic in him! You kept his black heart beating even when I demanded you silence it once and for all! You betrayed me Rui! And you turned the girl against me too! Now Yukina has slipped out of our fingers and you think that I will simply let you get away with all of this because I am fond of you!"
"Fool!" Rui shouted back, Shikei's words bouncing off of her like rubber. She would not be penetrated by Shikei's cruel jibes, "I did nothing of the sort. I did exactly as you said. The child survived entirely on his own!"
"But you longed for it!" Shikei countered at once, "You longed for his survival!"
"I longed for death! And he will come to kill us all. And I will be the first to fall for what I did. You cannot stop him, Shikei. He will come... and he will destroy you." Rui paused, breathing heavily. It was now her turn to point the finger, and she did so at Shikei, who seemed taken aback by the fierceness of Rui's words.
"... He will kill you. For what you did Hina." Rui murmured, her words an ominous prediction of the dark future. "And there's nothing you can do to stop it."
One of Shikei's eyes twitched, giving away her fear.
"And you know that." Rui could not help the sadistic smile growing across her face. "... Don't you."
Shikei looked away, her jaw grinding in rage as she clenched her fists.
For one shining moment, Rui felt the courage that she'd never truly had spring up inside of her. The future was shining bright, and doors were opening that had long since been closed. She could rescue her group! She could free the villagers! She could revive the community and bring the koorime nation back to the honorable place it had once been. She could do all these things... because Hiei was coming.
And Hiei would set things right.
Shikei snapped.
Quick as a flash of lightning, Shikei whirled around in a blur of white robes, and stabbed Rui through the heart with a long thin dagger-!
Hiei sat bolt upright, his forehead dripping in sweat.
He panted in the night air, each puff of breath becoming a ball of mist in front of his face.
...Such a vividly horrific dream.
It was deep into the night, practically near morning, and the entire group was asleep on the living room floor. They cuddled against one another fully clothed, using the small hearth as a source of warmth. The only one not present was Mukuro, who had vanished down the hall many hours ago. Yet even as Hiei wondered if she was still being an asshole and avoiding everyone, he noticed a dark figure sitting on the couch holding a small clay jar bound in scrolls. At first, his brain automatically thought of an intruder. Yet it was only Mukuro, looked at the jar as if it were a perplexing puzzle.
"... Strange things... ghosts..." Mukuro mused quietly. Hiei touched the hearth to relight the fire, hoping to bring more warmth to the hut. "They live on but they're not alive. They're gone... but not forgotten. They're scary... but we keep going back to them. So what the fuck gives."
Hiei shrugged, rubbing his eyes to get the sleep out of the corners. He let out an large yawn, exhausted even though he'd gotten sleep.
"... I'm sick of being in this dump." Mukuro grumbled. "I feel like a rat in a cage. We need to get moving and soon."
"I agree." Hiei muttered.
"Do you." Mukuro flashed him a dark look. "Or would you rather lay here in a pool of self pity forever and ever. Sounds rather romantic, doesn't it. Dying for a ghost."
"Are you accusing me of something?" Hiei warned. Mukuro did not answer straight away, seeming to think things over as she looked at the clay pot.
"Do you know what this is?" Mukuro answered a question with a question, nodding her head at the pot.
"A pot." Hiei answered in turn.
Mukuro merely shook her head.
"Do you know what is in the pot." Mukuro offered.
"Do you think I care." Hiei sneered.
"It's your mother's charged ashes. I should hope you care."
There was a time when Hiei would have been shocked at such news. Now, sitting in his mother's decrepit house, he simply didn't give a damn anymore. He shrugged, rubbing his face with an ashen hand.
"... So where do you get the ashes. Did you find them in the bedroom? I should be surprised if anything is left of that part of the house at all-"
"No, these came out of Shimo. Remember when you cracked him like an egg?" Hiei smirked at Mukuro's words, "Genkai collected them and charged them. But they became unbelievably powerful and angry. So Genkai sealed them away. She thought that we could use them against Shikei."
"If Genkai thinks that, then it is so." Hiei shrugged, remembering the bitter sage. "But I don't see how. I don't have a fucking clue as to how I'm going to pull this off... only that I'm going to. That I have no choice but to."
Mukuro raised her only eyebrow, smiling at Hiei. What an odd thing to hear him say- after all he was practically the embodiment of choice and freedom. Yet here he was giving them both away... but why?
"You looked tense in your sleep." Mukuro offered, "Why?"
"I dreamed of a woman being stabbed." Hiei shrugged." It took me by surprise I suppose."
"You've stabbed plenty of women." Mukuro chuckled, "Why should this one shake you up?"
"Because this one didn't deserve it. This one was Rui." Hiei shuddered, looking back to the fire which warmed his side.
Mukuro frowned at the serious tone in Hiei's voice.
"That's your mother's best friend... the one who had to throw you over." Mukuro supplied. Hiei nodded.
"... She wanted you to kill her. Why didn't you." Mukuro asked, "After all, you've killed a thousand men and women before her."
Hiei looked away, pursing his lips.
"When she had me over the ledge, I could feel how tightly her fingers held me through the bindings." Hiei murmured softly, tracing his fingers on the moldy floor. "She didn't want to drop me. She didn't want to." Hiei shook his head, "She wanted me to kill her... because she felt she deserved it, for what she had to do. She couldn't live with the shame of what she'd done. She couldn't stand the agony of the knowledge." Hiei met Mukuro's eyes. "I've made a shit life at times... but at least I had my pride. At least I had hope, and freedom. She never had any of those things."
Mukuro sighed, sliding off of the couch and coming to rest by Hiei's side. It felt good to sit beside him, here in the thick of everything. He was an ever present rock; a constant thread of humanity and calm in a world where nothing stayed the same.
"... You can't change any of it, you know?" Hiei finally spoke up, gesturing at the fruitlessness of it all, "You can't change a damn thing. You just have to accept that no matter how much you hate it... it's yours. For better or for worse. The life you live is yours. Huh-" Hiei muttered, furrowing his brow.
"What." Mukuro asked, noticing his curious gaze.
"Humans marry when they are in love." Hiei shrugged, "They say ridiculous things before they put rings on their fingers. It's apparently supposed to be symbolic of their faithfulness and adoration. It's all pomp and circumstance. It's fucking ridiculous if you ask me."
"Yeah, and what of it."
"It's just... one of the things they say when they're swapping words is... 'For better or worse'. Maybe that's why."
Mukuro was thoroughly confused.
"Maybe that's why what?" Mukuro asked, "I don't follow you."
For a moment, Hiei sat in silence.
"... For better or for worse... despite how shitty your life may be and knowing there is nothing you can do to change it... I still choose to love you. To deal with you. To fight with you and for you." Hiei finished quietly.
"Rather lamenting of you." Mukuro sneered. "Do they say all that?"
"No." Hiei shook his head, "But I do."
He looked at Mukuro with the tiniest of smiles, barely even a flicker on his face.
"Because I do." Hiei added, "Choose to put up with your shit. I don't stay because you order me to."
Mukuro blushed, her eye widening.
"You're fucking insane." Mukuro whispered. "Saying shit like that to me."
Hiei smiled.
"What are you going to do." Hiei asked with a slight sneer. "Sock me?"
Mukuro flushed even harder, the heat pooling in her cheeks.
"... You stayed with me through all of this." Hiei murmured, reaching out to touch her burning flesh, "You stayed even when I told you to go. You stayed even when I told you to burn in hell. You kept staying... and trying... You followed me all the way to human world. All the way to here. And you never asked why. You never complained. You just did it..." Hiei frowned. "Why did you do it."
Mukuro looked down at the ground, feeling his fingers slid across her unscarred cheek. Hiei's hands were rough and hard, like stone wrapped in leather. And yet, there was an odd tenderness to them.
Why had she stayed?
The answer was simple, even when asked inwardly: She stayed because she could not leave. She could not leave him to suffer, or to die. She could not leave, never knowing what would become of him. She could not leave and go on her merry way... because without him, she would not have a merry way. Without him, and his bitter temper, his rude remarks, his horrid social skills... she would have nothing in her life worth calling a life. A position and a few soldiers to do as she said... but what did that amount to? Anyone could have soldiers do their bidding. That didn't make them worth admiring or knowing. What made a person worth knowing was their way of living.
So how could she live without him.
"... I can't leave you." Mukuro whispered softly, not wanting to be heard by the others though she surmised they were sleeping. "I can't just-"
"Sure you can." Hiei offered. "You can leave. You can get up right now, turn around, and walk out that door. You can go back to the portal, return to your area of demon world... and go back to a normal life. You could do it. So why won't you."
"I could say the same of you." Mukuro caught his gaze, "You could do the same thing, so why are you here."
"Because I'm not afraid of justice." Hiei murmured. "And I want to see it done. Because part of me believes that if she'd have known about that portal to demon world... she would have taken it to find me. Part of me believes my mother never stopped looking, never stopped believing. And maybe that's worth a fight to the death. This... half-assed love that never came to fruition."
"Part of you is a foolish ninny." Mukuro mumbled.
"Part of you is a whiny bitch." Hiei returned. Mukuro glared at him, her shrewd frown making him smile even wider.
"See, right there." Hiei snickered, "You could leave right now, and who would blame you."
"I know you don't mean it when you call me a bitch." Mukuro grumbled, "So quit acting like a hard ass."
"I absolutely do mean it." Hiei snorted. "You're the biggest bitch I've ever met in my entire life... but I still love you. Perhaps I even love you for it."
Mukuro smiled.
"I love you too." Mukuro soothed, reaching up to touch where his fingers still held to her shoulder. They'd dropped there from her cheek. "I love you very much- almost in spite of what life has taught me. I think I don't have a choice in the matter."
"Neither do I." Hiei admitted. "I'm stuck in this shit."
"For better or worse." Mukuro added. Hiei smiled.
They sat there together by the brink of the fire, letting the minutes tick past without an uttered word. Their hands drifted from shoulders to hips to the floor where they sat intertwined.
Outside, the snow continued to fall, and the night slowly faded into a gray dawn.
The sounds of their feet crunching in the fresh, clean snow was the only noise upon the air. Birds did not sound their flight, animals did not snarl in the brush. The northern pass which lead to the castle was a desolate place marked only by towering mountains and withered trees that were scratched by ancient runes. Hiei had been here before long ago, in a time before the name 'Urameshi' had meant anything to him... and he still did not like it all these years later.
They walked in a single file line, with Hiei and Yukina leading the front. They were, after all, the only ones that knew the way. Even Hiei did not fully understand the elaborate compounds of the castle... Yukina would have to direct them after a certain point. Mukuro was right behind Hiei, every so often looking out at the trees.
Kuwabara, Yusuke, and Kurama brought up the rear, their stomachs growling. It had been a long time since they'd skipped a meal in pursuit of vengeance.
The crisp morning air made every puff of breath into a fine white mist before their faces. Bright light filled the sparkling snow, making it glitter like finely crushed diamonds on the ground. Wispy cloud entrails, long and thin, slowly filtered across the sky. The Hyouga floated so high in the sky that the stars never fully diminished from view... they merely dulled into tiny pin pricks of light. It was an odd place, in that it was oddly beautiful.
"There." Yukina pointed up ahead to a small shack on the side of the road with an ornate front gate, "That's Rui's house. She might be home!"
"Or dead." Yusuke added from the back. Hiei shot him a filthy look.
They approached the iced house, which was mercifully unburned. Yet as they pushed the iron gate aside and knocked on the front door, they found it to be slightly ajar.
Yukina gently pushed it open, to find that no one was home.
"...She's gone." Yukina murmured softly, "I wonder though..."
She cast a glance over her shoulder.
"Wait outside. I'll check to see if she's in her bedroom." Yukina offered, slipping into the darkened house and leaving the others outside. As they waited impatiently, Yusuke and Kuwabara passed the time by throwing snow balls at one another. After all, they were still boys at heart. Hiei waited, rubbing his eyes wearily, casting a small smile at Mukuro.
"We'll make high progress today." Mukuro assured him. "Don't you worry, Hiei."
"Is this the face of a worried man?" Hiei asked sourly.
"Yeah, it is." Mukuro grumbled. "It's also the face of a jack ass, so don't get me started."
Hiei could not help the small laugh that came from his throat.
Yukina re emerged, looking fearful.
"Well?" Hiei asked his sister, expecting to hear the worst.
"...It's like... she vanished in the night." Yukina admitted fretfully, "Nothing's really out of place. Nothing that suggests she might have been hurt or gotten into a fight."
"The house isn't burned either." Kurama added in a hopeful tone, "So perhaps she is merely in hiding."
"...Perhaps." Yet Yukina's voice did not sound too sure.
"Come on then." Hiei lead his sister away from the cold house, "Let's get moving. I want to reach the castle by noon."
"Okay."
Yukina took the lead again, back on the road. Kuwabara finally forgot his snowball fight with Yusuke and brushed ice out of his hair to link his arm with Yukina's. Mukuro kept good time right behind them alongside Hiei, and continued looking out at the withered trees.
They walked for a good ten minutes, hearing and seeing nothing out of the usual save for the occasional forgotten shoe on the side of the road or the bones of a long since dead rodent. Yet as they came over a slight hill and followed the road onto a flattened plain, a rather large withered tree caught Mukuro's eye.
Its base had been blasted apart as if by a canon.
"What the fuck?" Mukuro muttered aloud, squinting as they continued along the road.
"What is it?" Kurama asked.
"That tree." Mukuro pointed to the withered hold. "You see its base?"
"Oh!" Yukina cried out, clearly having spotted the same dead tree. "That's my mother's grave!"
She left the road, dashing through the snow. Hiei immediately followed right behind her with the group on their heels. The tree up close was much bigger than expected, and sure enough its base had been completely blown apart. The hole which had been created by an unknown force was deep and filled with snow. Hiei immediately dropped to his knees and shoveled snow out of the way with his bare hands. He had a feeling that he would reach clay at the bottom... but he wanted to be sure.
"Woah! Shit!" Mukuro cursed.
"What's wrong?" Yusuke asked at once.
"The pot!" Mukuro snarled, grabbing the little clay jar from her deep pants pocket. It was rattling like mad, as if vibrating from within like a beehive, "Somethings up with the pot!"
"Dude, maybe you're supposed to open it!" Kuwabara offered as Hiei finally reached the bottom of the snow pit. He grabbed a large handful of the hard earth he found and brought it back up to his hands.
"-Fuck!" Hiei spat, his heart suddenly forced to a jolt as he saw his hands again. Even Yukina let out a terrified cry, clapping her hands over her mouth as she took an immediate step back.
It was not dirt. It was flesh... and Hiei's hands were covered with blood.
Hiei wiped his hands off in the snow at once, digging deeper through the flesh as he searched in vain for a bottom. What had happened here? What had caused the explosion? Where was this flesh from?
"Step aside." Kurama pushed his way to the front, dropping down by Hiei's side.
"Hiei, retract your arm." he ordered. Hiei irritably complied, seeing that he was drenched in blood up to his elbow.
"Fine, you fucking deal with it." Hiei spat, "I'm helping Mukuro."
Hiei immediately attempted to wrestle with the vibrating pot as Mukuro nearly lost her grip on it. They would have to keep it from breaking if they wanted to use it against Shikei!
"Jesus!" Mukuro spat, "It won't-fucking-stop!" She could barely keep hold, even with Hiei's added help. Kurama meanwhile was digging gently through the snow, as if searching for clues. He sniffed the area, pressing his nose almost into the blood.
He licked a bit of the frozen flesh, and immediately spat the blood back out.
"...Children." Kurama spat. "Children were sacrificed here. But why."
"Children?!" Yukina repeated. "You don't mean that, Kurama!"
"The evidence leaves no room for question." Kurama admitted darkly. "Children were sacrificed at this tree, like an alter... but an alter to what."
"Shikei is my guess!" Yusuke snapped, "Maybe that's how he was getting his power.
"Perhaps." Kurama murmured, tilting his head so that his silver hair blew even more in the wind, "... We must away from this grave." Kurama continued on, rising up to his feet, "It reeks of black magic. No doubt spies are watching us even as we stand here. Hina's ashes will not be still till they are far from this place."
"Fine then, let's go!" Mukuro was still struggling viciously with the shaking jar. She wobbled to her feet, heading as fast as she could for the main road with Hiei at her side. Together, the pair of them held tight to the jar. By the time they reached the main road, the clay pot was suddenly still. Mukuro let out a sigh of relief, pocketing it again. Their hands were tingling from the violent force, and Hiei shook them out.
"Fuck." Kuwabara muttered, obviously shaken as he returned to the road with Yukina in tow. She was trembling violently, overcome with shock, "I can't take much else of this crazy shit."
"Me neither." Yusuke admitted, shaking his head, "Sacrificing children? God that's sick."
"And yet it was done... all in the name of revenge." Kurama admitted. "At least we know how now."
"Come on." Hiei mumbled, wiping the rest of the blood off in the road side snow, "We cannot afford to waist any more time here. We need to reach the castle as soon as possible. The quicker we do so, the quicker we return home."
"There's a plan I can get behind!" Kuwabara agreed vociferously.
Back into their little line they went, heading northward for the castle with great haste. Yukina was breathing haggardly, her lips trembling as if she was still in shock from the grave. Perhaps now, in the face of it all, she was realizing just how vicious Shikei could be. Perhaps she was remembering children from her village that she'd known who were undoubtably dead.
The trees were beginning to grow fuller around them once more. The road was winding, heading steadily upslope as they moved toward a rocky cliff face. The castle had been built in ancient times millions of years ago by koorime of a different breed who had centered their community around a royal lineage. There was a rumor, helped along by the devoutly religious demons, that a few koorime were distant relatives of the first ice demoness to walk the land... the very one in the same who had loved the very first fire demoness and died in her arms. Whether one believed this or not, one still could not deny that the castle was magnificent to behold from the outside. It was broad and tall, even from a great distance, marked by magnificent spires that glistened in the morning sun.
"So, let me get this straight. Shikei's in the castle." Yusuke began.
"Yes. With all the other elders as well. The elders do not live in the community with the rest of the koorime. They stay secluded here for their comfort."
"Oh god forbid granny get a back ache." Yusuke sneered. "Okay, so if she's in the castle and we're going to the castle, don't we need to know a little bit more about it? What's it like? What's the layout? How about any defenses? We got a crocodile in a moat, or piranhas?"
"What in the fuck are you talking about?" Mukuro demanded angrily, casting a glance over her shoulder at Yusuke as the trees thickened even more around them. The morning light was beginning to dwindle through the dark canopy, "What the fuck is a crocodile? What's a piranhas?"
"It's piranha, Mukuro. Piranhas is plural." Kurama explained. "And no, Yusuke. Neither of those things will be waiting for us. You are forgetting we are in a sub arctic climate. Both species you listed need tropical waters to survive."
"But what the fuck is a crocodile?!" Mukuro demanded. "Why does everything he say sound like something out of an hallucination!?"
Hiei bit down on a hard laugh, almost biting his tongue. Kurama seemed to be thoroughly enjoying his new place of power, explaining things to Mukuro... still it was starting to get annoying.
"The castle isn't guarded." Yukina explained. "We don't practice violence in our community."
"Excuse me, but is your community the same community that sacrificed children to dark magic?"
"Well-"
"And burnt a huge pyre full of people?"
"I-"
"And pushed all the others off a cliff?"
"Yusuke, I-"
"I'm just saying, that's alot of violence from a supposedly mild group of women." Yusuke concluded. "So what makes you think we can just waltz right on up to the castle doors without a problem?"
Yukina's cheeks were light pink with anger.
"Shikei did all those things, not my people! Do not get the two confused." She ordered, slightly angry. The slope was getting difficult to mount, and she had to momentarily set her anger aside in order to successfully navigate the dangerous terrain. "Shikei is the violent one!"
"And where is she?"
"In the castle, I already told-!"
"See, ahah!" Yusuke cackled at this, "So whose to say the castle isn't booby trapped up to high heaven?"
Yukina paused at that, slightly taken aback.
"...Perhaps." She admitted, still annoyed. "But I wouldn't know either way. When I was a little girl, it was without traps."
"Alright, I guess we're going in blind." Yusuke sighed. "I don't like it."
"Neither do I." Kuwabara agreed. "Those mean ladies could have anything up their sleeves!"
"Nothing I haven't seen before." Kurama assured the group. "I'll be greatly surprised if they manage an ounce of ingenuity. Castles are easy to navigate if you want to infiltrate them. The first step is simple enough. Never go through the front or back door."
"So go through a side door?" Hiei sneered, "I wasn't aware we were choosing our entry way."
"We are." Kurama corrected him darkly, "From here on out, we choose our own paths. Shikei will not take our freedom away too. Yukina, where are the side doors to the castle?"
"There's one located by the western garden I think." Yukina offered. "I remember it lead into the kitchen."
"Then that's the one we will take." Kurama agreed. "Take us there."
Yukina was smart in her navigation. At once, she headed off the beaten trail into the frozen underbrush which was much harder to walk through. Pants were tore, ankles were scraped, and winces were heard all around as they mounted a suddenly steep cliff on hands and knees. Yukina was hell bent on reaching the top, and got their first to peek out.
"... Looks clear. This is the way." Yukina called down to the rest of the group who were desperately following after her.
"Hang on, baby!" Kuwabara urged. "I can't climb that fast!"
"Odd, considering you're an ape!" Hiei sneered, almost slipping on the wet rock.
"Shuttup, shrimp!" Kuwabara snapped back. "I'll give you a piece of my mind for calling me an ape!"
"I quiver with fear!" Hiei sneered again, reaching the top and immediately righting himself to brush snow off his shoulders and back. Yukina gave him a disapproving look, clearly unhappy.
"Move outta the way!" Yusuke demanded as he and Mukuro reached the top. Kurama was stuck behind Kuwabara who could barely make any progress. As soon as Yusuke was up, he turned right back around and helped out his old friend so that Kuwabara was able to make faster pace. Finally, with a great heave, Kuwabara reached the top and groaned to his feet.
"Damn, man..." Kuwabara huffed, his hands beet red. "That was rough!"
Kurama righted himself with grace, flipping his silver hair back over his shoulders.
"I'm sorry about the climb, Kazuma, but this is the best way into the western garden. See?" Yukina pointed. The terrain was mercifully flat before them, though statues dripping in ice were all around. They could just make out a gravel path through the snow... clearly this place had once been a sort of walking trail. Far ahead, only the size of an eraser head at their distance, a door could be seen against the castle wall. It was well hidden away from the mighty windows that peered out towards the north and south.
"... Okay..." Yusuke murmured, his brow furrowing a little. "Anyone else... getting a weird feeling?"
Kuwabara shivered.
"There's someone here." Kuwabara whispered, as if keen not to be overheard, "I think someone's going to ambush us if we go this way. Maybe we need to turn back around."
"No, the front door will not do." Kurama snapped. "We can take an ambush. We have before, and we will again. We have Mukuro here for backup."
Mukuro might have made a sharp quip, had every sensory nerve not been screaming at her to get the fuck out of there.
"...Hiei..." Mukuro whispered, reaching out to touch his fingers. Hiei cast her a small glance.
"... Somethings... not right." Mukuro murmured. "At all."
Hiei looked from her to the garden, then back to her again.
"Nothing for it." Hiei shrugged. "For better or for worse. We move forward."
Hiei gathered his nerve about him, squaring his shoulders and heading straight for the open air. Yukina made a small noise as if to stop him, but Hiei did not listen.
The light snow crunched underfoot, strangely thinner than the ground turf below. Hiei could actually feel the cobblestones through his boots. He looked about, narrowing his eyes as he glanced from statue to statue. His jagan was pulsing in his forehead as if urging him to pay attention to his surroundings. Hiei looked over his shoulder to see that the others had still not moved from the shadows even though he was a good ten feet out into the snow.
"Come on." He urged softly.
Mukuro stepped forward first, biting her lip nervously.
She never let her gaze drift from his face.
Behind her, Yukina followed with Kazuma practically keeping an arm in front of her. Yusuke and Kurama were last.
Hiei noticed Kurama pulling the rose from his silver hair, looking dark and wary.
"Okay so this shit is fucked up." Yusuke whispered, casting a glance at the frozen eye less statues. "This whole place is messed up."
"Keep your courage." Kurama growled. "Don't be deterred."
"Easy for you to say." Yusuke snapped. "But my whole body's on fire... it's like my freakin soul doesn't want to be here."
"These statues are of elders from the past." Yukina explained. "They don't have eyes because no one can see into the future."
"Makes sense." Kuwabara admitted. "But why all the hype? Why all the fear?"
"Maybe they're trying to warn us." Yusuke joked, "From beyond the grave..." He wiggled his fingers, shifting his voice for a hopeful laugh. No one was amused.
Hiei cast another look around, determined to spot the error. The statues seemed harmless enough, merely made of marble with hard square bases. Yet there was something definitely... off. There was nothing to the terrain that suggested a problem from below, but the very ground on which he walked felt tainted.
Hiei looked to the door, which lay about five hundred yards ahead of them.
It was then that he spotted the problem.
He halted in his tracks, and everyone behind him bumped into one another with a slight jar of shock.
"What?" Mukuro demanded at once. "Why did you stop."
Hiei did not answer, his eyes glued to the door ahead where a small marble bench lay innocently for weary walkers to sit.
And sure enough, someone sat upon it.
A woman, tall and thin, with a bony face and hollow eyes... her white hair blowing gently in the soft wind. She was staring right at them, unflinchingly so.
All the fear in the area seemed to be centered at her... and Hiei was certain she was a 'barrier' for their path.