Chapter 20
"Enough, girl," Genkai said in her raspy growl, waving a hand. "Stop showing off. You can hit stationary targets, but a demon isn't going to be sitting on its ass while you aim."
Rin's cocksure smile faded and a blush stole over her face. She had hit the bullseye twenty times in a row with her Spirit Knives, but trying to impress Genkai was like shouting at a boulder and expecting it to split in two.
"No," Genkai said, her head cocked to the side, pale pink hair spilling over her face. "You need more of a challenge." She paused, thinking, then lifted her chin and gave one of her patented evil grins, which usually meant some horrible 'training' was about to happen. "I want you to try to hit him." The old woman pointed at a black blur on the other side of the clearing.
Rin gulped.
It was the early spring of her first year as substitute Spirit Detective (or spare Spirit Detective, as Yusuke liked to call her). She was fifteen, her face covered in pimples and her body clothed entirely in band shirts from the local mall. Her parents thought she was at a special weekend cram school, but she had actually spent the last few weekends training with Yusuke, Kurama, Kuwabara, and Hiei in Genkai's compound.
"Absolutely not," a low voice said from behind Rin. "I'm already being forced to train with those two idiots. I'm not letting her use me as target practice."
The voice sent a shock through her body. She turned to see Hiei, his arms crossed and jaw set stubbornly. In those days, his face was stuck in a permanent, angry scowl.
Genkai eyed him sardonically. "Afraid she might hit you?"
"I'm not afraid of anything, old woman. I'm just not in the habit of wasting my time," the demon replied, not looking at Rin, which was typical. He seemed to prefer to pretend that she didn't exist.
"If you like, Genkai, I'd be happy to let her use my plants instead," Kurama said softly. The fox boy, Yusuke, and Kuwabara had wandered over after Hiei's abrupt disappearance.
"You three - back to work," Genkai barked, not breaking eye contact with Hiei, who glowered under the white bandana covering his forehead. The others shrugged and went back to training. She pointed at the fire demon. "You! Get moving. Girl, try to hit him."
Rin swallowed down her trepidation. If Genkai said to jump, the only appropriate response was to ask how high. Rin desperately wanted to prove herself to the boys, but especially to Genkai; she was nursing a platonic crush born of both fear and admiration for the old lady.
"Yes, ma'am," Rin said mechanically, her mind racing with anxiety.
What if she hit him? What if she didn't? He already hated her. She didn't want to make it worse. But a stubborn part of her did want to make him acknowledge her existence, not to mention her skill.
Taking a deep breath, Rin walked into the meadow, watching for the black blur. She gripped her Spirit Knives tight and focused so that everything faded away, just her and her heartbeat. She took aim and threw.
"Enough," the old woman called half an hour later as she hobbled over to Rin's side. "Hiei, come here."
The demon flashed into being before them, the angle of his shoulders sullen and annoyed. He looked at Genkai grudgingly, again pretending that the person who had been throwing knives at him for the past thirty minutes didn't exist.
Genkai waited, and when the demon kept silent, prompted, "Any hits?"
He scoffed and tossed his head. "Of course not. As if a mere human could even dream of touching me."
"Liar." Rin was startled to find that the words had popped out her mouth without her permission.
Both Genkai and the demon turned to stare at her, and her brain fizzled into static.
Stammering, Rin said, "I got you. Right there. See, there's a rip in your cloak." She pointed.
Hiei grabbed the edge of his cloak to check, growled in annoyance, and turned away, disappearing in his patented black flash.
"Nicely done, girl." Genkai said, clapping her on the shoulder.
Suffice to say that Hiei knew Rin was talented at throwing pointy objects, especially as Genkai had made them practice that drill for weeks until Rin could hit him seven out of ten times, and it galled him to discover that carnival games were not about skill at all.
After a few thrill rides, Yukina had wanted to slow down the pace of the day and check out the midway. There were all sorts of carnival games on offer, including a basketball toss, an unsteady rope bridge, a shooting gallery, and more, all with barkers enticing passersby to win the prizes hanging from the rafters. The Kuwabaras had wandered away to a fishing game, leaving Rin and Hiei alone.
When Rin had seen the 'pop the balloons' stand and the bundles of darts sitting invitingly on the stall's edge, she had to try her luck. She already knew she probably wouldn't win anything. Hiei, unfamiliar with the scam that most carnival games were, growled in frustration that Rin had failed to pop any of the balloons.
"Ridiculous," he muttered. "This man is clearly a thief and a fraud." He motioned minutely at the carnival barker, who was handing a child a tiny stuffed snake for her trouble. The demon fingered the tip of one of the darts. "These things aren't even sharp."
"It's just for fun. No big deal," Rin said quickly. "Don't worry about it."
"It's not fair," Hiei continued, as if he hadn't heard. "I don't like it. I don't like liars." His gaze was trained on the game attendant, a familiar ire building in his eyes.
"You could try your luck," Rin said, pulling out her wallet with a grin, hoping to distract him from whatever retribution he was planning on enacting on the poor man. "I've got more cash - ."
"I've got a better idea." Hiei cut her off firmly, closing his eyes.
A wave of the fire demon's Spirit Energy rolled over Rin. He disappeared in a black flash. The game attendant turned as if in slow motion, his back to the balloon board at the rear of his stall. There was a crack that Rin felt more than heard, black slashes like lightning after-images cutting through the air, and then every single balloon popped all at once. Hiei reappeared beside her and opened his eyes, his Spirit Energy retreating. A few pieces of brightly colored latex drifted to the ground around the stunned attendant.
"What the fuck?" The attendant looked at the two of them suspiciously, then at his popped balloon board. "What did you do?"
"I beat your game," Hiei replied haughtily, holding his stare, daring him to put up a fight. "Now I suggest you give the lady her prize."
For a moment, emotions warred across the man's face as he clearly wanted to argue, but something about Hiei's mien must have convinced him to shut his mouth. After asking Rin which prize she wanted, he handed her a gigantic, bright purple tiger with electric blue stripes. It was almost as tall as she was.
Rin hugged the enormous stuffed tiger to her, glowing with happiness. Hiei probably wasn't aware of the human trope of a beau winning a carnival prize for their sweetheart, but she certainly was. Even if he had only done it because he was annoyed at the injustice of carnival games, he had still gotten her a gigantic stuffed animal. She felt like a teenager with her first crush, suddenly shy as they walked together down the midway.
Hiei glanced at her sidelong, then said, "Your cheeks are very red, human." His voice was a teasing purr that sent a thrill up her spine.
Rin ducked behind the tiger's plush head, hiding her blush, then said, "Shut up." She paused, then shot back, nonsensically, the only retort she could think of, "Your eyes are red."
He barked a laugh and shook his head, smirking, and her stomach flip-flopped. The fire demon had never been one to smile with all of his teeth, unless he was about to murder someone or commit a crime. But the way he smiled at her, with his lip curled up to show his fang, gave her butterflies.
"Rin! Brother!" Yukina called to them from the fishing game a few stalls down. She had a normal-sized, candy-colored teddy bear. "Look what I won!" She held out the bear, her smile widening when she caught sight of the tiger in Rin's arms.
Rin was glad to have a distraction from the fire demon beside her. The two of them slipped through the crowds of people surrounding the midway booths and made their way to Yukina and Kuwabara; Rin may have accidentally bumped a few people with her tiger, but she couldn't be sure. It was hard to see around the thing's enormous fluffy form.
"It's huuuuge," Kuwabara said, drawing the word out, eyes wide. "Wow, Rin, did you win that?"
"Hiei got it for me," Rin said, unable to keep the unbridled excitement out of her voice. "From the balloons and darts game."
"Oh, you did?" Yukina said, eyeing her brother with interest. "How wonderful!"
Hiei tossed his head and said, "I had to take matters into my own hands. The man tried to cheat us - as if she couldn't hit a target ten feet away! It was absurd."
Rin blushed again as Yukina and Kuwabara agreed. Hiei had never complimented her before, even indirectly, and definitely not in front of other people.
Yukina grinned and grabbed Hiei's arm, chattering as she pulled him down the midway. Rin smiled as she watched the two act like normal happy siblings, but her contentment was broken as a creeping sensation ran up her spine.
It felt like she was being watched. She looked around for the threat, but all she saw were crowds of normal humans milling around the games and food stalls. She couldn't sense any ominous Spirit Energy, but the feeling was unpleasantly reminiscent of her time at the Dark Tournament; she had needed to watch her back every waking moment, even out of the ring.
Noticing the change in her demeanor, Kuwabara asked in a low voice, "You okay, Rin?" His eyes were dark with concern.
"I'm not sure," she said, still looking around. The ominous feeling had abruptly vanished as though it had never existed. "I had a bad feeling for a second there. It's gone now, though. Maybe I'm imagining things." She laughed uncertainly.
"I thought I felt something weird too," Kuwabara said seriously, nodding. He paused, considering, and looked like he was about to say something else, but was interrupted by his wife calling his name.
"Kazuma, I want to try this one," Yukina called in her bright, sweet voice, distracting Rin and sweeping the paranoid thoughts to the back of her mind.
The ice maiden was pointing at a strongman game, the kind with a tower and a sliding metal ball, a bell at the top, and a mallet to ring it with. Kuwabara lit up and trotted over, his concern and whatever he had been about to say forgotten.
Yukina gave the surprised attendant her money, rolling up the long sleeves of her diaphanous blouse. Rin, Kuwabara, and Hiei watched as she took the sledgehammer in her dainty hands and planted her sandaled feet. After closely following the attendant's demonstration and taking a couple practice swings, Yukina swung the hammer in an overhand arc and slammed it into the sensor. The metal ball flew up like a rocket and hit the bell with a crash, sending its clanging echoing over the midway. A hit! Kuwabara swept his wife into his arms and danced her around in a circle, laughing.
"Look at how strong my wife is!" Kuwabara crowed in his foghorn voice. "Yukina, you're amazing!"
The mystified attendant handed Yukina a comically oversized t-shirt emblazoned with the amusement park logo. Passerby turned to look at the giant man and his tiny wife, and Yukina blushed. Kuwabara hugged her again.
"Wanna try, Hiei?" Rin asked, bumping him with the stuffed tiger.
"I have no wish to play any more of these treacherous human games," he said, frowning at the giant purple animal in his face.
"That's fair," Rin said. "But look, Kuwabara is trying. Let's see how he does." She pointed.
The auburn-haired former punk had the hammer in his meaty hands and was about to take a swing, his spiritual aura glowing with power. With a mighty roar, Kuwabara slammed the mallet down. But the metal ball only went halfway up the tower, nowhere near the top. Hiei snickered.
"Huh?" Kuwabara looked up at his mediocre result, his face crinkled in confusion. "What the?" He stood staring at the tower, then at the sledgehammer in his hands, then at Yukina, who smiled beatifically.
The ice maiden ushered her husband aside after two more unsuccessful attempts, murmuring comforting noises and making way for the other people in line. Whether it was luck, a previously hidden strength of Yukina's, or the attendant rigging the game for the tiny girl to win, thus encouraging big strong men to spend their money to beat her, neither Hiei or Rin could make the bell ring, nor any of the onlookers that decided to try.
As they followed the Kuwabaras away from the booth, Rin could tell that Hiei was annoyed that he had been tricked by another unfair human game. Almost before she had decided to do it, she grabbed his hand and squeezed, accidentally tugging him back a step and closer to her. He started and looked at her with wide eyes. The genuine surprise and confusion in his expression tugged at her heart strings. He was still so unused to being touched. The moment stretched as they stared at each other, the sounds of other people and the midway games fading away. His eyes were full of stars, constellations and nebulae blooming with fire and flame, his pupils like black holes drawing her in to fall and fall forever. His ruby gaze fell to her lips, and Rin shivered.
"Rin! Hiei!" Yukina's voice shook them out of their reverie, and they sprang apart. The Kuwabaras waved. "Over here!"
They were standing in front of a brightly colored funhouse. Shaking herself, Rin waved back and headed over, Hiei on her heels, glad to have the moment broken and something to think about besides him. Depositing her tiger with a nearby Park Services desk for pickup later, she steeled herself to enter the garishly painted funhouse. It promised a mirror maze, a haunted hallway, gravity rooms (whatever those were), and more. Rin had never been a fan of haunted houses, funhouses, or places where things would pop out at her, but she didn't want to be a spoilsport and ruin Yukina's first amusement park adventure.
The shadowy entrance yawned before them like a hungry mouth, swallowing them up one by one as they walked inside.
Author's note: Hope you're all enjoying some fluff with our demon friends! Plot should show up in the next chapter. Apologies for this chapter being kind of late - I had a family emergency that took up a lot of my time in the past few weeks.
Thanks to all my readers but especially to purplegirl33, SliverKitsuneGrlAngel, CavemaN7, ImperfectionPerfection, and heyhaley17 for the follows, and to SliverKitsuneGrlAngel and ImperfectionPerfection for the favorites!