Chapter 32

As the demon hyena approached, Rin's mind raced, considering her options. There weren't many. In fact, there was only one.

Hiei was still standing dazed and unresponsive behind her, and if Rin tried to put distance between herself and Chiyo, he'd be totally unprotected. Anyone coming to the rescue was unlikely; Mukuro and the others were dealing with their own set of problems at the castle, and no one knew they were out in the wilderness. Rin's Spirit Energy reserves were so low from all the flash steps that she would probably pass out if she tried another one. Same for invisibility. So Rin would have to fight, and fight up close.

Chiyo's face was twisted in a feral snarl, her canine teeth seeming longer and sharper than ever. A low rumbling like distant thunder on a summer's evening came from her chest as she dropped to all fours and charged straight at Rin. She barely dodged in time as a hand enveloped in black Spirit Energy swiped for her chest, leaving deep parallel cuts across her collarbone. More in pain than by design, Rin lashed out with her daggers at the woman's face, forcing her to retreat back a few steps.

A cut had opened above Chiyo's right eye, sending blood sheeting into her eyes and down her face. The woman wiped at it with her injured hand, clearing her vision, then - Rin's heart chilled cold as ice - smeared her own blood all over her skin, turning her face into a grinning red death's head.

"I'm going to cut you," the hyena demon said, her voice low and rasping. Her wild amber eyes never left Rin's face. "And then I'm going to make your little traitor boyfriend there kill you. Nice and slow. Make him watch as he guts you. And then I'll make him kill all his Spirit World friends."

As Chiyo spoke, the wound in her throat was slowly closing, the edges of the cut pulling together. If Chiyo healed all the way and recovered her voice, she'd be able to control Hiei again, and then it would be game over. Rin had to end this now.

Rin took a deep breath to steady herself. She wanted to look back at Hiei one last time, but there was no time left. She exploded forward, lunging with her knives at Chiyo's heart. Mid jump, she extinguished the knife in her left hand, switched her grip, and poured her remaining Spirit Energy into the knife in her right. It transformed into a shimmering blue rapier, infinitely sharp and so thin it almost disappeared, a needle searching for a heart to pierce through.

Chiyo's hand whipped out and closed around Rin's throat, stopping her in midair with an awful jerk. Her body dangled in the air, her feet kicking desperately at nothing. Rin tried to ram the rapier home, but the woman's hand squeezed even harder, and the weapon fizzled away as Rin's airway closed. Her hands scrabbled at Chiyo's arm, but the woman slapped them away.

"Neat trick, with that little sword," Chiyo said with a blood-tinged smirk. "But not good enough. Not nearly good enough. You really thought you could take me? You're barely A-class." She gave Rin a long considering look, up and down, as though choosing a piece of meat at the supermarket. A wicked smile spread across her bloody face. "You know what? I've changed my mind. I'm going to make him watch me eat you."

Black spots appeared in Rin's vision. Her lungs were burning, her whole body possessed by the overwhelming need to breathe, the thump of her heart thunderous in her ears. Chiyo drew her closer, opening her mouth wider and wider, her jaw seeming to unhinge to engulf Rin's face.

Something black flashed to Rin's right, and then the overwhelming pressure on her throat went away all at once. Someone grasped her waist as her vision went entirely black. A moment later, she was struggling to breathe through her tortured throat, nausea rising in her stomach, as a severed arm landed with a thump in the dirt.

Her head was swimming and she was in so much pain she couldn't stand up straight, just crouch in the dirt and heave great gulps of air into her lungs. A warm hand touched her back, just for a moment. Her wavering gaze caught the corner of a fluttering, ragged black cloak, the edge of a sword held at the ready, a figure in the distance. Coughing wretchedly, she struggled to her feet. This wasn't over.

Hiei's injured arm hung at his side; distantly Rin wondered if it was dislocated. The other held his sword leveled at Chiyo. Her arm was cut off cleanly at the shoulder and was gushing blood, but it didn't seem to bother her in the least. That wild light was still raging in her eyes and the wound in her throat was now just a jagged red line.

Chiyo bared her teeth at the two of them and said, "You - ."

Before the hyena demon could get another word out, black flames gathered all along the length of steel in Hiei's hand, sucking all the sound out of the world. Rin's ears popped as the air pressure changed. In the split second before he unleashed his power, Rin ducked behind him. She had seen this only a few times, but it was an experience she could never forget. Hiei's black aura became a conflagration of black fire, became a river of flames, became a long, sinuous black dragon wreathed in fire. It surged at Chiyo, scorching everything above and below into ash, and slammed into the hyena demon with an almighty crash like the world ending.

Hiei staggered as his sword clattered to the earth, it too scorched black by the dragon's power. He looked at her for a long moment, his crimson eyes full of some emotion that Rin couldn't parse. Taking a step toward her, he reached out to touch her cheek, as though making sure she was real. They stared at each other as the moment stretched, then snapped. He crushed her into a one-armed embrace, his nose in her hair. He smelled like blood and ash. Behind them the dragon burned and burned.