InuYasha Fan Fiction / Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ The Blue Anshan ❯ The Rescue 9 - Twenty Questions ( Chapter 31 )

The Blue Anshan

By Alesyira

Disclaimer: Inuyasha and Yu Yu Hakusho are not mine. I made a few OCs to fill in my gaps.

Summary: Kurama and Hiei try to pry more answers out of Kagome, and she answers as little as possible.

Chapter Rating: T.

Author's Note: I didn't want to delete the prologue stats (is that even a thing?), so I broke up a very long chapter in half and am reusing the prologue chapter spot because it's not technically a new chapter :) :) Prologue initially was posted on 10/16/06. Its original content has been split apart and edited into the story. It's kind of hilarious to see how many more people hit the prologue and left before moving on to chapter 2. only 1 out of 4 readers continued on to ch 2! Statistics are fascinating.

Arc 4 - The Rescue 9 - Twenty Questions

the present

She absently brushed her wayward tail behind her, waiting for the deluge of questions that would surely throw a wrench into her "plans." Hah, plans… like to not die, to somehow save the Goshinboku from unknown mortal danger, and maybe eventually make it back home in one piece before her grandfather died of his illness… Her throat closed briefly in a flash of worry as tears pricked the corners of her eyes. She quickly pulled herself together and focused on the present, and the vaguely suspicious light in the red-headed male's eyes.

~I want to take you and this marvelous plant back to one of my dens …so I can debrief you properly.~

The avatar's expression was peaceful and welcoming, but Kagome eyed Kurama a bit warily, as though she knew exactly what was going through his head.

*What did you expect? You kitsune are predictable, and she would know her own kind has a one-track mind.*

He cleared his throat behind his hand, hiding a brief smile. "We would like a few answers," Kurama asked softly. "I understand that you might not wish to divulge certain facts to us, but there is much mystery surrounding you." His eyes fell upon one of the tendrils of vine that had retreated to wrap around her skin. Its end had been singed and he reached out toward it. "Your plant was harmed during that fight," he began, using his ki to coax it away from her arm.

"Don't do that!" she said in a panic, and the plant reacted to her fear and snapped as close to her body as possible.

"Why? I won't hurt it." He tilted his head to the side in what he was sure was an enticing and disarming manner. ~Yes, make her less wary. Easier to manipulate when the time comes.~

"I'm not afraid for the anshan. I just don't want it to hurt you." She wrapped her arms around her waist in a defensive gesture.

Youko could barely hold back his glee at her obvious concern for their welfare.

Kurama barely restrained a long-suffering sigh. 'Calm down, she doesn't know us well enough to be protective; she's probably trying to avoid starting another fight when she just narrowly escaped the last one.'

Youko could not be discouraged so easily. He reached out again and ran his fingers along the skin of her arm, brushing his ki against those tendrils and coaxing them to unwrap and follow his hand. ~Did you see her shiver from our touch?~ The vines slid easily against him, greedily drinking in the ki he fed the singed tendrils and using the healing energy to repair the burn damage.

She watched, mesmerized as the plant seemed to thrive before her eyes. Warmth and pleasure echoed through her connection to the vine, and her eyes slid halfway shut as she shuddered hard in response to the strange sensation. Bits of excess energy meant to help the plant slid into her skin, filling voids she hadn't known existed. Something within her wanted this energy, and she shivered again at the unnatural greed she could sense.

~This girl has no youki,~ Youko murmured.

*But she is a youkai. There isn't a trace of illusion that would give her this appearance.*

~If she is youkai, then this plant should have drained her dry and left her for dead. It would have the potential to kill me with long enough exposure.~ His ki flowed through the vine quickly, repairing singed sections and restoring the plant. It fed him snippets of information as he worked, and as Kurama questioned the plant, Hiei watched the girl's half-dazed expression with narrowed eyes as her skin color paled and her temperature spiked.

*Your ki is affecting her.*

Kurama didn't reply. His attention had already shifted away from the girl and was now focused entirely on the unique plant in his hands. ~This vine has an interesting story to tell.~

Hiei watched as images flicked rapidly through Kurama's thoughts. She was a young adult with jet-black hair and bright blue eyes, dressed haphazardly in mismatching clothes. 'You're criticizing her choice in clothing? At least she wears colors, Mr. Black-is-the-New-Black.'

*Black matches. She appears to be human in every one of these, and she even has that vine.*

~Almost.~ They saw brief images of an adolescent kitsune with hair the same shade of red as hers. If she truly were a kitsune, Kurama might have thought them to be siblings or cousins. She seemed far too young to already have a kit of that apparent age. There was a faded series of images of what looked like the girl and kit engaged in an intense battle with countless youkai, finalized with a brilliant pink glare and an echo of the vine's pain. It didn't make much sense, but then the two caught new glimpses from the Ningenkai of a large tree, a shrine, and humans: an elderly man in a bed, a worried woman, and a boy, possibly in his early teens. The girl interacted with them, once again in the guise of a human female.

'Aside from the obvious species difference, these people bear an interestingly strong resemblance to this girl. Is it possible they are family?'

~It is possible, but none of this makes any sense.~ He pulled back from feeding the plant his energy and turned his attention back to the girl.

"See?" He asked aloud, watching her dazed reaction to the sound of his voice. "Your vine didn't hurt me, and now it's looking much healthier." He stroked a leaf that had unfurled against his open palm. She halfway nodded, looking dizzy and dangerously pale. "What are you here to do?"

Her whispered response was barely coherent, "help… friend."

The vine flashed a series of images to accompany her vague description; some familiar, others not. The large tree was the most important of the images, followed by an impression of direction aided by visual markers leading to a destination in the Makai. The vine also had vague warnings to avoid their team.

*Stop fondling that damned plant so she is coherent enough to answer some questions.*

Kurama sighed and tucked the reaching vine back around her shoulders, murmuring quiet words to the sentient plant as he withdrew his hands. "Miss?" he waved a hand in front of her face, and she stared blankly ahead, her face white as a sheet and sweat beading along her brow.

*What the fuck.*

~I didn't do this. I think.~

Kurama pulled a seed from his hair. 'Dazed and unresponsive from brushes with our ki? Sounds like sex with this one might not be as fun as you expect it to be.' A small plant grew quickly between his fingertips, and he crushed a few of its pungent leaves in front of her nose.

Kagome straightened after a whiff of those potent herbs brought her back to full awareness. She had been dreaming about … something …

warm... and hungry …

Her head felt like it had been stuffed with cotton that was slowly disintegrating, but as her mind cleared, the nausea became immediately apparent. The two males tensed as she put a hand to her mouth in shock, and they watched in disbelief as she whirled around and sprinted to the nearest bush to vomit.

Hiei gave Kurama a sidelong glance. The avatar was at a loss, looking between the crushed leaves he still held and the baffling female that was shakily wiping her face clean and glaring at him.

Kagome was quite certain her feeling ill like this was entirely his fault, even if he looked adorably confused. She stood unsteadily and crossed her arms. "You're lucky it didn't drain you dry," she muttered.

"Are you alright?" Kurama asked, unsure what he might do to aid her mysterious condition.

She sighed and carefully made her way back to her pack, noting an empty bottle of water and the half-full remainder of the other. She took a careful sip and closed her eyes momentarily to center herself. "I'll survive." She carefully shouldered her pack and stood, casting her gaze around for her bow. "Look, I know you two probably have enough questions to give me a headache, but before I answer anything, I've got a question of my own. Are you here on orders or out of curiosity?"

"So, you know who we are." Kurama stated, watching her intently, his eyes shifting from green to gold.

"Well... Yeah, I recognize you..." She hesitated and tried to squash her nervousness. "Doesn't everyone?"

"Not everyone."

She scuffed the tip of her shoe into the dirt and watched them for a moment. "Well, if you aren't going to drag me off to jail or kick me out of the Makai, then can we at least get moving? As much as I'd like to chat over tea, I really can't waste much time."

"And why would we remove you from this realm?"

"For killing things?" She asked, but she sounded unsure of her response.

"Youkai are volatile beings, and death occurs far more often here than in the Ningenkai. Certainly, as a youkai yourself, you'd know this."

~Look at that expression. Did she really think her actions here would get her into trouble with the Reikai?~

"What's your name, girl?"

She glared at the dark youkai. "Are you planning on sticking around long enough to use it?"

"Why are you here?"

"Nothing that concerns you. I have to help a friend."

*This is getting us nowhere.* Hiei stepped into her path, his hand upon the hilt of his katana. Kagome shot a wary glance between the two, and then Hiei stepped toward her. Unable to stop herself, she hesitantly stepped backwards. She realized her mistake as his eyes narrowed dangerously.

He moved faster than she could see, and before she'd blinked, he grabbed her chin with his left hand and had the sharp edge of his katana pressed to her neck.

"You threaten this territory with your very presence and refuse to answer simple questions as to who you are and your purpose here. There is no choice in this: answer or die." Hiei was a little surprised that he could pick up impressions from the blue vine as he tightened his grip. It wanted to protect the girl, but at the same time it didn't want to kill the two males. Did it have to do with their connection to the Reikai and her perceived threat from his employers?

"Name." He squeezed her jaw harder and she winced, her eyes watering.

"K-Kagome." He noted with bemusement that her hands remained held stiffly to her sides, as though she carefully held herself back from attacking him.

~You better be careful, I think she might try to slap you.~

The blue vine, however, had no such reservation keeping it held back. Luckily, Kurama's ki had temporarily overloaded its capacity to drain youki, and so he didn't feel a thing as multiple lengths of the plant wrapped around his arms, neck, and torso to dislodge the threat. Hiei didn't budge, his determination strengthened.

"Why are you here?"

"I told you already! I'm here to help a friend!"

His eyes burned with anger. She was purposely skirting around the whole answer, and he'd pry it out of her eventually. "Where are you from?"

She flinched at that question and the plant reacted, causing several previously unnoticed flower buds to burst open and bloom, releasing a glowing cloud of pollen into their immediate location. Hiei blinked through the yellow dust but remained unaffected. The temperature rose drastically in obvious threat, and his blade drew a line of blood as he shifted closer.

Time seemed to slow.

She could feel the trickle of blood across the pain of the shallow slice; she saw his gaze flicker toward the same place. The vine took his diverted attention as an opening to deal a fatal blow, and Kagome watched in horror as the plant punctured his shoulder and torso as she cried out against its actions.

It was too late; the vine had hit the mark, and the dark youkai's grip on her lessened just slightly as his eyes widened. 'Oh no-' Her hands rose to the puncture points automatically as though she could help somehow, and she felt the slight tremor run through the arm still holding her jaw. "Oh no, this wasn't supposed to happen!" Dismayed, horrified, and slightly sick that the vine had just dealt the damning fatal blow that would ruin her chances of saving the Goshinboku and probably land her in another realm's prison (or worse, net her a one-way ticket to death) Kagome didn't notice Kurama approaching the fire demon's side. "I'm so sorry - I couldn't stop it-"

"Stop your simpering, girl." The forced words, marred only by a slight wavering tremor, hadn't come from the red-haired man, and Kagome turned shocked but relieved eyes toward the visibly annoyed fire apparition. He looked perfectly fine, but he held himself with a stiffness that reminded her more of Lord Sesshoumaru and less of the calm, indifferent posture he'd had at their first encounter.

"You're okay?" she asked, and Hiei didn't miss her look of intense relief.

"He'll be fine."

*Why should she care, either way?* Kurama's foul concoction had worked wonders against that damned vine's poison, but he despised the shivering sensation racing along the length of his body. He could barely hide it from the other two as he lifted his blade before his eyes to inspect the lingering trace of the girl's blood.

For a moment he was sorely tempted to taste the red substance. It seemed to emanate the same, dangerously sweet scent he'd detected at one of the locations he'd passed earlier. He narrowed his gaze in irritation and flicked the few droplets away with a lightning fast swipe, then smoothly sheathed the blade.

"You don't understand..." she said, her voice sounding slightly tremulous. "I'm tired, hungry, and sore from countless stupid injuries I've sustained during a trip through this godforsaken realm. I can't tell you who I am, because you will undoubtedly send me home. I can't tell you where home is, because I don't want to put my family in danger, whether it be from your people or eavesdroppers along the line. And I most definitely don't want to tell you anything about myself because of..." She paused.

"All right… calm down." Kurama shot Hiei a glance and the dark youkai nodded in response to the silent inquiry. "I was sent to rescue a girl from the dangers of the Makai. Normally, the sensors don't detect average humans when they slip through the barrier, but this girl registered a weak trace of holy energy." Kurama read her expressions easily, and he immediately knew that it had, in fact, been her on the security footage. "There is no use hiding it. We know you came here from the Ningenkai."

"Are you going to take me back, then?" She asked as her hand slipped toward her bow. Hiei caught the motion and shifted his stance to remind her of his blade. She paused. "This is a matter of extreme importance. I have to complete a task before I can go home, and if I waste too much time, it may prove to be too late."

"I propose a trade, then. We will aid you on your task if your duty does not break any Reikai regulations. In exchange, you will tell us more about whatever you feel comfortable saying. We will not take you from your task until it has been completed. The Reikai charged me with your safe return. They are under the impression that you are a human in need of protection. It is obvious this is not the case. The orders I have been given include returning you to the Reikai for debriefing and memory alteration, which, if you were a normal human, would stand in perfect reason to erase the traumatic events surrounding time spent in the demon realm."

Kagome glanced between the two. "Is he under those orders, too?"

Hiei scowled at her. "I received no such orders. I am here to discover the source of disturbance in this territory."

"And now that you know it's me, are you going to leave?"

~Please say yes. I could do so many-~

"No." He shot his partner an annoyed glance.

She sighed, expecting the response. "All right, then. I guess we're a team for a while." She held out her hand to Kurama, who took it with a warm smile. Instead of a handshake, she wasn't surprised when he turned her palm up to kiss the underside of her wrist. She was caught between exasperation and the flush of embarrassment as she took her hand away from his mouth. She glanced at her other new teammate and read the clear intent to swiftly remove the hand from her body should it end up near his person.

She was walking once more to the northeast. Kurama travelled at her side while Hiei kept to the trees and out of sight. She glanced at him sideways. "So … why are you really here?" His explanation earlier made sense, but someone doesn't just not do their assigned task to go gallivanting around with a stranger in a dangerous place.

"My orders," he said. Just as she opened her mouth to say something further, he cut her off. "-And curiosity." He could see her apprehension as they walked through the grey forest.

"And why are you here?" He asked her in return.

"There is an ancient tree some distance to the northeast. It has come under attack, and I must stop the menace before the tree is killed."

"You have come this far into the Makai to save a tree?" Kurama seemed taken aback. "What are you?"

Kagome gave him a funny look, and her tail twitched in obvious amusement. "I would have thought one such as you would recognize a kitsune."

"You are the slowest kitsune I have ever met." Hiei's voice called down from somewhere above them.

Kurama sighed. "The Reikai thinks you're a human. Are you or are you not? I've never known their sensors to be this far off the mark."

She shifted uncomfortably. "I don't really know how to answer that question." To answer that she had once been a human didn't feel like a full truth. Were priestesses fully human? Does the existence of magic in a being technically make them something more? Even with her current 'natural form', does the complete lack of youki allow her to consider herself as being truly youkai? She could still (dangerously for her plant and her cover) call upon her miko magics, but that magic was what she had thought separated her from the youkai she had met in the past as being something other.

"Why do you not run? Surely you must be able to cover more ground than this, and with as important an errand to complete, this pace should not be acceptable."

She sighed and adjusted her pack as she carefully stepped over a root jutting into the path. "I'd go faster if I could." Memories of her riding piggyback with Inuyasha flashed across her thoughts, and a brief, wistful smile crossed her lips before she caught herself. "My injuries do not allow me to use my previous method of travel." She tried to pick up the pace and winced at a sharp pain in her side. Vines swept down her side as though to protect the injury.

"Your plant seems sentient," Kurama stated, watching the tendrils' motions with a critical eye.

"Yeah, so it seems," she murmured.

"I have not seen an anshan in a few hundred years. It was my understanding that the last had been wiped from existence by a forest fire about a century ago."

She turned to him and frowned. Had the island succumbed to a fire? Had the old witch not been able to save her home? "It is possible, I suppose. I've had a dormant seed for some time."

"And yet, how can you survive with constant contact?"

She shrugged, unwilling to tell them about her relationship with her symbiote.

"You have it by choice?"

"By choice, and necessity. It has saved my life more ways than I know."

"Why can we not sense your youki?"

"I don't have any to spare, I guess. The vine uses it to survive."

Hiei missed his next landing and crashed through two branches before he caught himself. "Girl, if that is the truth, then by all rights, you should be dead."

She shrugged. "Well, I'm obviously not dead, and I'm telling what I know to be the truth."

~In our current avatar form, a complete lack of youki probably wouldn't kill us…~

'Probably.'

~She could be an avatar. There aren't set rules for how one should look or feel to others.~

*We aren't asking the right questions. She's holding back something important.*

Kurama silently agreed.

-o-

"Oi, Kaibun! Why the fuck did we run away from that bastard?" Moetsuku dug his fingers through the forest floor in aggravation. "That stupid little girl was as good as dead, and all I needed was another moment to take her out!"

The quiet grey female cast a critical gaze at their surroundings. She swiped the long, sharpened tips of her right hand across the nearby tree trunks with quick, precise movements, cutting thick branches and wood into large chunks. They fell into scattered piles around her, and she moved on to another section of forest, accumulating more and more stacks of the severed wood. "Burn these," she instructed, ignoring his complaints about the short-lived fight. Her loud-mouthed partner couldn't help his volatile nature any more than she could break her reserved silence. His nature was to ignite anger and set things on fire, and hers was more attuned with what happened after the blaze had simmered down to embers and ash.

The appearance of the forbidden child during their self-appointed mission to protect the master from distractions meant they likely had some rough times ahead. She could do nothing more than plan for another inevitable meeting, but perhaps with preparation and enough firepower, they should be able to stop the troublesome female before she could interrupt the master's work. She wove her magic through the smoldering charcoal remains of the wooden blocks as Moetsuku finished with each pile, shaping them and giving direction where there was previously just the dying remains of foliage.

Kaibun's reanimation magic was potent, but far less powerful than their master's magic of creation. She couldn't understand his mindset over the last few hundred years. Should he ever choose to stop destroying and turn his attention towards rebuilding, the whole of Makai would follow him in a heartbeat. But she knew his long-standing task of retaliation against the one being he had loved -and in turn been betrayed by- consumed him still.

One day, he would find his satisfaction and move on to greater callings, and on that day, she would be his longest-trusted attendant; a worthy advisor to help guide his strength and will.

Glowing, thin-limbed golems rose from the smoke and ash, filling the clearing with chittering noises and the crackle of still-burning wood as each new batch moved out of the way to make room for more new reanimations. She felt her magic slowly drain away as she bound more and more of the creatures to her will, filling them with the singular purpose of bodily destruction. Their primary target would have to be the girl that had left such obvious evidence of her destination and intent, but secondary would be the forbidden child, in case he had stuck around the girl to provide protection.

She silently cursed her lack of foresight. She should've known that he might show up, considering they were still within Mukuro's boundaries. But why was he protecting someone who would be a threat to others within the borders?

It didn't make much sense, but then again that girl was passably pretty, so maybe he was physically attracted to the potential troublemaker...

She pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind and focused on her task. Several dozen of the waist high golems now clambered around the impromptu clearing.

Animating so many of these things in such a short period of time had severely depleted her magic. They had no choice, though. The rate of travel this girl had taken would allow her to arrive at her assumed destination by the next day, and they had to move quickly to ensure she was stopped. No effort could prove too great when it came to ensure he would not be disturbed. She had served him for centuries, even taken on a mate that complemented her own abilities, and they would not fail him now.

"Are we going back for round two?" She glanced over at the sound of his cracking knuckles. He looked far too eager in the prospect of a potentially tough fight. He must not remember the danger posed by Mukuro's enforcer - the short fire demon was blindingly quick and deadly accurate with his blade, and she dare not attempt a direct fight against those odds.

She gestured around them at their creatures. "We will allow the golems time to wear down, distract, and injure them, first." She cut off his next words, because she could feel the whining tone seep through their bond. "Do not underestimate that male, and do not allow your experience with her pathetic fighting earlier to blind you to whatever danger she poses toward the master. You saw the trail she has left behind. We may have gotten lucky."

She could see the wheels turning in his head and feel him gearing up for an epic battle. She knew he would have some sense when they returned to finish the fight, but she wasn't sure exactly how much.