InuYasha Fan Fiction / Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ The Blue Anshan ❯ The Rescue 6 - An Improbable Mystery ( Chapter 28 )

The Blue Anshan

By Alesyira

Summary: Curiosity killed the... Well, didn't kill anything important, at least.

Chapter Rating: PG. Bad language and some violence (slightly graphic squishing)!

Disclaimer: Inuyasha is owned by Rumiko Takahashi, and Yu Yu Hakusho is owned by Togashi Yoshihiro. OCs are my own. I make no profit from this piece of fiction.

Arc 4 - The Rescue 6 - An Improbable Mystery

the present

An evening breeze blew through the open window and ruffled Hiei's hair. He sat upon the windowsill, his legs stretched out along the edge as he stared out over the darkening horizon.

He'd spent the last hour in this spot, studiously ignoring the barely audible trills of his communicator. Apparently, stuffing the annoying device into the bottom of his trunk was not enough to keep it from grating on his nerves; on top of the wooden container he'd piled every sheet, blanket, pillow and towel that he could find in his room.

If he were needed for something truly important ―whether it be his sister or his friends― he knew that at least one of the team would be able to find him... And he intended to fully ignore any Reikai missions for at least the next 48 hours. After the lunacy regarding the recovery of that pointless artifact, he needed to clear his mind of the mounting anger and frustration.

A knock sounded at his door and disturbed his 'peace.' A moment of silence passed before he opened his mouth to speak. "Enter," he said, never moving from his spot on the windowsill.

He heard the door creak open followed by a single, heavy footstep. Rustling clothes and a clink of armor told him the messenger had bowed in respect.

"Sir," the messenger spoke. "I've come with new information from our scouts."

Hiei said nothing to acknowledge this statement, so the messenger stood and shifted nervously before speaking again.

"There have been reports of a minor land dispute to the northeast. A small group of youkai have failed to stop an intruder on their lands and are being slaughtered at each renewed attempt to force out the invader."

"Where?"

"A grove to the east of the Sanguine River; it is rumored to hold some major significance in history."

"That boundary dispute falls beyond our borders. There is no need for our interference."

"Yes, sir." Hiei could hear slight disappointment in the messenger's voice but allowed him to continue his report without a second thought. "Sir, there have also been reports of regarding groups of youkai and swathes of territory that have been completely drained of their energies."

This caught Hiei's interest; youki-draining creatures were rare, and the few accounts of their activity were never on such a wide scale. "Whomever is doing this is moving in a very straight path through Mukuro's domain," the messenger continued. "Word has been that this creature is heading toward the disturbance in the northeast. Shall we investigate further?"

Hiei stood and picked up his cloak from the chair he'd draped it over. "No. I'll see to this matter myself." He fastened the cloak around his shoulders and turned toward the messenger with an expectant look. The messenger stood uneasily before him, returning his cool gaze with one of confusion. Hiei cocked his eyebrow, annoyed that he would have to speak again. "Was there anything else?"

"Sir?" the messenger asked. A split second later, the youkai blanched and hastily bowed. "No, sir! I'll relay this to Mukuro, sir." The youkai turned and sped from the room, leaving Hiei to his thoughts as he strode from the fortress.

Such creatures were more often heard of in legends or drunken ramblings by firelight, but they weren't all myth. They could be very dangerous, even to the most careful. No need to waste useful scouts and messengers on a task more suited to his skills.

The path his quarry had taken was easy enough for Hiei to find; not only were there already murmurs about a "rogue vampire assassin" between every creature capable of speech, but the Jagan eye could easily detect the vague trail of emptiness... land missing the inherent signature of youki that laced the plant-life and lingered in the wake of common beasts. He carefully tracked this emptiness with his third eye and maintained a careful distance away from the lingering void. He had no real certainty regarding the exact nature of this creature, and he had no desire to suffer an unexpected drain on his own youki through careless behavior.

Strangely enough, though, he also detected clusters of lower-level youkai that swarmed at various locations along that path, like carrion flocking to a rotting carcass in the desert. Truth be told, he didn't really feel like cutting through the masses of mindless beasts that had collected at those places, for it would most likely work against his favor when he finally approached his prey.

He occasionally caught a very odd scent on the breeze as he passed these focal points, and he quickly realized that the unnatural odor was what had attracted the beasts' attentions. It was a scent that teased his baser instincts in a way that stirred his blood-lust; his palm itched to take hold of his katana to slice through the next breathing creature he saw, but he brushed aside the fleeting sensation to focus on his self-assigned task of hunting down the possible menace to those residing within Mukuro's domain.

He quickened his pace, flitting through the darkness and near-invisible to the few creatures he passed. When he came upon the Great Ravine, which lay along the northern boundary of Mukuro's domain, he realized the trail he'd been following had come to an end. He paused for a moment upon a branch and scanned the area ahead, trying to gain any information about the creature he'd tracked. Hiei's eyes narrowed in contemplation as he leaned forward and placed his palm again the smooth tree trunk. He could sense nothing in particular, just the same, empty―

He hissed in surprised pain as something sunk its sharp fangs into the blade of his hand. Fast as lightning, he whipped his hand away from the stealthy creature that had the audacity to attack him and snatched the beast up by its snout. The long-limbed chameleon writhed and snarled for a second before Hiei crushed its face with a squeeze of his fist and dropped its carcass to the forest floor below.

All around him, the trees erupted with an unexpected cacophony of shrieking hoots and howls as others like the one he'd killed reacted to the death of their brother. A cursory glance at his wounded hand showed a sickly green spreading from the twin puncture wounds, and he growled in annoyance as more of the beasts swarmed around him.

His katana was out in a flash, dispatching the foul little beasts before they'd known he'd moved. The chain reaction was apparent, but whether it was from the first death, or those that followed, Hiei would never know. Some fled from the onslaught of his merciless sword; others sought to take him down with erratic and desperate attacks. Hiei cut through them with ease as he moved toward the youki-draining presence. The swarms of little reptilian youkai quickly realized how lethal he could be, and not another of their kind approached him as he flicked the lingering traces of blood from his blade and slid it back into its sheath.

By time he drew close enough to see the strange conglomeration of tangled blue vines and the flash of red hair, whatever it was seemed to be in the process of falling out of a tree. He stopped to watch in interest as a few chameleons leapt down to make chase just out of Hiei's sight. He could hear the little beasts rustling and hooting, growing in numbers as they moved to corner their adversary. He placed his wounded hand against his mouth to suck a good portion of the toxin from the puncture and spit the vile liquid to the side.

He leapt forward to get a better vantage point, and his sharp gaze caught many details as the female fled north along the ravine, away from the venomous lizards that had seemed to materialize on every tree.

Her bright red hair and tail marked her as a youkai, and the leafy blue vines that snapped out against her would-be attackers were most decidedly attached to various points along her spine. While tentacles were sometimes seem on various types of youkai ―especially the slimier, more disgusting species― he couldn't recall the last time he'd seen (or heard of, for that matter) a youkai with a distinct, animal base physically combined with a plant. It vaguely reminded him of Kurama and his rose whip.

He doubted she'd seen him, but he momentarily abandoned the thought of chasing after the fleeing female in favor of collecting something she'd left behind. It dangled temptingly from the branches mere feet away from where he stood, its pockets bulging with supplies common in the Ningenkai. It also carried lingering traces of the strange smell from before that had somehow drawn clusters of youkai...

Why would a youkai that runs from her enemies wish to attract more?

-o-

Around twenty minutes must have passed since the Reikai received notice that a holy person (female, according to Kurama's earlier observations) had entered the Makai. Kurama stepped through the portal and took a moment to roll his neck and shoulders.

~What are you waiting for? Let's catch this girl and get some answers!~

Kurama had to fight the grin of amusement that threatened his cool facade.

'She couldn't have gone too far.' He glanced around the area. 'Hiei has been through here, too... you don't think she would have been stupid enough to try following him, do you?'

~I doubt he would have let a human see him passing through the barrier, and most humans would not have been able to even detect his presence, unless he wanted them to know he was there.~

'I have not forgotten Hiei's general dislike of humans, Youko, but the Reikai did say she had a small measure of holy energy, so I'm merely considering the possibilities.'

He walked for a short while, taking in the aura of the woods and the appearance of the foliage in the immediate surroundings. 'This is strange...' he thought. The woods had a definite droop in its energy, which was a stark difference from the forest he'd just passed through in the Ningenkai. 'What changed between there and here, that things would be so dismal and empty?'

~I suppose the most obvious answer to that question would be the realm. Look around; everything here is infused with youki, just as everything in the human realm is not. You should know this, Red. The vine that we are going after is ravenous for youki.~

Kurama froze on the path in disbelief. 'Are you serious?! Why the hell didn't you say something sooner, and why the hell are we running around after it?! I may as well be signing a death-'

~Calm down, it's not like that at all. There's so much to gain from finding something of this nature!~

'Like a quick, one-way trip to oblivion?'

~No, not at all!~ The kitsune spirit huffed indignantly. ~You have no faith in our ability.~

'Well, I refuse to take another step until you fill me in with some details. You should know that I dislike running blindly into the unknown.'

~And that's why your life is so boring.~

'Youko...' Kurama warned as he crossed his arms over his chest to physically reinforce the decision to stay put.

~Oh, all right. I'll tell you more, right as soon as you get moving again. Trust me, it's not as dangerous to us as it is to other beasts in this realm.~

'You've told me that it's a supposedly extinct plant that's capable of luring in scavengers and is ravenous for youki. It's apparently hitching a ride on a human, and both have managed to enter the Makai. Aside from a never-ending banquet, what is it suddenly doing here, and after so much time of being completely hidden?'

~Those are questions I hope to answer by finding it.~

'Well, what should I be wary of?' Kurama leapt up into the sharp branches and searched the horizon for anything out of the ordinary. Both the girl's and Hiei's scents moved in a westerly direction, and Kurama followed the trail with lithe grace as he slipped through the razor-sharp branches.

~Whoever might be transporting this plant ―a vine, by the way, known as a blue anshan― is not your average human. According to those deplorable images collected by the Reikai, the anshan has apparently wrapped itself around this girl, which by all means should have resulted in her paralysis or death.~

'Is it possible that she is merely being controlled by the anshan? Does it have that kind of power?'

~That seems unlikely. It is capable of movement like other supernatural creatures, but I've never heard of one actually possessing someone to further its own mobility. The scent it exudes once it has caught its prey can draw more to it, allowing it to gorge itself excessively without the need to uproot.~

Kurama stopped at the mangled carcass of a spider youkai. 'This was Hiei's doing.' The apparition's scent ―fading quickly by this time― headed in the same direction to the west, most likely to Mukuro's fortress. But it was at this place that the girl's scent deviated to the northeast, so he continued after her and dismissed the notion that she might have followed the apparition as a mere coincidence.

~The pollen has been known to cause seizures, but on the same note, it was merely used as a temporary method of stunning its prey to better facilitate mealtime without injury to itself.~

'You said it can paralyze its victims?'

~Yes. An oil it secretes reacts instantly upon contact with skin. Protection like fur or scales can help prevent immediate exposure, but flesh like the nose, eyes, or pads of the feet can be easily reached by this plant. It was rumored to be semi-intelligent, so it might actively seek out vulnerabilities. The last thing I think you should be aware of is the toxicity of that oil. Externally, it causes paralysis which could be considered a temporary effect. If that same oil is introduced into the bloodstream, it clots the blood near-instantly, killing the victim within moments by starving the organs of oxygen and blocking the valves of the heart.~

'I feel like I've just watched "World's Most Dangerous Houseplants" on the Discovery Channel...'

The kitsune spirit laughed. ~Hardly a household variety, though.~

'My thoughts exactly, unless we manage to snag her intact and keep her at home...'

~While I appreciate your thoughts on collecting a new plaything, that really made no sense―~

'I know... humor me.'

~Wait― look over there.~ Youko's voice has taken on a deadly serious tone. He paused against a tree trunk and looked below his branch to the forest floor. ~This one has been drained of its energy. This only solidifies my belief that this is the anshan that we're tracking.~ Kurama dropped to the ground and knelt over the still body of the heavily-fanged ball of fluff. ~No dawdling! Get moving so we can find more evidence!~ He sighed but quickly acquiesced, leaping ahead with a growing sense of curiosity.

He must have passed more than ten carcasses of youkai that had met the same fate as the furred critter, but the moment he caught whiff of that bloody, oddly sweet scent hanging heavily in the air, he stopped. He could also detect the scents of too many youkai to count, and all seemed to have been drawn toward the same location. He carefully circumvented the odd gathering so as to not draw attention to himself and found a position downwind to get a good view.

Lower youkai of all shapes and sizes were squabbling over a growing mass of their dead, so frenzied in their action that they had no idea that their comrades were dropping like flies. They simply turned toward the nearest fallen corpse to sink their teeth and claws into warm, bloody flesh...

~I do believe we need to make a detour,~ Youko murmured. The first image to come to Kurama's mind was the kitsune spirit leaping into the ravenous fray for his final meal. ~Oh, don't be silly, Red. I have more sense of self-preservation that that.~

'I meant no insult. It was merely a passing thought,' he grinned. '...About that detour?'

~We've determined she's headed in a very straight path. Now that I'm positive we're tracking an anshan, we need to collect some items for precaution before we continue our chase.~

Kurama smirked as he changed direction. 'That is what I've been waiting to hear.'

~Such a safety whore,~ the kitsune spirit chided, and Kurama laughed to himself.