InuYasha Fan Fiction / Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ The Blue Anshan ❯ Everything Changes 3 - Trinket ( Chapter 40 )

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: To share, or not to share?

Chapter Rating: T

Author's Note: Remember, it takes just a moment to leave a tip of a few words for your story barista. love~

Arc 5 - Everything Changes 3 - Trinket

Hiei found a path through the forest that avoided the cautiously approaching youkai drawn by the sudden surge of dangerous magic in the area. They stopped a few miles away, at a decently high rise of land with a cliff that faced the clearing. The three teammates stood at the ledge and looked back at the dimly visible flaming barrier.

'Fucking mess,' Hiei scoffed. He usually shrugged and went along with Kurama's requests—even when they seemed idiotic—because the kitsune almost always had some incredibly drawn-out endgame requiring careful advance planning and events falling into place just so. He had to wonder if this time he was just trying to play nice and win points for a potential piece of ass.

None of them had been expecting what that youkai had been able to do. Hiei wasn't entirely certain what had happened, himself. He'd given the others time to chat at the youkai while he'd carefully circled around.

He had watched their enemy for only a few moments before he'd skimmed from his thoughts the intent to finish his destructive task. He'd immediately launched himself at his target, sure he'd be able to make quick work of the trouble.

His entire body had gone numb as he'd flown through the air and he found himself somehow pushed off his intended course, hurtling toward the others.

The numbness had faded quickly, and he'd managed to get just enough control of himself to avoid accidentally cutting off the inattentive female's arm as she'd stood unmoving in his path.

'Fucking mess,' Hiei thought again, scowling.

Kagome had fallen unconscious in Kuwabara's arms a few minutes before they'd reached the clearing. "This doesn't make any sense," Kuwabara muttered, but all of them were thinking the same thing. "We need to get her out of here. This realm is the most dangerous place for someone like this."

"We didn't even know what she was before that. She hid herself too well. Either the Reikai had no fucking clue, or someone knows something and they sent us in here blind to fetch some bitch that could probably kill us."

"I kept tellin' you I was seeing her light, but no one listened!" Kuwabara said, his volume rising in irritation.

Yusuke glared at his tall friend. "You didn't know what that light was any more than the rest of us would have. Ain't none of us dealt with this bubblegum pink magical girl bullshit before. You may as well have been seeing fireworks and a flashing neon sign for all the good it did us."

Hiei had spotted enough details to have a different opinion. They hadn't experienced her burn. He'd gotten enough hints that she could be dangerous by simply paying attention. This was one of those rare instances where he regretted not talking out his observations with the others, but damn they were foolish often enough to make him want to rip out his ears.

Tiny chance of good information or mental suicide due to extreme irritation? Hindsight always pointed at the positives of having more information, but he couldn't trust that he'd have enough patience to avoid murdering them.

"That was not hiding herself. She left a trail of bodies to follow. If this was truly unintentional, then she is a magnet for disaster, and I want no part of further idiocy." Hiei turned to glare down at the unconscious girl in his teammate's arms. Her energy was dangerously low, and whatever had been shielding her from his probing earlier had weakened a little.

Kuwabara moved toward a clear space under the largest tree nearby. "Yusuke, lemme borrow your jacket."

"What? You already have a jacket! Use your own!"

"I will be using my jacket, but I want to use yours, too! Can you roll it up and put it right there? Here, take her backpack."

Hiei watched as the other two gently settled the girl on the ground, pillowing her head on one jacket and covering her with another. He rolled his eyes. Fucking females all manage to get men wrapped around their little fingers. He leapt into the tree above them to keep watch for Kurama and the stranger who definitely had some answers.

Kuwabara knelt at her side and brushed the hair from her forehead. "Should we call Botan for an extraction now?"

Yusuke stared off into the dark woods with a scowl. "We should be safe enough for a moment. We need to find out what's going on before we run. If that youkai returns to destroy the tree again, I bet we'll have to come right back. Damnit, that other kitsune better make good on his promise to follow us. He can probably tell us a ton about what the fuck is going on here."

Kuwabara frowned. "Koenma's not gonna let someone like this just go home when this is all over."

"Man, she hasn't done shit wrong. Just a …uh… human? or something…" he sounded unsure as he stared down at the mess of the girl between them, "that got into Makai to go on some personal quest."

"They'll find some reason to detain her, or worse."

"She ain't no threat to…" Yusuke paused. "Ok, maybe she's a threat to youkai. But she's like you. Just 'cause you can hurt stuff doesn't mean you're gonna hurt stuff. She kept a lid on that shit the whole time we were traveling and I know that whatever she just did could have driven Kurama's irritating ass away in a heartbeat if she'd have…"

Hiei ignored the rest of their commentary and turned his attention to the unnatural (impossible) female below him. Youkai, but not. Human, but not. …Some kind of holy monster from legend? Not possible with the youki. But add in the vine to draw it away, maybe. With the nasty things Kurama seemed convinced the vine was capable of though, she should definitely be dead. Irritated, he exhaled a short, inaudible sigh as he stared down at her relaxed features.

She was such a mess. Blood spatter, mud stains, tangled ridiculous red hair, torn clothes, limp vines (what few remained after that fiasco in the clearing) and a scraggly, matted tail looped over her waist. He shook his head in derision. Her only redeeming factor seemed to be the bravery she stubbornly clung to in order to accomplish her task. Bravery in this case, however, seemed to be walking hand-in-hand with stupidity. Surely someone else with skill and experience should have been sent to save that worthless tree from the fire youkai.

He paused, recalling the report he had heard while at Mukuro's. He had immediately dismissed the messenger's information on precisely this issue because it had been outside the domain. This area was right on the border, and it would have been the responsibility of... he sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. No matter who should have been responsible, it was their task now.

Something caught his attention as his thoughts wandered. The Jagan had noticed an aberration beyond the crazy he was already dealing with. The two were sitting below, muttering over failed attempts to start a small campfire. "No fire. That will draw attention." They hastily put out the small flame that had just started flickering up the kindling they had collected, but the fire wasn't what had drawn the Jagan's scrutiny. Something to do with the girl...

He relaxed behind more of the tree's foliage so as to not draw attention as he pulled the bandanna free from his forehead. The third eye cracked open and Hiei's full concentration followed the implant's prodding. There was something strange within this girl. A trinket of some kind, hidden from psychic detection and buried within her flesh.

Leaning forward slightly, he set his chin upon his hand and he focused on the mysterious item. In his mind's eye, he could see layers of focused compression wrapped around a small sphere. He mentally poked it and felt the solidity of the ward's construction. The Jagan swept around it with careful examination, and he found himself intrigued with its form and purpose, as though it were a difficult puzzle to solve.

He pushed harder and got the strangest impression of unimportance. Most warded items had traces of the creator's intent, like love, greed, or fear. This ward felt dutiful, applied as though it was merely according to some rule. Necessary like the task of clearing away the bodies from the Dark Tournament arena. Not to hide away something valuable, nor seal away some vengeful spirit. It just was.

It shouldn't matter and was beneath his concern. Nothing to see here. He scoffed at the pathetic item. Stupid humans and their stupid things.

He almost left it at that, but then he wondered why the Jagan had been interested in it to begin with.

There must be something…

He visualized a claw dragging across its smooth surface, looking for a snag. When he found one, he eased his focus through the nearly undetectable breach and-

~What are you doing?~

Hiei regained awareness of his surroundings and jerked backwards an inch upon discovering the kitsune avatar sitting right in front of him, leaning so close they were practically nose-to-nose.

*Nothing.*

~Find something interesting? You were pretty absorbed there.~

*Doubtful. Just some weird trinket she has.*

Both males looked down at the girl as she sighed and muttered a single word in her sleep, "Thanks."

Kurama looked back at Hiei with an eyebrow raised.

He shrugged indifferently. *Where's that other kitsune? Can't go anywhere now without finding more of your kind under every rock.*

~You'll never guess what happened…~

*It cannot be any stranger than what we witnessed back there from that girl.*

~That kitsune is the last living kin of my adoptive family, and I'm now quite certain he's either mad or broken.~

*I'm afraid to ask what you mean by that. And you said this girl has similar coloring but is not related?*

~You saw them together. They could be twins. Her scent is completely wrong, though, for them to have any blood relation.~

Hiei thought about his sister Yukina, and how odd such a physical reunion between them would have looked. Youko apparently had the same idea, and Hiei had a front-row seat to the somewhat appealing visual of kitsune-twins-kissing-scenario that quickly morphed into a horrifying Hiei-and-Yukina-kissing-scenario. Kurama hopped out of reach with a chuckle before Hiei followed through with his initial impulse to stab the dirty thoughts out of his head.