InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Heart Within ❯ Chapter Nineteen ( Chapter 20 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, etc., of Inuyasha or Yu Yu Hakusho. This story is for entertainment purposes only, and not for profit.THE HEART WITHINSummary: She has carried vengeance in her shadowed heart for 500 years, sacrificing her self for that dream. Now, Sango just might get her chance… (IY/YYH crossover) A/N: Special thanks to BaitdCat, Yue no Rei, Yazzyboo and Guyute24 for staying with this story so long. I appreciate each and every one of your reviews---they really inspire me to go and pound more out on the keyboard. =P (Fate)
WARNING! SPOILERS FOR YYH BLACK AND THE THREE KINGS SAGA

Chapter Nineteen

“Now, it’s been three days since first’s I’ve come, and you’ve learned quite a lot, you have, Lily. There’s not much more that I can be a’teaching you that you canna be figuring out on your own, and what you have done learned will just need more time and the practicing to get that much better, no?”

Sango nodded, though she was slightly suspicious of the gleam in the wily Wind Master’s light blue eyes. Although he tried to keep an uncharacteristically stoic expression on his face, the corner of his mouth kept twitching, and that never boded well for her.

“Now, the best way for you to be realizing all the skills you’ve picked up in the last two days is for you to be having a kind of test, I’m thinking. Because the best way for you to be perfecting what it is I’ve been teaching ya is for you to have reason enough to use it, yes?”

Sango’s brown eyes narrowed and she deliberately set her breakfast aside. As delicious as the omelet was that Kurama had made that morning, she was suddenly not all that hungry. Jin had a nasty way of starting anything new by saying it was for her own good. His style of teaching over the past two days often left it up to her to figure out just what the hell he wanted her to do by presenting her with a situation she either had to get out of---and right quick---or hurt all the more for not. This was the first morning where she hadn’t woken up feeling like she had been run over by a semi, and that was only because the wind demon had let her sleep in a few more hours to recover from yesterday‘s beating.

It was coarse, yes, but rather effective. And by the wind apparition’s one-fanged smirk, she was in for it.

“So’s I’ve been thinking---”

“There’s a first.”

Yusuke choked, caught with a mouth full of eggs as a laugh bubbled up. Smacking a fist to his chest, he turned as bright a red as the spicy tomato-like vegetables that Kurama had added to the omelets. Forcibly swallowing, the laughter finally won free, and the Mazoku gasped, tears in his bright brown eyes. “Ha, ha, good one, Hiei!”

Even Kurama cracked a faint smile from where he was scouring Sango’s collapsible pot with sand. Jin glared at the short, spiky-headed demon, who returned his scowl with a cool look of appraisal, as if daring the Shinobi to do something about it. But Jin only bared both fangs in a smug grin, as if he knew something the other didn’t, and would be able to get the fire demon back soon enough.

“Like I was to say, I’m thinking a good roust-about is just what the alkie ordered,” Jin continued, eyes glinting. “And to provide ye enough incentive to use all you’ve learned, Lily, I’m thinking that you’ll best be taking on all four of us at once, in a kind of game of hide-and-find, or what do those bloody humans call it---hide-and-peep.”

“It’s hide-and-seek, you idiot.” Hiei didn’t bother to hide his impatience, turning a flat red stare on the wind apparition. “And what, pray tell, will provide us with enough incentive to actually take part in this ridiculous game?”

“Hell, Hiei, isn’t helping Anei enough?” Yusuke demanded. “You’ve never backed down before from a fight.”

“This is not a fight, Detective. This is a game, and I have no time or desire for such childish pastimes.”

“You really had a fucked up childhood, didn’t you, three-eyes?” Yusuke’s blind jab must have hit home, for the demon’s glare darkened and a hand went to his hilt. Yusuke only smiled.

“That has hardly any bearing on Jin’s proposal, Yusuke,” Kurama quickly intervened. His dark green gaze rested thoughtfully on Sango, who was careful not to meet it, uncomfortably aware that she had been purposely avoiding the kitsune over the past few days and rather grateful that Jin’s torturous training had let her.

“Perhaps you should explain further, Jin,” Kurama invited, and the Wind Master’s pointed ears flicked.

“Ah, now, that I can be doing. And I think you’ll find it intriguing enough, lads, and that Lily will have enough of an incentive to keep her wits about her, for I’m thinking that as price if one of us can catch her is a good smack or two.”

Looking perturbed, Yusuke made as if to protest, but Sango only shrugged. “It’s not like I haven’t done hand-to-hand combat before, and if you want to add a fight as the cost if I’m caught, than I can understand how that will let me exercise both the defensive and offensive techniques I’ve learned.”

Growing red, Jin’s hearty guffaw burst out loud and long as he slapped a fist to his knee and howled. Not knowing the joke, the others waited impatiently for the wind demon to gain control of himself, which he did by waving a hand in front of his face---though Hiei’s annoyed glare set him off again. Oh, revenge would be sweet.

“Oh, ah, sorry about that---but oooh, I can but see your faces---hee, hee---oh, give me just a minute---” The wind swirled around the apparition as he stood up and bounced a few times to wiggle his toes and shake the laughter off of him, though a giggle or two still managed to escape as he finally set himself back on terra firma and put his hands on his hips, his expression sly as he explained, “Now, lass, it wasn’t that kind of smack I be talking about---it was the other kind. The kissing kind.”

“Wha-What?” Sango’s mouth fell open in shock.

Yusuke fell over laughing at her expression. She looked like a stunned fish gasping for air. He had no idea her eyes could widen that damn much---they looked ready to pop right out of her head.

Hiei’s lip curled in disdain, but he didn’t make any out and out protests, which disappointed Jin. He’d been hoping for more of a reaction than that, damn his stony hide.

Kurama almost made up for Hiei. Although his expression revealed even less than the fire demon’s, his eyes were a different story. So intense a color, they reminded Jin just why his beloved Eire was named the Emerald Isle. “And what are the rules of this particular engagement?”

Jin shrugged. “I’ve none I can think of. Except you can’t kill each other, I guess. It’d probably be nice to give Lily a good head start, seeing as there are four of us and just one of her. I’m thinking ten minutes ought to be good enough.”

“No rules, huh?” Yusuke’s laughter died. Turning a wicked smile on Sango, he gave her a slow, deliberate wink.

“I admit it sounds intriguing,” Kurama drawled, his gaze calculating.

Sango paled.

Hastily jumping up to her feet, she shook her head. “I don’t think that this is such a good idee---”

“Ah, me sweet Lily, this is just for your benefit.” Jin leaned over and tweaked the end of her nose. Sango reared back, angry color flooding her cheeks as he wagged a finger at her. “I warned ye fair that you’ll no be liking all me training, didn’t I just? You protesting just tells me I’ve hit upon exactly the right incentive to keep you bouncing, no? And you’d best be getting a move on it, for times a’wasting, and a whole minute’s gone by with you still standing here.”

His blue eyes twinkled.

Sango froze.

“Only nine left,” Jin warned her, delighted by the flash of red in her eyes as she spun around with a scowl.

She was off like a shot.


Of all the insufferable, under-handed, evilly sadistic crap that wind-driven bastard had pulled, this was by far the worst damn idea ever.

Grabbing hold of the branch above her, Sango used it to swing out to the next tree, adding a touch of the wind to boost her leap across the sky. Landing awkwardly, she paused a moment to scout out the next even as she swept a breeze around her to hide her scent. This would have been so much easier if she had thought to grab her cloak and knives before taking off. *Stupid, stupid, stupid! What was I thinking?*

She hadn’t been thinking. She’d just reacted, like some scared little rabbit startled out from under cover. Well, she’d best start thinking now, and damn fast. She just had a few more minutes and then they’d be after her. She had to get out of the treetops quickly. Besides being Hiei’s playground, Jin could easily fly up above and spot her like a sitting duck. Using cross-currents to obscure her trail wouldn’t keep Kurama off of it for long, not with his keen kitsune senses, and she didn’t dare discount the Spirit Detective’s abilities either.

Her best bet would be to find something that she could hide in. Some place where she wouldn’t have to watch all sides, but somewhere that had a bolt hole that she could use to escape if needed. She knew she couldn’t outrun any of them, and to burn up her energy like that, and so early on, would be downright foolish. She had an idea---there was a small island in the middle of the forest, one surrounded by a moat of placid water that could hide her scent even from Kurama’s nose. Most of the low hill was barren, but there was a type of half-cave on one side of it, if she remembered correctly, one covered in thick moss. She could take cover in it and be able to see if anyone approached. It was as good an idea as any she’d had, and so she acted on it, jumping from tree to tree and finally grabbing on to a swooping down-draft to carry her farther.

Damn that wind-blown jerk---she was going to kill him for this!


Closing his eyes, Jin stretched out his senses and smiled. Poor Lily. She had no idea he could tell exactly where she was just by her drag against the wind. Finding her was going to be easy. Now, catching her once he found her---ah, now that would be a sweet little game, with the reward a sweet little kiss stolen from her sweet little lips.

And that wasn’t even the best part of the whole wonderful idea. No, the sweetest part was the death-glare the fire demon had given him just after the taiji-ya took off. So, he had managed to get under that little killer’s skin after all. And the speculative look in the kitsune’s cool gaze was even more promising.

Well, if all this provided enough incentive to get either of those two fools off their arses than it really would be worth it. For Lily deserved better of them than this awkward stalemate. And by blessed Saint Patrick’s yellow toenail, he would find some way for it all to work out, and do it all for her own good. She needed that, bless her stubborn, little, thick-headed self. It was a real shame, it was, that it wasn’t he who could be the one to crack that tight little shield she kept over her heart, but she saw him too much as a friend, and he knew enough that it could never be more. Maybe, if she had been in a different place in her life and he a different place in his, but---well, he wouldn’t be the one caught pissing against the wind for things he couldn’t help---that would only get you splattered.

“All right, lads, we’ve only got a few minutes more.” Jin grinned toothily, bouncing lightly up on his toes to stretch and warm his muscles. The wind circled around him, teasing the short red hair from off his forehead and rippling the fabric of his clothes. Oh, this was going to be fun! “I’ll be reminding you, it’s no holds barred and if’n you do manage to catch the wee lass, than I’m trusting you to remember it’s just a kiss, yes? Anything more, and I’ll stand by and let her gut you herself with one of her wee sticks.”

Hiei turned a look on him that made ice creep down his spine. Woowie, but that little mite had a scary glare. Talk about repression!

Yusuke snorted. “You’re a right loony bastard, aren’t you, Jin? You sure like sticking you’re foot right in the middle of it, don’t you?”

Pointed ears twitching, Jin only winked as he bounced a good three feet off the ground, more than certain that he could find the girl at any time he wanted, and rather looking forward to seeing the outcome if one of those two demons caught up to them at just the right moment. It would be entertaining, to say the least.

“I beg you to remember, gentlemen, that all is fair in love and war,” Kurama said idly, pulling a rose from behind his ear to sniff at it delicately. His eyes were cold as he stared at Jin.

“Hn. How trite.” Hiei’s smirk belied the sentiment. He clearly took the fox’s warning for what it was.

Brown eyes bright, Yusuke only crossed his arms and smirked. Jin wondered what he was thinking, for the Mazoku’s gaze kept cutting back to him, and he saluted his friend with a cheeky grin. He almost did a double-take when Kurama said mildly, “I think it’s time---the ten minutes you gave Anei are up, Jin.”

“Oh, well, then, I guess the floor’s open---” Jin summoned the wind, his smile widening.

“Hn.” Hiei vanished.

Shrugging, Kurama went strolling down the hill, his pace unhurried. Lightly turning the rose in his fingers, he looked like was going off for a morning walk. The fox had to be daft, or had no intention of actually taking part in the little game. Shame, it was, for Jin actually liked him a bit better than the short little killer, though he respected both of them well enough.

Ah, well, his loss it was, and with a shrug and last wink at Yusuke, Jin took to the air in a tornado of whipping dust.


Shielding his eyes from the grit kicked up by Jin’s windy departure, Yusuke smirked from behind his arm. He had to give it to the crazy Shinobi---he sure knew how to stir things up, and in more ways than one. But Yusuke had a mission of his own. While Jin might think going after the slayer was just all part of the fun, Yusuke had other ideas. And so after he watched Kurama’s red head finally disappear among the trees, he looked up, glad that there was no sun in this damn purple-clouded world to interfere.

And white showed up so good against pink and purple. Even as a tiny dot up there in the weird sky. But Yusuke’s vision had improved a whole hell of a lot more since that Mazoku crap had awakened within him, and he knew damn well so had his power.

Cocking his thumb back and taking aim, he squinted, sighting along his extended forefinger. Using his other hand as a brace, he shouted, “Spirit Gun!”


Startled, Kurama’s eyes opened. He glanced behind him, wondering what had set the detective off, but when nothing else happened, he shrugged and returned to his task. Closing his eyes again, he brought the single red rose up before him, his other hand flat beside it as he concentrated, so still that not even a single red hair trembled. With a sudden, sharp turn, he drew the rose around him like he would when he released his Rose Whip, but the thorny stem remained untouched. Instead, the rose’s petals fell one by one, drifting in a spiraling swirl behind him. There were more petals than a single rose could account for, but the rose was just the focus, not the source.

When he had turned a full circle, he let the last of the rose’s physical presence disappear, funneling his focus’s energy into the dancing petals that surrounded him. He considered them a moment, pondering the tiny seeds cupped in the gentle curve of each petal’s embrace, and with a second sweep of his arm, sent them flying off in all directions to act as his tiny little spies.

Sango had taken care to mask her scent. He had already tested the air back upon the hill while he and the others had waited. He had known exactly when she had sent the first breeze swirling over her zigzagging climb up through the trees, and although he had caught it a moment later, in another part of the forest, that trace had disappeared as well.

He did not have Hiei’s Jagan Eye to help locate the slayer’s current whereabouts, but he did have the little blood-eye seeds he had carefully saved from each of the fruit he had harvested. They were rather useful little seeds, for their distinctive name not only came from the fact that the apple-like fruit grew between two buds, thus looking like a bloody eye as they ripened, but the fact that the seeds inside each one actually had the rudimentary optics to scout out the best place to burrow themselves into the earth, if chance and fate had brought them to a good place to do so. With his abilities, he could manipulate the seeds for his own use, pulling images from the flying “eyes” randomly at whim.

But not all the seeds he had used had been of the blood-eye. The larger pod-like seedlings were in fact of the feather-dust plant rarely found this far north. He had been lucky to stumble across it in one of his daily wanderings, and he had carefully harvested every pod he could without damaging the gnarled tree’s odd life cycle. The pods, when opened, would emit a microscopic dust into the air that actually had the ability to hide demonic auras. Dangerous, yes, but it would block Hiei’s third eye, and Kurama considered that the benefits far outweighed the risks.

Hiei would not be happy, but that would at least put them both on a more equal footing. And Hiei would understand and might even applaud his ruthlessness---the fire demon had depended on that particular ability of his many times in the past. He had given the apparition more than fair warning, and Hiei had hardly seemed perturbed. Kurama wondered what tricks the demon had up his sleeve, and wondered if he would be able to anticipate them. One of the things he respected about the short demon was the fact that he often did the unexpected.

This would be a great hunt, and Kurama was not averse to the prize. Jin had surprised him with the idea---but he was determined to win. Now that he had taken care of the Jagan, he could turn his clever mind to what he knew of the slayer. She was not stupid---she would know their various abilities and know that she could not combat all of them. She would probably go to ground, somewhere she felt safe but could still watch their approach from all angles. Knowing she could not outrun them, and knowing how cautious she was, she would probably seek defense as the best option, and choose her battlefield carefully. No trees, then, for Hiei to skip from, and little plant-life for he, himself, to take advantage of. Somewhere hidden from view by the air, and maybe hard to run to, to combat Yusuke’s ground-eating pace. There were a number of places that came to mind, but one in particular stood out, though he wondered if she knew of it.

Going over where last he had caught her scent, he thought that the odd little hill-island near the center of the forest might be a good bet. There was a half-cave on one side of it that could provide good cover but still had an escape route if needed, and Anei was too good an assassin not to consider that fact as well. He had to applaud her choice, if that were it, for even the strange brook-moat that circled around the large, low island would throw off the scent of her passage without her bothering to expend her energy to use the wind to confuse it.

It wouldn’t hurt to go in that direction---there were two or three other spots that she might have considered using as well along that way, and his seed-spies would send their images no matter where he was.

Brushing an imaginary bit of dust from his shoulder, Kurama set out at a brisk pace.


Damn that tricky fox. Hiei scowled as the pupil of his third eye shrank back down to its normal size, the green-tinged glow dying from around it. Even as he cursed the fact that Kurama had somehow managed to render the Jagan useless, he had to admire the fox for his ingenuity.

But while the strange haze that blurred demonic auras to his Jagan would not let him pinpoint the girl’s current location by sight, Kurama had forgotten that it would not block the Jagan’s formidable telepathic abilities. He had touched the girl’s mind twice already, which meant he could reach out and touch it again at any time he chose. Not that using his telepathy didn’t come without risks---she would know, for one, and opening himself up like that, to the forest, there was the possibility he might touch something else by accident, waking or disturbing it. There was even the faint possibility that it might even be stronger than him, and be able to seize his seeking mind in its grasp.

That possibility was remote, but he was not a fool to play with any potential danger, even one so small. And there were ways he could narrow the area he needed to search, and all he had to do was go back and take something of hers that he could use as a physical focus. Like draws like, and any of the daggers familiar to her hand would draw a rough arrow that would point him in the right direction.

Turning on his heel, he was running back the way he had come and silently cursing the need for it. Damn that fox---perhaps Kurama had remembered his telepathic abilities, and knew the delay it would cost him to go back to the cave and retrieve something of hers. Part of the secret to Kurama’s success was that he planned for any and all contingencies, not just one or another.

He would do well to do that himself, rather than going off as recklessly as Yusuke. Then he might not be caught by surprise as much. Though that damn detective had managed to surprise him, turning on Jin like that.

Hiei let a smile twist across the firm line of his mouth as he neatly leapt past the spiky protrusion of a poison-pine bush. Skirting a snarling rat demon caught off guard as he snaked past, he idly wondered why the detective had even bothered. Lord knows Yusuke had already beaten Jin during the Dark Tournament. Perhaps he just wanted to test out his new abilities, and on a fairly worthy opponent. Though it really wasn’t that fair of a fight. Yusuke was a S class demon now, by Spirit World’s officious standards, and Jin was only a B class.

Reminded of his own classification as a B class demon, Hiei glared. Once this shit with Yusuke’s ancestor and Anei’s brother was over, he was going to make damn sure Spirit World released him from his contract, and find a way for him to grow stronger. It galled him no end that even with the release of the Dragon, he was still considered a pathetic B class demon by Reikai’s ridiculous reckoning.

Strength, in the end, was all that truly mattered.

Landing neatly on the cave’s now-familiar roof, he jumped down and grabbed the nearest hilt in Anei’s neatly folded clothing. The hilt was smooth and worn, the blade plain but well-balanced. Good. It was one she had used for a while, and it would bear the stamp of her particular energy signature from the long familiarity. His fingers tingled as he closed his eyes, concentrating as the pupil in the middle of his Jagan widened slightly. Turning slowly, he poured his own energy into the link between his third eye and the small blade, pushing it out to follow the link of the blade to the smaller, feminine hand that usually held it.

*There.* Like the arrow of a compass pointing true north, Hiei opened his eyes and smiled. This was going to be almost too easy. Although he was unfamiliar with that part of the far-reaching Forest of Fools, he had a rough idea of where he could now look. Closing his eyes again, he concentrated, sending his mind speeding straight along the line of direction that the blade indicated. He passed swiftly---thought was much faster than light---and touched her awareness, grabbing onto it and slipping inside her mind like a knife to soft flesh.

He felt her stiffen in surprise, and the wave of emotion that swirled around him---shock, fear, recognition, and strangely, welcome, which then dissolved to anger, alarm and remonstrance.

*JERK!*

He winced. Gods, did she have to shout like that? It was echoing around his skull, leaving swirls of thought-eddies bouncing around his brain. That damn hanyou was going to give him a fucking headache.

Angry with her overwhelming emotions---which she should know by now to collar around him---he tightened his grip, deliberately deepening the contact. He could feel her body now as an extension of his, and he felt her shudder, her heart speeding up as heat flushed along her limbs. There was an odd sensation pricking across his/her skin and he felt her go rigid in embarrassment as a familiar trickle of desire unfurled low in her belly, adding weight to her breasts and tightening her nipples. It was a strange phenomenon, feeling such sensations that were so like and yet so unlike his own when his body responded to desire, and he savored it and the newness of it and the knowledge that it was he that caused such feelings within her.

Her emotions rose in a flood of embarrassment and shame---she knew he knew, and suddenly it was too intimate, too close, too shared for her to stand. She pushed against him with all her might, and still surprised by the discovery, Hiei found himself abruptly shoved right out of her head. Angry that she would dare to reject him, he growled, determined to show her just who had the upper hand in this contest of wills, and was just about to force himself back inside her mind when he felt something stirring along the fringe of his thoughts.

He froze, carefully shielding himself from the sluggish thoughts that suddenly surrounded him, her, both of them---though, no, it was her that it surrounded, below and around and above, and although it had been sleeping for a long, long time, it was now disturbed enough that it was waking up from its long hibernation.

It was angry, uncertain what, exactly, had disturbed and awakened it. And it was suddenly aware that it was very, very hungry…