Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction / Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Shattered Freedom ❯ Chapter Eleven ( Chapter 11 )

Chapter 11

 

Koenma's office was full. The desk he worked at was buried under and surrounded by gigantic stacks of paperwork waiting to be reviewed and given his stamp of approval. Koenma could barely be seen as he stamped paper after paper, placing them in a small stack that was dwarfed by all the stacks of unstamped paperwork.

 

“Go away.” Said Koenma. He didn't even look up to see who he was saying it to.

 

“Not unless you give me the keys.” Said Ariana.

 

That got Koenma's attention. The pint-sized Reikai Tentei Prince looked up, pausing mid-stamp to stare at Ariana as though she'd gone insane.

 

“You've no business with those keys. None at all. So leave and take those abominations with you.” Said Koenma.

 

The temperature in the room shot up at least ten degrees within the next few seconds as Hiei began to glare at Koenma. Yusuke didn't do anything but he did look like he was barely keeping himself from killing his former employer.

 

Ariana walked right up to Koenma's desk and glared down at him from over the tops of the stacks of paperwork that littered his desk.

 

“You've no right to say things like that. Not after everything that they have done for you.” Said Ariana.

 

“That was before I knew what they are.” Said Koenma. “Now get them out of here before I call my father and tell him that you have been interrupting my work.”

 

“Call him and I'll tell him exactly what kind of traitor that you have become.” Said Ariana.

 

“Father never liked them. He won't care what I've done to them. In fact, I expect that he'll be happy that I've finally seen them for what they really are.” Said Koenma, a smug expression on his face as he met Ariana's glare.

 

“Really?” asked Ariana. “Do you really think him stupid enough to overlook the fact that you betrayed them? One does not live to be his age without learning that traitors can not be trusted.”

 

“You're too young to know what you're talking about.” Said Koenma as he began to return he unwavering glare with one of his own.

 

“Young doesn't mean stupid. O learned my lessons at a very young age and I have not forgotten any of them in the easy years I have had since I started living here.” Said Ariana.

 

“Only you and that twin sister of yours could call mission that the Spirit Defense Force has flat out refused easy and actually believe your own words.” Said Koenma.

 

Ariana shrugged her shoulders but it didn't stop her from glaring at Koenma.

 

The Spirit Defense Force is full of pathetic wimps.” Said Ariana. Those missions weren't just easy. They were boring. I haven't had a decent challenge since I was twelve.”

 

“You're lying.” Said Koenma.

 

“Believe what you will but hand over the keys before I let Hiei burn all of the paperwork in here and Yusuke beat you to a bloody pulp.” Said Ariana.

 

The temperature in the room jumped another ten degrees and Yusuke began to look quite threatening as he cracked his knuckles in a fashion that worked well in both the Makai and Ningenkai, making both demons and humans alike flee in terror.

 

Koenma's eyes widened in fear as he scooted back as far as his chair would allow him. That action was accompanied by him beginning to frantically suck on his ever-present pacifier.

 

“You wouldn't dare.” Said Koenma, but his voice was small and timid. He was scared, terrified of the threat that Ariana had made and it weakened him a great deal.

 

A moment later, Koenma opened the top drawer of his desk and pulled out a large ring of keys. He threw them at Ariana and she caught them with ease.

 

“Go away and leave me in peace so I can do my damned work, you mother-fucking bastards.” Said Koenma as he covered his fear with a mask of disdain.

 

The words were barely out of his pacifier-filled mouth before Ariana had jumped his desk and had her hands around his throat.

 

“Never, and I do repeat, never ever insult my parents again.” Said Ariana. She threw him back into his seat, the impact tipping the chair till it fell backwards and spilling the pint-sized prince onto the floor. Koenma fled, hiding under his desk while he trembled in fear.

 

Ariana stormed out of Koenma's office, nearly making Yusuke and Hiei have to run to keep up with her as she moved through the room with the industrious ogres. She stopped in the hallway outside that room, slamming the door hard enough to make the stone wall it was set in shake as soon as both Yusuke and Hiei had passed though it.

 

Leaning against the wall nearest the door, Ariana took several deep breaths, bringing her emotions back under control before she could meet Yusuke's and Hiei's confused eyes.

 

“He struck a nerve I didn't expect him to, but I still shouldn't have lost it like that. I've heard a lot worse and not done a damned thing. Maybe I have gone soft since I came to live in this dimension.” Said Ariana.

 

“Worse then that and done nothing?” asked Yusuke, voice filled with disbelief as if what she claimed were truly impossible. “Have you no…”

 

Ariana interrupted him.

 

“Pride? There was a time I couldn't afford to have any. If I had acted as I just did back them the consequences would have been…” Ariana trailed off, visibly shaken as the images of those consequences flitted through her mind. She held out her arm to Hiei and he came to her, allowing her to pull him close and hold onto him as though he were a teddy bear.

 

“I…I don't understand.” Said Yusuke.

 

“And I hope you never do.” Said Ariana. “Maybe someday I'll tell you why that is, but even after the better part of a decade that is not a story that I am ready to tell anyone.”

 

Yusuke didn't look convinced but when, after several minutes passed with saying nothing, Ariana decided it was time to move things along. She kissed the top of Hiei's head, silent thanks for what he allowed her to do in this public place where just about anyone could have walked by and seen it.

 

“Let's get going. Kuwabara is waiting.” Said Ariana.

 

~*~

 

Kuwabara was being held in the Reikei dungeons his supposed crimes were in fact nonexistent but it seemed that such minor details mattered very little to Koenma. Even the guards, who were themselves considered almost as evil and heartless as the worst of the inmates, felt more pity for this human who had placed so many of their charges in the cells of that dungeon then that human's former employer.

 

There was, however, one unexpected benefit. For, in the dungeons of the Reikei, even the dead had physical forms.

 

Hiei was the first to recognize where their destination was. Ariana had expected him to because he had spent time in there while he was being sentenced for the crime he had committed when he had helped steal the artifacts of darkness. That had been before he had come to work with Yusuke.

 

“Why the hell would that damned toddler put the human fool down here?” asked Hiei.

 

“I don't know. Very little that Koenma does these days makes sense. An appeal is already in the works and it will be shown to King Yamma the moment that he returns from his latest vacation. We've nearly got a hundred percent chance of getting him out of the dungeon cause the impossible has happened. Even the guards are backing the appeal.” Said Ariana. A small grin on her face as she remembered how she had convinced the guards to do her bidding. Koenma had been ever so furious at how she had gone behind his back and how he could do nothing to reverse what she had done.

 

Hiei, who had been walking beside Ariana, stopped dead in his tracks almost making Yusuke run into him and knock him down.

 

“That's beyond impossible.” Said Hiei.

 

Ariana didn't even bother to stop walking, instead walking backwards so that she could see the looks on both Hiei's and Yusuke's faces.

 

“The guards here actually like him. Several of the inmates they have the most fun with were ones he helped bring down. And one of the ones that Kuwabara personally killed happened to be someone that the warden himself had wanted dead for several centuries. Apparently the demon in question had killed that wardens mate in a way that was beyond gruesome even for a murder in the Makai. I just made sure that that information was brought to the warden's attention before Boton had even ferried him to the Reikei.” Said Ariana. “Although when Koenma found out he stole my own set of keys for around here.”

 

Hiei was actually shaking his head at the way the obscenely impossible seemed to happen whenever she did anything.

 

“You're more meddlesome then the Fox.” Said Hiei.

 

“A girl's got to have a way to keep herself amused and shopping is out of the question when one's closet really has no room left in it for new clothes or shoes.” Said Ariana.

 

Yusuke had been uncharacteristically silent through the entire exchange between Ariana and Hiei. There was a look of complete confusion on his face. He really had no idea what they were talking about or why Hiei would think it so very impossible.

 

Ariana turned back around as Yusuke and Hiei began to walk towards her.

 

The door they sought wasn't much further down the hall and Ariana quickly located the appropriate key and opened the large, metal door and held the door open for Yusuke and Hiei.

 

The room that they had entered was small, one side of it being dominated by a small desk and the tri-horned demon who sat behind it. Next to that desk was the most heavily secured door in all of Reikei. It was also the heaviest door in all of Reikei and had barred many an escaped attempt merely because whether or not they had the keys to unlock the door very few demons were anywhere near strong enough to actually open or close that door.

 

The demon behind the desk jumped to his feet, nearly trashing the desk in the process.

 

“What can I do you for you, Ariana-sama?” asked the demon, his voice so to eager please that it actually had Hiei snickering. “It's not like you to bring us prisoners.”

 

“No prisoners for you. We happen to be here to see Kuwabara.” Said Ariana.

 

“Anything for you, Ariana-sama.” Said the demon. His voice still every bit as eager as it had been the last time he had spoke. “Anything at all.”

 

Ariana ignored them, using another key from the ring of keys she had acquired from Koenma to unlock the door. The door opened easily for her and she just had to turn around to see the look of shock on Hiei's face. Yusuke didn't look impressed, but that was only because he didn't know how heavy the door she had just moved was. Hiei was, but the shock was quickly hidden. Hiei did, after all, have a reputation to maintain.

 

The cells that lined the hallway beyond were crammed full of demons of all shapes and sizes. This close to the exit the cells had no real walls, just bars all the way around. Most contained at least twenty demons but this place was famous for it's overcrowding and sometimes there were cells into which over fifty demons had been stuffed. Those demons mostly unusually small, but in these small cells anything over two people would be considered ridiculously crowded in a human prison. The sounds and the smells were also far worse then any human prison. These prisoners never bathed, never bothered cleaning up after their own bodily functions, and always said whatever came to mind at the top of their lungs if they thought it was a filthy enough thought or it would get a reaction from anyone else.

 

Kuwabara's cell was much further down and well into the places were the cells looked like actual rooms and the only bars were those in the small windows that each cells wooden door had. As they reached it, a guard almost magically appeared, holding in his hand a single key that he held out to Ariana who grabbed it from it the moment it was presented. The guard disappeared as he appeared, his task completed.

 

Ariana was quick to unlock the door to Kuwabara's cell and even quicker to enter where she knew that at the very least the smells of this place. If she ever talked to the warden again she would recommend that they hire a powerful water elemental to clean out the cells. He would like that because not only would it reduce the ever-present stench but watching the prisoners who were still alive struggle not to drown in the tidal wave of water would bring him quite a bit of amusement.

 

“Who are…” began Kuwabara the moment he saw Ariana, but he switched gears immediately when he saw Yusuke and Hiei. “Urameshi! Shrimp! I never thought I'd get to see either of you ever again.” The tall, orange-haired man swept both Yusuke and Hiei into a bear hug, not seeming to care about the fact that Hiei really did not want to be hugged by him.

 

Ariana got a good look at the cell while the others were preoccupied. Kuwabara's cell was the same size as all of the others with the same wooden door and the same barred window but that was were the similarities seemed to end. In this cell was a toilet up against the same wall that the door shared. A small sink was on the same wall but on the opposite side of the door. A mattress that barely looked long enough for Kuwabara's large body was against the far wall, complete with a badly worn blanket and a pillow. Compared to the conditions the other prisoners suffered, this was paradise.

 

“I'm sorry.” Said Yusuke the moment that Kuwabara loosened his grip enough that he could get enough air to speak.