Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction / InuYasha Fan Fiction / Crossover Fan Fiction ❯ The Star Catcher ❯ Chapter 1

The Star Catcher

By: Kiba/KibaSin

Disclaimer: No claims to Inuyasha or Yu Yu Hakusho are made through the making of this fanfic.

Summary: Injured and alone, Hiei is surprised when someone saves him.

Warning: Talk of death, slight language

Contest Entry Theme: Enter the Dragon; for The Deadliest Sin board

Rating: PG-13

Word Count: 4,547

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

 

Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth, drawing a thin trail of red across his skin. Subconsciously he was aware of that fact, and he cursed the one that had left him with a gapping hole in his side. Not to mention the poison, which had an equally fair chance of killing him.

 

He did not regret the battle, though. He was glad he had killed that bastard, whether or not he had been wounded in the process. He was delighted that, finally, he got to see that bastard lying in a pool of his own blood. Of course, he would have liked to know the other demon killed his opponents by pumping them full of poison, but he supposed his enemy would always keep something closely guarded.

 

Allowing his eyes to slip closed, he wondered if this was his final moment. It would not make a difference to him, though there were many more enemies he would have enjoyed killing. And, though he hated the weakness in the thought, he would have liked to find his sibling. He would have liked to find out whether or not she had been treated well, but he supposed it did not matter all that much.

 

He had never planned on telling her that he was her sibling, anyway.

 

He could feel the poison burning beneath his flesh, drilling a path through his veins, and he hissed lightly. It did not really hurt, probably because of how numb he was beginning to feel, but it was uncomfortable. And he supposed that having any type of poison rushing through his body would be an uncomfortable experience, but he did not want to make a habit out of it. He preferred to stay away from anything that could eat him alive from the inside.

 

It was almost peaceful, the way he was dying. His body was not designed to fight off such a lethal dose of poison and it attacked his healing capabilities before his body could seal up the wound at his side, but it was peaceful nonetheless. The Makai was strangely quiet, only the rustling of leaves drifting across his mind. Soon, though, he knew that peace would be torn to shreds when the lower class demons smelled his blood and came to feast upon his flesh.

 

A smirk crossed his face. He anticipated that moment, because it meant he would have a chance to rip into the flesh of someone else. His last few moments would be in chaos, blood slowly sinking into the ground and turning it red, before he became too weak to fight them off. That was how he imagined it, not the peaceful, slow slip away from reality he was currently experiencing.

 

The eye on his forehead, still healing from being implanted, opened beneath the bandages placed upon it. He had never been told the full extent of what it could do, but he knew that it opening could only mean a threat had entered the area. His smirk got wider with the knowledge, though he never opened his eyes, and he allowed the Jagan eye to search the area.

 

It pained him a little, despite the numbness of his body, as he tried to control it. He knew that the eye could easily control him if he was not careful, but his stubborn nature forced the eye to only do its duty. Protect its host. Protect him, for it knew that there was a slight chance of surviving if they were not discovered. It was foolish to even try now, but he was not about to give up the opportunity to rip into another's flesh once more before he died.

 

The eye focused on a single energy, large and bright. It was drifting high above him, barely noticeable with the distance between them. The Jagan, true to its nature, tried to penetrate the mind of the flying creature, and it was only then that the energy seemed to realize he was even there. It changed course, heading in his direction, and blocked out any attempt the Jagan made to destroy its mind.

 

Strange, he had never heard of a creature, demon or human, capable of blocking the Jagan. The very idea of such a creature made him want to kill them even more, because they could prove to be an interesting opponent. Not only that, but it would not bode well for him to let such a dangerous creature stay alive, for the ability to block out the evil creation was not one that should stay within the land of the living.

 

Even if, in death, he would have no reason to care about it.

 

A roar filled his ears, and he cracked his eyes open weakly. His strength was leaving him, despite his wish to do battle, and he found it hard to even look upon the creature hovering in the sky. It was becoming difficult to focus, and he cursed his weak body, while the stretch of silver drifted down to the ground. He caught sight of a flash of black, gliding slowly like water, and deep pools of the night sky filled his vision.

 

His wound throbbed with pain, while those deep pools stared at him, blinking. Subconsciously the Jagan flared in warning, but the creature was not deterred. It leaned closer to him, that slowly gliding blackness filling his foggy vision, and he was certain that he had come to his final moment. His death was near, and he could feel his soul waiting for the moment to grasp a hold of it, even as a soothing warmth rushed into his wound and traveled into the rest of his body.

 

Another trickle of blood escaped the corner of his mouth, as his eyes slipped closed. The faint burn of poison drifted through his flesh, but the soothing warmth was in hot pursuit. And the battle inside of his body began, even as long, strong claws settled around his body and lifted him into the air.

 

The eye upon his forehead quieted in that instant, while he slipped into darkness.

 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

 

He was unaware of anything for a long time. He drifted in and out of consciousness, never quite grasping onto the sweet, sweet reality of life, and remained deep in the euphoria that latched onto him. He had no concept of time, and only recognized the hazy, distant feeling of delight.

 

That was, until the day when a faint, sorrowful sound drifted into his ears.

 

He became painfully aware of reality in that moment, as his eyes snapped open. The sound drifted around him, creating a dense and mournful atmosphere, but his mind was too preoccupied to care. His hand instinctively searched for his sword, as his vision tried to focus in the darkness. He found no sword, but once his vision settled, he easily found the source of the music filling the area.

 

A young female sat upon the edge of a cliff just outside the cave he found himself within. Her long black hair made it impossible to tell what she looked like, but the mere smell of the cave told him that she was indeed a female. A long flute extended to the side, her nimble fingers continuing to play the haunting tune she had chosen.

 

Not trusting her, or anyone really, he pushed himself into a sitting position. He winced inwardly at the action, settling his hand over the wound at his side. Looking down at it, he realized that though it had not healed completely, it had been bandaged and well cared for. His eyes narrowed, though, because he knew that the wound should have killed him. He had been waiting to find himself being judged in Reikai, yet clearly his soul had never left his body.

 

How had he survived?

 

Realizing that the music had stopped, he swiftly turned his eyes toward the female. His gaze was intense, narrowed, as he silently analyzed her stance and tried to assess what her goal was. No one in the Makai saved another just for the hell of it. They always had a reason—especially in his case, since they should have left the dreadful forbidden for death—and they always wanted something in the end. But, though his slight concept of honor might scream at him to repay what had been given to him, he would not hand anything over to that female even if she demanded it.

 

Her voice replaced the sad tune, and his eyes focused upon her smiling mouth. Appearances were deceiving, he knew that, and he did not trust her smile at all. However, he did listen, as she said, “You shouldn't move around too much. There's still quite a bit of poison in your system, and moving too much will only cause it to attack your body as quickly as it did before.”

 

He remained silent. His glare only darkened, as he processed the information. It was a solid piece of advice, and she sounded genuine, but he still found no reason to believe a word that came out of her mouth. She might have saved him, but she was still an unknown that could end with a million different possibilities, none of which looked good for him.

 

“In case you're wondering,” she continued, turning her face away once more, “you've been here for a week, feeding from my energy. It's helped you recover, but I'm afraid your body will have to do the rest.”

 

In a sharp tone, he growled, “And you expect something in return for this energy, don't you?”

 

Light laughter surrounded him, as her shoulders shook. She shook her mass of black hair, never once turning back to him. “If I expected something in return, I wouldn't have stopped to save you. I know what you are, and I know that there was a mass of lower level demons coming to feed upon you, so doing so only risked my life.”

 

“That doesn't answer the question.” If only he had his sword. He would cut the bitch down to size, instead of letting her force this humiliation upon him. He would rather have let those low class demons eat him than be saved by some thieving bitch that played with her words.

 

“I wasn't finished,” she sighed, before muttering something about hotheaded males. “I was going to say, before you rudely interrupted, that I wouldn't have risked my life if I wanted something in return from you. I'm not that type of person, whether you want to believe it or not. I merely saw that you were trying to cling to life, that you wanted to live, and that determination made me believe you deserved to be saved.”

 

“There has to be—” he began to insist.

 

Her eyes turned back to him, and for the first time he focused upon them. They were a bright blue, blazing with an inner light that set him on edge. That, however, was not the oddest thing about them. Even in the distance between them, they seemed to glitter and shine with tiny specks that could have resembled stars. And that little piece of knowledge made him mind grasp onto his memory of deep pools of the night sky staring at him while he lay dying.

 

When she spoke again, her voice had hardened. She said, “There are no strings attached. I saved you because I could, because you could be saved. I want nothing from you, and you will just have to live with that.”

 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

 

He remained only because he was still too weak to leave, watching each day as the female moved about. There were little things she did that caught his attention, but it was what she did while he slept that truly interested him. The Jagan saw it all, allowed it to play in his mind, and he knew he would have never knew she did it if it were not for the implant.

 

Each and every time he slept, she came to him, silently. She knelt at his side, stretched out her hand, and allowed her strange silver energy to fill his body. He never felt anything, never knew it was there, yet she allowed him to feed from her and then stepped away. A cloud of black smoke would rise from her mouth, and she would leave, only to return before the sun rose above the horizon.

 

It was odd.

 

She was strange in many ways, though. She never acted like a demon should. He realized that when he made her angry, and had expected her to kill him on the spot. The fact that he was injured should not have mattered to her, yet she had simply huffed and left him alone. She returned later, her frown gone, and forgave him silently for no reason.

 

Of course, he knew that from the simple fact she had saved him at all. She should have shunned him like the rest of their race. She should have driven her hand through his gut and helped him die, instead of taking her time and energy to care for him. She was making the rest of the Makai her energy simply by helping him, yet she did not seem to care. She cared only that he got better, and that alone made her suspicious.

 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

 

“That eye of yours seems very interested in me.”

 

Her voice cut through his thoughts, as he turned toward her. He had realized that long ago, around the second day after being stuck in the blasted cave she had brought him to. The eye was very curious about her. It never attacked her mind, even though he had believed it would attack any and all minds if he did not control it. It merely tapped against her barrier, before retreating when she lightly knocked it away.

 

Deciding that today he would gift her with a response, he said, “It is curious about what you are.”

 

“Well, it only had to ask and I would have told it,” she smiled.

 

Frowning, he asked, “Then what are you?”

 

She straightened up, stepping away from the pile of food she had gathered. “I am the oddest of the odds,” she chuckled. “I am a solitary creature that gets lonely from time to time, and decides to take in the weak and wounded in order to gain some company.” She had skipped around his question, and she knew it from the twinkle in her eye.

 

“That is not what I meant,” he growled. The cunning bitch was always finding ways to avoid the questions he issued. When he had asked why she decided to live so far away from the rest of demon society, she merely said she preferred the high altitude. When he had asked why she kept such a large stock of food, she told him she did not like to leave her home often. When he asked why she risked her life to save a demon that could kill her upon awakening, she said that she liked to live with danger.

 

All of her answers were twisted away from what he wanted to know. All of them never really answered his question. And all of them made him wish he knew where she had hidden his sword.

 

Her star filled eyes stared at him for a moment, before she sighed. “I suppose it wouldn't hurt to tell you,” she said. “I am Kagome and I am a dragon. I'm not surprised you don't remember, since you were on your last legs when I found you.”

 

“You're a silver dragon,” he replied. He remembered a silver creature coming upon him, but he had chalked that up as his imagination. He supposed, though, that it would make more sense for the female to have been in full form when she brought him to her lair.

 

“That's right,” she nodded. “But, I'm not just any silver dragon.”

 

“What do you mean?” he asked.

 

Smiling mysterious, she shook her head. “How about I find out the name of the famous forbidden child, and then I'll tell you what I mean.”

 

An answer for an answer. It was an easy exchange, but he did not plan on staying long enough for her to find out his name. So, narrowing his eyes, he decided to find the information out some other way. Surely he would be able to pry her mind open, or find someone on the outside that could tell him about the infuriating dragon.

 

“Well,” she said after a moment, “if you want to be that way, I suppose you'll just have to stay in the dark, won't you?”

 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

 

She was playing that depressing tune again.

 

Holding his side, he walked to the front of the cave and wished he were fully healed already. He wanted to go far away from the stupid dragon, whose mind he could not get into, and away from that damned music she was constantly playing. Both grated on his nerves, made him want to grit his teeth together, and his last string was about to snap.

 

Gazing out at the land far below, he snapped, “Don't you know how to play anything else with that thing?”

 

She halted, turning to look at him. “Yes.”

 

“Then why do you constantly play the same one over and over again?”

 

“Because I like it,” she smiled. That smile angered him, because she should not be allowed to smile while talking about such a sad tune. “It reminds me of a lot of different things that I like to remember, and that makes me happy.”

 

Glaring, he sat down upon the ledge. Her logic often confused him, and he did not want to know why a sad tune would remind her of people or items she wanted to remember. That probably meant they had been killed, lost, or stolen away from her, and she used the sad tune to remember the time before that happened. But, again, her logic was ridiculously put together and he doubted he would ever understand it.

 

She raised the flute to her lips once more, and surprisingly, played another tune. It was much more lively, and had a certain bounce to it, but it instantly set him back on edge. He snapped at her, “Stop playing that irritating thing.”

 

“You do remember that this is my home, right?” she asked.

 

His eyebrow twitched. How could one forget such a thing? She lived on one of the highest peaks in the Makai, far away from where other demons would have roamed. Only a few flying demons ever came close to the mountain, but they always steered away from it at the last moment. His only guess was they either knew what awaited them at the top, or they could not stand listening to that mournful tune she always played.

 

She raised the flute up once more, determined to play whatever she wished to play. However, he had snatched the item before it even reached her lips. When she realized it was no longer in her possession, she yelled, “Hey! That's mine!”

 

He snorted, because it should be clear to her that he did not care.

 

“Give it back!” she cried, reaching for it. Her eyes pooled with black, while her anger rose. He had seen it many times before, so it did not bother him, but he was not about to give back the stupid instrument. Again, she yelled, “Give it back!”

 

“No,” he stated, holding it just out of her reach.

 

Her voice darkened, a clear threat lying beneath the surface. She hissed, “Give me back my flute, hybrid.” The blue in her eyes had disappeared beneath the sea of black, only the tiny stars managing to peak through, and he saw the night sky in those orbs. But, what interested him was the way her skin began to take on a faint silver hue, scales forming along the edge of those black pools.

 

Without a weapon, and knowing he was not at full strength, he held the flute back out to her. She latched onto it, her anger dissipating the moment it was back in her hand. She took a single look at him, her eyes not returning from that deep abyss of darkness, before she stood up.

 

“I'm sorry,” she said, “its just, this item is very precious to me.”

 

Watching her closely, he was a little surprised when she stepped off the cliff. She fell beneath the clouds that formed around the peak, away from his sight, before a great roar entered his ears. Only a moment later she rose back above the clouds, high into the sky, her gliding black mane slowly twisting behind her as her long, silver body slithered through the air.

 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

 

“Hiei.”

 

She glanced at him in surprise, blinking rapidly. “What was that?”

 

He had decided that he had recovered enough to leave, but the mystery that surrounded the dragon was annoying. Not only could she block out the Jagan, but he also knew basically nothing about her. So, in his momentary lapse of judgment, he decided to tell her his name and find out what she had hidden from him for so long. He wanted to know, even if he never caught another glimpse of her, and only because it could help him in the future.

 

So, again, he stated, “Hiei, that is my name.”

 

Slowly, she smiled, remembering. “Ah,” she said. “I see. You want me to tell you what I am, do you?”

 

He did not see a reason to answer her, considering she should know that was exactly what he wanted. He would have rather left without ever having to tell her his name, but he wanted that piece of information. It could help him become stronger, and he wanted that especially.

 

“Well, maybe I don't want to tell you now,” she chuckled.

 

He growled. A bitch till the end, obviously. First she says she does not want anything from him, but when she offers a deal and gets her end, she decides to keep her bit of information. It was exactly like a female to do such a thing, and his growl became louder.

 

“Oh, don't growl at me,” she muttered. “I planned on telling you.”

 

Frowning deeper, he continued to glare at her. She was sitting with that stupid flute in her lap, simply staring at him. “Well?” he asked after a moment. His urge to leave was great, because he did not know how much more of the dragon he could stand. Yes, she was an intriguing mystery, but she was not intriguing enough to make him stay when he could be out living, fighting, and continuing in his search.

 

“Don't you know how to ask please?” she asked. When he did nothing more than scowl, she sighed. “Fine. I, as I told you, am not just a silver dragon. I am different, as I'm sure you have noticed.”

 

“Get on with it,” he snapped. His need to leave was growing with each passing moment, his body wishing only to move forward, while the dragon continued with her solitude. He did not have time to waste on her getting to the point, especially when he knew how far she could stretch it out.

 

“The reason I always leave at night,” she said, “and the reason I live this high up, is because I am at my full strength when the starlight shines upon my scales. I soak up the energy they give off, I feed from it, and I use that energy to sustain this form. I can feed from other things, since I do get a lot of nourishment from the food I have here, but I do most of those fancy tricks that irritate you by feeding from the night sky.”

 

“That is how you block the Jagan?” he asked, curious.

 

“That's what you call it?” she asked in reply. When he simply stared at her, she nodded. “Yes, I use the energy I build up over time to block out that pretty little eye of yours. It's not really hard, considering you can't control it all that well, but I suppose that will change with time.”

 

He nodded at the information, knowing that if he ever found another starlight feeder, he would kill them. He would allow their blood to spill over his hands, and only to know he had defeated an enemy that could have become a fearsome opponent. He would kill the dragon, too, if they ever met again. For now her life was saved, because though she wanted nothing in return for saving him, he decided that a life for a life was good enough. But, the future held many possibilities, and when he became stronger, he would not mind battling the dragon.

 

He turned away from her, ready to leave the solitude the dragon had created for herself, when she spoke again. She said, “I know what you're thinking, Hiei, but you don't have to worry about that. I'm one of a kind, and you won't find any other that feeds the way I do.”

 

Curious, again, he turned to blink at her silently. His eyes held his question, and she smiled a bit at him.

 

“When I was reborn,” he wondered briefly at what she meant, “I was given my ability. But, it extends so much farther than you could imagine, because I often times feel like I hold the universe in my hand. I know when it began and I know when it ends, and that is so hard to bear. So hard.”

 

She raised her flute back to her lips, and began to play that tearful tune. It echoed out into the area, filling the area in a mournful atmosphere, but he had already turned away. He had heard enough, had learned enough, and now he was ready to return to the thick stream of demon society. He was ready to dive back into the harsh reality of life, and leave the peaceful, sad solitude that the dragon had created so high above the rest of the world.

 

If he had his way, he would not return there for a long time. Because, no doubt, if the strange star catcher ever knew he was laying on his deathbed once more, she would probably take the time just to save him again. And, he did not want that to happen until he was positive he could stand up against the dragon, because though she was mystery that needed to be solved, the ancient calling in his blood demanded he fight her. Prove he was worthy of the knowledge, and that he was capable of taking out such a deadly enemy.

 

That was his plan, but first he had other things to accomplish.

 

--Fin