Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction / Witch Hunter Robin Fan Fiction / InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Disease ❯ Chapter 10

The apology chapter. I tend to give out a lot of those, I've noticed. Shame on me.

 

~*~

 

Where is he? Hiei snarled to himself. He silently scanned the area, but still there was no sign of the demon. I know he's here somewhere.

 

“I don't sense him,” Kurama said, also looking around.

 

“He's still here,” Hiei stated. “He's just hiding his scent and aura.”

 

They had finally found their elusive psychic demon. He had made the mistake of trying to take over Hiei's mind, but with the Jagan, Hiei held him off with ease. Unfortunately, after he'd failed to take Hiei, he fled. Kurama and his short demon friend had tracked him to an out-of-the-way woodland, but they couldn't pinpoint his exact location.

 

“Perhaps we should call Yusuke and Kuwabara to help us,” Kurama suggested.

 

“No!” Hiei hissed. “I do not need their help, especially the baka's help. He'd be more of a hindrance than anything else.” A sound from above silenced the two. Being the quicker of the two, Hiei was in the trees in the blink of an eye and stood before the startled demon. However, the demon was quick to recover from his shock and was off almost before Hiei could get a glimpse of him. The fire demon shot after him. Beneath them he could hear Kurama trying to get ahead and cut off the demon that fled before them. Abruptly the trees ended and so did the trail.

 

“Where is he?” Kurama called up to Hiei. “He isn't out in the open.”

 

Stretching his hearing range, he listened for the sound of something moving, but didn't hear anything, not even animals. “He must still be nearby,” Hiei told the redhead. “You search the ground; I'll take the trees.” He dashed away before Kurama could answer him.

 

How could he have gotten away from me? I almost had him, and he just disappeared. At least now we know what he looks like. For an hour they two searched, but they didn't catch sight of him. I guess there's no help for it; I'll use the Jagan eye to look for his mind. Jumping down in front of Kurama, Hiei said, “I'm going to use the Jagan eye to look for him. If something unexpected happens, you know what to do.” The other demon nodded. Uncovering his third eye, Hiei focused on finding the demonic mind of their prey. He felt the other demon's surprise at finding his mind under attack. What shocked Hiei was that while the demon wasn't strong enough to attack him back, his defense was incredible; he couldn't break through. Then a surge of power came from the other demon and Hiei found himself falling into his power.

 

When he opened his eyes, he found Kurama standing over him. “What happened?” he asked. “I almost had him.”

 

“You were losing,” Kurama corrected him. “The other demon almost took over your mind, so I had to bring you back.”

 

The back of Hiei's head was pounding. “Did it have to be so hard?” he asked irritably, slowly sitting up.

 

Kurama just laughed at him. “You wouldn't come to, so I had to use quite a bit of force.” He became serious again. “I didn't think he could overpower you. What happened?”

 

“He got more energy from somewhere. I think he stole some from the people whose minds are under his control.”

 

Kurama helped his friend to his feet. “We'll have to continue our search later. Right now you can't see beyond the end of your nose, and Yukina won't be happy if anything happens to you. Besides,” he added when Hiei was about to protest, “what'll happen if he takes control of my mind? I'm tired and not thinking properly as it's nearly midnight and I have school tomorrow. We can search more later; for now, let's go home.”

 

They walked to Kurama's neighborhood without mishap. “Will you be staying here, Hiei?” the redhead asked. “You know you're always welcome.”

 

“Hn. I haven't been to the shrine since Koenma put us on this mission,” Hiei responded. “I should probably go back.”

 

“Is that really wise? If he decides to follow you, then you'll put everyone in danger.”

 

This caused Hiei to stop. If he went home, he would put them in danger, and he couldn't allow that. Also, home subconsciously had become associated with “safe”, so he wouldn't be as vigilant, and it would be that much harder to be sharp enough to find the psychic demon. The decision was taken out of his hands, however. While he was thinking things over, Kurama grabbed his arm and dragged him inside. “Mother, Hiei will be staying with us,” he announced.

 

“Oh, are his parents out of town again?” Shiori asked from what sounded like the kitchen.

 

“Yes, Mother,” Kurama answered.

 

“You boys can eat dinner now; Shu-chan and Kazuya aren't supposed to be back for a while.” Shiori leaned out the kitchen door and smiled at them. “It's nothing special, just sandwiches, but help yourself.”

 

“Did you need help with anything?” Kurama asked.

 

“No, dear,” Shiori replied. “When you two are done, though, would you mind setting up a place for Hiei to stay?”

 

“I'll put up an extra bed in my room,” Kurama informed her. His mother smiled at him and left the two of them in the kitchen by themselves. “So, is there anything in particular you wanted?” Kurama asked Hiei.

 

“Not really,” Hiei replied. Unless there's sweet snow…

 

Kurama shook his head and opened the refrigerator. “In that case, we're having sandwiches, like my mother suggested.” He took out some things of various colors and put them on the counter. “Do you have a preference as to what goes on it?”

 

The short demon shook his head and let Kurama do whatever he wanted to his sandwich. When the redhead brought it down to him, he examined what the fox did. There was some sort of light meat in between two pieces of bread, but also there was lettuce and slices of tomato with the meat. On the bread was something new; it was white and stuck to whatever was touching it. Hiei didn't like the look of it but was willing to try it for Kurama's sake. He tried one small bite of it. It was good, but the white stuff was awful. Still, he pretended to like it. “What did you put in this?” he asked his friend.

 

“Ham, lettuce, tomatoes from the garden, and mayonnaise,” Kurama responded.

 

Mayonnaise. I must remember to never touch that again. They finished their food in companionable silence. After Kurama took their dishes and put them into the sink, they walked up the stairs and into Kurama's room. Kurama looked down at his clothes and wrinkled his nose. “I'm surprised my mother didn't throw us into the shower once we walked in the door,” he said to the fire demon, who was standing in the middle of the room. “Our clothes are a mess.”

 

“I fail to see why you care so much for your clothes,” Hiei stated. “You knew we were going to be tracking that demon, and there was bound to be dirt involved.”

 

“Still, I'll need to wash our clothes,” Kurama sighed. “I'll find something for you, but we are going to change and shower before we go to sleep tonight.” Walking over to his closet, the tall boy leafed through what was in there, but nothing would come close to fitting the much shorter Hiei. Abandoning the closet, he started opening drawers and taking out things that looked like they would fit his friend. Finally finding a very long shirt and some shorts that would be a bit big, he handed them to Hiei and looked for something for himself. “You can shower first and I can make up your bed, or I can go first; it doesn't matter to me.”

 

“You can go first,” Hiei said. “You care more about being clean than I do.” As Kurama headed into the bathroom, Hiei sat down in the middle of the floor and thought about how the demon was almost able to overpower him. He's not as clever as he thinks. We now know his name and what he looks like. Now I'll have to tell Koenma. Maybe I can get Kurama to do it for me. No, he didn't see Gotenmaru, so it'll be up to me. That's just great. Why didn't he use that power when he was trying to take over my mind before? There wasn't even enough to overcome my barrier at first; was there a reason he didn't pull from his other power source to overcome me?

 

He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't notice when Kurama came out of the bathroom and was standing right in front of him. “Hiei!” Kurama shouted into the unresponsive demon's ear.

 

Said demon leaped back and had his katana to Kurama's neck before the other boy could blink. Lowering his blade, Hiei asked, “Is there something you wanted, fox?”

 

“You weren't answering so I shouted to get your attention. You can shower now. Do you remember how to use the handles?”

 

Hiei didn't bother to answer him and walked right into the bathroom. Since he'd been staying with Kagome, he'd learned very well how to use the water handles. Kagome wouldn't tolerate a sporadic bathing schedule, so he made sure to bathe every night, even if he didn't want to. Shrugging out of his clothes, he left them on the floor and turned on the hot water. Scrubbing himself quickly, he looked for Kurama's shampoo and conditioner, which weren't with the body soap on the floor. Confused when he couldn't find it, he looked on the ledges by the handles, but they weren't there, either. Thoroughly annoyed because he couldn't say that he was clean until he'd washed his hair out also, he looked up and found what he was looking for. Right by the showerhead.

 

Muttering about tall kitsunes and their fascination with putting things out of reach of less-tall people, he found that he could get the desired soaps out of their basket by pushing on their bottoms at an angle to get them to fall over the edge. With his goal accomplished, he washed his hair and left the shampoo and conditioner on the floor of the shower since there was no way he could put them back. Grabbing a towel off the rack, he dried himself off and put on the clothes, which were still too big on him. He dried his hair the best he could, but it was still wet when he exited the bathroom. “That was quick,” Hiei observed, noting that Kurama had set up the bed and had put sheets on it already.

 

Looking up from homework that was probably due the next day, Kurama smiled and got up. “I'll take your clothes downstairs and wash them,” he told him. “Feel free to sleep. I shouldn't be gone long.” He got his and Hiei's clothes and headed out the door. Deciding to take Kurama's advice, Hiei lay down on the inflatable bed and closed his eyes. Somewhere in the house a door opened and strange voices floated up to his ears.

 

I don't remember those voices being here before. Kurama can take care of himself, so it shouldn't be a problem. Wait, if his mother's attacked, he'll probably kill me for not helping. So much for getting extra sleep. Opening his eyes, he got up and, picking up his katana, headed out the door. As the voices sounded like they were coming from downstairs, that's where he went. There's no demon presence; good, then they're just regular ningen bandits. The voices were in the kitchen. He drew his katana and quietly entered the kitchen. There were only two of them, a man and a boy. This shouldn't be too hard. It doesn't look like they mean to harm anyone, so I just need to convince them to leave. “Can I help you?” he asked them, his voice cold and his katana pointed at them.