Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Balance ❯ It is No Longer Entertaining ( Chapter 11 )

Disclaimer: ::erk:: purging self-inserts from the forums is harder than it looks…

shadow priestess: re: "rappelling": ::gah:: That's what I meant! Blame the pre-calc!

Balance

Chapter Eleven: It is No Longer Entertaining

This is no longer funny, he repeated, for he had been saying it constantly for long minutes. The black haired man only returned the blank look his eyes had been locked into.

'I wasn't trying to be funny,' the man said, finally speaking. He raised a hand to his mouth.

You know nothing of Hiei? he asked fearfully.

'You and I could not be speaking of the same man,' the black haired man said with a shake of his head.

Why is that…?

The man laughed sadly. 'He died a long time ago, don't you remember?'

I do…not…

The world suddenly crashed into focus and he screamed. Get me out of here, he shrieked, get me out! This is not real and it is no longer entertaining! I wish to leave!

The sky became glass and mirrors, an ugly jigsaw puzzle, and he shrank to the ground.

'Are you all right?'

It is you who is not all right! You who is wrong! You are not real, and you live in a world of imagination! I do not belong here! Do you not see the wrongness of the sky!?

The man turned his eyes upwards and shook his head. 'Nothing is different from what it should be…'

Do you not see the gruesome mirrors!?

'What mirrors do you speak of?'

He wailed, shrunk to the ground with a sob and the grass wove around him. A web, a horrible net, tying him to this world of fantasy and make-believe, and he could not move. Tearing at the threads, pulling at his bindings, he tore few and they were replaced by more, and he was pressed flat to the dirt surface of false imaginations.

I do not belong!!

Each mirror, each repulsive shard of glass, reflected the image of an eye, a blood red eye, and eye of the gods, and each blinked in time with each other. Some eyes became mouths, others ears, others noses, others delicate hands stained with the blood of false promises and non-reality.

All screamed to him through the muddled haze.

'You cannot perceive reality!' they called. 'You cannot know what is true because you cannot know what is not! You wish for a world of pretend, a world of the past, like so many others before you, and yet once you are given such a gift, you know not what to do with it! You receive it and you no longer want it! Selfish bastard!'

The mirrors and glass wedges split from the sky, and lightning cracked, and all was white.

The man in the mirror stood before him.

He floated on a blade of grass.

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

"How d'you guys know these things?" Yuusuke asked incredulously, looking back over his shoulder and trying to discern how the two had chosen the direction of "seventy degrees north."

"How do you not?" Hiei retorted coolly. Yuusuke offered an even glare.

Kurama waved his hand nonchalantly. "More than a thousand years of practice, I assure you," he replied. Seemingly satisfied with this explanation, Yuusuke nodded and let the subject drop.

Kuwabara, hands stuffed in his pockets, also looked around as they walked, making a sudden connection. "Hey…this looks a lot like the mountain trail Urameshi and I had to walk down when we went to Torukanae's mansion to get Yukina-chan…"

Hiei grit his teeth, but made no other comment. Kurama watched him warily.

"It does," Yuusuke replied. "That's weird…"

"Maybe because this is the same trail," Hiei said bitterly. "Do you see the house in the distance?"

"No, I…oh yeah! There it is!"

Kuwabara nodded emphatically. "I see it! Right there!"

Kurama looked around, quickly calculating the distance from their starting point to their current location, then to the house Kuwabara and Yuusuke had mentioned. "It's there," he said. "The house is being used as a stronghold once again."

Hiei flitted into the trees and looked around.

Teeth clenched at the very sight of the mansion, Hiei had to take a few moments to calm himself and keep from charging in to burn the place to the ground. He wouldn't want to take on a hoard of mid to high B-class youkai all by himself, even if he could defeat them easily enough. He didn't want to defeat them, after all; he wanted information.

'Restraint,' he snapped at himself.

Leaping to the ground, he shook himself off briefly (Kurama was reminded of a dog, for reasons he later deemed ridiculous and nearly slapped himself for thinking of) and stretched. "That it is," he noted with a yawn. "A stronghold for mid to high-B class youkai."

Kurama nodded, putting a hand to his chin and taking on a particularly thoughtful pose. "Yes…I thought…"

Yuusuke watched him intently, and Kuwabara strained to get a better view of the house.

"What did you think?" the former Tantei finally pressed eagerly. Kurama looked over with a start.

"Oh, I just…I thought there would be mid to high B-class youkai."

Yuusuke titled his head. "And…there are. Right? So what's the problem?"

Shaking his head, the redhead continued. "Don't you see the pattern?" At Yuusuke's blank look, he continued. "We're being attracted by traces of A- and S-class youki, but then arrive at each location to find only low class creatures who belong in the slums of Makai. Yet each find brings us stronger youkai than the last."

Yuusuke nodded as he spoke, and Kurama looked at him hopefully. "Do you understand?"

Still nodding, he replied slowly. "Oh…no."

Pausing to compose himself, the kitsune closed his eyes calmly. "We're being baited, don't you see? The enemy is leading us on. They're trying to trap us."

"…Nani?"

Hiei pushed Kurama aside and glared up at Yuusuke, presumably stunned at his stupidity (or so the youkai called it) in picking up on the details of what Kurama was saying. "They want us to feel secure when there is really nothing to feel secure about. They want us to think we are the ones in control, that we are the ones finding their trail, when in fact, they are the ones pulling the strings. They leave obvious clues, purposefully tossing us smaller and smaller traces of youki to catch as we progress, leading us to stronger and stronger youkai to question."

"And that means…?"

Kurama took his shoulder, and Hiei took the other. Surprisingly enough, completely of their own accords, the two spoke in unison, making Yuusuke feel slightly…slow.

"They're testing us."

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

The four walked on in near-silence-they had been for quite awhile now, and were nearly at the mansion's front gate. Yuusuke and Kuwabara proceeded slowly and with extreme caution, remembering the traps and guards from their first venture to the compound, but Kurama and Hiei, sensing no danger, walked on ahead. Kuwabara kept his Reiken drawn, occasionally asking them if they were sure it was all right to walk on ahead.

"Yes, Kuwabara, for the sixteenth time, I'm certain it's all right," Kurama said, his patience thinning (though he did a stellar job of keeping that fact out of his voice).

"We're almost there," Hiei said snappishly, pointedly turning his head away from the two men behind him. Kuwabara huffed.

"Well, no need to be nice about it," he muttered. Yuusuke knocked him lightly on the head.

"Lay off, man."

"Why?"

Yuusuke scoffed. "You know Hiei last came-"

Suddenly, realization set it. Kuwabara didn't know Hiei was Yukina's brother. According to the ningen, the only reason Hiei would ever even have heard of this place was from their mission to rescue the girl and he had "tagged along," sort of. Come to think of it, Kuwabara didn't know why Hiei had shown up, did he? Yuusuke racked his brain, trying to come up with a reason Hiei would be uncomfortable around the old stronghold…

"-here, he…well, he was still defining his side, kinda, and he doesn't like to think about that. It was a…difficult period for him. You know, not knowing if he's a good guy or a bad guy, being all confused, that kind of crap."

Yuusuke nearly patted his own back in congratulations for such a plausible lie. Kuwabara, however, wasn't so convinced.

"I dunno…" the carrot top mused. "He doesn't seem like the kind of guy to get all hung up on the past like that."

"Oh, you'd be surprised," Yuusuke ad-libbed, hoping Hiei wouldn't kill him for this.

"Really?"

"Oh, yeah."

Kuwabara sunk into his own world to reflect on these new "facts," and Hiei turned his head to offer Yuusuke a combination of a seething glare and a thankful expression, of a sort. Yuusuke laughed awkwardly and waved to the youkai, who turned back to talk to Kurama.

"Well, here we are…" Kurama murmured, feeling around the door for some sort of lock or switch and finding none. "Do you know if there's a trick to get in?"

Yuusuke walked over and shook his head. "I don't think so. Though this is kind of weird, isn't it?"

"How do you mean?"

"Well," Yuusuke explained, "didn't one of the youkai we talked to say that their superiors would be in a cave or something? You know, something underground, well protected, well hidden…?"

Hiei nodded slowly. "Come to think of it, Makoto said they would be in a cave, or somewhere well hidden. This place is not hidden at all."

"A giant eyesore," Yuusuke said softly, nodding as well.

"Let's go in and find out," said Kuwabara bravely-or at least, trying to sound brave. To be fair, he only floundered a little bit at the beginning.

"Eh…" Kurama hesitated.

Hiei took his arm and pulled him down to eye level. "Kurama," he whispered, "we need to find this threat before it consumes us all. It's dangerous, we both know it. It's hunting for us, us four, and it won't stop until it gets what it wants. We have to take every lead we get, and this one is from-as much as I hate to say it-one of the most reliable sources available to us."

Kurama nodded. "I know," he murmured back, "but it all seems too easy. We had to find the sources, yes, but once we did, it was only a matter of blowing out the hole and climbing down. Anyone skilled in rappelling could have done the same, even accidentally. I don't…I just don't trust these people."

"Kurama," Hiei replied, still softly, "I don't trust them either, but do we have a choice, really? We-you-all of us, really, have an obligation to Makoto and Kira and Miaka. We told them all we'd stop whoever was tormenting them, and by a code of honor, we have to do it."

"I know…but-"

Hiei pressed a finger over Kurama's lips, and, startled, Kurama looked down with crossed eyes.

"No buts," he said. "I don't like it, either, but it has to be done. Just think-will you be able to live with the fact that you gave up?"

The kitsune shook his head, and Hiei removed his hand.

"Let's go."

Yet Kurama still hung back, and, waving Yuusuke and Kuwabara on through the open door, Hiei remained to talk to his friend.

"Why do you not come?"

"This is no simple mission… It is not something entertaining…"

Hiei stepped directly before Kurama and nodded. "You're right. It isn't. But…Kurama, you're stronger than that."

With a silent gasp, Kurama looked down, perplexed.

"You can do it. You can keep your promise and stop this youkai and you can do it because we'll all be here with you."

The redhead's eyes drooped and became half lidded.

"I had a dream like this once."

"You can do it."

"It didn't end like that…"

Blood red eyes sparkling with some unknown force, Hiei took Kurama's hand and tugged lightly.

"Come on. They're waiting."

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

Yuusuke and Kuwabara were standing in the middle of a long hallway when Hiei and Kurama tracked them down, both with their eyes closed, trying to sense out the youki in the mansion.

Yuusuke's eyes opened slowly as they approached. "There," he said, pointing in completely the opposite direction. Kuwabara, too, opened his eyes. "Yeah."

Senses skyrocketing for a moment, Kurama found the youki they referred to and stepped forward. "Quite close."

"That door."

Yuusuke took a deep breath and poised his fist over the hardwood.

"Ready?"

A round of "Yes."

With a thump, the door crashed in.

Met with a group of eight youkai, all class high B (either the mid B-class youkai were in a different room, or not in the compound at all, Kurama surmised), Kuwabara took a small step backwards and Hiei took one forwards. Kurama stood on light feet, and Yuusuke took a haughty pose.

"Who's first?"

One of the youkai, an ugly, fluorescent orange one, seemingly composed entirely of disjointed blobs of flesh, slithered forward.

"Get out before we hurt you."

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

Youkai: demon

Youki: demon energy

Makai: Hell, Demon World

Nani: what

Reiken: Spirit Sword