Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Shattered Gates ❯ Chapter 9: Realizations and Secret Confrences ( Chapter 10 )

CHAP 9
Hiei made contact with Kurama as soon as he entered the ancient pine-forest that surrounded the Temple, being excessively carefull to block Karyuu and Yusuke out of the conversation.
He couldn't afford to be overheard at this point...
"Kitsune?"
There was a breif pause, and the fire-demon took up a spot on a high treebranch from which he could see most of the surrounding area, his Jagan glowing pale green from behind the white headband, going unerringly to where Yukina was, releived to find her safe, playing some game with Uramehsi's woman who had arrived two days ago after a long period of absence.
The opal-eyed Servant was moving about in the kitchen, cooking something, and seemed to have no intention of moving from the area at any time soon.
"Hiei? Where have you been?"
"With the baka."
Through the link they shared, he could feel the older demon's surprise and scoweled.
"Surprisingly the moron had a coherant thought, and we've discovered something interesting about the Bone-Devil and it's demands..."
"Oh? What sort of discovery?"
"I'd rather discuss it in person... Don't tell the Servant or Urameshi anything until the baka and I have a chance to speak to you."
"Alright... I'v offered to take the first watch for tonight, and Karyuu has insisted on taking the second, so we can talk then," Kurama replied, his mental voice betraying the worry he was doing quite a good job of hiding. "Where has Kuwabara gone? Yukina was looking for him earlier..."
Hiei supressed an irritated growel.
"He's coming... riding in one of those foolish smelly contraptions that carry Ningens back and forth in great hoards..."
"So he's taken the bus... Then he should be arriving shortly?"
"Hn."
"Alright then, I shall speak to him when he gets back..."
The fire-demon broke the contact between them and darted forward, re-appearing in the cobbelstone courtyard, hands in his pockets where he hesitated, ruby eyes directed toward the kitchen where Karyuu was busily putting together a meal.
'I should keep an eye on the woman...'
Hiei came into the Temple's spacious kitchen, deciding on his way to pretend that he was there to find Yukina and had found the elfin woman instead.
However, the sight of the formidiable fighter moving about in a pink frilly apron seemed to make the garment look even stranger than usuall upon seeing her in it. She looked up at him from cutting an orange tuberous vegetable that Ningens called 'Carrots' and smiled a little, the way she always seemed to.
"Hi, Hiei, what's up?"
"I was looking for Yukina," he lied smoothly, absently noticing that whatever she was cooking smelled surprisingly good.
Karyuu paused, thinking and then returned to chopping her Carrots.
"I think she's in the garden with Keiko."
"Hn. Thank you."
"No problem."
He went to leave but she called him back, planning on making a breif visual check on his sister before returning to the kitchen roof where he could make his surveliance under the pretext of taking a nap.
"Oh, Hiei, can you do me a favour before you go?"
He paused and turned to face her again.
"Hn."
She took that as a yes and looked up at him, brushing on of the many loose strands of her hair out of her face with the back of her hand, nodding at the book proped up on the counter a few feet away.
"Can you look in that book and tell me how many cups of onion I need?"
He hesitated and then went to the book, looking hard at the words.
He recognised some of them, but but they weren't what she was looking for. When he didn't give her an answer, she halted her choping and looked over at him questioningly. She saw his expression as he frowned down at the cookbook, and as he looked up at her and he felt strangely embarassed, something that quickly turned to annoyance.
Hiei was never embarassed...
"Can't read, eh?"
"Hn."
She put down the knife and wiped her hands on the apron before coming to stand beside him, She looked at the book and then pointed the words there with one finger that was slightly stained orange with Carrot juice.
"Three cups of chopped onion," she said, pointing to each word as she spoke.
Hiei's eyes followed the movement and then looked up to meet her ever changing eyes which she met breifly before returning to the cutting board. He was about ready to leave when she stopped him again.
"Have you ever tried to learn to read Human languages before?"
He shook his head.
"Hn, not really. Kurama taught me a little of this language... Japanese... but I never persued it."
She nodded as she dumped the chopped Carrots into the steaming pot.
"You might want to consider it... writing too. It might come in handy."
"Hn. Perhaps," he said in a non-commital voice and then left, making his way toward the garden where he could check on his sister.
But as he sat in the shaded branches of a tree his mind wandered to Karyuu's suggestion and he decided that it made sence.
Perhaps it was wise to learn more of Ningen languages and maybe even a little writing... He wondered breifly how many languages Karyuu knew.
Kurama, who he knew was reading at that very moment, would most likely be willing to teach him, but he pushed the thought asside. The Kitsune alwayse moved so slowly when he was trying to teach, that Hiei quickly became bored and impaitent, sometimes leaving in the middle of the lession, (much to his partener's annoyance).
'It would also prove a good excuse to remain close to the Servant...' he thought with a nod to himself as he got to his feet. 'And it's more constructive than wasting my time on the roof.'
So after making sure the Baka, (who had arrived just five minutes ago), was safely occupied with playing some foolish game called 'paddle ball' and his sister was safe in the guarden with Yusuke's woman, Keiko, he returned to the kitchen to find Karyuu stirring the large pot with a long wooden spoon. The smell of cooking food in the air he noticed, was stronger and even more appealing than before. She looked up at him as he entered.
"Couldn't find her?" She asked.
"Hn, yes, I did."
She nodded and returned her attention to the pot, swirling the steaming content wirh slow rythmic movements with the spoon in her hand. Hiei's ruby eyes fell on the open book from before.
"I want you to teach me how to read that," he said pointing at the book.
She paused, looking up at him with mild surprise, one eyebrow raised quizzicaly at him.
"You want me to teach you to read?"
He nodded.
She halted her stirring, and pulled out the spoon and put a lid on the pot, turning down flicker blue flame until it was half the size that it was before.
"Are you sure? I mean, wouldn't you rather Kurama as your teacher?"
Hiei shook his head and folded his arms over his chest.
"Hn, no. I want you to do it."
She shrugged.
"Okay... wait here and make sure dinner doesn't spontaniously combust, alright?"
He raised an eyebrow at her, wondering if the statement was supposed to be a joke or a serious statement.
"Hn."
She blurred before his eyes, moving faster than even he could follow and dissapeared out the door. He leaned against the counter to wait, looking at the open book out of the corner of his eye following the words she had pointed to before.
"Three cups of chopped onion..."
He only had time to breifly wonder what kind of cup they meant and what an 'onion' was before Karyuu returned with several peices of blank paper, two pencils and a dauntingly thick-looking hardcover book that looked as if it had seen better days. She moved to the tabel by the window and set the objects down, motioning Hiei to sit at one of chairs while she checked something in the cookbook and then nodding to herself, she came and sat in her chair on his right.
"Okay... I guess the best way to do this is to start from the bottom up," she said, taking a peice of paper and pencil and began to carefully and clearly write out letters side by side.
She pointed to the letter 'A' with the tip of her pencil and began to explain the intricacies of Human languages, starting with the only example she had available at the time, English.
After almost an hour, she had mannaged to explain the basics, the fire-demon revealing himself as an impressively quick learner. After taking a break to stir the pot again, she returned and began to try and explain the odditites of English grammar.
The fire-demon seemed moderately pleased with his progress.
This was going much quicker and better than his lessons with Kurama, who in Hiei's opinion dended to over-complicate the whole process dramaticaly. He seemed to be able to grasp the basics of it farely well, but strangely, the letter combanation of 'ph' making an 'f' sound, seemed to cause him trouble... most likely because it made very little if any sence...
"It isn't really that hard, Hiei," she said getting to her feet and went to the pot to give it a stir while the ruby-eyed demon sat glaring irritably at the letters 'ph' she had written together on the paper in front of them.
"But it dosen't manke any sence," he said darkly, muttering something about 'stupid Ningens'. She smiled to herself and shook her head, replacing the lid and came back to sit by him again.
She moved the paper away and picked up a pencil to write 'ph = f'. The elfin woman paused and pointed to the equal sign with the tip of the pencil.
"That means 'equals'," she said and he nodded. "So all you have to remember is 'ph = f'. It dosen't have to make sense as long as you remember 'ph = f', okay?"
He heaved a sigh and nodded, sitting back in his chair.
"Hn."
"Alright... I guess this is everything I can show you this way," she picked up the old hardcover and held it up.
"This is one of my favorite stories," she said handing him the book. "It's the first publishing of J.R.R. Tolkien's 'The Lord of the Rings'. This book is pretty old... forty years or so, and it's kinda' beat up, but it's very dear to me, so be carefull with it."
He sniffed and opened the book to the first page, frowining at the words there and was moderately surprised that he could already make out several of the words, just using the strange little tricks that seemed to make up the 'English' language...
"Dinner's ready, so we'll have to continue this later... meet me in the courtyard after dinner, alright?"
Hiei nodded and got to his feet, book and papers in hand.
More reading lessons would be a good way to kill the time until Kurama arrived back from his watch.
"Fine, I'll meet you there," and then he was gone.
Karyuu untied the apron and folded it over the chair she had been occupying and moving to the oven where she pulled out two loaves of bread that she had baked earlier that morning and set the warm loaves in baskets, cutting enough slices for everyone and put them on the table. She then dished out the thick stew-like soup from the pot into bowls and set them out on the tabel where the places were already set by an infaluablely helpfull Yukina. Suddenly, Karyuu paused and lifted her head, looking in the direction where Hiei's Energy lay stationary.
"Hiei?"
"Hn, what?"
"Are you going to be eating with us today, or no?"
There was a pause and then a huffing noise.
"Yes."
She smiled, feeling oddly pleased.
It wasn't often that Hiei agreed to eat 'Ningen' food, let alone her cooking, and it was nice to at least beleive that she'd finally mannaged to gain some of her aloof team-mate's trust.
"Good, I'll set you a place then." She broke the contact and then located the other three team-mates. "Dinner's ready guys, come and get it... and don't forget to tell Yukina and Keiko."
"Alright, Karyuu," Kurama's voice returned. "We'll be right there."
Yusuke and Kuwabara didn't bother to answer her, but the rappid approach of running feet and a yell of "Fooooood!" told her that they had heard her message loud and clear.
The two Humans burst through the door, becoming stuck for a moment as they tried to go through the door at the same time, and sat down at the tabel. Kuwabara grabbed a spoon and after inhaleing the soup's aroma deeply, he raised the spoon for the kill, but Karyuu deftly releived the orange-haired young man of the spoon before he had a chance to dig in. He looked at her surprised and she tapped him lightly on the head with it playfully, (the utencil bouncing slightly on his curly orange hair without actually connecting with his skull) before she replaced it on the table.
"Wait for the others," she murmured before going back into the kitchen.
He pouted and slumped slightly.
"Sorry..."
Yusuke laughed.
"Yah, Kuwabara, don't be such a pig!"
"Me?" The tall man asked indignantly. "Who just won a contest to see who could burp the loudest, huh?"
Yusuke smiled piously.
"I did, but at least I wasn't at the tabel when I did it."
Karyuu raised an eyebrow at them, but decieded not to ask as Keiko, Yukina and Kyrama entered and sat down at a more sedate pace. Karyuu took a seat between Kurama and Yukina who sat beside Kuwabara, making the tall young man grin.
"This smells wonderfull, Karyuu!" Keiko said, sniffing at the bowl of steaming stew before her.
Yusuke looked at the unoccupied place and pointed at it with his spoon.
"Who't that for?"
"Me," Hiei said shortly as he appeared in the door.
The others blinked at him in surprise as he took a seat beside Yusuke.
"So, you're actually going to eat Human food, Hiei?" Kurama asked amusedly.
The fire-demon glared at him and lifted the spoon to his lips, cautiously siping at a little of the stew. He looked speculative for a moment and then nodded.
"Yes."
Kurama put a hand to his head and sighed while the others laughed and dug in.
*****
Dinner took longer than usual and amongst praises from her team-mates about the chicken stew and freshly baked bread, there were also calls for second helpings for everyone, (including Hiei, who didn't actually praise her for anything, but did eat a second helping and a large portion of bread as well).
The food was so good in fact, that it wasn't until everyone was stuffed, that the matter of the almost damning evidence that Kuwabara and Hiei had discovered earlier that day, though neither they, nor Kurama betrayed any sign of their knowledge except for a barely perceptiable glance shared between the two demons. Keiko and Yukina insisted on taking care of the clean-up and promptly inlisted Yusuke and Kuwabara into helping them. Kurama excused himself and took the first watch for the night, leaving Karyuu and Hiei free to keep their appointment in the courtyard.
The two met in the courtyard and Hiei was surprised to see that she brought an old red lantern that softly illuminated a circle in the dark around her. She motioned for him to follow and she lead him to a space on the wall near the cheery tree where they had watched the sunrise on the first day of training. For some reason, he was releived at this, seeing that this location was quiet and out of the way of prying eyes of the others, insuring that they wouldn't be disturbed. The elfin woman hopped lightly onto the twenty foot wall and sat crossleged beneath the cherry tree branches, haning the lantern on the branch. She looked at him and he saw the red-orange light catch in her silver black hair, making it seem like fire itself.
"Come on," she said with a smile. "You have the book, right?"
"Hn," Hiei said, coming to sit beside her, drawing the book from beneath his cloak and handed it to her.
She looked critticly at the space between them an shifted over until her knee touched his thigh and then opened the book, resting it on the space between where their bodies touched. Hiei blinked as almost moved away, but stopped himself at the last instant. Having her so close... anyone that close was always uncomfortable for him, but it was necessary for him to keep up the partial falicy of wanting her to teach him, and so he remained where he was, focusing his attention on the small print on the pages before him. Her finger pointed to the first word at the top of the page.
"I'll read the first few pages and then you can try, alright?"
He noded silently and she began to read quietly, "The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring..."
She turned the page and began to read agiain, her soft voice low as she read the tiny words, although Hiei got the distinct impression that she was reciting the words more from memory as she traced her finger along the words for his benifit.
"Three Rings fof the Elven Kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf Lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne In the land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
One Ring to rule them all, One Rign to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the land of Mordor where the Shadows lie..."
These cryptic lines meant little to Hiei, but because of the tone of Karyuu's voice as she read them, his interest was piqued to more than simply using this book as a means of learning the Ningen language of 'English'. The story itself seemed rather interesting and as Karyuu continued to read, his attention became fixed on the words that spun the tale he was hearing through her lips.
She continued to read and finnished the 'Prologue', before motioning for Hiei to try. After a brief inspection of the map, he began the first chapter, entitled 'A Long Expected Party'. Hiei began very slowly, sounding out the words as she had showed him earlier, tracking his progress with the finger of his bandaged hand, giving Karyuu a questioning look when he failed to figure out the meaning of the word, which she supplied for him without a trace of annoyance or amusement as he had somehow expected her to.
*****
This continued for almost four hours before Kurama's voice interrupted Hiei in mid-sentance as Karyuu put a hand on his arm, signalling for him to stop, an action that would have normally resulted in his snatching his arm away, but strangely, he remained still.
"Karyuu?"
She looked up and in the direction from which the fox-demon was approaching.
"Yes, Kurama?"
"It's your watch now."
She got to her feet and stretched.
"Alright, go on, I'll be there in a blink."
"Have a good watch."
She smiled a little.
"Thanks, sleep well."
The contact broke and she looked down at Hiei who was looking up at her with a politely puzzeled expression, something that looked strange on the usually expressionless face. The change also made her realize that he was also quite handsom...
"My watch is up," she said apologeticaly. "I've got to go..."
He frowned a little at her, temporarily forgetting the meeting he had arranged with Kurama when she had moved out of the Temple grounds.
"Make the Oaf take your shift."
She smiled and shook her head, running her fingers through her soft hair.
"Nah, it's about time we stopped anyway... My butt's fallen asleep."
He blinked up at her and then closed the book, and moved to stand, halting when she stopped him.
"No, don't get up," she said with a smile, pulling her hair back into a simple ponytail. "You keep reading and tommorow you can show me where you had trouble," he seemed about to protest, but she waved and blinked away before he had a chance, her voice entering his mind for a moment before it too disapeared. "See you tommorow, Hiei!"
He sighed in mild annoyance and dropped back to his seat on the wall.
The fire-demon looked up at red lamp still shining above him, noticing for the first time that it bore a small brass plate near the bottom that read "Belboz of Girth".
'Hn. I wonder what that means...'
Hiei shrugged to himself and then opened the book and began to read again.
"... And look at the outlandish folk that visit him: dwarves come at night, and that old wandering conjurer, Gandalf, and all..." he murmured, his finger till tracing over the words.
He continued to read silently from there on, his lips moving without sound before his deep soft voice began again.
"... If that's being queer, then we could do with a bit more queerness in these parts..." Hiei paused and frowned at the word 'queer'.
In modern Ningen terms, that meant someone who wished to mate with the same sex, (at least that was the deffinition Urameshi had given him several years ago amidst an irritating amount of laughter), the motive behind which evaded the fire-demon entirely, but that was beside the point.
In this book, it seemed to mean something different, and so he read on, in the hopes of finding an explanation rather than having to ask Karyuu the next day.
"... There's some not far away that wouldn't offer a pint of beer to a friend, if they lived in a hole with golden walls. But they do things proper at Bag End..." Hiei's frown of confusion deepened and then his ruby eyes fell on the pettal of a cherry blossom that had fluttered down onto his knee.
He picked it up and then placed it on the page near the top where half of the petal would protrude out of the top of the book and closed it, tucking it back under his cloak before getting to his feet. Perhaps the word was another way of saying 'strange' or 'different'. If that was the case, then that portion seemed to have a degree of meaning to him, at least in his attempt to understand the strange woman who had appeared so suddenly in his life. Perhaps she was like those 'Baggins' people in the story; strange and different from everyone else, but remaining kind and generouse to anyone who needed her help...
He scoweled, remembering the information printed out on the paper still tucked within his cloak and shook his head.
It was foolish to think of someone that way if one was in doubt of their real character, as he had been for the majority of the day. Karyuu was a good teacher, he had no doubt of that, but as to whether or not she was trustworthy... That, he had yet to decide.
He reached up and extinguished the lantern haning from the branch and picked it up, leaping down to the garden and placed it in her room. He paused there in the cool dark of her space and found himself surprised by what he saw there.
Her bed lay neatly made on the far side of the room, across from the door and against the wall, which suggested that she expected trouble. The rest of the objects in the room remained in the same possition as when she had first arrived, with the addition of a few extra items, such as a pair of scissors, various books and items of clothing, as well that must have belonged to her. He went to the open window and looked out, as he set the lamp down on a near-by table, absently laying one hand on the windowsill. Instantly her felt a strange tingeling pulse up his arm that was rather alarming. Starteled, he snatched his hand away, looking at his hand, and then at the sill, eyes narrowing.
The sensation had not been painfull in any way, and it didn't seem to be effecting him at all, since the tingeling that had courced through his arm had ceased the instant he had withdrawn his hand. The fire-demon took a cautious step back, his ruby eyes flickering over the window.
The sensation had been very much like what he would have experianced it there was a Ward placed somewhere on the window, and would probably have been designed to keep demons like himself out, despite the fact that it seemed not to have had any effect on him at all... Hiei cautiously looked at the shutters, searching for the Protection Ward.
"Bare," he muttered, and then cautiously looked behind it and spotted four strips of paper set on each corner of the shutter, no thicker than his baby finger, inscribed in black ink with incantations in a language he didn't recognise. "So it is a Ward..." He said quietly moving to check the other shutter and found the same thing.
Feeling strangely angry, he moved to the door (which had been open when he came into the room) and then paused, checking the edge to find the same incription on each corner of the frame, with one in the center. Hiei lookd at the room again, ruby eyes searching now for other signs that the opal-eyed Servant was expecting some kind of attack and was angry to find exactly what he was looking for. Now that he had taken the time to inspect it, the room, although cassual in appearance, was arranged for quick defence.
The desk had a pair of sharp scissors on it, despite any evidence of her having used them to cut anything judging by the empty waste basket.
Also, he found a knife, similar to the one she normally wore at her back was hidden beneath the edge of the futon.
And upon further inspection, he also discovered a thin, pointed peice of metal wedged in the track of the sliding door that made a very high-pitched shrieking noise that someone with demoninc, or Servant hearing would be able to here from a great distance, and would most certainly be able to wake them if they were sleeping.
'What are you preparing against?' He wondered silently, moving to her bed once again, the area in which the majority of her distinctive scent centered.
He lightly touched the soft blanket with his fingertips.
'Are you afraid of us?' He shook his head silently, dismissing the thought that had for some reason made him angry when he had first discovered the Ward on the window. 'No, if that were the case then I would be in a signifigant amout of pain after trigering the seal on the window... And she has no reason to fear us... she could kill us all if she so chose... So she didn't set them there for keeping us out...' He got to his feet and left quickly to a possition near the kitchen where Yusuke, Kuwabara, Kieko and his sister were playing some Ningen game with cards in the dinner room.
Kurama came up beside him, emerging as he often did out of the shadows.
"Hello, Hiei," he said in his soft voice.
"Kitsune."
"You look as if you've seen something you don't like," the red haired demon said, looking at his friend.
Hiei hesitated.
Most pertinent was the information he was carrying in his cloak... but the new discovery he had just made in her room complicated things.
"Come with me," he said shortly, leading the taller demon to Karyuu's room and stepped inside.
"What are we doing in Karyuu's room?" Kurama asked, frowning at him.
"Put your hand on the windowsill," his partner said, ignoring Kurama's question.
The red-haired demon hesitated and then moved to the window, green eyes flickering over it, a slight frown on his face. It wasn't that he didn't trust Hiei... it was just the fact that the request he had made was odd, and the 'information' the fire-demon mentioned that he and Kuwabara had discovered during their absence earlier that day had set him a little on edge...
"Why?"
"Hn. Just do it, Kitsune."
Kurama hesitated a moment longer and then cautiously placed his fingertips on the smooth wood of the windowsill. Almost immidiatly, he snatched his hand back with a soft hiss, green eyes turning to meet ruby in surprise.
"It's a Ward!"
Hiei noded at the door expressionlessly.
"There's one over there too."
Kurama looked immediatly at the back of the shutter and frowned at the inscription papers.
"These aren't meant for us," he said, his frown deepening. "I don't recognise the inchantment either... though they have been scribed in her language... Hiei, what could she be so afraid of?"
The fire-demon shook his head.
"I don't know, that's why I brought you in here," he gestured at the room. "But what ever it is, Karyuu has certainly taken steps to ensure her defence. Look at it, even the door has been prepared to give away an intruder if they break the Ward."
Kurama looked around, and Hiei watched him note the scissors, the slight bulge where her dagger was kept, and then at the door and the window, before he put his hands in his pockets with a frown.
"This is strange Hiei," he said moving out of her room into the garden, followed by the smaller demon. "I beleive she would have told us if she truely beleived ther was any danger... We're her main concern, after all..."
"To us, perhaps," Hiei said coming to stand by his friend. "But judfing by what we've discovered in her room, she does expect something to happen... and it seemes that she she expects the attack to target her and only her. Therefore, she would probably attempt to deal with it herself."
Kurama nodded and looked up at the cherry tree unaware that and Karyuu and Hiei had spent the last four hours amongst it's blossom-filled branches.
"Is it possible that some authority is looking for her?"
Kurama shook his head.
"No... no one would dare interfere with a Servant of Gaia..." he paused suddenly. "Unless... she's guarding against interference from another Servant?"
Hiei frowned.
"But if Karyuu is acting under Gaia's will... then why would one of her people try to harm her?"
"I have no idea..." Kurama flicked a lock of his red hair out of his face absently. "Before we make any guesses... what was it you wanted to discuss? I have a feeling it may have something to do with this, am I correct?"
Hiei paused, and formed a connection with Kuwabara, just in time to find that the orange-haired young man had lost the game miserably...
"Come out to Karyuu's room."
There was a breif, annoyed pause before he answered.
"Why Karyuu's room? We aren't gonna' break in or anything are we?"
Hiei glared irritably at Kurama who was rather ammused, despite himself.
"Baka! Just get out here!"
"Alright! Alright! Geeze... Give a guy a minute..."
The two cut the link and Hiei reached into the hidden pocket of his cloak and produced the paper on which the crittical information was printed and handed it to the curious, and now worried fox-demon.
"Read it."
A slight frown on his face, the red-headed demon obeyed and unfolding the paper, he began to read, his frown deepening until his emerald eyes widened noticably, rasing from the paper to meet Hiei's ruby eyes as Kuwabara joined them.
A breif silence stretched between them as Kurama turned the new, and troubeling information over in his mind.
"So... whadda you think?" He asked quietly. "It kinda' looks bad, but..."
"This is... surprising... I'll admit, I don't really know what to make of this..." the fox-demon murmured, eyes scanning over the deffinition again. "It seems as if she was lieing... I agree it would be nothing short of inconceivable that Karyuu was completely ignorant of what the monster came here for... There was a subtile change in the way she spoke that night that made me beleive that she was holding something back..."
"I senced it as well," Hiei murmured, ruby eyes downcast as he stared thoughtfully at the ground. "Yet it didn't seem as if she had..."
"Mal-intent," Kurama finnished and the shorter demon nodded.
"Hn."
The three stood in speculative silence for a while before Hiei voiced the option that was running through each of their minds.
"Do you suppose she's been lieing all this time? Has she been training us for some reason other than to save the Realms?"
The fox-demon shook his head slowly.
"No... I don't think so... at least it dosen't... smell that way, pardon the expression," he sighed. "As I see it, we have three options available to us at the moment... We can confront her with the information we have and demand answers now, or we can wait for something to happen and then act... And there's also the possibility that she might come out and tell us herself... She may be hiding the information from us for a reason, and if we bring it out into the open prematurely, then we may do more harm than good. Karyuu readily admits to the fact that we know only a portion of what we will later, and I have often thought that she may have been reffering to something more than just the physical and spiritual aspects of our training..."
Hiei considered it.
"We should wait for more information," he said finally. "Until then, we can keep a close eye on her..."
"What're we gonna' tell Urameshi?" Kuwabara asked, jabbing a thumb in the direction of the building where the Spirit Detective, Keiko and Yukina were still talking and playing their game. "Are we gonna' say anything to him? I mean... If all this stuff is aimed at him, shouldn't we tell him what's going on?"
"There isn't anything to tell him yet," Kurama said with a shrug. "We don't know anything of use... noting deffinite, anyway, and so all we can do is wait and stay alert... And by virtue of the fact that she hasn't said anything, to Yusuke or to us, it's probably prudent to keep this information to ourselves in the event that the knowledge of this will somehow be used against Yusuke..."
"And what if something does happen and Urameshi is caught un-aware? What will we do then?" Hiei asked quietly, raising his eyes to meet the emerald orbs of his partner.
The taller demon shook his head.
"I don't know... All of our futures rest with Karyuu... It's too late now to try and sepperate ourselves from this. Even without Karyuu's involvement, Koenma would have assighned us to this case. It seems that our involvement was something of an act of Fate, and for now, we may be forced to rely on that alone."
"So we're just gonna' sit on our butts and wait for somethin' to sneak up and bite?" Kuwabara asked, not looking at all pleased with the idea.
"We have no other choice," Kurama said quietly. "Personally, I think the most likely answer is that Karyuu is attempting to protect us from something... It appears to be a part of her nature to help rather than to harm..."
"Hn. Sentimentality won't do much to save us if she reveals herself to be a traitior," Hiei said darkly.
"True, but I honestly don't think that's the case here... I beleive that whatever motivations she has, it's for our bennifit."
"Or Gaia's," the fire-demon reminded him. "Remember, Kitsune, she's said more than once that her loyalties lie with Gaia. If Gaia turns on us, then so will she. I think we should treat her as a potential traitor until her true motives come into the light. We can't afford to risk a failure now... especialy not if it costs us Urameshi."
Kuwabara shifted a little, a deep frown on his honest face as he shoved his hands deep into his pockets.
"I dunno, Hiei..." he said quietly. "I usually get really good gut-feelings about people... You know, if they're good or bad, or if they're just pretending... And my gut's telln me Karyuu's okay... She's hide'n stuff, sure, but I think she means well..."
Hiei rolled his eyes.
"Oh, yes," he said sarcasticly, surpressing the inner voice warring with his logic that agreed with the orange-haired Human. "Let's wager Urameshi's survival on your 'gut-feelings', something a baka like you might easily confuse with a sensation as trivial as indigestion!"
"Damn it, Hiei!" The tall warrior snapped. "I'm just as worried as you about Urameshi! But I really think -"
"Lower your voice, Kuwabara," Kurama said softly. "He'll hear you."
Obligingly, the taller man lowered his voice, but unfortunately, didn't cease in his angry protests.
"... I really think she's tryn to help! She ain't a bad-guy, I'm sure of it!"
"How the hell can you be sure of anything?" Hiei demanded. "She could be using us for her own personal means!Urameshi is very valuable to Koenma as a Spirit Detective, and I don't beleive that even you are foolish enough to have forgotten already that he has more than a few enemies who would pay handsomely for his head in demon circles. For all we know, Karyuu could simply be biding her time until she has a chance to take Urameshi's heart, head or any other body part for herself and sell it to the highest bidder!"
"That's possible, I suppose," Kurama said, cutting in before Kuwabara could return the fire-demon's rant, (one he suspected his partner hardly concidered likely himself), his gentle voice gaining both men's attention. "But concider this: Karyuu has more than enough power to destroy us all a million times over before we could even regester the fact that she had turned against us, and yet, she has made no move to harm us at all, in fact, she has up to this point, done exactly the opposite," he met Hiei's eyes and found that the younger demon was assessing him, trying to determine if he himself beleived what he was saying. "She risked her life to save yours, Hiei... And she has been working toward making the four of us stronger than we were, not a wise hobby for someone who planned to kill us in the long-run. I think Kuwabara is correct... Karyuu is on our side for now... and I beleive that her reasons for keeping this information to herself, and the reasons behind the Protection Wards in her room, are for our safety and for personal reasons respectively."
A subtile, barely perceptiable tension left Hiei, seemingly satisfied that Kurama was working on both intellect and an acute sence of perception... and coupled with Kuwabara's 'gut-feelings', (which, even he could admit to himself were usually accurate), it seemed that although complicated and dangerous, the story behind their newest team-member's questionable behaviour seemed to be in the intrests of the Team.
"What Wards?" Kuwabara asked suddenly.
Hiei sighed and turned to leave, moving across the courtyard to the tree near the gate that he normally occupied.
"You explain it to him, Kitsune."
Kurama watched him go for a moment, shook his head and slipping the paper into his pocket, he began to explain about the Wards the fire-demon had discovered and the potential signifigance of them and the trouble that might be brewing for the Urameshi Team...

** Author's Note ** Okay, in case no one got the joke, the lantern with the name plate "Belboz of Girth" is a play on a character from one of my favorite computer games, Zork: Grand Inquisitor. If you have a computer and you haven't played this game, you should run outside right now and grab it... Your parents might be familiar with the name Zork, (that's how I got into it), but beware the origionals that came out in 1980-something... they're text-only games, and frankly they're impossible to beat, since you'd have to be insane and shot up on acid or something to understand the puzzels, (but the very first game, Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxey is pretty good, hard, but good). Zork: Nemisis is also a good game to play (it was released just before Inquizitor) and it has video and that kind of thing (think Myst or Rivan).
Nemisis and Inquisitor are older games (1996 or something like that), so just about everybody's computer can run them, and it's a comedy/fantasy/puzzel-solving game, so it's fun in groups too...
Anyway, it's lots of fun and I highly recomend it to anybody who likes puzzel games with a big dose of pee-yourself-laughing fun.