Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Shattered Gates ❯ Chap 16 Unlookedfor Surprise ( Chapter 17 )

CHAP 16

The next day, things continued as usual, an early rise to greet the dawn before a quick breakfast and then miles of hiking before beginning the rigorous training that would, in time, allow for the Urameshi Team to stand a chance against the Armies of Hell.
But underlying the all-important concern of growing stronger, Hiei found himself bothered by something that was not only trivial, but ridiculous.
He didn't believe in celebrating birthdays... and yet he felt almost... guilty that he hadn't participated in Karyuu's `Surprise-Bleated-Birthday-Party', as Kurama had put it, and had instead opted to spend the time taking the first two sets of watches, his own and that of the opal-eyed Servant.
But he had watched it all through his Jagan...
Ruby eyes turned to look at Karyuu, who was currently giving Kuwabara pointers as the orange-haired warrior stood beside her up to his knees in the gently lapping waves of the little lake they had been using to train in.
He remembered hearing the baka laughing with Karyuu and the others, handing out gifts and eating various foods cooked by his sister and the loud Ningen woman, Keiko, (some of which they had saved for him, in the form of a richly iced piece of cake several inches thick).
He had enjoyed it very much... it wasn't as good as sweet-snow, but it was still quite good, and wistfully, he wished he had attended the party just so that he could have procured more of the tasty cake...
Then he remembered something he had heard last night...
“It's a pity Hiei-san won't join us,” Yukina said, as she cut a slice of cake for the absent fire-demon. “I feel badly that he has to stand guard while we celebrate Karyuu-donno's birthday...”
“Yah... but Hiei's never been big on parties and stuff,” Yusuke said around a mouthful of cake. “Still, it'd be good if he'd show up, just for a little while...”
“Nah, he'd never come,” Kuwabara said with a shake of his head. “Shrimpy'd just make fun of everybody...”
“You mean he'd make fun of you, don't you, Carrot-top?” Yusuke asked with a smirk.
The orange-haired young man glared at him.
“You wanna' say that to my face, Urameshi?”
The brown-eyed Spirit Detective smirked at him.
“I did say it to your face, doofus,” he replied blandly.
“Now, come-on guys,” Karyuu murmured. “Be nice... It's my birthday, you know.”
The two blinked at her and then laughed as she promptly set off a pair of intriguing contraptions called `streamer-crackers' at them, covering them both in confetti and long brightly coloured tendrils of tissue-thin paper.
Typically, this erupted into a rapid succession of loud bangs, flying confetti, streamers, and warm laughter...
Then Karyuu's voice caught his attention, the Servant having only murmured it to herself, but because of his Jagan, he heard what the others did not.
“... Too bad Hiei didn't want to come... He would have liked these, I think...”
Hiei returned to the present and absently began playing with the water at his feet, forming a small whirlpool that swirled rapidly, pulling a floating leaf beneath the water and frowning, he stopped.
Something about that image bothered him deeply...
He shoved it aside, and turned his attention to the lesson once again as Kuwabara traded places with Kurama.
His attention was drawn to the right as movement caught his eye, and turning his head slightly, he saw Yusuke striding towards him with a small smile, before retrieving his towel, drying himself off before slinging the cloth around his neck.
“You should've come to the party last night,” he said after a moment, watching the progress Kurama was making as he manipulated the water of the little lake. “Even you would've had fun...”
Hiei glanced at him out of the corner of his eye.
“Hn.”
“Yukina was asking about you...” His leader continued silently, carefully blocking out the others. “And I think Karyuu was a little disappointed when you didn't at least show up for a few minutes.”
“Keh. I don't enjoy that sort of thing, Urameshi, you know that.”
“Yah, but...” Yusuke shifted a little with a quiet sigh. “Look... I know you have trouble trusting people, and after all of the crap you've had to deal with in your life, I can't say I blame you for it...” Ruby eyes turned to him again, a faint hint of curiosity tinting the gaze as he wondered what his leader was getting at. “But... Karyuu's a part of this team now... and I'm pretty sure she wants to be your friend...”
Hiei couldn't suppress a snort, and lowered his eyes, scuffing a twig out from under his feet.
“I'm touched...”
Yusuke scowled mentally.
“Damn it, Hiei, I'm try'n to be serious here... I know I'm not really somebody you want to get orders from, but I wanna' ask you to be... I don't know... nicer to Karyuu... or something... You know, let her understand you don't hate her guts or anything...”
Hiei smirked.
“What makes you think I don't hate her? Or you for that matter?” He asked the young man silently. “I swore to extract my revenge on you, after all...”
The Spirit Detective rolled his eyes skyward, leaning back against a near-by boulder.
He knew his friend's so-called threat was more the product of old habits than genuine hatred.
Neither one of them believed that the fire-demon would make-good on his oath of vengeance... not now that the two had become friends so close they were practically brothers.
But this little `you know I'm going to kill you eventually, but I just don't feel like it right now' act was a part of that friendship, and so the brown-eyed young man let it continue, just as he had over the last few years.
“I don't,” Yusuke said calmly. “But whether you hate us or not doesn't really matter. Like you said before, we're teammates, and that means a kind of loyalty.”
Hiei raised an eyebrow, though he didn't raise his eyes to look at his friend.
“Spit it out Detective. What are you getting at?”
“I guess I want to know if you see Karyuu the same way you see the rest of us... as a teammate,” Yusuke said finally. “`Cause if you don't, I ought to know about it, since everybody will probably say I'm responsible for it if you decide to chop her into french-fries or something...”
“Are you asking if there will be a problem where the Servant is concerned?”
“Yah, that's what I'm asking, I guess.”
The Jaganeshi shrugged.
“I have nothing personal against the Servant-”
“That's not what I mean,” Yusuke said, cutting him off, growing more frustrated with his inability to communicate than usual. “I mean, I think that she thinks you hate her, and I think it could screw things up.”
Hiei raised his head to meet his eyes and was rather suppressed to find his leader looking at him seriously, an unfamiliar sort of expression for the free-spirited Ningen.
`So... Yukina wasn't the only one who thought I had a problem with Karyuu's presence here...' Hiei thought irritably before looking away, still wearing a small smirk.
“I'll make sure the Servant understands that I have no inclination to kill her, Detective.”
Yusuke nodded, and shifted his feet, resisting the urge to smile.
That was as close to an admonition of friendship that Hiei would probably ever allow for, but it was enough.
“Thanks.”
“Hn.”
Seemingl y satisfied, he moved away, leaving the Jaganeshi in peace and joined Kuwabara, who was watching his teammate's progress attentively, trying to glean whatever extra information he could from his friend's lesson, in case the Kitsune remembered to ask something he had forgotten.
Hiei stood where he was by the water's edge, watching the Kitsune shift and manipulate the water of the lake in a complicated series of maneuvers, shifting and molding the water as if it were clay, though his mind was far from the lake.
It seemed that the others, including Yukina thought Hiei had some issues regarding Karyuu's standing as a teammate.
While he would admit privately that he had never been a very... `open' individual, (even in Kurama's case), he reasoned that he had not been too terribly cold to their newest member...
In fact, he had thought he was being quiet friendly... at least for him...
And he did want her to know that she was a part of their odd little `family'/team...
He... cared about her, a fact that he was continually reminded of, and irritated him, even more so than normal as of late.
Perhaps he should try to be... nicer...
He shuddered at the word and cursed Yusuke for making him think about it, damned Kurama to hell and back for rubbing his damn Ningen sensibilities off on him... And he saved a few curses for Karyuu as well, her influence becoming just as bad as the Kitsune's over the last few weeks.

*****

The day came and went, and soon the temple was shrouded once again in the cool shadow of night, and the Urameshi Team crept into bed, and fell into the kind of deep sleep only allowed to those who work hard during the day.
Karyuu had volunteered the first watch, and had taken up a position on one of the towering boulders that was situated several feet from the path leading to the long flight of stairs that served as the temple's front (and only) entrance, unseen by anyone on the ground. She was so well hidden in fact, that unless one had walked several steps up on the said stairs and looked just the right way through the forest, they might be able to see the faintest hint of silver as the moonlight touched the buckle of her belt.
Karyuu rested her head back against a tree, listening to the sounds of night, as she allowed her senses to explore her surroundings for any sign of an intruder. When she found none, her mind drifted a little to the sleeping people she was watching over, a slight smile touching her lips.
The members of the Urameshi Team had suppressed her the day before, (not something that happened very often in her life, unfortunately), and she had enjoyed the `Surprise-Belated-Birthday-Party' a great deal.
To be perfectly honest, it was the first birthday-party she'd had in her honor in...
`Three-hundred years or so...' she mused silently. `The last one was just before my Master died...'
She smiled a little at the memory of the party last night, rubber tarantulas, Cheeze Doodle-battles and a general feeling of belonging that was alien to her... a distant memory from her youth.
A quiet chuckle escaped her and she shook her head as she got to her feet, ready to make another patrol around the parameter of the Temple, sword strapped firmly across her back.
She hadn't forgotten the Bone-Devil attacks, and since then, she had never been without a weapon, even during their training together, though she normally left her sword in the Temple during the day, relying on the long knife that she now carried at her hip as her primary weapon, should things turn ugly.

*****

Hiei lay flat on his back atop one of the Temple's roof staring up at the clear dark of the night-sky, arms folded behind his head, sword at his side as his mind wandered. Smoky clouds trailed over the pale Ningen moon, making the luminescent orb above him become enshrouded in a ghostly halo of light that made the scene above him seem almost dream-like in quality. A small smile quirked at the corner of his mouth, and he cocked his head a little to the side.
The night sky in the Ningen Realm was always something Hiei could privately enjoy, the pale whiteness of the moon against the velvet blue blackness of the sky nestled amongst a colleague of sparkling diamond-white stars a thing of beauty, far more comforting than the blackened red of the Makai's sky.
That brief thought of comfort brought almost immediately an image of his sister, who now slept in the room beneath him.
Fleetingly, he wished he could go down there and tell the gentle ice-maiden that her search was over... her brother stood before her...
The slight smile that had touched his mouth vanished, so suddenly that one might have thought that it had never been there at all and was replaced with a dark frown that seemed both sad and determined.
He couldn't be that selfish... he couldn't allow his desire to tell her drag her into the game of deceit he'd woven around himself.

Countless rumors circulated throughout the Makai, (some of which were true), that painted him as ruthless, cruel and deadly... a demon truly to be feared. The amusing part was, he had thought of himself that way for decades, even going so far as to encourage the rumors to protect himself in his isolation from stronger demons.
But recently, things had changed, and he couldn't hide himself away from the truth for much longer, especially if he was forced to stay near the one he wanted to hide from.
He knew that Yukina was sad because of her `failure' to find her `dear long-lost brother', but despite that, he still believed that what he was doing was good for her in the long-run, no matter how much it hurt him.
Hiei would have done anything to keep Yukina safe; she was the only family he had left to him.
He could steal and kill…
He could slaughter weaker demons in his pursuit of power and as long as Yukina remained safe...
What he did seemed to matter very little.
But was he really that hard hearted?
Did it really fail to bother him that he had taken the lives of others so freely when their deaths could have been avoided if he had only taken a more cautious approach?

He picked up his sword from its place at his side on the cold clay of the roof and quicker than most Human eyes could follow, he unsheathed it and held it upright before his ruby eyes, even as he lay on his back.
The polished surface reflected even the dim light of the shrouded moon, making his sword shine brightly around his reflection.
This very sword, and many others like it had tasted blood many times over in his previously relentless pursuit of power.
The Jaganeshi had killed with cold efficiency, stealing away the lives of his enemies without thought or consideration of the dark path he was hurtling down.
He had often attacked savagely in the pursuit of success, and always he had been successful; but he had failed eventually... at the hand of none other than a Ningen teen by the name of Yusuke Urameshi...
Hiei slipped the sword back into its ebony sheath and put it down beside him again, before pulling himself into a sitting position, drawing up his knees to his chin, ruby eyes far away.
Defeat was a bitter concept to him.
He had always thought that he was strong before that meeting... Because of his cold, ruthless methodology, he believed that he was powerful, that his years of darkness and pursuit of power would almost always guarantee him victory if he chose to engage an enemy...
He hadn't been foolish enough to believe that he was the strongest demon to walk the Makai, but he had thought that he was strong enough... Strong enough to steal a sword and defeat a `weak Ningen child'.
Hiei smirked and shook his head ruefully.
But he wasn't strong enough... he had to learn how to accept the reality of that if he wished to continue living...

It was rare that he was that open with himself... that honest...
In fact, he had always erected an invulnerable wall around himself to block out thoughts like that... It was only until recently that he had allowed himself to think about it.
Cold and hard, and cruel, he might look to the outside world, but he had his own reasons... and they were damn good ones.
One must be strong to survive...
The strong fed on the weak...
The weak must die...
One must never allow themselves to be controlled by mere emotions... To do so guaranteed death.

But here he was, struggling against the deep, desperate desire to tell Yukina who her brother was, to be free of the loneliness and feeling of abandonment that haunted him...
A loneliness that declared that he would be alone forever, hiding in the dark while he watched those that he cared about walk in the light...
While they found others who could walk with them, and keep them safe...
That was the heart of the matter.
Hiei was alone, as he always had been, though now that he was surrounded by people who loved one another, he felt his own isolation even more keenly than he had those years ago before he had met any of them...
People like Yusuke and Keiko, like Kuwabara and Yukina and Kurama...
People like...
He straightened slightly as the image of the opal-eyed Servant currently on watch outside the walls of the Temple came to the forefront of his mind.
Now why had she entered his mind like that?
The Jaganeshi shrugged and turned his mind to what he had overheard the night before during her party...
Everyone there, even that baka, Kuwabara had at least had a passing thought that they had wanted him there...
He remembered distinctly the feeling of unity and friendship that had emerged as his friends and his sister had presented the Servant with gifts, and had been surprised at the amount of appreciation she felt with even the simplest items...

Even the ridiculous spider-box thing Urameshi had given her sparked a feeling of warmth and appreciation in the elfin woman that seemed more a result of the fact that the Spirit Detective had seen it as a good idea to share that joke with her, rather than any real affection towards the little spider-thing that had hurled itself at her...
Hiei shook his head, wondering how the Servant could possibly find such a childish Ningen gag amusing, but she had...
`The Servant is the strangest being I've ever met...' he thought absently. `She confuses me more than even Urameshi does...'
He remembered how often Karyuu's mind had turned to him... an absent wish for him to be there... even if he said nothing and simply sat at the window, she had wished that he was there... She thought of him as a friend...
And by not coming, even if only to make fun of the baka, he had made her believe that he disliked her... Not that she had behaved any differently toward him that morning, and it wasn't as if she had treated him differently during their training that day... In fact, she had behaved as she always did, and for some reason, her unquestioning acceptance of his apparent rejection suggested by his behavior bothered him vaguely...
“Spit it out Detective. What are you getting at?”
“I guess I want to know if you see Karyuu the same way you see the rest of us... as a teammate...”
“I don't have anything against the Servant...” he murmured to himself, and was immediately met with his leader's voice as his memories replayed in his mind.
“That's not what I mean... I think that she thinks you hate her, and I think it could screw things up...”
He had told Yusuke that he would make sure that the elfin woman understood that he had nothing against her... And in light of last night, he could only think of one way to express that without sounding especially foolish...
Hiei nodded to himself and got to his feet before disappearing from the roof with a flutter of cloth.

*****

Karyuu nearly fell out of the tree she had been sitting in as she felt Hiei's energy speed away from the Temple, at a fast pace.
She leapt out of the tree and fell soundlessly to the forest floor, intending to dart after him, but she skidded to a halt not more than twenty feet from where she began when Hiei's energy suddenly paused not half a mile from the Temple and remained stationary. A deep frown touched her and she closed her eyes for a moment, extending her mental `eye' toward the fire-demon and was surprised to find him rooting around in a bush, as if looking for something he had hidden there, but hadn't tried to find in quite a while.
She withdrew her mind again and cocked her head to the side, still looking in the direction her teammate was currently in, opaline eyes curious.
`I wonder what he's doing...' The Servant shook her head and leap up into a near-by tree, leaping lightly from bough to bough until she was once again hidden from the sight of those below her. `Well... so long as he doesn't go any farther, it isn't my business... He'd probably be angry if I showed up now...'
She sighed quietly, slipping down to sit easily on the slender branch beneath her, looking thoughtfully at the ever shifting darkness that was only twilight to her Servant's eyes.
Karyuu was aware, of course, that Hiei had been spying during her `Surprise-Belated-Birthday-Party' the night before... it wasn't as if she could have missed the fire-demon's Jagan as it touched her mind.
It was a useful thing, a Jagan, but hardly subtle if one knew what to look for, and Hiei had come in loud and clear, his presence hovering over she and the group like an unsubstantial cloud of consciousness that was far from hostile, but strange none the less.
She wondered why he bothered, since he obviously hadn't wanted anything do with the little event, and had firmly kept his distance as he always had.
Karyuu sighed quietly.
Hiei wasn't the most social of demons... in fact, he often preferred to remain apart from everyone, even Kurama, his oldest friend, was kept at a distance.
`But an arm's distance is very short compared to the one he's placed between me and himself...'
She shook her head and looked through the bows of the Dark Forest, absently noting the presence of a minor bat-demon who had stumbled accidentally into her range of Wards, and although unharmed, was shaken and had wisely begun moving cautiously to the west, trying hard to pass through her range of scent and leave without drawing the attention of the Temple's inhabitants. After a moment, the demon passed out of range and on further inspection, sped away as quickly as it could and returned to the cave several miles away that served as the local colony's roost.
`At least things are quiet tonight... I hope it lasts a while longer...'

*****

Hiei cursed his luck as he searched the undergrowth for the leather pouch he'd hidden there years ago which contained something he might be able to give Karyuu as a gift to honor her birthday...
During the night before, while watching the party through the green-haze of his Jagan, it had occurred to him that the exchange of gifts was an important portion of the event... It seemed as if by giving the `Birthday-boy/girl' gifts, it served the purpose of expressing friendship and even affection to the receiver of the gift.
Then, logically, if he gave Karyuu a gift of some description, he would effectively be showing her that he didn't hate her, while satisfying himself that he was fulfilling his obligations and hopefully the convince the rest of the Team that everything could continue as normal in their training...
`Damn it... where did I...' he pushed aside a branch and used his index finger to brush away a patch of old fallen leaves from the year before, and uncovered a small metal clasp. `Ah... There it is...'
He smiled a bit and reaching in, pulled the pouch out from under the bush and undid it before dumping the contents into his lap, his cloak forming a small pouch between his knees.
Revealed, sparkling a little in the faint light of the moon overhead as it filtered through the boughs of the ancient trees, were several handfuls of precious trinkets the Jaganeshi had gathered over the last few years he'd been forced to spend in the Ningenkai (without Koenma's knowledge, obviously). Honestly, he had little use for these Ningen trinkets, but on rare occasions, he found that he needed Ningen money to purchase something, and so he kept these things here, so that he could barter with merchants referred to as `Pawn-Brokers' for currency.
Absently he sorted through them, tossing various stones, broaches, medallions and earrings back into the bag, along with any of the men's jewelry he'd acquired. He paused on a golden ring bearing a single white diamond at it's center, considering it for a moment before tossing it in the bag as well.
If memory served, a ring of that nature was used by Ningens to propose a life-mating, and although he wanted to show his elfin teammate that he was an ally, he had no intention of asking her to mate with him...
He shook his head and tossed it into the bag along with the others before returning his attention to the pile, sifting through it until he uncovered a delicate chain made of a metal Ningens called `platinum', suspending a single, tear-shaped opal about a centimeter in length.
Again he paused, holding up the delicate piece of jewelry thoughtfully before his ruby eyes, watching the soft colours of white, red, green, blue and gold swirl in the stone as it caught the light of the moon above and he smiled slightly without really knowing why.
Subconciously, he supposed, it resembled her eyes.

“This should do nicely...” he murmured, stuffing the other treasures into the bag, re-sealing it as he slipped the gift into his cloak and hid the pouch once again.
Having gotten what he came for, he returned to the Temple, and after procuring a sheet of plain paper and a length of string from the office/library, (remembering at the last moment that it was customary to cover the gift in paper for some silly reason). He wrapped the gift and secured it with the string, ensuring that it didn't open prematurely and tucked it into a fold of his cloak.
This done, he returned to the roof of his sister's room to await his turn on watch when he could present the Servant with her gift, and finally be rid of this foolishness of `Birthdays'.

*****

Several hours passed before Karyuu's voice entered his mind, rousing him from the half-doze he'd allowed himself to slip into.
“Hiei?”
He sat up.
“Hn, what?”
“Sorry to bother you, but It's your watch...”
“Hn.”
He rolled to his feet, sword in hand and leapt down into the courtyard, coming face-to-face with the elfin Servant who was standing below him.
“Everything was pretty quiet,” she said quietly. “There was a bat-demon sneaking along the outside of the Ward parameter, but he ran off as soon as he realized where he was.”
The Jaganeshi nodded once curtly and looked out at the temple's entrance, ruby eyes glowing slightly in the dark as a thick cloud passed over the moon, a similar effect touching Karyuu's ever-changing eyes.
The two remained in silence for a moment, and then she began to move away.
“Good night, Hiei...”
It was then that he remembered his gift.
“Servant.”
She paused and turned to face him.
“Here,” Hiei said shortly, thrusting an object wrapped in plain white stationary paper at her.

She blinked at him and looked at the small package curiously as she accepted it.
“Thank you...” She said slowly, an eyebrow raised at him. “What is it?”

“It's a necklace. I thought you would want it, so I got it for you.” He said flatly, not looking her as he directed his gaze somewhere to the right.
Cocking her head to the side, Karyuu unwrapped the trinket and found herself looking at the necklace he had retrieved. Her eyes widened as her gift was revealed and she looked up at him as she undid the clasp and put it around her neck, surprised to find that it fit perfectly, the metal warm against her skin from being tucked in the fire-demon's cloak.

“It's beautiful, Hiei…” she murmured in a voice that made him glance at her and then away again.
This entire thing was making him feel absolutely ridiculous, and oddly pleased at the same time, a combination that was beginning to make him regret giving her the foolish trinket at all.
“But...”
He turned his head to look at her, a slight frown touching his face.
“But what?”
She looked up at him and he saw genuine confusion in her eyes that matched the polished iridescence of the stone he had given her.

“Why are you giving me this?”
“Hn.” He looked away again. “Your Birthday... I was supposed to give you a gift to celebrate your Birthday.”

She blinked, her opaline eyes tracing over the tight line of his jaw and she smiled.
“Oh... well, thank you... it's beautiful.”
Then, without warning, she reached out and embraced him quickly, planing a light kiss on his cheek, before releasing him. Hiei stared at her, his ruby eyes wider than normal, surprised by her boldness.
No one had ever dared to hug him like that, let alone kiss him...
She smiled at him and looked down at the necklace around her neck, before returning her gaze to meet his.
“Thank you Hiei,” she said again.
And then, to Hiei's irritation and Karyuu's surprise, the fire-demon blushed very slightly.
“Hn.”
And then he was gone.
Karyuu watched him dart away and down the steps leading into the forest and then looked down at the necklace around her throat, fingering the opal thoughtfully.
“Well... that was strange,” she murmured quietly as she turned to go to her room. “I wonder why...”
And then she paused, turning to look over her shoulder to where the fire-demon had fled and a slight smile touched her lips.
So he'd heard her thoughts that night during her party...
`And this... is an apology for not coming?' she shook her head and began moving once again in the direction of her room. `No... Hiei never apologizes for anything, it isn't his way...'
So what was it then?
She mulled it over for a while, and then, as she was taking off the said necklace, setting it on the dresser with the other gifts she'd received, as understanding struck her.
It was his way of telling her that his non-appearance wasn't personal...
He just hated parties...

 

*** Author's Note *** : Okay… I know I haven't updated in a really long time… but I've got a whole bunch of good excuses (that you really don't want to hear).

The short version is:

Moved twice since last post.

Re-entered and left High-school.

Now taking correspondence courses.

Trying desperately to beg for a job (15 resumes in circulation at the moment).

Very little time to self.

+______________________________

= Slow updates, no sleep.

I swear I'll finish my fic eventually, but the updates will take a bit, that's all…

*sigh…*

Also, where I am now doesn't get Yu Yu Hakusho, so I don't have much in the way of inspiration… as a result, another fan-fic (for Trigun) has been harassing me relentlessly T.T, and although I'm trying to concentrate on this fic to finish it first, the other is making things difficult…

Damn that dounut-snarfing idiot genius!

@_@

Anyway, I'll finish this bloody thing pretty soon (I hope…), and THANK YOU for sticking with me for so long…

 

HUGS!!!

- Vitaralastla