Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ The Sacrifice ❯ Discovery ( Chapter 7 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

AN: Well, here it is. After two long months of bullshit, here we finally have a completely NEW chapter. That has NEVER BEEN SEEN BEFORE! I know you're all exctatic. Ugh. I've still got two regents to study for. Will school ever fucking end?

Disclaimer: Bunnies taste good.

Chapter Seven- Discovery

It has been three wretched days of asking around after the Crow, and so far only whisperings have been uttered.

Those whisperings were enough to lead us to the Eastern woodlands, but so fare not a trace of energy has hints of Karasu or my lover. I sit now, staring into the flames of our campfire with the Detective, gradually lifting out of my despair as I am seduced by the Makai air and the hope it brings.

He is here.

He is alive.

I know it.

“ Hiei?”

I snap partially out of my anthem for hope and eye Yusuke darkly over the poached rabbit I caught earlier. The taste of smoked mammal flesh does nothing to help my nausea.

“ Hn?”

He fiddles with his dinner nervously, unable to look at me strait.

“ When did you first know? That…that you'd spend the rest of your life falling for guys like the kit?”

At his cleverly worded question, I start to pay attention. Fleetingly I remember something Kurama once told me about the ningenkai…about how same sex mating was frowned upon…it had been a joke…

Obviously the Detective isn't joking now. I consider ignoring him, but the look in those eyes tells me that if I was ever his ally, I should respond.

“ Hn. The minute I lay eyes on the weaker gender. Though I expect a fool like you struggled with the tendency.”

Well, imagine that. He seems genuinely hurt. Maybe the next time we battle I should insult his hair, or his habit of wearing tight jeans.

“ Yeah. I did. And I regret it too. Heh. You got to him early Hiei. Or did he get to you?”

I smirk in spite of my looming melancholy.

“ Don't waste your precious contemplation power, Detective. We were in love when you were failing out of ningen elementary school. We just never said it.”

He looks amazed, and I realize what I have just said. Kiso! Grief is the melter of all barriers, it seems. My only consolation is that my actions have already surrendered the words louder than my careless statement.

“ Yeah well, getting chucked off a cloud by a bunch of frosty bitches'll lay the hurt on anyone.”

“ Watch it, Yusuke.” I reply softly. My tone makes his face go white.

“ S-sorry. I just meant that…for someone with a crappy past you like, won the supportive-koi lottery.”

“ Hn. Tell me something I don't know.”

“ Okay. You deserve him.”

Silence. I am quietly stunned, and use my rabbit skeleton as an excuse to get up and walk to a more secluded part of the forest. As I throw it far away my mind mulls over one, sordid question.

Do I? After leaving him for dead? After retreating into the arms of ill-fit humans and nearly losing my wits on undeniably potent chemicals? Do I deserve Kurama?

As if reading my mind, the Detective sighs as I come to sit, back turned against him, on my log.

“ Nobody's perfect, Hiei. Not even all-powerful, 200+ co-winners of the Dark Tournament. Sometimes they heed help.”

A shiver runs down my spine at this. It has so many meaning for me. Help leads to betrayal. Help is weak. And yet…help is a saving grace…for all of us.

It happens during my contemplation of this paradox. I am about to climb the nearest pine in hope of some fitful rest…

When emotions that are not my own tear through me. It brings me to my knees, this agony. I almost weep his pure white tears. The pain…despair…and…pleasure…rip through me like a knife cut, and images start to flash before my Jagan.

Woods.

Rape.

A moss-covered fortress.

A skinny youkai girl with fear in her eyes.

And Karasu's laughing face, dark with insanity and evil.

My veins, touched with the blood taken from my fox, begin to burn as they recognize the energy signature and it's origin. I know where he is.

“ Get up, Detective.” I choke through Kurama's anguish.” We are c-closer…than you think.”

It only takes us an hour, at full speed, to reach the ancient, pathetically small castle remains of what must have been a great stronghold. It rests at the blackest heart of Arbaak Shamalan; The Grove of Deceit. Though the walls are solid, half the ceiling and most of the windows have been replaced by a deep, blood red ivy that seems to have naturally woven its way into the cracks, creating the illusion of swallowing up the ominous abode.

In my zeal to rescue that which belongs to me, I think what a terribly guarded hovel this is.

“ Hiei, don't!”

But Yusuke's warning is a long second too late. I run for the driftwood door, determined to break it into tiny little bits of timber to burn on the journey back to Ningenkai, and bound strait into a trap.

It costs me the element of surprise…and possibly my left arm…because three mad bombs have just exploded against my unarmored flesh. The blow knocks me back into the leaves and I struggle hard not to scream. My body, having only just healed from my drug-induced stupor, tries to shut down, but firmly I push away the grogginess and stand.

It is lucky I was hurled, because in amazement the Detective and I watch as hundreds of invisible combusters respond to the catalyst of my approach. It is like a ningen fireshow in the sky, only crueler…louder…uglier.

His energy is a bad taste in my mouth. It fills me with a rage stronger by far than any I have felt before, making me forget the searing agony shooting through my side. I try not to look at the burns on my limb as absently I wrap it in my cloak.

An injury to be dealt with later. Holding my katana in a vice grip, I watch as the door that is my foe opens with a resounding creak through the now deadly quiet forest.

` Heh. Care to try again?” the Detective asks nervously, then walks with me inside the darkened entryway.

Yusuke stumbles, but I see far with my demon eyes. We are in a filthy dining hall that smells overwhelmingly of blood. (Some of which belongs to my fox) The table is empty save for a large candelabra, which I light with an idle thought.

Its illumination reveals the cursed creature standing in the shadows of the opposite corridor.

“ Well, Hiei. Yusuke. I was beginning to think my claiming of him went unnoticed.”

TBC

AN: MWHAHAHAHAHAHA! I know, I'm evil for leaving you off there, but deal! Next chapter shall be the last, and one full of sublime torture of the Crow! After that, keep your eyes open for the sequel, which is just as violent and angsty, but in a whole different way. Mwhahahhaaaaaaa!