Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Theives' Guild ❯ Chapter 3

I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or its characters. I do, however, own everyone else.

Chapter Three

Ayume waited patiently near the entrance to the cave system. She didn't go out far enough for her friends to see, hear, or smell her, but she wasn't too far away. Youko and Kuronue would have to come by this way eventually. She leaned her back against the cave wall painfully. It seemed almost as if all the demons in the place had honed in on her once she left Youko and Kuronue alone.

Perhaps it was because she seemed to be the most helpless, or she was the easiest prey alone. She'd taken a nice few injuries. Not only that, but she drained the majority of her power. With what was left directed toward healing, she really was helpless.

She would give them another hour before she tracked them down to help them out. By then the worst of her injuries would be healed. Her sensed expanded, noting the few remaining demonic auras in the system. They belonged to Youko, Kuronue, or the men near the exit. Youko's was still at full power. Kuronue's was diminished slightly, but that was to be expected. They were also nearby, and approaching.

So they hadn't run into much trouble. That was good. She let her head drop as her eyes drifted shut and she was asleep within seconds. She was mildly aware of someone shaking her, but it didn't pull her nearly close enough to the surface to wake her up.

Once Kuronue had calmed down enough to regret his harsh words, Youko showed him the map Ayume had given him to help them find their way out. That had made him feel even worse. Ayume was a really nice kid. She looked out for them even when it wasn't advantageous to her.

He was growing really attached to her. He was also starting to worry. Every turn they took let them to another mound of dead demons. Upon examination, it looked a lot like Ayume's work. She had to be getting tired. Even if she was amazingly strong for a human, she wasn't invincible.

Youko was the first to spot her. They were near the entrance by now. She was slumped against the wall with her head down. The scent of her blood hit him like a brick when he got close enough. He ran up to her, kneeling down so he was at her level.

She was unconscious. He shook her, but got no response. “Is she okay?” Kuronue asked from behind him. Youko checked her pulse. It was slow and steady under his fingers, and her breathing was normal.

“Debatably. She certainly isn't fine at this moment, but I think she will be.” The few dangerous-looking injuries she had were already healing. The others certainly wouldn't kill her. The only question would be how long would she sleep?

Youko picked her up. Kuronue looked surprised. “She won't wake up?” he demanded.

“No. I assume she'll sleep until she's fully recovered. Her spirit power is completely drained, and what little body energy she had left is focused entirely on healing. She can't be up and moving around or she'll use the energy her body needs to heal and function.” Kuronue nodded. That made sense to him.

“How long do you think that'll take?”

“If she were and ordinary human, at least two weeks. Ayume? It's hard to tell. She has usable spirit power. Whatever she regenerates while asleep will probably also be put toward healing. I've never observed exactly how much that speeds up the process.”

Hiei looked up as he heard footsteps coming from inside the cave. He could hear only two distinct sets. Odd considering Kuronue-sama, Youko-sama, and Ayume-kun had all gone in together. Livoso stood suddenly. Hiei looked up at him.

“What's wrong with Ayume-kun?” He demanded. Hiei shot to his feet. He couldn't see into the darkness like Livoso could, but he strained his eyes anyway.

“We got separated.” He heard Youko answer. “Every demon in the cave seemed to go after him since he was alone.” Now Hiei could see them. Kuronue was slightly hurt. Youko looked fine. Ayume didn't look anywhere near fine.

Kiev spoke up. “What' wrong wit' him?”

“Exhaustion mixed with being injured.” Kuronue answered. “He'll sleep for awhile.” Hiei resisted the urge to see for himself that Ayume was still alive. Youko and Kuronue wouldn't lie to them about something like that. Instead he closed his eyes and focused.

Since demon hearts didn't beat the way humans' did, it was easy to pick out his heartbeat. It was slow, slower even than when he slept, but it was definitely there.

It took three days for Ayume to wake up. Three days in which it was nearly impossible to tear Hiei away from him. Livoso was actually mildly entertained by this once they were absolutely sure he wasn't going to die. It was odd though. He was so used to having Ayume awake that his sleeping actually began to grate on his nerves.

The kid did nothing slowly. Not even waking up from a three-day-sleep. He went from fast asleep one second to sitting up the next. Nearly scared Hiei's pants off.

Once he was actually aware of what was going on, Ayume looked at Hiei. He smiled a bit and hugged him. Ayume was nearly knocked back by the force behind it. “Hiei, Hiei. Don't kill me please.” Ayume teased him. Livoso had never seen Hiei cry before. His tears turned into little red gems.

Ayume hugged him back. After a few moments, Hiei's tears stopped. Obviously he was embarrassed at his own actions, because he pulled away really quickly. Ayume didn't look surprised. He stood and stretched. Ruffling Hiei's hair on the way by, Ayume headed toward Livoso and Kiev.

“Hey sleepyhead.” Livoso greeted him as he walked up. “Finally decide to wake up?”

“Apparently.” He replied, his voice still coated with sleep. He grimaced. Kiev handed Ayume his water skin. He took and drank it gladly. “Thanks Kiev. How long was I asleep?”

“Oh jus' a few days. No'ing big.” Kiev answered with a smirk. “I didn' know you talked in yer sleep.” Ayume jerked. Mouth open, he gabbled for a few moments before Kiev took pity on him. “Oh don' worry. Only a few words were even intelligible. You must've been dreamin' some weird stuff though. Wha's a `Likora' an'way?”

Ayume didn't show any surprise this time. “It's…nothing.” He didn't say anything else on the subject. “What've you guys been doing while I was asleep?”

“Ayume!” The three heard Kuronue call. “If you're up, come see us!”

“If I'm up?” Ayume couldn't help but ask. “Why in the world say `if I'm up?' I'm sure if he hasn't seen me, Hiei's told him.”

“He's tryin' to be polite. He ain't suceedin' though. I mus' say, he seems to regard you pre'y highly Kid.”

Ayume smirked and punched Kiev lightly on the arm. “Why can't any of you ever use my name. I think even you can pronounce it Kiev. A-yu-me. Say it with me. A-yu-me.”

“A-yu-me.” Livoso and Kiev chorused. “Now go run along and see our fearless leaders Kid.” Livoso ordered, stressing the fact he wasn't using Ayume's name.

Ayume groaned in mock-annoyance before heading off to where she knew Youko and Kuronue would be. They were in their tent with a map spread out on the floor as well as the scroll with the poem on it. “Confused?” Ayume inquired when they looked up at her.

“Very. How did you know what this stupid thing was talking about?” Kuronue demanded.

Ayume sat down. “Okay, let's look at the obvious first. The first line says `A city buried underground.' I think you can tell what this means. In the second verse it says “Those who search with eyes so keen/Need only see where others look/And never was a treasure seen/To find what no one ever took.' This means people have looked there before. More than one person because it says `others look.' The only way the writer could know this was if…” She let the sentence hang

“If people lived nearby. And the location?”

“'Past where ice turns to water' means someplace warm. It's either north of where it snows in the south, or it's south of where it snows in the north. We're pretty far north, so the only option is south of here. `Far from where the rain can reach' is another stress on it being underground, probably made to prevent the water seeping through the soil to rain on them. `Beneath a place that can't be hotter' is going to be a volcano. It's simply the hottest place on the surface. But a city can't literally be under a volcano, so it has to be nearby.”

“That's all obvious to you?” Kuronue demanded.

Ayume looked surprised at the question. “Well…yes.” She hesitated before nodding.

“What isn't obvious?” Youko inquired.

“That will take a bit more explaining since it's only speculation. The `For centuries t'was never found' bothered me. It's only been abandoned for one century. The person who wrote this was taking everything into account. There's no way he or she wouldn't have expected someone to go looking so soon.” She paused.

“And?” Kuronue prompted.

“And I think it's been there for quite awhile longer than we think it's been. Someone built it a long time ago, before King Jules got his hands on it. Jules found this thing too. It was how he found Madain Sarai. He wasn't the one to build it. There may not be anything left there anymore.”

The two bandits digested this. “But if that's true, why leave the poem in a place like where he did?” Youko asked. “Why leave the map? He could have left them in Madain Sarai, or better yet, destroyed them.”

“He left them because he had to abandon Madain Sarai. The poem might be ancient, but did you get a good look at the orb? It's little over a century old. It was so he, or a descendent, could find their way back.”

It made sense. Too much sense for Youko's liking. “But-.”

“Don't get me wrong. Jules could have left the entire fortune down in the city, as his predecessor had done. I just want to warn you. Jules had a record for being greedy. If there isn't much left, I don't want it to be an enormous shock to you.” Meaning she didn't want them to be depressed because this shot at a fortune had been too long a shot.

“What else?”

“The next part may get your hopes back up. At the very end of the poem it says `Lays a fortune you can leech.' It may just be because they couldn't find a different word for it, but a leech doesn't dictate where its host goes. It may be possible that no one can move the entire fortune at once. Meaning…”

“We have half a chance Jules took it all, and half a chance he couldn't. A fifty-fifty shot at the fortune of a lifetime.”

“But it also means if it is there, you can't move it all either.” Ayume paused a moment until she saw those words sink in. “You can only move a bit at a time if even that, or you can stay there and keep the fortune close at hand.”

“Anything else?”

“'Built of silver, copper, and gold.'” She prompted.

“It's made of the metals.” Kuronue tried.

“It'll narrow down the possible locations. Sure there are a lot of volcanoes in the temperature we're looking for. Sure there are a lot of people crazy enough to live close to them. But how many have silver, copper, and gold deposits nearby? If they took only what they used from one area, all three metals had to be mined together. Put that together with `And never was a treasure seen' and what do you get?”

Youko figured it out first. “The entire city is in a mine. They took the metal from the mine, turned around and made it into a city.”

“Good job. You now know everything I know. Any questions?”

“See if you can find a place like that on the map. We already found all of the volcanoes south of here, since you told us that much back in the caves.”

“I don't know where to find metals in the ground.” Ayume protested.

“Then we're in the same boat. Please Ayume.” Kuronue asked.

She caved. “Alright, fine.” She sat cross-legged in front of the map. “I know for certain these four have towns nearby.” She began, pointing. “Silver has been found in this general area, and copper here. They're still mining though, so it should be safe to say Madain Sarai isn't there. That leaves these two. Considering one is so close to the beach, I'd say it was this one,” she continued, pointing to Mount Kava near the city of Holon, “Because the other would've run too much a risk of flooding in the making.”

“And you said you had no idea.” Youko stated.

“There might be others. I didn't take into account the fact that whatever city there might have been could be ruins by now. I'm just saying that Kava is a good a place to start as any.” The conversation over, Ayume ducked out of the tent.

“This will be a long trip.” Youko sighed.

“We could run it. The men can run for days. You know that.” Kuronue suggested.

“And if it isn't the right place? Shall we run them to the next place?”

“If it isn't, we can rest there for awhile. If it is we'll have no reason to.”

“And Ayume? How long do you think sh-he can run?” Youko shook his head. “If we do run it, we'll have to keep a close eye on him. He's too proud to say he's tired.”

“We'll have to keep an eye on everyone anyway. The weaker ones and the younger ones. People like Livoso and Kiev can last about as long as us, but ones like Uzi and Hiei…” Both demons' eyes widened.

“Hiei. Ayume will kill us if something happens to him.” Youko thought for a moment. “All right. We'll run it, but we're taking stops whenever Hiei or Ayume look tired.”

“You know, for a Miko's kid, Ayume sure does like demons. I mean sh-he doesn't mind being surrounded by the bunch of us, and he practically adopts Hiei as his little brother.”

“A Miko's kid?” Livoso demanded from the door of the tent.

Kuronue's and Youko's attention snapped to the wide-eyed cat demon. `Damn,' they both thought at the same time.

In case you're wondering about just how strong people are:

A class- Youko, Kuronue

B class- (upper) Kiev, Livoso (lower) Ayume's mom

C class- (upper) Ayume (lower) Uzi

D class- Hiei