Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Three Headaches ❯ A Man Unhinged ( Chapter 2 )

Three Headaches

A Man Unhinged

Well, this could have been worse.

Worse!? How could anything be worse than being held in Spirit World Prison after such a humiliating defeat!?

They could've stuffed you in with the crazies instead of an empty cell. You are talking to a voice inside of your head.

...

Oh! Or they could've put you in a nice, dingy padded room, and left you in there, forgotten, so you'd eat your own toes to survive just a little bit longer until - whup! - you're all gone!

...

You'd have more voices you could talk to in your head ... oh! You could be original and say they're in your hand!

...

If I were them, I'd put you in pink.

... I'm not talking to you ever again.

What? Why? I think you'd look good in pink.

You didn't warn me that she would beat me! You let me get caught just so that you could get a fucking laugh!

Hey, you're talking to me again!

... I loathe you.

Kiss, kiss.

Hiei shuddered before getting up to walk around the small room. A few rounds about the room, he found out that it was roughly four paces wide, and six paces long. Three walls were heavily warded, and the bars consisting of the fourth wall were anointed with holy oils diligently every day at noon when they fed him. It stung like crazy to be less than a pace beside it, so that cut down his walking space to three by six paces!

He also had to be careful not to graze any of the three walls or he'd be painfully burned.

Maybe they're meaning to stuff me in a padded cell, but they don't have a good enough reason yet, so they're trying to drive me insane with this room ...

Sounds logical to me.

“Fuck.” I hate you! Why couldn't you have been normal!?

Voices in heads can be normal?

Aren't voices in heads supposed to tell people to go kill and burn things?

How quaint.

What?

Fine. I'll have an obsession such as you have described.

...... All right. Fine ... Good! I can handle that. I like to kill and burn anyway. And it should be easy to ignore you whenever you tell me to do it when I don't need to.

The Entity didn't respond, and he felt a great apprehension because of it. The Entity loved to talk; loved to be the center of Hiei's attention. He supposed that, at that point in time, it was the center of his attention.

And the more that Hiei thought about it, the more its words began to worry him.

*-*-*

Yuusuke swallowed dryly when she finally laid Hiei down on the bed, glancing back at Botan who was keeping her distance on the other side of the room. She pursed her lips, “Are you sure you can't take him in right now? My mom's going to shit stones if he wakes up and ruins the apartment or something.”

“Humans can't shit bricks, Yuusuke, so your mother won't be doing that at all,” Botan said. “Besides, there're too many wards on his Jagan. He won't be doing any damage even if he does wake up.”

“You mean there's still a chance!?”

The ferry girl frowned, and shushed her, “If you keep shouting, yes. He'd probably be too drowsy from the wards to do anything though. Just watch him for today, and keep him down if he wakes up. I have to go erase all of those humans' memories before my enchantment dies off.” When Yuusuke started to make a face at her, Botan said, “Just stay put, Yuusuke, and hold him down if he tries to get away. His strength should be cut down to barely a third of his real power.”

Yuusuke continued to grumble even when the ferry girl was long gone. She finally just reclined in the chair of her room, kicking back to balance on the back legs of the chair, and idly watch the young man in her bed. The battle in the warehouse had been bothersome, and she had watched Kurama limp away, fearing for the new friend. Kurama had told her that she would be just fine though, and so the punk tried to believe what she had told her.

After a while of lounging around and staring too much at the demon, she sat up, and shouted at the ceiling, “I can't believe I'm saying this, but even school's got to be better than this! ... I'm going to get something to eat, so don't move!”

Leaving him, she trudged into the kitchen, ignoring her sleeping mother on the couch, and started making soba noodles. After remembering that she had bought some eggs the other day, she ducked into the fridge quickly to grab one, and then went back to her work. Finished with her meal of soup with the now poached egg inside the hot tsuyu, she returned to her room, sitting at her infrequently used desk to eat.

*-*-*

It was hours later that she heard the knock on her door, and she rushed away from her room, bored out of her mind and not wanting to play another round of solitaire. Once she reached and opened the door, she gaped in astonishment.

“Kurama, what're you doing here? You were stabbed remember?” She stopped talking when one of her neighbors walked by with a nasty grimace for the delinquent girl. Sighing, Yuusuke took her hand to lead her inside, “Come on. I've already got one too many rumors flying around.”

“Going into your house with a strange girl no one's ever seen before is going onto that list now, I suspect.”

“Too late, they already think I'm gay because I `hang out' with Kuwabara all the time,” Yuusuke said, walking toward her room after locking the door. “I'm really just kicking her ass though.”

“I see.” Kurama shut her door, and took a deep breath before looking at Hiei. “How is he doing?”

Snorting, Yuusuke returned to her chair, sitting so that she was facing him and the back of the chair, straddling it, “He's just been sleeping all day. Botan said those papers on his head are keeping him in check. He's not moved a muscle.” Suddenly she eyed Kurama, “You're not going to turn tables again, and free your ex-boyfriend or something, right?”

Kurama was surprised into laughter, and she shook her head, “An intriguing concept, but no, Hiei was never a lover of mine, and I'm not here to free him.”

Picking her nose, she said, “Yeah, he did seem kind of uptight to have a girlfriend. Too bad he's a criminal.” She flicked a booger away, and asked, “So grab a chair, and sit already. Standing can't be good for your wound.”

“It's fine now, really. Hiei's expertise is with katana. If that bulky Conjuring Blade had been one, he would not have missed my vital organs.” The redhead pulled up her shirt to show up to her stomach, revealing a thin scar line of where the sword had stabbed through, “I was just out of the habit of packing medicinal treatment. At least, I didn't expect any wounds to this extent. I'm lucky that I saved so much of my old life for these kinds of emergencies.”

“Yeah,” Yuusuke said, staring jadedly at her recent opponent.

“Botan's still out? It's starting to get dark.”

With a sneer, Yuusuke rubbed her head, “Yeah, I guess it's normal because healing Keiko took so much out of her. She better not be goofing off though.”

Chuckling, she said, “Indeed.”

Abruptly, Hiei jerked, causing Yuusuke to shout in surprise. She got up from the floor - since she had fallen off her chair - and crept up to check on the wards. When she saw that they were still in place, she next noticed that his eyes were clenched tight, his teeth showing through slightly parted lips. He still appeared to be sleeping, but she stepped back as a precaution.

“He's still asleep ...”

“He has nightmares often. I'm surprised that he only started just now.”

“Huh?” Yuusuke looked at the other girl, “What're you talking about? You just said you were never lovers.”

Kurama smiled, and said, “We weren't. I met Hiei about a year or so ago when he finally left Demon World. He had just received his Jagan, and another demon had wounded him before our paths first crossed. He thought that I was an accomplice of a demon in the area, and fought me. After I convinced him that I was not in alliance with the demon, he collapsed, so I took him home, and treated his wounds.”

“Did you see `im naked?”

“I - what?” She actually hued a light pink at the implication, but shook her head, “There was only the one injury.”

Urameshi Yuusuke went back to her chair to sit, and then pulled out another chair for Kurama who sat, “So what happened?”

“When he was better, he left, only telling me his name. He must've been put off by my questions about a name he was saying in his sleep constantly. Yukina. I'm still not sure who she is - just that she must be an Ice Maiden. I went after him when one of my classmates went missing, and he and I battled the demon that had kidnapped her.” She laughed softly, “The only reason he had helped was because he had heard rumors that the demon had caught his Ice Maiden.”

“An Ice Maiden? Seriously?” Yuusuke glanced at him, feeling twinges of jealousy, “Lucky guy, I guess.”

Kurama sighed behind her hand, “Yes, well, I suppose he is.”

“Yu ... ki ...”

“Eh?” The detective stood again, and peered over Hiei before shrugging, and looking out the window, “There's no snow outside.”

“Yuki ... na ...”

Her eyes widened, and she asked, “Oh, his Ice Maiden, huh?”

“Yes,” she said, and she stood to join Yuusuke. When she was by her side, Hiei snarled, his eyes still closed, and an arm rose to slash weakly at the air near Kurama. “Are you still angry with me, Hiei? I'm sorry that I used you for the mirror, but you were going to use me too, weren't you?”

“What!?”

Sighing, Kurama smiled sadly at her, “All I wanted to do was save my mother, and Hiei was my means to do that ... Thank you again.”

“No problem,” she said. “I just kind of know what it's like to lose someone.”

She gestured to Hiei, “Don't we all.”

“Yuusuke!” Said girl jumped, and spun around to face Botan, “I'm back, and all set to take Hiei to the Spirit World now!”

“Don't fucking sneak up on me like that!”

“Mew ...?”

*-*-*

Kill her.

Hiei raised his eyes to look up at the visage of his latest accomplice, Youko Kurama, and grimaced, “You finally show your face.”

Her voice was quiet, but it echoed around the room regardless, “Our trial is over now. Did you want to know the verdict?”

“Fine,” he said. “How many centuries will I rot in here?”

“None.” His brows quirked, so she said, “they've given us an undisclosed amount of time for community service.” When he started to scowl deeper, Kurama laughed silently, “We're the Spirit Detective's new aides, and we must help her in any mission that Koenma requests our assistance. It's easy work for what we did. We were let off easy.”

He blew out hard through his nose, partially getting rid of the scent of mold in his cell, “So that's why it took months for them to decide. They had to have broken a few fingers to convince King Enma.”

“Indeed,” she said airily. “In any case, our first mission with Urameshi Yuusuke is tomorrow. We should rest up.”

“No,” Hiei said, and then stood up when the guard came to unlock his cell, “I'm not going to fight as I am now. I need to get a good katana before I head out.”

Kurama tilted her head in acknowledgement, “I see. Can I assume you'll only take swords from the Demon World?”

“Naturally,” he said, stepping out to walk with her down the hall, his back straight and rigid. She could sense his distrust radiating from him like a beacon. “Do you know of any good place in the Human World?”

“Possibly. I can name a few black market rings, but I'm not sure which one would deal with katana of that sort.”

The jaganshi shrugged, “I'll find something suitable.”

“I suppose that I'll see you tomorrow then, Hiei. Good luck with finding a katana.”

She had just started to turn when he stopped her, “Wait, Kurama ... I heard what you said before, and I accept your apology, but never attack me again.” Kurama nodded, and he said, “Also, while I may forgive you, my Jagan does not.”

“... I see,” Kurama said with a teasing smile, obviously thinking it as a jest, “I can't imagine your Jagan being very forgiving anyway.”

Kill her.

Calm yourself. It's your fault for having a crush on a fox demon of all creatures. You know as well as I how fickle they can be.

Do it. Rip out her throat. Blind her like she blinded me.

... Fine, I'll endure your little game, but don't expect any results.

*-*-*

Kuwabara scratched her head, staring at the sight of the violet eyes imprinted sporadically on the floor. It seemed important, but for the life of her, she couldn't think of why. She touched a wall then, and peered closer at the green walls. It felt like some kind of soft leather, and she traced her hand over it while she began to walk down the hall.

At the other end of the hallway was darkness, and behind her was a bright beacon of light. It might have been safer in the light, yet she felt as if something was calling for her from within the dark, and she squinted as she stepped into inky black. Mere steps later, she was in a dimly lit room with black and green flames roaring in large basins at every corner of the room, but they shed little light with which she could see.

Noticing a purple carpet down the middle of the chamber, she started walking down it and toward the end of the room.

On a throne of stone sat a young man with black hair - his arms and legs coiled in chains and bound to his stone throne. The man's head was bowed, and thus she was unable to see his face, but she could see that his naked, glistening chest was heaving slowly.

The room shook, and Kuwabara gasped when the flames started to burn dark red, sending in light to fill the room. She watched as the chains tightened on their own, and dug into his skin, drawing him ever tighter to the throne. However, the man didn't move, and kept his head down. She could see, then, the violet scarf that was tied around his face, and without thinking about it, Kuwabara reached out, attempting to untie the scarf. He jerked at the touch, trying to throw her hands off, and she gasped, backing away quickly only to fall down.

*-*-*

His eyes widened when he saw her, and his breath caught deep in his throat. Something about the human girl was abruptly enthralling and Hiei knew that he had to find some way to keep and hoard her as he intended to do with the Saint Beasts' treasures. With large sweet blue eyes and long carrot hair flowing nearly to her thighs, Yuusuke's friend was an absolute beauty in her blazer and long blue school skirt.

Yuusuke clapped her hand on his shoulder, and grinned, “It's great to see you here too, Hiei. Thanks for the help with those gnome things.”

Raising a brow, he shrugged her hand off, “I'm really only here because of the community service. Kurama may be some kind of friend, but don't count me as one. Besides, I've been hearing about the loot in that castle lately, and I want my share of it.”

“Hey! What's your problem, punk?” The beautiful girl was suddenly angry, and he felt his defenses immediately rise, trying out a verbal spar with her.

“And just what is this? Your cheerleader, Yuusuke?”

The black-haired girl only threw her head back in laughter as the other girl fumed, “I dare you to say that again! Come on, I can take you on!”

Kill her.

Hell no, she's fun.

Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill …

He snorted softly, pushing aside the Entity for the moment, and concentrated on the girl, “You must be a cheerleader. The skirt is a little long though.” Smirking when she lunged for him, he quickly stepped in front of Yuusuke, listening to the other girl collapse to the ground behind him, “I hope you didn't forget our fight. I want a rematch soon, Urameshi Yuusuke, without any” - he glanced at Kurama who looked only slightly chagrined - “interruptions.”

She grinned, giving him a thumbs-up, and he blinked at the grin, “You can count on it. I want a good fight too.”

He stepped back into his prior position beside Kurama when the girl tried to tackle him again from behind.

“Quit squirming!”

“Okay, children!” Yuusuke grinned, and took the girl's hand, “Play nice, Kuwabara. Hiei's not exactly the kid next door.”

The Entity giggled, and Hiei wondered if it was finally becoming bored with its act. He attempted to talk to it as he walked with them, but it only continued to giggle. Slightly confused - because he had not taken off his bandana for months - he wondered what it was so hyped about. It could not have had a premonition because he usually felt a little jolt in the Jagan when it happened.

He eyed the three girls who were currently talking amongst themselves in vaguely polite, greeting tones. Kuwabara and Yuusuke were not quite as refined at Kurama in polite conversation, but they seemed to try being civil with the redhead.

Smirking to himself when he felt that the surrounding wild creatures were keeping a thirty-meter distance from him, he wondered if Yuusuke could feel it too, and if she knew the reason. Kurama certainly seemed appreciative of the ward created by the Jagan. Glancing back, he smirked wider when the glance caused a bubble in the ward, making the creatures back away from where he was looking, as well as keeping the rest of the thirty-meter distance.

Kuwabara stirred, and glanced around then, frowning, and said, “Did anyone feel that just now?”

“Feel what?” Yuusuke raised a fist, glancing about while Kurama smiled.

“Don't worry about it, Kuwabara. The creatures here are just keeping a healthy distance. They can tell how strong we are.”

The self-proclaimed lead frowned, “What're you two talking about?”

“It's nothing that we need to worry about, Yuusuke,” Kurama said. “I'll teach you a bit of it later. There's a certain trick to it that your friend seems to intuitively know.”

“Meaning …?”

Kuwabara grinned and punched her chest plate, “I was born with it!”

“So you're a freak?”

“Shut the hell up, freak face!”

Kurama smiled back at Hiei, obviously thinking to share the grin with him, but he wasn't very interested in what they were saying anymore. He said, “I can see the Castle of Labyrinths up ahead.”

The two became silent up until they reached the gate, and the four admired the foreboding manifestation of the maw called the entrance. Yuusuke stepped in first, saying that there didn't seem to be any other way inside. He and Kurama both looked at the walls, which could have easily been scaled, but followed the humans in regardless. After all, he didn't think that they would get any extra points if the detective or her friend died.

He frowned when the end of the tunnel came soon, and his eyes narrowed on the creature that had suddenly come into his thirty-meter radius.

The ugly purple eye with bat wings fluttered around, and contacted them all telepathically, Welcome to the Castle of Labyrinths. Unfortunately, this is as close as you'll ever get for this is the Gate of Betrayal!

It pulled up a lever, and Hiei jerked in surprise when the ceiling came crashing down. He and the others seemed to just barely catch it, and he strained against it, hearing the rumbling groan of machines in the background as it kept up against their combined strength.

He could hear the laughter of the lesser demon in his head, likely heard by all, Splendid catch, but do you think that you can escape now?

Kuwabara grunted, her teeth bared in her effort, “Damn it, let it up! I'm going to pound your ass to the ground when I get out of here!”

Don't try it if you want your friends to survive. She growled, and moved as if to lunge at him, but the ceiling growled in turn, and started to edge down without her support. Realizing this, she kept still, cussing up a storm at the demon. He only laughed, a piercing whine in Hiei's head, So sweet the sound of your agony will be. The Gate of Betrayal is smarter than you think. It can sense each of your limits in strength, and presses down with just a little more pressure than you can handle. If one should leave, they will betray their comrades, and the ceiling will come crashing down. That's why this is called the Gate of Betrayal!

“We'd never do that to each other! Don't nobody move!” Kuwabara shouted, “We'll stick through it and get out of here together! You'll see!”

Ah, ah, ah. Every second, you waste precious time to escape and save your own life. As your strength wanes, the ceiling will keep coming down bit by bit. Only traitors are allowed in the Castle of Labyrinths!

“Hiei!” Yuusuke suddenly said, and he jerked, looking over at her as she caught his gaze intently, “You're the fastest one here. Do you see that lever? If you pull it down, the ceiling will stop crushing down on us. We'll be able to hold it up for a bit longer without you, so you need to be quick.”

“What!? Do you really trust that pipsqueak!? I'd so beat him in a footrace!”

Yuusuke never broke their gaze, and he said, “She's right. None of you have any reason to trust me, detective.”

“I trust you, Hiei.” His eyes widened, and she only smiled, a bit strained from pressing up at the ceiling, “Now hurry. I can buy us some time to let you.”

Gritting his fangs, he looked out toward the lever, and scowled before he ducked a bit lower to dash toward freedom. He felt Yuusuke's energy surge, and once out and standing in front of the lever, he looked back at them to see that the detective had raised her power to compensate for the loss of his strength, but he could still see the ceiling slowly scaling down.

Welcome to the Castle of Labyrinths, Hiei. My masters are well aware of your skills as a thiefand a warrior. You would be handsomely rewarded as one of their soldiers if you would come with me, the lesser demon flew down to be level with his face, and he raised his chin up to look down at him. Come. They're as good as dead.

“Don't you dare, shrimp!”

He snorted, scowling at the lesser demon, causing him to back up, and he said, “I make my own choices.”

Kill them! Let them die!

Hiei tweaked, and the ceiling groaned down half a pace as he rubbed his temple to ease the sudden ache. The Entity had never actually hurt him before, and he was shocked long enough that the lesser demon just kept talking, You will receive a good social standing among my masters' underlings.

The jaganshi reached up to the lever, and yanked it down, well aware of the trap from above. He shifted just in time to avoid the boulder with crashed down, but he heard Kuwabara and Yuusuke call out his name as the ceiling rose for them. The lesser demon cackled, and he grimaced when it said, That's what you get for refusing my masters!

He heard Kurama say, “Hiei …?”

Grinding his fangs, he leapt up to the top of the boulder, and sliced the demon's eye. The thing shrieked in their minds, and Hiei said as it flew away, “Tell your masters that the only alliance I'll make with them is if they crawl on their hands and knees, and beg to be my slaves!”

“I'll be your slave,” eyes bulging in disbelief, he looked down at Yuusuke who had her hand raised with a cheeky grin in place. Groaning, he jumped down and shrugged off her hand on his shoulder, “Never doubted you for a second! Thanks a lot.”

“The only reason I let you live is because I'll need the backup to kill those Saint Beasts for their treasure. There's no other reason.”

As he stalked away, he could hear Yuusuke's teasing kissy faces in his direction, and he heard Kurama again, “He meant to say `you're welcome.'”

“He sure as hell got a shitty way of saying it,” Kuwabara said. “He really pisses me off.”

Kill her!

*-*-*

And … then they all go boom smack smash against the Saint Beasts, and win, and blah, blah, blah.

I'm just repeating some parts that need a bit of touching up on. I don't need to bore you with the whole series after all. :D Besides, more than half of this chapter wasn't even in the series. XP And I was mostly going on memory here because I'm at work, and can't read the manga at home - which is in storage anyway.

*-*-*