Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Ties That Bind ❯ Alliances ( Chapter 4 )

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

Chapter 3
Alliances

Yusuke tosses his most recent report to the floor in anger. Nothing. Damn near a month had passed and they still know nothing.

Well not nothing, we found that guy that created the poison... in the middle of an empty field with his throat cut out. That was a lot of help!

Yusuke snorts at his own thoughts. He sits down in his garden at Tourin, absentmindedly thinking that he must like it here because Kurama had grown it for him... the garden still holds his ki signature.

He feels the familiar presence long before she reaches him, sitting down on his left, like she had been every day for the past few weeks... ever since he had brought them to Tourin.

Shiori glances at the unique boy sitting next to her. Even though his eyes are closed, she know that he is awake, and knows that he knows she is there. She likes to sit in the garden with him, it reminds her of her garden at home... the one her son helps her tend every Friday afternoon. At least he had. Yusuke reminds Shiori of Suuichi in a way, at least while in the garden. Suuichi would sit under the trees just as Yusuke is now, quiet and peaceful in his own thoughts but always fully aware of the outside world. Being with him eased the pain and worry a bit. Suuichi had picked strange, but loyal, friends. Shiori had always realized that, just as she had realized her son was a little different, she just wished she had known how different. Yusuke broke through her thoughts.

"They still haven't found anything, sorry Shiori."

She sighed to herself and patted him on the knee. "That's alright Yusuke, I know you all are trying your best. I am sure Suuichi would be grateful."

His face gives way to frustration. "It's not enough! They shouldn't be so hard to find! Damn it! How can you stay so calm!? I haven't seen you cry once since that first day! Hell you are holding up better than the rest of us and you've gotta be hurting the worst! Just like Kurama... never know what the hell he's thinking either!" Sad brown eyes open and turn to stare at her.

She offers him a small, sad smile and turns her gaze to the sky. "This garden... it reminds me of my... no our garden at home. Every Friday afternoon, Suuichi would run all the way home from school. We'd tend it together. He'd work his little fingers off, then sit under the cherry tree. I'd go to get cookies and milk... its a western thing, his father loved them too. He'd just be sitting there when I got back, for all the world looking asleep, but he never was. The moment I went to sit down those bright green eyes would shoot open and he'd grab the tray to help me... always so helpful. We would sit there and talk, talk about everything. My work, his school... the girls that fawned over him and, eventually, my relationship with Kazuya. He was always such a good listener, always seemed more open with me... I'd get to lean into his shoulder and we'd talk... every Friday afternoon. He hasn't changed. Even so many years later he still comes, every Friday afternoon, to help me tend our garden. He still sits under the cherry tree, seemingly asleep. Those bright green eyes still open, looking so loving... they still make my heart flutter, and that sweet smile... the gentle 'thank you mother' as he takes the tray. That was the last day I saw him. Friday. He told me he was going to a party... He'd call tomorrow." Shiori rubs her cheek to be rid the tears she has just realized are falling. "Being out here with you makes me closer to him. I just keep thinking that he'll call tomorrow, call to tell me that everything is fine, that he got caught up and he's sorry. Am I still available for Friday? Of course he'll be there. 'Bye Mother, I love you, I'll call tomorrow'." The tears won't stop, but oddly Shiori doesn't feel like sobbing.

Yusuke looks at the woman next to him, understanding for the first time how she was able to melt the icy heart of Yoko Kurama... such deep love. "It's Friday." He whispered.

Shiori rests her head on Yusuke's shoulder. They talk about school, Keiko, work, and Kazuya. Neither deigns to notice the tears staining Shiori's smiling face... or that fact that they are not Mother and son.

It doesn't matter.

***
Kurama pulls Hiei closer and his head falls back against the bars with a dull thud. His hands run through the spiky, blood caked, ebony hair a hundred times if once, trying to get a suitable response and not really expecting one.

Looks like our relationship is back to my talking endlessly and his 'hn's.

The movement from behind startles him a bit. The war monger from the next cell is awake apparently. Kurama's kitsune instincts continue to scream at him that man is the most dangerous of the fighters here, locked in this hell with him. He knows the man has been here for a long time, had heard him talk to the guards. He stayed sane, that is reason enough to be wary of the man in the fox's opinion. Kurama scoots away quickly, cradling the unconscious kooromie against him.

Black hair and clothes so dirty they might as well be black obscure the man from view, but even the fox's overwhelmed senses can pick up on the monumental scent of blood radiating off of him. He is big, a little smaller than Kuwabara, but still a large man, whithered slightly from lack of nutrition. All this was to be expected. What had not been expected is a smooth even tone that speaks in an imperfect form of ningen, inquiring as to Hiei's well being. "That little one you take care of... he won't last much longer ne? Last night he still spoke a few words and tonight you can't get one out of him."

He feels the red hair on the back of his neck rise, what game is this? "That doesn't make him any less dangerous."

The large being laughs, a raspy sound, like it hasn't been used in years. It lightens his appearance, somehow make him less formidable. Maybe it was just hearing laughter again, or talking to someone that did more than snarl and attack. "Sorry, its just been forever since there was someone with more than half a brain to talk to. You'll have to excuse me for laughing at the idea of playing mind games... after all even the guards just seem vicious and brainless after a time. When I first heard you talking to him I almost couldn't believe it. But then again, when you two first came in, I didn't think you'd last your first few fights. He protects you quite fiercely... and you... you are trying to keep him sane. I really wish you the best with that."

Kurama's curiosity gets the better of him, damn if he doesn't want to know more... if he doesn't long for someone to talk to other than his half dead friend. He licks his lips, so dry from days without water... Hiei had brought him that skull to drink from some time ago... and there is some that drips from the ceiling, the cleaved open scull set to catch it... but it just isn't enough for his half-human form. He is hungry, raw demon flesh isn't something he is used to, even if it does sustain him... and Hiei did cook it when he had the strength to. He has needs, damn if he doesn't... and one of them... companionship... is staring him in the face. "Why do you care? We are going to have to fight you eventually."

The man turns right around and looks at him curiously. His face is covered in enough dirt and blood so that there isn't any really recognizable features. His long, matted, and bloodied hair is pulled back into a pony tail... it looks as though it had been hacked off in odd places, Kurama reminds himself that it probably has. "I will kill you when we come to the ring, make no mistake. But we do not have to be enemies until they pit us against one another. If I am not mistaken though, that will be tomorrow. His protection of you has not gone unnoticed, they want to see you fall. So they will separate out whom they consider the weak one... you." He shifts uncomfortably, almost as though this is just a sad truth he doesn't want to accept, a bit of raw meat to choke down.

Kurama licks his dry lips again. "You've been watching."

He grins. "I have. You are a kitsune right? At first glance I would have said human, but no human would have lasted this long. Your cunning comes through in the way you move."

The fox smiles. "You are a fire demon, wasting no time with sentiment, you just go straight to business... and you torched that rabbit demon... it made me hungry." He looks down to Hiei again, all caked in blood.

How has this man not given into his nature?

The fire demon's grin grows. "It seems that I am not the only one that has been watching the fights then. He's younger than he looks though... younger than the way he fights too. About 3-4 hundred?"

At this it was Kurama that couldn't keep himself from laughing, strange how one can miss the sound of their own laughter. "He's only 73."

The man looked entirely shocked. "73!? To young to be trapped in a place like this. No way out, only way to live is to fight, to kill. Battle after battle year after year... he is too young for this. No wonder such a strong fighter has lost his mind so quickly... I am surprised he has lasted this long. That explains the height problem though, he'd have hit a growth spurt soon if he were out of here... the poor diet will see that doesn't happen. I take it you are not so young though, not nearly. You don't even seem to be struggling to keep yourself together here, just struggling to keep him together."

"My age is beyond you, but I can assume the same on your part. What I do not understand is why you still fight. You said it yourself... you do not believe there to be a way out of here." The fox's eyes take on a serious light, truly curious as to the man's answer.

Why... no how... would he keep going without hope?

"You have a mate?"
Kurama shakes his head.
"Well I do. Damn fine woman too. She was pregnant when I last saw her, I have a mate and a kid waiting for me out there somewhere. Can't say how many years ago though... too many. I lost track you see? This place has got to fall sometime... either that or they just get tired of me and throw me out. I can't give up, she'll be waiting for me. Damn patient that one is, it's in her nature."

The fox clutches Hiei tighter, saddened by this admission. This man is trapped too, they are all trapped in this hell... no... hell has to be better than this. He has someone to go home to, someone waiting for him. How long would this woman wait? How long would Kurama's own family wait? His friends? Are they looking for Hiei and himself? "I'll take it that she isn't a fire demon then."

He laughs. "Spoken from experience I take it... and here I thought you told me you didn't have a mate."
Kurama's cheeks grow red instantly, shifting Hiei uncomfortably. "One of these days I'll get out of here, then I'll never let her out of my sight again."

Green eyes look over the man a little more carefully. "What if the day you got out was tomorrow? What would you give for that?"

The man looks at him sharply, eyes hidden under the matted black hair, but Kurama knows those eyes are on him, sizing him up. "The only way out is to die."

"If it weren't?"

"If it weren't... " He looks older, so much older, and more weary than he has the entire time Kurama has studied him. "I'd give anything to see my mate again. But you'll excuse me if I don't trust you to give me that blessing."

"You don't need to. Tomorrow you will be freed, and when you are, I want you to go to a man named Yomi. Ask anyone, they'll know who he is. Tell him you have greetings from his favorite silver-haired fox and lead him back here."

"What makes you think, even if you did get me out of here, that I would do such a thing?"

At that, a very kitsune grin bloomed. "Two reasons. First, you hate this hell hole, as much, if not more than myself."

The man laughs at that before prodding him. "The second."

"I finally realized what has kept you sane for all these years."
He looks amused, shifting his head toward Kurama as if to say 'oh really?'
"Your honor, you won't abandon your mate or child."

With that, the kitsune's eyes slip closed, exhausted, his hand poised mid-stroke through a very bloodied fire-kooromie's tangled black hair.

His new companion stays up well into the night, uncomforted by the barb of truth the kitsune stuck him with.

***
Damn, am I dead? No... hurts too much to be dead.
The smell of blood and rotting flesh intrudes on his senses with a fierceness. He opens his eyes just a crack to find himself surrounded by the corpses of his enemies.
I'm in the dead pile?
Meiyo's eyes snap open, what the kitsune said made sense now. He didn't have to die to get out... no... the kitsune had just struck him, rendered him unconscious. The fox only had to make the officials think he was dead. Now the flames rise around him and he feels his strength return. They always burn the bodies, but as a fire demon, Meiyo would only take strength from it.

The kitsune kept his word. Soon it would be time for Meiyo to return the dubious favor.

The flames lick his skin and he chuckles to himself, feeling true warmth in his bones for the first time in... well he didn't know.

Yomi huh? Well Yomi I have a message to bring you...
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A/N:

Woot! I got this one up fairly quick! Shiori made me want to cry... but at least they will get out soon... or will they? They've been there quite some time, maybe getting out isn't as easy as breaking open a facility...

Muhahahahahahaha... sorry, can't help it.

Please review!

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho nor any of its characters. They belong to Yoshihiro Togashi. The plot and original characters of this fic, are however, mine.