Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Torn Apart ❯ Sickness and Squids ( Chapter 3 )

Torn Apart by: Sakura

A/N Ooh, I'm on a role, ne? I'm finishing chapters daily! ^^

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They reached the apartment. It wasn't the best looking apartment, but it was, truthfully, better than the one Atsuko had provided. On the way over, Raizen had said that they were on the top floor, and Yusuke wondered why demons tended to like high places.

They walked in, and to Yusuke's surprise, it looked just like a normal apartment; there were no dark, evil Warlord things. He looked over at his father.

"Why'd you do it?"

"Your bed's over there," Raizen replied pointing to a futon in a corner of another room.

Yusuke ignored the fact that Raizen dismissed his question. He wasn't really expecting him to answer anyway. Instead he walked over to the futon and threw himself on it. For some reason, he felt exhausted.

***

It was a strange looking demon. It looked more like a giant squid that actually was giant- size. It had twelve long, purple tentacles and only one eye. The electric blue eye seemed to look in every direction at once; there was no possible way to get an attack in. That's when Hiei tried a sneak attack, while Kuwabara was busy thrashing at the squid with his Spirit Sword.

He ran at the demon, black flames growing around his right arm. As predicted, the squid saw Hiei's attempt, and threw one of its purple tentacles, nearly missing the Jaganshi. Irritated, the squid threw another tentacle, lime green acid squirting from its tip, before making contact.

The tentacle itself didn't do much harm, but the acid that flew from it; hit Hiei directly in the chest, nearly missing his face. But he didn't stop his attack- he threw what little energy he had gathered, and tossed it into the squid's eye. This paused the squid's assault, but now that it was blind, it began thrashing its tentacles; and twelve tentacles were not easy to dodge.

As everyone gave effort in dodging, Hiei lie there on his back, watching in horror as the green, burning acid painfully ate away his skin. Yusuke looked up from his dodging and saw three acid-shooting tentacles flying down at Hiei. He watched in half-amusement as one tentacle slammed down close to the fire demon, squirting a large amount of acid in more directions than one.

"Hey!" Yusuke turned to see both Kuwabara and Kurama looking at him in shock. He knew why too; they wanted him to aid Hiei- but why should he? Hiei had been an ass to him before.

Angrily, Kurama shook his head, and ran in to help Hiei.

***

The loud knocking on the apartment door caused Yusuke to wake from his fevered sleep. He sat up, hoping the knocking would stop when Raizen opened the door, but he never heard footsteps go towards the door... and the knocking continued.

He grabbed the knob, but it slipped as he tried to turn it. His body was covered in icy sweat, though he hadn't taken notice of this before. When he finally had gotten the door open, he was greeted by Kuwabara, Keiko, Hiei, Kurama, and the ferry-girl Botan.

"Yusuke, what's wrong?" Keiko asked concerningly. Yusuke had no idea what she was talking about, until the brunette reached out her hand to touch Yusuke's cheek. She drew back saying, "You have a fever..."

"It's nothing. I just-" So, that's what had caused his exhaustion, fevered dream and achy body; Yusuke had gotten sick. But how? Yusuke sighed, leading the group into his room to talk.

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"You want to what?" Botan asked. It was strange what Yusuke had asked. There was obviously something he wanted to discuss with Hiei that couldn't be with the others. No one was real keen on the idea, especially since their last mission with the purple squid; but they allowed him the time he needed. So, they stepped outside, eagerly trying to take in some of the conversation through the closed door.

Yusuke sat in his bed a while, watching Hiei sitting quietly on the floor; eyes closed, arms and legs crossed. When he took an intake of breath, Yusuke took that as a signal to begin.

"...What happened to your eye?"

Eyes still closed, Hiei replied, "Lime green acid," and that was all.

Yusuke knew what it meant though. "Hiei, I-"

"I don't want your apologies, Detective." Hiei opened his eyes, revealing a blind eye and a glassy one. "I'm permanently blind on my left side... and I have your pride to blame for it." He closed his eyes once more.

"It isn't easy fighting with only one eye. I've been retraining myself... This is the first time I've stopped in four days." Yusuke was surprised, but it also helped him figure out why Hiei looked so tired; he hadn't slept in four whole days. He thought it best to change the subject. He felt bad now about not helping Hiei, but him being permanently blind just made things worse.

"Then why didn't you tell me about Raizen that day?" He knew Hiei wouldn't take a liking to these questions, but he had to know the reason why.

Hiei uncrossed his arms and ruffled a hand through his hair. "Your friend. You certainly didn't want her to know, did you?"

"Hiei! I don't care if she knew or not. Having Raizen keep custody of me- that's more important than Keiko knowing that he's a threat to demon kind! You had to have another reason for-"

Suddenly, Hiei was on his feet, his eyes flaring; he slammed his fist against the wall, making the group outside wonder what exactly was going on inside Yusuke's bedroom. But before they could go in to look, they heard Hiei's voice.

"Listen to yourself! ...Koenma was a fool to think you could make a difference- you're just a child! A weak, human kid... You can't do a thing on your own." And with that said, Hiei stormed out of the room.

- - - - - -

It was several days later. Yusuke was just coming home from his latest mission, and still was angry with Hiei. He didn't care what Hiei had said to him, Yusuke went on and told Keiko about Raizen being a Warlord.

When Yusuke opened the door to the apartment, he was rudely greeted by Raizen himself.

"Speak of the devil," Yusuke said coolly.

"Where have you been? You're still sick," Raizen said almost parent-like.

"I was out fighting crime. You know, keeping Spirit World safe from all you lowly demons."

Raizen stared at his son coldly. Guess he didn't like the idea of being called a `lowly demon'. It didn't matter- as long as Raizen didn't stop him from going to his job, all was well. Yusuke walked in and into his room, closing the door behind him.

He saw a letter lying on his desk and began to read it. It was from his mom; she just wrote to ask how he was doing with Raizen. It was strange, because she never did this when he lived with her. Too bad he didn't have the same relationship that Kurama had with his mom. Well, at least his wasn't as bad as Hiei's had been. Abandoned by his own kind- his own mother. Ah, what was he thinking about Hiei for? He was still pissed at him.

He wrote back to Atsuko, and sealing the envelope, told himself to deliver it later.

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A/N Odd way to end that chapter. I ran out of ideas for it, so I'll just leave it how it is. I have plans for the next chapter... so maybe (and I mean a very slight maybe) it'll be longer than the last three chapters have been. Plus, I still have to work on The Parting of the Ways; my Kenshin fic.

Review, review, review! :þ