Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Unbalanced Pendulum ❯ Of Insects and Arachnids ( Chapter 6 )

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A/N: I used this chapter to clear up any questions that my reviewers might have had about the oath Kurama made and whatnot.

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Unbalanced Pendulum

Chapter 6: Of Insects and Arachnids

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Hiei's POV

It was incredibly difficult not to turn and look at this strange creature at my back that I had caught within my web. I was the spider, perhaps, that had lost an eye to the beautiful sheen of a dragonfly's wings. So utterly different from my black, eight-legged exterior was it that I almost forgot the relationship between a hunter and its pray. Only brought back to my senses by the trembling of the dirty housefly behind its head. In my stupor I watched the shiver travel through my web and up my limbs to shake me free of my distraction. Seeing the two flies in one eye I am now. Two flies. In my haste I tremble and I quake. I trample the shimmering insect to reach the dark and ugly thing it shields and make quick work of that pray. And now, with the silver dragon shackled at my back, I dare not turn around.

It was peculiar that I was so fascinated by this creature. His body gave off no sound now: no step, no swish, so sigh. He was silent to the point where I even doubted my own awareness that spoke to me of his presence. Of course, only superficial doubts, my jagan eye could not be fooled. Of that, at least, had I unerring confidence.

The creature's earlier display was enough for my to ponder, I didn't need to turn and discover more. He was shocked…and then he laughed, laughed at the death of his partner and supposed love! At his easy capture and ensnaring, I half expected tears. The oddest part, however, was the nature of this laugh. It was not cold, nor mirthful, nor the cackling of one insane; it was not one of those things. It was all and more. I cannot describe the chill, the pain, and the anger I felt at the laugh. And so how can I begin to describe that which he felt. Of that I was confused.

But I had begun to regain my sense of self before long. And the tickling of his odd habits left my mind alone. I realized how careful I must be around this one. I sensed no terrible fear from him, as one would have expected. Neither did I sense a colder, aggressive side, or the bitterness of resignation. From the creature came…nothing. It was not an attempted nothing, but an honest nothing. And I was drawn to the void by curiosity. And so I forced myself to turn farther and farther away; far enough away until I found myself at a revolution, getting closer and closer to where I didn't want to be.

I clamped down hard on my thoughts at that. I regained my precious assassin's control. And focused on where, and how, we would stop on our return journey to that fateful tavern now on the other side of the world.

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Kurama's POV

I couldn't remember having stopped. Yet, when I was next aware, the sun had long ago set below the dank horizon and I was no longer walking. I was, in fact, sitting cross-legged with my back leaning against a large tree trunk. My neck and shoulders stiffened in soft surprise and I heard myself give a faint gasp. I was suddenly in the hot straight from the cold. The heat of the fire was answered by a shiver in my spine and a quickening of my breath for another shallow inhale. And my ears twitched in irritation. That's when I noticed the gaze across the fire.

Red eyes with an animal's reflection same as mine stared unwaveringly at me. The eyes of Kuronue's doomer - for I couldn't call him a murderer, though that role he had surely fulfilled - and the eyes of my captor. I hated him. He had killed my lover, my love, and he had made me hate myself. So for that I hated him.

I could feel his unceasing gaze boiling my blood, his fire feeding the turmoil inside my mind and body, fueling the itching hatred underneath my skin. Inside my very bones was there chaos and my clawed fingernails rang so loudly in my head that I wanted nothing more than to stab them deep into something impossibly hard and then tear them off at the source just to be rid of them for every part of my body sang for vengeance, but I was bound by oath to not harm this man before me. At every rebellious thought - and there were many - I screamed to be rid of the temptation. I wished to be harmless because then the grief and frustration would not be so great. My treachery and honorless honor could then be ignored and forgotten, dismissed.

For a moment, I wished to be able to kill myself for that had not been promised against. But then I hated him more for being able to provoke such weakness. I was determined to live if for no other reason than to survive. I would not die.

Outwardly, I appeared unchanged from my initial wake up. My face was devoid of my internal battle. I closed my eyes in a long, languid blink to hide what anger might have escaped my grasp. The color of my irises was likely to have darkened or even swirled in my struggle for control. I was well aware of his scrutiny. Until I knew how to play this situation, I would let nothing slide. All of the first moves would be given to my captor. For now, I could not afford to let guilt, revenge, …or grief…cloud my judgment. That would all come when I was once again safe no matter how long that would take. I was determined to give Kuronue my due attention as soon as I was able. But I would not throw away my life just to be hasty in my mourning. That would be utterly pointless and ungratefully wasteful.

We sat in silence. I let him study me and he let me study him.

He couldn't have been older than Kuronue - not quite a mere century old! He had experienced eyes. They were intense but had not the depth of someone of, say, my age. One didn't acquire that until they had played witness to the passage of at least half a millennia. I could have told him his life after only a few days of study. There were only so many things that could happen to age a youth and bring him to skill so quickly. (For I did recognize it, his skill.) Kindness was not one of them. Nor was it trauma for he never once flinched. No, the muscles of his forehead told that brutality had been his parent, guardian, and partner since birth.

I could've smiled, and I know Kuronue would have had his spirit then inhabited mine. The boy would be such an easy lock to pick. I could already see the first tendril beginning to waiver in his self-protecting cage. Oh yes, I would get my revenge. He would die in the same way Kuronue had, only this time I would smile instead of quail.

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Hiei's POV

This thing's calm disturbed me. I could not understand his flawless demeanor. I could not read his eyes as I was used to doing, they would give away nothing. But I could not accept his silence as true. I knew the plots were flying through his mind. The words "the fraud of age" came to mind. It was a phrase I'd heard rarely but read often. The term was used to describe the impenetrable wall that the elders of a society would use to protect whoever or whatever they chose. They would form a circle, sitting upon the ground. Some cults would send their spirits directly through each other at ever increasing speed to form the solidity of the wall. Others would merely hold hands or draw a seal surrounding them all with varying powders. The energy generated could be focused upon one thing and act as a power source and protector. Or it could be the focus. That's what the Youko's eyes reminded me of: a beautiful shield that hid unnamable secrets of barely contained violence.

And yet, all mystery aside, I could not help but pride myself in the cleverness of my deceit. I knew how highly spirits valued honesty. Perhaps it had something to do with the power of their gods (for they were all truly nothing but terrestrial servants of a greater being). I didn't believe in my having gods to worship and respect, but the gods of spirits were real, not ideas. They didn't have to be believed in because they were. They were the nonpareils of their supreme and ancient race and thus allowed to spawn a species to serve them. But no god gave rise to me. No goddess conceived my soul within her womb. I was a demon, a being of evolution and the natural unnatural ways of the world. Gods had no hand in me. So I didn't really care about their power and their influence. They may be gods to some, but I was beyond their reach. My gods were no more than the other demons higher in class than I. And I didn't have to pay homage fear was enough for them. To exist as a demon one must learn how to fear. To live as a demon one must learn how to induce fear. And so I preyed upon the differences between my riven and I. I stole his will by binding his freedom to act with no more than feeble words. He was such a pathetic creature to be so easily restricted.

It was easy to focus upon the few faults of his that I knew: his honesty, his trust, and his "love." In this there was solid ground. I would wait for the magma that was his dogma to cool before setting foot upon it.

I eventually slept, though light enough to awaken at a cricket's foreign chirp. I had confidence in my safety. There was no way he could harm me or try to leave. Even if he rebelled with everything in his being, the power of his god within him would not allow him to break.

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Kurama's POV

I didn't dare stir after my captor had fallen asleep. The entire night I sat and gazed upon his childlike face. It appeared so young in slumber that my breath again caught in appreciation of his youth and beauty. It would make my false attraction that much easier. I would fool myself. Honesty was the best of actors.

`Forgive me Kuronue,' I thought, `you must understand what I am doing.'

It had been less than one day and I had already separated myself from Kuronue. It was dangerous, to let the grief fester. But I had not the choice. I prayed Kuronue would understand and accept my lament when it would come.

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A/N: That chapter wasn't all that much longer, sorry. Once I get passed these first nights the chapters will have more action and be longer.

I made up "the fraud of age" and the reference to gods.

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