Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Yukina's Twin ❯ Chapter 2 ( Chapter 2 )

Meanwhile, back at the temple . . .

"Kurama-san, where's Hiei-san?" Nadeshiko asks as Kurama comes out of the bamboo forest. Noticing how depressed Kurama looked, Nadeshiko asks, "What's wrong, Kurama-san?" By now, everyone else had noticed as well and turns to look at him. Kurama does not reply, but simply sits down on the wooden steps of the temple, buries his face in his arms, which were crossed over his knees. Sakura sits down next to him and puts her arm over his shoulder.

"Kurama, what's wrong? Why are you so depressed?" Kurama does not reply, but simply hugs her and buries his face on her shoulder. She is surprised, but simply hugs him back and runs her hands up and down his back to comfort him.

Back at Resshin's HQ . . .

"Master, you have returned," a familiar voice greets Resshin as he enters the control room. "How did it go?"

"Quite well, Kurama. What has Hiei done over the past hour?"

"He has spoken with my original and has broken up his friendship with him, as we expected. What should I do with the girl?" he replies, indicating to Yukina, who was sitting in the center of a small cage wrapped with powerful anti-koorime wards.

"Leave her in there, but make sure you take good care of her. We'll need her for the next stage in our plans. Besides, we can't afford to appear barbaric, starving the poor girl," Resshin replies as he puts his hand between the bars to lift up her chin. Yukina looks away at first, but Resshin turns her head to look straight at him. "After I kill that brother of yours and that foolish human, you'll be my wife."

"Bro-brother?" Yukina replies, shocked.

"Oh, you mean you don't know?" he replies, ridiculing her. "I mean Hiei. I see, so he doesn't care enough about you to even tell you." He lets go of her chin and pulls his hand back out. "Kurama, make sure she doesn't try anything stupid," he instructs as he leaves.

"Yes, master," Kurama replies with a bow.

The next day . . .

Hiei wakes up to find himself still at the hot springs. A bunch of glittering pearls lay scattered around his face was as he gets up on his feet. "Yukina . . ." He suddenly remembers the note. Just then, he sensed someone behind him. He turns around to see that it was Genkai.

"I have a question for you, Hiei. You have been protecting Yukina for the past several nights from youkai that has been after her . . . why?"

"That's none of your business, Baba," Hiei coldly replies.

"Is it because you're in love with her?" Hiei flinches in response. "Or is it because you're related to her?" she asks, waiting for Hiei's response.

"This has nothing to do with you!" he angrily replies, flitting away.

"So, I was right. Yukina is related to him . . . but this still does not explain Kurama's upset behavior yesterday. Something else must be going on," Genkai murmurs as she walks back to the temple.

A little while later . . .

"Genkai-baasan, have you found out anything from Hiei-san?" Nadeshiko eagerly asks as Genkai walks back into her temple. Sakura hands her a cup of tea.

"Yes. I don't think he meant to give it away, though. Yukina is related to him; I'm pretty sure of it. He became quite angry when I asked him," she says, sipping her hot tea. Yuusuke and Kurama did not respond, but Kuwabara is surprised.

"There is no way that Yukina could be related to him! He can't be!" he looks over to the calm Kurama and Yuusuke. "Urameshi, Kurama do you know something I don't, again?!"

Kurama, lost in thought, looks over to the redhead. "I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention. What did you ask?"

"He wants to know if Hiei is really related to Yukina," Yuusuke replies.

"Well?!" Kuwabara exclaims, curious. Both Kurama and Yuusuke do not respond, but simply sit in silence. Just then, Hiei opens the door of the temple.

"We're rescuing Yukina, now. You can either come or stay, I don't care," he coldly says as he turns around to leave. Everyone except Genkai follow him out the temple.

"Hiei, you know where the enemy is?" Kuwabara incredulously asks.

"Shut up and follow me," Hiei coldly replies, giving Kuwabara a colder glare than usual. "We're going to Mt. Hiei."

That night, on Mt. Hiei . . .

This is where he said to meet him in his note . . . so where is he? Hiei wonders as he looks around. "What time is it?"

"It's a quarter to midnight, why?" Kurama replies.

"Nothing." So I'm early. I wonder- A stick snaps, startling him out of his thoughts. "Who's there?!"

"No one, other than the God of Death!" Botan gleefully shouts as she runs out from behind a tree with Puu.

"Thank goodness," Yuusuke replies. "You startled us, Botan!"

"Sorry, but Koenma told me to bring Puu, so I did." Just then, a thud and a shout come from Kurama's direction.

"Sakura!" Kurama shouts as he is being dragged away.

"Kurama!" Sakura shouts as she sees Kurama being dragged away. She starts to go after him.

"Wait! Sakura, don't go after him! We don't know who's out there! It'd pointless to get separated in the dark. Besides, Kurama can take care of himself," Yuusuke shouts, stopping her. Puu turns and hides his face in Botan's shirt. Five minutes later, a painful scream rings as Kurama walks back out towards the group.

"Kurama, you're alright!" Sakura exclaims, relieved and hugging him. He flinches, but before anyone could ask about it, the ground suddenly starts to sink. "What the-?" Sakura exclaims as they start to move. After sinking about fifty feet or so, light starts to shine from the room that is slowly coming into view. It was filled with numerous youkai, who takes notice right away and starts to gather around the landing area.

"Get ready, guys; we're going to have to fight all of them," Yuusuke warns as Hiei takes out his sword. The instant they stop, he dashes straight into the center of the horde, multiple screams of pain ringing out as youkai start to fall into pieces. Yuusuke and Kuwabara run out and start to punch and kick any youkai that come within attack distance and Sakura had used her powers to create a whip, which she flicks around with deadly accuracy, as had Nadeshiko and Kurama. Botan summons her oar and flies above the bloody scene to prevent herself and Puu from getting injured. In less than five minutes, there were only pieces of youkai left in the room.

"So, what now?" asks Yuusuke as he walks over to the center of the room, where everyone else is gathering.

"We find the b****** who is responsible and kill him," Hiei simply replies. Kurama looks around the room.

"Look, over there!" Kurama suddenly exclaims as he sees an open door showing the way into a darkened corridor. "An open door . . . I wonder where it leads?"

"Let's go," Hiei says as he starts running to the door.

"Oi, wait up!" Kuwabara exclaims as he follows. Everyone else runs to catch up to Hiei. After running for about five minutes, Kuwabara suddenly stops. Yuusuke notices this and stops and turns around.

"Kuwabara, what's wrong?" he asks.

"Something doesn't feel right . . . Tell Hiei to stop! There's a trap up ahead!" Kuwabara exclaims as a high-pitched scream echoes through the corridor. "Urameshi, let's hurry!" The two of them run on a little further to see a hole in the floor with Hiei on the far side watching what Kurama and Sakura are doing on the near side. Nadeshiko is nowhere to be seen.

"Where's Nadeshiko-chan?" asks Yuusuke as he runs up to Sakura and Kurama.

"Over the edge. She was standing right over the tile as it gave way. She flung up her whip just as she started to fall. Kurama caught it and that's when you two showed up," Sakura explains as Kurama continues to pull her up by her whip.

"Please, hurry! Nadeshiko-chan can't hold onto her whip much longer!" Nadeshiko shouts as her grip started to slip. She looks down and panics as she realizes that she cannot see the bottom of the shaft. "Please!"

"Hold on, Nadeshiko-chan," Kurama manages to say between pulls. "Sakura, lay down on the floor to my left and get ready to catch her if her grip slips."

She nods. "I got it." She lies down and stretches out her arm. "Just a little further, Kurama! I almost got her!" Just then, Nadeshiko's hand slips just a little further as she tries to bring up her other hand for a better grip.

"Don't let go!" Sakura shouts in reply. "I almost got you! Try to bring up your left hand!"

Nadeshiko tries to reach Sakura's hand, but to no avail. As she tries to reach a second time, her hand completely slips away, and she falls down the shaft, screaming. "NADESHIKO-CHAN!!!!" Sakura screams as Nadeshiko falls, quickly disappearing from view. Sakura sits up, sobbing into her hands. Kurama does nothing to console her, but simply looks down the shaft with a triumphant look on his face. This goes by unnoticed by everyone but Hiei, who begins to angrily clench his right hand. Botan was nowhere to be seen. `What's going on with Kurama? It's not like him to not console someone he cares for; let alone show he's triumphed by letting Nadeshiko fall. What if . . . That's it! It must have happened when he got dragged away! He must have been telling the truth earlier! Kurama . . . I'm sorry, my friend. I should have believed you . . . I swear on my own grave that I'll avenge you, Nadeshiko. You won't have died in vain, I swear it.'

"Ara? Where's Botan?" Kuwabara asks, looking around. She suddenly appears on her oar above the hole.

"I dove down to see if I could catch her, but it was so dark down there I could hardly find my way out. I don't know how far I went down, but I couldn't see her nor could I hear her. We better move before anything else happens. Sakura, I'm sure we'll find her," Botan reports. She flies to the other side of the hole. "C'mon, jump!" Everyone else does as Botan suggested and safely makes it across. They all start running again, with the exception of Botan, who is flying on her oar to keep up. Suddenly, a small window of bright light appears at the end of the hallway.

"This is it, get ready, guys! We're reaching the end of the corridor!" Yuusuke shouts as he sees it. Just then, a dozen small arrows shoot out of both sides of the wall from various places as Kuwabara is about to shout a warning and a loud scream pierces through the whizzing of the arrows. Hiei dodges them all with ease and Kuwabara had stopped just as he realized that they were approaching another trap. Sakura had dodged most of them, but was scratched by a few, as had Kurama. Botan, however, had been hit in the side, and a few had scratched Yuusuke as he picked her up to get her out of the way.

"Puu, puu, puu," Puu says as it lands next to Botan, ears moving over her face to check for any signs of life.

"Botan! Quick, somebody give me a piece of your shirt! I need to get the arrow out of her!" Sakura orders as she inspected the arrow, which was sticking upwards towards the ceiling. Botan is gritting her teeth in pain and tears were streaming out of the corners of her closed eyes, mingling with the sweat that was starting to roll down the sides of her face. "Botan, listen to me. Botan!" Sakura shouted as Botan turned her head back and forth. "I am going to remove the arrow. You must stay very still. Here," Sakura says as she forms a small rod of ice in her hand. "Open your mouth and bite on this instead of your own teeth." Botan obediently opens her mouth and bites on the ice. "I'm going to remove it on the count of three. One . . . two . . . uhn!" Sakura says as she pulls out the arrow. Botan's eyes go wide with pain as the arrow is pulled out and blood starts to gush out of the wound. Sakura instantly pulls up Botan's shirt to inspect the wound. "Everybody turn around," she commands as water flows out of her hand and onto the wound.

"How's the wound?" Yuusuke asks, his back facing Sakura and Botan.

"It's very deep, but I can't be sure in this dim light. I need a piece of cloth to cover it. Kurama, I need Makai healing herbs, now."

"I got it," he replies. A few moments later, a few leaves were placed to her left as a piece of Yuusuke's shirt was placed on her right. Sakura pours water out of her hand until the cloth was soaked with water.

"Hiei, could you please give me a little fire? I want to sterilize this before I wrap it onto Botan's wound. It should help prevent infection," Sakura explains. Hiei wordlessly walks over and lights his left hand on fire, allowing Sakura to use it until the cloth was completely dry.

"Good, that should do it," Sakura says as she crushes the leaves and places them on the wound and wraps the piece of cloth around her waist. Botan tenses with pain as the leaves fall on the wound and the cloth was wrapped and tied around her waist. She loses consciousness as Sakura pulls her shirt back down and sighs a huge sigh of relief. "She should be fine now. Give it a little time and those herbs should start working."

"Good, I'm glad," Yuusuke replies as he turns around. "But what now? We can't possibly stay here and wait for Botan."

"I know. That's why I'm going to stay here with her, or at least until she regains consciousness," Sakura replies.

"Are you sure about this?" Yuusuke asks, unsure.

"Positive. We can't just leave her here, and there's no way we can carry her to the end of the corridor without knowing what's at the end of it," she replies.

"Okay, but come if we need help before Botan wakes up," Yuusuke replies. "We'll give you a signal."

"Um . . . okay, but what's the signal?" Sakura replies.

"Our death screams," Yuusuke replies. Everyone sweatdrops at the reply. "Okay, fine. It won't be that, but if you hear anything near it, come. It means we need your help."

"I understand. Go, and good luck!" Sakura shouts as everyone but Kurama runs off. "Don't worry about me, Kurama. I'll be fine. Botan should be fine, too; the herbs should be working."

"Oh, I'm not worried about that," Kurama replies, smiling sinisterly and leaning very close to Sakura. Sakura sees the smile and backs up against the wall, pushing Botan so that she is protected.

"Ku-Kurama, are you alright?"

~ To be continued ~