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Dreams and Nightmares Part 8
by Korogi
The guard pushed the heavy oak door open with a bony hand,
much of his face and body hidden under a brown, dusty cloak. "This
is where the lady Mukuro is staying," he spoke softly, barely audible.
A grumble of something else came from his hidden face, the meaning escaping
Hiei as the words slid by, possibly in another language.
Hiei glanced to the guard out of the corner of his
eye, scanning both mentally and physically. He was definitely A-class,
up there on the high end of the you-ki spectrum, maybe not as powerful
as Hiei himself was... but he wasn't willing to find out. Instead,
Hiei grunted his own 'thank you', brushing by the guard and stepping inside
the large, oak door.
The room was cold and well furnished, lit brightly by
a large, open window directly across from him, spilling in a light, stale
breeze. Fabriced chairs and a few foot stools littered the large
bedroom, bear-skin rugs paved the floors, tapestries painted the walls...
"Well, you sure showed up quickly," came a deep, feminine
voice, welling up from behind the misty drapes surrounding the large bed
off in the corner of the room. "Hiei, I expected you nearly 10 minutes
ago... you did NOT come alone as I had instructed!"
Mukuro appeared quickly from under the hazy canopy of the large
bed, sitting quickly on the edge, glaring down Hiei with her single, good
blue eye. Her expression held a world of anger and deceit, glaring
down the youkai, her upper lip curling back to show her sharp teeth.
Hiei looked back at her simply, letting his hands hang
peacefully at his side, shrugging off the glare that threatened to freeze
his fiery heart cold. "Fine. I'm here. Now, you keep
your deal and let Kuraihana go." He positioned himself boldly, taking
up a statuesque position, challenging all existence around him.
The witch laughed, leaning back slightly in her hands
tossing the short, orange hair around her face with each breath.
It was a deep laugh Hiei no longer recognized as coming from his employer..
it was more of a laugh that he would have expected from one of his past
enemies. "I have everything I want now..."
"Mukuro..." Hiei's tone was surprisingly gentle... gentle!
Calmly he spoke her name, rolling it through the air. As calmly and
as gently as he spoke he stepped forward, raising his blood-red eyes back
to her glare. "...what's happened to you?"
The blue eye widened and Mukuro sat straight up, spilling
the short, orange hair forward and around her. Quickly she brushed
it from her sight, leaning forward on the bed, staring unbelieving up at
the youkai. Her breath caught in her throat, concentrating in a large
glob around her wind pipe, restricting what she wanted to say to a few
meager sounds. The youkai was slowly making his way towards her position,
looking down into her eye with a completely blank and unreadable expression.
"N.. nani..." she managed finally, the word sickeningly
weak and feeble, dry in her mouth as she spoke it.
"You're not the same person you were two years ago..."
Hiei paused about 3 feet from her and crossed his arms over his chest.
"You've become a heartless bitch. You don't care for anything anymore...
not like you used to."
Mukuro snarled and opened her mouth... but Hiei
held up a hand, quickly silencing her. "Hear me out before you begin
off on another ego trip..."
"You owe me your life, Hiei, or have you forgotten!" she
screamed, whipping a hand out with brute speed, palm open ...
Hiei caught her hand about her wrist tightly, stopping
her strike in mid swing easily. He leaned in and looked her
straight in the eye, watching back, still totally expressionless.
"And you owe me your freedom... or have YOU forgotten?" He circled
his other hand around her wrist, wrapping the fabric of her shirt tightly
around it in an iron-like bond, mimicking those that had been there two
years ago during the Makai Tournament.
Mukuro flexed her wrist and scowled, but despite herself,
she sighed and relaxed quickly, lowering her head from Hiei's
empty-glare. She pondered quickly to herself, remembering. "I..
I guess I had forgotten... more or less, I thought you had forgotten.
When the Makai Tournament ended..." she dropped her head even more, her
voice straight and quiet, almost at a whisper. She relaxed her wrist
in Hiei's grasp, feeling him slowly lower it to her lap. " I can't remember
what I did with my life afterwards. I just woke up one day and realized
exactly how much power I had achieved through the years."
"And you used that power in all the wrong ways.
And you're still doing it now. I saw the way the guards cowered at
the mention of your name... how the maids and hands avoid this wing of
the fortress like a Ningenkai plague. Is that how you want to be
remembered? As a cold and lonely woman who desired nothing more than
to hold an iron fist over everyone around her?"
"Hiei..." Mukuro rose quickly from her seat on the
bed and crossed the room, pushing away from him through the distance.
"You don't understand... power is all I have left.. it's all I EVER had!
Until I found you."
"That's no excuse. You can't lay all your blame
on me. I didn't ask for you to take me in. I didn't ask for
you to employ me as once of your pawns to be called upon whenever you felt
like it."
"You still don't get it, do you?"
"Get what? What you enjoy nothing more in life than
to use people, to bend them to your will and then have done with them?
That's not the ways things EVER worked!"
"Shut up!" she screamed, twirling from him, folding her
arms over the mantle of the fire place, sinking her head into the crook
they made. "You have no idea what it's like to grow up completely
alone!"
"Oh, I don't?" Hiei laughed silently to himself,
taking a few steps across the room towards Mukuro as she sulked like a
spoiled brat on the mantel. "Mukuro, since I was born, I have been
alone in this word, set to wander the paths for my own life, or die.
I see now that death would have been the better choice. I wasted
400 years of my life trying to put order to my past, and I'm still far
from the truth." He paused and dug his hands deeper into his pockets.
"My only regret is that I can't tell Yukina who her brother really is.
I can't die peacefully until that of two things is completed."
Mukuro pushed herself from the mantle and walked slowly
across the room to the large picture window. "I never knew..."
She tugged the sash open a bit more, the stale-smelling breeze whistling
through her hair. "You never told me."
"We never talked like we used to. It was mostly
just business. I would have told you my past just to have someone
know who I was, where I came from. But you're too late now, Mukuro.
I've already told my past to another. I won't die unknown.
You on the other hand..."
"The girl will be released as agreed... she's free
to go whenever youryouko friends get here," Mukuro put in quickly,
trying to ignore Hiei's preaching. She paused by the window and stared
out into the greyness, adjusting the eyepiece with a simple shove of her
finger. "But will you stay and talk a while?"
Hiei choked back slightly, eyes widening. As Hiei
looked back on the past year.. as he looked back on what Mukuro had done
in her rise to power, he didn't see the old friend who whisked him up from
the arms of death... the old friend who nursed him back to health ... and
he certainly didn't see the woman he once knew as proud and loyal to her
cause. Instead he had seen Mukuro become ruthless and heartless,
taking down anyone who dared to even look her way with the wrong tone.
He didn't think it was at all possible for Mukuro to ever
possess enough benevolence just for the sake of being kind.
He didn't expect her to do anything unless she got paid nicely in return.
That had always been the way with her..
"Perhaps people can change," Hiei said silently to her
back. "Perhaps the old Mukuro I knew is still within your blackened
soul and just needs to be re-awakened."
She turned quickly towards him, fixing him sternly in
her glare. For Hiei to still hold some concern for her well being
after all she had done to him.... She gathered a smile and walked
over swiftly, putting her hands down on his shoulders. "Hiei.. I
never doubted for a moment that you still had feelings for me," she whispered.
"Nani??" Hiei drew back quickly, releasing himself
from her hands. "What do you mean? I never had feelings for
you that went beyond friendship. I have found my happiness in life
away from the Makai..."
She smiled lightly, a small twinkle making its way
into her eye as she looked back down on him. "That's not really what
I meant, Hiei. I saw how hurt and betrayed you were when you found
Kurama with me back at the office. At the time... as embarrassed
as I am to say it... I was delighted to see that I had finally found a
way to reach you... but now I realize that you were never a heart I could
capture. I see now where your heart belongs."
Hiei looked her plainly in the face... he reached into
his shirt and pulled out a thin, golden chain and held it before him.
Dangling on the end of it was a simple silver band, a beautiful sculpted
red rose blossoming from its depths to twirl it's delicate leaves around
the band in intricate weaving. "I said there were two things I needed
to do before I could die with a clear conscious. This is the other."
Hiei rubbed a finger over the band gently, holding it before him between
his thumb and forefinger. "Kurama gave this to me a short time ago
with a promise... a promise that we would always be together no matter
what, he and I. And you almost broke that promise we have.
For that, I can never forgive you." He fixed her eye with his heated
glare, letting for just a short moment his pain show through before quickly
blinking it away. "But maybe I can forget the past for now and trust
you again. It all depends on you."
Mukuro nodded slightly down to the little youkai as he
dropped the ring back into his shirt, the thin, sliver chain disappearing
on his skin. Normally, she would have thought about how easy it would
have been to slice him in half and paint her floor with his blood... but
she found the will to smile and hug him slightly, much to the little koorime's
surprise. "Arigato gozaimasu, Hiei-san," she whispered.
The witch waved a hand easily through the air... drawing
back and standing tall and proud above Hiei. "Kurama and this new
friend of yours will never make it past Mon-motsu at the front gate.
So instead... we'll take Kuraihana to them."
The two youko's still sat in a headlock under the golem,
trying to stifle their giggling for long enough to pry themselves from
each other's grasp. They could definitely feel the immense ki coming
from him... he had to be strong S-class, a power almost leveling that which
they had felt around Yusuke at times.
"Now, if you two are quite done with your playing...
"the golem snarled back at them, adjusting the reaping scythe resting at
his shoulder. "I have some preparations to do before the hunting
parties come back... I'm a very busy man..."
"No, you're an UGLY man!" Youko Yo-mawari laughed, wiggling
out from under Kurama's iron-like grip with a hoot.
"Kisama!!" the golem yelled. "I'll show YOU who's
ugly!! Worthless youko's!!" The golem reeled back the reaping
scythes,
jerking them from their position on his shoulder to split through the
air, leaving a glowing blue trail behind it, warping and cutting
through space-time as if it was warm butter.
The youko's barely managed to leap out of the way of the
attack as the blade made heavy contact with the stone road beneath them,
laying out a trough about 3 feet deep and 3 feet across. Stone and
dirt flew everywhere, leaving the same blue streaks in their path, following
the youko's, closing in around them, crating a glowing blue web around
and over them, preventing all escape.
Kurama leapt to the ground, pulling up a handful of grass
that had grown through the stone-work road, forming them instantly into
razor-sharp blades. He darted back again to avoid a marauding chunk
of rock, slicing the air with meaningless action as the rock blazed a blue
trail before him. Kurama continued back and leapt right back into
the blue paths the scythe and it's shrapnel had made.
Instantly, an electric crack rang through the air, cutting into
Kurama's shoulder with a hot, shearing pain. He quickly diverted
to the ground... the damage was not bad... a heavy burn mark pierced down
his shoulder, throbbing red as his healers ki began to flow to it.
The web was impenetrable by physical standards. Kurama would not
be able to breach it unless he burned himself into several pieces.
The youko twins fell back, joining at a place they
designated for a quick fall-back location. Yo-mawari had been clipped
roughly across the cheek with the scythe, a thick stream of blood running
out to dapple on the white cotton of his clothing.
"He's quick..." Yo-mawari put in silently, the two watching
the golem wait patiently for their next move directly in front of the gate.
The blue web domed them above, making the road into a
make- shift battle arena. "There's no escaping this blue field,"
Kurama said silently, pointing to the healing burn on his shoulder.
"He's closing us in. The more we attack, the smaller this dome becomes."
"I wonder if Karasu's still following us... maybe he can
be some help to us yet."
"Shut up," Youko Kurama spat back. "I was being
serious."
"So was I, Kyodai-kun."
Kurama snarled to himself, seriousness taking over any
and all hints of the playful fox that he was only minutes before.
This was looking to be a more and more hopeless battle... as if a hopeless
situation ever stopped him before. Strategies began to play through
his mind... plans on how he could conquer a creature entirely composed
of stone....
.... and the ki hit him... rushed in on him like a freight
train. Familiar images sparkled back to his mind where they belonged,
the joyful little smiles and giggles from a young girl he had watched grow
up. "Hana-chan!" he almost yelled, reaching over and grabbing his
brother by the front of the shirt. "It's Chibi-hana..."
"Wha... WHERE??!!" Yo-mawari grabbed back, shaking
his brother urgently. His mind raced and his heart began to beat
wildly in his chest, that tight pain welling up again, threatening to overtake
any and all motor skills he could muster if he didn't get a grip on himself.
Kurama pointed to the fortress... then down to the main
portcullis just visible beyond the... to the road beyond the main gate.
Her ki was moving with immense speed, a speed he didn't think Hiei could
even master...
"Mon-motsu!" a deep voice rang to their ears, startling
everyone from their concentration and freezing them in their tracks.
The voice was clearly feminine, rolling in on the wind and seeping into
ever crevice possible..
From the gate, Mukuro suddenly blinked into view
in a rat of black air, standing tall and boldly, arms straight down by
her sides. Behind her, Kuraihana poked her head from around her shoulders,
quickly surveying the landscape.
And finally Hiei calmly blinked into view in the same
rat of black wind, arms crossed across his chest, glare set in his usual
mode.
"Kuraihana!!!" Yo-mawari bellowed, rushing forward
to the edge of the blue energy net. "Hana-san! RUN!!!
Get away from her!!"
Mukuro held up a hand calmly, stepping forward, mumbling
something over to Hiei. He nodded and moved to flank Kuraihana, watching
Mukuro walk calmly forward.
"Release the youko's," she said straightly, moving right
up to the edge of the blue web. She paused just out side it, her
nose inches from the sparking electricity of the field. "Let them
go. I can handle them."
"Like hell you can, Mukuro!!" Kurama spat, running forward
to the web, sliding to a stop and standing directly across from her.
"I'll kill you before you even blink!"
Mukuro looked him back calmly, her face straight and unemotional,
surprisingly civil and gentle. She nodded slightly to him and
turned her eye to the golem. "Lower the field, Mon-motsu-san.
I can handle this."
"I don't take orders from you, lady. Only
from the Master... and last time I checked you were only just a guest of
his... nothing more."
Mukuro closed her eye and smiled slightly, stretching
a hand out calmly in Kurama's direction. She grabbed one of the blue
streaks composing the web that imprisoned the youko's, sending a shower
of blue electricity about her. The strand shorted out and disappeared
in a loud crack of thunder, rumbling through the lands and back to the
fortress.
"That was a foolish thing to do," Kurama hissed,
reaching a hand through the new opening, squeezing his body through feeling
his arm push through the void in the web to reach for Mukuro's throat.
Mukuro flashed from existence to appear beside Kuraihana
and Hiei, turning to mutter something down to him. Hiei smiled and
stifled a laugh, muttering something back to her.
The golem growled fiercely, replacing the hole in the
net, still trapping Yo-mawari well with in. The golem leapt from
the net to appear before Youko Kurama as he tried to run down Mukuro, blocking
the path.
Kurama tried to leap around him, finding only that another quick
net was soon raised, forcing him to defect his planned course back to the
ground.
Mukuro spoke again... but this time to Kurama, stepping
forward. "I suggest for your own health, you stay right where you
are."
"Mukuro... you..."
Suddenly, Mukuro shot streaks of golden light through
the air, slicing through the gate and anything else in its path... including
the web before Kurama, wrapping around the golem in a tight weave, trapping
him in a bird cage-looking structure, slicing the scythe from his grip.
"I ask you again, Mon-motsu... release the youkos before I get angry."
"And I say to you once more woman... I obey only the Master!"
He threw a fist through the air, directing his you-ki at the web imprisoning
Yo-mawari.
One of the stands snapped loose and closed in quickly,
catching him about the waist, burning through his shirt and into his skin,
throwing him down to the ground. He stifled a yell of pain, rolling
up onto his knees, clutching at his waist as blood began to flow.
"Yo-mawari!!!!" Kurama bellowed, watching more and more of the
web splinter and rain down around his brother, trapping him, cutting him,
forcing Kurama to watch... as he had had to watch Kuronue all those years
ago, practically skewered before his eyes. "NNNNNNNOOOOOO!!!" he screamed,
whipping his head around from Mukuro. He began to lash at the web
that held him...
Hiei quickly caught Kuraihana by the shoulder as
she screamed out the youko's name, tripping under his grip, almost plummeting
to the stone road below as she tried to run to Yo-mawari's side.
Suddenly, the sound of the cracking and splitting
of marble rang through the air, echoing around everyone. All motion
stopped...
Mukuro had her hand around one of the golden bars of the
cage trapping the golem, the bar vibrating like a plucked string in her
hand. Inside, the golem's stone arm shuddered slightly, then fell
from the body, shattering into a million pieces on the rock road underneath.
The golem shuffled in the cage, staring down with utter
amazement at the shattered remnants of his hand below him.
Mukuro glared down the golem, pinging the bar in her hand
as if plucking back a string on a harp. It shot in, sliced through
the reaping scythe in the golem's other hand before returning to her hand
obediently. "I hate repeating myself. Let them go or I finish things
myself."
The golem dropped to his knees quickly in the cage, gathering
the shattered stone back into his arm, bringing it up to attachment on
his shoulder. He snarled to himself and Mukuro, rolling the arm and
shoulder it about to make sure it still worked properly. "Ack.. they're
not worth loosing my job over," he growled to her. "Fine.
The youko's are yours. But I warn you Mukuro. If they ever
step foot near my gates again, they're food for my dogs!"
The blue webs suddenly dissipated around the two youko's, freeing
Kurama and sending Yo-mawari falling in a splatter of blood to the rocks
below.
Kuraihana was off before Kurama could even react and turn
around, darting past the golem and falling to her knees beside the youko,
turning him over to lay on his back.
"Yo-mawari-san!! Yo-mawari-san! Are you okay??"
she asked nervously, picking his head up and laying it gently in her lap.
The blood from the gash on his cheek mingled down with a trail coming from
his mouth, bleeding into the white cloth around his shoulders.
He looked a mess, cut, slashed and bruised all over his
face and chest, bleeding heavily. Kuraihana gasped shrilly, leaning
over on her knees. "Yo-ma-san..." She smoothed the hair back
from his face, pulling it out of the thick blood trails, rubbing the bleeding
cheek into silence. "Yo-mawari.. answer me... please..." she whispered.
The youko stirred slightly, the thin eyes fluttering
lightly before blinking wide open. His gaze was met only with the
large, dark blue eyes as Kuraihana leaned over him, a hand still absently
smoothing away the mats of hair. It took him a few moments to realize
who she was, but when he did, he smiled widely, trying to snort out a laugh.
The eyes slid back closed wearily as he continued to smile,
raising a hand into the air between their faces. "Hana-chan..." he
whispered.
"I'm right here," she whispered back, taking his
hand in hers, leading it up to kiss his fingers gently.
His eyes slid open again .... but instead of the golden
youko eyes, the thick, black-onyx ones smiled back at her, his cheeks flushing
slightly underneath them. His silver hair slowly bled out in matted,
black locks, spilling about him like a black puddle, camouflaging the blood
around his body.
Kuraihana sighed relieved, raising the hand to her cheek,
leaning over on it and trying to smile at the condition he lay in.
"Are you okay?"
"Heh .... no!" he laughed as best he could, wincing as
his chest protested furiously, knocking him back into a painful silence.
He held his smile, staring up deeply into the dark blue eyes that hovered
just above him, fighting back the moans of pain that demanded to be let
out.
Kuraihana giggled lightly, laying another hand down softly
on the large gashes running over his chest. She could feel his heart
beating furiously underneath, and she realized her heart to was pounding
away as furiously within her, nearly matching his beat for beat.
She blushed deeply, looking back down into Yo-mawari's eyes.
He smiled again and slid them closed, rolling his head
over to rest against her chest, his grip on her hand falling limp.
"Yo-ma-san?"
"Nani?"
"I'm not letting you die on me! You hear me!"
He snorted out a laugh and squeezed her hand. "I'm
not going to die... not as long as you're here."
Kurama smiled from the sidelines, wanting desperately to
rush to his brother's side. He watched Kuraihana gather Yo-mawari up onto
her lap, smoothing a hand over his face and hair, sitting him up
to lean against her chest. She helped him back, turning his head
to the side, resting it on her shoulder as she wrapped her arms about him...
not an unusual position for a healer. But there was more in that
healing gesture than what it was meant to look like.
Hiei walked up beside Youko Kurama, brushed gently against
his shoulder, the wind swirling stray locks of still silver hair over to
mingle on his cheeks and shoulders. "Why are you just standing here?"
he asked, a bit concerned, watching Kuraihana closely as the red aura of
her ki began to encompass both her body and Yo-mawari's.
Youko Kurama smiled and reached an arm over around Hiei,
pulling him over in a great stumble. "Don't you see it? can't
you feel the bond between them?"
"Hn. No."
"Oh, but I can see it..." Mukuro put in gently from behind
them.
Hiei quickly reached over and wrapped and arm around Kurama's
side as the Youko began to turn for an attack. The gesture caught
him completely off guard, prying his attention from Mukuro back to Hiei,
mild shock running over his face.
The little youkai snuggled his head into the folds of
the white cloth, pulling Kurama's other arm up around his shoulders, snuggling
deeper. He wanted to be hugged.
Kurama stood shocked a moment, absently tightening his
arms around Hiei, taking a few seconds to get his thoughts together before
he bent down and kissed the side of his cheek. "What was this all
for, Hiei?" he asked softly, eyes flashing back to green as he began to
retake the shape of his human body.
Hiei didn't answer. He squeezed his small arms around
Kurama's thin waist for a moment, then pulled back, staring off at Yo-mawari
and Kuraihana. He release his grip and turned from Kurama, shoving
his hands deep into his pockets, allowing Kurama's lingering arm to run
through his hair before dropping back at Kurama's side.
Kurama turned around, turning his wide, green eyes around
to Mukuro who stood just a few feet behind them. She stood smiling
in the middle of the road, guarding back the golem as he slunk back to
the tower, grumbling to himself.
"Well... it looks like I've caused a great mess again,"
she laughed, tugging at the purple vest.
Kurama's forehead wrinkled. "What do you want?"
"Amazingly... nothing! Actually, I'd like to help."
"We don't want your help. You've caused enough trouble
to last a life time, Mukuro. Just get out of here, that will suit
just fine."
Mukuro coughed slightly, clearing her throat. "Well,
I'd offer my services as a healer... but seeing as how my complex was bizarrely
destroyed in a freak fire..." she grinned over at Hiei... "it seems
I'm without a facility for the time being. And your niece won't be
able to heal your brother on her own."
"I said.. we don't WANT your help!"
"Kurama..." Hiei reached over and brushed a hand over
Kurama's sleeve, barely touching the exposed skin through the cut in the
fabric. "Let her help."
"Nan da! There is no way I'm...."
"Kurama." Hiei looked up into the grassy-green eyes
sternly. "Do you trust me?"
He choked..." uh... hai... demo..."
"Enough to trust in my judgement of character?"
"Hiei...."
"Mukuro can be trusted... trust ME in this one."
