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YOMATSU HARA-SAKAI: THE BOUNDS
OF NIGHT: PART 7
by Korogi
Japanese vocabulary:
kagayaku - sparkling, glittering
ningen - humans
Shinka'nsen - the Bullet Train operating in Japan
yokai - demon
yoko - demonic fox, Kurama's yokai form
yomatsu hara-sakai - in Japanese legends, it's
the boundaries of
the Lands of Night
yosei - fairy, fairies
------
Hiei woke suddenly at the yell, a soft
hand caressing his face. He blinked the sleep from his eyes, stretching
the kink in his
neck. "Kurama-sama."
"Hmm?"
"How long have I been asleep?"
No answer.
"Kurama-sa ... " he turned over
on his back to stare back up at a woman ... Kagayaku. "What the ...
" he was off the bed
and on the floor before she could react.
"My! You're a quick one,"
Kagayaku smiled to him sweetly.
"Where's Kurama?" he growled, reaching
slowly back to the hilt of his katana.
"The woman? She's out with
that other man ... Yusuke, it was." She hopped off the bed and began toward
him. She reached her hand out to the side as Hiei backed up ... a
flowerpot surged to life, the plant reaching quickly out for him... but
he was quicker. He dissolved into the air, landing a few feet off
from her. The pot fell in several pieces from Hiei's unsheathed katana.
He raised the weapon to her, threatening her.
"HAH! You think you can defeat
me with metal?"
"Damn," Hiei remembered how easily
she dispensed with the sword before ... and he leapt in a surge of black
wind, disappearing from view. A fraction of a second later, the window
shattered across the room as he made his escape.
Botan heard Koenma's frantic
screams ... followed by Kuwabara blowing up sections of the garden and
Yusuke's blasts from the rei-gan. She flew around, following the
last course she thought the yell was coming from . "KOENMA-SAMA!!!!" she
yelled, searching down the labyrinth of hedges.
She reeled around a corner to a
horrific sight ... Koenma laying spread-eagle tied to the ground with the
yosei on top of him in a very compromising position, neither one in a shred
of clothing. She screamed as loud as she could ...more in alarm to
the sight ... freaking the yosei who disappeared into the air...
and Koenma's bonds were released. He quickly rolled over to one side,
his shirt hanging loosely off his back and arms, trying to catch his breath.
Botan leapt off the oar and met
clumsily with the ground, running over and flinging herself down at Koenma.
"Oh, Koenma!!! What in the name of Meikai was she doing to you?"
"Take wild guess," he spat, tugging
his pants back up in disgust, shuttering under her weight. He pulled
a hand up and cupped it over the bite wound in his neck, trying to keep
it from bleeding any more than it had to.
A snarl came from behind Botan and
she stood quickly, being stared down by the yosei that had raped Koenma.
"The man is mine, woman!"
Botan gathered her courage.
"No!" she yelled, stepping forward.
The yosei snarled, but didn't move.
Botan stepped forward again, surprised to see the fairy stumble back away
from her as
she advanced. She took a deep breath and
waved her hands through the air. "Go on! Git! Get out
of hear!" she yelled, as if scurrying off a stray cat. She looked on dumbfound
as the fairy took to the air in a deep growl and fled.
Botan looked on for a minute, making
sure the fairy was gone. That was quite odd behavior for a woman
who had managed to get the best of Koenma. She turned slowly, leaning
back down to Koenma, placing her hands on his shoulders. "Koenma
... are you okay?" she looked down to his face
"NO, I'm not okay!!!" he snapped,
sinking his head down into his hands. Botan leaned forward and wrapped
her arms around him, feeling him rest his head on her shoulder. She
leaned her head down and cradled him in her arms, rocking him back and
forth like a small child.
A single tear escaped his
mysterious, black eyes and rolled off his face onto Botan's shoulder.
Yusuke and Kuwabara stood back to
back, surrounded on all sides by the fairies. The yosei had managed
to isolate them
from Kurama, herding them away and into the depths
of the garden.
"Think I'm being paranoid now, Urameshi-san?"
"Just stick to the matter at hand!"
Kurama stood calmly smiling
in the circle of fairies as they kept their distance. Occasionally
one would dart in and he'd toss his brilliant hair at them, causing them
to scamper back. They had made no threats to harm him ... yet.
"Woman, you interfere. Begone!"
Kurama smiled, gently smelling a
single, perfect rose that seemed to battle his streaming red hair.
"No."
A chorus of hissing soon followed,
and he laughed, quite amused at their fear of him.
A swift wind blew his hair about
his face and Hiei burst into sight, katana and temper flaring.
Off from the circle, he heard Yusuke
and Kuwabara yell, and watched in awe as they were hoisted up into the
air by a vine and launched across the courtyard. "By the gods ...
"
Kuwabara hit a brick wall at the other
end of the garden, smashing clean into it, followed by Yusuke, leaving
his imprint beside him. The two sank to the ground heads spinning
as the yosei began to close quickly on them.
Yusuke tried to raise his hands
to his defense, but his body refused to obey his commands, on the verge
of being completely drained from the battle and the impact. "Kazuma...
you ok?"
"Ugh ... feel like the Shinka'nsen
Bullet Train just mistook my head for a track ... but other than that ...
" he struggled to his feet... "... never felt better!" He raised
the spirit sword before him.
Yusuke tried to get to his feet,
pulling them under him and bracing himself on a ledge. His body had
never ached so badly
before ... it was like he had bruised every bone
in his body.
His legs quivered as he tried to
walk, buckling at the knees and sending him crashing down onto his hands.
"Yusuke!! What's wrong!!" Kuwabara
yelled, slicing neatly through a fairy before him.
"Don't worry about me, you fool!
Get out of here!"
"No way!"
"Just do it!"
A swarm of yosei leapt over
Kuwabara's blade and advanced quickly on Yusuke, each grabbing hold of
him, reeling him back and pinning him against the brick wall.
"Oh no you don't!!" Kuwabara raised
the blade to strike ...
... and from out of nowhere, a group
of shuriken flew into view, imbedding themselves
in the fairies backs. The yosei screeched and released Yusuke, letting
him fall to the ground.
The shurikens wiggled out of the
backs of the quickly dying yosei, in a chorus
of snapping bones, and flew onto shed more
blood.
"It's ... those shurikens .. they're
... " Yusuke struggled to sit up.
In a flash of brilliance, the tall man
in black appeared, slicing cleanly through
a group of yosei, bringing the long, glimmering
katana before him. He n\bowed slightly,
letting his long, black hair swirl down to
hide his face momentarily.
Kuwabara stood dazed, completely
still, watching the man burst sudden;y to
his feet, cleanly pick off threat after threat.
"It's YOU!" Yusuke said. "Why
are you helping us?"
The man in black flashed a smile,
reminiscent of Kurama.
"The name is Yo-mawari ... and I have my reasons
for helping you." He flashed another smile,
slicing through the air around him with a
flourish.
Kurama looked back down to the fairies,
feeling his demon side begin to tug at his
conscious. Aside from him, Hiei verbalized
his eagerness to fight with a deep, throated growl.
"This is quite enough!" Kurama boomed,
his voice taking on an air of deadly force.
He glared around the circle of fairies, eyes flashing gold from the brilliant
green that once inhabited them. The
air tensed ... His hair began to bleach out in shinning,
silver strands picking up the golden glow of the noon-sun,
kicking up in a stiff swirl around him. As the silver, fox
hair swirled in a great tornadoe about him, his figure grew taller
and slimmer, ears protruding from the whips of his silver hair...
Yoko-Kurama stood in blazing glory
before the yosei, joined closely by Hiei with
an eager grin. He towered even taller than before, the fairies all
slinking back once again, marveling and fearing
the new figure before them.
Yoko-Kurama raised a hand gently
... and the entire garden sparked to life.
Trees and roots and plants reached out, grasping the groups of yosei with
their own weapons, hoisting them high into
the air. Those that escaped the marauding garden
met their fate at the end of Hiei's blade as he leapt throughout
the garden quicker than any of them could react. In
great whispers of displaced air, Hiei made it back and forth from
one end of the corner of the garden to another, his little body
warping space and time around him.
With a simple flick of the yoko's
hand, the plants began to tear at the captured
bodies of the yosei, a large, whine of pain and
suffering rising up from them all. Yoko-Kurama smiled brilliantly,
tossing his hands about as dismembered arms and legs
began flinging themselves throughout the garden.
Hiei gathered up his power, his
body being surrounded by searing flames as
he continued to chase down body after body, delighted
to the point of playfulness as he fought easily.
Koenma withdrew his head from Botan's
shoulder and looked around her. The
screams of the yosei floated in and he felt
Botan grip him harder. He reached up and hugged her tightly,
grinning at the suffrage that floated to his ears. They deserved
every bit if it!
He moved back and she released him.
"Botan ... " he whispered, staring
down at her. He blinked his eyes and
began a new train of thought. "We're going to need
help getting out of here. Go back to Reikai and get Saotomei
... I'm sure he'll know what to do."
"But ... what about you?"
He faked a smile. "I'll be
fine. Just go!"
She nodded carefully and stood,
hopping up onto her oar.
The scene before Kuwabara
and Yusuke laid riddled with the dead yosei
as the man in black, Yo-mawari, carefully packed
his katana into it's holster on his back. The shuriken's rolled
along the ground and popped up into his hand, being pocketed
easily.
Yo-mawari turned, extending a hand down
to Yusuke, smiling in his offer of assistence.
He took it, but kept cautious eyes
on the man as he struggled to his feet.
Something in those eyes ... Kuwabara rushed over and
let his friend lean his shoulders, breaking his train of thought,
dumping all thought he had on the subject.
Another arm wrapped around his waist
and hauled him up. Yusuke turned to
see a battered Koenma sling his arm about his
neck, the large, round gash on his neck still bleeding steadily.
"Koenma ... what happened to you?"
"Nothing," he grumbled, looking
across to Yo-mawari.
Yo-mawari smiled. "Son of
King Enma?"
Koenma nodded.
Yoko-Kurama stood perfectly still
as Hiei sped over and joined him at his side.
The little yokai watched the face and features
as the tall yoko began to dissolve back into the beautiful
human form, the silver hair bursting red once again, like
a firery sunset.
The two locked eyes and smiled,
surveying the scene of death before them as
the trees and plants settle back into an undisturbed position. Kurama
tossed his lover a playfull smile, winking
an emeral-green eye.
"It's a good thing you two are on
our side."
The two turned to see Koenma and
Kuwabara join them, almost carrying poor Yusuke.
Then came the man in black...
Before either could speak or move,
Yo-mawari raised a hand. "No time for
explanations." He pointed to the white tower
behind the garden. A steady stream of the silver figures was
pouring out in vast numbers. "You can not hope to defeat all
of them in your present states. Come."
The man bent down and picked Yusuke
up quickly from Kuwabara and Koenma's grip,
cradling him like a new born. "Hang
on."
Yusuke threw a bizarre look to the
man and snorted. "I can walk on my own,
you know. I don't need ANYONE to carry me."
"Is that so?"
--- To be continued ---
(c) 1997 by Jiminy Cricket Presses
