by Ryoma
 

- Part 4 -
 

"Kuromeru." Hiei said, growling lightly as the hooded figure nodded once in acknowledgement of his statement. "Where's Mukuro?"

"Safe," Kuromeru replied. "Back in my cabin."

"Why should we believe this, Kuromeru?" Kurama asked, looking between the cloaked figure and the fox with a faint bit of worry.

He had already noted that both had high ki levels, with Kuromeru's being better developed. However, the fox's ki level was higher. Not higher than some Makai inhabitants he had met, but high enough to be of some worry.

"You have no reason not to believe it," Kuromeru replied flatly, eyes behind the cloak shifting slightly to look at the fire demon's companion, before turning back to Hiei. "Besides, I have no reason to keep, or harm, Mukuro. I want only you, Hiei."

"For what reason?" Hiei's eyes squinted dangerously.

"Simply put..." Kuromeru said, and Hiei and Kurama could see the shift as Kuromeru took on a slightly more defensive stance. "To kill you."

Hiei hissed slightly.

Mukuro sighed slightly, still messing with the door she had seen Kuromeru and Saephan come in and leave through time in and time out.

She knew she wasn't likely to get the door open so she could leave, but she had to try for several reasons.

To start, she still wasn't sure what Saephan had said was true. She was pretty sure that Kuromeru and he WERE using Mukuro as bait to get Hiei, but not sure they wouldn't still kill, or use, her afterwards. Mukuro couldn't risk either.

Secondly, she was concerned for Hiei.

She wasn't sure how Kuromeru intended to get Hiei to definitely come after Mukuro, but she also wasn't sure if Hiei would stop long enough after receiving Kuromeru's challenge to think to get some help.

Thirdly, she wasn't going to sit around playing the damsel in distress. As entertaining as thoughts like that may have been for stupid Ningen girls, it wasn't very entertaining to her. She was one of the leaders of the Makai and she could do things for herself.

Growling, she banged at the door, which wasn't giving way.

She knew she wasn't going to be able to get out, not easily, but this still infuriated her. She needed to warn Hiei, but by now, the battling was probably already started.

Silently, she slumped against the door, upset, and mumbled softly. "Hiei, be careful."

"Why?" Hiei asked after a moment, eyes squinting dangerously. "Why would you want to kill me?"

Kuromeru merely shrugged softly. "It really doesn't matter, does it?"

"You'll answer me why!" Hiei snarled, already tired of Kuromeru's games.

Unfortunately for Hiei, Kuromeru's games were far from over. A flash of wire, which tore faintly into Hiei's cloak and was then retreated, indicated this.

Kuromeru's small hand coming out and curling in a 'follow me' fashion, followed by the flapping of cloak as Kuromeru darted away, indicated it further.

Hiei let out a low growl, and quickly moved after the retreating form of Kuromeru.

"Hiei!" Kurama called, stepping forward to try to catch the little fire demon before he cold get too far off, and possibly get himself killed.

His path was quickly blocked as a small dagger was thrown at his feet, and the fox moved in front of him.

"Out of my way!" Kurama bristled, red hair standing on end faintly. He knew that if he let Hiei go off in the mood he was in, he'd be leaving the Makai one friend short... If he left at all.

"That battle is between Mistress Kuromeru and Hiei," the Fox said, green eyes squinting.

"Mistress?" Kurama said, startled. He had figured Kuromeru for a man.

"Yes," the Fox nodded. "And if you're so anxious to fight, then you can fight with me..."

Kurama let a faint hiss fall from his lips. "Get out of my way, Fox!"

"I will not."

Kurama blinked faintly, confused. The voice was firm, and yet the body was trembling gently.

'He's afraid?' Another small frown crossed his face, before he spoke. "Who are you?"

"Saephan." The response was very blunt, and icy. It was apparent Saephan's only desire was to protect his retreating mistress.

"Fine..." Kurama drew his hand to his hair, and a moment later drew it out, a loud cracking sound gracing the clearing as he drew his rose whip. "Let's go!"

Kuromeru was just a slight bit faster than Hiei, and was using it to their advantage, darting quickly to the side of the road, into the trees, and through them.

Hiei followed, unconcerned over the disadvantage he would have in fighting on Kuromeru's home turf. He was far too absorbed in catching the figure that had grabbed Mukuro, and had also harmed him when he had tried to protect Mukuro.

He drew to a sharp halt as the cloaked form in front of him did as well.

There was a rustling of trees and cloak as a small breeze blew dramatically through.

"Let me reveal myself more clearly to you, before we start. I don't want you startled midway though battle." Kuromeru said, slowly sliding the hood away from his head, and turning towards Hiei at the same time.

Hiei blinked, even before the hood was fully off, gawking and taken offguard, at the very feminine face below the hood.

It didn't take him long to put together that Kuromeru was, and always had been, a woman.

"Startled?" Kuromeru said, brushing both stray hair and cloak from her shoulders.

Hiei shrugged. "Only so much so." He replied, though honestly pretty shocked.

He had nothing against females, or female fighters; there were many, like Mukuro, who were very strong. What took him off guard was the fact that Kuromeru WAS a woman, and that he hadn't realized it in the time between Kuromeru's first appearance and now.

Kuromeru smirked softly, apparently fully aware that Hiei was taken almost completely off guard. She issued another challenge. "Come on."

Hiei nodded, drawing his sword carefully. He watched the glint of the wire as Kuromeru let it fall into her hand from a place somewhere in her sleeve.

She wound it gently around her hand, and looked at him quietly, waiting to see who would make the first move.

Kurama snapped the whip at Saephan, and watched the fox move quickly out of the way, drawing out a thin piece of metal, similar to a rod, or more resembling at metal needle, which he brought in front of him, almost as if it were a sword.

The next snap of the whip found it sliced in half, Saephan's quick movements making the somewhat blunt rod sharp.

As Saephan started to move away, going to the side he and Kuromeru had emerged from, Kurama threw down the remainder of the whip, and took off after him.

They ran a distance into the forest, Kurama watching as the forest got darker and darker, then quickly made his move, speeding past and in front of Saephan.

Saephan stopped abruptly as he saw the semi-red blur move in front of him.

He then moved swiftly, dodging a quick barrage of punches and kicks Kurama threw at him.

Another movement from Saephan sent Kurama backwards as the fox slammed his hands roughly into Kurama's chest, careful of the metal rod.

Kurama hissed softly, looking at Saephan closely. He was certainly strong, but he was holding back as well.

Out of curiosity, Kurama moved in and sent another barrage of punches and kicks, which Saephan dodged quickly. He then repeated the past move, glaring softly at Kurama, who glared back.

'Why is he only using some strength, and not using the rod either?' Kurama thought, and looked around quickly. He smiled a faint bit, and the trees started to move.

Saephan 'hm'ed softly, and stood still. He was well aware of who this was he was against, and his control over plants. When the trees started to move in towards him, he continued to stand still.

Kurama watched, waiting for the trees to attack Saephan, but they stopped suddenly. He watched the forest warp softly, and the trees' density increase, and blinked, feeling slightly sick from the way it looked. Like a painting running and reassigning its image.

'What the hell?!' His eyes drew to Saephan, who was still standing in the same place, looking at him quietly. "You're the one who caused the circle affect in the forest before this!"

Saephan nodded, and Kurama growled, reaching to his hair again. He threw a seed at Saephan, who quickly moved away from it and reached into his clothes.

Kurama dodged as Saephan threw a dagger at him, and tried throwing another seed. This time it worked, and Saephan hissed as the seed exploded instead into plants that tried to strangle him.

He tried to bring the rod up to slice the plants away, having no apparent control over them, but the weapon was too blunt without the extra speed he had with swinging it, and he gasped softly.

Kurama smirked a little, and looked around, looking for an exit and a way to go find Hiei. He didn't like the idea of turning his back to an opponent before he knew the battle was complete, but he had more important things to handle.

A small tearing noise, and the loud sound of coughing brought Kurama's head back to the other fox. Somehow he had gotten the plants ripped away from his throat and body, and was holding to his throat and coughing. Kurama noted the rustling of the trees and hazarded a guess that they had somehow supplied Saephan some help

Saephan's eyes moved up to meet Kurama, the greens clashing, and the two glared at each other.

Saephan then moved and swung the rod at Kurama quickly. Kurama dodged, and ducked down, trying hard to sweep Saephan, who somehow managed to come out of his barrage of swings, to back up away from Kurama.

He stumbled, however, and fell to his rear, then starting to cough.

Kurama frowned softly, and saw the forest run and reform again into the shape it had been initially. He listened to the trees move as Saephan's coughing grew more violent, and walked to the other fox, lifting him roughly from the ground by his shirt.

"Alright, bastard, time to tell me what this is all about!"

A pair of green eyes met red as the two continued to stare at one another, each awaiting on the other to make the first move, but neither wanting to take that option.

Kuromeru moved slightly, drawing a wire out gently, but not visibly to Hiei and watched the small fire demon with interest. It was apparent he knew how to fight, and she had known this, but she had never expected him to let off so much ki as he was now.

Hiei, for his part, was watching Kuromeru with interest. He couldn’t feel her energies at all, but knew them to be very strong by the previous encounters he had had with her, hence why he was presently so unsure about attacking first.

Finally, Kuromeru decided to take the first move and moved her hand, watching Hiei nimbly avoid the wire, and smirked, before deciding to move her hand more quickly.

Hiei dodged each wire carefully, aware of the damage they could cause if he weren’t careful. He watched quietly for an opening, but Kuromeru’s defenses seemed solid.

Finally, however, he moved, rushing forward and swinging at Kuromeru with a quick, solid, swing. The woman dodged quickly, not letting Hiei hit her and swung a wire up at the demon, who managed to recover from the swing he had just instigated in time to move mostly out of the way, only feeling the wire slice slightly into his throat above the cut he had already received there.

Kuromeru’s next swing sliced into Hiei’s arm as Hiei swung at her again. He never withdrew the swing, and managed to slice Kuromeru in the shoulder.

The woman made no sound, and instead sliced at him again, catching him across the stomach deeply, and causing Hiei to have to drop back a few feet and look at her quietly.

Kuromeru watched Hiei back. For now their competition slowed down.

Saephan only continued to cough, unable to respond to Kurama, who hissed softly at this, and finally set Saephan down, restraining him by his shoulder rather than by the collar at his throat.

He waited, almost patiently, for the other fox to quit coughing, and was rewarded only by the slowing of Saephan’s cough, and eyes looking up at him quietly, very apparently in complete surrender.

"What is going on here?" Kurama hissed out faintly, still frustrated with the other fox, and the fact he was still coughing faintly. "How the hell are you manipulating the plants, and what does Kuromeru want from Hiei?"

"What… does it matter?" Saephan continued to cough faintly through all this.

"She DID say she wanted to kill him, didn’t she? Hiei happens to be my friend, and so I want to know what’s up. Going to answer, or do I have to make that cough worse?" Kurama let his fingers slide implicatively over Saephan’s throat. He watched as the movement sent the other into another fit of coughing, the slight pressure apparently enough to cause more damage.

"Are you sick?" Kurama asked, curiosity finally winning over his instinct to continue pressuring the fox to tell him what was going on. When Saephan nodded weakly, Kurama frowned. "With what?"

"D..don’t know…" By now, Saephan’s coughing had grown more intense and he doubled over quietly, a small whine of annoyance coming from his throat.

Kurama frowned softly, and leaned near the other fox, beginning to examine him quietly. Something was terribly wrong with him.

‘Let’s try this again.’ Hiei thought, watching the woman in front of him before moving forward to quickly swing at her, avoiding her wires as she sent them out, and continued to rush her.

Kuromeru hissed and backed away quickly as Hiei first avoided her wires, then continued to rush at her, before moving her hand out from beneath the cloak and blasting the small fire demon away from her, watching as he dug his feet into the ground to avoid being taken away by the blast.

Hiei nodded faintly, noting the fact again that she could use fairly strong ki blasts, before again running at her.

Again, Kuromeru sent her wire out at Hiei, attempting to grab his throat in it, and instead catching his arm as Hiei moved.

Hiei smirked to himself. He had intended for her to catch some part of his body that it wouldn’t kill him if shredded slightly. He started moving back, drawing the wire taught, and then swung his sword at them, slicing them, and hearing Kuromeru gasp softly.

"You!" She yelled, and several more wires came out at Hiei from beneath the cloak.

He dodged each of them quickly and moved in near to the black-haired woman, swinging his sword quickly and watching as she back stepped as quickly as he could to avoid the sword, drawing her wires in and unable to use them due to his proximity.

Quickly, she moved her hand to hit him with another ki blast, growling when Hiei jumped to the side, out of the way of the blast which tore into the ground as Kuromeru turned just in time to avoid a critical blow from Hiei’s sword, instead only receiving a blow that cut away the strings to her cloak.

The brown material slid away, revealing Kuromeru’s somewhat intricate outfit, and several wires bound around Kuromeru’s fingers, small coverings beneath the wires tied to her fingers.

"So even you aren’t immune to your own wires, Kuromeru?" Hiei smirked at the woman, who only made a small growling sound, sending all the wires at Hiei at once.

He moved quickly, slicing away as many as he could at once, then slicing the rest away as she sent another wave at him, before gasping and stumbling as something imbedded in his leg.

Looking down, Hiei saw a dagger in his leg, and looked up at Kuromeru, who only glared at him.

"I don’t just use wires, fool!" She shouted slightly, her comment more bland than anything else, before she drew another dagger from the sash she was wearing and rushed at Hiei, swinging.

Rather than take the apparent advantage and swing at her straight out, he backed away, then swung. Kuromeru, predicting this, moved back just in time for the sword to impact the ground, Hiei unable to pull his swing.

She moved quickly and kicked the hilt of the sword roughly, knocking it from Hiei’s hands before he could get it out of the ground, then rushed him, trying to thrust her dagger into his chest.

Hiei backstepped again, this time grabbing Kuromeru’s wrist and twisting, trying to get her to lose the dagger. Instead, she turned, managing to pull her wrist from his grip and swung again.

Dodging, Hiei tried again to get her wrist, almost managing, before she backstepped away from him.

They stopped again, watching each other quietly, Hiei’s eyes occasionally flitting to his lost sword to the side, which he started to rush towards.

He was stopped by a quick movement as someone moved in front of him, then threw a strong blast of ki energy, knocking him roughly to the ground.

Looking up, he saw Kuromeru standing over him.

"Time to die!" She screamed as she built up another strong wave of ki.

Hiei cursed, and tried to stand before the blast was set off.

Bright light flashed before Hiei felt himself impacting the ground again, and a heavy weight draped over him. He could hear the sound of coughing above him, and a small burning sound to the side.

Opening his eyes, Hiei growled and shoved a brown-clad form off himself, before sitting to look over towards the burning sound.

"You alright?" Kurama said, standing near some slightly fried plants as Kuromeru stared between him and the brown-kitsune in shock.

"What the hell?! Seaphan!?" Kuromeru darted over to the form Hiei had pushed off moments before, and grabbed him up almost roughly, causing him to cough again. She dropped him, back stepping a bit. "Sorry… But what the hell is going on?!"

Saephan shook his head, still coughing from his rough treatment at the hands of his Mistress, and indicating he couldn’t speak.

Kurama, stepping away from the smoldering plants, folded his arms across his chest as he began to speak. "We can’t let you two go and kill each other. There’s no purpose to this combat, really, is there, Kuromeru?"

Kuromeru frowned. "Of course there is! I wouldn’t fight unless I had a reason."

Kurama shook his head again gently. "But it’s not you who holds a grudge against Hiei, is it? I don’t think you’ve met him before this, have you?" The dark-haired woman frowned slightly, and Kurama smiled his slightly sadistic smile, though it was mostly pleasant. "You’re just doing this for someone else, aren’t you?"

Kuromeru hissed softly and looked away from Kurama, eyes focused on Saephan. "Did you tell him everything?!"

"I…I’m sorry, Mistress Kuromeru, but I had to." Saephan stuttered, finally standing, though shakily. "He beat me because one of my coughing fits kicked in while I was fighting him. I…I wasn’t going to tell him, but…"

"I looked him over." Kurama said quietly. "What he has isn’t normal. I’d need to do a few more tests with actual equipment, but so far as I can tell, it’s a poison that’s affecting him. One that someone else gave him."

Kuromeru shrieked, her eyes flashing to Kurama’s. "What do you mean ‘someone else’ gave him?!"

"I mean exactly as I said. He’s not as sick as you think he is. He’s been poisoned."

"By what? By who?" Kuromeru’s eyes lowered into dangerous slits, even as Hiei stood, confused by everything going on.

Kurama shook his head gently. "I’m not sure by who, I’d guess your employer since I assume you have one. As for what, I’m not totally sure, but I’ve seen its effects before and I CAN cure it."

Kuromeru frowned deeply, and looked to Saephan quietly. His head was down now, submissive, and she turned to Kurama, angrily. "If what you’re saying is accurate, then you think the guy who hired me to kill Hiei poisoned Saephan? Why?"

"Think for a moment, Kuromeru. You’re a smart enough woman to figure it out."

Kuromeru paused, looking at Saephan again, feeling much of her anger dissipating as she did. "Damn him…" She muttered under her breath, and looked at Kurama. "And how much will YOU charge for a cure?"

"None." Kurama said. "IF you free Mukuro, that is."

Kuromeru nodded a little. "Alright…"

Hiei looked at Kurama, watching as Kuromeru moved to the other fox, embracing him almost tenderly. "What’s going on?"

Kurama looked at Hiei, his grin eyes glistening with glee at the small fire demon’s un-understanding of the present situation. "Don’t get it, huh?"

Hiei shook his head. "Not fully. I’m catching someone hired Kuromeru and you’re saying they poisoned that fox?"

Kurama nodded. "Right. Sounds like he approached Kuromeru after Saephan there had become pretty well ill. He agreed to give Kuromeru a cure if she’d kill you for him, but told her it was just a drastic illness."

"I see…" Hiei frowned, looking to Kuromeru. "But it’s poison?"

"Yes, so far as I can tell. A vicious one, but curable." Kurama looked at Kuromeru. "Let’s go retrieve Mukuro, and then I’ll cure your precious fox, agreed?"

"I already said yes!" Kuromeru snapped, and moved to pick up the dagger that had once been in Hiei’s leg, but had dislodged somewhere during their fight. She cleaned it off quietly, before standing, or attempting to.

Before she could, a strong ki blast knocked her down.

"Mistress!" Saephan shouted, moving to dart to his Master, but being quickly tackled down by Kurama as another blast of ki erupted right at him, instead tearing into the ground because of Kurama’s quick actions.

Saephan was going to scream at Kurama to get off, and try to dart to Kuromeru, but instead looked up as he Kurama did, to a small hill nearby their present location.

Hiei as well followed the gaze of the two foxes, and hissed faintly at a figure standing on the hill nearby them.

"Inocensi…" Hiei mumbled quietly.

Part 5 coming soon
YYH Fanfiction