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Standard disclaimers as seen in part one of this fic, apply here
also. As do the warnings.
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YOMATSU HARA-SAKAI: THE BOUNDS OF NIGHT:
PART 7
Hiei awoke suddenly at the yell, a soft hand caressing his face.
He blinked the sleep from his eyes, stretching the kink in his
neck. "Kurama."
"Hmm?"
"How long have I been asleep?"
No answer.
"Kura ... " 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 Hiei 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, the youkai letting a small smile cross his lips as he
finished the slice with a flick of the short blade in her direction, sending a spark of light
out to dance about the room.
"HAH!" Kagayaku snorted with a twisted smile. "You think you can defeat me with
metal?"
"Damn," Hiei remembered how easily she had 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 across the room from the yosei shattered 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-gun. 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, Koenma wearing only his pants and the yosei in not a shred
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-sama!!! What in the name of Meikai was she trying to do to
you?"
"Take wild guess," he spat, tugging at the remains of his shirt 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 very nearly 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 shooing 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.
"I'll be fine" he whispered, 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.
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?"
"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 quickly 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. "Kuwabara
... you ok?"
"Ugh ... feel like the Shinkansen 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 flock of shuriken ninja stars 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... like the one we found in Tsukiji. Shurikens. " Yusuke struggled to sit
up.
In a flash of brilliance, the tall man in black appeared, slicing
cleanly through a group of yosei in one mighty swipe, bringing the long, glimmering
katana before him. He bowed slightly, letting his long, black
hair swirl down to hide his face momentarily.
Kuwabara stood dazed, completely still, watching the man
burst suddenly to his feet, cleanly pick off threat after threat with little to
no effort. "He's good..."
"It's YOU!" Yusuke said, pointing a menacing finger at the
tall man. "Why are you helping us?"
The man in black flashed a smile as he raised his head, staring down Yusuke.
Yusuke frowned a moment and just stared at the man. The hair, the
body the eyes... As the man lept around the garden disposing of yosei after yosei in a
balletic grace, Yusuke's mind stumbled upon a very bizzare piece of the man's puzzle.
"He looks just like Kurama," he whispered, pulling himself to his feet. "Hey you!" he
called out, watching the man in black pause in mid-leap to regard him with a look from his
lifeless black eyes. "Just who the hell are you?"
"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 managed to let his voice
boom, 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.
Kurama's 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 tornado about him, his figure grew
taller and slimmer, ears protruding from the whips of his silver
hair.
Youko 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.
Youko 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 youko'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. Youko 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
Joruju ... I'm sure he'll know what to do."
"But ... what about you?"
He flashed 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, each one individually climbing up
his arm to rest on his shoulders.
Yo-mawari turned, extending a hand down to Yusuke,
smiling in his offer of assistance.
Yusuke frowned up to the man who stood over him like
a silohuette of Kurama. A bit reluctantly he took the outstreatched hand,
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. "Well well. The son of Enma Daiou-sama?"
Koenma nodded slowly, turning eyes to Yo-mawari.
"Tell me something, Yo-mawari," Yusuke tried to remember the name, watching as
the man in black slowly turned his lifeless black eyes around to him. "Why do you look
like Kurama?"
The man frowned heavily, almost upset and stared down at Yusuke. "Kurama?"
Youko Kurama stood perfectly still as Hiei sped over and
joined him at his side. The little youkai watched the face and
features as the tall youko began to dissolve back into the
beautiful human form of Minamino Shuuichi, 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 emerald-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. "We can't hope to defeat
all of them like this. Not on their own grounds, at least. Come on."
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 ---
© 1998 Jiminy Cricket Presses
On to part 8