Wednesday, April 7, 2004

   Past Collides with Present: Chapter 7
Chapter 7: New Allies

Puso was having fun. He never thought that hitting humans could be so enjoyable. But then, no human had hurt him the way this one had. His face had healed, but he remembered the pain of the burns quite well. "How does it feel now, bitch?" he sneered. "Wish you hadn't burned me now, huh?" He slapped her hard across the face.

Shiori bore it all in determined silence. She refused to satisfy him by crying out. She focused her attention on the entrance hall instead. It was *huge*, made of stone, and lavishly decorated. Sunlight filtered through the windows set high in the walls, casting shadows into the corners.

Shiori had been brought here the previous day. The winged demon had tied her hands behind her back (very tightly this time), deposited her in a corner, and left. He returned a while later with another demon. Shiori recognized him as the demon who had kidnapped her the first time. He introduced himself and promptly started beating her with Wings looking on. They left after an hour, and Shiori had remained in the entrance hall all night. The next morning the demons had come in and taken up where they had left off.

Now Shiori was quite sure she looked pretty bad. Also, she hadn't had food since the previous day, and her stomach was beginning to complain. However, Puso didn't seem like he was going to offer her breakfast.

She gasped suddenly as she felt a rib crack under a particularly nasty punch. She hunched over and gritted her teeth to keep from screaming.

"I have to admit, you're pretty tough," she heard Puso say. She looked up as Wings suddenly stood up from his chair near the wall and walked toward her.

"Let's see how tough she is when she hears the truth," he said. He squatted down in front of her and grabber her hair, pulling her head up so that she looked him straight in the face. "Hello, Shiori," he said. "I'm called Kage, and I'm going to tell you a true story about your son."

* * *


Kurama ran swiftly through the forest, still in human form. He had decided not to transform for now. Hopefully, by playing it safe, he would be able to get his mother out without her witnessing a fight or discovering the truth about his demon nature. He jumped effortlessly over logs and boulders and wove through the trees.

Not far now.

* * *


Somewhere behind Kurama, Hiei was running through the same forest, although slowly (for him), due to the burden on his back. He had been at Genkai's temple visiting Yukina when Botan came to him with the news. Yukina had guessed that a fight may happen and asked to come along, volunteering her healing skills. Botan and Genkai had both thought that that was a good idea, so Hiei had brought her along, against his better judgment.

Now he was carrying her because she wasn't nearly as fast as he was, and though her weight slowed him down a bit, they were making better time than they would have been. Hiei, meanwhile, was mentally cursing at Kurama for running off on his own.

Suddenly, the wind picked up drastically. Hiei, sensing something amiss, quickly jumped to a tree and dropped his sister. "Stay here," he whispered to her, then he jumped away, katana out.

"No-need-to-get-so-defensive," called a familiar voice from above him. "I'm-not-gonna-hurt-you!"

Hiei paused for a minute to sort out the super fast words. Finally, he looked up, no less defensive than he had been a minute ago. "*Jin*?" he said in surprise.

The Wind Master grinned as he dropped to the ground. "Yep-that-would-be- me!" he said.

Hiei digested the words, then scowled. "What the hell are you doing here?" he demanded. Yukina walked over to join them.

Jin smirked. "Now-that's-not-your-business-is-it? However-I-could-ask-you- the-same-thing. Not-often-you-see-a-fire-demon-and-a-koorime-wandering- through-the-woods."

Hiei's scowl deepened, and he opened his mouth, prepared to tell Jin to shove off, but Yukina beat him.

"We're looking for Kurama," she said. "You remember him, right? His mother was kidnapped and brought to Makai, and he went to save her. We want to help him."

"Now-why-didn't-you-say-so-in-the-first-place?" Jin said, bouncing happily in the air. "Maybe-we-can-help-too. I-kinda-liked-Kurama-I-did. Hey!" he called over his shoulder. "You-hear-all-this?"

While Hiei was still trying to mentally slow the words down, another familiar figure jumped out of a nearby tree. "I did," Touya said. "I agree that we should help. After all, I owe Kurama. He spared my life."

Yukina beamed at them happily, but Hiei kept his scowl. /Ah, well, I suppose a little help won't hurt,/ he thought. "Fine, under one condition," he said. "You have to keep up with me." With that, he scooped Yukina up and resumed his run through the forest.

"Ohhh-a-race!" Jin cried.

"Jin, I'm not that fast. Give me a lift," Touya said.

"Sure-thing!" Touya jumped on Jin's back, and the two of them flew after Hiei and Yukina.

Comments (0)