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By Rose Thorne
Disclaimer: Any characters created by Yoshihiro Togashi remain his. Any ideas or characters that I bring into this story are copyrighted to me, so NYAA NYAA NYAA NYAA NYAA :P!!
Author's note: How's the yaoi? Am I doing okay? Please send any questions/comments to me at my e-mail address: AiShiteruHiei@chichiri.com. Thanx. By the way, I WON'T do lemon scenes, so don't ask.
Chapter 2
Kurama cursed himself for being caught so easily. Hintoshu was using him as bait for Hiei, and it was working. He watched helplessly, Hintoshu's dagger pressed to his throat, as his lover stiffened in horror, katana at the ready. The others froze as well, Yuusuke from getting up, Kuwabara after calling his rei ken.
"Put the weapons away, or he dies." Kurama watched as Hiei hesitated for a long moment then sheathed his katana. Kuwabara got rid of the sword. "If you want to see your friend alive, follow me." Hintoshu carried Kurama through the forest at an impossible speed. The half-youko turned his head and saw Hiei following right behind.
They stopped in a small clearing after about a minute, and the blade suddenly appeared at Kurama's throat again. "Let him go," Hiei intoned, "so we can fight."
Hintoshu grinned, obviously enjoying Hiei's precarious position. "Now," he smiled, clearly talking to Kurama, "how shall I kill you? Hmmm?" He ran the blade of the dagger over the redhead's cheek. Kurama was having a hard time suppressing the wave of fear and revulsion that washed over him. The demon continued, evidently enjoying himself. "The Death of a Thousand Cuts? Hmmm? How does that sound? Or should I just slit your throat and be done with you? Or maybe I could play with you before I kill you..." Kurama swallowed hard. The Jolly Green Giant glanced at Hiei, who was obviously having a hard time keeping his anger in check. "What do you think, Hiei?"
"Hn. You always have been afraid to fight, Hintoshu." Hiei retorted, nearly trembling with rage. "Always hiding behind other people. Fight me, you coward!"
Hintoshu fumed at Hiei. "As you wish. Prepare to die!" He jumped into the nearest tree and, suddenly, the tree's branches encircled Kurama's arms and legs, effectively restraining him. Hintoshu smiled sickeningly at the redhead. "I'll be back for you later."
Great. I look forward to it. Kurama thought sarcastically as Hintoshu jumped out of the tree. He watched as the two demons fought at high speed, Hiei being careful to stay away from the trees after what had happened to Kurama, and sighed. It would be a long fight. He really hoped that Hiei would win...
Meanwhile, Yuusuke and Kuwabara ran through the forest at full speed in the general direction in which Hintoshu, Kurama, and Hiei had disappeared. Yuusuke hoped that Hiei and Kurama wouldn't hog all the fun. He growled in frustration. He also hoped that Kurama would be able to escape Hintoshu. Then he chided himself. He should have more faith in his friend. After all, Kurama was a youko. He could get out of any situation. Besides, Hiei was there to help him...
Both Hiei and Hintoshu had wounds covering their bodies, ranging from Hiei's small slice on his cheek to Hintoshu's severed ear. The severed ear had made the Jolly Green Giant quite a bit less jolly (if he had been jolly in the first place, which is extremely questionable), and Hiei was starting to have a hard time deflecting all of the blows directed at him.
After seeing Hiei's trouble, Kurama desperately tried to take control of the tree that was holding him captive so he could help Hiei against Hintoshu, but the only effect was that the tree branches yanked his arms and legs hard, nearly pulling them out of their sockets. He gasped, nearly passing out, and decided against trying that again.
He looked out into the clearing again, blinking furiously, trying to clear the black spots from his vision...just in time to see Hiei get caught by Hintoshu. The small fire demon's katana was knocked away from him. Kurama gasped, watching his lover as struggled to free himself from the monstrously huge demon.
Hintoshu backed the struggling fire demon into a tree near Kurama and grinned savagely. "I've been waiting for this moment for a long time; ever since you humiliated me in front of my friends so many years ago. Now you die!"
Hiei squirmed in his captor's grip and tried to bite him, growling. Hintoshu's hand moved so fast that Kurama didn't know that it had until Hiei's eye's bulged and a dagger, the same dagger that had been pressed to Kurama's throat only ten minutes before, suddenly appeared in the fire demon's side. Hiei struggled harder, desperately trying to get loose. Hintoshu leered cruelly and twisted the blade. Hiei gasped and stopped struggling, doubled over with pain, blood turning his purple tunic almost black.
"NO!!" Kurama screamed, horrified, struggling desperately against the tree branches, which were not showing any sign of yielding. "HIEI!!"
Hintoshu turned towards the redhead. "Don't worry, you'll get your turn." He tossed Hiei aside carelessly. "In fact, now would be fine with me." The demon started for the tree.
Kurama's eyes widened as he watched his lover struggle to his feet, obviously in a lot of pain, behind Hintoshu. "Not so fast!"
The demon turned around and chuckled. "A small diversion; easily gotten rid of." He threw a volley of fireballs at the small fire demon. Hiei dodged, gritting his teeth in pain. "Oooh! Target practice. And with a moving target no less. How amusing." Barrage after barrage headed towards the small fire demon, and barrage after barrage was dodged.
Kurama watched wide-eyed, knowing that Hiei's luck couldn't hold out much longer. Sure enough, the small youkai was grazed by one of the balls soon afterward.
The short fire demon once again struggled to his feet, only to promptly be punched in the side of the head by one of Hintoshu's watermelon-sized fists. Hiei crumpled bonelessly to the ground, and didn't move again.
"NO!!" Kurama screamed, desperately hoping that the purple-clad fire demon was only unconscious, and not dead. Hintoshu turned toward the redhead with a grin so maniacal that it made Kurama shudder. The huge beast clearly intended to kill him too...
Yuusuke ran to the left, Kuwabara following, as they heard Kurama's horrified-sounding cry. Something was wrong. Horribly wrong. After a few minutes, they emerged into a clearing just in time to see Hiei get flattened by Hintoshu's fist. Kurama was yelling something, obviously upset.
"That's it! I'm gonna fry this asshole!" Yuusuke growled angrily, as Hintoshu turned around and walked towards a tree, where Kurama was struggling helplessly against some kind of restraint. "Rei gan!" He shot at the leering demon. Hintoshu dodged and the bolt of energy hit the tree that Kurama was in instead. "Oops..."
Kurama jumped to the ground as the now-dead tree released him and ran toward Hiei's collapsed form, dropping to his knees beside him and frantically feeling for a pulse. He sighed in relief when he found one, then turned to see the other two running toward him.
"The coward ran!" Kuwabara declared, once again stating the obvious, considering that the Jolly Green Giant was no longer anywhere to be seen.
"We have to get him back to Genkai. He's seriously injured." Kurama informed them, changing into his swifter youko form. He picked Hiei's limp body up, and gently cradled him in his arms, being careful to support his injured head. "I'll meet you at the picnic area." He bounded into the forest at full speed, quickly disappearing from sight.
Kuwabara and Yuusuke followed at a significantly slower speed, pausing only to allow Yuusuke to retrieve Hiei's bloodstained katana from the edge of the clearing.
Kurama reached the edge of the clearing within minutes, but stopped as his enhanced kitsune sense of smell picked up an intruder. After gently setting Hiei down on the soft grass, he peeked out from behind a tree.
Standing with his back to Kurama, a police officer was talking to Genkai. Koenma, who had stayed behind just in case Hintoshu had decided to come back for the girls, was sitting in front of the still-unconscious Yukina, trying to keep her out of sight.
"Are you sure you didn't hear any screaming?" the officer was asking Genkai suspiciously.
"The girls were screaming for a little while because the boys frightened them, but otherwise, no." Genkai replied in her slightly gravelly voice.
"And you're sure you didn't see anything..." the officer cleared his throat, obviously embarrassed to have to say what he was going to. "...anything even remotely resembling the...er... Jolly Green Giant?"
Kurama had a hard time stifling his laughter at the look on the officer's face when he said that. Genkai didn't bother; she laughed out loud. "The Jolly Green Giant? Isn't that the mascot for an American vegetable canning company?" She laughed again. "You can't be serious!!"
The officer looked peeved. "Thank you for your time, ma'am." he said between clenched teeth. He walked away, all the while muttering angrily. "I told the chief that it had to be a prank call, but nooo, he wanted someone to check it out. And I was the lucky one. I'm going to be the laughing stock of the station for weeks...no, months...no, years!! I can't believe that I actually have to write a report for this..." He moved out of the youko's hearing range.
By this time, Yuusuke and Kuwabara had caught up with him. "Why'd ya stop? What's wrong?" Kuwabara asked. Kurama indicated for him to be quiet, then gently picked Hiei up again and walked deeper into the forest. The other two followed curiously.
"Where are you going?" Yuusuke asked, being very careful to keep his voice low.
Kurama answered just as quietly. "The police were out there a couple minutes ago. Evidently, someone complained about the noise and our huge `friend'...the Jolly Green Giant look-alike." Yuusuke snickered. Kurama stopped joking around. "And if that someone sees me carrying Hiei, with all this blood, they're going to think that we did this to him."
Yuusuke stopped laughing and cursed. "You're right. What should we do?"
Kurama paused. "Go tell Genkai that Hiei was injured and to come to the temple immediately." Yuusuke began to turn. "Um... Yuusuke?"
"Huh?" the black haired boy asked.
"Maybe you should give me that katana." Kurama was having a hard time not laughing at Yuusuke's absentmindedness.
Yuusuke looked dumbly at the bloodstained weapon in his hands. "Oh...uh...right." He handed it to Kurama, who carefully slid it into the sheath on Hiei's belt.
"Tell Genkai to hurry." Kurama called softly, as Yuusuke and Kuwabara ran toward the clearing. The silver-haired youko turned and bounded swiftly in the direction of Genkai's temple.
At the end of this particular chapter, my friends asked me why, in most fanfics, the bad guy almost always uses Kurama as bait for the others. I pointed out something very true: Who would want to save someone as annoying as Kuwabara or Yuusuke, and how the hell would they catch Hiei? And besides, if they did use Hiei, chances are, Kuwabara wouldn't care (DAMN him). Well, maybe he would. There was that one time in Shadows and Lies...
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Anyway, there's just something about Kurama that makes him the most believable character for the others to want to save. I mean, all the rest have qualities that make it so you don't want to save them. Kuwabara is an idiot, Yuusuke can say and do the dumbest things, and, well, Hiei is just a bit too much like the 'I don't need your help'-type, although, Kurama'll help him anyway. Kurama's the sweet, gentle type (except when he's really pissed). He's excessively nice and polite to almost everyone.