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~~STANDARD DISCLAIMERS APPLY!!~~
Chapter Seven
Kurama and Kadyou eyed each other warily for a few minutes. Finally, Kurama sent out a plant, which Kadyou easily dodged and destroyed. As Kadyou was destroying the plant, Kurama threw razor-sharp blades of grass at him, cutting him. Kadyou just laughed. "You'll have to do better than that, Kowappa[1]."
The silver youko glared at his father. "I said your death would be long and torturous." He unfurled his Rose Whip. "You'll pay for what you did to Hiei!"
Kadyou smirked. "So his name is Hiei? I'd taken to calling him Koppa[2]. Hiei is too strong a name for that runt." The white youko laughed derisively. "Ah, well. When you lose to me, he'll become mine again and I'll chose a new name for him."
Kurama attacked Kadyou with the Rose Whip and other plants. Kadyou fought back with a grass-blade rapier and katana. Both youkos scored hits.
Yuusuke fumed from where he stood with Kuwabara, his temper inflamed by Kadyou's words, but he suppressed the urge to attack. Kurama feels guilty for what happened to Hiei. I'll let him get revenge . . . The ningen felt a tug on his sleeve and looked down to see Youri staring up at him with large eyes. He smiled grimly at the obviously worried youkai. "Yes, Youri?"
"Yuusuke-sama, Hiei-sama shaking. Hiei-sama youki very low. Hiei-sama warded maybe."
"Thank you, Youri." Yuusuke nodded, hurrying to check on his injured friend. Hiei was shaking uncontrollably. Yuusuke checked his ki, frowning. His ki is very low...Wait a second! If he has a ki signature now, then he got his memory back!
He didn't realize that Kuwabara was watching until the ningen spoke. "What's wrong, Urameshi?"
Yuusuke sighed. "His ki is pretty low, but at least he has a ki signature. That means he has his memory back. Youri thinks he might be warded though, and I agree." He glanced toward Kurama and Kadyou, who were now battling each other fiercely. "And I don't think it can wait until they're done. He's freezing without access to his ki." The ningen checked Hiei for wards, finding one on the back of Hiei's neck. Gently, he turned Hiei over and began to remove the ward with his ki. Hiei suddenly gasped, opening his eyes and struggling. "Hiei, it's Yuusuke. I need to get this ward off you so you can use your ki to warm up." Hiei stopped struggling. Yuusuke finished removing the ward, then wrapped the blanket around his friend.
Kuwabara sighed. "His ki is coming back." Within a few minutes, Hiei was no longer shivering. In fact, both Yuusuke and Kuwabara could feel the heat radiating from the fire demon's body. Yuusuke and Kuwabara grinned at each other, relieved.
Suddenly Kadyou flew into Yuusuke, knocking him over. The white youko kicked Kuwabara, then grabbed Hiei and held a dagger to the Jaganshi's throat. "I win," Kadyou sneered. "One wrong move and he slowly bleeds to death." Kurama, Yuusuke, and Kuwabara froze, looking on helplessly as Kadyou began to fondle Hiei. The fire demon was totally still for a few seconds, frozen by shock and fear. Then he surrounded himself with black Makai fire, causing the shocked Kadyou to scream in pain, drop the dagger, and jump away from his captive. The white youko cursed something about missing wards, then readied himself for attack.
Hiei took a step away from Kadyou, letting the flames dissipate, but his leg folded under him. As Hiei collapsed, Kuwabara jumped forward, catching him and moving him out of danger. The orange-haired ningen rewrapped the blanket around Hiei and lay him on the ground, then turned and watched as Yuusuke and Kurama both attacked Kadyou, intent on destroying him.
The three fought for a few minutes, until Kadyou threw Yuusuke into the middle of the stream and stabbed Kurama in the side with his katana. The silver youko jumped back, holding the wound in his side and parrying with a grass blade as Kadyou pressed forward. A blast of black fire seemed to come out of nowhere, hitting Kadyou head on. Kuwabara turned to see Hiei standing, the blanket sliding down his shoulders. The fire demon tottered precariously, then fell into the soft grass, unconscious before he hit the ground.
Kadyou staggered, then fell to the ground, obviously dead. Kurama called up an acid plant to get rid of the body, then ran to Hiei. He checked the fire demon gently, lifting him into his arms and wincing slightly as he jostled his wound. The fox looked at Kuwabara and Yuusuke, then turned to Youri. "Please take them to the guest quarters. Give them something to eat. I don't know how long this will take."
Yuusuke frowned at him. "What are you going to do?"
Kurama sighed. "I'm going to clean his wounds. From what I saw, he's pretty badly hurt." He looked at Hiei, frowning. "I don't want his wounds to get infected, and they might if I don't clean them out."
Yuusuke nodded. "Hurry up. I want to get him back to Yukina so she can heal him."
The fox smiled slightly. "I know. But I don't think he's going to want to be moved for a while. We'll rest here for a day." Kurama left the others and carried Hiei through the cave until they reached the hot springs. The fox smiled as he saw that Youri had done exactly what he had asked. Gently, Kurama set his friend by the water, then stripped and slid into the spring. He washed his own wound out, then gently woke Hiei. The fire demon gasped and struggled. "Hiei. It's me." The boy stopped fighting. "I need to clean out your wounds so they don't get infected."
Hiei nodded, closing his eyes tightly, trembling slightly. Kurama carefully removed the tunic he had wrapped around his friend, then cut off what little remained of the fire demon's clothes. Gently, he lifted the boy and lowered him into the warm water. Hiei hissed as the water made contact with his skin, but didn't struggle.
Kurama gently bathed his friend, trying not to hurt him as he washed his wounds. Hiei flinched as Kurama reached his lower back, whimpering. "Hiei . . . I would never hurt you. I need to clean all your wounds. Just hold on." Hiei buried his face in Kurama's shoulder, trembling as the fox bathed his more sensitive areas.
The fox then gently washed Hiei's hair, massaging his scalp gently. As he was rinsing the soap from his friend's hair, he felt Hiei relax and fall asleep. Kurama smiled. That was the whole point of washing his hair. I was hoping he would fall asleep. Holding Hiei with one arm, Kurama unfolded one of the blankets that Youri had brought. He set Hiei on it and used another towel to gently dry the demon off. He then dried himself off, slipped his pants on, and knelt beside his friend. Gently, he spread salve on Hiei's injuries and bandaged the wounds.
Finally, he carefully dressed Hiei in the soft, white garments that Youri had found for him and lifted the fire demon into his arms. Hiei didn't even stir. The fox carried him to another part of the cave and tucked him into the large bed. Hiei looked tiny and pale against the sheets. Kurama brushed a lock of hair from the sanjiyan's face and sighed. If I'd killed him before . . . None of this would have happened to Hiei . . . He sighed again, then went to find Yuusuke and Kuwabara. He found them eating a small meal that Youri had prepared for them.
Yuusuke looked up. "Is he okay?"
Kurama smiled wanly. "He's fine. He was confused and frightened for a few minutes, but he's asleep now. I'm going to make some broth. He'll probably be hungry when he wakes up." Youri handed him a thermos, and Kurama chuckled. "Thank you, Youri." The fox grabbed a plate of food and some water. "I'm going to stay with him until he wakes up so he isn't frightened."
He made his way back through the cave to find Hiei tangled in the blankets and struggling in his sleep. The fox quickly set down the food and moved to Hiei, gently waking him. The fire demon struggled for a moment, then relaxed as Kurama spoke reassuring nonsense words to him. The kitsune disentangled the bedding from Hiei and helped his friend sit slightly. "Hiei, I'm sure you're hungry. I brought some broth for you." He held the thermos to Hiei's lips and let him drink it slowly. "I'm sorry you had to go through that, Hiei."
The fire demon turned his face away from the thermos, not looking at Kurama and not speaking. Kurama flinched, then held the mug of water to his friend's lips. "If I had killed him before . . . If I'd fought better and stopped them from taking you . . ."
Hiei pushed away the mug and looked at Kurama, piercing the fox with his eyes. The fire demon's blood-colored eyes were blameless. Kurama trembled and hugged his friend, who stiffened slightly. The kitsune immediately let go of Hiei. "I'm sorry." The fire demon's face was drawn in a look of pain. "Hiei?" Kurama watched as Hiei turned on his side, gasping. Blood had seeped through the bandages and onto his white clothing. "I'll be right back, Hiei."
Kurama ran to the hot spring, grabbed the things he needed, and hurried back to Hiei. He removed the fire demon's shirt and cut off the bandages, wincing as he saw that the deep claw gouges on his friend's back had re-opened. He gently wiped the blood from Hiei's back and reached into his bag of medicinal seeds, searching until he found the right one, which he grew into a plant and broke, squeezing a milky fluid onto the wounds. Hiei hissed as the substance stung. "I'm sorry, Hiei." The bleeding tapered and Kurama wet a cloth and wiped the blood from his friend's back, then spread a painkilling, healing salve onto the wounds. Finally, he rewrapped the fire demon's back in bandages and slipped the shirt back onto his friend.
Hiei turned toward him and curled up next to him, fisting his small fingers in Kurama's tunic. The fire demon's muscles were very tight. Kurama ran his fingers through Hiei's hair, trying to sooth him. At the touch, Hiei curled into an even tighter ball, hiding his face against Kurama's injured side. The fox winced, then whispered soothing words to Hiei, who slowly relaxed as Kurama stroked his hair. Kurama smiled as Hiei's breathing grew deep. "Sleep well, little one." The fox shifted, curling around his friend protectively before falling asleep himself.
Okay . . . I had to get this out before I go off on Spring Break. I'm leaving in a few hours, and I had to be nice to you guys because I had another two paragraphs to write and this chapter would be done. So I finished it and here it is. Enjoy!
Oh, yeah. [1] Kowappa means brat, and [2] koppa means worthless. Almost forgot about that . . .
Chapter Eight does not yet exist . . .
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