Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Dear Hiei ❯ Prologue

 

 

 

Prologue

 

 

 

The city of Tokyo had changed very little since the last time he had walked its streets. Towering gray skyscrapers still took up a good part of town, with the outskirts mostly consisting of the sort of beautiful houses and sweeping lawns that only the richest humans could afford. Some of the stores he had been dragged into years ago had their windows boarded up with "For Sale" signs on the tiny patches of grass out front, while others had only recently opened their doors.

 

He had left Makai immediately after reading the letter, stopping only to give one of the guards instructions to tell Mukuro that he had urgent business in Ningenkai. Now he realized that he should have waited a little longer to find some suitable clothing to wear: His finery may have been common for a retainer in Mukuro's fortress, but evidently blood-red tunics and jet-black trousers were not the current trend in the world of the humans.

 

Jaganshi Hiei strode easily through the crowd, his hands shoved inside his trouser pockets while his long white sash and matching scarf flowed behind him like a pair of fox tails. He kept his head high and his shoulders back and his eyes focused on some point directly in front of him, as was proper for someone of his status. Most of the humans fairly leapt out of his path when they saw his exotic eyes were redder than his outlandish tunic.

 

After an hour of searching without success, Hiei ducked into a diner and practically threw himself into a booth with no small amount of frustration. How could humans stand trying to find a person with only an address to point them in the right direction? This would be far easier if he could use his Jagan, but he hadn't wanted to risk anyone seeing the third eye. He stood out enough already without passersby being driven mad by the Jagan's unbridled energy.

 

"Hey there," a syrupy voice came out of nowhere, pulling him from his thoughts. The speaker was a human female with sparkling blue eyes and a wild mane of bleached curls. She wore a frilly white apron with a nametag ("Tasaka Ayumi") and a pink dress that showed off her long legs and abundant cleavage. Hiei barely refrained from groaning in annoyance as the woman began talking again. "Is there anything I can do for you today, sir?"

 

Hiei desperately wanted to glare at her, switch to one of the harsh-sounding demonic tongues he'd grown up with, and tell her that he had only come into the diner to escape the crowds of stupid humans with their owlish eyes and their annoying screechy voices. But he suddenly had a more constructive idea.

 

"Ah, a glass of water will be fine," Hiei replied, carefully keeping any shred of irritation from his voice. The waitress scribbled it down in her notepad, flashed him a flirty smile, and walked away with her heels clicking across the floor. When she returned a few minutes later with a tall glass on her tray, he asked nonchalantly, "You wouldn't happen to know where the Sakura Apartment Complex is, would you?"

 

"Oh, sure!" the woman said with a bright smile. "One of my friends from elementary school lived there. It's on Fourth Avenue, just a few blocks from here. Kitajima-chan said -" But whatever Kitajima-chan had said, Hiei never stuck around long enough to hear it. The waitress kept chattering for another few seconds before she realized that her handsome patron was no longer sitting at the table.

 

Ayumi blinked her large blue eyes for a moment and twirled one of her bleached curls around her finger.

 

"Huh? I could've sworn there was someone here... Must've been daydreaming... Too bad, what a hunk..." She sighed wistfully, but her sugary sweet smile returned when the bell above the door tinkled and another man entered the diner.

 

"Hey there! Is there anything I can do for you today, sir?"

 

x x x x x

 

Guess this is it. Don't know what I was expecting...

 

The Sakura Apartment Complex consisted of four buildings, each of them gray and bland and utterly uninteresting. There were small balconies protruding from every window, where cheerful summer flags and plastic lawn chairs of varying colors gave the dull facades some life.

 

A young woman peered down at him from the fourth story. She had honey-colored hair, loosely gathered into a ponytail that hung over one shoulder, and she was dressed in a turquoise blouse that ruffled as it was caught in the breeze. Her wrists were adorned with silver bangles, and a cigarette dangled from her painted cranberry lips. When Hiei locked eyes with her, she nodded briefly and disappeared into the apartment.

 

For a minute he wondered whether he shouldn't just leap up to the balcony and come in through the window. It wasn't as though it would be difficult; he had made similar entrances before now. But Hiei knew that the human custom was to use the door, and reluctantly headed for the front of the building.

 

There was no one in the lobby save one of the janitors, who was mopping up the hardwood floor. Some Rolling Stones music was blasting from the headphones wrapped behind his head, and he obviously hadn't heard the door open. The man did look up when he noticed a shadow stretching across the room, but gave the strangely-dressed foreigner only a glance of acknowledgment before returning to his duties.

 

Hiei watched the man with narrowed eyes for a moment, and when he was sure the human was no threat, he pulled the wrinkled envelope from his pocket and looked at the return address.

 

The elevator was out of order, so he took the stairs up to the fourth floor. He was greeted with a line of doors with shiny brass numbers on them. He strode down the hallway, checking each of the doors for the right number. As soon as he reached Apartment 12, the door opened, and Hiei found himself blinking at the same brunette woman he'd seen on the balcony.

 

"I sensed you coming a few miles away," Kuwabara Shizuru told him without preamble. "Your aura has gotten a lot stronger."

 

"Not really," Hiei replied. Shizuru was right about him being stronger, but he felt better denying that he'd changed. "Is Kurama - I mean..."

 

"Yeah. Got off about half an hour ago," Shizuru interrupted. She took her cigarette from her mouth and blew a cloud of smoke away from him. "And don't worry, Kurama works just fine. I think it's a more flexible name than Shuuichi or Megumi. But Kurama's in the middle of a hot shower right now, so you'll have to wait a little while before you can talk."

 

Hiei nodded and followed Shizuru inside.

 

The apartment was very comfortable. There were three steps leading down into the living room. Large windows covered the wall opposite the front door, and the hardwood floor was covered with a white shag carpet. A glass coffee table and a sofa with black leather upholstery were in the center of the room, facing an entertainment system that was pushed up against one of the white walls.

 

"Care for some coffee? I just made a pot," Shizuru called from the kitchen. Hiei popped his head in through the swinging door, taking in the black and white tiles and the clear glass table with four black metal chairs. He had never seen a Japanese household with this kind of setup, but then, he'd been in very few houses to begin with.

 

Shizuru placed a steaming mug of coffee on one of the placemats, and Hiei sat down in the chair gingerly.

 

"Want sugar? Cream?"

"Yeah, thanks." He hoped he was being polite enough. He had been in Kurama's house often enough during his youth, but had mostly stayed in Kurama's bedroom and waited for his friend to sneak leftovers upstairs. He had never needed good table manners, because he usually seated himself on the floor near the window.

 

Shizuru placed a jug of cream and some packets of sugar on the table in front of him. While Hiei fixed his coffee however he pleased, the brown-haired woman drew the chair to his right hand side and patted the rumpled white seat cushion a few times. She sat herself down with her own mug of blackened coffee and simply observed the demon for a few moments.

 

"So, I take it you got Kurama's letter?" Shizuru asked.

 

Hiei nodded. "Did you read it? The first part was like some kind of horror film, then the second part sounded happy and normal, and then near the end it went back to the horror film."

 

"Yeah, I've been seeing a lot of mood swings lately," Shizuru explained. "I'm guessing it was the demon fox that made Kurama seem so level-headed before now." She stirred some cream into her coffee, tapped the spoon against the rim of her mug, and took a sip before continuing.

 

"It's kind of scary, thinking that our Kurama was locked up inside all that time. Apparently Kurama learned everything from high school downward, but there's a serious lack of experience in the real world. From what I've gathered, the only time Youko gave Kurama any control was just before that mess with the Ankokukyo...and most of that time was spent crying because Kurama thought it was the end of the road."

 

Hiei winced inwardly. The last thing he needed was a reminder of their catastrophic theft of King Enma's accursed treasure. Fortunately, Shizuru noticed his discomfort and changed the subject.

 

"So, how is that mate of yours?"

 

Unfortunately, she chose an equally bad change of subject.

 

"I've already said that she isn't my mate," Hiei mumbled. Shizuru raised one of her eyebrows, and he sank lower in his seat. "We got into a fight a couple of days ago over some stupid thing. She called me a heartless bastard, I called her a bionic bitch, the usual. She ran off to one of the forts to blow off steam, and hasn't come back yet. I left a message with someone to make sure she'd know where I am if she comes back before me."

 

"Hell of a week you're having," Shizuru commented. Hiei took a large gulp of coffee, not offering a response.

 

The water that had been running in the background suddenly stopped. A few minutes later, the bathroom door opened.

 

"Shizuru?"

 

"In the kitchen, Kurama," Shizuru called. There was the sound of feet padding lightly across the hardwood floor, and the kitchen door swung open a moment later. Hiei blinked for a moment, his eyes adjusting to the sight of his best friend.

 

The young woman standing in the doorway was, without question, one of the most beautiful creatures he'd ever seen. Her hair (a few shades pinker than Hiei remembered) clung to her back in wet clumps, though it would be breathtaking when it dried. Her eyes were large and brilliant green, and her champagne satin bathrobe clung to the gentle curves of her body in a highly alluring way.

 

Hiei clamped his thighs together abruptly. Kurama stared at him for a moment, seemingly dumbstruck.

 

"Um... Oh," she murmured.

 

"Oh, sorry about that, Kurama," Shizuru said cheerfully, sounding as though she was trying hard not to laugh. She rose from her chair. "I should've warned you that we had company." Hiei had the distinct impression that Shizuru had purposely forgotten the warning.

 

"I... It's fine, I... Um." Kurama took a step backward, reaching one hand up to tug the front of her bathrobe closed and preserve some of her modesty. "I'll just... Go get changed?" she said meekly. She promptly fled.

 

Shizuru chuckled, thumping a very embarrassed Jaganshi Hiei on the shoulder.

 

"Don't worry, Hiei, she tends to do that when a cute guy gawps at her. You should have seen her when the guys at the office were checking her out on her first day, she looked about ready to jump back into the car and drive to the next prefecture. I guess she doesn't like being such a knockout. So, you want any food with your coffee? I bought some doughnuts on my way home, let's start on those."

 

To be continued...

 

A/N: That's right. Kurama's a girl now. Or rather, Shuuichi, who was supposed to be Megumi, has been a girl in soul the whole time but was a man in body because of Youko... Ya know what, I don't want to give away the entire story in this note. None of YU YU HAKUSHO's characters belong to me, so don't sue. And don't start flaming me because of the plot, either: Just tell me what you think of my writing.