Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ The Battle Lord Chronicles: Of Truths and Lies ❯ Strange Encounters ( Chapter 34 )

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or any related names or items. Kiara is owned by Yusuke'sSister.

 

Claimer: I do own the plot line, the title, the Kuro Tournament, Kristy, Jason, Jessica, Chris, Bashere, Rhurac, and anything else related to them.

 

"Talking"

'Thinking'

'Telepathy'

 

 

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Of Truth & Lies

 

Chapter 34

Strange Encounters

 

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Starting from where Chris' hands were, ice started to form on my arm. However, just as quickly as it formed, it began to melt. I stared in confusion for a second, before abruptly feeling like hitting myself over the head. Of course! I was part fire youkai! Quickly, I reigned in my youkai, pulling it all away from my arm and holding it back. Finally, the ice started to really form.

 

The ice spread slowly at first, then more quickly until it had covered my entire arm. I gritted my teeth tightly, feeling the sharp cold biting into my bare skin. It was painful certainly; the extreme cold soon caused my arm to feel constricted, and then numb.

 

Finally, when the ice was about an inch or so thick all around my arm, Chris stopped and slowly took his hands off my arm. The healer moved closer then and placed her own hand over the gash, which was the only place without ice over it, for easy access.

 

The healer's hands then began to glow a pale green as she brought her youki to the surface. Gently she let her hands hover an inch above the cut, and began to use her youki to pull out the poison residing in my currently frozen blood stream.

 

Later on, I would definitely be glad that my arm was frozen and numb at the time; having something forcibly pulled through your veins--backwards, I might add--has got to hurt.

 

The whole process of removing all the poison took about thirty seconds. When the healer was done, she lifted her hand away from the wound, revealing a floating gob of dark green poison. She directed it away from me and then destroyed it.

 

"That should be all of it," the healer said with a small smile. Almost instantly I let my youki back into my arm, causing the ice to quickly met from the suddenly blast of extreme heat. As soon as all the ice was gone, I carefully raised my arm and flexed my fingers. Though still a bit numb, everything seemed to be working fine; it appeared that there were no lasting effects from the ice, thank Kami.

 

Despite this however, the healers still swarmed around me once more and began to make sure that my arm was indeed fine. Creepy little buggers.

 

A few minutes later the door opened once more, this time to admit Jessica. Upon seeing Chris and I, she immediately rushed over.

 

"Are you both alright?" she quickly asked. "Kristy..." She hesitated, looking sad and sympathetic. "Are you...okay?"

 

I gave my best friend a small smile. "I'll be fine, Jessie, really." Chris nodded along with me.

 

Jessica hesitated once more, but then nodded quietly before joining the two of us on the bench. We all sat in silence for a minute or two, each lost in our own thoughts, before I finally spoke up once more.

 

"Well?" I began, turning to look at Jessica. "How'd it go?"

 

Jessica stared blankly at me. "How'd what go?"

 

"The match!" I exclaimed, waving my arms around widely.

 

Jessica's eyes widened. "Oh! Right!" I--and Chris, I noticed--grinned at her reaction, but waited patiently for the half angel's reply.

 

"Well, um," she began hesitantly, coloring deeply. "I...tied."

 

I blinked and then grinned once more. "That's great, Jess!" I exclaimed. Chris nodded enthusiastically along side me, smiling as well.

 

"Yeah," the ice demon said. "After all, we're in the semi-finals!"

 

Jessica brightened under our encouragement and then beamed at us. "Yes," she commented. "Our team is doing so well!"

 

The three of us laughed and proceeded to joke around, enjoying the relaxed mood that had settled over us. I found myself smiling quite easily, my earlier tension forgotten. This was just like how it used to be when it was just the three of us before everything had started.

 

Before my entire world had changed within the blink of an eye.

 

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From there, time seemed to pass quite quickly. Before I knew it, an unconscious Jin was brought in, his body bringing the news of his defeat. He woke up just a few minutes later though, not very hurt at all. We only had to wait until about ten minutes after that for Jason, closely followed by Touya, to enter as well.

 

"Well, that's that," Jason said with a wide grin. "We beat those suckers 3 to 1!" We all laughed along with him, not at all surprised that Jason had just won his own match--or at least I assumed that it was him who'd just fought, considering as he was the one covered in grime while Touya was untouched.

 

The round had been, surprisingly, easier than I'd expected, particularly considering as it'd been the semifinals, but then again, I had gotten rid of Rhurac first off, and doubtless the rest of the team had been completely lost without him. We probably got off pretty easy.

 

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that Rhurac's team was being led through the large metal door. I couldn't help but wonder whether or not they'd share the same fate as everyone else since, technically, they were Bashere's team. Somehow, I couldn't see Bashere being merciful, not even to them.

 

Purposefully, I looked away from the solemn procession, putting them out of my mind. I couldn't pity them--not here, not now.

 

Jason was grinning widely, but that smile fell as his eyes landed on me. Keeping his eyes locked onto my own, he spoke to the group at large.

 

"Come on guys, let's get headed back to the hotel--we need to rest up and then start to prepare for the finals, which as we all know will be held in three days." Everyone muttered their agreements and, still in good cheer, began to make their way out of the infirmary--with the consent of the healers of course.

 

Meanwhile, Jason sidled up next to me. "Walk with me," he murmured.

 

We hung back about ten to fifteen feet behind the rest of our team as we all began to walk down the long, empty corridor leading out of the stadium. Respectfully, our team didn't say anything, and instead just continued on ahead.

 

Jason and I walked side by side in silence for a minute. Finally, however, my older brother spoke up, breaking the tense silence that had settled on our shoulders.

 

"Will...will you be okay?" he began, obviously not quite sure how to word his sentence.

 

I shrugged. "Probably," I replied honestly. "I'm a youkai after all; killing is in my blood. My youkai instincts and ningen moral are just at war with each other right now."

 

Jason chuckled lowly. "You're good at hiding it then."

 

I smiled tightly up at him. "Well, I can't exactly let all the youkai out there know. They'd all jump me immediately if they realized just how fucking terrified I am right now."

 

"Language," Jason admonished, playfully hitting me over the head. I childishly stuck my tongue out at him, though privately I was glad for the momentary distraction from my grim thoughts.

 

At the moment, I truly was terrified and confused, despite my outward relaxed appearance. All of my ningen moral and memories were telling me that killing was a bad thing and that I was now a bad person for having killed someone. And it wasn't as if Rhurac wasn't really a bad person either; he'd never even really done anything to me or my friends besides threatening us. He'd simply believed wholeheartedly in Bashere, and ended up dying for his beliefs.

 

At the same time, however, my youkai instincts were screaming at me that killing was fine. It was just something that you had to do to survive. If I hadn't done what I'd done, then I'd probably be the one who was dead now. Besides, Rhurac had threatened us, and such threats had to be taken care of.

 

It would take a little while longer, but eventually I would come to a conclusion. I would kill, yes,--that was unavoidable--but only when I really had to. Otherwise, I would try to spare people as often as I could.

 

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A couple of hours later I was in the training fields once more. The rest of my team was there as well. Somewhere. We were all spread out and I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if the other were a mile away or something.

 

Currently, I was training with both of my katana, mixing in fire and shadow attacks every now and then. It was just as I was finishing up with one of those fire attacks that I felt the appearance of a presence which I'd been carefully alert for since yesterday. Calmly, I lowered my katana and turned around to face my new visitor.

 

"Can I help you?" I asked Hiei as he stood on the other side of the small clearing. "Or do you just enjoy stalking me?"

 

Immediately, Hiei's eyes narrowed and a growl surfaced in his throat. "I'm not stalking you," he snapped.

 

I simply smirked at him. "Of course not," I replied in a fake sweet voice. "Now, how can I help you?"

 

Hiei didn't reply, however, and instead proceeded to stare at me, studying me. I met him stare for stare quite easily, considering as I was just about as tall as him. Finally, a couple of minutes into our impromptu staring contest, Hiei spoke once more.

 

"You killed for the first time today, didn't you?"

 

Instantly, I blinked, a surprised expression taking over my face. How the heck could he have known that I'd never killed before?! Well, technically I had, back when I'd first discovered that I was a youkai, but, all things considered, that didn't really count.

 

As if sensing my question, Hiei continued. "It's in your eyes," he said. He fell silent for another minute then, before opening his mouth once more. "You're an enigma, you know. You're a powerful youkai--you'd have to be to make it to the final--but you've never even killed before. You've got some damn powerful lineage apparently, but you act more like some sort of a ningen child."

 

I bristled at what I perceived to be an insult, but before I could say even one word in reply, Hiei's head abruptly jerked around, as if hearing something. He stared off into space for a moment, before his eyes suddenly snapped back to me. He nodded coolly then, before disappearing back into the shadows of the forest.

 

Not even a second after Hiei had left--before I could even fully process what had happened--a figure tumbled out from behind a nearby tree. Instantly, I tensed up, but quickly relaxed again when I saw that it was just Kiara.

 

"Kami," Kiara grumbled as she stood back up. "I could have sworn that Hiei was going to sense me."

 

I chuckled in reply. "Hey, Kiara," I greeted as I strode over to her.

 

The twelve year old looked up and smiled at me. "Congrats on getting to the finals!"

 

I grinned as well. "Thanks! I'm guessing that you and the others made it as well...?"

 

Kiara nodded, her smile falling. "Yes..." she began, and then hesitated, "...You realize what this means, right?"

 

My face became solemn as well. "Yeah," I replied quietly. "We're going to have to fight each other in the finals."

 

Kiara hesitated again. "And you know about what happens to the losers...?"

 

I nodded. "Yeah," I repeated. "I know."

 

The two of us fell into silence more a minute, lost in our thoughts, before Kiara looked back up at me.

 

"We're protected by Koenma," she suddenly said, a slightly desperate tone entering her voice. "We won't be killed if we loose. If I can just convince the boys to forfeit...!"

 

Though I was slightly happy at the fact that my friends wouldn't be killed if the lost, I just shook my head mutely. "No Kiara," I replied firmly with a sigh. "I could never do that to them. And besides, it'd be better not to tell them..."

 

"But if we just explained everything to Koenma--"

 

"No!" I cut in sharply. Kiara looked at me in surprise at my outburst then, so I sighed once more and then continued in a softer tone. "No. We can't. No matter that Jason--my older brother--and I were born in the Ningenkai, we're still technically residing there illegally. If Koenma were to find out about us, then he'd have no choice but to arrest us and take us back to the Makai."

 

As I finished with my explanation, I could see the pleading in Kiara's face vanish. Looking resigned, she nodded slightly.

 

"Alright," she murmured. "I understand."

 

I smiled lightly at the young girl before me. "Thanks Kiara. My team and I will just have to win this tournament the old fashioned way: by beating all of your asses!"

 

Our amused laughter filled the afternoon air, covering up the anxiety that filled both our eyes.

 

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(Meanwhile, Back at the Hotel) (No One's POV)

 

A frown plastered across his face, Hiei strode into the hotel suite that he had to share with the rest of the Reikai Tentai. Well, at least he only had to share a room with Kurama. Speaking of which...

 

Seeing Kurama sitting in on of the large chairs that adorned the room, Hiei quickly headed over to him.

 

"I received your call, fox," Hiei growled out. "What do you want?"

 

Wordlessly--and with a surprisingly serious look on his face--Kurama gestured to the large screen that adorned one wall. Yusuke and Kuwabara were in the room as well, Hiei noticed, and they too had their attention on the screen which now showed Koenma.

 

"Where's Kiara?" Koenma asked after a moment.

 

Yusuke shrugged. "Dunno. The twerp wandered off somewhere after we got back. I can go find her...?"

 

Koenma just waved him off. "No, no," he said. "You can just tell her everything later; I want to get started now."

 

Yusuke rolled his eyes. "Alright, alright, binky breath! Now what the hell did you call us here for?"

 

Ignoring the boy's tone, Koenma plowed onward. "First of all," he said, "Congratulations on making the finals. You have only one more match and then you'll get to contend for the title of Battle Lord of Makai--"

 

"Which reminds me!" Yusuke suddenly broke in angrily. "Why the hell didn't you tell us about that whole Battle Lord thing?! Not that I mind--I'll win of course--but still!"

 

Koenma sighed and then waved the question off. "I just didn't think it was important. But there are more important things now anyway; it won't matter if you don't even make it through the finals."

 

Immediately, Yusuke began to splutter. "Didn't think it was...?! ...Wait, whaddaya mean not make it through?!"

 

Though the Spirit Detective's face was already turning a deep shade of red, Koenma just continued on, used to the teen's temper. "I'm really worried about this other team, Team Kagekaze," the young prince stated with a frown. This immediately caught everyone's attention.

 

"What do you mean?" Kurama asked as he sat up straighter in his seat. "Have you found something?"

 

"That just the thing, I've found nothing--literally," Koenma replied with a sigh. "Let me explain from the beginning. First of all, as you know two of the people on the team are Touya and Jin, whom you met at the Dark Tournament."

 

"We know," Kuwabara interjected. "We talked to them just the other day."

 

"Yes, well, those two aren't much of a problem since we already know all about them," Koenma continued. "It's the other four that both me. For example, there's this girl--" On the screen, next to Koenma's face, a picture popped up, showing a teenage girl with green hair and a pair of large angel wings. "She, as you can tell, is part angel. What percentage we can't tell, but we suspect half, which would mean that she's also either half human or half demon. The question, however, is how she got here. Angels are almost never found in the Makai. For her to just appear here amongst a team of full-blooded youkai..." Koenma sighed and then a second picture came up, replacing the first. This one detailed a male ice youkai.

 

"This," he continued, "Is the second ice youkai on the team. Unlike with Touya, I've been able to find nothing about where he came from. I've already checked with all the ice tribes, and everyone is accounted for. He's proved to be quite powerful despite his anonymity though, showing skilled control of his ice that even rival's Touya's. However, despite all of this it's the last two that really worry me."

 

Again the screen changed, though this time two youkai came up on it. The first was a tall male youkai with silver hair and the second was a short, small youkai with a pair of wolf ears and tail. Both of them looked fairly young--though the male older than the female--though of course with youkai it usually tended to all be relative.

 

"This," Koenma said, gesturing toward the male, "Is the captain of the team. He--and the girl, for that matter--has won all of his matches and has proved to be quite powerful. The thing is though..." Koenma pursed his lips. "He's half wind youkai and half darkness youkai. Youkai with multiple elements are incredibly rare--half because of tradition, half because of genetics--and we've been able to find no trace or records of him anywhere!"

 

Yusuke snorted and rolled his eyes. "So the guy's hard to find--big deal!"

 

"You don't understand!" Koenma cried, waving his arms around. "Someone with that kind of power and heritage doesn't just slip through the cracks like that! It's impossible! We'd be able to find some kind of trace of him somewhere! But we can't; it's like he just appeared out of thin air!"

 

"What about the girl?" Hiei suddenly asked. His voice was a soft growl as he stared up at the screen with narrowed eyes. The girl had been strange enough to catch his attention--a difficult feat to be sure--and now all of this only made her even more of a puzzle. No trace of any of them? Hiei knew what Koenma meant when he'd said that that should be impossible.

 

"Well," Koenma began uncertainly, "I'd have to say that she's the one who disturbs me the most. Having an unknown youkai with two elements is bad enough but..." Koenma hesitated and then took a deep breath. "We've managed to find out that she had four different types of blood."

 

Instantly, Kurama breathed in sharply and Hiei's eyes narrowed. "What?!" Kurama asked in a strangled voice. "That can't be possible!"

 

"That's what we'd thought too. Certainly it's never happened before. There was a rumor once, a long time ago, about a youkai with three types of blood, but that was never confirmed. Still, four types..." Koenma trailed off, shaking his head in wonder as if he still couldn't quite believe himself yet. "Well," he continued after a moment, "We've managed to find out so far that she's 1/4 ookami youkai, 1/4 fire youkai, 1/4 darkness youkai, and 1/4 of something else--we haven't been able to find out what yet. We've also heard some rumors that she and the male youkai--" He gestured to the one with silver hair just like the female's. "--Are in fact siblings, but we haven't been able to find out anything definite yet."

 

Koenma paused and let out a sigh. "Well, the point of all this is that you need to be careful. We know next to nothing about anyone on the team beside Jin and Touya. For all we know, they could have been holding back this whole time and are actually lot stronger than we'd thought. All of you are going to have to be particularly careful with them. Besides you and Bashere, they're some of the most powerful youkai in the Makai right now."

 

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(Location Unknown, the Makai) (No One's POV)

 

A throne-like chair sat in the middle of a dark room. The shadows that blanketed the room stretched across the chair, hiding any details that it--or the room itself--might hold.

 

Abruptly, a large pair of double doors opened up on the wall opposite the chair, allowing a thick shaft of light to pierce the room. An armored youkai stepped in while bowing deeply, his eyes glued to the floor.

 

"My Lord," he murmured, still not looking up, "We have brought her, just as you requested."

 

Silence permeated the room for a moment, when suddenly something shifted on the throne-like chair. "Bring her in," a deep baritone voice commanded.

 

The youkai guard back out of the room, still in a deep bow. There was some scuffling outside, and then the guard returned with a second guard, leading a youkai in between them. They stopped before the throne, left the youkai, and then quickly retreated out of the room, closing the doors behind them.

 

Instantly, the female youkai who'd been brought in dropped onto her hands and knees and pressed her forehead into the ground in a deep bow. She stayed prostrated like that for several minutes while her Lord, Bashere, studied her from his seat.

 

"Rise," Bashere finally said when he was satisfied. Instantly, the youkai shakily brought her head up and then stood up, revealing purple hair and eyes. She was draped in the deep blue robes of a healer.

 

"I have heard some things..." Bashere continued after a moment's pause. His coal black eyes pierced through the darkness of the room as he stared at the small healer before him. "Such as Kristy's near death earlier today."

 

The healer breathed in sharply as her eyes widened. "M-my Lord!" she stuttered out. There was a pleading note in her voice. "She was simply poisoned from her battle! We managed to remove the poison before it could do any damage--"

 

"But let it get far enough to be a danger!" By now Bashere was leaning forward in his seat and snarling angrily. The healer cowed back and whimpered, terror clear in her eyes. "In fact, the only reason why Kristy's even alive right now is because of herself--" Bashere trailed off abruptly, his eyes becoming unfocused. "But then, she's always been resourceful...It was one of the things that she was known for..."

 

Suddenly, Bashere's eyes came back in focus and his attention snapped back to the healer. "But you!" he snarled, leaping up from his seat. His eyes were filled with a strange rage. "You tried to kill her didn't you?!"

 

As Bashere advanced on her, the healer took a few stumbling steps backward. Her eyes were wide and easily showed her fear and confusion. With lightning face movements however, Bashere reached out grabbed her by a fistful of her hair, pulling her close to him.

 

"You're just another person trying to take away from fiancé, aren't you?!" he spat out furiously.

 

"M-my Lord!" the healer youkai gasped out as her mind cast around for something--anything!--to save herself with. "It was Rhurac who knowingly poisoned her!"

 

Instantly, Bashere's eyes became unfocused once more. His head fell away from the healer and he turned away, as if completely forgetting about her existence.

 

"Yes, yes," he murmured to himself as he took a few steps away. "Rhurac."

 

Meanwhile, the healer fell back onto the ground. Sobbing, she crawled backwards until she hit a wall. There she lay, curled up into herself and radiating fear.

 

"Rhurac..." Bashere repeated. "He hasn't been responding to my summons--I'll have to punish him...No, wait, he's dead already. Kristy killed him. But then my dear Shantel isn't in the Makai right now, so she couldn't have killed him--DAMMIT!" Bashere abruptly exploded, cutting himself off from his rambling. "Rhurac was supposed to kill Kristy during his match to get rid of her! Why the hell didn't he?! ...Ah, but this means that she's still alive. I'll get to see her again and fight her myself. Good, good, because the wedding starts in just a few days. I hope they'll have kicked Rei out by then..."

 

Bashere broke of into slightly deranged laughter then, the sound mixing strangely with the sobs that were already echoing through the room.