Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ White Noise ❯ Warm-Up ( Prologue )

An eleven year old Hiei arrived at the field of flowers after a few months away, looking around for Aria. He still felt out of place amongst the flowers, even after years of visiting the field.

Hiei looked around for Aria, used to her always being in the field waiting for him when he arrived but didn't see, hear or sense the girl, which immediately struck him as rather odd but he ignored the feeling, brushing it away as mere paranoia.

He waited a few seconds before clearing his throat loudly then waited for the girl to pop out from behind one of the trees, expecting that she was just playing a small joke on him like she had a tendency to do. But when Aria didn't come out after several seconds of waiting, Hiei began to fidget in frustration. Where was she?! He knew it had nothing to do with her not knowing he was there. She could always hear his arrival.

Growing impatient, Hiei growled under his breath. She was the one that demanded that he return to this field at least once every few months and now she was making him wait. What form of bullshit was this!?

With a huff of annoyance, Hiei approached the woods bordering Aria's home. He didn't want to enter as he knew the woods of the Makai were not always what they seemed and the woods around Aria's home were no exception. They were used by the Senritsu Tribe to keep out or at least deter any unwanted visitors and the only reason that it didn't attack any members of the Senritsu tribe was because of the wards they had erected around their camp and the fact that they often fed it sacrifices of any outsiders that were stupid enough to seek out the tribe yet managed to get through the woods.

“Aria, are you coming or not!?” Hiei shouted into the seemingly empty woods, not caring if the rest of Aria's tribe heard him as well. If she wasn't going to show up she should at least respond and tell him.

He was met with dead silence.

'Has something happened?' Hiei wondered absently, but then caught himself, angry that he was even concerned and thought with a frown, 'One less pain for me to deal with I suppose.' He reasoned with a shrug of his shoulders. 'But I might as well see what is going on.'

Quickly, Hiei leapt into one of the nearby trees, nimbly flitting from one tree to the next too quickly for any of the trees to snatch at him, realizing with a bit of surprise that this would be the first time he would be venturing closer to Aria's home than the field, and the first time he'd entered the forest since the day he'd met Aria. But then again, he had never had a reason to. Aria had always been in the field before he had even shown up, grinning like always, laughing, humming or singing like she always would. And it unnerved Hiei that this time was different. He may not have particularly liked the girl, but she was consistent, and Hiei had never been a big fan of change. Change had kicked him out the group of bandits he'd been in, change had lost him his tear gem, change had made him an abomination and earned him the name the Forbidden Child. No, Hiei was definitely not a big fan of change.

“Aria?” Hiei called out hesitantly, not knowing what would happen to him now that he was officially in sound demon territory without an escort or any form of permission. 'Oh well. I can handle whatever pathetic demon that decides to protest my presence here.' Hiei thought haughtily with a slight smirk, trying to seem more confident than he felt. As he got closer, and closer to the center of the woods, he started to feel more unnerved. He should have been able to sense the sound demon tribe by then but he couldn't feel anything. He tried to brush off the feeling but he was finding ignoring the signs harder and harder as he pressed forward.

Hiei slowed slightly as he smelled blood not too far off and guessed this was probably the sound demon's main camp and his curiosity piqued. He purposely softened his breathing and tried to make as little noise as possible like Aria had taught him to try and seem like a natural part of the forest. Ahead of him he could see a break in the trees.

He continued forward slowly, peeking through the trees only to be met with the sight of a burning wreck of a settlement and Hiei's breath caught in his throat. He had never seen Aria's home, but he was assuming this wasn't how it normally looked.

All around him, houses were burnt to the ground and common day objects lay strewn across the ground as if they had been abandoned in a hurry. There were no visible bodies but there was the smell of blood. The coppery smell of the dark red liquid that stained the ground near one of the largest pieces of rubble overwhelmed Hiei's senses until it was all he could smell, his body trembling at the sight of the place.

'What happened here?!' Hiei wondered with no small amount of shock. Sound demons may not be the strongest type of demon in the Makai but it would take an extremely big and powerful force to take out a whole tribe of them and there would definitely be some bodies left behind and more blood than there actually was.

“Aria?” Hiei voiced, a bit louder than he had before, once again receiving no response. “Aria!” He shouted, looking around more frantically for the girl, his mind refusing to accept that she wasn't there.

The demon that did this could still be around and his life could very well be in danger but he ignored the urge to flee the scene for reasons he couldn't fully explain or even understand which only served to unnerve him even further. 'What am I doing? Why am I still here!?' Hiei's mind screamed at him, trying to conjure up the reason as to why he was so upset by the burning wreck and as to why he was still looking for her when it was quite obvious she wasn't there. It wasn't the first time he'd seen a village burnt to the ground, in fact, he'd helped create them back when he'd been a part of the bandits. Why was this time so different?

Swallowing hard, and forcing himself forward, Hiei ventured into the rubble, looking around for some sign of what had happened. He kept one hand on the hilt of his sword, prepared to face whatever had done this.

Hiei was so focused on keeping a lookout for what was the cause of all the destruction that he didn't notice the small object on the ground and was sent towards the ground with a loud cry.

Hiei snarled loudly and bolted back to his feet to see what it was that had tripped him but paused once he actually saw what it had been and was so caught off guard that he almost fell back to the ground.

Mr. Hoppity?!

Even at ten years old, Aria would never let her rabbit out of her sight for long. But what perplexed Hiei even more than the rabbit callously abandoned to the elements on the ground, was the bell tied to its floppy ear by one of what he suspected was Aria's ribbons. She would set the rabbit down every now and again if she saw something she deemed more interesting but not once, not even for a second, had Hiei ever seen Aria take off one of her youki-enhanced bells. She had once told him that if she were to remove all her bells that the sound of the Makai would overwhelm her and she had to keep them on to avoid such pain.

With a look of complete confusion, Hiei knelt down next to the rabbit to inspect it. 'What in the seven hells is going on?! Where is Aria?' Hiei thought, picking up the rabbit and fingering the bell, causing it to emit a soft jingling noise. He didn't really feel concerned for the girl, more curious as to what had happened. He was slightly mournful that he had lost someone that, even at the young age of eleven, he recognized as a potentially powerful ally for the future. It also hadn't completely registered in his mind that the girl might be gone forever, pushing that negative thought to the back of his head. Even after her years of forcing him to come visit her, calling him by that idiotic name she had given him, and constantly teasing him, at least he felt there would be someone always there if he needed help. He wasn't sure he liked the idea of that feeling being gone, so...he didn't acknowledge it.

'Where is she?' Hiei wondered, removing the bell from the rabbit to absently play with while glancing around the area for any signs of life.

Absentmindedly, Hiei flipped the rabbit over only to be stopped in his tracks by the sight of the back of the rabbit completely soaked with blood.

Hiei dropped the rabbit with a cry of surprise and backed away from the stuffed toy slowly, his eyes wide in horror. Suddenly, it finally dawned on him that the insane little girl that had always been at the field waiting for him without fail, might very well be dead, no longer being able to ignore the obvious conclusion.

'What the hell?!' Hiei's mind was reeling and he felt as if he might get sick. His hand tightened around the bell in his hand as he backed away from the rabbit as if by getting away from the blood soaked bunny, he could get away from the implications. He clenched Aria's bell so tightly in his fist that his nails bit into his skin until blood flowed from his palm to cover the bell's shiny surface.

As fast as he could, Hiei retreated from the old home of the Senritsu Tribe, wanting as far away from that place as fast as he could get, his mind almost overflowing with thoughts as he ran. What surprised him the most is that he almost felt....guilty. Guilty for not being there to help Aria when she had saved his life once before. He hadn't been able to return the favor and now he would never be able to.

He just wanted to get away and never have to think of that place again. Never again.