Shadows and Lies Ch 10

[Kurako (夏維)]

Yuu Yuu Hakusho

Shadows and Lies

by Sionna Klassen and Kristin Huntsman

Chapter 10

Every night I fall
Every night the dream's the same
Every night I fall, waiting for my only friend
Every night I fall, waiting for the worlds to end
                                        --The Cure, "Burn"

        "God, I'm bored."
        Kurama had been staring off into the distance, but he snapped out of
his trance at the sound of Yusuke's voice, turning to look at him. "There isn't
much to do here," he agreed with a sigh.
        The weather had grown hotter, proving that some things about the place
did actually change. Yusuke was sweating, so he took off his shirt and wished
for a breath of breeze. The weather did not oblige.
        He looked at Kurama. Kurama actually looked comfortable in the heat.
"How you feeling?" Yusuke asked.
        Kurama smiled at him. "Pretty good," he said. "Almost warm."
        "You're kidding!" Yusuke gasped. "I'm baking out here and you're not
even warm? Even after Hiei gave you some of his heat?"
        "If he hadn't, I'd be freezing no matter how hot it is," Kurama told
him soberly.
        Yusuke looked at him, then dropped back into the grass and stared at
the sky, letting his mind wander as the heat pounded him into lethargy. Then he
looked up as Hiei appeared next to them. "Where've you been?" Yusuke asked
dully, not really caring.
        Hiei shrugged. "Nowhere." He stood in the grass, looking down at them.
Kurama's gaze drifted back to the forest, and Hiei followed his gaze and then
looked back at him.
        "Wonder where Kuwabara went?" Yusuke asked in the same dead tone.
        "I saw him go into the forest," Kurama replied. "I don't think he
wanted anyone to know where he was going, though."
        "The idiot," Hiei said. "He's going to get himself into trouble again."
        "You want to go after him?" Yusuke asked.
        "Why bother?" Hiei asked, dropping gracelessly into the grass. He
rested his chin on his palm. "If he gets into trouble because of his own
stupidity, let him get out of it by himself."
        Even Hiei seemed affected by the heat. He looked sourly at Kurama, who
still looked as comfortable with the weather as if it was a cool spring day.
Yusuke decided he really didn't want to feel the way Hiei did, adding internal
heat to external, and wearing black clothing all the time. No wonder Hiei
looked so pissed off. He usually did when he felt uncomfortable.
        Long minutes dragged on while the three of them sat in the grass, no
one speaking. Then Yusuke stood up. "I've had enough of this," he said. "I'm
not going to just lie here and be bored out of my mind."
        "Oh?" Hiei asked acidly. "And just what do you intend to do instead?"
        Yusuke grinned. "This!" He lunged at Hiei.
        Hiei barely moved out of the way in time. "Are you crazy?!" he
demanded. "You can't be serious about fighting in this heat."
        "Why not?" Yusuke asked. "Come on, don't tell me a fire spirit can't
handle a little heat."
        Kurama smiled and stood up, watching the two of them move away from
the house. Hiei was beginning to respond to Yusuke's taunts, despite himself.
Finally he snarled, "Have it your way!" and drew his sword. Then the two of
them really went at it, blurring around each other so fast they couldn't even
be seen. Kurama smiled to himself and went inside the house. He was too careful
to join in, even if Yusuke was careless enough to invite him to - he didn't
want to risk giving the shadow inside him any opportunity.

        Kuwabara stood at the edge of the redwood circle, frowning. The circle
had been almost completely destroyed by Yusuke's Rei gun. The redwoods had been
hollowed and burned, although most of them looked as if they would survive it.
A few had fallen over. The shadows, however many of them were left, had
vanished completely, probably looking for a new place to hide.
        Kuwabara had been hoping to find some kind of a clue here, but he
still had no idea where to go. He certainly wasn't going to get any information
from the remaining shadows.
        Then he heard a noise that sounded like footsteps approaching. Since
he'd been very careful to sneak out of the house so no one knew where he was
going, he knew it couldn't be Yusuke or Kurama. And Hiei would never make that
much noise. Quickly he scrambled behind a tree to hide and watch, to see who
came through the trees.
        It was a small demon. He was wearing a big, loose dark green coat, and
his skin was almost the same color. He was carrying a gun, a long rifle. He put
it down and walked to the edge of the redwood circle, peering in. Kuwabara
heard him mutter something, but he didn't quite catch the words.
        <I didn't think there was anyone in this place besides us!> Kuwabara
grinned. <Maybe he can tell me something about how to get out of here.>
        "Hey!" he called, stepping out of his hiding place. The demon whirled,
saw Kuwabara, and reached for his gun, but Kuwabara pointed his Rei sword at
the demon's throat and the little guy immediately stood still. His eyes darted
from side to side.
        "I know I haven't seen you around before," Kuwabara said. "You want to
tell me how you got here? And maybe how you plan to leave?"
        The demon looked at him, then dropped his hand in a strange,
completely pointless motion. Kuwabara laughed. "What's that supposed to do?"
        A shadow dropped onto him from the tree.
        Kuwabara yelled and fought as the shadow tried to wrap itself around
him, stretching its body into coils like a snake's. The demon grabbed up his
gun and ran away, and as soon as he had vanished in the trees the shadow
released Kuwabara and dragged itself back into the tree.
        "Dammit - you won't get away that easy!" Kuwabara yelled, furious. He
ran after the demon, using his psychic power to track him through the woods. He
kept running, but he never caught up to the demon. He finally reached a huge
tree with a door set in it, and he knew that the little creep was inside. He
banged on the door. "Hey, runt! Open this door!"
        A shot cracked from the tree above him. The bullet tore through his
sleeve and ripped along his left arm, leaving a long shallow cut. Kuwabara
looked up, and spotted the glint of sunlight reflecting off the gun barrel. It
was pointed at his head.
        "Go away or I'll kill you," the demon said, his voice tight.
        Kuwabara backed up and then ran through the trees, swearing to himself
all the way back to the house.

        Kurama stood in the dimness of the storage closet, looking at the
strange assortment of clutter on the shelves. He sneezed as dust tickled his
nose, then resumed his search. He wasn't looking for anything in particular,
but exploring the storage closet was better than sitting around doing nothing.
He knew he wasn't the only one who was bored - he could still hear, even inside
the house, the noise that Hiei and Yusuke were making as they fought each
other.
        Oddly enough, there were no lights in the closet, so Kurama had the
door open to let light filter in from outside. The back of the closet was lost
in darkness, so he instinctively avoided it and confined his search to the
front shelves. But all he found was plenty of containers of food, and
mysterious packages that were filled with miscellaneous junk such as useless
bits of string, buttons, dead leaves, and paper clips. Kurama frowned and put
the last of the containers back on its shelf. Not even a single book to read.
Whoever had put them here probably hadn't expected them to live long enough to
need anything of the kind. He sighed and turned back, going out the door just
in time to be run down by Kuwabara as he was pelting down the hall.
        Kuwabara gave a startled shout as he saw Kurama, just before he
crashed into him. Both of them fell to the floor, and Kuwabara picked himself
up hastily. "Oh hell, I'm sorry," he said, offering Kurama his hand.
        "It's okay," Kurama said quickly, trying to get his breath back. "You
knocked the wind out of me, that's all." He looked at Kuwabara's hand, seeing
blood on his fingers. He looked up and stared at his arm. "What happened to
you?"
        Kuwabara looked at the shallow cut on his arm. "It's okay. I ran into
somebody who might be able to tell us how to get out of here - except he wasn't
too friendly."
        Kurama stood up, letting some of his excitement show. "You think he
knows the way out of here?"
        Kuwabara shrugged. "He's got to, doesn't he?" Kurama didn't have time
to say that wasn't necessarily a given, because Kuwabara continued, "Anyway, I
know he's got something to do with the shadows because he sicced one on me."
        "Another one?" Kurama asked apprehensively.
        Kuwabara blinked at him, then got it. "No, no. It tried to wrap me up
like a snake, then it slimed off once the little creep got away."
        "Wait, wait," Kurama interrupted. "This isn't making any sense. We'd
better find Hiei and Yusuke, and you can tell us all what happened then."
        "They're outside," Kuwabara said. "They said you were in here, so I
came looking for you. Come on." He gestured toward the front door, but Kurama
stopped him.
        "Hang on a minute." He went into the storage closet again and emerged
a minute later with a first-aid kit. "Odd," Kurama said. "This wasn't there a
minute ago."
        "We didn't need it," Kuwabara said with a shrug.
        "I know. Interesting, isn't it?"
        Kuwabara was still confused. Kurama shook his head and went to the
front door.

        "Are you going to make this easy, or difficult?" Yusuke asked the
demon.
        After following Kuwabara to the demon's house, Yusuke had opened the
door by the simple expedient of hitting it with a well-placed fist charged with
Rei power. Kurama winced at the light, but made no complaint. The demon had
been easily caught, and Yusuke had confiscated his gun. Since the demon didn't
seem to have any powers to speak of, that left him at their mercy.
        The demon looked around for some avenue of escape, but didn't see any.
He was blocked on all sides. He tugged at his ear nervously. "Uh, well..."
        Hiei had a familiar, dangerous look in his eyes. He raised his right
hand, the one that usually had bandages wrapped around it. He clenched it into
a fist as an aura of black, crackling fire sprang up around it, burning the
bandages away. "Are you going to tell us what we want to know, or not?"
        The demon looked around wildly, but even Kurama's eyes were as hard
and cold as ice. He could see he wasn't going to get any help from any of them.
He looked back at Hiei, and yelped. The black fire around Hiei's hand had
grown, stretching into the shape of a long, thin dragon with glowing yellow
eyes, like burning sulphur. It twined around Hiei's arm like a pet snake, then
looked at the demon and opened its mouth hungrily.
        The crackling fire surrounded Hiei completely. His Jagan opened and
glowed bright blue. He gave a small smile, one that made Yusuke feel very glad
that he wasn't on the receiving end of Hiei's temper. The demon scrambled back
and ran into Kuwabara, who picked him up by the scruff of the neck and held him
at arm's length.
        "Target practice," he invited Hiei, giving the demon a little shake.
Hiei's smile broadened slightly, and he pointed the arm with the dragon wrapped
around it at the demon.
        The demon gibbered in terror. "Okay! Okay! I'll talk!"
        "Good," Yusuke said shortly. "Now why are you helping the shadows?"
        The demon squirmed, trying to get down. When Kuwabara shook him again,
he gave up and started talking. "I made a powerful youkai mad at me. For my
punishment he gave me to another youkai to use me for whatever he wanted. He
sent me here and told me to wait until you four came along - then I was
supposed to help the shadows get you."
        "All of us?" Yusuke asked.
        "Yeah - but the shadows won't do that."
        "Why not?" Yusuke asked.
        "Because they can't use you." He pointed at Yusuke.
        "Your powers make you incompatible to them," Kurama said,
understanding. "They can't feed off you for the same reason that you can hurt
them."
        "What about me, then?" Hiei asked.
        The demon shrugged. "I can't catch you."
        Hiei smiled.
        "How come you need to catch him?" Kuwabara asked, not understanding.
        "Because you're human. The shadows can't get into human bodies by
themselves. They need help to do it. That's where I came in. In exchange for
helping them get you, they leave me alone."
        "So all human bodies are partially incompatible with them anyway..."
Yusuke muttered. He looked up. "But they can heal, too."
        "Oh, yeah." The demon shrugged. "Gunshot wounds are no big deal to
these things. Once they're bonded, they just use their own bodies to replace
the damaged tissue. And they just absorb the bullets."
        Kuwabara looked like he'd eaten something unpleasant. Yusuke changed
the subject. "Who brought us here?"
        "Haven't a clue," the demon said. "He never told me his name."
        Yusuke sighed. "Okay, never mind. How do we get out of here?"
        "I don't know," the demon said.
        "What?" Kuwabara demanded furiously. "How can you not know the way
out?"
        "If I did, don't you think I'd have used it by now?!" the demon
shouted back. "He didn't tell me the way out!"
        "Damn!" Yusuke muttered, then asked his last question. "How do we get
rid of the shadows?"
        "Beats me," the demon said. "You'd better ask the guy who brought you
here about that. I just work here." He smiled weakly at the joke, but it faded
when he looked at the four stony expressions around him. He hunched his
shoulders and continued, "I really don't know anything. Honest. I was just told
to help the shadows kill you, and when that was done I could go home. Will you
let me go now?"
        Yusuke nodded, and Kuwabara dropped the demon unceremoniously on the
ground. The demon promptly ran back through the broken door, into the tree.
Kuwabara grumbled as he turned away. "Man, that was a waste of time. I thought
he knew the way out of here."
        "What do we do now?" Kurama asked, as they started walking back
through the forest. "Whoever brought us here is the only one who can tell us
how to get home."
        "And how to get rid of the shadows," Yusuke said. "And he's sure not
going to want to help us."
        "So we'll make him!" Kuwabara hollered angrily, leading the way back
through the trees. He stomped grumpily through the undergrowth.
        Hiei, oddly enough, had dropped back instead of flitting ahead. Yusuke
looked at him, then dropped back as well and let Kurama and Kuwabara walk a few
paces ahead - out of earshot, but still visible. "What's wrong?" he asked.
        Hiei looked grim. "That demon said the shadows can't get into _human_
bodies by themselves."
        It clicked. Yusuke took a swift breath, then said, "But they don't
know you're not human."
        "And I don't want them to find out," Hiei replied. "They may have
given up by now. But I hope Kuwabara doesn't remember, because if his shadow
figures out a way to get a message to the others..."
        Yusuke frowned. "Damn." He sighed. "I'll be careful not to mention it.
Do you think I should ask Kurama--"
        "No," Hiei interrupted. "Don't tell him either. We don't know how
close the shadows have to be to communicate with each other. And Kuwabara seems
to be spending an awful lot of time in our heads lately," he added sourly.
        "Okay," Yusuke promised. "I won't say a thing."

                                *       *       *

        Kuwabara had become so bored that he had devoted two hours to making a
pack of cards out of slips of paper. He and Yusuke sat on the floor playing
while Kurama slept in one corner and Hiei sat in another, brooding and staring
out at the darkness. Kuwabara sensed how easy it would be to look into Yusuke's
mind and see his cards, but he held himself back. He didn't want to win by
cheating, even though he knew he would probably lose.
        Yusuke glanced at Kurama, sleeping peacefully for once. He was loosely
curled in the blankets, his hair drifting over his pale face to lie across his
cheek. Yusuke wondered how long he should let Kurama sleep before going to bed
himself. He glanced at his watch. <Only ten...I'll give him a couple more
hours, at least. He needs the sleep more than I do.> He returned his full
attention to the card game for another few minutes, then looked up as he heard
a small noise.
        Hiei stood up and stared out the window, his Jagan glowing behind his
headband. He frowned, his eyes narrowing.
        "What is it?" Yusuke asked.
        "I'm not sure..." Hiei said slowly. "But I think..."
        Vines lashed around Yusuke's body. He gave a startled yell and dropped
the makeshift cards as he struggled desperately. He turned his head to look at
Kurama, and saw his friend sitting up and staring at him with blank, dead eyes.
        "Kurama!" Yusuke shouted, just before the vines wrapped around his
throat.

        Hiei heard Yusuke yell and tried to whirl, but hands clamped down on
his arms and pinned them to his sides, lifting him off the floor. The grip of
fingers felt like vises. Hiei gasped and struggled against Kuwabara's hold.
"Bastard! Let _go_!"
        A wave of shadows slithered in through the window. Hiei's eyes widened
as he stared at the solid blackness. He twisted his head and looked at
Kuwabara's face, and saw a completely blank expression. It was as if Kuwabara
had turned into a statue. Hiei looked back at the shadows, which coalesced into
tentacles and lifted off the floor to reach for him.
        They knew. Somehow, they knew, and they were trying to take him too...
        <No!>
        Hiei tried desperately to break free of Kuwabara's grip, but nothing
worked. The shadows stretched out and touched Hiei's dangling foot, wrapping
themselves around it. Their touch was like freezing liquid. Hiei's foot burned,
then went numb from the cold. The shadows started slithering over his ankle and
up his leg, reaching for his knee.
        Hiei surrounded himself with fire. Kuwabara yowled in pain and dropped
him, and the shadows pulled away from his foot. Hiei fell to the floor, drew
his sword, and slashed in one smooth movement. The blade passed straight
through the shadows as if it was only cutting thin air. The shadows parted
around the sword, then fell back together when the blade had passed through
them. They didn't even stick to the metal.
        Hiei leaped back as the shadows reached for him again, landing
clumsily on his frozen foot. The fire was warming it, but too slowly. He landed
in the center of the room and glanced around quickly. Kuwabara was on the other
side of the room, behind the shadows, nursing his burned hands. Yusuke was
smothered in vines, and Kurama was staring blankly into the distance. He wasn't
going to get help from any of them - to all intents and purposes, he was alone.
        The shadows kept oozing across the floor toward him. Hiei backed up
another couple of steps, limping awkwardly. It felt like he was stepping on
needles when he put weight on his right foot. Hiei cursed to himself and
gathered all his power, trying not to panic at the thought of one of the
shadows nestling in his chest and draining his life away. They lapped eagerly
at his feet, and he stepped back again, crackling with energy. They didn't back
off.
        Hiei glanced at Kurama again, and saw that although his stare was just
as blank as before, he seemed to be wilting under the strain of keeping Yusuke
tied up. His face was as white as paper. Hiei suddenly realized that instead of
using its own power, the shadow was draining the last of Kurama's to use
against Yusuke. Rage flooded through him, and he suddenly remembered Kuwabara's
yell in the forest - "_Fry_ those bastards!"
        Hiei snarled and extended his hand, glowing sulfurous eyes already
appearing in the black fire around him. Kuwabara realized what was about to
happen and scrambled out of the way.
        "_Ensatsu Kokuryuha_!"
        A huge, focused whirlwind of black fire exploded from Hiei and filled
the room with its fury. The outer wall disintegrated before the dragon even hit
it. The shadows were lost in the chaos, blasted back through the gaping hole in
the house as the raging dragon charred most of the room before dissipating into
the cool night air outside.
        Hiei fell to his knees, panting. He stared through the hole where the
wall had been, straining his eyes for some sign that the shadows had been
completely destroyed. He heard a sound behind him, and turned his head just in
time to be blinded by a flash of blue-white light as Yusuke finally resorted to
his Rei powers to burn his way free of the vines. Hiei rubbed his eyes,
grimacing, as Yusuke stood up shakily and gasped for breath.
        Then Yusuke pointed. "Look!" he said hoarsely. Hiei turned again.
        The shadows started slithering back into the house.
        <No. I don't believe it. I didn't kill them...>
        Hiei tried to stand up, but his legs wouldn't hold him and he fell
back to his knees. He turned to Yusuke. "You're the only one who can kill them!"
        "But Kurama..." Yusuke hesitated, glancing at Kurama, who was sitting
hunched over, pressing his hand to his chest from the flare of Yusuke's Rei
power. He looked up, and sense was back in his eyes.
        "Do it, Yusuke!" he said.
        Yusuke looked back at the shadows, and saw them inexorably spreading
across the floor toward Hiei. There was no choice.
        He pointed his finger and yelled, "Rei gun!"
        The blast of light filled the room. Hiei felt the power hit him and
went limp, flung back by the surge of energy. He hit the wall and crumpled to
the floor. The light burned brightly against his closed eyelids, then faded
back into darkness.
        Yusuke stood alone in the charred room, looking around. He was the
only one left standing after the explosion of energy. He gasped for breath, his
throat still tight and aching, and longed desperately to pass out, but he was
too afraid of what might happen. What if he hadn't killed all of the shadows?
He couldn't risk falling asleep...
        Suddenly huge black blotches edged with neon purple filled his vision
and ate the light. Yusuke crumpled senseless to the floor.