Kamusta! :)

Here's part 12 of my sis' fanfic!
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Twelve.

	It was true: he was blinded.  When his sixth sense failed him in the
darkness, almost all else did.  The Ensatsu Ken could not even serve as a
torch.  He only relied in what he could hear, and he could hear precious
little. It was as if he was far away from both his enemy and his friend.
	A dead alien voice spoke Kurama’s name.  But to Hiei it came as barely a
whisper.  He moved toward it, but it moved away.  When the voice spoke again
it was coming from another direction.  And Kurama could not be heard at all.
	At last the invisible attacker showed himself.  Hiei did not know that he
had just finished tearing Kurama’s courage to pieces.  Yakoru and Hiei were
the only visible things in the broad black field.
	Yakoru was a giant.  Like Hiei he wore only black, and his immense third
eye was wide open.  His shock of hair was so dark that the hemp-like strands
could hide themselves within the shroud.  He carried no weapons…but then his
illusion-casting jagan has always been enough.
	"I do not know you," Yakoru thundered in a lifeless voice.  "What do you
have that can attract the interest of my youko?"
	Hiei did not like the stress on that final pronoun, whatever it meant.  He
brandished the youki sword.  "My companion, where is he?" he demanded.
	"I will let you see," Yakoru decided at once.
	The great jagan narrowed, and suddenly a flash of red appeared at the
corner of Hiei’s eye.  He turned immediately.  There was Kurama, standing
still, looking afraid as he had never been, looking lost.  The rose whip,
tense and blind, was a useless extension of himself.  His free hand clutched
fearfully at the cape about his shoulders.
	"Kurama!" Hiei gasped.
	The figure nearby was alarmed.  He seemed to have heard.  His emerald gaze
wandered everywhere.  Kurama called Hiei’s name out, in return, but the cry
came to Hiei, resonating faintly, as through a thick glass barrier.
	Hiei wheeled round.  "Damn you!" he cried.  "What are you doing to him?"
	"Do you know him for what he really is?" Yakoru asked mechanically, as if
he had heard nothing.  "Perhaps, then, I should show you."
	Yakoru’s jagan flared, and the rose whip fell from Kurama’s hand.  A weapon
fell, and a blossom touched the floor; the whip had retracted into the
reddest of roses upon being torn from its master.
	"What – "   Hiei watched in horror as Kurama wrapped his arms about
himself, and staggered back, wincing as if in great pain.  The blood-red
mane tilted back for a howl of rage, which reached the other side of the
invisible glass barrier as a mere whimper.  Kurama seemed to fold into himself.
	Whatever was happening, Kurama was fighting it.  The pained indignation did
not leave his face even as white smoke rose from the ground to devour him.
	"_What are you doing to him_!" Hiei shouted.  "_Stop_!"
	But Yakoru only held up a hand.
	Smoke billowed around Kurama.  The last Hiei saw of him was the scarlet of
his hair as it flew upward, as if he fell.  But the mysterious dervish did
not take long to do its task.  A moment later, it was sucked back beneath
the ground.  It whirled first into a small pool at Kurama’s feet – 
        -- at youko feet – 
        -- before completely dispersing.
        Kurama straightened, and showed that a new and brighter being was
born into Hiei’s soiled black cloak.  Muscled arms fell back at his sides,
and his light hair, now bluish-white and spilling down to the waist,  began
to settle with the stillness.  The bandage about his right shoulder had
disappeared, and the healing wound remained open, without bleeding.
        Kurama’s stolid gaze was fixed on the ground.
        "Yohko Kurama!"
        Light seemed to pour from Kurama’s slanted and beautiful eyes, as
they were raised.  They were gleaming, glazed over with a pleading look
that, of a certain, did not come easily for such a noble creature.
        Kurama turned toward the glass barrier – toward Hiei, if he only
knew it.  But all he could hear was the voice of his three-eyed lord.
        Hiei gaped at Yakoru, who should not have looked so powerful.  But
it was all too evident that Kurama strove under his control.  "Who are you?"
he finally asked.
"I am the Mazemaster," said the sanjiyan.  "Once, I held this youko’s life
in my hands."
        Hiei remembered the name Kurama had mumbled before the shroud closed
them off from each other.  Yakoru.  In his breath, as he said it, was more
than a mere tinge of fear.  Only two things, Hiei reasoned, could render
Kurama helpless before an enemy: if once upon a time it had kept Kurama
captive, or, if once upon a time it had been Kurama’s friend.
        All Hiei had to know was that Kurama had been severely traumatized
by his previous confrontations with the sanjiyan.  He did not need to know
what Yakoru had done, or how Kurama had escaped it.
        Hiei would start the fight alone.

        Kurama with his sharpened eyes thought he could see two figures
clashing in the distance.  One was stout, gigantic; the other was barely
five feet tall.  They were moving in a pace ordinary human eyes would not
have been able to follow.  But Kurama could not be sure that they were not
only an illusion; one could never underestimate the mind-bending talents of
the sanjiyan Yakoru.
        As a result of this uncertainty, Kurama did not move.  He watched
the long and uneventful fight, until he tired of it.  His solemn gaze
touched the ground, where the forgotten blossom lay.  It did not seem
familiar, but he picked it up, nonetheless.
        The single red rose was so much more shocking in color, held by the
pale fox-demon.
        Yakoru should be coming for him any moment now.  He could fight, but
by doing so he would be entering a gamble whose "odds against" he did not
like.  It astonished him, though, to realize that he feared Yakoru more when
he was in the form he was originally known.  He had more power, and greater
speed of movement, as a youko, but still he could not find it within himself
to be so brave.
        He thought about the illusion far away, and wondered…
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BFN!
:***LYN***:
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|Ma. Aileen Arcega|Surfing from Bulacan, Philippines!|lyn@tridel.com.ph |
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|      	    Akin si Kurama/Minamino Shuichi of Yu Yu Hakusho!           |
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