Hiei's Problem

 A Fanfic by Sandy Youko

Part III - Bionic Fuss

Mukuro awoke but neither she opened her left eye, nor focused the bionic one. She just breathed in calmly, not moving a single muscle, sensing the surroundings.

A strange You-ki had slithered into her domains. In fact, this stranger had broke into her own private chambers. It must be a cunning Youkai to manage doing it. She needed to add, however, such Youkai was indeed most foolish, for daring to annoy her.

She tried to move a little bit, but felt some unexpected resistence.

Only then she opened her eye, setting on the bionic lens range, inspecting her room

Her chamber looked just like Makai Botanic Gardens on the section of Demonic Poisonous Plants! All spaces were filled with foliage, flooded with heavy, nauseating herbal scents and all kinds of montruous carnivorous florescences. Vines and branches intertwined in a maddening puzzle of thorns, lianes and stalks.

With his small move, a particularly smelly and bulbous plant reached out towards her, its purple petals blossoming wildly next to her face, revealing dents and sharp barbs. The petals drooled acid all over, dripping on the sheets, leaving burnt holes on the fabric.

Mukuro laughed; Acid? It must be a joke...

Lianes clutched her, slowly entrancing into her bionic limbs, the tendrils intruding every little slit and articulation, seizing in such a way as she could not move neither right arm nor leg.

On her left side, a poisonous ivy stalk grew forth, blooming lively green leaves and stems which climbed over her, crawling onto her like cold spiders.

Plants were no match for her. And just as she was calling on a small fraction of her ki to set herself free, hard, woody and thorn vines clinched on. Her neck was encircled and hurt, as blood already dripped from the tiny but deep holes the thorns opened on her skin.

She rolled her eyes to the side, and saw the intruder. A Fox spirit. She saw the six tailed fox sillouette sitting in a shadowy corner of her room. The narrow, amber eyes stared evilly at her, while the youko's six tails were waggled, slowly, one after the other, in a heavy, wavy, continuous move.

She should have suspected; Kurama Youko...

"Look cub, I don't have time to waste with pets. Your youkai hasn't given you enough toys to play lately?"

She felt a sudden change in the fox's aura. It grew heavier, angrier at her derisive words.

A whirling of pure energy started girating within the limited space, as Kurama changed forms.

The tall silvery Youko stood and walked forth with thoughtful, slow steps, as the plants shifted to give him way. His eyes were like golden flames, as anger stroke his beautiful expression.

"We must talk. You stole something from me, and I want it back."

The vines released her a little, just enough to bring her upright a bit, so she and Kurama could stare at each other.

"I have nothing that belongs to you."

"You took Hiei from me! All he thinks about is training!"

She laughed, loudly, really having fun, totally unaffected by the menacing plants around.

"If Hiei is here is because he wants to! I'm not making him captive!" She gazed at the brilliant and beautiful Youko then, with a sarcastic expression "Maybe the Koorime boy is tired of the the domesticated fox he's got home and came looking for some wild pussy, hn?"

 She heard Kurama growl.

"I'm gonna choke you on Makai Hemlock! What have you done to Hiei?"

A slight smile appeared on her lips, and her face seemed less tense, less twisted, for an instant, as she understood. Lover's fight. And she was caught right between a rock and a hard place.

"Just contrary to what most people suspect, cub, I have done nothing to your Hiei..." She answered, thinking that situation was turning to be comic. Never in the whole Makai, anyone had ever heard of a Youko stricken with such jealousy... They would usually just move on to another lover, carelessly, not minding anyone left behind. A Youko was a randy creature. But Kurama was part Ningen in his heart; the avearage youko behaviour could not apply.

"Kid, why don't you take your youkai to your den and settle your differences down in private? I'm not much into discussing your sex drive."

"But I am into discussing it! Look at what I've found in your lockers! How do you explain this?" Kurama exclaimed, angrily, tossing three objects at her face, as she remained tied and unmoving. - A roll of bandages, a black trunk top, and worn, white cotton underwear.

Mukuro didn't say a thing. That was getting off control; it was not amusing anymore.

"All right pet... You wanna play?"

"Sure I wanna play! I'm gonna make you pay! Bitch!"

Mukuro's left eye flickered as she stared at the Youko, totally outraged by his unrespectful manners. The stupid fox surely had no idea how close to Death he was getting to...

"I'm gonna pay? You invade my castle, sneak into my private chambers, fuss all around my room and my lockers, and I am the one who is going to pay? What an arrogance!

Mukuro moved, snapping some vines, tearing them with a sudden push of her bionic limbs. The spined grasp around her neck was tightened, but she reached it, pushing her metal fingers in between the constricting vines and her throat, and pulling them off. She sat on the bed, her feet almost touching the floor, her bionic arm totally free.

"I 'm gonna teach you a lesson, Youko!" Mukuro uttered rispidly, as the last shreads of the plants restraining her broke loose. She stood up, and faced Kurama, her bionic eye changing focus, with a sudden flicker. "

"I'm ready!" Kurama exclaimed, as his eyes twinkled in a predatory flash, as a heavy, dense Demonic bramble showed forth from his back, reaching out, spreading a multitude of winding, pricky branches towards Mukuro.

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His Jagan lids opened involuntarily, as he was brought back from slumber.

Hiei had even imagined it to be a wild, crazy nightmare, as he viewed gigantic vines and snakelike tendrils crawling, holding themselves tightly to dark, bizarre walls. It could be some weird dream, something recalling him of the inner torture he had been in, forced to merely watch his loved Youko fighting that dreadful Sigure. But then he recognized the walls and corridors... It was Mukuro's castle!

He sat up, his red eyes shut, while his Jagan gleamed its purple energy, watching ivies bursting out of every crevice and crack on walls and floor, enveloping all empty spaces with its monstruous leafage. Doors were put down by flowers and buds of weird, twisted Makai carnivorous plants. He could see Mukuro's servants and Youkai warriors held and tied down by all kinds of Demonic ferns. Makai cactuses and nettles blocked the corridors, over which a vast cloud of poisonous pollen floated. Mukuro's castle was immersed within green chaos...

Hiei stood up, grabbing his katana tightly. Then he vanished in the wind, so fast not a trace of his hazy, black silhouette could be perceived.

Kurama... The Stupid fox was fighting Mukuro? What did that deranged Youko had in mind?

His whole body tensed, and he ran faster than he could, shifted into no more than a blur, a nimble black shadow marked by a silvery flash caused as light stroke over his sword blade. And he still tried to focus the Jagan, letting his perception enter the castle, passing corridors, halls and rooms. Kurama was within Mukuro's private chambers? Oh... Trouble was Youko Kurama's middle name... What was the fox trying? Suicide? Hiei didn't imagine deprival of sex could do such damage to a Youko's mind.

He could see the silver Youko now. He was hurt, his white tunic stained with blood, and yet he still summoned plants, his you-ki gleaming around him as stalks and branches grew all over continuously, in both protection and attack. A spiralling vine, filled massively with all kinds of thorns and spikes, was summoned and grew around him, as a heavy barrier. Hiei could perceive how weak his lover was. Kurama had already given out too much of his energy. He was almost beaten...

Then Hiei's Jagan became almost blind when a full blast of Mukuro's powerful ki was shot at Kurama. There was a huge reddish-gold explosion of aural light, and all plants were torn apart, ripped into shreads, crushed into tiny burnt bits...

And Kurama?

He almost could not feel him. It was so faint, so feeble... Hiei shut his Jagan, unwilling to torture himself further, minding only to get to his lover the faster he could.

His chest was stricken with grievous pounding as he found himself at the Castle's blocked entrance.

He called on Ja Ou En Satsu Ken, forming a huge mass of dark, pulsating black fire energy. To hell with Mukuro's interior decoration, he thought, as he blasted his dark, firey ki into the main corridor, dissolving plants, part of the walls, and even some less powerful Youkai who happened to be on the way as he proceed on.

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There were debris and dead shreds and crumbs of dead plants all over the floor. Many walls have been put totally down, and Youkai ran crazily all around trying to set things back in place. And as he arrived at Mukuro's chambers, there was no trace of Kurama.

Hiei's eyes rolled relentlessly all over the semi-destroyed chamber as he sheathed his katana. He walked past Mukuro's busy servants who tried to clean the place from endless piles of dead and withered stalks, flowers and leaves. He stopped, and blinked in noticing a small puddle of fresh blood on the floor. His youkai heart ached sharply, and yet he commanded his expression so as to reveal nothing of his affliction.

"Looking for something, Hiei?"

He turned at once towards Mukuro's voice, chewing lips, unwilling to show off to his Master any of his frailty and concern.

"Where's he?" He asked, trying the hardest he could to conceal his nervousness, yet knowing he was not doing a very good job. He could feel his hands shaking, and his voice sounded hoarse and diffident.

"Where's who?"

"You know..."

"Ahn... You mean your pet youko? Your lover?" And as she spoke, she stressed loudly and inpudently the word "lover", so everyone could hear.

Hiei nodded, embarassed by the presence of the other youkai coming and going around.

"You should take better care of your pets, Hiei. Look at what he's done to my domains... What do you think I'd do to anyone who dared such thing?"

"You'd kill anyone who dared such thing..." And Hiei 's voice was faint, almost child-like, as he turned his almond-shaped red eyes towards the floor, sighing heavily. "But you wouldn't do it to Kurama... "

"No? Why?"

Hiei could not answer. He just stared at Mukuro, longly, clenching his fists, feeling every muscle in his arms and shoulders tensed with the anticipation.

"Please, Mukuro. Or I'll have to..."

He could not say anything, anymore. His energy was starting to rise, and he could feel his right arm heating up, as the Black Dragon energy vibrated intensely, yet leashed, but maybe not still for very long...

She frowned her tortured half expression, and her only eyed gazed at Hiei in hard disaprooval.

"At least now I have the answer I've always willed for... Now I know quite well which side you would take..."

She turned her back on Hiei then, letting her sentence hang, unfinished.

"He's at the dungeons. I didn't kill him because of you, Hiei." She breathed in then, soundly and slowly, crossing arms at her breast. "Take him away from me. I don't wanna ever see that damned Youko again. If I see him again, I'm gonna kill him!" She turned her intact face towards Hiei then; a face which could even be beautiful, although heavily affected by sorrow. "Do you understand?"

Hiei said nothing as he left.

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The heavy iron door screaked when pushed open, and Hiei stared fondly at the silvery fox aspect cuddled to his own six bushy tails in the deepest corner of the cell.

Immediately, with Hiei's presence, the amber eyes shone, and all tails unfolded, waggling happily. The Fox could not move but his head, rising it a bit from the floor, too weak, too deprived of energy for anything else.

"Why did you do it, crazy fox? Trying to kill yourself?" Hiei spoke, in his softest tone, sitting next to the fox, reaching for him, and bringing his furry, warm body up to his lap.

The fox nuzzled Hiei's belly with his cold, pointed snout, and patted his thigh with one of his paws, insistently.

He was hurt. Hiei immediately tore off a piece of his own bandages, exposing a bit of his concealed tattoo. He held the light, sensitized paw carefully, folding the gauze in very slow moves around his lover's wound. Finished, he bent over the animal form, to place a soft, quick kiss on top of his furry head, playfully poking at one of his long, soft ears.

"I was so jealous, Hiei..." Kurama thought aloud, transmitting his words to his partner.

"Jealous of Mukuro? Hn... she's just my boss, fox..."

"You didn't want to make it with me anymore, then I thought you had found yourself another lover."

"Baka kitsune. There's just you, don't you know?"

"Promise?"

"Yeah, Kurama. Don't you know I'd never, ever betray you?"

The lovers exchanged a longing, lovely gaze, and Kurama reached out further to lick Hiei's dragon-tattooed hand.

"Then are you going to make it to me when I'm able to shift aspects?"

Hiei gulped. Oh... That again...

"I promise I'm gonna try hard, Kitsune..."

And Hiei could swear he had seen the fox smile in a sly, lecherous way.

"Yeah, Hiei... try it hard..."

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 (To be continued - Part Four - A Friendly Advice )

Characters are proprierty of Yoshihiro Togashi, Fuji TV, Shueisha, Jump Comics, and Studio Pierrot. The events portrayed are not necessarilly present in the original series Yu Yu Hakusho