~Crossroad~ A Hiei Two-Shot

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~Crossroad~

The spirit world: the imposing fortress, home of Lord Enma and his son, Koenma. This is where the spirit world order is centered, away from the makai (demon world) and the ningenkai (human world).

“It’s all right, Kannagi-san,” said Kurama, a.k.a Minamino Shuiichi with a smile. “We’ll make sure that you don’t get a severe punishment.”

“Yeah,” said Urameshi Yusuke earnestly.

The girl in question looked down at her feet. She couldn’t find it in herself to be relieved, though. She was still one of the people who were in the gang they were supposed to catch.

The spirit detectives were clustered around her, a precaution both for safety and security. Kurama and Yusuke were on her either side, with the human Kuwabara Kazuma behind. She couldn’t see Hiei of the Jagan, the forbidden child, but she could sense him nearby.

A few minutes later, a big ogre was opening the doors of Koenma’s office for them. She blinked in the bright light, and followed the others inside.

“So this is Spider?” a voice remarked. “I didn’t…what happened to you guys?”

The speaker was a toddler with a blue pacifier. She didn’t know who was more surprised: him at the sight of her and his banged-up detectives, or her, that the great lord of the Spirit World was actually a kid with a smart mouth.

Wait a sec…Yusuke’s a kid with a smart mouth too… she thought. Her lips twitched, almost as if she was going to smile, but she didn’t.

“You are…Kannagi Spider?” whispered Koenma.

She nodded. She wondered what he saw. A short, pale girl with long, faded rose-pink hair and silver eyes? A little child?

A criminal, perhaps?

“Please, Koenma- don’t be harsh with her.” It was Kurama speaking. “She helped us escape. If it wasn’t for her, we would be dead by now.”

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She was only passing through the dungeons when she heard rumors that there were Spirit Detectives in there. She didn’t actually care, but then Mantis called out to her to show off his latest victims.

“Hey Spider!”

She kept walking.

“Spider!”

“What?” she finally said. “I’m tired. I just got back from a job.”

Mantis wasn’t like his codename. He was also short-even shorter than her, which was saying something. He had powder-blue hair and eager red eyes, and freckles. He looked like a human seven-year old boy.

However, the twin jagged scimitars at his back were a testament to his strength.

“I want to show you something.”

“Can’t it wait?”

“No.”

She glared. “fine.”

That was when Mantis showed her the four spirit detectives. They had defeated a lot of the members of the group, but in the end they had been caught.

She put up a hand and stroked the glass cell. The four detectives were in separate…cages. That was the best word for it. The cells were a torture to be in, since they slowly drained the occupants of spirit energy while keeping the glass barriers strong. Indeed, she sensed that the carrot-top human was already slowly dying.

“How long?” she asked.

“huh?”

“how long have you been keeping them here?”

“Oh, since after you left for your job. We need to punish them, you know, they killed a lot of our comrades,” Mantis said casually.

Her latest job took five days. “That long?” she said emotionlessly, staring at the red hair of one of the spirit detectives.

“They didn’t want to join us, and they were sent to kill us all. It’s only fitting don’t you think?” Mantis smirked. “Don’t worry. If you remember, YOU lasted almost two weeks in here before you finally cracked and decided to join us.”

“I am half-demon. Of course I’d last a lot longer.” She put down her hand and started to walk away.

“Hey! What’s the matter? Angry?” Mantis shouted after her.

“Interpret it however you want,” she said.

Later, that night, she broke the detectives free. Silently, without a word, as was her way.

“Why are you doing this?” Hiei asked her with narrowed eyes, clearly suspicious.

She paused, thinking. When she finally answered she didn’t look at the four. “…You…probably heard. I was the same once, I was kept in that cell too. Against my will I joined them. I loved my life too much then. But you know the saying? This life I’ve had with them…I can’t wish it on anyone. In a way it’s like being in that cell again, slowly dying. So…so…if there is anyone who can destroy this life for me, then I will help them.”

“You’re strong enough, aren’t you?” Kurama asked. “To fight them?”

She smiled wistfully. “Yes…but I’m afraid I still love my life too much. I’m outnumbered if I fight them.”

“Why don’t you join us?” Yusuke suggested.

She only laughed and went away.

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Her gamble had worked. The assassination ring was caught.

Or course that meant she was caught too.

Koenma listened carefully to Kurama’s story. At the end of it, he sighed.

“You still killed a lot of people.”

“I know.”

“But you helped them, too. I can’t let you go, but-“

She chuckled. “You’ll make me work off my sentence? By being a detective?”

“How did you know I was going to say that?”

“You’ve already cut a deal with two of your detectives, didn’t you? Word gets around.”

Koenma sighed. “Very well, I don’t think that there’s anything more to explain.”

She nodded.

“Wait…there’s one more thing.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Yes?”

“It’s not official, but it’s been said that you got into that assassination job because of a human. You’re a halfer, right? And you grew up in the makai. How come you know a human deeply enough to-“

“It’s not true.” She said flatly. “I…I didn’t know any humans before.”

Koenma stared at her, hard. “And your name,” he said, changing the topic. “It’s hardly possible that your name is really Kannagi Spider.”

“My last name really is Kannagi.” She said. “You can call me by that name.”

As she passed by Hiei by the door, he said, “At least you’ve learnt to close your mind by now, onna.”

She glanced at him, confused, but he offered no explanation.

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“Sarai!!!”

Kannagi Sarai looked up from the book she was reading. Her younger half-sister, the human named Carmabelle Greenwillow, was lying down on her bed. “Help me!!!”

Sarai raised a brow. “Help you with what?”

“This!” bolting to her feet, Carma showed Sarai her hair. She had obviously been trying to comb her wavy, dark hair, but the wooden brush teeth ended up breaking in her locks. (LO: actually, this has really happened to me before, with a roller-style wooden brush.)

“How did you do this?” Sarai said, laughing.

“It’s not funny! How come I have a sister with straight hair? Why can’t I have it instead?” Her silvery gray eyes, twin to Sarai’s, were annoyed.

All in all Sarai was relieved when she finally found her sister when Carma was still young-about ten years old in human years. Even half-demons aged much, much more slowly than humans. Now that Carma was fifteen, they shared a strong bond, though they looked about the same age.

Tonight Sarai visited Carma again. She kept her visits unpredictable, so nobody could track her and put Carma into danger. Sarai had a lot of enemies in the Makai. She never told Carma about her secret life, of course.

“All right, I’ll help you,” Sarai conceded, still holding back her giggles. Carma began to mutter mutinously, to Sarai’s further amusement.

They were silent for a while.

“Sarai?” Carma whispered, as Sarai plucked the brush’s teeth from Carma’s hair. “You’re…not human, are you?”

Sarai froze. Apparently, Carma was smarter than she gave her credit for. Sarai always gave her excuses when she asked why she rarely visited, and Carma never seemed to question her before.

“Is that why…you only showed up after our Mom had died? And your hair is such a strange color? And why you don’t live with Dad and me in the house?”

Sarai couldn’t answer.

“It’s okay,” Carma said, leaning on Sarai’s shoulder. “You’re still my sister. No matter who you are. Just be careful.”

Sarai hugged her half-sister. Sarai was doing a dangerous job-tracking down their mother’s killer. She hadn’t visited Carma in a while, but Sarai swore that she would protect her.

When she did finally find the assassins who killed their mother, she had been caught and placed in a strange glass cell. She had been offered a place in the assassin group, but she refused.

The glass cell was torture.

After almost two weeks, another prisoner was led out of the glass cell next to her, already dead. She stared in horror at the face of the prisoner: the hostage they had kept, unknown to her. Had Sarai agreed quickly to their demands, the prisoner would have lived.

It was Carma.

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Sarai stared up at the ceiling, counting the dust mites. It had been a while since she had joined the detectives.

It was one of those rare days when they didn’t have a mission. She didn’t like these kinds of days, keeping busy kept her from thinking about the very first person she killed, from ten years ago:

Her sister.

Sarai sighed and turned over, her face flattened against a pillow. She had been living with Genkai and Yukina whenever they didn’t have a mission. It was the first time since she joined the assassins that she lived in the nigenkai again. At least it was in Japan this time. No one would recognize her. The Greenwilllows had lived in America.

“Kannagi-san?”

It was Yukina. Sarai lifted her head.

“Yes?”

“It’s Koenma. He said that he has a mission for you and Hiei-san?”

Hiei. Just great… she thought. During missions she stayed away from Kuwabara and talked to Yusuke and Kurama. Hiei was a tougher nut to crack, as he was so silent and serious. She knew that her personality was somewhat similar to his, but they had reached an unspoken agreement not to talk about it.

She had taken to calling him “spikyhead”. She didn’t know why but the nickname was easy to say, sliding through her tongue like butter. She sometimes called him byname, but not “shrimp”, or “shortstuff”…maybe because she was short herself.

Sarai followed Yukina to the door.

“May I ask you something, Kannagi-san?”

She looked at Yukina with some surprise. “Sure.”

“Did you…I mean…do you have a younger sister?”

Carma’s face flashed before Sarai’s eyes. “H-How did you…?”

“Oh! It’s just that, sometimes, I feel that you’re being very elder sister-ly to me.” Yukina smiled. “It’s not a bad thing.”

No! It’s a bad thing! Sarai wanted to shout.

“It’s okay. I have a brother too, but he’s disappeared. I’ve been looking for him, but I can’t seem to find him…Hiei-san says he has died, but I think he was lying. If your sister is missing, I’m sure you’ll find her.”

“I won’t,” Sarai said. “My sister is dead.”

Yukina’s eyes widened. “I-“

“You took long enough, onna.” Hiei growled as they arrived at the gates. “Come on, the toddler wants to take back some stolen item in the Makai.”

“Some stolen item?” Sarai repeated. “That’s quite specific.”

“Hn.”

“I’m so sorry, Kannagi-san,” Yukina whispered.

“It’s okay.” She mumbled, then followed Hiei to the portal, wishing that she never had a sister in the first place.

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The stolen item was an Enhancer-a device that could multiply one’s power. In the hands of weak demons it was especially dangerous, as they were the ones with the most greed for power.

“Where are the others?” Sarai asked.

“They’re at ningen school.”

She snorted. “Missing a mission because of school?”

“The toddler insists that ningen education is important.” Hiei smirked. “Unless the two of us are not enough for this mission?”

“Shut up spiky head.”

“Hey Sarai! Listen! I’ve been accepted in Rosewall High! Term starts in September. I’m on my way! I’m going to be the best interior designer!”

“Ít’s only high school, Carma.”

“Don’t say that, school is important!”

Hiei glanced at her. “You don’t remember yet…”

Sarai stared. “Remember what?”

“Nevermind.”

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The demon who had stolen the Enhancer was a psychic demon named Hironami. Both Hiei and Sarai tensed as they entered his cave, on the lookout for any attack.

“Can you sense him? I can’t.” Sarai murmured to Hiei in the near-darkness.

“I-“

There was a rush of air above Sarai’s head. She jumped away, Hiei following her movements.

“What was that?!”

A fist appeared, connected to the most misshapen-looking bull demon that Sarai had ever seen. It looked more like a very top-heavy minotaur than a normal bull demon.

“It’s Hironami,” Hiei said, drawing his katana and never once taking his eyes off the demon.

“What happened to him?” she said, revolted. Hironami was drooling, his eyes a bulging red. He looked rabid.

“I think the Enhancer’s destroying him from the inside.”

“Any instructions from Koenma to bring him in alive?”

“No.”

“I see.” At once Sarai spread out her fingers and made her weapon shoot out from the tips.

“No-wait, onna!”

She didn’t listen. String erupted from Sarai’s fingertips, wrapping themselves against Hironami.

That was why she had earned the assassin name “spider”-because she was actually a spider demon. Her threads were as strong as iron wire.

It hade never failed her in killing yet.

But this time, she had to keep the target alive. She tightened the string, making Hironami fall over with an incoherent bellow.

Hiei darted to the target. “Onna, you shouldn’t be so careless.”

“I’m fine. Where’s the enhancer?” Sarai said, stepping closer to HIronami.

“It should be in the fore-“

Hironami suddenly opened his mouth and breathed yellow gas out at Sarai. She jumped back, but it was too late: she already inhaled a bit. Coughing, she dropped to her knees, her eyes watering.

“Hiei!” she gasped. As long as Hiei was alive, the mission could be completed.

That was all that was important…

There was a scream of agony-not Hiei’s, and blood falling to the ground. She couldn’t see what was going on. The yellow fog was all around her.

Her breath was shaky in her lungs. “Hiei!” she called again.

His voice was suddenly furious in her ear: “Don’t die on me, Sarai! Don’t you dare! I’ll never forgive you!”

“Spikyhead, don’t be ridiculous,” she tried to say, but didn’t know if she actually managed to say it, because all of a sudden everything was dark.

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