White Noise : Track Sixty-One (Hiei)

Yusuke grumbled as he sat in Koenma’s office, waiting for Koenma to notice his arrival. The young lord of the three worlds seemed rather busy, too busy in fact to meet with Yusuke to talk about his newly captured Black Market worker.

“Ahem!” Yusuke declared, loudly clearing his throat causing Koenma to briefly look up.

“Yes, I see you. I heard you found a demon in the human world.” He stated, grabbing a piece of paper and reading from it. “Awa, the Black Market tracker?”

“I caught her just as she seemed about to take Aria back to Demon World.” Yusuke explained.

Koenma looked up from his paper work and gave a small humorless laugh. With their luck so far at sending Aria back to the Demon World, it might have just been best to let the other demon take her. But the fact that poison demon had come with malicious intent and had harmed a few humans in the way, the poison demon was to be brought to justice. “Thank you for your efforts Yusuke. Hopefully I can give you a break in the near future.” Koenma stated.

“Break?” Yusuke repeated, hoping that he hadn’t misheard. As much as the sound demon had grown on him, she’d been nothing but work and trouble since she’d arrived. Not to mention, even his mother was starting to wonder about the girl’s presence in their home.

“Yes. We’re working to send Aria back as we speak. We can’t afford any more demons coming into the human world like this to come after her. We have located a portal maker and we are now just negotiating to try and get him to work with us.” Koenma stated. He chose not to mention that the negotiations were not going as planned. It seemed that any time they would find a portal maker, it was almost impossible to get them to work for the Spirit World. It was starting to seem as if they were scared and being threated away from the job, but that was something he didn’t have the time to look into at the moment so he just hoped their current candidate worked out. “So please just bear with looking after her for maybe a week or two more.”

Yusuke felt slightly disappointed at this news but he had known that the young girl wouldn’t be around forever, in fact, he found it odd that it had taken them so long. He nodded. “That’s fine. Anything else?” Yusuke asked, itching to get home, realizing that Keiko still didn’t know if he was alright or not and would probably be angry if he didn’t tell her soon.

“Yes, as a matter of fact there is.” Koenma said, his face growing drawn with a frown as he looked slightly lost in thought. “Have you seen Hiei recently?” He asked.

“Yeah, just today. Why?” Yusuke asked, confused.

“Nothing at the moment. But keep him close by. I want you to keep an eye on him.” Koenma stated. He had heard news that not only had the lust demon that Hiei had taken the information of had turned up dead but also two of the humans that she lived with as well. If it had just been the demon, Koenma would have already had brought Hiei in to dole out his punishment but as it was the two humans as well, the crime was potentially much more serious and needed more looking into before accusations could be casually thrown around. He had Botan looking into it as they spoke. But it wasn’t looking good for Hiei from what he was learning.

Koenma let out a sigh. He honestly had seen this coming but had wanted to give Hiei the benefit of the doubt. Koenma was going to hear from his father about this, he just knew it.

Yusuke quirked a brow at this request. “Why?”

“I just want to keep tabs on him at the moment.” Koenma told him. “Just to monitor his rehabilitation progress.” He quickly lied. No need to alarm Yusuke too soon.

Yusuke seemed to accept this explanation. He didn’t know how well he could keep the small fire apparition around though because while Hiei had been more around the group than usual, he was still pretty inconsistent.

“So is that all there is?” Yusuke asked, hopeful, fidgeting in his seat, obviously ready to go.

Koenma sighed. “Yes, that is all for the moment. But be prepared to be called back here soon.” He stated, giving Yusuke a slight wave of dismissal before looking back down to his papers.

****

Yusuke announced his arrival to Kurama’s home with a shout, hearing Kurama call back from the living room.

“How’d things go with Koenma?” Kurama asked as Yusuke entered the living to plop down on the love seat and prop his feet up on the small table in front of him like he owned the place.

“More work.” Yusuke grumbled, his head swiveling over to see Hiei on the window sill. “And you, Koenma says you gotta’ stick around for a bit.” Yusuke stated, knowing he was about to be met with resistance but really too concerned with trying to tip-toe around what he needed to happen.

Hiei’s eyes opened and his head snapped over to glare at Yusuke. “Why?” He bit out.

Yusuke just shrugged. “’Cause Koenma said so.” He just stated simply and then before Hiei could complain, shifted his focus back to Kurama. “So how’s Aria doing?”

Kurama was slightly intrigued by why Koenma might want Hiei to stick around more but wrote it off for the moment as just wanting extra protection for Aria. “She’s asleep right now, but she should be fine when she wakes up.” He responded with a friendly smile.

“And Yukina?” Yusuke asked, nodding over to where Yukina was slumped against the side of the couch, completely passed-out asleep, exhausted from having tried to fight Awa’s poison earlier that day.

“Just a bit tired.” Kurama stated with a chuckle. “After a good night’s sleep she should also be just fine.”

“That’s good.” Yusuke responded with a smile. “Another successful battle thanks to Yusuke Urameshi!” He declared flexing his arms slightly.

“There wouldn’t have even been a battle if you had just done your job!” Hiei seethed from his spot, glaring at Yusuke.

Yusuke just shrugged, not letting Hiei’s anger get to him. “Speaking of my job, we won’t have to do it much longer.” He stated with a grin.

“Hrm?” Kurama asked, his attention moving from the television at this.

“Koenma says he’ll have found a way to send Aria home within a few weeks.” Yusuke stated.

This caught Hiei’s full attention and his body tensed slightly. He immediately clamped down on a feeling of loss that washed over him, not letting it spread. ‘Good. She’s been nothing but trouble.’ He told himself with a scowl.

****

Aria awoke with a start and immediately tried to slam a pillow over her head to attempt to block out some of the noise. Yet this didn’t go quite as planned as as soon as she went to move her arm, she found the movement laborious and difficult but after a small amount of effort, she fixed the pillow overhead. She had to bite back a scream of pain as her body acclimated to the sudden influx of noise, seemingly 10x worse than what she usually experienced. The pain from her old injuries also throbbed as if fresh, her head feeling the worst.

She merely hid under her pillow for a few moments as her ears slowly began to grow used to the noise. She groaned as the noise finally subsided and she could think clearly again.

She dimly remembered the fight she’d been in and while she remembered dealing one final blow to Awa, she also seemed to remember Awa getting back up. By all accounts, she remembered losing the fight. So what was she doing here in this bed?

Aria’s ears perked as she heard the door to her room open and someone walk into the room. She lay, tense, as she waited for something that would give away who’d entered the room.

“You awake?” Yusuke asked, coming into the room.

Aria just groaned beneath the pillow, relaxing as she realized who it was in the room. “We really need to quit meeting like this.” Aria commented jokingly but with a slightly bitter grin, her voice muffled under the pillow. She was upset over continuously causing problems and getting injured like this. She wasn’t the strongest but she was completely discontent with playing the damsel in distress. After all, most of the people had just met her and surely they must be tired of constantly having to rush to her rescue. It was especially disappointing considering how hard she’d tried and how close she’d come to succeeding in defending herself.

“You look like shit.” Yusuke commented with a grin, coming to sit on the bed beside Aria, looking down at her.

“You should see the other guy.” Aria responded jokingly, her head still hidden under the pillow.

“I did.” Yusuke said with a grin. “I took her to Spirit World to be given her punishment so you’ll never have to worry about her again.”

Aria wasn’t exactly leaping with joy. More would come even if one was dealt with, it was no big news. She was more upset that she hadn’t been the one to completely deal with the problem and she had ended up needing outside help in the end.

But this did explain why she was now safe and sound (though a little battered) in a comfy bed. “Thank you.” She grumbled, though begrudgingly, her pride hurt even worse as she’d not only been saved but by a human. She now had to recalculate her thoughts on Yusuke. Even though she’d known he’d beaten Hiei in a fight, it hadn’t really registered in her mind that he was a force to be reckoned with until it was her backside he was saving.

“Hey, I just took the trash out. You swept it up. Good job.” Yusuke said with a grin.

Aria grinned slightly as his words helped to sooth her battered pride and she peeked out from under the pillow to smile up at him. “Can all humans do that?” Aria asked.

“Do what?” Yusuke asked, confused.

“Go up against demons and win?” Aria asked, finding herself hoping that he said no. She didn’t want to have to completely recalculate the way she thought about all humans.

“Nope, pretty much just a handful including me.” Yusuke stated with a proud grin.

Aria glanced down at her hand and wondered about the expression ‘handful’ thinking that she couldn’t even fit Yusuke in her hand but chose not to pursue her confusion. Instead she moved on to her next question. “Am I in Kurama’s house?” She asked looking around. She thought she recognized this place from when she first arrived and she could hear Kurama and Hiei and maybe another person downstairs.

“Yep, you’re at Kurama’s. He patched you up. How you feeling by the way?” Yusuke asked.

“Like I just got in a fight with poison demon.” Aria grinned, now fully setting aside the pillow and sitting up slightly. Even though she was sore, all things considered, she’d made it out of the fight in pretty good shape. Awa had obviously been fighting with the intent to bring her back alive.

“Well, I got some news that might cheer you up.” Yusuke offered with a grin.

“Hrm?” Aria hummed, her eyes lighting up and sitting up even straighter.

“I talked to Koenma and he said he was close to being able to send you home. He said two weeks tops!” Yusuke informed her.

“Home?” Aria repeated, not seeming to register what he was saying. Aria cocked her head to the side. She’d been in the human world for so long, she’d almost forgotten that they were planning to send her home.

Though now that she thought about it, she was actually surprised that she hadn’t already been returned home to the Makai. And not just by Koenma or those being sent by the Black Market to drag her back, but by her Master as well. She had been told that she was to return home after finishing her job with Kawari and collecting her bell and that he would come to collect her as soon as Henken was either released or killed.

“Yep. Back to the demon world.” Yusuke commented, pulling her from her thoughts. “You excited?” He asked with an expectant grin.

Aria seemed to consider his question for a few moments before answering. “A little. I kind of like the human world.” She said with a grin growing on her face. “I get free food and no one makes me work.” She said with a laugh.

“I hate to break it to you but that food isn’t free for everyone. Someone had to pay for it.” Yusuke said but with a slight smirk in response.

“But it isn’t me.” Aria responded with a grin, but then as she was thinking of food her stomach growled loudly, audible even to Yusuke’s weaker ears causing him to smirk widely.

“Hungry?” He asked.

“So much.” Aria stated with a sheepish grin.

“Alright.” Yusuke said getting up from the bed with a hand held out to Aria. “C’mon. I’ll get you some food. Keiko was over earlier and we should still have some left-overs.”

Aria grinned from ear to ear and took Yusuke’s hand carefully and squeaked slightly in surprise as he hauled her to her feet and then in more intense shock as when she went to stand she couldn’t seem to work her legs, sending her crashing to the floor.

Aria’s excitement over getting food was immediately replaced by an almost overwhelming terror. “My…I can’t feel my legs.” Aria stated, glancing up at Yusuke with a frightened and helpless expression on her face.

Yusuke’s face mirrored her alarm and he tried to help Aria back onto the bed. “Just…just sit there. I’ll go get Kurama!” He stated, making sure Aria was situated on the bed before racing down the stairs shouting for Kurama.

Once left alone, Aria stared down at her legs as if they’d betrayed her, unsure of what to do and fighting back panic. She focused all her might on trying to move them to no avail, being unable to so much as wiggle her toes. She prodded them with her fingers but found that she couldn’t even feel the touch, her alarm slowly growing.

She knew that if she was sent back to the Makai like this, she would be killed in a matter of days. The Makai was a fierce place and her Master found out that she was paralyzed, even he would no longer consider her an asset worth protecting and she didn’t have enough powerful allies to rely on that might help.

She could hear Yusuke shouting frantically for Kurama downstairs but felt numb to his voice. The true impact of knowing that she might never be able to move her legs ever again had not fully set in and left Aria in a state of shock.

She could now hear Hiei shouting downstairs as well. She wanted him to come upstairs.

Next thing she could hear is Kurama trying to calm them both down as he headed upstairs but by the sounds of it Hiei was not listening and could not be calmed down. He was now shouting louder than Yusuke which was quite a feat, but unlike Yusuke, Hiei sounded mad instead of scared.

Kurama was the first to reach the room she was in with a slight smile on his face, Hiei hot on his heels.

Aria looked up at him sadly. “I can’t move my legs.” She stated weakly, her eyes wide and fearful and for once, completely focused.

Bad news: I am so busy and so sorry this took FOREVER. Good news: The next one is already halfway done since this one was getting long so I just kinda cut it here! :D I thank you so much to all the people that have stood by me through this journey and we’re getting close to the end so I should be moving at a bit of a quicker pace (I know I say that all the time lol).

I’m really tired because it’s 5am and I just wanted to get this finished so I’ll just post this and get out of the way.

Fun fact: Sometimes Aria will eat up to 10 full sized meals in a day.

NEWS: I’ll be posting more updates to the revised version of White Noise soon and another part of BBT&T

Thank you all again. I love you.

RATE AND MESSAGE GUYS! <3

PS: I've also finally started using the banners people have sent me!