Purple
Chapter 4
By Cricket

Deadly Violet

   Murasaki's chambers sat in almost complete ruin, an infestation of
wild Makai vines and leaves twisted and imbedded into every corner
and space in the vast, white-marble room.  It was like a great jungle
had suddenly exploded in the area, squeezing all it could throughout the
chambers before the wines and roots broke out through windows and
doors.  Yo-mawari's seedling had done it's solemn duty....
   "...k'so..."
   The vine jungle seemed to heave it's own curse, a small, pained
statement of utter frustration fluffing the leaves, even so as a stiff
breeze kicked in through the broken walls of the room, rustling the
leaves about on their perches.  No signs of the pure-white canopied bed
were left, only the greenery of the Makai vines, encompasing
everything in fresh, summer hue.
   But down the trunk of one of the vines, a thick stream of deep
crimson rolled and spilled, etching it's own path through the branches
and leaves until it began to patter to the broken marble floor beneath. 
Blood.  It slowly began to pool, a warm concoction on the cold floors
below from a source somewhere above.  "That youko bastard..." the
voice thinly cursed, a ruffling of leaves breaking through the silence
that had come in with the wines.
   A streak of brilliant purple hair lept down to place beside the small
pool of blood at the base of the vine.  A hand came down roughly to
brace the figure against the floor, a thick, red river of blood flowing out
through the thin, pale fingers to seep into the pool beside them.
   Murasaki growled lowly to herself as he visciously ripped a piece of
her layered white dress off.  A large gash laid completely open on her
upper bicept, completely exposing muscle and bone to the cool air of
the room around her.  Thick masses of tissue and blood glopped at the
wound's opening as she began to swiftly tie the strip of cloth to the
damage, closing it as best as she could to keep her bleeding down.
   When the blue-haired little spirit guide had ground that seedling into
her shoulder, Murasaki had suspected something was up from the start. 
Out of all good conscious, she had dug the seed from her shoulder and
tossed it on the bed beside here - only seconds before the you-ki had
ignighted it into the tangled mass that now replaced her bedroom.  The
explosion of roots had caught her squarely in the upper arm, nearly
ripping the limb completely from her body in the process.  Although the
pain of the wound throbed throughout her body, the only thing
occupying her mind now was revenge.  Revenge on a certain little spirit
guide named Botan for interupting her fun, destroying her room and
almost killing her.
    "I'm going to track down that blue-haired little bitch... and come hell
or high water she'll pay for this! By the gods... I swear you'll pay for
this!!"

    "Little boy..." Kagayaku snorted, brushing at one of the many
dapples of blood that polka-dotted her dress.  "I'm not afraid of a small
little fire demon.  So, to save time and your life, just get the hell out of
my way.  All I wanted was Kurama... "
   "Shut up, you," Hiei growled back, the heat of the Kokoryuha still
imbeded on his arm, radiating throughout the room.  Flickers of heat-
warped air rose between the two to shimmer thair vision, Hiei carefully
guarding the door to the hall behind him.  He could still sense the small
twinges of Yukina and Kurama's ki in the castle, winding quickly
through the halls as an exit was trying to be quickly found.
   "Little boy, do you think that you.. a man... could possibly posse any
satisfaction to another man?  You're just a worthless cause to his
suffering, adding into his pain with every second you stay with him."
   "I said shut up!"  Hiei crouched down closer to the ground, sheething
the double-edged katana into it's scabbard as the purple flames of the
Kokoryuha began to strengthen and threaten to overwhelm his control.
   "Dear little boy..."
   "Will you just shut up before I rip your tongue out?"
   "Seems I've struck a nerve!"  Kagayaku chuckled lowly to herself,
smiling seductively down to the fire demon.  "Come now, just think
about things for a minute here.  Kurama is a man... you're a man. 
There can be no attraction between the two of you.  He's best to be left
with me..."
   "So you can beat and torture him beyond his limits?" Hiei snarled
loudly, the black tatoo begining to slowly unwind from about his arm. 
"It doesn't matter if I'm a man or not... Kurama has feelings for me and
that's all I need."
   Kagayaku twirled around once in place, bellowing the layered dress
out around her, chuckling.  "Listen to yourself!  You actually believe
the man loves you!  Pathetic!"
   "I'll show you pathetic..." Hiei growled, the surprising calmness in his
voice echoing through the calculating, deadly force hidden behind his
eyes.  The red seeing eyes seemed to burn with their own fire, echoed
above by the sickly white-green glow of the jagan perched on his
forehead, furiously keeping the Kokoryuha under ward as long as hiei's
strength would allow.  "I have no compassion for any of your race..."
   "Ah yes, but remember... if you unleash your powers on me here, 
you too will be killed!"
   "That's what you think... I've absorbed my own techniques time and
time over..."
   The yosei smirked, taping the bamboo lash she still caried lightly on
the palm of her hand.  "Confident little bastard aren't you?"
   The small head of the black dragon tatoo twisted around through the
air, the last of the black, inky figure removing itself from the arm of the
Koorime fire demon before her.  Like an obediant guard dog, it snarled
and hissed back at the yosei, continuing to wind itself about, never
leaving the solitude of Hiei's arm.  The youkai master ran a finger
lightly over the head of the smoky, black figure, sparking off another
bout of snarling and hissing from the little, red-eyed dragon, Hiei
glaring menacingly back to the yosei.
   Kagayaku took a defensive step back when both pairs of red eyes laid
upon her, each as deadly as the other.  Perhaps she had bitten off more
than she could chew with this little one?  Despite the youkai's small
size, he harbored a great deal of energy, the surrounding you-ki
sparking and rising quickly as the black dragon slithered through the air
and about Hiei's arm and hands, like a snake charmer would a python.
   "This is your last breath, woman.  Enjoy it while you can.  I'd be
happy to visit you again in Yomatsu before you were sent to Hell..."

   Kurama's head flopped like a rag-doll's as Kuwabara bound down the
hall of the castle, carying the limb, beaten figure tightly in his arms. 
Blood still seeped from thatch-work wounds all over Kurama's face and
chest, running over his arms and down to rip through the fabric of his
silk, white pants.  Unconsciousness had been mercilessly tugging on his
mind, intensifying wounds and the severe concussion that still hung
through Kurama's head.
   As if the tall man could sense Kurama's pain, Kuwabara shifted his
burden, rolling Kurama's head up to lay on Kuwabara's thin shoulder,
resting against the fabric of the tatered, blue school uniform.
   Before him, Shizuru and Yukina lead the way, leading him and his
burden through the dizzying mazework of cooridors and doorways,
trying to find their way from the confines of the yosei home.
   "This is getting hopeless," Shizuru huffed before Kuwabara as she ran
in stride with Yukina.  "All these halls look the same..."
   "We need someone to guide us out," Yukina panted lightly beside
her.
   "Yukina-chan... that's an excellent idea!  I bet if we can just find one
of those damned fairies..."
   The group slid around another corner... right into the path of a small
child yosei, bouncing a small ball against the wall.  The little girl
seemed almost oblivious to the newcomers, giggling lightly to herself as
she bounced the ball.  Everything seemed perfectly fine until a tall
shadow loomed beside her.
   Slowly, the young yosei turned her head, large wild pink eyes laying
on the tall form of Shizuru towering above her, casting a menacing
shadow onto the child.  
   "Little girl..." Shizuru spoke softly.
   Without any heasitation, the young child screamed loudly, dropping
her ball to run, only to be caught quickly by Shizuru's strong grip.
  "Listen!"  she yelled above the screaming, trying to calm the child
down.  "Just tell us how to get out of here..."  
   The child screemed an ear-splitting scream, crumbling to the floor in
a tight ball, covering her face with her hands.
   "Geeze, 'neechan," Kuwabara snorted.  "You don't know how to
handle children!"
   "Oh, and YOU do, Kazu-chan?"
   Kuwabara puffed his chest out as he glanced to Yukina, and knelt to
the ground, gently laying Kurama's nearly unsonscious body on the
floor.  Gently, as carefully as he could, Kuwabara laid the young man
out before stepping over him to shoo his sister from the screaming kid. 
"Oi, little girl," he spoke softly, running a hand over her soft, blonde
hair.  
  The little body shook from the sobs but stopped screaming, the large,
shaking pink eyes peeking out from behind her hands.  They searched
up to Kuwabara's face and sniffed back a fresh batch of tears, still
cowering down at the floor.
   "Little girl, can you tell us how to get out of here?"
   The little yosei sniffed again, skooting back under Kuwabara's
shadow, putting his large frame between her and Shizuru.  A small hand
lifted to the wall, a glimmering sequence of yellow arrows etching
through on the white marble hall.
   "Follow the arrows?" Kuwabara asked.
   The little yosei noded slowly before taking up her ball and running
down the hall, dissappearing.
   "Hmph.. see?"  Kuwabara snorted vainly, turning to carefully lift
Kurama's body back into his strong arms.  "I just naturally have a way
with children, Shizuru!"
  "Yeah right... you still ARE a child, Kazu!"
   "HEY!"  he screateched.
   "Baka, shut up!" she hissed, swatting him on the arm and pointing to
Kurama.
   The human body of Minamino Shuuichi was almost unrecognisable
through the heavy lashing and beating he had suffered.  His face and
eyelids were swollen oddly red and puffy, contorting his perfect gentle
face to that of an almost hideous-looking monster, taking the place of
their friend.  The concusion he had suffered had begun to affect him,
turning the tender skin around his eyes to a deep blue, almost black in
parts from his brutalization.  They had to get him help fast, or get him
to a safe enough location where Yukina could properly tend to his
wounds.

   Yusuke and Keiko rushed quickly through the castle halls, the little
blue spirit pet fluttering along behind them, it's little blue ears flapping
in a pace to keep up.
   "Yusuke..." Keiko huffed, tugging on him to slow down.  "We have
to rest..."
   "No time for that!"  Yusuke snorted, swatting at Puu-chan as he flew
about to rest on top of Yusuke's head.  "If I know Hiei well enough,
he's got Kurama already... and Botan's most certainly found Koenma. 
We just need to get the hell out of here before anything else happens!"
   "Just... let me rest a bit."
   "Geeze, have you been eatting too much?  You're so out of shape...."
   "BAKA!  Shut up before I slap you!"  Keiko twisted up to her feet...
   Yusuke's eyes widened suddenly, a swift arm reaching out to herd
Keiko behind him roughly, little Puu nearly toppling off the top of
Yusuke's head in the process.  Snarling at them down the hall was one
of the yosei, a taller one with flowing purple hair that expertly framed
her face and shoulders.  She clutched at a tight band of blood-soaked
cloth on her arm tightly, stepping slowly and easily forward towards
them.
   "That's one of them, isn't it?"  Keiko whispered, peeking over
Yusuke's shoulder as Puu fluttered down to rest in her arms.
   "Murasaki..."
   The yosei snarled again, stepping up her pace quickly down the hall. 
"Human bastards, you'll all pay for this," the female voice snarled,
placing even more deadly force behind those words than Yusuke had
ever heard Hiei manage.
   Keiko took a deep breath, gathering herself as she lept from behind
Yusuke.  These yosei were afraid of outsider women, she could use this
to her advantage.
   "Keiko!!  You idiot, come back here!"
   Keiko stumbled down the hall a ways to confront the yosei, cuddling
Puu up to her chest as she did.  "You hold it right there!"
   "Silence woman!!"
   Yusuke watched in horror as the yosei lept forward, seemingly
uneffected by Keiko's femanine presence.  Murasaki reached out with
her good arm and grabbed the colar of Keiko's dress, easily flinging her
behind and down the hall to rocket down towards the far wall.
   "KEIKO!!!"

(c) October 1997 by Jiminy Cricket Presses