|
|
Post by Jilak on Sept 14, 2009 2:19:47 GMT -5
A portal appeared in the most peculiar of places. Which is saying something, considering that we're talking about an island in the middle of every dimension in existence. The thing about this particular portal is that it appeared underground, above the area known as the 'Hellhole'. A very short man fell out of it, face pointing towards the lava. He merely had a moment to blink(which is SAYING SOMETHING) before he was within the point that convection began to kick in. The cloak he was wearing lit fire, forcing him to yank it off. Underneath there was a sleeveless black shirt, a pair of black pants, and a pair of black shoes. Almost like a ninja. Or a stereotypical 'emo'.
He, quicker than even lightning, pulled out his sword. He proceeded to stab it into the closest thing he could. A rock wall. In the proceeding millisecond, he managed to flip himself to a nearly standing position, and use both his sword and legs to slow himself down. He proceeded to jump to an above ledge, managed to juuuust grab onto the edge of it. He was in a position that, say, if anyone were to fall out of another portal, they'd slam into him, and effectively toss the two into the below pit of lava, unless he or they were able to react quick enough.
His name was Hiei. And his day had actually just improved. At least he was away from the Spirit Guide.
|
|
|
|
Post by mugenginga on Sept 14, 2009 2:24:22 GMT -5
Portals weren't an uncommon thing on Dimension Island. Far from it, they were likely more common than filler episodes in anime. But two portals appearing within five feet of each other within seconds of each other? Yeah, not exactly common. And unfortunately for the blue-haired girl that fell from it, she was in her human shell. Which meant no oar. Which meant no flying. Which meant falling on top of Hiei.
Her name was Botan, and her arrival meant Hiei's day had gone from bad, to slightly better, to OMFGGETAWAYFROMMEWOMAN. As it were, she broke his grasp on the ledge.
|
|
|
|
Post by Jilak on Sept 14, 2009 2:34:55 GMT -5
Hiei had been entertaining a rather interesting though along the lines of 'how long would it take to melt Urameshi in a pit much like this one?', when his day had suddenly gone bad. Actually, 'bad' is an understatement. Not only had he just been crashed into by the last person he wanted to see today. But he'd also just been tossed off of the ledge, also known as THE ONLY THING KEEPING HIM FROM FALLING INTO A PIT OF LAVA OR ITS CONVECTION RANGE.
Yes. It deserved all those caps.
Contrary to popular belief, Hiei moving as fast as he did actually used energy. So he wasn't prepared to waste it saving the bloody spirit guide, oh no. He did, however, have a few words to exchange.
"OH, WHAT THE HELL? I LEAVE YOU ALONE FOR FIVE MINUTES AND YOU TRY TO KILL ME!" Hiei glared. Ironically, he'd been, yet again, turned upside down. In retrospect, glaring from that position was actually rather humorous.
Hiei had to look at his options, however. He could either die with the spirit guide, and probably be sent to his own personal hell where she was the only person in the entire world, or he could save himself. He chose the latter, of course. Unfortunately, his sword had been stuck in the above part of the cliff-face, out of his reach. So he chose the alternative. Grabbing on to the cliff-face and slowing his decent greatly. He intended to just leave the spirit guide to save herself or something, but...
That belt/cloth thing he wears around his waist? It was hanging behind him. As if his day couldn't have gotten worse. At the very least, he wasn't far enough in the convection range for it to catch fire.
|
|
|
|
Post by mugenginga on Sept 14, 2009 2:40:00 GMT -5
Botan was too busy freaking and grabbing at any possible save she could find to even really hear Hiei. The most it registered as was a rather annoyed yell, which actually made her think of Yuusuke more than Hiei, but the voice was all wrong. Despite her rapid thoughts, she managed to grab ahold of Hiei's belt. She didn't mean to inadvertently yank him backwards as she grabbed the loose cloth, but that would likely happen.
At least Hiei had managed to get near his sword. If she jerked him violently, he could grab it. And maybe she'd calm down enough to realize what the hell was going on. Maybe.
Actually, the logical thing to do would have been to chuck her shell and make do with her spirit form as said shell melted in the pit below. But panicking Botan and logical Botan never really went hand in hand... True of most people, but the assitant Reikai Tantei had almost made an art of it.
|
|
|
|
Post by Jilak on Sept 14, 2009 2:46:12 GMT -5
And pull him back it did. He wasn't even within arm's length of the rock wall, at this point. However, through sheer force of badassery, and maybe a bit of the Force, he managed to grab hold of his sword. He really wanted to just shake her off and leave her for dead, but that whole 'personal hell' thing still sent shudders up his spine. Hiei. Shudders. Usually means it's all hit the fan, though at this moment in time, it meant he found the assistant Reikai Tantei very. Very. Annoying.
"Answer me this," Hiei grunted, bringing up his right leg to attempt finding a center of balance, "You're an assistant Reikai Tantei. Where. The hell. Is your flying thing?" Hiei had been around long enough to know that an assistant Reikai Tantei should be able to fly. Else, y'know, they wouldn't be very good at the whole, 'rawr, I'm death', thing.
They'd also be alive.
|
|
|
|
Post by mugenginga on Sept 14, 2009 2:51:26 GMT -5
"Hiei...?" she looked up at the voice and her eyes got wide, "What are you doing here!? Don't tell me..." she paused and looked at the lava, "Uh... right. Thing is, I've only got the one human form. Don't tell me you've gotten into some kind of fight and are out of energy!"
"Wait, you don't know I can't fly in human form, do you? Well I can't! And it'll be hard to interact without it!"
Perhaps this wasn't the best way to express confidence in Hiei's abilities to get them out of there. It came across an awful lot like criticism, it did. But what she was really thinking was that if he still had energy, he should be able to boost his speed with a vault and land them on the lower area a few feet behind them. She just didn't say it clearly or in the best way.
And what she outright wasn't saying is that if she lost her human form, Koenma would probably rage. She'd had to deal with his freak outs for a week now. She didn't want to deal with more of those, at the rate the prince of the Reikai was going, King Enma was going to rage. King Enma rage = bad news for Japan.
|
|
|
|
Post by Jilak on Sept 14, 2009 3:01:10 GMT -5
Hiei's face contorted into an expression of RAGE for a moment. Was the assistant Reikai Tentai actually doubting his abilities? Did she not see how he'd totally saved her life two seconds ago? Unintentionally, but still. Letting go of the rock wall, and his sword, was starting to look like a veeeery good idea.
But, in the end, he personified his rage by kicking the wall. Which, in some rather helpful bout of irony, propelled he and Botan towards the other wall, which had a rather stable looking area, well out of the convection point. He tossed his hands out, sliding down the giant area of rock, landing on the area. He gets a ten in agility. Oh yeah.
"Remind me again why I haven't killed you yet."
|
|
|
|
Post by mugenginga on Sept 14, 2009 3:05:03 GMT -5
Botan paled a bit at Hiei's expression, and clamped onto his belt rather tightly as he launched onto the small platform. Despite her color returning when he landed, she paled even more at his thinly veiled threat.
"Because you'd be in trouble again?" it didn't sound very confident, and as she let go of his belt she tried to change the topic, "Also, why haven't you found Yuusuke yet? What was that comment about five minutes? You've been gone for days! Koenma-sama doesn't even have an office anymore for all the paperwork!"
Maybe she was a little too comfortable around Hiei. After all, none of the others were around. Koenma had made it clear he didn't know exactly what was going on in this world, so if he killed her... she swallowed hard as that thought crossed her mind. Yeah, she looked nervous.
|
|
|
|
Post by Jilak on Sept 14, 2009 3:11:43 GMT -5
"Tsk. 'Trouble'. You state it as if I should be afraid of being tossed back into that prison." Hiei replied, waving his hand.
However, he didn't exactly object to the change of subject. It was making him oddly uncomfortable. As if he knew Yuusuke would utterly obliterate him if he actually went through with killing her.
"I was here a total of 30 seconds, with the portal taking at least 4 and a half minutes to get me here. Don't you people have clocks?" Hiei's question was, of course, accompanied by an eye-roll.
"I haven't found him because I just GOT HERE. I don't see you pulling him out of that pony tail of yours, either."
|
|
|
|
Post by mugenginga on Sept 14, 2009 3:14:02 GMT -5
"Wait, minutes?"
Botan looked around. She wouldn't have guessed it by any means. Although it did explain his reaction. Not really the missing cloak of his, but his reaction yes. One could almost see the lightbulb appear over her head as her eyes got wide.
"Oohhhh," the tone of voice matched the other indications. She had just figured something out.
|
|
|
|
Post by Jilak on Sept 14, 2009 3:21:24 GMT -5
"Oh? You were nearly melted in a pit of lava and the only thing you can say is 'oh'? Are you sure you didn't hit your head when we landed?" Hiei asked, making a rather "0_o" face. He'd made one before, actually. In the anime, after the Dark Tournament arc, when Yuusuke felt like beating up Kuwabara for faking his death. But that's neither here nor there.
"Does your sudden lack of ineptness explain why the Reikai needed my help?"
|
|
|
|
Post by mugenginga on Sept 14, 2009 3:25:01 GMT -5
Botan seemed to be getting some courage back over not being mauled earlier. She got a rather well known face among men. The annoyed female face, "No, I just figured out the time issue. This world must have a different time flow. I wonder if Koenma-sama knows that..." she paused, "Jee, if a few minutes here is a few days in the Ningenkai... oh..."
It was likely Hiei had hit upon the same thought thanks to her speech. She had stumbled upon the erroneous misconception that the island's time flow was fixed, meaning it could have been years since Yuusuke had vanished. That wasn't exactly good... she wasn't good at quick math but it was even possible Yuusuke was dead from age. She paled as the thought dawned on her.
|
|
|
|
Post by Jilak on Sept 14, 2009 3:29:26 GMT -5
"...then it's possible that Urameshi has passed on." Hiei paused for a moment, a very brief moment. In this moment, he actually appeared rather remorseful. It soon passed, however.
"Ah, well, I'm sure this world's spirit guide took care of him. Now how exactly is the Reikai going to send me back to the Makai, if they can't even reach this place? I suppose this world's version would suffice." Oh yes. Hidden agenda for the win.
|
|
|
|
Post by mugenginga on Sept 14, 2009 3:33:33 GMT -5
Botan looked like she was about to cry, but shook her head quickly at Hiei's next comment. While she had more than a few snide comments running through her head, he had a point. If Yuusuke was alive, the Reikai would know. She concentrated for a moment, and her face went blank it that moment.
It was probably a good thing Hiei was a yokai as her human form went limp and collapsed, her spirit form rising out of it. She was wearing her usual pink kimono as she sat atop her oar. Her eyes got wide again and she turned to Hiei.
"Um... you're not gonna believe this... but I'm not sensing a Reikai..."
And that left one of two options. One, the Reikai was rather strongly guarded here and didn't like "invaders", or two... this world had no Spirit Realm. Both were a little disconcerting, especially the latter. No Reikai inplied that there was no Makai...
|
|
|
|
Post by Jilak on Sept 14, 2009 3:38:43 GMT -5
And then there was a brief second when Hiei went silent. He had no response, at this moment in time. Thoughts were running through his head like rush hour in New York. Which is a very, very, bad thing. In any city, rush hour is-MOVING RIGHT ALONG.
"...remind me again. Why I haven't killed you and all of your loved ones as you sleep." Hiei inquired of Botan, slowly reaching for his sword. Slowly.
This does, however, bring up the question of how death on the island is possible.
|
|
