Fire & Ice II



Chapter 4 : Frozen In Ice




Yuusuke was bored. He stared dully at the flickering television screen as his 
fingers danced over the remote control. Sitting beside him, Kuwabara was reading 
his favourite shonen Jump manga. Their attention was caught when the door to the 
apartment opened and a rather bedraggled Kurama limped into the room. 
" What happened to you?" 
" Hiei threw me off the side of a building." 
He straightened slightly in his seat. " I could have sworn you just said…" 
" Hiei threw me off the side of a building." Kurama sank into the only 
unoccupied chair with a sigh. He ached in places he did not even knew existed. 
" What did you *say* to him?" Kuwabara asked curiously. 
" I asked him how he was doing." 
" He must be having a *really* bad day." The big human looked cheerful at the 
prospect. 
Yuusuke switched off the television set with a sharp flick. " Are you sure he 
didn’t mistaken you for Kuwabara?" Comparing his tall, clumsy friend to the 
slim, graceful human-youko, he shrugged. " Alright, maybe not. He might be 
having a temper tantrum." 
" Ten-storeys is not a temper tantrum, it’s murder. The only reason I’m not 
splattered on the pavement is that I managed to change into a youko before I 
reached the ground floor. " Even then, he had left a sizeable dent in the 
concrete. His shoulder twitched in pain just thinking about it. 
Yuusuke winced in sympathy. " I guess we need to have a *long* talk with Hiei." 
" I’ll go with you. Just give me a few minutes to change." 
Pausing in the hallway, Kurama stopped and turned back to look at them. " The 
strangest thing about it was that Hiei looked at me like he was seeing me for 
the first time. He actually asked me who I was." 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Hiei’s tracks were ridiculously easy to find. He had not bothered to hide them 
or to confuse anyone who might be following. More strange behaviour from a 
youkai whose survival instincts had been honed to a fine edge in the years after 
he was unceremoniously tossed out of the ice demons’ floating city. 
They followed his child-size footprints to the edge of a small lake, not far 
from where Yuusuke’s sledding mishap had occurred. 
" He must have crossed over to the other side. I’ll go see if I can find his 
trail." With that, Kuwabara jogged away. 
Even though it had not snowed since the night of the exhibition, a layer of 
dirty white ice covered the lake surface. Yuusuke was about to put his foot on 
it when Kurama pulled him back and pointed towards a half-covered sign. 
" - NGER. Thin Ice." 
Kuwabara ran up to them, puffing slightly from the exertion. " I couldn’t find 
anything," he panted. 
Frustrated, Kurama looked around. There were no convenient nearby trees that 
Hiei could have used, just some bushes and shrubbery. He kicked at a mound of 
snow - where could Hiei have gone? 
Something small and glittering caught his eye. Bending down, he brushed the snow 
away and uncovered the rest. His breath caught in his throat and for the first 
time since this all begun, he felt a rush of fear for the fire demon. 
" It’s Hiei’s tear gem." He might have forgotten Kurama, the others or even 
Yukina, but he would have never left the tear gem behind. Though he had often 
denied it, it represented his only link to his family. He would have never 
voluntarily left it behind. 
" Kurama," Yuusuke’s voice was filled with urgency. His bare hand was flattened 
against the clouded surface of the lake. 
It was a trace of youki; so faint they might have easily missed it. Not the 
dark, swirling fire of their team mate’s but colder, like ice - almost like 
Yukina’s. 
" An ice demon?" 
" Would they come all the way to the Ningenkai to hunt the forbidden child?" 
" I don’t know." He prayed to anyone who was listening to keep Hiei alive. " He 
can’t be dead." He would have *felt* something. A memory stirred at the back of 
his mind. " Nuryko." 
" Huh?" 
" He had been using his Jagan to find something…or someone - Nuryko. I’m sure 
she has something to do with all this." 
Yuusuke looked thoughtful. " I bet Koenma would know." He grinned in a menacing 
way. " We might have to twist his arm a little, but I’m sure we’ll be able to 
get it out of him." 
Kurama gazed at the tear gem in his hand. 
Hiei could *not* be dead. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Nuryko watched her mirror, smiling slightly. Those pitiful humans, running 
around blindly. They would *never* get him back. He was hers, now and forever. 
She returned her thoughts to the humans; the three she had labelled the Fox, the 
Fool and the Dark-Hair. 
It amused her to see them try, even if their efforts were hopeless. The Fox had 
found the small pebble that Hiei had thrown away. He was good - slightly more 
devious than the others. Also, Hiei had the strongest attachment to him, next to 
his twin. She wondered if she should kill him, just to be sure - but it was not 
worth the trouble. Besides, she had Hiei and he had…nothing. 
Turning, she handed the mirror to the fire demon. " What do you see?" she asked 
him sweetly. 
Hiei stared at the polished glass surface. The three were leaving the lake where 
he had crossed over to Nuryko’s territory in the Makai. He felt nothing for 
them, not the slightest spark of interest. 
He was cold, like a great lump of ice had settled in his chest. Ice frosted his 
spiky black hair and his lips were turning blue from the chill. 
" Who are they?" he asked Nuryko. 
His answer pleased her. Laughing, she threw her arms around his waist. " Oh, 
Hiei! You truly are mine. I will keep you forever." 
Her words chilled him further. 




Chapter 5 : Nuryko




Koenma fell off his chair as soon as they mentioned name ‘Nuryko’. 
" Are you sure?" he asked, wiping the sweat from his brow. To himself, he 
muttered, " Oh, this is bad. This is very bad." 
" Then you know who she is?" Kurama said eagerly. 
" Nuryko is an ice demon. She has a small territory in the northern regions of 
the Makai. She came to my father’s attention when she murdered one of our Reikai 
detectives. The poor man was just passing through after completing a mission but 
she turned him into a block of ice anyway." 
Looking up, he yelled, " George, where the file on Nuryko?" 
" On your desk, sir." As he flipped open the folder, they all crowded around 
him. 
Nuryko bore more than a passing resemblance to Yukina. Both possessed the same 
small stature and ice-blue coloured hair though hers was of a lighter shade. Her 
pale blue eyes looked as if they had been chipped from an icicle. Kurama was 
quite sure she had never felt anything deeper than the greedy possessiveness 
etched into her features. 
" She has this…umm…*fixation* for fire demons. Hiei isn’t the first one she’s 
enchanted. There have been eight others, some of them S-class youkais." 
" Aren’t fire demons and ice demons suppose to be enemies?" 
" Generally, yes. There have been exceptions however." He gave them a meaningful 
look. 
Of course, Hiei and Yukina. 
" What happened to the other fire demons?" That was the only that mattered in 
Kurama’s mind - the Koorime’s safety. Koenma looked even grimmer as he replied : 

" They died." 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Back in Shuuichi’s apartment, Kurama pored over the file Koenma had given them, 
searching for *anything* that might help Hiei. By the time he reached the last 
page, he felt as if the hope had been sucked out of him. 
Nuryko was, for lack of a better term, pretty much insane. Her obsession with 
fire had led her to imprison her victims in an elaborate spell that would 
finally kill them. She never *intended* for any of them to die but in her greed, 
she had forgotten or chosen to ignore the most elementary rule. 
Fire and ice do not mix. 
The spell she had used on Hiei was slowly leeching the warmth and youki from his 
body. A sliver of ice was wrapped heart like a giant fist, gradually crushing 
his very spirit. It was only a matter of time before he froze to death in 
Nuryko’s icy fortress. 
" We can’t let him die there," he told the others. 
" Yes!" Kuwabara shouted, lifting his fist to the ceiling. Then, almost as if he 
was embarrassed by his enthusiasm, he muttered a bit sheepishly, " I don’t like 
the little shrimp very much, but we’ve been through a lot. I’m not going to 
leave him in her clutches!" 
Kurama grinned and reached into his pocket to finger the tear gem that Hiei had 
left behind. His smile faded slightly as he considered the risks of their rescue 
mission. They might not return alive - Nuryko was both powerful and insane, an 
explosive mix. Hiei, heaven forbid, might already be dead. 
Perhaps it was time for the truth to be told. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

She knew something was wrong. The feeling had grown, over the course of a few 
days, to a nagging ache in her heart. It had to do with her brother - she knew 
that with a certainty that only twins shared. The feeling of helplessness was 
familiar. It seemed she could do nothing to protect him from the danger she 
sensed. 
A brief knock on the door distracted her from her musings. When she went to 
answer it, she saw that it was Kurama. She had never seen him look so grave and 
serious. 
" Kurama-san, what brings you here at such a late hour?" 
He did not say anything but instead held up a simple leather thong and at the 
end of it hung a single, perfect tear gem. 
A shocked gasp escaped her as she brought her hand up to the neck of her kimono 
where her own identical gem was hidden. Her eyes filled with tears…how long she 
had searched… 
" Yukina, I have to tell you something." 
She immediately stepped aside to allow him entry. " I know. Thank you, 
Kurama-san…for bringing him back to me." She touched his arm with a faint smile. 

" I’ve waited for this moment all my life." 




Chapter 6 : Memories




" You can’t be serious!" Yuusuke stared at the pair, his voice incredulous. " 
Yukina, this is dangerous mission. You might be hurt…killed." 
Kurama merely shrugged - he would get no support there. Yukina sat stiffly 
beside him with her hands folded neatly on her lap. Seeing the stubborn look in 
her eyes, Yuusuke realised there was more of Hiei in his twin that any of them 
had ever suspected. 
" He is my brother. One way or the other, I *will* go with you," she sounded 
adamant. 
They had been arguing this matter for almost two hours and he was tired. None of 
his arguments had swayed her from her resolution to follow them to rescue Hiei. 
It seemed there was no way he could stop her unless he trussed her up and locked 
her in her room. 
Yeah, he thought, and then Kuwabara will pound me into the ground and Kurama 
will summon one of his Makai plants to digest me slowly. 
He let out a long sigh of defeat. 
" Alright, Yukina." 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Numb. 
That was all that he felt, a cold sense of detachment as if he had been carved 
from the dead, unfeeling stone. He pressed a hand to his chest - the only 
affirmation he had of the fact he was still alive was the faintest beat of his 
heart. 
Nuryko watched him from her mirror whenever he ventured to explore her icy 
fortress. He knew he should be planning an escape of some sort, that whatever 
she was doing to him was slowly but surely draining the life from his body. But 
strangely enough, the thought of dying evoked nothing but a vague interest. He 
could not even summon the necessary emotion of fear. He felt…nothing.
When he entered the throne room, he found Nuryko bent over her mirror, watching 
with hungry eyes the going-ons in the Ningenkai. She never spoke of it but Hiei 
sensed that she was envious of them - of the constant interaction they had with 
other members of their species. 
Here, in the frozen wasteland of her home, Nuryko had no one. He wished he could 
pity her, but her enchantment had robbed him of even that.
As he came up behind her, he saw briefly her reflection in the glassy surface of 
her looking-glass. He reached out a hand to touch it - curious.
" You’re not an ice demon."
At the sound of his voice, her face brightened with a smile. " Hiei!" She threw 
her cold arms around his waist. 
As he stared down at the icy-blue head pillowed against his chest, a faint 
memory stirred at the back of his mind. It was like trying to see through a 
thick mist - a small, gentle form with crimson eyes like his own. He had loved 
her once…a long time ago. Just the memory of that emotion caused his heart to 
contract in pain as the sliver of ice sank its cold claws deeper into his soul. 
He fingered the blue locks. " Yukina…" 
With a gasp, Nuryko shoved away from him. She was trembling with rage. " How 
dare you think about *her* ?" 
Hiei blinked as the memory receded. " Nani?" 
Nuryko strode towards the huge chest behind her throne where she kept her most 
precious belongings. She was so incensed - after all the spells she had woven to 
steal his memories, how could he still recall that dull little creature? 
Throwing the lid open, she reached for her newest prize - a crystalline snow 
flake of such beauty and complexity, it would have robbed even the most jaded 
observer of his breath. This was where she had kept Hiei’s stolen memories. 
But now he stared at it in her hands, unmoved. For some inexplicable reason, 
that enraged her even more. 
" You want your precious Yukina?" she shrieked at him. Lifting the crystal high 
above her head, she threw it down at his feet where it shattered into a thousand 
glittering pieces. " There," she hissed vengefully, "see if you can find her 
now." 
Hiei waited until she had left before he knelt down and picked up a broken 
shard. The sharp edges of it cut into his fingers and a single drop of blood 
fell to the ground. He watched as it froze into a tiny red bead. Another image 
came to him; a human with laughing green eyes and swirling red hair. Over his 
ningen features, he glimpsed the silvery fur and teasing golden eyes of a youko. 

Another name came unbidden to his lips. 
" Kurama…"