Pirates of the Makai

Pirates of the Makai
Part Seven

Long ago in ancient misted times, there was this obscure religious sect, no one knew where they originally came from or why they left, but it was said that they brought an unimaginable treasure with them. It was said to have been given to them by God or a god. Ever jealous with their treasure, the leader’s had their monastery as a fortress. But that wasn’t where it ended. In time the leaders became even more jealous with the treasure, to the point that they no longer trusted their own followers to share it. They became insanely paranoid, believing that every soul was out to steal their treasure. They began executing men right and left.

The faithful became frightened of their leaders and sought to flee the castle. But Maze Castle was a labyrinth of death traps, guarded by curses and monstrous creatures of myth. Intruders couldn’t get in, and the residents couldn’t get out. Only the Makai Whistle, which was held by the supreme leader, could control the monsters and allow for safe passage. But he would not let people leave, for the fear they would sell the secrets of Maze Castle.

One night the supreme leader’s handmaid, Murugu, stole the whistle and gave it to a young faithful in hopes that he could escape and find help. What became of him is unknown, but it is assumed he did escape, otherwise how did the whistle get out of Maze Castle?

After that, the girl Murugu was sentenced to death. They tied her to a lighting rod at the top of the highest tower right before a storm. The Great Storm! It was during that same storm that the castle was swallowed by the sea. Some say it was because the immense structure was too heavy to be held up by the soggy land. Other’s say it was the wrath of their god, angry with the leaders for their mad greed. Some still say the whole thing was just a fairytale. But the men aboard the Den of Pleasures believed Maze Castle to be real. They were going there, but without the map or Makai Whistle. Only The memories of the two who had carried it and luck would serve to guide them through.

Hiei had ordered the men to drop anchor in a stretch of brilliant sparking, blue ocean between two long strips of white sandy banks.. Kuwabara stood with his hand raised to block out the bright sun, scanning the seemingly endless ocean. “Uh, I hate to tell you this Shorty, but I think you’ve got your directions mixed up. There ain’t nothing here.”

“I’ve been studying that map for years, you cretin,” Hiei said, “This most defiantly the right place.”

“So what, is it underwater or something?” Kuwabara responded indignantly.

“That is it precisely,” Kurama interjected, “If you knew the ledged Kuwabara, you’d know that.”

“Well how are we supposed to raid a castle that’s under water?” Kuwabara exclaimed, “I don’t have gills ya know!”

“Only the entrance is underwater,” Yukina said approaching the group. “Supposedly there is air inside.”

“Oh hey, baby! I didn’t see you there,” Kuwabara grinned and scratched the back of his head.

Yukina spared him a smile before she continued, “In the time when the castle still stood, these waters were protected by fierce mermaids. It was said that any whom dared enter these waters unbidden would be attacked, dragged off their ships and drown.”

“No kidding? And here I thought it was such a nice looking stretch of ocean,” Yusuke drawled, “I guess a swim is out.”

“That was then,” Yukina amended, “When the old masters of Maze Castle ordered them to do so with the Makai Whistle. Those orders became mute the moment the old masters lost the whistle. Ideally we planned to use it to summon the mermaids and order them to help us to the entrance, but now….”

“I have a plan-B,” Hiei stepped in.

“You mean you’ve found a substitute for the Makai Whistle?” Yusuke asked excitedly.

“Not exactly,” Hiei shrugged.

“Then, you’ve thought of another way to summon a mermaid?” Kurama said interestedly. “How?”

Hiei answered, “You ever hear that old superstition; a mermaid will save a drowning virgin?”

“Wait, are mermaids even real?” Kuwabara frowned, “And if they were, where you gonna find the virgin?”

Yusuke, Kurama, Hiei and Yukina all stared at Kuwabara. Next thing the he knew he was tied up and sputtering in the cool blue waters off the starboard side of the ship. Kurama called out to him, “Sorry about this Kuwabara, but you were the only one onboard who fit the bill!”

Kuwabara yelled, “I’m gonna get you guys for this if it’s the last thing I-- gluuppp!”

“I think you’re really brave for doing this-- even if you weren‘t given a choice,” Yukina called into her cupped hands.

“Yukina! You can’t let them-- gluupp-- do this! There ain’t no such thing as mermaids! You gotta-- gluuuppp!” Water filled his mouth as he sunk under the waves. Deeper, deeper he sunk until the water’s around him grew murky-- or was that just his vision blurring from lack of oxygen? His mind felt kind of foggy. For a second he thought a large shadow passed over him, a shark? Great that was all he need. Something touched him. It didn’t feel like a shark. It felt like… hands? Human hands? Suddenly slender arms gripped him around his chest and in the next second he found himself shooting to the surface at speeds that no human could swim.

Not a moment too soon he was at the surface, breathing in the fresh salty air. Then, “Ahoy here!” A chipper young woman’s voice called from behind him. She was calling to the slack jawed men onboard the Den of Pleasures. “You dropped something!”

She was pretty, with an elfin face, big pink hued eyes and hair as blue as the sea. Kuwabara glanced down, “Mermaid!”

She bent her bright pink tail up to examine it, flicked it a few times, “Why, so I am!” She laughed, “My name’s Botan.”

“Ha! It worked,” Yusuke cheered, “Hey mermaid lady, I got a question for ya. How did you know he was virgin?”

“He’s a virgin?” The mermaid tipped her head, “I just noticed him because he was yelling so much. Oh, are you referring to those silly old wives tales?”

“Yeah. So mermaids don’t rescue people just because their virgins; like him.”

“Of course not.” she replied, “And anyhow how am I supposed to tell if a person is a virgin or not-- especially if it’s a male virgin like him?”

“You jerks could have killed me!” Kuwabara shouted, “And can we stop saying I’m a virgin every two seconds?!”

They lowered a hook and hauled him back up by his ropes. Meanwhile Hiei addressed the mermaid, “Are you familiar with a place called Maze Castle?”

“Of course, though it’s funny you asked.”

“Why’s that?”

“My friend Hinageishi was just summoned a few days ago-- with the Makai Whistle of all things! I thought that thing was put away for good. It was five men wishing to go to Maze Castle,” she informed him, “Well five men and a bird. And one of them was all tied up-- one of the men, not the bird. ”

Hiei cursed, “Damn, they beat us here.”

“And they have Koenma with them,” Yusuke gasped.

“But where are the ships? Kuwabara asked.

“They went that way,” The mermaid named Botan pointed toward that horizon, “Hinageishi couldn’t take them all at once, so they told their men to take the ships and come back in a week.”

“I image they’ll need that time,” Hiei smirked He reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of torn parchment, the same one he brandished when he announced they would be going to Maze Castle. He unfolded it, Kurama and Yusuke looked over his shoulder. Kuwabara joined them once he was untied. On it was a list numbered one through four. Hiei explained, “They don’t have this. I ripped this off the main map, just in case I was betrayed or had the map stolen from me. You see, Maze Castle is actually four mazes, set one inside of another like rings of a tree. This describes the four mazes and hints as to how to bypass them unscathed.”

“Suzaku and the others can’t get through the mazes, then?” Yusuke asked.

“They can, but not easily,” Hiei shook his head, “It would have taken them days to get through, and that’s if they survive the traps.”

“Traps!?” Yusuke freaked, remembering that they did have Koenma with them.

“Uh, yeah, don’t think about it.”” Hiei drawled. Then to Botan, “Mermaid, can you take us to Maze Castle?”

“Yes,” she answered. She sat there in the waster for a long moment, sharing vaguely at them.

Kurama added diplomatically, “Um, will you take us there… like now.”

“Oh of course,” she giggled, “Everyone who’s coming, get in a rowboat and cast off. I‘ll be right back.” Kurama, Kuwabara, Yusuke and Hiei, decided that they would go, leaving Toya to take command over the company and ship. In a short amount of time the four boarded a rowboat. By the time they’d lowered the boat, Botan had returned with two other mermaids. One was a lovely pale woman with midnight black hair. The other had bright red hair and a face like a nine year old girl, but the slight swell of her exposed breast told that she was older. Botan introduced them respectively, “This is Ayamei and Hinageishi. They’re gonna be helping me transport you to Maze Castel today.”

“Please keep your hands, feet, and other body parts in the boat at all times,” Hinageishi told them.

“Do not stand up while the boat is in motion,” Ayamei added, “Remain in your seat at all times.”

“You know they’re being awfully cooperative, not even asking what‘s in it for them,” Yusuke whispered, “Are you guys sure this isn’t some kind of trick?”

“They live on another level from us,” Kurama told him. “To them helping another is not a favor that requires payment. It is as natural as the water they swim in.”

“That and they’re not particularly bright,” Hiei added.

“Uh guys?” Kuwabara called with alarm.

The mermaids were circling their tiny vessel like hungry sharks, swimming faster and faster until a whirlpool formed around them. The little boat started to lazily spin with the moving water. Faster and the men onboard started to get dizzy. Then all at once, the ocean seemed to drop out from under them. The boat fell several feet straight down. The men saw the water like walls rushing past them as they fell. The tops of those walls as if weak, fell in over them. The four cried out thinking the masses of water was about to crush them, but it didn’t! The water fell and was stopped a few inches over their heads as if intercepted by an invisible ceiling.

They stopped dropping. The mermaids swam over them, under them and round them in no perceivable pattern. Yusuke looked around and realized that they were very deep down, trapped in a great bubble of air. If it bursts…. The men were jarred by a forward momentum as the ship started to move.

“Hey look, fishes!” Kuwabara pointed to a school of tropical yellow fish, “Man, too bad we don’t got Yukina with us, she would have loved this.”

“Might I remind you of the dangerous situation we’re heading into?” Hiei asked tersely.

“I know that, Shrimp-boat,” Kuwabara snapped, “I was just thinking she’d like the view and maybe when this whole thing is over, I’ll ask one of these mermaids to take us on an undersea tour, that’s all. It sure would be a romantic date.”

“Hn,” Hiei huffed as if he found the whole motion distasteful.

Kuwabara boiled and then shouted, “Hey, you might as well let her date someone, since you won’t touch her. Yeah, she told me all about it-- not that I mind. She’s way too good and pretty and stuff for you anyway. But what’s with that anyway?”

Hiei sneered, “I paid for her. I can do whatever I want with her-- including not doing anything.”

“Then why pay for her at all,” Yusuke mused absently. When Hiei’s glare shifted on him, he waved his hands in surrender, “But hey, it’s your money you can do whatever you want with it, no matter how inexplicable it is.” He caught Kurama smirking. Did he know something about what was between Hiei and Yukina?

Kuwabara pointed and exclaimed, “Hey look at that!”

“What more fish?” Yusuke turned to look where he was pointing. Then gasped, it wasn’t fish. They were headed toward an immense skull as big as a house. Its jaws were yawed opened was if in a nightmarishly silent scream. And they were headed straight for it, straight for the unimaginable darkness of that monstrous mouth!

“That’s the entrance,” Kurama said soberly.

Yusuke swallowed, “No going back now.” Hold on Koenma. I’m coming.
* * *
“I don’t like the way this looks,” Kuwabara grunted as he climbed out of the boat. The mermaids had taken them through a long dark underwater tunnel. They surfaced in a tiny pool at the end of what looked like a long, long stone corridor. It was lit, by small flames burning in recesses set every some odd yards. Did Suzaku’s bunch light them?

“It’s just a hallway,” Yusuke shrugged it off.

“Yeah, right,” Kuwabara sneered, “I don’t buy that for a minute. It’s too quiet and harmless looking and stuff. I bet this place is loaded with traps.”

“No just one,” the little mermaid, Hinageishi said from the water, “The whole ceiling is designed to drop down and slowly crush anyone under it.”

“What!? We can’t get through that,” Yusuke howled at her.

“Oh don’t worry. It won‘t fall.” She brushed him off, “the briny seawater rusted those mechanisms long ago. It would take a colossal shock to get them to move now.”

“A word of warning,” Ayamei told them grimly. “Take as much gold and jewels as you like, but touch not the holy treasure that is the center of Maze Castle.”

Then Botan added in a cheerful chirp, “Well good luck! Bye-bye.”

With that the three mermaids dove into the water and swam away.

“Uh, guys how are we gonna get back?” Kuwabara muttered.

“We’ll worry about that when the time comes,” Hiei said seriously, “For now we have a much larger task ahead of us.”

They started off down the hall at a brisk pace, hoping the mermaid had been right about it only being protected by one jammed trap. Yusuke touched the pistol at his side. One of Kuwabara’s men had given it to him. They offered him a sword, but he declined it. He was never much with a sword, but he was pretty good with a shot. Oh it wouldn’t help him against hidden death traps, but it made him feel better to have it all the same.

Kurama was walking beside him, Kuwabara to his rear and Hiei lagging behind almost somberly. Yusuke noticed that he seemed… tenser since they left the Den of Pleasures. Maybe it was because he was so close to the treasure of Maze Castle now, the treasure that he had surly been lusting after for years, the treasure that would buy Yukina her freedom.

“Hey Kurama,” Yusuke leaned over and whispered to the redhead, “What is the deal between Yukina and Hiei anyway? I mean their relationship doesn’t make any sense.”

“I’m sure it makes perfect sense, if you know the whole story,” Kurama whispered back.

“So you don’t know?” Yusuke was so sure that he knew.

“I know more than most, but I’m still puzzling out the big picture,” Kurama shook his head, “I remember hearing about Hiei, before I met him. A brash upstart, whose notoriety was growing so fast even the seasoned members of our profession were starting to fear him. He was known for his viciousness, cold-heartedness, and oddly enough, an affinity for visiting whore houses.

“Oh he was no womanizer. In fact, I suspect that the fairer sex does nothing for him. He would go into an establishment, maybe have a drink, look around and then leave. He never went back to the same one twice. It was like he was looking for something particular or….”

“Someone particular,” Yusuke finished for him, “He was looking for Yukina? He knew her from before she became a… you know?” Was she his childhood sweetheart or something?

Kurama gave him a non-committal shrug. “He stopped doing it shorty before he found Yukina.”

“But if he stopped before, how did he find her?” Yusuke was puzzled.

“The Jagan Eye.”

“The Jagan Eye! But--but only a handful have ever survived the Jagan Eye.” Yusuke protested. The Jagan Eye is but another one of a thousand legends of the Makai Sea. It was a supposedly a paradise island were the waters were always full of fish, the trees full of fruit, the game plentiful. But it was near impossible to get to because it was in the middle of a stretch of ocean that was forever turbulent with thunderclouds and tidal waves. It was tranquil paradise at the eye of and eternal storm. And on this island lived the powerful witchdoctor Shigure.

“Hiei did,” Kurama told him, “And he met the witchdoctor Shigure.”

“And he helped him?” Yusuke asked.

“The doctor requires more than just surviving the journey, before he renders his services. He has to hear a person’s life story. If he doesn’t find it interesting,” Kurama made a dismissive gesture. He glanced back at Hiei, “He must have had a good story. The doctor blessed him, gave him a power. Promised him that he may not always find what he wants, but he will find what he needs. ”

“And it worked?” Yusuke asked half skeptically, half intrigued.

“The very next brothel Hiei walked into was Koorime House.”

“Wow that’s….”

“What are you two whispering about up here,” Hiei suddenly popped up between them, “I keep hearing something that sounds suspiciously like my name. Are you talking about me?”

“We might be,” Kurama smiled coquettishly.

Hiei opened his mouth, no doubt to voice some threat or another. He never got the words out because just then there was a loud boom that seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere at once. And the walls shook with so much force that they barely stayed on there feet. It stopped as suddenly as it started.

Yusuke breathed, “What was that?”

There was a loud crack then, followed by the sound of stone sliding over stone. Kurama looked up and exclaimed, “The ceiling! That quake must have jarred it loose. It’s falling-- run!”

They ran as hard as they could. They could just see the end of the tunnel and salvation. Just as he thought they were going to make it, Yusuke tripped on a loose flagstone and fell. The others ran on, not noticing that he’d fallen behind. He was done for. He squeezed his eyes shut and waited for the ceiling to crush him.

“Yusuke!” Yusuke opened his eyes and saw Hiei drive under the sinking ceiling toward him. He had to know full well that he’d never have the time to crawl back out again.

“Hiei!” Yusuke gasped, “I love you!”

Hiei grasped Yusuke by the shoulders and kissed him hard and gasped. “I-- ouch!”

The next second Yusuke found himself being violently dragged across the stone floor. The ceiling scraped his back as it slowly compressed him. And then he was out. He realized then what had caused Hiei to cry out. The end of a long whip was coiled around his ankle. The other end was in Kurama’s hand. Kuwabara was holding onto the middle, helping him haul on it and pull them out.

Hiei sat up, untwining the whip from his ankle, “Where were you hiding that, Kurama?”

Kurama smirked. “Secret.”

Yusuke could only gawk at Hiei, “Hiei, you… you came back for me, knowing… you were gonna--”

“I wasn’t thinking,” Hiei cut him off shrewdly, “A momentary lapse--”

“You were gonna say something,” a grin spread over Yusuke’s features, “After I said I loved you.” A blush spread over the petite pirate’s face. Yusuke’s grin grew impossibly broader. “You cutie!” Yusuke dove on Hiei, flatting him to the ground. He kissed Hiei until he quit struggling. With a sigh that was half resignation, half hunger, he reached up to twine his arms around Yusuke’s neck.

“Uh, you guys think you can save your man-romance for another time,” Kuwabara interjected.

Hiei sneered at him, “What, is this too much for your virginal sensibilities?”

“Shut up! And that ain’t what I’m worried about. You see that door there?” He pointed behind them to a huge marble door. The rings on it were as big as dinner plates. “It wasn’t there a second ago.”

“What is it?” Yusuke stared.

“The only door here,” Kurama said gravely, “The only way we have to go.”
* * *
TBC…
A/N: Ekk. It’s been so long since I up dated. Don’t worry I’m not going to just stop in the middle of a story(Bar if my computer explodes). I’m already knitting together the next two chapters. Thanks for all the reviews. Hoping to see more. Next time!