Amethyst Eyes

Chapter 8: The Irony
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“Have they finally started?” Koenma asked the ferry girl as she walked in.

“Yes, sir.” Botan walked to Koenma’s desk as he continued to look over his papers.

“It’s about time. So what was the hold up?” Not bothering to look up while asking.

“Hiei wasn’t available. Oh, you should see his wife. She’s beautiful. Strange, but beautiful.” Botan answered a bit wistfully with a finger on her chin.

That got Koenma’s attention. “Hiei has a wife? Who?” He surprised himself by not dropping the pacifier/ring.

“You won’t believe it. He bonded with the Siren of Death of all people.” Botan moved closer to his desk, as if to say it would cause her to fall and she needed the support.

The little prince lowered his eyes in deep thought. ‘Of all the people Hiei would ever choose. But they wouldn’t have bonded successfully if they didn’t genuinely care for each other. There has to be more to that.’ He looked at Botan. “Why do you say strange? Was she acting oddly?”

“No, not really. I just felt different energy waves coming from her. The most dominate is her youki of course, but there were at least 3 or 4 other energy patterns. I don’t know how to describe it.” Botan was puzzled.

“Did you touch her? If so what did they feel like?” Something wasn’t right.

“I sensed youki, reiki, and… divine energy. I couldn’t make heads or tails of the others.” Botan was still too caught up in her own thoughts to see Koenma’s look of momentary shock.

“Botan, you’re aware that divine energy is only associated with a god, right?” He spoke slowly. She looked up and nodded. “Did you observe her talking to Genkai?” She nodded again. “Did they act familiar with each other?” That took Botan a moment, but she nodded again. Koenma exhaled heavily. ‘So she’s the one.’ “Botan, Siren is the one who gave Genkai the Rei Kou Gyoku.”

It took a moment for Botan to realize what he was talking about having never seen it, but hearing of it at the time Genkai died. “But that’s not possible. The Gyoku was pure, concentrated Reiki. Siren’s a demon, those two don’t mix. Yusuke being the exception.”

“Have a seat. I need to educate you on the 5 different powers of creation.” He waited patiently for Botan to make herself comfortable before proceeding. “If I think Siren is who I think she is, then I hope you don’t ever piss her off.” Botan gave him a puzzled look. “In creation, there are five different kinds of energy that run side by side. It was through this that the Mother of us all created 4 worlds as you should be familiar with by now, but not directly.” He brought out a piece of paper and drew a circle with the word mother, then a small line leading to another circle below it. In this circle he wrote Gods. From this circle he drew three lines and three circles. In each circle he wrote one of three words. Ningenkai [1], Makai [2], and Mekai [3].

“Each world emits a power of its own. It’s true that Mekai was destroyed ages ago, but the power that brought it into existence is still there. Yusuke absorbed some of this power when he took the sphere from Yakumo. Something even my own father couldn’t do, which is why my dad fears him; though he hides it by trying to use force to move him to Makai.” ‘If not kill him altogether.’

“What does this have to do with Siren and the 5 powers?” Botan didn’t want him to get side tracked.

“I’m getting to it.” He responded impatiently. “But forget about Siren for a moment. You already know the powers of these three worlds so I’m surprised you’ve already forgotten what Mekai’s energy feels like. The divine energy that Gods possess makes four.” Koenma hesitated. Botan wasn’t having it.

“So, what’s the fifth?” Her patience was being tested.

He sighed, “The fifth is chaos energy.”

“Chaos energy? Sounds dangerous.” There was more drama in her voice than was warranted.

“It’s very dangerous and could destroy all of creation. There are only four elder Gods that can wield such power, but it hasn’t been used since the second War of the Gods. The mother of us all is very, very picky about who is able to call upon that power. It’s said that there used to be a very powerful sorceress in the other world that was able to call upon that power. Unfortunately, chaos energy is very destructive to a mortal wielder. At best she was only able to hold on to it for two minutes before letting go. It does a lot of internal damage the longer it’s held.” [4]

“What other world?” This perked Botan’s curiosity.

Botan knew many things about the dealings of the spirit world, but according to Koemna’s chart, there was no other world. Koenma was hard put to reveal this information, but it wouldn’t hurt to have her know.

“Long ago, the Gods decided to separate the ‘gifted’ from ordinary humans. Along with them were all the creatures of myth that you’ve ever heard of. They were all placed in a new world where they would no longer be hunted by humans. The Gods, of course, followed to maintain some order. They still watch this side, but have long stopped intruding in the affair of humans unless they feel it’s necessary. They continue to move creatures that humans are slowly hunting to extinction just to preserve their creation and any humans they consider gifted. And I don’t mean like Kuwabara and his sister.”

“What’s it called?”

“It was never given a name, but some would call it, Paradeisos.” [5]

Botan took the time to image a world with all the beautiful creatures of myth, like dragons and unicorns. It seemed unreal, but according to her boss it did exist. So involved in Koenma’s story about the other world she completely forgot about the five powers.

“Let’s see how well they’re doing.” Koemna suggested as he lowered the viewing screen.

“Oh, just to let you know. Siren said that ‘If Koenma decides to watch remind him to cover his ears.’” Botan said as the prince channel surfed. Stopping a moment to mute the screen, instead of looking for ear plugs, he found the right channel and watched the detectives make their way to a clearing.

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Before leaving the temple, the five took a few moments to come up with a plan. Siren went in search of cotton balls for Kurama, Yusuke and Kuwabara since Hiei didn’t need it. After the group passed through the portal, they went over their plan of action. Instead of spending days hunting, they decided to use Siren’s voice to call them, while the men, with their ears cover, started the slaughter.

The portal left them at the edge of a forest. A road led to a village which ran alongside the forest neatly on elevated ground. The forest spread out on one side of the road; on the other side stood large mountains. They made their way down the slope and through the forest until they found a large enough clearing for the five of them to fight.

Siren stood in the large clearing, a few yards away from the others and closed her eyes. Slowly, her body moved to music only she could hear. The dance was sensual; arms were held away from her body. Then she started to sing. Raising her youki to give her an ethereal glow, it made her even more alluring. It worked well to her advantage since the sun had set. The four men stared in awe and jealous, if not at least envious, at the fact that only Hiei could hear her voice while their ears remained plugged.

Her body moved a little faster, her voice carried itself outward in the surrounding forest and mountains. Raising her arms and running it suggestively through her hair, she lost herself to the art she was known for, the art of temptation and seduction. All too quickly the demons heard the Siren’s call and descended from the mountains and forest.

Hiei tore his eyes away from her and looked at his comrades to see drool falling from their unhinged mouths. He quickly hit all of them over the head to snap them from their trance and pointed to the demons making their way to her position.

The song she sang has no words, but they could be felt and they said, ‘Come to me.’

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After a good ten minutes, the fighting was well under way. Koenma and Botan watched transfixed by the sight that greeted them. They watched as each of the men quickly eliminated one opponent after another.

“Fuka Enbu Jin,” shouted Kurama at the horde, all of which were trying to make their way to Siren.

At least that’s what Koenma read on his lips. One did not listen in on small conversations without learning to read lip after seven hundred years. It may be a defensive move, but those petals really could cut other to ribbons. Said female danced a ‘Dance of Death’ that quickly identified the God or Goddess Koenma suspected they might be.

There were only four Gods in all of creation that were infused to manipulate and utilize the five different types of energy. But only one could sing, dance and fight with the level of concentration and skill Siren was showing. The way her body moved gracefully, flawlessly as she killed one demon after another. It was obscene! He knew it had to be Calliste. She was the only one, who trained with the God of War; spent millennia with Chaos herself after having been chosen to wield the most destructive power, to later use it to fight a war in the heavens. She could easily have been the ‘Helen of Troy’ of the heavens. And for all he knew, she was! Fortunately Heaven was about 4 times larger than Hell, plenty of hiding space.

Calliste was a forth generation Goddess and as such, was an Elder God. It didn’t matter that her father had been a mortal. If he recalled correctly, her parents were the Goddess Aphrodite and the human Adonis. Her father had died in a hunting accident before she was born and her mother fell during the second War of the Gods. Aphrodite had given Calliste ambrosia to grant her godhood in memory of Adonis since she adored him greatly.

Unfortunately for Calliste, Aphrodite only favored her son Eros, who was fathered by Ares, the God of War. She slept with countless creatures and gave birth to so many children. She was known as the Goddess of love and beauty among the humans, but those that knew her saw her for what she was; the Goddess of sexual obsession. She was as unfaithful to Hephaestus as Zeus was to Hera, if not more so. She was also one of the most vindictive, causing many wars on earth. Fortunately, ambrosia no longer existed. It was cultivated on earth in some unknown location eons ago.

Koenma watched Siren dance her way among the mountain of corpses and noticed she wasn’t singing the entire time, but enough to get the required result. Had she been alone the job would have been finished. It was not lost to him that were she to exercise any of her true powers, the entire area would be a crater. The irony of all this was he had an Elder God doing the dirty work and was to be paid after the fact. He wondered for a moment if the Fates were laughing themselves sick at the time.

It was about another 45 minutes, two Kokuryuha’s and many slices later, the fighting finally came to an end. At the same time Koenma and Botan finally come out of their stupor and turned off the screen.

“I can’t believe I watched the whole thing!” Botan couldn’t believe she’d sat through almost an hour of fighting and already had to go back to pick them up. She and Koenma had thought it would take at least two or three days to locate all the demons in the mountains that numbered anywhere from 200 to 300.

“Well, believe it. It’s impossible to escape a Siren’s call.” Koenma stated flatly.

“Are you sure that Siren is a Goddess and not a Temptress like Ruka?” [6] Botan wanted to be sure she had all her facts straight. Koenma had sent her head spinning with all the information he’d provided. She was just happy for Hiei. That stray thought made her think about getting in touch with Keiko and seeing how she was holding up since Yusuke’s with Kurama.

“Not just any Goddess, but an Elder. Anyway, I’ll get the cleaning crew ready to take care of the mess while you bring them back.” Koemna replied and made the necessary arrangements to eliminate any bodies that hadn’t been incinerated during the extermination.

“By the way, I wanted to let you know the party’s been canceled.” Botan informed the prince. She felt, since all the main business was taken care of, she might as well update him.

Koenma cocked his head to one side. “Why?” He hated knowing he’d just lost an excuse to not be at work.

“Well, first off, Yusuke and Keiko broke up.”

‘I was wondering if that would ever happen.’ Koenma thought to himself.

“And he hooked up with Kurama.” Botan continued.

“With Kurama?” His pacifier did fall out. He was a bit more surprised with that one. He always thought that Yusuke was straight as an arrow.

“Believe me I was just as shocked. Even more shocking is Yusuke suggesting a baby shower if Siren turned up pregnant.”

“Is she?” He received a nod. His mind was already starting to try and picture miniature versions of Hiei and shuddered. It didn’t help his imagination knowing that cats of any breed had anywhere from three to nine cubs. More shudders. He took a deep breath and changed the subject. “Have you spoken to Keiko?”

“No. I was thinking that once I get everyone home I’d talk to her. Even if we do have the party she won’t be around. I’m also pretty sure Yusuke hasn’t said anything to Kuwabara about Kurama yet.”

“I honestly don’t know what he’d say. The people of the human world have only just started to accept such relationships in the last few decades. But even now there are still crimes being committed against them.”

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“I feel like I’ve been fighting for a year.” Kuwabara complained.

“According to my watch, we’ve been here just over an hour.” Kurama commented.

“Smart aleck. At least we didn’t have to spend days trying to hunt them down.” Kuwabara looked at Hiei standing by his wife. She did look beat. “Kurama, you said a bonded couple gives each other gifts. What did they give each other?”

Kurama looked. They were waiting for Botan to come and pick them up after Yusuke had called to say mission accomplished. [7]

“Well, I know that Siren gave Hiei the ability to control his dragon without having to use the ward, as I’m sure you’ve noticed. And he did use it twice tonight without passing out. I think, his gift to her would be the earrings she’s wearing. I must say they’re very lovely.” Kurama had never seen Hiei cry, so he wasn’t too sure if those stones were a rare jewel or his own tear gems, and that was assuming he could create them. He wondered briefly if he’d get an answer if asked.

“That’s nice. Well, at least this is over with. Now we can look forward to the party on Saturday.”

Yusuke flinched slightly at the mention of the party, which he’d canceled. “Kuwabara, about the party…”

“Speak up, Urameshi.” Kuwabara asked impatiently when he trailed off.

“We canceled the party.” Kurama said helpfully. He and Yusuke had discussed telling the others, but they wanted to wait until they got back to the temple at least.

“Why?” Kuwabara all but yelled.

“Keep it down, fool. Do you want to wake the dead?!” Hiei said from his perch, his wife sat next to him.

“Shut up. I ain’t talking to you.” Looking back to Kurama and Yusuke, “So why did you cancel? What came up?”

Kurama exchanged a look with Yusuke and nodded. Yusuke was a little hesitant to tell him. He’d been honest with Keiko so he wouldn’t lead her on. He’s okay with Botan because given her job the concept wasn’t new, only when it applied to him. Kuwabara and Genkai were going to be just as hard as it was with Keiko. He didn’t know how he’d take it.

Taking a few deep breaths, “I broke up with Keiko.” There, that was easy.

“It’s about time.” Hiei said from his perch.

“Why?” Kuwabara asked, not bothering to listen to Hiei. He really wanted to know why they broke up. He never really understood what Keiko saw in Urameshi and quit trying a long time ago. As far as he was concern, Keiko was a great girl and Urameshi should be happy. She’s pretty, smart and tough. He’d consider himself lucky if he had a girl like that.

Wait a sec…where did that come from? He didn’t get the time to follow up on his thoughts.

“I don’t love…well, I’m not in love with her.” Yusuke found the ground much more interesting at the moment.

“Is there someone else? Have you been cheating on Keiko? Who is she?” The questions just kept coming.

“If you shut up, he might answer you.” Hiei interjected again. He didn’t have to ask to know that Kurama and Yusuke had gotten together. Even at the temple it was easy to smell Kurama on Yusuke and vise versa.

“Yes there is someone else. And no, I didn’t cheat on Keiko.” ‘At least not since I’ve been in the human world.’ He heard Hiei snort behind him. ‘Bastard.’

“So, who is she? Do I know her?” Kuwabara didn’t like this 20 questions bullshit.

“It’s not a she.” He slowly interlaced his hands with Kurama. It was a way of letting him know that he wasn’t ashamed of him, and he would openly show his affection; within reason of course. Kurama gave him a reassuring squeeze and it helped dispel the anxiety he felt, to the point where he almost forgot Kuwabara was there…almost.

Everyone looked at Kuwabara as the information sank in and he made the connection. He looked down when Yusuke’s hand moved to join with Kurama’s. A look of horror crossed his face.

“You’re gay??? That’s disgusting. I thought you were a ladies man not some fairy.” Kuwabara stepped back as if they had some contagious disease.

Yusuke was at a loss for words; he didn’t know what to say to that. Kurama on the other hand felt he had to do something before things got even uglier. Fortunately, someone beat him to it.

“What’s wrong with two men wanting to be together?” asked Siren, as she left Hiei’s side to stand by the confessed couple.

“It’s wrong. That’s not normal.” He shouted in his defense.

“Who says? You? Is that what your other friends say?” She was trying to get him to think rationally and make his own decisions, instead of following the brainwashing that society instilled.

“…I think its nasty being with another guy.” His face twisted into a sneer. Although it was easy to see he was just plain disgusted.

“Even if they love each other, it’s still wrong for them to want to be together?” She knew she was getting defensive, so tried to attack the heart of the matter. Kuwabara stood there unable to come back with a retort. “Kuwabara. For one to be truly happy, they have to follow their heart and follow through. How do you live your life? How do you know who to love? It’s something you feel whether you like it or not, it’s natural to love. Love has no gender.”

Kuwabara looked from Siren to the couple and thought over her words, but stayed silent. Yusuke was a nervous wreck not knowing where he stood with a man he’d always seen as his biggest rival and good friend. Hiei left his rock and moved to stand behind his wife. He wrapped an arm around her, bring her closer to him.

/Do you think he’ll change his mind after that speech?/

/Not right away. I think he’ll want to think about it for awhile and maybe talk to others to get their opinion. It’s not easy to accept when you’re already against it. He only sees the physical aspect of a male-male relationship. Until he can see the deeper meaning of their relationship, he may decide to not associate with them at all./

/He’s a fool. Humans and their prejudice./ Hiei’s angry at someone he’d come to respect to some degree, had turned his back on a friend because of whom they wish to be with.

“Let me think about it.” He was spared having to say more by the intrusion of a happy ferry girl.

“Ready to go?” She saw all the serious looks. “Did I miss something?” The portal stood just behind her.

“It’s nothing.” Kuwabara said as he walked through the portal.

Botan looked at the others. “You told him?” She got a nod from Kurama. “Didn’t take it very well I see.”

“No, he didn’t.” Kurama turned to Siren, “I thank you for standing up for us, even thought it wasn’t your fight. I don’t think I was in the right frame of mind to say what you did.”

“He has to make up his own mind. Even if he doesn’t care for that lifestyle he has to respect other people’s wishes. If he truly is your friend, then he will have to accept that you make each other happy. That’s all that a friend should really care about.” She left Hiei’s embrace and walked towards the portal. Upon passing Botan, Siren was on the receiving end of a bow. Siren quickly went to straighten the girl up. /I take he told you about me?/ She asked her mentally.

/Yes. I’m a little shocked, so I don’t know how to act. He said you’re an Elder./

/Just forget that I’m an Elder for now. Hiei is the only one who knows at the moment and I’d like to keep it that way; the fewer that know the better. Besides, I’m in a mortal body./

/Alright./ Botan said nothing more. Siren entered the portal and was soon followed by Yusuke and the others. Botan entered last and the portal closed behind her as they made their way to the spirit realm.

It’s a pity they never saw the one that got away.

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TBC…

Author’s Notes:

[1] Ningenkai = human world
[2] Makai = demon world
[3] Mekai = nether world
[4] If some of you haven’t already seen it, I was actually making reference to ‘Slayers’ (I love that series)
[5] Paradeisos (Greek) = paradise
[6] If any of you remember correctly, she was the red head at the dark tournament that imprisoned Hiei and Genkai behind a barrier.
[7] Sorry, been reading way too many GW fanfics lately.

As far as Kuwabara’s reaction is concerned, I took my cue from the episode early in the series. Remember when Yusuke visits him in a dream to ask for some energy while his body glows with a soft gold light? Yep, mouth to mouth transfer ^_^ Kuwabara was horrified. I’m surprised he didn’t have a heart attack and wake up the rest of the building when he screamed. He didn’t react well to Itsuki and his feeling for Sensui either.