"Otousama," Juei spoke quietly, startling him from his thoughts, "why did you leave him like that?"

"He told me to," Hiei replied shortly.

"But you know he didn't want you to leave." Hiei fingered the hilt of his sword, absently. "Otousama, you do realise what she did to him, don't you?" He finally looked down at her.

"I was in that cell for two years," he informed her, icily. "I'm well aware of what she can do." Juei pressed her fine lips together, watched him solemnly with her beautiful red eyes. Hiei looked away.

"He may have suffered the same pain," she said quietly, "but my mother took on your form to inflict it on him." Hiei looked down again, startled.

"Nani?"

"She can create illusions, you know that." He waited. "Well, she created an illusion for Kurama-sama, and appeared to him as...you." She looked down, briefly, then back up at him. "He's very strong, but my mother is able to find the cracks, and get into someone's head to find his greatest weaknesses. She hurt him, every day, and it -- hurt him worse, because he thought it was you doing it to him." Hiei ground his teeth; his fingers clenched tightly around the hilt of his sword.

Reikaze had tried to do the same to him, he remembered, now; but back then there had been no one important in his life. He had cared for no one, had let no one be a vulnerability to him. Kurama --

Kurama loved too damned much. He loved Shiori, loved Hiei, split his abounding affection between the two of them, let his affections be known. It would have been so easy for Reikaze to take advantage of that --

"What about Shiori?" he asked.

"Hn?"

"She didn't appear as Shiori, did she?"

"His mother?" Juei wondered. Hiei nodded, once. "Not that I know of." That was good. Kurama would need to depend on Shiori, for a while. "All I could sense was you."

"What do you mean, you sensed me?" he snapped. Juei shifted on her branch, steadied herself, looked up at him again.

"Part of creating a believable projection," she said, "is making it feel like whomever you're imitating. My mother found a way to use my tear gems in order to make near-perfect projections of me -- because the tear gems have a little bit of the person's essence in them, it's difficult to spot a projection right away."

"You cry tear gems?" he demanded. Juei looked down.

"I _am_ your daughter," she pointed out. "I am Koorime, no matter what my mother did to make me whatever else I am." Hiei watched her, thoughtful. She was quiet a moment. "She -- she has some of your tear gems," she continued, softly. "She kept them after you left, I 'spect so she could use them the way she has been."

In a few brief seconds, Hiei relived the intense pain, the tears he had been unable to stop, the sound of his tear gems striking the metal floor; and Reikaze's triumphant exclamation on this discovery. He bared his teeth at the memory; Juei drew her eyebrows together.

"Otousama," she said, "this one is yours, too." She lifted the tear gem at her throat. "If you like -- I can give it back." He blinked.

"I don't want it back," he assured her. "I didn't give it to you in the first place."

"I know," she replied. "When I was old enough to remember what she'd done to you, I only kept it as a tie to you. I had hoped -- " He cut her off.

"What are you talking about?" he growled. "Old enough to remember?" Juei flushed.

"Gomen ne, otousama," she apologised. "I keep forgetting you don't know much about the Koorime." He waited for an explanation. Juei took a deep breath. "Koorime children are born of one parent," she said. "They inherit the traits of that parent, and they inherit -- memories." She looked shyly up at him. "I inherited some of yours." He scowled, resisted asking which ones. "It's why," Juei went on, "I wanted to see you. I wanted to meet the man who had so much pain inside him that my mother couldn't break him, because there wasn't room for any more." He stared down at her.

"You talk like Kurama," he told her after a moment. She sighed.

"Gomen ne," she apologised again. "I've had too much time to myself, to think. I spent a great deal of it thinking about you, wondering what you were like to talk to, how you would react to knowing about me." Hiei leaned back against the trunk of the tree, watched the sky grow black. The sky in the Ningenkai was never truly black; even at its darkest, it was an intense shade of deepest blue. The Makai sky became an inky black, oppressive blanket.

"How old are you?" he asked, softly.

"How long has it been, for you?" Juei countered.

"Few years," he shrugged. Juei sighed.

"I was in the cell, you see," she told him, "for a long, long time. As far as I know, I'm about twelve." She looked down at her hands. "But you know how weird time is, in there."

"Uhn. Why'd she let you out?"

"I don't know," she confessed. "But I'd been in there long enough that I couldn't gather my you-ki for a long time. I don't think she realised just how much I'd managed to absorb -- " She held out her hand, showed him the blue-black energy that formed there. She resorbed the you-ki and looked up at him. "Once I'd managed to get enough you-ki, I tried to contact you, twice, using your tear-gem as a link. But it went wrong, both times -- "

"The youkai," Hiei stated flatly.

"Hai," Juei nodded, unhappy. "Both times. It was because I couldn't control the spell, because my you-ki was so low."

"That's why they were so easy to kill."

"Hai," she sighed. "It really hurt, whatever you did to the second one."

"Kurama did that," Hiei mused. "He has a thing for making 'em suffer, sometimes." He looked down at her. "You felt it?" Juei nodded.

"I used a bit of my own essence in the spell," she told him. "I was attempting to project myself to you."

"Why did they attack?" Hiei asked her.

"I told you that the spells went wrong," she shrugged. "I was desperate to get you to understand, and I guess that translated into something aggressive. Gomen nasai."

"Quit apologising," he snapped, and looked up again. He sighed. "Listen. I don't know what you expect from me -- "

"I don't expect anything," she told him, in an impatient tone he recognised as one of his own. "I just want to know more about you. I don't care if you don't want anything to do with me." She paused. "That's not entirely true. I'd be upset, if you wanted nothing to do with me. But I'd learn to deal with it, because I think I understand you, a little." She looked up at him, defiant. Hiei watched her a moment.

"Can you fight?" he wondered.

"A little," she shrugged. "I didn't exactly get a chance to -- " He jumped down out of the tree, landed lightly, bounced away, turned to face her. Juei descended, frowning. Hiei set aside his sword, dropped into a crouch. Juei did the same.

"Defend yourself," Hiei said with a smile, and attacked.

She was small, she was light, she was quick; but she was singularly unskilled. He pinned her in only seconds and had his fingers at her throat before she could properly defend herself. He sighed, stood up, watched as she got to her feet, red-faced.

"Well," he said after a moment, "I suppose this'll give me something to do." She blinked at him. He grabbed her wrists, held up her hands. "Like this," he said, and demonstrated.

By starlight, he showed her rudimentary self-defense; when the sun rose in the morning, they curled up next to one another and slept.

"Hiei," he whispered. Shiori closed her eyes. Hiei had left so quickly she hadn't been able to stop him, and she had no idea how to go about contacting a youkai. "O...kudasai," he murmured. Shiori stroked his hand.

"Shuuichi," she said, low. "Shuuichi, wake up. You need to eat something." He turned his face away from her. Shiori sighed.

Someone knocked on the door, downstairs. She stood reluctantly, and hurried down to answer it.

"Kazuma-kun," she smiled, despite her mood. "Yuusuke-kun. Konnichi wa." She invited them both in. Yuusuke held out a package to her.

"Keiko made some cakes," he explained, "and sent some over with me." Kazuma held out a package of his own.

"Yukina-san wanted me to give this tea," he said, shyly. "She said it would help Kura-- " He hesitated. "Shuuichi feel better, a bit faster," he finished. Shiori smiled at them both, wistfully.

"He's not awake yet," she told them quietly. "He was quite upset when Hiei-kun came to see him." Yuusuke frowned.

"He was upset by seeing Hiei?"

"Hai," Shiori nodded, leading them to the kitchen. "Would either of you like tea, right now?" They declined. She boiled water anyway, for something to do. The boys excused themselves and headed upstairs to see Shuuichi. Shiori smiled after them, shaking her head. Rude little creatures, boys were, nowadays, she mused; but she didn't mind so much. These ones were her son's best friends, and if they could help him heal faster, she didn't care if they ran through the house with their shoes on.

She made herself some tea, and drank it slowly.

"She's pregnant," Kazuma shook his head, hands in his pockets.

"So?"

"So, the twins are sapping her you-ki," he retorted.

"Twins? Omedetou."

"Doumo," Kazuma said, flushing and smiling. He returned his attention to Kurama. "Where's Hiei?" he wondered.

"Dunno," Yuusuke frowned. "You'd think he'd be here, when his best friend needs him." Kazuma felt a blue flush colour his face, but said nothing.

He had seen it, long ago, the pinkish tint to Kurama's and Hiei's auras, that intensified when they were together. He had refused to believe it, at first; but even he could not force himself to be blind to the fact that they were a couple, and that they loved each other deeply. He had never said anything about it to anyone, believing it to be none of his business; and for Yuusuke's sake he had actually played dumb on several occasions when the topic had arisen.

But he had to wonder why Hiei wasn't here, when his lover needed him so very much.

"Should we go look for him?" he suggested.

"Worst he can do is be rude to us," Yuusuke pointed out. "And tell us where to go."

"Right. Nothing new."

"Let's go."

They bolted downstairs, bid Shiori a good day, and headed to the Makai, where they knew their little friend was no doubt hiding out.

He had been searching for most of his life for the one missing piece of himself, had finally found it, but had lost it again. He was not in the Ningenkai, not in the Makai.

Yuusuke, he could find; but Yuusuke was too brash, too cocky, too -- Human.

Kazuma, he could find; but Kazuma could never fill the space in him that the tiny youkai overflowed.

Each time he thought he spotted Hiei, reached out in a desperate attempt to pull him close, his lover's face would transform, would become that of Reikaze, laughing at him, and his body would tighten in pain, and he would wake himself screaming.

He would have been able to see through her illusions, had he been in his youko form, would have been able to protect himself from her spells, may even have been able to find a way to escape, to find Hiei, to whisk him away somewhere secret and hold the other youkai's body tightly to his own --

But then it would always turn out to be Reikaze, wouldn't it? It always did. Each time he thought he was touching Hiei, it would not be Hiei. Each time he thought he was seeing Hiei, it would be her.

He could hear her voice cutting through his dreams, slicing his spirit, and he withdrew further into himself, hiding in the one quiet place where he could keep her away, the one place he could still remember Hiei without cringing in fear, and blackness filled his dreams and a void filled his soul and he wondered where was Hiei? He needed him now.

This sudden epiphany stunned him, and he shook his head, marvelling. She had looked like Yukina, when he had seen the first projection; and a cursory glance at her now would reveal the same. But a closer inspection showed him her slender, boyish frame, her wiry muscle, her tight expressions -- all his. Even her speed was his; and she had caught on quickly to the defensive manoeuvres he'd taught her during the night. She appeared outwardly quiet and shy, very like Yukina; those characteristics only masked her introverted personality, her impatience, her reluctance to open up to others.

Oh, yes, he decided; she was definitely his child. It was a strange sensation, a clenching in his guts very like the one he'd felt when he'd finally decided to be with Kurama.

"Hiei." He ignored Yuusuke, scowling. "Hiei!"

"Nan da," he muttered.

"Is she all right?" Yuusuke watched Juei a moment; Kuwabara stood a short distance away.

"She's fine, just sleeping. She had her you-ki drained."

"So did you, from what I understand," Yuusuke shrugged. "But I know you, stubborn as hell." Hiei watched him impassively. Yuusuke did not smile. "Listen, Kurama's not doing so well."

"He'll be fine," Hiei shrugged. "He can heal himself."

"He's not," Kuwabara interrupted. "He's just lying there, sick. His mother can't get him to wake up or eat anything. She said it happened after you came to visit." Yuusuke cast him a dark look, then turned back to Hiei.

"Just get him to transform," Hiei shrugged again. "Shiori knows about him, now, there's nothing to worry about. He'll gather his you-ki, faster, that way, and be able to heal himself."

"You're not coming back with us?" Yuusuke frowned.

"I don't think it would be a good idea," Hiei told him, grimly. "Not for a while, yet."

"You're sure?" Hiei glared. Yuusuke put up his hands, defensively. "All right," he said quickly. "If he asks for you, what should I tell him?"

"He won't ask," Hiei replied, softly, and turned his attention back to Juei, who had not moved in all this time. Yuusuke and Kuwabara left the Makai.

Hiei waited for his daughter to wake up.