"What's this?" Yuusuke asked, looking up at the smooth walls.

"She lives here," Hiei told him.

"How do we get in?" Kuwabara asked. Hiei did not look at him.

"It's been my experience," he said, "that you don't get in. You get brought in." He clenched his jaw tightly, remembering. He sensed Kuwabara looking down at him.

"How do we get brought in, then?" he demanded.

"If she wants us in," Hiei told him calmly, "she'll bring us in."

"Who?"

"Reikaze."

"Who's Reikaze?" Kuwabara snapped, impatient. Hiei inhaled, held his breath, exhaled.

"She's an A-class youkai. Elemental."

"Which element?" Yuusuke wondered.

"Earth."

"And she's the mother of your kid?" Kuwabara asked. Hiei finally looked up at him.

"I had nothing to do with that," he said. He looked up at the palace again, closed his seeing eyes, opened his Jagan, and searched.

The palace was surrounded by powerful warding spells; inside, it was guarded by hundreds of youkai. How Reikaze had procured their loyalty was a mystery to him; she was no more powerful than any of them.

He opened his eyes again, looked up.

"Now what?" Yuusuke asked.

"We wait."

They sat on the grass under the searing Makai sun, and waited.

He had not cried; she was impressed. Humans were notorious for their tears. But he had bled considerably, and he was very weak. She wasn't sure how long a Human could live under those circumstances. She'd been hoping to play with him a little longer. But then, she mollified herself, the closer he was to death, the more willing Hiei would be to change his mind and stay with her.

She changed her form again, winced as the size difference compressed her mass into a smaller shape. She smiled, and ran her hands down over Hiei's firm little body. She was looking forward to this.

She headed toward the youko's cell.

She sat up on the bed. Her protection spell had worked even better than she'd thought. Reikaze's power had been absorbed by it, reflected a false response to her, made it seem to Reikaze as though Juei would be held securely for another several hours.

Juei smiled. If she had learned nothing else from her mother, she'd learned to be devious.

She stood, and closed her eyes, and breathed deeply. In a moment her filmy white gown had vanished, replaced by a more practical outfit -- loose black trousers and a long tunic, tied with a sash. She opened her eyes and smiled down at herself. A compromise, between her father's black and his lover's sense of style. She liked it. She hoped he would. Hoped _they_ would.

She knelt on the floor and concentrated a moment; she began to remember all the pain Reikaze had forced her to suffer, the pain her father had endured, the pain his beautiful lover was now undergoing.

Tears stung her eyes, and Juei encouraged them. Three rolled down her cheek, solidified, formed into tiny bluish gemstones that made a crystalline chime as they fell to the floor. Juei scooped them up, tucking two into her pocket and breathing deeply, quickly soothing her mind. The third gem she tossed into the middle of the bed. It glowed a moment, then seemed to grow, to expand; in less than a minute an image of Juei lay pale and sleeping on the bed.

She smiled, and left the room.

"Did that help?" Hiei wondered, standing and stretching, refastening his trousers. He crossed the cell to where Kurama lay. His fingers slid through Kurama's short hair, grabbed a tight fistful of it, yanked Kurama's head up, smiled. "Well, did it?" Kurama swallowed with an effort.

"You," he managed, "are not Hiei." Hiei laughed softly, that cold wicked laugh, and Kurama's stomach tightened.

"You know every inch of my body, kitsune," Hiei told him in a low voice, pulling his face forward, looking into his eyes. "I should think you'd recognise how it feels inside you."

"Hiei," Kurama said weakly, laughing despite himself, "would never bother to rape me. Not even to make me hate him. If you knew him at all you'd know that." He saw stars as his head was slammed against the cell wall.

"Maybe you don't know me as well as you think you do," Hiei hissed into his ear. Kurama smiled again.

"I assume," he said with another great effort, "that you're Reikaze. I don't know why you want Hiei, but I'll tell you something. You can't make Hiei do anything he doesn't want to do."

Hiei's form shimmered, melted, expanded, reformed into that of a silver-haired woman. Kurama watched her calmly. She laughed.

"But what you don't realise, my youko friend," she said, reaching between his legs, "is that I already have made him do what I want. And I will do it again."

She crushed his balls in her fist, and Kurama passed out.

"What's wrong?" he wondered. She shook her head, a rueful half-smile brightening her solemn features.

"Neither of us needs to ask that," she said softly. "Do we?"

"I don't know what you mean," he replied honestly, with a careless shrug.

"You're more of a hindrance here than a help," she told him flatly. "Your body is here, but your mind, your soul -- it's in the Ningenkai. It's with him, with Kurama. I can keep your body here, but I'll never have your soul. You're doing neither of us any good, Hiei," she said, with another half-smile. "And if he feels the same way, then you're not doing him any good either."

Hiei blinked at her, not comprehending. Mukuro laughed quietly, a sound as foreign to him as his own laughter.

"Go to him," she said. "When the Human part of him is gone, when he comes to live once more in the Makai, then you can come back. After all," she continued, "it won't be such a terribly long time, before the Human dies. Not long, for us youkai. I can wait. For a while."

He stared at her, not daring to believe. She made a dismissive gesture at him.

"Get out of my sight," she said, in a tone of near-affection. "I'll see you -- later."

He didn't need to be told twice, and in a flash he was in the Ningenkai, his sword strapped to his hips and his cloak flowing around him, keeping out the winter wind. He'd forgotten what season it was in the Ningenkai.

He made his way swiftly to Kurama's home, bounded up the tree outside the window, peered inside. Kurama sat at his desk, chewing on the end of his pencil, some work spread out in front of him, his eyes unfocused. Hiei smiled.

Before Kurama could react, he'd opened the window, slipped inside, and shut the window, ducking into a shadow. Kurama looked up, no doubt startled by the sudden cool breeze; he frowned, blinked, turned his attention back to the work he'd brought home.

Hiei moved quietly behind him, stood staring down at his head for a few seconds. Kurama stiffened. He turned slowly to look. Hiei raised a hand in greeting. "Yaa," he said.

"Hiei," Kurama breathed, and stood up, knocking over his chair. "You -- what are you doing here?" Hiei shrugged nonchalantly.

"Thought I'd come visit," he said. Kurama's face fell slightly, and he ducked his head as though to hide.

"How long a visit?" he asked, looking at Hiei through his hair.

"Oh, as long as you're alive," Hiei told him, keeping his tone casual.

Kurama's eyes brightened again and he slipped his arms around Hiei's waist. They stood together like this for what seemed an hour; then Kurama threw Hiei to his bed and made love with him, passionately, desperately, and kept him captive in the bed for the rest of the night, waking now and again for kisses and reassurance that Hiei had indeed come back to him --

"Hiei." It had been surprisingly sweet to hear Kurama saying his name, over and over. He'd never thought he'd miss something that seemed so insignificant.

"Hiei." He'd never said the words aloud, never needed to. Kurama said them often enough, said them sometimes just to tease him.

"Hiei."

He opened his eyes, startled from his dream, and was on his feet quite before his vision had cleared. "Nan da," he snapped.

"Someone -- " began Yuusuke, and Hiei froze.

A dainty figure in black approached them. Her hair was fine, shimmering, silvery. Her eyes were red as his own. She approached them meekly, moved to stand before him, glanced first at Yuusuke, then Kuwabara. "Otousama," she said softly, "I am Juei." She bowed deeply.

"This is your daughter?" Kuwabara squealed. "Kawaii!"

"Yukina," Hiei said coldly, "would not appreciate that comment." Kuwabara reddened, stammered something apologetic, fell silent.

"Otousama," Juei spoke again, "I want to help you. My mother has -- him -- captive inside the Palace. It will not be easy to reach him, but I think I know how to do it, if you will allow me to help you."

Yuusuke and Kuwabara looked at Hiei. He stared wordlessly at Juei.

"Wait a minute," Yuusuke spoke finally, turning to the girl. "Last night, you were only a little girl. How did you get like -- " he gestured at her slender form " -- this?" Juei flushed, looking down at her feet.

"If we could get away from the Palace," she said apologetically, "I'll tell you everything." She looked up at Hiei, waiting, hopeful.

He turned and led them all back to the Ningenkai.