Consider the brigadoon. By any other name, a brigadoon is a city, an island, a town, or single buildings or even telephone booths that possess a transitory nature. Some float, drifting miles above the ground. Others shift in and out of the space/time continuum. Some only show up on certain dates, at certain times. They and their inhabitants are, by nature, very strange. It might be noted that the Shattered Land of Golganoth is made up entirely of brigadoons, which explains how things like the Hunters could possibly exist.

Let us shift our thoughts to a different place. Dangling over Northern Makai like the biggest crystal chandelier in all the starry universe, a Glacier sails the thin, fast winds. This is the home of the Daughters of Winter, or Koorime Ice Demons as the rest of the Makai names them. They are creatures of ice, chill in heart and soul, without warmth of any sort. They shun the fire that all others enjoy. Flame of any description is repellent to them, which is why they are currently very annoyed.

One of their number, in her rebellious and ill-advised youth, bore a Forbidden Child, a male fire demon. Oh, yes, the little sprat was pitched off of the Glacier as soon as the others got wind of it, but that wasn't what had them all in an icy rage. The Child had survived, and was thriving as a Spirit Detective in the employ of Lord Koenma, of all people. Not only that, but the Child had the absolute effrontery to make some friends and -get this- fall in love with a Kitsune-cum-Ningen. Simply nauseating.

The Daughters came together to discuss what should be done about this. It was agreed that a direct confrontation would lead to disaster, not to mention the havoc that the other three Detectives would cause if they thought that their friend was in trouble. They might just bring the matter to Lord Enma's notice, and that would be an unthinkable calamity. Enma was quite capable of reminding the Glacier that huge masses of ice are supposed to fall down, not up. This situation required some subtlety. How to get rid of the firebaby and disable those wretched Spirit Detectives at the same time?

Ah! Now this might work, and it would be fun to watch, too...

Hiei's eyes flashed an angry scarlet and his hand strayed out of habit to his sword hilt. He was being thwarted, and he hated that. Especially if the thwarting was done by something that he thought beneath him. "And why can't you come to see the star opal mines?" He demanded.

Kurama rolled his sea-green eyes in exasperation and shifted his school bag to one side. "You know that I have school on weekdays, Hiei. Besides, there's an exam today that I really can't afford to miss."

Hiei bared sharp teeth in a humorless grin. "You're a good student." He snapped. "You can miss just one day."

"Not if I want to stay in my teacher's good graces." Kurama said in soothing tones. "Mr. Tanaka tends to come down rather heavily on students who skip classes, especially exam days! You'll just have to wait or go alone, Hiei."

"Suit yourself, twit fox." Hiei replied hotly, and flickered away into the early-morning shadows.

Kurama sighed and shook his head sadly. Hiei's offer of a tour of the mines had been very tempting, but he did have his reputation to think about. Plus, he hadn't been kidding about Mr. Tanaka's dislike of casual students. Kurama hoped that he hadn't hurt Hiei's feelings too badly, but that was unlikely. There were times that Hiei was pure granite inside and out.

This wasn't one of those times. Hiei's mood was blacker than week-old coffee dregs, and twice as bitter as he flitted around the city. Kurama had definitely been spending far too much time being human. He was a Kitsune, dammit! He should have dropped everything and come to see the mines! Hiei had taken a peek the day before, and had found tunnels and grottos so thickly crusted with the luminous jewels that the air had swum with rainbow color. What better place to spend an afternoon than in the heart of a prism; especially if you bring lunch and an aphrodisiac or two...

And something so ephemeral as schoolwork had gotten in the way. Chicken scratchings on paper, stuffy humans that knew far less than their students and yet called themselves teachers. Thrice damn them! Hiei considered going back to Kurama's school to level it with his dragon, but that would only make things worse.

With a sigh, he settled on the roof of a high-rise and sat down for a good sulk. He felt the need to disappear totally for a few weeks again, just to make that flighty fox remember his priorities. Maybe to the Mountains of Morning in the Reikai, or he could get Weenie or Van to take him to one of the nicer Shattered Lands. Maybe he could pay a visit to the Sky Glacier to see if he could locate his mother...

Hiei frowned, confused. Now where had that thought come from? The only kind of ice he liked came in flavors like vanilla and chocolate. He sniffed the breeze reflexively. A cold, dusty odor permeated the air, and there was a sharp quality to it that was badly out of place here. Snow? Hiei thought in surprise. It's late summer. Months too early for snow.

A split second later, he was seized by a multitude of icy hands and dragged away into purple- blue oblivion.

Two weeks later, Kurama was starting to worry. Something didn't feel right, not right at all. Sure, Hiei had a bad habit of disappearing for long periods of time when he was in a poopy mood, but Kurama didn't usually get cold feelings and nightmares when he did so. The one last night had been terrible. He, or someone close to him, had been held totally helpless in the center of something like diamond, but colder, killing-colder. The chill had been seeping into his heart, his mind, his soul, leaving nothing but a transparent husk filled with a strange elemental hatred/indifference while cruel crystal laughter fell like broken glass around his prison. Needless to say, Kurama had woken up screaming.

Yuusuke and Kuwabara were starting to get uneasy as well. Hiei was an important, if abrasive member of the team, and it wasn't good to be clueless as to his whereabouts. Yuusuke's instincts insisted that something was up, and Kuwabara's psychic gift made it even more obvious. "It was weird." He said to Kurama when they met in the park to talk about it. "One of my friends wanted to show me the view from the top of that big high-rise over there, and the moment I set foot on the roof- brrr!" Kuwabara shuddered. "It was like someone had poured a bucket of ice water down my back!"

Yuusuke gazed thoughtfully at the building. "Hiei goes up there to brood sometimes, doesn't he?"

"Not often." Kurama replied. "Hiei prefers trees."

"Let's wait a few more days, then." Yuusuke sighed. "If he doesn't turn up then, we'll start asking around."

Kurama agreed reluctantly. Hiei had a lot of enemies, including some very subtle ones. Oh, well. The little fire demon had been getting into and out of bad situations from the moment he was born. Hiei was probably getting drunk out of his mind while sitting on a heap of freshly slain enemies right now. No worries. Yeah.

Where is he?!

Red-black flaming against the pale azure of the Grandmother of Ice, heart and soul of the glacier, harshest and most ancient of aspects of the element of water. I lie in the grip of the Daughters of Winter, and my flame is dying beneath the avalanche of crystal. The fire leaves, and ice invades, bringing the eternal hatred of all warmth, all life that is not part of the killing-cold. Friendship? A weakness; disregard it. Trust? A fragile thing, it is shattered by the slightest transgressions. Love? An abomination that must be swallowed in the darkness of the night with no stars, buried beneath drifts beyond counting. Winter carries eternal freezing hatred; let it fill me, blanking the names, the places. They have no right to be here. They should be destroyed. All creatures of hot blood should die.

No ! Kurama...!

That one is nothing. An idiot Kitsune that cares nothing, he should be frozen, another stiff monument to the Ice.

Kurama...

He was not there for me once, what proof will I have that he will not be absent again? The others, too. A ferret, an ox, an old priestess, a scarlet monstrosity, a clanking junkheap, and a maniac in motley. None of them are worth the trouble of keeping alive. Death would be an improvement.

I will not-

I carry within me the blood of a fire demon, but the blood of my mother and my mother's mother and so on into obscurity is that of ice; the avalanche conquers the candle, the flame is no more. I am of the Koorime. I have a responsibility to rid the worlds of warm things.

I cannot-

I will kill them all.

I-

I will kill them.

I will...

I will kill them.

I will kill them.

Death! Death and destruction!

Yes!

The Koorimes sat back with a sigh of weary triumph. The Forbidden Child who lay imprisoned in the block of ice they had bound him in had finally capitulated, weakened under the steady barrage of their combined wills. "It is time." One of them said. "Let us release him to wreak havoc on those who call him friend."

All were in agreement.

"We should start looking soon, Yuusuke," Kuwabara said as he and his friend wandered down the side of the river. "Kurama's starting to get frantic. He really likes that little runt, doesn't he?"

"Oh, yeah." Yuusuke replied, flicking some crumbs from his lunch to the fish. "Those two have ties that go way back. You think that he might have gotten into something that he couldn't handle?"

"Let's just say that I've got a real bad feeling about this."

Yuusuke nodded. Over time, he had come to trust Kuwabara's hunches and feelings. All too often, they were correct. At that point, his eyes lit on a familiar dark figure standing further down the walk, gazing at the water. "So much for your feelings, Kuwabara," Yuusuke laughed. "There he is! C'mon!"

With that, they ran over to their teammate, who had not openly noticed their approach. "Hey, Hiei!" Yuusuke said, clasping one black-clad shoulder and giving it a friendly shake. "Where have you been? Kurama's going nuts without you around."

Wordlessly, Hiei turned his head to glare directly into Yuusuke's eyes. There was something very wrong here.

"Um, Hiei?" Yuusuke asked as Hiei started to growl. "Why are all three of your eyes blue?"

Kuwabara, however, had been on the receiving end of Hiei's rages more than once, and he knew the signs. "Oh, crap! Run, stupid!"

Yuusuke jerked back as Hiei's sword sliced the air a fraction of an inch from where he'd been standing. He didn't need any more encouragement than that, and Kuwabara needed even less. They broke a number of track records in their headlong retreat back up the sidewalk. With a snarl of rage, Hiei came after them, and he was a great deal faster than they were. He flashed and flickered in and out of visibility as he set about slicing the fleeing Ningens to ribbons, and Yuusuke and Kuwabara were both unable and unwilling to fight back. Hiei had no such reservations and inflicted dozens of small cuts on his fleeing prey before one of them was forced to take action. Yuusuke was well aware that if he didn't do something soon, Hiei would reduce them to hamburger. Without breaking stride, he let fly with a blast of energy that temporarily blinded their attacker. "Run for it!" He shouted as Hiei screeched and clawed at his eyes.

Eventually, they both wound up under someone's porch after a few minutes of dodging through a maze of alleys. Kuwabara and Yuusuke sank down with weary sighs in the dirt, glad that that was over. "Whoo!" Kuwabara said, rather breathlessly. "Is it gone?"

"Yeah, I think we lost him." Yuusuke replied, wincing as he counted his cuts. "What's with him? I've seen him get mad before, but nothing like this."

"What gets me is that his eyes have changed color." Kuwabara said. "And he feels cold."

"What?"

Kuwabara tapped his head. "I get these feelings, right? Hiei usually feels like a bonfire. I nearly got frostbite of the brain while he was chasing us."

"I wonder what brought that on." Yuusuke mused. "Let's go find Kurama. He knows a lot more about Hiei than we do."

"Okay."

Kurama was up to his elbows in dirt in his garden, planting pansies and brooding. He really wished that Hiei would come back so that he could give that little black bat the scolding he deserved, and then move right along to the kissing and making up. A drop of scarlet landed on the purple and yellow petals of the flowers he had just set in the dirt, jerking him out of his reverie. Looking up, he saw Yuusuke and Kuwabara, both in great need of band-aids. "You're bleeding on my flowers." Kurama said without thinking.

"Thank you so very much for your kind words." Kuwabara said, sarcasm dripping off of every syllable. "We found Hiei."

Kurama brightened up immediately. "You saw him? Is he all right?"

"No!" Yuusuke snapped. "He's gone totally bad-tempered bloodthirsty berzerko. You got a first-aid kit around here anywhere?"

"Oh! I'm sorry. It's inside." Kurama said apologetically, rising to his feet and dusting the dirt off. "C'mon, I'll patch you guys up while you tell me what happened."

They followed Kurama into the house and sat down with weary groans while the tall redhead dug the first-aid kit out of the closet. "Now, what's up with Hiei?" Kurama asked, taking out a length of gauze and a bottle of disinfectant.

"We don't know." Yuusuke began, taking off his shirt. "We were walking down the path by the river when we saw him. We ran up to say hi, and then he tried to kill us."

"The little runt's eyes had turned blue, too." Kuwabara said. "All three of them."

"Three?" Kurama exclaimed. "He wasn't wearing his headband?"

"Nope. And it was the palest, most icy blue I've ever seen- yiiii!! That stings!"

"Sorry, but do you really want to get gangrene?" Kurama dabbed some more disinfectant on a particularly nasty gash.

"Ow! No, thank you."

"Kuwabara said that Hiei felt cold, too." Yuusuke continued. "His psychic sense nearly got frostbite."

"That's not good." Kurama muttered, handing a box of band-aids to Kuwabara. "Hiei's a fire demon. He didn't have his dragon uncovered too, did he?"

"No. After I managed to haul him up short with a Rei Gun blast- no, I did not hurt him, Kurama- we came to see you."

"Yeah." Kuwabara broke in. "We figure that you would be able to calm him down better than we could. Hell, a bonk on the head with a dead squirrel would have a better calming effect than we did!"

Kurama gave him a suspicious look. "Are you feeling all right, Kuwabara?"

"Shit, no!"

Kurama sighed, finished tying a bandage around Yuusuke's arm, and started putting the medical supplies away. "Let's go find him, then."

Talking about something is a lot easier than doing it. Kurama, Kuwabara, and Yuusuke searched the whole town over trying to find Hiei, but found not hide nor hair of him. Eventually, they sat down outside a cafe for a break and a snack. "Where has that runt gotten himself to?" Kuwabara said peevishly, once he'd wolfed down his rice.

"Probably still looking for us." Yuusuke replied, picking the remains of a shrimp out of his teeth. "You know how it goes. If you and someone else go looking for each other at the same time, it takes forever to meet up."

Kuwabara shuddered. "I hope you're right."

Kurama just sipped at his noodle broth and worried. Frozen ki and icy eyes were not Hiei's style. Sure, the little Koorime did occasionally try to pound Kuwabara into mulch, but that was almost never a serious attempt. What was going on? Could something horrible have happened? Maybe I should have gone with him to see the mines...

He put down his empty cup. "Come on, you two. Let's go check the pine forest again."

Yuusuke rolled his eyes and sighed. "Again? All right, man, but if that squirrel throws one more pine cone at me, I'm going to blow it to California."

There was a timeless air inside the pine-forest. Deeply green and quiet, smelling faintly of turpentine. Sunlight hung in the still, dusty air like golden streamers, soft and peaceful. Occasionally a breeze would blow through, brining with it the sound of oceans. All in all, it was a spectacular place for some seriously deep thought. No wonder Hiei liked it here. Our heroes ambled tensely down the long paths, generations of dead pine needles crunching under their feet, eyes searching the high branches, ears pricked for the slightest sound. A squirrel chattered angrily at them from one tree, but did nothing else, fortunately. Kurama searched the area with his ki, sifting through the millions of lives for one very singular one. He felt the mind of the squirrel, angry that there were three excellent targets and no nearby pine cones... There was the mind of a fox, just a plain fox hunting for rabbits. He felt a family of songbirds, feeding their chicks. No, no, still not the right one. Where is that firebaby? Let's try over there-

-I am son of the Grandmother of Winter I share her hatred the ancient hatred of ice against those who would dare destroy such crystalline artistry with their warm skins warm breath hot blood they carry the fire in their blood fire is the enemy the avalanche conquers the candle hey there's those three idiots who once called me friend winter needs no friends I have an obligation to rid this world all worlds of this pestilence of warm living things-

Kurama jerked his mind back, wincing at the aftertaste of hoarfrost that came with it. "Found him." Kurama said a little shakily. "I think he's been reprogrammed."

A tree off to their right exploded in a shower of cones and branches as Hiei cannoned straight toward them, bellowing a battle cry. The only reason why they weren't hacked into lunch meat right then and there was that Kurama was a little quicker on the uptake than the other two Spirit Detectives. In answer to his call, an elderly pine reached out with its scaly branches and grabbed the furious Hiei right out of the air, wrapping him tightly in its limbs. "Hiei! Please!" Kurama called as the tree brought its captive down to eye level. "Tell us what happened so that we can help you out of this! What's wrong?"

Hiei hissed like a steam explosion and spat ice-chip curses between clenched fangs. With a terrible sundering wrench, he tore free of the branches and attacked again, swinging his sword in long, cruel arcs. Kuwabara tried to fend him off with his Rei Sword, but it was clear who was the better at sword fighting, and only lived through that experience because Yuusuke let Hiei have it with a blast of spiritual energy. This did not improve the Koorime's mood at all. Eyes like frozen death and growling like thunder, Hiei gathered his strength for one of his most elaborate and deadly techniques...

"Chip! Chuck chip chitter skraaaww!" Clonk.

A large pinecone sailed down out of the gloom, striking Hiei on the back of the skull, distracting him. With a curse, Hiei spun around, spotting the chittering rodent far above him. He then let loose a blast of ki, a sick, loosely-controlled combination of ice and fire magics that burst harmlessly several meters short of the target. Chucking derisively, the squirrel ran off. Hiei stared for a moment in horror at his steaming hand. He hadn't been that sloppy with his powers since he'd been two years old. Shaking off his unease, he turned again to face his foes- who weren't there. They had crept quietly away while he'd been fighting the squirrel, of all things. "AAARRRGHHH!"

"Fellas, this is not good." Yuusuke declared, picking pine needles out of his shirt.

"I'll agree with that." Kurama said, pulling a sap-sticky pine cone out of his hair. "Somebody messed with his mind while he was gone; somebody who doesn't like us one bit. I think we may have to catch him and get Genkai's help on this one."

Kuwabara groaned unhappily. "That's not gonna be easy."

"Hey, c'mon, man, it can't be too much harder than snaring the 'Quin was." Yuusuke said.

Kuwabara made a face. "I don't want to go through that kind of thing ever again. I still wake up screaming sometimes from the nightmares! Oooh, I hate that Python!"

Kurama nodded grimly. He had his own nightmares about snakes, particularly the one with feathers... "Oh, well. At least the little monster's not a god."

"There is that." Yuusuke said. "Let's make some ambush plans."

None of them worked. The traps they set ranged from the moronically simple to the fearfully complex, but Hiei was not about to get caught in any of them. What few traps he sprang weren't strong enough to hold him, and he ignored the rest in favor of pummeling Yuusuke and the others into the dirt.

Two days later, after a furiously-fought fiasco all through Yuusuke's apartment (Hiei had come right through the living room window and engaged the others right in front of Atsuko while she had been enjoying a bottle of strong wine; it very nearly made her give up the habit.), our heroes collapsed behind the shrubbery in the park, catching their breaths. "This isn't good, people." Yuusuke moaned for the second time that week, fingering his ruined jacket. "At this rate, we'll be hamburger before we can nail him."

"He's been around too long to be trapped easily." Kurama panted. "We need some really effective bait or something."

Kuwabara glared at his friends. "Don't look at me. Besides, it'd be better if we found one of his most hated enemies or someone that annoys him even more than I do to play the cheese, and I'm not joking."

"Well, if you're not going to, can I?" A new voice behind them asked.

They spun around and beheld, wonder of wonders, the answer to their prayers. Perched on top of the manicured juniper bush that hid them from view was the Harlequin, in all his unearthly glory. "I know a few really good ones, or I could sing a few comic songs, if you'd like." He continued happily. "Some of them are never sung sober, you know."

Yuusuke, Kurama and Kuwabara looked at each other and grinned. Of all the people in all three worlds, none of them annoyed Hiei more. The 'Quin could annoy a brick. Kurama reached for the length of stout hemp rope that he had brought along.

By this time, the 'Quin had noticed that the Spirit Detectives were all grinning at him, and his voice trailed off uncertainly. "Um, fellas? Why are you grinning at me like that? Fellas? HEY!"

All three teenagers jumped him at once and had him tied up and dangling upside-down from a nearby tree within seconds. "What is the meaning of this?!" The clownish god sputtered, swinging back and forth. "You climb back out from under the shrubbery right now and explain yourselves this instant! This isn't at all funny anymore, d'you hear? I- what's that?"

"HAAAIIIII!!!"

The hawklike war cry split the air as a small dark figure with eyes that burned like frostbite appeared out of the atmosphere and descended like a peregrine falcon on the dangling Harlequin, who uttered a howl of surprise and terror as Hiei tore into him with fists, fangs and feet. The rope snapped as the Harlequin, who had a deep aversion to being torn to pieces, broke free and tried to fend the little monster off. It was no use trying. Hiei had tasted blood, and was determined to finish the job. Before he could, however, 'Quin drew something long and silver from the scabbard at his side and whanged Hiei over the head with it. Kurama gave a cry of fear as Hiei dropped like a poleaxed ox, and then suffered a moment's embarrassment; 'Quin hadn't drawn his sword. Clutched in a grey-knuckled grip was not the mirrored-silver blade, but a polished aluminum Louisville Slugger baseball bat.

The Harlequin was not in good shape. He stood gasping for breath, badly tattered cape blowing in the breeze, topaz eyes wild and flashing, and bleeding amber blood from a number of bite marks. He was also furious. "You had better have an explanation for this." He said darkly. "What is wrong with the firebaby?"

"We think he's been reprogrammed." Yuusuke said. "He's been attacking us for the past couple of days, and we needed some really good bait to trap him. Y'know, someone who he would go out of his way to maim...?" Yuusuke stopped talking. The glare that the Quin was giving him could crinkle paint at thirty paces.

"I will have you know that this is the first time in three millennia that I have ever wet my pants." He told them in acid tones. "Curse you all with rains of eggbeaters!"

The skies darkened ominously, and a thread of lightning flickered in the heavens. A stainless-steel eggbeater fell out of the sky and clonked Yuusuke on the head, and the second one caught the Harlequin right between the eyes. "Ow! Heck with that!" The 'Quin said, cancelling the curse. "You will remind me later to turn the lot of you into a bottle of bleach, won't you?"

"Yessir!" Kuwabara squeaked, shrinking away from the angry God's vulpine grin.

Hiei stirred and made a noise somewhere between a groan and a growl, but another clonk with the Slugger calmed him down again.

"Come on," Kurama said, picking up the remains of the rope. "Let's get him to Genkai's."

Genkai wasn't particularly surprised to see them walking in the door with Hiei trussed up with a couple of lumps on his head. What she was surprised about was Harlequin's wardrobe. "Cripes, 'Quin, what happened to your pants?!"

Kurama rubbed his throbbing skull (and equally sore fashion sense). "Don't talk to us about his pants."

"They're Dr. Framitz's Chromatic Slacks!" 'Quin said, posing dramaticaily. "Do you like them?"

"Harlequin, they look like the view through the skylight of a disco at 3:00 A.M. on Halloween!" Genkai replied, watching the strobing display with a certain amount of horror.

"Thank you! I messed up my old ones catching Hiei, and these were the only clean pair I had left."

"How can you tell?"

"Shut up about the pants!" Kuwabara said. "Genkai, somebody brainwashed Hiei and turned him into even more of a killer than he was before. Got any idea of how to fix it?"

Genkai merely raised an eyebrow, and then sighed. "Kurama, you know the little guy better than any of us; I'm going to need your help here. 'Quin, stand by with that bat. I don't want any explosions in the house."

"Yessir, Ma'am sir!" The Harlequin gave her a snappy salute, nearly braining himself with the Slugger.

"Shut up. And get some new pants. Those are awful."

Genkai turned her attention to Hiei, totally ignoring 'Quin's pouting. With great care and Kurama's direction, she felt around the edges of Hiei's mind. It was like looking into a bucket of mirror shards, lit from below by one single, guttering candle. It was also colder than the bottom of a miser's heart, and rotten straight through.

Kurama and Genkai, unable to bear it any longer, sat back with sore eyes. "That's a nasty one." Genkai said. "Ice demons?"

"Almost certainly." Kurama replied. "Would somebody get Yukina in here? I think this is her department."

"I'll do it!" Kuwabara immediately hopped up and ran out of the room; he never missed a chance to get close to his pretty little heartthrob.

He came back a minute or two later with Yukina in tow, and with a rather foolish grin on his face. "Oh!" Yukina cried when she saw Hiei tied up on the floor. "What's the matter with Hiei?"

"He's had his brain damp-mopped by ice demons of one sort or another. Would you tell us who did it and whether or not you can undo it?" Genkai said, scooting over to make room for Yukina to sit down.

"All right." Yukina sat down, laid a hand on Hiei's forehead, and closed her eyes in concentration. She opened them again after a few minutes with a gasp, snatching her hand away, trembling visibly. "How awful of them!" She wailed as Kuwabara moved to comfort her.

"What is it?" Yuusuke and Kurama demanded in unison.

"The Koorime did this, all of them at once! And they made it so it'll kill him before too long, too." She sniffled from the protective circle of Kuwabara's arms.

Yuusuke noted that it was just as well that Hiei was out cold and tied up. The little guy got really pissed when Kuwabara so much as looked at her.

"Can you undo it?" Kurama asked urgently, laying a possessive hand on his lover's shoulder. Yukina shook her head sadly. "I'm nowhere near strong enough. The only ones capable of freeing him without permanently damaging his mind are the Koorime, or a really powerful fire-mage, and that's only if they're related."

Yuusuke leaned back and stared thoughtfully at the ceiling. "I think we can count out the Koorime. They already hate Hiei." He said. "We've fought a bunch of fire-mages, and most of them are dead. The ones left over would happily shoot us on sight. Hey, 'Quin, can you do anything?"

The Harlequin shook his head sadly. "Sorry, Ferret. I've got some limits, and this is one of them. There's precious little that's funny about fire, ice is even less funny, and mindgames of this magnitude aren't funny at all."

"How 'bout your weird buddies, then?" Kuwabara asked.

"No good there, either. Piper's gifts are physical for the most part, and all Van could tell you is that his brainwaves are being unusually nasty. Issola is water-oriented, and Lillias is a reptile. We're out of luck."

Kurama, however, wasn't paying any attention at all to this disheartening news. He was trying to remember something that Hiei had said a while ago, during that crazy fling with Fukushu and her Hunters...

"'My Grandfather wants to help us.'" He muttered.

"What?" Genkai said.

"It's something Hiei said when we were having Hunter problems a while back. You guys weren't there at the time, but remember that volcano in the Inner Makai, the one with the spearmint? Hiei started drawing unbelievable amounts of power from that thing, and when the Hunter showed up, he blasted it straight down to the bones. Here's the kicker: Just before that walking nightmare showed up, I felt this incredibly massive ki all over the place, like it was coming from under the mountain itself."

The Harlequin's eyes had grown very wide. "Salxarxis." He breathed softly. "By the Socks of Stan Lee, it has to be him!"

With a yelp, Genkai dove for her mystic scroll collection. She found the creature who bore that name in her very oldest scroll, which was so ancient that the illustration was nearly gone. All they could see were the vague suggestions of flame and blackened bones. "Here he is!" She declared triumphantly. "Salxarxis the Fire-Lord, one of the original Nine Elementals who shaped the worlds."

Yuusuke gave her a puzzled frown. "Nine? Aren't there only four?"

"Nope. Earth, Air, Fire, and Water are the best-known ones. The others are Light, Darkness, Nature, Moon, and Time. In the beginning, one of each kind all came together and forged the worlds, and then left the petty details up to their children, the Gods. Most of them left after setting up the automatic systems, but it seems that one or two stayed. The Fire Elemental Salxarxis is credited with siring every single race of fire-spirits there is. I think that we can safely say that the big guy is, in fact, Hiei's ultimate Grandfather."

"'Quin, are you all right?" Yuusuke asked.

The Harlequin was leaning against the wall with a stunned look on his face. "I haven't thought about the Fire-Lord in centuries!" He muttered vaguely. "I used to roast marshmallows over Great-Uncle Sal's knuckles with Enma when I was a kid. One day he went off to oversee some sort of new mechanism; plate tectonics, he called it. We never saw him again."

He looked up and gave them a rather weak laugh. "Now you're telling me that he's been under that volcano the whole time?"

"Looks like it." Genkai replied.

"No wonder Yashi caught me so easily, if he was sitting on that kind of power. I'm surprised that Salxarxis allowed it."

"If this scroll's description of him is at all accurate, I don't think he even noticed the drain." Kurama said, puzzling over the fading script.

"So, you think he might help us?" Kuwabara asked.

"If we asked him really nicely, maybe." 'Quin replied, rather doubtfully. "He's the true embodiment of the original flame, so he's a bit fickle. Fire is well known for being our greatest friend and our greatest enemy."

"Fire also goes out of its way to help its own children though, doesn't it?" Kurama asked.

"Almost always, yes. If what Kurama says is true, then the big guy has already been acquainted with Hiei, and that might help. Besides, I don't think Sal's been given a challenge as delicate as this one for a very long time. He may well take us up on it."

"So, the odds are in our favor?" Yuusuke asked.

"Yup."

"Let's do it!"

Fifteen minutes later, they stood on the lip of the huge caldera, in the shadow of the forest of mutant mint. The volcano had quieted down some, and a small lake had formed from rainfall in the mouth of the mountain. The mint forest, seeded here by accident when Genkai and the Spirit Detectives had freed the Harlequin from the grip of the Demon-King Yashi, had spread like crazy all over the slopes and down onto the plains around the mountain. The sweet-smelling stands of mint-trees were already attracting small animals, insects and birds; in a few more decades, this place would become an established forest, and probably the home of a new species of demon or two. Thunder grumbled softly overhead; a storm was gathering in the south.

"So, just how do we get in touch with the Fire-Lord?" Yuusuke asked.

"The scroll suggested a ceremony of summoning, but I'd rather not go through with it." Genkai said. "It involved human sacrifice, and that sort of thing isn't allowed any more."

Kuwabara swallowed hard. "Thank heavens! So what do we do now?"

The Harlequin shrugged. "Start shouting."

This seemed as good a suggestion as any, so they tried it. Kurama remained silent while the others were hollering at the tops of their lungs- and in 'Quin's case, in several different languages at once- cradling Hiei in his arms. He berated himself for his mistake. He should have gone with Hiei, how he should have! But no, he'd spent the day in a dull-boring classroom, taking tests and being -feh- a good little student. Did his reputation, his grades, mean more to him now than his lover? He hadn't even visited the Makai since the Tourney! He had passed up a chance to peruse his winnings and, perhaps, peruse his partner, merely because his teacher would be annoyed if he skipped just that once! He could have just called in sick, or gone after school, homework be damned. His human habits may have very well cost him the life of the one person who meant more to him than his mother...

With a groan of anguish, he buried his face in Hiei's bristly hair, eyes streaming with tears. That, unfortunately, was the last straw. Hiei stirred, and then awakened, fixing a surprised Kurama with an icy triple glare of utter loathing. Hiei shrieked like a hawk and snapped the ropes that held him like celery, whipping out his katana for some serious mayhem-making. "Look out, the firebaby's loose!" The Harlequin barked, throwing his bat at the angry Koorime.

Hiei knocked the bat aside without even looking, springing high into the air for a deathblow that would cleave the presumptuous fox from neck to navel. Hiei was in a singularly foul mood. Everything about this place spelled life and, more unpleasantly, fire. Old fire, the ancient stuff that continents floated on, the magma that burned no matter how many glaciers you piled on it. Moreover, his enemies had steadfastly refused to die, and had even laid hands on him. Yukk! Die, you pathetic fuzz-assed fox!

Kurama stood like a deer in the headlights, unable to move as Hiei strove for altitude, his eyes full of death. Forever would the image of his lover, sword raised for the deathblow, be etched on his mind as he resigned himself to sudden oblivion...

An unbelievable sound of shattering suddenly ripped through the mountain, causing the ground and air alike to quiver violently, ever worsening. One side of the peak bulged and broke as an immense skeletal hand and arm, flame-blackened and blazing, burst through the basalt and snatched Hiei out of the air. The mountain convulsed as though in its death-throes as one of the most ancient entities in all the worlds shouldered thousands of tons of stone aside as if they were nothing. The air seared our hero's lungs as the blast-furnace heat of the Elemental reached them, and they barely heard Hiei's howls of fury over the roaring of the flame. Salxarxis was awesome in the old sense of the word, a titanic humanoid skeleton clothed in flame, eyesockets blazing with yellow incandescence, ram's horns that could have been used for a loop-the-loop in a stunt-car race track curling from his temples. He gripped the edge of the hole he'd made with one taloned hand and opened his fang-lined jaws to speak:

"HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU IDIOTS?! I DON'T LIKE THESE KIND OF SACRIFICES!"

The terrifying monster stopped, puzzled, and sniffed at the air. "SPEARMINT?"

Yuusuke, Genkai, Kurama, Kuwabara, and the Harlequin hauled themselves painfully out of the rubble and tried to meet the gaze of a creature that had molded entire planets. Hiei was still shouting defiance and was attempting to hack Salxarxis' wrist bones apart. Sparks flew from the blade, but that was all. Better to try chopping down a mountain. Salxarxis flashed his grandson an annoyed look, plucked the sword from his grasp, and handed it to Kuwabara. "HOLD THIS THING FOR A MOMENT, WOULD YOU? NOW JUST WHAT IS ALL THIS ABOUT?"

A moment was all the time that Kuwabara could hold it; the Fire-Lord's touch had heated it up considerably. He dropped it with a yelp of pain and frantically blew on his fingers. Genkai, as resident priestess, took the initiative. "Your grandson has been a naughty boy." She stated firmly.

"WHAT?"

The Harlequin hoicked some gravel out of his ear and grinned at the Fire-Lord. "The Koorime think he's a bad boy for just being born. They grabbed him, messed with his mind, and he's been trying to kill us ever since they returned him."

Salxarxis hissed like a damp log and turned his gaze on Hiei again, studying his sulking captive closely. Then he began to laugh. "A FORBIDDEN CHILD. SO THE TRICK I PLAYED ON MY SISTER HAS BORN FRUIT AFTER ALL. SO VERY RARE, FOR FIRE TO BE BORN OF ICE, AND WHEN IT HAPPENS, THE WORLDS ARE CHANGED. CHANGE IS NEVER EASY, AND IS OFTEN CONTESTED. WHAT HAS BEEN DONE TO HIM?"

"They've frozen his mind, turned him evil." Genkai said. "He's supposed to kill all his friends, and then he's supposed to self-destruct, removing all their problems in one go. We brought him here, to ask your help in deprogramming him."

"Pretty-please, Great-Uncle Salxarxis?" Harlequin said, pleadingly. With cherries on top?"

The Fire-Lord seemed to notice 'Quin's presence for the first time. "HARLEQUIN, IS THAT YOU? YOU'VE GROWN SINCE THE LAST TIME WE TALKED. DID ENMA EVER GET OVER THAT BED-WETTING PROBLEM HE HAD?"

"Yes, but his son is having it now." The Harlequin replied to a chorus of strangled snickers coming from the rest of the group. "You gonna help us with Hiei, or what?"

An earthquake-chuckle reverberated through the air. "SO ENMA HAS A SON, NOW. IT HAS BEEN QUITE A WHILE SINCE I'VE WALKED THE SURFACE, I TAKE IT. AS FOR MY WAYWARD GRANDSON, YES, I WILL MEND THE DAMAGE THAT HAS BEEN DONE. ONE OF MY SISTER'S FAVORITE SAYINGS, WHEN SHE IS IN THIS SORT OF ASPECT, IS THAT THE AVALANCHE CONQUERS THE CANDLE. THIS IS QUITE TRUE, BUT NOT WHEN THE CANDLE IS SITTING IN A WAREHOUSE FULL OF HIGH EXPLOSIVES."

As the team tried to handle that image, the Fire-Lord began to sink back down into the caldera. Thunder growled again, this time quite close, and lightning split and threaded its way through the clouds, occasionally reaching down to blast a distant tree to pieces. "Hey!" Yuusuke called as the first drops of rain began to fall. "What about us?"

A blazing eyesocket the size of a cathedral door fixed on them from deep below. "I THOUGHT YOUR KIND DIDN'T MIND THE RAIN."

"We prefer being dry."

"VERY WELL. I SUPPOSE YOU CAN STAY IN WHAT'S LEFT OF THE TEMPLE."

There was a harsh sound of grating as the inside walls of the volcano twisted and put forth a rough staircase that spiralled down into the fiery depths. They hesitated before following the Fire-Lord down, but the sky-splitting clap of thunder and the rushing downpour as the storm broke overhead convinced them to descend.

The heat was only just bearable, and our heroes were forced to remove their shirts or risk heatstroke as they approached the heart of the mountain, and even so, they were sweating heavily by the time they reached bottom. The staircase let out in a long, dark tunnel, lit only here and there by jets of yellow tiame that spouted out of holes set high in the walls. There was no sign of Salxarxis anywhere. "Hey, where'd he go?" Kuwabara said, puzzled. There was no way that the big Elemental could fit through this passage.

"JUST FOLLOW THE HALL TILL YOU GET TO THE FOUNTAIN." The massive voice seemed to sift through the rock itself. "TAKE A LONG DRINK AND FOLLOW THE STREAM, AND THINGS SHOULD GET EASIER FOR YOU TO BEAR."

Through the dull roaring of the flames, they dimly heard the trickle of water coming from somewhere ahead, and they wasted no time finding the source. Just around a bend, they found the fountain, hardly more than a niche and a basin carved in the wall by uncounted centuries of flowing water. The fountain had worn away a spot in one side of the basin, and a steady stream of water poured from it into a groove carved in the floor that ran further down the hall. Yuusuke and the others didn't stand around commenting on the formation of the fountain, however, they crowded right in, splashing each other in their haste to wet their parched throats. The water was deliciously cool and fresh, sharpened with mineral traces and enormously refreshing. "Whoo!" Yuusuke said happily, brushing wet hair out of his eyes. "Ohboy, did I need that."

"You aren't alone." Kurama agreed, wringing out his scarlet mane.

"I feel great!" Kuwabara added, steeping his shirt in the fountain and putting it back on.

Genkai alone had remained observant. "Has anyone else noticed that the temperature has gone down?"

Startled, the others stopped talking. Kurama sniffed the air speculatively. "You're right. It has gotten cooler."

"Actually, you're both quite wrong." The Harlequin said with a wry smirk. "I've heard all sorts of rumors and legends floating around for the past ten thousand years or so about a certain magic spring that grants invulnerability to fire, haven't you?"

"The Pool of Dragon's Tears!" Kurama exclaimed with a stricken look. "That's just an old fairy tale, isn't it?"

"Pretty solid one, considering you just drank from it. Great-Uncle Sal played another trick on his Sister, there. That spring has a little of his essence in it that makes you completely fireproof for up to a week at a time. It impressed the socks off of everybody once, or so he told me. Now come on, we don't want to keep the big guy waiting."

They followed the little stream down a long, twisting passageway that showed signs of being a lava tube a very long time ago before some prehistoric people had turned it into a hallway. It led out onto a long tongue of stone that extended perhaps a third of the way over a vast pit of magma that hissed and bubbled stickily far below; the heart of the mountain itself. Salxarxis reclined at ease in the searing stuff, much as one would relax in a hot tub, and the combined light of his blazing and the fires of the pit below them lit the great domed chamber as bright as the sun. Part of the glare was due to the fact that the walls were thickly encrusted with huge quartz crystals, which reflected and refracted the light to the point of brilliance. The Harlequin's eyes adjusted quicker to the light than the others' did, and he got a good look at one of the crystals that was set in the stone nearby. "Aaaiiieeee!" He cried, jerking away. "So that's where Yashi got the idea!"

"What?" Yuusuke asked, and then he got a good look. "Oh, Gods!"

There was someone trapped inside the crystal. The others gasped in horror as they realized that every chunk of quartz in the chamber was occupied. "Yashi, may his axles break and his eyes fail, used to keep me in a block of quartz when he wasn't trying to break my will." The 'Quin said quietly. "I'd wondered where he got that idea, 'cause the guy had all the creative power of a moldy banana. I guess my Great-Uncle's personality just sort of... seeps up."

"WHEREVER THERE IS ONE WITH GREAT POWER, THERE ARE HUNDREDS LINING UP TO CHALLENGE IT." Salxarxis rumbled. "I LIKE TO KEEP THE MORE EXCEPTIONAL CHALLENGERS, HENCE MY COLLECTION. SOMETIMES WHEN I AM BORED, I HAVE THEM DANCE FOR ME."

Yuusuke swallowed hard. "Sir, remind me never to piss you off."

A deep chuckle. "I HAVE STUDIED THE PROBLEM OF YOUR FRIEND'S AILMENT." He held up a frantically struggling Hiei in one huge hand. "IT WILL BE A VERY DELICATE JOB, AND IT WON'T BE EASY ON HIM, NOT EASY AT ALL. HE WILL BE QUITE A WRECK WHEN I AM THROUGH AND WILL NEED MUCH REASSURING."

"Will he- is the damage permanent?" Kurama said, voice catching a little.

"WITH LUCK, NO. ONE OF MY SISTER'S GREATEST SKILLS, IN HER ASPECT OF WINTER, IS DELICATE INTRICACY. I WILL BE AS CAREFUL AS I KNOW HOW. EVEN SO, HE WILL BE FRAGILE, UNSURE, AND INSECURE AFTER THIS. HE WILL NEED AS MANY HUGS, KISSES, AND CUDDLING AS YOU CAN MUSTER. SINCE YOU TWO ALREADY SEEM TO BE HEAVILY INVOLVED, THIS SHOULD NOT BE A PROBLEM."

Kurama's blush was very nearly as fiery as the pit beneath his feet. "How did you know?!"

The massive Fire Elemental leaned closer to them. "BECAUSE I CAN SEE IT, CHILD. THE WARMTH OF FRIENDSHIP, THE FIRES OF RAGE, THE FLAMES OF PASSION- WHO DO YOU THINK INVENTED THEM? THERE IS PART OF ME IN EVERY LIVING THING ON ANY WORLD YOU CAN THINK OF, AND SOME THAT YOU CAN'T. IT IS MY FIRE THAT GRANTS LIFE. NOW, WHY DON'T YOU LEAVE US BE SO THAT I CAN GET DOWN TO WORK? OH, AND AS FOR YOU ALL-" He waved a long bony finger at everyone but Kurama; "IF YOU SO MUCH AS SNICKER ABOUT HIEI AND KURAMA'S RELATIONSHIP, I SHALL BE... UPSET."

"Yessir!" They all squeaked.

Salxarxis watched his grandnephew lead his friends back toward the ruins of the temple that a long-forgotten tribe had carved out of the mountain in his honor centuries ago. The red-haired Kitsune paused in the doorway for a moment, and shot a pleading glance over his shoulder at the smouldering Fire-Lord before leaving. Salxarxis leaned back against the far wall with a huge, rumbling sigh. A RARE PAIRING, THAT. He thought. RARE AND MARVELLOUS AS BALL LIGHTNING. NOW, LET'S SEE ABOUT THE OTHER HALF OF THAT PAIR...

Hiei had given up the struggle to get loose. Although gentle, the Elemental's grip was unbreakable, even for him. The heat was unbearable, and had reduced him to panting tiredly, lying limp in the bony grasp. What frightened him even more was that the heat was familiar, and horribly seductive. Just as he realized this, he felt a thread of fire slide into his mind as easily as a snake slips into a hole. With a gasp, he tried to close his mind against the invader, tried to block passage to his innermost self and was dragged down with it-

a place of ice and broken mirrors

a fire guttering on the verge of extinction

a wailing wind from the frozen poles

a peaceful stillness matched only by that of the grave

a sudden pillar of bright-golden light, infinitely threatening, infinitely comforting

ice is gone from where it stands in gouts of steam, mirrors dull and burn away, the wailing wind is drowned in the soft crackle of burning.

Images slide over reflective surfaces like ghosts of dreams, half-heard voices murmuring

The guttering flame thus addresses the blazing pillar:

Who are you?

YOU SHOULD KNOW ME, HIEI. I AM SALXARXIS THE FIRE-LORD, AND YOUR ULTIMATE GRANDFATHER.

I am Koorime! I have no grandfather! Fire is the greatest enemy!

FIRE IS ALSO THE GREATEST FRIEND, BOY. NOW TELL ME; IF YOU ARE TRULY KOORIME, THEN WHY ARE YOU A MALE?

Uh...

MY SISTER MAREI, THE MOTHER OF WATER, IS SOMETHING OF A FEMINIST WHEN IN THE ASPECT OF WINTER. THERE ARE NO MALE KOORIME. SHE MADE QUITE A FUSS ABOUT IT. ALTHOUGH I WILL NOT DISPUTE THE LINEAGE OF YOUR MOTHER, YOUR FATHER WAS ONE OF MINE, THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

You lie!

I CAN'T DO THAT. BESIDES, YOU KNOW THE HISTORY OF YOUR CONCEPTION AS WELL AS ANYONE. YOU ARE NOT A TRUE KOORIME.

-A sudden cold rush of air- the stomach-wrenching feeling of all weight falling up falling falling falling forever-fear terror choking off breath- eyes streaming in the howling wind of the endless descent- impact! Pain! Darkness rising to claim awareness- awakening all alone, so alone-

The guttering flame shudders visibly at the memory; a little more ice and mirror burns away.

I SEE THAT YOU AGREE. THE KOORIME FORCED YOUR MOTHER TO DROP YOU OFF THE FLOATING GLACIER, TO LEAVE YOU TO DIE. YOU ARE VERY MUCH MY GRANDSON, HOWEVER, BURNING FIERCELY AGAINST ALL ODDS. INSTEAD OF PERISHING, YOU FLOURISHED, DIDN'T YOU, GAINING STRENGTH AND AGILITY, SPEED AND BRAVERY. IN TIME, YOU GAINED A TRULY IMPRESSIVE CONTROL OF YOUR KI, AND EVEN MANAGED TO BOND WITH A DRAGON.

I have no Dragon! Besides, my ki's gone funny. There's fire mixed in with the ice...

NO DRAGON? REALLY? THEN WHAT IS THAT YOU KEEP UNDER WRAPS ON YOUR RIGHT WRIST?

An old sore or something. I forget.

HA! I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN THEY'D TRY TO CLEAN YOUR MEMORY OF HIM. AN OLD SORE, INDEED. HIEI, THAT IS KEMURI OF THE MIDNIGHT INFERNO CLAN, AN OLD ENEMY OF THE KOORIME. WELL, I SUPPOSE THE OLD LIZARD MADE THEM SORE, WHICH WOULD EXPLAIN THEIR MASKING THE MEMORY. DO YOU SEE IT NOW, HIEI, THE MIGHTY JYAOH ENSATSU KOKURYUUHA?

-riding surging storms of sheer burning power- the Dragon bursts forth with deafening roars- five heads ten heads fifteen all bellowing defiance at the enemy that dares raise its puny powers against the might of a God- searing! Destroying! All fall before the rush of the midnight fiery fangs of the Dragon- weary, exhausted, totally ragged out-falling into friendly arms-

Another ice sculpture steams away, another mirror shatters soundlessly.

Wow!

I THOUGHT THAT WOULD GET A RISE OUT OF YOU. IF YOU WERE TRULY ONE OF THEM, YOU'D BE CARRYING AROUND AN ICE DRAGON. BY THE WAY, YOUR LOSS OF CONTROL OVER YOUR KI IS JUST YOUR PROPER NATURE TRYING TO REASSERT ITSELF. YOU WERE ALWAYS A FIREBABY, AND YOU ALWAYS WILL BE.

Firebaby! Don't call me that! I swear, I'll kill the motley maniac who stuck me with that nickname, god or not!

KILL YOUR FRIENDS? I AM TERRIBLY DISAPPOINTED IN YOUR ATTITUDE.

I have no friends!

DON'T BE RIDICULOUS. YOU HAVE MANY GOOD BUDDIES, EVEN IN THE HARLEQUIN.

Yukk!

I WILL ADMIT THAT MY GRANDNEPHEW IS OFTEN AN ANNOYING LITTLE JERK, BUT YOU STILL FIND HIM GREATLY AMUSING. NO MATTER HOW MUCH HE PESTERS YOU, HE DEVOTES JUST AS MUCH ENERGY TO THE REST OF THE TEAM. HE DOES SWING A SWORD RATHER WELL, DOESN'T HE?

-moonlit midnight deep thinking- silver snow oh wait that's confetti- dancing through the treetops swords ringing like militant bells- moonlight flashes off a blade like burnished silver a grin like a crescent moon eyes like glowing topaz- agile graceful lightning fast the swords meet clash away ring together again- dang this joker is a showoff- what fun-

AND WE MUSTN'T FORGET THE OTHERS. WHAT OF YUUSUKE, OF KUWABARA, OF VANGUARD AND THE PIPER? OR GENKAI AND KURAMA?

Useless, all of them! They aren't worth the space they take up.

DON'T YOU GIVE ME THAT. YUUSUKE WAS THE FIRST TO TRUST YOU FURTHER THAN HE COULD THROW YOU. HE RESPECTS YOUR SKILLS AND STRENGTHS, AND PUTS UP WITH YOUR BAD ATTITUDE AND YOUR WEAKNESSES WITH GOOD NATURED TOLERANCE. YOU RESPECT HIM RIGHT BACK FOR HIS IRREPRESSIBLE NATURE, GOOD LEADERSHIP, AND UNORTHODOX BUT EFFECTIVE NOTIONS, DON'T YOU?

The Gate of Betrayal... And that idea of his for ricocheting a blast off of the Mirror of Utter Dark...

OH, YES. QUITE AN INNOVATION. KUWABARA CAN PULL OFF A FEW GOOD ONES AS WELL-

That one! A wretched, insulting, boorish oaf! That meatheaded Ningen couldn't find his ass with both hands and an atlas! And he won't stay away from my sister.

YES, HE MAY BE A LITTLE ON THE THICK SIDE, BUT YOU VALUE HIM ALL THE SAME. HE IS A STALWART COMPANION, AND HE POSSESSES A VERY STRONG WILL; HE REFUSES TO GIVE UP EVEN IF ALL ODDS ARE STACKED AGAINST HIM. HE WILL NOT ABANDON HIS FRIENDS, NO MATTER WHAT. HE HAS HONOR. BESIDES, HE'S FUN TO TEASE, ISN'T HE?

I hate it when you're right.

I'M NOT FINISHED WITH YOU YET, MY BOY, NOT BY A LONG SHOT. SPEAKING OF SUCH, THERE IS ALSO VANGUARD AND THE PIPER, BOTH DENIZENS OF THE SHATTERED LANDS.

A clanking junkheap and a scarlet monstrosity!

WHO WRITES YOUR MATERIAL? VAN IS PROBABLY THE MOST STABLE PERSONALITY YOU KNOW; RIGIDLY SANE ENOUGH TO BABYSIT YOU AND THE OTHER THREE DETECTIVES DURING THAT INCIDENT WITH RAIZEN. PRETTY DAMN GOOD IN A FIGHT, TOO. HOW CAN YOU HATE SOMEONE WHO TAKES CARE OF YOU IN YOUR MOST INCONVENIENT MOMENTS? WHO GIVES YOU EVIL SORCERERS TO CHEW ON?

Will you stop breaking my illusions?!

NO. ILLUSIONS ARE BAD FOR YOU. CONSIDER THE PIPER. ONE OF THE GREATEST FRIENDS THAT YOU WILL EVER HAVE. HE PULLED YOU OUT OF THE GLEN OF THE DAMNED BEFORE THE WALKING DEAD MADE A MEAL OF YOUR FLESH, OF YOUR VERY SOUL. YOU STAYED WITH HIM UNTIL YOU WERE STRONG ENOUGH TO CONTINUE ON YOUR OWN AGAIN, AND LEFT HIS COMPANY WITH THE GIFT OF A SWORD, THE SAME SLIM KATANA THAT YOU WIELD TO THIS VERY DAY. EVEN NOW, HE CAN TEASE YOU, CAN BOSS YOU AROUND AND CALL YOU NAMES. HOW CAN YOU BE A BULLY UNLESS THERE IS A WEENIE TO ARGUE WITH?

Stop it!

NOT UNTIL I'M FINISHED. YOU TRUST GENKAI'S WISDOM AND SKILL. SHE KNOWS A LOT MORE ABOUT STRANGE AND TERRIBLE THINGS THAN YOU EVER WILL. WAS SHE NOT THE ONE YOU RAN TO AFTER THE HARLEQUIN LED YOU ON THAT SILLY DANCE THROUGH THE TREES? HERS IS THE VOICE THAT BANISHES CONFUSION. TO HER, YOUR PAST MEANS LITTLE; YOU ARE PART OF THE TEAM AND ARE EXPECTED TO ACT AS SUCH.

Get out of my head!

YOU FEAR MY NEXT WORDS, DON'T YOU? EVEN NOW, ESPECIALLY NOW, YOU CANNOT DENY THAT YOU HAVE DEEP FEELINGS ABOUT KURAMA. YOUR LAST COHERENT THOUGHTS WERE OF HIM, DURING THE PROCESS WHEREIN THE KOORIME REWROTE YOUR MIND. DO YOU FEAR EVEN TO ADMIT THIS LOVE OF YOURS TO YOURSELF?

Stop!

I WILL NOT. HE LOVES YOU, AS MUCH AS YOU LOVE HIM. HE ALONE AMONG ALL OTHERS WILL NOT REJECT YOU, EVEN UNDER PAIN OF DEATH. YOU CAN HIDE BEHIND BRISK WORDS AND COLD EXTERIORS UNTIL THE SUN GOES NOVA, BUT IT WILL NOT CHANGE ANYTHING. HAVE NONE OF YOUR LITTLE LIAISONS TAUGHT YOU THAT? IT'S REAL; AS REAL AS MOUNTAINS ARE REAL. IT CANNOT BE CHANGED. YOU TWO ARE AS ONE, AND SEPARATION IS IMPOSSIBLE. I KNOW THAT IS SO BECAUSE I DEEMED IT TO BE, GENERATIONS UPON GENERATIONS BEFORE EITHER OF YOU WERE BORN. YOU FEAR THESE EMOTIONS BECAUSE YOU HAVE HAD SO VERY LITTLE EXPERIENCE WITH THEM. KURAMA OFFERS AN OPPORTUNITY TO PRACTICE. WHAT DO YOU SAY OF THIS, HIEI?

Oh, gods, you're right, you're right, you're right-

The floor is flooded with steaming meltwater, of silvery mirror shards rapidly dissolving. There is only one pillar of ice left, a tall stalagmite in the rough shape of a woman-

GET OUT OF HIS MIND, MAREI. NOW.

NOT THIS TIME, SALXARXIS. THIS IS MY JOKE ON YOU. YOU HAVE POLLUTED MY FAVORITE PURE STRAIN, AND THE WATERS THEMSELVES. THAT LITTLE FOUNTAIN OF YOURS IS NOT FUNNY.

AND SWAMP FEVER IS? HE IS MINE, MAREI, I CLAIM HIM. YOU HAVE NO LAWFUL BUSINESS BEING HERE.

OH, YES I DO. I MADE IT THE LAW OF THE KOORIME TO REJECT AND DESTROY ALL OF YOUR TAINTED STRAIN, THE FORBIDDEN CHILDREN.

THAT'S THEM, NOT YOU. YOU KNOW VERY WELL THAT THIS KIND OF INTERFERENCE IS AGAINST THE RULES, MAREI. BEAT IT! YOU ARE NOT WANTED HERE!

MAKE ME, YOU OVERGROWN CAIRN FIRE!

WITH PLEASURE.

The golden pillar bends toward the ice woman, bathing it in bright hot flame, she bends in return to meet the blaze with the terrible winds from the heart of the glacier. Together they strive against one another, flames wreathing the dripping frost maiden in a glimmering halo, neither one eclipsing the other. Enormous amounts of power are poured into attack and defense, but both are too evenly matched, neither can surmount the other...

A guttering flame makes a choice and adds its slight strength to the battle...

AAAIIIEEEEE!!!! OH, THIS IS SIMPLY TOO MUCH! I'M GOING TO GET YOU FOR THIS SOMEDAY, SALXARXIS! YOU WILL REGRET HAVING INCURRED MY WRATH!

OH, BUGGER OFF.

The ice woman withers and melts, her waters joining the evaporating puddle on the floor.

Is she gone?

YES. DAMN IT, I REALLY HATE IT WHEN SHE'S GOT PMS. I'M VERY SORRY ABOUT HER TEMPER. SHE'S GENERALLY A MUCH NICER PERSON.

I'll take your word for it. Where's Kurama? I need him.

Kurama sat on a fallen ceiling stone, watching the Harlequin and the others playing some obscure card game on the crude altar on the other side of the room. It had been several hours since they had left the- well, for want of a better term- the throne room. Caldera. Whatever. He was sick with worry over Hiei; would he be all right? Would he be forever scarred inside by his reprogramming? Will he remember what there was between us???

"KURAMA," The voice of the Fire-Lord shook down some more dust from the ceiling. "GET YOUR BUTT IN HERE. HIEI NEEDS YOU."

Kurama was on his feet and running towards the caldera before Salxarxis had finished the last sentence.

There was a weary slump to the Fire-Lord's shoulders as Kurama sped through the doorway to the chamber, and he stared tiredly at a tiny figure curled up in one burning hand. Kurama noticed this with a start, seeing that the fires that clothed the dark bones were burning somewhat lower. "IT IS DONE." Salxarxis murmured softly, extending the hand that held Hiei toward Kurama. "TAKE HIM. THERE IS A PASSAGE- THREE DOORWAYS UP AND TO THE RIGHT- THAT WILL LEAD YOU TO A PLACE WITH SUFFICIENT PRIVACY. I SUGGEST YOU MAKE USE OF IT."

Kurama gently scooped Hiei out of the massive hand, cradling him close. Hiei came back to the land of the living long enough to wrap his trembling arms around Kurama's neck and bury his face in Kurama's chest with a soft whimper. "Thank you." Kurama said. "You look tired. Was it that hard?"

"NOT AT FIRST. I RAN INTO A FEW COMPLICATIONS NEAR THE END, UNFORTUNATELY. DON'T PANIC, YOUR FRIEND IS STILL WHOLE. WHEN I HAVE RECOVERED, HOWEVER, SOMEONE ELSE WILL NOT BE."

Kurama decided that any further questions would be a bad idea, and left the room. He followed the directions he was given, and came out of the tunnel into the open air of a sheltered grotto in the side of the mountain. The storm had stopped some time ago, and the air was warm and smelled heavily of rain-washed spearmint. Some sort of mossy growth carpeted the floor with a thick velvety green mat, and the stars shone gently through a hole in the roof. A puddle of rainwater in a depression near a far wall provided a still, misty mirror of the skies. It steamed slightly, warmed by the same furnace that powered the tectonic movements of the continents themselves. Soft breezes sighed over the hole in the roof.

Kurama gently placed Hiei on the moss, with all the care and reverence one would give a small child. He lay down beside him and took him into his arms, cuddling the precious being close.

Hiei clung desperately to him, almost afraid to let go. He buried his face in Kurama's crimson locks, not wanting to deal with the outside world right now. All he wanted was to curl up in the sanctuary of his lover's embrace and not come out until it was over. Although he'd been assured that the Koorime no longer controlled even the slightest thought, he still doubted himself. Salxarxis had banished the icy remnants of their spell, but not the unbidden memories of what he had done. Kurama... he'd forsaken the one he loved most in his life... the only one he loved in his life. Unwittingly, Hiei's grip on Kurama's shirt became tighter, clutching the youko as close as he could without crushing him.

Kurama... watching him get closer... Kurama's eyes wide with shock and fear... Kurama's resignation to death by his own lover's hands... Kurama's soul still burning with love... even when...

Hiei looked up at Kurama, his eyes daring to brim with tears, despite his attempts to blink them away. The edges of his vision blurred, and he blinked even harder. The youko hadn't yet acknowledged his scrutiny, his own eyes clenched shut as he gripped the fire demon in an embrace that would have nearly broken ribs if he weren't careful. His lightly tanned cheeks glinted with moisture, and Hiei took in a sharp breath. Is he crying... for me...? Why...? Hiei reached upward with a trembling hand, carefully brushing away the tears that continued to flow from his lover's closed eyes. His fingertips slipped into Kurama's hair, running gently through the silken sidelocks. In a flash, those green eyes opened, and fixed on Hiei. They shone with more unshed tears as they locked on Hiei with fear. Hiei met them with his own, and drowned...

Oh, Hiei... why didn't I go with you? If I had, none of this would have happened. If I could take it all back... my life, my soul... my world are yours... I never meant for you to be hurt... I'll never leave your side... forgive me... Oh, gods please forgive me... I can't bear life without you... koibito... my only love...

Hiei blinked, startled, yanking his eyes away. Kurama's mind was a mess... kinda summed up his past week... So lost was he in his own thoughts, that he didn't notice when Kurama had squeezed his eyes shut. The body he clung tightly to began to shake, the first hint that something was terribly wrong.

"Hiei... gomen ne..." he sobbed.

The fire demon snapped out of his head and looked up once more. That silly fox was crying again. If he didn't do something... say something... he'd drown them. The fingers in Kurama's hair tightened, and he tugged a little, bringing their faces closer. He lightly touched his lips to the dampened skin, kissing Kurama's cheek with the caress of a butterfly.

"Daijobu, Kurama."

Emerald eyes locked on warm, frightened ruby ones, searching them for forgiveness. In just an instant of looking into Hiei's fragile gaze, Kurama instantly quelled all fears of his own rejection. He had more important things to do. Like convince his most precious demon that he wouldn't be alone, that night or any other.

"...He will need as many hugs, kisses, and cuddling as you can muster..."

Very well, Kurama thought with determination. That he could handle just fine. Very slowly and deliberately, he leaned down and brushed Hiei's lips with his own. He felt the small body start a little in his embrace, but made no move to free himself from the kiss or the protection of his arms. Not wishing to push Hiei any faster than he might have been willing to go, he broke the kiss before his youko side had a chance to enjoy it. He berated his hormones briefly before burying his face into the spiky, yet soft, hair. He inhaled deeply, expecting the subtle pine-musk he had become used to, but was met with the choking scent of sulfur. He blinked, pulling his head away to sneeze. The movement jolted Hiei, and he looked up at him with a perplexed expression. That damned sulfur wouldn't leave him be and he sneezed again.

"What's the matter with you?" Hiei asked, with a slight glare in his direction.

"I... achoo!... think I got... achoo!... sulfur... sniff... from your hair... ACHOO!"

Hiei's eyes narrowed at the sniffling fox, and he pulled out of his arms to sit up. He watched his lover sneeze one more time for good measure before shaking his head. "Hn. Stupid fox."

Kurama sat up, looking annoyed at best. Once positive he was over his little fit, he turned his attention back to Hiei. The little youkai definitely looked like he'd had better days. His cloak had several tears and scorch marks from his scuffles with the Reikai Tantei, and his entire body was tense and covered with traces of that accursed sulfur and even more soot. At this rate, just snuggling with his firebaby would give him the sniffles for a month. What was worse, Kurama wasn't much better. Something had to be done...

Kurama's jewelled gaze searched the area, his sight landing on the small, and rather accommodating, pool of water nearby. Hiei noticed his attention to it, and raised a thin eyebrow. That silly fox didn't think he was going to dunk them in puddle of steaming rainwater, did he?

He did.

Kurama looked questioningly at Hiei, who gave in, realizing he would lose this fight no matter what. The fox seemed to glow, reaching for Hiei, and drawing him into his arms again, willing himself NOT to sneeze! Hiei rested into his lover's arms, thankful for the steady comfort, the pillar that was his Kurama. He felt a slight bit of alarm as Kurama's warm fingertips were felt at the back of his neck, but realized it was only to pull off the tattered, white scarf. With the utmost care, Kurama undressed his fire demon and carried him over to the small pool. Gently, he set Hiei in, keeping his arms around him until his lover got over his initial discomfort in the water, then released him.

Hiei looked up at him with expectant eyes. Kurama glanced back. The pool was awfully small... making it a very tight accommodation for two. However, the crimson eyes upon him begged for his company, and Kurama knew that he needed that reassurance. Smiling, he pulled off his own clothes, giving Hiei only a moment to study his figure, then slipped in next to Hiei. The water was a bit hot for his tastes, but bearable. Hiei seemed to be soaking up that heat like a magnet and radiating it. Kurama smiled, pulling the youkai close. Using his hands, he washed them clean of the sulfur and soot, Hiei's pale skin shining in the starlight. Kurama slipped behind him, urging Hiei to relax as he pulled his head back, dipping that head of spiky black hair into the water. Hiei squirmed a bit, and Kurama made his work fast, cleaning his hair. When he was done, he let Hiei go, the youkai taking a deep breath and sitting up straight. Water was not his favorite element, but he trusted Kurama not to let anything happen to him while he was in it. He turned to face Kurama, a sudden smile coming to his face. Kurama gave this surprising gesture a quizzical look... Two seconds before Hiei dunked him. The youko wasn't off his guard for long, just taking the slender torso into his arms and dragging Hiei under with him. The youkai fought off his panic, twisting in Kurama's arms to tussle with him beneath the surface. There wasn't much room to fight in, making their bodies press together as they tried to gain control over the other. Hiei grabbed a handful of Kurama's hair and kissed him fiercely. Kurama's arms instinctively went around him again, and they rose from the water in a tight embrace, their lips locked, inseparable.

Hiei was home... His hearth was his Kurama. No matter what, he wouldn't let anything, not even a bunch of stuck up ice sculptures, come between him and his fox. He would make sure of that. Kurama seemed to be in full agreement of this as he pressed Hiei against the side of the pool. His movements were gentle, unhurried, so as not to scare his beloved. He broke the kiss to look into Hiei's warm red eyes, no longer that pale, icy blue. He saw the youkai's pain and regret, and deep down, his love. Smiling, Kurama leaned forward and nuzzled the fire demon's neck, starting up a tiny purr in his lover's throat. He kissed the slender neck, running his tongue over the sweet flesh. He tasted the clean droplets of the pool water and sucked hungrily. The purr became a rumbling that vibrated the Koorime's entire body in a pleasant sound.

"Kurama..."

"Don't worry, itooshi. I'm never going to let you be alone again. I promise you that."

The skilled youko continued his way down the demon's neck, pausing to clean the water from the cleft of his collarbones. Those burning lips passed a trail down to a nipple, and Hiei moaned, tipping his head back. Kurama was in up to his chin in water, but he didn't care. The task of making Hiei forget what had happened to him more important than anything else. Taking the hard nub of flesh between his teeth, he pleasured it skillfully with his lips and tongue. Hiei squirmed a little, an excited whimper escaping. Blood-red hair fanned out on the surface of the water, and Hiei reached out to touch it, running his hands through the wet strands as if in a trance. His blood boiled at Kurama's touch, especially when the kitsune reached under the water to finger his erection.

Hiei gasped sharply, his head going farther back. Kurama smiled against his flesh, then shifted to tease the other nipple gently, his hand running feather-strokes along his hardening penis. The water moved with his hand, it too causing Hiei to drown in the erotic waves that washed over him. He pushed his hips forward, hoping Kurama would do more, but the fox would not be rushed. His questing fingertips reached lower, caressing his balls and kneading them until Hiei cried out in need for release. The youko took pity on his lover, moving his hand back to enclose the throbbing shaft in his fist. Hiei yelped in surprise, and Kurama kissed him deeply, the moans fading under his warm, wet lips. He began to pump Hiei steadily, his own erection begging for touch, for release, but he would be patient.

Hiei squirmed even more, closing his eyes to the inevitable rush that would overtake him. All he was aware of were Kurama's lips, Kurama's hands, and his need for release. It burned him like no fire ever would, melting any hints of doubt that might have existed. His memory of those awful days spent trying to rid himself of his flame fading away into the pleasure that flame brought. The sweet pressure built in his loins, making every nerve tingle. Then... it was gone. Hiei's eyes snapped open. Kurama had pulled back and was smiling that godsdamned youko grin at him. The supple fingers he had twisted into the crimson hair tightened, and he yanked Kurama forward.

"Kurama..." He hissed, his voice between a growl and a plea, "...Finish it!" He demanded.

"I plan to, my love."

Kurama reached back to untwine his lover's fingers from his hair. Keeping a hold on him, he shifted so that he was behind the fire demon, spreading the pale-skinned thighs, teasing his aching penis again. Hiei moaned, instantly submissive, his hands dropping down to his sides. The water lapped gently at his hips as Kurama shifted under him, an unmistakable hardness pressing at his rear. He sighed with relief. His kitsune wouldn't leave him hanging. Kurama's tanned arms wrapped around his torso, and he leaned back against that sexy chest. The youko buried his face into Hiei's hair, inhaling the sweet scent of it now that it was clean of sulfur. He pushed his hips against the youkai, gently, guiding his penis towards the tight passage.

Hiei jerked slightly as Kurama began to push in. Immediately, those eager fingers wrapped around his length, moving enticingly, drawing his attention away from the pain of entry. Hiei pressed his head against the youko's shoulder, his breath hard and fast as Kurama forced himself into his body. Once he was in, he gave pause, nuzzling Hiei's neck and kissing the damp skin. The Koorime squirmed only a little to get himself used to the feeling of Kurama's member inside him. Soon the squirms became small thrusts against that length. Smiling, the kitsune moved his hips in time with his lover, pushing hard against him. Hiei groaned, the purr again rumbling his chest.

Kurama's gentle thrusts grew steadily faster, one hand moving over Hiei's throbbing penis, the other stroking the muscular stomach and chest. With cries that reached deep into the night, the demons came together, collapsing against the side of the pool, both gasping for breath. Kurama gently pulled out and shifted to pull Hiei into his embrace. The fire demon rested his head against his lover's shoulder, content to bask in the youko's presence. Without even realizing it, he dozed off, safe in Kurama's arms.

Meanwhile, back at the ruined altar room, Yuusuke, Genkai and Kuwabara were trying to stave off boredom. Kuwabara had found a Salamander- no, not a small amphibious cousin of the newt, a real fire lizard- behind a ruined statue and was teaching it how to play fetch. Genkai was playing solitaire while Yuusuke was getting a history lesson from the Harlequin. "So a bunch of Oni built this place?" Yuusuke said, trying to figure out a badly eroded piece of carving.

"One of the original tribes, yes." 'Quin said, scraping dirt out of an inscription. "This was back when most of the gods were still undergoing potty training, and it is very hard to worship someone who still sleeps with a fuzzy walrus or something like that. This particular tribe managed to discover that not only was the Fire-Lord was still here, but he didn't object to the odd prayer now and then."

"So they built a temple right into the mountain?" Yuusuke asked.

"Oh, yeah. Sal was rather fond of them and even stopped the lava from swamping the place those times when the volcano was due to erupt, not to mention setting up the Fountain so they wouldn't fry when they wanted to talk face-to-face with him. They built a rather impressive little empire right from this point, and you can still find artifacts and legends of that time. It was hailed as a Golden Age, a time of high adventure and chivalry and great sorcery and other nifty events. For a time, this place was the sunlit hub of the entire Makai. Then it stopped being so."

"What happened to it?" Kuwabara asked, tickling the Salamander's belly.

"The Netherworlders." Harlequin sighed sadly. "At one point way in the wayback, Yakumo decided to make a grab for the Reikai, and he needed a place to come out in where he wouldn't be noticed by Enma. To make a long and unpleasantly gory story short, the armies of the Netherworld overran the Inner Makai and conquered it, destroying that glorious empire completely after making sure that Salxarxis wouldn't be there to take offense. Sal had to go off and see why a bunch of earthquakes weren't happening when they should, so he left his people unguarded for just long enough. Yakumo then made his grasp for power, ran up against Enma, and got his Netherworld shattered for his crime. Mind you, Enma probably would have lost if Sal hadn't helped."

Genkai smiled. "I take it he didn't like Yakumo very much?"

Harlequin made a rude noise. "Hardly. He was so pissed about the invasion that he nearly tore the whole continent loose from its moorings when he set off the volcano. Almost two thirds of the mountain went off in an explosion that cost Yakumo nearly three quarters of his entire army. After the war, he rebuilt his mountain and withdrew into the depths, not even noticing when some other tribe of demons built Yashi's castle on top of it."

Genkai let out her breath in a long whistle. "I've never heard the story of that war told from that angle. Ever think about writing a history book for my collection?"

"No, I hadn't. Maybe I'll get you some new scrolls-o-power for your birthday or something." The Harlequin replied. "Some of your old ones are getting kind of crumbly."

"Yeah, that would be good. Hey! Stop that!" The Salamander had lost interest in fetching pebbles and was eating the card deck.

The Harlequin yelped, grabbed the fiery iguana-like lizard and pulled it away from its smouldering snack. "A flaming foobash, so you are! That was one of my favorite decks!"

The Salamander merely burped smugly and attempted to ignite 'Quin's nose.

"Why was that your favorite deck?" Yuusuke asked.

"Er..." The Harlequin looked more than a little nervous for some reason.

The Salamander chose that moment to burp up a number of slightly charred pictures, some familiar ones among them. Kuwabara grabbed a handful for a closer look, and Yuusuke crowded in for a peek as well. "A picture of Yukina, and here's one of Keiko. Hey! Where's their clothes?!"

The Harlequin put down the lizard and giggled nervously as the two spirit detectives turned furious gazes on him. "Oops. Oh, damn. Saigon bug-out!"

He then took off down a tunnel as if the very legions of hell were snapping at his heels. With a hoot and a holler, Yuusuke and Kuwabara sprinted after him, spiritual weapons blazing. Genkai watched them go with a detached sort of calm, and then turned her attention to the Salamander, who was sniffing speculatively at the card fragments. "You did that on purpose, didn't you?" She asked it.

The lizard hiccuped and finished off the rest of the deck.

Kurama lay happily in the pool, fingering the velvet-soft fine body hairs that grew down Hiei's backbone while Hiei, much calmed, purred quietly into Kurama's chest. The stars glittered like scattered diamonds in the patch of sky visible through the hole in the roof, and the full moon played tag with dark, wispy clouds. Gentle breezes blew the scent of spearmint to them, an interesting compliment to warm water, smoke, and their own damp body-scents. "Feel any better?" Kurama said to his buzzing lover.

Hiei's only response was to purr louder and snuggle deeper into Kurama's embrace.

Kurama pillowed his head on one arm and watched the sky for a while, enjoying the peace and the afterglow of his and Hiei's exertions. After a while, he searched out with his ki to see what might be outside. There wasn't much. Bugs, the odd bird or two, the ever-present spearmint, and a new kind of mint-eating rodent. Mint... Now that sounded good right about now. Taking care not to disturb Hiei, he carefully coaxed a stalk of mint down through the hole, plucked off a leaf, and chewed it. Ah!

Hiei, noticing the dangling greenery, reached up and tore the whole top off and began to crunch at it with every sign of enjoyment. The smell was pleasantly overpowering, completely drowning out the faint but lingering stink of sulfur that hung around the edges of perception like an unwanted guest. With a happy sigh, Kurama wrapped his arms around Hiei and nuzzled the thick thatch of black hair affectionately. What a nice night this is.

Suddenly, a shout of "There he goes! Get him!" from the hallway shattered the silence. The Harlequin, whooping with laughter, bounded through the room and leaped out through the hole in the roof. Yuusuke and Kuwabara were close behind, absolutely furious. "Come back here, you psychotic mime!" Kuwabara shouted as they splashed through the puddle and hoisted themselves up through the skylight via the mint-stalk. "I'll have your skull for a chamber pot!" Yuusuke shouted, his voice fading with distance.

"What the hell was that?" Kurama said after a long moment of stunned silence.

"Two meatheaded Ningens and a stripey maniac." Hiei replied grumpily, sitting up.

Kurama groaned and propped himself up on his elbows. "If they're bored enough to be chasing 'Quin around like that, then I suppose we should get up before they come looking for us, too. Once they get done with pummeling that clown. Are you feeling well enough to go find Genkai?"

"Stupid fox. Of course I am."

Kurama chuckled and started looking around for their clothes.

They found Genkai easily enough. She was busy puzzling out the ancient murals and inscriptions that coated the walls of the rooms and halls, using the fiery Salamander perching on her shoulder as an extra source of light. "'...And then the very rocks did boil and the sky grow dark as the Fire-Lord our protector did rise to our defense, smiting the monster to ashes in the time it takes for a man's heart to beat thrice...' Oh, hello, Kurama, Hiei." Genkai said, looking up from her work. Did the others find you?"

"Not really." Kurama said. They were too busy chasing Harlequin out through the hole in the roof. Where'd you find the Salamander?"

Genkai rubbed the lizard's nose fondly. "Kuwabara found it behind a broken statue and tried to teach it how to play fetch. It likes to eat card decks."

Hiei stepped forward for a better look and got more than he bargained for. The lizard took an instant liking to him and hopped onto his shoulder and started licking his face. "Hey!" Kurama chuckled as Hiei tried to fend off the Salamander's affections, and eventually removed it from Hiei's shoulder and placed it on his own. "Cute little guy." He said, ignoring Hiei's snort of disapproval. The Salamander responded by trying to eat Kurama's hair.

Kuwabara and Yuusuke caught up with them a few minutes later, looking rather smug with themselves. Genkai smiled slightly. "Did you catch him?" She asked.

"Oh, yeah!" Kuwabara chortled. "We chased 'Quin straight up the mountain and punted him into the caldera."

"He's not going to make any more of those card decks for a while!" Yuusuke agreed.

"You are quite aware that he is fireproof at the moment, aren't you?" Genkai said.

Their faces fell like paralyzed falcons. "Oh, damn. I forgot about that." Yuusuke muttered as Hiei snickered in the background.

"Next time, could you try not to step on us?" Kurama asked a little shortly. "I'd like it if you two would learn to watch where to put your feet."

They gave him a blank look. "We stepped on you?" Kuwabara said, trying to remember. "I don't think we saw you while chasing the clown..."

"We were in the puddle. In the room with the hole in the roof." Hiei said.

Yuusuke looked at him funny. "I'm sorry about that. Hey, what were you two doing in a puddle?"

"None of your damned business." Kurama and Hiei told him in unison, giving Yuusuke a dirty look. The Salamander hissed peevishly at him and jumped up onto Kuwabara's shoulder.

"All right, all right, I get the point." Yuusuke said, backing up a pace. "Let's go find Salxarxis and see what he wants to do next."

Salxarxis was looking much better by the time they found their way back to the firepit; he was burning brightly again and was examining the contents of one of his crystals with a jeweller's attention to detail. As they approached, he put the stone back into its niche and looked up to greet them. "AH, I SEE THAT YOU ARE WELL AGAIN. SHALL WE DISCUSS THE PROPER FORM OF BLOODY RETRIBUTION TO EXACT FROM THE KOORIME?"

"Fine with me." Yuusuke said, and then something in the lava below caught his attention. "'Scuse me, sir, but did you know that there's a clown in your hot tub?"

"OF COURSE. HE DID A SWAN DIVE THROUGH THE MOUTH OF THE VOLCANO FOR SOME REASON AND HAS BEEN DOING THE BACKSTROKE EVER SINCE HE HIT THE SURFACE." The Fire-Lord fished his grandnephew out of the lava by the cape and held him up in front of them. "ANY IDEA WHY HE DID THAT?"

"We threw him over the edge ourselves." Kuwabara replied. "He'd made a deck of naughty picture cards of our girlfriends."

Salxarxis snorted with exasperated amusement and gave Harlequin a shake, spattering drops of obsidian everywhere. "WHAT A TWIT." He murmured, dumping 'Quin on his butt on the ledge.

"Now, what about the Koorime?" Demanded Hiei, eyes burning. "Let's go find their floating island and flash-fry the lot of them!"

Salxarxis shook his head sadly. "I'M NOT ALLOWED TO WIPE OUT AN ENTIRE SPECIES. SORRY, MY BOY, BUT THAT' S THE RULES. MY FAMILY WOULD STIR UP AN UNNATURAL DISASTER ALL OVER THIS MOUNTAIN IF I EVEN CONSIDERED IT."

"We have to do something." Yuusuke said. "If only to teach them not to mess around on our turf."

"YOU'RE QUITE RIGHT, OF COURSE." The massive Elemental said. "NOW, IF ONLY-" He stopped in the middle of his sentence, and then his blackened-bone face took on a decidedly sinister cast as an inspiration struck him. Then he began to laugh. "HAH! I KNOW JUST THE THING! THIS ONE'S ON ME, KIDS. YOU HAVE GOT TO SEE THIS..."

With that, he surged up the throat of the mountain in a blaze of searing fire. Our heroes dashed back down the hall to the staircase they had entered by, and soon joined their blazing friend on the top of the volcano. The sun was just rising above the eastern horizon, striking marvellous colors off the ash-laden sky. As they approached, Salxarxis winked at them and spread his arms wide. In response, the sky suddenly cleared, the dirty clouds rolling back like a carpet and exposing the pale blue sky above. Far, far away, something glittered in the sky like a pale sapphire.

"The Floating Glacier..." Kurama breathed.

"INDEED." Salxarxis said. "I'M AFRAID THAT YOUR EVES ARE NOT SHARP ENOUGH TO SEE FAR ENOUGH TO APPRECIATE WHAT l AM ABOUT TO DO. THIS, I THINK, WILL HELP SOMEWHAT."

A boulder of smooth obsidian thrust suddenly up from the ground, a close-up image of the Glacier and the land under it appearing on the surface.

"HOLD ON TO YOUR HATS!" The Fire-Lord said cheerfully, and started drawing up his power.

All over the worlds, certain things happened. Just for a moment, the people of the Ningenkai experienced a jerk as all the tectonic movement on the planet came to an abrupt halt...

A certain number of fault lines failed to produce earthquakes in the Makai...

Three volcanos in the Reikai suddenly ran out of magma to spit...

Forest fires everywhere suddenly disappeared, leaving some very confused firefighters to puzzle over the mystery...

Several of the Shattered Lands stopped existing and eight started...

The concentration of ki on the mountaintop was unbelievable, and just kept growing. The heat rippled the air until it was like being underwater, and the temperature was causing some of the softer rocks to dribble drips of slag. Just when it seemed as though all the power in the worlds had been drawn into this one place, Salxarxis tightened his control and reached-

Consider the Glacier, or more appropriately, the construction thereof. A glacier is nothing more than a landbound iceberg of immense proportions that forms out of eon's worth of unmelted snowfall. The homeland of the Koorime had taken the process a bit further; to sustain the ice, they stole moisture clean out of the air without bothering to wait for the weather.

As a result of this, the farmlands beneath the floating island hadn't seen rain for centuries, eking out a miserable existence by hunting around for underground springs that went dry far too often. The Oni farmers ventured out at dawn as usual to check the ditches. Two of them stopped by a ditch dug just the day before and dug fingers into the dark soil. "Dry again, Max." One of them said sadly. "All that good ash from the mountain and not enough water to grow weeds in it."

In unison, they glanced up at the mass of ice above them and spat habitual curses against the Koorime- but quietly. They'd gotten used to drought; they didn't need sudden frosts as well. The one called Max gave a sigh. "C'mon, Stef. Maybe the north fields have a little to spare."

And then the sky caught fire. The high, thin clouds sizzled away into nothing as the firmament turned a terrible orange-yellow and a harsh, searing wind from the west tore withered leaves from what crops there were and forced the two Oni to turn their backs and shield their eyes from it. The gale continued for what seemed like forever, and then stopped, trailing off with what sounded like a crackling laugh. The world was totally silent for a few minutes, and then something very strange began to happen. Dark dots began to appear in the dust, more and more of them until the entire field was a plain of mud. "Hey, Max!" Stef said, lifting his face to the deluge. "It's raining!"

Sounds of rejoicing began to rise from the farmers, who for the first time in hundreds of years had an excuse to throw down their tools and party. Mothers brought their children out to witness the miracle, and fathers brought out barrels of treasured ale. Perhaps an hour later, water wasn't the only thing falling out of the sky.

"Hey, Max!" Stef shouted over the noise, arms full of badly upset Koorime. "It's raining babes!"

Then the party really got started.

Salxarxis sat on the rim of the volcano with Genkai, sending off fireworks for fun while they waited for the Spirit Detectives and Harlequin to stop laughing. The sight of the Koorime scrambling around the island as it rapidly melted was funny enough, but this! The Glacier was totally gone now, and the entire tribe of Koorime was losing all its dignity in the mud with a village full of drunken Oni. To say the least, our heroes were falling over with laughter. "Nice one." Genkai said, holding the giggling Salamander in the crook of her arm.

"I FIGURED THAT YOU KIDS MIGHT LIKE IT. THE KOORIME HAVE ALWAYS BEEN A LITTLE TOO UPTIGHT FOR MY TASTE, ANYHOW. IT'LL TAKE THEM A WHILE FOR THEM TO ROLL UP A SNOWBALL OF THAT SIZE AGAIN, TO SAY NOTHING OF GETTING IT TO FLOAT."

"It should keep them out of trouble, at least." Genkai replied while scratching the lizard behind the ears.

"YES."

The Harlequin, out of breath and sore in the ribs, staggered over and leaned on Salxarxis' right wrist, still laughing. "Oh man!" He gasped. "It was worth this whole crazy escapade just to watch that."

"We should start thinking about getting home." Genkai said, watching a particularly nice firework sizzle into the sky. "Yukina will probably be frantic by now."

"True." Harlequin said. "I'll go see if I can't haul the boys away from their amusement. And that reminds me, they have an appointment to undergo some serious transmogrification for half an hour or so. Excuse me a moment..." The God of Chaotic Silly skipped off to do some magic.

Genkai looked up at the Fire-Lord. "Your grandnephew is a total prat, I hope you know." She said.

"YOU SHOULD HAVE SEEN HIM WHEN HE WAS A TEENAGER." Salxarxis replied. "BELIEVE IT OR NOT, HE'S MELLOWED CONSIDERABLY."

"Mellowed? Him?" Genkai said, unable to believe it.

"ODDLY, YES. TIME WAS, THE SUN OFTEN USED TO RISE IN THE NORTH TASTEFULLY PATTERNED IN POLKA-DOTS OR PAISLEY, WITH FRINGES OF FEATHERS AND USUALLY IN THE SHAPE OF A HERMIT CRAB. AND THAT WAS A SLOW DAY."

As Genkai struggled to digest that information, the Harlequin trotted up smugly and waved a large bottle of bleach at them. "Got 'em! Let's go."

"They're in that?" Genkai said, pointing at the jug.

"They are that! They used me as bait to catch Hiei, you see, without asking me first. I was very annoyed, but now I am merely smug. Shall we go, madame?" He said, offering Genkai his arm in a most gentlemanly manner. It didn't help matters that his arm was well above her head.

"Just open the gate, you aggravating twit." She said. "See you 'round, Salxarxis."

"INDEED. BY THE WAY, YOU CAN KEEP THE SALAMANDER FOR A WHILE. IT'S JUST A HATCHLING SO IT NEEDS SOME EXPERIENCE IN THE OTHER WORLDS AS WELL AS THIS ONE."

The lizard on Genkai's shoulder hopped up and down in glee and licked her face. She smiled. "Just the thing for the rock garden, I suppose."

Harlequin took them straight back to the temple, turned the bottle of bleach back into our heroes, and then ran away from there very fast. Yuusuke, Kurama, Kuwabara and Hiei did not take very well to being turned into laundry additives, and they took off after him with messy destruction on their minds. Genkai watched them go with wry amusement and made the Salamander comfortable in the rock garden. Yukina joined her out there, having been alerted by the clamor. "You're back!" She said breathlessly. "Is Hiei all right? Oh! What a cute little lizard!"

"Hiei's just fine." Genkai replied. "Fine enough, in fact, to go chasing off after 'Quin with the rest of them."

Yukina giggled, patting the Salamander, who was enjoying the attention. "I bet he was being annoying again. He does that just to tease them, doesn't he?"

"It keeps them from chewing on the scenery out of sheer boredom."

"True. I like him. He's funny."

The Spirit Detectives arrived back at the temple a while later, grumpy and disappointed. "We lost him." Hiei grouched when Yukina asked what had happened.

"I was just about to cut his horns off when he disappeared, too." Kuwabara complained bitterly, sitting down with a thump on a rock. "And I still haven't punished him sufficiently for those cards, either."

"Cards?" Yukina asked, confused.

"Aaah, never mind!"

"Go home and get some sleep, boys." Genkai said. "You've been running on nerves for the last twenty-four hours or so."

"You know, you're right?" Kurama said, also sitting down with a yawn.

Yuusuke groaned. "Mom's going to be pissed. I gotta go, guys."

"See ya."

Before he could leave, though, the wards around the temple shorted out violently, spitting sparks all over the place. A Koorime appeared right in front of them, mud-spattered, dishevelled, and madder than seven hells. With an inarticulate scream of rage, she sent a blast of ki into their midst, scattering the Detectives and their friends. Yuusuke returned the favor with a Rei Gun blast, but she dodged it and answered him with one of her own that froze over the entire lawn. Kurama broke a twig off of a handy juniper and tangled her up in a thicket of spiky evergreens, but they shattered under the onslaught of her liquid-nitrogen chill. Hiei and Kuwabara leaped forward to slice a few bits off and wound up nailed to the temple wall by some very long icicles. It was at this point that the invader noticed Yukina, who had gotten stuck in the middle of all this chaos. With a terrible smile, the Koorime drew in her power in preparation for annihilating Hiei's sister- Yukina saw her own death in the demon's eyes and was frozen in place with terror...

With a howl of fury, Kuwabara tore himself off of the wall, picked up the first thing that came to hand, and threw it at the ice demon. As luck would have it, he threw the Salamander. The hissing fire-lizard struck her full on the chest, and then changed, bursting into flames and growing much, much larger. Have you ever seen what happens when intense heat meets intense cold? The Koorime gave a thin shriek and exploded violently, the concussion throwing everyone to the ground. When they were able to see again, they found that the demon had been reduced to a greasy smear on the grass, and what looked like a small, brilliantly ruby-colored dragon was hovering over the spot and growling. "Wh-What the hell?" Kuwabara sputtered, staring at the beast.

"Well, that explains that." Genkai said distantly, trying to get the ringing out of her ears. What else could a Salamander be but a fire-dragon hatchling? By the way, Kuwabara, nice throw."

"Thanks, I think."

The dragon huffed a cloud of smoke and flitted up onto the roof of the temple, where it settled itself comfortably on the tiles and fell asleep.

Now that the danger was over, everyone set about helping each other up off the ground. The icicles holding Hiei had evaporated in the blast, but he was having flashbacks and needed Kurama to help him out of it. Kuwabara took the opportunity to assist Yukina, who gave him a big hug. "Thank you for saving me, Kazuma-kun." She said, clinging tightly to him for comfort.

Kuwabara made an odd squeaky noise in the back of his throat and went very red in the face.

Hiei was not unaware of this, however, and felt around for his sword, growling angrily. Kurama stopped Hiei's hand with his own and fixed the firebaby with a stern look. "Not now, Hiei. Just let it slide. How 'bout we go to my place where I can fill up the tub and we can experiment with puddles again, okay?"

Hiei glared, but let himself be distracted. Puddles were fun.