Hiei gnashed his teeth., his lips were curled and pulled back, tight wrinkles around his eyes and on the flares of his nostrils enhanced the effect his silent snarl had on Koenma, needless to say hiei had now become the master on dramatic entrances.
Koenma sunk back into his over sized chair, his teeth clicking nervously against his pacifier.
"Mister Hiei!! Please help me!" Emily sobbed.
Her mother had pulled herself to the sole's of her feet and was now literally dragging poor Emily away by the roots of her hair, her mother had faintly remembered Hiei as the man who hit her that night in the park.
Hiei was near Emily in a flash, grabbing her mothers wrist quite ruthlessly and prying her fingers out of Emily's hair, this proved difficult because the child wailed at the harsh treatment of her hair being ripped from her small cranium and the girls mother persistence in screaming at the top of her lungs:
"This man is a woman beater and a child molester!!!"
Now Yusuke stepped in , trying his best to keep the woman still, to refrain from hurting the girl further as Hiei proceeded in just snapping the girl's mother's fingers. The bones popped in unison the joints hideously disfigured as the woman withdrew wailing, clutching her grotesquely twisted hand to her chest abandoning her wails for pure screams.
"He broke my fingers!!! He's taking my child!!! Someone do something!!!!!"
The now hysterical Emily was across the room, Hiei cradling her, stroking her swollen skull as his hand graced over her hair, clumps of the blondish brown tresses fell to the floor at his feet, Emily buried her face into Hiei's armpit, apparently just scared to look at her mother anymore.
Botan had now watched far more than she could handle and decided, along with Yusuke to step in. She shouldered her oar, calmly stalked over to Yusuke who was still having trouble in restraining the woman in his arms, the woman's arms and legs flew everywhere in rage. Botan clutched the hilt of her oar with both hands , her fists turning white from gripping the wooden flying device so harshly, Yusuke's eyes widened and he let the woman go just as Botan started to swing her oar in their direction, her oar connected solidly with the side of the woman's head, as wood connected with bone it made a crunching noise, but it did the trick, the woman dropped like a dead fly to the ground, blood pooling and soaking into her hair.
The room was completely silent now, except for an exasperated sigh that came from Yusuke.
"That coulda been me!!" he laughed in gaiety.
"I couldn't take it anymore, I had to hit her good, just once! " Botan fumed.
But now the fuss was over, all eyes averted towards Koenma, and there was a brief moment of silence before Hiei, in a riprimanitive tone spoke.
"What kind of SICK, DEGRENERATE person do you have to be to send a child back to THAT!"
"Hiei, please, let me explain, I had no intention of giving Emily back to her mother" Koenma pleaded.
"If that's the case what were you going to do with her?" Kuwabara asked, his idiotic voice being over looked for a fairly smart question.
"She was scheduled to die 2 months ago, letting her live with Hiei in the meantime allowed me to look into her file, if the girl continues to live in human world the future will change, just as when Yusuke died unexpectedly, and yes of course I quite obviously know I cant send her back to her mother"
"Then what were you going to do? Kill her off?" Hiei spat sardonically "I'll rip you thro-"
"Well" Koenma cut in. "I've been on a search through spirit world in the past two months"
"Searching for what? Your conscience??" Botan scolded.
Koenma's eye twitched, he was receiving a verbal reprimand from EVERYONE in the room and he was supposed to be ruler of spirit world.
"No…. actually I've been searching for someone---- much better---suited for Emily's care" Koenma said, carefully eyeing Hiei
"And who in the hell would that be?? That kid couldn't be better taken care if she wasn't living with Yukina and Genkai" Kuwabara bolstered
"I never said she wasn't taken care of properly, I just stated that her staying in human world will change everything as it proceeds into the future."
"Then who is to look after her?" Botan asked.
"Her father" Koenma stated " who else would be better suited for Emily's care?"
Yusuke opened his, up till now, inactive folder. "but it says here that he's dead"
"Well that's the - ACK! Where did you get that!!??"
Yusuke crossed his arms " I borrowed them"
"You STOLE them from our filing!!!" Exploded Koenma
"BESIDES the point!!!" Hiei shouted, the loud output of vocals made Emily shudder.
Koenma got back to the subject " Anyways, the point is, Emily was supposed to die. Her father is dead, so what I'm saying is- "
"What you're saying is that you want to kill her!!!" Hiei raged.
"See this is why I wanted you contained -"
"I DON'T want to die!!!!" the child began to wail uncontrollably.
Hiei chided her. " No one is going to harm you."
"Either way I put this, it's going to come out badly, why don't I just show you…" Koenma hopped out of his chair, The un hinged broken doors lay agape, the entire spirit world opened to the public eye in Koenma's office. Koenma waved his hand, he wanted everyone to follow him.
Walking down the halls, Hiei had managed to calm Emily, she rested her chin on his shoulder her chubby little arms wrapped around his neck, observing the world of the spirit, as the crowd stepped out to a road which clouds floated across , Yukina and Genkai waved to the group, apparently having just got there. Kuwabara pranced up to Yukina.
"Hi Yukina!!! What are you and Genkai doing here, you sure look pretty today, not to say you don't look pretty EVERY day" the broadness of Kuwabara's voice scraping on everyone's ear drums.
Yukina looked to Koenma to was still walking towards them, she spotted Emily in the back being carried by Hiei, a small comforting smile gracing her face.
"Genkai and I can not let Koenma take her.." Yukina softly offered.
"But Koenma's not taking her, we're going somewhere to find her dad or something, I don't know I forget, but you're so pretty!!! " by the time Kuwabara had finished up he noticed Yukina had retreated to the back of the group offering 'hello's' to everyone, until she came to Hiei, Emily reached out for her, Hiei silently passed the 5-year old over to Yukina, soft words being passed between them.
"Hiei, what's going on?" Yukina asked.
" … We're on our way to find out" Hiei really didn't have any idea what had been going on.
Koenma came to a stop, there was a vast expanse of spirits in the clearing called 'paradise'
"Emily come here" Koenma asked of her.
Emily stayed silent clutching to Yukina, but curiosity had gotten the best of her and she asked Yukina to set her down, but she did not move once her feet touched the clouds. Hiei, seeing the child's nervousness took Emily's hand as Yukina took the other and led her to the front near Koenma.
"So now what?" Hiei asked.
"Look" Koenma pointed to a particular spirit who neared, becoming the outline of a human, the outline grew features, and looked just as alive as anyone in the group, he was a handsome and young human with hair the same color as Emily and it was at that point that Hiei's heart sunk to his feet.
Emily released hiei's and Yukina's hands and stepped away to look at them, her body shimmered in gold, she was starting to become a spirit.
Yukina covered her trembling lips in realization of what was going on now.
Emily grabbed the hands of her father and smiled, her father knelt down to her stroking her cheek, as her scars and pain began to fade.
"This is what I meant…." Koenma said.
Hiei's jaw tightened as Emily stepped in front on him, he, along with the girls father, knelt to her, he opened his arms and she wrapped her arms around his neck smiling. Yukina couldn't hold back and she began to cry her tears crystallizing and falling through the clouds. Emily pulled back and then gave a hug to Yukina who couldn't stop her tears.
Emily withdrew and began to wave goodbye to everyone a look of true peace, gratitude, and painlessness gracing her baby face.
The father, who had stayed quiet the whole time, spoke:
"Thank you for saving my little girl." He said to Hiei in gratitude.
Hiei merely nodded, his eye lids straining, trying to keep the stinging in his eyes under control.
With Hiei's final reply, the two spirits faded and Emily was forever out of their lives.
Yukina was unable to stand it any longer, and she began to whimper, her whimpers turning into grief stricken cries, Hiei looked to her, his only family, the family she didn't even know she had. He turned to face her, his hands reaching out to her shoulders which pulled her fame to cry into his shoulder.
1 week later
After Emily had left, a solemninity loomed over Genkai's compound, the child had shown Hiei what caring for another person could feel like, and now that she was gone, his heart felt empty. Yukina was having a hard time as well, she was probably taking it harder than anyone else. For years she had tried to find her lost brother, she had almost given up hope until Emily came into her world and showed her what it was like to have a sibling. She was devastated by her leaving.
Hiei stayed around Genkai's compound, he even stayed there most nights, it had become his 'home' almost, he had spent two months there with Emily and somehow found her closer to him when he was there. His bond with people had not stopped with Emily, over the past months he had come to know his sister. He helped Yukina out a lot, Yukina began smiling sooner than she thought, when Hiei was around she just felt better about the entire situation.
Emily's mother was put into jail, with serious incriminating evidence against her. Child abuse being the big one, Yusuke's file, that he had stolen gave enough supporting evidence to lock her away for many years, and the fact that Emily was "missing' and her body was never found did not help her at all.
Yukina went about her round with her watering can humming a soft melody she had often sung to Emily to get her to sleep. She stopped her watering when Hiei came into the clearing, it had been weeks since she had seen him and was exceptionally excited to see him, some time after Emily had passed she had once again asked Hiei to go to demon world and give one more try in looking for her brother, she had given him her tear gem she had received as a child to hopefully compare it to the one her brother should have.
"Well? Did you find out anything!? " She asked with hopeful eyes.
Hiei held out his hand, it was clenched into a fist, obviously holding something, He loosened his grip and a tear gem on a chain dropped from his palm, the chain being linked around his finger so it didn't fall, Yukina could tell just by looking at it that it was hers. She sighed.
"Does that mean you didn't find anything?" Yukina softly whispered.
"No.." Hiei responded
Yukina raised her brow quizzically. "Did you happen to find someone with a similar tear gem?"
Hiei nodded
Yukina instantly perked up like someone had given her a shot of adrenalin. "A male right!? A male had a tear gem similar to mine?? Where is he, is he here??" She paused, the muscles in her neck tightening. "Is he dead?"
"Yes." Hiei replied, though Yukina had thought he had said 'yes' to her brother being dead.
A tear slid down Yukina's cheek in despair.
Hiei loosened his palm and a second tear gem fell from his palm, the chain catching on his finger and it jingled against the one that was still swinging from his hand.
Yukina reserve ran out and she burst into hysterics
" I hoped!! I wanted to find him so badly!! " She sobbed.
" I just wanted to… to…" the poor girl couldn't even finish her sentence as she broke down.
Hiei stood in silence.
" I wanted him to be alive so badly!" She cried, having flung her self into Hiei's shoulder.
Tear gems began to bounce and scatter everywhere as she wailed.
"Your brother is alive.." Hiei stated flatly.
Yukina looked up at Hiei, now embarrassed at her tears, she wiped her face sloppily with a few hiccups.
"What?"
"For years, I have been in search, For years, I have been raised by pillaging bandits, who shunned me….just as the ice village had." Hiei choked out.
Yukina covered her mouth, her eyes swelling with another 'bout of tears.
"Hiei?"
" The Forbidden Child" he finished for her.
She stared disbelievingly at him.
A silent tear slid down Hiei's cheek, as the salty liquid reached his chin it crystallized, the tear was not blue, it had a blacking tint to it, like granite, with a bluish shine. His tear bounced off the ground and Yukina's eyes followed it, she looked back up to Hiei whose face could be described no less than sorrowful.
" I never thought I could tell you that your long lost brother was a vile criminal, hated so much that his own village threw him off a cliff, I didn't want to disappoint you"
Yukina flung her arms around Hiei Sobbing joyful tears into his shawl, he wrapped his arms around her back, scrunching his nose as to keep the salty sting in his eyes.
"I'm so happy that I finally found you, I couldn't be more proud of who my brother is" Yakima whispered.
Hiei closed his eyes, for once since his birth he felt welcomed by someone, he felt unconditionally and completely welcomed
Genkai looked from the window, unknown to Hiei, Yusuke had been visiting and was watching as well.
"How did everything turn out so well, I mean, Emily is with her dad, her mom is finally getting what she deserves and Hiei got up the nerve to tell Yukina, how did that happen?" Yusuke looked over to Genkai.
Genkai's wrinkled face creased with a smile as she spoke. " Well I suppose dimwit... that everyone needs those moments in life where they feel empowered to do the things they have wanted to for years, Emily leaving made a big impact on those two, she offered them a new beginning, I guess you could say that she offered them... a turning point"
THE END:D