Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, etc., of Inuyasha or Yu Yu Hakusho. This story is for entertainment purposes only, and not for profit.

FIRE IN ICE

A/N: This story takes place early in both series; just after the Yukina case but before the Dark Tournament in "Yu Yu Hakusho," and just after Sango's village is destroyed, but before she realizes her brother is revived by Naraku in "Inuyasha."

Chapter One

"This is a complete waste of my time." The apparition's look was as sour as his opinion of the whole assignment.

"You had something better to do, Hiei?" Kurama asked, more amused than put out by his friend's attitude.

"Hn." The fire demon folded his arms as they both gazed down from their perch among the thick trees that surrounded Tarukane's compound. Or rather, the former Tarukane's compound. For all they knew, one of the other members of the illicit Black Black Club owned it now, since the former mob boss had lost all of his fortune and holdings - not to mention, his life - in a foolish wager against their teammates, Yusuke Urameshi and Kazuma Kuwabara. Kurama wondered what had Hiei glaring down at the mansion, and if memories of his twin sister's imprisonment by Tarukane were adding to the fire demon's bad mood. But then, Hiei was rarely in a good one.

"We should be training for the Dark Tournament, fox," Hiei growled, "not performing animal control for Spirit World."

Kurama smiled. The shorter apparition had a point. The tournament was less than two months away, and they all needed to spend every spare moment training to become stronger. While he and Hiei were helping Kuwabara as much as they could, their friend Yusuke was training extensively - and exclusively - with the powerful old priestess, Genkai. The Spirit Detective knew more than anyone else how much they were all going to need it. The Dark Tournament would test all of their strength and skills as a team against opponents and demons none of them - except maybe Youko, the fox spirit who shared Kurama's body - had ever fought before.

Held every five years, the Dark Tournament was created for the jaded amusement of the infamous Black Black Club. Pitting demon against demon in a savage contest to the death, the winner claimed one wish be granted as well as title of Tournament Champion. Both incentives ensured a high turn-out of good fighters, for the tournament's renown had grown with its bloody notoriety. The exclusive crime-lords of the Black Black Club put up five-man teams, who would fight one-on-one in a bloody duel to the end. Fortunes were made and lost at the betting tables of the Dark Tournament, and since the tournament served a useful purpose in expunging the most violent (not to mention, most ambitious and bloody-minded) demons, then Spirit World supported it.

And every tournament, Prince Koenma - their sometime boss, heir-apparent and chief administrator of Spirit World - was given by facetious courtesy the human team "invited" to take part. Since participation was mandatory upon pain of death, Prince Koenma could only hope his current team - namely, the spirit detective, Yusuke, the psychic, sword-wielding Kuwabara, the fox spirit Kurama and the fire apparition, Hiei - might grow strong enough to win.

"Come on, you two! Why are you just standing there when we have work to do?" Botan waved from the compound's doorway, her bouncy, blue ponytail bright against the shadowed entrance.

"Hn." Hiei disappeared with a glower and Kurama chuckled under his breath as he followed after his short friend at a much slower pace. Botan's cheerful enthusiasm often grated on the irritable fire demon, but Kurama was glad she had come. It would be easier to dispose of the mindless, raging beasts in Tarukane's "collection" with the ferry-girl's assistance.

He pitied the poor brutes, most of whom would have to be put down, if Koenma's information was anything to go by. Like many of the greedy gangsters in the Black Black Club, the former crime-lord had had many illicit dealings with the underworld demons in Living World. Tarukane had a fascination with demonkind, and had collected various monsters he liked to call his "pets." A disgusting perversion of poor, blood-maddened beasts who'd best be put out of their misery, caged and tormented as they were for so long that little intellect - if they'd had any in the first place - survived.

Tarukane liked to claim he was a collector of the extraordinary and unique, but all he was was a base-profiteer with a mad circus of rabid animals. He'd bought most of his demonic monsters on the black market, and kept them penned beneath his vast compound for his own perverse amusement. He'd probably even used a few to fight in the vicious mini-tournaments the Black Black Club held to weed out and train their chosen teams for the main tournament. But more likely, those poor beasts were just used for the sadistic dog-fights the former Gonzo Tarukane had first made his fortune on in the backstreets of whatever hole he'd crawled out of.

Completely deserted, the mansion had been hurriedly picked over by the few men who had survived Tarukane's death. Kurama frowned at the pure waste as he spotted more than one priceless object smashed or torn by willful malice. The smell was pervasive - it had been only a few days since the whole Yukina case was closed, but the mundane police of living world hadn't been alerted yet. Perhaps Spirit World had intervened so that he and Hiei could erase all evidence of any demonic activity before the living world authorities arrived, though Kurama was surprised the Black Black Club hadn't already moved in to claim Tarukane's holdings. The transfer was probably being handled by lawyers who could keep their hands clean of the actual dirty work involved in handing over the mobster's vast fortune to Sakyo.

But that was really not their concern. Koenma had expressed urgency in taking care of Tarukane's pets before any authorities arrived to investigate. As Yusuke was off training full-time with Genkai for the upcoming Dark Tournament, and Kuwabara was currently residing in after-school detention - again - that left the job to the other two members of the team.

Not that Kurama expected this job to be hard - at least, not physically, but it presented a rather interesting moral dilemma. He didn't relish disposing of the poor brutes he was expecting - and did - find in Tarukane's basement. He was surprised by the man's diverse tastes, which ran the gamut from the most viciously rabid, to the ugliest amphibian he'd ever seen, to the most exotic man-eating demon plant. That one was easy to dispose of - the fox merely used his own natural affinity and mastery over plants to shrink the giant Venus man-trap into a tiny, wrinkled seed as Hiei made short work of killing the poor, mindless beasts who raged so savagely against their captivity. Dealing the mercy blow was never easy, but Kurama was nothing if not ruthless when he had to be. Though the anger and repugnance in Hiei's smoldering red eyes as they grimly went about their task was the same emotion that gnawed inside Kurama behind the stoic mask he turned on the situation.

The bug-eyed amphibian, at least, could be spared. Ugly as it was, it was as mild and ingratiating as a puppy, though that was as disturbing in its way. That such a noble creature as a Komodo demon could be hatched and raised to be such a fawning dog was as twisted as the poor brutes who had been starved into viciousness. But Botan, at least, was spared the worst of the carnage as she played with the poor thing. She promised that it would have a good home in Spirit World, though she wondered how they'd hide it from Koenma long enough for the prince to be won over on the idea. And then gagged and giggled as the long tongue laved her face in lizard drool.

"That's repellant," was Hiei's acidic comment as he turned and stalked towards the far end of the hall, where sealed doors invited misgivings as to what other "treasures" the crime boss had kept hidden behind them. Expecting more despicable savagery, they were both surprised to find the strange items, each carefully secured within their own climate-controlled glass display case or chamber. Ancient mummies and Egyptian art, carefully preserved in dried, airless cases; a pristine soul-eating banshee sword kept dormant in water. A stuffed Python whose coils filled an entire room, and a curious statue captured entirely in ice, the ragged oblong held suspended in a room whose temperature was held at a constant -200 degrees Fahrenheit.

"What is that?" Botan suddenly appeared between them, ugly amphibian in tow. She went and pressed her palms against the glass before Kurama could stop her, afraid it was electrified. But whatever security systems there once existed were disarmed, and nothing happened when the ferry-girl put her nose against the glass trying to peer inside. "Why, it looks like a girl! Riding a...cat? A big cat?"

Curious, Kurama returned from his study of the banshee sword as Hiei appeared at Botan's side with a scowl. They stared at the blue ice, which glittered in the pallid lights used to illuminate it. Botan was right. There, in the center of the roughly oblong block, forever frozen in mid-snarl, was a giant, saber-toothed cat. Upon its back was a slender figure, expression forever arrested in grim defiance as she lifted a giant weapon - a boomerang? - above her head with one arm. Even her long, black ponytail had been caught in mid-swirl, as if the pair had been trapped in mid-leap, somehow flash-frozen to stay suspended for all time in that block of ice.

"She's human!" Botan gasped, staring down at some gadget she'd taken out to scan the chamber with.

"But that's a demon she's riding," Kurama said, spying the two tails at the end of the snarling cat's arched spine. "That's a nekomata. A fire youkai."

Hiei's red eyes cut to his, and Kurama frowned.

"She...she's alive," Botan breathed, staring down at her instrument.

"Impossible," Hiei said flatly. "No human could survive that."

"Not entirely, Hiei," Kurama interrupted coolly. "Humans have been experimenting with cryonics for quite some time."

"That's not cryonics, fox. Whatever else it is, that ice's origins are definitely demonic." Hiei crossed his arms, still unconvinced.

"Are you saying a demon somehow froze that poor girl?" Botan blinked, agitated by the thought. "But...when? And how?"

"How? That is open to speculation. There are many demons capable of it, though few exist in human world. That blue dragon you killed, Hiei, in the Four Spirit Beasts' stronghold, was more than capable of freezing a person solid. That was how Seiryu often slayed his opponents." Kurama grimaced, a faint suspicion tickling across the back of his mind as dusty memories stirred. "As to when - well, I have my suspicions."

"Suspicions?" Botan's wide pink eyes turned to him, silently begging for an explanation. Hiei settled with a cool look.

Kurama tapped an idle finger against the glass. It was cold, even thick and leaded as it was. "Her clothing, for one. That's demon-threaded body armor, and that symbol on her left breast, faint as it is, reminds me of a clan I - or Youko, rather - once knew. Or knew about, rather. It was a clan of demon slayers."

"Demon slayers?" Botan blinked as Hiei scoffed at the idea. "But the taijiya are only legends…"

"No, the taijiya were very real, at one time." Kurama hesitated, for it did seem too fantastic to be true. "But that was almost five hundred years ago."

"Five hundred years?" Botan blanched. "You're saying that poor girl's been frozen solid for five hundred years?"

"Impossible," Hiei repeated, though there was uncertainty in his growl.

"Unlikely, I must admit," Kurama said, "that she and the nekomata could have survived for five centuries frozen in ice, but not impossible. And I could be mistaken; these are only speculations on my part. I can only guess as to when the event occurred, really." He shrugged fatalistically.

"Well, I guess there's only one way to find out, isn't there?" Botan's brows lowered determinedly.

"Botan - " Kurama cautioned, but it was already too late. The oar had already appeared in the ferry-girl's hands and she'd swung it like a club at the thick glass. The oar bounced off, leaving hardly a smudge on the leaded glass. Botan cried out in surprise as the arrested force sent the oar swinging wide.

"What the...?"

"It's safety glass." Kurama shook his head, gently stopping the oar when the ferry-girl was game for a second try.

"Let go, Kurama!" Botan protested.

"Botan, think about this. Maybe there was a reason that girl was frozen. Maybe it was done for her own good or someone's protection. We cannot know all the reasons why - "

"We can't just leave her in there!" Botan cried, upset that he would stop her. She tugged on her oar, but Kurama tightened his grip, and she gave him a furious look.

"Botan, think about it first - " Kurama pleaded, understanding the girl's righteous indignation but unwilling to concede the necessary caution they should take. "Without knowing all the circumstances for her imprisonment, it would be foolish of us to act rashly - "

"Hn."

Kurama's head turned sharply, but he was already too late. The crack and splinter of shattering glass as Hiei brought his sharp sword across it was loud in the empty echoes of the underground dungeons. Kurama instinctively turned his back, protecting Botan with his body as the glass fell around them with tinkling pings of impact. The nervous amphibian scooted away with a squeal, making a break for the other room as a frigid cloud of white condensation slipped free from the opened vacuum of the space with a whoosh of escaping air. An alarm sounded, adding its annoying cacophony to the background. A scatter of red lights blinked across the small digital pad secured to one side of the display case, its own beeping creeping up to add to the sudden noise. The temperature rose steadily as the hallway's warmth filled the small chamber, rising too quickly for the air coolers to keep up. Smoke appeared as a muffled bang and double boom-boom signaled the compressors overheating.

"Hiei!" Kurama called out, but the fire demon was already inside the chamber. Kurama kept Botan back by grabbing her elbow, though she struggled and gave him a dirty look. The fox didn't like having the ferry-girl out from under his protection. He knew Hiei could handle himself - though his impetuousness was ill-timed as always. The fox waited with bated breath, recognizing as the fire demon ruthlessly used his own jyaki to speed the process of melting the huge block as he used the very fire of his nature to melt the ice.

The dripping splots became a wet wrench as bigger chucks fell away from the ragged block, the glowing heat from Hiei's palms pressed against the ice digging deeper through the frigid surface. The glow of the fire youkai's jyaki grew as red-hot as iron in the forge, and the ice suddenly split, spilling its contents out in a variable flood of chilling water. The nekomata's eyes suddenly blazed, glowing as red as Hiei's palms as it slid like a seal along the floor, its rider slipping bonelessly off of its back as the giant weapon fell with a dull clatter behind them. A shudder ran through the cream-colored body, and the cat gasped in a deep, hoarse breath. The glow in its eyes flared as a weak flame momentarily engulfed it. The cat shrank substantially in size, its exhale a tiny, pitiful mew as the light in its crimson eyes dulled and closed.

"Oh, the poor thing!" Botan twisted out of Kurama's loosened hold and ran to gather the poor, collapsed kitten into her arms, making cooing noises to comfort it. "I can't believe you consider this little kitten dangerous, Kurama! Why, the poor thing is nearly hypothermic!"

Her hands suddenly glowed with healing energy, engulfing the tiny cat in blue light as she frowned in concentration. "This might not be of much help - my spirit energy is already pretty low, but at least I can do this much…"

Still wary, Kurama gingerly stepped through the jagged glass and crossed the sopping floor. Hiei had already turned the girl over. Kurama knelt beside the fire demon, uncertain if it had all been in vain, for the girl's lips were blue and her pallor sickly. Extending two fingers with a frown, he tested the girl's pulse along the side of her neck, and her chilled skin felt clammy. He finally found her pulse, faint but steady, and shook his head. He was still uncertain if this was such a good idea, although the girl hardly looked as menacing as she had frozen in the ice. She was certainly much smaller than he'd expected. He looked over at her giant weapon, lying past where Hiei knelt with her half-propped against him, and was impressed by its size.

A weak cough bowed the girl's body and she choked.

"Turn her over, she needs to get the liquid out of her lungs," Kurama instructed, and Hiei shifted. Water dribbled out of the girl's mouth with another weak cough. A shudder ran over the thin frame before she, too, collapsed into a dead faint.

"How is she?" Botan hovered anxiously over them, the kitten cradled in her arms, and Kurama shook his head as violent shivers wracked the slender body. Hiei impatiently stripped his trench coat off and bundled the girl inside it. Kneeling in the icy water, the fire demon paid it no attention as he wrapped his arms around the slight girl and cradled her against his bare chest. Feeling the heat emanating from the youkai's body, Kurama realized the fire apparition was warming and drying the girl with his own jyaki.

"I think she'll be fine, once she gets warm," Kurama said, surprised by the demon's altruism. Hiei was never one to expend his energy on anyone else's behalf, let alone a stranger's, and a human one at that.

*She was trapped by that bastard, just like Yukina,* the fire demon abruptly intruded into his thoughts, as if sensing Kurama's confusion. The fox nodded faintly in sudden understanding. Hiei's twin sister had been held captive by the evil mob boss, forced to cry through carefully inflicted torture for the precious gems created by her tears. Hiei had been all but forced to sit on the sidelines in that situation by Spirit World's deliberate interference, though he had been the one to truly rescue Yukina in the end. Still, it had galled the short demon that he had not been able to really save Yukina from the torture she'd already suffered, and he had never been permitted any real closure on the matter, since Yukina had pled for the vengeful fire demon to spare Tarukane's life.

No, Tarukane had not met his final fate at Hiei's hands, more's the pity, though he had at least suffered at the hands of their enemies, the Toguro brothers. But Kurama could understand a little why Hiei might correlate this girl's situation to his twin sister's, if the similarity seemed a little vague. Still, he now understood what motivated the demon in his atypical actions.

"Kurama, give me your coat," Botan ordered, cuddling the fire cat in her arms. "I should wrap the poor kitten up, though she's strangely no longer shivering." Botan frowned in confusion, and Hiei grunted as he stood up, the slight girl held easily in his arms.

"If she's a fire youkai, than she won't need it. Her blood's hotter than a normal demon's. She'll recover on her own."

"Oh." Botan looked down at the limp kitten in surprise.

"She'll sleep for a while yet, though," Kurama said, "to fully recover." He frowned unhappily at the girl in Hiei's arms. "As will she."

"Well, then, we'd best be off, hadn't we?" Botan said, suddenly all business. "Unless there's anything else?"

"Besides your pet lizard?" Kurama dryly reminded.

"Oh, you mean Baby?" Botan smiled fondly as an ugly head peered cautiously around the door, a bulging eye blinking as it nervously whined. "You're not as cute as this little precious," the ferry-girl cuddled the limp kitten to her cheek, "but you're just as sweet, aren't you, Baby?"

Baby's skinny, forked tongue dropped two feet to the floor as - he? she? it? - grinned and chuffed low in its throat, scampering up like a puppy.

"Jorge is just going to love you!" Botan reassured the giant lizard as Hiei growled something under his breath.

"Oh, right!" Botan, now back to her bouncy, bossy self, readily agreed. "We'll leave the rest of this mess for the ogres to mop up, and can be on our way. Though I need to report to Koenma on what's happened as soon as I can." The ferry-girl frowned distractedly, scooping up her oar and letting it dissolve into thin air as Kurama went and picked up the unconscious girl's weapon. He staggered under its weight, and turned calculating green eyes on the limp girl who didn't look strong enough to lift a fork, let alone a sizeable, demon-boned boomerang like this one. He knew, more than anyone, how looks could be deceiving. Judging from the amount of weapons she carried, as well as the worn hilt on the sword slid into her belt and the finely threaded silk armor she wore, she was no stranger to fighting. But fighting for who, or what, that remained to be determined…