Kurama's Spring Flower

Chapter Forty

Seiryū releases his energy into little strips of fog that leads away from him and start to curl around Hiei, who was emitting his energy as a shining light. "I assure you Hiei, it is not too late to join our ranks. Prostrate yourself before my master and he shall give you power and fame beyond what you have ever tasted." Seiryū offers Hiei, leading to silence for a short moment until Hiei gives his response to it, "Is that all you have to say?" This makes Seiryū give a questioning hum. "They are last words, you know." Hiei says with a smirk plastered on his face, sparking the Blue Dragon's anger as he shouts, "Fine! So that is your choice, then you shall meet your death with the other weaklings!" He releases a loud battle cry and makes his energy create a loud flash of blue light around him before he fires his attack towards Hiei. In seeing the attack hurl at him, Hiei lifts his sword in front of him, causing the attack to split in half, becoming two attacks that made crumbled up victims out of the pillars that stood on either side of the members of the group that stand behind Hiei. 

This made Kuwabara's eyes widen as he takes in the fact that there was a newly formed hole beside him, making him look to Hiei and say, "Hey, be careful." However, the other three didn't focus on that as they had other things dictating their actions in response to this. For example, Akina was trying to calm her heart that was racing from the skin on skin contact going on between herself and her childhood friend. She had yet to remove her head from his neck. This leads to our second example, Kurama was trying to process his actions and fearing Akina's reaction. You'd think he would pull her away and yet he didn't, instead he asked, "Are you alright, Akina?" She nods and looks up at him, making the two only focus on each other and fail to notice the third example, Yusuke. He was staring at the pair. He had originally looked over to see if his sister was alright, but didn't know how to process the fact that he was seeing Kurama holding his sister so closely.

Thankfully, everyone became on the same page when hearing Seiryū growl out, "Try blocking this!" He powers up his energy into his right fist, making Akina gasp out, "He's going to use that Ice Dragon attack." This makes Yusuke yell to Hiei, "That freeze technique, RUN!" And at that moment Seiryū yells out the name of said technique as he fires it, "ICE DRAGON!" Thankfully, Hiei had great speed, so he was able to quickly dodge the attack by leaping over Seiryū and lands behind him, leaving the area that he was previously standing on frozen. Seiryū turns to him and chuckles, "I'm sorry, I had forgotten of your impressive speed. Now let's try again!" And repeats his attack again and continues to throw it at Hiei multiple times as he keeps in mind of his speed and hopes to eventually catch him out and kill him or freeze him. This was causing the majority of the room to get frozen over due to the attacks, especially as he flips across various tiles of the floor and even leapt up into the corners where the walls touch the ceiling.

"He's gonna turn the whole room into a hockey rink." Yusuke comments, leading to Kuwabara speaking up, "Not just the room." This makes the two boys and the girl turn to see the shaking Kuwabara, who was staring up at his hair that had gotten caught in the crossfire. "Man I wish I had my jacket back." This makes Akina sigh and say, "This is why you tear a small segment of your clothes not throw the whole article into lava." Kuwabara was about to retort something back at her, but couldn't when Kurama called out with worry, "Hiei!" This causes the Humans to turn and see what state Hiei is in, making them witness Hiei's left leg get frozen. But thankfully, he didn't drop down in pain and instead lands safely away from Seiryū. "Hey, he's okay!" Yusuke reassures, making Kuwabara turn to Kurama and scolds, "Yeah, don't scare us like that!" Kurama doesn't look at him and begins to explain, "No, his leg. He won't be able to runaway anymore."

Hiei is kneeling on the ground with a glare aimed at the one responsible for his leg being frozen. "Hm, you see. No one ever escapes, only beg for mercy." Seiryū says smugly, this doesn't weaken Hiei's glaring. "With your leg frozen, you can't possibly move. I suggest you start grovelling." After finishing his taunt, he begins to prepare launching his next attack and powers up his energy. "What can he do?!" Yusuke launches out his question just as the Saint Beast releases another shot with a loud yell, "ICE DRAGON!"

Hiei stabs his sword into the ground as a tool to launch him off the ground and towards Seiryū, which angered Seiryū that much that he launches himself at Hiei, who is still mid launch and yells, "NOW YOU END!" And with that the two engage in throwing attacks at each other, which to the untrained eye looks like slashes of light constantly moving violently. This causes the three currently not fighting to release gasps as they stare at the spot the two are at. As the attacks on the two come to an end, the three see Hiei's right leg and left arm had also froze, but this didn't stop him from landing safely. "Hiei!" Yusuke calls out in concern for his ally.

Seiryū turns to look at Hiei and speaks with confidence, "Ha! You have escaped, but you are wounded." But his confidence quickly melts away when he hears Hiei laughing, making him ask, "Why are you laughing?" Before answering the question, Hiei stands up and turns to face the confused enemy, "So what if you ice trick can kill your wounded friend?" He asks as he raises his frozen arm. "It won't kill me." And with that his the ice shatters off his limbs, making Seiryū stare at him in disbelief. "That's impossible!" Seiryū breathes out as sweat begins to drip down the side of his face. "I shall give one final blow!" He snarls before blood begins to drip down his forehead, which made him freeze in shock. "I don't think so." Hiei says, before everyone watches Seiryū gasp and releases cries of pain as his body becomes to crack and end with a yell as his energy swirls around him as his body finally perishes.

"When did he attack?" Was the first thing said that broke the silence, and unsurprisingly came from Kuwabara. Which was then followed by Akina and Yusuke laugh as they rush over to the Fire Demon. "Don't feel bad Kuwabara. I couldn't see it either after the initial hit." Kurama says with intentions of providing Kuwabara comfort, before he then jogged over to the twins and Fire Demon. "Shorty's a lot cooler than I thought!" Kuwabara cheers before also jogging over to the others. And when the group stand with each other the ice that froze the room had started rapidly disappearing as its source had been destroyed. In seeing this, Hiei puts his sword away and turns to face the twins. 

"You made french fries out of that guy!" Yusuke says in amazement. "Hiei, how many times did you cut him?" Kurama asks while smiling at him. "Only sixteen." Hiei reveals as he recalls the fight clearly. "Sixteen?!" Yusuke exclaims in disbelief. "Damn it! And here I could only keep track of seven or eight." He whines, clearly displeased that he failed to see all the hits. Kurama turns to him and reveals, "That's nothing meagre. After the first hit, I only saw flashes." Kuwabara then slumps and pouts as he reveals, "I couldn't even see the flashes." Yusuke then looks to Akina and says, "Hey sis, you haven't told us how many you saw." This makes Kuwabara perk up and ask, "Oh yeah, how many did you see?" Before she could answer Kuwabara continued to talk, "Oh wait, you probably said nothing because you didn't see any right? That's nothing to be ashamed of, after all-" He was interrupted when she stood on his toe, making him cry out in pain and hold his foot as she says, "If you gave me a chance to answer I would have told you, I saw all sixteen." 

This made all their eyes widen except Hiei, who says, "Impressive. You still remain a worthy opponent." Akina smiles at his words and gives him a look of gratitude, whilst Yusuke looks worried and says, "Man this isn't good. If you use those moves the next time we fight I'm gonna be screwed." Hiei walks away from them and calmly says in a light tone, "Maybe." This makes everyone's eyes widen. Kuwabara narrows his eyes at the small Demon who was retrieving his coat and says, "I thought for sure he was gonna say, 'well, of course you fool.'" This prompts Kurama to explain, "Hiei is going through a tricky change." This capture the attention of the three Humans. "It appears he's beginning to like you." He finishes whilst looking at Yusuke before turning to Akina and adds, "You as well, Akina."