The former king's head tilted slightly. It was likely the dark look he'd had to offer her just a few minutes before was still fresh in the girl's mind, which would explain why she made her addition so cautiously. And if she were anyone else he would have apologized for it by now. The thing was he had a certain understanding of their student teacher relationship, probably spurred on by the fucked up on he'd had himself growing up, where a good amount of fear of him did the both of them some good.
At the very least it kept her in line.
That wasn't the only reason he did the horrible things he did sometimes, but it had to do with some of it. He still didn't fully understand the reasoning behind sleeping with snakes when it had come to his own training. But the way it made her react was both funny and served its own purpose of keeping her alert even in her sleep. He had no idea if the effect had been the same on him. Hell, aside from when it came to coming up with creative lessons and punishments he'd blocked out a great deal of the training he'd gotten from Genkai. Not so much what he'd learned, but definitely the traumas.
So yeah, he could be a pretty big dick about things.
But being a dick didn't put that particular hinge on their relationship that the proper amount of fear, and to a greater extent respect, that they needed to maintain their roles as well as they did. Hell, he could probably break the girl like a twig if he really wanted to at any point. But that wasn't the kind of fear he wanted her to experience. Simple threats weren't enough to keep her in line. The fear of the unknown however was a big help.... It also helped that she'd overheard he and Kurama swapping punishment ideas on more than one occasion. And on more than one of those more than one occasions, he knew for a fact she'd heard some pretty horrifying and inventive things coming from them as they gleefully went off on a small tangent trying to one-up each other in the horribleness.
To be fair, they'd realized they were being spied on so the list of grotesque tortures had gotten pretty out of hand pretty quickly on purpose. Keichi had found them out, and had shared with Karasori that he thought they knew the two were sneaking around and listening (although it was probably more likely they'd just stumbled upon them and had stuck around to hear out of curiosity), but he was pretty sure that there was a spot in the back of her mind that wasn't entiiiiirely sure that was the case. At least, there was if she was anything like him in that department. Suspicion and skepticism ran pretty high in his own mind when he couldn't be sure of things like that.
Despite all that though, a gentle smile crossed his lips and chocolate eyes were closing lightly without even giving her third guess the time of day. Not a single cross thought ran through his mind as he shook his head lightly. "No way," he offered in a tone that was just as gentle. "Shuichi wouldn't hurt me."
He didn't recognize the change that cause the new calming of his nerves, nor the shift in name as the response fell from him so fluidly. He'd found his answer as far as he was concerned though. And the calm and peace of mind that came from it and would last until he decided to start brain storming on what he'd done wrong was incredibly evident. So much so that it even made its way through his body and into those gentle kicks he'd been giving under the water. They were a little stronger and brought each bare foot out above the water when them came, him watching as the dripping water only added more to the bit of chaos he'd been adding to the churning mass.
----
Hiei's attention fell on the child in his arms as Kurama moved closer. He could have told him the boy was fine but there was no point in it when the fox was already probing deeply the moment he got there. Feeling the deep, guttural shudder the blond gave off as he was violated further didn't really interest the petite demon. Neither did the fact that it brought the boy back to his senses.
Although admittedly he was pretty easily amused when Amethyst eyes opened and gained their baring. And upon noticing he was being held followed the arm supporting him up to it's connecting face only to for him to let off a meek noise in response and make an attempt to pull away well before he was ready to support himself. The wobble in his stance was evident enough of that as he attempted to right himself so quickly.
He watched as the boy ended up instead on his ass, staring wildly up at Hiei. And a smirk crossed his lips as the pure shock of seeing the distant man so close caved into confusion and instead he began to take in his surroundings curiously. It was obvious he had no idea what had just happened and a great need to regain his barrings in order to maintain the support on those lessons of awareness took him over almost instantly.
Of course, the cruelly amused smirk came due to the fear he exuded upon realizing Hiei had a grasp on him. It stroked a bruised ego just enough to cover his interactions with the other children like a balm.
Hiei righted himself as well, and resheathed his sword without another word. Turning and making his way back to the treat he'd yet to finish, Hiei was swift in rolling the papers back up and disappearing them somehow and somewhere within his cloak before leaving the rest of the situation to Kurama.
Despite not liking to have to do so in front of Hiei often, the fox could deal with the children all he liked as he saw fit. Because if it were Hiei he'd be leaving the redhead to clean the stains of what was left of the girl instead. The danger she presented to the temple currently wasn't necessarily where the bulk of his reasoning for that lie. The bulk of it lie with how dangerous she could become in the future as well. While he wouldn't outwardly make a show of his attention to the lot of them in the moment, the thought of his sister's safety was something that never tended to leave the little spitfire's mind for long.
He had many reasons. None of which he acted on. They already had a plan of action to quell the situation despite how much easier it would be to just rid themselves of it... And despite what his own demanded, he bode on the fox's judgement for the moment.
The interaction between Keichi stirring and Hiei retaking his previous position was a fast one. Quick enough that the only change Cooryn had to do anything was stare dazedly at the redhead for a short moment after he spoke to her, and watch the other two as they moved about. Instead of snapping her into action, the more horrifying than anything yet tone and look of the fox, petrified her into a lack of response until the interaction ceased and rustling papers dug her confused mind from the deep hole it had fallen into.
A shake took to her form as she finally saw fit to cower just a bit, her ears drooping, wings shriveling into a tight fold, and tail wrapping around her waist snugly; all things that made her a much smaller target purely on instinct. She still had a hold of her own hand, though the death grip she'd taken on it loosened as the slightly wild look in her eyes finally landed down on Keichi.
It snapped back up instantly to land on the one thing in the room that she perceived as still threatening her. Her mouth opened and she took a small, tight breath to speak. But something less than one of the familiar squeaks she could give off came out as she could only shake her head. Her mouth closed again, but her attention shifted back down. Because the tiny noise was all that was needed to catch the human's attention.
Purple eyes snapped her way and narrowed into their own fierce glare. It was nothing compared to what Kurama was exuding of course, but somehow it made her flinch even harder. The rise in his own shoulders and chest told her he was about to offer his own berating and unfocused crimson eyes glossed over with a sheen of unshed tears.
This didn't deter Keichi. However all he was able to make out was a short, stabbing, "How?"
It was all he was able to get out because not a moment later the focus left his own eyes shortly and an awkward pinch took to his lips before another deep, uncomfortable shiver wracked his form. The lack in focus on the girl came purely for the focus he set in on himself as he felt the feeling rising. He was fully recovered from the initial effects, most likely able to stand on his own by now as well. The threat of unconsciousness was long gone. The deeply unsettling feeling within him however, kept him seated on the ground.
Of course the boy realized something was wrong with him. Though he didn't know what, and was erring on the side of caution in remaining in his seated position. To save face, he simply sat in place instead of slinking over the the table or wall where he could support himself in a way he found a desperate want to at the moment. Because at the same time that he felt like something was deeply wrong with him, he could tell that nothing actually was. It was a tough place to be.
"I didn't..." His attention shifted again as the girl finally found her voice after witnessing the quiet internal struggle he was facing. She startled just slightly again as those large deep purple eyes landed on her, and found the need to look away from them.
Her attention landed on Kurama instead, not wanting to lose sight of the stable figures in the room just to avoid eye contact. "I just wanted to see," she told him with another shake of her head as she wrung lightly at the wrist she was still gripping.
She looked down at it breifly and let go, instead taking her tail into both hands and ringing at it lightly. This of course, wasn't anywhere near any kind of reaction she'd had previously when thinking about, or even speaking on her interaction with that power she'd described to Kurama previously. This was because in no way had she been attempting to focus on his soul.
"All I needed was to get past so I could see clearly." There was no glow to her eyes. And even though they'd found a sharp focus on the tail that was aching sharply from the tight grip and coil of her hands, they held nearly as much fear and even a bit of panic as she spoke slowly and attempted to explain herself.
"I could see it. It was strong. And I could see through it enough to know what I was looking for." Tears welled up in her eyes again as they landed on Keichi in a way he could read so clearly.
Despite her words making little sense, the desperate look of a child trying to make someone who couldn't hear them clearly understand. "It was just the same as ever. You wouldn't let me by but it was all I needed to win."
She shook her head and found a spot on the ground in front of her to lose focus on. "But I didn't win," she muttered lightly. "I..."
She still didn't know exactly what she had done though.
"You cheated." The sharp response from the boy had her looking back at him questioningly. It wasn't said in any accusatory way. In fact, it was calm, precise, and even helpful. His glare had softened itself and, despite how little he tended to let his guard down and allowed anyone other than Lily (and rarely Kurama) see any sort of softer look in him, it was almost gentle in its understanding.
It took her a moment to contemplate the simple response, her eyebrows furrowing as she went over any other way she could think to describe it. But that was all. So all she could do was nod at him shortly before that scared gaze returned to the foxy human. His icy anger had only spurred on her panic and inability to come to her own conclusion any faster than she had. And she was absolutely horrified of what his response would be when she did answer.
Almost as if she thought he hadn't seen the short nod she'd given Keichi, the one she offered to him was more insistent despite the fact that she obviously feared giving that honest answer. "I think I did," she told him almost surely.
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