Categories > Anime/Manga > Yu Yu Hakusho > Very Grimm Tales
Snow White
Once upon a time, as a pretty koorime sat sewing by a window, she pricked herself with her needle. Red drops of blood fell onto the snow that had collected on the ebony window frame, and the colours contrasted prettily. Seeing this, she sighed (forgetting that koorimes produce only clones of themselves), "If only I had a child with hair as black as ebony, skin as white as snow, and lips as red as blood!"
As time passed, her wish was granted-uh, that is, mostly granted. She hadn't specified a gender, though she had a girl in mind, and what she ended up with was a little boy with hair as black as ebony, skin as white as snow, and li-er... eyes as red as blood, glaring at her from within the depths of the swaddling cloths. "Eek!" she shrieked, dropping the baby (oops) right off the floating isle of the koorimes.
Fortunately, or otherwise, depending on one's perspective, the infant's fall was broken by an unfortunately convenient tree. A certain fox demon bandit chanced by and picked him up, having nothing better to do.
"Here, take care of this," he said, tossing the baby to his lackey, Yomi. By that he meant to cook it for dinner, but Yomi misunderstood, and grumbling, set about raising the baby, which he named Hiei, reluctantly. Since he was not inconvenienced by the arrangement, the fox demon was content to leave matters as they were.
Now, Yomi had a certain hobby that had become something of an obsession with him. Every morning, he would go without fail to consult a well-known fortune-teller in the spirit world, Botan. "Tell me who's the worst- tempered, most bloody-minded demon of them all," he would say, and cackle gleefully when Botan replied, "You, Yomi, are the worst of all," showing him his image in the crystal ball.
But inevitably, considering Hiei's upbringing, the day came when Botan replied, "You, Yomi, are foul-tempered and bloody-minded indeed, but Hiei, your brat, is worse by far." Yomi was infuriated, of course, and threw Hiei out of the house, sure the little demon would starve to death or get eaten in the woods of the demon world.
Having survived being thrown off a floating island, Hiei was unperturbed and began searching for food and shelter. He came upon a heavily warded house in the woods and went in to look around. There he found seven bowls of some vile herbal mixture on a table and the starving little demon cleaned them all ravenously, his taste-buds having been killed off long ago by Yomi's botched attempts at cooking. Hunger satisfied, he went to the bedroom and sprawled across the beds arranged there, taking up far more space than would seem possible for someone his size. So this was how the occupants of the house found him when they returned.
A word of explanation is needed here. The house belonged to six relatively dwarfish demons - in terms of power, that is, since most of them were taller than Hiei. Jin, Touya, Chuu, Rinku, Suzuki and Shishiwakamaru were training under another relative dwarf, the human Kurama, to reduce their dwarfish stature. Kurama had put them on a strict diet and exercise program with that goal in mind, but his culinary skills left much to be desired, and despite the demanding regime, they often found difficulty stomaching what he prepared. Thus you can imagine the astonishment with which they regarded this little intruder sleeping off his heavy meal in their beds.
"You actually ate that stuff?" marveled Jin incredulously. The others also clustered around to stare at this wonder. Chuu's hand twitched towards his empty wine bottle as the mere thought of Kurama's cooking brought a dreadful, remembered taste to his mouth.
Hiei opened his eyes, blinked and yawned. "Wasn't that bad," he muttered, feeling quite mellow with a full stomach and good nap. Naturally, human Kurama was delighted, and insisted on keeping him, which no one had any objections to.
So when Yomi next went to see Botan, she said, "You, Yomi, have a vile temper and murderous temperament, but Hiei is far worse, and what's more, he has grown much stronger in the care of the seven dwarves-in-terms-of-power." Yomi shrieked in fury and decided to go kill off his rival.
Being not extremely powerful himself, Yomi waited until the seven dwarves were out before attacking Hiei. Hiei blasted him with the Black Dragon and fell asleep. The blackened crisp that was Yomi looked at his peaceful, still form and decided that he had to be dead, since the vile-tempered, bloody-minded Hiei would never look so innocent and childlike, and went home, in pain but rejoicing.
He received a rude shock the next morning when he gazed into the crystal ball and saw Hiei's sullen face again. This time he decided that it was beneath him to go kill Hiei personally, and hired Shigure(MD)*, to off Hiei in the most unpleasant way possible.
* Makai (demon world) Doctor
Shigure was in something of a hurry, since he was doing this part-time and had to return to his clinic before lunch-break ended. So he planted an evil eye in the unsuspecting Hiei to kill him painfully, then left.
Amazingly, Hiei managed to master the evil eye and survived, even stronger than before, to the delight of the dwarves, who were glad that someone at least was making progress. Yomi was outraged and demanded his money back. To placate him and save his reputation, Shigure agreed to try again, and to make sure the job was done properly this time.
But Hiei had been gaining in power all this time, and was by now a good match for Shigure, so the unsurprising outcome of a duel between them was that they sliced each other to ribbons. Yomi was delighted at the news, for Hiei was at last dead, and he would not have to pay Shigure either. He returned home to gloat, leaving the two chopped-up demons on the grass.
But the seven dwarves were distraught, for they had grown fond of the dour little demon who had become the eighth dwarf, especially human Kurama, whose cooking Hiei devoured enthusiastically without complaint. They tearfully gathered Hiei's remains in a jar and mourned over it for a long time.
Mukuro, the ruler of that region, came by one day, and seeing the weeping dwarves, asked what had distracted them from their training.
"He was the most bad-tempered, bloody-minded demon? Good, I want such qualities in my heir." So saying, she took the jar and dumped its contents in a regeneration tank, where Hiei revived in good order and became her heir, to the delight of the seven dwarves, who were granted access to the latest training facilities for their part.
As for Yomi, his fox demon master finally tired of his antics, and sent another subordinate to off him, but the incompetent fool only managed to put out poor Yomi's eyes. Yomi became much improved after this, but we shall not tell his story here.
The End
Once upon a time, as a pretty koorime sat sewing by a window, she pricked herself with her needle. Red drops of blood fell onto the snow that had collected on the ebony window frame, and the colours contrasted prettily. Seeing this, she sighed (forgetting that koorimes produce only clones of themselves), "If only I had a child with hair as black as ebony, skin as white as snow, and lips as red as blood!"
As time passed, her wish was granted-uh, that is, mostly granted. She hadn't specified a gender, though she had a girl in mind, and what she ended up with was a little boy with hair as black as ebony, skin as white as snow, and li-er... eyes as red as blood, glaring at her from within the depths of the swaddling cloths. "Eek!" she shrieked, dropping the baby (oops) right off the floating isle of the koorimes.
Fortunately, or otherwise, depending on one's perspective, the infant's fall was broken by an unfortunately convenient tree. A certain fox demon bandit chanced by and picked him up, having nothing better to do.
"Here, take care of this," he said, tossing the baby to his lackey, Yomi. By that he meant to cook it for dinner, but Yomi misunderstood, and grumbling, set about raising the baby, which he named Hiei, reluctantly. Since he was not inconvenienced by the arrangement, the fox demon was content to leave matters as they were.
Now, Yomi had a certain hobby that had become something of an obsession with him. Every morning, he would go without fail to consult a well-known fortune-teller in the spirit world, Botan. "Tell me who's the worst- tempered, most bloody-minded demon of them all," he would say, and cackle gleefully when Botan replied, "You, Yomi, are the worst of all," showing him his image in the crystal ball.
But inevitably, considering Hiei's upbringing, the day came when Botan replied, "You, Yomi, are foul-tempered and bloody-minded indeed, but Hiei, your brat, is worse by far." Yomi was infuriated, of course, and threw Hiei out of the house, sure the little demon would starve to death or get eaten in the woods of the demon world.
Having survived being thrown off a floating island, Hiei was unperturbed and began searching for food and shelter. He came upon a heavily warded house in the woods and went in to look around. There he found seven bowls of some vile herbal mixture on a table and the starving little demon cleaned them all ravenously, his taste-buds having been killed off long ago by Yomi's botched attempts at cooking. Hunger satisfied, he went to the bedroom and sprawled across the beds arranged there, taking up far more space than would seem possible for someone his size. So this was how the occupants of the house found him when they returned.
A word of explanation is needed here. The house belonged to six relatively dwarfish demons - in terms of power, that is, since most of them were taller than Hiei. Jin, Touya, Chuu, Rinku, Suzuki and Shishiwakamaru were training under another relative dwarf, the human Kurama, to reduce their dwarfish stature. Kurama had put them on a strict diet and exercise program with that goal in mind, but his culinary skills left much to be desired, and despite the demanding regime, they often found difficulty stomaching what he prepared. Thus you can imagine the astonishment with which they regarded this little intruder sleeping off his heavy meal in their beds.
"You actually ate that stuff?" marveled Jin incredulously. The others also clustered around to stare at this wonder. Chuu's hand twitched towards his empty wine bottle as the mere thought of Kurama's cooking brought a dreadful, remembered taste to his mouth.
Hiei opened his eyes, blinked and yawned. "Wasn't that bad," he muttered, feeling quite mellow with a full stomach and good nap. Naturally, human Kurama was delighted, and insisted on keeping him, which no one had any objections to.
So when Yomi next went to see Botan, she said, "You, Yomi, have a vile temper and murderous temperament, but Hiei is far worse, and what's more, he has grown much stronger in the care of the seven dwarves-in-terms-of-power." Yomi shrieked in fury and decided to go kill off his rival.
Being not extremely powerful himself, Yomi waited until the seven dwarves were out before attacking Hiei. Hiei blasted him with the Black Dragon and fell asleep. The blackened crisp that was Yomi looked at his peaceful, still form and decided that he had to be dead, since the vile-tempered, bloody-minded Hiei would never look so innocent and childlike, and went home, in pain but rejoicing.
He received a rude shock the next morning when he gazed into the crystal ball and saw Hiei's sullen face again. This time he decided that it was beneath him to go kill Hiei personally, and hired Shigure(MD)*, to off Hiei in the most unpleasant way possible.
* Makai (demon world) Doctor
Shigure was in something of a hurry, since he was doing this part-time and had to return to his clinic before lunch-break ended. So he planted an evil eye in the unsuspecting Hiei to kill him painfully, then left.
Amazingly, Hiei managed to master the evil eye and survived, even stronger than before, to the delight of the dwarves, who were glad that someone at least was making progress. Yomi was outraged and demanded his money back. To placate him and save his reputation, Shigure agreed to try again, and to make sure the job was done properly this time.
But Hiei had been gaining in power all this time, and was by now a good match for Shigure, so the unsurprising outcome of a duel between them was that they sliced each other to ribbons. Yomi was delighted at the news, for Hiei was at last dead, and he would not have to pay Shigure either. He returned home to gloat, leaving the two chopped-up demons on the grass.
But the seven dwarves were distraught, for they had grown fond of the dour little demon who had become the eighth dwarf, especially human Kurama, whose cooking Hiei devoured enthusiastically without complaint. They tearfully gathered Hiei's remains in a jar and mourned over it for a long time.
Mukuro, the ruler of that region, came by one day, and seeing the weeping dwarves, asked what had distracted them from their training.
"He was the most bad-tempered, bloody-minded demon? Good, I want such qualities in my heir." So saying, she took the jar and dumped its contents in a regeneration tank, where Hiei revived in good order and became her heir, to the delight of the seven dwarves, who were granted access to the latest training facilities for their part.
As for Yomi, his fox demon master finally tired of his antics, and sent another subordinate to off him, but the incompetent fool only managed to put out poor Yomi's eyes. Yomi became much improved after this, but we shall not tell his story here.
The End
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