Hi everybody! Now that I have updated 'standing down,' I'm starting this one!! I'm hopped up on hot cocoa and SPICE girls! Yes, I am listening to SPICE girls even as I write this. Scary thought, eh? –dancing to 'my boy lollypop'- I just might start singing!! Yes, my friends, I am seriously hyper. It is scaring even me... any who, now for the disclaimer!!
DISCLAIMER: Sadly, I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho. –sob- are you happy now, you stupid lawyers?! You've completely crushed my dreams!!! –snort- yeah, right... I'm too hyperactive at the moment to be thinking clearly, let alone dreaming. Good thing I already have this chapter written, cuz there's no telling what I'd come up with on spur of the moment!
- blah - Hiei speaking telepathically
= blah = Sanura
((blah)) Kali
Anyone else's thoughts will be put into 'these' quotes, and I'll tell you who's thinking.
No title yet! (any ideas?)
Chapter One:
Juri looked on as Yusuke gritted his teeth with determination. After several moments of silent anticipation, she began to announce Toguro the winners. Just then the massive pink doors jolted and slid open to reveal a small woman, who was walking confidently toward the arena. Yusuke's eyes widened in surprise – he had asked Koenma to fill in for Genkai, and this female was not Koenma by any means.
She was a little less than 6 feet tall, with long legs and a slim frame. Her gold-tinted orange hair was pulled into a high ponytail that went down to her hips, with white-gold bangs framing the sides of her face. Just behind her bangs two coal-black ears twitched this way and that, reacting to the numerous sounds that echoed through the stadium. They looked almost canine, but slimmer. Three necklaces encircled her neck, each longer than the last, with a cross hanging on the bottom-most one. She wore a gauzy white shirt, the hem of which was just below her ribcage, whose sleeves reached to her palms. Her bare mid-drift sported a rather odd-looking tattoo, which consisted of a small swirled pattern on each side of her twice-pierced navel.
Flowing lavender pants rested loosely on her hips, and two soft black tails swished back and forth behind her. She wore velvety navy boots on her small feet, as well as gloves of the same material that cut off slightly past her knuckles. Her skin was smooth and pale – obviously not Asian - and her muscles were well toned without being awkward or bulky. Her movements were like silk and she carried herself like a queen, her long orange tresses shimmering like gold with every step she took. A smirk had settled itself across her elegant face, her long-lashed eyes shut against the unruly crowd that shouted various obscenities at her and openly doubted her capabilities.
Kurama and Hiei were both somewhat confused by her aura, which seemed intense but powerless at the same time. The woman made her way to Yusuke and opened her eyes at last, much to his surprise. They were cat-like, slanted and swimming with colors; intense reds and calm blues swirled in the depths of her irises. She smiled at the boy's reaction before blinking a few times. When she looked at him again, her eyes were almost solid violet, though he could still see traces of solid blue.
"Who are you?" Yusuke asked in a less-than-polite manner.
The woman in front of him bowed respectfully before answering, "My name is Sanura. I work for Koenma also, and insisted on filling Genkai's place so that the prince wouldn't have to get his hands dirty."
"So can you fight?"
"It won't be necessary, but yes. I can if I am forced to." The girl crossed her arms and watched as Juri announced the contenders for the first match. "What have those two got between them?" She asked Yusuke, in regard to the obvious tension building between the two men on the platform.
"Karasu has a sort of thing for Kurama."
"Really now...I know the fox swings that way, but that guy doesn't seem like Suuichi's type – or gender, for that matter."
"How do you know about that?"
"Anything written in Koenma's files, I know."
"And how do you manage that?"
Sanura grinned slyly, "Easy. I know what Koenma knows." She left the detective to think on her words, and decided to watch the battle in silence rather than chatting idly. No matter how inactive her mouth, however, her brain was in a constant state of contemplation. She thought rapidly and, no matter how relaxed she was, could not help but ponder about small things; how stereotype it was that demons be enthralled by bloodshed, how amazing it was that mankind had built so many advanced machines and conceived the idea of emotions, yet they were so self-absorbed. She meditated on these things, as well as others, daily - if not hourly. At the moment, she was being particularly careful about what she allowed her self to think. She was well-aware of Hiei, who was probing her thoughts as fast as they crossed her mind. It was rather unnerving, knowing that someone she'd never met was rutting about in her mind, free to see anything she saw – well, at the moment anyway. She allowed him snoop around for a bit – she had barriers around what she did not want other demons knowing, whether Hiei was present or not.
- 'Rutting' is a terrible word for telepathy. – Hiei argued in her mind.
= Reading a stranger's thoughts without permission is just unbecoming enough to fit the word, would you not agree? = She responded.
- No. -
Sanura smiled at the fire demon, looking him up and down with a devious gaze that verged on predatory. = You're cute. Just remember that I can read thoughts, same as you. =
- If you're so intelligent, you should've just blocked me out. –
= I did, to some extent. You didn't hear a thing I thought about Kurama. = She smirked as she watched Youko emerge from behind a crackling field of smoke, admiring his award-worthy entrance.
- You realize how positively disgusting that is. –
= Relax, dragon boy. I'm not interested. =
Hiei's eyes narrowed at her demeaning nickname. Before he could think anything back, he sensed her bitterness, something he had failed to perceive earlier. She not only had the proverbial wall around her heart, she had fortified it with bricks, a moat, and archers. He had little sympathy. – Hn. -
Sanura smirked, though her gaze remained focused on the arena. = You struck me as the sensitive type. = Her eyes widened considerably as she saw Karasu throw a huge glowing bomb at Youko. Hiei, apparently, was prepared for such an attack, and simply disappeared to Lord-knows-where. Sanura, however, was less quick to act, and just barely missed a chunk of concrete as it flew past her and annihilated a fair-sized portion of the seating capacity. Taking care to avoid any more destructive forces, such as the now flying Kuwabara, she leapt nimbly into the audience and alighted on the edge of Koto's announcer box. Once the dust had settled she took her leave and returned quickly to the rest of the team, much to the chagrin of the surrounding demons.
Hiei had re-appeared at the ringside, calm and poised as usual. Sanura turned her slanted cat eyes on him once more. He was mildly surprised to find that they were orange.
- Your eyes were purple just a moment ago. –
= Indeed they were. My irises adjust their color to my emotions. =
She stared at the blanched form of Karasu falling to the ground with an appalled look permanently affixed to his face. Kurama lay face down on the floor. He was breathing, but she could feel his spirit drifting. Yusuke and a red-haired boy voiced her thoughts aloud seconds later. She waited patiently for the boy to rise, and once he was standing she let out her breath with relief. She felt more than saw Hiei's equally relieved, if not more visible, reaction. Juri revealed that, due to technicalities, she had to declare Karasu as the winner. Sanura just shook her head, wondering what possessed people to enter the god-forsaken tournament. 'Demons, perhaps?' Her conscience answered. 'Shut up, you,' She thought back, then mentally scolded her self for talking to voices in her head.
- You say that like it's not natural. –
Bui caught their attention by walking into the center of the battlefield. Kuwabara started going on about 'being strong for Yukina,' and Sanura could hold her laughter back no longer. "I'll be praying for him, poor idiot," she said aloud to Yusuke. Kuwabara had apparently heard, and grabbed her by her collar and began to shake her, much to the woman's surprise and evident anger.
"Ack! Get off me!" She yelled. The girl grabbed his arms and scrunched up her legs, then kicked him squarely in the chest with enough force to propel him backward twenty feet. She had leapt away as soon as she was free, back-flipped and planted her feet firmly on the ground next to a smirking Hiei. "Humph. The NERVE of some people," she mumbled, brushing her sleeves off. "Well, looks like your turn, squirt! Have fun with him," she encouraged Hiei happily.
He looked vaguely puzzled. "Squirt?"
"She means 'half-pint!'" the blustering red-head corrected. The girl just rolled her eyes.
"Well, I intended to fight that bastard with the sun glasses, but in consideration to Genkai, I'll leave him to you." He nodded to Yusuke, blurred away and re-appeared standing on the battlefield. "I'll be content with fighting this guy." As soon as the battle began, Sanura walked over to Kurama and proceeded to make a mental list of his injuries.
"What are you doing to him?" Yusuke asked, more than a little skeptical.
"I am checking for injuries," She replied simply.
"Well it's pretty obvious he has a few."
"Is there a problem with my trying to help?" She was becoming more amused by the minute.
"Hm. But why are you checking him? We can all see that he's hurt."
"Yes, you can all see that he's in pain. The difference between you and me is that I can fix whatever is wrong. Can you do that?"
He stared at her. "What kind of demon are you?"
She sighed audibly and gave up – some people were just too dense. "I am a nurse, Urameshi, and as such it is something of a second nature to want to heal injured people. Do you give me permission to do my job now?" She gazed at him with the most amused eyes he'd ever seen.
He nodded and replied, "You still haven't answered me. What kind of demon are you?"
"First, I'm only half demon. Second, at this point you don't need to know anything about me. I am here to save your asses from disqualification and/or death. Nothing more." A trace of red flashed momentarily in her now green eyes as she began grounding a light-brown powder in a ceramic bowl. Just as the detective was about to retort, she added, "I promise that if he so much as catches a cold, you have every right to kill me." She smiled up at him and turned back to a rather confused redhead. Sanura flicked her wrist and a drinking glass materialized in her hand. She filled it with water – from nowhere, as far as Yusuke could tell – and dissolved the powder in it. "Here," she said, handing it to Kurama, "drink that." He looked doubtful. "Just do it, would you? It'll just let you sleep so you can rest."
After he had reluctantly consumed the sweet-tasting drink, whatever it was, he fell asleep almost instantly and slipped into unconsciousness soon after. Yusuke, of course, asked what exactly she had put in it.
"To tell you the truth, I really don't know."
His jaw went slack. "You don't know?!"
The girl crossed her arms defensively. "I know what it does and what it's for and when to use it. I don't know what the ingredients are, no, but I know that it won't hurt him."
"What if he's allergic to something?"
"That's out of the question. I would know if he was allergic to anything."
"I don't think you should be taking care of Kurama. Maybe when Hiei's done –"
"Hiei will be in need of a nap briefly, so I suggest you go enjoy the fight and QUIT BOTHERING ME!" Flicking her wrist again, she managed to procure a book out of the air and promptly began to read. "Now if you'd excuse me, I just finished the second in the series and I would like to start on the third."
"And what if he wakes up and you don't notice?"
"Why can you not trust me? Koenma does." He shook his head at that and left the woman to her reading.
"But why do YOU have to do it?" Yusuke asked, laying Hiei against the wall.
"Urameshi, I am going to have to ask you, yet again, to back off and let me do my job." Her hands found their way to her hips for the third time since the intermission began.
"Your job? Is someone paying you to fix Kurama?!"
The aforementioned kitsune winced involuntarily at the word 'fix.' The five team members sat in the locker room, along with Koenma and the girls. The redhead was, at present, sitting on the edge of the bed wondering why Yusuke had such a problem with this girl. Everyone else seemed okay with her, and she appeared not to be a threat to any of them. The battlefield had been destroyed with a rather deafening 'bang,' and Kurama had been fully awake ever since. Unfortunately, this also meant that he could feel every one of his wounds. They were healing quickly, a benefit of being half demon, but they still hurt something terrible.
Sanura sighed ever so lightly and closed her eyes in an effort to keep calm. The last thing she wanted to do was convert to her demon form in front of all these innocent humans. No, that would definitely not be the best way to introduce her self. "I am not 'fixing' him, and I would appreciate it if you would find a less offensive word to use. In any case, I am the only one here who can heal him, and he doesn't seem to have a problem with any of it."
"I just don't think you should 'examine' him. I mean, he's a guy and you're... not!" Several people in the room blushed at that. Sanura was not one of them.
She scoffed and crossed her arms. "Oh, please. My interest is purely medical and he doesn't have any injuries around there anyway."
Yusuke's eyes narrowed. "And just how do you know that?" Everyone in the room, including Kurama himself, turned questioning eyes on her.
She realized her mistake immediately and let out an exasperated sigh, rubbing the sides of the eyes in frustration. "I just... know, okay? It's hard to explain." She turned to Koenma and practically yelled, "Did you want to help me any time soon, or were you just going to sit there?"
The little prince crossed his arms babyishly and 'hmphed.' "Yusuke, stand back and let her do her job."
The teenager let out a low growl and leaned against the table behind him. Sanura did not blame him for his concern; it was only natural that he be skeptical of her motives. "If it's any consolation, I don't have to take any of his clothes off."
"Whatever," he grumbled. She smiled back at him – she knew it helped, even if he was reluctant to show it.
"Wonderful." She handed her patient a glass full of the same liquid she had given him earlier, but this time he accepted it without hesitance. He was soon unconscious and lying flat across the bed. Sanura's palms began glowing bluish-white as she suspended them over Kurama's first wounds. She tilted her wrist up and curled her fingers in slightly, letting the light slip down her hand and drop from her fingertips into the redhead's chest. She let it soak in until the light pulsed blue from beneath his tattered clothing, letting it spread across his unconscious form until it covered the better part of his torso. Her hands gently led the light over his body, covering each of the wounds he had acquired.
Her face remained thoughtful and intuitive throughout the procedure, her head tilting to one side or the other as if listening for something. Her hands moved gently and gracefully, with the practiced ease that only comes with years of experience. 'She must have done this hundreds of times,' Yusuke realized. 'Maybe she's okay to trust.'
I let my hands do their work, allowing my mind drift into that of my patient's as it often did during the healing. It was always so easy to access – they were, after all, unconscious. I sifted through his mind, searching for anything other ailments I had missed as well as fine-tuning the healing process to mend his body so that it would be exactly as I had found it. Minus the massive blood loss, of course. It was a wondrous feeling, being in the mind of the person you were curing. It made the process so much more successful, besides. I could feel everything he was feeling, knew exactly what to fix and when and how to fix it, what it felt like to be healed.
There were a few things that needed maintenance, as with any human body. Normally I would find cholesterol build-up, slightly deteriorated liver, minuscule tumors here and there, and disgusting things like that. That was all part of the human aging process, but I figured I might as well patch up a few things while I was at it. After all, those little tune-ups could add years to a person's life. I waited until the human's body was in one piece to repair all the systematic problems and reveled in the feeling of renewed youth his body experienced.
I brought him back to consciousness while my energy was still in him; I knew this was the best part. He had the usual confused expression on his face when he awoke to find me not only still working, but sorting through his mind as well. I was used to it – every patient I had ever had was wearing that same face. I grinned slyly at him, evoking a small amount of fear. This only amused me more, naturally. I let my fingertips hover a good six inches above his chest, where my healing energy had collected itself into a small pool of white. It seeped up through his clothes and reached out in little tendrils of light. I lowered my hand just enough to touch the tallest of them and pulled up again. All the energy immediately flowed into that tiny stem as I pulled my hand up, acting as though it was a slinky. I jerked my hand up at just the right moment, extracting all the remaining power and catching it deftly in the palm of my hand.
This was always the most enjoyable part for me, more so when I was still connected to the patient. His chest tingled and we both giggled softly.
It tickled.
Keiko had to yell at Yusuke in order to keep him from tackling Sanura toward the end. Kurama had woken up at the last minute and the nurse did nothing about it, just smiled at him and continued with what had to be a painful process. So, when the kitsune giggled, which was a surprise in itself, everyone's eyes widened. With the exception of Koenma, of course, who already knew about Sanura. Still, he had never seen Kurama GIGGLE.
There was a bit of tension as Sanura helped the redhead off the bed, and everyone in the room let out an audible sigh of relief when he stood up. He felt better than he had even before the tournament, and when asked about it, Sanura proved very humble indeed.
"I just fine-tuned a few things here and there, it was no big deal." She answered nervously, scratching the back of her neck. Yusuke humphed at her, but the healing had always made her peaceful, so she chose not to argue. She flicked her hand again after the energy had been absorbed, and a novel appeared in her grasp. She tossed it to Kurama and left the room, telling everyone she was off to talk with her partner Kali.
"So...what do you think?"
"I like them, except for Urameshi." Sanura frowned at her best friend. "He wears too much hair gel and his mouth is too big."
Kali made a disgusted face at her, "EW...I never will understand why guys wear that stuff." She blew a smoke ring at Sanura. The little ring of smoke passed right around the cat girl's head, and Kali laughed at the way Sanura shut her eyes just before it passed by her face. She would never get tired of that.
"Would you stop with the smoke rings? You know I hate them. And anyway, I thought you used hair gel when I first met you."
Kali blew three tiny rings in a row at Sanura's ear, laughing even harder at the way it twitched when the smoke hit. "Well, yeah, but that's not the point. And I like my smoke rings. Look at this one." She blew out a circle toward her friend and added a diagonal across it.
The orange-haired woman put her hands on her hips in indignation. "Would you stop it, please?"
"Hmm... I don't know..." She teased, blowing a few rings at her partner's ear again. "I could breathe fire instead, would you like that better?"
She scowled back, "No, as a matter of fact. When you burn your throat out and lose your voice, I will laugh. HARD." She poked Kali in the stomach and crossed her arms. Kali did not smoke cigarettes – or cigars, for that matter – but she was a dragon demon, and that entailed the ability to breathe smoke and fire whenever she pleased. Something she used for amusement, mostly at Sanura's expense.
"Oh, fine. But no more poking me. Every time you poke me, I get to blow a smoke ring, and vice versa, remember?"
"Well in that case, I believe you owe me three." Sanura poked her two more times and erupted into a fit of laughter, followed by Kali's cursing.
"So, seriously, can we work with them or what?"
Sanura almost instantly sobered. "I think so. Two of them are cute – the little short one and the redhead. That other redheaded one is unbelievably stupid, but he's actually kinda amusing, in a weird sort of way. And I already told you that I don't like the Urameshi kid. He talks too much."
"He talks too much or he yells at you too much? There's a big difference there. And since when did you think short guys were cute?"
"I resent that! I have no partialities toward either short or tall men. I just usually end up with taller ones because of my height. There's a big difference THERE."
Kali spit fire and watched it burst into flame on some poor demon's hair. She laughed at him and turned back to Sanura. "Sorry, what? I wasn't paying attention."
She sighed again. "Of COURSE you weren't. What am I going to do with you, huh? I can't kill you and I can't let you live."
"Good thing I'm not alive, eh?" She smiled, showing her fangs off as a habit.
"You want a show of teeth? I'll give you a run for your money. Unlike some people, I brushed my teeth as a child." Sanura gave her colleague a lopsided grin, making sure only her left fangs were in view.
"Please. Dental hygiene isn't exactly at the top of your list when you have to sleep in trees and hunt for food. Speaking of, I'm hungry. Where d'you get food in this place?"
"How should I know? You're always hungry. And Dr. Fluoride says you should always brush your teeth." She wagged her finger at Kali to put emphasis on the last sentence. Her sarcasm was her saving grace. Kali just laughed and slapped Sanura on the arm jokingly. A few minutes later Sanura decided she should go back to the resting room, as the platform was nearly done. She said bye to Kali and started walking toward the waiting room, wondering just how they had gotten on the subject of dental hygiene.
She mentally cursed herself for forgetting the reason she had wanted to talk to Kali in the first place and opened a telepathic connection as quick as she could. = Hey, one word of advice. =
((Yeah?))
= When you come up to the room after the tournament, come as a human. It'll be hilarious if they think you're human. =
((Why's that?))
= The little cute one hates humans. Just trust me, okay? =
((Completely human? I don't know if I can act ignorant for that long.))
= Ha, ha. I am SO amused. Just do it, alright? I'll explain later. You want a picture or something? =((Sure, why not.))
Sanura thought up an image of Hiei and 'sent' it to Kali, and she did not have to read her mind to know her friend was grinning. Sanura almost felt sorry for the fire apparition.
Sanura watched with concern as Toguro mercilessly killed chunks of the audience and absorbed their souls. She would have attacked him along with the crowd, had she been in her demon form. Granted, she was not entirely sure she would be able to kill him, but she could definitely do some damage to him if Yusuke was not planning on it. She flinched again and again as Toguro killed more people in an effort to get Yusuke up to par with his power.
She then noticed that Puu had told Toguro to kill one of Urameshi's friends, and Sanura froze on spot. Even though she knew she would be able to protect herself at least a little bit, that did not mean she wanted to find out if she really could kill him or not. Kurama and Hiei were talking about something of the same sort, and they seemed to draw a similar conclusion. As irony would have it, Toguro picked Kuwabara. She watched Kuwabara's attempt to charge the monster, and ran to help him along with Kurama, as Hiei disappeared to wherever.
Sanura got within five feet of Kuwabara, who was lying lifelessly in the other redhead's arms, and fell to her knees. His pain washed over her, in waves upon waves of agony. This, too, was part of her job. She absorbed the pain of others when she healed them, and so when she got too close to someone recently dead she acted as a lightning rod for the person's pain. She was blinded by it, unable to move or think. Kuwabara must have been in a serious amount of agony when he died, which, looking at the monstrosity that killed him, was no surprise. She wanted with every fiber of her being to get up and walk away, to leave him with what pain she had not soaked in, but she could never do that. So she ended up blacking out, and the last thing she remembered was the overwhelming feeling of torture he'd been in.
Kali was getting worried. She had seen Sanura collapse at the side of the dying human, and she had had just enough time to make sure they took Sanura with them before running out of the stadium as fast as she could. Not that it was hard or anything. All she had to do was take her jacket off, let her wings stretch out and fly through a crack in the roof. Easy as one, two, three. However, she was now on the roof of the hotel Koenma told her they were staying at, and faced with the problem of finding out which room they were in. She opted to ask the desk clerk instead of looking in the windows. After all, she was supposed to be human.
Needless to say, the clerk was little help. She ended up with the room number after making a phone call to Koenma, and took the time in the elevator to take in her wings. She set her jacket on the floor and bent down as if touching her toes, then began to flex her shoulder blades to ease the bones back in a little less laboriously. The leathery skin that made up the wings began to shrink and pull her joints closer together as the long arm-like bones shortened themselves. In less than a minute the only evidence left of the appendages were two dark nubs on either side of her spine. She cracked her neck like she always did after taking her wings in, then slipped her jacket back on and walked calmly out of the elevator. She then began the process of masking her demon features and becoming 'human.' She had the ability to cover up certain traits of hers; whether it was giving her self a new scent, aura, or just becoming invisible. So by the time she knocked on the door of Botan's room, she looked, smelled, and for all intents and purposes, was human. Even demon perception would not be aware of the fact that she was a demon-god.
Hiei sensed a human before Botan opened the door, and he was none too pleased. Kali was greeted with one of the fire demon's dreaded glares, which she returned ten-fold. His eyes widened a fraction of an inch at the hostility of her eyes, but he quickly regained his composure and turned his head away so she could not see his reaction.
Kali walked into the room as if she owned it, even though she was considered the lowest life-form present. Beside, perhaps, the fake plant standing in the corner. She found Sanura still unconscious and lying on the bed, and the first thing Kali did was check to make sure she was alive. Thankfully she was, and in any other situation Kali would have woken her up and yelled at her as loud as she could. But she was unable to use her telepathy here, so all she could do was lean against a random wall and wait with what little patience she possessed. She could not even amuse her self with smoke rings. Pity.
There was definitely tension in the hotel room, mostly due to Sanura's visitor, though she seemed not to be bothered by it. Said intruder was content to lean against the wall opposite Hiei and stare at him. She wore black suede pants with black high-heeled boots of the same material and a black garment around her waist that appeared to be a corset, under which she wore a white peasant shirt. On top of that she had a short red velvet jacket that had gold thread sown in flames on the sleeves. She was about five feet tall, with wavy black hair that had a crimson tint to it, middle-eastern skin, and steel gray eyes. Much to Hiei's delight, she was very good at staring at him. So good she barely noticed that Sanura was conscious again.
"Kali?" Sanura called.
"Hm," was her only answer.
"Kali."
"What?"
"You can stop staring at the little one now."
Kali finally turned her head and snapped back to reality. "Sanura! You scared me! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?! You're not supposed to be around dead people and YOU KNOW IT!!"
Sanura waited out the onslaught of screams with her usual patience and finally, when the other girl had run out of breath, stated, "It is my job, Kali. I can do nothing about it. Besides, Kuwabara didn't really die, so it wasn't as bad it could have been." She hopped up and introduced everyone to her partner, explaining that they had been working together for the last eleven years under Koenma's employment and that they worked internationally most of the time. Yusuke seemed more than a little surprised at that.
"Don't tell me you though all the demons in the world concentrated their efforts in Japan to make it easier for you to kill them. If Koenma sent you on every mission he had, you'd have to be in three places at once." Kali answered matter-of-factly.
"We also usually deal with the female threats. It works better that way."
"What is THAT supposed to mean?"
"Nothing really, it's just that missions tend to be more successful when opposing forces are the same sex. No messy attractions or anything like that to trip over." Sanura heaved herself gracefully onto the little table behind her and let her legs swing back and forth. "It's got nothing to do with how strong you are." = Male egos, eh? I wouldn't have to explain this to women. = She thought to Kali, making sure not to let Hiei listen in.
((So does this mean I can talk to you?))
= 'Course. Why would you think otherwise? =
((You said you wanted me to be human.))
= Yeah, but I've got a barrier up. They won't be able to tell the difference. So what's your opinion? =
((I like them. The Urameshi kid's just being territorial, he'll get used to it. I like the little short one, though. He's funny.))
= He hasn't said anything. How is that even vaguely amusing? =
((I don't know, it just is.))
"Hello?" Yusuke almost yelled at Sanura.
"Yeah? Sorry, I was thinking about something else." Sanura and Kali both had to make an effort not to laugh.
"I said, you never told me what kind of demon you are."
"Oh, that...well, how to put this...any ideas?" She turned to her best friend expectantly, who shrugged and took another sip of her water. Sanura frowned and stated, "My mother was Bastet, the cat goddess of Egypt, and my dad was one of the kinkwa-neko. So, I guess you could say I'm a cat demon, even though it's not politically correct."
"What's a kink-a-whatcha-ma-callit?" Kuwabara asked stupidly.
"It's a golden flower cat. They were rare demons that supposedly died out during the feudal era, believed to have to the power to transform themselves into beautiful women and seduce random people. They were also called 'beckoning cats' because shop owners kept them leashed up outside as a good luck charm. They were said to have drawn in lost travelers to the store." Kurama informed everyone. "You said your dad was one?" Sanura only nodded.
"So your mom was gay?" Yusuke asked.
Kali and Sanura both burst into a fit of laughter at his question, Kali spewing water all over Hiei. She only laughed harder at the glare he sent her, and stuttered her apology around giggles as Sanura tried to explain.
"No, she wasn't. See, when the golden flower cats were in their true forms, they were their original genders. My mom was in her cat form when they met, as well." Confusion was all that met her explanation.
"Why was your mother in Japan?" Hiei put in from his corner.
"Well, she was tired of being kept in the temple every day of her life, so when her yearly festival came around she took the opportunity to take her true form and run away. She got lost, and by the time she was in Japan she had no clue where she was. Hence the 'beckoning cat' bit. Anyway, she eventually made it back to Egypt courtesy of her father."
"So she's half goddess?" Kuwabara looked around the room for someone to assure him.
"Oh, what a smart puppy!" Kali clapped her hands sarcastically and Sanura snorted, trying desperately not to laugh while she nodded.
"What are you doing with a human?" Hiei questioned darkly.
Kali immediately became serious. ((Can I sock him?))
= No, you can't. We have to work with these people later. Remember that. = The orange-haired girl gazed meaningfully at Kali just to make certain that there would be no punching any time soon. "I have my reasons and I suggest you don't anger her. She's stronger than you think."
Hiei snorted at her and shut his eyes. Kali had a strong urge to burn him to a crisp, and several people in the room looked at her questioningly when heat waves started emanating from her. She smiled innocently and waved at them, effectively dispersing the fire she had built up in her bowels. If there was one thing she would not tolerate, it was someone thinking she was weak. But she could dissolve any of those thoughts from his little spiked head any time she felt like it, as soon as Sanura got over her prank. She just had to wait patiently until the day she could introduce her self properly – preferably in a dojo.
"So what's your true form, then?" Yusuke asked. Sanura did nothing but stare at him with obvious confusion. "If you're a golden flower cat or whatever, then you could just be trying to seduce us. How do we know you're not some creepy gay guy?"
Sanura gave him the weirdest look any of them had seen in a long time, but answered all the same. "I can tell you honestly that I'm female, if that's what you're looking for. But I can't just show you my true form. That would definitely NOT go over well." She said, laughing nervously.
"And why not?" He pressed. Now he was just curious. "Come on, it can't be that bad. Just show us."
The girl laughed again and Kali shrugged at her. "Um...which one?"
"What do you mean which one?" Yusuke's eyes were wide and skeptical, along with every other pair of eyes in the room.
"Well, there are three parts to me, so I have three forms. There's the demon one that I hardly ever use because it scares me, and then there's the good one that I never use in battle because it's cute but useless, and then there's the one I use almost all the time that I don't want to show you because there's not really enough space in the room." She managed get it out all in one breath, so fast that no one really understood what she had said.
"Well which one won't hurt us?"
"Um...the useless one. But I don't want to be in that one while he's around," she said, pointing at Kuwabara.
"Sanura, just do it. I'm getting tired." Kali shoved her forward. She could have sworn she heard the fire demon mutter something that sounded like 'typical.'
Sanura sighed and nodded. There was a little flash of blue light and she disappeared from everyone's sight. Kali sighed at the confusion generated by her partner's magic act and reached down to pull her best friend out from under the bed. To everyone's surprise and a certain idiot's childlike joy, there in Kali's arms was a tiny white cat, barely older than a kitten. The wavy-haired 'human' turned the animal over to Kuwabara, who was all too eager to hold her.
The little kitten was apparently not too pleased about it, but, when reminded by Kali that the man had just recently died, decided to put up with the oaf. She was, inevitably, passed around the room, though the other three boys had very little to do with her. The girls went crazy, of course, and by the time Sanura was back in her human form she had been pet, flipped, or scratched by nearly everyone in the room. Immediately after the pet-the-adorable-kitten escapade, Kali and Sanura retired to their room and bid everyone a good night.