An Innocent Mirage
By Payne N. Uranus
.:AN:. Yes, yes, I know, another story from me...I just can't contain them all! Anyway, hadn't seen a story like this one out there, so I thought I'd contribute to the "original" storyline collection (even though it probably isn't all that original, but whatever). Enjoy!
Chapter One: Recruitment
Hurried footsteps sounded off of the wet pavement, slapping loudly as the dark-clothed figure sped away from the two pursuers. Sharp echoes of voices followed after its form, with one distinctive command.
"Stop! Thief!"
The ignorant form of the runner didn't slow its pace, instead taking turns left and right, weaving through the dark city of downtown Tokyo. A clothed bag clutched tightly in its hands jangled, indicating there were objects of great value carried inside.
"Dammit, I said stop, you bastard!" one of the frustrated bodies chasing the holder of the bag yelled in irritation.
"C'mon, he's taking the back route," his companion huffed from his right.
"Alright, fine," the first spat, his breath coming out heavier due more to anger than actual exhaustion. "You keep after him, I'll wrap around and we'll corner him."
The other gave the thumb's up. "Got it."
They split up, the first man quickening his pace to catch up on the distance he had lost. His breath was heavy, and the weight of his Tokyo P.D. uniform made it even more difficult to maneuver.
I should have never listened to that brat, he cursed with fury. I was perfectly fine with the way that I worked without the help of all this gear…
He had finally caught up to the man, only to find that he had jumped over the chained fence that separated the musky building from its surrounding area.
…And here he is, getting away!
With a loud, furious cry, the man launched himself over the fence, his back just barely nicking the barbed tips while falling onto the other side. He landed in a crouch with cat-like grace, springing to his feet not a second later. The runner was slowing, tiring, he could see it clearly…
"Freeze!" he yelled once more. "Stop, in the name of the law!"
That is SUCH a stupid command…
The figure turned its head slightly to him, showing that it had heard, but continued to run. Once more, the culprit sprinted away, proving that it still had plenty of energy to spare. The man in pursuit sighed with exasperation, unsure whether or not he would be able to catch up.
Suddenly he heard quite a lot of yelling and cursing. The figure had long since disappeared from his sight, but from what he could hear, his target had encountered someone it didn't intend to.
Rounding the corner he last saw his prey disappear around, he came face-to-face with the short, black figure. His palms were pressed against the back of his head with an exasperated look adorning his face. The brown, weighted bag swung lazily from his hands. The man's taller companion stood behind him, wearing a smug grin as he pointed the gun to the thief's back.
"I caught him, Urameshi!" the second man said with a husky, raspy voice. "You owe me some big bucks, man!"
"Yeah, yeah," the previous detective, Urameshi, grumbled. "But I led him to you, so you only get half of the cash."
"That's cheap, Urameshi, you wouldn't have nabbed this guy if it weren't for me!"
"Yeah, and WE wouldn't have even been on this case if YOU hadn't fucked up!"
"Not cool, man! It was that newbie's fault, he shouldn't have turned his back!"
"You were his leading officer! Fine example you were!"
"Better than you!"
"Fucking prove it, you bastard!"
"You are both idiots. I can't believe I was caught by you two," the thief cut in sharply, tone laced with self-hatred.
That got silence from the two officers…
~`*`~
"…And that's how we caught Hiei," Urameshi sighed as he leaned back in his chair, putting his hands behind his head and lazily bringing his feet up to rest them on the desk in front of him.
"And I had to pay him twenty bucks for it, too," Urameshi's partner sulked.
"Aw, shut the hell up with the whining, Kuwabara," Urameshi complained. "You owed me the money, anyways…"
"I didn't owe you forty dollars, you punk!"
"No, you're right, you didn't—you owed me fifty, but I decided I was going to be nice. I think I'm going to change my mind, you bastard." Urameshi stood up and cracked his knuckles threateningly.
"Guys!" a loud, shrill, and seemingly male voice yelled. "I just wanted a mission review, okay, I didn't ask for a fight in my office!"
"Sorry," Urameshi said with a shrug.
"Don't say it unless you mean it, Detective."
"Suit yourself, Boss. I'm going to go get some croissants before all of those fat, moronic seniors get all the good ones…"
"Just a moment, Yusuke," the voice said sternly.
Slumping his shoulders, Yusuke sighed and let go of the knob he had been turning. He walked back over to the mahogany desk, littered with stack after stack of paperwork, and collapsed back into his seat.
"Alrighty, Koenma, what is it that you want?" he grumped, already tired of the stuffy room.
Koenma stared at him silently through his curtain of dark bangs before pushing the intercom button that was also situated on his desk.
"Botan, please send him in."
No reply was needed as the door opened, revealing a beautiful woman with cerulean-shaded locks, and candy colored eyes. She stood behind the dark figure Yusuke and Kuwabara had brought in not too long ago.
He was dressed in all black, with a black tank top and pants, his midnight cloak draped over his shoulder. Four silver belts wrapped around his narrow waist, and the deadly look in his ruby eyes was filled with raging fury and resentment. His hair was black, short and spiky (just like the rest of him… ahem…) with a white starburst in the center of it all. He stood defiantly, despite the fact that his hands were cuffed in front of him, and his feet that were adorning his once more black boots were tapping with impatience.
"Hey! That's the guy that we just finished telling you about!" Kuwabara exclaimed, obviously slow.
"No shit, dumbass!" Yusuke said loudly in return, giving him a quick cuff at the back of his head.
"Ow! Urameshi! You'll pay for that one, you punk!"
"Will you both stop acting like juvenile adolescences and act your age?"
"Hey, I resent that, Mr. High-and-Mighty! I used to be a juvenile adolescent, for your information!"
"That's not something to be bragging about, Detective," Hiei stated casually, glaring reproachfully at Yusuke, who had paused mid-yell at the interruption.
"Watch it, pal…" the slick-haired detective warned, closing his mouth and lowering his raised finger, suddenly dark eyes showing it wasn't a joke this time.
Hiei just rolled his own eyes in exasperation, then turned to Botan. "You're the only sane person in this room as far as I can tell. Please tell me that these aren't the idiots I am to be assisting…"
Caught off-guard by being directly addressed by the criminal, the blue-haired woman stammered, "Uh-a-as f-far as I know, Hiei, you are to be working with these idiots—I mean, these guys. I—I'm sorry…" Her eyes had darted to Koenma and back to Hiei rapidly during her answer, her eyes closing as she smiled nervously, and tried to look positive.
"Damn," Hiei muttered, his eyes going back to the two dimwits that were seething in apparent anger.
"Don't worry, Shorty, we'll make sure that you don't work with us," Kuwabara said in his gravelly voice. Turning to the silent Koenma, he slammed his large fist onto his tidy and artistic desk, causing papers that were stacked neatly into separate piles to fall onto the floor. "He's not really working with us is he, Koenma?"
His question went unanswered as the mute Koenma stared at the once-orderly pile of paper that now littered the ground. Kuwabara also looked down on the ground and suddenly his angered face turned into one of fear and panic. Slowly, Koenma's body tensed up, as if trying to control his rage. His head raised from its position inch by inch, every movement making Kuwabara regret loosing his temper and taking it out on his boss's desk. Heated eyes bored holes into his own, and Kuwabara instinctively took a few steps back, dread written clearly all over his face.
"YOU IDIOT! DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG IT TOOK ME TO ORGANIZE ALL OF THAT! NOW I'LL HAVE TO START ALL OVER! THE COMMISSIONER NEEDS THESE IN TWO DAYS! DO YOU KNOW HOW RELENTLESSLY I'LL HAVE TO WORK IN THAT TIME TO MAKE UP WHAT TOOK WEEKS TO FINISH?"
Kuwabara blabbered out his apology while Hiei and Yusuke were laughing their heads off at the man's predicament.
"FOR THIS, YOU CAN HELP ME ORGANIZE THIS ALL OVER AGAIN, IS THAT CLEAR? YOU WON'T STOP TO EAT, SLEEP, DRINK, OR GO TO THE BATHROOM UNTIL I SAY SO! YOU WILL WORK PERSISTANLY AND DILIGENTLY UNTIL EVERY PIECE OF PAPER IS AS IT WAS! DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?"
"P—p—painst—stakingly c—clear, S—sir," Kuwabara blubbered out.
"Good," came the calm reply. Hiei sweat dropped. Certainly this room was full of crazy people, how was he to survive?
"Oh, boy," Yusuke commented evenly, laying a comforting hand on his partner's trembling shoulder.
"Now, sit down, all of you," Koenma commanded, motioning to the chairs the Detectives had been sitting in moments before. Yusuke and Kuwabara complied, but Hiei simply resorted to leaning against the wall nearest to the door, yet still facing Koenma's desk.
"Hiei, sit down," Koenma told him, his eyebrow twitching.
"I don't think so," came the cool reply. "I'd like to distance myself from you moronic fools. You never know, the cause of all this stupidity could be an airborne contagion."
Growling, Koenma tried to control himself and succeeded this time… "Right. Well, back to what I was going to say beforehand, I had you capture Hiei for a reason, and not just because he was trying to steal expensive items."
"Then why?" Yusuke questioned.
"He'll answer that, half-wit, just wait," the said criminal snapped.
Yusuke's eyes twitched as well, and said, "Y'know, you're good at getting people pissed at you…"
"I've had a lot of practice, but I must say that it's not nearly difficult enough with you three."
"And there you go again."
"Shut up, Detective, and let your young leader finish what he's trying to say or he'll throw a temper tantrum."
And indeed Koenma was turning red out of anger for being ignored and cut-off, not to mention being insulted multiple times by the small yet dangerous criminal.
"Watch what you say, Hiei. I can send you to jail for a couple of years if you want."
"You know I'd love to, but at the moment, the jail cells are full, as you so graciously explained to me. It seems that these shit heads' appearances deceive them. Ever since they've come to work for you, many of the top thieves and masterminds have been taken down. Pity there isn't enough room for little ol' me, or else I wouldn't have to be doing this instead."
"Congratulations, Hiei, I think you succeeded in insulting everyone in this room at least twice in the last… five minutes," Botan told him, looking at her watch to confirm her estimated time.
"Damn, I thought I'd be able to do it in three," Hiei commented innocently with a slight tisk of disappointment. "After all, these are the easiest victims I've had for quite a while. I should've been able to beat my record."
"Well, I was rounding up..."
"AS I WAS SAYING!" an enraged Koenma cut in angrily. "The REASON why I had you capture Hiei was to help with the capture of a top, the best of the best, thief in all of Tokyo. Goes by the name of Yoko Kurama, but that's all we can find out about him. He leaves no trace from each of his raids, and we manage to find out about them at least a couple hours after he successfully completed them. His robberies are unpredictable, and no security system can stop him. A full-out protection structure would be left unactivated if he were to ever encounter one. He's definitely one of the toughest criminals you'll have to capture. For that, we need the assistance of another criminal, one that not only can get us the dirty stories off the streets, but also possesses great speed and cunning. That would be you, Hiei," he explained grudgingly.
"Your words flatter me. I'm honored, truly I am," Hiei replied sarcastically. "But the matter still remains—what does this have to do with me?"
"He just told you that, dumbass!" Yusuke griped with exasperation.
"What I mean, Detective—if I could still even refer to you as such—what's in this for me? What if I declined your offer?"
"Keep in mind, Hiei," Koenma replied. "This is no offer. This is a demand. And I have my ways of keeping you in line, as you are welcome to test."
Hiei stared at him, and suddenly his face grew deathly pale. "You have nothing on me," he muttered in a strained voice.
Koenma held is gaze coolly, cocking his head slightly to the side, and murmured back, "Are you certain of that?"
A beat of silence allowed the air to thicken with the tension. Pure, cold fury burned in the criminal's eyes, and his fists were clenched in front of him, so strong that it turned his hard knuckles white. His whole body was shaking with his rage, and his teeth were set in a firm scowl, grinding together heatedly. "You wouldn't," he growled out forcefully.
"I would," Koenma replied, folding his hands neatly on his desk, still staring the enraged criminal straight in the eye, no hint of flinching appearing on his young features.
Yusuke and Kuwabara's eyes darted back and forth inbetween the two of them, confusion clearly written on their faces.
"What's going on?" Kuwabara asked his companion quietly.
Yusuke merely shrugged.
"Fine," Hiei spat out with pure vehemence. "I will help you capture this 'Yoko Kurama'. But, bear in mind, I hold no loyalty to these scum you have for detectives. I will not risk my life for their safety, as I pray they won't for mine. We work together for this single purpose, nothing more. I will NOT be forced to be in their prescence unless it is related to this case. Is that understood by you all?"
"That is so, Hiei," Koenma told him evenly. "That is so."
.:AN:. End of chapter 1! Even though it's more like a prologue...oh well, technicalities. Hope you liked, please leave a review and tell me what you think so far!