Sightseeing
After the chat in Koenma's office was done Li announced that she was off to
do some sight seeing, and maybe get a cheeseburger. "And if anybody has a
problem with it, including you little man," she smirked at Koenma. "Bite
me." And with that last remark she departed, leaving Koenma to marvel at
her rudeness, and Yuusuke half admiring her. He thought he was the only one
who just saw a loud toddler when looking at Koenma. Everyone else seemed to
see a god to be feared and respected.
On his way home Yuusuke saw her again on a crowded sidewalk. Sporting some new sunglasses, a baseball cap and a digital camera, he could have mistaken her for a real tourist if he had not already known who she was. She caught sight of him and snapped a picture of him. "Ooh look! An actual Japanese gang leader!" she approached for a closer shot. She didn't seem to notice the people staring at them until she suddenly shouted for the entire street to hear. "That's right 23rd street, this punk here owns this turf and he'll pound anyone who disagrees!"
Apparently Li had run into a few other hoods while sight seeing and obtained this information. She asked if Yuusuke was interested in the pictures she'd taken while sightseeing and without waiting for him to answer she told him all about what she had seen in a rapid somewhat high- pitched voice. Yuusuke figured that might have something to do with the trip to the local candy store she had taken at the beginning her self-led tour. Li accompanied Yuusuke on his usually dull walk home and told him about her tour. He learned that in the space of twenty minutes she had accomplished the following while sugar high: Raided several candy stores, assisted his gang in vandalizing gas stations, offended everybody at the Buddhist temples by pointing at Buddha and shouting "Hey who's that big fat bastard supposed to be?" beat the living crap out of his rival gang for telling her she was invading their turf, stolen a brand new digital camera from the incapacitated leader of that gang, astonished the workers at fast food restaurant by offering several large pure gold coins as currency for a cheeseburger (they don't use yen in the Makai apparently), and last but not least, immortalized the image of the feared 'Great Urameshi' with her brand new digital camera. This, needless to say led Yuusuke to conclude that too much sugar can do horrible things to a person's sense of right and wrong.
She popped another piece of candy in her mouth as they came to Yuusuke's house. "Hey, lemme in. I'm going to apologize to your mom for last night."
'Huh?' Yuusuke thought to himself. That didn't make much sense. From what he could see, Li was just as bad if not worse, a hoodlum as he was, and people like him did not often just up and decide to apologize, even when they knew they were wrong. Should he even consider letting someone like that into his house. His thoughts were interrupted by a terrified shriek coming from inside the house. He rushed inside to see what was wrong just in time to see his mother whack Li on the head with a frying pan. "Thought you could kidnap me again did you!!!" she whacked Li again. "Well guess what! I'm not falling for that trick again!! Take this!!" she landed another blow on the cowering Li's head. "And that!! You sick kidnapping demon!!" Atsuko continued the assault deaf to Li's pleading with her. Yuusuke was trying to figure out how Li had gotten in so quick without him noticing, his back had been turned for only a second or two. He was also trying to decide whether or not to try and stop his enraged mother from the attack. "Please...ow! Ms.Urameshi. OW!! I just wanted to...Ow! To say..." Li was cowering in a corner ineffectively using her arms to shield herself from the merciless Atsuko. Yuusuke decided he should step in eventually. "Mom! It's okay, she's not here to hurt anyone, she was going to apologize. But I doubt she remembers that because I think you gave her a concussion." Fortunately, Li was not hurt that seriously, however it took a few seconds for her to remember exactly what she was going to say. "Alright...uh...umm. What's your name again? Wait. I remember now, Ms. Urameshi, I would like to apologize for kidnapping you, and making an attempt to kill your son. My boss made me do it, so please don't hit me anymore and put the frying pan down." "Bow." Atsuko commanded. "Huh?" Li obviously did not know too much about Japanese etiquette. "You have to bow when you apologize to someone." Atsuko explained still brandishing the dangerous cooking utensil. Li asked timidly that she put the pan down fearing another blow to the head before she bowed. When she did Atsuko reluctantly accepted the apology and then Li rubbed her head and announced that she was going to go apologize to every one else and get some ice to put on her head.
"Good luck with that." Yuusuke watched her leave the door still rubbing her head.
Wanna Cookie?
The apologies went well enough for the most part and now she only had one left, to Hiei. She was still debating on whether or not to go through with it as she searched blindly for him in a thick forest. He hadn't actually gotten hurt, until that fight they had, and he had started that. But then she had kidnapped his beloved sister. Yet Hiei was probably not the type to forgive and forget. Li had just resolved to stop looking for him and start looking for a hotel to stay at before he found her.
While she began the trip out of the forest a blue jay chirped from the branches of a nearby tree. The forest was otherwise pretty quiet accept for the bird and Li's footsteps. Even after the conclusion that Hiei was not willing to forgive anyone she was having second thoughts, or third thoughts. Maybe it would be best to try for some kind of truce with Hiei; people like him like to take vengeance in the most horrible ways. The words "Hiei" and "Revenge" in the same sentence were enough to make anyone shudder. There were at least a thousand ways he could go about trying to burn her to death. She couldn't die of course, but fire is really painful.
The blue jay stopped chirping suddenly. 'Weird, they usually slow down before completely stopping." A smell that suggested burnt chicken wafted done from the tree and a singed feather fell lightly to the ground. "Uh-oh..." Li whispered. It seemed that now that she had found Hiei, she felt she should not have come looking for him. It was just like her to go looking for trouble. She looked up to the treetops searching for a dark figure.
"What are you doing here?" A deep voice spoke from behind her. 'Of course he would be behind me. I think I've seen this in a horror movie.' She thought, turning to face him with slow precaution.
"He told me you would be here." Li put her friendliest smile. Now she had no choice but to try for a truce. The more she looked at him the more unlikely it seemed, but it was worth a shot.
"Get lost." Hiei said flatly. Li thought about doing just that for a moment, but decided to follow through with her plan. Besides, Kurama warned her about this. He must know him very well, or maybe he was psychic...
"He told me you would say that, too."
"Must I repeat myself?" There wasn't a reason to ask who 'he' was. They both knew only one person could predict him like that. Li remembered the treat she had picked up while raiding a sweet shop during her tour. She extracted a chocolate chip from her pocket. Hiei reacted with a disgusted face as if it were the nastiest thing he had ever seen.
"Do you expect me to take that?" He spat. What kind of fool did she take him for? For all he knew she was handing him poison. The cookie began to burn in Li's hand. She yelped in pain and dropped it. Then she began to stomp furiously at the ground because the grass had caught fire.
"Oh come on! Everybody loves chocolate chip!" She rubbed her burned hand sorely. The injury was already healing. "Didn't I tell you to get lost?" What did she want? Hiei asked himself. In most cases Hiei could analyze a situation quickly enough. Li was an assassin. Li had tracked him down and offered him food. It was obviously an attempt to poison him. Yet, if she were as skilled an assassin as her reputation had proclaimed, why would she make such an obvious attempt on his life. That didn't make sense. "I just wanted to talk for a little while," her eyes were wide and innocent, her expression almost hurt, but then it's always the cute innocents looking ones who are really dangerous. "What could you possibly have to say to me?" Hiei asked his expression and tone hinting with suspicion. "Umm... Good afternoon? She was trying to be cute. Typical. She spoke again. "I just wanted to say that I think we got off on the wrong foot, so I'm sorry for kidnapping your sister and I wasn't gonna hurt her and the whole thing wasn't even my fault 'cause my boss made me do it. So don't take anything personally and please don't try and kill me 'cause that would be mean." 'How...interesting...' Hiei thought to himself, trying to figure out how to react to this. No one ever apologized to him because no one ever lived to apologize to him when they did something they should be sorry for. However in his opinion, Li had a lot to be sorry for yet she was still standing right in front of him, asking forgiveness. How very odd... "How do you know Yukina is my sister?" Hiei asked upon realizing this information was meant to be secret. Why would a complete stranger know about such a protected secret? "I am an assassin and a spy, it's my job to know these things." Hiei looked at her with murder in his eyes and an angry glare. He needed no words for Li to understand that he wanted a better explanation. "Uhh...my boss told me," without warning she decided to change the subject. "There was a blue jay singing earlier, until you fried it. Why did you kill the bird Hiei?" Hiei thought this was somewhat random. There was definitely something strange about this girl, but then, neither of their professions had ever really required great conversational skills. So he simply answered. "Birds are irritating."
"Oh. I have another thing to say. I didn't mean for that little
encounter we had a while ago to turn violent. I was just doing my job.
And why did you cut my hair? My hair never grew back. I miss my hair."
She whined recalling the results of their first bout. Hiei smirked,
that kind of funny. But he still couldn't let his guard down around
her. He drew his sword and she took a defensive stance, afraid that
after all that he was going to attack her again. "Do you see this
sword?"
"Yes I do. It's very shiny."
"This is not just any sword. A wound made by this sword never heals.
Nothing cut by it ever grows back, unless I want it to. Which is very,
very seldom."
That explained a lot more than why Li's hair never grew back. It also
explained why she was still wearing bandages on the cut he'd made so
long ago in her side. No doctor she'd been to had any idea how to heal
it. Stitches just disintegrated no sooner than they touched her flesh
She was told the wound was cursed and that she would eventually bleed
to death. However what the doctors did not know was that she couldn't
die.
On his way home Yuusuke saw her again on a crowded sidewalk. Sporting some new sunglasses, a baseball cap and a digital camera, he could have mistaken her for a real tourist if he had not already known who she was. She caught sight of him and snapped a picture of him. "Ooh look! An actual Japanese gang leader!" she approached for a closer shot. She didn't seem to notice the people staring at them until she suddenly shouted for the entire street to hear. "That's right 23rd street, this punk here owns this turf and he'll pound anyone who disagrees!"
Apparently Li had run into a few other hoods while sight seeing and obtained this information. She asked if Yuusuke was interested in the pictures she'd taken while sightseeing and without waiting for him to answer she told him all about what she had seen in a rapid somewhat high- pitched voice. Yuusuke figured that might have something to do with the trip to the local candy store she had taken at the beginning her self-led tour. Li accompanied Yuusuke on his usually dull walk home and told him about her tour. He learned that in the space of twenty minutes she had accomplished the following while sugar high: Raided several candy stores, assisted his gang in vandalizing gas stations, offended everybody at the Buddhist temples by pointing at Buddha and shouting "Hey who's that big fat bastard supposed to be?" beat the living crap out of his rival gang for telling her she was invading their turf, stolen a brand new digital camera from the incapacitated leader of that gang, astonished the workers at fast food restaurant by offering several large pure gold coins as currency for a cheeseburger (they don't use yen in the Makai apparently), and last but not least, immortalized the image of the feared 'Great Urameshi' with her brand new digital camera. This, needless to say led Yuusuke to conclude that too much sugar can do horrible things to a person's sense of right and wrong.
She popped another piece of candy in her mouth as they came to Yuusuke's house. "Hey, lemme in. I'm going to apologize to your mom for last night."
'Huh?' Yuusuke thought to himself. That didn't make much sense. From what he could see, Li was just as bad if not worse, a hoodlum as he was, and people like him did not often just up and decide to apologize, even when they knew they were wrong. Should he even consider letting someone like that into his house. His thoughts were interrupted by a terrified shriek coming from inside the house. He rushed inside to see what was wrong just in time to see his mother whack Li on the head with a frying pan. "Thought you could kidnap me again did you!!!" she whacked Li again. "Well guess what! I'm not falling for that trick again!! Take this!!" she landed another blow on the cowering Li's head. "And that!! You sick kidnapping demon!!" Atsuko continued the assault deaf to Li's pleading with her. Yuusuke was trying to figure out how Li had gotten in so quick without him noticing, his back had been turned for only a second or two. He was also trying to decide whether or not to try and stop his enraged mother from the attack. "Please...ow! Ms.Urameshi. OW!! I just wanted to...Ow! To say..." Li was cowering in a corner ineffectively using her arms to shield herself from the merciless Atsuko. Yuusuke decided he should step in eventually. "Mom! It's okay, she's not here to hurt anyone, she was going to apologize. But I doubt she remembers that because I think you gave her a concussion." Fortunately, Li was not hurt that seriously, however it took a few seconds for her to remember exactly what she was going to say. "Alright...uh...umm. What's your name again? Wait. I remember now, Ms. Urameshi, I would like to apologize for kidnapping you, and making an attempt to kill your son. My boss made me do it, so please don't hit me anymore and put the frying pan down." "Bow." Atsuko commanded. "Huh?" Li obviously did not know too much about Japanese etiquette. "You have to bow when you apologize to someone." Atsuko explained still brandishing the dangerous cooking utensil. Li asked timidly that she put the pan down fearing another blow to the head before she bowed. When she did Atsuko reluctantly accepted the apology and then Li rubbed her head and announced that she was going to go apologize to every one else and get some ice to put on her head.
"Good luck with that." Yuusuke watched her leave the door still rubbing her head.
Wanna Cookie?
The apologies went well enough for the most part and now she only had one left, to Hiei. She was still debating on whether or not to go through with it as she searched blindly for him in a thick forest. He hadn't actually gotten hurt, until that fight they had, and he had started that. But then she had kidnapped his beloved sister. Yet Hiei was probably not the type to forgive and forget. Li had just resolved to stop looking for him and start looking for a hotel to stay at before he found her.
While she began the trip out of the forest a blue jay chirped from the branches of a nearby tree. The forest was otherwise pretty quiet accept for the bird and Li's footsteps. Even after the conclusion that Hiei was not willing to forgive anyone she was having second thoughts, or third thoughts. Maybe it would be best to try for some kind of truce with Hiei; people like him like to take vengeance in the most horrible ways. The words "Hiei" and "Revenge" in the same sentence were enough to make anyone shudder. There were at least a thousand ways he could go about trying to burn her to death. She couldn't die of course, but fire is really painful.
The blue jay stopped chirping suddenly. 'Weird, they usually slow down before completely stopping." A smell that suggested burnt chicken wafted done from the tree and a singed feather fell lightly to the ground. "Uh-oh..." Li whispered. It seemed that now that she had found Hiei, she felt she should not have come looking for him. It was just like her to go looking for trouble. She looked up to the treetops searching for a dark figure.
"What are you doing here?" A deep voice spoke from behind her. 'Of course he would be behind me. I think I've seen this in a horror movie.' She thought, turning to face him with slow precaution.
"He told me you would be here." Li put her friendliest smile. Now she had no choice but to try for a truce. The more she looked at him the more unlikely it seemed, but it was worth a shot.
"Get lost." Hiei said flatly. Li thought about doing just that for a moment, but decided to follow through with her plan. Besides, Kurama warned her about this. He must know him very well, or maybe he was psychic...
"He told me you would say that, too."
"Must I repeat myself?" There wasn't a reason to ask who 'he' was. They both knew only one person could predict him like that. Li remembered the treat she had picked up while raiding a sweet shop during her tour. She extracted a chocolate chip from her pocket. Hiei reacted with a disgusted face as if it were the nastiest thing he had ever seen.
"Do you expect me to take that?" He spat. What kind of fool did she take him for? For all he knew she was handing him poison. The cookie began to burn in Li's hand. She yelped in pain and dropped it. Then she began to stomp furiously at the ground because the grass had caught fire.
"Oh come on! Everybody loves chocolate chip!" She rubbed her burned hand sorely. The injury was already healing. "Didn't I tell you to get lost?" What did she want? Hiei asked himself. In most cases Hiei could analyze a situation quickly enough. Li was an assassin. Li had tracked him down and offered him food. It was obviously an attempt to poison him. Yet, if she were as skilled an assassin as her reputation had proclaimed, why would she make such an obvious attempt on his life. That didn't make sense. "I just wanted to talk for a little while," her eyes were wide and innocent, her expression almost hurt, but then it's always the cute innocents looking ones who are really dangerous. "What could you possibly have to say to me?" Hiei asked his expression and tone hinting with suspicion. "Umm... Good afternoon? She was trying to be cute. Typical. She spoke again. "I just wanted to say that I think we got off on the wrong foot, so I'm sorry for kidnapping your sister and I wasn't gonna hurt her and the whole thing wasn't even my fault 'cause my boss made me do it. So don't take anything personally and please don't try and kill me 'cause that would be mean." 'How...interesting...' Hiei thought to himself, trying to figure out how to react to this. No one ever apologized to him because no one ever lived to apologize to him when they did something they should be sorry for. However in his opinion, Li had a lot to be sorry for yet she was still standing right in front of him, asking forgiveness. How very odd... "How do you know Yukina is my sister?" Hiei asked upon realizing this information was meant to be secret. Why would a complete stranger know about such a protected secret? "I am an assassin and a spy, it's my job to know these things." Hiei looked at her with murder in his eyes and an angry glare. He needed no words for Li to understand that he wanted a better explanation. "Uhh...my boss told me," without warning she decided to change the subject. "There was a blue jay singing earlier, until you fried it. Why did you kill the bird Hiei?" Hiei thought this was somewhat random. There was definitely something strange about this girl, but then, neither of their professions had ever really required great conversational skills. So he simply answered. "Birds are irritating."
"Oh. I have another thing to say. I didn't mean for that little
encounter we had a while ago to turn violent. I was just doing my job.
And why did you cut my hair? My hair never grew back. I miss my hair."
She whined recalling the results of their first bout. Hiei smirked,
that kind of funny. But he still couldn't let his guard down around
her. He drew his sword and she took a defensive stance, afraid that
after all that he was going to attack her again. "Do you see this
sword?"
"Yes I do. It's very shiny."
"This is not just any sword. A wound made by this sword never heals.
Nothing cut by it ever grows back, unless I want it to. Which is very,
very seldom."
That explained a lot more than why Li's hair never grew back. It also
explained why she was still wearing bandages on the cut he'd made so
long ago in her side. No doctor she'd been to had any idea how to heal
it. Stitches just disintegrated no sooner than they touched her flesh
She was told the wound was cursed and that she would eventually bleed
to death. However what the doctors did not know was that she couldn't
die.