She was jerked from her dream world as an awful shrieking noise filled the room. She groaned and pulled one of the spare pillows over her head, hoping the drown out the awful alarm clock Koenma's ogre had placed there late in the night. She reached over and turned the clock off, not even bothering to pull her head from underneath the pillow, drifting off to sleep as silence filled room once more.
Suddenly, Sahara felt herself falling, tumbling off the mattress. She immediately sat up as soon as she hit the ground, only to find the mattress falling on top of her small frame.
"It's about time you got up." Yusuke's voice rang in her ears as she managed to pull herself out from under the mattress. "Come on now, WAKEY WAKEY!" Yusuke shouted the last part in a sing song voice, causing Sahara to cover her ears.
"Yusuke, must you be so loud at the this time of the morning?" She groaned as she caught sight of the clock, which red 6:00 a.m. in bright red letters.
He grinned at her, placing his strong arms under her arms and pulling her to her feet, "I just wanted to make sure you weren't late for your first breakfast with the team."
She giggled at the detective who was now bowing to her, "I'll be down in a few minutes, just allow me to get changed."
"Don't be late, my lady." He said with a wink as he left her room hurriedly, slamming the door behind him.
She smiled at the door a moment longer before turning to gauge the damage that had been done. 'Who know one person could make such a mess in so short a time.' she chuckled to herself as she tried to tidy the room by at least putting the mattress back on the bed, so they servants wouldn't have to much work to do.
Sahara panted lightly as she made her way to her closet, slightly out of breath from moving the heavy mattress all by herself. 'Now, what does on wear when they train with a bunch of boys?' she asked herself as she threw open the doors.
She smiled, seeing that the ogres had also stocked her closet with a complete collection of various training clothes and all without disturbing her last night. 'I must remember to thank them' she thought to herself as she pulled out a pair of black stretch shorts and a pink tank.
"SAHARA!" Kuwabara's voice startled her slightly, making her nearly jump out of the shorts she had just put on, "HURRY UP! BREAKFAST IS READY!"
She trotted out of the room and quickly down the stairs, hoping that she remembered where the dining room was. When she entered, the sight before her astounded her. Never before had she seen so many different types of breakfast foods gathered in one place, not to mention the various types of fresh fruits that were also scattered among the rest. Her mouth began to water viciously, and her gnawing hunger, that she had almost completely forgotten about until now, began to kick in as she picked up a large, glass plate.
"Pretty good, eh?" Yusuke asked, his mouth half full with some form of pancake, "Koenma takes really good care of his team, wouldn't you agree?" He asked handing over one of the bagels he had on his plate.
"Thanks for the bagel, Yusuke," she said quietly taking a bite out of it, "But, I want everything!" she said excitedly as she began filling her plate with many different types of food.
"I like your style!" Yusuke cheered, picking up his plate and quickly refilling it, pilling it so high, that it threatened to topple off the sides.
She moved quickly around the table, picking up a piece of this here, sampling a bit of that there, before she was satisfied with her selection and made her way over to sit beside Kurama. It was then that she began to tear into her breakfast with a ravenous hunger, her mouth covered in a mixture of syrup and scrambled eggs.
"Hn, some princess." Hiei spoke quietly, sipping on his coffee from the opposite side of the table.
"What?" She question, her mouth still full of food as she faced the fire demon.
"What Hiei means, is that you have a little food on your face," Kurama translated, lifting a napkin to her cheeks and gently cleaning off the food that now hung there.
Sahara blushed a violent red, "I'm so sorry!" she said quickly, bowing her head, "Please forgive my rude manners, I was just so hungry!"
"It's alright," Kurama spoke, placing a hand on her shoulder, we don't hold against you here, we've seen people each much worse than that before.
"Yeah, and besides, you went without food for what three months?" Yusuke asked from the opposite end of the table, pushing his now completely empty plate away from him.
"Yes, I believe so," Sahara thought for a moment, trying to remember exactly how long she had been kept in that place, "I don't remember the exact day, but I would say it was around three months."
"So, you were starving, no big deal." Yusuke held up a peace sign, causing the princess to giggle a bit.
"What idiots." Hiei mumbled, earning a glare from the kitsune who sat across the table from him.
After enjoying her wonderful meal, Sahara made her way into the kitchen, holding a large stack of dirty dishes in her hands. She couldn't believe that those boys could make such a mess doing such a simple thing as eating breakfast. She blushed again as the image of Kurama entered into her mind, goose bumps appearing on her skin as she ran her fingers along the very spot where his hands had been.
She smiled again, placing the dishes into the sink for the ogres, and making her way out to the training arena, excited about her first day training with the detectives. She plopped down on the ground a few feet away from the detectives and began to stretch out her very tense muscles. She saw the four boys get up from there places and move into a huddle, which raised her curiosity. She leaned in closer, trying to focus on what they were saying to on another.
"What are we going to do, Kurama?" Yusuke said in a hushed tone, glancing over at Sahara, who was still stretching, "I thought you had a plan for training her."
"I cannot make a plan until I know exactly what she can do," Kurama said back, his mind running over the display she had made in Nero's fortress.
"Well, we've seen already what she can do, remember what she did to Nero?" Kuwabara's voice came out as a complete whisper, "I mean, she totally whipped his ass! None of us could have done that."
"This is true, Kuwabara," Kurama spoke gently, as not to upset Kuwabara, "However, I believe the powers took over her and that she had no control. Without them, we don't know how strong she is, or if we can even bring them out."
"Well, let's just bring them out again." Yusuke whispered, his eyes never leaving Sahara, making sure she did not try to listen in on their planning session.
"Not that simple, Yusuke," Kurama shook his head, "It would take a great emotional hit, much like the one we planned at the dark tournament for you, to bring out her powers again."
"And we can't exactly go around killing everyone to bring her powers out for training," he's voice was cold, turning his crimson gaze to Kuwabara, "Though, I would love the chance to try it out on a few members of this little group."
"THAT'S IT SHRIMP!" Kuwabara roared, startling the rest of the group, as well as Sahara, "YOU ARE DEAD!" He cried out as he dove for Hiei, who quickly dodged, making the detective fall flat on his face.
"HA, you kill me?" Hiei chuckled a bit from the low branch he stood on, "That will be the day that the human race completely rules over the demon breed."
"What's going on you guys?" Sahara asked as she rose from the ground, dusting off her backside.
"Well," Yusuke said as he dusted a bit of grass from her back, "we were just trying to decide how we were going to train you."
"Yeah," Kuwabara joined, completely forgetting the feud he was having with Hiei, "Koenma told us to start you off slow, but I think you should be started off at a fast pace, what with the way you beat Nero and all."
"I did what?" Sahara's gold eyes went wide for a moment at the bit of information that had just been revealed to her.
"You beat Nero, don't you remember?" Kurama asked, puzzled at the response she had.
"No, there's no way I beat him." She argued crossing her arms, "I tried to fight him many times during my imprisonment, and every time he overpowered me. There is no way that I was strong enough to do that kind of damage to him after being locked away for so long."
She looked around the circle at the group of confused faces that stared back at her. She didn't back down though, "In any case, if I had taken care of him, why can't I remember doing it?"
"Well," Kurama thought for a moment, trying to remember some facts he had once read about those kept in the hibernative state, "It could be a side effect from whatever they used to keep you in that state. Memory loss is very common for the first few hours after a person emerges from the state."
"But that's silly Kurama, I remember everything else that went on."
"What happened then? Tell us your side of the story." Kurama implored, trying to figure out exactly what had happened yesterday.
"Well, I don't remember much from being inside the tube," she said quietly, closing her eyes, as if she was watching her memories play out before her, "But, I do remember feeling a great energy beginning to swell up, and I immediately recognized it as Nero's. Next thing, I felt myself being pulled from the tank and waking up with Kagami in front of me."
If Kurama hadn't seen the events unfold before his very eyes, he felt that he would have probably believe the young princess who stood before him. However, the differences in the stories baffled him, and he knew that he would need to do a bit more research on the subject later.
"So what are we going to do?" She asked again, obviously trying not to lose her patience with the four boys who still didn't believe her, "Have you come up with some sort of plan to train me yet?"
"Well, if you are in the situation I think you are in," Kurama said, pacing around her for a moment, as if examining her for any signs of a possession of any type of mind control device, "Then, I think we should start you off on a rigorous training schedule, something to help you learn to develop the powers you have, while we try to get to the bottom of just what happened the other day."
"Meaning?" Yusuke asked, obviously confused by whatever plan Kurama had concocted in that head of his.
"I think, that you should start out fighting us, two on one." Kurama said flatly, causing Sahara's heart to flutter at the thought of facing to of the dreaded Spirit Detectives at one time.
Kuwabara immediately stepped up, "Hold on, Kurama," He stepped in front of Sahara, "Two on one is not fair!"
"I'm aware of that Kuwabara, but, for the time being, it's the only plan I have." Kurama shook his head. "Botan, could you bring us a pen and some paper?" Kurama asked the reaper through the use of his communicator.
"Well, I don't like it," Kuwabara said, turning to face Sahara. He bent down a bit so that he could look her square in the eye, "Sahara, you don't have to do this if you don't want to."
"He's right you know, Sahara," Kurama said, coming over to her as well, "We can't force you to do anything you don't want to. After all, you are here as our guest and I wouldn't want to seem rude." He smiled down at Sahara, causing a faint blush to tinge her cheeks. "I don't want you to feel pressured, if you want to start off slowly, then we will do that. It's up to you."
She felt her heart beating at an abnormally fast rate as she contemplated the two options. On one hand, she was scared to death of the group of boys that stood before her. She had seen the way they handled their opponents when she had been at the dark tournament and was fully aware of the fact that she was no where near their level of expertise when it came to fighting. She knew that doing the training one on one would be the easiest possible route for her.
On the other hand, she knew that the only way to figure out exactly what had gone on in Nero's fortress the other day was to do just as Kurama had said. She wanted to become much stronger, and the only way was by facing to overwhelming tasks of beating the Spirit Detectives in a two on one match. Those boys terrified her, but she knew that they only had her best interests at heart and that they would not allow any real damage to befall her.
She mulled over the two options in her head for a long while. "I will accept your challenge, Kurama." She said quietly, causing Kurama's face to light up and Kuwabara's to scowl.
"Don't worry Kuwabara," Kurama said, placing a hand on the detectives broad shoulder, "I do believe it's best to train her this way. Besides, we won't do her any real damage."
"I still don't like it." Kuwabara scoffed, pushing his teammates hand away from him.
"Kuwabara," Sahara spoke sweetly, wrapping her arms around the large detectives stomach, "Don't worry about me. I trust Kurama's judgment one hundred percent. I know that he wouldn't allow you guys to hurt me and that he just wants what is best for me."
"Well, ok," Kuwabara said patting her head lightly, "But I'm warning you guys, if any of you hurt her to bad, I'll kill you myself."
"My, that's not very nice, now is it?" a very bubbly voice asked from behind the group, causing Kuwabara to emit a scream that sounded very much like a two year old girl.
Sahara turned to face the direction from where the voice had came, her golden gaze falling on the blue haired, pink eyed, reaper name Botan. She smiled, realizing that the reaper must not have noticed her yet.
"Here you go Kurama, but what did you need," Botan stopped dead mid-sentence, "SAHARA!" She shrieked, obviously shocked to see the princess standing amongst the group of boys.
"Botan," Sahara said quietly, as she was wrapped in one of the tightest hugs she had ever experienced in her entire life.
"Oh Sahara!" Botan squealed again, tears forming in her eyes, "Where have you been? We all thought you were dead!"
"Botan," Sahara gasped for air, trying to wriggle free from the reaper's vice-like grasp, "If you don't let me go, I soon will be." The reaper giggled for a moment and released the hug, allowing Sahara to suck in more of the precious oxygen she had been deprived of.
"Well, Botan," Kurama said as he scribbled on the pieces of paper, folding each up so that the writing couldn't be seen, "We are beginning Sahara's training today, and I wanted to make sure that the two people she fought were drawn at random." The kitsune explained, as he handed Botan the four slips of folded up paper.
"What do you want me to do?" She asked, as she stared at the paper's in front of her.
"Mix them around, then hold them up, and allow Sahara to pick two." Kurama said quickly, Botan following his orders, "The two names she picks will be her opponents for the day."
Botan smiled down at Sahara and held up the papers as she had been told. Sahara looked at the four pieces of paper carefully, hoping to find some sort of way to see at least a piece of the names. She studied each and everyone, but when she could find no way to see them, picked the two on each side of the group.
"And now Botan, if you will read the names please." Kurama said quietly, his arms crossed, silently hoping that at least one of the names was his, so that he could go a little easier on the girl.
Sahara's heart began to race faster and fast as Botan slowly unfolded both pieces of paper. Her eyes trained intently on Botan's face, looking for some expression that would give away exactly who her opponents were. She hoped fate had been good to her and at least given her Kuwabara. She felt that she could easily take him down and then deal with whoever was the second duelist.
Botan's eyes went wide as she stared down at the two names that rested in her hands. "Sahara, your first two opponents are," Botan stopped, knowing the suspense was killing Sahara, wanting to mess with her head just a bit.
"Come on Botan, please don't do this to me." Sahara pleaded.
"Yusuke and Hiei." The reaper replied, causing Kurama, Kuwabara, and Sahara to gasp slightly at the revelation.
