A/N: Enter Youko and a whole lot of trouble. Thank you to those of you who have reviewed (Luca4ever and Rose of the Moon) and I hope to hear from more of you guys! In the meantime, I have yet to acquire the copyrights to YuYu Hakusho, so I don't own it (and probably never will unless I travel to a far dimension and somehow miraculously get the copyrights). Now, read this magnificent fanfiction I have written for your purusing enjoyment.
I stood, still looking at this newcomer, my brain working furiously to figure out who he was. Then it clicked. "Youko, I presume?" I said, raising one eyebrow. The others all raised their eyebrows and looked at the fox demon, surprised. Youko just smiled and inclined his head, keeping his eyes on me.
"You presume correctly." He said, his voice low and smooth as silk. He continued. "And may I presume you knew this because you read Kurama's mind earlier?"
I shrugged indifferently. "You may presume what you wish." I paused, and frowned slightly. "Does Kurama have any consciousness of this conversation?" I asked, changing the subject.
"Not unless I tell him about it." Came Youko's reply. I nodded; I'd figured as much, since it was the norm for the split personality effect, or what ever it should be called. Still, there were exceptions. Before I could ask him another question, he turned with a slight frown to the others, who were still standing there, Yusuke and Kuwabara flabbergasted and Hiei looking bored as usual. "Might I ask that all three of you step out for a time while I speak with Her Highness?" He asked politely but firmly, a hint of steel in his voice. Yusuke and Kuwabara started, then nodded and raced out the door, obviously not wanting to anger Youko. Hiei looked at Youko for a moment before nodding. He had a few words for the fox demon before he left, however.
"Don't scare her off, Youko." He said. "I'm not sure Kurama would ever forgive you for that." He said, pausing in the doorway. Youko smirked.
"Oh, and like you would?" He asked lightly, and I got the feeling that this had some deeper connotations that I was as yet unaware of. Hiei didn't bother answering as he left and this was apparently significant to Youko, because he gave a slight chuckle before turning back to me.
"So, Li-Sanya, we meet for the first time, though we both have heard of the other." I nodded; that about summed it up. I, of course, had heard of the famous thief king that had eluded capture for hundreds of years, and he most definitely had heard about his former monarch. I decided to get to the point.
"Yes. Now, what did you want to talk to me about?" I put my hands on my hips, indicating that I didn't want any nonsense from him. He smiled slightly.
"Well, you should already know one reason." He started. "But there is another reason for me wanting to talk to you." He paused before continuing in a slightly pleading tone of voice. "I've already gotten the stuff you told Kurama earlier when you two first met, but I'm still curious about something." He hesitated and I raised an eyebrow again.
"What?" I asked, curious despite myself.
"Well…what the last key is, actually." He said a little sheepishly. I blinked, surprised. Then what he'd said hit me, and I scowled slightly.
"That…is classified information." I informed him, turning away slightly. "And I doubt you'd be able to meet the requirements, anyway. It's not something I see the king of thieves doing." I glanced sideways at him. "Now, if that's all…?"
Youko sighed. "No, that's not all. I want you to fight me." He said, crossing his arms stubbornly. I turned to face him again.
"Uh-huh." I said. "So, you want to fight me and get your butt kicked?" I asked, oddly excited at the prospect of fighting him. He laughed.
"No, I don't think that will happen." He said, chuckling. "In case you've forgotten, you no longer have all of your power. You are now down to my level, if not lower."
I smirked, though the remark stung. "Really? Shall we test that theory?"
"I'd love to." He said, also smirking slightly. I jumped over the fence into the ring and he did likewise. We took similar fighting stances facing each other. "I will assume we both know the rules? A count of five seconds for out of bounds and the end of the match, any weapons as long as you get them within the five-second count if they're outside the arena. Otherwise, everything goes." I raised my eyebrows as something occurred to me.
"How about we raise the stakes?" I said. He frowned at me, confused.
"What do you mean?"
"Like if I win, then you have to be at my beck and call for the rest of the day." He grinned.
"Sure. And if I win, you have to do whatever I tell you to for the rest of the day." He said
"Fine with me." I said, grinning.
"Good. Ready? Then…GO!"
I immediately shifted back to my semi-natural form; the one I hadn't shown anyone in about 486 years. My shoulder-length black hair became silver and my dark brown eyes followed suit, becoming a molten silver with slit pupils. A long tail appeared and my ears flowed into two pointed feline ears that sat on the top of my head. Both were a silver gray with black tips. As I grinned, two sharp fangs were revealed.
Looking over to Youko, I was pleased to see that my transformation had caught him by surprise. "You didn't expect me to have changed my actual form, did you?" I teased. "Well, you should feel honored; I haven't used this form for about 500 years. You're the first I've shown it to since then." He blinked, then grinned back.
"Maybe you aren't as silly as I first thought." He said, edging to one side. I glanced at him.
"Nuh-uh-uh." I said, skipping out of range. "I've seen that one before; it won't work now." I laughed, and decided to try something new. Clenching one of my hands into a fist, I concentrated on focusing my spiritual energy in it. Being careful to hide it from him, I circled around the edge of the arena, still smiling. Youko circled around with me, staying on the opposite side of the arena from me. As I came around with the weapons wall behind me, I decided to let it loose. Bringing my fist around as if to punch him, I shot the energy ball towards Youko. He paused, startled that I had been able to use Yusuke's attack. That second cost him, as the attack blasted him against the wooden divider.
He stood up slowly, holding his side, and glanced up at me with a half-smile. "Nice. Nice. I wasn't expecting that from you. Guess the rumors are true, then; you really do have the ability to use any move you've seen." My grin broadened.
"Of course. Did you ever doubt them?" I asked, in my element. He grinned back.
"No, not really." He said slowly, not moving to attack. "Then again, I didn't expect the queen of the Makai to be so careless, either." Suddenly the hairs on the back of my neck stood up stiff and I whipped around, but I was too late, the plant had wrapped its tendrils around me, effectively preventing me from using my arms or legs. It held me there as Youko came over to look down at me.
"Well, well, look what I caught, a cocky little kitten." He said sarcastically. I glared up at him.
"Yeah, you just keep thinking about how great you are." I hissed, thoroughly ticked off now. "Maybe it'll save your tail someday." His eyes went wide, but the attack was already in place and he couldn't escape even if he wanted to. The snake made up entirely of my spiritual energy rose up and hissed at him, revealing four fangs, each about a foot long. Rocking back, it struck, grabbing the fox demon by his bushy tail, lifting him up off the floor of the arena. I laughed at the outraged look on his face.
"Oh, I'm sorry, was the tail off limits?" I asked innocently as the plant gently set me down on the arena floor. I patted it and it drew back out of the arena. Walking over, I patted Youko's face, hanging down at my level. "Now, you just hang in there for just a moment more…" He growled and snapped at my fingers, unable to do anything else. I slapped him. "Bad boy! Do not snap at me!" The snake accented my words with a slight shake of its head, causing Youko to yelp. As he swung back around, though, he had a broad grin on his face.
"I'll wipe that smug grin off your face." He said. I frowned, suddenly suspicious of the fox demon.
"I'd like to see you try." I retorted. He just grinned even more and closed his eyes, as if to concentrate. Suddenly, there was a large explosion. I was thrown backwards out of the arena to hit the wall; I felt my snake dissipate almost instantly. Out of the smoke and dust that had risen from the sawdust floor came the tall figure of Youko. He knelt down next to where I was laying, stunned and unable to do anything except look at him, and more or less sat on me, pinning my legs down and holding my hands apart to prevent me from using them. I blinked up at him as he brought his face down close to mine.
"This round is mine." He whispered, his breath warm on my face. "You know, Kurama's right. You are pretty cute. Now, what to make you do?" I blinked, momentarily confused by the unrelated subjects. Then I remembered the stakes I had instigated before we had started the fight. Groaning inwardly, I smiled slightly up at him.
"Well, I'm sure you can think of something sooner or later." I said. "Now, how about letting me up?" My question seemed to give him an idea, because his face lit up and he smirked mischievously down into my face.
"I know. You have to kiss Kurama." He seemed very pleased with this idea, but I was not so enthusiastic. If Kurama had feelings for me beyond just friendship, then this order might have more consequences than Youko knew.
A/N: Sorry it was a bit of a short chapter, but I had to break off at this point. You'll understand when I post the next chapter. In the meantime, can anyone figure out why Li would be so worried about a kiss?
See you soon!
Haliaetus.
