Anei's eyes widened. "WHAT?!" she gasped. "When did this happen? What're the Kage? Why'd they take him? Where are they? How-"
"Whoa, whoa, there, slow down a minute!" Yusuke said, holding his hands to say stop.
"Three weeks ago-" Tsuba started, but Anei interrupted him by going over to him, grabbing the front of his shirt, and getting in his face.
"Why did you not tell me sooner than I got out of prison?!?" she demanded, glaring daggers at him.
"I was watching you, making sure you were really Anei Tanizawa." Sneering, Anei called his bluff.
"More like spy on me because you're a sick pig! Of course I'm Anei! Who else would be in a jail cell for nothing?!" Anei shouted.
Tsuba glared down at her, grabbed her wrists and swung her into the fence. She made a distressed noise as all the air exited her body. He dropped her and she fell into a slumped over heap. Groaning, Anei sat up and took a few breaths.
"What was that for, jerk?" Yusuke cried, running over to Tsuba. Tsuba only glared at him with even narrower eyes. Pulling his right arm back, he swiftly punched Yusuke in the gut. The Spirit Detective skidded to a halt by Keiko's frozen feet.
Walking slowly to Yusuke's fallen form, Tsuba didn't notice Anei stand and creep up right behind him.
"Hey," she whispered, getting his attention. Turning his head slightly, Anei's round-house kick met his face. Tsuba flew sideways until gravity pulled him to the ground and friction made him stop. Anei and Yusuke gave each other victorious glances and they laughed.
Out of nowhere, Tsuba was running towards them. Both of them jumped backwards and when Yusuke did, he did right into the frozen Keiko. In slow motion, Anei dashed for her friend as Keiko fell slowly to the ground.
No Anei thought desperately. She reached with her hands and screwed her eyes shut. Nothing was heard. Everything was quiet.
She opened one of her purple orbs and was about to go to her broken statued friend, and noticed nothing, but her and Yusuke, was moving. Yusuke was looking around, wondering what was happening, Tsuba was about to be on top of her, but frozen as if somebody was watching their fight on the TV and pressed pause. Keiko was still frozen, and falling to her death. Jumping out of her position, Anei ran to Keiko, ready to catcher her when she fell.
"Just thought you two would like a hand," Koenma's voice said. They looked up and saw a hologram of Koenma's head disappear from the sky.
Sure enough, a few seconds later - to Anei anyways - Keiko fell right into Anei's arms. Tsuba jumped onto nothing but air. Tsuba's magic had worn off just in time. Keiko's rump fell onto the side of the street, and Anei and Yusuke helped her up. The brunettes' short hair swished around her head as she looked around.
"Anei? Yusuke? What...what happened?" she asked groggily, as if she fell asleep in the ice.
"We'll explain later - right now, we need to take of this guy." Yusuke dodged an incoming punch, and swiftly kicked Tsuba's legs out from under him. Taking a moment to recover, Anei took the chance and gave Tsuba a kick in the gonads.
Instinctively, Tsuba curled up and held his groin preciously, protecting it from any more attacks. Leaning down to his face, Anei smirked at Tsuba. Yusuke loomed above her, crossing his arms and protecting Keiko, whom was peeking over his shoulder.
"Why don't you tell me who you really are and what you're really here for?" she inquired.
Whimpering in pain, Tsuba refused to answer. Narrowing her eyes, Anei roughly grabbed the collar of his shirt and raised his face to her own.
"Do you want me to kill you now?" she threatened, lowering her voice to seem more...what's the word? Malicious, yes malicious is a good one.
Her tone of voice seemed to work, and he took a deep breath to start talking. "FuzenwantedmetotellyousoyouwouldgoandrescueDaifuandmakeabargainwithyou!" he replied, using only one breath. Sweat trickled down the side of his temple, and his upper lip was beaded.
Standing, Anei gave him a scowl, and picked up her bag. "C'mon," Anei called to Yusuke and Keiko. "This wimp is not worth our time."
They followed, knowing she was angry, yet at what they didn't know.
All the way to school, Anei thought about what happened - last night and just a few minutes ago.
Are they somehow...connected? Was that Tsuba really the Totei or Teishi people? What did this person claiming to be my father - Fuzen - want with Daifu? And what possible bargain could I make with him?
The three finally entered the school, and were still on time - but barely. Yusuke was in her first class, and Anei wondered how her first day would be. Anei was known to get a little mad at teachers - but this was high school, not junior high. High school was much, much different. This Anei, unfortunately, found out the hard way.
Anei sat at a window seat and stared into the tree that took the full view of it. Glancing over to her, Yusuke took a breath to say something, but he noticed she was in very deep thought. When she was fully concentrating on something, nothing could seize her from her reverie, until she became uncomfortable. And that was about to happen. Yusuke counted down in his head. Three...two...one -
A loud snap echoed off the walls as their teacher, Okinawa-sensei, slapped Anei's hand with a ruler. Instinctively moving her hand, she held it with her other. Anei glared at Okinawa-sensei, after crying 'ouch' very loudly. The classroom fell silent.
"Anei-san!" Okinawa-sensei shrieked. "Will you please answer my question?!"
"No, I will not."
A few people gasped, others let out low screams. No one insulted Okinawa-sensei without paying for it. Yusuke informed Anei of this, but apparently, she wasn't too keen on taking his advice.
Being in a foul mood since the messenger man, Anei did not care who faced her wrath. Teacher or no teacher, this woman was going down.
Okinawa-sensei narrowed her eyes and slapped Anei hard in the face. Showing no pain - since it didn't really hurt - the half-shadow demon glared hard right back into Okinawa-sensi's eyes.
"You wanna try that again and see what happens?" Anei threatened darkly.
Somewhere in Anei's head, a bell was ringing - she was pushing it.
"Oh, Tanizawa-san, you better take that back right now," Okinawa-sensei warned, shaking her head.
"Or what?" Anei declared. From behind Okinawa-sensei's large buttocks, Yusuke was shaking his head frantically and drawing his finger across his neck. Ignoring him, she pressed on. "Are ya gonna give me some extra homework? Ooh, I'm scared."
Okinawa-sensei to red and purple in the face as she clenched her teeth together tightly. "OUT," she declared.
"Glad we see eye to eye," Anei said, packing up her things. A loud sigh escaped from Yusuke's lips as Okinawa stomped away. Abruptly, though, the teacher stopped turned, and faced her. She took a breath to speak and opened her mouth, but no sound came out. Shaking her head, she went back to her desk. Okinawa watched her with her small beady eyes as Anei left the classroom.
"Actually..." Anei murmured before she left. "I have something else to say." Stopping before she actually exited, the ex-prison turned on her heel, ran towards the plump woman and slammed her fist into her cheek. Okinawa-sensei tipped her chair, and fell to the ground. She groaned in her place on the tile floor, and slowly rose so the class could see her head from above the desk. Her face was as red as a tomato, save the blue and black splotch on her left cheek.
Her finger waved dangerously at Anei and the half-wolf demon was tempted to grab it and break it. Resisting the urge, she smirked at Okinawa-sensei as she started trembling with rage.
"GET…OUT!" the teacher roared. Anei twirled around and walked silently out, a smug look on her face.
"So, let me get this straight. Okinawa slapped you and you punched her back?" the principal asked.
Anei nodded, her eyes till focused on her clenched hands, which were resting in her lap.
"What provoked you to attack her, Tanizawa-san?" the principal continued, massaging his wrinkled brow.
"She deserved it. She slapped me for no reason and she had it coming," Anei answered as her eyes traveled to her right, examining the many degrees and trophies on his wall.
The principal sighed wearily and shuffled papers on his desk. This reminded her heavily of Koenma when he was stressed out. Because of this revelation, Anei giggled quietly. He looked at her curiously, and made his decision.
"Tanizawa-san, I will remove you from Okinawa-sensei's class. However, you are to continue to go to school. I see potential in you, Anei-san. But, I have do have to suspend you." Anei nodded. "You'll be suspended for the rest of this week and the next." The principal stood and casually walked over to her.
They both stared at each for a long time. Anei had no idea what he was thinking, but she was getting very annoyed. She furrowed her brow, to show she was getting ticked at him, but he continued staring.
Why. Does. He. Keep. Staring?!? she thought. Not a second passed by as Anei realized something. The principal had an actual aura, like he was in touch with his sixth sense. She raised one eyebrow at him and he kept staring - just standing there and staring.
Suddenly, he tilted towards her, and then fell right into a heap in her lap. A knife made of pure spirit energy was stabbed into his back, and the wound was bleeding profusely. Her eyes widened as she finally got a grip on herself and realized that he was dead. She threw him off and she scooted the chair backwards as she stood. Anei clapped a hand over her mouth to prevent her from screaming. That way the killer possibly wouldn't find her.
The teen pressed against the wall and lowered her hand, but she bit her lip instead. She stared at her now-dead principal and she noticed she was covered in cold sweat. An abrupt sucking sort of sound came from behind her, which was impossible, seeing as she was against the wall. It felt like her heart had dropped into her stomach, and she froze. Out of the corner of her eyes she saw a disgustingly green arm-the same green as the paint of the room-stretch out beside her. Laughter teased her ear, and she knew she was in deep shit.
Thick strands of spirit energy wrapped themselves around Anei; one on her stomach, arms, legs, neck, chest, and around her mouth. Even if she was temporarily paralyzed at the moment, the spirit energy did not taste very good. She felt a head rest on her shoulder, and a pair of arms wrapped themselves further around her torso, preventing her to move even if she could. She felt dizzy as if he drugged her.
Then, it hit her. He didn't drug her, but poisoned her; otherwise, the person would be chopped suet by now. Her eyes started drooping as unconsciousness creeped up on her.
"That'sss right..." the voice in her ear hissed. "Go to ssssleep..."
The next thing Anei knew was that a loud crash was heard from in front of her, the spirit bonds were cut, and she fell to the floor. The last sensation she felt was air brushing over her skin as someone's strong arms picked her up.
Slowly, Anei opened her eyes and saw nothing but a moonlit ceiling. Sitting up on her elbows, she looked around. Hiei was sitting at the window sill of her room in the Spirit World. She knew the youkai did not trust her-not after what she did on her first day of freedom.
Realizing that she really had no reason to get angry in the first place, she attempted a light conversation.
"What time is it?" she asked quietly. His outline seemed to shift slightly, yet he continued to stare out the window.
"Does it look like I have a watch, onna?" he answered back coldly. This hurt Anei's feelings, but she didn't show it, whether or not he could see her face in the dimly lit room. She was trying her best to allow him to trust her and he shoved right back in her face, two-fold. Then again, she didn't give a very good reason for him to trust her.
"Mmmmkay..." she drummed her fingers on the bed. "How long have I been out?"
He didn't say anything. Anei was about to ask another question until he finally said "Two days."Hiei seemed to think she was going to ask another question so he spoke. "They poisoned you. But instead, it poisoned you. It's all out of your system now."
"Right...well...goodnight." Turning to her other side, she curled up in her sheets and tried to drift back off to sleep. She felt Hiei's eyes on her for a second and a thought struck Anei. Why was he in there if he hated her guts?"Onna, we have shifts, you just happened to wake up on mine."
Anei smiled and fell back asleep.
