A/N: Well, this was going to return to the action but my brain wanted angst and fluff. What a wonderful way to start a new year.

Key

Italic Bold: telepathy/ Densetsu speaking

Bold: Flashback/ Mindscape

Chapter 10: Weathering the Storm

"So what did I miss when I was out?" Ryuuzaki asks, Hiei smirked. "It seems that Yusuke got a pet." Hiei says, motioning to the creature being held by Keiko. Ryuuzaki howled with laughter. "Oh my god, it's a furby with floppy ears!" He exclaims, wincing as his side began to hurt. "Ryuuzaki." The blond startled when he saw the teen version of Koenma, he bowed respectfully. "Yes sir?" Ryuuzaki asks, Koenma's brow furrowed. "I… apologize for dragging you into this." Koenma says solemnly, Ryuuzaki just shook his head. "It was just my horrible luck, that's all. Things will only become more troublesome after this tournament, I need the experience." Ryuuzaki says quietly. "Oh?" "It's a gut feeling that I have sir. And they haven't been wrong yet."

Koenma had pulled the blond away to further discuss their "arrangement", Yusuke watched the blond with suspicion. "How does this guy know Koenma anyways? Is he another spirit detective he never bothered to mention?" Yusuke wonders aloud, getting punched in the head by Genkai. "Shut up idiot, everyone has secrets let Ryuuzaki keep his." She states. "Well you seem to be buddies with him Hiei. Come on, there has to be something under that goofy mask he has." Yusuke states. "A bundle of anxiety and self-deprecation is what you'd find. Don't you have better things to do than gossip like a bunch of school girls?" Ryuuzaki asks bluntly, an eyebrow twitching in irritation as his icy aura began to seep out.

Ryuuzaki knew it was inevitable for the boys to wonder about his identity but wasn't thrilled that no one had bothered asking him to his face. "Ryuuzaki" was just his true self without his usual filters holding him back and he considered himself to be an open person. He was beginning to wonder if this ruse that Koenma wanted him to do was worth all this drama. "Did it occur to any of you that you could've just asked? Out of all of you it was the antisocial fire demon that had the balls to even talk to me." He says, deciding to head back to the hotel to see if they sold any coffee there.

"I see you're recovering well." Mental sirens in Ryuuzaki's head blared as recognized the aura of the speaker. He steeled his gaze and reined in his spiritual energy threatening to lash out at the large demon. "Demon plants do wonders compared to human medicine. I suppose our team has you to thank for having a non-biased judging at the end of our match. You must really want to fight Yusuke." Ryuuzaki says, his nails digging into his arm as he attempted not to tremble under Toguro's power. The tall demon smirked. "You had quite a bit of potential as well Annabel, looking forward to see your future matches." Toguro says, leaving a shaken Ryuuzaki in his wake. Snap out of it! He's only trying to get you shaken up for our next match! Densetsu hissed. Congrats to him then, I'm totally shaken. Ryuuzaki thought, searching for an uninhabited part of the island to safely release his energy begging to be released.

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Ryuuzaki only returned to the hotel once it began raining heavily, speeding up his pace when he heard the crackle of lightning followed by thunder. He stormed past his teammates without a single word to the room shared between him, Hiei and the Masked Fighter. As soon as the door shut behind him he grabbed a blanket and trembled. It reminded him of the training he'd endured for this tournament and he hated what it did to him. He loved storms as a child and now he could no longer enjoy it, recalling when electricity forced his body to be a conduit. There was another clap of thunder and the trembling worsened, his fingers digging into his palm hard enough to draw blood. "Dammit, I could stand my ground against a demon stronger than me but can't take a little thunder? What the hell is wrong with me?!"

Ryuuzaki could feel himself starting to hyperventilate when the door to his room opened, when he saw Hiei he wished he could just disappear. Hiei just clicked his teeth. "I could feel the energy spike from the training grounds. What is it?" Hiei demands. Ryuuzaki was about to answer when it thundered once again and he choked, feeling his throat constrict. He couldn't breath. HE COULDN'T BREATH! Hiei was out of his element here but it looked like the human was having a panic attack and was having issues breathing. "Anna, calm down. You need to breath." Ryuuzaki looked up, face pale and eyes dilated. Hiei cursed under his breath, why couldn't it have been Kurama to stumble upon their teammate?

"C-Can't." Ryuuzaki forced out, flinching when he felt one of Hiei's hands on his shoulder and another forcing him to look into the demon's crimson gaze. "Just focus on me and repeat what I do." Hiei says, taking slow and exaggerated breaths until Ryuuzaki began to copy him. The blond still looked shaken but was starting to calm down. Ryuuzaki forced out a laugh. "It's stupid isn't it? Before I trained with the Saint Beasts I loved storms, now whenever there's a storm this happens." He says, his voice cracking. Hiei's eyes narrowed. "The Saint Beasts were killed." He says coolly. "Seiryuu was the only one that Koenma knew of that could have helped control my powers and were temporarily given bodies. Every time I hear thunder it just reminds me of the first time that I fought with Suzaku and-" There was another clap of thunder and he whimpered, throwing himself at Hiei and clinging to him.

Hiei just grit his teeth, Koenma tossed this human at a group of demons that even they had struggled with. For training. Koenma had done some stupid things while he was under the toddler prince's employment but this had to be the worst offense. "Take off the pendant." Hiei ordered, Ryuuzaki looked at him with a mix of panic and confusion. "But-" "The others won't wander in here. You'd be able to sense them before they'd enter." Ryuuzaki looked stunned but complied, taking off the relic to reveal her original form. She jolted when she held a hand on her head and fingers running through her hair. After a while she began to relax, finding the action oddly soothing. There was still thunder rumbling in the background but Hiei used his own cloak to muffle the sound. Eventually Annabel found herself drifting off to sleep, leaving Hiei to wonder why he was comforting this human.