A scream is what knocked me out of my stupor and I jerked fully awake. Looking around I saw a nightmare crash through the wall, the kind of things you imagine in your waking dreams after a horror movie late at night. A huge monster with glowing, red eyes standing on its hind legs growled in the settling debris. The lights flickered off a moment later.
Panicked yells now burst from around the room, pandemonium setting in. I immediately cleared my head and crouched low to the ground, readying a spell. Electricity crackled weakly across my fingers and I groaned. That little light show earlier had been more exhausting then I had thought it would be, besides, the soul gaze was also really tiring.
I glanced around, but it was too dark to see. Well, that was a fixable problem. The little amount of magical energy I had left went into a small night-vision spell. Another useful thing for young wizards. If you can't see, how are you supposed to defend yourself? Besides, what better way is there to prank your bunkmates late at night?
I somehow didn't find this moment so humorous though. My heart was beating a million miles a minute, but I couldn't just run. I had to make sure that everyone was alright. I focused and took what remained of my magical energy (the last dregs, I would be out after this) to call my sword to me. Thank God for bonded, magical swords that you could call at a moment's notice. The flash of light is what alerted the freakish animal to me, I think.
I felt the familiar and reassuring weight of my sword materialize in my hand when a heavy gaze landed on me. It felt like the breath was being crushed out of me, as if a huge hand were shoving me down to the floor. Was this… Energy? I shuddered, both against the weight and in fear. What could possibly have this much magical energy?
Werewolf.
Now, I'm not going to lie and tell you that I wasn't scared (because I was), but I will tell you that I did not let my fear stop me. Moments after that heart-freezing moment I was on my feet and looking for everyone else in the room. Yuusuke and Kurama were already on the wolf's tail, Kuwabara looked a bit side-blinded (but not far behind) and Hiei was nowhere to be found. I cursed under my breath. Why did he have to run off at such a chaotic time. I tried to look everywhere, see everything, but it was all tinged with green and there were people all over the place. I was certain that my eyes were going to explode.
"Yukina?!" I yelled over the sounds of fighting and battle-cries. There was an affirmative squeak that I somehow managed to pick up on and I ran over, spying her small, oddly dressed form. "Are you okay?" I asked, breathless from running. She looked up, frightened, but otherwise just fine. I let out a breath of relief.
"Where are Botan and Keiko?" She asked in her high-pitched voice. Her blood-colored eyes flickered oddly in the flashing lights of magic. I was quite struck with how much they looked like Hiei's, but that wasn't important right then. I surveyed the room and saw the other two girls edging toward the door. Another curse left my mouth when I noticed the direction of the fighting. Those guys weren't going to notice!
"Kurama!" I yelled, trying to point out the impending doom to the only level-headed man in the group. He looked over and I pointed wildly. He sent a sharp nod in my direction and plants began springing up in a tough web. My mouth dropped open.
That was so cool.
I shook my head. Focus, Angel, focus, you're going to get yourself killed if you're not careful. Grabbing Yukina's hand I headed toward the other two girls. They needed to be protected or they were going to get hurt. My stamina was running low and my head was pounding from the earlier drinking war (I was going to regret that later) but I could keep going. I had to keep going. People were counting on me, or at least, I liked to imagine that they were.
Finally a fire flickered to life, casting an eerie glow all over the room. It was only a question of time before something caught on fire. I tried to put it out, but my magic hadn't recovered yet. I was running on empty. I looked mournfully at Genkai's burning floor, but continued toward the other two girls. I arrived right in the nick of time really. Shrapnel was head in Keiko's direction and I managed to slide in fast enough to take the brunt of it.
Odd, I never thought of myself as a martyr before. Yukina looked horrified as blood splattered onto the floor and the other two girls redoubled their efforts in opening the door. The pain in my back told me that I was going to need some serious attention for that. Hopefully nothing would happen to my spine in the meantime, it took me a solid thirty seconds to recover, but I finally managed to straighten up and kick open the door. The knob snapped and the exit swung open.
I glanced behind me to see that it went unnoticed by the fighters and quickly evacuated everyone out of the room. That monster was so far out of my league I couldn't begin to imagine it. Like Yuusuke, it was on another planet. It was safer, and smarter, to help out the people that weren't fighting ready. I was a decent swordsmen, even with one arm, and I was better then nothing.
In the hall it was just as dark, but the sounds of fighting quickly wore off. I could see just fine, but the others were blinded. I thought about trying to start a witch-light, but no such luck, I had no energy. One flickered to life a second after that thought and I was startled to see Yukina holding it. Oh, right, she was gifted in healing magic. That's good, I did not want to know what the state of my back was. Blood was dripping down my leg and I was starting to go numb.
My eyes widened. Blood. Werewolf. Blood.
"Shit." I cursed and looked over to Yukina, panic evident in my eyes. She started when I spun toward her. "Get these things to stop bleeding, now!" I hissed, taking a deep breath and turning around.
"Okay." She said, not questioning my logic after taking note of my panic. That was good, we only had a small window. I had to stop the trail. She mercilessly ripped spines of wood from my back and I held in strangled yelps of pain. Then a soothing heat began to travel over the ripped muscles, my thoughts clearing. It took about two minutes, and the light of her spell went out the moment she finished. "There." She murmured, sounding out of breath. I nodded, ignoring the screaming pain and continuing. We needed to go before that stupid thing went on a frenzy for some Angel-flavored barbeque.
That joke would have been funny under any other circumstances.
Finally, I stopped, unable to continue because of the burning pain.
"You guys need to go find a safe place, I'll be close behind, don't worry." I said, fully planning on following once the initial spasming had ceased.
"What? No! Not without you." Botan said, her eyebrows furrowing. "We don't leave friends behind." She finished, crossing her arms. I sighed when Yukina and Keiko nodded firmly in agreement.
"Please?" I gasped. A thump rumbled the ground and surprised the lot of us. I looked nervously behind me. "You need to leave. Now. Or I swear to God I'll make you." I said. It was an empty threat, but they didn't know that. A sympathetic look crossed their faces and I took back the previous statement. But they slowly nodded, wishing me luck and continuing to run.
The moment they were out of sight I collapsed onto my knees, groaning in pain. How had a surprise party taken such a horrible turn for the worse? Also, what was that thing and why was it after us? All of these thoughts crossed my mind and then the shaking stopped. I slowly turned to see the towering form of the wolf only twenty feet away.
It took all of my willpower to hold back the strangled scream that threatened to rip its way out of my throat. The crazed, red eyes landed on my small, shivering form and I slowly grasped my sword and stood, turning to face the creature.
"Beautiful night tonight, huh?" I said chuckling nervously. The thing blinked and didn't answer. I laughed again and looked away.
"Curious human, why do you not run?" It asked. My mouth slid open. It talked, the drooling, freaky godzilla thing talked! I was going to answer it when it sniffed the air and a shattering roar rent the still, night air. "Demon spawn! You will not escape again!" It yelled and I stumbled backwards, confused and terrified, until a black form burst from the trees, hurtling through the air.
There was a shimmer and blood burst from the monster's neck, spraying into the air like some sort of twisted fountain.
"Don't mock me, Wolf. I don't run." A snippy voice answered, low and gravelly and irritated. I blinked and my fingers clenched tightly around my blade.
"Hiei…" I whispered, recognizing the wild black hair and sharp, snarky attitude. My fingers clenched tighter. "Hiei…" My voice trailed off and then I narrowed my eyes. "You stupid idiot! Where the hell were you?!" I yelled, causing him to glare at me. The monster looked confused, but I ignored him for the second (at least, I was pretty sure that it was a him).
"Shut up, woman. This is none of your concern." He snapped, glancing over his shoulder at me. I pursed my lips.
"None of my concern?! Who got attacked by the giant bear-thing?!" I yelled, drowning out its warning growls. Hiei opened his mouth to answer when the werewolf lost its temper and leapt at his back. "Oh, you pissed it off." I commented dryly, as the stupid idiot disappeared and reappeared, another cut opening on the thing's back.
"You should have gone with the other women." He growled, glaring at me for the stupid joke. I scoffed and placed my hands on my hips. Stomping my foot down.
"Oh?! I'm too weak, is that right?" I snarled, trying to throw daggers with my eyes. He turned around and glared at me.
"Well, obviously." He said, as if the comment wasn't worth an answer. I felt a growl rising in my throat.
"I was doing just fine before you showed up, Prince Charming!" I yelled. Well, actually, I wasn't, but he didn't need to know that. Those deep, crimson eyes traveled to mine and he raised an eyebrow.
"Right." He gloated and swiped the last cut across the werewolf's throat, no questions asked. It fell to the ground and didn't move again. After my initial happiness I felt my face redden with anger.
"You're so stupid! This is why I hate you!" I screeched and stomped away, hoping that my comment stung. He deserved it. He so totally deserved it.
I glanced behind me one last time to see that he looked pale and kind of shocked. My heartbeat began to slow and then fall. Oh, okay, that was kind of uncalled for.
"Um, Hi-"
"Shut up." He growled and then evaporated from his spot between the trees on the center of the clearing that I was in. I huffed and turned back around.
"Fine."
Then I went to go find the other girls.
—
The house was in chaos. After the attack the night before Yuusuke, Kuwbara, Genkai and Kurama holed themselves up in a room and talked, or something, most of the night. I wasn't included of course. Neither were the other girls. We all stayed close by, though, just in case something else happened. I was half awake, keeping watch, but finding myself quite exhausted.
I really needed to sleep and heal and regain my energy. It wasn't often that I emptied my stores like that. At least my guilt was helping to keep me awake; every single time I closed my eyes all I saw was Hiei's face. I was annoyed that people imagined that I was helpless, but perhaps I could have been a bit nicer to him… Not that he deserves it.
I couldn't help thinking about his dead soul and realizing that I was not helping him heal at all. What ever was wrong him, my snippy, mean comments were not helping any.
I glanced around one last time, rubbing my tired, running eyes and that's when it became apparent to me. Someone was missing, someone who hadn't been at the party or present afterwards. I stood abruptly and slipped out the room, walking toward the 'conference' area to barge in on whatever the important people were discussing.
It wasn't important to me, I only care that the people who were actually helpless were safe. In seconds I was banging on the door, telling them to open it. There was a grumble, but Kurama opened the door, looking down at me with a polite, if not tense, smile.
"Yes?" He asked, it was perfectly nice, but somehow I felt like he was trying to rip my head off with his words. Well, no matter, I didn't care about that.
"Kurama, where's Eva?" I asked tersely. Honestly, I had been certain that he would know, but his face was haggard and tired and his expression turned to one of horror at my words.
He closed his eyes and rubbed his face, looking hopeless and annoyed and over-tired.
"Fuck. I should have known..." He swore uncharacteristically. "Come in. You might as well know what's going on." I was surprised to be invited into the 'powerful people only' group. Oh, whatever, I'm always with the girls. I don't need to be part of some group to feel strong.
I slipped through the door behind my red-haired acquaintance and surveyed the room. Genkai and Yuusuke were at a table, Kuwabara was sitting on a chair and, I blinked, Hiei was perched on a windowsill.
He was sitting with his knees pulled up, parallel to the window. I looked away, unable to face him at the moment. I still felt guilty for the night before. Everyone was giving me a look, as if wondering why I was in here.
"She knows Eva's missing." Kurama snapped, looking quite irritable. There were collective sighs from around the room and I leaned against the wall, imagining that I could melt into it. I really didn't want to be here. I wanted to know what was going on, but even an idiot could tell that I wasn't welcome. This place was full of people who had gone through a lot together. They were practically legend in Demon World.
It was not a place I belonged in and I knew it, but for Eva (because she was awfully nice) I would put up with the company for the time being. After all, what else could I do? I couldn't just run out of the room after learning that something was happening, besides, I really needed to talk to Hiei.
As much as I really wasn't interested in doing so.
"Why would a werewolf attack Genkai's house?" I asked quietly, looking to my feet. Werewolves were, of course, just a species of demon, just like a mermaid or vampire or other mythological creatures (most of them were, in fact, demons), they were also quite a high class species. They weren't any D-class snake demon, those things were big league; as in high C or low B-class.
Oh, all this talk of classes and I never really explained them. To make strength levels easier to understand a class is usually assigned to species of demons. Unlike humans, demons are born with an inert aptitude for magic and fighting, some more then others. The classes went from E to SS, E being the weakest of course. Most species were E or D, like goblins or gremlins. C-class were your mermaids. Then you have your higher classes, like vampires and werewolves in B. A-class demons are rare, such as fox demons, like Kurama. Hiei was also an A-class demon. He was of the fire flavor.
Although, don't misunderstand, these were just generalities. Some demons were stronger. For instance, half-demons like Yuusuke should be a B or C-class at best, but he was an S-class demon. A demon of the kind you don't ever screw with. If he had wanted to kill me during our little brawl he could have without batting an eyelash. Okay, I went on a tangent here, but you get the point. They were strong, I wasn't, that's why I often ended up as the damsel in distress.
I hated that description so much you couldn't even imagine it, but at that second that was my place and I was going to fight to stay in my place. I wanted to prove myself, I wanted to be able to be here and not feel like people were staring me down. I wanted to feel accepted. That was often my underlying reason for many things. I had my pride and followed my path, but sometimes you can't help but look around and wonder what went wrong with you.
Why couldn't you be as strong as them, you know? Why did you have to be born weaker? It didn't bother me so much at the time, but had black magic been offered to me I didn't know what I would have done. The temptation for power wasn't small, but I had my path and I was going to rigorously follow it. I had my weaknesses and faults and sometimes they could drag me down, but the thing to know is that there is always someone stronger then you, no matter what.
It was a strength to be able to look past obstacles and continue trying no matter what, so that was what I was going to do. I looked up, the uncertainty clearing from my eyes. I squared my shoulders and stepped away from the wall. It seemed that I had forgotten who I was and why I acted the way that I did, but now I remembered and I wasn't going to be that person I had been. I was myself and no one else, that meant that some things were good and that some things weren't, but it didn't matter.
I would try my best to be as helpful as possible no matter what the answer. This was big, Eva was gone and I wanted to help. I'd better start acting like it.
"Eva… accidentally opened a portal to Demon World." My mouth dropped open. How do you accidentally open a portal to another dimension. That took a lot of magical oomph and I could only do one at my best or I had to have someone to help me. The thought of doing one accidentally…
Crazy.
"She what?" I gasped and then my face began to pale. "But… then is she okay?! Did that monster try to hurt her?!" I asked, bombarding Kurama with questions. The other people in the room apparently took pity on him, because Genkai took over. He seemed to be a bit out of it, like he couldn't think straight. Why would Kurama, a very old, very smart demon, have a problem like that?
Oh. Eva. Right.
"We don't think she got hurt, but we don't know for certain. All that we know is that a portal opened and that she's in Demon World." Genkai answered, my mouth twisted as I thought about her words.
"Then how do you know that she opened it and not some other person?" I asked, tilting my head. A few nervous glances were cast around the room, but Kurama, who had been staring distractedly at the door, was the one who piped up.
"I was there, it was definitely her." He said tersely, his fingers beginning to tap. I mean, I couldn't blame the guy if he was attached, but the centuries old fox demon with the sleepy and shy twelve year old? Right, that added up.
"Well, okay, so she's actually a pretty strong wizard, what's the big deal?" I asked. I mean, all crazy theories aside, she was still young and curious. If she was wanted to go to Demon World and was strong enough to open a portal then that's that. We'd just have to go find her and hope that she wasn't already dead. Hope really, really hard.
"She's never used magic." Oh. Well, okay then, that explains a lot.
—
The world was going crazy, I had decided. Not that Earth itself wasn't already down the tube, but all of the worlds. I mean, a person with enough raw power to accidentally open a portal? Without any training? That just didn't happen. Something was up. What that something was though, I didn't know. I tried to see it from a larger perspective, looking at all the angles and everything I happened to know.
So, Eva had a lot of raw magical talent. That was fact one. Fact two, she opened a portal without knowing the spell. Fact three, the legendary Demon Tournament was coming up fast for the first time in three years. Fact four, a werewolf just so happened to be on the other side of the portal. Fact five, the thing obviously knew Hiei. Those were the things I knew for certain, the rest was just speculation, but it seemed awfully weird that a strong, young woman would disappear with the tournament coming up. On top of that the demon that 'just so happened' to come through the portal knew this group?
Also, why didn't the thing follow the blood trail sooner? Human blood specifically was tasty to them and most demons would have been after me long before he was, so I could take a gander that it had been looking for something or came here with a clear purpose in mind.
Besides, the real question at hand was how Eva knew that spell without having ever used magic. Obviously the game was afoot and we were walking around blind. The smartest person in the group was plainly a basket case, Hiei was absolutely impossible to work with, Yuusuke and Kuwabara weren't the clearest thinkers I'd ever met, so that left Genkai (who was getting along in her years). There was no shortage of power here, but power was useless if we didn't know what we were fighting.
"Do you have any idea where the portal opened up to?" I asked, deciding that the best place to start was at square one. Where did the problem happen? Kurama glanced at me and took a deep breath, his eyes clearing some.
"Well, I know the general area." He answered. I leaned forward, wondering why he didn't finish answering. Everyone else sighed and I raised an eyebrow. "My old hunting grounds." Oh. Well… That'd be a problem with his history. Don't look at me like that, I do my research on all excessively powerful demons (just in case I go up against one at some point. I will then know the best way to run).
You see, Kurama is short for Yoko Kurama, the legendary fox demon. He disappeared off the face of the earth about twenty years before the current chat and, low and behold, shows back up as a mere shell of his former self. You see, Kurama held a place on the council that branded me as a suspicious person. He had since told me of his disagreement in the matters, but still…
Well, we had our disagreements. That's besides the point though, I'm just saying that his history is not exactly a secret because of his high status. Interestingly enough, if Hiei had not been roped into carrying out my sentence it would have been Kurama's job. It's a small world after all, right? Wow, my jokes are getting darker as we go along here.
"Okay then… I take it that there's a problem here." I said, chewing on my lip. My thumb was circling around the grip of my sword in a distracted fashion. Yes, the habit had developed on my other hand by that point. My brain was beginning to overheat, as I said before, thinking was not my strong point, but it was going to have to become my strong point fast because the other people here were wallowing around. They had been thinking the whole night and nothing useful appeared to have come out of it.
"You think?" He muttered, looking quite touchy. Life was getting weirder by the second and the world was going to end if Kurama had become a hormonal teenager. I mean, Yuusuke, Kuwabara, Hiei? I'm all for it, but Kurama? No way, he was the only level-headed male in the room. Both me and Genkai were fine, she was great at working under pressure and I was doing all right because I was so over-tired that my brain hadn't realized that I should be freaking out yet.
My eyebrow raised, I kind of figured that there was a problem, but I didn't know any of the details. If you hadn't figured it out yet, Kurama was not exactly open about his personal life, no one really knew what had happened to him or any of what he had gone through. Although I was guessing that many of the people in this group knew some stuff. They all seemed pretty close to me.
"Um, I hope I'm not being too forward, but why can't you return to your hunting grounds?" I asked, tilting my head. His face shadowed and he looked away, but I felt a sharp gaze land on me. Without looking up I knew that Hiei had heard my question. For whatever reason he wasn't very impressed with it though. Oh well, that wasn't my problem. I could ask whatever I wanted and besides, I really needed to know the details of everything if I was going to understand the whole picture.
"Do you want to deal with a psychotic demon bandit?" Hiei asked, looking at me carefully. I absorbed the information and mulled on it.
"Are you saying that Kurama and Yoko are separate people?" I asked, quite confused. How was that supposed to work. Wasn't Kurama just Yoko more humanized? That was what I had been led to believe. Hiei opened his mouth, probably to insult my intelligence, but Kurama cut him off with a wave of his hand.
"It's fine, Hiei. She's just trying to help." He said, sounding far more calm and Kurama-like. "It's not that Yoko and Shuuichi are separate entities, but my demon instincts are far more toned down and manageable with a mix like that. Similarly to a, for example, werewolf, it's hard to be around weak humans and not have the urge to hurt them." He was spelling it out a bit, but I could see where he was coming from.
Okay, so we return to hunting grounds, Kurama loses control and tries to, well, eat me and we fail miserably at saving Eva. You would think that Hiei would take this more seriously. After all, if I was eaten, he died too. A thought suddenly popped into my head and my face brightened.
"Oh, you don't think that someone is trying to make that happen do you?" I asked suddenly. Everyone's eyes widened and even Yuusuke and Kuwabara (who had been playing cards at the table until now) looked up. "What? I was just thinking that maybe someone wanted you to lose your cool. As in, they took Eva and put you into a problematic situation on purpose, perhaps hoping that you would impetuously go after her." I explained my thought and a smirk suddenly started on Kurama's face. His whole being brightened, as if I had given him the kick that he needed to quite acting like the world was disintegrating.
"Now, you finally used your brain." Hiei said, and if I didn't know any better I would have thought that he might have actually sounded sort of proud. But Hiei? Complimenting me? Yeah, that's on the 'causes of apocalypse' list too.
"But who would do that though, you know?" I said, laughing slightly. I had just sort of assumed that Hiei was being sarcastic, I suppose.
"No, no, you have a point. I have more then a few enemies and I can think of a few smart enough to pull off a stunt like that." He said, inspecting me while he thought. Honestly? I was surprised and flattered that my idea had gone over so well. I had sort of expected to be laughed at and then sent back to guard the other women. That's when my face turned white and I stood abruptly.
Genkai glanced at me, she had been rather quiet up to this point, and raised one pale eyebrow.
"If this person, or people, pulled this on Kurama what is stopping them from doing it to the others?" I asked, glancing toward Yuusuke and Kuwabara. They both looked startled and then stood up loudly, bolting past me (to go check on their female companions of course) without a backward glance. I stood, shocked, with my hand raised to open the door.
Kurama chuckled and patted my hair, following the other two.
"Don't worry, they're always the that." He assured, smiling. This one felt a lot less threatening and a lot more realistic then the original though. I smoothed my mussed hair, feeling a blush creep its way up my neck. Genkai punched me on the arm and rolled her eyes.
"Good work, kid." She commented dryly and ditched the room. The blush was now equally from anger as from embarrassment and I squirmed, happy. That's when I realized it though.
I was now in the room, alone, with Hiei. Shoot me now.
(A/N: Sorry about how long this took, somehow posting it managed to slip my mind (because I'm stupid, hahahaha). Anyway, I hope you like it and because I love you guys, I won't make you wait too long on that cliffhanger!