Saria: (is playing with a tennis ball)
Nova: Be careful with that!
Saria: OK! (starts throwing the ball back and forth with Zas) LOOK OUT! (the ball hits Nova's computer)
Saria, Zas, and Tori: 0.0
SA: eo
Nova: ... ERrrrrrr!!
Saria: Heh heh... RUN!!! (she and her three counter parts run from the room, Saria holding her own computer) Sorry! Now, before Nova goes nuclear, lets start the fic. And if you haven't realized this yet from past chapters, we don't own Yu Yu Hakusho, but we're working on that. The picketing will have to eventually work, now I just have to find the right TV station...
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Splinters from the door were flying everywhere as the blast of demonic energy ripped its way out. Toguro received a face full of said splinters, unfortunately, due to his ever present sunglasses, none went into his eyes. So, he saw it when Yusuke came flying out of the closet like a bat out of hell.
Throwing out his arms, he attempted to grab the child as she ran past but found that she was too fast for him. And with his face looking as though he'd just wrestled a porcupine, he wasn't going after her. At this point, he made a phone call.
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Her breath was coming in gasps and she continued to run. When she felt she couldn't go much farther, Yusuke took that opportunity to climb a tree. Once she was a good ways up, she sat with her back against the trunk and looked around, feeling paranoia really begin to take root. All her senses were on high alert, every color and sound seemed magnified and hurt her head. She could even smell it when someone got close to her hiding place.
An hour slowly passed, and little by little, Yusuke felt herself calm down as the adrenaline and shock wore off. She eventually found herself not so worried about the mirror, but of what Toguro was going to do to her.
About that time, Yusuke spotted Karasu and Bui, they were almost two hundred feet away from the base of her tree. Toguro must have obviously sent them to look for her. Well, she knew one thing about these such things, if she could see them, then they could see her. And, as silently as she could, she climbed higher into the tree, trying to get some cover between herself and the other two. At about two hundred and fifty feet, the tree reached its maximum height, so Yusuke found herself sitting in a nest of sorts at the absolute top.
"Fancy meeting you here!" A now familiar voice behind her said.
Yusuke lost her balance when the voice spoke, mainly because she was a still a little on edge.
"Woah, watch it now. There's no river to catch ya this time," the crazy red head stated as he reached out and grabbed her arm, quickly helping her rebalance on the tree. "As I said before, fancy meeting you here, I thought you were being punished."
"I was," Yusuke replied.
"Oh, he must have gone easy with you then. What did you get, a whupping?"
"No, actually I got locked in a closet then chased by his brother," Yusuke replied just as she noticed that Jin wasn't standing on a branch or anything, he was simply hovering there.
"Geez, harsh." With that, Jin sat, in the air.
"How are you doing that?" Yusuke asked when she felt her curiosity really rise when Jin did what seemed so impossible. Even Bui couldn't do that without using a LOT of energy, though he often did it when he wasn't wearing his armor. This guy didn't look like he was using much energy at all.
"What? Oh, you mean the flying? I'm a wind master of course! Would you like to try it?"
Yusuke wasn't aware of nodding, but Jin immediately grabbed her hand and pulled her up into the air. A rather large gust of wind hit them then, and before Yusuke's eyes, they flew up, out of the cover of the trees. Seconds later, the island was a far beneath them and Yusuke was so close to the clouds that she could touch them! It was extremely thrilling! Jin stopped there for a minute to allow her to get her bearings before taking off again, this time flying in circles, doing dives, steep climbs, even free falls and flips. Then he climbed back up, this time over the cloud cover, and Yusuke saw the sun in all its glory as well as the blue sky. A gentle breeze blew by, picking up her pink hair and sending it flying everywhere and Yusuke felt her heart become truly happy, something she didn't think that she'd ever really experienced even before Toguro had caught her or she'd put on her mask.
Jin ended up being really good company. He flew them around for hours and talked to her until she eventually began to converse with him as well. He told her about his life as a Shinobi, the Demon World (or the Makai as he called it). He talked about how he grew up, training, and the hopes he and his team had for winning the tournament. Yusuke, surprisingly enough, understood their wish for a land of their own and their want for "the light". She soon told him about growing up, fighting, being taken away by Toguro and enslaved. When Jin asked her what her parents were like, she had fallen quiet for a minute before replying that her mother wasn't a very good parent, she probably didn't even remember having a child for that matter. Her father had never been there. Jin was sympathetic to not having a father, and told her about his father, a demon lord, who had been gravely disappointed in Jin's power level but was still good to him. His mother had died when he was really young.
Yusuke, who had found herself comfortable with Jin not long after they started talking, it felt as though he were her brother by the time they went back down to the island. It was almost like he was her demon double if she'd been born male.
Before taking Yusuke back to the hotel, Jin made sure they visited his favorite place on the island, the taller of the two rock spires. They had been in the air hours by then, and Yusuke stumbled a bit when they landed, but the view was still breath taking. Surprisingly enough to the girl, the top of the rock wasn't plain and bare, there were wild flowers she'd never seen before growing here. Jin explained that these were Lordinirs, a rare flower in the Makai that grew only in higher places. He then picked one of the pink and green blossoms and wove it into her hair when she wasn't looking.
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Karasu and Bui were really beginning to panic. They had been scouring the island for Yusuke for almost three hours and they still didn't have the faintest idea as to where she was. Now as they moved down the hall toward Toguro's room to report that they couldn't find her, Karasu mentally cursed Yusuke with every name he could think of to call the girl, Bui wondered if he'd have time to write a last will and testament.
Both however shared one thought and prayer, 'It'll take a miracle to save us now, please let fate be generous.' Their prayer was answered.
Down the hall from them, Yusuke flew through an open window and landed a little roughly on the carpeted floor. Her hair was wild, her cheeks looked like they'd had a good amount of sun, and her eyes were sparkling as though she'd just had the time of her life.
Bui noticed all these things and wondered what she'd been up to as Karasu blew out a breath of relief upon spying her.
"Where have you been?" he demanded as he rushed at Yusuke and grabbed her shoulders and started to shake. Then Karasu realized something, "And since when did you know how to fly?"
The pink haired girl just smiled a strange smile at Karasu and replied, "S-e-c-r-e-t."
"Never mind that," Bui snapped at Karasu when he noticed he was about to shake her again. "What's important now is taking her back to Toguro or he'll have all our hides."
Karasu needed no more prompting as he immediately handed the girl to Bui who carried her like a child back to Toguro's door. Bui personally hoped that Toguro wouldn't be there so he could talk to the girl for a few minutes before she was locked up again.
Thankfully, Toguro wasn't in his room when they got there (about fifteen seconds later). Standing outside the door, still holding Yusuke, Bui decided to talk before he lost courage.
"Yusuke, what was it you were saying in our room several nights ago about us working together to get rid of Toguro?"
Karasu immediately butted in of course. "Surely you aren't considering her proposal!"
"Why not?" Yusuke hissed at Karasu. "Haven't you realized that he makes us compete against each other all the time? Why is it that we train alone, and Toguro doesn't step in to fight us, or even watch that often? The last time he officially fought me was almost two weeks ago, and he was at least at fifty percent strength! He makes us fight each other all the time, makes sure those of us that get along the least are the ones stuck together."
Bui shifted the girl slightly once she finished her speech, but didn't set her down. Neither of the other two could see it, but what Yusuke said made perfect sense! Toguro did keep them fighting, and when he handcuffed Yusuke to one of them, rather than choose him, the one she got along with better, he had chosen Karasu, and those two had clashed since the day that Yusuke had been brought in. Toguro knew that well.
"Ridiculous," Karasu said, but the entire company knew he wasn't so certain. There was an inconsistency in his usual voice that screamed of him being unsure.
'I'll work on him later' Bui thought. "Yusuke, listen. Don't try anymore stunts or cause anymore trouble. Toguro's patience, and tolerance, isn't going to last much longer. Behave yourself."
Just as Yusuke nodded, Toguro appeared from the direction of the elevator carrying a box. Upon seeing the trio standing outside his door, he nodded and entered the room, Bui and Karasu following, and Yusuke, who was still being carried by Bui, didn't have much say in the matter.
Toguro led the way back to the closet that he'd kept Yusuke in. The door had already been replaced and now looked a lot more solid than the previous one had. Bui set the girl down when Toguro turned his back for a second and gently squeezed her shoulder, his own way of saying "good luck". Yusuke felt the squeeze and moved her shoulder minutely to tell Bui that she'd understood.
The younger Toguro had then opened the box and pulled out what looked like a white jacket with a lot of strings. He tossed it to Karasu and simply said, "Put it on her," before turning back to the box and removing more stuff that was immediately blocked from sight by his body.
The item that Toguro had passed to Karasu ended up being a teenager size straight jacket. If any of them had doubts that Toguro was trying to make them fight, they died fast.
Yusuke shot a look that screamed, "You had better make this look good," before throwing a fit that Bui tried to "restrain" her so Karasu could put on the jacket. After several minutes, the jacket had been pulled over Yusuke's head and one of her arms had been shoved into one of the sleeves. Toguro had joined them then and had shoved Yusuke's other arm through the other sleeve and held her firmly as Karasu laced up then tied the jacket. When he was done, she was shoved back into the closet.
Yusuke stared at the door and still couldn't believe how well Karasu and Bui had acted that out. On the surface, it looked as though Bui had tried to restrain her, but his effort was thoroughly theatrical. And Karasu, though it looked like he had tied the jacket tightly and securely, had actually not pulled that much on her arms. True the jacket was on and she couldn't remove it, but it wasn't put on in such a way that she couldn't completely not move her arms or feel much if any discomfort in them. Things were starting to look up.
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As Bui and Karasu walked back to their room, Bui noticed that Karasu was holding a flower in his hand, a beautiful pink and green flower. It was a Lordinir!
"Where did you get that?" he asked.
"Yusuke had it in her hair. I removed it right when I handed her to you."
"Where do you think she found it?"
"I smell another on this flower. I believe that it was given to her by a demon."
"We can't let Toguro find out! How long do you think she's had it there?"
Karasu stopped and considered for a few minutes before answering. "Probably only a few minutes. Not enough for anything to do anything to her."
The two stared at the flower though, even after they had returned to their room. Both knew of the powerful promise that came with the flower, a promise of eternal friendship and protection. Somewhere on this island, a demon had promised to protect Yusuke with his life if she should ever need it. This meant another ally that could probably help them with their wish to defeat Toguro.
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Saria: So... (hears a creak) Is that her?!? (is whispering)
Tori: If it is, I'm prepared... (holds up a plate of brownies and practices begging for forgiveness)
SA: Knock it off! (hits Tori on the head with the 50 pound mallet)
Zas: (stares up at Saria) You need to relax... We have a great hiding spot, she'll never find us.
SA: (rolls her eyes) We're "hiding" in the middle of the stairs on the fifth floor. Real hard to find.
Nova: (storms on the stairs) AND DON'T FORGET TO TELL THEM TO REVIEW!!
Saria, SA, Tori, and Zas: (all jump up and run screaming down the stairs)
Nova: What?