Chapter 22: Split Personalities
The cold night was silent, save for the chirping of the smaller insects in the fields nearby, and the slow drip of crimson blood splattered against one wall. The old airport, one of many abandoned structures within the ever modernizing city's walls, looked deceptively peaceful at first glance. The people within it, however, did much to destroy that impression. Two of the nerdy looking types were supporting a third, minus an arm, between them, the two youths nearby were staring down a soldier with drawn pistol held at the ready, and even the way the nearby figure chewed a pacifier seemed aggressive. Within a few moments, the silence was broken.
"What are you talking about, Koenma?!" Yusuke demanded, flicking his eyes over to the disguised spirit ruler. Blaze noticed the lapse and shifted his pistol slightly to cover the Spirit Detective, but held his fire for the moment, likely considering the way the numbers were stacked at the moment, "I know them, They're not-."
"Shut up, Yusuke." Koenma snapped, his eyes suddenly gone very cold, "I don't have time to explain it all right now. You can't deal with Blaze at this moment in time, so let them take care of that. You two will have a different problem."
"What problem?" Yusuke voice echoed across the runway, but Koenma was no longer facing him. Instead, King Yama's Son stepped carefully to the three members of Asterisk, and held up one hand. As he did so, sickly green energy gathered at his wrist, forming in a ball which he loosely held in his palm. Ama, his freckled face pale with loss of blood, straightened on his feet completely, watching his approach.
"Koenma...are you...sure?" He asked slowly, a hint of fear and, just maybe, anticipation in his voice. Kaze and Klick, freed of the task of holding up their friend, glanced at each other worriedly as the green light reflected off their eyes.
"I'm sure. Just try not to let me down, if you would." Koenma nodded to them slowly. The green ball branched off into three lines of energy that struck each of the three hackers at the neck, knocking them back with a grunt. The green lightning crackled at their necks, drawing them to their knees involuntarily. As the lightening blazed, it soon became apparent that the glowing lines were wrapping around something invisible, standing out an inch or two from the necks of each member of Asterisk. The lightning faded, and as the three straightened, a polished silver collar, so tight that there was no space between the neck and the metal, was around their necks, a seemingly solid ring of steel with no clasp or lock. Yusuke blinked, Kuwabara stared, and even Blaze cocked his head curiously to the side.
"Spirit Detectives." Koenma said solemnly, closing his eyes and extending his hand toward them, fingers spread widely, "I release you from your bindings until this crisis is averted. Do not make me regret my trust." The Spirit Ruler's voice was level, almost harsh as he spoke. With a thin click, almost lost even in the near-complete silence, the metal bands around each hacker snapped open along a hinge that was not there moments earlier, and clattered noisily to the ground.
"Ca-Ahem...Klick..would you?" Ama said slowly, his voice subdued but clearly determined. Klick nodded once and, saying nothing, raised his hands. A single droplet of water touched the ground, followed quickly by a half a dozen more. Within a few moments, the cloudy skies, dark overhead, poured rain onto the airport mercilessly, in sheet upon sheet of chilling liquid, soaking everyone present to the bone almost instantly.
"How the.." Yusuke broke off, pushing wet black strands of hair out of his eyes, "Was that Spirit Energy?"
"It felt kinda weird." Kuwabara admitted, keeping a wary eye on Blaze who, gun in hand, ignored the water that rapidly dampened his crisp uniform, "Like spirit energy, but like demon energy too...weird.."
The water was having a strange effect on the motionless hackers. The bad complexions faded, and the skin smoothed. No longer slouched or disguised, they looked much older then the computer-savvy friends that Yusuke had come to know. Red ran down Ama's face, leaving long red streamlets that stained the collar of his shirt even darker, but it wasn't until Yusuke noticed the white hairs, grey-wet with rain, appearing that he realized the crimson was not blood, but hair dye.
"So..you're monsters too, eh? I might have known." Blaze sounded almost disgusted, tossing away his pistol onto the ground already speckled with puddled, "Just another group of maniacs with special powers trying to destroy humanity. Figures."
"Not quite." Kaze put in, adding another quip with a smile, "Close though, sometimes."
"We don't have time to play, and your side doesn't usually play fair anyway. Yield, or we'll be forced to try and kill you, Vince." Ama's voiced was nearly pleading, "Don't force me into that."
"By all means, hit me with your best shot." Vincent Blaze dropped into a compact combat crouch, his hands in a ready position to block any unarmed strike, his feet ready to move in any direction. None of the three, their eyes unusually hard, made a move. Koenma turned to Yusuke and Kuwabara, a resigned expression on his face.
"Yusuke, Kuwabara. You have another task. There's another enemy that needs to be neutralized."
"What are you talking about, Koenma?" Yusuke objected, looking around, "I don't see any-."
A rifle cracked in the distance, and the air crackled with the burning passage of spirit energy. A deadly circle of energy attached to a mundane bullet exited a rifle's barrel, flying with lightning speed and evaporating rain droplets that were unfortunately close to its passage, leaving a thin trail of mist behind it for a half second. The bullet was perfectly aimed, a precise shot that most professional soldiers would kill to have, and charged with enough spirit energy to equal even Yusuke's blast, but much faster. The bullet burned toward Koenma's heart, bounced off a green wall of light, and detonated a perfectly innocent shed alongside the empty runway.
Koenma, his hand still held negligently where the bullet bounced, watched the ripples of the impact move along his shield. Yusuke gaped at him, and Kuwabara looked pole-axed. The three Hackers shared a brief look, and Blaze took his chance, rushing forward fast enough to leave afterimages behind him and threw a haymaker toward Ama, who was closest. The punch was grabbed and twisted out of the way by Kaze, who launched a quick barrage of blows that were negligently blocked by the wily veteran, who instinctively pulled the tanned youth off balance, but had to duck back as Klick, whirling an ancient seeming metal quarter staff that had quite literally appeared without warning, passed the metal club through the space where Blaze's head had been moments before. Taking advantage of the fact that the heavy swing had left Klick open, Blaze brought his hand up to throw a blow to the stomach, only to be knocked away by Ama. As Blaze regained his balance, he noted that fighting close partners had a difficulty he'd not counted on in the intense coordination. After that, the blows blurred together in his head, working entirely on rapid instinct.
Koenma watched the melee break out with a look of confidant intensity, even as the pace of battle began to increase. His robe swirling around him, he turned back to Yusuke with hard eyes,
"You've a job to do. Go to it, Spirit Detective. And for God's sake, be careful would you? I'd hate to lose you at this stage. Now, go."
---
"Son of a bitch!" God snapped, his sniper rifle held tightly between his ungloved fingers, their sensitive tips caressing the trigger instinctively, "Absolute son of a bitch!" Whoever the guy with the pacifier addiction was, he'd managed to block a large enough shot to obliterate any reasonable person, and without breaking a sweat. God's eye pressed close to the scope, watching the situation and looking for an opening, but he knew it wasn't going to happen. Another shot at the newcomer would be a wasted bullet, not to mention a waste of his divine enchantment, and the three in a fight with Blaze, Wind-up Soldier-Boy, were simply moving too fast for even his practiced eye to pick out friend from foe. If he blew off Blaze's head, he'd never hear the end of it.
His attention was drawn down below him, toward the street. God was perched over the side of the roof with his weapons, and directly below him was the fire escape. Feet clanging loudly, the two youths, one in blue and the other green, were rushing up toward the roof of the fifteen story apartment building. Sighing under his breath, and annoyed with the interruption, God tossed aside his rifle and grabbed up the other weapon in his case and pointed it down at the metal floors of alternating ladders.
A shotgun, even the sawed-off version that God preferred, was a powerful weapon of its own right. However, the divine power that the injections had granted him, made it much more then simply powerful. The blast tore through the metal floor of the top as though it was paper, and it did the same thing to the fourteenth level. Around the eighth level, it began to die down, punching small holes in the metal instead of obliterating it. It did not reach the fifth floor, where the two youths were covering their necks in surprise at the raining bits of red-hot shrapnel. With a deeply toned creak, the overstressed structure pulled itself free of the remaining mooring on the building and collapsed in on itself. Unfortunately, the two youths threw themselves aside, and were not trapped in a prison of superheated metal, but the point was, they no longer had a ladder to get to him.
Turning back to the whirling fight, he picked up the rifle again.
---
"Are you people done fooling around yet or what?" Blaze sighed, his eyes watching the flashing blows but clearly not concerned with the difficulty level being displayed.
"It's not like you're throwing everything you have at us either." Ama's voice had a yawn in it, even though the exertion was making his nonexistent arm ache, though he was using his freshly unleashed ability to stop himself from bleeding to death or going in to shock.
"Damn right." Blaze agreed, ducking under Klick's swinging staff and automatically striking back with a backhand, which was, of course, blocked, "You gauge your enemies strength before you commit your own, you know that."
"How well I know." Ama said, taking a step back. The three Asterisk members covered each other with constant switches, and one was usually a little back from the melee, cycling through to keep each of them fresh and rested. Ama was, for the moment, the 'out' man and therefore doing the talking, "Very Zen."
"Don't try to be a hard case, you're not old enough to make it convincing." Blaze groaned, analyzing the attack sequence once again. Every time he grasped a pattern, they changed their tactics but certain consistencies remained. However much Ama was playing it off, the injury was slowing him down, like it would for anyone. He was cycling into the 'off' position more then the other two, and he was not launching 'threats' but instead confining himself to neutralizing Blaze's attacks. The tanned one, Kaze, was a full-blown scrapper with a risky strategy. He'd throw himself into the fray, launching an amazing flurry of close range elbow blows and quick strikes with open hands. The one with blue hair, Klick, would hang back and throw a heavy blow that both took advantage of any lapse, and covered Kaze's retreat as the next round began. It was a good strategy, but every strategy had a weakness somewhere....but where?
"I guess it's time for one of us to get serious at last..." Ama sounded genuinely regretful as he cycled in for his turn, increasing his speed and, surprisingly, joining Kaze in a barrage of punches that Blaze had to work to block. His keen eyes watched the assault, looking for any kind of.-
There!
His eyes saw it, his brain processed it, and his body was moving before he finished the thought. Ama's right hand was pulled back to throw a punch, and his torso was open. Kaze was off-balance to the left, and Klick was a step too far to cover his friends as Blaze moved. His hand streaked toward Ama's stomach, grinning with the prospect of landing his first solid blow since the fight began. As his force was committed, he saw something that set off the alarm bells in his mind.
Ama was smiling.
As he noticed this, the wind kicked up, right into his face. For a moment, he thought it was a stray gust, until he realized that it was swirling in a circle, around the now-blonde Ama. As the blow advanced, Ama retreated, impossibly fast, and straight up into the air. Completely ignoring the generally observed laws of gravity, Ama hovered clear of the blow by a good few feet as it passed through the biting air. At the moment, Vincent Blaze knew he was not going to enjoy the chain of events from here. No longer obstructed by Ama's body, Klick's staff caught the back of Blaze's protruding foot and pulled up sharply. Suddenly stripped of his balance, Blaze started to fall.
Kaze's first three blows landed professionally in a triangle over his gut, knocking the wind out of the soldier almost casually. As his back hit the wet ground, Klick's staff came back around across his right kneecap, rather nicely breaking it into at least four pieces. As Blaze screamed in pain, Klick spun his staff over his head and threw it into the air, then spun and pointed his empty hand at Blaze. The water under his back lurched, and Blaze was suddenly on a rollercoaster ride across the asphalt. In a flash on inspiration, Blaze grasped at a connection. If Ama went into the air, and was blonde, and Klick threw him via water, and had strange blue hair, then Kaze's brown hair meant...
Kaze gestured, and a slice of earth cracked just ahead of him, and thrust upward. Blaze's headfirst rush was stopped by the wall of rock and he was abruptly rolling through the air, end over end with a stringing shoulder where it impacted. For a brief second he saw Ama streaking toward him, Klick's staff in hand.
A flash of pain along with a steely crunch and the world went abruptly black.
---
"Guess the wind-up soldier isn't as good as he thought he was." God sighed, sighting along the barrel and hovering the reticule over the brown-haired one's heart. The blonde was still hanging in the air, Lord knows what the air current would do the bullet, and the blue haired one didn't seem to as dangerous. God's fingers tightened along the trigger, "I giveth..and I taketh away.." He whispered to himself.
"Hold it right there, jackass!" God glanced over his shoulder in time to see the door in the right corner open and spill out the two youths like a cork. They had actually managed to climb the buildings indoor stairs in remarkably good time, "We're not letting you stay out of the action completely!" Yusuke finished loudly, his left hand grasping his right wrist, with his right hand forming into a very familiar stance. Even as God was starting to straighten up, letting the rifle drop from his fingers, blue energy formed around Yusuke like an electrical storm. Another moment and the whole mess of energy was airborne in the most recognized show of spiritual unfriendliness in Spirit World: The Spirit Gun.
God was highly trained, and was justly proud of his skills even before the injections had increased his abilities. Even as the rifle was clattering onto the rooftop, he hands blurred around his sides, and came up with a basic issue pistol held tightly in each hand. His backing away from the blast roaring toward him, he invested each bullet with energy and fired at the enormous ball of energy.
The ball shuddered slightly, but advanced inexorably toward the soldier, paying no more attention to the bullets then it did to the rain that evaporated in its path. Even as God's eyes widened in disbelief, he realized he was moving too slowly to get out of the way. Panicking, he threw nearly all of his energy into his weapons, which caused pistols to glow an unnatural lime, then he turned the muzzles toward the center and fired again. The spiritual bullets arced green in the air, cross the short distance quickly and impacting against the sphere at almost the same place. For a moment, it looked as though the ball would bounce these as easily as the others, but the two glowing green lines disappeared into the center of the energy, and God willed them to ignite.
The Spirit Gun exploded from the inside, ejecting the energy in all direction, but diffusely over an area. God turned his eyes away from the stinging fragments, and took another few steps back. As the smoke cleared, the sniper saw Yusuke standing where he had fired the gun, a smirk on his face. For a moment, God didn't understand, and then, with a burst of understanding, turned his head, looking for the other kid. Kuwabara, edging around the rifleman as he was rather distracted, was halfway through his swing, the orange spirit sword sizzling in the sprinkling rain, arcing toward God's neck. The sniper turned with his pistols in hand, though he knew that it was over, unless a miracle occurred.
A miracle did occur.
As the sword was nearly to the point of slicing into the neck, it vanished abruptly. Kuwabara's body, still a slave to momentum, was caught off balance as his hands were suddenly emptied, swinging past the man without noticeable effect. God, finishing his turn, pressed the pistol directly to Kuwabara's chest.
And then he pulled the trigger.
The shot was muffled by the proximity to the target, but Kuwabara jerked once as the bullet pierced into his chest. God, too tired to add anything to the basic metal, fired again, catching Kuwabara in the shoulder and sending a sticky stream of red crimson up into the air. As Kuwabara began to fall back, he fired twice more into the gut and chest, staining the blue uniform a deep red. Kuwabara hit the floor, and lay still.
"Kuwabara!" God's head jerked around to the scream behind him. With a primal scream, Yusuke rushed the gunman, and God knew it was time to leave. Closing his eyes, he imagined himself back in his quarters, and willed it to be.
---
Yusuke's fist passed through the air where the soldier had been a moment earlier, but the man was gone. His anger burned within him like a living thing as he scanned the rooftop, but God was most definitely gone. He had left behind his rifle and shotgun, but he had clearly fled the fight.
Slowly, unwillingly, Yusuke turned to look behind him, his hurried mental defenses running out of his mind like a sandcastle in the waves. Kuwabara lay still, his breathing rattling dangerously and sounding too wet to be normal, and a pool of crimson spreading beneath him from a quartet of gunshot wounds.
"Kuwabara..." He said slowly, his voice trailing off as he knelt, his knees soaked instantly in blood, "Kuwabara...can you hear me?" Slowly, Kuwabara's eyes opened, but they remained unfocused as the rain gathered on his face.
"Ura...Urame...shi...this...doesn't mean..I can't...still...beat...you.." Kuwabara groaned, and then closed his eyes and lay still.
"Kuwabara?....Kuwabara!!"
---
"I'm sorry Vince..." Ama said softly, watching the man breathing his last, the side of his head slightly indented and bleeding profusely. Then he pointedly turned away, refusing to watch the slow death of someone he had called friend.
"You gave him every chance." Klick pointed out reasonably, pulling Ama along toward Koenma, with Kaze stepping in on the other side of the white-haired hacker.
"It's not your fault he got himself into something much bigger then he could handle." Kaze added, working as flawlessly in this battle as in the fight they had just effectively finished.
"Yeah, I guess you're right." Ama sighed as the three stepped along. Then his head raised with a surprised expression on his face, and all three of the youths turned in concert.
"It's not possible." A strained voice said, and it took Ama a moment to realize that it was his own.
"Come now, you didn't really think it would be so easy, did you?" Blaze asked him, his voice curiously contorted. The soldier was on his feet, despite the side of his head being just a little bit collapsed in on itself, "I would hate to disappoint you by offering such a lukewarm performance...Your side should talk more, I've already shown this trick to one of you." Blaze's broken body folded it's arms over his chest and a white light enveloped him, seeming to shine through him more then it surrounded him. Squinting against the light, Ama watched in disbelief as bent kneecap snapped back into position easily, and the blood flowed AGAINST gravity to reenter the veins before the wounds closed. Within a moment, the light faded, and the results of their fight were completely erased.
"How...?" Kaze started, and then shook it off, dropping back into a combat crouch, "It doesn't matter. We'll just have to knock you into a position where you can't use that power anymore. You're just delaying it, you know."
"Ah, but that's where you've gone wrong." Blaze chuckled, raising his index finger and wagging it admonishingly, "As I said, I never commit my strength until my enemy reveals his own. Now that you have, it's time to get serious!" The last word was snarled even as Blaze blurred and vanished completely, a curve of empty space where the rain had been knocked away arching away from where he was standing.
"Zan! On your left!" Ama screamed at him, and Kaze reacted instantly, spinning around and punching straight with all his might. Negligently, Blaze slammed his left hand into Kaze's arm, diverting the blow, and struck out with his right hand, driving the fist deep into Kaze's stomach forcing the air out with a gurgled cough. Kaze's feet left the ground as he skidded along the asphalt with the force of the blow.
"Bastard!" Klick swung his staff toward Blaze's head, and passed through the empty air instead as the soldier easily ducked under the metal club. With a swift grab at the end of the staff, the weapon swiftly changed hands. A quick thrust out drove the weight on the end into Klick's face with a crunching sound, and the blue-haired youth went sprawling with blood flowing from his nose. Dropping the stick, Blaze glanced behind him in time to see Ama jump from the ground with the wind swirling around him. Without hesitation, Blaze's knees flexed and he jumped upwards, traveling an impossible distance, his hand catching on to Ama's ankle at least thirteen feet off from the ground and dragging the youth back down to the earth with him. Before Ama could react, Blaze spun in a circle while hanging on to Ama's ankles and then slammed the hacker down onto the asphalt with a crack of overstrained rock.
Blaze stood and surveyed the damage he had done. Kaze was on his knees, coughing violently as he tried desperately to regain his breath. Klick was on his side, both had held over his face as crimson poured between his fingers. Ama was rolling off the small indent in the ground with the movements of one whose entire body ached. Even the way his claws dug into the ground told him..
Wait...Claws?
"You..son of a...bitch.." The deep voice sounded nothing like Ama as the young man lifted his head. Blaze took an involuntary step back as he saw the canines had grown into veritable fangs, and the irises in the blue eyes were now formed into slits like a cat's eyes. The blonde haired was lightened to pure white and spreading rapidly into an unruly mane atop his almost unrecognizable face as he cursed in some language that Blaze was glad he didn't understand.
A hand touched Ama's shoulder, and Blaze jerked his eyes up, so distracted by the spectacle that he was not paying attention to the others. Ama turned and hissed at the owner of the hand, his body crouched ferally as he glared at Koenma.
"Ama, listen to me. Control it as you promised, it has no power over you as long as you don't listen to it. Come BACK Ama.." Koenma said urgently his pacifier held tightly in his teeth. And, abruptly, Ama the hacker straightened, looking as normal as he ever did.
"Sorry about that, Sir." He said quietly, wiping blood of the edge of his mouth, "I kinda lost it there for a moment, but he surprised me." He glanced up at Kaze and Klick stood, groaning quietly, at his sides, "I think this requires a somewhat more...drastic...approach, My brothers. Are you ready?"
"Ready as I can be." Kaze nodded, crossing his arms over his chest with anger in his eyes, "Let's give some of that back, shall we?"
"After all, it's not polite to take and not give, I always say." Klick grinned wickedly, eyeing Blaze even as Blaze eyed him, "And he's powerful enough to warrant it, I'd say."
"What are you...?" Koenma broke off abruptly, his eyes widening uncharacteristically, "You're going to use...? I didn't give you permission for that?"
"You unleashed us because it's important, Koenma." Ama shifted his gaze to the Spirit Ruler levelly, "And we're going to do what we have to do to accomplish that goal. Please, stay out of out way."
"I hope you know what you're doing." Koenma commented under his breath, but he took several steps back out of the way, leaving the three hackers facing the curious soldier.
"You need a minute?" Blaze smiled briefly, "Or were you just about to transform into a cat."
"Not quite." Ama smiled, showing every tooth in a gesture that went a little past friendly, "We've just reconsidered. Three on one is a little unfair, so we're going to even the odds a little." As he spoke, the air shimmed with white lines that wrapped around him like a snake. Klick and Kaze emitted similar energy bars, but they were blue and brown respectively.
"You're all so color coordinated." Blaze sighed, but he got not further response from the youths as the energy began to twist faster, and then unwind. Like a snake or worm feeling its way across the dirt, the three bars groped slowly toward each other. As the three ends touched, the entire airport flashed like daylight, and Blaze took a step back involuntarily as his hands covered his eyes. As the light faded, leaving his eyes dazzled, he squinted at the spot where the three had stood.
Only Ama remained, smiling brightly as Blaze recovered his balance. He seemed normal, until Blaze looked at the hacker's eyes. White lightening blazed so brightly as to shadow parts of his face, and the energy wrapped around the iris like a lover's embrace.
"Now then, let's show off a little bit." Ama smiled, holding his remaining hand straight out, pointing two fingers at the JSDF officers, "It's a shame that I didn't get to show this offer earlier, if I had you'd recognize how different it is now. Ah well, I guess you'll figure it out."
"What, exactly, are you-." Blaze blinked as energy erupted from Ama's finger tips, screaming in a straight white line like a laser bolt. Even as Blaze dodge to the left, barely, Ama's hand follows his moments and more lines were in the air. Ducking under one, and rolling to the side, he saw one of the near misses impact against the wall, gouging a hole in the solid brick like a hot knife in butter. Dimly he wondered who insured the abandoned building, and how much it would cost them to repair all the damage.
"Having fun?" Ama asked, letting loose a quick trio of bolts that impacted the ground before Blaze's feet, "You're going to get tired if you just keep dodging me you know."
"I couldn't agree more!" Blaze roared, and rushed the youth, ducking under the spattering of energy fire and coming in from the left side, with a high punch. Ama's left hand grabbed Blaze's sleeve and jerked the blow around out of the way.
Wait, Ama doesn't have a left hand! Eyes glowing brown met his own as Blaze realized that it was not Ama that he had charged, but Kaze, the close fighter. Even as he tried to take a step back, Kaze's fist impacted against the bottom of his jaw with an uppercut. Blaze twisted in the air, back flipping easily and staring in disbelief at the brown-haired fighter.
"We think maybe We mislead you before, Blaze. We implied we'd be fighting you one on one, but I think.." His voice trailed off as his spun. In mid motion, blue soaked through the brown hair, and Klick smiled as he twirled his staff over his head, "But we think now that one at a time might be a more accurate description...of course, we'll use each other's strength and speed while fighting, but sharing is always good isn't it?"
Blaze blinked, his mind trying to assimilate this strange power desperately. He glanced over his shoulder as he heard footsteps, and Hiei, Kurama, and Suzaku appeared along side Koenma, breathing hard from the run. Yukina peeked at him curiously even as Hiei protectively stepped between them. Blaze was no fool, and he knew you don't fight losing battles unless you're battling to lose. He unclipped a small cylinder from his belt and threw it forward, where it bounced under Klick's feet.
A flash bang is an accurately named piece of equipment. A type of grenade, it exploded with an eye blinding 'flash' and a deafening 'bang'. As the smoke cleared, Blaze was gone.
---
"Now, Kurama!" Koenma commanded, and the Kitsune leapt forward and snapped the color around the neck of the thrashing youth. As soon as the color closed, it was sank into the flesh and disappeared from sight. Immediately, Ama stopped struggling and moaned with relief. Kurama wiped his brow lightly, as the job was done. As soon as they had separated, all three of the humans had begun screaming and rolling on the ground in misery. It had taken everyone present to hold them down long enough to replace the collars. Ama was the last, and his eyes opened only reluctantly.
"You damn near got yourselves killed!" Koenma raged, now that the danger was past, "What were you thinking?"
"What made you get the impression I was thinking?" Ama smiled weakly as he picked himself up.
"Don't get cute, I'm familiar with your wit." Koenma sighed, "Was the situation really that drastic?"
"You saw the soldier boy move." Kaze put in from nearby, where he was apologizing for a bruise on Hiei's shoulder one of his random flails had caused, "Do YOU think we could have taken him without it?"
"No, not really." Koenma agreed reluctantly.
"Koenma!" Yukina's voice called his attention, and his eyes quickly took his the ice princess with Yusuke, standing over Kuwabara, who lay motionless, "Come quick, Kazuma's hurt!"
"Someone can make that oversized underbrained oaf stay down." Hiei blinked surprisedly.
"Let's get him to spirit world." Koenma said quietly, "He'll heal better there. You'd better all come as well, it's time for some explanations."
