"Hit her!" Hiei yelled frustratingly at the pair 'sparring' before him. The fox himself, standing next to Hiei, was also growing noticeably frustrated.
"I can't hit her! She's a girl!" the oaf shouted back as he blocked a punch coming from Nanashi. She tried to hit him two more times, but he only blocked instead of going for the obvious attacks she left herself open for.
"I don't care what she is! She's still your opponent right now! Hit her!
The girl had kicked at his stomach, leaving her off balance. All he would to do now is block her kick and then kick her back leg out from under her to send her to the ground for an easy win. The oaf only blocked her kick and backed away. She stepped away as well, hands on her thighs and panting heavily. She so open for any stupid attack the oaf could come up with, and yet he still refused to strike her.
"Enough," the fox ruled. Both humans looked over at him hopefully. The girl glanced at Hiei quickly, and then stopped looking hopeful. "I think that's enough for today," he said, looking down at Hiei, hinting at the need for a private conversation once the humans were away.
Hiei reluctantly agreed, causing both humans to run back to the house the prince had procured for the four of them to stay in while training for the Dark Tournament.
"He's keeps holding himself back so he won't hurt a woman," the fox noted.
"More like she's holding him back by not attacking him hard enough to warrant him fighting back," Hiei retorted.
"We should split them up and train them separately. He won't hold back against either of us."
Hiei agreed, even though the idea of being stuck all day with either one of the humans sounded unappealing. "When she cries, I'm still not going to be nice to her like you do," he warned.
"I think that's what she needs at this point."
From the next day on, the humans were split up and alternated days training with Hiei and the fox. The oaf showed improvement right away, but the girl's progression was slower. In general, she seemed to tire out a lot quicker.
"Can we just take a break," she whined as she was trying desperately to avoid being hit by Hiei's sword. He ignored her and kept trying to hit her, holding back just enough so when, not if, he hit her, she would not be killed or injured grievously; but she did not know that. He swung his sword at her stomach, slicing across the front of her shirt and leaving a thin scratch on her side. "Would you stop," she whimpered, bringing a hand foolishly to her side, leaving herself unguarded. Now unguarded, Hiei swung his sword at her legs, making her jump off balance in the air. When she hit the ground, she stumbled and fell into a sitting position, arms up over her face, leaving herself vulnerable to attack yet again.
Moving swiftly, he came up behind her, pulled her hair back sharply, and rested his sword against her neck. Her fear was palpable. "Dead," he whispered in her ear. He took his sword away from her neck and shoved her forward.
She frowned up at him. "I hate you," she said with all the angst a girl her age could muster.
"Up," he ordered. She frowned at him. "Run," swinging his sword out to show her it was time for another round. She responded better and improved more if she was chased and had to fend him off. Training to move beyond fear. In the first few sessions of training alone, she had already become a faster runner and her reaction time was quicker. She was frightened, but able to move beyond it and at least attempt to fight back. She had also learn quickly that crying and refusing to move only made him train her harder.
She groaned, raising to her feet. She stood her ground, trying to summon up her wind serpent. She managed to have it up for two seconds before it disappeared. She bent double and panted, swearing under her breath. Bravely but foolishly, she charged at him, grabbing his right wrist to keep his sword out her way and then tried to punch him in the face with her free hand. He blocked her punch, shook free from her grip on his wrist, and brought his sword to rest against her neck heavily.
"Dead," he whispered. He looked her over curiously. "Why are you so much more tired then Kuwabara?"
"Um," she shook her head, unsure.
"Fear of dying keeping you up at night?" he teased.
She frowned at him, backing away from his sword and started running away. Time for another chase.
Later that night, Hiei read her mind to see why she was more worn out then the oaf during training. The fox had noticed she was wearing out faster as well and had thought it may be because she was not as physically strong as the oaf. Upon reading her mind though, he found a different answer. She spent at least an extra hour every night reading one of the three books she had brought with her when she should be sleeping. He shifted to reading the mind of her wind serpent, trying still to figure out its existence. Living, yet solely dependent on her spirit energy to exist. The poor creature had to depend on someone who was not even smart enough to get enough sleep every night to recover from the previous day's training and grow stronger. If she could tame something like that...
Annoyed, Hiei bidded his time before taking action. She trained with the fox the next day who had pitied her for being so tired ended her training with him early so she could go to bed earlier. Waiting patiently until she was in a deep sleep, Hiei snuck into her room, and took all three books from her room. The one she slept with near her head was easier than it should have been to steal. She only twitched in her sleep when he got so close to her. She should have been on guard, even when sleeping, but she slept on peacefully.
Early the next morning, Hiei waited patiently in the yard for the girl to realize what he had done. Surprisingly, it did not take long for him to hear her actually shouting for him. She stormed out of the house after him, fully dressed, but hair still disheveled from sleep. Nothing about her demeanor showed she was even remotely scared of him at the moment. He held up all three books tauntingly. She sped up her pace after him, wind serpent in ax form. He dodged it her first swing and pulled his sword out to block the second one. He hurriedly put the three books back in his cloak while fending her ax off with her sword. She was fighting way better then he expected, almost impressing him. He upped his game so he fought just above evenly at her level. He noticed when she could, she tried to reach into his cloak, but he would not let her get any closer than that to taking back one of her books.
After hours had passed, she finally started to slow down as she could not keep her ax out anymore and the wind serpent disappeared. She gave a shout of frustration, but still kept trying to get her books back. She was still showing no fear of either him or his sword, only wincing when the blade nicked her. He managed to pin her down on the ground on her stomach, pulled her unbrushed hair back to expose her neck, placed his sword against it, and said "dead." He took his sword back, got off of her, and loomed over her.
She got back up faster than usual and tried to get her books back from his cloak. "You creeper. Who gave you the right to go into my room and steal my property," she hissed at him. She still was not scared of him yet today.
He kicked her in the stomach hard, sending her back into a tree. He put his sword back on her neck, tempted to nick her flesh this time, but let it pass undone. "Dead. Maybe if you slept more and read less, you'd finally show some improvement in your training." She frowned down at him, waiting impatiently for him to lower his sword. When he did not, she reached down to his cloak, pulling at the top of it, trying to reach inside of it unsuccessfully. "You're not getting them back," he told her.
"They're mine," she grumbled.
"They're a distraction from your training." He took his sword off her neck and jumped back. He quickly flitted up another nearby tree. The girl ran to the base of it, looking up at him furiously. He took one of the books out of his cloak and held it up tauntingly in his right hand. He concentrated on warming his right hand up until the book it began to smoke and finally burned. She stared up at him disbelievingly. "One down." He was goading her to attack again. Already today had been her best training day by far.
"You son of a bitch," she swore. She stretched her right arm straight out towards as her wind serpent came back up around her neck. Hiei felt both of his lungs quit moving simultaneously. He could neither breathe in nor breathe out. He grabbed his throat, trying to will it to work. He forced himself to calm down in spite of not being able to breathe. Looking down at the girl, he noticed she was panting heavily. He rested his hand on the trunk of the tree he stood in, willing himself to ignore the black spots floating in his vision. She broke her gaze on him and dropped to her hands and knees. The wind serpent was no longer around her neck.
He could finally breathe again, taking in as many deep breaths as he could. He jumped down from the tree he had been, landing next to the weakling human. She was clearly exhausted, likely had not eaten anything that day, and had used up all of her spirit energy. Yet she was now punching at his shins. While she had not done much damage, but he stepped out of her reach anyway. She got to her feet and followed after him, trying desperately to get her last two books back. She had no chance, but for the rest of the day she stayed entertaining, pathetic, and begrudgingly impressive. She was not crying, begging for a rest, or acting like a brat like she usually did. Every time he knocked her down, she would not stay down but would do everything she could to get up and fight again.
At sunset, he ended it. She had crawled to a nearby tree to pull herself to her feet. He threw one of the two remaining books at her feet. She looked down at it and then up at him in shock. She threw herself down to the ground and scooped the book into her arms, clutching it to her chest. "Don't let that be a distraction from sleep. You train like that everyday from now on. Or else I burn both books. I'll hold onto the other one to keep you motivated." He held the one still in his possession in his hand tauntingly. He tore the first page out of it and burned it in front of her frowning face.
That evening when Hiei told the fox what happen, and he could tell the fox was bristling.
"She told me she had stopped reading at night," the fox said with a frown. Hiei shrugged. "We keep the book, don't give it back. Pass it to me on days where I train her. She's still at high risk of dying in the tournament."
"So's the other human," Hiei pointed out.
"Less so," the fox said, flustered.
For the next week, Hiei noticed that the girl kept training at nearly the same level with both the fox and Hiei as the day she discovered her books were stolen. She was reading less and resting more. Both the fox and he agreed if she ever started to back slide in her training after this, to go even harder on her.