4. A Simple Touch
Dr. Ichigaki's team was out, so the next match had come sooner than Eri expected, but with so little bit of energy left. Yusuke turned to Eri with gratitude in his eyes.
"Hey, you okay? I heard what the doctor said about you." Yusuke asked.
"I'm fine. I was just..." Eri was lost with words as Yusuke gaze at her quite sadly.
"You didn't mean to do it. It was an accident and I understand." He said with a faint smile.
Eri looks up at the male feeling her worries wash away, "You do?"
"I am. I'm grateful that you were able to help one of those members up there." He said giving her a thumbs-up as Eri stares at him with a deadpanned expression.
"I'm grateful for that." She said with a quirky smile on her face.
Yusuke reached down and lightly touched Eri's shoulder, "Hey, don't sweat it. Now that Kurama and shrimpy are finally here, I'm sure we stand a chance against the next team!" The smile he gave her was so genuine and radiated off so much confidence, it was hard for her not to believe him. Kurama walked over to the two of them, his eyebrows furrowed with concern.
"Actually, it looks like we're down to just you and me, Yusuke." He looked over at Hiei, who was standing by himself a few feet away. Lowering his voice as he said, "Hiei is badly injured. His arm still hasn't had enough time to heal properly."
"Oh man," whined Yusuke, "this could be bad. Kuwabara is knocked out cold, and Hiei's arm is still crispy. This is just great."
"Calm down, Yusuke. Let me handle the next team. I'll fight each member until I am no longer able to. That should give you plenty of time to recover your strength, allowing you to take over when I'm finished."
"Hey, good idea Kurama," he smiled, happily accepting the fox demon's plan. Eri looked over at Hiei, staring hard at him as she tried to force him to make eye contact with her. "Before the next match, we will conduct an exam to ensure that the teams are fit to fight in battle," announced an official over the speakers. Eri turned towards the main entrance where a gate was sliding open. Walking towards her was a beautiful, red-headed nurse, who could've made a better career as a model.
Out of instinct, Eri looks over at Hiei again, watching to see how he would react. His face remained unchanged, actually, it looked like he was disgusted by the attractive nurse.
"Hello boys," the nurse said to the team in a seductive voice. She looked down at Eri and smiled, "and girl," she hurriedly mumbled.
"I'm here to make sure you're all healthy," she continued. She lifted her hand and allowed it to hover in front of each member's chest. "Mmmmm, you," her hand stopping at Hiei, "and you," she said, her hand hovering near Eri's chest. But she held onto Hiei's pant leg to hide her face as she felt him pat her head. "Both of you, come with me to the nurse's tent. You are unfit to fight and need some aid."
Hiei scoffed at her, "I don't go where people tell me to, woman. And honestly, I don't care what you think. I'm going to fight the next round." Eri stares up at Hiei, feeling both pleased with the fact that he clearly had no interest in the nurse, but also felt annoyed with his childish behavior.
Eri says, "Hiei, you are injured. You can't use your hand to wield your sword. How could you fight?" He glared at Eri, and she stared back helplessly. "Fine. I'll go," he replied bitterly, "but as soon as she's done with the examination, I'm going into the ring." Eri accepted his response, 'At least he's getting his wounds checked,' She thought. The two of them walked into the tent, and as soon as Eri did, she felt a strange sensation run through her. She turned back around and found that she was surrounded by some sort of force field.
"Hey! What's the big idea, lady?" demanded the detective. The nurse's outfit began to rip away, leaving her body covered in vines. She gave a wicked laugh as she answered, "I'm an enchantress! My name is Ruka and there's no way for your teammates to escape my barrier once they're inside!" Eri heard Yusuke let loose a wind of curses at the woman, but Eri readily accept that she was trapped. "Please don't worry about us, Yusuke," Eri says, trying to be heard above his yelling. "Hiei wouldn't have been much help with the shape we're in. But the lady is scary to have a dark plan to set us up," Eri said, walking over to an empty seat in the tent. Before long, everyone settles down and Eri watches as the battle begins.
Eri carefully watches Kurama's match, eyeing every move he made. Eri imagines how one of the other two teammates would counter the opponents. As she tries to predict different scenarios, she feels a pair of eyes watching her. Eri looks up and can catch Hiei's stare before he looked away. "Is something wrong?" She asked.
For a while, there was a tense silence. Eri could sense how uneasy Hiei felt, and Eri wasn't sure if it was because of her, or what she said, or if it was because of how physically close she felt to him in the small barrier. Her mind began to wander as she listed all the things that could be wrong.
"I...I wanted to know what you did to my arm." Hiei breaking the silence as Eri looks up at him. "You did something to get ourselves in here."
Eri piercing her lips together responding, "I...I don't want to tell you." She said facing away cupping her hands together to face the ground sadly. "It's hard to explain."
"What's so difficult about telling about your power?" Hiei inquired.
Eri says, "It's because I don't know how to fully control it. It's bad power."
'A bad power?' Hiei thought with an eyebrow raised.
Her eyes were welling up with tears, and Hiei could feel her losing faith in him. He closed his eyes, trying to ignore the strange pang in his chest. I didn't know why I felt so guilty, he merely did it to understand her.
"Why is it a bad power?" He reopened his eyes again glancing down at her as she sniffled in response as she brushed her hair away from her face.
"Because I cause people to get hurt, even though I didn't mean it." She replied hunching her shoulders up. Hiei could tell she was uncomfortable about talking about her power in front of him, she was losing her trust around him as he backed his back against the force field hissing. "Hiei! B-Be careful." She pleaded as her eyes were full of worried in them.
"I'm fine. You don't have to worry about me." He said giving her a small smile on his lips.
'The witch nurse may have helped me more than she expected.' Hiei thought.
"We have to get out of here," Eri said as she looked over at Ruka to see her not looking at her.
"There has to be something we can do," Hiei mumbled.
Just as Eri was about to say something else, she stared at the force field and reached her hand out to touch it.
"Eri what're you-" Hiei was cut off when Eri was planning something to get them out of there and Ruka noticed.
"What are you doing?!" Ruka screamed angrily.
Hiei smirked her, "Just trying out your so-called 'impenetrable barrier."
"You won't be able to break through, so just...stop," her voice faltered, giving her away. It was clear on her face she had not expected Eri to be able to stand the barrier's force, and she knew that the child may be able to free themselves. Eri did a huge wave of energy to wipe out the force field sending Ruka a surprise.
The fire demon stood there in shock as he faces down at the child who lowered her hand and head.
"Eri..." She looked up at him with those big doe eyes blinking anxiously.
"D-Did I do something wrong?" She inquired.
Hiei shook his head and crouched down at her level saying, "No. You didn't do anything wrong, you manage to save us." He rests a hand on her shoulder noticing something underneath her hair on top of her forehead poking out. He brushed her hair away to see a horn poking out as he tilts his head to the side concerned.
'How does she have a horn? She's a human.' He thought.
"Hey, you guys, are you okay?" Yusuke asked.
"We're fine," Hiei replied.
The demon noticed Eri running over to an injured Kurama who was in bad condition after the previous fight against the big muscular male. She felt sad as Kurama face the child with a slanted smile on his lips to reassure her that he was all right.
"Are you going to be okay?" Eri asked in a worried tone.
"I'll be fine," Kurama reassured.
Eri wraps her small arms around his neck as Kurama pat the girl on the head. There was a small radiant of light coming from her as she didn't notice that she accidentally activated her power to lend it onto Kurama. With Kurama in an injured state, he blinked to realize that he wasn't feeling any more pain. He looks down to see that the plants that he wrapped around his wrists to help heal him were gone, and there wasn't any blood or scratches on him either. Kurama sat up as Eri removed herself off him to get a good look at him to see that he wasn't in such a painful stage anymore.
"I-I'm healed? How did you..." Kurama was lost with words as Eri held the hem of her dress facing away to avoid his gaze.
'Did she healed me while I was too weak to stand up?' Kurama thought.
Back in the hotel, Eri and the others were resting up and changing out of their gears to wear comfortable clothes. While Eri was sitting on the couch she noticed a female figure she had never seen before after she met the other girls she remembered were staying to support their team. long mint-green hair that is kept in a low ponytail where it is tied in the back with a fancy red ribbon and red eyes. She is almost always seen wearing a long-sleeved, light blue kimono with a darker blue obi that's tied in the back. The red 'lining' seen around her collar indicates she has a Hiyoku (an under-garment) on underneath it. She is also rather short, being a half a head shorter than Keiko.
"H-Hello." Eri greeted shyly.
"Hello." The girl greeted her back with a huge smile. "I'm Yukina. What's your name?"
"Eri." She replied.
"That's a beautiful name for a pretty little girl," Yukina said.
"Yukina!" Kuwabara ran over to see his beloved with a happy expression on his face. Eri blinked a couple of times not understanding what was happening unless they were just reuniting. Kuwabara noticed Eri's confused expression and said, "Eri, this is Yukina that we rescued when we were doing one of Koenma's missions."
"What's a mission?" Eri asked.
Kurama enters the room to explain, "A mission is when you go out and do a task to complete it. If it isn't a complete mission, then that would be known as mission fail."
Eri 'ohed' as she saw Hiei enter the living room gesturing his hands over to her saying, "Bath time."
"Eh? Is Hiei actually being a caretaker for Eri?" Kuwabara asked.
"Shut it, you fool. I'm just telling her to take her bath that way she'll be ready for bed." Hiei remarked sending a glare over at the orange brute.
As Eri followed Hiei to their room to take her bath, he couldn't leave her alone since she needed supervision. He waited outside of the bathroom to let her wash up first, Kurama told him that they are serving dinner and he had Eri's plate made up for her when she gets out. Minutes later, Eri comes out of the bathroom struggling to dry her long hair.
"Here. Let me help." Hiei insisted on taking the towel from her and crouch down at her height to dry her hair.
"Thank you." Eri smiled.
'She's so small.' Hiei thought feeling a small smile appeared on his lips. 'At least I'm not the short one here.'
"Kurama told me that you have a plate of food set up in the living room. Are you hungry?" Hiei tossed the towel onto the dresser as he brushed Eri's strand of hair to the side as the girl responded with a nod. "Well, let's go join them, so you can pack your tummy."
As Hiei opened the door to let Eri go out first, the girl was greeted by Yusuke making her jump back a little surprised to see him standing there.
Yusuke greeted them with a cheerful expression, "Enjoyed your bath, Eri?"
"Uh-huh." Eri nodded.
"Good. I made your plate if Kurama told you or not. I can take there if Hiei has anything else that needs to be done." Yusuke insisted.
"There will be no need for that." Hiei bluntly said.
"Oh, okay." Yusuke shrugged taking Eri by the hand to escort her to the dining room. In the dining room, Eri could the others were packed around the table eating and talking while laughing through the conversation. Yusuke brought her over to the table helping her sit in a kids booster seat because she's so small that only her chin can meet with the table.
"Here you go, Eri." Kurama sets her dish of food in front of her to eat as she took a fork and pick the food out of her dish to eat in.
While they finished dinner, Eri was full as she sat on the couch with Keiko next to her to brush her hair into sections. She made sure not to brush too rough and took good care of the little girl's hair making sure it was healthy.
"There. It's all brushed out." Keiko said smiling down at the little girl.
"Thank you." Eri smiled up at her.
"Eri, I have a surprise for you~" Botan sang.
Eri had her ears perked up to listen to Botan for what she has for her in the gift bag. Botan pulls out a..."TA-DA! I bought this from the gift shops and I thought you could have it." She said wearing a huge smile on her face holding a teddy bear out for Eri.
As Eri stares at the bear her lips began to quiver as flashbacks to the prison she was trapped in the world of "Torture Unhappiness" came to her. She slapped away the bear out of Botan's hands and started trembling.
"Okay, I guess she doesn't like toys," Yusuke said blinking in shock as the others were surprised that she did that.
"I don't think it's just the toy she's afraid of. It's something that caused her to do that." Kurama said looking over at Eri's form that was right dour with the expression she wore was slightly full of fear.
"Eri, it's okay," Yukina said coming over to comfort the girl to soothe her shaking form.
"Maybe putting her to bed will do the trick," Keiko suggested.
"Right. I'm exhausted." Kuwabara yawned.
"Same here." Yusuke yawned.
The others were heading off to bed, Hiei takes Eri back to their room carrying her in his arms. She was still shaking nonstop that he to pat her head to calm her down. Something she didn't like about that toy is what caused her nervous system to build up. Hiei didn't understand why she was acting this way and the way she was clutching onto his shirt in a tight grasp.
"Eri..." Hiei called her name softly as she lifts her head slowly to meet his gaze. "Why are you scared of the toy? And don't say "I don't wanna talk about it" either."
He didn't mean to mock the girl's words, but he had enough of it for one thing. If she wasn't going to tell anyone about what was going on, then he will have to force it out of her if she didn't like it or not. The girl was being mournful to say anything back to Hiei, however, she can tell that he was concern about what just happened after witnessing it.
"I-I-I don't wanna play with it. I-It brings back b-b-bad memories." She quivered.
"Why don't you wanna play with it?" He inquired.
Eri shutters in his arms as he rested his chin on top of hers hearing the girl reply, "Because I-I don't want to be f-force to play things t-t-that won't make me happy."
'Forced to play with toys to cause her to be happy?' He thought deep in his mind.
"I see," Hiei muttered. Hiei knew that Eri wasn't going to be sleeping well tonight, so he decided to stay up and comfort the small girl in his arms. It was the only way to keep her calm as he sways her side to side feeling her trembling loosen up a little. About an hour later, he glanced down to see that Eri had fallen asleep giving him the chance to put her to bed. "Whoever is making you force to be happy, it isn't going to work like that. I'll think of something."
'How can I make her feel better after she looked traumatized tonight?' Hiei thought to himself to come up with anything that a child would most likely enjoy doing to keep themselves entertained. He'll have to think about it tomorrow so that Eri can forget what happened tonight.
