A/N: Hello once again, Dear Reader!

Not much to say other than I hope you enjoy it!

Symbols Guide:

* : Written by CM; She writes for Akari and Hiei
3 : Written by Star (supposed to be the 'heart' symbol, but FF doesn't like the 'less-than' sign, so it's a 3 instead); She writes for Toriko and Kurama
~!**!~ : A universal transition between scenes or characters, sometimes used to indicate a passage of time, but most often used to transition between major scenes that are happening. As the story progresses, this will evolve into mainly separating the (usually two) scenes happening between authors/characters.

As a general rule, anything in italics is thoughts.
Unless it's used in a sentence like this, which merely indicates emphasis.
"Quotations are usually reserved specifically for telepathic dialogue being transmitted from one being to another, but sometimes this can also mean a character isn't being careful about what they're thinking and anyone with telepathy in the nearby vicinity can listen in without taking any effort."

The only exception to that last rule is for the Shiba Inu dog, Nabu. All of his "spoken" dialogue will be in italics and quotations, but is communicated through body language or dog-like noises, so unless a character is able to translate those they are unlikely to pick up on what he is saying any more than the average person might understand his general moods like aggression (bared teeth, ears back) or excitement (wagging tail).


Previously on Yu Yu Hakusho!

Toriko wakes up to a spat between Maneshi and Hiei; the cat had torn holes in Hiei's cloak.

She offers to mend it for him and seems to be acting strangely up until Hiei points out the injury Otento gave her,
a place near her neck where the demon bit her and also left a bruise, whereupon she goes to clean it
only to be unable to take the memory of what happened the night before and collapsing to the ground in the bathroom.

Hearing her collapse upstairs, Hiei goes and picks her up and carries her back to her bedroom...


Hiei slowly lowered Toriko onto her bed, eyes methodically checking for additional injuries from her fall before they fell upon the bruise his eyes had found earlier, a frown coming to his face as he caught sight of the dried blood still crusted along the bruise. He gave a small sound that could almost be classified as a sigh and he turned to leave the room again, but his eyes caught sight of the small cat and he gazed down at it for a moment, taking in his curious wide eyes and curled tail. For a moment, he raised a brow, but then decided to continue walking back out the room and into the bathroom once more.

He rummaged through the cabinets, searching for a small rag, only to come up empty handed and a bit irritated. He again searched each cabinet, slightly more content when he found a drawer he hadn't seen the first time, and it held just what he was looking for. He soaked the washcloth in warm water and returned to Toriko's room, unceremoniously dropping the wet cloth from a couple of inches above her skin to her neck, letting it soak up the dried blood without any effort on his part. He glanced behind himself again, eyeing the cat once more with a raised brow. Then Hiei settled himself on the floor curiously, wondering if perhaps the cat would approach. *

Maneshi was not sure what had happened to Toriko, but his eyes never left her, even when Hiei swept by to leave the room again.

The only part of him that moved was his tail, twitching occasionally as he waited for Toriko to get up. This was not sleeping time. This was the awake time. This was the time of day where Toriko played with him when she was home and the fact that she was not up bothered him immensely. He did not quite know what to do, though he certainly felt something was very wrong.

The man with spiky hair came back in again and dropped something while standing over Toriko that Maneshi could not see, though it made a wet noise and caused the cat to shiver at the thought. When Hiei sat down on the floor, Maneshi could feel the fire demon's eyes on him and he twitched his tail twice more in the silence until Hiei got settled.

Moving like fluid across the floor to the bed, Maneshi stood up on his back paws as he reached for the edge, extending the length of his body to rest his front paws near where Toriko's hand had fallen.

Even on his closer inspection, he felt no better about her state, sniffing the hand and getting the same vibe as before.

Momentarily crestfallen that there would be no play time today, Maneshi backed up and landed back down softly on all fours on the carpet, tail lashing once in frustration at the predicament.

He turned to eye Hiei, expression unreadable, then remembered the wet sound that had been dropped higher up, reaching back to put his front paws on top of the bed, this time next to her shoulder, leaning as close as he dared to the damp cloth and giving it a smell, but deciding it was nothing particularly out of the ordinary, though he caught a second scent underneath it that caused his brows to waver.

He dismissed the thought and planted his four paws back on the carpet, meandering over to Hiei and sitting down on his back legs within arm's reach of the demon, concern radiating from every inch of his little fur-covered body, his eyes not leaving his lady's unconscious form.

In a sudden need of comfort, Maneshi stepped closer and butted a hand that Hiei held himself up with on the floor with the top of his black, furry head and made a tiny murl, wondering if this warm non-human was as worried as himself and hoping for pets and maybe a scratch behind the ear. 3

Hiei watched the cat as he moved around, getting different looks at his owner and sniffing here and there. The fire demon himself watched Toriko here and there, inspecting again and again to make sure he didn't miss something such as a cut or another bruise. By the time Maneshi's inspection had been complete and the cat was sitting near him, Hiei had closed his eyes briefly, thinking about the events that had lead to this. There was a part of him that wished he had killed the blonde demon when he'd had the chance, because something told him that he'd see the demon again soon, that something else was going to come of the encounter.

He felt the soft bump of the furry creature's head on his hand and opened a single eye to glance down at Maneshi, noting that the tom was still glancing at Toriko. The aura around the cat was easily readable, like a demon's, and Hiei found himself giving a small huff and resting his hand on the black fur atop the cat's head, scratching the place between his ears. "Tear my cloak again and you will die," he said softly, never ceasing in petting the soft, smooth fur of the cat.

He couldn't help but think that the animal was the only one in the human plane he actually didn't mind. *

Maneshi's eyes became half-lidded at the attentions, though when Hiei spoke, he turned his head and flicked one ear back, staring at him candidly as if to say, You're the one that moved.

He gave a little huff of disapproving air, and turned his head back forward, leaning into Hiei's touch until he nearly fell over, recovering quickly by continuing to move in Hiei's direction, tentatively putting a paw on Hiei's thigh and sitting again, lifting his face towards Hiei's with his eyes closed in a sign of utter kitty contentment, a smile nearly visible on his features as Hiei pet him.

After a moment, he couldn't help himself, and he made the little jump over Hiei's left thigh into his lap, sitting his bottom right between Hiei's legs and resting his front on Hiei's right thigh and settling down, ears and eyes perked towards the bed, his tail getting left behind over Hiei's other thigh, the tip of it twitching occasionally.3

Hiei finally opened both eyes to watch the cat with a blank expression, feeling rather calm considering his train of thought. His hand continued to scratch at Maneshi's head until the cat moved, and Hiei instinctively pulled back to give the cat room to move. He raised a brow as the tom settled in his lap, tail draped over his thigh and twitching from side to side. He waited until the cat was completely still before giving into temptation and simply stroking his left hand down the center of Maneshi's dark fur, the smooth hairs flattening under his touch. The fur of the cat was warm, almost as warm as Hiei himself was, and he found that fact soothing, calming, as he continued to pet along the spine. Before too long, Maneshi was purring, and Hiei merely halted in his stroking, letting his hand rest on the cat as he rested his head back against the wall he was leaning against and turned his eyes to Toriko, patiently waiting for her to wake up. *

Maneshi let out a large breath, sounding almost like a sigh, turning nuzzling briefly the hand Hiei still held on him.

His emotional tank now full, Maneshi dropped himself out from under Hiei's hand and delicately stepped over Hiei back to the bed, clearing the jump in one clean leap, and landing just to the side of Toriko's head, sniffing at her hair once before walking around to her other side and stepping gently on her stomach, slinking cautiously up the middle of her chest and settling down, his paws almost touching the small space in between her collar bone.

He considered the cloth covering part of her bare skin on the left side of her body, nose twitching at the dampness, obviously not pleased.

Taking one velvety paw, claws most carefully absent, Maneshi touched the cloth, jerking his paw back abruptly and standing on his haunches. It was just as wet as he thought. He stared at it a bit longer and seemed to wrestle with something inside himself, finally giving another brief sigh-like sound and batting the cloth off her as fast and gently as he could, shaking his paw in distaste as it slid off her shoulder onto the bed.

The sight of the purple and red bruise on her made him visibly cringe back, lifting his paw close to his chest and his tail lashing once angrily. After the moment of disgust passed, Maneshi moved to where he could plant his front paws on either side of the wound, slowly lowering his head so that he maintained his precarious balance, but getting his mouth close enough and beginning to studiously lick with his rough tongue at the bruise, which started to glow, making sure to cover every single inch of it at least once.

When he had finished, he sat back and admired his handiwork, heartily approving as the bruise began to fade to yellow and brown, disappearing completely and leaving only a bit of cat-kissed sheen behind.

Toriko did not sit up immediately after that, which Maneshi disapproved of. He backed up to lay on her sternum again, curling his front paws under his chest and beginning to rumble a purr, his small motor vibrating cheerily as if to welcome her back into the world.

As he did so, the entirety of his black, short-haired body fainting began glowing. He could feel her mind begin stirring and he closed his eyes, pleased with himself.

After a moment, he turned his regal head towards Hiei, whom he'd felt staring at him and blinked, speaking directly into Hiei's mind:

"What? You didn't honestly think a demon would own a normal cat, did you?" 3

Hiei let his hand fall to his lap as Maneshi slinked away, leaping onto the bed and resting on Toriko, his tongue snaking out and cleansing the wound until, surprisingly, the wound itself was simply washed away, as if the bruise had been nothing more than an illusion of makeup effects. His crimson orbs calmly watched, falsifying his lack of surprise with a facade of calm curiosity. He continued to watch Maneshi, even when the cat turned to look at him, now curled back on Toriko's gut, as if nothing had just happened and this were a normal occurrence.

When he suddenly felt his own consciousness touched by another, almost like the brush of a feather along his mind's eye, he blinked and met the cat's gaze evenly, listening with mild amusement. How he hadn't seen this coming, he didn't understand. He raised a brow at the cat and responded with:

"Perhaps you are smarter than the normal creature of this plane. But I believe your definition of normal and mine are two different commodities."

With that, he gave a small sneer that said he approved of the creature, though it lasted only an instant before it disappeared from his face. *

"Mm. Perhaps. Perhaps not." He said cryptically.

Maneshi looked back at Toriko, purring more heartily as she began to stir, his demonic energy still letting out a soft glow from his body.

"Fascinating creature." He mumbled to himself before pulling away from Hiei's mind, though whether he spoke of Hiei or Toriko too ambiguous to make out.

Toriko's eyes slowly fluttered open once, falling shut. Maneshi's purr became more insistent until she opened them again, staring blankly up at the ceiling, eyes cringing in the brightness of the room.

As she moved to sit up, Maneshi slipped off her chest and ended up between her legs and purring handsomely up at her, his expression beatific. Though her lips did not mirror it, her eyes smiled down at him and she reached over to scratch at the side of his cheek, a gesture that he leaned into, turning his head slightly for her to get to a different spot.

Toriko let out a deep, shaky breath from her lungs, beginning to move her legs over to the bed, though her whole body ached and she didn't know why.

Maneshi ducked and scooted back out of her way hopping down from the bed and meandering out of the room to places unknown.

For a moment, Toriko stared down at her knees, arms feeling weak, unsure if her legs would be able to hold her up. She glanced to her left and saw the washcloth on the side of her bed, raising her eyebrows and wondering how it got there. 3

Hiei raised an interested brow at Maneshi, waiting for the cat to continue on, but was left rather disappointed as his mind became empty of outside contact. He didn't know much of anything except that not only was Toriko a demon who seemed rather clumsy, and her cat was not a normal one, but he was also almost too curious for his own good. As events continued to unfold, different things happening at once, he found himself wanting to be nearby and figure out this cryptic puzzle of a person and her pet. It reminded him of the promise she had pulled from his lips the night before, and while he would normally be rather upset with such events, he found himself rather amused that he'd agreed and ended up in such curious circumstances.

Hiei pulled himself from his thoughts as he heard Toriko stirring, moving slightly on the bed until she was sitting up, blinking and looking back over her shoulder to the cloth that now lay on the bed, the dampness transferring to the bed sheets and creating a small spot where the water had soaked in. At first, Hiei didn't move. However, when Toriko moved her legs over the side of the bed, looking as if she were about to stand, he eyed her closely, taking note of the slight shake in her arms, the unstableness of her twitching muscles.

"I wouldn't do that," he said calmly, arms crossing over his chest as he crossed his ankles in front of him. "You'll only fall again." *

When she finally lifted her head at the sound of a voice and saw Hiei, her entire body tensed at the sight of him. Why was he here?

Her eyes quickly fell to her left again, to her bedside table, and she scrambled to grab for her glasses, scooting them over her ears and pushing them up the top of her nose, then putting her hands in her lap and staring at them, hardly noticing her hair falling about her shoulders.

She stayed seated, wondering at his warning, her brows turning downwards as she still did not know why he sat there looking so nonchalant. Her memories of the day were...fuzzy at best. The night before just as scrambled in her mind.

"Oh!" She exclaimed in remembrance, standing abruptly. She just as quickly plopped back onto the bed again, too weak, cringing at her achiness, her expression sheepish. "Y-your cloak." She explained. "I need to check on it. There's one last step." She did remember that much of the day. 3

Hiei eyed Toriko with a calm gaze, watching every twitch her muscles gave as she moved around, his eyes occasionally looking to the place where the bruise used to be. Part of him was amazed by what had happened, but he kept it contained from his features so that neither she nor Maneshi would be able to read his thoughts from his face.

Hiei nearly jumped when Toriko was on her feet in a quick motion, her voice suddenly loud and echoing in the otherwise quiet room. Her sudden movements caused him to give a huff as she placed herself right back on her bed, her eyes widened with dizziness, so he concluded. Slowly, the fire demon pushed himself to stand, placing himself in front of her so she wouldn't make the same mistake again. "Forget it," he spoke, his tone almost harsh, "it can wait. Don't be stupid." With that, he turned and stalked out of the room, giving her space and time to sort her obviously jumbled thoughts. If she really was that determined, she'd gather herself and follow.

Either way, Hiei still lingered outside the door, standing to the side and listening curiously and cautiously for anything unnatural. *

Toriko watched, mouth slightly agape as Hiei left the room, nearly closing the door behind him, "N-no, wait! You don't understand!"

She reached for a hair claw that sat on the bedside table and gathered her hair up, in too much of a hurry for pinning, twisting it and clamping into place at the back of her head.

She scrambled up out of the bed, managing to make it to the door and latching onto the knob with her right hand, shutting the door in front of her as she leaned heavily on it, feeling weak.

In a sudden flash of anger at her aching body, Toriko curled her left hand into a fist where it had landed near her face to hold her up on the door and slammed it into the wood. She muttered a curse under her breath at her condition, legs giving out underneath her.

She managed to turn around as she slid down the door, ending up seated with her back against the wood, putting her head between her knees and sighing. 3

Hiei listened to the girl's clumsy steps as she tried to catch up, but he didn't move from his spot against the wall in the hallway, back against the wall and eyes on the door. He briefly saw her reaching for the door, just before she slammed it shut, the wood echoing through the house with a loud crack. He raised a brow at her, listening to her breathing to ensure she was still conscious, and finding himself relieved when he confirmed it as so.

At her sudden curse, he snickered, surprising even himself, but that didn't stop the sneer from forming on his face as he pushed away from the wall and stood in front of the door again, hands in the pockets of his pants. "Rush yourself, no matter what it is, and you'll inevitably fall." he spoke, his tone mocking and light. He heard her slide against the wood and plunk down on the carpeted floor, and his sneer grew larger.

He stayed quiet for a few moments more, listening to her short breaths and her sudden sigh with a very small amount of amusement. He waited a few minutes before stepping another foot away from the door, but never turning away from the wooden surface. "Perhaps you should try relaxing and let your body do as it needs to do." he suggested, sounding much more serious than before. "Clumsy." *

"Thanks for the tip." Toriko muttered under her breath, annoyed by advice given from such a youngling. After sighing, her ears perked up again when he spoke the second time, another flash of anger shooting through her body.

She stood up and whipped the door open to see him standing there with a self-satisfied smirk across his face.

"Keep your opinions to yourself, flame-boy."

She stalked out into the hall and brushed past him, getting to the stairs and forcing her body to walk down them without a hitch, just to prove him wrong. She trembled once when she reached the bottom, feeling another breath moving shakily through her body. Gathering her strength, she walked much more evenly towards where his cloak still lay on the floor and her hand flew up to her mouth in amusement, her eyes wide behind the thick frames of her glasses.

Maneshi lay curled up tightly in the neck-hole of the cloak, the entirety of the article of clothing fanned out around him in a smooth circle as Toriko had laid it earlier that morning, not a bit of his fur touching the fabric, his tail tightly pulled against his body, over his feet and covering his nose. He appeared to be asleep, breath steady and slow, his whiskers wavering once as if in a dream. 3

Hiei had taken an extra step back as Toriko flung the door open and brushed by him, her slightly wobbling legs carrying her down the steps ahead of him. He merely raised a brow in her direction, intrigued that she had taken it as a challenge rather than simply making a comment and kicking him out, as most people likely would have. Without being prompted to do so, he followed her steps slowly, leisurely making his way down one step at a time until he stood on the bottom step, glancing around the room, finding himself confused when he took note of the posture in which Toriko stood, the gesture of her hand over her mouth. For a moment, Hiei stiffened in caution.

However, when his eyes landed on the curled up form of Maneshi, laying dead center of the area where his cloak lay, he felt irritation sweep over him and he stalked forward. He paused about a foot away and crouched, his steely gaze searching for any extra rips, tears, or cat hairs on his cloak keenly. He inspected for about three minutes before he rocked back onto his heels, staying crouched but feeling much calmer. He hated when anything got on his cloak, so the fact that the cat had gotten where he had without so much as touching the cloak….

Hiei gave a sneer of respect and scoffed in disbelief. "Fascinating creature," Hiei commented, his shoulders relaxing as he stood upright again, only glancing back at Toriko before continuing to the kitchen.

And the sight he was met with made his eyes widen; he'd forgotten of the mess he'd made. *

As Toriko looked at the sleeping form of the cat, she smiled, lowering her hand the longer she regarded him. She managed to sit down at the edge of the fabric, next to the pile she left early, and passed a hand over the holes she mended, glad to see they had taken and were as seemless as the rest of the clothing. She picked up the small bag she took the needle and thread from the first time and dug into the bottom of it for the lighter she knew was within. Pulling it out, she gently lifted the edge of the cloak, careful not to disturb it so much that Maneshi would be bothered, and flicked the lighter on with her thumb, passing the ensuing flame underneath where her work had been done, setting the work for good with the rest of the cloth.

When she finished, she gazed across it at the cat, "Move now, please."

Maneshi raised his head, to regard her steadily, laying back down and not moving.

Toriko didn't seemed surprised by this, instead lifting the cloak and standing, walking it over to fold it in half in such a way that Maneshi would be left undisturbed, but by himself in the middle of the carpet.

As she moved the fabric, Maneshi lifted his head again and growled, a low tone in his chest.

"Well, then. You should have moved." Toriko replied primly, lifting him up by the waist and lightly tossing him out of the way.

He easily landed on his feet, sitting down on his haunches and staring at her haughtily, curling his tail around his paws and going still as a statue.

Toriko flapped the cloak into the air, turning it over with a flick of her wrist. She sat back down, the cloak scattered over her lap, and flicked the lighter on again, holding it underneath the cloak and passing it by the mending for several seconds. 3

Hiei stared at the mess on the floor of the kitchen, his mind recalling the very moment it had shattered. He had momentarily glanced at it, but hadn't made any mental note of it to be picked up. At least, not a very good mental note.

He glanced back over his shoulder into the living room, eyeing Toriko as she passed a lighter beneath his cloak, and he took the opportunity to slip into the next room. First, he located the trashcan, finding it in the pantry that had been left half-open. He quietly pulled it from its hiding spot and set it nearby, then continued to move about the kitchen, as silently as he could picking up the food that had scattered on the floor and a few stray shards of glass from underneath the table and from the table's surface, where he had no idea how it had gotten.

But he made the mistake of bumping the chair with his elbow, making it skid just a bit on the tiled floor. To this, he halted all movement, silently hoping Toriko wasn't paying attention. Why he didn't want her knowing, however, was beyond him. *

Toriko looked up from the cloak, her glasses on top of her head, intending to pass it to Hiei for inspection and possible approval, but she did not initially see him.

At the sound of a chair squeaking across the floor, Toriko stood, neatly folding up the cloak and intending to move in the direction of the kitchen.

Maneshi acted faster than her, trotting over towards the sound and seeing Hiei frozen in place. Maneshi very nearly stepped his nice, clean paws into the spill, leaping almost instinctively up onto Hiei's shoulders, his tiny frame planted firmly in place, front to the right of Hiei's head, back to the left. Safe from any dirtiness, he collapsed around the back of the fire demon's neck, paws hanging lazily down over Hiei's shoulders and his tail flicking absently.

Toriko walked in on the scene just in time for Maneshi to stare at her as he collapsed around Hiei's neck, trying not to smile at the sight. Her eyes lowered to see the food scattered around, a plate in pieces on the floor.

Silently, very aware that she was barefoot, she carefully stepped around and went over to the sink, grabbing another trash bag and returning to the mess. She squatted down to start picking up the broken shards of plate, putting them inside the trash bag.

At the sight of her doing so, Maneshi let out a demanding 'meow,' intending the outburst to encourage Hiei to help. The immediate result, however, was Toriko practically jumping out of her skin, clutching reactively at the large shard of plate in her hand and slicing her hand open in several places, across her fingers, thumb and palm.

Disgusted, she tossed the piece into the trash bag and clenched her hand tightly together, glaring as a trickle of blood started to seep out from the bottom of her first, then her expression changing to one of resign, holding the hand over the trash bag and waiting. 3

Hiei watched as Maneshi came into the room, Toriko following right after. He was about to move when the pressure of a small, lanky, furry body met his shoulders and draped across the back of his neck. He glanced back at Maneshi with a raised brow, but gave in and simply let the cat stay where he seemed comfortable, ignoring the light flick of the end of his tail. He then watched Toriko as she silently grabbed another trash bag and began assisting in the clean up, in which Hiei continued from where he was under the table, picking up the last bits that were in his reach before he scooted himself out from under the table, using a foot to pull the chair back into its rightful place.

When Maneshi mewed in his ear, he glanced from the corner of his eye at the rom cat, silently saying "yeah, yeah," as he turned around and dumped his handful of shards and food into the trashcan nearby. That was when the coppery scent of blood hit his nose and he immediately turned his head to Toriko, eyes landing on the droplets of blood that were beginning to fall into the bag she held in her uninjured hand. He stared for a moment, internally sighing.

Then, he acted. He took two steps forward, grabbed the wrist of her injured hand, and dragged her to the sink. He grabbed the handle he could easiest reach and unceremoniously forced her hand under the water, eyeing the liquid as it mixed with the blood and ran down the drain, holding back from his comment. *

There wasn't much Toriko could do when the fire demon grabbed her, pulled her to her feet, and dragged her across the tile to the kitchen sink.

The immediate feeling of the water over her cuts was nice and she flexed her fingers a little, feeling how tightly Hiei's grip was around her wrist when she almost couldn't do it.

Seconds later though, the water steamed and burned, Toriko letting out the smallest exhale of air hiss through her teeth in discomfort and jerking her hand out of the sink, clenching her fist to try and get the pressure to stop the bleeding and not leave any drips on the tile.

Hiei's fingers were still clamped around her wrist, and it took a moment for her to realize it, staring over at him with wide eyes behind her thick glasses lenses. 3

Hiei watched the bloody water stream into the sink and down the drain for a few moments, waiting for the color of the water to become clear again. Suddenly, Toriko let out a hiss and pulled away, though Hiei never relinquished his grip. He let her move her hand out from under the faucet, turning a hard stare onto her momentarily before he could practically smell the steam coming from the water, feel the light heat radiating, drifting towards him as an offer of energy. His crimson irises turned to the water that still run steadily, watching the steam roll off of the stream with a calm expression.

Inside, he gave a small sound of discontent, but externally, he merely turned the other knob of the faucet into the on position, switching the knob designated for "hot" off. He himself held his hand under the water, finding discomfort in the cold that ran over his hand again, and once more, he pried Toriko's hand open and stuck it under the running water, letting his own heat balance with the cold of the water so as to keep it from doing more harm than good. *

Toriko let Hiei do as he wished, until she felt his hand begin to get warm underneath hers. The droplets of water stung with the hotness of the combined warmth and cool of Hiei's hand and the water, respectively. At that point, Toriko jerked her hand away from the water again, sending a glare in Hiei's direction and reaching over to turn the hot and cold knobs until they were about even, testing the flow with a finger before pulling the hand Hiei still held back under the faucet and letting it wash away the blood that had accumulated. 3

Hiei gently held Toriko's hand in his, eyes again on the cuts and the watery blood that washed into the sink. And again, she pulled away, and this time he met her gaze with the same amount of frustration as she seemed to have with him. He released her hand and crossed his arms over his chest expectantly, silently waiting for her to say something smart-alecky or to gripe at him, for whatever it was he'd done wrong this time around. "Finicky." he grumbled, red eyes turning back to the mess that remained on the floor behind them. He gave a light scoff and moved to finish up the cleaning job they'd abandoned. *

"Ignorant." She shot right back at him as he moved away, turning to shut the faucet off. If he wasn't going to stand here, she sure wasn't. She refused to look at her hand, not caring if it was healed, but tightened it into a fist, opening it only when she went to grab the trash bag she'd been working with, and then clenching her hand together over it, bending down to pick up more of the pieces and shove some of the larger clumps of food inside as well.

As Toriko worked, her mind tried to sift through the last twenty-four hours, starting with the night before. All she could recall was being awakened by...something. Something that was not particularly friendly. And the next thing she remembered was...Hiei.

She glanced over her shoulder at him, stopping her work. She opened her mouth as if to speak, but something tugged at her inside and she closed it again, turning silently back to the mess. Perhaps she didn't need to know what had happened...

There was only a handful of other instances in her memories where things were blotted out, besides anything before her Human World transfer, which she feared and tried not to think about in the first place.

Most of her fuzzy memories after making it to Human World were what she referred to privately as the 'in between time,' those first few years where she was lost and confused, forced to adapt quickly to survive, before acquiring this house she lived in.

After that, she could remember every detail of her mundane existence, and the next time she really looked around her, nearly a decade had passed and she still felt no desire to try and get back 'home.'

Everything she knew there had likely been destroyed, else why would she have been running away in the first place, though likewise, she knew of nothing here in Human World that really kept her around for the sheer joy of it.

...why was she still alive again?

Toriko made a small sigh, standing up and unceremoniously throwing the trash bag in her hand into the one in the trash bin. She walked over to the cabinet under the sink and squatted down to open it, pulling out some floor cleaner and a bucket, putting a couple of squirts of the former in the latter and placing bucket in the sink, turning the faucet back on, then going over and grabbing a mop propped up in a corner. She stood next to the sink and watched the water fill the bucket, waiting for it to get about half-way.

"Your cloak is finished." She said quietly to Hiei without turning towards him. "It's folded up in the living room. Let me know if something's wrong." She fully expected him to march in there and, if he felt the job was adequate, leave without saying anything else. She frowned at the bucket. She still couldn't remember why he was here in the first place.

When it filled half-way, Toriko easily grabbed and pulled it from where it nestled, laying the bucket on the tile nearest to the first bits of dirty floor and dunking the mop inside, quietly beginning to extricate all traces of the mess. Her brow furrowed again as she did so. How exactly had the mess been made again? She had impressions of making the food, further evidence still sitting on top of the stove in the form of the two skillets, one with bacon grease and the other with bits of potato still inside.

The mopping did not take long. She dumped the dirty water of the bucket into the sink, wringing out the mop and putting it back in inside the bucket and placing them both in the corner, moving to next place all the dishes from the abandoned meal in the sink and clean them. 3

Hiei scoffed in response to Toriko's single-worded retort, but for the most part, he didn't respond. At first, anyways. As he continued picking up the last bits of food, the last shards of glass, he heard himself scoff again, and his own voice echoed through his ears before he'd even realized he was speaking. "The only ignorance I have beared witness to is of you being afraid of a small creature's call," he said, only glancing at Maneshi as the cat still draped over his shoulders, just as calm as could be. He didn't look at Toriko as he stood upright again and dumped a fistful of shards and food remnants into the trashcan that stood near him. He merely stayed where he stood, watching Maneshi, as if the tom would do something interesting.

And then his cloak was brought into the conversation, and his eyes swiftly darted to the living room, searching for the little folded up fabric she spoke of. Without hesitation, he stalked his way into the next room, right up to the folded up, silky-smooth fabric that lay on the arm of the couch. He immediately unfolded it and subjected it to a thorough inspection of the area he had known had been ripped. After a few minutes, a small look of satisfaction crossed his face before disappearing entirely and he easily settled it around his shoulders, only rustling the cat a little so that he still lay across his shoulders, but now across the smooth cloak as well, which earned a soft meow of protest.

He stood in the same spot for a few moment, considering leaving but his eyes found the cat all over again. He felt slightly frustrated that Maneshi still lay on his shoulders, calmly watching him with his yellow eyes. He reached up to remove the cat from his person, but he became suddenly aware of a presence outside the door, just as the person outside it began pounding on it.

~!**!~

Akari frowned down at her papers that were spread out in front of her on the desk, each and every one of them scribbled on in various different ways. Her literature paper was finished, with mistakes here and there, as was her history paperwork. Her math, however was…. a little worse for ware, to say the least. Though she was using a pencil, there were still markings everywhere, most of them faded from the effort of erasing them. There were also other markings that, to any other person, would likely look like random marks of decoration. Symbols were marked out and replaced here and there, some even stacked on one another to show that she wasn't one hundred percent sure on which symbol to use.

She dragged a hand through her hair, raking her scalp with her nails in frustration and plunking her pencil onto the wooden surface of the desk she sat at. Her eyes slid shut and she took to a small breathing exercise- for the third time in the past twenty minutes. She grumbled incoherent curses under her breath and pushed the paper away from herself and stood, intending to take a small walk around town, but her mind told her she'd already done that twice today, and it wasn't helping anything.

Suddenly, she found herself gathering her papers and her pencil, a jacket to hide her scarred arms, and was leaving the house, squeezing through the small hole in the wall of the worn-down building and ignoring the small pieces of rubble that tumbled from her contact with it. She glanced back into the room, catching sight of Nabu sleeping under the small ray of sunshine that filtered through the hole in the ceiling, his breathing even despite the dust particles that drifted around him and landed on his soft fur. She shook her head at him and left without a word, marching down the sidewalk and towards the house of the person that had been assigned to help her. As much as she hated admitting it, she did indeed need that help.

By the time she had arrived, she was even more irritated than before, not happy with the heavy foot traffic on the sidewalks and the fact that she had to come to someone else for help. She stood outside the house for a few moments, searching for signs of people on the inside. After she saw a shadow pass by one of the windows, she approached at a speed that would likely have gotten her into trouble if a human had passed by, and her hand was immediately making rough contact with the door, her balled-up fist hitting on the hardwood with impatience. *

At the sound of pounding, Toriko paused in the middle of her work, ears almost twitching as she realized the sound came from her own front door. She quickly lowered the dish she had in her fingers back into the water and pulled her hands out to grab a towel and dry them as she made her way to the door, ignoring Hiei who still stood in the living room, cloak on, but with Maneshi lazing over his shoulders.

"Traitor." She thought to herself as she stalked by, pausing once she reached the door to make sure her glasses were in place, but quickly pulling the claw out of her hair and re-doing the twist, attempting to get as many strands against her head and slightly worried about not having pinned it up today.

Only seconds had passed since the initial knock, but Toriko's heart suddenly lurched in her chest at the prospect of a visitor. She placed her hand on the knob and turned, opening the door inward to see who exactly had come calling.

Seeing Akari on her doorstep, Toriko's eyes widened behind her thick lenses. By the school-work in the girl's arms, Toriko inferred she wanted help, though why she would come to Toriko and not Kurama was not immediately clear. She suddenly remembered the mandate of their math teacher about Akari getting tutoring and nervously looked at the floor. Still speechless, Toriko opened the door wider and stepped to the side to indicate Akari was welcome to enter and Toriko quietly waited for the demon to cross the threshold and explain. 3

Hiei frowned at the door as he recognized the energy beyond the door, a spark of caution coming to life in his mind as he recalled the scene he'd witnessed a while ago. He glanced again at the cat on his shoulders before turning and leaving the room, heading up the stairs with silence as his comrade. He tugged the cat from his shoulders, earning a meow and a small huff as he dropped the cat to the carpeted floor at the top of the stairs. The cat's eyes glared at him as he turned and stepped into Toriko's room, opening up the window and closing it all over again, as if it hadn't been opened at all, and he took to the higher branches of the trees, so as to not be seen as he kept watch.

After all, he wouldn't leave the defenseless girl alone with someone who associates with that demon.

~!**!~

Akari's fist lowered to her side when she heard footsteps approaching the door, and her expression was blank as the wooden frame creaked only slightly as the door was pulled open. She stared at the girl for only a moment before stepping in the house, shuffling the two books into her left arm and holding up a single sheet of paper in Toriko's face, inches from the girl's nose. "This," she began, voice filled with the hidden frustration, "Is a monstrosity."

She paused again, her conscious whispering for her to take a moment and breathe, to not disrespect the person who had opened her door to her home, no matter the past experience with the people Toriko associated with. She took three deep breaths and lowered the paper, her eyes shifting to her scribbly work and looped handwriting. "This ridiculous amount of symbols and numbers is meaningless to me, as is Biology," she admitted, her tone still rough with irritation, but expression blank. *

Toriko took little notice of Hiei leaving the room, though she felt aware of his presence moving somewhere else. She shifted her glasses a bit on her face as she regarded the piece of paper when Akari held it up, thoughts stirring in her mind in relation to the abnormal markings she spied scribbled all over the paper before Akari lowered it again. She listened patiently, her mind quickly homing in the situation at hand.

Toriko closed the door, and gestured silently at the cleared kitchen table, moving for it and taking a seat, waiting for Akari to follow.

"I-I think Biology will be less difficult a subject to explain as it is merely a means for humanity to study the world they live in. Th-they feel as if they must explain everything around them and s-stuff it all in these little boxes that they become c-confounded with should anything leave what they have placed it i-in. Math is…" Toriko searched for the right word, but came up with nothing and merely shrugged, "S-somewhat more complicated as it builds more heavily upon itself than even Biology. Miss one l-little thing and you fall much farther behind." She pushed her glasses farther up her nose. "W-would you show me what you've done so far?" 3

Akari listened to the stammering girl with growing impatience, though she tried her best not to show it. She shifted her weight a bit and adjusted her hold on her things once more, tossing her hair over her shoulder and following Toriko as she made her way into the next room. She nodded as the girl continued to speak, though since Toriko's back was to her, she didn't think she saw it. "It isn't too difficult, except that it's not very clear with definitional terms." With her expression a curious one and her tone now calm, she placed her two books on the table with a thud and opened the science book to the page her worksheet indicated. She looked at the page filled with cells and ecosystems, the terms of "Mitochondria" and "Osmosis" that she knew were scattered around in the chapter. Her paper slid from the pages of the textbook and onto the table, the vocabulary written and marked out in several different places, even repeated throughout the blanks that were meant for filing in and labeling the different images of cells, of images of an ecosystem and its parts. While she understood most of it, the parts of the cells that made up the beings of this place seemed to leave her stumped.

"These," she pointed to the cells, where she had labeled the cell wall, but nothing more, "I do not understand." She gave a brief pause and glanced up at Toriko, feeling rather odd, perhaps even calm and a little better about asking someone, though she hated it at the same time. "As I'm sure you know, Demon World has very different concepts of life and how things work, and cells are definitely not a part of that structure." *

Hearing the name of her home, of the other world, aloud sent a flinch of muscles tightening all along Toriko's body.

It had been a very long time indeed since Toriko had done so much as consider the place in any fashion, and even as the non-human girl beside her talked about it with such familiarity, she struggled inwardly to objectively think about the place, a place she tried so hard to deny herself any connection to.

"I-if it helps give you motivation, understanding the cells of the humans and the structures of their bodies will assist in any interactions you have with them. The knowledge could be useful for many different reasons. Most just never care, though if they realized how much more precise their damage could be, they might take a greater interest." It wasn't likely, Toriko thought to herself, as most of the time they overpowered the humans to any extent, but there were always exceptions. Knowledge was power, after all. Toriko leaned over and looked at the worksheet. "If you go small enough, everything is made up of the same stuff, and it's as you get bigger that the complexity plays a part in creating the different beings." Toriko tried scanning the worksheet Akari, "What exactly is troubling you?" 3

Akari stood to the side, arms crossed as she eyed the paper, and then Toriko as she began speaking. She raised a brow at the girl meant to be helping her, indicating that even though she was talking, it didn't help her figure out what the paper wanted from her. After Toriko's question of just what was bothering her, she pointed to the different parts of the cell and asked for brief explanations of each of them and what they did, and for a while, that was all she asked about. She clarified and made sure she understood what was going on, and for what felt like an hour, she found everything much easier to understand. She felt a bit better about the work and was able to finish it on her own. And, despite her earlier dislike of the idea of asking for help, she found herself feeling grateful for the assistance. And, for once, she voiced it with a small, quiet, "thanks" under her breath. She sat back in the kitchen chair she had taken to sitting in, her arms now relaxed as she released a breath and laid her head back, eyes shut. *

Toriko didn't often get the opportunity to be more of a help than a burden, but the sense of satisfaction that Akari continuously provided for her at each turn when she understood another portion of the assignment made Toriko glad to have been able to help. She thought to herself that with a start like this, perhaps the girl would be able to pursue the studies on her own. Not having had a background in the human schools certainly made things more difficult.

"May I see your math work?" 3

Akari let out another slow breath and crossed her ankles beneath the table, rubbing her face for a moment before she sat upright again and met Toriko's gaze evenly, patiently. As soon as the subject of her math homework left the girl's mouth though, she felt the beginnings of frustration welling up again, calling forth thoughts of her past tries with the work that seemed to never end. She worried at her lip for a fraction of a second before producing it from the math textbook and sliding it to the girl next to her, eyes not again meeting Toriko's as she waited. *


Thanks for reading! Bless your face. If you sneezed during this chapter, bless you. Peace off! -Star