Chapter Eleven: The Demon's Hikaru's Ki

*"What? You? Join us? Why?" Hie spat.

"Now wait a minute. You beat Hie in a fight, and now you want to join us demon hunting? We don't even know if we can trust you." Yuske said.

"No, you don't know. And you won't. Unless you allow me to join you."

"This fight is not for beginners." Kurama said, trying to be neutral.

"I beat Hie without breaking too much of a sweat. I'll manage." Sai told them.

"No way! She can't fight with us!" Hie yelled.

"I think you should give her a chance. After all, she did beat Hie. That means she's strong enough." Photon added.

"Well. It's two against and one for. Why not make this a vote. Keiko, Kuabara, Kurama? What do you think?" Yuske said.

" I think you should let her go. If she wanted to hurt you, wouldn't she have already done it?" Keiko said.

"I'm undecided." Kuabara stated. "She got me back my cat, but can we trust her?"

"I think we should let her go. Her aura is not evil, just clouded by darkness. She could potentially be of great help to us." Kurama stated, after looking Sai up and down for a moment. She hadn't appreciated his thorough and intense eyes as they seemingly looked through her and into her soul. Frankly, it frightened her.

"Fine. It's four against three. Kuabara? You're the last one. Decide- yes, or no?" Yuske pushed.

"I chose… for. She did save the cat after all. And I don't feel anything bad about her. But I do feel something bad coming from the direction of the movie theatre!"

"Right. Go then! We'll see you there later." Photon yelled.

"You're not coming?" Hiiro asked.

"Not yet. Keiko and I wait for these four to do all the hard work from the sidelines. We're not fighters, just helpers and bystanders who happen to know what's going on."

"And we usually end up patching up their cuts and bruises when they're done being careless." Keiko added, frowning.

"Aw, Keiko, we've gotten better, haven't we?" Yuske joked.

"Yeah, much better! We don't come nearly so close to dying any more." Kuabara laughed.

"Really funny guys, really funny. But next time you get injured, maybe we won't be there to help with all of your cuts. How would you like that?" Photon added.

"No! Really, we'd miss you! We need you!" Kuabara yelled.

"Stop fooling around, there's a demon on the loose!" Hie screamed at all of them.

"Right. Let's go!" And off they went. Sai and Hiiro ran behind them, easily able to keep up. As they ran, Sai wondered how Hiiro was going to adjust to being stuck in this world with her. Or any world. She couldn't very well leave him behind- she would feel guilty. And what of one day she returned to his world and didn't have him. But would he be helpful to her in any way? She knew he had an uncanny ability to fight where he was from, but compared to other fighters she had met, he was weak. Even compared to her he was weak. But what enraged her the most was the thought that now she was once again stuck with a partner, a partner that would eventually leave her, or worse... betray her.

As Hiiro ran, he kept his feelings aside, but couldn't help the thoughts that entered his mind. Slowly they seeped in, until he could no longer deny that he needed time to mull over the new situation he found himself in. His mission had been to take care of Sai, for Doctor J. But now he found out that she could care for herself very much better than he ever could, and more than that. But he was stuck with her, in a place she claimed was another world. After the lightshow he had just seen, he was quite amused to think that perhaps her theory of other worlds was not quite so far fetched. But who was she? How did she learn such powers? Could he learn? So many questions were left rattling in his brain, but he could not ask any of them yet. It would take a while to build courage enough to even speak to her politely, instead of his usual gruff personality.

As the group of six ran down the streets, people stopped to stare at them and their determined faces. Finally they reached the movie theatre and the scene wasn't pretty, as they had expected. The movie theatre looked as if it had been part of a demolition site. The top corner of the building had been blown to pieces, and the front was nearly caved in. The group could see people's arms reaching through the debris that clogged the door, hoping someone would come to their rescue. But no one did. They were all too frightened of what had caused the mess in the first place- a man in a dark trench coat who stood across the street grinning.

"That must be…"

"Yes fools! I am the master fighter of spirit energy, the demon Hikaru." He yelled.

"What do you want from us?" Kuabara yelled.

"Yeah! If you knew we would be here to stop you, why did you come here in the first place?" Yuske added.

"Because I, like so many others, pride myself on being the best. But when word of the new and powerful spirit detector on Earth reached me, I began to plan a trip. I wanted to challenge you, you see. And now that the ex-demons Kurama and Hie have joined your fighting alliance, I wish more than ever to fight you."

"Well. If it's a fight you want, then it's a fight you'll get." Yuske cried back.

"Allow me." Hie charged their new opponent.

"Hie!" Kurama cried. "Watch out for his attacks!" But there was no answer. They sat back to watch the fight. Some of Hikaru's energy attacks were much like the ones Sai had witnessed when watching Vegita, Goku, and Mirai Trunks spar. Even Piccalo and Gohan had many of the same techniques. Soon Hie was overpowered, and knocked-out. Kuabara stepped up to bat as Yuske and Kurama ran to revive their injured comrade. But something caught Hiiro's attention.

"Sai, the people in the theatre. They're civilians, and if we don't rescue them, the building might collapse in on them. They would die for no reason."

"Right then." She took one more look at the fight. Kuabara was severely burned by an attack, and now Kurama was having his turn at the beast. "While they fight, let's get the people out of there." They ran towards the building, each calculating in their own minds how to pick apart the debris in a way that wouldn't create a cave in on the other side. Both began pulling away at the cement, metal, brick, and rubble in an unspoken agreement. They needed no words between them, what they were doing was simply understood, as if it was a dance both already knew the steps to.

Finally they made a major break through- as they both pulled away at two large stones, the rest of the rubble tumbled down with them and made a hole large enough for the people to squeeze through. First people sent their children, youngest to oldest. Then teenagers, and finally the men and women climbed out. As Hiiro set the last person on the ground, Yuske's beaten body flung over their heads and into the movie theatre wall behind them.

"See? I told them there was no match for me in the world! I knew I could not possibly be beaten by such a weak boy!" The demon screamed.

"Mommy, who is that? He's so ugly!" A little boy shouted.

"Ugly? Ugly? I'll give you ugly you little twerp!" The demon shot a beam of energy towards the innocent child. Yuske was coming to, but he wasn't nearly ready to stand and protect the child. So Sai did. She stepped right in front of the energy. As it hit neared her, she raised her arm and simply batted it away, as Mirai had taught her to do to Vegita's attacks.

"What?" The demon muttered. "Who are you?"

"Sai. He didn't know any better, and you still attacked him." She told him calmly.

"So? And I'll do the same to you!"

"Go right ahead." She taunted.

"Fine!" With that, the demon shot a large beam of energy directly at her. Sai pushed the boy into his mother's arms and simply told them to run. She herself locked her wrists together and called out loud:

"Burning attack!" Her energy met his and the beams battled for a while. "Enough." Sai muttered. She pulled her writs back, allowing his beam to gain the upper hand. Then, without warning, she pushed her beam hard directly back. The chain reaction caused had the desired effects- the demon's own energy traveled back towards him and knocked him off his feet.

"What? How did you…? Never mind. Now I'm mad. This will surely get rid of you!" With that, the demon began to gather energy from himself. Sai closed her eyes and concentrated, as Mirai had taught her.

"What are you doing?" Hiiro asked from his position. It hadn't changed since the fight had begun.

"I'm sensing his ki, his level of power. A friend taught me."

"What is it?" She concentrated a little harder.

"Large, but I've seen ten times worse. It's around one thousand. That's nearly child's play back home."

"And what is yours?"

"Mine? Somewhere in the region of eighteen thousand. Very low where I learned to fight, but enough to keep up." Soon the demon had all the energy he wanted in a giant ball.

"This is for you!" He cried, throwing it full speed.

"Thanks, but I don't want it!" She yelled back. She managed to get off a shot of her own large enough to block his. It caused a great explosion in mid air. Then, raising her hand to the sky, called out a few words. Instantly, a small disk of energy appeared. It grew and grew, until it was a dangerous spinning disk. When she felt it was ready, she aimed and threw it, directly at Hikaru the demon. Unable to block it, the demon ended up in two slices as the energy that had hit him dissipated into thin air.

"You, you did it! You got rid of him!" Yuske hobbled over to her.

"Yes. Now you can send it back where it came from."

"Right. Photon?" Yuske called out unsure.

"I'm here! Keiko's looking after the others. Did you catch Hikaru then?"

"I cut him into two." Sai answered.

"That's great!"

"No Photon. She really means she cut him into two." Yuske laughed slightly, then groaned because of pain. At the same time, he managed to point out the demon, who's carcass was still lying in two pieces on the black cement of the dirty road.

"Oh my. Well, I'm sure he won't be too much of a problem anymore."

"No, he won't."

"Sai, look at your hands." Hiiro pointed out. When she looked down, she looked away immediately. They were covered in blisters and sores, as if she had been burned very badly.

"When I blocked his attack it must have happened."

"Let Keiko look at those, they're really bad. Besides, she good with medicine." Photon insisted.

"I…" Just then her face was lit up with the swirling colors of the rainbow. "Hiiro, look up." She said, forgetting her hands.

"The rift. Where will it take us this time Sai?"

"I don't know. Care to try your luck with me again?"

"Yes."

"Good." She stated. Then she turned. "Nimbus!" She called. As the cloud came, she grabbed Hiiro and jumped on.

"Where are you going?" Photon yelled.

"Wherever we end up!" Sai yelled back.

"Well, thank you for the help!"

"You're welcome!" Were her last words before they were once again dragged into the mist of the rip in the fabric of space. *