Chapter 51

Training is Hell

As the sun hit his eyes, Riku awoke from a dreamless sleep. He immediately felt something warm on his cheat. He smirked and looked down. Yukina was still sound asleep against him. She's so beautiful when she sleeps. I'm the luckiest wolf in the world he thought.

The two had spent the night together (They didn't do that). Riku knew he might be gone awhile so he wanted to spend as much time with her as possible. They spent the time making out and falling asleep in each other's arms. Yukina's hair was still pretty messy from last night.

A few minutes later Yukina's eyes fluttered open. "Good morning sleeping beauty" Riku said. Yukina smiled and kissed his lips. "Have a good sleep?" she asked. "Kinda" Riku replied. "What was wrong" she asked. "I didn't have any dreams about you" he replied. "Well I had a dream about you" she replied. "Oh and what did we do?" he asked. "Wouldn't you like to know" she said as she gave him a peck on the nose.

She then got off him and straightened herself up. "I'll go make breakfast. You'll need the energy" she said as she walked out. Riku got out of bed and dressed in his usual attire except he now wore a dark blue muscle shirt and dark blue pants instead of black ones. It was his new style.

He headed for the living room. When he reached it he found Hiei leaning against his corner with Nami sitting Indian style next to him. Riku noticed a little lipstick on Hiei face and inwardly smirked. Hiei acted very romantic with Nami when they were alone but once they're in the presence of others, Hiei acted like his old self.

"What brings you two here?" Riku asked. "Hn" Hiei replied. Nami remained silent. Riku sighed and headed for the kitchen. He found Yukina cooking breakfast at the stove. He walked to her and slid his arms around her waist. "How's it coming?" he asked as he drew circles on her back with his finger. "It should be ready so" she replied trying not to shiver from his touch. Riku's hand started to travel south. "Touch that, you die" Hiei said from the entrance to the kitchen. Riku pulled away from Yukina. "What do you mean" he said trying to act innocent. Hiei rolled his eyes and headed back to Nami. Riku decided to read a magazine till breakfast.

Later that day

Riku was making a few adjustments on his motorcycle. "Hope this works" he said as he held a red jewel in his hand. The jewel was actually a devil heart. It had unlimited energy and would allow his bike to travel faster and without having to refuel. He pushed it into the fuel tank. Immediately the bike glowed red. When the glow died down Riku sensed his upgrade worked.

"There you are" Yusuke said from behind him. Riku turned around and saw his training partner in his usual jeans and white muscle shirt. "So did you get the message?" Riku asked. "Yep granny told me when I arrived" Yusuke replied. "You know where to go?" Riku said as he placed his coat over his bike. "She said you already knew" Yusuke replied. Riku thought for a moment and figured out what that meant. "Follow me" he said as he headed for the forest.

They stopped in front of the pond Riku traveled through time in. "You have finally arrived" Gurumin said. Riku and Yusuke looked to the source and saw the old man sitting on a log. "He has more wrinkles than granny" Yusuke joked. This earned him a hit on the head from Gurumin's staff. "Ow, what was that for?" he said as he rubbed his head.

"Now let's begun" Gurumin said. "Give us your best shot" Yusuke said confidently. "Do you see those two boulders over there?" Gurumin asked pointing to two ten-foot boulders right next to each other. "The ones that look like Keiko's…" Yusuke got hit in the head before he could finish. "He'll never learn" Riku mumbled.

"Will you stop hitting me?" Yusuke said. "You will be hit every time you say something stupid or disrespectful. Which means you will have many lumps by the time training is done" Gurumin replied. "Why you…" Yusuke said as he threw a punch as Riku held him back. "Yusuke calm down. You can kill him after I transform" Riku said. Yusuke elbowed Riku's gut causing him to let go. He lunged at Gurumin. "Genkai warned me this would happen" he said calmly. Yusuke was almost on him when he sidestepped. Yusuke ran right into a tree. "You have power. But you must control your temper. Anger makes you reckless and predictable" Gurumin said. Yusuke stumbled to his feet.

"Stupid old man" he mumbled. "Anyway, I want each of you to pick up a boulder and carry it to the top of that mountain" he said pointing to a mountain about three miles away and 1,000 feet high. "You're kidding" Yusuke and Riku said at the same time. "And you must complete this task in three hours" he added. Riku and Yusuke groaned. "Riku if you want to transform then you have to do as I say" Gurumin said. Riku sighed and walked to the boulder. He braced himself and lifted the boulder. "This thing weighs a ton" he said. "Actually it is five tons" Gurumin said. Yusuke groaned and walked to his. With a deep breath he lifted his as well.

"Let's go" Gurumin said as he started walking to the mountain. "Easy for you to say" Yusuke said from behind his boulder. Riku and Yusuke both struggled to stay behind the old man. "I get fifteen slaps from Keiko for canceling our date all for this?" Yusuke said. "Shut up, it could get worse" Riku said.

After an hour and a half of walking they finally reached the mountain. "Now all you have to do is carry them to the top" Gurumin said. Yusuke threw his to the ground. "This is bull shit!!!" he said as he blasted his boulder into tiny pieces. "Congratulations, now you can carry it up piece by piece" Gurumin said. "WHAT!!!" Yusuke yelled so loudly the mountain shook.

"Did you hear something?" Keiko asked as she and Yukina feed the birds. "I did fell the ground shake" Yukina said. "It's just that idiot of a leader we have" Hiei said from his tree. "How can you tell?" Nami asked as she sat on the branch next to him. "I'm watching him as we speak" Hiei said pointing to his jagan.

Riku was now struggling to roll his boulder up the mountain while Yusuke carried five pieces in his left arm. "Pick up the pace" Gurumin said from up above. "Will you shut up!!! This is hard enough!!!" Yusuke roared. "Oh this is not hard" Gurumin said as he placed his staff under a pile of boulders. "This is hard" he said as he pushed the boulders off the cliff and toward the two. "AW SHIT!!!" Yusuke yelled as he dropped his pieces. Riku used his boulder as a shield. "SHOT GUN" Yusuke's attack destroyed each boulder that was a threat to him. The remaining ones fell safely to the ground. "Hey that gives me an idea" Yusuke said as a smile spread across his lips.

He headed back down toward his pieces. He situated them in a circle around him. "The old man just said get them up to the top. He never said how we could do it" he said confidently. He concentrated his energy. With a yell he sent a huge blast around him. The resulting explosion created a crater and sent the pieces to the air. They started to fall back down but Yusuke had anticipated that. "SHOT GUN" his blast hit each one but didn't destroy them. He made sure they were only strong enough to keep them in the air. He started to climb using his left hand while his right continued to fire.

Unfortunately, one of the blasts hit a crag Riku was stepping on. With a yell he fell to the ground with the boulder not to far behind. He landed with a thud and created and foot deep crater. He groaned and opened his eyes. The boulder was about to land on him. He rolled out of the way but wasn't fast enough and the boulder landed…right on his tail! (Ouch) "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH *pant* HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" Riku cried.

At the temple the resulting shock wave from Riku's scream caused ripples to form in Genkai's tea. "Seems my old friend is giving those two quit a work out" she said before taking another sip.

Outside everyone except Hiei looked in the direction of the scream. "That sounded like Riku" Yukina said. "Na, Riku would never scream like that" Nami said as she rested her head on Hiei's chest. He pushed her off and caused her to fall off. "WHAT WAS THAT FOR!!!" she roared. 'Not in front of those two' Hiei said telepathically. "Listen, I'll snuggle on you when I want to, you got that!!!" she growled. "Later" Hiei said loud enough for only her to here. "You asked for it" Nami said. She sent an energy blade at the tree and sliced the branch Hiei was lying on. He flipped over to land on his feet but Nami kicked his side and sent him crashing into the tree trunk. "My nose" he groaned as he sat up. His nose was now flattened on his face. "You can have your sister fix that for you" Nami said before flitting away. "That devil bitch" Hiei mumbled.

 "GET IT OFF!!! GET IT OFF!!!" Riku yelled as he tried to push it off. The boulder didn't budge. He continued to push but still nothing happened. He knew there was only one way out of this. He concentrated, which wasn't easy since the boulder was crushing his poor tail. A tornado surrounded him. The winds were so strong they lifted Riku and the boulder toward the top of the mountain.

Both he and Yusuke finally reached the top with their boulders, well pieces in Yusuke's case. Yusuke bent down to catch his breath while Riku tried to get feeling back in his tail. "Good, you two have completed phase one of your training. Phase two will begin in five minutes" Gurumin said. Riku and Yusuke both collapsed. "How much worse can this get?" Yusuke said. "A lot worse" Riku said.

Gurumin stood on the edge of the cliff to plan their next training exercise. "My poor tail" Riku said as he rubbed it. "Well I guess you deserve some good news" Yusuke said. "What?" Riku asked. "Well Keiko convinced Yukina, Botan, and Nami to quadruple date. As soon as we recover from this, we can do it" he said. "Sounds good" Riku said as he finally got feeling back in his tail.

"Okay time for your next challenge" Gurumin said. The two stood up. "This next one will test your endurance, awareness, and reflexes" he said. He walked to the edge of the cliff and pointed down. Riku and Yusuke walked to the edge and looked at where he was pointing. At the bottom of the mountain were rapids with hundreds of jagged rocks in it. "At the end of these rapids is a lake. You will jump in and let the rapids carry you to the lake. The endurance is surviving the initial fall and the many rocks you hit, the awareness part is seeing those rocks before you hit them, and the reflex part is blasting the rocks before they hit. See you at the end of the lake" Gurumin said. He then jumped off the opposite side of the mountain and disappeared.

"Here goes nothing" Riku said. He leaped off the cliff and fell to the rapids. Yusuke cursed Gurumin and followed. From the fall, hitting the water felt like hitting concrete. Riku and Yusuke both survived but Yusuke landed in a belly flop. "My stomach" he groaned as the river swept them down stream. "Ouch…what the…ouch…stupid…ouch…rocks" Riku said as he ran into the rocks along the way. He sensed one up ahead and blasted it before he hit. The two continued to blast rocks but they did miss a few.

After an hour of this, they were swept into a calm lake. Both sighed in relief when they saw that no bones were broken but both were badly bruised. "At least it can't get worse" Yusuke said. "You two" Gurumin called from the shore. The two looked at him. "Watch out for the giant Hate Fish" he said. The two looked at each other. ""Giant…" "…Hate Fish" Yusuke finished. He still had nightmares of those nasty fish Rando tried to kill him with.

They both looked around for the fish. "Over there" Riku said. Yusuke turned around and saw one heading straight for him. "Swim for it!!!" he yelled. They both swam to the shore Gurumin was on as fast as they could go. Every Hate Fish in the lake was after them.

Being a canine demon meant Riku was a fast swimmer and he was very thankful for that fact. But still one of the fish was catching up to him. An idea popped into his head. He stopped swimming and let the fish catch up. As it lunged at him he dodged it and jumped on it's back. By moving the dorsal fin from side to side he could actually steer it. He pointed it toward. When it ran aground he was sent flying upside down into a tree. "Well done Riku" Gurumin said. Riku had swirls in his eyes.

Yusuke on the other hand had been surrounded and was blasting his way through them. "I'm not gonna be fish food!!!" he said as he blasted another. They just kept on coming. One managed to sneak under him and pulled him down. Yusuke struggled to gather enough energy to kill it but before he could it swallowed him whole.

The fish started to swim off but was suddenly engulfed in a blue light. The resulting explosion caused all the water in the lake to fly high into the air with pieces of hate fish mixed in. Standing in the middle of the now empty lake was a soaked and panting Yusuke. "And that ladies and gentlemen is my special fish soup" he said.

Meanwhile in the forest around Genkai's temple, Hiei was in the middle of his own battle. "At least speak to me" he said as he tried to convince Nami to forgive him. Nami was walking away fore him with her arms crossed over her chest.  "I don't talk to jerks like you who care more about looking tough than their girlfriend" she said. "I have a reputation to keep" he replied. "That's still no excuse" she said. "What do I have to do?" he asked. "Be willing to act romantic around others" she said. "All right but can we limit other people to Yukina, Riku, and Kurama?" he said. "Let me think, no" she said before flitting off. "What else can go wrong?" he said. As if on cue, water came pouring onto Hiei. "What the?" he said as he reached for his shoulder. He pulled off the spine of a Hate Fish. "Is it raining fish parts?" he said.

Back at the lake Yusuke crawled out of the lake and collapsed next to Riku. "No more" he groaned. "Just one more" Gurumin said. He whispered their next task to them. "Are you crazy?!" Yusuke said. "Complete it, and you'll be done for the day" Gurumin said. "Let get this over with" Riku said.

At Spirit World

Yusuke waited nervously in the now dark halls of Spirit Detective H.Q. He had a ski mask concealing his face. "What's taking him so long" he said quietly. Riku suddenly appeared next to him. He also had on a ski mask. "Did you get it?" Yusuke asked. "Yea, but it wasn't easy" Riku said as he patted his pant pocket. "All right let's get out of here before the toddler finds out" Yusuke said.

They hadn't taken a step when the alarms bellowed through the halls and the lights went on. "SECURITY!!! CLASS A ROBBERY IN PROGRESS!!! THIS IS NOT A DRILL!!! I REPEAT THIS IS NOT A DRILL!!!" Koenma's voice said from the intercoms.

"Damit" Yusuke said as he and Riku started running for it. "There they are!!!" a guard said. "Shit they've spotted us" Riku said. "Well I'll fix that" Yusuke said as he turned around. He started to gather energy in his hand. "SHOT…" he was stopped when Riku slapped the back of his head. "What was that for?" he said as he rubbed his head. "You can't kill them. They're on our side remember?" Riku replied. "Fine" Yusuke said as he gathered more energy. "SHOT GUN" he blasted the ceiling and sent it crashing to the ground thus blocking the hallway. "So much for them" Yusuke said as the two continued their escape.

They were about to reach the exit when they were surrounded by guards with clubs in their hands. "Get em!!!" one said. They charged the two and started to bet them into submission, but we know those two won't go down without a fight.

Ten minutes later, Riku and Yusuke made their escape with a lot of lumps on their bodies.

In his office Koenma was fuming. "How could you let them escape!!!" he yelled. "Koenma sir, calm down" George said. "I'll calm down when those two are caught and tortured till they cry for their grannies!!!" Koenma yelled as he stomped out of the room. "He took that way to seriously" George mumbled as he walked out.

Back at the log

Gurumin looked to the side when he heard rustling. Out of the bushes came a beaten wolf demon and a pissed Spirit Detective. "So did you manage to get it?" Gurumin asked. "Yea we got it" Riku growled as he reached into his pocket. He opened his hand to reveal Koenma's lucky pacifier.

"A complete success" Gurumin said. "You made us steal his pacifier for crying out loud!!!" Yusuke roared. "Well no one has managed to do it before so I decided it would make a perfect task for you two. You'll sleep here tonight. Training continues same time tomorrow" he said before disappearing.

The next day

Riku and Yusuke both groaned as they woke up. "Still hurts?" Yusuke asked. "Not even Yukina would be able to fully heal these" Riku groaned. "Well let's find the old geezer so I can kick his ass" Yusuke said. "This mourning when I turned to my left side I saw a white flash" Riku said. "Wait, you can turn to your left side?" Yusuke replied.

School hasn't been all that bad so far. But it's only been a week. Can't wait for the weekend. And as you can see, I added a Hiei/Nami fight to this chapter.

Next chapter, we skip ahead a few weeks to Yusuke and Riku's final test. Review please.