Chapter Five
Kurama almost sighed in relief when Sari stopped yelling at him. She was very creative when it came to cursing, he'd give her that. He'd never heard anyone vocalize their displeasure so ingeniously, and he never wanted to hear it again.
"I didn't even know people could do some of that, but thank you for enlightening me," he said politely. She seemed calmer, so he didn't want to anger her all over again. "Are you done?"
Sari nodded her head. "Yeah. I feel better, I guess." She shrugged.
"Then perhaps we could leave Tonya-chan's room and assure her that you're okay now?" Kurama inquired.
She shrugged again. "Sure, why not?" she replied, turning off the music she had been blaring.
They went out in the hallway, finding Yusuke and Kuwabara there. For some reason or another, both boys were staring at the closed bathroom door.
"What are you two doing?" Sari wanted to know, her opinion of their intelligence levels sliding down a few notches. The bad thing was, she already had low opinions of their intelligence levels, so they really didn't have much room to lower.
"Tonya's in there. She won't come out," Kuwabara responded, pointing at the bathroom door.
Kurama frowned. "Why?" he inquired, his green eyes focusing on the door as well. 'Why would she lock herself in the bathroom?' he wondered. 'What could have possibly happened?'
"Don't know." The carrot top shrugged.
Sighing, the redhead knocked on the door. "Tonya-chan, are you okay?"
"GO AWAY!" Tonya shouted. "JUST GO AWAY!"
"That's all she's been saying since she went in there," Yusuke stated. "But she'd better come out of there before I need to use the bathroom, or else I'll bust down the door!"
Sari shook her head in disappointment. "Men." She gently pushed Kurama aside, figuring that she was needed more than they were. Besides, she knew how to twist Tonya just right so she'd open the door. "Let me try." She knocked on the door. "Tonya-chan, it's Sari. Let me in, okay?"
"Go away, please," Tonya replied, sounding scared.
The brunette frowned. "I have already used up all of my patience for today, so you can either let me in, or I'll pick the lock and let myself in. You know I can." 'When all else fails, bring out the big guns.'
"Fine."
Sari heard a click and then the door opened just enough for her to slip through. The instant she was in the bathroom, Tonya shut and locked the door.
"What's the deal?" the brunette inquired, noticing that her friend seemed a little... out of it.
"I almost got a mate today." Tonya curled up in a ball on the floor, her back against the tub. "Jake-kun tried to mark me."
"He what?" Sari raised an eyebrow at that. 'What is she talking about?' It sounded like her friend was making up stupid stories again.
"He tried to bite me here." She pointed to the juncture of her neck and shoulder. "He tried to claim me."
Sari shook her head. "That's what has you so shaken up?" The reasoning sounded pathetic to her, but then, Tonya had never been one to become upset over normal things.
Tonya nodded. "I don't want to go out there."
"Well, I'm not going to stay in here for much longer. This is a nice bathroom, but we don't have food in here, and the bedroom's more comfortable," the teal-eyed girl replied. "So, c'mon. Let's get out of here. We can lock ourselves in your room with a pile of chocolate if you want, but I'm not going to stay in here."
"I can't go out there. The guys are there." Tonya shook her head, trying to reaffirm what she had said.
Sari growled and pulled her friend into a standing position. "We're not gonna stay in here. Avoid the guys for the rest of eternity if you want, but I refuse to remain in here for one more minute." She dragged Tonya out of the bathroom, finding Kurama, Kuwabara, and Yusuke still out in the hallway.
"Tonya-chan," Kurama began, reaching out for the female demon, worry in his eyes. If something was wrong, he wanted to at least attempt to help her. "Are you o-"
The instant he touched Tonya, he went flying down the hall. Kuwabara stared at Tonya in shock, while Yusuke took a step back. He didn't want to go flying too. Sari just shook her head in amusement and led the way to the bedroom. Tonya didn't need her help protecting herself. She did just fine on her own.
Tonya wasted no time in running to her bedroom, moving to lock both her and Sari inside right as Botan appeared, suitcases at her feet.
"What's going on?" the ferry girl asked, frowning slightly. "I brought Sari-chan's things."
"Great." Sari dragged the bags into the room.
"Oh, Botan-chan I would like to make a request for two computers with high speed internet access and plenty of RAM," Tonya stated. "On mine I would very much like different photo shop programs and possibly an attached scanner, pretty, pretty please with sugar on top."
Botan blinked, surprised by the request. "Okay... I'll see what I can do."
"Now, could you also tell Koenma that he needs to find a way for me to go home very soon," Sari added, her anger beginning to resurface. She was definitely furious with the stupid toddler, and she had no problem showing people that, even the grim reaper.
"I guess so."
"Good. Thank you, and bye-bye." With a strained smile, Sari shut the door.
It took Tonya a little while to calm down, but when she did, Sari took all her things to one of the other rooms, deciding to hit the sack a little early, which happened to be ten at night. That, of course, made Tonya briefly wonder why Hiei hadn't put her in a "guest" bed instead of braving her room to put her in her own. It would have been much smarter. That thought quickly left her mind when there was a knock on the door.
Curious, Tonya went over to the door but didn't open it. She figured caution was best, especially after what had happened with Jake not too long ago. "Yes?"
"Ummm... do you think you could do something about Jake? He can't move," Yusuke replied.
"OH!" Her eyes flew wide open. "I completely forgot about that! I can't believe I left him frozen for so long." Feeling rather guilty, she raced to the living room, almost knocking down Yusuke in the process.
Tonya went into the living room, finding Jake in the exact same position she had left him in. He looked absolutely miserable.
"I'm so sorry." She sat down beside him on the couch and frowned. "I don't know how to make it so you can move again."
"Just try something," he advised. Obviously his head could still move, just not the rest of him. "Please."
"What did you do to freeze him?" Kurama inquired, walking into the room.
"I believe I just told him to stop," Tonya replied.
"Then tell him to move," the redhead suggested logically. It certainly made sense to him.
"Okay..." She shrugged. "Jake-kun, move." He didn't move. She crossed her arms in annoyance, ticked that she had failed. She hated failing. "Dammit! Why the flip won't the stupid freeze thing undo and let you move?"
Jake's hands suddenly dropped to his lap, and he groaned, finally realizing just how stiff he was. Sitting in the same position for four hours had been killer on his muscles.
"Ow..." He slowly began to stretch out his muscles, wincing every few seconds. He hurt bad. His whole body ached, and his arms hurt most of all.
"Will you be okay?" Tonya asked as Kurama left the room.
"I think so." Jake flexed his fingers. Everything still seemed to work, which he saw as a small miracle.
She yawned, happy that he was fine. Since she had taken care of him, she didn't see any reason not to get some sleep. "Okay. I'm going to bed now. Good night."
"'Night," he replied as Tonya stood up.
Yawning again, she went to her room and fell asleep.
Mid morning, Sari woke up and quickly changed into comfortable clothes-black jeans, a green t-shirt, and tennis shoes. 'I won't stay here any longer. I have a life.' She glanced at her suitcases. 'Tonya can get them back to me later. If I take them with me, they'll only slow me down.'
A determined look on her face, she opened the window, lifted the screen, and slipped out of the house. Soon, she was on her way home... on foot.
Tonya woke up around ten, feeling much better. She was completely over her episode from the night before. It hadn't really been Jake's fault, so she forgave and forgot.
After rapidly throwing on a red tank top and khaki pants, she went to the kitchen, wanting breakfast. As she snacked on a fruit and a grain bar, she waved 'good morning' to Jake and Kurama. The other guys weren't in the house. Tonya glanced out a few windows, noticing Hiei sitting in a tree and Yusuke talking to him. Kuwabara was just sitting on the front steps, relaxing.
Tonya plopped down in her favorite chair, partially curling up a moment later, her legs tucked beneath her.
"Feeling better?" Jake asked, leaning his shoulder against the door frame. After what had happened the night before, he felt like keeping his distance. Being frozen had not been fun.
"Yeah. You?" She finished off her breakfast.
He nodded. "Yeah. Sleep and a hot bath did wonders."
"That's great." Tonya smiled. Then, she decided to change the subject. "Jake-kun, maybe you can help me out a bit by explaining something to me."
"I'll try," the dark-skinned male promised.
"Okie-dokie," she replied. "Can you explain marking and demon mating... and what they entail?"
Jake blushed, although it was hard to see on his dark skin. "A demon male bites a female on the right side of her neck, claiming her as his, but if they don't mate within a week, the mark will vanish." He nervously licked his lips, obviously finding the topic hard to talk about. "If another male wants a female, but she's already been marked but not mated, he'll mark the left side of her neck. This shows everyone that she's being fought over."
"Sounds like whoever made up this system was a female with an ego problem," Tonya commented, rolling her eyes.
"I don't know," he responded, shrugging. "But demon mating is..." He blushed even darker. "Like human mating. As far as I know, there isn't a difference. Although, if the girl is being fought over, then after she's mated, the other mark will disappear."
She blinked a few times, digesting what he had told her. "If I had known all of that, I wouldn't have freaked so badly when you tried to bite me."
Jake shook his head and sighed. 'I really should keep her better informed on the details about demons. I might not go flying into walls as often.' He took a deep breath. "Tonya-chan, when a demon male kisses a female, the whole point is to lead up to the marking."
"That means that Hiei-sama, Kurama-dono, even Yusuke-san when he tried to kiss me... they all just wanted to mark me?" She frowned. "That sounds a little strange."
He shrugged. "It's the truth." He paused. "Oh, I almost forgot. Botan-san brought two laptops for you and Sari-san earlier this morning. They're sitting on the dining room table."
"Yea!" Tonya cheered, jumping up.
"But there are some rules," Jake continued, making her groan in annoyance. "You can't tell anyone what's going on, where you are, etc. Also, your stories can't reflect what's going on either."
"Awww man," she whined. "That bites big time." She pouted briefly but eventually shrugged. "Oh well. I still have a computer. My readers are going to be so happy when I update." Smiling, she ran off.
Lunch time rolled around, and Tonya volunteered to wake up Sari. Singing softly to herself, mainly because she knew that she was singing out of tune, she knocked on Sari's door. There was no response.
"YO! Sari-chan! Lunch time! Food!" Still, nothing.
Frowning, Tonya tried to open the door. It was locked. She sighed and put to use the skill Sari herself had taught her-lock picking.
She had almost no problems picking the lock, but once she entered the room, she quickly realized that Sari wasn't there, and the window was open with the screen up.
Tonya shook her head and sighed. "I should have seen this coming."
"She's gone," Tonya reported to the guys, who had all gathered in the dining room for lunch. "She went out the window."
Jake frowned. "Are you sure she's just not outside?"
She shook her head. "Why in the flying flip would Sari-chan go out through the window if she just wanted to spend some time outside? She, unlike Hiei-sama, has no problem using doors to enter and exit." She sighed. "I don't know how long she's been gone, but I know where she's headed."
"Home," Kurama stated. "That's where she's been wanting to go."
Yusuke nodded his head in agreement. "Okay, so she's walking home. Big deal. Someone will just have to fetch her."
"She's probably at least twenty miles away though," Tonya added.
"Which means she hasn't made it to town yet, right?" Kuwabara inquired.
Jake hung his head. "We're an hour away from any form of civilization."
"Baka," Hiei stated, which caused Tonya to look at him.
"You can go after her!" she exclaimed, clapping her hands.
"What?" The fire demon looked surprised... very surprised.
Tonya smiled. "You're fast. You should be able to catch up with her and bring her back in no time at all." 'And Sari-chan likes him too. She thinks he's cute, which means that she might react better to him than anyone else. Of course, if Hiei-sama's reading my mind now, then he'll find out, and that would be bad, but... oh well.'
Hiei glared at her. "I don't think so."
"Please?" she pleaded, pouting a little.
"No."
Tonya sighed. "I didn't want to do this, but you brought it on yourself," she said softly as Hiei prepared himself to go flying. "If you don't go get her, I'll tell someone special your secret... the secret behind why you got the jagan eye implanted in your forehead."
The koorime's eyes became wide. 'How could she possibly know?' "You wouldn't dare," he stated, tone dark and threatening. 'She had better not tell Yukina anything if she really does know.'
"I can also tell everyone where you came from, how the people there reacted to you..." She chewed on her lower lip for a moment, thinking. "I know a little about your youth, like how you were a class A demon at age five. Let's see here... what else?"
"Where'd you get all this information on the shrimp?" Kuwabara wanted to know.
"Interesting question," Kurama commented.
"I'd like to know the answer to that too," Yusuke added.
Jake remained silent. He already knew the answer.
"That's my secret." Tonya giggled, an evil smile on her face. "Now, Hiei-sama, will you pretty please retrieve Sari-chan?"
"If you tell anyone anything-" he began, but she cut him off.
"You'll kill me. Yes, I know that already. You've threatened Botan-chan with that many, many times." Tonya waved her hand, easily dismissing his threat. "I'm not all that worried. Besides, everything I know, Sari-chan knows."
"Damn, what is there, a big website that details everything that happened in Hiei's past?" Kuwabara exclaimed.
Tonya broke down laughing, amazed that the carrot top had hit the nail right on the head. He was actually right. Amazing. 'I'll have to mark this day down in my planner. Kuwabara finally guessed something correctly.'
Glaring at Tonya one last time, Hiei left through the window.
Sari was walking down the road, trying to figure out roughly how long it would take her to get home... or at least to the nearest phone. 'Let's see here... it took me about a little overran hour in my car to get from Wal-Mart to Tonya's new place, and I think there was a small town somewhere along the way. So, I'll assume about seventy miles, and if I continue to walk about five miles an hour...' She drifted off. 'Shit! Fifteen hours! This is insane!'
Mentally grumbling and a little disheartened but still determined, she continued on. 'I will not stop. I don't care how badly my feet hurt. Pain is just weakness leaving the body.'
Sari froze when someone wearing all black appeared in front of her. "What the fuck are you doing out here?" she cried out in surprise. "Don't tell me that you've been following me all this time?" It was then that she noticed his red eyes were only two inches below her eye level, but with his hair, he looked a little taller than her. She didn't know why she noticed that, but she did. 'Ahhhh... fuck. I bet he's gonna try to make me go back.'
"Hn. No." Then, he unceremoniously picked her up, slinging her over one shoulder.
"What the fuck?" she shouted, furious at how he was treating her. "PUT ME DOWN!" She banged her fists on his back and kicked her legs, even though it didn't seem to do much good.
"Stupid human. You're wasting your time," Hiei stated, sprinting off with her still over his shoulder. "You can't hurt me."
"I don't care! Put me down, you Hiei wannabe! I demand that you release me at once!" Sari continued to kick and scream, trying to be as loud as possible. "Fucking put me down!"
"Ningen no baka," he said softly, slightly shaking his head.
She hit his back as hard as she could. "I know what that means, so stop it! I'm not stupid, okay?" she yelled. "And put me down! I won't go back there! I fucking won't!"
While Hiei continued to run, her language became even more colorful as she switched to French. Then, out of phrases to use, she began to make up some of her own. That impressed Hiei a little, but he refused to say so, because it got on his nerves as well.
"Shut up!" he snapped. "And stop kicking me."
"NO!" Sari suddenly realized just how much she had slid down the front of his body. A certain part of his anatomy was within kicking range, so she kicked and kicked hard, her aim perfect.
Hiei stopped running and collapsed to his knees, an expression of pure pain and fury on his face. He didn't release Sari though. He merely tightened his hold on her, giving her back a little of the pain she had caused him. Then, once he had recovered enough to move, he dropped her on the ground and unsheathed his sword, pointing it at her throat.
"Ningen no baka."
"What's that?" Jake asked, pointing at the thing in Tonya's hands. Lunch was over with, and everyone was sitting in the living room, relaxing.
"My planner," she replied, writing down something in her old school handbook.
Jake read it over her shoulder. 'The day Kuwabara was finally smart enough to guess something correctly.' He laughed. "That's pretty neat." His eyes wandered farther down the page, still reading. He saw little notes in the code she loved to write in, but at the bottom of one page, he noticed something different.
'Got a problem?' he mentally read. 'A big problem? Or maybe it's a growing problem? Hmmm...?' His eyes widened as he realized what that related to. 'Vacation Time! Cassie said something similar to that!'
"Why did you write that?" Jake pointed at the sentences he had just read.
"Write what?" Yusuke asked.
Tonya blushed, ignoring the punk. "I didn't write it. RL Cassie did."
"Who's RL Cassie?" Kurama inquired, curious. "I don't remember you ever mentioning her before."
"That is none of your business," she stated, nodding her head. "I refuse to tell you."
Jake thought for a few moments. "It's Sari-san! RL Cassie is Sari-san! They look exactly the same! I can't believe I didn't notice it earlier!" He almost smacked himself in the forehead, but he figured that he had better things to do... like see what else was written in that planner.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Tonya replied, her voice betraying the fact that she was lying.
"I hope you don't mind if I borrow this for a moment." Jake snatched the handbook away from her.
"Hey! Give that back!" she demanded, trying to snatch it out of his hands.
In the process of flipping through it, he noticed the cover. There was a picture of him on the top half, and drawings of Kurama on the bottom half. "Oh my..."
"JAKE-KUN!" Tonya screamed.
"This I gotta see," Yusuke stated, getting up and going over to Jake. Kuwabara was quick to join in, both spirit detectives looking over Jake's shoulders so they could read.
"'He doesn't mind being saddled up'?" Yusuke read out loud, making Tonya blush even more. "What the hell is that for?"
"Sexual innuendo," Jake clarified. "And I know what it's from."
"Shut up and give that back right now!" she ordered sharply.
"Let me see!" Kuwabara took the planner from Jake, noticing the front cover of it in the process. "Why do you have pictures of Jake and Kurama on this?"
Kurama, who had just been plainly embarrassed by the actions of his friends up till then, finally took an interest in the handbook. "What did you just say?"
"Give it back, please!" Tonya pleaded, trying to grab the book from the carrot top. He was just too tall though. She couldn't even reach her possession by jumping.
Kuwabara showed the redhead the cover. "See? She has pictures of you."
Blushing, she kicked the idiotic human in the knee, which had no effect on him what so ever. "So? I've drawn pictures of a lot of people. I've drawn Thomas-kun and Cameron-kun and Hiei-sama and Trunks-kun and..." She drifted off when she noticed that her argument wasn't helping her any. "I draw a lot, alright?"
"So why's Kurama on your planner?" Yusuke asked, his tone teasing. "Do you like him, perhaps?"
"Who I like is none of your business!" Tonya snapped, glaring at the black-haired punk. "Now, I want my planner back right this instant!"
"Alright, alright." Kuwabara gave the handbook back to Tonya, who immediately hugged the object to her chest, making sure no one could take it. "I just have one question."
"What?" Tonya glared up at him.
"What's the deal with water wars?"
Ningen no baka - stupid human