Disclaimer: Once again, I don't own any of the Yu Yu Hakusho characters –
not even Puu, who won't be appearing in this chapter (I couldn't figure out
how to fit in a snuggly blue penguin –Drat!)
Thanks to my new reviewers – Yavie Aelinel and Raiko Gotal, for your encouragement, and Sakura-Angel-04 too. As for your question, the Chapter 3 title says it all.
CHAPTER THREE: KURAMA VS. THE WIND SLASHER
"Calling Kurama of Team Urameshi and Wind Slasher of the Mist Master Team to the field." The MC's voice, a little hoarse from bellowing over the crowd of mayhem hungry demons, shouted his announcement from where he stood atop the judges' platform.
"It looks like I'm up." Said Kurama to Hiei, who nodded and watched him cross the field to the arena's center, pointedly ignoring Botan and Yusuke's concerned attempts at first aid on Kuwabara, lying on the ground behind him.
As Kurama walked forward, so did his opponent, the small female. She walked slowly, hands at her sides, clutching intermittently at the strips of her skirt. It appeared to be designed along the lines of a Roman soldier's kilt – strips of leather that hung down to the knees, only instead of metal studs dotting the strips, her kilt had small cloth bags sewn to some of the ends of the strips.
They stopped about four or five yards apart as the MC's voice droned out the rules once again. Kurama couldn't see his opponent's face very well, for she stood with her head bent slightly down, layers of bangs obscuring it. The MC stopped, and the match began.
The girl immediately stepped back and raised her head. Wrenching a bag from off her skirt and flicking it open with her thumb, she waited. Kurama did not oblige, forcing her to make the first move. When it became clear that he wasn't going to leap at her she appeared uncertain, then waved her right hand in front of her and threw the contents of the bag in the air.
Kurama leaped aside as shards of ragged glass rent the air where he'd just been. She was fast, but he was faster. For the first minutes of the fight he merely avoided her attacks. She seemed only to want to wound, and threw her projectiles wide in scatter shots. Then the thin black and purple garbed teammate shouted something at her in demonish. Kurama, busy ducking a double bag blast at the time, caught something about 'just another demon' and an admonition to finish the battle, followed by something spat out in a threatening tone.
After that, the girl got serious, throwing masses of projectiles from different directions right at him. Kurama got serious as well, took out his rose whip, and went on the offensive. His first slash caused her to fall to her right. She rolled instinctively and missed the next as well. Her reflexes were good, but not great. He wondered how she'd survived for so long until his next slash was parried, not by a wall of projectiles, which the rose whip would have easily cut through, but a tornado force circle of wind that revolved about her. That was when he realized that she wasn't levitating the sharp particles she threw at him, she was controlling the air that sent them toward him.
Eyes narrowed to green slits, Kurama began to concentrate, deciding on a tactic that would keep her on the offensive. She didn't seem to know how to use the wind alone except for defensive purposes, or as a vehicle for projectiles, so he plotted to deprive her of her offensive weapons. In a burst of furious slashes, he had her backing up, throwing bag after bag of deadly sharp projectiles into the air, until the time came when she reached for another, and found they were all gone.
Kurama knew the exact moment when she made the discovery, because she froze for an instant. He took advantage of it. Curling the rose whip under her tornado-like defensive wall, he brought the tip of it behind her feet, then forward in a quick motion. She sensed it, and tried to jump as the whip came forward, but it caught the tip of her heel, and she gave a little shriek, and fell onto her back, arms lifted protectively over her face, and waited for the end.
It should have come immediately. It was the perfect opening, but something about the shriek made Kurama pause. Even above the distracting roar of the crowd and enraged cursing of her teammate, the shriek had sounded almost human. Nonetheless, he had to do something, so he retracted the rose whip's thorns and sent it on another task.
When the girl found her arms bound tightly together by its rope-like vine, she tugged slightly and raised her head, shaking her hair out of her eyes to watch as Kurama walked forward, slowly and deliberately coiling the excess whip in his hand as he came toward her. When he was closer, he tugged on the whip, pulling her immediately to her feet. The motion set her bangs shifting, and he realized that her eyes were blue. He realized something else as well, the closer her got to her. She wasn't a demon at all, but fully human.
"Why did you signal Hammer Hands to stop?" Asked Kurama in Japanese. He'd seen the giant demon's pony tail lifting in the wind during the last match when the demon was about to smash Kuwabara. He'd also seen the girl's finger lifting, and made the connection that she'd signaled to her larger teammate.
The girl, Wind Slasher, remained silent, merely staring at him resignedly over her bound hands. Kurama repeated the question in demonish, but her response was a mere shrug.
The crowd noise heightened, they were growing restless at the lack of action. Kurama ignored them. The girl shook her hair back over her eyes and bowed her head.
"Kill now?" She whispered quietly in demonish, the harsh gutturals sounding strange from her human throat.
"Are you so eager to die, girl?" Kurama took a half step closer, wishing that he could see her face.
"You win, must kill."
"And if I chose to spare your life?"
She shot a quick glance from under her bangs, then lowered her head again and shrugged in the direction of her teammates. "You not, they will. Better you. Quicker."
"Hmm." This was indeed a quandary. The crowd, growing ever more agitated, was threatening to spill over into the arena. The choice was simple, in the end.
Kurama stepped back, pulling on the rose whip, which fell from her arms as he dragged her forward a bit, unbalancing her. As he turned his back to go, he cracked the whip one last time in a casual, almost negligent slash, which caught her under the jaw and across the side of her neck.
Gasping, she caught at the wound, blood seeping through her fingers, and collapsed in a heap, lying still.
Kurama walked away without looking back.
As he came closer to his teammates he saw that Kuwabara was awake and complaining loudly about cracked ribs, a dislocated shoulder, and a fractured forearm. Yusuke was staring at Kurama in shock while Hiei merely gazed impassively, arms crossed. Botan had paused in her dabbing of Kurama's various cuts, sterile pad in hand, frozen until he came close.
"Kurama! You...I...that girl demon...you..." She began sputtering.
"Knock it off, Botan." Growled Yusuke, rising from where he'd been crouching by his prone friend. "It's a tournament. Would you rather she'd killed him?" He turned away slightly, and muttered. "I'd never have guessed he'd kill a girl, though."
"Hey, who got killed?" Kuwabara's question came out mushily between a swollen, bruised upper lip where Hammer Hands had connected.
"My opponent." Kurama answered calmly.
"Oh, good. Go Team Urameshi." Said Kuwabara, and fainted.
"Idiot." Offered Hiei.
"Calling Hiei and Razor to the field. Remember folks the score is Team Urameshi two points to the Mist Master Team's one point. If Mist Master Team wins this round the tournament will go into a final death fight off between the survivors. Let's hear it for the Mist Master Team." The MC bellowed hoarsely, not bothering to hide his bias.
"Don't count on it." Muttered Hiei, throwing off his black, cloak like coat and flexing his sword arm. He unsheathed his shadow sword and stalked across the field to where his opponent, the thin, skeletal looking demon awaited him.
Kurama turned his back on his team members, and watched the match progress.
Hiei was in good form. His opponent's weapons were his own fingernails, razor tipped, presumably poisonous, and capable of elongating several feet in length. However, the 'Razor' was slow compared to Hiei, and didn't seem to know how to fight from a distance very well. He never so much as touched the small demon, who shot around the field like a cannonball. Quickly bored, Hiei dispatched the demon with a quick slice across its middle. It died without a sound, foul smelling blood spilling onto the field.
Hiei stalked back to his teammates as the MC burbled with false enthusiasm. "That's it folks, Team Urameshi wins this beautiful opal. Thank you all for coming."
Botan rose as Hiei reached the group, her first aid efforts complete. A woozy-looking Kuwabara swayed on his feet, an arm draped over Yusuke's shoulders, needing the support to stand.
"Hiei, I..." Botan started to say.
"Save it." Hiei growled.
Botan's face fell.
"If you'll excuse me for a moment?" Kurama glanced back and forth between the two, then headed for the arena entrance, throwing a parting shot over his shoulder. "I'm sorry, Hiei, that your opponent wasn't much of a challenge."
Hiei huffed impatiently and swirled his coat back over his shoulders.
"Is that what's put you in such a bad mood?" Asked Botan.
"This tournament was a complete waste of my time."
"Cheer up! It wasn't a total loss. We got what we came for. Look!" Botan, her natural good humor restored, pointed at the judges walking across the field with the opal on a tray. They stopped before the team, handed over the opal, and left as quickly as possible.
"Well! They might have congratulated us. We did win, after all." Botan tucked the opal under her arm, and watched disapprovingly as the judges scurried across the field.
"Humph. They're probably afraid the crowd will tear them limb from limb for letting the odds on favorites lose." Hiei noted contemptuously.
"Look, we got the opal, now can we get out of here? Kuwabara weighs a ton." Yusuke shifted under the weight.
"Who asked you for help?" Kuwabara responded blearily.
"Oh stop it, you two." Botan chided absentmindedly. "Now where did Kurama go? Oh, there he is." She eyed him with bright curiosity as he came toward them. "Kurama, could you drive Yusuke and Kuwabara home? Hiei and I should take the opal to Koenma as soon as possible."
Botan whipped out her wooden oar and perched on it one handedly, the other occupied with holding the opal. "Hop on, Hiei, you know you want to!"
Hiei scowled, but sat on the back obediently as Botan took off.
Kurama came alongside Kuwabara, and dipped under his other shoulder, careful not to jar his splinted forearm.
"Hey, thanks." Yusuke began half walking, half dragging his injured friend toward the entrance. In no shape to talk, Kuwabara allowed himself to be dragged by the two boys. "Kurama, where'd you disappear to?"
With only the slightest pause, Kurama replied, "To look for the rest of the Mist Master team. I thought perhaps if they'd been sent to the tournament to win the opal, they might try to steal it once the tournament was over."
"What, you mean that big guy, the 'Hammer Hands'? Between you and me, it didn't look like he had much in the way of brains."
"I'm sure you're right, but it never hurts to make certain."
"So did you find him?" Yusuke asked curiously.
"No, I'm afraid he's long gone."
Later, in Koenma's office, the toddler stared at the opal in the center of his desk.
"Botan, you're the best."
"Why thank you, sir." Botan preened and smiled with pleasure. "I'm glad to serve."
"Now if only we knew who sent that Mist Master team to win it." Koenma folded his hands and narrowed his eyes at the opal. "And why it's so important." He thought for a moment as Botan and Hiei waited quietly.
"Botan!"
"Yes, sir?"
"Remind me what your research showed about the Mist Master team."
Botan whipped a small notebook from out of her back pocket and flipped through the pages quickly. "Ah, here it is. The Mist Master team is comprised of the Mist Master, Hammer Hands, Razor, and the Wind Slasher. All of whom are now deceased except for Hammer Hands. Their tactics invariably include softening up their opponents through Wind Slasher's cuts, disorienting them with the Mist Master's mist, then dispatching them with a combination of Razor's poison cuts, Mist Master's back stabbing, and Hammer Hands' pulverizing technique. They are the odds on favorites in the small tournament circuits whenever they compete, but they usually only compete for money or prestige and money. This last tournament is the only one they've ever entered that did not offer a cash prize."
"Hmm." Koenma sucked on his pacifier ferociously. "I don't like not knowing what's really going on. Botan. I want you to track down the last surviving member of that team and ask him who hired them to get the opal."
"I'll go."
Botan looked at the usually uncooperative Hiei in surprise.
"Let me get this straight, Hiei. You're volunteering to help?" Koenma leaned forward on his desk.
"Yes."
Realizing that was all the answer he was going to get, Koenma wisely refrained from asking questions. "Fine. Report back as soon as you know anything. Botan, I want you to go along too." Koenma peered at Hiei to see how he'd take that order.
"Sure!" Botan agreed cheerily, then glanced closely at Hiei. "But if you don't mind sir, I'd like to go home and get a good night's sleep first. The tournament was kind of exhausting. Plus I've got some of Kuwabara's blood on me, and I'd like to change clothes."
Koenma waved at her dismissively. "Fine, go. I knew that human would be nothing but trouble, but there's no reasoning with Yusuke about it."
"That's our Yusuke." Botan laughed and turned to exit as Koenma began bellowing for the Ogre to come and put the opal in the palace strong room.
"I don't need to rest." Growled Hiei as he and the ferry girl left the room.
Botan turned a wide-eyed innocent gaze on him. "I didn't think you did. That's not why I said I wanted to rest." She sighed dramatically. "The truth is, Hiei, there's a few things I'd like to check up on first. Koenma might think I have research facts at my fingertips, but really, to find out information, you have to go out and talk to your contacts, and it may take me a little while to get a lead on where this Hammer Hands could be. So unless you want to search up and down every inch of the spirit realm, I'm going to need a little time."
"Hn." Was Hiei's only response.
Taking that as agreement, Botan whipped out her oar and flew them back to the human world.
TO BE CONTINUED
Please review and let me know what you think so far. Any suggestions for improvement are much appreciated!
Thanks to my new reviewers – Yavie Aelinel and Raiko Gotal, for your encouragement, and Sakura-Angel-04 too. As for your question, the Chapter 3 title says it all.
CHAPTER THREE: KURAMA VS. THE WIND SLASHER
"Calling Kurama of Team Urameshi and Wind Slasher of the Mist Master Team to the field." The MC's voice, a little hoarse from bellowing over the crowd of mayhem hungry demons, shouted his announcement from where he stood atop the judges' platform.
"It looks like I'm up." Said Kurama to Hiei, who nodded and watched him cross the field to the arena's center, pointedly ignoring Botan and Yusuke's concerned attempts at first aid on Kuwabara, lying on the ground behind him.
As Kurama walked forward, so did his opponent, the small female. She walked slowly, hands at her sides, clutching intermittently at the strips of her skirt. It appeared to be designed along the lines of a Roman soldier's kilt – strips of leather that hung down to the knees, only instead of metal studs dotting the strips, her kilt had small cloth bags sewn to some of the ends of the strips.
They stopped about four or five yards apart as the MC's voice droned out the rules once again. Kurama couldn't see his opponent's face very well, for she stood with her head bent slightly down, layers of bangs obscuring it. The MC stopped, and the match began.
The girl immediately stepped back and raised her head. Wrenching a bag from off her skirt and flicking it open with her thumb, she waited. Kurama did not oblige, forcing her to make the first move. When it became clear that he wasn't going to leap at her she appeared uncertain, then waved her right hand in front of her and threw the contents of the bag in the air.
Kurama leaped aside as shards of ragged glass rent the air where he'd just been. She was fast, but he was faster. For the first minutes of the fight he merely avoided her attacks. She seemed only to want to wound, and threw her projectiles wide in scatter shots. Then the thin black and purple garbed teammate shouted something at her in demonish. Kurama, busy ducking a double bag blast at the time, caught something about 'just another demon' and an admonition to finish the battle, followed by something spat out in a threatening tone.
After that, the girl got serious, throwing masses of projectiles from different directions right at him. Kurama got serious as well, took out his rose whip, and went on the offensive. His first slash caused her to fall to her right. She rolled instinctively and missed the next as well. Her reflexes were good, but not great. He wondered how she'd survived for so long until his next slash was parried, not by a wall of projectiles, which the rose whip would have easily cut through, but a tornado force circle of wind that revolved about her. That was when he realized that she wasn't levitating the sharp particles she threw at him, she was controlling the air that sent them toward him.
Eyes narrowed to green slits, Kurama began to concentrate, deciding on a tactic that would keep her on the offensive. She didn't seem to know how to use the wind alone except for defensive purposes, or as a vehicle for projectiles, so he plotted to deprive her of her offensive weapons. In a burst of furious slashes, he had her backing up, throwing bag after bag of deadly sharp projectiles into the air, until the time came when she reached for another, and found they were all gone.
Kurama knew the exact moment when she made the discovery, because she froze for an instant. He took advantage of it. Curling the rose whip under her tornado-like defensive wall, he brought the tip of it behind her feet, then forward in a quick motion. She sensed it, and tried to jump as the whip came forward, but it caught the tip of her heel, and she gave a little shriek, and fell onto her back, arms lifted protectively over her face, and waited for the end.
It should have come immediately. It was the perfect opening, but something about the shriek made Kurama pause. Even above the distracting roar of the crowd and enraged cursing of her teammate, the shriek had sounded almost human. Nonetheless, he had to do something, so he retracted the rose whip's thorns and sent it on another task.
When the girl found her arms bound tightly together by its rope-like vine, she tugged slightly and raised her head, shaking her hair out of her eyes to watch as Kurama walked forward, slowly and deliberately coiling the excess whip in his hand as he came toward her. When he was closer, he tugged on the whip, pulling her immediately to her feet. The motion set her bangs shifting, and he realized that her eyes were blue. He realized something else as well, the closer her got to her. She wasn't a demon at all, but fully human.
"Why did you signal Hammer Hands to stop?" Asked Kurama in Japanese. He'd seen the giant demon's pony tail lifting in the wind during the last match when the demon was about to smash Kuwabara. He'd also seen the girl's finger lifting, and made the connection that she'd signaled to her larger teammate.
The girl, Wind Slasher, remained silent, merely staring at him resignedly over her bound hands. Kurama repeated the question in demonish, but her response was a mere shrug.
The crowd noise heightened, they were growing restless at the lack of action. Kurama ignored them. The girl shook her hair back over her eyes and bowed her head.
"Kill now?" She whispered quietly in demonish, the harsh gutturals sounding strange from her human throat.
"Are you so eager to die, girl?" Kurama took a half step closer, wishing that he could see her face.
"You win, must kill."
"And if I chose to spare your life?"
She shot a quick glance from under her bangs, then lowered her head again and shrugged in the direction of her teammates. "You not, they will. Better you. Quicker."
"Hmm." This was indeed a quandary. The crowd, growing ever more agitated, was threatening to spill over into the arena. The choice was simple, in the end.
Kurama stepped back, pulling on the rose whip, which fell from her arms as he dragged her forward a bit, unbalancing her. As he turned his back to go, he cracked the whip one last time in a casual, almost negligent slash, which caught her under the jaw and across the side of her neck.
Gasping, she caught at the wound, blood seeping through her fingers, and collapsed in a heap, lying still.
Kurama walked away without looking back.
As he came closer to his teammates he saw that Kuwabara was awake and complaining loudly about cracked ribs, a dislocated shoulder, and a fractured forearm. Yusuke was staring at Kurama in shock while Hiei merely gazed impassively, arms crossed. Botan had paused in her dabbing of Kurama's various cuts, sterile pad in hand, frozen until he came close.
"Kurama! You...I...that girl demon...you..." She began sputtering.
"Knock it off, Botan." Growled Yusuke, rising from where he'd been crouching by his prone friend. "It's a tournament. Would you rather she'd killed him?" He turned away slightly, and muttered. "I'd never have guessed he'd kill a girl, though."
"Hey, who got killed?" Kuwabara's question came out mushily between a swollen, bruised upper lip where Hammer Hands had connected.
"My opponent." Kurama answered calmly.
"Oh, good. Go Team Urameshi." Said Kuwabara, and fainted.
"Idiot." Offered Hiei.
"Calling Hiei and Razor to the field. Remember folks the score is Team Urameshi two points to the Mist Master Team's one point. If Mist Master Team wins this round the tournament will go into a final death fight off between the survivors. Let's hear it for the Mist Master Team." The MC bellowed hoarsely, not bothering to hide his bias.
"Don't count on it." Muttered Hiei, throwing off his black, cloak like coat and flexing his sword arm. He unsheathed his shadow sword and stalked across the field to where his opponent, the thin, skeletal looking demon awaited him.
Kurama turned his back on his team members, and watched the match progress.
Hiei was in good form. His opponent's weapons were his own fingernails, razor tipped, presumably poisonous, and capable of elongating several feet in length. However, the 'Razor' was slow compared to Hiei, and didn't seem to know how to fight from a distance very well. He never so much as touched the small demon, who shot around the field like a cannonball. Quickly bored, Hiei dispatched the demon with a quick slice across its middle. It died without a sound, foul smelling blood spilling onto the field.
Hiei stalked back to his teammates as the MC burbled with false enthusiasm. "That's it folks, Team Urameshi wins this beautiful opal. Thank you all for coming."
Botan rose as Hiei reached the group, her first aid efforts complete. A woozy-looking Kuwabara swayed on his feet, an arm draped over Yusuke's shoulders, needing the support to stand.
"Hiei, I..." Botan started to say.
"Save it." Hiei growled.
Botan's face fell.
"If you'll excuse me for a moment?" Kurama glanced back and forth between the two, then headed for the arena entrance, throwing a parting shot over his shoulder. "I'm sorry, Hiei, that your opponent wasn't much of a challenge."
Hiei huffed impatiently and swirled his coat back over his shoulders.
"Is that what's put you in such a bad mood?" Asked Botan.
"This tournament was a complete waste of my time."
"Cheer up! It wasn't a total loss. We got what we came for. Look!" Botan, her natural good humor restored, pointed at the judges walking across the field with the opal on a tray. They stopped before the team, handed over the opal, and left as quickly as possible.
"Well! They might have congratulated us. We did win, after all." Botan tucked the opal under her arm, and watched disapprovingly as the judges scurried across the field.
"Humph. They're probably afraid the crowd will tear them limb from limb for letting the odds on favorites lose." Hiei noted contemptuously.
"Look, we got the opal, now can we get out of here? Kuwabara weighs a ton." Yusuke shifted under the weight.
"Who asked you for help?" Kuwabara responded blearily.
"Oh stop it, you two." Botan chided absentmindedly. "Now where did Kurama go? Oh, there he is." She eyed him with bright curiosity as he came toward them. "Kurama, could you drive Yusuke and Kuwabara home? Hiei and I should take the opal to Koenma as soon as possible."
Botan whipped out her wooden oar and perched on it one handedly, the other occupied with holding the opal. "Hop on, Hiei, you know you want to!"
Hiei scowled, but sat on the back obediently as Botan took off.
Kurama came alongside Kuwabara, and dipped under his other shoulder, careful not to jar his splinted forearm.
"Hey, thanks." Yusuke began half walking, half dragging his injured friend toward the entrance. In no shape to talk, Kuwabara allowed himself to be dragged by the two boys. "Kurama, where'd you disappear to?"
With only the slightest pause, Kurama replied, "To look for the rest of the Mist Master team. I thought perhaps if they'd been sent to the tournament to win the opal, they might try to steal it once the tournament was over."
"What, you mean that big guy, the 'Hammer Hands'? Between you and me, it didn't look like he had much in the way of brains."
"I'm sure you're right, but it never hurts to make certain."
"So did you find him?" Yusuke asked curiously.
"No, I'm afraid he's long gone."
Later, in Koenma's office, the toddler stared at the opal in the center of his desk.
"Botan, you're the best."
"Why thank you, sir." Botan preened and smiled with pleasure. "I'm glad to serve."
"Now if only we knew who sent that Mist Master team to win it." Koenma folded his hands and narrowed his eyes at the opal. "And why it's so important." He thought for a moment as Botan and Hiei waited quietly.
"Botan!"
"Yes, sir?"
"Remind me what your research showed about the Mist Master team."
Botan whipped a small notebook from out of her back pocket and flipped through the pages quickly. "Ah, here it is. The Mist Master team is comprised of the Mist Master, Hammer Hands, Razor, and the Wind Slasher. All of whom are now deceased except for Hammer Hands. Their tactics invariably include softening up their opponents through Wind Slasher's cuts, disorienting them with the Mist Master's mist, then dispatching them with a combination of Razor's poison cuts, Mist Master's back stabbing, and Hammer Hands' pulverizing technique. They are the odds on favorites in the small tournament circuits whenever they compete, but they usually only compete for money or prestige and money. This last tournament is the only one they've ever entered that did not offer a cash prize."
"Hmm." Koenma sucked on his pacifier ferociously. "I don't like not knowing what's really going on. Botan. I want you to track down the last surviving member of that team and ask him who hired them to get the opal."
"I'll go."
Botan looked at the usually uncooperative Hiei in surprise.
"Let me get this straight, Hiei. You're volunteering to help?" Koenma leaned forward on his desk.
"Yes."
Realizing that was all the answer he was going to get, Koenma wisely refrained from asking questions. "Fine. Report back as soon as you know anything. Botan, I want you to go along too." Koenma peered at Hiei to see how he'd take that order.
"Sure!" Botan agreed cheerily, then glanced closely at Hiei. "But if you don't mind sir, I'd like to go home and get a good night's sleep first. The tournament was kind of exhausting. Plus I've got some of Kuwabara's blood on me, and I'd like to change clothes."
Koenma waved at her dismissively. "Fine, go. I knew that human would be nothing but trouble, but there's no reasoning with Yusuke about it."
"That's our Yusuke." Botan laughed and turned to exit as Koenma began bellowing for the Ogre to come and put the opal in the palace strong room.
"I don't need to rest." Growled Hiei as he and the ferry girl left the room.
Botan turned a wide-eyed innocent gaze on him. "I didn't think you did. That's not why I said I wanted to rest." She sighed dramatically. "The truth is, Hiei, there's a few things I'd like to check up on first. Koenma might think I have research facts at my fingertips, but really, to find out information, you have to go out and talk to your contacts, and it may take me a little while to get a lead on where this Hammer Hands could be. So unless you want to search up and down every inch of the spirit realm, I'm going to need a little time."
"Hn." Was Hiei's only response.
Taking that as agreement, Botan whipped out her oar and flew them back to the human world.
TO BE CONTINUED
Please review and let me know what you think so far. Any suggestions for improvement are much appreciated!