~Disclaimer~ I haven't done one of these yet, so I thought I should with this chapter. But I don't know why everyone does them, because everybody knows that I'm not lucky enough to own Yu Yu Hakusho. I only have the rights to my own character, Sora. (By the way, I don't own the PS2 game Kingdom Hearts either, and I just happen to like the name Sora. It has nothing at all to do with KH, so there! ;-P) Anyway, on with the story. ~DragonGurl15~

Chapter 3 – Training

"Um...." I said intelligently, looking down at my hands. Then, I practically shrieked, "Shuichi, do you have a watch?"

He nodded and held out his wrist with a black sports watch strapped to it, and I grabbed it and stared at the face.

"Oh, CRAP!" I yelled in his face. "I really, really need to go, Shuichi!"

"Why?" He looked a little startled by my outburst and stepped back.

"Because I have life-guarding lessons in a half hour and I can't miss any classes or I can't be certified and I really, really need to go!" I said in one long, run-on sentence. I looked again at his watch. I turned and ran off, leaving the two guys standing there. "CRAP, crap, crap..." I frantically mumbled to myself as I ran through the trees and the deserted park to my bike. I kicked at the stand until it flipped up and hopped on. Apparently they followed me, because as I sped away, I heard Hiei ask Shuichi, "What is this 'life-guarding?'"

The next day, I was once again riding my bike to the park, rock music from my headphones blasting in my ears. After I had gotten home from life-guarding, still slightly damp, Shuichi had called. He told me to be at the park at 3:00, and not to be late. So now I was riding past identical houses on a normal street, listening to a Linkin Park CD. I noticed the uniformity and thought about how I hated that everything in my life was the same, that every day I got up, did my hair, went to school, came home, ate dinner, took a shower, and later went to bed. Then the next day, the cycle started all over again. To put it plainly, it was boring and tedious, and I desperately needed something exciting to happen. At least this meeting at the park was remotely interesting.

I swerved to avoid a blue car parked on the side of the road, and sang softly under my breath with Chester Bennington, the lead singer of Linkin Park. I pulled into the small recessed area of the street where people who visited the park left their cars.

I slipped between the gap in the chain-link fence on my bike, the whole frame vibrating due to the gravel strewn on the blacktop path. I looked up and pulled off the path onto the grass, which was looking a bit dead since it was only April. The trees were sparse where I was, and just beginning to grow new buds of leaves. I rode around them until I came to the thick group of trees that concealed the clearing. I dismounted from my bike and wheeled it into the trees, and curiously, there was little undergrowth at all, and I have no difficulty, except the occasional bump in the ground. I had no bike lock and didn't want to leave it where anyone could just walk by and see it. I leaned it against the trunk of a tree when I judged I was far enough away from the open ground.

Before I entered the clearing, I straightened my slightly tight, barely long enough navy blue T-shirt with the cute cartoon monkey on it and tugged up my jeans. They had fallen down a little when I was riding. Still, my stomach was probably visible when I moved, so I wondered what the point of pulling them up was. My hair was up in a shining brown ponytail, but a few strands refused being pulled into the blue elastic band or even convinced to stay behind my ears, so I had little pieces of hair falling down disobediently at the sides of my face.

I strode confidently into the tiny clearing and looked around. All I saw was washed-out green grass and gray trees. "Of course they'd be late," I sighed, leaning against a tree trunk, and the cold, hard bark dug into my back.

"Who's late?" I heard Shuichi ask from somewhere to the right of me. As he left the trees, I saw that his long, red hair had dead leaves stuck in it, and I went over to him and picked them out. "Thanks."

"No problem," I said, a little louder than normal so I could hear myself. It was then that I noticed I still had my headphones on, and the music was playing loudly. "Oops." I pulled them down until they hung around my neck. I began to say something, but I was interrupted by Hiei, who asked, "What are those things around her neck?"

"Wow, when did you get here?" I said in surprise. He had silently appeared behind Shuichi and I hadn't even noticed his arrival. I thought a second about his odd question and said, "Are you foreign or something?" He fixed his blood-red eyes on me. "These are headphones. You listen to music on them." I spoke slowly, just in case he really was foreign. "Do you want to hear?" He remained quiet, so I stepped in front of him, took the headphones off my neck, and fitted them around his ears. His gaze darted from me to Shuichi and then back again as I did so. He closed his eyes and I carefully watched his expression. His face went from confused, to inquisitive, to interested in a split second. I grinned and glanced at Shuichi, who was watching curiously and smiling slightly.

Hiei listened happily for a while, but soon he was shoving the headphones back into my hands and gruffly saying something about training.

"So, um, guys, what are you going to teach me?" I asked, standing next to Shuichi.

"What do you think?" Hiei asked condescendingly, infuriating me. I hate it when people imply I'm not smart or something.

"I'm not stupid, you know," I growled, stepping closer to the rude spiky-headed jerk.

"Whoa, whoa, Sora, calm down," Shuichi said, putting his hand on my shoulder. I relaxed minimally and looked at him. He moved up next to me, his hand still on my shoulder, and said, "There are a few things you need to know before we can start...."

About fifteen minutes later, I was entirely clued in on Shu – I mean, Kurama's true history, had been treated to a demonstration of his Rose Whip's attacks, and a viewing of Hiei's Jagan eye. "Well, I guess I'm really a believer now, huh?" I asked rhetorically. "So, can we get started already?"

"Of course." Kurama replied, and he walked about ten feet away and said, "Come at me with everything you've got. We need to know how strong you are." Hiei was standing to the left of me at the edge of the clearing, leaning against a tree.

I tried to ready myself, but something was holding me back. Even so, I half-heartedly ran at Kurama and tried to punch him. I say tried because before my hit could connect, he had somehow flipped me and I slammed against the ground on my back. "That hurt, you know," I said, struggling to my feet. Hiei wore that superior smirk that I had come to know and hate, even in such a short time. I glared at him and tried to catch my breath. My entire body ached, but now I was really pissed.

"Try again, Sora," Kurama said quietly, and he walked away from me to about the same distance he had been at before. "You need to come at me with all your power."

"Fine," I said, still angry at him. Once again, I charged him, but this time at full speed. I attempted to hit him, but once more I was on my back staring up at the circle of blue sky above the trees. I sat up and pushed myself to my feet.

"Come on, I know you can do it," he encouraged me. I stood still for a moment and tried to see the flaw in my attack. Maybe I wasn't using my full strength because I didn't want to hit him. That could be it, but I didn't think that was the whole reason. I was really angry, embarrassed, really, and I did want to teach him a lesson. The more I thought, I realized that it wasn't that I couldn't hit him, it was that I didn't want to hurt him. Perhaps I was a pacifist by nature or something. We'll get rid of that soon enough, I thought. This time, I imagined that it was Hiei's stupid face instead of Kurama's cute one that I was attacking. (Yes, I thought my best friend was cute, but I didn't want to go out with him or anything. It would be really wrong. You know what I mean?)

I ran at him with renewed conviction and pulled back my arm to punch. I held my breath and lashed out with all my strength, and I felt my fist connect with something soft – Kurama's shoulder. I watched in amazement as the fox demon landed on his butt in the grass, a look of extreme surprise on his face. I looked over at Hiei and grinned triumphantly for all I was worth. He held my gaze for a minute, but turned his head and pointedly looked at the tree next to him.

I smiled at Kurama mischievously as he got up and dusted himself off. "How did I do?" I asked.

Never one to hold back praise when due, he exclaimed, "That was great, Sora! I didn't know you had so much power in you. How did you do it?"

"I imagined that it was idiot boy over there and not you that I was attacking," I answered sarcastically, pointing at Hiei, who was staring up into the sky. "It seemed to work pretty well, huh?"

"Maybe you should practice on Hiei instead of me. I think you'll have no problem hitting him, right?" I nodded and smiled, and our training session finally began.

~One Week Later~

"Come on, girl, do it the way he showed you!" Hiei yelled at me for possibly the tenth time. We were standing about a foot apart in the clearing, sparring while Kurama watched.

I frowned and groaned inwardly, but didn't make a sound. I had learned early on not to complain around either of my teachers, or suffer the consequences. If I groused at all, I'd have to do at least twenty additional push-ups after the practice, on top of all the other exercises I was supposed to do. And, to top it all off, if I didn't do the exercises I was supposed to do at home, I'd have to do them all at practice and stay later.

Not that either of them were particularly spiteful, but I had to do what they said or, as Kurama put it, 'You'd die rather pathetically in battle. And we wouldn't want that, now would we?'

Oh, that's nice, I thought. Stupid demons, stupid training, stupid high kick that I can't do. Spurred on by my angry thoughts, I launched into the kick, way overshot, and ended up falling into thin air. I prepared for the impact, but suddenly, I felt strong, warm arms close around my shoulders. Hiei had caught me neatly before I hit the ground. I looked up at him, but he had averted his gaze. I thought suspiciously, He's never caught me before. That was strangely nice of him. I gazed more closely at his deep crimson eyes while he was looking away. He's actually kind of cute.... Whoa, what am I thinking? I asked myself. This is Hiei we're talking about. He is definitely not cute.

I shook my head to clear it of the offending ideas and jumped out of his grasp. I turned to face him and instantly dropped into the stance he and Kurama had taught me. My arms were loose, my knees were bent, and I was ready to fight. In just a short week, I had gone from a weak little teenage girl to a moderately strong fighter. I had taken to their fighting style with ease. Obviously, the two demons were very good teachers.

"Now, try again," he said, "and this time aim for my head."

I shifted my weight and immediately kicked him squarely in the head.

"Good," my black-haired rival said. "A strong, solid kick, but you would never have hit me if I was really fighting you. You'd be on the ground before you could even move." He remarked cuttingly, again provoking me. I moved back and was about to battle, when Kurama interjected, "Sora, not to encourage your psychotic tendencies, but I think you're ready to move up to actually fighting."

"Good," I replied, cracking my knuckles. I was just about to engage Hiei when Kurama said, "Hold it, we have a visitor," I stopped an inch from my opponent and turned to my best friend.

"Everyone, we have a big problem," Botan yelled, almost hysterically. She floated in the air on her oar a few feet from Kurama. "A demon named Resari is in the middle of town, threatening to kill everyone unless the new Spirit Detective shows up and fights him."

"Why?" I asked, walking closer to Botan, followed by Hiei.

"He wants to kill you while Yusuke is away! He's a special sort of demon that sucks all the energy out of humans just by going near them. If they are exposed to him too long, they'll die. He uses the energy he collects to add to his own Spirit Energy and grow stronger, and I think he's already put some people in a coma!"

Before Botan could finish, I was running at top speed to my bike, and Hiei and Kurama sprinted behind. Botan yelled at our retreating backs, "Hurry!!!"

~Author's Note~

Sorry that this chapter took so long to put up. I'll really try this time to be faster, but I think I will anyway because this next one will be very exciting. Oh, and another disclaimer: I do not own Linkin Park or any of their songs. I just happen to love their music. Please review because I need your help to make this better. Thanks! ~DragonGurl15~