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Fighting Back 2

Chapter 3: Goin' to the Market

-Two weeks later-

Kagome was still mad at Kurama, but like he'd planned, she wasn't furious anymore. This, in truth, was their first real fight. They'd had a few scuffles before, but they'd been the playful type that Kurama usually let Kagome win.

"Come on, hurry up, Kagome," whispered an excited Tori as she stood in the guest room waiting for her friend to finish getting ready.

"I said I'm coming," responded Kagome as she hopped around trying to tug her sock on. Tori let out an exasperated sigh as she watched the frantic 21-year-old race about, collecting her things and putting her makeup on.

"You ready now??" she hissed again.

Kagome grabbed her purse.

"Yeah, let's go."

The girls crept out into the still-dark living room where Yusuke and Kuwabara stood, shivering.

"Why so early?" yawned Yusuke, "I could still be sleeping right now, ya know."

"Oh, quit whining and let's get going," said Tori as they headed out the door into the spiral stairwell leading to the ground.

Ten minutes later, as they were walking along the dawn-lit path, Kagome spoke up, breaking the silence.

"Tell me again why were doing this," she said.

"And why Kurama isn't here," piped up Yusuke. Kagome scoffed at the mention of his name.

"First off," Tori gestured to Kagome's reaction, "that's why Kurama's not here, and to answer Kagome's question, I want to take you guys to the demon marketplace, and if Hiei finds out, I'm gonna be in major trouble."

"Oh great, so you're telling me that we're sneaking through the Makai forest at God-knows-how-early in the morning just to go shopping???" asked Yusuke in disbelief.

"Pretty much," said Kagome.

"Well, Yusuke, by all means you can go back, but I'd hate to be the one to tell you that you missed out on some nice demon fights. The females get especially vicious..."

"Well, come on, we don't have all morning!" said Yusuke, skipping happily ahead.

Tori shook her head.

"Damn pervert..."

They reached the market within a half an hour, and before Yusuke and Kuwabara headed off to pick/start fights, Tori made them promise to be back in three hours. "I wanna get back before Hiei returns from training, ok?" she asked.

"Got it!" called Yusuke as they took off. Tori sighed.

"You know we're gonna have to hunt them down, don't you?" asked Kagome.

"Yeah, I'm aware of it. Thankfully, it won't be hard, all we gotta do is follow the chanting of 'fight, fight, fight' and they won't be far away. Now come on, let's go!"

She tugged Kagome's arm, and they hurried through the crowd.

They had a blast for the past few hours, looking around at various items such as clothing, jewelry, food, baskets, and other neat trinkets. There were a few little game booths, too.

"It reminds me of the flea markets back in the Human World," said Kagome.

"Yeah," said Tori softly, "hey, how ARE things back there, anyhow?"

"They're fine. Nothing new, oh, except Sota's now in high school. Isn't that cute?" asked Kagome. Tori giggled.

"What grade?"

"Ninth."

"Ohhhhh!" Tori squealed, "Freshman year! Gotta love it, don't you?"

Kagome nodded.

"He acts so high and mighty now, but I tell him he'd better save it for senior year, he'll need it."

Both girls laughed.

They found a beautiful set of crystal figurines. Tori fell in love with a beautiful crystal dragon with ruby eyes that seemed to glow.

"It's so pretty!" she said. The ligress half of her was naturally attracted to shiny objects. She almost felt a purr come up into her throat as the statue glistened.

Kagome looked curiously at a different one. It was a large fox, with big, almond-shaped emeralds for eyes. The more she looked at it, the more it reminded her of Kurama...

She felt her heart sink, but just for a moment. She had to drag Tori away from the dragon statue so they could keep moving.

They passed through many different areas, and Tori tapped her foot impatiently as Kagome went scouring through the clothing racks.

They finally made it out, with about a half an hour to spare, and Tori and Kagome decided to go find the boys.

Like Tori had said, it didn't take long. A female snake demon and a female tiger demon were going at it over a male eagle demon that stood watching them with interest. All of the perverted males came to observe, ready to 'comfort' the loser.

Kagome gasped at the viciousness of their squabble, and commented how not even human women were that harsh when fighting over the last item in a store or something stupid like that.

Tori commented how it was stupid to just be fighting over a guy! A guy, of all things! Even fighting over makeup would've made more sense to her. But, they both knew they weren't demons, so they'd never understand it. Naturally, Yusuke happened to be in that very crowd, cheering on the demons, with Kuwabara standing nervously behind him.

Tori stormed up behind Yusuke, grabbing him by the ear.

"Come on, you, it's time to go," she said, and dragged him out.

They headed to the edge of the market where they'd entered before, and Tori finally released a whining Yusuke as soon as she felt a feeling strike her chest...right where her heart was...

She looked nervously around, her eyes widening.

Kagome had the same expression on her face.

"Oh, shit...Kagome, did you feel that?" asked Tori. Her friend nodded.

"Feel what?" asked Yusuke.

"We'd better hurry back," said Kagome quickly.

"Why?" asked Kuwabara.

"I think we might've made the other two a LITTLE more than just angry with us," said Tori, and that's all any of them needed to hurry back to the house, unknowing of what awaited them upon arrival...

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CHAPTER TITLE PREVIEW: The Dangers of Love