A/N: More tragic-past-of-OC-ness… Read and review!

12. Plot of a Betrayal - Reishi's Revenge

Ignoring Kuwabara's ceaseless protesting and yelling, Hiei had agreed to help Jiusenki and his team in destroying Spirit World. Kuwabara had gone on an angry, screaming rampage when he heard that Hiei had agreed, but he was easily taken care of with a strong punch from the dragon demon.

It was now late at night; Jiusenki, Koto, and Reishi had decided to spend the night with Hiei and Kuwabara at the human boy's house. Hiei had assured them that he would not kill them while they were sleeping ("Why would I kill somebody who is about to do me a favor by killing off the humans?" he said to bolster his point), and Kuwabara would not be going anywhere anytime soon as he was still incapacitated by Jiusenki's strong blow. Reishi had put up a peripheral barrier, though, just in case.

Kuwabara was still locked in the closet, sleeping soundly, making half-conscious snoring noises; Hiei was sleeping on the couch in the living room, sitting up straight and only half-asleep in case he needed to wake up quickly and attack. It had become a habit, even though there was nobody left on Earth to attack him. Jiusenki, Koto, and Reishi were all on the floor, Reishi's barrier protecting them.

It was about half-past one when Reishi awoke. She sat up quietly, careful not to make a sound. Looking around, she could see that everyone else was still asleep. Even Hiei was dozing peacefully on the couch, his chest rising up and down with each breath as he slept soundly. He was still alert, though, so Reishi would have to be extra quiet and careful.

Quietly, she shuffled around Jiusenki's massive body and found Koto, lying on her side, her body curled. Reishi leaned over and gently shook her shoulder, keeping one arm out to cover her mouth in case she screamed.

"Koto..." she whispered. "Koto! Wake up!"

"Uh..." Koto moaned and rolled over.

"Koto!" Reishi hissed. "Koto!"

"Mmm... wha?" Koto opened one eye and stared up at Reishi, her sparkling green eyes piercing through the black of night. "Whas going on, Reishi?" she mumbled, her speech a bit slurred from tiredness.

"Shh," Reishi warned, putting a finger to her lips. "I have to ask you something. Now get up - quietly! - and come with me."

"What...?"

Reishi didn't reply back. She grabbed Koto's arm and pulled her up soundlessly, so as to not wake anyone up. Koto looked confused, and she grabbed the blanket that she had borrowed before following Reishi.

Reishi led Koto out of the living room, past the kitchen, and out into the entryway leading to the back porch. They could see through the window nearby and noticed that it was a dark, starry night. The sky was a brilliant midnight blue color, the stars twinkling like little diamonds. The half-moon shed a small bit of light on the floor as the two girls stood, silhouetted in the moonlight.

"What's up, Reishi?" Koto whispered, stifling a yawn. "It's late."

"I know," Reishi said, pushing back her long, dark hair. "But I need to ask you something."

"Why couldn't you wait until morning...?"

"Idiot!" Reishi hissed. "If I had waited until morning, it wouldn't be a very important question. Now listen up."

"I'm listening..." Koto stifled back another yawn.

Reishi leaned in closer to Koto. Koto could see every sparkle in Reishi's deep emerald eyes, and she could see that she was very serious about this question, whatever it was. "Would you be willing to help me... betray Jiusenki?" Reishi asked.

Koto paused for a minute. It took a while for her brain to process the question, and when it did, she jumped back, momentarily startled. "What?" she said, a little too loudly. Reishi looked back into the living room and saw Jiusenki's ear twitch.

"Shh!" Reishi scolded. "You have to be quiet!"

"I'm sorry!"

"Okay. So, will you help me betray Jiusenki or not?" Reishi asked.

"Uh..." Koto was hesitant. She would surely like to betray him, as he was not very nice to her and even went so far as to hit her into unconsciousness, but what if Jiusenki thwarted their betrayal? They would be punished beyond imagination! I don't know about Reishi, Koto thought ruefully, but I don't like getting pummeled into the wall by that dragon! And what about Kuwabara and Hiei...? What if they told...?

Reishi's eyes narrowed dangerously. "I have already told you that I am planning to betray Jiusenki," she whispered, her voice serious and almost threatening. "If you do not help me, I risk the chance of having you squeal on me. If you disagree, and I risk that chance, I would have no choice but to kill you for what you know."

Koto was still hesitant. Reishi meant her threat, she knew, but really - What if they were found out?

Reishi closed her eyes and sighed. "You would help me betray him if you knew what he did to me... to my family."

Koto's ears perked up. Reishi had never talked about her family before. Koto could tell that Reishi's grudge against the dragon demon was ingrained deep down in her heart. It was a grudge and hatred she held so strong for Jiusenki, that she would not rest until she had gained her revenge.

"My parents and I were never very strong demons. My class is only an E class by Makai standards," Reishi started. "We usually just kept to ourselves, knowing that it was too dangerous to ever venture outside the lands alloted to us. My family and I belong to a psychic class. We are not fighters. We do not have the strength, vitality, or stamina to stand up to any demon. Instead, we rely on our wit, intelligence, and psychic powers to stay alive.

"One day, as our village was just going about peacefully, doing no harm to anybody, a dragon came in and attacked us. He destroyed my whole village, including my parents and younger sister! We, an innocent psychic race, had been cruelly and unjustly vanquished by this rogue dragon demon!

"The odd thing, though, that I remember, is that the dragon who attacked us... had no wings."

Koto gasped. A dragon with no wings? she thought to herself. That must be Jiusenki! He doesn't have any wings, either! "I'm so sorry about your family!" Koto gushed apologetically to Reishi.

Reishi waved her off, continuing her story. "That dragon had roared on about how hungry it was when it came and rampaged through our village, but never has a dragon ever eaten a humanoid psychic demon before! We are not full of meat, like several of the other demons in Makai, so therefore, no demon ever bothers to kill us for food. But this dragon did, and that is what angers me. Out of all the beasts in Makai, that dragon chose us - innocents! - for food." Reishi's last sentence slipped off her tongue like poison. Her eyes narrowed dangerously, and Koto could tell that Reishi was very angry and upset.

"After that day I became a loner. A solitary pyschic, sworn to avenge her family and race! There are hardly any more of my kind left in the Makai, and unless I get my revenge, our name will be shamed! We will be known as weaker than before, and in the Makai, nobody wants to be weak. Only the strong survive, so I must be strong to defend what's left of us!"

Reishi's speech was reaching its climax, her face vivid with rage and her voice reaching a crescendo. Koto was enraptured by the psychic demon's tragic tale, and she found herself holding her breath. Where does her apprenticeship to Jiusenki fall into this...? she wondered.

It was as if Reishi had read her mind. "Several years later, I happened to stumble into a lone dragon demon. It's unusual to see a dragon by itself, as it is usually with a group, so I was interested. I decided to spy on him, see what he was doing.

"He was training for something. Building up reiki blasts as big as this house, smashing craters into the dirt, making the ground tremble with his mighty roar. But the main thing that got my attention from the demon was that he had no wings...

"This, I knew, was the dragon that had slain my people! Slain my mother, my father, and my sister... This was the demon I had been looking for all my life! It was finally time for me to get my revenge... But how? I wasn't strong enough to fight this gargantuan, powerful dragon demon!

"That was when the dragon noticed that I had been watching him. He walked over to me, introduced himself as Jiusenki, then did something so surprising that I thought he was joking. He asked me to help him. I agreed, wondering what he was up to. I wasn't sure why I agreed at first, but now, I think of it as a blessing that I did.

"So, for years, Jiusenki and I fine-tuned his plot to wipe out the Human and Spirit Worlds. I was to be the brains behind his plan, as my class was especially skilled in the areas of technology and strategy, he the brawn. Finally, it was time to put our plan into action. Then you came along to help with the plan, to put the final touches on it. You were the one that knew Hiei and Kurama personally, as I had never met them, so it was your duty to track them down for us."

"But I messed up..." Koto said, her fox ears drooping a bit.

"That's actually good," Reishi replied. "Your blunder makes Jiusenki angry, and that's what I want. I want him to get a taste of his own medicine! See how he likes it when all of his plans go wrong as mine did. I planned to become one of the top psychics, but there's no way I can do that anymore without the proper training. Jiusenki had killed and eaten all of our elite pyschics, and now hope is nearly lost for my class!"

Reishi paused for a second, taking a few deep breaths to calm down. It had felt good to release all of this inner anger and pain to somebody, and now that she had planned out her revenge, all she had to do was gain an accomplice. With one last deep breath, Reishi asked Koto the same question again. "So, Koto... will you help me?"

Koto hesitated for a moment, then let Reishi's story re-sink in her head. She had made up her mind. "Yes. I will help you."

NEXT TIME - INTO THE SPIRIT WORLD - STRATEGY BEFORE ASSAULT!

--crazykitsune17--