Chapter Ten: Puppet Master

Enrikka's POV

"What do you mean?" Hiei asked the teen with the orange hair. The guy looked super sheepish all of the sudden. "Um, well…"

"What Kuwabara is trying to say is that she was our next mission. We were supposed to track her down. And if necessary rescue her." This came from the red head with them, who was considerably taller than me and for some reason gave me the impression of a fox.

"A little late for rescuing huh?" I asked them, hoping to relieve some of the tension that had mysteriously entered the room. No one seemed amused by my comment except me. I realized this when they blatantly ignored me.

"What about her" Hiei asked "made Koenma so interested?"

"Look, we don't know okay? We didn't get to finish the tape because Koenma said we should wait for you." I noticed that the redhead was going to go on, and I hoped he didn't know…

"They called her Puppet Master." I flinched at the name, and Hiei noticed.

"Puppet Master?" Well, I should have known they'd find out sooner or later. I mean, at least two were telepaths and they were the Rekai Tantei. And their boss was the son of the ruler of Spirit World…

Hiei was still glaring at me, undoubtedly ignoring my uncomfortable look and waiting for me to explain. "Can we get out of here please?" I asked to stall for time.

The redhead seemed to agree with me. "This is hardly the place for this conversation." And with that we were all walking out of there. Of course, I knew I'd have a lot of explaining to do later…most of which I didn't want to talk about. But at least I was out of the cell, right?

Koenma's Office

Enrikka's POV

I'd rather be back in the cell. I realized this when I was seated in front of the great Koenma himself, Hiei, and the others, whose names I'd learned on the way out of the castle. Kurama, Kuwabara, and Yusuke. Since I was sunk anyway, I waited until we were seated and then asked a question that had been bugging me for a while.

"That wouldn't happen to be the Youko Kurama, would it?" Kurama looked uncomfortable, but answered my question. "Ah, thought so."

"How the heck did you know that?" Yusuke, the black haired punk/leader, asked me.

"I've been in Makia before this trip. I know the legend." I answered, shrugging. Then Koenma took charge of the situation, and it seemed he wanted to tell the story about the Puppet Master (me) which I was happy to allow.

"The Puppet Master has been eluding us for quite some time now," Koenma started, to which he got an "I bet, you guys can't even catch a cold without us" from Yusuke. He glared, but continued, "She had been missing for a while; but before that she was known for her work with zombies. Namely, using them to destroy villages." I had closed my eyes at this point, but I could still feel them looking at me. When I realized Koenma wasn't going to go on, I realized it was my turn.

"Look, it wasn't my choice alright?" Apparently this was not all right, since Koenma wanted me in jail. Since I did not want to go into the subject, I let him arrest me. Which consisted of him saying, "You're under arrest."

"Enrikka has no reason to lie to us." Kurama said for me. "As this last case illustrates, she is subject to kidnapping and being forced to use her power against her will." I was glad I'd made another friend, since Kurama seemed really nice, but then Hiei had to go and be a jerk.

"But what was different this time?" And, of course, like an idiot, I went:

"What do you mean 'what was different'?"

"You didn't give into the demands this time." Hiei so nicely pointed out for everyone, which did make them pretty curious. Especially since this made it sound like all the other times I had wanted to destroy the villages. Which of course I hadn't.

"This time was different." I said lamely, suppressing the onslaught of memories pressing in on me. Most of which consisted of blood and screaming.

"Well, since Enrikka doesn't seem to want to tell us…" Koenma went on, talking as if I wasn't in the room. That didn't bug me like it usually would, since I really didn't want to be there. Because I Koenma wasn't going to force it out of me, I knew who would.

"…I'm putting her on probation. I think her skills would come in handy." Koenma had a smirk on his face like he knew I was innocent and had been planning this from the beginning. But since he was in his toddler form I found it hard to believe.

"What?" Yusuke and Kuwabara asked. "We don't need another team member." Yeah, they don't need another team member. I agreed with Yusuke whole-heartedly.

"I didn't say she was going to be on your team." Koenma said, he seemed annoyed; like Yusuke questioned his authority a lot. Which I imagined was probably the case.

"An independent operative?" Kurama asked, catching on.

"Yes. But she will work with your cases too. If you need her."

"We won't." Hiei said. Dork. I thought; he'd been a jerk since we'd gotten out of there.

-I heard that. -

A/N: There is absolutely no excuse for this being held off for so long and I'd like to say I'm sorry for being lazy and leaving you guys like that with no idea where it was going. (Yeah, I had no idea where it was going.) And Enrikka is an independent operative because I wanted to veer away from the norm (and what I did in my last fic) of having the OC team up with the RT. It'd be kind of boring for me to do another one like that right after tbomw. Tell me if you like the twist. Again, I'd like to say I'm sorry and I still have no idea where this was going; but I will not abandon this fic. And I'll probably pick back up on A Quiver Full Of Arrows after this is done. Please review.

Sneak Peek:

Chapter Eleven: Independent Operative

Enrikka's POV

Hiei leaned against the tree I was sitting in. "So what was different this time?" He asked.

"He was alive before." I finally conceded, and with the tears running down my cheeks I let the waves I had been suppressing inundate me with half-forgotten images that had been purposefully driven from my mind. "He was alive, before I killed him."

Hasta Luego.