Chapter Eleven: Independent Operative

Enrikka's POV

I walked down the street and looked again at the paper held in my hands. It was a wanted poster from Rekai: Spirit World. Koenma wanted me to find this guy, and bring him in for questioning. I sighed. This was boring. I had been doing what seemed like the same missions for a week now, and I had to go to Yusuke's school on top of it all. I think the little prince wanted Yusuke to watch me. Either that or I was to watch Yusuke; I had already gotten him out of trouble more than once. He was always getting into fights, so I decided I might as well help him out, and let him know when the teachers were coming so he wouldn't get expelled. He said Keiko would kill him if he got expelled. I had laughed then, but after meeting Keiko I decided she could get scary about school. And now she bugged me about it too.

I looked at the picture. It was of a normal looking guy, older than me by about (what I'm guessing is) five years. I looked at the birth date, yep five years. He was twenty. I scanned the streets again, looking for brown hair and black eyes and a scar that ran from his chin to one eye on the right side of his face. Shouldn't be so hard to find right? Wrong. I looked at my watch: almost four. I looked up again; to spot none other than the guy I was looking for. But he wasn't alone, and I guessed that this wasn't going to be an easy pick-up when the Rekai Tantei showed up too.

-What are you doing here?- Hiei turned to me, but it was Kurama who answered.

-We're supposed to follow one of those guys.- He nodded to the group that included scar face. I nodded to show I know whom he meant. –You?- He asked curiously.

-I've got to pick up one of those guys.- I went on to tell him who Koenma had sent me to get, and added the little info about the guy that was contained on the wanted poster. Then we all converged on the group really smoothly; which consisted of Yusuke walking up and saying: "Hey guys, mind if we join the meeting?" And it all went down hill from there.

First of all, I realized I was still wearing my uniform, which was a skirt. Second of all, I saw one of the guys that had been blocked from my view before. (There were five of them in a circle.) I swear I stopped breathing at that point, but tried not to let it show. I took an involuntary step back, not even hearing Yusuke and the others subduing the other four people. I felt my face drain of color, and I started to shake. I suddenly realized I was in shock, and that the guy who had put me there was charging at me with a knife in his hand.

I flung up an arm and didn't feel it as the blood sank in. "Don't you remember me?" I asked the guy. He was a couple of inches taller than me, with black hair and the same eyes as mine. As I stared into their blue gaze I felt the knife ripped out of my arm, and saw it come in again for another hit. I raised my other arm, not caring right now that the knife was doing damage that might be permanent to my muscles. I still didn't feel the pain.

"Don't you remember me?" I asked again as a blur of black knocked the guy away from me. The guy got back up to find Hiei standing over him, katana resting easily in his hand and against the guy's neck. I didn't think. I jumped on Hiei, taking him by complete surprise for a rare moment and allowing the guy to get up and run off as I held back Hiei.

"What are you doing?" Hiei grabbed me to pry me off, his voice angry and disgusted. At me? For letting the guy go? For helping my brother? Then it all went black.

Hiei's POV

Enrikka went limp in my arms, head lolling back. I held her up so she wouldn't fall to the ground, and then looked back at my teammates; who had stared stupidly at what happened.

"I thought she was supposed to help us?" Kuwabara asked. Yusuke shrugged his shoulders and Kurama came forward. I held Enrikka steady as he looked over her cuts.

"We should have Yukina tend to these, unless we want her out of commission for a month. She can't heal herself when she's unconscious" He advised, "Are we going to tell Koenma?" I shook my head 'no'. I wanted to hear why she had done it, and then I would decide whether or not to let the toddler know.

Enrikka's POV

I woke up without feeling the pain I expected. Upon examining my arms I found that there wasn't a scratch on them. I looked around and recognized Genkai's temple; I had been brought here to meet her and Yukina after I was put on probation. I didn't stay here, although a room was offered. I got an apartment in the city, but it was nice waking up to the peace and quiet instead of the noisy city bustle.

Looking out the window I found it to be night, and decided to go outside. I had the odd urge to climb a tree, and decided to act on it. Whenever I was upset I would usually find a nice tree and hide from the problems until I found a way to solve them. Often my brother used to find me before I solved anything.

I bit my lip. Riku was not someone I wanted to think about right now. My brother…it was complicated. I slipped from the room quietly, and outside to find my tree. I chose one close enough to the house so that I could hear if Genkai or Yukina called for me; but far enough away to have some privacy. Well, I assumed I would have privacy; but nothing was going my way today anyway.

Hiei leaned against the tree I was sitting in. I could see him down below, and wondered how I hadn't noticed he was following me. "So what was different this time?" He asked.

How he found out that that question had to do with what happened today I would never know. Unless he had read my mind, which was actually probably what he did. "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."

I felt a whoosh of air and heard the leaves rustle from a point on the branch in front of me. I knew Hiei had jumped up, I could feel his presence. I leaned further into the trunk behind me, wishing I were somewhere else. I didn't want him to see me cry, but most of all I didn't want to tell him how I had become the Puppet Master.

"Start from the beginning." Was all Hiei said. Choking in between my words, I managed to oblige. I told him how that guy I let escape was Riku, my brother. I told him that a long time ago my power was discovered, and Riku had always been there to protect me from people like Benji who wanted to harness it. But one day he got hurt, and captured while trying to protect me. The person he had been fighting used him against me to make me do his bidding.

"Ever since then, any time I tried to resist doing whatever he wanted, he brought out Riku, and tortured him. I had no choice, so I went along with it. Eventually my 'master' got bored conquering villages. He asked me to bring a zombie to him, and I did. He then ordered that zombie to kill my brother.

"Riku was too weak to fight, and it all happened so quickly. And then I ran away, and Benji found me a few days later. I didn't fight him, I let him take me away; but I didn't do anything he asked me too. He didn't have my brother to use against me."

"Your brother didn't recognize you?" I shook my head, then let it drop onto my drawn up knees.

"He's not supposed to be alive. I thought he was dead. I would never have run if I thought he was alive. And back then I knew I wouldn't be able to bring him back; I knew that the zombie would destroy his body. I was a coward, and now Riku is alive and he, what if he did recognize me? What if he just hated me so much that he…he…" And I finally lost it again. I was starting to get a headache, and I suddenly realized that this was the first time I had allowed myself to cry since it happened. Oh the irony. I didn't mourn my brother's death until he came back from the dead. And with that thought I started to laugh.

It was an insane, quiet giggle. I could still feel the tears coursing down my cheeks, but I was laughing at the same time. When I had quieted down, Hiei spoke. I jumped, I had forgotten he was there.

"I don't think he hated you."

Hiei's POV

"I don't think he hated you." I told her gently. I had to believe it. Because this situation sounded too much like my own. I was the Jaganshi, she was the Puppet Master. We both had horrible pasts and a sibling who didn't recognize us. I had to believe that her sibling couldn't hate her, if only to reassure myself about Yukina.

A/N: Okay, so that totally sucked. I have no idea where this is going, and I didn't realize how close Enrikka's past was to Hiei's until I just typed it. Seriously, I am that lame. The chapters will take longer for a while, 'cause like I said I have no idea where this is going. Usually I have a vague idea, but there is none with this story. I'm sorry if you hated this chapter; I did. So I won't blame you. And I have no excerpt from the next chapter 'cause it isn't written yet. When I did the excerpt for this chapter it wasn't written out either; and look how lame this one turned out to be. So I'm not going to do that again. Please review, if anyone is still reading this after my horrible case of Writer's Block kept me from writing for so long.

Hasta Luego,

Katana Blade