A few quick notes, 1) I edited this chapter, 2) I do not own any YYH characters, 3) this story is dedicated to my math teacher, Mr. Sonnie, I think up some of my best story plots in his class. (Just don't tell him.)

Chapter 2

The red head pushed hair out of their face and Risty stood before the group.

"What did you do to your hair?" Kitten yelled, grasping at what was left of Risty's once long hair.

Risty shrugged. "It was in my way."

"But why red?" she whined.

"I've got a different color picked out for each day of the tournament." she explained. "I just decided to get a head start."

The figure behind Risty giggled.

"No pun intended." Risty growled. "Why don't you come out and say 'hi' Rogue?"

The Georgian stepped out from the shadows. "Hi, Rogue."

"Ha ha." Risty muttered.

"Rogue? What happened to you?" Ryu asked, noticing the scratches on her arms and the marks on her neck.

"Well..." Risty and Rogue muttered together.

"You didn't! You practiced without me? I thought I was the only one you nearly killed!" Ryu yelled. "Didn't all those times you almost killed me mean anything to you?" she asked, starting to cry.

Risty quickly looked around for an escape. "Koga!" she cried happily, throwing her arms around the dog-demon. "And Kana!" she dropped to her knees and held the wolf.

Kana changed into a person and hugged Risty. Koga fell to his knees and hugged both girls.

"Aaya," he whispered, "we thought you were dead!"

"What happened?" Kana asked.

"Well, I wasn't dead when you left, but I knew I couldn't come back. About two years later I was killed, then Nefertiri said I needed to come back to finish something." Risty explained.

"Kurai no doubt." Koga muttered. "You were right about her." he pulled both girls to their feet. "She'd planted that bracelet and had meant for you to get blamed for it. After the 'incident' they put Kitten on trial, Kurai stepped up and said it hadn't been her, that it had been you."

"But the rest of us knew you had been on a special assignment that night, so fingers started pointing. All of them at Kurai. Everyone knew the two of you had never been very close or friendly. And after the Master started taking extra notice of you, well, Kurai got jealous." Kana added.

"Anyone with eyes could see she wanted you out of the picture. But we were too convinced she was our friend to believe what you were saying about her. You weren't the jealous type, but the idea of power, it changes people."

"Everything you said about Kurai was true. She was relaying everything we did to the Master. That's how Yume got caught talking to that human, she told us about him at night and Kurai," she choked, "Kurai told the Master everything. When you tried to kill her, we, we turned you in. She deserved everything you ever did to her, whether we saw it or not."

"We were wrong to doubt you." Koga apologized. "Can you forgive us?"

Risty hugged him. "I'm too glad you're alive to worry about that stuff." she hugged Kana. "Both of you."

"Well if you're glad to see us, wait until you see who else is here." Kana smiled.

"I did hear there were two girl teams here. Are you telling me?"

"Yeah. Yume, Kit, Kagome, Sakura, Yuki, and Rissa."

"Rissa? She made it?"

"Yeah, she passed with flying colors. And all she did was talk about what a great teacher she had."

Risty leaned against the wall. "I wish I could've been there. I'm so proud of her."

"I'm sure she'll be glad to see you again. But there is on thing I should warn you about." Kana grabbed Risty's arm. "Sasuke is here. After Koga came back and told us you were dead, well, he went into mourning."

Risty snorted. "Good for him."

"Listen. Almost a year later he found a new girlfriend. A real big-chested blond. The kind you would expect him to go for. That lasted about three days. Then he went with another girl, that lasted about five minutes."

"What? Did she beat the crap out of him or something?"

"No, listen to this next part. Then he stayed single for over seventeen years. About six months ago he hooked up with Kit. He's here to cheer her on."

Risty's eyes widened as she looked at her old friend. "Kitten?"

"Yeah. Now here's the interesting part. Not too long ago, a rumor started up that you were alive. Well, Kurai started panicking and Sasuke started asking Kit if she really thought you could be alive. He asked everyone what they thought. If they knew you, he asked if they thought you were alive. The rest of us didn't want to get our hopes up, but those two have been acting weird ever since that rumor started."

"So Sasuke wants to know if I'm alive. Why?"

"No one knows."

"What are you guys talking about?" Yusuke yelled. "And why didn't you two tell us you knew Risty?"

"Risty." Koga said, trying out the name. "Different."

"In my last life I was raised in the Hive. It was an organization for assassins. You would be trained, raised, given assignments, and occasionally given into the service of another client. Yume, Kitten, Kagame, Sakura, Hiroyuki, Kana, and I were room mates. We ate together, trained together, took classes together, spent our free time together, and bunked in the same room. Marissa came to the Hive when she was eight, went through preliminary training, and then got assigned a teacher, just like the rest of us. I was Marissa's teacher. Kitten was my teacher." Risty explained. "Koga is Kana's brother, so we were close with him and his friends too. Sasuke was one of Koga's friends, we were, close."

"I guess this means you don't know where they are?" Koga asked.

"No, I was hoping maybe you guys would."

"So, you were an assassin?" Hiei asked.

"Yeah, I still get equipment from the store."

"You still go there?" Kana asked.

"Yeah, I didn't change much physically. That's probably where the rumor I was alive came from, someone couldn't keep their mouth shut."

"Are you sure you know where we're going?" A voice down the hall whined.

"Yeah, I don't really think you do."

"Quiet!" A third voice commanded. "We're room 470, that means we're on the fourth floor."

"So how do you know we're going the right way?" The second voice asked.

"Because this is room 450! We're heading towards room 452, so we're going the right way!" the voice yelled.

"What room number is this?" Yusuke asked.

"466." Ryu answered.

"So they're going to have to pass us."

"Yeah."

Six young women and a young man came walking down the hall towards the group. The woman with the authoritative voice had the young man's arm around her shoulders and a room key in her hand stopped when she saw the group.

"Koga, Kana? What are you two doing here?" she asked.

"We're on Koenma's team." Koga answered.

"What has Spirit World come to when Lord Koenma has assassins fighting on his team. Gods. Aaya? Is that you?" she breathed.

"Hey Kit." Risty whispered.

"Oh gods, Aaya." she shrugged off the man's arm and hugged Risty.

Risty pushed away and looked at the others. "Hey guys."

Suspense! Review if you didn't review the original version! Thanx!