Disclaimer: I own no one besides Chikuu. ))
Notes: dreams/memories/flashbacks are in italics. Thoughts are in bold.
Chapter Two: Not His Day
Chapter Theme Song: "The Hand That Feeds", Nine Inch Nails
Urameshi Yuusuke was not in a good mood.
Not only did he have to work on his one day off in three-freaking-weeks, but he wasn't even allowed to take out his irritation on the damn assignment. Strict orders commanded that he 'bring this one in alive'.
Yes, definitely cause for severe agitation on the young Toushin's part.
Yuusuke sighed heavily, shoving his hands in his pockets stubbornly, scowl plastered on his face and long hair blowing in the slight breeze.
Stupid toddler, Yuusuke thought furiously, Will I EVER see a day without that brat summoning me?
Yuusuke growled under his breath.
'It is a matter of utmost importance, Yuusuke. And I need this one brought in alive. So don't get carried away this time.'
The demon rolled his eyes. It was always 'a matter-of-utmost-importance'. This was just one more incident to add to the ever-growing list of world-threatening calamities Koenma had shoved on him in the past years. And this time, the one time Koenma had actually personally promised him a day of total relaxation-- he gets called in. Yuusuke sighed again. He was getting way too soft.
Keeping his eyes up and senses tuned to the surrounding environment, the ex-Detective trudged grudgingly through the thick forest full of dead-looking trees that Yuusuke knew weren't actually dead, due to the obvious scent of life emanating from them. They were immensely tall and blocked most of the sunlight from reaching the ground, so the air was quite cool. Not that Yuusuke cared. Dressed in a short-sleeved, white undershirt and baggy cargo pants, he was in no way affected by the temperature.
The more that he thought about it, however, Yuusuke realized that he hadn't been home for longer than half a day or so in the last few weeks . . . and it was beginning to take a toll on his nerves. Although his demon blood kept him awake for long periods of time with relative ease, Yuusuke's head was beginning to ache dully behind his eye sockets. Every sound seemed amplified to a horrendously loud volume, and even the rustling of the leaves was starting to grate on his ever-shortening nerves. His nerves weren't the only ones that were on thin ice, though. Keiko, who never liked to be without Yuusuke in their small apartment for more than a few days, had been becoming steadily more upset as Yuusuke's summonings got more and more frequent. This did not do much to improve Yuusuke's mood, considering that when Keiko was mad, the rest of the world seemed angry at him as well.
She had been especially unhappy upon his departure this morning particularly.
The breeze whistled again through the dry branches above the Toushin's head. This time, however, it carried an odd scent, which Yuusuke's demon nose picked up instantly. Immediately he came to a halt, chin lifted, sniffing slightly at the foreign smell.
With newfound curiosity, Yuusuke took off in the direction of the scent, bounding effortlessly through the spacious gap between the lower branches of the dark trees and the uneven, rocky ground. With each step he took, the scent became much more pronounced, and Yuusuke's confusion grew. The smell was like a huge admixture of several extremely contrasting scents. Like . . . smoke, crispness, and a sort of soft, flowery scent that resembled, of all things, sunflowers.
After following the odd scent for about a mile of so, the young Toushin lord came to a graceful landing atop the lowest of the branches of a rather tall tree seeming akin to that of the ash tree of Ningenkai.
Crouched catlike on the limb, Yuusuke peered down onto the scenery below him. His eyes narrowed as they came to rest on a field . . . of bright green grass . . . and leafy trees . . and, for heaven's sake flowers, in Makai.
Yuusuke's lower left eyelid twitched slightly as one black eyebrow arched in suspicion. He had been under the impression that he was after a dangerous fire-demon, not a landscape artist.
Yuusuke rolled his eyes in exasperation. There was no way this was the 'matter of utmost importance' Koenma had dragged him out of his day of relaxation for. Lazily, the young man shifted and dropped his legs over the edge of the branch, reaching out to Sense for the whereabouts of his 'mystery demon'.
. . . And found nothing.
Yuusuke frowned. There had to be someone here, he could still smell them. The scent was as strong as if they standing right in front of him.
Or rather, right behind him.
A searing burst of heat suddenly thundered through the air behind Yuusuke and he was jerked into a remarkably well-coordinated side-twist off his branch to avoid being fried. The young Toushin was no doubt saved from a beach-ball sized mass of flame-like energy rocketing towards him by the quickness of his extraordinarily well-honed reflexes and nothing else.
"WHAT THE--" came the startled cry from the Toushin's mouth as he turned a swift back handspring to regain his balance. His eyes wide, he turned his head sharply to the side, searching wrathfully for the insolent, soon-to-be-walking-the-halls-of-Reikai youkai that dared attack him.
His eyes widened even further as his gaze landed on the insolent demon responsible.
The insolent female demon responsible.
A short, sneaky little beast of a female.
Coming to a firm stop with his knees bent, Yuusuke's eyes narrowed in fury, partly at the nerve of this scrawny, low-class demoness, and partly as his own stupidity at letting his guard down far enough to be taken by such surprise.
A low, feral growl arose from Yuusuke's throat; his eyes burned ferociously.
A small girl with long dark hair and equally dark, round eyes was poised on the same branch Yuusuke had previously been making himself quite comfortable upon.
'Damn low-class . . .' Yuusuke thought angrily.
Although, the ex-Detective noted, the demoness might very easily not be as low-class as his Toushin nature immediately assumed. Her head was held high in solid confidence, not bent in the usual jeering smirk commonly found on the faces of low-class weaklings who attempted to compete with demons like Yuusuke. Slung across her back was a simple leather quiver full of white-feathered arrows and a wooden longbow was grasped comfortably in her right hand. Over her shoulder, Yuusuke thought he could see the edge of the hilt of a sword strapped across her back as well. Use of a bow and arrow required at least some level of diligence and skill, Yuusuke knew. So the demoness most likely wasn't a completely brainless idiot. She was just an impudent fool.
Though Yuusuke couldn't really decide which was worse.
"Sharp set of senses you've got there." She called out to him. The growl rumbling in Yuusuke's chest grew increasingly louder as he bared his teeth in a feral snarl. The girl's grin only widened in response.
Yuusuke tensed, every nerve of his body itching for a fight. But the young man knew better than to let his Toushin side take over completely. If that happened, Yuusuke knew, there wouldn't be anything left of the girl to take back to Koenma.
And then he'd be in some sorta deep sh-
Yuusuke's thought were halted as the girl raised her bow, snatched another arrow out of her quiver and fired it. It promptly ignited upon its release, so that by the time it was to Yuusuke, the arrow itself could no longer be seen, but looked only to be a flaming ball of red-white energy.
This time, though, Yuusuke was well-prepared for it. He dodged to one side, swinging his right arm up to chest level at the same time. The female's eyes widened in total surprise as a massive concentration of bluish-white reiki hurtled towards her with impressive speed. She barely had the time to leap backwards off her branch before it and the many trees behind it, went up in smoke. The youkai landed on both feet on the ground below her, now on even ground with Yuusuke .
The girl's eyes, while for a moment riveted on the impressive attack Yuusuke had fired, turned to the Toushin with a look that almost nearly resembled that of slight respect. But instead of doing the expected of a demon who was obviously out of her league (roll over and play dead, that is), the youkai's large eyes narrowed with a challenging grin.
"Impressive." She said calmly, with the hint of a sneer playing in her tone. "But not much more than any of the others."
She must mean the other Guards the Brat sent after her. Yuusuke thought.
Her posture re-stabilized, the girl took a small step to the right, eyes never leaving Yuusuke's, as she strapped her bow to her back against her quiver. The young man might have been quite unnerved by the look she was giving him- that is, if he had met Keiko.
With a spring, Yuusuke launched himself forward, raising one fist and charging it with just enough reiki to effectively knock the girl senseless. He reached her in less than a second, and he swung at her – and missed.
She had ducked, avoiding the hit. As Yuusuke's arm swung over her head, she lifted herself back up to a steady, crouched position and whirled around to deal him one hell of a round-house kick.
But Yuusuke, being more than experienced in the ways of street-fighting, easily twisted his body to get out of her foot's way and, instead of getting a gut full of shoe, the Toushin reached down and caught it, holding her firmly in place.
With an infuriated yell, she turned a swift back handspring, freeing her foot. Flipping once more, she increased the gap between herself and the stronger demon by a good seven meters. Upon landing, she wasted no time and reached one arm around behind her to unsheathe a long, slim katana from a hold attached to her quiver. Its was in pretty good condition, its blade free of a single nick or scratch. Although, Yuusuke's vision could detect minute amounts of blood she had missed while cleaning the weapon.
How many weapons does she carry on her! Yuusuke wondered incredulously as the young demoness took off towards Yuusuke, sword securely in the grasp of her right hand.
It was very lucky for the Toushin that he's had plenty of practice in defending against swords while being without one of his own sparring with Hiei. This demoness moved very nearly as quickly as the Jaganshi did, and her sword handling was almost flawless in its execution. The sword movement was lightning-fast, its blade mere flashes of light to any eyes less trained than Yuusuke's. Though even he was having slight (very slight) problems keeping track of the girl's style of fighting. His brain had grown far too used to Hiei's style- so he was trying to defend against attacks the fire demon would have used at the same as he was trying to adjust to this new youkai. Luckily, their styles were just similar enough to allow Yuusuke to get his bearings quickly, and so it wasn't long before the battle-hardened Toushin gained the upper hand.
Dodging the most recent slash at his head, Yuusuke dropped to his knees and kicked his leg out and into the side of her thigh. She stumbled and lost her footing entirely, but stayed on her feet. Her brief unsteadiness gave Yuusuke the opportunity, however, to vanish from her sight, and reappear directly behind her, where he proceeded to hook his arms under hers and hold them there. Then he braced himself.
Surely enough, the demoness proved to be more than a little difficult to restrain. Though she had no use of her arms, she kicked, not just out and to the sides, but backwards into his legs, and once or twice tried to place her feet on the ground and push her body away from Yuusuke's. After her second attempt at the latter, Yuusuke stood to his full height, lifting her straight off the ground, giving her no way to shove herself using the ground as an anchor. This only served to make her angrier. Which was an impressive sight to be perfectly honest, considering her meager size.
"LET ME GO, DAMN YOU! LET GO, OR I WILL SEND YOU DOWN TO HADES MYSELF YOU--"
She proceeded to yell out a rather colorful string of curses and insults worthy of a sailor's brig.
Keeping in mind that this one was to 'be brought in alive', Yuusuke decided perhaps Kurama's way or diplomacy was the technique he should apply when handling this situation. As opposed to Hiei's method of suppression by force.
"Alright, now, calm down--"
"YOU INCOMPETENT COLLECTION OF BONES--"
"Take it easy, I'm not gonna--"
"IF YOU THINK YOU CAN JUST MANHANDLE ME INTO SUBMISSION, YOU ARE MISTAKEN! I WILL NOT BE RESTRAINED LIKE THIS, DO YOU HEAR ME--"
"Woman, relax! I'm just here to--"
"I'LL MAKE YOU SORRY YOU WERE EVER BORN YOU ARROGANT SON OF A--"
. . . So she wasn't exactly responding well to the 'diplomacy' system. Ah, well. Time to resort to Hiei's method.
With seemingly little effort, Yuusuke dropped the girl to the ground, spun her around, and then threw her over his shoulder like a rag doll.
Which, surprisingly, didn't go over so well.
Meaning that she used every means at her disposal, whether verbal or physical, to inflict pain on the hanyou Toushin. From attempting to reach around and grab an arrow to stab him with it to kicking her legs into his ribs, she certainly tried everything she could. And while it didn't harm Yuusuke in any way, it sure helped scoot his mood from 'Pissed Off' to 'The Next Person That Back-Talks Me Is In For A World Of Pain'.
Yuusuke sighed heavily for the third time since his mission began.
This was definitely not his day.
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Prince Koenma was never one to hold much strength of spirit in the face of direct danger.
Especially when staring across his desk at a very angry demon.
. . . A very angry, dark-eyed, B-Superior demon bound in magically-enhanced chains that were only strong enough to hold a B-Inferior demon.
The Prince was just lucky he had extremely capable back-up in case things should get . . . out of hand. As they were clearly about to.
"Now, l-let's just start off with your, er, name, shall we?" the toddler prince began shakily, eyes darting between the print-out clenched in his tiny fists and the venomous glare being sent to him by the demoness seated just in front of his desk. Her only response was to narrow her eyes more and bare her teeth slightly.
Koenma gulped, glancing over quickly at Yuusuke, as if making sure he was still there to protect him from being mangled lest this female get free. Jorge was also, of course, right beside the toddler prince. Bending over slightly, he took the paper from Koenma's hands along with the pen beside the Prince's arm and touching it to his tongue, prepared to make note of anything necessary.
"Alright, so, um . . . What is it, exactly?"
The demoness growled. Koenma whimpered. Yuusuke rolled his eyes.
"Just tell him your name, woman."
"Who are you to order me around, lowlife!"
"So you'd prefer I just call you 'woman', then?" Yuusuke asked, quite calm as he attempted to suppress his demonic side from ripping the audacity right out the demoness with his bare hands.
". . . It's Chikuu."
"Chikuu?" Prince Koenma inquired interestedly.
"You gotta problem with my name?"
"Now see here- I will not stand for your back-talk in my palace!"
"Fine."
Yuusuke laughed slightly. Chikuu's eyes flicked towards him sharply, but softened just barely when she saw he was only laughing at the Prince's obvious discomfort. A ghost of a smile flitted across her face before she turned her head, glare now firmly back in place, back to perfectly still child-prince. Chikuu sighed.
"It's my second name, really. The first part is Arashinatsu." She stated after a few moments of tense silence. Jorge jumped at the sudden sound of her voice, and jotted down her information as quickly as his hands could move.
For the next few moments, all was quiet, save for the scratch of Jorge's pencil on the paper in front of him as he wrote, glancing back and forth between Chikuu and the sheet every once and a while. Chikuu's eye began twitch just slightly as she stared the large blue demon, agitation growing with each irritating movement of the pencil.
"Hello!" she called out, unable to contain the impatience any longer.
Koenma started at the sudden outburst, as did Jorge.
"Oh! My apologies Arashi--"
"It's CHIKUU." She corrected the ogre stiffly. Yuusuke snickered.
"Oh! Right, sorry . . . Anyways, I was simply recording notes your physical features."
"Oh?" Chikuu asked, mildly interested. "And what exactly are you writing?"
"Ah, well, just your eye color, hair color and such . . . How tall are you precisely?"
Chikuu opened her moth to reply, but Yuusuke interrupted.
"Oh, a little over five feet. Maybe Five-two."
" . . . Ah, thank you, My Lord. Good observat--"
"No, no, I'm taller than that!" Chikuu protested. Yuusuke sent her a sardonic look.
"Yeah right, okay."
"Shut your trap!"
Yuusuke rolled his eyes, though in truth he was glad to have some way to vent out a little of the annoyance that plagued his brain.
"I bet you're more like five foot ONE!"
"No, I am NOT! You, big blue guy with the pen, put down five-foot-four!"
"You aren't that tall and you know it!"
"How would YOU know!"
"What's all this yelling about?" interrupted a soft, calm voice from the doorway. Yuusuke and Chikuu paused in their power struggle for a second to snap their heads around and find Kurama striding smoothly from the open doorway of Koenma's office. He reached one hand up and placed it on the Toushin's shoulder, making a small attempt to calm his obviously frustrated friend as he came to a stop next to the raven-haired demon.
Kurama's expression was one of mild confusion as his emerald eyes turned towards Yuusuke, whose own dark eyes were closed in suppressed anger.
"Kurama," he said softly. "Don't ask."
The kitsune let out a quiet laugh and removed his hand promptly from his friend's shoulder, which was, by this point, quite tense. The red-head's attention was attracted back to the doorway from whence he had entered to find a certain short, spiky-haired fire demon strutting through the large opening.
His face held the same, stoic, slightly bored tinted by irritation expression it usually did, red eyes shining in the bright light. They flicked off-handedly around the rooms occupants, coming to rest on nothing, save the girl chained to a small chair directly in front of the toddler Prince that Hiei had by now come to dismiss mostly, if not fully, from his attention.
His ruby eyes narrowed slightly, but in an odd sort of confusion rather than his usual agitation. The highlights in her chestnut hair shone in the surgically white light of the small room; red and gold in varying intervals of her locks. The color reminded him of something.
Brushing the feeling off, Hiei continued walking and leaned himself against the wall beside Kurama.
"What exactly am I doing here?" he inquired of the fox, voice showing the demon's aggravation.
"We're here to help stop this demoness from attacking anyone unnecessarily, of course." Kurama answered lightly.
"And my presence is required for this single woman?"
"Not required- requested my friend. For moral support, you know."
"Your humor is neither required nor requested, Kurama."
At this Kurama tilted his head ever-so-slightly to one side.
"Is there something troubling you, Hiei?"
The fire demon did not answer. Kurama hadn't really expected him to. They were in a very public place and, although seemingly busy at the moment with arguing loudly, the other occupants of the room were far too close for a private conversation.
The chances of Hiei speaking at all lessened even further when Kuwabara came running in through the door to complete the group.
"What's the big emergency guys!" he asked hurriedly, afraid he might have come too late to help. As he glanced quickly around the room and found nothing in particular to worry about, his posture relaxed, and he stepped a little further into the room. "Who's the girl?" he continued as his eyes fell on Chikuu still strapped to the metal chair in front of Koenma.
"Don't worry Kuwabara, you haven't missed anything important. Hiei and I arrived only just before you," Kurama explained.
"Oh okay . . . Who's the girl?"
"Her name is Chikuu. We're just here to make sure she doesn't attack anyone while she's under arrest."
"Oh, gotcha. What'd she--"
"Excuse me! We're getting to that Kuwabara!" Koenma interrupted, having finally silenced the fighting between Yuusuke and Chikuu. "Now can we please continue with the questions, if nobody minds!"
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