A/N: Hello once again, Fellow FanFiction Fanatics!

Another chapter bites the dust...

Symbols Guide:

* : Written by CM; She writes for Akari and Hiei
3 : Written by Star (supposed to be the 'heart' symbol, but FF doesn't like the 'less-than' sign, so it's a 3 instead); She writes for Toriko and Kurama
~!**!~ : A universal transition between scenes or characters, sometimes used to indicate a passage of time, but most often used to transition between major scenes that are happening. As the story progresses, this will evolve into mainly separating the (usually two) scenes happening between authors/characters.

As a general rule, anything in italics is thoughts.
Unless it's used in a sentence like this, which merely indicates emphasis.
"Quotations are usually reserved specifically for telepathic dialogue being transmitted from one being to another, but sometimes this can also mean a character isn't being careful about what they're thinking and anyone with telepathy in the nearby vicinity can listen in without taking any effort."

The only exception to that last rule is for the Shiba Inu dog, Nabu. All of his "spoken" dialogue will be in italics and quotations, but is communicated through body language or dog-like noises, so unless a character is able to translate those they are unlikely to pick up on what he is saying any more than the average person might understand his general moods like aggression (bared teeth, ears back) or excitement (wagging tail).

Previously on Yu Yu Hakusho!

It appears that Maneshi is not simply a normal cat, as proven by how he assists Hiei by healing Toriko of her wound.

After this, Toriko finishes mending Hiei's cloak and it isn't long before Akari shows up to get tutoring from Toriko.

Unwilling to leave Toriko alone with a demon he suspects of being in cahoots with Otento,
Hiei slips outside and takes his place in the nearest tree...

Maneshi huffed through his nose at Hiei as he watched the fire demon leave Toriko's bedroom through the window and close it behind him. The cat leapt up onto the windowsill and stared at him intentionally, blinking once and meowing in displeasure at the source of warmth that had so carelessly tossed him away.

Heaving a sigh almost unnatural for a creature of his ilk, Maneshi hopped back down to the carpet and curled up in the sunshine, hoping Hiei would be back.

~!**!~

Toriko took the sheet of paper, feeling Akari's complete uncomfortableness at the subject being broached practically rolling off the other female in waves of frustration.

Saying nothing, Toriko sat and studied the work, frowning, though not in relation to the numerous scribblings and eraser marks.

Other-worldly symbols dotted the page, coupled with what Toriko quickly related to be Akari's attempts at matching them with their Human World equivalents. As far as Toriko could tell, the girl had 'addition' and 'subtraction' down just fine. Toriko's eyebrows twitched, sensing that it would be necessary to access memories she had intentionally stored in the deep recesses of her mind and her apprehension just at the thought of it grew.

Toriko blinked, struggling silently with her innate non-humaness and all the fear she associated with it.

"Y-you're using-" Toriko swallowed, "D-demon World symbols." It wasn't a question.

Her brow furrowed farther and she reached up to connect an edge of the paper that had been torn apart by one too many vigorous erasings.

"May I see your pencil?" She flipped the paper over to the blank side and pressed the writing utensil down after receiving it, scooting her glasses back up her nose with one hand before changing her mind and putting them on top of her head completely.

She went back and forth from either side of the paper, putting the Human World math symbols that the sheet used on one side, and any Demon World symbols Akari had on the other, sitting and staring for a moment before beginning to connect the two sides, writing a small equation for each, Human World on top with Demon World on bottom, down below the markings after pairing them up.

"Two plus two is four. Addition in Demon World uses this symbol. Two minus two is zero. Subtraction uses this symbol..." Toriko silently walked herself through the more basic symbols, clenching her jaw together in her attempts to keep her mind strictly upon accessing mathematical memories from over a decade past.

"Multiplication...Division..." Toriko worked steadily, remembering the symbols for parenthesis, 'less than,' 'greater than,' and 'equal to,' but struggling when she reached 'sine,' 'cosine,' and 'tangent.'

Toriko sat back after what seemed like forever, unable to go any farther as she struggled to keep certain memories from surfacing, shoving her non-human nature as far away as possible.

"H-here." She finally said, scooting the sheet back over towards Akari, who had been steadily becoming more interested in her work the whole time. "It's been over a decade, so this is all I've got so far. You ought to be able to get quite a bit of it done on your own now, though." She squeezed her eyes shut, silently wishing the girl away so that she could deal with regaining herself. "When I recall some of the others, I will let you know."

~!**!~

Maneshi squeezed his eyes tightly together as a tickle began in the back of his head, one that continued to itch in ever-increasing amounts until he raised his head sleepily from where it rested on the floor. He stretched lazily when he did not immediately see any danger, but became more aware of something going on in his domain, though he didn't know what exactly.

Getting up and thoroughly cleaning himself before actually moving, Maneshi made his way out of Toriko's bedroom door and trotted down the steps, his nose immediately picking up a dog somewhere in the vicinity and he froze at the bottom stair, hair prickling along his spine. In his experiences, dogs were either overzealous with affection or over-angry at him for no reason that he could legitimize other than the fact that he happened to be feline in nature. He cautiously took another step forward, but after scanning the room once, he realized where the smell came from and immediately dismissed it, the distress that he'd felt in the back of his head more apparent now that he was in the room with Toriko.

He emitted a sound between a purr and a meow that did not quite pass out his mouth as he quickly pranced across the room and jumped neatly into Toriko's lap, butting his head against her arm and seating himself when she began petting his back absently, tail flicking down the side of the chair over Toriko's thigh as he stared unblinking at the stranger seated next to his Toriko, someone that he somehow felt was connected to the emotions she hid away in her mind. 3

Akari had silently kept up with Toriko's writings, her eyes taking in the words that were slowly forming on the paper underneath her pencil. She recognized that Toriko was making the connections between Akari's own scribblings, and when she even continued further with even more symbols, Akari found herself leaning forward, an elbow on the table and chin resting in her hand as her mind absorbed the new information with interest and curiosity. She could feel a few things click into her mind and she found that she almost felt dumb for not making the connections herself.

Akari watched for what felt like hours as Toriko wrote, connecting symbols from this world with the symbols of her home world, and by the time Toriko had sat back, she felt like she'd just gone through an entire week's worth of study. She didn't move from her relaxed stature, though her eyes did follow Toriko with a small sheen of thankfulness she wouldn't vocalize. Instead, she merely nodded at the girl and retrieved the paper from her, looking over each symbol again and memorizing the connections.

After a few silent moments, the demon shifted and sat back again, stretching her legs out under the table and stretching her arms over her head lazily, eyes roving over to the cat she had barely taken notice of a few moments ago. She raised a brow at him and then glanced at Toriko once more, expression neutral. "How much longer am I required for tutoring?" she finally inquired, glancing at a nearby clock, but not sure what time she had arrived. *

Toriko shifted her glasses up her face, sliding a hand down Maneshi's back gently in a meditative fashion, the motion only helping keep her thoughts grounded a little.

"I don't think you're going to need any more help." Toriko managed to say, "At least not for a while. As we get further into the semester, I will try to provide you will equivalents should find yourself unable. If I am asked I will say that we took the required time needed to catch you up." Toriko stood, scooting her chair back from the table, Maneshi hopping down from her lap to the floor. She waited for a moment to see if Akari would gather her things, assuming the girl would be eager to vacate the premises as Toriko got the feeling she hadn't wanted to be there in the first place.

Toriko turned and slowly began walk towards the front door to give Akari time to get her stuff together, opening the door for and nodding to Akari as she left.

Toriko collapsed against the door, Maneshi having followed her all the way over and standing near her feet, staring up at her, his eyes wide with concern. She didn't hardly notice him, but walked over to the couch in a daze, memories of ages past threatening to spill over her mind. She collapsed onto the cushions, staring at the wall for a moment, then took off her glasses and placed them on the coffee table, rubbing her hands as tears, like her memories, bubbled up without warning. She slowly turned pulled her legs up onto the couch, bending over in what most would consider a deep bow of respect, but her hands covered her eyes in her distress and she tried to block out everything, tried to send her mind into a black nothingness of thought as she started to repeat, "I don't want to be a demon, I don't want to be a demon, I don't-"

Maneshi hopped up onto the couch near her head after Toriko curled up over her knees. Still unsure of what to do, he put a paw to the tendrils of her hair sticking up out of the jaw hair-clip she had tightly pinned to her head, and meowed once before falling silent.

He withdrew to lay down on his stomach, facing her and curling his paws underneath his chest. He had considered jumping onto her back, king of all he could see, but her distress bothered him immensely and he did not know what to do.

"I am sorry, my lady." He closed his eyes as if pained, "Were I able to remember human form perhaps better comfort I could provide." He knew that his presence would simply have to suffice, but he mourned the loss of knowledge silently, in that moment more than ever knowing he would gladly trade the worlds to not be stuck in the small, furry body as he was. 3

Hiei stood on the edge of the branch he had taken residence on, hands stuffed into his cloak pockets as he battled with himself silently. He heard no signs of trouble, but yet he felt this need to get inside, this need to be sure the dog wasn't acting out of line. His hands balled into fists as the inner battle raged on, a growing sense of dread bottoming his stomach and every fiber in his being screamed at him to move, do something. He attempted to simply listen to what was going on inside the house, and found it extremely quiet. Whispers here and there. Yet something continued to nag at him, something continued to plea with him to investigate.

Finally, he gave in. With the clenching of his teeth and the silence only he knew, he slipped his way back into the unlocked window, locking it again behind himself and silently leaving the bedroom. Downstairs, he heard the door open, and then snap close, and he paused in thought. Still, something pulled, or rather, yanked at his consciousness and had him cautiously moving down the stairs. The moment his feet hit the base of them, his eyes locked in the living room, his ears making out a distinctive breathing pattern that indicated distress. His crimson orbs locked on the small, curled up body of Toriko, and without much thinking about it, he approached, standing about a foot from the edge of the couch, standing near the end where her head rest. His hands slid into the pockets of his cloak again, unaware that they had left their refuge.

"When you lay like that, you make yourself look pathetic and small," he commented, as if this were his form of consolation. *

Maneshi opened his eyes as he heard Hiei coming down the stairs, coming to a stand and facing him as Hiei stopped to stare at Toriko.

The black cat's heterochromatic gaze regarded Hiei strangely, thoughts stirring in his mind as he looked from the fire demon to the lady on the couch.

"You..." Maneshi spoke into Hiei's mind, pausing as he struggled to maintain himself for just a moment longer, his body fighting with him, wanting him to return to the depths of his kitty-ness. "You can do what I cannot." Maneshi uncurled his sleek body, moving closer towards Hiei, but remaining on the couch, his eyes flickering back to Toriko's unmoving form, then returning to stare unblinking at Hiei.

He tried to speak again, but only meowed, clenching his eyes together in frustration. He opened them again and reached out towards Hiei with a downturned paw and made an oddly human gesture, as if to draw the fire demon to the couch. "Sit." He managed to say. "Sit. Here." He trotted over next to Toriko and looked up at Hiei again, leaping up to the back of the couch where he would be out of the way. 3

Hiei's eyes slid to the cat as he moved, sitting on his haunches and facing the fire demon with a seemingly calculating gaze. And when he felt the cat's mind brush his own, a voice echoing for a mere moment, he raised a brow at the furred creature. He waited until the cat had finished speaking, his paw moving just a bit in a gesture the fire demon easily recognized. His brow disappeared under his bangs and he moved forward a few steps, pausing just before touching the couch and glancing at Toriko again. By the time he glanced back at Maneshi, he was comfortable on the back of the couch, watching expectantly.

Hiei's crimson orbs glanced at the spot that Maneshi had gestured to, and slowly, he lowered himself on the very edge of the cushion, silently waiting. For what, he didn't exactly know. Perhaps he was waiting on another prompt from the cat? He didn't know. So his eyes continued to shift between Toriko and Maneshi expectantly and a bit awkwardly, not sure what happens next. *

The breath of a chuckle passed over Maneshi's features.

He is almost as incapable as I. He thought to himself, regarding Hiei's unsurety with amusement.

Maneshi fluidly rose from the back of the couch, coming around to Toriko's other side. He moved his face close to hers, sticking his head between the veil of her hair.

"My lady..." He called to her mind. "My lady?" He felt a strange emotion wash over him when he touched her mind and he visibly recoiled, glancing over at Hiei and speaking to him once more, shaking his head, "I...I cannot reach her. Her mind is...dark. Still. A sea of...glass." He turned back to Toriko, blinking once before raising his gaze back to Hiei. "...lift her? ...hold...her?" His words fading, Maneshi sent an image into Hiei's mind instead, one in which Toriko sat on Hiei's lap, her head on his shoulder, his arms holding her to him.

Maneshi moved rapidly over Hiei's lap to the other side of him, turning back around and mewing once very softly in distress, his ears relaxing to the sides in an expression of sadness as he settled back down, eyes now locked on Toriko as he lay down on his stomach, heaving a sigh before his eyes closed, finally falling back down into slumber behind the cat form he inhabited.

When Maneshi looked back up, his eyes were bright, but he said nothing more to Hiei. 3

Hiei eyed Maneshi as he moved, scowling at the cat's thoughts that Hiei had unintentionally listened into. He fought the urge to give a remark back, deciding that he didn't care what the cat thought of him. His eyes continued to follow the sleek, long, black body of the feline as he closed in on Toriko's face, and for a few moments, the room was silent. He waited just as patiently as he could until he heard the cat's voice in his mind again, and he gave a small sound of impatience.

When the mental image of him cradling Toriko struck his mind, his expression shifted to incredulity and he stared at the feline in disbelief. "Surely you do not peg me as a lover?" he remarked, his lips stretching downwards into a scowl. He may not know much about intimacy, but he did know that what the cat was asking was more intimate than anything Hiei had ever even thought about in his life; and anything such as hugs or anything more were completely out of the question.

Then he registered what the cat had said. Her mind is dark? he mused, eyes turning to Toriko in thought. He himself let his mind reach out to her, his own consciousness meeting her own. He found himself a bit surprised to feel nothing within her, not even the darkness that Maneshi had spoken of. He continued to reach into her mind, but also continued to find nothing, which left him baffled and irritated. He tried even harder, still finding nothing.

His mind receded from hers and he scoffed. His expression suddenly shifted, becoming much more of a tell-tale of his impatience, of his irritation. He stood abruptly, and without hesitation, he placed a hand on Toriko and shook her roughly by her shoulder, frown dominant on his features even as he spoke.

"Do not run away. It makes you weak. Sit up, and face your demons yourself." *

Somewhere and nowhere, Toriko felt...something. It was not enough at first to stir her from her darkness, her stillness. The second time, she recognized the one who abruptly forced into her head, but could not greet him, could do nothing as his presence became irritated and left her alone once more.

Her ears became suddenly aware of sound...of movement, then she felt a hand drop onto her shoulder, jarring her thoughts back into place, heard a voice speaking words she did not at first understand. She did not lift her head immediately following, but at a mildly aggravated hiss from Maneshi, she sat up, feeling the soft couch cushion beneath her.

The cat glared angrily at Hiei, ears back and teeth parted. He caught her movement out of the corner of his eye and stood just as abruptly as she had risen to sit, eyes wide.

Toriko stared blankly at the room, though when her mind played back Hiei's demand a shiver passed over her body as the word 'demons' echoed terribly in the emptiness of her mind before she could stop it.

Maneshi hurried to her side and stepped onto her thigh, peering curiously into her face. She made no move to acknowledge his presence, not even when he released a small meow from his throat, his whiskers trembling slightly. 3

Hiei retracted his hand as soon as Toriko stirred, letting it slide back into his cloak pocket as his eyes followed Toriko's movements. He registered her blank stare, her blank expression that told him she registered nothing more than being stirred by an outside force, and his scowl deepened further, completely ignoring the previous hiss of warning from Maneshi. He waited for something to happen, but when nothing did, he took another step forward until he towered over her, crimson eyes bearing down on her.

"Being afraid of yourself only creates problems for yourself. You become unstable, and weak. You have to deal with it, or else you will die." His words were harsh, but he felt they were necessary to get her attention, to bring her back to reality in some way, shape or form. "If you run from yourself, you will be taken advantage of for an eternity." *

"Heh." She finally spoke, a merciless laugh that held no humor as she reached up and pulled the claw out of her hair, letting her dark locks settled around her shoulders. The one bark of laughter turned into a brief chuckle, mirthless but almost wild.

Her eyes suddenly narrowed at him, her expression dangerous, "And what exactly is it you think you know of fear? What exactly do you know of being taken advantage of?" Her eyes flashed and she was suddenly standing in front of him, her aura snapping into existence around them, filling the room with waves of yellow energy that threatened to envelop him.

Just as abruptly, the energy left and she collapsed back down on the edge of the couch, staring forward again. "You know nothing." She finished half-heartedly. 3

Hiei watched Toriko as her lips parted and released a dry laugh. His eyes widened a fraction, and in the blink of an eye, Toriko was in his personal bubble. He stood in his spot, refusing to back down as her energy not only swept over him, but exploded around him and engulfed the room with momentary anger, then it was gone just as quick as it had become known. His expression had darkened and his eyes had hardened, and the moment she sat down, Hiei followed her steps and stood over her again.

"I don't have to know anything about your past. It's there for a reason. Now either you can move past it and move on, or you can be an empty shell afraid of yourself." His voice became a low growl, a low rumble of a threat as his own anger mounted at the prospect of this girl challenging him. "The only person who even remotely cares about your past is you, and it only matters to you because you run from it." He paused, narrowed eyes taking in her features once more. "If you are too weak to control your own energy, then me being here is useless, and my word to you will become void." *

Toriko worked her jaw around, tightening her teeth together as he spoke, his tone grating her anger back into existence before she spoke up, her voice quiet, and almost velvety smooth, but seething with an underlayer of deeper emotions.

"It must be nice," She began, words articulate and crystal-clear, "To have nothing in your past that drives you to the brink of madness. To have such an exemplary existence of perfection that you have no memories to haunt you. How utterly disgusting of you to have not faced such hardships. You must either be an idealist of the highest caliber or you have not yet lived long enough to know of such things."

Her eyes snapped back to his face, "And my lack of control is absolutely none of your concern whatsoever, so I wouldn't advise sticking your nose in places that it doesn't understand. Regardless of whatever 'word' you are claiming to be in keeping of." 3

With every word spoken, every word even uttered or breathed, Hiei's own irritation mounted into anger, his mind wrapping around her words and registering them as a challenge, as before. His eyes narrowed to the smallest of slits at the girl, his teeth grinding only slightly against one another as his mind conjured many different thoughts on how he could handle the situation. His dominant hand twitched inside the pocket of his cloak, and for only a moment, his chest rumbled with a growl of anger. He shifted his weight, as if indecisive, and then with a malicious sneer, he took a step towards Toriko again, closing the last of the space between them, his shadow falling over her small frame.

Hiei stood over her for only a moment, his turbulent thoughts rampaging, rolling over different words he could say, different things he could do to get his point across. Then, out of the blue, his mind became blank and he was stepping back, expression turning neutral as he turned away from her and stalked out of the room, feet carrying him up the stairs and into her bedroom before he slipped out the window, not caring for anything he heard behind him. *

~!**!~

It didn't take long after the school bell rang for the yard just outside the building to begin filling with students.

Otento's eyes saw them all, the slight breeze lifting his white-blonde hair and tossing it around a little. He leaned against the outer wall, though standing within the school yard itself, carefully watching the main doors, one hand in a back pocket where he fingered an intricately sealed envelope whose contents made him smile as he did so.

It had finally happened. She would finally be receiving her invitation. Granted, it had been through no small effort on his own part to get his boss' approval, but his plan needed to be moving forward. The contact with Toriko had driven the point home. He needed her. And he needed her sooner rather than later.

Kurama came down the steps and resisted stretching his arms above his head. The day had seemed longer than usual, but he rationalized that it was only because he had other things that needed doing and they weren't going to get done until after the school day had finished.

He stuck a hand in his pocket and threw his other hand holding his bag up to his shoulder where the bag would hanging down his back. His eyes caught a brief flash of green at the school gates and he let a small smile pass over his features. He hadn't been expecting Yusuke and Kuwabara to be as on time as they were and he frowned briefly, wondering if perhaps one or the both of them skipped class, using the meeting Kurama wished to have with them as an excuse to miss an entire day.

Without having to glance up, Kurama could feel that Hiei sat nearby, hidden behind the leaves of a tree somewhere, well within range of listening in on the conversation Kurama was going to start. After all, the fire demon prompted this entire situation by coming to Kurama not two days previously and explaining in as little detail as possible about the purple-eyed demon getting into Toriko's room.

Kurama had refrained from pushing Hiei about why he had been at Toriko's house at precisely the right moment to have witnessed, and Kurama assumed, stopped, the event because throughout their conversation Kurama's shorter companion had been particularly irritated at the whole thing, becoming more angry when he found out that Toriko had not said anything to Kurama up to that point about the interaction.

He wasn't surprised exactly at the fact that Hiei had been there to stop it so much as Hiei's emotional reactions being more raw and readable while he informed Kurama as such. Though, only through their years of acquaintanceship did Kurama even notice in the first place. The differences were slight, as always, but they were there, and that raised more questions than the fire demon had answered.

Kurama froze in place just a handful of steps down from the stairs leading up to the school, continuing to move forward after only a brief pause that no one seemed to notice.

His eyes fell upon the white-blonde head of the demon that this entire situation revolved around, leaning casually against the inside of the wall that surrounded the school yard, dressed in the uniform of the school once more. Today, however, the girls seemed to take little notice of him, where usually they would have flocked about his person.

Kurama kept his pace slow, but steady, his head turning left and right in an attempt to see if Toriko was out of the building yet. The teacher needed to speak with her after class, so Kurama hoped the demon would be gone before she came out, but he was prepared to stall her himself should she come out the doors.

Moving to the right, Kurama leaned up against a tree as if waiting for someone, able with his positioning to clearly watch both the main doors of the school as well as the demon by the gate. He desperately hoped the demon was not here to see Toriko. Kurama could think of several reactions the girl might have to Otento's presence, and none of them were pleasant ones. He frowned.

Akari stalked out of the main doors and Kurama took little notice of her until an expression of recognition lit up the male demon's face and he began moving towards her.

"See."

Kurama acknowledged the fire demon's voice in his mind. Hiei had already mentioned Akari and this demon being associates, though initially Kurama waved off the speculation as the shorter demon's paranoia.

"It seems your concerns were not misplaced."

"Hn."

Hiei's presence left Kurama's mind and Kurama focused on the situation at hand. He did not expect any major clashes. Not here. Not in front of these students. And with how Hiei talked of the demon, Kurama felt as if subtlety was a big part of how this demon worked.

Kurama watched carefully, not missing a single moment of the event unfolding before his eyes.

The demon approached Akari. Pulled out an envelope from his back pocket. Handed it to her with a flourish and a bow, his eyes sparkling with expectation. Akari took the envelope, but the two said nothing to one another, the demon turning and leaving the grounds, Akari following at a much slower pace, turning his gift over and over in her hands as she went out the gates.

Kurama heaved a sigh, then pushed himself off of the tree to follow after, fully expecting to stop and talk with Yusuke and Kuwabara about the fellow. Hopefully they were paying attention and saw him. This encounter would be important later, Kurama felt sure.

He glanced once over his shoulder, still not seeing Toriko, thanking the Kamis for small favors. Surely this conversation between he and the other two would be short and they could be finished before she emerged. He wanted to work with her again. According to Hiei, she had been completely at the mercy of the demon, no defenses whatsoever.

Privately, Kurama hoped Hiei would continue to take it upon himself to watch over Toriko. Kurama had other concerns, his mother came to mind, and could not protect her every moment of the day, namely in the evenings. And he did not think the other two Spirit Detectives up for the task either.

"KURAMA!" Yusuke shouted as he peeked between the school gates and saw the red-haired demon walking towards the exit.

Kuwabara nudged Yusuke harder than necessary with an elbow, "You idiot, he's Shuichi here, remember?"

"Aw, crap, yeah."

Kurama came up to them with a mildly amused expression, "Thankfully, I do not believe anyone noticed." He frowned, "Speaking of noticing, you did not happen to see a man with white-blonde hair leaving? Akari would have followed shortly."

"Yeah, you know, now that you mention it..." Yusuke put a hand thoughtfully up to his chin, "Nah, I got nothing. Didn't even see Akari leave."

"He had on a Meiou uniform, right?" Kuwabara wanted to know.

"Yes, that's correct."

"I saw him." Kuwabara said darkly, "He didn't feel right to me. Had this self-righteous smile on his face too. As if he'd just done something he was real proud of."

"Yes. He handed an envelope of some sorts to Akari."

"Think they're up to no good, huh?" Yusuke noted.

Kurama nodded, "Yes, that's the idea." He went on to explain what Hiei had been witness to.

"That little CREEP!" Kuwabara shouted, "That's terrible! How could a guy DO something like that?!"

"I think we need to start taking steps-"

"To make sure it never happens again! Yeah!" Kuwabara interrupted him.

"Is Toriko okay?" Yusuke wanted to know, thinking how small the girl was, "Hiei stopped the guy, right?"

"I believe she came to no harm. Hiei intervened."

"Good." Kuwabara crossed his arms over his chest, "Maybe the short punk isn't so bad after all."

"I do not think this is an unrelated even to him approaching Akari, however. I would bet he is going to go after Toriko again as well."

"So, what're we gonna do about it?" Yusuke leaned up against the wall.

"I'm hoping we can put our heads together and come up with a plan to catch this demon in the act."

"You mean put Toriko in danger again?" Kuwabara protested, "No way!"

"Yes, and no." Kurama allowed, "I will keep as close an eye on her as possible, but I think in the near future we should set something up."

"A trap." Yusuke surmised.

Kurama nodded, "One that we spring before anything actually happens."

"I like it. As long as Toriko is safe." Kuwabara rubbed his hands together, "Then we can give this little creep what-for!"

"You have not heard anything from Koenma?" Kurama turned to Yusuke.

The boy frowned, "No."

"I did not assume as much. I might talk with him about this. Hiei seemed to think the demon was specifically after Toriko, and I do not disagree. There have been one too many 'coincidences' of the two of them meeting for that to be the case." Kurama's eyes fell onto Toriko who had just come down the steps of the school, "I, uh, don't think we should concern Toriko any more than necessary. Let's just keep this to ourselves for the moment."

Yusuke agreed, "No telling what that guy really did to her. I wouldn't want to hear about it if I was her."

"We all seem to be in agreement then. If I come up with any ideas later, I'll get in contact with you. Toriko!" He called as she approached, smiling at her when she looked around before spying him with Kuwabara and Yusuke right outside the school gates. "You remember Kuwabara and Yusuke, yes?" He asked once she approached them.

She bowed shyly, "H-hello."

"Hiya, Toriko!" Yusuke cheerfully greeted.

"We, uh, we gotta go, but it was nice seeing you!" Kuwabara grabbed at Yusuke's arm and pulled him off.

"May I walk you home?" Kurama gestured in the direction Toriko would be walking.

She nodded.

They said nothing to one another for a long while, Kurama wishing that she would mention the demon to him, tell him something about what happened. He didn't find himself surprised when she did not, but rather disheartened by the fact that she shared nothing of it.

"I've had another revelation about a technique we could use with your energy." He finally said as they approached her front door. "If you are feeling up to it today, we could give it a try."

Toriko still said nothing, but nodded again as she fished her keys from her pocket and unlocked the door, stepping inside and slipping off her shoes with Kurama following.

Maneshi trotted up to greet them as they entered and closed the door behind them, setting about to sniffing their shoes once they had them sitting neatly on the floor.

"W-would you like something to eat first?" Toriko asked as she and Kurama set their things on the table.

"That would be lovely." He followed her across from the carpet to the tile and as she went about preparing a snack, he reached up for a pair of glasses in the cabinet and poured them water to drink.

~!**!~

Toriko fiddled with the pleats on her school skirt, feeling awkward and disappointed, a little embarrassed as well.

"Hm. Well, how about we try-" Kurama went off on another idea and Toriko only half-listened.

More than a couple of hours had passed at this point. The two were seated amongst their books and things on the floor of her bedroom as was their custom, but whatever progress Kurama had been hoping to make had been thwarted at every turn.

Ever since Hiei stormed out of her house a handful of days previous, Toriko had found herself completely incapable of accessing any energy at all. She couldn't even feel the stuff, much less take a hold of it and do anything. After short moments of trying since then by herself, Toriko barely felt any remorse, wondering if perhaps she had finally rid herself of the entire mess.

At the moment though, she simply felt terrible at what she believed to be disappointing Kurama in her inability to do any of what he kindly suggested for her to do. He was so patient, so unfazed when at every turn she seemed to stump him. Or rather, her energy seemed to. And it wasn't for lack of trying on Toriko's part. The effort she exerted was matched only by the lack of response her energy gave her, though it did drive her into putting less and less effort out.

Toriko nodded when she heard Kurama pause for a response, and she closed her eyes, searching somewhere inside for any sign of power and coming across nothing whatsoever. She took a deep breath and tried again. No buzz of energy across her scalp, her hair still up in its tight bun. No shimmer of power across her eyes, her glasses still firmly in place across her face.

"I'm so sorry, Kurama." She finally breathed, opening her eyes but keeping them downcast at the carpet. "I...I feel nothing." She tried not to let her relief at the revelation creep over her features. She didn't feel any pressure at all in regards to using her powers on him. Normally a sense of apprehension would have been the most prominent emotion on her mind, fear that she would accidentally do something to Kurama that would forever change their relationship. As it was, she could simply do nothing. Nothing at all.

Kurama regarded her with a sense of pity. She still had said nothing to him about the encounter with the demon in her room, and Kurama felt certain that whatever Hiei witnessed was connected deeply with her inability to access her energy. He had several guesses as to how or why, but each one made a flash of anger cross his mind and he tried not to consider them.

"Don't worry about it so much." Kurama smiled at her, "You're not going to disappoint me unless you don't try at all. Perhaps next week we'll come across an astounding method that suddenly allows you to do anything you've ever wanted with your energy."

Toriko nodded, feeling apprehensive at the thought.

"I am supposed to be home in time for dinner this evening." He said apologetically, starting to gather his things.

Toriko began scooping up her papers and books as well, getting them into a pile and leaving them as Kurama stood with his bag, the two of them walking down stairs and Toriko escorting him to the front door.

"See you at school!" Kurama called as he waved and headed down the sidewalk.

Toriko said nothing, but waved and shut the door, turning back to the empty living room to heave a relieved sigh, closing her eyes and starting to walk back towards the stairs, opening them and freezing in place. Hiei stood between her and the way up to her room. 3

Hiei had seen enough. From his perch in the trees nearby Toriko's window, he had beared witness to another small session between Kurama and Toriko, and he hadn't been too happy at the results. Toriko had kept her head down almost the entire time, had avoided eye contact and had achieved nothing at all. Not even a spark of energy. At first, Hiei hadn't cared; he'd simply dismissed it as a minor annoyance.

That was before he had put things together. That was before his mind had wandered over past events and tried to find reason for everything going on. That was before he had talked to Kurama about the happenings with the blonde demon and Akari, which had brought his attention to his own inconsistencies, his own odd behaviour as of late. That was before he had realized the reason behind Toriko's thick, useless glasses and tightly bound-up hair, her standoffish nature and her reluctance to use her energy.

And yet, even as he stood in front of the female, absolutely seething with anger, he didn't know what to say, what to do. His arms hung at his side, his shoulders tensed as he continued to think about his revelation, and part of him wondered why Kurama hadn't said a word to any of them over the dangers of having such a demon nearby. Having a demon around who could not only gain whatever she wished with a simple glance, but a demon who couldn't control such power! His fist clenched tightly at the mere prospect of it; Kurama was in over his head, and now Hiei was too.

Not for long, however.

He had seen enough. He had become fed up with her cowardly way of thinking; fed up with the way she ran away from her own power and put others under her own mercy. He had had enough.

"Do you believe yourself courageous? Wise? Strong, even?" he suddenly rumbled, tone low and voice almost too quiet to be heard. But he knew a demon would hear him. "Let me clarify: you are none of those things. You are small and unstable, weak, untrustworthy, and pitiful. You are a disgrace to demons, a nuisance hiding behind useless materials such as lenses and clips. You are nothing more than an obstacle in our way, more trouble than your life is worth. Yet, you continue to be nothing more than a bother by denying yourself of your own abilities, which in the end lead to more weakness, more harm than good. You continue to hide your power for fear of being a bother, and yet you continuously create problems for those around you. Your power is unstable, and because of that you are a nuisance; a child begging for protection from those who embrace their own power."

Hiei paused, tone suddenly much deadlier than before, eyes dark and lips twitching only slightly downward as he fought the expression that threatened to take over, threatened to become a dangerous glower. "You say you wish to keep your friendship with Kurama, and yet you continue to push his efforts away and use him as a bodyguard. And you claim you have been through hardship, yet you continue to use your power to utilize people, manipulate them into becoming your pet." He took a small step forward, glare darkening further. "If you do not get it under control, you will be left alone, likely killed in the next twenty-four hours." He paused, nose flaring with his seething anger. "And yet, I couldn't care less."

With that, he shot forward, ripping three bobby pins from her hair in an instant, standing a good three feet away from her and holding them up for her to see, not yet going back for the rest. *

If Toriko could even think of something to say, if coherent sentences could have even spilled out of her mouth, it didn't matter, because the infuriated fire apparition before her did not pause to give her a moment to speak.

She didn't get a chance to put a word in edgewise, not about the fact that she didn't want to be a-well, a demon with every fiber of her being, nor about half of the things he said regarding herself and her powers, many of which she felt he had wrong and was over-generalizing about in a way that someone who only knew half the story could do.

Didn't she keep her image, glasses and all, simply because she feared her abilities and especially feared using them even if she could no longer remember why? Had she not spent nearly fifteen years keeping her powers under wraps so that she could exist among the humans unnoticed? She did not go around flaunting herself like some other low-class demons might do, sitting around in luxury with anything and everything at her beck and call. In fact, quite the opposite.

And yet here Hiei stood, very nearly accusing her of all these things and more. She could not stand the thought of manipulating others, hated the thought that anyone would be in her company simply because they had to, because they didn't have any choice in the matter. What company was that? Had she not spent ample time before being exiled to Human World living life handed to her on a silver platter once Youko rescued her? Was it not okay for her to wish for simplicity, for something truer than the unspoken desires of another that she could fulfill with merely a glance?

She had lived like that before, and it was unsatisfying. Perhaps in the next century of her life she would find herself longing for it once more, but she could not stand the thought of it now, and so her powers lay dormant, and her out of practice with them, wishing they would disappear completely so that she could never use them for as long as she lived.

She blinked and Hiei had dashed forward before she could even process his angry observations about 'protection', pulling pins out of her meticulously smoothed hair and then standing before her, taunting her with them just out of reach.

"W-what are you-?" Her eyes widened, "Give them back!" She took a step forward and lifted her hand as if to take them from him. 3

Hiei gave a dark look at Toriko's advance, only issuing a silent warning as she approached with an outstretched hand, to which he mirrored by placing them out of her immediate reach. He felt an emotion seep into the back of his mind, and very vaguely, he registered that he got an unnatural amount of satisfaction from her fumbling around for the pins he had pulled from her hair. So, without much thought, he repeated the action, this time taking not only a few more pins, leaving a couple for his own continuing satisfaction, but the claw as well. Within a mere millisecond, he was back where he had been standing, silently glowering at her as if saying she had put this on herself, and he didn't care what she thought she needed. *

"Y-you don't understand!" Toriko's hands flew up to her head, "I need those. I-I have to have them."

She stepped forward again, her voice becoming panicked, her expression the same.

Her memories flew to early years in Human World where she felt forced to forge the bobby pins into her needs in order to survive. To hide herself away, her powers had to be suppressed, contained, and so she took bobby pins and wove into their fibers a seal. A seal to hold back her demonic energy, folding it away deep inside of her body so far that she could no longer remember how to use it, so far that her very form would change, render her a mere humanoid.

Because-Toriko blinked as she further accessed memories that had long been stored away-because the same squad sent by Spirit World, the Hunters, who had nearly captured and destroyed Youko had also been after her.

Her very aura when in demon form called to them and they had a warrant out for her arrest. One that gave them permission to tear out her eyes and rip her hair from her head upon her capture.

She sat in a dark place, hunched over the bobby pins as her life depended on it, pins she'd pilfered from the trashcans of humans, looking over her shoulder in fear, weaving the spell for the seal as quietly as she could manage, hurriedly, nearly frantic.

She would not be able to evade the Hunters on her own for much longer. They were more than prepared for what her powers allowed her to do. She finished the seal and twisted her grungy, matted hair up, cringing at the mess she had not had time to groom for weeks. She hesitated only for the briefest of moments before plunging the bobby pins in one by one, feeling her powers draining away as each seal made contact, feeling her form twist and shrink and morph. The prickle on her scalp filtered away, the shimmer over her eyes trickled into nothingness, leaving her empty and feeling half-dead. She collapsed into a heap in the alleyway...

"You don't know what you're doing! I have to have them!" Toriko shouted desperately, moving forward, going for Hiei, "Stop!" 3

Thanks for reading! Bless your face. If you sneezed during this chapter, bless you. Peace off! -Star