Yuiko lounged in the easy chair in the living room of the Yukimura residents. Kuwabara and Keiko were trying to study, while Yuiko was going over ways of getting Koenma to pay her in her head. Keiko read a page, glanced over at the seemingly asleep Yuiko, went back to her book, and glanced over at Yuiko again. Kuwabara was too busy reading to glance at anything.
"Keiko, do you happen to know anything about photosynthesis? Oh, wait, oh yeah, now I remember. Never mind." Kuwabara rambled. Keiko finally snapped her book shut and gazed frustrated-ly at Yuiko.
"How come you're not studying?" Keiko asked. Yuiko opened one eye to look at Keiko.
"What?" Yuiko said. Keiko made an exasperated sound.
"How come you're not studying?!" Keiko repeated. Mr. and Mrs. Yukimura poked their heads into the room to listen.
"Listen Keiko, I have a lot on my mind at the moment, really. There's not really enough time for me to study at the moment." Yuiko attempted to explain.
"Like what could possibly be keeping you from studying? Even your wrestling tournaments and stuff related to that don't keep you from studying when there's a test!" Keiko retorted.
"Well, let's see how you deal with a toddler who keeps barking orders to you, an armed robber who you're supposed to catch, and trying to figure out how you are going to get paid for everything you're doing for the little brat." Yuiko replied.
"What are you mumbling about?"
"Nothing, nothing. Nothing at all." Yuiko answered. Her cell phone suddenly rang. She took it out of her pocket and answered it. "Hello?" A smile broke across her face. "Hey, Botan!" Looks of confusion plastered themselves onto Keiko's and Kuwabara's faces. "That's what that freaky item does? I thought it was just prized for the way it looked. Uh huh. Uh huh. Really? People disappearing? I see. Uh huh. Okay. Bye." Yuiko hung up. "Well, I've got to go."
"Hey!" Kuwabara and Keiko exclaimed as Yuiko crossed the room to leave.
"Get back here!" Keiko practically shouted.
"Who's Botan?" Kuwabara questioned, but their answers was the slam of a door closing.
Yuiko ran down the street and after running past a few blocks, she scooted to a stop in front of Botan. "So, what's the good news?" Yuiko asked. Botan smiled at her.
"Kurama's not going to jail! He just has to do community service!" Botan answered.
"Cool!" Yuiko replied, grinning. "That's really great. Especially since he only stole the Mirror of Forlorn Hope to save his mom. So, what did Koenma say?" Botan's smile turned into a frown.
"He says he's not going to pay you." Botan said truthfully and sadly.
"WHAT!?" Yuiko screamed. "Why that pacifier-sucking jerk! Just because he's Prince of the Spirit World he thinks he can't pay me!? Why I outta punch his face into his desk!" It took a while for Yuiko to calm down. "He's gonna pay me whether he likes it or not! He hasn't heard the end of this!" Yuiko was breathing heavily now and Botan was surprised that Yuiko knew so many swearwords. "I'm gonna go find that shrimp demon Hiei now. Once I bring in all three items, he's gonna have a piece of my mind and choke on it!" Botan sweat dropped as she watched Yuiko walk off, fuming.
"I knew she wouldn't have liked the sound of that. Note to self: Never get on her bad side."
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Keiko and Kuwabara were walking down the street looking for Yuiko. "Where is she?" Kuwabara asked exasperatedly. Keiko was in quite a bad mood because Yuiko wouldn't tell them anything. Keiko couldn't remember Yuiko ever doing that before. "Maybe it's nothing important. Or maybe it's something that she wants to be a surprise. I don't know. It just doesn't seem like her to be so secretive!" Kuwabara rambled to Keiko. Unknown to them, they were being watched. On top of a building five kilometers or so away, Hiei was watching them. Ever since Igor got his butt kicked, Hiei had been digging up as much info as he could without asking humans anything. The only thing he learned was what Kurama told him, and that Kuwabara and Keiko were her only friends. Hiei continued to gaze at them, his blindfold off his forehead to reveal a third eye. It was not red like his other two eyes. It was purple, and seemed to refuse to blink.
"Which one, which one? Which one would be better?" Hiei asked himself walking along the roof of the building to keep up with Keiko and Kuwabara.
"So, how long have you known Yuiko?" Kuwabara asked suddenly. Hiei smirked. He was about to get what just might be some valuable information. "I mean, you two were friends before I met either one of you."
"We met in preschool. Even then she was all about fighting, except her point of view was different. Said she wanted to be like one of the superheroes on television when she grew up." Keiko answered. "Why?"
"I was just wondering whether we've known her long enough to know for sure that she wouldn't keep things secret." Kuwabara replied. Hiei's smirk grew. He then disappeared from the rooftop.
-----------------------------------Hours Later-----------------------------------------------------------
Kuwabara and Keiko sighed. They gave up. They had looked all over the city and they didn't see Yuiko anywhere. They'd have to catch her at school tomorrow. "This is my house. See ya later, Keiko." Kuwabara informed, walking up to the front door.
"Right. See you." Keiko said, walking down the sidewalk. 'What's up with her? Who's Botan? What did all that on the phone mean?'
"You'll find out soon enough, Keiko Yukimura." answered a voice from behind her. Keiko turned around to find a short man clad in black with spiky black-and-white hair, white bandana on his forehead, and a sword in his right hand. Hiei took the sword and swung it at Keiko, making a cut on her forehead. Keiko fainted right then, landing his Hiei's arm. "Your dear friend Yuiko will have to fight to get you back, Yukimura. Mark my words."
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Yuiko sighed, collapsing into a park bench. Botan was already sitting on it. "I couldn't find him. The Detector isn't finding him." Yuiko stated, her elbows on her knees, chin in both her hands.
"Maybe he's masking his energy." Botan suggested. Yuiko raised an eyebrow.
"What do you mean he's masking his energy? You could have told me he could do that!" Yuiko exclaimed. Suddenly, a powerful wave of energy made itself known. Botan shivered and Yuiko stood up. "What was that?"
"I think it's Hiei." Botan replied, hands lightly gripping her arms.
"Urameshi." entered a voice into Yuiko's head. Yuiko looked around the area. The voice sounded familiar, and it was male, but it wasn't Kuwabara or Koenma and it couldn't have been Kurama. "Urameshi, if you want Yukimura back, you'll come to the Hell Housing as fast as you can with the Spirit Orb and the Mirror of Forlorn Hope. Get over here or I'll cut your friend's head off." Yuiko stiffened. She had pinpointed whose voice it was, and the fact that Hiei had Keiko wasn't helping her shock that Hiei could send telepathic messages, which this obviously was.
"Come on, Botan! We have to go to the Hell Housing!" Yuiko said suddenly. Botan looked up at her curiously.
"Why?" Botan asked.
"Hiei says he's got Keiko." Yuiko answered and ran off toward her house. "He wants us to bring the items!"
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Yuiko kicked the door to the Hell Housing open. The Hell Housing was an old abandoned shed that was littered with boxes. Botan was right being Yuiko, the Orb and Mirror in her hands. "HIEI!" Yuiko yelled into the darkness. "COME OUT HERE! WE'VE GOT THE STUPID ITEMS!" Hiei stepped into the light, smirking, his left hand tightly gripping the back of Keiko's collar, allowing the rest of Keiko to hang limply on the spot.
"Good. Hand over the items and you get your friend back." Hiei reasoned.
"I have a better idea." Yuiko commented. Hiei's smirk disappeared.
"Hn. It's bad enough when demon females get an attitude. First tell me this idea, and if I think it's worth while, I'll consider it."
"We fight for them. If you win, you get the items and get out of here without a detective on your tail. Since you'll most likely have no use for Keiko after this, she'll be out of your grimy hands. But if I win, you hand over the Shadow Sword, Keiko, and hand yourself over to me, so I can get Mr. Diaperpants to give me a paycheck." Hiei seemed to be thinking about her offer.
"Alright. I see not all of you humans are a waste of time. But," Hiei's smirk was back. "I'm afraid you're wrong about Yukimura."
"What are you talking about?" Yuiko demanded.
"See the slit on her forehead?" Hiei asked, holding up Keiko's head. "When it opens up, you'll see an eye there. When the eye opens up, she will be my demon servant forever. I guess that'll give your assistant over there something to do, won't it?" Hiei chuckled and threw Keiko over to the side. Yuiko gritted her teeth and growled. Botan ran over to Keiko, set the items down, made her hands hover over Keiko's forehead, and what seemed to be electricity was keeping the now trying-to-open eye from opening. "Let the fighting begin." Hiei disappeared from where he was standing. Yuiko blinked in confusion, but received a blow to the head from behind her. Yuiko hit the floor and turned around to see Hiei standing there.
"How -?" Yuiko started, but didn't finish. She got up and made to punch him, but when she landed the punch, she realized it was only an after image. 'He moves fast.' she thought.
"You're just realizing that?" Hiei commented. Yuiko looked around before where Hiei must be finally hit her. She heard the unsheathing of a sword and leaped away from the spot that she was standing on. Hiei fell from the ceiling, the Shadow Sword now stuck in the floor. Yuiko placed a hand on her hip as she watched him try to pull it out.
"One question." Yuiko stated. Hiei glared at her. "How do I get rid of the eye?" Hiei began to chuckle evilly.
"The only way to do that is to give her the antidote in the hilt of the Shadow Sword, seeing that it was the thing that put Yukimura in this position in the first place. Meaning you'll have to get the sword in order to save your friend. HIYAH!" Hiei pulled out the Shadow Sword with a shout and turned to Yuiko, only to realize that she wasn't standing there any more. Hiei looked around and ran toward a cardboard box. He raised the Shadow Sword so that he could pierce the box. He drove the sword down, and tried to pull it up, but something was stuck on it. "Let go, Urameshi, or I can't kill you correctly." Yuiko stood up from inside the box, the end of the sword clamped between her hands. Yuiko glared at him and turned the sword so that Hiei's arm started twisting painfully in a direction it wasn't meant to be twisted in.
"Hn." Hiei grunted. He threw a punch at her, which she dodged, still holding onto the sword. He then tried to swing her legs out from under her, but she jumped up, making that slightly impossible. Hiei forced himself not to wince that the incredible pain in his arm as Yuiko turned the sword even more, blood from her hands oozing onto the blade. Hiei then got an idea. He pushed the sword forward. Yuiko jumped high onto a stack of boxes, forcing herself not to cry out in pain thanks to what Hiei's action had done to her hands. There was a tear in her shirt where the intestines were, but not a scratch on her skin. Yuiko growled tiger-like and got into a fighting stance, blood trickling down her arm. Hiei leaped up to where she was and it was a matter of striking and blocking from then on out. Hiei would make to stab Yuiko with the Shadow Sword, Yuiko would kick it in a different direction away from her. Yuiko would punch at him, Hiei would stop her punch with the flat part of the sword.
Over where Botan was, she was having trouble keeping the third eye on Keiko's forehead closed. Botan bit her lip nervously as the third eye opened up slightly. 'If Keiko's third eye opens up and makes her a demon, Yuiko will kill me! If she doesn't kill Hiei first that is.' Botan thought as she increased her effort in keeping the eye closed.
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In Koenma's palace, Koenma was watching the fight through a television screen on the wall opposite his desk. Koenma was tapping his desk with a pen nervously. Yuiko was having quite the problem with Hiei. "Her hands are all bloodied up from that tactic of twisting the arm that Hiei had the Shadow Sword in, and she can't do any damage to him while he has that sword, and he's too fast for her Spirit Gun to hurt him." Koenma muttered to himself. He sighed and leaned back in his chair. "I know she's good at fighting, her personality profile in Botan's manual says so, but is this too much for her? Alone that is." Koenma pressed a button on his desk and an intercom appeared in front of him. "Ogre!" Koenma snapped into it.
"Yes sir?" came the reply.
"Get Kurama up here!" Koenma answered. "He needs to go and help Yuiko!"
"Right away, Koenma sir." said the ogre on the other end. Koenma pressed the button again and the intercom disappeared.
"I hope having Kurama for help will do some good." Koenma mumbled to himself as he continued to watch.
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Yuiko dodged Hiei's sword yet again and jumped away from him. She was breathing heavily. His black jacket had been thrown to the floor and his shirt was torn so it looked like a vest, revealing a well-developed chest. Hiei stopped to breath too. 'She's more powerful than Kurama gave her credit for.' Hiei thought. 'I'm actually breaking a sweat and having trouble breathing while moving!' Yuiko got into another fighting stance. Hiei noticed this, but did nothing. Yuiko was glowering at him.
'Damn, why'd he have to have such nice abs?' Yuiko thought to herself. 'Even in those swim trunk commercials, the guys aren't that attractive with their chests showing.'
"Consider yourself lucky, Urameshi." Hiei announced. Yuiko blinked. His energy was rising rapidly. "I've never had to use my true form for a human." Hiei's skin started to change from peach to green, eyes appearing all over. His shirt got torn to pieces, making Yuiko flush slightly. A cry of pain came from Botan. Yuiko turned around to see dark shadows attacking Botan's hands.
"Auh! It feels like glass is penetrating my skin!" Botan exclaimed, wincing. Yuiko turned back to Hiei.
'Attractive or not, he's going down!' Yuiko thought, running at him. Hiei blinked in surprise and was taken aback. He had invaded her thoughts to find out what she was playing to do next and heard that last thought. He was shocked for a second too long. She ended up punching him across the face. Yuiko ran at him again, about to grab the Shadow Sword, but stopped when she realized that Hiei was running at her as well. Yuiko was about to block the attack when a pink, peach, and red blur shot in front of her, taking the blow. "Kurama!" Yuiko practically shouted. Hiei just stared at Kurama.
"You took my killing strike, you traitor!" Hiei accused. Kurama, who was wincing from the pain, opened an eye and glared at Hiei.
"You won't defeat her that easily, Hiei." Kurama stated. Yuiko was staring thunderstruck at the Shadow Sword. It went straight through his body!
"K-Kurama!" Yuiko gasped weakly. Yuiko suddenly gritted her teeth, moved from behind Kurama, and punched Hiei right in the nose. Hiei went flying onto the floor and wasn't able to recollect himself before Yuiko was on top of him, beating the crud out of him. "How dare you!? First you attack Keiko and do that turning into a demon thing to her, then you make it harder for Botan to keep that stupid eye closed, and now you did that to Kurama?!" Yuiko pulled Hiei up by the neck and punched where the middle of his bandana was. Hiei cried out from pain and Yuiko dropped him. He was grabbing his forehead and seemed to be forcing himself not to roll around on the ground like a dog.
"You punched his weak spot." Kurama informed. "Behind that bandana is his Jagan Eye, also known as the Evil Eye. It allows him to see long distances as far as two hundred kilometers. It's the only eye on his body, that doesn't belong, that really matters. The others are just for show." Yuiko turned to Kurama, ran over to him, and pulled the Shadow Sword out of his gut.
"Are you okay?" Yuiko asked worriedly.
"I'm fine. It didn't harm any organs." Kurama replied, smiling. Yuiko still looked at him like a worried mother.
"But you're bleeding really bad!" Yuiko almost yelled. Remembering that she and Hiei had a deal, she turned back to the demon. "I won. Stay there and don't move."
"I'll make sure he doesn't." Kurama said. "You take care of Yukimura." Yuiko nodded and ran over to Keiko and Botan. She unscrewed the hilt from the Shadow Sword and poured a few drops of yellow liquid into Keiko's mouth.
"There! Mission accomplished!" Botan commented happily. Yuiko smiled at Botan.
"You get something to bandage up your hands while I go and arrest Hiei. And most likely try and stop the bleeding of Kurama's wound as well." Yuiko replied, turning back to Kurama and running over to help him.
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Next Time on Yu-Yu-Hakusho:
Hey there, it's me, Yuiko. Stupid Koenma put me on another mission before I could punch his lights out for not paying me! If there wasn't the upside of possibly getting trained by the famous martial arts teacher Genkai, I wouldn't be doing this! Why do I have to do this? Well, there's this evil guy that's killed ninety-nine psychics, and Genkai's supposed to be the next one on his list. And guess who I meet there? Kuwabara! Man, do I have some explaining to do when he starts questioning me about Botan. Lots of fighting and an annoying best friend is coming your way on the next Yu-Yu-Hakusho!