Disclaimer: I don't own YYH or the characters. Just OCs.
Happy early birthday to my friend, dragoscilvio. I'd post this tomorrow on your actually birthday, but I will be traveling to spend Thanksgiving with family, so in case I forget after crazy traffic and drivers, at least you know, I did remember. I hope you and everyone else enjoys the chapter! ^_^
After the boys had left Tsukiko, they launched into battle, facing the demons who dared to breach the barrier. They were able to hold them back, but they had not been prepared for attack. The enemy had, and they were able to push back leaving the spirit detective team a little breathless.
One of the enemy demons laughed in amusement. "Pathetic," he slandered. "Worthless and weak, the lot of you. Working with humans, fighting to protect them. You give demons like us a bad name."
"The feeling is mutual, asshole," Yusuke hissed, regaining his composure. "Look, you're the ones disrupting the peace. We're following the laws set by Enki."
"Enki is a lucky fool," another voice crooned sounding almost like that man-bat Yusuke fought all those years ago, but looked more like an imp than anything else. These were weaker demons, Yusuke noticed. They had been exerting themselves to protect the temple and the girls inside with minimal destruction, but it would be so easy to just spirit gun them to oblivion. "The one who is in charge will become the ruler and all these 'peaceful' laws will be just a bad dream we can finally awake from."
"The fools are you," Hiei spoke stoically, crossing his arms. "Your combined energy is pathetic. My dragon would disintegrate you all. It is only you weaklings who seem to have a problem with the way things are run. Why is that? Why are there few stronger demons, A, B, and S class demons, on your side?"
That enraged the demon, the imp launching to attack. Hiei simply flared up a wall of mortal flame and the creature was no more. "And they call us pathetic," he grunted. "This is child's play."
"You are pathetic," the ringleader criticized. He gestured to Kurama and Hiei. "You two most of all. You were once the legendary thief, and you were a merciless killer. You came from our walk of life. There was no reason for you to join the human side. At first few demons understood, but then there were rumors of you going after the three artifacts and that assisting the humans was part of a probation. You could have quit and returned to our world and gone back to you lives. Why choose this wretched world over home?"
Neither Hiei nor Kurama would answer. They refused to give these creatures any more leverage than they already had. It wasn't any of their business why they decided to stay. They could think them pathetic all they wanted.
Someone else had other plans.
"Maybe because they found something else to live for?" Tsukiko voiced. She surprised everyone there, coming out into the open. She had chosen to ignore the warning to stay inside, and she was adamant about defending the ones she saw as friends. "I mean, seriously, how great really was life over there in Demon World? Senseless killing, crime, not being able to trust anyone, only being able to depend on yourself. That sounds like hell. So what if they came to this world as criminals? What if they had the notions of Demon World? It doesn't mean they couldn't see the worth of having a real team, actual friends. It's not right to live life alone. These laws you want to change so much, you could take advantage of them. You don't have to be alone, either. This demon running the show will be the one in charge. He wants you all to be alone so that you're easier to control, the foreign concept of strength in numbers. But I guess it's only the strong demons that understand that concept, and they want to be strong. The one who wants you to be separated is the one who wants to be strong. He doesn't want you all to flourish. He'll only say and do what you want when it fits his agenda. Why would you want to live a life like that?"
The ringleader demon was about to contest when Tsukiko added, "And you're wrong about these guys being pathetic, worthless, or weak. They are nothing of the sort. I know, and deep down, you know, too. And that's why you're so determined to win this war, even if you don't make it to see the end results. That makes you all the weak ones."
All eyes were on the human woman who stood bravely before the army of demons. It was the four guys who appeared genuinely perplexed, though Kurama and Hiei concealed their confusion better. They were all aware, both the spirit detective team and the enemy demons ready to attack, that the woman was weaker, though thankfully the demons did not know she was unable to fight them. Still, this human, who had no reason to defend a team where the majority of the members just saw her as someone to protect or a nuisance or many other words they could use to describe their mission, was defending the guys to those whose opinions really didn't matter, all because she didn't like the idea of them being slandered. If her slightly shaking form was any indication, Tsukiko was terrified even as she praised them.
She didn't know it, but that act of courage and compassion caused something to shift within her assigned protectors.
Angered by Tsukiko's honest yet demeaning words, the demon moved to attack the girl, Tsukiko managing to stand her ground despite her shaky legs. She remembered her ability, attempted to sing to stop the assault and protect herself, but the demon merely laughed. As he got closer, Tsukiko saw that this creature was wearing earplugs, most likely protecting him from her gift. Fear entered her eyes before she closed them, expecting the worse. She probably should have listened to the others and stayed put, despite her nature to never back down from what she believed.
The hit she was expecting never happened, and she opened her eyes only to see the guys in front of her. Whip and sword, both spirit and katana, were skewered through the ringleader. Tsukiko backed away, the threatening aura radiating from her friends overwhelming even her. "I don't care what new world order you're looking for," Yusuke spat, his voice deeper than the human remembered, "but we're not gonna let you hurt her." He held out his finger, and shouted out his signature attack. He managed to vaporize the weak army of demons. All that was left behind were the earplugs.
Tsukiko breathed out a sigh of relief, but then she felt her energy leaving her out of nowhere. She glanced down, seeing a broken talon in her side. That demon had actually hit her, and she felt faint from losing blood quickly. She tried to call out to the others, but her vision went blurry and everything was dark. She could only hear someone call her name in horror, most likely Eiko if she heard correctly, but it could have just as easily been one of the guys. Then everything was silent.
It was dark outside when Tsukiko awoke, and she found herself alone in a bed. She blinked the bleariness from her eyes and tried to remember what had landed her there. The last thing she remembered was an attack, and now she was in quite a bit of pain, though it was dulled. Her eyes widened. She remembered. They had been attacked, her ability had been useless, and she had gotten hit because she just had to ignore everyone's warning and put herself in danger. Frowning, she realized they would all be furious with her. She made their job unnecessarily harder.
Tsukiko determined she must have passed out from the blood loss. Looking down at her side, she could see Eiko's bandage job. Her friend must be worried sick about her. No doubt, she was giving the boys grief for not protecting her even though they did everything they could. Moaning slightly in pain, Tsukiko sat up on the side of the bed and moved to get up. It was time for her to face the music and handle whatever chaos was occurring outside among her friends.
The temple was surprisingly quiet.
As she drew closer to the kitchen, she could hear Kurama's voice say, "We've sent the earplugs to Koenma through Botan. Most likely Spirit World will have them analyzed within the next couple of days."
"That's good," Yusuke breathed out, his voice youthful and light in contrast to whatever happened during the fight. "I guess we should have expected that Yomi had some sort of failsafe. He's like you with tactics, Kurama."
"He's impulsive," Kurama interjected. "This is a new development or else it would have been used prior to this confrontation. It is possible he was searching or that he was waiting until we were closer to the truth. In any case, he started these attacked before he was fully ready. If I were him, my tactic would not have struck until every part of the plan had come together and it was foolproof. He changed a lot from our past, but clearly not that much."
"We still have no idea what he's planning," Hiei pointed out. "All we know is he wants that girl."
That was when Eiko flared up, and Tsukiko could hear her aggravation. "That girl just got herself hurt to defend you all!"
"She shouldn't have been out there to begin with," the fire demon scoffed. Tsukiko could picture him crossing his arms in that moment and smiled.
"You don't think I know that?" Eiko questioned, a soft and bitter sigh escaping her. "You just don't understand the woman you're trying to protect. We can warn her, tell her not to put herself in danger, but she will even if she doesn't fight. Do you want to know why?"
"Actually, I do," Kurama spoke. "Perhaps you're right. We haven't really taken the chance to get to know either of you."
"Right, we focused on Tsukiko's power," Kuwabara murmured sheepishly. He almost sounded guilty. "We were focused on the mission that even I forgot about common people skills."
They were all silent for a moment before Yusuke said, his voice kind, "Why don't you fill us in until she wakes up?"
Tsukiko knew Eiko's attitude was wavering. Her friend had a good heart and, like her, would use her forceful words and heated tongue to defend her friends. Eiko also had a soft side, and she could sense emotions of others. She heard her friend's sigh of surrender and knew she could tell the guys were being genuine. They actually wanted to know more about Tsukiko, and not just what her powers could do.
"Tsukiko may not be a fighter, but she has a fighter's spirit," Eiko explained. "Whenever she believes in something, she'll stand up for it regardless of backlash she might get. She's loyal to anyone she sees as a friend, and she will defend them with every fiber of her being especially when they're under attack…physical or verbal. She sees all of you as friends, even if you just saw her as a mission or inconvenience. You haven't been privy to her gushing over you guys and the good work you do. When she offered her help in secret on your missions, it wasn't because she was trying to be a vigilante. It was because she admired you for trying to make the world a better place, and she wanted to make things easier on you and cut your workload because she could only offer her ability at the time and not just her friendship. You four have no idea how lucky you are that she actually considers you all friends and not just protectors."
Eiko's speech ended, and silence was all that could be heard. Most likely, her friend had shocked everyone in the room. Her words actually made Tsukiko feel better. Then Kuwabara asked in interest, "How did you meet her?"
"We met over shared interests," Eiko spoke fondly. "We enjoy similar entertainment, and honestly we always had good talks. When she told me she was helping you guys, I told her she was nuts, teased her for stalking you guys."
"So that's what that whole exchange was," Yusuke chuckled, finding the situation and wording hilarious. "Nice."
At this point, Tsukiko thought it was better to end the conversation, not because she irritated at being called a stalker again, but because they needed to know she was okay. She stepped into the kitchen, five pairs of eyes landing on her, only the guys looking stunned to see her standing upright and smiling. "Hey, guys," she chimed a greeting. "When's dinner…and where's the chocolate?"
Her cheerful voice seemed to diffuse any concerns anyone may have had about her. Tsukiko, despite having been attacked hours earlier, seemed to be in good spirits and not a frightful mess. It came to the boys' realizations that the only time they ever saw her in that state was when she learned the depth of her power and thought she could harm her friends. Eiko's words proved true on so many occasions.
Consequently, that loyalty Eiko spoke of had sparked a similar loyalty from the spirit detectives that the girls had yet to understand, and eventually, the deeper feeling of protectiveness would help cement their blossoming friendship. It went unspoken, but the four guys came to a silent understanding. They refused to let Yomi get ahold of this girl, and now it was more than just a duty or chore.