Here's chapter 16! Told you I had these babies already planned out.

Hopefully I don't get lazy and forget to upload the chapters... haha

Anyways, thanks much for the Reviews! I plan to pump out as many chapters as I can over the next few weeks, as I am hopefully going to be starting a full time, day time job soon. Keep your fingers crossed; I'm to old for this three jobs BS lol


"What's with that face?" Clayton asked, his own face scrunching up with confusion as Cora stared at him with wide eyes. She couldn't believe what she had just heard; this was the alternate fighter she was supposed to face? He didn't exactly fit the idea she had had in her mind. She had seen Team Toguro, and each of them held a level of creepy that was all their own. But this guy seemed so... normal. Clayton pulled at the collar of his dress shirt, as if feeling claustrophobic.

"Sorry... it's just, you're not exactly what I expected..." Cora said making Clayton scowl in response, clearly offended by her remark. "Ah! Not that it's a bad thing! You just look so... normal, compared to the rest of that freak show." Cora felt like slapping herself. Why the hell did she care if she offended him?! He was the enemy for kami's sake! Clayton's face relaxed into a lazy smile, and the tension in the air melted away like butter.

"Yeah, I get that- I'm only their alternate because I work for Sakyo." He said, tugging at his collar again. "To tell you the truth, I don't care much for fighting, especially women. No offence, of course. But I have a little sister... watching you these last few days reminds me of her." Cora felt herself relaxing even further, the feelings of animosity a mere memory in the back of her head.

"She must keep you on your toes." Cora said in a teasing way making Clayton chuckle.

"Yeah, I've spent most of my life chasseing after her. I can never seem to catch up." Clayton said, a tight frown falling onto his face. Before Cora could speculate on his sudden bitterness Clayton returned to his easygoing persona. "You know, Sakyo made you out to be a difficult woman to talk to, but you seem alright to me. Way shorter then I thought though..."

"Well, you're not directly threatening me or my team, and you almost managed to make me laugh." Cora said, fingering the sapphire tenderly. "Sakyo has done nothing to gain my total cooperation. You could say he's even started to target my family." Clayton's eyes flashed with anger, the emotion so quickly lived that Cora was unsure if it had been there at all.

"I'm sorry to hear that." He said, though Cora sensed that he didn't really mean it. The sudden change in his emotions caught her off guard; had she said something to anger him? Did Sakyo have his little sister held hostage, and that's why he was being forced to fight her? "Well, I don't know about you, but I'm going to call it a night. I'm about ready to rip the collar out of this shirt. How can these fancy humans stand to dress like this?" Clayton said, the easygoing tone coming back to his voice. Cora laughed a little, motioning to her own attire.

"Tell me about it- god forbid a woman ever be allowed to wear comfy cloths to a dinner party." Clayton smiled, reaching over to one of the many rose bushes and snapping a deep red rose from it's leaves.

"Yeah, but the look suits you." He said, taking her hand and laying the rose in her palm. "I'm really not looking forward to our match. I've always had a weakness for beauty of all kinds, and I cant bare to see it destroyed, no matter how ill it's intent may be." Cora felt her cheeks flush, unused to hearing such talk directed towards her. Sure, he just told her he was going to kill her, but he also called her beautiful... god she was such a girl."A flower, no matter how beautiful, can only wither and die once it's stem has been severed."

"You may find me incredibly hard to cut down." Cora said as Clayton stepped away, leaving the rose to lay serenely in Cora's hand.

"I hope so. I may not like the thought of having to take you out, but I do like a good fight." Clayton said, a smug smirk tugging at his lips.

"And what about fair fights?"

Clayton paused then, regarding her with calculating blue eyes that made an unpleasant shiver run down the back of her spine. "... I'll give you some advice, to help make it a fair fight." He reached out and grasped the sapphire at the hollow her neck, rubbing the smooth stone between his forefinger and thumb. Cora felt every muscle in her body stiffen up; she hadn't even been able to track his arm's movement. "This collar isn't just a device that keeps you from blabbing to your friends about your situation with Sakyo, but it also acts as a limiter. You've taken on two hosts in the time since you put this on. You have one more choice, and then this collar will keep you from changing back. Not even your keeper will be able to overpower it. The only way to remove it is to beat me, and then Sakyo will deactivate the collar."

Cora stepped back, wrenching herself away from him while grasping the rose he had given her to her breast. "Why are you telling me this? Wouldn't it be easier to complete your mission if I was left in the dark?"

Clayton shrugged, his hands slipping quickly into his pants pockets. "I said I wanted a good fight. You requested that we fight fair as well; I was simply leveling the playing field." Cora eyed him wearily as he turned away from her, waving at her over his shoulder. "I'll give you one more hint when we enter the ring, so be a good girl until then, Cora."


Cora walked down the hall towards the hotel room she shared with the boys. In her left hand she carried her shoes and the rose she had received from Clayton, and in the other a six pack of beer she had managed to steal from behind the bar. At least her years of living with Hiei left her with a few skills. Her mind was running a mile a minute, playing her encounter with Clayton over and over again. His behavior, now that she could think clearly, was odd. His emotions seemed to be all over the place, and she couldn't shake the thought that he was aggravated at more then just his obnoxious shirt collar.

And she hadn't sensed any energy from him, which made her wonder about his true ability. Surely, to work for Sakyo, he couldn't be so weak as to not give off even a drop of energy. But then again, if he was that strong it wasn't out of the question that he would be able to hide his presence from her. What if it had been some kind of test to see how well her senses worked? Well, she failed that dramatically and with only mild shame...


"Hehehe! I think I'm getting the hang of this game!" Kuwabara said, excited to see himself with such a good hand. Everyone laughed with him, happy with getting a chance to relax. A couple hours after Cora had left them to take care of some business, Botan, Keiko, Yukina and Shizuru had decided to crash the boy's hotel room, bringing with them an array of snacks and beverages in the hopes of helping them to relax. And, despite Yusuke and the masked fighter being god only knows where and Hiei's sulking at the rain smudged window, their plan appeared to be working on Kuwabara and Kurama who were happily playing cards with the four ladies.

"Hiei, you should join us. We're practically a family." Kurama said, his taunting tone grating heavily on Hiei's nerves.

"Kurama, don't make me tare out your precious voice box." Hiei said through gritted teeth. At that very moment the hotel room swung open revealing one of the many reasons for his foul mood. Cora leaned against the door frame, dressed to the ten's, again, with a rose and her shoes in her left hand a six pack of human beer in her right. She quirked a brow at Hiei's burning glare, unfazed in the slightest by his bad mood.

"It's not even 9:30 Hiei, isn't it a bit early to be threatening bodily harm?" Hiei scoffed while the others laughed again, their carefree attitudes bringing a smile to Cora's face. She walked over to the table and set her six pack down. "If I had known there was a party going on I would have brought more beer."

"Cora, how in the world did you get those?! You look way to young to be buying beer!" Keiko scolded. "Don't tell me you used a fake ID." Cora rolled her eyes, plopping down onto the floor despite her hindering dress.

"Don't worry Keiko, I didn't use a fake ID." She said reassuringly as she took an offered beer from Shizuru.

"Thank goodness." Keiko said before taking a drink from her can of orange juice.

"I stole them."

Keiko promptly choked on her juice making everyone else laugh hysterically. "CORA!" Keiko shouted, smacking her upside the back of her head. Cora only laughed harder, as Keiko hadn't even used a forth of the strength she normally used on Yusuke, making her hit feel like a small fly bite. "That's not funny!"

"It wasn't meant to be." Cora mumbled under her breath as she opened her beer, taking a long drink while Keiko gave her the stink eye. Kuwabara snickered, wiping tears from his eyes.

"Awe, come on Keiko, what did ya expect? She was practically raised by Hiei and Kurama!" Keiko shifted her stink eye to Kurama who feigned innocence and proceeded to shuffle the cards. Cora scooted across the floor so that she was sitting closer to Yukina and leaned in close to her so she could whisper to her.

"And what's worse, is this beer tastes horrible!" Yukina giggled, sniffing the can when Cora moved it towards her. Yukina pulled back, pinching her nose and letting out a small sound of surprise.

"It smells horrible too, Cora."

"Hn. You finally manage to steal something successfully, and it's not even of any value." Hiei said from the window, unimpressed with Cora's pillaging.

"It's not like there's ogre killer just laying around!" Cora defended. "And, I managed to do all of that while wearing a dress and four inch heels! I have a right to feel proud!" Hiei didn't even bother to answer her, making Cora stick her tongue out at his back. How ever, Hiei saw her childish antic in the reflection of the window and smirked, knowing he had won this fight.

"Put that back in your mouth before I cut it off."

Cora quickly slipped her tongue back into its rightful place, her eyes widening in mild fear. She had a feeling that Hiei would actually cut out someone's tongue just for the hell of it, and she didn't want to be the one to test out that theory. Everyone laughed at their exchange while Kurama passed out a new set of cards, this time dealing Cora into the game.

Cora looked over at Keiko, her brows raising into her hair line when she spotted something strange sitting in Keiko's lap. "Keiko, don't panic!" Everyone in the room suddenly tensed up, looking around as if expecting an attack. "But there's a mutated pigeon sitting in your lap..."

Realizing what Cora was talking about, Hiei growled, the hackles on his neck falling flat as he realized there wasn't any threat. "Idiot." Cora glared over at him, pointing at the strange blue bird.

"Alright wise guy, then what the hell is it?!" She shouted making everyone in the room laugh heartily.

Keiko held up the weird bird looking creature for Cora's closer inspection. "This is Pu, Yusuke's spirit beast."

"Huh?" Cora asked as she took the weird bird from Keiko. It stared back at her with wide, unblinking brown eyes.

"Pu?" It said to her, flapping it's large wing like ears. Cora frowned, her eyes narrowing a little, and a light blush coming to her cheeks.

"...so cute..." she whispered, pulling him into her chest and cuddling him. "I will love him forever." '

Hiei scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Someone have mercy on the poor beast before she kills it with her so called affection."

Cora glared at him as Keiko took Pu back. "Shut up! So what is he again? Yusuke's spirit beast? What the heck is that anyways?"

Botan giggled a little, shooting Cora a cat like grin. "He's the physical manifestation of Yusuke's inner self." The whole room fell quite as they waited for Cora's reaction. She blinked down at Pu who blinked owlishly back.

"...What the hell did I miss while I was sleeping?!" Cora exclaimed making everyone laugh. "You're joking right? This little cutie is the manifestation of Yusuke's inner self?! He's one of the biggest assholes I know! Next thing you'll tell me is that Hiei's is a harmless dragonfly, or something like that!"

Hiei glared at her from across the room, unenthused by her need to drag him into the conversation. Kurama chuckled. "Well, now that you mention it-"

"Kurama, I will kill you and feel nothing." Hiei bit out making everyone laugh, which only irritated him further; did they think he was joking? Deciding to change the subject, Cora asked about the one other thing that was bothering her.

"So, when did we find out that the masked fighter was a woman?" She asked. Kurama stepped up then, drawing a card from Cora's hand.

"During the battle with Dr. Ichigaki's team her mask was removed by the force of an attack." He said, laying down his pair of tens. "If not for the incident, I don't think we would have ever found her out."

"Yeah, it's not like she screamed her sexuality to the moons with that get up!" Kuwabara said, scratching the back of his neck.

Cora shrugged. "We women are bad asses, what can we say." Everyone laughed then, aside form Hiei who scoffed and turned back to the window. They continued with their game, chatting idly about the rest of the fights Cora had missed while knocked out. She was kind of bummed that she had missed Yusuke's fight with Jin...

"So, you're awfully dolled up tonight. What's the special occasion?" Shizuru asked casually. Botan smiled mischievously as she leaned in towards Cora.

"Did you go on a hot date?" Botan asked while wiggling her brows making Cora nearly spit out her drink.

"W-what the hell?! NO I did NOT go on a hot date!" Cora shouted, her face turning ten different shades of red making everyone laugh. "I was on a small mission for Koenma. I was invited to this dinner party thing by the benefactors; they were impressed by my fight against Bakken and were trying to talk me into joining their various teams. Naturally I declined, though they all tired very hard to get me on their side. Koenma wanted me to try and get some information about the changes made to the final round." Cora said tossing the rose onto the table. "You know, cause their going to make me fight aga-"

"Awe, Cora got her first rose!" Botan said, squealing in a girly way that made Cora cringe and blush at the same time.

"Was he hot? It wasn't some creepy fat ass old man, right?" Shizuru said while idly stirring her drink.

"Haha, well he was an ass, but not fat or old. He couldn't have been much older then you, Kuwabara." Cora said, reaching across the table and taking a card from Kurama's hand. Sweet! Pair of sixes!

"But was he hot?" Botan prompted. Yukina's brow furrowed in mild confusion as she tapped Cora on the shoulder.

"Does it matter if he was feeling warm?"

Cora shook her head and smiled at Yukina's innocence. "No, when they say 'hot' they are asking if he was physically attractive. And to answer the question he WAS good looking, but he wasn't really my type."

Kurama took a card from Shizuru, gently placing a pair of kings into the pile of cards on the table top. "What exactly would you consider your type?" Kurama glanced slyly over at Hiei, who seemed to have gone very still, his hair standing more on end then usual as he glared at Kurama through the reflection of the window. Cora scratched the side of her face, her brow furrowing in concentration.

"Hmmmm... I've honestly never thought about it before. I don't think I'm old enough yet to really know, but I know that the guy I met tonight was not it." She said as Yukina took a card from her.

"I have a good idea of what your type is!" Botan said teasingly making everyone chuckle as Cora's cheeks heated up once again.

"That's not fair, how is it that you know and I don't?!"

"I'll explain when your older." Kurama said, shutting down Botan's fun time with a short look. Botan pouted a little, but one look at the murderous aura that was coming from the window quickly made all thoughts on the subject disappear.

"OH! Do you know what I love?! Peaches!"

Everyone around the table suddenly fell very silent after Botan's random out burst. "Ummmm... yeah Botan, I like peaches too..." Kuwabara said, breaking the awkward silence.

"Oh goodness, I don't! They have such a strange texture to them." Keiko said, her face scrunching up in distaste.

"I've never tried peaches- are they some kind of human food?" Yukina asked curiously.

"That's right Yukina! And don't worry, I'll take you to try some after we win the tournament! I promise." Kuwabara said, grasping Yukina's hands in his. Cora snorted, taking a drink to hide her laughter as she watch Hiei develope a physical tick in his shoulder. He was trying so hard not to kill that buffoon...

"Down boy." Cora said, slapping Kuwabara's hands away. "You almost knocked her cards out of her hands!"

Kuwabara chuckled, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck. "Whoops! My bad!"

Hiei huffed, standing from the window and making his way to the room he was "sharing" with Cora and Kurama. "Hey Hiei, what's up? Going to change into your jammies?" Kuwabara asked earning a harsh scowl from over Hiei's shoulder. Cora snorted into her drink.

"No you fool, I've just grown tired of listening to this annoying banter." Hiei bit out before he slipped into the bedroom, shutting the door behind him. Everyone looked around, shrugging their own confusion to each other.

"Just leave him alone." Cora said, rounding up the cards to deal out another hand. "He's probably mad that he was kept locked up during the last round."


Hiei listened as the chatter outside the door picked up again, letting his eyes narrow suspiciously. Something was going on with his so called "partner". Her being on the island before them had struck his as odd, but he had assumed she had traveled with Koenma. The way she was dressed that first night had raised his suspicions, but her reasoning had been that she was gathering information for Koenma from the stuck up humans. What ever information she had been sent to gather, has yet to reach anyone on the team.

That strange garment she was wearing also brought up to many questions; she hadn't been wearing the gaudy thing when the tournament started, but now she never seemed to take it off. And what's stranger is the lack of change shown in the choker during Cora's last two transformations; unlike her clothing, which had been reduced to rags when she took on the ice masters being, the choker appeared to change sizes alone with her. No normal human trinket could do such a thing. Again, he pushed his suspicions to the side, believing in Cora's claims of working on a mystery mission for Koenma.

But tonight brought all his suspicions back to the surface; According to the ferry woman, Cora woke up from her hibernation and instantly left to take care of some business. Almost six hours later she returned, dressed as she had been on the night they had arrived on the island, and spouting nonsense about it being part of her mission with Koenma. She was doing an awful lot of research and undercover work and bringing in little to no results; which made him question the entire situation. Wouldn't any information she had gathered been passed on to them in order to prepare them for their matches?

Glancing over his shoulder at the closed door, Hiei frowned. It was time he looked into his "partners" ulterior motives for being at on that island.


The night continued on until the wee hours of the morning. Around 2am the girls (aka Keiko) decided that it was best for them to return to their room so the guys could get some rest. Cora stretched, her shoes and the rose back in her hand as she headed for the bed room she 'shared' with Hiei and Kurama. Hiei had vanished into the room some two hours earlier.

"I doubt Hiei's asleep in there, but can you give me another ten minutes or so to get showered and changed?" Cora asked Kurama. He nodded, and began picking up the small mess left behind from their game time. "Thanks!" Cora opened the bedroom door and peeked inside, surprised to see Hiei actually laying on the bed and looking very asleep. He was on top of the covers, fully dressed with his boots hanging off the bottom edge, with his sword laying beside him. Cora walked over to the side of the bed, leaning ever so slightly over him, her eyes wide and curious. It wasn't often she caught Hiei sleeping, even when they had traveled together. He didn't care for showing his vulnerabilities, even those that where considered natural such a sleeping, eating or even his bathroom habits. Hell, he had to use the bathroom just like Kurama and herself, as he never smelled unwashed, but Cora would be damned if she could ever figure out when he sneaks in his showers and toilet time.

With quiet footsteps she made her way over to the small dresser, laying her shoes down on the carpet and setting the rose on top of the dresser itself. With gentle fingers she stroked the petals, her mind flickering back to the conversation she had with Clayton once again. There was just something about him that she couldn't quite- Cora let out a quite sigh before turning to head to the bathroom only to jump back in surprise, her back end smacking painfully into the dresser. A warm calloused hand clamped over her mouth to muffle her yelp of pain.

"Shut up." Hiei snipped at her, irritated that she had been so distracted as to not hear him get off the bed. Cora pushed him away, rubbing her sore back side with a small hiss.

"Damn it Hiei, don't sneak up on me like that!" Cora poked her bottom, wincing at the dull pain that accompanied the action. "Great, now I'm gonna have a big ass bruise on my, uh, ass!" Hiei snorted, amused by her irritation. She deserved to be in a bad mood, what with her sneaking around. Wait, stop, he couldn't just assume she was sneaking around. He had been right to search the room for possible evidence concerning Cora's strange behavior, and he had a feeling that what he held inside the breast pocket of his cloak held all the information he needed to obtain answers.

"You need to be more aware of your surroundings." Hiei said in a monotone making Cora puff up her cheeks in aggravation.

"Excuse me for thinking you were actually sleeping." Cora hissed out. Hiei ignored her comment and instead held up the envelope of letters he had found under her pillow. All the color drained from her face in a millisecond, and an intense fire started to build in her eyes.

"Where did you find this?!" Cora ground out, her eyes suddenly ablaze with furry.

"Hn." Hiei said, mostly unfazed by her anger.

"Don't sass me! Did you go riffling through my bag?!"

"Activities concerning this mission you have been placed on are strange, and seem to have nothing to do with our reason for being here. When I found these hidden under your pillow I got the idea that they must be part of your so called mission." Hiei spat out the final words, her defensive behavior irking him to no end.

"Under my pillow?! Do you think I'm stupid- don't answer that. Where did you find them?"

"I thought you would have hidden top secret information a little better, if you had intended to keep us all in the dark."

Cora fumed, pointing an incriminating finger at Hiei's chest. "I swear to god Hiei, if you-"

"It's not important where I found them, it's important what's written in these letters." Hiei bit out, dragging Cora from her anger in two seconds flat. "What the hell have you gotten yourself into this time? And don't even think of telling me it's all to do with Koenma."

"You didn't read them? You went rummaging through my personal belongings, but didn't bother to read what you had found?." Cora said, her confusion and anger being pushed out of her system by a fresh wave uncertainty. So did that mean Hiei knew her secrete?

"Of course I read them, or at least tried. Like I could make heads or tails of the nonsense written in those letters."

Cora quirked a brow at him before reaching out for the envelope and extracting one of the letters. Her brow furrowed in confusion when she took in the horrible chicken scratch and bad grammar of the letter in her hand. Who ever wrote these letters, it sure as hell wasn't Sakyo. These weren't even the same letters that Cora had read before. Cora pushed past Hiei, much to his aggravation, and went over to where her bag lay on the floor. She ripped open the front pocket and started to riffle around, tossing handfuls of underwear and other personal items onto the floor. Hiei scrunched up his nose when a particularly frilly pair of panties landed on his boot, which he quickly kicked away from him as a light dusting of pink rushed across his cheeks. Cora stared down into the empty pocket of her bag, her lips pulling into a deep frown.

"This doesn't make sense..." she said out loud to herself, bringing the letter she had been reading back up for her inspection. "And you said they were all like this? And you swear that you found these under my pillow?"

"Hn."

Cora unzipped the big pocket of her bag, shocked to find that all of the clothing she had been provided with for her meetings with Sakyo had been taken. "Son of a bitch- these aren't even the real letters from Sakyo! Someone broke in and stole the letters and clothing-" Cora glanced around herself, her eyes blazing furiously. "And-" Cora narrowed her eyes suspiciously at Hiei over her shoulder. "Who ever took them stole some of my underwear-"

"Cora."

Cora stopped all movement, her breath hitching and a cold sweat washing over her with such intensity she nearly shivered. She'd heard Hiei use his true warning tone many times, but it had been a very long time since it had been directed towards her. Couple that with his using her actual name, and she knew then and there that she had made a huge mistake. One that she wasn't sure she could take back. Hiei reached down and grabbed her right upper arm, spinning her around so she was having to bare his full fiery gaze.

"Have you been communicating back and forth with the owner of Toguro's team?"


Sakyo sat in his hotel suit, a cigarette hanging precariously from his lips and a glass of brandy resting leisurely on his knee. He stared out the large picture window to the beach front bellow, enjoying the light play of the moon on the rising tide. A dark hulking figure moved from the shadows to stand beside Sakyo's seated form, handing him a small hand held device with two buttons present on it's front, one red one blue. A red light blinked at atop the devices face, making Sakyo sigh.

"I guess temptation is just to much for some people." He said, flicking his thumb over the red button and pressing it down a single time. He then slid the device into his jackets pocket, taking a big drag from his cigarette. "Let the semi final's begin."

"Should I send someone to obtain the girl?" Toguro asked, stepping further into the light. Sakyo shook his head, running his fingers over the outline of the device through his pocket.

"There's no need; this will be a good chance to test the Good Doctor's invention."


"You have two seconds to answer me or I'll-"

"W-wait!" Cora hissed out, a sense of claustrophobia coming over her. The choker around her neck suddenly felt tighter, the air in the room thinner. She grasped at the sapphire, drawing Hiei's infuriated gaze straight to it. "I-I can't tell you-" Hiei pushed her hand away, taking the stone in his hand while bending her head every which way in order to examine the choker from all sides.

"A collar? Are you his loyal bitch now?" Hiei spat out, his very blood feeling as though it were on fire; it was a shock that the very room around them hadn't caught fire by then, as his energy was pulsing violently. Finding the envelope had just been a lucky break; for all he knew, they really were connected to her mission with Koenma. But now she had admitted to having contact with Sakyo, the owner of the very team they had been sent there to destroy, and the strange lock on the back of the choker only fueled his anger; clearly it wasn't meant to be removed unless someone possessed the key, and a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach told him that Koenma wasn't the one to give this collar to Cora.

"I'm nobodies bitch, asshole!" Cora bit out, slapping his hands away and climbing to her feet. "And I can't tell you anything. This choker, collar, what ever the hell you want to call it prevents me from telling you anything about the arrangement I have with Sakyo. All you need to know right now is that Koenma is-!" Cora stopped, both her hands coming up to her throat where her breath was suddenly cut off. She wraps her fingers around the sapphire, pulling against it; was the choker getting smaller? Cora tries to take a breath, her throat gurgling in response and her lungs protesting that lack of expected oxygen.

Hiei, realizing her sudden lack of breathing, reaches out and grasped her upper arms just before her knees began to buckle. "What-?!" Cora continued to pull at the choker, which Hiei could see had started to cut into the flesh of her throat as it grew tighter and tighter. "Damn!" Hiei pulled Cora so she was bent with her forehead resting against his knee while he grasped at the lock that sat against the back of her neck. If he could break it, the choker should stop effecting her. "Damn it!" Hiei couldn't get a proper grip on the edge of the lock; it had started to sink into the back of her neck as the circumference of the choker shrank ever smaller.

Rivulets of blood started to dribble down either side of Cora's neck, and the edges of her vision was starting to turn black. She could hardly hear Hiei's growled curses, or even when he seemed to shout to someone. Muffled bangs and voices filtered through her muddled mind, followed by the muted sensation of cold hands gripping her shoulders and shifting her around. Cora could see shadows moving around above her, but she was unable to place who or what they belonged too. And then there was light, blue and blinding and seeming to come from nowhere. Intense heat engulfed her, and the muffled voices from before seemed to grow in volume and intensity before everything vanished completely.

Hiei, Kurama and Kuwabara stared in muted shock at the place that Cora had just been laying on the floor, her entire being having just vanished in a blinding light that and been emitted from the sapphire stone that was hanging around her neck. Kuwabara took an uncertain step back, a cold sweat accumulating on his forehead.

"W-what just happened...?"

"I believe we are all at a loss Kuwabara. Hiei, do you have any idea's?" Kurama asked, his shock quickly shifting into urgent investigative mode. Hiei's own shock seemed to give way to barely restrained furry, his jagan activating in accordance with his boiling temper as he stormed from the room. "Hiei-"

Hiei didn't even pause in his steps as he slammed the door to their hotel room open, stalking down the hall to where he knew the girls room was located. With out knocking, he kicked the door in making Botan and Shizuru, who were still awake, jump in shock.

"H-Hiei! Why did you kick the door down-EEP!" Botan threw her hand's up in surrender when Hiei pinned her with a glare that probably should have killed her on the spot. It took every fiber of Hiei's thinly stretched self control not to strangle the grim reaper, her life saved due to the information she could offer him.

"Where is that damn toddler?"


There you go! Sorry this one took so long- had a weekend of third shifts that meant free writing time, only to have the internet go out... FML