ShadowDove87: Now for chapter 2! I hope you enjoy reading it. Please review if you can, Qiruama and I would really like to know what you think of our story. Again, constructive criticism is welcome, but try and avoid the destructive kind, thank you!

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A Battle With Memories

Chapter 2 – A New Arrival in NingenKai

Authors: Qiruama and ShadowDove87

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Yusuke's eyes widened. "What? You're the person we're looking for? Then why were you hiding?" it sounded as though he didn't really believe her.

She shrugged casually. "It's in my nature to inspect before acting," she replied. The quick response made the detective shut up, still looking a little mistrusting.

Tara looked at the girl. "Then what about the information you should give us," she wanted the mission to be over as quickly as possible and she wasn't going to waste any time. "Koenma told us you'd be able to tell us what's going on,"

The girl sighed and nodded. "I can. Please follow me," she started walking, glancing over her shoulder with a small smile at the group of five trudging along behind her. "I'm Soraya, by the way," she turned back to look ahead.

Kuwabara, who was walking right behind her, had his eyes glued on her swaying tail. After watching it a little longer, he reached out for it curiously and grabbed it, only to receive a slap across the face.

"Pervert!" she snapped, eyes flashing dangerously. He should consider himself lucky that I didn't use my claws, she thought to herself as she noted his shocked expression with satisfaction. She turned promptly on her heels and kept walking, a little faster than before. She lead them out of the city, where the environment changed very quickly.

Yusuke looked around, frowning a little at how suddenly they could be walking in a lush, green field. Looking over his shoulder to look back at the city, he stopped dead in his tracks. "Hey…! It's gone!"

Kuwabara looked back at him, wondering what in the world he was on about. His eyes widened when he realised what the detective was talking about. The city, that they had left not 5 minutes ago, was no were in sight.

Soraya sighed a little. "It was just an illusion," she explained as she continued walking, not bothering to wait for them. "Koenma set it up for me so I could meet you,"

"Wait a minute, where are we going then?"

This time, she did stop, and slowly turned to face them. "To my village," she said slowly. They stood outside a dense forest, a light fog drifting around them. "Before we go in, I have to tell you a few things," she paused to look around the group, making sure that they were all paying attention. "This is a cat demon village. By nature, we're not very hospitable, so don't be surprised when you don't see anyone out of their homes. To be honest, none of them have seen any other type of demon for centuries. This is a hidden village after all," having given them what she deemed most necessary for the time being, Soraya turned and headed into the forest.

Tara looked at her. She did remember her father telling her something about a hidden village in the north, but he had never told her why it was secluded like that. She remembered having found it weird when she was younger and it had made her want to find it and explore. She never had gotten the chance. Not until now.

Not long after, they reached the centre of the village. A large hut stood in the middle of the village square. It was easily identified as the Elder's home. Soraya stopped again, only a few paces from the front door. "I'll remind you again…my clan is not very convivial. They're not fond of outsiders, save for a select few," she sighed a little, a wave of depression swamping her for a moment before quickly turning away from the group and knocking on the door. They heard a muffled command to come in through the thick wood and the door swung silently open to admit them.

The room was large and circular and obviously frequently used as a meeting hall. Three neko youkai sat at the head of the room, each perched upon a cushion. There were none for the six visitors. Soraya walked to the centre of the room and bowed respectfully before sitting down. None of them reacted, their faces practically set in stone.

The others followed her example. They bowed and sat down. All except for Hiei. It was obvious to him that they were not welcome or wanted there and he was going to make it clear that he had no desire to be there and simply sat down, receiving glares from the two youkai on either side of the third, especially the one on the left. The one with which Soraya had clearly avoided eye contact with. The one in the middle only looked at Hiei in a mildly surprised fashion.

Clearing his throat, the neko youkai in the middle placed his hands on his knees. "So, you are the ones Koenma spoke of? Welcome," he nodded his head a little to all of them in greeting. "These are my two generals, Fukuro and Fuyuji, they will be supplying you, together with Soraya, with the information we have," his voice was calm and collected, although his posture was stiff. "I do not know much myself, but we have been working hard to gather all the information we could,"

Fuyuji, the sapphire haired demon to the elder's right, continued. "Apparently there is a strong force who is trying to take over the MaKai. We believe that it is a wind demon. He has killed many already, even some of our own. We do not know where his current location is, nor are we aware of exactly who we are dealing with. He is extremely dangerous and has many powerful demons working under him. How many is unknown. Your mission is to kill the cardinals, reach the top and kill their leader," his eyes were cold and emotionless as he spoke.

Yusuke raised an eyebrow. "So, our job is to kill this bastard, right?"

The elder nodded. "That is correct,"

The young detective started to smirk. "Great! Finally a job with some fun!" everyone looked at him with a raised eyebrow and Soraya couldn't help but smile faintly. He knew no shame. Working with him was going to be interesting.

The elder cleared his throat before speaking again. "If you follow Fukuro, he will show you the data we have collected thus far," the demon to his left nodded, and rose to his feet. His white tail swished as he made his way for the door. Both his and Soraya's ears seemed to flatten against their heads slightly when he passed her.

She got to her feet once he had reached the door and bowed to the elder and the remaining general still sitting at the front of the room. Soraya, representing the connection between the visiting party and the cat demons, walked at the head of the group, behind Fukuro. She tried to stay as far away from him as possible without keeping such a distance that it would be obvious or considered rude.

Tara sighed as she looked around, grateful for the light breeze outside the hut. Somehow, even the air seemed staler now that she knew what was ahead. "This is not going to be easy," Kurama shook his head in agreement. His green eyes, usually gentle and kind, now reflected a hard, serious, determination.

The general lead them through the village and past a brilliant waterfall that cascaded down from incredible heights, splitting and winding around mossy ledges before spilling into a large, crystal blue, pool at the mountain's base. He gave them no time to admire the sight as he quickly ushered them into a damp and dingy cave. He stopped at the mouth, the light behind him making him seem ominous. "This cave contains all the information we have collected so far," he started, his eyes narrowing as he looked at each of them carefully. "Take your time to study them," and with that, he left the cave.

They all looked around the roomy cavern. The insistent dripdrip from somewhere deeper in the cave did not help the gloomy atmosphere. Even the oh-so proud Yusuke seemed smaller and quieter than before. Slots had been cut out of the stone wall. 26 of them. A letter of the alphabet etched under each cavity. The slot labelled 'W' was nearly empty. Spread out over a large table were several stacks covered in animal skins. "They cover the papers so they don't get ruined by the humidity," Soraya explained. Tara noted how she said 'they' rather than 'we'.

Kurama walked to them. Even his mood had darkened since they'd stepped in. Opening one of the skins he leafed through the sheets of paper preserved inside.

"It looks like most of this information is on wind demons in general. That would explain why they're so old," Kurama was surprised to hear Soraya right beside him. He had not thought that she, such a young demon, most likely even the youngest among them, would be looking into something like this. "Here's something more recent," Soraya continued, opening one of the smaller stacks. Her eyes narrowed as she read the file at the top, her voice rising in disbelief. "Apparently the Elder sent out scouts in an attempt to track down the enemies. Their bodies were found a month later, maimed, tortured and dead," a handful of pictures slipped out from between the pages and she bent down to pick them up, wishing she hadn't the instant she laid eyes on the images. She slowly lowered them onto the table and took a step back.

Yusuke raised an eyebrow in mild curiosity and took the pictures to see for himself. None of them were pleasant and all were too brutal to describe. He wasn't sure that even he, after having been spirit detective for nearly four years, had witnessed anything of this sort. He let out a sigh. "Looks like this guy likes to play around, huh?"

Kurama nodded. His eyes were still narrowed as he skimmed through the papers Soraya had handed to him. "I think I may have heard of them before, though I don't remember much. Hiei, do you know anything about them?" he glanced over his shoulder towards the black clad demon, green eyes almost as bright as Soraya's in the darkness.

"Hnn," Hiei muttered as he took a look at some of the files. "Their ways sound familiar," his face darkened as he found yet another picture from one of the older files. He frowned and passed it on to Yusuke, who almost jumped out of his skin in shock at the image he was being shown. His face was pale. Hiei continued, barely fazed by what he had seen. "These methods of torture could be from one of our enemy's cardinals, but they are definitely from a wind demon name Ginta," he took the picture from Yusuke and threw it on the table for all the others to see.

"Ginta?" Tara turned to look at Hiei, just a glance at the image enough to make her want to run. "I've heard about him before. I remember my mother telling me something about the wind demons when I was little," she fell silent, remembering her mother's words. "…He was feared…"

Soraya had made a point of not looking at the picture. Yusuke's reaction was more than enough for her. Walking over to one of the slots in the wall, she pulled out a very thin file. Collecting information on Ginta was, after all, nearly impossible. "According to this he disappeared 75 years ago. Some believed he was dead, while others thought he went into hiding. Looks like the latter may have been right…"

"Okay…" Yusuke had finally recovered from what he'd seen in the picture. "I admit, this might be dangerous,"

"Might? Might you say? Yusuke, he's a god damn psycho! This is going to be very dangerous!" Tara exclaimed, about ready to shove Yusuke's head in a dryer to see if that would straighten him out at all.

"So…" Soraya leaned against the wall, the tip of her tail brushing the floor in obvious fear. "Anyone got any bright ideas…?"

There was a moment of silence before Kuwabara piped up. "We should just go in and take him by surprise! I'll beat the crap out of him, no sweat!"

Yusuke promptly whacked him over the head. "What, have you lost your brain or something?!"

Hiei closed his eyes, crossing his arms in agitation. "You'd be the first one dead you moron,"

Kuwabara winced, rubbing the already growing bump on the back of his head. "Hey! She asked for ideas!"

"Bright ideas, not yours," Hiei growled his response.

The three of them continued to argue back and forth. In the mean time, Soraya had pulled out a piece of paper, looking over it with a troubled look on her face. It was a record of all the people Ginta had killed and most of them were men. There were very few women listed. Out of the thousands of names, probably only a handful weren't male. So they had found his weakness.

Kurama nodded in agreement to the conclusion she had made. "It does say here that he once spared a kitsune youkai's life and she tried to seduce and kill him. She, of course, failed, but it does prove that he has a soft spot for women,"

"If you ask me, he sounds more like the leader than one of those cardinal thingies,"

"No one was asking you," Hiei snapped, glaring at Kuwabara and muttering 'village idiot' under his breath.

Soraya shook her head. "No, Kuwabara has a point. It doesn't seem like someone as powerful as Ginta would bow down and serve someone else,"

"Hey!" Yusuke's face suddenly lit up. "I have a plan!" Even Kurama looked surprised at this revelation. He doubted it would go down well. "Ok, it's really simple. All we gotta do is send Tara and Soraya in to seduce him and we'll do the rest!"

Tara's eyes flashed. "You gotta be kidding me…"

Soraya growled, her ears flattened against her head and she looked as though she was about ready to pounce on Yusuke for suggesting something like that. Anyone watching her would have thought she was overreacting, but all eyes were on Yusuke.

"There is no way in hell I'm doing something like that!" she hissed.

Kurama shook his head. "No Yusuke, it's far too dangerous and unpredictable of a plan to work. There are too many unknown elements,"

Yusuke made a face. "Fine, anyone else come up with something better then?"

Kuwabara opened his mouth to, obviously, come up with another brilliant suggestion, but a voice at the mouth of the cave made all their heads turn.

"If you're all done, I will take you back to the elder,"

So their time was up. Soraya sighed and shook her head. She should have known that they wouldn't be able to take their time with this. Putting the file back down on the table she started for the cave mouth, stopping several arm's lengths from Fukuro. "Thank you, but I think we'll just take our leave. Please give my regards and gratitude to the elder," she walked right past him with an air of indifference.

They followed her out in silence. Even Kuwabara thought it better to keep his mouth shut, especially after seeing the look on Fukuro's face. When they'd finally left the forest that surrounded the village, they all relaxed. Kurama moved to walk beside and obviously troubled Soraya, giving her a comforting smile, while the other four bickered behind them.

"Are you coming with us?"

After a moment's thought she nodded. "I think so. I don't think it would be right of me to just leave you to it after learning about all those things you'll be facing,"

Kurama couldn't help but feel rather surprised. She really was only a kitten and it seemed as though she was trying act older than she was, take on more than she could handle. "You don't have to, you know that. You don't have any responsibility to us,"

"I know, I know, but…well," she looked over her shoulder to where Tara was arguing with Yusuke and Kuwabara, both boys laughing as they continued to tease and make fun of her. "I can't just leave Tara alone with a bunch of guys, can I?"

Kurama chuckled and nodded. "I'm sure she'll be grateful,"

Kuwabara suddenly appeared beside them. "Hey hey! When are we gonna go kick wind demon butt then??" he sounded a little too excited for his own good.

Hiei's eyebrow twitched in annoyance. It seemed that, no matter how many time you hit them, humans never learned. "If he is the leader of this group, then we can't just approach him,"

"Besides, I have a feeling he'll be coming to us,"

Tara blinked and turned to Soraya curiously. "Wait, you mean you're going to help us?" her spirits lifted a little when the neko youkai nodded.

Yusuke sighed, putting his hands behind his head as they walked. "So what? We wait around for him to attack us?" he made a face when Soraya nodded. "Oh yeah, this is gonna be exciting," he rolled his eyes. "Then what are we supposed to do until then?"

"Go home?"

Tara eyes widened a little when she heard what Soraya had suggested. "Wait, we can go home?"

She smiled. "Of course you can go home, you don't expect to be kept here until you finished the mission, do you? Besides, I heard a rumour that a powerful demon escaped to the NingenKai. Maybe it's one of the cardinals?"

Kuwabara whooped and punched the air. "We're going home! This place was giving me the creeps! Come on Urameshi!!!" grabbing Yusuke, he ran off.

Soraya sweatdropped. "…Does he even know where he's going?"

Tara shook her head and placed a sympathetic hand on her shoulder. "I doubt it, but don't worry, you get used to it," raising an eyebrow, she watched in amusement as Kuwabara dragged a flailing Yusuke around.

"I can't find a portal!" he hollered in their rough direction.

"Idiot. You think the portal would still be up?" Hiei stood, leaning against a tree, arms crossed. Why did he even bother?

Soraya laughed. "Come on, I know where a portal to the NingenKai is. Koenma said he'd open one two hours after you reached the MaKai," she explained as she lead them further from the forest. Approximately 20 minutes later, they found a large lake, surrounded by reeds and covered in lily pads. Floating above the murky water, in the centre, was a portal.

"Eh…" Kuwabara scratched his head as he stared at it. "How are we gonna get there…?"

Yusuke smirked. "Easy! Jump!" he didn't wait for anyone to correct him as he took a running leap and flew through the portal. The rest of the group looked at each other for a moment before shrugging and following his example, the portal closing behind them as they appeared in the human world.

Soraya looked around, wide eyed. Everything looked so strange here. Every inch of land was paved, the houses were made of stone, there was glass in the windows and…there were funny poles with lights on the end lining the street.

"So this is your first time in the human world, isn't it?" Soraya nodded in response to Kurama's question, still looking around in bewilderment.

Tara took Soraya's arm and pulled her out of harm's way as a car drove past them. "Come on, you can stay with me," she laughed when the neko youkai looked at her gratefully, having heard Kuwabara insisting that he be her host during her stay.

Yusuke faked a yawn and stretched. "Well, I better get going, it's late and I'm tired,"

Tara raised an eyebrow. "Yusuke, it's barely 9…you have a date with Keiko, don't you?"

"Eh! It's not a date"

She only laughed when he walked off. They bid the other's good night and the two girls went on their own way. Hiei watched them a moment from his perch in one of the taller trees. He wanted to make sure no demon had managed to get through the portal before them and was lurking in one of the dark corners, waiting to attack. Not that he would ever admit that to anyone else, he barely admitted it to himself. He would much rather be known to be cold and calculating than warm and fuzzy.

Tara stopped in front of a white, two story house and unlocked the door, holding it open for Soraya, who wandered in with big eyes. Her tail swished in apprehension as she stared holes into the flowered wallpaper in the kitchen.

Tara laughed at the expression on her new companion's face. "Come on, I'll show you your room and then we can have something to eat,"

Soraya nodded, still staring around wide eyed. The rooms weren't lit with candles but with light bulbs, Tara had explained. Almost everything was carpeted, it seamed. Chairs, couches, floors, even the stairs. Soraya came to the conclusion that humans liked their comfort.

"Here we are!" Tara opened a door at the top of the stairs and hit the lights. The room was relatively large with a bed pushed under a window. Soraya wandered in and sat down on the bed, patting the pillows after a moment with satisfaction. Tara couldn't help but laugh. "I thought you'd like it and I'm sure my sister won't mind if you use it,"

Soraya stood and followed her back out and into the kitchen. "You have a sister?"

"Yeah, and older sister, but she's not home much,"

Smiling a little, the neko youkai looked around, poking the fridge curiously as it hummed away. "Umm…siblings are a nice thing to have, ne?"

Tara nodded absentmindedly as she pulled out a pot from the pantry. "Yeah I guess so, they can be a pain sometimes though," she smirked when Soraya laughed.

A few minutes later she set two bowels on the table. Scratching her head and sniffing it curiously, Soraya stared at her food. There seemed to be stringy things floating in a flavoured and coloured liquid with a few vegetables thrown in, along with some chicken. Good, at least she knew some of the stuff she was eating. Tara watched her in amusement. Living with her was going to be fun.

Picking up the chopsticks she puzzled at her food once more before deciding that, the only way she was going to get anywhere was by actually trying some. She only had to take one bite before her face lit up, the rest of the noodles gone moments later.

"I take it you liked it then," Tara laughed when Soraya nodded enthusiastically. "If you think this is good, you should try pizza,"

Soraya wrinkled her nose. "Pizza? Humans sure do have odd names for their food,"

Tara laughed again. The cat demon reminded her so much of how she felt when she'd first come to live here. "Yeah, but it's damn good! You sure try it one day,"

"I will…" she got up and helped Tara clear up the table, watching the thunder demon do the dishes with big eyes. "Umm…could I ask you something?" she took a plate and dried it with the towel Tara handed her, continuing when her hostess nodded. "How did you come to live here? Being a youkai, what from you to NingenKai?"

Tara shrugged casually, scrubbing out another bowl. "I don't know…it was so many years ago, I can't remember the reason anymore. But I won't go back now," she added the last bit with a sigh. She faintly remembered having a home in the MaKai and she could recall the names and faces of a friend or two, but nothing actually gave her a yearning to return to the land she was born in.

Soraya smiled as she listened to Tara tell her about the human world. It seemed a lot easier than where she'd come from. For one thing, you didn't have to kill for food. No longer hearing the accusations of being a traitor… her mind drifted back to her own childhood and when she came back to reality, she found Tara waving a dripping plate in front of her face, asking if she was alright. Soraya stared at her a moment before laughing and taking the plate, reassuring her that she was just daydreaming.

Once they'd finished with the dishes, Tara bid her a good night and told her to come wake her if she needed anything.

"I think I'll be fine, but thank you,"

The thunder demon nodded, looking at Soraya another moment before giving her a quick hug. "Welcome to the NingenKai,"