R&R please!

Disclaimer: Refer to Chapter One of this fanfiction.

Chapter Four: It Was All A Big Accident!

A few days passed by, they were boring compared to the thing that happened with Dairy Queen. Henceforth, Hiei was never allowed alone with the girls ever again. Instead, Yusuke was pulled out of school to accompany him every time he had to watch them, though they were not sure that was much better. Kuwabara would have been with them too, but his sister would probably kill him if he skipped and did not pass so he was forced to stay in school. Sure, Keiko would be on Yusuke's case later for this, but it was not like that did not happen anyway and at least he showed up for half the day.

It was one of those days when they awoke at dawn to train, so no one was happy when Koenma called them in. It was news on the case though, they had found out who the ring leader demon that was after them was. He typed a few things in on his computer and a man's profile was pulled up on the screen.

Name: Raika

Gender: Male

Birthplace: Unknown, Makai

DOB: Unknown

Age: Some 400 years

Race: Demon

Ethnicity: Fire apparition

Complexion: Pale

Hair: Brunette, usually in a ponytail, mid-waist length, normal bangs

Eyes: Red

Height: 5'10"

Weight: Unknown

School: Homeschooled

Grade: N/A

Location: Unknown, Makai

Likes: Unknown

Dislikes: Unknown

Basic Personality: Unknown

Other: Unknown

"Well," Koenma coughed, "you can see we don't know that much about him except name, race, and looks, but at least now you know who to watch out for."

"Great," Takara started sarcastically," it's a good thing that only helps if we see him before he fries us."

Kurama sighed, "Guys like this always have a main group with flunkies, don't they? Do we know his main allies?"

"Unfortunately, no, Intelligence only got to talk to some of their minions; he has a tight-knit group controlling the minors though, about five to ten from what I can tell."

They headed back to the mansion in a slump. Almost all of them were tired, sleepy and kind of hungry and it felt like they were training to go up against the Makai mafia or something. The Dairy Queen thing was the biggest rush they had for a while and now that it was over, life was pretty dull.

"I am so looking forward to an early lunch right now--WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED!" Meriel screamed.

Everyone ran into the house to see what she was talking about. The nearly every square inch was trashed, nothing broken or anything too severe, but whoever had been there obviously did not put any effort into covering their tracks. The guys immediately checked the hiding place for the girls' weapon boxes: Reijin's was missing.

"Oh, you have to be kidding me!" She yelled, "That's crap!"

She was about to run up to her room but Genkai said she should stay and help clean up. She sighed angrily and unleashed a quick blast of wind that lifted everything turned over or flipped upside down back to its rightful position and continued upstairs. When later asked if she wanted anything to eat she told them "no" through the door and stayed locked in.

After Takara ate, she went back up to her room to rest like the last time they trained early but could not get to sleep. She was too troubled over the intruder to do so. She sighed and turned on the black light, the effect it had on her purple-walled room was calming for her. She flopped on the king-sized bed and traced the rose pattern absentmindedly. Suddenly, there was a loud explosion from the living room. She immediately jumped up, grabbed her trench coat out of the wardrobe, and ran downstairs for what could be her first big battle. Had the intruder(s) returned? What she and the others found was not quite what they expected.

A wall was knocked down and Reijin was outside looking extremely guilty and holding a strange looking staff. It was about three or four feet long and made of wood. There was a blue sphere on each end and crowning the blue sphere on the top was a green semicircle (not the shape that you would get if you shaded a circle, just the outline) with the ends curling into spirals.

"Reijin is that...?" Meriel started.

"But it was stolen!" Yusuke added.

"Actually," Hiei began, "the thief is right in front of us."

People looked confused but Reijin looked downward, fascinated by her shoes, while he explained further.

"Something didn't seem right about just one box being taken, so I took a look around outside. I found two guys I recognized from Dairy Queen running away from the mansion. She must have had them come while we were gone and make it look like one of the enemies had taken it, when she just took it for herself." He looked over at Reijin, "Tell me if I left anything out?"

"Mm…it was an accident?" she responded and poked her two pointer fingers together nervously.

"Reijin! I can't believe you did something so underhanded, just to go ahead and get your weapon," Takara growled, "okay, one of you wrestle it away from her, I'll watch."

"We can't" Kurama sighed, "once you receive your weapon your training with it has begun, there's nothing we can do to contain it again and it's bound to the owner so we can't take it away either."

Reijin had a mixed look of shame and total delight before Takara glared at her and started yelling again.

"And what do we do about the wall she collapsed?"

Reijin finally got her input, "With all of us working, it can't be that hard can it? What was it made of? Just wood and cement, wasn't it? Kurama uses plants so there's the wood factor, and you and Meriel can make cement easy, and then I can dry it real quick and—"

"No, no! You aren't having anything to do with this! You'll probably wreck it more."

"What! I knocked it down, at least let me help fix it!"

"Actually, Reijin," Jin told her, "it probably is a good idea if you sit this one out."

"Not you too," she sighed.

"Think. Kurama said you have to train with that weapon now, you barely knew how to control what power you had when you took it and now you're stuck with it. So, I guess you'll just have to sit tight until we can work this out," he reasoned.

She pouted for a moment until "fine" escaped her lips and went back upstairs to her room. Resisting the urge to slam the door behind her, she turned on her computer and listened to the song "Silly-Go-Round" from .hack/Roots. She got bored easily though, and decided to watch the others. She moved her vanity away from the corner and peeked through a small trap door in the wall; this was how she escaped her room to play with her weapon before totaling the living room wall gave her away.

She saw all of them working hard to repair the damage she had caused. Most of them are probably thinking 'this is way too much trouble' but too bad, I offered to help. Jin would not be needed to cool the cement until later and he was talking with Touya about something Reijin could not hear. Being the nosy creature that she was, she snuck downstairs to a nearby window and listened in.

"I swear, Touya, this is way too much trouble," he began.

I knew it!

He sighed, "If Koenma hadn't asked me to help I probably wouldn't have! Who knew she'd be the hardest to handle?" Reijin felt herself stop breathing, what?

"No kidding. Meriel's only a little older and she's not nearly as troublesome, then again, she's at least trained with a weapon before so I guess you have to take that into account…but from the way you tell it that doesn't count too much with your training sessions at all."

He continued, "Like you just said, aren't the youngest supposed to be the nice, obedient ones who always listen? Did you know, she came up with the Dairy Queen thing?"

"You're lying."

"No, I just wish she'd be a little bit more serious."

"You're one to talk about seriousness, you know?" Touya laughed.

No way... She decided to make her stand here. This would stop now.

"So?" She rose up from her hiding spot and surprised the two of them, "Sorry for being such a challenge then," she left it at that and ran for her room before either of them could stop her.

"This is bad," Jin stated the obvious.

"You're right. If you want, I can try to talk to her for you."

"Would you?" he sighed, "Make it clear this is one big misunderstanding."

"Well, while I do that, think of a way to get her to talk to you again."

"Huh? How do you know she won't talk to me?"

"Think back on the conversation and what parts of it she probably heard."

"…You're right, there's no way she's speaking to me."

"From the way she heard things, you'll be lucky to survive that new weapon of hers tomorrow if you don't come up with something soon."

"Gee, thanks for the support," he ended bitterly.

Reijin sat in her room denying what she had heard. Am I really that much of a pain? Practices…okay, so I'm not as focused on learning as I should be, but still! I'm troublesome, but the DQ thing was a one-time deal! I mean, until we get the chance to take advantage of Hiei again, that is. A knock on the door jolted her out of her thoughts.

"Who's there?"

"It's Touya," he said through the door, "can I come in?"

Lovely, nice try sending in a friend, Jin, but I'm not talking to him either! Well, I should, because they'll just send in Meriel or someone later, but I think I'll just sulk for a while now and let them feel like they're in trouble until dinner, at least.

"Go away! I'm not talking to either of you two, but do me a favor and don't try to send someone else up here until dinner at the earliest!"

She lay on the bed and smothered a pillow over her head so that she did not have to listen to any more attempts at being let into her room. He eventually gave up and left. Needless to say Jin was not too thrilled that she had gone into solitary confinement. They had to explain to everyone else that she did not want to be bothered, but decided to blame the living room incident instead of telling them what had really happened.

Later, when people started eating, Touya pulled Meriel aside to tell her what had gone on earlier when Reijin overheard them and asked her if she could talk to her for them. She agreed, finished up quickly, and excused herself to her room, but went to Reijin's instead.

Reijin had fallen asleep since she smothered herself in her pillow for so long. When Meriel knocked it was abrupt and surprised her. She looked outside and realized she had been sleeping for almost seven hours. She told Meriel to hold on for a moment and went to the bathroom to freshen up and dragged her pillow with her. It was a good thing too, because if she had not she did not think she would have made it back to her bed in time to contain the scream. She did not look like herself in the least.

"Um, Meriel," she opened the door a crack.

"Yeah, are you going to talk now?"

"I'd rather not, I'm sick," she lied.

"Sick?"

"Uh-huh, it's one of those heady-stomach things where you just don't feel good, nothing to worry about. I'm sure I'll be better in the morning."

"Okay then, rest some and I'll tell the others. You'd better not just be avoiding the issue though! Touya told me what happened, and I think you should really talk to them. They lied about why you're cooped up in here, by the way, said it was still recoil from breaking the living room."

"How manly of them," she replied satirically, "good night."

"Good night! Feel better, 'kay?"

She closed the door, locked it, took a deep, cleansing breath, and screamed into her pillow as loud as she could. After that was over, she ran back to the bathroom to take a better look in the mirror. Her short hair was grown out, almost an entire foot past her ears which were slightly pointed. Her eyes were not sweet amber anymore, but a bright red. Her body had gotten slimmer and the clothes she was wearing hung loosely. The most dramatic change though, was the small wings poking out of her back.

"This cannot be normal, even for me."

She decided the best thing to do would be to sleep and hope whatever caused her change would leave and she would be normal in the morning. All she could do herself was take scissors to her hair and cut it back to its original style.

The morning was not much better. Her hair had grown back and then some and all of it was about waist length. Not only that, but it had gotten blonder too. Her wings were bigger, her eyes redder and now she was as skinny as one of those snake-like super models. The reason behind it dawned as she was playing with her wings. Of course! I'm Air, and taking the weapon must've forced some kind of change on me!

It was about ten-ish when Meriel came to check on her. She lied again and said she was still sick. When asked what she would do for breakfast she answered that she was going to rest some more before getting anything to eat. After being left alone she sighed. Never mind this, she thought, it's obviously a side effect from not being able to handle my weapon. After they train and come back, I'll just sneak out, learn it all on my own, and come back normal. No one will ever know I sprouted wings.

And that is exactly what she did. As she prepared to leave though, there was a small knock at the door. She coughed a little and asked who it was in a fake sick voice.

"It's me," came Jin's voice, "look, I know I'm probably not who you want to talk to right now," he started.

Oh great, well, I have to hand it too him, it only took twenty-four hours to gather the courage to come talk to me himself.

"But," something red and slender was slid under the door, and he paused, "I know this might not mean much, but you didn't hear all of the conversation! When you're better come and talk to me."

She heard him leave the doorway. What was there to hear? I'm not the ideal trainee and you were venting about me to your friend, big flipping deal, life will move on! I'll show you, I'll show them all.

She went into her closet to find something to wear. It was hard to find something that fit and let her wings stretch too. She settled with a sky blue top that tied behind her neck and had a yellow flower pin in the center and paired it with a darker blue jean skirt. She went into the bathroom and decided to pull her hair into two loose ponytails.

As she came out, she noticed the red thing Jin had slid under the door. It was a feather, probably from a (1) cardinal. She tucked it speculatively into one of her hair ties. Finally slipping on dark blue over-knee socks and black lace-up boots she took her staff and fled the mansion via the trap door.

As she headed behind the temple she thought of some of the minor demons they had trained against just beyond the building and then remembered Botan's warning against going back there alone. Smirking cockily she thought, with my new weapon the small fry will be no problem, then I can move on to bigger fish.

Inside the mansion…

Cayenne sat downstairs on the couch with the TV on, though she was not really watching. Everyone was doing something random, most were eating lunch and talking and ultimately she joined the conversation and brought her thoughts to speech.

"Guys, I've been thinking," she began.

"Uh-oh," Takara interrupted.

"Shut up. Anyway, I've been thinking about Reijin. We made her feel really guilty about the living room thing," at this, Touya, Jin, and Meriel all exchanged knowing glances. "It's just not right! We did fix the wall easily and just because she wanted to further her training quicker, I don't think we should have reacted the way we did."

They took this to mind.

"She still stole her weapon though, and that wasn't the way to go," Hiei added.

"Yeah, well, I won't steal mine, I'll just ask. Can I have it now?"

They looked at her like she was nuts.

"In fact, I think we should all get ours. Maybe training with them all at once will help us understand how to use them better and we can help each other out!"

"…You don't want Reijin to have to train all alone, do you?" Meriel asked.

"Admit it, all of us working together would be a good idea, and if we approach it carefully and away from here, maybe, just maybe, we won't blow holes in the house!"

Takara burst out laughing, "There's a good way to put it, convincing too."

"Would you just piss off and get on my side Takara?" Cayenne smiled at her friend.

"Fine, fine, I'm in," she agreed, "what about you, Meriel?"

"Yeah, sure, why the hell not; I don't want to be the only one left out of the loop here!"

"Hey! We never said yes, you know that right?" Touya reminded them.

"Okay girls, I'll sit on Rinku and you guys take care of everyone else!" Takara joked.

"Hey!" Rinku yelled.

The guys were about to protest some more but Genkai spoke up, "It seems like they've made up their minds, and I have to say, I think if they're this determined…or just swinging blindly, whichever works…they must be ready. Not to mention, the weapons are technically theirs anyway."

So it was decided, training with their weapons would begin tomorrow. For one, it was to start immediately, and less cushy than it could have gone.

Author's Notes:

(1) cardinal - It was funny, my original idea for the feather was this, but I wanted a technical reason and looked up the shaman meaning for a cardinal, one of the meanings was "understanding the power of the wind" xD It was one of those co-inky-dink moments when I glared at fate and asked, "why couldn't you have told me this sooner?"

This was mostly a Reijin chapter, but Chapter Five will be different since, well, she's fled the mansion and the main story for the moment! XD I want to get into the minor characters I'm ignoring at the moment, Shishi, Chuu, etc.