Chapter Six

"I can't believe we have to go to school on Saturdays," I griped in-between classes. "You know, they don't pull this kind of crap in America. Saturday is supposed to be the best day of the week for students! It's that wondrous day where you get to goof off doing whatever you want, and unlike Sunday there's no looming specter of Monday pressing in on you."

From her own desk immediately to the side and above mine, Keiko giggled a little. "Oh, don't be so melodramatic, Tenchi," she chided me gently. "It's only for half of a normal school day, anyway."

"That only makes it half as awful, which still isn't good," I pointed out. I'd hated school enough the first time around; now I was doing it all over again, plus an extra half a day on Saturdays.

'If I'd known I was going to actually live this shit, I'd have picked an origin that wouldn't have to go to school,' I thought to myself.

With a sigh, I decided to stop stalling and get to putting the plan in action. "By the way Keiko, can I ask you a favor?"

"Hmm? Of course, Tenchi. What is it?"

I scratched the back of my head awkwardly. "See, I kinda... get lost pretty easily when I'm in a new place. My sense of direction is basically awful, and the map I have is pretty much useless. So... you mind showing me around town? You know, so I can find my way better?"

Keiko looked a bit uncomfortable at my request. "Um... I don't really think that would be a good-"

"Hey losers," Yusuke said as he walked back in from the bathroom, taking his seat next to me and behind Keko. "So what are you nerds going on about now?"

"Oh, nothing!" Keiko says quickly, a little flustered.

"I was asking her to show me around town, so I don't get lost again," I answered.

"Oh yeah, Kuwabara told me about that," Yusuke said with a chuckle. "How the hell do you try to go downtown and end up at the freaking docks?"

"Hey, it's not my fault that my map sucks, okay!?" I retorted defensively.

"No, it's your fault you can't read the damn map in the first place," Yusuke replied with a smirk.

"Oh, so you really..." Keiko started to say before she started coughing to cover up what she was about to say.

"Whoa, whoa! I wasn't asking you out on a date or anything!" I said quickly as I realized what was going on. "I don't go for girls who are already taken, especially not when the guy is right here."

"Hey! What the hell are you talkin' about!?" Yusuke yelled, as Keiko started blushing scarlet and sputtering denials. "It's not-"

"Yeah, sure, whatever," I said with a casual wave of my hand. "So Keiko seemed to have something else going on. Do you mind showing me around so I can get a feel for this place?"

"Pft, like hell. Do I look like a tour guide to you?" Yusuke said.

"Well Kuwabara said no, and I don't really know anyone else at this school," I replied. "And I'm getting kind of sick of getting lost any time I go somewhere that isn't from my house to school and vice versa."

"Actually, I could show you around, Tenchi," Keiko said with a smile. "Sorry, I just kind of thought you were-"

"Using it as an excuse to ask you out? Yeah, don't worry about it, I probably should have realized what that would sound like," I said. "Thanks a lot."

"So what parts did you want to see?"

"Well, we'll only have a few hours, so I guess just whatever's close by."

Last night...

"So what's the plan now?" Yusuke asked. "We still have no damn clue where Hiei could be right now, unless Kurama's got something to share with the rest of class?"

Kurama shook his head. "Unfortunately, no. Even I have trouble finding Hiei when he doesn't wish to be found."

"Which means he could sneak attack us again if he wants. Just great," I groused.

"It's a lot worse than that, Tenchi," Koenma said. "Remember, his first attack wasn't on you or Kuwabara; it was on Kuwabara's friend Okubo."

Kurama pursed his lips, and Botan's eyes widened. "You mean..."

"Correct. There's every chance that he'll do the same thing, and try to get to you through your loved ones."

"Goddamn it, how could I not see that!?" I yelled, smacking my forehead. Lost in my thoughts, I ignored whatever the others said in response.

What the hell is wrong with me!? Why did I think that Keiko was the only one I needed to watch out for!? Just because that was who he went after in the show doesn't mean shit anymore!

I shook my head to clear it as Kurama was talking. "Hiei hasn't been indiscriminately cutting people with the Shadow Sword, so at the very least we can count on him to not resort to that tactic just yet. Rather, it seems likely he'll try to kidnap or kill one of our loved ones and use them to force the confrontation to a place and time that's to his advantage."

Yusuke, Kuwabara and Botan all went pale at those words.

"Which means the first thing we need to do is figure out who's likely to be attacked, and figure out how to make sure that doesn't happen. Which means we have to first list out who our loved ones are that Hiei might get it into his head to attack," I concluded.

"Exactly," Kurama said with a nod. "For myself, the only person Hiei would think to attack is my human mother, Shiori Minamino. He knows I am not close to anyone else in the Human World."

"I'm from Spirit World, so there's no one here that Hiei could attack to get to me," Botan supplied helpfully. I refrained from pointing out that Hiei probably didn't consider her even remotely worth his time.

"All of my loved ones are way out of Hiei's reach, too," I added. That got me a few looks, but I studiously ignored them. "Which means that other than Kurama's mom, the likely targets are Yusuke and Kuwabara's family and friends. So I guess it's a good thing they're both so unpopular."

The two simultaneously flipped me off in response.

"So that's Yusuke's mom, Keiko, Kuwabara's family and three friends, and Kurama's mom," I summarized.

"Yes. If Hiei intends to use our loved ones to force a confrontation in his favor, he will pursue at least one of them," Kurama agreed.

"Which means we need some way of making sure they're safe," Botan said.

The present...

"Thanks. Have a nice day," I said as the cashier handed me my purchase. I quickly got back to Keiko and we started walking again.

"Thanks for waiting," I said as we started moving again.

"It's no problem," Keiko said. "But... why marbles? And all that other stuff?"

"Oh, nothing really important," I said. "Just had some ideas for ways I could use them that I wanted to test out. You know, scientific curiosity and all that."

"Oh, you're interested in science?" Keiko asked brightly. "It's actually one of my best subjects. What kind of experiments were you thinking of doing?"

Crap, I didn't think that excuse through. Years of coming up with lies, excuses and stories on the spot, don't fail me now!

"Well..." I started.

Last night...

"So do you have anyone who can watch out for them while we track down Hiei?" I asked Koenma. I knew what the likely answer was, but it was a possibility that had to be explored.

The thousand-year old toddler sighed. "Unfortunately, no. I'm not really the ruler of Spirit World, you knowe; I just run a lot of the day-to-day operations while my father deals with other matters. I don't have the authority to assign anyone in Spirit World strong enough to stand up to demons like Hiei to jobs in Human World. It's part of why I bother with this whole 'Spirit Detective' thing in the first place."

"Yeah, I guess that makes sense..." I sighed.

"Great, so what the hell do we do, then?" Yusuke asked testily.

"I suppose our best option is to all separate and watch over our loved ones," Kurama suggested.

"Wait, what? Why don't we just tell them what's happening and bring them all into one place so they can be safe?" I asked. "Hell, I could unlock their potential for Hamon while we're at it. They wouldn't be strong enough to actually fight Hiei, but at least they might get strong enough that they can't be turned into demons by the Shadow Sword."

"Because that's not allowed, Tenchi," Koenma explained with a sigh. "Spirit World's laws are very strict about such things. Artificially creating spiritual powers in human beings is highly illegal and upsets the balance between the worlds. The only reason you were allowed to do it to Yusuke and Kuwabara is because they had already unlocked spiritual powers in the first place. And by the same token, giving people who don't have spiritual powers knowledge of the supernatural is highly illegal, with a few very special exceptions that don't include our current situation."

"What!? What kind of horse-shit is that!?" I yelled furiously. "You're going to let people be put in mortal danger because of some stupid fucking law!?"

"Don't act like it's my idea, Tenchi!" Koenma yelled back. "Do you think I made those laws? As I just got finished telling you, I don't have any more power than my father is willing to give me!"

"Well so fucking what!? The only reason this stupid mission is on a time limit in the first place is because we're trying to keep him from finding out about this!" Yusuke cut in.

"Yeah!" Kuwabara yelled in agreement. "If he's not gonna know anyway, then why not tell them!?"

"Because the only reason it's going to stay secret is because the people my father has watching over me agreed to give me a week to solve this myself!" Koenma yelled in reply. "But the moment I start casually breaking Spirit World's oldest laws then that agreement goes bye-bye, got it!? I don't like this any more than you all do, okay!?"

The present...

"... and that's pretty much all the ideas I had for the marbles," I finished. "What do you think?"

"Hmm... I don't think most of those would really hold up as scientific experiments," Keiko pointed out. "Seems like there are a lot of variables you're not accounting for with your control."

"Well yeah, I'm a bored 14-year old with marbles, what do you expect? Hey, I'm getting kind of hungry. You know any good places to eat?" I asked as Keiko finished pointing out the public park while we talked.

"Yeah, there's a few places close by that have good food," she affirmed. "Do you want anything in particular?"

"Hmm... how about ramen?" I asked. I'd always kind of wanted to try ramen that didn't come freeze-dried out of a packet.

"Ramen, huh?" Keiko said with a smile. "Yeah, I think I know a place."

Last night...

After a few minutes to cool down after that heated exchange, we all reconvened to keep talking strategy.

"Okay, so we can't give anyone information or means of defense," I said sullenly. "So what, then? We spend all day hanging around these people? That won't be suspicious at all."

"Wait a sec," Kuwabara said with a frown. "You said Tenchi can't tell them because they don't know about spirits, and he can't do his finger thingy because they don't have spirit powers, right?"

"Yes," Koenma confirmed. "Why?"

Kuwabara's frown immediately turned upside down. "Because my whole family's psychic! In fact, they're even better at sensing spirits and stuff than I am!"

"Which means there's no problem with warning them!" Botan exclaimed.

"If that's true then yes, there's no problem at all with warning them of the danger," Koenma said with a smile.

"But wait, don't tell me: I still can't unlock their potential for Hamon," I groused. Koenma's only reply was an uncomfortable look.

"Oh, you gotta be kiddin' me!" Kuwabara exclaimed.

"No, I'm not, sadly," Koenma answered. "Extrasensory perception is considered separate from other spiritual powers, due to the large number of people who can sense the supernatural on some level but don't have any other spiritual powers outside the human norm."

"Great. So other than Kuwabara's family, none of them get to know they're in danger, which means we need to find some way to watch over everyone without telling them anything," I summarized. "Which means we need some kind of excuse."

"Well, I don't really need any excuse to visit my recovering mother," Kurama pointed out. "It's something I planned to do, regardless."

"Which leaves Kuwabara's friends, Yusuke's mom, and Keiko," I said. "Alright. So Kuwabara can just bring his friends over to hang out at his house, and Yusuke can do the same for Keiko and his mom."

"Yeah, that's not happening," Yusuke scoffed.

"Why not?" Botan asked.

"Because Mom's not gonna just stick around at home playin' board games, and no way in Hell am I getting Keiko to go anywhere near the places she likes to hang out," Yusuke explained.

"Ugh. That means we need to assign someone to watch either Yusuke's mom or Keiko while he keeps and eye on the other. But who...?"

"Hmm... Tenchi, you're acquainted with Keiko Yukimura, are you not?" Kurama asked.

"Uh... kinda. She showed me around the school when I transferred in and we talked a little bit. Mostly about the differences between schools in Japan and America," I answered.

"In that case, perhaps she should be the one you watch," Kurama suggested.

"I'm not really close enough to her to just suggest we spend all day together, you know," I pointed out. "I'd need some kind of excuse."

"How about you ask her to help you stop getting your ass lost every five feet?" Yusuke suggested. "She's such a goodie two-shoes she won't be able to help herself if you ask."

"Alright, I guess that could work," I said, but flipped him off anyway for bringing up my sense of direction (which isn't that bad, honestly). "So I guess that's that taken care of."

"Not quite," Kurama said. "We still need to assign Botan, and then there's the matter of finding some way to coordinate ourselves so that we can respond in a timely manner if Hiei attacks one of us."

"Ugh..." Yusuke and Kuwabara both groaned at the prospect of more planning.

The present...

"So your parents own this place?" I asked as we stood outside a noodle restaurant.

"Mm-hmm. It's been in the family for six generations," Keiko recited in the tone of someone who's had it said to her a million times.

"Welcome – Oh, Keiko!" the woman behind the counter said as we both walked in.

"Hi, Mom. This is Tenchi, he's a new student," Keiko said. "I'm showing him around town."

"Nice to meet you, Mrs. Yukimura," I said politely.

"Oh, it's nice to meet you, too, Tenchi," Keiko's mom said, looking a little flustered.

"So Dad's doing the cooking right now?" Keiko asked.

"Oh, yes. He's-"

"Is Keiko home?" a voice came from the kitchens. Before anyone could answer, a middle-aged man walked out. "Oh, there you are sweetie! How was school?"

"It was good," Keiko says.

"Glad to hear it!" he says. He then noticed me. "Oh, sorry sir, didn't notice you were there. Have you already ordered?"

"Dear, this is Tenchi. He's Keiko's, um, friend from school," Mrs. Yukimura said.

"Huh? Friend? Then how come I've never met him?" Mr. Yukimura asked.

"Because Tenchi just moved here this week," Keiko answered. "I'm showing him around town right now."

"What!?" Mr. Yukimura roared. "'Showing him around!?' 'Just moved here!?'"

"Oh, boy," I muttered under my breath. Really should have known after Keiko's reaction...

"Keiko, how could you let this... this... player lead you around like this!?" he yelled. "What happened to Yusuke, huh!?"

"What!?" Keiko yelled back, blushing scarlet.

"Whoa whoa whoa, wait up, 'player?'" I said.

"Now, Honey..." Mrs. Yukimura began.

"What the hell else could you be with that hair, huh punk!?"

"I don't know, maybe not entirely Japanese?" I said, pulling apart my hair and showing the roots, as blond as the rest. "This look like a dye job to you, old man? I transferred here from America, where there are in fact people who don't have the exact same hair as everyone else."

"And I'm he's not 'leading me around,' Dad, I'm just helping him find his way around town!" Keiko said.

"Yeah, that too," I added.

"Don't try to fool me with that, Missy!" Mr. Yukimura said, pointing a finger at his daughter. "Why would he need someone from school leading him around? Kid's got a family for that kinda thing, doesn't he?"

"Not in this world I don't," I said quietly.

The entire Yukimura family stopped dead to stare at me.

Last night...

"So here's my idea: since Kuwabara's got his parents, his sister and his friends to look out for, and since he might need extra proof when he explains what's going on, Botan can go with him to look after them," I said.

"Great idea, Tenchi! I'm behind it 100%!" Kuwabara declared, giving me a thumbs up. Botan just rolled her eyes with a mildly bemused look on her face.

"Now our biggest problem here is coordination," I continued. "We need some way of all converging once Hiei either shows himself or Koenma's flunkies manage to find him. You can at least look for the fucking guy without breaking some bullshit law, right?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact I can," Koenma said with a glare. "I'll tell you right now that the agents at my disposal aren't the most reliable around, though since they only have a single city to comb over it shouldn't take too long to find him. But it'll be a very tight schedule to find him, take the Shadow Sword from him and then return it to Spirit World."

"I doubt Hiei will allow himself to simply be cornered," Kurama added. "Most likely, he'll attack one of us as soon as he realizes what is happening."

"Which means it's important we be able to get to each other as quickly as we can," I concluded. "We might be able to sense Hiei once he reveals himself and starts clashing, but I'm not sure that'll work for everyone. The Kuwabaras, though, will almost certainly be able to. So that means Botan will know as soon as Hiei reveals himself.

"Once she does, she'll start ferrying fighters over to that location as reinforcements. Hopefully, we can all gang up on him and kick his ass."

"And if Hiei decides to attack Kuwabara's group?" Kurama asked.

"Glad you asked," I said with a smile. "Koenma gave Yusuke two mirrors that let you talk to each other like a phone. Botan can just ring him up and let him know, and Yusuke fires his Spirit Gun to signal everyone else that Kuwabara and Botan are being attacked. Since the Spirit Gun is pure Spirit Energy, no one but us will even notice it."

Kurama nodded. "A well-thought out plan, Tenchi."

"Great, are we done now? I need to get back home soon or my sister'll kill me," Kuwabara groaned.

"Most of us are done here," I said. "But you, Botan and Yusuke aren't."

"What? What the hell do we have to do?" Yusuke griped.

"A little bit of training," I said with a grin. "If you three went up against Hiei as you are now, you'd get sliced and diced. I'm going to try to drill at least the basics of using Hamon to fight into you."

The present...

I was definitely growing to hate the background I'd chosen. The Yukimuras had all but fallen over themselves apologizing, Keiko's dad especially, and it took several minutes of telling them it was okay before a forced casualness descended upon us as they served us up some ramen.

"So Tenchi, have you met Yusuke yet?" Mr. Yukimura asked. "He and Keiko go back to before they even started school; figure she's probably mentioned him."

"Yeah, I've hung out with him a few times," I said in-between eating some beef ramen. It was pretty good. Not enough that I'd want to eat it every day like a certain fictional ninja (whom I had realized when I looked through Weekly Jump didn't exist yet), but definitely something I'd eat again. "He's kind of a punk, but not that bad once you get past that."

Mr. Yukimura gave me a bright, beaming grin at that. "Glad you think so! Maybe I'm biased since I've known him for so long, but it just steams me up when people act like the kid's some kind of hardened killer just because he's fallen into some bad habits!"

"I know, right? It's like thinking a guy's some kind of playboy just because he has blond hair," I said teasingly, causing him to cough awkwardly into his fist.

"Right, uh, sorry about that."

"Nah, it's cool. I get that it's considered something abnormal or rebellious here in Japan," I said. "I mean, it kind of is in America too, but it's considered pretty tame as far as rebellion goes."

"Well, that's – is something wrong?" he asked, as I suddenly stood up.

I made a show of looking through my pockets. "Oh crap, my wallet's missing! I must have left it at that store we stopped at!" I cried out.

"Really? Quick, let's-" Keiko began, before I cut her off by holding up my hand.

"No, no, it's fine, I'll just go on my own real quick," I said. "It shouldn't take very long, and besides, I need to start finding my way around on my own anyway. Might as well start now."

"Alright, if you're sure," Keiko said.

"Definitely. I'll pay as soon as I get back, alright?"

Mrs. Yukimura spoke up. "Oh, you don't need to-"

I left without letting her finish that sentence and marched right up to the presence I'd felt skulking around on the other side of the street.

I stared down the diminutive three-eyed demon. "Hiei," I said darkly.

"Ripple Warrior," Hiei returned, smirking cruelly. "I'm a little disappointed. I shadowed you the entire time you were on your little shopping trip with the Spirit Detective's woman, and not once did you notice me."

"I had other things on my mind," I retorted. "Like wondering if that hairstyle of yours is better described as being like a broom or like a chicken's ass."

"Cute. I certainly hope your combat is more polished than your witty banter, because this will be a very pathetic fight otherwise."

"You wanna find out? Then come on, bring on all four feet of you. Or should I count that stupid hairdo?" I said, whipping out my trusty butterfly knife.

"Better. But it doesn't really matter either way, since I'm not the opponent you'll be facing," Hiei said, chuckling darkly. "I'm just the distraction for my new lackeys."

"New...?" The sound of shattering glass and screams coming from behind me made my eyes widen; the presence of Demon Energy in that direction made it worse. I turned around and let out a strangled, horrified gasp.

The Yukimuras' noodle shop had the entire front of it smashed in, presumably by the massive iron-studded wooden clubs of the two huge, lumbering demons standing in the debris. One, with the body of a huge red-skinned human but the head of a horse, grabbed Keiko roughly in one massive hand, her struggles doing nothing to free her. I was about to start sprinting headlong at them, when my side erupted in pain.

"Ahh!" I yelled, as Hiei's Shadow Sword sliced deep into my side as he dashed past me. It took a lot of will to keep my breathing steady despite the pain and begin directing my Hamon Energy to start closing the wound, and it took almost as much to force myself to stand up and start staggering over to them.

As I forced my body to inch closer to them, Hiei knocked Keiko out with a swift and precise blow and took her off of the horse-headed demon's hands, then turned to face me, his cruel smirk widening into a full-on sadistic grin. "Still standing, I see. It appears the legends of the Ripple Warriors being master healers had a grain of truth to it."

"Fuck... you..." I managed to force out through gritted teeth.

Hiei ignored me and kept talking. "Don't worry about the girl; I won't lay a finger on her until the Spirit Detective is around to watch. Not that you'll get to see that; Mezuki and Gozuki here are to make sure you don't get the chance to keep interfering."

"This the one?" the other demon, this one with a bull's head rather than a horse's, spoke up. "Look weak, won't last long. Promised Gozuki and Mezuki strong fighter; can spend long time crushing without breaking!"

Hiei spared a moment to give the oafish demon an annoyed look. "Fool. Any normal human wouldn't be able to do more than whine piteously on the ground after the cut I gave him, yet this one is recovering even as we speak. What does that tell you?"

"Tells me he'll be fun to smash!" the horse-headed one yelled out happily. "Think, brother! We can keep bashing him and he'll keep healing so we can do it again and again!"

"Yes. And make sure it doesn't end too quickly; we wouldn't want our dear Ripple Warrior here to die without getting a taste of Hell first, would we?" Hiei asked.

"Yes! Smash him! Smash him!" the bull-headed one yelled out excitedly.

"But before you do that; deal with the spares," Hiei said, jabbing his head back at Keiko's parents, unconscious on the ground among the rubble. The bull-headed one raised up his huge club over his head at those instructions, giving a laugh that was more like a lowing cow.

Eyes widening in panic, I acted on auto-pilot by reaching into a pocket and drawing out a handful of glass marbles, charging them with Ripple Energy and tossing them with a sideways motion that made them scatter wide.

The marbles impact with the force of buckshot, causing both demons to cry out in pain as many of the marbles struck them in the legs and forced them to their knees, though Hiei simply cut all the ones headed for him in mid-air with his sword.

"How was that!?" I yelled out, sounding a lot more confident and in control than I felt. "Still feeling happy at getting the chance to fight me, you ugly fucks!?"

Hiei's new lackeys responded by roaring in pain and fury, shakily getting back up to their feet with murderous eyes trained on me.

"Hmph. Seems you're a little more resilient than I'd expected," Hiei said with a frown. "I'll have to fix that."

He rushed me with sword drawn and the two of us started clashing like we'd done last night, though I was at a disadvantage with a small butterfly knife my only defense from getting diced by the Shadow Sword again.

What's worse, each time I was close to connecting, Hiei would shift so that Keiko's unconscious form was in the way, forcing me to back off.

I was so caught up in trying to figure out a way to deal with that, that I forgot about the other two demons until I felt the impact of a massive iron-studded club crushing my sides.

I went flying, landing in a crumpled heap on the ground with an arm broken and twisted at a completely unnatural angle and with several shattered ribs. My eyes watering with pain, I couldn't force myself back into the proper breathing rhthym; the pain in my arm and ribs made it hurt just to breathe.

Swimming in my vision, Hiei threw back his head and laughed at the sight before him. "So this is what one of the legendary Ripple Warriors amounts to! As I thought, even the strongest human is just a weakling when it comes down to it. Mezuki! Gozuki! Take as long as you want with him; I have other business to attend to."

The two demons laughed and howled in malicious glee as I tried to force my breathing to steady to the proper rate, but even breathing at all was becoming difficult; every breath felt like knives in my chest and I could only draw in shallow, gasping breaths. I really hoped that didn't mean my broken ribs had collapsed a lung or something, or this was not going to end well at all.

Hiei fled, so fast he was essentially a blur. The two demons slowly made their way up to me, debating on which parts each of them would get and what torture to put me through first. My vision started to go dark, and I started trying to gather energy into one finger. If I was going to die here, I should at least take one of the ugly bastards with me.

The sound of yelling that didn't come from demons started ringing out, and the impact of wood on flesh. One demon let out a strangled cry before a heavy thud resounded and made the ground seem to shake a little.

A hand gently touched my wounded side; even that sent sharp spears of pain lancing through me, but the warm, soothing feeling that followed quickly took that away. I recognized it for what it was even before I began to feel my bones beginning to re-knit themselves back into place: Ripple Healing.

"Don't worry, Tenchi, you'll be alright, okay? Just stay calm and try to even out your breathing," a woman's voice said. Botan.

My vision returned and I saw the Grim Reaper herself looking down on me, a concerned look on her face. I'd never been so happy to be staring death in the face.

I took a deep, calming breath to steady myself, then put my hand on Botan's. "You can stop now; I can take it from here. The others might need you to heal them when they're kicking Hiei's teeth in," I told her. Still feeling a little woozy, I nonetheless got to my feet, though a little shakily at first, and started finishing the process of healing that Botan had started.

"Are you sure?" Botan asked, concern clear in her voice. "You took a lot of damage, Tenchi, and-"

"It's fine. What matters is that everyone goes and kicks Hiei's ass ASAP; he took Keiko hostage!"

"WHAT!?" Yusuke yelled, causing us all to look and see the newest arrival on the scene, judging by his shortness of breath and the fact that he was still about 10 meters away. "How the fuck could you-!"

"That way!" I yelled to cut him off, pointing in the direction of Hiei's rapidly-retreating energy signature. "Kick Hiei's ass now, bitch at me later!"

Yusuke gritted his teeth and ran at full tilt, right past Kuwabara, who was managing to just barely dodge the horse-headed demon's wild, frenzied club swings. The ox-headed one was on the floor groaning and cradling its head; I guessed that Kuwabara had managed to make a sneak attack by jumping off of Botan's oar or something.

Kuwabara's luck with dodging finally ran out, and he was sent flying with a club swing. Unlike me, however, he managed to bring up the wooden sword he was using to block it and hit the ground swearing and coughing, but clearly okay.

He's pretty damn good at reinforcing objects with Hamon, I thought to myself. Makes sense, considering his future signature technique.

I swept my eyes across the battlefield, taking in all the details. The ox-headed demon was getting back up, still huffing in pain but clearly still good to keep fighting. Kuwabara was getting up as well, taking a few calming breaths like I'd told him to.

"Botan, take Kuwabara and pick up Yusuke and get to Hiei," I told her.

"But what about you?" she said.

"These goons only managed to take me down because I was fighting Hiei at the same time. I'll be fine taking them out on my own, but Keiko needs as much help as she can get. Take them, then either get Kurama if you can find him or come back to pick me up once I'm done, okay?"

"Fine, but if you're not done with them by the time I get back, I'm not going to sit around hoping you don't die, do you hear me?" she said as she pulled her oar out from... somewhere.

"Fine by me," I said as I reached into my backpack.

As Botan picked up Kuwabara (overruling his protests that I needed help by just scooping him up and flying off), I reached into my backpack and pulled out one of the many items I'd bought at the stores while looking around town with Keiko to use as weapons.

"You ready for round 2, you ugly fucks?" I asked with a grin.

"Look, brother! The human is healed! Let's crush him again!" the horse-headed one yelled out.

"Yes! Crush him! Make him hurt until head stops hurting!" the ox-headed one cried in agreement, still clutching one hand to its head.

"Whatever, livestock," I said with a smirk. "One of you is getting turned into hamburger, and the other is getting beaten into glue. Guess which is which?"

The two of them roared, beating their chests and lifting up their clubs in what they probably thought was an intimidating display.

Idly wondering why no one was around panicking or curious as to what the hell was going on, I unscrewed the cap of my water bottle and took a sip. "Wrong answer. But it was a trick question anyway: you're both getting pounded into paste."

Hiei tossed Keiko to the ground of the warehouse. It likely wouldn't take them more than a few minutes to start funneling in, and then...

"You're rather more predictable than you think you are, Hiei," came a familiar voice from behind him. Hiei threw himself to the side just in time to dodge Kurama's Grass Blade.

"Kurama!" Hiei spat. "You traitor!"

Kurama looked at his erstwhile partner in crime sadly. "The Shadow Sword really has warped you, hasn't it, Hiei? You knew from the beginning that our partnership was founded on mutual gain. When did you start thinking I was just another hired lackey like Gohki?"

"Shut up!" Hiei yelled, before the confident smirk came back. "Honestly, it's probably better that you got here first. Once I deal with you, only the Spirit Detective and his oaf friend will be left, and they'll hardly be an irritant without you or the Ripple Warrior to complicate things."

"Only if you manage to defeat me before they can make their entrance," Kurama pointed out, brandishing his Grass Blade. "Are you so sure you can accomplish that, Hiei? Are you so consumed by the Shadow Sword that you've lost all sense of your own strength in relation to others?"

"You're getting on my nerves, human-lover," Hiei growled, his eyes narrowing. "I think the first thing I'll do is cut out that damned tongue of yours."

In an instant, the two former partners began to clash, Hiei striking like a blur of steel and Kurama blocking with a blade of grass.