A/N: Anybody play League of Legends? My friends got me into it recently... xD
O/C8: A lot of talking happens; Misaki talking to Koenma, Kurama talking to Misaki and Coahtu getting mad at Misaki and almost burning Misaki's room's door down. Coahtu makes Misaki come and re-hone her skills in the training arena. Ten different youkai appear and charge her…
Luckily, the highest level of these ten was one mere D-class. Misaki dodged to the left when they all charged her and opened her mind, engulfing their consciousnesses with hers. They halted in their tracks, blank looks on their faces as they relaxed where they stood.
"Ten more." Coahtu called.
Another ten appeared, half D-class and half C-class. Three of the C-class were telepaths and with Misaki's mind open and vulnerable, they attacked her with ease.
Misaki stumbled back, losing her grip on the original ten who immediately turned on her, rushing at her again.
The remaining two C-class caught her by the arms as the others flew towards her, holding her in place. Struggling against their grip, Misaki pulled her arms together in front of her body, jerking the Cs between her and the other would-be attackers.
They all scrambled into one another, allowing Misaki to free herself and leap back, only to be caught from behind where another pinned her arms against her back.
She ducked and a second youkai's leg contacted with the head of the one who held her. She was then tackled by a third youkai, who took her and her holder down to the ground. Instantly the others joined the pile, crushing her beneath them.
The three telepaths continued devastating her mind and while stuck, concentrating just on breathing, Misaki brought up mental barriers, blocking the C-classes out. Mind clearer, Misaki shook her head, expanding her lungs deliberately to receive oxygen.
Seeing no other choice, Misaki extended the whip, slithering it through the bodies around her. Closing her eyes she activated the artifact, electrocuting all those about her. The ashy remains of her opponents drifted to the ground, Misaki getting a good clogging breath of dust as the whip returned to its normal size. She sat up and heaved once before she opened her mouth for a breath, sneezing twice while trying to stand.
"I said control them, not destroy them. The number increased for your pains."
Misaki recognized the original twenty with ten more among their ranks when they reappeared, seven C-class and two B. One of the B class happened to be a telepath as well.
Remembering to keep her barriers up, Misaki enveloped the minds of the nine E-class, easily gaining control of them. She silently ordered these to attack the B-class telepath to take his attention away from her. But she still had the others to deal with.
...
Kurama was working his way through the halls of the agency when he heard the scuffle. Curious, he turned around and headed back.
...
The walls of Koenma's office shook.
"I just hope she doesn't break anything." Koenma sighed, a stack of papers near his elbow wavering dangerously.
"Uh, Koenma-sir…I'm not sure if that's coming from the training arena." George frowned.
"Of course it is, Ogre. Where else would it be coming from?"
...
Hiei felt the fight before he heard it. He hadn't left the agency entirely, wondering what was keeping Kurama. The Jagan alerted him to several telepaths in the agency and Hiei made his way to where the Jagan indicated.
...
"Ten more."
Misaki had gained control of the B class telepath when the E-classes distracted it, simply staying a good distance away from the others while she did so. Her barriers were enough to keep out the C-class telepaths and with the higher classed telepath under her power, she could force him to control the minds of his C brethren, who in turn could take care of the other lower class youkai.
This method allowed Misaki to only have to concentrate on the B telepath; much easier than trying to control them all at once. It also let her attention focus more on dodging while the transition of control was taking place.
But then the next ten that Coahtu called for appeared. Out of the ten youkai, eight were B, one was A and the last was S.
The S-class filled the room with his presence, looming high above the others, his enormous body reflecting his enormous power.
The A-class was a telepath and he lacerated through her tie with the B-class, throwing her back with the force of his blow.
Misaki skidded hard across the ground, flipping twice in the air before landing face down onto the floor. Her lower lip and nose bled and there were scuff marks on her arms and legs, little bits of her clothing missing around her knees and shoulders.
She struggled to push herself up, her hair falling and shadowing her face. Her arms shook from the effort and she almost collapsed again.
Misaki was forced back onto the floor when the hand of the S-class pressed onto her back, shoving her into the ground. The whip would not affect the S-class, Misaki knew, otherwise there would have been no hesitation on her part to use it.
Closing her eyes in pure exhaustion, Misaki wished again that she could just sleep.
A moment later the hand pinning her disappeared and she felt a sharp foot kick her side roughly, turning her over onto her back.
"Get up, Ansatsusha."
Struggling, Misaki eventually rose, swaying once before finding her feet, realizing that Coahtu was gone when she did so.
However, Kurama came into the room and she saw Hiei entering through one of the windows high in the arena, easily finding his way to the ground.
"What happened?" Kurama called as he came towards her.
Misaki didn't trust herself to walk just yet so she stayed where she was, wiping the back of her hand across her lip to get rid of the blood that trickled down her chin.
"Nothing important." She said when he was much closer.
Hiei came at her from the other side, regarding her condition with unreadable eyes.
There was a 'boom' and the arena shook. All three of them looked around, seeing dust falling from the ceiling.
The doors to the arena flew open and an ogre ran inside to the trio.
"Misaki Ansatsusha? And Kurama and Hiei as well." The ogre's face filled with relief when he saw them. "Koenma-sir needs to see you in his office right now. It's extremely urgent."
They nodded to him and the ogre turned tail and ran out, not even looking back once to see if they were following.
The arena shook again, a large piece of the ceiling falling directly for them.
Kurama and Hiei both dodged out of the way, but Misaki did not feel the strength to move as far as they. She hesitantly stepped about three feet to the left, turning her head away from the falling debris and covering her face with an arm.
The piece of ceiling impacted the ground with tremendous power, shaking the floor and causing Misaki to stumble before regaining her balance. When the debris began to clear, she made for the doors while coughing out the dust, jogging down the hall with Hiei and Kurama.
There were shouts of dismay and several dashing figures going either direction as the three ran. The agency shook to its foundations more times than they cared to count before they reached Koenma's office, going inside.
Tired, Misaki plopped down on the couch, covering her face with a hand to block out the light.
Kurama, Misaki and Hiei were the only ones in the room at the time but a few minutes later Yusuke and Kuwabara came rushing in just as Koenma came out one of the other doors in the office.
Four ogres with clipboards, glasses and a pencil tucked behind one ear hovered around Koenma as he toddled in the room.
"Good. You two made it. I wasn't sure if Botan would get to you in time."
"Whoa, what happened to you?" Kuwabara saw Misaki's scrapes: the dust that stayed in her hair and on her clothes and the holes in the knees of her pants. She ignored him.
There were more shouts and several dark figures ran by the door.
Koenma motioned to one of the ogres and it shut the door, stationing itself in front of it.
"We're having a bit of a problem." Koenma began.
"Hm, to put it lightly," One of the ogres cut in.
Koenma shot him a look, "The agency is under attack. Five of my employees have been found dead and several more are injured. We have reason to believe they are after you all as Spirit Detectives. You will need to go into hiding until we can clean this mess up."
"Hiding?" Misaki took her hand off of her face.
"We don't hide! We fight!" Kuwabara announced.
"So we turn like cowards and run just because someone has a death wish?" Hiei wanted to know.
"We've found the perfect spot for you to stay." An ogre said, rather proud of himself, for he was the one who thought of the place.
"Together? Won't that defeat the purpose if they find us?" Misaki pointed out.
"Not where we plan on sending you." Koenma said.
"And just where is that?" Misaki asked with disbelief.
"Your house." Koenma told her.
The room grew discomfortingly quiet.
Misaki chuckled after a moment, amusement clear on her face, "A human has never stepped foot inside my house. What makes you think that they'll be the first?" She gestured towards Kuwabara and Yusuke.
The room shook and everyone shifted their balance to keep from falling over.
Hiei definitely did not have any remote desire to be stuck somewhere with anybody for an indefinite amount of time. Koenma had better come up with something else. Fast. Like letting them stand up and fight whatever it was.
"Let them come." He said quietly, hoping that something would burst through the nearby wall that they could engage in battle. His hand strayed to the hilt of his katana, resting lightly upon it.
Koenma and Misaki looked at each other for a moment, something silent passing between them as Misaki read the situation in his head.
"Well if you had just said that in the first place." She sighed, pushing herself up off the couch.
"Said what in the first place? What's going on? How come we can't fight?" Kuwabara protested.
Hiei glanced over at Misaki, wishing she would continue to protest and not say what he thought she was going to say.
"My house. Sure."
There was a large gelatinous entity engulfing the agency, preventing any from exiting. Misaki had encountered it before and the only option was running and hoping it wouldn't follow. Its current mission consisted of finding the current Spirit Detectives and engulfing them. The engulfee could not fight it, could not destroy it. Face-to-face combat was not an option.
Koenma told the others this basic information, but Hiei was not convinced.
Misaki caught Hiei's eye, and he narrowed his eyes at her.
"Don't even think about trying to get me to agree to this." His voice was irritated.
"Do you think I like this idea any more than you do? …This is not something that can be fought, either with strength or wits."
"Everything has a weakness."
"Yours must be bloodlust."
"It's better than cowardice." He snapped.
Misaki found herself blocked out of his mind. "That's one way to get the last word." She admitted to herself.
"You should leave. Quickly." There was a banging sound as if for emphasis that followed Koenma's words. The room about them groaned under some great weight. "Even if it does follow you, you will have a better chance at fighting it elsewhere."
"Koenma-sir, we need you." Another ogre stuck his head in the door.
"I'll take them. They'll get there." Misaki said when Koenma hesitated.
"Would you bet their lives on it?" He asked.
"Well we are, aren't we? As long as you still have that pendant…"
"Right here." Koenma opened one of the drawers in his desk and pulled out a pendant attached to a looped piece of leather. One of the ogres handed it to Misaki as they all left.
"Come on. And keep up." Misaki went out the door, turning to the left and running down the hall, the guys close behind.
They dodged debris as they ran, occasionally jumping over bits of the ceiling that lay in the middle of the floor.
"What about Botan?" Yusuke asked after they ran for a minute or so.
"And Yukina?" Kuwabara added.
"Five people died, right?" Misaki called over her shoulder.
They were all talking loudly over the noise.
"Yeah..." Yusuke waited for her to go on.
"And several more are injured, right?"
"Yeah..." Kuwabara echoed.
She didn't say anything else.
"So what about it?"
"Botan is the Grim Reaper, Kuwabara." Yusuke said having remembered just after he asked, leaping right to avoid another piece of the ceiling as it fell.
The whole hallway began shaking.
"Oh! Botan's not very scary looking. So I forget. And Yukina is taking care of the ones that are injured, isn't she?" Kuwabara realized.
"Most likely." Misaki agreed, taking the next hall to the right.
It was a lot smaller than the other and they ran closer together, the hallway taking them down lower into the agency.
They reached a large door and went inside, Misaki closing it behind them.
The room was empty and dim and they could no longer feel the agency shaking. Misaki turned around.
"Stand fairly close together. If any of you gets left behind, I'll lose the bet. And your life, consequently." Misaki motioned them into a circle, putting the pendant in the middle at their feet.
It began glowing and a circle of white-gold light lit up, surrounding them.
The Jagan Eye began humming a low, resonant note in Hiei's head and continued its hum however hard Hiei tried to quiet it down.
Misaki stood with her eyes closed, palms open and facing down at the pendant. "Kuwabara, it helps if you aren't paying attention."
"I can't help it if I can see what you're doing," He whined.
"Then do help it or should I tell you that you don't have to be conscious in order for this to work. Or alive for that matter," she added as an afterthought.
"Then you'd lose your bet." Kurama pointed out.
"Shut up." she retorted irritably. "And Hiei, make the Jagan Eye be quiet, unless it wants to alert everyone within range of where we're going."
Hiei frowned as the Jagan's hum tapered. He did not know that others could hear what he heard.
The circle filled in, the glow brightening. The room faded around them into darkness. The floor also seemed to disappear beneath them but solid ground took its place almost immediately.
"Names please. And state your business." A voice said from somewhere in the darkness.
"It's me. I've come home Zumi."
Ah the elusive Zumi in his natural habitat. Sheesh I sound like some Discovery channel special.
-lotsm