Chapter One: Manipulated Living

"That's Yusuke Urameshi."

"He seems as bad as we've heard... Good thing."

I shared a laugh with the two young men on either side of me. It was a sarcastic comment we all knew would've been an understatement had we actually experienced his power. I took another sip of my sweet tea and extinguished the cigarette in the complimentary ashtray the restaurant provided for me.

"Well, boys it looks like it's game day." As graceful as possible, I slid off the chair with a bounce and grabbed my school bag. "Don't fuck it up, alright?"

Yanagisawa and Kido rolled their eyes and waved me off, chuckling.

"We remember Master Genkai's orders, it's you who should pay attention." Kido replied.

Walking away, I gave them a friendly reminder to fuck off with a special salute. Exiting out of the coffee shop, I headed toward Sarayashki Junior High with my targets in sight. I didn't really need to hide who I was considering: A) I went to the same school as both of them, along with Keiko Yukimura, and B) no one ever noticed me unless I was "in their way."

It was a great cover for this mission the five of us were trying to complete. Of course they wouldn't know shit about anything and of course it would be a struggle to try and get them all there, but with everything Genkai knew about that team I hardly saw any fault within it. I was ten minutes away from the campus when I decided to light another cigarette. I wasn't too nervous about the whole thing in general; I was very worried about their decision making. What if they decided to go against what we all perceived and fuck everything up?

I suppose, taking a drag to exhale out the worry, we'd have to tie them up and tell them their lesson they needed to learn.

In one fluid movement, I watched the short haired brunette slap Urameshi with her own school bag probably for something inappropriate. Their relationship was something I would never understand. It was perfectly opposite that it was almost cute... or something. These two wouldn't be hard to "persuade" to get to the old mansion. With my abilities, no one could really say anything about it unless I wanted them to.

As soon as I saw the school, I threw away my cigarette, sprayed some cherry blossom perfume around me, and stuffed it back in my school bag. I honestly carried my personal belongings more than I did with my homework. I guess that was an advantage when it was easy to remember the contents of each class.

I'm not saying that I knew what I was doing, but I remember everything that was shown to me. A photographic memory, of sorts.

"Get his bag!"

A rough and slow voice came from around the gate of the school but I didn't have to take a guess at who was there. I could feel the energy seeping through slowly. As I rounded the corner, I was confronted by two older classmates with a familiar boy on the ground who had his head stuck to the dirt thanks to thug number one. I had seen this scene before with different people and they never seemed to learn their lesson. I picked up my pace and with each step my face contorted into an expression purely described as loathing. The two caught sight of me and froze for a moment before their features turned perverse.

"Hey, Mitarai, your girlfri -"

"Get off of him."

My energy slowly crept up to my line of sight, what other's may notice for a moment my pupils dilating larger than normal and practically taking up my entire iris. For myself it looked as if a black film had covered my vision.

In an instant my territory opened up.

Both boys stopped what they were doing and unwillingly stepped back from Mitarai. He didn't even look my way but he rushed to get his stuff before I could finish.

"Now." With a sneer, I pointed to the main entrance of the school and raised my voice to a command. "Go to Takanaka's class and... flash him and the entire class." Turning on their heels, they leisurely walked to the school and with satisfaction, I felt my energy pulling back just in time for Mitari to look at me with those saddened and angered eyes. Mitari and I never actually came out and spoke about what we could do.

Accidental coincidences provided evidence that we shared something strange. Mitari was a bright boy for his age and I wasn't about to go behind his back to hide this from him. I didn't trust him - I didn't trust anyone - but I trusted that he knew better than to go and run his mouth about this, or it would end with him having to deal with me.

"I - I could've handled it, Nat."

"Don't tell me anything I don't know. There's nothing wrong with help, Mitari." Tilting my head to the side, I walked closer to him while brushing off some of the dirt off of myself.

"I don't know why they find that amusing; they always know I'm going to come around and fuck 'em up."

The blond gave a soft smile and looked down. It was evident he was still taking this to heart and no matter how many times I came to help him, give him a chance to have a friend, he always seemed dejected from me. I couldn't understand why he would push someone away when they offered something better for themselves, but I supposed that there wouldn't be harm in still reminding him I was there.

"C'mon, we've got class."

The count down started from then on and through out the day I kept my eye completely trained on my second target. Kazuma Kuwabara and I shared the same class while Yusuke Urameshi was in another. Wherever Kuwabara was, Urameshi would surely follow close behind... and at one point, that statement had actually turned into a pun.

Lunch time was neither the most fantastic thing nor the most distasteful on the accounts that I usually sat alone. Whenever Mitari was able to break for lunch, it usually happened whenever I finished and had to go back to class. I didn't complain but I had always made sure to check up on him to see if everything had run smoothly. Today was different, considering I didn't need any distractions. So after tracking nearly every bully I ever encountered that I thought would try and pull something, I was able to eat my food with a clear conscious and a worry-free attitude. I sat far away from the groups of teenagers but adjusted my table to have the perfect view of Kuwabara and his gang of oh-so-interesting street fighters. You could hardly call them anything like that, I would've picked Edgy Do-Gooders as a title for them.

I was mid-bite when the yelp of pain, terror and shock traveled to my ears. Dully looking to the side, I caught Urameshi just in time to release and double over hysterically, laughing while his comrade held his back. Apparently Kuwabara wasn't one for sensing danger when it was about to rail him in the ass. I had to set my food down to collect myself and struggle between laughing as well as rolling my eyes overtheir childish behavior. I was truly conflicted over the subject.

While trying to control my actions, my eyes caught the sight of soft blue hair that wasn't there before. Finding the source, I realized who it was that distracted me. I needed no clues or sneaking around to know the Pilot of the River Styx had graced us with her presence - unknowingly to the students around her.

Their conversation turned into another testosterone-filled fight, and in that moment, I knew it was appropriate to roll my eyes. Hunger was sustained for the time being and my patience for their misbehavior was running thin, so I called it quits for lunch period and adjusted my seat correctly. I had a few minutes to spare and I used it wisely when I pulled my phone out to text Kaito.

Kaito's main objective was to keep an eye out for Meiou High's most prestigious student, and my faithful frenemy, Suichi Minamono.

Let's be real though, and let's not hold back, we all knew Suichi Minamono was a lie. A facade of a human life that made way within my own through my sister. She attended Meiou High as well, and was quite intelligent as well as charming and friendly. It brought her a lot of popularity and even though I heard stories from her about how he often didn't hang out with anyone at school, he somehow found time to be around the two of us. It didn't help that my grandmother worked with his mother and often invited us over for dinner and vise versa.

It was around the time when Shiori Minamono had a sudden but successful recover from her sickness that my abilities, and my condition, started going haywire. I needed help from someone, but as the type who didn't exactly care for the supernatural and tried my best to repress it, I was stumbling along with Genkai and her knowledge.

That's when I was exposed to the truth of all three worlds, the Spirit Detective, and his newly formed team of misfits. Another human who was his classmate, a three-eyed, sword wielding demon named Hiei, and the fox thief, Yoko Kurama.

Once I found out who Suichi was I stopped going to the regular dinners, and if he came over with his mother and her boyfriend with his kid, I had graciously welcomed Shiori and the other two, but made it painfully obvious that I was ignoring him most of the time. It's been so long since I've actually held a conversation with that boy, and as of tonight I would make it painfully clear my anger toward him.

We all have secrets, don't get me wrong, but I have just recently been able to detect energy from other beings. He was an old ass demon who was no fool when it came to that kind of stuff. My secrets wereindirectly exposed to him without my permission. I wasn't exactly ready to make nice.

Though I'm sure it was a different case for Kaito. I found his obsession to win something over Suichi Minamono, or Kurama, to be completely testosterone driven, but I admired his ambition and thoroughness during our discussion of this plan. Without him a lot of things probably would've failed. A few seconds later the device vibrated roughly in my hands and with a quick peak I read 'Going smoothly. You?'

I decided to only send a one worded reply before putting my phone up. Takanaka had arrived and started calling out Urameshi and Kuwbara, who was dragging his desk back to its original spot; one spot to my left. A quick glance back and I watched Urameshi leave with the Ferry Girl.

Off for another mission? I'd hate for something to spoil this fun...

Looking back to Takanaka my thoughts drifted on the subject he was teaching, my garnet-haired frenemy, and what could've possibly been said between Urameshi and his assistant.

(-)

"Be safe for me, okay?"

"You act just like my mother, Nat."

"Better me than your actual kin, yes?"

Mitari frowned and looked away with a light cover of pink shading over his pale cheeks.

I nudged him and gave him a kind smile before motioning to the gates. "I'm just fuckin' with ya. If you have any trouble you know how to get a hold of me."

He nodded while smiling up at me.

"I know; I'll see you sometime..." The words faded as if he were trying to figure out when we'd actually see each other. It was incredibly silly of him to think
we wouldn't see each other when Monday came around.

"Sometime soon, yeah, yeah, quit with the departing speech kiddo." With that I stopped at the gates and waved Mitari off his way down the street.

A smile, one filled with false happiness, left me standing there outside of Sarayashiki Junior High waiting for the rest of my comrades to hurry and get here. The sun wasn't very high in the sky, creating a deep orange and yellow lighting that reminded me this day was almost over. But my day hadn't even started yet, and neither did it for the Rekai Tentai. I leaned on the wall and pulled out a cigarette to pass the time. I spotted the three boys when I started on my second one. Taking a drag and looking at my wrist watch, I flicked the remainder of the cigarette away and turn toward them.

They each greeted me with different expressions and emotions. Kaito pushed his glasses up on the bridge of his nose and remained expressionless, Kido had a mischievous smirk with an all knowing stare, while Yana had an almost easy going grin. I gave them all a wicked smirk with a motioned nod toward the entrance.

"School's out, kid."

I raised an eyebrow and let my smirk falter a bit before retorting. "What, are you trying to hustle me for money, Kido? Those are for cigarettes and you know that."

A snort from the male, a wave from his hand, and a scrunched up expression expressed his displeasure. "You know those things will kill ya faster than any apocalypse, right?"

"Better that then being torn to shreds." Yana interjected while nodding to me. Without missing a beat I held out my pack and watched as he took one and lit up.

"Smoke it fast; it's almost time." Kaito's ever-so-cheery words nearly caused me to flick the cancer stick out of Yana's hand and walk away.

I couldn't react so recklessly though, and I couldn't exactly forgive myself if I wasted a cigarette either. Thankfully Yana got Kaito's point and put out the cigarette after another hit, and slid it down into his pockets for safe keeping.

"Are we finished now? I'd like to not leave Genkai waiting." I said.

No one responded and instead we walked to the main gate. There was a comfortable yet eerie silence from the four of us as we spotted our destination. The rhythm of my heart sped up from anxiousness and excitement; I couldn't exactly tell if I was about to throw up from giddiness or from nervousness about messing this up. I had no doubt in my mind that I could properly and without error complete my part of the assignment.

My part was easy and hardly the place to get messy with. My comrades, however, could easily forget something or cause unwanted conflict within the Rekai Tentai. Anything could've happened that we didn't need to happen. It must sound cocky of me to say things like that about myself and these three boys, but I knew myself better than they did, and I knew I had a greater upper hand on getting right underneath someone's skin. I was in control at the moment and I wouldn't let anything risk that.

The opening of the gate was in sight and came up quicker than I expected. Rounding the corner I looked my school up and down before shaking my head.

"I can feel his energy getting closer and closer..." Mumbled words I meant for myself.

I kept my eyes concentrated on the entrance. It wasn't long until I spotted the boy in the green suit and the other in the school's male uniform. I smirked but had to contain myself from looking too eager. Their walk seemed long as the four of us waited. It seemed to take so long for them to walk over to us that Kaito took this chance to tie his shoes. An impatient sigh soon followed from Kaitowhen they finally spotted us.

An aggressive and defensive look suddenly enveloped Yusuke's face while a surprised expression remained on Kazuma's.

"Yusuke Urameshi, that is your name, right?"

By the time Kido spoke, Kaito was back in a standing position to join our posse's stance. I stood close to Yana as if to shield myself from Yusuke and Kazuma's line of sight. I wasn't scared but I was taking in everything those two were doing. Yusuke's expression lightened up to an almost skeptical look. I wasn't surprised by that, considering it wasn't common to have four strangers approach you on a daily basis. Although I could've stood corrected if I thought about it more. Punks like Urameshi should've gotten this all the time.

"We heard you fight, care to prove it?"

"Aren'tcha gonna say hello to me?! I'm Kuwabara, ya know! - "

"Easy with the side-kick complex."

Yusuke held out his school bag to stop the taller male from doing anything too hasty. Yusuke tilted his head while taking us all in, but by the time he looked to me his eyebrow shot up.

"Are you their cheerleader or are you actually wanting to get in on this?"

Snorting, I gave a humorless cackle before sneering at them and shaking my head. "Don't patronize me; I'm merely here to observe."

It seemed like a good enough excuse to the boy, and gave a shrug. "Fine, then. Besides, I'll probably have a lot more fun with these guys anyway. It'll be a great excuse to avoid Botan." Looking to Kuwabara, he continued. "You be Spirit Detective for today."

Kazuma gawked at the command from his friend as if it were unheard of to pass around job positions. Which it was, and he had every right to be concerned and worried for taking on the responsibility that was just thrust upon him.

"Uhh...! What if it's an important case?!"

Even though that was a great question to ask said Spirit Detective A.K.A Wonder Boy, he simply chose to act like Kuwabara had said nothing and asked where this show down was going to be placed. Keeping my eyes trained on the two in front of me, I simply waited for Kido's reply. After a simple suggestion of keeping out of the authorities way, Kido suggested we go to the field behind the school to which Yusuke agreed.

Yusuke was so stupid. He had no idea what kind of trap he was getting into and yet he kept baiting for it. The importance of this entire experiment was to show them how brute strength and diving in head-first was the exact problem we couldn't have right now. We were going to test them, and in a sense train them, to be alert of their surroundings and situations.

Right now, Yusuke was failing. That is what we had hopped for, too.

(-)

Snake-like smoke slithered in the air before I exhaled a cloud of toxic nicotine. I had been waiting for nearly an hour for these people to come to this house. Granted, it was a bit early before the deadline but I couldn't afford to miss them. That, and I desperately needed a cigarette to keep my nerves down.

Acting like the villain was a lot tougher when you knew where your true loyalty lied. I wondered if it was this stressful for the actual bad guys, or if planning a sinister scheme came naturally. With a flick to clear the ash off of my cigarette, I let the thought wander away and checked my wrist-watch once again. The hour would come to a close sooner then I thought if they didn't show up. With an aggravated click from my tongue and a push off the railing, I slowly paced back and forth to keep my mind preoccupied.

The Rekai Tentai should be accustomed to unsuspecting danger, so what was so hard about rounding up the rest of your team mates with hours to do so? If it was one thing that I had learned so far, it was that Yusuke's team was terrible with punctuality and Yusuke himself was very creative with ways to kick others asses.

I stopped my pacing right in front of the steps and plopped down to aggressively take another hit from my cigarette. It was when I felt their energies closing in on the area that a grin automatically came to my lips. I dropped the cigarette and ground it into the cement. I was waiting a mere minute before I saw them standing at the opening to the crazed mansion. They spotted me quickly and all locked eyes with me. Standing up, I shoved my hands into the pockets of my leather jacket while keeping my grin in tact.

"Finally, I was beginning to think you were lost or simply... didn't care about what happened to your team mate."

Looking at each one, I locked eyes with Kurama, whose face had gone from calm, cool, and collected when he first arrived to stunned and puzzled.

"Good to see you too, old friend." I said calmly.

The others looked toward the scarlet-haired young man who didn't break his eye contact with me, however his eyes changed dramatically back to their placid expression.

"I wouldn't have guessed you would be someone to betray the good cause, Natalie."

"Wait, you know her?!" Botan stepped forward and looked between me and Kurama. I held the same grin from before and turned around.

"Please, 'Suichi', or whatever the hell your name is now. For me to have sided with you, I would've first had to agree with what you stood for. I do not, so therefore I couldn't have possibly betrayed you." I looked over my shoulder and watched the ever-green eyes I had known for quite some time narrow in my direction.

I didn't like to lie to him, nor would I have ever wanted to in the first place, but my mission just started and it was far from over. I couldn't risk my feelings on something that in the end would've been beneficial for them. No matter how much I wanted to spoil the surprise.

"Now wait just a minute. How do you know this girl, Kurama!?" It was Kuwabara's turn to interrogate his comrade and Kurama replied without missing a beat.

"Natalie Montgomery, the sister to a classmate of mine who is a close acquaintance, Clara. Her grandmother works with my mother and is quite close to the point that they often visited the hospital when she was ill. Natalie was even kind enough to grace us with her presence a few times." A passive aggressive tone caused me to whirl around and clap my hands for everyone's attention before anyone could say anything.

"Very good, Minamono, very bright of you. Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to introduce myself to everyone around you. Now, if you'll follow me we can continue with the show, okay?"

Forcing an open smile, I turned around to pull a piece of paper out of my pocket and unfolded it. Hearing their footsteps, I turned back around while extending my arm to whoever was there first. It just so happened to be Kurama.

"My duty in this situation is to be a neutral guide. Each of you are allowed to ask me three questions each about anything, but 'only' three. Ask in the correct way and I'll basically tell you how to get through this treacherously set up mansion. Ask the wrong way and I'll be utterly useless."

As I explained myself, Kuwabara and Botan gathered around Kurama to read the note with him while Hiei simply stared at me with such a bored expression I wondered if he could handle tolerating this place without killing something within five minutes of being in here.

"The House of Four Dimentions." Kuwabara started.

"Once entered this do not, ever utter the word 'hot'." Botan finished.

Kazuma and Botan read off the note out loud as if to try and get a better understanding of what it meant. I leaned against the side of the door and crossed my arms, waiting patiently for them to gather their thoughts and make a decision.

"Is this some kind of riddle?" Botan had mumbled.

I hope this giant wasn't really wasting one of his questions on something like this...

"No, it is a warning. There's no way of knowing if it's real." Kurama responded.

The three looked to me for a moment as if I would do something for them. "... If you're wondering what it is I surely hope you'll be reconsidering asking your first questions."

"Not necessarily. There's always the possibility you could be lying, and we're not in the position to risk that." Came the low-key, cold shoulder reply from Kurama as he stepped up to the door.

"Careful, foxy." The words dragged themselves from my mouth as if they didn't want to be said. I slowly looked up to him and watched as he merely trailed his eyes to mine; not moving an inch from his stance. "I'd hate to see what happens when you lose the upper hand."

With that being said, there was pause, a moment between the two of us where our staring competition had made it to the point where if I looked away from him I would be suggesting I was backing down from this. Granted, there should've been no real heated moments because this was all fictitious and a good cause, right?

"Alright, we ain't got time for this! Urameshi will kill us if we let him die."

"You make about as much sense as always, Kuwabara." Hiei's snide remark definitely didn't go unnoticed.

"Hey!-"

"Alright!" Botan yelled.

I broke my stare long enough to look to the Grim Reaper who was evidently miffed about the commotion. "Kuwabara's right, we don't have time for this. Let's just go in and get this over with."

I looked back to Kurama with a stern look but nodded. "She's right, let's go."

Kurama turned away without another word and pushed the door open. A comment from Kuwabara later resorted to a shushing sound from Botan. Trailing behind, I let the door close shut behind me. With the clasp of the lock, the small room that held us inside was pitch black until a strange, circular sliding door opened up to reveal the even stranger room.

A rush of humidity hit as soon as the door opened, causing me to quickly take off my jacket, hang it over my arm, and maneuver my way around the group. It was drastically warm and uncomfortable. I didn't even want to think about the word that would send anyone in that room into an uncomfortable state without their soul.

So I tried my best to ignore it, keeping thoughts of cold places in mind while strutting my way to the chair that was in the middle of the room. Mid-way through, I felt a surge of energy that almost stopped me completely. I knew in that moment that I was right in the middle of Kaito's territory.

I heard their foot steps come in not too long after I made it to the chair.

"What is this place?" The genuine curiosity of Botan's voice echoed a bit through the room as they walked closer until everyone stopped except for Kuwabara.

Genkai was right; Kazuma Kuwabara's lost powers were as bad as we thought. He seemed completely unaffected by the impact of the territory. As he stood the closest I tilted my head and hung the jacket on the back of the chair that was oddly shaped.

"It looks all twisted up..."

"And that steam. It's like an oven in here; it's so h - "

I nudged forward on instinct to stop the Ferry Girl but Kurama was quicker to cup his hands around her mouth. I sighed and relaxed my body to compose myself and cross my arms.

"Remember the word we're not saying." His tone wasn't stern like a mother scolding her child, but firm as a heavy reminder of the situation they were in.

I chuckled and caught their attention once more. "Careful now; it's tempting under this circumstances."

Kuwabara stepped into my line of sight with narrowed eyes. His facial expression showed that he was having none of this and wanted to quit any funny business we had planned.

"Yeah, I bet you were the one to set it up that way, huh?"

I jerked back and furrowed my eye-brows in fake shock; a hand over my chest while the other was held out.

"Who? Me? Set this up...? I'm really hurt by that accusation, Kazuma Kuwabara. You know, it's rude to assume something - "

"Kurama." The short, grumpy troll who was also known as Hiei interrupted my sarcastic gesture with an annoyed and hasty approach. "Did you feel that?"

I cut my shenanigan act and replaced it with offense. I was all for them figuring out information and building their thought process within this mission of ours, but Genkai did not disclose how much I was going to be annoyed with most of their presence. Especially of the smaller demon who was... well, rude.

"Yes... When we entered, the energy schematic changed. It feels as though we've some how transported to a different space..." Suichi, or Kurama at this point, immediately shot a serious and demanding look at me as if I had something to do with it.

Automatically, I held both hands up with genuine apathy. "Don't look at me, this isn't my territory..."

"However." A new voice came from behind me, causing a new and more up beat look on my face to rise. "It is mine. As for you, Suichi, perhaps you meant another...space-time."

I followed everyone's stare up and over my shoulder to search for the newcomer. I dropped my hands and looked behind me to light brown eyes framed with glasses.

"Welcome to the house everyone. We're pleased you made it."

Finally our mission had started. We executed each step with precision to make sure our duty was carried through. It was time to test them.

It was time to teach them a lesson they'd never forget.

Authors Note:

Phew! This was actually kinda difficult to think of when to leave off. I don't know why but I just couldn't put my finger on it to end it, ya know? Oh well, at least I finished it and actually posted, right?

I want to thank my lovely reviewers, people you fav&followed the prologue! It was really sweet of shawn-n-belle and Aki0Storyteller0! :D Thank you guys so much!