Chapter Three: Playing God

"I'm sorry!"

Kido hit the ground as the walkie-talkie dropped just as fast with him. He was in a crouched position, an apologetic sign in a sloppy fashion I was surprised by the action and stood standing. I looked to the group and shrugged, my expression showing true confusion and yet apathy.

"Forgive me, master!-"

"Cool it with the theatrics alright, Kido? If we're being honest here, I was counting on you screwing it up."

Genkai had a natural talent at pulling random punches in planning, but I prided myself on being somewhat more involved and knowledgeable because she trusted me. This, however was something that I had not seen coming. Taking a step forward I let my astonishment, and yes my irritability, show drastically on my face. My question was put on hold when none other than my pretty boy frienemy decided to step forward and speak up.

"You never cease to surprise me, Genkai. I thought you might've been behind this little ruse."

...?

A questionable sneer was directed straight toward the red-head after his comment. There was no way in any of the three worlds that that information could've been given away. We spent hours setting this place up, traps and calculations that were to make sure they were given the free will to either fuck up or survive. Yes, I hopped they would've been able to learn from their mistakes, but I did not appreciate the fact that someone else had the upper hand this entire time, or the fact that we didn't successfully fool even the smartest of them. We failed, on a good note, but there was much that I had to question.

"You mean to tell me," My voice started low and steady, with each step I came closer and closer to Genkai's side. "that even though we planned freewill," I directed the question toward my old friend. "that these mother fuckers," My hands then moved wildly to the bunch in front of us. "had a set-in-stone win, because that mother fucker," My index finger violently pointed to the now startled Kurama. "knew what was going on in the first fucking place!?"

My cheeks were burning and had probably brought more color to my face then I necessarily cared for, my breathing was rapid and slowly I could feel my blood pressure rise with every moment that I stood there. Genkai was not phased by my vexed disposition and merely cocked a small smirk my way.

"Basically."

"This doesn't make any sense! Why don't you explain it, Fox Boy, because I'm obviously going nuts!"

At least I wasn't the only one to be completely out of the loop. Kurama, with his copious amounts of knowledge apprently, then proceeded to explain how Genkai was trying to teach a lesson about perception. If that was all he was going to say about that then by God I could've died from the obviousness of this entire thing. Genkai, my old psychic grandmother influence, then warned us how it wouldn't be the last time we would come in contact with other psychic's who could do the same things that we could do. At this point another cigarette couldn't kill me any faster than these people could.

"Kurama, when did you know it was Genkai who was behind this?"

"When we had reached the top of the stairs."

I inhaled deeply and walked back over to Kido to help him up and continued to listen begrudgingly.

"Because if they had truly used their resources, they most definitely would have won."

"Oh give me a break!"

"Yeah, what the fuck?" I was pretty much done with the whole situation honestly.

He then continued about how this was a lesson that they had to learn, and blah, blah, blah. Basically, he figured it the fuck out without us knowing he had an ace up the whole.

"Hn, you still haven't given us a reason. You haven't sufficiently tried to explain what you're trying to accomplish by rubbing their powers in our faces."

I rolled my eyes so hard I think I caused my own head ache, and pinched the bridge of my nose. I then leaned against one of the pillars and decided to listen, and only butt in when it was appropriate at this point.

"The four of you are well trained fighters, but as three of you have experienced, your physical strength will be obsolete and will depend of your intellectual."

Genkai then turned aggressively toward the midget demon and yelled. "If you had used that lump three feet above your ass, you might've held on to your soul! Make that two for you..."

I couldn't help but snort and giggle a bit, earning a death warning from said midget demon, but I wasn't the only one to participate in mocking him. Yusuke, acted like he had room to talk.

"Are you for real? You actually let those jerks steal your soul? Show some skill!"

"Oh, and what about you, dimwit?!"

A caught off guard Yusuke made a disgruntled face before waving off the comment. "Oh, c'mon! I wouldn't have been caught if I had known about that stupid shadow trick-"

"Genkai, please rip him a new asshole. I literally just discussed this with him, I can't repeat myself anymore." I let the smoke slither up my nostrils in a french inhale. Exhaling I looked back to Yusuke who only mimicked my own irritated expression.

"Are you really foolish enough to think that one of your enemies would just hand over that information?!"

I literally watched Yusuke shrink with his ego the more we bitched at him. Amusing to watch him be put in his place, but at the same time I was wondering if he'd even remember anything from tonight to be put in prospective. If there was one thing that I was sure of, along with those three boys, was that the Rekai Tentai would have to learn this lesson quick and to use it soon. Something was boiling within the mix of Mushiyori city, a place where Mitari, Yana, Kido and Kaito called home along with my sister and I.

"If an enemy captures you, you are as good as dead. If you remember anything then remember that!"

"Time out, grandma, you keep saying 'enemy', but these scrubs aren't actually bad, right? So, who the Hell are they?"

Genkai looked to me and Kido before speaking. "Care to explain you two?"

"Yes, master. Kaito, Yana and I went to her compound for advice and to develop our powers."

Kido then looked to me as soon as I exhaled which automatically let me know to give my introduction. "Unlike those three, I've had my abilities for about four years. Even back then there was something brewing that caused something to... well, happen. I have known Genkai ever since my first incident. A month ago was when I met these three idiots and what not."

"That's when we learned about you, Yusuke, and your team. Truth is we've only had these new powers for about a month, along with the other psychics."

I took a deep breath of nicotine in, feeling my nerves come alive in a spark with each word Kido spoke. I kept my watch on each of them, and watched as Botan put her two cents in.

"New psychics?"

"Yes, the cause of which is our greatest threat."

I swallowed the bile in my throat and kept a constant stare at the four in front of me. Panic on both Yusuke and Botan's expression, while Kurama's was of surprise
and hints of concern as well.

"You're makin' me nervous..."

"I assume some of you have already noticed some of the demon insects through out the city."

"You don't mean...!"

Yes, Kurama, my dear demon colleague, we mean exactly just that.

(-)

There was too much information to take in on such little time. Classes of God like demons, strong enough to snap their fingers and destroy cities without ever so much as a second thought. I held onto Yanagisawa's arm tightly for some kind of comfort, but even then did I feel the icy chill of reality. No power of copy, spirit gun, shadow, or plant control could defeat one fucking S-Class demon.

The thoughts were consuming like a tidal wave, an anchor that pulled too far down that trapped me under water. I didn't even realize we had made it down stairs back into the first room until I felt the humidity cloak the skin on my face. My eyes found their way to the struggling statue of Yuu Kaito with a sphere of his soul floating directly over him. We gathered around to watch Genkai preform some karate bullshit that she does. The orb sunk back within his body, and the color returned instantly before he relaxed out of the posture he was stuck in. Sitting up he looked around with an almost defeated expression.

"A full house, I take it everything went just as you planned, Master Genkai."

"You played your part well,"

I gave a critical stare to Kurama, like he really understood everything now that he knew this was a hoax in general.

"You lost, but it was a stirring introduction."

I scoffed along with Kaito at these words. He nodded my way before standing up.

"I wasn't playing along, I tried my hardest to defeat you. For once I wanted to see you lose... but I'll just have to wait a little longer."

"Nice thinkin', Brain Boy. So, you put your soul on the line just because he beat you on some math quizzes? What if Grandma wouldn't have been here to save you?"

Yusuke seemed to have something to say for just about anything. Letting my stare drift to Genkai I waited for an explanation I already experienced before.

"Simple. He would've faded into nothing."

Kuwabara let out a shocked grumble to which I nodded to.

"Yeah, souls can't exactly recover from something like that. Whenever these three guys came to Genkai that first day, I was there. They had the exact same problem. Luckily she was able to fix them up."

"Kaito's a risk taker, that's why they came to me. He had removed his own soul and they didn't know how to put it back."

Kaito gave a shrug before continuing on, dusting himself as he spoke.

"Let me introduce myself formerly to the group; my name is Yuu Kaito, I have the power of Taboo."

"My name's Asato Kiddo, I have the power of Shadow."

When it came time for Yana he looked almost bored with having to introduce himself, though I didn't exactly blame him considering I wasn't one for introductions either.

"Mistunari Yanagisawa, and I call my talent Copy."

I felt the eyes travel fully to me, and though I hated to give away any information it was blatant honesty that these were my new teammates now. I had to give them some sort of trust if anything so I could receive it as well.

"Natalie Montgomery, and I have the power of Mind Control."

"Mind Control? Care to show us or something?" With a wolfish grin I looked to Yusuke Urameshi and walked up to him. I heard the mumbles of Kaito warning Yusuke that he shouldn't have said anything, but at this point it was too late for that. I put my hands on my hips, looked directly up to Yusuke who seemed perplexed and weary of what was about to happen. Opening my territory I felt the energy creep up into my eyes, just ever so slightly, and with one movement of pointing directly to Kuwabara, Yusuke held the same expression as his fist went out and punched Kuwabara in the shoulder. The taller male let out a shriek before clutching his arm as I retracted my territory. Yusuke blinked before looking back and forth between me and Kuwabara.

"What the Hell was that for?!"

"I didn't do it on purpose!"

"Boys!"

Holding my hands up I then pointed to myself, nearly dramatically. "My power allows me to tap into anyone and control them, replacing memories and even making you believe things that never happened. Though, those last two benefits are harder to do, the first one isn't so much. That was literally just a taste."

I turned on my heels and flounced away from them with their bizarre incident.

"Natalie has been an exception to these new psychics, mainly because she came to me long before even you Yusuke." Genkai then stepped in front us.

"Like I told you, they all live in Mushiyori city. It's been a full month since those three have developed their powers, and they're many others like them."

The group before us had taken a moment to actually be serious about these things. Kurama first spoke about how it had been a few weeks after the closing of the Dark Tournament. I knew very little about the tournament, only a few details say for instance; Genkai's death and resurrection, the Tuguro brother's and how they were involved with it. It was just a basic background information, and sparing any detail of any gruesome, possibly heart wrenching scenarios involving my old friend... and someone who I would've beat the shit out of if he actually died.

"Yeah, and that was the at the beginning of stage two, right? So, that was just days after I fought Tuguro when this whole business started."

On que the annoying bleeping noise that could only mean that the Prince of Spirit World itself was contacting us. Catching all of our attention we gathered around the metal brief case that Botan had lugged around the entire time. Opening it up, I came face to face with a child figure with an urgent and concerned facial expression. It was truly strange to see a child in such a posture.

"We just got done calculating the growth of the tunnel, guys! It's bad. As is, and will reach stage four in three weeks."

"Only three weeks?!"

I felt the lose of breath at the thought of everything ending within less than a month. The end of our lives would be coming to a close in a measly three weeks. Three weeks to try and convince my grandmother and sister to book it out of here and head as far away from Japan as possible, three weeks for me to come to terms that that would only buy them a couple of more days to live, and three weeks until I could come to terms with my own death. My short list of friends, comrades, the boy who's been swooning me for nearly a month now and my family would be annihilated from this planet. I couldn't wrap my mind around it.

I felt a small squeeze from my hand and looked up to Yana who had a concerned look on his face. I gave a weak smile and leaned my head on his arm to show him that I was alright, but I believe we both knew we weren't okay with less than a month to live our lives.

"There's gotta be something we can do! Can't you like close the hole back up?!"

I felt, in that moment, that Yusuke did not understand the whole point of this problem. "I'm sure he would've done so by now, or at least ordered for some kind of plan to be established, Yusuke." A monotoned response came out before I could stop myself from saying anything further, and as predicted, Yusuke whipped his head toward my direction to glare.

"It's better than nothing, ya know!"

"The only way," Koenma continued "is to stop it the tunnel's creator."

The Toddler Prince then showed us a graphic and explained that the tunnel wasn't actually physical, and that it was a distortion. If the tunnel then would reach a certain size then it would stabilize, meaning it wouldn't need a so called 'Creator' to keep the energy from tapping into it.

"So you know where the guy is, and if it's deep down then we're okay. Then I guess all I have to do is turn his brain into mush!"

My expression showed no mercy or any hint of concealing what I thought Yusuke Urameshi plan was like. Narrowed eyes, a deep scowl, and a slow shake of the head replicated what Genkai felt.

"Not so fast!-"

Stepping up and basically jumping over toward our little group, a hasty and loud Yusuke started throwing out demands for us to show him the city. I kept my expression fully until a swift move from my favorite Grandmotherly friend sent Yusuke flipping backwards. He landed not so softly and glared as both Yana and I shared a laugh.

"What the Hell are you laughing about?! And dammit, what is this 'Be Bitchy' Day?!"

"Here's a brilliant concept, try learning from your mistakes!" Huffing once Genkai's voice dropped back down to a normal, inside tone. "What I wouldn't give for a successor with a brain..."

"Genkai," I stepped forward, letting go of Yana to take out a well deserved cigarette and light it before looking down to the psychic. "May I explain it to him? He might understand it a bit better." Genkai shrugged and nodded toward him. I exhaled and looked directly toward Yusuke with a stern look, also known as my permanent-bitchy normal face.

"All four of us were here to teach you a lesson, and not just you, but your team mates as well. The whole point of this was, in fact, to think before you act-"

"And you've gone deaf, Koenma says we don't have time for that!" Yusuke took a step forward, nearly forgetting the personal space bubble that everyone was equiped with when they were born. Kuwabara then stepped in and also spoke of our inevitable doom.

"Three weeks. We have three weeks until this problem starts. This gives us the time to think before we act, and as Genkai has said before, we can't afford to go in this blindly. Got it?"

"This also gives us three questions to answer. How many fighters are in their group, who is their leader and whats the true nature of their powers? Without these answer attacking would be suicide. "

I nodded and took a drag before looking at a disgruntled Yusuke. "We have some time, not much, but it's better than having the end of the world start tomorrow, right?" Irritable mocha brown eye's bore into my own, a grumble of some unknown words before turning away.

What a fucking diva.

"Koenma,"

I followed the voice to see that my not-so-favorite demonic criminal finally spoke up.

"If these fools are done, I have my own question. In what class do you rank me?"

I tilted my head and looked over to Kurama, who had called out his name to try and give a piss poor effort of stopping him. He gave me a look of unacceptable acceptance, holding begrudgingly to the fact that Hiei cared for no one except himself. Shocker.

"You've gotta be fuckin' kiddin' me." I turned away and headed toward the refrigerator where I knew there was still some stocked refreshments. Flicking my ashes I let all of this information mule over. I needed to get my sister out of here, Mitari needed to get his family and head with my own which would've been hard enough to do. They weren't exactly the best parents anyone could ask for, but they weren't unreasonable either. My grandmother could probably persuade them given the right story, and it would've been a hell of a lot easier if Shiori was able to get in on it.

Sipping on the water I then quickly turned around just in time to watch Hiei, King of Hamsters, walk out on us.

"Well, I'm not gonna shed any tears, Hiei! In fact, I'm happy you're gone! He's the same selfish punk he was from the start..."

"Yeah, and he'll come and rescue us whenever we need him the most."

Rolling my eyes I couldn't help but scoff, gaining the attention of the others. "You honestly think that he'll come back? A hundred yen says other wise."

Yusuke hummed to the thought before pulling a thumbs up in my direction, smirking as if he knew something I did not. "Easy money, Natalie."

Flipping him a famous salute I took one last hit before extinguishing it within my water. I wasn't exactly in the mood for this right now.

"So, what now?"

Kuwabara's question was left in silence for a moment. All eyes were on Genkai as we waited for whatever command she was going to give us next.

"We go into the city at sunrise and begin scouting." Turning toward the general direct me, Kaito, Yana and Kid were in she continued. "These four will go with us, they may be of some use."

"You guys up for that?"

The three gave their reasoning as I merely nodded in response. Thought I wasn't really one for discussing why I wanted to go, my proposition was simple; figure what the Hell was going on and stop it, with a rational plan of course.

"It's settled then. Now the next job for all of you is to get what sleep you can, in the morning we'll divide into two teams so we can cover more territory. Until we know more, no one goes home and no one leaves the group. Goodnight."

(-)

I rolled my neck around my shoulders, eyes closed to enjoy the popping of joins and the instant relaxation before stretching out my arms. I had bordered myself into my own room so I could be left alone for the night. Not that I didn't care for Yana's affection, but I needed time to think about a lot of things that were happening within my life. I had taken off my jacket and thrown it on the chair that came with the strangely askew vanity that was in the corner of the dimly lit room. I flopped down on the bed and stared up at the ceiling, and quickly reaching for my phone to text my sister. Grandmother wouldn't exactly be too happy that I stayed out all night, so I knew that I'd never heard the end of it.

However, she had told me time and time again, she'd rather hear from me at all then to not hear from me period. After sending a shitty little explination to my sister I continued to lay there. Thoughts of family, friends, and now my little team of misfits having to deal with the weight of the world on our shoulders. I didn't even know where to start when the knocking came. I rolled my eyes so hard I felt another head ache coming on, and knowing the remedy of a cigarette I bid whoever was at my door to hold on so I could scrounge for my pack and lighter.

After doing so I went straight for the door and opened it to reveal Suichi, or Kurama at this point, standing there with a friendly expression.

"Is this a bad time?"

Raising an eye-brow I looked behind me before looking back and shaking my head. "What do you want?"

"To talk," He answered quickly. "at least if you'll let me this time."

I sighed while leaning against my door frame, clicking my tongue once before deciding that it wouldn't hurt anyone.

"Fuck it, come in." He stepped through my threshold and I closed the door behind him. "Is this talk going to involve my own involvement with Genkai, or is there something else that's on that pretty little head of yours?"

He didn't look to me as he went over and sat in the vanity chair, crossing his legs and keeping his arms on the arm rests. After evaluating my temporary room he looked to me with eyes that said that my teasing was not welcomed, narrowed with a stern expression that I hardly ever saw on Suichi Minamono.

In fact I think I never actually saw him with that look before.

"I came to speak to you about what you spoke about when this plan of Genkai's started. Whenever you spoke of betrayal, and what not. "

I sneered at him and shook my head while crossing my arms. "You mean about how you knew all this time, at least enough to ruin my life? Oh, that should be lovely for a bed time story."

"I'm serious."

"So am I." I took a step forward, clutching my back of smokes to try and take some aggression away from my own voice to keep level headed. "You're a demon, you can sense things and you're one helluva good thief from what I hear. What on God's green Earth made you think it was okay to stalk my family?"

Kurama looked down with his eyes and sighed before looking back at me, eye's displaying a concealed demeanor along his jaw line, facial structure and everything you can imagine about hims was cool, calm and collected. It was nearly sickening.

"Clara has displayed strange amounts of energy, and I was curious as to how it was possible. This was, of course, before the Dark Tournament, when my mother invited your Grandmother and the two of you over more often. I was merely keeping an eye on the two of you, making sure you didn't preoccupy yourselves in groups you didn't need to be around."

I had maneuvered to having my hands on my hips, eyebrow raised and mouth gaped open from his words.

"So..." after finding my words through my uprising annoyance. "you knew we had abilities, and stalked us to make sure we wouldn't end up like the group we're fighting. That's it? Why not just check up on us from a distance or something?"

"It wasn't quite the simple." He shifted to crossing the other leg before proceeding. "There was... an incident."

"Incident?" That was a way to get my attention.

"Yes."

"Care to elaborate?"

He inhaled before standing up as gracefully as possible. I swore this guy must've been some kind of ballerina in another life with the grace and steady balance he had.

"If you recall, I'm sure you would, the night you and Clara were late getting to your home." He began. He didn't have to explain himself anymore, at least with the details of that night. I remember clear as rain what he was talking about.

My sister and I had went over to one of her friends houses so we could hang out for a bit. They lived quite a bit away from us, so when we realized we were going to arrive at our home later than we planned, we booked it out of there. It was dark, chilly, and we were utterly alone. At least we thought we were alone, it wasn't until we both started feeling a presences surrounding us every where we went. There was no attacks, no brutal assault of any kind, just a dreadful feeling that no matter how many short cuts, no matter how much running we finally did after it spooked us enough to cause it, we still felt that presence linger until we reached just a few blocks from our home.

"Yeah, and?"

"I had felt both of your energies close by, it wasn't hard to forget either of your energy prints since I've been in contact with both of you for sometime. I started tracking the other being, and was even able to catch a glimpse of it, but nothing to profile it completely. I almost apprehended the source before they suddenly slipped away from me..."

Kurama acted as he were to continue on, but silence was all that followed him.

I felt violated from the news, so much that not even a nicotine high could fix this, or any comfort from another being either. I shook my head, hands wrapping themselves around my arms, yet making sure not to burn myself too. Biting my lower lip I took a moment to gather my thoughts before speaking.

"So you're telling me someone is following us, right?"

"Basically."

"I didn't feel anything like that happen again, so why did you continue to follow us? Why couldn't you just stay out of our business?"

He turned around to look at me, eye's conveying real curiosity to my questions this time. "What if they attacked your sister? Grandmother? You don't think you could've used some help?"

I sighed and then scoffed at his words. "Since when were you into protecting people you barely knew?"

That would surely stump him and make him confess something dire, right? Wrong. He merely looked away for a moment before looking back, with a face that held a cool complexion.

"At that time I held it a responsibility for your safety. I would've been the last one to see either of you, and I could not have that weighing on me."

He took a step forward which made me realize how little space we had between each other. My face scrunched in discomfort, I forced myself to look up at him who was waiting for something. Words, actions, anything out of me in that moment. My chest fluttered, those Goddamn green eyes were perplexing and yet so infuriating. My stomach ached, and those fucking eyes though.

I shook my head while side stepping him and walking back to my door. "I think you should go, Superman. One less heroic deed has been done for today."

I did not look at him as I opened the door, but he did waste his time trying to leave.

"Natalie," He called once more before I could close the door in his face. "You're safe you know."

Closing my eyes tightly I refused to look at him anymore for the night. A single nod was all I could give before finally locking him out of my room.