"You're early..." Was all either one of the could say before Botan reached for the little stack of files.
"Here are all of the identities you will be taking while in New York, I would like to go over them with all of you...where is everyone?"
The boys shrugged in unison as they thumbed through the files, more than interested in what their stories would be.
"They went out back," Kurama spoke from a doorway just behind Botan. "Sora and Sakura at least. Hiei's off doing whatever he feels he needs to right now." There was a short pause. "I'll go collect the girls if you'll baby-sit these two."
And before the reaper could agree or not, the red head had vanished as quickly as he'd shown up.
The second female wasn't as fast by half at getting into the saddle of her horse, but soon enough she was slowly following after Sakura. She didn't try to speak until they were closer, but then she shouted across the remaining space, hoping to be heard properly. "Wait up you! I haven't been on a horse in years and it's only my second time now."
Sakura halted her horse and gave Sora a sheepish grin, "Ahaha, sorry! I haven't been in this area for years...nor have I done anything like this in a while, so I guess I got too giddy and excited!" Suddenly it hit her, what the important fact was in what her friend told her. "Wait! Only your second?" Immediately she turned towards her friend in a gentle trot until she was beside her.
"Well it really doesn't show, you have good control, even the horse agrees." Another smile as she patted the horse, "Would you prefer for me to ride alongside you? The corall is large enough to do so."
"I'm a quick study," the brunette joked, adding a laugh after. "But it does help that the horse is pretty calm." A smile towards the other girl then continued with a shake of her head in the beginning. "Oh no, don't worry about me. You go enjoy yourself, just don't expect me to keep up."
A laugh was all the other woman was able to get out before a distant call grabbed her attention.
"Oiy! Girls! I found it!" From Sakura's angle, it looked like a green box-like bag was calling them, but after about a minute, she could see the kind face of Mira.
"Oh, thank you so much Mira!" She was about to try and dismount, but, after a quick wave, she stayed. "I guess we should start getting these babes back huh?" Her question was directed towards the friend next to her, but she spoke to Mira with her hand out. The older woman accepted the hand and easily hoisted herself and the tent onto the back of the horse, and gripped the other's waist tightly. Without many more words spared, Sakura began to lead the horse back to it's home
followed in silence, unsure of what to say until they arrived back at the stable. As they were dismounting a new figure came striding into view and a smile came naturally to the brunette's lips. She was waving before the red head even got close enough to call out to them.
"There you are," Kurama commented as he drew nearer the trio of women. Whether he noticed the stranger or not was debatable. "Botan's finally arrived with the rest of our information and she's looking for us back at the house."
Sakura waited untill she had helped Mira with everything, including a very quick brush-down of the horses, before even speaking a word to the others, let alone beginning to leave. With everything wrapped up she picked up the tent and gave a quick goodbye and thank you to Mira, promising to visit again and return the tent in perfect condition. Finally she turned to the other two, swung the tent over her shoulder and smiled, "My, my, she's earlier than I had expected...I guess we shouldn't keep her waiting too long." Another smile and she began to lead the the pack back home, this time with a short-cut through the brush that seperated the two areas.
The other two had been talking when Sakura rejoined them, but stopped as she began to lead them back. Kurama even moved forward to take the tent from Sakura, having already been filled in on the girls' plan during the short wait. "Here. Let me take that for you."
After a bit of arguing back and forth and Sakura running off with the tent, the three made it back to the front porch, only to hear a mixture of laughter and arguing through the now opened windows.
"I'm assuming Yuusuke and Kuwabara have looked through everyone's files..." The woman with the "stolen" tent theorized aloud as she went to open the door for the group, but she was beaten to it by an overly happy Kuwabara and Yuusuke.
"Umm hi?" Was all should could manage to squeak out before the tent was plucked from her hands and several , licsenses and other official documents, replaced it.
"Congratulations Mrs. Tanteinorei! Welcome to the family!" The taller of the two boys in front of her smirked as the other one handed the two behind her their documents.
"Hey! What are you doing! I'm supposed to be handing these out and going over everything with all of you!" Botan rushed over as she spoke, causing a little mayhem before she had all of them either sitting or standing in the living room so she could properly adress them.
"Well now that you all have your documents," The normally bouncey reaper paused to send the two deliquents a nasty look, "all except Hiei that is..." She looked around once more to see if she could spot, or even sense Hiei, but, as she expected, there was nothing, so she continued.
"We decided to keep all of your first names the same. Normally, we would assign you all more English names...but we know that only a few of you can speak English well enough to pass off as American or British born." Botan waited a moment for this fact to sink in before explaining more, "To avoid any suspicion from anything you may have to hunt or find, we have changed almost all of your last names to Tanteinorei by-"
Muffled giggles interupted the reaper forcing her to sigh and look at the closest offender she could find in hopes that they would still themselves. It took a few moments and a few louder laughs before Sakura managed to calm herself enough to squeak out, "Sorry" while whiping away the small tears that formed at the corner of her eyes.
"Anyways, as I was saying, the majority of you are all members of the same family one way or another and we expect you to act as such, both in and out of public...you never know if someone can hear you or not. Now, as for your story, it's rather simple and easy to believe. Sakura, who had come here with her...Uncle...when she was younger," the reaper paused again to briefly gain conformation on this information from the multi-colored woman in the form of a slight smile and nod of the head, "spoke to you all about it and eventually convinced you to come here on a little family trip. Since very few of you know English well enough to speak it and survive for a long trip, you asked your friend, Sora Lemus, a translator, to come with you...any questions?"
Not entirely sure why herself, Sakura's hand shot up and waved about a little, apparently she had placed herself back into third grade. After a few minutes of wiggling her fingers, the woman was reminded that she was an adult and slowly dropped her hand lest she embarass herself more.
"Um...if the Spirit World knows that I came here quite a few times...didn't you assume I may be...or already was...recognized? A lot of the people here know me as part of Uncle Jimmy's family, so how can we keep this cover?"
The ex-punks looked at the speaking woman with what she could only describe as mischevieously, slightly worrying her before the blue-haired reaper joined them with a smirk, "You haven't read your information yet have you?"
Sora, who had already skimmed through her information, now leaned over to peer at Sakura's papers as the other girl began looking through. One particular section caught her eye and immediately she looked up to be met a by a knowing green gaze that said the red head hanging back in a calm corner of the room had known already. Logically he would after reading his own file, but she didn't know when he would have had the time between coming to get them at the stable and now.
The woman in question just sat staring at her file nearly convinced this was all a little joke played by Spirit World, "Well now I get why thing one and thing two said what they did."
Most of what she was feeling, Sakura kept behind a composed mask, something she learned from the man she was supposed to now be married to.
'Hell no am I reacting until he reacts...' While she was damn excited, Sakura was quite honestly too scared to react until she saw a reaction from the long haired red head...her "husband" behind her.
"Congratulations," Kurama commented casually. "You just became the envy of a good portion of the Japanese population. Including several of the men."
Sora gave a smile and a slight laugh to Sakura after that comment but internally she was at war with her own emotions. Though it was years now since she'd "dated" Shuuichi back in school, before a stupid decision on her part ended that stage of their relationship, a secret part of her always wanted things to go back to that time between them. And sure this fake relationship wasn't an indicator of actual events, but it still hurt to be just "a family friend" while the rest of her friends were labeled one big family. Not that her psuedonym even mattered one iota...
A few moments passed, long enough for her to miss a few comments made, but the brunette tossed out one of her own. "Well at least you get a last name that doesn't sound like bad Latin..." She stood then, and started towards the kitchen. "This calls for a good drink." Stopping just before the kitchen entryway, she spun on her toes and looked to Botan. "Any chance Spirit World stocked us up on any alcohol or will we need to find a bar and test out these new ids?"
Botan stared at the brunett as if she had just been speaking in tongues, "Well...Um...we actually haven't had a chance to stock up on anything so...have fun at the bar!" Before she could be scolded or asked why, the bright-eyes reaper had dissapeared just as quickly as she had arrived.
"Damnit!" Sakura jumped up right as the chipper girl left, "She didn't even leave us with a car..." Feeling unable to sort through what she was feeling and what she was sure others were feeling, be it worry or unhappiness, the multi-colored woman refused to continue through the night completely sober.
"Screw this..." She stomped off to where her bag lay, and dragged it into the bathroom, soon emerging dressed and ready for the bar; her make-up was light, only enough to accent her eyes with a smokey look and a little bit of lip-stick mixed with lip-gloss, her clothes were another story: The high-heeled, knee high (though that was impossible to tell because of the slightly tight jeans she wore) boots along with the rip strategically placed on her jeans, the too short white tank-top (also complete with a strategically placed rip) which showed a little bit of a tattoo and her tossled hair proved that she was getting to a bar, one way or another.
"I'm walking...I can wait for whoever wants to come or change..."
Before long the whole lot of them were walking for, thanks to a certain ex-detective complaining constantly about walking, what seemed like a full day but in truth was only half an hour to the town, more specifically the only bar in town.
The inside of the bar was your average small town bar; a little smokey, a pool table, a few other scattered seat-games and a juke-box you were sure was broken, but thankfully never was.
"Finally!" Kuwabara blurted out as he and Yuusuke raced to the actual bar to be the one lucky enough to get the first drink before the, quite honestly, attractive female bartender was swamped with orders.
"Hmm...perhaps we should look for some way to get home after all this...I don't really feel like having to carry their drunk butts home..." Sakura spoke with a small smile on her lips, though she honestly did not want to carry them home, she did get some entertainment from the idea. The young woman began to look around, hoping she could see something like a poster or an ad for a taxi company, but what she did see distracted her.
Across the bar, where the pool table sat, were two young looking men, seemingly winning a great deal of money from the two other men they played. One of them sat there gloating, while the other seemed to quietly try to pull him back before he caused a fight.
'Oh...I can't resist this...'
Sakura leaned over to Sora and smiled, "Sora...you any good at Pool?"
The brunette laughed. "Not if you want any hope of winning." She scanned the mildly crowded area once before meeting Sakura's eyes. "How about you take your hubby over for a game or two, I'm sure he'd learn fast."
A glance to the red head showed he'd either not been listening or was pretending to not have heard and Sora almost laughed again. On the walk over she had bet with Yuusuke and Kuwabara over the likelihood of getting the fake "couple" to actually hook up. $50 to whoever was right; she thought she could pull it off before the end of the mission, Kuwabara saw potential but said not until the mission was over and Yuusuke said it wouldn't work at all.
"Ah, that is probablly true..." Truth be told, the smaller woman had temporarily forgotten about the mission, let alone the assigned relationships they were given, when her eyes had seen the pool table, and a chance to get more money than the Spirit World had given them...which was barely enough to survive for a week with the two deliquents, let alone an undecided period of time, she let everything else melt away.
{Yoo-hoo, boys!} Though she had been there a good amount of times, and her English was still passable, Sakura still had quite the accent.
None the less, she continued, {What do you say you play against us? I'm sure we can make it worth your while...say...each of us bets five hundred, and to make it fair we will do best two out of three?}
Her smile seemed friendly enough and after giving the two ample time to completely figure out what she had said and agree, the multi-colored woman gently grabbed the red-head, "Come on Ku-Chan, let's get us all some drink money!" Sakura giddily spoke as she lead him through the strangely dense crowd until they got to the pool table.
It took about ten minutes for the first game to end leaving the two American boys the winners.
{You can drop out of this now and save yourselves the embarassement...we'll only take half of what you bet.} The male with the shorter hair smirked as he quite honestly paraded around the table, absolutely sure of their coming victory, speaking each word longer and louder than he normally would.
{Thanks but no thanks...What would be the fun in that?} Drawing out her words and raising the volume of her voice match that of the man she was speaking to, Sakura smiled and pointed at the balls to be re-racked.
Collectively, the next two games took under five minutes, leaving the two men in a mixture of dumbfounded and pissed as the shorter of their oppenents collected $1000 from them with a smirk.
{What the Hell?} The older, though shorter, male commented as the winning pair walked off to rejoin their friends. He glanced at his compaion, who just shrugged then tilted his head towards the front doors with a softly spoken, 'hey man.' The first male followed his gaze to the guy in a trenchcoat hanging out near the doors, apparently unable to locate them.
The duo then set their pool sticks on the table and minutes later were gone.
Meanwhile, Yuusuke and Kuwabra had commandered a table just barely large enough to fit them both, and after several drinks, put on a tab that already amounted to as much money as they had from Reikai and were attempting to hit on girls through the language barrier. Sora hung out at the next table, watching and laughing at their failings, as well as swooping in for the occasional "rescue" effort. In just half an hour she'd already had a handful of kisses to escape the boys, and one genuinely interested in girls but just not her type.
When they approached, the area around both tables empty for a few minutes, Kurama was speaking to Sakura. "Intentionally losing that first game makes you a hustler, as well as a thief for taking that much money from humans."
"A theif sir, I agree, but a hustler? Nay, I just think we had some plain bad luck."
The woman in question winked and let out a small laugh before turning to their only comprehendable friend of the three, "Well then, I see the boys have been keeping busy...hopefully not litterally." She rolled her eyes and attempted to order a gin and tonic, but was cut off from the bartender by the two sloppy bodies that now hung all over Kurama.
"Shey...'e keeps...the girls..." Kuwabara pointed lazily at Sora and spoke into Kurama's ear while Yuusuke leaned on the red-head's other side, nodding along and repeating, "Snot...air!"
"My, my, Sora, I think you're being accused of stealing all the ladies hearts...and with barely a drink down." Sakura smiled at the brunette before joining her at the small table and finally getting the attention of the bartender.
'I swear...if she cards me...'
The brunette offered a sly smile. "Well I had to keep them safe," she answered the first, though whether she meant the girls or the drunk pair was debatable. "And the only reason I'm not keeping pace with the boys is that we'll need a mostly sober driver."
"Oh hello there, may I please get a Gin and Tonic..oh, tanqueray please, not house. Thank you." The small woman let out a small sigh of relief when the bartended just nodded and walked off to make her drink.
"Ers Jin? I'll fight 'im!" The slightly shorter of the three males half-mumbled before leaning back against who he designated as his "leaning post".
"I just hope they drank their liquor before their beer...I really don't feel like taking care of two sick, drunk men tonight."
Green eyes looked towards Sora as the red head struggled with getting their drunk friends back into the booth. She waved a hand absently and shortly Kurama had the others seated and was joining the second table, where the occupants weren't wasted.
she had been handed her order, and taken the few first sips to make sure it was to her liking, Sakura finally commented on Sora's strange statement, "Driver? Huh...I had planned on walking home...or eventually winning a nice car from someone." The woman gave the red head a small smirk and continued sipping at her drink.
"Actually...that seems like fun.." Her eyes scanned the crowd while she thought out loud, "I did see a nice Impala out there..."
At the booth next to the still speaking group, the boys had slowly begun to feel the effects of the ammount of alcohol they had inhaled as the world around began to spin at a naseating pace.
Sora laughed at the last comment while Kurama just shook his head. The waitress with Sakura's order returned with a drink for him then and he downed a good portion of it after he finally convinced her to leave their table. "I take it you've secured us a proper vehicle already then."
It was both a question and not, but Sora answered it as if it were. Her nod was quickly followed by a brief explanation. "I had my car sent up from Cassidy's place when we arrived. You remember she agreed to watch it for me, don't you?" He nodded though she was continuing already. "Well I made another call once we got here to change the drop off and luckily the driver was just reaching town so stopping at the bar worked even better. He might even have stopped in here to get a drink himself, though there's no way for me to know who it was."
"I assume you made sure," he asked as she took another sip of her own drink and rechieved another nod.
"Yeah, I peeked outside while the boys were getting started on their binge."
"Oh wh-" Sakura's question was cut off by curiosity when a lithe, red-headed woman with similar attair to her's jumped up on the bar with a giggle.
"Who wants five...sorta...free Kamikaze shots!" Her voice was rather sultry as she glanced about the bar at various women. One woman she didn't get a chance to look at was the first to speak up: Sakura.
"Sorta free...why sorta?" Though tempted, the woman HAD just offered five of her favorite shots, she had learned long ago to never accept until you heard the terms.
"Well you must come up here and sing and dance for us." The stranger leered at Sakura, warning her that the songs would be embarassing. But, the multi-colored woman that was Sakura had long since lost her ability to be too embarassed and took the challenge. It took the stranger's hand to get up to the bar before she was whispered what song she would have to sing.
"You're just lucky I know this song." Sakura laughed before making sure she cleared things out of the way and gave a quick warning, "This song may not be suitable for anyone under the age of eighteen, you've been warned."
She took the chance to laugh a little and take a quick breath in before finally beginning a song she, and just about every other occupant of the bar, well understood was about something she'd been without for a while now.
When she finally finished, Sakura gently jumped down from the bar and walked over to where the stranger had her five shots, with a quick thank you, she finished them and sat back down with her friends.
"You are shameless..." Kurama commented softly across the table, but his tone was more amused than anything else. Both he and Sora had finished their drinks as Sakura sang and in the next booth Yuusuke and Kuwabara would be lucky if they weren't entirely coated in drool when they woke.
Sakura laughed lightly at the comment and shrugged, the buzz finally hitting her, "I'm actually surprised she choose something so...I guess I'll say docile...I know many songs, much, much worse." The woman let out another small laugh before stretching out and letting out a little yawn. Little pools of water formed at the edge of her eyes and she allowed herself to slump until she was in danger of falling from her seat.
"Shoot...I think that plane ride is finally catching up with me...and I haven't even got our tent pitched yet." Her hands folded onto the table neatly to catch her head in case it fell from it's nodding position.
"Well let's head back then," Sora suggested as she slid out of her seat. "It's probably best to get this pair somewhere they can crash while they might still be willing to move."
A short time later they were headed back to the house. It took a considerably shorter time to get Yuusuke and Kuwabara into the car than expected thanks to some subtle air manipulation. The vehicle itself, a blue '94 Pontiac Bonneville, barely fit the five or them but a bit of manuevering had them all seated decently. Sora played driver, claiming she had a license though Spirit World had neglected to include any for the group. The return trip was still much shorter than the walk to town, even though she dropped the four passengers off in front of the house then rounded the block to park a distance away.
When she got back to the house, the brunette skipped past he front door and rounded the building to find Sakura and Kurama outside attempting to set the tent. Sora hadn't gotten halfway to them before the red head noticed her but he didn't speak until she nearer. "You really don't like following Reikai's instructions, do you?"
"I don't like being watched," she answered with a small shrug. She moved to a corner of the tent to help before saying more. "It's nothing against Reikai personally, but I don't like them knowing every move I make. My own money, my own id, my own vehicle... As long as I can have a few secrets I feel better."
"What about this place?" he asked. "You don't seem to mind being watched here."
"Because they expect to be able to keep tabs on us," she answered with a small shrug. "If they couldn't see us here there might be a problem, but sending us to this town means there's something to check out so we can be hidden away from the house. A downplayed concealing spell at the bar could have been from anything, even a creature not there. And it would only feel like a hum in the back of your head if you were inside it."
A nod to show he followed her. "And you didn't park in front of the house with a similar cloaking charm because...?"
"Because that risks it getting hit if we are given our own transportation." The red head nodded as their eyes met for a moment, then she ducked down to grab part of the tent cover. "This first, just in case."
Kurama picked up his end. "And if they don't supply us further?"
"Then we handle it ourselves. Sakura won us a bunch of money, with your help, and any one of us can get more as we need it. Plus she's already thinking about getting another vehicle in case we need to split up so I'd say we're set."
Silence from the red head provoked Sora to continue talking, sharing information she wasn't sure if he already knew. "We weren't the only unnaturals at that bar, though you were busy playing pool. I ran into a guy, almost literally, when I was coming back inside after checking for my car. He's nothing we've dealt with before."
This drew a careful look from the male. "Nothing horrible," Sora replied quickly. "I don't think anyway. His power was strong, but... pure, in a way. I can't explain it." That last came with a shake of her head. "Maybe he's a good guy, like us. Though I did get a church-y vibe for a moment there, like he was highly religious or something. I always forget the Christian god is much more common over here in America."
"Did he say anything?" Kurama asked to which he recieved a shake of her head.
"Nothing. He barely even acknowleged me after nearly knocking him over." Not that she thought he would have fallen, now that she was giving it thought.
"I know you don't do well with describing people but would you be able to pick him out if you saw him again?"
"Oh yes, no doubt." A moment's pause, then she continued. "He had these eyes... Blue I think, but they were so deep and searching yet there was an innocence too..."
A thin arm snaked around the brunett's shoulder, "Oh? Deep, searching, innocent...for someone you met for a very short time, you sure do remember his eyes quite well." Sakura leaned a little on Sora so she could speak closer to her, "I don't entirely blame you though, mysterious is always an eye catcher for women. Was he tall, dark and handsome?" Her arm fell back down, giving her more room to squeez past the other two to give the wobbly tent a frustrated kick.
All the trio heard was groaning and then a rather loud snapping sound as the tent quite litterally bounced into place next to the little pond. From thirty feet back from where she was originally standing, Sakura took a tentative step forward, "Do...do you think it's sturdy?" Slowly she made her way back towards the tent and gently pushed against it until she was satisfied enough to make her way inside to inspect everything.
"Coolie, I'm going to quickly run back inside and grab my things and get ready for bed."
A few minutes later had the young woman nearly skipping back outside in her pajamas and carrying enough pillows and blankets for three people. "It gets a bit chilly here at night, regardless of how hot it may be during the day."
Before either the brunett or the red head could respond to her, Sakura took the bundle into the tent only to have everything set up within seconds. "It's all good to come in now."
The duo entered after Sakura called out to them, Kurama hanging back at the entrance to allow Sora before him. It was both an act of chivalry and precaution, just in case Sakura decided on something potentially regretable while intoxicated, such as sleeping in the nude. All was well though, and only a short time later the three were settling in. They were wrapped in blankets borrowed from the house and lay essentially side-by-side. Soft cvonversation fluttered through the tent for maybe half an hour or an hour before dying off as they all entered slumber.