Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction / Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction / InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Fighting Back ❯ The Mission ( Chapter 2 )

Tori the Hanyou: I'm not gonna bother with my usual chit-chat, so let's go!

DISCLAIMER: Check the other chapter

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Fighting Back

Chapter 2: The Mission

Kagome's eyes fluttered open to realize she was dangling about twenty feet off the ground in some kind of dark, windowless warehouse. Crates and boxes lined the wall. She looked down and saw some kind of cord was tied around her arms, attaching to a wheel up on the ceiling. She looked to her left and saw Tori was starting to wake up.

"Ugh, what happened?" she asked, yawning. She snapped awake when she realized her position. "Holy shit! Where the hell are we?" She struggled, trying to break free.

"Dunno, some kind of warehouse," replied Kagome. Tori froze when she heard feet behind the small door in the corner.

"Sshhh, someone's coming!" she hissed. The door opened, and in walked a toddler, followed by the four boys. Tori growled. The toddler looked up.

"Hello, up there! Sorry we had to tie you up, but according to these four, you two can be quite violent, so we're not taking any chances," he said. Tori and Kagome gaped.

"You can talk?" they asked in unison.

"Yes, I can talk! When you're the head of Spirit World, you have to be able to communicate, you know!" replied the toddler heatedly.

"You're the head of what?" asked Tori.

"Spirit World, the barrier between the Demon World and the Human World. It's where all the released spirits come before they move on to Heaven or Hell," explained the toddler.

"So, you're the boss here?" asked Kagome unbelievably.

"Yes, if you must know, I'm Koenma."

"Boy, this place must be pretty run-down to be run by an infant," said Tori. Kagome snickered at the comment. "But seriously, what are we here for?" she asked.

"Originally, Kagome was going to be the one brought here for her jewel shards and priestess powers, but seeing both of your talents, I had to investigate this further," explained Koenma.

"So, what do you need our talents for?" asked Kagome snappily.

"Apparently, certain demon artifacts have turned up. Just like jewel shards, they enhance the power of their possessor, along with giving them a magic object that they can use, such as a sword, or a coin that turns them invisible," explained Koenma.

"Hey, when were you gonna tell us this?" asked Yusuke, apparently ticked off. Koenma turned to face him.

"For your information, I thought it would be better if I told you all at the same time," he said, turning back to the girls. "Your abilities should help you detect the artifacts, and these four will assist in getting the artifacts, and making sure you two don't run off."

Kagome and Tori exchanged glances.

"So, are you going to help us willingly?" asked Koenma.

"Wish we could, but why would we want to help people who captured us, took us to this nowhere place called Spirit World, tied us up so we're dangling at a dangerous height off the ground, and nearly bored us to death with a lecture?" asked Tori.

Koenma sighed. "I'm sorry to hear that, but it'll have to be forced on you." He gestured to the doorway, and a girl with light blue hair and pink eyes came over, carrying two black circles that were a half-inch thick, and the size of basketballs. He picked one up, pushing a button on the wall, and Kagome felt herself going down. She stopped when she was about six inches off the ground. Koenma suddenly floated in the air over to her.

"Holy shit! You can fly?" asked Kagome. He nodded, and placed the circle over her head and laid it on her shoulders, backing away. It shrunk until it fit Kagome's neck snugly, like a collar, and a small pink jewel appeared on the front. Koenma snapped his fingers, and the cords released Kagome, making her drop to the ground. Instinctively, she pulled her hair out of the circle, and glared up at the floating toddler, her glare soon changing to a smirk. "Letting me go was a mistake, kid," she said. She jumped up and was about to blast him with her priestess power, when she felt pain shoot through her body. She couldn't move. It was as if hot knives were being stabbed throughout her arms, legs, heart, head, and stomach. She fell to the floor. Kurama had been watching, and made a move towards her, but Hiei held him back.

Kagome slowly sat up, feeling dizzy; her body seemed numb. Tori struggled, seeing her friend being hurt was making her mad. Kagome looked up at Koenma again.

"W-what the hell is this?" she asked, touching the choker around her neck.

"That is what binds you to the four people behind me, and my assistant Botan," he gestured to the blue-haired girl. "This means you can't go out of a mile-radius of at least one of them, and you can't even think of killing them. Disobeying any of these commands will result in your being electrocuted by these collars. Persistence in your bad feat will make the electrocution worse, and it will continue to hurt more until you stop." Tori's eyes widened. No way was she letting her freedom go that easily. Koenma lowered her near the floor, and was about to put it on her, when she drew her head back sharply and snarled nastily, showing her fangs.

"Careful, Koenma! That girl's got a bite worse than a shark's!" yelled Kuwabara, pointing to his bandaged hand.

Yusuke elbowed him. "Listen, Kuwabara, just because you got bit doesn't mean he will. He's a trained professional, let him handle this."

As soon as he'd said it, though, Koenma had attempted to put the collar on again, when Tori's head shot forward, the jaws just barely clamping down on thin air. Koenma had teleported quickly over to the group with a small, "Yikes!" Tori was growling dangerously, daring him to try it again.

"Okay, maybe he's not a trained professional . . ." muttered Yusuke, clapping a hand on his forehead.

"I am so!" said Koenma, "this girl's just a little tougher than I first expected, will you give me a break?"

"No," came the answer.

"Then why don't you try it, since you're the best at everything, Yusuke?" asked Koenma. Yusuke hesitated.

"W-why don't you let Kuwabara go?" he asked.

"WHAT?? I'm not going within five feet of her! She'll rip me to shreds!" yelled Kuwabara.

"Plus, I asked you, Yusuke," commented Koenma.

While they were arguing, Kagome had gotten up and walked over to Tori, trying to find some way to untie her. Kurama noticed, and calmly walked away from the bickering group, approaching Kagome.

"Excuse me, Kagome, but there's no way to untie her. Koenma's the only one who can. Come along, the others won't react nicely if they see you trying to set her free," he explained. With that, he gently took Kagome's arm to lead her away, but she stood firm.

"No, way, foxie! I've gotta help my friend. I'm not going to let them put a collar on her. I'm warning you, it's BAD news if Tori's forced to wear something like that, especially if it suppresses her freedom!" Kagome said angrily.

"I assure you, she's quite fine. The collar will only zap her if she disobeys what Koenma said," explained Kurama.

"You don't get it! Tori's not any normal girl! She has another mind inhabiting her own! It doesn't take kindly to that sort of thing at all!" cried Kagome.

"Well, what sort of thing is it?" asked Kurama calmly. Kagome hesitated. She'd just met this guy, there was no way she was spilling one of her best friend's secrets without her permission.

While Kagome was pondering this, and Yusuke, Kuwabara and Koenma were still locked in a heated argument, which was starting to get quite violent, Hiei grew bored. He marched up to Koenma and snatched the collar away from him, walking up to Tori. Everyone froze, except Tori, who grew angry at the very sight of the demon within five feet of her. She showed her fangs, threatening him.

"Careful, Hiei!" cried Koenma.

"Shut up, you measly infant. I'm a lot more experienced with things like this, so I'm doing this my way," snapped Hiei. He turned back to Tori, looking her straight in the eye. Tori stared back with undaunted fury. If this guy was going to try to intimidate her into going along with it, he had another thing coming; that was for sure. "Listen, girl, you're tough, but I can sense you've had terrible things happen to you in the past. Frankly, I don't care what they are, but they're what causes you to act this way, am I right?" Tori froze. How could he know about such things? `Must be a lucky guess, bad things happen to everybody,' she thought. But while she'd been thinking, Hiei had flashed quickly, and everything else seem to happen in slow motion.

Tori felt the collar tighten on her neck, and her animal instincts immediately flared up, her heart pounded from the fear of being controlled, her freedom gone. She no longer could control herself, and the ligress emerged in all of her mighty fury.

Kurama sensed the ligress coming out, and looked up to see Tori gritting her teeth, of which the fangs seemed to have gotten longer, trembling as her fingernails became long, deadly, razor-sharp steel claws, her ears became pointed, like a cat's, and her eyes flashed open to reveal yellow orbs of absolute rage before she let out an immense roar like a jaguar.

She thrashed, kicking out at Hiei, unnoticing of the electricity that had started zapping her. She didn't care. The ligress wanted to kill the one who'd done this, and she would, even if she killed herself in the process. She continued snapping, swiping, roaring, biting, and thrashing at Hiei, trying to break loose of the cords that bound her, and the thing that was causing her pain. Kurama instinctively led Kagome away, not noticing her trying to get to her friend.

"No! I've gotta help her!" she protested.

"It's too dangerous! She'll kill you!" argued Yusuke. Kurama dragged her back to the group, yelling out to Hiei.

"Get back, Hiei!"

Hiei didn't seem to hear him, as he stood, watching Tori, who'd begun to glow with a gold light, which was emphasized by the small bolts of electricity that increased in intensity as she continued her rampage. Finally, Tori let out a scream as a huge dome of psychic energy was released from her, snapping the cords. Hiei sped into the air, and just barely avoided the attack.

When the dust cleared, Hiei turned back and saw that Kurama was hovering in the air near the ceiling, holding Kagome by her wrist. Koenma had Kuwabara by the shirt collar, and Botan was on her oar, floating next to him, with Yusuke hanging onto the end. They were all right, to Hiei's displeasure. He glanced down as the dust on the floor cleared, and there Tori lay on her side, the snapped cords still loosely draped around her.

"Put me down!" cried Kagome, who'd obviously spotted her. Kurama floated gently down, and let Kagome go. She ran to Tori's side. "Tori! Say something, please!" she cried, shaking the still form. A groan answered her. "Oh, my God, she's alive!" said Kagome. Botan landed, and raced over to them.

"Koenma, sir, she needs medical attention!" she called back. Koenma nodded.

Kagome sat by Tori's side until Kurama came and picked her up.

"We'll take her to the infirmary," he said calmly, and Kagome nodded, walking right behind him. They headed down a hallway into the elevators; the only people following were Kagome, Botan, and Koenma.

Hiei sat on the remnants of a destroyed crate, puzzling. What on earth had been released from her? He'd definitely felt something inhuman, but he was unsure of exactly what it was. His first thought had been a demon possessor, but he hadn't sensed any demon spirits within the girl.

Yusuke stared around at the destruction with wide eyes.

"Whew, my spirit gun's the only thing that could've done this kinda damage," he said aloud. Kuwabara walked up to him.

"Told ya that girl was crazy. Why we should trust her, I don't know," he said.

"Why do you think Koenma's sending us with them?" snapped Yusuke, "We're supposed to keep an eye on them, remember?"

"Oh, yeah . . ." came the obviously confused answer.

"Moron," muttered Yusuke. He spotted Hiei on the crate and walked over to him. "What's up with you, Hiei?" he asked.

"I've been thinking . . .what kind of creature inhabits that girl? It's puzzling, I know it's not a demon, or I would've sensed it," explained Hiei.

"So would I," replied Yusuke.

"It must be a spirit, there's no other explanation," Hiei thought aloud.

"What kind of spirit?" asked Yusuke.

"Animal, I think," came the reply.

"I am not!" yelled Kuwabara, straightening up. He'd been bent over a busted crate, and his mouth was covered in chocolate. Hiei shook his head and stood up. He left the room quickly, leaving Yusuke to deal with Kuwabara's sudden chocolate obsession.

Tori opened her eyes to see Kagome watching her with a worried expression. Remembering what happened, she glanced down at Kagome's neck, only to see the collar was still there.

"Damn, so it wasn't a dream," she muttered, sitting up. She was lying on a bed that didn't have the blankets pulled down in a hospital room of some kind. "Where am I?" came the obvious question.

"You're in the Spirit World hospital," said Kurama, startling her. She turned to see the kitsune standing on the other side of the bed, giving her a gentle gaze. Tori attempted to get up, but Kagome placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Tori, Kurama and Koenma think it'd be better if you rest for at least a few more hours," she said. Tori looked at her, confused.

"Since when do you listen to them? I thought you didn't like them," said Tori.

"I know, and normally I'd be holding a huge grudge, but I think so too. If it makes you feel better, just think of it as my best interest, all right?" asked Kagome. Tori sighed heavily.

"All right, but ONLY a FEW hours, got it?" she asked, lying back down.

"Got it," said Kagome, smiling, and she left the room, followed by everyone else. She headed down the hallway towards the elevators, and as she was walking, she turned to Koenma. "So, what do we do while we're waiting for Tori to feel better?" she asked.

"I'm not sure, you guys can just hang around here if you want, but I have a lot of paperwork to take care of involving those demon artifacts, so I'd better get on that. See you later!" He flew off into one of the elevators. Kagome sighed, and turned to Botan and Kurama.

"What do you guys want to do?" she asked. Botan and Kagome were the only ones who didn't notice the shadow slip past them down the hallway towards the infirmary. Kurama raised an eyebrow at it, but chose to leave it be.

Tori had her face in her pillow, and was nearly asleep, when her ligress senses picked up the familiar scent, and her ears picked up the sounds of the door opening, closing and locking. She spun around and saw Hiei standing at the foot of her bed.

"What do you want?" she asked, still slightly touchy from before. Hiei continued to gaze calmly at her, as if trying to figure something out. Tori had been in a similar situation, and immediately tore her eyes away, afraid to give away any personal thoughts to this stranger. She let out a small growl as she fixed her eyes on the blanket in front of her.

Hiei walked around to the side of the bed. He liked a challenge, and loved it when people tried to keep things from him; it made getting the information out of them so much more amusing. Tori didn't like it one bit. It was too familiar of a scene, and it was bringing back memories, painful ones.

~*~*FLASHBACK*~*~

Tori backed away as Yugi cunningly trapped her in the room, pushing her into a corner. He placed one hand on each side of her head on the wall.

"I'll ask you again, Tori, why did you run away?" Tori shut her eyes tight, afraid to look into his, knowing what would happen.

"I . . .I thought you'd be mad that I didn't tell you where I was," came Tori's response, apparently frightened. Yugi gently took her face in his hand, and turned it towards his. His mind pressed into her own, willing her eyes to open. Tori fought it, but couldn't hold it for long, and as her eyes opened, she sunk into the hypnotizing amethyst orbs that greeted hers.

"Tori, you should know by now that I'm not Riku. I don't care if you tell me where you are or not," Yugi whispered soothingly. "You've just gotta remember one thing . . .I love you."

To her, the words were more than happiness; they were her messengers from heaven. She smiled softly and wrapped her arms around Yugi's neck, whispering,

"I love you, too." And with that, Yugi pulled her into a passionate kiss, and Tori felt she was floating, thinking nothing would ever break them apart.

~*~*END FLASHBACK*~*~

"They were lies, all of them!" she cried angrily to herself. Hiei drew back, surprised. What was wrong? Tori tucked her legs up, burying her face in her knees, breaking into racking sobs. Hiei could still distinctly hear her voice. "He lied to me! How could he lie like that?" The sobs became tears, and crying.

Hiei stood back, confused. What was she crying about? `Now I really need to see her thoughts,' he thought to himself. But he couldn't, and he hated how she was crying. He'd seen people cry for their lives before, and before he hadn't really cared, but now, something was telling him to try to calm her down, to try to get her to stop.

He sat down on the bed next to her, and reluctantly put a hand on her shoulder, speaking softly,

"What's the matter? Can you tell me what's wrong?" he asked. Tori's head raised, and Hiei could see her eyes were blood red from crying. She looked up at him, and down to his hand on her shoulder, which he removed quickly. She glanced back to the blanket.

"No, I-I'm sorry, b-but I can't. It's t-too much to r-relive all at once," she said, still trying to calm down. Trying to avoid Hiei, she tried to stand up, brushing past him, but her energy hadn't fully recovered, and she collapsed, but before she'd hit the ground, she felt a pair of arms around her, and her fall stopped. Hiei placed her back on the bed.

"You need to stay here. It's for your better health," he muttered, before leaving. `I'll pry her thoughts out of her later,' he thought as he slipped into the elevators, unnoticed.

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Tori the Hanyou: Okay! Some Hiei and Tori fluff there! Whoopee! I like getting people's opinions and thoughts, so if you push the button and review, I'll be happy, and then you'll be happy that I updated, and everyone will win!