Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction / Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction / InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Fighting Back ❯ Return to Battle City ( Chapter 8 )

Tori the Hanyou: Chapter 8! Woohoo! I want to thank all of you for the awesome reviews; thankfully there weren't any flames this time! *knocks on wood* any who, if y'all read the AN on the end of the last chappie, you might've noticed the chapter title preview up there. Yeah, I'm gonna start doing that, to keep you interested! So, let's get on with it!

DISCLAIMER: No

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Fighting Back

Chapter 8: Return to Battle City

"Kagome! You're back!" yelled Shippo as the group walked into Kaede's village the next morning. Kagome let Kirara out, and she ran to her mistress.

"That certainly didn't take long at all," said Miroku. "You were only gone about three days, I think."

"Well, one of our quarries gathered three of the artifacts in one place for us, so it really wasn't that hard," replied Kagome.

"Unless you count the battle with that girly-looking demon. Boy, she was strong," commented Yusuke.

"We didn't fight a girl demon," said Kagome, turning to him. Miroku, Sango and Shippo knew exactly whom he was talking about.

"No! You . . .you defeated Sesshomaru???" squeaked Sango, "Without Inuyasha???"

Kagome nodded. She then pulled Sango off to the side and told her about what happened between her, Inuyasha and Kurama. Sango gasped when she was finished. "So, you're now with that guy over there?" she pointed to Kurama, who was talking with Miroku.

"Yeah, in one way or another, I'm with him," said Kagome.

"Well, you're lucky. He's pretty cute," giggled Sango.

"Yeah, well hands off, he's mine!" joked Kagome. The two friends giggled and went back to the group. Kagome bid her friends goodbye, telling them she'd be back as soon as she was done with the mission.

When they were back in Spirit World, Botan led the others to Koenma's office. She walked up and placed her bag on his desk, unpacking the five items.

"Good work, everyone!" said Koenma, jumping off his desk and walking up to them. He pressed a button on a remote, and a map appeared on the wall.

"Now, I know it's a little sudden, but we've already traced the other five artifacts. They're located in the city of Domino. Recent study shows that they are currently holding some kind of strange tournament there . . ."

"Not another tournament!" cried Yusuke. Koenma glared at him.

"It's not a fighting tournament, Yusuke! No, wait . . .actually it is, except it's not a physical-fighting tournament. Its something called dueling; the name is Duel Monsters. They use cards for it, and stuff like that . . ."

"Yeah, yeah, I know the rules," said Tori. Koenma looked at her with a bit of surprise.

"Good, because we needed someone to go undercover as a participant in the tournament," he said. Tori perked up.

"Me? Why me?"

"Well, I was going to send Yusuke, but since you apparently know more about the subject than he does, I guess its only fair you play the duelist," responded Koenma. Tori rolled her eyes.

"Fine, whatever," she said.

"Anyone else want to be a duelist?" asked Koenma. *Crickets* "Okay, fine! Tori, you're on your own here. Are you any good at dueling?"

"Yeah, somewhat," came the reply. `Somewhat? Yugi Moto, the Duel Monsters champion, was my sort-of boyfriend for about a year! He taught me a bunch of stuff, and here I go claiming, SOMEWHAT! Jeez, his modesty must've rubbed off on me, too . . .'

"Anyway, Domino is located not too far from here. Part of the city's been closed off just for the tournament, so I will have you guys transported to an alleyway in the dueling area. Have fun! Oh, and Botan, bring those items with you. God knows they may be of some help!" And with that, he floated off into the next room to sign some paperwork.

The humans were allowed to go home and pack for the trip to Domino. Kagome raced home and packed a different backpack, and so did Tori. Unfortunately, Tori had to go to Kagome's house and help her limit what she was taking, the poor girl just couldn't decide.

Botan took them to the portal room, where a goblin was operating the machine to transport them to their destination. Botan told him the coordinates of the alleyway they'd be heading to, and the portal was soon created. Botan jumped in first. Yusuke followed, then Kagome, Tori, Hiei, Kurama, and finally Kuwabara.

Tori immediately felt the familiar city scents hit her like a truck when she fell out of the portal onto the hard cement ground. She sighed as she stood up. Back to Nightmare Land she went. She led the way through the city, having been there before. Kagome and Botan went all sparkly-eyed at all the shops, and it took a harsh bit of Tori's attitude to remind them of their mission. Kagome knew Tori wasn't at all happy about coming back here, but they had to, for the mission.

As they were walking down a `shortcut', as Tori claimed it to be (it was supposed to lead them to the sign-up office), she suddenly jumped at a familiar scent.

"Hey, aren't you that girl Yugi Moto always hangs out with?" came a gruff voice. Tori spun around, glaring as a boy with purple hair topped by a red hat stepped out of the shadows.

"Oh, I remember you. Rex Raptor, was it?" she asked. He nodded. "Yeah, I hung out with Yugi for a while, so what?"

"No reason, except I've been asked to send for you," he said. Tori cocked her head.

"And why in hell would you want me?"

"That's not important right now. I intend to carry out this `order', you might call it," he responded. He strode towards her.

"I really don't think she wants to go," snapped Hiei, stepping in front of her. Rex raised an eyebrow.

"And I really don't think she has much of a choice in the matter," he said.

"You humans really do bore me," responded Hiei.

"What, are you not human, or something?" asked Rex.

"Actually, I'm . . ."

"Yes! Yes, he is," said Tori quickly, coming out from behind him. She gave him a look to shut up, but all she received in return was a glare. They couldn't have Hiei blabbing that he was a demon. They weren't exactly common in the city.

Rex gave the two of them a questioning look. He went towards Tori again, only to be stopped by Hiei holding up his hand, muttering something, and soon Rex was flat on his back, knocked out. "Why'd you do that??" asked Tori shockingly.

"Relax, he'll only think of it as a dream when he wakes up," responded Hiei. Tori explained why he and Kurama couldn't go around saying they were demons. They understood, but Hiei was slightly miffed.

"Okay, if anyone asks, Hiei's eyes are contact lenses," said Tori. Everyone nodded.

Yusuke and Kuwabara adopted their tough-city-guy swaggers as they walked down the street towards the sign-in office. Tori prayed that they'd quit it. If Joey and Tristan caught those two doing that, not only would she be caught, she and they would also be in major trouble.

They made it to the office without much difficulty, and there wasn't anyone in the office. She reached into her backpack, pulling out a deck of cards. She walked up to the desk, where a man with strange-looking hair and glasses stood.

"Good afternoon, what are your names?" he asked, in a slightly hoarse voice. Tori gave him a shifty look.

"Um, I'm the only one dueling," she said. The guy turned his face towards her, but Tori could sense something strange, like he wasn't looking directly at her.

"Okay, then, what is your name, miss?"

"Tori Jackson." (NO relation to the child-molester!)

"Hmm, ah, yes, you have . . .quite a high dueling level. Four out of five stars! Mr. Kaiba must have seen something special in you!" Tori's eyes widened.

"Mr. . . .Kaiba?" she asked.

"Why yes, he's the one who started this tournament!" claimed the guy. "Didn't you know?"

"No." If she had known, she wouldn't have agreed to the tournament in the first place. She HATED Kaiba!

"Ah, well, now you do. Here is your state-of-the-art Duel Disk and a handbook of all of the new rules. Try your best, and good luck!" As they left the shop, Tori turned and saw the guy staring intently at the screen, and back at her. She looked at her deck, remembering when Joey and Yugi had signed up. They also displayed the person's rarest card on the screen, along with the dueling level and a picture. She wondered what would've made the guy so intent on staring at the screen, unless he was looking at her card . . .

"Come on, Tori!" cried Kagome, snapping her out of her thoughts with a tug out the door. They joined the group, and continued walking down the street. Hiei noticed Tori staring at her deck.

"What's so special about these cards anyway?" he asked, snatching the deck lightning-fast from Tori.

"Hey! Give those back!" she said angrily, grabbing for them and missing as Hiei sped behind Kagome and started looking through them.

"Nice pictures . . .oh, what's this one? Hmm, Red Eyes Black Dragon! Interesting . . .," said Hiei, pulling out the single card to look at it. Tori glared, snatching the deck back from him and her Red Eyes.

"My deck is none of your business!" she snapped, placing Red Eyes carefully back in the stack of cards in her hands. Hiei gave her a smart look.

"Whatever . . ."

They continued down the street, watching as other duelists went at each other's throats with their cards. Yusuke marveled at the grossness of some of their appearances. Apparently, the monsters on the cards were projected on holograms to look life-sized. Over in one corner, a Dark Zebra and Mystic Horseman were going at it, the Dark Zebra to be the victor, thanks to its higher attack point advantage. In another one, a Hitotsu-Me Giant and Giant Germ were facing off, though both were going to die; yet the Giant Germ would be resurrected, thanks to its Special Ability. Tori noticed Yusuke and Kuwabara were still going with their swaggers, so she tried not to look like she knew them. Soon, they'd reached the center fountain, where Tori had come with Yugi to wait for the start of the tournament. The clock read 8:30 in the morning.

"So, what're we supposed to do?" asked Yusuke boredly. If there wasn't going to be any fighting, he really didn't see why he was here.

"Well, the only reason I'm participating is so we can access the duelist area to search for the artifacts," said Tori. "Also, we get rooms in the hotel especially booked for duelists."

"Wow, this guy must be rich," commented Kuwabara as he examined the duel disk.

"Yeah, he is. He owns KaibaCorp, a gaming company. They build new technology just for this game," explained Tori.

"The guy must be obsessed," said Yusuke. They continued walking, where they got out of the dueling area, and more into the `display area', as Tori put it in quite an annoyed manner. This was where all of the more powerful and famous duelists gathered to be `admired'. "So where's this Kaiba jerk? Wouldn't he be here if he's as big a snob as you claim?" asked Yusuke.

"Normally, he would be, but he likes to make a grand entrance, which he'll probably do right before the tournament's over," explained Tori.

They walked through the area, where in one corner, Tori noticed a familiar face, Espa Roba. He was the `psychic' duelist that Joey creamed. Over in another area was Mako Tsunami, showing off his muscles to a few beach girls. Tori never thought Mako was like that, he was usually proud, and reserved. And in yet another area stood Weevil Underwood, surrounded by cronies, along with Rex Raptor, who'd apparently recovered from Hiei's attack, but, in the farthest corner from them all, there stood a group of black-robed people. The hoods of their cloaks all bore the same mark, a golden eye symbol, like the one on Yugi's Millennium Puzzle.

Kagome noticed them, too, and just the look of them sent her a weird signal. She couldn't figure out what the message was that she was getting. All she knew was that she should steer clear of them. She pulled on Tori's sleeve to get her attention, and pointed out the group. Tori looked, and her eyes widened. She immediately looked away from them.

"What's wrong?" asked Kagome.

"Nothing, Kagome. Just do me a favor. Stay away from those guys. Do not talk to them, do not do anything to them, don't even come within twenty feet of them, got it?" she said sternly. Kagome nodded, though she still wanted to know why they were so bad.

They continued on until they'd reached the hotel where they'd be staying. Tori got them signed in and two rooms, one for the boys, one for the girls.

"Hey, Tori, while we're in the city and everything, why don't we go around and have a little `girl fun'?" asked Kagome hopefully after they'd unpacked. Botan piped in.

"Oh, yes! That would be splendid to see how human girls have fun!" said Botan. "I would love to go!" Tori sighed in exasperation.

"Fine, I'll go, Kagome," she responded. The other two squealed in anticipation. Kagome rushed next door to tell the boys what they'd be doing, and came running back happily.

"Okay, let's get ready!" She ran into the closet to change, and came out wearing a short-sleeved magenta shirt that said "It's All About Me." Botan changed into black hip-hugging pants, and a red shirt with a black leather jacket over it (It's the outfit from the Saint Beasts Episodes). Tori changed into bell-bottom jeans, and a light blue long-sleeved shirt with draping sleeves. It read "Angel, Most of the Time."

They headed out into the hallway, where the boys were going to the vending machines. Yusuke took notice of them.

"Just where ARE you guys going?" he asked curiously, stepping in front of the elevator. Kagome rolled her eyes.

"You know, out and around," she responded lightly.

"Like where out and around?" asked Hiei, stepping behind them. He found himself actually admiring Tori in those clothes.

"Like, it's none of your business out and around," replied Tori, who caught his eye for a second before he looked away. The girls pushed past Yusuke into the elevator.

"See you guys!" chirped Botan as the doors closed.

"Hiei?" asked Yusuke smartly. Hiei rolled his eyes.

"I'm on it." He flew out of the hotel hallway window and followed the girls, having nothing better to do. He hovered in midair as they came out of the hotel and headed down the street. Tori was wearing her duel disk on her left arm, just in case.

Kagome jumped into every clothing store she saw, dragging the others with her. Tori was surprised she hadn't been decapitated or gotten whiplash from all of the times Kagome had grabbed her shirt collar. Botan seemed to be enjoying herself, echoing Kagome at each new delight they discovered with a squeal. Tori wanted to go to the electronics stores, but she knew they'd never let her go.

Finally, after going into every single clothing store in that part of Domino, the girls decided to go to a club to rest their feet. It was called Domino Lights. It wasn't extremely big, but it was moderate-sized. It was pretty full of people, though. Apparently, it was somewhat popular. Tori noticed a flier on the door,

"FreeStyle Karaoke! Costumes Provided! All Night Long! Any Song, Any Rap, You Name It, We've Got That!" Tori nudged Botan and Kagome and pointed to it. Their eyes widened with curiosity. Kagome gave a small squeak.

"I've got just the song!" she said excitedly. Tori was amazed. The girl still had loads of energy to spare.

"You two go have fun, I'll sit in the audience and watch," said Botan. She took her and Kagome's bags and went to sit down at one of the front tables. Apparently, that flier was why there were so many people tonight. Someone was on stage singing, "Man, I feel Like a Woman" by Madonna. She wasn't doing half-bad.

Hiei watched the girls go into the club and zoomed back to the hotel, where two of the other boys were waiting outside.

"They're in some kind of club called Domino Lights right now," he reported in a surly manner. He hated being a messenger boy, but he was the fastest flyer between him and Kurama. "Where's the oaf?" he asked.

"Kuwabara said he was tired and he's going to bed," answered Yusuke.

"Figures, that lazy idiot."

"So, do you propose we follow them?" asked Kurama.

"Yeah, sure, we got nothing better to do," said Yusuke. They headed down the street towards the club.

Kagome dragged Tori backstage and told the manager what they wanted to do. She nodded and wrote it down on a clipboard.

"Dressing rooms are back there," she said, pointing down a long hallway. Kagome nodded and made Tori follow her to one of the rooms.

"I can't BELIEVE we're doing that!!!" snapped Tori as Kagome shut the door.

"Oh, come on, it's funny!" responded Kagome. "You'll like it!"

"I didn't say I didn't like it, but I still can't believe it," said Tori, shaking her head. "You come up with the weirdest ideas, Kagome."

"Duh! Now get dressed!" she answered, throwing Tori a bunch of gangster clothes from the trunk in the corner.

When the boys reached the club, they quietly walked in and took a table at the back of the room. Yusuke watched as one guy sang a love song to his girlfriend.

"Disgusting, why would they come here?" he asked. Kurama shrugged. Hiei glanced around, noticing three suspicious figures leaning against the wall close to the stage. He didn't draw attention to the matter, though, he wanted to watch them and see what they'd do. Kurama noticed the flier.

"Take a look at that," he said, pointing to it.

"Maybe that explains why we don't see them," muttered Hiei. Suddenly, a voice blared out.

"Now for our next act, a parody of the song Sk8ter Boi by Avril Lavigne, called Poser Girl! Let's give `em a hand, folks!"

(WARNING: ALL AVRIL LAVINGE FANS WILL NOT LIKE THIS NEXT PART!!! I SUGGEST YOU SCROLL DOWN TO AVOID THIS!!!)

The curtains opened, and standing there, back to back, dressed in gangster clothes, was Kagome and Tori. Both had their hair down with backwards baseball caps on their heads. They were wearing EXTREMELY baggy jackets over white t-shirts and cargo pants, slumping with their backs against each other, arms folded, and heads down. As the intro music ended, Kagome jumped forward with the first verse:

"She was a boy, and also a girl, can we make it any more obvious?"

Tori came up next to her.

"She was a punk, thought she had it all, well girl you thought wrong."

Kagome sang out.

"She wanted fame, she wanted cash, but all her ideas were junky trash."

Tori followed up.

"All of her friends, left her all alone, they had a problem with her awful tone."

Both girls spun around and did high jump kicks, singing together.

"She was a Poser Girl, she made all the punkers hurl, she never thought they were good enough. She made up awful songs, but now they're kid sing- alongs, `cause everyone thought she was too roooouuuugh!"

The girls performed a series of well-rounded moves as the music continued.

"They call this fun?" asked Hiei as he watched the girls' antics. Yusuke was sniggering.

"You gotta admit, this is FUNNY!"

Kurama chuckled, putting a hand over his mouth.

"Yusuke's right, Hiei. Besides, they're doing a good job, I think. The audience really seems to like them." He was right. People were laughing at the lyrics. The music swung into the next verse, Tori starting it out:

"Five years from now, she'll be at home, wondering why she is all alone."

"She'll WATCH all her kicks, and ALL of the picks, and everything THAT she had EVER known."

"While there on TV, she will then see, all of the SINGers she COULdn't be."

"She'll look at her face, all filled with disgrace, and mirrors break in her spayee-aaace!

"She was a Poser Girl, she made all the punkers hurl, she never thought they were good or true. Now she's a never-was, sitting on gath'rin dust, does any of that give her a clue? She was a Poser Girl, she made all the punkers hurl, she never thought they were good or true. Now she's a never- was, sitting on gath'rin dust, does any of that give her a cluuuue?"

The girls continued their dancing, performing numerous hip-hop moves as the crowd roared with laughter. People were coming in the doors to see what was going on.

"Sorry, girl but you MISSED out. Well tough luck, you're ovER now! You don't have any MORE friends, this is how your story ends. Too bad that you couldN'T see, the mistake that you WOULD be, there is more than meets THE eye, but you don't have the It inside."

"I'm just a girl, and she is one too, can we make it any more obvious?"

"We aren't the best, but better than her, `cause we rock the whole wide woryeeooorld!"

"We are the Starry Sky, we said we would never cry, though that is really what she said too. We'll BE on the lit-up stage, singing a singing rage, `bout how your career went DOWN the drain! Yeah, We are the Starry Sky, we said we would never cry, though that is really what she said too. We'll BE on the lit-up stage, singing a singing rage, `bout how your career went DOWN the draayeeain!"

(NOTE: I don't hate Avril, I thought up that idea during Hell-on-Earth (codename: school) and I thought it would be good to add on this little `girl's night out'.)

The crowd cheered and laughed. Hiei smiled to himself. She was good. Yusuke was positively cracking up with the crowd, pounding his fist on the table. Botan was rolling on the floor. Kurama was even giving it a good laugh.

Kagome and Tori came out from backstage a few minutes later, dressed in their own clothes. Botan came rushing up to greet them.

"That was a SPLENDID performance, you had the crowd positively splitting their sides!" she said excitedly.

"Where on EARTH did you come up with those words?" asked Yusuke as they walked up.

"Tori," replied Kagome (O.~ / hey, I DID come up with those on my own! Just now, for ur 411! Lol!)

"Can we go now?" asked Hiei. Everyone nodded. It was very late when they set out for the hotel. Yusuke walked on ahead, eager to go to bed. Kurama and Kagome walked behind him, hand-in-hand, and Tori found herself walking next to Hiei. She noticed he kept glancing over at her, like he wanted to say something, but then he'd look back at the ground.

"Um, nice job in there," he finally said.

"Thank you," came the response. They went silent for a minute. Tori now turned her gaze to the stars, seen through the tall skyscrapers. Suddenly, she picked up three sets of footsteps behind her. "Hiei?" she whispered.

"I hear them," he said. Tori turned up to look at his face. (Remember, he's 5'9'' in this story, people!) He was staring straight ahead, pretending not to notice the footfalls behind him.

Tori decided to go along with it, too. She stared ahead, watching as Kurama and Kagome grew smaller as she and Hiei began to slow down. Suddenly, one of the footsteps quickened, and soon Tori was staring at a familiar-looking shadow. She drew out her claws, ready. Hiei glared around as another came up on their right, surrounding them against the building on their left. The moon came out of the clouds, and Tori finally saw their faces clearly.

"N-no, it can't be . . ."

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Tori the Hanyou: Done! *gets glared at by cliff-haters* I'm sorry, but I'm tired! I've been writing all night and its like 2:30 in the morning! Also, I wanna get another chapter up! Now, I know you guys don't like this, but I'll start Ch 9 now! I promise!