Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Caged ❯ Mission ( Chapter 1 )

Caged

"This isn't just your routine mission," Koenma told the gang. They were currently assembled in his office in the Reikai. Koenma was standing on his desk. Kuwabara stood furthest to the right. Yusuke stood beside him. Beside Yusuke was Kurama. Hiei stood slightly back and away from the redhead. Botan hovered nervously by the door.

"Do we even have a routine mission?" Yusuke asked sarcastically. Koenma sent him a pitiful death glare.

"Don't be brash with me," Koenma told the black haired boy. Yusuke smirked at him.

"You know, it's really hard to be afraid of you when you look like that. Actually, now that I think of it, it's hard to be afraid of you period," Yusuke said confidently. Koenma visibly bristled. Kurama sighed and moved towards the anti-social fire demon to his left. Kuwabara began to egg Yusuke on. Botan started to fidget with the hem of her kimono sleeve.

"Looks like another typical day with everyone's favorite spirit detective," Kurama noted. Hiei `hn'-ed a reply. Kurama smiled down at his friend. He turned to look at his feuding friends and employer. Hiei turned his head and gazed at his friend lovingly.

"Enough already!" the normally perky and happy Botan shouted. All five boys turned to stare at her. "You have more important things to tell them Koenma sir!"

Koenma blushed and moved back to his position on the desk. Kurama pulled Hiei back over to the startled Yusuke and Kuwabara.

"This mission isn't being done for me," Koenma said. "It's being done for my father."

"Aren't all our missions done for your father?" Yusuke asked. Koenma shook his head.

"Most are done to save my butt from my father's wrath," Koenma replied. "My father expressly told me to get you guys to do this particular mission."

"Huh," Yusuke said. Hiei rolled his eyes as Kurama nudged him.

"My father wants you guys to rescue a friend of his. She is a cat-demon of immeasurable power. She is almost as powerful as a god."

"If she's so powerful, why doesn't she save herself?" Hiei asked. Koenma glared at him briefly.

"She can't because of the collar they put on her. We don't really know how she was caught, but we do know that she was and now she must be freed. It's a very bad fate indeed to be placed in the cage she has been put in."

"Cage?" Kurama questioned.

"Yes, cage. It's called the Demon Network," Koenma pulled out his TV remote and pressed a button. An image came on the screen. It was a homepage on the internet. The gang stared at it.

"The Demon Network? "We sell you top quality demons of your preference to be your slaves"?" Yusuke read. Kuwabara cocked his head to the side. Hiei blinked. Kurama winced.

"The Demon Network. It's a corporation that's been in business for millennia. No one knows how it started, when it started, or why it was started. The demons that are brought here are systematically broken, and then trained to do specific things. Example: the best whore you've had in your life. This, by coincidence, is their specialty. A few hundred years ago they got a new trainer, who made the best whore, who made the most profitable sale, which enabled the corporation to expand."

Kurama paled.

"They have live web-cams of every demon up for sale," Koenma went to a web-cam link and clicked. A black cat-demon showed up. She had short black hair. It had white streaks running through it. Her ears were erect on top of her head. She was thin and pale. She wore a clingy, string-strapped, slited, red silk dress. It clung to her shapely form. The slits ran up each side of the skirt half of the dress up to her hips. She was lying on her side on a dingy bed. It was small, cramped and poorly covered by brownish cotton sheets. She was leafing disinterestedly through a book. The room itself was a barren box with a single door. It was bared and thick.

"This is my father's friend Simone," Koenma told the group. Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Hiei stared at her. Kurama turned his eyes to the ground. "We need you to get her out."

"How?" Yusuke asked, his eyes never leaving the screen. Koenma sighed and turned the screen off. The boys blinked as the lights came back on; none had even noticed when they were turned out.

"It really is quite a simple plan," Koenma began. "But it's quite controversial. You might not like it."

"Spit it out already!" Yusuke shouted.

"Hiei will go to the facility and you three will be his body guards. He will be "acting" for Mukuro in the purchase of a demon."

"No." Hiei said forcefully. All eyes turned to him, one pair filled with relief.

"You're the only one who could pull it off. No one would let Yusuke, or Kuwabara near the place, and even Kurama's reputation couldn't get him in."

"I won't do it. Not without Mukuro's approval."

"She already has approved. Simone was a friend of hers too."

Hiei sighed dejectedly.

"Only if Kurama goes with me, not as a body guard."

Kurama whirled to face his small friend. Koenma sighed.

"Fine," he said. "Kurama will go as your intended."

Both demons whirled to glare viciously at Koenma. Koenma cringed.

"We'll disguise him as a girl."

"I won't be using either of my names then," Kurama said. The team looked at him. "Neither of them fit."

Hiei noticed Kurama's hands were shaking. Kurama turned an eye to him, saw where he was looking and stuck his hands in his pockets.

"Alright then. What name will you be using?" Koenma asked.

"Ash."

*~*~

"I dislike this getup a lot," Yusuke complained. Kuwabara smacked him upside the head.

"Shut up stupid! Here they come," he said. Hiei and `Ash' rounded the corner. They weren't speaking. They were just walking beside each other. Hiei wore his usual garb, but Kurama had put on a white corduroy jacket, a pair of flair jeans, green tennis shoes, and a black long sleeved shirt. He looked quite feminine in the getup. Yusuke and Kuwabara blinked a few times.

"Let's go," Hiei commanded. Yusuke started in front of them and Kuwabara followed behind the pair.

"You alright?" Hiei asked Kurama confidentially. Kurama nodded, but didn't smile or speak. Hiei was worried for his friend. He wasn't acting the normal