Hey! It's BAAAACK! Lol. Okay, funny moment over. I've finally started rewriting this fic, and seeing as I have the first chapter done, I thought I'd see how I was doing. I did enjoy writing this as a self-insert, but I think this version is much better. But that's my opinion. And thanks to everyone who read the last chapter I posted of the original. I was able to save all the reviews; they give me a warm fuzzy feeling inside.
By the way, I've made my own C-2 community. It's for original character stories, like this one, and I'm accepting applications for staff, or suggestions for stories to add. However, it doesn't seem to be showing up on the list yet, so I thought I'd leave it here: c2/ 9713/ 0/ 1/ . Yes, I know it's weird notation, but it won't save any other way. There's one space after every punctuation mark. Just delete those to get it to load. Anyway, on with the story!
Disclaimer: I don't own YYH. I own Fira, her friends, her family, and all the other gang members. My house is crowded right now!
Gangs & Demons
Chapter One: Desires
The girl watched the fight with little interest. The lights from the highway flickered, casting weird shadows over the boys below her. She shifted slightly on the branch she had taken residence on. Glancing up briefly, she noticed that the moon had shifted yet again—another hour had passed.
She looked down with a sigh. It was turning out to be a long night. She held up a small notebook to the minimal light the moon and highway provided. 'According to my info, the Lions should've finished off the Cougars a while ago,' she thought. 'I guess the Cougars heard about the impending threat and decided to train a little.' She grimaced at the thought but settled back to watch the rest of the fight. Hopefully it would finish before she had to go home; she wanted accurate information on the fight results, not the rumor mill's version.
It doesn't matter what the time or place is; only characters are important in this play of life. Suffice to say, however, our girl is in a large city in modern America, give or take a decade or two. This city is like and unlike others in that it has gangs; however, these gangs pretty much run the city. True, they don't directly control the government or its affiliates, but they do control the citizens. This was the life Fira, the girl, was born into. And this was the life she wanted to be more involved with.
She had high hopes for the Lions, who had finally broken the Cougars main fighters and were working on clean-up at this point. They were more progressive than their fellow gangs: they allowed members of all races to join. Yet, even they weren't prepared to go the next logical step and accept a girl into their ranks as a fighter.
Fira smiled faintly as an old memory rose from the depths of her mind. At one time, it had been her brothers on the battlefield—the Sentō trio. Being the youngest and only girl, she had idolized her older brothers. She had followed them everywhere, even to their fights. Despite their admonitions, she had continued to follow them and would dream of the day she could join them. The youngest brother, Tyler, had taught her basic defense since she refused to stay behind. However, they all told her that "Girls don't fight!" and, beyond Tyler's basics, refused to train her further.
It was at that point that their mother died of cancer. Saying they were saddened by the death is putting it lightly. Devastated is a better way to describe it. Her father would drink himself to sleep at night, and the boys began to fight even more, going days at a time without returning home. Fira, on the other hand, grew angry at her mom for being weak. In her mind, her mother wouldn't have died if she had learned how to fight. So, seeing as her brothers refused to train her, she took her years of watching them and created her own training exercises. It was then that the Sentō trio died in a suicidal fight of the three of them against every member of the strongest gang of the time. Fira just took that as further proof that only the weak died. That was when she had not only increased her training, but had also begun to observe the different gangs in the area. It was no good to be strong physically if you weren't well-armed mentally.
The wind picked up suddenly, causing Fira's hair to fly around her face. With a snarl, she forced it all back and then put all of it underneath a baseball cap. 'I really ought to consider cutting the stupid stuff,' she growled mentally. She looked down at the remains of the fight. It seemed the Lions had decided enough was enough. Fira took note of the casualties. The Lions were suffering from mainly injuries, while the Cougars had lost nearly half of their members, including several of their strongest. With the new stats in her book, Fira realized that the Lions were now in competition to be third among the gangs. 'Things are going to be interesting for a while,' she thought with a smirk.
She balanced herself carefully on the branch as she stood up. Tonight's fun was over, so it was time to get home. Putting her notebook and pen in her jacket's pocket, she jumped from the branch into the bushes below. After briefly checking her outfit, she stepped out onto the path.
If anyone had been in the area, they wouldn't have seen a young woman step out from the bushes; instead, they would have seen a young man. Fira was dressed in a loose black t-shirt, over which she wore a black leather jacket, loose black jeans, and boots. With her hair stuffed underneath a baseball cap, she looked like any typical guy.
She strode down the path, taking care to curb the natural movements of her hips. No matter how much she practiced walking like a guy, unless she concentrated, her hips would not follow her instructions. That was something else that irritated her. As she grumbled about the quirks of fate, Fira casually glanced to the side, taking in the path behind her.
Sure enough, the Cadres were following. She grinned, knowing what was about to happen. That was why she had deliberately chosen to walk through their normal hunting grounds. She turned to face them.
Kurt, their leader, swaggered out of the middle of the group and strode towards her. Fira suppressed a snigger and kept her face impassive. Kurt had an exaggerated sense of his own importance, especially in light of the fact that his gang was low-man in the gang hierarchy. The Cadres had always been a mediocre gang at best, and due to lack of recruits and challenges had stagnated. Seeing as they couldn't challenge anyone at this point and win, they had taken to bullying to while away the time until they disappeared entirely. Unless some miracle saved them, which was highly unlikely. Fira found their fate quite amusing; plus it gave her someone to "play" with.
Kurt stopped a few feet away from her. She just stared at him, waiting for the challenge to come. Normally, Kurt expected his opponent to start the conversation, but Fira wasn't going to give him that satisfaction. Finally he stated, "Boy."
"What?" she drawled. Fira allowed some of her boredom to show, hoping to speed the process up a little.
It didn't faze Kurt though. "You're in our turf. So you have to pay a toll." He smirked as he said this.
"I wasn't aware that this area belonged to anybody," she said in a bored tone as she shifted into a loose fighting position. Seeing as he was about to continue challenging her, she decided to take matters into her own hands and rile them up a little. "Especially to a weak, pathetic gang like you all," she finished.
Kurt's eyes narrowed in anger at that insult. "So you're not going to pay, huh?" Fira just smirked at him. "Fine." He snapped his fingers and stepped back as his boys rushed forward.
Counting quickly, Fira found that Kurt only had part of his gang out. And, to top it off, it was the six weakest fighters! Obviously, he had thought she was an easy target. 'Well, let's prove him wrong,' she thought. Then the boys reached her.
It was good to be fighting, for Fira at least. The boys weren't having that good of a time. Fira's punches and kicks were hitting all their marks, but the boys' weren't. Even when a couple of them grabbed her arms, she had managed to not only knock out the third one who had tried to punch her, she had slipped out of their grasp and had knocked out one of the before either could realize what was happening. Her blood was rushing, the adrenaline was pumping, and she was loving every minute of it.
Suddenly, the still conscious gang members stopped fighting and pulled back, eyes wide in fear. Fira panted slightly, wondering what caused them to retreat like that. True, she had knocked out two—no, make that three now—of their guys, but that hadn't scared them yet. So what had just happened?
"Cowards," a voice hissed from behind her. She stiffened in shock, having not sensed anyone come up. The stranger continued, "No one of honor gangs up on a single fighter like that." She saw a flash of silver light as the person pointed at the gang with some kind of sword. "I want you all gone before I decide to kill you." The boys scrambled to leave, dragging their fallen comrades with them, and leaving their esteemed leader behind. Kurt sneered at the stranger, who only said, "Don't give me an excuse to kill you, Kurt. I don't need much of one." The person advanced a little, at which point, Kurt took off running. The stranger laughed unpleasantly.
By this time, Fira had her breath back under control, so she turned to face her "rescuer." "I was handling the situation!" she snarled.
The stranger turned slowly towards her. Fira sighed mentally as she raised her eyes slightly to meet his. Why did everyone have to be taller than her? True, this guy was only a few inches taller than her—she barely clearing five foot—but it was still annoying. However, she was having trouble breaking eye contact. Despite her better judgment, his eyes simply captivated her, and she couldn't help but stare. They were red, a ruby red that seemed to have blood spilled on top of it, the fresh blood of an enemy. Reluctantly, she looked away to see if her suspicions about who the man was were correct.
His blue-black hair defied gravity in spiky style that was slightly swept back and had a distinctive white starburst in the front. A bandana covered his forehead and, it was said, possibly something else. She was correct: this was Hiei, a member of the Tōshi gang, which was the strongest gang on the streets, despite only having four main fighters. Hiei was considered the second strongest fighter on the streets, second only to Yusuke, the leader of the Tōshi. Instinctively, she took a step back, knowing that starting a fight with him would be reckless.
"Why are you spying on the gangs?" Hiei growled at her.
Fira blinked in surprise. She had been unaware that someone was watching her. Quickly, she recovered and snapped back, "It's none of your business."
His eyes flashed from some unknown emotion. Fira couldn't place it. The closest she came was interest. "I believe I'm going to make it my business, Fira," he stated. As she stared at him in shock from his knowing who she was, he narrowed his eyes almost as if something else had caught his attention. "But not now," he finished slowly. With that, he seemed to disappear before her eyes, leaving Fira still standing in shock. Had she actually confronted the infamous Hiei Jaganshi?
Well, it's longer than the original, but I think it's better. So do you guys like it or not? Well, R&R, and tell me what you think of my C-2 idea.