Hello, all! This is the 2nd book in the FA Series, the sequel to The Light of Day and the Dark of Night. If you haven't read that yet, you should before you read this, or else you won't understand… much of anything. Sorry, it took so long to post and all. Our excuse we're graduating and have lots of projects and papers, not to mention finals and college stuff.
Okay, enough delay. Let's get on with it!
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Chapter 1: The ReturnFaith and Ayame stood at the end of the newly regenerated graves of their families. Eleven months had passed since they had left Genkai's temple… and Kurama and Hiei.
The two best friends (basically sisters) looked at each other, smiling, a newfound sense of peace robbing the tension from their bodies and the lingering pain in their hearts and minds.
"It is a strange feeling," Faith whispered, knowing Ayame had heard her. "I have felt empty for so long and the constant, unceasing pain in my heart was nearly unbearable, but now I feel content, nearly whole. The pieces of my heart have been mended in a way I had never thought possible."
"We have two men to thank for that," Ayame grinned
Faith laughed. "Yes, and I have missed one of them very much. Thank God, we're going home."
"Home…"
"It's an almost overwhelming feeling, isn't it? To belong somewhere again."
"Yes… but a welcome one."
Faith pulled out a cell phone, but it was a special phone. On the outside it looked like a regular cell phone, but on the inside it was all made of the technology of the Spirit World.
Faith and Ayame had worked with Spirit World's scientists in their spare time to develop these phones to replace compacts the Team was forced to carry. This way one of the guys wouldn't look weird puling out, what looked like, a compact of make-up. It helped them blend in more.
The phone Faith carried was black and on the back of it was her name in red and in kanji. She flipped it open and entered the numeric pass code that secured all the unusual settings on the phone from someone who might find one who was not supposed to have it. The pass code was the same for all the phones.
Suddenly, her phone had new menus and options to choose from. She ignored these and immediately dialed the number for Koenma's office.
Ten rings later Koenma's teenage face popped up on the screen.
Trying to make a good impression, Faith surmised. Too late.
"Faith!" he exclaimed. "I haven't heard from you in a while."
"That was the idea," Ayame muttered, but Koenma hadn't heard her.
"We'll be coming home tomorrow. We need you to open a portal at our current location around noon."
"Done. How did it go?"
Faith smiled. "Peace of mind, heart, and body. Goodbye, Koenma." With that she pressed the 'end' button and the modified screen returned. She went to the menu and selected one of the options. The screen then changed again, along with the menu and its options, to that of a regular Human World phone.
"Noon tomorrow," Faith said with suppressed excitement.
"Noon tomorrow," Ayame echoed.
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They emerged from the portal into Koenma's office, seeing Team Urameshi arranged around the now-closed portal.
Ayame smiled slightly at Hiei but it soon disappeared as he simply scowled at her. Her face openly showed her confusion at this, but wiped it away.
Faith watched this unfold, before slowly turning to Kurama. His face remained effectively blank. She quirked an eyebrow, imploring as to why he was so carefully guarding himself, but she still received not even a flicker of emotion. Not only was his exterior guarded well, but his mind, shields tightly locked in place, preventing her from catching even the smallest thought.
Faith's playful smirk slowly turned to a small frown, as she contemplated his reaction to her return, or lack of reaction, as it were.
Koenma turned his head between the two couples, confused at the goings-on. "Well," he said, gathering the attention to himself, "how your trip?"
"Rather uneventful. No demon attacks or complications. Only plenty of restoration," Ayame answered factually.
"What? Restoration? What did you two do for eleven months?" Kuwabara asked.
Ayame and Faith glanced at each other before Faith answered him.
"We restored our families' graves, and took some much needed recovery time."
It was silent for a minute.
"For eleven months?!" Kuwabara exclaimed.
Faith and Ayame turned slowly to Kuwabara, glaring. In response, his shoulders hunched over, trying to make himself a smaller target (like that was possible), and he backed away slowly, not wanting to draw any more attention to himself (again, not like that was possible).
"Well, it's great to have you back!" Yusuke cried out, trying to break the growing tension.
"Thanks, Yusuke," Faith said. "Where's Suri?"
"She's insisting on being called Sayuri now, as it's her proper name, but we all tend to call her Suri from habit," he said.
"Her question still remains unanswered. Where's Sayuri?"
"She spent some time here getting used to her new life and mixing it with her own. Now she's confronting her father about his decision in sending her away," Yusuke told them.
"Is she doing okay?" Faith asked.
"She said it's been a little emotional, but not to worry, she's doing fine."
"Well, I'm glad she's pulling her life back together. Kami knows it's a difficult thing to do," Faith said with a small smile.
"That's for sure. Though, I think we had it a little easier. We can't get murder charges," Ayame said, her own small smile forming.
Silence followed before Kurama made a suggestion.
"Let's let the girls rest. I'm sure the past months have left them exhausted."
Faith looked back at Kurama, taking in his guarded expression, before nodding, "Thank you, Kurama," she said quietly, heading for the door, the team following.