Just as a warning I'm quite sure this story will require a PG13 rating though I will do my best to make sure it goes no higher. Right now this first chapter is at G so it's cool. But if really dark angst will bother you I would not recommend this story as I'm pretty sure it's going to get dark with some disturbing content. I will warn for each chapter accordingly.
Also, please bear with me. I know this story doesn't seem to go anywhere you want to be right away but I'm taking my time and I hope you can enjoy it anyway. Oh, I almost forgot-
Hiei: What the &*#^! Get on it with it onna! You talk too much and my patience is thin...*he withdraws his katana and slowly licks the edge of the blade looking me dead in the eyes*
Me: UH...ummmm...as I was saying about my stor- *Hiei advances just behind me and I feel the cold of the blade seeping into the skin of my neck*
Kurama: Now Hiei, Is this really necessary?
Hiei: *growls* Quiet kitsune! I can read her mind and this twisted onna likes it! *he smirks*
Me: *blushing furiously* Fine! You a# ! I do not, nor have I ever owned any aspect of Yu Yu Hakusho! I do, however, own the ideas and writing of this story. Just not the characters. *seething now*
*Hiei loosens the blade and I turn my head toward his and lick his cheek heavily*
*Hiei jumps back disgusted*
Hiei: "She...she f*&%$# licked me! You will DIE!"
*I run for my life behind Kurama and stick my tongue out at him*
*he snarls and goes to make for me but Kurama protects me (such a gentleman!).*
*so Hiei sends me a message telepathically "I can wait... You can't hide behind him forever..."*
*I shiver heavily gripping tightly to Kurama. Kurama shakes his head...*
Kurama: Ok. Well, While they play cat and mouse here's the story she promised you...
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"Twitch Under Pressure"
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*CLICK* (the sound of a button being pressed down)
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"Hello? Uh… um… Ok. Is this thing working ok? I better test it later and make sure. Ok. Now I'm really ready. Testing! Are you out there? Ha ha. That's a joke. I hope I get that joke when I'm older, or I've really gotten to be an old fogey! I've started to record this on my new hand recorder I got from my birthday. That was yesterday. This is important, the day after my birthday. I'm recording everything now for my future self. Are you listening future self? I've bought all these tapes to record my thoughts and the stuff going on in my life from this moment forward. I'm not a kid anymore future self but I figure you might forget some of your own thoughts when you were still young. So you have to listen to me, because, you know, you're me!"
*CLICK* (sound of the recorder button being pushed to turn it off)
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*Click*
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That's it!
No, really, That's it! I've finally had it! This family is just too nuts, even for me! Maybe it was the fighting that went on day and night. Maybe it was the prison like feel of the inside of the house walls, who knows, but my patience has left the building!
But wouldn't you know, just before my sanity had run out, I turned 18! That's right, legal to do just about anything. Or more importantly, move out! This is me doing a happy dance on the table. This is me doing a hundred yard dash down the street, like I've a tail on fire. Blow me out like a candle and I'll still keep going!
I can feel the sudden surge and the urge of excitement reach through this body and tingle my finger tips. Like the spark of electricity just a moment before lightning strikes you, that's what it feels like. I want to run and keep running, and who can stop me now?
Not you mom! Dad, are you up for trying? But poof, like a wizard, I'm going to vanish I swear!
"Wow! I...I… I actually made it! An adult! Who would've thought? I could actually stand up and walk out the door right now!" I sparked. But then, it was just like… the energy as quickly as it had come drained away and I passed out on my bed.
Some heroine. Some great character. I'm writing my own story in my head, and I'm still falling like a loser, into sleep.
Besides, there's just one little catch... money.
But even that won't slow me down. At least not for long. Nothing short of death could put a dent in my plans. With this determination mounting, I feel like I might be able to finally wake from this long sleep. From this childhood of white bones.
Cross me off the Disney list, I'm no sleeping beauty. And if I were? The kiss from a prince has come from father time. Not only that but I feel it, it's my turn to be courted by fate.
See, at my graduation party at the high school, there was this international representative there passing out papers about an opportunity for students looking for work. She looked old, sketchy and out of place but I was looking for an out, so how picky could I be?
I perused the papers on her rickety old fold up table... Apparently, there are some international companies that are looking for fresh-from-high school students to... well... to do the grunt work, But hey! They're offering job experience, plus room and board.
I'm trying to imagine looking for an apartment in a foreign country, and a roommate… yeah, that's making me shiver, giving me the heebie jeebies. I think 'I'm sure that wouldn't go well!' as thoughts of some creepy guy with sneezing problems pops into my head.
But look, I get to travel! Sounds like gold to me! The lady, she's seriously weird, with her hair all gray and white in a bun but her hairs are running! Those hairs just stick out, in places all over, like she's been sleeping in that bun for a week. And didn't anyone tell her that when you're missing the third button on your business suit, it's like REALLY obvious?
But again, and I can't stress this enough, I need out and I'm going to pretend she doesn't look like that. I check out which countries are searching for suckers... I mean fresh recruits for work: India, Cameroon; Africa, Russia...blah blah blah... JAPAN! "Oh Yeah!" I shout, "The anime capital, I'm SOOO there!"
So I do the adult thing (so I think) and just sign my name away on the dotted line. 'Better hope she isn't Ursula from "The Little Mermaid"!' I chuckle to myself. But even if she is, there's no prince on either side of the ocean to save me, now is there?
E.N.I.G.M.A. Yeah, that's my name. It's weird, it looks weird on paper too, but my parents always said they don't know how they had me, thinking that was some kind of funny joke. Enigma, a puzzle, the mysterious, an unknown. Yeah, ha ha, mom. Funny dad, good one. Not.
Then it's time to go, this grad party's over, and I was mentally never there. It's supposed to be this great goodbye. You know, Goodbye to friends, and school, some kind of pseudo youth of happiness. But I wonder, does anyone really have that kind of magical childhood? And if they do, are they somehow marked, like a halo over their head that cloaks them from the rest of us?
But this is it for me, and without a backward glance I find myself humming on the way to my car, strangely happier then I've been in a long time. But wouldn't you know it, even in that I just can't be normal. I get to my car and I laugh, a little giddy. I just realized my car is Japanese! A great good luck charm, as if it's saying to me 'GO!'. After all, it's a Mitsubishi. I just love my electric blue sporty car, even more now, it would seem. IN FACT. It would seem... that... EVERYTHING is funny. 'No, that's just exaggeration' I'm thinking to myself.
Then I see a caterpillar crawl across my shoe and I... just... lose it! I'm laughing so hard I actually fall over. "Owww!" I continue to laugh. It takes several minutes for the laugh attack to subside. 'Wow. I'm beginning to think that representative slipped something in my pop she gave me.' I think, still smiling. Then the sight of a tall lady walking a white fluffy poodle crosses my line of vision and I dissolve into another attack and the thought vanishes from my mind as quickly as it came...
*Click*
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*Click*
So that was a really weird day yesterday.
Man, I don't know about the rest of my city that had to deal with me, but I'm glad it's over! "My stomach hurts soooo bad" I moan. I NEVER want to laugh again! What was with me? I laughed so much that my whole family had begun to worry something was wrong with me. Well, more than usual.
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*Flashback*
Me: HAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAH *twitch, twitch* HAHAHHAHAHHAHAHA
Mother: Honey? Are you alright?
Me: Oh, HAHAHAHHA *wiping tears from your eyes* I'm just dandy! HAHAHAHAH You?
Mother: Dandy? ARE YOU DOING DRUGS?
Sister: This is great. I'm so glad I got a video camera for Christmas...
Brother: She seems fine mother. *twitch, twitch* *twitch, twitch*
*End of Flashback*
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And when my best friend called, I could barely manage to complete a conversation without bursting into another fit. Jazz, my best friend, kept saying "Enigma, What's the matter?" I manage to momentarily become serious, "What do you mean?".
"I don't know...You just seem a little...unbalanced." she says carefully. "Oh! You think I'm crazy?!" I snort and yet again, dissolved into tears of laughter!
But hey! I got this! I'm fine now! I haven't laughed once yet today and it's almost noon. Granted, I've been EXTRA careful though not to talk to anyone much or even look around so perhaps that's played its part? And I feel much more normal now, although if I'm being absolutely truthful here, I'm still a little too happy. Yeah, it's not at all normal for me, as I continue to hum to myself (the humming is also not normal, particularly THE SONG I chose to hum. Get this. How many 18 year old's know the theme song to Barney? I didn't even know I knew it and it REALLY scares me!)
So you can guess that I'm super quick to pack my things I'll need for Japan.
You know, now that I think about it (what else is there to do when I can't talk or look at anyone!) my parents took this whole moving-across-the-world thing really well.
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*Flashback*
Dad: What the &*# ?! You can't go there... there are too many foreigners!
Me: Uh...Yeah. It is THEIR country.
Dad: That's not the point! Go to your room!
Me: Ok! Thanks!
Mom: *Twitch, twitch*
Sister: Sweet! I finally get a whole room to myself!
Brother: See ya! *twitch, twitch*
*End Flashback*
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I bounded into my room like I have clouds under my feet. Then begin to waltz with myself: 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3, , then suddenly I freeze...
I hadn't thought about it when I first signed up but I really will be moving away from everyone and everything I have ever known.
It really hits me. It hits me hard.
"I won't be able to see Jazz anymore or really talk to her..." I just hadn't realized it till now. And I've got to admit here, that I started to feel very scared at the thought of being by myself in a foreign country.
'Oh my god! I don't even know how to speak Japanese!'. This is really freaking me out. Then... I don't know how to describe this… my face was all contorted in anxiety and fear, and suddenly it smoothes out. I smile again and just… resume my humming. 'I'll be fine.' I say to myself 'How strange that I should get worried like that. Over nothing...' I thought and continue to hum to myself...
But Future Self, are you listening close to this part?
IT WAS WEIRD. That whole moment was WEIRD. I didn't feel like myself at all. I can be crazy, sure, but it's like I just switched off by someone, like I wasn't really real. I don't know. Maybe I'm not making any sense at all.
Okay. Yeah. I don't want to talk about this anymore.
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*Click*
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*Click*
A couple of weeks passed and here I am. At the airport, Jazz can't believe I'm leaving. Hell, I can't believe it either! She looks so sad though. Jazz really isn't taking this well.
I say to her "Jazz, It's just for a year. I can come back in 6 months even if I want." trying to cheer her up. It's not working, so I try again "Why don't you see if you can't sign up too? I'm sure they want more people!"
Jazz picked up her head at that, looking a little hopeful. "Where did you sign up at?" she cattle prodded me. "Uh. At the graduation party the school threw a month ago. It was that old lady at the table in the back of the gym. She was an international representative she said. I'm sure the school would have her number" I tell her very matter of factly.
Jazz looked at me strangely then. "What lady? There wasn't anyone there but the students and the teachers?" she told me slowly, like I'm stupid. I felt myself getting angry "Are you calling me a liar? I said she was there. I stood right in front of her and signed her little contract!".
At the look of the impending fight on my face, Jazz must have decided that maybe she DIDN'T see the old lady but perhaps she was there, that's all. It's not like I would ever lie to her. But still... It was really obvious that she didn't see some old lady at any table ANYWHERE at that party. I'm thinking that should throw up red flags and all, but it's too late now anyways, right?
"Oh well." Jazz agreed with me "I'll just contact the school for this lady's number tomorrow." Jazz smiled at me in one of those apologic looks and we hugged goodbye. I certainly don't want to leave her on a bad note.
Just before I stepped into the hallway leading to the plane I looked back. There she is. Standing just where I left her. I smiled at her in encouragement and wonder why I don't feel so sad? Shouldn't I?
But I've stood there too long and the people behind me are getting pissed so I walk on, hoping maybe I'll see her soon...
*Click* (the tape recorder is shut off)
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Ok peoples, Do you want the plane to crash before you reach Japan? Then pick the chapter titled "The plane crashes".
If you want to land safely, read "An uneventful flight".
Well? What do you think? If you think something can be improved please tell me specifically what and I'll be happy to look at it and see if you're right!
*speaking from the safety of being behind Kurama* ;D
*looks over at Hiei who is still staring daggers at me*
Me: *gulp* O_O;; Um...Someone please help me...