Disclaimer: I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho.
T: Rated for language, and possible violence in the future.
.:Virus:.
Prelude: (Read at your leisure. Not necessary to understand the rest of the story.)
"As your typical anime obsessed fan, I've always dreamed of having some grandiose adventure in a new world or something of like. I'm sure at least a third of you can relate. You know what they say, "be careful of what you wish for," because fate has a funny way of warping your wish into something unexpected. Well, in a sense my wish for an adventure came true, but the irony of the situation is my dreams of an adventure in an exotic place landed me here: in this bleak and devoid place of nothingness. And I'm not using the term figuratively; there is literally nothing here. No sky, no earth, no water, no plants, no animals, I don't even have a shadow, just a blank whiteness.
"Everything is just this white color, there's no haze to the whiteness, and it's not blinding or anything, it's just this solid white space, and I'm sort of- floating around, except I'm not, you see, (well you really can't but) there's nothing to stand on, and there's no air to lift me, so I'm not sure if I'm actually floating or not. Sorry, am I confusing you? I'm sort of confused myself.
"Let's rewind back to a time when things weren't so confusing. I'd like to say I remember the time, when all this weirdness started happening, in graphic detail (like how you hear grandparents or storytellers say it), but I don't, because at the prelude of my adventures, I was delirious with fever, so nothing was actually lucid, but I'll try my best. And I hope you'll enjoy my adventures as much as I did (at times)."
.:Chapter 1: What You Wish For:.
My story doesn't start with the annoying blare of an alarm clock, because I chucked it into the fish tank four hours ago. That was the first clear memory of my adventures, but it wasn't the start.
Two days ago, I collapsed in the lunch line at school. My temperature read 109 degrees, which is humanely impossible, I know, but that's what happened. I was rushed into the ER. They took my temperature again, it read 104, a very high fever but not as deadly as 109. The nurses assumed the thermometer at my school was just malfunctioning. I'd be dead at 109 degrees. They gave me some pills and I stayed the night at the hospital for observation. My parents were alerted, and they both abandoned work to come check up on me. Reflecting on that incident, it still brings a warm bubbly feeling to my chest, if only they'd show that same care to each other, then maybe I'd see my mother more than just once every fortnight.
During visiting hours they brought my little brother to see me, after that, they left and my parents parted ways. Before I went to sleep, the nurses took my temperature again. 103 point something. I don't remember much after that. Did they give me medicine? Did I eat? Did they stick an IV needle into me? What I do remember was two rows of beds in the room, and all of them had patients with ice packs on their forehead.
It was nighttime, my fever burned up again. Groans filled the room. Horrendous, low and deep sounds. Loud gurgling noises. I tossed and turned, I remember feeling hot and sticky, the air smelled of iron, it was really uncomfortable. I lost the ice pack sometime during the night, and there was nothing for me to seek relief from.
A shudder racked my body. I groped blindly for the side of the bed, and lurched over the edge to hurl out my breakfast, after my breakfast was gone I kept heaving, so much that I was sure my internal organs were about to spill out. It felt like every part of me was being wrung tight, to squeeze the living juices out of me. Gods, it was painful.
Then I felt something cold press against my neck. My ice pack! I shivered at the chill but was happy for the cold relieve. Thinking back on the incident with a clear mind, I realized my ice pack probably shouldn't feel as cold as it did back then, after absorbing my heat for so long, but I wasn't thinking clearly. Heck, I don't think I was capable of thinking at all.
I tried to bring the ice pack closer. A harsh sound and the cold left. Damn it. It hurts. I want that ice pack back. I cracked my eyes open two millimeters, presumably to glare at the nurse that took the ice pack away. All I could make out was some bleary dark shadow, a flash of silver, green and red. Oh, Christmas. That was seriously what went through my mind, I was delirious. Something cool touched my neck and hand. I drooped back into sleep.
The next day, my temperature read 101.3. I was released from the hospital with a prescription, instructions to drink plenty of fluids, and some other stuff that I don't recall. I stayed home from school for two days.
--
My temperature is 98.5 now. It's one p.m. Both my parents were at work and my little brother was in school. I loitered around the house, heated up the leftover rice porridge and had brunch. Two p,m. What should I do now? Maybe I can drop by the school and surprise my friend. She must be worried sick by now. She was right next to me in the lunch line when I suddenly doubled over, she freaked out. When the teachers weren't responding as fast as she had liked, she tried to carry me to the infirmary. My friend is considered strong by feminine standards, but she's pretty petite so my feet kept dragging and slowing her down. The gym teacher ended up bringing me to the infirmary.
Anyways, I can't call her because she was still in school, so I decided to give her a surprise visit. And maybe I'll get lucky and see him leaving the school; he doesn't have band practice on Thursdays. With my mind set I threw on a heavy jacket and left the house.
There was still some time before school let out, so I spent the time walking around the perimeter of my high school. I've already been here for three school years, yet it just occurred to me that I had never really paid much attention to the school building itself. If a stranger saw me right now, I'd probably look like a thief snooping around the school to plan out my next heist. I chuckled to myself at the image.
Suddenly, a pressure collided with my shoulder, there was a shock eerily parallel to electricity, and I was knocked clear across a street and onto an empty sidewalk. Shit, that stung like a bitch. Felt like a bullet rammed into my shoulder, not that I knew how it felt like to be shot by a gun.
When I looked up to find the assailant, I saw a boy not much older than me. His dark hair was slicked back with gell, and his chocolate brown eyes were piercing a hole through my person. He held his right hand in the imitation of a gun with the index finger aimed at me. I stared back, my eyebrows knotted in confusion. What's wrong with him? I didn't do anything. He attacked me first! Why the hell is he glaring at me?
Frustrated, I glared right back. But the intensity of my glare was softened by the immense pain in my right shoulder.
"Hey, what are you doing?"
I jumped at the voice and lost my glare.
"Tch," the boy scowled and shot one last disapproving look at me, and then he left.
"Hecate? Hecate!" The person who chased away my assailant ran across the street and was instantly crouched down at my side. "Hecate. Are you alright?"
It was him. And I can't believe he's so close to me right now. His eyes are amazing, they're supposed to be hazel but in the right light they looked like pools of warm honey, and that's what they look like right now. Gosh, I'm in heaven. Maybe catching that strange sickness was worth the trouble, if it meant getting to see the care in those eyes directed solely at me. (The me now would have to disagree, because the troubles that that one sickness caused me later on out weigh the little happiness I received. Or maybe I'm just being overly pessimistic, but hey, you can decide when you hear my story.)
"Mr. Jae," I greeted him, although a bit belatedly. "I- I'm okay," I managed to let out. He looked relieved. I darn near melted.
He was my English teacher from freshmen year. His full name is Lee Yun Jae. He's part Korean. And I've been crushing on him for two and half years by now. It started out as simple admiration for a good teacher. He was funny, patient, and he taught like a god. There's this website where you rate teachers and his ratings blew the chart. My freshmen year was his first year at teaching, he was fresh out of college, and often joked around and talked to his students like friends. I can't be sure when it started, but I started to realize I had feelings for him when I saw him play the violin.
It was like, bam! My dream guy, right there. Mature, soft-spoken, intelligent, amiable and he can play five different instruments very well. He's the band instructor. I joined the school band just to see him teach. My violin sounds like nails on a chalkboard, but Lee said my piano was great and I was progressing well with the guitar.
It didn't matter that if Lee had been born a couple of years earlier, and me a few years later, he could be my father. He was single and a great man. To hell with the age difference. Rawrs, we're living in the modern world now! Wait, it was in the past that girls married men whom were at their father's age…hm… Never mind, I'm going off track anyways.
"Can you stand?"
I nodded, and he took my hand. His grip was so gentle and warm. Lee pulled me up. I winced when my arm stretched out, and jerked away. Way to ruin the moment, girl. Shut up, it hurts.
"What's wrong?" there was that genuine concern again. Oh, if only I could say something to ameliorate that worry, but I didn't know what happened at that time.
"It's nothing," I fibbed. "I banged into a street lamp, that's all."
Lee's eyes narrowed in suspicion, "You're normally graceful, Hecate," wow, he just complimented me, and did that statement insinuate he paid attention to me? "Did that guy hurt you?"
"Huh?" I gulped and averted my eyes, "Uh- no. I don't think so," I mumbled the last bit.
"I heard you were sick, Hecate. You shouldn't be out of bed. What are you doing here?"
Gosh, I felt like a scolded child.
"Urm, actually, I'm all better now," I perked up. "Just thought I'd drop by and surprise Devika with my super recovery skills."
Lee smiled a little at that and I felt myself glow. The moment was almost perfect. Almost perf-
"Hec-cate!" A voice called my name in a singsong voice, then a barrel of energy rammed into me and started suffocating me with its arms.
"Gah- good- good to see you too, Kanta," I chocked out.
The new arrival let go of my head but she didn't remove her hands. Her hands slid down to my elbows and I winced when she brushed my right shoulder.
"How's it going?"
"Fine," I responded instantaneously. I think 'fine' is an ingrained response to this question.
"Good," she said, and let go of me.
"Howdy-do, sir," Kanta turned to greet Lee. Her sleek, waist length, black hair swept in an arc like a shampoo commercial. Oh, how I envy her hair, and her eyes, and her height, and not to mention her body, too. Kanta's got seductive bedroom eyes; her body and height were fitting for a model. Unlike me, I'm stuck at the awkward in-between height, not tall enough to pass as a model and not petite like Devika to be called cute.
Lee smiled at Kanta, "It's nice to see you, Kanta."
He's only saying that to be polite, don't get any funny ideas, you've already got three-fourths of the male population drooling on your tracks, mitts off my guy! In my imagination, I batted Kanta like a baseball. She flew off into space and became a little star in the sky. Then Lee and I walked up to each other and held hands, with the sunset in the background. Perfect. The star came back and crashed right in between us. Almost.
"Me and Hecate have a lot to catch up on. After all, she's missed three days of school," Kanta beamed at Lee, then she turned to me, "why don't we go to Café La Mode, they've got a photocopy machine in there."
The thought was nice, but honestly, you can't have much worst timing than this.
"Well I guess I shouldn't keep you two any longer, then."
"Yup. See ya, Mr. Jae," Kanta tugged on my left arm.
"Take care of yourself, Hecate," Lee smiled. I could only nod.
As promised, Kanta photocopied her notes for me. I was broke afterwards, and was ready to leave, but Kanta bought a strawberry short cake, and convinced me to share with her. She didn't want to ingest all those calories. So is she trying to get me fat? For a while, Kanta filled up the silence with her chatter of school. She filled me in on some interesting things, like the discovery of a condom in the science laboratory. Some kid took a dump in the back staircase, and how the shower stalls were prank to spray purple and blue dye. Apparently, some kids from a rivaling school didn't like the fact that they lost to our school in the last swim meet.
"So, what happened with you?" The sudden change in question threw me for a loop.
"Uh, I was- sick," I shrugged, what else more was there to say.
"How sick were you?" Kanta asked. Her eyes were looking out the window like she didn't really care, but thought I should participate in the conversation. I guess that was fair enough, but what's so interesting about being sick? I wasn't about to tell her any of my family business. That private stuff was for Devika.
"What symptoms did you have? Was it like the flu? You know, a lot of kids at school are coming down with- the flu."
"...No," I said carefully. "I just had a very high fever." I glanced lazily at my watch.
"So, how high was it?" she sounded nonchalant. I shrugged, not that she was looking.
Wait. A. Minute. I jerked my watch to my face. Holy crap. I spent an hour in here already. How did that happen? Devika must be long gone by now.
"I gotta go now. Thanks for the notes," I scooped up the notes and knocked my chair over, "Oh, and thanks for the cake too," I ripped the door open and ran back to the school building.
--
As expected, I completely missed Devika yesterday. I don't have any classes with her till after lunch. Darn it, I'm such a bad friend. After blowing off some steam I dragged my sorry ass to school.
First period is gym. Or 'physical education,' my teacher is very specific about that. You know there's nothing quite like starting off your day by sweating your deoderant off, especially since I'm not much of a runner. If you've ever had the same experience, you know what I'm talking about.
When I got to the changing room I greeted my friends who were loitering in the hall, waiting for the bell.
"Mornin'."
"Hey, Hecate, you're back!"
"We thought you croak." (Note: died)
"Funny Ethan," I said dryly.
"Good to have you back."
"Thanks Cassie. So whaddid I miss?"
"Oh, Mr. Lennox was out yesterday."
"We had a blast. Sitting on the bleachers, watching the cheerleaders."
I chuckled and punched Steve lightly on the arm for that.
"Do you think he caught the flu, too?"
"Sweet, free period."
We all laughed at that. The bell rang, we split up and changed quickly. On the gym floor, we did some warm-up exercises while we waited for the teacher. At least a third of the class was absent. I remembered what Kanta said about the flu. I guess I should be careful since I just recovered from something. A gym teacher from another class came over to our class. I guess she's here to tell us why our gym teacher is so late today.
"Mr. Lennox is out due to personal reasons (note: it means she don't know the reason), so you'll be having a substitute for an indefinite amount of time. He's new here, so he probably got a little lost."
We all laughed. It's an inside joke. The architect of our school must've loved mazes. The guys whispered about how they're going to run circles around this new teacher.
"He should be here soon. Oh, I think that would be him."
The whole class snapped their attention to the door. Our new gym teacher struted casually towards us with his thumbs hooked into his pockets. He was average height, well-built, and his hair was gelled back.
Oh shit.
He stopped in front of our class and gave us a once over. From our spots on the floor, he looked intimidating. "Alright, you snot-nose brats. I may be the substitute but I ain't gonna take any shit from you. Understand?"
He's got the mouth of a gangster. Some of the kids froze up at his tone. So much for running circles around the newcomer. Which part of him looks like a teacher? He shouldn't be standing up there! What the hell is he doing here?
"The name's Urameshi. And I'll be your new gym teacher."
Oh shit.
Our eyes accidentally met. No, he sought me out. He smiled at me. No, that ain't right. It was a feral smirk. His eyes glinted. I gulped.
"It'll be a pleasure to teach you."
Holy Shit.
Author's Note: Yusuke is not evil, you'll find out why he's acting the way he is as the story progress, or perhaps you're already starting to piece something together. Since this is my first fan fiction here, the reader's opinion will have a big effect on the story, unless it clashes with an idea that I already have set from the start.
For starters, the reader will get to decide two important points:
1. Should Hecate, the original character, be from our world, as in she knows about the Yu Yu Hakusho universe through the anime and manga, or should she be a part of the anime world, and the spirit detectives simply flew to the U.S., meaning she has no prior knowledge of demons and stuff. This poll will probably stop by chapter 3 or 4.
2. The readers get to choose the pairings, or no pairings at all if that's what you prefer. Let your opinion be known and eventually, I'll accumulate all the choices (unless it's really one-sided) and have a vote. The anonymous feature is on, incase you don't want others to know your preference, you can also P.M. me if necessary. I'm not homophobic, but this fic is most likely going to be a hetero-fic. The poll for pairings will most likely span over 5 or more chapters (I'll post a little note when it ends), so you can take your time, see how the characters interact before you decide, if you'd like.
Also there are two pairings that I have no intention of breaking up, unless by majority rule. That is the YusukexKeiko, and KazumaxYukina pairing. Sorry, I just can't do it.
That's about it for now. If you're interested in this story, please let me know. I'd really appreciate constructive criticism.