Hey, all! Quiddity here with a brand new story! :)
After finally finishing Yu Yu Hakusho (the anime), I found that my little crush on Kurama from my childhood has grown exponentially and got the inspiration to write again. ^^
In any case, this story was written without any real intention of being published but after writing about three chapters, I decided why not? and made up my mind to publish it on FF. Consequently, this story might not be as, uh, intense (^^;;) as Lost in You (my Naruto-based fanfiction) is, but nevertheless I had fun writing the first few chapters and might continue it depending on the reception I get from the first one or two chapters.
Enjoy! ;D
DISCLAIMER: Yu Yu Hakusho and its characters do not belong to me. Only my original character, Fujiwara Hana, is of my creation.
Chapter One: The Past, Present, and Future
A gasp for breath. A shudder rippling through her body. A faint chuckle of desperation.
"... run.."
"How... could I leave you like this?"
"... they're coming... Please, just run now!"
- : -
My eyes snapped open. After taking a few steady breaths to calm my thudding heart, my gaze moved toward the window which was leaking the first rays of dawn through the cracks of the curtains. Slowly, I got up from my bed, rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and quickly strode over to the bathroom to splash my face with ice cold water.
I looked wearily up at the mirror and saw with some inexplicable relief what I expected to see: a fifteen-year-old teenaged girl with messy locks of chestnut hair and bleary hazel eyes. Finding some sense of serenity at my tousled state, I splashed some more water on my face and got ready for the day.
An hour later, I was clad neatly in my black slacks and green sweatshirt. I pulled my hair back with a navy headband, leaving my bangs to cover my forehead. After stepping into a pair of boots, I opened the sliding door, and began my chores for the day.
I lived a pretty normal life for a fifteen-year-old girl.
I resided in a temple with whom I called "baa-chan" or "grandma" and was home-schooled by an online course. I studied hard, did my chores, and hung out with the few friends I had. Besides my complete and utter clumsiness, everything in my life was pretty ordinary.
That is, if you excluded the fact that I –
A sudden snap of sensory brought me out of my reverie, and I moved my head backwards reflexively, avoiding a glowing ball of energy that had narrowly passed the tip of my nose and made a large and impressionable dent in a tree behind me. I turned to face the attacker, my aura glowing a platinum blue color as my clothes and my hair rose in the air.
"Baa-chan!" I yelled irritably, glaring at the little old woman who was leisurely smoking a cigarette with an arm behind her back.
– well, the fact that, like my grandmother, I could control my spirit energy and destroy demons if need be.
She glowered back at me, obviously not intimidated. "You've been cleaning the same area for the past hour! Move your ass and get to the game center!"
I blinked and looked around me and my spirit energy fell back down to its minimal state. The outside of the temple was sparkling clean and not even a speck of dirt dared to touch the temple walls. Huh. Guess she was right.
"Oops." I grabbed my broom and started heading to the arcade where she had constructed various machines which would test one's spirit energy, only to fall flat on my face a few seconds later.
The old lady walked up to me and looked down in mock disdain. "Scratch that thought. I don't trust you and your clumsiness with my machines."
I looked up, a sheepish smile spread across my face.
She heaved a sigh. "You haven't changed a bit since you were a baby."
That's right. This old grandma, whose name was Genkai, had raised me practically my whole life. My birth mother was a hardworking woman who had had me after her fiance had left her, but had tragically passed away after been hit by a car when I was only three. I don't remember much and only had a single picture of her but she was a beautiful woman and I was eternally grateful for her love and affection.
After my mother had passed away and her funeral was complete, the matter of my custody was an issue. The few relatives I had (namely, my one maternal uncle, his wife and his kids) refused to take me in after my mother had cut all ties with my family to marry my father. Consequently, I was sent to an institution for orphans.
Despite my new habitation and its comforts, the caretakers could not make me feel at home. As a baby, I cannily sneaked out of the orphanage whenever I could to follow some unnatural power that drew me closer to it. Frequently, I was caught before I could make it a hundred meters away from the building, but one day, I had managed by some preternatural force to escape the institution and follow that strange power. It led me to the countryside where a mountain, covered in evil, supernatural beings hiding within its forests, lay. Without hesitation, I'd strolled right into the mountain and was about to become demon meat when Genkai had found me.
A baby, she had said, stopped her in her tracks. A mere toddler had stood up against a monster at least ten times as big as her, and she glared at it with the most intimidatory look a child could give. The monster thought nothing of it and lunged at her. As Genkai moved to stop the beast, the child let out a wild cry as a white light flashed from her body, blinding both the monster and the old sage, shocking her.
When the light of the energy cleared, Genkai was stunned to see the baby unharmed but sitting on the grass, poking the unconscious monster's face with a chubby finger before turning to the old lady. The baby grinned ear to ear with the purest expression she had ever seen before, standing and attempting to toddle over to her, only to fall flat on her face and start wailing like any other three-year-old. Amused that I had cried at my klutziness but not the monster, Genkai had taken an interest in me.
As soon as I had been returned to the orphanage, I wailed and hollered with a wild tantrum but had stopped with eerie speed when Genkai had decided that she would take me under her wing to both grow as a young woman and her pupil. As a result, my spiritual awareness did increase and of course, I did mature as a teenager, but I thought of her as my own grandmother and I her granddaughter, or so I'd like to think.
Most of the time, though, I was just her own personal troublemaker.
I picked myself up from the ground and dusted off my black pants before pouting and saying, "Geez, baa-chan, I don't even know why you're having this tournament. Just passing on your techniques to me should be enough, shouldn't it?"
She gave me a disdainful look. "If you were the successor of my spirit powers, my techniques would be gone to waste. And in any case, you said you didn't have any interest in learning the Reiko Hadoken (Spirit Wave) and taught yourself the Rei Ko Kyo Han Sho (Spirit Reflection Blast). Why would I leave my succession into the hands of a reluctant klutz of a girl?"
I pondered about this. "That's true, I suppose. But baa-chan, with your personality, you'll live another hundred years. Why look for a successor now?"
She harrumphed at what I guessed was my ignorance and banished me to the training ground where she instructed me to train for at least six hours until I either fainted from exhaustion or dehydration.
I sighed. Is it bad that I still loved this crazy lady?
- : -
The days rolled by quickly and word spread about my grandma's competition. Humans from all around the nation began swarming toward her temple as the day of the competition drew nearer... and, I expected from an ominous premonition, a powerful yokai also came closer to us. I rolled my eyes at whoever this poor, stupid soul was. Didn't he know who my grandmother was? Even if he did win the competition and she trained him, he would be one unlucky bastard stuck in the middle of a hell of training. I would know.
As for me, I packed a few of my belongings and the money that I had begged my grandma for in order to live in the city while this whole shenanigan took place. I had a feeling it would be one messy hell of a competition and I wanted no part of it. I decided I would come back after the winner would be well into his training and everything was cleaned up. And heck, I'd always wanted to live in the city.
"Baa-chan! Don't kill anyone with your crazy mountain climbing exercise!" I yelled from the bottom of the stairs of the temple, waving madly at my grandma.
Genkai gave a small smirk before raising a hand in farewell. "Don't fall into a ditch and die, stupid girl."
"Love you too! See ya!"
And with that, I sped off to the train station where the train picked me up a few minutes later. I'd entered the city about twenty to thirty minutes later, at the stop I normally got off at whenever I came to town, which was rarely. I hauled my bag over my shoulders and patted down my burgundy skirt before making my way through the streets to find my apartment.
"Let's see," I murmured to myself, looking down at the little sheet of paper I'd written my new address on. Despite my living somewhat near this city, I had barely actually come into town to enjoy myself, what with my being busy being tortured by Grandma Genkai all the time.
A few minutes later, I was deeply engrossed in trying to somehow dissect the address to find my apartment when I suddenly felt a pain of my face as I collided into something, falling back flat on my tush.
"Ow..." I muttered darkly to myself, cursing my clumsiness. "I swear if I'd taken ballet, I wouldn't fall so much..."
"My apologies; are you alright, miss?" A hand stretched out in front of my face as I realized that I had crashed into a person. My cheeked burned pink as I looked up.
In front of me was the most gorgeous teenager I'd set my eyes on before. He had long flame-red hair and startlingly pretty emerald eyes that were gazing down at me in concern. He was around my age, I could tell, and wore regular clothes: jeans, a shirt, and a jacket.
When I recovered from my initial surprise, I grasped his hand and pulled myself up. With a small smile, I apologized, "No, it was my fault. I was too busy looking at my paper to see what was in front of me."
He noticed the slip of paper on the ground and picked it up, examining the contents briefly before handing it to me. "You're looking for Meiou High School?"
"Well... It's one of the places I'm looking for," I admitted, picking up my bag from the ground. "I'm new in town and I haven't the slightest clue where anything is." I then had a light bulb moment. I looked up hopefully at the boy. "You don't happen to live here, do you?"
He looked almost hesitant but smiled and replied, "Yes, I do."
"Perfect! You can be my tour guide!"
"... Pardon?"
I pouted. "Why, do you have anything planned for today? A date with your girlfriend? A hangout with your guy friends?"
"Er, no, but –"
"Then there's no problem!" I laughed, making my merry way past him. When I was a few steps in front of him, I turned back to the flabbergasted boy and said with a smile, "I'm just kidding. You don't have to, but I'd appreciate it. I've never been in a city before and it's a little... intimidating, I guess."
When I got no response from him except for a puzzled stare, I sighed and turned to walk away from him, only to trip on air and fall flat on my face. I used my reflexes to avoid having my skirt fly up and didn't even dare turn back with my face burning scarlet, already thoroughly embarrassed as it was.
Why, oh why did I have to keep falling in front of this totally hot guy who already thinks I'm a freak –
From behind, I heard a small laugh and slowly swiveled my head, only to see the boy suppressing a laugh behind a hand. After a moment of recovering his composure, he held out a hand with a smile.
"Sure, I'll be your tour guide for the day."
My blush faded as I grinned brightly, grasping his hand and helping myself back up for the second time in less than five minutes.
Thanks so much for reading! ^_^
Please review and/or favorite; it will motivate me to write more and I'll definitely update more frequently if you do so!
On another note: Because this story just kind of sprung to fruition, I'll most likely only continue this story if the readers want to read more of it, ahaha. ^^;;
So, please do review or PM me or whatever floats your boat!
In addition! Since this story was abruptly made, I'll welcome any ideas that people want to read or want to suggest when it comes to the plot or cute scenes (I'm sure there will be plenty of possibilities given Hana's clumsiness ._.;;). I'm open-minded to anything that doesn't seem too out-of-character for both Hana and Kurama! And of course, you'll get credit for your ideas.
Until the next chapter,
- Quiddity