It was hot, as hot as the underworld. She merely glanced at the barren landscape around her. She'd been here before, much as she wished she hadn't. She sighed as she wandered across the land. She hoped she'd wake up soon.
"Grrrr… I could KILL that Spirit Detective!" a voice growled (actually, the language he used is not fitting for this rating).
She shrugged and walked towards the voice, not bothering to be cautious. It was only a dream, after all.
"You had your chance, buddy. You obviously couldn't handle it!" another voice replied.
She finally saw the speakers, two humanoid creatures, one with blue skin, the other with red. Both had pointed ears and vampire-like teeth. The blue-skinned one wore a pelt of some kind, while the red one wore black cotton pants.
"Next time…" the red one mumbled.
"NEWSFLASH! There isn't gonna BE a next time! You're DEAD!" the blue one roared.
Suddenly, both tensed.
"You sense that?" the red guy asked, looking in her direction.
"Yeah…" the blue one agreed, staring hard at the place she was standing.
Both started towards her. She backed up, eyeing the two creatures. Suddenly, one of them lunged right at her.
-- --- -- --- --
"What is it this time, Koenma?" Yusuke Urameshi asked, leaning against the wall in the Prince's office.
"Right." Koenma coughed, clearing his throat as he paced the length of his desk. "Recently, it has come to our attention that a strange presence has been sensed all over all three worlds. I don't think I need to tell you how potentially dangerous this presence is, Yusuke. It doesn't seem to need any kind of portal to travel between worlds. It can and does appear anywhere and everywhere. The last sighting was in Hell."
"Yeah, so whaddaya want me to do about it?" Yusuke interrupted impatiently.
"We've managed to trace this presence to a small town in southern America. I want you, Kurama, Kuwabara, and Hiei to go undercover as students there until you can find out who is doing this." Koenma replied, peeved.
"I'm NOT going to a human school!" an angry voice stated.
Hiei moved out of the shadows, glaring at the toddler.
Koenma gulped. "Er, yes Hiei, I was kind of expecting this, but we've already secured four spots in a student exchange program…"
"Might I suggest letting Keiko fill one of those spots?" a smooth voice inquired. "Hiei could search for clues while we're at school, and it might be more believable for Keiko to participate in the program."
Kurama stepped into view as well. Hiei continued glaring at Koenma.
"Er, yes, well… very well. You'll leave in one week." The Prince of the Spirit World replied nervously.
-- --- -- --- --
"FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!" the group of boys chanted, encircling the two combatants.
Kurama sighed. Trust Yusuke to get into a fight the first day here. He ignored the chant and studied the people around him. A bit of conversation caught his attention.
"So Loren, who's gonna win?" a girl asked.
"The new kid." The girl beside her replied, yawning.
Kurama wondered how she could be so certain.
"You sure?" the other girl asked.
Loren snorted. "Bobby's in way over his head. That kid could kill him with a single punch."
She's right, Kurama mused.
"In fact…" the girl muttered, "he could beat Bobby with one finger."
"One finger?"
"Yeah. I can't explain it, but that kid could kill just about anybody with his index finger." Loren replied sleepily.
Kurama was paying full attention now. How could that girl know that?
"You look pretty tired." Loren's friend observed.
"I had a weird dream last night. I don't feel like I got any sleep at all…" Loren muttered.
The school bell rang just as Yusuke delivered the final blow. As the students filed into the building, Kurama strained to get a glimpse at the girl who had made such an accurate prediction. He sighed as he realized he was the only one left outside. She probably just had high Spirit Awareness, he decided as he hurried to catch up with the herd of students stampeding down the hall.
-- --- -- --- --
"What you do in high school will effect you for the rest of your life." The teacher lectured, pacing the length of the whiteboard. She cast a sweeping glance over the classroom. "Loren. What do you want to do when you get out of high school?"
"Huh?" the girl in the middle row asked sleepily.
Yusuke yawned, bored. She'd probably say something about going to college and getting a job. He was sitting in the back, next to Kuwabara. Both were wearing their normal street clothes. Keiko, wearing jeans and a sweater, was sitting at the front of the class like the good student she was, looking at the girl expectantly.
"Hey, Urameshi, can you believe it?" Kuwabara whispered excitedly. "We're in high school!"
"No duh, Kuwabara, it's a lot easier in America!" Yusuke retorted.
"What do you want to do when you get out of high school?" the teacher repeated patiently, directing a warning glance in the boys' direction.
The girl shrugged. "I dunno."
Yusuke glanced at the girl, who had turned to look at the clock at the back of the room. She had dirty-blonde hair that reached her shoulders, her bangs almost covering her eyes, which were a dull blue-green. She wore baggy jeans and an old gray t-shirt, and her shoes were a faded white. She also sported a black leather glove with the thumb, pinky, and index finger ripped off on her left hand. Her face was expressionless as she studied the clock.
"She'll probably just be some back-country cowpoke!" one of the boys snickered.
Loren's expression didn't change.
"Why not?" she agreed.
The teacher sighed as the bell rang.
"Well, think about it, people!" she called out.
-- --- -- --- --
Later, at lunch-
"Oooooooh!"
The cry echoed throughout the cafeteria. The boy Yusuke had fought that morning, Bobby, was standing over Loren's now ruined lunch. Kuwabara jumped up, ready to defend the girl, despite the fact that he was halfway across the cafeteria. Yusuke stood as well, scowling. Loren merely gave Bobby a blank stare.
"You fixed that fight!" Bobby growled at Loren.
"Oh yes," she agreed blandly. "I took a guess at the outcome and magically made you lose."
"You!-" Bobby snarled.
"Hey!" Yusuke called, walking towards them. "If you think me beating you into the ground was a fluke, I'd be happy to prove you wrong!"
Glaring at Loren, Bobby turned to walk away. Suddenly, he turned, his fist heading right for her.
"Why you!-" Yusuke growled, now running full speed.
In a flash, Loren had Bobby's arm pinned behind him. Her face was hard, and for just a second, Yusuke could have sworn her eyes flashed a brilliant blue. Now everyone was staring at them. Loren, noticing the stares, shrugged, letting go of Bobby's arm, and walked out of the lunch room. Yusuke watched her leave, then returned to his table.
"What was that about?" Keiko asked.
"I dunno." Yusuke replied.
-- --- -- --- --
After school-
"So, how was your first day?" the heavy set, gray-haired man asked the four as they walked up the path to the ranch house of their host.
"Great, thank you, Mr. Farr!" Keiko replied politely.
Kurama's reply was much the same, but Yusuke ignored the inquiry and asked, "Where's the guy who's supposed to be hosting us? Mr. Conner?"
"Oh, you won't be seeing him much. He's away on business a lot. Truth be told, if this weren't the only place with room to spare for four kids, or even just one, you'd be someplace else. And please, call me Jake." Jake told them.
"What about his kid?" Kuwabara asked. "I heard he has a kid, but we haven't seen 'im around."
"Oh, she's over by the corrals, working with her horse. Why don't you go over and introduce yourselves?" Jake replied pleasantly.
Yusuke shrugged and the group started to wander towards this corral. Their host owned a good-sized ranch, and they weren't completely familiar with the set-up yet. They finally got to the corral and Yusuke's eyes widened.
"Loren?!" he exclaimed, surprised.
The girl didn't seem to hear him, and the group watched silently as she and her horse, a ghostly silver beauty with a slightly darker mane, went through a series of acrobatics. Loren was on the ground, shoeless, her shirt tucked into her pants, as the horse galloped around her at a fairly high speed. Quickly and effortlessly she grabbed the harness that the mare wore, lifting herself onto its back in one fluid motion. She then proceeded to execute various flips and handstands, landing precisely and not seeming to waste a single movement. Her horse by no means had a broad back, so Loren had to land just right to avoid falling or injuring it.
After a while, she picked up the pace, falling from her mount, catching the handles, and lifting herself back onto its back quickly, alternating sides. Her horse then began to circle the corral more quickly, and at seemingly random intervals she would lean down on one side or the other and grab a fistful of dirt. Loren concluded her session by riding around the ring four times while in a handstand on her mount's back. As she slowed her horse to a walk, Kurama noticed with a start that the places Loren had reached down to grab the dirt were twelve dots, evenly spaced around the rim of the corral, six on the outside, six within the outer six, creating a counter pattern.
Loren seemed to notice them at last.
"Shouldn't you be studying or something?" she asked, her face as expressionless as always as she dismounted.
"What about you?" Yusuke retorted. "We have a science test tomorrow."
"The Periodic Table is arranged according to atomic number and atomic mass. As the atomic number increases, so does the atomic mass. The Periodic Table is also arranged in rows and columns. Rows are also known as Periods, and columns are also known as Groups or Families. Elements in the same Family or Period have several similarities linking them together. The Periodic Table was created by Mendeleev, a scientist who believed that all elements were connected in some way." Loren answered wearily.
"…"
"… Nice horse!" Kuwabara observed, reaching out to pet it.
Loren didn't twitch as her horse lunged past her, snagging a piece of Kuwabara's sleeve. Yusuke, Keiko, and Kurama backed up, staring in awe at the wild mare, whose fierce eyes were not the normal brown, but a bright blue.
"Storm doesn't trust people." Loren said by way of explanation.
"Uh-huh. You know what; I think I'll go study now." Yusuke muttered, glancing nervously at the silver mare, which was glaring threateningly at him.
Yusuke headed back towards the house, Keiko and Kuwabara hurrying to follow him. Kurama held back for a minute, to get a good look at the girl who had realized Yusuke's power, though she obviously didn't realize she'd done anything special. She was his height, slightly taller than most girls her age, but her height wasn't all that noticeable. In fact, she seemed made to fit in, to melt into any crowd. Kurama shook his head and ran to catch up with Yusuke and the others. Loren had already started for the stables.
As he reached the rest of the group, Hiei appeared.
"Nothing to report," he growled. "I can't find a single clue."
Kurama decided this was a good time to mention what he'd overheard that morning.
"She has high Spirit Awareness," Hiei stated, looking at Kuwabara. "Did you sense anything strange about her?"
"Nothing at all, she seems pretty normal to me," Kuwabara replied. "Almost too normal. She doesn't seem to have ANY thing strange about her."
"I guess she's pretty good at hiding it," Yusuke observed.
"Did you come up with that on your own, Yusuke?" Hiei sneered.
Yusuke sighed. "I guess we should go check her out some more. Maybe she's been sensing this 'mysterious presence'."
--- -- --- -- ---
A/N: Well, here's the first chapter. What do you think? Reviews will be appreciated, though they won't affect the fact that I WILL finish this story. I WILL!