I have to say, than you all who decided to read this! This is all based on a very vivid dream that I had last night and I thought that I should write it.
I should tell you that this story mainly involves Yusuke, Kuwabarra, King Enma, and my OC, Sheliah. Hiei and Kurama are only mentioned slightly toward the end. This is a one-shot people. Also, Kuwabarra isn't completely brain-dead in this story either. It wouldn't fit at all if he were. I should also warn you that the genre (Horror/Action/Adventure) is there for a very good reason. This was based on a nightmare that I had to struggle to actually stay in; note the title. Time to begin this story. This will be in first person from Sheliah's point of view.
Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho in any way, shape, or form. Because I make a subtle reference to something in the game Star Ocean: Till the End of Time, I don't own that either. I do, however, own my OC Sheliah. If you want to use her in a story, just ask me first.
The Illusion of Death: The Ultimate Nightmare
"Hey Yusuke, you up here?" I asked, making my way to the roof of the school where I knew Yusuke was.
"Sheliah, that you?" I heard a voice ask from behind the roof entrance.
"Who else would it be?" I asked as I leaned on the wall next to him.
"What does Diaper Face need now?" He asked, slightly annoyed. I had to chuckle slightly at the name he gave to my brother.
Yes, I am the sister of Koenma, Sheliah. I don't care about being a Spirit Princess. I do all the dirty assassin work that Koenma can't get his spirit detectives to do or what my father can't get his precious SDF to do. I enjoy doing it; it let me enhance my skills as a demon while doing what they need at the same time. It's like killing two birds with one stone, thought the others don't realize it much. I'm not really the straightforward fighter but I can teleport and phase through solid objects really well. It makes my work in the shadows really easy.
"My brother doesn't need anything from you at the moment. Are you still up for tonight?" I asked, looking to the sky. I could feel his gaze look to me.
"Are you serious? You really want to go through with that?" Yusuke asked.
"Sure, if you're up with it, that is. Are you free tonight?" I asked.
"Sure. Meet you at my place?" He asked.
"Yeah. Be ready at nine." I said and teleported back to my house in the forest, leaving Yusuke where he sat.
You see, about last week, while Yusuke and me were exploring Demon World, we found a small rift in the forest that worked as a portal. We were curious toward it, and decided that we would try and figure out what lay beyond it.
We both had agreed that tonight would be that night, but we wouldn't tell anyone about it. I may have connections as far as Koenma goes—being his sister does have its advantages—but I still didn't need any unwanted attention.
It took me about an hour to get ready for the Demon World trip. I had to make sure I had all of my extras with me including my sword and all of my other knives. Finally, I donned my black cloak, grabbed a quick dinner and teleported to Yusuke's house.
I walked up the path and lightly knocked on the door, dropping my hood in case his mother answered the door. When the sliding door opened a minuscule amount, I noticed that Yusuke was peering out slightly.
"It's me." I said, waiting for him to open the door completely. When he did, I hurried inside and he closed the door quietly and led me to his room. I assumed his mother was all ready asleep.
When he ushered me into his lighted room, he shut the door quietly but quickly and I started talking again.
"Are you ready to go?" I asked, looking around his messy room. There were clothes scattered all over the floor. His desk was a mess of papers and I was sure that under all that mess was something that he neglected to do: homework. I'm sure his mother was fed up with cleaning after him so he was on his own. "Do you even know the meaning of organization? This room looks my father went through it on a bad day." I said after making my observations. Yusuke chuckled a bit but that's as far as he went before digging under his bed for something.
When he came up for a breath, he had a box in his hands.
"What's that?" I asked him, but I sensed the small amounts of spirit energy coming from it.
"These are all the gadgets that Botan gave to me in my early missions. I figured I might be able to use at least one of them here." He said.
"You won't need anything. All you need to do is look around and I can gather your memories of it later. Don't underestimate my ability as a psychic. If you're ready, let's just go." I said, pulling up my hood.
"Fine. Here." He said, holding out his hand. I grabbed it and teleported to the Demon World with him. We appeared right in front of the forest we found the rift in.
"You ready?" I asked, stepping in.
"Duh. Let's go." He said to me.
"Try to keep up." I said, running in. Yusuke did a pretty good job of keeping up for the most part, but I still got to the small rift before he did; the rift wasn't to far in the forest.
"You ready to go in?" He asked when he finally caught up. I turned to him.
"I'm ready when you are. On three?" I asked, grabbing his arm.
"Fine. Three!" He said and we jumped in.
We were met with blue space. All around us was just this space of cerulean blue that covered everything. Below our feet was a crystal path that was a lighter shade of blue than everything else. There were random sets of huge crystals that were an amethyst color. When I looked up, I saw the night sky, but it looked a midnight blue color with small stars sparkling in it.
The path led in three directions. The path to our left seemed to stop after about sixty feet. The path to the right seemed to go down, but with the middle path going up, I didn't trust it. I was all too aware that something could ambush us here and we could never fight it off. The middle path, like I just said, led up in a series of stairs that opened on to a larger platform.
"Well, it's obvious the left path doesn't lead anywhere. Which way do you want to go?" I heard Yusuke ask after a few minutes of observing our surroundings. After a quick glance at both paths again, I answered him.
"I say take the middle path. It gives us a lesser chance of being snuck up on." I said. Yusuke's face showed a little disagreement and I pulled out a small knife from the pouch and held it out to him.
"Front, back. Let this show us where to go." I said, pointing to the sharp and blunt sides of my knife before throwing it into the air. Yusuke and I backed up a little before the knife landed in front of me, the blade facing the middle path.
"I won't question that. I'd say split up at first but we really can't do that here." He said.
"Exactly. Let's go." I said, grabbing the knife and putting it away before continuing on. Yusuke followed close behind, observing everything around us.
We were walking for about ten minutes before we came to any sign of the stairs stopping. When they finally did stop, I looked over the top of the stairs and saw something I didn't think I would be seeing. When Yusuke looked over the stairs, I had to cover his mouth to keep his yell from reaching the sensitive ears of King Enma himself. When I pulled him down a couple stairs, I hissed for him to keep it quiet before releasing his mouth.
"Was that who I thought it was?" He whispered before going to look a second time. I pulled him down before he could get up all the way.
"Yes. I'm surprised he's here myself. I didn't know he would actually create a realm in Demon World without either Koenma or myself figuring it out. This is truly curious." I said before creeping up to look over the edge again.
"Something just isn't right though." I mumbled to myself. "What could my father do here that he couldn't do in the confines of Spirit World?"
"I think your dad finally lost his mind." Yusuke said out of nowhere.
"As much as I hate to admit it, you might be right." I said. If only I had kept quiet.
"Who's there?" My father's voice boomed across the empty, quiet space.
"Damn." I cursed under my breath.
"Let's get out of here. We've seen enough." Yusuke said. I grabbed his arm and tried to teleport us out of there. I opened my eyes to see that we were still in the same exact place.
"What the hell?" I asked under my breath.
"What is it? Just get us out of here before your dad sees us!" Yusuke yelled in a whisper.
"I can't!" I yelled back.
"What?"
"I can't teleport out of here! Either this space puts a limit on my powers, or my dad knows it's me and doesn't want me to leave!" I said in a hurried whisper.
"So are we running?" He asked.
"Down those stairs? He'd see us before he even got to the edge of these!" I yelled. I looked around, looking for an escape route. That's when I saw the edge of the stairs on the right side that was easily jumped over. That's when I remembered…
…The path to the right seemed to go down, but with the middle path going up, I didn't trust it. I was all too aware that something could ambush us…
"Yusuke! Follow my lead!" I yelled, jumping over the right side of the stairs.
"Are you crazy? Sheliah, that's a long way down!" He yelled but he knew it was the only way out. He jumped.
I, meanwhile, was feeling the effects of free-falling over hundreds of feet. Suddenly, I was floating there. I knew I wasn't going any farther down because of the crystal that I had so conveniently stopped by. I looked up to see that Yusuke had stopped as well. I was also smart enough to figure out that this wasn't a good thing.
The next thing I knew, I was floating about five feet above the platform we just jumped off of, staring my father down. I looked next to me to see Yusuke in the same position.
"Yusuke? Sheliah? Why is either of you in my forbidden realm!" He yelled in both of our faces.
"We found a rift in the forest and we decided to see where it went. We didn't know it led here to your…forbidden realm, as you call it." I said calmly. "If I may ask, though. What can you do here that you can't do in Spirit World?"
"That is none of your business! For trespassing here, you will be punished greatly!" He bellowed.
"I personally don't see the reason, but whatever it is, I will take it." I said.
"Speak for yourself! Enma, man, we didn't know where that stupid portal even led! How can you punish us for doing something we didn't know we were doing?" Yusuke yelled.
"Yusuke, shut up! I'm only doing this so he doesn't get even worse with his anger. You might have heard stories from my brother, but he is much worse when you get on his bad side! Will you just grin and bear it all ready!" I hissed.
"I'm afraid it's too late for that now. It's time for your punishment." My father said in a tone that suggested that it was absolute.
"Damn." I hissed. And then came the illusion of the mind. I knew it was an illusion, but knowing didn't make it any better. Everything looked the same though.
I still saw my enraged father in front of me, Yusuke beside me, and the platform below us. I looked to my father again, wondering the point of this when I saw something materializing behind him. By the deepening of the breaths next to me, Yusuke noticed as well.
I sensed Yusuke's energy rising, but there was no way he could use the Spirit Gun against our new enemy; especially when he couldn't move a muscle.
The form appearing above my father's head was that of a cloaked being. The cloak made it look like a black ghost that had a formless bottom half. It was holding a scythe that I found oddly familiar. When the hood of the blanket-like cloak rose closer to the being's face, I saw the face of a skull, the smile of death himself. This was the Reaper of Souls; and I wasn't talking about Botan. This was the human interpretation of what Death looks like. This was Botan's evil twin, so to speak. Father summoned him for a reason, and that scythe looked awfully deadly.
Suddenly, and I mean within moments, the scythe had swung completely. The pain was minimal; I actually felt nothing but a mere pinprick compared to some fights I go through. The disconnection was unbearable. The feeling of being able to do nothing—essentially being nothing—was more painful than any physical torment I could possibly face.
I was surrounded by darkness; a black that would rival my own preferences of the shadows. I couldn't move though I tried as hard as I possibly could. I tried speaking, but it was as if my vocal cords were cut off by some unknown force. I couldn't hear anything. I couldn't see anything. I couldn't feel anything. I couldn't even smell anything. I should also tell you that I, being a demon and everything, cannot stand to have any of my senses cut off. It was a condition that made me go insane for a few moments. I thrashed out with my thoughts, trying desperately to reach another mind that was capable of hearing, sight, touch or smell; but my telepathy seemed to have been cut off as well. Just when I thought I would reach my final limits of sanity, it all ended.
When I opened my eyes (finally, blessed sight!), I noticed that I was standing on the edge of a tower. All around me were the same violet crystals that I had the grace to see in the forbidden realm as well. I looked to my right to see Yusuke teetering on the edge of the platform, not even noticing what was happening. I quickly grabbed the back of his shirt and pulled him back. That's when he awoke.
"Hey Sheliah, since when did it get so cold?" He asked me. Me, recognizing exactly where we were, answered him.
"Since we came back to the Human World. At the moment, we are miles above the ground in a tower that no one without any spirit awareness could possibly see." I said. He crawled to the edge of the platform and looked over, nearly fainting afterward. I pulled him back and he turned to me again.
"So how are we getting down?" He asked.
"We're too far up for me to use my teleporting abilities. We'll have to get closer to the ground before I can hope to get us home." I told him.
"What do you mean? We can't be that far up, can we?" He asked.
"Look up." I said simply. He did and it seemed as if he would get a heart attack. From where we were, we had a perfect sight of the moon as well as Mars and Venus.
"How are we even breathing right now? We have to be out of the atmosphere for sure." He said.
"I'm surprised you know that much about science, Yusuke. Considering how you skip school all the time." I said.
"Hey! Just because I skip doesn't mean I don't know it!" He yelled.
"Whatever. Let's just get off of here before someone finds us." I said, grabbing his arm and jumping off the edge of the platform.
"Holy Shit!" Yusuke yelled as we dove to the ground hundreds of feet below us. When we were close enough to the ground, I teleported us to Yusuke's room, teleporting myself out of there soon after.
A Week Later…
Kuwabarra, being who he was, was a very curious person. He noticed that Yusuke went out every night; the fact that Kuwabarra couldn't find Yusuke's energy at night was a little suspicious. That's when he decided to go to his house one night.
When Kuwabarra realized that Yusuke wasn't at home, he decided to take a walk to see if Yusuke was out on the streets, berating up whoever got in his way; it would be his style.
While Kuwabarra was taking the night walk, some different force told him—people would laugh at him later for this, but yes, told him—to look into the night sky. Kuwabarra pushed this off immediately, not being one to actually look at the stars unless it actually had to do with beating his opponents into a pulp, but it wouldn't stop nagging at him. Finally, thinking that it was just some stupid instinct, Kuwabarra looked into the starry sky to see something that he hadn't seen before.
There was a tower in the sky. If it wasn't a tower, it was something to that extent. The point was, it was huge. He could barely recognize the lighted outline of the floating building. There seemed to be some sort of protrusions all over it. They looked almost like…crystals.
Now Kuwabarra was very suspicious of a tower just appearing out of the sky with no way to get to it at all…or so he thought. He found out that by just thinking about it, the could teleport himself to the Crystal Tower. Now that he was here, a little exploring couldn't hurt…could it?
I woke up. It was as simple as that. But something told me that it wasn't that simple.
After a week of the king's "punishment", I had gone nearly insane. This was different though. This was this for sure sense that something wasn't right in the world. Something was wrong, and it was very close to home.
I got up and called Yusuke, thinking that there was no way he would have gone to school today, even if he was just going to skip. This whole week has been too hard on us sleep-wise. When he picked up, I asked him about what I was sensing. He agreed that something just didn't seem right, but he didn't know what it was.
"I have the strangest feeling that this has to do with the Crystal Tower that we keep going back to every night." I said when I finally was able to get him out of the house.
"Is there any way we can get to it? I thought it only appeared at night." Yusuke told me.
"I don't know, but I might be able to get special access from my brother if the reason's important enough. He hasn't had any reason to disprove one of my feelings yet. He has to let us in." I said.
"Well then I guess it's off to Spirit World we go to see Diaper Butt. I can't believe I'm doing this willingly. Let's go." He said, grabbing on to my shoulder as I transported us to my brother's office.
Prince Koenma was currently talking to his ogre friend about some papers that he had failed to fill out. After waiting five minutes and listening to my brother strike a pointless conversation, I walked behind the ogre and clamped my hand on his shoulder.
"Now I know as well as anyone here that these papers must be extremely important, but at the moment, I have priority. Come back in a few minutes if this is so precious to you." I said as I guided the ogre out the doors with a strong hand.
"What is it, Sheliah?" Koenma asked me, relieved to be freed of his duty for the few moments I was there.
"Yusuke and I need access into the Crystal Tower." I said bluntly.
"What! I can't take you there. You know full well that the Crystal Tower can only be accessed in emergencies—"
"And this is an emergency. Kuwabarra went missing—surely you must've noticed—and I have plenty of reason to believe that he somehow got lost in the Crystal Tower." I explained.
"Wait. This all has to do with Kuwabarra? Why the hell would he be in this place, I do have to ask, Sheliah." Yusuke asked.
"The Crystal Tower is visible to the Human World at night. Even if only those with spirit awareness are able to see it, it only takes a thought to teleport you there. Kuwabarra is exactly the type to think like that too. Koenma, you have to let us go." I said, almost to the point of pleading.
"Very well, but you are taking Hiei and Kurama with you for safety. It's not that I don't think you'll be able to handle it; it's just that there are too many inconspicuous traps. I'll open a portal for you." He said and opened the portal.
"We're going ahead." I said and jumped through the portal with Yusuke.
"Where do we go from here?" He asked.
"I'd wait for the demons, but I seriously don't think we have the time to spare. Let's start climbing." I said, all ready grabbing Yusuke so we could start flying through the floors searching for Kuwabarra.
When we got to the sixteenth floor, I saw two things of interest. One was the fact that the demons had beaten us there. The second was the fact that Kuwabarra was on the platform outside, almost being killed by a well-placed force from Enma.
"Yusuke, fire a Spirit Gun! Now!" I yelled, getting ready to grab Kuwabarra with the diversion. When the blast hit, I was all ready back in the building with Kuwabarra at my side. We only had a few minutes to spare before Enma would start chasing us again. I turned to everyone else.
"Let's split up. I'm taking Kuwabarra with me. Meet on the twentieth floor?" I asked, getting nods from most everyone.
"Sure." The modest fox demon Kurama said.
"Hn." The fire demon Hiei replied.
"Let's go then." I said, grabbing Kuwabarra and running through random walls, not even looking back to see if the others got away or not. I heard Enma roar behind us and we increased our speed to the point where Kuwabarra was literally lifting off the ground.
"We're going up." I said before jumping three straight floors to get away from the king of Spirit World. That's when we were finally able to stop and catch our breath for a minute.
"What the hell happened to you and Yusuke here?" Kuwabarra asked the minute he caught his breath.
"Believe me, you don't want to know. We literally went through hell no thanks to the person who's chasing us." I told him.
"Can I have at leas some details?" He asked. "I was a little worried about Yusuke, but don't tell him or I'll have to hurt you." He added quickly.
"I'll explain on the way to finding some stairs. Open your mind." I said as I heard the king finally getting on this floor. "Time to run." I said and started flying through random walls again, trying to find the stairs while transferring the memories of what happened so far to Kuwabarra, and leaving out the whole death issue.
I finally found the final set of stairs I had to climb and found myself on the outdoor platform of the twentieth floor.
"We made it." Kuwabarra said.
"True, but we shouldn't be outside like this. Something's wrong." I said before I was cut off by a force pushing me off the platform along with Kuwabarra.
"Shit!" He yelled.
"Kuwabarra, hold on!" I yelled, grabbing his hand and teleporting us back to the platform. When I opened my eyes, I found sky all around me. What the hell? Damn it! I have to try again!
The second time brought me to my knees on the platform, facing a full-fledged Enma. Kuwabarra was beside me, scared shitless. I looked behind Enma to see Yusuke, Kurama and Hiei looking through the window. Kurama and Yusuke looked worried and Hiei just looked shocked. Yusuke was pounding on the window. Enma shot a small amount of force that went past my head but knocked Kuwabarra back a few feet.
I looked up, realizing that he was willing to kill Kuwabarra to get to me ultimately.
"If I agree to let you kill me, and me alone, will you let the boy go?" I asked, knowing what he wanted for some reason. He seemed to think it over.
"Yes." He finally said.
"Kuwabarra. Go." I whispered without looking away from the king's face. I sensed his gaze fall on me.
"But—Sheliah-"
"Just go!" I yelled. Kuwabarra somehow made it through the windowed wall with the remnants of my power and Enma turned to me.
"I believe it is time for your foolish life to come to an end." He said, knocking me with a force meant to kill. I phased behind him before it could hit.
"On the contrary, next time you should do some more research before you steal a body just to torment those around you. Good-bye, Shapeshifter." I said before using the same force-pushing trick to push Enma off the platform to his ultimate death. I then walked inside the building where I came across The shocked faces of Yusuke and Kuwabarra.
"You killed King Enma!" Yusuke yelled.
"Can Enma even die?" Kuwabarra asked.
I heard Hiei mutter under his breath. "Idiots. Complete morons."
"You all are deluding yourselves. That wasn't Enma. He was just an impostor." I said.
"What gave it away?" Yusuke asked.
"It was obvious the minute he found us in that space. There's no way he would be hanging out in a place like that. There's no way he would ever put the experience of death on his own daughter, especially for an entire week. There's also no way he would be chasing us around at all in a place like this. That's how I figured he was a fake." I said.
"Oh…wow." Yusuke whispered.
"Now that that's over with, anyone up for pizza?" Kuwabarra asked. After Kuwabarra gained three large bumps on his head, Yusuke and I agreed, hoping to never come across something like this again.
"…Koenma? Can we get a portal now?…"
So there's my crazy imagination written out on paper. I'm sure the horror isn't that intense—I was never a good horror writer—but I tried my hardest. I hope you liked it. It really was a dream I had. Sure, I might have added a few shining details that weren't exactly there, but that's about the gist of it. I hope you enjoyed. Review if you have the time.
For fans of my Mystic Saiyan DBZ series, please be patient a little while longer. I'm not dead yet and I'm sorry that I haven't written a new chapter in months but with all the homework crowding on me, I haven't had the time to type it up. Expect it sometime this weekend if not sooner.
Thank you for reading!
Shekailaia Shinomori (Not to be associated with Aoshi ShinomoriRK fans)