Hey there! Wow this weekend has been great for inspiration. Well, there's
not much to say, so here we go. Oh yeah, I don't own any of this. So there.
But someday I will!
Recalling Balance
"So you feel it?" A neutral voice rang out in the still cavern, the words less of a question than a statement.
"How can we not?" A light female voice answered, followed by it's diametric opposite, coming from the man next to her. "There is a great unbalance in the world. The scales tip heavily."
"Heavily in favor of good. We cannot allow this. Your next assignment is to find the ones responsible. Make things right."
"Where should we start?" A mission such as this could not be allowed to wait. Obviously, if the cosmic force of balance was disturbed enough to contact the pair on such short notice it must be a matter of great importance.
"They are the reikai tantei; Yusuke, Kurama, Kuwabara, and Hiei. They are in Tokyo, Japan." The two, twin reflections of opposing forces, left the cave, and set out for their destination, steeling themselves for what lay ahead. These missions were never easy. Far from it, most times they both went home heartsick and despairing. But such is the life of those who must keep the balance, the right and left hands of the Universal Scales.
Not so far away, and two days later, the Spirit Detectives had just returned from a new battle, and were enjoying a calm, quiet, relaxing afternoon at Yusuke's house. Unfortunately, things very rarely stayed calm, quiet, and relaxing with them, especially when a gallon of ice cream, Hiei, and Kuwabara were involved.
"Why, exactly, did you feel the need to eat all my sweet snow?" that was Hiei, whose hand immediately fell to his sword belt, only to find it lacking the sword. Then he remembered that Yusuke had learned about a month ago to take his swords when he came over.
"Well, duh. You were gonna eat it first." Enter Kuwabara, who obviously thought that his statement made sense.
"That explains exactly nothing. And proves your stupidity; again."
"Hey Hiei, maybe you should give your voice a rest. You don't normally talk that much." Yusuke knew he was cruisin' for a bruisin' but couldn't resist tweaking Hiei just a little more. Finally a voice of reason (a.k.a Kurama) stepped in.
"Why don't we all just go downtown and stop by that new ice cream place. It's supposed to be pretty good." As everyone seemed to like the idea they left the house.
Downtown, everyone was enjoying their ice creams. In Hiei's case that meant trying in vain to keep all four of his from melting all over him. So, Hiei took an added precaution to not getting his clothes dripped on, and removed his shirt. He became quite a sight with various flavors tracing multicolored lines down his chest. Consequently a gathering of girls began forming in the small shop, and it promised to be a big one. "Kurama, why is it we can never take Hiei anywhere?" asked Yusuke. He was beginning to get a little unnerved by the way the girls were eyeing Hiei. It reminded him of something. "What do you mean?" Kurama was blissfully unaware of the girls because his back was turned to them.
"Oh just that those girls behind you are looking at Hiei the way he looks at his ice cream." After a little while of this they finally decided to leave. Once they left, however, they spent the next few minutes trying to lose the crowd that was stalking them. The boys were just about to make a run for it when everything around them froze. Luckily for Hiei this saved his Mocha ice cream from hitting the ground, trapping it in mid-air.
"Hey, what's going on here?" The detectives readied themselves for a fight, glancing into the crowed streets of frozen people, trying to determine where the attack would come from. The eerie silence was soon pierced by a gruff voice, and two pairs of footsteps, one light, one heavy, coming their way.
"Who the hell do you think you are, making us chase you down this way? Do you realize how much trouble you've caused us?" The speaker was soon revealed as a large, muscular man, with the look of a fighter in his eye. Behind him came another, this one a woman, small, compact, and looking like a noble, born and bred for a life of leisure. In fact, the two were so different that they actually seemed to compliment each other, and together they seemed to embody the true meaning of harmony, and balance.
"You'll have to excuse my partner. He's a bit forward." The woman said, slapping her companion lightly on the arm. "Maybe we should move to more comfortable accommodations before we begin proper introductions." She suggested, indicating the mass of statue-like men and women all around them.
"Fine. Follow us." Kurama led the way to his house, as it was closest, hoping he wasn't making a mistake. Once they got there everyone took seats, warily watching for any sign of hostility from the newcomers. The woman began talking almost immediately.
"We're sorry to trouble you. I'm Claire, and this brute is Roland. I'll be to the point; we have been sent by the cosmic forces of balance. There been a tipping of the scales lately and we believe that you four are responsible-"
"Wait," Kuwabara leaned forward, trying to understand. "Cosmic forces of balance? What do you mean?"
"We mean the caretakers of the balance in all the worlds. Even people as uneducated as you should know what we mean."
"Stop it Roland. I'm sorry. I should go slower. I'm just not sure how to explain..." Claire seemed genuinely regretful, then relieved when Hiei spoke up.
"It's simple. You all know about yin and yang, the two opposite forces in the world. Light and Dark, Good and Evil, it's all in that one symbol. What most people don't know is that these forces have to be constantly kept in balance. Otherwise, the fabric of the universe could come apart. So I'm assuming that we have something to do with this?" His last question was directed at Claire, and everyone turned expectantly toward her.
"Very nicely put. And yes, that is why we are here. When you were first starting out as the 'good guys', your efforts kept everything in balance. You were just strong enough a force to keep everything right. However, you've now become strong enough that you pose a threat to this balance. Your very existence brings the scales into chaos. Right now everything is heavily tipped in the favor of goodness."
"Well isn't that a good thing? I mean, we're here to stop the bad guys, right?" the group was, once again, thoroughly confused.
"No, that is not a good thing. Your job, believe it or not, is to indirectly keep balance. Right now you are threatening the world that you are trying so hard to protect." Claire gave them a moment to digest this information, and then plowed ahead. "We are left with two options. The first is to make the demons you fight stronger. Unfortunately that would have the unpleasant side effect of creating imbalance after all of you die, as we cannot count on more fighters of your strength showing up. So, the only option left to us is to force each of you to commit an act of destructive evil."
"Such as?" For the first time in the conversation, they had Hiei's complete attention.
"Oh, senseless destruction, random killing of innocents, that kind of thing."
"But we can't do that." Yusuke was very disturbed by all of this, as were Kurama and Kuwabara.
"Speak for yourself. I've just been given a get out of being a good guy free card!" Hiei was positively glowing as he headed for the door.
"Sorry Hiei. You can't do such things just as much as the others can't. You've changed and you know it."
"So then how do you expect us to manage this, huh?" Claire looked away, and then turned back, smiling sadly.
"You've all got to be forced to do it. I'm really sorry, but this is for the good of the universe." Roland disappeared, and the five left were suddenly in a large room, a view-screen at the front.
"You're gonna make us watch movies?" Yusuke joked, trying to hide the sense of foreboding that grew inside him.
"No. Please, forgive us for this. We're just the messengers." Everyone but Yusuke suddenly had blindfolds on, and Hiei's Jagan was also covered, the material blocking it's talents. "Watch the screen Yusuke" He did so, and his fear turned to horror as he watched. It started out fine enough; Keiko, walking down the street on her way home from a late session of a class representatives meeting. The road was deserted, except for the man that slipped out the shadows and came up behind her. Keiko heard him a little too late, started running when he was too close. She put up a good fight, but couldn't block the knife that seemed to appear from nowhere, driving into her chest and came out covered in blood.
Yusuke watched quietly, not noticing when he hit the floor on his knees. Then, unexpectedly, he was beside her, then running down the man who had killed her. When he found the man and a group of others, none of them stood a chance.
As quickly as it appeared, Hiei's blindfold was taken away. As he watched the screen, now clear of Keiko's plight, his fears seemed to go away as he watched Yukina blissfully playing with her birds in a meadow by the side of the road. She had just enough time to turn around before the truck that was only veering slightly a minute ago came roaring off the road and crushed her. Screaming, Hiei was unaware of how he got to her side, unaware of the number of bars he razed to the ground in a futile attempt to avenge his sister, even though the drunk that killed her had also died.
Kuwabara also saw the same scene, but relieved his emotions a different, more unexpected way. His suicide would be small print in the newspapers compared to the vengeful wraths of the two set loose on the human world.
Kurama's rampage through the halls of Koenma's palace, destroying more than half of it before he was taken down, was also unexpected. Who would have thought that the sight of his mother lying lifeless in the arms of a demon would drive him there, to those extremes?
Roland held Claire, rocking her gently as she sobbed into his shirt. It was always like this. The emotional bond she formed with their charges always brought her to her knees in grief, and it was worse this time. The deaths and the broken hearts that she left in her wake ate away at her, and sending the pain to four more people just trying to do their jobs would probably tear at her for the next hundred years or more.
End
So whatcha think? I'm practically crying on this end, but I suppose it's more emotional writing it than reading it. Anyway, I'm not continuing this, so unless anyone has any ideas on how to continue it, then please don't ask, because I just don't have any ideas how I could. But I'm babbling. I hope you'll forgive me, I don't think it's as good as my others. I'll try to do better next time.
Recalling Balance
"So you feel it?" A neutral voice rang out in the still cavern, the words less of a question than a statement.
"How can we not?" A light female voice answered, followed by it's diametric opposite, coming from the man next to her. "There is a great unbalance in the world. The scales tip heavily."
"Heavily in favor of good. We cannot allow this. Your next assignment is to find the ones responsible. Make things right."
"Where should we start?" A mission such as this could not be allowed to wait. Obviously, if the cosmic force of balance was disturbed enough to contact the pair on such short notice it must be a matter of great importance.
"They are the reikai tantei; Yusuke, Kurama, Kuwabara, and Hiei. They are in Tokyo, Japan." The two, twin reflections of opposing forces, left the cave, and set out for their destination, steeling themselves for what lay ahead. These missions were never easy. Far from it, most times they both went home heartsick and despairing. But such is the life of those who must keep the balance, the right and left hands of the Universal Scales.
Not so far away, and two days later, the Spirit Detectives had just returned from a new battle, and were enjoying a calm, quiet, relaxing afternoon at Yusuke's house. Unfortunately, things very rarely stayed calm, quiet, and relaxing with them, especially when a gallon of ice cream, Hiei, and Kuwabara were involved.
"Why, exactly, did you feel the need to eat all my sweet snow?" that was Hiei, whose hand immediately fell to his sword belt, only to find it lacking the sword. Then he remembered that Yusuke had learned about a month ago to take his swords when he came over.
"Well, duh. You were gonna eat it first." Enter Kuwabara, who obviously thought that his statement made sense.
"That explains exactly nothing. And proves your stupidity; again."
"Hey Hiei, maybe you should give your voice a rest. You don't normally talk that much." Yusuke knew he was cruisin' for a bruisin' but couldn't resist tweaking Hiei just a little more. Finally a voice of reason (a.k.a Kurama) stepped in.
"Why don't we all just go downtown and stop by that new ice cream place. It's supposed to be pretty good." As everyone seemed to like the idea they left the house.
Downtown, everyone was enjoying their ice creams. In Hiei's case that meant trying in vain to keep all four of his from melting all over him. So, Hiei took an added precaution to not getting his clothes dripped on, and removed his shirt. He became quite a sight with various flavors tracing multicolored lines down his chest. Consequently a gathering of girls began forming in the small shop, and it promised to be a big one. "Kurama, why is it we can never take Hiei anywhere?" asked Yusuke. He was beginning to get a little unnerved by the way the girls were eyeing Hiei. It reminded him of something. "What do you mean?" Kurama was blissfully unaware of the girls because his back was turned to them.
"Oh just that those girls behind you are looking at Hiei the way he looks at his ice cream." After a little while of this they finally decided to leave. Once they left, however, they spent the next few minutes trying to lose the crowd that was stalking them. The boys were just about to make a run for it when everything around them froze. Luckily for Hiei this saved his Mocha ice cream from hitting the ground, trapping it in mid-air.
"Hey, what's going on here?" The detectives readied themselves for a fight, glancing into the crowed streets of frozen people, trying to determine where the attack would come from. The eerie silence was soon pierced by a gruff voice, and two pairs of footsteps, one light, one heavy, coming their way.
"Who the hell do you think you are, making us chase you down this way? Do you realize how much trouble you've caused us?" The speaker was soon revealed as a large, muscular man, with the look of a fighter in his eye. Behind him came another, this one a woman, small, compact, and looking like a noble, born and bred for a life of leisure. In fact, the two were so different that they actually seemed to compliment each other, and together they seemed to embody the true meaning of harmony, and balance.
"You'll have to excuse my partner. He's a bit forward." The woman said, slapping her companion lightly on the arm. "Maybe we should move to more comfortable accommodations before we begin proper introductions." She suggested, indicating the mass of statue-like men and women all around them.
"Fine. Follow us." Kurama led the way to his house, as it was closest, hoping he wasn't making a mistake. Once they got there everyone took seats, warily watching for any sign of hostility from the newcomers. The woman began talking almost immediately.
"We're sorry to trouble you. I'm Claire, and this brute is Roland. I'll be to the point; we have been sent by the cosmic forces of balance. There been a tipping of the scales lately and we believe that you four are responsible-"
"Wait," Kuwabara leaned forward, trying to understand. "Cosmic forces of balance? What do you mean?"
"We mean the caretakers of the balance in all the worlds. Even people as uneducated as you should know what we mean."
"Stop it Roland. I'm sorry. I should go slower. I'm just not sure how to explain..." Claire seemed genuinely regretful, then relieved when Hiei spoke up.
"It's simple. You all know about yin and yang, the two opposite forces in the world. Light and Dark, Good and Evil, it's all in that one symbol. What most people don't know is that these forces have to be constantly kept in balance. Otherwise, the fabric of the universe could come apart. So I'm assuming that we have something to do with this?" His last question was directed at Claire, and everyone turned expectantly toward her.
"Very nicely put. And yes, that is why we are here. When you were first starting out as the 'good guys', your efforts kept everything in balance. You were just strong enough a force to keep everything right. However, you've now become strong enough that you pose a threat to this balance. Your very existence brings the scales into chaos. Right now everything is heavily tipped in the favor of goodness."
"Well isn't that a good thing? I mean, we're here to stop the bad guys, right?" the group was, once again, thoroughly confused.
"No, that is not a good thing. Your job, believe it or not, is to indirectly keep balance. Right now you are threatening the world that you are trying so hard to protect." Claire gave them a moment to digest this information, and then plowed ahead. "We are left with two options. The first is to make the demons you fight stronger. Unfortunately that would have the unpleasant side effect of creating imbalance after all of you die, as we cannot count on more fighters of your strength showing up. So, the only option left to us is to force each of you to commit an act of destructive evil."
"Such as?" For the first time in the conversation, they had Hiei's complete attention.
"Oh, senseless destruction, random killing of innocents, that kind of thing."
"But we can't do that." Yusuke was very disturbed by all of this, as were Kurama and Kuwabara.
"Speak for yourself. I've just been given a get out of being a good guy free card!" Hiei was positively glowing as he headed for the door.
"Sorry Hiei. You can't do such things just as much as the others can't. You've changed and you know it."
"So then how do you expect us to manage this, huh?" Claire looked away, and then turned back, smiling sadly.
"You've all got to be forced to do it. I'm really sorry, but this is for the good of the universe." Roland disappeared, and the five left were suddenly in a large room, a view-screen at the front.
"You're gonna make us watch movies?" Yusuke joked, trying to hide the sense of foreboding that grew inside him.
"No. Please, forgive us for this. We're just the messengers." Everyone but Yusuke suddenly had blindfolds on, and Hiei's Jagan was also covered, the material blocking it's talents. "Watch the screen Yusuke" He did so, and his fear turned to horror as he watched. It started out fine enough; Keiko, walking down the street on her way home from a late session of a class representatives meeting. The road was deserted, except for the man that slipped out the shadows and came up behind her. Keiko heard him a little too late, started running when he was too close. She put up a good fight, but couldn't block the knife that seemed to appear from nowhere, driving into her chest and came out covered in blood.
Yusuke watched quietly, not noticing when he hit the floor on his knees. Then, unexpectedly, he was beside her, then running down the man who had killed her. When he found the man and a group of others, none of them stood a chance.
As quickly as it appeared, Hiei's blindfold was taken away. As he watched the screen, now clear of Keiko's plight, his fears seemed to go away as he watched Yukina blissfully playing with her birds in a meadow by the side of the road. She had just enough time to turn around before the truck that was only veering slightly a minute ago came roaring off the road and crushed her. Screaming, Hiei was unaware of how he got to her side, unaware of the number of bars he razed to the ground in a futile attempt to avenge his sister, even though the drunk that killed her had also died.
Kuwabara also saw the same scene, but relieved his emotions a different, more unexpected way. His suicide would be small print in the newspapers compared to the vengeful wraths of the two set loose on the human world.
Kurama's rampage through the halls of Koenma's palace, destroying more than half of it before he was taken down, was also unexpected. Who would have thought that the sight of his mother lying lifeless in the arms of a demon would drive him there, to those extremes?
Roland held Claire, rocking her gently as she sobbed into his shirt. It was always like this. The emotional bond she formed with their charges always brought her to her knees in grief, and it was worse this time. The deaths and the broken hearts that she left in her wake ate away at her, and sending the pain to four more people just trying to do their jobs would probably tear at her for the next hundred years or more.
End
So whatcha think? I'm practically crying on this end, but I suppose it's more emotional writing it than reading it. Anyway, I'm not continuing this, so unless anyone has any ideas on how to continue it, then please don't ask, because I just don't have any ideas how I could. But I'm babbling. I hope you'll forgive me, I don't think it's as good as my others. I'll try to do better next time.