A/N: I actually don't have much to say before you all read the story. Just that this was written to the songs Hands On Me by Vanessa Carlton and Twilight by Vanessa Carlton. I highly suggest listening to those two songs as you read, before you read, or directly after you read this story. They definatly set the mood.
Also! The foest I'm writing about? It's real. The mound and tunnel probably isn't but the forest itself is. I cannot remember it's name but, in the last fifty years, over seven thousand people have commited suicide in this forest. Over three fourths of them have hung themselves. Just thought that you all should know.
TRAVEL
"What do you mean he's gone?" Kuwabara asks, tongue thick in his mouth. It feels like he's just swallowed a mouthful of sand, mouth gone dry and breath catching in his throat. Because what Koenma just said didn't make sense. It couldn't make sense.
Yusuke couldn't just vanish. But here Koenma is, telling him that vanish is exactly what he did.
"I mean that I cannot find a trace of him anywhere." Koenma says frowning. "I sent him out on a mission to retrieve an old piece of pottery that some idiot misplaced and he just never came back. I was hoping that he was taking some detour or another but then his spirit energy just disapeared. And, well, no one can pick it up again."
For a moment Kuwabara is silent. He doesn't know what to say to that. Demons never try to just up and capture the Head Detective. They always have some sort of bait; be it Keiko, Atsuko, or even himself on more than one occassion. No one had ever managed to actually get their hands on Yusuke - save Sensui but Kuwabara had all but blocked that fight, and the events that took place before and after it, from his mind.
Having no one in Spirit World able to trace the other man's spirit energy just makes it that much worse. Yusuke has an unbelievable amount of spirit energy, more than anyone else than Kuwabara has ever met. No one should be able to block it all out completely.
Koenma leans forward slightly, so that both arms are stretched out on the top of his desk. "I didn't realize it when I sent him out, Kuwabara, but the artifact Yusuke was sent to retrieve is a very dangerous piece of work. If it gets broken, it will open up a portal that will suck everything and everyone near it inside."
"Where's the portal take them?" Kuwabara asks.
Koenma is silent for a moment. Then he lets out a loud sigh and seems to sink down against the oaken wood of his desk. "No one knows."
"How can know one know?" Kuwabara frowns then and crosses both arms over his chest. Fists his hands and shuffles his feet. Tries hard to ignore the twisting in his stomach.
"No one knows because no one has ever come back." Koenma answers quietly - wishing that he hadn't told Botan no when she offered to brief Kuwabara, because the look on the human's face is making his heart ache.
For Kuwabara though, those words aren't just an answer. They're like a sucker punch to the gut.
TO
Shizuru raises an eyebrow when the front door slams open and Kuwabara comes streaking in. He doesn't stop to complain about the demons that are his team-mates, the idiots that run the Spirit World, or whatever mission Koenma's insisting he go on. Just kicks the door shut behind him and flees up the stairs. She can hear his footsteps as he stomps across the wooden floor and into his room - then a flurry of noise as though he's tearing the place apart.
"Kazuma..." Shizuru says with a sigh and a shake of her head. She sits the cup of coffee that she'd been drinking out of down on the kitchen table, slips a hand in her pocket, and then heads up the stairs after him.
It could be, she supposes, that the reason he had been called to the other realm was an unusually unfair one. Though when that happens Kuwabara normally rants and raves the whole way up, going on about how they could at least properly ask him to help and not just order him around.
It always makes Shizuru want to punch the small prince upside the head.
She's the only one that can make her baby brother that mad, after all. Just like she's the only one that can call him names and make fun of him - because that's what a sister does. And, in her mind, she has more right to do that to Kuwabara than a normal sister would because she wasn't just his older sister. Shizuru was his sister, his mother, and the only family that he had for years on end.
That's one of the reasons that she doesn't knock before opening up the door to Kuwabara's bedroom and leaning against the door jam. The other reason is that she just doesn't care about his privacy.
The inside of the bedroom matches the noises that she heard downstairs. Several of the dresser drawers have been yanked open, the clothes inside half hanging out. Kuwabara's school books are in a heap on the floor. The dark blue book bag they should be in on his bed; it's sitting open and Shizuru can just barely make out a few shirts that have been shoved into it. Kuwabara is rooting through the massive pile of clothes, books, and odds 'n' ends on the floor of his closet.
"Lose something, Kazuma?" Shizuru asks. A half smile flits across her face when her brother jumps and spins around, a pair of jeans clutched to his chest.
"Shizuru!" He gasps out, light blue eyes wide. "What the - what did you ask?"
Shizuru rolls her eyes again. "I asked if you lost something." The way that Kuwabara's frown deepens and his eyes darken makes her frown.
Dropping the pants at his feet, Kuwabara turns back to the closet. "Yeah, actually. You know where out first-aid kit is?"
"You hurt?" Shizuru questions. He doesn't look hurt to her. He doesn't feel hurt either. His spirit energy just feels mad and wild and out of control, sparking and filling as much of the room as it can.
Kuwabara kicks at the pile and shakes his head.
"Then why do you need it?" Shizuru brushes the bangs out of her eyes with the back of her hand and pulls herself away from the doorjamb. Crossing the room, she drops down on the bed and nudges the bag beside her. "And where do you think you're going?"
Pursing his lips together, Kuwabara snatches the small white box that he was looking for from its hiding spot at the very back of the closet and turns around to face his sister. "I need it because something's gone wrong with Urameshi and I can't heal anyone any better than a fly could."
"Let me guess. He's gotten himself into shit and you're going after him?" When Kuwabara nods, Shizuru sighs and runs a hand through her hair. Then her face twists into a seldom seen serious expression and she's pointing a finger at her baby brother. "You be careful out there, Kazuma. Here me? Don't just run head first into things or you're going to get yourself killed."
THE
The forest is large and dense and dark. Kuwabara can tell that even from the air above it. He can tell that the branches of the trees have woven together over the years, forming a thick net that no doubt blocks out all the light from reaching the ground below them. All he can see from this view is dark green, black, and brown. But he can still tell that nothing good has ever come from its depths, be it plant, animal, or other.
In front of him, Botan shifts. The oar rocks under them when she does and Kuwabara tightens his grip on her middle without thinking.
"Directly below us should be the tunnel, Kuwabara." Botan tells him. The usual mirth is gone from her voice, replaced with a soft and foreboding tone.
Kuwabara nods. As far as he can tell, they are hovering almost directly over the middle of the forest. A part of him wants to laugh at how cliche that is, because all of the demons seem to find a hide-out in the middle of the forest or the top of the mountain or in some other ridiculously over done place. The rest of his mind is to busy telling him that it's more than just a bad idea to go in there.
Even from so far above, Kuwabara can feel the energy that the forest gives off. He knows that the moment he sets foot in there he will become a glowing target for whatever lives in those trees.
"Are you sure you don't want to just wait until Lord Koenma can get a hold of Kurama and Hiei?" Botan asks again, for what could very well have been the ninth time since she picked the man up from his house earlier that day.
Light blue eyes still locked on the growth below him, Kuwabara shakes his head. "Just get me as close to where he was supposed to be as you can, Botan."
The reaper-girl seems to wilt as she nods. Her shoulders droop and she refuses to look over her shoulder as she directs the oar back towards the start of the forest. There are no words to properly describe how much she wishes Kuwabara would wait for the others.
She knows what happened in that forest millennia ago and she doesn't want to loose both of her boys at the same time.
ENDS
Kuwabara waits until Botan is nothing more than a speck in the too-blue sky to do anything. The reaper-girl couldn't get him into the forest, not with the foliage as dense as it is, and so she dropped him off outside of what used to be a path. Now the path is over grown but brush and bushes, ivy intertwining the ground-plants with the trees around them.
He thinks he can make out a space where the plants have been trampled and pressed down. It seems that way out here, at the start, at least. But it's too dark for him to make out more than a few feet inside of the forest and so he can't tell if it is really the path that Yusuke took or if something else caused the odd flattening.
Nothing else comes to mind that could have made the mark and so Kuwabara takes a few tentative steps inside of the darkened woodland. The sudden rush of spiritual energy that hits him is so great, so alive, that he doesn't notice when the trees lower their branches and block off the pathway behind him. He doesn't notice much of anything for what seems like an impossibly long time but is really just a few seconds; Kuwabara is too busy trying to get his head to stop spinning long enough to sort out the barrage of spiritual pressure that presses against his body.
It makes him want to turn tail and leave. Flee and find someplace warm and safe to curl up until he convinces himself that it was all just his mind playing tricks on him. After all, what sort of a forest would be the home to so many depraved souls? What kind of a place would this have to be for all of this energy to be filled with so much sorrow but no malintent?
Certainly not one that he wants to stumble around blindly through.
That's what Kuwabara's mind tells him from the moment he manages to push a little of the foreign energy away from himself. Instead of listening to it, he lowers his eyes to the ground and starts walking.
OF
Hours pass, slow but fast at the same time. The light gives no sign of leaking through. There is no way for Kuwabara to tell exactly how long he's been walking blind - because his watch, he has realized, stopped the moment his body left Botan's oar. All he knows is that if he doesn't find this tunnel soon then he never will. And not because he is just that tired but because the spirits of the forest have been working away at his mind and he may do himself in before he gets much further.
The devils that surround him sing about how it would be better. How it is safer. Warmer. They sing of how easy it is and they unroll the noose's that they have used in the past. The wind blows cold and tells him to run from the evils of the forest. The devils sing louder of the place Kuwabara will find himself in should he listen to them. Often, he can hear the spirits of those who fell victim to the devils game in the past sobbing.
It takes more strength to block out their words then it does to push his way through the dense mesh of foliage that covers the ground.
Still Kuwabara refuses to listen to the wind and leave. Either he will find Yusuke and they will leave this Hell of a forest together or they will both fall prey to the evils lurking in the shadows and rot in it forever more.
THE
The tunnel is almost worse than the forest. Its entrance is dug into a mound of black dirt. The mound is nearly as tall as Kuwabara is and three times as wide as he is tall. The opening, made of packed soil and small dark pebbles that dig into the skin of his palms, is more than half that size. It just gets smaller as it slopes downwards.
Kuwabara doesn't know how long he crawls around in that tunnel. Just that the further down he goes, the less he can sense the devils and spirits of the forest. By the time that it evens out into a flat path again, the palm of his hands have gone raw.
And then he is faced with the choice of going slightly to the left and up or going straight, into a bleak world of darkness which may never have an end. A small draft greets him when he turns his face towards the branch of tunnel that slopes up - and on it he hears and feels and sees the spirits who have lost their lives to naivety telling him to go the other way.
So he listens and he continues down the straight path, idly wondering what sort of demon created the tunnel he now crawls through. Then he wonders if it was created by a demon or if the demon that Yusuke had originally been sent after just happened to wander upon the place and make it into its lair. Something tells him that it is the latter and that this tunnel and this forest have been here for centuries longer than any rotten demon.
Eventually the tunnel starts to slope downwards again and the ground he is moving on gets harder. Rougher. More solid under his grip. It takes several feet of crawling across it to realize that it is solid black stone beneath him. The path he is on gets wider too, until he can stand up again and use the equally dark walls as a guide to keep him straight.
Like everyone to go down this route before him, Kuwabara has no idea that by sticking to the left side of the wall he misses a branch of the tunnel that would take him to the true depths of the mound.
EARTH
The cavern he eventually finds himself standing just outside of is a large one. Black stone walls slope up and connect to from a roof. The ground is so dark that it looks like there is nothing there - which is exactly what it feels like because here, this deep beneath the ground, Kuwabara can no longer feel any form of energy. The tunnel he stands in is just as black as the walls and the stone floor. The cavernous room before him is bathed in a gleaming blue light that seems to ripple and pulse with a life of its own.
In the far back of the cavern, there is a slumped over form that Kuwabara couldn't mistake even if he was at Death's door.
The sight of Yusuke sends a thrill through him. Kuwabara puts a rubbed raw hand against the blue glow that stops just where the cavern starts. It is like he is pressing his palm against a block of melting ice; cool and wet and not really fully solid but still too hard to just press through. The pressure his hand gives off causes a dark ripple to go through the light. The streak of violet slices through the cerulean and gives off the appearance of slamming into Yusuke. When the other boy raises his head up, Kuwabara does his best to grin.
The reaction he gets from Yusuke is not what he was hoping for. The light blue glow that surrounds him is just as solid as the one keeping Kuwabara out. It holds him in place and grips him tight, keeping him from doing anything but shouting words that cannot be heard through the barrier.
"Hang on, Urameshi! I'm coming!" He shouts, uncaring of the fact that the other man probably can't hear him either.
Then he closes his eyes and pushes the spirit energy coursing through his body into his palm. Forms the blade in his mind, opens his eyes, and watches in triumph as it appears in his hand. The bright orange energy flickers and moves in a way different than the normal sword that he wields. It is like liquid strength and Kuwabara tells himself that he knows, doesn't just think, but truly and surely knows that this will slice a path to Yusuke for him.
When he holds the dimensional-blade in front of him, Kuwabara takes in a deep breath. He doesn't let it out as he presses the edge of the sword to the blue wall in front of him, adds pressure, and then jerks his arm down. The barrier tears, a single slice of grey appearing in the other-worldly glow, and his sword disapears.
No matter how much spirit energy he directs towards his palm, it doesn't come back.
Yusuke is still shouting silence when Kuwabara lets the air out of his lungs and presses his hand onto the grey crack. Once again, Kuwabara closes his eyes. And he gathers up every ounce of energy that he has in him and forces it into that palm. Out of the tips of his fingers and around his hand. The shining hues of orange rapidly engulf the rest of his arm, then his shoulder, spreading over his entire body.
Now, when he pushes against the thin glimpse of grey, the blue light flees away from him. Not by much. Just enough space is given that Kuwabara can force himself into the unmoving shell of empty light. From there, each step is a struggle. Each breath is a fight. Behind him, the blue closes back up. In front of him, the blue does its best to get away. A road of sorts forms and slowly, ever so slowly, Kuwabara makes his way towards Yusuke.
When he finally reaches the black haired detective, it takes an extra burst of rapidly fading energy to pierce through the sheet of energy that is draped over Yusuke. But the blue shies away from the orange in the end and Kuwabara's hand can find a grip on Yusuke's shoulder.
Time seems to freeze for a moment, at least to Kuwabara. For Yusuke, it seems to speed up. He can do nothing but watch as the taller mans face forms a look of concentration, as the other boys eyes seem to glow with determination, as the weight of the blue barrier on his body lifts and then vanishes completely. The instant that the weight vanishes, a jolt of electricity shoots through Yusuke's body. It starts at his shoulder and then works its way to the rest of him, stinging at first but leaving behind a fuzzy, warm feeling in its wake.
The flickering orange spirit energy is covering both Kuwabara and Yusuke.
"Kuwabara?" Yusuke asks. His brown eyes are wide as he pushes himself up, Kuwabara's large hand keeping an almost too firm grip on his shoulder.
Kuwabara doesn't say anything to the other man. He's afraid if he does then he'll lose control of his spirit armor and they'll both be stuck there - maybe for a few days, if Hiei and Kurama find them, but more likely forever. He's the only psychic that can cut through dimensions, or so Botan told him once when no one else was listening, and while Kurama and Hiei are strong he knows they cannot use their strength to push through the barrier of blue.
So Kuwabara takes a deep breath, grunts out a "move", and does his best to put one foot in front of the other without falling. The blue glow isn't as willing to bend this time and it sucks and sticks and grabs, choking and tripping and snatching, trying to keep its victims like it always does. Knowing that, if it can hold onto them for just a little while longer, they will never get out and it will have a new set of prey.
It takes an impossibly long time to get free. A time that seems like forever to the two struggling boys; and maybe it has been forever because when they burst free of the light barrier everything seems different. New. Fresh. Like a new world is greeting them with open arms, welcoming them back into existence.
But it lasts for only a moment.
As soon as the two burst out of the blue, Kuwabara feels his spirit energy start to waver. Then, in a blinding flash of orange-turned-white, it vanishes. With it goes every ounce of strength in the young mans body. Kuwabara's legs buckle and he cannot get his suddenly leaden arms to move and break his fall. Blue eyes roll into the back of his head and everything is black.
Kuwabara isn't awake to feel Yusuke catch him.
FOR
When Hiei and Kurama arrive at the entrance of the mound, both confused and haggard because while they can hear the taunts of the devils they cannot hear the warnings or the wails of the spirits, it is to the sight of Yusuke emerging from the tunnel with an unconscious Kuwabara draped over his shoulders.
It has been four days since Botan dropped off Kuwabara, they tell Yusuke. Three of those days were spent in the timeless place that is the Portal Of *wrath*. The backpack that Kuwabara haphazardly packed before he left his house is still laying outside of the heap of night colored sand. As he takes the first few steps away from the mound, the sand collapses in on itself, covering up the entrance to the tunnel.
"Are you sure your alright, Yusuke?" Kurama questions, doubt creeping into his voice. It isn't unusual for the lead detective to work through his injuries and he cannot tell if the half-demon is staggering because of a wound or the weight he is holding up.
"I'm fine." Yusuke grunts. "But I think something's wrong with Kuwabara. He was fine and then he just passed out!"
Hiei snorts and crosses his arms over his chest. There is derision in his voice, amusement in his smirk, and thinly veiled surprise in his eyes. "The human used up all of his spirit energy. I can't feel any left in him."
Pursing his lips together, Kurama motions for Yusuke to hand him Kuwabara. "That isn't good. We need to get him to Botan so she can look at him. Perhaps even Genkai."
Yusuke nods at the fox demon, hefts Kuwabara up higher on his shoulder, and nods towards the swath of overgrown forest behind them. "Alright. So which way's out?"
YOU
"He needs rest." Genkai announces, slipping the sliding door that leads to the lounge she has Kuwabara resting in shut behind her.
"But he'll be fine?" Yusuke demands. He stands up and crosses the room, coming to a stop in front of the elderly psychic.
Genkai frowns up at him for a moment. Then she closes her eyes, sighs, and shakes her head. "Maybe. Maybe not. I can't say whether his spirit energy will ever come back to him. If it does, I doubt that his control will ever be the same."
Yusuke stares and stares at her, mind blank and mouth partially open. Her words hit him like a knife, echoing in his mind, twisting in his gut until he thinks he might be sick. Because if Kuwabara looses his powers, then it will be his fault and no one elses and he doesn't know if he can handle that.
LOVE
Later, Hiei and Kurama will join Yusuke in Kuwabara's temporary room. They will shake their heads and roll their eyes when Yusuke and Kuwabara get into a fight. Yukina will stare at them from the doorway, worry on her face. Genkai will sit just outside the room and sip at her tea, smiling to herself because she knows what the others don't.
Kuwabara will tell Yusuke off for going in on his own. Traipsing through the forest and in that tunnel. Fighting a demon he knew nothing about. Breaking the artifact he was sent to retrieve.
Yusuke will throw the same comments back at the orange haired man. He will trade the last two in for not waiting for back-up and for even attempting to go through the solid sheet of blue. He will call Kuwabara an idiot and several other choice phrases.
Insults will be traded. Voices will be raised. It will end in a fit of laughter and Kuwabara asking them to let Shizuru know what is going on.
For now though, it is only Yusuke in the room with Kuwabara. He sits in the dark until the taller man wakes up. Then, when tired and confused blue eyes turn to him, he grabs a hold of Kuwabara's right hand with both of his own and mutters every name in the book.
"Urameshi?" Kuwabara asks, bewildered. He says it louder when he realizes there are tears running down the black haired mans face. "Urameshi?"
"Damnit, Kuwabara! Fucking damnit! You are such an dumbass!" Yusuke doesn't let go of his hand. Doesn't look up. "Running in there like that, like you have any clue what you're doing!"
"Hey, chill out Urameshi! I knew what I was doing." It's a lie and they both know that. Kuwabara isn't really trying to be believable.
"Dumbass." Yusuke calls him again. Then he blinks hard and drops the hand, leaning back in his chair. Turns a softened face onto the other boy. "Thanks for being there, Kuwabara."
And that is that. No other words are said and they will not be said later. Everything was in that one sentence. Every last ounce of feeling - of pain and regret and sorrow and joy, of anger and fury and gratitude, all pushed out in five simple words.
Kuwabara smiles and nods once. Yusuke wipes at his face with one hand, face only a little red. The door opens and, to Hiei and Kurama, it is like every other day that one of their two team-mates gets themselves injured.