Two Worlds
By Fruit is NOT a Dessert
Disclaimer: I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho.
Chapter One
Kurama leaned back in his chair, scrolling through a Wikipedia page for his chemistry project.
"Stoichiometry rests upon the law of conservation of mass, the law of definite proportions and the law of multiple proportions. In general, chemical reactions will combine in definite ratios of chemicals. Since matter cannot be created or destroyed, the amount of each element must be the same throughout the overall reaction. For example, the amount of element X on the reactant side must equal the amount of element X on the product side…"
He sighed. Kurama generally enjoyed chemistry—being a skilled florist, he excelled at the subject. Chemical reactions were easy, as were balancing equations, stabilizing ions, and labs. Despite this, his current chemistry project was killing him.
"Stoichiometry…what a hassle."
Kurama recalled the previous day's events. His chemistry teacher had assigned a partner project, which caused the girls of the class to flock to his desk. Of course, nearly every girl wanted to be Kurama's partner. Fearful of inducing jealousy for the one he was paired with, he asked the teacher if he could work alone, but…
She had stuck him with another boy. This boy sat in the corner of the classroom, often dressed entirely in black. Oddly enough, Kurama could not recall the name of his partner. Did it begin with an 'I' or an 'H'? No matter.
"Oh well. I may as well complete this project by…what's this?" A small window popped up on Kurama's computer monitor. Kurama sighed. It was a message screen from his instant messenger program.
CutieGirl314: hi shuichi
Kurama didn't recognize either of the names. He did not have a "CutieGirl314" in his buddy list, nor did he immediately realize that he himself was "shuichi." Shuichi Minamino was Kurama's human name. After a couple hundred years of living as the infamous demon fox thief, Kurama, in the Demon Realm, the sixteen years he had spent as Shuichi were not enough for him to welcome his new name.
Not that it mattered—in a few years, he would have enough of his demonic energy recovered to return to his professional business of thieving rare artifacts and spiritual belongings.
Kurama gazed at the screen, amused. Nearly every new girl who IMed him for the first time would begin with repeatedly praising his looks, intelligence, athletic ability, and popularity. Instead, this "CutieGirl314" had opted for a simple salutation. He decided to allow her the privilege of a typed response.
ShuichiM: Hello, to whom am I speaking to?
CutieGirl314: nobody, i guess…
The response was instantaneous. A small bit of pity gripped Kurama. He had always had a soft spot for uncertain girls.
ShuichiM: Well, I'm Shuichi. How do you do, Mystery Lady?
Kurama waited exactly two minutes for a response. He saw the small subtext "CutieGirl314 is typing…" which soon became "CutieGirl314 has entered text." Kurama minimized the window and continued with his research.
Five minutes later, the response had not come.
He shrugged, and went into the kitchen to get a soda. When he got back to the computer, the girl still hadn't responded. However, the "CutieGirl314 has entered text." subtext was still on the IM window. Kurama X'd the little conversation box.
Sure, Kurama was curious but, moreover, he had the report to finish.
-
The following morning, Kurama awoke to the mechanical beeping of his alarm clock—it read 5:30. His head launched upward and made contact with the wooden bottom of the upper bunk bed. The occupant of the upper bed stirred.
"Hey, you woke me up, Shuichi!" came a springy voice.
A young boy's face popped out, hanging upside down. He had straight crimson hair and emerald eyes and bore a cute, childish face. He was Shora Minamino.
"Ah…I'm sorry, little brother."
"Don't worry," said Shora with a grin. "I was gonna wake you up first by jumping on your stomach, but I guess you avoided it! There's my big brother for ya."
Kurama laughed off his apprehension of being jumped upon. "Too bad, little brother. If you'll excuse me, I must attend school today. Tiroya High School does not regard late arrivals with cheers."
As Kurama walked out the door, Shora threw a pair of dirty white socks at him. Kurama heard his brother's insane giggling as he closed the door. He made himself a quick breakfast, put on his shined leather shoes, and departed for school.
The sun was not up yet, but Tokyo was busy as ever. Businessmen, shopkeepers, workers, and students were already up and about. Kurama took in the perfumed scent outside of the apartment building and set off. As he strolled, he heard a chorus of low giggles from behind.
My Youko sense is tingling… Kurama chanced a backwards glance. It was a ring of girls from the same school, marked by their collared white shirts and maroon skirts. At the head of the group was a girl Kurama recognized as the president of the Shuichi Minamino Fan Club. Time to disappear.
Kurama swung to the left casually, entering a ramen shop. "One ramen, Mr. Yukimura!" he said aloud while giving the man a hand signal. Mr. Yukimura, the owner of the shop, recognized it as Kurama's standard escape sign.
"Very well, Shuichi. One ramen coming up," he said with a wink.
Kurama nodded his appreciation and immediately exited the ramen shop through the back door. Through the door, he heard one of the girls ask Mr. Yukimura where Shuichi had gone. Mr. Yukimura told her that he was in the restroom and didn't feel well.
Kurama made it to Tiroya High School five minutes before the bell by cutting through a few lawns and eventually merging back onto the main road. The day went uneventfully. Chemistry was the last class of the day and Kurama made his way to the lab room through Tiroya's complex series of hallways. Heavy footfalls approached him from behind.
"Hey you, Minamino! That's you, right? Minamino!" Kurama turned to see a tall boy staring down at him. The boy wore the school uniform with an unregulated blue jacket. His head was shaved and he wore a red headband on his head.
"Hi. Who are you?"
"Me? You don't know who I am? And here I was thinking you was all smart and stuff! Minamino, you're pathetic, not knowing who I am. Everybody knows me, the demon of Tiroya!"
"You are a demon? I think not. What is your name?"
The boy pointed his thumb to himself arrogantly. "I'm Hachimaki, a third year. Freshman like you has no right to ask me my name though. I'm givin' it to you for free mainly because I feel sorry for you, scum."
"Well, Hachimaki, I'm pleased to meet you. Shuichi Minamino, first year." Kurama held out his hand for a hand shake. "I hope we get along well."
Hachimaki spat on Kurama's palm. More people were gathering around the two.
Kurama grimaced, not certain how to feel. Many boys were jealous of him for his natural charm and looks, but few had ever shown contempt for him. Because Kurama never showed any signs of liking the girls that tailed him, they were never angry.
"Listen, pal," snapped Hachimaki. He grabbed Kurama's collar and lifted him off the ground. "Don't go playin' all your courtesy games with me. You're nothing but a pretty boy. Junk, that's what you are. Nothing but pretty boy junk. Worthless junk. So don't go acting like you're better than the rest of us here, you got that? That's because you ain't better than us. All you've got is that pretty little face of yours. It's funny huh? How does someone like you get all the girls, you red-haired freak?"
So it is about girls, thought Kurama.
"We don't think much of you, Minamino. We'll make sure you leave your goody-good attitude for good, you piece of junk. You go home and cry to that crippled mother of yours that she wasn't supposed to ever give birth to you. That you're just a fluke. Yeah, you don't deserve to live, lousy piece of junk. Your mother, that piece of junk, ought to…"
Kurama loosened himself from the bully's grip and delivered a sideways kick to his skull. Hachimaki's heavy frame was sent sprawling into the crowd. Kurama walked over, hands in pockets. "I'm sorry, but if you insist on insulting my family, I must tell you to stop," he chided.
Hachimaki sprang up, rubbing the side of his head.
"Don't worry," said Kurama. "My shoes are clean."
"Why you—I'll kill you, junk face!" roared Hachimaki as he reeled his fist back for a punch. Kurama, keen not to cause any more violence, sidestepped out of danger. After a few futile punches, Hachimaki stopped. He was panting hard. Desperate, he charged head-on into Kurama, who decided to end the struggle. Kurama caught his opponent's fist and crushed it until a small snap! was heard.
Hachimaki's face twisted in agony. "Let go let go let go let go let go let the hell go of me, you junk-headed freak!" A few people from the crowd cheered. Hachimaki apparently wasn't a popular figure at school.
Kurama released his fist. Hachimaki, who had been too anxious to pull away from Kurama's grasp, fell away. He tumbled on the ground for a few times before slamming into a locker.
Kurama glared at him mercilessly. "The next time you attempt to pick a fight with a stranger, please mind your manners."
Gentleman that he was, Kurama waited for a nurse to arrive and drag a defeated Hachimaki to the nurse's office.
He walked into the classroom, ignoring the dispersing crowd's murmuring. Kurama sat in his regular seat and looked over at the corner where his partner sat—he wasn't there. The boy wearing black was nowhere to be found in the room.
The period was allotted for work on the stoichiometry project, so Kurama decided to turn in his project to the teacher immediately, claiming that he and his partner had worked very diligently the previous night. The teacher scratched her head, wondering how anybody could finish a two-week project in one night. Kurama tried getting his partner's name from the teacher without giving away that he worked on it alone. It was to no avail.
He spent the remainder of the period immersed in a mecha manga he had picked up, while the other students began their reports. The end-of-the-day bell rang, excusing the class.
Kurama got home and immediately turned on the computer. The Internet was a new interest—almost an addiction—to him. He was fascinated about all the stuff that could be commuted and how quickly digital information could be passed. It was a rather exciting cyber world, with hackers, viruses, and programmers.
He was posting on a forum about Trojan horse viruses. It was a fascinating subject, how well they worked and how the process was becoming more and more advanced. Kurama noted the efficiency of concealment to spy on another person's computer.
A small rectangle popped up in the bottom-right corner of his monitor.
CutieGirl314 has signed on.
Intrigued, Kurama decided to do a bit of simple investigating. First, he checked the public profile of this mystery person.
This person does not have a profile.
Dang it! he thought. This made him ever more curious about the her identity. A new addition to the instant messaging program he used was the profile page, a web page which recorded the information of the user. Maybe there was more information there. The page loaded, but there was little disclosed information. No e-mail address, no location, no age, not even a gender. Kurama shuddered.
But one thing that was revealed was the popularity factor. It was a number that was based off of the number of friends who had specified user on their friends list, as well as the number of friends who had those friends on their friends lists.
Popularity factor: 5.
Five. A one-digit number. That meant that either this "CutieGirl314" was very unpopular or was using an alias username (Kurama's popularity factor had reached the millions). Kurama decided the latter was more probable.
CutieGirl314: hi shuichi
Surprising, really. She had messaged him again. Kurama's pulse sped slightly. He noticed that the text was pink with a green background. The color scheme reminded him of watermelons.
Kurama planned his response carefully. He would have to respond fast enough to let her know that he was paying attention, but not to seem too rushed. Also, he would have to act interested in her if he was to know her identity. At the very least, Kurama needed a name.
ShuichiM: Hello, Mystery Lady. You sort of left me hanging there yesterday.
CutieGirl314: oh sorry about that…my mom was calling
Kurama sighed with relief. So she wasn't ignoring me.
CutieGirl314: so im guessing you want to know who i am by now?
ShuichiM: Haha, a clue would be nice.
CuteGirl314: well……i think ur really cute
Big surprise, Kurama mused. To his surprise, he saw that his fingers had automatically typed out his thoughts. He looked at the screen, a bit dumbfounded.
ShuichiM: Big surprise.
CutieGirl314: lol arent you modest?
CutieGirl314: actually ur pretty brave too
CutieGirl314: i saw how you handled that hachimaki
ShuichiM: Oh…well, his headband was probably tied too tight. Loss of blood pressure in the brain…not good. I feel sorry for him now, handicapped so severely.
(Author's Note: A hachimaki is a Japanese headband, worn often by the kamikaze pilots during the second World War. I took the name form PlanetES. Really good anime.)
Kurama held his breath, hoping she would find the comment funny.
CutieGirl314: lol
Kurama smiled.
ShuichiM: So, do you have any more surprising clues?
CutieGirl314: lol
CutieGirl314: i go to tiroya high school
ShuichiM: No way! Anything else?
By now, Kurama's eyes were already glued to his computer screen. He leaned forward expectantly.
What he found was disheartening.
Nothing.
Not even a "CutieGirl314 has entered text."
Slightly disappointed, Kurama logged off his messenger program and went back to exploring the world of the Trojan horse virus. Now if only he could build himself a horse to learn about the Mystery Lady.
(Author's Note: I really couldn't think of a good chapter name. The original one, "CutieGirl314" sounded too generic. I'm open to suggestions for a good chapter name.)