So, I finally got it out... Really, it's sad that it took this long, but hey, I've had a lot of problems, plus I kept getting through part of it before I decided that it sucked. Hopefully, by posting as I write I'll be more encouraged to keep going. Sorry to anyone who actually has been waiting for this to come out. I know that it's mostly Ookami, but I believe Tenshi's been wanting to read it as well. Sorry, Tenshi! Hmmm... I don't believe I have much more to say, but please enjoy, as I've been working on this for a long time, probably much longer than I should have. I know that it's plot is somewhat cliché, but when I came up with it, it wasn't so overused. Alright, now to the notices.
Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho. These rights belong solely to Yoshihiro Togashi and... well... the people who made it into anime, and who translated it. Dang it, why couldn't I get in on that action! Um... I also do not own Atari. If you want to use her or anything, ask me, but I don't make the final decisions. I do own Selene as well as my other OCs (though most of them are bad guys.) I also own the minùe. You have not seen them yet, but they are mine! I'm hoping to make a book with them in it, so you steal, I hunt you down. Um... sorry for the long disclaimer.
Pairings: YusukexKeiko, KuwabaraxYukina (somewhat... due to Yukina's nature), and eventually very, very minor HieixOC. The OC will mostly be a friendship with Hiei (at least for this fic) as I find that much more realistic than having him fall for her right off the bat.
Warning: This takes place between the second and third season, so, unfortunately, I had to change some minor things. Kuwabara is losing his powers a little at a time, and there will be some hints to that. Also, things will take a little longer than the series gave the impression of. If it makes you feel better, you can think of it as a distortion in time-space.
Now, begin!
The Dawn of Darkness
Threatening Koenma Causes all the Problems in Spirit World
(Except for the Occasional, Unfortunate Thievery)
A sigh managed to escape the cloaked woman as she tapped her fingers against the hilt of her sword, its focus on stealth, but still quite powerful, fitting for the great warrior's style. She kept glancing around, seeing if the "Great Lord Koenma" had finally put down his paperwork for a moment to listen to her request. Her hand never ceased to fiddle with her sword, which she was highly considering drawing so that the ruler would give her the respect she deserved.
After a few minutes, a blue oni(1) with one horn came out and stuttered, "L-lord Ko-koenma will see you, Mi-miss."
She scoffed and followed behind him as he led her to the office. She let a dark smirk grace her beautiful features. Good, she thought, he's afraid of me, just as he should be. Such foolish animals. Demons are the worst creatures, even compared to humans. Their relatives, the ogres, are no better, if they aren't even worse. Demons, at least, have less primitive clothing... sometimes.
The door opening jolted the beauty out of her thoughts and they directed towards the small toddler in the room as he spoke.
"Your kind usually doesn't like to associate themselves with me, so I'll quickly get to the point. What do you need my help with?"
She smiled. It looked almost like a real smile, but the child prince wasn't stupid enough to think she was being friendly. There was mock respect in her voice as she spoke, "My Lord Koenma, my name is Silare(2), and all I truly wish to know where you hid away the two female children you found around ten years ago."
He raised his eyebrows. "Do you truly expect for me to remember two children I found a decade ago?"
"Perhaps. It was only about five or six years after you had received an unanticipated message from my people. This was probably about ten years after another message from us. We do not speak to each other often, as you pointed out. The last time you were contacted, I would guess, would be centuries before all of this."
"Why do you even think I would have them?"
"We've tracked down their pasts and they led to an old psychic demon before they completely disappeared. You almost always have to do with such oddities."
Koenma sighed, "I'll look into it."
"Please do, and I'll return in a week's time to see what you've uncovered. Don't disappoint me, Koenma. My race is a terrible one to upset."
With that, she turned on her heel and started walking towards the door, but the ruler only grinned slightly. "I'm surprised you think of me as such a fool."
The woman stopped in her tracks, though she had her back to him. The prince merely continued lazily, "If your entire race was part of your little mission, I would have also received a note with the seal of the council members verifying what you are looking for." His voice became sterner. "Whatever you want with these children is obviously part of your own agenda, and I see no reason to put them in danger for something that is not even approved by the rest of your kin."
"How very perceptive of you, Little Prince," she responded cooly, turning towards the lord, "You are still overlooking one thing. I am still very powerful, as are those who follow me. I'm more of a force to be reckoned with than you seem to believe." She turned back towards the door again. "Besides, I know you are a fool, you always have been to lower yourself to protecting mere humans and demons."
With that, she stormed out, not allowing Koenma to retort with anything witty, much to the miniature demigod's displeasure. He slumped further into his chair, trying to think of any two girls matching the loose "description" he was given. After a few moments, he ended up resorting to a yell.
"Ogre! I need you to look through records!"
The blue creature returned, looking disheveled from once again being called into Koenma's office without warning.
"What am I looking for, sir?" he asked his ruler.
"Truthfully, Ogre... I'm not exactly sure."
A brown haired, middle-aged man relaxed in his chair at a table inside the kitchen reading a mystery novel. "How much do you want to bet that your mother drives off without you again today? You do realize that even with all of your rushing, you probably won't make it in time." He calmly stated to what would seem like no one.
"I know," came the exasperated voice of a teenager with medium-length brown hair who was walking by the table, "but at least I attempt to be there. You know, if I really try I can get ready in about five minutes."
He put down the book to raise an eyebrow at her. "You have three minutes, and you shouldn't be wasting them talking to me."
"Mhmm," she replied lazily, not really listening. She went into the bathroom and furiously began to brush her hair.
"Two minutes..."
"One minute!" There was a bit of exasperation in his voice that time.
"Steph, I'm leaving!" yelled a female voice from down the hall.
Luckily the teen had her hair brushed by then, so, while grabbing the two necklaces she always wore, she hurried out the door to make sure she didn't miss her ride. She let a quick "Bye, Dad" escape her lips, getting a wave in response, as she rushed out of the house. Her mother had the car door already open so she dove in before it left. Out of breath, she looked over at the pretty, middle-aged woman in the car with her.
"How many times," the girl asked while catching her breath, "have I told you to not call me 'Steph' or 'Stephanie.'"
"Yeah, I know," replied the girl's mother, "You like being called 'Selene', despite the fact that your father and myself picked out a perfectly good name already. Why do you want to be named after the Greek goddess of the moon anyway?"
"Because it fits me," sulked the teenager as she hastily put on her necklaces.
The woman just sighed and shook her head at her child's actions.
"Plus," Selene continued, done with her previous task, "Stephanie is a cheerleader name."
Her mom cringed at that statement. "Now, that's just mean. You know how much I hate cheerleaders."
"Yeah, yeah, I love you too, Mom."
"Bye Selene," she replied sarcastically.
Her mother just got a stuck out tongue in response.
Her mom shook her head and mumbled, "That girl..."
"Hn. I don't know why I have to babysit two pathetic girls."
Koenma sighed in irritation at the defiant fire demon. "Because, Hiei, you're the only one who doesn't have school, as well as the fact that you're still under probation."
"Why can't you just bring them here if they're in that much danger?"
"We're not sure whether those are the girls, but if they are I'm afraid of what awaits them. Still, if they aren't, we don't want to involve them either."
"Send one of your lesser lackeys and give me something of more importance to do."
"If these two girls are the ones being sought after then I'll need someone of your strength to protect them. Plus, there isn't really anything else that I can give you. Besides this problem, Reikai has been abnormally idle."
Hiei grunted in disapproval, but having nothing more to say, he walked out to find the portal, beginning his "babysitting job."
The prince sighed once again, only this time in relief of Hiei not putting up any more of a fight. Still, he couldn't help but wonder what was so special about those girls to Silare. Her race loathed demons, even worse than humans, which is saying quite a lot for them. They always felt they were a superior race, and in many ways, they were. But with that... they were also brutal. Whatever Silare wanted with them, it couldn't be good, or she would have told him to prevent controversy.
It had been two days since the woman met with him, meaning he had five days left before she returned for his answer of the whereabouts of the two girls she asked for. He could only wonder one thing: What am I going to do?
Selene was conspicuously hitting her head against the desk. It was very likely that Mr. Jacobs, her Government teacher, noticed, but that never stopped her. She was so bored that she was sure that somewhere inside of her, what remained of her mind and soul were being demolished, perhaps decomposing in a gooey mess of filth and fungus. She had quite the vivid imagination, especially when she was bored.
"Selene," the teacher said, interrupting her thoughts," you may hate this class, but don't give yourself a concussion. I don't want to get fired."
"I just love how much you care about the students," Selene dryly retorted.
Mr. Jacobs just laughed and walked off to one of the students with his hand up. The teen just put down her head as she sat in her little secluded corner. She didn't have any friends in her class, and the fact that the subject was social studies did not help. For that reason, which of course made since to her teenager mind, she decided to neglect the worksheet she was given altogether. Out of boredom, she gazed out of the adjacent window where she saw a gothic-looking boy sleeping in a tree a little bit away. He had black spiky hair that miraculously didn't seem to have the grease from hair gel and was sure to have contradicted all of the laws her physics teacher taught her. He was dressed in a black cloak, shoes, and pants, the latter two barely visible from under the outer garment.
What the heck? she thought, What kind of person sleeps in a tree? Plus, he's short enough to be in middle school, why isn't he there. Of course, I'm hardly the one to comment on someone's height... Her height was nothing to be proud of either...
The mysterious boy's eyes opened to reveal a pool of blood-red. Her mouth opened somewhat in a slightly comical manor. She couldn't imagine she looked at all impressive, more like a gaping child who heard their first curse word. The figure looked straight at her, noticed he was found out and seemingly disappeared into nothingness. It's official; I really am insane...
Koenma was slack-jawed. It took him a moment to finally decide to call Hiei. He was definitely in a bit of a rage. When Hiei's face appeared on the screen, the prince had to remind himself that the demon was a killer and making him too annoyed was probably a bad idea. Still...
"Hiei, what were you thinking!" Koenma cried. He happened to check up on Hiei right at the moment the koorime flitted away from the sight of one of his charges. "Do you truly believe that disappearing from someone's view makes you less conspicuous than you being in a random tree in the first place?"
Whereas most under Koenma would be asking for forgiveness, Hiei was nonchalant about the entire thing. "If you want to have this done some other way, then just take me off of the babysitting case and let me free back in demon world."
The ruler rolled his eyes. Really, this wasn't the first time the fire demon "asked" to leave Ningenkai(3). Still, this one was tamer than the one involving the katana... but that's a different story. "Truly, Hiei, I didn't think you would be one to give up, especially when it's against two human girls."
He knew that shooting at Hiei's ego would work. It sure got his attention, as noted with the grunt of displeasure. Still, he snarled, "Maybe I should just forgo taking care of them and kill them myself."
"Hiei, you know you can't do that."
The demon raised an eyebrow. "Hn, you left me in America to guard two girls alone. I'd be away in another country before your forces would even know the deed would be done."
Then again, maybe the blow to the ego wasn't such a good idea. Hiei was right. The ruler had ultimately left the fate of the girls in the hands of Hiei. Not the Reikai Tantei(4) (which was scary enough), but Hiei. Said demon just smirked and closed his communicator. He obviously came up with his comeback from their last meeting.
And the vast intelligence of Reikai(5) wins again.
Atari was quite a beautiful teenager. Many guys wanted to date her, but the vast majority she turned down. Admittedly, she was a bit superficial, though not in the way most people would think. In laymen terms, she was a Goth. People in general disgusted her, and they needed to prove themselves in order to be "worthy" in her eyes, and guys were no different. She wasn't as surprised as Selene when she found herself being stalked by a mysterious figure. In truth, she had been unofficially "stalked" before. He was around her enough to be creepy, but not enough to have her file a restraining order. She saw this stalker first when she was walking to school as, unlike Selene, she got up at a natural time, but not wanting to upset the girl, she said nothing when she saw her at school. The boy disturbed her, though. Atari was tough, there was no denying that. She had quite the reputation of hurting (usually with kicks) both girls and guys. Still, the figure had this look. She felt like running away, she thought she saw death. Despite how many people she had threatened to kill, Atari never had actually done so, and seeing a boy that she couldn't figure being older than herself with such a murderous gaze made her uneasy.
Thus, when Atari was waiting for Selene so they would walk home together, she wondered whether or not to bring up the boy to her. Maybe he was just part of her imagination. Still, Atari was very protective of those she cared for, and she didn't want anything to happen to Selene.
It didn't take long for Selene to be seen walking out of school and to her friend. The shorter girl was biting her thumb: a habit she picked up when she was nervous or deep in thought.
Maybe, thought the taller of the two, I'm not the only one who saw him.
As scary as he was, it would be nice for Atari to know that she wasn't completely insane.
They began walking and Selene sparked up the conversation hesitantly. "So... how was your day?"
Atari awkwardly answered, wondering if her friend's statement was supposed to be a hint that she saw the boy, too, "Um, it wasn't the best. How about you?"
"Well..." she trailed off, "it wasn't that great for me either. I mean, did anything eventful or weird happen to you today?"
Atari, being the one who usually ended up going out on a limb, decided that her friend really was hinting about the guy and decided she had to tell her. So, still a little nervous she spoke, "Yes. This strange boy has been following me around. He's creepy, though, he looks-"
"Otherworldly," her friend interrupted, "He looks like he isn't human."
Atari sighed in relief. "Exactly. He has odd hair and dressed in odd clothes."
"Also, if I'm correct, I think I saw red eyes."
"I did, too. Still, even if he did look normal, he had this aura thing about him. It just seemed to scream 'murderous' or at the very least, 'dangerous.'"
Selene looked to the ground and nodded a bit. "I guess I wouldn't have gone that far. He had this type of pissed off look, and he didn't seem like someone I 'd want to fight, but I didn't feel the danger as much as you did. Then again, I'd be the last one to comment on one of your 'feelings.'"
The shorter girl had actually nicknamed her friend Ichiko (the second nickname given, as her friend's real name was Alexandra or Alex but, like Selene, she hated that name). Selene knew it meant something along the lines of "female fortune-teller" and felt that since her friend had a lot of feelings that end up proving true, the name fit her.
"Well..." Atari trailed off, "What are we going to do about this? We should probably tell the police."
Selene looked a bit shocked, but Atari couldn't blame her. The "ichiko" didn't really like authority figures, though not even she knew quite why. Whatever the reason, Atari never even mentioned telling someone about her previous "stalker" and she bit Selene's head off when the shorter girl mentioned it.
That was why it was equally surprising when Selene spoke her opinion, "I don't know if we really should..."
It was Atari's turn to look at her in shock. "What? Why?"
The girl began biting her thumb again and was looking at the ground. "Well, when I first saw him he was sitting in a tree, seemingly sleeping."
"Odd, but so what?"
"Yes, well I was at school, and didn't expect something like that to happen. I was so shocked I shut down and stared at him in confusion. His eyes opened and he disappeared."
"You stared at him? Are you a moron? We need to play this so he doesn't think we know- Wait, you said he disappeared?"
"Yeah. He didn't run away (that I could see), just vanished."
It was Atari's turn to get nervous. "But, that sounds like he's a teleporter. People can't just-"
"I know. That's the point. Perhaps something supernatural is going on. In that case, the authorities couldn't do anything. Then, there's the other option. Maybe we're insane. I don't want either of us to go to a mental institution."
"We wouldn't both imagine the same guy..."
"Maybe. Maybe not. We've been close for a long time. There's a chance, however unlikely that we could imagine similar things. Anyway, people would likely assume we both pieced him together and he really is in our imaginations."
Both girls were a bit distraught after that, and as they continued to walk home, it was in silence. Too many questions that couldn't be answered and too many fears that couldn't be conquered.
1 oni- ogre. It can also mean other supernatural creatures, but if you see what they're supposed to look like, you'll find that they resemble the ogres in YYH quite closely.
2 Selare is pronounced Sə-'lar-e. I only have that because often people don't understand how to say my names. By the way, this isn't Japanese but derived from a language I made up.
3 Ningenkai- Human World (the world where we reside)
4 Reikai Tantei- The Spirit Detectives
5 Reikai- Spirit World (where dead people -and Koenma- reside)
I won't use very much Japanese, and when I do it will usually be titles or creatures. On occasion, I'll also use it for a line that I want to emphasize. For example, I may say "Shi'ne!" instead of "Die!" but it'd only be if the person saying it was really upset. It wouldn't happen just because Hiei wanted to kill Kuwabara again. Oh, and sorry for not including too much of the Spirit Detectives. This was all just exposition, thus the reason for the lack of plot... so far. I believe that next time I'll have the Tantei appear.
If anyone sees me misspelling or misusing any Japanese, please tell me. I know very little Japanese, and it is likely that I'll make a few mistakes.
I believe that's it for now. Sorry about these long Author's Notes, as I know they can be boring. It's just the way that I do things. Ignore them if you wish. Feedback is appreciated, if you wish to give it.
Until next time!
LectaElf