For Mentality's Sake
Autumn's Intoxicating Devious
With a deep breath, a soft smile slid across her lips. She turned her face toward the sun and let the light hit her face. Autumn was always her favourite time of the year. Granted she had to wear a jacket, but the cool air was a comfort nonetheless. It wasn't too hot and not too cold, plus the beautiful colours that marked Autumn's time; wearing a damn jacket was worth it. It all just gave off a therapeutic feeling of peace and tranquility. Her only wish was that the feeling would last longer than it did.
As she began to bite down on her lollipop, Kumori's thoughts turned sour. She had left the house to get away from her bickering drunk guardians and being outside helped calm her down plenty, but the impending thought surfaced, reminding her that she couldn't wallow in Autumn's cool bathhouse forever. Eventually, she'd have to return to her house. Kumori really didn't want to deal with them though because they were always at it and never wanted to stop. The only time they did was when they were out cold. Kumori had come to treasure those times and came to bear with all the other times as best as she possible could.
"Stop thinking, you idiot," Kumori said to herself from around the lollipop, "It doesn't do you much good."
She tugged her tan trench coat closer around her shoulders as a large gust of chilled wind blew by. Almost as if it came with the wind, a new unfiltered thought blew into the girl's brain.
"Yes!" she cheered emphatically, "Brain, you're a genius."
Without another consideration to her impromptu plan, Kumori turned on her heal and headed back home; her guardians couldn't put a stop to this - drunk or otherwise.
Kumori burst through the doorway with a bit more gusto than really necessary, but she honestly couldn't care less at the moment; five years was a long time. Pausing on her doormat, she listened for any shouts or sounds of shattering glass. When she was met with snoring, her face lit up and she immediately started for the stairs, headed for her messy bedroom to find that damned compact.
When she reached her door, Kumori took a deep breath. "Prepare yourself," she whispered.
She shoved the door open and stood for a few minutes, gazing in upon the congested sea of crap that was her bedroom floor. The sight of it reminded her of a time when she was actually a clean and organized person who freaked at the sight of even the smallest clutter on her floor. The thought made her want to laugh; that was such a long time ago – at least it felt like that long. Kumori carefully stepped farther into her room, her eyes roaming over everything in hopes of spotting the small blue disk on top of a pile; she really hoped she wouldn't have to dig around for it because that would only take up more valuable time that she could be using more effectively to torment those that needed to be tormented. Finally, she saw that she would indeed have to do some diving and digging if she really wanted the thing.
A small groan of frustration escaped past her lips as she knelt down and felt around for something that resembled the compact. When that didn't seem to be working, she started physically picking things up and tossing them aside, trying her hardest not to be distracted by anything that she might uncover; 'if it isn't the compact, it doesn't matter' is was she thought to herself as she dug further. The next thing she pulled out though, was a sheet of paper with someone's phone number on it. This caught her attention and she held it in both hands as she stared at the number she had memorized just a few years ago.
"I can't believe I still have this," she said aloud, almost without realizing she did so.
She hadn't seen or spoken to him in almost three years and the thought saddened her. Making a mental note to call him sometime, Kumori tossed the page aside and continued to look for the object she most wanted to repossess.
Just a few minutes later and Kumori was singing, "Oh where, oh where has my com-pact gone; oh where, oh where could it be?!"
Slowly, the girl became more and more frustrated with every article of clothing, missed homework assignment, or unfinished snack she unearthed. She wasn't even halfway through the mess that flooded her room when she sat back on her heals and cried out, "Goddammit! That damn thing is nowhere!"
Kumori sat amidst her own clutter for a few good minutes, frowning and - to an extent - pouting, before she finally stood up, hands rested on her hips. "Screw it then. I'll come back and look for it later."
She left her room, uncaring that she had almost made her room worse than before, and headed back downstairs and out the door; she'd just enjoy Autumn's company for a few hours longer before heading in for the day; besides, there was nothing else in her house to do other than clean ... and that was something she wasn't too fond of at the moment.
Back on the sidewalk, Kumori again, headed toward some unknown destination. Sticking her hands in her pockets, she immediately withdrew from a pocket, another lollipop, this one was grape flavoured; her favourite. She undid the wrapper and stuck it in her mouth to suck on as she walked, blissfully forgetting about the compact, her messy house, and the two bums sleeping somewhere amidst it all, probably on top of one another and oblivious to the world. She was going to try her damn hardest to enjoy the outdoors while she could and ponder, not on the bad and the ugly, but the peaceful and the naturally beautiful.
Turning the corner onto the next street, Kumori itched at her left arm absently. It wasn't until a few seconds had passed that she stopped, blinked twice, and then stared down at her left arm, which hung by her side - like it usually did.
"It itched." That wasn't normal. If anything, that was a foreboding omen of some sort.
Kumori stood there, eyes locked on her arm, for a few more long seconds before she dismissed her uneasy thoughts as farce. Her left arm had itched in the past, so there really wasn't any reason to suddenly concern herself with some unknown impending doom. Everyone's body parts tended to itch from time to time; her left arm was no different.
She resumed walked after reasoning with herself, only to stop shortly thereafter. It wasn't her arm this time, but the people she saw turning into an alley up ahead. She recognized them immediately, their individual names instantly running through her mind. Shortly after that followed the assumption that they were in that alley for only one reason.
Kumori snickered as she began toward that alley on quick feet. She hoped that she wasn't too late. Rounding the corner, she saw the end of a black piece of fabric disappear and knew she didn't have any time to lose. Legs pumping hard, Kumori dove through the portal just as it began to close in on itself.
On the other side, Kumori did a tumble and roll to the floor. When she stopped, she made sure her entrance hadn't been widely noticed and was pleased to see that the group was walking on farther ahead of her, fairly oblivious to her existence. Although she doubted that she was virtually invisible to their senses, they must have thought her harmless enough to ignore, which in her case, was good because she didn't really want to be approached just yet. Being as sneaky as she could, Kumori crept after them, keeping to the undersides of desks and the shadows of working ogres. Many of them gave looks of surprise when they spotted her, but when she pressed a finger to her lips, they dumbly nodded and continued what they were doing.
Kumori was definitely having fun with this. A few times she had to quickly dive underneath a desk and wait a few seconds when one certain person, in the group she was stalking, would turn around as if to look for her. Kumori snickered to herself as the group finally reached their destination, which took the shape of a twenty foot tall set of gold-plated doors. The group was almost immediately granted entrance and Kumori impatiently waited until the doors shut behind them before traipsing across the last gap that lay before her and the same doors.
When she finally alighted right before them, Kumori did a silent victory dance, thoroughly enjoying her childish antics. Now all she had to do was listen in on the conversation that was bound to be taking place behind the doors and wait for the opportune time to make her theatrical entrance with superb grandeur.
"First thing's first," she whispered devilishly to herself.
Letting a small tremour course through her body, Kumori let out a sigh of relief as a pair of furry ears exposed themselves atop her silver and blue hair. With a quick check, Kumori made sure that her ki levels weren't high enough to alert anyone of importance to her location before pressing one pale blue ear to the surface of the door to listen in on what was taking place beyond it.
"... the Hell Flower has been reported missing in Demon World and Koidei has finally come to me for help in the situation."
"And what the hell is this Hell Flower anyway? What's so important about it?"
"I was getting to that, Yusuke."
Kumori silently snickered at the tone in the man's voice as he reprimanded Yusuke for his interruption; the idiot would never learn, would he?
"The Hell Flower is a powerful plant that has immense energy and potential. If placed in the wrong hands and manipulated just so, it could be used to destroy at least two thirds of any one of the three worlds, depending on where it is when it's put into action. It was actually never supposed to have existed to begin with, but one demon gardener seemed to have tired of his plants and became experimental. What he came up with is now missing somewhere, ready for the taking."
"What does it look like?"
That must be Kurama, Kumori thought to herself. She was just as curious herself as to what the thing looked like – and just a little more than worried that she already knew the answer.
"From what Koidei sent me, it has five deep violet petals with a blood red centre. Dark green thorns protrude from under the petals and it is constantly surrounded by a raging black inferno. What's more is that it has an equally black demonic aura to rival the flames that consume it."
Kumori immediately had the breath knocked out of her. For a few seconds she was submerged in shock and didn't decipher what was being said. Only when she reminded herself that she was supposed to be paying attention did she finally get a grip and composed herself enough to listen and prepare for her entrance.
"... he's most important on this damn mission. He's the one who has a love of flowers."
"Hiei, your part in this is key. For one thing, your Jagan can be of use in finding the flower, and once you do find it, you will be the only one able to bring it back to me."
"What?! Why does shorty get to do everything?"
"Because he has the ability to control fire; it's in his blood. If any of you besides Hiei were to attempt touching the thing, you'd be incinerated upon contact. The flower only responds at all to those who have traces of a hiyoukai in them, or who possess the ability of fire."
That was her queue.
Pushing the doors open and letting the fly open, Kumori put a hug grin on her face, her arms spread wide, and bright green eyes almost pulsing with happiness. "Then I should come too!"
All eyes were on her as she walked in. She reveled in their expressions, taking each in one at a time.
Hiei, who was closest to her at the moment, was watching her almost indifferently from the sides of his eyes. She didn't mind his expression so much, seeing as he usually was uncaring toward everything anyway.
Kurama was staring with evident curiosity written across his face. He was so adorable when he was confused.
Kuwabara was confused, curious, dumbfounded, and ... well, Kuwabara. The idiot was always lost and dumbfounded.
Yusuke seemed a little teed at her entrance, but his own curiosity won over his irritation.
And last, but not least, Lord Koenma sat gaping at her as if he were dreaming up such a person. His big brown eyes seemed to bulge dangerously in their sockets. Surprise definitely won over his face. His expression was the one Kumori enjoyed seeing the most.
No one said anything as Kumori sauntered in and came right up to Koenma's desk. Hands splayed out on his desk, Kumori leaned forward until her nose barely brushed against the toddler's pacifier, a sly smirk creeping over her lips.
"Miss me?"
A three second count passed before Koenma's face flushed a deep scarlet and he began to sputter out incoherent words. Kumori leaned back and just grinned down at him as he tried to compose himself. When he finally did, she let out a small snicker, a pale blue tail flickering into view with amusement.
"Now what were you saying?" she asked, mischief clearly coating her words.
"Wh-what are you doing here?! How did you get here?!" the demigod finally spat out vehemently.
Rolling her eyes, Kumori adopted a pouty expression as she replied, "And I thought you enjoyed my visits."
"Answer my question," Koenma bit out as he gnawed on his pacifier.
"What if I don't want to?" She knew she was acting like an immature little girl, but she hadn't seen the damn toddler in five years, she deserve her five minutes of silly teasing and taunting.
"Answer me."
"Alright," she crossed her arms, "I'm here because I haven't seen you in five years and I was escaping the house. I got here by following them," she thumbed to the group scattered in different places behind her, "down an alley and through the portal. And like I said when I first entered, I should join on this mission too, since I can hold the flower as well."
Koenma didn't speak immediately, which gave Kuwabara time to think and put in his own words. "How can you hold the flower?! You're a fox!"
It happened without any warning. Kumori spun around, fist alight with lapping flames, her own red eyes seeming to burn as she snapped, "Would you like me to permanently correct you?"
Kuwabara took an involuntary step backward, his eyes wide as he took in the sudden change in expression in the girl. Her tail still flicked angrily behind her, her ears flat against her head, yet she was threatening him with a fist full of flames. "N-n-no, I'm good!"
As quickly as it came, the flames and the anger dissipated. "Good!" Kumori said with a smile.
She turned back to Koenma and said, "So, how 'bout it?"
"I don't know ..." Koenma scratched the back of his neck nervously. "You aren't a member of the detectives, so it could complicate things and –" Koenma abruptly cut himself off, his mouth almost seeming to slam shut with an audible snap.
The action immediately prompted Kumori to pry. With an arched eyebrow, she leaned in and asked, "And ... what? Please, do finish your sentence."
"No, no. It wasn't important."
Kumori's right eye twitched. "No, I want to know how the rest of the sentence ends!"
"No."
Kumori's eyes narrowed. "Yes."
"No."
"I'm not going to go back and forth with you," Kumori snapped, red eyes dark, "Finish. Your. Sentence."
Koenma finally caved. "And ... you'reangerissueswouldcauseaproblem."
"Say it without rushing, now," Kumori replied coolly.
With a heavy sigh, Koenma grudgingly did so. "You're anger issues would cause a problem."
"HA!" Kumori suddenly hoisted herself up onto Koenma's desk, scattering a good few stacks of obviously important papers everywhere. "I don't have anger issues to begin with, I'm just a very delicate psyche; so there won't be any problems."
Koenma began to form a tart reply to Kumori's statement when Yusuke interrupted, shouting, "What the HELL is going on here?!"
"Yes," Kurama gently added, "I think that's what's on everyone's mind right about now."
Kumori blinked rapidly, suddenly realizing that she had an outside audience. She'd been so wrapped up in rubbing Koenma's nerves raw that she had forgotten about the four boys still present in the room. Her widened blue eyes glanced at each of them in turn to see that they all had almost identical expressions, all at different levels of confusion. Their faces excited a bought of laughter from her and it came out in full force. Her laughter almost brought her to her knees, but thankfully she was already sitting on Koenma's conveniently placed desk, so there was no fear of collapsing to the floor.
A few seconds later, she finally brought her fit under control enough to say, "You guys are funny looking," before bursting out laughing again at her own choice of words.
From behind the girl, Koenma let out another sigh. He would just have to wait it out or else he would face the repercussions for trying to stop her.
It wasn't long though, before Kumori finally settled down enough to speak coherently. She slid off Koenma's desk, letting a few sheets fall to the floor with her, as she said, "Koenma and I go way back."
She got no response except more confusion, so she chose to elaborate further, "I ended up here, in this very office, when I was about ... four or five in human years. There was a bit of a mix up and my mum and I were brought here to face an unfair punishment. My mum tried talking her way out of it, explaining certain things to a young and inexperience Koenma while I softened him up further with my adorable looks," here, she let her mint green eyes well up and stuck out her lip cutely, "and with our combined forces, Koenma caved and instead of punishing us, helped us get situated in Ningenkai. From then on, I came by to visit and we've been something close to friends ever since."
Kumori flashed them the victory sign with a big smile, signaling the end of her short and vague narrative. Silence reigned for a good thirty seconds or more before anyone said anything in response.
"So you're telling me that you've know pacifier-breath for almost ... your entire life?" Yusuke asked, brow furrowed.
"Um ... yeah." Kumori nodded.
"But this is the first visit in five years," Koenma muttered from behind Kumori.
"Hey," Kumori turned to him with a finger raised pointedly, "at the age of ten, a girl starts getting busy, so don't blame me, blame Life."
Koenma rolled his eyes in response but Kumori ignored him as she turned back to the detectives. "So, I think I sort of slipped on introducing myself in the heat of teasing Koenma. The name is Yuriyagi Kumori and, since this is the twenty-first century, please call me Kumori. Formalities suck." The girl blew a loose strand of silver hair out of her face as she spoke. "Now, don't go through the trouble of introducing yourselves, since I know you all already."
Kumori didn't wait for a response from any of them, instead, she turned back to Koenma and said, "Now back to this new mission you spoke of eons ago. I'm joining up, but just for this one. After that, I'll go back to my corner of life; deal?"
"No way!" Kuwabara finally seemed to have realized the use of his scratchy little voice box. "You're a girl! You'll just get in the way!"
Red eyes immediately narrowed in his direction as she growled out, "Do I really need to correct you ever time you talk? I can take care of myself pretty damn well, and if you don't believe me, I challenge you to spar with me one day and see how long your ass survives."
Koenma immediately threw in, "Kuwabara, I seriously advice that you not say anything for the duration of this meeting – I really don't want to have to buy a new desk."
Koenma's statement made Kumori glance down at her hands to see that the wood underneath them was smoking. When she lifted them and looked underneath, she was surprised to see her handprints charred on the surface. "Whoops," she said with a small giggle. "Sorry."
"Forget it," Koenma waved it off, "just don't wreck anything and you can be apart of this mission – but just this one."
"YES!" Kumori cheered happily and then said, "So when do we leave and where are we going?"
"You can leave a few seconds and you'll be staying at Genkai's temple because it's easiest to reach and you'll all be in one place if I ever need to reach you on short notice." As Koenma spoke, he moved a few pieces of paper off of his control panel and began to press in specific coordinates.
"Where should we start our search?" Kurama tossed out as he headed toward the swirling vortex that had just opened near him.
"Start in Ningenkai and be thorough with it. If nothing turns up, use your communicator to contact me and I'll send you to Makai to re-search there as well. Now get."
Everyone filed through the portal and as Kumori brought up the rear, she waved a good-bye to Koenma, followed by a mischievous smirk accompanied by a wink.
"God forbid she does something stupid while she's with them," Koenma muttered, watching the portal close. "Now if only I could get these damn papers back in order. Ugh, I should have made Kumori straighten them out for me."
How much fun, ne? Confused at all? I hope you are, because that's all part of the fun and games. Review!
Tata, luvs.
.Bloodrunner.