Disclaimer: YuYu Hakusho is copyrighted and belongs to its creator, Togashi Yoshihiro.

Pairings: Unknown. Please help me decide!

Genre: Supernatural, fantasy, humor, horror, and not so much general. It is also an AU, an "alternate Universe" for the setting.

Rating: Undecided at this time.


Tumultuous

One disgruntled ginger head yelped as she found herself crashing down upon the pavement in a spiraling nosedive; a.k.a. kamikaze style.

The fall managed to scrape the skin off her nose as well as cause the lack of sensation as it throbbed. Kaguya instinctively touched her face to inspect the damages. It would seem lady fortune was kind enough to spare her from a broken nose…this time around. Nevertheless, she noticed a warm fluid trickling down from her nasal cavities, which had already traveled down past her lips and chin. After once wiping it off and inspecting the very contents on her scratched up palm, she knew by the evidence that she was now bleeding.

The curly-Q grunted as the realization finally hit, her injuries throbbing yet oddly remained numb.

Behind her, she could hear Urameshi chuckling up a storm. She did not have to look to know that he was proud of his handiwork, envisioning him with that cheesy grin, his head held up high, and his hands upon his hips. She had seen it all too many times to know.

"Eh, Kuwabara. It's nice to see that you haven't changed one bit. After all this time, you still manage to lose." was his remark, still finding humor in her attempts to beat him at a fight.

In all honesty, the fight really had never been fair, more so now than ever before. The guy was a Mozaku for pity's sake. What human could be up against that sort of force and still manage to win?

Pushing herself up, she strived to push back all the anger that was swelling up inside of her, cramming it all forcefully like an overfilled school locker. However, she did manage to mutter under her breath a nice "fuck you", then wiped her nose on the sleeve of her jacket. It was black, so it did not matter for the stain would not show up.

"Ha! You wish!" The boy just did not know when to quit with the wisecracks, or in this case, mockery.

Kaguya did her best to remain calm, not wanting him to get the best of her. However, her psyche argued with her, chiding as it told her that not fighting back meant just that. 'Are youse just goin' teh stand dere an' take dis bullshit?'

Not noticing it, her scrapes and other injuries began to quickly heal. As if by magic, her body was repairing itself. This had occurred before, especially in very critical or life threatening situations, though in time Kaguya merely assumed that her chakra was what was responsible.

Yusuke watched as she turned around, but when he saw her face he immediately stopped laughing. His face fell, his eyes wide as he witnessed the drizzle of crimson fluid trickle back up her nose like some sort of creature from a sci-fi movie. He was dumbstruck, if not in awe or seriously creeped out.

And if that wasn't weird enough, her ears had twitched slightly. The peculiar behavior reminded him of a feline.

"Hey, Kuwabara…" He spoke to the girl. "Are you sure yer human?"

Kaguya cracked her neck. "Uh, Ch-yeah." She game him an intimidating bug-eyed look, her eyes shining like dim flames.

The young Mazoku could not help but shiver from the penetrating and belligerent gaze, a look that promised terror and then an eventual death. All of this faded away in matters of seconds.

Since when did Kuwabara start being daunting? Perhaps she had picked it up from Hiei, which he considered to be highly likely since the short fire demon did happen to live with the taller girl. …Which was great, since that meant that now two girls could manage to make his skin crawl.

Just how much did he miss since before Keiko had left? Oh, sure, he had been physically here in Ningenkai all this time, but that did not mean he was mentally. What with all the spacing out and all that teenage angst, and lets now forget that he had been busy working off and on at the noodle stand. Oh, and Keiko had also been a definite distraction, too. So it was to no wonder as to why he really had not taken the time to notice anything else, let alone his own living space.

However, before he could take the chance to get a really good look at his friend, she had turned her back to him. The eighteen year old snorted at this, figuring in his own mind that she was continuing to be a sore loser. She appeared tense.

"Stop being such a big baby already." He stated bluntly. "I beat you fair and square and you know it." Sporting another large grin, he continued to further rub it in. "Hey, it could be worse. Ya know, I could spread the news with posters declaring my victory in bold, huge letters with a picture of your ugly mug."

"Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up." She abruptly countered, feeling a heat wave overcome her from out of nowhere. How very odd. She began to fan herself.

"Harridan." Was his retort, oblivious to his friend's peculiar behavior as he walked up from behind. On his way, he picked up the bag of presents off the sidewalk.

Feeling the heat rise up, she decided to remove her jacket.

Now, that caught his attention. It was below forty degrees outside, yet here she was scrambling to strip herself of any warmth or protection from the weather. What started out as an inquisitive nature transpired into something much more. He found himself eyeballing her, watching her every movement.

She let out a growl as she noticed that her supposedly loose clothes were now clinging to her skin rather uncomfortably, in addition, the bindings around her breasts were unwinding. However, she was too hot to really care. She pulled up the base of her shirt, tightened, and tied it above her abdomen. She then took the bottom of her pants and rolled them up to a point right below her knees. These were old remedy she had learned when she was a preteen, particularly during the time when the air-condition system had burned out during one of the hottest of summers.

Pull out the saxophone and play a libidinous tune. He could not ever recall any moment where he noticed how his friend had matured so nicely, so voluptuous.

His jaw had dropped when he noticed the round mounds resting upon her chest. From there, he continued to scan her with ogling eyes.

Those lean baby doll legs were one thing, but those thick thighs were no doubt just as muscular. Her pale skin appeared silky smooth to the touch. He even noticed that she had a tight high water ass. God, she had an ass. That coochie put Keiko's to shame. She possessed a tiny waist with ass-kicking curves, yet, her body had a powerful built. In short, she was shaped like an hourglass, but a better comparison would be the ladies in the pin-up magazines or the real "hoochie-mamas" you see in music videos from other parts of the world.

He couldn't help it, he was a pervert.

The demon gargled in in his mouth, also having a definite hard-on. He shook his himself in an attempt to shake it off. Hell, if he was currently wearing a belt, he would no doubt try to tighten it.

Dear King Enma, he actually had the urge to buy her better clothes just to see her in them. That is so not like him. Anyone who knew him well, knew that he could give a flying monkey's ass as to what people wore. Still… It was a crying shame that she hid most of that beneath such unappealing loose fitted attire, but then again so many males would be trying to hit that if she did not. And here she was now, showing some leg. A part of him wanted to call it out as false advertisement.

Now that he thought about it, she was never really ugly. As a matter-of-fact, she held a different kind of beauty than all of the other girls, tomboyish yet different altogether. She was no Hiei, but she was no Botan either. Her eyes were the most unique of her features, her curly fiery locks coming in second.

If he was considered to be a phoenix or some sort of penguin-like creature, then she was perhaps a swan. As they say, swans start out as being so damn ugly, hence the term "ugly duckling".

Something began to swell up inside of him, distinctively in his heart. It was a feeling, a certain type of sentiment that he had not felt since…for awhile.

Perhaps he had been such a shallow skirt-chasing dickhead that he had failed to notice any of this before.

Kaguya had never once asked anything from him, well except to be excused from duties to attend a rock concert; which had pinched a nerve in him.

On the contrary, really, she was handing out any offer without any charge. To boot, she was a loyal companion and very honorable, always sticking to his side closer than a brother. Amazingly, she was considered as the muscle of the team, noted for the ability to pick up a large dog pile of men all at once and then toss them to the side like garbage.

Believe him, he's seen it before. It isn't pretty.

She always stayed by his side, despite all the beatings she received, be it either being from him or anyone else. Fuck, this was the very same person who not only gave her own life energy so that he would live after the defeat of Suzaku, but also took a blow to the chest during the Dark Tournament by one of his worst enemies…for him.

She had more than earned her right to be his best friend, yet he did not treat her as such. She did more for him than Keiko ever had done, his own girlfriend. But in the past, he usually ran to the others for anything he needed.

How could he have been so blind?

He felt so unsure now, not to mention a very unmentionable word when it came to his own reputation and the description of his demeanor…"ashamed".

He had always claimed that she was out of his league, but now he could see how horribly wrong he had been. The shoe was much different now that it was on the other foot. For once, he could actually see the truth, that it he who was out of her league.

'No, no. That's going way too far there, pal.' He tetchily argued at that last notion inwardly. Damn conscience decided that now was the time to step in and be a royal pain in the ass.

Nevertheless, his beating heart descended, now succumbed by nausea. Somehow, he did not feel so confident anymore.

Damn, he felt so uncomfortable, so unsure of himself that a lump had formed in his throat.

He was no better than his father, an asshole who took the liberty to beat both his mother and him whenever he felt like they needed it. She had divorced him for an appropriate reason, otherwise if it had been anything else she would have stayed. His father had enough money to be considered rich.

He was a terrible friend, he assumed. If not just the mistreatment, there were also the outings and the get-togethers where she had not been included. He had been to parties and clubs with the other two demons, not inviting her on the account that Hiei did not want her around. The were guilty of talking behind her back, speaking terribly about her while being burlesque in manner.

She was not one of them, so he supposed it was an okay thing to do. In any case, she was always making a major idiot out of herself. So, it was her own fault that she so happened to be the member of the group that no one liked. She was really the unofficial jester of the group, there to make everyone else look good and feel better about themselves. But how she could manage to be so damn obnoxious was beyond any of their reasoning.

Kurama and Hiei had told him about the training sessions they had together. The fox had stated that she did not know when to give up, though it was an admirable trait, she had the determination and the brain of a goat or a bull. The Dark Tournament had proved the redhead to be right in regards to such remarks, though he had already been figured that one out long before. And the fire koorime, of course, claimed her to be an utter fool, the biggest she had ever seen. She said something about how it would be better for the ginger head to be placed in the circus, or that she ought to be in one.

How and the hell did shorty know about circuses?

Anyway…

Kuwabara might have improved in the looks department, but she was still very much weaker than him and the others. More than likely, that will always be. A class human or not.

So, that was a good thing, wasn't it?

"Kuwabara…" He spoke gently at first with hesitance. "Let's keep moving, shall we? Before it finally decides to pour." He then decidedly pressed on, refusing to look at her as he walked passed her.

This was his game plan: Not to make eye-contact with her as much as possible until the guilt subsided or went away.

And to help cover himself, he coarsely added; "And quit fanning yerself, you look stupid. Like some fat bulldog in heat."

Yes, he had to be a jerk, less she suspects something.

He considered himself to be fortunate that the psychic lacked the capability to read minds.

Oh, but how wrong he was. From the moment she had sensed negative waves vibrating off of him, her mind had gradually picked up the outer link to his. Picture it as though listening to a recording or watching a film, not a phone line.

Kaguya stared off after him, feeling as though his feet were essentially treading upon her heart instead of the sidewalk. A brief moment had passed before she began to eventually follow him, crossing her arms behind her head.

She eventually picked up the pace and caught up with her compadre. She glanced over at him, sporting her best trademark grin.

The raven haired boy saw it from the side of his eye, but said nothing.

The smile dissipated from her lips, the cheekiness took a downturn into defeat.

…TBC…


Someone is having troubles with their powers and abilities.

The next chapter will come eventually... Because I have to write it first.