Restraints and Links

Secrets seeking cracks,

Unknown in shackles and clue.

Shadows are deceit.

The Tokyo lights were bright as ever and there were people surrounding us in droves. Kuwabara-san and Yusuke-san followed by my rear as I asked because I'm attempting to focus on any unnatural wavelengths of the ghosts that are possibly close by. One of my abilities that allowed me to communicate with ghosts was that my ki accuracy to wavelengths. Every ghost, person, or demon has a wavelength when ki was considered. But my accuracy accounted towards ghosts more than anything. Do not rely on me for humans and demons. Yusuke-san was a lucky case but for the most part, I have trouble figuring reiki and youki in precision. On why, Uncle and I haven't been able to figure that out yet. It's a gloomy thought when you felt that ghosts made more sense to you compared to people.

Not too long ago we passed by the arcade and its alley. I heard Kuwabara-san bringing up Yusuke-san up to speed about it. Afterwards, I didn't pay attention to his take on it since I went back to being "useful."

Passing by a department store, I halted.

"Is something wrong, Aoki-chan?" Kuwabara-san asked from behind me. The two boys stopped a few steps behind me. We were close to another alley. Yes, the stereotype of ghosts liking dark places would be true. There had been exceptions but not with this one.

I turned to them. "I should check the alley. Something is," I darted my eyes to the unholy path, "off."

Yusuke-san focused on his surroundings for a brief moment, "Really? I'm not getting anything. Feels like any crappy alley." Kuwabara-san crossed his arms over his shoulders and closed his eyes, meditating on Yusuke-san's words.

"Yeah, same here." He and I knew for a fact that didn't mean anything but since Yusuke-san was oblivious, going along with it seemed liked the best way to go.

I made a small smile. "Let me check it out. I won't take long. You can hang back here and if I start screaming, well, you know what you have to do."

Thinking of Yusuke-san and Kuwabara-san standing near alley and the way they could look to people, someone could think a gang-related situation was going on. Therefore, it leads to people to walk away, ignoring us. I wondered if Koenma-sama had taken that to consideration too. Seiichi was drifting next to me.

"I think the one here hasn't been touched yet by any black magic." He commented on the atmosphere. I made a nod.

"But why does it feel something is off, though?"

I walked as Seiichi followed to the end of the alley, where there was a ghost hunched over in a corner next to a dumpster. There was no reason to go into spirit mode as I would like to call it; akin to we did back the arcade alley. By instinct, I was cautious.

I went over to the hunch over ghost and crouched down in front of it. It was another male.

"Is everything okay? Why are you sitting down here by yourself?" I asked him. His head lifted up. He widened his dark brown eyes; his black eyebrows lifted. His hair was a bowel-cut and he couldn't have looked older than 20. What was with this growing ghost population of young adults?

He blinked once before responding: "You can see me?"

I pointed to the poltergeist behind me, "You see him?" The male ghost made a slow nod as Seiichi made a curt bow.

"He's with me." I carefully smiled, "I'm a spiritual medium of sorts. I don't think you should call me that, but you can think of me as such. My name is Aoki Haruna and the samurai behind me is Seiichi."

The male ghost's eyes became neutral, "I see…"

"Do you have a name?" I asked.

His expression was unchanged. "I don't remember."

"So he's a new arrival…" I thought. "Its fine but—"

"No, its not." I held on to my comment and gave him the expression to continue from what he was thinking.

"All I know is that my brother is gone... What could I possibly do with myself as a ghost? It's miserable."

I nodded in comprehension. I am not very good in showing sympathy so I hoped me listening and responding would prove my sincerity. "You have to find a resolution. Your soul is conflicted to what it wants."

"Does that go for all ghosts?" he inquired, numbly.

"Usually. But depending on the circumstances, it shouldn't take very long for a decision to be made for you."

"But I don't want to go anywhere. Heaven or Hell, what does it matter? Some of us had been feeling the same way."

I stared at him. "What do you mean by that?"

"Isn't it normal for us to be a gloomy bunch, Aoki-san? To not go anywhere?"

My voice toned serious, "No," I said, "not at all. Some peoples' spirits does end up gloomy, but to have the feelings of not going anywhere? All ghosts must go somewhere at some point."

"I feel so tired...Aoki-san… Very tired." A spiritual being that feels human fatigue. I didn't like the sound of that. He was a new arrival. I definitely had to note that.

"Why?" I asked softly, "Why do you feel tired?"

"My heartstrings…" He said no more as he burrowed his head in fetal form. He went to sleep. Ghosts were not supposed to actually sleep. But this one was. I noticed his breathing as slow as it could be. Gradually, purple chains surrounded the ghost's ankles and wrists in the form of bonds. I knew from there that he wouldn't be able to move. Unfortunately, I don't have the ability to remove them on my own. Only an expert spiritualist, like my uncle would know how to do it.

Heartstrings…

Were Seiichi and I wrong about the absence of the black magic? We don't feel it but we can clearly see it.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

When I came back to the guys from the alley, they greeted me.

"Did you find anything?" Yusuke-san asked simply.

"I need Botan-san."

Kuwabara-san asked from beside Yusuke-san, "What for?"

"I'm pretty sure there was something she overlooked. I need to ask her something. Tonight." The two boys looked at each other. They weren't sure how to contact her directly either?

"Don't you still have that mirror thing, Urameshi?"

Yusuke-san looked up as he was recollecting his memory, "Yeah, but don't you remember that Botan's broke? It's like a walkie-talkie."

"She could've gotten it fixed."

I crossed my arms around my chest, "If you two do not have a way of contacting for her, we're finished here."

"That was it?" Yusuke-san exclaimed, "Then what was the point of following you?"

My eyes wandered back to alley, "Koenma-sama was right to think that this mission could lead to danger. But I don't think he believed it would be a hazard for you two. You are not involved. The spirit detective isn't called upon on every issue, Yusuke-san." I looked back at him as he had left palm holding his right elbow; his thumb grazed his lip.

"I don't know if I should feel relieved," he turned his heel, indicating for him to be the new leader, "let's walk back. We passed by my apartment."

When we were walking back, Kuwabara-san asked me what I found in the alley and I told him that there was just a sick ghost. I also explained to him there might be some manipulation going on. I gently pressed him to not worry about it and joked that Koenma-sama might have something else more important in store for them later in the future. Yusuke-san grunted, "Hah!"

By the time we reached the building the Yusuke-san lived in, Kuwabara-san and I waited in the lobby for him to fetch this 'mirror' thing they were talking about. Seiichi leaned against the wall across from us, quiet.

"What's wrong?" I asked to the being across from me. Kuwabara-san looked down at me.

"Who you're asking?"

I gazed up at him and made an apologetic face, "Seiichi."

"When my spiritual awareness comes back, I wouldn't have to ask. What's up with him?" His eyes glanced ahead like I did at Seiichi even though he couldn't see or tell that he was there.

"I'm wondering what Nobu could've found out by now," he said, in a monotone voice, "Until I know, I don't think I could get rid of this feeling."

"What is the feeling?"

He sighed, "This defiant yet sad feeling. I think that fresh ghost rubbed off on me."

I closed my eyes. "It's natural to be empathic." I elbowed Kuwabara-san gently, "He's only feeling a little under the weather."

"I didn't think there was so much to them. Ghosts, I mean." Kuwabara-san said with something that sounded like sympathy behind his voice.

"Normally, there isn't. Seiichi is a special case and what is going on now…well, I can only find out from Botan-san."

Rushed steps came closer to ear-shot as Yusuke-san made it down to the lobby. He paused for a minute and turned his head to the right, where Seiichi was. "So ghost boy is there."

Seiichi immediately stared at Yusuke-san. "That's ghost man to you." Then Yusuke-san face Kuwabara-san, "He doesn't make you feel weird, does he?"

The orange haired teen held his head high, "He's cool. He doesn't seem like a threat to me."

"Right." Yusuke-san walked over to me and handed me something that appeared to me a compact mirror. I brushed some hair off my forehead.

"My hair is that messy, Yusuke-san?"

He smirked, "It's the communicator. If Botan fixed hers, it should work." I took the deceivable device into my hands and opened it. I figured which button would start the communication signals; at first there was fuzz until there was a girl's face that appeared on the mirror screen. She had bright blue hair and big pinkish eyes. She had a surprised expression; it quickly became angry.

"So Yusuke did lie about losing it!" Botan-san's eyebrows furrowed. I stared up at Yusuke-san.

"You lied to Botan-san?"

"Hi, Botan-chan!" Kuwabara-san greeted to the mirror compact.

Yusuke-san crossed his arms over his chest, then he turned his head away, "I don't know what she's talking about."

Botan-san grumbled. She sighed, probably realizing that whatever happened between them and this 'mirror' situation was going to find no solution at this moment.

"Botan-san, could I come to Spirit World?"

Her expression became curious, "What ever for? Did you find something?"

"I think I found a way to narrow down some suspects about this odd situation. The info I need to look at is at Spirit World, in your section, Botan-san. You shinigami had probably missed something."

"Are you sure Haruna-chan?" she asked with a bit of anxiety behind her voice.

"I bet its something small." I told her.

The pink-haired head grim reaper took out a small book from the left sleeve of her kimono. With her free hand, she used her thumb to flip through the pages. "How does Wednesday sound?"

I confirmed with a nod.

The night came to an end with a short spat between Botan-san and Yusuke-san; afterwards we went to our homes.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

"Seems like Nobu is still looking for possible hideouts."

It was Sunday in the afternoon and uncle had still not returned from wherever he was. This was nothing. I have stayed home alone for a week if the missions he was doing were taking him some time. The job of an exorcist was never certain and neither was living with one.

I was in my room doing homework for the week. I pace myself with homework and do some each day. But yesterday, I did nothing that was homework related. I had a bit of extra work to get through. At the moment, I was in the process of Japanese History.

"Haruna that is the wrong period. That happened during the Azuchi-Momoyama period not the Edo." Seiichi kindly corrected me as he looked over my shoulder.

Would it surprise you that my best grades in Meio High were in History? I would always get an A in every quiz and test on the subject. Expect one time. One time, I did get a B and that was because I was half asleep while taking the test. My secret to that was Seiichi. No, no, he never helped me cheat and apparently he agrees with me on that too. Though, if I ever had a wrong answer, he was slightly frantic about it and calls me an idiot. Anyway, he somewhat tutors me. He has an amazing memory and he knew a great deal of any time period through Japan's history. He can tell me who was the emperor, the years he ran, his politics and when he passed away. He is a complete expert on the Meiji period because that was the period he was alive. Seiichi knew things that the textbooks didn't.

"The Azuchi-Momoyama period was a definite time for the samurai under Hideyoshi's reign. But you know, my grandfather once told me that Hideyoshi had hated sweets." Seiichi mused, fondly recalling his memory.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Monday morning arrived and I carried on with my routine. Uncle has not returned yet.

On the way to school, Seiichi said, "Something doesn't feel right around here…"

I took a moment to step back and write to him in my "ghost communicator" in my simplified hiragana: "I fe-el it too. Its diff-er-rent from las-t nigh-t."

We were about a block away from Meio now. Seiichi made a stop. "Nobu should be returning today. Have a good day, Haruna-chan~" I facially dead-panned before I sensed his spirit leaving my presence. He recovered fast! It must be the male bravado he died with.

I raced up the stairs as I started another Monday morning in Meio High.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Lunch time came and all I had was melon bread that I brought from home. But then again, I was hardly the "lunch prepared" type. After steeping out of the classroom for a couple of moments, I went back inside and with my bread in my hands; I snuck up to Mayu-chan who was eating her lunch while reading one of our class textbooks. Perfect, she was distracted. Lightly, I pushed the book in front of her face with my index finger. In response, I received a yelp from her, and in exchange a smile from me.

"Studying, are you?"

She breathed out a huff to recover from her moment of excitement, "Yes, and you should be too Haruna-chan!"

My face was blank from all humor, "What?"

"I'm studying my chemistry lab because we might have a quiz today."

I glared at her as her retort was a blink. She answered my unspoken question, "Sensei said so on Saturday. She said she might."

"Kuso, hontoni (damn, really)?" I barely studied Chem on Sunday. I was distracted with everything else. "What did we have to know?"

"The sections on the periodic table and some of the elements we went over." Mayu explained.

Yup, I'm screwed.

"Study with me before the history teacher comes!"

I sat at my seat behind her as she trusted herself to work with me. Chem was so damn complicated for me. Luckily, I had about 30 minutes to review what I had to. Why can't we just have math equations and be done with it? But no, chemistry requires you to understand scientific concepts in order to use the mathematics. What's worse was I didn't have the best memory of certain compounds when we have lab. Good thing Mayu-chan understands it better than I did. Otherwise, I would be the failure of a student who blew up the Chem lab in Meioh High.

Ah, I could just see it now:

I mix one wrong component I would create the equivalent a low level bomb and blow up everything around me and would be responsible and had to run for life in case I endangered someone else's. I would have to change schools, my identity and my name so I wouldn't be rejected or suspected… What's funny about that was if the bomb scenario happened, the aftermath would be very much possible.

The Aoki Haruna's rule one: Don't have me interact with chemicals or anything over technical alone or too often. I would miraculously hurt or destroy something.

During my focus on the relevance of atomic mass and numbers, my acute hearing caught a conversation that was going on behind me. I turned my head discreetly, for, the conversation involved a familiar voice. Minamino Shuichi.

Two female students from our class were conversing with him by his left from the desk he was seated. I recognized one of the girls to be from my track club. Her family name was Chiko. The other I wasn't certain about her name. I'm horrible in being a good social student, so bare with me:

It wasn't the conversation that was making my gaze linger; there was something odd on one of the girl's shoulders. I narrowed my eyes to be sure that my vision wasn't deceiving me; it was a bug! The student was shyly (from appearances, hell would know what she thinking in her head) gushing over Minamino while a sizable bug sat on her shoulder. Didn't she feel it? The bug was bigger than your average butterfly or a beetle. I continued to observe the abnormal bug… At the corner of my eye, Minamino pointed carefully as if someone was coming in from the back door, the students motioned their heads to the doorway and then— I wasn't sure what exactly happened. I blinked once; Minamino's hand had grasped the strange bug from the girl's shoulder— swiftly— afterward, returned to neutral. The speed wasn't typical athletic reflexes— what I mentioned before was of the bug grab was an afterimage. I shook my head, I knew Minamino was one of our best athletes but I have never seen him display anything like that. I was sure the bug was dead in his hand and the students took his directing to the door as a joke (since no one entered and they chuckled).

"Haruna-chan, how many protons are in zinc?"

Distracted, I murmured, "17."

"Its 30." Mayu-chan corrected me.

I looked at my chemistry book and that number was correct.

"You were so wrong." Mayu-chan flicked my forehead with her mechanical pencil.

I rubbed my attacked forehead. "Oi. I'm paying attention, I'm paying attention."

Minamino Shuichi…should I be grateful that you killed an insect that could've hurt Chiko? Are you a martial artist keeping secrets? At that moment, my study partner brought me out from my wandering thoughts of our redheaded classmate.

"Haruna-chan, did you see your grade on the board yet? They're posted!"

I groaned, "Mayu-chan… Don't remind me about grades." I placed my hand behind my head to bend my head towards my sternum.

"I saw them earlier and it looks like Minamino was the top score once again and Kaito the second. We must have the best average with those two in our class." She beamed.

"Huh, who was the third placed student?" I asked in feigned curiosity. Didn't I tell you that I wasn't the best student?

"Oh, some guy from 2-B. I think his name was Mitsui." Mayu-chan recalled.

"Hmm…"

As I go back to study of the existence of atoms, I thought Mitsui's class was fortunate. Having top-notch geniuses in our class can sometimes become overly dramatic for the everyday high school student.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

Afternoon track practice started. I was changed into my track uniform and was happy this time of the day came. The chem quiz left me in poor spirits. Pun unattended.

"Start your 15 laps!" The sensei yelled then blew her whistle. We were encouraged to pace ourselves, but we were also told to try to go faster in comparison with the last. To constantly push ourselves.

When I checked into the locker room to change my clothes, the school clock pointed to 4:30pm. I paused. I heard some yelling coming from the 1st floor. My hearing was a little more defined in contrast than the average person but, this yelling was loud enough for anyone; dead or alive on school grounds.

I stepped into the hallway. The voice was loud and it was becoming familiar to me. I wasn't sure who, though. I clearly heard the name "Kurama" called several times. Why was the voice calling out a mountain? Or was it a name of a person?

I walked quickly to turn by a corner and saw a recognizable orange pompadour and a girl with blue hair in a raised ponytail. I hugged the wall as I watched them look through the window of what I knew was the biology lab.

"Botan-san…! Kuwabara-san…! Why are they even here?"

My inner thoughts stopped when Kuwabara-san broke the lab door down with a forceful, yet seemed effortless, push of his foot. I covered my mouth to my surprised yelp. "And defacing school property? What is the urgency? " I hesitated to whether I should check into the biology lab or run home. Do I become a spy or go home to my uncle?

Before I made a conscious choice, the voice coming from the inhabitants of the lab where vibrating clearly to me. I heard the bio club students, Kuwabara-san's brash voice, and Botan-san's energy-induced responses and one more: the calm and rational voice of Minamino Shuichi. My immediate thought was how these three even knew each other?

Botan-san was a perky grim reaper and who knows of all the people she encountered in her…um, life? What do you call the span of time when you are taking about a grim reaper? Anyway…subsequently there was Kuwabara-san…I only met him recently with Yusuke-san. How could someone like Kuwabara-san know Minamino? What could they possibly have in common to be acquaintances? To be familiar with each other? Wait— Was he involved with Yusuke-san and Kuwabara-san too?

Before I could allow my thoughts to travel any further, I covered my mouth to prevent myself from a shout, a gasp or a whisper. I dared to not make a sound. I had enough blood flowing in my head to discover what the pieces allowed to place together.

I ran down the hall, quickly and quietly exchanged my indoor shoes for the outdoor ones and continued on my sprint.

"That's the spirit, Haruna-san!" I heard one my club mates calling out to me. Oh yeah, I'm from the track club. That fact was beyond me and I didn't respond to the misunderstood cheer. I ran out of the school ground.

I was running for probably a mindless 10 minutes.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

I finally had the time to get back to this! I know its been quite a while since I updated. College is over for the semester and therefore, I can update in better time fragments. College did indeed took over my life for a while.

Now, if it wasn't obvious already by this chapter, I am beginning my story within the Chapter Black Saga. It's for a silly reason and that would be that this is my favorite arc. Also, in my personal yyh fanfiction reading experience, this arc is not always used well in a story or not at all. Actually, these days, fans write based on the aftermath, which those tend to be the best. Though, I have read ones that was within the canon story line that works very well too. I am not going to do a full re-telling of the entire arc. That's extra and actually, boring work. I'm sure all of you know what happens. With this story, its going to have two stories that eventually intersect with each other. Therefore, Haruna and Seiichi's story is not entirely dependent on the canon one. You can call it an interdependence...or a meshing. Whatever sounds closest to what I'm trying to say.

And a bit of info on the chapter... I did want to make sure that my oc, Aoki Haruna is not a total airhead, haha. She just have smarts in some areas (and lacking in others) and which eventually, can lead to situations that aren't ideal. Also, since I did intend to make this story of the mystery type, I hope I can use the conventions of a mystery in the best way I could for this story. Did you like the "Aoki rules"?

One more thing: Mitsui was the name I took from the manga when the panel showed the score boards. His name was the 3rd highest grade. Everything I else after that, I made up. I also made up about Hideyoshi hating sweets. I don't know that for sure, but since he had negative feelings for western influences, I would take him as the kind of guy that would reject the western import: sugar. This won't be the last time I would have Seiichi talk about Japanese History, therefore, some will be true and some be complete fiction. If I make a mistake on the actual history, just let me know. I am going to try to give the most accurate info. :)