DC-chan: Yay, I beat Kingdom Hearts II on both Standard and Proud mode only dying three times all together! It's actually a really easy, straightforward game to beat…but my friends had trouble with it. I laugh at them. I GOTS FINAL FORM IN BOTH OF THEM TOO WHICH IS THE COOLEST FORM EVAAAA! To hell with Wisdom form…
MCT: And you call us cruel?
Seraph: You're the cruel one, I'm the hot, pitchfork wielding figment of her imagination.
DC-chan: Anyway, four new bad guys introduced in this chapter. Their names mean 'discord', 'chaos', 'despair' and 'pain' (not in any particular order). What delightful things could they possibly have in store for the Reikai Tantei?
Disclaimer: I don't own YYH, happy?
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Chapter 6 of Define 'Normal'
The Guardian of Time Stage 1 Enter The Necromancer
The sky was dark with no stars or moon to give off light. The trees were dead and withered, resembling huge skeletons surrounded by wilted flowers. It was always night in this place, the sun never shone.
Four cloaked figures meet under the largest hollow tree with twisted branches that looked like mangled arms reaching out towards the night sky. One was holding a lantern to provide some light amidst the darkness and in his other hand was a silver chain that attached to a collar around the neck of a young child that was standing, solemnly behind him.
"Is that the child?"
"Yes, this is it." He tugged on the chain gruffly so the child staggered forward into the lantern's glow. The child had long silver hair, baby blue eyes, small pointed ears and sickly pale skin. The outline of an hourglass was tattooed in black ink on the child's forehead.
"It has the symbol of time."
"Our plan can finally begin now. In a few days time, on the full moon in Ningenkai when the child's powers are strongest we will begin dismantling the past to recreate the future."
"Whoever changes the past according to their will can control the future, but in order to do so we need to prevent certain…entities from ever existing."
The all nodded in agreement. Too long had they stayed in the shadows waiting for the chance to strike and now, with the help of a pitiful fire demoness whom they had used like a puppet, they held an ace up their sleeves. To control time was to control life itself, they all knew that and that is why they formulated a plan such as this.
The figure holding the chain in his hand jerked it forward sending the young child stumbling to its feet on the rocky ground and whimpering quietly. "Sniveling brat…" the figure spat, tightening his grip on the chain before looking up at his accomplice across from him. "Ranmyaku, I trust you to take care of things in the present for the time being."
His cohort nodded in understanding. "Of course, Zetsubou-sama." He put his right hand over his heart and bowed before disappearing in a black cloud of smoke.
"Are you sure it's wise to trust Ranmyaku? He is the youngest of us all. Shouldn't I or Kurushimi take care of things here while you go back in time?"
He waved his hand for silence. "He will got the job done or suffer the consequences, Atsureki."
"Well, if you say so."
With that the remaining figures vanished into darkness.
…
Kira wanted to bang her head on the desk. Why did school have to be so damn boring? Didn't teachers realize that students had better things to do then sit in a classroom all day and learn useless information. Even the Algebra teacher had told them that they'd probably never use this kind of stuff in real life anyway unless they wanted to be math teachers too. As if.
She put her hands over her head as her rested her forehead against the desk, hoping to block out whatever the hell the teacher was saying.
She was too busy thinking about yesterday and looking forward to going to the arcade to meet Kuwabara and Yusuke, but mostly the tension of yesterday was still hanging over her head like a large storm cloud.
Why had they wanted to keep that hidden from her? Why? Why did they even think they could keep such a thing like that secret from her? Why? Why? WHY?
Even though Kurama had promised to tell her everything regarding Kokuei, she had a nagging feeling in the pit of her stomach that told her he wouldn't be able to. Maybe there were some things best left secret and unknown to her regarding Kokuei, but it shouldn't have been up to Koenma or Kurama to decide what to and what not to tell her.
The bell rang, interrupting her thoughts which made her glad because she had a feeling she has almost at the point of being too angst over the whole stupid situation.
"Lunchtime," the teacher announced unnecessarily as kids were already getting their lunches out of their book bags.
Kira hastily decided to take this opportunity to find Kurama and at least talk to him about yesterday reasonably, without her losing face. They didn't really talk about it after the incident, all that happened was he made the promise and she then left sulking.
She left the classroom and walked down the hallway. Lots of student were filing out into the school's front yard for it was a really nice day outside so it was kind of like a current of people. You know, when everyone's going one way and you're going the other and sometimes you dragged off into the direction you don't want to go because everyone but you is pushing that way. Like that, but Kira tactfully avoided this current by ducking into the nook where the water fountain was until the crowd passed.
After the storm had passed (more like a horde of students to be literal and less confusing) she continued in the direction of Kurama's classroom, silently hoping he hadn't been part of the brainless mob leaving the school for lunch. She highly doubted he was still in the classroom though, doing extra credit work or studying more.
Usually an underclassmen would feel a little fear while walking into the senior section of the school, but Kira had been here countless of times to know that the glares she was receiving from upperclassmen were just empty threats. Who would actually be stupid enough to pick a fight on school grounds if it meant expulsion? Even she wasn't dumb enough to pull something like that, she'd never hear the end of it from Kurama or her mother.
She finally reached the door and opened it, peering carefully inside and so that her body was hidden behind the door.
He was sitting in the front row with his head bent low and a textbook on his table, obviously studying or looking at a perverted magazine and hiding it, giving everyone who glimpsed him the illusion he was studying. Kira, knowing him, knew that idea was too far fetched and he was doing the former, not the later.
"Nerd…" she mumbled to herself. Who in this world ACTUALLY wastes their time studying?
Kurama looked up from his book and turned around in his seat right after Kira slammed the door in a panic and leaned her back against it. Oh, shit! Did he hear me? I didn't mean to call him a nerd! It just came out! I knew this was a bad idea! Very bad idea! Bad, stupid, moronic Kira!
Just as she finished racking her brain for a good excuse and turned to face the door, the door flew open and hit her right in the face. The impact surprised her so much, since she hadn't been expecting it, it knocked her down on the ground on her rear end.
"Kira?" Kurama, the one responsible for opening said door, said, not realizing what had happened until he saw Kira sitting on the ground and rubbing her nose which was very, very red. His emerald eyes widened and he knelt down next to her, "Are you alright?" He didn't mean to hit her in the face with the door! It just happened!
She crossed her legs and glared at him (while still rubbing her nose which hurt a lot), "I'm okay, just watch out when you're opening doors next time. Man, if I was a normal girl my nose would probably be broken and I would hate you for the rest of my life." She stood up and brushed her skirt off while scrunching her nose like a rabbit which made it hurt even more so she stopped scrunching it.
He got to his feet and laughed nervously. "Well, I'm glad you're not a normal girl, then." She seemed fine and if she was being cynical despite the pain then everything was okay. He was basically worrying for nothing. He then remembered hearing her peek into his class. "Oh yeah, Kira, did you need something?"
She gave him a blank look and blinked twice. "Huh?"
"You did come to my classroom, didn't you?" Kurama asked, raising an eyebrow. He bit the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing at how clueless she looked.
She furrowed her brows in concentration. "I wanted to…talk to you…about something important…" she trailed off. Great, now she couldn't remember what the hell she wanted to talk to him about.
"Something important?" He looked up at the ceiling for a few moments before focusing his eyes back on her. His thoughts then shifted to how cute she looked when she was confused before he chased those thoughts away. Focus! He scolded and mentally slapped himself. She wants to talk to you and you're thinking about how cute she is? What's wrong with me?
"Kurama?" Kira gave him a quizzical expression. He's so weird. She put her hands behind her back. "I just remembered what it was."
"You what?" He then scratched the back of his neck feeling embarrassed. "So, um…what is it?" He sweatdropped anxiously. Why did he have to look like such a dork at times in front of her? Even though she knew him better than most people, she had only seen a few sides of who he was: his studious side, being the model son, the perfect student, the serious fighter, etc. There was so much more about himself that she didn't know.
"I know this is going to be difficult to talk about," she sighed heavily, "but about yesterday…Takuto was just…I don't want you to get the wrong idea…" Words were failing her, she couldn't express her emotions this way. She felt so stifled, like a flame confined to a single candle and silently cackling through the night. "I was upset…I just want to know…a reason…"
Kurama tried to understand what she was saying, but her words made no sense. They were fragments of discontinued and jumbled thoughts all trying to come out at once. He put one arm across his chest and rested his other elbow on it so he could cup his chin in his hand.
Kira frowned slightly before noticing Kurama's concerned expression. She shifted her feet a bit now getting uncomfortable. Maybe brining this subject up was a stupid mistake. It was all in the past, wasn't it?
Suddenly the sound of shattering glass broke the awkward silence. Pieces of broken class from the classroom window hit the ground like hail.
Both Kira and Kurama rushed back into the classroom to see what was up as they heard a few girls shirk and run out of the room.
A black cloaked figure was posed crouching down with one hand on the ground and the other on his waist. It almost seemed like he was trying to make a dramatic and cool entrance. He stood up slowly and turned to where the two teenagers were standing. He moved his hand from his waist, Kira and Kurama being cautious got into fighting stances, but there was no need (yet) because all he was doing was pulling down his black hood.
"Hey." The stranger said pleasantly, smiling at them as if he wasn't the one who had just broken the window. He had light blonde hair with bangs in his face and covered his ears, also it was fanned slightly in the back making him seem a bit girly. His eyes were large and blue with a black upside down triangle under the left one.
"Someone you know?" Kira whispered to Kurama out of the corner of her mouth.
Kurama shook his head. "I've never seen him before."
"Then why the hell is he being so informal with us?" She yelled, forgetting to whisper and immediately clamping her hands over her mouth.
The stranger chuckled frivolously. "Sorry about my rude entrance, but I knew it would catch your attention. It did, didn't it? Or maybe I should've smashed through a wall? Or maybe I should've blown up a part of the school? I guess I just did whatever came to my mind first. Now that I'm thinking about it…I could've done something much cooler than jumping in through a window."
Kira arched an eyebrow. This guy was like on a different planet or in a different solar system. She couldn't help, but think the word 'weirdo'.
Kurama, on the other hand, wasn't taking this as lightly as Kira. He could sense the spiritual energy this new presence was hiding and the lust for destruction. He glanced down at Kira who was staring dumbfounded at the guy as if she couldn't take this seriously anymore.
"Anyway," the stranger said waving his hand dismissively. "As you can probably guess, I'm here to fight and kick some ass. So, shall we get this party started? I'm Ranmyaku, your executioner!" He snapped his fingers and small white flames encircled him and began spinning rapidly as the room got much darker. "Kyonshi! Tachinoboru!" (Reanimated corpses! Rise up!)
The individual white flames stopped spinning and each one morphed into a white, human sized creature with black hole where the eyes were supposed to be and their rib cages protruding out. Their arms were dragging on the floor and they had long nails. Their heads were flopped to one side as if they had no strength in their neck to support it and instead of talking their teeth made chattering sounds.
"What the hell?" Kira yelped, raising her arm up as a guard. "Those things don't look like corpses!"
Ranmyaku shook a finger at her simply. "These are spiritually powered imbued corpses. I didn't say they were human corpses." He sneered at her, "And because of their spiritual power, they are much harder to get rid of." He snapped his fingers again and the white creatures lunged viciously at Kira and Kurama.
Kurama dodged swiftly and pulled out a rose. "Rose whip!" The rose sprouted into a thorny green whip and he slashed two of the corpses to bits in seconds, but instead of staying down they fused together to reform the two fallen creatures.
Kira concentrated some of her energy into the palm of her hand and blasted one of them, but before she could gloat about it the creature sprang back and lashed at her shoulder making four deep cuts and tearing up her sleeve. Blood oozed from the wound and stained her blouse.
"You can't get rid of them that way." Ranmyaku teased as he watched in amusement and smirking at the trouble they were having.
Kira and Kurama stood back to back as the white monsters surrounded them menacingly, coming closer and closer every second.
"Any bright ideas, kitsune?" She inquired hopefully. He must have an idea at least! He was the Reikai Tantei's main strategist after all! He was the one who had the brilliant idea to use Neko to capture Shikyo's soul.
"I think I have one," he muttered back to her. "But, it might be a bit risky…"
Kira glowered fiercely at him, "Well then, spill it! I don't know about you, but I don't want to die for a third time!"
He didn't even think this situation was bad enough for someone to die, but Kira liked to hyperbole. Or maybe she was being dead serious. It was hard to tell with someone as playful as her.
He craned his neck down and told her his plan in her ear. "One of us has to keep these corpses busy while the other attacks Ranmyaku. Since he's controlling them, if we defeat him we therefore defeat these things."
"That's your genius plan?" Kira gawked at him. Was this really the best plan that Kurama could consider? She had suspected a method on the lines of dragons, spirits, youkai, anything! Maybe she just had a really big imagination and was feeling a bit rejected because her scheme was way too unrealistic.
"Can you think of anything else?"
"Iie." She said in reply. "So, I'm guessing you want to keep these things distracted while I kick that bastard's ass, right?"
Kurama sweatdropped, "Actually, I was hoping it would be vice versa."
Kira's face dropped, "Oh." She bit her bottom lip unsurely, "Right. I knew that."
"So, does that sound good?" He asked as the Kyonshi drew closer to them slowly.
She shrugged, "Well, I can't think of anything else." She darted forward and kick one of the Kyonshi to the ground before turning around to give Kurama the thumbs up. "You can count on me Kurama-daioh!" Just as she cracked a smile one of the Kyonshi hit her so hard she went flying into the teacher's desk. "I'm…okay…" she said meekly, raising her hand despite the pain that was surging through her back from crashing into the furniture.
Kurama paled, maybe this wasn't such a good idea, but he still needed to concentrate at his task at hand: defeating Ranmyaku.
Ranmyaku folded his arms over his chest and grinned deviously. "So you want to fight me, huh?" He scanned Kurama quickly with his blue eyes, totally ignoring how his Kyonshi were fairing against Kira who was now pummeling the crap out of them for making her look stupid and weak. Ranmyaku had been warned about their prowess, but he was still acting like a cocky little prick. The way he spoke to them, his body language and how he was looking at them were all indicators that he saw the two teenagers as inferior to him.
"You shouldn't underestimate your opponents." Kurama warned bitterly, Ranmyaku finally getting on his nerves. No, this guy was WAY passed getting on his nerves. Kurama was, shall we say, getting extremely angry right now. This guy had come into his school while he and Kira were unprepared, destroyed a window, scared his classmates, unleashed Kyonshi who were reeking havoc on the room and was now giving him some smug attitude.
Ranmyaku brushed him off, "Everyone says that, but they're all losers in the end. I have to say though, I like your guts so I'm gonna reward you with something special that only a few lucky youkai have seen." He pulled down his cloak sleeve and grabbed his arm, a dark aura surrounded it and it seemed like he had began pulling something out of his own arm. A long white sword tinted in crimson came out of his arm and now he held it in his hand, but his left arm was now hanging limply at his side. Ranmyaku held up the sword proudly. "This is what I like to call Sword of Bones. It's the bone from my left arm, but I manipulate my own bone structure in addition to necromancy and make weapons from them."
Kurama narrowed his emerald eyes, indeed, it was a nice trick, but it had one serious flaw.
Ranmyaku held up his sword so the sharp tip was facing Kurama. He was challenging the fox, daring him to make the first move. When it was evident that Kurama was being too cautious to do so, Ranmyaku charged him, brandishing his sword. However, Kurama managed to dodge the gleaming blade as Ranmyaku swung it around, not belittling Ranmyaku's swordsmanship skills, but their was still a lot left to be desired.
Kurama soon decided to take the offensive once his foe began breathing heavily, indicating that he was short of breathe and tired. With his Rose Whip, he snagged his opponent around the ankle with it and flung him into the chalkboard.
Ranmyaku slid down the wall and fell to the ground. Shakily, he pushed himself up using his arms and stood up. He wiped the blood of his lip and his sword trembled in his grip. A black energy began swirling around him violently like a sandstorm and a black puddle that started underneath him began growing steadily bigger, engulfing everything around them except Kira, the Kyonshi, Kurama and himself. The black puddle covered the floor and all the walls, blocking out the sunlight. It was like the room had been transformed into a pit of darkness.
Kira punched another Kyonshi as she said, "Uh-oh, Kurama. I think you made him angry."
Ranmyaku leapt towards Kurama with such ferocity that it looked like his once blue eyes were burning as bright as flames. "Prepare to die you bastard!" He yelled shrilly.
Kurama tried to evade, but the sword pierced right through his shoulder causing a shock wave of pain throughout his body as blood splattered from the wound onto Ranmyaku who was driving the sword deeper and deeper until he reached the hilt. Then he withdrew it in one swift motion, smirking devilishly at what he had just done.
"You're lucky you're so quick or else it would've been through your stomach." He snickered. The darkness in the room immediately vanished and Kurama fall to his knees with his hand covering the shoulder that had been stabbed, applying pressure to stop the bleeding.
Kira pushed through the white corpses and ran to Kurama to help him. She knelt down next to him and put her hands on his shoulders. "Are you okay?" Her hands trembled as she clutched the fabric of his shirt in her fingers.
Before he could answer, Ranmyaku snapped his fingers and all the Kyonshi disappeared.
"That was fun enough for today, but I was told just to stall you losers." He tilted his head to one side and put his hood back up. "See ya wimps later." With that, he too vanished in a cloud of dark smoke.
Kira rolled her eyes, "What a moron." She then returned her attention to Kurama and asked again, "You okay? That looks pretty bad…"
"I just…need to stop the bleeding then I'll be fine." He told her flatly.
She lowered her eyelids and ripped a sleeve off of her shirt. "Here," she leaned forward and gently moved his hand that was covering the wound so she could tie the cloth around it. "Until we get to Genkai's or one of our houses, this is your temporary bandage." She tied it extra tight just to make sure it wouldn't come off until they could replace it.
He forced a smile, "Thanks. But what about your uniform?"
She smacked the side of his head and yelled at him loudly. "How can you worry over something as dumb as a uniform when you could've gotten killed? I can always get a new one, dumb ass! What's wrong with you? Would you rather bleed to death or me have my uniform in one piece?"
Kurama chuckled flippantly at this, "I'm sorry, point taken." He couldn't help, but laugh at how stern she was being with him. It seemed incredibly out of character for her and it just made him laugh, but it was also proof that she did care about him…in a totally platonic way. The romance was going to have to wait until she was just a tad more mature or until she was less dense. Now, it seemed like something he could bare for just a little longer.
Kira sat down cross-legged. "It would've been helpful if certain people weren't being stupid and showed up to help us."
"You mean Yusuke, Kuwabara and Hiei?" Kurama asked.
"Duh!" She pounded her fist on the floor. "Can't those idiots sense anything?"
…meanwhile…
"Hey Kuwabara! I bet I can beat you at a game of Asteroids!"
"You're on Urameshi! I'm gonna crush you this time!"
"Yeah, yeah. Like we haven't heard that a million times. You wanna play too, Hiei?"
"Hn."
…
Kira clenched her fists into balls, "Thos bastards are at the arcade playing video games!"
"How do you know?"
"Well, um…" she scratched her temple with her index finger, "I am kinda psychic."
"I knew that…"
"You forgot, didn't you?" She punched his arm (the uninjured one).
"No, I didn't." He stood up and she followed suit while pouting. Kurama glanced at her, "What?"
Kira glared at him, "Nothing."
To him it didn't look like nothing was bothering her, but it was probably best to leave it be.
The classroom door opened and a teacher came running in and shouted at the two of them. "What happened in here?"
Kira and Kurama looked at each other out of the corner of their eyes. This was going to take some explaining or a very creative and imaginative story to get them out of the trouble coming their way.
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Note: So here's the deal with the fics I'm planning to put up, the Naruto one pretty much went down the drain and the FMA one (which I thought I had a good plot set out) is kinda iffy to me right now. The Furuba one however, I've already typed the first three chapters so that should be up soon. That fic is kinda angsty so be warned…
MOVING ON!
Next chapter: The Guardian of Time (Stage 2)
Rock on and Love and Peace,
DC-chan