"Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don't resist them - that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like." - Lao Tzu
Gravity
Chapter Eight
I awoke with a start when Keiko knocked on my door. She smiled at me as she stood in my door way.
"Sorry. I didn't mean to startle you. Dinner is ready," she said, as I rubbed the sleep from my eyes. I stood from the bed and followed her into the kitchen. It was dark. I had slept for a few hours. My stomach protested at me when I smelled the food wafting down the hallway.
"Did everyone leave?" I asked, taking note that only Keiko and Yusuke were in the kitchen.
"Kurama and Kuwabara left," Yusuke said. "Hiei is still around here somewhere. He's not a very social shrimp," he said, cracking a grin. I felt a wave of irritation come from outside. "Did you have any visitors during your nap?" he asked, pulling away my attention from the strong emotion. I sat at the table, scratching at my hair.
"Yeah," I admitted. "Yeah, I did."
He nodded. He exchanged glances with Keiko, before turning his gaze back to me. "We were thinking of taking you some place safe for the next two weeks."
"Some place safe?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Do you remember Genkai and Yukina?" Keiko asked. I nodded. They were at the wedding. It was the first and only time I met the old woman and the pretty mint haired girl. "They live in a temple a few hours south of Tokyo."
"And it's safe there?" I asked.
"Yes," Yusuke assured me. "We would be staying there until we figured out how much of a threat this Seikatsu is."
"Okay," I agreed. "When do we leave?"
"Really?" he asked, blinking in disbelief. "You'll come that easily?"
I shrugged, chewing a spoon full of rice. "Why not?" I asked swallowing. "Theres..something not right with Seikatsu. He's hiding something. I felt it n my dream. I'm still not totally convinced you aren't going to try and kill me. But I'd rather face maybe being murdered than face his unknown intentions. We'll just say it's the lesser of two evils right now."
"Okay then," he said clapping his hands together. "We'll eat and when you finish packing we'll go."
"He's not riding the train?" I asked, looking out towards the trees. I could feel Hiei amongst the shadows of the trees, even darker than the night around us.
"No. He's fast enough to get there before we do," Keiko explained. I furrowed my brow at her and nodded slowly.
It was almost eleven by the time the train departed. Apparently Kurama and Kuwabara had caught an earlier train to head out to the temple. Kuwabara was too eager to see Yukina to wait for us. The seats on the train were set up in groups of four. Keiko and Yusuke sat together, and I sat across from them. Keiko had long since drifted off to sleep, resting her head against Yusuke's shoulder. Sleep threatened to take me over as well, but I fought it, sipping on a free coffee. I preferred coffee to tea any day, but David hated the smell of it, so we never bought any.
"You should probably get some sleep," Yusuke said quietly, as to not disturb his wife or any other passengers sleeping.
"People visit me when I sleep," I said giving him a small smile. "Sleeping is what got me in this mess anyway. So I think I'm done with sleeping for a while."
We passed the rest of the train ride in silence. I was thankful for that. I was able to gather my thoughts in peace. Everything was so hard to wrap my mind around. All of this had happened over a matter of weeks, but due to the coma that I had been put it in it was only a matter of...three days to me. How was I supposed to go on from here? What was I supposed to do?
Why did Seikatsu help me in the first place?
He said that my soul had been preparing to leave my body because I was about to die. That spirit world was coming to take my soul. If he knew it was about to happen why didn't he do anything to stop it if he was just going to help me afterwards? Suspicion started to build in my stomach. If he knew something was about to happen, and Yusuke, who had ties with the spirit world, didn't know that I was going to be shot, what did that say about Seikatsu? How did he know something about me when I had never met him before, when someone I had considered a good friend of mine didn't?
I looked over at Yusuke, who's gaze was focused outside the window. I glanced around to the people around us. Though many were sleeping, some were still awake, and close enough to hear our conversation. I pursed my lips. I wanted to ask him if he did know. But I couldn't while there were so many humans around. It did not escape me that I just had referred to the general population as humans.
I grumbled in my head about not being able to ask what I wanted to when a realization came back to me. Seikatsu said I was going to be telepathic. My empathy had already started to develop. Did that mean my other psychic abilities had started to also, and I just hadn't bothered to use it?
I turned to face Yusuke fully. He was too engrossed in his own thoughts to notice. I squinted my eyes trying to focus. I felt nothing after a few moments. I tried stretching my mind, metaphorically speaking, towards him, but still didn't feel anything. After a few minutes, I gave up.
Dammit, I though sitting back dejectedly in my seat.
Yusuke's head snapped up, eyes landing directly on me.
...Daelyn? I heard in my mind.
I blinked. Can you hear me? I asked, unsure I heard what I did.
Yes, his eyes narrowed. How are you doing this so soon?
I don't know, I pursed my lips. I just..tried. I didn't know if it would work.
Huh. He was surprised. I could feel it flowing off of him. Well, good job. Now get out of my head.
I have a question for you, I said, starting to feel myself getting pushed out of his mind. Now that I knew I was speaking to him in his mind, I could feel it. A subconscious tingling in my own mind. Did you..um..did you know I was going to get shot that day?
He didn't answer me at first. I was starting to think he had already pushed me out of his head and he didn't hear me.
Why would you ask me that? He finally answered roughly. I could see his distaste on his face. If I knew you were going to get shot, don't you think I would have stopped it? Don't be ridiculous. I'm going to pretend you never asked me that question.
I'm sorry, I apologized, clenching my teeth. I hated apologizing. But I knew Yusuke was truly angry I asked that. I just...I'm trying to get my thoughts together.
It's okay, kid. Just don't ask me anything stupid like that ever again.
With that I pulled out of his mind and I gave him a small smile. He returned it with a nod and went back to his own thoughts and staring out the window.
A few hours was a MAJOR understatement. It was nearly dawn by the time we arrived at the final stop for the train. I could already see the sky beginning to change color over the tops of the trees. And we were the last people to get off the train.
With all three of our bags slung over Yusuke's shoulder, I followed after the two as they headed down a worn path. My eyes fell on the soon to become familiar form of Hiei leaning against a tree just ahead of us. Though Keiko told me that he could keep up with us, I didn't completely believe it. But as ruby red eyes opened as we passed, and made eye contact with me, I suddenly realized that all of the men at my house, just a few hours ago, had an amount of power that I had no idea about. Hiei fell into step with us just a few paces behind me. I could feel his eyes staring holes into the back of my head. My irritation rose bit by bit the longer he stared. What was his problem? If he was so fast why didn't he go on ahead to the temple instead of staring at the back of my head?
"Do you have a problem?" I snapped, whipping my head around to glare at him. "Because if you don't could you please, revert your eyes to somewhere other than the back of my fucking head?"
He returned my glare with just as much force. "I'm just trying to figure out who would be interested in such a stupid human woman enough to change her into a demon."
Before I could retort, Yusuke let out a boisterous laugh. "I'm glad to see you two getting along so well." He turned his attention back to me. "You better get used to it Daelyn. You're gonna be stuck with that shrimp until we can capture Seikatsu."
"What?" I seethed. I could feel Hiei's own irritation bubble up, like bile in my throat.
"You see, Hiei's got this thing called the Jagan. That's how he can see into your dreams. He can also let us know if Seikatsu or any other bad guy shows up so we can get to you. So, obviously, he was our first choice to be your body guard."
If I had something in my hand to throw at his smug face, I would have. "Why was I not informed of this?!"
"Because someone wanted to go take a nap~," he said in a sing-song voice. Keiko smacked him, a lot less harder than I wanted to, but she still smacked him.
"Be quiet! You don't need to tease them!" she scolded, glaring at him.
I heard a whiz by my ear, causing me to flinch. A pebble smacked into the back of Yusuke's head with quite a bit of force.
"What the hell?!" he exclaimed, rubbing the back of his head and scowling at me. "I'm gonna get you back for that!"
"I didn't do it!" I exclaimed back. I could tell he didn't believe me. I whipped my head back to Hiei who had a smug smirk on his face. "Bastard," I spat.
"I heard that!" Yusuke yelled back at me.
"I wasn't talking to you!"
After a long walk through the woods and up a never ending stair case, I was ready to rip my hair out between dealing with Yusuke and feeling Hiei glare at the back of my head. It was also passed dawn by the time we reached the top of the stairs, finally reaching Genkai's temple. Keiko did her best to try and get my mind off the two, but between the silent, swirling irritation from Hiei and Yusuke's pestering, it didn't do much good.
I followed Keiko into the temple, ready to be away from the two. I could hear Kuwabara somewhere in the temple. Keiko headed down the hall, leaving the two men behind as I followed after her. She made it to an open door way, and motioned me to follow her in the room. It was a dinning room. At the table sat Kurama at one end, sipping on tea, and the other Yukina, the mint haired girl, and Kuwabara, swooning over her.
"Oh! Hello!" Yukina greeted, bowing her head with a warm smile. I bowed my head and smiled back in return.
"Glad to see you made it safely," Kurama greeted us with a smile as we sat down.
"Not without a few bumps in the road," I said, casting a darkened stare at Hiei who walked passed the door, following after Yusuke. He returned the glare, and then he was out of my sight.
"Yes, that is expected with this group," he said, smiling apologetically.
The morning passed as quietly as it could with Kuwabara fretting over Yukina. It was sweet, to be honest. He was obviously infatuated with the girl. It was easy to understand why. She was just as sweet as she was pretty. She fretted over everyone having tea, and even made me coffee when Keiko had mentioned something about it, though I assured her tea was fine. Keiko assured me that's just how Yukina was. I gave her a sincere thank you when she handed me the cup of coffee.
Soon, noon time came, without seeing Yusuke, Hiei or Genkai once. And that was changed when Yusuke smacked his hand on the door way to get out attention.
"Genkai wants to see you kid," he said. He grinned at me when I stood to follow him, causing me to give him a suspicious look.
"You look like your up to something," I said slowly.
"Nope," he said, the end of his word popping.
I continued to stare after him suspiciously as we headed down twists in the hallway. Finally we came to a closed door. He slid the door opened and motioned me inside. It was dark. The door snapped shut behind me. I started to turn to look back at the now closed door, when a large ball of light appeared.
And it was flying right at me.
Three chapters in two days? Well, I would say that's progress, wouldn't you?
