A/N: Well here is the final chapter. Hope you enjoy it. it goes kind of slow but at least it's longer than the chapter before it. But I'm finally done. Ha! Well thanks for sticking with me for so long! Please feel free to read my other stories. I have three others. One is a Yu Yu Hakusho fanfic called Dolly Hiei, one is a NCIS fanfic called The Worst Case, and the third is a digimon one shot called George, I think. Just go to my profile, it'll be there. Thanks again, readers!
Chapter Eight: Going Home
"It's almost here." Hiei said quietly.
"Tai, Kari!" a voice cried. Tai and Kari relaxed visibly when Matt burst through the trees, followed closely by Chu, with T.K. on his shoulder.
"T.K." Kari cried.
"Matt." Said Tai at the same time.
"Kari." T.K. said as well.
"Chu." Said Chu. Everyone stopped and stared at him. "I felt left out." Carefully he set T.K. on the ground and glanced at Hiei. "And who might you be?"
"You first." Hiei said coolly, having not yet lowered his weapon or his guard.
"Name's Chu." He said.
"Hn, Hiei." Hiei said.
"Well, Hiei." Chu said. "I'm assuming you decided to help the little Sheila find her boy?"
"What boy?" Tai snapped protectively.
"Who's Sheila?" T.K. asked again.
"Don't start." Matt said.
"No, I didn't." Hiei replied. "I want nothing to do with her or any of these humans."
"Stop being such a baby." Kari scolded.
"I'm not a baby!" Hiei snapped.
"Then stop acting like one." Kari shot back, imitating her mother when she scolded them. "We're human. Get over it. If you don't like it, then leave. Otherwise you can stay here and help us find a way to go home. If you stay, you might get rid of us faster. Either way, stop complaining."
Hiei glared at her before flitting off. Kari sighed and turned back to everyone else, who were all staring at her with wide eyes. "What?" she asked.
"That's the most I've ever heard you talk before in a really long time." Tai said.
"You just yelled at a demon." Matt said. "I know he was small compared to Chu here but he seemed pretty powerful, especially with that sword in his hands. And he was fast when he left."
"That took some guts, little Sheila." Chu said.
Kari shrugged. "He was getting on my nerves. Now, are we going to go home or not?"
"Right." Tai said. He turned to Matt. "So how are we getting home?"
Matt shrugged. "Why you asking me?"
"Because you've been the one telling me what to do. You're the brains of this operation, so I figured you had a plan or something." Tai said, rolling his eyes in vexation.
"Matt, how do we get home?" T.K. asked, looking up at him with his big blue eyes. "Are we going to have to stay here forever?"
"I don't know how to get back." Matt said. "But I don't think we'll have to stay here. I'm sure there's some way to get home." He turned to Chu. "What do you think?"
Chu thought for a moment. "How did you get here in the first place?"
Quickly, they explained everything that had happened, from when Kari was practicing her powers with T.K. , to when Matt had found them gone and he and Tai had gone looking for them, to the point where they split up to find their missing sibling and eventually found each other.
"I see." Chu said, thinking again. "Well, perhaps you should try doing what you did the first time."
Kari looked at T.K., Matt, Tai, and then Chu, before nodding and stepping forward. She pulled up her index finger and slowly began making the tip glow a faded yellow. As she started to make the small circle, her finger started to glow green, then blue, then purple, then violet, then red, changing all the way around the color scheme as rapidly as if someone was flipping through all the channels on the T.V. When the lowing got back to yellow, it began to get brighter and brighter until it turned a blinding white, causing everyone to throw their hands up to shield their eyes. Then Kari jerked her hand back with a yelp as she felt a sharp sting in the tip of her finger.
"Are you okay?" Tai asked when the light finally faded. He bent down to check her finger. "What happened?"
Kari looked at her finger. It seemed to be alright, but the sting could still be felt, as it slowly withdrew. "I'm okay. That's never happened before. When I did it at home, it went from yellow to green and then it came off my finger and onto the closet door."
Tai turned to Matt. "Do you think the power left over on the door finally faded?"
Matt shook his head. "I don't think so but even if it does, it wouldn't matter because Kari is the one doing it this time, not one of us. It should work fine, even if it did fade. Of course, I'm not exactly an expert, since I'm just learning this stuff as I go along with T.K."
"What did you think about when you did it the first time?" a voice in the trees asked. Everyone looked up to see a small figure in black standing on one of the lower branches.
"Hiei." Kari said with a grin. "You came back."
"Hn." Hiei muttered, looking away from her for a moment. Then he turned back, and ignoring her proclamation, asked again. "Well? What did you think about when you did it the first time?"
Kari thought for a moment. "Well, I was thinking of how it would be to find a place where I can practice my powers without anyone being afraid of me or anyone hating me because of them. And where my mom can't get mad at me anymore and my mom and dad won't fight because of me."
"Kari." Tai said, not knowing what to say. He looked to Matt mournfully for help but it seemed Matt was at as much of a loss as he was.
"I'm okay." Kari told him, smiling in reassurance. She turned to Hiei.
"Then why don't you try thinking about going to your home?" he asked.
"I was." She said. "But it didn't work."
Hiei leaped from the branch and landed in front of her. He leaned in close and gave her a hard look. "Was that all you were thinking about?"
Kari looked at him for a moment before casting her eyes to the ground, shaking her head. "No." she said quietly.
"What else were you thinking about?" Tai asked.
Kari hesitated before looking up at them all. "I was thinking about what it would be like to actually live here. And not have to go home at all."
Tai looked at her in shock. "Why would you think that? You know we have to go home."
"She doesn't want to." T.K. said. Everyone turned to look at him.
"Why not?" Matt asked.
T.K. glanced at Kari, who shrugged, before answering. "She doesn't want to go home because she thinks her mama hates her and she thinks that if she went away, her mama would be happy again."
Tai looked at his sister, then at Matt, searching for someone who could help him reassure her that what she was thinking was not true. No one knew what to say to her to change her mind.
"They can't leave if you don't let them." Hiei told her, indicating to her brother and friends. "You don't want to leave, so your powers aren't going to make you. And because you don't want to leave, they can't leave either." He turned to T.K. "You have the same powers that she does, right? Why don't you do it?"
T.K. shook his head. "It won't work. I can take us back, but because Kari doesn't want to go back, we'll end up leaving without her. And I'm not doing that. I won't leave her."
"Neither will I." Tai said firmly. Matt nodded in agreement.
Hiei turned back to Kari. "Then it's up to you. They can't leave except if, (T.K. was it?), takes them but they won't leave without you. So basically no one is leaving. Is that what you want? Do you want to strand everyone here just because you don't want to go home?"
"Hey, don't talk to her like that!" Tai snapped. "It's not her fault. You have no idea what our mom is like. She banned Kari from using her powers anymore. She forbid us from even mentioning them. If I was Kari, I wouldn't want to go home either." He turned to her. "But you can't stay here. This is the 'demon' world, meaning humans shouldn't be here. We have to go home."
"What about your father?" Chu asked, being quiet up until this point. "Does he really deserve to have his only daughter abandon him?"
"I'm not abandoning him." Kari protested.
"That's what it seems like. You don't want to go home because of your mother, but your father is still there. Does he care about you?" Chu asked.
"I think so." She said.
"Then I think the best thing to do is for you to go home. You're brother is right. You can't stay here. It's quiet right now but it can be extremely dangerous. It's dangerous for us sometimes. Demons kill each other to survive. And don't get me wrong, but you don't seem like the type who would kill anyone. And if you run away from your problems at home, then all you'll do is give everyone who thinks bad of you the impression that you're a coward. Talk to her. Talk to your mother and try to see eye to eye. Let her know that your powers are who you are. And if she was really your mother, and if she really loved you, she would accept you, powers and all, like a mother should."
Everyone waited as Kari thought this over. They knew she was struggling to make a decision and wondered which one she would make. Finally she nodded. "You're right. I can't run away from my problems. Besides, I need to be there to continue to protect my brother and my friends."
"And here I thought I was protecting you." Tai muttered, rolling his eyes but smiling anyways.
Kari smiled at him. "I think I'm ready to go home now."
"Then let's go." He replied.
Everyone watched again as Kari took a deep breath and brought her index finger up in front of her. Slowly, her finger began to glow a dull yellow and she slowly started making a small circle in the air, moving faster as the circle grew bigger and began glowing a light green. Kari pictured her room in her mind, pictured the closet she had been sitting in front of with T.K., pictured her bed and the walls and the window, picturing everything as clearly as she could before thinking in her mind, 'I want to go home.'
Suddenly, he felt another sting in her finger, this one not as painful, and pulled her hand back, smiling when the circle remained in tacked, her room plainly visible in the center like a two-way mirror. "I did it." she said, looking at everyone in turn.
"Time to go home." Matt said, taking T.K.'s hand and walking towards the circle.
"Wait." T.K. said, trying to pull his hand out of Matt's.
"What's wrong?" Matt asked, looking down at him.
"Where's Gizmo?" he asked. "I want to take him with me."
"Who's Gizmo?" Matt asked.
"It's a little creature he found earlier." Chu explained. Then he turned to T.K. "They don't make good pets, mate. They shed like crazy and scratch up the furniture. I doubt your mother would let you keep him. Besides, he belongs in the demon world. You wouldn't want to take him out of his home, would you?"
T.K. sighed. "I guess not."
T.K., Matt, Tai, and Kari turned to Chu and Hiei. "Bye Chu." T.K. said, waving.
"So long, mate." Chu said. "Remember to breathe between sentences."
"K." he said.
"Thanks for keeping an eye on him." Matt said.
"Yeah, thanks for your help." Tai said. "And thanks for looking after them for us."
"It was my pleasure." Chu said.
"Hn." Hiei mumbled, averting his eyes and crossing his arms in front of his chest.
"He says you're welcome." Chu said.
"I did not." Hiei snapped. "Don't speak for me. I didn't do it to help them; I did it to get them out of here. Especially her." He said, pointing a finger at Kari. "That is the only reason I did it. Otherwise I would have never helped a-"
Before he could finish his sentence, Kari ran up to him and gave him a big hug and a kiss on the cheek before running back and the four of them walked through the circle, Hiei's enraged shouts following after them.
"Congratulations." Chu said when they had gone completely through and the circle had closed.
Hiei glared at him, his cheeks slightly pink. "Shut up." He snapped before flitting away in a black blur.
* * *
The four of them opened their eyes to find themselves lying on Kari's bedroom floor, the circle on the closet completely gone. The room was dark and the house completely quiet. "Are we back?" T.K. asked.
"I think so, but I don't remember it being this late when we left." Tai said. Then he ran to the night stand and looked at the clock. 2:30 a.m. "What the heck? It's so late. No way have we been gone this long."
Matt ran to the door and yanked it open. The hall was dark, and quickly, the four of them ran through the house, searching every room, but all were dark and empty.
"What's going on?" Matt asked as they all met in the living room. "Where is everyone?"
Tai shook his head. "I don't know. It's really late, there's no way my parents would still be at work. So where are they?" Quickly, he walked to the telephone, thinking that perhaps one of them had called and left a message for them. Seeing a message, Tai pressed the button and they all listened as a voice played on the speaker.
"Hello, this is Officer Wong for Mr. and Mrs. Kamiya, regarding their missing children, Tai and Kari. We are sorry to report that we still have not been able to locate the two children, as well as the child named Matt Ishida and T.K. Takaishi. It has now been twenty four hours since they were reported missing and we don't seem to be any closer to finding any of them. It seems that they have just vanished, as there is no indication of them ever leaving that bedroom, though that is highly impossible. We will continue to search, but I'm afraid that if we haven't found them yet, there is a high chance that they may not be found. Especially if they do not want to be found. Please call me back with the number on the card I gave you if you find anything that will help our search. We are doing all we can." ~End of Message~
"Twenty four hours?!" Tai exclaimed. "We've been gone for twenty four hours? No way!"
"Mommy called the police?" T.K. asked fearfully. "Are we going to get arrested?"
"No, we're not." Matt reassured him. "They just want to find us. But Tai's right. How have we been gone for so long? We weren't gone that long in the demon world."
"Maybe there's a time difference?" Kari suggested.
"We have to call my parents." Tai said. "And your parents. They're probably looking for us right now." Tai grabbed the phone and called his dad's cell phone number. He knew that if he called his mother, she would be too hysterical to talk or listen. After a few moments of ringing, his dad picked up. "Dad? It's Tai."
"Tai?" the dad said. "Where are you? Are you okay? Where's Kari?"
"We're fine, dad." Tai said, quickly. "We're home. Matt and T.K. are here, too. They're going to call their parents when I'm finished."
"No, it's okay. They're here with us." The dad said. "Don't go anywhere. We're on our way."
Tai hung up the phone and looked at the others. "Mom and dad are coming. Your parents are with them. I heard my mom crying and I think yours was, too."
"I knew our mom would start crying." Matt said. "There's no way she wouldn't, especially not something like this."
The four of them waited on the couch, not wanting to turn on the T.V. or anything. After a few moments of waiting, several cars screeched to a stop outside and a moment later several people swarmed into the house. Tai and Kari's parents ran towards them as Matt and T.K.'s parents went to them. Two officers waited by the door as the two families were reunited. Then the officers approached them and began asking questions.
While they had waited, the four of them had decided that the best explanation to the police was to lie and say that they didn't remember anything that happened after they went into the bedroom. That there was a flash of green light and the next thing they knew, they were back in the bedroom, not knowing how long they have been gone. It helped that Matt and Tai had left the bag, sandwiches and blankets in the demon world, where they would most likely never be seen again.
After they had given the police their explanation and they had called it a night and left, the kids turned to their parents. "Mom. Dad." Matt began, as they had decided. "You need to sit down. We need to explain." Because of the seriousness in his voice and the expressions on their faces, the parents sat down on the couch and the four of them stood before them. "We lied. We do know where we were. We remember everything."
"Then why did you lie?" Mrs. Kamiya demanded angrily.
"Because they don't know about T.K. and Kari's powers." Tai snapped. "And yes, mom. She does have powers. No matter how much you don't want to believe it, it's true."
Matt placed a hand on his arm, silently telling him to calm down. As Tai took a deep breath, Matt continued. "It's true. The reason we were gone in the first place is because of their powers. Kari's, to be exact. Kari, would you like to explain?"
Kari looked up at Tai. "It's okay." He whispered. "Go ahead. We got your back."
Kari nodded before turning to the parents and explaining about her mother telling her that she wasn't to use her powers anymore and that they were no longer allowed to even mention it. Then she explained how she felt when her mother told her that and how she felt when she was secretly practicing her powers in her room. As she explained that, her mother rose to her feet.
"You were practicing behind my back?" she demanded.
Tai stepped between Kari and their mother. "Yes she was. She wouldn't have had to if you would just let her do it on her own. Do you have any idea what you did to her?!" he shouted.
"Tai." Kari cried, shocked and afraid to hear her brother talk that way to their mother.
"No, Kari. She needs to know. She needs to know that you almost didn't come back with us because you thought she didn't love you. You though she hated you and it took us forever to convince you to come home with us. Chu was right. It she is our mother, then she should accept you for who you are and not try to change you into something you're not." Tai paused, breathing hard and trying to keep as much of his anger in control. Then he explained to the quiet room what had happened when Matt had gone to check on them and had discovered them gone. Then he had explained to Tai what he had learned about himself with his own powers and his theory with Tai, which led to them entering a completely new place that they later learned was called the demon world, where they were forced to split up and find their sibling with their own newly discovered powers, then finding the demons Chu and Hiei and eventually meeting up again and figuring out how to get home only to find that it wasn't working because Kari didn't want to go home. Then he explained Kari's explanation to why she didn't want to go home and how they had tried to convince her to come back with them, as well as T.K. explaining that he couldn't take them back instead because since Kari didn't want to leave, if he tried, they would all leave except Kari and they weren't going to leave her there alone, and finally finishing with Kari deciding to come home and them all reappearing in the bedroom a day later. When he had finally finished, it was to complete silence.
Finally, their mother sat down with her hand over her mouth. "I had no idea." She whispered. She looked from Tai to Kari standing behind him. "Why didn't you tell me?"
Kari shrugged. "I thought you hated me. I didn't want to make you madder by being in the same room as you." She said honestly.
Suddenly their mother burst into tears and pulled Kari into a hug. "I could never hate you." She sobbed. "I love you both so much. I just don't like the idea of you having these⦠these powers. I don't want you to go through the same thing your grandmother went through."
"Huh?" Tai said. Kari's eyes widened in surprise and confusion. "Nana had powers too?"
Their mother nodded. "Yes, she did. She still does. But she doesn't use them much, especially not in public. Her entire childhood was filled with ridicule over her powers. People tormented her and called her a freak. I didn't want that to happen. I hopped that if I made you stop using them that you would forget them and they would go away. I had no idea they would hurt you." She turned to Tai. "And now you have them too."
"I can help protect her and she can actually protect herself just fine." Tai said. "She almost never uses them except when that one kid pushed her. Then she made him trip."
"I didn't do it on purpose." She said.
"Your great grandma had them too." T.K. and Matt's mother said softly as she picked up T.K. and placed him on her lap. "It's because of her that daddy and I know what to do with you." She looked up at Matt. "And now you can help him practice and practice on your own as well."
"Yeah." T.K. said. Then he turned to Matt, who sat down between his parents. "Do you think Nana can get to the demon world too?"
Matt shrugged. "I don't think she ever tried. And no, you are not going back. Don't even think it."
"Absolutely not." Their dad said. He smiled down at T.K. "That's enough adventure for you for a while."
"Aw." T.K. said.
"Meep!"
Everyone went quiet and looked around at each other. "Did you do that, T.K.?" Matt asked.
T.K. shook his head. "No."
"Meep!"
Tai turned to the hallway at the same time that an orange and blue blur zoomed past him and jumped into T.K.'s lap.
"Gizmo!" T.K. exclaimed, hugging it tightly. "You came after all."
"Uh oh." Tai said.
A/N: Uh oh. What is Gizmo doing there? How will everyone react to seeing a demonic orange puffball in their world? How long will their furniture last? Guess you'll just have to use your imaginations from now on. Please review and let me know how this story went. Thanks for reading! I FINISHED!
