GRAVITY | Chapter 09: "Minds"


She lay sweating on her bed, teeth clenched and hands grasping at the bedcovers in desperate strains of muscle and bone. Every few minutes a low moan passed between her pressed lips. Her eyes roved behind closed lids as if they were trying to flee from something unnamable.

"There, there, wee one," Jin murmured, pulling up a chair next to Miranda. Behind him, figures stood in silent sentinel: Genkai, Botan, Yusuke, Hiei, Kurama, Kuwabara, and Yukina. They murmured quietly amidst themselves like closeted bees. Genkai stepped forward and placed a hand on the seated Jin's shoulder.

"What's your plan?" she asked, the dim lighting throwing the lines on her aged face into shadow.

"Gotta drain 'er," Jin said. "You might wanna step back for this. Gonna be a bit o' a doozy."

Then he placed his hands over her eyes—her skin burned him, hot to the touch with fever—and dove.


Jin dove into a place neither here nor there, a place of emotion and character and feeling. There was light, but there was no sun, and there was breath, but there was no oxygen. He dove into the deepest recesses of Miranda's power and soul, feeling against his skin-that-was-not-skin every nuance of her personality and hopes, dreams, character. He knew her, in that moment, better than any other entity in existence—perhaps even himself.

Headstrong, but insecure. Strong-willed, but accommodating. She held contradictions and hypocrisy and hopeless hopes—but she knew all that. She was not in denial about her flaws. Jin felt himself sympathizing with her, because she was exactly what she looked like with her tiny body and large eyes: an innocent child. But she was also tempered by a pessimistic and cynical streak that kept her from opening up to others, that kept her hidden behind a veneer of sarcasm and affected toughness.

Jin was the same. His chosen mask—the one that hid his insecurities and hopeless longings—was one of endless, mindless cheer.

Miranda's mind was a turmoil of golden light, light so intense in burned when Jin looked at it too hard. Thoughts and shapes drifted through the bright currents of her subconscious like leaves in a gale, but as they floated past him he caught bits and pieces of her mind.

A girl with blue streaks in her hair told Miranda to be careful, OK?, before giving the tiny pink-haired girl a bear hug and running off to god knew where.

A tall woman with brown hair hugged Miranda goodbye for the umpteenth time. Miranda felt no sadness at seeing her mother leave for a year-long trip—only immeasurable pain when her mother did not look back at her daughter even once as she got into the taxi waiting at the curb.

A man pulled Miranda into the back of a white-paneled van. A police officer saw and put a stop to it, his face reddening with exertion as the kidnapper fought back with everything he had. The moment's faded memory set Miranda's heart to frenzied pounding, her knees to terrified rubber.

Jin tuned out the memories, instead taking inventory of her soul's geography. What he saw made his blood-that-wasn't-blood chill. She had erected walls around her soul, a dam to hold back the energy ricocheting within her, and she was slowly destroying herself in her effort to keep the energy from harming others. Emotion—pure emotion—pulsed in the air, crying out in pain and rage. Obey me! Miranda seemed to be screaming. Obey me!

In the golden gale, a voice whispered: Never!


Miranda drifted in a golden void. Every spark stung her like a thousand needles, but she had no voice to scream with. For what seemed an eternity she floated, defenseless, through pain and light, alone but for her own thoughts. Every painful experience she had ever had flashed before her, replaying her scars in stunning clarity. The golden energy within her paced, a tiger looking for escape, and Miranda desperately built walls around the wellspring of power in an attempt to keep it in control. But it was patient, chipping away at her defenses and leaving her exhausted.

Help me! she tied to scream in her wordless voice. Help me take control, someone, please!

Her cries, for a long time, went unheeded.


It was apparent that the only thing keeping Miranda alive was her willpower, and even that was fading fast.

Jin pulled himself out of Miranda's mind slightly and attached himself to the outside of the walls she had built. Then he began to open a chink in them, dismantling a tiny section brick-by-brick until he forged a window into her soul.

Come t' me, he whispered into the hole he had created, and the golden light surged toward him.


Buffeted on all sides by the acidic light, Miranda felt her last defense crumbling.

NO! she screamed into the void. NO! I am not letting you out to hurt them! Never!

The gold heaved toward her, attacking her growing weaknesses, and she felt herself become besieged by the hateful light.

But something changed, then—something wonderful and strange. It was as if a fish hook caught the golden light and pulled it away from her; it rushed away toward a point she could not see, leaving darkness in its wake.

No! the golden light hissed as it lost its prey. Miranda!

But then the darkness—blessed, comforting darkness—covered her like a warm blanket, and she smiled as she felt her mind slipping away into unconsciousness. As she fell into welcome sleep at last, a voice within the darkness—a voice of kindness and comfort—spoke to her.

There, now, the darkness said. Jus' rest. Yer gonna be alright.


Jin took the light of Miranda's energy into his body until he felt like bursting at the seams, and then he took some more. Seventeen years of unspent power filled him to the brim, and to the people watching it seemed as if Jin glowed like a golden sun in the dark bedroom. Eventually her power tapered off and her face relaxed into a blissful smile, whereas Jin slumped backward into his chair, shaking as if he had run a hundred miles.

Yukina came forward and took Miranda's hand into her own, stretching out her power to feel for Miranda's life force. She smiled, relieved, when she felt the girl's calm pulse and good temperature.

"She is recovering so quickly!" she said, happy at last for the human's bettering health. "What did you do, Jin?"

"Are you all right?" Genkai asked, moving forward to lay her hand once again on Jin's shoulder. The wind apparition, in response, smiled a shaky shadow of his usual grin.

"I'll be fine," he told her. "I took in th' energy she wouldn't let out. Ton o' it, too. Surprised she lasted this long, that I am."

"What happens now?" asked Kurama.

Jin stood up, feeling the crackle of energy against his skin as Miranda's stolen power seeped from his pores, searching for a way out. He couldn't help the way his hands clenched or the way he shifted his weight from foot to foot—he simply had too much energy to sit still.

"Where's a good place t' fly, Genkai?" he asked. "Gotta work this out. Too much for me to handle."

Genkai looked up at him and smiled.

"I own all the land around here for a long way," she said. "The main road surrounds my land on three sides, and the sea borders the fourth. Just don't go past the roads and no humans should see you."

Jin nodded his thanks and headed for the door, fully intent on running straight out of it and not stopping for anything. Oddly, Hiei blacked his path, his face totally blank. His eyes, however, burned like an inferno.

"Will she recover?" he asked snappishly, standing his ground against Jin's comparatively towering height.

"Should wake up in a few days, but who knows for sure, everyone's different." He fidgeted, trying to contain the energy inside him. "Out o' my way, Hiei. I've got things t' take care of."

Hiei didn't move.

"What exactly did you do to her?" he asked, glaring at the wind demon. "Tell me!"

"Dunno why yer gettin' so worked up over this," Jin snapped back. "I took out th' energy that was gonna kill her, is what I did. But now that energy is inside o' me and is gonna lash out at all o' you if I don't get somethin' done with it soon. So move!"

Hiei, satisfied, finally moved, and Jin almost ran full into him in his haste to get outside. It didn't take long to find the way out into the open air—the scent of the sky drew him along like a magnet—and the very moment he felt the wind ruffle his hair he summoned his power and shot like a bullet into the sky. Home at long last, he soared.

But his first experience with the Human World sky above Genkai's temple wasn't a complete joy. Miranda's energy would not cooperate. It refused to simply bend the air currents around Jin's body like he wanted it to; instead, it lashed out in violent arcs of murderous intent and sent Jin careening in angular patterns that he could hardly keep in check.

Realizing that flight would not be wise in this state, he crash-landed in a copse of trees and jumped from branch to branch until he reached the forest floor. Once safely on the ground, he fell to his knees and let out a measured blast of raw energy. The trees around him were shredded—deep score marks gouged into their bark, spraying sap in geysers of stickiness that coated Jin from his head to his toes. He let out blast after blast of energy, and when the edge had finally been taken off he rose into the air again, glancing apologetically at the ruined trees.

Miranda's energy had calmed by then, but it still took a great measure of control to keep it in check as Jin flew high into the sky. Above the clouds, he looked down at the world stretching far beneath his face and inhaled a great gulp of thin, clean air.

Everything he saw filled him with joy. Trees and rivers and swampland untouched by pollution or the Demon World darkness thrilled him; far to the west, the sea glimmered like a silver plate. The sun was setting, casting orange and pink and gold across the fathomless blue sky.

"Even if I had to leave Touya behind," he said to himself and the wind, closing his blue eyes to better feel the sun against his skin and the way the wind wound through his hair, "I don't regret comin' here. Not for a single second."


Long time, no see. I recently received several reviews out of the blue requesting that I update, for which I am very grateful. My life has been less than easy and updating has been put on the back burner, but I had some spare time tonight and decided to indulge. I have realized I missed this story.

Jin and Miranda meet (while both are conscious) in the next chapter, and it should prove to be interesting, at the very least. Stick around!

Thanks to rikoxriko and Revelation Wave for their wonderful reviews, and thanks to Nymphoro for faving out of the blue. You guys are the very best, and this chapter is for you.

Also, I messed around with the fic's summary and gave you all a sneak peek at a future chapter. Tell me what you think, please! My summary skills are mediocre, at best.