A/N: Chapter ten. This has my first fight scene in it! Well, at least the start of it... most of the actual fight will take place in the 12th chapter. The 11th chapter is an interlude. (If I get lots of reviews for this chapter, I'll update faster!) Man, this chapter was a real killer to write… more than 2000 words!

Word count: 2460 words

The next day (their third one in this alternate world), everyone was rudely awakened at 5 in the morning by Genkai, who claimed they were all in dire need of a good workout. Minamino Shuuichi tried to convince her that it wasn't necessary for them to do any laps, since they had enough exercise during gym class at school. The whole thing resulted in said redhead doing twice as many laps around the forest as everyone else, a fact which amused his younger brother to no end.

At 8 o'clock, Yukina served breakfast to the tired group, who used their last bits of whatever energy they had left to talk about (what else?) their doppelgangers. Current point of interest: Minamino Shuuichi's double.

"Considering the parallels between the other doubles with us, Minamino's double should be very much like him as well. Why they are so different from each other is a mystery…" Kumotachi mumbled, clearly frustrated with how illogical this world turned out to be. The model the scientists had developed described very minutely how the differences between their world and any other random world were ordered. No matter what parallel world was chosen, the differences could be traced back to a mathematical formula which described how large the variations were.

Yukina blinked at the group and innocently mentioned that Minamino came to the temple at least once a week. So Kuwabara, who had become fed up with just theorizing (too much thinking needed), decided to ask Yukina why the two Minaminos were so much unlike each other. Since she knew the other Minamino, she should be able to tell them, right?

"Well… I don't know, really… I'm not an expert on things like that!" was the feeble answer. Keiko and the younger Shuuichi glanced at each other. She was unmistakably lying, but what could they do about it? None of them were willing to forcibly demand answers from Yukina; it would be (in Kuwabara's words) like kicking a helpless young kitten. Next stop for asking questions: Genkai, who was training Yuusuke at the edge of the forest, with this world's Keiko sitting nearby. Perhaps one of them could explain the differences?

Genkai ignored the group in favour of tortur- hmm, training Yuusuke, by throwing sharp knives at him. Yuusuke was a bit preoccupied with dodging said kitchen utensils and was not available for questioning at the moment. That left Keiko's double…

When Keiko had woken up this Sunday morning, she'd had a rather bad feeling; as if something terrible would happen this day. Breakfast had been fine, the trip to Genkai's temple uneventful, and no demons had left the city slums to attack her. So far, so good… but when the five travellers from another reality stood around her and asked her about Minamino, the warning bells in her head began to ring incessantly. 'Warning, warning. Plausible fabrication needed right away. Please proceed with a believable lie'. However, Keiko could only come up with only one reply. "…I don't know. Maybe you should ask Genkai?" she said.

The group was beginning to grow rather frustrated.

"Hellllooo, I'm here!" Botan was skipping up the stairs to the temple… which was empty. "Huh, that's odd" she thought out loud. She turned around and skipped towards Yukina, who was sweeping the grounds. "Hello Yukina, where is everybody? Koenma said I was supposed to go here…" Yukina pointed her in the direction of the training grounds (the mention of which got a small noise of sympathy for whoever had fallen to Genkai's clutches). Botan turned around and started skipping her way towards her destination.

The group, catching sight of Botan cheerfully skipping her way towards them, were filled with hope. By the look of things, she was bringing very good news; maybe they had a way back home? "Did your boss find a way to solve our problem?" Kumotachi asked when Botan had reached them.

Botan scratched her head thoughtfully and frowned a bit. "Problem… hmm… oh right, that problem! Nope, no solution found!" she chirped happily. Kumotachi stared at her with an incredulous look on his face. "But he's definitely working on it!" Botan hastily amended, catching sight of the suddenly depressed faces. "In fact, I believe we are making some progress with the portal we're building for all of you. You'll be home before you know it!" Yuusuke, who had heard her last words, just snorted. "The toddler doing something right for once? Ha, that'll be the day!" Keiko punched him and shot him a warning look.

Suddenly, Hatanaka remembered the discussion going on at breakfast. "That's right, Botan. We were wondering about something – how come my brother's double is so different? It doesn't make any sense, does it." Botan slowly blinked. "Well… if you want to know…" The group nodded. "…You can ask him yourself. He's coming this way right now!" Kumotachi sighed, disappointed. It seemed as if everyone here was desperate to keep something secret from them – something that had to do with Minamino and his doppelganger.

"First it's Urameshi and Yukimura, now it's Minamino; does everyone of us gather here?" Kuwabara asked. Botan shook her head. "Oh, no. None of us has ever met Kumotachi-san before, and Hatanaka-kun doesn't come to the temple. (1) Shizuru stops by once in a while, and then there's Kido-san, Yuu-san and Mitsunari-san, although they come around much less nowadays… well, I think that covers just about everyone who comes here. Oh, hello Shuuichi!" The last sentence was directed at the red-head who now stood beside her. "Good morning Botan, how are you? I see you have another job for us…" Only now did the group catch sight of the videotape in Botan's hand. "Yeah, I was going to visit you after getting Yuusuke; you won't have to look for Hiei, it's just a small mission this time. You can start on it tomorrow."

Keiko's curiosity was peaked. "What mission? What are you talking about?" Minamino's green eyes turned to look at her. "…Yukimura-san? This is certainly unexpected…" Botan, seeing a chance to change the subject, stepped in and waved her hands at the group. "Oh, these are doubles from another reality; they'll be staying here at the temple until they've got a way back. This is Kumotachi Amemaru; he's one of the scientists who made the portal in their world."

Minamino looked at everyone standing next to him; Yukimura's double, Kuwabara's double (except he had no spirit energy at all), his stepbrother's double and… his own double. Who didn't have the slightest bit of youki emanating from him. He stepped forward, carefully scrutinizing his look-a-like (who looked less like him than he should have, based on how similar the others were). His doppelganger, he noticed, didn't feel very comfortable being stared at; the red-head was fidgeting and glaring back with the iciest look he could muster. 'I've fought demons many times larger than myself, and here my own doppelganger is trying to scare me away by glaring… as if that's going to work.' The avatar smiled amusedly and stepped back again, bowing to the group. "Forgive me, where are my manners…? My name is Minamino Shuuichi. I'm pleased to meet you; I hope you feel welcome here."

Hatanaka turned to Keiko and muttered to her: "He's awfully polite… are we sure that he's my brother's double?" Keiko frowned. "Of course he is; he just introduced himself as Minamino Shuuichi, didn't he?"

"Hey, wait; there's something we were wondering earlier" Kuwabara said. "You're this world's Minamino Shuuichi, and this is the Minamino Shuuichi from our world" (he gestured at the boy beside him, who still hadn't stopped glaring at the other red-head) "But you two are completely different from each other. How's that possible? I mean, everybody else is the same!" The other waited a bit before replying: "Well, I can't answer a question I don't know the answer of. Since Kumotachi-san is a scientist, he is the most likely person to know, isn't it? Perhaps you can ask him… if you'll excuse me, I'll go and talk with Yuusuke now." And he walked past the group towards the training grounds, where Botan was already talking to Yuusuke, waving around with the tape in her hand.

Kumotachi wasn't convinced by the red-head's calm demeanour. 'He's lying, just like the rest of them. I'm sure he knows what's going on… but why won't anyone tell? There has to be a reason for such an anomaly… maybe he's such a different person here because he has other friends who influence him; that Urameshi kid is still alive here, and Yukina-chan and Genkai-san could have influenced him too. Perhaps even that boy Hiei…' He shook his head in frustration. 'Oh of course not, what am I thinking? None of them could've inspired him in any way to academics… the only one who would try to get him on a level required for Meiou High would be Keiko, and if she didn't succeed in our world…' He really, really needed some caffeine right now.

Meanwhile, the dimension-hopping teenagers had joined the temple's more frequent visitors to watch the training Yuusuke was put through by Genkai; they were surprised at the high skill. Those two made their PE teacher (who was considered the scariest teacher at the entire school) look like a total wimp!

"Yuusuke seems to take his training more seriously than he ever did school" Keiko sighed. The other agreed. "Yeah, he's a lot more motivated to fight than to study; truthfully, I've practically given up on getting him to study hard. I still make sure he stays at school when he's supposed to, but I don't remind him of his homework anymore. He won't do it anyway, so it's pretty much a waste of energy trying to change him. When he's here, at least he's learning something he likes." The two girls, although seemingly the same person in both looks and personality, were quickly becoming fast friends. Likewise, Hatanaka and Kuwabara were chatting happily with Botan, whose cheerful mood was turning out to be contagious; the boys soon forgot their worries, if only for the time being. Even Kumotachi, who contented himself with just listening, felt himself relax.

No one spared even a moment of thought on Minamino Shuuichi. Said red-head was currently wandering around in the forest, trying to find his way back. He'd wanted to get away from his creepy double; and he'd succeeded. Too bad he'd gotten himself lost in the process. 'Lemme think… do I call for help and get laughed at by everyone, or do I keep looking and hope I'll find my way outta here eventually? Eh, choices, choices…' A branch cracked. A low growl, barely noticeable, came from behind him; too close for comfort. Shuuichi breath hitched, and he forced himself to breathe slowly and calmly. It didn't work. Numerous other sounds – scratching, growling, slight hisses – joined the first growl, coming from several directions at once. Turning around, Shuuichi noticed a pair of glowing eyes staring straight at him.'Oh SHIT – what kind of things live in this forest anyway?' Shuuichi's knees were shaking badly – any moment now, he'd get a mental breakdown… allowing whatever beasts were out there to rip him to shreds. What a thing to put on your memorial: Killed By Forest Monsters Because He Wanted To Avoid His Doppelganger!

Shuuichi almost screamed when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Almost.

He whipped his head around: the hand on his shoulder turned out to belong to his double. Shuuichi felt as if he was staring at a warped mirror reflection: his very own green eyes looked at him, set in a face framed by hair longer than he'd ever worn it. His double removed his hand from Shuuichi's shoulder. "You know, the forest isn't a very pleasant place. If you join me, I'll walk you back to the temple." Shuuichi didn't move from his spot. The strange, terrifying sounds around him had utterly ceased, as if all living things beside the two humans standing in the clearing had just dropped dead. It was truly silent as the grave. There should've been some sounds; birds, insects… but nothing could be heard anymore.

However, Shuuichi choose to ignore his common sense once more. He planted himself in front of his double to prevent him from leaving. "You know, when you said earlier that you didn't know why we're so different; you lied. I know you did; so stop trying to hide it like it's some big secret that could possibly endanger or kill me or something, because it won't. Just tell me already why we're different." His double still had the same expression on his face – a bland look that didn't betray even the slightest thought he might have. "I already told you earlier. I don't know why we're so different…"

"That's a load of crap and you know it. You're lying, just like Yukina and Genkai are; and I bet Keiko knows what it is, too. All of you are trying to keep something from us; well, guess what? We're not buying it!" During his tirade, Shuuichi's voice had become louder and louder, until he was almost shouting at his doppelganger; said doppelganger was now shooting rather worried looks at the foliage around him. "You shouldn't yell so much. You might attract something–" "Like WHAT, damn it! There's NOTHING HERE–"

The next two seconds were rather confusing; one moment, Shuuichi was yelling at his double; the next, a large… THING… jumps out at them, bloodlust shining in it's eyes. Shuuichi stood still, paralysed with fear, as the thing made a direct beeline for him. His double reacted immediately… and pushed Shuuichi away, coming in the thing's path himself. The large monster slammed directly into the boy, dragging him along into the forest.

In those two seconds, everything had changed. The plant life had been ripped apart, indicating the trail the monster had taken. And in the clearing, Minamino Shuuichi stood, his entire body shaking like a leaf. 'He jumped right in front of that thing… just to save my life! He told me earlier to be quiet in the forest, and I didn't listen… if I had, this wouldn't have happened…' The fear left his mind, which was now overcome by an enormous sense of guilt. 'I have to do something!' But what? Should he go back to the others and call for help (provided he managed to find the way back) or should he try to save his double on his own (even if he had to take on the monster to do it?) Taking only a few moments, Shuuichi made his decision… hoping that it wouldn't be too late for his double.

(1) – The reason why Botan uses '-kun' is that she knows him, which will be explained in full in a small fic I'm writing on the side. If anyone can tell me what the Japanese word for 'shard' is, I'd be eternally grateful, since it would fit as a title. Please help!

Posted: January 14, 2008
Next chapter: Interlude: Back Home