I hate writing transitory chapters. I hate them I hate them I hate them. They come out shorter than anything else out there, they're harder to write, and they really make my head hurt. But I got the chapter done! It's right here! Yay!
I don't really have much to say about this chapter except that I look forward to the next one. It's hard to write these two characters when they're apart. It's totally easy for me to write Jin and Mana when they're interacting with each other, but when the two are separated I'm just not sure what to do with them yet! As such, I really apologize if this chapter drags at all. It'll get better soon, I promise!
Another shoutout today, this one to a friend who's really pulled through for me over the past couple of years. She's been a great friend, as easy to confide in as my own sister, and she's never looked at me TOO strangely when I get hyper. Thanks, Abby, for listening to me ramble about characters you know nothing about and for seeing me through so much. Someday you'll probably get bored and read this story, and then it will all make sense. I promise.
Okay, now that I've glowed over someone I want to have a nice little rant. Suzaku. The saint beast. The thunder bug. Prism of Seven dude. I HATE THAT GUY! It's not that he's not cool in the manga or the anime, even if he IS every yaoi fangirl's dream, it's that they throw him at you in Tournament Tactics and it's just not fair! Your little party of five fighters versus seven Suzakus who's high-powered attacks come at you extremely fast- at about the same speed as all of your teams WEAKEST attacks, in fact. So you can't match them by speed; you have to hit them as hard as you can and hope your characters can dodge in the downtime between shots. It's completely unfair. In fact, the only time I actually enjoyed fighting Suzaku was the one miraculous round where all seven of... them? him? his narcisistic ass?... attacked Jin, one after the other, and he dodged every single shot. The odds of are that are about a thousand to one. I cheered... and then two rounds later he killed Hiei and I had to start all over, because without Hiei's Dragon Summon on an Overdrive and hopefully with a dose of crit, you're pretty much screwed. I cussed. I cussed like a wounded sailor. Argh!
On the other hand, the dialogue before the battle with Seiryu is awesome. Hiei laments that he HAS no old rival to fight as you're tearing through the Saint Beasts when old icey pops up and says hey, I'm right here! Of course, Hiei never considered him to be a rival to start with because he was just that pathetic... which makes Seiryu pretty cranky. He starts going on and on and on about how he's a real ice master now and is going to kill them all... and then out of nowhere Touya steps in, pretty peeved himself, and tells Seiryu that he's a disgrace to the art and at least he can die honorably. Hiei's like, whoa, okay, you go ahead and kill him, fine with me. You seem to have a grudge. It's one of those video game scenes that you just wish had been in the anime. Touya beating the crap out of Seiryu. Beautiful, man. Beautiful.
Other news: ohmygawd, I'm getting a Jin plushie! He's custom made by an artist I found on Deviantart and I should have him before the next chapter goes up! I'm sooooo excited! My fiance spoils me, yes he does. But then, he's getting himself a Touya plush, so I guess it's all good. Now what I really want is a Mana plush to round out the set. I'm weird that way.
Okay, Aerie rambled a bit too long there. Big thanks to everyone who reviewed last chapter; my review count hit 100! I think that, more than anything, is what boosted me to actually finish this chapter; I knew people were waiting. Keep them coming and I'll keep replying and pushing forward even through the sticky chapters. Thanks to you all!
Random note: Touya's point of view is one of my favorites to write, mainly because he gets to observe Jin without always knowing just what the red-haired nutter is thinking. And we all know Jin is entertaining to watch, especially when you don't know what he's thinking. Whee.
So let's go!
Autumn break began only a few days after Jin left. Mana sighed, staring up at the living room ceiling as she lay on the couch. Sure, she'd agreed to volunteer for the university club again, but all of that had to be done in the afternoon and evening. It didn't leave her with anything to do with her mornings. And lately her apartment felt so quiet... so still... The girl rolled over, misjudged her distance from the edge of the couch, and ended up on the floor.
That was about when the doorbell rang.
Mana sat up, perplexed. The twins had gone away with their family to visit their grandfather's temple. Mana had been invited, but had declined to go. Other than the twins, there was no one who ever bothered stopping by her apartment. And they always knocked anyway.
The bell rang again. Frowning, the healer got to her feet and headed for the door. Hooking the chain, she popped it open a few inches. "Hello?"
Chocolate brown eyes rolled towards the ceiling behind black hair that- and she could never remember seeing it like this before- was not slicked back. "You could just try asking 'who is it,' you know." Mana stared for a moment before silently unhooking the obsolete safety device and opening the door. Yusuke Urameshi stepped inside. "Hope you don't mind me dropping in. We need to talk."
"Yeah..." Mana pushed the door closed behind him as he looked around. "Yeah, we do." She headed towards the kitchen, automatically moving to get the iced tea from the refrigerator. Urameshi moved to the couch with out being told or invited to. He didn't speak until Mana came around with the drinks, and when he did it was with a light sigh.
"Look, I'm no good at this touchy-feely crap, so I'm just going to ask you flat-out. How serious are you about being a detective."
Mana sat down gingerly on the edge of the couch. He was blunt, as always. He didn't seem to have any idea what 'tact' meant. The girl studied her glass for a few moments before speaking. "I've been working towards this my whole life. I think I'm pretty serious."
"I was afraid you were going to say that." Urameshi leaned back against the back of the couch. "Look, we both know you have problems. Can I give you some advice, at the very least?" Mana nodded warily. "Learn to use a weapon."
"I'm already learning to use a weapon." Mana studied her glass. "I've been training with a bo staff for about three years now."
"A normal staff won't work. You need something that can withstand a demon's blows." The detective sipped his tea and blinked. "Hey, this is pretty good stuff."
"Thank you." Mana shifted her attention from her glass to her hands; her fingernails looked ragged... "So what do you suggest I do if a staff isn't good enough?"
He took another drink before he answered. "Touya made me think of it. There's this kid we know named Rinku who can move his energy through an object. He beat the crap out of Kuwabara once with a bunch of yoyos."
Mana choked on her tea. "Yoyos?"
"Yeah." The spirit detective winced. "Yeah. Pretty bad, huh? Rinku runs his own energy through the strings, kind of like they're part of his hands. They move around like snakes or something. That's what he calls him, actually, the serpent yoyos."
"And this is useful?"
Urameshi nodded. "Those things are tough. Even if the strings are cut they're still deadly. If you're serious about being a detective, that's what you need to learn to do. The spirit gun won't cut it if you need to save your energy to heal people. Using reiki to boost the power of an actual weapon should let you take some of that energy back when you're done with it."
"I can learn to do that." Mana watched as Urameshi looked around. She said nothing; deep down she knew she would probably be just as curious if she were in his house. Finally he turned to stare at her.
"The place is clean!"
The healer gritted her teeth. "Yes, I try to keep it that way, thank you..."
"I don't doubt it, sheesh." Urameshi drained his glass as Mana resisted the urge to shoot him. "It's just that I expected more of a mess if Jin had been living here for two weeks. The guy doesn't exactly sit still very well."
"Tell me about it," Mana muttered. Her 'guest' raised an eyebrow. "At first it was fine, he mostly slept off his injuries. But then he started getting bored and getting into things. Being kept indoors seems to make him a little crazy."
Urameshi actually laughed. "Jin is crazy even when he's not indoors. The guy has more energy than anyone I've ever met." The blonde nodded slowly in agreement. "Honestly I expected him to leave more evidence of being here."
"He tried. I had to keep an eye on him constantly or he'd go through my stuff." Mana set her cup down. "Can I ask you a question?"
"I guess so." Urameshi was eyeing the contents of his glass. Mana chewed her lip for a moment. There was something she'd been wondering about for a while now, and maybe while he was being civil she had a chance to ask it.
"Why did you become a spirit detective?"
Urameshi huffed lightly, causing his bangs to flutter just a bit. "Wow, you get right to the point too, don't you?"
"If you don't like the question you don't have to answer," Mana shot back tersely. Ugh, his stupid attitude...
"Alright, alright, I'll answer. Yeesh, you get snappy really fast." The healer stiffened. "Do you want the long version or the short version?"
"Whatever gets the story told works for me." She was not snappy... was she?
"The short version it is. Basically, I died." Mana stared. "Only apparently I wasn't supposed to die right then, and when they had nowhere to put me they let me come back here." Urameshi sat back with a light shrug. "And the next thing I know, I'm appointed spirit detective."
"Just like that..."
"Yeah, pretty much. On one of my jobs I had to bust Hiei and Kurama, and they've been helping me ever since as sort of a community service gig. Kuwabara..." the detective cringed lightly. "Kuwabara just sort of jumped into it on his own. For the first few cases I was on my own, though."
"They just kind of roped you into it?" Mana felt almost offended... and almost a little hurt. After all the time she'd put into training herself...
"So how did you get into this?" Urameshi eyed her over the edge of his glass. "I've asked a few questions. You've never trained with Genkai, but what you can do is similar to what she does with her spirit wave. Where'd you learn it?"
The blonde studied her hands again. "A lot of it, the control aspects, at least, I learned from my mother. What didn't come directly from her came from reading a journal of hers after she died."
The detective actually looked impressed. "So you're self-taught? Geez, and here I thought Kuwabara was the only one stubborn enough for that."
"I've had some help." Mana touched her glass lightly, watching the marks her fingertip made in the condensation. "I've learned from who I could, when I could. And like I said, I had my mother's journal."
"That's still got to take a lot of work." Yusuke set down an empty glass. "Listen, look into learning to use weapons like I suggested, okay? You're not going to do any good as a detective if you get yourself killed trying to hold on to your energy."
She saw him to the door a few minutes later, feeling... humbled, almost. Maybe she did have him figured out all wrong? The blonde shook herself lightly; all she was doing was letting this get to her. She couldn't do that.
The apartment was too quiet once the door was closed. Grabbing her bag, Mana headed out the balcony doors and down the fire escape. She needed to go for a walk and get away from the heavy silence that even her favorite songs were doing nothing to hide. She had never been bothered by the silence before. Now it seemed heavy and oppressive somehow. For once she actually wanted to get out of the house.
She ended up downtown, wandering in and among the faceless crowds. Eventually, for lack of anything better to do, the healer roamed her way into an arcade. Games were light and colorful, and occasionally she did find ones with nice puzzles. True, that was a big waste of money, but as much money as Jin had eaten through, somehow that didn't seem to matter. It wasn't like she used her savings for anything other than books anyway.
Honestly, Mana couldn't even remember the last time she went to an arcade alone. There was a lot of stuff she couldn't remember doing, now that she thought of it. Unexpected picnics in the part, for example, were something she could remember doing with her mother, but once she was gone... Mana frowned. The only time she ever went on picnics now was when the twins dragged her out for cherry blossoms. Just sitting in a park with Jin for no reason... that had been fun. She'd actually enjoyed that...
"Koyama?"
Mana blinked, turning. It took her a moment to recognize him in normal clothing, but the name came quickly once she saw the green eyes and red hair. "Kurama?"
The teenager glanced around. "Actually it's Shuichi right now. I'm here with my little brother." Mana must have made a very confused face, because the fox actually gave her a wry smile. "That's right, I don't believe anyone has told you about that yet, have they? I have a family here in the human world." He smiled almost apologetically. "I'm afraid I can't fully explain it here, of course. Not with-"
"Hey, bro!" Kurama turned as a boy with black hair ran up to him. "I need some more coins, please?"
"What happened to the ones I gave you?" Mana remained silent as Kurama rooted through his pockets for change. The boy looked... no, don't use the eyes to feel it... the boy was normal. An absolutely normal human being.
"Rika's here, so I need to stock up now." The kid made a face. "If I loose to a girl again the guys will never let me hear the end of it."
The redhead chuckled as he handed his 'brother' a fistful of change. "Well, I suppose we can't have that, can we?" The boy thanked him and ran off. Mana felt slightly uneasy as the person who'd been introduced to her as a cutthroat thief turned back to her. "As I said, it takes some explaining."
"I see." This felt... awkward. "Do you two come to the arcade a lot?"
"Yes, actually, he asks me to bring him here at least twice a month." 'Shuichi' chuckled. "I think he knows I'll give him money so he doesn't have to spend his own allowance. But then, I suppose that's part of being an older brother. What brings you here?"
"I just needed to go for a walk." Kurama nodded, ever polite, and Mana swallowed lightly. "So... is anything here any good to play? I've never actually been in here before."
As he showed her around, Mana wondered to herself if maybe Urameshi's crew wasn't so bad after all...
When Jin hummed or whistled, he usually just let flow with whatever melodies his hyperactive mind came up with. The notes were easygoing but unpredictable, and honestly Touya liked it that way. This new tune that the wind master kept piping up with was starting to get stuck in his head. "Jin." The redhead didn't hear him over the soft song. Sighing lightly, the icy-eyed apparition tried again. "Jin!"
"Hmm?"
"You're doing it again."
Jin blinked, turning his attention from the lightning dancing through the angry black clouds. "Wot, now? Wot am I doin'?"
"You're whistling that song again. It's beginning to get annoying."
"Oh." The wind tamer seemed unconcerned. Then again, that suited his personality. Touya sighed inwardly, reflecting on the fact that he'd spent two weeks frantically searching for his friend and Jin... Jin had been enjoying what amounted to a nice vacation. Oh, he'd had a hunch that his old comrade wouldn't be too concerned with getting home when he found him, but the reality of it had reminded him just how carefree Jin really was all over again. The redhead had not been worried at all...
Touya scowled lightly. "Jin!" The whistling stopped. The ice master sighed to himself as his old friend looked over at him with an almost confused expression. "What song is that, anyway?"
"Eh, I don't remember the name real well. Fantasia, I think she called it." Jin gave a noncommittal shrug. "It was one Mana sang a lot when she was doin' housework and the like."
"Mana? You mean the Koyama girl, right?" Jin nodded hard enough to make his hair bounce a bit. Touya leaned more comfortably against the tree he was using as a backrest. He had become just a little curious about the human girl, he had to admit. "How did you end up staying with her, anyway?"
"She just kinda took me in. Apparently I took a crash right near where she lived. I was pretty lucky for that, considerin' the shape I was in. She dragged me back to her house..." Somehow Touya had the feeling he meant that literally... "and patched me up somethin' good. I'll tell ya what, I don't much care for runnin' into an ambush like that again. Took a few days for me stomach to mend."
Touya nodded slowly. "Yusuke did say the girl was a medic. I suppose that worked out in your favor."
"I'll say it did. She had everything patched up but me stomach afore I even woke up. Made her sick, though. She's got energy problems somethin' fierce. I doubt ya see many humans that learn feeder tricks like that."
"She's a feeder?" Touya sat up, feeling slightly more interested. Feeders were rare enough in the demon world; the phrase referred to creatures that learned to suck the energy from others without doing damage to the physical body. He didn't even realize humans had the potential to do that short of using moves like Genkai's mirror blast. Jin was nodding, though.
"It's how she keeps from takin' ill. Her friends, and she's only got two of 'em in the whole world, they give her a bit of wot they got and her body uses that instead. It's real clever, I think."
Touya nodded. Yusuke hadn't mentioned the girl having any abilities like that. "So that's where you were staying while I was out looking for you."
"Hey! I was lookin' for ya too, once I was up and movin' again!" Jin gave him a resentful look that made the ice apparition want to laugh; half the time the redhead's sulks just came out looking comical. "I did my share of walkin' around, tryin' to track ya down, and ya had to always be on the move on me!"
Touya rolled his eyes. "Suzuka set the gate disks up so they'd drop us as close to Yusuke's hometown as possible. You should have known where to go to find me."
"Well, 'e didn't tell me that. Oughta knock him in the head for that one, I should. It's bad enough the things can't even drop a group in once place, has to go and scatter them like that, but then he can't even tell a body about where they're ending up?"
"He probably did and you just weren't paying attention." An unfair stab, probably- Jin paid attention to things far better than anyone gave him credit to- but he distinctly recalled Suzuka stressing how the disks worked and where they would land when Touya had been given them. Then again, the fact that Suzuka had given him two of the disks and not Jin may have said something about the situation as well. "I was back in the Ningenkai and looking for you just as soon as I'd gotten Risho back to the old village."
"Useless git," Jin muttered. Touya sighed. Perhaps it was best to change the subject; the argument that Jin had gotten in with Risho after the Dark Tournament still gave him a headache when he thought about it. The fact that the earth-wielder had gotten them ambushed could not possibly have helped matters any. Jin seemed to like talking about the human girl, maybe he could salvage his friend's mood that way.
"So the medic sang a lot?"
"Medic's got the wrong image. The girl was a healer." Jin was staring up at the sky again. "She sang a lot when she was doin' her schoolwork or cleanin' house. I think she did it to keep herself from bein' lonely. A song gets stuck in yer head real easy when ya hear it that often."
Touya nodded. "So you enjoyed staying in the human world?"
"Yep." The wind master grinned slightly. "Gonna enjoy goin' back to visit, too. Ya ought to come with me. Ya might enjoy just takin' a break for a while."
"We'll see..." Touya sat back, looking up as more lightning flashed across the clouds without rain. The human world sky did make the offer seem inviting... "We'll see."
Truth be told, Jin was already starting to wonder just a bit about his little friend. Did she have enough energy, or was she getting sick again? Hachiko, she'd look after Mana if the healer would let her, but Mana had a hard time being taken care of. He'd figured that much out already. The girl had been taking care of herself for a while, though. Maybe he wasn't giving her enough credit. Yeah, she probably did just fine when there wasn't a constant strain on her energy. She'd be okay.
It was at mealtimes in particular, Jin decided, that he really missed the human world. Stuff there just tasted better... and he didn't have to worry so much about what was in it. Sometimes a meal in the demon world was better if you were ignorant about it's origins. That and sometimes even the vegetables tried to bite you back. Jin had never been one for gardening in the Makai. You took your life into your hands sometimes just from picking up a hoe...
There was a crash downstairs. The wind master sat up curiously, but the sound was followed by silence. This late at night, that probably just meant Chu was drunk again. He liked living with the other dark tournament fighters well enough; they were an entertaining lot and there was always someone around willing to spar when he needed a fight. Sure, living in a house with that many men meant you could get pretty hurt walking through a room in the dark- you never could trust what was on the floor- but it also meant he always had someone around to chat with when he felt like being social. The members of the old Rokuyukai team, Chu and Rinku, they were pretty neat for chatting. The other two, he still wasn't so sure about. Suzuka, he was fine when he wasn't coming up with things that could blow your arms off if you used them right. The other guy, Shishiwakamaru, he wasn't exactly the friendly type; he still firmly maintained the stance that he hated them all. Jin figured they were winning him over. None of them were dead yet, anyway.
It still felt pretty good to be home, though. Jin flopped back onto his bed under the open window. He'd missed the gang a bit, when he'd stopped to think about it. There just hadn't been any sense to worrying himself over it. They'd found Touya, and now he was home. It was kind of nice to be home.
He just wished the food was better...
Mana started going for walks more and more in the weeks that followed, even after school started up again. Sometimes she ran into Kurama and his younger brother at the arcade, sometimes she went out with the twins, and sometimes she just wandered around town for a few hours on her own. She started playing games at the arcade and actually found a few she liked. Once the twins found out it became a new habit of theirs; arcade every Saturday, after school. It all seemed to become worthwhile one afternoon when she and Sachiko coaxed a reluctant Hachiko onto a Dance Dance Revolution pad; the one short laugh that had escaped Mana when her friend landed on the ground a minute and a half later had kept both girls staring at her all afternoon. She also tried smiling at school after that, just twice, and the results were just as amusing as they had been at the arcade. The first time she smiled the student walking next to her almost tripped on his own feet and Yuki wouldn't stop staring until the bell rang to go home. The second time had been in the presence of Urameshi; he hadn't stopped staring, either, but that had been the goal all along, so she didn't really mind.
In this manner autumn faded into winter. Sarayashiki Middle School changed into it's winter gym uniforms, which made all the girls feel far more comfortable in class; even if they were separate from the boys, there was still all those exercises done outdoors! The twins hovered around Mana again once they got home from their trip, worrying like they always did, but eventually things seemed to settle back into normal. She kept the balcony doors unlocked in case Jin came back, but she didn't concern herself over it beyond that. He'd show up when he showed up. She had other things to worry about, like why Yuki kept staring at her as though she had something to say and then not saying it. That was getting just a little unnerving...
And life went on.