I don't own YYH! Enjoy~!
Toshiko's POV
The knobs of the tub squeaked in protest as I started up my warm water. It had been a very long day.
So long, in fact, that I hadn't even had time in the morning to shower. Which was what I was doing now. With a loud roar, water started flowing from the showerhead. Sliding back the door, I stepped in. All of my muscles instantly relaxed at the heat of the water. I quickly stepped under the full spray of the shower, tilting my head back to let the water flow into my hair. I full sigh left my lips as I washed my hair. It just felt so good…
After rinsing the salon shampoo out of my hair (mother always insisted upon the best), I turned my back and let the water play upon my shoulders. My neck ached at first when I let my head drop the slightest amount and fully relaxed my shoulders, but after the first few seconds, the full relief of the water hit me. I took a deep breath of the steaming air, letting my body sink to the floor of the shower. Turning around, I laid my back in the tub. The water was cooler down here, but the force of it pounding across my front still felt amazing. I sat there and relaxed for awhile, letting myself review the events of the day.
It was about three in the afternoon, right after piano practice with my mother…
"What did you just say?" I asked, truly shocked that somebody could possibly be this stupid. The damn fool had lost whatever was left for a brain, obviously.
"I said, you're coming with me to hunt today, or else." Gouki said with a grin. Did he actually think I would let him boss me around like that? Me, the queen of the board?
Where was this foolish pawn getting off at?
A squeak of the stairs in the kitchen reminded me of my parents. They had taken the day off to plan a trip they were taking in the winter. I had suggested it, so that I could be there to help guide them in their planning. I wouldn't be going with them, of course, but I needed to get them away while I was at the Dark Tournament. I felt my features turn impartial as I nodded. They needn't get in the way.
Oh, this fool would get his.
His gin widened as I shut the door behind me, wrapping my hoodie tighter around my body as a fall breeze passed us by.
"Good, I think you get that there's been a change in positions around here. I'm the Boss now, got it, Toshiko?" He leaned down, face close to mine. I nodded, letting the rage boil on the inside.
"Got it, Boss." His grin turned wicked as he laughed, turning around and motioning for me to follow. I did, starting to plan out my revenge already. He would pay dearly for this. Never had I been so insulted, having someone who's in no way my equal act like he's better than me because of his Orb's power. And then for him to talk to me so mockingly?
My face kept neutral as I stepped on his shadow once we turned the block around my house. I was already in the velvet water when he looked over his shoulder. Looking down, he saw his darkened shadow. And with a grin, he kept going forward, moving into a park surrounded by bare limbed trees. Children played absentmindedly with balls or swung on the playground. A few were even trying futilely to climb up the slide. Gouki pulled the Orb out of his pocket, tossing it to the ground and letting it roll. It stopped by a small girl, how looked down at it with one finger in her mouth. She glanced up to Gouki as he started forward. With a grin, she picked up the ball and lifted it to him.
"Here!" She said smiling cutely, "You dropped your ball Mister!" Gouki smiled, taking the ball from her hands.
"Thank you! I'll show you my gratitude by eating your soul!" I grimaced as he held the ball to her face. Her eyes went blank and a small white cloud floated out of her mouth and into Orb. Her small frame collapsed to the ground as Gouki grinned. I felt a sneer come to my face. The girl was just a child!
The pawn had definitely expired his uses.
Gouki laughed to himself as he began to pull the soul out of the glowing Orb with two fingers, "This soul looks tasty!"
"Gouki!" A familiar voice said. Gouki turned and looked, stopping his own attempt at eating the soul. "I'm back for revenge!" I looked up at the form of Urameshi Yuusuke, so he was beaten before? And he's still alive? I mentally marked another mistake Gouki had made: leaving his defeated opponent with a soul. If they have a conscious, they could come after you again.
Obviously enough, this is what the Detective did.
Yes, I thought with narrowed eyes as Gouki recognized the teen, this buffoon definitely needs to go.
"You…" Gouki growled, gritting his sharpened teeth and getting a pulsing vein, "Don't you want to heed my warning from yesterday? You annoying snot!" I looked around through the shadow world, searching for a place with plenty of dark shadows. My eyes locked on a clearing decently deep into the forest where the two could fight in secrecy.
"Damn, guess my memory is bad like that." Yuusuke clenched a fist. I drew on Ryo's power like we had been practicing. Soon I felt the fire within her burn within me. With a clenched jaw, I summoned the shadows up and over the two of them, causing Gouki to take a step back in startled confusion and the Detective to try to jump out of the way. But the shadows were two quick, and soon they blanketed both. I quickly dragged them both into the shadow world, with the shadows themselves still covering them so that they couldn't see anything past the blackness. I felt a pang of pain in my head as I grit my teeth, swiftly swimming through the shadow world to the clearing in the woods. When I got there, I pushed them back into the color world, bringing back the shadows I summoned.
Gouki stood still in the clearing, grinning as the Detective stumbled back, having lost his footing in the shadow world. I let out a deep, calming breath to help ease the pain in my head. My body felt light as my vision started to go blurry. I could almost hear Ryo now, screaming at the T.V. for me to get a grip on myself, that this was perfect practice for the Tournament. Swallowing, I grabbed my head as the fire that was within me died down. Nearly all of my energy had been sapped from that one move. My vision started to clear as I took deep, calming breaths in the velvet water. When I looked back up, I saw Gouki in his monstrous demon form standing with the trunk of a tree shoved against his stomach. Yuusuke was the one holding it, and he grit his teeth from both the weight of the tree trunk and the aggravation from knowing nothing could pierce Gouki's steel-like skin.
"Ah," Gouki grabbed the tree trunk with one hand. "I said it's no use." He swung the trunk to his left, tossing the detective to the ground "Don't you understand?" The Detective shakily rose into a squat, bruises already starting to form as a line of blood dribbled from his mouth. I could see the wheels turning inside his head, thinking of a way to get past Gouki.
I glared up at Gouki as he advanced toward the detective. Honestly, I hoped the detective would win. That would save me the trouble of killing the fool myself. My eyes traveled to the shaky detective, when a spark of understanding entered his eyes. Come on, I found myself rooting for him as my own hands began to shake from the lack of energy, kick his ass, damn it!
"So, you've finally given up?" Gouki asked before sending a kick to the detective's torso. Blood spattered on the ground from Yuusuke's mouth as he flew back and landed in a rough pile on the ground. He grit his teeth and closed his eyes from the pain that racked his body. The guy probably had more than a few broken ribs. He let out another yell as Gouki stomped one foot on his back. Drool covered nearly all of the demon's lower jaw. "Hmm, what a nice noise. These painful shouts are my appetizers."
Yuusuke gasped and yelled in pain once more as Gouki put more weight on his back. "Heh heh, your back's going to break if I step on it some more. You make great noises…" A twig cracked, catching everyone's attention.
A small, frightened looking kid stood at the edge of the clearing. The boy looked like he was about to pee himself. "Ah, a-a monster!" The kid yelled, frozen in fear.
"You saw it?" Gouki asked stupidly as the detective struggled to talk under the demon's weight.
"Run…" Urameshi muttered before clenching a fist and drawing on more of his energy. "Run away! Hurry Up!"
"Waaah!" The kid yelled, starting to follow the detective's advice. Gouki jumped into the air, coming down swiftly in front of the crying boy. "Gah!" The kid yelled in fear.
"Hahaha! Great expression! Nothin' scarier than this, right?" Gouki grabbed the boys head. The boy shook in horror as tears started pouring out of his frozen face. "Horror spices up the taste of a soul!"Gouki said, grinning as he put a hand in his pocket and drew out the Orb.
"Stop it! Let the boy go!" Yuusuke yelled watching as Gouki lifted the boy up by the back of his neck and drew out his soul with the Orb.
"Hehehe, come and stop me!" Gouki taunted. If my glare had gotten any more hateful, I would surely be burning holes in Gouki at this point. He dropped the boy's empty body to the ground, grinning as he walked over to the detective. Yuusuke's eyes squeezed shut as he attempted in vain to push himself up off the ground. "You want to save him but you can't move, can you?" Gouki smirked, "Don't worry! You'll be at the same place as him soon!"
"Ah…" Yuusuke grunted as Gouki bent down and lifted his head up off the ground.
"How dare you interfere with me time and time again!" Gouki snarled, drool seeping out of his mouth. "Your body is full of pain and fear… that's the greatest taste there is! DIE!" Gouki yelled, opening his mouth wide and getting ready to rip Yuusuke's soul out of his body. I watched with wide eyes as the attack never came. A smirk made its way to my face as Yuusuke moved his hand out of the way, revealing the thick piece of wood he stuck inside Gouki's mouth. "Ah?"
Yuusuke lifted a hand into a gun shape, with a ringed forefinger pointing right inside Gouki's mouth. "I was waiting for that. Waiting for that ugly face of yours to come over so that that you'll open that big mouth of yours."
"Wa-WAH?" Gouki yelled, panicking as Yuusuke's finger began to glow a bright blue.
"You may have external steel-like flesh, but what about internal?" The ring on his finger produced blue electricity that made his finger glow brighter. "EAT THIS! SPIRIT GUN!" Yuusuke yelled, firing off right into Gouki's mouth. A small explosion occurred as Gouki stumbled backward, falling onto his back.
The nuisance was finally killed.
All of the souls Gouki had eaten that had yet to be digested floated out of his blackened mouth. I watched as Yuusuke counted the souls as they floated into the air, one of them straying and going into the boy's mouth. "Hehehe, everybody's safe and sound!" Yuusuke walked over to the boy who sat up suddenly, a scared look on his face. "Boy, you're damn lucky. We were just having an outdoor movie filming. Don't tell anyone about this…" He said, putting a finger to his lips.
"Got it?" He asked. The boy broke into a sweat and nodded hastily. Getting up, he ran out and away from the clearing. Yuusuke sighed, crawling over to the Orb which lay by Gouki's unmoving body. "Aiyaya… just one treasure and I'm like this." I watched as he fell on his back, holding up the Orb and looking at it with a crooked grin. "Just two more… man, my future looks bright!" He said sarcastically as he clutched the Orb in his hand, letting his arm drop to the ground.
"Everything's so blurry…" I frowned, sending a hand through the Gouki's fallen shadow and into the color world. He didn't notice, as he closed his eyes and his body went limp. Pulling myself up and out of the shadow, I crawled over to where Yuusuke lay, placing two fingers on his throat for a pulse.
He was alive, I noticed with a sigh of relief. A coughing and hacking sound told me that someone else was, too.
"He-help… To…shiko… help…" I rolled my eyes, dropping the features from my face as I crawled back over to Gouki, sitting on his chest with both of my knees on his huge shoulders. "Give me… your blood…" He begged; eyes wide with fear as another round of coughs racked his body, sending a spatter of blood across my check. I frowned, not liking the way his disgusting blood slid down my cheek. His features stretched gruesomely as his charred mouth formed the words.
"Why?" I asked simply. He froze; eyes wide as he remembered what he said this afternoon. "You don't have to worry Gouki. You'll be out of pain soon enough. In fact, you'll never feel anything ever again." I bent over lowering my open mouth right above his charred, broken jaw. Water welded in his eyes as blood ran out of his burnt jaw. Slowly, I began to suck out his shadow. I watched as the tears poured out just as his shadow hit my tongue. Catching it with what little energy I had left, I began to suck his shadow right out of him.
And I watched as the life left his eyes.
When his shadow completely left him and trailed into my mouth, I swallowed, feeling what little energy Gouki had left enter my body. I leaned back, sitting on his chest as my headache eased away. My body no longer shook. I sighed, looking over to the broken Spirit Detective. Most of his ribs were broke, and he was completely unconscious.
I owed him for the meal, at the very least. And he did do most of the work in the disposing of this useless pawn below me.
Frowning slightly, I shoved my right hand in my hoodie pocket as I crawled over to him. Propping his head in my lap, I brought out fathers lucky switchblade that mother had put in my pocket not so long ago. I slowly opened his jaw, which had dried blood coming out of both corners of his mouth. Flipping open the switchblade, I pulled back either sleeve. With the handle in my right hand, I put my left hand over his mouth.
I winced, hissing in a breath as I drug the blade across my palm, letting my blood drip into the detective's mouth. Wiping the switchblade off on my pants, I shoved it back in my pocket. Putting my right hand on the back of my left, I squeezed it to help coax more blood out. A small whimper left my lips as another squirt of blood ran into his mouth before the tingling sensation set in. I could feel my head start to go dizzy again; my body was using too much power for what little Gouki's shadow had given us. I lifted my hand as the skin mended itself together, squeezing it shut before opening it again and stretching my fingers to test the hold. I wasn't aware of unfocused, weary chocolate eyes blinking up at me until a slurred 'wha?' brought me to look back down at him.
I watched as he struggled to get his eyes to focus, failing miserably at the attempt to move.
"Keep still, detective, your body will heal shortly. Until then, rest. You will need it." I took his head in my hands, lifting it up and moving my body out from under him. Lowering his head softly to the ground I stood.
The world around me spun as I gripped my head with gritted teeth.
He seemed to take my advice, because his eyes shut, and he passed back out.
I took one short step forward, sneering as my weakened body nearly collapsed from the effort. Another step and my knees almost completely buckled from underneath me. One more step. I grabbed at a tree for support, pushing all my body weight against it as I fell to the ground. My vision started to double as I looked to the sky.
A pair of bright yellow eyes met mine, curiosity filled and worry stricken. I couldn't even bring myself to look away, as they blurred out of sight. I closed my eyes as I felt myself be lifted up by two strong yet lean arms. The demon muttered something, but my hearing was too screwed up to understand what was said.
When I had come too, I had been in my bed at the Horawada house. Zizzy lay beside me on the bed, sleeping peacefully. Feeling disgusting, I had gotten up to take a shower.
I sighed once more, feeling the water start to go cold. Pushing myself up, I quickly shut off the water and stepped out of the bath. Grabbing the white towel I had set out for myself, I wrapped it around me before stepping out into the rather bright bedroom. Zizzy sat on the edge of the bed, watching me with careful eyes.
So the bear still didn't trust me.
We stayed there, me watching her sum me up once more. She sighed, running a hand through her messy brown hair.
"Less than four months." I tilted my head, not understanding what she meant. Her gaze grew hard as she looked to me, a slight frown on her face.
"We have less than four months to make you twenty times stronger than what you are now. Because what you are now won't defeat my brother. So, we have less than four months to make you strong enough to win the Dark Tournament."
I shrugged, holding up the towel with one hand and bringing all my hair over one shoulder with the other. "We just have to wait until I'm out of High School, then I'll have all the time in the world to focus on training."
"How long until then?" She asked skeptically.
"Too weeks." The demon nodded.
"Then in two weeks, I'll be back."
She vanished into thin air, racing off to take care of her business.
So, how did you like all of that Toshiko action? You might want to get used to it, because the next few chapters are all about her and a certain someone : ) Review please!
I bow to the almighty Torin, Chibi Botan, Jasmin Liertha, and Ur-alternative-girl! You have the indescribable ability to make my day every time you review :D Many thanks!