Tori: (appears on stage, wading through cheesecake piled chest deep) Seeing how things might get hectic later, here's the disclaimer. Saria doesn't own Yu Yu Hakusho and attempting to bribe the owners with cheesecake didn't work...(writes a record for the event)
Saria: Oh, and tell them that if they review, they get free cheesecake! You heard right! FREE CHEESECAKE!!! I, unfortunately, am allergic to cheese and Nova, Tori, and SA don't like it. Zas on the other hand...
Zas: (comes running in, well, waddling to be accurate because he is so full of the cake) NOOOOOO!! DON'T GIVE AWAY THE CHEESECAKE!!!! (starts grabbing cheesecake and shoving it down his throat)
SA and Nova: (both walk in complaining about the cheesecake and see Zas stuffing himself)
SA: That's disgusting...
Nova: (turns green and wades out of the room)
SA: Shouldn't you stop him?
Saria: Nah... He'll stop sooner or later. Besides, he couldn't eat all of this cheesecake if he tried. (sees Zas shove three more into his mouth) O..k... He's trying. But we still have all the other rooms in the house filled plus the cars, attic, garage, and the bathrooms and closets.
Nova: You needn't worry about the bathrooms, he already cleaned those out.
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Yusuke had been in the closet for a good six hours before Toguro came in and let her have a bathroom break(after releasing her from the straight jacket of course). By then it was late, almost 10 pm, it wouldn't have seemed so late "pre-capture by Toguro" for Yusuke, but now she was used to going to bed as early as she could. Also, she'd had nothing to do for the last six hours except stare at the walls and sing songs, she had no clue that she had known over thirty versus to "The Wheels on the Bus". She had even completed the hundred versus for "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall", several times(unbeknownst to Yusuke, this drove Toguro absolutely insane, so much in fact that he had to leave the room several times to keep from letting her off punishment IF SHE WOULD JUST SHUT UP!!!!). So she felt extremely exhausted as she stumbled to the bathroom.
Almost immediately, a new problem surfaced, Toguro had followed her into the bathroom!
At first, Yusuke felt he hadn't been paying attention to what he was doing and just followed her. But, after a few seconds when he didn't leave, she became concerned.
"Don't you need to use the bathroom?" he asked when he noticed she wasn't doing anything.
"Yeah, but not with you here," Yusuke replied with a slightly cheeky grin.
"I'm not letting you escape again, even if that means having to watch you ALL the time."
"No way!" Yusuke replied in disbelief, despite the cheeky grin still planted on her face. "You're kidding me, right?"
Toguro's silence said otherwise.
"You're not kidding?!?" The smile came right off her face. "But you're going to see me... naked!"
Without saying a word, Toguro averted his eyes and tried to hide the huge sweatdrop that had just formed on the back of his head.
Ten minutes and a whole lot of accusations of looking later
The two emerged from the bathroom, both with equally red faces though Yusuke didn't notice Toguro's due to the fact that he stood behind her. He made sure as he directed her out to the living room that she remained in front of him.
"Enjoying the view you perv?" Yusuke asked with a touch of bitterness in her tone.
Toguro didn't answer at first, then he said, "Do you want me to take away your bathroom privileges?"
Yusuke chose that moment to shut up and look straight forward, for an entire thirty seconds (the time it took for her brain to comprehend one fact) "Wouldn't you have to clean up the mess?" she asked sarcastically with her cheeky grin once again in place.
"No, you'll just have to stay in your own filth for the duration of our stay." Yusuke shuddered at the thought.
The next moment, she was forced to sit at the table again and Toguro dropped a sandwich in front of her. This reminded Yusuke a little of what the sandwich on the boat, and what happened afterwards.
Pocking the sandwich slightly with her finger, she asked uncertainly, "Are you sure that it's food-poisoningproof? It looks questionable to me."
"Just eat it!" Toguro replied in exasperation.
Snapping her mouth shut, she grudgingly unwrapped the package and took small bites out of the sandwich. It was gone soon enough and not long after that, Yusuke was back in the closet. And wearing that damn straight jacket again!
Setting in for a long wait, Yusuke decided to try her hand at making up plays to entertain herself during those long, tedious hours. So far, she'd come up with about one act, and most of the lines were "I am GOD!"
Of course, she could be heard on the other side of the door, and Toguro left about ten minutes into the play. He could only stand so much of that torture. She screamed continuously "I am GOD!" then changed her tone and said some random insult such as "You are a child's plaything!" or "You are monkey's butt in the shower!"
Yusuke kept this play going for about 15 minutes after Toguro left (though she didn't know he'd left, she was in the closet). She had just managed to get 5 minutes into act two, when she felt sleep push at the back of her eyes. Shaking the feeling off, she gave herself a quick slap on the face (using the wall as her hand of course), and sat up.
"Must...not...sleep..." she murmured, as she pushed herself to keep going with the play.
Act two went by without any further problems, act three was a little more difficult, but not as bad as acts four and five. Finally, by act six, sleep caught her, mid-line.
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Once more, the void surrounded her, and once more Yusuke felt the presences through the cracks of her defense. They were talking softly, their voices so quiet that she could only hear a faint muttering, no words. She could tell though, that they were planning something, something in the way their voices sounded felt conspiratorial.
Curiosity always outweighed cautiousness for Yusuke, she knew it though she'd never admit it. So, when she heard the voices, it was only a matter of minutes before curiosity drove her to push herself to the edges of the walls she'd constructed around her mind. As she drew closer, the voices only seemed to get softer, and though she got closer and closer, she could never quite make out what was being said. Then, too suddenly, the voices stopped.
'Oh no!' Yusuke thought as six hands shoved themselves through the cracks and tried to grab her. Two of them just barely brushed her arm and hair, but Yusuke was back pedaling already. That's when she realized something horrible. 'I can't move my arms!'
Her back pedal soon ended though when she ran into something that felt icy and began to pull her through. Turning her head slightly, she screamed at the sight of the dark mirror that had haunted her. Even as she struggled, Yusuke felt herself being pulled through the mirror, its iciness freezing her to the core.
Closing her eyes, unknowing of what to expect, she tried to push the frigidness from her mind and body. This however, didn't last long because the iciness fled from her body as she fell out on the other side of the mirror. She hit the ground seconds later with an undignified 'THUMP'.
Opening her eyes, she saw that not only was she out of the closet again, but she was now faintly glowing an eerie shade of red. Heart racing, she jumped to her feet, ignoring the straight jacket, and began to run around the room like a chicken with its head cut off, only thing was, her head was still attached, only it was being screamed off.
Seconds later, a door opened and she turned her head, right as she ran onto the balcony and hit the rail. It took her only moments to realize that she'd just been flipped off the balcony of the sixteenth floor. This of course, got her screaming again.
"OOHHH SHHIITT!!" she screamed, right as a wind caught her.
"What do you think you're doing?! You're not a wind master so you shouldn't come flying out of windows like that!!!" Yusuke recognized Jin, who now was holding Yusuke bridal style, and he seemed a bit confused and perturbed (but not as much as Yusuke was). "And what's with this strange style of clothing? You know you can't move your arms in it." He then proceeded to assist Yusuke in removing the straight jacket, as soon as they were on the ground.
"THANK GOD FOR YOU, JIN!!!" Yusuke yelled as she grabbed Jin and pulled him into a bone crushing hug the second she was free.
She was still hugging him when a voice behind her yelled out, "Let go of him, dimwit, before you kill him."
Yusuke instantly looked at Jin's face, and seeing that it was beginning to turn purple, she quickly let go. Turning around, she saw Genkai standing there, a slight smirk on her face revealing she'd been the one who had spoken.
"Don't tell me I interrupted something?" Yusuke blushed at Genkai's question and hid her face in her hands. "I thought so."
Jin, by then, had just recovered from his near strangling experience and chose that time to speak. "You pack a mighty bear hug Yusuke!" Jin accompanied this statement with a pat on the back.
"Yes, now if you don't mind, I have some important business with Yusuke. I recommend that you go somewhere that not many know of you. Toguro might come looking for you in a few hours. If he does, you haven't seen either of us." Genkai said quietly to Jin as she grabbed the girl's hand a pulled her toward the forest.
Unknown to all of them, Toguro had seen the whole scene from up on his balcony. A smirk rode up his lips as he saw the hag grab Yusuke and pull her toward the forest as the red headed wind master took flight and headed for the taller pillar of rock. The time had come.
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Yusuke had just recovered from her blushing state and was once again demanding an explanation. "Where are we going you old hag?" Yusuke demanded as she once more tried to pry her hands from Genkai's withered old one. How strong could this hag still be?!? Very strong apparently.
After going a considerable distance from the hotel, Genkai stopped and released Yusuke's hand. As Yusuke rubbed her aching appendage, she began to wonder why Genkai looked a little sad. The sadness was well hidden, but still there.
"Well?" Yusuke demanded. "Why'd you bring me here?"
"Listen up slacker," Genkai replied angrily. "I'm about to give you all you need to defeat Toguro once and for all, but if you don't want it, fine by me!"
Yusuke's full and rapt attention had been bought with the words "defeat Toguro". She now watched Genkai with interest in her eyes and waited for her to continue.
"Now I see that I have your attention, let's continue. The final test for becoming a psychic is that you have to absorb the energy of your master and make it your own." With that, Genkai raised her hands and in them appeared a medium sized ball of energy that shined brilliantly.
Yusuke stared at the ball in shock, even as Genkai continued. "This is the secret of my power, Spirit Wave Orb! For years I toiled with this creation, energy of the body and the mind concentrated into the smallest of spaces. It is both part of and separate from me, and it could power a whole city block! Your test is to incorporate this into your own body, and hope it doesn't tear you apart. The agony of this absorption could go on for hours, or even days. If your body isn't strong enough, you'll be ripped apart from the inside, and all you will pray for is a quicker death."
"Yeah, yeah, grandma, I hear you. Bring it on already." Yusuke said. "But, if it's as exciting as you say, maybe I should order up two!"
"Don't get too cocky now," Genkai warned.
The orb of energy was then handed to Yusuke, who took a second to stare at it further. 'This could be what either makes my freedom or death a reality. I hope it works,' Yusuke thought as she shoved the energy without any further hesitation into her chest. Nothing happened.
After a few more seconds of nothing, Yusuke began to gloat a little, "I thought you said this was supposed to hurt or some..th... AAAUUUUGGHHH!!" Blood suddenly exploded from a point on her neck.
Minutes later, Yusuke's head began to clear, long enough for her to get a detailed feel of the pain that tore through her. It felt as though a vice was constricting her lungs, making her unable to breathe. At the same time, an angry army of knives shot through her veins and heart, searing and stabbing every part of her body at once. Her head felt as though it was packing a sledgehammer that was continuously pounding against the side of her skull, trying to break free.
This went on for ten minutes while Yusuke was thrashing on the ground violently before Genkai decided it wasn't right. Yusuke had been training under Toguro for the past several months, and her body just wasn't prepared for the kind of beating it receiving. Pushing Yusuke onto her back, Genkai reached out with her power to try to remove the energy orb. Right as it slipped back into her hands though, Yusuke grabbed Genkai's arm and pulled the arms back.
"Give that back to me, you old hag!" Yusuke screamed.
"No, you're not prepared for this yet."
"I'll determine what I'm not prepared for! Now GIVE IT TO ME!!" Yusuke screamed as she wrenched the orb back and shoved it back into her chest.
The next hour, Yusuke screamed, thrashed, clawed, swore up and down, and did anything she could to get her mind off the pain. Genkai, on the other hand, watched her student scream in the early hours of the morning, and even though her heart went out to Yusuke, she kept a straight face.
A figure began approaching from inside the forest, feeling Yusuke finally beginning to win the battle. Genkai, when she noticed the figure, left Yusuke's side and approached the figure herself.
"I've been expecting this from you, Genkai," Toguro said deeply. "Trying to help your precious apprentice, giving her your power, all so she could defeat me."
"You know how I feel about taking other people's work. Besides, I have a feeling that you had near nothing to do with the training Yusuke went under in your compound. Now, why did you take her? Why did you bring her here?"
"That is none of your concern now, Genkai. You've served your purpose." With that, Toguro powered up to 75. "Consider yourself lucky, Genkai. This is 75 of my power, not even Yusuke has seen this level, or fought, it yet. Though, with the boost you just gave her, I'm pretty sure that she'll be fighting it not too long from now. HAA HA!"
Yusuke believed she was succeeding. All around her, she felt the pain starting to fade and everything started to come into focus again. But she still couldn't move! Looking around, she noticed Genkai was standing in a defensive position... IN FRONT OF A VERY RIPPED TOGURO!!
"No..." she cried weakly, trying to shove herself up as she watched the fight begin. Toguro threw a hard punch and followed with a kick, Genkai dodged both before delivering an energy charged blow to Toguro's left shoulder as he struck out with his right. Yusuke was relieved though when he missed, or she thought he missed. The way Genkai grabbed her own shoulder said otherwise. This was not good.
Yusuke watched, feeling angry and helpless, even as she managed to force herself to her knees, as Toguro punched a large crater in the ground where Genkai had stood a mere second ago. Then, right as she gained her feet, Toguro planted the blow into Genkai's torso. Then, for a split second, nothing happened as Yusuke watched Genkai fall in slow motion.
Shoving herself forward hard, Yusuke stumbled to where her fallen teacher lay. Wrapping her arms around the small woman's body, Yusuke felt a tear begin to slide down her cheek.
"Yusuke..." the weak voice said quietly. "Don't let yourself become like Toguro. You'll only... suffer more... than you... already...have..."
Yusuke watched her teacher's old body finally fail and listened to her last words. She didn't notice Toguro power down and approach her, she only knew the pain in her heart made from Genkai's death.
Toguro then grabbed Yusuke and pulled her to her feet again and forced her to let go of Genkai's cooling body. The instant reaction from Yusuke had been to strike out against this, but her hands were effectively trapped by one of Toguro's as he pulled her away, heading back for the hotel. Before they were even halfway there though, Yusuke's struggles ended as the shock hit her hard and mixed with her fatigued body. She became dead to the world at that second and collapsed. Toguro simply picked the girl up and carried her the rest of the way back. She was conscious the entire way, but her body refused to move.
Back in his room, Bui was surprised when Toguro simply barged in and shoved Yusuke into his arms. He left after giving a single order, "Don't let her out of your sight."
The girl was awake, but seemed to be really out of it.
"Yusuke, what happened?" Bui demanded as he set her down on the couch but he received no answer. Yusuke had fallen asleep.
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Nova: Oh, and before we forget, we don't own '99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall',
Saria: Or the 'Wheels on the Bus',
Zas: (dressed up as Buzz Lightyear with a raygun in hand) Or how can you forget Toystory? We don't own it either.
Saria: Oh, and just so you remember, if you review
Saria, Nova, SA, and Tori: YOU GET FREE CHEESECAKE!!!! And another chapter sooner.
Zas: NNNOOOOOO! NOT THE CHEESECAKE!!!! WAAAHHHH!!!!