A/N: ...yeah...the farther I go along, the harder it is to pick out chapter names xD
O/C28: Lost in time and memories, Misaki relives her life from as far back as she can remember to the present, regaining her former power slowly, as she had through the millennia. The Essence is gone, their task is down. The gang leaves.
Safe and sound back in Misaki's home in the Ningenkai, Misaki practically skipped to the kitchen. Now that she didn't have to eat, the prospect was much more pleasing. And she hoped that perhaps some food would improve Hiei's mood for he seemed to be the only one in the group that was, as she guessed, stewing upon the visit with the Essence.
"Yukina!" She practically sang, "Would you help me cook something?"
"Sure!"
Kurama followed the pair into the kitchen, if only to make sure the house did not get burnt down.
After a time, the others made their way to the table as the food began to leave a lovely scent in the air.
The conversation over the food was stereotypical for the well-knit group: Yusuke and Kuwabara would banter back and forth, while Kuwabara in between jabs would make an honorly pass at Yukina who was deep in conversation with Kurama about cooking techniques. However, the fire youkai sitting at one end of the table never rose to her defense once that evening. Misaki frowned at the one stick in the mud amongst the happy group.
It was night outside after everything was all said and done and the dishes were cleaned and put away. The group decided that another sleepover together wasn't a bad idea as the thoughts of whatever had attacked the agency (though it seemed like ages ago) hadn't fully left their memories. The deemed the next day one in which they would visit the park as they bedded down for the night.
…
The gang's plans were interrupted, of course, by a horrible rainstorm. Everyone bumbled about the house absently. For the most part, Kuwabara and Yusuke congregated in front of the television together, Kurama sitting in a nearby recliner.
"Where's Misaki?" Yusuke perked up and looked around the room.
Yukina sat in the middle of the floor laying out cards that had strange symbols on them. "Is it raining?"
There was a loud booming noise of thunder and with a sudden surge, more rain rattled onto the house in sheets.
"Yeah," Yusuke answered slowly as if it was a little more than slightly obvious, he and Kuwabara giving each other a look.
"Then she's on the roof," came the reply.
The rain drops came down over Misaki's head but she just turned her face up to the sky. Lying down on her back against the roof, she put her hands behind her head.
Misaki was soaked to the skin—she had changed into more normal clothes since the day before and hoped Coahtu wouldn't come looking for the ruined kimono—but she really didn't care. It was a wonderful feeling.
Her heart was still pounding from the run she had just taken. The rain tore from the sky and pelted the ground and Misaki.
Misaki had made it out to her perch before the greatest of the storm began to fall, but she still didn't feel as if she had found the best spot. Sitting up on her elbows, she surveyed the roof. Harumph. That spot over there looked decidedly better.
The sheets of rain made the roof much more slippery than when she first made the climb, and it wasn't the friendliest roof there could have been. Misaki was fairly sure footed, but as she scrambled her way across, a giant sheet of rain and wind buffeted her to the side and threw her off balance. There were no hand holds on the roof and the drop was going to be a long one.
Managing to scrape her hand against the roof's materials, a thin veneer of blood coated her descent, albeit washed away as quickly as it appeared, as her fingers continued grasping for a hold. She felt her legs reach the side first and her stomach lurched as she thought of the distance to the ground. She closed her eyes.
Her arm felt as if it would be pulled out of its socket as someone clasped her wrist firmly and she stopped falling.
Misaki looked up and wondered as she always did how Hiei's hair managed to stand straight up. It was practically raining buckets of water at that point.
His grasp felt familiar and reassuring and as he easily hoisted her up over the edge she just managed to fall over, Misaki thought briefly back to the moment when he had pulled her out of Amureo's deathly pool.
"You shouldn't be up here if you can't handle yourself, stupid woman."
There was no point in speaking out loud. They wouldn't have been able to hear one another.
Misaki frowned as she moved to the back of the roof. Even through his one sentence, Misaki could feel all of his conflicting emotions that he so deftly kept under wraps. To her unending astonishment, Hiei followed her and settled down next to her when she lay down again.
She closed her eyes and listened to the melodic sounds of the raindrops beating out a rhythm onto the rooftop. Life…was good.
Curiously, Misaki opened an eye and snuck a look at Hiei. He stared off into the distance into the rain above them. She marveled at how dry he looked until she remembered that he was a fire youkai and noticed the steady, though faint, steam that hovered around him.
The pair of them turned, when in a moment of respite from the howling wind they heard a thump, as the roof vibrated under another pair of feet behind them.
Yusuke stood at the other end of the roof and was precariously making his way towards them.
He seemed an almost comical picture to her, his hair flatter on his head than she'd ever seen it before. She giggled, thinking the sound was lost within the storm. Hiei gave her a strange look and she cleared her throat in embarrassment.
All of a sudden, Yusuke slipped and the world slowed. Misaki watched as his foot came out from under him and he began to slide towards the edge just as she had.
Just as Misaki before him, Yusuke saw the ground beneath him and stopped. Something had grabbed his hands just before he went over the edge.
When he looked up, his feet dangling in mid-air as was the rest of him, he blinked as water fell into his eyes. Misaki was leaning over him, face nearly hidden behind a curtain of hair, the silver streaks gleaming fiercely in the rain as she dripped water on his upturned countenance.
Misaki grinned over at Hiei who had Yusuke's other arm. Hiei glanced at her expression briefly and together they pulled Yusuke back onto the roof until he was able to easily stand on his own.
Hiei dropped his grip, but Misaki didn't let go of Yusuke's hand as she picked her way carefully along the slope of the roof to where she and Hiei had been moments ago.
When they sat down, they both were in high spirits and smiling from ear to ear. Misaki let go of his hand when she was sure that he wasn't going anywhere.
Yusuke held his face up to the sky and closed his eyes, letting the rain pour over him.
Misaki felt a tug and looked over at Yusuke. But he hadn't moved.
There was another tug, and it pulled at her whole body, jerking her a little. She took in her surroundings and saw no one. Hiei did not seem to be privy to any discomfort either.
The third time the tug came Misaki was jerked to the side and she witnessed the rainy scene around her blur into nothingness, the two boys and the roof disappearing from view.
Briefly she fell through the air, but had enough wits about her to conjecture that she had been pulled out of the Ningenkai and into some other dimension.
When she smacked to the floor, her head whacked the ground and she cringed, lying still for a moment to recover before deciding to stand and survey her surroundings.
There…didn't actually appear to be any ground to stand on, though she felt solidity underneath her feet. In fact, there didn't actually appear to be anything at all. The dimension was pitch black, rendering sight useless.
Misaki felt a presence behind her and she dodged to the left, planting her left foot down after moving to the side a few feet and swinging her right foot so that when she landed she faced the other direction, straining to peer forward. She thought she saw a tall, dark shape, darker than the space around it.
She felt the presence behind her again, but this time she didn't move.
Misaki realized that she was dry. Her clothes, her hair...dry. Not a drop of water on her.
Without really seeing it, Misaki knew that a hand had its fingers pulling through her hair smoothly.
"Mm. Such pretty hair."
Misaki knew that voice. She stayed still, feeling a second hand do the same thing.
"Beautiful hair. So smooth." The lithe fingers pulled the hair over her shoulder where an arm was then able to rest as the fingers continued tangling themselves in her hair.
Misaki heard an old crone's cackling and suddenly she was able to see. The dimension remained as dark as ever, but at the appearance of the gnarled woman people became visible. The woman chuckled again, rubbing hands aged and full of bent fingers with arthritis together. The huge pack on her back tinkled at her every movement, a giant sewing needle stuck through the middle of it and many different colors of yarn and thread spilling over and around and out of the top.
Glancing over her shoulder, Misaki saw a wild-eyed Karasu standing behind her, bent over so that his elbows rested comfortably on her shoulders while his hands still moved in her hair.
The withered old woman Misaki had never seen before this moment rubbed her hands together in glee, her rotting teeth showing as she grinned at the both of them.
"Fufufufu!" the ancient crone cackled once more.
Misaki's finger tugged slightly just like her body had earlier. She held the hand up to her face.
"What the heck is this?" A red string was attached to the finger and she followed its path with her eyes to the identical finger of Karasu.
"A heart-sting." The woman danced, or rather cavorted, around the pair, "Yours and Karasu's are together! You belong together!"
"Whoa whoa whoa! What?" Misaki ducked away from Karasu and stood so that she could see both of them at the same time. "I…it…Where on earth did this come from?"
"Why do you shy away Misaki?" Karasu closed the distance between them fluidly, his movements smooth.
Misaki backed up, "Aren't you dead? What's going on?" She was confused beyond belief, taking a second to appraise the crone again.
With those needles and thread...she was some sort of youkai, Misaki thought, her heartbeat was strange like Hiei's. This had to be her dimension she ruled…or something… The heart-string was a problem. Unless Misaki could get free, she definitely would be stuck with Karasu…the dead youkai somehow moving for her again.
The old crone clapped her hands together, happy with what she saw. Another couple happily joined together! What fun, what fun.
Misaki made a face and held the finger up, examining the thread. Experimentally, she jerked the finger towards her. Karasu's hand came up and he was drawn closer to her. Misaki's eyes widened and she stepped back away from him.
"You know what love is, Misaki?" Karasu purred, quickly grabbing her wrist and jerking her towards him, curling his other arm behind her waist.
Misaki grimaced and leaned away as he put his lips next to her ear and continued to speak.
"It's wonderful. Two people who care about each other so much that they can hurt each other so well." His grip on her wrist tightened as he squeezed.
Misaki's heart pounded. None of this made any sense.
"What on earth is going on?"
The old biddy leaned her head to the side, turning an ear up as if listening to something neither of the other two could hear. She frowned and then appeared in front of Misaki.
She grabbed the hand with the thread on it, then grasped the air in front of the fingers and pulled. Hard.
"Ow!" Misaki said with more surprise at the tug than any actual pain. She jerked away.
This time Misaki heard the noise that had alerted the crone.
More people fell into the black dimension. Kurama, Hiei, Yusuke, Kuwabara and a teenage Koenma. They all smacked into the nonexistent but substantial ground just as Misaki had.
"What? This is impossible! There is only one string that should be..." The crone lost her words and stood gaping at the other people that had shown up. She turned back to grasp at and then tap Misaki's hand twice sharply.
Eight strings appeared, four on her other hand, each on a separate finger.
The youkai made a noise of exclamation and jumped back, startled at the results. It was rare for a person to have two strings, though love triangles did that, but never before had she seen eight! Astonishing! However, she was not phased for long and she began to untangle the strings, one each for Yusuke, Kurama, Kuwabara, Hiei and Koenma. They were now standing, all looking a little ruffled at their sudden trip, but still too confused to say anything.
In the back of her head, Misaki noticed with a bit of glee that Koenma still hadn't found the hiding place of his pacifier but he was too distracted at the moment to take any notice to scold her.
"Ha!" the crone exclaimed, "I knew it!"
Misaki looked down to see what she had discovered.
The youkai held one of the fingers up. The thread attached to that finger was much paler than the others and faded in and out of existence.
"And he's already got another string on him. So does this one. And I'm the one who put yours there." she muttered, tapping in succession each of the three strings she referred to sharply twice like she had to Misaki's hand a while ago.
All of Kuwabara, Yusuke and Karasu disappeared.
Misaki took a deep breath of air that she hadn't realized she held. Karasu was…sadomasochistic to say the least. Scary. Misaki tried to lift a hand to rub her temple but the crone smacked her fingers and like a disciplined school child, Misaki straightened up and sat still.
Karasu reappeared, seething, and Misaki's stomach dropped to the floor, her heart feeling like it had relocated into her throat.
"How dare you!" he yelled at ancient youkai.
That wasn't like Karasu at all. Then again, Misaki thought this whole situation was weird.
"Ah, but you are in my realm," she waggled a finger absently at him, most of her mind still on the interest at hand. "You cannot do anything without my permission. And I'm busy. Leave me alone."
"But...but you promised!" he pouted behind the mask which covered his face.
"Something has come up. She has no interest in you anyway, as if that wasn't plain to see."
"That wasn't the point! I want—"
"Now hush up. It's your fault at this point. Most interesting case I've…" her words faded off again into a mumble as she spoke to herself.
"Most people have one, maybe two strings," the crone said aloud to Misaki absently, "And yet you have eight? Or rather...four," she made a closer examination and Misaki felt her breathing over the hand she now held up to her face.
"Merely a deep friendship," she murmured half to herself, "I mistook it at first. Old though. Must be getting old. Only a friend. That leaves...those two, of which he...and..." She faded off and Misaki figured it was a habit of hers.
The last two strings led off into the darkness in opposite directions.
The youaki's face contorted with concentration and also consternation. The color of these strings was all wrong. Delicately, she took one thread in each hand and gave them a small tug.
Misaki felt the jerking feeling again.
Two figures, too far away to make out, appeared at either end of the realm. They were close enough, however, to tell that they both wore dark cloaks with their faces hidden underneath large hoods.
The realm began to rumble around them.
"Never before have I seen a case such as this," the crone's voice as she spoke was now shaky, not full of wonderment as it had been. There was fear behind her words.
The figures were steadily moving closer to Misaki and the realm convulsed around them.
"Away! Away!" the youkai shouted at Misaki, dropping her grip and waving her hands wildly into the air. "You bring ruin upon me!" the last part was aimed at Karasu, whom she pointed at and shrieked the words, "Ruin! Be gone! Never return here!" she screamed in terror, "I release you! Leave me! Take them away! I cannot sustain their kind!" she cringed from Misaki as the figures closed in, cowering behind hands that she held up in front of her face.
Misaki felt the tugging again, tugging that pulled at her whole body and suddenly she was falling.
Koenma's office formed around her and everyone that had appeared, save Karasu, Misaki noticed gratefully, hit the floor. They moaned as they stood. The strings and the figures and the old crone where gone with the dimension they had left.
The guys all blinked sleepily as they stood up, thinking about the strange dream they just had. After a moment, they all spotted one another and could instantly tell by each others faces that they had shared the same dream.
"Was it a dream?" Kurama asked quietly out loud.
Koenma, now a toddler once more, albeit a toddler without a pacifier, sat down at his desk and folded his arms, creating a picture of disgruntledness.
"Well?" Yusuke looked at Koenma as if he had the answers.
"Well, what?" he said sullenly, "Don't look at me. Misaki was there before we all were."
Everyone, now standing, turned to look at her. She held out her hands and shrugged.
"I have no idea what was going on." she admitted, shaking her head, "The last thing I knew, I was on the roof of the house in the Ningenkai in the rain and then I was there in who-knows-where land."
"Okay, see? There. We don't know what just happened so we're going to pretend that it didn't happen." Koenma was still obviously not happy about something.
That's when everyone else noticed the missing pacifier.
Okay I'll admit it, I totally jacked the idea of the heart string thingy from a blip of an episode of Tenchi Muyo that I saw...but I don't really remember the episode, I just remember this sort of thing happened. Japanese Heart-String thingy…tee hee.
Thanks for reading!
-lotsm
