A/N: I decided to be creative this chapter! Kaneda and Kei from Akira are in here - They don't do much, but it's a nice little extra for those of you who've seen the movie! - Oh, and that one person who left a review saying they thought Hiei was called youkai~ akuma is just another word for demon- don't rag me if I didn't use it in the exact proper grammar or anything, I just like to use random words ^.~
Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or any of its original characters. ~ You'd be crazy to think I did ^^
To Love a Demon
Chapter Two:
Jinx
"24 Year Old Man Found Dead In Apartment." The girl groaned as she opened her eyes and rubbed her back. She looked at the front article of the newspaper that had hit her hard on the side. "And I suppose this is what I get for sleeping on a bench," Raumi moped, glaring at the truck that was throwing packaged papers out of its windows. Shivering, she straightened up and collected her blanket into a small bag with other random items. She stood up and looked towards the sky, it was starting to get light, but dark gray clouds were what took most of it up.
"I guess I should be glad its Sunday. I'd hate to sleep on the streets during a school day." Brushing herself off the teenaged girl set off to solve her day's goal; finding someone she could live with for a few weeks.
'Some good friends are…' She thought. 'They're all either living with their boyfriends or their parents hate me. And when it comes to guy friends they've got such damned busy sexual schedules that they haven't got time to let anyone they've already screwed spend the night.' Raumi kicked herself for thinking so rudely of her fellows but found it hard to keep from such thoughts crossing her mind. 'So then… I guess this means I'll have to dig up a boyfriend.' The word "boyfriend" was not such a pleasant one in Raumi's mind. It meant you could only be seen with one person, go on dates with one person, make out with one person, have sex with one person.
Raumi went looking everywhere for suitable guys, but Sundays were pretty much slim pickings. The few she did manage to stumble across were all dead ends. After several hours of searching Raumi was worn out, getting depressed and finding it hard to keep hunting on an empty stomach. Not willing to spend the little money she had alone it seemed all chances of hope were lost.
Sighing, she plopped down in an empty chair alone at a table in a small café. Gazing idly out of the window her senses were numbed by the steady song of the birds outside. But the pleasant scenario was quickly interrupted.
A noisy motorcycle came down the street, veering its engine annoyingly. The machine and rider slowed down considerably when passing the shops consisting of the café. Raumi thought the driver was looking at her, but realized he was checking himself out in the window's tinted reflection. Then- WHAM! The bike crashed into a tree near the side of the road. Raumi winced at the sight, but quickly recovered and sighed, "Pathetic."
However, in the midst of the loudly cursing driver, falling branches and fluttering birds, something clicked. "Hey… He is a biker… And not all that bad looking…" She jumped up from her seat and rushed out the door. "Are you alright?" she called to the man. But she nearly stopped on her way over '…damn,' she thought. 'He's wearing pink…and there's a weird pill or something on the back of the shirt… This ass had better not be gay.' She continued on, a bit less rushed.
"Yeah I'm fine but…" The biker looked towards the front of his bike. "Shit! There's a dent!" He took the time to turn around and look at who had addressed him. After a short look of surprise crossed his face a sick smile met his lips. He examined the girl in front of him carefully from toe up to head, his gaze inspecting certain parts of her body more thoroughly than comfortable. "And who might I ask are you?"
Refraining from her sudden urge to slap the guy she sucked it up and put on her best flirty, but not ditzy, act. "My name's Raumi Terrel. I was just getting ready to have some lunch when I saw you crash! Are you sure you're alright?"
"Well I think I am, but uh…" he started going for sympathy points, which didn't work so well. "I think it would be best if you stayed with me… You know, so incase there is anything wrong you'll know what happened to me."
"Oh of course!" She said. "Anything to help." The biker grinned and edged in much closer to Raumi.
"Well then, that's good to know."
She revolted against this action and thought, 'Well at least I'm pretty sure he's not gay… Bi is still a possibility- but not gay.' Psyching herself to play along she wrapped her ankle around the man's leg and asked, "So, what's your name?"
"Me? I'm Kaneda, pleased to meet you." His kooky grin only widened and he ran his hand from Raumi's hip to her back. "How would'ya like to go to lunch with me?"
Managing just barely not to throw a good blow into the middle of his face or hurl she said as happily as possible, "Oooh, that'd be great! …Or maybe, I should take you out for a special lunch." *Wink!* She moved away from Kaneda's grasp. He nearly toppled over after leaning forward with puckered up lips and tongue beginning to protrude from his mouth. Raumi just played dumb and pretended not to see. She wasn't shallow enough to make out with some loser she'd just met on the streets.
The two began walking down the sidewalk before- "KANEDA!"
They whipped around to see a woman standing several meters away. She'd just come out of a shop and looked ready to kill. "Damn…" Kaneda said under his breath. "…Kei… How, err, nice to see you???"
After storming up to meet with the other two she blurted, "Don't give me that shit. Just what are you doing with this girl?!"
Kaneda sheepishly looked towards the woman and softly said, "Well you see I got into an accident… and she saw what happened. So…"
"Well let me tell you, she's not the only one who saw!" The woman yelled at the guilty Kaneda. "You tried to kiss her! And you-!" she glared bloodthirstily at Raumi, "You came onto him!"
"Well, I'm really sorry… I didn't-"
"Can-it! I'm out of here!" The girl stormed off. Kaneda looked from Raumi to the lady and then to Raumi and back. He shook his head and groaned, "Damn!" He ran towards the departing woman yelling, "Kei! Please wait!"
After watching the distancing two Raumi cursed, "Damn is right." She gazed at the temporarily forgotten motorcycle and then the tree it had crashed into. Birds were beginning to flutter back to its branches, restarting their song after the brief interruption. She sighed, "I give up…"
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Rays of light shattered through the leaves of a tree, supporting shade for the one who sat beneath its branches. A short demon sat with his legs and arms crossed, eyes shut in meditation. Wind rustled the branches surrounding him, causing leaves to dance around him and his hair to be tossed. He sat still, as though fire nor ice could break his flow of mind. It likely couldn't, seeing as that's quite literally all he was as it would stand.
'That's all…' he thought. 'Fire and ice. Two of the most heartless substances known to demon and man. And that's just what I am… Heartless. Such a word doesn't even begin to do honor in reference to the ability at which I am able to kill one- No, not one, but many. As many as I deem fulfilling. For I am not bothered by the petty human characteristic called a conscience. Such a cowardly thing holds no place in my way of being. My steady ground will be held. Held at all costs, even if that should mean I must disappoint those who are nea-'
"Kurama! Yo! KURAMA!" Hiei's meditation was annoyingly disturbed by a gruff voice. Hiei's eyebrow ticked and in a split second he had pulled out his sword and jumped up to the top branch near the window of the house Shuichi lived in. He gazed down upon the newcomer and his gaze quickly turned to a glare.
"Hn," he started with a grunt. "What do you want?"
A red haired teenager looked up at the demon and his face twisted into an odd knot-like expression. "Well I'm here to see Kurama, so you can just move now, runt."
"What do you want of him," The short youkai demanded.
"What's it to you? Just lemme see the guy!" said the teen Hiei identified as being Kuwabara. The redhead stumblingly began trying to climb up the tree branches. He did this only to fall down on his back and lay there looking up at a now laughing Hiei. "Hey! Shut up!" he gathered himself and stood up, hands in fists. "If you don't let me see Kurama I'm gonna go up there and… uhmm… and… err…"
Kuwabara's unexpected loss of words only gave Hiei the incentive to laugh harder. After a short while he flicked away the moment of humor and smirked. "The kitsune isn't here. He's gone with his ningen family on what they called a vacation."
"And I suppose you're playing house wife?" Kuwabara snickered privately.
"If you're amused by having your legs ripped from your weak torso then I suppose I can play the role of whatever character you please," Hiei said, angling his sword threateningly.
"Hey! I was just kiddin short guy, no reason to get all evil and stuff!" The oaf said, a rather large sweat drop inching down his forehead. "But… awww man," he grumbled. "We were gonna go out."
"Go… out?" Hiei inquired, giving the red-head a suspicious look.
"Lady hunting!" Kuwabara grinned. "He was gonna help hook me up."
Hiei practically growled at the other. 'And to think,' He put his sword back and thought silently. 'My sister was actually attracted to this lame excuse for a living being.'
"Hey!" Kuwabara exclaimed, a light bulb going off in his head. "Maybe I could try to hook you up with someone!"
"I'd prefer not wasting my time with a lowly ningen as yourself, performing petty human activities all the same." Hiei spat.
"Whatever, its your own loss," Kuwabara waved off. "But… damn! Now I've got nothing to do!"
"Well," Hiei started. "In that case you might as well do something productive- Like training. You're the weakest of the group and I'm in the mood for having a punching bag."
"…What?" Kuwabara stumbled, grasping what he'd just gotten himself into. "Hey! No! I'm not wasting my weekend with you-" But by the time he'd made this remark, Hiei had gathered all his things and was heading towards the forest.
The short youkai unsheathed his sword and brought it even with the teen's neck in the blink of an eye. "You're coming with me."
Kuwabara grumbled, "Fine…" He began trudging towards the forest behind Hiei, like a leashed dog following its trainer.
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"Ouch," Raumi whispered. She sent an evil eye towards the root she'd just stubbed her now throbbing toe on. After a sigh the girl continued trudging forward. "This was definitely one of my less brilliant ideas," she groaned quietly to herself. "When all hope is lost randomly walk through a forest you are completely unfamiliar with… Where in god's name is the logic in that?"
The girl leaned against a large tree and laughed inwardly. She'd gotten herself into yet another big mess and no longer had the will power to climb out of her hole. 'Maybe…What's the point? Can't do anything… Don't do anything. All I really am is one lousy number that has to be added up into making the population of Japan. It's practically set in stone that I'll wind up in hell no matter when I go.'
Raumi looked lamely down at her feet. She was wearing a cute pair of tennis shoes that she'd snuck out of some guy's house. She knew they'd belonged to his girlfriend who was out of town at the time. "You're just a tramp. A good for nothing slut of a tramp." These particular words had been given to her by a rather gutsy girl from school. She had been sick of seeing every each one of her crushes leaving her trying to "tame the wild woman" and failing miserably. Raumi knew that a lot of the boys had a thing going to see who could get her to wind down and take it steady with them. Like the ultimate trophy that comes with a legion of gloating rights.
'But who the hell wants to be a trophy?' Raumi thought, once again returning to her unpleased pattern of thinking. She simply sighed once more. "I've got to get out of here."
Raumi left her place by the tree and headed back the way she'd come. Or was it forward, in a new direction? Either way, the girl found herself patently lost in the winding walls of trees within minutes of her departure. But she just kept walking, forcing herself to put one foot in front of the other.
After continuing for several minutes in this pattern something pulled at the back of her mind. She ignored it and continued, but was disturbed again. Raumi decided to listen to her body and waited a moment. Mere seconds later the girl realized that she had heard a noise, like that of… chopping almost- But not quite. Then, she heard it again, more clearly, and out of the corner of her eye caught a glint from something made from metal.
After creeping very slowly and quietly towards the mysterious sound she discovered its maker. There was a small clearing in the forest, the only area where you could stand completely in the sunlight without there being any huge trees casting shadows upon you. Within that clearing there was an odd man. He was very short, several inches shorter than herself, and was dressed in some sort of black battle outfit or something. There was also a long white sash across his forehead, something you didn't see too often now-a-day.
Raumi squeaked a little when she saw what had made the glint. "Shorty" here had a samurai style sword in his hand. She ducked down behind a bush praying he didn't see/ hear her. There was a brief silence, the man had been walking towards some sort of pile Raumi hadn't had the chance to make out, he'd obviously stopped.
Raumi did her best not to breath, which wasn't exactly easy taking into account the considerable rate at which her heart was pounding, but she managed. The unknown sword bearer continued walking to his stash of kami knows what. She heard a scraping noise and again the soft crunch of the man's feet upon the ground. Then another pause, but longer this time. Raumi swore she could feel her blood cells dying within her body due to a lack of oxygen. She tested her guts and peered just slightly through the bushes.
Much to her relief the man was not waiting there ready to slice and dice her. He was standing with his eyes closed, sword in one hand, and a chunk of potential firewood in the other. Raumi returned her gaze back to his face, which was still as stone but with skin that looked softer than snow.
After a fair amount of time he made his move. He threw the wood slab into the air. It flew so high that the sun covered it and Raumi could not make out the wood due to the bright rays. A moment passed in which the sword bearer put his now empty hand into the small of his back. He braced himself and then shot up into the air like a rocket of some sort.
Raumi squinted her eyes, trying to keep track of the mysterious man. She heard the chopping sound again, now able to fully decipher what it had been. Then, as quickly as he had gone up into the air, the black haired mystery drifted back down from the sky. He landed promptly on the ground, his left arm still behind his back, sword still in about the same position. The hunk of wood also fell from the sky, landing on the ground with a small thud. Raumi noticed, that it was still in one piece, which relieved her partially. But once the wood dropped to the ground the man did something that just about made the young girl die right there on the spot.
He turned around, fully revealing his face (with the exception of his forehead), smirked and opened his eyes.
After Raumi got over the shock of this she managed to drag her own pair of orbs away from his blood red ones and looked at what had caused him to smirk. What Raumi saw is changed her mind about everything she'd said earlier. For where the piece of firewood had been there was now a small pile of wood chips and sawdust.
'Impossible…' She mouthed, silently and next shut her eyes tightly. 'Oh Kami, or Buddha, or Jesus, or whoever can hear me up there- I take it all back, that crap about suicide from those minutes ago. I'll live and pretend to be happy with my life! PLEASE- Just don't let me turn into some sort of shish kabob- Or a human chicken salad… Not that this guy looks much like the salad type… More the raw meat type…' She shivered.
After breathing what she feared were possibly some of her last breaths, Raumi stopped her prayers. She took a deep breath, hot water was beginning to seep out from her eyes. But with as much courage as the girl could sum up she wrenched open the lids from her eyes thus that she may look death in the face.
She'd half expected to find herself already dead- or maybe just see her legs a few meters away from her current hiding place. But she found nothing of the sort. Looking upon the clearing in which the man had stood moments before, no one could be found. She blinked several times, not believing what she was seeing. Raumi peeked her head over the bushes a bit- Nothing.
'But…' she stretched her neck as high as she could just to triple check. This seemed far too good to be true. Pressing her luck, the girl actually stood up and looked from side to side, he was really gone. "Maybe there is some sort of god," she joked with herself quietly.
After taking a moment to get herself together Raumi started breathing again. She turned around to leave when her eye caught a glimpse of light like it had earlier. The girl gasped when she felt something ice cold beneath her chin. Her eyes crept down catching view of the silver metal and followed it until she saw the silhouette of its bearer, hidden in the shadows of the trees.
"It's not wise to sneak around…" the man breathed and began making his grand departure from the trees. He kept the sword cradled perfectly under her chin as he walked out in front of her. His blood red eyes were more than Raumi could handle. They were cold and harsh, yet they had her captured. She tried to speak but no words formed on her tongue, making her look somewhat like a fish out of water. He grinned, ever so slightly.
"You humans sicken me," he snarled.
'What does this guy think he is?' Raumi's mind questioned pleadingly. Her throat was so dry she thought it just may burn through her skin. But for such a lack of liquid in her desert throat it was ironic that there was still water stored in her eyes. A few salty tears snuck out and crept down her now pale white cheeks.
"See what I mean? Despicable." He breathed deeply and exhaled as though the sight of her still alive was simply too aggravating to set eyes upon. "The last human I killed lucked out with a quick death. So I do believe I'll have to try out some new torture techniques I've been preparing. Consider it an honor to be the guinea pig, you're going to make it easier for me to take the lives of so many people."
He took the sword back into his hands and prepared it in a fighting stance. "Any last words?" He questioned, playfully.
Raumi found her voice, although it wouldn't have been a surprise if it cracked worse than a junior high boy's when she spoke. "Yeah, since when does 'God' believe in jinxes? Aren't they some sort of demon's work?"
The mysterious man actually smiled, although it was one of those insane bloodthirsty sinister smiles. He revealed a set of pointed fangs. "They are."
A/N: OMK- SICK MOTHER! My gum just melted in my mouth… and I had to swallow it… It literally turned into a liquid… Thas just bull - Awww crap and it got all over my shirt that is sick sick sick sick sick sick sick sick sick sick sick sick sick! 'n I was gonna wear this tomorrow too! NOOOOOO! That just ruined my train of thought- grrrrr -!- ok I remember now!
After he gave a moment of suspense to let these words sink in he closed his eyes, but not before positively glaring at her. He appeared so concentrated that you could have thrown rocks at him and they would have shattered before they even reached his body, it was that tense.
The man mumbled a few words that Raumi did not catch. But she started to get the point when licks of blue fire began to emit themselves from his weapon. After further concentrating himself the fire grew larger and more dangerous. He next opened his eyes again, a whole new type of evil was visible in them. They were colder than stone, ice could be called warm in comparison. Yet at the same time they burnt, they burnt with a passion. Raumi swore she could see blood dripping down around his pupils which is what made the orbs scarlet.
"This… is your end."
Raumi's eyes grew three times their usual size at that moment. The man had his sword raised in front of his face. He jumped high into the air and appeared to be flying. Next he yelled something, quite loudly too, but Raumi didn't understand these words either- No, not because she's hard at hearing. As soon as he had begun the verbal outburst Raumi heard a scream.
She did not really recognize the voice, but it had screamed, "No!!!!" It was probably been herself- her body's final attempt to stay intact and perhaps her mind was simply in too much shock to be keeping track of what was going on at the time.
But as soon she'd heard all this something hit her hard on her right side, knocking her onto the ground. What happened next she was not quite sure of, but a great blast was audible. Her ear was partially muffled by a new weight on top of her while she was sprawled out on the ground.
After several moments of blackness and confusion her eyes fluttered open. She was pressed upon cold leaves, something was still on top of her, pinning her down. Also, her side hurt from where she had fallen. Her gaze floated to the tops of the trees and a parting between them where the blue sky was revealed. 'I'm alive…'
Then her eyesight began to gather more and she noted that the short man was perched in a tree, looking down upon her. Raumi did not understand what kind of emotion he was emitting, but the two just stared at each other.
Next the weight on Raumi shifted. Something in her head just screamed, it was painful and made her body cringe. She squeezed her eyes shut to drown it out. But after several moments it had gone, as unexpectedly as it had happened. She panted to get a hold of herself.
"Hey, snap out of it. Are you ok?" A voice asked her, it was right above her face. She opened her eyes once more to find two small black orbs. They were accompanied by strong cheek bones and curly red hair. "Good, I thought you might have passed out again," the scruffy voice said.
"No…" Raumi noticed that the new person was lying on top of her in a somewhat adult position. His legs were spread on either side of hers, bringing him to a straddle, and his hands were on her rib cage, just below her bust. "I think I'm gonna live."
He nodded and Raumi had to clear her throat a bit before he got the point and dragged himself off of her. After they'd both gotten up the short man hopped down from the tree.
"What are you doing?" he spat at the red head.
"Me?! What were you doing?!?! You almost killed her!!!" he shouted at the sword bearer.
"You were supposed to be getting wood, that does not include ruining a perfectly good incantation." His glare was enough to make you want to shrink. "For all we know she's a demon I disguise."
"If she was a demon I'd be able to tell. She's alllll human." Kuwabara said, reminding the Raumi much of someone she'd met earlier that day. He leaned in towards Hiei, "She's good looking too. You don't come across many like her."
"I suppose that would explain why you felt the need to grope her," the short man said, not trying to control the volume of his voice so that Raumi got the point of the conversation easily. The redhead seemed so angrily embarrassed that there practically appeared to be steam rising from him. The shorter of the two simply smirked.
Raumi noticed, at that moment, that her bra was unhooked. She shot a dirty look towards the new guy, he seemed about her own age- maybe even a year younger. Then, latched back together her undergarment. 'Pervert… I hope I wasn't unconscious too long…'
After the supposed teen had gathered himself he took a shot at a comeback, "You're just saying that because you know she'd prefer the company of myself over you any day. Plus you're gay, so its understandable that you'd want to try and put down the sensible straight guy."
Hiei appeared to be annoyed right down through his bones. "I hate to deliver the harsh news but really, who are you kidding? Anyone in their right mind would prefer a pile of dung over your company."
Raumi couldn't help but giggle at this, it was honestly a good insult. The redhead looked at her in a shocked expression. "Hey! I saved your life!" he yelled, insulted further.
"For what? So you could grope me?" the girl said. "Besides, he just burned you."
Kuwabara struggled for a way out of this teasing. He returned his focus towards Hiei, "You wanna bet on that bull shit theory of yours?"
"If it will get you to shut up."
"Alright then," he started. "The girl will stay with you for one week. If in that time she's still alive and hasn't run away she'll stay with me the next week and tell us who she preferred at the end."
"What?" Hiei looked disgusted. "That's insane."
"C'mon short stuff, not up for it?" Kuwabara shot.
"I will not live in the company of a female human," he spat.
"This is too great!" the red head exclaimed. "Hiei chickens out of a challenge and admits to being gay all in one meeting!"
Hiei looked like he'd reached a new breaking point. "Fine," he snarled. "Just for that I'll play your stupid game. I'll win too."
With this Hiei looked threateningly towards Raumi. "If you try to leave at any point during these next seven days, I'll kill you." He began walking away from the area. Raumi and Kuwabara just looked at him, in a bit of a daze from his sudden acts.
"Do you want to die?!" he yelled, looking back at her angrily. She jumped a little and scuttled to catch up with him. Kuwabara also seemed a bit confused, but then also went and followed behind Hiei alongside Raumi.
"What do you want?" the demon growled.
"Hey, calm down. I just um… I'm Kuwabara!" he said to the girl, a cheesy smile stretching across his face.
"I'm Raumi Terrel," she said, still in a bit of a jumbled state from everything that had just happened.
"Raumi… Hey you don't go to the high school do you?"
"Eleventh grade," she replied, sounding a bit more enthusiastic now that she could talk about something she knew of.
"I've heard some crazy stuff about you…"
"Well, I'm willing to guarantee you- It's probably all true." Kuwabara was impressed by this.
"If you manage to sneak away from Hiei here- Find me. I'll be sure to protect you from his empty threats," he winked.
"Now that sounds like something worthwhile for placing bets against," Hiei grumbled. "You can't protect her with a dead corpse, so I would leave while I'm still giving you the chance."
Kuwabara squeaked a little, said a quick good bye to Raumi and left on his way.
'I know this isn't exactly what I had in mind, but I've actually got it good now…' she thought to herself. 'A place to stay for at least two weeks. Surely I'll be able to find a new job in that amount of time, if anything. I'll just hope I make it through staying with Mr. Slice 'n Dice.'
Raumi came up to walk next to Hiei. She eyed him curiously, but his own gaze did not budge from its current position looking ahead of them. She brought back her own eyes and smiled a bit.
"What," he demanded.
"I was just thinking…" she teased. "Maybe God does believe in jinxes."
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A/N: Wow u guyz… that chapter was like… hella long. I've never written a chapter that long. And if any of you noticed; that doesn't seem like such a big deal cuz ive only got 2 fics up right now. But im actually working on two more. My escaflowne fic *Dead Ends* has mainly chapters of eight pages. I'm writing the whole thing out before I post it to improve plottiness. ^_^ well… I'm sorry but you've just got to review now. I'll be pissed off if u don't. this is why it took me so long to get this updated. And im sorry if you are mad I made go on…and on and on and on - I don't like long chapters on ff.net - infact I don't even want to go through and edit, but hey! I'm writing this for you! So now pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeez review!
