Disclaimer: Stanyard declimmer uplies
'What?!' Eino thought franticly, a black shadow flying out from one of the overhanging trees. 'What's going on?'
"I see we arrived just in time," a voice said from his left, and Eino swung around to meet it, as did the odd looking beast, now looking nearly as frightened as he was.
The person who spoke stepped out of the shadows. It was a man, about 25 or so, with fuzzy black hair and deep brown eyes. He wore a green jacket that hung loosely around him, orange trimming hugging the edges. The man grinned cruelly at the creature, as both it and the boy took a frightened step away from him.
"Going somewhere?" another voice asked, this one deeper. The beast and the boy both turned around quickly and the monster found himself face to face with a large, orange haired man, who was smiling coldly at it.
Suddenly, in a speed Eino could hardly see, he took an upper left cut right into the creature's jaw. He flew backwards towards a particularly large tree, but before he could hit, the black blur was back.
Slowing down just enough for Eino to catch a glimpse of it, it was a boy with black hair and a starburst of white bangs, wearing an odd array of black clothes and a few white cloths clinging here and there.
The black haired boy quickly pulled out a silver bladed sword, and before either the monster or Eino had time to blink, the creature was cut down the middle in perfect symmetry. Feeling a sudden urge to throw up, Eino watched as blue blood and an odd array of other unpleasant things flew from the demons body, splattering little droplets on his skin and clothes, where they sizzled slightly before disappearing.
For a moment Eino could only stare at the dead creature's lifeless corpse, still in a state of shock. Then, he remembered the rest of the people, be they freaks like that beast or human, standing a few yards away and closely watching him.
Taking a quick step backwards, Eino threw his two arms up in a guard position and demanded, "Who are you? What do you want?"
The green jacket one smirked slightly at him. "Don't worry. We won't hurt you."
"And I'm supposed to believe you?" Eino asked, but he let his guard down slightly. There was just something about them that made him want to relax. Something in the air about these three just seemed so normal; so familiar. 'No time to let yourself relax, Eino!' he scolded himself. 'You don't know what kind of beast these ones are.'
"Isn't our saving you enough?" the orange haired one demanded.
Eino looked up sharply at him. "Just because you saved me doesn't mean your good. You might just want me for your own reasons!"
The red head took a startled step backwards. 'Weird kid,' he thought to himself. 'Seems really street wise for a fourteen year old.'
"Relax," the same black haired guy told Eino.
"Don't tell him to relax if he doesn't want to," the other black haired kid said, speaking up for the first time from his perch at the top of one of the trees. "He has every right to be nervous. He was just attacked by a demon, you know. And it's his first contact with the other worlds." Eino frowned at his comment, but didn't say anything.
"Lighten up, Hiei," the green jacket kid said.
'Hiei,' I thought. 'So that's his name. Odd. I think I know someone else with the same name.'
"Hey kid," the black haired called to Eino, taking a couple steps closer. "Name's Yusuke. That's Kuwabara," he said, motioning to the red haired. Then jerking his head toward the black clothed kid, said, "That's Hiei."
"Hn," Hiei responded.
"I'm Eino Masaki," he told them, bobbing his head lightly in greeting.
"We know," Hiei said, hopping down from his tree branch without so much as a soft thud as he hit the ground.
"What?" Eino asked, frowning slightly. "What do you mean?"
"Eino," Yusuke said, motion to him. "We have a LOT we need to talk about."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"Let me get this straight," Eino said sarcastically, watching the trio of odd boys carefully. "You three are spirit detectives from another world and have strange, paranormal abilities. That…. THING that just tried to eat me is a demon from one of these other worlds and was trying to feed off of my own spirit energy, which I have a large abundance of?" He stopped at Yusuke nodded his head encouragingly. Then he snorted and looked away. "Yeah… right. Next thing you'll be telling me is Hiei here is another demon from one of these other worlds who used to be evil but saw the err of his ways and became a hero fighting for the side of justice."
"Er.." Yusuke stuttered. "He IS… basically.
"Hn" Hiei protested from his perch on the tree branch. "I did not see the err of my ways, I am STILL a death, killing demon. And I'd hardly say that you two fight 'for the side of justice.'"
"Anyway," Yusuke said to Eino with a roll of his eyes. "It is true. How else would you explain that demon? He certainly wasn't normal, even a normal human would be able to see that."
"Maybe," Eino told him skeptically. "But it could have just been a mutation."
"I'VE never seen a mutation like that," Kuwabara said.
"Hn," Eino huffed, doing a remarkable imitation of Hiei's own 'hn.' "Even if there were demons and you guys are a group of spirit world superheroes, I certainly have nothing to do with it. There's no way I have superpowers. And even if I did, I wouldn't use them. Thank you for helping me with that demon, but I have to be going now. Bye," he waved as he turned around and started walking away."
"What if the demons come back?" Hiei's deep voice said from the tree branch, stopping Eino in his tracks. "They won't just go away, you know, not with the amount of spirit energy you're giving out. " Yusuke saw Eino shiver slightly. "Demons want energy, and they don't care what they have to do to get it. They'll come after you, your friends, your family. Maybe even your sisters." No one knew the loneliness of not having a sister like Hiei. He had searched for years to find Yukina, and even then it had taken even more time to get up the nerve to tell her. Now, he would do anything for his only close family member.
After a moment of silence, Eino sighed heavily and turned slowly around. "Fine," he told the three irritated. "I'll do it. But it's not that I want to, or anything. I'm not training because you asked. I'm only doing this to keep the demons from getting my sisters."
"Eino Masaki," Yusuke said taking a step forward as he held out his hand and grinned from ear to ear like a cat who got the canary. "Welcome to the Spirit Detectives."
And with a side-wards thought, Yusuke made a mental note to have Hiei do all the bargaining from here on out.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Hey everyone!
You won't believe what I just did!!! My hair used to be down to my bottom, so it was just a few inches short of touching the chair when I sat, but I just cut it up to my shoulders! My head feels so free! I didn't totally cut it all to my shoulders, I left the bangs long, so it came down at a slant. It looks really awesome!
Not much to say today. My dog's supposed to die any day from cancer. We're thinking about putting him to sleep tomorrow. I don't want him to die, but I don't want him to suffer for the remainder of his life.
The good news is my family's going to be getting another dog soon, maybe a puppy. That'll be fun. We're going dog shopping this weekend. I want to get another lab, and because I live on a horse ranch with long grass, we'd almost have to.
Anyhow, that's all for now. If you like this story, you should read my other stuff, particularly my main story, 'Fox Child.'
Talk soon,
Dream Fox