Gasp! I finally updated one of my stories!!! Sorry it took so long,
peoples. School, ya know? It's evil.
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CHAPTER FIVE
Lost
"Guys?" Shuuichi asked, walking into the living room where Shadow, Yusuke, Hiei, and Youko were gathered around a poker table playing cards.
"What is it, Shuuichi?" Shadow asked, only half listening.
"Could I talk to one of you?" Shuuichi asked.
"Which one?"
"Whoever will listen to me, I guess."
"Okay, whoever loses this game, how about?" Shadow suggested. Shuuichi looked skeptically at the three boys. He walked around and peeked over everyone's shoulders at the cards each of them had. Seeing that Yusuke was going to be the horrible loser, Shuuichi came up with a different idea.
"Come to think of it, Shadow, how about I just talk to you whenever you're done with this game," Shuuichi suggested.
"Okay," Shadow said. She'd only heard about half of anything he'd said.
"All right, let's see what you've got," Youko said. Everybody put their cards on the table. A smug grin came onto Youko's face.
"Youko, that is the third royal straight flush you've gotten. You're cheating," Hiei accused.
"Jealous much?" Youko said with a smile. Yusuke was turning colors. He'd had one pair of twos. Not having the intelligence to understand the saying, 'quit while you're ahead,' he had met everybody's bets, and now he owed everybody about $500.
"I thought you were a thief, Youko. I didn't know you were a pro gambler too," Shadow said, sounding slightly impressed. That quickly changed as she muttered under her breath, "Goddamn stupid fox..."
Youko's ear twitched. Shadow looked at him out of the corner of one eye. Hiei was inspecting the table to see how Youko could hide cards and get three royal straight flushes in a row. With a smile, the kitsune made some more markings on a paper and read their bets out loud.
"If you combine all three of yours, the total amount of money owed to me is approximately..." Youko paused. "Seven hundred twenty nine dollars."
"And how much do each of us owe?" Yusuke asked, too lazy to do the math himself.
"Two forty three each," Hiei answered. He was on the floor inspecting the underside of the table.
"Two forty three ($2.43)? That's not much," Yusuke muttered.
"Two hundred and forty three ($243) dollars, Yusuke, baka," Shadow replied.
"Oh." Yusuke turned blue.
"Hiei, you can give up now. It has nothing to do with the table," Youko said.
"How are we going to pay off two hundred and forty three dollars?" Yusuke muttered. Youko smiled.
"I know how ~Shadow~ can pay it off," he said. "Without even using money."
"Dare I ask?" Shadow said.
"Strip poker!" Youko said, smiling. Shadow turned red with anger. Hiei turned red for a mixture of reasons. Yusuke burst out laughing.
"I'd like to see that!" he said, still laughing. Before he knew what had happened, he was on the floor with a black eye, 18 bruises, and 5 rather large bumps on his head.
"Well, that's too bad, Yusuke. If I managed to convince her, it would be for my own private enjoyment," Youko said to Yusuke, although he knew all too well that he was completely zoned out in la-la land, or wherever people go when they have swirly eyes and stars dancing around their head.
Wherever it was that Yusuke went to, Youko joined him a second after that comment. Hiei was sitting on the floor between the two unconscious 'offenders.' He looked up at Shadow with a cute, innocent smile. She set her crowbar down on the table and started frisking Youko.
"What are you DOING?!" Hiei asked, his innocent smile replaced with a look of horror.
"I'm looking for the cards he was using to cheat. If it was nothing about the table, then it had to be him, right?" Shadow said.
"Shadow?" Shuuichi said. Shadow looked up.
"Ah! Oh, sorry! I forgot. You wanted to talk to me," Shadow said. "Talk away. I have to figure out this baka fox's trick."
"Um... Well I wasn't really sure how to deal with this when it happened, so I just stayed quiet. Suddenly, I have these memories," Shuuichi said. Shadow's head snapped up.
"Memories? What of?!"
"Never mind. You'll probably think I'm crazy..."
"No, tell us, seriously. You're not crazy. If anyone is crazy, it's Shadow," Hiei said. "She keeps rabid weasels upstairs in the room across the hall from her bedroom!"
"Really! I don't think anyone is as crazy as me! It's nearly impossible!" Shadow said. "So tell us!"
"I remembered... I was here, I think... and I was with all of you, except Youko wasn't here... And I was drinking beer. Lots of it," Shuuichi said. "So was Hiei."
"Keep going. Nothing crazy yet," Shadow said.
"Eventually, Hiei passed out. Then everything was kind of dim and blurry. The next thing I remember clearly, I was fighting. With a... ~rose~..." he said. "And I got this injury..." Shuuichi put his hand on his stomach where he'd gotten cut in the fight that separated him. It was completely healed, but there was a scar.
Shadow had completely forgotten about frisking Youko for cards. She was sitting on him, completely oblivious to everything but what Shuuichi was saying. She didn't even notice Youko wake up.
"You're not insane," Shadow assured him. "If anything else happens, if you remember anything else, tell me or Hiei as soon as you can."
"Are you sure I'm not insane? I mean, I remember getting drunk. Then I go and fight with a rose. Then everything else is black, until I woke up here."
"For the last time, you're not insane!" Shadow said. "~I'm~ insane! I keep weasels in my house so I can feed door-to-door salesmen to them! I beat people with crowbars! I VIDEO TAPE HIEI WHEN HE'S ON A SUGAR HIGH!!! I'M INSANE!!!"
"Okay, Shadow, we get the idea!" Hiei said.
"And not to mention the fact that you're sitting on top of me with you're hands up my shirt," Youko said quietly. Shadow looked at him and screamed.
"YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO WAKE UP YET!" she snapped. "GO BACK TO SLEEP! I'M NOT DONE FRISKING YOU!"
"Oooh, frisking, huh?" Youko said. Hiei turned to Shuuichi.
"If you remember anything at all, no matter how insignificant it may seem, tell me or Shadow. Don't bother talking to anyone else, they're all idiots," he said.
"Okay," Shuuichi said. "I'm going to go for a walk."
"Okee dokee," Hiei said. He turned to Youko. Shadow had him pinned and was trying to frisk him, but since he was conscious, she was a bit more cautious. All she could do was sit there holding his arms on the ground so he wouldn't try anything, and since she was using her hands for that, she couldn't search him, but she refused to let him go until she figured out where he was hiding his cards.
"Youko, you shouldn't have said anything to her. If you'd have kept your mouth shut, she would have continued with her little search like you were unconscious, and you would have been a lot better off," Hiei said.
"A lot better off?! What's that supposed to mean?" Shadow snapped. "Are you giving him advice again?"
"Honestly Shadow, I can't give ~him~ advice on anything. He's a billion times smarter than me," Hiei said.
"At least you realize it, Hiei. Unlike this girl here," Youko said. He pulled off some strange flip attack thing, and a few seconds later, Shadow was the one pinned on the ground. Youko sat on her with a knee on each of her arms.
"Uh... oh..." Shadow muttered. "Hiei? Help?"
"Uh... Youko, don't do anything... er... inappropriate... to her," Hiei said cautiously.
"I wouldn't... One reason being that you're here, and Yusuke's unconscious on the floor, but he could wake up any time," Youko said.
"Oh, what? If we weren't here, you'd just go ahead and rape her or something?
Youko didn't answer.
"YOU BETTER NOT!" Shadow yelled. "Hiei, no matter what, stay RIGHT THERE!"
Youko laughed. "I wouldn't even if he was gone. I'm too nice."
"NICE? If you're so nice, then you'll let me slip by without paying my poker bets," Shadow said. "And you'll get off of me, and you'll leave me alone."
Youko looked surprised. "What will I get out of that?"
"Nothing! You're being nice. You shouldn't want anything!"
"Being friendly ~always~ has its rewards, Shadow. You should know that."
"How? I'm not friendly."
"Obviously. Neither am I."
"Well that's so obvious that saying it made you sound stupid, fox," Shadow said.
"Well you two are just the perfect pair. A couple of rude, overly violent and homicidal lunatics," Hiei muttered.
"PERFECT PAIR? HIEI, YOU'D BETTER STOP IT WITH THE LITTLE TACTFUL HINTS!" Shadow screamed. "I'D HIT YOU RIGHT NOW... but I'm kind of... stuck here..."
"I wasn't making any 'tactful hints,' Shadow! I was just saying that for hating each other, you act a lot alike."
"Aw, I don't hate Shadow. It's one-sided." Youko smiled. "But I'd like to think that she's just putting on some big act..."
"Think that all you want. It's not true. Now if you don't get off of me right now, you're going to suffer severely whenever you ~do~ let me up," Shadow said.
"What? So I'll let you up and get hurt for it?"
"Pretty much so. Unless you let me up right NOW!"
"I don't trust you."
"Aw, what's the matter? Is the mighty Youko Kurama scared of a little girl?" Shadow taunted. "Cowardly, huh? Turnin' yellow? Wimp."
Hiei sweatdropped. "Shadow?"
"In case you didn't previously notice, ~I~ am the one sitting on top of ~you~, Shadow Jaganshi," Youko said. Shadow shrugged.
"Well, that'd better change soon or you're gonna be missing a few appendages. Then they will later be found shoved down your throat," Shadow said.
"Ooh, scary," Youko said.
Nobody noticed, but Hiei was turning red. Steam was pouring out of his ears.
"WOULD YOU TWO STOP YOUR CONSTANT ARGUING?! HONESTLY, IT'S FUNNY FOR A WHILE, BUT THEN IT JUST GETS REALLY ANNOYING!!!" he screamed. Youko was so startled he jumped backwards five feet. Shadow was on her feet in a second.
"THANK YOU!" Hiei yelled.
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After that explosion, Hiei was fine. Somehow, he contacted Koenma to tell him about Shuuichi's memories. Later that day, Koenma showed up at Shadow's house.
"So, what did he remember?" Koenma asked. "I know you told me, Hiei, but I was quite busy."
Hiei rolled his eyes.
"He remembered the night that he... Kurama, actually... got incredibly drunk beating Hiei at a drinking contest, which was the day before the fight that separated him," Shadow said patiently. "And he remembered that fight."
"Okay. Where is he at now? I'd like to talk to him," Koenma said.
"Where? You know, I haven't seen him since. He's usually down here staring at the fish... Hiei, did he tell you what he was planning on doing?" Shadow asked.
"He said he was going on a walk. That was like... six hours ago. He should be back by now," Hiei said.
"I haven't seen him."
"Wait, you mean to tell me he's been on a walk for six hours?" Koenma cried.
"He might be in his room, or one of the rooms upstairs. Hiei, go ask Youko and Yusuke if they've seen him. I'll look in his room," Shadow said. Hiei darted up the stairs with Shadow right behind him. Koenma stood in the dining room stupidly.
After deciding that Shuuichi was not in the house, Koenma ordered the four of them to start searching.
"I can't believe he just vanished like that!" Shadow muttered.
"He didn't ~just vanish~, he went for a walk and either got lost or something happened to him," Koenma said. "Let's hope it was the former."
"Why do I have to help with this? It's not ~my~ fault he got lost or killed or whatever happened to him," Youko complained.
"You're just hoping he died so that you can stay free to harass me for the rest of my life," Shadow snapped.
"Perhaps," Youko said.
"OKAY, LISTEN UP! WE HAVE ONE HOUR OF DAYLIGHT LEFT!!! IT IS VERY, VERY IMPORTANT THAT WE GET SHUUICHI BACK HERE UNHARMED, A.S.A.P.!!!" Koenma shouted. "SO DON'T COME BACK HERE UNTIL YOU FIND HIM!!!"
"OKAY!" Shadow screamed right in his ear. "YOU DON'T NEED TO SHOUT WHEN THERE'S ONLY FOUR PEOPLE AROUND TO HEAR YOU, AND WE'RE RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU!!!"
Koenma fell over. The group split up and walked into the forest in pairs, leaving Koenma twitching on the ground.
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CHAPTER FIVE
Lost
"Guys?" Shuuichi asked, walking into the living room where Shadow, Yusuke, Hiei, and Youko were gathered around a poker table playing cards.
"What is it, Shuuichi?" Shadow asked, only half listening.
"Could I talk to one of you?" Shuuichi asked.
"Which one?"
"Whoever will listen to me, I guess."
"Okay, whoever loses this game, how about?" Shadow suggested. Shuuichi looked skeptically at the three boys. He walked around and peeked over everyone's shoulders at the cards each of them had. Seeing that Yusuke was going to be the horrible loser, Shuuichi came up with a different idea.
"Come to think of it, Shadow, how about I just talk to you whenever you're done with this game," Shuuichi suggested.
"Okay," Shadow said. She'd only heard about half of anything he'd said.
"All right, let's see what you've got," Youko said. Everybody put their cards on the table. A smug grin came onto Youko's face.
"Youko, that is the third royal straight flush you've gotten. You're cheating," Hiei accused.
"Jealous much?" Youko said with a smile. Yusuke was turning colors. He'd had one pair of twos. Not having the intelligence to understand the saying, 'quit while you're ahead,' he had met everybody's bets, and now he owed everybody about $500.
"I thought you were a thief, Youko. I didn't know you were a pro gambler too," Shadow said, sounding slightly impressed. That quickly changed as she muttered under her breath, "Goddamn stupid fox..."
Youko's ear twitched. Shadow looked at him out of the corner of one eye. Hiei was inspecting the table to see how Youko could hide cards and get three royal straight flushes in a row. With a smile, the kitsune made some more markings on a paper and read their bets out loud.
"If you combine all three of yours, the total amount of money owed to me is approximately..." Youko paused. "Seven hundred twenty nine dollars."
"And how much do each of us owe?" Yusuke asked, too lazy to do the math himself.
"Two forty three each," Hiei answered. He was on the floor inspecting the underside of the table.
"Two forty three ($2.43)? That's not much," Yusuke muttered.
"Two hundred and forty three ($243) dollars, Yusuke, baka," Shadow replied.
"Oh." Yusuke turned blue.
"Hiei, you can give up now. It has nothing to do with the table," Youko said.
"How are we going to pay off two hundred and forty three dollars?" Yusuke muttered. Youko smiled.
"I know how ~Shadow~ can pay it off," he said. "Without even using money."
"Dare I ask?" Shadow said.
"Strip poker!" Youko said, smiling. Shadow turned red with anger. Hiei turned red for a mixture of reasons. Yusuke burst out laughing.
"I'd like to see that!" he said, still laughing. Before he knew what had happened, he was on the floor with a black eye, 18 bruises, and 5 rather large bumps on his head.
"Well, that's too bad, Yusuke. If I managed to convince her, it would be for my own private enjoyment," Youko said to Yusuke, although he knew all too well that he was completely zoned out in la-la land, or wherever people go when they have swirly eyes and stars dancing around their head.
Wherever it was that Yusuke went to, Youko joined him a second after that comment. Hiei was sitting on the floor between the two unconscious 'offenders.' He looked up at Shadow with a cute, innocent smile. She set her crowbar down on the table and started frisking Youko.
"What are you DOING?!" Hiei asked, his innocent smile replaced with a look of horror.
"I'm looking for the cards he was using to cheat. If it was nothing about the table, then it had to be him, right?" Shadow said.
"Shadow?" Shuuichi said. Shadow looked up.
"Ah! Oh, sorry! I forgot. You wanted to talk to me," Shadow said. "Talk away. I have to figure out this baka fox's trick."
"Um... Well I wasn't really sure how to deal with this when it happened, so I just stayed quiet. Suddenly, I have these memories," Shuuichi said. Shadow's head snapped up.
"Memories? What of?!"
"Never mind. You'll probably think I'm crazy..."
"No, tell us, seriously. You're not crazy. If anyone is crazy, it's Shadow," Hiei said. "She keeps rabid weasels upstairs in the room across the hall from her bedroom!"
"Really! I don't think anyone is as crazy as me! It's nearly impossible!" Shadow said. "So tell us!"
"I remembered... I was here, I think... and I was with all of you, except Youko wasn't here... And I was drinking beer. Lots of it," Shuuichi said. "So was Hiei."
"Keep going. Nothing crazy yet," Shadow said.
"Eventually, Hiei passed out. Then everything was kind of dim and blurry. The next thing I remember clearly, I was fighting. With a... ~rose~..." he said. "And I got this injury..." Shuuichi put his hand on his stomach where he'd gotten cut in the fight that separated him. It was completely healed, but there was a scar.
Shadow had completely forgotten about frisking Youko for cards. She was sitting on him, completely oblivious to everything but what Shuuichi was saying. She didn't even notice Youko wake up.
"You're not insane," Shadow assured him. "If anything else happens, if you remember anything else, tell me or Hiei as soon as you can."
"Are you sure I'm not insane? I mean, I remember getting drunk. Then I go and fight with a rose. Then everything else is black, until I woke up here."
"For the last time, you're not insane!" Shadow said. "~I'm~ insane! I keep weasels in my house so I can feed door-to-door salesmen to them! I beat people with crowbars! I VIDEO TAPE HIEI WHEN HE'S ON A SUGAR HIGH!!! I'M INSANE!!!"
"Okay, Shadow, we get the idea!" Hiei said.
"And not to mention the fact that you're sitting on top of me with you're hands up my shirt," Youko said quietly. Shadow looked at him and screamed.
"YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO WAKE UP YET!" she snapped. "GO BACK TO SLEEP! I'M NOT DONE FRISKING YOU!"
"Oooh, frisking, huh?" Youko said. Hiei turned to Shuuichi.
"If you remember anything at all, no matter how insignificant it may seem, tell me or Shadow. Don't bother talking to anyone else, they're all idiots," he said.
"Okay," Shuuichi said. "I'm going to go for a walk."
"Okee dokee," Hiei said. He turned to Youko. Shadow had him pinned and was trying to frisk him, but since he was conscious, she was a bit more cautious. All she could do was sit there holding his arms on the ground so he wouldn't try anything, and since she was using her hands for that, she couldn't search him, but she refused to let him go until she figured out where he was hiding his cards.
"Youko, you shouldn't have said anything to her. If you'd have kept your mouth shut, she would have continued with her little search like you were unconscious, and you would have been a lot better off," Hiei said.
"A lot better off?! What's that supposed to mean?" Shadow snapped. "Are you giving him advice again?"
"Honestly Shadow, I can't give ~him~ advice on anything. He's a billion times smarter than me," Hiei said.
"At least you realize it, Hiei. Unlike this girl here," Youko said. He pulled off some strange flip attack thing, and a few seconds later, Shadow was the one pinned on the ground. Youko sat on her with a knee on each of her arms.
"Uh... oh..." Shadow muttered. "Hiei? Help?"
"Uh... Youko, don't do anything... er... inappropriate... to her," Hiei said cautiously.
"I wouldn't... One reason being that you're here, and Yusuke's unconscious on the floor, but he could wake up any time," Youko said.
"Oh, what? If we weren't here, you'd just go ahead and rape her or something?
Youko didn't answer.
"YOU BETTER NOT!" Shadow yelled. "Hiei, no matter what, stay RIGHT THERE!"
Youko laughed. "I wouldn't even if he was gone. I'm too nice."
"NICE? If you're so nice, then you'll let me slip by without paying my poker bets," Shadow said. "And you'll get off of me, and you'll leave me alone."
Youko looked surprised. "What will I get out of that?"
"Nothing! You're being nice. You shouldn't want anything!"
"Being friendly ~always~ has its rewards, Shadow. You should know that."
"How? I'm not friendly."
"Obviously. Neither am I."
"Well that's so obvious that saying it made you sound stupid, fox," Shadow said.
"Well you two are just the perfect pair. A couple of rude, overly violent and homicidal lunatics," Hiei muttered.
"PERFECT PAIR? HIEI, YOU'D BETTER STOP IT WITH THE LITTLE TACTFUL HINTS!" Shadow screamed. "I'D HIT YOU RIGHT NOW... but I'm kind of... stuck here..."
"I wasn't making any 'tactful hints,' Shadow! I was just saying that for hating each other, you act a lot alike."
"Aw, I don't hate Shadow. It's one-sided." Youko smiled. "But I'd like to think that she's just putting on some big act..."
"Think that all you want. It's not true. Now if you don't get off of me right now, you're going to suffer severely whenever you ~do~ let me up," Shadow said.
"What? So I'll let you up and get hurt for it?"
"Pretty much so. Unless you let me up right NOW!"
"I don't trust you."
"Aw, what's the matter? Is the mighty Youko Kurama scared of a little girl?" Shadow taunted. "Cowardly, huh? Turnin' yellow? Wimp."
Hiei sweatdropped. "Shadow?"
"In case you didn't previously notice, ~I~ am the one sitting on top of ~you~, Shadow Jaganshi," Youko said. Shadow shrugged.
"Well, that'd better change soon or you're gonna be missing a few appendages. Then they will later be found shoved down your throat," Shadow said.
"Ooh, scary," Youko said.
Nobody noticed, but Hiei was turning red. Steam was pouring out of his ears.
"WOULD YOU TWO STOP YOUR CONSTANT ARGUING?! HONESTLY, IT'S FUNNY FOR A WHILE, BUT THEN IT JUST GETS REALLY ANNOYING!!!" he screamed. Youko was so startled he jumped backwards five feet. Shadow was on her feet in a second.
"THANK YOU!" Hiei yelled.
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After that explosion, Hiei was fine. Somehow, he contacted Koenma to tell him about Shuuichi's memories. Later that day, Koenma showed up at Shadow's house.
"So, what did he remember?" Koenma asked. "I know you told me, Hiei, but I was quite busy."
Hiei rolled his eyes.
"He remembered the night that he... Kurama, actually... got incredibly drunk beating Hiei at a drinking contest, which was the day before the fight that separated him," Shadow said patiently. "And he remembered that fight."
"Okay. Where is he at now? I'd like to talk to him," Koenma said.
"Where? You know, I haven't seen him since. He's usually down here staring at the fish... Hiei, did he tell you what he was planning on doing?" Shadow asked.
"He said he was going on a walk. That was like... six hours ago. He should be back by now," Hiei said.
"I haven't seen him."
"Wait, you mean to tell me he's been on a walk for six hours?" Koenma cried.
"He might be in his room, or one of the rooms upstairs. Hiei, go ask Youko and Yusuke if they've seen him. I'll look in his room," Shadow said. Hiei darted up the stairs with Shadow right behind him. Koenma stood in the dining room stupidly.
After deciding that Shuuichi was not in the house, Koenma ordered the four of them to start searching.
"I can't believe he just vanished like that!" Shadow muttered.
"He didn't ~just vanish~, he went for a walk and either got lost or something happened to him," Koenma said. "Let's hope it was the former."
"Why do I have to help with this? It's not ~my~ fault he got lost or killed or whatever happened to him," Youko complained.
"You're just hoping he died so that you can stay free to harass me for the rest of my life," Shadow snapped.
"Perhaps," Youko said.
"OKAY, LISTEN UP! WE HAVE ONE HOUR OF DAYLIGHT LEFT!!! IT IS VERY, VERY IMPORTANT THAT WE GET SHUUICHI BACK HERE UNHARMED, A.S.A.P.!!!" Koenma shouted. "SO DON'T COME BACK HERE UNTIL YOU FIND HIM!!!"
"OKAY!" Shadow screamed right in his ear. "YOU DON'T NEED TO SHOUT WHEN THERE'S ONLY FOUR PEOPLE AROUND TO HEAR YOU, AND WE'RE RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU!!!"
Koenma fell over. The group split up and walked into the forest in pairs, leaving Koenma twitching on the ground.