Disclaimer: is in the first chapter. Songs are disclaimed in the chapter that they appear.
AN Wow, this one came out a lot earlier than I though that it would. ^__^ Good for you all, right? You're all happy? Well, you shouldn't be. This chapter is supposed to be all sad and stuff. I don't think I actually made it as sad as it was supposed to be... but it's good all the same. Now, I have one more thing to say...
Anybody remember my old fic, "Tossed and Found"? Well, Killua-san is writing the sequel: "Tossed and Found: The Continued Cycle" Go read it, I think it's damn funny! It's also in my bio, read it and leave her a review, ne?
===============================
Part 9: Emptiness
Even before he woke, Yusuke scrambled to his feet, eyes wide and wild. He stared around himself blankly. There was nothing. Almost nothing remained of the room he had been in, or the guards who had been with him. The cuts on his chest and arms, the only real evidence of his being beaten, were still open and bleeding - a few broken glass vails were on the floor next to him, allowing their contense to drip into his wounds.
But that wasn't what was troubling him. It was the fact that everything was obliterated - except him. In his panicked state, he found the sense of mind to check himself over. The wounds he sported were obvious, and his clothes were lying a few feet away. He quickly picked them up, dressing as quickly as he could. But there was something else. Something else that should have been there - just wasn't. Which was another things that made him nervous.
What was missing? Why couldn't he figure it out?
"Yusuke!" A voice cried out through the silence. "Yusuke! Are you alright?"
He turned, automatically recognizing the voice. It was Hiei, sporting the same number of cuts and scratches as himself, though he was still wearing his clothing. Or, some of it, at least. His white jump suit was heavily burned, so much that the upper half was completely gone and his pants were singed badly. There were also burn marks on his arms, where the golden cuffs would go, but no cuffs were there now. The small bloody figure flung himself at the taller, letting words of relief spill from his mouth.
"You're alright! I didn't want to hope. I heard what they were going to do to you... Jin told me, he said he saw you being dragged over here..."
Yusuke stared down at the firm body attached to his waist. And with a jolt, he realized what he was missing. The link he had established with Hiei. It was gone, completely. And he solely missed the warm connection he had had with Hiei, it was as though he were missing something vital.
===
For the whole of the time that Hiei remained latched around his waist, Yusuke's body was frozen. He didn't move, he could barely breath. Shock was swiftly leaving him, leaving behind a cold, hard reality laced with fear.
"Where are the doctors?" The teen asked softly. "Where are the guards and the experiments and the doctors and everything else?"
"They're gone." A soft voice said from behind them.
Hiei turned, surprised. But the surprise swiftly faded into joy. Yusuke, however, didn't recognize the figure behind them. He was tall, very tall - nearly seven feet tall if not more so. He had long silver hair and piercing golden eyes. The figure wore something akin to the white coveralls uniforms. But it was much more gauzy and beautiful. For a moment, Yusuke was transfixed, but then the identity of this person clicked together like a puzzle. Two soft fox ears twitched on the top of his head and a silver tail waved gracefully behind him.
"Kurama?" Yusuke asked, completely amazed. So amazed, in fact, that he forgot about the doctors and Hell and everything else.
"Youko." Kurama corrected him mildly. "This is the final of my four personalities, though this one is only accessible through great bouts of emotions. It's my way of dealing with something I can't handle." The Youko smiled, a gleam of green entering his eyes. "I'm glad that you're alright."
With a swirl of wind, the silver man disappeared and the red headed Kurama stood before them. A tiny figure stepped out from behind the red head, finally visible.
"Hiei-san! Yusuke-kun!"
"Imouto-san!"
It was very lucky that Yukina was still wearing her near bag-like clothing, because their embrace was anything but short. The thick fabric and the long sleeves prevented the two from being affected by the temperature changes. Yukina's tears clattered on the ground as she cried out her relief.
Yusuke stood still, watching his friends with blank eyes. His fear and questions had returned. The first of which being, what happened?
"Yusuke?" Kurama asked, taking a step forward and placing his hand on his friends shoulder. "Are you alright?"
The dark haired boy shook his head. "What happened?" He asked, trying to keep his voice at a level volume. "How did you get here? What happened to me? Where is everybody? Why don't I understand anything anymore?" He fell to his knees, throwing a punch at the ground.
A small crater was formed from the impact, which only served to scare the boy more.
"They're gone." Kurama said soothingly, kneeling down and tilting Yusuke's face so that he could look into the others' eyes. "Their black souls were destroyed in the blast and their bodies vanished as well. Everybody here who cared for others or had pure souls is probably wondering exactly what you are. They're probably just as scared."
"So... they're dead?" Yusuke whispered. "I killed them all?" Tears began streaming down his cheeks.
"NO!" The red head said forcefully. "You killed nobody! But we have to act *now*. That blast obliterated all of Hell, but the United Council will have heard by now, news travels fast if it's important enough. We have to get everybody out of here."
"We can save them, Yusuke." Yukina whispered. "But we'll need your help."
It took a moment, but Yusuke managed to swallow his emotions and lock them inside. That action would prove to be his downfall, but at the moment getting everybody safe was most important. They decided to work in groups of twos. Yukina and Hiei went to the Doctors chambers and the rehabitation rooms. Kurama and Yusuke hurried to the experiments chambers. Along the way they found Jin, Touya, Botan, Koenma and George. All of them agreed to help get everybody still alive out of Hell. But everybody wasn't very many people. Besides the nine who were already accounted for - only a small number of others survived. Eight, to be exact. Six were experiments, one was a guard, and one was a small blue penguin type thing. Respectively: Sazuka, Rinku, Chu, Yomi, Mukuru, Raizen; Genkai; and Puu.
The guard, Genkai, told them that she knew somewhere they could go for safety. They all readily trusted her because she might be a strict guard, but the blue sash on her uniform was clear of any symbols. The symbols representing experiments who died under the charge of a guard. But she had also been experimented on, just once. She could regenerate her youth and she had a perfect memory. Genkai was a trainer as well. After an experiment was stable enough, she taught them the best way to harness what ever had been altered in them. Yukina learned how to control her ice, Rinku learned how to manipulate his energy into toys. Other's benefitted from her teachings, though they didn't know it. The older woman told the group that there was a temple not too far away. They could figure things out there and figure out what to do after that.
It was going to be a long night of walking.
===
Yusuke stood in the middle of a green lawn. His duffle bag was sitting near his feet, stuffed with his clothing and his books. It was pitch black out, no light sent down to Earth from the stars or even the moon. Tears were rushing from his eyes, landing silently on the soft dirt.
"I killed them all," He said softly into the empty air. He knew it was the truth, regardless of what anybody else told him. "It was all my fault. If I had more control, if I knew what was going to happen... I could have fought them off, I'm not a wimp! What's wrong with me? Why couldn't I save them?"
His rant did not fall on deaf ears. Hiei stood nearby, once again clad only in black. He was unseen, Yusuke being too occupied with blaming himself with everything. The little fire controller looked very obviously upset, letting his emotions shine in his eyes and reflect on his face. Out of everybody, his friend was the only one that nobody could break through to. Nobody could reassure him that he was okay, he didn't do anything wrong.
"It wasn't your fault." Hiei finally said softly, taking a few steps closer.
Yusuke spun around, anger blasting out of his eyes. "Do you know what I did to them? I *killed* them! All of them!"
"Do you think that perhaps they deserved to die?" Hiei countered. "After everything that they did to us, perhaps it wasn't you but their own black souls which led them to their damnation."
But Yusuke wouldn't hear any of it. "I'm going back home." He stated. "Don't follow me, I don't want to remember any of this. Any of what happened."
"You... you don't want to remember... me?" Hiei whispered, one tear escaping his eye and dropping like a gem into the grass. It went completely unnoticed.
Yusuke didn't seem to hear him but that didn't stop Hiei from trying to stop him. In nano-seconds the Jaganshi had his friend in a tight grip. He slipped a necklace with a bright gem on it around the Toushin's neck. It pained him to do so, it was as though he were saying good bye to the one person who had truly cared for him without needing to. Before Yusuke could move, Hiei pressed their mouths together, quickly, desperately.
"Don't forget me." He pleaded.
And he let the other go. And the other didn't look back.
===
School was torture, that much was easy to understand.
After returning to his home, Yusuke was struck with how different it all seemed. His whole life had changed so much in less than two weeks. It felt like so much longer, *years* longer. The few days he had spent traveling with Hiei, Kurama and Yukina - and then having spent a little over a week in Hell. And Yusuke hadn't noticed anything about himself change, so he could only assume that it was everybody else who had changed in his absence.
But it was at school, especially, where his changes were most noticed. He was quiet, abnormally quiet. He actually worked during class, did all his homework and turned it in on time - and his scores shot through the roof. Nobody knew what to think - the Great Urameshi, actually doing school work without complaining. Rumors started circulating.
The biggest rumors came because of three things. The first rumor started said that Yusuke had found a serious girlfriend and he was working hard to please her - this was based on the beautiful necklace that he wore constantly around his neck. The second rumor circled the idea that Yusuke was had found out he had an identical twin and had sent him in his place - because of the numerous and strange array of tattoo's on the teens back. And the third was that he was studying to be a scientist so that he could play around with genetics... because of Puu. The small blue penguin-like thing that had followed Yusuke as stubbornly as Mary's little lamb.
But no matter who asked, be it his old girlfriend Keiko, or his best friend, Kuwabara... the teen in question said nothing. He just work silently and diligently.
But Yusuke couldn't fail to notice, no matter how hard he tried, the presence of three people who had explained his new life to. They respectfully stayed away from him. Until Kurama, under the name of Shuuichi Minamino, appeared at the school and began taking classes. Kurama did nothing to bother Yusuke, he didn't even talk to him in the halls.
For nearly a month, the two attended the same school without speaking a word to each other. It was only when Yusuke, leaving the school late one afternoon, saw Kurama talking and laughing with Hiei and Yukina just outside the main gates, that he felt a stab of hurt.
The trio left without even a glance towards him.
And Yusuke was left completely alone.
===============================
Just one more chapter to go. It might be up by this weekend... next week by that very latest.
I'm aiming for a hundred reviews, care to comply?
.
AN Wow, this one came out a lot earlier than I though that it would. ^__^ Good for you all, right? You're all happy? Well, you shouldn't be. This chapter is supposed to be all sad and stuff. I don't think I actually made it as sad as it was supposed to be... but it's good all the same. Now, I have one more thing to say...
Anybody remember my old fic, "Tossed and Found"? Well, Killua-san is writing the sequel: "Tossed and Found: The Continued Cycle" Go read it, I think it's damn funny! It's also in my bio, read it and leave her a review, ne?
===============================
Part 9: Emptiness
Even before he woke, Yusuke scrambled to his feet, eyes wide and wild. He stared around himself blankly. There was nothing. Almost nothing remained of the room he had been in, or the guards who had been with him. The cuts on his chest and arms, the only real evidence of his being beaten, were still open and bleeding - a few broken glass vails were on the floor next to him, allowing their contense to drip into his wounds.
But that wasn't what was troubling him. It was the fact that everything was obliterated - except him. In his panicked state, he found the sense of mind to check himself over. The wounds he sported were obvious, and his clothes were lying a few feet away. He quickly picked them up, dressing as quickly as he could. But there was something else. Something else that should have been there - just wasn't. Which was another things that made him nervous.
What was missing? Why couldn't he figure it out?
"Yusuke!" A voice cried out through the silence. "Yusuke! Are you alright?"
He turned, automatically recognizing the voice. It was Hiei, sporting the same number of cuts and scratches as himself, though he was still wearing his clothing. Or, some of it, at least. His white jump suit was heavily burned, so much that the upper half was completely gone and his pants were singed badly. There were also burn marks on his arms, where the golden cuffs would go, but no cuffs were there now. The small bloody figure flung himself at the taller, letting words of relief spill from his mouth.
"You're alright! I didn't want to hope. I heard what they were going to do to you... Jin told me, he said he saw you being dragged over here..."
Yusuke stared down at the firm body attached to his waist. And with a jolt, he realized what he was missing. The link he had established with Hiei. It was gone, completely. And he solely missed the warm connection he had had with Hiei, it was as though he were missing something vital.
===
For the whole of the time that Hiei remained latched around his waist, Yusuke's body was frozen. He didn't move, he could barely breath. Shock was swiftly leaving him, leaving behind a cold, hard reality laced with fear.
"Where are the doctors?" The teen asked softly. "Where are the guards and the experiments and the doctors and everything else?"
"They're gone." A soft voice said from behind them.
Hiei turned, surprised. But the surprise swiftly faded into joy. Yusuke, however, didn't recognize the figure behind them. He was tall, very tall - nearly seven feet tall if not more so. He had long silver hair and piercing golden eyes. The figure wore something akin to the white coveralls uniforms. But it was much more gauzy and beautiful. For a moment, Yusuke was transfixed, but then the identity of this person clicked together like a puzzle. Two soft fox ears twitched on the top of his head and a silver tail waved gracefully behind him.
"Kurama?" Yusuke asked, completely amazed. So amazed, in fact, that he forgot about the doctors and Hell and everything else.
"Youko." Kurama corrected him mildly. "This is the final of my four personalities, though this one is only accessible through great bouts of emotions. It's my way of dealing with something I can't handle." The Youko smiled, a gleam of green entering his eyes. "I'm glad that you're alright."
With a swirl of wind, the silver man disappeared and the red headed Kurama stood before them. A tiny figure stepped out from behind the red head, finally visible.
"Hiei-san! Yusuke-kun!"
"Imouto-san!"
It was very lucky that Yukina was still wearing her near bag-like clothing, because their embrace was anything but short. The thick fabric and the long sleeves prevented the two from being affected by the temperature changes. Yukina's tears clattered on the ground as she cried out her relief.
Yusuke stood still, watching his friends with blank eyes. His fear and questions had returned. The first of which being, what happened?
"Yusuke?" Kurama asked, taking a step forward and placing his hand on his friends shoulder. "Are you alright?"
The dark haired boy shook his head. "What happened?" He asked, trying to keep his voice at a level volume. "How did you get here? What happened to me? Where is everybody? Why don't I understand anything anymore?" He fell to his knees, throwing a punch at the ground.
A small crater was formed from the impact, which only served to scare the boy more.
"They're gone." Kurama said soothingly, kneeling down and tilting Yusuke's face so that he could look into the others' eyes. "Their black souls were destroyed in the blast and their bodies vanished as well. Everybody here who cared for others or had pure souls is probably wondering exactly what you are. They're probably just as scared."
"So... they're dead?" Yusuke whispered. "I killed them all?" Tears began streaming down his cheeks.
"NO!" The red head said forcefully. "You killed nobody! But we have to act *now*. That blast obliterated all of Hell, but the United Council will have heard by now, news travels fast if it's important enough. We have to get everybody out of here."
"We can save them, Yusuke." Yukina whispered. "But we'll need your help."
It took a moment, but Yusuke managed to swallow his emotions and lock them inside. That action would prove to be his downfall, but at the moment getting everybody safe was most important. They decided to work in groups of twos. Yukina and Hiei went to the Doctors chambers and the rehabitation rooms. Kurama and Yusuke hurried to the experiments chambers. Along the way they found Jin, Touya, Botan, Koenma and George. All of them agreed to help get everybody still alive out of Hell. But everybody wasn't very many people. Besides the nine who were already accounted for - only a small number of others survived. Eight, to be exact. Six were experiments, one was a guard, and one was a small blue penguin type thing. Respectively: Sazuka, Rinku, Chu, Yomi, Mukuru, Raizen; Genkai; and Puu.
The guard, Genkai, told them that she knew somewhere they could go for safety. They all readily trusted her because she might be a strict guard, but the blue sash on her uniform was clear of any symbols. The symbols representing experiments who died under the charge of a guard. But she had also been experimented on, just once. She could regenerate her youth and she had a perfect memory. Genkai was a trainer as well. After an experiment was stable enough, she taught them the best way to harness what ever had been altered in them. Yukina learned how to control her ice, Rinku learned how to manipulate his energy into toys. Other's benefitted from her teachings, though they didn't know it. The older woman told the group that there was a temple not too far away. They could figure things out there and figure out what to do after that.
It was going to be a long night of walking.
===
Yusuke stood in the middle of a green lawn. His duffle bag was sitting near his feet, stuffed with his clothing and his books. It was pitch black out, no light sent down to Earth from the stars or even the moon. Tears were rushing from his eyes, landing silently on the soft dirt.
"I killed them all," He said softly into the empty air. He knew it was the truth, regardless of what anybody else told him. "It was all my fault. If I had more control, if I knew what was going to happen... I could have fought them off, I'm not a wimp! What's wrong with me? Why couldn't I save them?"
His rant did not fall on deaf ears. Hiei stood nearby, once again clad only in black. He was unseen, Yusuke being too occupied with blaming himself with everything. The little fire controller looked very obviously upset, letting his emotions shine in his eyes and reflect on his face. Out of everybody, his friend was the only one that nobody could break through to. Nobody could reassure him that he was okay, he didn't do anything wrong.
"It wasn't your fault." Hiei finally said softly, taking a few steps closer.
Yusuke spun around, anger blasting out of his eyes. "Do you know what I did to them? I *killed* them! All of them!"
"Do you think that perhaps they deserved to die?" Hiei countered. "After everything that they did to us, perhaps it wasn't you but their own black souls which led them to their damnation."
But Yusuke wouldn't hear any of it. "I'm going back home." He stated. "Don't follow me, I don't want to remember any of this. Any of what happened."
"You... you don't want to remember... me?" Hiei whispered, one tear escaping his eye and dropping like a gem into the grass. It went completely unnoticed.
Yusuke didn't seem to hear him but that didn't stop Hiei from trying to stop him. In nano-seconds the Jaganshi had his friend in a tight grip. He slipped a necklace with a bright gem on it around the Toushin's neck. It pained him to do so, it was as though he were saying good bye to the one person who had truly cared for him without needing to. Before Yusuke could move, Hiei pressed their mouths together, quickly, desperately.
"Don't forget me." He pleaded.
And he let the other go. And the other didn't look back.
===
School was torture, that much was easy to understand.
After returning to his home, Yusuke was struck with how different it all seemed. His whole life had changed so much in less than two weeks. It felt like so much longer, *years* longer. The few days he had spent traveling with Hiei, Kurama and Yukina - and then having spent a little over a week in Hell. And Yusuke hadn't noticed anything about himself change, so he could only assume that it was everybody else who had changed in his absence.
But it was at school, especially, where his changes were most noticed. He was quiet, abnormally quiet. He actually worked during class, did all his homework and turned it in on time - and his scores shot through the roof. Nobody knew what to think - the Great Urameshi, actually doing school work without complaining. Rumors started circulating.
The biggest rumors came because of three things. The first rumor started said that Yusuke had found a serious girlfriend and he was working hard to please her - this was based on the beautiful necklace that he wore constantly around his neck. The second rumor circled the idea that Yusuke was had found out he had an identical twin and had sent him in his place - because of the numerous and strange array of tattoo's on the teens back. And the third was that he was studying to be a scientist so that he could play around with genetics... because of Puu. The small blue penguin-like thing that had followed Yusuke as stubbornly as Mary's little lamb.
But no matter who asked, be it his old girlfriend Keiko, or his best friend, Kuwabara... the teen in question said nothing. He just work silently and diligently.
But Yusuke couldn't fail to notice, no matter how hard he tried, the presence of three people who had explained his new life to. They respectfully stayed away from him. Until Kurama, under the name of Shuuichi Minamino, appeared at the school and began taking classes. Kurama did nothing to bother Yusuke, he didn't even talk to him in the halls.
For nearly a month, the two attended the same school without speaking a word to each other. It was only when Yusuke, leaving the school late one afternoon, saw Kurama talking and laughing with Hiei and Yukina just outside the main gates, that he felt a stab of hurt.
The trio left without even a glance towards him.
And Yusuke was left completely alone.
===============================
Just one more chapter to go. It might be up by this weekend... next week by that very latest.
I'm aiming for a hundred reviews, care to comply?
.