Love: Lost and Found

Chapter Three – A Boat Ride and Hanging Neck Island

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Two weeks later, they were all on a boat waiting to get to Hanging Neck Island. Kuwabara had been very uneasy the entire time.
"Is something wrong, Kuwabara?" Kuwabara jumped in shock. He turned around to see who had said his name. It was Kurama. He gave a sigh of relief.
"Oh. It's just you." He said to the redhead.
"What's bothering you?" Kurama asked him. Kuwabara was silent for a moment.
"I'm on a boat full of demons and the only people I know are a couple of demons, a girl I hardly know, and a sleeping friend of mine." They both looked at Yusuke, who was sleeping peacefully on the floor of the boat. "Nothing could be better." He said sarcastically.
"Is that all?" Kurama inquired. Again, there was a moment of silence before Kuwabara spoke.
"That girl." He said. "She's a demon, isn't she?"
"Yes. She's a kitsune" Kurama was speaking very quietly. "If you speak to loudly she'll hear you."
"Oh!" Kuwabara also lowered the volume of his voice.

The two looked at the girl. She stood a meter or two away from them, leaning against the railing of the boat. She had on a pair of faded blue jean pants and a long-sleeved shirt made of a thin, see through fabric that hung loosely on her body over a strapless white shirt that was tight on her, and her purple cape. She had a pouch hanging at her side with her disc man in it. She listened to a CD, singing along with it softly, though the two boys couldn't hear her. She was staring out at the water as if she were longing for something she had lost long ago.

Her royal purple cape swayed in the cold wind. Her long silver hair curled around her face. She stood there, as if she could not move anything but her lips. She showed no signs of emotion; she didn't even shiver in the ice-cold breeze.

Kuwabara shivered. "Who is she?" he asked after a few minutes. "I have this feeling that you know her, Kurama."
"I did. Long ago she was a friend of mine. Yuki Yume. She is even more feared in the Maikai than I am. In that world, she is loved by many and feared by all. If she wished, she could probably destroy this entire world."
"She's that powerful!" Kuwabara exclaimed. Kurama shushed him.
"She'll hear you!" He said quietly but strongly. "She will not appreciate me telling this to you, Kuwabara! You must be quiet about it!"
"Sorry!" Kuwabara whispered. There was another more silence. "Kurama?" he asked after a moment.
"Yes?"
"Are you afraid of her? I mean, if what you say is true, she could kill you easily!"
"No she couldn't." Kuwabara stared at him.
"She could destroy a world but not a person?"
"Not necessarily. You see, Kuwabara, she is much younger than I am. I met her when she was a young child. As she grew older, I taught her many of the things that she now knows. Like how to fight, for example. Though over time she became stronger than me. I know most of her moves and how to block them, though I am not sure if she has learned more. I would not be surprised if she has. She could not kill me, but she could defeat me. And to answer your question, that depends on the situation."
"So, you taught her how to fight?"

Kurama nodded.

"And she eventually became stronger than you?"

Kurama nodded again.

"That's a good example of the student surpassing the master." He thought for a moment. "You said she's younger than you. How much younger than you is she?"

"About a thousand years." Kurama said.

Kuwabara practically choked on the air. "A thousand years?" he exclaimed. Then remembering what Kurama had said, whispered quietly, "How old are you?"

Kurama thought for a moment. "Before I left the Maikai I was 2,701. I've been in this world for 16 years that means I'm 2,717."

That was the quickest math problem Kuwabara had ever seen.

"So that means that she's one thousand, seven-hundred seventeen."

Kurama nodded. Again there was silence. After a few minutes Kuwabara spoke again.

"Kurama. You said she was a friend of yours."
"Yes, I believe I did."
"When you said that, did you mean she was like, your girlfriend?"

Kurama was silent.

"She was your girlfriend! Wow, Kurama! You have a girlfriend that's a thousand years younger than you are! Don't you think that's kindda…wrong?"
"In the Maikai ones age is nothing more than a tool to show how much one can do in a period of time. And she was my girlfriend."
"Was? What do you mean 'was'?" There was another moment of silence.
"She is angry with me."
"She is? Why?"

Kurama said nothing.

"Kurama?"
"You can't tell anyone what I told you, alright?" The redhead said quietly.
"Um. Alright." Kuwabara had no idea why Kurama wanted that to be kept a secret, but he supposed he could keep it that way. He was a man of his word, wasn't he? But there was something different about Kurama now, as if the subject of this girl, Yuki Yume, troubled him. "Kurama."
"Yes." Kurama tried hard to answer his friend. His mind was on other things and he had other things he wanted to think about.
"Do you know if she still loves you?"
"No, I don't. But I doubt she does."
"Do you still love her?"

Kurama was silent for a moment.
"Yes." He said quietly, hanging his head so that his eyes were hidden by his bangs.

The two boys fell silent.
'Wow.' Kuwabara thought. 'I had no idea Kurama loved this girl. It's strange though, now that I think about it. She has talked to everyone but Kurama. Maybe she is mad at him like Kurama said. But why?'

Meanwhile, Yuki had been thinking something along the same topic.
I can't believe it. I just can't believe it! she thought to herself. I can't believe I found him. I finally found him! Youko Kurama. How long I have looked for you! You know nothing of what I have done to find you! Nothing at all! I have done things that you could not even imagine just so I could find you! I didn't care if you didn't know who I was anymore. I just wanted to see you once again. But when I found you, you still knew me! You didn't say anything, but I knew you did. I could see it in your eyes. Your eyes. They show the same emotion they did long ago. The same calmness they always had. But there was something different this time. You seemed so...so kind. You seemed so kind around those people. You were never like that around my family. Oh, my family. I can't believe that either! She smiled,

They said I couldn't do it! They said that you had left and I would never see you again! They said that I could never find you! Oh, were they wrong! I can't wait to see them! I think that they will be on the island. No, I know they'll be there! They said they'd come and watch me fight. Oh, I can't wait to tell them! They'll be so surprised. And I also found Hiei!

Hiei, they will be so happy to see you! But you have changed also, my brother. You have become more distant, colder than you used to be. She laughed softly. 'Maybe you and Youko changed personalities! That would indeed be a surprise!

But he's not Youko anymore, is he? They call him Kurama now. I wonder why. A new name for a new look, I guess. Youko...you look so different now. Red hair, green eyes. Everything about your looks is different. Everything but that look in your eyes. That look that is so familiar to me.

When they see you Youko, when they see you they will think you area completely new person. But they don't know. They don't know what you were like. They saw the Youko you showed them. Cold and calm. They never saw what you were really like. They never saw the Youko I knew. Gentle, sweet, loving. That's who you really were. You were afraid to show it though. You thought it would be a weakness. You never told anyone you loved me, either. You thought that would be a weakness, too. It was when some of the Dark Ring demons found out. Why is it different now? Why are you not afraid to show the real you? What makes this so different…?

For a while she had no thoughts at all. The only thing in her mind were the songs she listened to. One in particular caught the young demon's attention. A part of the song caught her attention even more. She sang along with it as it played on her headphones.

"Frozen inside without your touch, without your love darling,

Only you are the life among the dead.
All of this time I can't believe I couldn't see.

Kept in the dark but you were there in front of me.

I've been sleeping a thousand years it seems.

Got to open my eyes to everything.

Without a thought, without a voice, without a soul.

Don't let me die here.

There must be something more.

Bring me to life…"

That part of that particular song described so well how she felt.

"She's that powerful!" She heard a voice. Looking to her side she saw who had said it. Kuwabara was talking to Kurama. She smiled and watched as Kurama shushed the boy. She could hear their conversation, now that she was putting her full attention to it.
"She'll hear you!" She heard Kurama say. "She will not appreciate me telling this to you, Kuwabara! You must be quiet about it!"
N,o she won't. She thought, but she kept the smile on her face. But you will have to deal with your punishment later. I won't hurt you, though. I promise.

Then, after a few moments, a voice was heard.

"Alright me hearties! We're almost there."

Everyone on the boat looked at the captain, who had said this, but Yuki. She knew perfectly well what was going on. She had been in the Dark Tournament before. She had been on this boat ride before, too. She knew exactly what was about to happen.

"There's just one thing left to do." The captain said with a smile on his face. Yuki smiled too. The same thing happened every time. "There are almost fifty teams on this boat. Only one may step foot on the island and enter the tournament."
And with that, the demons began to murmur to each other about how they were going to make sure their team got in. Yuki thought. And that is what happened. She smiled even wider.
"And how are we gonna tell which team is gonna do dat?" One demon asked.
"I'm glad you asked." The captain said in reply. "We'll be haven' ourselves a little pre-tournament match on this." He took a small remote with a button on it out of his pocket.
After he said this, the captain took a remote out of his pocket and pressed the button on it. Then, the center deck on the boat folded itself in and a large fighting ring appeared out of the hole it exposed. The demons looked upon this in wonder. Yuki thought again, never turning around to see if she was right. But what she thought was exactly what happened.

"I told ya so." She said softly to no one in particular. Not that anyone heard her. The captain cleared his throat. Yuki then copied what he did without making as much noise.
"Now. One member from each of ya teams will be a comin' up here to fight in a free-fer-all battle. The one left will have the team they're representin' goin' on the actual tournament" Yuki said at the same time as the captain, screwing up her face as she did so as to mock him. She began to laugh softly. Never once did she turn around until she was pointed out to the whole crowd.
"Hey, missy!" The captain said. "Did ya hear what I just said? Usually when I speak my audience looks at me. Am I so ugly that you can't even turn around?" The whole crowd turned to look at her. She couldn't hold in her laughs any more. She burst out laughing, gaining the attention of anyone who wasn't looking at her already.
"Do you practice that bit?" She said between laughs. "It sounded as if you had practiced it before!"
"I have said it before, missy. Now do you know what's going on?" The captain was as shocked as everyone else.
"I...I..." Yuki tried to stop laughing. When she finally did, she turned around. "Yea-Yeah!" She answered suppressing the last of her giggles.
"Alrighty then! Let's get started! One member from each team!" Demons turned their attention away from the girl, but not without giving her strange looks. One by one they file up the stairs to the platform.
"This is interesting." Kurama said.

"What'll we do if we lose?" Asked a nervous Kuwabara.

"We kill them all and say we won. Not like they will know on the island." Said Hiei.

"He speaks! He speaks!" Yuki said playfully.

"WHAT! I can't believe you! You are aware that we are on a boat of demons that want to kill us because we're either humans or friends of a human, aren't you!" Kuwabara wasn't exactly thrilled with the fact that she was taking this so lightly.

"We are?" She said. She knew they were, but she felt like having a little fun by torturing the human boy.

Kuwabara let out a moan of frustration. He was really annoyed now.

Hiei sighed. "I'll go." He began to walk to the platform.

"No, no, no, no, no!" Yuki said, making the demon stop and turn around. "Let me! I need some practice anyway!" And with that she ran up to the platform childishly, like a child running to a toy store. Kuwabara could do nothing but stare in wonder.
"Your sure that's the same person who was your girlfriend?" He asked Kurama quietly.
Kurama didn't say anything.
They watched as the last of the demons stepped onto the platform.
"Now, maties," The captain said. "You know the rules. Now, BEGIN!"
"We're supposed to be fightin' each other," One of them said. "But I think we can all agree that we should get rid of the girl first."

They all said or did something meaning some variant of yes, then turned to Yuki. They began to throw insults at her like "This is no place for a girl to be." ect.
"You should be more careful where you go, little missy." One said. "You could get hurt."

Yuki, who had been humming a song she had listened to earlier with her hands behind her head, tapping the toes of one of her feet one the ground, and looking at the sky, stopped and looked at them.
"Look who's talkin'." She said calmly. "You're the ones who could get hurt. 's not a good idea to be gangin' up on me, ya know. I do better against more than one person." That set them off. All at once they lunged at her with weapons of all kinds. She sighed and reached behind her back. She pulled a two-headed scythe out from behind her cape. She took the leather covers off both the heads. This entire action she did in only a second.

"Don't say I didn't warn ya! Oh wait. You won't be able to say anything when your dead." She said as they got closer and closer. Then, she disappeared.
"WHA-!" Kuwabara exclaimed. "Where did she go!"

A few seconds later she appeared on the other side of the platform. All the demons froze where they were, and fell to the ground dead. Blood was in puddles all over the platform and on both ends of Yuki's scythe.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Well, at least I warned you." She said to the bodies. She sighed. "Now I've gotta clean my scythe."

She walked back to where she had started, stepping carefully so as not to step on the bodies or in the pools of blood. Picking up her scythe covers, she began to make her way down the stairs.

Everyone else was shocked beyond belief by her speed. Even Hiei. She walked over to her teammates. But she didn't look to them. She stood there for a moment.

"The rest are all yours." She said. And with that she walked to the railing and sat down. Taking a cloth out of her pouch, she began to clean the blood of he scythe.

But Kuwabara noticed that there was something strange about her. Just a minute ago she was acting like a little kid, but now she seemed angry with herself, upset that she had killed them.

Blood. She thought as she ran the cloth that was already stained with blood from previous fights over the blade. I've seen it so many times...
"What'll we do now?" One of the demons asked.
"Well kill them." Another answered. "Not like the tournament committee will know. Then we have another fight. We can't let humans into the Dark Tournament." The rest of the demons agreed.
"It seems that these demons have taken my idea." Hiei said. "They will pay dearly for that."

Then all everything seemed to happen at once. The rest of the demons charged at the team, and they fought them and killed them.

As he fought, Kuwabara caught a glimpse of Yuki. She had stopped cleaning her scythe to bandage a cut on her arm that had begun to bleed. She then looked at her hands, which now had blood on them. He saw her look at them and clench them into fists, closing her eyes and turning her head to the side as she did, as if she hated the sight of blood her own blood. Kuwabara marveled at this until he was attacked by another few demons and lost sight of her.

When they thought they had killed most of the demons, the boys regrouped by Yusuke and Yuki. As they stood there, catching their breath, the one demon they had overlooked made his way toward Yusuke. He was about to kill Yusuke when the boy jumped up.

"I don't gotta listen to you, you stupid little Grama!" He yelled while punching rapidly in circles, knocking the demon out. He then fell back down into a cross-legged position, sleeping soundly.

The others marveled at this. At least, everyone but Yuki, who still sat there cleaning her scythe, humming a song slowly and softly to herself. Her eyes were closed, but she knew exactly what she was doing. She had cleaned the blood of her hands, but they were still a little red. She couldn't clean her hands entirely. To do that she would need water and soap.
"Hey!" Kuwabara exclaimed. "Why didn't you help us!"

The girl did nothing to answer him.

"Hey! Are you listening to me? Answer already!" He screamed.
"There's no need to scream." She said calmly, not opening her eyes. "I told you they were all yours, didn't I? At least I warned you."
"Well it seems we're here!" The voice of the captain was strange to them at first. He seemed not to notice the blood and bodies that now covered the deck of his boat. The three boys looked ahead only to see Hanging Neck Island coming closer and closer into view. When they got there, the boat stopped roughly. Yuki wiped the last bit of blood off her scythe and put the covers on the blades. Standing up she opened her eyes and looked at Yusuke.
"One of you is gonna either wake him up or carry him to shore, 'cause I ain't doin' it." She said.

Kurama and Kuwabara tried everything they could think of to try to wake him up, but to no avail. The two ended up having to drag him off the boat. The group eventually stopped and went to the side of the path they had begun to travel to try again. After many tries, the two got some help.
"Here." She said. "Let me try." She thought for a moment, then knelt down at the sleeping boy's side. "YUSUKEIFYOUWAKEUPIWILLGIVEYOUATHREELAYERCHCLATECAKEWITHFROSTINGSPRINKLESAND EVERYTHING!" She yelled in his ear, though no one understood her. Yusuke blinked, slowly opening his eyes.
"Huh? Wha? Di sumun sa sumin?" he said.
"Finally! It's about time you woke up, Urimeshi!" Kuwabara exclaimed as Yusuke stood up.
"Who said they'd give me a cake?" Yusuke asked.
"That would be me!" Yuki answered. "But I can't give it to you now. At the moment we need to get to the hotel!" She said standing up.
"Hotel?" Yusuke was confused. "I thought we were on a boat."
"We were." Kurama said. "You slept through the entire ride."
"I did? What did I miss?"
"Oh you should have seen it!" Yuki exclaimed, and then said sarcastically, "There was food and a party and music and everything you could think of!"
"Really?" The sleepy Yusuke asked, amazed at what she had said. Everyone but Hiei moaned.

After they had explained what had happened to Yusuke, they made their way back up the path. Kuwabara noticed that Yuki seemed different than she had been a while ago. She wasn't happy, but then again, no one was. But she seemed to be thinking about something. Something had really hit her when she saw that blood. Then he remembered what he thought he had seen earlier. He looked at her arms and ,sure enough, there was a bandage on the upper part of her right arm and the thin, clear shirt had a cut in it and a small amount of blood stained the arm of the shirt. But he didn't say anything about it.

About ten minutes later they reached the hotel. When they walked in they found that it was quite fancy and there were many nicely dressed people inside.
"I don't trust fancy dressed people." Kuwabara said as they made their way to the clerk's desk. "They're just to...fancy."
"Oh, that was well put, Kuwabara!" Yuki said, being the only one to answer him. "I think I'll be afraid of fancily dressed people for the rest of my life now. And if I ever have to talk to one I'll die and let you pick out my gravestone."
"Hey!" He replied. "You don't have to be so rude! I was just sayin'-"
"Something totally stupid." She interrupted. "I bet that if you ever went to a Kitsune Ball you would die right when you walked in. The people at one of those are dressed much fancier than the people here."
"Shut up!" Kuwabara yelled at her.

"Oh my! I think he's mad at me! What are you gonna do? Yell at me till I die of a severe headache?"

"Hey! Stop arguing!" Yusuke said to the two. "Your acting like little kids. It's kindda annoying, ya know."
"And it's also annoying when you have to drag your sleeping friend off a boat and up half a path." Yuki pointed out.
"You don't have to-" Yusuke was interrupted when they reached the clerk's desk.
"May I help you?" The woman running the desk asked. "Are you a team in the Dark Tournament?"
"Yes." Kurama answered her. He was the only one who could. Hiei was just...Hiei, and Yuki, Kuwabara, and Yusuke were to busy arguing with each other to talk. "Team Urimeshi." He said.

The woman looked at a page in a large book in front of her.

Kurama sighed as she looked. Yuki had somehow gotten Hiei involved in the argument and the four were now making a scene and gaining the attention of all the people in the room. He buried his face in hands and moaned in frustration.
"Found it!" The woman said after a few minutes. "Two rooms for Team Urimeshi. One for four boys and another for a 'Miss Yuki'. Is that correct?"
"Yes." Kurama said.
"Here are your keys. The room for the boys is on the fourth floor and the other is on the top floor. Have a nice stay."
"Thank you." Kurama said taking the keys. He turned around only to see that the four had made an even bigger scene.

Somehow they had gotten to a point where Kuwabara and Hiei were trying to kill each other. Yusuke held Kuwabara back, yelling at him to try to make him stop while Yuki held back Hiei, yelling at him in another language. Yuki was obviously having a harder time than Yusuke.
"Hiei, chaibeo mihanio, acha'i! Himae ia shineika mikoith ae, chaibeo mihanio! Thikaine amean! Chaibeo mihanio! Amean! Thikaine amean! Ime thada'neo sitami mikeno inemae xakitoe shime, chaibeo mihanio!" Yuki yelled at Hiei as she tried to hold him back.

Kurama understood these words perfectly. They were in the kitsune language, Qu'e-tiami. Hiei understood these words, too. He stopped trying to escape Yuki's grasp and just stood there.
"Ime mechi'a eo betami inemae niao'neo chimota, chiaboe nehanoi." He answered her in the same language.
"Youemai inemae io selatisa, chaibeo mihanio." She said softly, letting go of him.

Kuwabara and Yusuke could do nothing but stare at them. They had never heard anything like what they had said.
"I'm sorry! I'll keep them quiet! Really, I will!" The four looked over to the right to see that many people who had found this scene quite bothersome were pestering Kurama; some of them even threatened him. Yuki sighed and ran over to him, pushing through the crowd of people.
"Youko!" She said when she finally reached him. She dragged him out of the crowd by the wrist and pushed him into the elevator. She then went back and dragged Yusuke, Kuwabara and Hiei to the elevator and pushed them in, too. Stepping in herself, she pushed the "4" button.

As they went up to the fourth floor, she turned around to face Kurama. "I'm sorry, Kurama! I'm so, so sorry! I didn't mean to get you in trouble!"
"That I can second!" Yusuke added.
"Who do those people think you are, Kurama? Our mother?" Kuwabara added.
"It's alright, you guys! Can you just not talk for a while? Or at least lower your voices. I have a terrible headache because of your yelling.
"I'm sorry." Yuki said quietly. "I started this."
"No. I did." Kuwabara said. "I brought up a topic you could argue with."
"And it was my fault I chose to argue with you!"
"Stop it, both of you!" Kurama exclaimed.
"Sorry." The two said. The elevator stopped and they got off.

When they finally found the room they were looking for, number 43, they walked in to find that it was a cozy little place. In the first room there were a couple of couches and a couple of chairs around a wood coffee table. In one of the corners there was a mini kitchen. A door on one of the walls led into a room with four separate beds and a door on the opposite wall led into a spacious bathroom. They sat down on the couches and chairs and began to talk.

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Kayla: Review, please…?