Yay! Third chapter!
The Tantei finally show up! But in what way?
Review responses:
Naoko Kensaku: My dedicated reviewer. ^_^ Yeah, I thought it seemed better than the crap I usually write. Maybe this is finally working out.
Matthias Drake the White Raven: Hi! Thanks for reviewing. Glad you liked it.
xOneWingedAngelx: Aw, don't be like that, I like your story...
Kirae: But you didn't review the recent chapter.
Me: O_O I didn't?! *checks* Oh, crap, you're right! Gotta go do that!
Disclaimer: I own Taki. That's it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Instrumental
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~*~*~* 2 years later ~*~*~*~
I leaned back against the wall of the building, brushing some of my hair back from my face. I'd gotten it cut since that incident two years ago. Now it reached past the top of my ears, but its thickness was such that I had to comb it every morning or risk looking like the vagabond I was pretending to be - or was. I couldn't quite tell which.
I'd gotten myself some decent clothes, too. I wore a dark green t-shirt with blue jeans. Not that anybody would notice. No ordinary person could see past my illusion. Speaking of which...
It was showtime.
I sat down with my money-bag in front of me and pulled out my flute. Today, I chose to start off with a piece that I was particularly proud of. It had undertones of what-beautiful-music, let's-stop-and-listen, that-boy-looks-poor, and let's-give-him-some-money, and still managed to be a pretty good tune. In each of the listener's minds, I tapped my music directly into their consciousness - meanwhile effectively eliminating any thoughts of my odd appearance. Once the first illusion was in place, I could play anything I wanted and they wouldn't notice me. It wasn't cheating - not really. I never forced them to give up their money. I just mildly hinted that the music was good, so why not give the musician a dollar or two?
I'd gotten much more proficient at this since I'd begun. I had stayed with the old man long enough to learn everything he had to teach me. Then, about a year ago, I set off to find Shira.
My fingers started to play a folk song without my thinking about it. I let them; I was absorbed in memories.
Everywhere I went, I had listened for any word of the blond man and the black-haired one, possibly with a brown-haired girl with them. Slowly, I learned that the blond was Chiris, and the black-haired Goron. They appeared in various places from time to time, speaking about a demon powerful enough to destroy everything. They had the power to control it, and once it came...
That was the trouble; I didn't know what would happen next. I couldn't ask anyone about it, and the bits and pieces I heard were too vague, too hard to piece together.
I came back to reality to realize that my audience was clapping and waiting for the next tune. I thought a moment, then grinned. I'd give them something they definitely hadn't heard before... a little tune I learned in the Makai...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kurama was walking down a side street for no particular reason; he had simply wanted to go for a walk, and this was the shortest route to the park. Then he heard something he definitely should not have heard. Not here, anyways. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up, and he searched for the source of the music. Nobody should know that here, in the Ningenkai.
He found the source fairly quickly; a boy, entertaining a small audience with his flute. But-
He frowned. There was something odd about the boy's appearance... it didn't quite add up...
Kurama investigated the phenomenon with his energy and came to realize that the boy was projecting an illusion - and quite a skillful one, too. He used a combination of telepathy and empathy at a low level to affect the basics of what the audience saw - enough to mask his odd hair color and not-quite-ragged clothes. He also used it to deepen the meaning of the song, making it seem like there were words to it, when there was actually nothing but music. Despite this, he didn't seem to be taking advantage of his talent - he had scarcely more than any other street player Kurama had seen. Still... there was the matter of the Makai tune, and how the boy had come to know it.
He kept his distance until the boy had finished his set of music and the audience had drifted off. Then he approached, calling, "Hello! Could I speak to you for a moment?"
The boy looked back with startled eyes, then broke into a run.
Kurama chased after him, wondering why he was so afraid. "Hey, stop! I just- Slow down a little, will you?"
But the boy kept running with no signs of stopping. Luckily, Kurama spotted Yusuke and Kuwabara lurking in the alley just up ahead. "Yusuke, Kuwabara! Could you stop that boy?!"
Kuwabara obliged. As the boy ran past, he reached out and lightly tapped him on the head.
The kid went down like a stone. His fist unclenched, and something smooth and metallic rolled out. Yusuke picked it up, staring. "A flute?"
Kurama caught up, panting slightly, then looked down at the boy with dismay. "I didn't tell you to knock him unconscious!"
Yusuke bristled. "He was running and you were chasing after him, and you told us to stop him. What were we supposed to think?!"
Kurama sighed. "True. But I just wanted to talk with him."
"What for?" Kuwabara asked, propping the kid against the wall.
"He was playing a tune from the Makai," Kurama explained. "I wanted to know where he learned it."
Yusuke raised his eyebrows. "From the Makai?" He stared down at the kid, looking rather helpless now that he was unconscious. "No wonder you told us to stop him. I'd like to know, too."
"Well, we can't just leave him here, now that you've injured him," Kurama decided. "We'll have to take him somewhere to recover."
"How about my house?" Yusuke offered. "My mom's out, and there's room enough in the living room to fit him in."
Kurama shrugged. "Sure."
Kuwabara picked the boy up, and they started towards Yusuke's house.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~Ow... my head...~
I came to groggily, wondering where I was. Why was I on carpet? Where was my flute?
"Hey, I think he's waking up."
I stared around me. Who were these people?
Memory came back in a flash, and I remembered someone chasing me, coming after me. I ducked down an alley, and someone hit me... and I blacked out...
I backed against the wall frantically, and my wandering hands found my flute. I grabbed it, put it to my lips, and blew out a quick query. ~Wh-who are you?~
All three of the boys jumped back, startled. "Hey, I heard that! In my head!" one of them exclaimed, a tall one with orange hair.
"Of course you did. As I explained to you before, he uses a combination of telepathy and empathy, triggered by music," another said calmly. This one was a red-head, and he moved with a grace that wasn't quite human.
~Telepathy? Empathy? I just play the music!~ I thought to myself desperately. I raised the flute to my lips and repeated my question. ~Who are you?~
"Well, no matter how he's doing it, it would be rude not answer his question," said the third, a black-haired teen. He grinned at me. "My name's Yusuke."
"Kuwabara," grunted the tall one.
"And I am Kurama," said the redhead. Yusuke looked at him sharply, and I sensed a swift, silent conversation taking place. Yusuke shrugged finally, and Kurama turned his attention back to me. "What is your name?"
I concentrated on the series of notes that meant me. ~Taki.~
"Hey, why doesn't he talk?" Kuwabara asked.
"I think-" Kurama rose and advanced toward me, stopping just short of my feet. "May I?"
I understood what he meant, but it was hard for me. I hadn't allowed anyone to touch my throat since it had been injured. But this 'Kurama' looked trustworthy, even if he had chased me. I gulped and nodded.
Kurama knelt down beside me and touched my neck. It wasn't as bad as I had thought. His fingers were cool against my throat as they explored it, and he was very gentle. I think I might have started purring right then and there if Kurama hadn't spoken.
"He can't."
"What?!" Now Yusuke was staring at me too.
Kurama sat back on his heels and looked at me with a strange mix of pity and regret. "His voice-box is completely crushed. He couldn't speak even if he wanted to. Yukina might be able to heal it, but the wound is old, and it's healed strangely. She might not be able to fix it."
I picked up my flute again and played a bitter, sorrowful note. ~That's right.~
Yusuke continued to stare, and I started to feel uncomfortable. "How the hell did that happen?"
I played a succession of notes. ~Do you have paper, a pen? This is going to be a long story...~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"... And, finally, I ended up here," I wrote, pausing at intervals to let them read it. I glanced over at Kurama. "Then he started chasing me. I thought you were a plainclothes cop or something, and I wasn't allowed to play music there. I've had trouble with that before. So I ran. And then you two knocked me out. You know the rest."
There was silence for a moment, as the three others absorbed what I had 'told' them.
"Wow," Yusuke said at length. "That's some story."
"So you've been to the Makai?" Kurama asked.
"Yes," I wrote.
"But how did you get past all those monsters?" Kuwabara wanted to know.
I shrugged. "Simple. I just strengthened my illusion, choosing to look like a low-class demon. I looked scrawny enough that nobody would pick a fight with me, and poor enough that nobody tried to rob me."
"How did you get to the Makai?" Kurama asked. "I thought the Reikai kept a tight control on portals."
~Reikai?~ I wondered, then filed it away to ask about later. I took up paper and pen once again. "As it turns out, there's a small, naturally-occurring portal right near where my house used to be."
"No way!" Yusuke exclaimed. "If there were, there would have been demons all over the place! We'd have heard about it by now!"
"Why?" I wanted to know.
"We're Spirit Detectives! It's our job!" he said proudly.
That explained a lot.
"Not necessarily," Kurama chided gently. "I believe the portal may be small enough that only those with low spirit energy can go through it. Taki has little more than the normal level of spirit energy for a human; telepathy and empathy are natural gifts for some. And since a human's spirit energy is much lower than that of any demon, he was able to go through it, while it was useless for demons." He pondered something for a moment. "It may also explain why your father left, Taki."
"Huh?" Now it was my turn to be shocked.
"Portals create resonances along the spiritual plane whenever they are opened," he explained gently. "If your father was a sensitive, with high spirit awareness, he would have felt those resonances. And living so close to a constantly open portal must have been hell for him."
"So that's why..." My fingers echoed my thoughts unconsciously. Then I shook myself. "So, yeah, that's it."
"What are you going to do now?" Yusuke asked.
"Keep going after the bastards who took my sister, of course," I wrote, my hands shaking a little in anger.
"But what are you going to do when you find them?" Kuwabara asked. "I mean, a flute isn't much of a weapon."
"I know some decent control songs," I wrote grimly. "Maybe I could make them commit suicide."
All three objected to this, but Kurama's question rose above the other's. "So you're going to do this alone?"
I looked over at him. I couldn't quite read his expression. He seemed to be simply waiting for my answer, but there was more than that... something protective, maybe...
"Yes," I wrote slowly.
"No!"
I jumped as Yusuke slammed his fists down on the table and stood up. "We're not going to let you go alone," he declared, his eyes burning fiercely. "I don't know who these guys are, but if you face them without backup you'll die."
"Yeah," Kuwabara agreed, stubbornly. "If I lost my sister, I'd fight to get her back no matter what. So I'll fight for this."
"I will come along as well," Kurama said, his eyes sparkling humorously. "I happen to know of a tavern in the Makai where we might find a lead on those two men."
I stared at them, dumbstruck. (Like I wasn't already...) I picked up my flute and played a few notes tremulously. ~You guys... would do that for me?~
"Of course!" Yusuke grinned. "We're supposed to fight demons. Besides, this seems like a worthy enough cause."
Kuwabara was struck by a sudden thought. "But what about Koenma? Would he want us to go on a mission like this?"
Kurama grinned slyly. "I have a plan for that..."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You'll have to wait to find out what happens next.
See ya!
The Tantei finally show up! But in what way?
Review responses:
Naoko Kensaku: My dedicated reviewer. ^_^ Yeah, I thought it seemed better than the crap I usually write. Maybe this is finally working out.
Matthias Drake the White Raven: Hi! Thanks for reviewing. Glad you liked it.
xOneWingedAngelx: Aw, don't be like that, I like your story...
Kirae: But you didn't review the recent chapter.
Me: O_O I didn't?! *checks* Oh, crap, you're right! Gotta go do that!
Disclaimer: I own Taki. That's it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Instrumental
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~*~*~* 2 years later ~*~*~*~
I leaned back against the wall of the building, brushing some of my hair back from my face. I'd gotten it cut since that incident two years ago. Now it reached past the top of my ears, but its thickness was such that I had to comb it every morning or risk looking like the vagabond I was pretending to be - or was. I couldn't quite tell which.
I'd gotten myself some decent clothes, too. I wore a dark green t-shirt with blue jeans. Not that anybody would notice. No ordinary person could see past my illusion. Speaking of which...
It was showtime.
I sat down with my money-bag in front of me and pulled out my flute. Today, I chose to start off with a piece that I was particularly proud of. It had undertones of what-beautiful-music, let's-stop-and-listen, that-boy-looks-poor, and let's-give-him-some-money, and still managed to be a pretty good tune. In each of the listener's minds, I tapped my music directly into their consciousness - meanwhile effectively eliminating any thoughts of my odd appearance. Once the first illusion was in place, I could play anything I wanted and they wouldn't notice me. It wasn't cheating - not really. I never forced them to give up their money. I just mildly hinted that the music was good, so why not give the musician a dollar or two?
I'd gotten much more proficient at this since I'd begun. I had stayed with the old man long enough to learn everything he had to teach me. Then, about a year ago, I set off to find Shira.
My fingers started to play a folk song without my thinking about it. I let them; I was absorbed in memories.
Everywhere I went, I had listened for any word of the blond man and the black-haired one, possibly with a brown-haired girl with them. Slowly, I learned that the blond was Chiris, and the black-haired Goron. They appeared in various places from time to time, speaking about a demon powerful enough to destroy everything. They had the power to control it, and once it came...
That was the trouble; I didn't know what would happen next. I couldn't ask anyone about it, and the bits and pieces I heard were too vague, too hard to piece together.
I came back to reality to realize that my audience was clapping and waiting for the next tune. I thought a moment, then grinned. I'd give them something they definitely hadn't heard before... a little tune I learned in the Makai...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kurama was walking down a side street for no particular reason; he had simply wanted to go for a walk, and this was the shortest route to the park. Then he heard something he definitely should not have heard. Not here, anyways. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up, and he searched for the source of the music. Nobody should know that here, in the Ningenkai.
He found the source fairly quickly; a boy, entertaining a small audience with his flute. But-
He frowned. There was something odd about the boy's appearance... it didn't quite add up...
Kurama investigated the phenomenon with his energy and came to realize that the boy was projecting an illusion - and quite a skillful one, too. He used a combination of telepathy and empathy at a low level to affect the basics of what the audience saw - enough to mask his odd hair color and not-quite-ragged clothes. He also used it to deepen the meaning of the song, making it seem like there were words to it, when there was actually nothing but music. Despite this, he didn't seem to be taking advantage of his talent - he had scarcely more than any other street player Kurama had seen. Still... there was the matter of the Makai tune, and how the boy had come to know it.
He kept his distance until the boy had finished his set of music and the audience had drifted off. Then he approached, calling, "Hello! Could I speak to you for a moment?"
The boy looked back with startled eyes, then broke into a run.
Kurama chased after him, wondering why he was so afraid. "Hey, stop! I just- Slow down a little, will you?"
But the boy kept running with no signs of stopping. Luckily, Kurama spotted Yusuke and Kuwabara lurking in the alley just up ahead. "Yusuke, Kuwabara! Could you stop that boy?!"
Kuwabara obliged. As the boy ran past, he reached out and lightly tapped him on the head.
The kid went down like a stone. His fist unclenched, and something smooth and metallic rolled out. Yusuke picked it up, staring. "A flute?"
Kurama caught up, panting slightly, then looked down at the boy with dismay. "I didn't tell you to knock him unconscious!"
Yusuke bristled. "He was running and you were chasing after him, and you told us to stop him. What were we supposed to think?!"
Kurama sighed. "True. But I just wanted to talk with him."
"What for?" Kuwabara asked, propping the kid against the wall.
"He was playing a tune from the Makai," Kurama explained. "I wanted to know where he learned it."
Yusuke raised his eyebrows. "From the Makai?" He stared down at the kid, looking rather helpless now that he was unconscious. "No wonder you told us to stop him. I'd like to know, too."
"Well, we can't just leave him here, now that you've injured him," Kurama decided. "We'll have to take him somewhere to recover."
"How about my house?" Yusuke offered. "My mom's out, and there's room enough in the living room to fit him in."
Kurama shrugged. "Sure."
Kuwabara picked the boy up, and they started towards Yusuke's house.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~Ow... my head...~
I came to groggily, wondering where I was. Why was I on carpet? Where was my flute?
"Hey, I think he's waking up."
I stared around me. Who were these people?
Memory came back in a flash, and I remembered someone chasing me, coming after me. I ducked down an alley, and someone hit me... and I blacked out...
I backed against the wall frantically, and my wandering hands found my flute. I grabbed it, put it to my lips, and blew out a quick query. ~Wh-who are you?~
All three of the boys jumped back, startled. "Hey, I heard that! In my head!" one of them exclaimed, a tall one with orange hair.
"Of course you did. As I explained to you before, he uses a combination of telepathy and empathy, triggered by music," another said calmly. This one was a red-head, and he moved with a grace that wasn't quite human.
~Telepathy? Empathy? I just play the music!~ I thought to myself desperately. I raised the flute to my lips and repeated my question. ~Who are you?~
"Well, no matter how he's doing it, it would be rude not answer his question," said the third, a black-haired teen. He grinned at me. "My name's Yusuke."
"Kuwabara," grunted the tall one.
"And I am Kurama," said the redhead. Yusuke looked at him sharply, and I sensed a swift, silent conversation taking place. Yusuke shrugged finally, and Kurama turned his attention back to me. "What is your name?"
I concentrated on the series of notes that meant me. ~Taki.~
"Hey, why doesn't he talk?" Kuwabara asked.
"I think-" Kurama rose and advanced toward me, stopping just short of my feet. "May I?"
I understood what he meant, but it was hard for me. I hadn't allowed anyone to touch my throat since it had been injured. But this 'Kurama' looked trustworthy, even if he had chased me. I gulped and nodded.
Kurama knelt down beside me and touched my neck. It wasn't as bad as I had thought. His fingers were cool against my throat as they explored it, and he was very gentle. I think I might have started purring right then and there if Kurama hadn't spoken.
"He can't."
"What?!" Now Yusuke was staring at me too.
Kurama sat back on his heels and looked at me with a strange mix of pity and regret. "His voice-box is completely crushed. He couldn't speak even if he wanted to. Yukina might be able to heal it, but the wound is old, and it's healed strangely. She might not be able to fix it."
I picked up my flute again and played a bitter, sorrowful note. ~That's right.~
Yusuke continued to stare, and I started to feel uncomfortable. "How the hell did that happen?"
I played a succession of notes. ~Do you have paper, a pen? This is going to be a long story...~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"... And, finally, I ended up here," I wrote, pausing at intervals to let them read it. I glanced over at Kurama. "Then he started chasing me. I thought you were a plainclothes cop or something, and I wasn't allowed to play music there. I've had trouble with that before. So I ran. And then you two knocked me out. You know the rest."
There was silence for a moment, as the three others absorbed what I had 'told' them.
"Wow," Yusuke said at length. "That's some story."
"So you've been to the Makai?" Kurama asked.
"Yes," I wrote.
"But how did you get past all those monsters?" Kuwabara wanted to know.
I shrugged. "Simple. I just strengthened my illusion, choosing to look like a low-class demon. I looked scrawny enough that nobody would pick a fight with me, and poor enough that nobody tried to rob me."
"How did you get to the Makai?" Kurama asked. "I thought the Reikai kept a tight control on portals."
~Reikai?~ I wondered, then filed it away to ask about later. I took up paper and pen once again. "As it turns out, there's a small, naturally-occurring portal right near where my house used to be."
"No way!" Yusuke exclaimed. "If there were, there would have been demons all over the place! We'd have heard about it by now!"
"Why?" I wanted to know.
"We're Spirit Detectives! It's our job!" he said proudly.
That explained a lot.
"Not necessarily," Kurama chided gently. "I believe the portal may be small enough that only those with low spirit energy can go through it. Taki has little more than the normal level of spirit energy for a human; telepathy and empathy are natural gifts for some. And since a human's spirit energy is much lower than that of any demon, he was able to go through it, while it was useless for demons." He pondered something for a moment. "It may also explain why your father left, Taki."
"Huh?" Now it was my turn to be shocked.
"Portals create resonances along the spiritual plane whenever they are opened," he explained gently. "If your father was a sensitive, with high spirit awareness, he would have felt those resonances. And living so close to a constantly open portal must have been hell for him."
"So that's why..." My fingers echoed my thoughts unconsciously. Then I shook myself. "So, yeah, that's it."
"What are you going to do now?" Yusuke asked.
"Keep going after the bastards who took my sister, of course," I wrote, my hands shaking a little in anger.
"But what are you going to do when you find them?" Kuwabara asked. "I mean, a flute isn't much of a weapon."
"I know some decent control songs," I wrote grimly. "Maybe I could make them commit suicide."
All three objected to this, but Kurama's question rose above the other's. "So you're going to do this alone?"
I looked over at him. I couldn't quite read his expression. He seemed to be simply waiting for my answer, but there was more than that... something protective, maybe...
"Yes," I wrote slowly.
"No!"
I jumped as Yusuke slammed his fists down on the table and stood up. "We're not going to let you go alone," he declared, his eyes burning fiercely. "I don't know who these guys are, but if you face them without backup you'll die."
"Yeah," Kuwabara agreed, stubbornly. "If I lost my sister, I'd fight to get her back no matter what. So I'll fight for this."
"I will come along as well," Kurama said, his eyes sparkling humorously. "I happen to know of a tavern in the Makai where we might find a lead on those two men."
I stared at them, dumbstruck. (Like I wasn't already...) I picked up my flute and played a few notes tremulously. ~You guys... would do that for me?~
"Of course!" Yusuke grinned. "We're supposed to fight demons. Besides, this seems like a worthy enough cause."
Kuwabara was struck by a sudden thought. "But what about Koenma? Would he want us to go on a mission like this?"
Kurama grinned slyly. "I have a plan for that..."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You'll have to wait to find out what happens next.
See ya!