--Chapter Three: Shielded By Your Own Power--
The morning was bright, and Yusuke awoke to a sunbeam warming his face. Remembering the last time he woke up, he glanced around before sitting up and stretching.
"Ahhhh… is Rahn gone AGAIN? Geeze, some guide!" Yusuke muttered.
"I could just let you starve Yusuke…" Rahn replied, walking up behind him with a couple of rabbits over her shoulder.
Yusuke suddenly realized he was starving, and he promptly set about making a fire. Rahn tossed the rabbits nonchalantly to Hiei (who scowled at her) and then retreated to her tree. She didn't feel the need to eat.
-- --- -- --- --
The group set off, once again on the ground, no one feeling the need to travel any faster. Rahn said they'd at least shaved a day off of their trip. She expected them to arrive sometime that night. Kuwabara chose this time to once again foolishly question Rahn about her past.
"So, how did your parents die?" he asked, oblivious to the fact this might be a tender subject.
Hiei prepared to kill Kuwabara if he chased their guide off with his stupid questions.
Rahn chose not to answer.
"What, it's not like you killed them, right?"
"I wouldn't be surprised!" Yusuke muttered.
Rahn rubbed her right hand, which was trembling again.
"I didn't kill them."
"So who did?"
"…"
"Oh, come on, you can tell me!"
"…"
"I'll kill the guy who makes girls suffer like this!"
"…What?"
"They shouldn't pick on you just 'cause you're weaker than them!"
Kurama sighed. Rahn's eyes narrowed as Kuwabara continued.
"Seriously, it's not right! It's not your fault you're weaker than them! They-"
"I'll be right back." Rahn interrupted, fleeing into the trees.
"What'd I say?" Kuwabara asked, confused.
"Idiot!" Hiei snapped.
A few minutes later Rahn returned, her fists full of some kind of herb.
"Eat this, quick!" she said urgently, stuffing one fistful into Kuwabara's mouth.
Alarmed, he did as he was told. It was so disgusting that he choked out the first few swabs, but Rahn was always quick to shove another fistful down his throat. Finally, he was successful in swallowing the nasty herb. He tried to ask what was wrong, but no sound came out of his mouth.
"I never really appreciated Silenciurcs until now." Rahn stated, relaxing. "They affect the voice-box. He won't be able to make a sound for hours!"
With that, she jumped into the nearest tree and proceeded to travel that way, always keeping in sight of the group.
"I really must remember to ask her about those." Kurama murmured softly.
"Hn." Hiei grunted, pleased.
Yusuke decided perhaps Rahn had her uses after all.
-- --- -- --- --
The next day-
Yusuke awoke to the smell of roasting flesh-eating pigeons. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he sat up and looked around. Kurama was overseeing their breakfast, while Rahn whittled a stick nearby. Hiei and Kuwabara were both going through their own little workouts, preparing for a showdown with The Ten.
"So, when do you think we will get there?" Kurama inquired as he turned the makeshift spit.
"It's an hour's walk from here." Rahn replied, still whittling.
"Hey, I thought you said we'd be there last night!" Yusuke complained.
"I didn't count on Kuwabara insisting we save a soul-eating wildcat from drowning."
"How was I supposed to know?" Kuwabara yelled, stopping his workout.
"If I recall, idiot, she did tell you that you wouldn't want to mess with it." Hiei replied, slicing a tree.
"Watch out!" Rahn called as a branch of the tree crashed to the ground.
The branch immediately grew legs and arms. A crack near the top opened to reveal long, sharp teeth. It leapt at Hiei, who promptly sliced it into ten or so smaller pieces. Rahn sighed as those pieces also grew arms and legs and mouths, and Hiei ended up chopping them all into splinters before they stopped attacking him. He raised an eyebrow. Kurama, realizing Rahn couldn't see it, asked what had just occurred.
"The trees themselves are harmless. As long as they're rooted into the ground, it's like they're in stasis. But if any part of the tree is disconnected, it develops a mind (kind of) and attacks the nearest thing to it." Rahn explained.
"Uh-huh…" Yusuke muttered, not really able to follow the explanation.
Rahn shook her head and returned to whittling.
-- --- -- --- --
15 minutes later-
"Oh no. I refuse. I utterly refuse to do this!" Yusuke howled.
Rahn sighed, irritated.
"Just step on the stupid rock, Urameshi!!" she yelled, already on the other side of the rather large gorge that cut the Living Forest in half.
Hiei and Kurama were forced to agree with Yusuke on this one. Rahn wanted them to step on a rock and ride it to other side of the gorge. Even after seeing her do it, they couldn't quite believe it was possible.
"I've already died once, I'd rather not repeat the experience!" Yusuke bellowed.
Rahn stepped back onto the rock she'd used and hovered back to their side of the gorge. She stomped up to Yusuke and "looked" him in the eye. It was very unnerving because her eyes were so clouded it looked like she had no eyes at all. She grabbed the front of Yusuke's shirt and actually lifted him onto the stone. It immediately started to hover across the gorge and it was soon too late for Yusuke to jump back. Rahn glared at the other three and they all hurriedly got onto their stones. In a few minutes, they were all across the gorge.
"How is that possible?" Kuwabara demanded of Rahn.
"Get it through your thick skulls; the forest is alive. As in, a living, breathing thing." Rahn growled.
Kurama blinked. "Please explain."
Rahn sighed heavily. "This whole forest is an actual creature. The trees, the ground, even the river, are parts of its body. That's why even the sticks are alive; once you separate it from the Living Forest's body, it's like it gave birth to it. All those sticks are capable of becoming another Living Forest should they find a way to leave this one. It would take a couple hundred thousand years, but it would happen. It's also why those stones could move across the gorge. The Forest is rather ticklish there, so whenever you step on a really tender spot (the stones), it transfers you to the other side in hopes of getting rid of the itch."
"Amazing!" Kurama murmured.
The group resumed their journey.
"What did you mean, you'd already died once?" Rahn asked Yusuke a few minutes later.
"I got hit by a car once, trying to keep a little kid from being run over. Koenma was impressed at my heroic deed and gave me my life back." Yusuke responded.
Rahn snorted. "I don't buy it."
"Hah! Urameshi was considered such a bad guy that when he died saving the kid's life, the Spirit World wasn't prepared for his death and they brought him back to life to make it easier on themselves!" Kuwabara laughed.
Rahn nodded, satisfied with that answer.
"Yeah, well, I bet you'd never do something like that!" Yusuke grumbled.
Rahn looked away. "In a way, I did…" she murmured, too softly for them to hear (with the exception of Kurama).
Rahn rubbed the top of her right hand, which was, once again, trembling. It always did that when she was feeling any kind of strong emotion…
--*Flashback*--
"Ooooh, what's THAT one, Grandma?" a young Rahn asked, wide-eyed, as she stared at her grandmother's large book full of Old English runes. It was a family heirloom, just like the dragon coin that hung around her grandmother's neck.
A wrinkled hand patted Rahn's shoulder affectionately. "That's the rune for fire, Rahn. Do you know, that's the rune I've always liked the best. My grandfather liked it too. I have an idea! Why don't I give you it as a temporary tattoo?"
Rahn nodded enthusiastically.
"Where would you like it, dear?" her grandmother asked gently.
"Right here!" Rahn smiled, pointing at the back of her right hand.
"Okay." Rahn's grandmother replied, getting out the special marker she used for "tattoos".
She carefully copied the rune in the book onto her granddaughter's hand. Suddenly, the mark glowed bright red, and Rahn cried out in pain. The glow subsided and revealed the "tattoo", no longer black, but green, outlined in gold.
"The family colors!" the old woman gasped, shocked.
Rahn looked up at her grandmother, tears running down her chubby little face.
"That hurt Grandma! I don't want it anymore!"
"Something tells me, Rahn, that you'll be stuck with that for the rest of your life." Her grandmother replied sadly.
--*End Flashback*--
We never were able to get it off…--- -- --- --
"This is where we say good-bye, gentlemen." Rahn told them, alert for signs of danger. She had visibly tensed up after they'd exited the forest.
The field was a large one, several miles long. The Ten's headquarters were in the very middle. Rahn had walked with them until the place had come into sight, and she was anxious to get back to the forest.
"Good riddance." Yusuke muttered. The rest of them said good-bye in their own ways.
In a flash, Rahn was gone, though not traveling nearly so fast as she could in the forest.
The gang resumed walking towards the large buildings that were apparently The Ten's headquarters. However, when they got there, there was one small problem.
"Uh, why is there a line in front of their door?" Yusuke voiced the question they were all pondering.
"Maybe there are a lot of people who have a grudge against these guys?" Kuwabara suggested.
"Only one way to find out." Yusuke replied, and they joined the line.
Eventually they got to the front of the line and found themselves at a desk. The receptionist, a bald green demon in a suit, looked them over in a bored way.
"Is this your team?" he asked.
"Huh?" Yusuke started.
"For the tournament. Is this your team for the Juu Tournament? As in, the tournament that The Ten is holding to find the most talented fighters in the demon world? The one where the winners are sent to the human world to carry out whatever tasks The Ten gives them, in between which they are free to do as they please? The one you can only enter if your spirit energy is so strong the shield around this place will not let you pass no matter how hard you try? Work with me here!" the demon snapped.
"Oh! Uh, yeah, I guess so…"
"Okay, great. I have right here a miniature shield, like the one surrounding the property." He waved a hand at a doorway next to the desk. "Once you walk through it, if your energy is high enough, you will be unable to walk back through."
"Interesting concept. Never heard of that one before."
"Do you want to go through it or not?" The demon growled.
"I'm goin', I'm goin'," Yusuke stepped through.
"Now try to walk back through it," the demon ordered.
Yusuke did try, but was instantly shocked and repelled back. "Ouch! Hey! What was that all—"
"You pass, the rest of the team now,"
Each member walked one by one through the barrier, and each one was denied access back out.
"Okay, now the next member,"
"This is all we have."
The demon stared at them with a glare that said, "You made me waste all of that time?! I've been doing this all day you know!" when he finally spoke, it was in a similar tone:
"You need five. Next please!"
Yusuke was pushed out of the way by a large ogre-like demon.
The group walked away from the line.
"Now what?" Kuwabara asked.
"There's no way we can fight all these demons to get to The Ten." Yusuke stated. "We need a fifth person."
"Call up Koenma, maybe he knows what we can do,"
"Alright," Yusuke sighed, and reluctantly brought out a small communicator from his pocket. Snapping the device on, he growled into the speaker, "Hey! Koenma!"
The screen buzzed to life and a scene of ogres and paper airplanes greeted the Spirit Detective. "KOENMA!" Somehow, through all the noise, an ogre heard Yusuke and called everyone's attention to the screen. An orange ogre awoke Koenma from his nap on the desk and pointed to Yusuke.
"What is it? Can't you handle yourself there?"
"Of course we can. Look, it turns out that there is a tournament being held here,"
"What is it with all the tournaments? Isn't this the third one?" Koenma asked.
"Yeah, so what? Look, a lot of demons showed up, and we know we can't fight all of them. We're too far out numbered."
"So enter the tournament. You're good at that."
"Would you listen?" He screamed.
"We need a fifth fighter who has enough spirit energy to pass their elimination exam. Its no problem, we all passed. We need a fifth fighter, soon! I think the tournament even starts today."
"Hmmm… I see your point, I'll someone."
"Who?"
"J—" The screen began to get cloudy. "Dang it Yusuke! You didn't recharge the batteries did you?! Now it's going to go out and we can't contact each other any—" The screen stopped.
"The batteries." Hiei stated. "You forgot about the batteries?"
"Oh well! He said he would send a fifth fighter, didn't he?"
"Fine, I guess we'll just wait,"
Just then Rahn stomped by.
"I thought she went back to her precious forest." Hiei muttered.
The obviously enraged girl stomped up to the receptionist, shoving the ogre-demon out of the way. She then grabbed the guy's collar and proceeded to strangle him.
"WHY THE HECK CAN'T I GET OUT OF THIS STUPID PLACE?!?!" she yelled.
The group exchanged glances.
"I don't believe we'll have to wait much longer." Kurama observed.
A/n: Wow, that was a fun one. ^_^PLEASE REVIEW!!
