Hey, I'm back! First of all, I'd like to thank Fanfic-Lover and Anin for reviewing. Thank you guys so much! Second, I'd like to apologize for not updating sooner. I swear, it was my pet writer's block's fault! Kurama, will you do the honors?
Kurama: Gladly. Sroa Dwin owns nothing except Hannah, Alex, and Zemien. YYH is owned by the god who made it, and the Hadoken attack is owned by Brian Clevinger (or however his name is spelled), the creator of Nuklear Power.
Silence. Then:
"A what?" That was Yusuke.
"A Spirit Mechanic," Z repeated calmly. "Among other things, I've invent most of the tools you've used in your cases. I'm also the one who found the blueprints for Shishiwakamaru's Banshee Shriek."
"I thought Suzuki made the Banshee Shriek," asked Kurama, suspicious.
"He did," replied Z evenly. "But he couldn't have made it without the blueprints. That's where I came in."
"How do we know we can trust you?" asked Yusuke.
"I'm her half-brother," he answered, pointing at Hannah. "If you don't trust me, then ask her."
"Is that true?" Yusuke asked Hannah. Hannah didn't answer. Looking over, he saw that her eyes were closed. She was asleep.
"Hey kid, wake up," said Yusuke, annoyed. Z looked as if he was trying not to smile, and was failing.
"Just five more minutes, Z," she murmured, still asleep. Everyone in the room formed sweatdrops.
"I guess that's a 'yes'," said Yusuke.
"So, um, Koenma," began Alex, changing the subject, "Why are we here? I mean, it's all very interesting, but there doesn't seem to be much point in telling us all this."
"I was hoping you'd ask that," responded Koenma. "You see, it all has to do with you."
"Me?" she asked, startled. She was rarely the center of anything, and she liked it that way.
"You," he confirmed. "That lich wanted your blood."
"My blood?" she asked, confused. "Why would he want my blood?"
"We don't exactly know yet," answered Z softly. "We've been looking through Reikai records, but there isn't much on necromancy."
"Hn. I know why. It's because she's one fourth mirror demon." Everyone stared at Hiei.
"HIEI, THAT WAS CLASSIFIED INFORMATION!" Koenma yelled. Hannah stirred, muttering about over-active toddlers.
"Really Koenma, why didn't tell me this sooner?" asked Z, exasperated. "If I had known that, I could have been done hours ago."
"If you had known what?" asked Hannah, confused.
"That I was one quarter mirror demon," replied Alex patiently.
"Oh."
"Oh, indeed. And that probably wasn't the only thing he was looking for," said Z.
"What do you mean?" asked Hannah, confused.
"He means that you, Hannah McRose, are the next Puremage," stated Koenma.
A silence fell on the group. Then:
"'Puremage'? What kind of name is that?" asked Hannah.
"A perfectly good one," retorted Z.
"So what does a Puremage do exactly?" asked Yusuke.
"Well, no one really knows for sure," stated Koenma. Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Hannah do an anime fall. "The last two Puremages died before much could be documented about them, so all we have are some very old legends involving a Puremage and an orb of some sort, none of which give very many details on how the Puremage actually used its powers."
"A Puremage is supposedly someone whose Spirit Power grows exponentially the longer it isn't used," explained Kurama. "Although many are given the title, a true Puremage hasn't been seen in over three thousand years."
"Well now, that hasn't actually been proven to be true," argued Z. Before an argument could be started, however, Hannah stepped in.
"Why don't we discuss this tomorrow, after we've gotten some rest," she suggested. "After all, it is around three o'clock in the morning." Everyone agreed with this plan and decided to meet again tomorrow afternoon at Z's house. As everyone left, Alex approached the kitsune siblings.
"Um, Z?" she asked hesitantly.
"Yes?"
"Um, my mom wanted me to ask you if I could stay over at your house for a week or two while she's out of town," she asked.
"Well of course you can stay," answered Z. As the walked into the house, he told her, "You can either take the guest bedroom or share Hannah's room, it's your choice. Now I'm going to bed, so don't stay up too late." After a bit of thought, Alex decided to share Hannah's room, feeling the need to be with a friend as she fell asleep.
Hannah awoke to see the Alex open the drapes to her windows, letting in bright light. Hannah blinked in confusion, and then remembered last night's activities. She looked at the clock. It was nine in the morning.
"Alex? Shouldn't we be at school?" she asked groggily.
"Don't you remember, Hannah?" she answered. "It's Saturday."
"Oh. Right."
"Hey Hannah, mind if I go back to my house to get some clothes?" After signaling that it was okay, Hannah went and took a shower. She felt numb and senseless after comparing the increase in powerto all of her senses from the fox ears and nose the night before to her now normal body.
Thirty minutes later, Hannah entered the kitchen wearing a white sleeve-less shirt and black pants. Looking around, she found a note on the table. It was from Z saying to arrive at some old temple by one o'clock. On the back she found a map to the place.
She showed Alex the note after she had come back. Deciding to skip lunch, the two girls put on roller blades and followed the map. It took two hours to reach the place and another two hours to climb all the stairs to the top of the temple.
"Stupid stairs," muttered Hannah as she reached the top. Upon reaching it, she found two people waiting for her: the overly-cheerful Botan and a short old lady with faded pink hair and brown eyes.
"Hello Hannah," greeted Botan cheerfully. "This is Genkai. She will be teaching you and Alex how to use your powers today. Goodbye and have fun training!" And the blue-haired ferry girl flew off on her oar before they could so much as utter a word.
"Follow me, girls," called Genkai as she walked inside the temple. Alex and Hannah followed her, the latter murmuring to herself darkly about stupid stairs and crazy blue-haired people. She didn't notice that they had stopped until she bumped into Alex. Alex didn't seem to notice, however, for she was listening to something the old lady was saying. Since Hannah couldn't quite hear what was being said, she decided to zone out until they stopped talking.
"Hn, follow me," said a familiar voice. She turned to see Hiei staring at her. At my eye level, no less, she thought, snickering silently.
"What's so funny, baka?" he asked, annoyed. She stopped.
"Nothing," she replied innocently.
"Then what are waiting for? Let's go," he ordered.
"Go where?" she asked, confused.
"Weren't you listening, baka? I'm supposed to train you. Now are you going to come, or am I going to have to drag you?" he explained, patience wearing thin.
"I'll follow," she answered. They started to walk inside the forest. Or rather, Hannah tried to follow him as he flitted ahead of her, staying in the treetops. After a while, Hiei suddenly appeared about twenty feet in front of her, waiting. She hurried up.
From there, training began. After looking her over, he had decided that she should start by doing two hundred pushups. Hannah, after collapsing at number fifty, had declared that it was impossible. Deciding to prove her wrong, he did two hundred pushups right in front of her. One handed. He took about twenty minutes; she had timed it to make sure.
It continued after that with the basics of the sword. Since she had never used a sword, and Hiei didn't trust her to not to cut off something important in the first five minutes, they used short wooden staffs instead. That was a relief, because Hannah would've died of blood loss in half an hour from all the cuts she had gotten, if they had been using real swords. As it was, she was covered with bruises head to toe from all the times she hadn't been able to block Hiei's strike. Finally they had to stop because it was getting dark. She met up with Alex and they went back home.
That continued for the next two weeks, until today. Now for the first time, she was finally learning how to use her spirit energy, by Genkai. And the first thing on Genkai's list was for Hannah to try to repeat her 'Hadoken', as Alex had nicknamed it.
"Try to remember what you felt the first time you did it," said Genkai as Hannah prepared.
Everyone had stopped training to watch her, which made her nervous. But it didn't seem to affect her power-up as she created and stabilized an energy orb of approximately the same size as the one she had fired at the necromancer.
Everyone moved out her way as she prepared to fire. She was aiming towards the forest, figuring that it wouldn't harm anyone. Just as she fired her attack a group of three people appeared from the edge of the forest, right where she had aimed. Genkai yelled at her to stop, but it was too late. There was nothing that could be done asthe beamhit the group and a flash of light blinded everyone nearby.
Sorry if this isn't very good, I guess that's what happens when you type most of this during the debates! Next time:
The visitors are revealed! Wait a second, aren't the necromancers supposed to be against us? What's up with that?
A close-up on Alex's powers!
Please review.