DISCLAIMER: Rogueicephoenix does not own Yu Yu Hakusho or Harry Potter, though she does have vivid hallucinations about it. The only things she owns are Thia, Tsurin, and The Pearl of Three Worlds.
Chapter 19: The Pearl of Three Worlds
"Yusuke, wake up. Don't drool on the books or someone'll have your head," Thia yawned.
"But it's so boooooring!" the Spirit Detective whined. And it was true. The books about ancient magical artifacts were boring, not to mention specific (a.n.: ...and longer than Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix...). Take, for instance, a passage on the Peridot of Peril: '...The gem had exactly 1,005,767 scratches on its surface as of 1975, all having a breadth that ranges from a millimeter to 1/10,034 of that size. It is unknown if any of these scratches have any real significance, whether to the power that the Peridot wields or to the age of the gem, and so it is held with the utmost care. Usually, the owner handles it with gloves of the finest Chinese silk...' Not only was all of that information useless, but it was time consuming, as well.
The only ones who were actually still reading were the "go-getter, suck-up, teacher's pet, braniacs," as Yusuke had so poetically put it, looking at Thia, Kurama, and Hermione in turn. At the moment, though, Thia wanted to throw the book in front of her right off the top of the Astronomy tower. She'd read the same sentence over and over, not really understanding it and not really remembering it.
Kuwabara was snoring and Madame Pince was glaring at him. Hiei had made up some cruddy lie a while ago about how he had homework to do, and how he'd be back later. Yeah, right. Like Hiei did any of his homework. (Did he even know what the classes he was taking actually were?) Ron, on the other hand, had been pretending to read one page over and over for the last hour or so. The glazed look that had taken over his eyes was proof of otherwise. And then Harry was looking out the window, his lips moving silently whenever a bird passed by. He completely unaware that he was counting fowl, as he'd had a bewildered look when Hermione had asked him what he was doing. Kurama looked frustrated, though he seemed to be trying to hide it. Hermione was sighing every so often, quite loudly at times.
An insane idea occurred to Thia all of a sudden. Well, perhaps not all of a sudden, as she'd been cooking up the strength to ask Kurama the idiotic question for about a half an hour. So much for being practical and brilliant, her brain said. I'll sound either bored or extremely weird. She gave the red-head sitting beside her a tiny nudge.
"Pick a number," she whispered when she'd gotten his attention.
It earned Thia a strange look, but his response told her that Kurama was either even more bored than she or he had a similar sense of humor.
"From what number to what number?"
"One-thirty-seven to 10,000."
"You're further ahead than I am," Kurama commented before giving thought to the question.
"Yeah, but mine has larger print, too."
The answer that she got was 5,140, which she flipped to in her book. Closing her eyes, the girl ran her finger over the text before stopping at a random spot.
"The Pearl of Three Worlds," she read aloud. "Blah blah blah, is said to possess the power to transport its wearer to and from the three mystical lands of legend: the World Beyond, the World of the Damned, and the World of Life. Blah blah blah, was last in the possession of Werenus the Worldly, who allegedly sold it to a merchant in Knockturn Alley dealing in Dark Arts merchandise, though this was never proved. Wow. I didn't think that would actually work. Thanks, Suichi." Whoa, too weird.
"No problem," the red-head said, quite obviously thinking the same thing.
"Hold on there. We did all of this stupid, boring research for nothing?! All we would've had to do was give you a number?! YOU'VE GOTTA BE KIDDING ME!" Yusuke yelled in fury.
"Urameshi, out! Out, out, out!" Madam Pince loudly whispered, just as furiously.
"So here's my hypothesis: The Order set a trap for Tsurin's people to walk into, but things got out of hand and Genkai got her ass kicked, letting the bad guys to escape with the Pearl," Yusuke finished triumphantly. They were back outside, sitting under a certain tree (and in it, too) next to the lake. Unsurprisingly, no one else had decided to enjoy what remained of the early evening. It wouldn't shock any of them in the least if the rest of the student body was hiding in some bathroom stall or under the four poster beds. According to Hiei (who had mysteriously reappeared after they'd been booted out of the library), Malfoy was still sopping wet and nauseatingly fetid from both crying with terror as well as wetting his pants continuously. Apparently, Daddy dearest had forgotten to mention a certain traumatizing event.
"Wow, Yusuke, you know the word 'hypothesis'. Astonishing," Thia drawled, and rolled her eyes.
"Hn. Someone probably had to beat it into him. The detective wouldn't know a word like that if it ran up and bit his ass," Hiei speculated.
"Okay, enough with the verbal combat," Hermione intervened, ignoring Yusuke and his enraged insults. "How about this: The Order didn't find out about the Pearl's location until it was too late. So, when they finally got there, Tsurin's men had already bought it and were about to return home. Then they broke out into a fight as a distraction so that the person with the Pearl could escape."
Yusuke made a patronizing sound in his throat.
"Yeah. Like that could ever happen."
"Go nurse your pride somewhere else, Urameshi. Her guess is way better than yours," Kuwabara said, nodding slightly at Hermione.
"Gee, Kuwabara, are you cheating on Yukina?" No one noticed Ron's expression at that moment; it was sort of like a cartoon fish going 'glub, glub, glub.'
"Shut up! I would never stray from my love for the beautiful and perfect Yukina!" the Gryffindor protested. Kurama wondered if the steam coming out of Hiei's ears was only a part of his imagination or if the fire demon was actually that mad.
"Suuuure. All right. Then explain why grandma wasn't able to get the Pearl if her ass didn't get kicked? Hmm?" Yusuke continued, determined to prove that Hermione's theory was wrong.
"Well... I think that first of all, she was held off by the henchmen. And secondly, if she also had to protect two regular wizards as well, then she couldn't just run off and abandon them, could she?" Upon Hermione's face there seemed to be a bit of a smug little look that clearly stated, 'I'm right, and we all know it'. Yusuke only scowled.
"What else do we know about this Pearl, aside from what Thia read aloud?" questioned Hermione. It was Kurama who answered, his voice low and thoughtful, as though he was trying to dredge up information that he'd learned in the distant past and wasn't sure that he remembered fully.
"In order to use it, one must have one of two things: Either a pure heart or a hundred sacrifices, preferably demon, but anything with a soul would do. The first trip from the Human to Demon World is free, but if you don't pay the Pearl for any time after that, it devours your heart and soul and returns to its former master. Accordingly, it was created to form a more peaceful union between the three worlds, but it didn't work out that way. It has had a very bloody past, especially while in the Demon World. At one point it was the prized possession of an extremely rich and powerful demon leader, though his security system was an utter failure and the Pearl was stolen from him. It then exchanged hands quite a few times before ending up in the Human World. Also, there is a limited amount of places where one could travel to in the Human World, called Sacred Sites, where the supernatural forces are at their peak. Most of them are in Europe and Eurasia," Kurama finished.
"Let me guess. You were the one who stole it, weren't you?" said Yusuke.
"I did it to spite the demon lord," Kurama defended himself. "That was before I realized how high maintenance it was. I had no use for it and so I managed to sell it for a very high price. I completely forgot about it." A slight smile graced the red-head's lips. Hermione, Harry, and Ron looked at each other, more than a little confused.
"So...if Tsurin is able to get the sacrifices and gets into the Human World, what could possibly stop him from ravaging the entire world?" Hermione asked finally.
"Nothing. We're all really screwed," said Ron worriedly, a look of utter terror crossing his face, at which Hermione heaved a great sigh and rolled her eyes.
Thia only cocked an eyebrow. "No, idiot. What always gets in the way of evil that tries to destroy the Human World? Us."
"And I suppose you have a brilliant plan?" Harry asked sarcastically.
"No. We'll probably have to wing it a couple of steps of the way. I'm not Velma, you know." The chirps of crickets filled the silence. "Oh, you know. From Scooby Doo. The nerdy one with the glasses and the ugly hairdo. She always made up the plans and stuff." Still the crickets. "Jeez, talk about non-existent childhoods. And in any case, do you usually have a plan when you go and face the forces of evil?"
"No," was the reply from both Harry and Yusuke. It figured. Both were the epitome of the term 'hero'. Impulsive, courageous in the face of danger, hard-headed (in the literal sense of the word), prone to getting injured and then miraculously recovering enough to fight the last battle... and the list went on.
Thia snorted at their reply, but it was Hiei who retorted, "Hn. Idiots. I'm surrounded by idiots."
Hermione and Kuwabara looked deeply insulted. Kurama and Thia only looked at one another and tried not to smile.
Author's Notes: I'm back!! (That's certainly stating the obvious.) Praise be, I was able to put together two chapters: this one and chapter 20 (another Dark Side chapter—it needs a lot of editing), not to mention a part of chapter 21 and some various other parts of the story. (And I wrote up another chapter or two of the deleted scenes.) I had to put together the history and the conditions of using The Pearl of Three Worlds before I could finally type this up, and it took me forever to do that. However, now that that's done, I can rest easy because I know a lot of the future happenings. My only real problem is putting in some good Thia-Kurama and Ron-Hermione action because that's what I promised and I need to live up to it.
And now I'll bitch about my vacation! It wasn't actually that bad, except for when my mom tried to get me to be nice to Mr. Monkey when he called me a "lesbo bitch" (though she doesn't know this and she never will), which I'm not. I don't think. I was seriously debating whether to chop off a finger or a foot. There was also that part where my mom wouldn't buy any Pepsi or Coke for two days after we ran out and the only thing left was either water, Sprite (I hate that it's non-caffeinated), or my brother's Nestea. Her reasoning was that she wouldn't get it until I got out of the house for once and went with her. There. I'm finished bitching. A good point, though, was that I got to see my godson, his brother (who's like my nephew), and my sort-of cousin-from-LA-who-is-also-my-godson's-godfather. Which, when you really think about it, makes you wonder: If you and another person are godparents, does that make you god-married, or something? I hope not. (No offense, Ralph.)
And now: I have a question that I want to pose for anyone interested: What does the term "Pure heart" mean? If you don't answer this, I won't like you any less. It's just to satisfy my own curiosity. Bobby: ::snorts:: You're only asking that 'cause you don't know what it means, you loser! ::gags Bobby:: So: Please review!
Responses:
Mike the Great—Thanks for the suggestion and for reviewing!
Kuramakicksass—Ooh, goodie; I've needed a suggestion in terms of my fanfiction reading habits! (I've been reading too much InuYasha and Saiyuki fanfiction for my own good!) Thanks!
Meghann/ Kitsune—Yes! Long reviews! I luv 'em!...Pansy and Millicent are so possessive. I think they might have to see a shrink about their problems with clinginess!...I'm so bad with shopping and looking at anything dealing with anime! I went on vacation with a single volume of manga and came back with five...Dark Lords are so delusional and cuddly, aren't they? I love toying with their minds!...You shower me with so many compliments!...I HAVE FOUND A PERSON LIKE MYSELF!!! Thia's 'cuckoo, cuckoo…' problem is my problem as well!... Botan, that cheat! That's a quality oar and she just rips off the maker...So sorry for the confusion about what Snape meant! (That's the only confusion that I'm allowed to clear up for you... Bobby's very strict about what I tell to my readers) He only meant that Tsurin had once again dissolved his henchmen into little puddles of yellowy slime. Tsurin's just a really nice guy, isn't he?...About school: a postponement of doom means doom all the same. sheepish grin Sorry if I've wasted your time on my long-winded responses!
And to anyone who cares—In chapter 21, Malfoy is coming out of the hole that Hiei and Bobby pushed him into after chapter 17. I just felt like mentioning that.