Claimer: We own Nezume!
Chapter Fifteen: Gas Masks, Anyone?
"Poor Kozu," Yukina breathed, staring at the TV, "I hope she'll be all right."
"We have to do something!" Keiko shrieked, "What if the rest of their team is as tough as that? Yusuke doesn't stand a chance!"
"Calm down, Keiko," Botan said, putting her hand on Keiko's arm, "Yusuke's a tough fighter; he'll pull through. Don't worry about him."
"We'll win this battle just like all the others," Shizuru predicted, leaning back.
"There you go!" Botan exclaimed, "Having a positive attitude always helps!"
The door burst open, and the three girls came rushing in, Arashi and who they assumed was Niyali carrying Kozu. Kuwabara came in a moment later, shutting the door behind him, grumbling about something or other.
"I still don't see--hey! Yukina! Sis! What're you doing here?"
"Watching the fights, silly," Botan filled him in.
"That's great hey Yukina d'you think you could heal Kozu? The girls are really upset about her--they keep worrying she's going to die and stuff like that."
"Of course; I'd be happy to." Yukina stood up and followed the girls into the girls bedroom. They had laid Kozu out on her bed and looked up when Yukina entered.
"Who're you?" Niyali asked, almost immediately.
"I am Yukina," Yukina told her, "I'm going to heal Kozu for you." Placing her hands on Kozu's still form, she let her energy run through the girl, healing all her various bruises and scrapes and what may have been a broken bone or two.
"She's not going to die, is she?" Arashi asked, peeking around Yukina.
"Of course not," Yukina assured her absentmindedly. "There. She'll be as good as new when she wakes up."
"THANK YOU!" The next thing she knew, she was the object of two fierce hugs, one from each of the girls, "YOU HEALED HER! YOU HEALED HER!" Yukina laughed softly and used her sense of wounds to heal the two girls themselves; which was mostly Niyali's scrapes and stuff from the rock collapsing. The girls gave her another quick squeeze before heading out of the room, glancing one last time at Kozu. Yukina followed them, closing the door behind her.
***
"So the score is tied," Zaraya stated, staring across the field to where the three members of Team Urameshi who remained talked amongst themselves. She glanced back at her own team. Yakusoku was chatting animatedly with Kasei, who was sitting on the ground, a litle bit singed in every place. Midnight was casually leaning against a tree, looking really bored but also a bit smug with herself. Akki was long gone, and the two other members, Nezume and Aretesia, seemed to be involved in their own conversation. None of them paid their Captain any attention.
Nezume was almost as tall as her 6 feet, but was a lot different. He was a mouse demon, and still retained most of the mouse traits. He sprouted slender whiskers from his face; and golden-brown mouse ears poked out of his golden-brown hair which hung to his shoulders. His eyes were brown, warm, and knowledgable. As of now, he had his arms folded across his chest, which was covered in a tan t-shirt. He wore brown pants and had a gold sweater tied casually around his waist, but no shoes.
Aretesia was perhaps as different as you could get. She was a little shorter than him, and her hair was long, almost black shade of brown that she tied back in a ponytail, her bangs framing her face. Her skin was extremely pale, her eyes a gray-ish aquamarine. She was dressed in a white robe, and underneath it (though you couldn't really see it) she wore a gray tunic over a white shirt and loose white hose. Very different from Nezume.
"Ne-zu-may," Zaraya called. He didn't hear her.
"Nezu-maaaay!" Either he didn't hear her, or he was ignoring her. She frowned.
"NE-ZU-ME!!!" She yelled, pronouncing his name carefully. At last, his head shot up.
"Yes?"
"You're up." He shrugged.
"Fine. Wish me luck, Aretesia?" Aretesia smiled, amused, but said nothing. Nezume shrugged, stuck his hands in his pockets and walked towards the center of the field, where his opponent was already waiting.
"Match 5, Nezume vs. Kurama!" Faye exclaimed, "...let's fight!"
Nezume immediately skipped to the left. Kurama took a step that way, and Nezume swiftly switched to the right. As Kurama turned to look, he darted forwards so he had to turn more, and then left more, finally running an entire circle around him before proceeding to do it again.
"And Nezume's started out the match by running circles around Kurama!" Frogari observed, "He's so fast Kurama can hardly keep up; either that or he's not bothering to; which would be kind of stupid!"
"Woah he's fast!" Yusuke exclaimed, taking an involuntary step backwards.
"Hn. He's just playing around. Kurama knows this--he's waiting."
Kurama watched Nezume as carefully as he could. He knew this was some sort of ploy--nobody ran around their opponent pointlessly while they could still attack at full strength. Unless he couldn't? Maybe there was some reason holding him back...but that wouldn't make sense...even as he thought, Nezume raced once more around him, his circle becoming wider and wider until he was running right on the edge of the hole that still existed on the battlefield. And as luck would have it, he slipped, falling into the hole.
"That's bad luck!" Frogari exclaimed, running over to take a peek, "You don't think he can fly, do you?" But before he reached there, there was a small "pop", and an orange gas began leaking out of the hole. Frogari took a small sniff and began giggling insanely. Kurama stared at him, trying to puzzle this out.
"This is odd!" Faye remarked, "It seems my coworker has suddenly been seized by a laughing fit! This is extremely un--un--" Her sentence cut off as the gas expanded in all directions, reaching her where she hovered, sending her into a laughing fit as well. She rolled over backwards in mid-air, clutching her stomach and laughing hard. Kurama's eyes widened slightly as he finally got it.
:Laughing gas!: He took a deep breath and covered his nose and mouth with his arm, trying not to breathe in the fumes.
The gas was a light tickle on his uncovered skin, brushing at his clothes and hair as some of it went by, the other particles remaining in the air around him.
Something hit him unexpectedly in the stomach, and all the air he'd been holding rushed out of him. Involuntarily he took a breath.
After a moment, there was a sound like a vacuum cleaner, and all the gas was blown off into the trees, not touching any of those waiting on the side to fight. As the area cleared, Yusuke was surprised and not a little bit confused. Everybody on the field was...laughing. Frogari was rolling on the ground, laughing his head off. Faye, still in the air, clutched her stomach, tears of laughter running down her face. And Kurama was laughing just as hard as they were, on his knees, clutching his stomach as well, eyes squeezed tight.
"Hn," Hiei smirked, "I've never seen Kitsune so amused." There was a light snicker, and that was when the two of them noticed Nezume, standing on the edge of the hole, a long strand of wheat in his hand, smiling.
"Oh," Frogari gasped, still laughing, "Oh---ne-haha--next time---heehee--let's put---hahahaha!--a barrier around---heeheeHAHAHA!!!--the field---hahahaha---so it doesn't---heheheh--affect those of us---HAHAHAHA!!!!---not FIGHTING!!" And he burst into laughter again.
"Wonderful idea," Midnight called, from the sidelines, "I'll see to it myself." She raised her hands.
"WAITWAIT!" Frogari exclaimed, laughing forgotten, as he scrambled to his feet and made a bolt for the edge of the field, "WAIT UNTIL I'M OUT OF--" his sentence was cut off as he slammed into an invisible wall and slid down it, his microphone once again falling out of his hand.
"Oh, I'm sorry," Faye apologized, wiping tears out of her eyes, "I don't know what came over me. But whatever it was, it came over Frogari and Kurama as well! In fact, I think Kurama's still laughing---"
"SNAP OUT OF IT, KURAMA!" Yusuke yelled. Kurama heard him, but his words never registered in his brain. He was clutching his stomach in hysterical agony, unable to move or even speak. The only noises he made were the occasional half-choking noises and small "tee-hees" as he tried to breathe.
But finally, though, the laughing fit passed, and he knelt there, gasping for breath. Ow...his stomach hurt from all that laughing, and he thought his face would crack if he grinned any wider. He closed his eyes and took deep breaths, forcing himself to be calm.
Kurama was just getting to his feet when he heard yet another small "pop" and he looked up in time to see a yellow mist spread from Nezume's mouth.
"Well, this stinks!" Faye exclaimed, from her position above the barrier. Actually, she was laying on top of it, feet kicking lazily in the air as she watched the fight below her. Or, rather, the cloud of yellow gas that was swirling inside the barrier, "Nezume's covered the field in a yellow gas--and I can't see a single thing!" Suddenly, she sat upright, "Wait a minute people, I think I'm getting a connection! His last gas made people laugh, so this one must do something else! The only question is, what will it do?" She leapt onto her feet as she got another thought. "WAIT!! Frogari's inside there! He can tell us what's going on! Hey, Frogari, what's this gas do?"
"Ow..." came Frogari's voice, "...this is rather uncomfortable...I can't reach my microphone..."
"So get up and pick it up!" Faye exclaimed, squirming with excitement, "Then tell us what this does!"
"I can't," Frogari moaned.
"Why not?"
"...can't move...YOU'RE ALL LUCKY THE MICROPHONE IS NEAR MY MOUTH OR YOU'D HAVE TO WAIT 'TIL THE GAS CLEARED! GOOD LORD I HOPE THAT'S SOON!! This stuff burns my throat..."
Yusuke stared, open-mouthed at the bubble of yellow smoke that was in the center of the field. Kurama was in there...if Frogari couldn't move, then what about...
At last there was another noise like a vacuum cleaner, and the gas was sucked into the strand of wheat Nezume was holding in his hands. Yusuke froze as his brain took in what he saw.
Kurama was frozen in place, half facing them, in quite an unusual position. His right leg was still kneeling on the ground, while his left was crouching, left hand an inch from the ground while his right seemed to be pushing himself up. He had been frozen in the act of getting to his feet.
But if Kurama's position was bad, Frogari's was worse. The poor thing had slid down the invisible wall once he collided, and had lain on his back for a moment before beginning to get back up. As a normal person gets up when they've fallen flat on their face, his rear end was in the air, his elbows tucked in about to push himself up, head turned towards his microphone, which thankfully lay next to him on the ground, turned towards him.
"Paralyzation gas," Nezume chuckled, "Or as I like to call it, the Gas of Stone!"
"You do realize that's an oxymoron," Kurama stated, as calm as he could be under the circumstances.
"He's not frozen!" Yusuke exclaimed, in semi-disbelief. Nezume heard him.
"Don't be a fool," he called to the Spirit Detective, "The Gas of Stone freezes all parts of my opponent except their mouth and eyes. That way they can still see my attacks when they come--but they can't do a thing about it!" He laughed.
"Somebody tell me what's going on!" Frogari moaned.
"Nothing much," Faye sighed, "Kurama's frozen on the ground, Nezume is explaining what his attack does, blah blah--wait! Kurama's on the ground! Frogari, quick! Take a ten count!"
"Why me?" Frogari moaned.
"Because it's your job!" He sighed.
"One...two..." Nezume frowned.
"Now, we can't have that," he commented, "I like to toy with my opponents a bit before I beat them."
"Why do I not like the sound of that?" Yusuke muttered.
"...four..." Frogari was still counting, "...five..."
Nezume began to glow. But the color was off; what kind of demon glowed sparkly pink? Even as they watched, Nezume opened his mouth and a sparkly pink gas flowed out of it, and soon he and Kurama were engulfed in a sparkly pink cloud. For some reason, the cloud didn't go any further than that.
"...six...is he up yet?...seven..."
"ROSE WHIP!" There was the familiar crack of a whip and a cry of pain. The sparkly pink gas was sucked back into Nezume's strand of wheat, and this time, the scene was different.
Frogari was still on the ground, but Kurama was now on his feet, thorny whip in hand. Nezume was still holding his wheat, but blood spurted from a long gash on his arm, dripping onto the ground, and glaring at Kurama.
"YEAH!" Yusuke exclaimed, joyous that his friend could move again.
"Okay..." Frogari said, "Uh...I'm going to stop counting now...the fight can continue...right Faye?"
"What? Oh, right! It seems Kurama's gotten back on his feet, and I'm not sure what that sparkly pink gas was about but I don't think it really matters! Anyway, let the battle continue!"
"Stupid human," Nezume spat, "You're going to regret that!" He began to glow again, this time a bright yellow. Kurama didn't wait for him to begin releasing his gas. He charged forwards and swung his whip. Nezume stepped nimbly to the side, still glowing.
"That was a mistake!" He laughed, "You're going to feel very sorry you did that!" He inhaled deeply and as he exhaled, a yellow mist came out from his mouth, surrounding him and Kurama.
"NOT AGAIN!" Yusuke moaned, "He already used this!" Sure enough, when the gas was sucked back into Nezume's wheat, Kurama was frozen in place, an expression of pure hatred on his face as he glared at Nezume, who was laughing.
"Didn't think I'd use it again, did you?" Nezume laughed, "Come on, now, the only reason I used my healing gas was to get you off the ground and standing! Then you couldn't be counted out and I could have some more fun before I beat you!" And he was right; for the second time in that match, Kurama couldn't move.
"KURAMA!" Yusuke yelled, "THINK OF SOMETHING!"
***
Death Isle Hotel; Room 10C
***
"I don't like that mouse guy," Kuwabara muttered, "He's too creepy."
"I thought mice were supposed to be cute and cuddly," Niyali sighed, "All the mice I ever met were."
"They tried to bite me," Arashi grumbled sullenly.
"What's going on?" Kozu had appeared at the doorway to the girls bedroom, blinking sleepily.
"KOZU!" Arashi and Niyali exclaimed, getting up and racing over to her, "How are you?"
"Fine," Kozu replied, "What's going on?"
"Kurama's fighting an evil mouse," Arashi explained, as the two led her back to the TV and the chairs/sofas surrounding it. There were three sofas and one TV...the three sofas formed two right angles facing it. Kuwabara and Yukina sat on one of the smaller ones while Botan, Keiko, and Shizuru sat on the larger sofa directly facing the TV. Arashi and Kozu took the remaining one and Niyali settled on the floor.
"Why doesn't Kurama attack?" Kozu asked, "He's just standing there."
"He can't," Arashi explained, "Nezume paralyzed him."
"Oh." The eight of them fell into silence as they watched, each of them wondering how on earth Kurama was going to pull this off.
***
Battle Field
***
Nezume laughed as he listened to Yusuke yelling at Kurama to do something.
"It's hopeless," he told his prey, "You'll never be able to get to me--I've got you cornered, and there's nothing you can do about it!" He began to walk in a slow circle around Kurama, watching with supressed glee as his eyes shifted to track his movements.
"This is amazing!" Faye exclaimed, "Nezume's got Kurama paralyzed again, and now he's walking circles around his opponent! He could attack at any time, and Kurama wouldn't be able to do a single thing about it!" Kurama wished she would shut up; he was trying to concentrate. He couldn't get a Death Seed into Nezume--he was too far away. He could grow his Rose Whip and wrap it around his hair--but he couldn't move his head. Dang it! This was unheard of--a fox cornered by a mouse!
"All right," Nezume sighed, moving into his full line of vision, "Let's make this a bit more interesting, shall we?" He began to glow again; this time a shade of blue. Kurama could only watch and hold his breath as blue gas flowed out of Nezume's nose, filling the enclosed area and blocking his sight. He heard Frogari's strangled cry, and Nezume's laughter (he spent too much time laughing), but it wasn't until he couldn't hold his breath anymore and inhaled that he realized what this blue mist did.
Maybe he had a chance after all.
***
Alrighty then...couple of points I need to hit.
1)NEVER get a story idea before a big essay is due.
2)The story mentioned in 1) is up, so go read and review it!
3)If anybody would like to join a Story Chain, please email
me and I'll explain what it's all about.
4)If anybody knows of a good fanfiction, in
any subject that I happen to know about (Inuyasha, YuYuHakusho,
Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, etc.), would you email it to us? I need
something good to read...
And that's it! Spoilerness, and then you can all make me happy by hitting the review button!...or not.