(12-25-04) MERRY CHRISTMAS! I got a digital camcorder everyone!!! I'm so happy! :dances: I'm already getting on peoples' nerves with it... My mother said I'm gonna make her insecure in her own house... Lol...
Anyway, I wrote this chapter purely with the intention of posting on Christmas... Merry Christmas to you.It's very short.

CHAPTER SIX
Divine Inspiration

Shadow and Eclipse trekked through the forest, somehow having ended up in khaki shorts and tank tops with large walking sticks, backpacks, and all the other gear you'd typically find people hauling around in a tropical forest. However, this was most definitely not a tropical forest, and you don't need to weigh yourself down with about thirty pounds of extra stuff when chasing a fire demon that is not weighed down by anything and is several times faster than you to begin with, and who also had a head start. (D'ja get all that?)

"Here we are," Shadow panted, practically dragging herself up the hill with her stick cane thing, "in the deep dark forests of Bvvvvvvvvvv-tichtichtich-llamallama-Nanipuu!, the dangerous forest inhabited by the most fearsome of creatures..." She tripped and fell on her face, but did not slide at all down the steep hill. Dragging herself to her feet and continuing her climb with obvious effort, she spoke again.

"As I was saying, creatures so fearsome that it would make the world's strongest human cringe in fear and wet his pants. Creatures so deadly that even I find them a challenge to defeat! Such beasts as the--"

Ker-THUD!

"OWWWW!!!" Shadow whined. She looked up at her assailant and her jaw dropped. "Random Surfer Dude?! You hit me with your surfboard!"

"It was like, so totally a, like, accident, dudette. I'm so, like, sorry, y'know?"

"Yeah, okay, forgiven," she muttered, rubbing her head. "Wait a second... DIVINE INSPIRATION! Eclipse! We're going to interview Random Surfer Dude!"

"My neck hurts..." Eclipse muttered. Shadow looked at her, confused, then laughed and grabbed her head, straightening her neck, ignoring the audible cracks it emitted. The ground levelled up instantly and Shadow was no longer climbing up a hill, but standing in what was more or less a perfectly level stretch of trees. Cheap camera tricks, lol.

"Are you willing to be interviewed, Mr. Random Surfer Dude?"

"You can just, like, call me Dude."

"Awesome, Dude. So do you have any objections to a short interview?"

"Like, no I don't, dudette."

"Oh, jolly good!" Shadow took her pack straps off her shoulders and dropped it on the ground. Instantly, it transformed into a small table and two chairs. She sat in one and gestured for Dude to do the same. He was a bit surprised by her black magic, but obeyed.

"So, Dude, why are you so random?"

"It's like, my job, dudette."

"How can you just show up so randomly at such random intervals?"

"Like... What?"

"I mean, look back at all the random, inopportune times you've shown up in my life, and my friends' lives. When we first met, you were in the forest when I was being chased by Youko, and Hiei and the others were being assaulted by an overprotective violence-happy forest youkai, and you somehow already knew about Hiei's ultimate attack. Then you got killed by the fox. It was very sorrowful. After that, you saved Kurama from Karasu, totally on random accident. What were you doing in Karasu's secret hideout, anyway?"

"I was like, lost," Dude said. Shadow nodded.

"That's not a place you wanna be when you're lost. Anyway, then... Let's see, you were... walking past my house last Christmas when we were having a snowball fight, and... On that cruise... and you... Now you're here. Yes. Why are you here?"

"I totally don't know, dudette."

"You do know that a gay vampire lives around here, don't you?"

Dude looked a bit startled. "Like, seriously?"

"Yes."

"No way, man, I totally didn't know that. Is he like, gonna suck my, like, blood?"

Shadow shook her head. "Nah, he's after Kurama. I don't know if he'd want to suck your blood anyway. If we're talking about Kurama, though, I'm sure he would..." She looked thoughtful and muttered, "Might wanna suck something else, too..."

"SHADOW!" Eclipse yelped, absolutely repulsed. Dude just stared.

"What? Huh? Oh!" Shadow grinned. "That was a bit over the rating, wasn't it?" She laughed a bit.

"Pervert."

"Oh, but it's true! Anyway, Dude, why do you show up at such random times?"

"It's like, my hob, like I said, like, earlier."

Shadow thought for a second. "And why do you carry a surfboard everywhere?"

"A surfboard is an object of like, many uses."

"I see that," Shadow said. "You've hit people more than once with one. So how's your girlfriend?"

"Oh. We like, broke up. She went out and got like, bitten by a shark, too, dudette. It wasn't very awesome, you know?"

"I can imagine."

"Yeah... Totally..."

"So what are your plans for the future?"

"Well, I had hoped to kinda like, be promoted from like, Random Surfer Dude to Radical Surfer Dude, but we'll have to see how the like, waves of fate crash on the great sandy beach of reality."

Shadow grinned. "That's an awesome saying, Dude! So what's a Radical Surfer Dude?"

"A Radical Surfer Dude is like, less Random, dudette, because he's supposed to be, like, there more often."

Shadow blinked. "Oh." Whatever blows yer bubble... "Any way I could help?"

"I like, totally doubt it, dudette."

"Okay then. Any questions for Mr. Dude, Eclipse?"

"Yeah!" She and Shadow switched places. Eclipse leaned forward over the table, getting ready to ask a big, suspenseful question, then said, "Do you have a name?"

Shadow blinked, looking baffled. "Good question! Way to go!"

"Actually, I like, totally do have a name."

"Really? That's cool." Eclipse danced over and grabbed the camera from Shadow.

"That's it?"

"Yeah."

"You ask him if he has a name, then don't bother asking what it is?"

"You can ask. I just wanted to know if he had a name."

Shadow sighed. Just then, a certain hunted fire demon walked into the camera's line of view, stopped dead, spun, and left again, but it was too late. Shadow had seen him.

"THERE HE IS!" She tore after him. "THANKS FOR YOUR TIME, DUDE, TALK LATER, GOTTA GO! BYE!"

Eclipse was on her heels. Dude just stared at them as they vanished, shook his head, got up, and went off to surf.

Like it? Merry Christmas again... (Happy holidays if you're gonna complain about political correctness). Yu Yu Hakusho isn't on tonight and I missed Shaman King... BUT I GOT A DIGITAL CAMCORDER! Woohoo!