I have been so totally evil, not updating for so long! (nervous laughter) I know someone's out there planning my death, but until you actually kill me, you must know what the Gaelic from last chapter meant, because I completely forgot to put in a translation key (thanks to Mel-chan for reminding me), so all of you were probably reading the Gaelic like, "WTF does that mean?!" And I'm sorry for it. (humble bow) But I have the key here!

Deagh-bheatha- welcome
Brenna- (Asa's nickname) raven-haired
Edana- (Umi's nickname) fiery
Enda- birdlike
Cairine- pure
Caileags- little girls
- what
Diobair- forget it; also means abandon, or forsake
Aingeal- angel
Coimhlion- perfect
Dáicheil- handsome

Okay, that is done now. HAH on my forgetfulness....yeah, anyways, holy CRAP, Kurama-kun!

Kuramai- Nani?

I just got the coolest poster!

Kurama- Does it have me on it?

...Well...no.

Kurama- Traitor! Traitor to fangirls everywhere!

Am not! It's a cool poster! It's got a pretty fairy sitting on a crescent moon!

Kurama- ...

...Shut up.

Kurama- Did I say anything?

...I'm giving them the chapter now, ya ja-ku.

-

Chapter Ten- Priestess Training, Part One

(DO NOT KILL ME YET!)

-

((A/K FLUFF & ANGST WARNING!!!))

"Shuuichi, where are you?!" The innocent cry was echoing through the darkness. Why oh why had she let him talk her into coming through the park and taking the shortcut home instead of taking the safer route around it? Now he'd gone and disappeared!

A loud cry from off in the darkness alarmed her, and she spun on her heel, hands clenched to her lips as she stared off in horror, wondering where her friend had gone to. "Wh-who's there?" she called tentatively.

The trees all looked odd in the nigh—which was without moon or starlight, due to the thick covering of clouds overhead. Thunder was rolling more distantly than the cry of pain she'd just heard.

"I'm here, Asa-chan..." She spun around a second time, and her wide, icy eyes met two surprisingly weary emerald ones. She didn't know how, but in the next two heartbeats, she'd enfolded him in a rather tight embrace, relief pouring into her features.

"Don't do that to me!" she scolded him, closing her eyes and nestling her cheek into the material of his coat.. Presently, he returned her embrace, slightly wincing. She hadn't taken notice to the small movement, though. "I thought I heard someone cry out!"

"Oh? I didn't hear anything, and I only went to the fountain—I thought you were right behind me," he lied through his teeth.

"Well, don't do it again."

"I won't; I promise."

-

"Hey...Shuuichi...?" she asked, glancing sidelong at the redhead who sat on the hill next to her. They were with the others, on a picnic, but she and 'Shuuichi' had strayed from them, preferring to sit in solitude rather than engage in a game of football or a 'Hiei's-killing-Kuwabara' episode.

"Mm?"

"You're not...going to go away, are you?"

"...Go away...? What do you mean?" he asked, turning to her and furrowing his brow in confusion. He was leaning back, his hands hooked around one knee that was bent upward, while his other leg was stretched out before him. She blushed when his gaze fell on her, smoothing the pleated skirt she'd worn as best she could since she was sitting with her legs folded under her.

"I mean..." she responded after a pause, looking thoughtful as to her answer, "If...something happened...something bad...you wouldn't leave, would you?"

"...No, of course not," he replied, reaching an arm out to wrap around her shoulders and pull her closer, thought she caught the dark look that passed over his eyes in that moment. "I wouldn't ever."

"Hey, you two lovebirds, get over here!" Yusuke called teasingly from the distance, causing both of them to turn in unison and throw death-glares at him.

-

This scene was unfamiliar. She stood in the center of a large circular platform made of white and blue marble, four torches lit around her, all of them blocking the four doorways that she saw. The building she was in was some sort of temple, looking up revealed a golden dome above her head. Squares of marble brick were the walls, all glossy and sapphire-colored, and the floor was a black gleaming stone; opal perhaps. The four doorways that had the torches in them had different colored frames that were arching over them—red, dark blue, sky blue, and green.

"The four elements...fire, water, air, and earth," she mumbled under her breath.

A familiar voice cried out in pain, and her eyes widened. "Kurama?!"

-

Enda was lying on the ground, in a clearing in a forest. Blood covered her from head to toe, so much that where it came from was indiscernible. Blood was pouring from the corners of her lips, and she was mouthing something...something...
"Brenna..."

-

Asa awoke from her last, more shadowy dream with a start, sitting up as she cried out and gasped for air, wide-eyed and pale, sweat forming on her face and in her very cold hands. It wasn't a very comforting thing that she'd dreamt. Her grandmother's last breath had been an utterance of her name.

"Whoa...that was just freaky...no more of it," she told herself. She glanced to the window, seeing that the sun had only just started to rise over a hill in the distance. Ireland had a few hills...very few mountains.

Watch...watch...where's my watch? she asked herself, glaring at her wrist for not having the watch on it. She tried to remember where she'd placed it after removing it the night before, and her eyes turned to the bedside table. There! It was only six twenty-five in the morning. Jesus, what the hell's wrong with me?!

"Well," she yawned aloud, stretching her arms over her head, "Not going back to sleep anytime soon...so I might as well get up."

She clambered out of bed, stumbling for a moment before her sleep-dazed state wore off, then blinked a few times, reaching for a robe to wrap around herself. She exited her room, poking her head out first to peer around and make sure no one else was awake before she ventured out into the hall. The house was quite; almost unnaturally quiet. Umi's snores could be heard from her room, but Asa had to admit that it was most unnerving that she could only hear Umi.

She paused then, realizing something that hadn't occurred to her before. Shouldn't there be some sort of sound...the sheep being fed or herded, a dog yipping, the horses neighing or stamping their feet? Yet, there was none of those sounds...no birds warbling their good morning tune, no crickets making melodies of serenity...what was wrong?

"Nanna?!" she called softly, running to her grandmother's bedroom door and knocking as she opened it. The woman wasn't in her bed. Asa chewed the corners of her lips, worried now. She decided that maybe they had all gone out...as strange as it would be. She went down into the kitchen, hoping to find a note of some sort. There was one, one that said some of the umpteen people that were helpers on Enda's farm would be in town. It didn't say anything about the old woman herself.

"Nanna..." Asa mumbled worriedly, her brow furrowing and her eyes darting to look out the window, hoping to see anything that would give a sign of her grandmother's presence. Nothing. "Damn it..." Spinning around, Asa hurried back upstairs.

"Umi, wake up!" she cried, throwing open the door to Umi's room. The startled dark-haired girl sat up, eyes wide, dreams interrupted, and turned to the door, where Asa stood.

"Asa, daijobu?!" she asked.

"Everyone's gone, and I can't find Nanna. Get up and get dressed, we're going to look for her." Asa left her, closing the door in a cursory, and went to her own room to get ready to search for her grandmother. She emerged in her favorite hiking outfit—a pair of boots, slightly faded denim bell bottoms, and a white button-up blouse. When Umi finally emerged from her own room, stretching her arms over her head and yawning, Asa gaped at her, after a moment, commenting, "Umi...you're not seriously wearing that, are you?"

Umi looked down at her choice of spaghetti strap tank top and short pleated skirt with open-toe high heels and shrugged, "Sure; why not?" Rolling her eyes and trying to maintain her patience, Asa grabbed her cousin's wrist and dragged her down the stairs and outside, ignoring the complaints thrown her way about 'breaking ankles' and 'bad hair days.'

"Nanna?!" Asa cupped her palms around her mouth so that her voice was carried further out, but no matter what she did to try and summon up her grandmother, and no matter how often Umi hollered for the woman, she did not appear. "Now where did she go?" Asa mumbled under her breath, again chewing the corners of her lips as she crossed her arms over her chest with concern written clearly on her expression.

"Don't worry about it, cuz," Umi yawned, stretching her arms over her head and turning back toward the house. "She's probably taking a walk and out of our earshot...how about we go back to the house so I can get back to bed—ow, that hurt!" she cried out, grabbing the offended piece of skin on her arm that had been pinched between Asa's fingers. "What did you go and do that for, you jerk?"

"You're not going back to sleep until we find Nanna!" Asa informed her, moving toward the forest that was off in the distance, near the cliffs on the island.

"Asa!" Umi whined, stamping her foot down to the ground, "We've been looking for Nanna forever now, and I'm tired!"

"Correction: we've been looking for about ten minutes, and you'll live. It's Nanna I'm worried about. So suck it up and keep up, or else I'll leave you here...alone," Asa said, smirking slightly. She was being cruel, she knew; long had Umi complained that their grandmother's house was 'haunted' by some malicious thing that she'd once claimed to see outside of her window, with glowing red eyes and a maddening, discolored face, horns growing out of its head and scales for skin. ((Wonder what that could be...?)) When she glanced over her shoulder at Umi, she saw that the girl had visibly stiffened, then gave a nod of her head and moved to follow Asa.

"Okay, I'll come along...but you are so going to pay for that later!" she growled at her cousin, who merely smiled innocently in reply. They entered the forest cautiously, Umi gripping Asa's arm in a death-vice, Asa moving along slowly, carefully as she could.

"Nanna?" she called, embarrassed when her voice sounded like that of a frightened little girl stuck in a dark room. If Umi noticed, though, she said nothing, probably since she was too afraid herself to even speak. There seemed to be something majorly wrong...and Asa somehow knew that she was going to find out what it was.

A sharp, distant cry came from deeper in the heart of the forest, and Asa could feel Umi stiffen beside of her. They both swallowed loudly, glancing at each other, before Umi grabbed Asa's hand like a young girl grabbing her mother's. Asa didn't protest, and led Umi toward the sound, both thinking the same thing. That sounded like Nanna's voice...

"Asa-chan," Umi whispered, leaning forward to allow her cousin to hear her raspy voice better, "What if...you know, she's...?"

"Don't think like that," Asa hissed, glaring at Umi over her shoulder, "She's all right...wherever she is. Just give me a minute to get my bearings, and we'll go see what that cry was...then, hopefully, be able to find Nanna."

It might not have been so bad from there on out. The key term in that phrase, of course, is might. In fact, it really wouldn't have, if, just as Asa was about to take another stap, two familiar blue (STILL unaware here) eyes blinked, upside down, and a familiar voice said in its Irish accent, "Oi, Asa-chan, lass, ye be a hard'un to find when ye wanna be, ya know?"

Asa shrieked, jumping backward, and in the process knocking Umi and herself to the ground, sprawled in an awkward tangle of limbs. "Dude, get the hell offa me!" Umi cursed, kicking halfheartedly at Asa, who scrambled to her feet to face their new guest. Jin grinned innocently at her, a lopsided grin that matched the twinkle in his eyes and really made her want to slap him silly.

"Jin, what in the seven circles of hell are you doing here?!" she cried, resisting all urges to strangle him in the process of interrogating him. "Where the friggin' a are Touya and the twins?!"

"We're right behind you, Asa-chan..." Kasumi said from behind them. She spun around, eyes so wide they were practically bugging out, and sure enough, all three demons stood behind Umi, who was utterly clueless as to what was going on.

"Um...cuz?" Umi finally questioned, after Asa had stared at the four unwanted visitors with an expression that was slowly turning from surprise to ire. "Who are these crazy people, how did they get here, and what are they doing here?"

"They're friends, they most likely traveled by foot, just to annoy me, and I'm not sure what they're doing here, but if I find out they're here because of why I think they're here, I know one rather annoying pretty boy in Japan who's going to get the shit knocked out of him."

"Oh, Asa-chan, you wouldn't dare bring harm to him, and you know it," Natsumi said exasperatedly. "We're only here—by teleportation, which is a power of Kasumi's—because we promised Genkai we'd look after you. And you definitely wouldn't hurt her, would you?"

After a long pause, Asa answered through gritted teeth, "No, but damn it...I left Japan to get away from demons and crap, no offense.

"None taken," they all chided, while Umi stared curiously at Asa.

"Demons...what the hell are you talking about, woman?" she demanded, looking like she wanted to slap some sense into her cousin. "Demons don't exist!"

"Actually, Umi...you're in the presence of four of them," Asa looked apologetically at Umi and explained, "This was Shuuichi's secret. He's really this demon that's like, five hundred years old and reincarnated. Yusuke's some sort of freaky detective who died and came back to life with a cool power called "spirit energy", Kuwabara's got that same pretty cool power, only it's not quite as strong as his spirital awareness, Botan's a ferry girl for the River Styx, Hiei's a fire demon with a weird other eye thing, and they're all working for some toddler who's going to need a major diaper change when I get a hold of him. They met Touya and Jin in this tournament called "Dark Tournament" and Natsumi and Kasumi only recently joined the group when I was kidnapped, which is how I acquired this," she motioned at her broken arm, then glanced at her four demon comrades questioningly, "That about sum it up?" They all nodded in approval.

Umi stared at her as if she were mad. Then, after she gathered all she could absorb through the rather terse summary of what was going on, she nodded slowly, as if to confirm it to herself. Then she grinned, "Well, damn! That's kinda cool! Why didn't you tell me sooner?!"

"Um...?"

"So, what's this 'preincarnated' Shuuichi like?"

Blinking, Asa told her, "He's a...fox demon named Youko Kurama...which is what Shuuichi goes by now...Kurama, that is."

"Cool! Okay, so...these four are like, your bodyguards assigned by Genkai, right?" Asa nodded. "Okay! They can go with us to find Nanna!"

"Holy shit! I forgot about Nanna! Crap crap crap crap crap..." Asa turned and, without offering any elaboration to her four puzzled demon friends, ran ahead of her five comrades toward where they'd heard the scream earlier.

"It's a good thing we caught up with her when we did..." Touya said, "I fear she may have begun to lose her mind."

"Oh, nah, Asa-chan's always like that," Umi admitted with an eye roll, "Especially when she's worried. Now, dudes, lets' get going!" They hurried to follow Asa, who was by now so far away they could barely hear her cries of "crap" as she sprinted toward the source of disturbing sound.

Ahead, she heard another sound, even more pain-filled and miserable, and it made her brow crease with worry. The sound was incredibly familiar...like the cries of her mother... Shaking the thought away from her head with annoyance, she slowed, barely noticing the Irish-accented redheaded demon who'd just caught up to her.

"Ah, Asa-lass, ye've gotten a bit fast, eh? Fox-boy must be pretty proud o' ye." She threw him a sharp glare at that. "Nani?!"

"Just shut up and come on." They finally reached a clearing in the forest, which Asa should have immediately recognized from her dream, but she was too preoccupied with the scene before her. She had been sure she'd find her grandmother here...and she did, much to her horror.

- - -

...Okay, so I just scored a 12 on the 1-10 evil scale. (sweatdrop) I PROMISE YOU, I'll try to update again shortly...there are about three parts to Priestess Training, according to my storyline calculations... (looks over the long list of mathematical equations)

Yusuke- HOLY SHIT, you actually DID all of that?!

...NO! I got Foxy to do it, to prove that I wasn't a traitor to fangirls. (grin)

Yusuke- -.-;;

Anyway, like I was saying...be prepared for a heckuva ride later on... (yay grin) and don't hurt me (ahem) too badly.

Hiei- AzureDragoness, I'm back! (does a VERY ooc happy dance) Thank you for reviewing!! (hugs Azure)

Kuwabara- (whisper whisper) We kind of spiked his water this morning...and then gave him sugar on top of that...

Hiei- I HEART LOLLIPOPS!

Yusuke- Sun Priestess, hey, maybe you should join Asa-chan on her little priestess quest, eh? Anyway, the brat thanks you for reviewing (leans back in his chair)

...Brat?! (throws a milk carton at his head)

Yusuke- ...(swirly-eyed effect)

Kurama- Mel-chan! Hi! It's been awhile, hasn't it? Sorry about Meka's long...(ahem)...absence. She's a bit...overwhelmed with school and such. Thank you for reviewing!

Thanks, guys! You make such good review responders!

Kuwabara- Ooh, my turn, my turn!

...(sigh), all right, go ahead...

Kuwwabara- (holds up his disclaimer sign, which now reads, 'I do not own YYH! I do own Asa-chan and Ai-san'

...Idiot. Anyways, you guys know the drill. Reviews are most welcome!