Alternate Universe

A Yu Yu Hakusho fan-fiction

By Zelia Theb

Disclaimer: Yu Yu Hakusho is the property of Yoshihiro Togashi. 1984 is a novel written by George Orwell.

The opinions expressed by the characters do not reflect the opinions of myself.

Warnings: Male-Male relationships, cursing, sexual situations, violence, tobacco, drug/alcohol use, and possibly other disturbing innuendo. Rated R for these reasons!

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Today was horrible. Abso-friggin-lutely horrible. Sure, right now everyone has shut their faces, but that's because we have to be quiet if we intend on getting to the roof of this stupid club without problems.

First off, when I woke up, Kurama was gone. I found out later that he went with Botan to buy new clothes. You know, I'd really like to know where Koenma comes up with this magical money. You'd think that he could have paid me once for all the crap I do for him.

Yeah, so then, Kurama is avoiding me all day, and Botan looks at me, holding in her stupid giggles, like she knows everything. Kuwabara was being plain annoying, and Koenma insisted on taking us out for foreign food. It wouldn't have been so bad, if it was something normal, like pizza, spaghetti, or a hamburger. But noOOoo… It had to be some weird place that had this nasty menu.

So then, Kurama is trying to get Hiei to eat something the whole time, and then they get into this wicked argument about the whole thing. Well, more like Hiei was blasting away at Kurama left and right. Damn! Not only that, but one of these assholes stole my cigarettes!

"Is everyone ready?" Koenma suddenly asks. Damn, I need to pay attention more often. Seems like we've made it to the roof of the place. There's a weird swirling purple doorway. Hmm, wonder what that is?

"Where the heck is it gonna take us?" Kuwabara scratches his head. His hair is back to normal, except for the red streaks. It looks like a tiger coughed up a hairball on his head.

"Let's just go and get this over with," Hiei states, walking casually into the portal.

"And he says I'm the stupid one," carrot-head mumbles as he trails behind the pre-menstrual demon. Two of a kind, jeez.

I shrug at the remaining three, having given up on forming any sort of plan for the other side. We all walk in, Kurama first, and myself last. I guess he really must be trying to get away from me.

It's night on the other side. What's really freaky is that it looks like we've switched cities, and are on top of my apartment building. Even freakier is who's greeting us and what they're wearing.

Mairaku is standing there, along with some other freak that we haven't been introduced to yet. I'll call him Albino. Keiko isn't around. What they're wearing? Damn fashion freaks.

Hiei's other half still looks the same. Hair's pulled back, eyeliner is loaded on, and he's insisting on the leather dog collar. The weirdest thing? The shorties must shop at the same store, only that white puffy scarf thingy is red. Shit…

This is so fucked up.

Albino is…an albino. His features are more feminine than Kurama's and Botan's put together. Short silver spikes of hair shoot from all directions of his head, and his white eyes are softly outlined in thick strokes of blue. Damn, Yusuke, go try out for a make-up infomercial. He's got on a demon dress too, without the puffy thing. His is midnight blue.

Rewind. This is really fucked up.

"Get her, Arufuiiratsu," Mairaku says as we all study their movements. Wait, what the hell did he say?

"Huh? What's yer name?" Kuwabara asks the seemingly shy bad guy.

"Alpheratz…" he answers in a voice that rivals Kurama's, not bothering to look up. I guess I was right, the dude is a bit shy.

"Wha??" Kuwabara says. The two go back and forth, as everyone else but Mairaku and Hiei try and decipher the words.

Enraged and annoyed, Mairaku suddenly yells, "A-Ru-Fu-Ii-Ra-Tsu! You stupid lump!" Ooooh….

"I getcha! Alpheratz!" said lump exclaims.

"Just give us Keiko already!" Hiei yells at his twin. Yeah!

"Keiko, dear, you can come out now," Alpheratz meekly says to the door leading to the lower floors of the building.


After deciphering the new character's name, Keiko is released from captivity. She walks slowly out of the door and bows to Alpheratz in thanks. In her hands is a pile of clothing, most likely the same style as our enemy. She scurries over to us, appearing relatively unharmed, and Botan offers to take the pile of clothing off her hands. Now that I can clearly see her body, I see that she is wearing a long tan duster. Quite a strange pattern here, I just hope that Keiko hasn't been turned on us.

"Are you hurt?" Yusuke asks her. She nods, shaking her brown hair up and down.

"That was simple," Hiei points out. Yes, it was rather simple, wasn't it…? Come to think of it, Koenma never told us the danger of this 'Anduromida' group. Personally, I just assumed that the danger was too great and far too deep to explain, and that he was withholding it for a purpose. However, now it seems as if we played right into their hands. We have no idea of how to inter-dimensionally travel back to our own plane. Quite frankly, we're trapped here.

Mairaku and Alpheratz stand there. I can sense their spirits; Mairaku's power could equal that of Hiei's, however, Alpheratz is much weaker. Not only does his personality and spirit give this away, but the way in which he seems to cower behind Mairaku. Something is…different about them.

"They're human," Kuwabara states, "I can feel it."

"They're demon, fool," Hiei corrects him with a glare, "Haven't you learned by now not to judge a bad guy by the way he looks?"

"Hey, shut up!" Kuwabara retorts, "I said I can feel it!"

"You are both correct. They are neither, yet both," I interrupt. Mairaku glowers at me as I say this. But still, they make no move.

Hiei claims that I often study my opponents too much, when things could be ended so quickly. Perhaps he is correct; but this situation calls for such attention to detail.

Kieko hands me a sleek light gray duster. She has handed everyone but Hiei a long covering of some sort. Yusuke's is black, Kuwabara's is white, and Botan has a dark brown. It seems as if those garments she held were gifts for us, though I am uncertain as to why she is unphased by her capture.

"What's the deal, Keiko? I didn't know that prisoners were allowed to shop," Yusuke asserts, possibly curious about the strange situation, "I figured they would have at least had you tied to a chair, or something."

"Prisoner?" Keiko asks, bewildered by the statement. Is it possible that she was tricked?

"You talked to me yesterday and said that Koenma would be sending new partners for you," the brunette explains to us, "We all were going to be brought to this new world so that we couldn't be involved with your next case."

"WHAT?!" Yusuke shouts out of frustration, "I didn't even see you yesterday! What the hell are you talking about?"

"Alternate planes, Yusuke…" Koenma states, "Which means alternate selves. She was tricked, but at least she wasn't harmed."

"So this world's Yusuke is a traitor? Wow, I sure don't hope that guy didn't train with Genkai…" Kuwabara interjects.

"That does not explain the gifts, Keiko," I say politely.

"Well, it's the law here," she says meekly, "No one is allowed to be seen outdoors without some sort of long covering."

"Well that's stupid," Yusuke huffs. He glances my way, but I turn my head to face our opponents. Their objective still isn't clear to me; aside from the fact that we're trapped. However, Koenma entered the portal willingly. It is unlike him. He must know a way back; otherwise he would have gone back to Spirit World.

Of course! But why wasn't it so obvious earlier? Alternate selves… What could upset a world so much that it would become so different, yet so similar?

"Hiei," I say telepathically to my friend, "You must understand it now, correct?" I hope that he answers; he and I have not been getting along today.

"What's there to understand, Kurama?" he answers, "This ruse was obviously a well-thought out plot to waste our time and to get us away from Yusuke's city long enough to pull something off."

"It's more than that, Hiei," I reply, "Koenma has no intentions of taking us back." I look over at him, and his crimson eyes grow wide when he realizes what I've said. I should have expected this…

He's run up behind Koenma, and taken him hostage, pulling him roughly away from the entire group, and threatening to slit his throat with his katana. Keiko is not the greatest actress either. She let out a small gasp, not at the fact that Hiei appears to have doublecrossed us, but because she realizes that she has little time to escape.

"Hiei! What the hell are you doing?" Yusuke yells. He's ready to attack our short ally, along with Kuwabara, but I stop him.

"We've been tricked," I announce, "That is not Koenma, and that girl is not Keiko!"

"That's impossible!" Botan cries out, "Their energy is the same! Koenma even contacted us from Spirit World! I don't understand this at all!"

"Yes, now unhand me, Hiei!" the false Koenma pleads.

As if by fate, a beeping sound is heard emanating from Botan. Her eyes open wide and she pulls out her compact communicator.

"Koenma!"

"Botan! Where've you been? I need you to contact Yusuke at once! We--" I snatch the communicator out of her hand quickly, beating Mairaku to it. He was ready to destroy it; and the real Koenma may be our last hope of escaping this world.

"This is seriously fu…!" Yusuke is stopped short by Alpheratz, who's just sent a small energy blast his way. It was merely a distraction for him to escape with Keiko and Koenma, leaving Mairaku for us to deal with.

Yusuke stands up unharmed, just startled. He clenches a fist at the raven-haired enemy, and declares, "Now before we kick your ass, tell us what the hell is going on here!"

"Since you won't be able to lay a finger on me…no!" After the childish statement, Mairaku disappears in a red orb of energy and escapes briskly.

"Can anyone tell me why we didn't kick their puny butts right then?" Kuwabara inquires.

"The situation was rather vexing, and no one was certain of how to react," I offer. I toss the compact back to Botan, who then flips it open to connect with Koenma. Everyone gathers around the apparition. It's strange. I want to distance myself from Yusuke, and Hiei wants to stay away from me. Both of them have that same hurt look in their eyes.

"Botan! Thank goodness! Where ARE all of you?!"

"We're stuck in an alternate universe, sir! It was entrapment! We have no idea how to get out of this place!" Botan certainly is a worrisome girl. I am delighted that these communicators are able to transcend the planes at the least.

"It's Anduromida, isn't it?" Koenma asks. Well, at least he's up to speed. He continues, "If it's safe and I can have everyone's silence for a moment, I'll brief you." Everyone nods. I for one, wouldn't mind some clarification on this whole matter. While it would be rather interesting to see if Shuichi and Shiori existed in this world, I would prefer to be back home.

"First off, I want to say what their exact threat is. As you already know, the group possesses the power to travel to alternate dimensions, or to be more exact, only one alternate dimension. That's the one that you four are trapped in now." At least that eliminates most of my worries. Not only will we not have to wonder if they fled to an entirely different plane altogether, but we know that we will most likely return to our own dimension, instead of a completely new one.

"Their plan is to cause a worldwide war in THAT world. That world is run by very strict laws, similar to those seen in the book '1984', which I assume that only Kurama has read…"

"Huh? What's that about?" Kuwabara and Yusuke ask together.

"It's a classic novel, originally written in English, by George Orwell," I explain on behalf of Koenma, "Essentially, it was Orwell's vision of what life would be like in the year nineteen eighty four. The government was able to manipulate the people so much that they controlled what they ate, what they thought, even when they were allowed to have relations. They could change the story of a war from one week to the next, and no one questioned it. Those who did were vaporized, and not spoken of. The language of the people was constantly reduced so that it would eliminate words that had different meanings, so as not to produce a phenomenon labeled 'double think'. A rather interesting read, though I believe I may have missed many details."

"Kurama got the basics. That's what THAT world is like."

"So why not pull a Sakyo and try to build a tunnel to Demon World?" Yusuke asks. A rather intelligent question; though there must be a good reason as to why not. That same reason would also provide some information on the world itself.

"I hate to say it, but in that world, there already IS a tunnel to Demon World. It's not large enough to let B Class or higher demons through. Here's the kicker, though, Yusuke. King ENMA was the one who constructed it, to assist the human government. Demons who pass through the tunnel are only allowed to be the silent soldiers of the government. Not many decide to take passage, as they would not like to be a part of a world like that, or a world of humans no less."

"My alternate self is rebelling against his father. King Enma placed his son directly in the right hand seat of the highest government official. That Koenma is also the head of all tunnel affairs."

"I'll say what I've been sayin' in my head this whole time," Yusuke remarks, "This is really fucked up!"

"I don't understand, Koenma," Hiei steps in, "Why not let them ruin this pathetic and boring little world. It would do it some justice. I know that if I get stuck here, I will personally start world destruction myself. I already know that there is no opponent powerful enough to beat me."

"Yeah, goes from being run by a bunch of stuck-up pansies to being run by a short three eyed freak. Yeah, that sounds ideal," Kuwabara mutters. Hiei jabs him in hip with his elbow, causing our tall friend to yelp.

"Koenma doesn't have the power to make the tunnel larger. In fact, he wasn't aware of a way to allow the vicious demons through to that Human World, until he was approached by Anduromida. He decided to help them in secret. They are building a temple in our world which will act as a portal to their world, and plan on rallying up demons, humans, and basically anything that could be a catalyst for war. The other function that temple will provide is the ability to ritual summon high-class demons from our Demon World. You can see why this is a danger to us as well. It's not as fatal as a tunnel, as the demon is chosen by the ritual. We just can't have a place out there like that, in the event that one goes wrong and some S Class demon crushes a city in a single stride."

Finally, a bit of clarity on the subject. It certainly is a different world. I wonder if my alternate self was able to transpose himself to this world. It would be intriguing to see if we could use the knowledge of ourselves as a catalyst for any of our plans.

"Well then, how do we get out of here? There's gotta be a way out that you know of, since you seem to know everything about these guys. Wait, how the hell do you know all of this if you're sittin' there sucking on a pacifier in a different dimension?" Yusuke snatched the compact from Botan and stared too closely into it, however, Botan slapped him in the face and swiped it back. If only I could make that small red mark feel better…but not now.

"Well, for one, that's top secret information, but I can say that I received all that information from an informant who spied on the group while they were in OUR world. So no, I don't have a way out for you four. However…there are two options. You can wait for Anduromida to complete their plan, and hopefully escape back home alive; of course you'd have to deal with the aftermath back home…OR you can find the source of their power, and return home yourselves."

"Get back to the point, Koenma," Hiei prodded the toddler.

"Right. Each of them carries a pendant, which when combined, can create the portal. So that's your ticket back. We can try and coerce any of the four on our side to return to you, but it'll be a tough task. It is certain that the closer to achieving their plan, the more likely they are to be in that world." No one speaks, even though it is clear that we all have to hope luck is on our side for this one.

"Everyone clear? I'll give Botan information as I find it." With that, Koenma ends the transmission and Botan shuts the device.

"Great, so where the hell do we go?" Yusuke questions the sky. I pick up my garment from the evil Keiko and put it over my arms. It was the only gesture that would prove useful.

"You put on your law-abiding disguises and we find somewhere to stay," Hiei returns, his voice still as condescending as ever.

"What about Genkai's temple?" our tallest comrade suggests.

"That may have been the most intelligent thing that has ever left that mouth of yours," Hiei remarks. Kuwabara should be thankful; it was a compliment, even if it was a tad backhanded.

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[Author's Note]

Yes, there are many questions left out in the open. Don't worry, all of them will be covered.

Chapter 4 will introduce a new POV; Hiei. Aside from a piece of key enemy interaction, it will mostly focus on Hiei. There is also a hilarious little bit about how the gang acquires their first meal.

As always, feel free to e-mail me with anything pertaining to this story (just make sure that Fanfiction is in the subject). Just check my bio. Not to mention, another shameless plug for my Y-K one-shot Strawberry Licorice!

Thanks for reading and reviewing!

-Zelia Theb