As promised, you're in for a complete twist that I've had in mind since Chapter 1. So please enjoy!
Disclaimer: Yu Yu Hakusho © Yoshihiro Togashi.
The Seibu Project
By Zelia Theb; © Zelia Theb.
After I finished my tumble to the rocks below, I immediately aimed upwards with my finger, ready to shoot my Spirit Gun. There wasn't much time. A furry column of hooked bristles dove for the center of the rubble I was in, and I found myself gripped by Hiei who had pulled me out of the way. My reaction time was slow.
Kuwabara had already produced his Spirit Sword, and was steadily guarding Kurama who still seemed exhausted. His Rose Whip was significantly smaller, it wasn't necessarily shorter in length, but any one of us knew that the reason it thinned out nearly as much as it did was because he had strained his energy to manipulate it that way. I had to make this fight count, Kurama's vulnerability was all my fault. Though I'm sure that the three of them seemed to think that they were responsible for how injured I was.
"Damn it, Detective!" Hiei cursed as we leapt from yet another downward step of the beast. "Move it!"
"I am," I replied, annoyed. "It's not like I have a fricken' clue as to what the hell we are running from!"
"Then look up!"
And I did. As if I couldn't have predicted it from the clues before, what I witnessed shocked the hell out of me. Maybe it was from the inherent phobia of the things that all humans naturally tended to have. It's funny, because in reality, spiders are small and very helpful creatures. They're misunderstood because of their creepy look and their way of sneaking around.
I'll admit, sometimes I freak out when the wind rushes across my body, tickling the tiny hairs on my arm. I think that it's a spider, and I quickly brush myself off only to find that nothing was there. It's happened everywhere, my legs, the back of my neck, my knuckles. Hell, once a piece of my own hair flew into my ear and I flipped out
Often times there are urban legends, rumors of wacky stories with spiders or news reports that defy science. Spiders that plant their eggs within the skin of humans like a parasite, tarantulas that eat babies, or creatures that can leap the length of a ballroom. Maybe somewhere along the way, these stories were true, but who knows? A lot of people hardly know that one one of the deadliest spiders out there is the Daddy Long Legs. It's venom is amazingly lethal. The funny part is that the things don't have mouths good enough to pierce the skin of large animals. Or so I've heard, though that could be another myth too.
But damn. Whatever the heck this thing was, I hoped to hell that it wasn't a Daddy Long Legs.
Hiei jerked my wrist once more, and we kept running in circles around the room. It was getting tiring. I didn't want the thing to keep destroying our way out of this place, and I certainly didn't wanna have to wait until Kurama recuperated enough to grow us a ladder out of here. I escaped from the demon's hand, and stood my ground.
"Yusuke!" Kurama shouted at me, thinking that perhaps I was making the wrong move.
But in my mind, I wasn't. The walls were still too tough for the spider's leg to pierce, despite the strength it took to collapse our walkway. I was in precisely the right position. I waited with my newfound strength for it to press upon me with another attack, and then dodged it with a handspring, leaving me in the center of the room, beneath it. The only way it would have left to attack us would be to go up, since it's entire body nearly filled the room.
In this case I was wrong. I didn't realize how small it actually was. My eyes had been given the illusion that it had a larger mass, possibly due to the shadows and the flickering lightning coming from our exit above. And as it scaled down the side of the wall for the four of us, we finally discovered that our opponent was not just an oversized insect. Instead of eight eyes and a pair of horizontal fangs, the creature instead had the abdomen and head of a human, with bruise-colored skin.
"A drachnid…" Kurama whispered, explaining that it was a creature from fantasy novels. I was skeptical of its creation, though. While it would make sense that make one of the psychics manifested the image of a man-spider, I chalked it up to an anomaly with the time warp, where man melded with spider on accident.
"No matter what it is," Hiei stated, "we must cut off its legs immediately."
Without thinking of the reasons for Hiei's strategy, I asked him to explain himself, when I could just as easily blast through it with my Spirit Gun. And during our foursome's gymnastics, he did.
"Because, Detective," he said, clinging to the side of the wall, "it's dangerous to fire your Spirit Gun in…" He pushed off the wall with his legs as the beast's arms closed in on him. "…Such a confined area."
"So you guys can stand behind me!" I shouted, running to back up Kuwabara.
Hiei became trapped beneath one of the legs, and was using all of his strength to balance the weight that the sharp hooked foot, all the while continuing with, "Idiot! Sometimes your power pushes back the enemy, and sometimes it completely disintegrates them. None of us, not even you, can…figure…out just why!" He threw the legs to the side, slicing the foot at its first joint, and added, "I don't see the need to bathe ourselves in venom, Detective."
Kuwabara and Kurama successively amputated two consecutive legs in agreement with Hiei. The drachnid shrieked in an unusually layered double-chord of man and beast, and continued to strike at us with it's remaining six legs. Unfortunately for me, as usual during this whole mission, its target was me. I got pinned by a foreleg through my clothing, and then furthermore by the human arms of the abdomen. I could do nothing more than wrestle, bracing my arms on its shoulders and my legs at its belly. Beyond the lips of its face were the crooked cuspids of the arachnid, and the creature continued to press upon me caring not where it sank its teeth into. All it wanted to do was feed.
I felt the heaviness of its exoskeleton shift as it tried to lift itself to cover me in silk. It arched over me like a predator, aching to release all over my body, only to drink my insides just after. It was then that the brightness of Kuwabara's sword illuminated the room, striking the limbs that bore down upon me, splattering red across my chest and face. The spider fell to its back with that same cry as before, and wildly its legs danced in the air as they separated from its body. The limbs continued to writhe from the living nerve endings, even after Kurama and Hiei had cut off their connection to the insect.
Our opponent was far from defeated, though. It was merely injured, and none of us could bear the sounds of the monster any longer. Hiei stepped up to the plate, offering to do what he knew the rest of us could not, and suggested, "Step aside or turn away if you don't want to see this."
Kuwabara of course, felt the need to, and I'm damn glad that he did. He has a hard time dealing with immorality, even if going against morals is the necessary means to an end. Kurama and I, however, watched as Hiei decapitated the human head from its neck. I'm not sure of Kurama's reasons for watching. I suppose that maybe he was so used to death, and that he wanted to be sure that everything went smoothly. But myself? I guess I was compelled to know Hiei's lack of remorse, or even his overabundance of it. Not only that, but I felt like I could honor the human within if I gave it that recognition of a quick death.
Hiei moved his katana swiftly, cutting on a slant and using a quick and clean motion like a Guillotine. Unusual, really. The Guillotine is an invention of death, an invention that actually needed several improvements in order to not only work properly, but to give the condemned individual no painful memories as they passed on. I learned in school that the device originally didn't cut all the way through, and that the neck would need several chopping motions in order to complete behead the person. People would survive the first hacking attempt, and the mess was unbearably gruesome. That's why the thing was changed. Stocks were added for the neck, and the blade was cut on a slant so that it would make an even cut.
Seriously, I picked the weirdest lessons to go to school. But still. This creature had its limbs removed beforehand, and possibly didn't even realize what was going on the whole time.
"It's done," Hiei announced.
"Let's move," I commanded, wiping the deceased's blood from my face. Thankfully, the walkway wasn't all that bad, and we easily climbed our way up. The exit at the top was hinged, and as we exited out into the forest, we were greeted by a few claps of thunder, and about a dozen soldiers of the military.
I cursed as we stood back to back, leaning against each other and communicating solely through the way we breathed and twitched our muscles. They encircled us, pointing heavy guns in our direction, and pushing the buttons on their mechanical goggles.
"Thermal…" Kurama said in our heads. It had been a while since he had used telepathy, and I wasn't prepared to hear his voice in my head again so soon. It was something else that I wished I could learn. Both Hiei and Kurama had used telepathy before they became our allies, but I know that not every demon knew that ability naturally. Either way, it damn well would have been helpful. Sure, the guys probably don't speak Japanese, but it was better for them not to know we were communicating so that we could take them by surprise.
The men shouted at us to do something, and one of them began stepping toward Hiei. I guess that they were asking us to drop our weapons, and Kurama seemed to understand just the slightest, because he unsheathed his knife and set it on the ground. Kuwabara and I followed, however, Hiei did not. At any rate, three men stepped forward to procure our machetes, only to step backwards into their place at the circle. They were wary of Hiei, though one would have thought that the idiots would have realized we were just young guys. I guess it's like the American military to be skeptical.
They demanded something from us again, at which point Hiei finally gave in, setting both his sheathed knife and his katana flat out in front him. Before one of the men grabbed it, they ordered us to do something else, which was to put our hands into the air. Again, the three of us really just followed Kurama's lead.
It came down to Hiei. The second that he complied to set down his weapons, I knew that he had something in mind. As he lifted his hands into the air, he used the motion to flawlessly remove the ward around his forehead, and reveal the Jagan. An arc of men fell before him, stunned and rendered unconscious by the power of the foreign eye. It was…unbelievable. I wondered why we didn't just run around the place holding Hiei in front of us like some sort of shield. I was quickly reminded that we were outdoors, and our powers weren't so easily warded.
He proceeded to face the remainder of the men until they all fell. Kuwabara and I cheered as the rain poured down upon us, and then we surveyed the area in an attempt to recall the images Koenma had shown us before the mission. It was to no avail.
"Urameshi," my friend said as we calmed down, "I think we all just gotta run for it, ya know?"
"Yeah," I said, sniffling from the water. "But which way is the question."
Kurama pointed upwards and noted, "Look. The sun is rising where all of that pink is." We followed his arm, and found a stray line of pink surrounding the blackened clouds in the distance. Okay, so that was East. But we came in through the South. I wasn't quite sure of where Kurama was going with this one, other than the obvious route.
"And, fox?" Hiei inquired as he collected our weapons.
"We should split up into pairs, and reconvene at the gate we came in." My mouth gaped open, looking for a reason as to why, and that's when the one who everyone thought was stupid spoke up.
"Because it gives 'em more than one set of footprints to follow." Kuwabara received an immediate verbal commendation from Hiei, who was more than pleased with this plan, but then reminded everyone not to be a hero.
"But who should go with who?" Kuwabara asked, "I mean, on one hand-"
"I'll travel with you, Kuwabara," Kurama suggested, "It's best that Hiei and I split up. I know the terrain very well, and Hiei can use his Jagan as a guide." We agreed to the terms, and we ventured off a ways before splitting up. But not without a warning reminder first.
"Don't forget;" the redhead advised us. "They used those thermal scanners to discover our location. In this rain it will be easy to find us."
"Gotcha," I remarked. "We'll see you guys later. Don't trip in the mud, Kuwabara!"
"Likewise, Urameshi!" he smiled back, checking a thumb into the air. And then we parted, darting off into different directions. Hiei took us through the straight path, and we ran fast, splashing mud all over our ankles and calves. The forest became thick, twigs were whipping in our faces, placing tiny incisions on the surfaces of our skin.
Hiei finally stopped our run behind the cover of a large boulder, conveniently placed by nature. I queried the reason for our sudden stop, and the demon told me that they were hot on our trail, and not about to give in.
"What the hell?" I murmured loudly, competing with the sounds of the storm. "We so had a head start on them!"
Hiei let his head rest upon the rock then, eyes gazing up into the rain like they would cleanse them of everything he had seen that day. He sighed and remarked, "Vehicles. And more guards at the gate."
"Did you see all of this?" After all, he knew about the legion at the gate. It was the only explanation; which I found out was the right one.
"I did. We shouldn't have split up."
That set off a red flag. Normally Hiei finds a way to blame the situation on everyone else and their choices. He would have said that Kurama was stupid to divide us. I knew that Hiei was breaking slowly. The situation was inevitable.
"Why. Hiei, please tell me why you're saying this!" I shouted. From behind the water droplets that fell from his hair, he glared at me to be quiet.
"They're gone."
I blinked. Gone? Gone?
Panic. How could Hiei be so calm? Or was he? I don't really know, but I could tell that he was keeping something inside as I shook him by the shoulders, demanding him to tell me everything.
"I don't know. They just aren't here. I cannot see them." The Jagan blinked, moving side to side before staring forward again. I dropped Hiei from my frantic fit of violence, and slammed my back into the slippery rock.
"Now what. Can't you just use your powers to knock them out again?" Yes! Of course…it worked once, so it should work again, right?
"Wrong, Yusuke. One of those artificial demons must live in the forest." His third eye blinked from water irritation. "I can't see them anymore."
"Just like that?"
"Hn. Yes."
I felt my left foot slip in the mud, and as I went to reach for balance on the boulder, Hiei's hands caught me at my waist. I'd never been held by Hiei before, but he was warm, like a living furnace.
"Think nothing of it, Yusuke," he stated. "Just focus your energy around you so that you don't die."
"Wha…" I stammered, "what are you doing?"
"I'm going to drain your body temperature." I didn't ask further. We had to avoid the thermal scanners, and under the cover of the rock we were pretty well hidden. The rain was coming down so hard that our footprints were already washing away, and because he was a fire demon through and through, such a process would be rather easy.
I felt frigid as he began to drain me, but once I was able to gauge just how much energy I had to use, I was all right. He warned me, saying that the second I stopped, my body would immediately give me up by trying to keep me warm. He also said that it wouldn't work fast enough, informing me that if I did let up for just an instance, that I would get an extreme case of hypothermia.
"Sounds lovely," I stated, choking back tears from the thought of my friends' death.
"I won't be here to fix you if you fail," my ally remarked. "Just stay here, and don't move until I return." I nodded, wondering just what the hell he was up to, until I figured it out. He ran off in the direction we came from, and I peeked around the corner of the boulder to watch him. It was then that a tree, something that should have been soaked to the core, burst into flames. As far as I could tell, the rain couldn't put it out, yet it didn't spread like a normal forest fire should have. It was completely controlled by Hiei's powers, and seconds later another line of trees set on fire, creating a wall of flames which could protect us from the not only the thermal scanners, but the sights of the sharpshooters.
"Of course, being the kid that I am, I was so enthralled by the flames that I didn't know you were there until ya stuck the barrel of your gun into my neck."
"Hm, but according to your story you have these 'powers' that should have enabled you to sense us coming."
Yusuke looked at the man on the other side of the table, then to the interpreter, and remarked, "Yeah. But you guys seem to think that we had some sort of arsenal of grenades, or something."
"The serum isn't known to produce that type of effect. Now, tell us about what you saw in the forest surrounding the abandoned building."
"Let's see…umm…how about lots of trees and a raindrop or two." The boy fidgeted in his metal chair, placing his head into his palms like he had a headache.
"Hmm…" muttered the uniformed man in the chair. He stood and nodded at the interpreter before leaving the building.
"What the fuck did you guys do to me?" Yusuke said, attempting to stand. The handcuffs around his ankles prevented him from doing more than lift the chair from the floor.
"The officer will return in a moment, Mister Urameshi. Please sit down and be patient. Would you like a glass of water?"
The clockwork of Yusuke's brain moved into motion as he looked to the empty glass he had consumed earlier. He answered, "No. I'm not thirsty," before setting himself and the chair cuffed to him back down.
To Be Continued…
In case anyone was wondering; here's this chapter's spoiler/rundown. Feel free to skip it if you'd like to figure it out for yourself; or leave more mystery for the next chapters.
WARNING: Chapter 6 Mystery Spoiler Below.
This whole time, Yusuke has actually been telling his story to an interrogator, a military officer who happened to kidnap him by tracing he and Hiei's thermal energy before it was drained. His story begins to go offtrack (The beginning of the chapter) as the truth serum starts to wear off (For example: the tangents on Daddy Long Legs and Guillotines). He ingested the serum through a glass of water provided to him by the interpreter (since earlier in the story it is implied that there are Japanese which avidly work on the base).
The fact that Yusuke was actually telling his story to someone else was implied (not only with the way in which he "recalled" things) in an earlier chapter. His lucidity faded in an out whenever his tenses changed (two versions of past tense). I'm not saying which, or how.
Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed the twist! Don't forget to review!
Zelia