Left in the Shadows
Chapter 10: Approaching Danger
Me: Hey everybody! I'm back with a new chapter! This fic is about halfway over now! And special news! (Not really. And it's completely unrelated to the fic!) Hiei is nice to me again! Sort of…
Kuwabara: He was nice before?
Me: oh shut up. Anyway, time for the disclaimer. I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho, only my own characters and the plot.
Yusuke: so…that's it? Wow that was short.
Ed: WHO ARE YOU CALLING SHORT!
Me: O.O um…
Kurama: Please continue reading the fanfiction while we get this sorted out.
(I couldn't resist bringing in Edo-kun! )
(a/n: oh yah, I forgot to tell all you guys, I'm not updating as much because I started high school T.T But since they have an Anime Club, it makes it all worthwhile. But I hate having to sit through class… Edo-kun, you're coming to school with me!
Ed: WHAT!)
Yes, that last part was completely random.
Chapter 10: Approaching Danger
(A/n: I got the idea for the dream sequence from the series, Kodocha by Miho Obana. And nobody knows what Hiei dreams about, so I made it up! Hm… Akito reminds me of Hiei for some reason…)
"C'mon, Hiei, it's already one!" Amanda called from the front of the temple. "You're being slow! It's not like you had to change or anything!" She however was wearing a dark purple scoop-necked T-shirt with a pair of faded blue jeans. Her raven black hair was left down for the occasion; it was slightly longer and now was bit farther down her shoulders than before.
"Hn. I can come when I want, onna." Hiei replied, coming out the door. Amanda gave a sigh.
"I suppose I should just give up on the hope that you'll someday call me by my real name." She said.
"Hn."
"Have fun you two!" Yusuke called, his voice slightly mocking. "Hiei don't do anything…shall we say, nau-OOF!" He didn't get a chance to finish for the fact that a sudden blast of air swept him off his feet.
"Shut up, Yusuke." Amanda growled, walking down the path to the city.
About a half-hour later, they made it to the shops. The streets were crowded with people trying to do some last minute Christmas shopping. "Ugh…if I had known it was going to be this busy, I'd have come earlier in the week." Amanda groaned.
"Then maybe we should leave." Hiei commented, watching the people push and shove past with slight disgust. (Believe me, I've seen how hectic it can get at Christmas…)
"Well, I already have presents for Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Keiko…I need some for Kurama, Botan, and Yukina. …Oh, let's not forget you."
"Hn. I don't need anything." He told her.
"Oh come on." She gave him a look.
"Don't get me anything."
"Well, too bad, I'm gonna get you a present anyway. Live with it." She said in a final sort of way.
"Hn."
"Now…where to first…" Amanda mused. She spied a small bookstore next to some of the larger stores. "Ah, there." She began making her way past the crowd, unfortunately losing Hiei in the process.
"Onna wait! Rrrg…" Hiei growled, losing sight of the girl. After a few seconds of thought, he decided to give telepathy a try. Her mental shields were crap anyway.
/Onna, where are you/ he asked. He heard a 'Huh? Hiei!' in reply, causing him to roll his eyes. /Yes, me. Now where are you? Just direct your thoughts at me./
/Um…I'm in the bookstore. You should be right by it./ she replied, obviously beginning to get used to it. Hiei spotted the said store and found Amanda in the back.
"Hey, Hiei, do you think Kurama would like a mystery novel or an action one?" she asked as if he had been there the whole time.
"How should I know?" Hiei answered testily. He disliked being around so many people, especially since they were pushing and shoving to get past each other outside. She looked up from the books she was holding.
"You're probably wanting to leave now, huh?" She sighed, a small knowing smile on her lips. Normally Hiei would have said something on the lines of "What do you think, baka?" but the look on her face changed it.
"Hn. I'm okay, onna." He replied. "Just hurry up." Her smile changed into a full out grin.
"Okay!"
"Ugh! Now I know never to put off Christmas shopping until the last minute here!" Amanda complained, sinking onto a park bench. It had been about three hours since they had left the bookstore.
"Hn. Are we done here?" Hiei asked. Amanda gave a little smile.
"Not quite yet. I still need to get one more thing." She replied. Hiei merely rolled his eyes but did not press the subject further. "You can stay here, Hiei, if you want to." She told him.
"…Fine."
"Okay, just watch the stuff. I won't take long." She said. The "stuff" she was referring to was a couple of medium-sized shopping bags and only one large one. Hiei merely nodded and she sped off back to the masses of people by the stores. He leaned his head back on the bench and sighed.
'She's…different.' He mused. 'I've only known her for a little more than a week but…' he shook his head to dispel his thoughts and eyed the bags. "Hn…let's see what she got." He murmured. Hiei didn't really care but he was curious as to what she had gotten him. After a quick search of all the bags, he only saw a couple of hair gel bottles and a martial arts DVD he could only guess was for Yusuke, a couple of CD's for Kuwabara, some of the books she had been looking at for Kurama. In some of the smaller bags he saw various jewelry and perfumes, causing him to wrinkle his nose slightly.
"So that's what she went to go get." He concluded. Deciding that there was nothing more to do than wait, Hiei leaned back on the bench once more and this time, he fell into a light sleep.
Harsh wind…
Freezing snow…
A woman's screams…
More voices… "What have you done, Hina!"
And one familiar voice…"When you are older, you should come back to take revenge on the whole Koorime race."
The plunging fall to the ground below…
"Hiei." A familiar voice spoke in his ear. There was no response. "Hiiiei. Wake up volcano-head. It's time to go."
Hiei opened his eyes blearily to see Amanda leaning over the back of the park bench, her face hanging right above him. "Hn?"
"It's time to go." She repeated. "Jeez, I never knew you could sleep like that." She commented.
"I wasn't sleeping." He replied. "I was just ignoring you."
"Riiiight." She rolled her eyes. "Anyway, let's go. You wanted to leave, right? Or do you want to grab something to eat, first? The food shops are almost empty."
"Hn. I don't care."
"Fine then. I guess we'll just go then." She said simply.
"I said, I didn't care." Hiei told her, grabbing the bags.
Amanda sighed. "Whatever." But a small smile made its way to her lips. "But thanks for coming with me." She added.
"Hn"
"Ugh…I'm bushed." Amanda sighed, flopping on the couch. Hiei sat beside her.
"Hn, now you know better." He stated, a bit smugly.
"Oh, shut up, volcano-head."
"I told you not to call me that."
"Like I've said before, do you think I'll listen?"
"Onna…" a warning note crept into Hiei's voice.
"Hey, guys!" Yusuke suddenly came in through the back door. "How was it?"
"Hectic." Amanda replied wearily. "There were so many people…Hey, where's Kurama, anyway?"
"Genkai sent him to go buy groceries. He should be back soon. So…what d'you get me?" he asked.
"Wouldn't you like to know?" she turned her head back to look at him.
"Aww…" Yusuke pouted, "C'mon, Mandy, tell me!" he swung his arms around her shoulders.
"Y'know, you're being really immature, Yusuke." Amanda stated. "Anyway, I'm gonna go and practice for a bit."
"I thought you were tired, onna." Hiei commented.
"Yeah, well I'm feeling a lot better now." She replied, smiling and dislodging herself form Yusuke's arms. "I should be back in about an hour."
"Hn." Was all Hiei said in reply. He didn't actually feel like going after her. After today, all he wanted to do was relax.
"Wow Hiei, you're not gonna go practice too? That's new." Yusuke commented.
"Shut up, detective." He snapped. Now he had no choice (according to him) but to go after her. He knew just where to find her, too.
Kurama staggered out of the grocery store, carrying the bags of produce for Genkai and his parents. It wasn't the weight of the bags affecting him, but the fact that there were so many people crammed in the small store. And him running into the fangirls in there didn't do much to help either. He figured that there were more running errands for their parents, but he still wished to every god that he knew that he would not meet any more on the way back to the temple. But before he could make a few steps from the store, someone bumped into him.
It was a girl, about his age. She had jet-black hair cut to her shoulders with two pure white streaks hanging in front. "Oh, I'm sorry." She said quickly.
"No, it's alright. It really is quite crowded here." Kurama smiled. He could tell that she didn't go to his school, so he wasn't worried about her being a fangirl. Besides, he could already tell that she wasn't like that. "I should have…" his voice trailed off. She seemed familiar…
It seemed as if she had reached the same conclusion, for she suddenly began to run away. Kurama couldn't follow her, for the fact that he was carrying a lot of bags (which made him "bulky") and there were so many people crowding the streets. Within seconds, he lost sight of her.
"Rinae!" he called. He saw the girl clearly again, for she had frozen amongst all the moving people. "Rinae!" he called again. But once again, she disappeared into the crowd.
'Could it have been her? I didn't even have a chance to see her face…' Kurama's mind was swirling with old memories and feelings. 'It couldn't have been…if it was her, then why did she run…?'
Amanda swiftly unsheathed her sais, sliced through the air, and stopped. She sighed and twirled them in her fingers, unsatisfied. She was working on the speed of surprise attacks. But someone of Hiei's caliber would have easily seen them coming. She had already warmed up and practiced some of her katas before deciding to brush up on this.
Hiei, meanwhile, was hidden behind a rather large tree trunk watching her. He would have normally been in the tree, but since it was winter, there was nothing to camouflage him. 'Baka onna. She's working so hard, she doesn't even notice I'm here.' Although the fact that he was masking his energy might have had something to do with it. But even he didn't notice the dark shadow cloaking itself a few yards to his left. The figure chuckled and stepped out of the bushes, grabbing Amanda around the neck. Hiei's eyes widened when he saw who it was.
It was Tora Akuma.
(End chapter 10)
Me: Yeah, yeah. I know. A cliffhanger. I thought it would be a good way to end this chapter. Please don't kill me! And let me tell you, WRITER'S BLOCK SUCKS! It took me forever to just start this chapter properly. That's why Edo-kun came, I think.
Ed: Yes, are you done now?
Me: oh don't be that way, anyway, I need at least three reviews! Let me answer some of 'em.
Dolphingirl32173: Hey, you're becoming my fave reviewer! I think you've reviewed on all of my stories! and thanx for submitting the right review for YYH answering machines!
Kuwabara: by the way, it was Urameshi who gave me your lovely number. Beat him up! I'll call back soon, pretty lady!
Sorry if I didn't answer anyone else's reviews. I really appreciate them, but I have two separate computers for the internet and for typing (believe me, it sucks) and I can't always see all the reviewers. I'll print out all of them next time and your review WILL BE ANSWERED! (Sees all of the stares) hehe…
Ed+Yus: You're crazy.