A/n- I am extremely sorry that I take forever to write these chapters! Hopefully, I will be getting them up faster now. I have so many good ideas for my next chapters and I am feeling very inspired to write them so make sure you read them in the future! Now, on the with the chapter!
Chapter Nine: Mysteries of Starlight Cave
Avari glanced up from her homework to check the time. The digital clock in front of her read 6:30 P.M. Only a half hour left until her mission. Letting out a sigh, she slammed her Algebra textbook shut and got up out of her chair. She slid open the door to her closet and rummaged around for a little.
Moments later, she found a skin-tight, full-body spy suit in a shade of midnight blue. Slowly, she slipped it on and zipped it up. The way the suit hugged her body allowed her to make quick and sudden movements with ease when she was on the job. Besides that, the special material it was made of was water, fire and bullet proof. The only things left to do now were to clip on the spy belt, on which hung every gadget a spy wanted, and lace up her black shoes. Now she was completely decked out in what could be called the 'Ultimate Spy Attire', all parts of which had been graciously supplied by Koenma.
Closing the door behind her, Avari walked out of her room and onto the porch steps, where she sat down. The only thing left to do now was to wait for Yusuke. He was supposed to show up at 7 P.M. to accompany her. Hopefully, the dimwit wouldn't be late. Otherwise, she would be forced to go alone, as usual.
About 10 minutes passed. Avari's watch beeped to signal it was 7. As if right on cue, Yusuke came walking into the courtyard.
"Just in time," Avari called to him.
He nodded in response. As he sat down on the porch steps, he started eyeing Avari up and down. A smile appeared on his face that gave you the idea he was having some perverted thoughts. She noticed this and gave Yusuke a suspicious look.
"What are you looking at?" Avari said in annoyance. It was more or less a rhetorical question because he didn't have to answer it. She was already aware of why he was looking at her in that way. Yusuke was just about to put his arm around her when she smacked him. "You pervert!"
Right then and there, a gaping, black hole appeared in front of them. Avari got up, but Yusuke was still seeing stars and had a red handprint on his face. She grabbed a hold of his jacket and dragged him after her as she walked into the portal.
A temporary weightlessness filled their bodies and there was a flash. Instantly, they both collided into a solid surface. Despite the aches and pains, they both managed to stand up and found themselves before a great door.
The door was constructed of gold and must have been at least 10 feet high. There was a strange type of writing inscribed in the gold.
"Do you have any ideas on what that says?" Yusuke asked souding utterly stumped.
"Actually, I do. It's written in the Language of the Stars. I had to learn almost every dialect in existence to be a spy," Avari replied. "It says 'Those who dare to enter this cave, Would be better off in their grave. But if you are as bold, As to pass through the Door of Gold, Either treasure or a damned fate, Is what awaits.' "
"Well, that just makes me want to go inside even more!" Yusuke said. "Now, my next question is, how do you open the damn door?" He started banging on the door, but it didn't do any good.
"I was just getting to that," Avari said as she approached the door. There was a giant star engraved into the center of the door underneath the message. She placed the palm of her right hand on the star. The star began to glow, causing Avari to quickly withdraw her hand. The door that was once in front of them materialized, leaving nothing behind except for a pile of dust and an entranceway.
"Nice job," Yusuke said, as if to congratulate Avari. "Now, let's go inside!" He walked through the doorway first, shortly being followed by Avari. As soon as they had both crossed over the threshold, the golden door reappeared behind them.
"I guess that means no turning back," Avari said with a hint of worry in her voice.
The two Spirit World employees examined their surroundings. They were in a passageway lit up by crystal orbs that glowed, acting somewhat like torches. Almost reluctantly, Yusuke and Avari began walking down the dimly lit tunnel. As they pressed on, going deeper and deeper into the caves, it felt like hours had gone by. That wasn't entirely true because according to Avari's watch, it was only 7:45 P.M. Obviously, this mission would only seem longer than it really was.
"Whoa!" Yusuke called out. He hit the cold, stone floor. Obviously, he had tripped. Almost at the same instant Yusuke hit the floor, the glow coming from the crystal orbs had gone out.
"Nice going, dumbass," Avari said irritably. "You must have hit something to turn them off." Fumbling with the many gadgets on her belt, she finally found the flashlight and turned it on.
With Avari leading the way, they continued down the tunnel. The lonely stream of the light coming from the electric torch gave them a sense of guidance and reassurance. As they went deeper and deeper down into the caverns, a faint light not coming from the flashlight was visible in the distance.
"Where could that light be coming from? Are there lights up there that are working?" Atari inquired.
"I don't know, but I'd rather be there than here with that dinky flashlight," Yusuke said. His voice had a hint of fear in it.
"Hey! This flashlight is state-of-the-art technology! It'll never burn out, break or need a battery replacement!" Avari yelled. She was very protective of her spy gadgets. "Wait a second... Are you afraid of the dark?" At this, she giggled. "The Almighty Spirit Detective, Yusuke Urameshi is afraid of the dark!"
"Shut it!" Yusuke yelled. He started to turn red with embarrassment, but Avari couldn't see this because of the blackness surrounding them.
The light that they had seen in the distance began to grow brighter and brighter. Avari switched off her flashlight. They were very close to the light now. The tunnel began to grow more spacious as they grew closer. It was now only 30 feet away.
Before they knew it, they were standing in the entranceway of a very enchanting and enlightening room. The light coming from the room gave them a warm, inviting feeling. They felt happy for the first time since they had entered the caves. There was one small problem. On every inch of the ceiling and floor, sharp and gleaming crystalline stalactites were shooting out. There was no possible way to cross the room without getting stabbed and poked. Despite this, the room was very beautiful and bright with light and rainbows of colors coming from the crystalline prisms.
"How the hell are we supposed to cross that!" Yusuke exclaimed. His tone was full of discouragement.
"I have an idea," Avari said with a sly smile. "Concentrate your Spirit Energy into your feet. You should lift off of the ground. Maybe we can levitate across."
"Are you sure this is going to work?" Yusuke said, obviously not believing her. "Have you ever tried this before? One false move and your pretty much going to get shanked to death by the crystals."
"I've tried it! You don't think I'd do something like this without testing it first, do you?" Avari asked, trying to sound as reassuring as possible.
"Oh, alright. You go first," Yusuke said, finally giving in. It was one of the only options they had anyway.
"Here it goes," Avari said. She took in a deep breath and let it out. Concentrating all her energy into her feet, she began to lift off of the ground. "It's working!" Slowly and steadily, she moved herself forward and started the journey across the deadly, but captivating crystals. Yusuke soon did the same as Avari did and floated across the spiky room.
Moments later, the other side of the room, where the crystals were gone, was almost in reach. Avari slowly lowered herself safely onto solid ground. Yusuke attempted to do the same, but lost his concentration and crash landed on the stone floor.
"Nice to see you too, Mr. Floor," Yusuke said, sarcastically. "I'm getting tired of this..." He let out a sigh and helped himself up.
"We need to get moving again or we'll never complete this mission!" Avari said and stomped off down the tunnel, that was now lit up with crystalline orbs.
"I can see Genkai's been quite an influence on her..." Yusuke murmured to himself and ran after Avari.
For what felt like hours and hours on end, they passed by countless crystal orbs in the long, winding walkway. Finally it seemed as if the walls were gradually widening once again as they kept moving. Soon enough, they were in a dimly-lit chamber with nothing but a pool of dark water and random stalactites jetting out of the ceiling.
"This doesn't look very threatening..." Avari said, sounding unamused. She aimlessly walked over to the pool and looked in. Nothing was visible in the water accept for her faint reflection, until some unknown force was pulling her in. Using some of her Spirit Energy, she tried to fight it, but it was no use. With a splash, she was sucked into the water even before she could let out a scream.
Yusuke saw what had just happened and walked over to where Avari had just stood. He looked down into the murky water, only to be sucked in by the invisible force as well.
Under the water, the only thing Yusuke saw was darkness. He held his breath and began swinging his arms around in the water. If he couldn't use his sight to find Avari, he would try to use his sense of touch. Not much time passed when he hit something and tried to grab hold of it. It just had to be Avari. At that instant, two beaty, red eyes appeared in front of Yusuke.
At this, he felt panic rising inside of him, causing him to swim upward for his life. Apparently, he had been wrong in thinking it was Avari. Whatever the red eyes belonged to, he didn't want to know. The only thing he was concentrating on was getting out of that underground lake as soon as possible. He couldn't hold his breath for much longer anyway. His only hope of finding Avari was to take another deep breath and dive in again, being something he didn't want to do though.
Soon he reached the surface of the pool, gasping for fresh air. He made his way over to land and sat down. As he was catching his breath, Yusuke kept looking around for signs of Avari. Everything was still. She was still down there.
At that exact moment, there was a huge splash in front of Yusuke. Avari's face popped out of the water. She looked distressed and horror-struck. Yusuke rushed over to her and held out his hand. Desperately, she tried to reach it, but something grabbed a hold of her foot. Almost instantly, she was, once again, submerged into the water.
On the surface of the water, only a few bubbles rose. Yusuke's face went pale. Moments went by and everything was still again.
"Avari! Are you alright? Avari!" Yusuke screamed worriedly. His desperate calls were no use. There was no chance of her surviving. The beast had most likely devoured her already.
To Yusuke's utter surprise, there was a huge splash. The scaly, dark head of a sea monster and 12 tentacles rose out of the water. One of the tentacles was holding what looked to be a body, obviously Avari's. It looked like the monster was about to put her in his mouth when a voice yelled out, "Spirit Explosion!" A huge explosion occurred and there was a flash of light. The room was covered in smoke and the sound of things hitting the ground surrounded Yusuke.
As the smoke cleared, Yusuke saw that the floor of the room was covered in blood and remains of the sea monster. Avari had successful exterminated the sea monster. The one question was, where was she? Had she been blown up in the explosion, too?
"That went just as planned," a voice behind Yusuke said. This made him jump. Gradually, Yusuke turned his head around to see where the voice had come from. Sure enough, there was Avari, standing right behind him.
"Let's get out of here. I think we've caused enough destruction for this one chamber," Yusuke said with a smile.
"Good idea," Avari spoke, with a smile to respond with Yusuke's.
For what they hoped would be the last time, Yusuke and Avari walked down yet another lengthy, passageway that was softly lit. Only moments later, Avari heard a whizzing, buzzing sound. She stopped walking and peered behind her. Yusuke did the same. A bright light could be seen further down the tunnel, headed their way. Avari's eyes widened and she shouted, "RUN!" This made them both take off running through the narrow shafts.
They continued running for quite some time, but it didn't seem to do much. The whizzing sound was only getting louder and the light behind them was only getting brighter. Something was heading straight toward them. It was now that Avari seemed to realize that the narrow walkways were starting to get wider. This meant that they were getting closer to another chamber. Avari had an idea that might save them.
"Run faster, Yusuke! I think I have a plan!" Avari yelled behind her. At her words, she and Yusuke increased their speed and soon found themselves in the chamber. "Shoot your Spirit Gun at those stalactites above the entrance to the chamber!"
"What is that going to do?" Yusuke shouted over the now louder whizzing noise.
"Just do it!" Avari yelled back at him worriedly. She could now see that the bright light was coming from a band of shining and flying, spiky orbs that were only mere feet away.
Yusuke saw that they were in danger of being crushed and stabbed by the orbs and made the quick decision to listen to Avari. He lifted his arm and concentrated his Spirit Energy into his finger. While aiming at the stalactites Avari had pointed out, he screamed, "SPIRIT GUN!" A huge ball of blue Spirit Energy escaped from his fingertips, hurling toward the stalactites.
The energy hit the stalactites, causing them to fall and come crashing down in front of the entrance. The immense rocks blocked the entrance and just in time, too, because the whizzing orbs were only 5 feet away. In the process of this, dust was being kicked up and little fragments of rock were flying. Yusuke and Avari huddled together to protect themselves.
Once the dust had cleared, it was evident that Avari's plan had worked. The rocks blocking the entrance had kept the orbs from getting through and destroying them. Yusuke and Avari stood up and let out deep sighs.
"I'm glad that worked, or we would have been goners," Avari said, looking over at Yusuke.
"Nice thinking there. You really saved us," Yusuke said. "Now, where are we?"
They both finally took the time to look at their surroundings. The chamber they were in had a platform composed of rock in the middle of it. On the platform lay the reason they had come to Starlight Cave in the first place, the Moon Stone Necklace. Slowly and silently, they walked over to the platform where the necklace lay.
Once standing next to the stand, Avari examined the necklace, but didn't touch it. The chain of the necklace was a simple, yet elegant looking gold chain. Hanging on the chain was a golden charm shaped like the moon. Embedded in the middle of the charm was a diamond that let off the faintest white glow. The medallion was gorgeous.
"Alright. Enough staring, let's just grab the damn thing and get it to Koenma already!" Yusuke said, sounding annoyed and impatient. He reached out his bare hand to grab the necklace.
"Wait!" Avari protested as she attempted to grab Yusuke's arm before he touched the necklace. She was a few seconds too late. He had already placed his hand on it. There was a flash and Yusuke was gone.
"Yusuke? Yusuke!" Avari tried, but there was no answer. "That dimwit! He touched the necklace before I could warn him that it had an enchantment on it!" She desperately looked around for him.
Where Yusuke had once stood, she now saw a ferret. Avari picked it up and looked at it. The ferret had brown fur, brown eyes and a mop of black hair on its head. "Yusuke! Did you turn into a ferret?" she asked the ferret. It looked up into her purple eyes and wiggled its nose in response. "Uh-oh..." By now, a sweat drop had formed on Avari's forehead.
Quickly, she put on a special type of glove and grabbed the necklace with ease. After placing it in a box, she strapped the box to her belt and grabbed Yusuke (the ferret). Avari opened up her compact and soon enough, Koenma's face appeared on the screen.
Before he could say a word, Avari said, "Houston, we have a problem..."
------ I hope you liked the chapter! Will Yusuke be able to be turned back to human? What could possibly be the thing that can change him back? And when will the rest of the Yu Yu Hakusho gang appear in this story? To find out the answers to these and many of the questions, tune in next time for another episode of "The Power Locked Within!"