Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or it's characters. I do not own the music. I do own Angela.
AN- There's one part where you should probably listen to "Last Kiss" by Pearl Jam to set the mood.
Legend:
Music
Noise
-Telepathy-
-Thought-
/Flashbacks/
Chapter Five
Standing in front of huge double doors, Angela was in awe of the huge castle. Images of millions of servants, maids, cooks and the likes usually found in castles came to her mind. "Wow...My images of heaven included fluffy clouds and gold gates. I never thought it would look like this," she breathed.
Botan stood in front of the door and a few feet in front of them. "Botan, Ayame and Hinageshi with Yusuke, Kurama, Hiei and Angela," she called loudly.
A voice from somewhere, "Enter." The doors opened. Inside was a long corridor and at the end were another set of large doors. As those doors opened, a sight that Angela would never have expected greeted her. All around were desks, partitions, stacks of papers and weird looking beings in different colors running around.
"What...?" she asked, confused.
"Not what you expected was it," Yusuke said, it was more of a statement than a question. Botan started leading them through the hubbub.
"No...What are those people?" Angela asked, eyeing one of the creatures in a polka dotted loin cloth.
"Ogres," he replied, amuzed by her response to Koenma's lackeys.
"Are they demons?"
"Actually, I don't know. I never asked." Yusuke was rubbing the back of his head, a sign that Angela had identified as the I-feel-stupid gesture. He changed the subject. "We're here." Botan had lead them to another set of doors, though not as big as the first two. "I wonder what you expect the 'Prince of Spirit World' to look like?"
Angela had been thinking he would be tall, blonde and handsome, now however, from Yusuke's remark, she started to expect that he wasn't anywhere near what she expected. -Possible old and ugly. Kurama did say something about him being near 900 yrs old.-
Botan opened the doors. "Koenma, we're here," she said.
Angela's mouth dropped. Inside was a toddler sucking on a pacifier as he did paper work. "Woah. Nowhere near what I had first expected, and nowhere near what I had just expected," Angela said, stunned. Yusuke started laughing.
Koenma looked up. "Ah. Angela, it's nice to see you at last." He slipped off his chair, disappearing behind the desk. There was a poof of smoke and suddenly there was a teen boy wearing a purple robe over tan slacks and a white shirt. His hair was light brown and his eyes were amber. On his forehead was the tatoo 'Jr'.
"Still not what I expected, but oh well," she said.
Yusuke was still chuckling to himself. "What were you expecting?"
"At first a tall blonde, like you hear in all those stories that start with 'Once upon a time'. But after your comment, I started thinking maybe he was an old geezer." Yusuke started laughing again.
Koenma rolled his eyes. "Why don't we move on?" he said irritatedly.
"Angela, I'm sure you're curious to know more about your past than what these three told you," Koenma started. Angela nodded. "Well to start with, along time ago, there were five different types of sentient beings. You know three, the humans, the spirit beings such as Botan and I, and the demons. The fourth were the beings from the Mekai, but they were banished deep into outer space. They did try to make a come back fourteen years ago, but Yusuke and the gang defeated them. The fifth race were beings known as 'Angels', they were like protectors of the Earth. They had a tie to the Earth that no other being has, some believed that the Earth itself created the Angels as a way to protect itself. Since their very beings were tied to the Earth, they were able to easily call on the elements of earth, wind, fire, water, and spirit whenever they wanted. Demons and humans have to spend years just to master one element. However even the Angels could only control one element at a time. It was dangerous to call on all of them at once. In desperate times, one would call on all of the elements, sacrificing themselves to protect the Earth from harm."
He went back to his seat, a serious look in his eyes as he continued. "Along time ago, a darkness fell over the earth, slowly consuming it. We're not sure what exactly happened, only that the Angels sacrificed themselves to seal this evil. That was four thousand years ago exactly," he paused, waiting for a reaction. When none came he sighed and continued, "Somehow, they had devised a plan that would ensure that when the world was in grave danger, Angels would return. The ritual included one of their kind mating with a human, passing their genes on." He looked Angela in the eye. "That human was an ancestor of yours. I'm sure Yusuke or Kurama told you about how Yusuke came to be a demon."
"No way!" she yelped as she turned to Yusuke, as Koenma fell out of his chair and hit the floor. "You're a demon! So you're telling me that I've had three classes out of four with demons! Woah... Why didn't you tell me?"
"Yes, why didn't you?" Koenma asked, eyebrow twitching.
Yusuke shrugged, while Kurama spoke up. "I didn't think it was necessary at the moment."
"Well it is now!" Koenma yelled, nearly spitting out his pacifier.
Calming down, Koenma turned back to Angela. "Yusuke had an ancestor that was demon, about 40 generations ago. He passed his demon genes down the line. Unlike human genes, where, unless you're identical twins, no two genes are alike, demon genes stay the same until someone in the family has the power to become a demon like his ancestor, though it usually only happens every 40 generations. This is called the 'Atavism of the Mazoku'. This is how Yusuke became a demon. Understand?" Angela nodded her head. "Your case is almost similar, but the awakening of your powers didn't just depend on being powerful enough to control it. It also depended on the Earth, whenever the earth is in grave danger, the one with the strongest potential is reawakened as an Angel. As far as we know this hasn't happened until now."
Angela shook her head, trying to catch her thoughts up to what Koenma was saying, "Wait, how do you know it's me that will be 'reawakened'? 'Cuz I'm sure I haven't gained any supernatural powers or anything."
Koenma shook his head in negation to her assumption of not having any powers. "Actualy you have. Haven't you noticed how storms usually pop up unexpectedly whenever your sad or angry? Or how your garden florishes against all odds?" Angela thought about it. It was true. Candy even commented on her gardening skills, and maybe she should change her career goals and become a botanist. "Have you been having nightmares that feel real, that scare you so bad that you wake up screaming and in a cold sweat?" Koenma continued.
"Everyone has those," she replied, though not so sure to dismiss them now that Koenma was pointing them out.
"Well then, have you been able to foresee future events, waking or sleeping, like de ja vu?" Koenma asked, though he already suspected the answer.
Angela thought back. In fact she did have those types of dreams. -In the summer...I had a dream where I was hanging out with a tall red head, a tall man in a red jacket, and a short man with red eyes...- Her eyes widened. -Why did I not make the connection earlier!-
Koenma saw understanding light in her eyes. "See...You are the one that has been awakened. You just need to train your powers."
He stood up. "Now that leads me to your next mission guys," he said to Yusuke, Kurama, and Hiei. "You're to take her to Genkai's shrine and she's to live with Kuwabara and Yukina. There you can teach her to control her powers."
Yusuke stood up from where he had sat on the floor. "Wait, we have no way to teach her."
"You have Kurama to train her in controling the element earth, Hiei to train her in fire, and Jin and the others will drop by to help train her in the other elements. You, Yusuke, can train her in the element of spirit," Koenma said.
"You just have this all planned out don't you," Yusuke said.
He and the others started to leave, but Angela hung back. She looked at Koenma. "You said that an Angel would be awakened when the earth was in grave danger. So what's the danger?"
Koenma shook his head. "We don't know. But I think it has something to do with these shadow creatures."
"Oh..." Angela said, thinking about it. She shrugged, "Well, seeya."
"Yeah, seeya," Koenma returned, waving.
After Angela closed the door behind her, Koenma whistled. "Damn, she's hot!"
As they were walking through the crowd of running ogres, Yusuke asked Botan, "Hey, once we get back home, how's Angela supposed to talk with everyone else?"
"Oh! That's right!" Botan turned around to Angela. "Do you mind getting your tongue peirced. I see that your ears are."
"Actually I peirced my tongue in high school when I was a freshman. But two years ago I took it out. Why?" Angela asked, looking at the blue haired woman.
"Well, we have two devices that enable you to talk and understand any language. They come as a tongue ring and an earring." The ferry woman said.
"So that's why Kurama, Yusuke and Hiei have tongue rings and earrings," Angela said, understanding coming to her eyes.
"Yes, but now that we don't need them anymore, I'm taking them out," Kurama said. "I hear that if you just got it newly peirced, taking the ring out and leaving it out will let the hole heal."
"Yeah. That is if you haven't had it for very long," Angela said.
Angela looked around her. "Hey, this isn't the way we came."
"No," Botan said, leading the way. "We're making a slight detour to get your Hear-Ring and Tongues-Ring."
-Very imaginative names,- Angela thought.
"Hey, Botan! Are you going to tell her about the types and colors of the Tongues Ring?" Yusuke teased.
Botan's face turned red. "Shut up!"
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"Kuwabara! We're home!" Yusuke yelled, walking through the front door of the shrine.
"Kazuma's at work," a tall brunette said, coming through an open sliding door to the side of a large room with a statue.
"Ah..are the brats giving him any trouble Shizuru?" Yusuke asked, laughing.
"Actually they're very well discilpined. Hey Botan," Shizuru replied, nodding at Botan.
"Hello Shizuru," Botan replied, waving cheerily.
Shizuru looked Angela over. "And is this the girl that's supposed to be living with us?"
"Yes," Botan replied.
"Hm, you look like a good kid," Shizuru said, then she stuck out her hand, "I'm Shizuru."
Angela shook her hand. "I'm Angela." She had difficulty talking around the new steel tongue ring. -I'll have to relearn how to talk with one in.-
"Shizuru, is that Yusuke and the others?" a soft voice called. In walked a pretty woman with light blue hair and red eyes.
"Hi, Yukina," Yusuke said.
Yukina bowed. "Hello Yusuke, Kurama, Hiei, and Botan." Yukina turned to Angela and bowed. "Hello."
"Hi, my name's Angela," Angela said, bowing as well, though a little awkwardly.
Yukina smiled. "My name is Yukina."
"May I ask you something?" Angela asked.
"Yes," the petite woman said, smiling at Angela's shyness.
"Are you from the Spirit World, like Botan? 'Cuz you two look alike."
Yukina smiled while the others laughed. "No, I'm of Demon World."
"I'm sorry, I didn't think..." Angela apologized, blushing.
"It's alright." Yukina turned, gesturing for Angela to follow her. "Let me show you to your room."
She and Angela started to walk through the sliding door, when Yukina turned around. "Hiei, will you be staying with us for awhile?"
Hiei averted his eyes and gave a short reply, "Yes."
"Then let me show you to your room also. Kazuma and I have added a house to the shrine, since we usually have unexpected company," she explained as she led the two outside onto a walkway along side the shrine.
At the back of the shrine was a medium sized house, not very wide but it had a second floor. Yukina showed them rooms on the second floor. After being shown his room Hiei left to rejoin the others. Angela looked out the window of her room and whistled, she had finally gotten a good look at the forest surrounding the shrine. "Do you own all this land?" she asked.
"Most of it, though we don't actualy 'own' it. We're mostly like care takers of this place," Yukina explained. "Genkai didn't want this place torn down or any of the forest cut down after she died, she wanted this place to be a haven against evil, so we take care of it. Before she passed away she said that we could live here."
"We?" Angela asked, turning to Yukina.
"Kazuma, Shizuru, Yusuke, Keiko, Kurama, Hiei, and I," Yukina said, listing off on her fingers. "Others are allowed to live here, even a select few demons, as long as they mean no harm."
"Ah..." was Angela's reply.
A thought came to Angela. "What about this 'Kuwabara' guy? Kurama told me about him, how he was one of the spirit detectives. Why isn't he on the list, or is he one of the 'others'?"
Yukina laughed. "Kuwabara is Kazuma's last name. Mine too, and Shizuru's. I'm Kazuma's wife, and Shizuru is his sister."
"Why do the guys call him Kuwabara?"
"While in junior high Kazuma and Yusuke would call each other by their last names. In fact Kazuma calls himself by his last name. Shizuru and I are the only ones that call him by his first name."
"Oh.." They started to walk back to the big room. "What did Yusuke mean by 'are the brats giving him trouble'?" Angela continued her questioning.
"Oh he was probably talking about Kazuma's students. Kazuma teaches martial arts to children in the city."
"Oh. That's cool."
The scene that greeted them when they walked into the large room was of Yusuke in a choke hold by a tall red haired man. "Are you telling me that you went to college and didn't learn a thing! Now you're dropping out!" the red head yelled.
Yusuke quickly escaped the choke hold and put the red head into a choke hold. "Oh give me a break Kuwabara! The only way I was able to go to college was because Hiei hypnotized everyone to get us into college without paying tuition!"
Kuwabara reversed the choke hold. "And what's that supposed to mean?"
The choke hold was again reversed by Yusuke, "It means that I don't have the money to go to college!"
Again it was reversed. "There's somethings called grants and scholorships and the like that will pay your way to college!"
Reversed again. "Yeah, but I don't qualify for any of them!"
Kuwabara paused as Yusuke's words sunk in. He got out of the choke hold, but didn't reverse it. "Are you saying that you tried?" he asked, stunned at the thought that Yusuke had made an effort to go to college.
"Well..." Yusuke trailed off, his hand behind his head.
"Kazuma," Yukina called.
Kuwabara turned around. "Yes, my love!" he said, turning and running to Yukina, grabbing her hands, love showing in everything he did.
"I want you to meet someone," Yukina said, turning to Angela. "This is Angela."
Kuwabara let go of Yukina's hands. "Hello my name is Kazuma Kuwabara, Yukina's champion and the champion of love, at your service!" he said, striking a pose.
Angela tried hard not to laugh, "My name is Angela. Pleased to meet you." She stuck out her hand and Kuwabara bent over it, like some knight in a fairy tale.
"Don't worry about him," Shizuru said, slapping him. "He's always like this when he meets a new girl. But after this he'll act normal around you, the only one he always acts like this for is Yukina."
Kuwabara turned back to Yukina, hugging her and giving her a kiss. "How was your day, my love."
"It was fine. How was your day?" she answered. They started to walk away through the side door.
Shizuru looked at her watch. "Well, it's about time for dinner." She looked at everyone. "I know Angela is going to be staying, but what about the rest of you?"
"I guess I'll stay," Yusuke said.
"I have to go home and get everything ready and organize lesson plans for school," Kurama said.
Shizuru looked at Hiei. "And you? Or are you going to go hide in a tree somewhere."
"Hn. I need some fresh air," was his curt reply. Hiei was gone in a flash.
Shizuru just rolled her eyes. She turned to Angela. "You'll find that it's hard to keep Hiei in this house." She turned and walked through the side door. Angela stood there, wondering what Shizuru had meant.
"So Kurama, how are you going to explain your long vacation to the college?" Yusuke asked.
"Before we left, I told them I was going to be taking care of a sick relative for a month or so," Kurama replied. He looked at his watch, "Well, I better be off." He turned to Angela, "I'll try to come this weekend to start your training, till then." He waved as he walked out the door.
Angela looked around, it was just her and Yusuke. "Where did Botan and her friends go?" she asked.
Yusuke shrugged. "They're probably off escorting souls or something." He went to sit down in a hollow area in front of the statue.
Angela followed him, asking "Hey, who's this 'Genkai'?"
"She was this old lady that used to live here. She was a powerful psychic, master of the Spirit Wave technique, not to mention a powerful fighter despite her age and height." He laughed, "She was even shorter than Hiei." His eyes darkened, with old sadness, "She was my mentor in the Spirit Wave technique, and she was like a grandma to all of us."
"What happened to her? I mean how'd she die?" Angela asked tentatively.
"What else, of old age," Yusuke replied sarcastically to hide his sorrow.
"How long ago?"
"Four years ago."
"I'm sorry," Angela apologized.
They were silent for several minutes. Finally Yusuke spoke, "Her death wouldn't have been so hard if it hadn't been so soon after my wife died."
Angela had a feeling that now, unlike the first day she met him, he was willing to talk about it so she asked him, "When did she die?"
"When I was 22, two years before Genkai." Angela was quiet, even though she wanted to ask him how she died. Yusuke, as if anticipating what she would ask, said, "We were in a car wreck with a semi. She was gravely injured, I was too but because Genkai passed the Spirit wave technique to me and the fact that I was a demon, I would survive and heal quickly. She didn't have those advantages. She died before the ambulance came. Her last words were 'Yusuke, I want you to move on, and make something of yourself that you can be proud of. Don't mourn me forever, that's not like you. Remember, I love you and always have and always will.' I held her in my arms, even after she died. I knew that if I was going to make anything of myself, I'd have to go to college, but I didn't know how to make that happen. For the next two years, I worked in her family's resturaunt. Then Genkai died. I was still mourning after Keiko, and Grandma's death was just too much. I disappeared into Demon World for a while, training with some of my ancestor's pals. Then I got a message from Koenma when I was 26. He reinstated me as Spirit Detective. So I've been doing missions since then." He shrugged. "They pay me good. And I am proud of being Spirit Detective, but I don't think that's what Keiko wanted." He fell silent again.
A few minutes later Shizuru walked in. "Hey you two, dinner's ready."
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That night Shizuru gave Angela one of her long night shirts, saying, "Tomorrow we'll go buy you some clothes."
"Thanks," Angela said, though not only for the shirt but for them taking her in.
"No prob," Shizuru replied, she knew what Angela was really saying thanks for but just acted like she didn't. "Night."
"Night."
After Shizuru left and closed the door behind her, Angela changed into the night shirt. It reached to her calves. "Man Shizuru is tall." She walked over to the window. The autumn breeze was cool against her face and smelled of the forest surrounding the shrine. A far different smell from home. -Home...- Angela started to cry silently.
Hiei saw her cry from where he was sitting in the tree closest to the house. He turned away, a distant look in his eyes.