Botan: (announcer voice) And now, the queen of incredibly late updates, Ferriswheel!
FW: (bounds onto the "set", wearing a cape with a crown and a jester's hat) Ta-da! Wait… (yanks off the hat) WHO SWITCHED MY HAT!
Yusuke: (whistling)
FW: Darn it, you messed up my whole cool entrance! (throws the hat at Yusuke)
Yusuke: (sidesteps, and it goes by harmlessly) Bet you're the first out in doge ball.
FW: …Yeah. Hold on, if I'm the queen, does that mean I'm married?
Kid who looks like Haku: Ferrrrriiiissss….
FW: OH MY GOD RUN! (runs)
Kid who looks like Haku: Duuuuh? (disappears)
FW: (comes back)
Yu Yu Gang: (staring)
Yusuke: Wow that was stupid.
Hiei: Agreed. (thinks over what he just said) This one time.
FW: Same goes for me. Creepy little freak… oh well. I guess I should have an excuse for not writing in so long, and I actually do, but honestly, I don't think too many people want to read about authors complaining about their lives, and frankly, I know people who are a lot worse off. I've got all my limbs, no (major) diseases, and none that's going to kill me, I have more than enough food, a loving mom and brother, and friends who would stand by me no matter what. So here's a shout out to those who aren't as lucky.
Kuwabara: You actually care?
FW: Yeah! I try to donate, and whenever I get my license (don't count on that anytime soon) I'm going to volunteer!
Botan: Bravo! It's really very depressing how many poor people there are; most kids your age don't even realize it.
FW: Yeah, well anyway, couchpotatomaster-sama, your reaction was… simply put, WICKED SWEET! And as for the shockers (salutes) I'll try my best!
Kurama: Dear God… I have a bad feeling….
Hiei: Don't dwell on it. That's just your life.
FW: GreyRoseRantings-sama, your insight is just so amazing! Everything you wrote was so true! Except pigeon chasing is more fun, they make little noises-
Yusuke: (sarcastic) Only SLIGHTLY disturbing….
FW: And your cheer (rhymed to me too…), I don't know if I should laugh my head off, or hide in a corner…. COMPROMISE! (hides in a corner while laughing her head off)
Kurama: And to all readers-
FW: Er-hem….
Kurama: (slightly annoyed) My mistake, (normal) Ferris-Followers/Ferr-ettes, FW will continue to give shout-outs, despite the new rules until this site personally tells her to stop.
FW: Yup, only fair right? You guys spend time for me, so I'll try and make some reviewers who stood out feel special too! And now for everyone, the story!
Disclaimer: I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho Naruto, or Pac-Man
JUNIPER
START
Yusuke glanced around hopelessly. Ahead of him were seemingly endless hallways, and more than he cared to count. He and Kuwabara had left their room of imprisonment only to find this circular labyrinth. Looking around at all the possible places to go, some no doubt leading to dead ends, or worse, enemies and traps, the famed detective couldn't help but feel a bit like Pac-Man.
"Well Kuwabara, this is your area of expertise, which way?" Said boy asked, showing off his greater vocabulary in the process.
"Don't use words you don't know," the taller of the two scratched out, "it makes you look stupider." With the last word, he concentrated, edging his consciousness forward, out of his body, before expanding it in each of the directions.
Kuwabara may have been a powerful psychic, but even he couldn't see exactly what was in each hallway, a drawback he never really wanted to tell anyone. They made fun of him already, why readily supply more material? He could sense more than see, could instinctively tell which ways were clear, and which were dangerous. Luckily for them, he could also sense doors, one of which being the exit.
He was about to draw himself back completely when something else caught his "eye". The orange haired teenager couldn't exactly put his mental finger on it, but something in that room screamed for investigation. A hidden danger that needed to be learned.
"Well?" His companion asked, getting impatient.
His decision made, Kuwabara snapped back into himself. "That way," he pointed, leading the way into the second hallway on the left.
"We can always leave later," he reasoned mentally with himself.
After all, he WAS a detective, and a detective's job was to investigate.
&&&&&&&&
Kurama and Youko made no attempt to move to face whomever was now standing directly behind them. Their nose wrinkled in distaste as the putrid smell of his breath assaulted their senses, even from behind.
"Whoever you are, you'd best leave now," Youko warned softly, in the most dangerous voice he could muster up using human vocal chords.
"My my, aren't we fiery," a slick, wet sounding speech came to them.
Still, neither graced him with their focus.
"I suggest you listen when spoken too, Kitten," was their only warned before a fist connected roughly with the back of a red-colored head.
Youko twisted their body during the immediate lurch forward to avoid the humanoid bones laid out before him, not wanting to harm them. The left side of the young, human face connected with dry dirt, smearing brown onto his cheek.
From his new vantage point on the ground, the two gazed up at the monster in turn staring them down. He was as tall as an adult human male, stood on two legs, and wore jeans cut just above the knees, but the similarity to that race ended there. He was a lizard, gecko-like in appearance, who had through stages of evolution learned to walk on its rear limbs, with a long, swishing tail behind him. Said tail was racked with small, but undoubtedly sharp, spikes. His color was a deep, royal purple, all except for the glowing yellow eyes. Even the leathery wings perched on his back, looking slightly ridiculous, where of that color.
His hideous grin showed off his teeth, pointy enough to make any vampire jealous.
"Who are you?" Kurama asked, slowly, gingerly lifting himself into a sitting position, a healthy distance away from the demon.
"Kinjiko," He answered in the same, slithery accent. He finally lowered his balled right hand that he'd used to pound the fox's head. His fingernails were abnormally long. "I am the keeper of this castle."
Kurama could feel Youko's memory working, trying to match this new information to something he'd heard in the past. The unnaturally long silence told Kurama he'd failed.
"If what you say is true, how does this link to me?" Youko asked, still sounding calm and collected, but internally starting to wonder, and maybe even becoming nervous.
"You have brought me the Eye of Tepurt. I knew you would, to save this fool," Kinjiko ignored the question, before heknelt down beside Kuronue's skeleton. Youko started to rush forward, but Kurama's own consciousness held him back, trying to feel out their new opponent a little better before doing anything rash.
"I sent my children after you. Call it a reminder that he was here…." The pendant? No, there was no way he could have known about it, and even if he did, how would HE make it burn? "But the only way you'd find him was to take the Eye, and have it lead you here. And so we've been waiting for you to remember, Kitten… just the two of us…." The overgrown lizard reached out tentatively towards the bat's skull.
Now Kurama didn't bother to hold his thieving side back, they hurried toward the offending demon. "Don't you dare defile Kuronue with your touch!"
Unfazed, Kinjiko swung his tail out to the side, catching the unsuspecting duo by surprise and throwing them back. Kurama felt his shirt, and skin, tear. He looked down on habit, relieved to see the cuts weren't deep.
His head snapped up as his ears screamed in pained misuse. Kinjiko was running those lengthy claws across his friend's skull, the noise similar to that of those claws tracing a chalkboard.
Youko felt it too, and they both shivered involuntarily, momentarily silenced.
Kinjiko, still clawing the bone, looked up, letting his colder than ice ices meet with the others'. He smirked wickedly before standing.
Youko knew what he was going to do, and his eyes widened in terror. "No-" he started to say, but it was too late.
The lizard lifted one large bare foot, and stomped, crushing the skull beneath him.
&&&&&&&&
"Are you… sure… this was the… right way?" Yusuke panted, racing alongside his partner down the impossibly long corridor.
"Yeah," Kuwabara lied, keeping his eyes glued ahead. He could start to make out a doorframe….
Yes! Within 30 seconds, they reached it, sweating freely and breathing ragged. Yusuke reached up and pulled the doorknob, but it wouldn't budge. "It can never be that easy, can it…" he muttered in mock disappointment. If nothing else, it was a chance to break a door down.
In the middle of his musings, a glowing, orange sword cut said door off its hinges. The dark haired boy only just jumped out of the way before the rectangular piece of wood fell on him. "Hey! I was gonna knock that down!" He yelled spontaneously.
"It's not my fault you just stood there," the other defended himself, and before Yusuke could spit out a comeback, he walked through the frame.
Just this one time, Yusuke decided to let it go.
The room was dark. No windows, or any kind of light switches. The light that should have filtered in through the doorway seemed to die just short of brightening up anything. Kuwabara fumbled around the blackness for a moment, before finding an unlit torch.
"Spirit sword!" Calling his favorite weapon to life, he swung it across the burnt wood to start a fire going.
"Hey, not bad for an oversized lobster!" He could hear Yusuke call out to him from his left.
"I'm not a lobster!" Kuwabara swung about to glare at him, but found himself glaring at a demon, who was smirking in turn. "YACK!"
Hearing his best friend's yelp, Yusuke immediately started powering for his spirit gun, looking for whatever had scared the other. His eyes fell upon it soon after.
"Kuwabara… that's a picture."
He brought the torch back a little, and found that his friend was right. The smirk was what had caught his eyes at first, but as he let his eyes roam the rest of the face, he couldn't help but feel a little dumb for not having realized it wasn't real. A ripped black top hat, and equally black hair pulled back into a high ponytail. Sharp, narrow eyes that, even though it was a picture (he kept reminding himself) seemed to pierce right through his soul, and just as pointy ears.
"I know I've seen him before…" Yusuke pondered slightly, rubbing the back of his head, hoping the stimulation would stir a memory. "Let me see that." Without waiting, he took the torch.
The simple passing of hands gave light to more of the wall, and the rest of the picture. Standing beside the strange demon, was another, much more familiar one.
"Kurama?" They asked simultaneously.
In his Youko form, it was. Perplexed, Yusuke ran the torch over the rest of the wall. Hundreds of pictures of Kurama, both forms, stared down at them. Every now and then, a picture of one of the other detectives, or their friends, dotted the wall, almost as if they were an afterthought.
"Man, this Koi guy really needs a hobby," Kuwabara muttered, eyes wide.
Yusuke nodded wordlessly, and turned around, curious as to what was on the other side of the wall.
The change in interest was immediate. Instead of Kurama's gentle, green eyes, or Youko's cold golden ones, were Botan's pink. Her face smiled as she went about normal tasks, even a few of her atop her oar, soaring above the sky. Yusuke's heart sank. Koi had been talking about Botan after all then. Not only that, but it seemed he had been watching Kurama closely as well.
Only one word came to mind: "Stalker."
&&&&&&&&
Kinjiko watched on interestedly as his prey's aura instantly changed. The redheaded human closed his eyes, and within seconds, the dirt stained gray shirt and pants faded further, to white. The red in his hair became laced with silver, until the lighter color overflowed and furry, pointed ears emerged from the top of his head. An equally furry tail made itself known, and fingernails stretched.
When Kurama opened his eyes, they were no longer green.
"Youko, what are you thinking?" Kurama asked desperately in the safety of his mind. "You use too much energy in this form; it won't last, and when I become me again, we'll be helpless!"
"Then I'll finish him long before then," Youko decided firmly. It was easier said then done, they knew. Kinjiko, if his energy level was anything to judge by, was stronger than most, at least a higher B class. Normally, not much of an obstacle for either being, but in their state….
Youko was being foolish, but his rage had made itself known, manifesting in this body rippling with power. Kurama was sure this decision would make, or break them.
Kinjiko started walking towards them. "Give me the Eye, and I'll return you to your dear friend without too much suffering."
Youko's already hard eyes hardened further. "We'll see who kills who."
END CHAPTER 9
FW: Phew, time for another break!
Ferris-Followers/Ferr-ettes: NOOOOOOOOO! (pound on their pc desks)
FW: (points and laughs)
Hiei: (burning things)
FW: Hey wait a second… WHAT! Second thought, I don't want to know. Yusuke and Kuwabara got to see Kuronue briefly during the second move, and take Kijinko's creepyness however you want. Yaoi fans are having a blast with this.
Kurama and Youko: (death glare)
FW: (faltering a bit) So, beforeI forget, anyone who figuresout Koi'll get a quick cameoin the story!Ineed a few OC's. Don't worry, NO MARY-SUES! Now,review, don't, flame, it's ok! I'll take it in stride!