Gomen to all! I'm going to be gone for almosta month, so the next chapter will take some time. Heck, I'm not even gonna be on the same landmass! (Australia, here I come baby!)
Yes! We'refinally into the double digits! I'm so proud!
Chapter 10
Abduction and Abdukra-somebody
Dead would be better, I think to myself, feeling stiff and sore in more places than I cared to notice. What the… Oh, ew! That's disgusting!
I scrub furiously at the pool of dried spit on my cheek. What am I? A fountain?
Uh? My head meets resistance in what seems to be a pillowcase. Wow, looks like the bed finally did eat me. I think, chuckling to myself mentally. I smile deliriously, That's funny, I smell gasoline. I wonder if he was boozing with the mecha—
Ch-ch-ch…VROOM! Skreeeeeeeek!
The thought goes unfinished as I skid back, slam into something, and something else with hard sides and pointy edges falls on top of me.
Itai… I think meekly. Loud swearing can be heard up ahead.
"Rex! Watch it man! I just got 'er fix from the last time you drove!"
"Sorry, boss, li'l excited is all."
An exasperated sound and several grumbles follow.
"He's going to get us caught, peeling out like that…"
"You're telling me, Bat… Lard! How you doin' back there?"
"Ahhhh… peachy!" This shout is closer.
"And the goods?"
"Ummmmmm, nice and snuggly!"
"Great!"
We're rumbling along steadily now. The buzz of vibrating objects is making my head pound. But where the heck am I?
Gears turning, mind working, light bulb turning on. I think with sudden shock, I'm being kidnapped!
I look around, for all the good it does me, trying to see through the grungy pillowcase.
How the heck did this happen? Last I remember is . . . is—it shouldn't be this hard to remember—oh! Waking up sometime late at night and… flying over the city! That can't be right, must have been a nightmare. But then how in the world did I get here?
Skreeeeeee!
I slide across what must be the bed of a pick-up truck as we turn hard, bashing into a wall or some kind of stolen good.
Heh, nice and snuggly my spine.
Several stirrings or curses fly, most with the name Rex in them. Something else falls on my head and I almost pass out. Half heard words drift through my head. Grinding my teeth, I fight to hear them.
…Shitty light blue truck headed northeast.
What brand?
Don't know, couldn't care less.
Dammit, Hiei! How 'm I supposed to recognize it?
Hiei… that sounds vaguely familiar.
Easily, it won't have any tires.
What? Hiei, dame!
There's an abrupt feeling of loosing the second speaker. The attention of the first—Hiei?—turns to me with a sort of dangerous amusement.
Hold onto your life, ningen.
I have the smallest amount of time to wonder how he managed to make a smirk audible when the truck jolts, crashes down and skates across the pavement with a shower of sparks. The air goes blue with curses. Things fall on me and start piling up. Other cars honk and some people scream.
Rather impressive, really.
Suddenly, it all goes quiet. I hear feet running. The truck wobbles as someone jumps into it and starts rummaging through stuff.
Help me! Help me! I think desperately, wriggling around as much as possible.
Things are shifted around. I can hear bags being tossed to someone else. I squirm harder.
"Shin? Shin?" the voice sounds similar to the one I heard prior. "Huh? Aha! There you are!" The remainders of the things are brushed aside as my pillowcase it picked up and light floods my world. I stare gratefully into the face of someone I'm pretty sure I recognize. Um, something like Urameshi, right?
"Oi, Shin! Sorry about that! Someone" he aims a pointed glare at a red-eyed boy who has a printer under one arm and a computer the other shoulder. The boy gives a blank look back before, I swear, vanishing. "hadn't realized that when we said to 'watch over you' we meant 'protect and guard' too." Urameshi sighed. "But hey, all this junk is yours. These creeps robbed ya. (Don't think they meant to take you.) Hiei's taking it back to your apartment and Kurama and Kuwabara are putting it all back in place. Um, Shin?" I realized my attention had slipped. Who were these people? "Are taking any of this in?"
"I certainly hope so, because she doesn't remember any of it," a sadistic voice came from the boy leaning against the truck.
I jump, realizing that the entire bed had been emptied. Well, except for Lard. He's gripping the sides of the bed, his lips peeled back to show clenched teeth. Looking to the cab, I see the rest of the gang with their hands in front of their faces, mouths agape and eyes squinted shut. Not one of them move. Fascinating…
Dimly, I recognize the sounds of and argument going on behind me.
"What do you mean you erased her memory!"
"The binding I did on her works best if she doesn't remember how I did it, fool."
"Oh yeah? So why doesn't she remember last night?"
"I took most of her personal memories of us as well."
"What the hell!"
Sounds of scuffling ensue.
"What importance is she to us, detective?" he spits the word like a curse. "So what if she's psychic? They're a dime a dozen! She just has a little more power than most!"
"We're on Koenma's orders!"
"More like he just wants another Shin in his army of slaves!"
Meanwhile I'm … uh, slightly distracted. After waving my hands in front of his face, I'd been experimenting with what else won't make this blob of fat so much as twitch. Grabbing Lard's eyelashes, I pull them out as far as they'll go before letting them snap back. Grinning so hard my cheeks hurt, I start picking up bits of grass and rocks, stuffing them into his nose and cheeks.
"I don't think he'll appreciate that," a velvet voice says from behind Lard.
I jump hard. Then become mystified in the drop-dead gorgeous boy beside me.
"Though I can see the allure in toying with someone who won't wake. You can thank Hiei for that. His version of a 'brain freeze' is what's keeping all these people immobile and the rest from noticing anything's out of the ordinary."
Only taking in the sound of his voice but not a single word, I feast my eyes on his other features. It's as if someone replaced his eyes with perfect, pure, twin emeralds. His hair could be silk spun from the petals of a red rose. His face is content and almost mischievous in the mid-day sun.
"Damn you, Hiei!"
The truck lurches with an impact from the side. I fly out, straight at the god from nowhere. He catches me easily, gently sets me on the ground and he strolls to the other side of the truck where Urameshi has Hiei in pinned against the side in a death-lock.
"Hey, Shin."
For the third time today (that I remember), I jump, this time knocking into Kuwabara. I know him from school.
"Sheesh. On edge much?" he asks.
Well, I can't remember half of today, just was saved from a robbery/kidnapping and everybody's acting like the wheels being cut off a car, people freezing and the rest of the world going on with their merry lives is normal. Hm. Don't see any reason why I should be.
And yet, all this thinking amounts to is a ticked look in the carrot-top's direction. Not two seconds later we were barreled into and I found myself in more contact with the sidewalk than is normal.
"Ach! I'm sorr-Aiyeee! Satu! I thought you were gone forever!" I'm swooped up and given a face-full of hair by my favorite curly blonde, along with a bear hug hard enough to squish the air from my lungs.
Kuwabara mutters from the sidewalk, something about crazy schoolgirls.
Ami finally set me down and kneels beside me, hugging me once more on my level. I give a couch to let her know that oxygen to the brain is good. She releases me, letting her hands drop to her sides.
"Oh, Satu! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to…"
I catch sight of her arms. Palms and the inside of each arm are burned all the way up to her t-shirt line, and not the kind you get from hanging out in the sun for too long, either.
"Oh, that's just, uh, something stupid I did," she says, looking away and standing up. "Yo! Urameshi and friends!"
The trio that had been whispering harshly now glanced up at Ami.
"Thanks. Guess I owe you for saving Satu." She grinned, then turned on her heel. "Ja! C'mon Satu, I'll take you back to your place"
(Kuwabara's House)
Thump.
Hiei was shoved against the wall. With a smoldering glare he grabbed his assailant by the shoulders…
BAM!
…and slammed him against the opposite wall.
"Hey!" Kuwabara hollered, pushing Yusuke away from the wall. "Damn it! Look at this hole! I'll have to get another carpenter in here! Shizuru will kill me!"
Hiei released his captive stiffly. Yusuke let out a cloud of curses and plopped down in the recently-de-trapped-recliner. The fire apparition took 'his' windowsill.
"Now that we're all calm," Kurama emphasized, "Perhaps we can continue discussing the topic at hand."
"Why do we always have to have the meetings at my place?" Kuwabara moaned, still examining the dent in his wall.
"My pad looks like crap," Yusuke offered nonchalantly at the same time Kurama said, "My mother would faint." The two looked at each other wirily.
"Obviously we need a new meeting place, or better tempers," Kurama chuckled quietly, "The latter seems to be in short supply, so I'll see what I can find for the first. In the meantime, let's focus on Shin."
"Poor kid," Yusuke muttered. The group gave him a curious look. "When I picked up that bag, I could feel bruises on her. And there were parts of her skin that were a little discolored from old injuries."
"So you believe that Masa beats her?" Kurama intoned what they were all thinking.
"Well she'd have to be one heck of a clumsy kid otherwise," joked Kuwabara.
There was a snort from the windowsill.
"I know you think are humans…" Yusuke started accusingly.
"Before," Kurama said quickly, throwing glances at each fighter, "We get too off subject, let's solve the problem of Shin's memories and the bind."
"Her memories should be released," Yusuke growled, "Powers, too."
"I agree with you on her memories, Urameshi," Kuwabara said, trying to drag his attention away from Hiei. "But what happens when we suddenly have a physic, full-fledged with telepathy, telekinesis, and who knows what else on out hands?"
"She is none of our business…" Hiei said in a low tone, staring fierily out the window.
Kuwabara took a seat next to Kurama. He hoped to be well out of the way for this argument. If only he could get his poor house out of the way, too.
"Kuwabara is right," Kurama said, louder than necessary. "Shin's aptitude for the psychometric field is massive compared to most. If we were to release the bind, her abilities could be explosive and beyond anything we've seen. She'd be a danger not only to herself, but to the whole area inside range of her powers."
"Like what?" Yusuke eyed Kurama.
"Imagine that you'd like to go out to the beach," Kurama explained, "Just thinking it. If you aren't specific enough, some bad things could happen. On one hand, your molecules could rip apart and disperse themselves evenly to all the beaches within your range. And that's the better solution."
Yusuke gave him the 'do I have to ask' look, prompting the left hand, or the right hand, depending on which hand you started on.
Kurama sighed, "Or it might be that you bring the ocean to you. On an island country like Japan, that could bring tidal waves to the Shin's doorstep from every direction."
"In other words, undoing the bind is a big no-no," Kuwabara said before the mood could dampen again.
"Yes," said Kurama flicking his eyes gratefully in the carrot-top's direction.
"But what harm could it do to release her memories?" Yusuke said, flopping backwards to make the recliner go down.
"As long as we only revive the memories we suppressed, I don't see any," Kurama admitted, careful not to point blame at anyone.
"So as for her memories, release or keep captive?" asked Yusuke.
"Release, " said Kuwabara and Kurama. Hiei gave an exasperated huff of compliance.
Yusuke put the next item up for vote, "And her abilities? Locked or free?"
"Locked" the others said in unison—some more forcefully than others.
With a little grin Yusuke leaned back so far that he was lying down.
"There's one other matter we should discuss," Kurama said reluctantly. "The Book used to test Shin's initial abilities has, for lack of better terms, disappeared."
Kuwabara's head jerked up. "Nani? You don't mean the one with all the incantations, potions and history of Spirit World in it, do you?"
"Yes, thank you, narrator," Kurama replied with a rare show of sarcastic in-tolerance.
Hiei gave Kurama a piercing look, "Where'd it go?"
"Spirit World intelligence doesn't know. On the surveillance camera it was there in the vault, and then it was gone. The alarm even went off, yet there were no traces of anyone having been there."
The others were looking at him strangely. Spirit World vault could be stolen from, as two in the room had already demonstrated, but not blindly. There was always some kind of clue.
"The odd thing," the former thief added, "Is that the air pressure in the vault was slightly less. Exactly the PSI it would have been without The Book."
Elephant in Pink Tutus, I think after tipping on it for the umpteenth time, why won't you leave me alone? Restoring my closet to its former cluttered glory is going to be really hard if I can't do anything about this darn book!
Okay you infuriating thing, I think, placing it in the middle of the stack I'd been working on, Let's see if you can get out of here! I quickly pile books on top of it, fitting them together like Lego's.
Hah, I think to it and begin the next stack. I pause and make a face. I'm talking to books. Sheesh! I really must be bored.
There's still been no word from my other side. It'd been strangely lonely without her.
Suddenly I find myself on the floor with my thought-to-be-finished stack in ruin all around me. With a mental moan I take one book off my head.
Elephants in Pink Tutus… again… what a surprise. I think I'm going to have a heart attack and DIE from not-surprise! I put it on the nightstand. I'll read you later, okay? Okay.
I nod, turn, and promptly fall on my face. With pointy book covers jabbing my gut, I utter something between a hiss and a groan. Fishing out the book from between my feet, I flip it to the cover and guess what it is?
Pachyderm ballerinas… I set it on the nightstand again, carefully making sure it isn't overhanging in any way. Staaaay. Stay! Goooood book, staaaay…. I think, edging away from it.
Thankfully, this time it does stay and I stack all my books as high as I can reach (which, in truth, isn't very). So what if the book-towers are a tad hog-posh? It'll do for now.
I look back to my cot, my beautiful, lovely, broken cot. I can't believe it ripped straight down the middle. I can't be that heavy. The single blanket is stretched over it tightly like a cloth over a dead person.
Must have been the grace of Kuwabara and that other beauty… I-I mean boy! I quickly change my thinking pattern to safer subject matter. They really did such an awesome job with all the other furniture, and the beer and all the other junk Ami was real surprised that it was all back in place which would have been really hard to explain if I hadn't just shoved the door in her face but hey what are friends for it's not like she expected much more gee am I glad she left 'cause if she hadn't… I cut off the steady stream of dribble. What the heck am I nervous about?
Sighing, and pushing that bea-boy's(!) face to the back of my mind, I pull the sheet off the cot to assess the damage.
Shinjirarenai… I think in awe. The sheet catches on and knocks down one of the many book stacks to add dramatic background music.
My bed is fixed! It's gorgeous, perfect! Wonderful! Someone has sewn up my bed! The blue-green canvas is now accompanied with a swirling, twirling, spiraling red rose design that trails up the middle and around the edges. It's gorgeous! I run my fingers over it, squealing mentally. It's silk! Carefully, I crawl onto my newly restored bed. And strong!
Lounging on my gorgeous bed, I wonder who could have worked such elegancy. Not Kuwabara, he's such an oaf. I softly close my eyes. It must have been Shuichi…
With a little shiver, I roll over and sit up against the wall. My 'reading position.' I reach out to the nightstand and find that the book has shifted to the very edge closest to my bed.
Stupid book, I mentally mutter, could have sworn I'd left it in the center….
I shift it into my lap. It's a thin hardback. I flip through. It has nothing but horridly drawn pictures of elephants. Elephants in the circus, elephants in a parade, elephants in the wild, and yes—elephants in a ballet.
I let is flop shut, staring at the title grimly.
Thought I would, but I can't read you like this.
And like a chocoholic in front of a fudge store, book suddenly gains weight. The cover blinks from silly elephants to deep black. Gold letters emblaze The Book across the top and down the spine.
I stare at the pages; there are now, easily, over a thousand.
Awestruck, I warily flip the cover open. Taking the first page between my forefingers, I discover that the paper is very thin, soft and sharp
Itai! Paper cut!
Sticking the assaulted digit into my mouth, I turn the first page. Without my touching them, about five hundred follow in rapid succession, coming to a sudden halt on a page entitled Releasing the Adiutor. A short paragraph of description follows:
Will release any binds upon the user within the user's power. For complete effects, speak aloud. (As with any spoken spell, articulate clearly with vivid mental imaging of desired result.)
WARNING: May leave user with temporary energy drainage and/or dizzy spells. Caution is advised in the first week after attempted spelling. If not spoken clearly, unexpected results could occur.
I look up with sadistic irony in my eyes. Speak aloud, huh? Sure, no sweat. Just allow me to rip out this innocent bystander's vocal chords and use them for a few moments. Nope, not a problem at all. Then it dawns on me. Spell!
Can't be true… but if isn't then what's the harm in trying? I think gleefully.
"K--- h---- hr---!"
Ugh, I think, putting a hand to my throat, Okay, so the "articulate" thing is definitely out. I'll have to settle for picturing it.
I look at the page once more. I read through the block of text as noticeably and loudly as I can. I put my full understanding into each word. It's difficult but mesmerizing… spellbinding…
"Oh, God!"
My body jerks in such a convulsion that The Book flies out of my hands, I fall off the bed crash into my nightstand, break my clock, and manage to knock down several book sky-scrapers as well.
(That was mildly surprising.)
"Oh my baaaack…" There's a succession of sickening pops. "Never do that to me again."
Sitting up, gasping for air, and clearing the hair from my eyes, I look back at my bed. A wiry figure is perched on the edge, grimacing and craning his neck. His flaming orange hair reaches almost to his knees, but that's not saying much since he's barely five inches tall.
Oh yeah, and he's stark raving naked.
Staring with bug-eyes and a face that can't decide to be pale or flushed, I felt like I was going to be sick.
The tiny boy notices me watching. He stands akimbo and grins, showing off slanted yellow eyes and pointy teeth.
"What's wrong, sweetie? Never seen one like me?"
I quickly look away, busying myself with my hopelessly broken alarm clock.
Who is that!
The naked boy jumps down from my bed to look up at me from underneath. He squints already slanted eyes.
"What? You don't remember me? I'm insulted!" he says, mocking to have a heart attack and collapse.
Okay, that's done it. I wail mentally, I'm crazy, insane, gone off the deep end, fell off my rocker, a little WEE-OOO in the head!
"Toki!" the boy snapped, standing up suddenly. Then he's gone and my head jerks to follow him. He jumps into the air, gaining surprising height. My nightstand stand back up on its own and he lands on it nimbly. "You don't even recognize the sound of my voice!" His ginger hair stands up a little more than it should be able to. His yellow eyes blaze. "Watch this, Shadow!"
He looks away and there's a horrible, awful, ear-wrenching sound. The sound of my bed ripping straight down the middle. I gasp. My cot lifts off the floor and proceeds to tear its self to bits.
The little naked boy is glaring at me fiercely. His arms are crossed over his chest; his foot taps irritably. "See, Shadow! Do you see what I can do? Do you remember me now?"
I stare at the ruined cot that Shuichi had so lovingly repaired for me. Pieces of fabric drift to the floor. A clear, sarcastic, familiar, Stupid… rings through my head.
I gaze in wide-eyed wonder (bridging on horror) at the naked figure. The tips of his eyeteeth hang out as he smiles.
You're… you're her!
He grimaces. "I thought even you would have noticed that my gender is obviously not female."
But you were in my head! You were PART OF ME! You have to be a-a-a
He flashes more of his incisors at me. "Just because you inferred I had to be female doesn't make it true."
I sway, thinking, There was a little man in my head… A little NAKED man!
I'm feeling those dizzy spells.
He puts on a half-pout. "You don't enjoy this form? Pah! You're such a sissy." He climbs onto what's left of my cot. "You may call me Abdukrahman Nitya-Sundara Paramartha. I am the threshold guardian."
My alter-ego is an evil little man-imp. I think, still not over the fact, A destructive little imp.
I feel yellow eyes zero-in. "Pixie might be closer…" he says, almost growling. "And I am not completely destructive. Mostly, but not completely. Watch…."
My eyes flick to the bed as he casts a hand towards it. The pieces gather themselves together, blink, and are suddenly whole. My bed is back! Perfect!
Sensing my mirth he repeats, "Watch," making the same gesture to my alarm clock. The little cogs, gears and numbers float over to the nightstand, blink, and my clock is just like new. The pixie gives me a wink and tips his head at the rest of my room. I turn just in time to see all my books fly through the air, reassembling themselves is a very convincing model of downtown Tokyo.
Feeling very much like a guppy (eyes wide and mouth gaping) I think, Wow.
Abdukra-somebody's pride radiates across the room.
"Abdukrahman Nitya-Sundara Paramartha!" the pixie insists.
I suddenly feel very dizzy. Stumbling to my bed, I collapse and faint. The last thing I hear is an exasperated "Baka," from an amused pixie.
Wow! (pant-pant) I'm proud of myself. I wanted to get farther, but I'm running out of time. I leave tomorrow! And I have to be three hours early to the airport! XP Stupid customs. Then we fly to Denver, then LA. I have a SIX-HOUR LAYOVER IN LOS ANGLES! And they won't let me leave the airport! (I'm going with a US delegation group: People to People.) I'm going to be soooo bored! Think of me! Cause after sitting in LA for three hours, I have a 21 hour flight to Sidney! Gah! Then what do I do once I'm in Sidney, Australia for the very first time? (With tingling butt and legs from lack of movement) I climb the Sidney Harbor Bridge. T.T Hooray…
Well, it's a 21 day trip, crossing the IDL twice, so I'll get back to writing ASAP. Next time you'll find out where her father (Masa) went, what went down, and a little more about Abdukrahman Nitya-Sundara Paramartha.
Did anybody notice how her memory started coming back in bits and pieces? How about the way she started to sense feelings again? Or her usage of 'bed' over 'cot' after she'd seen what 'Shuichi' had done? Just wondering!
Glossary:
what a surprise. I think I'm going to have a heart attack and DIE from not-surprise!—Anybody recognize this? It's a quote from Iago in the Disney movie Aladdin. -
"More like he just wants another Shin in his army of slaves!"—This refers to Hiei's opinion of how Koenma's detectives are treated. It's also a refrence to when Masa and Sumi Shin used to work for Enma.
Aduitor- (Latin) helper, assistant, deputy
Akimbo- (English) To stand with your hands on your hips and feet spread apart.
IDL-- International Dateline
Itai-- Ow!
Dame—No! (As in, Don't do that!)
Ja—short for Ja ne, see you later
Mecha—only later did I realize that when I'd cut off the word "mechanic" I told you guys that he'd been boozing with a giant robot. 0.o
Nani—What?
Oi—Hey!
Shinjirarenai—I don't believe it!
