Ch.9: Sticks and Stones
The pebble was being swept away by the powerful underground stream, enjoying the rush. Quickly he came to the right spot, and flung himself out of the water, then dug his way up to the surface.
'So far, so good, Captain Dirte.' He reported back to the main consciousness of Hans.
'Go farther, be better, Private Dirte.' The main consciousness replied.
'Roger that', and the pebble disconnected. Rolling along the surface now, he started singing. "Mysa's so pretty, and witty, and bright! And it's a pity, that I am not a human, tonight." Suddenly, he was scooped up off the ground, and trapped in a metal box. For some reason, he was no longer connected to the main. The pebble began to panic and throw himself at the walls of his metal container. Whoever had caught him shook the box.
"Shut up in there!" A rough voice said, and in silence, the little pebble let himself be carried away.
After what felt like forever, the lid of the box opened, and the pebble was unceremoniously dumped into a small copper bowl. Where ever he was, it wasn't much brighter then the box. Abruptly, he came face to face with a pair of glowing green eyes.
"ACK!" He shouted, and skidded away, but he was trapped by the sides of the bowl. The eyes narrowed as a voice boomed in laughter. After it stopped, it said,
"Hello, little pebble. I hear you know a girl named Mysa. Would you be so kind as to tell me where she is? I don't want to be mean to you, so please tell." The pebble stuck up his nose and shook his head (work with me, people).
"I will never betray Mysa!" He got smashed with a hammer. "Oy!" Al the little pieces of him said. "That didn't hurt!" Water got poured in the bowl, and the pieces proceeded to play a rousing game of Marco Polo (anyone else notice the British overtones? And has anyone ever won a game of Marco Polo? How the hell do you win that? You can't, not the way we play. The whole game is just an excuse to be loud, get wet, and cheat). Pollution was added to the water, and though they were singed (I hate the English language sometimes) a bit, "It still doesn't hurt. We're rock; we don't feel."
The disembodied voice sighed in exasperation. "It's not working! They're made out of bloody stone, for hell's sake!" The eyes suddenly appeared close to the bowl. "You're ugly, nobody likes you, Mysa thinks you're weird and you're going to spend your life alone, a burden on society." The pebble bits began to wail in sadness. The pair of eyes blinked. 'Heh. It worked.' "Come, now, pebble, no need for tears! If you tell me where Mysa is, I'll be your best friend! 3" the pebble bits hesitated. "Please tell me. Remember, Mysa doesn't like you, but I think you're great!" (Gag. You people don't know how much it hurt to write that) They stopped crying. Hiccuping, they said,
"All right. Just promise not to hurt her." Fangs bared in an evil smile glimmered in the darkness.
"I promise."
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Hiei was getting seriously irritated. The sun should have come up by now! But no, it was still dark out, the moon sitting serenely over head no matter how many death glares he sent it. He heard Hans move about below.
"Hey, Hiei-San! I'll take over watch now, okay?" Hiei snorted.
"The hell you are. Like I'm going to be able to sleep with you on guard. Though Mysa's stupid enough to trust you, I am not. I'm staying until the sun rises." Shuffling noises.
"Well, you're going to have an awfully long wait. Night, here, lasts twenty four hours."
"WHAT?"
"Yep. We don't know why, but nights last 24 hours, and days last 48."
"So, your 'week' is really going to take about a month."
"Yes."
"She's going to be royally pissed at you."
"I know." He said sadly. "But there's not a lot I can do about it, and Mysa-chan needs her sleep, plus I didn't want her walking around at night." The questions had been nagging at Hiei all night, and were just about to drive him crazy.
"What do you know about her? I heard that she almost never sleeps." More shuffling noises.
"Can I come up?"
"The hell that I care. Why do you want to?"
"Because I don't want to wake Mysa-Chan up."
"Whatever." Hiei's eyes picked out something that looked like a dark snake slowly slithering up the branches. When it reached about eye level, it formed back into Hans. Quietly, the arm made out of dirt said,
"I know she's afraid of me. I can see it when she looks at me." This startled Hiei. The two had seemed to get along like two peas in a pod.
"Hn."
"Really. My shape bugs her, I know it does. Why, I don't know. I didn't want to ask. She's nice about it, and pretends that she's not afraid, but when she looks at me, it's there."
"What a stupid thing to be afraid of, a arm."
"Fears are not rational."
"I wouldn't know. I'm not afraid." If the arm could look shifty eyed, I'm sure it would have.
"I would have to believe you, seeing as you have not yet expressed any fears." Hiei shot a look at the arm.
"Why do you talk so weird?" Hans shrugged.
"I don't know. Maybe the writer has just started a bunch of smart people classes, and now feels rather smart. Or it could be that she spent the afternoon singing 'I'm A Cucumber', dance included." Hiei hit him and muttered,
"There is no writer, baka. Read your lines!"
"Oh, yeah. ANYWAY, he–" Hans froze, then poked Hiei. "Psst! What's my line!"
WritingWoman: CUT! What the hell is up with you, Hans! Didn't you memorize it beforehand!
Hans: wailing NO! You always wing it! How am I supposed to memorize lines that don't exist!
Hiei: annoyed That is it! I quit! This is the FIFTEENTH TIME we've run this scene! He's never going to get it! Excuse me, but I have to go kill my manager.
W.W.: Oh no you don't. You have to stay until this is finished.
Hiei: Shut your trap, baka. I'll kill you too.
W.W.: Bring it on, short stuff! both adopt fighting stances, katana's in hand, but then Hiei's turns into a small bottle of nail polish
Hiei: WHAT THE HELL!
W.W.: I'm a the writer! What I say goes!
Mysa: Am I done sleeping yet?
W.W.: NO! looks around Hey, where'd Hans go?
Hans: typitytypitytype. Suddenly, everyone is looking at him writing the events on W.W.'s computer Um... hi? W.W. looks like she's about to pummel him, and since she's the writer, she can actually make it hurt. He starts wailing I was just making my lines a fixed thing!
W.W.: shoves Hans off computer All right, all right, everyone back in position, let's continue. And, Hans... says sweetly, Hans gulps STAY OFF MY COMPUTER, OR YOU'LL BE AN ENCHANTED BUTT BOIL!
Hans: Yipe!
ANYWAY:
"I've always talked this way. What's wrong with it?"
"Hn."
"Okay, I don't know why you just said yes, but whatever floats."
"Are you just here to waste my time?"
"I thought you wanted to know about Mysa?" o.o "Why DO you want to know about Mysa?" Hiei already had an answer.
"I'm supposed to be keeping tabs on her, as a favor. It's my job. You didn't think I'd be traveling with her by choice, did you? If you did, you're stupider then I thought."
"I would. Travel with her by choice, I mean."
Hiei muttered so low that you can't hear () "Tell her what I just told you and I'll make the writer torture you."
W.W.: Hey! Don't go threatening people with me!
Hiei: Shut up and continue. W.W. continues
"I take it that you don't want her to know that your job is to spy on her."
"If she doesn't know, she won't hide as much, making this dumb assignment over quicker."
"Right. You don't like her, then?" Hiei looked at Hans out of the corner of his eye.
"Right. You got a problem with that?" Hans shook his hand (head).
"No, I don't." Silence, because the writer had just got a phone call and had lost her train of thought so she could talk to her best friend about mooses, cheese and cucumbers. Hans started thinking of the picture Mysa had painted earlier. He was thankful Hiei hadn't seen it, because then Mysa would have been embarrassed. She had painted in the side of his face to the picture. Hans had asked why, and she had blushed and said, "Well, he was there, and I don't know what was just past his big fat head, so I had to paint him in." Wisely, Hans had nodded and let it go.
"So, did she mention any powers or anything?"
"No, we mostly talked about her painting, and she told me why she was looking for a magical sword of death. Syrin means a lot to her." Hiei snorted.
"That's a human for you. Lets people and things mean too much. They're such weak and useless things."
"I disagree. Apparently, Syrin has the power to end the world."
"No, she has the power to set in motion the end of the world, by DYING. Like I said, weak." Hans shook his hand (head).
"But there is power in dying. After all, look at Mysa." A pause. Look at Mysa? Hiei was confused, but kept his face stone. Hans continued, ignorant that he was about to reveal one of Mysa's many secrets. "She's dead, and I'd say she's pretty powerful."
"Nani!" Hiei was startled into asking.
"Well, she was dead. She's alive now, obviously." Hiei said nothing, and Hans became curious. "You mean you didn't know? You can't see it following her everywhere?" It suddenly clicked in Hiei's brain. Mysa had met Botan when she died. So did that make her blur/shadow thing her... death? If she was being stalked by her own death, what was healing her? How had she come back to life? Like Urameshi? Then wouldn't she too be in the Reikai's employ? The only part of that that made sense was that Mysa had died, and met Botan. Smacking himself mentally, he realized that he should have known that already. Hans had solved the easiest mystery, and left the floodgates open for more.
Like, how she had died.
"Hn. Of course I knew. That's why I was assigned, because I could see the shadow." Hiei realized how completely unlike himself he was being. Asking questions, giving real answers... being around the stupid humans so much was causing his brain to rot, apparently.
Just then, Mysa stumbled out of her tent, yawning and straightening her shirt. "What time is it?" She mumbled, rubbing sleep out of her eyes. "Why's it so dark?" Hans 'eeped' and hunched into the tree.
"Mysa! What are you doing up so early!" She blinked at him, and for the first time Hiei noticed the slight hesitation in her movements around Hans.
"I'm hungry. And I had this dream... well, I'm hungry. It can't be that early, can it? My ears are ringing, too... you weren't talking about me, were you?" She smiled sleepily. "Just kidding." A thought occurred to her. "Holy hell, there is something to eat in this place, isn't there!"
"Yes, there is. Mysa, I should probably tell you something... A week in Lost is about a month in your world. And... this place... isn't as safe as it may seem. Besides the crazies and psycho's that inevitably find their way here... there's also the big lizards." Mysa was silent for a moment, as her brain tried to understand it all. All she had wanted was some food, and instead got bombarded with information, bad news. Then it sank in. A month. Psycho's. Big lizards...?
"Big lizards? What do you mean?"
"I mean, BIG LIZARDS. You know: the worst of the lot has a big head and a lot of teeth... two tiny arms... walks on two legs..." 'Sounds like Hiei,' Mysa thought to herself. "I've heard it called 'Rex' before, or something like that. It was hard to tell; his screaming stopped as the lizard gobbled him up. Thankfully, they're rare."
"Oh! You mean, a dinosaur! A T-Rex!" Her face lit up with understanding, then she blanched. "Shit. A T-Rex. I wonder how it got here?" She woke up a bit more. Rounding on Hans, she glared at him. "A MONTH?" He shook.
"Yes..."
"HOW DID A WEEK BECOME A MONTH?"
"Time flows differently here... a week for us is about a month for you."
"AND HOW IS THIS?"
"Um... a day here is two days on Earth, and a night is a full 24 hours." She fumed silently for a while, glaring into the tree where Hans stayed for protection. Her glare was so fierce that for a moment, he forgot he couldn't be hurt.
"Hans, you'd better stay in that tree until the sun comes up. I don't like liars."
'Hypocrite.'
'Shut up. No one asked you.'
'Maybe you should start. Then perhaps you wouldn't put your foot in your mouth so much.'
'Keep talking and we'll see where my foot ends up.'
'You idiot. You're talking to yourself.'
'I hate you, you stupid whore.'
'Don't be rude. You're only hurting yourself.' Mysa hated that little nagging voice in the back of her head. It was always so full of itself... Thinking it was all that. But it's futile to argue against yourself. No matter the outcome, you lose. So Mysa gave up her inner argument, with the last words, of course.
'Call me an idiot. You started it.' Then she ignored the little voice, who wanted to continue arguing.
Looking around for something to do – because now she was fully awake, and there was no way she'd be able to go back to sleep now – her eyes rested on her sword. That fight with Hiei probably dulled it a little... should fix that. After looking over her shoulder to make sure he wasn't watching, Mysa concentrated on her palm, holding it in front of her. Gently, she breathed out. The black mist headed straight for her palm, and began to swirl delicately around, finally gaining a vague shape and solidity. A few seconds later, a small, very real, rectangular stone was sitting in the middle of her hand.
"What the hell was that?" Hiei said from right behind her, so close that Mysa could feel his breath when he talked. She jumped about a foot in the air, landing and whirling on him.
"What's what?" She asked innocently, trying to hide the stone behind her back. He snarled,
"I'm not an idiot. What is that, and how did you just do that?" She sniffed and stuck her nose up at him.
"If you're going to ask so rudely, I'm not going to tell." Hiei's Jagan glowed beneath his headband as he tried again to probe her mind. He was tired of the mystery. It was still protected by the black shield of ice. Instead of pulling out directly, this time, he tried to push through the darkness. It felt almost physical, as if he was being rebuffed by millions of steel cobwebs. Then a voice rang out unexpectedly in his head.
'LEAVE ME ALONE. THIS IS NO PLACE FOR YOU.' His hands flew to cover his ears by sheer reflex, as if it could block the noise. He felt someone trying to push past his own shields, and quickly he withdrew.
When he opened his ruby eyes, Mysa was still standing before him, only her gaze, which had until now been playfully angry, had become stone cold, and backlit with sadness and real anger.
"Leave me alone, Hiei." She said quietly, turning her back on him and walking around the giant boulder. Hiei watched her walk away, feeling as if he was adrift on a stormy ocean, and his boat had just been snatched from under him. He felt as if he had just lost something very important, but didn't understand what it was or why he felt that way.
Then he roughly shrugged the feeling off. What did he care?
Mysa sat on the dark side of the boulder, staring off into the woods, katana resting against her collar bone, turning the stone over and over in her hand. She had learned to make these almost immediately after her return to life. The stone was relatively light in weight, pitch black in color, and very rough, yet somehow incredibly smooth. She called it her Nevenu Stone, uneven yet not (Nevenu is uneven backwards, for those who didn't realize this). Making the stone had been her third conscious try of her 'powers'. The first two had been healings, once for herself, once for Syrin. That's when she'd been forced to tell Syrin everything that had happened after her death and resurrection.
But Hiei... Mysa clenched her fist around the stone, tearing skin and causing her hand to bleed. How dare he, trying to barge into her mind like that! Releasing the bloodstained stone, she let it drop to the ground, and stared absently at her wounded hand. At least he hadn't been able to see anything... the first time he had tried, it hadn't annoyed her much, because he was just testing the waters. The others (the ones that could, anyway) had done so too. But this... trying to shove his way into her mind as if he had a right to be there, to know... The scariest part was that he had gotten halfway through. If she hadn't taken up counter measures, he might have actually gotten in. Mysa didn't know if she could handle having all her walls torn down, and her secrets so coldly exposed. If he got proof, and Botan got her hands on it, Mysa's whole life would be under the microscope of the Reikai scientists. She just knew she was an oddity they had never encountered before. She could see it every time Botan looked at her.
Why had she agreed to do this? A heavy weight settled on her shoulders. Yes, it was a help to Syrin just by not being there, but all she was doing here was slowing Hiei down. The little demon would probably have found the damn sword by now if he wasn't stuck with the burden of watching over her. Anyway you look at it, she was hurting the mission. Perhaps she should just walk off. Hans, if he even found her, would never rat on where she was.
(No.)
(No? No what?)
(You can't run away. You'd just make matters worse by doing that.)
(Oh yeah? How?)
(Hiei would come looking for you. It's not a matter of job or duty; it would be an insult to his pride if you snuck out from under his nose. He would be forced to look for you to heal his ego.)
(He could stand to lose a little ego, if you ask me.)
(Stop trying to be a smart ass. All you're managing is the ass part. You made your bed, now lie in it.)
(But it's lumpy, and there's no cover.)
(Double pace training next time.)
The connection snapped off, and Mysa's senses returned. So it was decided. She wouldn't run off. Besides, just look who she would be imitating if she did... All right. When it lightened enough to travel, she would go, and she wouldn't be a burden, she wouldn't slow Hiei down. And she would keep him the hell out of her mind. Picking the stone up once more, she unsheathed her katana, and began to sharpen it. Soon she was lost in the soothing, rhythmic ringing-rasping noise.
She never even noticed the green eyes watching her from the woods.
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WritingWoman: Hey, ya'll. What's up? It took forever to write this one, and when it was finished, I realized why. It wasn't written the way I had planned. Instead of drawing them together , I went and shoved the stubborn little bastards apart! Damn! Anyway, the chap. didn't start out with this ending in mind. It just... mutated.