Chapter three: The Antique Song's Lyrics
A quiet and lulling song was falling from the lips of the demon girl. She traveled through the shadows of the trees, making everyone she passed turn in wonderment of where that hypnotizing song had come from. Though their interest turned just as fast as the song was carried away with the wind, and its soft melody was forgotten in their minds.
The demon girl staked out in the same patch of tree as she was the night before, she was planning on following the group to where ever they were to go with the tracking device she had put into the jacket of the red haired boy. It was simply a piece of cloth that she had put a spell on so she could always know where its location was.
Though something troubled her. Oh, what was she kidding, it made her giddy. Hiei had yet to return from last night, and to her thinking, he wouldn't show up for a while. Which was perfect for some extent. She took out her camera that she had bought last night and focused her mind to follow the device in the red haired boy's jacket. Once her mind frequencies were the same with the device, she sat and waited.
In the apartment
Yusuke stirred as he began to wake. His head was slightly splitting as he rose up from the couch and realized the position he was in. His face wet from saliva, he saw a head of red on his chest. Once his vision became more on spot, he realized that that red head on his chest was from none other than Kuwabara.
"AH! Kuwabara get off of me!" He shot up, stumbling to the floor from Kuwabara's weight. He took note of Kuwabara's spit on his face and grabbed his rug from the floor and started rubbing it on his face to get it off.
"You know that's not gonna make it any cleaner." Kuwabara sat up, sleep still evident in his eyes as he referred to the stains in the rug. Yusuke stared at him and flung the rug to the floor and yelled in rage as he exited the room.
"Jeez Kuwabara! Couldn't you find somewhere else to sleep! Good God!" All the commotion coming from Yusuke finally woke up Kurama from his peaceful sleep.
"Well good morning Kuwabara. Hm, kind of strange how we fell asleep in here. Mother must be worried." Kurama stood up and hurried to the kitchen where the phone was just as Yusuke reentered.
"Ugh, that was not the best sleep ever." Yusuke sat down in a chair adjacent to the couch Kuwabara was on. He rest his head in his hands and rubbed it.
"Yeah, I had this weird dream about a girl." Kuwabara stood up and stretched.
"Really? Me too."
"I am so happy that mother isn't worried anymore. Yusuke, Kuwabara, why didn't you wake me up after I fell asleep?" Kurama walked in happy that his mother was happy.
"I don't remember you falling asleep Kurama. I don't even remember Kuwabara falling asleep and he always falls asleep before I do."
"We were also talking about dreams. We both had a dream about a girl. Though mine wasn't about Yukina so that was kinda weird," Kuwabara explained while stretching his head in confusion, "The girl I was dreaming about wasn't nearly as beautiful as Yukina. Of course, no girl is so…"
"What'd she look like?" Yusuke, having nothing else to talk about in this strange morning after continued on with Kuwabara's dream.
"Kinda short, really long hair and really pale. Kinda freakish in a way." As Kuwa told Yusuke and Kurama that they looked sort of surprised.
The both answered at the same time, "Me too." They looked at each other slightly dazed.
"What happened in your dream Kuwabara?" Kurama was now trying to get to the bottom of this strange coincidence.
"Well, she knocked on the door, it was really life like, Yusuke opened it and she wanted to go to the bathroom. When she was there, we started talking about uh… why she would come here." Kuwabara finished and saw the astonished faces of the others. He, however, mistook them for a look of 'what kinda dream is that?' "I know, I know, weird for a dream right? My dreams usually have me falling off cliffs and stuff. Hey, ya got anything to eat? I never checked yesterday." Kuwabara was oblivious to the still amazed looks of the other two. Yusuke and Kurama, on the other hand, were on the same page.
"Yusuke?"
"Kurama?"
"Did you-?"
"Yes, yes I did."
Outside
'I figure that they've at least talked about it by now.' The demon girl was picking at her nails with the switchblade she bought the day prior. She sat at an angled position with space between her lower back and the tree trunk and her legs were crossed with the upper one bouncing up and down. She was growing bored, and fighting the desire to leave them and look for Hiei to mess with him more. But just as these thoughts came into her head, she saw the three boys leave the apartment, two of them looking slightly ill, and depart from her sight all together.
'Now we're talking.' The girl smiled and fled from her perch as she slipped the blade into one of her many pockets of a new jacket she bought earlier.
The others
"He's gotta be somewhere near. Why do you think he left like that? Without even saying a word?" Yusuke was standing ahead of the other two as they were setting out their own search party at Koenma's request just minutes before.
As the guys walked, they looked up in all the trees to see if Hiei was taking a nap and they walked deep into the forest to see if he was maybe training out his anger and frustration. They still didn't find him. Suddenly, Yusuke could hear a beeping inside his pants and pulled out his communicator.
"What is it Koenma?"
"You have to forget finding Hiei for now, you have an urgent mission. I want you all to go and stake out a jewelry store in downtown Tokyo called Nami's Pearls. There have been threats that a heist will be going down soon. All I want you to do is stand by and wait for anything or anyone fishy coming around. If it's a demon, subdue them before they can take anything."
"Got it." Yusuke clicked off the communicator. "Let's g-"
"Hiei?" Kurama was now looking straight up towards a high branch and saw Hiei hunched over in a sitting position staring at something in his hand. Hiei, knowing he was found, looked down to show his stained eyes filled with all the signs of 'tired'. It appeared that he hadn't slept at all since they last saw him last night.
"Hiei? What are you doing up there?" Yusuke then talked, and his eyes moved from Hiei to the handkerchief in his hand. Hiei noticed, and quickly deposited the cloth in his pocket and jumped down from the tree.
"Wow, shrimp, you look like hell." Kuwabara, saying the wrong words as he usually does, earned a blood curdling stare from Hiei that instantly shut him up. "Um, never mind." Kuwa began to back up a little, taking note of Hiei's clearly angered, or amazed and astonished state of mind.
"Hiei, we just got a new mission. It's nothing big, think you're up to it?" Yusuke looked down at the demon in concern. He was trying to think of what could have possibly made him so flustered and angry, but nothing came to mind.
Hiei grunted, and said "Where?"
Yusuke sighed in relief, and led the way for the other three.
Downtown Tokyo
A humming sound was coming out of the dressing room from an old clothing store that still sold antique kimonos. More for collecting than wearing as opposed to the newer clothing that was on the racks. But the demon girl did not care. When she stumbled along the quant little store and saw the beautiful kimonos hung from the highest hooks on the wall for all to see, she knew she needed to have one. For old times sake. The way the silk felt against her skin brought back memories of when her very skin was just as smooth. Though now, it was flaky and dirty from the times in the old jail cell. Only being able to take a bath once a week did horrors on her skin. But now, everything felt like it once did. Back when she was just fooling idiot demons for their money in a very convincing kimono.
And this one seemed just like the one she used to wear. Save a few minor details (that she was sure to change later when she had the chance) it looked exactly the same as her old one when looking from afar. Which is what she wanted. The unique color of the fabric, its vibrant pink with deep blue birds and flowers sown in along with the deep blue ribbon on her back made it sure that anyone who caught a simple glimpse of it were to turn and look.
Once she got it on correctly, she put on the old shoes she found in place of the half torn ones the demons in the cells gave her. Since her feet were dirty and bloodied from the shoes being several sizes too small, she was sure to put socks on before the shoes to hide her hideous feet. She was almost done now. All that was left was her hair. Since coming to the human world she had yet to cut it. But now, she didn't really want to cut it. Its tremendous length showed how long she was kept in solitude and darkness, how long she was left alone to die. Instead of cutting it off, she rolled her five foot long hair into a marvelous bun, sticking out from her head almost eight inches with beautiful ribbons woven intricately into the bun, and topped off with a pink bonnet with deep blue ribbon, all held together with an old hair clip near her head. When she was sure that her hair would stick, she left the dressing room, leaving her other tattered clothes behind and her new coat hidden inside the kimono.
When she walked up to the register, she could tell by the astonished gasps of other shoppers that they had seen her in her beautiful kimono. She ignored them, but was quite happy that they were amazed. As she took out more money that she had stolen, the cashier couldn't help but comment.
"My, my, you look quite elegant in that kimono miss. And your hair is beautifully done! It's hard to even recognize you with your hair up!" The old woman recalled seeing the girl walk in with ugly gray clothes and her long blonde hair grazing the floor. Now, with colors better suited to her skin color and her hair not overpowering her body and face anymore, her true and ageless beauty was now easier to see. "You look just like a geisha girl, like you came out of the Feudal Era!"
"Why thank you, I was very happy to see you had such a lovely kimono in your store." The girl made sure to return the woman's kindness as she handed her money for payment.
"You're going to wear it out, dear?" The woman looked at her quizzically for a second before the girl nodded.
"Yes, yes I am."
"Well let me get some scissors to cut off the tag." The woman turned around and started shuffling through her drawer as the demon girl took notice of two very beautiful chopsticks meant for the hair. She gazed at their craftsmanship for a couple seconds before the woman returned and cut off the tag. When the payment was all said and done, the demon girl left. The two chopsticks that were locked up in the glass case were gone as well.
Boys
"Okay, this is the store Koenma told us about. Everybody just find a place to hide and we'll wait the demon out. Don't move from your spots okay?" Everyone nodded and walked off. Kurama and Hiei walked across the street where Yusuke and Kuwabara stayed closer to the jewelry store.
A couple minutes went by with nothing strange happening. The boys however stayed alert for anything. Well, everyone except Hiei.
'All night I've been up and I still can't fathom a reason for her being here. Maybe someone stole it from her? But why would it be delivered to Yusuke? No matter, but it still CAN'T be her. There's no possible way.' As Hiei was thinking, something caught his eye. He turned his head, and saw a woman, quite short with a bright pink kimono on, making her stand out greatly among the other people who were dressed modernly. Hiei's throat then closed up and his eyes widened. That kimono. It was so familiar. And the hair, it was just like hers though longer. Its piercing blonde color caused him to lose the feeling in his legs as he stumbled against the brick wall he was hiding behind. His breathing quickened as he stared straight at the woman whose face he could not see as she walked away from him on the other side of the street. She walked past the jewelry store and passed Yusuke who was staked out near it and disappeared behind the corner. He couldn't help himself. He had to see the face of that woman.
Leaving his post, he ran across the street, ignoring the cars and the yells from the others and ran past Yusuke to follow the girl.
"Hiei! What are you doing! Get back in place!" Yusuke whipped around and saw Hiei start running after the strange girl in the kimono. It was just then that he had recognized her face and the color of her hair. His words caught in his throat a little as the memory of his strange dream that he apparently shared with Kuwabara and Kurama flashed before him. That girl, she was in his dream! But how?
"Yusuke! Forget about him! Look!" Kuwabara was running toward the entrance to the store as a strange looking man walked in, and the scream of a girl inside was heard. Yusuke quickly dismissed his thoughts, not knowing that Kuwabara and Kurama had noticed the same thing.
Hiei was running as fast as he could as to not be questioned by humans at his speed. The girl he was chasing was running too, though she had never turned around to see him chasing her, she knew he was even then.
Hiei sped up, and noticed that the speed she was going was above human normality. There was no way she was a human. He sped up more as he noticed no humans were in sight just as the girl turned another corner. Once he did the same, she was gone.
"What! NO! Where did she go!" Hiei looked down the barren alley to see no one. Part of him began to think there was no girl at all, and that he was going crazy. Also, if she had converted to a shadow form, he would still be able to sense her. Here, he felt nothing. Shaking, Hiei reluctantly began to turn around, but not before a quiet though still noticeable song hung from the wind as it blew his hair slightly.
The time has come
For light to sway
Darkness gone
Revealed today
A hindered soul
Awakes again
Revengeful lips
Kiss the men
Before Hiei had time to process it and go through his own memories, it was lost in the wind that which it came. None of this could be real. It wasn't possible.
--
Shade- Hello, I hope you enjoyed that
People- Freaky girl
Shade- Yeah, I know isn't she?
People- No, we're talking about you
Shade- Ha-ha. You're so damn funny… poop faces… Please review readers!
