Sorry this was so late. I only have one thing to say: it was Ookami's fault. (Kidding, kidding. We all know you're the brains behind this, so thanks Sasha.)
Disclaimer: Yoshihiro Togashi owns Yu Yu Hakusho including its characters, creatures, setting, and general storyline. I own Selene and the minùe, along with some of the more particulars in the plot, but not Atari. She belongs to someone completely different. Oh, and my soul belongs to Jesus. Beat that Togashi.
Important:
At the request of Ookami, I'm putting the translations at the beginning of the story, so you know what you're getting into.
1 Makai- the Demon World
2 emiko- boy of fire; used to describe Hiei.
3 –sama- an honorific that denotes a high level of respect (usually translated as "lord" or "lady")
4 Kokuryūha- Literally "Black-Dragon-Wave" though in the English version it's called the "Dragon of Darkness Flame." It's Hiei's ultimate attack.
The Dawn of Darkness
Chapter 2:
The Other Stalker
Hiei hated many things. There's no denying that. That night, though, he couldn't think of anything he despised more than his two charges and the pompous ruler who decided to give him the assignment. Sure, he didn't know if the girls were at any fault for his current predicament, but he'd hated for less, and everyone knows it always feels good to blame an outside source.
It's easy to guess what upset the fire demon so much. Raised in Makai(1), Hiei was used to having to fight for his life, or, in many cases, just fight for fun. Right then, though, Hiei was doing nothing but watch humans go about in their lives, completely unaware of anything supernatural. To sum everything up, the demon was incredibly bored, and it drove the emiko(2) mad. Everyone was like cattle, and their lives were only a small dot in time (and by his standards, that was being generous).
What irritated him further was the fact that his charges wouldn't leave him alone. The one called Atari kept yelling at him, and even tried to throw a book at his head once. Without saying, her attempt ended in disaster. He was faster than her eyes could see. Selene would just stare when she saw him, as if trying to figure out what she should do about their "stalker." Really, if no one was happy with the arrangement, he couldn't figure out why he couldn't just go back to Makai, or at least to Yusuke's human town. It might not be very interesting, either, but at least he didn't have any duties. Besides, he could at least torment the detective while there.
The demon was still in a tree situated fairly close to the girls' houses, when he felt a power surge. It wasn't anything like Toguro, or even those less powerful, such as Jin or Touya, but it wasn't likely some chance demon wandering around. A sadistic smirk crossed his features. Hopefully, he thought, this might be at least a little more interesting.
Koenma looked over his notes and poured over his memories to see if there was any mistake as to who Silare wanted. In truth, it would take some effort to find a story he knew less about. In his files, Atari and Selene had only files from after he found them, or, as it were, after they found him. Everything before that time was a mystery.
How did they meet? Well, it was very odd, and like many things, it started when an ogre barged into his office with "urgent business."
"Koenma-sama(3)!"
"What is it, ogre?" the prince asked, as usual, annoyed.
The ogre caught his breath and seemed to be contemplating how to explain what happened. "Well, these two girls appeared at the front gates-"
"What do you mean, 'two girls appeared a the front gates?' Is the barrier broken?"
"No, sir. I don't know how they came across, but they're demons, or at least that's what we think. They have their energy masked, but the only one who is conscious says she doesn't remember anything. She just knows she was told to speak to you, sir. She refused speaking with anyone else."
"Then, I suppose you should let them in."
They did come in, and it was quite the sight to see. There were two little girls who couldn't be older than five or six walk in. One was very small with short, brown hair and sparkling blue eyes. Still, sparkling or no, her eyes kept wandering to different areas, going from zoning off the window to looking at Koenma to gazing interested at the wall, right before they went back to the window.
Leaning on the small one was a girl with black hair and dull, brown eyes. She was taller than the other girl, though still short do to her age. If Koenma were to say that the first girl was dazed, he would say the second was in a coma.
"Alright," Koenma said with a confused sigh, "What do you need to speak to me about."
"I..." the more awake girl was trying to concentrate, but found it difficult.
"What is it?"
"I… Gone… Woman…" She then groaned and held her head, seemingly in pain.
The girl was getting on Koenma's nerves, and fast. She wasn't being at all coherent. When she tried to talk it was as it was all she could to remember how to speak. It was with that thought that it hit Koenma what must have happened. Their memories were erased, but who would do that? It didn't matter at the moment though, all he needed to do was find out what happened.
"It's alright," he spoke, calmer since he knew more of why she was acting the way she was, "Just try to remember as much about what happened as you can."
"I don't remember much. There was a woman and... Oh! I have a message." The girl had a look of relief on her face. Apparently she remembered something very important.
"The girl with the purple hair-"
"The one you're carrying?"
The child looked down in surprise. It wasn't uncommon for those who had their memories erased to become disoriented, even days after the procedure.
She thought for a moment and nodded. "Yes. She told me that we have to see Koenma. When we do, we're supposed to make sure that he gives us a place to stay in the human world."
Koenma put his face in his hands. "You need to realize, we can't just let demons go through to Ningenkai just because they want to-"
"What do you mean, demons?" The girl interrupted, her face with a look of complete confusion and fear.
He sighed again. Koenma wasn't a fool. Demons would do anything to get into demon world. Pretending to have amnesia wouldn't be above something they would consider.
The girl seemed to realize that her question wasn't important. "You don't understand. We can't go back."
"Why?"
"I don't know, but she stressed it. She said we needed to find a place to stay. We need to disappear. If we don't, we'll die!"
The girl's eyes were wide in panic. She was squeezing her companion to herself, so much so that even in the more zoned girl's disoriented state, she grunted in pain.
Koenma, on the other hand, was shocked. Although he knew he would probably regret it, refusing two children, demons or no, shelter, thereby sending them to their deaths was something he couldn't do. He wasn't heartless.
"I believe we might be able to arrange something, but we'll have to look into both of your minds. Then, we'll have to erase them of everything that has transpired here."
She nodded in relief. "Thank you."
When Koenma had his workers look through the girls' memories, they could only find that their pasts were under layers of barriers, ones that would be impossible to look through without causing the two great psychological damages. The only way to regain them would be from the girls themselves, and it would likely be a long process.
The demigod sighed. This was going to be very hard to get around. He still couldn't say what Selene and Atari were trying to run away from, but now they had to be shown the harsh reality that the two had spent so much time trying to leave.
The trees gave a decent amount of cover. Hopefully enough so that Hiei didn't have to have another lecture from his boss from being too conspicuous with humans around. He had found the other demon in the middle of a somewhat forested park, hopefully letting the emiko not have to deal with any stray humans that would appear at twilight.
Hiei crouched down into a fighting stance. Smirking, the fire demon's hand flew to his katana in a quick movement invisible to the human eye and in less than a second it was drawn. The other demon growled in response, but that didn't affect Hiei's stoic gaze.
Taking a look at the demon, a normal human wouldn't think anything of him. He looked human enough, and with brown eyes and black hair (that didn't stand on end, but in a normal teenage haircut), he looked less conspicuous than Hiei.
There was a moment of pause before the spirit detective decided to make the first move, as his opponent made no move to. Hiei's attempt was to decapitate him quickly, but the opposing demon was unfortunately faster than he appeared and was able to dodge.
Drip, drip.
Unfortunately for the demon, it wasn't before the sword's metal bit into his cheek. A few red drops spilled on the grass.
Despite the demon's escape from death, Hiei was disappointed in his opponent's performance. He wished for more of a challenge than that demon was going to give, as Hiei didn't use much effort with his first attack.
The emiko was going to end everything quick, so he didn't need to waste any more time, but after a step forward, he found he couldn't move. Growling, the fire demon tried to take another step, but after a few minutes of effort, he went the distance of about an inch. Then a force made his sword fly out of his hands and became dug into a nearby tree.
"You rely so much on your speed, what will you do without it?" the demon spoke in a very smug voice.
Hiei was, without argument, completely shocked. He had been one of the winners of the latest Dark Tournament, one of the few wielders of the Jagan, and the only one to master the Kokuryūha(4), yet this demon had no idea that his powers were not limited to his speed? What was this moron thinking?
Atari was drumming her fingers on the keyboard. Where is that girl? She wondered while checking her instant messenger for the fifteenth time. Yes, it was true Atari had other things to do, for instance, her pressing chemistry homework. Still, she had the typical teenage response to such responsibility: she ignored it until the day before it was due. Ignore that it actually was due the next day. She'd do it at eleven at night... maybe.
"You promised you'd stop doing this..." the girl mumbled, her eyes quickly flicking to the neglected, never-opened textbook. "Thanks. Because of you, I've been left with doing my homework for Mr. Opal."
Atari knew that her friend wouldn't be up until sundown. Every night, Selene wouldn't be able to fall asleep, and every day they got home from school the self-proclaimed "nocturnal" friend would collapse on her couch or bed, depending on how tired she was, and she'd get up at sundown completely awake. Although Atari had some weird quirks herself, Selene's unconventional sleeping habits meant that Atari was bored during the after-school hours. Today, it meant she would have to do her homework: the teenager's bane.
Hiei didn't want to alert his opponent on what his true potential was, because even if that was Yusuke's approach, the plan was as moronic as the detective. Hiei just looked to be sulking for a moment, and decided to try one of Kurama's tactics. He waited for his opponent to show what he was doing while Hiei came up with a way to defeat him.
Like a script, the demon went into his monologue as to why Hiei couldn't beat him. "You see, I can control wind, and as I'm sure you know, wind can stop any force. Just give enough of a push, and even the most powerful demon will be routed to a certain spot."
That was it. Hiei noticed that his opponent was only pushing him back, likely because that was as far as the wind demon's power went. With that, the emiko decided to move to the side in a flash and give his opponent a hit with his Fist of the Mortal Flame. The attack hit its target square in the jaw and the wind demon was forced to the ground, skidding through a few trees before he stopped.
Hiei gave out a simple, "Hn."
The body was incinerated as Hiei pulled out his embedded katana from the tree. He wiped off his weapon before sheathing it, and decided to call Koenma to tell him the new developments. Perhaps the demon wouldn't have to stay in human world too much longer, or, at least, he won't be required to stay in America.
Selene walked down the sidewalk towards the park. It was night, and she knew it wasn't smart to walk alone, but, to be honest, she didn't feel like having to talk to anyone, and she liked to walk at night. Also, it wasn't like the neighborhood was bad. She failed to realize that those were famous last words... or, in that case, thoughts.
The teen wasn't paying attention, having a one-sided conversation with herself. She had no idea that where she treaded there was once a dead demon, just as she was not aware of the demon that was following her at that moment. Luckily, Selene had good hearing, so when noise came from behind her, she turned around. In the trees she saw eyes, but-
"Blue?" she questioned the air, "I thought he had red eyes."
Whether she was fortunate or unfortunate, Selene wasn't sure as he leapt down, showing a face she was uncertain of. He definitely wasn't her stalker. In fact, he looked fairly normal…
She took a step back, but that was it. Her legs decided to clamp up; she was too scared to move another inch. As he took a step forward, she tried to steady her breathing and will herself to move again. She shifted, letting herself achieve some action. Once again she was shown her misfortune, as she just ended up landing on her butt.
"Oh, that's it," she berated herself in Japanese, hoping the strange man wouldn't understand her, "I am not going to be the damsel in distress."
"Is that a fact?" the boy asked, also in Japanese, "You should just be happy my orders are not to kill you here and now."
"Great…" she mumbled in response.
Finally, her body responded to her wishes and she sprung up and began to run. That is, of course, right before the wind picked up and sent her flying back towards him. Her arms and legs were flailing frantically, body trying to find safety on the ground. Unfortunately, life didn't seem to be going her way as she came back to the boy, who was now smirking, bringing up his hand in a motion similar to a crossing guard to tell oncoming cars to stop, and that was just what happened. She came to a slow stop, hovering in midair in front of him. His smirk merely became more defined.
In response, she stared in shock before saying a simple, "Oh crap."
"You're early."
"I know."
Koenma had a bit of a sneer on his face for the reason that Silare was standing across from him, a few days earlier than the demigod planed. In contrast, the woman had a cocky smile and spoke in a calm voice, "I told you not to disappoint me, child, and I was hoping you might heed my warning."
"You obviously don't know how I work, then. I don't give up little children to deranged assassins."
"I assumed you might act that way, but I did hope otherwise," her tone then became more forceful, "I won't be able to guarantee who will and will not die!"
At that, she threw an object on the ruler's desk. At closer examination, it was a woman's head.
The normally calm Koenma turned into his teenage form and rose up angrily. "She wasn't a threat, she was merely one of my ferry girls! You had no right!"
"Take this as your warning," she spoke in a voice laced with pure hatred, "Just because she wasn't a warrior doesn't mean that she can't die the same as everyone else!" Her speech then became more controlled and quiet, "Don't start believing this isn't your fault."
The blue ogre barged in. "Sir-"
"Silence!" Koenma exclaimed. He wasn't sure what Silare would do next.
The ogre experienced a series of flashbacks to the first time she appeared, as she was giving him the same look of distain and apathy as when they first met. In response he squeaked and backed up to the wall, afterwards inching over to where his boss was standing, trying to ignore what lay on the ruler's desk.
"Sir," the blue ogre tried again. This time Koenma remained silent, assuming it must be important if the ogre would try a second time. "Sir, there have been files stolen from records-"
He was once again interrupted, but this time from another man who walked in. "I have them."
Just like the woman, everything about him was beautiful, as if he wasn't real but a flawless painting immortalized for eternity. To put it less poetically, it looked like he came from a rabid bishonen fangirl's deranged fantasy.
Smiling, Silare took some normal-looking file folders from him and skimmed through a few pages. "Perfect," she spoke, more to herself than anyone else. Then, turning her attention towards Koenma, she spoke once more, "Again, you should take this warning quite seriously. The next time we meet, the terms might not be so pleasant."
"Wait," the ogre spoke up, "How are things going to get less pleasant than now?"
He of course was not thinking of what he was saying. In response Silare threw a knife through the wall next to his head.
The blue ogre squeaked again and stood there frozen while a small "right" escaped his lips.
"You will be happy to know," she spoke again to Koenma, "that your files will be quite protected with us. Farewell."
Instead of waving her hand she waved some rather thick file folders, the top one labeled "Yusuke Urameshi."
Atari was scared. Her family was gone, and she was now in the arms of an ugly demon. "In the arms" should be used loosely, as he seemed to want her as far away from himself as possible, so a closer way to word it would be "holding by the scruff of her neck." Anyway, she didn't know what was going on, and it scared her a great deal. In her defense, she was only four.
"Hello, little one," boomed the demon's loud, gruff voice. Atari lifted her head to see him talking to a small girl in a cell. She flinched, but held her stoic expression. The gaze made Atari start shaking, more fear added to her already fearful state. "Oh what a scared little girl," he teased, but it was to Atari instead of the other girl.
Atari started to pay attention to the other girl, seeing traces of pity cross her face. The girl had black hair and gray-blue eyes, and was about the same age as Atari, but her eyes were hardened from her time in the obviously severe place.
"It seems, little one," the ugly demon interrupted Atari's thoughts, though directing his words to the unknown girl, "that you have gotten yourself a friend for a little while. Your solitude sentence seems to not be in effect… for now."
The response he earned was a mere growl for the child. Atari whimpered a bit. She couldn't tell whether to trust the girl or not. Snarling, the demon threw the terrified girl in the cell and closed the heavy door.
Atari lay on the floor for a little while, unknowing of what was going to happen. When nothing did, she crawled the direction of the little light that escaped from under the door. She knew she was weak, but she also knew that staying like a coward would get her nowhere, so she put her hand against the door and closed her eyes.
"It's no use, you know," came a voice. Atari knew it could only be the girl. Apparently her eyes were more used to adjusting to the dark, whereas Atari was terrified of it. It took all she had to get to the door. Still, she knew that getting out would chase away her fear.
"I can do more than you would think," Atari replied after a few moments of silence. She smiled, as she had done something brave. She was never in such positions as a child, and it was new for her.
The girl laughed. "I have no doubt. Still, this room makes any power you have useless."
"That's a lie. I can still sense your energy, which means both of us still have our powers."
"We have them, but they're suppressed. You must have power if you can still sense demon energy. As for me? My power does not like being suppressed. The more it's pushed down, the more it resists. It takes a lot out of me to keep it from exploding."
"I don't understand."
"You don't have to."
The fear started to come back to Atari. Not just was she afraid of the dark, but she didn't even have any power to keep her fear at bay, either. She calmed herself down and tried it anyway, finding that the girl's statement rung true. She looked at the ground, disappointed and, of course, fearful.
Seeing her despair, the other girl made the first move at friendship, saying, "My name is Evendiel." Atari didn't answer, so she continued, "Don't worry, I'll help you if I can. It is hard here, but I'll protect you to the best of my ability."
"Thank you," Atari responded, grateful.
"I suppose I'll start with something simple first. Can you see?"
"A little, but…"
"What is it?"
"I-I'm afraid of the dark."
Evendiel paused, then continued, "What did you used to do about the dark?"
Atari paused for a moment, caught up in a memory. She then spoke, "My mother would sing to me."
The other girl laughed. "Well, I would do the same, but I'm not too good at singing. Besides I don't know many songs. Why don't you come over towards me."
"But I can't really see you well."
Evendiel laughed again. It was nice, as it gave Atari courage. "Well then," she responded, "I guess I'll need to come and get you."
After a bit of shuffling, Atari felt hands inside of her own. Rising with the other girl, she was lead to a couple of beds. She was laid with her head on Evendiel's lap, her hair stroked to sleep. She thought of being home back with her mother, the one who chased away the monsters.
Knock-knock. "Let me in!"
Atari woke up with a start, breath quick and ragged. She was disoriented from the dream and barely noted that Selene was at her door in a panic.
"Atari! Please help me! LET ME IN!"
That jerked Atari out of her trance. Getting up from the computer chair she ran to the front door, finding a disheveled and bleeding Selene. It wasn't anything too terrible, of course, but seeing her friend with blood coming from her shoulder was enough to send her into a mild shock once more. Selene, though, didn't wait for Atari to snap out of it this time and just pushed herself in, slamming the door behind her, locking both the doorknob and the deadbolt.
"Selene, calm down," Atari commanded, dream forgotten, only her friend's well-being on her mind.
Her friend looked at her, breathing deeply then exhaling, slowing her racing heart. Finally Selene was in a state that where her friend was able to lead her to the couch. "Now," she started again, "you stay here while I get something to help your arm."
Selene nodded, regaining at least some of her calm. "Just breathe deeply," Atari heard her tell herself reassuringly, "Just… breathe."
With every breath came more of Selene's composure, but she was still restless. Too many crazy things happened to her all at once. Getting up, she walked to the back door, looking out the glass at the calm outside. It was dark, yes, but with all of the light from the city, it was easy to watch the gentle breeze going through the trees. Her eyes widened, though, as the breeze became increasingly stronger.
"Oh no. Not again."
This time, though, she was not rooted to the spot but began to run away from the glass door. It wasn't fast enough, though, as shards went everywhere from a strong blast. Doing what any sane person would do, she ducked into a crouch and put her arms over her head. When she didn't feel any impact, she looked up to see the glass hovering over her. This time, her flight or fight instincts kicked in and she ran faster than ever before, adrenaline helping her do so.
"Atari!" she yelled, but she could barely hear her own voice from the strong winds, and so she was pretty sure Atari wouldn't be able to hear it either. So, she did what any friend would do and ran upstairs to hopefully save Atari from whatever was going to happen.
It took her a minute, but she found her getting supplies from her bathroom to help heal her friend's cut.
"Atari!" she yelled again, only this time with more of a result, "We have to get moving now!"
"Huh? What's going-"
Atari tried to speak, but Selene grabbed her arm and pulled her downstairs into the basement, dodging any flying objects as they went.
"What was that?" Atari asked as Selene frantically started to pile objects in front of the door.
"Don't know. Just… help me with this."
"You really think this'll help?"
"No, but it gives me something to do besides freaking out. You know, if my mind wraps around everything that's been happening, I may have a mental breakdown. I'd like to save that until we're out of this… or dead, whichever comes first."
"Well, I need to know what's going on," Atari replied, exasperated. She realized someone has to be keeping the calm. Normally the roles were reversed, but this time Atari had to be the one composed.
Selene paused in her work. "I suppose you're right. If our situations were switched I'd want the same thing. Well, it started when I decided to go on a walk."
"At night? While a boy has been stalking us?"
"Yes, I wasn't thinking. I was just really overloaded with everything, and you know how much better I feel when I walk under a full moon."
"Yeah, I guess. Still… stalker!"
"Okay! I get it! Now do you want to hear the story?"
Atari had the decency to look a bit ashamed. "Yeah. Go on."
"Alright, so I was walking when someone (not the stalker) came out of nowhere and attacked me. When I tried to run away, I was blown back by a strange wind-"
Selene glared at her friend when she once again interrupted her saying, "Does it happen to resemble the same wind that attacked my house just a little bit ago?"
"Yes! Now if you don't let me continue I'll-" this time, it was Selene that interrupted herself. She gave out a half-yell, half-grunt from the pain in her arm. Before, the adrenaline was so high that she only felt a little twinge of pain, but now that things had calmed down, both outside the door and outside the house, her brain was no longer blocking out all of the pain in her body.
"Oh, right, your cut," Atari reminded both herself and Selene. Not that Selene needed reminding…
"Listen, you just help my wound and I'll try to continue. I need to get my mind off of the pain."
"Yeah, yeah, alright."
"Anyway, so the wind didn't just blow me back, but kept me dangling right in front of him. At this time, the stalker did appear, but I mean just appeared. He didn't run or walk in, just one moment there was nothing, then there was him between me and the guy. And that wasn't the worst part-"
It seemed Selene would never be able to finish the story uninterrupted, as both her and Atari heard voices outside of the door to the basement.
"So, Hiei, you say they're right behind this door?" came a muffled voice.
There was a grunt and another voice joined the first. "I don't know, Urameshi, Koenma said they don't have any powers, but I can't get the door open," his voice became more accusing as he continued, "Maybe shorty's wrong."
There was a displeased "hn" in response. Whatever that meant was beyond the girls.
"If that's the case…" the first voice started, but didn't finish his thought.
"Um, Yusuke, I wouldn't advise-" the last piece of input came from a much different voice. It was softer, more melodic, as well as more feminine. The voice was cut off, though, by an explosion coming from Atari's basement door. Four people then stood in front of the two frightened girls.
"Oh crap."
And thus ends Chapter 2. I can't keep lying anymore, I hate exposition. Anyway, hope someone enjoyed it. Review if you wish, as not doing so won't make me go away, though I do not ask for flames but constructive criticism. Still, if I get them, I'll deal.
First off, thanks to the two people who put me on their watch lists. You rock! Of course, thank you to Ookami who isn't just editing this story, but is also helping me come up with chapter titles, and to Tenshi. Although she isn't a major part, she's one of my biggest fans. Thanks, Tenshi!
Next, thanks to public transportation, as, without them, I wouldn't be given so much time in which to get it done. Seriously, I got most of this done last month because I started taking the bus.
Okay, and this should be the last thing. I just want to throw out there that if anyone feels they are good with editing fight scenes, please talk to me. As great as my editor is, she doesn't know much about that subject, and I want to keep improving, even if this story is only fanfiction. Therefore, I am looking for a beta willing to look over action sequences. If you're interested, please tell me that in a review.
See ya,
LectaElf