Two Worlds
By Fruit is NOT a Dessert
Disclaimer: I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho.
Chapter Two
Kurama awoke with a startle because of his dream and then he hit his head on the very low bottom of the top bunk which caused Shora to murmur something in his sleep. He checked the clock besides his own bunk and saw that it was only 4:30 and that his alarm would ring in an hour so he turned it off because he had no plans on going back to bed. Quietly, he dressed into his regular school uniform—a regular uniform with a maroon-colored theme—he then opened the door oh-so-quietly and then shut it oh-so-ever-more-quietly. He walked past the other bedroom, which belonged to his mother, and saw that the door was open which meant that his mother, Shiori, was already awake. He walked over to the living room and turned on the computer, which made small whirling sounds as it started up that disturbed the quietness of the room, but stopped when the computer was done turning on. Kurama was hungry.
"Good morning, Mom," said Kurama as he walked into the kitchen.
"Good morning, Shuichi." Kurama's human mother sat at the dining table with a cup of jasmine tea and a magazine. A rather pretty woman with flowing dark hair and the compassionate eyes of a mother, Shiori Minamino was the most important person in the world to Kurama. The fox demon was quite attached to his human mother—something he predicted would haunt him later. Nevertheless, Kurama found it difficult not to appreciate Shiori's maternal love.
Kurama fixed himself a serving of miso soup from the steaming bowl Shiori had already prepared. It smelled delicious. He sat at the table across from Shiori.
"You're up early today, Shuichi. Did you have a nightmare?"
"It was just a dream. I was on the computer and then the monitor became dark. I was dragged into the computer and was chasing a floating name. I tried running toward it, but it was always the same distance away from me," Kurama explained truthfully.
"And what was that name?"
Kurama felt a bead of sweat trickle by his ear. His mom continued speaking as he opened his mouth.
"Well, it's your private life, Shuichi. I won't interfere with it. However…if anything is wrong, I'm always here to discuss things with you." She paused. "It isn't…a girl, is it, Shuichi?"
Two beads of sweat. "Yes—er, well I'm not too sure right now." And he really didn't know—it was proven that most people on the Internet were not who they said they were. A man pretending to be a girl wasn't unheard of.
Silence.
"Oh, I'm quite certain that Mystery Lady is a girl," Kurama said hastily.
"Okay," said Shiori. "I see you're done with the soup. Go ahead and use the computer, Shuichi. I know you want to. You keep looking at it when you're speaking."
"Thanks." Kurama gave his mom a quick hug and hurried off to the living room. Shiori picked up reading her magazine. The aroma of the tea carried over to the living room.
As Kurama took his seat, his hands were already dancing over the keyboard. He entered in his private password and his desktop loaded: a wallpaper, shortcuts, and a toolbar. His wallpaper was of an elaborately drawn fox from the video game Okami; vivid orange flames covered the background. There were many shortcuts on his desktop—among them were many games, study applications, an internet browser, media software, and his instant messenger program.
He double-clicked the messenger program, which immediately prompted him for his password. All fifteen characters in his password were typed in under a second.
ShuichiM is logging in…
Verifying password…
Logged in.
A larger window appeared, containing Kurama's friends list. In total, there were 100 user names on the list, mainly close friends and gaming acquaintances. Many more people had contacted him before but they were either on his ignore list or he had never bothered adding them. Kurama's friends list was divided into three sections: School Friends, Game Friends, and Family.
At the moment, very few people were logged on. The majority of them were away from their computers. Kurama clicked a little eye symbol at the top of the list—Shuichi Minamino was now "invisible." The only way to locate an "invisible" username was to search for their profile manually. However, Kurama had a discreet countermeasure against that. He had customized his public profile to write "This person does not have a profile." This way, only people who were in urgent need to speak with him would be messaging him. In addition, there was always the added benefit of seeing other people's online statuses without their knowing.
Youko Kurama, online stalker extraordinaire.
The time read 5:00 on the computer screen. Excellent, enough time for some quality Web time. But what to do? I really should be working on sharpening my thieving abilities for the future…if only the Internet could connect to the Demon Realm. Kurama decided to play a computer game to pass the time. Every minute or so, he would press Alt and Tab simultaneously to minimize his game and check his friends list. To his dismay, Mystery Lady never signed on that morning. He even checked her profile to ensure she wasn't invisible.
He had played for an hour when a small chirp interrupted his game. A chat window popped up. It was covered with large, bold red text on a black background.
XxDemonHachixX: HEY SUICHI
ShuichiM: Hello. Who is this?
XxDemonHachixX: R U STUPID??!
ShuichiM: You are Hachimaki, the third year. Am I wrong?
XxDemonHachixX: DARN STRAIGHT I AM, JINKFACE
XxDemonHachixX: LISSEN U Y R U INVSBLE RITE NOW?!??! SCARED???!
ShuichiM: I'm terribly sorry, but I'm playing a game right now. That's why I am invisible.
XxDemonHachixX: U SCaRED O FME!!!!!!
XxDemonHachixX: SCAREDY FREHSMAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ShuichiM: What I'm truly afraid of is your spelling.
Kurama pressed the block button. "XxDemonHachixX" wouldn't bother him anymore. However, something that was bothering Kurama was how Hachimaki had been able to message him. Sure, many people knew his user name—however, he was still invisible. Judging by Hachimaki's spelling, Kurama found it difficult to believe that he knew how to identify user names in the invisible status.
Somebody probably told him.
It was now time to leave for school. Kurama shut down his computer, slung on his backpack, and headed for the door. "Bye, Mom. I'm leaving now," he called as he left.
"Have a good day."
Kurama saw the normal gang of girls outside, members of the Shuichi Minamino Fan Club. They were spread out along the street, hiding behind bushes. It was possibly a plan to trap him from all sides and force him to walk to school with them. Seeing this, the redhead immediately turned back and broke into a dash. He headed behind the apartment complex he, Shora, and Shiori were living in. It was a private, secluded place with beautiful trees and plants. And most of all…it was private There were no people around.
Kurama used his growing athletic ability to jump onto the rooftop. It was ten stories high but with each day, Kurama felt his demon abilities recovering. The jump was nothing—although Kurama did have trouble suppressing his abilities during P.E.
He continued by making high leaps from rooftop to rooftop. He had already memorized the quickest rooftop route without being spotted, which was actually a complex pattern of avoiding household residences and heavy populated places, like parks and the nearby shopping center.
He arrived at school in time. Another girl attack avoided.
History was his first class of the day. It was also when the daily announcements aired on the intercom. The school speakers had been sketchy for the past few weeks, but the school had fixed it the previous day. The students could now distinguish the gender of the speaker. An upbeat, bright female voice was doing the announcements.
Beep!
Good morning, Tiroya High School. This is Botan with your morning announcements! I'm pleased to say that we have some exciting news: for the fifth year in a row, Tiroya is now a country-distinguished school! Congratulations and good work, students! And to the staff, thank you for your hard work. (Now we'll have the upper hand for college applications than the other schools. Haha!)
Also, prepare yourselves for our school's next big event…a dance! The Spring Fling dance is taking place next week! It's sure to be a hit (because I'm working hard on it myself) so make sure you don't miss out! Ask your dates now! Tickets will be sold at the ticket booth during lunch. Thank you!
Moving on, we…
Kurama was beyond listening. A dance. Another dance. Dances were one social event that Kurama absolutely dreaded. Well, it wasn't actually the dance that he dreaded—it was the days leading up to the dance that were bothersome. In middle school, Kurama was always be bombarded with invitations to accompany girls to dances. Oftentimes a simple rejection worked. Sometimes it didn't.
And why were girls asking him to dances? Wasn't the boy supposed to ask the girl? Kurama still didn't fullly understand the thoughts of humans. Couldn't they see that he wasn't playing hard-to-get, but just didn't want to be with anybody?
Another dance…Ugh. No matter. It's only a few years before my demon powers will return to me. I cannot allow myself to get attached to any human before that.
The class ended with a lecture on the arrival of Commodore Matthew Perry in 1853. The bell rang. Kurama departed for his second class, calculus. Halfway between the two classrooms, he had already been asked by three people. Luckily, they had not caused much of a commotion when he calmly rejected them. However, Kurama groaned at the sight of the president of the Shuichi Minamino Fan Club, who led several girls behind her. He hurried around the bend in the hallway to avoid detection…
"Watch out!" screamed a girl. In his haste, Kurama had bumped into her as he turned. He looked down to see a blue-haired, blue-eyed girl whom he immediately recognized as the girl from the announcements: Botan, a first year student. He had spoken with her before during the school board elections.
Kurama helped her pick up the books she had dropped. He was quite surprised to see a Calculus book in the mess. Not many first years took Calculus.
"I'm sorry about that," he said, offering her a hand. Botan took it, smiling. Her skin was smooth and soft to the touch—Kurama recognized the smell of the lotion. It was the kind his mother used.
"Thanks!" said Botan, giving Kurama an expected hug.
He cringed inwardly. Idiot! It's the get-close-and-hug-and-then-get-a-good-grip-in-order-to-ask-out-to-the-dance-and-not-let-him-leave-your-grip strategy! Kurama acted the gentleman and, instead of pulling out of the embrace, laughed aloud.
"It was the least I could do, seeing as how it was my fault you fell. My apologies for that."
Botan removed her arms from around Kurama, still smiling cheerfully. "Well, thanks again!" She whirled about and scurried off to her next class without hesitation.
She didn't ask me to the dance? Even after a hug—what's this? Perhaps she already has a boyfriend or feels that I wouldn't go if she asked. Yes, that must be it. She was too timid to ask me out. Or maybe…no, she couldn't have not wanted to ask. Every other girls does.
Kurama slapped himself mentally.
Fool! What business do you have regarding this Botan's feelings? She's a human, and humans are trouble.
Luckily, he had forgotten entirely about his encounter with Botan by the end of the day. After all, a barrage of thirty-seven invitations to attend the Spring Fling was enough to irk even the most patient of demon foxes. The boy who always wore black was still absent from chemistry class.
(Author's Note: To those who reviewed, thank you. I don't mind any constructive criticism, so feel free to blast away this time. I'll try getting the third chapter done before three weeks...before second semester begins. However, I have finals and my certificate of merit exam to worry about right now. Sorry, but the next update may come later. I'm trying not to leave this fic hanging like I did last year. 2007, whee!)