Yu Yu Hakusho: New Dreams, Old Nightmares
Moved into a new apartment and trying to get back into school. Work sucks, so I finally was able to update.
Hope these 12 pages make up for the wait!
New Dreams, Old Nightmares
Chapter Seventeen: Showdown
Showdowns.
Old as time itself.
One could consider them a universal principal of life. From the smallest bacteria to the countries of that encompassed the world, everyone knew what they were and had been involved in them countless times.
The newest one was now unfolding: A beautiful young woman and a tall young man.
Kuwabara gazed at this new foe. Was she a foe? Everything in his mind told him that yes, she was. There was no mistaking the feeling around him, the tingling in the back of his neck that told him he was encompassed within a territory.
The last time he had encountered these, nearly three years ago, it had almost cost him his life. It was not an experience he wanted to relive.
"Who are you?" he challenged.
The young woman stretched, putting her arms over her head and linking her fingers. "Oh, nobody special. Just a fan…" she said, a smirk creeping into the edges of her lips.
"Don't give me that crap! This territory, it's yours, isn't it? What the hell are you? A psychic?"
Oh my, he's smarter than he looks. I didn't know he would be able to sense my territory. This changes things slightly."Don't worry, I didn't come to kill you. I only want one thing."
Kuwabara's eyes narrowed, his body never dropping from the defensive stance he put himself in. "Yeah? Forget about it. If I can sense this, the others can too. You better get out of here while you still can, before Genkai and the others come back."
The girl laughed, her hair swaying in the wind. "No, they can't. This territory that you're in?" she said, pointing at the ground and tapping it with her foot. "It's pretty useful. It masks all traces of reiki inside it. Sorry, dear, but nobody knows what's going on inside this happy little bubble."
Kuwabara growled in frustration. If that were true, he couldn't rely on anyone's help in this situation.
She put her hands behind her back, and drew circles in the sand lazily with the toe of her shoe, looking down and biting her lower lip nervously. Come on big boy, I know this makes me look cute and helpless. Take the bait.
It worked, for a second. Kuwabara was off guard as he saw the innocent, almost naïve gesture that she was doing.
"Who are you?" he said in a forceful voice, not only to try and intimidate her, but reassure himself as well.
She gasped at the anger of his words, then quickly recovered. "My name is Otoyo," she said, bowing. "It is as you say, I am a psychic. And I've waited a long time to meet you, Mr. Kuwabara," she finished, her bow deepening in a sign of respect.
"Th…then why are you here? What's your deal, anyway?"
She stood up and looked into his eyes, a cold penetrating stare. This is going to be fun!
"You are one of the strongest ningen that uses reiki in this world. You were the only ningen in the last tournament on Hanging Neck island. You face down and won against the Toguros, the strongest yokai that were in Ningenkai."
She took a breath before continuing, letting this praise sink into an increasingly bewildered Kuwabara.
"A user of a reiken is very rare. I can't think of any other ningens who possess that ability…"
At this, she held her hand out to her side, drawing Kuwabara's attention. She gathered a small sphere of purple energy in her palm, and this caused Kuwabara to step backward.
This isn't good! He thought to himself. What the heck is she getting at? Although, it is nice to feel appreciated once in a while.
His eyes widened as the energy in her hand lengthened into a blade as she closed her fist. She now held a reiken that was nearly identical to his own, except for the color. A deep violet glow emanated from it, lighting up one half of her face. She was smiling.
"You see, I'm just like you are," Otoyo said, bringing the blade up and holding it out, almost as if to show it off to him. "I can concentrate my reiki into a blade," she said, twirling it around, "although I'm not so sure that I'm quite as good at it as you."
It was hard not to laugh when she said that. That's it…
"I saw you during that tournament. I looked up to you. I was able to form a reiken at that time but I never thought of entering. So," she said, holding the blade up and looking at it, tendrils of white energy pulsing through it's length, "I got stronger. Then I noticed I was increasing my ability to control reiki. I'm a psychic, as you say."
Kuwabara finally dropped his guard, forgetting temporarily about the territory. "So you got your powers a few years ago? Let me guess, you're from Mushiyori city, right?"
Pretend to be shocked.
Otoyo was shocked. "Yes! So did others…and all these bad things started happening. Yokai insects, everything. Rumor has it someone was trying to open a door to Makai. But rumor also has it you were very helpful in stopping it."
Kuwabara laughed for the first time, placing his hand behind his head. "Well, I don't know about that…" I probably did more harm than good in that case…
Flattery will get me everywhere, Otoyo thought with an inward smirk. Time to lay it on thick.
"I had hoped I would meet you. I…have a favor to ask you," she meekly said, reverting back to staring at the ground, stealing glances at him through her bangs.
"What is it?" Kuwabara asked, skepticism returning to his voice.
"I want to test my skills against the one I looked up to." She defiantly held out her blade, pointing it at him. "Will you face me in a match?"
This was the last thing that Kuwabara expected. He took another step back at the sudden ferocity in her voice. "Wait a minute! What about the territory? Why is this still here?"
Otoyo lowered her voice. "Because…there would be no other way for this to happen. If anyone felt our energies fighting, we'd be magnets for yokai. I hate them and don't want to fight them, I've almost been killed by them before…" Okay, that last one wasn't totally a lie…
She seized the opportunity, and spoke quickly, energetically, trying to get him riled up. "Please, do me this honor."
Wow, she's serious! I don't think I can refuse, Kuwabara thought to himself. Even if he was sealed inside her territory, what she had said made sense. If this is what she wanted, then yeah, it would set off all kinds of spiritual alarms.
Besides, it's been too long since I had a good fight! At least, one where I wasn't fighting for my life…
He chuckled and crossed his arms. "Okay, I'll go a round with you. Any special rules?"
Otoyo grinned. "First blood."
"Huh?"
"Don't you know? It's the traditional method of dueling with blades. The first one to make the other bleed wins. That's all I want."
"Hey now, I don't feel that this is going to be fair…"
Otoyo deliberately misread what he meant by that, and the blade vanished in her hands as she brought them up to undo the buttons on her blazer. "You're right," she intoned, peeling off the outer jacket as Kuwabara started to protest.
"Hey, wait a minute! What are you doing?" He said, starting to blush.
She started to unbutton her blouse, stopping and looking at him. "Well, you're only wearing your swim trunks. It doesn't seem fair that I'm wearing a suit, is it?"
Kuwabara had no reply, his face growing red.
"Come on big boy," Otoyo said, winking as the last button came undone, revealing her toned torso and white bra. "Enjoy the show, and the fight. I'm keeping the bra on though."
"You can't be serious…" Kuwabara finally managed to stutter out. Wow, what a knockout!
"What, about the bra?" Otoyo grinned. Fun indeed. "Well, if you're fast enough to cut it off then I suppose you deserve the view…" she ended with a sly smirk that made his heart skip two beats.
"That's not what I meant…" he said, trying to regain some of his dignity. "I don't know if I can fight you. I mean, you said it yourself, I'm the strongest ningen around right now."
"No, I didn't quite say that," she said, turning sideways and looking at him, the energy sphere starting to crackle in her right hand again. "I said you were one of them. Wanna see if you are? Or are you too afraid of a half naked girl?"
The redness in Kuwabara's face didn't go away, but the reason for it was replaced with a flash of anger. "Hey, I still have my pride you know!"
"Good," she replied. "First blood wins. Don't worry, I think we're both fast healers."
Kuwabara stepped back into a braced stance, holding his right wrist with his left hand, concentrating his long dormant reiki down the length of his arms. A light began to glow in his palm, suddenly leaping out into his reiken, burning the edges of the air with a defiant orange light.
Aww, I don't get to see the Jigen-to?Otoyo thought in disappointment. If I saw how he used it, then I might be able to control it better when I get my hands on it.
Instead of voicing her concerns however, she formed her own blade, the hums of electricity in the air competing with the waves on the shoreline.
"You ready?" Kuwabara asked.
"Definitely," Otoyo replied with a malicious grin.
Hana was painfully laid down on the floor, her arm out of the sling and stretched outward to the side. The pain from her shoulder was almost unbearable, and she had to bite her bottom lip to keep from crying out.
Yukina and Keiko chose that moment to walk in, surprise on their faces at the sight of Hana prone on the floor.
"What's going on, Genkai?" Keiko asked, confusion in her voice. Yukina looked at Hana, but said nothing.
"Shizuru brought some company," the old woman said wryly. "Keiko, would you mind starting dinner? I hate to ask so abruptly, but I'm going to be busy here for a while. I can introduce the three of you later."
"Sure," Keiko hesitantly said. She cast one glance back towards Hana and their eyes met. Keiko was finding herself disturbed. The other woman's eyes had lit up with …recognition? Was she a student from school? They looked to be the same age…
Hana had indeed recognized her from the photograph at the Kuwabara house. Her hair was much longer than in the photo, however.
"Yukina," Genkai said. "Get a cool compress for her forehead. This might take some time." The older woman knelt down by the injured one, and gingerly laid her hand on Hana's shoulder.
Hana cried out, her eyes squeezed tightly, a few strands of hair clinging to her forehead. Yukina came back in with a bowl and a washcloth.
"You're a very brave young woman, Miss Sakamoto," Genkai said as she ran threads of reiki through Hana's body to assess the damage. "Your arm was almost dislocated, but you also have tendon and ligament damage in the joint."
"He yanked me clear off the ground, I thought it was going to break…" Hana said, feeling an intense heat at the site of her injury. Yukina had dipped the washcloth in the bowl, and wrung it out before placing the cool fabric against Hana's forehead.
"Thank you," Hana whispered to the blue haired girl. She received a warm smile in return.
"I won't lie, this is going to hurt," Genkai said. "Most of the people I do this on are unconscious at the time. Would you like me to put you to sleep first?"
Hana nodded weakly. "If it hurts more than it does now, I don't know if I can take it…"
Genkai moved over and took the washcloth off of Hana's forehead. She placed her own hand there, feeling the heat of a fever underneath the cool dampness. Poor girl's body was going into overdrive to try and repair the damage…
"Just close your eyes. When you wake up everything will be better."
"What are you going to do, Genkai?" Yukina asked. She could heal, but she didn't know of any technique that would put someone to sleep…
"I'm going to absorb her reiki. It should be enough to put her under. She'll wake up in an hour or two when she regenerates it. Don't worry, Hana, you won't feel a thing."
Hana nodded again, and started to feel a cool tingling wash over her body. It started in her toes and fingers, and then moved up her arms. Her body was going numb, carrying her away into a dreamless sleep.
Within three minutes, she was sound asleep and breathing easily.
Genkai turned to Yukina. "I've drained her of her reiki. This is a good chance for you to use your own healing powers on her. Do you want to?"
Yukina was surprised at this request. "Are you sure?"
"Come on now, compared to some of the wounds you've healed this should be a cakewalk. Or you could go get dinner started."
Yukina thought about it. "You know, she's probably going to be hungry when she gets up."
"How about you and Shizuru get started then? I'll handle this here," Genkai asked.
Yukina stood up, bowed to excuse herself, and left the room, taking the bowl and washcloth with her.
Genkai looked down at the young girl sleeping peacefully in front of her before arching an eyebrow in concern.
Three minutes? Normally it takes only one…she thought to herself. I wonder what this means…That's quite a large amount of reiki for a normal ningen.
Making a mental note for later, Genkai placed her hands fully on Hana's shoulder. She started mixing her reiki with Hana's own that she absorbed, using it to start to heal the damage that had been done.
Kuwabara was actually having fun.
The fight had gone on for a few minutes. Otoyo had formed her blade and leapt at him, with him barely having time to dodge. He rolled off to the side, sand flying, as she came at him again, and he had met her head on.
Slashing, swinging, blocking, it was all moving as a blur.
The girl was good, Kuwabara had to admit. Damned good. He was mostly on the defense, the fire in her eyes and automatic hesitance that Kuwabara still felt making her the aggressor.
Here she came again, face scrunched up in concentration as she got ready for a backhanded slash. Kuwabara raised his sword to block, and the blades met with such fury that lightning crackled around them.
He lost that particular clash, his sword being knocked to the side. Otoyo grinned, and yelled "Got you!" as she continued spinning around, aiming her sword to deftly slice him.
She was surprised when it was blocked, then smiled.
Kuwabara was panting, but smiling back. The sword in his right hand was firmly embedded in the sand, but the one he had just formed in his left hand had caught Otoyo's in the nick of time. Otoyo jumped back, flipping in the air and coming to rest ten feet away from Kuwbara.
"I forgot you could do that," she said, breathing heavily, sweat beading on her body.
"You're something else, you know that?" Kuwabara said. "I haven't had this much fun in years!"
Otoyo ran her free hand through her hair, smoothing it back. "So, you had to pull out a second one, huh?"
Kuwabara grinned. "Well…I could always put it away if it ends up being too much for you to handle…"
Otoyo held her blade parallel to the ground, turning it so it ran crosswise to her body. "No, that's okay. If you're going to step it up a notch, then I'll just have to do the same."
Kuwabara sweatdropped. What would have been the hilt of Otoyo's blade extended backwards quickly, until it grew to the same length as the sword itself. Morphing into another blade, she now held a dual reiken, six feet long.
"Oh shit," he gulped.
"I haven't gotten too good with this one yet," Otoyo said, twirling it in her hand. "I don't think you can do this, can you?"
"You know," Kuwabara said, holding the two swords in his hands. "I never tried."
This is a lot more fun than I thought it would be! I'm sure 'naka can understand that I just want to have some fun after being cooped up in Makai for so long. He's not bad…for a ningen. I could have easily killed him, but I love toying with him so much more.
Otoyo was secretly keeping a lid on her yoki, purposefully raising it only as Kuwabara did his. The fight would be over too quickly otherwise. As far as skill went, things were pretty much even at this level.
She dropped back into her stance, twirling her stave of reiki behind her. "Your turn," she said, smiling and inviting him to strike.
Kuwabara came at her, both swords swinging as she ducked under one, then jumped high in the air over the other, flipping and landing on the other side of him. Not missing a beat, she turned and brought one end of her blade down, only to have it caught by both of his in a lock.
"Not bad!" she yelled, before swinging the other end of her weapon towards his head, which he ducked as he rolled backwards, the brief exchange causing both of them to pant heavily.
"You're every bit as good as I knew you'd be," Otoyo said, still languishing him in compliments.
"You're not bad yourself! I'm gonna have to go for a swim after this," he exclaimed, sweaty from the workout.
Neither one of them had managed to land a hit on the other.
"You want to try that one again?" Otoyo yelled in challenge, spinning her blade in front of her in a whirlwind of crackling reiki.
"You know it!" Kuwabara said, rushing towards her, swords ready.
Otoyo grinned to herself. Time to end this. Let's see what he can do.
FLASH!
Otoyo's eyes widened, her focus gone for a split second as she felt an energy spike come from within the compound up the hill.
It wasn't much of one, but it was so surprising and unexpected that it broke through her concentration.
It almost cost her. When she came to a second later, Kuwabara was swinging one of his swords quickly, almost too quickly, and Otoyo jerked back in pure reflex, a few strands of hair falling lazily to the sand, having been seared off by Kuwabara's assault. He kept at it, and for a few seconds, she truly was on the defense. She barely managed to avoid his slashes, the longer weapon suddenly cumbersome compared to his twin blades.
She jumped back to put some distance between them, thinking furiously. If that spike of reiki meant anything, they could find me! I can't let that happen!
Otoyo bit her lip. Now was the time to end it. She needed his blood. She needed to cut him.
And how dare he cut her hair like that! Sure it wasn't exactly hers, but how dare he!
"Looks like I won that little skirmish, huh?" Kuwabara said, his eyes lighting up with pride.
Otoyo finally let her anger bleed through, also coming about as a result of desperation. "One final clash to settle it?" she said, half of her stave disappearing to reform her original reiken. Kuwabara brought his reiken together, merging into his original blade as well.
"Sounds good to me!"
The two stood there, braced, knowing this next strike would determine the victor. Otoyo could have easily phased and caught him off guard, but her concentration was rattled. It was all she could do just to maintain her territory.
"Here I come!" Kuwabara shouted, rushing towards her at full speed, sand kicking up in his wake, his blade held high. Otoyo followed suit, hers held low, it's tip dragging along the beach, leaving a thin stream of glass in the ground where it touched.
The two met quickly, then their momentum carried them past each other. Both were breathing heavily.
Kuwabara felt a burning sensation on his left arm. Looking down, he saw a neat slice about halfway up his forearm, about two inches long and barely an eight of an inch deep.
Just enough to bleed.
He started laughing as he stared at the wound, and his reiken dissipated back into his body.
"Congrats, girl!" he said, turning around. "You got me!" He was breathing heavily, glad that it was over. He fell over backwards into the sand, instantly regretting it as it clung to his sweaty back.
Otoyo had turned around, looking at him as he flopped down. "See?" he said, holding out his arm.
She gave a smirk. "Looks like I won," she said, even as a sticky wetness started to run down her left side.
"Nope, not quite," he said, pointing. "Looks like it was a draw."
She looked down at her side, and sure enough, almost an identical gash was between her lower ribs, a small rivulet of blood leaking out of it, down her side, towards the waistband of her skirt.
Anger flared within her. He actually cut me? He was able to get a blow in?
How could I have been cut by a mere ningen? I should just kill him right now for what he did to me!
The teen at her feet was laughing though. The mission comes first. I'll make sure I personally take your head off when the mission is over. Damnit.
Otoyo sighed in resignation, and reached into a pocket on her skirt to pull out a white handkerchief. Folding it over, she handed it to Kuwabara, as he pressed it against his wound to stop the bleeding.
This isn't too serious, Kuwabara thought. I can just say I got a scratch on a rock, and Yukina can heal me. Thanks to Otoyo's territory, she won't know any different.
"Thanks," Kuwabara said with a long exhale. "What about you?"
"Don't worry about it," Otoyo said, a fake smile plastered on her face. I'm going to kill you for that. "I heal quickly," she remarked nonchalantly, taking her handkerchief back and pressing a clean side on her own wound. As soon as she changed back to her normal form, the wound would vanish. But she couldn't. Not just yet.
"Thank you for the match, Kuwabara," Otoyo said, bowing deeply as he rose to his feet. She deftly slipped the handkerchief back into her skirt. He started to brush the sand off of himself while she went over and picked up her blouse.
"Let's do that again sometime," he replied, bowing gracefully towards her. "I haven't had that much fun in years."
"Oh?" She said, feigning interest as she buttoned up the white fabric.
"No. Not since Junior High. Every time I was fighting, it was for my life. It's nice to have a good old fashioned brawl now and then."
She finished with the blouse, then slung the jacket over her shoulder. "I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell anyone about this…promise?"
"Why?" Kuwabara said.
"I just…I don't want anyone to know."
"Um, sure, I guess..."
"Thanks," she said, winking. "I'm sure we'll meet again!"
With that, she turned and walked away, her territory dissipating with her. Last thing she needed was for someone coming back to the beach to run into it. She heard a splash in the water, no doubt that idiot jumping in to wash the sand and sweat off his body.
I could use that too…As soon as she had reached the cover of the trees, she changed back into her normal form, shimmering as her body morphed. She pulled out the bloodied handkerchief, and held it to her eyes, scrutinizing.
Yes. She could feel his reiki in the blood. It was faint, but it was all she needed.
She pulled back her garment, exposing the cut on her side. It was probably a good thing that he had done this, but it still pissed her off that it had happened that way…
Otoyo pressed the part of the handkerchief that had Kuwabara's blood against her own ripped skin, her blood mixing with his own, staining the white fabric even further. Otoyo closed her eyes and concentrated, the blood actually drawing back into her body, sucking it out of the fabric until it was white as snow.
Soon now, all of his powers would be hers. It would just take a little bit of time.
She healed herself quickly, the wound closing to a hairline scar before disappearing completely. Taking off at full speed, she started laughing to herself.
Yet another long time between updates but I hope the 12 pages made up for it!
Please R&R! Love to hear what you guys think!
Kusanagi