"GO A-!"
I gasped for breath. Wood? A wooden wall faced me as I sat up straight.
"What…?" I looked around, slowly. And soon I realised I was in my own bed, in my own room and – most most likely – in my own house.
After staring, all tensed up, at my abnormally normal surroundings I let out a long moan and fell back on my pillow.
"You gotta be kidding me."
I don't know how long I stayed in bed. Like a numb idiot I simply stared at the roof, lost in my own thoughts.
In the end though I figured I had to get downstairs and assure my mother I was alive and up. And make sure I did not end up with detention. So swinging the two long limbs called legs out of the bed I somehow got up. A little bit wobbly, but other than that it proceeded on to being yet another totally normal morning: Washing my face, brushing my hair, going to the toilet –all that.
Further on I tumbled my tired feet through the small hallway separating my room and the bathroom from the kitchen. Leaning on the white painted door for it to open I spoke my normal "good morning", shuffled across the floor and took my normal seat by the table.
It was still nothing but a totally normal morning.
"Say Fai," mother finished readying the table and sat down on the opposite side. "I thought all your friends were girls?"
"...What?" I looked up.
"You're one tired chick in the morning," Yusuke snickered at me. Where he popped up from I had no idea. But mum did have a point: Our kitchen was small and now it did not just contain its normal duo of mother and child, but also nothing less than three other teenage boys -or so I discovered as I looked around. So really, how did I manage to manoeuvre my way through this overly crowded small room without noticing our guests the slightest?
Kuwabara laughed. "You're one to talk Urameshi." Though that was a fight he could never win: "Then don't get me started on you," Yusuke efficiently replied and shut Kuwabara up.
"Good morning, Fai," Kurama politely greeted with his ever so gentle smile. In return I stared dumbly at them. Though at last I got my vocal cords working again:
"What're you guys d- I mean I thought- it's just- I don't- ...Good morning guys."
Yusuke broke out laughing. Mum asked them all to sit down and enjoy the breakfast with us. They did, some enjoying it more than other. With this I'm discretely pointing to a certain detective and goofy orange-head.
"Get away from me!"
The last time I had screamed out loud, startling everyone in the room, to put it nicely. However, what followed was not as easy to put into words.
A split second we fought. Though not physically. It was just this feeling that someone was trying to -however wicked it may sound- force way into my head, my mind.
It was not a pleasant feeling, not the least. I didn't want the present there -WHAM! A light, bright and hard hit me and flung me out of my surroundings.
Kurama, Yusuke, Kuwabara and all the others disappeared. For a moment I couldn't see a thing. Nothing but this blinding light that at the same time was not light at all but darkness. Perhaps.
The light materialised. A biting cold soon followed with it, and something I after a while recognised to be snowflakes hit my face. Slowly my eyelids parted, and I peered out at this new, unknown cold snow paradise.
For a while, a while of several years, I could not move. Or I did not wish to move. I was not sure. Then something pulled at me, a light tug at first but ended as a powerful pull and I was once again flung forwards. Or backwards. Which direction was it?
There were so many pictures, things to sense, understand and see. Too much for my human mind to take in all at once.
Tears, glittering tears. Only two, later many. Hard, round tears of great value. And two small children, nothing but toddlers. Separated. And then-
a cliff down to a white nothing. But there was so much more than just the pictures. There were words, feelings, things too confusing to understand.
In the back of my mind something grew closer.
A small boy, a simple strap as necklace. A beautiful stone dancing at its bottom. It was like a small shining star in a world of darkness, swords and death. Though no matter how much blood spilt and no matter how much blood tainting the shadows, the red colour was not able to reach this divine shine.
It was like a voice growling out "what are you doing here?" Into my whole being.
So much blood.
The presence grew stronger, until the point where it hurt. The pictures running before my eyes went blurry, like an interrupted TV signal.
It wasn't until we had left the house and put some distance between us and it that I could finally express my surprise and shock to the fullest.
"What are you guys doing here?"
Kurama smiled politely –does he ever do otherwise? – and said: "I'm sure you thought it was all a dream, but I am afraid we and you were all there yesterday."
"Bu- But I was in my bed," I stuttered confused, half-heartedly pointing back toward home. Kurama looked puzzled for a short moment but then lit up again as he probably got a full grasp of the situation again. "Well it would not be too strange if you don't remember what happened, a mind fight with Hiei is not something to take lightly."
"A mind fight?" I wondered. Kurama nodded.
"Yes, if I'm not mistaken, that is what happened between the two of you when you so bashfully said you were "in"," Kurama smiled, his eyes glinting teasingly as he emphasized on the word bashfully ever so slightly, letting me know that was not what he meant at all. Yusuke snickered, linking his hands behind his neck.
"You really went and pissed him off," he said. "It was awesome." And he broke into a louder laugh.
"Yes, it was quite entertaining," Kurama agreed honestly, enjoying this just as much as the detective. "It has been a while since I saw him that frustrated. - even when exposed to Kuwabara and Yusuke's teasing attacks."
Kuwabara, who until now had taken part in Yusuke's laughing, stopped and looked thoughtfully at the other two.
"But why did he do it?" he wondered, causing Yusuke to cease his laughing as well.
"Who knows," he shrugged. But when given a few more seconds to think it over he too looked more in thought. "He doesn't usually invade peoples minds like that. Even though he is a small sized asshole, he still plays by some rules." He and Kuwabara tried to figure it out for one more minute, before their brains hit their limit and they looked to Kurama for the answer.
The poor red head sweatdropped at little, raising his hands in pitiful defence.
"I have known him for a long time, but I am no mind reader."
"True," Yusuke sighed. "You're not the type to pry on others lives. Damn."
"Ah... hah hah ha..." Kurama double sweatdropped, and you –as him– wondered whether to take Yusuke's remark as an insult or a compliment. The redhead fell serious.
"However, Hiei is not the type that blindly trusts others. I am sure he had his reasons."
Yusuke stuffed his hands in his pockets. His brown eyes looked up at the flawless morning sky. A few thin white clouds lay scattered across the light blue sphere. With a thin, white layer covering the ground the shop windows counted the days until Christmas, all kinds of traits and offers on display to trick the moneyless student and busy parents to drop by.
A few frozen and tired shop owners ran across the street and about in their shops, readying what they had of red decorations in the early morning. Small lights following the streets were already lit and even though it was still early, a clear expectation and anticipation hang in the air.
"It's going to be even colder tomorrow," I noted, gazing up at the light blue winter sky.
I had trouble believing it to begin with. Staring at them I was unable to concentrate on whatever the teacher was preaching about the first two lessons. Though that had its price in the end when our ruthless teacher finally noticed. The rest of that school day was not so pleasing.
"You know, I'm starting to really wonder who that guy is," Haru said.
"So you saw him too?" Liru asked, leaning in across the table.
"No, not at all," Sakura said sarcastically. Liru rolled her eyes a little but nodded still.
"Sakura's right, who wouldn't?" Ichigo said dipping a spoon in her yoghourt. All the while I followed the conversation closely. Maka tilted her head. "But what do you think he is really doing here? Before he was her at his own at least, but now there's three of them."
Jupp, they are talking about Yusuke and co alright.
And thus I spent the rest of the eating break pondering on whether I should tell the others I knew the strangers or not. And while my being quiet went unnoticed by them, they continued discussing what in the world the three boys could be doing standing outside our school all day.
"Is "discreetly" a foreign word to you guys?"
I groaned and flopped down in what I supposed to be Kurama's couch. (Unless he stole it from someone else, but that's unlikely and way beside the point.)
Yusuke scratched the back of his head in brief thought before shrugging. "I think Kurama mentioned something about that, but who cares?" He grinned widely. "And nothing happened right? What could've happened anyway?"
I sighed. He was right, partly. There wasn't much danger to find lurking about my school. And it's not the most unnatural thing in the world so see people outside a school. It's not like it's a crime to stand outside another school than your own, even during the winter in several minus degrees. It's just foolish.
I was tempted to point out they could have spent some time in a warm café or something, and that I would not meaninglessly go transforming or whatever in school and harm people.
That much being said, I didn't even know if I could pull that transforming-thingy off one more time. Let alone all by myself.
But I didn't say anything. Instead I scanned Kurama's tidy, warm and friendly home.
"Hello you guys!"
Botan left the door wide open as she cheered loudly. Keiko followed behind her with Yukina gently closing the door.
"That makes us all then," Botan smiled, counting the heads in the group. "Shizuru couldn't make it," Keiko informed as Botan's finger lingered in the air. "She had some of her own business to take care of."
"Then we'll just start without her," Botan decided. "Where's Hiei?" she added without a pause for breath.
"In the window," I surprised everyone by saying. My thumb pointed over my shoulder, and true enough; there he sat and he had been from the very beginning.
"Uhm, right," Botan looked a little thrown off balance but quickly picked herself up again. "Then let's begin."
What happened after this is not a very interesting tale. The three hours spent in Kurama's home before everyone left mostly consisted of talking and discussions about how and who should train me and so on. Somewhere in the middle Yusuke, Kuwabara and Hiei landed in a rather heated argument but judging from the others' faces this was not something out of the ordinary.
In the end they decided for me to train each day. To myself I thought that if this training was as tough as they made it sound I'd never survive two days of it. However out loud I agreed, shrugged and smiled. Kurama who with his mastermind must have somehow caught onto my half-hearted thoughts smilingly said he would help me prepare for the Christmas exams in between all the training. Yusuke, with Kuwabara agreeing loudly, said I could never fail with the fox as my teacher.
"Are you sure you do not want us to walk you home?" Kurama asked for the hundredth time.
"Yes, I'm sure." I rolled my eyes but had to smile at his friendly worry and polite offer. "I managed perfectly fine before I got to know you guys, and if someone attacks me I'll just transform, right?" With a grimace at the last sentence I waved a last cheerful good bye and hurried through the dark winter cold. In front of me my breath made small clouds that would have made my glasses dew if I had had any.
From shadows too dark black for my eyes to pierce through a silent gaze followed my every movement, not leaving me for a second until I was behind and had closed my front door. Without a sound, resting between naked branches of a white layered park not a single shudder of cold was witnessing to the low temperature having any effect on the figure. But what would I know about that? I had no spirit awareness whatsoever and by the time cold eyes had left me I was warm and safe in my bed.
"To grow stronger was your wish, was it not? When you stole the Conjuring Blade of The Three Dark Treasures from the underworld?"
"And so if I did?"
"Therefore you should be able to understand that teaming up with her will not slow you down. Rather it will give you the power you desired, and that with interest."
"That so? And why should that change anything?"
"Because I know you are the type that will stop at nothing to obtain what you want, and what you want is power."
"... no way."
I stared at Kurama, baffled at- well, both myself and him and the rest of "some-place-called-heaven-and-hell-actually-exists-group".
"And you guys who had made it sound so hard and like I was never gonna make it in a hundred years." Though as irony has it, right as I had uttered those words my knees gave in and I collapsed in an exhausted heap on the ground.
"Hn."
As I glared offended up at the demon I had figured to be seriously annoying and irritating and frustrating and negative, Yusuke's snickering accompanied his oh-so-famous "sentence". I turned my energy-lacking glare to Yusuke. "Well," I said after being too frustrated at the two ass-holes to speak a word. "You'd be exhausted too if you were me!"
Yusuke's snicker decreased to a grin as he slid is thumb past is nose. "Been there, done that."
I stared up at him in the tree above me, gaze softening.
"I suppose we should say "welcome to the gang" for real now then," Kurama joked with his always gentle smile, offering me a hand to get up. I took it and slowly got up on my feet. Or at the very least; I tried. Tumbling back to land on my butt it was clear to everyone present I had not yet caught my breath properly.
"Though it is nothing unusual for you to be this worn out," Kurama added. Yusuke left his tree and slung down on his back on the snow. "Yeah, I felt like I was gonna die the first few weeks I trained at grandma's." He slid his arms under his head. With eyes gazing up at cold, blue sky he continued: "I had first thought Kurama would be of the gentle teacher kind," he hesitated. Sitting up, he grinned while snow decorated his black hair. "I guess I was mistaken."
"And that guy was not making it easier," Kuwabara added, pointing to Hiei, and I knew he felt sorry for me. "I trained with those guys once," Kuwabara shuddered as he remembered. "It's when they train you their real demon selves appear," he said, lowering his voice to a whisper.
However, I doubt even he thought they wouldn't hear him. Kurama turned to us with a bright smile, Hiei suddenly standing behind him.
"What?" Kurama wondered. "Did you not appreciate our help?"
Kuwabara was not the only one to sweatdrop and back away a few steps.
"Just kidding, just kidding!" Kuwabara waved his hands franticly, laughing nervously. Kurama kept his smile, resting hands on hips, letting his smile widen.
"He looks scary as hell," I muttered to Yusuke.
"Yeah," he agreed under his breath. "Let's run for it. On the count of three." We glanced at each other.
"One," I breathed.
"Two," he whispered.
"Three!" We turned on the spot and set off toward a cliché setting sun with Kuwabara shrieking in the background:
"Hey! Don't leave me alone with the demons!"
"Don't worry, you'll manage just fine," Yusuke yelled back.
"You know," I threw a glance at him as we ran. "You're one of them," I mentioned.
"You got a point." He slowed down for a second. "Ah, hell. They still scare the shit out of me."
Several feet behind Kuwabara tried to keep up with us -seemingly failing miserably for a moment. Though he must have had a hidden extra source of power, because suddenly he was right behind me within arms reach. Well, I had to compliment on his effort and hard work, but it was all wasted when he stumbled in his own feet due to the pace being too fast for him to keep up with.
He fell, grabbing my foot in a desperate attempt not to be left alone with the two demons hunting us.
Of course this resulted in me falling too, and we tumbled down a hill to our right.
"You guys okay?" Yusuke slid down after us, leaving clouds of snow to dance as a tail behind him. He snickered and laughed all the while surfing down on the snow as I and Kuwabara had a small wrestling match at the bottom.
"Up for a nice hug, are we?"
"Oh crap," Kuwabara gasped. Both us looked up, both of us covered with snow, both of us with arms and legs tangled into one another. Both of us scared witless.
Kurama and Hiei hovered above us, like hawks ready to dive down at defenceless small mice any time.
I think it was a combination of Yusuke's kind heart and our own panic that got us away from the danger zone: Yusuke had yanked us backwards -which shot could snow up my nose and into my mouth – and one way or the other I and Kuwabara joined forces to stumble away. Or perhaps more like fled aimlessly from the same enemy.
"It appears to me," Hiei said, gracing us with the presence of his growling voice. "That the new girl wants some more practice."
"I believe you are right," Kurama smiled.
His words became like the gun starting a race, and we charged head first at each other. Such things as tactics and mind games were thrown away to give room for a wild, senseless raw brawl in the snow.
No one paid any heed to the snow soaking our clothes, no one cared about the snow entering all openings possible, and no one shrieked as it melted down backs and necks to make our very bones ache with cold. And I think it was somewhere in all the confusion and mess that Kuwabara grabbed my hand and yelled "transform" into my ear.
Yusuke had is hands full holding Kurama off and Hiei was charging at us from a heap of snow, his clothes more white than black now. It was quite the surprise to see him willingly play around in the snow like this, and the last thing I would expect him to do. But then again he was not the type to back down from a challenge, and no matter how much he hated to lose he was sure as hell not going to keep me from winning. I didn't go through three weeks of murderous training for nothing.
I grinned, eyes glinting and obeyed Kuwabara without a second thought. I was a sword to the fullest of its beauty. The big goof grabbed my hilt, and in the split second before they charged at each other I saw Hiei curl up to kick off, grab his sword -and it was on.
Two swordsmen battling off in the grand Snow Freezing Tournament.
I didn't keep count of how many times they spared back and forth. What I did know however, was that it was long enough for Kurama and Yusuke to stop fighting and watch instead.
In-between the sharp sound of blade clashing against blade I could pick up traces of the two's conversation.
"You know," Yusuke said. Kuwabara and Hiei were long swallowed up in the battle to notice the two viewers.
"Normally Kuwabara wouldn't last this long against Hiei."
In-between Kuwabara's grunts of concentration I heard Kurama reply: "It is because of Fai's power as a w-" We clashed together again.
"So it's like a play station game?" How many times had Yusuke been to an arcade to combine real life combat and play station? Hiei threw Kuwabara off balance.
"-the weapon increases the fighter's ability s-"
That might have been the reason to why Kuwabara hadn't lost yet.
"-makes sense, I-"
But Hiei was still way superior in fighting skills against both of us combined. Kuwabara just barely saved his head from being severed from his body. He hurled his arm around and I protected him from damage -but that too just barely.
"-it really is like pl-" Yusuke snickered somewhere in the background.
But other than Hiei harbouring higher developed skills than Kuwabara, something else was starting to disturb the flow of the battle.
"-But to think-"
Or maybe it was just my imagination? The sharp sound of blade hitting blade sounded through the forest.
"-that Kuwbara-"
Kuwabara was getting heavier, and there was something really odd about his grip. It wasn't just my imagination.
"-would be strong enough-"
Kuwabara roared and threw his whole body weight forwards to crush Hiei. How he planned to make that work with Hiei's ability to dodge swiftly, I had no idea.
"-to wield Fai."
Kuwabara screamed out in pain. The big goof flung me away. Like he had gotten burned he backed away. He fell backwards, the cold embracing snow catching him. Hiei slid his sword back into its sheath, not the slightest struggling for air and looking down at the gasping and panting Kuwabara.
For a moment though I had really thought we could win. But when looking back at the battle, Hiei had not been taking it seriously. He just hated to leave a battle with the goof without a clear victory in case that would encourage Kuwabara to even dare think the thought of him being stronger than Hiei.
"In the end he wasn't," Kurama said.
"Hey, you okay man?" Yusuke managed to speak through his laughter. Kuwabara was glaring at him. Or grinning at him? He didn't seem properly in control of his face. Yusuke offered him a hand regardless, but Kuwabara couldn't stand on his feet.
He wobbled, leaned onto Yusuke heavily. His eyes crossed, his hands -probably reaching for support I figured later- flailed about in the air aimlessly. That continued until he lost the last ounce of coordination, balance and strength he had left. He flopped down in the snow again.
"Dude...?" Yusuke's forehead wrinkled slightly. "What's wrong?"
Kuwabara spent thirty seconds making his voice composed into words. Thirty seconds may not sound much, but when spent watching him struggle it was quite the long wait.
"Y- you tell me," he managed to utter at last. At this Yusuke had no replies and instead turned his attention to me as I lay gasping on the ground.
"Yoh..." I swallowed hard in a try to ease up my sore, cold throat. "You tell..." I tried to sit up.
"...me."
Kurama decided to answer when Yusuke shrugged; "Fai's and Kuwabara's powers are not in tune with each other," he explained like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Yusuke put words to our blank looks: "Something like that exists?"
Kurama smiled -seriously, when does he ever do otherwise?- "I had a talk with Koenma not too long ago to confirm my theories. And he gave me right. It appears so that as a weapon, the wielders spirit or demon energy has to blend with the weapons. -I do not know how to explain this without it getting complicated, but it works somehow like this: For them to be able to use each other to the utmost of each other's powers and to simultaneously cooperate best way possible, their energy has to be on wavelength and tuned in to fit so that they can blend. You see," Kurama walked over to me and helped me up on my feet. "Automatically when someone grabs the weapon -whether it be a skilled swordsman or random demon- the spirit energy from the sword will try to enter and flow within the wielders body. And likewise for the wielder -even though they both are not necessarily aware of this. This from the instinct of wanting to fight best possible. And so, if the different powers are not able to blend, they can only cooperate for so long." The gentle redhead helped me keep my balance, briefly asking if I was alright.
"And before us we have a splendid example of the result of a mismatch." His green orbs shifted from Yusuke to Kuwabara and also to Hiei for a short moment, to make sure he had made himself understood. "However of course, both sides have to practice and train to reach the utmost level of their power when combined, but some are more out of the question than others."
The rest spoke for itself.
"So... who's up for some ice-cream?"
Four pairs of baffled, taken aback eyes stared at Yusuke.
And after a thirty-four seconds long silence we all broke out laughing. Kurama bit down at his thumb to restrain himself.
"Ice-cream? But it's winter," Kuwabara tried to recover from the laughing. And to my surprise, even the cold Hiei seemed lightly entertained. -Seemed, remember; just seemed. I would not go into his head just to figure out whether or not he was entertained. I fell quiet at the thought though. I had yet to learn how to focus my thoughts. Compared to Hiei who could choose when and on whom to focus his thoughts and infiltrate their minds, I had no control. Up until now I had found the easiest way to be to think of something else.
I suppose Hiei's extra annoyed and irritating behaviour around me isn't something I can blame just him for: I mean, I would also be angry if someone I didn't know kept on forcing their way into my mind every living day and second constantly for two weeks. It was at about that time that I somehow gained control over it -or I learned how to force my thoughts onto something entirely different. But what was even stranger than this automatic "mind-invasion" reaction, was the fact that it only happened with Hiei. As a matter of fact, I didn't seem possible to do it to somebody else.
But now my mind seemed set on it again. And no matter how hard I tried focusing on what Kuwabara, Kurama and Yusuke were saying, I couldn't make any sense of their conversation. Except that it was about ice-cream, but one doesn't need a doctor grade to understand that much.
Then I made the mistake: A split second I glanced up. My eyes met Hiei's. At once my force doubled. His narrowing, glowing crimson eyes clearly told me he had noticed and that it annoyed him. But he said nothing. And neither did I, for that matter. I was too focused on trying to think of something else to manage the speaking part anyway.
Hiei's defence was surely no easy nut to crack, but rather than forcefully trying to break through it felt like my own mind was being sucked through, despite all his protests. And there was nothing I could do to either get further into or out of his brain. I really had no control, and no idea why this was happening.
And in the back of my mind I wondered distantly how I was able to break into the mind of such an experienced demon, even though it wasn't directly me doing it sort of. This question and all the others would most likely remain unanswered.
I closed my eyes. Soon, soon the snow around us would be reflected in a much harsher and freezing one inside my mind from memories belonging to someone else than myself.
I...
"Hey, Fai. You listening?" Yusuke grabbed my shoulder. "What kind of ice-cream do you want?" he asked.
I blinked confused. Yusuke rolled his eyes, but grinned widely at the same time. "I-c-e c-r-e-a-m. What kind do you want?"
"Oh," I couldn't get rid of my looking baffled and blankly at him. "Chocolate... I guess?"
"Ok," the detective straightened up. "Chocolate it is. You guys wait here, c'mon Kuwabara let's- on second thought, you wait here too. I'll get the ice-cream."
"Wait!" Yusuke had only moved four steps. "I'm coming with you." I got up in a hurry, stumbled a little with stars dancing before my eyes from getting up too fast. And so the two of us went off to buy ice-cream.
I ignored the urge to glance back at Hiei. It would only make everything worse.
"Aw, you gotta be kiddin' me!" Yusuke suddenly groaned out loud.
So, has anyone noticed all the "you got to be kidding me"s? I was actually planning on calling the story that at first. xD But I changed it later, though. Felt it didn't quite cover it or something.