R&R please!
Disclaimer: Refer to Chapter One of this fanfiction.
Chapter Two: Casualties of Food Network Madness
"Oi, remind me to never fly the Oar Express, ever again," Meriel groaned and slumped to the ground.
"Okay girls, listen up!" Botan called attentively. "Here's the lay of the land: over there to our left is the temple, but where you'll actually be staying is the (1) mansion to our right, by the way, for your own safety I advise you to never go behind either of them without someone with you!"
"Why not?" Reijin asked.
"Oh, tons of reasons, but most of them are gruesome, frightening, and would most likely have you running down the hill and we can't have that now can we?" she replied cheerily, "That said, to the mansion!"
Meriel brought herself to stand and everyone trudged tiredly into the large building. There were five people in the living room; they assumed they were some of the ones Botan referred to outside. One guy had blue hair with aqua spiked bangs and was pacing in front of the TV watching the news while eating (2) yogurt. A girl with turquoise hair sat across the room at a table and was occasionally glancing at the TV. There were two more on the couch, a tall dude with a Mohawk drinking booze and a short kid messing around with a yo-yo. The last one, an old woman with pink hair came up to them and began speaking.
"Hello there, I'm guessing you're the hooligans who have come to train at my temple, I'm Genkai. I hear this house has been the training grounds for the (3) Gods of Shizenkai in previous centuries as well."
Introductions were made and Genkai added that three more guests were out back training and would probably be back in later. Then she explained the room situation. They had to pick the middle rooms on each side of the mansion on the third floor for some mystic reason she would not explain. Takara was in the North, Reijin took the East, and Cayenne had the room on the South end, which left Meriel in the West.
The structure of the mansion confused them, except for Meriel. She mentioned that it was something like a hotel an American friend of hers stayed at for an anime convention. There were seven (4) floors, but none except for the bottom had a main floor, like an empty prism. Instead there was a hallway lining the edge of each level with doors branching off into different rooms.
Paranoid to leave the doorway at first, they moved slowly as a group toward the stairs and kept their eyes on the new people at all times, especially the guy with the Mohawk. But, as Cayenne walked past the couch she must have caught the drunken one's eye, for he reached out one of his huge arms, grabbed her around the waist, and flipped her over the couch. She landed on her butt with an "eep!"
"Ho ho! So 'his -hic- is one o' our new li'l guests, eh? Fi'e pick if ya ask me! 'Er aura's goin' off like a firecracker, 'specially when sha went flyin' o'er the back o' the couch like that, heh heh heh!"
"Chuu! Don't scare her like that, you practically hurled her into the cushions!" the kid, Rinku piped up, "He isn't really a bad guy once you get to know him, he's just drunk most of the time," he laughed.
With that, the ice was broken. Meriel settled in the quickest and jumped onto the kitchen counter. Takara took this as her cue to start cooking something and so Touya and his yogurt were forced elsewhere as Cayenne and Reijin took total control of the TV. They switched from the news to Food Network where a special on low fat fast food was happening. The guy was replacing fried chicken with baked chicken and testing it on the costumers of a local restaurant.
Yukina, the girl who was at the table, took interest in the show and decided to help Takara in the kitchen. Meriel was being a pain and continuously messed up the recipe so Yukina took over for her and she gladly sat back on the counter and watched. Cayenne yelled to them what was going on during the show from the living room and Reijin was busy taking notes for later.
With all of them preoccupied, they did not notice the other three come back from behind the temple. One took off up the stairs immediately, but even so no one in particular noticed them until a redhead flew up to Meriel when her head was turned and yes, flew.
"So, which one's this?" he asked to no one specifically, pointing at her.
Meriel whipped her head around and squeaked before she fell backwards off of the counter. This startled him but he caught her leg and swiftly pulled her back up.
"A bit jumpy, this one!" he laughed.
"Hell, anyone would be jumpy if you snuck up on them like that!" she yelled and bopped him on the head.
"Well Meriel, I, uh, hate to break it to you," Takara jeered, "but he was right up in your face so that's more like blindness or idiocy on your part," she paused to take the chicken out, "take your pick."
"Shut up!" she giggled and threw a fork at her.
Takara moved to avoid the piece of cutlery but lost her balance and sent the pan flying. Fortunately, another guy who had just come in unsheathed his sword and caught the tray with it. It was perfectly balanced on the blade when he flicked it into the air, took a step forward and grabbed it with his hand. He gave it back to Takara who thanked him.
"God, I'm such a klutz today, I don't know what's wrong with me!" she joked.
"Just pay a little more attention while insulting your adversary next time."
"Heh, you're right."
"Oh good, you're all back," Touya started once he finished the rest of his yogurt, "girls, the one that's floating is (5)Jin, the guy with the sword is Shishiwakamaru, (6) Shishi for short, and the guy that ran up the stairs a minute ago was Suzuki. Hey, where did he go anyway?"
"Back to his room, he said something about stabilizing some new ingredients for a project," Shishi stated as what sounded like a small explosion came form the back of the house. They did not question further.
"Well, hell, I didn't think about it until now but there are," Takara paused, in thought," (7) sixteen! Sixteen of us in all! I'm going to need to make more chicken..." she looked rather disdained as she stared at her one measly tray of baked chicken.
"Never fear, Takara! That's how," Reijin paused for dramatic effect and shifted her gaze, "they get you...we shall help you on your mission to feed us all with chicken-y goodness tonight!"
Who knew what she was thinking at the word "they" but all the same she hopped up off the floor and brought her notes to Takara who immediately put her, Yukina, and Meriel to work with ingredients as Cayenne took notes on the next dish that the chef was making. Some of them began protesting that they did not have to cook for them but they would not hear it. After all, they needed something to occupy themselves with.
"Really, you girls don't need to go to any trouble!" Rinku told them.
"Like hell, you guys are too scrawny for us not to commandeer your kitchen!" Takara told him.
"It's called being in shape."
"It's called being a stick."
Except for a small incident involving Reijin and paprika they finished fairly quickly and just in time--the last four returned from Koenma's office when they were taking out the last batch.
"Hey, I didn't know you guys could cook!" Yusuke exclaimed.
"Oh yeah, we only watch Food Network every day, scouring it for new recipes, how would we possibly know anything about cooking?" Takara said sarcastically.
"Damn straight!" Cayenne added enthusiastically.
"Okay girls, it's going to get late soon, late enough for you to dread waking up in the morning anyway," Genkai began, "eat and go to your rooms. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised how they work."
Reijin, who rarely exercised self-control, ran up the stairs with half a piece of chicken still hanging out her mouth to check out her room, the other girls lagged behind to finish dinner. Being in her socks, she slipped trying to turn into her room and fell through the door onto white carpet. When she looked up she could have sworn she saw the room of her dreams and flopped on spring green sheets and frilly pillows atop a wooden bunk bed to get a better look at the room. It had a white vanity with a vase of fresh sunflowers sitting on it. She liked space in her room, so naturally all her clothes were in the closet. Her electronics were cluttered on one desk near the door: computer on the left, TV on the right, and a few notepads and drawing books in the center. She checked out the bathroom before exiting and the sudden change from green and white to red and pink played with her eyes for a second so she did a double take. On the way out she glanced at the cute puppy-themed calendar hanging on her door.
"Hey guys!" She contained a giggle, "You just might want to come check this out!"
In seconds, Cayenne dipped the last of her chicken in ketchup, popped it in her mouth, and swiftly made her way to the third floor. Reijin was no where in sight; probably back in her room, so she went straight to her own. Her reaction was similar to Reijin's except less contained. She jumped, screamed, laughed, hit the floor and started rolling around and was overall ecstatic about her new room.
Her bed was a queen and had a floral pattern spread, the floor was hardwood with a red rug covering the middle of the room, and the walls were painted a subtle rose color. Unlike Reijin, she liked having her clothes organized in a chest of drawers, so instead of clothes in her closet the floor was riddled with video games. Her room had a window seat which was mostly inhabited by plush. Her electronics were arranged differently from the way her friends would have them: the computer was at one corner of a small table facing one side of the room and the TV was on the counter-corner--she liked to be using one or the other, not both.
She did not bother to check the bathroom on her way out, she already knew it would have a similar floral pattern as the room. When she left, she saw Reijin in the hallway trying to convince Meriel and Takara to hurry upstairs. Both of them trying had Meriel coming up in the next few minutes, but Takara was being stubborn and said that she would take her sweet time coming up which irritated the hell out of them. If they had known it was torturing Takara on the inside too, they might not have felt as bothered though.
They ran into Meriel's room with her and there was more squealing. Takara could not protest when the three of them came back down and pushed her up the stairs to her room. As they went up, Genkai snickered and explained that the rooms were designed to mold to the desire of the possessors. That hurried Takara up a little and pretty soon everyone was feeling at home.
About four hours later, a.k.a. 2 A.M. …
Cayenne was sitting on the floor playing Mario Party 6 when Takara quietly slipped into her room.
"BOO!"
"Shit!" Cayenne yelled, fell over, hit a random combo and won the mini-game.
"Nice."
"Takara! What the fuck are you doing in here? We're supposed to be asleep!"
"You're playing video games and telling me that? Anyway, I tripped over Reijin in the hallway and fell way louder than that, trust me, no one heard you."
"Are you sure? Wait, what?"
"On my way over here I saw Reijin lying in the middle of the hallway wide awake, scared the crap out of me too! She looked kind of dead...anyway, she said she couldn't sleep and you now how weird she is when she can't sleep."
"No kidding, last time she couldn't sleep I found her on the roof the next morning, covered in bird feed and peanut butter, like a pine cone or something, and she was dead asleep even though birds were picking at her and stuff."
"Yeah, that was during her "becoming in tune with nature" phase wasn't it? Oh well, moving on! I got her to go get Meriel and we're plotting a kitchen disaster."
"Yay! Just don't leave the paprika out this time..."
A drop of sweat rolled down Takara's cheek as she remembered earlier that evening with said spice, it had not been pretty.
In Meriel's room…
Huh...whatsit...orange? Probably my imagina--
"AH!"
Reijin had crept into Meriel's room, crawled flatly around the small twin bed and sneakily pounced on her friend when she rolled over. She captured her inside ocean blue covers but was outfought and Meriel hit the floor in a mass of sheets for the second time in twenty-four hours.
"Grr, Reijin! What the hell!"
"We're supposed to go meet at the staircase," she responded brusquely.
"Wha...?"
Reijin, in a hurry, ended up dragging Meriel to their rendezvous place with her still in a clueless, half-asleep haze.
They met and snuck downstairs. Cayenne had written down a recipe for chocolate cheesecake so they decided to make that.
"Whee! Chocolate-y goodness!"
Reijin giggled and skipped into the kitchen behind the others with Takara leading the way. They shushed her and she stuck her tongue out at them. She did a little spin out of hyperactivity but tripped over her own feet at the sight of Hiei, right in front of her, with his sword unsheathed and pointed in her direction.
"Kya!"
Thank the good lord for wind powers. Her power was not in check, so when she shot her hands down in surprise, she was lifted into the air. This was where gymnastics kicked in. She put her hands on his shoulders and did a handspring over him. As soon as she landed, she spun to face him.
"What in the heck was that this early in the morning?"
"I could ask you the same thing," he lifted an eyebrow at her sudden reflexes and sheathed his sword, "at least one of you might survive the training. So I'm going to take a wild guess and say you either couldn't sleep or are throwing an early morning pajama party?"
"Hey! I actually got some sleep, it was Reijin who forced me to up and come down here!" Meriel clarified.
"Well, it doesn't matter to me what you do, I'm always up early for training," he muttered something they couldn't hear and walked to the freezer.
Reijin followed him; there was something she needed to do. As some devious plot against one of her friends began, she distinctly heard the sentence, "Good, there's still some (8) sweet snow left," from Hiei.
Reijin whispered what she had heard to Meriel who jumped and yelled while pointing an accusing finger at him, "Oh my God, you're an ice cream junkie!"
He jumped and turned to her, "What?"
"Only really bad ice cream junkies have pet names for their ice cream! I mean, ahem, sweet snow," she grinned at him.
He glared back and was about to help himself to the rest of the frozen treat until Cayenne stole it. It was unexpected, which is the only reason she succeeded in running circles around the living room with him after her. They all learned how quick he could be the hard way. He stole it back only to have Meriel grab the box and toss it to Reijin who jumped as he sped by. She landed on the slick kitchen floor when the wind force he created blew her across the room. She shook in silent laughter before collapsing and handing over the precious substance to Hiei who took his breakfast elsewhere.
Things settled a little, they had their morning exercise and focused on cheesecake for the next two hours before putting it in the fridge and going back to sleep. Unfortunately for them, Genkai sent Yusuke and Kuwabara to wake them up thirty minutes after they had fallen back asleep. Although Yusuke took a more subtle method of pouncing on them while saying "Wakey, wakey, eggs and bacey!" in a sing-song voice, Kuwabara took the liberty of tossing Takara and Meriel into Takara's bathtub filled with ice cold water. Even though he was almost decapitated by a toothbrush in the process, it was a complete success and everyone except Meriel was up, dressed, and downstairs within the next couple of minutes.
"Remind me again," Takara began testily while pouring some orange juice for herself, "why are we awake at the butt-crack of dawn?"
"We aren't," Reijin joked humorlessly, "we haven't even reached the butt-crack, we're still somewhere around the thigh of dawn."
"Heh, it doesn't matter which one we're at," Cayenne started, "so long as someone passes me the coffee."
"No coffee,"Genkai stated and forcefully handed her a cup of tea, "it messes with your brain during training. Wait," she glanced at them, "there were four of you last night. Where's Meriel?"
"Oh, she said something about not being able to find her panties!" Reijin yelled upward loud enough for Meriel to hear who immediately responded to her gibe.
"It's not my panties; I just can't find any bras! Reijin, what did you do with them!"
They heard a door slam and footsteps hurrying down the stairs.
"Well, that just made my morning, anyone else up for getting out of this house as quickly as possible before I'm murdered?" Reijin asked.
"Sure," Yusuke responded while digging in the freezer and pulling out a box of waffles, "it's getting way too feminine…in…here…for me," he stopped moving altogether and called to Meriel when she reached the bottom of the stairs,"Meriel? I think I just found your bras."
"What?" she hissed.
"Hee hee, I think I'm just gonna go for a little morning jog," Reijin said and dashed out the door faster than any of them could hope to run that early in the morning.
After the freezer incident, it triggered in Takara's mind that there was fresh cheesecake in the fridge that they could have in a few hours. She announced this before going outside to help Meriel hunt down Reijin using her full name as a sort of Reijin call/threat. Reijin must have dipped down the hill and circled around them because she ran back inside somewhat out of breath and the other two did not come back until maybe ten minutes later after she had had a semi-comfortable breakfast and claimed to be ready to train.
"I'll…I'll kill you!" Meriel yelled, "Takara, fetch me a weapon! We shall paint the morning red."
"Yay, it's murder-the-Reijin time!"
Obviously being up that early was screwing with their heads, or at least that was what their audience thought, but before Meriel could successfully kill Reijin or Takara could find a suitable weapon to help her—she wanted to use the "bashing in of the head" method—Koenma stopped by to break up the fight "because he had serious business to discuss," of course. They had to reawaken Cayenne who had fallen asleep on the couch while they were out on their little escapade, but nothing more eventful than a small nudge or thump between the girls interrupted the meeting.
"Okay, since the previous Gods of Shizenkai have all passed," he paused for a moment of respect, "it's time for you to inherit their weapons."
He brought out four individual boxes that had symbols from different languages plastered all over them. It did not matter which one you could read though, they all read the same word—the name of the Element of the weapon contained inside. He handed each girl their specific box and began explaining.
"First of all, don't open these indoors," he stressed the opening statement as he saw Reijin start to disclose hers. This made her freeze and slowly let the lid back down. "Now then, these weapons are like none you've ever seen before. They have specific adaptations that can be used to change the effects of your Element. Use caution, for as you figure out what each certain form can do, you'll need to be able to control it or it can cause a lot of damage. For instance, Takara, if you aren't careful you could cause an earthquake and destroy this entire city."
"Fun."
"Yes, but not for the residents nearby, anyway you get the drift, be careful. That is all."
That being said, he left them to their new tasks.
"Well, what now? Should we just go outside and open them?" Cayenne asked.
"Are you dense?" Hiei stated, "it's not just about opening it inside, it's about training yourself to be adequate enough to use it. I think we'd all agree to basic training today, right?" He glanced expectantly at Kurama, Jin, and Touya.
"That would be best," Touya agreed.
Though the girls complained and procrastinated, their boxes were confiscated until further notice and they reluctantly followed their teachers outside. Jin was working with Reijin, Touya had Meriel, Kurama was going to teach Takara, and Hiei was stuck with Cayenne. The eight of them walked towards the temple and as they did so, the sun rose on their first day of training.
"I would much rather be playing Mario Party right now," Cayenne complained.
"What's that?" Hiei questioned, "One of your ridiculous human games I'm sure."
"Yes, but it's fun! And I could learn stuff from that you know," she retorted.
"Oh really?"
Cayenne could not tell what had happened, one moment she was walking with the others, the next she was back in her room.
"Hey! How'd we get back here! Did you teleport us or something?"
"Hn, merely a figment of your slow mind, I simply walked a little faster to get us back here."
"Wait a minute, if you can move this fast, why didn't you steal the ice cream back right away earlier?"
"It was amusing to watch you all scramble, now show me this game you think would help."
"Fine! I'll prove to you it can help me, it'll improve my reflexes!" she said confidently.
She started up the game, went to Mini-game Mode and played "What Goes Up..." on night mode. The objective was to fall and reach the ground the fastest while avoiding flying koopas and clouds. After she played a few times she figured, well, it's not like this is going to be my training anyway, and told Hiei to take them back to the others. He, however, refused.
"Keep playing."
"What, but what about training?"
"This is your training. Fall without hitting any of the obstacles."
"Impossible! Do you know how long that would take?"
"Long enough to considerably improve your reflexes and you'll play until you succeed so start."
Author's Notes:
(1) mansion - Whatever I say about Genkai's mansion, go with it. Because I really have no idea what I'm talking about in relevance to the anime, but I'm making it suit my needs while trying not to make it too outlandish to the actual setting.
(2) yogurt - It was the weirdest thing, I just saw him eating yogurt for some reason. I drew a decent fan art of it too, I was that compelled to see it happen, it even has him nudging Takara away in chibi form since she didn't make it onto the page and he would not allow her to steal his yogurt in the picture.
(3) Gods of Shizenkai - okay, explanation time! Shizenkai refers to the natural world, the World of Nature, and when they master their Elements completely--WAIT, I can't tell you that. : P
(4) floors - I wasn't sure how to make each individual level look, so I did it this way. It might seem a little hard to picture from the way I described it, but it was like that at the hotel at MTAC 6th Period. Google around and I bet you'll find a picture of that hotel somewhere, and then you'll see what I'm talking about.
(5) Jin - He doesn't have an Irish accent in this one since I don't think he has one in the manga, in case no one's noticed, I'm using the manga as my main resource instead of the anime.
(6) Sixteen - I got that right didn't I? Did I leave anyone out of this group: Yusuke, Kuwabara, Kurama, Hiei, Touya, Jin, Chuu, Rinku, Shishiwakamaru, Suzuki, Yukina, Genkai, Takara, Reijin, Cayenne, and Meriel?
(7) Shishi - Many people use just Shishi in their writings, but when I looked at May's 2006 issue of Shonen Jump, at the end of the fight between him and Genkai on page 220 it shows a close up of his eye where he's shocked that she countered him and under the pic it says 'Shishiwaka' so that readers would know it was him. I thought about using it instead of the more popular shorter version since this one was in the actual manga, but since people are used to hearing "Shishi" and for the sake of simplicity, I'm sticking with this nickname.
(8)Sweet snow - I want to know where this began O.O what genius thought of this?
Daniella's a psycho maid gnome! …Don't even ask, just review XD;