Author comments: Chapter 1 rewritten. Enjoy :) and as always reviews are greatly appreciated.
Chapter 1: No Turning Back
May woke up half an hour before her alarm went off. This was unusual for her but she was too preoccupied to go back to sleep so she pulled on a pair of jeans and a white shirt and went to the kitchen to make breakfast. She was preoccupied for two reasons. The first was her microbiology exam. The second was a certain meeting scheduled to take place later in the evening at Genkai's place. It would be the first time May will have to see Kurama since that day she ran out of the café almost a year ago. Since then she hasn't told anyone about what happened or what Kurama told her, not even Genkai.
A 35 year old gardener presents with small raised ulcerations extending from his left index finger to his forearm. On further questioning, the man admits to being pricked by a thorn while weeding his rose garden last month. What is the most likely diagnosis?
May closed her eyes and tried to summon the name of the fungus that caused these symptoms. Instead she saw a long slender rose whip with its prickly thorns. She wondered just how sharp those thorns were…
"Ten minutes remaining," said the professor.
May hastily circled B. Sporotrichosis and moved on to the next question.
In the afternoon, May went to her biochemistry lab. She was clearly distracted and kept making mistakes. By the time she finally got out, the sun was setting and she was running late. She was the last to arrive at Genkai's temple.
"How nice of you to finally grace us with your presence," Genkai said sarcastically.
May apologized and took a seat on the floor next to Botan. She noticed Koenma, Kuwabara, Keiko, Shizuru, Yukina, and- yes- Kurama were also there.
"Alright since you're all here, let me get down to business…"
After Genkai finished explaining the details of her will, everyone started to get up. Someone said something about going down to the beach which was greeted with a chorus of enthusiasm from the rest of the group.
"May, can you stay for a bit?" Genkai asked.
"Of course."
"We'll be down by the beach," Keiko said before she followed everyone out.
Genkai waited for the group to get far enough before turning to May. "What is going on between you and Kurama?"
"Err what do you mean?"
"Don't play dumb. I raised you. I can tell when something's wrong. The two of you used to be close but I haven't heard you utter his name even once this past year. And today when you entered the temple you didn't so much as glance in his direction."
May sighed. "He… did something unforgivable."
"Did he cheat on you?"
"WHAT? NO! It's nothing like that!"
Genkai smirked. "Calm down, I was only kidding." She sipped her tea. "It must be pretty serious then."
May glared darkly at Genkai but decided to tell her the truth.
After she finished, Genkai didn't say anything for a while. She calmly finished her tea. "I understand why you're mad, but you will forgive him eventually."
"No I won't!" May said louder than she meant to.
"Then why didn't you tell me about it when you found out?"
"Why? Because it wouldn't have changed anything."
"You didn't tell me because you were subconsciously protecting him. You didn't want my view of Kurama to change. He was once a merciless demon so of course he's done terrible things, but as long as we distance ourselves from that fact, it doesn't matter. But once we are personally affected by those things, the character of Youko Kurama becomes that much clearer to us."
May didn't say anything.
Genkai continued. "You were always a stubborn child so if you're hell-bent on staying mad at him, there's nobody in the world who can change your mind. I'm only telling you to forgive him for your own sake. It takes a lot of energy to hate someone. Everybody makes mistakes but what's important is the present and you know the present Kurama better than anyone. That's why you still tried to protect him."
"Genkai you're giving me too much credit. I didn't talk about it because it's an unpleasant topic. I won't forgive someone who murdered my family, no matter who it is."
As May slowly descended the mountain steps towards the beach, she thought that maybe the reason she didn't tell Genkai was because she knew exactly what Genkai would say.
"May! Over here!" Botan called out, laughing and waving her hands in the air. Botan, Keiko, Yukina, and Kuwabara were all standing in the water, drenched from head to toe. And next to them was... Yusuke?
"He got back a minute ago and surprised us all," Koenma explained.
May smiled, took off her sneakers and ran to join the group of laughing kids by the ocean. As night fell, the kids reluctantly said their goodbyes and went their separate ways. Koenma received a call from spirit world so he and Botan were the first to leave. Eventually May found herself alone with Kurama. They got off at the same train stop. The two of them walked in silence as they passed by busy restaurants and night clubs populated by carefree teenagers enjoying their Friday night off. Kurama broke the silence first.
"I know you probably still hate me," he said softly.
"That's right."
"I won't ask you to forgive me but-"
"Good because I won't."
"But if there is anything I can-"
"There isn't," May said flatly, turning away.
A look of surprise flitted briefly over Kurama's face but it was soon replaced by an amused expression. "I see then that there's nothing I can do. It's good to know your stubbornness and impatience haven't changed in the past year."
"And your condescending attitude hasn't changed either," May said, feeling her temper rising.
BEEEEEP. BEEEEEP. BEEEEEP.
A sudden beeping noise came from the spirit watch on May's wrist. It flashed red in sync with the beeping. "It's Koenma," May said, wondering what on earth he could be calling her about at this hour. They ran over to a deserted alleyway and May pressed a button the watch. A miniature 3D projection of toddler Koenma appeared before them.
"Hi again," said the Koenma projection. Then he noticed Kurama. "You two are still together? I hope I didn't interrupt anything."
"You didn't. So why did you call me?"
"As a matter of fact, I do have something important to discuss with you. A couple of demons appeared to have escaped to the human world."
"And…?" May asked.
Koenma sighed, looking troubled. "I apologize for not telling you about this earlier," he continued, weighing his words carefully. "But we weren't sure about it until just recently… the existence of another human world that is. We think it's the world you came from May."
"Can you start from the beginning?" Kurama interrupted.
"Yes." The Koenma projection turned to May. "As you know shortly after you were born, a member of the spirit defense squad found you in the demon world."
May nodded.
"That was no accident. The reason we were looking for you was because of a rumor that started in the demon world."
"The rumor that my family came from another world," May filled in.
"That's correct. I'm glad Kurama told you that much. Anyway, King Yama wanted to see if there was any basis to that rumor so he sent someone to look for your family. Unfortunately, you were the only one we found alive and we were never able to confirm the rumor."
"So what did you guys do?"
"Even though we couldn't ask you about it, we still had reason to believe that you really did come from somewhere unknown to us. Your spirit energy, although human, is unlike any that we've ever seen. Even Genkai commented about it. That's why you couldn't be the successor of the spirit wave orb and Genkai had to find another disciple. Anyway, after we placed you under Genkai's care, we kept a close watch in the region where you were found. Over the years, we've noticed spatial disturbances at infrequent intervals which we think may be the portal that connects the demon world to the other human world."
"You said a couple of demons were able to cross over?" Kurama asked.
"Right. We're not sure how, but we know at least two demons have managed to disappear through a spatial distortion either on purpose or by accident. Either way, we have no idea what they're doing over there."
"So you want me to go and find out?" May asked.
Koenma thought for a moment. "It's more of an invitation. The decision is up to you because once you cross enter that world, we don't know how to bring you back. To be honest, no one else wanted to go and I can't force anyone because this doesn't directly affect the balance of our three worlds."
"I'll do it. I want to see what that world is like."
"That's what I thought you'd say."
"Then I will go too," said Kurama.
May stared at Kurama as if he had just announced that he was going to be married to an ogre. "This doesn't concern—"
"If her goal is to eliminate the demon, she'll have trouble depending on how strong the demons are," Kurama pressed on. "I would guess only class A or higher level demons would have the capability and intelligence to intentionally cross over. If she goes alone, it will be extremely dangerous, especially since we know almost nothing about that world."
"I can handle it," May said defiantly.
Koenma frowned and rubbed his chin. "It's not that I don't think you can handle it, but I would feel a lot better if someone went with you. We don't know what'll happen over there so having two heads is better than one, especially if one of those heads belongs to Kurama."
May scowled but didn't protest further.
"How long do we have before the next distortion?" Kurama asked.
The Koenma projection made a peace sign. "Two days."
After Koenma finished giving them the details of their departure and the projection faded, May turned to Kurama. "You know this doesn't change anything right?"
"I know nothing can make up for what I've done, but let me do this at least." Kurama's voice was so sad and gentle that May was caught off guard. He held out his hand. "Since we'll be doing this mission together, let's call a temporary truce."
"Okay…" May said, shaking Kurama's extended hand.
The next day May and Kurama were both kept busy making last minute arrangements and coming up with convincing stories to tell their family and friends about why they will be gone for the next indeterminate number of days. May kept her roommate from asking too many questions by telling her that she was dropping out of college to take on a top secret government job. Kurama on the other hand came up with a rather reasonable excuse and told his mom he wanted to travel the world with his friend before he settled down and inherited his stepdad's company. When his mom asked who the friend was and he told her it was May, she just smiled knowingly and told him to have a good time.
On the afternoon of their departure day, the May and Kurama met Koenma and Botan in the demon world near the edge of a place called the Jungle of Lost Souls. They both dressed lightly and carried only one backpack each. They watched as Botan fiddled with a strange device in her hand.
"All right, let's get this thing working," Botan said as she set the disc-shaped instrument on the ground and clicked a little red button in the center. The disc lit up and coordinates appeared across its surface.
"That is a spatial distortion sensor," Koenma explained. "If the distortion is close enough, people with high spiritual awareness should be able to sense it without problem. However this device is extremely sensitive and covers a wide area. When it detects a distortion, it will show up on the coordinates. We have to run to it before it disappears."
"How long does a distortion usually last?" Kurama asked.
"Anywhere from 1 minute to 10 minutes is what we estimated."
"What do we do when we find it?" May asked.
"You touch it," Koenma replied simply. "You will know exactly where it is and the moment you make contact with it, it will suck you in like a vacuum. That's about all I know of what will happen. After that, your guess is as good as mine."
"I see," May said nervously. It was just starting to dawn on her that she will soon be alone (well almost alone) in a strange world with no way of knowing when she can come back.
"Now, we just wait for the signal."
Three hours later, May, Koenma and Botan have taken up seats on a nearby rock under the shade of a large tree. Kurama was surveying the surrounding vegetation and seemed to have pocketed a few seeds from a couple rather intimidating looking demon world flowers. May tried not to think about what he might need them for. A few demons passed by as they waited. None of them paid much attention to the party of four except for an occasional curious glance. May watched as a little bear demon skipped happily by humming a tune that sounded a lot like "The itsy bitsy spider".
Maybe the demon world really has changed, May thought.
Then, she felt it. The sensor picked it up three seconds later and they were off. The distortion was only about a quarter of a mile deeper into the jungle and about thirty feet above the ground. She and Kurama led the way pushing aside thick demon world foliage as they ran. Koenma and Botan followed close behind.
"There's a demon close to it," said Kurama.
"You're right," May replied. "What should we do?"
"I'll see if I can knock it aside. If not we'll have to kill it," Kurama answered.
"You guys need to hurry, it's starting to close!" Botan shouted from behind them.
The distortion was situated above a large tree with gigantic leaves. The leaves conveniently blocked their view of both the distortion and the unsuspecting demon. Kurama jumped up the tree first, pulling out his rose whip on the way. May followed. She recognized the demon first before she noticed the distortion.
"Hiei! Get away from there!" Kurama shouted.
"Kurama!? What the hell are—"
It was too late. A gust of wind picked up and the tip of Hiei's black cloak grazed the shrinking space. The fire apparition vanished with a look of shock on his face. Kurama wasted no time jumping in and he too disappeared. By the time May reached the distortion it was only about the size of her fist. It reminded her of a mirage caused by hot air. She touched it and immediately felt as if she was pulled into a warm body of water. Everything faded to white. Somewhere in the distance, she thought she heard Botan and Koenma's voices shouting something, but she couldn't make out the words. Then just as she was starting to get used to the sensation, she felt pain. The pain was so excruciating she thought her skin was being ripped from her flesh. She screamed but no sound came out. Then, there was just darkness.
Author comments: What amazing things will they find in the other world? Stay tuned to find out. This chapter was a lot more difficult to write than I anticipated. The scenes played out well in my head but when I had to write it out, I had trouble deciding what things to focus on and what things to leave out. :/ Please review and let me know if any areas could be presented better, needed more clarification, etc.
The parts I enjoyed writing the most from this chapter were when Genkai indirectly teased May about her relationship with Kurama and when Kurama's mom "smiled knowingly" when he told her he was going to travel the world with May. It reminded me of one of those situations in life when everyone around you assume there's something going on between you and that other person when the reality of it is so far from the truth.
I'm not sure when the next chapter will be up since I'm in the middle of exams, but it will be up eventually so stay tuned. And I know the description says you don't need to know Hunter x Hunter to follow the story, you will appreciate it a lot more if you do. So if you haven't seen it and you like YYH, I recommend it to you with no reserve. It's made by the same creator.
