"Start All Over"
By ss10009
Disclaimer:
YuYu Hakusho does not belong to the author of this story. Those rights go to Yoshihiro Togashi. This fanfiction is created for purposes not associated with profit. Meaning that, if you paid to read this story, well, you're a damn fool.
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CHAPTER 4 - Of Answers Unsought
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Muffled words.
"I assure you. He's still here."
He felt like he was hearing the world through a sleepy lens. He was pretty sure he could roll back over and go for another round or two of sleep. What was up with him and exhaustion lately?
"How do I know? I'm looking straight at him."
His ears felt so warm, too. Like they had been dipped in a bowl of... Warm stuff, Yusuke thought lamely. It was summer, but it felt like winter, when you just don't want to get out of bed, and your toes feel cold. His pajama pants stopped halfway down his shins, though he was fairly sure that they were supposed to extend more. And that they weren't supposed to feel this tight.
"Of course I'll tell him. Goodbye, Master Genkai."
And that voice. That voice sounded just like Kuroku Sonada's. Hadn't that been her name? The first Spirit Detective. What was she doing here—?
Right. Of course. Eight hours of sleep had deluded him enough to completely forget his situation.
Yusuke sat upright immediately.
"Morning, Yusuke," Kuroku said, glancing towards him.
"Morning... Auntie Kuroku."
Kuroku beamed. "What are you thinking about for breakfast?"
Yusuke shrugged, a gesture that she couldn't see with her back towards him. "Anything sounds good to me," he said. He didn't feel all that hungry, though. He felt a bit guilty, for having been so lazy. This whole dimension-saving business could've been time sensitive, after all. How was he going to get back to his definition of normalcy by sleeping in? He was tired of waking up and thinking everything was normal, only to find out that it was bat shit crazy. It had only happened to him twice, technically, but it was two times too many.
He got off the sofa, stretched, and headed off for the bathroom, taking yesterday's clothes with him.
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"Somethin' smells good," Yusuke said, walking through the door of the apartment's kitchen. It was fairly small, but it was definitely updated and modern. Kuroku was hovering between the stove and the sink, which were on different sides of the room, separated by a small island.
"Tamagoyaki," Kuroku replied simply, continuing to tend to it in its frying pan on the stove. "Take a seat; it should be ready soon," she said. "If I don't burn it, that is," Kuroku added as an afterthought.
Yusuke heeded her words and seated himself at the kitchen table. There was a small bottle of soy sauce that was capped with a tiny kitten's head. It was cute enough for the girls at Sarayashiki to squeal over; then again, pretty much anything could make them squeal.
"Alright!" Kuroku exclaimed, extricating the food from the pan. "I almost always burn it when I use a frying pan, but I was too lazy to wash the rectangular one. Try it out for me, would you, Yusuke?"
She put an omelet on the plate in front of him, turning towards the refrigerator. "What kind of tea do you want? Or were you thinking something else. If you want, I could get you some sake. Just promise not to tell, huh?"
Sake sounded good. It was something to take to numb his mind, just for a little while. It would be irresponsible to get tipsy now, with the whole time space continuum fucked up. But Yusuke was naturally irresponsible, wasn't he...?
"Tea," he said quickly, before he could change his mind. "Green tea is fine."
"Damn. I forgot to boil the water," Kuroku muttered, frustrated with herself. "You don't mind waiting a moment do you, Yusuke? I'll get you some water in the meantime."
She poured him a glass of water as he took his first bite of tamagoyaki. He hurriedly took another bite; it tasted pretty good.
Another plate, untouched, joined his on the table, along with two glasses of water. Kuroku continued to pan around the kitchen, until the kettle on the stove began to whistle. As updated as her kitchen seemed, it didn't yet have an electric kettle, apparently. Two cups of tea were soon poured, and Kuroku placed both on the table to steep.
"D'you like it?" she asked.
"Mm," Yusuke breathed around a piece of omelet.
Kuroku beamed. She took a bite herself, taking the first second to savor the food. She took a sip of water. "How do you like Tokyo this time around?"
"It's interesting," Yusuke replied truthfully.
"I'd expect so. As interesting as the circumstances that bring you here..." There was a long pause here, while Kuroku debated whether or not to breech the subject, the sensitive subject of Yusuke "running away from home." She decided against it and continued onward.
"Anything you want to do while you're here? I think they've got a martial arts tournament in town in a few days. Or we could go to some fancy restaurant, if you'd like. I know you're more of a buffet kind of guy, but I always feel guilty when you leave and I've spent hardly any money on you."
The conversation continued, a laundry list of things Kuroku wanted to do with. She interrupted her sentence of "Yusuke, I'm not sure if you've ever seen a circus before. I know you're probably not young enough to enjoy it properly anymore, but it's still one of those things to check off of your bucket list" with "I think the tea has steeped."
Kuroku began anew as the pair started to sip their tea. "It's just… You're always in the mountainside, at the temple. You rarely come around to Tokyo, and when you do..." There it was again, the question. Was she going to bring up the runaway situation this time, Yusuke wondered.
She was.
Kuroku began, a fiery, determined look in her eyes. "Whenever someone pisses you off, and you can't control the situation, you've got a bit of a habit of bolting. This isn't exactly the first time you've run to Tokyo. Remember three years ago, your fifteenth birthday? You went through that samurai anime obsession and took off when your parents didn't get you a katana, ignoring the fact that you had no idea whatsoever as to how to use one."
"I remember," Yusuke lied. "But they're... Those two aren't..."
"Not your parents? Is that what you want to say, Yusuke?" Kuroku asked. Her voice had lost much of its previous humor but was still calm, just quieter.
"Yeah," Yusuke said. "Not technically."
Kuroku took a lengthy sip of tea. It was more like a swig, Yusuke decided. "Technically, the two of them are the ones who've tucked you into bed since you were a child, read you bedtime stories, fixed you chicken noodle soup when you were sick, and helped you to tame your demon ancestry. Technically, they're the two people who love you the most in this world. But that's only technically, I guess?"
Yusuke grimaced. He was starting to feel guilty now. Like this dimension was his true reality. Like he'd actually abandoned parents who loved him deeply and dearly.
It bugged him.
He hated taking on unnecessary responsibility. It was like going to a sappy movie with Keiko and then feeling all sorry for the main character when her boyfriend gets killed in the war. It wasn't his problem, and, besides, the problem was fictional.
There was one main difference between here and the movies. Here, he had to work with it.
"It was just sudden," Yusuke replied. "I wasn't expecting it."
Kuroku sobered. "No one really is," she said softly. "You're welcome to stay here as long as you like, Yusuke. Think about it, or don't think about it, as much as you need, too."
"Thanks... Auntie Kuroku."
"No problem."
They went back to finishing breakfast, though not before Kuroku mentioned that a great comedy movie was opening at a nearby theater.
"I think I'm in more of a laidback mode, you know?" Yusuke said. "Movies and circuses and fancy restaurants sound nice an' all, but…"
"This just isn't the time?" Kuroku finished.
"Right."
"Mm," Kuroku said. She got up, taking both of their cleaned plates to the sink. She was silent for several minutes, which worried Yusuke somewhat. He hadn't heard silence properly since they'd started breakfast. (He ignored the fact that, technically, you could never hear silence.)
"If you promise," she said, reseating herself, "and I mean promise, to come back. I could… Well, I could give you a little money, and you could see the city. A few thousand yen, maybe, but no buying train tickets with it. Or cigarettes. Or porn. Or whatever the hell else eighteen year olds like to buy that's no damn good for them."
"I'll come back," Yusuke said, not knowing whether that was true or not, but he put on his most sincere face as he said it. "And you don't have to give me the money or anything. I just need to clear my head a little bit more. You know… Think."
"Thinking is good," Kuroku decided. "You gonna head out now?"
"If I could," Yusuke said. "Thanks for breakfast, by the way, Auntie Kuroku."
Kuroku shook her head. "Don't mention it, Yusuke."
As Yusuke stood, she left the kitchen. He went into the living room and pulled on his red jacket, preparing himself to leave.
"You honestly thought I was going to let you loose in Tokyo empty handed?" Kuroku asked, raising an eyebrow. She had several bank notes in her hand. "Let me spend some money on you for once, Yusuke." She forced the five, thousand yen bills into his hand.
"Thanks."
"Have a good time!" Kuroku called after him, as he left her apartment. "And be careful! Your mom won't ever forgive me if you fool around and get yourself killed!"
"I'll try."
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He couldn't help it. After he'd left the apartment, no strict goal in mind, he'd let his feet take precedence over his mind. They were busy walking to some destination he hadn't decided on yet, and his mind was only half functioning. If Hiei were here, he thought bitterly, he'd point out that it was always half functioning. Well, so what if it was? Did he really need brain power like Kaito or Kurama's when he had his Amazing Yusuke Luck? Sure, you couldn't use it on a math test or anything, but it was pretty awesome during a fight. He ought to bottle it up and sell it; he'd make a fortune off of the stuff.
But despite whatever thoughts or lack of thoughts that were running through his mind, he found himself outside of the arcade. And, when his hands decided to join in league with his feet, he opened the door and soon found himself inside of the arcade. Playing a game or two would help him think better, right? And he had five thousand yen on him. That should last him through more than a few rounds.
Game selection, game selection, game selection, Yusuke thought idly. The arcade wasn't very busy, probably because it was a weekday afternoon, and he had his pick of machines. He examined a few of the closer titles. A couple of them looked familiar.
"What the hell?" Yusuke spluttered after taking a closer look. "The Four Saint Beasts? Dark Tournament? Rescue the Ice Maiden!"
"That one's my favorite," a voice behind him piped up. Yusuke glanced over his shoulder to see a pimply faced teenager who apparently had decided that the arcade was better than school, very much like Yusuke most days.
"Great for you," Yusuke said sarcastically, reexamining the titles to make sure he wasn't seeing things. Rescue the Ice Maiden was running a demo scene, displaying a girl that looked very much like Yukina, if Yukina were a video game character that is. Yukina hadn't been wearing a bikini when he and Kuwabara had rescued her from Tarukane. No wonder that high school kid liked this game so much. Hiei would be pissed...
A quick glance at the artwork for Dark Tournament showed Cho, Touya, and the asshole that decided fighting Kurama unconscious was fair game. What had his name been again? Baka something or other.
All of this had to have been because of Warudo. Yusuke hadn't done any of this himself, and he was pretty sure that Kuwabara, Hiei, and Kurama hadn't been involved in any of it either. One look at the Three Dark Artifacts convinced him of that. One, he could see Gouki on the screen, but there didn't seem to be any Kurama or Hiei anywhere near him. Two, "Three Dark Artifacts" wasn't the catchiest game title. Warudo seemed like the type to go for properly descriptive titles as opposed to catchy ones.
Was Warudo doing all of this in an effort to cash out on Yusuke's adventures? It would've been way easier for him to just ask. "Gee, Yusuke, mind if I use your badass lifestyle to inspire a video game?" He would've said yes. Probably.
As intriguing as the Chapter Black game looked (a long awaited chance to finish Sensui off himself), Yusuke turned tail and exited the arcade.
"Can't believe he's getting between me and video games," Yusuke said, swearing at Warudo, Warudo's mother, and pretty much everything else in the world. How was he supposed to relax now—without the distraction of spilling animated blood?
He swore again.
Maybe he'd catch a movie or somethin'.
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Plan Movie Theater was just as much of a failure as Plan Arcade. Yusuke started swearing again as he looked at the headlining films. The movie poster for Seven Psychics looked pretty damn close to Sensui et al. By the time his eyes scanned over a poster for Rando: Demon with 99 Attacks, he was half way around the block.
Was every Spirit Detective situation he'd ever faced going to get an endorsement in this world? It was like his life was a movie, and a video game, and probably several books and a couple of TV shows. Why was Warudo so obsessed with seeing every challenge Yusuke had confronted being profited off of? After a few moments consideration, Yusuke decided that Warudo must be rich as hell here. There was no way the royalties weren't buying him more of those weird metrosexual outfits.
Yusuke kept cursing Warudo's name the longer he walked (although, truthfully, he'd never stopped). The posters in the book stores (which he'd never even noticed before coming to this world, though that was probably owed to the fact that he avoided reading anything if he didn't have to) alluded to a new novel called "Three Kings." Yusuke had a feeling (or explicit knowledge, given that the posters named off the main characters as Raizen, Mukuro, and Yomi) he knew what it was about.
His frustration eventually surmounted to the point where he ditched the main streets and their Yusuke-related goods all together. He went from one alley way to the next, walking without any certain destination. The alleys looked dim and impenetrable even in daylight. They were the perfect haven for street punks.
Speaking of which...
"Oi! You over there!" a voice called. Yusuke stopped swearing momentarily, turning around to face a gang of seven thugs. The speaker seemed to be the leader, Thug Number One. He was standing at the center of the group, dressed in a gray jump suit, and had a lively looking mohawk. He smirked as Yusuke turned, displaying a golden canine tooth.
"You look like you wouldn't mind helping out a man in need," Thug Number Two said.
Fighting normal humans was more frustrating than anything. He could use it as an exercise in control, but exercises were no fun when compared to the real thing. Even though Keiko called him lazy often enough, it didn't mean he wasn't allowed to crave a challenge. Using everything you had felt good. It was better release than playing video games, even.
Yusuke smirked. "Can't say I hear that one a lot. Maybe you oughtta come over here and take it from me." So maybe he was trying to provoke them into a fight. When it came to having a weak fight versus no fight at all, Yusuke was feeling much more partial to the former.
Thug Number One motioned to his comrades to get things started. Soon enough, fists were flying from multiple directions, though they all agreed on one target: Yusuke. Yusuke wasn't an easy target, though. Sniper had found that one out a few years back, and these guys were getting their education now. Roughly twenty seconds after the fight had started, it was over. Assorted thugs number two through... seven, apparently, lay still on the ground.
The shocked look on Thug Number One's face quickly turned into a scowl. If he was smart, he'd turn tail and leave. He wasn't smart, of course, and he quickly launched himself at Yusuke.
"They never learn," Yusuke said with a mock sigh. The sigh turned into a full-fledged gawk as he watched Thug Number One approach him. His fists flew in the same wild style that Warudo had used at first. The thug had included a crazy battle yell that would make even the most enthusiastic anime series seem tame.
He was ready this time, though, unlike with Warudo, when the thug's form straightened out. He charged Yusuke with a switchblade, which was quickly intercepted. Thug Number One joined his fellows on the ground—unconscious.
"Fucking Warudo!" Yusuke said, to no one in particular, although he received an offended look from a nearby school girl. He ignored her and kept growling. He couldn't play a damn video game, fight meaningless thugs, or even see a movie—because of Warudo. And that wasn't even going into how he was stuck in an alternate dimension where none of his friends seemed to even exist and He. Had. To. Call. Toguro. Dad. When he found the punk he was going to beat the shit out of him.
Yusuke left the alley and returned to the main streets. Now should be a time for action, Yusuke thought. I've got stuff to do if I ever want to get out of here. People to find, demons to beat down...
Another few blocks of wandering and fruitless thoughts made him think of his stomach. His feet were sometimes stupid, like when they led him to the arcade, but occasionally had strokes of genius. They'd led him to the front of a casual restaurant. Perfect. When he glanced at the sign and saw that it belonged to the Yukimura's, he realized that he'd been wrong. His feet were always hopeless dumbasses.
Was he trying to see Keiko now? Given the facts he'd gained so far, there was pretty much no chance that Keiko knew him. He'd apparently spent his entire life at the temple and rarely came to Tokyo. His last name wasn't even Urameshi now, technically. It was...Toguro. Yusuke Toguro.
He tried to swallow past that thought as he realized that he wasn't feeling all that hungry anymore. A new feeling was emerging in the pit of his stomach. And it wasn't disgust at the fact that he'd just had to think of himself as Yusuke Toguro. He wanted to see Keiko, logic be damned.
He entered the restaurant, the sound of tinkling bells accompanying him.
"How can I help you today? You look like you're in for sukiyaki; we've got a special on it today." Mr. Yukimura said, greeting Yusuke with a sort of standard joviality that let him know that, in this dimension, unlike the one where Yusuke resided, he probably wasn't the closest thing the guy had to a son.
"No thanks," Yusuke said. "I didn't exactly come here for food. I wanted to know if Keiko is here."
The man's demeanor immediately changed, and Yusuke winced. He wasn't a pleasant restaurant owner anymore. "What do you want with my daughter? You stalking her or something? She doesn't talk to boys like you."
Of course she didn't, Yusuke thought. Across all dimensions, the only badass Keiko really hung out with was him. Yusuke's next words never formed however, as he soon heard a third participant in their conversation.
"Dad, what's going on?" the new voice asked. The voice was hardly new to Yusuke however. Young, sweet...
"Keiko," Yusuke said. Please know me, Yusuke thought desperately. Please know me.
"W-who are you?" Keiko asked nervously, moving to stand behind her father, clearly frightened.
Damn, Yusuke thought. In this world, he didn't have Keiko. He didn't know Keiko. Damn. Damn. Damn.
The sun, which was out and shining, seem to fade away into nothingness. If he didn't already know that this new dimension sucked, he definitely knew it now.
"He was just leaving," the man growled. Yukimura had picked up a butcher's knife and was aiming it at Yusuke.
"Yeah, yeah," Yusuke muttered, exiting the restaurant. Visiting Keiko can't hurt, my ass, Yusuke thought bitterly, kicking pavement as he went.
Fucking Warudo.
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Notes: