Note: I do not own Familiar of Zero or Yu Yu Hakusho and I am only borrowing their ideas, characters etc. purely for entertainment purpose only.
Prologue
Before we begin this story, let us first take a brief look back into the past about the great shifts in history, caused by ripples started by one person in particular: Yusuke Urameshi.
Yusuke was just an ordinary young man who, despite being a delinquent, actually possessed a kind heart. However, due to some heroic stupidity on his part, he ended up dying before his time. To add insult to injury, he found out from the grim reaper himself... or rather herself, that his sacrifice was in vain and completely necessary. The child he thought he had saved from getting rammed by a car by pushing him away and taking his place was never in any danger.
It really was a pathetic way to die.
Due to him dying before his time though, Yusuke was given a second shot at life, so long as he agreed to one condition: that he work for the Spirit World, the realm that judges the souls of the dead and send them off to their respective afterlives that were based on how they were in real life, as a Spirit Detective, which is not exactly a job that was good for one's health or sanity unless you enjoyed putting your life on the line on a daily basis.
And this was how he lived his life, not that he complained about it. While Yusuke was a good person at heart and avoided killing if possible, he most certainly enjoyed fighting, and being the Spirit Detective gave him all the opportunities he could want.
To keep the story short, Yusuke Urameshi dutifully did his duty as the Spirit Detective, fighting demons and evil entities, as well as completing other tasks to protect humanity. As time passed, his experience increased and his power grew through the many gruelling missions and trials, gaining many friends and friendly rivals along the way, many of whom were once his enemies.
But the biggest mission of his career before he was fired (although he actually continued his job) was to maintain the peace between the three existing realms: the Human World, the Spirit World, and the Demon World. Due to the fact that he was both a demon and a human at the same time, with his demon genes awakened when he was killed (again), he was the perfect person for the job, and thus (disregarding minor details his personal reasons or the fact that ungrateful Spirit World wretches except for a few including Botan, his direct boss Koenma and secretly, King Enma himself, wanted him dead for having demon blood despite all he's done for the betterment of mankind), Yusuke was sent.
He succeeded.
The plan which he managed to execute was the creation of a fighting tournament system, in which the ultimate winner will be the absolute ruler of Demon World for three years before it was held again.
The first winner of the tournament, as it turned out, was sympathetic to the humans, and had thus ordered the demons to cease any hostilities against them or the Spirit World. Yusuke may not have won the tournament himself, but what he wanted was what happened.
Of course, such a plan had one fatal flaw. Since the winner would be an absolute ruler, then if the demon who won it wanted to destroy mankind, then the rest would have to obey.
However, a remedy to this problem has been found. It had only been eighteen years since the first Demon World Fighting World Tournament, which means that things could still shift for the worst, yet considering who were making the greatest of efforts to maintain harmony, they might just be able to maintain the peace in perpetuity.
The King of Demon World, Enki, would undoubtedly, will be very busy, what will all the paperwork, negotiations, paperwork, and more paperwork that he needed to handle. Thus, while the rest of the demon population would be training to death, he would be stuck doing nothing but paperwork.
Thus, as a solution to this problem, Enki and his group, all of whom were powerful demons who were once friends of Raizen, devised a plan. Each one of them, including his wife Kokoa, would use their time training to become stronger. Thus, in case any of them were to win the tournament, each one agreed that they would pass on their kingship to Enki.
Aside from them, Urameshi, the son of Raizen, and his friends, and even Mokuro herself, agreed to do the same.
If their little strategy worked, then peace between the three realms might continue till the end of time, or if not, for a very, very long time.
Yes, all of this was thanks to Yusuke and his friends. However, this story is not about Yusuke Urameshi or the continuation of his life as a Spirit Detective, but of someone else.
xxxXXXxxx
Now let us start this story in the Human World, where a certain upper S-Grade demon was complaining about the things which his companions were compelling him to do.
"Damn those two. Why the hell does it always have it to be me?!"
Walking out of a department store, a human-shaped demon with dark blue hair was grumbling to himself, feeling very annoyed at a couple of females for making him do this. He was an S-Grade demon for Raizen's sake, yet he found himself being treated like an errand boy!
He was wearing dark blue plants pants, dark blue rubber shoes and a black coat over his dark blue shirt. His motorcycle was black, one which he christened as 'Mad Dog' and his helmet was dark blue, a theme which to him was somewhere along the lines cool.
That is, if it wasn't for the fact that instead of the available space on his bike being occupied by a hot human or demon chick, it was instead occupied by boxes, containing supplies and various items that two individuals had coerced him into buying.
The sound of turning keys, the engine starting to whir, and the man was off speeding to the cave that led directly to the Demon World. Now that peace has been established, the barrier that the Spirit World had put up between the Demon World and the Human World has been removed, and now Demons and Humans alike are actually mingling with each other. Surprisingly, in a span of six years, the two races had come to terms with living alongside each other, and both sides were actually enjoying the company.
Instead of looking cool though, as a biker normally does, the great demon Kujo instead looked like nothing but a delivery boy.
Still, despite his grumbling, the demon knew that he did not really have much of a choice. His two female travelling companions, which included his twin sister and adopted younger sister (While they were not related blood, Kujo and Natume considered her as their sibling) were both S-Grades like him, and it had become normal for them to gang up on him when it comes to making decisions. In times like this he could not help but miss the days when it was just him and Natsume.
Not that he hated his adopted sister or anything like that, of course. In fact, even though she had only been with them for six, which was quite short compared to the thousands of years that he and Natsume have lived, the bond that formed between them was just as strong as the bond between him and his blood sister.
However, ever since she had become part of their family of two, now a family of three, Kujo found himself losing argument upon argument. Before, he had the slight advantage when it comes to opinions due to Natsume's passive nature, yet when she arrived, that had drastically changed.
Instead of decisions being made via debate between two individuals, the choice being the one which was proven to be the better option, it had now turned into voting.
Unfortunately for Kujo, Natsume's and their adoptive sister's opinion usually match (and Natsume was supposed to be Kujo's twin!), and thus, brutally taking advantage of this system, his suggestions had rarely been able to pull through anymore.
It was kind of depressing in a way. However, not everything was that bad. In fact, if Kujo were to weigh the pros and cons, having her around was actually a great help to them.
For starters, unlike Kujo and Natsume, their younger sister was rather good at cooking. In all the thousands of years that they have lived, neither of them could remember eating anything as good as what she had prepared for them. Not even during the ancient times, before the Spirit World put up the defensive barrier, could they remember having such a delicious meal.
That aside, it was also thanks to her that they had been able to quickly adjust to the culture in the human world that had changed since the last time they had been there.
However, there was another, much simpler reason why Kujo found it quite easy to accept her.
It was because she had the ability to kick Natsume's ass.
"Oh? So they're at it again, huh?"
Kujo could feel two familiar energy signatures spiking. It was still two miles away, yet even from the distance he could already feel it.
Kujo and Natsume were twins, and he was, according to their parents, the first one to come out, and thus the elder.
But then, he knew it was not really the case.
Kujo did not know why their parents thought that, but Kujo still remembered it clearly, the very first memory he has in the world of the living. While it is true that he was the first one to come out of the womb, that was because his twin sister kicked him out.
Their powers were similar. However, while it is true that Kujo normally won the arguments if it was only between the two of them... it was Natsume who normally won their spars.
Much as Kujo hated to admit it, but whenever the two of them fought each other, it was normally Natsume who came out on top in the end. In fact, in the past few years, when they finally decided to stop slacking and resume training, out of the many spars they had, Kujo had not been able to win against Natsume, not even once.
She, on the other hand, had been able to beat Natsume.
"I suppose this would be as good a spot as any."
Kujo stopped his bike near a cliff, got off it, and leaned with his back to it, watching the battle in front of him unfold.
A genuine, feral smile formed on his lips.
The spectacle of a great battle was enough for him to forget all about his frustration.
xxxXXXxxx
The earth was shaking. Tornadoes were forming. Trees and rocks flying everywhere, a pillar of light was currently heading skywards, caused by the enormous amount of spirit energy being released by the two entities at its epicentre.
A storm of punches and kicks were being thrown at each other by the two fighters at speeds that were far beyond a nomal human's, each one with enough force to turn mountains into rubble. Yet these attacks hardly did any damage to the intended target.
Such is the power held by those of the S-Grade.
As the exchange continued, one of the two made an error in her stance and left an opening.
Taking advantage of it, Natsume kicked the girl in the stomach and sent her flying in a straight line, several trees destroyed as she was plowed into every single one until she hit a mountainous rock, which was shattered and fell on top of her.
Then, Natsume felt a hand tap her on the shoulder from behind.
And found that she could not move.
"Do you give up?" A female voice said in an amused tone.
"Fine. You win this one."
Natsume felt the pressure leave her. Turning around, she found herself facing the smiling face of her younger sister.
"The score's twenty-to-twenty two, big sis. Just two more and we're plenty even." The girl said with a smirk.
"Like I'd let you, Rei," Natsume declared, also smirking. "Next time I won't hold back."
The girl named Rei rolled her eyes. "Since when have you ever held back?"
Natsume crossed her arms. "I always lower my energy when we spar so the playing field's even. You may have improved immensely, but I still have more than twice the spirit energy than you have!"
Rei scoffed. "More spirit power than me? Oh please! The first time we fought my spiritual power's barely a third of what you have, yet which of us ended up kissing the dirt, hmmm?"
"That's because I underestimated you then." Natsume replied evenly.
"'Yeah, and I knocked you out with one hit!" Rei replied enthusiastically.
"Lucky punch," Natsume replied.
"Yeah, it was, but I still beat you," Rei said with a smirk, but then it turned into a frown. "Although, if I did not place all of my spirit energy and rendered you unconscious, I would probably not be standing here right now. You would have ripped me to shreds."
"No, that would not have happened even if I beat you," Natsume shook her head. "You're just too cute you know. That's probably why I let my guard down."
Well, that would have been true if Natsume had seen Rei's face, but at the time, it was covered by a mask so she was likely to have ripped her to shreds.
Natsume and Rei looked at each other for a few moments...
And then, as if the two of them were not upper S-Grade beings, the two of them started giggling like normal girls.
"And I take back what I said earlier. You and I both know that wasn't just a lucky punch. Otherwise, it would have been impossible for you to beat Mukuro."
"I suppose. I never got to fight Enki though," Rei said in disappointment. "The damage Mukuro dealt my body was too great I could hardly even walk after that. If I had even a bit of spirit energy left I might have been able to heal my wounds, but that fight took everything out of me. I was even forced to use half of my life force. Guess that's the limits of being a human. Unlike demons like you or big bro, high speed regeneration is impossible without spirit energy for someone like me."
"..." Natsume did not know how to respond to her sister. Yes, it was true. Rei was not a demon.
She was human.
Rei Kazehaya, a human girl who has enormous amounts of spirit energy and great fighting prowess.
Even though Natsume and her friends had all agreed to leave humans alone and in peace, they in truth still looked down on them. They may have decided to help protect the human race out of penance for abandoning Raizen when he needed them most, but it still did not change their view that humans were generally weak and pathetic.
Rei, however, was one of the exceptions.
During their time in the Human World before the Spirit World put up its barrier, Natsume had met a few humans who were considerably powerful, yet none of them had ever been able to give her what she could call a 'good fight.'
Yet Rei had not only been able to give Natsume a good fight, she had also been able to beat her.
It was during the elimination round of the Demon World Tournmanent. Natsume, wanting to conserve as much energy as possible, was hiding her presence. She was going to let the others fight it all out until none or only one was left. Surprisingly, she felt that the spirit of one of her forty or so opponents was of a human, a short figure whose face was covered with a mask.
Thus, Natsume was not surprised when the other demons ganged up and decided to eliminate the masked fighter first. Having estimated the levels of their spirit energy. Natsume already knew that the masked fighter would decimate them. Once the beat down was over, she decided to come out and challenge the last remaining opposition, confident that she would win. After all, even though the masked fighter's spiritual energy was enormous, Natsume's own reserves were much bigger.
Instead, Natsume lost, quite suddenly at that. To Natsume's surprise, the moment she stepped out into the clearing, a glowing circle appeared beneath her, rendering her unable to move. Before she could figure out what happened, her world had already turned white, the last thing she saw was a spirit energy enhanced fist heading straight for her face. When she woke up, it was to the smug face of Saizou, who was laughing at her for being beaten by a weakling.
Angered, Natsume immediately traced the location of the masked fighter, only to find her lying gravely injured on a bed... and without her mask, her strawberry blond hair and reddish brown eyes exposed for all to see. Yusuke Urameshi and his friends were also there. For some reason Natsume did not understand, the son of Raizen had a horrified expression on his face, while his companions were laughing at his expense, though they did not stay that long since the nurse kicked them out for being too noisy.
Then, as Natsume found out, the 'weakling,' despite her much lower spirit power, had taken on and defeated Mukuro, one of the three leaders of Demon World whose spirit energy, as Natsume knew, was greater than even her own.
"But it's quite a feat you pulled off, regardless of whether you are demon or human. Power-wise you were no match for her." Natsume stated sympathetically after a while. Truthfully, while it may have the case if before, Natsume no longer cared that Rei was not a demon, and it did not make her see the girl any less. And just like Natsume, her brother and the rest of her friends who were once part of Raizen's group had also come to accept Rei, despite being human, as a member of their little group, even Saizou.
"Power-wise and experience-wise I shouldn't have been able to beat her, or you," Rei added, which made Natsume frown at the memory. "Even if it wasn't a lucky punch that I landed on you, I was still really lucky. Lucky that you underestimated me, lucky that Kagura also made the mistake of taking me for granted, and very lucky that Mukuro's mind was in shambles after her fight with three-eyes. Otherwise, I would have no chance at all."
"Kagura, she's the one brother said you beat to a pulp without using any spirit energy, wasn't she?"
"That's an advantage of being human," Rei replied smirking. "Demons have the tendency to underestimate us. Didn't even notice that I was already performing a technique to suppress her spirit energy and her movements all the while that she was blabbing about how great and superior demons were compared to humans, and it was the same one as the trap as I set for you! With the fights being broadcasted she should have seen it coming, but oh well. Like many of the opponents I fought before, they failed to understand one thing: 'I'm weak, not stupid.' "
This time it was Natsume's turn to roll her eyes, but she made no comment. Rei was just like a younger version of a certain human spirit master. She still remembered the look on some of the demon's faces when the masked fighter took to the stage, including the son of Raizen, who made the near-fatal mistake of insulting her in front of Rei, even if it was not intended.
Natsume had been close enough to see it. Right after the tournament, Yusuke Urameshi was talking about her to his friends, calling her an old hag.
It earned him a powerful spirit-enhanced fist to the face from Rei that would have put Yomi's strongest punch to shame.
A gentle breeze blew across the planes of the Demon World, as the two girls faced the direction where the Demon World Tournament was held every three years, a nostalgic feeling sweeping through the both of them, remembering the life changing incidents that occurred to them in the past few years. Natsume, despite being over two thousand years old, found that what happened in the short span of time to be more meaningful than a large portion of the rest of her life put together, with some exception, including their adventures when Raizen was still alive.
"Hey sis?"
"Hmmm?"
"Come on. I can feel big bro's energy is somewhere nearby. Knowing him, he's probably watching us from a high spot to get a good view, probably on top of a cliff or a tall tree or something."
That said, the two sisters headed off in the direction from which their brother Kujo's energy was coming from, chatting about girly things along the way, walking nonchalantly as they were not in a hurry. Natsume may be a demon, but she was a female as much as she was a demon. With Rei around, she was now able to discuss things which she would never have been able to do with her twin brother.
As of present, the main topic they were talking about was a new drama-romance movie in the human world, one which Natsume and Rei were planning to watch together since neither of them have boyfriends... and they were planning to force Kujo to watch it with them as well.
Despite Natsume's twin being unaffected by brutal scenes that involve chopping off of limbs, removal of innards or blowing up brains, he was surprisingly weak against drama movies. Both evil sisters must admit that it was fun to watch their brother's eyes turn into a leaky faucet when he was watching or reading tear jerkers. (Natsume is actually a little upset that she only found out about it recently despite travelling with Kujo for thousands of years, thanks to Rei accidentally walking in on the male demon crying his eyes out in front of a television set that was depicting a drama series.).
The movie would be shown in the movie houses the next week, and neither Rei nor Natsume could wait for the day to the come.
What neither of them knew, is that they would not be able to pull through with their plan.
"Hey sis do you feel that?"
"Feel what?"
"There's someone else with us here. Whoever they are I can feel their energy, and it's strong."
Rei she stopped walking, her facial expression tense and worried as she looked around their surroundings.
"Huh, what do you mean?"
Natsume, however, only looked confused. Despite being inferior to Rei in technique, her spirit awareness is slightly better than her younger sister's, and thus she was one hundred percent certain that there was no other living being in the vicinity aside from her, Rei and Kujo who is a few hundred meters. She also felt a spike in energy and a flash of light, but knowing its signature, Natsume knew that the energy could only belong to Rei.
Turning around, Natsume was about to ask Rei what it was that has her so bothered.
Only to find that she was no longer there.
"Rei!"
Immediately Natsume was filled with great fear and worry.
"Something wrong?"
And the same could be said about her brother Kujo.
"It's Rei. She suddenly vanished!"
"Hey, easy there, Natsume. First thing we need to do right now is find out what's going on. Knowing our little sister I'm sure she's fine. I doubt there's anyone out there capable of offing her in an instant. Whatever happened to her I'm sure she's still alive and kicking."
Natsume was almost on the verge of panic and tears. If it wasn't for his twin putting his hands on her shoulders, she would have probably found it difficult to calm herself.
Yet even though she had regained her composure, the dread in Natsume's heart has not been lifted. Looking at her twin brother, she could tell that Kujo felt the same way that she did.
With a nod at each other, the twins started scouring the area to investigate, all the while keeping their guard up. It did not matter how long it would take. Whatever happened, the two of them silently swore in their hearts that they would save her and get her back.
Even though they were demons who loves brutality and violence, when it comes to those they consider friends and family, both Natsume and Kujo are very caring and fiercely protective people.
The death of their dear old friend Raizen (which the twins, just like the rest of the gang, blamed upon themselves for abandoning him) had been bad enough.
There was no way in hell that they were going to abandon Rei, who they have both come to accept and love as their younger sibling.
xxxXXXxxx
And so, the main protagonist has finally appeared... or rather, one of the main protagonists, since it is a spot that she will be sharing with someone else.
Rei Kazehaya. Sixteen years of age and currently working as a guard of the borders between Demon World and Human World. Her task, just like the other losers of the Demon World Tournament, was to prevent any humans from getting into the Demon World. After all, while it is true that the demons with a very high level of intelligence are now on friendly terms with the humans, there were also demons whose level of thinking were like that of animals like birds, cats and dogs.
And these particular demons, while weak, are uncontrollable due to lower intellect, but are still much stronger than ordinary humans. Thus, humans are not allowed to go to Demon World without escort. Those that stray unintentionally or (in the case of annoying adventurers) intentionally, while not harmed, are forcibly evicted for their own safety.
The border patrol comprises about five thousand demons, all of whom were survivors (losers) of the Demon World Tournament. With this number, in consideration of the total area of the gap that needs to be guarded, every demon only needed to be on guard duty for three hours a week, which means that they are free to do what they want for the rest of the time.
Many of them, being ambitious demons that they are, wanted to become stronger, so they used the time they have to train.
In the case of Rei and her siblings though, while it is true that they do train, none of them have any intention of becoming the absolute ruler of demon world, as the drive behind their desire to gain strength was different from most.
Demons are selfish beings by nature, but that did not mean that they do not know how to love or care for others. In fact, as far as Rei could tell, the way demons think was hardly any different from that of a human's.
Just like her older brother and sister, Rei had a simple purpose for wanting to become stronger: to have the power to protect their own.
Rei Kazehaya overall was neither good or evil. However, one would mistake her for a good person because of the fact that she hates evil, a trait which she has acquired from her departed teacher, and thus she goes out of her way to eradicate evil, as she considers them a nuisance and an eyesore. As to what is good and what is evil, however, is something which she decides for herself. There is no such thing as a perfect being, and thus prejudice and partiality exists in all of them.
In Rei's case, the exception to her principle of eradicating evil include her close friend and loved ones. She would kill any evil human or demon (or give them appropriate torture and punishment if she is merciful and decides to leave them alive) without mercy or hesitation, but if said person happened to be a friend, as long as said friend either does not hurt any of Rei's other loved ones, or at least stay out of the abstract line in Rei's mind that is marked 'too evil to tolerate,' she would leave them alone.
Right now though, Rei could not help but laugh at herself for being so pathetic. Here she was, wanting to protect the ones who are close to her heart, when she could not even protect herself.
Having made plenty of enemies in her career as a fighter, she knew that were so many, humans and demon alike who wanted her dead. Rei is a proud person, yet she has never once crossed the line known as arrogance. Even if she prided herself with the skills she worked to death to acquire, Rei had always tried to play things as safe as possible, doing her best to make sure that nothing gets past her.
You can never be too careful were words of wisdom that Rei had always applied in her daily life.
Yet it seems like she was not careful enough and as a consequence, she had fallen for a trap.
Aside from being a fighter, Rei was also a spirit master. Her foundation is what was taught to her by her teacher, techniques which Rei had learned by enduring the harsh yet necessary training. Being rather gifted with analyzing things, Rei had not only learned said techniques to perfection, she has also improved some of them, and even invented her own moves.
Yet none of these techniques managed to save her from the trap that has been set.
Spirit Reflection and Spirit Absorption were two techniques that Rei found very useful. For it work, however, one must be able to harmonize with an opponent's energy which could only be done if one has been in contact with it. Even if successful, there are still flaws to these two counters that can be exploited.
In fact, Spirit Reflection and Absorption, according to Rei's teacher and one of her friends (who actually fought her teacher before and got beaten to a pulp despite having more spirit energy) would actually not work and have no effect whatsoever on someone who is able to change their spirit energy's wavelength, rendering harmonization impossible.
Yes, changing spirit energy wavelength seemed like a useful technique, but Rei, who had other countermeasures for such assaults, found it unnecessary to try and learn it, and thus she politely refused when the master of the technique offered to teach her.
Now though, she was wished that she accepted the offer. Because if she had, she probably would not have fallen for the unexpected snare that was set for her and Natsume. She managed to jump away from her sister to make sure she did not get trapped as well, yet Rei was unable to stop it from activating.
Spiritual energy that was exactly a match for her own. Rei did not think it was possible, yet for some reason, the power that the teleportation type technique utilized was exactly identical to her own down to the last detail.
Whoever was behind this attack was definitely someone who is skilled at controlling spirit wavelength.
"If an enemy captures you you're as good as dead."
Rei remembered the words that were said to her by her teacher, and she could not help but grit her teeth in frustration, realizing that she failed to heed the words that she was given.
And she praised me for being a genius. How am I genius when a dimwit who has muscles for brains and is a genius at none but fighting could follow her advice to the letter while I can't?! Thought Rei bitterly, remembering how her teacher had once compared her to another student of hers that she was very fond of.
Due to the smoke around her, which has probably been prepared for her arrival, Rei could not see anything. However, she could feel several faint spiritual signatures around her. To some people, the spirit energy in the air may seem like that of a human's. Rei however, was not fooled. After all, she had fought demons before who could mask their energy, making it seem weak, like a human's or both.
To make matters worse, Rei had just finished sparring with Natsume, and thus, her spirit energy was down to only a fifth of its maximum output.
Darn it. She cursed inwardly. There no doubt in Rei's mind. The particularly trap has been laid specifically for her, and it was well thought, a planned and calculated move.
Knowing there was nothing else for it, Rei started releasing her spiritual energy, which she compressed and wrapped around her body. It was fortunate that her spirit power did not seem to have been bound, but it hardly made the situation any less dangerous.
With the very high possibility of fighting multiple powerful opponents, she did not want to take any chances. No matter how strong she is, if Rei ran out of spirit energy, it would mean the end for her. In the given situation, Rei knew that her dying would be the most likely scenario.
But that did not mean that she would give up.
If there was one trait which all those who train under Rei's teacher gain, it is stubbornness and hard headedness. To stand up and fight against impossible odds. Some might call it foolishness but many would call it courage.
I cannot die here! Bro and sis, I'm sure they're alright but... no, I can't be sure! They're gonna need my help!
Even though she was in a dire situation, even though she should be thinking about her own safety, the wellbeing of her older brother and sister meant just as much as her own life, or even more so. She did not want to die, not because she was afraid of death, but because she was worried about her family.
Soon enough the smoke cleared, enough for her to see who it
"Rachelle?"
Rei froze. A moment before, she had been in full combat mode, ready to take on anyone and everyone who dared attack her.
Now, however, for the first time in a long time, Rei's defences had completely dropped.
In front of Rei stood a girl, with strawberry blonde hair and reddish brown eyes, skin pale as the snow of winter.
A girl who looked exactly like her.
"What the?"
"Zero summoned her twin?"
All around her, Rei noticed the humans starting to murmur, but she could care less about them. With her swift and analytic mind, Rei had already concluded that the individuals surrounding her were not demons and that she was not in any immediate danger.
This conclusion of Rei's, however, may be truly ill conceived, due her unstable state of mind.
To most people who have the same experience as Rei, there were many things that their brains could come up with. Some would think that they are dreaming. Others would think that they are looking at a possible long lost twin, sibling, half-sibling, close cousin. To make the imagine run wild though, there are others who would think that they could be facing their evil twin and that they are about to die. Faced by such circumstances, it would be definitely be hard for anyone to maintain their composure.
Rei's case, however was different. She did not think that she was dreaming. She did not think that she was looking at her evil twin nor did she think that she was looking at a possible relative.
And the reason Rei thought that, is because she knew the truth about the person in front of her.
She was not a possible relative. She is Rei's relative. The girl is Rei's...
"Louise?"
"You?"
For a moment, time seemed to have stopped, as the two individuals who resembled each other to the last detail, save for the length of their hair and clothes, stared at each other.
"You..."
And then...
"LIAR!"
The sound of slap echoed in the vicinity.
"LIAR! LIAR! LIAR! LIAR!" Every word was punctuated by a slapping sound, as the palm of Rei's double fell on her face.
"You promised! You promised you won't leave me all alone! You promised you'd stay with me forever!"
Rei was pinned to the ground, her double sitting on top of her, lifting her loose shirt up by the collar. The girl's strength was weak, just as strong as any ordinary human's, yet each slap she received was far more painful than any spirit energy enhanced punch that connected with her face.
For instead of having spirit energy, each strike was filled with emotions.
"Where have you been all this time? Do you know how worried I was? Do you know how much I missed you? Do you have any idea how lonely it was without you around?! I thought you were dead! I thought I would never see you again! I was starting to believe that our time together was nothing but a dream!"
Now that her double has tired out, Rei no longer had to suffer from the wrath of her palm, yet even then, every sentence that the girl uttered felt like a sword stabbing through her heart.
Rei, for the first time in a long time, had been shaken to her very core, as old memories she had buried deep beneath her soul began resurfacing like a geyser, overwhelming her. So great was the shock of the spirit master that she had no idea that her face had become an exact reflection of her double's identical one, the pained expression of one who is feeling a turmoil of emotions, their teeth greeted in frustration...
While hot tears poured down their identical pair of eyes like endless streams.
xxxXXXxxx
To be continued...
AUTHOR'S NOTES
Alright, the prologue for this special edition ZnT fic, Gemini Chronicles has finally been finished. This was written partly in tribute to a friend of mine.
Now, I think all of you are aware of what an Imaginary Friend is. Basically, an imaginary friend is well, an abstract companion that is created by a real person for various reasons. I will be frank. I have never experienced having an imaginary friend. However, I have a friend who has an imaginary friend that is a split personality of sorts.
Now I won't go through all the details since it is her private life, but I suppose I could tell you the gist. Long short story, her imaginary friend/other personality just died so I could not help but sympathize with her.
Here is the part of the story I would like to share with you though. I don't know if it will reach the news, and even if it did I won't tell you if the person there is the same as the friend I am telling you about but to tell you, while I normally do not believe imaginary friends to be real, I am, despite being a nonbeliever, am almost 100% sure that my friend's imaginary friend is definitely real.
Why do I believe it? Well, it's simple. This friend of mine has stage 4 Stomach Cancer, which has already spread to her lungs and liver as well. I was actually disheartened when I heard this since I know how serious cancer is. Naturally, I advised her/them (I did not believe her imaginary friend to be real at the time) to undergo treatment and hope and pray to God.
One week later, when my friend visited me again, she was crying, telling me that her 'other self' was gone. Now, while I sympathize with her because of her disease I thought she was feeling lonely and despairing, so i tried to encourage her again telling her not to give up.
Imagine my surprise when she told me that her friend died because she sacrificed herself, giving up herself in exchange for curing her cancer. Naturally I did not believe it at first, but when I talked to the doctors, they were even more shocked than I was. they were actually freaked out. I mean stage IV cancer completely vanishing in a matter of days without any treatment whatsoever. It was, as one of the doctors said, a miracle.
Even up to now, I am still thinking of the placebo effect possibility, but my hold on reality (I am a fic writer but I am realistic in real life) was affected. I mean, come to think of it, my friend did exhibit some weird talents when we were still in high school. For example, she would warn us if the teacher was coming even if we do not see one, as if she had eyes outside of the classroom. Also, she would tell us that the two of them would sometimes switch in the use of the body. There was a very obvious change in personality, but all those years ago I was simply playing along. I just thought she was a really good actress.
Yeah, it made my head hurt, but because of it I was also able to come up with another fanfic idea.
Now, I'd like to tell you more about it but my Author's Notes is becoming too long so I'll stop here.
Back to the story. While the Yu Yu Hakusho plot is fateful to canon, there are some implied differences. One them, for starters, it was Rei, not Chu who fought Natsume in the prelims (since Rei picked a ball first and got to Natsume's group instead). More will be added later.
Before I forget though, here is the power levels of some characters during the first demon world tournament and then the present.
Mukuro (full power)- 1575000+ During Tournament, 1550000+ Present (No training)
Enki (full power)-1500000+ During Tournament, 1450000+ Present (No time to train, too much paperwork stress)
Kujo (full power)- 1150000+ During Tournament, 1500000+ Present
Natsume (full power)- 1200000+ During Tournament, 1650000+ Present
Rei (full power)- 400000+ During Tournament, 1050000+ Present
And just like always, I hope you enjoy reading this chapter...
Later then, people...