Ride
like the Wind
Chapter 21
"Shuichi-kun!" Eri cried as she ran to the redhead with Hiei and Botan following.
Kurama looked over his shoulder. "Huh? Eri? Hiei? Botan? What're…?"
"Ask about us later. We have more important things to worry about. Where's Koenma and Yusuke and Kuwabara?" Botan asked.
"Kuwabara was taken away at some point when he and Yusuke went after Sensui. Koenma went after someone just now. I suppose they're all after the one who has Kuwabara now."
"What about you?"
"Oh just…"
"Bleeding. What the hell were you doing?" Hiei growled pointing out Kurama's hand that was now wrapped up in a piece of his shirt.
"This?" the fox pointed to his hand.
"What else could I be talking about?"
"Well, I was chasing after one of the psychics opening up the tunnel but when I jumped off a roof there was a girl so if I came down I would have killed her… So I caught it in my hand. Don't worry about it too much. It would heal in a few days. Might scar though."
"Kurama!" Mitarai called the redhead as he ran to him with Koenma following. "What's going on here?" He eyed Hiei, eyebrows raised.
"Yeah… What are you two doing here?" Koenma asked.
"You tell me what the hell's going on here! There was a crazy bitch back there throwin' knives and shit! Are people getting possessed here or is this crap perfectly normal?!" Hiei growled.
"Geez, Hiei. Calm down. Are you even listening to yourself?" Botan replied.
"Crazy bitch…? Katsumi?" The priest's brown eyes widened. "So what happened to Sayaka? Did you see a blue haired girl there! What'd Katsumi do to her?"
"We didn't really see anyone. It was dark."
Koenma turned to Eri. "Did you see Katsumi or Sayaka anywhere? Apparently something weird's going on here."
Eri gasped eyes wide, remembering the previous events. "Y… Yes. Katsumi… She… She betrayed us! I think she's taking Sayaka-sama to Sensui! I don't know why but I'm scared she'll kill Sayaka! What are we to do?"
"We find Sensui. Everyone, we're going to Devil's Door! Eri, you'll stay with this girl here. Her name's Botan. Botan, you stay with Eri here."
"But what about Yusuke?" Mitarai asked.
"Ending points are the same, Mitarai," Koenma answered. "We should get going."
"I'll get Yusuke. Lord knows how many times we need to save his dumb ass," Hiei said and ran away.
"That one's settled. Onward!" Koenma cried.
---
"HEY, YOU GET BACK HERE BITCHES!!" Yusuke screamed once Kuwabara and his captor were in sight. Kuwabara was being dragged away by someone on a horse. Yusuke couldn't see the captor's face but it didn't matter once he saw Kuwabara was wrapped up in what looked like the captor's fingers. It almost reminded him of… The elder Toguro. (No… Couldn't be. Could it?)
"YUSUKE, QUIT CURSING! YOU'RE MAKING HIEI'S LANGUAGE SEE PRETTY CLEAN!!" Kuwabara yelled at him.
"SHUT UP! I'LL CUSS AS MUCH AS I FUCKING WANT TO, BITCH! AND I WOULDN'T BE CUSSING IF I WASN'T PISSED AND I WOULDN'T BE PISSED IF YOU WEREN'T CAPTURED BY THE FORCES OF EV-" Yusuke was kicked off the horse. "-VIL! OH, YOU SON OF A BITCH, HORSE!"
Yusuke was stomping over to the damn thing so he could kick it, but then he noticed a hole in its head. The demon slayer turned around and saw Sniper, a peddle rolling in his palm and a smirk on his face.
"Great. I really wanna beat someone's face in right about now," Yusuke said under his breath.
"What was that just now? God, why're you Americans so violent?" Sniper asked mockingly.
"Look who's talking. You're over here blowing holes in horses' heads." He felt a Territory open. "What the…?"
"Target practice. Take a look."
"Huh?" Yusuke looked down his shirt and saw a target imprinted on his chest. "Well, ain't that nice?"
"Now then. I'll give you a count to ten to get moving." He counted in Korean. "One… Two…"
"Oh, crap!" Yusuke ran away as fast as he could. "Damn it. They always have to pick perfect timing for this crap." He flopped down in a field. "I think I got a good distance away… I need to get… What's that…?" He looked over his shoulder.
"Dah! Throwing grass! Well, ain't that creative?!" Yusuke threw a large branch at them, stopping their pursuit of him. "Take that. What a… Knives?! Rocks?! GODDAMMIT!"
He ran away. Can't run away from them forever. I'm already starting to feel tired. Maybe If I got them to crash into each other they would shatter and go away… Wishful thinking. What am I gonna do? Wait… That's it! He turned around. "Shot Gun!"
Once again he ended their pursuit of him. "Whew! Huh? Another's coming… A… Holy shit! He threw a bomb! I ain't shooting that thing!" He started to run away but then it exploded. "Shee-it!"
Yusuke felt himself getting rolled over after a few minutes. "Whoa… Am… Am I dead…?"
"Hardly…" a voice answered.
"H…" Yusuke sat up. "Hiei?! What're you…?"
"Never mind that," was the simple answer.
"What just happened?"
"I shot the bomb that was after you." Hiei looked up and saw Sniper. "So this is one of the psychics opening up the tunnel… Well then…"
"Not so fast you…!" Before he knew it, Hiei pierced his heart.
There was a long tense silence. Hiei finally broke the silence only to mumble to himself. "Demon World…. I might see how she's doing again…"
"Hey, hey, hey! What's that mean? You got yourself a girlfriend?" Yusuke asked jokingly.
"Far from it. And before you continue your stupidity, tell me. When's that thing open?"
Crap! The tunnel! Man, did that slip my mind! "Midnight!"
"How clichéd. Let's find the rest of them."
"Yeah."
---
"Ah! Sensui-san!" Katsumi greeted him when she finally made it to the cave. "I've done the honor of getting you the first sacrifice!" She dropped Sayaka to the ground.
"Hm?" Sensui turned to her. "Funny. I thought the boy," he indicated Kuwabara with his hand, "would do. Of course, royal blood just makes this even better. Nobles. They only think of their money. Never once have they ever thought of the lowers in society. Commoners are only ants."
He put a hand on Sayaka's cheek. "That's your future. Tyranny. Ruler after ruler only to torment the poor and benefit the rich…"
Don't touch me…! The princess bit his hand and screamed, "LET ME GO! KATSUMI, WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?!"
"Can I eat her?" the psychic known as Gourmet asked.
"Don't you think about it, you fat ass! Sayaka didn't do nothing! Kill me instead! Just let her go!" Kuwabara screamed.
"Or maybe I could just eat you and get your power to myself…"
"Silence, glutton. The time isn't ripe yet…" Katsumi grinned evilly. "I need to get back now, Sensui-san. I'll make sure that bitch they call an empress dies a nice death."
"Katsumi, no!" Sensui kicked Sayaka to silence her.
You bastards… Dirty bastards… Kuwabara growled in his head.
---
"So down this cave?" Yusuke asked staring at the mouth of the seemingly endless cave.
"No, Yusuke. Sensui's going to hear us coming and then take us out here and take the tunnel with him," Hiei replied sarcastically.
"Shut up."
"I know the way down here. You don't worry about it," Mitarai reassured the demon slayer as if he knew Yusuke was skeptical about the whole thing. "The trip should take two hours at the most."
"So we'd have two hours 'til midnight when he get there," Koenma said.
"Yeah…. Let's go."
As they walked in Kurama threw some seeds which turned into some glowing plants.
"What's that for?" Yusuke asked. "I think there's a reason plants don't grow down here…"
"If one of us has to go back without Mitarai, we'll know where to go," was his simple answer.
"Good thinking. Doubt we'll need it though," Koenma replied.
Hiei, who kept his eyes to the ground, stopped everyone. "Wait up. Am I the only one here who thinks that these Japanese rocks are weird?"
"How so?" Kurama asked.
"It looks like a game board… I forget what it's called."
"It's not just you…" Yusuke mumbled as he looked around. "I think we're on the board…" A giant shadow loomed over the five. "Gah! A giant horse thing!"
"Don't wet yourself. It's just a knight," an eleven year old boy appeared from behind the knight. He had brown hair that was in a bowl cut. He had large violet eyes that filled with childish innocence. His freckled face was usually painted with freckles. He also spoke with a Russian accent.
"Amanuma…" Mitarai mumbled.
"Oh, hey Sea monster." Amusement.
"Let's ignore that…" Yusuke turned to the blonde. "Which one is this?"
"Game master."
"What's his power?"
"I really don't know. I've never seen it."
"I can make games a reality. Simple. I decided to use chess 'cause it's a cool game," Amanuma explained.
"Chess, huh? I'll give it a…" Yusuke was interrupted.
"Yusuke, I'll take this one," Kurama said.
"Wha…? Why?"
"I just don't think chess is your kind of game. Not the best way for you to blow off steam either." Sensui, you bastard. Why did you have to use a kid?
"Well, that's no fun. I was thinking you would all come at me at once," Amanuma sighed. "They say two heads are better than one, you know. So I guess this guy's the only one with a brain, huh?"
"Can it, shrimpy!" Yusuke growled.
"Wait a second… You're just here to slow us down, aren't you?" Koenma growled. Damn you, Shinobu…
"Well, duh! Isn't that the point? If you want to do something but your stupid enemies are doing all they can to stop you, you gotta get as nasty to stop them as you want." He smirked.
"Enough!" Kurama ran to a pawn and tried to push it but tripped instead. He calls this reality…?
Game master raised an eyebrow. Or maybe I'm being too hard on them. Maybe they're all brawns and no brains.
"I fail to see how this is reality…" Yusuke grumbled.
"There's gotta be something that creates reality. How's this game work?" Hiei asked.
"You're kidding! Even I know the answer to that question!"
"I work on a damn farm! What do you expect?"
"Basically you have these pieces-pawns, rooks, knights, bishops, the queen and the king. The pawns into one square a turn in only one direction and kill diagonally. The rooks, the tower looking ones, moves as many squares the players wants backward, forward or diagonally and kill in the same direction. The knights, the horses, can only move up twice and then to the left or the right and kill wherever they land. The thing that makes them special is that they can jump players. Now the bishops, the thing that look like fishes, move diagonally and kill in that same direction. The queen, the tallest one, can move like the other pieces and goes in any direction and kills whatever way the queen's moving as. Now the king, the one with the cross, is the most important one. It can move once in any direction and kills in that same direction. If he gets killed, you lose the game," Koenma explained.
"About the killing…" Mitarai mumbled.
"Maybe it has to do more with the pieces. But the kings…" Hiei stopped when an explosion was heard.
"Take that, you bitch!" Amanuma cried.
"Kurama?!" Yusuke gasped.
Kurama got up, slightly wounded. "Don't worry about me, Yusuke. I just got a little surprised. I didn't know exploding chess pieces counted as reality."
"Believe me, man. If this were reality, I'm the queen of England and Hiei here would be a perfect gentleman."
"Heh. That'll be the day."
"Hurry up!" Amanuma growled.
"Am I the only one who senses irony in that last line?" Koenma asked, more of a statement than a question.
So this sucks. Kurama's getting blown up by chess pieces and we can't do nothing about it… Yusuke thought.
"So we wait…" Hiei whispered to himself.
---
"Damn it! Lemme go!" Kuwabara growled.
"How about now?" Gourmet asked Sensui, licking his lips.
"I've told you, Gourmet. It's not yet time."
"Come on, I'm starving."
"Gourmet, you have yet to learn true starvation. It's much worse than the small pit in your stomach now. Your hunger will go away soon," the psychic known as Gatekeeper responded calmly. Glutton.
"Don't worry, we'll make it…" Kuwabara said to the princess despite her not understanding. "Urameshi'll get here soon."
Sayaka nodded, feeling that he spoke words of hope. Somebody… Just…
End chapter 21
Chess. Lame game for me to use, huh? Okay, you might not think so, but I do. But hey, I can't think of any better games to use. Unless... Marbles sounds better to you.
Omg, there's this really creepy guy at the mall. He sells this stuff to make you nails shiny and he is so… freaking… SCARY! Me and my sister freaking hide our nails when we go to the mall because of this asswipe. We can't get him to leave us alone because he'll keep arguing with us to make us buy it. GO AWAY, YOU FREAK!
On that note, review please!