Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Balance ❯ The Pulse Beat On ( Chapter 5 )

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Ah, yes, I meant to say…shadow priestess, kikira-san, sakurasango, Clow Angel, JadedSoul, What2callmyself, thank you so, so much for your reviews (especially shadow priestess, who has as of yet left three ^.^). Anyone who wonders how my writings have so few reviews (I just thought I'd randomly throw this in for…randomness' sake, 'cause 'tis fun), I've found that normally, I as a person am often overlooked, in the classroom, in the halls, on the street, at my job (whatever it may currently be, as I'm not formally employed, as I'm only sixteen), what have you. I can only assume it's the same for my writing.

Balance

Chapter Five: The Pulse Beat On

Long-standing loss, a thing that had been practiced and rehearsed for ages, leaked out of the mirror where the blind man stood, drowning him in its overpowering existence. He struggled to breath before he realized that this emotion had no liquid substance, and there was nowhere to drown.

For such a manner, there was nowhere to breath, either.

'You tell me you thought I would change from the man you once knew, yet you say I was never truly found? How can such a thing be true? You are lying to me.'

I had never truly known the man I thought I once did, so it is no loss that I have not found you, even now, he replied indifferently.

Tears flooded out with the hurt, the pain, the overbearing beat of a different drum. Tears crystallized into small black jewels, but more remained the fluid that tears should, salty water filled with hate.

Ruby red eyes that neither man truly saw were rid of their white and black, simply spheres of red, red, bloody red, leaking red, flooding red, a red that had been created for these eyes and only for these eyes and that never should have been.

'You understand nothing.'

Oh? he asked. Keeping his voice casual.

Something deep down, deep inside of him screamed out that none of it was true, that he did know, but could not say.

That small part of him was drowned out before it had a chance to rear its head.

'You understand nothing.'

You lie.

'You understand Forbidden?' the man asked.

You are nameless, he replied. You have no spirit in my world. You disappeared long ago, and you have yet to return to what you once were. You have yet to become what you should be.

The pulse beat on.

The glass began to crack.

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"I keep promising myself I'll demand a new ride, and do I ever do anything about it? Noooo…"

Kurama laughed. "Don't worry, Yuusuke. You'll remember one day."

"Uh-huh."

Hiei, in the meanwhile, had stalked up to the desk and slammed his katana, sheath and all, down on the polished wood surface. "I hear from your pet ferry child that you have some news for us regarding the case you've so presumptuously sent us on," he spat out with a sharp glare.

Koenma, fearfully scooting back in his seat until he had nearly melded into the fabric, nodded weakly. "Yes… Intelligence has discovered a few middle-class youkai congregating under Kyoto… You know, various ranges of B class and mid to low C-class…"

Hiei gritted his teeth and hissed, a habit he had rarely exhibited in all the time Kurama had known him before. "That doesn't help, child," his snarled. "You're reciting back to us what that bitch told us earlier. Give us some new information or am I walking right out of this office, and I promise, you'll never see me again."

Koenma gulped. "I-I think they're operating under the command of a very high class youkai, possibly of the S-class… Trying to follow in Sensui's footsteps, to open a hole to Makai using psychics…in order-in order to wipe out all of mankind…"

Scoffing, the youkai turned the face Koenma at a three quarters angle. "That's barely sufficient."

Kurama walked up behind Hiei and laid a hand on his shoulder.

"You wouldn't really leave us all again, would you, Hiei?" he asked with an almost fearful tone in his near-silent voice.

Hiei balked for only a moment before responding in the usual manner: cold, indifferent, unmistakably offended.

"You can't tell when I'm lying and not, kitsune?" he asked, equally quietly. "I…wouldn't leave you. Again."

Was there a hidden meaning there? Kurama couldn't tell. But the high road was the safe one, and he had best assume that the "you" was a general one.

"So, child," Hiei practically shouted, turning back to face Koenma head-on. "Is that all you have to tell us?"

"Ano…yes…" he said meekly.

"Then there is no reason for us to remain here. Give us the coordinates of this youkai congregation. Open a portal to Ningenkai as close to said congregation as possible." Glowering, Hiei bent over the desk, a vaguely impressive feat at his height. "Now."

The demigod scribbled some numbers on a sheet of formal-looking scrap paper and thrust it in Hiei's face, opening a portal as soon as the youkai had taken it.

"Ch, good enough."

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"I don't get it."

Kuwabara scratched the back of his head. "This is the exact location of the coordinates… Why don't I sense anything?"

Kurama knelt and sniffed the topsoil of the rich, spanning field. "There haven't been youkai any higher up than one and one half kilometers from the absolute base of this hole," he said slowly, still sniffing occasionally. "From my best guess, the hole itself is fairly deep and begins two kilometers belowground."

Yuusuke gaped at his kitsune friend, still not used to his incredible senses. Kurama looked up and smiled, self-satisfied and trying not to show it. Hiei walked over and laid a hand on his back.

"Can you tell times?" he asked as Kurama tried to disregard the hand. An unusually gentle gesture Hiei probably wasn't even aware of.

Sniffing again, Kurama nearly lay himself flat on the ground trying to pick up the proper scents. He shook his head. "Not without transforming, I can't."

"Then transform."

Kurama sighed, and focused his ki.

The silver kitsune waved his tails in an unintentionally tantalizing way as he picked up the various scents. Hiei knelt beside him so as not to be distracted; Kurama was putting no power of any sort into the seductive motion of his tails, so there would be no serious repercussions, but Hiei still might be susceptible to something the experienced kitsune didn't intend.

Yuusuke, having been warned by Kurama more than once about the power of a kitsune's tails, turned away, and Kuwabara closed his eyes. After a long and fairly tense moment, Kurama transformed again, kneeling on the ground.

"The latest they were close to the surface can't have been more than an hour ago."

Yuusuke huffed a sigh, and Kuwabara groaned.

"Well, we've got some work to do, then, don't we?" the former Tantei said.

"Get to it."

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By the next five minutes, Yuusuke had cleared all of a kilometer of ground from the field. Kurama was still raking dust out of his hair, and Kuwabara was begging and ordering Yuusuke not to fire his Rei Gan at the ground directly again. Hiei was cleaning his katana and glaring back over his shoulder at the former Tantei.

"Yes, Yuusuke," Kurama was adding, "if you please. There must be better ways to get underground; or you could have at least warned us you were going to do that."

Waving his hand dismissively, Yuusuke smiled widely. "Would've, could've, should've. Bit late for that now, eh?"

Hiei glanced at Yuusuke oddly. "Where did you pick up that cute saying?" he asked derisively. Yuusuke shifted his grin to the youkai no hi.

"It's from America, I think. I dunno, I picked it up off of some schoolbook-"

"Doubtful," Kuwabara muttered with a small grin.

"-or heard it on TV, or something. I don't really remember."

Kurama, meanwhile, was peering down into the hole Yuusuke had created. He waved them over, leaning into the fissure and holding himself up via some conveniently placed rocks.

"Looks like you almost broke into a water main, Yuusuke," he said. "We'd better not risk taking another shot from this far away; the shockwaves could cause considerable damage. I suggest climbing down to the bottom of this hole and shooting from there."

"Wouldn't that be even more dangerous, though?" Kuwabara asked, looking down beside the redhead. "The ground would probably give way under our feet with a blast that powerful."

Hiei raised an eyebrow, impressed at the "oaf's" foresight, but carefully not showing it. "Of course, we'll have to dig out some sort of side tunnels once we get there." Kurama nodded.

"You can do that, Kuwabara," Yuusuke said as he slid over the lip of the hole, taking a firm grip on the rocks there and beginning to lower himself. Kuwabara followed willingly enough, and Kurama smiled again.

'Six years ago, he would have either charged on in and made sure he was first, or hung back uncertainly until we dragged him down with us. Oh, how these years can change a boy into a man…'

They jumped and climbed down the rock and dirt, restraining themselves (for the most part) from throwing sand rocks at each other. Finally reaching the base of the hole, Kuwabara summoned his Reiken, and Kurama and Hiei paced back and forth around the hole, examining the walls.

"I sense some powerful youki," Yuusuke said spontaneously, kneeling to rap at the floor. Kurama turned to look at the man over his shoulder, focusing his senses for a moment. As he locked onto a strong youki, he wondered how he could not have noticed it before.

"Fairly far below us," Hiei said absently as he continued smoothing his hand over the wall. Kuwabara tilted his head.

"How far is 'fairly far'?" he asked. "It's gonna be pretty damn hot down there if we get too far in."

"Don't worry," Kurama assured him, going back to the walls. "It won't be too terrible, and if the heat gets unbearable, one of us can create a barrier of ki to keep the temperature generally neutral."

"O-okay…"

Yuusuke and Kuwabara paced impatiently around the little hole as Kurama and Hiei continued their scan.

Finally, Hiei hit one part of the wall near a particularly large boulder.

"Cut here," he said decisively. Kurama walked over to scrutinize the panel his friend had chosen.

"Not so far to the left," he said. "More like…right here." He raised a finger and scratched a line in the dirt as Hiei nodded his approval.

"Okay, you want to get more specific?" Kuwabara requested, holding out his Reiken at an unsure angle.

"Here," said Kurama, drawing the dirt line more precisely, "to here."

"And then-" Hiei cut in, arcing his hand under the line Kurama had drawn, "here to here."

Yuusuke smirked slightly, and Kurama's grin grew even wider.

'Talk about a six-year change…'

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Youkai: demon

Makai: Demon World, Hell

Kitsune: fox

Ano: uh…

Ningenkai: Human Realm, Living World

Ki: energy

Rei Gan: Spirit Gun

Youkai no hi: demon of fire, fire demon

Youki: demon energy

Note: about Kurama not putting any power into moving his tails. One of the powers of the legendary kitsune is seduction, then, once they have successfully drawn in a victim, creating illusions of what is and is not real. Said victim is trapped in these illusions and susceptible to what the kitsune wishes them to see and experience, unable to tell that it is not reality. They think that what they experience is reality, and the kitsune, not mesmerized by itself, but living in a sort of fantasy of its own design, believes its illusions to be reality, as well. This is why breaking a kitsune's illusions is so painful to them; it's breaking their vision of reality.