Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Balance ❯ Reality ( Chapter 12 )

Disclaimer: do you know how much fun it is to write a parody of Mary-Sue fanfiction? It's a lot of fun.

Note: Kurama gets really (as in really) into the whole "I don't want to be here and I'm not telling you why" in this chapter. He's a total bastard. I promise you'll find out later. Er…as soon as I decide why.

Balance

Chapter Twelve: Reality

'Why do you cry?' the man in the mirror snapped. 'You have no right or reason to cry.'

He wiped at his eyes and found no water. Looking up, perplexed, he shook his head silently. The man in the mirror tossed his head and scoffed.

'You see no tears,' the man said bluntly. 'Therefore they must not exist, and I am lying to you. Is that what you perceive?'

He nodded. Silent.

'As I have told you,' the man growled, 'you cannot perceive reality.'

But I can see you, he insisted. That is reality, is it not?

The man glared down at him and his blade of grass. As he watched, the man's hair flickered, wavering atop his head, and the black turned red as the blue turned orange and the white turned blue.

The colors became fire, and he tried to leap forward to extinguish it, but found he could not move.

'Why do you attempt to jump at me?' the man asked harshly. 'I asked for no saving from any perceptions of yours.'

Your head is on fire! he insisted. I was only trying to help you!

'It is not. I see no fire.'

You cannot see your own head!

The man paced around him slowly, with loud, clicking steps. He shook his head as he walked, pointing out flaws to himself.

What are you doing to me? he shouted.

'Speak louder. I cannot hear you,' the man in the mirror scolded.

I am screaming to you! he yelled. I cannot scream any louder!

The sky blinked at him and the colors flickered, only for a moment, from white to black and back to white again. He fell over on the blade of grass but found that he still could not move.

'I cannot hear you,' the man repeated.

Why is that!? he wailed pitifully. I am screaming as loudly as my voice will allow!

'Are you?' the man asked. 'I hear no screaming; only whispers.'

But I am screaming as loudly as I can! he wailed.

'I perceive nothing of the sort.'

He screamed again, a loud, fearsome sound, echoing out into the void surrounding them. I do not enjoy this conversation! Leave me alone!

'You perceive I am standing before you,' the man told him, his voice rough. 'What if you were to perceive I was gone?'

But I do not want you gone! You have already left me once and yet you have returned! I wish to hold onto you for as long as I can!¹

'Perceive reality.'

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Hiei scoffed loudly, and even Kuwabara looked confused. Surely these mid-class youkai could sense that the Tantei possessed much greater strength than they. Kurama watched them stoically and Yuusuke waved his hand in circles in his confident way.

"You, hurt us?" he laughed. "I don't think that's very likely! C'mon, you're what, mid-B class youkai? Do you even know how strong we are?"

Another slithered forward, this one some sort of snake-human form hybrid. She was rather pretty, but her scales and thin fangs-which were very long, and touched the floor-were more than unattractive. She hissed through her teeth, saliva dripping from them and spraying out at the Tantei.

"We are more than enough to defeat you," she snarled in a high-pitched voice. "We cannot even sense your puny reiki! You are no challenge to the great Shinja!"

Kuwabara laughed and Hiei looked affronted. "Reiki!?" he snapped, storming forward to jab his fist in her face. "You truly are a pitiful creature! I would slay you right now if not for the mission!"

"And that's pretty presumptuous of you," Yuusuke added, "calling yourself Shinja. I mean, what mother in her right mind would name a kid Shinja?"

"I-"

Kurama stepped in, putting out his arms to separate Shinja and Yuusuke. Shaking his head to the former Tantei, he slit his eyes towards the snake woman and his lip curled distastefully, warning her just how tolerant he would not be.

Hiei, having stepped back as Kurama had taken his place, tilted his head slightly at his friend's suddenly icy attitude. Kurama was powerful and Youko was cold-hearted, yes, but he had never seen him so worked up over seemingly nothing. Perhaps it had something to do with Kurama's unwillingness to enter the fortress in the first place…?

"Shinja. We require assistance."

The orange blob creature slunk forward, fat rippling. "And you won't get it," he said coldly. "Not until you beat us all in a fight."

"Oh, for the love of…"

"Attou," called a thin, spindly one from the back of the cave as he stepped forward, trailing a finger down Kurama's cheek. The kitsune bit his lip and snarled through his fangs. "I call this one."

The orange blob creature nodded. "And I claim the chunky-looking creature with the orange hair."

The snake woman slithered around Hiei, who stood perfectly still and let his eyes rove over her hatefully. "Hm…" she murmured, winding herself around his body and up across his shoulders. "I have chosen this fighter."

"I claim the one with the white clothes," said another.

Yuusuke spat at the floor, but clenched his fists and took on a readied pose anyway. Kuwabara growled at being called "chunky," and Kurama remained with a snarl on his face as the pair of them took on fighting postures as well. Hiei remained still as the woman slipped off of him and he moved into a durable position as soon as she had left his side.

The orange youkai laughed, a strangely hearty sound, and clapped his fatty hands together. "The game shall be entertaining!" he cried. "They think they can defeat us!"

The others snickered and cackled in agreement, and a flicker of an understanding look passed between the four Tantei.

'Let's go easy on them.'

"HAJIME!" screamed a fifth youkai from behind the four B-class fighters. They lurched forward ungracefully and the Tantei leapt back a step, gaining ground and pushing off the hardwood to lunge at their opponents. When they saw the unthreatening manner the youkai approached them in-unintentionally, of course-they each paused, waiting for the next moves.

Attou oozed towards Kuwabara, holding out his obese hands and forming an orb of sickly yellowish youki between them. Smirking, the ningen summoned his Reiken and set his back leg as if he were about to hit a baseball. The orange blob creature laughed out loud, a low and unpleasant sound, still caught up in the presumption that Kuwabara was frail as a newborn kitten.² Kuwabara waved the Reiken threateningly, almost daring Attou to throw his youki.

The spindly creature fighting Kurama moved with such slender shakes that it was as though his body were made of sticks, unable to bend and arc properly but quite easily moved at the joints. He twisted his waist in a wide circle, as if demonstrating his bizarre maneuverability to scare the kitsune, who only folded his arms and sighed, bored. The creature spat frustratedly at the ground and bent his knees, springing up at Kurama.

Shinja the snake woman seemed to favor slithering over walking, though it seemed she could make use of her tail and arms in a manner that much resembled moving on two legs. Hiei snarled at her in an uncharacteristic show of hatred, and she slithered around in a show-offish way, winding around his ankles and the floor before him. Long minutes later, she opened her mouth to reveal it dripping with saliva, and spit sheets of acid at him.

The creature attacking Yuusuke was an altogether unimpressive-looking female, blue skinned and fitted with wide, leathery wings which seemed to do no more than throw her off balance as she moved. Cackling, she bared her long, narrow nails, more like brittle claws than cosmetic things, and clawed at the air before him. He smirked at the threat and she dove at him, streamlining the leathery wings against her back for quicker movement.

What happened next was all very quick and blurred to the four remaining bystanders: Kuwabara slammed the ball of yellow youki back at its caster, hitting Attou squarely in the chest and sending him keeled over into a mess of skin and fat on the floor. Kurama grabbed the stick-creature he was fighting out of the air and snapped his legs so as to keep him from walking or really moving at all. Hiei flung back Shinja's acid spray with a shockwave and stomped on her middle, flattening it and ripping it nearly in two so as to keep her from moving for lack of stability and loss of blood. Yuusuke sidestepped the attack and caught the youkai's useless wings, pinning one through the other and throwing her against the wall, half unconscious.

Completely undeterred by the cruelty and utter carelessness they had just shown their enemies, the Tantei each stood firmly wherever they were and smirked at the eight youkai, who cowered and shrank against the walls and furniture of the room where they knelt.

"Will you give us information now?" Kurama asked icily. Attou hauled himself off the ground and congealed back into a formless mass of fat, his eyes frightened and wide. He nodded, waving his hands before him.

"What do you wish to know?"

"Who-" Hiei began, but Kurama once again stepped forward, tossing his arm back in an offing sort of way. Hiei's eyes widened again and he relented instantly.

"Who is your master?" Kurama snapped, his voice eerily quiet. Attou fumbled with his words, and Kurama slapped him.

"I asked you who!" he shouted.

"A-a youkai of some sort, who calls himself Kurokyoui," Attou whimpered. "He and his friends come down here every couple of weeks and beat us senseless. We used to be a band of ten before two of our members died of the torment."

"And this youkai you refer to," Kurama spat indignantly, clearly holding no regard for the creature he questioned. "What else do you know of him?"

"I-I know only w-what he looks like in the s-s-shadows of this room," Attou said, trying to force strength into his voice and failing miserably.

Kurama waited impatiently and Attou slowly picked up on the hint that he should speak before Kurama slapped him again.

"I cannot see him w-well, for the d-darkness-"

Too late.

A red mark appeared on what would be Attou's cheek, and Kurama glared at him wickedly. "Mince your words, imbecile!"

"His hair is white, o-or maybe pale blond, I cannot tell," Attou said in a rush, not daring to hold his wound. "He wears black and white clothing, and a red ribbon wound around his arm."

"Weaponry!" Kurama snarled, more a demand than a question.

"N-nothing much. A wire whip sometimes, but he uses it for nothing but t-to beat us."

His expression shifting fluidly to bitter resentment, Kurama stepped away and waved his hand at Attou with a soft mutter to himself. "Bastard…"

With his back to the youkai, Kurama folded his arms and glared at the wall before him. "Your usefulness has been outlived. You may go."

"A-arigatou," Shinja whispered as the eight of them left the room quickly.

Hiei stalked up to Kurama and did the best he could to shove his face into Kurama's.

"What the hell is going on?"

The kitsune turned away, brushing his friend off and beginning to walk to the door.

"We should get going," he said airily. Yuusuke shrunk back a step as Kurama neared.

The youkai grabbed Kurama's shoulder and threw him to the floor, towering over him.

"No," Hiei snapped. "We are not leaving until you tell me why the hell you got so furious with Attou."

"Furious?" Kurama asked. "No, no, my friend, not furious. Just…seeking information."

Standing, Kurama casually brushed off his tunic and walked towards the door.

"Bullshit!" Hiei shouted across the room. Kuwabara and Yuusuke wisely shrunk into the wall.

Kurama turned around, a slightly bitter look in his eyes. "I'm sorry, Hiei, I don't know what you're talking about."

And with that, he smoothly opened the door and left, expecting the others to follow.

Hiei seethed.

"You…okay?"

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¹At this point, I would advise you to read my (originally) unrelated fic, "Carry On." It's not necessary, but some of the last few paragraphs relate to what's being talked about here.

²Forgive the pun, but I had to throw it in there. >.< Sorry…

Youkai: demon

Reiki: human energy

Shinja: sacred snake

Attou: overpower, overwhelming

Hajime: begin

Youki: demon energy

Ningen: human

Reiken: spirit sword

Kitsune: fox

Note: "'I claim the one with the white clothes,' said another." Yuusuke wears white clothing during the Makai no hen (Makai Tournament saga). They look just like his yellow ones (from the Ankoku Bujutsukai saga), except white with a greenish belt. That's what's being referred to here.