Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Barriers ❯ Discovery ( Chapter 3 )

Shiki's breath escaped her in a great whoosh as Genkai's blow landed squarely on her stomach. She staggered backwards, struggling to remain upright, gasping for air to refill her lungs.

 

She had anticipated the blow, been ready to block it. But for some reason, her spirit energy had given out and her staff had reverted to the small metal tube it had once been.

 

Genkai jumped back, landing gracefully a few feet away. By now, this was routine. The girl's energy was formidable, but almost completely unusable. Genkai suspected she knew the reason. If she was right, it was something Shiki would just have to learn to deal with.

 

“Again,” she said tersely.

 

Shiki nodded, not wanting to waste energy on words. With a great effort, she wrestled to gain control of her spirit energy, and then force it into the staff again. To her slight satisfaction, it lengthened until it was about her own height. She took a deep breath and settled into a combat stance, ready to give it another go. Genkai's gaze flicked upwards, and she appeared to be crouching lower than she had previously. She would likely attack from the air, Shiki decided.

 

Sure enough, the older woman launched herself upwards, intending to land a kick to the back of the student's skull. She was only mildly surprised at the shadow of a smile that passed across the girl's face as she swung her staff to block, forcing her new master to change direction in mid-air, something that was difficult even for her.

 

Even less to Genkai's surprise was the fact that she failed to press her advantage. A few well-placed blows at her obviously unbalanced opponent would have been enough to fell most. If the girl was shrewd enough to anticipate an aerial attack, she surely knew this as well. And yet she did not attack. Genkai decided it was time to teach her a lesson about real battle.

 

“You should never fail to press an advantage, child,” she said, launching herself forward again, her blows raining down too fast for Shiki to block them all. “You will not survive long if you forfeit what opportunities you manage to get.” This last was accompanied by a fake to the girl's left shoulder, followed by a sharp rap to the hip, which clearly caught her off-guard. The staff lost its extension once again, and Shiki was forced to retreat when Genkai did not jump back as she had before.

 

Trying to focus spirit energy while simultaneously engaging in physical combat was much more difficult then she had anticipated. Trying to force both an opponent and herself into submission at the same time didn't seem possible. For the moment at least, Shiki abandoned the prospect of a weapon and turned to meet Genkai in hand-to-hand. But the old woman merely smirked, and Shiki was too late to realize her mistake. Her staff's reach had been her only advantage; Genkai was clearly going to be better in a fight where only fists and feet were involved.

 

Berating herself internally, Shiki ducked, dodged, and blocked as many of the blows as she could, but the effort was quickly proving futile. Just where did all of her teacher's energy come from? Not even Jii-chan was this vigorous. Then again, Genkai wasn't fighting her granddaughter. Despite the numerous bruises she would be sporting the next day, Shiki was glad of this at least. Someone was treating her as nothing more than an opponent.

 

Genkai noticed as a glint made its way into her pupil's dark blue eyes and smiled inwardly. She remembered a time when she herself had first begun to truly embrace a challenge. There was nothing quite like it. She had to give the girl credit; she was making fairly swift progress, though Genkai suspected this had something to do with a certain meddling old man. Several things about her style were already perfect for one who would need to fight in the real world. She had no showy dojo-style elements in her attacks, for a start. Everything was choreographed to be as efficient as possible. Now she needed to learn how to control her energy properly. Once that happened, she would be ready.

 

Genkai realized that the fight was dragging, and her student was becoming slick with sweat. Her bangs sticking to her face, and a very noticeable heat flush spread across the bridge of her nose to her cheeks. It was probably best to give her a break. With that in mind, Genkai delivered a series of powerful strikes to her abdomen, leaving her doubled over on the ground.

 

“That's enough for now,” she said simply. “You should go get cleaned up.”

 

******

 

Shiki cursed her fool head. What on earth had possessed her to relinquish her weapon like that? She had set the pipe, as she referred to it in her head, on her futon as she had left to shower. Now in her school uniform (the only other clothes she had with her), she sat on the floor and stared at it. Something told her it shouldn't be this difficult. Maybe she was just bad at it. Whatever the reason, she mused to herself, I've got to try harder. She shook her head. It had been only a week, but still. The amount of energy required to extend the staff was miniscule. It was bending the energy flow with her will that was proving difficult.

 

She was stirred by a knock on her door. Standing and swiftly walking over to it, she was mildly surprised to find Yukina standing there. Of course, she immediately assembled her features into something resembling tranquility.

 

“Yukina-chan. Can I help you with something?” The two had become rather fast friends. Much to Shiki's surprise, she spent most of her afternoons sitting with Yukina and Botan. At least when she wasn't training. They were quite knowledgeable about the Demon and Spirit Worlds, respectively.

 

Yukina smiled. “Actually, Genkai wants to see you. The others are all back, you see.”

 

Shiki blinked. She hadn't expected them to arrive so soon. When they had come back from the initial exploration, it had seemed that whatever they saw stirred more questions than answers. The next few days had been much the same. So about four days ago, they had split up into teams to explore the disturbances from the different worlds, presumably to see if they were any different. She had expected this to take at least a week or so.

 

“Okay. Thanks, Yukina-chan. I'll be right out.” Shiki paused to check herself in the mirror briefly, just to make sure she wasn't a total wreck. She frowned. Her long hair was still wet, and dark circles were becoming visible under her eyes. She sighed, deciding it didn't matter much anyway, and followed Yukina down the hall.

 

******

 

Hiei tapped his fingers on his knee impatiently. Yusuke and the oaf were arguing pointlessly again, while Koenma and the ferry girl stuffed their faces with rice balls, no doubt the handiwork of Yukina and that other person. He looked pointedly at Kurama, but the other demon just continued to calmly observe everything. If he was aware of Hiei's agitation (and Hiei was certain this was the case), he did not show it. The old woman was in a similar state of silence.

 

At this rate, he would have been better off staying in Demon World. Something in Kurama's expression had made him reconsider when the two had been there a few days ago. The fox only looked like that when something big was coming, and Hiei was impatient to find out what, exactly, that was. Truth be told, he'd been itching for a good fight since the first Makai Tournament. He was sick of playing benevolent shepherd to lost humans. But this was still going nowhere fast.

 

He smoothed is face into an impassive mask as Yukina and the other one entered the room. He also forced his fingers to stop moving. Yukina seemed to be doing well, at least. She sat next to the human with a smile on her face, the two apparently just having finished a conversation. Hiei personally didn't understand it, but supposed it didn't matter, as long as she was well.

 

His lip curled with barely-repressed disgust as the oaf stopped talking to Yusuke in order to greet her enthusiastically. She replied politely, but Genkai called for silence by clearing her throat.

 

“Well,” she began. “Have we figured out what's causing the disturbances?”

 

Hiei shot a look at Kurama, who appeared to be choosing his words carefully before he spoke, a small frown on his face.

 

“I have a hypothesis.” At the questioning looks of the others, he continued. “These disturbances are not random occurrences, but are being consciously caused by something.”

 

“We kinda figured that,” interrupted Yusuke rather pointedly.

 

Hiei rolled his eyes. It was obvious Kurama wasn't finished, why bother interrupting? He looked around the room. Everyone had their eyes on Yusuke, he noticed, except for the human girl. She had a perplexed expression, and was almost certainly directing it at her teacher. His observations were interrupted when Kurama spoke again.

 

“Further, I believe that whomever is responsible currently resides in the Demon World.”

 

On a hunch, Hiei looked at Genkai, who was nodding almost imperceptibly. The old woman clearly knew something she wasn't saying. What she didn't know was that at least two people had already caught on, and if Hiei knew the fox, three. The question was, what did she know?

 

 

Kiku's Corner aka the author's notes.

 

Thanks to all the readers and people who have favorite-ed or put a track on this story. It's flattering.

 

Thanks to my beta, Corri18. M4h !3374 r0xx0rz! Yes, I just complimented her in 1337.

 

Anyway, for the last item of consideration, I bring you… Hiei!

 

Hiei: I'm not going to say it.

 

Kiku: Please?

 

Hiei: No. I'm not even the main character, and you think I'll ask for reviews?

 

Kiku: I'll give you more of your POV sections…

 

Hiei. Fine. All of you readers should review. There I said it. Now where's my next section?

 

Kiku: Maybe in a couple chapters.

 

Hiei: Hn.