Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ One Last Wish ❯ The Awakening ( Chapter 8 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

One Last Wish
Chapter 8: The Awakening
Heaven Sent Tenshi

The rushing of the wind had long since ceased. All was silent and all was black. Myleen was surrounded by a spacious blackness, a hollow, desolate plane of darkness. Nothing moved, nothing spoke, nothing existed. She was alone and this solitude was comforting. The soft black in which she was encompassed was a sharp, yet satisfying contrast to the harsh white she was once being sufficated by and she had no desire to change it.

Myleen hovered bodiless, inanimate, and content in the darkness, listening to the soft silence and admiring the warm blanket of black. She felt secure and unafraid, her mind blank and devoid of all thought and emotion, besides that of her infinate comfort.

She was in this serene state for a good, long time, until that time was cut short. Too short for her wishes.

The blackness exploded into a swarm of dull red. She squinted her eyes as tight as she could, shunning the disdainful red, wanting to return to her blackness. After a moment of uncormfortable squirming, Myleen managed to roll onto her side, causing a good deal of the red to slide away. She lay motionless, contemplating the sudden appearence of this color. It took time for her once-blank, now-disoriented mind to register what the redness was; sunlight filtered through her closed eyelids.

Myleen rolled onto her back once more and slowly her eyes flittered open.

Sunlight peirced the papered window and closed shutters. The wooden planks allowed for bands of warm beams to fall upon her face and blanketed body. She lay on a narrow futon cushion, pushed into the corner of the room, beneath the window. A low, lacor table rested near her pillows. Upon it was a bowl, half filled with luke-warm water and a wash cloth. A pair of papered, sliding doors led to the wooden porch outside the room. The wall opposite the table was quite plain, with only a simple, wood-framed mirror hanging upon it. The room was dark, save for the spot in which her bed resided and the faint rays that highlighted the doors. Three blankets pressed down upon her, wrapping her in their soft comfort.

Myleen stared around her, her eyes wide in amazement. She wasn't in the hospital, she wasn't in the apartment they had traveled to. No, she wasn't in a familiar setting. Or was she? Something seemed vaugely familiar about this place. Some place she had visited in a dream? A room she had seen in a magazine? Or had it been in...? It couldn't be possible... Wasn't it all just an exciting dream?

One of the doors on her left slid aside, the scratch of wood on wood announcing the entrance. Myleen's bewildered gaze fell upon the girl in the doorway. She had short brown hair and big brown eyes. She wore a pleated skirt that fell just beyond her knees and a blouse that complimented it. Myleen gazed at the girl as she turned, closed the door, and faced her once more.

"Impossible..." the black-haired girl murmured, her mouth agape.

"You're awake!" Keiko squeeked, as astonished as the other girl. "But... Genkai said it would be several more days..." She pondered her thought as she knelt down beside the bed. Taking the bowl into her lap, Keiko rung out the cloth and wiped Myleen's brow with it. "Guess your fever broke. You had us a little worried..."

Myleen shook her head. She remembered the time spent with the Spirit Detectives, the wonder and amazement she felt and the feeling of security and content, being in a Yu Yu Hakusho-overdose-induced dream. The thought of meeting the other characters occured to her, sure, but things felt different somehow. Unlike the feeling of the wind rushing through her hair and that feeling of imagined flight, she had never before thought about what it would be like to have Keiko run a warm washcloth over her forehead. This didn't feel dream-like, an imagined sensation, like the flight in her wheelchair had. She had so many questions to ask, and none of which she knew she could ask of Keiko, who likely knew nothing of what she had gone through the night before.

Finally, Myleen's voice came back to her as the other girl replaced the cloth and bowl. "Where are we, Keiko...?"

The girl addressed jerked back ever so slightly, blinking several times. "How did you know my name?" After a moment, she paused, shaking her head. "Guess Koenma wasn't kidding..." She frowned and sat back on her heels. "We're in Genkai's Temple. Do you know who Genkai is?" Myleen nodded; she had been correct.

"Where's everyone else? What happened, how did I get here?"

"Whoa," Keiko held up her hands, "I'm not the best person to ask about all that. You should ask Genkai or Koenma, or one of the boys, for that matter. They know a lot more than I do." She lowered her hands and placed them on her thighs. "Can I ask you a question?"

A smart-mouthed remark played at the back of Myleen's throat, but she swallowed it before answering, "Sure."

"You're really from another dimension?" Myleen nodded. "What's it like? Do you have to deal with demons and stuff? And how do you hide your powers and your appearence?"

The last question hit and stuck to Myleen hard. She blinked, confused. "Powers and appearence?"

"Yeah, like your hair; how do you explain that?"

"I don't understand... I look normal, don't I?"

Keiko's brown orbs stared unblinkingly at Myleen, a tad perplexed. "Spectoral hair shine is normal in your dimension?" Confusion, on Myleen's part, was an understatement.

"Spectoral hair shine...?" Myleen made to sit up, lifting her upper body with her arms and sliding back into the wall. Something about the move seemed immensely different from every other time she had done it while in the hospital. "Keiko, I really don't understand..." As she leaned against the wall for support, Myleen was able to catch a glimpse of the bowl of water beside her. Sunlight shone down on the surface, reflecting off it in tiny glimmers. From the glimmers, from the half of the water unshadowed by Myleen's head, she could see her reflection. Only, it wasn't her own reflection.

Myleen squeeked softly and pressed herself against the adjacent wall, staring with huge eyes at the bowl. Something wasn't right.

"What's the matter?" Keiko leaned toward Myleen, a clearly worried look on her face. Myleen glanced at her; there was a sort of fear in her eyes. "Miryn, what's wrong?"

Myleen paused. "What did you call me...?"

Keiko blinked. "Miryn. That's your name, isn't it?"

"No, I... it's..." Myleen's eyes traveled up to the mirror on the other side of the room, then down at her own hands.

Her skin was deathly pale; she didn't know one could be more pale than she, and now she knew she was wrong. Black fabric stretched down the length of her arm, wrapping around her middle finger and cupping the lower, fleshy part of her hand. Her nails were well-kept, long, and black; the black didn't look like paint. She looked down at the rest of her body. She wore a fairly reveiling-top dress that she could feel was tight against her thighs before widening and flowing out to nothing. With the intent of covering her chest, though failing, was a black cloth jacket, the same material as the rest of dress. The cloth was odd, though; it felt like a very soft, warm cotton, but reflected light as though it were vinel.

Myleen looked up to Keiko, desperately searching for answers within her eyes. Upon failing that, she turned to the mirror again. It was an automatic response, standing up. She often had dreams of being able to stand up and walk around, and this appeared to be one of them. She nearly stumbled in her haste, her feet tripped up by the blankets and her dress, which appeared to be longer than she was tall. Her bare feet thudded dully over the smooth wood floor before she confronted her reflection. The scream that tore from her throat echoed over the grounds of Genkai's home, reaching the ears of the others very quickly. Kurwabara nearly jumped out of skin, turning toward Myleen's room as Yusuke slapped his hands over his ears.

"Jeeze!" Yusuke hissed, closing his eyes. "What was that?"

Kurama sat across from him in the semicircle the three boys sat in, a deck of cards divided among them and a pile on the floor. He too looked in the direction of the girl. "She must have woken up."

"Why d'ya think she screamed?" Kuwabara asked, turning back to the group.

"One of two reasons." The boys turned to find Genkai blocking half a doorway. Her arms were folded and her pink hair fell in waves around her withered face. She frowned deeply at them before entering the room. "Either Miryn has realized she is alive again, and in a strange place, or Myleen has just seen herself. Either way, I suggest you see to our guest," she growled. The others nodded. "Koenma headed there and I think Keiko went to check on her a few minutes ago."

With these tidbits of information, Yusuke, Kuwabara and Kurama made their way to the building opposite the courtyard where they found Hiei waiting outside the door.

"I was beginning to wonder whether you would come at all," he hissed, nodding to the fifth boy approaching them, "You hardly beat Koenma here."

Koenma was in his normal form, a small toddler with a hat perched upon his head which was nearly as large as he was.

"Good, you're all here." Koenma stepped up onto the porch. "It'll probably be easier to explain it with familiar faces nearby." He approached the door and placed a hand on it. Just as he was about to slide it aside, they heard a dull thud. The boys threw questioning glances at one another before Koenma pulled the door aside.

Keiko, shocked, scooped up the body of Miryn and shook her lightly. "Miryn? Miryn!" She looked to the door, a pleading look on her face.

Yusuke pushed his way to the front. "Keiko, what happened?" Yusuke, Kuwabara and Kurama stepped forward and knelt on either side of Keiko, investigaating the body.

"I dunno! She woke up and kept mumbling weird things. I asked her something and she freaked out, looked in the mirror, screamed, and fainted."

Koenma frowned and entered the room; Hiei remained at his post by the door. "Did you call her Miryn before she fainted?" the prince asked. Keiko nodded.

"I thought you said that was her name?"

"That is the name attached to her body. The girl inside, however..." he paused, regarding the face of the incapacitated girl, "Well, we aren't sure yet, but based on her reaction... The girl inside may be Myleen."

"I'm sorry," Keiko shook her head, "I didn't know..."

"It isn't your fault that this happened. I'm not wholly surprised at this, however... If she is still Myleen, in Miryn's body, then this reaction seems a likely possibility; more so now. Apparently she was not aware that something like this might happen, though we specualted it."

"Time wasn't on our side, Koenma," Kurama explained. The addressed nodded undertandingly.

"I didn't expect she would wake up so soon, though," Koenma continued. "Did she wake up on her own?"

Keiko nodded, "She was awake when I came in."

Koenma nodded in return. "Guess we'll have to wait until she wakes up; shouldn't be too long. Someone put her back in bed; we'll wait here until she's awake again."

Yusuke silently took the Miryn-transformed Myleen from Keiko and laid her back on her bed, covering her with blankets. Kuwabara and Kurama moved, sitting against the adjacent wall, beside the lachor table. Koenma sat in the middle of the floor and Yusuke sat against the wall with the mirror on it. Hiei sat against the wall with the door and Keiko left to get food for the slumbering girl.

Myleen's unconscious mind began to buzz with life again. The red of the sunlight appeared. As this happened, she mourned the loss of the blackness. She mourned for only a moment, however, before coherent thoughts began to piece themselves together again. The first thought that occured to her was that of humor. Such an odd dream she'd had. It had been a clear compliment to the dream she'd had earlier, but she found it strange how she had had a different body. She silently laughed it off, happy to be out of that dream and waking again to reality, no matter how grim her reality was. As she opened her eyes, she counted her blessings; she was thankful to be out of that weird dream, to be back in her normal body, back in her old hospital roo--

She sat straight up in her bed, her breathing labored. She stared at the men around her, two on the same wall, one on the wall opposite, one on the wall with the door and the last in the middle of the room. She recognized all five of them

Koenma looked up at her with surprise written all over his face. "Awake again? That didn't take too long." He rose to his feet and approached her bed. "You look shocked," he commented. Her mouth hung open slightly; she tended to do that when she was shocked. Myleen blinked, clenched her mouth shut, and blinked once more.

"How... how long is this going to last...?"

Koenma frowned at her. "You'll have to elaberate."

"This dream..."

Yusuke sighed. "This is getting annoying..." Kurama frowned at him from across the room.

Koenma pursed his lips. "Myleen, correct?" The girl nodded. "Myleen, this isn't a dream; I don't know where you got that idea, but this is all quite real."

Myleen shook her head. "No, this can't be real...." She looked down at her hands. "If it was, well... This is impossible." Slowly, as though to prove to herself that she could, she pushed back the blankets, swung her legs over the side of her futon, and carefully rose to her feet before Koenma. "If... if this wasn't a dream, I wouldn't be standing up."

Koenma sighed. "I don't believe you fully understand what's going on." Myleen watched him. He was right; she may have beeen in a dream, but she had no clue as to what was happening. She flopped backward, sitting on the bed again, surprised to have no repercussion. "Myleen, where do you think we are?"

"We're at Genkai's temple."

Koenma nodded. "And you know who we are?" The girl nodded. "And what do you know of your circumstance?"

"Someone's chasing me; something about feeding me to a demon and destroying the whole world."

Koenma frowned and looked Yusuke's way. The boy shrugged. "Close..." he murmured, sinking down onto the floor again as he turned back to Myleen, "but not exact. Allow me to explain."

And so he did; about the dimensions, about Miryn, about the prophecy, about Hakaisha, about Kargon, about the hunt. As he finished, Myleen held her head.

"Headache?" Koenma asked. The girl nodded. "Not surprising, it's a lot to take in." He tented his fingers, watching the girl as she straightened.

"So... what am I supposed to do? About the whole being hunted down, and this new body... You said it's Miryn's...?"

Koenma nodded. "For now, our primary concern is keeping you safe and out of sight. As long as no one knows of your whereabouts, you should be fairly safe."

"And when someone does find out?"

Koenma blinked. "Who said anyone would?"

Myleen shrugged. "It's inevitable. Someone always finds out. Besides, if they're trying to find me, and they notice I'm not in my dimension, they'll come looking. I can't imagine my energy pattern is exactly normal, either. I probably stick out like a sore thumb."

"That's why we're here, Myleen. We're here to protect you and make sure they don't find you."

"And when they do?"

Koenma sighed. This would be a long day. "If, if they do find you, it's their job to keep you safe." He offered a hand to the four boys surrounding him. "And you'll be learning the potential strength of your new body." He rose from the floor.

"Potential strength?"

"Yes. Hiei here will be teaching you to use your powers," Koenma looked back at the demon who suddenly flushed in anger.

"What?" he shrieked. "I was never informed of this!"

"You've just been assigned a new task, Hiei. Don't kill her." Koenma turned and attempted to push his way past Hiei, whose crimson eyes glared through him. He shoved the prince into the wall, pinning him there as the group protested his actions.

"Why me?" Hiei hissed, quiet enough so as not to allow for eavesdropping.

"Hiei, you know as well as I do, better even, that you are the only one suited for this. You are the only one who knows what Miryn can do. Just drudge up a few memories, teach her what she can do, and her body with do the rest. It shouldn't be that hard." Koenma pushed Hiei's arm away from his neck, allowing him to slip out of the room. The other three detectives had risen to their feet in the calamity started by Hiei. They watched the second shortest of the group glare after the shortest, fire in his eyes.

Suddenly, Hiei whirled around, glaring at Myleen. "Tomorrow," he instructed through clenched teeth. "Be ready." He disappeared out the door the next moment.

Kuwabara, Kurama, and Yusuke turned to face Myleen. She was staring blankly at the entrance.

"Why do I suddenly have this... really, really bad feeling about tomorrow...?" she whimpered, falling back on the bed.