Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Quoth The Rayvin ❯ Aiseki ( Chapter 1 )

Okay, this fic actually nothing to do with Edgar Allen Poe's poem The Raven. I did borrow a line from it, and it's my favorite poem (along with Dante's Inferno), so each chapter I'll put up a stanza or two of his poem. I even do have some idea how I could portray it in this fic. Weird Fact- Poe actually has the words 'Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore,"' written in his epitaph.

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore-
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of someone gently
rapping, rapping on my chamber door.
"'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping on my chamber door-
Only this and nothing more."

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow-vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow-sorrow for the lost Lenore-
For the rare and radiant maiden the angels name Lenore-
Nameless here forevermore.

ONE WEEK LATER

No matter how much they denied it, they couldn't hide from the truth- Kuwabara was dead. Shizuru's tears wouldn't cease, nor would Yukina's. The blue hiruiseki had been collected, but they could still hear the occasional tapping as they fell to the ground and rolled across the floor. They were to be placed in Kuwabara's coffin when his cremation came. Even Hiei couldn't help but feel a small twinge of sadness at the news.

Shizuru, suspecting her brother of playing hooky, had gone up to his room that morning. At first she thought he was still sleeping, so she hit him over the head, hard. But his head just rolled to the side, like a rag doll, the rest of his body following. That's when she started to panic, calling the ambulance and tried to revive him, but it was no use.

Kuwabara Kazuma was pronounced dead upon arrival.

Rayvin watched the wake from a nearby tree. Shizuru's parents were away, so instead of kneeling before them, it was his older sister who sat near the altar, looking on as the people who had once known Kuwabara said a prayer for him. Rayvin, instead of he usual emotionless state felt an odd feeling take over her heart as she watched the young woman. It took a moment to realize what it was- compassion, something only her elder brother had ever shown her. 'But he left me and got himself killed,' she thought spitefully. Maybe that was why she could feel Shizuru's pain. "Feh, I don't feel anything," she said aloud, as if that were enough to convince herself. But already a plan was forming in the back of her mind of allowing Kuwabara's ghost a dream visitation once in a while. She flew off, thinking over how she would do away with her next target.

Rayvin wasn't completely heartless; the deaths she caused were all painless, especially Kuwabara's. His had only been a simple matter of extracting his soul and then destroying his life force while he slept. After she killed the next two, her final victim would suffer for what he did to her. He would see his death coming on swift wings, and he would feel it in every fiber of his being. It would be long and agonizing. She could just imagine his screams, knowing that the reality would be a thousand times better than what fantasies her mind could dream.

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The funeral took place about five days later. Kuwabara, dressed in the white kimono and waiting in his ebony coffin for the flames to lick at his body and turn him in to ashes, looked too alive to be dead. It was impossible that one so vibrant and full of life could be in eternal slumber without cause. The doctors were baffled; they hadn't seen something so unusual since Urameshi Yusuke had 'come back from the dead', or Minamino Shiori had miraculously survived a disease that had slain so many others. But the coroners, though they searched long and hard, could come to one conclusion- Kuwabara had dropped dead with no reason.

They were waiting for the priest to arrive when someone burst into the room, shouting, "Don't burn him!"

"Koenma? What are you doing here?" Botan asked as the pacifier-sucking teen stopped in front of them. Shizuru stood up and stared at him blankly, but there was a small ray of hope behind her brown eyes. She knew something was up when she felt her brother's presence the night before.

"He's not dead, at least not legally. His soul hasn't passed through Reikai yet, so that means only one thing." He waited for the others to try and guess, but no one could come up with an answer. "There's a necromancer after you four."

"What's a necro-whatever you said?" Yusuke asked.

"A death magician, Yusuke. Someone who has complete control over anything to do with death, including revival, and can control someone's soul."

"Are you sure it wasn't something like Goki? Y'know, like it ate his soul or something?"

"I'm positive. A kyuukonki would have ripped his body apart to get his soul. And yes, the Gakidama's still in the vault- I checked," the kami finished as Yusuke opened his mouth to ask about the spirit-stealing orb.

"So he's alive?" Shizuru exclaimed eagerly.

"Weeeeellll, not exactly," Koenma began, hesitating. "He's in a kind of in the same state Yusuke was in. His body's alive, but without his soul, he may as well be dead. As for reviving him, it all depends what the necromancer has done with his ghost. She's more than likely kept him as a sort of slave or companion."

"She?"

"The ability to practice necromancy is a genetic trait inherited only by females. It's impossible for a male necromancer to exist, unless he is given the ability by a woman. Now, get his body out of here now. I'll explain what you need to do when you do. Meet me at Shizuru's house." Flipping his red sash over his shoulders, he strutted out of the funeral hall, unaware of the eyes following his every move. Eyes that burned with hatred towards the god and his cause, eyes which swore revenge on everyone who had reduced her to what she had become...

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REVISI ON NOTES:

When this fic began, many of the ideas in it were different than the end results. Rayvin was a teenager instead of a woman, and some of the people in it never existed. Not only that, my timeline was completely, horrendously screwed up. So until my writer's block clears and I can get back to writing Raiden Youkai no Noroi: Zasshu (go read now! Unlike its horrible predecessor, this RYNN:Z is much, much more angst, and the main character now has mental problems :) It's worth at least a quick read), I will be going through each chapter of Rayvin and fixing parts I messed up on. Maybe it'll finally be good enough for me to send into the Forum's Featured Fanfiction section.