Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Realistic Fiction ❯ Mini-chapter: Vikings at the Other Table (chapter 2.5) ( One-Shot )

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

“Ah, it’s still such a beautiful day!” I exclaimed as I walked towards our usual rendezvous point to meet Yusuke before we headed to the arcade. The remainder of the day had gone by without incident, though I wasn’t quite sure whether I was happy or disappointed about this. The birdies were back.
“Girl.” And, apparently, so was Hiei.
“Gah!” I jumped and shrieked as was custom for me, then regained my composure to turn around and face Hiei. “Please do not sneak up on me like that!”
He rolled his eyes. Well, two of them, at least. “That was hardly sneaking.”
I pouted briefly, then casually laced my hands behind my head. “What did Hiei-san want?”
“Come with me.” I blinked. Not much of an answer... “Now. Hurry up.”
I held back a sigh and obeyed. We walked in relative silence as he led me to another conveniently placed dark, deserted alley, though it made more sense this time, as the area in which Yusuke and I normally met up was one to be prone to dark, deserted alleys. He eventually stopped, apparently satisfied with the location, and turned around to glare at me.
I eyed a dumpster warily and repeated, “What did Hiei-san want?”
“About Yukina. Your little display earlier.” Articulate as ever.
“Display? Which one?”
He let out a quiet growl. “You hinted.”
Oohhhh.“She had no idea what I was talking about.”
“That’s not the point”
My shoes became very interesting. “I’m sorry. It was cheeky of me. I’m sorry,” I said softly, hands clasped in front of me.
If his glare lessened any, it was extremely subtle. “Overused as it is, ‘sorry’ doesn’t cut it.”
I bowed my head a bit more. “Still very sorry.”
His eyes lifted, but the tension did not. “What are we supposed to think?”
“Hm?”
“You. Your presence here.” Hiei’s feet started pacing back and forth across my vision. “Yusuke tends to brush aside things like this, it wouldn’t even occur to the oaf, and Kurama’s human form is too nice to say anything about it.” He scoffed. “Some foreigner comes out of nowhere and knows everything about us. A manga, an anime. It makes no difference how the outsider knows, because she shouldn’t, plain and simple.”
I looked up wordlessly, curious as to what he was getting at, just in time to see his gaze return to me.
“You don’t belong here.”
I blinked once, twice, and said nothing as his words sank in before an odd pain shot through my heart. The little fire demon had taken exactly what I had been trying so hard to ignore and shoved it in my face. And he was right.
He was right.
“Fiction...”
My unintentional whisper somehow invisibly altered Hiei’s expression. “Maybe. Maybe not.” He began pacing again. “Reality is only as one perceives it.”
His brief, simple statement lifted a weight from my chest, and I smiled, softly, for the first time in months. Sure, I’d grin and laugh; I’d beam and smirk, and very rarely were they feigned; but this smile was different, not exactly of happiness, but of... something. Contentment, perhaps. Whatever it was, it made me warm inside.
Hiei’s voice snapped me back to attention. “That much doesn’t really matter. What matters is how you intend to use this information.”
I tilted my head to one side. “Easy question. I don’t.”
“But how do we know that?”
“Oh.” I bit my lip and thought a moment before snapping my fingers as a metaphorical lightbulb appeared over my head. “Jagan!”
“Hm?”
“Can Hiei-san read minds?”
He stared semi-disbelievingly. “You’re suggesting I invade your personal thoughts?”
I shrugged. “So long as you stay out of the really personal stuff, sure.”
“Fine, then.” Hiei closed his two normal eyes as he removed the white cloth from his forehead, revealing the infamous Jagan Eye. “Think as you normally would,” he muttered.
Okie dokey.
Um.
How do I normally think?
Er.
Well, there’s usually this train, and then this big rock comes along...
Monty Python!
Spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, and eggs. I’d like to order the spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam and eggs, hold the spam.
But you can’t have a meal without spam!
I’ll eat your spam. I’d like the spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam and eggs. Hold the eggs, please.
Spam, spam, spam, spam! Spam, spam, spam, spam!
Vikings!
Vikings at the other table!
And now for something completely different!
“What the hell?”
I blinked and refocused on the smell of garbage and the small fire demon in front of me.
“Is that how your mind works?”
“Ano. Yeah, pretty much.”
Hiei shook his head incredulously. “Okay, this time, just don’t think at all.”
I nodded and cleared my mind. It was a bit odd, feeling someone probing through my head. That thought spurred an image suddenly to pop into the aforementioned head: a crouching, chibi Hiei, poking at a brain with a stick.
“Here I thought that witch was disturbing...” He shook his head a second time. “Try again.”
I concentrated. This time I successfully let my mind go on stand-by, into a place where nothing, not even time, existed- my meditation room.
I obviously couldn’t tell when, but at some point, I was violently jerked out of my trance. My eyes slowly opened to see a deeply annoyed fire demon readjusting his headband. It wasn’t exactly annoyance, though. “What?”
He glared, though not at me. “You seemed to have another guest.”
I tilted my head to one side. “Another guest? As in, someone else was in my mind, except without my permission?”
“Exactly, and I don’t like the way his aura felt.” Hiei’s eyes returned to me. “I kicked him out, but I obviously can’t act as your watch dog all the time. You need to build up your mental defenses. I didn’t see anything decent.”
“Hmm? Oh, I took them down to let you in. That’s probably how this person got in. I usually have them up, though.”
“Really. Let me see them.”
Okie dokey.
. . .
I felt him leave.
“That... was downright disturbing. Even with the pterodactyls and mountains of flame being illusions.”
"That's the point."
"It's not enough, though," he said, giving me a hard look out of the corner of his eye. "The only very tangible things were the wolf just sitting there and staring, the wind, the hail, and the pirates. Any experienced psychic would see through them." There was a pause. "What's with the pirates?"
“They make decent fighters. If my zombie hordes don’t do the job, the pirates are my backup.”
“But why pirates?”
“They’re pirates. Come on. Pirates.”
“Uh huh... and the vikings off to the side eating breakfast and singing?”
“Those are just for fun.”
“You disturb me.”
“Good. Oh, hey, by the way, how did the intention-finding go?” I inquired.
Hiei turned away, clearly about to leave. “Yours? They weren’t malicious–well, not very malicious–so I’ll let you off. For now.” With that, he zipped away.
And with that, Yusuke ran into the alley at a fast-but-human pace. “Aya! There you are! What are you doing?”
I looked at him with a blank face and said, completely serious, “I was abducted by aliens.”
“Riiiiiiiight. Hiei was just here, wasn’t he? Traces of his youki are still here.”
I blinked, maintaining my near-nonexistent expression. “Hiei is an alien.”
Yusuke gave me an odd look. “Sure he is. What’d he want?”
“My brains.”
“You’re not going to tell me, are you?”
I switched my solemn gaze to a smirk. “No.”
“Why not?”
“Just to be mean. Come on, let’s go.” I started back they way we came, Yusuke right behind me.
“Come on, tell me!”
“Nope.”
“Tell me!”
“Huh-uh.”
“Please?”
“S orry.”
“No you’re not!”
“Ah, Yusuke-kun has caught my lie.”
“Just tell me already!”
“I said no.”
This continued all the way to the arcade.