Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Slight Problem ❯ Discovery ( Chapter 10 )

I'm so sorry for the long wait!! The story's coming along slowly right now because I'm really busy and have been under some stress lately. I'll try to update my other stories sometime in the next couple of weeks.

 

Anyway, here's chapter ten!!

 

I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho... Just Natalie and Lisa.

 

*****

 

Natalie had quickly eaten breakfast and vanished directly after the next morning. She had hardly said a word and tried to avoid looking at Hiei, but she couldn't help but cast a few glances in his direction over the course of that morning, wondering what the hell had gotten into him the night before.

Then she scowled to herself. There was no reason for her to delve on the matter. As soon as she got Lisa and herself home, she wouldn't have to worry about Hiei any more. All she had to do was figure out HOW she was going to get them home.

She sat down under the same tree she had the day before and very slowly and carefully went over every single minute detail of her techniques once again, even though she by now knew it was futile. She had used the techniques hundreds of times before, and had done absolutely nothing different, and nothing that could have caused her and Lisa's odd displacement into the Yu Yu Hakusho realm. So that meant that it wasn't the technique itself that had gotten them here physically. So it had to be something else. But what?

She knew that each realm tended to have its own set of rules and physical laws, so it was probably one of those that had gotten them into this situation. She wondered briefly if Koenma would indulge what those rules were to her, and then she snorted. There were probably so many laws and rules here that it would take her months to learn about them all and analyze them from every angle, taking them into consideration with her technique of astral projection. And the way her luck had been running, she wouldn't be surprised if her searches just lead up to another dead end.

Natalie blinked, and then realized that she had five people approaching her... Kurama, Yusuke, Kuwabara, Lisa, and Koenma. Then she blinked again, making the number six when she felt Hiei's aura in the tree branches above her head.

Kurama's eyes were a little concerned, although he kept his gentle smile in place. “Good afternoon, Natalie. Have you had any revelations yet? You have been thinking on this situation since you got here. We thought we would come and see how you are doing.”

She blinked a third time and then sighed. “Well, all I managed to figure out so far is that it wasn't my technique itself that caused this situation. It couldn't have been. I've used the technique hundreds of times before and nothing like this has happened to me before, and I've gone over our journey here and couldn't find anything that I did differently. It's when we entered this realm that everything went wrong.”

The kitsune looked at her. “You mentioned that different realms can have vastly different laws...”

She nodded. “That's just what I was thinking. But knowing how many laws this place probably has, it could take me months to look through Koenma's records, even if he was willing to let me look through them. I have a feeling many of those records are confidential, meant only for the eyes of high ranking officials, am I correct?” she asked, looking squarely at the prince of the Reikai.

The prince sighed and nodded, much to her regret. “Unfortunately, you are correct. If I let you look even in one of those records, my father would ensure personally that I wouldn't be able to sit for the next hundred years.” He shivered at the facing another of his fathers infamous spankings.

She let out a sigh. “Which means, I'm stuck for the time being. I can't figure things out if I can't research possible aspects of this realm that may have caused our displacement.”

Lisa's expression immediately turned borderline devastated, and Kurama placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. The girl was ready to have a complete breakdown at the thought of being stuck in this realm forever, and so far, it looked like this just might turn out to be the case.

Yusuke frowned deeply. “Man, that sucks! There's gotta be something you can do!! Something you can look up!”

Kuwabara sighed. “What do you expect her to do, Urameshi? It's not like this is something she can just up and look up in a book or something!”

The moment the words were out of Kuwabara's mouth, Natalie perked up, and her eyes went wide. “Look up... in a book?” Her expression turned inward as she quickly thought back on something and in that instant, to the confusion and surprise of the others, a smile spread across her face and she bounded to her feet, launching herself at Kuwabara, throwing her arms around him. “Kuwabara, you GENIUS!!!! I could KISS YOU!!!!”

Kuwabara turned bright red hearing this as the girl pulled away. He scratched his head. “Um... you're welcome?”

Hiei was now standing there, his impassive expression in place, his arms across his chest. “Hn. I can't believe that she called the baka a genius.”

Lisa blinked and looked at her friend, a small measure of hope returning to her eyes. “Natalie? What's going on?”

Her friend beamed at her happily. “The Akashic Records!! I could gain access to them and find our answers from them!!”

Yusuke blinked slowly. “The... what records???” He looked at Koenma who looked just as confused as the rest of them.

She grinned. “Think of it as the Megaverse's Book of Answers. It's like an encyclopedia filled with endless knowledge. You can go to the astral realm and ask it any question that you want!”

Lisa looked at her friend. “Have you ever looked in it before?”

She shook her head no. “Nope. But I know the technique to gain access to it. The only problem is that the method will leave me completely drained of my energy.”

Kuwabara blinked. “Uh... why would you get drained from reading a book? I know I have problems with reading sometimes, but...”

The girl snorted, holding back a laugh. “This book isn't a physical manifestation, Kuwabara. They couldn't make a physical book large enough to contain all the knowledge this thing does. And as to why I'll be drained... it goes back to a universal law... if you want something, you have to give something. In this case, I have to pour my energy into the book constantly as I try to gain access to the information I'm looking for. Depending on how long it takes me to find the information, I could even lose consciousness by the time I'm done. Also, because of that small detail, this is going to have to be done differently than your standard astral projection. I'll be wide awake. No lying down this time.”

Lisa was barely able to contain her excitement. This meant that Natalie could find the reason they were stuck here and find a way for them to get back home!! “Well, what are you waiting for?! Go for it!!!”

Natalie grinned and held up her hands. “Hold up there, angel. I have to go over the technique in my head. Remember, this is going to be my first time doing it, and the last thing I wanna do is fuck it up. I wanna go there, get my answers, and come back. The sooner we do this successfully, the sooner I'll be able to think of a method to get us home. I'll try it in a couple of hours.” She looked at Koenma. “May I use your courtyard to do this, Koenma?”

He nodded. “I see no reason why not... so long as the technique will not damage my grounds.”

“You don't need to worry about that. Thanks!!” She looked at them. “I'm heading to my room for an hour or so to get the details of this straightened out in my mind. Then I'll come back out here and we'll do it!” The girl started off toward the palace without another word.

Kurama looked down at Lisa who seemed to be teeming with excitement and hope. He gave her a gentle smile but couldn't help it as his and Youko's thoughts turned inward. At this point in time, Natalie was just going to find out what it was that caused their displacement. That didn't necessarily mean that she would be able to use that knowledge to get them back home. If it was one of the laws of their world that got them here in the first place, it might not be possible to use that law to their advantage and return them to their own home. Kurama, of course, kept these thoughts to himself, not wanting Lisa to worry. He thought it would be best to leave her to her happiness and enthusiastic attitude for the time being. They would wait and see what happens. After all, his contemplations could be completely off the mark. He knew next to nothing about the magickal practices that her friend indulged herself in, so it was possible that she might be able to work around such laws after all.

 

*****

 

Natalie sat in her room for forty minutes, going through the technique she was about to apply in her mind. Once she had every single minute detail worked out in her mind, she nodded to her self and slowly got to her feet. She headed out of her room and headed down the hall. She met with the others in Koenma's office, and they blinked, seeing her expression. She nodded at their unasked question and left the room, heading for the grounds outside of the palace. The others wordlessly followed.

Once they were in the courtyard, Natalie turned to them. “Okay, I'm not sure what you guys are going to see, but no matter what, DO NOT approach me until I'm finished. I'm not used to this technique, so it will take me a few minutes to get myself into the right state of mind and meditative state to pull it off, so don't be surprised if I just stand there and look stupid for a few minutes, okay?”

They all nodded and she took in a deep breath before moving about twenty paces away from them, and stood still, looking out over one of the koi ponds, her back to them. A moment passed and they saw just a brief shimmer of some sort of shield go around her, and she stood silently.

The moments passed slowly for them all, until a light blue glow slowly came into view just over the surface of her skin. The blue glow pulsed slightly and then expanded forth about a foot from her body. Then it dissipated and her aura exploded around her unexpectedly, the force of it hitting them with a light breeze.

Her energy swirled around her sporadically, resembling a small tornado. They saw a bright flash of light above her head, followed by another one a few moments later, and then her energy waned and died. Natalie let out a gasp and fell to her hands and knees, taking in lungful's of air. When Kurama saw the strange shield barrier shimmer once more and fade, he took that as all the indication he needed that she was finished and raced forward.

He was at her side seconds later. He could tell that her energy was significantly drained, but thankfully, it was not so drained that she would lose consciousness as they had feared it might. He placed a hand on her shoulder. “Natalie, are you all right?”

The second she turned her face to him, the kitsune knew that her news wasn't going to be good. Her face was pale and her eyes almost looked dull and lifeless. But she managed a barely perceptible nod.

When Natalie saw Lisa approaching along with the others, her features bright and filled with hope, she winced, wishing she had lost consciousness.

“So, what did you find out? When do we get to go back home?”

Kurama helped Natalie get to her feet as Lisa asked this question. The girl was a little shaky on her feet due to the loss of her energy, but otherwise seemed to be okay physically. Natalie couldn't bring herself to look at Lisa at first.

“We... don't.” she said quietly.

Yusuke and Kuwabara blinked. “What do you mean?” they asked as one.

Lisa's smile faltered. “We... don't? What does THAT mean?”

The girl let out a huge sigh and then forced herself to look at her friend. “It means exactly what it sounds like. The whole reason this happened is because we entered this realm in our ASTRAL form. We left our physical bodies back in our own realm, and that broke one of the laws in this realm. You can't be in spirit form unless your body exists or DID at one point exist in this realm. So what happens when two spirits enter from another world? BAM! This world compensates for the broken law by dragging our physical bodies right along with us.”

Kurama went over to Lisa as her expression started looking a little strained. “But... if that's true, doesn't that mean that we can just use the same technique to get back...?” she trailed off when Natalie shook her head sadly.

“Our world doesn't have that law. We would only be there astrally, unable to communicate with anyone that we know. There's nothing that I can do to get us back. Lisa, I'm sorry, but we're stuck here... for good.”

All of them were stunned to hear this, but Lisa, surprisingly was the first to break out of her silence. Her expression turned from shocked to enraged in seconds, and then she strode forward purposefully. To the growing shock of the Rekai Tentai, Lisa's fist slammed into Natalie's jaw, and the shorter girl fell to the ground, holding her wound.

Kurama quickly restrained her when she looked like she was going to keep going.

“YOU BITCH!!!! THIS IS YOUR FAULT!!! YOU TALKED ME INTO THIS AND NOW BECAUSE OF YOU WE'RE TRAPPED HERE!!!!!! I HATE YOU!!!!!” Then she twisted out of Kurama's grip and shot off into the palace.

“LISA!!!” Kurama took off after her an instant later, casting a half glance down at the girl who was slowly starting to sit up.

Kuwabara came forward and helped Natalie to her feet. The girl's eyes were downcast, and the psychic could tell that it wasn't just her energy that was drained. “Uh, hey... You okay, Natalie?”

The girl said nothing for a long moment, and then she let out another sigh. “I'm going to my room. I need to be alone right now.” Her voice was quiet and slightly shaky, and she walked off without another word, her steps slightly shaky.

Nobody was aware of the look a certain koorime was giving her as she slowly made her way into the palace.

 

*****

 

Lisa just ran through the palace towards her room, tears streaming down her cheeks. Natalie's words kept repeating themselves in her mind, both of her recent revelations, and her reassurances before they had even left to come to this realm.

“Nothing can happen to you while you astral project, Lisa. Trust me, I've done this a hundred times before...”

“We'll just go there, take a peek and come back...”

“There's nothing I can do to get us back. Lisa, I'm sorry, but we're stuck here... for good...”

“...stuck here... for good...”

“...stuck here... for good...”

“...for good...”

Lisa flew into her room and just fell half onto her bed, kneeling on the floor as the dam burst and she started sobbing uncontrollably.

“...we're stuck here... for good....”

Those words kept repeating themselves over and over in her mind, and she kept remembering those same reassurances from before the start of their journey to the Yu Yu Hakusho realm. How nothing could hurt them, how astral travel was perfectly safe, how they would be back home in no time at all, and that it was just going to be like a cool little vacation with no consequences.

BULLSHIT!! LIES!!! HOW COULD SHE LIE TO ME LIKE THAT??!! she screamed in her mind as she continued to sob.

She wasn't sure how long she'd been there when she felt a warm hand settle on her shoulder. She started slightly and looked up, her blue eyes meeting a sea of emerald that were filled with great concern. Kurama was knelt down to her level, his hand settled on her right shoulder gently. Lisa didn't hesitate for an instant. Before the kitsune knew it, he had his arms filled with a sobbing and trembling young woman.

He held her back immediately, fully anticipating this action from the young woman. She gripped the front of his shirt and sobbed into his chest, the odd hiccup coming between the sobs.

'She's still a child... the poor thing...' Youko said, watching through Suichi's eyes.

'Yes, I truly wish there was something I could do myself to get her and her friend back to their world... or something that would make her feel better, but...'

'Just keep on with what you're doing, Red. This is all she needs right now.'

He nodded wordlessly, and then decided that they had best find a more comfortable placement. He gently scooped her up into his arms and settled down on the bed, leaning upright against the headboard as the girl from another realm was curled up in his lap, still crying in his chest. He said nothing to her, sensing her grief and anger, and knowing that comfort was the best thing he could do for her right now.

It took nearly an hour before her sobs tapered off to the odd shudder, and then finally, she just laid against him, her death grip on the front of his shirt loosening. Kurama looked down at her as she made no movements and saw that he was sleeping. He wondered, briefly, if he should lay her down on the bed and leave her to get some sleep, but Youko spoke up before the thought was even half finished.

'Don't you dare!! Do you have any idea how long it's been since I've had the pleasure of feeling a woman pressed up against me like this? Besides, moving her might wake her up and I'm sure you don't want that, now do you?'

'But I'm sure she won't be too impressed if she wakes up later in the position we're in right now...'

'Hey, she wasn't complaining when you took this position up in the first place, was she? Besides, I think she'd like knowing that you stayed with her even after she fell asleep.'

Suichi sighed. 'Perhaps, but... What about Natalie? I'm sure she's feeling just as bad, if not even worse than Lisa right now... She was the one who convinced Lisa to come with her...'

Youko shrugged it off. 'Let one of the others help her out. Yusuke and Kuwabara might be idiots sometimes, but they're not heartless.'

'...I suppose you're right.' Kurama continued to unconsciously run his fingers up and down Lisa's back as he let her sleep up against him.

 

*****

 

Natalie, for her part, slowly entered her room, filled with an enormous sense of loss and helplessness. Not to mention the guilt of having gotten Lisa and herself into this situation in the first place.

She slowly shut the door behind her and before she even knew it, she was standing on the balcony overlooking the palace grounds. She just stood there staring out at the beautiful scenery, not really seeing it, and then she felt a sudden surge of frustration and anger seep through her. She whirled, both of her hands clenching into fists. She almost lashed out with her left hand, but switched to her right at the last moment, punching a marble pillar as hard as she could. She heard a sickening crunch with the action and for a few moments her anger subsided as delicious pain undertoned her emotional hurt. She had left a crack in the pillar, but her hand was completely mangled. The shattered bones in her hand were sending shock waves of pain up her arm that she barely felt after a couple of minutes. She wondered if her hand would ever be the same again.

Who gives a fuck? she thought to herself.

Absently holding her now crippled hand, she slowly wandered back into her room. Standing at the foot of the bed she stared off into space for a moment, the days events replaying themselves over in her mind. She remembered Lisa's last words to her.

“YOU BITCH!! THIS IS YOUR FAULT!! YOU TALKED ME INTO THIS AND NOW BECAUSE OF YOU WE'RE TRAPPED HERE!! I HATE YOU!!!!!”

“I HATE YOU!!!”

“I HATE YOU!!!”

Natalie slowly slid down to the floor as she felt the grief and guilt overcoming her anger and frustration. Hot tears suddenly formed rivers down her cheeks as she started to sob.

Had her mind not been otherwise distracted, she might have sensed Hiei, who was standing on the balcony in silence, watching the young woman.

He elevated an eyebrow when he sensed the ward around her mind fluctuating, her intense emotions stealing away her concentration.

He felt her emotions coming through to him, and was actually more than a little surprised when errant thoughts jumped from her mind and into his own.

“How could I have been so stupid? I should have come alone to this world to make sure it was safe!!”

“It's my fault!! It's all my fault!! Because of me, Lisa is trapped here too!! I never should have convinced her to come!!”

“Why is this shit happening to me? What the fuck did I do to deserve this? How could I have forgotten about the different laws of the different realms? I should have consulted the Akashic before I even made the journey!!”

“She hates me now... Lisa hates me... Fuck, I can't blame her, right now I hate myself...”

Hiei sighed, experiencing one of his rare moments of sympathy as he came in off the balcony and approached the girl who was still crouched on the floor crying. He was standing only a foot or so from her, and was growing just a little more concerned when she didn't seem to notice his presence at all. NOT a good sign.

Natalie's thoughts were awash with guilt and grief as she continued to sob, completely unaware of her surroundings.

“Hn. Lisa doesn't hate you. She's just upset right now. Her words were said out of anger at the situation itself, not anger toward you.”

Natalie's head jerked up at the familiar voice and was surprised to see Hiei standing in front of her, only about a foot away. She looked at him silently for a long minute before she forced herself to look away.

'Great... as if my day wasn't bad enough, now Hiei of all people, is watching me cry. If he didn't think I was pathetic before, he'll think I am now...'

“Stop it, Onna!!” he snapped at her, a little irritably. “Wallowing in self pity will not help you right now. And I don't think you're pathetic. You're human, that's all.”

Her expression turned to shock again in an instant. It was only then that she realized her ward was down. She tried to reinstate it, but gave up when her erratic emotional state kept interfering with her attempt. Not to mention she was completely exhausted as it was from viewing the Akashic Records. She realized at that point that she didn't really care if Hiei could see into her mind anymore.

She was startled out of her thoughts when she felt a warm hand gently settle on her right hand. She took in a sharp breath through her clenched teeth as Hiei knelt in front of her and examined the remains of her right hand.

It didn't take Hiei long to discover from looking through her mind exactly why her hand was in its current condition. Somehow her actions didn't really surprise him. He knew she wasn't feeling energetic enough to go to the medical ward to get it treated. Her energy was drained, and her emotional state was currently highly erratic, so there was little point in trying to talk sense into her at the moment. He thought, fleetingly, about carrying her to the medical wing, but brushed it off an instant later when he knew it would do nothing more than set her off on a rampage.

He sighed inwardly. He had one little known secret, and it looked as if this onna was about to learn it.

Natalie was about to give the koorime an earful about touching her hand, when she was startled into silence when he unexpectedly lifted her up into his arms.

“Um... what are you doing???” she asked a little warily. She wasn't able to keep herself from flushing with his sudden action.

Hiei didn't answer her as he then took up much the same position as Kurama had earlier in the night with Lisa. He leaned against the headboard with Natalie sitting in his lap. The woman was currently redder than Kurama's hair and he could sense her confusion coming from her in droves. He then took a hold of her right hand once again and pretended to examine it closely.

“Hn. Stupid Onna... you shattered every bone in your hand.”

She said nothing and couldn't seem to bring herself to look at him.

He had a hard time suppressing a smirk as his tongue unexpectedly contacted her skin, over a nasty looking cut on the side of her hand. Natalie let out a gasp of surprise at this action and she looked up in shock. Hiei wordlessly indicated her hand, and she blinked, her eyes almost popping out of her skull when she saw the cut he had just licked heal itself before her eyes.

She was unable to keep the awe from her features as she looked at him. “You can... heal?”

He nodded. “Hn. I do have the koorime's ability of healing, although it is difficult for me to tap into the actual energy itself. I have to do healing the hard way, through my saliva, since the blood of my father is dominant.” He smirked at her. “You look surprised. I thought you knew everything about me, onna.”

She blinked in surprise, and then ALMOST managed a small smile. “I guess I don't know as much as I thought.” she said quietly.

He continued to smirk as he continued working on her hand, gently giving her wounds small licks. She felt a shiver race up her spine at this contact. She wanted to ask him why he was doing this for her, but thought better of it. Why possibly bring this to an end for no other reason than to satisfy her curiosity? She was currently in a position any Hiei fan would kill for, and she decided to just enjoy it while it lasted.

She felt a dull ache in her temples and knew that her emotional state was responsible. Her eyelids grew heavy and before she even realized it, she had her head against Hiei's chest as her eyes slowly slid shut.

 

*****

 

Hiei almost fell off of the bed in shock when he felt Natalie rest her head against his chest. He probed her mind for a few seconds and was further shocked when he found the woman was asleep!! He was motionless for a long moment, contemplating this new development, before he finished off healing her mangled hand and set it down beside her.

He started to get up, intending on setting the woman down on the bed and leaving for the night, but he sensed unease in her mind and quickly settled down once more. He knew if he got up she would wake up as well. He cursed loudly in his mind and tried to think up a way out of this situation.

He was further stunned when the onna against him nuzzled in closer, her formerly mangled hand coming up to fist in his jacket.

Fuck, it looks like I'm staying here the night, he thought with a growl.

 

*****

 

Please R&R!!!! I wanna know what you think!!! THANKS!! ^_^