Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Snow Plant ❯ Snow Plant ( Chapter 1 )

Snow Plant

"Yukina! Yukina, are you coming or not?"

I ducked under the harsh, blizzard winds to catch up with the other girls from my village. I don't know who allowed me to come along, but they must have been feeling very generous. I'm not often taken on trips and expeditions like this. Especially if there's risk of meeting an outsider. Everyone is convinced I'll betray them all at the first possible chance.

I hear what they say about me. I try not to, but I still do anyway. And I wish I could ask them how they think I possibly could. This village is my home, the only one I've ever known, and if I leave again, they might never let me come back.

I explained that to Kazuma-san, though not in so many words. He had a difficult time of it, but in the end he didn't try to stop me.

I wonder why he would want to, though? Why would he care about me? Not many people do.

I am Yukina, loved by no one enough to be properly named. They took the first two words they could think of and tossed them together. Snow. Plant.

That's me. The snow plant. I could never exist in our pure white snow, and yet I do. I need the sunlight to vitalize me, as well as to melt the snow so that I may drink, like any plant.

And so I am a demon among demons. Fire among the snow.

But fire would destroy the little snow plant that I am, as easily as it would destroy the ice and snow of my maiden sisters.

They fail to realize this. I don't know why, it's a terribly simple concept. They are the ones who named me…

Or maybe I'm just being too symbolic. I giggled to myself at the thought; another `too' to add to the list of what I am. The Elders seem to enjoy telling me what I am `too.'

Too loud, too spirited, too playful… the list goes on. Too kind, too gentle, too adventurous. What respectable ice maiden would leave the village to search for a phantom brother? What respectable ice maiden even has a brother, for that matter?

Just me. Yukina, the snow plant.

And I still have not found him. My phantom brother. He is quite elusive. Sometimes I wonder if he may be avoiding me. Or if he even knows I exist. I hope he does. I want to find him. I want to have a meaningful relationship with him.

While Yusuke-san, Hiei-san, and Kazuma-san escorted me to the edge of the village, they asked me why I had been captured, and how. Kazuma-san was quick to say that if I didn't want to talk they would not make me, but… it had felt so nice to be able to speak with someone.

And so wicked to speak with men.

Ice maidens aren't to associate with men, and we're taught that's because they're wicked. Evil. Cruel. Whenever I wondered where my father was, and why he didn't save my mother and my brother from their fates, I found it easy to believe them. Whenever Tarukane-san tried to harm me for my hirui stones, it was even easier.

But when Kazuma-san, Yusuke-san, Botan-san, Kurama-san and Hiei-san stood around the compound, surveying the damage, teasing each other, and making sure all present were okay… When I thought of Kazuma-san's heroic victory over the Toguro brothers, and Hiei-san's quick reaction to my pleas, and everything else…

The people in the village called these people - men, humans, spirits - the worst the world can offer.

If Kazuma-san is the worst the world offers, I should think I would not be worthy of the best. I should think I would be perfectly happy just knowing about Kazuma-san and his friends. His male and female friends.

The biting winds had subsided by the time our little group reached the trading post. I pulled out the hiruiseki necklaces I had made from crying during my last days at Tarukane-san's mansion. If I am grateful to Kazuma-san and Hiei-san for only one thing, it is for giving me back my ability to feel.

But there are many more things.

Miki-san was bartering the silk she had embroidered. I think she was trying to get the fine quartz pendant the seller had on display.

Before leaving, we were told to decide on what we wanted before haggling. I didn't really see much of interest. But I ought to get something; I could not just save my necklaces for the next time. I had no idea if there ever would be a next time for me.

After Miki-san finally finished (she settled for a crystal barrette), Arimi-san went. Arimi-san took the warning seriously; she wanted that quartz pendant as well.

I sighed softly as she and the trader began to argue over the worth of Arimi-san's miniature ice sculptures. They were cute, I thought. I liked the one of the robins extending their wings. It looked real; they had been colored with Arimi-san's own blood. I had suggested when she made them to hunt for a berry plant that could live in the snow, but she had snapped at me like I committed blasphemy. Screaming horrible things, such as how I was the only plant stupid enough to believe itself worthy of snow…

I shook off the tears pinpricking in my eyes. It would not do any good to cry.

But I had been gone for five years, imprisoned, and yet, still so few cared about me. Only my guardian, and a few of the younger girls who could not remember my mother's transgressions.

I wonder if men are like that, at times. It didn't seem that Kazuma-san, Hiei-san, Kurama-san or Yusuke-san were. But then, what do I know, other than that they are good fighters who rescued me? I really know nothing about them, and yet…

I wish I did, I realized. I want to know more about those creatures called men. They're captivating me. Like a moth toward flame… oh, what a terrible phrase! Flames and insects, forbidden in the purity of the realm of snow… I giggled at all the thing I could be `too' for thinking like that.

But my giggling stopped abruptly. It was pointless. I would never have another chance to study the wondrous world of men. I was back home in the world of ice maidens. No men, no sunshine, nothing like that.

It was a rather depressing thought, and troubling to me. It should not depress me so much. This is my home, why should I want to leave?

The answers slammed into me with all the force of the passed blizzard.

My brother. Those kind boys, Kazuma-san and his friends.

Maybe a world where it's a good thing to be `too' everything I am?

I glanced back to where the trader was still trying to get the better of my maiden sisters. Arimi-san had settled for a pair of elegant, beaded sandals, and Suzu-san was leaning towards a blue glass pendant, over the pretty quartz.

Meiko-san was tapping her foot impatiently. She spared a glare for me, and I quickly went back to my examination of the trader's wares.

I felt guilty for wanting to learn more about Kazuma-san and Hiei-san's world all of a sudden. What right have I to leave the land of my birth? Never mind I've left this land before, and had the greatest thrill any ice maiden could dream of, before and after my capture, this land is my home, this land has always been where my foremothers and I lived…

This land where no one loves a misplaced little snow plant…

Foolish thoughts. Pointless. What can I do?

A bold print caught my wandering eyes.

It was a sort of news article, tucked carefully away into a corner of the trader's cart, on a shelf behind the lovely quartz pendant.

It was an intelligent maneuver, I thought. Newspapers were novelties here, where there was no raw material to make paper from. By positioning it behind the pendant, no one would notice it.

Except someone who didn't really care for the pendant.

Suzu-san was trying on a lace-and-ribbon bonnet, when the trader turned to me. I suppose all of them had been taken down, and now he hoped to do so to me.

I took another quick glance at the newspaper, trying to make out the article. It wasn't rolled up, but it was folded. It was a headline, and then a subtitle, but I could make out a little…

DARK TOURNAMEN BEGI

GUEST TEAM IS HUMAN URAME

Logically, the next word of the headline would be `begins.' And as for `Urame…' Urame, Urame, Urame-shi? Urameshi?

The guest team for the Dark Tournament is the human Urameshi Team?

Wasn't Yusuke-san's surname Urameshi…?

By the Northern Winds, the Urameshi Team would be the guest team for the Dark Tournament…

"The newspaper," I forced myself to say clearly, before the trader could address me. Inside, I felt like the blizzard: raging with ice and cold, winds biting my heart through my chest.

"The newspaper?" The trader repeated. "Not this lovely quartz pendant, a perfect match to your gorgeous crimson eyes?"

It wasn't a perfect match, and then I realized the other genius move behind displaying the quartz. If they set their sights so high, the trader could knock them down to just about anything…

"I would like the newspaper you hid behind the quartz pendant," I repeated. "The one with the article about the Dark Tournament." I displayed my own jewelry, my hirui stone necklace.

"All that for a paper?" the trader asked, disbelief ringing like a grand bell. "I'd be dumber than most ogres for not agreeing." He slid the paper from its spot and handed it to me, taking the necklace I offered.

I immediately unfolded the paper to read the whole article.

---

DARK TOURNAMENT BEGINS IN TWO WEEKS

GUEST TEAM IS HUMAN URAMESHI AND COMPANY

The human, Urameshi Yusuke, and his associates, fellow human Kuwabara Kazuma and demons Kurama and Hiei will be participating in this year's Dark Tournament as the guest team.

Urameshi is the defeater of Suzaku of the Shiseiju and the human-hunter Rando, and the supposed victor, in conjunction with Kuwabara, over the Toguro brothers until they disproved this rumor by asking for the human and his team of misplaced, mismatched and mistaken fighters to attend our Tournament.

Kuwabara is who defeated Byakko of the Shiseiju, and many members of the Toguro Brothers' gang. Kurama and Hiei are the once-celebrated `banes of Spirit Realm,' who, along with their associate Gouki, stormed the Spirit Realm Palace and made off with three of the most sacred treasures… only to be defeated by Urameshi, and then go on to join his group and defeat the Shiseiju members Genbu and Seiryuu, respectively.

It is hoped that all four will meet a vicious, bloody death, along with whoever agrees to be their fifth team member.

---

I was horrified at the article, which went onto describe Kazuma-san and the others' abilities, general statistics, and history.

Miki-san was reading over my shoulder, and smirked. "Good thing, I say. Human men are probably the worst of all."

Suzu-san nodded, still admiring her new bonnet. Meiko-san tapped her foot again, and tested the wind.

"Let's go, girls."

Numbly, I followed them, still reading and re-reading the article. The detail that bit the hardest was that the Toguro brothers had requested their presence. The Toguro brothers, whom they had met saving a misplaced snow plant who had not been smart enough to stay where she belongs. Who had been out searching for a brother who may be dead.

They had already almost died for me, these men I didn't even know, and Botan-san, and here they were, still paying for it…

There must be something I can do…!

The blizzard winds were back in full force, ruffling the skirt of my kimono, and slipping under my thick hair to comfortably chill my neck and face. I looked up into them, feeling the air dry my eyes and force them to water and tear… placing perfect tear gems into my snowy hand.

There must be something… a way I can help. A way to keep them from danger, to apologize for the trouble I've caused.

A way for Kazuma-san to teach me about the ways of men. A way to explain why these men would help a girl they don't know.

And… when they asked about why I had been away from my village, I told them about my phantom brother. Then Kazuma-san told me about his older sister… And maybe, just maybe they would help me find my brother, my answers, and that place where a misplaced little snow plant was not so misplaced after all…

I could help them. I could heal them. If I could make it to the Dark Tournament… I had two weeks…

I could do it.

Please be careful, Kazuma-san. Please keep yourselves alive, all of you, until I can get there. Please.

If you can accept the help of a snow plant that nobody loves, that only you all seem to care for…

I'll make up for this trouble, I promise you. I won't be a burden after this.

I'll find out everything I need to find out, and we'll all be fine.

And maybe this little snow plant will finally set her roots.

---

Ten points to whoever knows where I got the names of Yukina's companions.