Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Wandering Souls ❯ Friendship ( Chapter 13 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Notes= **Blushes** There's nothing like good reviews to help break a block. I'm sorry that this chapter is so late. I had a writer's block. Even though I have a plot and an outline, I still ended up with a block on writing it. After all, a good story is written instead of posting the general plot and outline on the sites. -___- that is what's wrong with a few stories I've seen, people come up with a nice idea for a story but they post what is actually an outline, not a fleshed out story, and that is what ruins some possibly good stories.
In response to several reviews= I do have this story plotted and outlined to the very end. As I stated in the beginning, this story starts shortly after the Chapter Black. I had planned for Yusuke, Kurama & Hiei to eventually go to Makai, leaving Kuwabara as the Detective. It was only when I was writing it that I decided for him to become the detective in that manner --- in a case of do or get arrested. I highly doubt that Spirit World would turn a blind eye to the only person who's able to cut the barrier. I also doubt that Kuwabara would NOT train with the new sword, the Jigen Tou. Look at facts, when he first discovered the Reiken, he trained himself and learned how he could manipulate it during the time that Yusuke was training with Genkai. He made a remark along the lines that he couldn't let Urameshi get ahead of him. I think that he stepped back, and wanted a 'normal life' in the series is due completely to the outside forces that interfered with Togashi's writing. Interference from Shonen Jump is why most people say that he ended the series. Since I do have this outlined, I cannot fit any sort of Tournament in, sorry. But you'll be amazed with I do have going on in about, oh, the next 13 or so chapters. Yes, I've got the outline done to about chapter 29. That would be the end unless a creative muse inspires me to add more.

Ch. 12 Friendship
"Kuwabara-kun, are you all right?" Kurama finally spoke up after watching his fiend stare off into space for some time.
"Yeah, I'm okay." Kuwabara replied as he mentally went over the prior day's events. "Just thinking about what all happened yesterday, you know. I always thought that Hiei would return to the Makai. I realized that you have ties to both worlds. So I was prepared for the fact that you two may pick up and go off to the Makai at some point."
Kurama nodded his head in understanding, seeing his point. "However, none of us suspected that Yusuke would do such a thing. After all, we did not know that he had some distant youkai ancestor that is one of the Three Kings. Until Sensui killed Yusuke, everyone thought that he was from a completely ningen bloodline. Just as we thought of you." Kurama maintained his composure and did not laugh as Kuwabara's eyebrow twitched in annoyance. "I take it that you still resent the Reikai agents for putting you through those tests to verify that you are fully human with no ancient youkai ancestor."
"Of course I'm still sore over that --- literally!" Before Kurama could rebuff him for his choice of wording, Kuwabara continued on. "I don't care if the Sensui crap ended nine months ago. Those were really nasty tests those Reikai bozos made me go through. All they cared about was if I had youkai blood in me or not. I still have nightmares about the pain two different tests caused."
That sort of admission from someone known for his ability to handle pain surprised Kurama. "Were they that bad?"
Stopping in his tracks, Kuwabara looked at his friend dead on. "Have you heard of the Idenshi Hitofushi test that Reikai has? Well, I had to endure that test not once, not twice, but three times!"
At he sound of that test's name, Kurama paled. "That type of gene strain test is rumored to be very agonizing since it entails that magic is forced into a person's cell structure. It's said that many that undergo the test die due to the pain alone. The process makes the person feel as if they were on fire..."
"It's more like being dipped in acid." Kuwabara interjected as he shuddered. "Yeah, you got that much right. Once they force this searching magic into the cells, it starts to search for specific traits. This test can tell if someone has ningen or youkai blood. Or they could narrow it to something like if you're descended from a psychic, mystic or even to identify the main type of magic was used by the ancestors."
With that said, Kurama suspected that he had his answer to one question that he had since Kuwabara said he underwent the test. "So they made you take the test three times? One run was to verify if you are currently fully human. The second run was to see if you had any dormant youkai blood, similar to Yusuke. Why did they perform the test a third time?"
"To see what type of magic is predominate in my bloodline. It turns out that Reikai doesn't have complete records on me. They know some of my mom's history, like that she was a minor psychic. Reikai knows the her mom, my grandma, was also a psychic that has a career as a fortune teller and she was killed when my mom was fourteen. They know some more stuff about my mom's family. But since my father was visiting gaijin and not living under Reikai's jurisdiction, all they know is the very basics."
"What basics do they know?" Needles to say that Kurama was curious. After all, there was so little known about his ningen friend. It was obvious that the Kuwabara household held only the two siblings, but it was only recently that Kurama found out that their mother died in childbirth, nearly loosing Kazuma himself.
"The little they know before all this was exactly what mom and Shizuru knew. The man that sired me came from Ireland and named Ewan O'Brien. He was in Japan for a stage performance when he met mom." Kazuma grinned after throwing out that little tidbit.
'So the game begins anew.' Kurama thought to himself with a chuckle. The two sat in the park in a comfortable silence for a time, watching a group of children play in the distance. "This game of curiosity and paitence is one game we could only play with each other, seeing how Hiei hates games, preferring to be 'up front'. While Yusuke ..."
"Tchee, Urameshi's worse," snorted Kuwabara. "Not only does Urameshi have no paitence, that baka doesn't know what a clue is if it jumped out at him yelling that it's name is Clue." Kuwabara laughed, remembering some gifts that he had bought for the then-still-active Spirit Detective.
"Now Kuwabara-kun," Kurama chided his friend. "Be fair, Yusuke's not that bad. And speaking of clues..."
"You want a clue? For which one, A or B? You're giving Urameshi too much credit, Kurama. Remember last Christmas, I gave him several movies, a badge and a book. Hell, Hiei and Botan, who don't actually live in this society, even got the hint, but not that blockhead."
Both laughed at the memory of Yusuke opening a box of movies, ranging from Pink Panther to Inspector Gadget to Dudley Do Right to the Keystone Cops. At Urameshi's puzzled expression, Kuwabara handed him a second gift which turned out to be a book titled 'The Idiot's Guide to being a Detective '. The third gift was a badge that read 'Hired Muscle'.
"Very well, I concede on that point. Did you know that Yusuke asked me three times what those gifts were about?" Kurama smiled at the memories of Yusuke demanding to know why the others found the gifts so funny. "The first time I asked him if he watched the movies for there's a common theme to them. The second time Hiei was there and said 'Go read that book, Detective'."
The mental image of Hiei telling off Yusuke made Kuwabara bark our a short laugh. "Let me guess, Hiei put some emphasis on the titledetective."
"Yes, and your snarl is a very good impersonation of Hiei's contempt. I haven't forgotten or been sidetracked, both." This was another reason why Kurama enjoyed his friendship with Kuwabara. Many times before they had talked about two different topics at the same time, take the current conversation, for instance. Now they have started to talk about about the insulting gifts to Yusuke and the history of Kuwabara's family. 'Or more precisely, clues about his family history. These types of conversation demands a sharp mind to catch the sudden switch of topic and remember what is being said. I am shocked at myself that I allowed Kuwabara-kun's act and the others thoughts of him cloud my perception of him. When I think on all of his abilities, it's clear that he's not stupid.'
Kuwabara had no hint to Kurama's moment of insight, after all, Kurama is always thinking. "Okay, here's clue one for hint A: The earliest aspects of my reikan works well with this type of magic." Smiling at Kurama's look of confusion, Kuwabara went on. "And now for hint B: He was not practicing his family's main type of magic in that performance." Kuwabara knew that most likely Kurama could figure out what he was referring to in hint B but A was much more obscure.
"Well done, Kuwabara-kun. You're getting better at being vague in your discussions. I have a suspicion for B, but the first one is ambiguous." Kurama laughed, before falling silent to ponder on the clues. After that, They went their separate ways for the night.
For the next ten days, they would meet up to spend time together. Sometimes, Kurama would go over to the Kuwabara residence and join Kazuma, Shizuru and Yukina for breakfast. Other days, Kuwabara would have dinner at Kurama's house. In the time between, they would go to school, then spend time alternating between arcades and homework. Kurama arranged for the last year of school to be a at-home schooling, therefor he wouldn't fail while he traveled to Makai, and the past years of studying would not be a waste. Kurama also helped Kuwabara with his studies for high school entrance exams. Both Kuwabara and Keiko took the exams and got the results several days before Kurama's departure to the Makai.
"Yes! All that hard work paid off!" Kuwabara cried out as he performed a little victory dance. He was so excited that he ran to Kurama's house even though they usually meet each other at the arcades on the weekends. Kuwabara Kazuma simply couldn't wait to tell the good news. "That means that we have two reasons to have a big dinner tonight." His sudden silence got everyone's attention. "Scratch that. You need to be with your family during these last few days before the wedding and you leave. Sorry, I let myself get carried away."
Shiori smiled at her son's friend. "No need to be embarrassed Kazuma. I've already invited you to the wedding since you are a good friend of my son and I know that Shuichi has asked you to watch over us while he's in the Makai."
"Mother, I never told you about asking Kuwabara-kun that. How did you...." Kurama's words died on his tongue. It was rare for his mother to startle him to the point of being tongue-tied.
"You've told me about your past life as Youko Kurama, how you worked for the spirit world and Kuwabara-san is your only teammate that is staying while you need to return to the Makai. It is common sense that as protective as you are, that you would ask him to watch over us." Shiori smiled as she started to serve dinner. "I will call your sister, Kazuma, and Keiko's parents. I think it would be a good idea to plan a dinner to serve as both a celebration for you and Keiko getting into college and a going away party fro Shuichi."
Later on as Kurama walked with Kuwabara on his way home, he decided to ask for another clue. "I believe I've figured out mystery B, however you were successful at making A more difficult."
Kuwabara snorted a short laugh at Kurama's choice to ask for more clues. It figures that he wouldn't come out and ask for more hints. "Fine, I'll go ahead and give a second set of hints. Here's another clue for hint A= When many people think of this type of magic, they think of the writer, H.P. Lovecraft's fictional book, mistakenly believing it's a real book and not realizing the truth, that the book was fictional and it's not about what people commonly thought. And after I give the second clue for B, we'll see if you can guess it. He chose mom out of the audience to assist him."
Kurama laughed at the last clue. "I do believe I have the answer for hint B = 'The man that sired you was name Evan O'Brien. He was in Japan for a stage performance when he met your mom.' From the clues I guess that your father made his living as a stage magician, performing sleight of hand tricks, illusions and minor magic tricks. Am I correct?"
"Yeah, you got that one right. Any guess on hint A?" Kuwabara laughed at the sight of Kurama's confusion. "I already gave you two clues."
Later that night, Kurama sat at his computer, surfing the web for information on H.P. Lovecraft as he went over the clues for the first hint at Kuwabara's family history. 'Reikai performed test to see what kind of magic were predominate in his family. The clues referred to his father's side more than his mother's. In clue one he said that the earliest aspects of his reikan works well with the magic of his father's family.' As he sat there Kurama remembered what Yusuke told him. 'Before he could form the reiken, Kuwabara could sense ghosts. Does that mean it was some magic that dealt with ghosts?' Making a note to search for a connection between ghosts and magic, Kurama began to read some of the stories written by Lovecraft. Much later, Kurama shook his head. At first glance it doesn't look like there is much of a connection between the two clues for hint A. "From the sites I visited, I've learned that H.P. Lovecraft's most fictional book, was actually only mentioned in his stories. The Necronomicon is often thought to be a grimore on necromancy, but Lovecraft actually had it as a historic book of ancient gods it seems. How do the clues link together?"
After another hour was spent going over his notes, Kurama felt as if he came up with an answer. Many people mistakenly believe the Necronomicon was a book of necromancy. However, necromancy originally was a form of divination by spirits. Since many Christians believed that contacting the dead was an evil practice, they believed that necromancy was black magic and therefor necromancers were able to cast curses.
'Kuwabara-kun's earliest powers was able to sense ghosts, necromancy was originally a form of divination through ghosts. A modern twist was the Spiritism Movement of America and Britain in the 1800's, Now days it's most common form is Spiritualism. Did the family of Kuwabara's father practice Spiritualism?'
TBC----
idenshi = gene, genetic hitofushi = a joint, section, strain, measure. -kun = a suffix added to names of male friends, Think of Kagome saying Kouga-kun. Its used for boys, -chan is used for girls, and sometimes for young boys. Makai = demon world Reikai = spirit world ningen = human youkai = demon /// interesting fact= if you go to to translate youkai, it shows ghost and apparition but it does not show demon in the translations. Go figure baka = many who read anime knows that baka means both fool and idiot, but it also means foolish and trivial matter.
I went to freedict.com to get the translation for the gene strain test. If you think that it's incorrect, then before trying to scold me, go to freedict.com and look it up. There's a lot of languages to choose from. There are two boxes to use, one translates English to Japanese, the second Japanese to English. I always use both. After typing in gene, it gives me several words =ji-n, gen, idenshi. Since some words can mean several things, I then use the Japanese to English, to see which word is the better choice. Both ji-n and gen mean gene, but idenshi means gene, genetic. Therefor I chose idenshi. I used the same process for strain. Strain had six different translations, then some of those words could mean more than strain. Karou =overwork, strain. Igami = strain, distortion, bend., I could go on but you get the picture. I chose hitofushi since it it suits my purposes better than the others. You can translate idenshi hitofushi as either gene strain, genetic strain or genetic measure.
I got the spelling for Shuichi out of the the novels so it's correct. But I'm not sure on Shiori, his mother, they didn't spell her name in the graphic novel 3, only addressed her as Minamino or mother.
Notes. Timelines are such a pain, but they create order for a good story. I find many good plots ruined by not watching a timeline for the story. I originally has Kuwa saying in this chapter = "I don't care if the Sensui crap ended five months ago. " But when I consulted the timeline outline I created I realized somethings=
A) 6 months after the Chapter Black saga--beginning of Wandering Souls, B)3 months after the gang war(G.W.) started, 9 months since D.T. ---The three Makai Lords sends invitations to Yusuke, Hiei and Kurama, they accept. Kuwabara becomes the official Spirit Detective.
In my story, Sensui attacked only one week after the Dark Tournament and so far, the events in 'Wandering Souls' has spanned three months. Due to this I went and changed the time Kuwa said from 5 month to 9 months.!__!
I cant remember if its Dudley Doright, DoRight, or Do Right. Heck, it may have been none of them! From the cartoon and movie that I remember he's a bumbling Canadian Mountie. Same goes for the Keystone Cops, it could be Kops , I didn't see too many of their shows. Main thing I remember is it came from Britain and was about bumbling cops.

I got my information about H.P. Lovecraft and his Necronomicon from several sites, yes I actually did some research before adding that into the story. One site is the the Necronomicon Anti-FAQ., another was a site for Lovecraft. And yes there are some people who think that the book is real, but it was created by Lovecraft for his stories. As I said in the story, Lovecraft only mentioned the Necronomicon in his other stories, it was a record of the ancient gods, not a book on necromancy, or death magic.