Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Winter's end ❯ Danger: cliff ahead ( Chapter 5 )

o_o So many reviews—again! I'm amazed! I adore you all, devoted addic—fans! ^^; And for those of you wondering about the lemon, it shall not happen until later chapters (not before ten). So, enjoy!

 

Disclaimer: Kimori is mine—still—but Ray is—still—not mine. The plot, as always, is all mine.

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Chapter 5: Danger: cliff ahead

 

“Have you seen Ray?” asked Shuichi, slightly short of breath, his face red from the cold wind whipping against his face.

 

The girls shook their heads, their lips stretched into hopeless loving smiles. Kurama sighed softly and nodded, “Thanks anyway...” and he walked on. 'I could have sworn I heard her voice...' he thought, leaving the group of girls gathering their belongings.

 

Kimori smirked, “Let's not forget.” she snickered and kicked Ray's backpack off the edge. Down the cliff it goes. Good bye, fellow backpack.

 

“Nor this.” added the devious brunette, throwing the jacket down the cliff to smile contently when she saw it being stuck on some pine branches.

 

“Now, let's go back and tell sensei.” smiled Kimori, walking on in front of the group, the snow crunching under each step. Since it was snowing heavily, it took about ten minutes for their footsteps to completely disappear.

 

“Is everyone here?” shouted their teacher, an arm on his forehead to try and lessen the impact of snow on his face. The harmless snow falling from the sky twenty minutes ago had somehow transformed into a full scaled blizzard. The students walked in rows of three, or else they'd have trouble just taking a step forward.

 

“Sensei—!” shouted Kimori, putting on her anxious face, “Ray slipped off the edge!”

 

The teacher's eyes widened, his mouth opened but no sound was heard—mostly because of the wind. “When?”

 

“Just when we were walking back.” replied Kimori loudly, trying to cover the howling of the wind.

 

Biting his lip, the teacher had to make a decision. Make all his students freeze to death to find one who was—most likely— dead by this time or go back and go look for Ray when the blizzard lessened in intensity? They were way too high on Mount Fuji to survive any kind of fall. “Head back for the bus!” cried the teacher, using his hands to project his voice.

 

Kimori led her little group towards the bus that would take them down and back to the hotel, a smirk plastered on her lips. Mission accomplished. Success rate, probably 100%.

 

Meanwhile, you might wonder what Shuichi made of this discovery? At first, his eyes widened and his heart nearly skipped a beat. But he quickly recomposed himself and decided to ditch his classmates to find Ray. He knew she was clumsy at times, but to “slip off” a mountain? I don't think so.

 

Using his inhuman speed and agility, he hurriedly jumped out of sight from the class and retraced his steps, squinting to find any little clue for Ray's footsteps. Not working. Drats, maybe he should use his acute sense of smell. But the snow replaced any smell with that of water.

 

Cursing, Kurama decided to rely on his eyes, his perfect vision should be able to spot anything—unusual. Trailing back to where he first lost Ray, he walked the path he saw her run until she vanished from his sight around the corner. There, he stopped and kneeled down, remembering he encountered one fan group of his.

 

A peculiar sound caught his attention and made him look towards the flapping fabric in a tree, some feet below. 'Her jacket?' Now that was an interesting discovery, he knew for a fact she'd never take it off in the middle of the snow, especially on a mountain.

 

She had said so herself, once before, as a little girl, she had nearly died in a blizzard and now refused to disperse her one survival clothing: her jacket. So... why was it flopping in the snowy wind? Frowning, Kurama carefully examined the cliff below his feet. It was slippery, yet manageable to climb down.

 

Slowly and carefully, Kurama followed Ray's trail—completely oblivious that she had taken this very same path. A cold, high speed gust of wind nearly ripped Kurama off the side of the cliff and he had to hang on with one hand before deciding this was taking too long and, glancing behind him, back flipped in a tree, grabbing onto a branch to stop his fall.

 

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Groaning in pain, Ray forced her eyes to open slowly. This was really uncomfortable... Attempting to raise her head, she felt her lower body move into thin air before slipping off the branch she had landed on. Coughing some snow out of her mouth and shivering intensely, Ray once again urged her eyes to open... Only to shiver more at the sight of all that snow.

 

Trying to stand up, she grunted loudly, feeling something out of place in her thoracic cage. 'Must be—a broken rib...' she thought, clenching her teeth, using her right arm to push her numb body in an awkward sitting position. Dizzily, the gray haired teenager gazed up at the tree she just fell down from. Looking through the thick branches, up, way up, she could distinguish the cliff she thought she recognized.

 

Slightly squinting, Ray gave up. '... There's no way I survived that fall...' she thought dizzily, a black veil blinding her momentarily. 'I'm so—tired...' Numb from the cold, Ray's body started shifting to the right, nearly collapsing when she snapped her eyes open. “Who's there?” she whispered before cringing, one hand holding her ribs in pain.

 

There it was again! That soft whisper playing in the wind... “... nd up.” repeated the soft spoken voice. But Ray was too exhausted and in too much pain to pay attention. “Stand up.” echoed the voice, making Ray look at that—little girl!?

 

Where the heck did she come from!? “Stand up.” she whispered, looking down at Ray who forced herself up, only to bite her lip and quieting a yelp. Her ankle—her left angle must be fractured if it caused so much pain.

 

“This way.” whispered the small girl, gesturing for Ray to follow her. Blindly obliging, Ray stood up and leaned against the tree, limping after the intriguing, yet soothing, girl leading her through the forest. “Hurry.” urged the mysterious guide. Strangely enough, she was dressed in white and seemed to blend in perfectly with her surroundings.

 

Dragging her left foot in the snow, oblivious to the drops of blood tainting the snow, Ray breathed heavily, using the trunks of trees as support to keep going. She couldn't feel how cold she was, she couldn't feel her hands, or her face, or even her bleeding wounds. The cold erased everything, as if to clean everyone of everything. Here, in the snow, you were born again.

 

The glowing guide stopped in her tracks at the sound of a body collapsing. Turning back, the nameless guide observed Ray losing her grip on reality and surrendering to the world beyond human awareness.

 

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Back to our heroic, agile Kurama who was trying really hard not to slip off a branch, or lose his balance. He still had a way to go. He had to admit, as optimistic as he was, he seriously began to wonder if Ray could still plausibly be alive after such a fall. He wasn't even half way there and he was already breathless!

 

After another twenty minutes of battling his way through branches and dropping a good hundred feet, Kurama finally touched the ground! Standing up and brushing strands of hair out of his face, he slightly gawked at the beauty a true blizzard could have even in a forest such as Aokigahara, who's frightening reputation kept the tourists away—for the most part.

 

Kurama began glancing around for any sign that might indicate Ray had survived, or was still there when an unusual glow caught his attention. 'Is that—a melody?' Shielding his eyes with one arm, Kurama walked towards the soft singing voice, nearly falling forward when he stepped into snow as deep as his knee.

 

A sudden gust of wind from below made him look up and his eyes slightly widened when they momentarily stared at a transparent figure. Blinking away the snow, he looked again, but no one was there. He took another step forward, shivering at the damp cold against his leg. What else should he expect? The snow melted and was absorbed by his pants.

 

Squinting, he took a couple more steps, slowly and carefully as to not fall over. What was that gray string the wind was playing with? His eyes widened when he saw deathly pale skin, closed eyes, drops of crimson blood, and blue lips nearly buried by the snow. “Ray!?”

 

No way! Kurama hurried towards the frozen body and tripped over something under the snow, falling face first. Pushing himself out of the—obviously—cold snow, he stayed on his knees and blindly reached in the snow in hopes of grabbing Ray.

 

And tada! What do you know? He miraculously grabbed her—hair? Digging like a dog, Kurama shoved the snow off Ray and now grabbed her arm, pulling her up and out of the snow that was holding her down, as if the Earth was her coffin.

 

“Ray—” he said softly, pulling her to him. She was freezing. Freezing to death.

 

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Sorry for the shortness... I was sort of—lacking ideas to continue this chapter and I thought this would be a great cliffie... Don't you hate me now? ... Don't answer that, it was rhetorical... Wait-- on second thoughts, don't hate me! And don't kill me! If you kill me... I can hardly update... >.>

 

I appreciate constructive criticism or simply reviews... I have to say, you lot of reviewers are awesome! You simply make my day every time I read what you wrote! =D

 

inuyuyu_15: o.o Forgotten!? Haha, yes that is why you are re-reading... I forget stuff myself. I had to catch myself in a chapter and be like “hey now wait a sec... what did I write?” and I go back and re-read. *cough*

 

Methos: Haha! I hadn't realized! That—was so funny. I burst out laughing kind of loudly... ^^; Thanks for reviewing!

 

Sly Vixen706: o.O That was weird indeed. Haha, dark despair? I like the alliteration... But that's kind of sad... Good! Now I'm assured I get to live until I'm 19. *wipes sweat from brow* I was worried for a moment... that I might not make it because of rabid reviewers o.o But now—all is well. ^^; Thanks for reviewing!

 

midnight fox: Meep! *hides behind Kurama* Um... >.> I... am... was... had to work... ^^;; *runs away after updating* Thanks for reviewing *echo fades*

 

missy: Haha, you're second this time >.> *cough* As for the cliffies... ._. Um... I-- don't know! *hides* Please don't kill me? *puppy eyes*

 

Meep_4ever: Yay! One of the few not threatening me to update... ^^;; *cough* Well, thanks for reviewing! *runs away from rabid fans*

 

Nekomi_Meow: ^^;; Me-- sorry? Hehe, I don't know why I have so many cliffies...>.> Um... I'm just-- evil at heart I guess. *cough* ^^; Haha, yeah it was cute when they were um-- getting along. Ish. Except Kurama wanted to mess her hair up :P Thanks for reviewing!

 

Kurama_s_Girl_911: W00t! Success! Another addict! ... *cough* I mean... >.> I hope you'll enjoy the rest of the story. ^^;

 

BBVixenXoXo: Yay! New reviewer! ^-^ An update for the addicts, hehe. =) Thanks for reviewing!!!

 

someone: Ah, good question... Sorry to disappoint, it's in later chapters... As in, past chapter ten. ^^;; Don't fret though! We should get there soon enough if my creativity keeps up and I keep getting reviews. =) So, thanks for reviewing!

 

Silver-arctos-star: Haha jump off? Don't you mean get shoved off? *wink wink* Not uncalled for, totally justified! :P Yes Yukio is... evil. >.> I shall update for my fans ^.^