Wandering Souls

Notes= This is going to be dark, unlike my other works. I have written angst before, but it
was balanced with humor, even it was dark or sarcastic. I want this to be different. I am
aiming for a dark-fic, MAJOR angst. Knowing me, I will end up tossing some humor in
somewhere, but I do want this to be dark. I am hoping to achieve it, please review and tell
me how I do. I have not seen too many fics where the focus is Kuwabara's spirit
awareness, But I know I have never seen the following plot or what I have in plan for his
friends…

Summary = Kuwabara up up as a psychic, because of that people always misunderstood
him. The others, as demons, have Makai; Botan has Reikai. However, is there anywhere
for a human with powers to belong to? Or are the condemned to wonder the fringes of
society as outcasts?

Setting=AU, This after Yusuke finding out he’s a descendent of a youkai, after the Sensui Saga.
Hiei did not get a pardon and still trapped in Ningenkai on parole. They have not met the various
leaders of Makai, meaning there are yet no alliances with Muruko, Yomi or Raizen. So only a year
and a half has passed since the beginning of the show, Kuwabara and Yusuke are both 15, nearing
16. Kurama’s human form is now 17. Hiei is already a fully-grown demon. Most of the time, I can’t
stand to change the guys excessively much. So, he is as short as they make him to be in the show,
no ‘Ohh he’s grown taller’ that would indicate that he is not fully-grown to begin with.

Disclaimer= I do not own any characters from Yu Yu Hakusho.


YYH= Wondering Souls

On to the story~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In a far plain in Makai the cries of rage and hate mingled with a shout of annoyance.

"Damn it, Kuwabara!Snap out of it you jackass! We're in the middle of a fight here!"
Urameshi Yusuke hollered as a ten foot tall demon charged at the detective. Urameshi jumped
to the side as the tall but lumbering demon made a grab for him. The miss caused it loose it's
balance and fall over.

Three demons fell as Kuwabara Kazuma cut them in half using the Reikan. However,
it was obvious that Kuwabara's attention was elsewhere. His reaction time was slower, he wasn't
hollering with his normal bravado, and his eyes---His eyes seem to be focused on some distant
event. "Something's wrong..."

"Well, duh you stupid ass!" Urameshi shouted as his rei-gun took down another of
the opposition. "We're here to stop these stupid little demons from using an artifact to resurrect
some dead lord and here you are, daydreaming like we're on vacation!"

" Shut up, Urameshi! There's something wrong back home. My posse..." Kuwabara
paused as he cut another member of the demon cult. "...no, my entire gang... they're in trouble..."

Although the demons they were facing were minor demons- only class D- there were
overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of them. Cutting the opposition down is not the problem, cutting
BACK the numbers of the force is the difficult task. For every one of the mongrel rat demons killed, it
seemed as two more took it's place. Even as Kurama used the rose whip to behead a dozen of the
fiends, a force of over three times that was running out of the abandoned temple. Kurama readied
his whip , but widened his eyes as he saw that this 'force' was paniking for the most part. As the
last ones ran out to the open, he could see why. At least four of them were running for the river in
a vain attempt to douse the fires on their backs, legs or arms.

"FHOOWSH"

Within seconds the temple was engulfed in blazes. A purposeful footfall announced
Hiei's return to the battle outside. At Kurama's curious glance, Hiei produced a green orb. "Feh,
I have the artifact. Let's finish with these vermin and get out of here."

Soon many of the vast numbers were that of the dead. demonic wererats. Only a
hand full were left to eliminate. However, that was when the feeling of ill-ease grew for Kuwabara.
Before he could stop it, he was experiencing double vision. But this wasn't the normal type that
most thing of. Not with the clan Kuwabara's hereditary psychic powers involved. No, Kuwabara is
experiencing clairvoyance, having a scene of one remote location superimposed onto the scene
of his current location.

Needless to say seeing two different locations at once is very disorientating. Imagine
if a psychic was at a cliff's edge and had the image of city street imposed on that? Both scenes
seen equally real to the psychic, how can you move from the crowd without falling off the cliff? It
is because of such situations that when a psychic starts to have this type of vision, they would
stand still and close their eyes. The current scenery from his vision would be blocked out but not
the mental vision of the remote one. The reaction is often instinctive, just as a person blinks when
a friend throws a hand quickly in the face.

As the vision took hold, Kuwabara indeed instinctively stopped in mid-step. His eyes
shot open after a second but to Kuwabara it seems as if time was dragging.
"No! Okubo!" Kuwabara reached out in front of him, as a sword descended.

The other three looked over to see what made Kuwabara cry out for. They saw nothing
in front of the tall human, only on fiend that was approaching fast from the left.

They were surprised when Kuwabara did nothing to protect himself as the demon raised a mace.


~~~~~In Reikai~~~~~~~~~~~~

The normal chaos was in order in the Reikai Palace. Ogres running back and
forth, Ferry girls zooming off to fetch the newly departed and in Koenma's office, all was
going the normal route. There sat the prince of Reikai at his desk, ignoring the steadily
growing piles of paper work as he watch the screen of the spirit world TV. On the screen
it showed hid favorite team of spirit detectives on their latest mission which has taken the
to Makai.

A reverberating crash echoed in Koenma's formally quiet office as Jorge barged
in crying out "Koenma-sama! I got some terrible news, sir! Take a look at this report."
He held out the papers in his hand, only to be ignored.

When his personal assistant did not move for several minutes, Koenma turned
To regard him with narrowed eyes. "Jorge Satatome, I am busy monitoring this most
recent mission I sent Yusuke and the others on. Put it on my desk."

"But Koenma-sama, it concerns Ku…"
"I don't care! I said I was busy! Now shut up!"

The argument was halted when Botan came rushing into the office. "Koenma-
sama! I got some terrible news! It's dreadful, it concerns Kuwabara!"

"That's what I was trying to say to him! But no, he cuts me off." Jorge waved a
hand at the glowering prince before turning his attention to Botan. "You didn't bring
them with you?"

The blue-haired ferry girl faced the blue-skinned ogre with a panicked look.
"That's the terrible part! They refused to c" S" She had to wait to continue until Jorge's
exclamation of WHAT died. "They said they needed to stay, even after death, they are
completely loyal to him!"

"Oh dear, this is no good. Especially after this dreadful mission." Jorge ignored
Botan's questions and merely pointed at the TV screen. "Watch, they are being even
crueler with poking jokes at Kuwabara today."

Up to that point Koenma was standing on is desk jumping up and down while
waving his hands and screaming "What are you two talking about!" He stopped they
both hissed shhh in unison. All attention was given to the screen.

~~~In the Makai~~

The four agents of Koenma had finished a typical mission and were now on their
way back to the portal that would take them to Reikai. Kuwabara was setting a fast pace,
running at an astonishing fast pace.

The others were keeping up with him but they were annoyed with two facts
Yusuke was the one to point them out. "Hey Kuwabara, slow down! We finished the
mission in time so why hurry? Are you in that much of a rush to get out of the demon
realm? Besides your IS still broken, baka."

On Kuwabara's other side, Kurama turned to face him. "Indeed, Kuwabara-kun,
we need to stop of a moment. Normally you have healed by now. At the very least, let me
tend to the bone that's sticking out and use my plants to stabilize the arm."

Shaking his head, Kuwabara refused. "No! That's not it at all. I told you that
something was wrong back in Ningenkai, something to do with my friends. I have to get
back there!" He was in a panic to get back home. Some had gone wrong , very wrong
indeed.

"Hn, it's his own fault his arm got broken. If he didn't loose his concentration
back there, that low class demon would never have hit him with it's club. What an
amateur." Hiei wasted no pity on the only human of the group.

"Hiei's right, sho shouldn't daydream in the middle of a fight, Kuwabara"
Yusuke said as he stepped in front of the towering human and stopped. Which tripped
Kuwabara to the ground.Ignoring the cry of pain, Kurama wasted on time in running to
him and using the diversion to check on his arm.

Kuwabara didn't pay any attention to Kurama as he pointed a finger in Yusuke's
face. "Listen, bacen wen we fought against the Saint Beasts and we were her in the
Makai, I told you that I sensed that Keiko wn dan danger back in Ningenkai. And I was
right! So don't you tell me that I was daydreaming! I know something's happened to my
friends!" With saying that, he got up to continue to run.

Yusuke gave a pointed look to Kurama. "How his arm? Shit, I've given him some
broken bones in the past but he heals up fast. Damn that baka, there's been times that I
really hurt him, but he's all healed and is looking like he never got in a fight not even
five minutes later."

"Kuwabara's arm is healing, slowly but surely." Kurama shook his head in
contemplation. "It seems that he's not healing quite as fast as normal because he is
foolishly putting all his powers into this run."

Kuwabara ran on ahead, refusing to wait for the others. He did not want to hear their
words, however he still did. How ironic that they give words of concern only for them to
be followed by insults. He heard them all, calling him foolish, a baka and an amateur,
damning him even. '"t is always like this, they seem to care for me one minute then the
next they insult me. I can feel the contempt they often have for me. Sometimes I
wonder if their concern is only because they don’t want to be blamed if anything happened
to me. Damn it all, I can’t believe that I wasted my time with them when my real friends
needed me! And now... I know now it's too late to save them!"


~~~~~ Back eikaeikai ~~~~~~~~

Botan's eyes were wide as they overheard Kuwabara's lament. "Oh my, this is worse
than I thought. He already knows!"

With a sense of dread, Koenma picked the report out of Jorge's hand and began
to read it in silence. After a few moments, he put the file down on the desk. "Botan, from
your reactions I'm assuming that you were referring to the three humans that were friends
with Kuwabara?" He was answered by a head nod. "Kuwabara will not take this lightly.
Now listen both of you, when he arrives, you let me talk."

Both lackeys nodded. Although they see Kuwabara as a friend, too often have they seen this
particular human get viciously angry. And was always over mistreatment of his friends .

~~~ A short time later ~~~

They did not wait long before Kuwabara Kazuma threw open the doors to
Koenma's office. Even as he panted, trying to catch his breath, Kuwabara studied the
look on their faces. From Jorge's fearful look to Botan's sorrow to Koenma's
apprehension, they confirmed the young psychic's fears. "I was right wasn't I? Anda
Okubo, Komada Sawamura and Myamoto Kirishima are dead. They were murdered
weren't they?"


End note= In the EV of the Dark Tournament begins Yusuke calls the thin friend
Myamoto, while in the JV Yusuke calls him Kirishima. In most places, I see him refered
to Kirishima. So, I am going to act as if Myamoto is his family name.
The other thin friend, the one with a buzz cut is called Sawamura in the JV, I've heard
some people call him Komada. For my story, I'll use Komada as his family name.
So all I had to do is make up a family name for Okubo. I had a list of some Japanese
names and went through them to find a few that were identified as a family names and
choose which I preferred.

I choose Anda because it shows that we English speaking, that never taken a
course in Japanese shouldn't assume how a Japanese names sounds by its looks alone. To
someone who speaks English only and tried to guess at its pronunciation would guess
often that we would say it like so: AND-ah. But according to the world baby book it
came from, that is wrong. According to it, Anda is pronounced as: awn-dah.